Sunday, October 31, 2010

Obama's Last Stop

See: Obama Can't Go Home to Chicago 

He went anyway.

"Obama returns to home turf to rally party spirits" by Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff  |  October 31, 2010

CHICAGO — President Obama embarked on a last-ditch campaign marathon yesterday in a bid to blunt the political rebuke expected to be delivered by voters in Tuesday’s midterm elections, urging dispirited Americans to give Democrats more time to deliver on the promise of change the president made two years ago....   

Please turn that record over. You had two years and a filibuster-proof majority and all we got was a stinking health tax. 

Related: Obamacare the End of Employer-Based Health Plans

They start cutting you loose after the election.

Democrats are hoping they can avoid the widely forecast anti-incumbent wave that could overturn the party’s majority in the US House and seriously erode its advantage in the Senate.  

If not take the Senate outright.   

For the record, I AM PREDICTING a 50-50 split! 

Democrats will win Connecticut, the two New York seats, California, Delaware, and Washington state. Everything in-between will go red (with Illinois being the only possible flip to blue, what with the history of election-rigging from Obama's home city making it 51-49 Democrat).

And if the House doesn't flip the f***er was rigged (probably will be in any event; I no longer believe in the integrity of AmeriKan elections). 

But Obama’s choice of locations to deliver his closing argument was telling: He made stops in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, places where he enjoyed broad support in 2008, before wrapping up last night in Illinois, where his party is struggling to prevent his former Senate seat from falling into the hands of Republicans....

In other words, he's trying to hold on to seats that should be locks. Not a good sign for Tuesday.

The Illinois Senate race, between Democrat Alexi Giannoulias and Republican Mark Kirk, is at best a toss-up for Democrats, who need a strong turnout among their base to prevent the GOP from snatching a highly symbolic victory in Obama’s backyard.  

He needs that famous Chicago ballot-box stuffing.

In Pennsylvania, Democrat Joe Sestak and Republican Pat Toomey are in a close Senate race, though most pollsters give Toomey the edge.

Related:

"Although his numbers have been slipping, Toomey still has a lead of 4 percentage points"

Also see: Toomey's Time in Pennsylvania

The Connecticut Senate race is faring better for Democrats; polls show Richard Blumenthal leading Republican Linda McMahon.  

See: Obama Gets Into the Ring in Connecticut

The lady wrestler gets counted out.

Obama supporters who are sticking with the president and backing Democrats this fall foresee difficult times ahead for the party after Tuesday’s vote....

Democrats are fighting to hold onto threatened Senate seats in California, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Colorado, Washington, and West Virginia.   

Related: Carly Captures Sympathy Vote For California Senate Seat

Quick Whisk Through Wisconsin

Poll check: "Johnson maintains a lead of about 5 percentage points"

Related: Clinging to the Senate

Poll check: "Buck’s lead in the polls has been dwindling -- down to less than 1 percentage point"

Related: Republican Wave Reaches Washington State

The offsetting of O'Donnell by Karl Rove?

Related: Republicans Raesing Up in West Virginia Senate Race

Obama is a loser there in any event.

In Nevada, the majority leader of the US Senate, Harry Reid, is fighting to save his career against Republican Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle.

Related: NOTA in Nevada

Poll check: "Angle has seemed to regain her footing, up by 3 percentage points"

Goodbye and good riddance, Harry!

Democratic seats in North Dakota, Arkansas, and Indiana have already been all but written off as lost.

The Republican House minority leader, John Boehner, who would likely become speaker if his party takes a US House majority on Tuesday, said yesterday that Republicans stand ready to bring more transparency to government and cut federal spending if voters entrust them with the reins of power. 

We heard that from the last crowd that came in four years ago. 

Btw, WTF were you guys doing during the Bush years?

“We’ve tried it President Obama’s way,’’ said Boehner, in the weekly Republican address. “We’ve tried it Washington’s way. It hasn’t worked. It’s time to put the people back in charge.’’ 

That would mean running the whole lot of you out of there and starting over.

Obama has been trying for weeks to build a firewall against Democratic losses by rallying supporters in states with close races, a strategy that led him back to his hometown.  

Yes, the pivotal Illinois Senate race.

The contest between Giannoulias, the state treasurer, and Kirk, a five-term congressman from the northern Chicago suburbs, is one of the closest Senate races in the country. Most of the polls suggest the race is a statistical tie, within the typical margin of error for opinion surveys.

The tight race “is a good metaphor for what’s going on nationally,’’ said Kent Redfield, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “You’ve got the president trying to bring the Democratic base — women, African-Americans, Hispanics — back to their candidates, trying to generate enthusiasm in a state the Democrats have dominated.’’

The seat Obama gave up when he won the presidency is open this fall; Roland Burris, who was appointed by then-governor Rod Blagojevich to serve out Obama’s unfinished term, declined to run again.

The campaign to replace Burris is between two men who are considered rising stars of their parties.

Giannoulias, (pronounced jeh-NOO-lee-us) a Boston University graduate, entered politics four years ago after helping manage Broadway Bank, a Chicago community lender founded by his father. In 2006, with support from then-senator Obama, Giannoulias, then just 30, became the nation’s youngest state treasurer.

But the private banking experience that was so helpful in his last race has been a liability this year. Broadway Bank failed in April and was taken over by the FDIC. And Giannoulias has been dogged by revelations that Broadway loaned $20 million to two Chicago felons, sometimes more colorfully described as “mob figures’’ in the local media, while Giannoulias was a senior loan officer.

Those embarrassments might have crushed Giannoulias’ campaign months ago if Kirk hadn’t evened the playing field by exaggerating his résumé. 

Kirk, 51, apologized in the spring for making false statements about his 21-year Navy Reserve career, including the untrue claim that he had served in the Gulf War.

Related: You Are No Captain Kirk!  

I would vote for James T.

He speaks contritely about learning “a painful lesson’’ from the episode, though he has resisted explaining why he overstated his record. He is the type of centrist Republican that typically has the best chance of winning in Democratic-leaning Illinois, specialists said.

“Mark Kirk is not a hyper-partisan,’’ said Gabe Rubin, 18, of Skokie, who stood for hours in an eye-watering cold wind demonstrating for the Kirk campaign outside a debate last week. “I want someone who votes what he believes is best for his constituents, not what his party tells him to vote.’’

Kirk’s campaign office did not respond to several messages for an interview.

Throughout the hard-fought campaign, the candidates have eagerly exploited each other’s missteps.

“All the campaign ads begin with smears,’’ said John Brehm, a University of Chicago political science professor. “It’s been pretty dirty. Though perhaps I shouldn’t use the word ‘dirty,’ because what they’re saying about each other is true.’’

The tone of the race has been so relentlessly negative that Giannoulias surprised campaign watchers last week by promising to run only positive ads in the final days.

His prohibition on attacks did not extend to debates — the two candidates exchanged unpleasantries in person last Wednesday in their final televised forum. The tone was at times bitter and they frequently talked over each other.

