Faux News never ceases to disappoint.  As the pepper spray incident at UC Davis (the latest in police attacks on peaceful protesters) drays outrage, the bobble-heads at Faux News chimed in to predictably to make excuses for the officers.  Everything is fine people:

• pepper spray is essentially a food product, so presumably it is no problem to spray it into their face (though the bobble-heads acknowledge that some people ended up in the hospital)
• Davis is a liberal campus, so perhaps these students had it coming
• The police chief may be a scapegoat, even though video evidence suggests (even the bobble-heads acknowledge) that she may have lied about the level of threats in justifying the pepper spraying.  Personally, I believe Chancellor Katehi should be gone too.

Most egregious is the excuse trotted out in the past to justify torture, that we have no right to Monday Morning Quarterback the police.  It is a dangerous philosophy that can be used to justify any sort of government brutality.  Video below:

Even liberal blogs have acknowledged that a long term occupation of cities by a group that has not articulated concrete demands at some point brings diminishing results.  But that does not justify the wave of police gassing or clubbing citizens peacefully assembled in protest.  But then Faux News is primarily concerned about the tyranny of government health care and other conspiracy theories they peddle about the Obama administration.   Meanwhile Megyn Kelly’s latest idiocy has gone viral on twitter.  Check out the hashtag #FakeMegynKelly

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First there was the Mitt Romney whopper about a fictional Obama apology tour.  Then a flailing Rick Perry desperate to remain relevant in the Republican race raised him with an outright lie that Obama called American workers lazy.  Now Mittens has decided to double down with a blatant lie, taking a clip of Obama quoting McCain and pretending it was an original Obama statement.

This is the latest salvo in a campaign where a president who lowered taxes, oversaw a return of corporate profits to pre-recession levels, prevented a collapse of the Detroit auto-makers, passed a healthcare plan originally drafted by Republicans, ordered the raid that took out Osama deep in the heart of Pakistan and midwifed the fall of Muammar Gaddafi is somehow a befuddled America hating marxist/socialist naif.  Mitt Romney should know better, but then we already know that there is nothing he will not do to gain the Presidency.

Problem is, others can take Romney quotes out of context to lie as well (video below):

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Saturday’s Presidential debate saw most of the Republican candidates embrace torture.  Most pretend that “enhanced interrogation” is a magic incantation that prevents acts like waterboarding from being torture.  Herman Cain channeled his inner Romney to try to have it both ways, but the magic incantation trumped deference to the military (which calls waterboarding torture).

As Conor Friedersdorf  notes Newt Gingrich was outright scary on assassinating US citizens.   Friedersdorf reserves his praise for the two Republicans who understand why we do not torture, why it is counterproductive and how it militates against American values.  Neither of them will get the nomination, though Jon Huntsman could win the general election if nominated.  Ron Paul, while he has some kooky economic theories and is an isolationist, has always had the moral courage to stand up for what he believes in (like refusing to join the post 9/11 frenzy to rubber stamp the Patriot Act) – unlike most of the weasels in public life today.

The clip below highlights the stark contrast between the candidates of the soundbite (Cain and Bachmann) versus two men who have clearly given it some thought.

I don’t praise Republicans often in this blog, but today I will.  Thank you Mr. Paul and Mr. Huntsman for having the guts to stand up for American values and opposing a practice that has been illegal for over a century.

I wonder how loudly the rest of the candidates would howl in outrage if another country subjected captured Americans to “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

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With his poll numbers finally starting to sink under the weight of sexual harassment allegations, the bubble on the Hermain Cain boomlet may finally be bursting.  It is in many ways a reflection of the current Republican Party that someone so frighteningly ignorant on public policy has been the putative leader in the polls for so long.  But the Republicans have desperately been seeking an alternative for the immaculately coiffed weather-vane from Massachusetts.  Since many of the adults (Jeb Bush, Mitch Daniels, Christ Christie etc.) chose not to run, the party has vaulted an impressive collection of  blowhards (The Donald), batshit crazy (Michele Bachmann) and empty shirts (Rick Perry) to the top of the polls, only to see them dragged down by the dead weight of their absence of gravitas.  For a long time it appeared Herman Cain’s Teflon shield would hold.  Thankfully, this nightmare is now coming to an end.

