ODP Watch

Wilson's Folly

2009-09-11T22:23:00.006-04:00

So after apologizing to President Obama after his outburst in the House of Representatives it turns out that Joe Wilson is defiant and crowing that he will not be silenced, that he has the right to speak, etc etc. His bloviating can be found on his website which we won't publish here for fear of promoting the wrong kind of politician. He was all over Fox News yesterday and today with fawning right-wing hosts like Sean Hannity telling him that he is "right" on the illegal alien issue of the health care bill. Notice the bait and switch? Notice how the fascists have re-framed the issue? All of a sudden Congressman Wilson is "right" for speaking his mind and fighting Obama's health care plan. But this was never the question. The question should be... what will it take for you to shut the hell up when the President is speaking Congressman Wilson? Didn't anyone tell you that you can't do that in the well of the House? Were you "right" to heckle the President? Ahhhh yes, maybe not. But you were "right" about the illegal alien issue. Keep changing the subject Wilson, we'll pretend we didn't notice. Oh, and shut the hell up when the President is speaking if you know what's good for you. Enjoy your upcoming censure.

Look Ma! No hands!

2008-10-03T08:44:00.002-04:00

To the casual observer it would seem that Sarah Palin did quite well at last night's debate. And she did exceed expectations which isn't saying much as the bar had been lowered to the point that even a seventh grader could pass muster. All she did was stick to a few key talking points and mention the word maverick as many times as possible. All she had to do from there is not fall on her face or get a case of the runs. In Biden's case, he showed a mastery of the issues that few in Washington can equal. But he was facing a star, a phenonmenon, and watching the two of them was an illustration of their stark contrasts. Biden understand the issues on a deep level while Palin relies on talking points. But talking points don't equate with knowledge and repeating the same boilerplate doesn't mean one has a grasp of the issues.

Towards the end of the debate when she saw the finish line Palin even took time to wink at the audience like the child who just learned to ride a bike and is showing off for Mom and Dad. Careful girl, there are bumps ahead.

The Free Speech Zone

2008-09-02T09:10:00.004-04:00

We made fun of the Chinese during the Olympics for setting up a park in the city where protest would be allowed if one signed up and got proper clearances. When two elderly women signed up they were arrested and sentenced to hard labor for daring to want to protest. Yeah, we had a good laugh at those clueless Chinese dictators, right? Thank God it could never happen here. But it is happening right here, right now, and it's not even front page news nor will it show up on the nightly news. Read Glenn Greenwald's story about the pre-emptive arrest of protesters in St. Paul, Minnesota here. Evidently, it's now illegal to protest. Someone needs to tell the conservatives that protest isn't really protest if it's removed from the gaze of the powerful.

These same neo-con fascists will constantly boast about "freedom" but deep down they really don't believe it. The Bill Of Rights? A quaint but obsolete document. They'll always cite "freedom of speech" as a great American value but really wish all protest would just go away. You see, it angers conservatives when they actually have to look at people who disagree with them. They'll say "of course you have the RIGHT to protest!" ... as long as you take that protest to where nobody in power can actually see it. Siberia maybe? Or perhaps what the GOP set up during the 2004 convention... a "free speech zone". Just like China.

Ann Coulter must be jubilant

2008-07-29T10:48:00.004-04:00

Finally someone is doing exactly what Ann Coulter has been advocating all along, that liberals need to be exterminated...

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- A man accused of fatally shooting two adults and wounding seven others at a Knoxville church told police the church's liberal teachings prompted him to attack, according to court papers.
Jim Adkisson said liberals should be killed because they're ruining the nation, according to an affidavit.

During a search of Adkisson's home, investigators confiscated a handgun, a sawed-off shotgun barrel and books by conservative commentators, authorities said.

Full story here.

President McCain

2008-02-10T10:09:00.000-05:00

Get used to hearing it Democrats. President McCain. Has a nice ring to it, right? Get. Used. To. It. We as Democrats have a wealth of riches these days. It looks like we'll add to our majorities in both houses of Congress, President Bush looks more like an aging chimpanzee every day and our Presidential candidates include an African-American and a woman who just might have a shot at winning the White House. But their highly partisan campaigns look like they'll derail any chance at winning in November. Partisan Democrats wedded to either candidate are threatening to not pull the lever for the Democrat they are currently supporting, so vast is their allegiance to their particular favorite. They would actually prefer to spend a week in the fetal position after the election wondering how it came to pass that the GOP has prevailed yet again. And all because your candidate didn't win and now you're throwing a hissy fit. Nice going. But by all means let's continue doing opposition research on fellow Democrats so we can help the RepubliKKKans in November. Way to go Democrats, you sure know how to lose an election. Of course, there's still time to wake up and combine their assets. But will their egos allow this to happen? We're not holding our breath.

Does Romney really support "The Surge"?

2007-08-08T20:50:00.000-04:00

He says he does. The rhetoric is always the same..."support the troops"...blah blah...my sons don't enlist because they show support for the country "by helping me get elected"...blah blah blah. Does anyone take the GOP chickenhawks seriously when they don't insist on their own flesh and blood fighting in wars of their own creation?

You may want to read Five Brothers as Romney's sons tell us to support our troops by supporting "The Surge". However, Romney himself explains his son's reluctance to serve in this debacle by saying that they support the country by helping him get elected President. Read it here for yourselves. If a chickenhawk clucks in the forest does it make a sound? Hmmm...

Just for the record we left a comment on this topic for the Five Brothers that went thusly..." Don't you think this "surge" would work better if the able-bodied supporters of this travesty (like yourselves) signed up to fight in it? Or is that only for other people's kids? Right wingers hate commentary that cuts too close to the truth so don't expect them to print our critique. But stay tuned anyway, it should be fun to watch. BAWK!

Yes Keith, he (they) should

2007-07-03T21:54:00.000-04:00

Keith Olbermann is probably the most courageous journalist of our time. Tonight's commentary on his Countdown with Keith Olbermann HERE speaks for itself. Bravo Keith.

Romney's Folly

2007-05-30T15:54:00.001-04:00

We couldn't help but notice Mitt Romney stating on Jay Leno's show three weeks ago that "Americans want a person of faith" to occupy the Presidency. This is code for "Vote for me because I'm the same religion as you". *nudge, nudge*. And by elimination he excludes anyone who doesn't which is a subtle way of undermining the Constitution when it says "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

What Romney is doing here is basically giving the finger to Article VI of the Constitution. Nice going. Yet still Christians cry foul whenever non-believers attempt to level the playing field. If you have any doubt about this please try to remember that there are still laws in seven states that prohibit anyone from holding high public office if they don't believe in God. And also remember that President Bush is a bona-fide Jesus guy. We've got so much Jesus in the Oval Office it's coming out of our ears. And what has it done for us? It's given us a war without end in Iraq, a trillion dollars in debt and our reputation is in tatters. And all because Bush doesn't listen to his father, he listens to his "higher Father". We've had enough "faith" in the White House to last a lifetime. Maybe it's time for rational thinking and a modern perspective?

And just for laughs, check out Tom Tomorrow's latest cartoon HERE. We think it's one of his best ever.

Watch Bill Moyer's "Buying The War online

2007-04-27T09:18:00.000-04:00

In case you missed Bill Moyer's Journal the other night you can still see it online. See "Buying The War" HERE Go to the top of the page and click the "Watch Video" link. There is also a transcript available.

Bill Moyers, George McGovern, Lee Iacocca come to the rescue. The Greatest Generation bails out the Boomers once again...

2007-04-25T10:39:00.000-04:00

As promised we here at ODP Watch wanted to keep you abreast of the latest and more provocative of Bill Moyer's offerings which will be seen tonight at 9:00 PM on most PBS stations nationwide.

Record of Iraq War Lies to Air April 25 on PBS

By David Swanson

Bill Moyers has put together an amazing 90-minute video documenting the lies that the Bush administration told to sell the Iraq War to the American public, with a special focus on how the media led the charge. I've watched an advance copy and read a transcript, and the most important thing I can say about it is: Watch PBS from 9 to 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 25. Spending that 90 minutes on this will actually save you time, because you'll never watch television news again – not even on PBS, which comes in for its share of criticism.

While a great many pundits, not to mention presidents, look remarkably stupid or dishonest in the four-year-old clips included in "Buying the War," it's hard to take any spiteful pleasure in holding them to account, and not just because the killing and dying they facilitated is ongoing, but also because of what this video reveals about the mindset of members of the DC media. Moyers interviews media personalities, including Dan Rather, who clearly both understand what the media did wrong and are unable to really see it as having been wrong or avoidable.

Full story HERE.

Now we have Lee Iacocca taking on the Bush administration as well...

Excerpt: Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
By Lee Iacocca with Catherine Whitney

Had Enough? Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course." Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out! You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies.Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for.

I've had enough. How about you? I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have. My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to, as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us. Who Are These Guys, Anyway? Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them, or at least some of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy. And don't tell me it's all the fault of right-wing Republicans or liberal Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument, and it's part of the reason we're in this stew. We're not just a nation of factions. We're a people. We share common principles and ideals. And we rise and fall together.

Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and make us stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute party of Lincoln? What happened to the courageous, populist party of FDR and Truman? There was a time in this country when the voices of great leaders lifted us up and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?

The Test of a Leader
I've never been Commander in Chief, but I've been a CEO. I understand a few things about leadership at the top. I've figured out nine points, not ten (I don't want people accusing me of thinking I'm Moses). I call them the "Nine Cs of Leadership." They're not fancy or complicated. Just clear, obvious qualities that every true leader should have. We should look at how the current administration stacks up. Like it or not, this crew is going to be around until January 2009. Maybe we can learn something before we go to the polls in 2008. Then let's be sure we use the leadership test to screen the candidates who say they want to run the country. It's up to us to choose wisely.

So, here's my C list:

A leader has to show CURIOSITY. He has to listen to people outside of the "Yes, sir" crowd in his inner circle. He has to read voraciously, because the world is a big, complicated place. George W. Bush brags about never reading a newspaper. "I just scan the headlines," he says. Am I hearing this right? He's the President of the United States and he never reads a newspaper? Thomas Jefferson once said, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter." Bush disagrees. As long as he gets his daily hour in the gym, with Fox News piped through the sound system, he's ready to go.

If a leader never steps outside his comfort zone to hear different ideas, he grows stale. If he doesn't put his beliefs to the test, how does he know he's right? The inability to listen is a form of arrogance. It means either you think you already know it all, or you just don't care. Before the 2006 election, George Bush made a big point of saying he didn't listen to the polls. Yeah, that's what they all say when the polls stink. But maybe he should have listened, because 70 percent of the people were saying he was on the wrong track. It took a "thumping" on election day to wake him up, but even then you got the feeling he wasn't listening so much as he was calculating how to do a better job of convincing everyone he was right.

A leader has to be CREATIVE, go out on a limb, be willing to try something different. You know, think outside the box. George Bush prides himself on never changing, even as the world around him is spinning out of control. God forbid someone should accuse him of flip-flopping. There's a disturbingly messianic fervor to his certainty. Senator Joe Biden recalled a conversation he had with Bush a few months after our troops marched into Baghdad. Joe was in the Oval Office outlining his concerns to the President, the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanded Iraqi army, the problems securing the oil fields. "The President was serene," Joe recalled. "He told me he was sure that we were on the right course and that all would be well. 'Mr. President,' I finally said, 'how can you be so sure when you don't yet know all the facts?'" Bush then reached over and put a steadying hand on Joe's shoulder. "My instincts," he said. "My instincts." Joe was flabbergasted. He told Bush,"Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough." Joe Biden sure didn't think the matter was settled. And, as we all know now, it wasn't. Leadership is all about managing change, whether you're leading a company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You adapt. Maybe Bush was absent the day they covered that at Harvard Business School.

A leader has to COMMUNICATE. I'm not talking about running off at the mouth or spouting sound bites. I'm talking about facing reality and telling the truth. Nobody in the current administration seems to know how to talk straight anymore. Instead, they spend most of their time trying to convince us that things are not really as bad as they seem. I don't know if it's denial or dishonesty, but it can start to drive you crazy after a while. Communication has to start with telling the truth, even when it's painful. The war in Iraq has been, among other things, a grand failure of communication. Bush is like the boy who didn't cry wolf when the wolf was at the door. After years of being told that all is well, even as the casualties and chaos mount, we've stopped listening to him.

A leader has to be a person of CHARACTER. That means knowing the difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, "If you want to test a man's character, give him power." George Bush has a lot of power. What does it say about his character? Bush has shown a willingness to take bold action on the world stage because he has the power, but he shows little regard for the grievous consequences. He has sent our troops (not to mention hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens) to their deaths. For what? To build our oil reserves? To avenge his daddy because Saddam Hussein once tried to have him killed? To show his daddy he's tougher? The motivations behind the war in Iraq are questionable, and the execution of the war has been a disaster. A man of character does not ask a single soldier to die for a failed policy.

A leader must have COURAGE. I'm talking about balls. (That even goes for female leaders.) Swagger isn't courage. Tough talk isn't courage. George Bush comes from a blue-blooded Connecticut family, but he likes to talk like a cowboy. You know, My gun is bigger than your gun. Courage in the twenty-first century doesn't mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk.

If you're a politician, courage means taking a position even when you know it will cost you votes. Bush can't even make a public appearance unless the audience has been handpicked and sanitized. He did a series of so-called town hall meetings last year, in auditoriums packed with his most devoted fans. The questions were all softballs.

To be a leader you've got to have CONVICTION, a fire in your belly. You've got to have passion. You've got to really want to get something done. How do you measure fire in the belly? Bush has set the all-time record for number of vacation days taken by a U.S. President, four hundred and counting. He'd rather clear brush on his ranch than immerse himself in the business of governing. He even told an interviewer that the high point of his presidency so far was catching a seven-and-a-half-pound perch in his hand-stocked lake. It's no better on Capitol Hill. Congress was in session only ninety-seven days in 2006. That's eleven days less than the record set in 1948, when President Harry Truman coined the term do-nothing Congress. Most people would expect to be fired if they worked so little and had nothing to show for it. But Congress managed to find the time to vote itself a raise. Now, that's not leadership.

A leader should have CHARISMA. I'm not talking about being flashy. Charisma is the quality that makes people want to follow you. It's the ability to inspire. People follow a leader because they trust him. That's my definition of charisma. Maybe George Bush is a great guy to hang out with at a barbecue or a ball game. But put him at a global summit where the future of our planet is at stake, and he doesn't look very presidential. Those frat-boy pranks and the kidding around he enjoys so much don't go over that well with world leaders. Just ask German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who received an unwelcome shoulder massage from our President at a G-8 Summit. When he came up behind her and started squeezing, I thought she was going to go right through the roof.

A leader has to be COMPETENT. That seems obvious, doesn't it? You've got to know what you're doing. More important than that, you've got to surround yourself with people who know what they're doing. Bush brags about being our first MBA President. Does that make him competent? Well, let's see. Thanks to our first MBA President, we've got the largest deficit in history, Social Security is on life support, and we've run up a half-a-trillion-dollar price tag (so far) in Iraq. And that's just for starters. A leader has to be a problem solver, and the biggest problems we face as a nation seem to be on the back burner.

