Secretly Sikh?

It's exceedingly frustrating when professional media personalities get their facts wrong. But it's absolutely maddening when reporters twist the facts for dramatic effect, and then refuse to back down when they're asked to acknowledge the distortion.

Case in point:

Today, on my way to work, I heard a good reporter make what I consider to be a big error. Speaking on WSB about Tuesday's runoff elections in South Carolina, Jamie Dupree paraphrased one of his own statements:

The idea that an Indian-American Sikh would easily win the GOP Governor's runoff and a black man would beat a Thurmond shows that times have changed in the Palmetto State.

The quote above was published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a column by Mr. Dupree.

Unfortunately, the statement is recklessly misleading. Nikki Haley (winner of the GOP Governor's runoff ) is not a Sikh, she's a Methodist. Why is this important? Because in some parts of South Carolina, Sikh = f#!king raghead.

South Carolina is a state that takes religion very seriously. Religion and politics mingle quite freely in the Palmetto State, and SC is said to be 92% Christian. So although it is decidedly unfair, the hard reality is this: Even having a Sikh heritage is, at best, a big distraction ― and at worst, a big liability ― in South Carolina. Actually being a Sikh would almost undoubtedly be a political career killer.

It is true that Nikki Haley's parents adhere to Sikhism, but Nikki Haley is a 38-year-old Methodist Christian who converted to Christianity at 24 years of age.

Here's a statement from Haley's website:

Question: Is Nikki a Christian?

In Nikki’s words: “My faith in Christ has a profound impact on my daily life and I look to Him for guidance with every decision I make. God has blessed my family in so many ways and my faith in the Lord gives me great strength on a daily basis. Being a Christian is not about words, but about living for Christ every day.”.

So when Jamie Dupree called Nikki Haley an "Indian-American Sikh," I set out to correct the record, and sent JD a tweet ASAP:

".@JamieDupree Nikki Haley is Methodist. You said she's Sikh on WSB"

To which Dupree replied,

"she is an Indian American Sikh by heritage - her name was Nikki Kaur Randhawa - she became a Methodist later in life"

Then I fired back with the following:

".@jamiedupree Sikh heritiage ≠ Sikh. WSB statement was misleading for those who don't know Haley's religion vs. her parents' religion"

I drove the point in a little harder with this:

".@jamiedupree I have Democrat heritage. Converted to GOP in adulthood. Am I a Democrat? http://is.gd/d1k70 #Haley"

Heritage vs. conviction... it's a distinction with a very important difference, is it not?

I see no reason to second-guess Haley's statements about her religious beliefs or to plant seeds of confusion for idiots who want to promote the "secret religion" meme.

How hard is it to stick to the facts?

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Sikhism at a glance

Fuzzy Slippers: Ten bucks. Every Friday. For America.

Before it's News: Fundamentally change the course of our nation, one week at a time from now until Election Day, November 2, 2010.

Government doesn't create jobs, government creates debt

A very simple but important message from the man who wants to unseat John McCain's accomplice in crimes against the Constitution:

Ron Johnson is willing to spend his last dime to secure economic freedom for future generations. I humbly submit Mr. Johnson for consideration for Ten Buck Fridays.

Update:

Wisconsin Senate: Feingold (D) 46%, Johnson (R) 45%

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Spartanburg Tea Party: This is the year that conservatives need to step up to the table and vote with their wallets.

Anthropocon: It’s going to take money to defeat an entrenched Democrat like Barbara Mikulski

The Conservative Lady: Help spread the word about good conservative candidates who are running in the November elections.

Merriemarie's clog: There are only 19 weeks left until the ultimate Tea Party on November 2, 2010

AmericanNation: Make Your Voice Heard!

Red State: My Letter to the Senate Conservatives Fund

Conservative Scalawag: Vote early, vote often!

Action for Liberty: Get it on our calendars and in our minds

20/10 Blog: Ten Buck Fridays for conservative candidates

Proof Positive: A "money bomb" will affect the races to a greater extent.

Hack Wilson: Vote NOW

Left Coast Rebel: Peter Schiff Needs Your Support

Jumping in Pools: Nikki Haley Wins!

New numbers from Rasmussen

TBF: Rep. Bob Etheridge Wants to Know Who You Are

Who Deserves Your Hard-Earned Cash?

Today is the day to nominate candidates for the "Ten Buck Fridays" money bomb on Friday, June 25. Thanks to everyone who supported TBF last week with a contribution to Sharron Angle.

Candidates considered last week included Christine O'Donnell (DE), Nikki Haley (SC), Renee Ellmers (NC), Meg Whitman (CA) and Marco Rubio (FL). These are all great choices who deserve to be nominated again.

