If they're releasing these guys — to Algeria of all places — they'll release anyone [Andy McCarthy]
The Justice Department has announced the release from Gitmo of a terrorist who conspired to bomb Los Angeles International Airport in the 2000 Millennium plot. Hassan Zumiri, who was part of an al-Qaeda affiliated terror cell in Montreal, has been repatriated to his native Algeria — a country so rife with terrorists that it was recently placed on the list of 14 countries whose travelers warrant enhanced screening at airports. Worse, the Justice Department won't say whether the terrorist, Hassan Zumiri, and another Gitmo detainee who was also sent to Algeria will be in custody there. They may be free and clear.
Ahmed Ressam, the main culprit in the Millennium Plot who later cooperated in the investigation, told authorities that Zumiri "knew I was going to America to carry out a job." Zumiri, the Globe and Mail reports, helped Ressam in the bomb plot, "giving him $3,500 and offering a video camera to carry as 'camouflage.' Mr. Ressam also said he asked Mr. Zemiri to find him a pistol, silencer and grenades."
Zemiri later plotted against the U.S. from Afghanistan, where he was captured after 9/11 by the Northern Alliance, near Tora Bora. He'd been held at Gitmo since 2003.
At the Standard's blog, Tom Joscelyn has more on Zumiri and on the other Gitmo detainee transferred to Algeria, Adil Hadi al Jazairi Bin Hamlili. As Tom shows, relying on disclosures at Hamili's detention proceedings at Gitmo,
Hamlili is a particularly nasty takfiri, which means he is a hardcore ideologue who believes that not only Christians and Jews, but also most Muslims, are infidels. In fact, Hamlili allegedly killed Osama bin Laden's personal representative in Pakistan because Hamlili felt he had violated sharia law. Despite this incident, memos produced at Gitmo note that Hamlili worked for the Taliban, al Qaeda and a variety of other terrorist groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Gitmo disclosures implicate Hamlili in a Qaeda cell plotting IED attacks against Americans in 2002. Drawing on the reports, Tom notes:
[Hamlili] attended a three day training course in Improvised Explosive Devices held in Peshawar, Pakistan, in November 2002. The training was on improvised firing devices. The students learned how to use a digital alarm clock as an improvised firing device and were taught that cordless phones could also be used. The instructor discussed the use of poisons with explosives.... At the three day training course, an impromptu discussion took place on methods to attack United States forces stationed at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. One of the methods would involve poisoning the food destined for the base, while it was in the port of Karachi, Pakistan. The other method involved placing Improvised Explosive Devices on fuel trucks that supplied the bases. The Improvised Explosive Devices would be placed on the trucks while they were in Peshawar, Pakistan before they crossed in Afghanistan. The participants additionally discussed bomb attacks of United States forces in Konar Province, Afghanistan; Jalalabad, Afghanistan; and Nangarhar, Afghanistan.
Sure, why wouldn't we clear these two guys for release? And to Algeria!
Just as al Qaeda has an active hub in Yemen ("al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula"), it has one based in Algeria ("al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb"). In fact, the group traces back to the early 1990s, when Islamists nearly took over Algeria by democratic means. It was formerly known as the "Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat" (and more familiarly by its French initials, "GSPC" — see this entry from the Militant Islam Monitor). As the New York Times reported in July, it has stepped up attacks on Westerners, including Americans.
Good to see that, between Fort Hood and the Christmas day panty bomber, the Obama administration has really gotten serious about protecting our nation against further attacks by an enemy it won't name, motivated by an ideology it won't describe
Re: If they're releasing these guys — to Algeria of all places — they'll release anyone [Shannen Coffin]
Andy, The question that the recent news that the administration is culling out 110 of the 200 remaining GTMO detainees raises is: What is the standard that the administration is using to determine releasability? Under massive pressure from the international community as well as internal pressure from Condi Rice and her allies, President Bush already released more than 550 of the original detainees, and in doing so, made dozens of mistakes. Reports are that at least 60 (or more than 10%) of the detainees already released have returned to the fight. Thus, if there is a bias in decision-making, especially at this point, it should be in favor of detention. The 200 that have remained at the site are so hardened that even the Obama administration couldn't figure out what to do with them in its first year. So what is it that led the Justice Department to determine that they are suddenly no danger to society? And how much does political convenience weigh in the balance? There is simply no plausible reason to release Hassan Zumiri, and especially not to a country like Algeria, where all we can get are empty assurances. But according to the report in the New York Times, another 100 just like him are going to be on the terrorist street.