You can't be a leader if you don't have COMMON SENSE. I call this Charlie Beacham's rule. When I was a young guy just starting out in the car business, one of my first jobs was as Ford's zone manager in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. My boss was a guy named Charlie Beacham, who was the East Coast regional manager. Charlie was a big Southerner, with a warm drawl, a huge smile, and a core of steel. Charlie used to tell me, "Remember, Lee, the only thing you've got going for you as a human being is your ability to reason and your common sense. If you don't know a dip of horsesh[i!1l]t from a dip of vanilla ice cream, you'll never make it." George Bush doesn't have common sense. He just has a lot of sound bites. You know, Mr.they'll-welcome-us-as-liberators-no-child-left-behind-heck-of-a-job-Brownie-mission-accomplished Bush. Former President Bill Clinton once said, "I grew up in an alcoholic home. I spent half my childhood trying to get into the reality-based world, and I like it here." I think our current President should visit the real world once in a while.

The Biggest C is Crisis Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down. On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty minutes with a baffled look on his face. It's all on tape. You can see it for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn't safe to return to the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day, and he told Vice President dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker. We were all frozen in front of our TVs, scared out of our wits, waiting for our leaders to tell us that we were going to be okay, and there was nobody home. It took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right photo op at Ground Zero. That was George Bush's moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did he do when he'd regained his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq, a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was President. But Bush didn't listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides himself on being faith based, not reality based. If that doesn't scare the crap out of you,I don't know what will.

A Hell of a Mess.
So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership.

But when you look around, you've got to ask: "Where have all the leaders gone?" Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, competence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened. Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you're going to do the next time.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when "the Big Three" referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to do about it? Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.

I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bobblehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change? Had Enough? Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope. I believe in America. In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises, the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's this: You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for people who, like me, believe in America. It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the horsesh[i!1l]t and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had enough

Excerpted from Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
(C) 2007 by Lee Iacocca. All rights reserved.

Now it's George McGovern's turn...

George McGovern: Cheney is wrong about me, wrong about war

The 1972 presidential nominee strikes back at the vice president for comparing today's Democrats to the McGovern platform.

By George S. McGovern, GEORGE S. MCGOVERN, a former U.S. senator from South Dakota, was the Democratic nominee for president in 1972.
April 24, 2007

VICE PRESIDENT Dick Cheney recently attacked my 1972 presidential platform and contended that today's Democratic Party has reverted to the views I advocated in 1972. In a sense, this is a compliment, both to me and the Democratic Party. Cheney intended no such compliment. Instead, he twisted my views and those of my party beyond recognition. The city where the vice president spoke, Chicago, is sometimes dubbed "the Windy City." Cheney converted the chilly wind of Chicago into hot air.

Cheney said that today's Democrats have adopted my platform from the 1972 presidential race and that, in doing so, they will raise taxes. But my platform offered a balanced budget. I proposed nothing new without a carefully defined way of paying for it. By contrast, Cheney and his team have run the national debt to an all-time high.

He also said that the McGovern way is to surrender in Iraq and leave the U.S. exposed to new dangers. The truth is that I oppose the Iraq war, just as I opposed the Vietnam War, because these two conflicts have weakened the U.S. and diminished our standing in the world and our national security.

In the war of my youth, World War II, I volunteered for military service at the age of 19 and flew 35 combat missions, winning the Distinguished Flying Cross as the pilot of a B-24 bomber. By contrast, in the war of his youth, the Vietnam War, Cheney got five deferments and has never seen a day of combat — a record matched by President Bush.

Full story HERE

And then it dawned on us that the fighting words we're hearing are all coming from the WWII generation. McGovern, Iacocca and Moyers are old enough to be our fathers and grandfathers. What are they doing fighting our battles for us now? Because the boomers won't get the job done. John Kerry, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi...the whole lot of them won't do a thing about Bush and Company so it falls to the old guys to come bail us out again. Just like they did during WWII, they are now stepping up to the plate once more. Our generation is just too cowardly to take on the fascists but at least we can thank our lucky stars for fighters like these. Nancy Pelosi took impeachment off the table so now these stalwarts must fill in for the fainthearted. That's pathetic. Well done boys, you have our heartfelt support and gratitude.

Time for Obama to take a stand on abortion

2007-04-22T22:08:00.000-04:00

Did you think they were kidding? The GOP. You know, that fun loving coterie of fascists and authoritarian Bible beaters. The ones who just utilized their right-wing Supreme Court to ban so-called partial-birth abortions. Oh! You thought they were joking all this time? It's been twenty seven years since the Christian Right took over under the first Reagan administration and they made their goals clear right from the starters gate. Of all their goals the most important one would be to overturn Roe v. Wade and now it looks like they're halfway home. Gee, we wonder if the Democrats will now fight instead of trying to appear statesmanlike. Will they stand up for a woman's right to choose? Or will they take a pass? Unfortunately for Barack Obama he's already failed that first test. Seems like he's already passed on the issue. One thing we won't tolerate here at ODP Watch is a Democrat who attempts to be all things to all people. They can either support women's reproductive rights or they can get out. Shame on Obama for not standing up when he could. A tip of the hat to Hillary is 44 for this story...

Obama’s Present To Pro-Choice Opponents

The Supreme Court yesterday returned abortion and the reproductive rights of women back to the center stage of political life with its ban of so-called “partial birth” abortions. It also returned the Supreme Court itself as an issue. For the first time since Roe v. Wade the court rejected the sensible Clinton position – both Clinton’s – of “safe, legal, and rare”. Right-wing Republicans delighted in the decision which will now be used as a major weapon when they move into state legislatures to attempt to make abortions dangerous, illegal and nonexistent – and to hell with the health of a woman. As Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention stated “This decision is a powerful and timely reminder of presidential elections and their pivotal impact on the makeup of the Supreme Court.”

All major Democratic candidates issued clarion calls against the decision including Hillary. She said

“This decision marks a dramatic departure from four decades of Supreme Court rulings that upheld a woman’s right to choose and recognized the importance of women’s health. Today’s decision blatantly defies the Court’s recent decision in 2000 striking down a state partial-birth abortion law because of its failure to provide an exception for the health of the mother. As the Supreme Court recognized in Roe v. Wade in 1973, this issue is complex and highly personal; the rights and lives of women must be taken into account. It is precisely this erosion of our constitutional rights that I warned against when I opposed the nominations of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito.”

Senator Obama also issued a clear denunciation of the decision. However, can he be trusted on this issue?

You see, unlike the U.S. Presidency, the buck does not stop at the Illinois legislature. In the Illinois State legislature a politician who wants to hide from an issue can vote “Present” instead of “Yes” or “No” and thereby avoid responsibility and the inevitable loss of support that comes from actually taking a stand.

In 1997, when it mattered, when he actually had a vote not just a microphone, when the issue of partial birth abortion came before the Illinois State legislature Obama twice gave a “Present” to abortion opponents. On House Bill 382 and Senate Bill 230 – bills that prohibited “partial birth” abortions, Obama took a dive. Like a character from Dr. Suess, Obama did not vote “no,” he did not vote “yes,” he gave a “present”. Obama did not take a stand in 1997. He did not take a stand in 2001. Then House Bill 1900 and Senate Bill 562 – on parental notification, Obama instead of voting “yes” or “no” voted – “present”.

Full story HERE

Shining a spotlight

2007-03-29T22:53:00.000-04:00

Remember Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment? "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican". It served the GOP well for quite a long time with righties always closing ranks in times of chaos and scandal. Give aid and comfort to the ayatollah? No problem, just keep your mouth shut and the problem will eventually go away with the next news cycle. Sort of like waiting for the garbage man or the next high tide.

It's too bad Phil de Vellis didn't learn anything from Ronald Reagan. For not only has Phil spoken ill of fellow Democrats but has gone one step further by giving them up to the GOP when his own candidate got desperate. The result? A complete debacle with the opposite desired effect. His own candidate tarnished and backpedaling while he falls on his sword yet again. It's amazing to us at ODP Watch how often and easily this guy gets caught.

So from here on we will keep an eye on where Phil de Vellis ends up and will report the news to any available media. Maybe then the candidates will get the message that employing ratfuckers to go after fellow Democrats is a really bad idea. You morons do realize that when you go nuclear on a Democrat you essentially give the GOP a playbook on how to win in the general election, right? RIGHT? Unless of course they go after Republicans instead. My, what a novel idea.

Is Phil de Vellis really proud of his creation?

2007-03-23T12:05:00.000-04:00

We all know that politicians will do anything to get elected. In spite of all the high-flying rhetoric about God, values, Peace On Earth, Good Will To Men...not too many of them can resist the itch to play dirty if they think they can get away with it. During last year's primary battle between Sherrod Brown and Paul Hackett it was Phil de Vellis who not only smeared Hackett but then did the unthinkable...he went to the GOP with what he thought was a story about Hackett in the hopes that they'd do his dirty work for him. To whit:

From: Philip de Vellis [mailto:philip@sherrodbrown.com]

Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006
To: (removed on request of recipient)
Subject: FYI - Hackett's Voting History from Plain Dealer

I thought you'd be interested in this clip from the Plain Dealer's new political website:

The Plain Dealer

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Hackett's history

There's no question Paul Hackett is a fresh face and fast-rising star in the Democratic Party. Turns out he's fresher than most.

The tough-talking Iraq War veteran from Cincinnati didn't officially declare himself a "D" until nearly two years ago, a few weeks shy of his 42nd birthday.

Election records in Hamilton County show that Hackett, now campaigning against Rep. Sherrod Brown for his party's U.S. Senate nomination, first picked up a Democratic ballot for the presidential primary between Howard Dean, John Kerry and John Edwards on March 2, 2004.

In two earlier primaries during the 1990s, records show, Hackett had asked for Republican ballots.

Of course when the Brown campaign was confronted with the cold hard evidence of their involvement in all this they screamed "Mea culpa" and promised that the people involved would be jettisoned. Well, that never happened. The truth is, the very politicos that promise to be clean will use these kinds of attacks if they think they can get away with it. That went for Sherrod Brown and it's looking more and more like Barack Obama's modus operandi as well. Obama's lame excuse for de Vellis only prompted groans here at ODP Watch...

"If I have a phone contract with Verizon and an employee of a phone company
does something that you know, we’re not, we’re not responsible for that.”

I mean, your website isn't like your phone system. Blue State Digital,
which was born out of Howard Dean's campaign, isn't like a utility company.
Verizon doesn't have people with titles like "senior strategist."

Over at the Huffington Post de Vellis crowed about how he was proud of his creation. "Hi. I'm Phil. I did it. And I'm proud of it." Really Phil? Are you proud of the fact that you achieved the opposite of your intention with your little commercial? That you've actually managed to make Hillary look like a sympathetic character and that you've left Barack Obama with egg on his face and with plenty of 'splainin' to do? Yeah Phil, by all means be proud of your brainchild. Mission Accomplished buddy! But we here at ODP Watch think this goes deeper, that Phil de Vellis doesn't have the technical expertise to do this all by himself. Others may be involved and if we were betting men we'd put money on it. Could Phil de Vellis be the Scooter Libby of whoever is behind this? Is he just the fall guy? Stay tuned...

The Scum Also Rises

2007-03-22T01:04:00.000-04:00

Well well well, look what the cat has dragged in. Could it be the corpse of Democratic hit man Phil de Vellis? The same Phil de Vellis who smeared a fine Democratic candidate named Paul Hackett? The same de Vellis who posted at Buckeye State Blog under the name of "Jews For Jesus" while attempting to smear Hackett who back then was seen as the brightest star the Democrats had seen since JFK? It should be noted that de Vellis was doing this political skullduggery while acting as Sherrod Brown's web outreach guy.

Now we find out that Phil de Vellis is the man behind the infamous "Hillary 1984" ad that has been the rage on the internets. I guess smearing Hackett wasn't satisfying enough for Phil as he has now moved on to greener pastures. We at ODP watch are appalled that this political hack can call himself a Democrat with a straight face. He is not and never will be a Democrat nor will anyone who employs him. He is a political opportunist whose tactics must be rejected by the DNC and every Democratic candidate. He has smeared Paul Hackett, tarnished the Barack Obama candidacy and demeaned Hillary's reputation as well. We must reject the tactics that put us on the same playing field as Karl Rove and the dirty tricks of Tricky Dick. There must be no equivocation from Democrats on this. We can't afford to be "Republican lite" on the issues nor on our ethics. We'll have more on Phil de Vellis and his history in the Hackett/Brown race from last year. Stay tuned...

Keith Olbermann for President

2006-11-02T12:14:00.000-05:00

Listen up boneheads, this is how you bitchslap GOP fascists. Keith Olbermann gets the ODP Watch Seal Of Approval for his comments on MSNBC yesterday. Note to Democratic officeholders...watch and learn.

"Sen. Kerry, as you well know, spoke at a college in Southern California. With bitter humor he told the students that he had been in Texas the day before, that President Bush used to live in that state, but that now he lives in the state of denial.

He said the trip had reminded him about the value of education — that “if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you can get stuck in Iraq.”

The senator, in essence, called Mr. Bush stupid.

The context was unmistakable: Texas; the state of denial; stuck in Iraq. No interpretation required.

And Mr. Bush and his minions responded by appearing to be too stupid to realize that they had been called stupid.

They demanded Kerry apologize to the troops in Iraq.

And so he now has.

That phrase — “appearing to be too stupid” — is used deliberately, Mr. Bush.

Because there are only three possibilities here.

One, sir, is that you are far more stupid than the worst of your critics have suggested; that you could not follow the construction of a simple sentence; that you could not recognize your own life story when it was deftly summarized; that you could not perceive it was the sad ledger of your presidency that was being recounted.

This, of course, compliments you, Mr. Bush, because even those who do not “make the most of it,” who do not “study hard,” who do not “do their homework,” and who do not “make an effort to be smart” might still just be stupid, but honest.

No, the first option, sir, is, at best, improbable. You are not honest.

The second option is that you and those who work for you deliberately twisted what Sen. Kerry said to fit your political template; that you decided to take advantage of it, to once again pretend that the attacks, solely about your own incompetence, were in fact attacks on the troops or even on the nation itself.

The third possibility is, obviously, the nightmare scenario: that the first two options are in some way conflated."

Full text of Olbermann's comments HERE.

And will someone tell John Kerry to stop apologizing whenever Republicans ask him to? Will someone bind and gag him until the election is over? We swear that sometimes Kerry could screw up a wet dream. Listen up John, NEVER apologize...just go on the attack. If you don't the GOP will be happy to beat you over the head until you apologize for being born. Christ.

Journalism for Fundamentalists 101

2006-10-31T17:50:00.000-05:00

We love to read alternative newspapers here at ODP Watch and one caught our attention as we emerged from our local library branch here in Columbus. It's a political paper for Christians(forget the Judeo crap)called Citizen USA. Sounds like a Stallone movie, but we digress.

They seem to love Ken Blackwell even though they know he's going to lose which is odd. They don't seem to know what to do about Ted Strickland as he's been a minister and all. On page 2A they relate the story of "Ted's Truth Truck", a big panel truck with pictures of dead fetuses on the side for all to see. Ted's Truth Truck is the project of Christians for Social Justice, LLC and the group also states that "Ted Strickland supports homosexual unions". On page 3A there is a cartoon starring Bill Clinton which attempts to copy the style of Pat Oliphant and is wildly successful if you factor in the lack of any humor, wit or irony. Luckily for us this cartoon shows none of the above.

