National Enquirer claiming Sarah Palin had an affair.

Here's the response from Team McCain:

“The smearing of the Palin family must end. The allegations contained on the cover of the National Enquirer insinuating that Governor Palin had an extramarital affair are categorically false. It is a vicious lie. Governor Palin is the most popular governor in the country. She is a proven leader, an accomplished executive, a champion for ethics reform, and a fighter against corruption. The efforts of the media and tabloids to destroy this fine and accomplished public servant are a disgrace. The American people will reject it.

“Senator McCain and Governor Palin look forward to discussing the issues that Americans care about, fixing broken government, creating jobs, making our country energy independent and securing the peace for the next generation by bringing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to a victorious end. Legal action will be considered with regard to this disgraceful smear.” --Senior Adviser Steve Schmidt

Would this story, perchance, have originated with the same Alaskan partisans who spread the rumor that Trig was actually Bristol's baby?

McCain Enraged: Speaking about the coordinated DNC/DKM (Daily Kos Media) assault generally (and not about this particular smear), McCain promises to fight back, and that "we're gonna get 'em."

More Coming: I'm standing by, waiting for details, hopefully, about the sourcing of this newest smear.

Just Curious: How do we know it was Sarah having the affair? Maybe it was someone else wearing a Pregnant Governor fat-suit?

Hang On... Waiting for a crucial clarification.

Posted by: Ace at 12:24 PM | Comments (145)
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Since fat-ass Roland Martin (who played "ReRun" on What's Happening) wants to have a debate on abstinence and sex-ed teaching, let's see what blessed wonders such teaching may have worked for 50-year-old adult, former Senator, and one time Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate John Edwards.

Jawbone writes:

Remind me again what kind of sex ed John Edwards had? Did he have that Abstinence Sex Ed or the Contraceptive one? And why didn't it stop him from having a [love baby] out of wedlock, wait a minute, he was married...well that's a little different I guess.

Another commenter notes that Roland Martin makes a great point about unprotected sex and STD transmission... and reminds us that Bill Clinton was not apparently employing a jimmy-hat, else his genetic material would not have wound up splattered on Monica Lewinsky's blue dress like a DNA broach.

Roland? Do you believe we need some mandatory sex-education classes for sitting Democratic Senators and Presidents? Because they don't seem to have all the "information" they need.

Posted by: Ace at 12:08 PM | Comments (12)
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His Senate colleagues don't seem to think so:

There's been much discussion of Sarah Palin's readiness to lead, but what about her counterpart on the Dem ticket? Has Joe Biden shown the requisite skills to lead? What can we distill from his 40 year record in the Senate?



Silly to discuss? One third of America's Veeps have ascended to the Oval Office for one reason or another. John McCain may be old; Barrack Obama is a brown-skinned man vying for the presidency of a (so we've been told) bitter, gun-clinging, racist nation in the midst of its Second Great Depression. If that powder keg explodes can we look to Joe Biden for leadership?



In 1974 when Joe Biden was sworn into the Senate he was the fifth youngest Senator in US history. The leader on the Dem side at the time was Robert Byrd. Byrd was replaced as Senate Leader in 1989 by George Mitchell. Mitchell entered the Senate in 1980, six years after Joe Biden.



Mitchell served as leader until 1994 when he left the Senate, replaced by South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle. Daschle was the second youngest Senate Deocratic Leader ever selected (behind LBJ) having entered the Senate in 1986 - twelve years after Joe Biden first took his oath of office.



When Daschle's re-elction campaign failed in 2004 he was replaced with the current leader Harry Reid, also a freshman in the class of '86.



Despite his supposed gravitas and years of experience he has been repeatedly passed over by his own party for leadership positions in the Senate. Chairman of a comittee is a position of seniority, not leadership. Party politics rather than performance. Has Biden sponsored legislation that was ultimately signed into law? Of course, he's a political animal with 40 years warming a seat in the Senate. To what degree is passing legislation defined as leadership anyway? Who implements new laws? Someone else. Who manages new bureaucracies? Someone else. I envision Homer Simpson running for Sanitation Commisioner - Can't someone else do it?



Biden - rejected as a President twice by the Democratic voters. Biden - routinely rejected by Senate Democrats for leadership positions. Biden - Ready to lead day one?



Not if past performance is an indication of future returns.

Thanks to BVO.

Joe Biden is understandably proud of his son serving in the Armed Forces. When he had his own chance, of course, he took five student deferments and then got himself disqualified due to his apparently-debilitating asthma. Despite being a "football star," according to his own accounting.

Ready to lead? Lead what? He didn't even lead in the soft-handed Senate.

Posted by: Ace at 11:53 AM | Comments (31)
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Roland Martin is much like a Cedric the Entertainer -- fat, ridiculous, and "sassy" -- but without the wit and talent to land a job on broadcast TV. And unlike Cedric, the pose as a dimwit is, unfortunately, not a pose.

