Funniest Thing on Internet Today - Lisa Murkowski Edition

What really makes this funny is that it is all true.

Most Disgusting Politician in America

There are lots of politicians in both parties with whom I disagree strongly on various issues. In most cases those politicians are not bad people just misguided on the proper role of government. Once they migrate to Washington, D.C. a lot of politicians succumb to temptation and become corrupt to varying degrees. However, the politician this posts title refers to is much worse than a John Murtha or Duke Cunningham style of pol who enriches himself, friends and family through abuse of office. No, the miserable wretch I'm referring to, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), is truly despicable. You may remember his disgusting comments on the House floor last year that "the Republican plan for health care is don't get sick and if you do get sick then die quickly." Well, that was mild compared to the ugly campaign ads he is running in his reelection campaign. His opponent, Daniel Webster did not serve in the military during the Vietnam War. So, Grayson runs an ad denouncing him as a draft dodger:



Thing is Webster got standard academic deferments while in college and actually was a ROTC driller. After college he reported for duty and failed his entrance physical exam. I was in recruiting and saw hundreds of applicants rejected for some physical problem or another often times the disqualifying condition was something the applicant was completely unaware of before the physical exam. Our screening doctors are very thorough for a several reasons. Primarily, you don't want someone in the service becoming a liability during a conflict or needing medicines or treatments while deployed. So, basically Grayson (who also never served by the way) is questioning his opponents patriotism because he failed a medical exam. Grayson who was 15 when the draft ended claims he would have put his education on hold and served if he was older. Yeah right, could-a, would-a, should-a, whatever. Don't blow smoke up my skirt with hypothetical answers to unasked questions. Grayson could have joined the military if he was disposed to do so. Harvard had ROTC when he attended. Military service is NOT a prerequisite to elective office. However, don't claim you would have served if, if, if, while at the same time criticizing your opponent for not serving because he was disqualified.

Grayson's next campaign ad shows a snippet of his opponent quoting scripture without context and compares him to the Taliban.



The tiny bit of biblical scripture he quoted "a wife should submit to her husband" comes from the St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians and is preceded by "Wives and husbands be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ." I'm not going to retype the entire passage, but the most important sentence to me is later in the passage when it says "So husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself." This reading has nothing to do with misogyny such as that seen from the Taliban and in fact is often chosen as a reading for wedding ceremonies.

It would not speak well of his district if Grayson gets a single vote for reelection. If he actually wins reelection then there is no hope for them at all. Mind you, there are some decent folks in that district, some of them even started a website titled MyCongressmanIsNuts.com It is subtitled: Created by Floridians outraged and embarrassed by Alan Grayson's leftist positions and childish behavior.

If you have some extra money you want to put to good use here is a link to Daniel Wester's campaign website where there is a donation button to click in the upper right hand corner.

For clarification purposes, this Daniel Webster is a different one than the more famous Daniel Webster who was a Whig politician who ran for president in 1836, 1848 and 1852. He lost every time by the way. Twice he declined an offer to run for Vice President and both times the president he chose not to run with died in office. Oddly enough during Webster's long political career he was Secretary of State under three different presidents (Harrison, Tyler, and Fillmore) and represented two different states in Congress (New Hampshire and Massachusetts). Despite being dead 158 years, Webster would still be a vast improvement over Grayson.

UPDATE: Well, it gets even more despicable. I was not sure when I posted this what the context was when Daniel Webster said "she should submit to me." I had a nagging suspicion that there was a chance that he was in the middle of an ugly rant. However, I figured if it really was as bad as Grayson was alleging the they'd have played more of the clip. Well, thanks to the fine folks at RedState we have the rest of the clip and once we see the comments in context it is 180 degree opposite of the allegations of misogyny. If anything it further cements Daniel Webster as a good guy who loves his wife. Watch the clip and judge for yourself.



There is no politician more deserving of a resounding electoral loss in November than Alan Grayson. He should be shunned by all decent people. However, he is lining himself up for a prime time slot at MSNBC.

UPDATE #2:
The Other McCain declares that Grayson is not scum. After reading his argument, I have to agree it unnecessarily defames scum to compare it to Grayson.

CNN, NBC and ABC All Dump Top Boss

Oddly coincidental announcements today signal that Jeff Zucker is out at NBC, Jon Klein is out at CNN and this follows news a few weeks ago that David Westin is "resigning" as president of ABC News. Apparently, they were all pushed out for failing to maintain President Obama's popularity above 40%.

Actually, the stations did not cite failure to make the presidents policies palatable as a reason for the executive being shown the door. However, they did not deny it either. Using media standards, failure to deny is same as confirmation.

Utterly Clueless TV Host Has An Epiphany

I have always been irritated when politicians or commentators talk about tax cuts as though they are giving people money. No, if anything they are just taking less than they previously planned to take. Amazingly, Chris Matthews, an extreme left wing media sycophant, broke away from standard liberal talking point and challenged the class-warfare language used by President Obama on this issue. Here is the link to Newsbusters.com's piece on Matthews revelation.

