Knowing What's Most Important

Courtesy of Jim Kuhnhenn of the AP:

WASHINGTON – An acclaimed celebrity makeup artist for Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin collected more money from John McCain's campaign than his foreign policy adviser.

Amy Strozzi, who works on the reality show "So You Think You Can Dance" and has been Palin's traveling stylist, was paid $22,800, according to campaign finance reports for the first two weeks in October. In contrast, McCain's foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, was paid $12,500, the report showed.

In fact, Palin's stylist turns out to have been the entire McFailin' campaign's highest paid staffer so far this month.

By that measure, hair and makeup would seem to be worth approximately 85% more to the Republican Party than a cogent foreign policy on talking down Iran and North Korea from developing nuclear weapons. No wonder McCain can't negotiate with America's detractors -- he can't afford to, what with the cost of lipgloss.

Obviously, it's more expensive to cover up a pig in lipstick than anyone previously thought. Amy Strozzi may or may not be bemoaning the end of her soon-to-be-very-short-lived sideline, but no sweat. I understand Fox is already developing "So You Think You Can Run For Veep" for the 2012 fall viewing season.

But before anyone thinks McCain's too poor to take care of business, please consider that he has actually done some kind of job with the world's dictators in the past. At least I hope some work was involved when he and little-miss-put-upon Cindy were hanging out at Chilean fascist dictator Augustus Pinochet's seaside retreat.

Now that's investigative journalism -- thanks John Dinges.

At the time of the meeting, in the late afternoon of December 30, the U.S. Justice Department was seeking the extradition of two close Pinochet associates for an act of terrorism in Washington DC, the 1976 assassination of former ambassador to the U.S. and former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier. The car bombing on Sheridan Circle in the U.S. capital was widely described at the time as the most egregious act of international terrorism perpetrated on U.S. soil by a foreign power.

I'll try to scare up a couple photos of the Letelier bombing -- they're pretty brutal. I actually used to drive past the site twice a day, while I was living in DC. (I know, that's appropos of nothing, but it always seemed odd to drive through bucolic Embassy Row and realize terrorists were blowing up people on that very site.)

So it turns out that McCain was for meeting with brutal terrorism-sponsoring dictators before he was against meeting wtih brutal terrorism-sponsoring dictators. If John McCain is truly against torture, why would he spend a couple days hanging out with someone who was later charged with 36 counts of torturing of his own citizens? THIRTY-SIX!

Of course, to McCain, the distinction is that Pinochet was vocally anti-Communist. Much like Sarah Palin's sorta-semi-tacit support of abortion clinic bombings (to the extent she does not believe they constitute terrorist acts), it would seem if your violent and deadly bombings are done in advancement of a cause the Republican party ticket supports, by god, you're a patriot, not a terrorist.

If only that douchebag Matt Drudge would take a lesson or two in real digging before he started getting on the bandwagon of the most easily-disproven alleged hate attack since...well...since that other douchebag Al Sharpton rode the Tawana Bradley train to his own political oblivion.

A Pittsburgh police commander says a volunteer for the McCain campaign who reported being robbed and attacked near a bank ATM in Bloomfield has confessed to making up the story. Police say charges will be filed. More details to follow.

- Huffington Post

In fact, there's no evidence she was even using the ATM at all, according to the ATM's own security camera.

"If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain's quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting." - John Moody, executive vice president at Fox News

Obama, you may start measuring drapes now.