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   Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Gnter Grass still thinks reunification was a bad idea.
 Forty years of writing from Taylor Branch, James Fallows, Katherine Boo, Marjorie Williams, Joshua Micah Marshall, and more.
 With help from Washington, the for-profit college industry is loading up millions of low-income students with debt they'll never pay off.
 The best recent memoir from republican Washington is a hoax. That should tell you something.
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October 29, 2009
THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING.... Back in August, Jon Stewart did a segment on South Carolina, kicked off by a report about a South Carolinian who loved his horse just a little too much (twice). Stewart said, "We here at the show can't help but notice that South Carolina has taken its rightful place amongst the states that make our lives here at the show easy." From there, he pointed to provocative scandals surrounding Mark Sanford and a state GOP official who compared a gorilla to First Lady Michelle Obama. That was before Joe Wilson became a national embarrassment/right-wing hero and two South Carolina County Republican Party chairmen praised Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) in a newspaper editorial as being like a Jew who is "taking care of the pennies." This week, a deputy assistant South Carolina attorney general, who also happens to be a right-wing Republican, was caught on his lunch break with a stripper, sex toys, and Viagra in his sport utility vehicle.
When asked about the Viagra pill and sex toys, Corning told the officer they were always in his S.U.V. "just in case." He was promptly fired. State Attorney General Henry McMaster said such a trip to the cemetery "would not be appropriate, at any time, for an assistant attorney general." Josh Marshall added, "In happier days, Corning was an ardent pro-life politician best known for introducing a law in the South Carolina legislature that would have made the subdermal contraceptive device Norplant mandatory for women on welfare. Even then though he was no stranger to controversy. In 1994, during a floor debate with pro-choice state Rep. June Shissias, Corning asked Shissias whether she herself had ever had an abortion. Later he admitted the remark was 'probably insensitive' but said he was 'sick and tired of the women representatives in this body acting like, just because we're men and male, we don't know anything about women.'" I still think South Carolina hasn't quite caught up with Florida -- where I was born and raised -- in the Most Ridiculous State contest, but it's getting there. —Steve Benen 2:05 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (37)Comments
Steve, does Miami still have a Santeria Squad for cleaning the burnt offerings and chicken bones off the courthouse steps every morning? I still think South Carolina hasn't quite caught up with Florida -- where I was born and raised -- in the Most Ridiculous State contest, but it's getting there. Yep -- until Fark creates a tag for South Carolina, Florida wins the "What the Hell Is Wrong With Your State" crown. If this keeps up, Arkansas might have to change its unofficial motto from "thank God for Mississippi." Posted by: Jennifer on October 29, 2009 at 2:15 PM | PERMALINKState employee Mark Sanford - who used state money to finance his jaunts too Argentina to visit his mistress - riffing on Ayn Rand in Newsweek about the horrors of governement and the wonders of the free market was another high point for SC. I'm thinking the state song is probably Yakety Sax. "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King, Jr. Posted by: pinson on October 29, 2009 at 2:24 PM | PERMALINKMy native state of Texas is surely in the running too! Posted by: Coop on October 29, 2009 at 2:24 PM | PERMALINKThose married right wing, family values republicans sure do like their whores don't they. Maybe he could try blaming gay marriage in Iowa for his mental lapse. Oopsie. Posted by: Patrick on October 29, 2009 at 2:30 PM | PERMALINKI hope the young lady in question (She was only 18) was smart enough to get paid up front. Posted by: Henk on October 29, 2009 at 2:31 PM | PERMALINKPatrick: She was a working girl. Calling people, other than slimy politicians, whores really isn't very nice. She was 18 and a stripper, who knows what or who drove her to this, but calling an 18 year old a whore is just nasty. Posted by: Henk on October 29, 2009 at 2:35 PM | PERMALINKLet's not forget my home state of Arizona - home of Evan Meacham, JD