The Cost of Taking Our Eye off al Qaeda

Thanks to George Bush, our children will have to face a generation of terrorists that will probably be more unflinchingly brutal, doctrinaire, and skillful in enacting terror than anything our generation faced. Why? Because George Bush's attack on Iraq has made it a private school for training terrorists at a very young age and has distracted it from going after al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan where Al Qaeda has opened more of these terrorist camps:

Amid cries of ‘Allah o Akbar’ (god is great), a young boy, barely 12 years old, lifts his machete and strikes at his victim who is lying on the ground, all tied up for the kill.

Waving a ‘V’ for victory sign with his right hand, the boy picks up the severed head and shows it around to the chants of applause from an audience gathered in a remote part of the region straddling the mountainous range which divides Pakistan and Afghanistan....

“This (boy) is a killing machine who has been indoctrinated from age nine and prepared for his act by the time he is 12” says a Pakistani intelligence official who showed the video clip to CBS News as just one piece of evidence of Al Qaeda and the Taliban training young boys to become accomplished killers, even before they become teen-agers. (link)

The operation has become so sophisticated that training videos are used in Iraq for "educating" children:




Why was it so difficult to keep our eyes focused on our real enemy?

Why It’s Called Delaware Watch: Dave Burris “Quits”

Let’s not be too cynical about today’s sudden announcement by the red-baiting and apparent scheming right-wing blogger Dave Burris that he has quit blogging. Let’s not assume that this young man in his thirties announced his “retirement” from blogging because he neither wanted to explain nor apologize for apparently being caught red-handed last week telling a whopper to blogger Mike Matthews to frighten him into giving up a source of a photograph that could be found on the internet. “He’d rather quit than admit” has a nice ring to it and, as close and objective observers of Dave Burris know, teems with plausibility. But let’s not go to those cynical extremes...not yet, at least.

Let’s also not cynically assume that Dave Burris “retired” from blogging because his association with Delaware Republican Party had become an embarrassment to them. While it is true that in the context of a discussion about Burris’ involvement with subpoena-gate Delaware’s new GOP Chairperson Tom Ross recently took great pains to tell someone that “Dave Burris does not speak for the Republican Party,” one could easily be reading too much into Burris precipitous retirement announcement by concluding that Burris wants to undergo a period of invisibility in order to emerge later as a political candidate no longer immediately associated with reprehensible political dirty tricks like red-baiting, insinuating arson for political purposes, and intimidating innocent bloggers with tales of apparently non-existent FBI investigations. Besides being overly speculative, such a conclusion assumes that Dave Burris self-estimation could stand a period of prolonged invisibility.

Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how long DelawarePolitics.net survives on the internet or, if that erasure would seem too obvious, how long some of Burris’ notorious posts survive on it. But not to fear. I have archived Dave Burris’ juicier posts and comments. It’s important that succeeding decades and posterity do not forget.

Let’s also not cynically assume that Dave Burris “retired” from blogging because he intends to be working as a staff person on GOPer’s political campaign like, say, King Charles Copeland (- Dupont) for Lt. Governor or Bill Lee for Governor. True, we do have the rather disturbing report of Bill Lee allowing himself to be “squired” around Bridgeville by Burris, by the very man who embarrassed the Lee campaign with “subpoena-gate.” But without knowing the date of this disturbing event, we cannot know if it occurred pre- or post- subpoena-gate.

Let us also hope that Dave Burris is not officially working on Bill Lee’s campaign because it would tell us something about the kind of people Lee might get to help run Delaware’s government. Dave Burris could become a campaign issue.

For those wedded to the idea that Dave Burris “retired” from blogging to work on a GOPers campaign, my hunch would be too look toward King Charles Copeland’s (- DuPont) campaign because, unlike Bill Lee, Copeland’s principles seem to be more adaptable to the political needs of the moment.

But let’s also not be overly-optimistic either. While it is true that it is sometimes best to quit addictive behaviors cold turkey, Dave’s retirement post provides no evidence that he is quitting dirty politics or telling falsehoods quite yet:

I’m retiring from political blogging in order to focus on my new site, CoastalSussex.com.

It’s been a blast, and I’ve made some good friends, but it takes a lot of time, especially the back-and-forth with overgrown babies and unemployed socialists. (link)

“Overgrown babies” is a reference to Mike Matthews, one previously used by Burris in his intimidating e-mail exchange with Mike Matthews.

