Huckabee wants to take America "back to Christ"

Funny, I don't recall America ever being in, on, around, or about Christ. There are lots of us Christians here in America. But taking America "back to Christ"? What does that mean? And where does that leave America's Jews, Muslims, and other non-Christians? I suppose they're welcome to stay like guest-workers, or maybe we should call them "guest Christians." Huckabee is a creep. The man thinks that AIDS may be caused by casual contact - you know, like toilet seats and doorknobs and handshakes and sneezing, I suppose. We do know one way AIDS can be spread - through rape. But Huckabee doesn't have as much of a problem with rapists as he does Jews and gays and others whose only crime is to be different from Mike Huckabee, America's number one Christian. You'll recall that Huckabee recently told America that God wanted him to be number one in the polls. Then Huckabee used Jesus in a TV commercial. The man isn't running for president, he's running for preacher. And lest any Christians out there there be fooled by Huckabee's "aw shucks" Christianity, the man is a Southern Baptist. Southern Baptists think Catholics worship Satan - they quite literally think the Pope is an agent of Satan. Southern Baptists don't think Catholics are Christians. If Catholics, or any other non-Baptists out there, think Huckabee is a good Christian, I've got news for you. Huckabee's religion thinks you're not a good Christian - hell Huckabee's religion says you're not a Christian at all. So if you think he's going to be in favor of policies that push your Christian world view, you're in for a big surprise. The only world view he's pushing is one that doesn't include you.

Not to mention, has Huckabee been asked about this "Catholics worshipping a Satanic counterfeit" issue? I mean, the man keeps invoking Christ. I think we have a right to know just what his religious beliefs are. Read More......

Huckabee rips Romney as dishonest

Uh yeah.

Huckabee said Romney was "making up things not about just our records but making up things about his own in terms of things he saw, marches with Martin Luther King ... endorsements from the NRA that never happened."

Then again, Romney never helped free a convicted rapist who then went on to sexually assault and murder two more women, so I'm thinking they're about even. Read More......

SC Republicans receive fake Romney Mormon "holiday" card

It's actually kind of fun to watch the Republicans use their dirty tricks against themselves. It's also a reminder of what we'd better be ready for when the general election comes around. And reader Califlander points out this comedy gold in the article:

Those tactics backfire, said Warren Tompkins, a political consultant who ran George Bush's 2000 campaign in South Carolina and now is Romney's top consultant in the state. "Anything this outrageous and childish and nonsensical would have a significant fallout on whoever did it and on whose behalf it was done," Tompkins said.

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Insurance company braces for costlier future

What would the second largest insurance company know anyway? They're only a business that pays out (in theory, at least) after natural disasters.

There were 950 natural catastrophes in 2007 compared with 850 in 2006, the highest number since the group started compiling its closely watched annual report in 1974.

The total cost of disasters in 2007 was 75 billion dollars (51.5 billion euros), while the bill for 2006 was 50 billion dollars.

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AP analyzes Mitt's "candor gap"

In the real world, one with a "candor gap" is usually called a liar:

As a presidential contender, Mitt Romney has the looks, the money and the campaign machine. He also has something of a candor gap.

"Something of a candor gap." That's just classic. More after the break.

Seems the AP has figured out that Mitt will say anything -- even if what Mitt says doesn't match reality:

When confronted with questions that might conflict with his message of the day or political record, the Republican candidate has shown a tendency to bob and weave or simply dismiss history. He has done so all year, providing an easy target for his opponents.

''If you aren't being honest in obtaining the job, can we trust you if you get the job?'' Romney rival Mike Huckabee asked on Sunday during an appearance on NBC's ''Meet the Press.''

If you aren't being honest, you are a liar. The Associated Press and Huckabee won't use the L-word, but clearly both think Mitt's been lying. Now, Mitt is lying. He just figured no one would call him on it. Read More......

Why does Arlen Specter want to help terrorists?

Isn't that how the line went before? What will the right wing media and the White House say? Oh right, members of both political parties have done visits to Syria. It's happened on multiple occasions, no less. Read More......

Romney team approved Planned Parenthood loan

His liberal record went right up until his final days in office as governor. Despite what he has said since leaving office, he was always there, ready to help out to keep abortions safe and legal. His new claim is that he would have blocked it if he had the chance. Of course, Mitt. Of course you would have done that. If only the track record didn't get in the way of facts. Why do facts always have to get in the way of a good story?

More hypocrisy from Mitt, after the jump.

Former governor Mitt Romney's economic development agency granted initial approval to a tax-exempt bond last year for a Planned Parenthood clinic in Worcester that will provide abortions, just two months before he left office and began highlighting his antiabortion position as a presidential candidate.
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Asked about the $5 million financial deal yesterday, the Romney campaign said the former governor was not aware it was under consideration when Planned Parenthood won preliminary approval in November 2006.

Romney repeatedly used the power of his office while governor to advance socially conservative positions, including restricting stem cell research, pushing abstinence-only sex education in schools, and vetoing a bill to increase access to emergency contraception in hospitals.

In the case of the abortion clinic funding deal, the Republican candidate's spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said Romney would have attempted to block it - if he had known about it.

"Mitt Romney is prolife," Fehrnstrom said. "He did not know about this loan. It was made by an agency that does not report to the governor. If it did, he would have told them not to do it."

