Best Saturday Night Live Sketches

in a long time by far. They absolutely nailed it last night most notably with with the imaginary Sino-American press conference.

Palin's Prayer Porn

Get a look at this at this excerpt from Sarah Palin's "book" provided by Sally Quinn of The Washington Post.

(By the way, in her book Palin writes about, how, during the campaign, she took a call from Pastor Rick Warren when she was showering and that he offered to pray with her."I said, absolutely! Pray away! I would never turn down prayer even with limited hours in a campaign day, standing in a few inches of water with a shower curtain for a wardrobe. You do what you've got to do."

Obviously Sally Quinn doesn't think too highly towards claims that some higher being tells us what to do and she does a great job pointing to the contradictions in that line of thinking but on a lighter note,

I'm curious, since the former governor didn't mention it when she spoke about her shower prayer experiences - was she wearing the rosary in the shower and did the towel cover that?

Roundtable

Sarah Palin:

David Brooks nailed it on "This Week."

The 9-11 Trial:

The conservatives are split. David Brooks opposes it; George Will does not.

The Obama bow

a simple act of courtesy that probably went a long way towards restoring some good will from the president's counterparts. I'll take Obama's bow over his predecessor's "cowboy" persona any day.

Prejean's Hypocrisy Did Her In

"All Carrie Prejean ever really decided to do was answer a question that way." - Kathryn Jean Lopez defending Carrie Prejean in The National Review


Point 1:

"All Carrie Prejean ever really decided to do was answer a question that way" then behave in a manner that is inconsistent with the principles she espoused. Prejean survived Perez Hilton's question. Donald Trump defended her right to stand up for what she believed. What doomed her were the sex scandals that followed. Prejean's hypocrisy was her undoing.

Point 2: Concerning NOW's Silence

I don't think the National Organization for Women regards a woman's decision to dress up like a [straight] male's sex object highly.

Point 3: The Title "Honestly!"

Needs to be changed since it only reminds us of ex's claim that she told him to lie about the timing of the sex tapes.

Solid Gay Rights Victory in Washington

Our margin for victory in Washington exceeds 6% points as of now, with approximately 9,500 votes left to count.

Trials: Punishing Terrorists the Right Way

Today our Attorney General, Eric H. Holder Jr., said his office will prosecute five war detainees accused of participating in the 09/11/2009 terrorism plots, in civil court and four war detainees, including one involved in the bombing of a U.S. naval destroyer in 2000, before a military commission.

Some conservatives, no doubt will oppose this decision. John Yoo, a law professor who served in the Bush administration's Justice Department, said will allow the accused to expose our intelligence gathering techniques within the courtroom. Others say Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who may be the mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist act that killed 3,000 + men, women and children, may be released or otherwise acquitted by a jury of his peers since some of the information which his interrogators obtained was gathered through illicit means.

The information which the accused may seek may no doubt include classified information that should not be released to the public. The judge that ultimately hears the case, however, can impose restrictions on the release of that information and close at least a part of these trials from the public while letting the accused cross-examine the witnesses testifying against them.

Mohammed will have his day in court. He will face his accusers and the charges that are leveled against them and he will have the opportunity to refute them before a jury of his peers. If Mohammed and his co-conspirators are convicted they will face the death penalty, where again they will have an opportunity to confront, and refute the evidence used to justify its use. If they are acquitted, and there are no other charges pending against them, Mohammed and his co-conspirators could be set free.

Conservative grand-standing notwithstanding, this is a risk we face every day. Your local pedophile can be released if the evidence that is used against him was tainted by substandard evidence-gathering techniques. The suspected serial killer might be released if the testimony provided by him (or by other witnesses) is proven unreliable since it is coerced. Timothy McVeigh, the man who was convicted of and executed for the bombing of Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City fourteen years ago could have walked (to bomb again) another federal building if he was acquitted by the jury of his peers. Had the decision gone the other way, McVeigh would have lived to bomb another day.

In one sense, the stakes involved hear are loweer. Should he be acquitted, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed won't be released into the general public. Since he is not an American citizen, he will be released to the country of his birth or any other country that would accept him.