I suppose “unemployed socialists” is a reference to me although it is difficult to tell since his two word description contains precisely two falsehoods, not that accuracy and fact would be anything more than trifles to Dave Burris (in my experience of him). In any case, while two falsehoods in two words are cold, they aren’t evidence that Dave Burris is going cold turkey.

I also find it difficult to believe that Dave Burris will content himself with writing puff pieces at CoastalSussex.com as he claims. It’s a bit like asking someone to believe that Karl Rove would “retire” to write for Reader’s Digest or the Ladies Home Journal. Once the Grizzly gets the taste of human flesh, try convincing the Park Rangers the bear will content itself with honey and berries from now on.

I assume Dave Burris isn’t going way, not really. He has given us fair warning in his retirement post that he will return with an occasional post. I assume they will be posts under his name. But I will be looking to see if the remaining, more-active writers at DelawarePolitics.net start writing at levels more sophisticated than the recent treat about homosexuality being wrong because homosexuals don’t have complimentary genitals and because the Bible says its wrong and the Bible is never wrong about anything. (Apparently, we are supposed to assume that the writer is an inerrant interpreter of the so-called inerrant Bible.)

A more fulsome repertoire from the writers David Anderson and Frank Knotts could plausibly be taken as a sign that that Dave Burris hasn’t retired but has risen. (I also recommend looking for new anonymous and pseudonymous commenters on the Delaware blogosphere, possibly and especially ones gifted in the art of slander.) But the writers John Feroce and Smitty Lickspittle are sophisticated writers and their writing will provide little or no evidence of Dave Burris' abiding influence.

In short, don’t assume this is really goodbye for Dave Burris. You don’t have to believe something is true simply because someone says it is, especially when that person leads people to believe, apparently falsely, that FBI investigations are occurring and subpoenas will be issued. Just rely on your intuitions...like the one about self-appointed Messiahs taking their place on the crosses of their own making but seldom expiring (or retiring) there. “Messiahs,” as we all know, have a habit of returning because—well, if they ever put it sincerely to us—they "know" we need them. We can’t get along without them. They are too important and we are not.

Never stop watching. Messiahs love to return.

Tonight on Progressive Voices: A Conversation with Allan Loudell

Listen to "Progressive Voices" every Monday evening on WVUD, 91.3 FM from the University of Delaware in Newark, DE.

Tonight's host: Dana Garrett

Note: Monday’s show starts at 7:00 p.m. (NOT 7:30 ) and ends at 8:00. Listen from anywhere in the world you at http://www.wvud.org/listen_online.htm

* * *

He’s a legend newsperson locally and seems to have the phone number of most of the world’s leaders, leading scholars and newspersons. And tonight I get to fulfill a fantasy: put WDEL’s Alan Loudell on the other side of the microphone. Local & national news will be the focus.

Councilperson's Kevin Kelley's Overreaction

I'm sure Wilmington City Councilperson Kevin Kelley means well but this is an overreaction in my view:

In the aftermath of an accident that killed a pedestrian who was selling newspapers, Wilmington City Councilman Kevin F. Kelley Sr. says he plans to ask The News Journal to discontinue street sales.

Kelley says he believes sales of newspapers should be limited to stores and vending boxes. He adds that the same dangers exist for people who sell flowers or solicit donations along roadsides.

He has asked the city's law department to look into the legality of street sales. (link)

I'm confident that more children are killed by cars walking to school or adults walking to work, but I'm sure Councilperson Kelly would never propose that we stop those pedestrian activities on the basis of episodic tragic accidents. Why not? Because going to school and to work are necessities, ones that are sufficiently and inexpensively served by walking.

Working for a living is a necessity and the street sales of newspapers is one way of earning a living that some people have engaged in for several years. Is causing people to lose their jobs somehow a natural and necessary consequence of a tragic accident?

The best assurance against accidents is immobility within a fortified bunker but that doesn't make it desirable.

Unless there is some kind troubling trend, episodic accidents are a terrible basis for new law. Besides, it could very well be that a law prohibiting street sales of newspapers could imperil the former vendors more as they walk around applying for new jobs than if Councilperson Kelly's attempt to make them safer had never been realized.

Bill O'Reilly's Producer (Unseen Footage)

Finally, the complete story.

