Mike Al-Moor, aka Lumpy Riefenstahl, hoist by his own petard. ("Petard" btw, referred to a hand-placed bomb for demolishing castle gates and the like, but it literally means "little fart")
Filmmaker Michael Moore will probably want to steer clear of one of his favorite leftist countries -- Hugo Chavez's Venezuela -- after he inadvertently insulted El Presidente and enraged the strongman's rabid supporters.
Chavez's devoted followers (no doubt at Chavez's behest) are deriding Moore as a liar, racist, and coward -- all for the filmmakers outrageous statements about their leader during an appearance on a late-night talk show, ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live." (A film clip of the Oct. 9th show may be seen here.)
Moore described a strange encounter with Chavez during last September's Venice Film Festival. Chavez was there for the screening of Oliver Stone's documentary "South of the Border," which is about Chavez and other leftist leaders in Latin America.
Moore said that during a 2 a.m. encounter in Chavez's hotel suite, he gave the strongman political advice and even helped him write a U.N. speech. The two also downed a bottle-and-a-half of tequila, Moore said.
It was too much for Chavez's thin-skinned supporters: Moore's preposterous story, they contend, is surely the product of a huge and creative ego. After all, nobody could possibly write a speech or give political advice to a man as brilliant as Hugo Chavez. Also, Chavez doesn't drink.
According to an article in Monday's New York Times, "Michael Moore Irks Supporters of Chavez," the controversy over Moore's comments is still reverberating in Venezuela. Simon Romero wrote that the "reaction of some Chavistas offered a view into their readiness to attack anyone criticizing their leader, without stopping to ponder whether the criticism was meant to be amusing or not." He observed as well that the "tirades against Mr. Moore, including requests broadcast on state-controlled media that he rectify what he said, were followed by a bit of soul-searching within Mr. Chavez's political movement as to whether a better-honed sense of humor was needed to absorb comments like those by Mr. Moore."
The anti-Moore charge is being led by Venezuela-American lawyer Eva Golinger -- a Chavez political operative whom one of Venezuela's anti-Chavez newspaper editors has branded as Venezuela's answer to Sen. Joe McCarthy because she equates criticism of Venezuela's government as being "anti-Venezuelan."
Golinger, in an article filled with grammatical errors, skewered Moore's "fairy tale" in a shrill analysis. Calling Moore a man with an "extreme ego," she suggested at various points that the filmmaker was a racist. For instance, she pointed out that Moore mistook Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro as Chavez's bodyguard, "but hey, all latinos (sic) look alike!"
Portraying Moore as an arrogant gringo who views Latinos in stereotypes, she wrote:
Moore says he entered the room and a "bottle and a half of tequila later", he was writing Chavez's speeches! Of course, Michael, all of us Latin Americans drink tequila! Man, he couldn't even get his alcohol right in his fairy tale! Tequila is Mexican, Michael. Venezuela makes rum. Get it straight. And anyway, President Chavez's does not drink at all and is well known for his anti-alcohol position. But in Moore's story, latinos are all a bunch of partiers! No work, just party, drinks and fun at 2am!
Golinger argued that it's utterly preposterous that Moore could have helped Chavez write a speech, because Chavez "is one of the most brilliant speakers in the world, with an immense capacity to bring together a variety of ideas while being coherent." She added that "nobody writes his speeches, not even him! He speaks from his heart, and not from a teleprompter!"
Golinger also fumed that Moore, after falsely taking credit for writing Chavez's speech, then "joked that Chavez should give him a 'year of free gasoline' for writing his speech. At least he didn't say bananas."
The apparent fallout between leftist soul mates Moore and Chavez is ironic. Chavez had been a big admirer of Moore in the past, with the president having wanted Moore's film, "Capitalism, A Love Story," to premiere in Venezuela, Golinger noted. And yet, she added: "Moore's response to this admiration, acclaim and support is to lie and ridicule President Chavez and the people of Venezuela."
According to the Times, Chavez has yet to offer public comment on Moore's remarks. As for Moore, the Times added that he "did not respond to requests for comment."
A new lawsuit against the Working Families Party also hits another target -- the scandal-tarnished group ACORN, which shares office space with the party.
Pointing to a string of probes that ACORN is facing and news reports about the two groups sharing a Nevins Street address in Brooklyn, the suit seeks to flush out the overlap.
Critics of the two groups have long complained they work hand in glove -- and have found compelling evidence in Brooklyn.
"Another organization that helped found and remains closely [allied] with the WFP is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, commonly known as ACORN," reads a petition filed in the case, charging that "ACORN not only shares office space with the WFP . . . but Bertha Lewis, the executive director of New York ACORN, is also a state co-chair of the WFP."
The suit goes on to say the WFP "has remained closely" tethered to the group.
