The facts were in the ball park
This story is a little old, and it’s possible that it’s already been discussed here, but it made made me laugh out loud:
Vaughn Ward, the Republican congressional candidate from Idaho, has the dubious character trifecta of the Palin brand: bone-headed, defiant and willfully ignorant. When told that Puerto Rico was not a country, he said, “I don’t care what you call it.”
May 29, 2010 9:22 pm
Posted in: Hoot-Smalley
77 Comments
77 Responses
Cat Lady - May 29, 2010 | 9:27 pm · Link
And yet, he’ll still probably win.
Forget it DougJ, it’s Idaho.
Jeff Fecke - May 29, 2010 | 9:31 pm · Link
But DougJ, how can we hate those illegal immigrants from Puerto Rico if they’re already U.S. citizens? Clearly we need to build a wall between America and the Puerto Rican border.
I hate having to press “1” for English. Too. Also.
Yutsano - May 29, 2010 | 9:31 pm · Link
@Cat Lady: Not necessarily. There are sections of Boise that are blue, and one bright blue spot right in the area that should gourd Bible Spice the most: Moscow, where the University of Idaho is. Plus Idaho is much more libertarian than Republican, very much the gubmint hands off crowd. Oh and of course a large population on Social Security and Medicare, and a large Mormon population in the southern part of the state. Republicans only do well there because the Democrats wrote off Idaho decades ago.
fucen tarmal - May 29, 2010 | 9:32 pm · Link
that statehood thing is gonna take some remedial lobbying.
Alex K - May 29, 2010 | 9:33 pm · Link
@Cat Lady:
Um…in the next paragraph it says he was “routed in a huge upset”.
Mark S. - May 29, 2010 | 9:36 pm · Link
The guy plagiarized a speech by Obama? Shouldn’t that get you kicked out of the GOP?
I also liked this idiocy from Palin:
You go get your Department of Law right on that, Sarah.
JenJen - May 29, 2010 | 9:38 pm · Link
Don’t knock Idaho till you’ve tried it. I could live quite happily in Boise, honestly. The place gets a bad rap.
But Vaughn Ward? Truly, worst congressional GOP candidate ever. That guy was just a train wreck. And only days before the complete meltdown, there was Sarah Palin lending a hand.
She sure can pick a winner.
Cat Lady - May 29, 2010 | 9:40 pm · Link
@Alex K:
I didn’t waste my time. Pig ignorance doesn’t interest me. He’ll probably win next time.
Yutsano - May 29, 2010 | 9:40 pm · Link
@JenJen: I went to college in Boise for a year. It is VERY livable, if still a touch culturally insulated. However they did just have a tech boom, so that usually attracts folks from outside the WASP spectrum. I have a lot of hope for that place, plus they have a very nice airport for a mid-sized city.
Elisabeth - May 29, 2010 | 9:41 pm · Link
@Mark S.:
What does that even mean? Even for Palin that’s pretty nonsensical.
SiubhanDuinne - May 29, 2010 | 9:41 pm · Link
I mentioned in an earlier thread another Republican, Mark Kirk, Illinois Senate candidate.
Do you think this will get anything close to the ink, pixels, and air time that the Richard Blumenthal story got?
Roberto Mussenden - May 29, 2010 | 9:42 pm · Link
As a Puerto Rican who routinely is asked whether he is a citizen of this country, this ignorance pisses me off. The US annexed PR in 1898 as part of its spoils of the Spanish-American War, eight years after Idaho achieved statehood. To quote Wikipedia “Puerto Ricans “were collectively made U.S. citizens” in 1917 as a result of the Jones-Shafroth Act. The act was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on 2 March 1917. U.S. Federal law 8 U.S.C. § 1402, approved by President Harry S. Truman on 27 June 1952, declared all persons born in Puerto Rico on or after 13 January 1941 to be U.S. citizens at birth and all persons born in Puerto Rico between 11 April 1899 and 12 January 1941, and meeting certain other technical requirements, and not citizens of the United States under any other Act, are declared to be citizens of the U.S. as of 13 January 1941.”
We’ve been part of this country for over 90 years…we’ve fought and bled and died for this country from Flanders Field to Falujah and for some uneducated pendejo to deny our citizenship requires a single response: “Chupame, payaso”
scav - May 29, 2010 | 9:43 pm · Link
well, all I can say is that’s one hell of a ballpark some people are playing in.
