Showing posts with label campaign. Show all posts
Showing posts with label campaign. Show all posts

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Pope Suggests a Psychiatrist for Bernie Camp

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Previous Related Posts:
Bernie Surrogate Calls Hillary and Supporters "Democratic Whores"
Bernie Brats Need to Stop Dissing the South
Desperation in Bernie Land
Susan Sarandon Likes Trump Over Hillary
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bernie Sanders and his family took a whirlwind trip to the Vatican in Rome yesterday. Ostensibly he went there to speak at a small conference to spread his message of "moral economics" to a wider audience, giving Bernie more credibility as a world leader. Bernie's spokesperson said he discussed such matters with Pope Francis, head of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, and someone Bernie seems to admire.

But the political price of going all that way to make a 15 minute speech struck many as hypocritical - more like a mini-break vacation for Bernie's Catholic wife than a sensible plan.

From the Daily Mail UK


  • Bernie Sanders traveled to Rome for the Vatican conference on Friday



  • He was joined by his wife, ten family members, a group of campaign staff, secret service detail and members of the press



  • The total group of what is believed to be below 50, flew in a chartered Delta 767 for their trip which can seat between 211 and 261 people



  • Sanders's wife, who's Catholic, and four grandchildren came on the trip 



  • A 767 like Sanders' that is flying 4,435 miles from New York to Rome uses approximately 16,596 gallons of fuel







    • But what really happened there in Rome? By the time Bernie and company were headed back home yesterday, confusion reigned. It wasn't as bad as "Romney Shambles" when Mitt went to Israel, but there were questions a-plenty about how the Bernie team were spinning the trip compared to what actually happened.







    From ABC News
    Fresh from Thursday night’s Democratic debate, Bernie Sanders landed in Rome today to speak at a Vatican-hosted conference.
    In his speech to the conference, hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Social Science, the Vermont senator focused on the “urgency of a moral economy.”
    “The issue of wealth and income inequality is the great economic issue of our time, the great political issue of our time, and the great moral issue of our time,” Sanders said. “It is an issue that we must confront in my nation and across the world.”
    . . . During a coffee break, Sanders exited the Vatican walls to address what became a mob scene of supporters and reporters.













    From CBS News
    "When I received the invitation -- I know it's taking me away from the campaign trail for a day. It was so moving to me that it was something I simply could not refuse to attend," he said.
    In reality, Sanders just brought the campaign trail to Rome. In a speech there, he hit many of the same themes, calling for a more just economy, and often using the pope's own words.
    Bishop Marcello Sanchez Sorondo, the man who invited Sanders to a usually obscure conference at an academy advising the Pope on issues like social inequality, says getting involved in political movements "is important."

    But there was confusion over Bernie's invitation from the beginning, with various spokespeople for Bernie at odds with the Vatican, which sought to distance the Pope from American politics. Just like the Kim Davis debacle with the Pope a few months ago, the Vatican's story differed from the way it was being pitched by supporters. And lower-level Vatican officials seemed interested in stirring the political pot much more than the Pope himself.

    For instance, as early as April 8th, the Vatican hinted that Bernie himself had angled for the invitation, which they considered "discourteous."

    From The Hill
    "It was an invitation from the Vatican," Sanders said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "I was very moved by the invitation."
    But the senior Vatican official, Margaret Archer, president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, said it was Sanders who made "the first move" to attend the event.
    . . . “I think in a sense he may be going for the Catholic vote but this is not the Catholic vote and he should remember that and act accordingly — not that he will," Archer added.
    However, Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of academy, formally invited Sanders to attend the meeting in a letter dated March 30 and provided to The Hill by Sanders' campaign.
    “We are interested in having him because we have two presidents coming from Latin America, I thought it would be good to have an authoritative voice from North America,” Sanchez Sorondo told Bloomberg, speaking from New York.

    Look at the difference between the way the "meeting with the Pope" was pitched yesterday compared to what the Pope says actually happened. The Pope was getting ready to leave for Greece and sent his regrets to all the members of the conference. But Bernie was determined to have the face time with Pontifex and lurked outside his rooms as he was leaving before receiving a "handshake." That was somehow enlarged into a "meeting" by a spokesperson named Michael Shank, and the Sanders camp in general.

