Conservative Christians Want Republicans to Stop Pampering David Vitter

From the Christian Post:

A conservative Christian group sent Louisiana Senator David Vitter, who in 2007 confessed to using the services of a high-profile prostitution ring, a letter Monday calling on him to follow former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner’s lead and resign.

…snip…

Several Democratic leaders, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, had called for Weiner’s resignation.

Unlike Weiner, Vitter, who admitted to “serious sin” in 2007 after his number was disclosed by the alleged prostitution ring “D.C. Madam,” never faced the same pressure from fellow Republicans to resign following his scandal.

Junior High Journalism

From Joe Coscarelli at Press Clips (blog) at the village VOICE:

As interest in Anthony Weiner’s penis and the dirty messages that brought it out to play begins to wane, we focus instead on the media coverage of Anthony Weiner, thereby proliferating Anthony Weiner coverage. Hm! It’s a conundrum, especially for those who go on television to proclaim, “The degree of piling on: the way it hijacks cable news, the way it hijacks the morning shows, the way it is all over the Internet says to me that we are more interested in covering salacious topics than matters of the economy, on matters of war and peace,” while simultaneously writing for a news organization doing just that. Oh, hello there — Howard Kurtz, is that you? Why yes, it is.

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You Can Run, But You Can’t Formaldehyde

From THINK PROGRESS:

Large manufacturers and chemical producers have lobbied ferociously to stop the National Institutes of Health from classifying formaldehyde as a carcinogen. A wide body of research has linked the chemical to cancer, but industrial polluters have stymied regulators from action.

Last year, the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer reported that billionaire David Koch, whose company Georgia Pacfic (a subsidiary of Koch Industries) is one of the country’s top producers of formaldehyde, was appointed to the NIH cancer board at a time when the NIH delayed action on the chemical. The news was met with protests from environmental groups. Faced with mounting pressure from Greenpeace and the scientific community, Koch […] offered an early resignation from the board in October.

Yesterday, the NIH finally handed down a report officially classifying formaldehyde as a carcinogen […]

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Greasy’s the Word

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, kids, but I read this over at POLITICO:

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels told supporters in an email early Sunday that he will not run for president in 2012, a decision he said ultimately came down to his family’s reticence about a campaign.

First Haley Barbour, then Mike xChuckleberryx Huckabee, then Donald Trump, and now ol’ Mitch.  If you’re like me, you’re beside yourself with grief.  Well, I know the only thing that will cheer us all up is a song, so warm up those vocal chords, kids!

To the tune of Beauty School Dropout written by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, as performed by Frankie Avalon:

Your story, sad to tell,
A Rethug ne’er-do-well,
Most nasty lying scumbag on the block!

Your future’s so unclear now,
What’s left of your career now?
Can’t even get a trade-in on your bile!
♪

Ask and Tell

From TALKING POINTS MEMO:

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who helped shepherd through today’s Senate repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, told reporters after the final vote this afternoon that ending the military’s ban on openly gay servicemembers is a big step for LGBT rights.

“To me, it is a step forward to a larger societal acceptance [of gay rights,]” Lieberman said. “This is a civil rights piece of legislation in my opinion.”

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The Macaca Awards! Part V

We continue with nominations for the Mock, Paper, Scissors–Hysterical Raisins 1st Semi-Regular Macaca Awards.

(Image courtesy of Tengrain)

Tonight’s category is Outstanding Achievement in Humpin’ While Bible-Thumpin’, and the nominees are:

Minority Report

From POLITICAL HOTSHEET at CBS NEWS:

In a meeting with Hispanic high school students on Friday, Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle downplayed her campaign’s use of generic pictures of Latinos to present a negative image of illegal immigrants.

…snip…

Questioned about the ads, which feature somber-looking, dark-skinned men and phrases like “illegal aliens,” Angle told a Hispanic group from Rancho High School that the ads do not necessarily portray Latinos. Furthermore, she told the students confronting her that they themselves do not necessarily look Latino.

In the meeting, first reported on by the Associated Press, a student asked Angle, “Why is it that in all of your commercials you have the image of Latinos? What do you see when you hear, and I quote, ‘illegal aliens?'”

Angle responds: “I think that you’re misinterpreting those commercials. I’m not sure that those are Latinos in that commercial. What it is, is a fence and there are people coming across that fence. What we know is that our northern border is where the terrorists came through. That’s the most porous border that we have. We cannot allow terrorists; we cannot allow anyone to come across our border if we don’t know why they’re coming. So we have to secure all of our borders and that’s what that was about, is border security. Not just our southern border, but our coastal border and our northern border.”

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Take Them Out! To the ballgame, I mean.

From Mitchell Bard at THE HUFFINGTON POST:

Noted football coach Bill Parcells once said, “You are what your record says you are.”

Parcells’ quote jumped into my mind when I was thinking about the slate of Tea Party-influenced Republicans running in November. I feel like we’ve become immune to the stories about the extreme and, sometimes, downright delusional things they’ve said, since they’ve come in a steady stream over the past several months. But if you step back and look at the group as a whole (or at least some of the leading Tea Party favorites), you can get a real sense of what the Republican Party is offering voters in November.

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(In the window, not allowed to participate: Michael Phathead Steele. Back row, l to r: Coach Rush Limbaugh, cheerleader Rich Iott (running for OH-Nein), Coach Glenn Beck, Marco Rubio. Middle-but not moderate-row, l to r: Linda McMahon, Joe Miller, Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, Carl Paladino. Front row, l to r: Christine O’Donnell, Ken Buck, Dan Maes, Sharron Angle, and Batboy David Vitter)