The court papers cite an exclusive Post story about hidden cameras at the Nevins Street offices capturing ACORN workers counseling a couple posing as a prostitute and pimp on how to buy a home and keep authorities from catching on.
An ACORN spokesman didn't respond to an e-mailed request for comment. But WFP spokesman Dan Levitan called the suit "a pathetic attempt by a Republican operative trying to win an election."
Insiders said ACORN was one of many groups involved in creating the WFP and is now among 75 affiliates with the party.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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One tree, lots of ACORNS? These organizations seem to be as thick as thieves--A scourge on our political process. They should all be gone after under RICO. SEIU donated big bucks to BO to get him elected. I have heard they gave, through Pacs, political contributions of $85 million. These brown shirts purple shirts are tainting and corrupting our political process.
When both houses of Congress voted to defund ACORN several weeks ago, what they actually did was bar lawmakers and federal agencies from giving any money to the community organizing group for the duration of the temporary budget agreement, or continuing resolution, that was in effect at the time. Continuing resolutions are used to extend federal spending, and keep the government running, when Congress can't agree on appropriations bills for the fiscal year. When the congressional defunding of ACORN went into effect on October 1, there was a continuing resolution in place that would last until October 31 -- this Saturday. The ACORN ban was in that resolution, so it will also expire on Saturday.
There are still no appropriations bills in place, so this week Congress will have to pass another continuing resolution to keep the federal government going. The word on the Hill is that the new resolution will probably be written to last until sometime in December.
The question is: will the ACORN defunding language be in the new resolution? The answer appears to be yes, at least for now. "We will do a CR this week that will basically extend the expiration date of the old CR, so the old language will stay," says one House Republican aide. The aide is "99.9 percent sure" that the ACORN prohibition will be in the new resolution; if Democrats tried to remove it, the aide says, "we would have a big fight this week."
Provided the ACORN ban stays for now, the real issue will be what happens when the new continuing resolution expires and actual appropriations bills are passed in December. Will there be a provision that says no funds from fiscal year 2010 will go to ACORN? Republicans are cautiously confident. "Democrats have a minority in their caucus that believes we should not have cut off ACORN," the aide says. "But I can't believe that there's a majority in their caucus that wants to fund ACORN."
Or at least wants to fight about it. Nevertheless, Republicans say they will be watching the new appropriations bills very closely. The appropriations process is sure to be chaotic, as lawmakers rush to finish spending bills before Christmas and New Year's. All it would take for ACORN funding to resume is the absence of any specific defunding language. If that language is not there, then federal agencies would again have the discretion of sending taxpayer dollars to ACORN. What happens in December could be the key to ACORN's future.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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TOLD YA, TOLD YA, Acorn isn't going down, Obama still has another election to rig.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/28/2009 1:10 Comments ||
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Weasels in Washington (donks) don't want to bite the hands that feed them.
(CNNMoney.com) -- Medicare has become a scary word to the doctors at the largest private group practice in Kansas City, Mo.
It's so scary that most physicians at Kansas City Internal Medicine, with 65% of its nearly 70,000 active patients age 65 or older, have stopped accepting walk-in Medicare enrollees, said Dr. David Wilt, an internist at the group.
Wilt and his colleagues say they are shunning the area's growing senior population because they believe Medicare doesn't reimburse physicians enough to cover the cost of care.
"And if Medicare further cuts its reimbursement rates, then we'll be functioning at a loss," said Wilt.
Wilt -- and doctors with lots of senior patients -- are especially troubled by a 21% cut in Medicare payments to physicians scheduled to take place in 2010. Last week, the Senate voted against stopping that cut, and more annual cuts over the next decade, from taking place.
"If the [21%] cut happens, that cut in our payments will exceed our profits. The only option to us to stay in business will be to fire employees," Wilt said.
Physicians say a boycott against Medicare has already begun because they are tired of dealing with the yearly threat of a payment cut.
Dr. John Hagan, a Kansas City-area ophthalmologist, offers a unique perspective. "I can speak to both sides of this," he said.
As many as 75% of patients at his group practice are Medicare beneficiaries who are treated for problems such as glaucoma or undergo cataract surgery. And if payment rates are cut 21%, after already being reduced to about half the going $1,200 rate for cataract surgery and care in Missouri, Hagan said he won't be able to see more Medicare patients because he won't be able to cover his expenses.
But Hagan himself became Medicare-eligible this month -- and he's nervous. "If I accept Medicare for myself and my wife, I'm fearful I won't be able to stay with my cardiologist and my wife won't be able to stay with her physicians," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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As far as our "superiors" in Congress are concerned, it's win-win for them.
Those pesky old people raising hell at Town Halls are gonna be too busy trying to find a doctor who will take Medicare to ever act up in public again...and the sicker ones might die off before they rack up lots of expensive, end of life care....providing even MORE Medicare "savings"!
