• Arlen Specter,  Chris Matthews,  MSNBC,  NBC News

    The Spectre of Chris Matthews as Pennsylvania’s Next United States Senator

    Ellen explains how dancing with MSNBC’s host of “Hardball” Chris Matthews got out of hand.

    If Chris Matthews has indeed talked to Democrat Party consultants about facing off against incumbent Pennsylvania GOP Senator Arlen Specter he should relinquish his “Hardball” Show.

    The Patriot News reports the MSNBC host is “continues to talk with top Democrats about the possibility” of running for Senate in 2010 against Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn.

    Matthews, 62, met with Democratic State Committee Chairman T.J. Rooney and executive director Mary Isenhour in Washington, D.C. “to discuss the logistics involved in a Senate run. Isenhour said she left that meeting convinced Matthews has not made up his mind about running.”

    Would Matthews make the best candidate against Specter who is OLD and had cancer for years now?

    Who knows?

    But, it is unlikely his show can be viewed as impartial, particularly in this Senate race until Matthews makes up his mind whether to run or not. Of course, he would rather “milk” his announcement and stay on the tube as long as he can.

    NBC News should force his hand.

    In or out, Chris?


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  • Barack Obama,  Sarah Palin,  Saxby Chambliss

    The Senate Savior: Sarah Palin

    Sarah Palin in Georgia

    Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, center, waves to a crowd during a campaign stop for U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga, Monday, Dec. 1, 2008 in Savannah, Ga.

    You betcha Sarah Palin is popular with the GOP crowd in Georgia.

    Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin lent her rock-star status to U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss this afternoon in a state fly-around that GOP strategists hope will help put Chambliss over the top in Tuesday’s Senate runoff against Democrat Jim Martin.

    Palin was greeted by cheers of “Sarah! Sarah!” in what is decidedly Republican country: south Houston County. More than 2,700 people RSVP’d for the rally at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter, one of several appearances for the duo today across Georgia. Meanwhile, Martin is mustering his own strength for Tuesday’s runoff, appearing in Macon this afternoon with veterans and in Atlanta this evening with rap star Ludacris.

    And, where is Obama?

    Barry lent his “organizers” but not his own political Capital.

    ‘Cuda 1 – Barry 0 – providing Chambliss wins.


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  • Caroline Kennedy,  Hillary Clinton

    Who Will Replace Hillary Clinton in the United States Senate?

    Caroline Kennedy and Eric Holder

    Eric Holder walks with Caroline Kennedy on Capitol Hill in Washington. Holder is President-elect Barack Obama’s Attorney General Designee, June 25, 2008.

    With Hillary going to the State Department who replaces her in the Senate?

    New York Gov. David Paterson will make the call — the first time a New York governor has had to make the call since Rockefeller picked Charles Goodell after Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated.

    Paterson was out with a statement today (in full after the jump) after Clinton was named Secretary of State, saying, in part, that he was “proud” of Clinton and that New York was losing a “powerful voice.”

    On replacing her, Paterson said he is “consulting with a wide variety of individuals from all across New York State. I expect to announce Senator Clinton’s replacement when the position becomes officially vacant.”

    Several names have been floated, including state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, son of former popular Gov. Mario Cuomo, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, U.S. Reps. Kirsten Gillibrand, Brian Higgins, Nydia Velazquez, Jerrold Nadler, Nita Lowey (who reportedly wants to stay in the House), Steve Israel, Gregory Meeks and Louise Slaughter, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown (the city’s first black mayor) and Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión Jr. Even NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s and Caroline Kennedy’s names have been thrown out there.

    Flap says Caroline Kennedy fits the bill. Wasn’t it, after all, her Uncle’s former seat?


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  • Gavin Newsom

    San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newson’s State of the City Address – Whether You Like it or Not

    Gavin-Newsom-like-it-or-not

    San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is running for California Governor. The race is in 2010 but Newsom is already gearing up for the campaign.

    Today, the good Mayor, a champion of gay marriage in California, releases his State of the City addressall 7 1/2 hours of it.

    San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has been crafting his State of the City speech for months and will debut it today – all 7 1/2 hours of it – on his very own YouTube channel.

    The format allows the tech-savvy mayor – who has more than 10,000 Facebook friends and whose official Web site has received 27.6 million hits this year – to reach a wider audience and speak directly to anyone who’s interested without the filter of the media or grumbling from critics.

    “We have a lot we want to share, but it gets filtered,” Newsom told The Chronicle. “To do an address that’s unfiltered, what better way to do it than on YouTube?”

    It also allows the wonky, long-winded Newsom to leave no detail on the cutting-room floor. The mayor’s staff will release the speech in 10 chapters this week, and each one is about 45 minutes long. Health, education and the environment are the subjects on tap for today.

    There you go: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom – “Whether You Like it or Not.”

    And, believe Flap, should Newsom make it out of the Democrat primary election (he won’t) the video below would be played over and over again.


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  • Gay Marriage

    Yet Another Proposition 8 Supporter Blacklist – Long Beach Edition

    Yes on prop 8 400

    This time for the Long Beach area – an area with a higher than average gay/homosexual population.

    The site includes details about business owners and employees who donated to the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign (including at least one Google map). One big target in Long Beach has been the owner of numerous El Pollo Loco franchises. This can be a problem if you like that chicken. As one commenter on the website said: “This one is the saddest for me as WKS Restaurant group owns most of the El Pollo Loco franchises (over 50) in So Cal and several Denny’s and Corner Bakery Cafe’s in CA, AZ, and Utah. El Pollo Loco is one of my favorite restaurants. I am working on the locations so I know which ones I can’t go to anymore …”

    Yet another blacklist to deter donors to the next attempt (likely in 2010) to legalize gay marriage in California.

