Veep Hunting

I highly recommend MSNBC's Veepstakes. It's like March Madness, but far more worth your time. It's fun to watch, because it's a way to see what people think. Chuck Todd got all the people together and the obscure people have lost, the tv-friendly people are winning.

Currently, the Republican contest is in its final round: Mitt Romney v. Colin Powell. Really? Either the Republicans that use this site are idiots, moderates, or Democrats are looking at it, voting, and then going "this is exactly what we want to see! The odds on favorite in the halls of Congress are Mitt Romney or Bobby Jindal. Colin Powell will never work because his trustworthiness has so faltered that it's just not worth it. Anyway, Powell still has a shot at being made Obama's Secretary of Defense....

Mitt Romney, though, would help. He's got loads of cash and is an excellent manager. He's also young enough to, you know, lead when/if McCain keels over behind the Resolute Desk. I like the fight though, and right now Barack is so far ahead that don't you just sort of feel "blah" about the election? Like we should just go ahead and give Barack his eight years to put us back together? This is why I'd love to see Bobby Jindal become the Republican Veep. Think about it, he's young-younger than Barack. He's a minority, a Catholic, and as a member of the House and Southern Governor has shown he can work past the racist tendencies of people. He's lively and has vigor. Jindal doesn't have Romney's money though and this race will come down to money-they all do.

As for the Democrat, geez, it's down to Hillary, Wes Clark, Evan Bayh, John Edwards, Mike Bloomberg, Joe Biden, Kathleen Sebelius, and Sam Nunn. Sheesh, it's difficult to know where to start. There is already a Obama/Bayh website. So someone is really hoping for something. During the primary I qorked with the John Edwards campaign, with tendencies towards Dennis Kucinich's beliefs and use of language.

I was out not long ago with a few staffer friends and the talk had a lot to do with Jim Webb, there was much agreement that if he left the Senate to be Vice President that it would cause such issue within the Senate that it would be a generally bad thing for the country. Bayh is so boring that it's a bit amazing that anyone has mentioned him at all or that we don't get daily updates on his heart rate. He's quiet and unassuming, that's not going to help once the Veep debates come around.

Who do I want? Russ Feingold. We need first and foremost to move beyond what this current administration has given us. And while I love Barack, I want someone in the executive branch who can say they were there in 2001, and that they saw through the lies and "man-behind-the-curtain" tactics of the Bush Administration. He voted against the PATRIOT Act. He voted against the resolution to allow force in Iraq. Feingold has shown clear and nuanced leadership when no other (or few) Democrats had the courage. I have no doubt that Feingold could stand against any Republican VP in debates.

Who will it most likely be? Webb. There's a lot of support for him in the popular arena. He speaks well and can boost the credentials of the Democratic Party when it comes to war and the military.

Anyway, the cabinet is being set. Edwards is in there, so is Richardson, Clark is setting himself up for SecDef. Clinton's war debt will go away and she'll be a Johnson-like leader of the Senate or else Gov. of New York.

Imagine though, how cool would it be to see a debate between Russ Feingold and Bobby Jindal? If you love politics than you'll understand. If not, and if you still think I'm some type of closet Republican, then so be it.

20 hours in America

Excuse the absence. I've been handling job things. The problem with D.C. is that there are always events to attend and people to talk with.

I wanted to talk about some things I overheard about the Veepstakes, but there's been an eruption on our already scheduled broadcast. Teh Harbinger, I believe, has called me disreputable! I shall email the writer of the article, of the online blog that seems to fancy itself as a Huffington Post for the...less in-the-know. But more importantly, what I believed would happen has happened. When I discussed Sam, I discussed his father's ideas. I chose not to talk about the Hathihe Ramallah newsletter (get the link from Teh Harbinger), because Allen had already stated it. It was out there. It is still out there.

Hank Bostwick, is the creator of Teh Huffinger (this it shall stay). He's an English teacher at Patrick Henry High school. This in and of itself doesn't mean anything, but follow along. As a "journalist" he is supposed to do what is considered fact-checking exchanges. For him, it seemed honest enough to take Janice Allen's words for truth-that she found information and wanted it out there. And the truth is, it is still out there in pdf form and has not been changed. Mr. Bostwick chose not to continue the fact check by contacting the newsletter to see if these statements could be backed up by audio or video tape or at least other people who witnessed the talk.

This is the importance of vetting candidates. The easiest way to vet a candidate would be to google their name and see where that takes you. Meeting a person and talking to them does not count as vetting, you have to know everything about them: The 6th district Democrats obviously did not do this. Googling does get you to his words in the newsletter. He has said to Mr. Bostwick that he didn't say them, but what proof do we have other than that? Rasoul is given the benefit of the doubt, Allen will "say almost anything...." Why isn't she given the benefit of the doubt, how would she know that the words were false?

