Tonight on “The David Goldstein Show”, 7PM to 10PM on News/Talk 710-KIRO:
7PM: What happened down in South Carolina?
Minutes after the polls closed everybody called it for Barack Obama, and in a “rout”. Democratic strategist, blogger, pundit James Boyce joins us again with his analysis of today’s results from the South Carolina Democratic primary, and a look toward Tuesday’s big Republican showdown in Florida. Does Obama really have the momentum heading into the Feb. 5 primary-palooza? Is Rudy Giuliani really the Max Bialystock of politics?
7:30PM: What’s happening down in Olympia?
The Stranger’s Josh Feit joins me for an abbreviated look at the week’s news, focusing on his first hand observations from the legislative session. A progressive tax break? Not so pernicious transportation governance reform? New domestic partner rights? All that and more.
8PM: Saturday night comedy with Riggs
Local comedian Riggs joins us for our not so wonky Saturday night conversation with somebody who really is funny, instead of somebody who just thinks he is.
9PM: TBA
The usual liberal propaganda
Tune in tonight (or listen to the live stream) and give me a call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).
seattlejew….are you around?
The Dem Contest is between two coalitions of voters: older women and traditional Dems who support Hillary and african-americans, younger people, college educated Dems and independents who lean towards Obama.
I don’t know which group is bigger. Off the top of my head, they seem evenly matched.
I still support Edwards who is hanging on by a thread. The two major candidates are too cozy with corporate power for my tastes. Now Edwards could end his campaign today or after Florida in which case I would expect him to throw his support behind Obama if they have reached a deal. The other theory is that he’ll stick it out to the very end to make a deal at the convention, i.e. be a Kingmaker.
Now what kind of deal could he make? If I were him, I’d force either Hillary or Obama to return all money donated by corporate lobbyists and all money from drug, insurance and any company who has profited in a huge way from the war.
Then Hillary or Obama has to take Edwards on as their running mate.
That’s the only kind of viable deal I can see being made if 1) Edwards hangs in there to have a role at the convention and 2) if the Dem ticket with Edwards is truly going to be about change.
Thoughts?
The preliminary figures I’ve heard on SC are Obama 53%, Clinton 28%, and Edwards 19%.
I don’t think this knocks Edwards out of the race — he’ll fight through Super Tuesday — but he has consistently failed to get above the teens and that’s got to change in short order or he’s done.
Obama’s victory over Hillary in SC today isn’t particularly important but I do have a gut feeling that he’s going to run away with the upcoming primaries and the next two weeks will put the Democratic race away.
I also detect a growing sense among punditry that we’re looking at an Obama – McCain race in the fall, and if so, it should be a doozy.
You know, there isn’t a single person running for president that I think is even remotely qualified for the job.
The live NBC News broadcast now gives the figures as Obama 54%, Clinton 27%, Edwards 19%, and is calling it a “thumping” of Clinton by Obama.
According to NBC’s Brian Williams, Caroline Kennedy will come out in tomorrow’s New York Times with a strong endorsement of Obama.
You fucking idiots and your obsession with group politics is what’s going to cost you the white house. Obama is a complete empty skirt. He gives a great socialist speech, but he has even less experience than The Smartest Woman In The World. At least TSWITW has sucked a president’s dick. I don’t think Obama can claim that.
So go ahead with your platform of Socialism, Stalinism, Surrender, and Secularism. You’ve got a time tested proven formula there.
BTW, I think McCain will clean his clock, but he’ll do it without my vote.
Hey Rabbit – A while ago I gave you an assignment to go to all your neighbors and ask them to pay for your healthcare so it’s “free” to you.
Tell me, how’d that go? Get any takers?
Fucking loser…
It’s now Obama 55%, Clinton 26%, Edwards 19%.
6, 7 – Pay your gambling debt, you congealed conglutination of curdled pigeon poo!
Hmmm…. if only he had a track record.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01.....ref=slogin
So I’m wondering… do ya think The Smartest Woman In The World would accept an offer to be his VP? Could she work for a brutha? I don’t think so…. too much hate and intolerance as she has so clearly demonstrated.
All you Dems don’t forget to vote in the upcoming Repuklican primary! Our votes don’t matter but we can sure f*** them up!
An Obama – McCain race would be almost a dream come true for me, because you’d really knock out a lot of the slimier characters on both sides, and have (as American politics go these days) a relatively genial race.
Redneck Asshole – Your beloved fuck-up GWB didn’t have jackshit experience but that didn’t stop you from voting for him twice.
Fuck you and pay the fucking gambling debt you owe Goldy.
Loser.
@ 2 YLB
I’m with you, just hoping that Edwards KEEPS hanging in there! I think there’s more stuff about about to break shortly re: Obama that won’t help his glide to victory. This Rezko character has been a pal of Obama’s since the 1990’s I believe I read (YouTube listed below). Not just some short term ‘friendship’ and what’s that saying? “Birds of a Feather…”. Some coincidence that both Obama’s and Rezko’s next door properties Closed on the very same day, huh? And that Obama managed to “Save” so much money on the deal for his house.
Hill-Billy comes across like racist shrews alienating a LOT of folks. Both Obama and Clinton are just TOO BEHOLDEN to the Special Interests, they might as well be Repubs, IMO. I just hope they end up shredding each other to pieces while they duke it out, leaving Edwards as the last one standing.
“Brian Ross on Obama and Tony Rezko” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SrtyFY6qTA
What I’m also reading is that Edwards is THE candidate that many of the switch-over Repubs are switching to!
Re: 14, you did notice that Edwards lost by 38 points in a three way race in his homestate didn’t you?
What is remarkable is that 75% of the white democrats in SC voted against the black candidate that routed both white candidates.
No racism in the dem party that I can see.
Re: 14, Edwards though is popular among blacks, he got 2% of the black vote.
@ 16. Yes, I noticed. But it’s a LONG time until Natl Dem Convention.
Bubba: Obama Is Just Like Jesse Jackson
January 26, 2008 8:18 PM
Said Bill Clinton today in Columbia, SC: “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in ’84 and ’88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here.”
This was in response to a question about Obama saying it “took two people to beat him.” Jackson had not been mentioned.
Boy, I can’t understand why anyone would think the Clintons are running a race-baiting campaign to paint Obama as “the black candidate.”
— jpt
http://blogs.abcnews.com/polit.....ma-is.html
Re: 18, Ok you do know that Edwards won that state in 2004? I agree with you that it is a long time until the convention, it just might seem longer to Edwards than others.
Didn’t John Edwards Dad work in a mill in SC? Seems like I heard that somewhere before.
@16 How much of SC’s black vote do Repubs get?
Re: 22, 9%
@23 Don’t you think your guys should work on that?
Let’s face it, rob, a lot of SC black voters went for Obama because they had the opportunity to vote for a black candidate. These aren’t voters who are going to vote for the Republican or stay home if Obama doesn’t get the nomination. They are DEMOCRATIC voters, and they will be with our candidate in November, whoever it is. It’s understandable that, in the primary, they’re flocking to the first African American candidate in history to have a credible chance of being elected President of the United States. They’ve waited a long time for equality in this country, and in many ways, still don’t have it.
RE: 24, Absolutely and Bubba has given us a chance unless the white democrats change their racist ways and nominate Obama. I don’t see it happing though with the Clintons race baiting.
I will say one thing though, I watched Obama’s speech tonight and he would have me voting for him if his positions weren’t so liberal.
He is John Kennedy reincarnated only much more liberal.
RE: 25, You guys have been taking Black Americans for granted just like you said for years. This time you are really going to piss them off. Actually you already have.
I have no idea what they will do but the white democrat establishment has brought race into your intermural election and if you defeat Obama along racial lines they won’t be drinking your coolaid in my opinion.
An African-American president would be a huge breakthrough for our country, but it has to be someone elected on merits, not based on race. Obama is that person. Likewise, Hillary should not be elected because she is a woman; I’m supporting her instead of Obama because I think she will be more effective in solving the country’s problems and getting legislation through Congress. I expect Republicans to continue doing what they’ve done without let-up since 1994: To put party ahead of country, to play the role of obstructionists, to throw a collective temper tantrum if they don’t get their way; so we need a president capable of crushing them. Obama is too nice a guy and has too pollyannish a view of politics to succeed at that. I believe we need the bitch in combat boots if we want to accomplish anything in the next 4 years.
I’m voting for Hillbilly….
@27 Suppose — for argument’s sake — you’re right (I’m certainly not conceding that). Where will they go? To the GOP? hahahaha
Hmm….
http://dutchbikeseattle.com/weblog/?p=44
As well, earlier in September, Cycling England the UK’s national bicycle planning, advocacy and lobbying organization made public its 86 page research report Valuing the Benefits of Cycling filled with all sorts of great little tidbits:
If a cyclist makes 160 trips a year of 3.9km, rather than take a car, this would equate to savings for other road users of £137.28 a year as a result of reduced congestion in urban areas and £68.64 in rural environments.
But in fact you’re wrong. The Democratic Party has bent over backwards for minorities and women, guranteeing them delegate seats, and supporting many black and female candidates at national, state, and local levels. The GOP hasn’t done any of what we’ve done to encourage participation of women, minorities, and disadvantaged people. In addition, we support policies that promote greater opportunity for those not currently sitting at the top of the food chain. The GOP is just the opposite — it is the party of WASPs, wealth, and privilege. Its focus is defending its members’ positions at the top of the heap and fending off efforts to level the playing field and make capitalism’s winners compete in a fair competition. Why would minority voters ever support the party that wants to keep them down?
@29 Are you male or female?
I like to keep tabs on all the rabbits around here.
Republicans want to keep black folks down when you dims have race pimps like Jackson and Sharpton in your party?
