This story’s making headlines all over the place, but no one really has the words he spoke yet. Joe Klein decided to stand up and make a statement when given the Small Business Person of the Year award a few days ago. Good for him, but in the meanwhile, the rest of us are left to hear a bunch of opinions on what he said. . . not what he said.
Democrat & Chronicle: Business
Joe Klein could have accepted the applause of his peers and smiled for the cameras the other day when he was named businessperson of the year by the Small Business Council of the Rochester Business Alliance. Instead, he decided to break a golden rule he heard again and again growing up: to never humiliate someone in public. The chief executive of Klein Steel Service stepped to the podium and delivered a blistering, personal attack on labor union leaders, state lawmakers, trial lawyers and others he sees as chiefly responsible for the problems facing New York, its business community and residents.
Everyone’s commenting on it. YorkStaters, the Post Standard, UpstateBlog.com. . . it’s all over the place. But if you can’t judge what the man said, then how can you judge what the man’s done? What’s to talk about? He said a bunch of stuff that raised a few hairs. Bravo for that, at least, because the situation needs a bit of shaking up. But for all I know, he could have been advocating the use of hot dogs as floatation devices in airplanes. I don’t have the text of what he said, and apparently neither does anyone else.
There are people commenting on the D&C about how grand he is for taking a stand. What did he take a stand for? What the hell are you talking about? Were you there? Like I say, I’d love to give kudos to someone who takes a stand, but I’d feel real stupid if he took a stand to say, “DragonFlyEye.Net sucks ass!”
Mr. Klein, if your reading this (ha!), please post what you said somewhere the rest of us can read it. Heck, I’ll even post it on this site, even if I hate everything you say, just to have it on record.
Technorati Tags: Joe Klein, Upstate New York, Reform
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Just read this much, the rest is all fluff:
Top US general says Rumsfeld is inspired by God – Yahoo! News
MIAMI (AFP) – The top US general defended the leadership of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, saying it is inspired by God. ADVERTISEMENT “He leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country,” said Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Ah. . .
Now, maybe it’s just me, but I like to think of my leaders as inspired by experience and competence, but I guess the god thing is OK, too.
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No one does voter suppression with as much style and panache as the Republican Party, give them credit. For example, what could be better than having one ethnic minority threaten another ethnic minority with deportation if they exercise their right to vote? It’s a Republican Miracle!
AG: Voter warning linked to GOP campaign – Yahoo! News
[Ca Attorney General Bill Lockyer] declined to identify the specific Republican campaign Wednesday, citing the ongoing investigation. The Los Angeles Times and The Orange County Register both reported Thursday that the investigation appeared to be focused on the campaign of Tan D. Nguyen, a Republican challenger to Democratic U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez (news, bio, voting record). The letter, written in Spanish, tells recipients: “You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time.”
#Christmas comes but once a year
For every girl and boy
The laughter and the joy
I’ll tell you of a little boy
Who lives across the way
This little fella’s Christmas
Was just another day. . . .
Technorati Tags: Fraud, Election Fraud, Voter Intimidation, Republicans
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Unfortunately, when this protest happened in Rochester, I was stuck at work and couldn’t get out there. I should have taken vacation time or called in sick, but that’s the way it goes, sometimes. Still, a friend of mine on MySpace.com – whom I only know as “Stark Raving Peaceful” – delivered a powerful speech at this protest which she was kind enough to share with the Internet, and so I link it to my blog:
my speech from the world can’t wait protest 10-5-06:
Mr. Bush talked about the “mounting evidence” that was unfolding in Iraq of the scope of horror inflicted on people, such as torture chambers, and says “the most compelling evidence of all lies in the stories told by torture survivors who are recounting a vast array of sadistic acts perpetrated against the innocent.” What Mr. Bush failed to mention was that the standard he was setting forth did not apply to his own regime.
