The Last Hurrah of the Reagan Religious Right

Yeah. A year late, Businessweek manages to kind of get on the story without bothering to GET ON THE STORY. Concerned only with the marionettes, this schmuck doesn’t even have the good grace to note the strings, let alone the puppetmasters.

The Secret Gingrich-Santorum ‘Unity Ticket’ That Nearly Toppled Romney
Joshua Green / Businessweek

 It’s one of the great untold stories of the 2012 presidential campaign, a tale of ego and intrigue that nearly upended the Republican primary contest and might even have produced a different nominee: As Mitt Romney struggled in the weeks leading up to the Michigan primary, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum nearly agreed to form a joint “Unity Ticket” to consolidate conservative support and topple Romney. “We were close,” former Representative Bob Walker, a Gingrich ally, says. “Everybody thought there was an opportunity.” “It would have sent shock waves through the establishment and the Romney campaign,” says John Brabender, Santorum’s chief strategist….

So, here’s the rest of the story, sort of.

A leading evangelical and former aide to President George H.W. Bush said he agreed with suspicions voiced by others at the meeting of evangelical and conservative Catholic activists that organizers “manipulated” the gathering and may even have stuffed the ballot to produce an endorsement of Mr. Santorum over former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. [see below for cite and longer quote]

I did a lot of work on this, but at the end of the day America wasn’t ready for it, I guess. So I deep-sixed it. Maybe America’s ready now:

First draft: 15 January, 2012 @ 3:18 by Hart Williams
Last edited: 21 January, 2012 @ 2:46 by Hart Williams

It would have been nice if they had gotten more names, but at least the “number” is finally agreed-upon. That is not to say it’s “factual” but we no longer care about facts in modern reportage, and if all and sundry agree that it was one hundred and fifty who attended the Texas Judge’s Ranch, well, that’s good enough for the historical record.

Santorum thanks Iowa (we think)

It will be dutifully reported as such, although it had wildly veered from 125 to 170 in prior reports, reporting on the story that was GOING to happen, again, as is customary in modern journalism. “The president WILL say,” or “the senator WILL announce,” or “it is widely expected that the [algebraic variable X] report, to be released later today, will not contain any news on the gloomy prospects,” thus proving that soothsaying DIDN’T vanish with Roman and Druid seers, but has experience a modern renaissance in cable news.

Foster and Tucker’s Dominican Hookers

Foster Friess loves to wallow in his philanthropy. Nothing makes him happier than standing in front of a room full of adoring idiots while he puts on his “aw gee shucks” BS about what a great “Christian” he is, and what a GOOD guy he thinks he is. (Evidently he hasn’t bothered reading the Book of Matthew.)

Hooker sugar daddy at CPAC
click for original size

He did it this weekend between the Santorum speech and the Romney speech, accepting an “award” at CPAC that seems suspiciously minted just for the occasion*. So that Foster could bray about what a good fellow he is. At least three Dominican hookers have benefited from his largesse, we can happily report today:

3 women were paid to falsely claim they had sex with Menendez, Dominican police say
New Jersey Online

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Three women were paid to falsely claim in videotaped interviews that they had sex for money with U.S. Senator Robert Menendez in the Dominican Republic, a spokesman for the police said today.

The women, whose claims generated media attention in the United States, were hired by a Dominican attorney to make the videotaped statements, spokesman Maximo Baez told reporters. Two of the women received about $425 and the other was paid about $300, he said.

Authorities are seeking to interrogate the attorney, Melanio Figueroa, about the payments and have not determined his motive or whether he was in turn paid by someone else to set up the interviews, Baez said…

Awww. Isn’t that SPECIAL?

Confederation of Pigs Against Civilization

CPAC is winding to its apocalyptic conclusion, as the world’s largest open-air asylum (0utside of California) screams, guffaws, belches, spits and farts its way into the history books.

Palin’s Big Gulp

Tiger Beat on the Potomac scrambles through the back rooms for a scoop to try and upstage those Usual Suspects at Home on Derange:

Scott Walker opens up about White House ambitions
Jonathan Martin / Politico

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker acknowledged in an interview Friday that he’s open to a presidential bid and pointedly declined to pledge to serve a full four-year term if he’s reelected next year.

Walker insisted he was visiting Iowa in May only because he was invited by Gov. Terry Branstad. But when pressed about his White House ambitions, the Wisconsin Republican said: “Would I ever be [interested]? Possibly. I guess the only thing I’d say is I’m not ruling it out.”