You aren’t even wearing rose-colored glasses, dude. They’re freakin’ coke bottles.
RE: 29 and 30, If you missed Obama’s speech tonight you should watch it. He flamed the Clinton Crime Family without being a “bitch in combat boots” and he made us conservatives feel like he was someone we could let into on home on TV news at night.
The Hildabeast on the otherhand reminds us of (Quote from P.J O’Rourke)”The reason is that she’s the particular woman who taught the 4th grade class that every man in America wished he were dead in. Hillary Clinton is Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown. Hillary Clinton is “America’s ex-wife.”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/.....0gxotg.asp
As for where Black Voters will go? I don’t know but if someone dashed my hope like white demcrats are prepared to do to black democrats. I might go for a walk instead of to the polls.
Re: 32, George W. Bush has put more Black Americans in cabinet postions that anyone in US History. Once the Clinton Crime Family used blacks votes it was back to the all white girls and boy’s club.
Re: 31, did they figure death benefits and medical costs into that equation?
It will be fun reminding black folks that they are on the democrat plantation this go around.
HEY ROGER WHAT HAS HILLARY DONE IN THE SENATE NADA NOTHING ZIP.
Pelletizer@32: BULLSHITTIUM
Why won’t you answer what the donkey system did to H Carl McCall in NY? He was one of those up and coming blacks in the donkey party.
You are every other 16%er HorsesASSHole dodged my question for the last month.
Why did H Carl McCall get the special donkey treatment? This type of politics is bad for our country.
Pelletizer@32: BULLSHITTIUM AGAIN
Why won’t you answer what the donkey system did to Black Republican Lynn Swann when he ran against Ed Rendell in Pennsylvanian Guvnur race?
You are every other 16%er HorsesASSHole dodged my question for the last month.
Why did Lynn Swann get the special donkey treatment? This type of politics is bad for our country.
Re: 39, The Clinton Crime family who has been using robo calls against Obama and Edwards doesn’t even know about robo calls yet.
Pelletizer@32: BULLSHITTIUM AGAIN
Why won’t you answer what the donkey system did to Black Republican Mike Steele when he ran against Ben Cardin in Maryland Senate race?
You are every other 16%er HorsesASSHole dodged my question for the last month.
Why did Mike Steele get the special donkey treatment? The DSCC illegally obtained a copy of Steele’s credit report during the campaign. Who was the head of DSCC? Chucky Schumer! Steve Gilliard called Mike Steele as a blackface minstrel.
This type of politics is bad for our country. Yet your voice is silent…
Peckerwood!
Pelletizer@32: BULLSHITTIUM AGAIN
Bill Clinton used every tactic in the book against Obama in this primary. Somehow I learned he’s the husband of your candidate.
This type of politics is bad for our country.
RE: 45, You’re wrong about Hillary Clinton:
She is actually: Monica Lewinsky’s X boyfriends wife, FOR PRESIDENT!
So it’s news to the pud that Democrats oppose Republicans, regardless of race. Any comment of supression of the African American vote by Republican officials?
http://www.blackenterprise.com.....spx?id=906
And I find x-Prez Clinton’s tactics reprehensible.
Does anyone know, did John Edwards dad work in a mill?
Re: 47, Uhmm K, Democrats votes don’t count in Florida during the primary by edict of Howard Dean. Howard Dean is the leader of the Democratic National Committee. You may want to call him if you are worried about voter suppression.
On the other hand for more democrat voter suppression you may want to read this.
Clinton tangles with Obama in ‘Oppression Sweepstakes’
By John Blake
CNN
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama may be competing in the South Carolina Democratic Primary Saturday, but they’re also vying for the top prize in another contest:
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama trade charges during the debate in South Carolina.
The Oppression Sweepstakes.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITI.....index.html
Did you read past the headline, Rob? It was addressing concerns in the upcoming November election.
And regarding your link, you do know oppression and suppression are not the same, don’t you?
K: I answered that many moons ago. Search the Wipes blog.
Answer my questions above K.
Mr. Puddybud’s assumption seems to be that if a black Republican loses, it must be through Democratic trickery. Maybe. Mr. Puddybud, people see that Republicans suck no matter what color their skin.
You must accept this before you can move on and make progress in your sadly twisted and circumscribed life.
@35 Why don’t you try to sell that line in the ghetto and see how you do?
@36 I would support Obama without reservation if Republicans hadn’t spent the last 20 years convincing me they can’t be trusted, aren’t constructive, won’t cooperate, aren’t interested in bipartisanship, and don’t give a damn about what’s best for the country.
He is deluding himself to think GOP assholes will work with him. If he’s elected, they’ll do everything in their power to sabotage his administration, inflict political gridlock on the country, and make sure nothing gets passed in Congress and none of our problems get solved.
I don’t want to waste two years on him finding out what Hillary already knows.
@40 “yo” is a contraction of the word “yahoo” (as in “trailer park yahoo”) and is properly spelled “y’o.” Like most wingnuts, y’o can’t even spell his own fucking name.
@41 Never heard of that guy.
Trolls: How many Black delegates will there be at the Republican National Convention? How many Hispanics? How many Asian-Americans? How many women?
@44 Do I understand you to be accusing Democrats of behaving like Republicans?
For those of you who don’t know who Mike Steele is, he’s a Black politician who claimed he was pelted with oreo cookies at a debate. The NAACP official who moderated the debate later said he didn’t see any cookies, and the building manager said the cleanup crew didn’t find any cookies. So, adding to that the fact he’s a Republican, you probably should take anything Mr. Steele says with a grain of salt. Perhaps many grains.
Today’s Political Quiz
Q: How can you tell if a Republican is lying?
A: His lips are moving.
@45 How come I didn’t see you complaining about that when Rove, Griffin & Co. were doing it?
@48 You’re just figuring out now that he’s no boy scout?
Disregard #62. That comment is withdrawn.
@53 Bingo.
Sometimes a Black Republican is a good thing. For example, it’s good that puddy is a Republican — I sure as hell don’t want him showing up at my caucus.
Roger Rabbit @ 58
My predictions:
How many Black delegates will there be at the Republican National Convention? 2-3%
How many Hispanics? 4-5%
How many Asian-Americans? 2-3%
How many women? 30-35%
Okay, maybe the number of Black delegates to the 2008 GOP convention will be closer to the 7-8% range. In 2004, the percentage of Black delegates was 6.7%:
http://www.blackpressusa.com/n.....ewsID=3410
I don’t know whether this should be called “affirmative action” or not. The actual percentage of GOP voters nationwide that are Black is somewhere around 2-3%: you have about 12% of the voters being Black, about 10% of the Black voters choosing the GOP, around half the people voting GOP, so that means 2-3% of the GOP voter base is Black. The percentage of Black GOP delegates is much larger than the percentage of GOP voters that are Black, but much smaller than the Black percentage of the population.
Circumcision case: What does boy want?
By SARAH SKIDMORE
The Associated Press
PORTLAND — The Oregon Supreme Court says the wishes of a 12-year-old boy must be determined in a dispute between his divorced parents over whether he should be circumcised.
The father, who lives in Olympia, converted to Judaism in 2004 and wants the boy to be circumcised as part of the faith, saying the decision is best left to the custodial parent. Lower courts sided with the father.
The mother, who lives in Oregon, appealed to the high court, asking for custody and saying the operation could harm her son physically and psychologically.
The case has drawn attention from Jewish groups concerned that the Oregon court might restrict the practice and from Doctors Opposing Circumcision, backing the mother and saying there is “no more important decision to make for a male child.”
…
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ion26.html
COMMENT: If the boy is 12 years old, wouldn’t his wishes also be important regarding which religion he wants to follow, or whether he wants to subscribe to a religion at all? And if a teenage girl has the right to decide whether or not to terminate a pregnancy, shouldn’t a teenage (well almost) boy have the right to decide whether or not to be circumcised?
Obama winning the primary will force the GOP to admit they hate blacks. It will become so obvious that even some republicans (folk who normally don’t evidence a shred of common human decency) will be forced to confront the fact that the GOP is a racist organization and accordingly, will be embarrassed into leaving the GOP for the Democratic Party!
39
Jane Balough’s Dog says: It will be fun reminding black folks that they are on the democrat plantation this go around.
Yeah, that’s worked real well for you.
Has anyone noticed that tne total Democratic vote is absolutely swamping the total GOP vote in each of these primary states? This ~will~ be the year of the Blue Tsunami.
25 RR has it right.
The white male voters who voted for Edwards, the white female voters who voted for Hillary, and the black voters who voted for Obama will ALL pull the lever (to use an ancient voting phrase) for the Democratic candidate this fall, and it looks like it will also be in record numbers. The demotivated and shrinking GOP base will stay home out of disgust for their candidate, just like MTR told us he would.
When you’re a powerful party on an upswing it’s really easy to paper over what this year are only minor differences of opinion and unite. Those are the Democrats, for those who haven’t been paying attention.
In the same way, when you’re a party (you know who you are) that has just proven over the last eight years to be corrupt, incompetent, and more interested in rigging the game than in winning fair and square, then it’s a lot harder for factions to forgive and forget their differences to unite behind a standard-bearer, particularly when the candidates are each representative of a faction and don’t have broad appeal within the party.
D’ja notice all the retiring Republicans this year? It’s a really bad year to be a Republican candidate.
Buh-bye Dave Reichert.
Headless Lucy sockpuppeting as Irv Kupcinet:
Once again your racism shines through. People vote whom they want to. But when a black runs as a Republican or a black tries to move up the political ladder the donkey party starts their dirty tricks.
You all won’t touch it because of what your party did in each case. So don’t elevate any more voter trash here 16%ers.