    From USA Today
    "We had an opportunity to meet with him this morning," Sanders told the Associated Press. "It was a real honor for me, for my wife and I to spend some time with him. I think he is one of the extraordinary figures not only in the world today but in modern world history." Sanders, who is Jewish, said he has long been a "big fan" of the pope's teachings on economic justice.

    Sanders, in the thick of the presidential race, had to break off his primary campaigning and fly all night to get to the Vatican, where he addressed a Vatican conference on social justice and spent the night at the Vatican guest house where Francis lives.

    The pope, who made a brief trip to Greece on Saturday to visit a refugee camp, spoke to reporters on the plane home about his encounter with the American politician. "When I came down, I greeted him, I shook his hand and nothing more. This is called good manners and it is not getting involved in politics," the pope said, according to Reuters. "If anyone thinks that greeting someone is getting involved in politics, I recommend that he look for a psychiatrist," he said, laughing.

    From "Bernie's Roman Holiday" by Daniel Schultz
    The whole Bernie-goes-to-Rome thing has been a shambles, to be honest. The campaign got Sanders a back-door invite which surprised and irritated the academy president, not to mention stepping on the roll-out of Amoris Laetitia, the Pope’s new teaching on the family. Then they did it again, taking a private jet to Rome to speak on the idolatry of money in the middle of a make-it-or-break-it primary in New York, and arriving in Rome on a day when the Vatican would much rather be talking about Francis’ meeting with Patriarch Bartholomew in Lesbos about the European refugee crisis.
    As if that weren’t bad enough, Sanders showed up with his family in tow, undercutting the high-minded moral message he was supposed to be delivering, and Oh, sweet Jesus, did they really put his logo on a picture of the Pope?! All this in service of a message that won’t impress or inspire anybody who wasn’t going to vote for Sanders to begin with.
    I suppose that was the goal all along, though: to maintain Sanders’ inspirational image. Either that, or they’re making some kind of bizarre, desperate play for the New York Catholic vote. Or again, maybe they were hoping a bird would land on his podium again, which would do about as much good. At this point, I just don’t know what to think.

    From Reuters Video: It is Crazy
    To See the Sanders Meeting as Political













    The Non-Meeting was turned into a political ad!



























    At least the food on the plane was great!











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    Thursday, August 20, 2015

    Trump Gives Helicopter Rides at Iowa State Fair

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    Previous Related Posts:
    Trump's Hair and Other Viral Memes
    First #GOP Primary Debate on Fox
    Countdown to Trump Clown Car Debate
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Officials with the Iowa State Fair originally said they wouldn't allow Donald Trump to (a) bring his helicopter to the fair or (b) give helicopter rides to children of voters.
    Sadly for Trump, and the many cable television producers looking forward to video of him being mobbed by hordes of helicopter-crazed children, state fair officials say a Trump touchdown “will not be happening” at the fair. “Trump did not ask for permission to do so, nor would he be granted permission if he does indeed seek it,” according to the Des Moines Register.

    Then they caved, of course, The Donald arrived in his fancy hopped-up helicopter, and took unsuspecting kids up in the air like a latter-day Pied Piper, or perhaps the Child-Snatcher from Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang. And once in the air, Trump told a little boy that he is Batman. Yes, Batman.





    So, happy children got to ride for free in a $7 million Sikorsky S-76 helicopter – N76DT, by numeral – from which they, too, could look down on senators, former senators, former governors, one former First Lady-senator-Secretary-of-State, and a whole mob of people eating Ultimate Bacon Brisket Bombs. And that's your metaphor. Trump is smart. So are you. So are your kids. You can look down on all the other "stupid" people.​
    ~ Charles P. Pierce on Esquire

    From CNN
    The pilot cut the engines. A man got out of the helicopter. He wore white shoes and white khakis with sharp creases and a red baseball cap that said MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. He strolled across the searing asphalt and stood at the edge of a field, where nearly 100 people waited to find out what he would do or say next.
    "We have quite a few children gonna take rides today," said Donald Trump, billionaire, celebrity, entertainer and Republican candidate for president. "Where are the children? Get them over here."
    . . . Into the helicopter went William, 9; Sean, 6; Brendan, 5; and Henry, who just turned 3. Their mother went with them. Henry got scared just before takeoff and left the aircraft to be with his father. The other boys remained. William brought a GoPro camera to capture the experience; a clip later wound up on Facebook.
    "Mr. Trump," he said, aiming the camera at his benefactor.
    "Yes," Trump said, pulling on the lapels of his jacket.
    "Are you Batman?" the boy asked.
    "I am Batman," Trump said.