On Friday, Giannoulias and his mother canvassed on the busy streets of Boystown, a Chicago district with a large gay population. A jovial Giannoulias said his campaign’s field operation was ready.
“Turnout in this city is going to be through the roof,’’ he predicted.

He will need a large turnout from the city’s Democratic base to win, and to save the president from an embarrassing rejection by the people who know him best.

I'm sure the RIGGED MACHINES are IN PLACE.

--more--" 
  

Also see: Obama On His Own

In so many ways. 

Update: 


CLEVELAND — President Obama made Ohio his final campaign stop yesterday in the tumultuous midterm elections....

GOP leaders voiced confidence that their party will pick up more than 40 House seats and regain the majority they lost four years ago. Republican control of the Senate seems less likely, although they expect to gain several seats there, as well as numerous governors’ seats.

Obama, bracing for perhaps one of the biggest midterm setbacks in recent times, made a four-state weekend sprint to help embattled Democrats as best he can....

Obama carried Ohio easily in 2008, and Democrats once had high hopes of reelecting Governor Ted Strickland this year and taking the Senate seat being vacated by Republican George Voinovich. But with the recession barely losing its grip in the state, and the president’s approval ratings sagging, Democrats have all but given up on the Senate race and are desperate to save Strickland and several imperiled House members.... 

In Portland, Maine, former president Bill Clinton campaigned again yesterday for Democrat Libby Mitchell as she and four other candidates for governor ramped up their get-out-the-vote efforts. It was Clinton’s second stop in Maine in five weeks to help Mitchell, who’s sagging in polls to third in the five-way race, behind Republican front-runner Paul LePage and independent Eliot Cutler.  

How very interesting.

Related: Maine Politics Down Globe Memory Hole

Alaska is perhaps the most unsettled state politically this weekend, and Democrats say it’s conceivable they could score an upset Senate win there.  

I do not think so.   

See: Write-In Whiteout in Alaska

They are really reaching now, readers.

With GOP nominee Joe Miller stumbling badly, and Senator Lisa Murkowski making a rare write-in effort after losing the primary to Miller, little-noticed Democrat Scott McAdams might find a way to sneak through to victory.... 

--more--"

Stop the Sanity!

Related: Politics All a Joke to Boston Globe


WASHINGTON — Shtick....

That sums up the whole thing in a word, yeah.

Egged on by the hosts, Ozzy Osbourne and Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, engaged in something of a battle of the bands, the heavy-metal rocker and the folkie interrupting each other.

The crowd for the event — estimated in the tens of thousands — was festive, goofy, disillusioned with the state of politics, if not the nation, and ready to play nice at a gathering called as a counterweight to all the shouting and flying insults of these polarized times.  

A climate the CORPORATE MEDIA has helped foster, I might add!

But there were political undertones, too: pushing back against conservatives ahead of Tuesday’s election.

Related: America's False Choices Beckon

Would you like your sheep-dipped representative with cold-blue or red-hot coating, voter?

Slogans urged people to “relax.’’ But also: “Righties, don’t stomp on my head,’’ a reference to a Republican rally in Kentucky at which a liberal activist was pulled to the ground and stepped upon.

Stewart said the day was about toning down anger....   

Yeah, DON'T GET ANGRY about the BANK FRAUDS and TRILLIONS in LOOTING!

DON'T GET ANGRY about the NEVER-ENDING WARS based on LIES! 

Just SIT BACK and LAUGHINGLY JOKE AROUND!  

That is WHY I am ANGRY!

--more--"

Given what has happened in this nation over the last decade, and the woeful condition of the corporate and controlled-opposition media, it is TIME to GET ANGRY, America!

If NOT NOW, when? 

And then there was this little gem someone spotted in the crowd:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWrHgdzflfdsf9AetCNw9i42aHHl1bB-ZL2S4CIKmIwrlTShTZPd0TIHqNi0hO1rkohpBZkFxvym8ZXePDM0FQxG9KbXL6U5k7xc7xHo7FJ59UYIU1X4KwCKh2WumAvO0Xc2YU_bZHTxo/s1600/insanity+rally+2.jpg

They just discredited the whole thing. 

tipocap to source

Write-In Whiteout in Alaska

Related: Alaska Murky About Election Rules


ANCHORAGE — The reprise of incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski, who is cobbling together a write-in campaign after being beaten in the GOP primary, is the biggest surprise in a series of shocks that have rocked the frontier politics of Alaska. Here, the three-way race for US Senate has the feel of surreal political theater, at times enthralling and baffling voters.

The winner of the Republican primary, Joe Miller, has an ad showing him walking through the woods in a lumberjack shirt, wielding moose antlers — he asserts that Murkowski changes positions on issues more often than moose shed their antlers (which, according to the National Park Service, is every fall, after the breeding season).

On the Democratic ticket, former commercial fisherman Scott McAdams is working hard to grab attention, with ads that spoof his time working on a fishing boat with a Norwegian captain.

“After you’ve been cursed at in Norwegian, you can take on anyone,’’ he says in one spot.
And Murkowski is distributing fliers with pictures of cows and skis in an effort to teach voters how to spell her name.

“It’s a very interesting race, no question; a lot of fun,’’ said Carl Shepro, a political science professor at the University of Alaska in Anchorage.

The fun aside, the race is turning into a bare-fisted rematch between Miller and Murkowski, with polls suggesting that they are in a statistical dead heat in the mid-30s and McAdams in the mid-20s. It has several intriguing subplots, including one pitting the Old Guard of the Republican Party against the vanguard melding of Tea Party movement and GOP ideas, championed by Miller and his backer, Sarah Palin, the former governor.  

You have to start somewhere, and it is ESTABLISHMENT OUT!  INCUMBENT OUT!

In addition, the race has history-making potential. If Murkowski wins, she would be the first candidate in the country to win a write-in bid for US senator since Strom Thurmond from South Carolina in 1954.  

That's why I'm sensing a steal.

To Alaskans, though, what matters is how the next senator will deal with federal funding, regulations, and land use.... 

Miller, a father of eight from Fairbanks and a friend of Palin’s husband, Todd, is appealing to those Alaskans, saying he wants to return federal lands and programs to state control. He also wants to wean Alaska from its reliance on federal money — nearly 40 percent of the economy relies on it. His message has resonated with an independent sensibility indigenous to the state nicknamed “the last frontier.’’

************

But the specter of cutting off federal funding has energized its recipients. Several native tribal organizations have formed a super political action committee called Alaskans Standing Together, which has sunk $1 million into supporting Murkowski. The organizations, known as native corporations, are for-profit companies that receive no-bid federal contracts. They accounted for nine of the top 10 companies in the state last year, according to Alaska Business Monthly....
 
She's their rep, huh?

Murkowski could face some problems with the tabulation of write-in ballots. Murkowski’s opponents could challenge each write-in vote that is not spelled properly or is irregular.

Election officials will rule based on voter intent, potentially echoing the hanging chads debacle in Florida after the 2000 presidential race.