If you thought that this story would eventually go away, I’ve got a ticket for a Fast Ferry ride you can buy:
Hilton funeral home named in cadaver pillaging || Democrat & Chronicle: Local News
No one from the funeral home was charged in the indictment. Monroe County District Attorney Michael Green, who attended a news conference in Brooklyn this morning, said in a telephone interview that his office was investigating Burger and other local funeral homes that worked with Biomedical. “It’s an ongoing investigation,” Green said. “We’ve talked to over 40 families.”
Let me also point out my contempt for the D&C’s crappy, whack-ass web design before I go any farther into this story. I’ve pissed lines in the snow with better web-savvy than this page can muster. They’ve got an RSS feed that I presume is being hand-written every month or so by a person with only two thumbs. Why bother even offering an RSS feed if you’re not going to bother tying it to your database so that the latest news can be gotten from said feed? And would it kill you to include the title of a given article in the <head> section so it shows up at the top? Some of us use Performancing and would like to not have to rewrite our links every time we link to your crummy page. Jack-offs.
But Ok, enough griping, and on to grafting.
So, the story has been somewhat under the radar for the last few months, but thank goodness Rochester gets mentioned once again on CNN. You remember Rochester, don’t you, kids? That’s the place where Arthur Shawcross killed all those hookers, and where they steal body parts to send to New York City. It’s cold up there. Sigh.
Basically, seven funeral homes have plead guilty to knowingly colluding in the body-snatcher’s scheme, but while a Greece funeral home was named in released documents, they have not been charged with wrongdoing. Not yet, anyway, but when the DA says it’s an “ongoing investigation,” that doesn’t mean that it’s over by a long shot.
Meanwhile, I decided to do a bit of digging on this Vickers guy from Honeoye to see what he’s been up to with the case. You’ll remember his Dickensian name from my original article on the subject. Well, it turns out that one of the funeral homes indicted in this case was in Philadelphia, PA, and that this Vickers guy who claims such innocence actually went out there to do more cutting. Check out this little human-interest story on the guy. Lovely. Is he “Positively Rochester?” I wonder.
But in all of this, President George Bush had some uplifting words for the victims of these crimes. He said that, while he understood the pain that so many are feeling, while he understood that Rochesterians are a bit embarrassed to be caught up in this madness, there was hope yet. He said that when we look back on this day in our history, it will seem like only a colon. . .
Er, wait. . . .
Technorati Tags: Rochester, Biomedical Services, Cadaver, body snatching
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MajorityWatch.com has an interesting read of the elections going into the home stretch, and it ain’t looking too good for the Republicans. Long story short, they’ve got the Dems locked at an almost guaranteed 14-seat advantage, and assuming their predictions are right on both the strong and the weak candidates, they have the Dems over the Republicans by a margin of 32 to 17 with 5 seats as toss-ups.
Specifically, New York stands to really bring home the bacon for the Democratic Party, with a pickup of six seats that are virtual locks, and a potential seventh.? Man, if folks in Washington don’t start listening to New York, there’s gonna be trouble.? Yes, these numbers do feature the former Republican Congressional Committee chair’s imminent demise, and also the rising star of Eric Massa.
Of course, nationally, these numbers can break in any number of ways.? Nevertheless, even if MajorityWatch is way off on a number of seats, the majority still looks like it goes to the Dems this year. For example, if we grant the easy-out seats to their respective candidates, that leaves 20 seats up for grabs and Republicans with 193 solid seats.? Assuming that all of the weak Republican, weak Democrat and toss-up races go to the Republicans, that still only leaves them with 213 seats, which is five seats short of a majority.
Interestingly, the corruption and misery of the Republican majority cannot unseat some Republicans in staunchly-Republican districts.? Even if one of those Republicans happens to be John Doolittle, they still can’t get rid of the man, or at least not easily.? He currently enjoys a comfy eight point lead over his opponent.? And believe it or not, whomever is running for Mark Foley’s seat (you may want to get some handi-wipes before you sit down. . .) is only running at a seven-point deficit.? I would like to imagine that these numbers are from a week or so ago, but in Florida, you can never be sure. . . .
