POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

Joe Miller Comes (Partly?) Clean

Why he was disciplined:

"One noon hour, on his own time at the borough, Joe participated in an online poll voting against Randy. He used four office computers in the office to do it, thinking this was his chance to boost numbers to get rid of Randy. He emptied the cache files on the computers so the users wouldn't know what he had done. When the users asked what had happened to their caches, (Miller) admitted to what he did. He was reprimanded and docked in pay for several days, but was not suspended or fired."

"Rex told me that his son called him that same day and admitted that he did a stupid thing. He said he was sorry. Joe was 'never in danger of being fired at any time,' Rex said," Rostad wrote in the e-mail.

Rostad told the Daily News in an interview that the e-mail is "pretty self-explanatory and I would really urge you to get ahold of the Miller campaign and talk directly to them."

It was a stupid thing to do. I'm glad that it's part of the public record, and voters can take it into account when they go to the polls.

Here are some other accounts and allegations of people using government computers for unauthorized purposes relating to campaigns, some on the clock, some accessing files for illegitimate and privacy-violating purposes. When the wheel turns, we will see where the most vocal critics of Joe Miller stand.

Mind you, if the rule was one vote per individual, and he accessed those various computers to skew the vote, though no worse in that respect than Chris Bowers' plan to Google bomb negative pieces on opponents, then I think he really has disqualified himself as a candidate. Waiting for clarification.

Memories from Massachusetts' Attorney General.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

Website - More Posts

Russ Feingold, Bought and Paid For with Sorosgeld [UPDATED x4]

Hey, who needs JournoList? The usual suspects are all down with the meme that Secret Donors are corrupting the political process and responsible for the enormous wave of indignation that's about to come crashing down on the Proggies.

Never mind that Democrats are receiving more foreign cash.

Never mind that Obama's election campaign was taking unverifiable donations hand over fist.

Never mind the McCarthyism of the claims against the eeeeeevil and scary US Chamber of Commerce.

Never mind that the DoJ has dragged its feet on the disenfranchisement of military voters in Illinois, New York, and possibly elsewhere, or that it seems to think it's legitimate for Latin American nations to join as plaintiffs in a lawsuit against a state that has national security and constitutional implications.

You'll find a perfect, fact-free expression of the meme in Salon writer Dan Gillmor's atrocity from earlier today:

It's beginning to penetrate the public consciousness that the 2010 elections are being purchased, mostly for Republicans, by a shadowy group of wealthy cowards. These anonymous buyers are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into attack ads, mostly against Democrats, via organizations that launder their money into an increasingly corrupt political system.

There's not much anyone can do about it during this election cycle. The response time of the people being attacked has been slow, at best, while journalists have been in typical form, discovering the problem too late to matter. The campaign season is essentially over, and what was plainly going to be a big Republican gain could well become a rout, no small thanks to the opinion launderers and their paymasters.

But unless we want our nation to be entirely governed by puppets, on strings wielded by people who stay entirely in the shadows, we'll need to find a way to put a hard stop to this -- or force the anonymous cowards into the open where we can learn who's doing the manipulating.

Salon's also got another piece up, reinforcing this face-saving mendacity, but speckled with at least some facts.

Nothing about Harry Reid's dirty milk deal.

And it's funny how takers of the Sorosgeld, like J-Street and others, seem reluctant to admit it, as though they were embarrassed.

Remember the WaPo's plans for a series of access "salons" (not the same as the online rag)?

Compare those piles of insinuation, though, to Jeffrey Lord's well-researched expose on Russ Feingold, Soros, the WaPo and a Bush judicial nominee. Read it. Understand it.

And then tell Joan Walsh's gaggle of shills where to put it.

UPDATE: WaPo partially redeems itself with this.

The U.S. Chamber says it receives about $100,000 from its affiliates abroad (out of an operating budget of about $200 million), none of it used for political campaigns. Compare that to one of the largest labor unions in America, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which is spending lavishly to elect Democrats. The SEIU claims 100,000 members in Canada. According to SEIU's 2008 constitution, dues include $7.65 per month per member that must be sent to the SEIU International in the United States. This means that the SEIU takes in nearly $9.2 million per year from foreign nationals -- almost 10 times the amount the Chamber receives from its affiliates abroad.

I mean it's just so . . . "stupidly." Axelrod is gone, gone, gone after Nov. 3.

RE-UPDATE: Soros funding 100 NPR political reporters for the election.

RE-RE-UPDATE: Obama, whose wife was last seen violating the law at a Chicago polling place (of which, despite being a genius lawyer and daughter of a precinct captain, she was unaware), is now letting the SEIU know that he's okay with their violation of FEC regulations.
Broward County, FL corruption machine breaking down.

RE-RE-RE-UPDATE: Davids Medienkritik smashes Der Spiegel regurgitation of all the excuses.

