Category: Elections

Time to Seat Senator Al Franken

Posted on by TL

Once again, WTAE in Pittsburgh beats all other media outlets with the news:

The Minnesota Supreme Court has ordered that Democrat Al Franken be certified as the winner of the state’s long-running Senate race.

The high court rejected a legal challenge from Republican Norm Coleman, whose options for regaining the Senate seat are dwindling.

Justices said Franken is entitled to the election certificate he needs to assume office. With Franken and the usual backing of two independents, Democrats will have a big enough majority to overcome Republican filibuster.

Coleman hasn’t ruled out seeking federal court intervention.

Al Franken is a thinker, a true liberal, someone able to grasp complex issues and consider them from every angle.  His radio program on Air America was incredible. We need more like him in public office.

From the New York Times:

The unanimous decision was released after a seven-months long battle over the seat formerly held by Norm Coleman.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty had indicated as late as Monday that he was willing to certify Mr. Franken as the winner once the state’s highest court decided the recount and Mr. Coleman’s battle. On CNN on Sunday, Mr. Pawlenty said: “I’m prepared to sign it as soon as they give the green light.”

As long as Mr. Coleman contests this no further, Mr. Franken will become the Democrats’ much coveted 60th vote. That is the number required to avert filibusters, and with both Senators Edward M. Kennedy and Robert C. Byrd absent due to illness, the Democrats have sometimes scrambled to make sure they had lined up enough votes.

I understand the game Norm Coleman is playing – stall as long as possible, disrupt the balance of the senate, postpone as long as possible the inevitable.  But this has been an incredible disservice to the people of Minnesota.

It’s finally time to seat Senator Franken.

Newt Gingrich Hates the Constitution and America

Posted on by TL

Newt Gingrich was never a successful politician.  As a talking head, he gets by.  After his failed Contract with America, Gingrich continued to point fingers, cough up empty theoretical neo-con rhetoric, and a bizarre plan to save America called American Solutions for Winning the Future (ASWF, or ass whiff, for short).

This morning, I watched Gingrich attempt to debate Sen. Dick Durbin on NBC’s Meet the Press.  David Gregory left every false claim by Gingrich go unchallenged.  We’ll leave that to our friends at Media Matters.

Here’s what I notice about Gingrich: the man hates the United States Constitution.

This week I started singing the Preamble to the Constitution, a la School House Rock.  Remember this?

Here it is:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Justice: the first value established.  Justice.

Gingrich wants to toss out justice, keep Gitmo, hold Prisoners of War forever, without trial, without charges. Gingrich wants the United States to continue to run gulags. The United States Constitution is too much for Gingrich, too fair.

Make no mistake, Newt Gingrich hates the United States Constition and the United States of America.  Newt Gingrich wants to continue the Bush-Cheney doctring of shredding the Constitution.

The Founding Fathers were not fools.  Gingrich is.

Baldwin Borough: Dump Marian Joseph, Shirley Kuchta, Mark Nix and Joan Etzel

Posted on by TL

Residents of Baldwin Borough, PA, have a decision to make on Tuesday.  Incumbents on the Borough Council Marian B. Joseph, Shirley A. Kuchta, Mark S. Nix, and Joan T. Etzel need to go.

Boy, do they need to go.

In their place, residents need to vote for John Conley, Larry Brown, Ed Moeller, and Bob Collet.

I grew up in Baldwin, and I’m back in town this weekend spending time with family.  The community of 19,999 is only 5.44 square miles, a few miles south of Pittsburgh. The borough is currently littered with lawn signs, the incumbents attempting to pawn themselves off as pseudo-Steelers (In fact, using the Steeler logo in their campaign literature — are you paying attentiong, Mr. Rooney?).

Joseph, Kuchta, Nix and Etzel are extremely unethical.  Four years ago, a letter bearing the name of Baldwin’s Tax Collector Gail Dobson Mikush was sent to voters with fraudulent information.  The letter claimed that Mikush supported Joseph, Kuchta, Nix and Etzel.  She most certainly does not support them.

Mikush did not send the letter.  The letter was a fraud.  These four clowns are frauds, and they have to go.

These four have worked overtime to limit access to the Baldwin Borough Building.  The building used to be accessible to residents 24 hours a day.  Dispatchers were removed when  Baldwin signed on to a county-wide emergency dispatch center.

There is no place in Baldwin Borough right now for citizens to walk in and ask for the police.  That is gone, now.

Thank Kuchta, Nix, Joseph and Etzel for that.

The 911 system used now by Baldwin is a joke, often taking 10 to 12 rings to answer.  It is now impossible to contact police after normal business hours.

Joseph, Kuchta, Nix and Etzel ousted Police Chief Christopher Kelly.  The four tried to cover by saying Kelly left on his own accord.

This is a lie.

Chief Kelly knew something was up when council gave him a $21,000 raise.  Up to this point, Kelly had received a the same modest pay increases rank and file members of the Baldwin Police Department received.