Other names that have come up in the comments lately include Marco Rubio (again), Michelle Bachmann (MN), Buddy Simpson (GA State House District 32), Andy Barr (KY), Daria Novak (CT), Jim Rutledge (MD), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA) and Susana Martinez (NM).

I'd also like to give special consideration to Ed Martin, a candidate who supports TBF! Ed is running for U.S. Congress from Missouri's 3rd Congressional district.

TBF will give preference to rock-ribbed conservative non-incumbent candidates, but all nominations will be appreciated, and the candidate with the most nominations will always be included in the polls. Please give special attention to candidates who have signed the Contract from America, candidates who are friends with the Tea Party movement and candidates who are committed to adhering to the U.S. Constitution.

Remember: Ten Buck Fridays is a decentralized grassroots movement. Money goes straight from donors to candidates.

Who do you like this week?

A special thanks to Stop the ACLU for featuring a Ten Buck Fridays post!

Ambiguously Gay Candidate Admits to Telling "Serious Lie"

In the 4-way South Carolina gubernatorial primary, the ambiguously gay André Bauer is polling in 4th place. In a desperate attempt to gain traction, Bauer has planted himself firmly in the middle of a fiery controversy over unsubstantiated rumors about Nikki Haley's private life.

Bauer has insisted that he has had nothing to do with the malicious gossip, and he took a polygraph test today to "prove" his innocence. There's one small problem: The document he provided doesn't prove much of anything ― except a history of telling serious lies. Questions about the sex blab that was leaked by Bauer's consultant, Larry Marchant, were nebulous:

So we know Bauer is a "serious" liar, but we don't really know much of anything else. The polygraph test explored some interesting territory, but the questions are conveniently ambiguous. The polygraph report repeatedly refers to "that information," but there's no reference to what "that information" is.

"That information" ostensibly would be Larry Marchant's unproven claim of having had an affair with Bauer's leading opponent, Nikki Haley ― but who can say for sure?

One thing we can say for sure is that Bauer sidestepped the issue of his epic sexual history. Bauer promised to address via polygraph the issue of his storied sexual exploits with the same sex, but he has apparently reneged on that pledge.

Tomorrow, the votes will be cast. We'll soon know whether André Bauer's antics paid off.

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Andre Bauer: Sacred Honor Demands I Prove That Privately-Administered Bought-and-Paid-For Lie Detector Tests Are Rubbish

South Carolina Primary Election Results

Sex in South Carolina

In their determination to hang on to the governor's seat, the old-school corruptocrats of the South Carolina GOP have decided they'd sooner drag the whole state down into the gutter than to allow a brown-skinned female reformer to introduce representative democracy to the Palmetto State. So for the last two weeks, we've been subjected to endless speculation about unsubstantiated allegations about Nikki Haley's sex life.

I'm not sure if all this gossip and speculation has been helpful, but now that we're in the gutter, I think it's important that we explore the sex lives of all the candidates.

Good for the goose...good for the ganders.

Let's start with 40 year-old confirmed bachelor, André Bauer.

Blogger Mike Rogers is the gay blogger who outed Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.). Back in August, after a thorough investigation, Rogers reported confirmation of André Bauer's closeted homosexuality.

In a highly sympathetic interview, when asked about the debate over his sex preferences, André Bauer said that the topic is an inappropriate one: "I don’t think it’s a proper question. I think it’s a little bit ridiculous and it’s sad that politics has gotten to that."

In light of Mike Rogers's report, and reports cited by the New York Times, doubts about André's sex life persist. But André has come with a very interesting proposal for addressing the controversies that swirl around the GOP gubernatorial primary: polygraph tests.

So how about it André? Let's end the speculation about your closet homosexuality. Sit for a lie detector test today.

To quote André Bauer himself, "Somebody needs to put the interests of the people of South Carolina before their own."

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Bauer says he's not a homosexual. But does he have (or has he had) physical relationships with men? Bring in the lie detector.

Update (6-7-10):

Bauer had previously told WCSC in Charleston that he would "absolutely" take a polygraph about his own rumored sexual history, as he has asked Haley to do. No questions about that subject were included in Bauer's polygraph exam, however.

Here we go again...

More disgusting sleaze from South Carolina:

There are too many old-school establishment Republicans who only care about maintaining the "good old boy" status quo. They don't care if they have to ruin families; they don't care if they have to ruin the country.

We can't continue on with business as usual. Our country is in trouble. We don't have time for these games.

