Showing posts with label Denver DNC Disaster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Denver DNC Disaster. Show all posts

Monday, July 25, 2011

Wu at Center of Sex Allegation To Explain


Rep. David Wu has been accused of an “unwanted sexual encounter” with the teenage daughter of a longtime friend, the latest scandal to engulf the troubled Oregon Democrat.

The Oregonian reported that the 56-year-old Wu “acknowledged a sexual encounter to his senior aides but insisted it was consensual,” according to sources aware of the incident.





. . .Shortly before the 2010 elections, Wu began behaving erratically, according to The Oregonian and other news outlets. Wu sent a bizarre picture of himself in a tiger costume to his staffers, and some of them urged him to seek psychiatric help. More than a half dozen staffers and campaign consultants quit as Wu bombarded them with troubling phone calls and emails.

“I freely admit that it was an intense campaign, and I was not always at my best with staff or constituents,” Wu said in a statement to Williamette Week, a Portland newspaper. “For all those moments, I wish I’d been better and I apologize.”

These latest allegations against Wu add to the growing list of sex scandals that have rocked Capitol Hill over the past two years.

Former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) recently resigned from Congress following a national firestorm over lewd photos he sent to women he met over the Internet.

Former Rep. Christopher Lee (R-N.Y.) was caught sending a topless online photo and also resigned. Former Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) had an affair with one of his campaign aides, who also happened to be the wife of his deputy chief of staff. Ensign stepped down from office on May 3.

And ex-Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) quickly departed Capitol Hill in March 2010 after POLITICO reported he was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for allegations of sexual harassment of male staffers. The Ethics Committee recently announced that it will continue looking into whether any Democratic lawmakers or staffers knew about those allegations but failed to take action against Massa.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

David Brooks Gets the Wrong Westerner - 'That's My Ruling!'




Judge Roy W. Bean: Shad Wilkins, you've been tried and found guilty of the most serious crime west of the Pecos, to wit: shooting a steer. Do you got anything to say for yourself before the sentence of the court is executed?
Shad Wilkins: I told you they shot at me first. I didn't mean to kill that steer on purpose. I was aiming at the man.
Judge Roy W. Bean: It's your bad luck you missed him. That's the trouble with you sodbusters...you can't shoot straight. Shad, may the Lord have mercy on your soul.


Yep, that's what happens when grassroots meets the citizen.

David Brooks is one of those really smart guys who writes about politics and how 'real folks' need to listen to him.

Brooks got his start by writing fan mail to William F. Buckley at an age when he might have done better to learn how to crack a rack of eight-ball, smoke Luckies with the guys in front of Kiley and Kalina's drug store, and figure out how to lure Tess McGuffins into the balcony of the Highland Theatre - but that's just me.

David Brooks was a huge help in getting President Obama elected, while pretending to be a rock-ribbed conservative at the very core of his manly essence. Kind of like George Will and baseball, as genuine as the lard transplants in middle aged women's lips.

Today, Regular Guy Dave goes to the Classic Western for his lessons to the GOP, now dog-paddling at the bottom of Davy Jones' Locker.

Today, if Republicans had learned the right lessons from the Westerns, or at least John Ford Westerns, they would not be the party of untrammeled freedom and maximum individual choice. They would once again be the party of community and civic order.

They would begin every day by reminding themselves of the concrete ways people build orderly neighborhoods, and how those neighborhoods bind a nation. They would ask: What threatens Americans’ efforts to build orderly places to raise their kids? The answers would produce an agenda: the disruption caused by a boom and bust economy; the fragility of the American family; the explosion of public and private debt; the wild swings in energy costs; the fraying of the health care system; the segmentation of society and the way the ladders of social mobility seem to be dissolving.



