Morning Round Em Up
In the North Carolina Democratic Primary for U.S. Senate, Elaine Marshall and Cal Cunningham are heading to a runoff election in June, as neither could crack the 40% mark in a crowded field. The winner of the June runoff will challenge Confederate Senator Richard Burr. In other Senate primary races last night, former Senator Dan Coats won his primary and will face Democrat Brad Ellsworth to replace Evan Bayh in Indiana. In Ohio, Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher wins over Sec. of State Jennifer Brunner and will face Republican Rob Portman to see who replaces George Voinovich.
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It was a night of winners, as Joe the Plumber won a seat on the Confederate Party Central Committee in Springfield Township, Ohio. Seeing as it was his ramblings that sent the GOP into its current teabagger state, this is excellent news for the continued decline of the Republican Party.
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Here is an interesting side note to the North Carolina primary. Health Shuler and Larry Kissell are both Congressmen from that great state. The conservative Shuler was elected in 2006, and the netroots progressive Kissell was elected in 2008. Due to local political concerns, they both voted against healthcare reform. And they both got what turned out to be a vigorous primary challenge last night, from candidates who raised so little money that each did not file an FEC report (meaning less than $5,000). Shuler won just 61% of the vote, while Rep. Larry Kissell (D) won 62.2%. Their no name opposition garnered nearly 40% of the vote in each case. Progressive protest vote, to be sure.
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In Ohio, former “The Apprentice” contestant Surya Yalamanchili won the right to challenge Mean Jean Schmidt’s seat in the suburbs of Cincinnati. His Democratic opponent had suggested that the district’s voters wouldn’t vote for a name they couldn’t pronounce. Thankfully that idiot was condemned by the state and local Democratic Party, and now, by the district voters themselves.
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From A Price:
I would just say this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLKzqdcT1ks TOTALLY redeems Phillies fans for the “shocker”. litte boy in a #6 jersey missing his 2 front teeth holding the game winning HR ball….. yeah. (and he didn’t throw it back)
a.price – to run counter to your comment, WDEL had an interview of a St Louis fan, who happens to live in the Philly market (I just don’t get that long-distance fan crap, outside of simply liking a team), and she said how bad Philly fans are. I figured, yeah, one or two, but then she carried on, (paraphrase) Every city has one or two, but all Philly fans are the worst. BTW, this was an at-the-game interview. I guess she risked her life to be there. Whatever. I can’t stand judgemental attitudes that intend to cover all people.
that doesn’t really counter my argument. I was just saying how it is a MUCH better video than the tazer one. besides, it isn’t a huge revelation that Philly fans are passionate. Also, St Louis fans are wimps.
But while we are sharing anecdotes about Phillies fans… on the subway ride back up Broad street my dad and I were on a packed car with all Phills fans and one guy in his Cards jacket. (this was monday night) He didn’t get hassled at all on the 20 minute ride and we had a pleasant convo. …. again… subway, one Cards fan, the Phills lost. RIGHT after a game. Sure, i think he was lucky to have “some of the good ones” on the train, and if he were a Mets fan it would have had a MUCH different ending. I think the (what ever wing is against the people of philadelphia) media likes to paint us as front running barbarians. “I got chur barbarian right eeeeer”
You don’t tazer a fan running onto the field. I’ve watched the video over and over and the kid didn’t look dangerous to me.
Tazering a 17 year old running onto the field as a prank is outrageous, excessive and completely inappropriate in front of families.
Shame on the lazy idiot who was too out of shape to run that kid down and grab him, like MLB has done for decades. Mr. Tazer needs to be suspended, but instead of being suspended at a desk, they should stick him on a treadmill and tazer him in his fat ass every time he slows down…
Hmm…while I agree that using the Taser wasn’t necessary, people need to remember context here and attempt to suspend hindsight. Who knew that kid was 17-years-old as he was cutting and running around the field? He was also evading capture, which is explicitly written in the guidelines to use a Taser. I don’t like it, but it’s part of their training and guidelines. MLB also has still very raw memories of Tom Gamboa (ex 1st base coach of the KC Royals) being brutally attacked on the field by a father and son combo and the attempted assault of umpire Laz Diaz by a fan on the field (Diaz ended up pummeling this idiot with one swing). There was also an outfielder who had been attacked while in position since those incidents, but I can not recall who that was or his team.
I will say that, because of this incident, the procedures are now being reviewed. For a fan such as Monday night and last night, the idea is extreme discretion. If the fan is just running circles and appears to be posing no threats, then no cops, just security. If the fan is charging players, umps, causing perceived danger, then open the police-gates, they are coming.
“Confederate Senator Richard Burr”
Nice try, but Robert Byrd already has that title!
A couple of points: I assume this “comic” comment is a reference to the KKK. Like most conservatives, you didn’t pay enough attention in history class: Plenty of KKK klavens existed in the north, and membership did not require fealty to the long-gone Confederacy.
Second, it’s not cool to use a web name that belongs to someone else. Even in the service of your so-called “humor.”
Smitty, how about this, replace the “tazer” with a “police night stick”. Would it have been acceptable to chase that kid down and beat him on the field with a night stick?
Depends how it’s used, miz. I know there is also training to get the stick tangled in the legs of the fleeing suspect to trip them, so in that regard, yes. To beat him? No. However, there would need to be close proximity for that to happen, which wasn’t the case. I still don’t think it was an incident that necessitated a Taser (OK?), but the officer did not violate his training nor protocol. That’s the problem with this. It’s become more procedural than discretionary, but if it becomes the latter, like it used to be, then I’d be concerned we’d see even more complaints about their use than we do now. There still stands the examples of recent years of the coach, umpire, and player who were all attacked in the field-of-play, so there were a lot of “what ifs” floating around as this went down, that only hindsight gets the opportunity to clarify.
To add, just because I don’t think a Taser was necessary, that doesn’t mean I am going to go off and blame that particular police officer for doing as he was trained to do and following what it becoming known as the protocol. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, had he known he he was chasing a minor, I’m thinking that Taser doesn’t come out, provided the kid doesn’t suddenly lunge towards anyone. Kind of hard to determine between a 17, 18, 19 year old on the fly, in most cases. Also, as I previously stated, they are now reviewing not having police intervene unless there is a clear danger to other people involved.