No Runny Eggs

It would be nice if Michelle Malkin opened up comments more often, especially for stuff like this caption contest:

How many people do you think actually believe what you’re pitching?

If I had Photoshop, I would’ve been able to give life to Michelle’s caption – Quick, hand them their white flags!

Comment away.

Guess I should’ve put the warning up before, but I figured my regular readers would recognize that I don’t have much if any respect for the Dems, and I wasn’t exactly expecting a whole heap of guests. Since I’m not the fastest typist in the world, I use paraphrasing liberally. How I handle it is I put the questions in italics, quotes and near-quotes in quotation marks, and my comments in parentheses.

Dunno why I’m going to do it, but in a bit less than 2 hours, CNN will be airing the second Democratic Presidential debate, with everybody showing up, including the Kook Twins, Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel. I’ll be here with live coverage and humor breaks, mainly because Sister Toldjah is taking a well-deserved break from the madness.

17:12 (CDT – again, deal with it; it takes too long to type “p.m.”, and I’m not on the Least Coast) – As usual, Free Republic has a live thread up.

17:18 – List of questions that should be asked but won’t from the Politico (H/T – FReeper TornadoAlley3):

Questions for:

Sen. Hillary Clinton:
"” Were you at the caucus meeting where former Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., suggested that all Democratic senators read the full classified National Intelligence Estimate? Why didn’t you read it?

"” If you were briefed on the classified intelligence, how can we trust you to make the right decision in the future with all the facts in front of you? And if you didn’t read the classified intelligence, how can we trust you to get all the facts in front of you?

"” You’ve often talked about the importance of unions, but when you were on the board of Wal-Mart, you reportedly were silent while Wal-Mart actively and publicly opposed union organizing. How do you explain this contradiction?

"” The Washington Post said that "[your] loyalists describe [you] as the least-known famous person in politics, by which they mean they do not believe people know the real Hillary Clinton. They hope to use town hall meetings, living room coffees and interactive Internet conversations to reintroduce her to voters." However, you’ve hired an expert in "thought leadership," and a corporate branding expert to confront potential "character issues." Why did your campaign hire these consultants? What have you learned from them?

Former Sen. John Edwards:

"” You had access to classified information, including the National Intelligence Estimate, during the days before the vote to go to war in Iraq. However, your campaign recently admitted that you did not read the NIE, one of the only documents that provided key caveats to the Bush administration’s justification for war. Why not? And do you wish that you had?

"” You’ve now been running for president as long as you were in the Senate. Should Americans trust that you have the experience to be commander in chief?

"” Over the past four years, you have collected approximately $580,000 in salary from three jobs"”Fortress Investments, your poverty center and the Senate"”where you often didn’t show up for work. You talk a lot about the importance of hard work and the work ethic your father instilled in you. Was it right for you to get paid so much for what amounted to very little work? Isn’t that the kind of inequality your campaign is fighting against?

"” You’ve railed against offshore tax shelters but you’ve still got money in the Caymans through your investments in Fortress hedge fund. Will you divest yourself of those holdings?

Sen. Barack Obama:

"” You rose to prominence as an anti-war candidate who opposed funding the operation in Iraq in your 2004 Senate primary race. But when you got to the Senate, you went underground, failing to speak out on the war for the first 18 or so months in office and voting to fund the war. Why did you wait until you became a presidential candidate to speak out about the war? Are you pandering to the left?

"” Do you honestly think you can convince voters that there’s something new, different, better in the way you do politics when, since entering the Senate, you chose to conduct a real estate deal with a known"”now indicted"”Chicago criminal?

"” You’ve promised universal health care but failed to include the one thing in your plan that experts across the board think is needed to ensure coverage for all"”a coverage mandate. Isn’t it misleading to promise universal health care when leading academics have concluded that a mandate is needed to cover everyone?

"” Your website says "We need to take steps to stop climate change." If you believe this, why do you support liquid coal technology, which would worsen global warming?

For Gov. Bill Richardson:

"” You’ve based your campaign on your resume. But recently, many aspects of your resume have been called into question"”from the trivial, like your baseball career, to the more significant, like your claim to have brokered a peace deal in Darfur. Do these exaggerations undermine the rationale for your candidacy?