It's time to lead, follow, or get out of the way. I think Nikki Haley is ready to lead:

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Slime from the South Carolina Cesspool

Sacred Honor Compels Me To Confess To An Affair With Nikki Haley That Coincidentally Helps My Boss

Haley vs. Bauer

Nikki Haley guts Andre Bauer on live television.

We’re hip-deep in filth here.

LOL: Microwaving a cell phone.

13 States in 8 Days

Fourteen states will hold primary elections in June. The first two Tuesdays of the month will be the busiest; Alabama, Mississippi and New Mexico hold elections on June 1; California, Iowa, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Virgina hold primaries on June 8. Utah wraps up the month on the 22nd.

Here's a little sample of what's cooking...

As HotAir has chronicled, ads for Alabama primaries have set the internets on fire:

There was the Tim James “speak English” spot, the attack on Bradley Byrne for kinda sorta supporting evolution, the Young Boozer clip, the instantly immortal Dale Peterson “man on a horse” homage, and now this.

Check this out: the angry Tea Partier ad might be most intense one of them all.

Last but not least from the Yellowhammer state, National Review Online serves up some red meat from my friend from Twitter, Les Phillip (AL-5).

Over in California, conservatives are hoping for a victory for Chuck DeVore on June 8th. If DeVore can beat billionaire Carly "Demon Sheep" Fiorina and establishment RINO Tom Campbell, he'll go on to face Ma'am Boxer in the general election. How's DeVore doing? Depends on who you ask.

South Carolina might have been a snoozer had it not been for week's sexual "revelation" from a sleazy blogger. Does everyone close to Jenny Sanford get caught up in a tawdry scandal? Y'all know I'm with Jenny and Sarah...vote for and support Nikki Haley.

On June 22, Tea Party favorite Mike Lee hopes to become the man to replace RINO Bob Bennett. Mike Lee had earned Jim DeMint's endorsement, so it should be no surprise that he's earned the RightKlik seal of approval as well.

June promises to be a fascinating month for Conservative Tea Party politics. Stay tuned. And please support your favorite conservative candidates.

What's Next?

Red invades Blue, Red wins. The Massachusetts miracle is a fait accompli. Now what?

Prepare for November.

We have a long way to go, and a short time to get there.

Great candidates are emerging all over the country. Here are some of my favorites:

• Nikki Haley
• Marco Rubio
• Chuck DeVore
• Mike Pence

It's not just about winning seats. The future of our country is at stake. We have to recruit and promote the very best candidates we can find:

...the conservative base in the United States, far from dragging their party moblike into an unelectable extreme, has made the decentralized decision to support the realistically best candidate they can relative to the context in which he’s being elected. The 23rd special district election can also be seen in this light; throwing Scozzafava overboard made far more sense in the context of that electorate.

During Obama's first year in office, conservatives have done a surprisingly good job of choosing battles wisely. As a result, we had an important victory this week. But we didn’t cross a finish line on Tuesday night — we crossed the starting line.

FYI: Congressional Primary Dates

ObamaCare and Mission Creep

Government programs almost always end up costing much more than they were supposed to. They also usually end up doing more than they were supposed to. Would ObamaCare be any different?

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Democrats pinning their 2010 hopes on, um, ObamaCare? (h/t HotAir)

Tea Party Movement: Get Local But Be Vocal

Shocking! Democratic districts got nearly twice the amount of stimulus funds as GOP districts

Is Tennessee already preparing to nullify ObamaCare?

All I Want for Christmas

Heads Up: Nikki Haley

There are few conservative bloggers whose viewpoints are as important as Erick Erickson's. In anticipating the most important political stories, Erickson is often light-years ahead of the pack. Example: Erickson, a conservative from Georgia, was regularly blogging about Doug Hoffman and NY-23 in July.

Now, Erickson draws our attention to a rising star in South Carolina:

I want to make sure you all knew that Jenny Sanford, wife of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, has endorsed Nikki Haley for Governor.

This is a big deal in the Palmetto State. Jenny Sanford has long been viewed apart from her husband as solidly conservative, both fiscally and socially. It’s not just that Jenny Sanford is instinctually conservative, but she is truly a conservative — unashamed to be in the trenches, getting her hands dirty, fighting for the conservative cause without apology.

In an open letter to South Carolina voters, Mrs. Sanford says, “Our state’s future is too important to leave to just another go-along-get-along career politician. Nikki Haley is the best person to be South Carolina’s next Governor.”

Nikki Haley in 2010. Pay attention to this one. Learn more here, here, here, here and here.

Erickson: "I don’t care which state you are in. We need to support the good guys nationwide where their election will impact conservatives across the board."

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