Hayworth, Rick Renzi and of course, President McCain! Nor my adopted state of California - home to Duke Cunningham, Darrel Issa and many more. MANY more. Posted by: Ish on October 29, 2009 at 2:35 PM | PERMALINKi am as repulsed by the mean-spirited fucked-up-ness of south carolina sand-lappers as anybody else (more so as a native tarheel and bein' as my peeps is from charleston circa 1788). but this kinda crap is apple pie territory... it aint just palmetto bug males who do this misogynistic bullshit...it aint just southern crackers...misogynistic, patriarchal, limp dick, arrogant assholes are tragically ubiquitous in this great country of ours. local color is where you find it. and i'm glad the sorry ass got fired. Posted by: neill on October 29, 2009 at 2:43 PM | PERMALINKYour states are rookies compared with mine - the state of GOP. Posted by: Chopin on October 29, 2009 at 3:03 PM | PERMALINKI live in TX and I always thought "thank God for Mississippi" was our state motto. Really, there are so many states in the running lately (California is falling apart, the NYS Senate was locking people out, and never forget New Jersey--how many mayors and govt officials were arrested this summer?), one might think the USA handbasket is cruising into the hell airspace. Posted by: Sagacity on October 29, 2009 at 3:04 PM | PERMALINKWHAT?!? My birth state of Texas isn't the nuttiest?!?! I'm crushed! Between Governor Shrub and Governor Goodhair, what else do even need to offer to qualify? ;) Posted by: Reddragyn on October 29, 2009 at 3:11 PM | PERMALINKneill, I think it's the delta between self-professed state of holiness and actual character traits where the risk of being held up for ridicule is the greatest. On that score, at least for this year, SC probably deserves a special award if not the grand prize for lifetime achievement. Seriously, Mark Sanford was credible as a GOP presidential nominee, and has been nonstop nasty on the morality front -- and even after getting caught in flagrante with his Argentine girlfriend he still thinks his situation is different because he really loved her. You don't get much more hypocritical than that. Posted by: Barbara on October 29, 2009 at 3:11 PM | PERMALINK-what I find most amusing about the incident is that THESE people invariably call US hedonistic, godless, libertines. . . Posted by: DAY on October 29, 2009 at 3:20 PM | PERMALINKCoop wrote: My native state of Texas is surely in the running too! No, we Ridiculous State Hall of Famers are no longer elligible. Posted by: Batsh1t Texian on October 29, 2009 at 3:27 PM | PERMALINK60 or 70 years ago, Arnold Toynbee attributed the post bellum "debasement" of South Carolina to a preference for nostalgia over industry. Posted by: Gary Sugar on October 29, 2009 at 3:37 PM | PERMALINKBut... but... Clinton got a blowjob in the White House! Surely that trumps anything that a Republican may do. Kenley said she noticed several weeks ago that her 21-year-old horse Sugar was acting strange and getting infections. She noticed things in the barn had been moved around — dirt piled up and bales of hay stacked near the horse's stall at her Lazy B Stables in Longs, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Myrtle Beach. Oh my. Remind me not to drink the water in South Carolina. Posted by: oh my on October 29, 2009 at 4:15 PM | PERMALINKIsn't it odd that usually, Republicans are often against even voluntary contraception - but in this case, Corning was quite ready to demand *mandatory* contraception as a condition for getting goverment aid. Well, maybe it depends on the target population. Posted by: delver on October 29, 2009 at 4:40 PM | PERMALINKAs the officer approached, Corning sped off, then pulled over a few blocks away. He and the 18-year-old woman with him, an employee of the Platinum Plus Gentleman's Club Ah, yes. Another day, another "family values," "law and order" Republican running from the police and cheating on his wife with a girl barely of legal age. And gays and lesbians wanting to marry their long-time partners is going to "destroy the institution of marriage" exactly how again? Posted by: electrolite on October 29, 2009 at 4:40 PM | PERMALINKThis is the sort of thing I was thinking about when they announced yesterday that Boeing is going to build its next big assembly plant in SC, not in the Seattle area. Good luck to them...how are they ever going to get those wacky crackers to build planes? Posted by: biggerbox on October 29, 2009 at 4:41 PM | PERMALINKI think trying to compare Florida or Texas to South Carolina is a bit unfair when you consider the vast disparity in size