#3
Medicare is a ponzi scheme, just like Madoff. It will fail. The only question is whether it happens stealthily by the death of a thousand cuts or openly by a debate about how we want to care for the elderly.
Personally I favor honoring one's parents. And if you didn't have children or if they don't honor you, well you didn't spend all that money on children, so use it or get charity as you can but don't force me to pay for your care by government order.
#4
As I recall Rep (Dem) Alan Grayson (Florida) said the Republican health care plan had the Republicans wanting you to die quickly. Hey, that might be better than the Democrat plan which has you going from clinic to clinic looking for services and standing in line--Slow death approach.
#5
Elsewhere, doctors have found out that if they outright refuse Medicare, Medicaid, and "common complaint insurance", they can reduce their fees by 50% and make *more* money--not paying a large staff just to fill out endless forms.
Add to that in Florida, where the State has refused to put limits on frivolous malpractice civil suits, which has reduced the number of OB/GYN physicians to fewer than a half dozen; three of these that remain are no longer malpractice insured at all, and have divested their assets to their family.
This is the "blood from a turnip" theory. And by not paying exorbitant insurance premiums, the price of their OB/GYN services are downright inexpensive. Enough so that even the poor can afford them.
This does extrapolate to other medical care as well, with the exception of a few, inherently high priced medical procedures that need insurance support. If that is covered, and with the pharmaceutical price crash because of Wal-Mart, medical care can be downright cheap, if you can just get the government, lawyers, and the insurance companies out of it.
#6
'moose, I think there's more than 6 OB/GYN's in Florida, even now. (Two years ago when I was living in Brevard County there were more than that, and I don't think they they all quit delivering babies.)
#8
I have yet to meet an OB who delivers mooses. Perhaps there's only half-a-dozen vets in Florida who deliver mooses. Hell, there might be only one by now.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/28/2009 11:05 Comments ||
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Tain't no such thangs as mooses. Well, maybe in Florida there are.
#10
The first step down this slippery slope was Social Security, established in 1935 during the Franklin Roosevelt administration. After all, how could you let all those poor senior citizens go homeless and hungry?
Medicare was the next step, established in 1965 as a part of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. After all, how could you let all those poor senior citizens suffer without proper medical care?
Never mind all of your own careful saving and planning for your own future. Ever hear the story of the ants and the grasshopper?
And what about the children of these poor senior citizens? Would you let your mother go homeless and hungry? I sure wouldn't. That's why families are so important - or at least they used to be. But now you don't have to worry. You can divorce your wife, abandon your kids and forget your parents because Big Brother is on the job.
Big Brother doesn't want strong families because it's easier to control people who are poor and alone.
And now he's asking us to take another step down the slope with nationalized health insurance. That way Big Brother gets more control and people have less.
#11
"There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million can diagnose." -John Maynard Keynes
#12
My error. Florida finally imposed malpractice caps back in 2002, but I missed it. Since then, OB/GYNs and others have gone back to Florida to practice.
Last November, in his role as president of the New York Federal Reserve, Tim Geithner personally interceded in negotiations between AIG and banks like Goldman Sachs, Société Générale, and Deutsche Bank, and arranged for said banks to receive in-full payment on the credit default swaps they had purchased rather than the 40 cents on the dollar the struggling insurance company was proposing. Per Bloomberg:
The New York Fed's decision to pay the banks in full cost AIG -- and thus American taxpayers -- at least $13 billion. Under the agreement, the government and its taxpayers became owners of the dubious CDOs, whose face value was $62 billion and for which AIG paid the market price of $29.6 billion. The CDOs were shunted into a Fed-run entity called Maiden Lane III.
According to a quarterly New York Fed report released in June, that $29.6 billion has now shrunk by about $7 billion. So, wow. Thanks for investing in our future, Mr. Treasury Secretary!
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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Just the top layer of slime in the bucket of more than $100 billion of US taxpayers money given to foreign (mostly Euro) banks.
Posted by: ed ||
10/28/2009 0:47 Comments ||
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Ed,
The rent-seeker class is trans-national. The care not who they parasite from.
#3
Less here than meets the eye. As Tom Maguire pointed out recently, if the government is going to pledge "full faith and credit" to shore up the banking system, it can't simultaneously be entertaining how to give the bankers a haircut. You can do one or the other but not both, and the Fed chose to cover the banking system. So of course they covered 100% of the CDOs.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/28/2009 11:08 Comments ||
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Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday that he'd back a GOP filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's health care reform bill. Lieberman, who caucuses with Democrats and is positioning himself as a fiscal hawk on the issue, said he opposes any health care bill that includes a government-run insurance program -- even if it includes a provision allowing states to opt out of the program, as Reid's has said the Senate bill will.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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Dingy Harry is about to have an Oh, Sh*t! moment.
