Tuesday Open Thread
Welcome to your Tuesday open thread. It’s a special day today! Not only is the opening day of the legislative session in Dover it’s another 1 day – 1/11/11. Let’s all celebrate at 1:11:11.
One member who lost was Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA), who had served in the House of Representatives since 1985. In an interview with the Scraton Times, Kanjorski explained that while he could have “easily walked away” from Congress ealier and “taken a job on Wall Street for millions” instead of serving for as long as he did, he wanted to stay to continue to pass progressive legislation. He was unrepentant about his efforts to strongly advocate for tougher financial reforms — the congressman authored and passed an amendment that would give federal regulators the power to dismantle “too big to fail” financial institutions — and said he considered himself the “greatest scourge” of the “too-big-to-fail banks.” He continued, “There were guys like [JP Morgan CEO] Jamie Dimon, they’ll never forget me…He’s probably considered the most powerful banker in the world and I took his ass on and I defeated him“:
“It’s no heroic thing, but I could have just as easily walked away. I could have taken a job on Wall Street for millions,” said the congressman who wrote a good portion of the Dodd-Frank financial services reform bill, particularly the part addressing too-big-to-fail banks. “I was their greatest scourge, for Christ’s sake.” Addressing his specific battle grappling with the titans of the Street, Kajorski thumped his chest, insisting, “I was the guy that stuck my thumbs in all their eyes.
“There were guys like Jamie Dimon, they’ll never forget me…He’s probably considered the most powerful banker in the world and I took his ass on and I defeated him. Not openly, nobody in the public knew…He tried to lead a cause to stop the Kanjorski amendment and the Volcker rule of incredible portions.”
When asked what he plans to do now that he is no longer a member of Congress, Kanjorski explained that he has “no need or desire to make a lot of money.” Rather, he thinks he could “be very effective in developing a support base to make sure we implement the (Wall Street) reform bill. I could spend some time writing on that, speaking on that and testifying on it.” Kanjorski stands in stark contrast to a number of other retiring and ousted Democrats, like former Rep. Arthur Davis (AL), who will be joining a Washington, D.C.-based law firm specializing in defending white collar
criminals.
A lot of good legislators were wiped away in this Republican wave.
Kay Steiger is tired of the “Like A Man” genre of advice for women.
See, there’s a problem with the “like a man” genre of article — and there’s no shortage of them. Women are frequently told to ask for a raise like a man, Date Like a Man, and even pee like a man. But the problem here is that “like a man” is often synonymous with “do it better.” When women are given advice on asking for raises “like a man” it’s because women are often paid less than men, and it’s often thought that the solution is to simply mimic men’s behaviors to receive the best results. Same goes for dating and peeing — the idea is that men somehow do it better. The way to fix that seems to be to tell women how to be more like men.
There’s a reason there isn’t a genre of “like a woman” articles for men. (Except for this Daily Fail Mail article on a man who spent a week “living like a woman.”) See, the idea is that men would never want to be “like a woman” because women are generally considered inferior, even though if you replace “like a woman” with “better,” you could write articles on how men should drive like a woman, how to multitask like a woman, or how to fly a fighter jet like a woman.
Sigh. This just perpetuates the myth that women = weak, men = strong. Unfortunately it’s all too common.
Tags: Open Thread
Kanjorksi, the guy who funneled tens of millions in earmarks into companies owned by his nephews? typical corrupt democrat.
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership . Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.” – Sen. Barack Obama on March 16, 2006.
according to the Scranton Times, Kanjorski said this about Florida’s new Republican Governor Rick Scott on October 23:
“That Scott down there that’s running for governor of Florida,” Mr. Kanjorski said. “Instead of running for governor of Florida, they ought to have him and shoot him. Put him against the wall and shoot him. He stole billions of dollars from the United States government and he’s running for governor of Florida. He’s a millionaire and a billionaire. He’s no hero. He’s a damn crook. It’s just we don’t prosecute big crooks.”
is that vitriol?
