Inspire Political Discourse

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer Lies About Her Father’s Military Service and Then Denys Lying About It

Brewer recently made a comment claiming that her father “died fighting the Nazi regime”, via The Arizona Guardian:

“Knowing that my father died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany, that I lose him when I was 11 because of that...and then to have them call me Hitler's daughter. It hurts. It's ugliness beyond anything I've ever experienced.

As pointed out by The Guardian, Brewer's father, Wilford Drinkwine, actually worked as a civilian at a naval munitions depot in Hawthorne, Nevade during WWII. He died in 1955 from lung cancer, leading one to conclude that Brewer is playing fast and loose with the truth.

Now, she is ludicrously claiming that she “didn’t mislead anyone”.

“There is no way I have ever misled anybody. You're trying to make a liar out of me.

Governor Brewer, you did most certainly lie. It really is that simple.

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UPDATE: Commentary from media outlets:

Vanity Fair:

Jan Brewer, imperial sun queen of Arizona's chromatocracy, told the Arizona Republic that her father died fighting Nazis during World War II. The saga is very sad, except its tragedy is somewhat mitigated by the fact that it is extremely untrue.

Daily Kos:

Ah yes, claiming her father died fighting Nazis in Germany should, in no way, be construed as implying that her father died fighting Nazis in Germany.

Arizona Republic:

But I'm wondering if you would feel the same if the embellishments had been made by former Gov. Janet Napolitano? Because these days we seem to make excuses for those with whom we agree and condemn those with whom we disagree no matter WHAT the facts.

Idiot Quote of the Week: Sarah Palin on Hannity

The woman who was labeled by TIME magazine as one of the “top 25 WORLD leaders” has still never, ever given a press conference. There is NO reason you should wonder why.

"This is the problem with that lamestream media throughout our country, it's not just this issue but so many. One of the media outlets the other day just, ah, just was killin' me on this one, Sean, where they had a caption across their screen that said this Arizona law will make it -- it will make it illegal to be an illegal immigrant -- some bizarre type 'a headline like that where it was just this illustration that they just don't get it." Sarah Palin on the Hannity show on April 27.

She makes me cringe with embarrassment for my country.

President Obama Calls Out Mitch McConnell

In his weekly remarks, President Obama accused Mitch McConnell of lying. You GO, Mr. President! 

Now, unsurprisingly, these reforms have not exactly been welcomed by the people who profit from the status quo – as well their allies in Washington.  This is probably why the special interests have spent a lot of time and money lobbying to kill or weaken the bill.  Just the other day, in fact, the Leader of the Senate Republicans and the Chair of the Republican Senate campaign committee met with two dozen top Wall Street executives to talk about how to block progress on this issue.

Lo and behold, when he returned to Washington, the Senate Republican Leader came out against the common-sense reforms we’ve proposed.  In doing so, he made the cynical and deceptive assertion that reform would somehow enable future bailouts – when he knows that it would do just the opposite.  Every day we don’t act, the same system that led to bailouts remains in place – with the exact same loopholes and the exact same liabilities.  And if we don’t change what led to the crisis, we’ll doom ourselves to repeat it.  That’s the truth.  Opposing reform will leave taxpayers on the hook if a crisis like this ever happens again.

Read the entirety of his remarks, or view the video. For more on this still developing situation , I filed my posts under the categories Mitch McConnell and Financial Reform.

President Obama Dismisses Sarah Palin’s Foreign Policy Cred

Yesterday, the ever non-credible Sarah Palin compared the President’s new nuclear policy to a playground fight.

PALIN: No administration in America's history would I think ever have considered such a step that we just found out that President Obama is supporting today.

You know that's kinda like getting out there on the playground, a bunch of kids ready to fight and one of the kids saying 'Go ahead, punch me in the face and I'm not going to retaliate. Go ahead and do what you want to with me.

During a GMA interview this morning, George Stephanopoulos asked President Obama to respond to Palin's ridiculous comment:

STEPHANOPOULOS: I want to get to some of those broader issues [of nuclear proliferation]. Because you're also facing criticism on that. Sarah Palin, taking aim at your decision to restrict the use of nuclear weapons. Your pledge not to strike nations, non-nuclear nations, who abide by the nonproliferation treaty. Here's what she said. She said, "It's unbelievable, no other administration would do it." And then she likened it to kids on the playground. She said you're like a kid who says, "Punch me in the face, and I'm not going to retaliate." Your response?