Also on page 3A we have a column by Coach Dave Daubenmire of Pass the Salt Ministry where he makes a convoluted argument about the establishment clause. He states that "evolution and creationism are both theories"... Oh really? Evolution has been established with years of data and peer review while creationism refuses to be peer reviewed at all. That makes one a scientific theory and the other a half-baked idea without merit. An idea is not a "theory" Dave, and it's about time you learned the difference.

Throw in an editorial rant warning of the dangers of Islamic Fundamentalism (how ironic) and a movie review of Jesus Camp and you have what they call "Newspaper Of The Year" but we don't actually get to see who gave them that testimonial. Perhaps they gave it to themselves. Either way we're sure you'll find this wing-nut newspaper a fun read as did we. Visit their website at Citizen USA and tell 'em that ODP Watch sent you. We're sure they won't mind.

The GOP's Southern strategy of even more blatant race baiting

2006-10-29T14:16:00.000-05:00

We noticed that the RNC has descended to race baiting once again even after Ken Mehlman and the Republican National Committee promised the NAACP last year that Republican efforts to use race as a wedge issue -- on matters such as desegregation and busing to appeal to white southern voters was "wrong". But they're at it again with another ad, this time with an attractive white woman imploring Harold Ford to call her in a sexy whisper. Shades of Blazing Saddles...where's da white women! And that's exactly the message the RNC was trying to sear into the minds of the segregationist sympathisers who will no doubt be scared out of their wits that this handsome African-American gentleman will be on a mission to ravish and impregnate every white woman he can get his hands on.

We find this odd considering that Ken Mehlman is gay. Doesn't anyone find it odd that he would be so vociferious in race and gay baiting while being the head of a party that hates gay people and continues to encourage the forces that still hate African-Americans? Isn't this like being a vegetarian butcher or a Jewish member of Hitler's SS? One has to wonder...

The GOP race baiting continues

2006-08-16T18:47:00.000-04:00

We've stated before that if someone has a racist past and they come clean, renounce their former beliefs and never look back we'd be willing to forgive and forget. But when someone like Senator Trent Lott tells Strom Thurmond that...

" When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

From Wikipedia..."Since Thurmond had explicitly supported racial segregation in the presidential campaign to which Lott referred, this statement was widely interpreted to mean that Lott also supported racial segregation. Lott had attracted controversy before in issues relating to civil rights. As a Congressman, he voted against renewal of the Voting Rights Act and opposed the Martin Luther King Holiday. Lott also maintained an affilation with the Council of Conservative Citizens, which is described as a hate group by the ADL, NAACP and SPLC." Or what we at ODP Watch refer to as "Klan Lite".

Now and then the GOP racists who speak in code to their Klan following, much like Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell did in the 1950's, let their guard down and show their true colors. They haven't changed no matter how much they protest and their Confederate Flag waving followers know it. They understand the code.

And now another in the Klan inspired GOP has let the veil slip once again. Senator George Allen called a rival campaign worker (who happened to be non-white) a macaca which is defined as a slur to describe North Africans and is also used to denote a species of monkey. Here's part of the text of Allen's rant...

"Lets give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia," said Allen, who then began talking about the "war on terror."

Welcome to America? The campaign worker in question happens to be American but albeit with brown skin. We assume that one isn't a true "'Murcan" unless one is lily white like George Allen. He actually called him a macaca twice but who's counting, right? Here's the video that was shot by the very same campaign worker...

Allen video

Is there still any doubt from any out there in the ether about the cozy relationship between the Christian Right, the Klan and the GOP? How many more veils need to be lifted? Any questions?

The New York Times finally covers Blackwell's folly

2006-08-09T20:38:00.000-04:00

By all means let's catch those 100 or so "dead people" that vote for Democrats while ignoring the massive fraud perpetrated by Diebold for their Republican masters.

NEW REGISTRATION RULES STIR VOTER DEBATE IN OHIO

By IAN URBINA
Published: August 6, 2006

CLEVELAND — For Tony Minor, the pastor of the Community of Faith Assembly in a run-down section of East Cleveland, Ohio’s new voter registration rules have meant spending two extra hours a day collecting half as many registration cards from new voters as he did in past years.

Republicans say the new rules are needed to prevent fraud, but Democrats say they are making it much harder to register the poor.

In the last year, six states have passed such restrictions, and in three states, including Ohio, civic groups have filed lawsuits, arguing that the rules disproportionately affect poor neighborhoods.

But nowhere have the rules been as fiercely debated as here, partly because they are being administered by J. Kenneth Blackwell, the secretary of state and the Republican candidate in one of the most closely watched governor’s races in the country, a contest that will be affected by the voter registration rules. Mr. Blackwell did not write the law, but he has been accused of imposing regulations that are more restrictive than was intended.

Full story HERE.

Around the Horn

2006-07-09T10:02:00.000-04:00

Here are some fine articles we'd like you to see. Happy reading!

The End Of Cowboy Diplomacy from Time magazine HERE. (You'll need to watch a brief commercial first)

Cenk Uygur's latest blog commentary on Joe Lieberman HERE.

Louisiana finally bans internet hunting HERE.

The New York Times has a piece about an ally warning Bush about intelligence activities HERE.

A wonderful blog post by Ohio's premier muckraker, Bob Fitrakis HERE. as well as another with Harvey Wassermann at FreePress.Org HERE.

And thank God the casinos are open again HERE.

Connie Schultz at the Huffington Post

2006-07-07T15:48:00.000-04:00

Read Connie's blog entry at the HuffPo HERE.

What can "they" do to you Connie? Not nearly as much as what the Plain Dealer could do to Tim Russo. Talk is cheap. What we'd like to see here at ODP Watch is more action. Call the neo-cons the liars that they are and name names. Make believers out of us.

Bob Cesca's take on Meet The Press

2006-06-12T09:42:00.000-04:00

We thought this was not only funny but right on the mark...

"First, I just can't get enough of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's dead, bloated face which predictably kicked off the Meet the Press opening montage. One question here: why did the government and the right-wing have such an issue with the Abu Ghraib photos, but this one gets the Thomas Kinkade treatment -- enlarged and tastefully mounted in a decorative oak frame and aired around the clock? It's worth noting that the House passed a law this week calling for a $325,000 fine for anyone who says "shit" on television. Bloated corpse face everywhere, good. The word "shit," bad. God bless America."

Full story HERE.

The REAL danger to our American democracy and why the Democrats won't do anything about it

2006-06-04T14:58:00.000-04:00

The following is a report by Chris Hedges that takes an inside look at the Christian Nationalist movement. It is an enormously frightening development and needs to be addressed by responsible leaders.

Soldiers of Christ II
Feeling the hate with the National Religious Broadcasters
Posted on Monday, May 30, 2005. Originally from May 2005. By Chris Hedges.

Since the reelection of George W. Bush in November, the rhetoric on the Christian right has grown triumphal and proud; rumors of spiritual war are abroad in the heartland, and fervent whispers of revolution echo among the pews and folding chairs of the nation’s megachurches. I have traveled to Anaheim, California, to observe the rising power of the evangelical political movement at first hand. Orange County, along with Colorado Springs, is a center of the new militant Christianity, and it is here, among friends, that the National Religious Broadcasters association—which brings together some 1,600 Christian radio and television broadcasters, who claim to reach up to 141 million listeners and viewers—is holding its annual convention.

I am standing in line at the Starbucks in the Anaheim Hilton with Dee Simmons and her friend Samantha Landy. Around her neck Simmons wears a cross of gold studded with diamonds, and her face, which betrays neither line nor crease, is carefully highlighted with heavy makeup. Scores of men and women, all conservatively dressed in coats and ties or skirts, stand expectantly, waiting for a sign to beckon them next door to the Anaheim Convention Center, where speeches, booths, and seminars await.

We’ve known each other just a few minutes, but already I can tell you that Simmons once led a life of constant sorrow, that in 1987 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and before long underwent a modified radical mastectomy. That tragedy led her, she says, to turn her focus away from the designer-clothes boutiques she owned in Dallas and New York. “When God gave me my life back,” she says, “I decided to make a difference in people’s lives.” And so she embraced nutrition.

Simmons reaches into her purse and draws out several pamphlets from her company, Ultimate Living. She tells me about her books, which include It’s a Miracle! It’s a Green Miracle & It Saved My Life!, and mentions the numerous Christian talk shows she regularly appears on, including Pat Robertson’s The 700 Club, Hope Today, Praise, Something Good Tonight, and The Armstrong Williams Show.

“I was saved and found Christ when I was three,” she says. “I’m sixty-four. My daughter is thirty-six.” She waits for the effect of her age, which she will repeat more than once, to sink in. I can’t take my eyes off her smooth face and sculpted cheekbones.

Landy is also active in the life of faith. She tells me that she runs “Christian Celebrity Luncheons” in Palm Springs as part of her “salvation outreach for snowbirds.” Her ministry focuses on country clubs and golf courses, she says, because that’s where people feel comfortable. Landy, a redhead, never stops smiling.

“I bring in celebrity speakers,” she says, “like Gavin MacLeod, he was the Captain on Love Boat, and Ronda Fleming, she was in over forty films and starred with Bing Crosby.”

Landy, like Simmons, appears on Christian television shows. She has published books with titles such as A Shalom Morning and God’s Creatures. Her list of celebrities includes Donna Douglas from The Beverly Hillbillies, Ann B. Davis, who was Alice on The Brady Bunch, and Lauren Chapin, who played Kathy on Father Knows Best.

My new friends, evidently minor celebrities themselves in the world of Christian broadcasting, have come to Anaheim for the yearly convention because it is the only time they can see all the major Christian broadcasters in one place. They are picture-perfect members of a new Christian elite, showy, proud of how God has blessed them with material wealth and privilege, and hooked into the culture of celebrity and power.

* * *

I carry my coffee across the stone courtyard to the curved glass and gleaming towers of the convention center, the largest in California. Within the exhibition hall on the first floor, 320 display booths—and, at the far end of the hall, the twisted remains of an Israeli bus blown up by Palestinian suicide bombers in Jerusalem—float on an enormous sea of soft blue carpeting. The Israeli tourism ministry has one of the largest display spaces in the hall. People from the Christian Law Association hand out yardsticks filled with gum. A Virginia web-design company offers “church websites the way God intended.” A bearded man dressed as a biblical prophet is pushing tours of the Holy Land. I see anti-abortion booths and evidence of fringe groups such as Jews for Jesus and Accuracy in Media, one of whose representatives hands me a report with the title “American Troops Cheer Attacks on U.S. Media.”

All the seminars and workshops are taking place on the upper floors. One seminar is entitled “Finding God in Hollywood.” Another is called “Invading Cities for Christ: The Thousand-Day Plan.”

In the parking lot outside the center, I come across a pickup truck with large hand-painted panels bearing anti-gay slogans and a round red circle with a line through the center superimposed on the faces of two men kissing. STOP THE INSANITY, it says across the top. I pick up one of the pamphlets in a metal box on the side of the truck: “Protect Your Family & Friends from the Dangers of . . . Homosexuality: The Truth!” It lists “the facts about homosexuality they refuse to teach in Public Schools or report on the Evening News!” including: “homosexuals average 500 sexual partners in their short lifetime” and “because of unsanitary sexual practices homosexuals carry the bulk of all bowel disease in America.”

Full story HERE.

What we clearly need are leaders who will take on these people directly and expose them for what they are. We need leaders who can frame this debate as a conflict between the modern world and the enlightenment versus an irrelevant medieval world view that opposes science, freedom of speech, women's rights, reason and the rule of law. We need leaders who are unafraid to say the obvious, that fundamentalism is corrosive and incompatible with a modern day democracy. To state clearly and boldly that it makes no sense to fight Islamic extremism and fundamentalism abroad while nurturing our own brand of fundamentalism right here in America. Are there any Democrats courageous enough to do this? Or will we have to descend into theocracy at the hands of the Christian Nationalists?

How do RepubliKKKans win? They cheat.

2006-06-01T08:55:00.000-04:00

An article by Robert Kennedy Jr. will appear soon in Rolling Stone magazine detailing how the GOP stole the 2004 Presidential election in Ohio. We'll keep you posted but in the meantime go HERE for details.

Update: The Rolling Stone article itself HERE.

Plunderbund's interview with Paul Hackett

2006-05-19T18:26:00.000-04:00

On Political Courage

"But to really get to the answer, it's just a lack of courage from our elected officials, and it's misplaced hope that by avoiding tough issues that they will go away, and, it's just not going to happen. I mean, all of these tough issues, be they social or economic, or other political tough issues such as the war in Iraq are simply not going to go away, and they're not going to be solved by crafty sound bites published by Rahm Emanuel or Chuck Schumer. It ain't going to happen."
Paul Hackett

For the entire interview go HERE. Eric Vessels does a fine podcast with Paul and touches on something we here at ODP Watch are very concerned about. Arianna Huffington addresses the issue better than anyone in her latest blog entry...

"Gore isn't running for office, and already the negative campaigning has begun. This is what anyone who takes a stand faces these days -- politics as demolition derby -- and why so many politicians operate out of fear. But when I asked Gore about it, he was unfazed.

I couldn't help but flash on the stiff, robotic Gore of the 2000 campaign. You could smell the fear on the Gore of 2000. Just as you could smell it on Kerry in 2004, as he ran a campaign that consistently chose caution over boldness.

And it's the same sickening scent that Hillary Clinton is wearing today: Eau de Don't Let Me Screw Up and Flush My Chances Down the Toilette.

There she was recently -- uptight, tentative, inauthentic -- trying to throw an off-handed bone to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce by implying that young people are lazy and "think work is a four-letter word." And the minute there was some blowback, she turned around and apologized to the youthful voters whose fingers she'd slammed in the Chamber of Commerce door. And even used Chelsea as a crutch to explain her turnaround.

Read her entire blog entry HERE

Paul Hackett is absolutely correct. As an example of why Democrats don't get it all one has to do is flashback four months ago when Hackett single-handedly took on the religious right by refering to them as nuts and religious extremists. What was Sherrod Brown's response? The overly cautious and careful one of course. He was "disturbed" by Hackett's comments. Disturbed? What's not to like about Paul's comments about a Religious Right that wants to violate the Constitution and apply a religious litmus test to political candidates? We found Sherrod Brown's lack of political courage on this issue very disappointing and indicative of exactly what Paul Hackett and Arianna Huffington are talking about. And still the Democrats run on fear. The fear of being pried away from their losing Republican-lite strategy. The strategy of attempting to be all things to all people. But they won't wake up from this fantasy until they lose yet again. In the meantime Ohio Democrats were treated to a fantasy where they were getting married to the prom queen, the girl of their dreams. That is, until her parents intervened, broke the engagement and substituted her ugly sister. Still want to get hitched?

Redfern must go

2006-05-12T22:31:00.000-04:00

Break a promise, get your walking papers. That's how it's supposed to work. When Chris Redfern got up in front of everyone, including Howard Dean, he promised to make sure that ODP headquarters is handicapped accesible. He has failed to deliver on that promise. We wonder now if the smart-asses that took over the ODP Executive Meeting last December now have buyer's remorse about "their guy". We here at ODP watch can say with confidence that had Dennis Leiberman been elected as ODP chair none of this would be happening. We felt then as we do now that Leiberman was a man of his word and he at least would have taken care of an easily solved problem. The symbolism of this issue is of huge importance to the Democratic party. If we can't fight for the little guy or the least among us, then what right do we have criticising the GOP when they behave the same way?