#2
Ol' Joe is liberal enough that I still have some problems with him (immigration & others), but right now, he's probably the closest thing to a genuinely great and good man there is in either house of the Parliament of Whores.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
10/28/2009 1:49 Comments ||
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..even if it includes a provision allowing states to opt out of the program,
...for which the feds will withhold lots monies for lots of programs if they dare 'opt' out. It's the standard fed modus operandi. Given how many states are hurting for funding in this recession, does any real adult believe a state will opt out?
#4
If Joe sticks to his guns, a number of others will use that for cover to show Harry they are team players, because there is no risk. But if Joe starts to fold, at least 4 senators will have a career come to Jesus moment, knowing if they pass this POS legislation, their careers are toast. I don't this this passes with the public option...but something comes out that will effectively still raise healthcare costs, becasue at the end of the day, the American people don't hold anybody accountable for anything except being racist ( or suspected of being racist)....
Recent problems with the financial system could be used as a reason for regulators to have authority policing social networking sites like Facebook and other types of electronic communication like text messaging. If Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) CEO Richard Ketchum has his way, that's exactly what will happen.
Ketchum appeared on CNBC's Oct. 27 "Closing Bell" in an interview with the network's NYSE floor reporter Bob Pisani from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) annual meeting in New York City. Ketchum explained how the Internet and text messaging are unconventional means of communication that pose problems for regulators.
"With all of our kids, they don't talk by phones or certainly directly to each other anymore," Ketchum said. "They talk through the Internet and they talk through text messaging and they talk through Facebook."
FINRA is the largest independent regulator for all securities firms in the United States and is over 4,800 brokerage firms that consist of 172,000 branch offices, according to CNBC. The National Association of Securities Dealers "merged in 2007 with the New York Stock Exchange's regulatory arm," according to USA Today to form FINRA.
As Ketchum explained, the problem social networking technologies cause for regulators like FINRA is they provide no audit trail.
"There are great problems from a regulatory standpoint now if that's being used as a sale's tool because there's not a good audit trail," Ketchum said. "We got to get there."
As Pisani explained, brokers are using Facebook to pitch financial products and therefore needed to be looked at that from a regulatory point of view.
"We got to have a good audit trail - that the firms have to have it for a compliance standpoint," Ketchum continued. "Many of them prohibit their reps from using it now, but you know the reality is that's how everybody communicates. What you've got to do is get the information, not prohibit it. It will never work."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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It's a manufacture problem to divert attention to the abysmal performance of actually regulating what they had responsibility for in the last dozen years as they looked the other way. Quick, find a scapegoat, we need to protect our phoney baloney jobs.
Fred Thompson, the former senator and candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, is upping the ante in the inner Republican party battle over the special election in New York's 23rd congressional district by starring in an ad for Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate. Here you go, Bill Quick, those dirty Pubs are rising up to support the true conservative, just as I said they should. No need for you Libertarians to soil your hands, we're taking care of this ourselves. As I said, special and primary elections are when you fight to get the right people in place, and general elections are when you hold off the Visigoths on the other side.
Thompson, who first endorsed Hoffman last month, has recently been joined by Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in endorsing him over the Republican Party nominee, Republican State Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava. The election, which happens a week from today, is being held up as a case study of the current conflict within the Republican party.
"Big government, high taxes, deficits, broken promises -- America is in trouble," Thompson says in the ad. "So when your grandchildren ask you why you didn't do something, be able to tell them that you voted for Doug Hoffman."
Local Republican representatives chose to back Scozzafava for her political experience and commitment to family values, even though she goes against the party on most some social issues like abortion. Conservative activists, however, are getting behind Doug Hoffman. The split among conservatives has left their Democratic opponent, Bill Owens, in the lead in the most recent non-partisan poll of the race.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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Fred,
Don't get too full of yourself, there. The Republican Party re-invented itself as the party of deficits, earmarks, and privilege (less than the Democrats? Sometimes, but "less bad" is NOT the same as "good.").
If you continue to vote for the lesser of two evils, you guarantee that you will elect someone evil. Hoffman proves that we can tell the Republican Party that we WON'T eat another shit sandwich. They can either give us real conservatives, or we'll damn well go find them ourselves.
#2
Yes, yes, Lamp of Diogenes. But if you don't vote, you share responsibility for the election of the greater of two evils. If you don't like that thought, work to get someone more to your taste chosen as the candidate of the party of the Lesser of Two Evils. If I am reading you correctly, that means the Republicans. Bottom line, if you are not doing the work, you don't get to complain about the result.
And do remember, politics is the art of the possible. That's why when our founding fathers set up this country, they agreed to count slaves as 3/5 of a person when apportioning delegates to the House of Representatives for each state. Was that evil? you betcha. But otherwise there would have been no nation at all... and the compromise was successfully readdressed later in a little contretemps of several names and a great many deaths. Would we have been better off completely sticking to principle and ending up with something that looked and acted like Europe, which has only recently had an entire generation live without being at war?