Belafon (formerly anonevent) - May 29, 2010 | 9:46 pm · Link
I seem to be dealing with people like him at work, which led me to this thought: “You can lead a moron to knowledge, but you can’t make him think.”
Alex K - May 29, 2010 | 9:49 pm · Link
@Cat Lady:
Well, sometimes liberals and Democrats have good reasons to be pessimistic, but I think you’re kind of pushing it here. This is the best possible environment for guys like him, and he still couldn’t pull it off. When is he going to in the future? I can’t see him working to get smart or competent enough to deserve it.
Yutsano - May 29, 2010 | 9:49 pm · Link
@SiubhanDuinne: Smells like another episode of IOKIYAR to me. But sometimes these things get legs, and even if it doesn’t get national press Gianoulis will pounce on this, especially after the heat he’s been taking for his family’s banking ties.
Warren Terra - May 29, 2010 | 9:52 pm · Link
The whole piece is good. I really like Timothy Egan, have since he was the New York Times stringer for the Pacific Northwest.
scav - May 29, 2010 | 9:53 pm · Link
@SiubhanDuinne: oh oh. some of the quotes / details are great (from the Trib, o! shock of shocks!)
NB. there should be ellipses between the clips from different paragraphs.
I mean that’s dedication and team unity. Confusing a man and a unit. For years. Again, they’re playing in one hell of ballpark.
El Cid - May 29, 2010 | 9:53 pm · Link
You goddam libruls with all yer “facks” and “ideers” ain’t worth a damn shit compared to people like us who actually love this country.
You think your damn ‘smart smart’ and ‘thinky think’ is important?
Lemme tell you what’s important.
Tradition. Tradition is important.
I’m stupid. My Daddy was stupid. My grand-daddy was stupid. And by god, if I got some’in to do with it, my boy’s gonna be stupid too. ‘Cause if it was good enough for all of us, it oughtta be good enough fer all a’yall.
strandedvandal - May 29, 2010 | 9:56 pm · Link
He can’t win, he lost the primary to an even bigger nutbag.
Idaho is a great place to live. The only thing I really cannot stand about living in the Boise area is the BSU Broncos and their damn Smurf Turf..
Cat Lady - May 29, 2010 | 10:01 pm · Link
@Alex K:
Bless you. My faith in teh stoopid being vanquished is being sorely tested.
slag - May 29, 2010 | 10:03 pm · Link
@Jeff Fecke:
PaulW - May 29, 2010 | 10:08 pm · Link
This is why I support Puerto Rico statehood: it’s bound to drive the wingnuts so mad they’ll explode like those guys who watch too many blipverts!
Jody - May 29, 2010 | 10:09 pm · Link
That’s gonna endear him to the mouth breathers who don’t know what it is either.
MikeJ - May 29, 2010 | 10:15 pm · Link
@PaulW: In theory I’m in favour of PR statehood, but I’m too afraid of them electing Republicans.
mclaren - May 29, 2010 | 10:19 pm · Link
He sounds like a Balloon-Juice commenter.
Now all he has to do is scream that anyone who disagrees with him is insane, and he’ll be ready to post his deep thoughts on this forum.
handy - May 29, 2010 | 10:19 pm · Link
@El Cid:
You ain’t never gonna amount to nothin’.
SiubhanDuinne - May 29, 2010 | 10:21 pm · Link
@scav: So let me get this straight. It was Kirk’s entire unit, not Kirk himself. It was the Vice Admiral Rufus L. Taylor Award, not the U.S. Navy’s Intelligence Officer of the Year Award. It was awarded while the unit was based in Italy, not in a war zone in Kosovo. Other than that, this guy’s bio got it pretty much right?
As Yutsano notes, IOKIYAR. But on the bright side, and coming back more on topic, maybe Kirk can get Palin to campaign for him.
Tonal Crow - May 29, 2010 | 10:28 pm · Link
@Elisabeth: It means, “Put me in office, and I’ll have the ‘press’ saluting me 24/7—or I’ll have them in irons”. You think Saddam’s spirit just vanished—poof!—like that when he died?
sherifffruitfly - May 29, 2010 | 10:30 pm · Link
He’s an average American. Americans simply don’t care what’s true and what’s false.
