November 15, 2011

Rick Santorum Attacks Obama On Israel And Iran, Possibly Misquotes The Wire

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TPM Reporter Eric Kleefield catches former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum attacking Obama over insufficient support for an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Santorum chose a rather interesting way to express his thoughts on the risks of Israel bombing Iran:

“If you attack the king you had better kill the king otherwise you will be in big trouble,” he said, acknowledging a military attack on Iran’s nuclear development facilities would be difficult to accomplish.

Santorum appears to be mangling a memorable quote from Omar, a popular character in HBO’s hit series about the war on drugs, The Wire. Check out the clip below, and read our interview with Michael K. Williams, the actor who played Omar (and now portrays Chalky White on Boardwalk Empire).

The actual quote is, “you come at the king, you’d best not miss.”

UPDATE: Santorum also could have been mangling an  equally concise quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, “When you strike at a king you must kill him.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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