Article summary: Obama is not a bad president, BUT:

* Expectations were too high
* "The Haters" - Obama's evil, irrational, white, hate-monger, gun-nut, tea party opponents - are too loud and have instilled too much fear
* The media is dominated by Fox News and other (rational and unbiased) media (such as MSNBC and the New York Times) are ignored by the gun-nuts in middle America
* Health reform did not go far enough
* Obama could have re-educated Americans in other policy areas, but ran out of political capital
* Americans oppose expansion of government - even though they expect things from government - (which automatically means they oppose ALL government and have no right to ever expect anything from their government)

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

Website - More Posts

Mea Maxima Culpa, and What Is & Isn’t Charting in MSM & Online

Yesterday, I posted video of Auntie Z talking about how the United States, as a Christian nation, owes her and other illegal aliens citizenship and benefits. As Sean M. noted in comments, this is the same video that came out before. For some reason, it struck me as different and more horrible than before.

Unfortunately, Maetenloch picked it up for his overnight thread at Ace's, whereupon it was linked in Larwyn's Links at Doug Ross's place. My apologies to all.

Larwyn's Links also featured Michelle Malkin's piece yesterday on the insane deal spun by Dick Blumenthal on behalf of Mozilo and his cronies. However, if you go to Memeorandum, you'll find that the story's not there. Instead, the biggest item of the day was a douchebag who wanted to get an answer from Joe Miller, and followed him into the bathroom, getting handcuffed by rent-a-cops when, according to one version of the story, he pushed someone in his zeal. As William Jacobson notes, the press (and Memeorandum and Salon, I might add) is nowhere on the story of Maurice Hinchey getting physical with a reporter who tried to question him on how he was personally benefiting from earmarks he'd secured for a property that he owns in part.

Other stories not getting any traction include charges that a foreclosure mill incentivized fraud by offering fabulous prizes to the people fabricating their paperwork for them, and the video of a Somali citizen of Norway dancing on the altar of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, one of the most beautiful and historic churches in Florence, which many regard as the most beautiful Italian city. Nor have the allegations of Kinsey Institute pay-for-molestation and rape practices.

Bob Owens has some words for Gerald.

Ruby Slippers discusses ObamaFail with Kaus.

More important than any of those things, though, is this post from Cara Ellison of the Enron Blog. If any of you is friends with her, please give her a call. I've tweeted, but it's sad that it's been there all night and nobody's commented.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

Website - More Posts

Obama’s Auntie Zeituni Expresses More Charming Opinions

Gratitude:

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

Website - More Posts

Countrywide and Dirty Dick Blumenthal

Michelle on the settlement, with lots of good links that you'll have to go over there to see:

Thanks to bailed out Bank of America, taxpayers are on the hook for $50 million: “Both of the restitution payments — $45 million from Mozilo and $5 million from Sambol — will be paid on their behalf by Bank of America, which bought Countrywide after its 2008 collapse over junk assets.”

Connecticut GOP Senate candidate Linda McMahon, citing a Nation investigative report on the smelly deal, is zeroing in on Democrat CT Attorney General Dick Blumenthal’s role in abetting the Democrat culture of corruption:

The McMahon campaign is slamming Blumenthal not only for helping put together a settlement that Bank of America has been able to evade in spirit, if not as a matter of law, but also because he continued to defend the settlement as the best recourse for homeowners, even after complaints emerged and other attorneys general had stopped boasting about the deal.

******

While Obama travels the country tarring the GOP as the party of the rich, he’s had precious little to say about fat cat Mozilo’s slap on the wrist and the Democrat beneficiaries of Mozilo’s largesse — from Dodd and Conrad to Jim Johnson and scores of Fannie Mae employees.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

Website - More Posts

James Ready Is Heckle . . .

so I guess that makes Barney Jeckle:

NTTAWWT.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

Website - More Posts

Be The Wave: Joe DioGuardi

Just got off the phone with Joe DioGuardi, who explained the so-called SEC allegations kerfuffle. I say so-called, because it isn't even the SEC who's made those allegations, and it wasn't federal regulators, as touted in the story. After the election, I'll elaborate, but for now, he's my candidate in Be The Wave.

At this point, the only thing we can do for DioGuardi is to help him raise funds. He needs money to air his ads in NYC. If he can get 35% of the vote there, he will carry the election, since he's got a solid lead upstate.

What I got was a call from a smart, articulate candidate who won't talk down to voters. He's someone who's particularly interested in preventing the hospital closures that would attend the implementation of ObamaCare.

It's clear that the Senate could use a CPA in its ranks. It would be a very sad thing, of course, for Reid and his buddies to lose The Hottest Senator, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Go to his site to get the details and to contribute.

Also, his daughter (really!) Kara is hawt, and a bit of a musician.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

Website - More Posts

Damned Dirty Apes!

BJ's awesome surgical scar suggests tinkering by the Riddler:

You can get information as it becomes available at his daughter's site.

God bless you, brother.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

Website - More Posts