Author Archives: pandora

About pandora

A stay-at-home mom with an obsession for National politics.

WHYY’s Election Forum In Wilmington

Last night cassandra m and I participated in the WHYY’s Election Forum held at the Delaware History Museum.  I had no idea what to expect, and confess that my expectations were low.  My expectations were wrong.  The event was great, and, unlike the events in Middletown and Dover, heavily attended.

Here’s how it went down.  After brief introductions and a general overview, participants were broken down into three groups.  My group consisted of young, old, white, black, Hispanic, men and women.  The first exercise consisted of word association.  The moderators of the group would throw out words and we were asked to respond with the first word that came to mind.  The words thrown out were candidates’ names, as well as the Tea Party.  Immediately it became apparent that my group was made up Democrats.  I was a little disappointed.

However, one of the words thrown out was the Delaware Way, which produced a broad round of laughter. The words associated with it described its lack of accountability and transparency, but also talked about the accessibility of politicians to voters and the incentives to work together.

The next thing we were asked to do is come up with what we would say if we were given a chance to talk – for only one minute – with our future Senator and Representative.  The time limitation of one minute was designed to make us prioritize our concerns.  The discussion was great, and as one person named their concerns others in the group added their viewpoints.  After everyone in the group listed what they would use their minute to discuss, the concerns/issues were then listed on a large sheet of paper.  Then came the hard part.  Everyone was given 3 round stickers and asked to place their stickers next to issues that mattered most to them.  (You could pick three different issues, or place two or three stickers on one issue)

After the stickers were placed the top four issues of the group were revealed.  Our group’s issue were:  Jobs, Health Care, The Environment, and Education.  Our group was then split in two, each taking two of the issues and coming up with specific questions to ask the candidates.  At the end of the exercise we were asked to walk around the room and look at the other groups questions.

Wow, there were some pretty impressive questions!  Not a softball in the bunch.  Very specific questions that require very specific answers.  In fact, there wasn’t a single question for which saying “I’m for liberty” would be an acceptable answer.  There were also no gotcha silly questions.  Nothing about witches or socialists.

  • Do you believe in climate change?  Why or why not?
  • If you want to shrink the size of government spending which specific programs would you cut?
  • Specifically address the creation of jobs with “living wages”  (We wanted them to get off of the idea that any jobs are OK, but job creation that would support families in the upwardly mobile way we expect.)
  • What plans, in detail, would you implement to get workers the additional skills and training to move to jobs that have some possible longevity?
  • If elected how would you  be accountable for communicating with your constituents real information about bills and policy under consideration?
  • If elected, how would you proactively work on ensuring that the ACA was tailored to the needs of constituents, not to the special interests?

Pretty good, huh?  There were many more questions on many more issues, but I hesitate to paraphrase.  One thing our group brought up was the role of the media in highlighting the misbehavior of the Tea Party – which is an issue for another post!

After the event I spoke with one of the moderators and asked if any Republicans/Tea Partiers were present.  He said that he believed there was one in another group – and there had been a self-described Libertarian presence in Dover.  I’m not certain what to make of  this, and I’m still disappointed.  The way the forum was conducted could have produced some interesting debate.

I’ll let cassandra m take it from here…

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this process.   And at the end, I was sorry that more people didn’t come out to get their voices heard.  The one thing that I wanted to see addressed that didn’t get ranked very high by my compatriots was the issue of Leadership.  I’d like for candidates to tell us that they are prepared to step out of the camera’s eye and do the real work of governing this great place.  Because it looks from here that we increasingly have folks who get to Congress ready for their closeups, but completely unprepared to do the hard work of governing.

I asked the gentleman in charge of WHYY’s First program if they would consider doing this in 2012 — especially for the City of Wilmington’s Mayoral race, which from here looks like it might be a free for all.  He said that they might be interested and I hope that they’ll come back, but come back early in the process to ask voters what they want the candidates to talk about so that campaigns are shaped around what people say they want to discuss.

This is the specific model that Jay Rosen talks about here in The Citizen’s Agenda in Campaign Coverage.