Censorship at Blue Buckeye Blog

When a handicapped woman dared complain about the lack of handicapped access on Blue Buckeye Blog her comments were deleted. Whoever is responsible for this needs to resign right away for they are surely not Democrats. This has happened before at Blue Buckeye Blog. Time and again they have blocked access to blog by many other progressive grassroots people who are convinced Redfern's ODP is not coming close to representing progressives. They too now need to be purged to give all progressives a voice.

In an earlier post we stated that the ODP needed to be destroyed. This was not hyperbole on our part, it needs to be done. The ODP needs all new people in positions of power. New people, not just the old cronies being shuffled about like a game of musical chairs. The ODP needs this in order for Democrats to win again. Fire Redfern first though. That would be a good first step.

Update on May 14th

ODP...ignore Stephanie Tubbs-Jones at your peril

2006-04-19T16:56:00.000-04:00

In our first post here at ODP Watch last winter we castigated the Ohio Democratic Party for the shabby way they treated Stephanie Tubbs-Jones at the ODP winter executive meeting. Not only was Ms. Tubbs-Jones given short shrift but the entire African-American community here in Ohio. We warned you. Yet the ODP keeps stepping in dog poop with no sign of stopping. READ.

Fiefdoms

2006-04-09T10:49:00.000-04:00

We at ODP Watch have been observing a dustup about the Ohio DFA (Democracy For America) through forwarded e-mails from various Democratic operatives. At first the missives made little sense to us but after asking a few questions we've begun to see a disturbing emerging picture. It isn't our style here to level charges until we have concrete evidence of malfeasance so we'll do what we usually do at ODP Watch, we ask questions.

The DFA Steering Committee decides many basic issues for the DFA. Who are you? How are your members selected? When do you meet? Why are your meetings of the Steering Committee not open to the general membership?

Why isn't the local DFA focused on election reform when this issue is the top priority ot the national DFA? Why does the local DFA leadership delete legitimate election reform events from their central DFA events listings?

Why are DFA members and resources being utilized for candidate support rather than activities related to the national DFA Plan For Victory? Are candidates for public office using the DFA as a springboard to aid their own political ambitions?

Why would the PDA (Progressive Democrats of America) of Northeast Ohio put five Central Ohioans (Scott Nunnery, Chris Redfern, Steve Chaffin, Chris Glaros, Marian Harris) on their panel discussion? Does the ODP have undue influence on PDA and DFA operation?

Democracy For America is an organization that was inspired by the Presidential campaign of Howard Dean. Now that Dean is gone and the single-minded purpose of supporting him is absent, what are the local DFA chapters doing? Is there any accountability? Are local DFA leaders using the now leaderless organizations as their own private fiefdoms? Will the local DFA open up their steering committee membership meetings to the general membership and to outside progressive groups?

We're only asking questions at this point. Feel free to drop us a line here at ODP Watch if you have answers.

The Accidental Investor

2006-04-04T17:26:00.000-04:00

It looks like Ken Blackwell (or is it Hackwell?) had more than his political fortunes tied to Diebold election machines, it looks like he was an investor in the company at one time as well. Come on Ken, it wasn't enough for you get involved with a company that was going to make illegitimate and stolen elections possible? You had to invest in it too? The Plain Dealer has the story...

Blackwell reports embarrassing buy of Diebold stock
Rivals pounce on controversy over accidental share purchase

Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Sandy Theis
Plain Dealer Bureau Chief

Columbus -Secretary of State Ken Blackwell made an embarrassing announcement Monday: He accidentally bought stock in Diebold Inc., a voting machine maker that benefited from decisions made by his office.

In a required filing with the Ohio Ethics Commission, the GOP gubernatorial hopeful said his hefty portfolio included 178 shares of Diebold stock, which sold for a loss.

"While I was unaware of this stock in my portfolio, its mere presence may be viewed as a conflict," Blackwell wrote in a letter that accompanies his annual financial disclosure statement.

Full story HERE

Well done Marc Dann!

2006-03-05T14:06:00.000-05:00

Marc Dann did something very odd the other day. (Well, not for Marc Dann) Anyway, he spoke the truth. Now it's funny what happens when politicians actually speak the truth, their colleagues get wary and the media get suspicious. You can tell that they're just not used to hearing candor in the political field. They publicly ruminate whether the candidate or officeholder has what it takes (read "is too truthful") or if they have become a loose cannon. Here is what Marc said at Meet The Bloggers the other day. Buckeye State Blog has the transcript.

" “Marc Dann:… I think to some degree, with Republican control for so long, my colleagues have been kind of sucked into the Stockholm Syndrome, and have kind of identified with their captors. Some of them hope to get a job, an appointment”

“Marc Dann: Because then the next pressure on you, if you want any bill of yours to move and you’ve got to stay in good keeping with the leadership of the Republicans in the House and the Senate, and it is still the same as it was under Householder. Householder was just a little more open about it. Then in your second term, you immediately spend your time (at least the people that I have observed) lobbying for an executive appointment, because that is the way to keep your PDRS and to continue after government. So you have to behave at that point in order to get your executive appointment, and it attracts lemmings to the legislature. My colleagues are a bunch of frickin’ lemmings, and it is really sad, on both sides, to some degree."

We at ODP Watch don't think what Dann said is out of bounds one bit. It illustrates what really is going on in our government and is to be encouraged. We need more of this Marc, not less. So just keep doing what you're doing. It really helps make some of what goes on in the statehouse more transparent and ultimately that is what we are all striving for in our government.

The truth shouldn't be something to fear or run away from. This is what people crave. They want honesty, they want issues confronted directly, they want their reps to have courage. They saw this in the Hackett campaign and the other day they saw it in Marc Dann. Well done Marc.

Democrats, time to stand up to the Christofascists NOW.

2006-03-04T22:39:00.000-05:00

We have been in a foul mood here at ODP Watch for the last day or so. Yes friends, more news from right wing nut land...

State Bill Proposes Christianity Be Missouri's Official Religion...

12:28 AM CST on Friday, March 3, 2006

By John Mills, News 4

Missouri legislators in Jefferson City considered a bill that would name Christianity the state's official "majority" religion.

House Concurrent Resolution 13 has is pending in the state legislature.

Many Missouri residents had not heard about the bill until Thursday.

Karen Aroesty of the Anti-defamation league, along with other watch-groups, began a letter writing and email campaign to stop the resolution.

The resolution would recognize "a Christian god," and it would not protect minority religions, but "protect the majority's right to express their religious beliefs.

The resolution also recognizes that, "a greater power exists," and only Christianity receives what the resolution calls, "justified recognition."

Full story... HERE.

Seeing any patterns yet Democrats? This isn't just happening in a random way you know. This is their plan, to make this country into a Christian Nation. Their plan is very detailed. Take over school boards and commandeer the textbook selection process thereby watering down science standards or any other pesky world-view that might counter Christian teachings. Then send Christian conservatives to high government offices (231 in Congress at last count) and take over the legislative process. Step by step. First it's gay marriage, now in Ohio it's gay adoption and now in Missouri it's an attempt to make Christianity the state religion. What's next? Judicial rulings giving way to "higher power" verdicts from elected religious authorities? Hasn't this right wing Christian movement gone far enough? Are any of you going to stand up to these ayatollahs? Or will you be reactive and wait for them to come to you? Will you be real Democrats with some real backbone and tell these primitives that this will never fly in Ohio? How about showing some courage by provoking a pre-emptive strike and saying enough is enough? Are you afraid of picking a fight with these Neanderthals? Paul Hackett didn't shrink from the job. Oh, but he had a spine. Now we get it. Never mind.

Kudos to Chris Redfern

2006-03-03T09:30:00.000-05:00

We're not just a bunch of scolds here at ODP Watch, we can be quite complimentary when our party gets it right. Here Chris Redfern goes after Republican Jim Petro. This is how it's done.

Democrat questions Petro endorsement of Montgomery
Friday, March 03, 2006
Sandy Theis
Plain Dealer Bureau Chief

Columbus - Jim Petro says he put a stop to "Tammany Hall-style" politics in the Ohio attorney general's office - a system that he said allowed Summit County Republican Party boss Alex Arshinkoff to reward cronies with lucrative legal work.

Petro's accusation appears to hit squarely at fellow Republican Betty Montgomery, an Arshinkoff ally who held the attorney general's job for eight years before Petro took office in 2003.

So why does Petro enthusiastically support Montgomery's campaign to win the job back?
Full story... HERE

Well done Mr. Redfern.

Some simple questions for Sherrod Brown and Chris Redfern

2006-02-22T20:59:00.000-05:00

Since Paul Hackett dropped out of the Senate race last week a new revelation has come to light. The first concerns the swiftboating of Paul Hackett by an alledged Brown staffer. This person or persons spread rumors that Paul had committed "war crimes" while serving in Iraq using bogus material to back up their bogus claims. Dan Lucas' name has been bandied about in the mainstream press and there's an indication that there is another who he was working with, perhaps someone outside of your campaign. Will you apologize to Paul Hackett and will someone get fired over this Congressman Brown?

Another question for Sherrod Brown...who is thisblogishorseshit? This is a username (along with JewsForJesus) that was used by one of your campaign people to attack blogs that were critical of your campaign. When presented with the evidence for this your campaign said it would take care of the situation. Did you? Would the party leadership like it if they found that people in your campaign were using a mild anti-Semitic slur while slamming your political opponents? Are the inmates running the asylum? Has there ever been an apology for this? Should we as Democrats imitate the style and lowbrow politics of Karl Rove? Or should we as Democrats be setting a higher standard?

And now to Mr. Redfern. Chris, do you still think it was a good idea to help push Paul Hackett out of this race denying the grassroots the opportunity to choose which candidate they wanted? Will you ever be able to use the word "grassroots" again without stifling a guffaw or two? After all, you and Sherrod and Chuck and Harry gave the so-called grassroots the finger, right? When Sherrod Brown loses his Senate bid will you take responsibility and resign your ODP Chair post or will you desperately cling to power promising a better showing in the next election cycle? If the morass of the Brown campaign drags Strickland to a loss will you also take responsibility for that as well? As ODP Chair isn't it your responsibility to check up on signatures that candidates are gathering? Why weren't you riding herd on the Charles Wilson situation in Dayton? Is this yet another bonehead ODP failure? Are you actually considering running him as an Independant? We worried very loudly that having a part-time person as ODP Chair would lead to disasters like this. This is not exactly a well oiled machine Chris.

We here at ODP Watch want the Democrats to go forward into this millenium with renewed hope and strength but from what we've seen so far it will be nothing but failure and depression for Democrats on the day after the election. You both have many questions to answer. Get going.

The ODP needs to be destroyed

2006-02-15T18:32:00.000-05:00

You bumbling fools. The lot of you. Redfern, Emmanuel, Brown. These losers have just screwed over the entire Democratic base by forcing Paul Hackett out of the race for U.S. Senate. Special mention goes to Ted Strickland for elevating Redfern to ODP Chair and for talking Sherrod Brown into running in the Senate race that he'd already passed on. The lot of you are stupid and useless and certainly don't deserve to call yourselves Democrats. You talked loud and long about the need to develop the "grassroots", then when the grassroots found Paul Hackett you pissed all over your so-called grassroots and got rid of Hackett. You feared him because you couldn't control him. He was right when he said the Democratic Party was addicted to losing. Don't ever let us hear you use the word "grassroots" again. Assholes, the lot of you. Go to your own Ohio Democratic Party blog to read what rank and file Democrats are saying about you. READ IT YOU MORONS!!

The Ohio Democratic Party needs to be destroyed. Speaking of addiction, they are like a person suffering from extreme alcoholism. They need help and don't even know it. They keep losing and losing and losing some more and STILL don't see how dysfunctional they are. They stumble from one election to the next, losing by just this much in order to keep themselves in a permanent minority status very much like the functioning alcoholic who manages to work and hide their awful sickness from friends and family. When we say that this organization needs to be destroyed we mean from the top to the bottom. Redfern needs to be ousted in May, (Oh Mr. Redfern, there are rumblings coming from the Statehouse that many Democratic senators are having buyer's remorse about your ascension to ODP Chair) many of the clueless county chairs need to go and most importantly...Sherrod Brown and Ted Strickland need to lose their bids for higher office. What's that you say? How can you call yourself a Democrat while wishing for fellow Democrats to lose important elections? This is so simple. Like the functioning alcoholic the Ohio Democratic Party needs to lose even more before they can be completely rebuilt. They must hit rock bottom just like the alcoholic in question. You can't make the alcoholic heal themselves, they must first hit rock bottom and the ODP hasn't reached that point yet. It is now time to help the ODP hit rock bottom. It pains us to say this but we urge all fellow Democrats to join with the collective here at ODP Watch to stay home on election day.

On a national scale we would be sending a message to those in D.C. like Chuck Schumer to keep their stupid asses out of Ohio politics and stop limiting the choices of Ohio Democrats from their cushy offices in New York and Washington.

GOP Christofascist bastards

2006-02-12T11:06:00.000-05:00

Our primary mission here at ODP Watch is to reform the Ohio Democratic Party into a smooth functioning organization that accomplishes it's goals. But an issue concerning the Ohio GOP just came up and we can no longer be silent. Put plainly, the Ohio GOP should be ashamed of itself. We're talking never-show-your-face-in-Ohio kind of shame. The kind of shame that comes with being identified as a child molester or wife beater. Yeah you assholes, that's how we look at you. Of course, this ties into what we were speaking of last week when we outlined a brief history of Christian fascism in this country and how it related to recent events right here in Ohio.

Three weeks ago Paul Hackett refered to the Christian Right as "nuts". If you want some background read the previous post right here at ODP Watch. Hackett was roundly criticized by the GOP hacks who refered to his comments as "bigoted". What a laugh. You want to see some bigotry? OK, here you go...it's called HB515 or what we refer to at ODP Watch as the "Get Out The Ignorant Fundamentalist Vote Act Of 2006". It attempts to prohibit gay people from adopting children. Yes. You heard us right. To the fundamentalist knuckledraggers gay people are mental defectives, predators and perverts. Three weeks ago Mr. Hackett was criticized by these right wing lunatics for telling it like it is, that these people are religious fanatics, that they're nuts (and they are). Few, if any, Democrats stepped up to the plate to state the obvious and support Hackett's position which shows what a bunch of cowardly and inept fence straddlers Ohio Democrats really are. Ineptness we can work with. It's outright backwardness, stupidity and phoney piousness that we loathe. Just chalk this up to yet another example of how the fundamentalist movement in this country has completly taken over the GOP.

It's not like we can't see through this transparent attempt by the GOP to get fundies to the polls. Hell, it worked with gay marriage in 2004, why shouldn't this work just as well? Maybe in 2008 they'll come up with yet another phoney referendum like the "No More Gay People In City Parks Initiative" or the "No Parakeets For Gay People Act Of 2008". The variations on this basic theme of hatred towards gay people could provide the GOP with an endless supply of irate fundamentalists at the polls for the next six election cycles. Lucky us.

We here at the collective need to hear from Democratic leaders on this issue STAT. No more coddling of the pious will be tolerated. Do you agree with Paul Hackett or don't you? Send a message to the idiots who sponsored this bill. Here's a rogues gallery if there ever was one. Call them and vent your anger.

