The Return of Harold Ford Jr.

Harold Ford announced in the New York Post that he is running for the U.S. Senate. Ford moved to Manhattan after losing his the Tennessee Senate race to Bob Corker. Ford is going to try again in New York. What is laughable is Ford remaking himself as a champion of women's reproductive rights.

I am pro-choice -- have always been since I entered politics almost 15 years ago. My cumulative grade with NARAL during 10 years in Congress was right at 80 percent. Any assertions to the contrary are false.

Someone forgot to tell NARAL Ford's position. NARAL released an ad slamming Ford's record on abortion.

"I was not pro-choice at one time," Ford told Alan Colmes. Ford has repeated his position on other media outlets.

"I'm pro-life, Tucker," Ford said to Tucker Carlson. "I don't run from that.

Ford is running from his abotion record now.

Bristol Palin Deserves Better

Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston have broken up. Republicans will continue to support abstinence-only education and make rants against fictional unwed mothers.

In 2007, a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found unwed mothers made a record of 38.5 percent of all births. out-of-wedlock teenage pregnancies also spiked. The abstinence-only policy of the Bush administration was failing. Tony Perkins went in defense mode.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins expressed his worries and stated that the so-called comprehensive protective effect of condoms promotes unsafe behavior. This results in an increase in STD (Sexually Transmitted Diseases) rates in young people, and an increase in out-of-wedlock teenage pregnancies.

Tony Perkins said,” What we’re really witnessing are the effects of contraceptive-focused sex education, often labeled as comprehensive sex education”. Tony Perkins further comments, “When people talk about ‘abstinence until marriage,’ both parts are important”.

Columnist Maggie Gallagher was paid $21,500 by the Department of Health and Human Services to promote Bush's marriage initiative in 2002. Gallagher was paid to promote abstinence until marriage. The scandal would have gotten Gallagher fired from most American publications. (Tucker Carlson was booed by stating the need for the conservative media to have ethical standards.) Gallagher's editor Rich Lowry did not see any reason to fire Gallagher.

"We would have preferred that she told us, and we would have disclosed it in her bio." Lowry told Howard Kurtz.

Gallagher is writing for the Washington Times. She weighed in on Bristol Palin's Fox News interview.

Note: I wonder if Bristol really thinks sexual virtue is harder these days than it was, say, 30 years ago when her mom and I were teenagers. That would be circa 1979. I could tell Bristol some stories - the sexual revolution has been swinging pretty hard for a good long time now.

Gallagher goes on to write: "Is it really wise for an entire society to adopt the point of view of the average inarticulate 18-year-old kid?"

Did Gallagher actually watch the interview? I'm sure it was hard for Bristol to talk to a national television audience for the first time. Here were my thoughts about Bristol's interview.

I am glad Bristol Palin did the Fox News interview. She proved herself to be a very intelligent young woman. It was surprising to hear her say abstinence doesn't work. Bristol's mother, Sarah Palin supports abstinence-only sex education and has presidential ambitions. Bristol used her television time to tell other teens to wait before having a child.

Bristol has a good head on her shoulders. It is nice to see a real person and not a symbol for teen pregnancy. We need to understand issues affect the lives of Americans. The rhetoric of talk radio and cable news turns every issue into an us vs them event.

The abstinence-only advocates Perkins and Gallagher barely view young women, such as Bristol Palin, as real people. Gallagher's "I wonder if Bristol really thinks sexual virtue is harder these days" snark is evidence that social conservatives view unwed mothers with contempt. Miss Gallagher, Bristol Palin is the the one with the problem.

The Family Values Sham

Poor Mike Erickson. It is so hard being a pro-life Republican running for Congress in Oregon. Especially, when his ex-girlfriend Tawnya tells the media that Erickson had nasty premarital sex and got her pregnant. Tawnya has medical record and two friends to back up her account.

