Quote of the Day

"But consider the fact that this year, when the democrat voting presence was stronger than ever, Marriage Amendments passed. In our own state which went to Obama, it passed with more than 62%. That tells me that traditional family values and True Conservative social values are both alive and well and there is indeed Hope for the future. That gives us a reason to celebrate."

Mr. G, from a 2008 blog post titled "Victory."

The G Man's idea of victory is Republicans losing nation-wide. Amendment 2 passed in Florida, in part, because of a lousy activist campaign that refused to honestly discuss homosexuality. The Left's campaign for Amendment 2 was the law is going to hurt straight marriages. Voters saw through the bullshit and didn't buy it. Iowa, Vermont, and the District of Columbia have taken legal steps to recognize marriage. Hetrosexual people haven't suddenly gotten divorced and the fire pits of hell haven't opened. Progressives need to tell voters homosexuality is here and it isn't going away.

Straight and gay people can live normally together. If you don't approve of gay marriage, no is forcing you to marry someone of your gender. Government shouldn't tell consenting adults who they can spend their lives with. Churches do not have to perform gay wedding ceremonies. That is why we have the separation of church and state.

Progressives need to tell voters that these laws purposely discriminate against gay and transgender people. The only way to end discrimination is to talk about it openly. Dumbing down the discourse or using political spin will continue to result in civil right loses.

Great Moments In Conservative Punditry

Mr. H of Peer Review is mad as hell and he is not going to take it anymore. "I can't stand it any longer however," Mr. H said. "so here we go."

What could make this Christian conservative warrior seethe? Is this rightious anger for people that can not pay their mortgages? Maybe the growing unemployment in Florida? Perhaps an issue of greater urgency.

What can't I stand? The BS being tossed around this country's "media" as fact. BARACK IS NOT AFRICAN AMERICAN!

I always know a conservative blogger is angry when THE BIG CAP KEYS ARE USED. For the seeing impaired listening to this post; a conservative blogger will come to your house AND YELL IN YOUR FUCKING EAR.

Mr. H was able to deduce Obama's blackness through the power of blogging. Mr. H is saying that Obama is not black because his mother was white. People will someday realize that police will not have to go to crime scenes to investigate murders. They can just blog. It is so much more convenient.

Conservatives want justices to be strict constructionist. I will apply that same standard to this blog post. Mr. H never once used the word multi-racial. That means if Obama is not black then he must be white. I'm so glad Mr. H cleared up that mystery.

Meet Barack Obama. Another white guy running for the President. We can only dream that someday a true black man like Alan Keyes will become President.

Thought of the Day

Peer Review is shocked that people would accuse the anti-gay marriage Amendment 2 of being used to GOTV.

The argument doesn't make sense as the supporters of the Florida Marriage Amendment originally targeted the 2006 election.

I agree that the social conservatives want the amendment on the ballot. I disagree, but don't question they feel strongly against gay marriage.

The Republican Party of Florida dumped money supporting the amendment to help the Governor and Congressional races. Mr. G and I had this argument. The GOP establishment hates social conservatives, but courts them to win elections. Social conservatives have to put up with it because they don't have the numbers to make their own party.

The Bush administration used gay marriage as an election issue and didn't touch it after the second term. Republicans had the numbers to attempt to outlaw abortion. The GOP didn't touch it because the polling numbers are against them. The Democratic establishment has the polling numbers. They lack the political courage to make it legal. Both sides talk about the importance of selecting Supreme Court justices. Neither have shown the political courage to legislate their beliefs on a federal level.

Faith-Based Voting

Mr. G swallows shit and jumps on the McCain bandwagon. "His speech wasn't flashy," Mr G said. "It wasn't the most eloquent. He didn't give it with the passion some other may have. But it was inspiring." Inspiring minus that whole eloquence and passion nonsense. If this is how a Kool Aid drinking Republican feels then McCain is in trouble.

A presidential nominee that bashed Christian Right leadership and a VP candidate with a looming ethics scandal and a pregnant teen daughter. The GOP hates Christian conservatives and will treat them as such because the Christian Right continue to vote for their candidates. You don't reform a party by keeping in power. The Christian Right doesn't have enough people to make a viable party. David Kuo worked in the Bush administration's faith-based program. Kou wrote that Karl Rove called Christian Right leaders "the nuts."

