The #Confederate flag and the Dept. of Amazing S.C. coincidences

Nikki Haley,
breeze-swaying hypocrite

OK, so South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is calling for the Confederate flag at the state Capitol to come down. Sounds nice, no?

No, not totally. Per this.

UPDATE, June 23: A special caveat. Haley clearly just wants to hide symbols from what she claims is the wrong interpretation, saying that Dylann Roof had "a sick and twisted view of the flag." Actually, while it may seem to be that, since the flag stood for slavery, not states' rights, and slavery based on skin color, while it's a sick view, it's not that twisted at all, actually. It's "logical," if one is honest about the flag's full history.

A takeout from this must-read by Ta-Nehisi Coates, at that link just above:

Nikki Haley deserves credit for calling for the removal of the Confederate flag. She deserves criticism for couching that removal as matter of manners. At the present moment the effort to remove the flag is being cast as matter of politesse, a matter over which reasonable people may disagree.

Bingo. This is all about new massaging of symbols, not facing the reality behind them.

That said? Even to do new massaging of a hateful old symbol won't be so easy.

A few caveats.

One, it will take state legislative action for that to happen.

Two, it will take a 2/3 vote of each house of the South Carolina Legislature to put it the agenda of a recently-called special session.

Three, if that doesn't happen, Gov. Haley will have to call for another special session.

Tim Scott,
self-hating hypocrite?

Chris Tomlinson thinks that a "woman of color" could make no other call, noting that Haley is Indian-American. Really, Chris? South Carolina's junior Senator, Tim Scott, is black, and until three hours ago, he hadn't called for the flag to come down, either. He's now done so, though he has yet to rebuke Republican presidential candidates who have denied that racism motivated Dylann Roof to murder nine people at a Charleston church a week ago.

Lindsey Graham,
frothy hypocrite

Meanwhile, the senior senator from the Palmolive State, Lindsay Graham, who is also known around these quarters as Huckleberry J. Butchmeup and just happens to be running for president, has also now called for the flag to come down, which puts us in the Department of Amazing Coincidences.

I don't know if M. N. O'Butch asked for a move in this direction to help his campaign, or something else is at work. Until three hours ago, Scott and Haley had largely been silent, and three days ago, Huckleberry was saying this is "part of who we are." That said, if CNN is right that he was "quietly" calling for it to come down three days ago, while publicly still playing Dixie on his dogwhistle, he's quickly reached a high level of douchery.

He's got the most capital to lose, relatively speaking, running for prez and needing to not appear totally wingnut, even as other presidential candidates for the GOP appeared chickenshit about the flag. And, as senior senator, and South Carolina's GOP kingpin, he's also got the most weight to throw around. Add in that the man seen by many as the Koch Brothers' anointee, Scott Walker, called Dylann Roof's actions motivated by racism already on Friday, and the candidates that have played the "not racism" card are scrambling. That said, Walker, like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum, took past campaign money from Earl Holt's Council of Conservative Citizens. (Oh, there's a bunch of people on that list; feel free to give a few a Tweet.)

Back to Gov. Haley.

Given all I said, don't call me and don't wake me up until the flag is gone. Don't even think of calling me until it's on the agenda of an actual special session.

Oh, and beware of head fakes.

It's not totally true that the St. Andrew's Cross, was not the official flag of the Confederacy. Yes, originally, it was just a battle flag and the the "Stars and Bars" was the official CSA flag.

BUT, after May 1, 1863, the Rebel war flag was made the "canton" of the official CSA flag. Don't let anybody head-fake you on saying the Rebel war flag was not "really" a part of the Confederacy. This, too, is part of the full history.

This, in turn, is part of a larger claim that most people "don't really know what the flag is about." That, in turn, is usually accompanied by the claims that the Civil War wasn't "really" about slavery, and I've already crushed that one.

On Dylann Roof? Maybe "white trash" will be the next attempt to explain him away.

Oh, and speaking of "cantons," the Mississippi state flag still uses the Rebel flag for ITS canton. Today, Columbia, tomorrow, Jackson!

SC GOP Sunday barbecue menu – Mark Sanford

First, we have scorned wife, Jenny Sanford, emotionally as well as sexually betrayed by e-mails to Maria.