69erTheMoron: How is that? Remember yesterday? South Carolina saw most donkey white people voting for someone else besides Obama? I liked having the two primaries on differing days. Now there was no cross-over voting.
First Obama has to get past the racism of the donkey party. You know, the old white women scared of a young articulate, clean, well spoken black man (Joe Biden phrase). Still fearful he’ll attack the white wimins.
Can you imagine if Obama selects an Indian for his VP running mate what Joe Biden will say next besides 7-11 ownership?
Richard Pope@67: Why is that?
Well the MSM allows Hilary to perpetrate her LBJ comment on the VCR and CRA when it was Everett Dirksen who delivered the Republicans to approve the acts over racist Al Gore Sr, Richard Russell (I got my senate office building name) and Robert 3K Byrd.
The MSM doesn’t tell the story of JFK/RFK reluctance to engage the civil rights action when MLK Jr. contacted them. The MSM coverup of the JEHoover tapes on MLK Jr. dalliances.
Always running to Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton for a comment and not giving a balance response. Not printing the Chucky Schumer led attack on Mike Steele.
I can go on and on Richard…
the racism of the donkey party.
You mean the same party that whispered rumors of McCain’s black love child in 2000?
The same party that kept Strom Thurmond’s real to life black love child a secret all his political career?
Now there was no cross-over voting.
I saw a lot of white faces in the crowd when Obama spoke after he won.
And Iowa? Is that really a 98 percent black state?
I call race baiting bullshit…
When the GOP gets its ass kicked every which way INCLUDING sideways in the next election, prepare for the montra of the cry babies –
THE LIBERAL MEDIA DID IT
or
VOTER FRAUD
That’s all the GOP has to offer. Nothing new – no ideas – just scams, coverups, false charges and lots and lots and lots of WAAAAAHHHHH!
I know Clueless@76-77 has problems with staying on topic. That’s why he wouldn’t answer H Carl McCall Mike Steele or Lynn Swann. That’s why he chose the name Clueless
Strom Thurmond’s black grandaughter is a personal friend of mine dumbASS. They knew PacMan before us. I know the real family history. She told us over dinner. Very interesting story. All you have is innuendo from the liberal MSM.
You are still an idiot!
Clueless above: 25% of whites went for Obama. The majority voted against him. Google it dumbASS!
To demonstrate how Clueless clueless is, look up Strom Thurmond’s hiring practices in the early 1970s. You’ll be shocked and amazed.
The little things you learn from the family when you talk to them personally.
Now I am not supporting the racist thoughts of the man, but since Clueless above decided to discuss Strom here in another of his silly attacks, I’ll correct the record of his later life.
But we know Clueless supports the racist thoughts of Al Gore Sr, Richard Russell and Robert Byrd.
Is Bill Clinton the Eric Endicott of our time?
http://apnews.myway.com/articl.....7HRG0.html
http://blogs.abcnews.com/polit.....ma-is.html
And what’s with his Andy Jackson haircut?
Fascinating to watch the best efforts of the Democratic Party establishment to keep black voters in their place and on the plantation dictated to them by the Billary Bloc.
Tammany Hall had nothing on these Byrds!
The Piper
piper…….yes, bill has gone very “joe kennedy”lately hasn’t he? maybe he’ll get chelsea a lobotomy next……..
@44: Puddy
Hahaha – Mike Steele????
Sorry he is NO Obama. Almost flunked out of Johns Hopkins, opportunistic “change” to become a republican, chair of a Political action committee, inconsistent positions, bussed black voters down to Maryland to vote for him by deceptively describing himself as a democrat. His own advisors quit his senate campaign in disgust.
this is your best example of a republican african american candidate that got what????
– sorry – not even close to Obama.
He screwed himself over and lacked the integrity to be a senator.
@74: the racist party is the republicans: You can keep repeating that the democrats are racist – but saying it doesn’t make it so.
Going back to before the 60’s is the only proof you have – that was 48 years ago – you are living in the past. Yes – the democrats were racist before the 60’s – conceded – since then, the racists have chosen the party of David Duke and the republicans.
Willie Horton was a republican creation designed to be divisive and racial (see Lee Atwater/Reagan)
which party talks about states rights in the south (code words) but doesn’t really support them (Oregon, California – CAFE standards, death with dignity and medical marijuana)
which party had the most votes against the renewal of the civil rights act?
which party supports poll taxes and voter ID to stifle the black vote?
See pud, here’s the deal. THere are most certainly some individuals in the Democratic Party who have had a racist history. But the party, since the 1960’s has been committed to equality. Not without missteps and outliers, but that is and has been party policy. While the Republican party has clearly gone the other way, from the Southern Strategy to the Bob Jones appearances.
Note my source @ 47, and I don’t care that you allege you answered it many moons ago. It is still a problem now.
Goldy,
“Is Rudy Giuliani really the Max Bialystock of politics?”
Only if he’s had the operation.
Who is the Roger De Bris of politics?
BTW…in your HAHO…Zero Mostel or Nathan Lane? No question for me: Zero in a walk. Ditto when it comes to Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
Still need to know if Bill Clinton is the Eric Endicott of politics.
Who’s EE? Movie fans should know in a heartbeat. The tough question? What role did Jester Hairston play, and does Bill Clinton have, use, and abuse one of his own?
At the rate they’re going, the only “black” support Billary (tag team, you know, so why bother referring to them in anything but a single name?) will have from here on out will be from the lawn jockeys on their Chappaqua enclave and from the Al Jolson-wannabes in black face strummin’ dey banjos in Billary-sponsored minstrel shows!
What’s next? Billary saying BHO is a credit to his race?
Heading into Super Tuesday and with DNC proportional representation allocation of delegates, it’s not enough to know who won a state, but who won each Congressional District in each state.
The growing ethnic divide in the Democratic Party – Black bloc versus Latino bloc, white bloc versus everybody – is starting to resemble some of the stuff you see in episodes of Gangland on The History Channel.
Query: How soon before we see “unusual” hand signs from Billary? And tats? I can’t wait to see what they’ll both look like with gang markings on their necks and arms.
The latent hypocrisy of the Democratic Party, and especially Billary’s, is being exposed. It’s like getting caught with your drawers around your ankles in front of a ‘puter screen laden with nakie ladies and a box of Kleenix in one hand and you-know-what in the other.
Ohmygawd!
Billary ain’t whistlin’ Dixie for nuttin’!
The Piper
problems with staying on topic
Fuck YOU! I was responding to your bullshit!
You’re saying Thurmond wasn’t a racist and didn’t uphold segregation with filibusters?
Are you saying it’s ok when your ugly party spreads lies about McCain’s adopted daughter and then looks the other way about Thurmond?
Steele was a joke. Out of the mainstream. Extreme anti-choice. People want options in life not handcuffs.
87 – What lunacy! Bill Clinton’s done more for black people than any of the other side’s losers can ever lie about.
It’s like getting caught with your drawers around your ankles in front of a ‘puter screen laden with nakie ladies and a box of Kleenix in one hand and you-know-what in the other.
Project much Poopster?
I would like to see one of the posters or bloggers on this site write a piece on the homeless count that occurred a couple of days ago. And actually do some research on it, not just make some comments on an article you read. Something about that count is fishy to me. They say the homeless count is up, and list several reasons for this, but nowhere did I read that they actually interviewed a homeless person. For example, wouldn’t it help to know how long the homeless person has been in Seattle, and if they’ve been here less than a year or not? Could the count be up because more homeless people are coming to Seattle to panhandle or partake of services? (They do the count once a year). Also, I would like the connection between the count, and the amount of money homeless services receive examined more closely. Does it benefit any agency to have a higher count? Then I also read they count people who are sleeping on buses at night. How on earth can you tell that someone is homeless just because it’s late at night and they are asleep on a bus?
@91: It is difficult to count homeless people cause you can’t just call them up.
Here is a big clue:
People sleeping in doorways, on heated grates, at homeless shelters, in parks, on benches, in encampments under the freeway, on the busses (with all their stuff with them), pushing shopping carts with all their things or bikes laden with daily living needs and in cars.
They have nowhere else to go on a cold night – wouldn’t you rather be indoors in this cold?
It is a disgrace that we have come to this – usually it is due to substance abuse but it can also be due to losing a job and not making rent or house payments.
@91…Troll…
I didn’t go out on this one, but I’ve done the One Night Count before. One of the strict rules is that you’re not out there to talk with people, just look for them.
And the count isn’t meant to be an exact enumeration, but more of a sampling of given agreas. For example, if while on the count, you see someone at 3:00 a.m. walking the street, the assumption is that the person is homeless. This under the theory that no one in his right mind walks the streets at 3:00 am in January unless they are.
Again, you’re forbidden from making inquiries. Similar rules apply to any parked cars that look to have people in them or camps you might find. Observe and report back, don’t interact.
It is my understanding that numbers generated by the ONC have some bearing on funding under the McKinney Act, but how that exactly works isn’t something I’ve delved into. It’s easier to figure out how to calculate when Easter comes.
But you touch on a point that is true: Seattle-King County is a Mecca for the homeless for a lot of reasons. Only around here would TC3 and TC4 be tolerated. San Francisco, LA, NYC, etc., have all run similar camps out of town by both busting them up and demanding that the homeless in their communities must follow fairly stringent requirements in order to receive services.
Only in Seattle are so-called homeless advocates like the not terribly popular SHARE/WHEEL allowed to run their off-the-reservation operations and still receive public funding.
I’ve said this before and I’ve seen it in operation: if you’re homeless in this town and not eating good, your’re not trying.
Again…this comes from what homeless people have told me, from what I’ve seen myself while engaged in projects to feed them, and what I’ve seen while working as a volunteer at Union Gospel Mission.
