Mardin Amin's mother is probably still wondering why people made such a big fuss over a silly pump: the kind used to inflate soccer balls and the like.
An embarrassed Amin told his mother it was that type of device -- not, in actuality, a penis pump -- that got him in trouble with O'Hare Airport security in August and prevented him from boarding an international flight with her.
But at least now the embarrassment and worry of having to appear in criminal court is over. Cook County prosecutors agreed Wednesday to drop a felony disorderly conduct charge against the Iraqi man, who faced up to three years in prison if convicted.
"You don't believe it -- I was dreaming about this court and what was going to happen," said Amin, wearing a new, $250 blue suit he bought just for his date at the 26th and California courthouse. "It's like a nightmare."
Amin's odd brush with the law began Aug. 16, when the 29-year-old, his two children and his mother were going through O'Hare security on a trip to Iraq. A security guard plucked a small, black rubber object from Amin's hand luggage, and asked him about it. Unwilling to openly say the words "penis pump" while his mother stood near, Amin twice whispered something that, according to Amin, the guard misinterpreted as "bomb."
Amin, who lives in Skokie, was promptly arrested and charged with a felony.
His attorney, Eileen M. O'Neill, said this week common sense demanded the Cook County state's attorney's office drop the charge.
"Right from the get-go, it made no sense that a guy who has worked as a translator for [the U.S.] Army in Iraq wouldn't know the consequences of saying, 'I have a bomb,' " O'Neill said.
John Gorman, a spokesman for the state's attorney's office, said the charges were dropped because the U.S. Transportation and Security Administration sent Amin a letter saying they only wished to issue a warning.
"Because the TSA was our victim and they didn't wish to pursue [the case], we dropped the charges," Gorman said.
A beaming Amin said he will now travel sans penis pump.
"Hell no," he said. "That pump give me a lot of trouble." "Developping my weener is just not worth the trouble, I mean."
#3
I'll bet that while his mother may not know exactly what her son intended to do with that thing (and don't be so sure about her ignorance -- Iraq never had a Victorian age, and the whole of Muslim society has a clear understanding that men have certain needs), she's very clear that he was stupid enough to ruin the family vacation.
I financed a Bomba
I pranced with my Bomba
You need a little grease, a little bit of grease for your little thing
and up and up and up and up and up it will go
Im not into the sheep
Im not into the sheep
Though they say I will be
Though they say I will be
Bah Bah Bomba, Bah Bah Bomba
Prance with the Bomba
Bah Bah Bomba, Bah Bah Bomba
Prance with the Bomba
My fling with the Bomba
My fling with the Bomba, it is my intention
Because I put it on in front, Because I put it on in front, Because I put it on in front of the mirror
The Bomba is useful
The Bomba is useful at the Ranchera
Got caught with my goat and no pants
Im going straight to hell
MUMBAI -Two men masquerading as eunuchs have been arrested after convincing Indian families to hand over money for ridding their homes of black magic, a report said Wednesday. The two men spent 15 days fleecing families in western Gujarat state before one of the victims complained to police that she had been hypnotised by the men, according to DNA newspaper.
The 40,000-strong eunuch community in Gujarat has been enraged by fakes who muscle in on their begging operations, ...
... 'muscle in' as it were ...
...and a photo identity scheme has been started to try to regulate the business.
"May I see your ID?"
"Do you really have to?"
Two men dressed as eunuchs came to my home telling me in a high squeaky voice to perform puja (an act of Hindu worship) to banish black magic from my home, alleged victim Bhupendra Pandya told the newspaper. I did not want to believe them but they hypnotised me. I gave them 3,600 rupees (78 US). Before leaving they gave me a sweet drink and told me my house was free from black magic.
Bhupendra's not especially quick on the uptake ...
Police have charged the two men, aged 30 and 40, with impersonation and cheating, the newspaper said.
I say, if a man's willing to tell everyone he's an eunuch there shouldn't be any charges.
Indias estimated one million eunuchs, once the guards for the harems of Indias Mughal emperors, are now more likely to be shunned.
The Mughals have been gone for a while. Why do they still have eunuchs?