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    Friday, April 10, 2015

    Special Candidate Rand Paul Is Special

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    Rand Paul just keeps on having problems. Maybe it's because he arrogantly believes that even though he is a public figure who says outrageous things then flip-flops, no one should call him out. He's a very delicate flower and a special snowflake, and journalists need to handle him with care. And forget everything he ever said.

    You can read some of his snafus in my previous post about Day One, when he lectured Savannah Guthrie on how to be a journalist (he's an opthamologist/politician) and then got on the abortion train and made a fool of himself.

    Previous Related Post:
    Rand Paul Runs For President - Crashes While Mansplaining

    Rachel Maddow did a great piece on Rand's dysfunctional first week as a candidate, and had a few words to say about Mr. Special.

    "Steve Schmidt who ran the McCain/Palin campaign in 2008 once famously said on this show that a presidential campaign is a "full-body scan" for everybody who runs at a high level. David Axelrod who ran Obama's campaign described it almost the same way ... "an MRI for the soul." Once you are officially running for President in this country you may like the political press in this country or you may hate the political press in this country, but if you are a candidate in this country at a high level because people take you seriously, you will receive so much scrutiny from the people who are running against you and by the press that is covering you all, that every single thing that is to be known about you, will become known."
    ~ Rachel Maddow



    My favorite thing so far is that he is throwing cease and desist orders at campaign ads that don't paint him in a happy light. Yeah, good luck with that. Hasn't he ever run for office before? This is just kooky, and again he seems to think he should be treated differently from all the other candidates.

    From Buzzfeed
    The letter is an objection to a million-dollar ad buy by a group called the Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America, led by Republican operative Rick Reed. The ad, which launched in early primary states on the day of Paul’s presidential campaign announcement, accuses Paul of supporting President Obama’s policies on Iran and of opposing new sanctions.
    “The Advertisement attempts to deceive voters regarding Senator Rand Paul’s position on U.S.-Iran relations through at least three false statements,” writes Paul campaign general counsel Matthew T. Sanderson in the letter dated April 7, which was obtained by BuzzFeed News on Thursday.

    Here's the ad:



    So Rand is trying to stop an ad from a Republican group that portrays him as cozy on Iran with the President. Considering there are about ten other GOP candidates who want to see him crash and burn, we can expect to see many more of these ads. Sorry, but that goes with the territory.



    Rand also let it be known that he is royally ticked that the NRA didn't invite him to their giant convention in Nashville this week, since all the other guys are there having a good time touching each other's guns, and stuff.

    From Bloomberg
    "The interesting thing is that there's probably no greater advocate for the Second Amendment in Congress than myself," Paul said today. "To not be invited, probably, will serve more to cast aspersions on their group than it would on me. Because my record's pretty clear. It probably looks a little bit petty for them not to invite a major candidate because I raised money for other Second Amendment groups."





    He told Sean Hannity on Fox to pay no attention to his campaign snafus. He has an etch-a-sketch just like Mitt Romney, and he's not afraid to use it. Anything he said in the past can just be wiped away.

    Rand Paul and Hannity, via Daily Kos
    It's not fair, Paul testily claims, to ask him about stuff that he said before he decided to be a presidential candidate. Because that was before, or "a long time ago." ...
    . . . Sean Hannity, not surprisingly, let him get away with it. On the previous Paul statement that the idea of Iran being a threat to the United States is "ridiculous":
    "You know, things do change over time," Paul said. "I also wasn't campaigning for myself, I was campaigning to help my father at the time."
    Hannity let that slide. He allowed Paul to frame his opposition to new sanctions that would scuttle the Iran negotiations as his way of telling Obama he'd "have to bring a deal back to" Congress.