Last night’s effort at shaping questions for a candidate debate could be done early in a campaign cycle, which would give voters a narrative that may be more useful to them and may give journalists a way to persistently tackle issues as part of the narrative (are you listening, News Journal?).  And while Rosen’s model has journalists figuring out the big issues, we saw in action last night a group that does this civic engagement process routinely (and around topics other than political campaigns) and who could help do that bit of heavy lifting.  But this has some promise, really, of helping local media actually get what communities are concerned about and giving that media some reason to actually point its coverage that way. This was a great experience and many thanks to pandora for dragging me along…..

Christine O’Donnell: China Planning On Taking Over U.S.

Thanks, AQC,  for the tip.

Via The News Journal:

Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell said in a 2006 debate that China was plotting to take over America and claimed to have classified information about the country that she couldn’t divulge.

O’Donnell’s comments came as she and two other Republican candidates debated U.S. policy on China during Delaware’s 2006 Senate primary, which O’Donnell ultimately lost.

She said China had a “carefully thought out and strategic plan to take over America” and that she wished she wasn’t privy to the classified information she had.

I have no idea how a sane person runs against this much crazy.  Seriously, how do you debate nonsense like this?

Nice House You Have There, Shame If Anything Happened To It

Via WPSD Local 6:

A local neighborhood is furious after firefighters watched as an Obion County, Tennessee, home burned to the ground.

The homeowner, Gene Cranick, said he offered to pay whatever it would take for firefighters to put out the flames, but was told it was too late.  They wouldn’t do anything to stop his house from burning.

Each year, Obion County residents must pay $75 if they want fire protection from the city of South Fulton.  But the Cranicks did not pay.

The mayor said if homeowners don’t pay, they’re out of luck.

This fire went on for hours because garden hoses just wouldn’t put it out. It wasn’t until that fire spread to a neighbor’s property, that anyone would respond.

Turns out, the neighbor had paid the fee.

[emphasis mine]

Privatization rocks!  Can’t wait until we start reporting on police watching an assault and ambulances not picking up at certain addresses.

Campaign Music Video For Christine O’Donnell

Oh my, this is beyond bad – it’s truly painful to listen to and watch.  And, yes, I watched the entire video.

Also, not seeing Rock Peters ever being inducted into the Rock-N- Roll Hall of Fame.  I can forgive a lot of things, but really awful music/lyrics isn’t one of them.  So very, very bad.  (Sheesh, now no one will watch the video – okay… you really should watch it.  Lots of religious symbols and Chris Coons is a Marxist crap.)

The Best Description Of The Tea Party – Ever

As usual, Matt Taibbi nails it.  I’ve highlighted certain points below, but you should really read the whole article!

A hall full of elderly white people in Medicare-paid scooters, railing against government spending and imagining themselves revolutionaries as they cheer on the vice-presidential puppet hand-picked by the GOP establishment. If there exists a better snapshot of everything the Tea Party represents, I can’t imagine it.

After Palin wraps up, I race to the parking lot in search of departing Medicare-motor-scooter conservatives. I come upon an elderly couple, Janice and David Wheelock, who are fairly itching to share their views.

[…]

“Let me get this straight,” I say to David. “You’ve been picking up a check from the government for decades, as a tax assessor, and your wife is on Medicare. How can you complain about the welfare state?”

“Well,” he says, “there’s a lot of people on welfare who don’t deserve it. Too many people are living off the government.”

“But,” I protest, “you live off the government. And have been your whole life!”

“Yeah,” he says, “but I don’t make very much.” Vast forests have already been sacrificed to the public debate about the Tea Party: what it is, what it means, where it’s going. But after lengthy study of the phenomenon, I’ve concluded that the whole miserable narrative boils down to one stark fact: They’re full of shit. All of them. At the voter level, the Tea Party is a movement that purports to be furious about government spending — only the reality is that the vast majority of its members are former Bush supporters who yawned through two terms of record deficits and spent the past two electoral cycles frothing not about spending but about John Kerry’s medals and Barack Obama’s Sixties associations. The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending — with the exception of the money spent on them. In fact, their lack of embarrassment when it comes to collecting government largesse is key to understanding what this movement is all about — and nowhere do we see that dynamic as clearly as here in Kentucky, where Rand Paul is barreling toward the Senate with the aid of conservative icons like Palin.