Erickson issues a nondenial. He told The Oregonian he gave Tawnya 300 dollars and dropped her off in front of the medical facility. Erickson said he had no idea that Tawnya was pregnant or the clinic was an abortion facility. If Erickson is really that stupid then he has no business running for Congress.

Tawnya's friend Joy Johanson describes Erickson dumping Tawnya at the abortion clinic and leaving. Can't you feel the power of family values?

"He took her and dropped her off, so she started freaking out," Johanson said. "It enraged Kristi that he just ditched her like that."

I never believed that Republicans abstain from sex or not have abortions. What bothers me is their hypocrisy of pushing counter-productive sexually-related policies. Republicans are so enslaved to Christian conservatives, that they have no respect for. Tucker Carlson spelled out to Chris Matthews how much the GOP establishment hates the Christian Right.

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.

Three Cheers For Katie Couric

It is rare when the mainstream media gets things right. CBS News anchor Katie Couric took the media to task for sexist remarks against Hillary Clinton. Couric pointed out Tucker Carlson's sexist statement.

On the July 16 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, discussing presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), producer Willie Geist described a Clinton doll being advertised at the website HillaryNutcracker.com that features "serrated stainless steel thighs that, well, crack nuts," according to Geist. He introduced the story by saying, "I think the metaphor in this next story, Tucker, is pretty clear. So I will just report the straight facts." He later asked, "What do you think they're saying about Hillary?" Host Tucker Carlson replied, "I have often said, when she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs."

The nation has a federal deficit and two wars. The best Tucker and MSNBC could do was talk about an obscure web site. No wonder cable news ratings are tanking.

Couric: Like her or not, one of the great lessons of that campaign is the continued and accepted role of sexism in American life. Particularly, in the media... mainstream pundits saying they instinctively cross their legs at the mention of her name.

I instinctively rub my temple every time I watch Tucker. I instinctively that a migrane headache is coming.

Quote of the Day

As Governor of Texas, George W. Bush mocked Karla Faye Tucker, the woman he ordered executed.

"`Please,' Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, `don't kill me,'"

Tucker Carlson reported the incident and Bush's constant use of profanity in the defunct Talk. Bush communications director Karen Hughes went into damage control. She told reporters on the campaign bus that Carlson lied. Carlson called Hughes and later recounted the exchange.

"Then I heard that Karen Hughes accused me of lying. And so I called Karen and asked her why she was saying this, and she had this almost Orwellian rap that she laid on me about how things she'd heard — that I watched her hear — she in fact had never heard, and she'd never heard Bush use profanity ever. It was insane. I've obviously been lied to a lot by campaign operatives, but the striking thing about the way she lied was she knew I knew she was lying, and she did it anyway. There is no word in English that captures that. It almost crosses over from bravado into mental illness. They get carried away, consultants do, in the heat of the campaign, they're really invested in this. A lot of times they really like the candidate. That's all conventional. But on some level, you think, there's a hint of recognition that there is reality — even if they don't recognize reality exists — there is an objective truth. With Karen you didn't get that sense at all. A lot of people like her. A lot of people I know like her. I'm not one of them."

That incident is a classic example of how the Bushies behave. They lie when everyone else knows they are lying. They have forced the rest of the Republican Party totake on this behavior to cover for the White House and salvage the party.

Larry Craig Days In the Senate Are Over

Florida Republicans Ginny Brown-Waite and Jeff Miller are calling on Larry Craig to step down.

"For the sake of the institution, his family, and his Idaho constituents, Larry Craig should step down from the United States Senate," says Spring Hill Republican Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite

It's amazing how members of the Florida GOP are vocal about a Republican from Idaho, but are silent about the Sunshine State's Bob Allen.

In related news: John McCain calls for Craig's resignation.

The Liberal Media Strikes Again

The Bill Donahue rampage against Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan continues. Isn't Donahue suppose to be keeping us safe from Marilyn Manson?

Curse that liberal media for bringing no one on the panel to counter Carlson or Donahue.