It was Mark Nix who recommended the boost, claiming that he had personally compared salaries of police chies in Allegheny County.  Council members who backed this based on the so-called research of one member of council are fools. The raise was a ruse, pure and simple.  Why else would the same council members who had tried to oust Chief Kelly a few years ago now demand that he get a raise?

Because the pay increase was so large, the borough’s insurance company insisted that Kelly go for a physical, then the insurance company doctor told him he was going to declare him disabled.  His only choice was to retire.

Think Joseph, Kuchta, Nix and Etzel know someone in the insurance company?

Of course they do.

Marian Joseph did not like Chief Kelly.  Baldwin residents are now suffering because of Joseph’s personal vendetta.

I met Kelly a few times.  Very honorable.  He did incredible things as police chief in Homestead, PA.  I have personally heard many wonderful things about him through the years.

Baldwin residents should also be very interested in the $107,000 received when the Green Meadows property was sold.  Councilman Dave Depretis made a motion to put that money into a capital reserve fund for repairs to the borough building.  The vote passed unanimously.  When these four individuals took office, the $107,000 was squandered on pet projects for Joseph, Kuchta, Nix, and Etzel.

Baldwin Borough residents should read carefully the letter sent to them by Gail Dobson Misush, and follow her lead.

My family in Baldwin supports Conley, Brown, Moeller and Collet.

Conley, Brown, Moeller and Collet put Baldwin first.

Vote for John Conley, Larry Brown, Ed Moeller, and Bob Collet for all of Baldwin on Tuesday, May 19.

Gov. Bobby Jindal is Trying to Stand Up

Posted on by TL

It’s going to be quite a ride watching the Republicans try to reorganize themselves.  They really want power.  They should focus on issues and developing policy.  Their only policy is their stubborn ideology regardless of circumstances.

Governor Bobby Jindal is trying to position himself for a presidential bid for 2012.  He says it’s time for the GOP to stand up to President Obama.

Of course it is.  Why wait until you have ideas?

From CBS 2 Chicago:

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal again found himself carrying the Republican mantle opposite a primetime appearance from President Barack Obama on Tuesday, saying Republicans must be ready to defy the president when they disagree with his policies. He also joked about his widely panned response to Obama’s address to Congress last month.

“We are now in the position of being the loyal opposition,” Jindal said at a Republican congressional fundraising dinner that only by coincidence fell on the same night as Obama’s news conference. “The right question to ask is not if we want the president to fail or succeed, but whether we want America to succeed.”

Saying “the time for talking about the past is over,” Jindal said Republicans have begun to find their voice after back-to-back elections losses — motivated by what he called historic Democratic spending excess.

“The time for talking about the past is over.”  Of course it is.  The past is how we got into the mess we’re in right now: Republican policies, George W. Bush, historic Republican spending excess.

Yes, and don’t you forget it: Historic Republican spending excess.  In all the wrong places.

Stand up, Bobby.  Repackage for us the same, old, dangerous Republican policies that paved the way for the Great George W. Bush Recession — and thank Americans they tossed your party’s sorry collective asses the hell out of Dodge.

Curtain Call on Rod Blagojevich’s Flying Circus

Posted on by TL

I am so tired of everything Blagojevich right now.  Governor Blago’s Flying Circus will near its final act Thursday when the soon-to-be former governor addresses the deliver a 90-minute plea to garner support from lawmakers so he can stay in office.

Unbelievable.

I have no doubt that Blago will continue to court the media.  He needs that book deal.  He needs that movie.

Personally?  I’d cast George Wendt as Blagojevich.  Poetic justice, you know.

Blago’s newest best friend is Geraldo Rivera.  Rivera somehow believes Blago is getting a raw deal.  Watch him here on Fake News.

The last hurrah will be Thursday.  Finally.

From the Sun-Times:

The governor has boycotted the first three days of his impeachment trial, arguing in a national media barnstorming blitz that the rules are stacked against him.

Under those rules, the governor will get 90 minutes to make his case that he should not be convicted of the pending impeachment article against him. House prosecutor David Ellis, meanwhile, will get one hour to argue for Blagojevich to be removed.

And when all is said and done and the last gavel has finally sounded on this bizarre ordeal, legislators will return to the task of actually governing.

I’m ready for the final curtain on this one.

Roland Burris on the Rachel Maddow Show

Posted on by TL

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Blagojevich apointee to the United States Senate Roland Burris on the Rachel Maddow Show.

Blago Goes Rogue – Appoints Roland Burris for Senate

Posted on by TL

“How- How- How much did you say? $14,000?  Well, I gotta check my records because I didn’t think it was that much.  I didn’t have that much money to give to the governor.” — Roland Burris when asked if his political contributions to Gov. Blagojevich played any part in his appointment to the U.S. Senate

The political landscape in Illinois dipped further into the Twilight Zone when Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed Roland Burris to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.  The press conference alone was odd enough, with Blago introducing Burris, Burris fumbling his way through a Q&A, and, when all else failed, Democratic U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush of Chicago stepped in and took over the press conference.