Perhaps even more notably, Walker wouldn’t commit to serving throughout a second four-year term. He said his focus is on substance, not longevity.

“For me, it’s really a measure of what I’ve accomplished and what more I could accomplish if I was in a different position,” Walker told POLITICO at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he spoke Saturday morning….

Seriously: who not on meds asks this question? Oh, wait, it’s Politico…

Gasp! Hooker paid to fabricate claims against Menendez

ACTUAL hirers of hookers

This is not going to come as any surprise to regular readers of this blog since a week ago:

Escort says Menendez prostitution claims were made up
By Carol D. Leonnig and Ernesto Londoño, Updated: Monday, March 4, 1:57 PM
Washington Post

An escort who appeared on a video claiming Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) paid her for sex has told Dominican Republic police that she was instead paid to make up the claims in a tape recording and has never met or seen the senator before, according to court documents and two people briefed on her claim.

The woman identified a lawyer who approached her and a friend to make the videotape, according to affidavits obtained by the Post. That man has in turn identified another lawyer who gave him a script for the tape and paid him to find women to fabricate the claims, the affidavits say…

Gasp! You mean that Tucker Carlson’s vicious little virtual rag, The Daily Caller, would MAKE UP stuff like this?

Foster’s Money Buys Face Time with Hookers

Meet the  Dominionist “Christian” who’s funding this: Foster Friess

The Daily Caller strikes again. While their buddies and fellow travelers at Breitbart attempt to destroy Chuck Hagel with ginned up stories, Tucker Carlson’s little Foster “Jesus is my CEO” Friess financed virtual dirt machine has managed to find a hooker who says (anonymously) that she has had sex with Bob Menendez (Democratic Senator from New Jersey) and LOTS of Washington DC politicians, many of whom are now dead. (I kid you not.) Then the supposedly long-prostrate prostitute deigns to MORALIZE about it all:

Referring to allegations that Menendez had sex with prostitutes in the Dominican Republic who were as young as 16, she said it was “uncomfortable to think that a hobbyist [sic] would take that road that he took, knowing he could have all the sex he wants” with women over the age of 18….

Since it’s obvious, from context, that the Daily Caller assholes ASKED A WHORE FOR HER MORAL ASSAY ON A SITTING UNITED STATES SENATOR (to further Tucker Carlson and former Cheney aide and Friess and Cheney’s neighbor in Millionaire Acres in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Neal Patel’s agenda of personal destruction of political enemies) I will give you a moment to burst into gales of laughter at the sheer Holy Joe hypocrisy of this gutter ‘journalism.’

Our Idiot Media, Again …

Hope you’re enjoying Hell, Andy

[WARNING: Bad words ahead. If they make you cry, stop reading now.]

I’m not saying it’s a slow news day, but Memeorandum is dominated by the kind of mindless navel-gazing that slow news days and new polls inevitably produce. (Kind of like speculating on the 2016 election: it’s not news or meaningful, but it keeps them from having to do their FUCKING jobs!)

Which is a perfect entrée into the Press Corpse and the rotting of the Fourth Estate. Because, lost in yesterday’s news dump was an inadvertent confession of the sleazy, incestuous manner in which modern media works (any resemblance to the Junior High School Girls’ Bathroom is purely coincidental). Let’s begin with the weasels of Breitbart who started the now-refuted rumor of Chuck Hagel speaking to or taking money from “Friends of Hamas” [emphasis added]:

The Bonfire of the Hannitys

The Rightie PantieTwistoSphere­™ is a-twitter with the latest shooting. Because, when shootings don’t fit their political agenda, they blame violent video games and crazy people. BUT …

Southern Poverty Law Center website triggered FRC shooting
Paul Bedard / Washington Examiner

The Family Research Council shooter, who pleaded guilty today to a terrorism charge, picked his target off a “hate map” on the website of the ultra-liberal Southern Poverty Law Center which is upset with the conservative group’s opposition to gay rights.

Floyd Lee Corkins II pleaded guilty to three charges including a charge of committing an act of terrorism related to the August 15, 2012 injuring of FRC’s guard. He told the FBI that he wanted to kill anti-gay targets and went to the law center’s website for ideas …

First, I HATE pleaded. Occam’s Razor still indicates “pled” as in “fled” and not “pleaded” as in “fleeded.” It is difficult to pronounce, sounds clunky and is a chancre on the soft white underbelly of modern journalistic practice. However, I hear it all the time, certainly more often than “statist,” but less often than “nanny state.” 