"The Pentagon’s Fort Hood investigation is a pathetic whitewash." [Andy McCarthy]
... so says Tom Joscelyn in the new issue of the Weekly Standard — and boy, is he ever right.
01/23 10:03
DNI Blair Admits We Have No High-Value Terrorist Interrogation Capability [Marc Thiessen]
Much overlooked last week was this shocking admission from Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair: One year after Obama eliminated the CIA’s terrorist interrogation program, the administration still has not activated its supposed replacement — the so-called High Value Interrogation Group (HIG). In hearings last week, Blair said that the HIG should have been called in to interrogate the Christmas Day bomber — apparently unaware that there was no HIG to call in. In a statement “clarifying” his testimony, Blair stated that the FBI questioned Abdulmutallab using its “expertise in interrogation that will be available in the HIG once it is fully operational.”
In other words, by Blair’s own admission, the United States at this moment does not have a high-value terrorist interrogation capability — at a time when our country has once again come under terrorist attack. Of course, the administration did not think they needed such a capability — because they have stopped trying to capture high-value terrorists alive and bring them in for questioning. So when one landed in their lap unexpectedly, they had no idea what to do with him.
As I explain in Courting Disaster, the HIG is a joke — because the administration has limited the techniques at its disposal to those in the Army Field Manual. Police detectives and district attorneys across the country use more aggressive techniques than the Army Field Manual every day. The irony is, Obama has so denuded our terrorist interrogation capability that the Detroit police department has more tools at its disposal to interrogate a terrorist than the still non-operational HIG.
That is pathetic — and dangerous for our country.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
OUCH - Getting It Done: The Year In Obama-Led Health Care Reform
Watch the video -- hilarious
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aOILuS1i_M&feature=player_embedded
The time for games has passed
Now is the time to deliver on healthcare
We are going to get this done, this year
This is our moment to deliver
I am absolutely confident this is gonna pass
blah blah blah
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWY0MTE2NzI2MmZmZTIxM2QxMzQ3NzUzNTMyNzQ0NWY=
Reality Check [Victor Davis Hanson]
It was fanciful for the president on the eve of this week's election to warn that the direction of his agenda would be predicated on the outcome in Massachusetts — and then, roughly 24 hours later, send his operatives out to assure everyone that Scott Brown's victory had not much to do with anything in Washington.
When the most interviewed, photographed, and talkative president in recent history insists that his problems are a result of neglecting to communicate with the American people ("We lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people"), something seems unhinged. All that deception and contradiction do nothing to mitigate the popular outrage against Obama's broken promises on everything from airing the health-care debate on C-Span to closing down Guantanamo this week. The growing denial of reality is really hard to juxtapose with the effectiveness of Obama's 2008 campaign; it almost reminds one of Nixon's slick 1972 CREEP campaign followed by his descent into "Let me be perfectly clear" denials during much of 1973. Perhaps, in a way, it all makes perfect sense: The arrogance instilled by a successful campaign leads to excess that finishes in nemesis.
Gallup Poll: Americans Want Congress to Shelve Obamacare [Daniel Foster]
A majority of Americans favor Congress discontinuing work on health-care reform and instead considering alternatives with bipartisan support, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll. Only 39 percent of Americans think Congress should continue to try to pass some version of current bill.
The poll was conducted the day after Scott Brown's election to the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, and 72 percent of respondents say Brown's victory reflects America's frustrations with Washington.
Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of Republicans (87 percent) favor stopping work on the bill. But notable is that a majority of independents (56 percent) and a not-insignificant number of Democrats (26 percent) also think the bill should tabled.
And in a clear rebuke of President Obama's decision to make health-care reform the centerpiece of his legislative agenda in his first year in office, a sizeable majority of respondents say that health-care should not be the president's top priority: 46 percent say it should be subsidiary to other, more pressing concerns, while 19 percent say it should not be a major priority at all.
UPDATE: A Rasmussen poll shows even more opposition to health-care:
Sixty-one percent (61%) of U.S. voters say Congress should drop health care reform and focus on more immediate ways to improve the economy and create jobs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aOILuS1i_M&feature=player_embedded
The time for games has passed
Now is the time to deliver on healthcare
We are going to get this done, this year
This is our moment to deliver
I am absolutely confident this is gonna pass
blah blah blah
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWY0MTE2NzI2MmZmZTIxM2QxMzQ3NzUzNTMyNzQ0NWY=
Reality Check [Victor Davis Hanson]
It was fanciful for the president on the eve of this week's election to warn that the direction of his agenda would be predicated on the outcome in Massachusetts — and then, roughly 24 hours later, send his operatives out to assure everyone that Scott Brown's victory had not much to do with anything in Washington.