Martin - May 29, 2010 | 10:45 pm · Link
@SiubhanDuinne: All Republicans are presupposed to have served in every major military conflict of their lifetime, earned a purple heart, bronze star, and medal of honor. Even if Kirk was mistaken about that award, it won’t diminish the fact that when he was in the CIA that he figured out a Soviet super-advanced submarine was going to defect, he convinced the stupid Navy guys to believe him, got onto the sub, killed the sabateur, and prevented World War III. Not to mention the time during WWII, after he lead a company to storm Normandy beach, he then took a handful of men to track down the lone surviving brother from his family and return him safely home.
Nothing like that Democrat from Connecticut who spit on soldiers and sent care packages to Osama Bin Laden.
scav - May 29, 2010 | 10:46 pm · Link
@SiubhanDuinne: Exactly. As the Trib put it, he “overstated” his military award. This is The Trib which is IOKIYAR you can wrap fish in.
ed - May 29, 2010 | 11:00 pm · Link
No shit, Sherlock Prez.
SiubhanDuinne - May 29, 2010 | 11:04 pm · Link
@scav: Oh yeah, I remember the Trib’s political bent from my years growing up in Chicago. (I left half a century ago, but some things never change.)
Frankly, both candidates sound pretty slimy. But then again, as I said above, some things never change.
chuck - May 29, 2010 | 11:15 pm · Link
Maybe he learned his geography from Yakko Warner’s “Countries of the World” song, which makes the same mistake of identifying Puerto Rico as a country.
Josh - May 29, 2010 | 11:17 pm · Link
When I first heard about this I laughed out loud.
Seriously. These are the kind of jackasses that run for public office. I’d like to give members of congress a standardized test to ascertain their knowledge of how the government works and see if they have a basic understanding of our tax system.
My assumption is that most members of congress are horribly stupid.
I mean, you can make an assertion as to the level of intelligence versus political savvy, but my guess is that most people who actively want to serve in that cesspool don’t exactly rate intelligence as their best quality.
Yutsano - May 29, 2010 | 11:35 pm · Link
@SiubhanDuinne: The local snicker right now is that Palin has endorsed the teabagger candidate over the two-time loser Republican slimeball. Or as I joked to my brother, the Kiss of Death. I think, however, we’re gonna end up with the endorsement candidate because of our joke of a primary system. It sucks because I want Patty to absolutely destroy the teabagger, which she would without blinking.
@Steeplejack: And yes the name was very controversial during the McCarthy era. The residents stubbornly refused to change it because it celebrated the history of the Russian immigrants to the area at the turn of the 20th Century. It’s a little colony of pure liberalism in the red sea that is Idaho. It’s also a neat little town, when I was in college the better restaurants were a short drive away in Moscow.
Steeplejack - May 29, 2010 | 11:36 pm · Link
@Yutsano:
How appropriate.
freelancer (itouch) - May 30, 2010 | 12:03 am · Link
@El Cid:
It’s not exactly something original, but your distillation of this is awesome.
dorita - May 30, 2010 | 12:27 am · Link
AP link on memeorandum goes to brietbart.
kommrade reproductive vigor - May 30, 2010 | 12:41 am · Link
Yep. ReaLAMEricans shouldn’t be violated by a press that reports facts.
Mike G - May 30, 2010 | 12:43 am · Link
asiangrrlMN - May 30, 2010 | 12:50 am · Link
Wow. That whole article is right-on. He did a really nice job in summing up La Palina in a few deft strokes. I am glad this particular idiot (Jones) was upset, but I am not sanguine that we have reached peak Palina yet. We shall see.
@El Cid: Man. I really dig it when you post comments like this one. Fake-marry me again?
@Steeplejack: OK, I know your work schedule has been screwy lately, but you’re messing with my mind.
@Yutsano: Hi, hon. I read in the post below that your pain spiked today. I hope you’re feeling better now.
Steeplejack - May 30, 2010 | 12:58 am · Link
@Yutsano:
Okay, you’re freaking me out with your ability to bend space and time and respond to my comment before it was even posted.
Say, did I hear theramin music?
Steeplejack - May 30, 2010 | 12:59 am · Link
@asiangrrlMN:
WTF?! How so?
asiangrrlMN - May 30, 2010 | 1:01 am · Link
@Steeplejack: It’s the edit function. I love doing that. It’s fun to read comments out of order.
@Steeplejack: You’re too early! I think of you as the late late late night guy!