Dave looked at My Darling Clementine by John Ford:

For example, in Ford’s 1946 movie, “My Darling Clementine,” Henry Fonda plays Wyatt Earp, the marshal who tamed Tombstone. But the movie isn’t really about the gunfight and the lone bravery of a heroic man. It’s about how decent people build a town. Much of the movie is about how the townsfolk put up a church, hire a teacher, enjoy Shakespeare, get a surgeon and work to improve their manners.


Nope. Regular folks liked William Wellman's The Westerner*
and took more notice of the theme of an entrenched political infrastructure that doled out money to political action committees - Judge Roy Bean ( read the Democratic National Committee) robbed farmers and bribed the Cattlemen ( read ACORN/SEIU/MOVE0n Dot Org)to maintain political hegemony.

In this film the Regular Guy Cole Hardin (Gary Cooper) does Okay so long as he sucks up to Judge Roy ( Walter Brennan) and when he runs afoul of the Judge and his Grassroots PAC guns start a blazin'!

In the end the PACS prove no match for common sense and the American Work Ethic. We'll get there, again.

Until then Dave Brooks needs to bone up on his studies. As the Judge told Cole,

Judge Roy W. Bean: Don't spill none of that liquor, son. It eats right into the bar.


*Cole Hardin just doesn't look like a horse thief, Jane-Ellen Matthews tells Judge Roy Bean as she steps up to the bar. Cole says he can't take it with him as he empties all of his coins on the bar to buy drinks for the jury. He notices two big pictures of Lily Langtry behind the bar. Sure, Cole has met the Jersey Lily, whom the hanging judge adores, even has a lock of her hair. Hanging is delayed for two weeks, giving Cole time to get in the middle of a range war between cattlemen and homesteaders and to still be around when Lily Langtry, former mistress of Edward VII who became an international actress, arrives in Texas. Written by Dale O'Connor {daleoc@interaccess.com}

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Socialist Workers Bugged By Blago, SEIU and Two Party System-


Yikes. Blago is floating out there in the ozone 'Free-As-Bird and Guilty as Sin,' as Chicago's Distinguished Professor and Unrepentant Crony, Billy 'The Bomber' Ayers might say.

Yep, Ed Genson who was Jimmy 'The Bomber'Catura's mouthpiece back before Mr. Catura shed his mortal husk - with help to be sure, has already tied the Illinois Legislature in knots; Fitzy, it seems to me, might have pulled the trigger on Blago too soon; SEIU is getting more attention than they really care to have; everyone but Mike Hughes's dog has 'demanded - demanded, I say!' that Governor Sunshine vacate the Office of Illinois Chief Executive; POTUS-E Obama has 'as I've said so many times;' and Illinois has become the Jon Burge Political Corruption.

Now, the Socialist Workers Party, that played so nice with Howard Dean and Dave Axelrod and Rahm Emmanuel and Jan Schakowsky and SEIU is getting ready to make war on the Democratic Party over Milorod Blagojevich and his busy-beaver buddies and Pay to Play!

The Blagojevich scandal is also a reminder that the Democratic Party is one of the main institutions that systematically incorporates organizations of working people into a corporate-dominated system of horse trading and political favoritism.

This was illustrated when the Feds' tapes apparently captured some dealings of "Union Official A" (who has since been identified as Tom Balanoff of Service Employees International Union)--who, it appears, Blagojevich's staff was trying to enlist as a go-between for the governor to Obama's staff. The tapes also caught Blagojevich proposing a scheme whereby he could make up to $300,000 running a lobbying organization for the SEIU-sponsored Change to Win federation.

All of this may prove to be nothing more than idle talk, yet it is the kind of thing that the labor movement doesn't need. Unfortunately, it's too common in a labor leadership that in recent years has proven itself more attuned to Democratic Party deal-making than to grassroots mobilization.


Lance Selfa, the author, ( Reds and Rose-hued Barricade Stormers always have cool names) sure seems to have a grip on Patrick Fitzgerald's modus operandi:

If Fitzgerald's record is any indication, he will find something provable with which to prosecute Blagojevich--and it's likely to be something a lot less sensational than the charge that the governor was selling Obama's senate seat. Blagojevich may end up joining Ryan in the penitentiary, but the charge will likely be some penny-ante corruption of which any number of mainstream politicians could be accused.