For almost two years we’ve all scratched our heads as Tea Partiers screamed about Government Spending and Socialism while simultaneously screaming Keep your hands off my Medicare!  Taibbi is correct:  “The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending — with the exception of the money spent on them.”

They also have several things in common according to Taibbi:

One: Every single one of them was that exceptional Republican who did protest the spending in the Bush years, and not one of them is the hypocrite who only took to the streets when a black Democratic president launched an emergency stimulus program. (“Not me — I was protesting!” is a common exclamation.)

We’ve all heard this excuse.  What we didn’t hear was their protesting of spending during the Bush years.  In fact, their silence was deafening – and, let’s face it, we know how loud they can be.

Two: Each and every one of them is the only person in America who has ever read the Constitution or watched Schoolhouse Rock. (Here they have guidance from Armey, who explains that the problem with “people who do not cherish America the way we do” is that “they did not read the Federalist Papers.”)

But it’s more than their claim of being the only people in America who have read the Constitution, it’s their uncanny ability to channel the Founding Fathers.  Perhaps dabbling in witchcraft is more common than we knew.

Three: They are all furious at the implication that race is a factor in their political views — despite the fact that they blame the financial crisis on poor black homeowners, spend months on end engrossed by reports about how the New Black Panthers want to kill “cracker babies,” support politicians who think the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was an overreach of government power, tried to enact South African-style immigration laws in Arizona and obsess over Charlie Rangel, ACORN and Barack Obama’s birth certificate.

Me thinks they doth protest too much on this point.  And while I won’t accuse all (or even most) Tea Partiers of being racists, racists have found a welcoming, comfortable home in the Tea Party.  That said, I think Taibbi’s take is spot on:  “It would be inaccurate to say the Tea Partiers are racists. What they are, in truth, are narcissists. They’re completely blind to how offensive the very nature of their rhetoric is to the rest of the country. I’m an ordinary middle-aged guy who pays taxes and lives in the suburbs with his wife and dog — and I’m a radical communist? I don’t love my country? I’m a redcoat? Fuck you! These are the kinds of thoughts that go through your head as you listen to Tea Partiers expound at awesome length upon their cultural victimhood, surrounded as they are by America-haters like you and me or, in the case of foreign-born president Barack Obama, people who are literally not Americans in the way they are.

It’s not like the Tea Partiers hate black people. It’s just that they’re shockingly willing to believe the appalling horseshit fantasy about how white people in the age of Obama are some kind of oppressed minority. That may not be racism, but it is incredibly, earth-shatteringly stupid.”

Four: In fact, some of their best friends are black! (Reporters in Kentucky invented a game called “White Male Liberty Patriot Bingo,” checking off a box every time a Tea Partier mentions a black friend.)

All of us have experienced this tactic.  It’s the get out of racist statement free card.  And it might carry more weight if every Tea Partier brought their best black friends to one of their rallies.  Guess their black friends are always busy on those days.

Five: Everyone who disagrees with them is a radical leftist who hates America.

This is an oldie, but a goodie.  No longer can good Americans disagree.  If you disagree with the Tea Party you are the enemy, a threat to America, and, in some cases, should be eliminated.  What’s so disturbing about this mindset is it isn’t hyperbole.  It’s pervasive and consistent in the Tea Party, from the highest levels to the lowest foot soldier.  There’s also a small group of Tea Partiers salivating at the chance to employ those second amendment remedies… and some of their comments don’t strike me as blowing off steam, although a lot of them are – some of these comments are deadly serious and are being spewed by future lone wolves.  Lone wolves who have also found a welcoming, comfortable home in the Tea Party.

Palin vs O’Donnell Rumor

Take this with a grain of salt, but – given the personalities involved – I’m leaning towards believing this:

Sarah Palin helped Christine O’Donnell rise to Tea Party pre-eminence, but now the former Alaska governor is questioning the wisdom of her decision to help the upstart. Palin fears the sexy younger politician will steal her thunder, says The Globe.