Are there still homeless on the street? Yes, for a variety of reasons. Read Nicole Brodeur’s column where she interviewed a couple who, for different reasons, refuse to work within the homeless services network and system opting, instead, to stay on the streets.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ur30m.html
Too many people here in town seize on the ONC figures to politicize the issue in their favor, which usually boils down to sometimes extortion-like demands for money. This has nothing to do with compassion for the homeless and everything to do with ideologically driven power politics using the homeless as weapons in the fight.
In the meantime, a lot of successful, results-oriented, homeless services programs, public and private, go unrecognized and underfunded because they eschew publicity focusing instead on working with homeless men, women, and families directly to make a difference in their lives.
The ONC has value so I wouldn’t disregard it altogether. But when you see its results trumpeted by some, it’s usually accompanied by an open, palms-up hand and a political agenda.
The Piper
Here’s what I’m getting at. I guess what I didn’t like about that homeless count is it’s pretty simplistic. They count people who are sleeping outdoors at night once a year. If the number is up, they proclaim there are more homeless people. This year they said homeless numbers are up because of the decrease in affordable housing. Readers of this information are left to conclude that more people actually lost their homes and became homeless in the last year, when it may very well be the case that more homeless people have migrated to the Seattle area from other cities or states. And yes, while they are still homeless in either case, it does matter what the truth is behind these increased numbers, if we are to begin to solve this problem.
@93,
Wow, nice comment, Piper. One question. Why is there a strict rule against talking to the homeless during the count? I would think if you asked them a few questions, like how long they’ve been homeless, how long they’ve been in Seattle, what services are of the greatest help to them, etc., that this kind of information, especially after asking hundreds of homeless people, would be invaluable.
I don’t hear anyone saying that Clinton only got 36% of the white vote – considering splitting the white vote amongst three contenders, I think getting 24% was not bad. It’s not like only getting 24% amongst two individuals – lets not make this any more than it really is.
At the very least, you can be WORTHY SHEEP
@95…Troll…
Because there are other, more effective and efficient methods to get that info. And because in the fixed amount of time you’re alloted for the ONC, you have neither the luxury nor the means to do it. Still further, there are strict confidentiality and rules forbidding interacting with anyone encountered both to protect their privacy and the safety of ONC volunteers.
The Piper
Does Rudy still have a heartbeat? Let’s take a look at his “twelve commitments”:
-I will keep America on offense in the Terrorists’ War on Us.
Trans: I will invade or bomb Iran and kill more innocent people. This will insure plenty of 6 figure paying jobs for mercs and right wing contractors who will donate to the RNC.
-I will end illegal immigration, secure our borders, and identify every non-citizen in our nation.
Trans: I will look the other way at cheap labor conservatives who use illegal labor. I will build the fence which will enrich RNC contributors yet have enough holes for cheap labor to flow to RNC contributors.
-I will restore fiscal discipline and cut wasteful Washington spending.
Trans: all earmarks will be for RNC contributors. All new programs will benefit mainly RNC contributors with a few token coins for the other side. Can’t be too obvious.
-I will cut taxes and reform the tax code.
Trans: the rich will continue get way, way richer as before. The poor and middle class will shoulder more and more of the burden of endless war.
-I will impose accountability on Washington.
Trans: nothing in this town will happen without my say so. Everyone who makes trouble will be punished like I did to my enemies in NYC.
-I will lead America towards energy independence.
Trans: ANWR will be drilled. The coasts will be drilled. Fishing, tourism and the environment be damned. The RNC contributing engineering companies will build multi-billion dollar nukes. The result will be electricity only the few can afford but the engineering companies will be very very rich.
-I will give Americans more control over, and access to, healthcare with affordable and portable free-market solutions.
Trans: Insurance companies can continue to deny benefits to sick people and rich people can continue to avoid more taxes with health saving accounts.
-I will increase adoptions, decrease abortions, and protect the quality of life for our children.
Trans: I will form a large profitable market for babies by forcing to term women who have unplanned pregnancies. I will aid the formation of this market by restricting effective birth control through a right wing takeover of pharmacies and drug store.
-I will reform the legal system and appoint strict constructionist judges.
Trans: I will appoint right wing judges who legislate from the bench in agreement with my dictates.
-I will ensure that every community in America is prepared for terrorist attacks and natural disasters.
Trans: The U.S. military will not only occupy Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran, they will occupy every community in the United States. Look for men in cammies with guns in humvees keeping us all “safer”.
-I will provide access to a quality education to every child in America by giving real school choice to parents.
Trans: Public education will be abolished and vouchers will be issued so people can send their kids to Rush Limbaugh elementary, Faux Noise Middle School and Scaife High. KBR tech anyone?
-I will expand America’s involvement in the global economy and strengthen our reputation around the world.
Trans: The saber will be rattled at everyone who dares to disagree with Emperor Rudy. Ruthless intimidation will be used to force weaker countries to be looted by RNC contributors.
@99…YippyLil’Boy…
Again…
I think the following is more YippyLil’Boy’s speed:
http://www.korea-dpr.com/
With his favorite national anthem here:
http://studweb.euv-frankfurt-o .de/%7Eeuv-4442/pyongyangmetro /music/DPRK_national_anthem.m p3
You wouldn’t know genuine freedom if it hit you in the knows with the Declaration of Independence.
The Piper
100 – Like I said in the other thread – Screw you loser.
I believe in freedom. You believe in mindless conformance to authoritarian rule. You fill your head with the latest right wing tripe of the day.
Red bait me all you want. Your kind’s days in the sun are long past.
I’m watching Joe Lieberman on CSPAN standing with Mel Martinez supporting McCain.
Sixty seats in the Senate is sure a stretch to push this loser into the Republican Party but we can dream..
@99 Hyperbole much?
Brilliant! The Conservative Stages of Grief (paraphrased):
Read the whole thing:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo.....210/443196
Napoleonic fantasies! LMAO!!!
@99 Hyperbole much?
Not really. Most people agree that Giuliani will be Bush squared. His nasty behavior in NYC confirms this.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01.....liani.html
@104…YippyLil’Boy…
That the best you have to offer? A wholesale copy/paste of someone else’s work from a hard left Website?
Genuine evidence of your lack of original and independent thought. I DEFY you to generate 1,200 of your own words in a coherent essay in defense of your POV.
That you have difficulty stringing 12-words together without expressions of hate, envy, bitterness, and bile goes without saying; you never post anything else. Try a reasoned and respectful statement of principle.
But I’m sure they don’t teach you stuff like that in those schools of yours in the DPRK.
The Piper
@106…YippyLil’Boy…
The New York Times isn’t “most people.” You wouldn’t know the beliefs and opinions of “most people” if they hit you in the nose. You’re on the hind end of Puddy’s 16%; an insistent sect of seethers who want their POV imposed upon everyone else knowing full well they’re incapable of persuading anyone to agree with them.
Needn’t answer…you’ve a 1,200-word essay to prepare.
The Piper
@73 I think it’s more accurate to say that when a Republican liar who happens to be black aspires to public office, the GOP fable machine works overtime to invent stories about “Democratic dirty tricks” in the hope of convincing voters that Democrats behave like Republicans.
@108:
President Bush: Popularity (those who think Bush is doing a good job) now at 33%. So – 2/3 of Americans think Bush is doing a lousy job.
That puts Piper and Puddy in the small minority of republican Bush supporters.
Now that the economy is sinking under 7 years of profligate spending under Bush (due primarily to an unecessary war) – even less people will profess confidence in our sorry president.
The rest of the country is with us Democrats. Bush, and by extension the republicans who are in lockstep with him, are a minority – a shrinking few of true believers. Saying that we democrats are in the minority does not make it so.
Even in SC (a traditionally republican state) there were more democrats than republicnas voting.
In fact – Obama got more votes than the ENTIRE democratic vote 4 years ago.
Oh – Obama got 24% of the white vote and Hilary got 36% of the white vote and Edwards got just under 40%.
Remember – Obama won in Iowa. He has no problem getting white voters to support him – even in the South.
The New York Times isn’t “most people.”
So you’re saying Rudy didn’t do the things the Times documented? It makes sense you’d support Rudy Poopster. He’s for doing everything Bush has done and pushing it even further.
I DEFY you to generate 1,200 of your own words in a coherent essay in defense of your POV.
1200 words are for blowhards like you. Everything you post is adopted from right wing talking points published in National Review. There’s nothing original about you.
I’m basically an Eisenhower Republican – progressive Income Tax; efficient, responsible defense spending, generous education and infrastructure spending. Then I lean towards Harry Truman who wanted medicare for ALL. I’m for government spending that spurs economic growth by THE PRIVATE SECTOR. Spending that led to things like the internet we’re communicating over right now.
I figure if a man like Eisenhower earned the enmity of right wingers while in office to the point of being labeled a communist he must have been doing something right.
And yes, the private sector should treat workers fairly and be prevented from degrading the environment in its quest to maximize profit. I support a carbon tax balanced by payroll tax cuts and mitigating programs for the poor to spur green energy development, energy efficiency and a new industry to support all that. I’m convinced that global warming is a threat to my kid’s future.
Post all the bullshit about the DPRK and Stalin you want. Just more lies from a stumbling, desperate liar.
@74 “First Obama has to get past the racism of the donkey party. You know, the old white women scared of a young articulate, clean, well spoken black man (Joe Biden phrase). Still fearful he’ll attack the white wimins.”
Puddy, you don’t have the common touch. There’s nothing those old white widows would like more than attenton from a young black man, or, any young man, or, hell, any man, for that matter! No, what they’re afraid of is that Obama will pander to young voters who don’t like paying FICA taxes by tinkering with Social Security and/or Medicare. This has nothing to do with race and everything to do with keeping food on the table.