Here's Why Barack Obama will Win in November

Sen. Barack Obama has seen his share of large crowds over the last 15 months, but his campaign said they have not approached the numbers gathered along the waterfront here right now.

The campaign, citing figures from Duane Bray, battalion chief of Portland Fire & Rescue, estimated that 75,000 people are watching him speak.

The scene suggests this is not an exaggeration. The sea of heads stretches for half a mile along the grassy embankment, while others watch from kayaks and power boats bobbing on the Willamette River. More hug the rails of the steel bridge that stretches across the water and crowds are even watching from jetties on the opposite shore. (line)

75,000 people for one speech, including people watching from kayacks and power boats.

That is what I call a reliable poll of a hunger in the American people for a new direction and its face is Barack Obama's.

Something new is happening in the USA. What exactly isn't yet clear but one senses its burgeoning potential. But two things are certain:

• Interests more powerful than political parties (but largely through them) will try to stop it from being actualized.
  

• Obama's winning the Presidency alone won't actualize the potential for change. As difficult as winning the election will be, it will be a breeze compared to the inertia Obama will butt up against in governing. For Obama to be successful then, his supporters will have to do a lot of the heavy lifting through painstaking and unrelenting activism.

It's our hunger for change that has made Obama a phenomenon and him our voice for it. It's our work that has started this process. It will also be ours to realize it.

Ted Blunt "Suspends" Campaitgn for Lt. Governor of Delaware

Ted Blunt is out of the race for Lt. Governor of Delaware, leaving Insurance Commissioner Matt Denn without a primary challenger this Fall, assuming no one else enters the race. That prospect should send a chill down the spine of the King Charles Copeland (- Dupont), the GOP and big money candidate for Lt. Governor.

Blunt's departure has revived hopes within some circles of the Democratic Party that US Senator Tom Carper's previous attempt to broker a deal between Lt. Governor John Carney and State Treasurer Jack Markell will be actualized. The "deal" had Carney running for Governor, Markell for Lt. Governor, and Matt Denn running for reelection as Insurance Commissioner. Allegedly, when the deal was first proposed, it required Ted Blunt to drop his intention to run for Lt. Governor.

The Democrats might try to revive the deal because the only statewide race they are concerned about is the Insurance Commissioner. The GOP candidate John Brady is perceived as stronger candidate than any of the current Democratic candidates in the race. But he is not perceived as stronger than Matt Denn. The reshuffling then would have:

• Governor: Carney (D) vs. Lee (R) vs. Protack (IPOD)
• Lt. Governor: Markell (D) vs. King Chales Copeland (- Dupont) (R & $$)
• Insurance Commissioner: Matt Denn (D) vs. John Brady (R)
  

That would be quite a reshuffling act, so I don't see it happening. But that would spare the Democratic party some costly primaries and all but cinch Democratic victories in those races. However, it might disenfranchise some Independent and Republican Party voters who switched parties to vote in the Democratic Party's gubernatorial primary. The number of voters it would disenfranchise, however, might be marginal relative to the beneficial effect a primary-less Governors race would have for the Democrats this Fall.

Ted Blunt's announcement is below:

BLUNT SUSPENDS CAMPAIGN AND CALLS FOR DEMOCRATIC UNITY

Wilmington, DE – May 16, 2008 – Wilmington City Council President Ted Blunt, announced today that he is suspending his campaign for Lt. Governor of Delaware.

Outlining his reasons for the decision, Blunt stated the following, “I am officially suspending my campaign for three reasons:

“The first reason is that I believe we are at a pivotal juncture in our State and in our Country that will require us to make individual sacrifices for the greater good. As we look to the fall elections, a united Democratic Party will be more successful, than a divided one.

"Second, over the past two years we have worked to raise money and spread our message of building strong families and communities. Because of the hundreds of contributors, we were able to raise almost $200,000. This is more than we raised during all of my campaigns combined. However, it is clear to me that mounting a statewide campaign at this time in our history requires, unprecedented resources and is a challenge even for someone who has run successfully for over 20 years.

"Third and most importantly, I have been blessed with a very loving and supportive family and as I leave the campaign trail, I am looking forward to spending more time with them. My three daughters ran this campaign and I am proud of the work that they did. Up and down the State we connected with old friends and colleagues and made new ones. We raised awareness of issues such as the economy, healthy lifestyles and educating our youth. I grew as an individual, and my family is stronger.