They regularly muscle in barge into Indian weddings and blessings for new-born babies and leave only after collecting money. They are regularly seen begging at traffic junctions in major cities and depend on the sex trade to make a living.
Needles are available in the lobby so you can gouge your eyeballs out ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
How do you crash a wedding in mass without getting shot?
#2
...Okay, so let me get this straight - I too can make a fortune if I just speak in a high-pitched voice, say, "This house...is clean ..."..and give the guy a Coke?
Sweet. :)
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/14/2006 11:41 Comments ||
Top||
#3
More commonly referred to as "Hijra", you can read more about the sect here.
#5
They're not really eunuchs. They have all their equipment intact.
Just really aggressive transvestites. Some Indians consider it auspicious if they dance at a wedding. As the article says, they barge into weddings and are quite aggressive so people find it easier just to pay them off.
Posted by: john ||
09/14/2006 18:28 Comments ||
Top||
#6
aren't ALL transvestites aggresive? Or am I the only one to get em all? Wait...uh....nevermind
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/14/2006 19:29 Comments ||
Top||
#7
to perform puja
So that's what they're calling it these days.
Simple punishment for impersonating a eunuch. Make them one.
Will Peter Jackson Direct The Hobbit? If he doesn't, count on riots.
In what seems like an effort to put the roar back into the lion, MGM chairman-CEO Harry Sloan is looking to turn the studio into a tentpole factory and is about to announce some of the big-budget films currently in development. Not surprisingly, since the studio is anchored by its library of franchise-available titles, most of these tentpoles will be sequels, including Terminator 4, a second installment to the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair, the previously reported Pink Panther sequel, as well as a few that Erik mentioned last week.
One release to rule them all is The Hobbit, to which MGM co-owns the rights (with New Line, who made the Lord of the Rings films), and which actually may end up as two releases. There is a good chance the LOTR prequel will be a blockbuster no matter how it's produced, but Sloan is really hoping that Peter Jackson can be snagged to direct. Seeing as Jackson still has The Lovely Bones and The Dam Busters on his calendar, if he were to be interested in the project, Sloan will have to wait a few years to get it started. In the meantime, he can take another look through the library and find some more films in need of easily extended into sequels. Otherwise, he will have to find someone else ... someone that fans will trust and approve. Man, how long with that take? Earlier this month, Mark reported on a New Line leak that claimed The Hobbit is scheduled for next summer, but the above information doesn't seem to make that possible.
#2
Who'll play Frodo? Got to be Ian Holm. Or the fans will riot.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
09/14/2006 7:23 Comments ||
Top||
#3
most of these tentpoles will be sequels, including Terminator 4, a second installment to the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair, the previously reported Pink Panther sequel,
Hollyweird is dead. Hey, we made money on that last film, lets make umpteen sequels. More new ideas in console games than anything originating out of clown town. Desperation seen in putrid attempts to even clone from the games. Why sit through 90 minutes or a couple of hours of having messages shoved down your throat or another of the dozen or so movie plots that just get recycled. I can get next gen graphics at home, do I really need to put up with a no story line movie just for effects?
Pretty much so. Considering that most of the recent "blockbuster" movies have been based on what? Comic books (Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Fantastic Four, X-Men ... ad infinitum), or crappy 1960s television shows (Green Acres, Lost in Space, Mission Impossible and so on). The secret of Hollywood's creative bankruptcy is unknown only to themselves.
do I really need to put up with a no story line movie just for effects?
As Job Bob Briggs would say:
"No plot to get in the way of the special effects."
When you consider the immense wealth of material that remains untapped, the incessant stream of rehashed remakes spewn forth by the studios is simply outrageous. Here are some authors whose work is simply screaming for movie treatment:
Lord Dunsany - The King of Elfland's Daughter
William Morrison - The Well at the World's End
William Hope Hodgson - The House on the Borderland
David Brin - Sundiver or The Kiln People ("The Postman" doesn't count)
H Rider Haggard - People of the Mist or When the World Shook
Larry Niven - Ringworld
Anne Rice - The Witching Hour, Taltos and Lasher
Steven Baxter - The Time Ships (A pastiche of HG Wells' "The Time Machine")
A Merritt - The Moon Pool
Clark Ashton Smith - The City of the Singing Flame
Kim Stanley Robinson Red, Blue and Green Mars Series
Greg Bear Eon, Eternity and Legacy
Peter Hamilton Nights Dawn Trilogy (The Reality Dysfunction series)
Olivia Manning The Balkan Trilogy
Nevil Shute An Old Captivity
To be blunt, you could yank an Oscar out the ass of any work Ive listed above. Hollywood has essentially turned into a closed shop of incestuous inbred morons.