The faith-based program was nothing more than a PR sham.

Three days later, a Tuesday, Karl Rove summoned [Don] Willett [a former Bush aide from Texas who initially shepharded the program] to his office to announce that the entire faith-based initiative would be rolled out the following Monday. Willett asked just how — without a director, staff, office, or plan — the president could do that. Rove looked at him, took a deep breath, and said, “I don’t know. Just get me a f—ing faith-based thing. Got it?” Willett was shown the door.

The fact that Christian conservatives voters continue to support the GOP says more about their intelligence than faith.

Mr. G left an interesting comment.

This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. You suggest that the Christian Right shouldn't support the GOP but at the same time that they can't form a viable party because they wouldn't have enough numbers. What on earth do you propose these people do?

I'm saying the Christian Right is screwed. James Dobson is sick and tired of the GOP. He has floated the idea of the Christian Right forming their own party. It was decided the party couldn't win elections.

Don't worry about us. (Editor's note: I never do) The polls are all tied up, we have a VP that is polling higher than the top half of your ticket and we're heading into the final stretch of the campaign where Republicans always shine.

You have a VP that vetoed housing for teen mothers and supports abstinence. Except with her own teen daughter. Palin is refusing to testify in the ethics investigation of her firing her former brother-in-law. Lloyd Bentson polled better than George HW Bush, Michael Dukakis and Dan Quayle. So what. Republicans are rallying behind Palin because they don't believe McCain can beat Obama. Ask Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy.

The best McCain could do is tie is some polls. The college electoral maps still favors Obama. The Obama campaign has more campaign supporters and money. Democrats have been registering voters in record numbers. McCain's speech was a failure and too long. McCain needed a home run.

The difference between me and you is I can step outside my political bias and honesty assess the political landscape. Sarah Palin is good on the stump and helped the McCain campaign. Politically it was a smart move. She serves well as an attack dog. The Obama campaign can quickly muzzle Palin by having Biden and Hillary say she must testify for the ethic investigation. The experience argument is easy to defeat. Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard. Palin went to five universities and received a Bachlors degree for journalism. We all know how much you respect jouralism, G Man.

Palin is the McCain's campaign's best asset and liability. Palin will only do fluff media like Oprah and People because she can't handle questions about her baggage and lack of experience. The most glaring is the McCain campaign was busted for lying about Palin deploying National Guard troops to Iraq. The federal government makes that decision.

This shows what a great job the McCain campaign did vetting Palin.

"Something's kind of changing here in Alaska, too, for being such a red state on the Presidential level. Obama's doing just fine in polls up here, which is kind of wigging people out, because they're saying, 'This hasn't happened for decades that in polls the D' "--the Democratic candidate--" 'is doing just fine.' To me, that's indicative, too. It's the no-more-status-quo, it's change."

Sarah Palin

No astute political observer can look at John McCain and say he is a better candidate than Barack Obama. What person would say that McCain is a better speaker, campaigner, fundraiser or smarter. Anyone that says otherwise is full of shit.

I thought most of the Democratic Convention sucked and I was amazed the Republicans couldn't even fill all the seats at their convention. Obama ran a kids glove convention and the GOP convention was pure boredom. The McCain and Palin speeches were the moment for the GOP to raise money and Obama beat them by getting $18 million in two days.

Palin is a good polititcian. She isn't enough. If she comes out of the ethics scandal clean; Palin has a bright political future.

The experience argument didn't work Hillary. The Vietnam narrative didn't convince voters about Kerry's national security creditials. Bush's neoconservative foreign policy has sunk him in the polls. John McCain answers the question what would happen if you merged the worst aspects of Bush, Kerry and Hillary.

Quote of the Day

"Explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support."

Sarah Palin, on a 2006 Eagle Forum questionnaire. I'm not shocked that Palin's daughter Bristol is pregnant. The Republican establishment really isn't socially conservative. In fact, they hate the Christian Right. Tucker Carlson made that clear to Chris Matthews.



CARLSON: It goes deeper than that though. The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power. Everybody in…

MATTHEWS: How do you know that? How do you know that?