Ron Hood (R-91)
Telephone: (614) 466-2500
Email Address: district91@ohr.state.oh.us

Tom Brinkman Jr (R-34)
Telephone: (614) 644-6886
Email Address: district34@ohr.state.oh.us

Linda Reidelbach (R-21)
Telephone: (614) 644-6030
Email Address: district21@ohr.state.oh.us

John R. Willamowski (R-04)
Telephone: (614) 466-9624
Email Address: district04@ohr.state.oh.us

Derrick Seaver (R-78)
Telephone: (614) 466-1507
Email Address: district78@ohr.state.oh.us

James M. Hoops (R-75)
Telephone: (614) 466-3760
Email Address: district75@ohr.state.oh.us

Danny R. Bubp (R-88)
Telephone: (614) 644-6034
Email Address: district88@ohr.state.oh.us

Mike Gilb (R-76)
Telephone: (614) 466-3819
Email Address: district76@ohr.state.oh.us

Stephen Buehrer (R-74)
Telephone: (614) 644-5091
Email Address: district74@ohr.state.oh.us

Tim Schaffer (R-05)
Telephone: (614) 466-8100
Email Address: district05@ohr.state.oh.us

Remember..."Save The Parakeets in 08"!

Of Christofascists and Men

2006-02-03T00:02:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago we saw Democratic Senate hopeful Paul Hackett take on the Religious Right single-handedly without so much as a peep of support from top Democrats.(With the exception of Democratic spokesman Brian Rothenberg who vociferously defended Hackett. A big tip of the hat to you Brian, well done.) Here is what Hackett had to say that caused the controversy...

"The Republican Party has been hijacked by the religious fanatics that, in my opinion, aren’t a whole lot different than Osama bin Laden and a lot of the other religious nuts around the world," he said. "The challenge is for the rest of us moderate Americans and citizens of the world to put down the fork and spoon, turn off the TV, and participate in the process and try to push back on these radical nuts – and they are nuts."

We here in the collective agree with Mr. Hackett and while we don't know him we can sure see that he's on to something, so we'd like to give those pathetic Democrats who sat on the sidelines and watched him take on the Christofascists by himself a little history lesson. So listen up you weaklings, some of this will be very new to you and if you aren't appalled and pissed off then you have no business being in the Democratic Party. If you haven't got the stones to expose and ridicule great icons of the GOP then you don't deserve to be here either. So listen and listen good, you're going to get an account of events that helped shape the modern Republican Party. We expect, no...DEMAND, that you take on these extremists.

The fascism of early 20th Century evangelists

Today, most peoples' image of the Klan is one of a violent gang of racists clothed in bed sheets, and view the Klan as a pariah of some sort. Even with the rise in membership since 1980, the Klan is still a shadow of its former self. However, the real legacy of the Klan is not related to hooded nightriders or cross burnings. Rather, the real legacy is the role the Klan played in developing what now constitutes the religious right.

The Red Scare of 1919 resulted in the purging of anyone holding even the mildest liberal views, clergy included. With few liberal clergymen remaining, the result was a gigantic chasm into which the Klan and the radical right moved, shifting the spectrum to the far right. The result can still be seen today in the linkage between racism and religion. A study conducted in the 1960s detailed this linkage. Since that study, the linkage has become even more pronounced, with the rise of the Identity religion in recent years.

The evolution of the present religious right from the 1920s Klan can best be shown by the careers of Gerald Winrod and Gerald Smith. In November, 1925 in Salina, Kansas, Winrod established the Defenders of the Christian Faith. The Defenders were extremely conservative, and in April, 1926 Winrod began publishing a monthly magazine, The Defender. Winrod supported prohibition, and was rabidly opposed to the theory of evolution.

The teaching of evolution, as well as the Scopes trial, was one of those issues that become a watershed event in shaping later movements. The teaching of evolution would define what has evolved into the religious right. Although there were fundamentalists before the 1920s, the fundamental religious movement was revitalized and defined by the Scopes trial. In fact, the term "fundamentalist" was coined in the 1920s. Many early fundamentalists, such as John Franklyn Norris, were openly supportive of the Klan. Norris was a Baptist preacher from Texas, and also had a parish in Detroit, flying between the two cities. Norris also ran a seminary, one notable graduate of which was John Birch. Birch's death at the hands of Chinese communist forces in the late 1940s spawned the formation of the John Birch Society in the 1950s.

In 1926, Winrod led a campaign to ban the teaching of evolution locally, as well as in California and Minnesota. He appointed a committee to examine textbooks, and in Minnesota he helped William Bell Riley draft the bill which was introduced in the Minnesota legislature.

Riley was a force in the conservative wing of the Baptist Church during the 1920s. Like Winrod, Riley was rabidly opposed to the teaching of evolution, and was also extremely anti-Semitic. In 1934, he published the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and an article on communism, attempting to show they were part of a conspiracy at work in Roosevelt's New Deal. Riley preached:

"Today in our land many of the biggest trusts, banks and manufacturing interests are controlled by Jews. Most of our department stores they own. The motion pictures, the most vicious of all immoral, educational and communistic influences, is their creation."

The above quote, from one of Riley's sermons, is indistinguishable from Hitler's propaganda. It is a clue that, if Riley was not outright pro-Nazi, he certainly harbored sympathy for fascism.

Riley was not the first clergyman to tout the Protocols. On February 12, 1919, the Reverend George Simons testified in front of the Senate's Overman Committee, shocking listeners with the tale of a secret worldwide Jewish conspiracy. Simons cited the Protocols as evidence. It is generally assumed that Simons obtained his copy of the Protocols from Dr. Harris Houghton of military intelligence. Houghton had obtained his copy from the Czarist immigrant Boris Brasol.

With his congregation of 3,500, Riley exerted tremendous influence in the upper Midwest. Jewish leaders regarded his church as the center of the area's anti-Semitism. However, Riley's influence extended far beyond his area and time. In 1902, Riley founded Northwestern Bible Training School, which in 1935 became the Northwestern Theological Seminary. He also assisted in the preparation of The Fundamentals, a statement of fundamentalist belief. Just before his death, Riley placed the leadership of Northwestern under the direction of Billy Graham.

On March 2, 2002, the ghost of fascism came home to roost on the head of Riley's chosen successor, Billy Graham. On that day, an additional 500 hours of Nixon tapes were released. In a 1972 conversation between Nixon and Graham, the preacher expressed his contempt for, as he saw it, Jewish domination of the media. Graham is heard on tape saying referring to a Jewish owned newspaper:

"his stranglehold has got to be broken or this country is going down the drain."

Later in the conversation, Graham expresses further opinions about Jews:

"They swarm around me and are friendly to me. Because they know I am friendly to Israel and so forth. But they don't know how I really feel about what they are doing to this country, and I have no power and no way to control them."

In response to the new revelations, Graham apologized profusely, claiming a lack of memory of the incident. This latest example of Billy Graham's anti-Semitism should come as no surprise to those that have followed his career. Graham's career has been marked with similar incidents.

In the 1950s, Graham was embroiled in an incident revealing his anti-Semitism. The incident stemmed from his portrait gracing the cover of the January 1957 issue of The American Mercury, and his friendship with the Mercury's owner, Russell Maguire. Maguire had acquired a huge fortune from oil and munitions. Maquire owned the company that made the Thompson submachine gun, and had acquired the Mercury in 1952.

In 1951, Maquire donated $75,000 to Billy Graham to produce a film extolling the virtues of free enterprise and the development of God-given natural resources. The film Graham produced was called Oiltown, USA. Graham continued his friendship with Maguire after producing Oiltown, and wrote several articles for the American Mercury. By the time Graham's portrait graced the Mercury's cover, the magazine had earned a reputation as overtly anti-Semitic and hard right. Maguire and the Mercury were ardently anti-communist, and also called for the abolition of the income tax, the UN, NATO, the ACLU and Zionism. Throughout the 1950s the Mercury, under the guidance of Maguire, supported Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Other writers for the Mercury included J. Edgar Hoover, Ralph de Toledano and George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party. De Toledano's resigned from the OSS after refusing to work with liberals. Maguire was an open backer of fascism and fascist organizations, and was an early supporter of Rockwell. Rockwell often complained about Maguire's miserly donations.

By January 1957, the Mercury was at loggerheads with the Anti-Defamation League over charges of anti-Semitism. Despite their public apologies, the religious right and Billy Graham cannot rid themselves of their past support of fascism and anti-Semitism any more than a leopard can change its spots.

So let's recap, shall we?

· Billy Graham began his career as a spokesman of a fundamentalist neo-fascist group lead by William B. Riley that believed in a theocracy.
· In 1902, Riley founded Northwestern Bible Training School, which in 1935 became the Northwestern Theological Seminary and Billy Graham was appointed as the leader. This is evidence that Riley and Graham shared the same philosophical beliefs.
· Billy Graham is held as a great moral leader but was recorded talking to one of the most corrupt presidents in American history making anti-semitic remarks blaming Jews for the ills of American society. He tells a delighted Nixon that Jews have a stranglehold on America "that has got to be broken or this country's going down the drain." Then, again addressing Nixon, the revered evangelist turned toady says: "But if you get elected a second time, then maybe we might be able to do something." Such talk is usually attributed to fascists or whacked-out religious fanatics and hate groups, not esteemed clergymen.

· Billy Graham’s career was subsidized and publicized by at least three fanatical fascists and media owners: Randolph Hearst, Henry Luce, and Russell Maguire. It follows that Graham owes his fame and fortune to Riley and the KKK, as well as Hearst and Luce.
· Billy Graham functions as a legitimizer and transmitter of the far right wing and the US government by his role as the personal ‘minister’ of numerous presidents. As a moral leader he never spoke out against war, poverty, racism, anti-Semitism, and corporate corruption even today. Those are things he didn't do.
· Billy Graham is identifying himself with the same right-wing fascist political groups that he started from and legitimizing the war in Iraq, the rise of right wing fundamentalism, and the corruption of the present administration. This is something he is still doing.

All of the above points contradict the uncritical belief that Rev. Billy Graham is a great Christian moral leader that is tolerant of other religions, believes in equality, cares about victims of poverty, that beleives in democracy, and resists public corruption. Instead, Graham's history is more consistent with the fascists that he associated with in the past and today.

The appeal to evangelicals went further. On April 29, 1985, Billy Graham, the respected and world famous evangelist, told Pat Robertson’s audience on the 700 Club show that:

“The time has come when evangelicals are going to have to think about getting organized corporately….I’m for evangelicals running for public office and winning if possible and getting control of the Congress, getting control of the bureaucracy, getting control of the executive branch of government. I think if we leave it to the other side we’re going to be lost. I would like to see every true believer involved in politics in some way shape or form.”

Got Theocracy?

The Haldeman Diaries

And don't forget H.R. Haldmann's comments about Graham. It seems that parts of the Nixon tape recording Graham were edited and Haldmann fills in the blanks in his diaries. Graham also mentions Henry Luce. You think Graham knew Luce as an anti-Semite? Graham's Luce reference was deleted because it is dyn-o-mite! It would have brought up too much history pointing at the media and 1930s American Fascism. They're not stupid. ""Graham notes that he's just been invited to lunch with editors of Time magazine. "I was quite amazed since this is the first time I've heard from Time since (Time founder) Henry Luce died."
This deletion and others was negotiated by lawyers. Remember these tapes were recorded in a 90-minute session after a prayer breakfast the men attended on Feb. 1, 1972.

Haldeman's own diaries briefly noted the unseemly conversation. He wrote that there was discussion "of the terrible problem arising from the total Jewish domination of the media, and agreement that this was something that would have to be dealt with."

He continues, "Graham has the strong feeling that the Bible says there are satanic Jews and there's where our problem arises." No such comments about the Bible are found on the tape released Thursday but, since it contains several long deletions, it's believed such remarks were excised.
The lengthy chat opens with Graham praising Nixon's prayer breakfast remarks. "There were a lot of people in tears when you finished this morning and it's very moving. That's the best I've heard you at one of those breakfast things."

After offering Nixon tips on preparing himself for big speeches, as well as strategy for his re-election campaign, Graham notes that he's just been invited to lunch with editors of Time magazine. "I was quite amazed since this is the first time I've heard from Time since (Time founder) Henry Luce died."

"You meet with all their editors, you better take your Jewish beanie," says Haldeman.

Graham laughs. "Is that right? I don't know any of them now."

Nixon then broaches a subject about which "we can't talk about it publicly," namely Jewish influence in Hollywood and the media. He cites Paul Keyes, a political conservative who is executive producer of the NBC hit, "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," as telling him that "11 of the 12 writers are Jewish."

"That right?" says Graham, prompting Nixon to claim that Life magazine, Newsweek, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and others, are "totally dominated by the Jews." He calls network TV anchors, Howard K. Smith, David Brinkley and Walter Cronkite "front men who may not be of that persuasion," but that their writers are "95 percent Jewish."

He demurs that this does not mean "that all the Jews are bad" but that most are left-wing radicals who want "peace at any price except where support for Israel is concerned. The best Jews are actually the Israeli Jews."

"That's right," agrees Graham, who later concurs with a Nixon assertion that a "powerful bloc" of Jews confronts Nixon in the media. "And they're the ones putting out the pornographic stuff," Graham adds.

Nixon contends that "every Democratic candidate will owe his election to Jewish people," but he won't.

Haldeman turns the subject to the White House press corps and the Gridiron Club, a bastion of the media establishment, both of which they say were mostly WASP once, but no more.

"It was the Merriman Smiths, the Dick Wilsons, the Kilpatricks, all that kind of people. But you look at what covers the president today and it's really kind of scary," Haldeman says. Haldeman and Nixon both cite by name reporters from the Los Angeles Times (David Kraslow), New York Times (Max Frankel), Washington Post (Stanley Karnow) and NBC (Herb Kaplow) but stumble on getting to CBS.

"From CBS, Rather, Dan Rather, is Rather? . . ." says Haldeman. A deletion then follows with the next voice heard being that of Graham, who alludes to A.M. Rosenthal, managing editor of the New York Times.

"But I have to lean a little bit, you know. I go and see friend of Mr. Rosenthal at The New York Times, and people of that sort. And all, I don't mean all the Jews, but a lot of the Jews are great friends of mine. They swarm around me and are friendly to me. Because they know I am friendly to Israel and so forth. They don't know how I really feel about what they're doing to this country. And I have no power and no way to handle them."
Nixon says, "You must not let them know."

The conversation turns to religious magazines, postal rates and Nixon's uncharitable thoughts on certain Cabinet members. Graham then leaves and, a few minutes later, Nixon tells Haldeman, "You know it was good we got this point about the Jews across."

"It's a shocking point," says Haldeman, a frequent cheerleader during Nixon's negative diatribes.

"Well," says Nixon, "it's also, the Jews are irreligious, atheistic, immoral bunch of bastards."

*This historical account courtesy of Spiritone.

Jerry Falwell's influence

Falwell started "Liberty University" in the early 1960's and is fond of proclaining its academic excellence. But the real reason it was founded was as a bullwark against the rising tide of de-segregation. It was supposed to be for whites only as Falwell was a segregationist. His racist roots continued to define him until 1968 when he had an epiphany and saw the error of his ways. Actually he claims that Jesus cured him of racism but we here at the collective think he saw the writing on the wall and the way the world was heading, so he decided to stop fighting City Hall. Nice move Jerry.

From Wiki-pedia...