When the most interviewed, photographed, and talkative president in recent history insists that his problems are a result of neglecting to communicate with the American people ("We lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people"), something seems unhinged. All that deception and contradiction do nothing to mitigate the popular outrage against Obama's broken promises on everything from airing the health-care debate on C-Span to closing down Guantanamo this week. The growing denial of reality is really hard to juxtapose with the effectiveness of Obama's 2008 campaign; it almost reminds one of Nixon's slick 1972 CREEP campaign followed by his descent into "Let me be perfectly clear" denials during much of 1973. Perhaps, in a way, it all makes perfect sense: The arrogance instilled by a successful campaign leads to excess that finishes in nemesis.
Gallup Poll: Americans Want Congress to Shelve Obamacare [Daniel Foster]
A majority of Americans favor Congress discontinuing work on health-care reform and instead considering alternatives with bipartisan support, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll. Only 39 percent of Americans think Congress should continue to try to pass some version of current bill.
The poll was conducted the day after Scott Brown's election to the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, and 72 percent of respondents say Brown's victory reflects America's frustrations with Washington.
Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of Republicans (87 percent) favor stopping work on the bill. But notable is that a majority of independents (56 percent) and a not-insignificant number of Democrats (26 percent) also think the bill should tabled.
And in a clear rebuke of President Obama's decision to make health-care reform the centerpiece of his legislative agenda in his first year in office, a sizeable majority of respondents say that health-care should not be the president's top priority: 46 percent say it should be subsidiary to other, more pressing concerns, while 19 percent say it should not be a major priority at all.
UPDATE: A Rasmussen poll shows even more opposition to health-care:
Sixty-one percent (61%) of U.S. voters say Congress should drop health care reform and focus on more immediate ways to improve the economy and create jobs.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Obama Feeling the Heat, Pours Kool-Aid & Hits Snooze
Jonah Goldberg and other good articles:
http://townhall.com/columnists/JonahGoldberg/2010/01/22/feeling_the_heat,_obama_pours_kool-aid
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/bam_hits_snooze_qLPGKr331dYewfjpsie1bM
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/hit_the_reset_button_ep2v7PJGngQNBNM0F0fiTL
And the Supreme Court rules on free speech:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/free_speech_triumphs_qluv6nZW9A2vZKlRsdOw8J
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/high_court_rules_for_free_speech_OXiBU4W7bvnRJP77G7jYmK
http://townhall.com/columnists/JonahGoldberg/2010/01/22/feeling_the_heat,_obama_pours_kool-aid
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/bam_hits_snooze_qLPGKr331dYewfjpsie1bM
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/hit_the_reset_button_ep2v7PJGngQNBNM0F0fiTL
And the Supreme Court rules on free speech:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/free_speech_triumphs_qluv6nZW9A2vZKlRsdOw8J
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/high_court_rules_for_free_speech_OXiBU4W7bvnRJP77G7jYmK
Marc Faber: Obama is making Bush look like a genius
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Scott Brown wins in MA !! Death to ObamaCare !
Wow, what a fantastic repudiation of Washington DC and Democratic Party arrogance.
President Obama is now the captain of the Titanic with ObamaCare.
First mates Pelosi & Reid are trying to convince the crew to go down with the ship and not get on the lifeboats.
Dem leaders are talking tough about ObamaCare today ... we'll see, won't we ?
President Obama is now the captain of the Titanic with ObamaCare.
First mates Pelosi & Reid are trying to convince the crew to go down with the ship and not get on the lifeboats.
Dem leaders are talking tough about ObamaCare today ... we'll see, won't we ?
Worst Person of the Day -- Olbermann
Penetrating analysis from MSNBC's Keith Olbermann:
In Scott Brown we have an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against woman.
---------
such an idiot !
In Scott Brown we have an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against woman.
---------
such an idiot !
"Incoherent without his Teleprompter; and a Bore with it !"