It must have been this sort of behavior that Frederick Engels, Karl Marx's collaborator, was considering when he described American political parties in 1891 as "two great gangs of political speculators, who alternately take possession of the state power and exploit it by the most corrupt means and for the most corrupt ends--and the nation is powerless against these two great cartels of politicians, who are ostensibly its servants, but in reality exploit and plunder it."


Well, I guess it's a pay check, Lance. Stay frosty.

Gee. And the DNC and Reds played so nice together to bring Change We Can Believe In. Looks like more Change is Blowing in the Wind - not blowing up Billy - blowing in - like Lightweights in American politics. The Crab Barrel is Full of Them!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Wendy Button: Obama Speechwriter Serves Notice and Supports John McCain -In Full!



Wendy Button talking to the Haircut Mac Daddy

So Long, Democratsby Wendy Button

Wendy Button is a writer in Washington, DC. She has written for Senators John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Mayor Tom Menino of Boston as well as other national and international leaders. She received her MFA in writing from Bennington College and is currently writing the CNN Heroes Award Show to air Thanksgiving night.

A speechwriter for Obama, Edwards, and Clinton on why she’s voting McCain.

Since I started writing speeches more than ten years ago, I have always believed in the Democratic Party. Not anymore. Not after the election of 2008. This transformation has been swift and complete and since I’m a woman writing in the election of 2008, “very emotional.”

When I entered this campaign, it was at the 2006 Edwards staff Christmas party. My nametag read “Millie Worker.” When former Senator John Edwards read it, he laughed and said, “That makes you like my parent.” He went on to say, “Would you please come down to Chapel Hill so we can talk about what’s coming up.” I sat in John and Elizabeth’s living room for two and half hours. I left North Carolina, energized about politics for the first time in months.

Not only has this party belittled working people in this campaign, it has also been part of tearing down two female candidates.

I didn’t hear from anyone for three weeks.

When I finally received the official offer, it was the kind of political offer that said, “Go away.” That happens. It’s their campaign and I just assumed that I had been pushed out. The problem was that I had canceled a number of freelance writing jobs because I had assumed that when John said, “Start right away” I would. I needed a job right away and so I took the one in front of me with Senator Barack Obama.

When we first met, Obama and I had a nice conversation about speeches and writing, and at the end of the meeting I handed him a pocket-sized bottle of Grey Poupon mustard so he wouldn’t have to ask staff if it was okay to put it on his hamburger. At the bottom of the bottle was the logo for “The South Beach Diet” and he snapped, “Oh so you read People magazine.” He seemed to think that I was commenting on his bathing suit picture.

I helped with his announcement speech and others. I worked in the Senate when he was in D.C. One day after a hearing on Darfur, we were walking back to the office. I was still hobbling from a very bad ankle injury and in a very kind and gentle way he offered his arm when we approached the stairs. But later in debate preps and phone conversations and meetings, I realized that I had made a mistake. I didn’t belong. No matter how hard I tried, my heart wasn’t in it anymore.

See campaigns get complicated when you’ve written for so many Democrats. Not only had I written for Senator Edwards, but I had also been Senator Hillary Clinton’s speechwriter. Senator Joe Biden is a “good looking” man and his care after my father almost died from an aneurysm is the kind of kindness you never forget. When I saw Edwards at a traffic light in D.C. about a year after our meeting, he asked for help and I did and it was an honor to help him with his concession speech. And when the primary ended, it was a privilege to help Michelle Obama with a stump speech, be considered as a speechwriter for the V.P. nominee again, and send friends in Chicago ideas until the financial crisis hit. This is what the Democratic Party has been for me; it’s family. Now, it doesn’t even feel like a distant cousin.This drift started on a personal level with the fall of former Senator John Edwards. It got stronger during the Democratic National Convention when I counted the substantive mentions of poverty on one hand and a whole bunch of bad canned partisan lines against Senator John McCain. Some faith was lifted after Senator Hillary Clinton’s grace during a difficult hour. But that faith was dashed when I saw that someone had raided the Caligula set and planted the old columns at Invesco Field.