In additon to providing abortion services, the 10,000-square-foot Planned Parenthood clinic planned for Worcester will offer Plan B emergency contraception, also known as the "morning after pill," which also is opposed by antiabortion advocates.

Jeffrey M. Berry, a political science professor at Tufts University, said he was surprised that Romney and his aides did not catch such a politically sensitive financial deal making its way through his economic development agency. Now, Berry said, the campaign will be put in the position of defending Romney at a time when he is heading into the most critical days of his candidacy.

"It is unusual that his people at the agency did not find a reason not to fund Planned Parenthood," Berry said. "His administration was clearly focused on his run for the presidency and making sure there was no embarrassment like this. It was an administration that was pretty efficient getting everyone operating on the same page and avoiding scandal."

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The Sunday before the Iowa Caucuses Talk Shows Open Thread

It's a presidential candidates bonanza on the talk shows this weekend. You get Clinton, McCain, Edwards, Huckabee, Obama, Dodd, Biden and Thompson (twice, that's the most work he's done so far). Don't be too disappointed, but there are no Mitt and no Rudy sightings on any of the shows today. News will be made. The question is how ugly it gets on either side. So far, the GOPers are really the vicious ones, which is so much more fun.

Then, to top off the day, CNN's Late Edition has five Republicans [the failed presidential canidate Steve Forbes; one current Senator: Lindsey Graham (SC); three former Senators: William Cohen (ME), Tim Hutchinson (AR) and Jim Talent (MO);] and just one Democrat, a very conservative one, of course: former Georgis Senator Sam Nunn. What's that all about, Wolf? We're sure to get a balanced perspective on the world from that crew. It's so Fox News.

The full lineup is after the break.
In two weeks, many of these guests will be former presidential candidates:

ABC's "This Week" — Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and John McCain, R-Ariz.

___

CBS' "Face the Nation" — Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.

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NBC's "Meet the Press" — Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

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CNN's "Late Edition" — Former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.; Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Joe Biden, D-Del.; former GOP presidential candidate Steve Forbes; Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; former Sens. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., and Jim Talent, R-Mo.; former Defense Secretary William Cohen.

"Fox News Sunday" _ Thompson.

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Failed CEOs did well in 2007, 2008 looks promising

Considering the failures in the banking and real estate sectors, 2008 might cough up a few more lottery-like payouts. What stands out is the effort to spin away the massive numbers and distance them from the word "severance." Call it whatever you want, but when someone such as Nardelli of Home Depot walks away with $209 million after being a failure is amazing. Absolutely amazing.

Of course, take a look at O'Neil of Merrill Lynch. They still have yet to reach the bottom of write-downs, already in the billions, and yet he was given a comfortable $159 million. If these people want to dissect the names (severance or stock or whatever) to make some committee feel better and avoid that nasty "severance" word in public, they must think that people are stupid and maybe they're right. Why did O'Neil even receive so many shares of ML stock that is part of his compensation plan? Because he had record numbers, based on fluff. You know, the junk that they are writing down which has forced the company to beg for billions in foreign investment. To untie the two is ridiculous. Merrill has had to write down this rubbish, though O'Neil only has to write down his signature for his new mansion.
A list of jumbo payouts and more after the jump.

What stands out to me is that there is no link between honest performance and payout. Many of these people were in the twilight of their career or can at least walk away and retire with these packages. What is the incentive to do the right thing? If you can find it, help me out because I can't see it. Someone like O'Neil can just say "hey, that business just didn't go well" and that is that. (It will be interesting to see if he gets dragged in on any of the lawsuits that are flying around.) These people are still in the same social circles with all of the trimmings. No shame or threat of paying back stock based on performance, that was all junk. They go to the same country clubs, the same yacht clubs, same season tickets to the opera, sitting on other corporate boards and probably now have more time to spend with their alma mater. Lucky them.

What's the downside here? Oh sure, they probably don't like the hits to their ego in such a public forum but other than that, there's little change. They can rely on a friendly media who provides some cover by telling us all that "that mega payout is not really severance, it's what was owed." Are they serious? Companies will continue to separate the links between all of this money as long as they can get away with it. Just as they re-package bad debt and sold it, they are re-packaging severance and calling it something else.

A large part of this issue is because we have executive payouts thrown in our face day after day. At the same time, we look at our own benefits shrink and our own pay not keeping up with the growth at the top. People in the boardrooms obviously have a lot of responsibility and yes, they can be fired quickly due to their high profile. But of course, people below aren't exactly sitting on solid ground either. Just what does it take to force this dysfunctional system to change?

The system that we are creating in the US is what I have seen so many times in the developing world, where the divide between rich and poor and enormous and the middle class is an afterthought due to it's small size. Fortunately our own middle class is larger though we can't continue to batter the middle class if we expect to have a properly functioning society. Rewarding someone for great work makes all the sense in the world. Rewarding someone for rubbish is rubbish. It's time to take a step back and modernize. Read More......

Becoming a Member of Parliament

The 3rd season of Blackadder was one of the best, with this episode being one of the best of that season. If you enjoy this (part 2/4) keep clicking to see the rest. The election day report in 3/4 is excellent. What British programs lacked in production polish (as you find with American TV shows) they outdid themselves with quality writing and great actors. Read More......