"” As governor and representative from New Mexico, you’ve been a supporter of gun rights, including voting against background checks. But as a Democratic presidential candidate you’ve come out in favor of them. Are you moving away from your New Mexico record to appeal to the Democratic primary voter?

For Sen. Joe Biden:

"” Your plan for Iraq would establish three separate self-governing regions. Wouldn’t this plan act as a prelude to a violent and uncontrollable breakup of that country?

"” In 2006 you supported the Senate’s immigration reform bill "because it was the best option available." You also recently said better border security, employer punishment and a guest worker program were important to the current immigration reform bill. What would a perfect bill look like?

For Sen. Chris Dodd:

"” Why are you stalling on holding a hearing about the executive pay bill that would give shareholders more say on executive pay?

"” While you have said you support rolling back the Bush tax cuts, you’ve also said the estate tax should be "moderated" or eliminated for some. How precisely should the estate tax be changed?

17:21 – Look for the Dhimms to run from CNN; they brought in JC Watts to help decipher the spin (which will also be coming from his fellow “analysts” James Carville and Donna Brazille).

17:40 – For those without cable but with broadband, CNN and WMUR are both streaming the video (note, the WMUR feed is currently inactive). CNN has 4 live feeds up on that link.

17:45 – Allahpundit is also on top of this, and he’s got some interesting items, including a WaPo poll that says it’s still Hiliary’s to lose and a YouTube interview with the Breck Girl. Interesting exchange called the “shotgun round” starting at about 5:04 called “right or privilege”:

College education – “Right.” Health care – “Right.” A livable wage – right. Owning a handgun – (pause) “Privilege.” American citizenship for someone not born here but worked here one year – “That’s a hard one because I think people have to earn citizenship… Has to be longer than 1 year…. Privilege” 5 years? – “Yes.” Access to the internet – “Right.”

18:00 – Add 2008central.net to the live blogs. Blitzer laying the ground rules. The first half will be presstitutes, 2nd half will be CNN-vetted locals. No gongs, no bells, and the candidates have 1 minute to answer, and Blitzer will give up to 4 minutes for follow-up.

18:02 – No opening statements, just an opening sentence. Gravel – “I’m back from the past.” Richardson snuck in “proud”, and Kucinich called Cleveland “city of champions.”

18:04 – Obama up first. Could it be that Bush has been successful? “No. World’s more dangerous, Iraq is a distraction.” Blitzer follow-up for Hussein Obama – Has Bush done anything right? “No.” Now calling out Breck Girl on his “bumper sticker” slogan. Breck sticking by it. Hiliary whacking Breck Girl, pointing out she’s the senator from New York. Blitzer continuing on Kucinich, pointing out that the Patriot Act helped catch the JFK plotters. Menace blindly wishing for 9/10 world.

18:08 – To Biden – Why are the rest of the Congresscritters wrong to vote against funding Operation Iraqi Freedom? – Biden trotting out the armor line, not blaming them. Blitzer – “Why are you reluctant to say they’re wrong? – “I won’t blast them, but I won’t defund the troops.” Blitzer To Hiliary – Why cut funds now? – (paraphrase) “I want to bleed the troops dry to show my support.” Same to Hussein Obama – same answer as Hiliary. Blitzer to Breck Girl – (paraphrase) “I would’ve pushed for a timetable come Hell and high water, and they folded.” Blitzer trying to get Breck to name names – “Obama and Clinton didn’t lead, and pushing to health care.” Obama responds – “You’re about 4 1/2 years late because I opposed it from the beginning. Don’t play politics on this.” Hiliary – (paraphrase) “It’s all Boooosh’s fault”. Back to Breck – “There are differences between making it very clear on voting to defund and staying silent.” Blitzer to Doddering – “I wanted a date certain.” Blitzer to Richardson on Darfur – Since you want us out this year and you’re pushing for us to get into Darfur, what moral responsibility does the US have if Iraq turns into genocide? – (paraphrase) “I don’t give a rip about Iraqis.” MOONBAT TIME as we go to Gravel – “I blame the ‘Rats. Domino theory is irrelevant.”

