January 2007

Interesting FEC case

ArchPundit January 31, 2007 0 Comment

The FEC ruled against an Illinois Republican Party complaint against the 10th District Blog which claimed it was like the 17th District’s Victory Fund in which campaign operatives funded hard money activities for Lane Evans out of soft money funds.

The difference being a blog is simply a website and the funds went directly from donors to ActBlue to the fund. The web site simply provided a link as to where the funds should go. It’s a really silly complaint and I’m surprised IRP went after them and not others such as AM or me.

It’s pretty simple how this is covered. If the blog owner were taking money and then sending it on directly, the owner would have to register as a committee. If the blog owner was paid by a campaign, that would have be disclosed. Simply posting a suggestion and link to donate money isn’t operating a political committee. Offline this would be like someone who calls around to friends to encourage them to donate to a campaign having to register as a committee.

Fundie Fun

Teh Stupid

ArchPundit January 31, 2007 6 Comments

The really, really stupid.

Jill Stanek claims:

According to the People story’s teaser, Winokur “learned the cause of her cervical cancer and now makes sure other women know how to prevent it.”

The sole cause of cervical cancer is human papillomavirus, or HPV, a sexually transmitted disease.

So Winokur contracted cervical cancer due to sexual promiscuity, or to put it as ambiguously as possible, said Winokur, “I learned about a year ago that HPV, a common virus, causes cervical cancer.”

The “prevention,” according to Winokur? No, not a chaste lifestyle. “There’s a vaccine, which can be given to women before they’re sexually active,” she said. “I’ll encourage my friends’ teenage daughters to get vaccinated.”

Aside from the fact Winokur has no business telling other people’s children about “precautions” to avoid pitfalls of promiscuous sex, her advice stinks. Let’s not address the real cause. Let’s try to avoid the ramifications of the cause.

Winokur or People magazine are fueling the exploitation and health demise of women by refusing to acknowledge the only full-proof way to avoid HPV or cervical cancer: abstinence.

There is only one good reason a virtuous young woman should consider getting the HPV vaccination. That is if the man she plans to marry has had sex with other women, meaning he could be infected with HPV or an array of other STDs. I don’t know why a virtuous young woman would want to marry such a man, but there you go.

IOW, punish women who have sex or marry a man who has had sex with increased likelihood of cancer.

Fundie Fun

Andy Schlafly’s New Project

ArchPundit January 31, 2007 3 Comments

Those who used to spend some time on Talk.origins will never forget the duo of Andy and Roger Schlafly and some of the most bizarre claims to surface even in a newsgroup designed to attract the bizarred and weird from useful groups.

Andy has a new project: Conservapedia

Yes, that’s right. Wikipedia is liberally biased.

A fine start includes that under biological terms -e-, there is no term evolution currently listed. What is going to be fun is to watch the fight over how to define such words because old earth creationists, young earth creationists, and intelligent design advocates are all going to have to debate which is correct using….arguments against evolution.

Roger and Andy are still notorious on talk.origins–this search should bring up some of the fun. In terms of who is crazier and dumber between Roger and Andy, it’s sort of a race to the bottom.

Keyes' Company Obama

Keyes’ Company

ArchPundit January 31, 2007 2 Comments

How Obama is Like Barbaro

Similarly, those who swoon at the sight of Senator Beefcake can find in his ponderous, ambiguous statements about serious issues whatever they want to hear. The shame that was Katrina isn’t about race, except that it is. He is a devout Christian who is proud of his brother’s conversion to Islam. He is black, except when he’s thinking of himself as a “half breed.”

Liberals have a well-known propensity for adopting mascots and purporting to speak for them. If they literally can’t speak for themselves (inanimate objects like trees, animals), all the better. Now they have applied this standard to the man that I call He Who Walks on Water and what at least one commentator has called an empty suit who is no doubt delighted to watch his political fortunes rise without his having to clarify what he really thinks, and his real agenda for this country. Come to think of it, we would be better off with Mr. Ed.

So the first African-American Harvard Law Review is a mascot who can’t speak for himself. A guy who was an Instructor at University of Chicago Law School? It’s legitimate to question his experience on the national and international level. It’s legitimate to want more details from him. However, suggesting he is a token who has to be spoken for is one of the most paternalistic and stupid comments I’ve read even including Joe Biden. This is straight out of the Keyes playbook with the irony being that Keyes’ was the mascot Syverson and Rauschenberger wanted to bring in because he was an articulate black man like Obama.

Are you fucking kidding me with this shit?

But most of all, they put the horse down. How exactly is this a comparison?

Obama

Punching Bag Joe

ArchPundit January 31, 2007 0 Comment

Even when he ‘clarifies’ he leaves hysterical quotes behind:

Joe Biden called Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) to clarify his “clean” comment to the New York Observer, Biden told reporters in a conference call this afternoon. Biden said Obama told him: “You don’t have to explain anything to me. I know exactly what you meant.”

There is some debate about the appropriate use of commas in the sentence, but that is like arguing over whether Biden’s a Huge Idiot or a Really Huge Idiot. You can’t separate with a comma the comparison made between African-Americans in general and Obama specifically. It’s not about whether he’s the first mainstream black candidate-that’s debateable and is akin to how many angels are on that pin over there–it’s the language that is supposedly contrasting to all candidates, but uniquely chosen examples of stereotypes of black candidates.

Is Biden a huge racist? Probably not, but he’s a goof with verbal diarrhea and an uncanny ability to be completely tone deaf. I point out the point he makes above that reads like a Petey Labarbera line thinking something is making him look better, but makes any person paying attention laugh hysterically. Obama probably was being gracious, but it doesn’t matter when you put it that way.

Finally, nice roll out day–calling a colleague and competitor and taking press questions on that all day.

Obama

What’s the Problem?

ArchPundit January 31, 2007 1 Comment

He was complimenting Obama after all

Yes, Obama is different from all those other African-Americans is, in some sense, a compliment. However, in any other sense, Joe just insulted millions of Americans.

I’m sure Joe thinks people are just being overly sensitive…like all those Indians working in convenience stores instead of being stuck in the ghetto of high tech jobs.

Not merely scientists….

Obama