An informal survey of a dozen Alaskans in downtown Anchorage last week found four out of 12 could not spell Murkowski correctly. “M-u-r-c-o-s-k-i-e?’’ “M-u-r-k-i-o-s-i.’’ “M-u-r-k-s-k-i?’’  

This country has really been dumbed-down to the max.

“Can I have a hint?’’ asked Steven Libardi, a 35-year-old Anchorage resident manning a skin care kiosk in the Fifth Avenue mall.

A construction worker outside got it right. Duane Shockley, 42, said he has seen Murkowski signs all over town, but he also credited his heritage.

“I’m a little bit Polish,’’ he said.

Yeah, it is OKAY to INSULT THEM with RACIST COMMENTS! 

I'm offended because I AM of Polish heritage! 

But I am AMERICAN FIRST and FOREMOST!

McAdams, who has steered clear of the Miller-Murkowski battle, gave up his job as mayor of Sitka, an island community in southeast Alaska, to run for Senate. He is a burly former football coach whose tribal name, Keét Yiyaágu, means “Boat Size Killer Whale.’’

In a Winnebago plastered with McAdams signs, the Democrat said in an interview that Alaska “is more than the stereotype one might draw from the Palin experience.’’ He said there are lots of voters who embrace the traditional Democratic ideals that he espouses —“community-minded Alaskans that don’t buy into this Joe Miller view of the world.’’

As for his ad bragging about his ability to withstand a cursing out by a Norwegian captain, he said, “We try to have a sense of humor here.’’

“We’re certainly not trying to run a standup comedy routine here, but we’re having fun,’’ he said.

That's why he's in third.

--more--"

South Carolina's Falling Star

She's going to win, but that's the spin the establishment's flagship paper gives it, sigh:

"In S.C. governor’s race, Tea Party pick’s star fading

BEAUFORT, S.C. — She tours the state in a 34-seat bus, has had her face on the cover of Newsweek, and has received endorsements from Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney.

But in the final days of her campaign for South Carolina governor, Nikki Haley, a Tea Party movement favorite, has lost at least a bit of her aura of inevitability. Some recent polls have indicated that the race is tightening. Her Democratic opponent, state Senator Vincent Sheheen, has hammered her about a history of late tax payments. A conservative blogger also continues to publish details about what he says was their extramarital affair, which she denies. 

See: Ragging on a Rigged Election  

I'm sensing some RACISM and SEXISM from the agenda-pushing establishment media, folks!

Haley, an Indian-American former state legislator, defeated three better-known opponents for the Republican nomination and has raised $3.8 million in donations.

And they have NEVER FORGIVEN HER (or the voters) FOR IT!

Her election would be historic, bringing positive attention to a state that has elected only white men as governor — and has endured a recent streak of political scandals. 

And we CAN'T HAVE THAT!  

Can't have those "racist(?)" Tea Party people put in a dark-skinned woman for governor in South Carolina. We have mythic images and agenda-pushing divisiveness to maintain in my newspaper, dear readers.

--more--"  

Also see: South Carolina Hot For Haley

So am I. 

Rhode Island Rages Against Obama

And it is a Democrat, not Republican:

"President will visit, help Democrats in R.I. contests

PROVIDENCE — President Obama will visit Rhode Island to raise money for Democratic congressional candidate David Cicilline and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Obama will appear at two events in Providence on Oct. 25 with Cicilline and the man he hopes to replace, retiring Representative Patrick Kennedy.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Obama would appear with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Frank Caprio. His independent rival, former US senator Lincoln Chafee, made a high-profile endorsement of Obama for his presidential campaign.

--more--"

"R.I. candidate’s remark ‘not big deal,’ Obama says

PROVIDENCE — President Obama said it’s “not a big deal’’ that the Rhode Island Democratic candidate for governor, Frank Caprio, said Obama could “shove it’’ for not endorsing him.

Obama said during an interview with American Urban Radio Networks yesterday that he understood Caprio was upset he hadn’t endorsed him. But, Obama said, in politics you can’t worry about what other people are saying about you....

Caprio told a radio station on Monday that Obama could “take his endorsement and really shove it’’ after learning the president wouldn’t endorse anyone in the race.

The White House said Obama declined to make an endorsement out of respect to independent candidate Lincoln Chafee, a former Republican who endorsed Obama in 2008....  

Yeah, Caprio chose Clinton.

--more--"  

So what was not such a big deal?

"R.I. Democrat rips Obama for not backing him; President can ‘shove it,’ says state treasurer" by Associated Press  |  October 26, 2010

PROVIDENCE — Before President Obama ’s visit, the Rhode Island State Police bomb squad destroyed what was called a suspicious package found near the Woonsocket factory. 

PFFFFFFFFFFTT!!!

Sorry, but we are NO LONGER BUYING the string-pulling scripts.

Captain Darren Delaney told The Providence Journal the item was discovered at about 11 a.m. There was no immediate word on what the package might have been.

PFFFFFFFFFTT!

Obama’s choice of Rhode Island for his one-day trip was partially to raise money for Democratic House candidates elsewhere in the country. 

What was the carbon footprint on that? 
 
Related: Democrats Caught With Drawers Down 

Just contributing to their own parties, huh?

Officials said the $500,000 would be split between Providence Mayor David Cicilline, who is running for the House seat of Patrick Kennedy, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Kennedy is retiring.

The Democratic candidate for governor, Frank Caprio,  called Obama’s rebuff “Washington insider politics at its worst.’’  

Maybe Caprio's guys left the bomb.  Cui bono?

 Rhode Island’s congressional delegation expressed disapproval of Caprio’s remarks, but the executive director of the Democratic Governors Association said the president’s decision was disappointing.

“Frank Caprio has spent his career fighting for the values of the Democratic Party. He deserves the full support of our party and its leaders,’’ said executive director Nathan Daschle.

Obama did not address Caprio’s remarks or take questions during a tour of American Cord & Webbing and subsequent speech to reporters.... 

Rhode Island went 63 percent for Obama in the 2008 general election, and Caprio is seen as more conservative than Republican-turned-independent Lincoln Chafee, who endorsed Obama in 2008.

Republican John Robitaille, who has never held elected office, has said he and Caprio may be drawing from the same pool of voters.

Chafee was among the most liberal Republicans in the Senate during his time there from 1999 to 2006. He has supported more environmental protections, opposed President George W. Bush’s tax cuts, and was the only Republican senator to vote against the Iraq war.... 

And you SEE WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?

--more--" 

Also see: Around New England: Obama Takes Rhode Island to Task 

That would make anyone angry.

New Hampshire's Political House

Divided. 
 

Globe features the Democrat that is going to beat the establishment Repuglican who started talking Tea Party. 

Less emphasis on the antiwar(?) Democrat Carol Shea-Porter and her upcoming loss or the Republican retention of the Senate seat. 

 Hey, what else would you expect from a paper that told you Marty Coakley was going to win by double-digits on election day?