Bah. Yes, that's what I meant. Didn't have enough coffee in my system.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
09/14/2006 15:04 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Hollywood is not dead, they are just being slaughtered at the theater (and making money hand over fist on the DVD sales.)
The remakes and sequels may make all the headlines but those are tent-pole pictures that are easy to promote so they get the airplay. Hollywood also makes pretty daring and sometimes sketchy movies (remember Brokeback? or what about Crash?).
#9
Lord Dunsany - The King of Elfland's Daughter
William Morrison - The Well at the World's End
William Hope Hodgson - The House on the Borderland
David Brin - Sundiver or The Kiln People ("The Postman" doesn't count)
H Rider Haggard - People of the Mist or When the World Shook
Larry Niven - Ringworld
Anne Rice - The Witching Hour, Taltos and Lasher
Steven Baxter - The Time Ships (A pastiche of HG Wells' "The Time Machine")
A Merritt - The Moon Pool
Clark Ashton Smith - The City of the Singing Flame
Kim Stanley Robinson Red, Blue and Green Mars Series
Greg Bear Eon, Eternity and Legacy
Peter Hamilton Nights Dawn Trilogy (The Reality Dysfunction series)
Olivia Manning The Balkan Trilogy
Nevil Shute An Old Captivity
Add in "The Mote in God's Eye" By the afore mention Mr. Niven and Jerry Pournelle. The aliens are not just like people" and have their own motivations and secrets. Plus with the advance of CG the aliens could be depicted as described.
#10
The only time Hollywood makes "daring" movies is when they can spit in the face of traditional morality, denigrate Judeo-Christian ethics, or glorify deviant behavior. There has not ONE major movie since 9/11 where the villian is a Muslim terrorist, to the point of prostituting "Sum of All Fears" by making the villians white Neo-Nazis.
Daring -- my *ss!!!
Hollywood used to be the home of innovators and visionaries like Goldwyn and Busby Berkeley, now it is the home of untalented hacks. And the exceptions to that rule are noticable simply because they do have some talent, like Peter Jackson or Mel Gibson.
#11
Fear not, Cheaderhead, I winced right after hitting "submit" when I remembered the Moties. Scenes of the Motie Watchmakers disassembling an entire battle cruiser before the crew's own eyes would be uproarious. I hope you enjoyed the list of titles.
Shieldwolf, you are so right about "The Sum of All Fears". I consider it to be one of the best, if not the best, Clancy novel, bar none. The movie was almost unintelligible and surgically gutted of so much exciting and critical plot material as to be criminal.
I think it is because Peter Jackson operates outside of Hollywood that his work is so good. The big studios have become so formulaic that even a hack writer can come up with better material.
#18
Heilein produced incredible material that could now be adapted to film. How about "Stranger in a Strange Land"? Or "I Will Fear No Evil"? Or "Time Enough For Love"? Or even some of his so-called Juvenile books.
(I gotta confess I thought "Starship Troopers" was pretty entertaining).
#20
I was actually kind of interested to see the "flyboys" movie about WWI pilots but fear it will suck or be so hollyweirded that the average movie goer will not come away w/one iota of authenticity of the age and men that put their lives on the line. That being said I'd love to see a good remake of the "blue max" or one of my personal faves "cross of iron."
I also think what the world needs now is a good and authentic true to the book version of "Atlas Shrugged" - however, I fear that hollyweird would badly distort Rand's original message ala the "sum of all fears" fiasco. Imagine if they re-did a true to book version of "Black Sunday" around Super Bowl time?