It was perhaps the most surreal quarter-hour of political theater in the history of the great state of Illinois.

Every news report labels Blagojevich “embattled.”  That’s an understatement.  The governor long ago isolated himself and has had very few political friends in Illinois for several years.  Adding to today’s drama is the exodus of William J. Quinlan as Blagojevich’s general counsel. Blago stands alone, and seems to like it that way.

But he sure expects favors in return – allegedly.

Timing was everything today:

The governor’s announcement came less than an hour after U.S. Senate Democratic leadership issued a statement saying the Senate will not seat anyone Blagojevich chooses to fill Illinois’ vacant Senate post. The statement also is signed by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who has repeatedly urged Blagojevich not to name a replacement for the seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

Secretary of State Jesse White even weighed in with a statement that he would not certify Burris.

There’s been a lot of banter in the media about the legal effect of both statements.  Can the U.S. Senate Democratic leadership legally block the appointment?  Does Jesse White’s refusal to certify Burris make a difference?  Burris was insistent tonight on The Rachel Maddow Show that the appointment is legal.  Many in the legal world seemed to support that argument.

But that doesn’t mean the U.S. Senate has to act any time soon.  Harry Reid can effectively refuse to seat Burris, which can potentially delay the appointment for two years or more.

Add to the mix of voices today that of Illinois Lt. Governor Pat Quinn, who said he expects that Gov. Blagojevich will resign by February at the latest.  If Burris has still not been seated by then, Quinn as acting governor can simply withdraw the appointment — perhaps.

The waters are muddier than the Fox River Valley after a flood.

Just another cold day in Blagoland.

The Old Man and the Marine

Posted on by TL

Via email from our friend Helen:

One sunny day in 2009 an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he’d been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the U.S. Marine standing guard and said, ‘I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.’

The Marine looked at the man and said, ‘Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.’

The old man said, ‘Okay’ and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, ‘I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.’

The Marine again told the man, ‘Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.’

The man thanked him and, again, just walked away.

The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same Marine, saying ‘I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.’

The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, ‘Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I’ve told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don’t you understand?’

The old man looked at the Marine and said, ‘Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it.’

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, ‘See you tomorrow.’

January 20, 2009 still seems like a dream.  I’ll be weeping as the new president takes the oath of office.

I’m putting a counter on Turning Left.

The Palin Chronicles: Blame Bush for the Loss

Posted on by TL

Sarah Palin is determined to stay in the news, and FOX News is happy to provide the diva with a platform.

From the Associated Press:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, amid speculation she’ll run for president in four years, blamed Bush administration policies for the defeat last week of the GOP ticket and prayed she wouldn’t miss “an open door” for her next political opportunity.

“I’m like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I’m like, don’t let me miss the open door,” Palin said in an interview with Fox News on Monday. “And if there is an open door in ’12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I’ll plow through that door.”

In a wide-ranging interview with Fox’s Greta Van Susteren, Palin says she neither wanted nor asked for the $150,000-plus wardrobe the Republican Party bankrolled, and thought the issue was an odd one at the end of the campaign, considering “what is going on in the world today.”

“I did not order the clothes. Did not ask for the clothes,” Palin said. “I would have been happy to have worn my own clothes from Day One. But that is kind of an odd issue, an odd campaign issue as things were wrapping up there as to who ordered what and who demanded what.”

“It’s amazing that we did as well as we did,” Palin, who was Sen. John McCain’s running mate, said of the election in a separate interview with the Anchorage Daily News.

“I think the Republican ticket represented too much of the status quo, too much of what had gone on in these last eight years, that Americans were kind of shaking their heads like going, wait a minute, how did we run up a $10 trillion debt in a Republican administration? How have there been blunders with war strategy under a Republican administration? If we’re talking change, we want to get far away from what it was that the present administration represented and that is to a great degree what the Republican Party at the time had been representing,” Palin said in a story published Sunday.

My favorite part of the story is a little further down and fills us in on Palin’s activities this past weekend, just days past the election:

Her father, Chuck Heath, said Palin spent part of the weekend going through her clothing to determine what belongs to the Republican Party.

“She was just frantically … trying to sort stuff out,” Heath said. “That’s the problem, you know, the kids lose underwear, and everything has to be accounted for. Nothing goes right back to normal,”

So the RNC bought high-end underwear for the Palins as well?

Honestly, have we ever seen anything like this in American history?  Don’t tell me we’re employing a double standard, unfairly judging the female candidate.  Sarah brought this all on herself when she bought and bought and bought, or looked the other way while others did so.

When historians analyze this election 50 years hence, will they be able to read the Palin chapter with a straight face?