Huggy Bear's past

Well, as long as folks are taking a look back at some noteworthy history of Huggy Bear (like when he joked about rape? Good times), I thought I'd join in the fun.

For example, here's a look back at Huggy in 2000 and 2004 -- the difference is a big reason why I maintain that the man has absolutely no integrity whatsoever.

Senator John McCain, February 15, 2000 (Quick Time movie), to then Governor George Bush, after describing attacks against his service in Vietnam:

You should be ashamed.

From an interview with Senator John McCain, June 2000:

Dadmag: During your campaign for the Republican Presidential nomination Bridget became something of an issue in South Carolina didn't she?

McCain: Yeah. There were some pretty vile and hurtful things said during the South Carolina primary. It's a really nasty side of politics. We tried to ignore it and I think we shielded her from it. It's just unfortunate that that sort of thing still exists As you know she's Bengali, and very dark skinned. A lot of phone calls were made by people who said we should be very ashamed about her, about the color of her skin. Thousands and thousands of calls from people to voters saying "You know the McCains have a black baby?" I believe that there is a special place in hell for people like those.

[...]

From a Boston Globe article, June 21, 2004, by Richard H. Davis, McCain's 2000 campaign manager:

Having run Senator John McCain's campaign for president, I can recount a textbook example of a smear made against McCain in South Carolina during the 2000 presidential primary. We had just swept into the state from New Hampshire, where we had racked up a shocking, 19-point win over the heavily favored George W. Bush. What followed was a primary campaign that would make history for its negativity.

In South Carolina, Bush Republicans were facing an opponent who was popular for his straight talk and Vietnam war record. They knew that if McCain won in South Carolina, he would likely win the nomination. With few substantive differences between Bush and McCain, the campaign was bound to turn personal. The situation was ripe for a smear.

It didn't take much research to turn up a seemingly innocuous fact about the McCains: John and his wife, Cindy, have an adopted daughter named Bridget. Cindy found Bridget at Mother Theresa's orphanage in Bangladesh, brought her to the United States for medical treatment, and the family ultimately adopted her. Bridget has dark skin.

Anonymous opponents used "push polling" to suggest that McCain's Bangladeshi born daughter was his own, illegitimate black child. In push polling, a voter gets a call, ostensibly from a polling company, asking which candidate the voter supports. In this case, if the "pollster" determined that the person was a McCain supporter, he made statements designed to create doubt about the senator.

Thus, the "pollsters" asked McCain supporters if they would be more or less likely to vote for McCain if they knew he had fathered an illegitimate child who was black. In the conservative, race-conscious South, that's not a minor charge. We had no idea who made the phone calls, who paid for them, or how many calls were made. Effective and anonymous: the perfect smear campaign.

Some aspects of this smear were hardly so subtle. Bob Jones University professor Richard Hand sent an e-mail to "fellow South Carolinians" stating that McCain had "chosen to sire children without marriage." It didn't take long for mainstream media to carry the charge. CNN interviewed Hand and put him on the spot: "Professor, you say that this man had children out of wedlock. He did not have children out of wedlock." Hand replied, "Wait a minute, that's a universal negative. Can you prove that there aren't any?"

And now the punchline:

Sen. John McCain, August 11, 2004:

On September 14, [George Bush] stood in the rubble of the Twin Towers, and he put his arm around one of the heroes and said the world will hear from us, and they did! ... The world is safer, Iraq is safer and America is safe. President Bush has not wavered. He will not waver. We will not waver. Under his leadership, we will win this war on terror.

Wait a second. Huggy Bear has a brown child? You'd never know it from the news today.

Huggy Bear, you're such a fuckin' hypocrite.



(h/t Atrios)

It's official: two down, one to go

Yesterday I told you how three fundie-led efforts in the Florida legislature were, thank the FSM, in trouble. Today two of them officially were put to rest.

The ridiculous forced-ultrasound bill was killed in the Senate, although the margin was the thinnest possible: a 20-20 vote.

State law already requires an ultrasound before a woman can have an abortion in the second or third trimester. The bill would have extended that to the first trimester. It also would have added the requirement that the doctor give the woman the opportunity to look at the sonogram, although she could have declined.

Well, that ought to shut those fucking fundies up for a while, at least. And if that doesn't, maybe this will:

A license plate that would have become the first in the nation to prominently feature a religious symbol is unlikely to be on the road any time soon after state lawmakers did not include it in a bill Tuesday.

The plate, which included an image of a Christian cross, stained-glass window and the words "I Believe," is not in legislation passed late Tuesday that's now headed to the governor.

[...]

It could still be amended onto another bill, but the prospects of that were increasingly unlikely with few bills available on the Legislature's calendar to which it could be added.

The South Carolina legislature is also considering the same license plate, however, and it won key approval in the state Senate there Tuesday.

Well, let South Carolina bear the ignominy of the Christianist license plate. We already knew their legislature was pretty much backwards, anyway, when they tried for the forced ultrasound bill last year.

Odd that Florida seems to be facing a fundie assault a year after South Carolina did the same thing, don't you think? I mean, no offense to sensible South Carolinians, but do we really want to be taking our lead from South Carolina? Just wonderin' ...