    Here's a litany of Rand's problems for the first THREE Days of his campaign.

    He broke the copyright of a song he wanted to use in his rollout, and YouTube blocked him

    From Mother Jones:
    he gave a speech and the crowd ate it up and they cheered his name and then he finished and they clapped and cheered and the campaign uploaded the video of the speech to YouTube so that the world could clap and cheer and...YouTube bots automatically pulled the video for unlicensed use of copyrighted material.
    Womp womp.
    Warner Music Group, the official owner of John Rich's "Shutting Detroit Down," a song about how much it sucks that rich corporations own things, has now shut Rand down.
    Both Billboard and The Washington Post have reached out to get to the bottom of this and neither Warner or YouTube have commented on the situation.
    The campaign's video has now been deleted from YouTube (C-PSAN's remains)

    He suddenly became "Dr. Rand Paul" on Twitter, because he is a self-proclaimed opthamologist. And I guess that gives him political cred with . . . somebody???



    His website misspelled "Education." Derp.



    A website map urging people to endorse Rand Paul was made with stock photos taken by a German photographer, probably in Germany. Those faces are not Americans! The photos, who were models, were removed pretty fast.



    Rand was in South Carolina today but said nothing about the shooting of Walter Scott by a police officer which has been the top story on all news channels all week. Nothing. What kind of Presidential candidate says "nothing" about it?
    But the day before on CNN - he was pro-Police.
    Rand has inherited his father Ron's Bodyguard, but also a Bribery Scandal!

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    Thursday, June 12, 2014

    Virginia's Brat Stumbles On Day One

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    Previous Related Posts:
    Upset in Virgina as Cantor Loses to Libertarian Brat

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The main joke about the Brat Campaign on Day One was their name. I saw many variations on Twitter of "Brat Wurst/Worst" or "Worst Brat." Then there were the jokes about the literal meaning of "Brat" as a snotty-nosed kid, a description that might apply to his defeated opponent, the snarky Eric Cantor, as well as himself.









    But it turns out, all silly jokes aside, the Beltway pundits were actually awestruck by Professor David Brat, the man who "Vanquished" Eric Cantor the same way Harry Potter vanquished the Dark Lord. He was some kind of superhero who had not only melted the wicked Republican warlock of Virginia but had come out of academia like Indiana Jones cracking the bullwhip.

    David vs. Goliath times 1,000. ~ Chris Cuomo on CNN

    But then he got his first big network interview, and this happened:



    From Forbes
    Chuck (Todd of MSNBC) began by tossing Professor Brat a softball, asking whether the candidate supported a federally mandated minimum wage.
    Bear in mind that this is a candidate, an economics professor, who had spent the majority of the interview up the point of Todd’s question, extolling the virtues of a free market. Yet, when asked for his position on a federal minimum wage he struggled to avoid the question, obviously afraid of angering any voters who might be listening or create any news he felt could be harmful to his chances in November.
    Smelling blood in Brat’s lack of a solid response, Todd pushed him for an answer, causing Mr. Brat to reply—

    “I don’t have a well-crafted response to that one.”

    . . . (Todd) “On a foreign policy issue, arming the Syrian rebels. Would you be in favor of that?”

    . . . “Hey, Chuck, I thought we were just going to chat today about the celebratory aspects,” Brat said. “I’d love to go through all of this but my mind is just— I didn’t get much sleep last night. I love all the policy questions but I just wanted to talk about the victory ahead and I wanted to thank everybody that worked so hard on my campaign. I’m happy to take policy issues at any time, I just wanted to call out a thanks to everybody today.”

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    So what we have with Brother Brat is another shining meteor like Rick Perry or Sarah Palin - flashy on the outside, but not all that deep on the inside. In fact, most voters will quickly figure out that his message is quite familiar, a carbon copy of Paul Ryan's rejected message from 2012: Money is truth and the greater good; the poor are moochers and immigrants are undesirables. Almost all government is BAD, even though he will be so proud to work in Washington and draw a paycheck and benefits for life.