I thank all of the volunteers, contributors and supporters who have joined ‘Ted’s Team’ on this journey. I am proud of the positive campaign that we ran and am extremely grateful to my Team for dedicating themselves to that positive spirit in everything they said and did on my behalf.”

While Blunt will serve out his term as City Council President, he will not be seeking elective office in the future. “During this election, I will continue to serve this great State by working with others who will carry out our campaign motto from Marian Wright Edelman – ‘Service is the rent we pay for living on this earth’.”

One of the goals of the campaign and his career was to be an example to under-represented populations in the political process and Blunt believes he has achieved that goal. Blunt closed by saying, “The victory for me was not in winning one seat, but how we ran our race and the inspiration we gave to others. I will take what I’ve learned and help those who also wish to serve. There is no greater reward.”

Comment Moderation Now Enabaled on Delaware Watch

In an effort to cut down on the pointless, hateful, amoral and game-playing comments that sometimes appear on this blog, Delaware Watch will now use comment moderation.

The hope is that what comments do appear will be serious, on-topic and engaging.

The vast majority of subscribers to Delaware Watch receive its posts by e-mail and thus do not tend to visit the site or leave comments in any case.

Hopefully, this step will help to elevate the level of discussion on Delaware Watch.

Smacking Down the Ignorant Thugs: It's the Zeitgeist

Chris Matthews smacks down Radio Host Kevin James.

James, et. al., they just make it up as they go. They just keep blathering. It's a pattern.

John McCain's Hypocrisy about Hamas

Two years ago James P. Rubin, an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of International Affairs, interviewed Sen. John McCain in Switzerland about talking to Hamas. John McCain's view was far more liberal than Barack Obama's:

[G]iven his own position on Hamas, McCain is the last politician who should be attacking Obama. Two years ago, just after Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections, I interviewed McCain for the British network Sky News's "World News Tonight" program. Here is the crucial part of our exchange:

I asked: "Do you think that American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the past, working with the Palestinian government if Hamas is now in charge?"

McCain answered: "They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so . . . but it's a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that."

John McCain was absolutely and astonishingly correct. The Palestinian vote had nothing to do with agreement on Hamas' position on Israel. Rather, their concern was more immediate. The thoroughly corrupt Fatah government wasn't providing the basic goods and services required to enjoy a "decent life."

But what a difference running for President makes. Rubin draws the obvious moral:

Given that exchange, the new John McCain might say that Hamas should be rooting for the old John McCain to win the presidential election. The old John McCain, it appears, was ready to do business with a Hamas-led government, while both Clinton and Obama have said that Hamas must change its policies toward Israel and terrorism before it can have diplomatic relations with the United States.

You can see the film of the interview here. You'll probably see it frequently during the campaign year when the Democrats use it against McCain's misleading argument that Hamas wants Obama to be President.
__________________
source

I Call it Deception: Dave Burris on “The Rest of the Story”

Well, along with return address of an innocent and uninvolved Delaware Republican,” the “hot” photograph of Bill Lee that to my mind is so flattering I believe he should use it on his campaign literature, and the following note, this is what Dave Burris’ bullying of blogger Mike Matthews was all about:

There are 30 more pictures like this.
They get more and more interesting.
The media starts to get them next week.
All Republican delegates get them this week.
Every non-profit will get them the week after that.
Churches will get them the week after that.
They will go online next week.
Did I leave anything out? (next)

The note and photograph were sent to one of Bill Lee’s relatives, which immediately raises questions about Bill Lee’s credibility on this matter, since, according to Mike Matthews, who asked him on WDEL what he knew about Dave Burris’ claims, Bill Lee denied knowing anything about the matter. Someone in his family knew but didn’t tell Bill Lee? Come on, get real.*

Beyond that the use of someone else’s address and the implied (although not stated) threat that Bill Lee shouldn’t file to run for Governor does sound like mail fraud and, arguably, using the federal mail system for extortion. About that Dave Burris is correct: it’s disgusting.