“Sarah’s furious with herself for creating a monster!” a source said. “She’s well aware that Christine is now a media darling and may steal her speaking engagements.”

Some have called Christine O’Donnell a Sarah Palin clone, because “she’s gorgeous and attractive which will also help her to get many votes,” said a source.

Mirror, mirror on the wall.

Also, is there honor among grifters?

“Republicans Are Taking Off The Mask”

Thanks to anon for the title of this post!

Rand Paul clearly spells out the Republican agenda:

During an interview earlier Thursday on WHAS-AM in Louisville, Paul was asked what cuts could be made to such popular programs as Medicare as the Republican spoke of the need for spending cuts across government.

“You want to have more participation by the person who’s receiving the entitlement,” Paul replied. “By that I mean that they need to be more involved with some sort of economic transaction every time they use their entitlement, and that means they have to bear more of the burden.”

Doesn’t get much clearer than that, and, if this is what Republicans are proposing, they need to own it.  Use the thread below to list other Republicans who are ripping off their masks.

Note: I’ve decided not to use the tea party thumbnail image anymore.  O’Donnell, Paul, Angle, Cantor, Boehner, etc. are all Republicans.  There really is no difference.


Prop 8 Supporters Define Marriage Through Children

For all you married people without children… you don’t have a “real” marriage.

Those supporters filed their first brief on Friday. In it, they argue that marriage is inherently defined by the ability of heterosexual couples to procreate.

“The essential question in this case, then, is whether such unions [opposite-sex marriages] possess distinguishing characteristics that are relevant to marriage,” they write. “This is not a hard question. Indeed, because of the distinguishing procreative characteristics of heterosexual relationships, until quite recently ‘it was an accepted truth for almost everyone who ever lived, in any society in which marriage existed, that there could be marriages only between participants of different sex.'”

Got that?  Procreation is the key.

If the ability to have children ultimately defines marriage then should people who are unable or unwilling to procreate be allowed to marry?

Comment Rescue: Think 123 On Delaware Politics – Where Does O’Donnell Live?

While I won’t link to David Anderson’s House of Crazy, Think123 has been asking the same questions on every thread.  Needless to say, he has received no answers.  Notta one.

Do you know where O’Donnell was born, raised, went to school?  Do you know where she lives currently?  What year she became a Delaware resident.  Do her parents live in Delaware?  We need to hear some personal details. I can’t find anything.  What [do] you know?  Many of us are wondering how she survived with no income to speak of for ten years.

These are not unreasonable questions – they are basic.  Why are the answers such a secret?

Can anyone provide answers?

O’Donnell’s Questionable Campaign Spending Is Catching Up To Her

Via CNN:

A watchdog group says it plans to ask authorities in Delaware to investigate Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell’s finances.

At issue are more than $20,000 of spending in 2009 and 2010 that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington claims was illegal.

“It turns out Miss O’Donnell has treated her campaign funds like they are her very own personal piggy bank. She’s used that money to pay for things like her rent, for gas, meals and even a bowling outing. And that’s just flat-out illegal,” said Melanie Sloan, the group’s executive director.

In an interview on CNN’s “AC360,” Sloan said her organization would be sending letters to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware and the Federal Elections Commission on Monday asking them to investigate.

“For example, in 2009, Miss O’Donnell wasn’t a candidate for anything, yet she had numerous campaign expenses, things like travel and gas, and yet she had no actual campaign,” Sloan said.

O’Donnell’s spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

O’Donnell’s spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment. Why, I’m shocked!

And, for those of you dying to paint this as a partisan witch hunt  (witch hunt – get it!) the group calling for the investigation is the same group that called for Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, to step down after allegations of ethics violations.