No Sleaze Too Low for Foster Friess’ Daily Caller

Seriously? You’re going to pull the carefully-timed just-before-the-election sex scandal card, Tucker? Watching too much Citizen Kane?

Is this what Foster Friess, the Daily Caller’s Sugar Daddy meant when he told the Washington Post why he was giving Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel– Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff when Cheney was shooting guys in the face–$3 million?

As for his new partners, Friess says by e-mail: “Tucker and Neil present a huge opportunity to re-introduce civility to our political discourse. They are mature, sensible men who are very thoughtful and experienced with pleasant senses of humor and do not take themselves too seriously. They want to make a contribution to the dialogue that occurs in our country that has become too antagonistic, nasty and hostile. . . .”

Some contribution.*

[* From the same article: "Before they finished their salad, they exchanged looks of amazement as Friess offered to match the $3 million, but without the bureaucracy. Two days later, they had a deal." Freiss has since doubled down, indicating that this is EXACTLY what he wanted to fund, shorn of all the "civility" BS.]

Here’s the prima facie case, as presented on the blog and on the terrible audio portion of the worse video of two women speaking in Spanish with obvious audio mutes and excisions:

Signal To Noise Irratio

or, White Noise …

All real measurements are disturbed by noise. This includes electronic noise, but can also include external events that affect the measured phenomenon — wind, vibrations, gravitational attraction of the moon, variations of temperature, variations of humidity, etc., depending on what is measured and of the sensitivity of the device. It is often possible to reduce the noise by controlling the environment. Otherwise, when the characteristics of the noise are known and are different from the signals, it is possible to filter it or to process the signal.

~ Wikipedia, emphasis added

Moocher Uncle Tom attempts to fatally trip Creator Simon Legree

If you’re talking about a filter for clueless people acting on questionable data coming to specious and logically suspect conclusions, no, you can’t filter it. The only certainty right now (seemingly) is this: the presidential and general election of 2012 will take place on the First Tuesday in November, as specified in the Constitution. This year that will be next Tuesday, November 6th.  Here’s a random yowl (you know, that Blacks are racists oppressing all the oppressed White people):

Salt Lake City and Mitt

From today’s Salt Lake City Tribune endorsement:

Nowhere has Mitt Romney’s pursuit of the presidency been more warmly welcomed or closely followed than here in Utah … this is the Mitt Romney we knew, or thought we knew, as one of us.

Sadly, it is not the only Romney, as his campaign for the White House has made abundantly clear, first in his servile courtship of the tea party in order to win the nomination, and now as the party’s shape-shifting nominee. From his embrace of the party’s radical right wing, to subsequent portrayals of himself as a moderate champion of the middle class, Romney has raised the most frequently asked question of the campaign: “Who is this guy, really, and what in the world does he truly believe?”

The evidence suggests no clear answer, or at least one that would survive Romney’s next speech or sound bite. Politicians routinely tailor their words to suit an audience. Romney, though, is shameless, lavishing vastly diverse audiences with words, any words, they would trade their votes to hear.

And the summation is fair and clean, too:

Therefore, our endorsement must go to the incumbent, a competent leader who, against tough odds, has guided the country through catastrophe and set a course that, while rocky, is pointing toward a brighter day. The president has earned a second term. Romney, in whatever guise, does not deserve a first.

Harsh.

So Obvious that even the Press Corpse Noticed, Kinda

The Southern press snarking on Abraham Lincoln

Welcome to the land of stunning revelations. CNN has noticed that the right wing press coordinated on beclowning themselves on the Tucker Carlson/Drudge “OBAMA TAPE RELEASED!!!!” attack last night. Will wonders never cease?

Conservative media coordinates on release of old Obama
CNN’s Ashley Killough
October 3rd, 2012 07:46 AM ET

(CNN) – On the eve of the first presidential debate, conservative media outlets seized on footage of a five-year-old, widely covered speech by then-presidential candidate Barack Obama, who argued at the time that the federal government discriminated against Hurricane Katrina victims.

The June 2007 speech at Hampton University in Virginia was widely covered by CNN and other news outlets, as Obama was already well into his presidential campaign, running alongside then-Sen. Hillary Clinton at the front of the polls.

However, the conservative news outlets that pushed the video Tuesday night argued the media skipped over portions of the speech.

Of course, you’ll have read the entire article to find anything that matches the headline. Because there isn’t.