It didn't take Republicans long -- and even some Democrats -- to try to dissuade the media from focusing on the news that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter is five months pregnant and plans on marrying the father.

Aides to Sen. John McCain quickly took to the airwaves to deplore any conversation regarding Bristol Palin, saying the issue is private. Even Sen. Barack Obama made it clear that the children of candidates are off-limits.

But of course, that didn't keep some folks from trying to score political points.

"This is the pro-life choice. The fact that people will criticize her for this shows the astounding extent to which the secular critics of the pro-life movement just don't get it," Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, told David Brody of the Christian Broadcast Network.

"Those who criticize the Palin family don't understand that we don't see babies as a punishment but as a blessing."

Now, for everyone on the left and the right, please, shut up for a moment and consider the broader issue here.

We have a crisis in America and Bristol Palin exemplifies that. She's an unwed teenager who is now pregnant, forced to raise a child far too soon.

She is a teenager who chose to have pre-marital sex, which I thought many of these same evangelicals deplored based on biblical reasons. She is a teenager who had unprotected sex, and should thank the Lord that the young man she was with didn't have a sexually transmitted disease.

According to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 46.8 percent of all high school students say they have had sex, which is a decrease from 54 percent.

That's the good news. But we shouldn't be satisfied with almost half of our children making the decision to have sex. Many of them are doing so without any protection, and we have seen an explosion of STDs among teens in the country. In fact, Alaska has one of the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases among teens.

It's worthy to examine the issue because Gov. Palin said in 2006 that she was dead set against any federal funding for sex education, but was an avid supporter of abstinence-only funding.

But it's clear that abstinence-only didn't work in her own household. So, should she and her supporters re-examine their position?

I'm glad no one is trying to score political points, Roland.

How's Obama's ass taste, bitch?

I bet it tastes like rainbows.

Thanks to Slublog.

Note Well: Roland Martin is, like Jann Wenner at Us, a huge Obama supporter.

Isn't it funny that they're ignoring Obama's supposed call to lay off Bristol?

It's almost as if they didn't think he was serious about that or somethin'.

Response from "Roland Martin:"

Listen up Mr. Fancy Pajamas Blogger Man I'll have you know that Obama's ass tastes like Godiva Chocolate, his balls taste like marshmallows and his penis tastes like rainbow sherbet. Not a rainbow itself, rainbow sherbet, an actual rainbow doesn't taste like anything. God you're an idiot. Next time you go running your mouth why don't you at least get your facts right.

Does John Edwards Require Sex-Education Classes at an Adult Learning Annex? Jawbone writes:

Remind me again what kind of sex ed John Edwards had? Did he have that Abstinence Sex Ed or the Contraceptive one? And why didn't it stop him from having a [love baby] out of wedlock, wait a minute, he was married...well that's a little different I guess.

Posted by: Ace at 11:18 AM | Comments (49)
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Dissent and/or kidnapping is the highest form of patriotism.

Gee, I hope no armed delegates now have a reasonable belief of a possible grave threat which would justify the use of deadly force, or anything.

That would be bad.

Not as Breaking as I Thought: rightwingfascist tells me this has been on Drudge all day, and so it has.

A year ago, the Ramsey County sheriff's office began looking closely at a group called the Republican National Convention Welcoming Committee.

What it found, according to an 18-page search warrant application and affidavit, led to weekend raids on two Minneapolis homes and a temporary St. Paul office for the self-described anarchist group.

According to the document, investigation learned:

* The self-described anarchist group — whose main goal was to "crash" the Republican National Convention," according to its Web site — traveled to or communicated with affinity groups in 67 cities to recruit members and raise money.

* Group members discussed the possibility of kidnapping delegates, blockading bridges, using liquid sprayers filled with urine or chemicals on police and throwing marbles to trip police and their horses.

* At an "action camp" held from July 31 to Aug. 3 in Lake Geneva, Minn., one member talked of concealing inside giant puppets "materials" that could be used on the street. Others discussed the need for Molotov cocktails, paint, caltrops (devices used to puncture tires), bricks and lockboxes for protesters to lock themselves together.

* Erik Oseland, one of the six group members arrested here, produced a video called "Video Map of the St. Paul Points of Interest." It included such major companies as Travelers Insurance and Qwest, hotels such as the Embassy Suites and the Crowne Plaza.

Lovely.

Posted by: Ace at 11:03 AM | Comments (37)
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Ace posted a question from a reader in the sidebar, asking why a terrorist associating, community organizer could obtain a security clearance when most people who hang out with Weather Underground bombers would be denied.

The answer is that for Members of Congress (both House Members and Senators) security clearance vests simply by virtue of their having been elected.

That's it. You organize enough anti-American, bomb-planting, coke snorting, misogynistic, MSNBC watching, kos-diarists to vote your sorry community organizing ass into office in a one-party gerrymandered district, and you too can have access to all the nation's secrets!

Hurray???