We need links. Without links I’d just assume you made up it up.
But if Kanjorski said that, he is just as evil as Sarah Palin.
Link:
http://thetimes-tribune.com/opinion/editorials-columns/roderick-random/kanjorski-ponders-nuts-bolts-from-blue-1.1052739#axzz1A4hLabIP
Ishmael’s quote is towards the middle. Kanjorski’s quote goes way beyond Palin’s map with the targets.
silly child
http://thetimes-tribune.com/opinion/editorials-columns/roderick-random/kanjorski-ponders-nuts-bolts-from-blue-1.1052739#axzz1A4hLabIP
paragraph 12
In a rare victory for sanity, Kanjorski’s defeat in 2010 was attributed to those remarks. But Republican style is to excuse and promote their death-threateners.
Harry Reid on the other hand had to work his butt off to keep his state from electing Angle.
Yes, Kanjorski’s quote is more heinous than Palin’s map, but is equally on par with the rhetoric of the Teabaggers and Glenn Beck.
Thankfully, Kanjorski is now out of Government. Hopefully, Beck, Palin, Bachmann and all the teabaggers will likewise retire from public life, never to air their evil thoughts again.
It is interesting that I didn’t know about Kanjorski’s remarks until Ishy brought it to my attention. Maybe I am reading too much lefty blogs and didn’t hear about it. And maybe in a similar way, violent rhetoric from Republicans doesn’t make it onto rightwing news sources. So maybe that is why the wingnuts think we are making it all up.
A democrat who lost an election and a movie seen by 200 people means that is okay for Palin and Beck to call for Political assassinations. That is the basic argument.
Well I find that argument lacking.
ish, there is no comparison here. M-bach WON her election on her calls for violence. Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin get pain millions of dollars by conservatives for promoting death. One democrat acts as vile and evil as them and loses his job.
Thank you for pointing out that Republicans benefit from promoting hate, while democrats dont. It is a message that everyone should know. I’m glad you are committed to spreading the word.
But anon, the righties hear the violent rhetoric when they listen to right wing talk radio, a political speech by any number of their candidates, or watch Glenn Beck’s TV Show.
They just don’t think it is a big deal, because it is part of their culture of violence. Indeed, Instapundit is now attacking Tim Pawlenty’s manhood because Pawlenty criticized Palin for the crosshair ad and said he would never do that. Apparently, you must now engage in violent rhetoric to not only be conservative, but to be manly.
I confess I never heard of Kanjorski’s comments until just now, but that is probably because they were made during the election, and I was focused on Delaware and Ms. O’Donnell during the campaign, so I wasn’t ready much of Daily Kos or Huffington Post, et al.
That Kanjorski quote is disgusting. If he thinks and talks like that I’m glad he’s gone.
I assume that the quote didn’t get play at the time because Kanjorski is not well-known and because statements like this are too depressingly common.
Actually I knew Kanjorski back when I was “somebody” he voted consistantly in support of my industry’s positions. He was among several Members of the House and Senate incuding Johniee Isakson Of GA and the next Mayor of Chicago who came to a PAC contributors Junket at the Eden Roc in Miami. He was the only Member to come to the closing dinnner I sat with him and his wife and I got the distinct impression that he was there because he was too cheap to go out anywhere else. I thought he was a jerk.
Also at the event was a Congressman from South Florida who rocketed to instant fame. Any guesses?
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
watch his piece on the shootings.
The retirement of Appoquinimink School Superintendent Tony Marchio is announced for the end of the 2010-11 school year. Sadly for us.
I’ll second that. I see today that Middletown is the 4th best public HS in the state. Not too shabby.
Special Election for New Castle County tomorrow:
– You can cast an absentee ballot at the Department of Elections up until NOON TODAY!
– “The Polling Places for Election Districts 16-02 and 01-03 were changed because the usual locations are not available as Polling Places on January 13, 2011.”
– Here’s a list of voters whose new registrations could not be completed because of unverified address or other reason – know any of these people?