Whiskey Fire

Bored and Disappointed if They Didn't

Usually I wouldn't remotely consider defending Alan Colmes from anything, as he's rather a tool, but here we go. Colmes apparently wrote the following at his blog:

Rogers Cadenhead gives the timeline associated with the birth of her newest child. She had a speech in Dallas and, even after the water broke, continued with her activities, and then boarded a plane for home. She did consult by phone with her doctor.

Still, a Sacramento, Calif., obstetrician who is active in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said when a pregnant woman's water breaks, she should go right to the hospital because of the risk of infection. That's true even if the amniotic fluid simply leaks out, said Dr. Laurie Gregg.

And that would appear to be it. Colmes, being, as noted, a tool, seems to have taken the post down (hence the screenshot from WizBang) after it attracted the attention of the conservative flying monkey brigades, who appear to have leapt to the conclusion that Colmes was accusing Palin of causing her son's Down's Syndrome. Or so says the ever reliably shitheaded NewsBusters. To wit:

**Update: TV's Alan Colmes Says Palin's Neglect Caused Down's Syndrome Birth Stress!**....

Pile this on top of the low blow from TV's Alan Colmes who claims that Palin didn't practice proper prenatal care before she had the baby with Down's Syndrome, blaming the Mother for her disabled child.

Of course, Colmes did not say this at all, and neither did Rogers Cadenhead, whom Colmes linked. Instead Cadenhead lays out circumstances of the birth, which in certain key respects are indeed rather odd. Let's quote at lengh:

As the Alaskan media reported, Palin was attending an energy conference in Texas on April 18 when her water broke four weeks before her due date. After this happened, Palin didn't head to a hospital or even leave the conference, even though the premature rupture of fetal membranes is normally a cause for an immediate examination by an obstetrician, who will observe the fetus on a monitor to guard against infection and other life-threatening complications. Two other reasons for heightened concern were Palin's age, 43, and the fact that prenatal testing indicated the child had Down syndrome.

Palin stayed at the conference and delivered a 30-minute speech, then boarded a 12-hour Alaska Airlines flight from Dallas to Anchorage, neglecting to tell the airline her water had broken -- most airlines won't fly a woman in labor. The motivation for all of this appears to be the Palins' desire that the child be born in Alaska. Her husband Todd told the Anchorage Daily News, "You can't have a fish picker from Texas."

When she arrived home, Palin was hospitalized immediately and the baby was born prematurely after labor was induced in the middle of the night.

Maybe Palin's actions can be written off as Alaskan grit, since she's a macho hunting governor who jogs in freezing temperatures and dines on moose burgers. But as a parent myself, I think the Palins were extremely fortunate that their reckless stupidity did not end in tragedy. As middle-aged parents who already had four kids, the Palins had to be completely familiar with all the things that can go wrong in a pregnancy. One commenter on the Washington Times laid out the enormous risk she was taking:

Airlines are unequipped to handle most emergencies at 30,000 feet, particularly the kind Palin put her unborn child at markedly increased risk for. These emergencies include birthing a premature infant or uncontrolled maternal bleeding. This was her FIFTH pregnancy and delivery can happen rapidly and unexpectedly. The baby or Palin could easily have died.

In the ADN article [here] Palin downplays her decision to fly, implying traveling was reasonable as she wasn't in labor. If so, then why was she immediately hospitalized after returning to Alaska? Why was there an induced delivery of a 36-week infant by 6:30 am soon after her return? Again, ask any OB doctor. Induced delivery of a premature infant ALWAYS indicates a problem. The two most likely would be fetal infection, (a likely event given her failure to seek meaningful medical attention for her baby) or fetal distress by monitor.

Ask your OB doctor if the risks Palin took with the life of her unborn child are risks they would have advised for ANY reason.

I'm sure that some people will consider raising this subject a cheap shot, since the child was born healthy and it all worked out for the Palins. But you have to question the judgment of a person who took so many risks with her life and that of her baby.

A few points.

First, "conservatives" screeching about how "sick" Colmes is don't themselves come across as particularly high-minded when they are transparently lying about what he actually said or linked to. They look like liars, as usual, and the overwraught hysteria of their response as usual makes them come across as demented.

Second, Cadenhead is right. As per Palin's own statement to the Anchorage Daily News, she did indeed "leak amniotic fluid" at the Texas conference, which was held in Grapevine, which does indeed have hospitals and doctors qualified to deal with high-risk pregnancies. And yes, I'm afraid it is remarkably inadvisable for any woman to embark on a 12 hour flight [note: I'm now told it's 8 hours, whatever] after the appearance of amniotic fluid. Labor can begin at any time, and there is a real risk of infection. I'm glad it worked out for the Palins and their child, but yes, this was extremely bad judgment. I don't see how any other conclusion might be reasonably drawn.

Third, the WizBang crack that about Colmes that "A man who has no problem with a woman killing her unborn baby through an abortion actually has the nerve to ask if Governor Palin took too great a risk with her pregnancy" is nonsensical. A pro-choice position does not mean that you think a woman who has chosen to carry a child to term can be as irresponsible and reckless as they please when it comes to her health or her baby's. Planned Parenthood does not hand out whiskey and cigarettes. WizBang is being stupid, either deliberately or because they can't help themselves. Whichever.