"New battleground, old friends in N.H.; US House race reflects voter shift" by Christopher Rowland, Globe Staff  |  October 25, 2010

CONCORD, N.H. — Charlie Bass and Ann McLane Kuster once were old family friends, children of allied political clans that formed part of New Hampshire’s moderate Republican bedrock. But this year Bass and Kuster are waging partisan war for a prized congressional seat.

Defying national trends that favor the GOP, Kuster, now a Democrat, had climbed to a 7-point lead in the most recent poll. The open Second Congressional District race remains volatile, with outside interests pouring money in and a blizzard of negative ads intensifying in the campaign’s closing days.

The harsh contest has implications beyond its back story of old family ties and new rivalries. It is about who will win the political center in a crucial swing state, a topic much on the minds of top Democrats and Republicans across New England as increasing numbers of voters feel alienated from both parties. 

HELLO, dear and beloved readers!

Over the last two decades, two polarizing trends have transformed politics and marginalized moderate Republicans in the Granite State: the Democratic Party has strengthened, and conservatives have become the dominant force in the GOP.

Bass had been one of those moderates....     

Then independent and Democratic voters tossed Bass from office in the war-weary, anti-incumbent atmosphere of 2006.  

Now it is the WAR-WEARY, ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT atmosphere of 2010!!

 Now, in his comeback bid, Bass, 58, has gambled on a rightward turn, seeking to firm up his conservative credentials with an embrace of the Tea Party movement. He signed an antitax pledge circulated by Americans for Prosperity, a deep-pocketed group that is bankrolling Tea Party organizing efforts around the country....  

I never knock anyone for that. Overtaxed Americans are being robbed so all their money can go for wars, Wall Street, and Israel.  

Bass’s strategy does not appear to be working. The latest WMUR Granite State Poll showed him falling behind Kuster for the first time in the race, with 36 percent support compared to her 43 percent. The poll carried another ominous sign for Bass: His standing declined sharply among independents.

“Charlie Bass is less popular now than he ever has been,’’ said Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, which conducted the poll for WMUR.

His drop in the polls may have to do with his shift on the ideological spectrum, he added. “Any time you do that, it makes the candidate look disingenuous.’’ 

Hey, THEY ALL ARE!

***************

Bass, however, a well-known commodity in New Hampshire, has turned off voters with his “extreme makeover,’’ said Garrison Nelson, a University of Vermont political science professor....

Kuster, 54, is running for elective office for the first time.  

Just like Porter four years ago.

She is campaigning as a staunch enemy of deficit spending but sticks to Democratic doctrine on other issues, supporting the health care overhaul law and cap-and-trade environmental legislation....

The campaign is one of several key races in New Hampshire, in which Democrats and Republicans may end up dividing the spoils. The GOP’s candidate to replace a retiring Gregg in the Senate, Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, has built a solid lead over Representative Paul Hodes, who defeated Bass for the congressional seat in 2006.

In the state’s other House race, Frank Guinta, a Republican and former Manchester mayor, is ahead of incumbent Democrat Carol Shea-Porter.  

RelatedMeet Your Antiwar New England Liberals


Yes, how VERY, VERY DISAPPOINTING! 

Also see: Pelosi Protested at Shea-Porter Promo
 
First Female Speaker Failed 

And how. Gonna cost Shea-Porter her seat! 

 But in addition to Kuster’s encouraging poll numbers, Democrats have cause for hope in the state’s governor, John Lynch, who has a double-digit advantage over his Republican challenger, John Stephen.   

Yeah, keep clinging to the life-preserving pieces of corn in the toilet bowl turd of AmeriKan politics.

Once a reliable GOP stronghold, New Hampshire now has far greater numbers of independents and nearly equal numbers of registered Democrats and Republicans....   

All cleaned up and time to move on to the next state.

--more--"

Obama Gets Into the Ring in Connecticut

The Michelle-McMahon cage match?

"Wrestling fans can wear WWE garb to Conn. polls

HARTFORD — A federal judge yesterday ordered Connecticut’s top election official to allow voters to wear World Wrestling Entertainment garb to the polls, ruling that it could not be considered political advertising for Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon, the company’s former chief executive...

WWE had been a hot topic in the race to fill the seat currently held by Democratic Senator Chris Dodd, who is retiring. McMahon trails Democrat Richard Blumenthal, the state’s attorney general, by double digits, according to recent polls.  

How discouraging that the hot topic is the WWE.

--more--"  

Also see: In The Corner To My Left....  

I suppose either way they are electing a liar.

Politics and wrestling are so similar!

"Blumenthal gets Michelle Obama’s support for Senate" by Everton Bailey Jr., Associated Press  |  October 19, 2010

STAMFORD, Conn. — Michelle Obama said the president remains committed to reform in health care, education, veterans’ aid, clean-energy initiatives, and other issues.

She also urged the audience not to lose faith in her husband’s vision for the country, despite change not coming as quickly as some had hoped.  

Already have.

“Many of us came in this expecting to see all the change we talked about to happen all at once,’’ she said.

“But the truth is, it’s going to take a lot longer to dig ourselves out of this hole than any of us imagined.’’

Why did he ESCALATE the WARS? 

 --more--" 

Related: AmeriKa's Marie Antoinette

The Power Women of AmeriKan Politics

Abandoning Obama

Is she really running the show, readers?  


"Obama returning to Conn. to stump for his party

HARTFORD — President Obama will be making his second trip to Connecticut this election season, visiting Bridgeport three days before the midterm elections in support of the state’s Democratic candidates....  

Just making sure they hold on to the few they will win on November 2nd, 'eh?

--more--" 

For the record, I AM PREDICTING a 50-50 split! 

Democrats will win Connecticut, the two New York seats, California, Delaware, and Washington state. Everything in-between will go red (with Illinois being the only possible flip to blue, what with the history of election-rigging from Obama's home city, making it 51-49). 

That will leave Joe Lieberman as the pivot-point for party control for the second time (being the filibuster-breaker this last time out).  Amazing how that works out.

Green Mountain Governor's Race May Leak Into Legislature


BURLINGTON, Vt. — Peter Shumlin, Democratic gubernatorial candidate, called yesterday for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to dramatically increase its extraction of contaminated groundwater from its site in Vernon, following news three days earlier that radioactive tritium was found in a well drawing from an underground aquifer and used for drinking water.  

After they said NO MORE was leaking and they had fixed the problem!

“I have been saying for some time that the radioactive leaks at Vermont Yankee could be the largest man-made environmental crisis that Vermont has ever seen,’’ Shumlin said at a news conference, adding that plant owner Entergy Corp., based in New Orleans, must be held accountable for the costs of cleanup.  

Yes, and FAR WORSE than any fart-misting warming!!

“Unless Entergy Louisiana is held accountable for this disaster, it could cost Vermonters millions of dollars and put the health and safety of thousands at risk,’’ he said. “Entergy Louisiana needs to take immediate steps to ensure that this crisis does not worsen.’’ 

It ALREADY IS! We just WON'T KNOW ABOUT IT for 20 or so years! 

That's when the CANCER CLUSTERS, etc, begin to SHOW UP!