    And many have been quick to point out that the GOP has cast aside the only Jewish member of either the House or Senate, and a man who wasn't particularly religious, for someone who has some, uh, interesting Christian beliefs. Except I don't recall Jesus preaching much about Capitalism.

    From Raw Story:
    “Read Nietzsche. Nietzsche’s diagnosis of the weak modern Christian democratic man was spot on,” Brat wrote. “Jesus was a great man. Jesus said he was the Son of God. Jesus made things happen. Jesus had faith. Jesus actually made people better. Then came the Christians. What happened? What went wrong?”
    “We appear to be a bit passive,” he continued. “Hitler came along, and he did not meet with unified resistance. I have the sinking feeling that it could all happen again, quite easily. The church should rise up higher than Nietzsche could see and prove him wrong.”
    Brat encouraged Christians to harshly condemn their neighbors’ sins.
    “We should love our neighbor so much that we actually believe in right and wrong, and do something about it,” he wrote. “If we all did the right thing and had the guts to spread the word, we would not need the government to backstop every action we take.”
    . . . “I think the main point is that we need to synthesize Christianity and capitalism,” Brat concluded. “Augustine synthesized Plato and Christianity. Thomas Aquinas synthesized Aristotle and Christianity. Calvin synthesized all the rest, but capitalism was still coming. There is a book in here somewhere for the next Calvin. Go. God Bless.”



    Brat is walking a tightrope like literary hypocrite Elmer Gantry - praising Jesus and Friedrich "God is Dead" Nietzsche at the same time, proving he is just another Tea Party schnook with cognitive dissonance, and probably not any nicer of a guy than Eric Cantor. And some of his campaign associates are worse, if that is possible (see quotes below). We know he is an anti-government Libertarian, but we don't know if Brat is a misogynist yet, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt (until he starts referencing rape and ladyparts). He ran against Immigration Reform, so he's obviously not too fond of the brown people. With his Biblical base he probably has a few cringeworthy things to say about The Gay.

    So all we can do is watch and wait for the next shocking utterance as the new Tea Party "hero" in due time becomes the next Todd Akin or Ken Cuccinelli. Let's hope the Virginia Dems can get out the voters in November. I'm already planning a donation to Brat's opponent, Jack Trammell.



    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    . . . on the morning after, Brat is either the Tea Party's white knight or its motley fool – at center stage if also at the edge of the political spectrum.
    But come the fall, Brat may be an historical footnote, having beaten the first sitting majority leader since the position was created in 1899, only to have gone on to lose the general election. (Which is unlikely when running against a Democratic slave-trade / disabilities / vampire scholar in one of Virginia's most conservative districts, but possible, especially given how wrong all the primary polling was, by a clean 34 points or so.) Or Brat will be one of dozens of incoming freshmen Congressmen … which is to say, an historical footnote in the making.
    ~ Ana Marie Cox in The Guardian



    The media is making it seem like Brat was some sort of underdog, but in reality, he's strapped to the hilt with billionaire support and billionaire money.
    . . . Like hundreds of other college professors across the country these days, David Brat is really just a  bought-and-paid-for shill of Charles and David Koch and their buddies.
    But the connections between Brat and the dark money machine don't stop there. He was also the hand-picked candidate of the Koch-backed world of right-wing media..
    Over the past few months, right-wing talkers like Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin have been pushing Brat and attacking Cantor non-stop on their radio shows. Ingraham even went so far as to say that she wished that President Obama traded Eric Cantor to the Taliban in exchange for Bowe Bergdahl.
    ~ Truthout and Thom Hartmann




    This is being branded as a tea party victory. That's not quite accurate, and Brat addressed this last night. Not one major tea party organization came out and endorsed Brat. Supported Brat in any meaningful way. We had a difficult time getting the tea party groups and Brat connected. They bascially told him, 'you don't have a chance,' they wrote him off.
    And there were a few people -- myself, Mark Levin, Ann Coulter, Mickey Kaus, Breitbart News, The Daily Caller -- they were pretty much the only people covering this race. I said this yesterday on Fox & Friends. We had 625 people hanging off the balcony of Eric Cantor's own country club last Tuesday night and there was no major media there except for Breitbart News and a little reporter from the local NBC. That's it.
    ~ Laura Ingraham, paid shill, on Fox News