""In 1994, Falwell released the straight-to-video documentary "The Clinton Chronicles: An Investigation into the Alleged Criminal Activities of Bill Clinton." The description on the box read:
"For the first time on video, a documentary that puts together the whole story! -- The names and faces of the key players who Clinton used to build his Circle of Power... as well as those who got in his way and lost their jobs, reputations, virtue, and lives! From Whitewater to ADFA... From millions in drug smuggling in Mena, Arkansas, to money laundering with the BCCI... From Gennifer Flowers to Paula Jones... From Vince Foster's "suicide" to the gangland slaying of private investigator Jerry Parks.
THE CLINTON CHRONICLES uncovers the shocking truth the controlled media and Clintons don't want you to know!"

Falwell's infomercial for the 80-minute tape included footage of Falwell interviewing a silhouetted journalist who was afraid for his life. The journalist accused Clinton of orchestrating the deaths of several reporters and personal confidants who had gotten too close to his illegalities. However, it was subsequently revealed that the silhouetted journalist was, in fact, Patrick Matrisciana, the producer of the video. "Obviously, I'm not an investigative reporter," Matrisciana admitted (to investigative journalist Murray Waas), "and I doubt our lives were actually ever in any real danger. That was Jerry's idea to do that ... He thought that would be dramatic."

In an interview for The Hunting of the American President Falwell admitted, "To this day I do not know the accuracy of the claims made in The Clinton Chronicles," but nevertheless failed to condemn the poor research and false statements.

In February of 1999, an article in Falwell's National Liberty Journal suggested that a Teletubbies character, Tinky Winky, could be a hidden homosexual symbol, because the character was purple (which he claimed was a color symbolic of homosexuality), had an inverted triangle on his head and carried a handbag. Falwell denied any personal involvement with the original article, and made clear he never had any prior knowledge or concern with the Teletubbies. Falwell's organization said the author of the article was simply repeating what others in the media were already saying about the nature of the character

After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, he (along with fellow televangelist Pat Robertson) made comments interpreted as blaming various groups for the attack. The two were widely condemned for having made these comments. When asked why God would allow such an event to happen to America, Falwell said:
"And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way—all of them who have tried to secularize America—I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen.""

There are almost too many anecdotes and quotes from Falwell to support the contention in Hackett's statement that these people are nuts. That's a slam dunk. Go find your own quotes, it'll give you something to do.

Pat Robertson...loon extraordinaire

Do we really need to go through the motions here? Oh very well.

We have enough votes to run the country. And when the people say, "We've had enough," we are going to take over.
-- Pat Robertson, speech given to the April, 1980 "Washington for Jesus" rally, quoted from Robert Boston, The Most Dangerous Man in America, p. 29

If Christian people work together, they can succeed during this decade in winning back control of the institutions that have been taken from them over the past 70 years. Expect confrontations that will be not only unpleasant but at times physically bloody.... This decade will not be for the faint of heart, but the resolute. Institutions will be plunged into wrenching change. We will be living through one of the most tumultuous periods of human history. When it is over, I am convinced God's people will emerge victorious.
-- Pat Robertson, Pat Robertson's Perspective Oct-Nov 1992

We at the Christian Coalition are raising an army who cares. We are training people to be effective -- to be elected to school boards, to city councils, to state legislatures, and to key positions in political parties.... By the end of this decade, if we work and give and organize and train, THE CHRISTIAN COALITION WILL BE THE MOST POWERFUL POLITICAL ORGANIZATION IN AMERICA.
-- Pat Robertson, in a fundraising letter, July 4, 1991

There is no such thing as separation of church and state in the Constitution. It is a lie of the Left and we are not going to take it anymore.
-- Pat Robertson, address to his American Center for Law and Justice, November, 1993. Let's see, now: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." How could the prohibition against Congress making laws respecting an establishment of religion be anything but the separation of church and state?

They scream, "First Amendment." Of course, the First Amendment, as you and I both know, is a restriction on Congress.... So it really doesn't have anything to do with what you say or what I say, one way or the other.
-- Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, December 10, 1990, deliberately misrepresenting what it means by "Congress shall make no law" by omitting mention of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, and yet sniveling about the Supreme Court's state-church decisions

There is never in the Constitution at any point, anything that applies that to the states, none at all. The Supreme Court has done it over repeated attempts by Congress which have been beaten back to do such a thing.
-- Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, April 11, 1986, deliberately misrepresenting what it means for the states to have the right to decide issues not covered by the Constitution at the Federal level (much which was clarified by the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments)

Terrorist Attacks, September 11, 2001

We have imagined ourselves invulnerable and have been consumed by the pursuit of ... health, wealth, material pleasures and sexuality... It [terrorism] is happening because God Almighty is lifting his protection from us.
-- Pat Robertson, oblivious to the statistical (and obvious) fact that no nation or group of people has ever enjoyed a higher degree of personal, political, or economic safety than the Americans enjoy today, Robertson engages the fearmongering typical of Christian preachers by blaming the Americans' lifestyles for bringing upon themselves the judgement of the God of Everlasting Mercy; this is Robertson's explanation of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in a three-page statement released Thursday, September 13, 2001, quoted from AANEWS #958 by American Atheists (September 14, 2001)

We have a court that has essentially stuck its finger in God's eye. We have insulted God at the highest levels of our government. Then, we say, "Why does this happen?" It is happening because God Almighty is lifting His protection from us.
-- Pat Robertson, blaming American lifestyles for bringing God's judgement upon us in the form of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in a three-page statement released Thursday, September 13, 2001, quoted from AANEWS #958 by American Atheists (September 14, 2001), and from Dick Meyer, "Holy Smoke," CBS News (September 15, 2001)

We have a court that has essentially stuck its finger in God's eye and said we're going to legislate you out of the schools. We're going to take your commandments from off the courthouse steps in various states. We're not going to let little children read the commandments of God. We're not going to let the Bible be read, no prayer in our schools. We have insulted God at the highest levels of our government. And then we say, "Why does this happen?"
Well, why it's happening is that God Almighty is lifting his protection from us.
-- Pat Robertson, explaining on his 700 Club cable TV program why the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, had occurred two days earlier (but oblivious as to why such nations as Sweden and The Netherlands, both many orders more secular than the U.S. could ever hope to be, are spared such tragedies), quoted from Beth Corbin, ed., Americans United Activist Release: "Pat Robertson Prays for Supreme Court Changes" (July 15, 2003)

But I want to say as surely as I am sitting here today, this is only a foretaste, a little warning, of what is going to happen...
-- Pat Robertson, remarking on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, even after receiving a personal rebuke from the President, quoted from Dick Meyer, "Holy Smoke," CBS News (September 15, 2001)

This is God's power and he sent this thing to warn us ... we needed a shock.
-- Pat Robertson, remarking on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, quoted by Robert E. Norlander in a dispatch of September 14, 2001

Good or Bad, God Picks Bush Because He's Christian

I think George Bush is going to win in a walk. I really believe that I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election of 2004. It's shaping up that way. The Lord has just blessed him.... I mean, he could make terrible mistakes and comes out of it. It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad. God picks him up because he's a man of prayer and God's blessing him.
-- Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, , January 2, 2004 ††

U.S. Constitution: For Christians Only

The Constitution of the United States, for instance, is a marvelous document for self-government by the Christian people. But the minute you turn the document into the hands of non-Christian people and atheistic people they can use it to destroy the very foundation of our society. And that's what's been happening.
-- Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, December 30, 1981

Only Christians and Jews in Government

Individual Christians are the only ones really -- and Jewish people, those who trust God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- are the only ones that are qualified to have the reign, because hopefully, they will be governed by God and submit to Him.
-- Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, January 11, 1985, defending his stance that only Christians and Jews are fit to hold public office

I never said that in my life ... I never said only Christians and Jews. I never said that.
-- Pat Robertson, Time magazine, after having been confronted regarding his statement on The 700 Club of January 11, 1985

When I said during my presidential bid that I would only bring Christians and Jews into the government, I hit a firestorm. "What do you mean?" the media challenged me. "You're not going to bring atheists into the government? How dare you maintain that those who believe in the Judeo-Christian values are better qualified to govern America than Hindus and Muslims?" My simple answer is, "Yes, they are."
-- Pat Robertson, The New World Order, p. 218

Why Hindus and Muslims Cannot Govern

If anybody understood what Hindus really believe, there would be no doubt that they have no business administering government policies in a country that favors freedom and equality.... Can you imagine having the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as defense minister, or Mahatma Gandhi as minister of health, education, and welfare? The Hindu and Buddhist idea of karma and the Muslim idea of kismet, or fate condemn the poor and the disabled to their suffering.... It's the will of Allah. These beliefs are nothing but abject fatalism, and they would devastate the social gains this nation has made if they were ever put into practice.
-- Pat Robertson, The New World Order, p. 219

Christians Are Just -- Better People

I think patriotism, love of God, love of country, support of the traditional family. They [Christians] believe it would be good for our country if families were closer together.... I think they feel about them more strongly than others do.
-- Pat Robertson, speaking at a rally in Lansing, Michigan, in 1986, having been asked if there are some issues Christians feel more strongly about that non-Christians

But Only Certain Kinds of Christians

You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist. I can love the people who hold false opinions but I don't have to be nice to them.
-- Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, January 14, 1991

Proposed 'Godly Fumigation' of Non-Christians

It is interesting, that termites don't build things, and the great builders of our nation almost to a man have been Christians, because Christians have the desire to build something. He is motivated by love of man and God, so he builds. The people who have come into [our] institutions [today] are primarily termites. They are into destroying institutions that have been built by Christians, whether it is universities, governments, our own traditions, that we have.... The termites are in charge now, and that is not the way it ought to be, and the time has arrived for a godly fumigation.
-- Pat Robertson, New York Magazine, August 18, 1986

Political Assassinations Recommended

I know it sounds somewhat Machiavellian and evil, to think that you could send a squad in to take out somebody like Osama bin Laden, or to take out the head of North Korea, but isn't it better to do something like that, to take out Milosevic, to take out Saddam Hussein, rather than to spend billions of dollars on a war that harms innocent civilians and destroys the infrastructure of a country?
-- Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, August 9, 1999, quoted in Martin McLaughlin, "Pat Robertson favors assassinations," August 14, 1999, World Socialist Web Site.

"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with." –Pat Robertson, calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

"God considers this land to be his. You read the Bible and he says 'This is my land,' and for any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says, 'No, this is mine.' ... He was dividing God's land. And I would say, 'Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the E.U., the United Nations, or the United States of America.' God says, 'This land belongs to me. You better leave it alone.'" --Pat Robertson, on why Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke.

"The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians." –Pat Robertson

"Maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom to shake things up" –Pat Robertson, on nuking the State Department

Now what's really funny is that we haven't used all of the quotes we could find to illustrate the obvious craziness of Pat Robertson.

Let's wrap this up

So how does this apply to Ohio and the Democratic party you might ask? Right now dear friends we have the Rod Parsley controversy raging. These backward thinking theocrats also want to turn America into a Christian nation where only Christians of the right persuasion may hold high government office. They share a direct lineage with the history of the right wing evangelical movement that we've outlined for you here.

Are you Democrats starting to put the pieces together yet? This evangelical world view is the central nervous system of the modern Republican Party. If you don't attack it head-on you will be taking wild swings and missing the mark. You cannot merely take on the GOP on the "issues" and expect to win. You must attack the most cherished world views and icons of the Republican Party.

The modern GOP has no resemblance to the Republican Party of old. Even Barry Goldwater excoriated the fundamentalists as he saw them infiltrating and taking over his party. He is quoted as saying...

"I don't have any respect for the Religious Right."

"Every good Christian should line up and kick Jerry Falwell's ass."

"A woman has a right to an abortion."

"The religious factions will go on imposing their will on others,"

...and this is from the father of the modern conservative movement! We need more people like Barry Goldwater right now. Oh sure, the GOP will counter attack and try to smear you by declaring that you're a bigot who hates "people of faith". You then counter-counter-attack by telling them that these people show a profound LACK of faith. If they had such unshakeable faith they wouldn't be using the arm of the government to give their religion the government's impramatur of endorsement. Oh yea of little faith indeed.

Don't believe the GOP has been hijacked by extremists? Witness how every Republican politician flew back to Washington last year to make a special law to keep Terri Schiavo on life support. All in the effort to pander to their fundamentalist base and their "culture of life" nonsense. Did Bush give his friend Harriet Myers an "up or down" vote that you always hear the GOP yammering about when Democrats give the slightest peep of protest about a Supreme Court nominee? Of course not, he withdrew her nomination faster than you can say BOO when his far right evangelical base had doubts about her willingness to overturn Roe v. Wade.

And now we have John Boehner being elected as Majority Leader to replace the very corrupt and yes, very evangelical Tom DeLay. But Boehner is of the same political Christofascist stripe as DeLay. To whit:

1. For School Prayer and Amending the Constitution: Rep. Boehner supported a school prayer amendment to the United States Constitution in 1997 (H.J.Res. 78), 1999 (H.J.Res 66), and 2001 (H.J.Res. 52); voted to permit school prayer "during this time of struggle against the forces of international terrorism" (House Roll Call Vote 445, Nov. 15, 2001); and voted to only allow federal aid to schools that allow prayer (House Roll Call Vote 85, March 23, 1994).

2. For Forced Religion in Anti-Poverty Programs: Rep. Boehner voted to permit taxpayer-funded anti-poverty programs to require aid recipients to join in religious activities. (House Roll Call Votes 16 and 17, Feb. 4, 2004)

3. 100% Against a Woman's Right to Choose: Rep. Boehner received a "0%" pro-choice score from NARAL Pro-Choice America in 2005.

4. For Religious Employment Discrimination: Rep. Boehner voted to permit taxpayer-funded anti-poverty programs to engage in federally-funded employment discrimination. (House Roll Call Votes 15 and 17, Feb. 4, 2004)

5. Against the Rule of Law in Ten Commandments Case: Rep. Boehner voted to prevent the Justice Department from enforcing a court order to remove a 5,000 pound Ten Commandments monument from Alabama's state supreme court. (House Roll Call Vote 419, July 23, 2003)

6. Against Common-Sense Environmental Safeguards: Rep. Boehner voted for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (House Roll Call Vote 122, April 20, 2005); voted to gut the Endangered Species Act (House Roll Call Vote 506, September 29, 2005); and voted to weaken the National Environmental Policy Act (House Roll Call Vote 242, June 15, 2004).

7. For More Religious Employment Discrimination: Rep. Boehner voted to permit taxpayer-funded job training programs to engage in religious discrimination when hiring and firing employees with federal funds. (House Roll Call Vote 46, March 2, 2005)

8. Against Confronting Proselytizing at the Air Force Academy: Rep. Boehner voted against an amendment to squarely address religious coercion and proselytizing at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado. The amendment criticized "coercive and abusive religious proselytizing" of cadets at the Academy while observing that "expression of personal religious faith is welcome" throughout the military. (House Roll Call Vote 283, June 20, 2005)

9. Led the Effort to Inject Religious Employment Discrimination into Head Start: Rep. Boehner added a controversial amendment in September to a previously bipartisan School Readiness Act which would "allow federally funded early-child-care providers to discriminate on religious grounds," according to The Forward. The Forward notes, "The federal government transfers about $6.7 billion annually to 19,000 Head Start providers in 50 states, three territories and the District of Columbia." Jewish groups opposed to the measure, according to The Forward, include the "Anti-Defamation League, the Union for Reform Judaism, the American Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Committee and the National Council of Jewish Women."