Hours of viewing pleasure to be had with this handy little website.? Might even be worth it to cross-check against reported campaign donations on OpenSecrets.org, if you’re in to that sort of thing. . . .
Voting with an unpopular president a vast majority of the time is bad come election year; being bad at debate is bad come election year; having really nothing to show your constituency for all the time you’ve been in Congress is bad come election year. However, when the opponent has created a genuine toe-tapper of a commercial, you’re screwed.
YouTube – Had enough of Randy Kuhl? Vote for Eric Massa!
Rep. Randy Kuhl is a Rubber Stamp Republican. He votes the way the Republican House leaders tell him to 93% of the time. Isn’t it time to elect someone who doesn’t take orders from the wealthy fat cats? Vote Eric Massa this November 7th and help change the course our country is on.
Thing is: I might be politically active, but I still hate political commercials. Even when they’re not negative. And where NY29 is concerned, I think we can give Massa quite a bit of credit for having resisted negative campaigning as long as he did, and even more credit for being genuinely creative when the (somewhat) negative ads appear.
I’m not political strategist, but it seems to me that this ad needs to get pushed like no other ad they’ve had so far. Let’s face it, the song is kinda cool, and “Have You Had Enough?” and “Randy Kuhl is Out,” gets stuck in your head. That’s good campaigning, reminiscent in it’s way to the classic jingle ads that went away with black and white TV. Get this one out there in Prime Time and then hit people with another, “Softer Side of Eric” ad, and you’ve got a winner.
OK, I know I’m lame, but I’m going to go watch it again.
Technorati Tags: Massa, NY29, Have Ya Had Enough?
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The WFP Blog has a great idea: rather than vote for Eliot Spitzer on the Democratic line, vote for him on the Working Families Party line, and let him know how many Liberals and Progressives support him.? Those of us who would like our vote to push forward a legitimately Progressive agenda are having a hard time expressing ourselves in this election.? Sure, Spitzer has thusfar supported CMCE, and I think probably legitimately, but we don’t know if our message is getting through.
But if we vote Line E instead of the Democratic line, then our numbers can be quantified.? That sounds like an outstanding idea to me.
We’re building steam, and now you can get involved where ever you are. We’ve put a downloadable Count on Me pledge form online – check it out, print it out, get people you know to sign it and then send it in.
Of course, the cynic out there will quickly point out that voting in such a manner helps the WFP as much as anybody.? Fair enough.? But really, the WFP doesn’t run it’s own state-wide candidates because the aren’t really that big of a party; unless you’re *registered* WFP, you’re not really all that much of a help to them where it really counts.? So, you can make the decision to register WFP or not on your own, but in the meanwhile, you can use their line to promote causes you care about like Clean Money, Clean Elections, healthcare reform, and a host of others.
Click the link above and find out more about voting the E Line.? Seems to me that this might be a great way to vote wherever possible this Mid-Term Election, what do you think?
Think Progress dug up a nice, stinky one today. Rick Santorum defends the Iraq War by comparing it to The Lord of the Rings. Funny, but I would have thought that his Christian buddies would object to using anything other than the bible as parable.
Think Progress ? Would Gandalf stay the course?
Would Gandalf stay the course?
Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) explains the Iraq war by citing Lord of the Rings: ?As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else,? Santorum told a newspaper editorial board. ?It?s being drawn to Iraq and it?s not being drawn to the U.S. You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don?t want the Eye to come back here to the United States.?
Technorati Tags: Santorum, LOTR
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OK, so I was checking in on my site’s statistics, querying various information out of Google and such, when I noticed something rather sad: if you search for Jeanine Pirro, you won’t find her campaign’s website.? You will, however, find my website.? Does it get any worse than that?? A state-wide election, a former prosecutor, and my little website outstrips not only her campaign’s web advertising, but also any other interest in her anywhere else.
