If these candidates were the answer, WTF was the question?

After getting their teeth kicked in during the 2008 election, everyone who follows politics wondered what the Republican party was going to do. The Sarah Palin pick had proven to be a horrible idea. Sure, it "fired up" up the base, but only the extreme right of the base. Like a fluorescent light in the bathroom, the Palin pick highlighted every crazy flaw on the GOP's mug. Palin appealed to the ignorant, sexist, racist and crazy. Yep, that pretty much sums up dedicated Glenn Beck watchers.

Smart and thoughtful Republicans like former Utah Governor Jim Huntsman realized the GOP had lost the moral soapbox though their actions over the previous 8 years. Huntsman thought the loss could ultimately prove to be good for the Republican party, as it would have to wander out into the wilderness a little and "find itself." To Huntsman, that meant coming back to real conservative fiscal responsibility. Unfortunately, that hasn't worked out. The Republican party seems so intent on steering into the crazy skid at this point, that it's caused true deep thinkers like Huntsman to bail (Huntsman saw the delusional writing on the asylum wall and made a break for it, becoming President Obama's ambassador to China).

The simply truth, is one David Frum admitted to the world back in March.

Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us and now we're discovering we work for Fox," Frum told ABC's Terry Moran. "And this balance here has been completely reversed. The thing that sustains a strong Fox network is the thing that undermines a strong Republican party.

Frum is right. Since the 2008 elections, Fox has embraced the loons and by doing so, has further and further legitimized them until it has reached the point where the loons are the ones the herd follows. The sane folks in the Republican party have created a monster that they can no longer control. If it wasn't so damn scary, it would be comical.

No more shenanigans, tomfoolery or ballyhoo for Ken Mehlman

Hey, sweetheart...Kenny is just not that in to you. But the strapping young buck making sexy eyes...please give the former RNC Chairman a call.

Former George W. Bush campaign chairman and RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman has publicly come out and admitted that he is gay.

"It's taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life."

Really? You think working with people and for the political party that pushed making gays second-class citizens contributed at all to your level of discomfort, Kenny?

Mehlman acknowledged that if not for his secret, he might have been a voice for a more conciliatory approach to gays, according to the interview on the Atlantic's website.

"It's a legitimate question and one I understand," Mehlman said. Now, he said, he will openly back gay marriage as consistent with such GOP principles as "individual freedom."

Nice of you to talk about legitimacy now Ken. 'Preciate it. We hope you get to enjoy the same rights as everyone else one day. And we hope you work like hell to make it happen. You got some penance to endure.

Karl Rove offered Mehlman this advice: "Ken, the pressures, and I'm not judging them...I'm not labeling them...but they are destroying your potential..."

Karma: Frivolous lawsuits coming home to roost...

Anyone who lives in South Carolina, heard all about how Henry "Foghorn Leghorn" McMaster "pushed back" at President Obama and the Washington Radicals when they "pushed their unconstitutional takeover of health care."

Of course anyone who paid attention during US Government class understands that the Affordable Healthcare Act is not unconstitutional. Remember all that talk by Congressional Republicans about how things needed to go slow because health care was such a huge part of our economy? Ok...then hows about googling the "interstate commerce clause" and get back to us.

Well...it's hard to become attorney general and not have some general idea about the Constitution. So it's pretty safe to say all the AGs who signed on to the Obamacare suit have heard of Congress having the power to regulate interstate commerce. So why join up with a ridiculous and frivolous lawsuit? Political grandstanding of course. Henruh, as the commercial linked above shows, was in the middle of running for Guv'nur. How'd that work out for him? Not so good.

Last night, another original member of the dirty dozen AGs that first jumped aboard this lunacy train found out how well a campaign tactic this silly lawsuit was. Florida AG Bill McCollum lost the Republican gubernatorial primary to Rick "Moneybags" Scott.

That sparked us wondering whether the bizarre campaign strategy of wasting tax payers' funds on a frivolous lawsuit actually benefited any of these AGs. Our cursory research reveals that it certainly does not appear to have been a viable strategy. Alabama AG, Troy King lost big in the Republican primary. Michigan AG Mike Cox was another Republican trying to move up to the governor's mansion and lost in his party's primary. Utah's AG, Mark Shurtleff (R) must have seen the writing on the wall as he decided it would be better to serve out his term as AG rather than lose his bid for US Senate.

All told, we didn't find a single one of these original AGs, who was in a contested race, for whom this odd tactic proved successful. That doesn't really fit the anti-Obama, anti-socialism, tea party narrative, does it? We suppose it's fitting. After all, the folks above are all Republicans, the party that for decades have proclaimed that stopping frivolous lawsuits would solve all types of problems. Bit of karma that their reliance on a frivolous lawsuit has now bitten them in the ass.

Hattip hambypcnn via coreyhutchins

Terror? Hey...must be the money

Meet Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. No...he's not some supercool cop or private investigator as his kick-ass 'stache and Raybans would lead one to conclude. As Benen points out, according to FOXNews, he's the "questionable ties" funding the Park51 center. And as Nelly once sang...must be the money!!!