"The Right to Have a Roof Over [Their] Heads"

"The issue before you tonight is the right of people to have a roof over their heads and the right to work without being discriminated against." Michael Otterson, for the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons).


"Sexual orientation is an illusion. It only exists in the minds of activists, and their academics, who need to explain away why people do what they do even when they don't want to do it." - Paul Mero of the nutty Sutherland Institute, brought to you by Chino Blanco at Pam's House Blend

I don't know why no one laughed when Mero (almost sounds like Nero) of the Sutherland Institute spoke before the Salt Lake City council.

But while I'm on the topic, why doesn't Obama use Mr. Otterson's talking points to push for ENDA which offers gays the most rudimentary of job protections but no housing rights. If anything, he could use the LDS talking points to push for housing protections once ENDA is passed. What did Mr. Otterson say this ordinance would protect? The gays' "right to have a roof over their heads?" who can object to that?

Obama's "Dithering" Quite Welcome

President Barack Obama's most strident critics, including former Vice President Richard Cheney, accuse him of "dithering" on the war in Afghanistan. They say he has proven himself to be an indecisive leader since he cannot decide whether he should send an additional 40,000 troops to Afghanistan, as General Stanley A. McChrystal said, or leave the country altogether. Failure to provide the requested troops would, they assert, lead to Afghanistan's loss to the Taliban and the Al Qaeda terrorist groups which provided them with the safe haven they used for planning the 9-11-01 terrorist attacks.

He was expected to endorse a smaller troop surge after his return from Asia but recent developments put that in doubt. First, Karl W. Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, doubts the efficacy of sending any new troops into the country. Mr. Eikenberry, the report suggests, would have the president redirect our focus from the military to the civilian theater of operations in an effort to rebuild the nation.

Second, the president himself reportedly rejected all four proposals for the shift in strategy. Mr. Obama was not satisfied since he is specifically looking for an attainable, measurable goal so that he can withdraw our forces from Afghanistan as soon as possible.

I don't know if this can really be done and the president will probably be criticized no matter what he does. We will be second-guessing everything which the president does. There are no good options. Losing Afghanistan could mean losing Pakistan. The Al Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan are connected to the terrorists the Pakistanis once considered their allies in its dispute with India. Doubling down however, adds to the cost in both both, manpower and finances. Billions of dollars could be squandered building a nation that cannot be built for an unspecified period of time before we ultimately conclude it was all for naught. The troops that might be needed elsewhere could be tied down in Afghanistan for years and the money that is wasted in Afghanistan could be used nation-building projects needed at home.

But I do find his "dithering" very comforting. He's thinking about this and he is challenging his advisers to think this through. At the very least, he doesn't want us to believe he will make a decision between flawed options that are justified by faulty or baseless assumptions.

I'll take his "dithering" over his critics gun-ho swagger any day.

If The LDS Can Back Gay Rights, Could Obama?

If the largely anti-gay LDS can endorse something as basic as nondiscrimination in housing, and employment, why can't the president and the Democrats, our purported allies, pass the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, which only protects us from job discrimination?

Diversity in the Millitary Taken Too Far

On Sunday, the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., said he worried about a backlash against Muslims in the armed forces and emphasized the military’s reliance on those men and women.

“Our diversity, not only in our Army but in our country, is a strength,” General Casey said Sunday on “Meet the Press” on NBC. “And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.” excerpt from The New York Times

I don't see why it should unless those who knew of this militant's background were so dense that they couldn't distinguish between a person who prays five times a day after saluting the flag and a person who condemns the United States for going to war, endorses jihad, and attempts to contact Al Qaeda.

The Attack on Diversity in the Military Taken Too Far

"There are lessons in the Pentagon’s gender wars for anyone who doubts the power of political correctness in the military. The feminization of the military has been at the hands of military leaders with medals attesting to their physical bravery who surrendered in the face of liberal cultural warriors. In recent years, the military’s ranks have been ruthlessly patrolled for any sign of resistance to the brass’s gender-blind agenda. When official definitions of sexual harassment, for example, include expressing reservations about women in combat or making note of gender-normed scores in physical tests, officers and troops learn to keep their reservations to themselves. Kingsley Browne has a terrific piece recounting the injustices that have resulted from the military’s aggressive zero-tolerance policies with respect to gender integration. General Casey has now reiterated his zero tolerance for misgivings about “diversity.” Message received. Is it any more likely that a colleague would report the jihadist sentiments of an active-duty soldier today than a week ago? When General Casey would be fretting about “chilling effects” and “backlashes?” at The Corner