#3
Ouch. Nobody hits as hard as tw. Might be best for Rantburgs new member to tap out.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
10/28/2009 16:46 Comments ||
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You are too good for my ego, Mike N. In fairness, if LoD is working to support candidates who meet his standards, my post actually praises him. I do hope that's what he really meant to say.
#6
Everyone has a vote.
Everyone should vote for who they feel is the least worst candidate.
Currently democracy doesn't allow for this.
To break the party stronghold that is the door to corruption democracy and the voting system needs to allow negative votes.
Democracy is currently electing rulers, when what's required is to elect someone to just administrate the country.
The state HAS to shrink. Democracy HAS turned into a forward auction in stolen goods and we will ALL be worse off for it.
Senate President Therese Murray today called for consolidation of economic-development agencies within state government, saying there are too many entities trying to do the same thing. Better yet, shut them all down. They exist to take care of the favored elites.
Speaking at an economic summit of business and political leaders called together by Gov. Deval Patrick, Murray said the competing economic agencies are "fairly disorganized" and wasting money.
Five agencies alone are established to help small businesses, she said, adding Patrick has been trying to streamline development efforts.
"There needs to be consistency (and) focus," said Murray, noting there are 31 agencies with various forms of overlap.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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Judging from expenditures made by national Democrats, the party believes its biggest obstacle to victory in a New York special election is not the Republican candidate but the Conservative Party's nominee.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and its allies have not run advertisements attacking Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava since Oct. 20, a week ago. Instead, the party has focused solely on knocking down Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.
Meanwhile, Democratic strategists in Washington are privately beginning to downplay expectations for the race, hinting that they would not be surprised if Hoffman were to win outright, defeating both Scozzafava and attorney Bill Owens (D).
Two recent polls, both commissioned by conservative organizations that support Hoffman, show the Conservative leading both his rivals. Public polls have showed Hoffman trailing Owens and Scozzafava, but sources in Hoffman's camp and among Democrats with knowledge of the race each say private polls show a two-way contest between Hoffman and Owens, leaving Scozzafava out in the cold. See ya, Dede. Perhaps you should retire and raise orchids ...
"This race is neck and neck between Owens and Hoffman," said DCCC spokesman Ryan Rudominer.
On Tuesday, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees reported purchasing nearly $200,000 in advertisements targeting Hoffman. Over the weekend, the DCCC began running new ads targeting Hoffman, bringing the total the committee has spent on the race to more than $525,000.
Scozzafava's campaign dismisses the notion that they are out of the running, insisting that Hoffman's and Owens' absence on the campaign trail will stick with voters.
"The only poll that we're focused on is Nov. 3, next Tuesday," said Matt Burns, Scozzafava's spokesman. "At the end of the day, people are looking for a leader who will stand up and fight for them in Congress and be accountable and answer questions, and the only person who has done that in this race is Dede Scozzafava."
Hoffman's campaign says it is unsurprised by the focus on their candidate, pointing to Owens' party label and Scozzafava's cordial history with labor unions.
"We've expected all along that in the final weeks of this campaign, big labor would be coming after us. Big labor is supporting both Dede Scozzafava and Bill Owens. The one person they don't want in Congress is Doug Hoffman," said Rob Ryan, a Hoffman advisor.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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See ya, Dede. Perhaps you should retire and raise orchids ...
I'd bet there's a job in the Obama administration, somewhere, awaiting her to show their "bi-partisanship".
#2
The Rhinos are also concentrating money against Hoffman. He must be shaking up the Washington establishment politicians who want to maintain the status quo continue to dupe and bilk the American voters and taxpayers.
#4
Dede's gonna end up on MSNBC, I just know it ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/28/2009 11:16 Comments ||
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#5
"Introducing our new in-house conservative republican pundit, Dede Scozzafava...."
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/28/2009 11:44 Comments ||
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#6
The Tea Party may not influence the Republican Party, may not win any district, but they sure are going to cost the Democrats and their pals a lot of money.
In the other special House election this year, in California's 10th district, Republican David Harmer and Democrat John Garamendi squared off in a debate last night. One of my readers who was there noted, "Garamendi was stiff and pasty, he was not happy that Harmer supporters were there 5-1. Harmer was smooth and in his element. Will be posted on YouTube later tonight. Good moderator."
I can't quite come out and say Harmer's going to pull out an upset, but it feels like the ingredients for one are starting to come together. First, it's a special election, and so most of the traditional turnout models don't apply.