This brings me to where we have to question Sam's, and Teh Huffinger's culpability in allowing falsehoods to exist. It is claimed in the same article, that Rasoul has teamed up with Jewish-American peace activist Joel Segal. Again, Raoul seems to be playing a shell game. The two have created an organization (born a blog) called: The Interfaith Solidarity Committee for Peace in Israel and Palestine. They call for a two state solution and the joining together of all faiths. But wait, there's a problem.

Other than being Jewish and Rasoul being Palestinian, do either of them have anything to do with peace negotiations currently underway in the regions? Nope. According to Segal's bio on Progressive Democrats of America, he is listed as being: "a senior legislative assistant covering Social Security, veterans affairs, housing, HIV/AIDS in Africa, and poverty issues for Rep. John Conyers." Also, he is "an activist for universal health care, affordable housing, and environmental and public health." And finally, he "is the grassroots coordinator for the new Incarceration & Sentencing Policy Caucus." Also, created the Free China Movement-a group that seeks peace and democracy in China.

Where exactly should I start? Segal has no experience in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. He knows a lot about domestic issues and he's got this random Free China thing-that just sounds like imperialism.... If Sam was serious, why not team up with a group that is more serious? There are a lot of groups in the Directory of Israeli and Palestinian...Links and Resources. There are serious groups out there, do we expect two neophytes to somehow make it all better? And anyway, Segal is a leader of a PAC-are we not against those? If not, then the Dems in the Valley need to stop screaming about where Goodlatte gets 43% of his funds-and you all better get use to growing Sugar!

It has now become obvious that Sam wasn't vetted. He's not strong enough to do this and it makes me sad. Daily it becomes more and more obvious. Goodlatte will be sitting in a chair tomorrow keeping it warm for himself.

Allen is an idiot for not fact checking and making sure what she found was correct. I have no doubt that since he did admit to speaking at the function, at a group that dislikes Israel, and calls for recognizing Palestine that he must feel some type of sympathy towards them. It would be like claiming that David Duke had no sympathies to the Iranians when he spoke at their conference. (And don't get angry that I sent you to David Duke's website).

This is all a mess, and Goodlatte and his staff are laughing. Why? Because the real issues, which I've already discussed, are being ignored because two knuckle heads-one supposedly vetted and the other a bored boomer can't stop fighting with each other.

Get back on message.

Allen update since last evening...

Donna has been so kind to find this. Teh Harbinger has found much more info on her by directly talking with her through emails, including where her PhD is from; some evangelical degree mill. But what of the MBA, Harvard? Yale? Billy Bob Joe's College of Buisness?
The wheels are turning, and as I said, was only a matter of time before she presented herself as a racist. Sam being a Muslim has nothing to do with the race if his policies make sense (which they don't, but that's besides the point).

In Excelsis Deo

So, she's got that distant "I'm already a leader" stare down coooold. And she's a "god person" as others have called her. She's a self-professed theologian, who won't say where she got her degrees...except for here, the Source Watch Wiki. We get more info, a masters from Virginia Tech. But we don't know where she got her MBA or theology degrees-so much for transparency in government and the officials in government.

Most people would say I've given a third party candidate too much time, but we must examine all the examples. And anyway teh (sic) Star City Harbinger has given her props for having the most vocal supporters. With support that's willing to sound like loons, you have to take it seriously. Why? You provincials may ask.... Because at one point Hitler was an insignificant member of the lunatic fringe. You have to examine the small threat to reality before they place their reality upon us.

Examine her support: They are xenophobic, as the Harbinger suggests. And the Harbinger is an apt name for the only news organization that covered this as it was. Other newspapers have ran this stuff without question. The Harbinger, while relatively new, is showing itself to be efficient in its insight. At the same time, she has received the support of the Independent Greens of Virginia. One can only wonder why. Allen's issues mention nothing about transportation, mass transit, or trains. Is it just that the Greens want to support someone? One has to imagine that somewhere in between the environment and the racism there has to be the National Socialists or anarchists; somebody or something that ties it all together. She's stated that she'd drill in ANWR and we can assume off shore.

To not say completely bad things about those who try, her website is better than Rasoul's.