The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of celebrating his aspirations, they were mocked. He wasn’t “a real plumber,” and “They’re fighting for Joe the Hedge-Fund manager,” and the patronizing, “I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber.”

Having worked in politics, I know that absolutely none of this is on the level. This back and forth is posturing, a charade, and a political game. These lines are what I refer to as “hooker lines”—a sure thing to get applause and the press to scribble as if they’re reporting meaningful news.

As the nation slouches toward disaster, the level of political discourse is unworthy of this moment in history. We have Republicans raising Ayers and Democrats fostering ageism with “erratic” and jokes about Depends. Sexism. Racism. Ageism and maybe some Socialism have all made their ugly cameos in election 2008. It’s not inspiring. Perhaps this is why I found the initial mocking of Joe so offensive and I realized an old line applied: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.”

The party I believed in wouldn’t look down on working people under any circumstance. And Joe the Plumber is right. This is the absolutely worst time to raise taxes on anyone: the rich, the middle class, the poor, small businesses and corporations.

Our economy is in the tank for many complicated reasons, especially because people don’t have enough money. So let them keep it. Let businesses keep it so they can create jobs and stay here and weather this storm. And yet, the Democratic ideology remains the same. Our approach to problems—big government solutions paid for by taxing the rich and big and smaller companies—is just as tired and out of date as trickle down economics. How about a novel approach that simply finds a sane way to stop the bleeding?

That’s not exactly the philosophy of a Democrat. Not only has this party belittled working people in this campaign from Joe the Plumber to the bitter comments, it has also been part of tearing down two female candidates. At first, certain Democrats and the press called Senator Clinton “dishonest.” They went after her cleavage. They said her experience as First Lady consisted of having tea parties. There was no outrage over “Bros before Hoes” or “Iron My Shirt.” Did Senator Clinton make mistakes? Of course. She’s human.

But here we are about a week out and it’s déjà vu all over again. Really, front-page news is how the Republican National Committee paid for Governor Sarah Palin’s wardrobe? Where’s the op-ed about how Obama tucks in his shirt when he plays basketball or how Senator Biden buttons the top button on his golf shirt?
Info RSS Wendy Button is a writer in Washington, DC. She has written for Senators John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Mayor Tom Menino of Boston as well as other national and international leaders. She received her MFA in writing from Bennington College and is currently writing the CNN Heroes Award Show to air Thanksgiving night.

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Oh right, this story goes to the sincerity of her Hockey Mom persona. What planet am I living on? Everyone knows that when it comes to appearance, there’s a double standard for women politicians. Remember the speech Speaker Pelosi gave on the floor the day of the bailout vote? Check out how many stories commented on her hair that day and how many mentioned Congressman Barney Frank’s.

Here we are discussing Governor Palin’s clothes—oh wait, now we’re on to the make-up—not what either man is going to do to save our economy. This isn’t an accident. It is part of a manufactured narrative that she is stupid.

Governor Palin and I don’t agree on a lot of things, mostly social issues. But I have grown to appreciate the Governor. I was one of those initial skeptics and would laugh at the pictures. Not anymore. When someone takes on a corrupt political machine and a sitting governor, that is not done by someone with a low I.Q. or a moral core made of tissue paper. When someone fights her way to get scholarships and work her way through college even in a jagged line, that shows determination and humility you can’t learn from reading Reinhold Niebuhr. When a mother brings her son with special needs onto the national stage with love, honesty, and pride, that gives hope to families like mine as my older brother lives with a mental disability. And when someone can sit on a stage during the Sarah Palin rap on Saturday Night Live, put her hands in the air and watch someone in a moose costume get shot—that’s a sign of both humor and humanity.