Don’t Forget: Jim Westhoff Deserves Support

Jim Westhoff is running for Delaware State Representative in the 35th District, and he could use our help.  Jim has been endorsed by the Progressive Dems and Planned Parenthood.  I spoke with Jim yesterday after receiving info on his upcoming fundraiser.  Here is what he said:

I’m knocking on doors every night, trying to win one front porch at a time. People are very supportive, and they are glad to see that a regular guy is running against someone they feel is not concerned with their situation.  I tell them that it doesn’t seem like we, people like us, are being represented anymore. That message is resonating very well. I know that we can never outspend Dave Wilson, so we’re going to out-work him.

Jim’s fundraiser is this weekend.

*

The Delaware Comedy Theatre presents:

An Evening of Comedy to support

Jim Westhoff

September 18th
7-10 pm
Bridgeville Fire Hall
$25  hors d’oeuvres and cash bar
For tickets call 302-258-5922
*
*
It would be great if any of our readers could attend this event.  If that’s not possible… perhaps we could throw a little contribution Jim’s way? Go on.  Click on the link, and donate!
**
Check out Jim’s video!

The DL Challenge

Are you ready for a challenge?  Good!

Let’s see if DL readers can raise $1,000 for Coons in the next 6 hours.

If DL readers contribute a total of $500 to Chris Coons by 10:00 pm – and anonymous reader will match that amount dollar for dollar.

Go to:   https://secure.democratsenators.org/o/59/donate_page/odonnell and add  five cents  ($0.05) to your contribution to designate it as part of the DL challenge.    We will check with the Coons campaign at 10:00 pm and if the challenge has been met, the anonymous DL reader will match it with a $500 donation.  Personally, I think we can do better than that!  Care to prove me right?

Help defeat right wing extremist while showing the Delaware Liberal flag.

Donate now.

***

Hey, why are you still reading instead of donating?  Do you need more incentive?  Okay… Did you know?

NATIONAL REPUBLICANS SEND $42,000 TO O’DONNELL – HOW WILL SHE SPEND IT?

Big Spending Christine O’Donnell Knows No Limits When It Comes To Spending Campaign Funds On Personal Expenses

List Includes $1,500 On Sunscreen And $550 At Mattress Store

After initially telling reporters that they were not going to fund extremist Christine O’Donnell’s Senate campaign, national Republicans reversed themselves yesterday, with the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee sending the O’Donnell campaign a $42,000 check.  According to Politico, O’Donnell’s former campaign manager disclosed that O’Donnell used a campaign debit card to pay for personal items, and was only running for office “so she can pay her rent, [and] pay her electricity bill.”  With this in mind, the Delaware Democratic Party has some suggestions for the ways Christine O’Donnell can spend this new influx of cash from national Republicans, who has a well documented history of spending campaign money on personal expenses.

·         Maybe O’Donnell can use the money to buy sheets and pillows to complement the $550 in campaign cash she spent at the Mattress Giant earlier this year?

·         Or perhaps she can buy some flip-flops to wear on the beach to go with the $1,500 in campaign cash she spent on sunscreen and sunblock packets?

·         Or maybe she can just use the money to pay the rent on her town home, since it’s been reported that O’Donnell pays half her rent with campaign donations, which the FEC frowns on

“Now that national Republicans have changed their tune and sent $42,000 to Christine O’Donnell, we put together a few suggestions for ways she can spend her new campaign funds,” said Katie Ellis. “Already on record having spent campaign funds on such personal items as sunscreen, sunblock, mattresses, and even her own rent, we can only guess what Christine O’Donnell will spend money on next.”

NRSC Donated $42,000 To O’Donnell Campaign After Primary Win. In September 2010, The Hill reported “Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, spoke to O’Donnell Wednesday and told her she would have the NRSC’s backing like any other Republican Senate candidate.  ‘Let there be no mistake: The National Republican Senatorial Committee — and I personally as the committee’s chairman — strongly stand by all of our Republican nominees, including Christine O’Donnell in Delaware,’ Cornyn said in a statement.  That support includes a $42,000 check, the maximum allowable direct donation to a campaign, Cornyn said.” [The Hill, 9/15/10]