Um. No. Major Nidal Malik Hasan's actions was not a woman. He is a man, so letting women serve in the military did not expose the soldiers to the likes of Hasan. And he acted like a "stereotypical" man. He didn't cry. He got enraged and then he killed people. And then he was stopped by a woman. Perhaps Mrs. O'Beirne should shop around for another excuse for keeping war hawks like herself out of harm's way.

"AP sources: Officials reviewed suspect's Web posts"

What a surprise.

Apparently some officials knew about this mass murderer's thoughts through his postings on the internet six months ago. And he was going to the Middle East.

Homophobia in the News Business

"Strange Bedfellows

Washington voters approve expanded gay rights" - strange, homophobic headline

Some Good News on the Gay Rights Front

in Kalamazoo, we won.

We're losing in Maine. The enemy had just pulled into the lead. The results from Portland are in so the only hope we really have lies in Bangor but it's still close and we may pull ahead with any absentee ballots. Yes, we outspent the enemy but don't let that fool you. They don't need as much since they have the religious establishment behind them. They need only have their priests condemn gay people during one of their homilies, then get their volunteers to drive them to the polls.

I'll add the results to Maine when that happens.

In the meantime we are behind in Washington which is really bad. Yes, 13% of the precincts reporting but this isn't about marriage. It's about domestic partnerships.

This is a very bad night overall. The theocrats sweep Virginia and take the governor's mansion in New Jersey (though the Democrats kept the Assembly), they pulled ahead in Maine, albeit slightly and they are winning in Washington.

Addendum:

Oh. we are now winning in Washington (with three counties left to report) so we might have a split verdict with a 2.26%$ margin of victory in Washington (obviously with most of the support coming from the Seattle Metropolitan Area) and a 4% point loss (with most of our support coming from Portland).

Well, we at least won in two elections and on two important points.

We trounced the bigots in a small Michigan city on an anti-discrimination ordinance and then we upheld, albeit by a small margin a domestic partnership law in Washington.

I love this tidbit from the "The Stranger:"


Washington state's anti-gay bigots are slinking out of the Holiday Inn in Everett. The SECB wasn't allowed to reenter the ballroom after one of the security guards saw spotted the SECB's notebook. We did manage to catch up with Larry Stickney, director of the Washington Families Alliance and the "brains" behind R-71, in the nearly-empty hallway outside the ballroom.

"I don't deal with you guys," Stickney told the SECB. "You guys need to be practiced in civil discourse before I talk to you guys."

Still, ballots have yet to be counted in each county. The good news -




Andrew Sullivan, as usual, sees some good out of Maine. Perhaps he was smoking a little too much.

NJ Gubernatorial: Turnout for Republicans Felt like a a Presidential Election; Turnout for Democrats Did not

Gloucester County - Corzine lost.

Middlesex County - Corzine is behind by a point though approx. 1/2 of the precincts have yet to report.

Cumberland County - Corzine wins but with only 1/2 of the voters who turned out behind him.

Ocean County - overwhelmingly for Christie as expected

Monmouth County - again no surprise, for Christie with high voter turnout (hovering around the 50% mark)

Morris County - with turnout hovering around 47% of the vote - wipeout for Christie. No surprise

Corzine won Essex but turnout was low - hovering around 36%


Chris Christie unseated a very unpopular incumbent whose polling numbers never hovered near the 50% line. He was an ineffective communicator and an ineffective governor who failed to control spending in Trenton because he failed to reign in the unions that backed him. Voters in New Jersey were furious because they were paying high property taxes and getting nothing for it.

Republican Sweep

The Republicans not only swept Virginia but they took New Jersey. This may not have been a referendum on President Barack Obama but he was a political embarrassment since voters in both states ignored his plea for support. Corzine was a terrible candidate. He couldn't explain himself. He barely edged Christie out in Union and lost in Gloucester. Wow.