I would also love to see some great war books turned into movies - "fields of fire" by Webb or the myriad of memoirs on the Chosin Resevoir would be cool. I'd even like to see an authentic movie on the Revolutionary War (w/no lib p.c. spin) so today's generation of historically illiterate morons can get a glimpse of the cajones it took to get the U.S. started.
#22
Hell, I am working on a novel, that started out as a movie treatment that actually started out as a four-part blog-post called "My Dream Movie", about the greatest emigrant wagon train epic that no one has ever heard of: the party who brought wagons over the Sierra Nevada with a great deal of absolutely heroic effort, got caught in the snow, but managed to arrive with wagons intact, and two more than they started out with...
It would make a terrific movie, all the way around: epic story, with a nice variety of heroic men and feisty women, clashing personalities, inspiring teamwork, colorful mountain men, cute children,georgous scenery... and a cute bit with a dog.
And no one except for a handful of local emigrant trail enthusiasts has ever heard of them.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
09/14/2006 19:06 Comments ||
Top||
#24
A movie I want to see, with all the Hollywood excess, that would actually be better than the original Japanese idea, is Battle Royale (Batoru Rowaiairu).
The basic concept is that society is a mess, and the government blames -- high school students! So an entire senior class is kidnapped by the government, and put on an island to fight to the death, with only one survivor. Explosive radio collars around their necks insure they can't run away and must fight.
Maybe a Troma film. Anyway, get about 100 young American actors to portray every trite idea about racism, sexism, jocks, gangs, etc., while killing each other. All on pay-per-view, with elements of Death Race 2000, The Running Man, and today's reality shows.
Weapons are hidden all over the place, but each has limitations, like a chainsaw with only 1 oz of gasoline in it, and knives that are very sharp but very brittle. And every hour on the hour, a wheel is spun to detonate one random student's explosive collar.
Since there can be only one survivor, you have to make sure that nobody is just wounded. And if someone is injured, all their friends turn on them as an easy kill.
As backdrop, don't see America as a mess like in The Running Man, but looking much like it looks today.
#25
Iain M. Banks: Any of his culture series; Consider Phlebas would be my preference (huge ships, wickedly deadly sentient drones, and technology to dream of)
Heinlein would cause too many heads to explode, but something like Farnham's Freehold would put the cat amongst the pigeons!
Steven Baxter's 'The Time Ships' is a great choice - the Morlock is superb and it has a reasonable good nanotechnology usage, and the collection of short stories in 'Vacuum Diagrams' would be terrific - Xeelees spanning billions of years and fighting a universe-wide war against non-baryonic life, using galaxies as building materials. Got potential! ;)
Vernor Vinge has some very good stuff too - but the aliens might be just too much for some people.
Zillions of choices and they want to do *another* Thomas Crown Affair, or God forbid, another friggin' Pink Panther - sheesh!
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
09/14/2006 19:42 Comments ||
Top||
#26
with very small rewrites this one could be good and pertinent:
http://www.sfreviews.net/coldallies.html
Just read it recently. Chills.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
09/14/2006 19:57 Comments ||
Top||
#27
Instapundit had a podcast interviewing Tim Minear (worked with Wheadon on Buffy, Angel, Firefly) who did a screenplay for Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". Most promising - he HATED the film version of "Starship Troopers".
#30
A movie I want to see, with all the Hollywood excess, that would actually be better than the original Japanese idea, is Battle Royale (Batoru Rowaiairu).
Sounds like "Lord of the Flies" meets "Friday the 13th.
#33
Glad to see so many confirmations on Baxter's "The Time Ships". The nano-technology portrayed at the book's end was an outstanding plot element. Lots of good moral lessons and tons of juicy effects.
I recommend Peter Hamilton's "Night's Dawn Trilogy" to all of you. At six books, you end up reading the thing for-frickin'-eveh, but his constructs are stupendous, the plot premise is entertaining, if not well-thought-out, and by book three you are following almost 200 characters through several different worlds.
