Tag: US

Dirty politics – who else but the Republicans

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) was running a robo-dialing campaign that had purposedly designed the automated messages to sound like they were coming from the Democratic candidates. The robo-dialing was done in such an obnoxious manner (sometimes calling as many as 18 times in a row) it was probably designed to make the recipients annoyed at the Democratic candidate whose name was mentioned at the beginning of the message.

NRCC’s defense: “We did nothing illegal”. That’s right. Politicians, in their infinite wizdom, have made themselves exempt from many of the anti-annoyance laws they’ve passed over the years. They can spam, while nobody else can. And they can robo-dial to their hearts content.

I’m not sure how all this jives with the Family Values campaign the Republicans are running though. I wonder if the Family Values according to Republicans include deceipt, unethical campaigning and annoying others as they please?

Update: Washington Post picked up the story as well.

-TPP

How the online gambling bill came to be

Way to go Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN)! You must be one proud asshole having successfully blackmailed the entire legislative branch to get a pork barrel bill added to the Port Security bill at the last minute and guaranteeing nobody would ever read it before voting on it.

C|Net and Politech’s Declan McCullagh has more on similar sneaky senate tactics.

Somehow I don’t think this is exactly the way the founding fathers imagined the process when they came up with it.

-TPP

You probably didn’t know Mark Foley was a Democrat

So Fox News reports on the Mark Foley scandal, and runs a ticker underneath stating Mark Foley is D-FL.

Malicious mudslinging or a revelation of the subconscious of Fox News producers? Who knows.

They claim that it was a honest mistake, of course. But how on earth could you make a mistake about that? It’s IMPOSSIBLE to not know he’s a Republican.

-TPP

CAN SPAM Act sponsor spams

Congressman Richard Pombo doesn’t seem to think there’s nothing wrong with spam and is spamming his attack ads on an opposing candidate to his constituents.

He’s the same Richard Pombo who 3 years ago was all about stopping spam by sponsoring the CAN SPAM Act.

So is he a flip-flopper (naah, he’s a Republican and we all know only Democrats can be flip-floppers, right?), a hypocrite or a garden variety jackass?

I vote for “all of the above”.

-TPP

The Virtual President

Mark Warner, former Governor of Virginia, had an interview in Second Life, a virtual world game (kind of like MMORPG, but without leveling and fighting), earlier today.

He’s the first politician in the US, and possibly in the world, to hold a political event in a virtual environment. The interview is a precursor to a virtual town meeting he’s holding in Second Life later this year.

Governor Warner was interviewed by James Wagner Au (aka Hamlet) of New World Notes (NWN). NWN has the transcript of the interview.

It’s certainly an encouraging event when most politicians seem to be more interested in scoring family-value points by scapegoating video games and social media for all the sins in the world.

The Washington Post also has an article about the interview. Looks like there’re a few things they might want to sort out before the town hall meeting.

-TPP

Evolution Schmevolution

The New York Times is reporting that evolutionary biology has vanished from the list of acceptable fields of study for recipients of a federal education grant for low-income college students.

The Department of Education says the removal was accidental and it’ll be relisted. Others find the explanation somewhat suspect.

-TPP

Shut up Tony Avella

Tony Avella is the New York City Councilman in the district I live in. He’d be my councilman, if I was a citizen.

He’s been in the limelight recently for some “unfortunate” statements regarding a vicious attack on four Asian college kids by two guidos in Douglaston. One of the scum even decided it’d be a great idea, if he fought with the police who caught up with them after the attack. Bright kids these two.

Mr. Avella, undoubtedly playing with the home court advantage in his predominantly white district, said racial tensions in the neighborhood have been increasing, because the Asian immigrants, who own stores in the area, have been putting up Korean or Chinese language signs on their storefronts. Apparently, according to Mr. Avella, this is making the whites in the area feel unwelcome. And according to Mr. Avella that might be causing racial tension in the area.

What a load of bullshit.

Maybe Mr. Avella and his constituents might want to move beyond their prejudices and step inside one of these stores and look around (and leave the baseball bat behind). Not only will you be completely welcome, but you’ll also quite likely find the stores cheaper than the American competitors. You’ll also find merchandise you can not get anywhere else. Experiencing something like that might cure the area whites of their bigotry. That is, if it’s not inbred into them. Like the case is with the two assholes in Douglaston.

Next time Mr. Avella is up for re-election, let’s hope the (Asian) immigrant population in his area exceeds the number of whites in the area. It’s high time this apologist gets voted off the City Council.

-TPP

PS. Before any white person from Bayside or Douglaston gets too upset at me, let’s just remind everyone that I’m quite white. In fact, I’m probably much whiter than the average Queens whitey, since I come from one of the blondest countries in the world. You can’t get any more pale than me.