The Scott Heard Round The World [Mark Steyn]
Well, as a wintry election day dawns in Massachusetts, I'll believe it when I see it. If all but one of those polls are right, Scott Brown now has a lead well beyond the margin of error. But, as that Boston Globe "Dead Heat!" headline suggests, it's not necessarily beyond the margin of Acorn, the margin of lawyer, and the margin of Franken-style recounts. On the other hand, if you're minded to (as MSNBC's electokleptomaniac Ed Schultz recommends) steal the vote, you don't really want to have to steal it big, on a Mugabe-esque scale.
However things turn out, the Dems have got a fright. I would be surprised if many candidates in November are quite the same spectacular combination of gaffe-prone stupidity and arrogance as Martha Coakley. But, granted that, I was surprised at how incompetent the Democrat machine was. On Sunday, the President veered between dull and really, really lousy. He did what he did with his Olympics pitch in Copenhagen - he took the extraordinary step of flying in to save the day, and then when he got there thought he could wing it. He, or at any rate his minders, should know by now that his rhetoric is seriously underperforming - "incoherent without his teleprompter and a bore with it". Yet his staff allow him to stagger around as the last believer in his own magic. What sort of functioning pol would be so careless as to say "Everybody can own a truck"? He should talk to any New England dealership about that. As it happens, I bought a new truck* last month and I've never seen the place so empty.
At the start of this campaign, the issues were health care and the economy. After "Ted Kennedy's seat" and "Curt Schilling the Yankees fan" and "only the little people campaign at Fenway", the genius Dems succeeded in making their own assumptions about one-party rule a very potent secondary issue. Very foolishly, Obama both underlined the regal hauteur of the Massachusetts machine - and simultaneously nationalized the election by portraying it as a referendum on the Hopeychange. If Martha now loses, he can't plead it's nothing to do with him.
(*purely for the purposes of running against John Kerry. I'm putting it on water skis and I'm going to ride alongside him when he's windsurfing off Nantucket scoffing "Oh, everybody can buy buttock-hugging yellow spandex.")
Well, as a wintry election day dawns in Massachusetts, I'll believe it when I see it. If all but one of those polls are right, Scott Brown now has a lead well beyond the margin of error. But, as that Boston Globe "Dead Heat!" headline suggests, it's not necessarily beyond the margin of Acorn, the margin of lawyer, and the margin of Franken-style recounts. On the other hand, if you're minded to (as MSNBC's electokleptomaniac Ed Schultz recommends) steal the vote, you don't really want to have to steal it big, on a Mugabe-esque scale.
However things turn out, the Dems have got a fright. I would be surprised if many candidates in November are quite the same spectacular combination of gaffe-prone stupidity and arrogance as Martha Coakley. But, granted that, I was surprised at how incompetent the Democrat machine was. On Sunday, the President veered between dull and really, really lousy. He did what he did with his Olympics pitch in Copenhagen - he took the extraordinary step of flying in to save the day, and then when he got there thought he could wing it. He, or at any rate his minders, should know by now that his rhetoric is seriously underperforming - "incoherent without his teleprompter and a bore with it". Yet his staff allow him to stagger around as the last believer in his own magic. What sort of functioning pol would be so careless as to say "Everybody can own a truck"? He should talk to any New England dealership about that. As it happens, I bought a new truck* last month and I've never seen the place so empty.
At the start of this campaign, the issues were health care and the economy. After "Ted Kennedy's seat" and "Curt Schilling the Yankees fan" and "only the little people campaign at Fenway", the genius Dems succeeded in making their own assumptions about one-party rule a very potent secondary issue. Very foolishly, Obama both underlined the regal hauteur of the Massachusetts machine - and simultaneously nationalized the election by portraying it as a referendum on the Hopeychange. If Martha now loses, he can't plead it's nothing to do with him.
(*purely for the purposes of running against John Kerry. I'm putting it on water skis and I'm going to ride alongside him when he's windsurfing off Nantucket scoffing "Oh, everybody can buy buttock-hugging yellow spandex.")
Monday, January 18, 2010
Scott Brown looks to run over Coakley and rebuke Obama, absent Dem voter fraud
I see Dead People !
'More than 600,000 on Mass. Voters Rolls Had Died or Moved' [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
Feeding Michael Novak's worries:
Massachusetts had 116,483 dead people on its voter registration rolls and another 538,567 people who were no longer living at the addresses on their registrations, according to a study released by Aristotle International Inc., a nonpartisan political technology and data firm. On Tuesday, Massachusetts will hold a special U.S. Senate election between Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican Scott Brown. Polls show a close race.