Shumlin, the president pro tem of the Vermont Senate and a longtime critic of the state’s lone reactor, also stepped up his criticism of his Republican opponent, Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie, whom he called too friendly to Vermont Yankee and Entergy.... 

Vermont is the only state with a law saying the Legislature must approve the extension of a power plant’s license. Vermont Yankee’s extension request failed to get out of the Senate in February.

Related: Around New England: Vermont Votes Yankee Down  

Then some state puke said don't listen to them.

The vote was taken a month after tritium leaks were first announced and after revelations that top plant personnel had misled state officials by saying Vermont Yankee did not have underground piping that carried, and could leak, radioactive substances like tritium. 

Related: Around New England: No Veracity in Vermont

Also see: The Boston Globe Can Not Say a Lie

Well, that all depends....  

Dubie has said he believes the decision on the plant’s future should be left to the state Public Service Board, which would issue a new state license for the plant, and to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

“Brian has been very clear from the beginning that the NRC is going to be the one who will determine whether the plant is safe,’’ Kate Duffy, a Dubie spokeswoman, said yesterday. “This is a conversation that has to be driven by science and evidence, not politics and emotion.’’  

Yeah, that is what you drive wars over! 

And the science is pretty darn clear: the stuff gives you cancers, diseases, and kills you.

Shumlin called on Vermont Yankee to triple the number of pumps, from two to six, that it has been using to pull contaminated groundwater from the reactor site on the west bank of the Connecticut River since last winter. In January, officials announced that radioactive tritium, an isotope of hydrogen that has been linked to cancer if ingested in large amounts, had turned up in a test well at Vermont Yankee. Since then, other radioactive isotopes also have been found.  

And it is IN the DRINKING WATER, great! 

And HOW DO YOU THINK the FISH in the RIVER are DOING?

Plant spokesman Larry Smith said technicians at Vermont Yankee had pulled about 267,000 gallons of water from the ground in an effort to address the tritium leaks and expected to meet their goal of extracting 300,000 gallons by December.

Have they SHUT IT DOWN YET so that NO MORE LEAKS IN as they are pulling it out?

Shumlin said the new discovery — tritium found at 200 to 220 feet underground, far deeper than previous depths of 30 to 70 feet — should require the pumping to continue past December.  

After they told us the problem had been fixed, sigh.

Smith noted that the new tritium measurement, about 1,040 picocuries per liter of water, was well below the Environmental Protection Agency’s safety standard for drinking water of 20,000 per liter.

Yeah, the government -- the same government that said the oil disappeared from the Gulf -- is tlling you the water is just fine.

He said there is no threat to public health and safety.
 
Then DRINK DOWN a LONG, TALL GLASS of it!

--more--"  

Yeah, only made-up terrorists and phony plots are a "threat" to AmeriKa. 

So who is going to decide the race, Vermont voters?

"Vt. lawmakers could decide tight gubernatorial race

MONTPELIER — For months, Democrat Peter Shumlin and Republican Brian Dubie have been wooing voters in hopes of becoming Vermont’s next governor.

But a constitutional quirk could have lawmakers — not votersdeciding who gets to succeed Republican Governor Jim Douglas, who is stepping down after four terms.

In Vermont, as in Mississippi, the winning candidate for governor must get more than 50 percent of the votes cast. If no candidate does so, the election goes to the Legislature for a vote. Georgia, too, has a majority requirement, but it results in a runoff election that puts the choice in voters’ hands.

Not in Vermont. Under the state Constitution, the election would be decided — in a secret ballot — by the 150 House members and 30 senators when they convene in January. Democrats currently control both houses.

Vermont statewide elections have ended up in the Legislature 22 times, most recently in 2002. Only twice have lawmakers not sided with the candidate who won a plurality at the polls.  

This would be a bad time to disobey voters -- unless you want to lose your head.

This year, there are seven gubernatorial candidates on the ballot. A recent Vermont Public Radio poll had Dubie at 44 percent and Shumlin at 43 percent. The five independent candidates each captured about 1 percent.

--more--"   

Related: Plymouth Rock Radioactive

Also see: Monday Memory Hole: The Face of the Peace Movement in Massachusetts

Globalist War Monger Goes For Vermont State Senate Seat


WASHINGTON — Peter Galbraith, a former US diplomat who is running for state Senate in Vermont, will receive millions of dollars from an oil company in Iraqi Kurdistan that breached a previously secret contract with him, an arbitration judge ruled yesterday.

The award is a windfall for Galbraith but could be a liability to his campaign.  

Related: Occupation Iraq: The Founding Father of Modern Iraq  

PROFITING from a WAR he HELPED START a LIABILITY in AmeriKa?!!   

What a GREAT DEMOCRAT, huh?

The candidate said yesterday that when he receives the money, he plans to “reinvest the proceeds in alternate energy development both here in Vermont and in Kurdistan.’’  

PFFFFFFFFFTT!

But the award could also resurrect questions about his financial dealings in Iraq, where he served as an adviser to Kurdish leaders. Galbraith, son of the late Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith, now lives in Townshend with his Norwegian wife. He came under fire last year when Dagens Naeringsliv, Norway’s largest business newspaper, disclosed his financial stake in a deal to develop Kurdish oil fields.

Yesterday’s announcement confirms that Galbraith played a crucial role in helping a Norwegian oil company, DNO, set up operations in the semi-autonomous Kurdish territory of Iraq in 2004. A year earlier, Kurdish leaders had paid Galbraith to help them negotiate with Iraq’s central government. He also helped draft provisions of Iraq’s constitution that gave Kurds control over newly discovered oil fields in their region. In 2005, he advised the Kurds informally on an unpaid basis.

Critics have said that Galbraith, who has written and spoken extensively on Iraq in the United States, should have publicly disclosed his financial stake in the Iraqi oil industry. In a telephone interview yesterday, he acknowledged it was a mistake to have not consistently disclosed his business interests while writing about Iraq. “I have apologized for that,’’ he said.  

Yeah, so everything is all right now. 

Never you mind the DESTRUCTION of a NATION and the MURDER of MILLIONS! 

Just GO VOTE DEMOCRAT, liberal Vermonters!

But he maintains that Kurdish authorities were aware of his activities and that there was no conflict of interest. 

Translation: He is NOT REALLY SORRY and DID NOT REALLY APOLOGIZE! 

Ah, the ARROGANCE of ELITISM!

It is not clear how the money or the controversy over the oil deal will affect Galbraith’s political ambitions in Vermont.

Ever notice it is ALWAYS ABOUT THEM and NOT YOU when it comes to POLITICS, Americans?

“It’s a non-issue,’’ said Garrison Nelson, professor of political science at the University of Vermont. “I would say that less than 10 percent of Vermonters could find Kurdistan on the map.’’  

Then I am TERRIBLY, TERRIBLY DISAPPOINTED in the allegedly leftist beacon and bastion whose border is just miles from here.

But Lynn Corum, a Republican running against Galbraith, sought to make a campaign issue of the award. “He talks about investments in wind and solar,’’ Corum said yesterday. “But he chose to invest his own money in oil.’’   