Hamilton's biotek habitats and human augmentation are not just high-tech window dressing. He brings them to play as integral plot components in everything from terraforming to merged human-computer interfaces. He also creates some predictable and logical socio-cultural varigations that, again, serve the plot well and embody important futue moral constructs. The plot arc is tremendous and his wordsmithing is rarely left wanting.
#34
I'm also looking forward to J. K. Rowling's next book (and subsequent movie) - "Harry Potter and My New Gulfstream V".
As a capitalist and artist myself, my hat is off to Rowling. Considering that a few short years ago she was a welfare mother and has since gone on to become an author with better sales than Tom Clancy or Anne Rice, who are respectable scribblers, that's no small shakes. We'll not mention her vast outpacing of inkstained wretches like Stephen King, Danielle Steele or Sydney Sheldon. On top of it, she has accomplished this in the most difficult category of all, children's books. She has my respect.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/14/2006 21:26 Comments ||
Top||
#36
Ian Holm is at least 20 years too old to play Bilbo in The Hobbitt. He was fine for the much more aged LOTR Bilbo, but not even Hollywood makeup could make him look like a hobbitt in his prime.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/14/2006 22:50 Comments ||
Top||
#39
Talbot Mundy - The Nine Unknown
Good book for conspiracy theorists so it would appeal to both sides of the aisle.
BTW, I liked Spiderman, Spiderman II, X-Men, X-Men II, all 3 Terminator movies, Alien, Aliens (hated Aliens 3 and disliked Aliens 4), Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek: Nemesis (I had issues with most of the others), etc.
I haven't seen a movie at a theater since Star Trek: Nemesis was ending its run (obviously, I don't get out a lot and I hate going to a theater alone). DVDs are my thing, but then I don't watch a lot of those either any more (I tend to buy and watch series DVDs rather than a lot of movie DVDs - last series watched on such media was Space: Above & Beyond).
While there are books screaming for film immortality it should be remembered that the film industry exists to make money and that they primarily market to younger audiences (since us older folks have other ways to spend our free time, little of it that we have). Comic books are a huge industry and many of today's movie-goers grew up reading comics. They can identify more easily with characters they already know from their youth.
Thus, the film industry will tend to cater to their tastes.
Casablanca they ain't, but all of the films cited above made a buttload of money.
#40
We'll not mention her vast outpacing of inkstained wretches like Stephen King
For a long time following (I think) Skeleton Crew I lost my enjoyment of reading King's novels (IMO he's a much better short story writer). However, I picked up From A Buick 8 and read it cover-to-cover not just once, but several times, and then picked up Cell when it came out and did the same thing. I then reread From A Buick 8 and followed it up by rereading Cell.
The old King may be back (though I heard he had retired.
For the film list,
Dean Koontz - Lightning, Odd Thomas, Seize The Night, Fear Nothing, The Taking
Forget the hacked renditions of Koontz's Watchers novels. The films totally sucked, Koontz apparently had not editorial control, and the producers and directors did horrible things to the central characters that were totally at odds with the novels - but Koontz is IMO a better novelist than King.
#41
Comic books are a huge industry and many of today's movie-goers grew up reading comics.
Which explains a lot about society's current illiteracy problem.
For anyone who wants an amazing change of pace, try Ken Follet's (yes, that Ken Follet) "Pillars of the Earth". It is a complete departure from his usual Nazi WWII fare (i.e., about old English cathedrals). The plot is unusual in that 99% of the characters have less than one degree of separation. It, too, would also make a good movie.
#42
Zenster - no offense. Anyone who can get that many kids to read deserves - a Gulfstream V.
I heartily agree. A habit of lifelong reading is one of the most precious gifts you can give a child. Good manners and playing a musical instrument would be the others.
The point at which Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez decided that London should serve as a model for services and governance in Caracas was not immediately apparent. He came in May, visited City Hall amid much controversy and fanfare, and was soon gone.
But the result of his visit is likely to be an extraordinary deal struck with London Mayor Ken Livingstone that would see Caracas benefit from the capital's expertise in policing, tourism, transport, housing and waste disposal. London, meanwhile, would gain the most obvious asset the Venezuelans have to give: cheap oil. Possibly more than a million barrels of the stuff.