Another reason why middle aged and older voters might prefer Hillary to Obama is because she has promised universal health are, he has not. Obama has only committed to making sure all children are covered. Health are is a big issue for voters in the 50 to 65 age range who are worried about their jobs going away — and their health care going away with them — but are too young to qualify for Medicare. This is also the age range where many people begin experiencing significant (and expensive) health problems for the first time. There are plenty of companies that push older workers out the door (even though it’s illegal) and these older workers are smart enough to realize that if they lose their health care and then get sick it could wipe out everything they’ve worked for all their lives. Do you really believe these voters care more about a candidate’s race than what his/her position on health care reform is?
You are a fucking moron.
Hmmm … my letter “c” is sticking … looks like Mrs. R dripped jelly on it again.
@109…RR…
Oh? Then explain Danny Westneat’s comments in this morning’s Times. Danny – no friend of Republicans he – said of your candidate’s hubby that he’s, “transparently fake.”
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....nny27.html
It’s odd how policy differences and disputes are attributed by you to be the result of “Republican liars,” but you ignore the biggest liar of them all who’s squatting right down there among all you Democrats.
Has Billary (again, they’re inseparable) acquitted itself (no gender discrimination) honorably in this campaign, or do you feel the need of a sheepdip? Or a vigorous de-lousing?
Don’t be so sanctimonious yourself when touting the virtues of Democrats. They’re politicians, and politicians do what they do. Billary are mud slingers par excellence and possessed of short tempers that are also mean and vindictive.
Aren’t you proud of your support of such high-mindedness?
The Piper
@75 Pudwhacker would have you believe they passed the Civil Rights Act all by themselves. Let’s look at the actual vote:
186 Republicans and 153 Democrats voted for the final bill in the House, and 46 Democrats and 27 Republicans voted for it in the Senate. The vote, of course, broke across regional — not party — lines with southern Represenatives and Senators opposing it as a bloc:
Original House version:
Southern Democrats: 7-87 (7%-93%)
Southern Republicans: 0-10 (0%-100%)
Northern Democrats: 145-9 (94%-6%)
Northern Republicans: 138-24 (85%-15%)
Original Senate version:
Southern Democrats: 1-20 (5%-95%)
Southern Republicans: 0-1 (0%-100%)
Northern Democrats: 45-1 (98%-2%)
Northern Republicans: 27-5 (84%-16%)
Note that outside the southern states there was much more opposition from Republicans than from Democrats.
Source: Wikipedia
@75 (continued) Now let’s see how magnanimous Republicans were to blacks when portions of the 1964 Voting Rights Act were up for renewal in 2006:
“In July 2006, 41 years after the Voting Rights Act passed, … a number of Republican lawmakers acted to amend, delay or defeat renewal of the Act for various reasons.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V.....ic_renewal
I would guess that at least some black voters will remember that when they go into the voting booth this year.
@110…CnR…
You mean well, but it’s never wise to mix political metaphors.
That GWB is at 33% compares to the Democratically led Congress’ what again?
Primary and caucus voter turnout isn’t a hard and fast predictor of general election voter turnout, and it’s a long time until November; anything can happen between now and then.
Don’t look at the situation as static because it’s not. There’s constant movement up and down. Six-months ago what were all the Dems predicting? And the Republicans? Hell, in the last election locally, the Dems were convinced they’d elect Bill Sherman. What happened?
Right now, to overlook the level of damage the Billary-led Dems are doing to other Dems is to gloss over a serious issue. The monolithic juggernaut you’ve convinced yourself of has increasingly cracked and flaking feet of clay.
Is it a disaster for you? No, of course not – again things move up and down all the time. But your in your overconfidence is my opportunity.
“Thererfore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions.” Sun Tzu.
The Piper
@75 (continued) And not to be overlooked is how the GOP treated black soldiers in the 2004 election:
“The Republican National Committee has a special offer for African-American soldiers: Go to Baghdad, lose your vote.
“A confidential campaign directed by GOP party chiefs in October 2004 sought to challenge the ballots of tens of thousands of voters in the last presidential election, virtually all of them cast by residents of Black-majority precincts.
“Files from the secret vote-blocking campaign were obtained by BBC Television Newsnight, London. They were attached to emails accidentally sent by Republican operatives to a non-party website.
“One group of voters wrongly identified by the Republicans as registering to vote from false addresses: servicemen and women sent overseas.
“Here’s how the scheme worked: The RNC mailed these voters letters in envelopes marked, ‘Do not forward’, to be returned to the sender. These letters were mailed to servicemen and women, some stationed overseas, to their US home addresses. The letters then returned to the Bush-Cheney campaign as ‘undeliverable.’ The lists of soldiers of ‘undeliverable’ letters were transmitted from state headquarters … to the RNC in Washington. The party could then challenge the voters’ registration and thereby prevent their absentee ballots being counted.
“One target list was comprised exclusively of voters registered at the Jacksonville, Florida, Naval Air Station. … [See this scrub sheet at http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.g.....038;size=o ] …
“A soldier returning home in time to vote in November 2004 could also be challenged on the basis of the returned envelope.
“Soldiers challenged would be required to vote by ‘provisional’ ballot. Over one million provisional ballots cast in the 2004 race were never counted; over half a million absentee ballots were also rejected. The extraordinary rise in the number of rejected ballots was the result of the widespread multi-state voter challenge campaign by the Republican Party. …
“The BBC obtained several dozen confidential emails sent by the Republican’s national Research Director and Deputy Communications chief, Tim Griffin to GOP Florida campaign chairman Brett Doster and other party leaders. Attached were spreadsheets marked, ‘Caging.xls.’ Each of these contained several hundred to a few thousand voters and their addresses. A check of the demographics of the addresses on the ‘caging lists,’ as the GOP leaders called them indicated that most were in African-American majority zip codes.
“The Republican National Committee in Washington refused … several requests to respond to the BBC discovery. …
“The party has refused to say why it would mark soldiers as having ‘bad addresses’ subject to challenge when they had been assigned abroad. …
“Setting up such a challenge list would be a crime under federal law. …
“Soldiers sending in their ballot from abroad would not know their vote was lost because of a challenge.”
Quoted under Fair Use; for complete article and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/jv9nf
Puddinghead is still mad at the Democrats for harboring the southern racist yellow-dog Democrats for 100 years, and it’s hard to blame him for that. But thanks to the good work of Richard Nixon, all the racists are in the GOP now. And puddy, with perfect illogic, argues that people should vote for today’s racists because their racist grandfathers were Democrats 50 years ago. Weird.
@85 Speaking of Willie Horton, how come Mike Huckabee sprung a white rapist from jail? How come he didn’t release a black rapist? Does Huck discriminate against black rapists?
@91 If you want to know whether this town has homeless people just look under the freeway bridges.
@93 “if you’re homeless in this town and not eating good, your’re not trying”
Bullshit. You assume everyone is employable, and employers have jobs for everyone willing to work. Neither is true.
@93 (continued) Today, you need a down payment of $30,000 or more, and an income that will support monthly mortgage payments of $1,500 or more, to buy a starter home or condo in this town. If you can’t afford that, then you have to find a vacant rental, a landlord willing to rent to you, and have enough money to pay a damage deposit and pay first and last months’ rent, which is likely to come to $2,500 or more. Just try coming up with that kind of money if the only work available is $8.50 an hour with a retail employer who never gives you the same hours and never gives you more than 24 to 32 hours a week, but expects you to be available to work all shifts, including weekend and split shifts, on a rotating schedule. Fuck you, piper, you sanctimonious ass. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
@94 Does it matter whether the homeless are locals or came here from other areas? If the number of homeless is up because of rising unemployment — and unemployment is demonstrably rising nationally — does it matter where they lost their jobs? It’s probably true that some newly-out-of-work people come to Seattle because there’s more shelter, food, and services here than in, say, Prosser or Republic or Ritzville — not to mention more job opportunities. It seems very likely that Seattle is somewhat of a collection point for Washington’s rural unemployed, and particularly for eastern Washington’s homeless people. They don’t do much, if anything, for them over there so naturally they come here because they have to, to survive.
Seattle also offers more medical services and other services for the mentally ill and disabled homeless populations than the small communities and rural areas.
@123…RR…
Hey! That was told me by a homeless guy! There are agencies and groups all throughout the Seattle-King County area falling all over themeselves to feed the homeless. Literally, they compete with each other to see who can feed the most with the most.
I’ve seen groups argue over who gets what turf in which to do it!
It’s not a question of employability, which punctures the “the homeless are that way because of economic conditions” balloon. Given that over 3/4 of the homeless have serious drug, alcohol, or mental illness issues – often a combo of them – “jobs” isn’t the answer.
Try spending time among them and working with them as I have and maybe you’ll get over your own false impressions of them.
The Piper
@100 What does Rudy Giuliana have to do with “freedom”? Seems to me those are two unrelated topics. What Giuliani is best known for in New York City is being a petty, mean, vindictive little prick who uses the power of government to get even with anyone who dares to challenge him:
Giuliani’s Stalinist Politics: ‘A Culture of Retaliation’
“By MICHAEL POWELL and RUSS BUETTNER
“Published: January 22, 2008
“Rudolph W. Giuliani … made the vengeful roundhouse an instrument of government, clipping anyone who crossed him.