CARLSON: Because I know them. Because I grew up with them. Because I live with them. They live on my street. Because I live in Washington, and I know that everybody in our world has contempt for the evangelicals. And the evangelicals know that, and they're beginning to learn that their own leaders sort of look askance at them and don't share their values.

MATTHEWS: So this gay marriage issue and other issues related to the gay lifestyle are simply tools to get elected?

CARLSON: That's exactly right. It's pandering to the base in the most cynical way, and the base is beginning to figure it out.

What matters is that voters figure it out.

The base hasn't figured that out. Peer Review defends Palin's hypocrisy and predicts the attacks will backfire. The fall out has already been bad. Jamie Lynn Spears has come to the rescue and defended Bristol. You may remember the McCain campaign's attempt to link Barack Obama to Jamie's older sister. The Spears family can hardly be considered role models. There is also the negative US Weekly cover.



Democrats aren't attempting to ram unsuccessful abstinence-education programs down America's collective throats. Palin used a line item veto to cut housing for teen mothers.

According to Passage House's web site, its purpose is to provide "young mothers a place to live with their babies for up to eighteen months while they gain the necessary skills and resources to change their lives" and help teen moms "become productive, successful, independent adults who create and provide a stable environment for themselves and their families."

Pathetic.

Update: I forgot that McCain didn't vet Palin until after he offered her the VP candidacy.

I Feel Your Pain

Shorter Peer Review: I hate John McCain, but I'm going to vote for him since I hate Democrats even more.

What an inspiring reason to go out and vote. What a great pitch to register new Republican voters.

It really sucks to be a social conservative right now. In other good news for social conservatives, a Reuters/Zogby poll has Barack Obama beating John McCain 47 percent to 40 percent.

Just to rub Jim Johnson: nice call predicting President Hillary Clinton. Perhaps Jim can talk Glenn Reynolds into running.

Quote of the Day

"But honestly, I have a hard time remembering an election where we had more qualified candidates on the Republican side. Really, if you think about it, we have a line up of heroes. Whether it be 9/11, Vietnam, faith, Conservatism, they've all got good qualities. Even Ron Paul is a hero those few Republicans who have difficulty understanding the world around them. Good for him."

Mr. G, on the outstanding caliber of Republican presidential candidates.

John McCain is a certified hero. What have the other candidates sacrificed to be worthy of such praise. Peer Review is veering into Power Line level of absurdity.

It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can't get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.

I love Peer Review. The chuckles never cease.

The difference between the progressive and conservative blogosphere is lefty bloggers constantly criticize our side and candidates. Conservative bloggers grab their pom poms and start cheerleading.

I’ll say it right now, Katherine Harris is going to be Florida’s next US Senator.

Comedy gold.

Punked

Mr. G has been punked. I have written before about how the G Man doesn't understand scientific research. Amanda Marcotte and I challenged the bogus science of Karen Malec. Mr. G posted it because it confirmed his unfounded believe that abortions cause cancer.

What Mr. G fell for is comedy gold.

I, along with a number of other bloggers, and even Rush Limbaugh, apparently, fell for what has turned out to be a complete hoax. A made up abstract published at the website of a fake science journal purports to explain global warming by monitoring bacteria emissions. As I stated in the post, I can't claim to understand the research which formed the basis of the argument in the paper, which is now obvious as it was totally made up. It struck me as interesting and I brought it to you.

Michael Berube an brilliant post on how conservative bloggers are utterly predictability. Berube wrote parody posts of conservative. Roger L. Simon eerily wrote similarly worded posts.

Berube:

Everything changed for me on September 11. I used to consider myself a Democrat, but thanks to 9/11, I’m outraged by Chappaquiddick.

Simon:

The big loser of the confirmation hearings so far is Teddy Kennedy. In his hectoring and tasteless attack on Samuel Alito he has succeeded in nothing but reminding us of his (Teddy’s) past. While Alito may have been associated with a creepy Princeton alumni publication of twenty years ago, Kennedy was associated was something much worse than that—and we all know it. . . . When Mrs. Alito walked out of the room, I thought of Mary Jo Kopechne.

I wish a wrote a parody post about organic foods causing global warming.