10. Pushed Ohio Schools to Embrace "Intelligent Design:" People For the American Way reports that Rep. Boehner and fellow Ohio Republican Rep. Steve Chabot wrote to the Ohio school board claiming that legislative language required that references to "Intelligent Design" be included in Ohio's science standards. In fact, such language was removed from the relevant education bill before it became final.

Democrats, you have to stop posturing, pandering and posing. Stop trying to play the Republican's game and stop trying to race them to the bottom in an effort to find God. You need to adopt Thomas Jefferson's attitude and get government out of the religion business. Do we have to draw pictures for you? Paul Hackett knows what to do, will any of the rest of you stand up to these bullies? You need to do this and you need to do it NOW or we will find the Democrats who will do so. We watch.

Weaklings

2006-01-31T22:39:00.000-05:00

The collective is not pleased. We have just witnessed the most lame, ineffectual, limp wristed, enfeebled, watered down, namby-pamby response to Bush's State Of The Union address. Tim Kaine clearly hasn't the fire in the belly or the stones to lead Democrats against the likes of Bush and his GOP smear machine. If this is the best the Democratic Party can do then they are in bigger trouble than Locutus has thought.

Democratic Boot Camp

2006-01-29T00:32:00.000-05:00

The collective has determined that the Democratic Party needs discipline. No, not the kind we refered to in our last post although we dare say that most of the shrinking violets in this god-forsaken party could use it. We're talking about basic discipline, a guide to how it's done. Oh sure, we could take the easy way out and point at Howard Dean and Paul Hackett and say "There! THAT'S how you're supposed to act!" But that wouldn't be as much fun as tormenting you by sending you to school. Yes Democrats, it's time to drop and give me fifty. It's time for class and Locutus is a stern taskmaster. The form of this lesson is a multiple choice quiz and Locutus will be giving many throughout the year.

Scenario #1. You're in a campaign and your political opponent has started to invoke the name of God at every turn. He tells the world that his favorite philosopher is Jesus and that he changed his life. During the upcoming debate you...

a. Pull a John Kerry and drone on and on about how important your Catholic faith is to you.

b. Pee your pants because you know your red state is chock full 'o fundies.

c. Tell your opponent that you resent his injecting religion into the campaign and that his pandering to the pious won't distract you from pointing out his obvious lies and failures.

Scenario #2. Your opponent who normally espouses liberal values does an about-face and tacks to the center by supporting an Amendment to ban flag burning. You respond by...

a. Agreeing.

b. Waxing philosophic about how much you love the American flag.

c. Telling your opponent that free speech includes the right to burn the flag as a political statement. Additionally, if any Democrat votes to take that right away they will be pantsed and publicly humiliated.

Scenario #3. You go on the offensive by declaring that the President is a chickenhawk who ran from active duty while "supporting" his generation's war. The GOP shames you and demands an apology.

a. You hide in the closet.

b. You apologize in the well of the Senate and even shed a tear or two.

c. You tell them to stick it up their asses with a red hot poker.

Scenario #4. The GOP musters all it's forces to "save" the life of a brain dead woman in the name of their "Culture Of Life". You respond by...

a. Becoming more invisible than minorities at a KKK meeting.

b. Sending out words of sympathy for the girl's family.

c. Telling the GOP vultures that saving the lives of poor people who actually have a shot at life would be more worthwhile and also mentioning that pandering to fundamentalist morons isn't on our agenda. If they don't like this response refer them to Question 3-c.

OK. What were your responses? If you answered "c" to each scenario you get an "A+" for the day from Locutus. If you missed any of these you will be subjected to remedial courses lasting approximately a fortnight. How stupid do you have to be to miss these anyway? Oh don't fret, we know there's some of you Democrats just dumb enough to flunk this little pop quiz. It is you who we will keep watching.

Next week's Democratic Boot Camp will tackle the subject of icons and the GOP's most cherished beliefs. This comprises the entire ball game of what makes them tick so don't miss it. Alright girls, class dismissed.

Chris Redfern said...WHAT?

2006-01-26T21:25:00.000-05:00

OK, this is not good. It was reported to Locutus that Chris Redfern spoke at a public meeting of the Ohio Women's Leadership Forum in Shaker Heights recently and warned Democrats to be careful about attacking the Republicans for their relgious extremism lest they throw it back at us (e.g. by going after black churches that have allowed candidates to use their pulpits).

Alright, we realize that there are some similarities between how the faith community was used by both left and right in this country. But the differences are vast as well and it is those differences that our Democratic leaders must be articulating, not allowing the GOP to control our behaviour because we're afraid of being called hypocrites. This fight is about tone and attitude, not just issues. Having a leader of the Democratic Party here in Ohio tell us we have to be CAREFUL in how we attack the Republican theocracy in the making is very disturbing to the collective here at ODP Watch. We are not amused.

When will it be alright to go on the attack Mr. Redfern? After Judge Alito is confirmed to the Supreme Court? After they've introduced Constitutional Amendments banning gay marriage and gay adoption? After Roe v. Wade is overturned? After the new Constitutional Amendments banning flag burning, allowing Christian prayers in public schools as well as The Ten Commandments? Where does that line in the sand get drawn Mr. Redfern? When are we allowed to use fighting words?

Now Chris, we know that you're a nice guy. Maybe too nice. "Nice" is something that we can't afford right now my good fellow. You have to be a raging S.O.B. and we mean that quite literally.

The leaders of the Democratic Party should be leading the charge, not telling us to be CAREFUL. I mean, we wouldn't want to offend anybody or anything, right? Mr. Redfern, it is time to lead. It is time to use those fighting words and tell the GOP fascists that they can go to hell. Yes, you can cuss. We won't tell your Mom and Dad. It beats going down to defeat like simpering cowards begging the GOP for scraps and crumbs from the table in a phony show of "non-partisanship" where we get our buttocks paddled like bitches in Animal House. I'd rather see you go out fighting than asking the GOP paddlers "Please Master, may I have another?"

An Open Letter to Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean

2006-01-18T09:28:00.000-05:00

Dear Mr. Chairman,

Welcome to Ohio. Ohio needs your help. Ohio grassroots Democrats need your help.

Fifteen Years of Failure – For fifteen years our Ohio Democratic Party leaders have failed us. For fifteen years no Democrat has won an election for statewide political office. All we hear from Ohio Democratic officials is that eventually we will win. Hopes run high this year as well. We hear the same promises today that we have heard for the past fifteen years – that this year will be different. This year, again, we hear the Ohio Democrats will get their act together and win elections, aided by pervasive Republican corruption which includes a convicted Republican Governor. We have heard all this before.

In November 2005, with the Republican Governor convicted, with all the publicity concerning Republican corruption, with Democratic victories around the country, the political reforms on the ballot lost in Ohio. They lost big. The Ohio Democratic Party did not even take a position on the ballot issues. The Ohio Democratic Party remained neutral. The Republican Party fought fiercely against the political reforms, and the Republicans won.

This failure of leadership can no longer be tolerated.

On May 10, 2005, so-called religious leaders allied with the Republican Party held meetings with 1070 pastors. Their aim in meeting was to register voters and propagate their theocratic aims. The Ohio Democratic Party response has been silence and fear.

The Ohio Democratic Party has made no attempt to organize and rally African-Americans, people of faith, seniors, the disabled, women, the GLBT community – none of the base groups Democrats will come to just before election time asking for votes. Mr. Chairman, the Ohio Democratic Party offices are not even Americans with Disabilities Act compliant. A disabled person cannot attend meetings at the Ohio Democratic Party but Democrats will be asking for votes from the disabled. Steven Reece, a candidate for Ohio Democratic Party Chair pointed out at a public meeting with most Ohio Democratic Party officials in attendance that his wife who relies on a wheelchair cannot access Ohio Democratic Party meetings. What has been done about this – nothing.

In 2006 the citizens of Ohio will be voting on electronic voting machines. In 2005, the Democratic National Committee passed a resolution warning against use of DRE machines. The Ohio Democratic Party, after all the election irregularities in 2004 did not even bother to issue recommendations or guidelines to Democrats on local Boards of Elections regarding purchase of these machines which many Ohio Democrats view with suspicion. The people are concerned, our leaders are silent.

Instead, of ensuring full access for all at headquarters and organizing the voters needed in November the Ohio Democratic Party has opted for part-time leadership and more promises that things will improve. The promises are hollow ones thus far.

On Friday, January 6, 2006 a Republican was elected as president of the Toledo City council. The Toledo City Council, as the Toledo Blade pointed out has “an overwhelming number of Democrats”. Are Ohio’s grassroots Democrats supposed to tolerate this type of behavior? Where were our leaders? Why did this happen? Who allowed this to happen?

Office hours at Ohio Democratic Party headquarters are still a sometime thing. The last two weeks of 2005 the headquarters were mostly closed. When holidays approach it is a safe bet the offices will close early, if they open at all. Often, emails will not be responded to and phone calls will not be returned. There was no sense of urgency in 2005 that 2006 is an election year. It was business as usual.

There is new leadership in the Ohio House Democratic leadership with the election of the excellent Joyce Beatty. There have also been recent changes at the Ohio Democratic Party leadership and new promises made.

However because of the fifteen years of Ohio Democratic Party failures we have started a website (http://watchodp.blogspot.com/) to make sure this year’s batch of Democratic Party promises are kept and that reform sweeps the halls of the Ohio Democratic Party. We will monitor the hours the offices are open, request information from activists and Democratic Party workers (odpwatch@gmail.com) and catalog and publicize failures to keep promises.

What you can do Chairman Dean is help us by monitoring every expenditure of moneys the DNC sends to Ohio. Please keep strings attached in the form of an administering treasurer to any transfer of funds and make sure that someone at the DNC helps to make sure the reforms you have started at the DNC are also implemented in the Ohio Democratic Party. We must not have another year of failure.

We would also like to meet with you in Washington, D.C. where we can speak freely about why the failures have occurred and discuss ways to prevent these failures from hurting us in 2006 and 2008.

Respectfully,
ODP Watch

The Agony and the Ecstasy

2006-01-17T18:26:00.000-05:00

Yes friends, there's good and bad in here but hopefully things will improve. Many thanks to WW II Vet for compiling this brief history.

DEMOCRATIC PARTY PROBLEMS
By WW II Vet, Columbus, Ohio

DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIR RESIGNS On Wednesday, November 23, 2005 (the day before Thanksgiving), Ohio Democratic Party Chair Dennis White announced his early resignation, to become effective December 1, 2005. Ohio governor candidate U. S. Congressman Ted Strickland immediately thanked White for his service, and announced his own choice for a new Chair - Ohio House Minority Leader Chris Redfern - who had recently endorsed Strickland for Ohio governor.

PAUL HACKETT FOR U. S. SENATE 2006 After Sherrod Brown refused for months to challenge Mike DeWine in 2006 for his Ohio Senate seat, Democratic leaders turned to Marine Major Paul Hackett, who had recently run an outstanding campaign that had gained him national recognition as a rising star in the party. But, no sooner had Hackett agreed to be the standard bearer, Sherrod Brown changed his mind, and said he would run against DeWine. By this time, Hackett had hired campaign staff, purchased a large bus, and already gained a loyal following. Hackett would officially declare on October 24, 2005. On December 16, 2005, the United Auto Workers, Ohio’s largest unaffiliated labor union, endorsed Paul Hackett, while the Cleveland AFL-CIO backed Brown.

Brown had been warned on Sunday, October 9, 2005, by concerned Democrats, at the Blackwell Hotel meeting of Upper Arlington Progressive Action, about splitting the Democratic Party with an unnecessary primary, endangering his own congressional seat, and draining precious resources.

He was asked specifically at the Upper Arlington meeting to explain why he would challenge Hackett after having his chance to run and for months claiming he was not interested.

BROWN IGNORED ALL WARNINGS “The Hackett/Brown situation” was discussed, at length October 5-12, 2005, on Brown’s website, GrowOhio.org, covering many pages. It began with “Now, Sherrod Brown has changed his mind. While it is of course well within his right to change his mind, this is causing a great deal of discussion and some hard feelings in different corners of he internet. This isn’t the way to defeat DeWine. A difficult primary will only serve to diminish funds needed to defeat DeWine.”

Some points made were: (1) avoid a primary; (2) Brown should wait and try for a Senate seat in 2010; (3) people are very angry about what Brown is doing; (4) Brown is giving up his valuable House Seniority; (5) Brown missed his opportunity to run; 6) Brown is giving ammunition to the right wing press; (7) the Democrats need unity above all; (8) Hackett inspires, makes people want to win; (9) Hackett is a Iraq veteran; (10) Hacket is hot and we should capitalize on that; (11) this is a dangerous time for a primary; (12) Brown is causing disruption in a party already weak: (13) Brown’s actions have angered me greatly; (14) Brown should help Hackett win; (15) Hackett is from SW Ohio which is a big plus.

A straw poll done by DailyKos, right after Brown announced he was reconsidering a run for DeWine’s senate seat, showed Major Paul Hackett leading Brown – 86% to 13% - a seventy point advantage. Kos added, “And with all apologies to Brown, who is one of the greats in the House, but this isn’t cool. He bows out, waits for Hackett to gear up, and then floats a trial balloon about getting back in? Brown must’ve known about Hackett’s decision to run, hence this trial balloon is sabotage.”

The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Washington reporters – Stephen Koff and Elizabeth Auster - wrote, on Friday, October 6, 2005, concerning Brown’s “on-and-off flirtation that’s lasted for months…But before Brown, 52, can talk about his own work on health care, trade, Social Security and the environment, he’ll have to deal with a clumsy situation. Brown announced his intentions just three days after another Democrat, Paul Hackett of suburban Cincinnati, got into the Senate race. Hackett decided to run after Brown announced in August that he would stay in the U. S. House – a decision that, Brown said two weeks ago, he didn’t regret. The Hackett camp says it feels betrayed, since Brown, of Avon, assured Hackett face-to-face that he was not running.”

COALITION FOR “THE STATUS QUO” Ted Strickland, in the meantime, has teamed up to run with U. S. Congressman Sherrod Brown who, after more lengthy procrastination, finally on December 3, 2005, officially challenged Paul Hackett for Mike DeWine’s U. S. senate seat.

It is believed that Dennis White, Ted Strickland, Chris Redford, and Sherrod Brown timed a Thanksgiving move to catch everyone else unprepared so they could have their handpicked State Chair, with little opposition, in place by December 19, 2005 - the date of the Democratic Party’s holiday affair – for the ordained Coronation.

STATEWIDE FORUMS RECOMMENDED Fortunately, grassroots activists were also ready and able to quickly respond to the White resignation. On Monday, November 28, 2005, the Ohio Honest Elections Campaign called for a series of statewide forums to offer “Democracy For Democrats.” Forums would showcase those running for chair, give rank and file party members a chance to be involved, and thereby develop an effective opposition party in the state of Ohio – so necessary for a healthy democracy and the good of all Ohio citizens.

DEMOCRATIC PARTY REJECTS DEMOCRACY The Party refused to sponsor any forums and insisted on the December 19 party schedule. This left only time for one forum to serve as a demonstration project. It would be sponsored by the Ohio Honest Elections Campaign, co-sponsored by Ohio Voter Fund, and held Tuesday, December 13, 2005, at the Columbus First Congregational Church on East Broad Street.