and population. I think all would agree that on a per capita basis South Carolina is the winner. As I recall about 15 years ago its entire state legislature got indicted. And do not forget where the Civil War officially started. I have been there on business, but I would rather go to Haiti the South Carolina. Posted by: Terry on October 29, 2009 at 4:46 PM | PERMALINKI mean, have you all ever been to Columbia? It ain't *that* big. It would take either bails of arrogance or just plain empty-headedness to think you wouldn't get caught in the town cemetery. Was he reliving high school? I cringe to imagine esp. the emergency sex toy supply. Fucking arrogant idiot. Posted by: MissMudd on October 29, 2009 at 5:10 PM | PERMALINK"Kenley said she noticed several weeks ago that her 21-year-old horse Sugar was acting strange and getting infections." Well, at least the horse was comfortably over 18. Posted by: N.Wells on October 29, 2009 at 5:12 PM | PERMALINKAnd, South Carolina is where Boeing has decided to build its next bunch of jets. Don't think I will fly a Boeing plane any time soon. Posted by: Bonnie on October 29, 2009 at 5:32 PM | PERMALINKAnd don't forget Susan Smith, the SC mother who drowned her children and blamed it on a black carjacker. Like being black in South Carolina isn't already hard enough. Posted by: Mk on October 29, 2009 at 5:36 PM | PERMALINKNo, sorry, Florida will always win this one. This is something that Dave Barry wrote in 1990 and it's still true. Remember, the voting controversy that eaked GW into office happened there. and little Elian Gonzalez. http://www.davebarry.com/misccol/desillers%20effect.htm Carl Hiassen says it's hard for him to come up with outrageous fictional crimes because real life always outpaces him in Florida. SC is just filled with pervs. Posted by: lou on October 29, 2009 at 6:30 PM | PERMALINKS.C. has been filled with ass-hats since prior to 1860 remember! They're also the state that had a right-wing evangelical group call for "committed Christians" to all move to S.C. so they could secede (again) and form a "Christian Nation." It's never going to win an "Under-development" contest with Mississippi or Arkansas, (ARK State Motto: "We're #49!") but it's truly moving ahead in pure hypocritical nuttiness of it's right-wing politicians. Posted by: Cugel on October 29, 2009 at 7:33 PM | PERMALINKNot that I have spent much time there, but could someone give a shout out to Oklahoma. Coburn and Inhofe make Lindsey Graham look like Nelson Mandela. Posted by: JGH on October 29, 2009 at 8:42 PM | PERMALINKAnd I thank the FSM daily for the fact that I live in the State of Rod Blagojevich. We Illinoisans have a lot to be ashamed of, but South Carolina we are not. Oh, and Barack Obama is from here...SUCK ON THAT THE REST OF YOU STATES!!! ;-) Posted by: Dr. Morpheus on October 30, 2009 at 1:54 AM | PERMALINKWait, the stripper /exotic dancer the married Publican was found messing around with was a WOMAN??? Posted by: smartalek on October 30, 2009 at 3:51 AM | PERMALINKEver since Mark Sanford went missing, I've been popping over to the online version of Columbia's newspaper, The State. Here are two items from today's issue. Where does the Palmetto State find its public officials -- some sort of halfway house for career criminals? 2) The former finance director of South Carolina's social services agency pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing more than $5 million from the agency, money he has said he spent on alcohol, gambling and strippers. Pity that Rep. June Shissias didn't respond by asking Corning if he has ever knowingly or unknowingly been the father to a child who was either born illegitimate and fatherless or was terminated in an abortion. In our obsession blame the woman for unwanted pregnancies, we should never over look the responsibilities, moral and legal, of the father. Posted by: Marnie on October 30, 2009 at 11:49 AM | PERMALINKYes Texas and Sarah Palin's secessionist state of Alaska. But Oklahoma is in my mind still the longest running most duffus state. Sure to be in the top five stupidest, decade after decade. Posted by: Marnie on October 30, 2009 at 11:54 AM | PERMALINKThe former finance director of South Carolina's social services agency pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing more than $5 million from the agency, money he has said he spent on alcohol, gambling and strippers. There ya go, ladies and gentlemen. Supply-side trickle-down economics in action. Posted by: DH Walker on October 30, 2009 at 2:55 PM | PERMALINKPost a comment
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