On its face terming a charismatic and successful CEO and former governor of the Kansas City Federal Reserve a Know Nothing would seem odd.  Alas, Herman Cain like most of the other Republican candidates not named Huntsman, Ron Paul or Romney (on non-foreign policy issues), is an empty shirt.  Rarely has a candidate at the top of the polls expressed such total lack of awareness of public policy (domestic or foreign).  This is compounded by bizarre leaps into bigoted Islamophobia, a seeming willingness to electrocute illegal immigrants at the border (which may or may not have been a joke, since Mr. Cain characterized his comments both ways depending on the audience), an ignorance on the constitutional limitations on restricting Congressional activities and the constitutional amendment process, a bizarre financial plan that may have been lifted from the Sim City game, departures into race baiting when it is convenient and finally a proud ignorance on any matters relating to foreign policy.  Then came a barrage of sexual harassment allegations dating back to the 1990s when he lead the National Restaurant Association.  The flailing response from the Cain campaign (even though they had 10 days to prepare for the story’s publication) demonstrated an operation not ready for prime-time.

Seeing the debacle, it is difficult not to come to the conclusion that the Cain campaign for the presidency is a publicity seeking stunt gone awry.  The candidate did not help dispel such rumors last month by disappearing from the campaign trail for a book signing tour.  After all, a half-term quitter from Alaska has provided a blueprint on cashing political celebrity into millions of dollars.  The Clintons have demonstrated just how lucrative life post-presidency can be.

When challenged on his ignorance, Mr. Cain has a few stock answers.  His critics are wrong, he is right and trust him.

The ignorance on domestic policy is bad enough. (Video below):

Foreign policy is worse.  After repeated attacks on his foreign policy credentials he assured us that he is not as foreign policy dumb “as they think”.  Video below:

After making that bold assertion, Mr. Cain provided us the gem below.  This makes Governor Perry’s brain fart pale in comparison and highlights what happens when you get your rote learning jumbled up in your head.  For 5:16 Herman Cain struggles to answer a basic question on a war conducted and concluded in the past six months and to highlight why exactly he opposed Obama’s policy (other than the typical knee-jerk opposition to Obama):

To make it worse, his campaign trotted out the excuse (not for the first time) that the candidate was operating on 4 hours sleep.

This sleep deprived soul should not have his fingers on the nuclear trigger and has no business running for President.

The Herman Cain comedy hour may be coming to a close.  The new hope of the anti-Romney brigade appears to be a former speaker whose passionate patriotism drove him to adultery.  Somewhere Saturday Night Live writers are cheering.

If/when Romney does get the Republican nomination, I have his acceptance speech prepared for him. Video below:

Go for it Mitt…

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Mitt Romney deviated from his tired canard about Obama apologizing for America to provide the sort of platitudes that comprise his foreign policy platform.  After all, you have to dig deep to call the President who ordered a raid into the heart of Pakistan to get Osama Bin Laden and who helped bring down Gaddafi weak.  So the solution is the blanket statement below on the Iranian push for a nuclear bomb.

So Mitt, since you are evidently willing to go to war to achieve this end please tell us how you manage this:

• Almost every military expert agrees that an aerial bombardment of the type Israel is itching to launch would at best delay the Iranian push for the device.  So are you going to send in ground troops?
• Where would such an invasion be launched from?
• How would we pay for this?
• What would be the impact on an overstretched military that is seeing light at the end of the tunnel of two long wars in the countries on the West and the East of Iran?
• What will be the impact in Iraq if Iran unleashes its Sadrite proxies or on Israel if Hezbollah gets involved?
• How will you handle the economic shock of an almost certain spike in oil prices (to go with the mess in Europe)?
• If this is a snatch and grab, how will we prevent Iran from restarting the program?
• How will you handle the fallout with Russia and China – or do you just not give a damn?
• Are you willing to consider a full fledged invasion?  If so, how will you handle an occupation?

The ugly reality is that there are few good options to prevent Iran from getting the Bomb.  Iran has wanted the Bomb since the days of the Shah.  The pursuit of the Bomb is incredibly popular even among the anti-cleric democratic movement.  The Obama administration has been incredibly successful in getting Russian and Chinese support for a practical containment policy.  But if Mittens has a silver bullet for Iran other than his usual foreign policy bluster, I am all ears.

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