OBAMA: I really have no response. Because last I checked, Sarah Palin's not much of an expert on nuclear issues.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But the string of criticism has been out there among other Republicans as well. They think you're restricting use of nuclear weapons too much.

OBAMA: And what I would say to them is that if the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff are comfortable with it, I'm probably going to take my advice from them and not from Sarah Palin.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But not concerned about her criticisms?

OBAMA: No.

A strong, pointed response from Obama. I do not, however, understand what the hades Stephanopoulos was thinking when he asked this question. As most of us recall Palin's utterly childish response to Charlie Gibson's question to Palin regarding her foreign policy credentials, or lack thereof, the question to President Obama seems particularly outrageous.

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Sarah Palin: We don't need no constitutional law professor

We all know that the Tea Baggers love to cite the Constitution to bolster their arguments. Whether or not they actually understand the legal ramifications of what they cite is another matter entirely.

Over the weekend, Palin launched a new line of attack on the President, telling the baggers [paraphrased]:

We don't need no constitutional law professor for a president.

Via Think Progress

Oh Pleaseeee.........

Newt Gingrich, advising Sarah Palin on the rehabilitation of her political career. Gag.

FYI, Mr. Gingrich, Palin is just soooo much less than you give her credit for. She is a typical redneck Republican woman with a poor education, and a penchant for talking too much and reading too little. She is not worthy of your time or anyone elses' time either. Not that I like you either, Mr. Gingrich; however, I do certainly understand that the chasm between your intellect and Palin's intellect, is oh so wide and deep.

Paul Begala, a Democratic political consultant and former Clinton Administration consultant, had this to say about Gingrich and Palin, during an interview aired on CNN:

He is trying to treat her like a serious person. She is not. OK? She is about half a whack job. She does not have the intellectual heft of Newt Gingrich or almost anyone else in the Republican Party, and I think she has proved that

Frank Rich: "How the Almighty Has Fallen.." Quotation

“How the almighty has fallen: organized religion is in a dead heat with banks and financial institutions on the confidence scale.”

Source: The New York Times

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Quotation: A Conservative Slams Sean Hannity

The Republican Party actually used to have quite a few more of these thinking conservatives. Too bad so many of them decamped to the left, embarrassed by the far right evangelical, under-educated wing of the new Republican Party.

“He represents most of what is wrong with the modern neo-con movement. There will always be a chunk of the population that prefers the ease of slogans and ideology to the hard work of actual thought and problem solving.”Source: Anonymous Conservative, January 2009

The wingnuts are in reference to Hannity, not to the anonymous conservative.

Quotations From the Political Pundits: Arianna Huffington

“Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be president; were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not have been the Democratic nominee.”Source: New York Magazine

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» What They Said - Quotes From US Presidents

Quotations From U.S. Presidents: Abraham Lincoln

 Abraham Lincoln - 16th US President 1861 -1865

The Final Emancipation Proclamation - January 1, 1863

“Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit: That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”

Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”

Abraham Lincoln

Image from Wikimedia Commons.

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Quotations From U.S. Presidents: John Quincy Adams

 John Quincy Adams- 6th US President 1825 - 1829

Letter to James Lloyd, October 1, 1822

“Individual liberty is individual power, and as the power of a community is a mass compounded of individual powers, the nation which enjoys the most freedom must necessarily be in proportion to its numbers the most powerful nation.”

John Quincy Adams

Image from Wikimedia Commons.

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Quotations From U.S. Presidents: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

 Franklin Delano Roosevelt - 32nd US President 1933 -1945

1938 - Simple Truths message to Congress

“Unhappy events abroad have retaught us two simple truths about the liberty of a democratic people. The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, is fascism—ownership of government by an individual, by a group or by any other controlling private power.

The second truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if its business system does not provide employment and produce and distribute goods in such a way as to sustain an acceptable standard of living. Both lessons hit home. Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing.”

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
 

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