Here's why she's doing better (and will do better) than Rasoul unless things change. She's trying. Just the exact right amount. Rasoul is out there, but he hasn't made a point of asserting his dominance over issues. His videos show a 20-something with very little speaking experience and who diddles around with words (and a camera person who knows nothing abotu audio or camera angle). Many congresspersons are bad at speaking (believe me), but to beat Goodlatte it will require the type of speaker that motivates complacent people to do something; vote. Rasoul has only a small facebook, etc following. Of course, Allen has none.

But Allen isn't counting on young people, and there aren't enough young people in the district to carry Rasoul over the finish line (one of the ways our man Obama hopes to win). There are a lot of old complacent people tucked into their houses and ancestral areas of the district. People have been commenting, there are new people moving to the area (The Harbinger made that clear), but there are a lot of old people who remember segregation, who supported segregation, and who still use one of the two "n words" to refer to Black people. These are Allen and Goodlatte's supporters. In a perfect world, Rasoul would be able to pull off a Woodrow Wilson, 1912 win. But there are too many people not supportive of Rasoul, the statistics never lie. Goodlatte will win a plurality unless Rasoul can come out and be vocal and effective.

Allen has to be soundly silenced too. We already have too many Virgil Goode's in the halls of Congress and it's only a matter of time before we hear Allen and her supporters shouting about Palestine, Islam, and what happens if, as McCain is hoping, there's another terrorist attack?

Close your eyes and think of England

He wants us to know he's an "Amurrrican". In case we did not know that, there's the good ol' stars an' stripes behind him. The biggest problem I've heard that the Democrats have with Sam is that he'll sell anything-any idea-to get ahead. From what I've seen and read, I think he'd gladly stand behind the Stars and Bars if it got him enough votes to get elected. He hasn't yet proven that he won't-after all he did, as I mentioned earlier, buy gasoline for people-perhaps annoying, possibly illegal. Either way, this case, specificly, makes him not the right type of candidate for federal office...yet.

He opened himself up way too much. There was no point to provide any reason for Bob Goodlatte, Janice Lee Allen, the FEC, the Republican Attorney General, or the U.S. District Attorney to look into him. To win in the 6th district should be easy.

1) Make Bob Goodlatte look like a Bush neo-con... (hint, scroll down and see the patriot act votes)
2) Show all the stuff he's done wrong (see 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7)
3) Get all the Republicans together who are active and angry because Goodlatte promised a term limit.
4) Make it widely and loudly known that Bob Goodlatte voted against clean water, specifically protecting and conserving it.
5) Goodlatte sits on the House Judiciary Committee-he voted, and stumped, in favor of illegal wiretapping, the Patriot Act, and others.
6) Connected to number 5, Goodlatte sat on the subcommittee for Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. From 2003 to 2005. He sat there with all the data available on illegal wiretapping and other horrible terrorism information as it happened.
7) His largest contribution is 10,000 dollars from American Crystal Sugar. I've been away for awhile, but did the district start raising sugar cane (punny raisingkane reference)?

See, a good politician could easily beat Goodlatte on the issues. Instead, Rasoul is busy with his own agenda.

Here's some open-source research. Sam Rasoul's father (who one, supposed, Rasoul Campaign Supporter compared (inadvertently) with Osama) is a writer. He's educated, and as far as I know, and has always been a good American. But, in his book The Naked Truth, he describes how the ATF charged his family members with felonies. I searched the names and found out that Rasoul's cousins and uncle were represented by...wait for it...Goodlatte's law firm. Is it possible, at least in rumors around my office, that Rasoul may be running a weak campaign to secure Goodlatte (a weak candidate) the election?

Democrats should really just close their eyes, pull the leaver, and think of England.

Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc

A lot has been going on in the sixth district, most due to the new faces in the Congressional Race. There's Sam Rasoul-whose birth name is Salam. And then there is Janice Lee Allen-who use to be married and used to go by the last name of Boyd.

From what I gather from their websites, newspaper interviews, and other media (such as blogs and youtube), they are acting like normal candidates in a campaign. Each have done irritating, if not illegal, things. Sam doesn't refer to Israel as Israel, but as Palestine (annoying). Allen is self-funded (apparently), with nothing reported to the FEC (maybe illegal). Sam paid for constituents' gas (maybe illegal). And Allen has groups of supporters (I have a feeling some of these may be Goodlatte's people) running around making the ever so slightly racist comments (annoying).

Either way, in all of this Bob Goodlatte, the sitting Republican has been quiet, gaining money to plaster his name across the air-waves this Fall. As the trees turn, so will the billboards and lawn signs to GOODLATTE FOR CONGRESS.

The point to be made here is that these two challengers, Rasoul, the Democrat, and Allen, the independent, are being normal candidates and must be looked at on merit. Hey, that'd be a good two-part analysis for you people.

Next time.