Yeah, why i$ he running anyway?  Just $omething to do?

A former US ambassador to Croatia and former deputy chief of the UN mission in Afghanistan, Galbraith is running as a Democrat for one of two open state Senate seats in Windham County, which leans heavily Democratic.  

And they DO NOT KNOW WHO HE IS!

Galbraith has advocated closing Vermont Yankee, a nuclear power plant, in Windham and investing in solar and wind energy.  

Now THAT I AGREE WITH! 

See: Around New England: No Veracity in Vermont 

You see, I LIVE DOWNSTREAM and I DO NOT LIKE the idea of CANCER in my WATER!

 Yesterday Galbraith said that his involvement in developing Kurdish oil fields is not at odds with his political platform.  

Do these guys just self-delude or is it always lies? 

WTF, readers?

“There is no inconsistency between supporting alternative energy in Vermont and helping establish the Kurdistan oil industry,’’ he wrote in an e-mail. “We still need oil for the foreseeable future and, from an environmental perspective, it is far better to produce oil from a few hundred yards under the soil of Kurdistan than from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.’’  

And he is a DEMOCRAT! 

The LETTER by the NAME really DOES NOT MATTER MUCH does it, America? 

Would you like your plate of political crap with cold-blue or red-hot frosting?

He said he has been asked about the Iraqi oil deal only once during the campaign, by a radio host.

WHERE, oh, WHERE are the NEWSPAPERS?  

And they wonder why their industry is dying?

But yesterday’s announcement served as a reminder that much of Galbraith’s expertise lies far beyond the borders of Vermont. In a telephone interview from Norway, DNO communication director Tom Bratlie said the company initially partnered with Galbraith because of his extensive contacts in Iraq. “Peter Galbraith’s main role was that he knows the political situation in the region very well,’’ he said.  

Ones he PROFITED FROM! 

But don't vote Republican and repudiate a war-profiteering war-monger, Vermonters.

Galbraith, who developed connections with Kurdish leaders as a staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the 1980s, helped DNO hammer out an oil exploration agreement with Kurdish authorities and received a financial stake in exchange.

But subsequently, as Iraq’s central government fought to limit Kurdish control over the oil in Kurdish territory, DNO was forced to renegotiate its contact. Galbraith and another third party — a Yemeni company — were cut out, apparently because the central government in Baghdad would not approve the deal.

Galbraith and the Yemeni company, Ansan Wikfs Investments, asked for $144 million in compensation, Bratlie said....

It was unclear what total compensation Galbraith would receive.

--more--"  
   
Also see: The Buying Off of Bernie Sanders

Some "socialist" you got there. 

Illusion and imagery trump reality again. 

Maine Politics Down Globe Memory Hole


AUGUSTA, Maine — Gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler leads the two other independents in the five-way race for governor. But a survey last week shows him lagging behind Republican candidate Paul LePage and Democrat Libby Mitchell, who appeared to be in a neck-and-neck race, making votes for Cutler potentially pivotal in the outcome....  

But not a SPOILER like my man Ralph Nader, huh?

--more--"  

Also see: Tea Party Will Lose For Winning

Around New England: Globe Giveth Maine....

Around New England: Maine's Murder Mysteries and More

Turning the Money Page in Maine Governor Race
  
Reading the Mimicking Mimes of Maine's Next Governor 

Yeah, Globe can't be liking the politics up there (or anywhere) these days.

Of course, Democrats are always from the people and for the little guy, right?

"Democrat in Maine race has ‘opulent lifestyle,’ GOP says

PORTLAND, Maine — Hedge fund manager S. Donald Sussman has never sought the spotlight. But the fiancé of US Representative Chellie Pingree has become a campaign issue in her reelection bid.

Republicans are criticizing Pingree’s use of Sussman’s private jet and raising questions about whether his investment company benefited from the federal bank bailout.

Maine GOP spokesman Lance Dutson said Pingree is living an “opulent lifestyle’’ with Sussman’s “royalty-level wealth,’’ while regular Mainers struggle with high unemployment and a stagnant economy. “We’ve got this picture of Chellie Pingree as a fighter for the common person in Washington, standing up to special interests,’’ Dutson said. “But as the onion layers unpeel, we see that’s really not the person she is. She’s traveling on a $10,000-an-hour private jet.’’  

None of the cretins thrown up for office are.

Pingree, who plans to marry Sussman next year, says Sussman’s success and wealth has not changed who she is or how she has voted in Congress.

“I feel my opponents are trying to turn it into a tabloid story instead of an election campaign about where the differences are and how I cast my votes, who I fight for, how I represent the people of Maine,’’ Pingree said.  

Well, I am reading the newspaper.

Polls show Pingree ahead of Republican businessman Dean Scontras in the race to represent Maine’s Democratic-leaning First Congressional District. Pingree first won the seat in 2008.  

One seat saved, 'eh?

While much of the campaign has focused on typical Democrat-Republican themes such as taxes and the role and size of government, it has also drawn in Sussman, 64, the founder and chairman of Paloma Partners, an investment firm in Connecticut.

I'm tired of the "typical" "debate."

Sussman and Pingree, 55, met at a birthday party in 2007, and got engaged after the 2008 election, she said. Both are divorced.  

And I should care about the marital status because.... ???

--more--"

Sunday Globe Trick or Treat

Always a trick from them; however, I did receive a treat when I went to purchase one today. 

The guy in front of me was charge $6 for the paper in front of me, so I got on my tiptoes and leaned over his shoulder to see what was on the counter top. It was the New York Times with it's brightly-colored political map above the fold. 

The guy then bandied about the fact that no one reads newspapers anymore with the cashiers, and that is why the prices have gone up. The cashiers remarked that it wasn't a very good way to get more readers -- and now the Globe wants to charge you twice for its slop. 

I wouldn't pay $6 for a New York Times if my life depended on it. I never even visit their website unless a third entity directs me there.

Oh, I think I hear the doorbell!

I'm just going to leave a bowl of Boston Globe candy; help yourselves, dear readers:

Safe street a treat for revelers

Facing down fear, a treat at a time 

Pats’ game adds twist to the tricks and treats 

For pumpkin carver, scares are easy

That is the sum of my newspaper when you think about it. 

Also see 
I'm sorry, readers; I just didn't have time to give out as much candy this year.

Boston Globe Homecoming

I don't even know what happened to the my local teams on the ball field yesterday -- and why should I care? 

Page one item:  UConn scores by spending more

Massachusetts has always had an inferiority complex when it comes to Connecticut and sports for as long as I can recall.   

They won a college championship; we didn't. 

Related: No Safe Schools in Massachusetts

See what's important when choosing a college. kids? 

UMass does. 

See: Pigs at the State Trough

Isn't that a lot to be paying ball coaches? 

Also see: Ya Gotta Love Sports!

For Boston’s student athletes, a sporting chance at last

You SEE what is IMPORTANT at SCHOOL (according to the agenda-pushing paper anyway) right, kids?