Former Bush administration official Dan Senor appeared on "Fox & Friends"
and pushed a fairly specific angle: "The Kingdom Foundation, which has been a
funder of Imam Rauf in the past, the Kingdom Foundation, so you know, is this
Saudi organization headed up by the guy who tried to give Rudy Giuliani $10
million after 9/11 that was sent back. He funds radical madrassas all over the
world." Brian Kilmeade added, "And he funds this imam."

We were all set not to believe a word of this (it is FOXNews, afterall) until we discovered the Prince has far more sinister ties: outside of the Murdoch family, Prince Al-Waleed is the largest shareholder in News Corp. Seriously...here's a pic that just came out of the Prince meeting with News Corp executives. That means he not only funds "terror mosques," but he also funds hate-&-ignorance-peddling news programs like Fox & Friends. Wow...this is awkward. And damn funny. Just watch Jon Stewart:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Parent Company Trap
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

At this point, it's no shock that FOXNews feels comfortable with this kind of duplicity. It's par for the course. Their viewers obviously have no desire to actually be told the truth. But the hypocrisy is entertaining.

Lindsay Lohan is still an idiot

After watching Lindsay's mom, Dina, being unable to count Lindsay's trips to rehab, we suppose more reports of her being stupid should not surprise us. But the sheer audacity of the ignorance still manages to impress.

Today, WWTDD has a post up with this:

According to Lindsay Lohan’s latest medical report from UCLA, the actress was not addicted to cocaine as once suspected.

Instead, it is believed she was misdiagnosed as having Attention Deficit Disorder and given the prescription drug Adderall, which may be to blame for triggering her often bizarre behavior.

Now Lohan apparently wants some form of apology or compensation from the courts.
“Lindsay is fuming – she is really upset that the courts put her through all this,” a source told.

In her doctor's defense...Cocaine has been known to give people Attention Deficit Disorder. So she probably should not have done those bumps before the doctor came in on for her checkups. Keep holding your breath for the court's apology, sweetheart. Let us know how that goes.

Sexual Napalm's Roster is set

We had our fantasy football draft today and we are pleased to unveil this year's roster. We had the #1 pick and wrestled with CJ or ADP. A coin flip decided it for us. (Round drafted)

QB = Phillip Rivers (5)

RB = Adrian Peterson (1), Cedric Benson (2) , Michael Bush (7), Ricky Williams (8), Toby Gerhart (12) & Bernard Scott (13)

WR = Brandon Marshall (3), Mike Sims-Walker (6), Malcolm Floyd (9), Bernard Berrian (10), Santonio Holmes (11) & Nate Burleson (14)

TE = Antonio Gates (4)

K = Dan Carpenter (16)

DT = Miami D/ST (15)

Hey...3 guys from just about every site's top 20: (ADP, Benson & Marshall). Hope they're right.

Rivers has a rookie RB and his stud LT is holding out. So we're a little nervous about that. But dude has a quick release and let's face it...until last season when Vincent Jackson blew up, when has Rivers ever had a stud WR? We think getting rid of LT is gonna actually free that offense up some more and they're gonna be a more explosive.

Pretty pleased with the RBs, as Benson's surprising survival to us for our 2nd round pick allowed us to get another top-10 back to pair with ADP. Ricky Williams will get a decent number of points each week and will have some weeks where he blows up. Gerhart and Scott will hopefully never see the "field" for the 'Palm but if they have to, at least we've got 'em.

Took Gates earlier than we've ever taken a TE. It was between him and Dallas Clark. If we wanted an upper-tier QB, we were going to have to pull the trigger and Clark and Gates are worth taking a little early. We figure Gates is gonna see a lot more chances with Vincent Jackson's holdout and LT now gone. We're hoping all those short goal line runs Norv wasted trying to keep LT happy are now play actions to Gates.

WR is a little weak. Total projection on Marshall and we may have let our heart have a little too much sway. But the guy is a beast and we think he's gonna be fierce down around the goal line. Floyd has the chance to be the man now with Jackson's holdout (we think Jackson is gonna be traded anyway). Burleson is reunited with Scott Linehan. Last time they were together, Nate had his best season being option B to a physical-freak WR named Randy Moss. We're hoping Nate and Linehan reprise that role with Calvin Johnson. We had Berrian last year and he did absolutely nothing for us. But with Rice and Harvin ailing, Berrian should be the # WR target for HIM to start the season. Like Gust said...we'll see. Hopefully, we'll be sitting a little better after week 4 when Holmes' suspension ends.

Obviously Carpenter and Miami D were homer picks. But we think Nolan's unit is gonna get after it.

So there you have it. Sexual Napalm 2010...championship.

The Death Penalty

Recently, there was a trial here in Florence involving a defendant who had been 17-years old at the time he and a co-defendant had attempted to rob a WWII veteran, Clair Chaffin. A jury found defendant Dondre Scott guilty of murder and he was sentenced to life imprison.

During that trial, there were several comments and remarks we noticed popping up in the cyber world about the criminal justice system and the death penalty in particular. They ranged the gamut from ignorance (why didn't the Solicitor seek the death penalty--uh, he couldn't under the law) and racist (just look at some of the comments over at SCNow), to sympathy for both the Chaffin & Scott families.

