Day: October 29, 2006

Arnold in 2003: Every Now and Then a Blonde ‘Is As Smart As Her Breasts Look’

Jon Ponder

Over the past few months, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been pretending to be a Democrat in order to trick Californians into giving him a full second term. As a reminder of the real Arnold, here is a quote from 2003 in which Mr. Schwarzenegger reveals his connoisseur’s technique for assessing a woman’s character:

“When you see a blonde with great tits and a great ass, you say to yourself, hey, she must be stupid or must have nothing else to offer…. But then again there is the one that is as smart as her breasts look, great as her face looks, beautiful as her whole body looks gorgeous, you know, so people are shocked.”

RNC Ad Mocked Rep. Ford for Taking Porn Money – Gay Porn King Is Big RNC Donor

Jon Ponder

Irony inside irony: The racist ad that the Republican National Committee put up against Rep. Harold Ford in Tennesssee also has a bit in which a sleazy guy says, with a shrug:

So [Rep. Ford] took money from porn movie producers — I’m mean, who hasn’t?

Hard to say who hasn’t, but now we know who has — the RNC:

It turns out that the Republican National Committee is a regular recipient of political contributions from Nicholas T. Boyias, the owner and CEO of Marina Pacific Distributors, one of the largest producers and distributors of gay porn in the United States.

What is it with the Republican party and gays? Ken Mehlman, head of the RNC — the person who approved the racist anti-Ford ad — is rumored to be gay.

More on the Story That a Crist Male Ex-Lover Spilled the Beans

Trish

A Palm Beach independent weekly has more on the story that a former Katherine Harris staffer was heard by multiple sources to say he is one of the ex-lovers of Florida Republican governor’s candidate Charlie Crist.

The GOP staffer, 21-year-old Jason Wetherington, told friends at separate social functions in August that he had sex with Crist, according to two credible and independent sources who heard Wetherington make the claim first-hand.

‘”He was like [Katherine] Harris’s gay valet,” the source said.

Wetherington, who recently worked as a field director for U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris and currently works for state representative Ellyn Bodganoff’s reelection campaign, also named a man whom he said is Crist’s long-term partner, a convicted thief named Bruce Carlton Jordan who also recently worked for Harris in her long-shot Senate bid…

Jordan was charged in 2003 with stealing thousands of dollars from two organizations for whom he worked, including the Tallahassee-based Florida Funeral Directors Association, where he served as executive director. He completed a 60-day jail sentence in February and will be on probation until the year 2011, according to state records.

Sometimes, the very way someone denies something makes it hard to believe they could be telling the truth. This is one of those cases. Not only is Crist denying he and Jordan are long-time lovers, he says he can’t place the name or face.

When the [Miami] Herald questioned Crist about Jordan this past August, the frontrunner in the governor’s race told the newspaper that he doesn’t remember the man. “I don’t know who Bruce Jordan is,” he said at the time. “It doesn’t mean I haven’t met him. I don’t know who you are speaking about.”

I asked Crist during a phone interview on Monday morning if he had ever had sex with Jordan.

“No,” he said. “I don’t recall the name.”

That Crist doesn’t remember Jordan seemed incredible to me. Not only did the attorney general make a special appearance at the funeral directors’ conference, but former presidents of the association say Jordan was known to be pals with Crist.

Wetherington, a former Florida Senate page himself, publicly denies an affair with Crist. Privately it’s a different matter. […]

Girl in the War

Trish

If you haven’t heard “Girl in the War” by Josh Ritter, do yourself a favor and listen.

Peter said to Paul you know all those words we wrote
Are just the rules of the game and the rules are the first to go
But now talking to God is Laurel begging Hardy for a gun
I got a girl in the war man I wonder what it is we done

I’ve said from the get-go that this war is different because it’s not just young men dying, it’s men and women of all ages, from all walks of life. However you get your death toll (I usually catch it on ABC’s This Week), you can’t help but notice the 30-something, 40-something, and even 50-something ages listed, along with occasional names like Deborah or Maria.

I work part-time at UPS, and one of our drivers, a guy named Henry, got word a couple of weeks ago that his 20-something Army officer daughter is being called to Iraq in November. He’s spent the time since trying to locate the special knives, armor, and other protection her friends already there have warned her to bring.

After he gave money to another driver to pick up something at a gun shop on that driver’s route, I asked him how he’s doing with the whole thing. “I’m not really thinking about it,” he said. “I’m trying to make sure she has what she needs but it hasn’t sunk in yet.” He paused. “It’s pretty scary.” I tried to think of something to say along the lines of, “I’m sure it will be fine,” or, “It’s so wonderful that she’s doing this with her life.” I settled on a line that was at least true. “You must be proud to have such a brave daughter.”

Because the keys to the Kingdom got locked inside the Kingdom
And the angels fly around in there but we can’t see them
I got a girl in the war Paul I know that they can hear me yell
If they can’t find a way to help her they can go to Hell
If they can’t find a way to help her they can go to Hell

Bush Team on the Record: 18 Denials – ‘We Do Not Torture’

Jon Ponder

If lying about sex is an impeachable offense, then what is lying about torturing prisoners?

In light of today’s revelations of the particulars of torture techniques used by American interrogators on terror suspects, I conducted a quick search to see how many times President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and their spokesmen have looked at a camera and said, “We do not torture.”

In a half hour, I found 18 instances over the past 18 months or so of senior Bush officials denying what we now know is true: The United States under George Bush does torture people:

[…]

Red Cross Has Interviewed Terror Prisoners – Details Emerging about Torture by U.S. Interrogators

Jon Ponder

Bush’s Amerika:

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Suskind, the Red Cross recently visited all of the prisoners at Guantanamo who had been transferred from secret CIA prisons, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh. Do we know more about these CIA prisons, or “Black Sites” as a result of this visit?

[Ron] Suskind: We know that almost everything from the tool kit was tried: extraordinary techniques that included hot and cold water-boarding and threats of various kinds…

SPIEGEL ONLINE: And what happened to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed?

Suskind: He was really the prize. He is the 9/11 operational planner, a kind of general in the al-Qaida firmament. He was water-boarded, hot and cold, all matter of deprivations, beatings, threats. He told us some things, but frankly things that professional interrogators say could have been gotten otherwise.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: With waterboarding, the prisoner is made to feel as though he is drowing, even if he isn’t really at risk of dying. There are reports that Mohammed was a kind of unoffical record-holder when it came to waterboarding.

Suskind: With extraordinary minutes passing he earned a sort of grudging respect from interrogators. The thing they did with Mohammed is that we had captured his children, a boy and a girl, age 7 and 9. And at the darkest moment we threatened grievous injury to his children if he did not cooperate. His response was quite clear: “That’s fine. You can do what you want to my children, and they will find a better place with Allah.”