Kerry Warns of "Dangerous Atmosphere" Around Brown Rallies [Daniel Foster]
Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.) thinks Scott Brown’s rallies in the Bay State are “reminiscent of the dangerous atmosphere of Sarah Palin’s 2008 campaign rallies,” the Boston Globe is reporting.
Kerry says Brown supporters have engaged in “bullying and intimidation tactics” in the past few days and suggests that some of them may even be from out of state. (Would the senator rather keep the race local?)
“I'm no stranger to hard fought campaigns, but what we've seen in the past few days is way over the line and reminiscent of the dangerous atmosphere of Sarah Palin's 2008 campaign rallies. This is not how democracy works in Massachusetts,” Kerry said in a written statement Monday.
“Scott Brown needs to speak up and get his out of state tea party supporters under control. In Massachusetts, we fight hard and win elections on the issues and on our differences, not with bullying and threats,” he added.
Corey Welford, a Coakley spokesman, went even farther, accusing Brown of having “stoked the fires” by “smirking at threats against the Attorney General,” (a reference to this). The spokesman says Brown “has lost control of his campaign” and must “tell his out of state supporters to stand down.”
This wasn’t Kerry’s first evocation of a frenzied right-wing movement offering something like illicit support to Scott Brown. In a fundraising e-mail sent to Coakley supporters today, Kerry said “tea baggers” are “revved up…at the thought of hijacking health care reform and every chance we have at making progress in Washington.”
Nor is it the senator’s his first use of Palin as bogeywoman. In a December mailing, Kerry asked supporters to “imagine what Washington would look like if a bunch of new senators – inspired by Sarah Palin and the tea party crowd – took over.”
UPDATE - The Brown campaign responds:
“John Kerry is literally borrowing a page from the playbook of his failed presidential bid in a last-ditch effort to resuscitate Martha Coakley’s collapsing campaign. John Kerry and the Washington establishment have a proven track record of relying on unethical campaign tactics when they can’t win on the issues. Martha Coakley has run the most malicious campaign Bay State voters have ever seen, and her last-minute reliance on John Kerry’s 2004 failed strategy is further evidence that she believes her only path to victory is by manufacturing non-existent controversies,” said Beth Lindstrom, Brown campaign manager.
What page, what playbook, you ask? From the Brown camp release:
In 2004, Kerry’s Campaign Team Sent A Guidebook To Their Colorado Staff Telling Them To Launch A “Pre-Emptive Strike” If “No Signs Of Intimidation Techniques” Are Reported.
“If no signs of intimidation techniques have emerged yet, launch a ‘pre-emptive strike’ (particularly well-suited to states in which there techniques have been tried in the past).
—Issue a press release
i. Reviewing Republican tactic used in the past in your area or state
ii. Quoting party/minority/civil rights leadership as denouncing tactics that discourage people from voting
—Prime minority leadership to discuss the issue in the media; provide talking points
—Place stories in which minority leadership expresses concern about the threat of intimidation tactics
—Warn local newspapers not to accept advertising that is not properly disclaimed or that contains false warnings about voting requirements and/or about what will happen at the polls”
(Kerry-Edwards 2004, “Colorado Election Day Manual: A Detailed Guide To Voting In Colorado,” 11/04)
Martha Has a Dream, or Maybe She's Just Delusional [Michael Graham]
Okay, it's now official: Martha Coakley is the worst statewide candidate in my lifetime. At the annual MLK breakfast today, she stood in front of about 1,000 black politicians, business professionals, and community leaders and said this:
"I'm running for the United States Senate because Dr. King's work is unfinished; his dream is unrealized," she said."Tomorrow we act on the dream and we make sure that we allow me to continue that work," Coakley said. "We remember the dream tomorrow and we will act on the dream tomorrow."
Dr. King's dream was to elect the liberal white lady from Massachusetts? Really? The Politico reports she got tepid applause. I would assume it was accompanied by eye-rolling and mutterings of "You gotta be kidding me."Just for the record, in Massachusetts's Martha Coakley is to black political issues what comedian Tom Arnold is to the Academy Awards. The name never comes up.For her to grandstand at the MLK breakfast and claim the mantle of Dr. King is the pefect end to a perfectly awful campaign. The machine may pull it out for her yet, but she deserves to lose.
'More than 600,000 on Mass. Voters Rolls Had Died or Moved' [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
Feeding Michael Novak's worries:
Massachusetts had 116,483 dead people on its voter registration rolls and another 538,567 people who were no longer living at the addresses on their registrations, according to a study released by Aristotle International Inc., a nonpartisan political technology and data firm. On Tuesday, Massachusetts will hold a special U.S. Senate election between Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican Scott Brown. Polls show a close race.