    I hope it will at least shut down any more happy talk about amnesty this year. I wish it would have the effect of Republicans waking up and seeing that this is a winning issue for the Republicans.
    . . . Republicans have gotta put their foot down to the Chamber of Commerce and say, ‘Look, if we bring in 30 million, 40 million illegal aliens who are going to break for the Democrats, we’re not gonna be able to give you anything else. That’s it, because it’s gonna be the end of the Republican Party in this country.
    ~ Pundit Ann Coulter on Fox News, via Raw Story




    Stop chasing ethnic groups, stop chasing genitalia. Talk to the American people. Talk about liberty, opportunity. Explain to them that Obama’s wrong, and that we need to unleash the American people and unleash the economy.
    ~ Conservative Radio Host Mark Levin discussing Brat's campaign strategy with Fox's Sean Hannity




    And finally, Brat may want to get a new campaign manager. The one he has is only 23 years old and had to scrub his facebook account yesterday due to so many weird posts.

    Via Yahoo News
    The campaign manager for the tea party-backed Republican who ousted House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in one of the biggest upsets in congressional history is a 23-year-old class of 2013 Haverford College graduate who posted a slew of provocative opinions on a public Facebook page that was removed from view overnight following David Brat's victory.
    . . . “Can someone who was outraged that George Zimmerman was found not guilty of ‘SOMETHING ANYTHING’ and who is simultaneously pro-choice explain the logical dissonance there? Ie. Why its not ok to kill someone who is banging your head into concrete but its ok to kill someone for simply existing who, through your conscious actions, you brought into the world?” Werrell had written in an Oct. 24, 2013, posting.
    . . . On Oct. 29 of that year, it was a piece by Fred Reed from Lew Rockwell’s website on the wussification of boys that set him off. “There is a war on boys!” Werrell wrote. “Rough housing, playing soldier, etc, are all punished or medicated away. And we wonder why there is gender inequality in the classroom and in college/attendance/graduation rates.”
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    Monday, March 17, 2014

    Jon Stewart invents #McConnelling

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    Previous Related Posts:
    Mitch McConnell Forced by Tea Party to Vote For Debt Limit
    Mitch McConnell Sad Over Filibuster Loss
    Clownish Mitch McConnell Filibusters Himself

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The new Mitch McConnell campaign video features he and his wife making smiley faces for the camera over and over again, which sent comedian Jon Stewart into fits of laughter last week on The Daily Show. He and his crew then used different soundtracks to make the video even more funny, and he urged viewers to go out and make their own versions and post them under hashtag "McConnelling." And thus a hilarious new internet meme was born.


















    These last two are mine, Enjoy!




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    Monday, February 24, 2014

    #Walkergate Email Dump in Wisconsin

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    Previous Related Posts:
    Grinchy Scott Walker: Don't Buy Your Kids Toys, Just Send Me Money
    Wisconsin Judge Tosses Scott Walker's Anti-Union Law
    Wisconsin Aftermath of Walker Recall Vote
    Badgers Vote and the Whole World Watches

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Ever since a recall election failed to toss Governor Scott Walker from office in Wisconsin, there have been persistent rumors of wrongdoing on the part of his staff, and many have been tried and convicted. And now that the Chris Christie offenses are mounting up, prosecutors in Wisconsin seem to be zeroing in on Scott Walker once more. Like Christie, Walker downplays the scandal in hopes he might be a viable GOP candidate for President in 2016. But with baggage like this, his chances are shrinking daily, right along with Christie's.

    Walkergate Commercial


    A few weeks ago, a staffer named Kelly Rindfleisch was back in court appealing her charges when a Judge decided that her emails should be released to the public - probably not the outcome Rindfleisch was hoping for. She has become Walker's scapegoat in much the same way that Bridget Kelly, David Wildstein and others are falling under suspicion for being close to Chris Christie.

    From Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal
    Court of Appeals Judge Patricia Curley ruled last week that thousands of records in the appeal of Kelly Rindfleisch should be available in the court file of her misconduct in office case, even though the documents have long been sealed as part of a secret investigation of former Walker aides.
    . . . (Judge) Curley wrote records collected as part of a criminal investigation are routinely included in court files and that court records are to be available to the public except in unusual circumstances.