“In August 1997, James Schillaci, a rough-hewn chauffeur from the Bronx, dialed Mayor Giuliani’s radio program … to complain about a red-light sting run by the police near the Bronx Zoo. … That morning, police officers appeared on Mr. Schillaci’s doorstep. … They slapped on handcuffs and took him to court on a 13-year-old traffic warrant. A judge threw out the charge. A police spokeswoman later read Mr. Schillaci’s decades-old criminal rap sheet to a reporter …, a move of questionable legality because the state restricts how such information is released. She said, falsely, that he had been convicted of sodomy. Then Mr. Giuliani took up the cudgel. ‘Mr. Schillaci was posing as an altruistic whistle-blower,’ the mayor told reporters …. ‘Maybe he’s dishonest enough to lie about police officers.’ Mr. Schillaci suffered an emotional breakdown … and … received a $290,000 legal settlement from the city. …
Mr. Giuliani[‘s] … ruthlessness … became a defining aspect of his mayoralty. One result: New York City spent at least $7 million in settling civil rights lawsuits and paying retaliatory damages during the Giuliani years.
“After AIDS activists … challenged the mayor, city officials sabotaged the group’s application for a federal housing grant. A caseworker who spoke of missteps in the death of a child was fired. After unidentified city workers complained of pressure to hand contracts to Giuliani-favored organizations, investigators examined not the charges but the identity of the leakers.
“’There were constant loyalty tests: ‘Will you shoot your brother?’ said Marilyn Gelber, who served … under Mr. Giuliani. ‘People were marked for destruction for disloyal jokes.’
“Mr. Giuliani paid careful attention to the art of political payback. When former Mayors Edward I. Koch and David N. Dinkins spoke publicly of Mr. Giuliani’s foibles, mayoral aides removed their official portraits from … City Hall. … ‘David Dinkins and I are lucky that Rudy didn’t cast our portraits onto a bonfire along with the First Amendment, which he enjoyed violating daily,’ Mr. Koch said in a recent interview.
“Years after leaving Manhattan College, [Giuliani] held a grudge against a man who beat him in a class election. He urged his commissioners to walk out of City Council hearings when questions turned hostile. … He cowed many into silence. Silence ensured the flow of city money.
“Andy Humm, a gay activist, worked for the Hetrick-Martin Institute, which pushed condom giveaways in public schools. When Mr. Giuliani supported a parental opt-out, the institute’s director counseled silence to avoid losing city funds. … ‘We were muzzled, and it was a disgrace.’ …
“As mayor, he picked fights with a notable lack of discrimination, challenging the city and state comptrollers, a few corporations and the odd council member. But the mayor’s fist also fell on the less powerful. In mid-May 1994, newspapers revealed that Mr. Giuliani’s youth commissioner … suffered tax problems …. Mr. Giuliani’s press secretary dialed reporters and served up a hotter story: A former youth commissioner under Mr. Dinkins, Richard L. Murphy, had ladled millions of dollars to supporters of the former mayor. And someone had destroyed Department of Youth Services records and hard drives and stolen computers in an apparent effort to obscure what had happened to that money. ‘My immediate goal is to get rid of the stealing, to get rid of the corruption,’ Mr. Giuliani told The Daily News. None of it was true. … But Mr. Murphy’s professional life was wrecked. …
“This theme repeats. Two private employers in New York City, neither of which wanted to be identified because they feared retaliation should Mr. Giuliani be elected president, said the mayor’s office exerted pressure not to hire former Dinkins officials. When Mr. Giuliani battled schools Chancellor Ramon C. Cortines, he demanded that Mr. Cortines prove his loyalty by firing the press spokesman, John Beckman. Mr. Beckman’s offense? He had worked in the Dinkins administration. ‘I found it,’ Mr. Beckman said in an interview, ‘a really unfortunate example of how to govern.’
“Joel Berger worked as a senior litigator in the city corporation counsel’s office until 1996. Afterward, he represented victims of police brutality and taught a class at the New York University School of Law, and his students served apprenticeships with the corporation counsel. In late August 1997, Mr. Berger wrote a column in The New York Times criticizing Mr. Giuliani’s record on police brutality. A week later, a city official called the director of the N.Y.U. law school’s clinical programs and demanded that Mr. Berger be removed from the course. Otherwise, the official said, we will suspend the corporation counsel apprenticeship, according to Mr. Berger and an N.Y.U. official. ‘It was ridiculously petty,’ Mr. Berger said. …
“Mr. Giuliani’s war with the nonprofit group Housing Works was more operatic. … The group’s members marched on City Hall, staged sit-ins, and delighted in singling out city officials for opprobrium. Mr. Giuliani … became their favorite … effigy. Mr. Giuliani responded in kind. His police commanders stationed snipers atop City Hall and sent helicopters whirling overhead when 100 or so unarmed Housing Works protesters marched nearby in 1998. … [H]is officials systematically killed $6 million worth of contracts with the group, saying it had mismanaged funds. Housing Works sued the city and discovered that officials had rescored a federal evaluation form to ensure that the group lost a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. … ‘The culture of retaliation was really quite remarkable,’ said Matthew D. Brinckerhoff, the lawyer who represented Housing Works. ‘Up and down the food chain, everyone knew what this guy demanded.’
“The mayor’s wartime style of governance reached an exhaustion point in the late 1990s. His poll numbers dipped, and the courts routinely ruled against the city, upholding the New York Civil Liberties Union in 23 of its 27 free-speech challenges during Mr. Giuliani’s mayoralty. … None of this left the mayor chastened. In March 2000, an undercover officer killed Patrick Dorismond, a security guard, during a fight when the police mistook him for a drug dealer. The outcry infuriated the mayor, who released Mr. Dorismond’s juvenile record, a document that legally was supposed to remain sealed. The victim, Mr. Giuliani opined, was no ‘altar boy.’ Actually, he was.”
Quoted under fair use; for complete story and/or copyright info see http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01.....f=politics
In Matters Big and Small, Crossing Giuliani Had Price
Members of Housing Works, a nonprofit group that had challenged Mr. Giuliani’s AIDS policies, marching near City Hall in 1998. The police placed snipers atop City Hall during the march and monitored it by helicopter.
By MICHAEL POWELL and RUSS BUETTNER
Published: January 22, 2008
Rudolph W. Giuliani likens himself to a boxer who never takes a punch without swinging back. As mayor, he made the vengeful roundhouse an instrument of government, clipping anyone who crossed him.
In August 1997, James Schillaci, a rough-hewn chauffeur from the Bronx, dialed Mayor Giuliani’s radio program on WABC-AM to complain about a red-light sting run by the police near the Bronx Zoo. When the call yielded no results, Mr. Schillaci turned to The Daily News, which then ran a photo of the red light and this front page headline: “GOTCHA!”
That morning, police officers appeared on Mr. Schillaci’s doorstep. What are you going to do, Mr. Schillaci asked, arrest me? He was joking, but the officers were not.
They slapped on handcuffs and took him to court on a 13-year-old traffic warrant. A judge threw out the charge. A police spokeswoman later read Mr. Schillaci’s decades-old criminal rap sheet to a reporter for The Daily News, a move of questionable legality because the state restricts how such information is released. She said, falsely, that he had been convicted of sodomy.
Then Mr. Giuliani took up the cudgel.
“Mr. Schillaci was posing as an altruistic whistle-blower,” the mayor told reporters at the time. “Maybe he’s dishonest enough to lie about police officers.”
Mr. Schillaci suffered an emotional breakdown, was briefly hospitalized and later received a $290,000 legal settlement from the city. “It really damaged me,” said Mr. Schillaci, now 60, massaging his face with thick hands. “I thought I was doing something good for once, my civic duty and all. Then he steps on me.”
Mr. Giuliani was a pugilist in a city of political brawlers. But far more than his predecessors, historians and politicians say, his toughness edged toward ruthlessnessand became a defining aspect of his mayoralty. One result: New York City spent at least $7 million in settling civil rights lawsuits and paying retaliatory damages during the Giuliani years.
After AIDS activists with Housing Works loudly challenged the mayor, city officials sabotaged the group’s application for a federal housing grant. A caseworker who spoke of missteps in the death of a child was fired. After unidentified city workers complained of pressure to hand contracts to Giuliani-favored organizations, investigators examined not the charges but the identity of the leakers.
“There were constant loyalty tests: ‘Will you shoot your brother?’ ” said Marilyn Gelber, who served as environmental commissioner under Mr. Giuliani. “People were marked for destruction for disloyal jokes.”
Mr. Giuliani paid careful attention to the art of political payback. When former Mayors Edward I. Koch and David N. Dinkins spoke publicly of Mr. Giuliani’s foibles, mayoral aides removed their official portraits from the ceremonial Blue Room at City Hall. Mr. Koch, who wrote a book titled “Giuliani: Nasty Man,” shrugs.
“David Dinkins and I are lucky that Rudy didn’t cast our portraits onto a bonfire along with the First Amendment, which he enjoyed violating daily,” Mr. Koch said in a recent interview.
Mr. Giuliani retails his stories of childhood toughness, in standing up to bullies who mocked his love of opera and bridled at his Yankee loyalties. Years after leaving Manhattan College, he held a grudge against a man who beat him in a class election. He urged his commissioners to walk out of City Council hearings when questions turned hostile. But in his 2002 book “Leadership,” he said his instructions owed nothing to his temper.
“It wasn’t my sensitivities I was worried about, but the tone of civility I strived to establish throughout the city,” he wrote. Mr. Giuliani declined requests to be interviewed for this article.
His admirers, not least former Deputy Mayor Randy M. Mastro, said it was unfair to characterize the mayor as vengeful, particularly given the “Herculean task” he faced when he entered office in 1994. Mr. Giuliani’s admirers claimed that the depredations of crack, AIDS, homicide and recession had brought the city to its knees, and that he faced a sclerotic liberal establishment. He wielded intimidation as his mace and wrested cost-savings and savings from powerful unions and politicians.
“The notion that the city needed broad-based change frightened a lot of entrenched groups,” said Fred Siegel, a historian and author of “The Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York and the Genius of American Life.” “He didn’t want to be politic with them.”