18:20 – To Kucinich, an e-mailed question – Can you tell me if the mission we accomplished during our deployment in Iraq was worth our effort and sacrifice or was it a mistake? – “Mistake. Repeat Vietnam’s defunding.” Biden – “Booosh lied, let’s not lie. You need 67 votes or a DhimmiRAT President to end the war.” Blitzer to Hiliary – Do you regret voting for the war without reading the briefs? “I read all the briefs. I wanted to give Blixie more time.” (to make a WMD-massively-armed Iraq a reality?) Same to Breck – “No. We have to re-establish trust.” (BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!) Blitzer to Hussein Obama – Is a vote for the war a DQ? – “No, they were making the decision with the best intel available at the time. I don’t need your civil war. It feeds Haliburton while it buries the poor.” Same to Gravel Bat – “It’s a DQ.” Hiliary responds – “If I knew then what I do now, I wouldn’t have voted for it.”

18:27 – Add William Smith to the live-blogging ranks

18:29 – To Richardson – Why is McShame-Swimmer-Bush Amnesty Act of 2007 not amnesty? – “I don’t want to separate families.” (So deport them all! Continuing Richardson’s answer…) “Increase patrols on the border, earned citizenship program including paying back taxes and learning English, and penalize employers who employ illegals.” When pushed by Blitzer, Richardson continues – “This bill separates families because of the fence. I want to unionize the ‘guest workers'”. Blitzer to Biden – Why do we need a fence? – “It was the only option, and I voted for it because it was to stop drugs, not my future voters.” To Hussein Obama – “We need to patrol Canada’s borders more-aggressively.” (Like Friday night?. Please, continue, Barak, paraphrased) “We need to balance compassion with laws.”

18:35 – Blitzer asks who supports English as the official language. Gravel only one to raise his hand. Hussein Obama objecting – “It’s divisive.” Applause. Hiliary also objecting – “We can’t have ballots in Spanish or translators in hospitals if it were official.” Dodd objecting – “It’s diversity.”

18:37 – To Breck Girl – Your opponents seem to think they can institute Canada”Care” without raising taxes. Are they being liars? “I’m proud to kill Bush’s tax cuts to institute Canada’Care’, institute the phantom S(l)ick Willie middle-class tax cut, and kill the deficit.” Rebuttal to Hussein Obama – Does your health care really provide “universal” coverage? – “If we regulate drug companies to death, we can do it without full Canada’Care’.” Hiliary up – “We’re all talking about my failed HiliaryCare, so let’s stand firm against those that see it for the sham it is.” Blitzer asks whether it will work without raising taxes – “We all are going to kill the Bush tax cuts.” To Richardson – “We insured every chile in New Mexico, and my plan will be mandatory, but not mandatory Canada’Care’.” Doddering – “It’s shameful.” (suggestion; rein in Breck and his ilk. Continue.) “It’s going to take cooperation.” Breck Girl – “I want full Canada’Care’, and I’m willing to make you poor to do it.” Hussein Obama – “I’ll start with making it affordable, Breck will make it mandatory.” To Kucinich – “I REALLY want full Canada’Care’ with absolutely, positively no option other than the gubmint.”

18:47 – To Hiliary – Did your husband get it wrong with “Don’t ask, don’t tell”? – “It was a transitional policy, and we’re beyond that now.” (My follow-up, how many Arab linguists are gay as opposed to bestiality?) Blitzer pushing, Hiliary pushing back saying that DADT was all that was possible back then. To Biden – “The troops in the field aren’t asking, so DADT is wrong.” Blitzer asks if it should end, all raise hands. To Richardson – “I want full African-American-style civil rights for gays, including civil unions.” To Breck Girl – Is it time to drop the “civil union” charade and offer full gay marriage? – “I want to lead.”