    Rindfleisch, who served as Walker's deputy chief of staff when Walker was Milwaukee County executive, is one of six people convicted as the result of a John Doe investigation led by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm. John Doe proceedings are often conducted in secret and give prosecutors the power to compel people to produce documents and testify.
    The records in question include emails from Rindfleisch's personal computer and private email account, affidavits supporting John Doe search warrants, and a transcript of a secret hearing on search warrants issued the day before Walker was elected governor in 2010.
    Likely included in the emails are messages exchanged with Walker or his top political aides as he ran his 2010 campaign for governor.

    Although Rindfleisch sat just 25 feet from Walker’s office, was one of his top staffers and was illegally raising funds for Davis while on county time, the governor himself was not charged and the investigation was closed in early 2013. It resulted in the convictions of five former aides and associates and one contributor to Walker’s gubernatorial campaign.
    According to prosecutors, there were at least 3,486 emails between Rindfleisch and members of Walker’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign. Most were sent and received during normal business hours while Rindfleisch was at her $59,560-a-year county job.
    ~ Wisconsin State Journal

    Some of the emails uncovered in the investigation are just downright nasty:

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    ~~~~~~~
    From Time.com
    Six former Walker aides and allies have been convicted of wrongdoing following an investigation into improper campaign activities by official staff when Walker was Milwaukee County executive mounting a campaign for the governor’s mansion. The release last week of tens of thousands of pages of documents from that first investigation was branded as “old news” by Walker, who noted repeatedly that a Democratic prosecutor had closed the investigation last year without any accusation that he had done anything improper. ”People want to go through 27,000 pages plus of details, and our approach is ‘case is closed,’” Walker said. “A Democrat district attorney looked at it, and he’s done. It’s done.”

    To put it mildly, this is a BFD. For once, we have proof that Scott Walker encouraged government workers to campaign for him while on government time, which is illegal in Wisconsin. Scott Walker has been dishonest about the allegations of corruption surrounding him from the outset, and we finally have indisputable proof that Walker encouraged illegal campaigning.
    ~ The Prairie Badger



    In one message, Walker aide Cindy Archer wrote to deputy chief of staff Kelly Rindfleisch that she used a private email account to communicate with Walker and his chief of staff, Tom Nardelli.
    “Consider yourself now in the ‘inner circle’ :) I use this private account quite a bit to communicate with SKW and Nardelli,” Archer wrote, referring to Walker’s initials. “You should be sure you check it throughout the day.”
    ~ Wisconsin State Journal

    From Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal
    Tapping out a message on his campaign Blackberry on the afternoon of May 4, 2010, Walker urged county aides, campaign staffers and other trusted volunteers to go to an online Journal Sentinel business story and respond to critics of his plan to privatize the airport in the comments section below the story.
    "Someone should comment on the fact that the only way for the county to benefit from that success is to contract out operations," Walker wrote in an email. "Having a well performing airport increases the value that the county could receive."
    A half-hour later, Brian Pierick — the boyfriend of Walker aide Timothy D. Russell — posted a comment on the story under the alias "WI_Calvin," calling rising airport traffic "another example of Scott Walker's outstanding leadership."
    . . . Pierick and Russell were both later convicted of other activities in the secret probe.
    Walker's airport directive came a little more than a week before he ousted county aide Darlene Wink after the Journal Sentinel reported she had been spending much of her government work hours posting anonymous political comments promoting Walker on the JS Online website.

    Walker Evades Questions on Fox News, Via aattp.org
    Question: if county workers were doing nothing wrong, why should they be using a private e-mail account?

    WALKER: Well, but that’s exactly to my point. you had a Democratic district attorney spend almost three years looking at every single one of those communications, interviewing people, talking to people and closed the case.

    WALLACE: Did you have your own private e-mail account?

    WALKER: It’s one of those where I point out district attorney has reviewed every single one of these issues.

    WALLACE: But sir, you’re not answering my question.

    WALKER: No, because I’m not going to get into 27,000 different pieces of information.