Anyway, the rules are actually different for Congressional staffers. Ironically, Community Organizer Barack Obama would probably NOT qualify for a security clearance BASED ON THE CHOICES HE MADE THROUGHOUT HIS LIFE if he were a lowly STAFFER.

His history of drug use would disqualify him. His association with domestic terrorists would disqualify him. Hell, even the community organizer's much discussed "difficulty" in paying back his student loans could conceivably justify denying a security clearance if they were so onerous as to constitute a severe financial hardship.

This merits of this "two-tiered" system are debatable. Obviously, some of Congress' chief functions include oversight hearings and the review of judicial and executive branch appointments. Often, classified documents are reviewed by those with the appropriate clearances in the routine course of fulfilling these responsibilities. Having some Community Organizers receive info while other Community Organizers did not would could hamper these responsibilities.

Then again, I doubt that when these rules were first developed anyone thought a terrorist-simp Community Organizer who belonged to a racist "nationalist" church and had a history of drug binges and taking on more debt than he could manage would ever have access to these documents anyway.

All of which skirts the really important issue though:

Apparently, a Congressman or a Staffer can STILL get a security clearance if a daughter becomes pregnant and decides to keep the baby.

Obviously, this gap in our nation's security apparatus needs to be fixed asap.

Otherwise, there is no telling what sort of threat to the Republic might one day be made privy to our nation's deepest secrets. I know this risk must be very severe too: I hear Keith Olbermann is planning a special commentary about this very loophole! Have you Sirs who, Sir, vet security clearances, Sir, have no shame, Sir?

Anyway. Reader question asked. Reader question answered. With integrity. And conscious.

Just like Mr. Paul Anka, who as far as I know has never been a community organizer, would want it.

Posted by: Jack M. at 10:50 AM | Comments (20)
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Ad below the fold, but see this too.

I want Palin to now tout herself and compare her experience, point by point, with Barack Obama's tonight. She almost certainly will not do this, as it's generally the person introducing the speaker who touts her accomplishments, not the speaker herself.

They really ought to change that up. No one will be listening to Palin's introducer. Or not as many. We need Palin to tout herself.

She'll have to disarm the public and let them know she realizes she's being a bit "braggy" but she has no other choice, given the fact her experience has been impugned, and her less-than-one-half-term senator opponent Obama refuses to even recognize her as the serving governor of Alaska.

And then compare. While Palin was exposing corruption in her own party and taking on the political establishment, Barack Obama was making shady deals with Tony Rezko and supporting mobbed-up candidates for state office.

While Palin was taking on oil companies who'd got a too-favorable deal from Alaskan politicians (most likely through corrupt inducements), Barack Obama was voting "Present" 130 times in the state senate to avoid any paper trail on difficult issues.

While Palin was negotiating the largest public infrastructure in American history -- the Alaskan pipeline -- and finalizing the terms of the multibillion dollar international project with representatives of the Canadian state, Obama was being given a made-up committee on European relations, simply to pad his nonexistent foreign policy resume... but he never called the committee into session. (Still lists it on his CV, I bet, though!)

And etc., and etc., and etc.

The main problem here is, again, it seems ungracious. She will put some people off by touting her own accomplishments. But it will be a home run if she does this. She just needs to explain she's as uncomfortable with this as anyone, but what's a gal to do once she's been demeaned?

This Had Better Be Expectations-Reducing! A "preview" of Palin's speech so spectacularly ill-advised I pray to Gaia it's spin and disinformation.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:43 AM | Comments (35)
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This has been bouncing around for three or four days. In fact, my bro sent it to me, but since he didn't say where he got it I was reluctant to post it knowing that I was probably ripping off someone-or-other. But, enough is enough. My love for BSG is well known here at the HQ. more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 09:16 AM | Comments (25)
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Kinda funny. One f-bomb and a couple of other lesser obscenities. more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:11 AM | Comments (19)
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Again, all the convention coverage and Palinmania has me running about three days behind the rest of the world which is why I missed this Stephen Pollard column on Monday:

Later this month it's Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It's one of the holiest days of the Jewish calendar, so I'd be obliged, please, if you'd all stay at home, turn off the TV and refrain from your usual activities. Ten days after that it's Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when Jews fast and spend the day in synagogue. So I've also asked my Times colleagues not to work then. And I will be mightily offended if I learn afterwards that any of them have been eating.

You might not think I am being serious. But if I was Head of Democratic Services at Tower Hamlets Council in East London, I would be. Last week John Williams e-mailed each of the borough's 51 councillors with a similar instruction.

For the duration of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, they are, he told them - every one of them, Muslim, Catholic, Jew or atheist - to behave during council meetings as strict Muslims. They are not to eat or drink; they are to break for Muslim prayers; they are to do as they are ordered by the Muslim religion.

I encourage you to click through and read the whole thing. His observation about "caricature liberal-left non-Muslim idiots" is spot on.

A spokesman for the council has responded to the objections of councillors and the public, "All that's being asked for is courtesy to be shown to the sensitivities around some councillors..."

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:26 AM | Comments (37)
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