While the Sherrod Brown-Ted Strickland coalition, including old time Democratic loser-leaders, rejected the idea of statewide forums to elect a new chair, Paul Hackett enthusiastically endorsed the forums as a way to invigorate the party and give Democrats the best chance for winning in 2006, and thereafter.

SUCCESSFUL FORUM Despite snow and cold weather, this forum was well attended by concerned Democrats from all over the state. Most of the chair candidates were there - including Dennis Eckart, Susan Gwinn, Dennis Lieberman, Jane Mitakides, Chris Redfern, and Steven Reece.

Concerning the two front running candidates - Chris Redfern left early because he obviously felt that a scheduled party was more important then a job interview by constituents. This, no doubt, partly influenced informal blog polling which strongly favored Montgomery County Democratic Chair Dennis Lieberman for Ohio Democratic Chair. More important, Redfern was refusing to give up his Ohio legislative seat in order to be a full time Chair. Lieberman promised to relinquish his County Chair position and his legal practice.

DECEMBER 19, 2005 - THE OHIO DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHRISTMAS PARTY ELECTION Despite bitterly cold weather, old timers said this was the largest turnout they could remember. The vote for a new chair took place before the actual party.

Besides delegates, the room was jammed with special guests and delegate supporters, especially for the two leading candidates – Dennis Lieberman and Chris Redfern. Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin, who tried valiantly to preside over the meeting, was clearly at a huge disadvantage because the unruly audience consistently participated in the proceedings – cheering and booing on cue.

Obviously, the Ted Strickland-Sherrod Brown coalition (including the old-guard of loser-leaders) had everything prearranged for Redfern’s election. In particular, they changed the rules from secret paper ballots to a stand up vote in order to follow through on widely reported pre-election intimidation of the delegates (to vote for their hand-picked Redfern).

When the vote tally confirmed Redfern’s election, he was duly sworn in, and read a prepared speech - calling for party unity, and promising he would be a full time chair, but actually as a part time chair since he will stay in the Ohio legislature, and even plans to run again.

Therefore, the Toledo Blade had a valid point in reporting that Republican Chair Bob Bennett was calling for Redfern’s resignation so that taxpayers will “not subsidize his new party job.” A December 24, 2005 Columbus Dispatch Editorial warned, “The Ohio Democratic Party boss shouldn’t try to handle two important jobs.”

The Cleveland Plain Dealer declared “the behind-the-scenes struggles have badly splintered the party…The party’s old-guard leaders, at the helm during years of miserable results at the polls, threw their weight behind Redfern. His campaign was orchestrated by Columbus labor leader Ron Malone, an informal adviser to Strickland. Lieberman drew his backing from the party’s minority leaders, some labor leaders and the big-city Democrats, including Tubbs Jones and Jimmy Dimora, chairman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party.”

John McCarthy of the Associated Press wrote: “The Ohio Democratic Party elected a new chairman last week with the two challengers joining the victor on stage, their hands clasped in unity and the party faithful cheering. The scene, however, capped an hour-long shouting match more commonly found on trash TV.”

REACTIONS BY PARTY MEMBERS Initially stunned in disbelief, concerned activists quickly recovered, and have vowed at least three things: (1) to profit from the fiasco they witnessed; (2) to even more closely monitor those trying to keep the sorry status quo; and (3) work doubly hard to elect a full time Democratic Party Chair in May 2006 – one who will not further divide the party, who listens to the citizens, is all inclusive, and does not tolerate threats and intimidation.

THE BLOGS REPORT “It was a hell of a night at the corner of 4th and Main… The election room was packed for the coronation…” declared Psychobilly Democrat.

Buckeye Senate blog wrote: “The happiest man in Ohio today is Bob Bennett. What went on tonight and in the days leading up to the vote was nothing short of shameful. When Stephanie Tubbs Jones stands up and talks about intimidation (the room was dripping with it), threats against peoples jobs and bribery you know you are at an ODP event…”

Live from Dayton wrote: “Tonight the media, spectators, and ODP Central Committee witnessed first hand the personified problems of the ODP…”

SHERROD BROWN’S BIZARRE BEHAVIOR The following day, on December 20, 2005, Buckeye Senate wrote “Sherrod Brown Unplugged,” which set the stage for the day’s blogosphere, and for an indefinite time to come.

“Pounder” first referred to “reports that Sherrod Brown had berated a group of Columbus Activists… basically upset about their support for Hackett.”

Then he described his own hostile encounter with Brown and Brown’s wife, Connie Schultz, who were very unhappy with what he had been writing, because Brown believed “he is a lock and we should all be attacking the Republicans…”

A short time later, Pounder “noticed blogger Tim Russo [of Buckeye Politics] talking to Sherrod Brown – now when I say talking – I mean it in a very animated way, flapping his arms around like a Jerry Springer guest who just found out his wife had been screwing his best buddy. It was bizarre – especially as it drew more people around the ‘altercation’… I’ve never seen a candidate lose it like this in a public setting, let alone a Christmas Party.”

Congressman Brown was clearly unhappy with anyone supporting Paul Hackett for Senate. He was also concerned about a 1985 story surfacing which involved alleged drug dealing in his Secretary of State’s office. It seems that what abruptly ended his conversation with “Pounder” was when “he leaned into me and said in a hushed tone ‘Don’t spread rumors about drug abuse.’” Prior to this encounter, “drugs” had also been part of Brown’s conversation with the activists when he expressed concern that bloggers were spreading the story.

This was particularly strange because the 1985 story had already surfaced, on October 9, 2005, when The Columbus Dispatch senior editor, Joe Hallett, referred to when Hamilton County Commissioner Bob Taft, in a heated debate with Sherrod Brown on October 23, 1990, asked “Where were you when drugs were being sold in your office?”

While Brown was berating people, just across the room, Paul Hackett was constantly surrounded by admiring fans wanting to shake his hand, and described in Buckeye Politics, as being “something of a rock star.”

I WAS AT THE CHRISTMAS PARTY Comments on Pounder’s Buckeye Senate report referred to Sherrod Brown going after an 84 year old World War II veteran. I’ll admit to being an “octogenarian,” and a Women’s Army Corps veteran; also to having talked previously to Sherrod Brown and Connie Schultz, at the October 9, 2005 Upper Arlington Progressive Action meeting. I tried to warn them then about spitting the Democratic Party when we had such an excellent chance of winning the 2006 Senate race with Paul Hackett as our candidate. Hackett was already outpolling Mike DeWine – 44.2% to 35.9% - on a Zogby Interactive Poll.

At the Christmas Party, when I found Sherrod Brown giving a friend of mine a heated lecture on why he should not support Paul Hackett, I naturally joined the conversation. But, in no way did I attack, assault, or even touch the Congressman, as was erroneously reported on the blogs. And, I definitely did not have any picture taken with him.

The only thing I did was remind him of the warning “to not split the party,” which he had received at the Upper Arlington Progressive Action fall meeting, and now it had happened. Over and over, he angrily declared that he did not split the party, and I replied “Yes, you did because Hackett was in first!” Needless to say, our encounter was very brief.

As already stated, Brown had numerous chances to run for DeWine’s senate seat before Paul Hackett was recruited, and turned them all down until Hackett said he would run. Then Brown suddenly jumped in. Now we are faced with an unnecessary, costly, and damaging primary.

THE BROWN CAMP DENIES WHAT HAPPENED As soon as news of Brown’s angry behavior spread around the blogs, there were counter claims that Buckeye Senate and Buckeye Politics had made it all up. Comments for Brown offered distorted versions - claiming other individuals had been present at reported encounters, knew they was not true, they did not happen; Sherrod Brown was always calm, respectful, collected at all times; he had been faced with “a barrage of curse words,” etc., etc. Buckeye Senate and Buckeye Politics were even threatened with “creative” ways to shut them down.

ACTUAL THREATS For examples, on December 21, 2005, at 8:05 AM, “thisblogishorseshit” threatened in a comment on Buckeye Senate to “file a law suit or something, I dunno, I’ll get creative.” When warned by Ohio 2nd blog, “Dude, you really don’t want to be threatening the staff here. Really…trust me… you really really don’t,” “thisblogishorseshit” replied at 8:20 AM, “I’m not threatening the staff. I’m trying to get you shut down. Perfectly legitimate. And I’m going to. It’s my goal for the holiday season.” There were other threats, including family members.

BUCKEYE SENATE UNCOVERS BROWN CAMPAIGN'S INVOLVEMENT By December 27, 2005, Buckeye Senate, with the help of the blog host, was able to uncover particularly significant information linking Brown’s online outreach director, Philip De Villis, with using the Brown campaign’s own email Philip@sherrodbrown.com and posting erroneous information on many blogs.

Also, it was found by tracking IP addresses of the posts that numerous identities of responders (including “thisblogishorsehit”) were being used by one person from the Brown campaign - trying in every way possible to cover up Brown’s angry behavior, at the same time discrediting and threatening those who reported on it.

While Brown supporters valiantly continue to try and change the subject, Sherrod Brown has surely backed himself into a tight corner, and does not seem to know how to get out of it.

CHARACTER IS ALL IMPORTANT Buckeye Senate sums up the significance of what happened at the Christmas Party, why the blogs continue to report on it, and why it does not go away:

“Finally, being a US Senator is about leadership and part of that is how you allow your staff to conduct themselves, if this sorry episode is any guide, then leadership is something sorely lacking in Sherrod Brown - did he authorize his staff to engage in this activity? Meet the Bloggers just got a whole lot more interesting.”

SHERROD BROWN CANCELLED “MEET THE BLOGGERS” Brown was scheduled to meet with the Ohio blogs at Talkies, a coffee shop in Ohio City, on January 14, 2006. On January 9, 2006, Brown spokesman Philip De Vellis, announced in a voice mail to George Nemeth of Meet the Bloggers, that “he doesn’t want to sit down with critic Tim Russo after what happened at the ODP Christmas Party.” At the same time Russo’s blog Buckeye Politics was abruptly shut down until further notice.

Needless to say, this caused much consternation on the blogosphere and made what happened at the Christmas Party gain even more importance. Psychobilly Democrat recalled saying “this story had the longest legs ever? Like Pinocchio’s nose...”

THE STORY REACHES THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA AS SATIRE On Thursday, January 12, 2006, The Dayton Daily News reported “Dayton Rallies Behind Buckeyepolitics.net”

Residents of Dayton showed their overwhelming support for the missing blog, Buckeypolitics.net, and its author, Tim Russo, throughout the city on Wednesday.
…
On Tuesday, Community leaders Rhine McClin, Charles Curran, Vicki Pegg, and Debborah Lieberman gathered to plan a memorial to honor Buckeyepolitics longstanding gift to the community. “We just felt it was appropriate. Buckeyepolitics has given us so much, we needed to give something back,” proclaimed a statement released by Curran’s office.

Roughly 5,000 people showed up at Courthouse square on Wednesday afternoon to celebrate the gift they had received. Local resident Joyel Plump said, “No matter how many tears I give, it’s just not going t can you do. I just pray.”

There were pictures of children holding candles and a sign saying “Godbless Buckeyepoliteics.net” and scores of people with a very large sign proclaiming “Dayton SUPPORTS RUSSO – Dayton SUPPORTS BUCKEYEPOLITICS.” *wink*

TIM RUSSO REPORTS On January 12, 2006, Brewed Fresh Daily blog, Tim wrote that he attended “the candlelight vigil in Dayton disguised as a giant chicken which allowed me to conceal my open weeping…Tito, hand me a tissue….” The post linked to the picture of Sherrod Brown as an enormous chicken which Buckeye Politics had posted following Brown’s refusal to meet with the bloggers. Russo added:

"Buckeye Politics and I have parted ways.. nor are we defending legal threats from any quarter other than from a bunch of anonymous paid Sherrod Brown staff. It’s a business decision. I’m retreating from blogging to lick my wounds and wait for my inevitable Pulitzer, which I will then use as a club with which to bludgeon other bloggers whom I despise, seems to be quite a useful tactic."

Russo ended by throwing his complete support for Paul Hackett for Senate. All this leaves tantalizing questions to be pursued regarding the Brown campaign’s ultimate involvement in Russo’s leaving the blogosphere, and creating a new folk hero..

HOTLINE’S BLOGOMETER REPORTS On January 13, 2006, there was a rather lengthy report, entitled “Endtroducing A Buckeye For an Eye.” It began “Until this week, lively-to-read and widely-read Cleveland-based gadfly Tim Russo ran the Democratic leaning site Buckeye Politics for Oh-based blog entrepreneur Gerando Orlando.” Then it mentions the December 19th Democratic Party and tells about how Russsell “Pounder” Hughlock traced threatening posts against two bloggers to the Brown campaign. When contacted by the Hotline Blogometer, Phil DeVillis denied making the posts but admitted that someone did. There has not been an investigation. The Hotline Blogometer was not able to find out any more concerning Tim Russo’s sudden departure from the blogosphere.
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH TEAM MEETS PAUL HACKETT Joe Hallett, senior editor of the Dispatch, hit a home run on January 15, 2006, when he wrote “Candid candidate: Hackett calls ‘em like he sees ‘em.” Ohio Honest Elections Campaign website, and several blogs, quoted the article with positive comments.

Brilliant at Breakfast blog wrote “You’ve got to LOVE this guy,” and emphasized “Washington Democratic hacks, take note: THIS is what we want in a candidate,” re-printed Hallett’s column, and described “reading about Paul Hackett is like giving a drop of water to someone who’s crawled through the desert for days.”

The blog concluded with “The problem is, given how Washington Democrats have completely sold us down the river and show no signs of wanting to be an opposition party again, why on earth should we believe that Brown would be a significant improvement over Mike DeWine?”

This should be added: Like Illinois Senator Barack Obama, Democratic Party rising star Major Paul Hackett, with intelligence and grace, excites Democrats, Republicans, and Independents - while relating to their real problems. If Party leaders ignore his potential, then they will soon be added to the endangered species list.

We Watch.

2006-01-15T00:32:00.000-05:00

The Ohio Democratic Party needs work. They have a new leader in Chris Redfern and in all fairness he needs time to make necessary changes. The issues we will be concerned with are as follows:

Handicapped Access.

Why aren't the offices of the ODP accessible to the handicapped? There is an elevator that could be used but isn't because it's broken. Fix it.

Outreach.

As far as we know there aren't any meetings or organizational efforts at reaching out to the gay community, the faith community or the African-American community. This needs to change and fast. You're not exactly heading in the right direction when Stephanie Tubbs-Jones gets booed at the ODP Executive Meeting. Those that were part of that fiasco need a good boot in the huevos.

Dormancy.

After the 2004 election it seems that the ODP went to sleep. Did anything of substance get done in that period? Anyone? The ODP was closed the last two weeks of December. Is that the way we should be doing business? Do you get an actual human when you call the ODP offices or just a phone maze? Is there anyone there at all? In the past if you got through you'd get the standard mantra that so-and-so was in a "meeting" even though they might be out back having a smoke. Does anybody care about the quality of work that's getting done? Who is manning the phones? Who replies to your e-mails? We will be calling ODP headquarters on a regular basis to see if our calls are cheerily and promptly answered. We will be dropping by the offices to see if people are at work or if anyone cares to get to work on time.

There you have some of the issues we will be watching out for. We'll give the new leadership some time to address the more nagging and institutionalized problems. But after a certain time we will expect results and if we're displeased we will start letter writing campaigns to the ODP's biggest donors telling them NOT to give their money to such an ineffectual and indifferent organization. Time to make some changes Democrats. We watch.