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    Thursday, January 23, 2014

    Right Wing Smears Wendy Davis for being Wendy Davis ~ Updated With More Vitriol

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    Previous Related Posts:
    Ad Hom on the Range - Texas GOP Brands Wendy Davis as "Too Stupid to be Governor"
    Conservative Erick Erickson Labels Wendy Davis "Abortion Barbie"
    Wendy Davis and Texas Democrats Filibuster Abortion Bill

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    The GOP in Texas is really scared of Wendy Davis and they've started a smear campaign to prove it. It was bound to happen. She is a dream candidate for the Democrats in Texas in her bid for Governor and is getting financial help from all over the country. Whether she wins or not, she has become a national figure, and a huge target for the Right. Bring it on - she will just raise more money!

    From the Dallas Morning News
    A single mother working two jobs, she met Jeff Davis, a lawyer 13 years older than her, married him and had a second daughter. He paid for her last two years at Texas Christian University and her time at Harvard Law School, and kept their two daughters while she was in Boston. When they divorced in 2005, he was granted parental custody, and the girls stayed with him. Wendy Davis was directed to pay child support.
    In an extensive interview last week, Davis acknowledged some chronological errors and incomplete details in what she and her aides have said about her life.
    “My language should be tighter,” she said. “I’m learning about using broader, looser language. I need to be more focused on the detail.”

    Letter from the Wendy Davis for Governor Campaign in Texas
    Dear Friend,
    As our campaign has gained momentum, our opponents have gotten more and more desperate. But now they’ve stooped to a new low by attacking my family, my education, and my personal story – playing politics with the journey that has been my life.
    Mine is a story about a teenage single mother who struggled to keep her young family afloat. It’s a story about a young woman who was given a precious opportunity to work her way up in the world. It’s a story about resiliency, and sacrifice, and perseverance.
    And you’re damn right it’s a true story.

    The connotation is, you (ex-husband Jeff Davis was)... supporting a family and raising her kids. She was neither supporting a family nor raising her kids. She married a sugar daddy, whom she asked to meet. He supported her. He raised the kids, while she went to Harvard Law School.
    ~ Ann Coulter on Fox News

    So this woman is just a fake. And she was readily embraced by the Democrat Party because she somehow was able to make some case, filibustering an anti-abortion law made to order, and they embraced her and just like Brad Pitt bought the wood, the Democrats embraced this babe, and it turns out that her life story has been blurred. So that's one of the scandals. I mean, "blurred" is not the word. She lied about her life story.
    ~ Rush Limbaugh

     
    Update: Tea Party Troll Todd Kincannon of South Carolina
    Reaches a new Low, if that's possible ~ Twitter Account Now Suspended
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    Monday, August 5, 2013

    Reince Priebus Warns Networks Not to Show Hillary Clinton Movies


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    From The Hollywood Reporter
    Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus has fired off a letter to NBC and another to CNN informing the two networks that they risk being blackballed as debate partners if they don’t abandon plans to air programs about Hillary Clinton ahead of her presumed run for president in 2016.

    . . . In one letter to CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker and another to NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt, both obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Priebus writes: "If you have not agreed to pull this programming prior to the start of the RNC’s Summer Meeting on August 14, I will seek a binding vote of the RNC stating that the committee will neither partner with you in 2016 primary debates nor sanction primary debates which you sponsor."

    In both letters, Priebus attempts to paint the Clinton projects as little more than length, free campaign ads. In the letter to Greenblatt, he notes that David Cohen, who is an executive VP at Comcast, NBCUniversal’s parent company, has been a major donor to Clinton and other Democrats.















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    CNN Films, a division of CNN Worldwide, commissioned a documentary about Hillary Clinton earlier this year. It is expected to premiere in 2014 with a theatrical run prior to airing on CNN. This documentary will be a non-fiction look at the life of a former First Lady and Secretary of State. Instead of making premature decisions about a project that is in the very early stages of development and months from completion, we would encourage the members of the Republican National Committee to reserve judgment until they know more. Should they decide not to participate in debates on CNN, we would find it curious, as limiting their debate participation seems to be the ultimate disservice to voters.
    ~ CNN Response to RNC Threat, emailed to Hollywood Reporter

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