South American diesel would be supplied by Venezuela -- the world's fifth-largest oil exporter -- as fuel for some of the capital's 8,000 buses, particularly those services most utilized by the poor. The exchange arises from the high-profile offer Chavez made to London during his visit to City Hall in May. Since then officials have been meeting in London and Caracas to bring the barter deal about.
On Tuesday Livingstone confirmed that the agreement was in the making, and finer details were being thrashed out. "We have poor people in London. We are the richest city in Europe and yet we have the disgrace of child poverty," he said. "They have a vast population living in slums, and we have a lot of experience in terms of housing policy and all the things we know about how to take a city and make it function."
But opponents are unconvinced. Angie Bray, the leader of London's Tories, dismissed the scheme as a "propaganda fest." She said: "Ken and the president of Venezuela should be ashamed of themselves for even contemplating such a proposal. I'm sure the Venezuelans who struggle below the poverty line, many of them critically so, would be shocked at the cynical siphoning off of their main asset to provide one of the world's most prosperous cities with cheap oil."
Is Air America Radio filing for bankruptcy on Friday? That's what Think Progressa whiny disreputable blog whose link we're not providing, citing three sources, reported today. Calls to Air America executives weren't returned, but star talk-show host Al Franken confirms that, once again, the troubled network is facing a serious cash crunch.
"I don't know if that's true or not," Franken tells Radar when asked about the bankruptcy report. "We do know that there have been cash-flow problems. I haven't been paid in a while. Like, there's no cash flowing to me."
Gee, maybe the money you took up front will have to last.
It's not the first time Franken has gone without a paycheck and he still doesn't get the idea. Air America ran out of money promptly after it launched in 2004, after disgraced former chairman Evan Cohen inflated the amount of money he had raised to fund the network. Since then, Air America has seen a litany of troubles, executive departures, talent shuffles, and lawsuits.
An endless source of amusement!
Six months ago, the network was booted from its flagship station in New York City, WLIB, to a much weaker signal that doesn't cover the entire city, and it laid off five staffers on September 11, according to the New York Post.
How appropriate.
Franken isn't the only person Air America is in hock to. Last year, the network settled a multi-million-dollar lawsuit by Multicultural Broadcasting, the owner of its Chicago and Los Angeles stations, for its failure to pay for rented time. But according to Multicultural's attorney, Randy Mastro, the network still hasn't paid up. "It involved a structured settlement over time," Mastro says. "There is additional money owed. If it's true [that they're filing for bankruptcy], we'll have to do something about that."
Quick, call our lawyers Charlie, we're about to be stiffed again by those Air America bastards!"
Norman Wain, a Cleveland-based former radio executive and investor in Air America, says he hadn't heard about any financial difficulties. "I know nothing about it," he says. "They don't communicate with investors very well. They only come to us when they're looking for more money." The last time that happened, he says, was "three or four months ago."
And you continue to pour money into this enterprise because ...
If bankruptcy is imminent, the timing couldn't be worse for Franken and better for us: His new movie, Al Franken: God Spoke, opens today in New York. In a statement, an Air America spokeswoman said "no decision has been taken to make any filing of any kind."
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
09/14/2006 11:44 Comments ||
Top||
#5
I seem to recall that one of the features of Franken's contract was that he got all the money, or at least a giant chunk of it, up front. So I don't think we'll see him in line for government cheese anytime soon.
Former Gov. Ann Richards, the witty and flamboyant Democrat who went from homemaker to national political celebrity, died Wednesday night after a battle with cancer, a family spokeswoman said. She was 73.She died at home surrounded by her family, the spokeswoman said. Richards was found to have esophageal cancer in March and underwent chemotherapy treatments.
The silver-haired, silver-tongued Richards said she entered politics to help others especially women and minorities who were often ignored by Texas male-dominated establishment. She was governor for one term, losing her re-election bid to Republican George W. Bush.
She grabbed the national spotlight with her keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention when she was the Texas state treasurer. Richards won cheers from delegates when she reminded them that Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in high heels. Richards sealed her partisan reputation with a blast at George H. Bush, a fellow Texan who was vice president at the time: Poor George, he cant help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth. Four years later, she was chairwoman of the Democratic convention that nominated Bill Clinton for president.
