Salt City Sinner

Larry Flynt, Prince of Perverts,  is at it again :     SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Pornographic magazine publisher Larry Flynt offered $1 million on Thursday to anyone with proof of "an illicit sexual liaison" involving leading Republican presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry. The offer by the politically left-leaning Flynt targeting Perry was similar to past efforts by the Hustler magazine founder to embarrass public figures he dislikes... "I've been doing this for 35 years," Flynt said in a telephone interview with Reuters. "We've found running these ads were very successful in finding sources to come forward." This is the same strategy Flynt used (as the article notes) in the past, especially regarding prominent Republicans who targeted President Clinton over his illicit sexual affairs. The strategy is pretty basic and essentially repulsive: dump ten chum buckets into the water, cast as wide a net as possible, an...

Any candidate's record should be open for discussion when they run for dog catcher, let alone president of the United States. Still, it has been an interesting and illuminating experience to watch Rick Perry take heavy fire for his HPV vaccine policy as Texas Governor. Now, when I first heard this, my gut reaction was “Good for Perry!” Most GOP opposition to the HPV vaccine, after all, is a sub-set of their opposition to sex education , contraception, and generally any public acknowledgement that teenagers might not spend their lazy Friday evenings at Bible study every week. Well I owe my mom $5 (long story) because by Jove there is a real, bona-fide vaccine conspiracy afoot in Texas! NPR reports that “ In Texas, Perry's Vaccine Mandate Provoked Anger :” While the Republican representatives and senators who controlled the Legislature were dumbfounded and getting angry, Democrats were just dumbfounded. Perry was going to make every girl in Texas get a sh...

(h/t  Andrew Sullivan ) It appears that any  current   animosity  between Governors Sarah Palin and Rick Perry may not be a media fabrication or a form of short-sighted hissy fit on either's part after all. About three years ago, conservative publication  Human Events reported  from the Republican Governors Conference: The [2008] Republican Governors Conference Press Guidelines promised that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin would “take approximately 20 minutes of questions” at today’s morning press conference. Instead, this press conference, attended by 150 local and national media and taped by 26 video cameras, disintegrated into a fiasco when Texas Governor Rick Perry shut it down after only five minutes and four questions. Eight other governors assembled on the stage, all men, seemed visibly uncomfortable with the “Palin at center stage” format. When Perry stepped in front of Palin at the podium to announce it was over just as it was getting sta...

The Wall Street Journal has come to Rick Perry's defense regarding his statements on Ben Bernanke (statements that some, including Andrew Sullivan, have interpreted as threats). From the Journal : Let's stipulate that Mr. Perry, in his first week on the Presidential stump, was wrong to use the words "almost treacherous, treasonous" in referring to Mr. Bernanke. Both of those words ought to be reserved for specific acts of betrayal against America, and the Fed chief is certainly a patriot. In particular, "treason" is the only crime specifically defined in the Constitution, which is something a tea party politician ought to learn. On the other hand, everybody knows Mr. Perry meant no literal harm and was indulging the irrational exuberance that is one of his trademarks. The faux-outrage from liberals who routinely refer to the tea party as "terrorists" shouldn't be taken seriously. The WSJ can get bent for referring to "liberals wh...

" Perry: We'd Lynch Bernanke In Texas " reads Andrew Sullivan's ominous headline. Think Progress states : Governor Rick Perry, who entered the presidential campaign on Saturday, appeared to suggest a violent response would be warranted should Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke “print more money” between now and the election. Speaking just now in Iowa, Perry said, “If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I dunno what y’all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treasonous in my opinion.” Treason is a capital offense. This is just ridiculous. There are plenty of reasons to oppose Rick Perry (he believes that Social Security is unconstitutional and has flirted with secessionism) without putting words in his mouth and blowing a statement he made completely out of proportion. It reminds me of the "Al Gore invented ...