Has she made mistakes? Of course, she’s human too. But the attention paid to her mistakes has been unprecedented compared to Senator Obama’s “57 states” remarks or Senator Biden using a version of the Samuel Johnson quote, “There’s nothing like a hanging in the morning to focus a man’s thoughts.”

But thank God for election 2008. We can talk about the wardrobe and make-up even though most people don’t understand the details about Senator Obama’s plan with Iraq. When he says, “all combat troops,” he’s not talking about all troops—it leaves a residual force of as large as 55,000 indefinitely. That’s not ending the war; that’s half a war.

I was dead wrong about the surge and thought it would be a disaster. Senator John McCain led when many of us were ready to quit. Yet we march on as if nothing has changed, wedded to an old plan, and that too is a long way from the Democratic Party.

I can no longer justify what this party has done and can’t dismiss the treatment of women and working people as just part of the new kind of politics. It’s wrong and someone has to say that. And also say that the Democratic Party’s talking points—that Senator John McCain is just four more years of the same and that he’s President Bush—are now just hooker lines that fit a very effective and perhaps wave-winning political argument…doesn’t mean they’re true. After all, he is the only one who’s worked in a bipartisan way on big challenges.

Before I cast my vote, I will correct my party affiliation and change it to No Party or Independent. Then, in the spirit of election 2008, I’ll get a manicure, pedicure, and my hair done. Might as well look pretty when I am unemployed in a city swimming with “D’s.”

Whatever inspiration I had in Chapel Hill two years ago is gone. When people say how excited they are about this election, I can now say, “Maybe for you. But I lost my home.”

Thursday, September 18, 2008

McCain/Palin: Obama V - We Few. . .We Happy Few . . Now, That's Elite! Again Court Speech on November 4th! I Lose; WE Sue!



Howard Dean. O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day, because we have tanked in the polls since Columbus Day!

Barack Obama V. What's he that wishes so?
My Chairman Dean? No, my fair Chairman;
If we are mark'd to try, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour - we just file with the ACLU and go WIG on the Tube!
MSNBCs will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Rove, I am not covetous for gold - we got millions!
Nor care I . . ' let me be clear . . . Um, who doth feed upon my ACORN;
It yearns me not if men my SEIU did not register;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires - that's the pitch.
But if it be a sin to covet honour, Where's the Teleprompter?
I am the most offending soul alive - Man I want this Gig!
No, faith, my Chair, wish not a man from England er, Germany.
God's peace! I would not lose so great an election
Because we have tossed the Race Card and Michigan is in play
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Howard Dean, through my host Barbra Steisand,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd the feast of St. Charles Borromeo* ( November 4th) by all them racist Catholics.
He/she/it that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Borromeo.
He/she that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Charles Borromeo.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Election day - a hanging chad got me.'
Old men forget; Joe? Joe Biden! Get over here, You are not Sick and No Hillary is not taking your place! yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages ( he made some great contacts and Blackberry swag,
What feets he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Barack the Hope, Biden and Wexler,
Olbermann and Maddow, Wright and Ayers-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good gender non-specfic will teach their adopted son;
And Barack Borromeo shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we elite;
For he to-day that votes with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so white,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed because there is that six hour time difference
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That vote for me Saint Charles Borromeo's day.
Cry Present and Let Slip the Dogs of Woe!