She polished Texas image, courted movie producers, championed the North American Free Trade Agreement, oversaw an expansion of the state prison system, and presided over rising student achievement scores and plunging dropout rates. She took time out to celebrate her 60th birthday by earning her motorcycle drivers license.
Throughout her years in office, her personal popularity remained high. One poll put it at more than 60 percent the year she lost to Bush. Richards went on to give speeches, work as a commentator for CNN and serve as a senior adviser in the New York office of Public Strategies Inc., an Austin-based consulting firm.
But politics took a toll. It helped break up her marriage. And public life forced her to be remarkably candid about her 1980 treatment for alcoholism.
The 1990 election was rough. Her Democratic primary opponent, then-Attorney General Jim Mattox, accused her of using illegal drugs. Williams, an oilman, banker and rancher, spent millions of his own money on the race she narrowly won. After her unsuccessful re-election campaign against Bush, Richards said she never missed being in public office.
Asked once what she might have done differently had she known she was going to be a one-term governor, Richards grinned. Oh, I would probably have raised more hell.
#2
Loved her comment on Bush: when asked how the political neophyte, yadda-yadda, had beaten her, she replied, "honey, if I knew that I'd still be governor."
Great lady.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2006 1:09 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Yes -- have to admit... she is the only Dem in a major political race I ever voted for. But only once, before GWB challenged her.
A lady to be admired. She effected the lives of many folks. All for the good. Fought the hard battles and usually won.
Didn't always agree with her, but she made you proud to be a Texan. As she would have it.
#12
My memory of Ann Richards was when she first ran for TX governor against a salty cowboy opponent (name escapes). Her opponent was caught on video shortly before the election saying "sounds like she's hitting the bottle again".
Good ole TX politics. I never cared for Ann.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/14/2006 21:29 Comments ||
Top||
Despite his pronounced independence streak, the national party rallied behind Chafee, seeing him as the only way to hold a seat from the most Democratic state in the nation where 11 percent of voters are registered as Republicans. Challenger Stephen Laffey, the mayor of Cranston, who garnered 46 percent to Chafee's 54 percent, ran a blustery campaign, arguing that Chafee's independence from the GOP made him almost irrelevant and that his unpredictable voting patterns suggest a "political identity crisis." Laffey received much support from the anti-tax Club for Growth.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I never liked Chaffee from the time he was mayor of my city to his inherited Senate seat: calling him wishy-washy is being generous. But, having his nominal (R) affiliation will count towards Senate majority/minority status.
Yes it does. And I read yesterday (Opinion Journal's Political Diary - subscription only) that many Dems voted to keep Laffey off the ticket. Don't know if that was really wise of them, though.
#4
From afar, it looks like it worked beautifully for them. RI voters now have a choice between a RINO and a Dino. Sucky and suckier. Laffey (an unfortunate name if ever I saw one) at least seemed to have something resembling a backbone.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
MUMBAI -Two men masquerading as eunuchs have been arrested after convincing Indian families to hand over money for ridding their homes of black magic, a report said Wednesday. The two men spent 15 days fleecing families in western Gujarat state before one of the victims complained to police that she had been hypnotised by the men, according to DNA newspaper.
Is Air America Radio filing for bankruptcy on Friday? That's what Think Progress 
Norman Wain, a Cleveland-based former radio executive and investor in Air America, says he hadn't heard about any financial difficulties. "I know nothing about it," he says. "They don't communicate with investors very well. They only come to us when they're looking for more money." The last time that happened, he says, was "three or four months ago."
Despite his pronounced independence streak, the national party rallied behind Chafee, seeing him as the only way to hold a seat from the most Democratic state in the nation where 11 percent of voters are registered as Republicans. Challenger Stephen Laffey, the mayor of Cranston, who garnered 46 percent to Chafee's 54 percent, ran a blustery campaign, arguing that Chafee's independence from the GOP made him almost irrelevant and that his unpredictable voting patterns suggest a "political identity crisis." Laffey received much support from the anti-tax Club for Growth.