Maybe even more surprising, the MSNBCer told the object of his affection, "Stop saying that giving people tax cuts is giving people money. It`s their money!"

The unashamed liberal host continued, "A tax cut is when the government doesn`t take our money. It`s an important distinction"

Poorly Thought Out Advertising Idea

There is a TV ad that has been running lately which shows a couple people pool side. Guy is struggling to read his electronic book presumably due to glare and says to the woman "Excuse me, how are you able to read out here?" She replies with something like "Oh, this is a Kindle and I got it for just $139. I actually paid more for these sunglasses" What sort of moron would take shopping advise from someone who said they were foolish enough to spend over a hundred dollars for sunglasses?

Separately (and at the risk of being considered a dinosaur), what the heck is wrong with regular books that people need an electronic book?

Headline of the Day

Okay, I'll admit it is more of a blog post title of the day, but that doesn't have the same ring as Headline of the Day. Anyways, there is a lot of truth in the title Jim Geraghty used to discuss the latest political scandal in Cleveland:

In Cleveland, the Opposition Party Is the FBI

Problem for my hometown is there is little humor in that title. Politics in the city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga county are monopolized by Democrats and rife with corruption. I may be overly pessimistic, but in the grand scheme of things I don't think it matters if Jimmy Dimora, Frank Russo and their various accomplices rot in prison. I'm not arguing against their prosecution just asserting that in a year or so the Democrats controlling Cleveland politics will just have different crooks running things.

Breaking Baseball's Unwritten Rules

From time to time, certain things happen in baseball and someone will claim it is a violation of the unwritten rules of the game. In most cases they are referring to an act that is slightly unsportsmanlike. One example is stealing bases when having a sizable lead late in a game. I usually dismiss those complaints believing that since the other team has not stopped trying to mount a comeback they have no right to expect their opponent to stop growing their lead.

However, some of the rules are strategic ideas that should be followed for very good reasons. In each of the last two games between Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Yankees a player has made the third our at third base late in a close game. Monday night Brett Gardner made the third out when he attempted to steal third. Tuesday night Carl Crawford returned the favor by being thrown out at third. An old axiom in baseball is never make the first or third out of an inning at third base. To the casual fan that doesn't make a lot of sense. However, if you look how runs are scored it makes a great deal of sense. If there are already two outs it doesn't matter whether you are on 2nd or 3rd it will take a hit to knock you in regardless and you will be off an running on contact. Conversely, if there are no outs there are several ways for you to score that you don't need to take excessive risk to try to get to 3rd on your own. I don't know if those mistakes were solely on the base runners or if the coaches share some of the blame. Regardless of who is to blame, it is surprising to see that kind of screw up in back to back games in September. Final word on the rule: the team that made the mistake lost the game in both cases.

Remember, I Said NEVER Donate to RNC

Several times I've made the case that no one should ever donate to the national Republican organizations (RNC, NRSC or NRCC). They constantly back "moderate" (translated as liberal) candidates over more conservative candidates out of a misguided sense of electability. They think fence sitting voters and independents are more likely to vote for Republicans who are Dem lite than for Republicans who actually believe in the party platform. Today's example is from the state of Delaware. The Republican establishment was all set to support financially Rep. Mike Castle who votes with the party around half the time and is actually nutty enough to buy into global warming and vote for the Cap and Trade scam if he won the primary. Now, that he lost the primary to Christine O'Donnell who is more conservative the national party apparatus is financially sitting out the general election. When I see endorsements and actions like we've seen in primaries over the last decade or so I'm more and more convinced that for most of the politicians it is more about maintaining the status quo than about advancing conservative principles.

Remember the geniuses who know better than the rest of us supported Charlie Crist for the U.S. Senate seat from Florida and Dede Scozzafava in her bid for an open congressional seat from New York only to see both of them abandon the party. Crist saw he would lose the primary and decided to run as an independent and has indicated he would caucus with the Dems. Scozzafava just went ahead and switched to Dem to match her already far left political positions.

If you have money to give away give it to individual candidates who will support your positions. NEVER give money to a committee. I've sat on committees and seen how they make decisions. It isn't pretty. Remember a donkey is a thoroughbred horse that was designed by a committee.

Best Governor in the Country

I'm sure there are issues on which I would disagree with Gov. Christie. However, I greatly admire his ability to speak directly and clearly to his constituents. Far too many politicians get mealy mouthed when discussing potentially touchy subjects out of fear of offending one voting block or another. Christie just comes out and calmly addresses the issues leaving no doubt where he stands and why.

Having said all that, I do think it is very premature to discuss the notion of Christie running for president in 2012. His style and positions on fiscal matters is sufficient to support him as governor. I want to know a lot more about him and his positions before I could vote for him for president. Don't just tell me that he would be better than the incumbent. That is setting the bar too low for that important position.