He cowed many into silence. Silence ensured the flow of city money.
Andy Humm, a gay activist, worked for the Hetrick-Martin Institute, which pushed condom giveaways in public schools. When Mr. Giuliani supported a parental opt-out, the institute’s director counseled silence to avoid losing city funds. “He said, ‘We’re going to say it’s not good, but we’re not going to mention him,’ ” Mr. Humm said.
“We were muzzled, and it was a disgrace.”
Mr. Giuliani says he prefers to brawl with imposing opponents. His father, he wrote in “Leadership,” would “always emphasize: never pick on someone smaller than you. Never be a bully.”
As mayor, he picked fights with a notable lack of discrimination, challenging the city and state comptrollers, a few corporations and the odd council member. But the mayor’s fist also fell on the less powerful. In mid-May 1994, newspapers revealed that Mr. Giuliani’s youth commissioner, the Rev. John E. Brandon, suffered tax problems; more troubling revelations seemed in the offing.
At 7 p.m. on May 17, Mr. Giuliani’s press secretary dialed reporters and served up a hotter story: A former youth commissioner under Mr. Dinkins, Richard L. Murphy, had ladled millions of dollars to supporters of the former mayor. And someone had destroyed Department of Youth Services records and hard drives and stolen computers in an apparent effort to obscure what had happened to that money.
“My immediate goal is to get rid of the stealing, to get rid of the corruption,” Mr. Giuliani told The Daily News.
None of it was true. In 1995, the Department of Investigation found no politically motivated contracts and no theft by senior officials. But Mr. Murphy’s professional life was wrecked.
“I was soiled merchandise — the taint just lingers,” Mr. Murphy said in a recent interview.
Not long after, a major foundation recruited Mr. Murphy to work on the West Coast. The group wanted him to replicate his much-honored concept of opening schools at night as community centers. A senior Giuliani official called the foundation — a move a former mayoral official confirmed on the condition of anonymity for fear of embarrassing the organization — and the prospective job disappeared.
“He goes to people and makes them complicit in his revenge,” Mr. Murphy said.
This theme repeats. Two private employers in New York City, neither of which wanted to be identified because they feared retaliation should Mr. Giuliani be elected president, said the mayor’s office exerted pressure not to hire former Dinkins officials. When Mr. Giuliani battled schools Chancellor Ramon C. Cortines, he demanded that Mr. Cortines prove his loyalty by firing the press spokesman, John Beckman.
Mr. Beckman’s offense? He had worked in the Dinkins administration. “I found it,” Mr. Beckman said in an interview, “a really unfortunate example of how to govern.”
Joel Berger worked as a senior litigator in the city corporation counsel’s office until 1996. Afterward, he represented victims of police brutality and taught a class at the New York University School of Law, and his students served apprenticeships with the corporation counsel.
In late August 1997, Mr. Berger wrote a column in The New York Times criticizing Mr. Giuliani’s record on police brutality. A week later, a city official called the director of the N.Y.U. law school’s clinical programs and demanded that Mr. Berger be removed from the course. Otherwise, the official said, we will suspend the corporation counsel apprenticeship, according to Mr. Berger and an N.Y.U. official.
“It was ridiculously petty,” Mr. Berger said.
N.Y.U. declined to replace Mr. Berger and instead suspended the class after that semester.
The Citizens Budget Commission has driven mayors of various ideological stripes to distraction since it was founded in 1932. The business-backed group bird-dogs the city’s fiscal management with an unsparing eye. But its analysts are fonts of creative thinking, and Mr. Giuliani asked Raymond Horton, the group’s president, to serve on his transition committee in 1993.
That comity was long gone by the autumn of 1997, when Mr. Giuliani faced re-election. Ruth Messinger, the mayor’s Democratic opponent, cited the commission’s work, and the mayor denounced the group, which had issued critical reports on welfare reform, police inefficiency and the city budget.
So far, so typical for mayors and their relationship with the commission. Mr. Koch once banned his officials from attending the group’s annual retreat. Another time, he attended and gave a speech excoriating the commission.
But one of Mr. Giuliani’s deputy mayors, Joseph Lhota, took an unprecedented step. He called major securities firms that underwrite city bonds and discouraged them from buying seats at the commission’s annual fund-raising dinner. Because Mr. Lhota played a key role in selecting the investment firms that underwrote the bonds, his calls raised an ethical tempest.
Apologizing struck Mr. Giuliani as silly.
“We are sending exactly the right message,” he said. “Their reports are pretty useless; they are a dilettante organization.”
Still, that dinner was a rousing success. “All mayors have thin skins, but Rudy has the thinnest skin of all,” Mr. Horton said.
Mr. Giuliani’s war with the nonprofit group Housing Works was more operatic. Housing Works runs nationally respected programs for the homeless, the mentally ill and people who are infected with H.I.V. But it weds that service to a 1960s straight-from-the-rice-paddies guerrilla ethos.’
The group’s members marched on City Hall, staged sit-ins, and delighted in singling out city officials for opprobrium. Mr. Giuliani, who considered doing away with the Division of AIDS Services, became their favorite mayor in effigy.
Mr. Giuliani responded in kind. His police commanders stationed snipers atop City Hall and sent helicopters whirling overhead when 100 or so unarmed Housing Works protesters marched nearby in 1998. A year earlier, his officials systematically killed $6 million worth of contracts with the group, saying it had mismanaged funds.
Housing Works sued the city and discovered that officials had rescored a federal evaluation form to ensure that the group lost a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Martin Oesterreich, the city’s homeless commissioner, denied wrongdoing but acknowledged that his job might have been forfeited if Housing Works had obtained that contract.
“That possibility could have happened,” Mr. Oesterreich told a federal judge.
The mayor’s fingerprints could not be found on every decision. But his enemies were widely known.
“The culture of retaliation was really quite remarkable,” said Matthew D. Brinckerhoff, the lawyer who represented Housing Works. “Up and down the food chain, everyone knew what this guy demanded.”
The mayor’s wartime style of governance reached an exhaustion point in the late 1990s. His poll numbers dipped, and the courts routinely ruled against the city, upholding the New York Civil Liberties Union in 23 of its 27 free-speech challenges during Mr. Giuliani’s mayoralty. After he left office, the city agreed to pay $327,000 to a black police officer who was fired because he had testified before the City Council about police brutality toward blacks. The city also agreed to rescind the firing of the caseworker who talked about a child’s death.
In 1999, Mr. Giuliani explored a run for the United States Senate. If he won that seat, he would leave the mayor’s office a year early. The City Charter dictated that Mark Green, the public advocate, would succeed him.
That prospect was intolerable to Mr. Giuliani. Few politicians crawled under the mayor’s skin as skillfully as Mr. Green. “Idiotic” and “inane” were some of the kinder words that Mr. Giuliani sent winging toward the public advocate, who delighted in verbally tweaking the mayor.
So Mr. Giuliani announced in June 1999 that a Charter Revision Commission, stocked with his loyalists, would explore changing the line of mayoral succession. Mr. Giuliani told The New York Times Magazine that he might not have initiated the charter review campaign if Mr. Green were not the public advocate. Three former mayors declared themselves appalled; Mr. Koch fired the loudest cannonade. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Mr. Mayor,” he said during a news conference.
Frederick A. O. Schwarz Jr., chairman of a Charter Revision Commission a decade earlier, wrote a letter to Mr. Giuliani warning that “targeting a particular person” would “smack of personal politics and predilections.
“All this is not worthy of you, or our city,” Mr. Schwarz wrote.
Mr. Mastro, who had left the administration, agreed to serve as the commission chairman. He eventually announced that a proposal requiring a special election within 60 days of a mayor’s early departure would not take effect until 2002, after both Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Green had left office. A civic group estimated that the commission spent more than a million dollars of taxpayer money on commercials before a citywide referendum on the proposal that was held in November 1999.
Voters defeated the measure, 76 percent to 24 percent. (In 2002, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg advocated a similar charter revision that passed with little controversy.)
Mr. Green had warned the mayor that rejection loomed.
“It was simple,” Mr. Green said. “It was the mayor vindictively going after an institutional critic for doing his job.”
None of this left the mayor chastened. In March 2000, an undercover officer killed Patrick Dorismond, a security guard, during a fight when the police mistook him for a drug dealer. The outcry infuriated the mayor, who released Mr. Dorismond’s juvenile record, a document that legally was supposed to remain sealed.
The victim, Mr. Giuliani opined, was no “altar boy.” Actually, he was. (Mr. Giuliani later expressed regret without precisely apologizing.)
James Schillaci, the Bronx whistle-blower, recalled reading those comments and shuddering at the memory. “The mayor tarred me up; you know what that feels like?” he said. “I still have nightmares.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01.....f=politics
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Does this look like a guy who would defend your “freedom”? To me, he looks more like a local KGB administrator, or maybe an Obergruppenfuehrer.
@106 The only thing Giuliani is going to be is a has-been slinking off with his tail between his legs to join Bush in retirement — unloved, uncelebrated, and not missed by anyone.
@114 My comment @109 has nothing to do with Mr. Clinton. Your pal pudpacker raised the issue of Mr. Steele and I responded to that.
@114 (continued) Has Bill Clinton been an ass lately? I suppose so. wouldn’t be the first time. There was a time when I thought Mr. Clinton’s behavior was a problem, but your boy Bush is such a big ass every fucking day that frankly I kinda forgot all about Bill’s failings.
MSNBC commmentary (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22859254/?GT1=10755):
Blue Tsumani. Don’t stand in its way, boys.