But should Mike Matthews expect the subpoena from the FBI and US Attorney’s office that Burris indicated were hot on the case? Well, the “rest of the story” indicates that Dave Burris beginning of the story fictionalized it in some important respects:

I assume the U.S. Attorney, FBI or the proper authorities will be contacted, but let’s be honest. Mail fraud and intimidation of this sort aren’t exactly high up the feds’ priority list. So who knows when they’ll get around to it. That’s why I tried to get the source. (next)

Burris “assumes” the FBI, etc, will be contacted? Does that mean they haven’t been? That’s a far cry from what he led Mike Matthews to believe:

The subpoena's not coming from the GOP. If it comes, it'll be from the FBI and the US Attorney (link)

The clear implication is that:

• The FBI and US Attorney are already involved in the case
• Any subpoena to Matthews would come from them

That doesn’t jell with Burris confession now: “I assume the U.S. Attorney, FBI or the proper authorities will be contacted.” Clearly, Burris tried to deceive Matthews into believing the FBI was involved already when it seems now that they haven’t even been contacted. In fact, when Matthews stated in reply to Burris assertion in his e-mail--

So, the FBI's involved. Which means the person who forwarded the photo has broken federal law. Let me think about this one.( link)

--Dave Burris did nothing to correct his perception that the FBI was involved already. I spell that DELIBERATE DECEPTION.

Notice also how in the “Rest of the Story” Burris confesses that even if it does get to the FBI, it might not get immediate attention:

let’s be honest. Mail fraud and intimidation of this sort aren’t exactly high up the feds’ priority list. So who knows when they’ll get around to it. (next)

If it’s possibly of that little importance, why was Dave Burris’ tone initially so cocksure in his e-mails to Matthews that he would be subpoenaed?

On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 12:16 PM, Dave Burris wrote:
I want to know who gave you the Bill Lee picture.
Dave Burris

On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 1:28 PM, Mike Matthews <downwithabsolutes@gmail.com> wrote:
Ummm...no.

On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 12:28 PM, Dave Burris <> wrote:
Subpoena it is, then.

“Subpoena, it is then” in a case in which Burris now tells us that the FBI might drag their feet on if they ever get contacted about it all? What accounts for the difference? Let’s look at some of the rationalization Burris provides in the “Rest of the Story”:

this kind of attempt to intimidate and blackmail Bill into not filing is atrocious.

In the narrow world of a status quo partisan like Dave Burris, bullying and intimidating a status quo Republican is “atrocious,” but intimidating a Democratic blogger into giving up his source through deceptive means is perfectly OK. No one should be surprised. No one. Dave Burris has already shown he is capable of red-baiting people and insinuating acts of arson for political purposes. That Burris justifies his intimidation of Matthews by saying he was trying to discover Matthews’ source indicates that when it comes to partisan politics, for Dave Burris the ends justify the means.

Misleading and bullying local bloggers is nothing for a political thug like Dave Burris. Why the Delaware Republican Party hasn’t put several time zones of daylight between themselves and Burris escapes me. He will only embarrass them further. He seems to find this kind of attention-seeking and activity irresistible.

____________________

* Someone in the mainstream media needs to ask Bill Lee what does he know and when did he know it. They should also ask him and Tom Ross, Chairperson of the Republican Party, if Dave Burris was ever authorized by them to investigate this matter and use the methods he did with Mike Matthews. Do they support Dave Burris conduct in this affair? Otherwise they, like Burris himself, have a lot of egg on their faces.

GOP Rep. Tom Davis Evokes "Tar Baby" in Paper about Race Against Barack Obama

The figure of speech Rep. Tom Davis used was a double entendre:

An indirect and subtle implication in an expression in speech or writing, whereby a sentence has a double meaning.(link)

This how he did it. "In a 20-page memo on GOP electoral woes, Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.)" assesses the relative appeal John McCain and Barack Obama have with Hispanic voters:

Remember, Hispanic voters are a swing group in this election and future elections. John McCain, being from a border state, may be out of sync with many Republicans but he has standing among Hispanics. Barrack Obama has not made the sale to Hispanic voters. Thus, this issue is a tar baby for anyone who touches it, with land mines everywhere. (link)

Tar Baby? The original meaning of the term is innocent:

Tar-Baby was a doll made of tar and turpentine, used to entrap Br'er Rabbit in the second of the Uncle Remus stories. The more that Br'er Rabbit fought the Tar-Baby, the more entangled he became. In contemporary usage, a tar baby refers to any "sticky situation" that is only aggravated by efforts to solve it. (link)

However, over time the term has been used to as a derogatory reference to African Americans, one which other politicians have used purely about situations but for which others have taken offense (e.g., Tony Snow, Mitt Romney, John Kerry).