It always surprises us to hear the certainty with which some people can make statements and claims about such an ultimate issue when they most often know nothing about the criminal justice system at large, the actual details about the application of the death penalty in our system, the laws concerning that application and the specific facts any particular case.

We have been fortunate to never have had a loved one or close friend the victim of the type of heinous crime that would even broach this punishment. We hope we never are. So it's impossible for us to sit here and try to say how or what we would feel if we were put in such a terrible position. But we would like to think that even then, we would understand that nothing that happened would bring our loved ones back. Nothing that could possibly happen to the person who harmed our loved one would have any effect on the life that had been taken. We can understand how others would not feel that way. But regardless of what your position is on the death penalty, what do you really know about it?

The Sun Magazine has a good interview up with Sister Helen Prejean. Yes...Sister Prejean is the woman portrayed by Susan Sarandon in the movie Dead Man Walking. Since she has dedicated her life to assisting those on death row, she has a unique perspective on the subject of the death penalty.

The death penalty is the most important civil-rights issue of our time. It’s a deeply symbolic issue, because it says that the way we’re going to solve problems is by violence. It says that some among us are such a danger to who we are and what we stand for that they must be eliminated. To arrive at this mind-set, human beings have to flip a switch inside themselves. Deep down we know we are brothers and sisters and are all connected. For the death penalty to exist, we have to throw some switch that says, “The Other is not human like us,” and so we can do whatever we want to them. And of course the execution must be removed from the public eye. The chamber is behind prison walls, and we don’t hear about what goes on inside it.

Yes, we incarcerate more people than any other country in the world. Prison is an industry from which certain people benefit: Politicians benefit because they get elected by claiming they are tough on crime. Businesses make money off prisons. That keeps the system going. Two-thirds of the people in prison are there for nonviolent crimes, like bad checks or drug possession. Why do we use such excessive punishment? What does it mean for us to take a woman who writes bad checks and separate her from her family for five or eight or ten years? What is the effect of that? Is that what she deserves?

As a society we have to examine our belief that severe punishment is the way to restore order. The main objective of prisons is to keep society safe, not to cause prisoners pain simply because they caused others pain. People who have committed violent crimes need to be imprisoned to keep the public safe, but we must also strive for rehabilitation. We know that prisoners who get an education tend not to reoffend, but we’ve cut most educational programs from prisons — really, any program that might restore humanity to the prisoners. Restorative justice would improve our society instead of simply throwing people away.

Some people approve of the death penalty because they think it is cheaper than life imprisonment. Actually the death penalty is more expensive. That’s why more and more states with budget crises are doing away with it. A capital-murder case, as one prosecutor says, is the Cadillac of the criminal-justice system. It takes multiple trials, requires airtight evidence, and uses more expert witnesses than any other type of case. Then you have to build a special section of the prison and hire personnel to staff it. Often death-row prisoners are not allowed to work to defray the cost of their board and keep. In California it costs millions of dollars a year to house more than seven hundred people on death row.

In response to these arguments, I share stories about people I know. When New Jersey did away with the death penalty, sixty-two murder victims’ families testified that the death-penalty process had only prolonged their agony. They had been told it would provide “closure,” but in reality it meant they had to witness the death of another person, often after waiting ten or fifteen years to do so, and this death would do nothing to bring back their loved ones. During the waiting process, their story is in and out of the spotlight. It makes their wound public, and the healing doesn’t come. Many murder victims’ families have been prominent in the abolition movement.

I also point out that the death penalty is not reserved for the most terrible murders. It’s more common in cases where the victim is white, for example: approximately 80 percent of death-penalty cases involve the murder of a white person, yet 50 percent of all homicide victims are people of color.

Whether the death penalty is sought comes down to the decision of the prosecutor. Thankfully juries have to be told now that they can sentence someone to life without parole even when the prosecutor is seeking the death penalty. In the past juries were not given that information. They thought the death penalty or freedom were the only options. Even in Texas death-penalty sentences have diminished because of this. Juries — which are made up of ordinary citizens entrusted with godlike power — have a terrible responsibility

Some other interesting points from the article:

-93 percent of the world’s executions take place in five countries: China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, and the U.S. Hellified company to be keeping, eh?

-Less than 1 percent of the roughly fifteen thousand people who commit homicide each year are selected for death. Ninety percent of the prisoners who do end up on death row were abused as children. Nearly 100 percent are poor.

-the U.S. has almost 5 percent of the world’s population and almost 25 percent of the global prison population.

We have the privilege of getting to know some of those who stand in the way of the freight trains in this fight...capital defenders. One such fella was our man of the year for his willingness to fight for his clients, Bill McGuire. It's a field we are readily admit we are in awe of. It seems to be such a thankless job, in fact...scorned by many who don't understand the true nature of defense, which would enact a terrible price on one's heart. We salute those who fight this fight. Moreover, we hope that everyone takes the chance to really evaluate their ideas on the subject. The severity of it demands at least that much.

Hattip Savitz