18:53 – To Gravel – How would you use S(l)ick Willie? – “I’d use him as a roving ambassador.” (He’ll be roving, or at least his hands will be.) “But I’d keep him on a tight leash because of DADT.” Same to Richardson – “UN ambassador…but seriously, I’d send him to the Middle East.” (because he did sooooo well last time giving Hamas a foothold). Same to Hussein Obama – “He’s a damn smooth liar and must be at least part-French because he hates using the military.” Same to Hiliary – “It’s a fascinating question…. I like using former Presidents.” (indeed)

18:57 – Sure sounded like it to me, Jim. To Dodd How would you reduce record-high gasoline prices? – “Conservation to both reduce foreign oil and global ‘warming’, and taxes.” Blitzer pushes Dodd on the here-and-now – “Taxes and redistribution.” To Gravel – “The tax plan is not good, but we need to get out of the Middle East.” To Breck – “Let’s sue Big Oil! Can my firm get a piece?” To Richardson – “We need an Apollo/WWII major sacrifice program to solve global ‘warming’.” To Biden – “Kill the subsidy.” (Guess he wants all the domestic taps shut) “Investigate Big Oil.” (higher prices) “Raise the gas mileage.”

19:03 – BREAK!

19:10 – Blitzer – We gathered a bunch of Dhimmis. Question 1 from a teacher/wife of a soldier in Iraq – What is your vision on military operations and rebuilding the military? To Kucinich – “We need to get out of Iraq and withhold all the funds. We need to put blue helmets with flowers on the troops. Much of the money isn’t going to the troops.” (Blame your fellow RATs for their pork). To Hussein Obama – “I don’t want the troops going on repeated tours. I want the troops treated with the dignity and honor they deserve.” To Doddering – Are there relics of the Cold War we can cut? “Can we get a round of applause for the troops?” Polite applause. “There needs to be a reassessment of the systems, and use the military as a last resort.” (We’re at WAR, dumbass) Blitzer pushes for specifics – “F-22”.

19:15 – Social worker who has a son in Iraq – Why can’t we get the VA working? To Hussein Obama – “The VA isn’t working too well.” (And the ‘Rats want to have government run the rest of health care?) “At least they could negotiate drug prices. Vets should be able to go to normal hospitals if the VA isn’t working.” To Richardson – “The VA system is good, but I’d give them a card to get them into normal hospitals because it isn’t good enough.” To Gravel – “I get my meds from the VA, and I’m satisfied. Gubmint has always waged war against the veterans.” (mostly your party, bub) Calls out Hussein Obama for not knowing about the problems at Walter Reed, who tried to say we need to spend, spend, spend, spend, spend, spend. “I didn’t know until the story broke.”

19:21 – A public-sector retiree broad (3 in a row, BTW), who lived in Iran in the 1960s – Would you use force or diplomacy? To Hiliary – “I would’ve used diplomacy much earlier.” Blitzer to Hiliary – What if diplomacy fails? – “I don’t get into hypotheticals.” To Breck – How far would you go? – “They rallied for us after 9/11.” (that’s news to me) “Carrot of nuclear fuel…” (Because that worked so well with North Korea) “…and stick of economic sanctions.” (Gee, I recall the E3 trying diplomacy with Iran the last umpteen years with no success). To Doddering – “They’re a decade away from weaponizing the nukes.” (Two words – container ship) “I wouldn’t use force unless they had the missile fueling up.”

19:26 – College prof (finally, a guy) – Would you continue to support Pakistan?. To Hiliary – “I’ll continue realpolitik.” Blitzer to Kucinich – We know where in Pakistan Osama bin Laden is, he’ll be there for only 20 minutes, and we’ll incur collateral damage, would you take the shot? “No.” (Osama and company had no qualms about trying to take you out, asshat.) Same to Hussein Obama – “Osama is a military target, but we let him get away because we were distracted.” (er, Hussein, we weren’t focused on Iraq in December 2001). Blitzer to the group – Would you authorize a hit on Osama? All but Kucinich raised their hands, and Hiliary expounded by saying that S(l)ick Willie “tried” (not as hard as he “tried” on his “middle-class tax cut). Breck Girl brays about what would happen if we took out Musharraf in Pakistan.