Second, John Garamendi feels like the wrong candidate with the wrong biography for the Democrats to run at this moment. He was first elected to the California state assembly in 1974, when, for perspective, Barack Obama was 13 years old. He first ran for governor in 1982. He's run for statewide office in 1986, 1990, 1994, 2003, and 2006. This doesn't feel like the year to run as the Old Guard who will bring to Washington all of the common sense, productivity, and cooperation voters have seen in Sacramento. Garamendi's campaign doesn't feel particularly fresh, energized, or anything but cookie-cutter; the top of his campaign web site still thanks voters for their hard work and participation in the September 1 primary election.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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It has been saddening to see that Harmer hasn't gotten the national attention of other candidates such as Hoffman in NY.
I've never asked you to make a donation before.
But I'm about to make some major decisions in our special election campaign. The resources we have on hand going into the next 7 days will directly impact our Get-Out-The-Vote operations.
And, now that the momentum is on our side, there's no time to waste.
Please donate $21 to help get out the vote and win this election (that's just $3 a day until Election Day).
We're stretching every dollar and doing everything we can with what we have. But every day I see firsthand how much more we could do -- and how far your donation will go.
Thanks for your support,
Mallory
Mallory Lynn West
Political Director
Harmer For Congress
P.S. With just 7 days to go, there are no tomorrows. Our race will be won or lost, and history will be written, depending on what we do right now. Please contribute $21 today.
#2
This doesn't feel like the year to run as the Old Guard who will bring to Washington all of the common sense, productivity, and cooperation voters have seen in Sacramento.
Two new polls out today suggest that Republican Chris Christie is holding the late momentum in the New Jersey gubernatorial race over Gov. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.)
The latest Rasmussen survey shows Christie taking the lead over Corzine, 42 to 38 percent, with Independent Chris Daggett winning 14 percent of the vote. Last week, Corzine held a one-point lead over Christie, 37 to 36 percent in the initial ballot test.
When soft Daggett supporters were pushed to support either Corzine or Christie, Christie maintained a 46 to 43 percent lead, with Daggett at seven percent. Figure that the Joisey machine is good for 4 to 5 points, and ACORN gets another point or two for Corzine. Sure hope Christie opens it up ...
A separate poll from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling finds that late-deciding voters are lining up behind Christie. The poll shows Christie leading Corzine by four points, 42 to 38 percent with Daggett at 13 percent. Christie only led by one point over Corzine in the last PPP survey two weeks ago.
Interestingly, the PPP poll shows that Daggett voters are more likely to support Corzine as a second choice by a 10-point margin, 42 to 32 percent.
"This race is going right down to the wire," said PPP pollster Dean Debnam.. "The Daggett voters seem to be pretty volatile so if they go back to the Corzine camp he'll have a good shot of pulling it out."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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There is a lot to learn from the results of this election.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/28/2009 11:56 Comments ||
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#2
I disagree. NJ is hopeless and a craphole full of idiots. I know - I live there (therefore an idiot). Corzine will pull this out and then Dagett wil get a nice no-show government job. Scum bags.
According to a story -- unconfirmed by me -- a reporter was interviewing Albert Einstein shortly after Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947. In the course of the conversation, the reporter asked Einstein what the speed of sound was at sea level. The physicist said he was sorry, but he couldn't remember exactly. The reporter expressed surprise that the world's greatest scientist didn't know something like that. Einstein looked at him balefully over the top of his reading glasses and said, "I know where I can look it up."
It's amazing how many people seem not to know where to look information up, or perhaps don't care, as they have things other than accuracy on their agenda. Take Rocco Landesman, the new head of the National Endowment of the Arts. In a speech in Brooklyn last week, he said of Barack Obama, "This is the first president that actually writes his own books since Teddy Roosevelt and arguably the first to write them really well since Lincoln."
Oh, dear, where do I begin? Well, let's start with grammar. It's "the first president who," not "the first president that."
Second, he implicitly accuses Presidents Clinton, Bush 41, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Truman, Hoover, Coolidge, and Wilson of having had their memoirs, autobiographies, and other works ghosted. Many of them received research assistance (one could hardly write a modern presidential memoir without it), and many, no doubt, also received a good deal of editing. Presidents are not usually professional writers. But research and editorial assistance is by no means the same thing as resorting to a ghost writer. I can't imagine Harry Truman using a ghost writer. Herbert Hoover wrote sixteen books in his life, including Fishing for Fun -- and to Wash Your Soul, published three years after his death, and a translation (with his wife) from the Latin of De re Metallica. Just a guess, but I don't think there are many ghosted 640-page translations around.
Woodrow Wilson was a college professor and president before entering politics. Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics, his best known work and one that ran through many editions, was not ghost written.
Third, Landesman implicitly accuses Theodore Roosevelt of being, unlike Barack Obama, a second-rate writer. Roosevelt wrote a total of 38 books in his life (not to mention countless magazine articles and thousands of letters, all while holding a day job and living only sixty years). His first, The Naval War of 1812, written when he was 23, is considered a basic historical text on that subject and is still both highly readable and in print. Will The Audacity of Hope be in print a 125 years after it was published?