    Exit question: What kind of damage is the gay rights community doing to their movement by vindictively attempting to control the thoughts of California voters?


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  • Barack Obama,  Hillary Clinton,  Samantha Power

    Samantha “Hillary is a MONSTER” Power is Back on Team Obama

    samanthapower

    Samantha Power

    She’s BACK.

    Did anyone really think she wouldn’t be? In the “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” category, the woman who stepped away from Obama’s campaign after calling Hillary Clinton a “monster,” was listed on Obama’s change.gov, per AP, as being part of the Agency Review Team for the State Department. We wonder what that first meeting between Power and Madame Secretary Clinton will be like. (She apparently made a gesture to bury the hatchet.)

    Flpa knew Power would return.

    But, that first meeting with “The Monster” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton WILL be awkward.

    Update:

    And, more awkward for supporters of Israel.

    Previous:

    Obama Adviser Samantha Power Apologizes for Calling Hillary “A Monster”

    Barack Obama Watch: Samantha Power Calls Hillary “A Monster”


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  • Day By Day,  Sarah Palin

    Day By Day by Chris Muir December 1, 2008 – Live Scot Free or Die

    Day By Day 120108

    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    Sarah Palin will be campaigning in Georgia today for GOP U.S Senator Saxby Chambliss while Obama stays in Chicago hob nobbing with Hillary Clinton as he appoints her as Secretary of State.

    Hummmm, guess who is trying harder?

    Yeah, the dumb, hockey mom who does not read the New York Times and The Atlantic?

    The LEFT had better come up with better MEMES for Sarah Palin because she is more than the know-nothing RUBE as portrayed by Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live.

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    The Day By Day Archive


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  • Rudy Giuliani

    Does Squeegee Guy Return Herald Return of Rudy Giuliani?

    squeegee_guy

    Squeegee Guy in New York City, Photo courtesy of Matt Sanchez

    Well, the Squeegee guys are back in New York City, apparently. Mayor Bloomberg will be seeking a third term as Mayor and has ignored the Giuliani policies of cracking down on minor criminal activity.

    According to the theory espoused by law enforcement and explained in the book Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities, the devil behind delinquency was mostly in the details. The authors of the then-controversial study, George L. Kelling and Catherine Coles, argued that by controlling the minor infractions — graffiti, litter, and the symbolic broken windows — law enforcement primed the crime prevention pumps for curtailing the bigger crimes: drug dealing, rape, and, yes, murder.

    In the authors’ own words:

    Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it’s unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside.

    Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or breaking into cars.

    In 1993, Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his police commissioner Howard Safir adopted the “Broken Windows” strategy and sold it to the pubic under the “zero tolerance” and “quality of life” initiatives.

    Loud noises met with fines, adult book stores were strictly zoned, traffic tickets were increased for “blocking the box,” and the squeegee man became persona non grata on the streets.

    The Republican mayor Giuliani was widely smeared as a “dictator” in a city where donkeys outnumber elephants six to one, but after a failed Dinkins administration — a mayor who was progressively heralded as the first black mayor of New York — the public complaints of a tougher Giuliani administration did not match the private voting practices of the majority of New Yorkers. In the 1997 election, the right-wing Giuliani beat his far-left opponent, Ruth Messinger, by 17 points.

    As Hillary Clinton is nominated today to Secretary of State, leaving her New York Senate seat vacant and as a caretaker New York Governor David Paterson (Elliot Spitzer resigned in a sex scandal) enters the last two years of his inherited term as the former Lt. Governor, will New Yorkers remember Rudy?

    Answer: Yes, but for which seat?


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  • California,  California State Senate,  Mark Ridley-Thomas

    California State Senate Democrats Fail to Pick Up ONE Seat – Still Short of 2/3 Majority

    Mark Ridley-Thomas

    Former California State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas

    That is the good news.

    While legislative Democrats dreamed for much of 2008 of pulling within one seat of a supermajority in the state Senate, they will find themselves even further away than they started when the new Legislature convenes on Dec. 1.

    First, the party appears to have failed to pick up a seat in the upper house in the fall campaign.

    Second, Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, a Los Angeles Democrat who is taking a seat as county supervisor, must resign his post in Sacramento in the next week.

    Combined, that will leave the majority party with only 24 members in the Senate for at least the next several months — three shy of the two-thirds needed to raise taxes or pass a budget.

    The bad news is they still control an overwhelming majority in the California Legislature – both Assembly and State Senate.

    But, with Proposition 11 passing and a more fair reapportionment eventualy on its way watch for the Democrats try to change the 2/3’rds requirement to pass the state budget and raise taxes. They will need a vote of California voters though.

    Exit question: Chances of changing the 2/3’rds rule?

    Answer: doubtful


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  • Barack Obama,  Day By Day,  Joe Biden

    Day By Day by Chris Muir November 30, 2008 – Modern Government

    Flap was off yesterday but Chris Muir’s Sunday cartoon was special:

    Day By Day 113008

    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    Sounds like Geoge Orwell’s 1984 arrived 25 years late, Chris.

    NBC News will be the new “THOUGHT POLICE” enforcing the Obama “NEWSPEAK.” Well, at least until the Democrats and new President decide to impart THEIR “Fairness Doctrine” on the MSM.

    And, remember when Joe Biden said it was patriotic to pay more taxes to the state? More NEWSPEAK.

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    The Day By Day Archive


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