Fourth, does this matter? If we were to go by the absurd standards of "conservatives," sure, because these standards solely include "saying whatever the hell we want." I don't adhere to such standards myself. But I would say that Palin's behavior is indeed troubling, because this "fronteir grit" stuff is a large part of why she's billed as such a "maverick" choice -- and the reason I'm leery of this whole sort of doxalogical construction is that "maverick" in practice as opposed to posturing means "acting like a damn fool and doing all sorts of crazy, dangerous, and entirely unnecessary shit." It's precisely this attitude that's caused so much damage for the last eight years.

Fifth, what Cadenhead said about the rumors about Palin's daughter. That's stupid (not only because it's unethical, but it would involve far too much careful long-term plotting to pull it off, and the GOP does not do careful long term planning).

Sixth, for our friends at NewsBusters, fuck fuck motherfucker! I'm being kind here, see; because I cursed, they can now rest assured that it's perfectly all right for them to be liars. All part of the service.

UPDATE! BREAKING! One of the internetty detective geniuses in the WizBang comments saved the comments from the original Colmes thread. Because NewsBusters makes so much out of the crazy, mean, out of bounds comments made by leftists, they might enjoy this one from their "side":

You chickenshit piece of filth kike, you are the reason Hitler was able to convince so many people to do what they did to an entire race of people. Assholes like you. I want to feel sorry for you on some level, but then realize that would be like trying to love a jellyfish. I’m waiting for you to make your Imus statement, you hate this woman so much inevitably you will fuck up and get fired, even if those hypocritical bastards at Media Matters won’t call any attention to your hate....

And thanks for ensuring the election goes the right way by being such a douchebag Nazi, Vice President Palin will take care of the media outlets leeching off of congress that protect the wretched parasites like you. Its about time someone investigated Soros’ tax records and shut down moveon.org, if she is willing to put up with this shit I bet she has more balls than any president since Nixon. You could be target practice out on the white house range.

Delightful! We can play this game all day, too.

Remains a Mystery

(NOTE: This is, by the way, a liberal feminist blog. Just so you know.)

by Molly Ivors

I'm not going to parse what must have been the highly interesting contents of Maureen's stomach when she wrote today's imaginary chick flick starring the scrappy-yet-terrifyingly-unqualified Sarah Palin. But this line caught my attention, partly because it seems to have been delivered largely without self-awareness of any kind.

(Why do men only pick women as running mates when they need a Hail Mary pass? It’s a little insulting.)

This from Dowd, who has spent, conservatively, the better part of the last year explaining to us why a competent woman is a dominatrix wielding a whip, why women only succeed because they've been wronged by men, why women who continue fighting primaries when they're garnering votes are "emasculating" and "suffocating."

If women have been delegitimized as political figures in their own rights, Mo, look in the fucking mirror and your own archives.

Reveal the Ghostblood

This op-ed ought to cause the eternal retirement of the term "wanker," because nothing will ever, ever wank so hard or so painfully.

Joe Lieberman does I suppose have a right to be disappointed, however. Who else can claim that he came so very close to being an official horrible fuckup vice presidential choice twice, and for different parties, no less?

The Official Whiskey Fire Response to the Sarah Palin Vice Presidential Nomination

What, was Victoria Jackson busy?

The Reason You Flee

Charlie Black, explaining something stupid about Palin not knowing jack about anything about, uh, the world:

She’s going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years

This is disturbing for at least two reasons:

1. John McCain is pig ignorant about national security;
2. I just thought about John McCain's feet.

Check please.

Following Every Unsane Leader

by Molly Ivors

Thers and I are at odds over how weird Sarah Palin will be as a VP candidate. He will share with you his main sense of weirdness later today, I'm sure. But for me, the choice boils down to one thing:

They believed the PUMA press.

Thanks, news media, for whipping up a fake frenzy over a few people who are having some trouble letting go of their candidate. As I noted below, I think most people supported Clinton for reasons of policy rather than personality, and by that standard, supporting McCain and his nutty wingnutty running mate because she happens to have a vagina is more insane than jumping at the sound of jingling keys.

But the McCain people fell right into the trap. Thanks!

(Extra bonus points: When he makes a Mondale-like showing, they can blame her! Maybe she should change her name to "Eve.")

God damn, America!

by Ripley

I wouldn't make a habit of stepping into Thers' blog with my own rantings and personal fol de rol but this seems to be a special kind of weekend, so I hope you'll forgive me.  We've just ended a week so historic, so amazing and wonderful, that we should be sealing newspapers in plastic bags and guarding them like Comic Book Guy.  Jesus!  Are you feeling it? 

There's been some new 'news', today, that's grabbed some attention.  That's to be expected, but we can't lose sight of our goals or drop our Future on the floor when the Doorknobs That Be dangle something shiny in front of us.  This election, more than the talking heads could even imagine, means everything - Everything! - to us.  To us, the World, and the very concepts of Society and Civilization and Democracy! 