Fourth, Landesman seems ignorant of even the existence of The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant. They were written in the last months of Grant's life (he died in agony from throat cancer three days after he finished the manuscript). They are universally regarded as the greatest military memoirs since Caesar's Commentaries, and among the genuine masterpieces of American literature. Perhaps Mr. Landesman should give them a try if he doesn't object to reading memoirs written by someone who had actually done something (like -- you know -- save the Union) before writing them.
Fifth, Lincoln never wrote a book.
What is it about Barack Obama that causes such cringe-inducing butt-kissing?
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Fifth, Lincoln never wrote a book.
Nor did Barack Obama.
Posted by: ed ||
10/28/2009 0:56 Comments ||
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#2
BO ain't no writer. He's a professional campaigner and TOTUS reader.
#6
I think we can take this as proof that the White House did not vet Rocco Landesman. If they had, they would have had his tongue removed for safety reasons. Perhaps Obama should take a cue from the old Emperiors of China. Before allowing men to work in their harems, they fixed them.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/28/2009 11:54 Comments ||
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#7
Not only was Grant suffering from terminal throat cancer while he wrote his memoirs, he was broke and desperate to finish the work before he died so his family could have some income.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced yesterday that his "Harrycare" bill will include a government option. Looking a great deal like a man who can see the end of his political career looming over the horizon, Reid buckled to the far left ideologues in the White House and his caucus to go over the political cliff.
"We intend to include it [a government option] in the bill that will be submitted to the Senate," Reid said at the presser. "We've spent countless hours over the past few days in consultation with Senators who've shown and share a desire to reform the health care system, and I believe there is a strong consensus to move forward in this direction."
Oops, thought this was about reforming "insurance" not the "health care system," Sen. Reid. Must be a misspeak after all those long hours.
Reid also said his bill will include an "opt out" at the state level which is a façade. Can individuals "opt out" of the penalties and the mandatory coverage? Can individuals "opt out" of paying for government-run health care for everyone else in the country in the form of higher premiums, higher taxes, and Medicare cuts? Can small business owners "opt out" of the higher payroll taxes?
Who decides what a state does? The legislature? The governor? A state referendum? It's not clear. Also unclear is what exactly happens in Reid's "opt out" scenario between passage and the drop dead of 2014 for the state "opt out" date, if you'll pardon the unfortunate juxtaposition.
Reid also said yesterday that he was sending, "... within the next few hours, to CBO...[a] proposal that we're sending to them for scoring will make us a step closer to achieving a bill this year that lowers costs, preserves choice, creates competition and improves quality of care."
Like the other Democrat bait and switch scenarios, Reid is not sending a "bill" to CBO for scoring but "... a number of... anyway the proposal..." for scoring. Sources say he's not merely sending an "opt out" government option proposal, but several others for consideration should he fail to reach cloture for this latest boondoggle.
When asked if he had support to pass his so-called public option "opt-out" formulation through the Senate, Reid also apparently made up -- then and there -- scores of "major polling data" showing support for the government option.
"Obviously the public option is something that's been talked about a lot," Reid said. "It's something I believe in. In the state of Nevada, uh, all the national polls show a wide majority of Americans support the public option."
The one major poll showing majority support was the ABC/Washington Post poll weighted 33 percent Democrat, 20 percent Republican and 42 percent "independent."
All the real major polls show that there is no majority support for the Democrats' health care bills whatsoever.
The latest from Rasmussen yesterday shows what polls have shown all along: the overwhelming majority of people continue to reject health care "reform." Support has remained steady, between 41 and 46 percent since July. Opposition has remained a steady 48 to 56 percent in the same time frame.
The latest poll of likely voters conducted October 24-25 shows 45 percent approve while 51 percent disapprove of Democrat health care proposals. Those numbers include 23 percent who strongly favor the plan and 40 percent who are strongly opposed.
The Politico reports, "Reid, who spoke with virtually every member of his 60-member caucus this weekend, currently has between 56 and 57 votes for a proposal to create a national insurance plan but allow states to opt out of it, according to Democratic aides." The Dems have a 40 seat majority in the House and 60 votes in the Senate. If they had the votes for a public option they'd just go ahead and do it.
Translation: they don't have the votes. Not yesterday, not today and not tomorrow.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
This dipwad is pulling out the stops to get re-elected.
#2
Reid buckled to the far left ideologues in the White House and his caucus to go over the political cliff.
Not! Hes simply tossed a phantom bone to the Progressive caucus. It doesnt matter if Harry doesnt have the votes to pass a final bill with a public option. True to form, he will blame Republican obstructionism and let the liberal shred machine handle the moderate Democrat defectors for him. That should be enough cover to roll out the ole its not perfect but we tried speech. If there's been anything confirmed this year its that Progressives dont demand achievement just good intentions. And in this case, even phony intentions will do.