Yutsano - May 30, 2010 | 1:01 am · Link
@Steeplejack: Heh. Wifey showed me that trick. Yeah it’s kinda fun to do that, all you do is reply in the edit square. Then you’ve time-warped without even trying!
@asiangrrlMN:
:: suppresses Beavis laugh ::
I’m on a lotta drugs to manage how I’m feeling right now. Not real sure why the pain level surged on me, but I’m not bleeding so that’s a good sign at least.
Steeplejack - May 30, 2010 | 1:05 am · Link
@asiangrrlMN:
Just answered you on the open thread below. Yeah, I’m getting an early start on the late shift tonight.
asiangrrlMN - May 30, 2010 | 1:07 am · Link
@Yutsano: Why you laughing at me? You like Steepman messing with my mind? And, I am glad you are not bleeding, but boo on needing so much drugz to be functional.
@Steeplejack: Ah. Just read the other thread. Cool that you are done for the weekend.
Yutsano - May 30, 2010 | 1:09 am · Link
@asiangrrlMN: I think…I’m just gonna sit here and snicker and keep you guessing some. Yeah I can occasionally be that evil. Not often though, and if pressed I can always blame the drugs.
Crap. Suddenly I want chocolate.
Steeplejack - May 30, 2010 | 1:13 am · Link
@asiangrrlMN:
Wanted to mention that I just noticed a little while ago that “The World According to MEH!” is on the blog roll. Kudos.
And has Yutsano given any bowdlerized, euphemistic description of his surgery? Bone spurs? Fixing old sports injury? Sex reassignment?
asiangrrlMN - May 30, 2010 | 1:16 am · Link
@Yutsano: I haz chocolate. I will even share if you tell me! But, I suspect it has to do with the irony of me saying someone is messing with my mind since I do it all the time.
@Steeplejack: Thanks! I was stoked when I first saw it, too. And, not on BJ he hasn’t. But, I know I know! Pick me! Whaddya give me to tell ya?
Mnemosyne - May 30, 2010 | 1:20 am · Link
@slag:
Oh, c’mon, it took two seconds to find the YouTube!
Yutsano - May 30, 2010 | 1:25 am · Link
@asiangrrlMN: I haz some in the house, I’m just choosing to be lazy about going and getting it. Not that it’s far or hidden or anything like that. Well kind of. It’s hidden from my brother cause not only is it chocolate it’s Girl Scout cookies. So that makes it doubly delish.
@Mnemosyne: I blame lassitude. Oh and wanted to let you know re: the puppeh: my one friend just lost her dog of 14 years so she’s still too raw for that yet. It’s okay though cause I’m leaning on another friend down there, he’s a big gay softie when it comes to animals.
asiangrrlMN - May 30, 2010 | 1:29 am · Link
@Yutsano: Nom nom nom! You must share with me! And, what will you give me not to tell Steepman?
Yutsano - May 30, 2010 | 1:31 am · Link
@asiangrrlMN: Brownies. Or I’ll figure out those broccoli white cheddar scones you were so gaga over. Though I may need FH #1’s assistance with that. I make kickass brownies however.
asiangrrlMN - May 30, 2010 | 1:36 am · Link
@Yutsano: Done! I will take both. Yes, I’m easy (just not cheap).
Mnemosyne - May 30, 2010 | 1:37 am · Link
@Yutsano:
It takes a while to be ready for a new pet. After our cat Natasha died, G was very resistant to getting another one until Keaton picked me out. (No, seriously, Keaton reached out of his carrier at Petco when the rescue group was packing up for the day and grabbed my arm.)
I was looking on the Petfinder site for her just now and she’s gone so—- fingers crossed!—it looks like someone else fell in love with her and took her home.
Steeplejack - May 30, 2010 | 1:39 am · Link
@asiangrrlMN:
Hmm, let’s see . . . picture of adorable little black feral kitten just adopted by my friend?
Yutsano - May 30, 2010 | 1:40 am · Link
@Mnemosyne: To give you an idea just how much of a softie my gay friend is when it comes to animals: his beagle got run over five years ago. He still won’t talk about it. It was why I brought up that sweet face to him as well.
I will take her ad being gone as a positive sign that she has a new home.
Yutsano - May 30, 2010 | 1:45 am · Link
@asiangrrlMN:
I will compromise on this point. You can tell the exact diagnosis, just not on BJ. Actually there are only three people on here who know that, and they know who they are.