You have a particular grace and calm that I adore. You have a level of sophistication that so fitting with your beauty.

And now, Jenny Sanford, the theoretically unsophisticated hausfrau has her own statement out, hurts and all:

We reached a point where I felt it was important to look my sons in the eyes and maintain my dignity, self-respect, and my basic sense of right and wrong. I therefore asked my husband to leave two weeks ago.

The hurt, even scorned, Southern woman?

Strike one with the chivalrous South Carolina GOP.

Second, Sanford knew this woman at least eight years, and went to Argentina before on the state taxpayer dime.

Strike two with the fiscally conservative South Carolina GOP.

And, the hypocrisy of a Father’s Day weekend tryst has even the one of the conservative bloviosphere witches aghast, calling you a bastard.

Strike three with the Southern proprieties South Carolina GOP.

The South Carolina GOP is having a barbecue this weekend, and Gov. Sanford is the main course, I guarohntee.

Update: Sanford apparently originally had a two-week rendezvous planned with the now-identified Maria Belen Chapur. And, this was after his wife insisted on their trial separation.

Boy, talk about pouring gasoline on yourself. Strike four. I do not care how much you hate your Light Gov, you had better step down now.

Racism alive and well in SC GOP

A South Carolina GOP activist, on Facebook, compares a gorilla to Michelle Obama’s ancestors. He then apologizes, or offers what he claims is one, “If,” and nothing more, he caused any harm, then claimed it was in jest. Finally, he claims it was based on a statement of hers.

That said, what about Texas? Wouldn’t surprise me.

Hey, bubba, any gays here in Carolina?

The cancellation of a gay-oriented South Carolina is laughable and head-shaking on so many levels.

The campaign, themed “South Carolina is so gay,” advertised the charms of South Carolina and five major U.S. cities to gay European tourists but landed with a resounding thud in the Palmetto State, not exactly known as a bastion of gay-friendliness.

The advertisements were timed for London’s Gay Pride Week, which ended Saturday. The posters touted the attractions of the state to gay tourists, including its “gay beaches” and its Civil War-era plantations.

First, did the employee who resigned over this think this would actually pass muster? Especially at a sensitive time?

The campaign drew special attention in South Carolina because it emerged only weeks after widespread debate over gay rights in the schools.

Eddie Walker, principal of Irmo High School, in suburban Columbia, announced that he was quitting rather than approve the creation of a Gay-Straight Alliance at the school, one of the state’s largest.

Read more of the story for the abundant hypocrisy of Walker and other school officials, as well as state employees claiming that they had never before seen anything about the ad campaign.

On the other hand, what if this is a gay employee? In that case, he or she should get the Medal of Honor for good intentions.

Merry Christmas, South Carolina, from ‘Mitt’

In the latest in a long tradition of South Carolina mudslinging, voters there got a Christmas card purporting to be from Mitt Romney. The catch? It claims to be from the Boston (Mormon) Temple and it’s filled with comments from The Book of Mormon and Mormon leads not the Christian Bible.

“We have now clearly shown that God the Father had a plurality of wives, one or more being in eternity by whom He begat our spirits as well as the spirit of Jesus His first born, and another being upon the earth by whom he begat the tabernacle of Jesus, as his only begotten in this world,” reads one passage from Orson Pratt, cited on the card as an “original member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles.”

Obviously, it’s a fraud, but, to use the Latin, “cui bono,” who did it?

My No. 1 guess — Rudy Giu-lie-ani, or an official or unaffiliated surrogate.

McCain, for all his faults, just doesn’t seem the type to stoop that low, even through surrogates. Besides, he’s surging. Ron Paul’s libertarian faith-based campaign believes wishful thinking, or the power of the will, can win elections. Fred Thompson’s probably too stupid.

So, that leaves Rudy, right? He’s slipping in the polls, and he certainly does have the personality to pull something like that.

But, so does somebody else: Mitt Romney

Remember, Mitt’s own staff was a suspect in the anti-Romney Iowa robocalling this fall, still unresolved as to who did it. And, besides the personality (though less of a hatchet man than Rudy), the poll slippage and everything else describes Mitt as well as Rudy.

Interesting… your vote?