For Rep. Davis to use the term in a discussion paper about political strategy against the USA's first African American (likely) nominee from a major party for the Presidency of the United States seems so egregious as to be probably deliberate. After all, this wasn't a slip of the tongue in an oral presentation. It was written in a document that was no doubt edited if not vetted.

It raises the spectre of an onslaught of veiled racial terms used in the context of the presidential race in 2008.

In politics, it seems, change must hack its way through a thick tangle of ugliness.

Did Mike Protack Checkmate the Delaware GOP?

On the day that the News Journal announced that Bill Lee had filed his filing fee to run for Governor for the Delaware GOP, one of his primary candidates, Mike Protack, coincidentally upstaged him by receiving the endorsement of Independent Party of Delaware (IPOD). That makes Protack a fusion candidate, which means he will continue to compete in the primary race for the GOP nomination and will also appear on the November ballot as the IPOD candidate for Governor.

That's important because it means even if Protack loses the GOP primary, he will still be in the race for Governor. That's a potentially grim prospect for Lee's candidacy, who will face one of two powerful Democrats for Governor (Lt. Governor John Carney and State Treasurer Jack Markell)--a prospect that was not wasted on Protack himself:

"With a strong third-party candidate like me, it's virtually impossible for the Republicans to win," Protack said. "This is not a vindictive thing, it's simply what it takes to win."

Well, if it's not revenge, it's hard to imagine what would constitute better revenge against a party who settled on its candidate late in the race in a state which is becoming overwhelmingly more Democratic in voter registration after the wake of 8 disastrous years of George Bush with all his expected negative coattails for Republican candidates this Fall.

Still, Protack believes there might be an advantage in having the word "Independent" next to his name in a race in which some voters might not prefer to vote for either major party candidates:

Furthermore, he noted, it will take many crossover votes for a GOP candidate to win in Delaware, where almost half the voters are registered Democrats.

Just under 25 percent -- more than 130,000 -- are independent, Protack noted.

Bill Lee suggests that the IPOD endorsement might cause him not to debate Protack during the primary race:

Lee was undaunted by the endorsement Protack won, but said it makes it even less likely he would debate with him.

"We'll wait until he pays his filing fee to the Republican Party," Lee said. "That's your ticket of admission and quite frankly, Mike has gotten a free ride. He is treated as a candidate even though he hasn't filed."

That will likely be seen as an excuse since Lee seemed cool on the prospect of debating Protack in any case during an interview with WDEL's Allan Loudell (I'll post recording later).

But how will that keep Lee from debating Protack, the IPOD candidate, during the General election? The Democratic Party's nominee will almost certainly insist that Protack be included in the debates (and Protack should be since he is a candidate for a legally recognized party in Delaware).

There are a number of Delaware Republicans who are faithful to Protack and will likely vote for him instead of Lee during the general election. That makes Lee's prospects for victory very long indeed.

In a welcomingly different response to this the latest strategic move from Mike Protack, Delaware's new GOP Chairperson took a broad-minded and democratic response to the IPOD endorsement and Protack's rights as a citizen:

"I guess Mike is intent on getting to a general election," newly elected GOP Chairman Tom Ross said. "He hasn't to this point ever been able to get out of the Republican primary. ... We're united behind Bill Lee. It's a free country, and Mike can do whatever he'd like."

Tom Ross might turn out to be the most important "electoral" victory for the GOP in 2008.
______________

source

Democrats Capture 3rd US Congressional Seat Held by GOP in a Special Election

This time the special election occurred in Mississippi:

Mississippi Democrat Travis Childers won a special election to Congress on Tuesday, helping his party to a third victory in recent months for seats long in Republican hands.

The victory puts Childers into the seat vacated by Roger Wicker, a Republican appointed to the U.S. Senate when Trent Lott resigned. The win also pushes the Democrats to a 236-199 majority in Congress _ if only for a few months until November's general elections.

With all precincts reporting, Childers had 54 percent to Republican Greg Davis' 46 percent. (link)

Former Senator Lott went through the revolving door and is now a lobbyist as well as a student on how to buy lunch for oneself and take a subway to work without the help of one's mommy.