Kerry Warns of "Dangerous Atmosphere" Around Brown Rallies [Daniel Foster]
Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.) thinks Scott Brown’s rallies in the Bay State are “reminiscent of the dangerous atmosphere of Sarah Palin’s 2008 campaign rallies,” the Boston Globe is reporting.
Kerry says Brown supporters have engaged in “bullying and intimidation tactics” in the past few days and suggests that some of them may even be from out of state. (Would the senator rather keep the race local?)
“I'm no stranger to hard fought campaigns, but what we've seen in the past few days is way over the line and reminiscent of the dangerous atmosphere of Sarah Palin's 2008 campaign rallies. This is not how democracy works in Massachusetts,” Kerry said in a written statement Monday.
“Scott Brown needs to speak up and get his out of state tea party supporters under control. In Massachusetts, we fight hard and win elections on the issues and on our differences, not with bullying and threats,” he added.
Corey Welford, a Coakley spokesman, went even farther, accusing Brown of having “stoked the fires” by “smirking at threats against the Attorney General,” (a reference to this). The spokesman says Brown “has lost control of his campaign” and must “tell his out of state supporters to stand down.”
This wasn’t Kerry’s first evocation of a frenzied right-wing movement offering something like illicit support to Scott Brown. In a fundraising e-mail sent to Coakley supporters today, Kerry said “tea baggers” are “revved up…at the thought of hijacking health care reform and every chance we have at making progress in Washington.”
Nor is it the senator’s his first use of Palin as bogeywoman. In a December mailing, Kerry asked supporters to “imagine what Washington would look like if a bunch of new senators – inspired by Sarah Palin and the tea party crowd – took over.”
UPDATE - The Brown campaign responds:
“John Kerry is literally borrowing a page from the playbook of his failed presidential bid in a last-ditch effort to resuscitate Martha Coakley’s collapsing campaign. John Kerry and the Washington establishment have a proven track record of relying on unethical campaign tactics when they can’t win on the issues. Martha Coakley has run the most malicious campaign Bay State voters have ever seen, and her last-minute reliance on John Kerry’s 2004 failed strategy is further evidence that she believes her only path to victory is by manufacturing non-existent controversies,” said Beth Lindstrom, Brown campaign manager.
What page, what playbook, you ask? From the Brown camp release:
In 2004, Kerry’s Campaign Team Sent A Guidebook To Their Colorado Staff Telling Them To Launch A “Pre-Emptive Strike” If “No Signs Of Intimidation Techniques” Are Reported.
“If no signs of intimidation techniques have emerged yet, launch a ‘pre-emptive strike’ (particularly well-suited to states in which there techniques have been tried in the past).
—Issue a press release
i. Reviewing Republican tactic used in the past in your area or state
ii. Quoting party/minority/civil rights leadership as denouncing tactics that discourage people from voting
—Prime minority leadership to discuss the issue in the media; provide talking points
—Place stories in which minority leadership expresses concern about the threat of intimidation tactics
—Warn local newspapers not to accept advertising that is not properly disclaimed or that contains false warnings about voting requirements and/or about what will happen at the polls”
(Kerry-Edwards 2004, “Colorado Election Day Manual: A Detailed Guide To Voting In Colorado,” 11/04)
Martha Has a Dream, or Maybe She's Just Delusional [Michael Graham]
Okay, it's now official: Martha Coakley is the worst statewide candidate in my lifetime. At the annual MLK breakfast today, she stood in front of about 1,000 black politicians, business professionals, and community leaders and said this:
"I'm running for the United States Senate because Dr. King's work is unfinished; his dream is unrealized," she said."Tomorrow we act on the dream and we make sure that we allow me to continue that work," Coakley said. "We remember the dream tomorrow and we will act on the dream tomorrow."
Dr. King's dream was to elect the liberal white lady from Massachusetts? Really? The Politico reports she got tepid applause. I would assume it was accompanied by eye-rolling and mutterings of "You gotta be kidding me."Just for the record, in Massachusetts's Martha Coakley is to black political issues what comedian Tom Arnold is to the Academy Awards. The name never comes up.For her to grandstand at the MLK breakfast and claim the mantle of Dr. King is the pefect end to a perfectly awful campaign. The machine may pull it out for her yet, but she deserves to lose.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