Former O’Donnell Campaign Manager: O’Donnell Used Campaign Debit Card for Personal Expenses. As reported by Politico, “Kristin Murray, a Republican who served two months as O’Donnell’s campaign manager in 2008, called the candidate a “complete fraud.” Murray said she quit working for O’Donnell in 2008 after discovering that she didn’t have a college degree, had failed to make payments on her mortgage and was using the campaign debit card for personal expenses.” [Politico, 9/15/10]

Former O’Donnell Campaign Manager: O’Donnell Only Running So She Can Pay Her Rent, Pay Her Electricity Bill. As reported by Politico, “Murray said she quit working for O’Donnell in 2008 after discovering that she didn’t have a college degree, had failed to make payments on her mortgage and was using the campaign debit card for personal expenses. ‘It just amounted to too much,’ Murray said. ‘The reason she’s running is so she can pay her rent, pay her electricity bill. If it was popular to be really liberal now, maybe she’d do that.’” [Politico, 9/15/10]

O’Donnell Uses Campaign Headquarters as Residence, Shares Residence With Campaign Staffer. As reported by the Wilmington News Journal, “On Jan. 12, 2010, O’Donnell changed her Delaware address in the voter registration, according to Elections Commissioner Elaine Manlove. She shares her new residence, a three-bedroom, two-bath town home in Greenville Place, with David Hust, a campaign staffer who is originally from Houston, Texas. Hust promotes himself on his Web site as a Christian rock music singer. Greenville Place lists the prices of a town house rental between $1,645 and $2,020 a month, depending on the number of bedrooms and square feet. O’Donnell said she pays half of her rent with campaign donations because she also uses the town home as her Senate campaign headquarters. ‘I’m splitting it, legally splitting it and paying part of it,’ she said. ‘This is our technical headquarters.’” [Wilmington News Journal, 3/20/10]

·         O’Donnell Pays Half of Rent With Campaign Donations. As reported by the Wilmington News Journal, “O’Donnell said she pays half of her rent with campaign donations because she also uses the town home as her Senate campaign headquarters. ‘I’m splitting it, legally splitting it and paying part of it,’ she said. ‘This is our technical headquarters.’” [Wilmington News Journal, 3/20/10]

·         O’Donnell Said Staffers Live In Other Parts of Home, “I Am Renting From Campaign.” As reported by the Wilmington News Journal, “O’Donnell said she has separate, private quarters and that staffers, like Hust, live in the other portion of the home. ‘I am renting from the campaign,’ she said. ‘I’m an unconventional candidate because I believe that we have to make sacrifices.’” [Wilmington News Journal, 3/20/10]

·         FEC Spokesperson Said FEC Frowns on Mixing Campaign Funds With Living Expenses. As reported by the Wilmington News Journal, “While the Federal Election Commission frowns on mixing campaign funds with living expenses, Judith Ingram, an FEC spokeswoman, said the commission will consider approving unusual rental arrangements.” [Wilmington News Journal, 3/20/10]

O’Donnell Spent $550 At Mattress Giant – Listed As “Staffing Expense.” In September 2010, Roll Call reported “Typical expenses for Congressional campaigns: BlackBerrys. Computers. A mattress?  Much-buzzed-about Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell lists a rather odd $545.98 purchase from Mattress Giant on her Sept. 2 pre-primary filings with the Federal Election Commission. The purpose of the disbursement is listed as a “staffing expense” and was made July 1, according to the report.” [Roll Call, 9/16/10; FEC reports]

O’Donnell Has Spent Almost $900 On Car Repairs. According to FEC reports, O’Donnell’s campaign has three expenditures to Integrity Custom Collision, totaling $885.10 on “car repairs.”  [FEC Reports]

O’Donnell Has Spent $1,500 On Sunscreen And Sunblock Packets. According to FEC reports, the O’Donnell campaign has three expenditures, totaling $1,536.54, for “printed sunscreen packets” and “campaign materials/sublock pa.”  [FEC Reports]

O’Donnell Has Spent Over $1,600 On Utilities For Her Townhouse/Campaign Office. According to FEC reports, O’Donnell lists $1,632.32 in utility expenses to Delmarva Power in 2010. [FEC Reports]

‘Nuff said.  Now DONATE!!!!