It's a holiday weekend but I hope you'll take a few minutes and listen, again, to the wisdom, opportunity  and challenges that Our leaders have laid out for us.  Be inspired, be uplifted, feel Hope - and do something good with it.  In no particular order:

Hillary Clinton

John Kerry

Bill Clinton

Joe Biden

Barack Obama

I remember a Tom Peters bit I read, years ago: 'Managers ask How? - Leaders ask Why?'   We have the brains, we have the will, we have the moral imperative - and we have the Leaders.  We all know the Why.  It's up to us to get them into office. 

Rip -

Larger though We Grew in Size, Not a Thing Was Gained

Never before today has the utter strategic brilliance of the Iraq war been so clear to me, as I learn that the hundreds of billions spent, the thousands of soldiers killed, and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead have all resulted in a sweet, sweet oil deal for the Chinese government.

Years ago I wish I'd thought to chant "no blood for oil for China," but I must admit, that did not occur to me.

The New Juice

Of everything the Obama campaign has done so far, this by far has made me happiest.

Barack Obama's campaign hasn't advertised this a great deal this week, but the campaign's "Action Wire" has been waging large-scale campaigns against critics. That includes tens of thousands of e-mails to television stations running Harold Simmons' Bill Ayers ad, and to their advertisers — including a list of major automobile and telecommunications companies.

And tonight, the campaign launched a more specific campaign: an effort to disrupt the appearance by a writer for National Review, Stanley Kurtz, on a Chicago radio program. Kurtz has been writing about Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers, and has suggested that papers housed at the University of Illinois at Chicago would reveal new details of that relationship.

The campaign e-mailed Chicago supporters who had signed up for the Obama Action Wire with detailed instructions including the station's telephone number and the show's extension, as well as a research file on Kurtz [my emphasis],  which seems to prove that he's a conservative, which isn't in dispute. The file cites a couple of his more controversial pieces, notably his much-maligned claim that same-sex unions have undermined marriage in Scandinavia.

"Tell WGN that by providing Kurtz with airtime, they are legitimizing baseless attacks from a smear-merchant and lowering the standards of political discourse," says the email, which picks up a form of pressure on the press pioneered by conservative talk radio hosts and activists in the 1990s, and since adopted by Media Matters and other liberal groups.

Because Ben Politico Smith is kind of a wanker, we get the line that the line about the file on Kurtz merely "proving that he's a conservative," which of course is not the point -- the file shows that Kurtz is a wingnut hack ideologue and nothing remotely close to a "scholar" or "researcher." The pretense that clowns like Kurtz are Serious People doing Serious Work (at the Very Serious Hoover Institution, no less) would be laughable were the Liberal Media not so prone to believe this sort of bullshit and lend it unjustified credibility by quoting them and giving them airtime.

Kurtz's big "scoop" is that Obama is tied to "terrorism" because "Obama and Ayers both attended some 1995 board meetings of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which Ayers was instrumental in starting and Obama chaired in the 1990s." This is of course completey fucking stupid, but it's not like it's not it hasn't already turned into a beloved trope in wingnut folklore, and hence something not just capable of but indeed likely to attract the attention of the dimwit national political press. And from thence it morphs into an inane Jay Leno punchline. Over here on the left we're all too familiar with the whole dreary process by which conservatives turn ridiculous bullshit into conventional wisdom.

So what the Obama campaign did -- essentially ruin a wingnut radio show intended to help launch a smear into legitimacy, by getting loads of people to call in and abuse Kurtz for being a creep -- was brilliant hard-nosed politics, as it insures that the Obama "this Annenberg stuff is bullshit" message is always going to be locked in with the smear. This kind of mass-mobilization tactic is not something that Gore or Kerry had in their playbook, and Clinton would probably have been more than happy to have had it available to him at various moments in the 1990s. It's using wingnut and Freeper weapons against them, and you know what? It's about goddamn time. (I also like it that the Obama campaign is going after the absurd "501" group producing similar Ayers-related smears.)

The sniveling, hypocritical, hysterical response from NRO is also hugely entertaining, and that is in and of itself a plus. But the deliberate disruption of the Crazy Conservative to Conventional Wisdom sewer line is smart and necessary. More like this, please.

UPDATE: And the comedy continues. Wingnut whining, such a pleasant sound.

Invitation to the Last Dance

Biden made a whoopsie tonight, as the eagle or perhaps gimlet-eyed K-Lo spotted:

Notice Biden didn't once mention he's Catholic.

Dammit, that would have put him over the top if only he'd remembered. Or maybe he's just acting on the orders of the Priory of Sion. Or something.

I used to wonder how people this appallingly stupid were able to even feed themselves, until I realized that this utter lack of anything resembling cognition was clearly in and of itself a marketable commodity on the right. So if you've lost your job and need some dough, I recommend you violently shove a fork up one of your nostrils, and within a week you'll be getting checks from at least Townhall.