Miscellaneous Updates

John McCain's Love of Women

John on The View

John McCain - As we have previously noted here, discretely, the book The Real McCain relates a story as told by three Arizona reporters that Mini-Mac once publicly called his wife "the C word" for mussing up his hair and teasing him about going bald. He also called her a "trollop," to the amusement on several bloggers. Well, some Baptist minister in Indiana asked him if it were true, and actually said the word, at a one of those Republican fake "town hall meetings" where the "townspeople" are really carefully selected supporters.

Guess what happened next!

McCain declined to answer the question, and then the questioner was taken outside and questioned by the police and Secret Service.

What particulars of this story, if any, you find troubling could be a sort of fun Rorschach test for what you think is important.

Cindy Lou McCain on crutches. (She walked into a door.)

FLDS update. Facts per the Associated Press.

The number of kids in custody is now somewhere north of 460. The number goes up every time I check in on this story. Apparently one of the FLDS women had a baby and it was taken away immediately and put into state custody. I'm really puzzled over the legality of that. Let alone the nightmare logistics questions. I guess no breast feeding for baby.

At the same time, the original arrest warrant for the alleged husband of the imaginary 16 year old slave bride has been cancelled. Yup, no arrest warrant. Not a single actual charge of criminal behavior.

So the kids are being kept in state custody pending individual hearings that the state says could take months. Who are they kidding? 460 hearings is not that many. My understanding is that in most jurisdictions a criminal suspect gets in front of a judge within 72 hours of arrest for an initial hearing. Get a dozen judges and they could conduct 460 probable cause hearings in less than a week. Maybe even in one day.

And, as my wife, a former social worker, quickly pointed out, what's up with the press showing all of these pictures of the kids? Aren't they not supposed to reveal the identity of sexual assault victims? Since when is it OK to publish photos of children who are sexual assault victims? Just one more piece of this mess that doesn't add up.

Stupid Political Pandering Continues Unabated

John McCain and Hillary Clinton are both promoting a summer gas tax holiday that will be virtually meaningless to everyone except to take another $9 billion out of the US Treasury. Despite immediate and widespread recognition as a really stupid idea, the press is debating the proposed gas tax holiday as a serious issue. Barack Obama is against it, saying, "What? Are you fucking kidding me?"

That McCain and Clinton both support this proposal has raised eyebrows and questions as to whether either of them has a clue about the finances of average Americans, and whether their campaigns are somehow coordinating their efforts against Obama.

John & Hillary - After that "special night"

TV Land Observations

Political Capital keeps getting better and better. Check it out.

Survivor favorite James "The Black Guy With The Muscles" is out for medical reasons. A real heart breaker. He's a nice guy who worked hard and kept his cool. He deserved to win.

Is Mika getting her own news show after Morning Joe? Or is it part of the show? I'm usually eating breakfast while I watch so I miss most of it, but something is definitely going on.

Keith Olberman rules at MSNBC because his show covers a variety of topics. But now that we know the layout, how about less time on teasers and graphics and more on content. The fluff gets tiresome after a while.

I still love Chris Matthews, but he's all politics all the time. So when politics gets boring (like now), his show gets boring. Take an Olberman hint and mix it up a bit. How about a week live from the Green Zone? I'd watch everyday.