Mnemosyne - May 30, 2010 | 1:50 am · Link
@Yutsano:
I like to think one of the lurkers here saw that curly Lily-like tail and couldn’t resist her.
asiangrrlMN - May 30, 2010 | 1:50 am · Link
@Steeplejack: Ooooooh! Tempting! Let me confer with Yutsy. Well, you can read what he said below. I will abide by his stricture. Can I haz pic, anyway?
@Yutsano: I can live with that. (And you know I would never really tell without your permission, right?)
Yutsano - May 30, 2010 | 1:55 am · Link
@asiangrrlMN: I know you’re just playing around. It has nothing to do with me sending brownies and/or scones if I can get the dynamics figured out. If Steepy is curious enough and keeps bugging you you’re free to disclose in an e-mail. In the meantime I’ll get cracking on the baked goods.
slag - May 30, 2010 | 1:58 am · Link
@Mnemosyne:
Sentient Puddle - May 30, 2010 | 2:01 am · Link
Ward was truly a terrible candidate. For this and many other reasons.
One thing unmentioned that’s also amusing is that he made that statement about Puerto Rico in a debate with his primary opponent, and that primary opponent happens to be from Puerto Rico. I have to wonder what the fuck was going through his mind when Ward was giving his reply to the question.
Steeplejack - May 30, 2010 | 2:03 am · Link
@Yutsano:
Jeez, I’m just looking for some sort of “the facts were in the ball park” approximation here, so I can gauge how to titrate my sympathy and get-well wishes (which I duly send, by the way). “Fixing a bunion” is very different from Cole’s “I did a shoulder plant protecting my trash hound from snowy paw syndrome.”
Yutsano - May 30, 2010 | 2:10 am · Link
@Sentient Puddle: The most disappointing part? No one has linked to this yet!
@Steeplejack: Enough for full anesthesia but incision less than two inches. I’m much better than I was I just had an unexpected pain spike today. I was going to try and wean myself off the serious pain drugs today, but I still have them so if I need I gotz.
Steeplejack - May 30, 2010 | 2:16 am · Link
@Yutsano:
Key words: “full anesthesia.” If they knocked you out, that’s a big deal. And recovering from anesthesia is an ordeal in itself, even if they didn’t cut you and just stood around mocking you while you were out. Take as long as you need to come back, and fuck those idiots at work if they don’t get it.
asiangrrlMN - May 30, 2010 | 2:16 am · Link
@Steeplejack: Somewhere in between. That’s safe to say! Hee hee. Your follow up post about standing around and mocking is hi-larious. I agree with your sentiments, though. Yutsy should not be going back in yet.
@Sentient Puddle: Are you serious? He said that with a Puerto Rican present? I should not be surprised, but for some weird reason, I am.
Joey Maloney - May 30, 2010 | 4:01 am · Link
This is pretty choice: To celebrate Memorial Day, Sarah Palin tweets without attribution a poem written by a veteran. Compare http://twitter.com/SarahPalinU.....5010655928 with http://iwvpa.net/provincecm/.
Yep, Sarah just loves the troops. Especially when she can steal from them.
Tehanu - May 30, 2010 | 5:34 am · Link
@Josh: My assumption is that most members of congress are horribly stupid.
Mark Twain: Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a Member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
Starfish - May 30, 2010 | 6:50 am · Link
This type of stupidity is not funny if you are the Puerto Rican about to get deported to Mexico.
Brian J - May 30, 2010 | 7:49 am · Link
@Sentient Puddle:
In some cases, candidates should be required, by outside sources, to record their thoughts following a debate. I would have loved to read what went through Obama and Biden’s heads following their debates with McCain and Palin.
El Cid - May 30, 2010 | 10:06 am · Link
@asiangrrlMN: Again? Okay, but it was hell to find a good fake ring the first time. They just don’t fake ‘em like they used to.
kommrade reproductive vigor - May 30, 2010 | 11:10 am · Link
@Brian J:
Obama – “Phew! I thought the old guy was going to keel over.”
Biden – “That was a big fucking idiot.”
goatchowder - May 30, 2010 | 2:12 pm · Link
Ummm…. that’s the BUSH brand! Dumb, willfully-ignorant, and damn proud of it, defiantly—all Bush. Palin is just the latest spokesperson for it. She is Bush in lipstick.