Republicans Raesing Up in West Virginia Senate Race


NEWELL, W. Va. — Governor Joe Manchin is running what seems to be a classic Republican campaign for the US Senate in West Virginia.

He blasts “Obamacare,’’ files a lawsuit against environmental laws, and — literally — fires a bullet at a mock-up of climate-change legislation. He boasts of his endorsement by the US Chamber of Commerce, his A rating from the libertarian Cato Institute, and his conservative fiscal credentials.

The catch: Manchin is the Democratic nominee. And even this effort to distance himself from President Obama and his own party hasn’t assured him of victory in the Mountain State.

Republican nominee John Raese, meanwhile, is so determined to be seen as the most conservative candidate that he has said he is running to the political right of the Tea Party movement. The businessman and former state party chairman wants to eliminate the minimum wage, calls global warming a myth, and says the health care bill is the worst piece of legislation ever passed by Congress.

People may eventually see it that way.

Related: Obamacare the End of Employer-Based Health Plans

I'm not going to even argue about the non-existent global warming anymore. Southern hemisphere has a record-cold winter and the paper never mentions it.

While the tight contest here hasn’t received as much publicity as Tea Party-infused races elsewhere, it could be pivotal in the broader bid to control the Senate. A recent CNN/Time poll found the race tied at 44 percent, with a candidate from the liberal Mountain Party, Jesse Johnson, favored by 5 percent, which could take away votes from Manchin.  

Who is this third-party guy?  

If Manchin loses the special election for the seat long held by the late Robert C. Byrd, it would mark the first time Democrats have failed to control both of West Virginia’s Senate seats in 50 years.  

It is time for a change, West Virginia.  

Also see: Bye-Bye, Byrdie

Because it is a special election, the winner will be seated immediately, meaning a Raese victory would boost the GOP during the lame-duck session that could decide the fate of the Bush-era tax cuts.  

Or he could block the carbon tax bill.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Manchin has a 69 percent approval rating based on his six-year performance as governor, and Democrats have a two-to-one advantage over Republicans in party registration. The US Chamber of Commerce was so enamored of his probusiness tax policies that he is the only Democratic Senate candidate backed by the group, which is spending tens of millions of dollars in other states to help elect Republicans. 

Related: Republicans Mine West Virginia

“He is an incredibly popular governor,’’ said Neil Berch, associate professor of political science at West Virginia University. But the race, Berch said, has tightened for several reasons: an initial overconfidence by Manchin that he could stay above the fray, effective attacks by Raese, and a lack of enthusiasm among Democrats.

“The campaign is in large part whether he is a West Virginia Democrat or a national Democrat,’’ Berch said, with the latter a brand held in contempt in many parts of the state.

The backdrop to the race is discontent with the policies of Obama, particularly in coal-rich areas where many fear the White House wants to tax carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. The president has an approval rating of just 32 percent, and Raese has made this a close contest largely by turning it into a referendum on Obama. 

Also see: Where Coal is King

One day last week, a frustrated Manchin appeared before a half-empty luncheon at the Lions Club hall in this town at the northern tip of the state’s panhandle region, urging local Democrats to become as energized as Republicans....   

Tough to get energized after being betrayed.

The outcome of the race could hinge on whether West Virginians agree with Raese’s argument that the state’s dependence on billions of federal dollars in earmarked projects — which Byrd championed — is misguided.

On his website, Raese says he would end “pork barrel projects which exist solely to reelect incumbent members of Congress.’’ Manchin responds that it is ludicrous to think that private enterprise would build roads and erect the kind of facilities, including an FBI annex in Clarksburg, that Byrd brought to West Virginia.

Raese, who has twice run unsuccessfully for the US Senate, is the president of a company that owns limestone and steel operations as well as radio stations and Morgantown’s Dominion Post paper. He gained traction in the race after attacking what he called Manchin’s support for a variety of Obama policies, including health care legislation.

Manchin responded with a widely aired television advertisement in which he vowed to “repeal the bad parts of Obamacare’’ — adopting the derisive appellation used by many Republicans — and then fired a bullet at a portrayal of climate-change legislation nailed to a tree.  

Related: Republicans Retreat on Health Bill Repeal

Manchin subsequently recalibrated his message, stressing that he supports the part of health care legislation that requires insurance companies to cover people with preexisting conditions, including the black lung disease that affects coal miners.

Much of the recent focus in the contest has been on Raese’s out-of-state connections. He owns homes in Telluride, Colo., and Palm Beach, where Raese’s wife is registered to vote. That led Manchin last week to run an advertisement that mocked Raese for living “in a Palm Beach, Florida, mansion with a pink marble driveway.’’

Raese also suffered from backlash over a casting call for an advertisement paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee that sought “hicky’’ actors from the Philadelphia area to play the part of West Virginians who supported Raese’s candidacy. Raese disassociated himself from the ad.

Related: GOP pulls ad in W. Va. after ‘hick’ theme revealed

One day last week, as Manchin left the meeting with Democrats in Newell, he drove through an economically distressed landscape. A region that once pulsated with steel mills that employed thousands of people has been in steady decline for years as cheaper steel imports led to shutdowns, with a local pottery factory and casino taking up only some of the slack.  

West Virginia is America.

South of Newell, the city of Weirton is testament to the difficulties facing the state. In the 1970s, more than 13,000 people worked at the local steel mill; today, the number is 980.

Yet on the day that Manchin visited the region, Weirton had the look of the boom times. The shops on Main Street were newly renovated and residents strolled through downtown. Even the strip joint on Main Street had been converted to a diner. The city of 19,000, strung along the Ohio River and stretching to nearby hills, seemed rejuvenated.

Then the workers from Paramount Pictures arrived to put Weirton back the way it was. It turned out to be the closing day of production for a forthcoming Steven Spielberg movie that had employed 2,500 extras.

Local officials credited Manchin for helping bring the movie to Weirton, noting that he enacted tax breaks specifically designed to lure such Hollywood productions. 

Is it COSTING YOUR STATE as much as it is OURS? 

SeeThe Massachusetts Oscars

MSM Monitor Movie Matinee  

Why does such a profitable industry need tax breaks?

The impact was significant. While the federal stimulus program provided only about $100,000 directly to the city, the Spielberg production brought $14 million in direct spending and another $7 million in spinoff benefits, according to local and state officials.  

Yeah, Spielberg saved West Virginia! Gimme a break, Globe.

“When the steel mill went down, a lot of people lost their hope and pride,’’ said Mayor Mark Harris, whose fish restaurant, Codfather’s, saw a boost in business during Paramount’s time in town. “We had a [movie company] come in and it brought back hope into the city. People were so happy and smiling and just very joyful. You don’t see that a whole lot anymore.’’  

Then America is finished.

--more--"

Saturday, October 30, 2010

The Debate in Delaware

This is it? 

With everything this country has going on this is what Delawareans are talking about?