Roger Rabbit @ 115
Thanks for the breakdown on the Civil Rights Act. I had never seen it broken down by region AND party before. It certainly shows that the Republicans abandoned their long-time supporters in the Black community, especially in the South. I think they started trying to get White votes in the South during the Eisenhower era. Then around the early 1960’s, they started trying especially hard to get the votes of racist Whites in the South. That explains why the Republican share of the Black vote dropped from about 35% (more or less) through the 1960 election, to about 5% in 1964, and still tends to be around 10% or so.
Dick Morris has been peddling the following theory about the motives behind Bill’s antics:
“First, he wants to be the same kind of lightning rod for Hillary that she was for him during his run for the presidency. As the 1992 Republican convention approached, Hillary ratcheted up her … profile … to attract GOP fire so … they would leave Bill alone. … The Republicans … spent their entire convention going after Hillary. Bill was scarcely hit. Now Bill is returning the favor … she rarely gets hit anymore. … Like a red cape, he is attracting the attention of the bull so his wife the matador escapes unharmed.
“The other [reason] … is that Bill wants to suck up all the oxygen in the room and dominate the coverage …. By doing so, he cuts Obama out of the news, pushes him off the front page, and usurps the headlines. … Bill is highlighting the question: Will Obama carry the black vote? … [because] the Clintons can … afford to lose South Carolina as long as the election is not seen as a bellwether of how the South will vote but as an indication of how African-Americans will go.”
Quoted under fair use. http://www.vote.com/mmp_printerfriendly.php?id=689
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Morris, of course, was a Republican operative who was hired by President Clinton to help him “triangulate” policies to boost his approval ratings, then was hired to manage Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign — but was fired from that job for letting a prostitute listen in on conversations with the President. Recently, Morris has been very publicly and very noisily peddling his personal dislike of the Clintons for personal profit.
“if you’re homeless in this town and not eating good, your’re not trying”
Or you have serious drug, alcohol, or mental illness issues.
@127 What “false impressions” do I have about the homeless? That they include alcoholics, drug addicts, disabled people, and mentally ill people who went on the streets after we emptied the mental hospitals in the name of civil liberties? I don’t recall saying anything differently. It should be noted, however, that a significant component of the homeless also includes unemployed people and working poor who can’t find housing they can afford. And, of course, a significant number of runaway and abandoned kids.
I was looking at the South Carolina returns and exit polling.
442,918 voted in the Republican primary.
530,322 voted in the Democratic primary.
2% of GOP voters in the exit poll identified themselves as Black. That is approximately 8,858 people.
55% of Democratic voters in the exit poll identified themselves as Black. That is approximately 291,677 people.
So out of approximately 300,000 Black voters who voted in the South Carolina primaries, only about 3% of them chose the Republican primary.
ONCE AGAIN PELLETIZER IS LYING:
Replay the tape BUMBLING BUNNY. I said Senate Republicans. You added the HOUSE.
I NEVER mentioned the HOUSE dumb bunny!
Way to smear.
Way to deflect.
Way to lie.
WTF is wrong with you? Oops… I already know. STUPIDITY.
Source Senate Archives!
Source Hubert Humphrey Archives!
Source Everett Dirksen Archives!
BTW I posted this 5 times here on HorsesASSHoles! Look it up.
Piper: Yet the donkey party was sure they’d knock off another Ohio and Virginia seat. Neither happened. Why? The great big donkey wave hit a coral reef?
CluelessIDIOT@88:
You want to fuck me? Sorry I don’t swing toward idiot gene ways. Besides you don’t own the right equipment! Pelletizer told me you have no equipment! Eunuch?
Of course clueless idiot has no comment on the inuuendo and stereotypes from the mouth of Joe Biden…
Why is that clueless idiot?
Eisenhower Republican my ass! You are a NEW Progressive donkey. Remember your November 10, 2006 comment at 10:07 AM?
Ohhh that’s right you said that as Clueless. Your sybil self wasn’t thinking then…
Richard are you really that dumb?
Donkeys owned 21 of the 22 southern senate seats. Why are you confusing the house with the senate. I said SENATE.
Pelletizer knows his SENATE argument falls flat on its face.
Richard:
Was Robert Byrd in the house in 1964-65?
Was Richard Russell in the house in 1964-65?
Was Al Gore Sr in the house in 1964-65?
I am surprised you are off your game today.
YLB AKA Clueless is an Eisenhower Republican.
I call BULLSHITTIUM!
Waaaa haaaaa haaaaa haaa haaaahaaa haaaa haaaaa haaaaa haaa haaaahaaa haaaa haaaaa haaaaa haaa haaaahaaa haaaa haaaaa haaaaa haaa haaaahaaa haaaa haaaaa haaaaa haaa haaaahaaa haaaa haaaaa haaaaa haaa haaaahaaa haaaa haaaaa haaaaa haaa haaaahaaa haaaa heeeee heeee heeee heeeee heeeee heeee heeee heeeee heeeee heeee heeee heeeee heeeee heeee heeee heeeee heeeee heeee heeee heeeee heeeee heeee heeee heeeee heeeee heeee heeee heeeee ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho
K said:”But the party, since the 1960’s has been committed to equality.”
Really? Then why are inner city schools sucking so bad? Why do certain donkey leaders sending their children to private schools?
Pelletizer’s argument of Dick Morris is a Republican operative.
BULLSHITTIUM. I knew I had read something which refuted it and again Puddy found it:
“WAYNE BARRETT: Yes, I did. I have known Sharpton since he was 16. I have never heard him so hysterical as he was Monday when we did this interview. He was bombastic and screaming about this, and I quote him, as some form of Phony liberal paternalism and some form of a racist double standard. What he contended was that Bill Clinton had used Dick Morris as his pollster and political consultant, and that Dick Morris had handled Republicans like Trent Lott, and what was the difference between his scenario and the Bill Clinton scenario?
I think it’s transparently obvious that Dick Morris was first of all, primarily a Democratic pollster, and consultant, and secondly, Dick Morris wasn’t subsidizing and financing the campaign. Dick Morris was paid as a consultant.”
And I got this from a Clueless Kool-Aid site. Fair use and copy left to the URL holder:
http://www.democracynow.org/20....._sharptons
@136…RR…
In your @125 post, you “supposed” some things that aren’t true. While occasional guestimating can be appropriate, when it comes to the homeless, it’s not helpful and it can result in bad or misguided policy.
Seattle-King County is a Mecca for a lot of homeless people who come here not from small towns in Washington, but from all over the country. I’ve talked to many who tell me they come from places like California, Florida, and other states because they’ve heard Seattle is a soft touch.
If they come for jobs – I remember two guys I once gave a lift from the bus station to Bread of Life Mission – they usually pick them up quickly. But most don’t; they come for benefits.
I remember a guy in TC4 whose uncle lived in Edmonds. He’d been in town for better than a month, was an unemployed barrista (more unemployed barristas in TC4 than anywhere on earth) yet had done nothing to either contact the uncle or find a job after some six-weeks. Living in the camp, he told me, was too good a deal.
There are many transitional programs for homeless families, one of which is Springboard Alliance’s Avondale Park facility in Redmond. An absolutely gorgeous apartment complex – I’ll bet the places you lived in with Mrs. Rabbit when first married weren’t this nice – that includes wrap-around case management, child care, and more, it’s a joint venture of Hopelink, Catholic Community Services, and Friends of Youth. Great program!
Hopelink itself operates several shelters (Kenmore’s Dixie Price Shelter among them), and organizations like Congregations for the Homeless run a rotating shelter for up to 35-men on the Eastside together with an increasingly successful effort placing men in subsidized housing units supported by intensive case management via volunteer Life Coaches.
In the past, I’ve mentioned the very impressive Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center (ARC) across from Safeco and Qwest Fields. Within 48-hours of a contact, they promise someone a bed in their program.
Add to this the scores of other programs and ad hoc volunteer efforts then compare them to what a lot of other cities DON’T do. Pretty soon you see why people come here from places like San Fran, et al.
Of course the overwhelming majority of homeless people have severe substance/mental health issues, which makes simply offering one a job a problematic situation at best. Extraordinarily adept at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, I can’t tell you how many homeless men I’ve worked with who do something incredibly dumb or weird just as they’re on the cusp of “victory.”
Why do they do it? Self-esteem issues are massive, and one common thread that runs through so many of the guys is a sense of unworthiness; whatever good comes your way is undeserved, so better muck it up. Don’t think this is cynical, because the guys say as much in their own words.
Seattle-King County tolerates stuff that other jurisdictions won’t, it offers more benefits than other jurisdictions, and it does nothing to discourage homeless people from coming here simply to receive them. Whether these policies should change isn’t the issue; that they’re in place is a fact.
The Piper
In a confidential memorandum, one Republican senator asked in May 1963 that Republicans meet the challenge by proposing a legislative initiative to revise Senate rules to make it easier to pass a civil rights bill which would cut off federal funds to programs that discriminated against African Americans. In suggesting this action, the senator made the link between social conditions and legislation clear when he said that “recent events in racial relations in Birmingham, Alabama and elsewhere, in the North and the South, have demonstrated the critical need for further action by the Congress . . . toward righting the wrongs and ending the disadvantages of the past.”
http://www.congresslink.org/pr.....64text.htm
Sucks to be Pelletizer!
Wow, how did 40 and 50 year old civil rights politics become relevant to a goddamn thing today? Did someone miss all the news since 1965?
Too bad Puddybud wasn’t active in politics 40 or 50 years ago. He could have tried to steer the GOP away from pandering to the white racists.
Richard: All I am proving is donkey were against the Rights Acts. That’s all.
PIdiot – The John Birch Society called Eisenhower a communist and all the right wingers got bent out of shape when he warned about the “military-industrial complex”.
He was doing something right in my book.
Excuse me – go fuck yourself.
CluelessIdiot@152: John Birch Society? They were not my cup of tea.