Multiply 365 Day 162 - Polifacts

I have the hoops game on right now, so yes I could easily do another glog, but I will not, because there are other fish to fry, like the fact that the media still can't seem to let go of Weiner's weener as it were.  Like every time a new person he chatted with online is revealed it is somehow breaking news.  Until he has actually broken a law I really couldn't care how many women he chatted with online.  His dalliances are the problem of the people in his district and his wife, not me. 

If he were the only politician in the news the last few days that would be one thing,I could but sadly that isn't the case.  So it looks like I am going to have to go all political this evening.

I have a love-hate relationship with Sarah Palin.  Long ago readers of the blog will remember when I first talked about her, after an appearance on Charlie Rose when he had governors Palin and Janet Napolitano on the show.  Admittedly I came away impressed and proceeded to do some more research on this until then unknown but attractive governor of Alaska and her track record in that state seemed to be a good one.  She stood up to corruption in her party in the state, took on the oil companies, ran the state rather effectively and had the highest approval rating of any state governor at that point, all the more impressive given the beating Republicans were taking on the national stage at the time. 

Then she became John McCain's running mate and I started to realize that while she may have been good for Alaska, she didn't seem to be resady for primetime on a national stage.  If after the election she had opted to go back to Alaska, finish out her term and then go from there that would have been one thing.  Instead she opted to quit on her constituents, then went about being a walking-talking pundit on all things she knew absolutely nothing about.  Even now as she out on the "is it or isn't it a" campaign trail, she is making fundamental mistakes that make her look smaller, not bigger.  Screwing up simple fundamentals of early American history the ride of Paul Revere and not having the common sense to own it, but instead try to defend her own inaccuracies is not a good thing.    So now we have the media touting release of the Palin emails, as if they were some lost tracks of The Beatles or something and so far what has this treasure trove produced? Besides nothing?  It isn't a story to say someone wrote emails, they actually have to have something of merit in them. 

Now Herman Cain is a different matter.  I am sure he isn't getting that much play because lets all be honest, he has no chance of being the Republican nominee.  He makes Ralph Nader look like a viable candidate by comparison.  That being said, Cain's comments that if he were elected a Muslim would have to prove their loyalty to the Constitution before he would consider appointing them to his Cabinent.  What this test would encompass I do not know, I just know the concept is insulting and borders on a Mccarthy like witch hunt. 

And lastly we get to Rick Santorum, who I thought did a fairly decent job on "Meet the Press" today.  Not that I am a supporter of his, he is far too conservative for my tastes but for the uneducated he acquitted himself as the one true conservative in the Republican field, talking about fiscal responsibility and entitlements.  Of course the parts of the equation that he left out is when he is the supporter of those entitlements.  Like when the Pentagon issued a report on base closings they wanted to make and it was Santorum who worked against closing a base in his state, keeping the 911th Air Wing open whether is was fiscally responsible to do so or not.  Or his support for tax payer funded stadiums for both the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Pirates.  Or his lobbying the federal government for the local North Shore Connector Project, a plan where the Port Authority in Pittsburgh would build a tunnel uner the river to get people from downtown to the stadiums on the North Shore.  The result of Santorum's effort there is that the federal government will pick up as much as 80% of the tab on a project that to date has cost half a billion dollars to take passengers less than one mile. Because boys and girls, that is fiscal responsibility we can all believe in.