19:32 – Another public-sector employee, a psychologist at a high school – Darfur To Biden – He sounds a lot like Bush in fall 2002-spring 2003. Blitzer to the group – Should we use force to end the genocide in Darfur? – Hiliary dodging the hypotheticals again (so what the fuck are you for?) Blitzer to Richardson – Would you use force? – “No. Let’s continue what hasn’t worked, and boycot the ChiCom Olympics.” (because that worked soooo well when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979). To Doddering – “Peanut Farmer was wrong in 1980, Richardson would be wrong now.” To Breck Girl – “We don’t have the moral authority anymore. Let’s set up schools in Africa.” (ignoring that we are setting up schools in Afghanistan only because we used force). To Hussein Obama – Missed it. Blitzer to the group – Would you repeat Peanut Farmer’s boycott? Breck and Richardson say yes. Blitzer to Richardson again – “I would close Club Gitmo.”

19:39 – Skull full of mush – Mandatory service? To Gravel – “Not mandatory, but we’d give you free college if you did serve.” To Kucinich – “Not mandatory, but we would have the feds do what churches used to do.” To Doddering – “I joined the Peace Corps because of Kennedy. We don’t need a draft, but we’ll bribe you with free college.”

19:42 – A self-employed computer consultant – What is “rich”? (how did he slip through?). To Hussein Obama – “$250K/year, and we want 39.6% of that.” Blitzer pushing for what income level would earn a Hussein Obama tax cut – “We want to spend, spend, spend.” To Breck Girl – “I’d rather not say, but it’s $200K/year. Free college for all who slave for the gubmint!”

19:46 – Ex-hair-salon owner (guy) – How would you balance the budget, taxes or spending? To Richardson – “I’ve ‘balanced’ 5 budgets, so I’d defund the war and spend on domestic programs. I would also like a line-item veto, and ignore the contradiction between my call for the end to ‘corporate welfare’ and call for growth in the economy. The latter, if we could grow it a bit more, would solve everything without any cuts.” To Kucinich – “Stop the war, end the trade deficit by pushing labor unions on the rest of the world via bilateral deals.”

19:50 – Anonymous blogger – Democrats have vowed to weed out corruption and earmarks. Would you vow, if elected, to veto any bill with earmarks? To Doddering – “I won’t commit.” (channeling Hiliary) “PAYGO, espeically on tax cuts.” To Gravel – Is it time to get rid of earmarks? “Yes, and we need a line-item veto, but they won’t give it” (Congress tried, but it was SCOTUS that struck it down). To Hiliary – “We had it 6 years ago” (no thanks to your husband) “AMT needs to be reformed and hopefully, eventually eliminated.” (er, it was your fellow RATs that created it). Back to Gravel – “Why did you raid SocSecurity, you wascally Congresscritters.” To Kucinich – “It’s all money’s fault.” To Biden – “Public financing of elections.” (better to defund gubmint, because money is power, and gubmint has more than campaigns).

19:55 – Back to the public sectors and a teacher – Your 100-day plan?. To Breck – “Respect, poor, and focus on foreign diplomacy.” (the Islamokazis hate our values, and RAT values specifically). To Hiliary – “Retreat and defeat from Iraq.” To Hussein Obama – SAME To Richardson – “Education.” (because federalizing education worked soooo well the last 30 years). To Biden – “Retreat and defeat from Iraq, and ignore that it would make defusing Iran and North Korea impossible.” To Kucinich – “Make the world safe for Islam while instituting Canada’Care'”. To Gravel – “Congress could end the war now by defunding.” To Doddering – “Restore the Constitution.”

19:59 – END!!!! HALLELUJAH!!!!!!

20:32 – Semi-instant thoughts (trying to put aside that I don’t want any of these people in the Oval Office):
– CNN did a pretty nice job of trying to keep this pack of bloviators on track without the distractions of the gong show. Now, will they repeat this on Tuesday?
– Memo to the ‘Rats – You’re not running against Bush. Indeed, unless the rest of the Pubbie field drops out and The Other Thompson (the one that is officially in the race, but barely) is the nominee, you won’t be running against anybody with ANY ties to the Bush administration.
– Memo to Hillary – The 2006 playbook was a unique situation. Hypotheticals are one of two things we the voters have to go on to judge what you would do in office.

And with that, I’m done.