#3
They don't have the votes without the government option or they would have passed it already. But then to make an announcement that they are going to include a provision that will lose them more votes is insane, self-destructive behavior. After the 2010 election maybe Harry can get on some medication to help him with his delusional behavior. A sane Harry Reid we can negotitate with, but until he starts taking his meds there isn't much we can do.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/28/2009 11:43 Comments ||
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This is one Mr. Deeds who apparently isn't going to town. The collapse of the Democratic campaign for governor of Virginia speaks volumes - chapters, anyway - about what the body politic is trying to tell Barack Obama's Democrats.
They're learning, painfully, that campaigning without George W. Bush is baffling, frustrating and scary. Worse, it offers a preview of what the congressional campaigning will be like next year. One Obama doorbell ringer, working neighborhoods in Northern Virginia for Creigh Deeds, says even the promise of free pizza can't lure faithful Democrats to a rally.
For weeks, The Washington Post, the house organ of the national Democratic Party, pounded away at Bob McDonnell, the Republican nominee, for having written politically incorrect term papers in graduate school, citing his master's thesis, which decried abortion, gender-bending and radical feminism, as proof that he doesn't like women very much.
Only a month ago, Mr. Deeds, the Post's horse in the race, wouldn't talk about anything but the McDonnell graduate-school thesis - maybe a boon to master's and doctoral candidates who can't get anybody but a professor to read their wit and wisdom, but, as it turns out, a bore to voters in Virginia. The public-opinion polls continue to show Mr. McDonnell ahead, despite all the Post's ineffective deeds, and with a lengthening lead.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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says even the promise of free pizza can't lure faithful Democrats to a rally.
Did you consider issuing every attendee their own $797 billion check?
Posted by: ed ||
10/28/2009 0:58 Comments ||
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#3
"I wuz promised that Obama wuz gonna pay my mortgage and my gas! Didn't happen. Then, my cuz in Detroit wuz promised Obama dollars earlier this month. Didn't happen. Now, all youse can offa me is this damn pizza? Oh, hell to the no!"
#4
For weeks, The Washington Post, the house organ of the national Democratic Party,...
Which one isn't. The Donks have more media house organs than Rupert Murdoch. I'd say that Mr. Murdoch's were more profitable, but given the $700+B patronage looting of the treasury earlier this year, that may not be a valid observation.
#5
One Obama doorbell ringer, working neighborhoods in Northern Virginia for Creigh Deeds, says even the promise of free pizza can't lure faithful Democrats to a rally.
#8
#3 "I wuz promised that Obama wuz gonna pay my mortgage and my gas! Didn't happen. Then, my cuz in Detroit wuz promised Obama dollars earlier this month. Didn't happen. Now, all youse can offa me is this damn pizza? Oh, hell to the no!"
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie 2009-10-28 05:05
#9
The system is at fault, electing a republican into a system designed to expand government won't change a thing either, they'll just expand government into their preferences at the populations expense.
America was founded on individual sovereignty, until you get back to that the country will founder.
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.
When both houses of Congress voted to defund ACORN several weeks ago, what they actually did was bar lawmakers and federal agencies from giving any money to the community organizing group for the duration of the temporary budget agreement, or continuing resolution, that was in effect at the time. Continuing resolutions are used to extend federal spending, and keep the government running, when Congress can't agree on appropriations bills for the fiscal year. When the congressional defunding of ACORN went into effect on October 1, there was a continuing resolution in place that would last until October 31 -- this Saturday. The ACORN ban was in that resolution, so it will also expire on Saturday.
(CNNMoney.com) -- Medicare has become a scary word to the doctors at the largest private group practice in Kansas City, Mo.
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday that he'd back a GOP filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's health care reform bill. Lieberman, who caucuses with Democrats and is positioning himself as a fiscal hawk on the issue, said he opposes any health care bill that includes a government-run insurance program -- even if it includes a provision allowing states to opt out of the program, as Reid's has said the Senate bill will.
Two new polls out today suggest that Republican Chris Christie is holding the late momentum in the New Jersey gubernatorial race over Gov. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.)
According to a story -- unconfirmed by me -- a reporter was interviewing Albert Einstein shortly after Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947. In the course of the conversation, the reporter asked Einstein what the speed of sound was at sea level. The physicist said he was sorry, but he couldn't remember exactly. The reporter expressed surprise that the world's greatest scientist didn't know something like that. Einstein looked at him balefully over the top of his reading glasses and said, "I know where I can look it up."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced yesterday that his "Harrycare" bill will include a government option. Looking a great deal like a man who can see the end of his political career looming over the horizon, Reid buckled to the far left ideologues in the White House and his caucus to go over the political cliff.
This is one Mr. Deeds who apparently isn't going to town. The collapse of the Democratic campaign for governor of Virginia speaks volumes - chapters, anyway - about what the body politic is trying to tell Barack Obama's Democrats. 