"O’Donnell, Democratic rival spar over the Constitution

WILMINGTON, Del. — Republican Christine O’Donnell challenged her Democratic rival yesterday to show where the Constitution requires separation of church and state, drawing swift criticism from her opponent, laughter from her law school audience, and a quick defense from prominent conservatives.

“Where in the Constitution is separation of church and state?’’ O’Donnell asked while Democrat Chris Coons, a lawyer, sat a few feet away.

Coons responded that O’Donnell’s question “reveals her fundamental misunderstanding of what our Constitution is. . . . The First Amendment establishes a separation.’’

She interrupted to say, “The First Amendment does? . . . So you’re telling me that the separation of church and state, the phrase ‘separation of church and state,’ is in the First Amendment?’’

Her campaign issued a statement later saying O’Donnell “was not questioning the concept of separation of church and state as subsequently established by the courts. She simply made the point that the phrase appears nowhere in the Constitution.’’

Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh made the same point in his radio program soon after the debate, saying, “There’s nothing in the Constitution about separation of church and state.’’

The controversy was the latest to befall O’Donnell in a race where she trails badly in the polls against Coons....   

Karl Rove must have an ace-up-the-sleeve steal, 'er, surprise somewhere else then.

The subject of religion and the law came up during their debate at Widener University Law School as O’Donnell criticized Coons for saying that teaching creationism in public school would violate the Constitution.... 

The First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.’’  

Can we TALK ABOUT those OTHERS for a while? 

You know, the free speech, press, and right to assemble and PETITION the government? 

Why are they NOT LISTENING to US!!??

The phrase “separation of church and state’’ is usually traced to President Jefferson. In a letter in 1802, he referred to the First Amendment and said that it built “a wall of separation between Church & State.’’

Something in which the Founding Fathers had experience.  

Of course, the amendment does NOT SAY EXCLUDE all religion as many secularists would like you to believe.  It just says the state may not establish or restrict religion.

O’Donnell’s comments, in a debate aired on radio station WDEL, created a stir in the audience.

She does that doesn't she, the little witch. 

;-)  

Typed with loving adoration, Chrissy.

“You actually audibly heard the crowd gasp,’’ Wesley Leckrone, Widener University political scientist, said after the debate.  

:-)

Gee, you would have thought she bleated some 9/11 Truth or something.

--more--"   

Related: In 2010 Campaign, War Is Rarely Mentioned


WILMINGTON, Del. — Republican Christine O’Donnell has parted ways with yet another campaign treasurer and appointed her campaign manager to the position, making her the fifth since launching her bid for Senate last year.

Campaign finance specialists say the turnover is highly unusual and could raise questions at the Federal Election Commission about her financial reporting.... 

O’Donnell began with relatively small donations but has seen contributions pour in from around the country since winning the GOP primary last month.  

Yeah, from REGULAR PEOPLE not the ESTABLISHMENT!  Thus the "trouble."

“It doesn’t prove anything, but it would certainly raise a red flag with the FEC,’’ said Brett Kappel, a Washington, D.C., campaign finance lawyer. “Treasurers frequently quit when they think they’re going to be held personally liable for something.’’

Kappel noted that a watchdog group filed a complaint against the campaign last month over O’Donnell’s use of campaign money to pay the rent on her home, which doubles as a campaign office. 

In other words, she is WORKING OUT of her HOME instead of RENTING SPACE for a headquarters -- something YOU or I would NEED TO DO, readers!

Two former staffer members have also accused O’Donnell of using campaign money for personal expenses....   

Hey, DON'T THEY ALL? 

Why is THIS GIRL being SINGLED OUT?

--more--"

Related:  Slow Saturday Special: Delaware Saves Democrats the Senate

Also see: O’Donnell Is Doable

Stomping on Rand Paul

I no longer play peacemaker when violence erupts because it is a bad idea; I have the busted mug from my younger days to prove it. 

"Stepped-on activist says she was no threat

The liberal activist who was hauled to the ground before a Kentucky debate, with a Rand Paul supporter stepping on her face, said she posed no threat to the Republican candidate for Senate and the violent attack was unwarranted.

Violence is never justified,’’ Lauren Valle told the Globe last night, a day after she was treated at a hospital in Lexington and the video of the attack flooded the airwaves and Internet.

I'm sure the lying, war-promoting paper loved hearing that.

Valle, 23, who grew up in Falmouth and Dedham and graduated from Noble & Greenough School, said she was part of a MoveOn group that planned to present Paul with a satirical award that conveyed the Republican Party’s marriage to corporate America.  

That the same MoveOn that used the antiwar sentiment of this country to elect Democrats in 2006 and then move on? 

Thought so.

Paul, a Tea Party favorite, was arriving for a debate in Lexington with Democrat Jack Conway.  

I'm not a big Rand fan (keep reading).

The person who struck Valle with his foot blamed police for not intervening.

“I’m sorry that it came to that, and I apologize if it appeared overly forceful, but I was concerned about Rand’s safety,’’ Tim Profitt said.

A judge will decide whether Profitt should face criminal charges.... 

For Valle, the attack was the latest in a series of high-profile demonstrations.  

Oh, she is a PROFESSIONAL PROTESTER, huh?

Earlier this year, she was arrested with a group of Greenpeace activists protesting the BP oil disaster in Louisiana. In 2008, she was detained in China for calling for independence for Tibet.

“I’m looking to speak truth to power,’’ she told the Globe.  

Well, POWER KNOWS the TRUTH, you controlled-opposition idiot! 

You need to SPEAK TRUTH ABOUT POWER!

--moret--"  

And CUI BONO from the soft-prop provocation?

"Democrats put scuffle at Paul rally in TV ad

 LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Democrats are replaying the high-profile scuffle involving Rand Paul supporters and a liberal activist in a TV ad that argues the Republican Senate hopeful is “stomping on Kentucky.’’

The 60-second ad, called “The Rand Paul Stomp,’’ contains video of Lauren Valle, a Massachusetts native and MoveOn.org activist, being pulled to the ground and then stepped on by a Paul supporter before a debate Monday night between the Republican and Jack Conway, his Democratic opponent.

The ad’s airing comes as Conway tries to make inroads with female voters.  

You know, the TIMING of all this SURE DOES REEK!

During a campaign stop yesterday, Conway called fallout from the skirmish a potential game changer in the vitriolic race and accused Paul’s campaign of not being forceful enough in condemning the attack.  

With ALL the PROBLEMS we have THAT is the "game-changer." 

There is NOTHING WORSE than a DESPERATE DEMOCRAT!

Paul’s campaign, which denounced the attack and disassociated itself from the supporter this week, said the ad was a sign of desperation by Democrats not eager to discuss the bad economy.

Paul, a Bowling Green eye doctor and Tea Party favorite, and Conway, the state’s attorney general and a former Louisville lawyer, are vying for the seat held by US Senator Jim Bunning, who is retiring.  
 Not one of mine. 

Paul is the son of US Representative Ron Paul, a Texas Republican who ran for president in 2008....

Yeah, but he is not like father. 

--more--" 

Also see:  Kentucky is Crazy!