Giuliani: running on 9/11 and Clinton hatred

Well, although I long ago counted out Rudy as a viable GOP candidate, because the fundies will never stand for a pro-choice, pro-gay nominee, he's certainly playing his formula to the hilt.

Campaigning in the South, Giuliani routinely jokes about the scarcity of Republicans in New York City, depicting it as crime-ridden before he took office, part of his argument that, while some GOP voters may disagree with his ideas, it is hard to argue with his results.

At a crowded ice cream parlor in conservative Greenville, Giuliani told reporters he is polling stronger among conservatives than any of the other candidates and marveled at the "big surprise" his performance in the state is providing. Several surveys in the state have shown the former mayor first or just behind former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.).

In Rock Hill, Giuliani skipped discussion of moral issues, instead stressing that "from California to New York . . . the things that hold us together as a party are a strong national defense and a strong national economy."

Giuliani also gleefully took up one of his favorite tactics on the campaign trail: Hillary Clinton-bashing, which he has essentially made the third plank of his brand of conservatism in lieu of orthodoxy on social issues.

In the middle of his speech, Giuliani reached into his pocket, declaring to the crowd, "I have been keeping a list: This is my Hillary list."

Without actually consulting the sheet, Giuliani eagerly reeled off and ridiculed proposals the Democratic front-runner offered this week as she sought to focus on the middle class, including a tax credit for parents paying college tuition and matching the first $1,000 Americans put in 401(k) plans.

He then turned to a proposal Clinton floated late last month, modeled on a program in Britain, in which children would be given $5,000 at birth that they could spend when they are older, which some advocates tout as an anti-poverty program.

"Remember the Hillary baby bonds," Giuliani said, laughing at the notion. "We pointed out in strong terms how irresponsible this was. . . . She gave them up in three or four days."

Clinton has said the bonds were not a specific proposal she was offering. But while all the Republican contenders use Clinton as a punching bag, Giuliani is unmatched in his focus on his home-state rival.

So, now Rudy's mixing in some Hillary hate with his 9/11 references. It's just a shame to me that he's able to capitalize on 9/11 when he didn't do a single fucking thing of note in the aftermath of that tragedy. Can anyone tell me one thing he did that justifies his candidacy for president? Please -- I'd be thrilled to have more background ...

But, even with his purported national security creds, Rudy's still going to have trouble with the fundies:

Giuliani still has some work to do. Some social conservatives are still wary of the party's front-runner.

"From a fiscal perspective, he's done fine, but from the social side I have problems with him," said Randy Page, a GOP activist who is on the board of the Palmetto Family Council, a major conservative group in South Carolina. "I would be very uncomfortable with him" as the nominee.

And the batshit crazies in the Religious Right are only beginning their onslaught. By the time they get to Philadelphia next summer for the 2008 GOP Circle Jerk Convention, they'll have their attacks honed to precision. Count on it.

No Beauty Pageant Contestant Left Behind

I know, I have slammed South Carolina here before, but I'm allowed because I lived there for four years.

Seriously, it's a lovely state, and the people by and large are lovely as well. Too often, though, that loveliness is only skin deep.

For example:



I feel like the Geico caveman responding to the pundit: "Uhhhhh .... what?"

Welcome to Anilorac Htuos

South Carolina is So. Fucking. Backwards.

Courtesy of trifecta of New Pairodimes, we learn that The Palmetto State will be requiring women seeking abortions to view an ultrasound image of the fetus beforehand, if proposed legislation to that effect passes.

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Women seeking abortions in South Carolina would be required to view an ultrasound image of their fetus before the procedure under a proposal gaining support from lawmakers. If enacted, it would be the first law of its kind in the nation.

The bill's chief sponsor, Rep. Greg Delleney, considers the bill a natural addition to the state's informed-consent law, which requires that women be told about fetal development and offered alternatives to abortion. The law requires a woman to have at least an hour to think about the information before ending her pregnancy.

Delleney's proposal would require patients to certify in writing that they viewed the ultrasound.

Democratic state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter plans to lead the fight against the legislation when it comes up for debate later this month in the GOP-dominated House. But she said she expects the legislation to pass because even lawmakers who don't like the bill will be afraid to vote against it.

Get that? Lawmakers will be afraid to vote against the bill! Why in the world shouldn't they be afraid to vote for it?! This is what the right-wing collaboration of media and politics has brought us, and the only way to beat it is to take it on directly. But oh, no, they're afraid.

Trifecta goes even farther, analyzing this as yet another GOP specialty, an unfunded mandate:

Ok, it's not enough that you insult women into waiting an hour just in case they went to the women's clinic just on a lark, and decided to have an abortion instead of getting their car detailed.

Sadly, women still have abortions even after being humiliated this way, so there has to be another way to make them feel shittier about making a tough decision that is the right choice for them. There is nothing I can see here about who is going to pay for it. What is the cost going to be to the women? Are poor women going to be able to afford the ultrasound? Is the state going to pick up the tab, especially if the woman decides to go through the song and dance and still proceed?

It's sad that Greg Delleney has a forum for his twisted, extreme views. It's even sadder that South Carolina Democrats apparently are too chickenshit to challenge those views.