It was the third Democratic capture of a seat held by a Republican this year:

Earlier this year, Democrats captured the Illinois district long represented by former Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert, who resigned from Congress, then earlier this month, claimed a seat in Louisiana that Republican Rep. Richard Baker left. (link)

Things don't bode well for the Republicans this November. They need a new paradigm.

How to Get Threats of Being Subpoenaed by GOP Bullies in Delaware (SEE UPDATES)

Read about it here. Also read this. Be prepared for severe bellylaughter.

IMPORTANT UPDATE

In an e-mail sent to Mike Mattews at DownWithAbsolutes, Dave Burris alleged that the so-called subpoena will come from the FBI and the US Attorney:

From: Dave Burris (address withheld)
Date: Mon, May 12, 2008 at 1:22 PM
Subject: Re: Photo
To: Mike Matthews <downwithabsolutes@gmail.com>

The subpoena's not coming from the GOP. If it comes, it'll be from the FBI and the US Attorney.

UPDATE 2

Complete e-mail exchange between Burris & Matthews here.

UPDATE 3

Dave Burris promises to tell all on Thursday. I assume that means he will finger the suspect the FBI & the US Attorney are investigating and why. He made the promise on DelawareLiberal:


What will he reveal?

From reading the e-mails, it seems Burris was just dying to blab about this alleged investigation. [Why would Burris tell anyone about a criminal investigation and then later give Mike permission to publish the e-mails ("Print the emails if you want, Mike" comment #26).] This is what he has told us effectively:

• The FBI & US Attorney's offices are involved.

• That whoever gave Matthews the photograph also used it in some fashion that is criminal ("the chances are that whoever sent you that picture also was involved in the other thing, which was a crime")
  

• He also said that the matter wasn't political but "personal." ("This isn't politics. This is personal.")
  

• Hmmmm...? What does that mean? Is Burris also a victim of Federal criminal photograph abuse along with Lee? Or is getting this felon of photograph abuse more than just a political matter for Burris? His feelings of bringing this monster of iniquity to justice are personal now?
  

Federal involvement & using the photo in a way that is potentially criminal sounds like mail fraud to me.

If I'm in the ballpark here, who would want to use a photo of the Delaware GOP's endorsed candidate for Governor, retired Judge William Swain Lee, in a way that is potentially criminal? Or who would be the person that some people would like to convince the FBI and US Attorney's office that would use Bill Lee's photograph in some criminal manner.

Whoever it is, Lee apparently knows nothing about it. According to Mike Matthews, he asked Lee today on the WDEL Rick Jensen's show if he knew of such an investigation and Lee, according to Mike, said he didn't.

One last question to consider. If there really is an FBI an ongoing investigation, how does Burris know he is free to discuss it on Thursday? Has the FBI told him that they will have apprehended their suspect by then? If so, is that usual procedure: to tell people knowledgeable of and/or cooperating in an investigation when they plan to make their arrests? Or has some news media found out about the investigation and Burris knows they plan to publicize it on Thursday or Friday? If so, who would be so uncouth as to blab to the news media about an ongoing FBI investigation?

I Sure Hope Charlie Copeland Didn't Own these Properties

I sure hope Charlie Copeland didn't own these properties in Long Neck and Christiana:

There's no telling who will be suspected of setting them on fire.

McCain Had former Myanmar Lobbyist on His Campaign

Imagine a Presidential candidate has a lobbyist on his campaign whose job it was to whitewash one of the most brutal and repressive dictatorships in the world.

clipped from www.mydd.com John McCain nailed down the Republican nomination in March, his campaign began wrestling with a sensitive personnel issue: who would manage this summer's GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn.? The campaign recently tapped Doug Goodyear for the job, a veteran operative and Arizonan who was chosen for his "management experience and expertise," Goodyear is CEO of DCI Group, a consulting firm that earned $3 million last year lobbying for ExxonMobil, General Motors and other clients. Potentially more problematic: the firm was paid $348,000 in 2002 to represent Burma's military junta, Justice Department lobbying records show DCI pushed to "begin a dialogue of political reconciliation" with the regime. It also led a PR campaign to burnish the junta's image, drafting releases praising Burma's efforts to curb the drug trade and denouncing "falsehoods" by the Bush administration that the regime engaged in rape and other abuses. it was only a matter of hours before Goodyear had left the campaign.