*November 4

St. Charles Borromeo

(1538-1584)



The name of St. Charles Borromeo is associated with reform. He lived during the time of the Protestant Reformation, and had a hand in the reform of the whole Church during the final years of the Council of Trent.
Although he belonged to a noble Milanese family and was related to the powerful Medici family, he desired to devote himself to the Church. When his uncle, Cardinal de Medici, was elected pope in 1559 as Pius IV, he made Charles cardinal-deacon and administrator of the Archdiocese of Milan while he was still a layman and a young student. Because of his intellectual qualities he was entrusted with several important offices connected with the Vatican and later appointed secretary of state with full charge of the administration of the papal states. The untimely death of his elder brother brought Charles to a definite decision to be ordained a priest, despite relatives’ insistence that he marry. He was ordained a priest at the age of 25, and soon afterward he was consecrated bishop of Milan.

Because of his work at the Council of Trent he was not allowed to take up residence in Milan until the Council was over. Charles had encouraged the pope to renew the Council in 1562 after it had been suspended 10 years before. Working behind the scenes, St. Charles deserves the credit for keeping the Council in session when at several points it was on the verge of breaking up. He took upon himself the task of the entire correspondence during the final phase.

Eventually Charles was allowed to devote his time to the Archdiocese of Milan, where the religious and moral picture was far from bright. The reform needed in every phase of Catholic life among both clergy and laity was initiated at the provincial council of all his suffragan bishops. Specific regulations were drawn up for bishops and other clergy: If the people were to be converted to a better life, these had to be the first to give a good example and renew their apostolic spirit.

Charles took the initiative in giving good example. He allotted most of his income to charity, forbade himself all luxury and imposed severe penances upon himself. He sacrificed wealth, high honors, esteem and influence to become poor. During the plague and famine of 1576 he tried to feed 60,000 to 70,000 people daily. To do this he borrowed large sums of money that required years to repay. When the civil authorities fled at the height of the plague, he stayed in the city, where he ministered to the sick and the dying, helping those in want.

Work and the heavy burdens of his high office began to affect his health. He died at the age of 46.

Comment:

St. Charles made his own the words of Christ: "...I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me" (Matthew 25:35-36). Charles saw Christ in his neighbor and knew that charity done for the least of his flock was charity done for Christ.

Quote:
"Christ summons the Church, as she goes her pilgrim way, to that continual reformation of which she always has need, insofar as she is an institution of men here on earth. Consequently, if, in various times and circumstances, there have been deficiencies in moral conduct or in Church discipline, or even in the way that Church teaching has been formulated—to be carefully distinguished from the deposit of faith itself—these should be set right at the opportune moment and in the proper way" (Decree on Ecumenism, 6, Austin Flannery translation).

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Milky or Tubby? Matthews or OlberBore - Who Get's to Tear Down DNC Temple?




The race to see who from MSNBC - The Tool Shed gets to pull down the Temple to Obama in Denver!

Alas, Ye Philistines, one these Inflated Balloons will get to push on the columns and tear down the DNC! Nice work boys. And they were worried about weather! 'Twill be windy coming from each cheek of the Peacock's Rump - Milky( Blllllllooooooowwwwww!) Tubby ( BbbbbbbbbbbbbaaaaaaaaLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooWWWWWW!) ought to be a great start but really put your shoulders into it Lads!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Denver Hellas! Meet Zorba the Geek!


OOooooPPPah! Winfrey!
Getting all Hellenic for Thusday now that Mount Obama is featuring a Greek Temple! You can NOT make this stuff up!

Ooooooppp-ah!

"All of them, my son. It's a great sin to say this is good and that is bad." -- "Why? Can't we make a choice?" -- "No, of course we can't.". . . The aim of man and matter is to create joy, according to Zorba – others would say ‘to create spirit,’ but that comes to the same thing on another plane. But why? With what object? And when the body dissolves, does anything at all remain of what we have called the soul? Or does nothing remain, and does our unquenchable desire for immortality spring, not from the fact that we are immortal, but from the fact that during the short span of our life we are in the service of something immortal?
N. Kazantzakis speaking through Alexi Zorba - Zorba the Greek

'I've got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby.'
Barack Obama the Doric God of Denver is Zorba the Geek!


Winfrey!