July 25, 2016

Sanders needs to cut Nina Turner loose. We're talking Fatal Distraction. She can't let it go.

July 25, 2016

Does Kristina Schake stop smiling when off camera ? :) She does a great job in dealing with media.

July 25, 2016

Reince Priebus hanging round CNN like a bad smell today

and CNN lapping it up, especially Wolfie

Beaker


Priebus
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July 24, 2016

The secret life of Tim Kaine, harmonica player, Irish genealogist

Tim has greatness within him !!! His great-grandfather was born in County Longford, 65 miles away from where President Obama's great-great-great grandfather was born (in Moneygall, Co. Offaly). Here's a great article :-

Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s pick for Vice President has a secret weapon - his harmonica. When things slow down and a party needs a burst of old fashioned song and hoopla, Kaine forgets his strait laced persona and usually volunteers a tune or two - Johnny Cash numbers are a specialty, especially "Folsom Prison Blues” and gets the toes tapping again.

He picked up his harmonica at the American Ireland Fund dinner, in Washington, in March, where a lively evening was further enlivened when the new Vice President pick for Hillary Clinton took the stage.

He can do Irish, Appalachian, and southern country and he’s the most famous figure, right now, out of Virginia since New York linebacker legend Lawrence Taylor.

Senator Kaine and his wife, Virginia Secretary of Education Anne Holton, make an extraordinary political couple and if they ever make it to the Naval Observatory, the home of the Vice President, they are bound to make an incredible impression.

On the Irish political side of things, Kaine has been a member of The Irish National Caucus since December 2012. The Caucus is a, once controversial, group who put it up to the British on the North often more than the Irish government wanted. They sport a letter on their site from 2012 with Kaine saying he is happy to join them as he arrives in the Senate to serve his first term. They are seen as more hard-line on Ireland than the Congressional Friends of Ireland that Kaine also belongs to, which carries out much of the Irish government's agenda.

Kaine certainly feels Ireland in his heart. During his acceptance speech for The American Ireland Fund Leadership Award, he talked about his family's 2006 trip to Ireland, where they found the ruins of his great-grandfather's cottage in Killashee Parish, in Longford.

See full article here

http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/niallodowd/The-secret-life-of-Tim-Kaine-harmonica-player-Irish-genealogist.html

&feature=youtu.be

July 18, 2016

Paul Manafort: John Kasich is ‘embarrassing’ Ohio

And it continues !

Donald Trump’s campaign chairman on Monday said that Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is scheduled to be in Cleveland during the Republican National Convention but won’t necessarily attend the convention itself, is “embarrassing” the state with his actions.

“He’s making a big mistake,” Mr. Manafort said of Mr. Kasich on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “He’s looking at something that’s not going to happen, he’s hurting his state — he’s embarrassing [the] state, frankly.”

Mr. Kasich’s team put out a list of events the governor plans to attend in and around Cleveland this week that includes events with the Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire delegations. But the former 2016 GOP presidential contender has still refused to endorse Mr. Trump.


“But most of the Republicans who aren’t coming are people who have been part of the past,” Mr. Manafort said. “People who are part of the future of the Republican party are frankly going to be here participating in the program.”

“What we’re trying to accomplish is not to have a heavily laden program of politicians, but the goal of this convention for Donald Trump is to show the rest of the story of who Donald Trump is,” he said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jul/18/paul-manafort-john-kasich-embarrassing-ohio/

July 18, 2016

When does Trump have to submit June Campaign Donations/income to FEC ?

Supposedly it is going be $50m, which took the heat off, but I can only see the May filings submitted on June 22. If it's the same in July, then it falls the day after the GOP convention.

July 15, 2016

Kaine v Vilsack v Perez

Tim Kaine

Age 58 (in St. Paul, MN)

Humble beginnings, (father was a welder)

Pros

Economics Graduate
Went to Harvard Law School
Lawyer for 17 years specializing in helping people who were denied housing on the basis of race or disability.
Mayor of Richmond
Lt. Governor of Virginia
Governor of Virginia
US Senator (Committee on Armed Services, Committee on the Budget, Committee on Foreign Relations)
Fluent Spanish speaker
More or less Pro Choice, though is privately anti.
Pro Obamacare
Kaine was the lead lawyer in the suit that established Home Inc

Cons

Boring
Oversaw 11 executions as Governor, though privately against.
Took him until 2013 to support Gay Marriage
Tom Vilsack

Age 65

Humble beginnings, having been adopted

Pros
Lawyer
Mayor of Mount Pleasant, Iowa
Iowa State Senator
Governor of Iowa (2 terms)
Secretary of Agriculture

Cons
Age
As Iowa Governor, Tom Vilsack was a leading advocate for Monsanto, genetic engineering, and factory farming.
Boring

Tom Perez

Age 54

Son of Dominican immigrants (father a Doctor, mother was a daughter of Dominican Ambassador to US)

Pros
Went to Harvard Law School
1989 to 1995, he worked as a federal prosecutor in the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division.
From 1995 until 1998, Perez worked as Democratic Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy's principal adviser on civil rights, criminal justice, and constitutional issues
For the final two years of the Clinton administration, he worked as the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Health and Human Services
county council of Montgomery County, Maryland
Maryland Secretary of Labor
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights
Secretary of Labor
Fluent Spanish obviously, should appeal to Hispanics not already voting Dem

Cons
Perez spearheaded the legalization of slot machines in the Maryland
Doesn't have major election experience

July 11, 2016

18,000 Police forces in the US, and you wonder why there's an issue ?

It was mentioned yesterday by a retired Police Chief (possibly of Washington), that there are 18,000 police forces in the US. That's just staggering. How can you hope to have standards in how your police deal with the public, when they all could have different (or no) interpretations ?

Wiki says

In 2008, state and local law enforcement agencies employed more than 1.1 million persons on a full-time basis, including about 765,000 sworn personnel (defined as those with general arrest powers). Agencies also employed approximately 100,000 part-time employees, including 44,000 sworn officers

In somewhere comparable like the UK,

There were 129,584 full-time equivalent ( FTE ) police officers in the 43 police forces of England and Wales as at 31 March 2013.

July 8, 2016

Did Pete Sessions just link President Obama to the blame for the Dallas shootings, on Morning Joe ?

I was admittedly only half listening to the idiot but I thought I heard him say something like "these killings going on when our President is overseas..."

Anyone hear that ?

July 7, 2016

Brian Fallon coming up on MSNBC on All due respect

Halperin REALLY pissed off with the Republicans today....clearly he was hoping for a win for the Reps. He's doubled down on his prediction that IF Trump has a good convention, picks a great VP, and has a great first debate, he'll win !!!