For those of you who have been wondering what this whole "Occupy Wall Street" business is all about, here's dearly departed George Carlin explaining it pretty damn well from the grave.
Three minutes and fifteen seconds of pure, unadulterated truth.
Also, Roll Call. Who is planning to take part wherever you may be?
Crazy Jack Davis had a very, well, crazy day. This is fairly normal for crazy people, though few profoundly crazy people have days as profoundly crazy as Crazy Jack Davis did today.
First, he dropped out of every debate. All of them. Why? Well, he's crazy. He's crazy and his staff knows he's crazy. Crazy doesn't play so well on TV.
Independent Jack Davis, who is the object of attacks from all sides in NY-26, just announced he will not participate in any debates, opting instead to hold an eletronic town hall this Saturday "where voters can ask me any question they want and get an honest answer."
A debate hosted by Channel 2 WGRZ was supposed to take place tomorrow night.
In a statement released by his campaign, Davis slammed both his major party opponents - Democrat Kathy Hochul and Republican Jane Corwin - calling them "professional politicians" who are "lying about me and my record" - not to mention their own respective records, "taking credit for work done by others."
How very Bob Dole of him, though in a more crazy, rather than cranky, way. Don't worry though, Crazy Jack was just getting ready to crank the cranky to crazy levels.
When someone, I've no idea who, (perhaps a tracker?) tried task him why he backed out of the debates. That's when Crazy Jack got his crazy old crank on:
You've got to love the fact that Crazy Jack is laughing as he smacks this guy and as he ambles away towards his Klownmobile. Also, WTF is Crazy Jack wearing here? He looks like some sort of geriatric dentist deer hunter or something. A camo...smock? WTF is that thing? And why is a guy who is spending millions of his own money running for Congress wearing it in public? Maybe he is skiping the debates because he had nothing else to wear? Or maybe he's just crazy?
Seems crazy is also contagious. Not only did Crazy Jack smack the guy with the camera around, but one of Crazy Jack's staff (Deputy Goon?) decided to get in on the crazy too and smack the guy around some more. This is crazy for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the guy getting smacked around was holding a video camera. Crazy, right?
Why? He believed the crazy stuff that a Crazy Jack told him and then learned that maybe he and Crazy Jack Davis were, perhaps, different kinds of crazy and then called the whole crazy thing off.
Pretty crazy, huh?
UPDATE: Two points: 1. As Amherst Guy says in the comments and as much of the chatter I'm hearing seems to reinforce, this is almost certainly the work of Erie County GOP chair Nick Langworthy. David Bellavia is saying so publicly, too.
2: This definitely does not help Kathy Hochul. That is, of course, why they did it.
Team Davis shrugged off the incident -- seemingly fueled by Davis' decision to not participate in a WGRZ debate -- as "histrionics" and said it proves nothing: "This is a deliberate harassment and attempt at intimidation by campaign operatives desperate to keep Jack from getting to Washington," said Davis spokesman Curtis Ellis. "They're harassing him and tracking him and trying to prevent him from getting in his own car... They're trying to get some video they can trick up and make to look more like it is. This is a non-event. This is a nothingburger."
Davis, obviously, is running against GOP-endorsed state Assemblywoman Jane Corwin. Responded the ECGOP's Nick Langworthy when asked for more details, "[A] Young Republican volunteer [was] just asking Davis after his event why he pulled out of the debate. Other than that, I guess the video speaks for itself. Davis certainly does not have the temperament to serve in Congress if he can't handle tough questions from a tracker."
Langworthy declined to release the name of the volunteer, saying the tracker needs to speak to his lawyer. As for the third man in the video, "he works or volunteers for Davis apparently. He did hit him in the head with a binder of some kind."
A spokesman for the Corwin campaign did not immediately respond to my requests for comment about the video, which Ellis said didn't tell the full story of the harrassment "of a candidate for federal office."
"This is the 'Blair Witch Project' of tracker videos," he scoffed. "You see the camera shaking. He screams like an eight-year-old girl -- which is how old Jane Corwin was when she was claims to have been a 'successful businesswoman' -- and that's it. They seem to make it like some Oscar-nominated production."
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Langworthy definitely set Davis up and tracker is definitely hamming it up. But, Davis and his goon totally took the bait. Why? Probably because he's crazy.
Three time NY-26 loser Jack Davis is out with a new TV ad that has both barrels blazing and takes aim at not only both of the other candidates in the race, but both parties as well. It's territory the Republican-turned-Democrat-turnedRepublican-turned-Teahadist should know quite well. It's appropriately titled "Both Parties."
As the three-way, special election in New York's 26th District continues to tighten, independent candidate Jack Davis, who is running as a Tea Party candidate, has launched a new television ad targeting both his Democratic and Republican rivals.
In a 30-second ad that began airing this week, Davis rips into both his opponents, echoing the same messages they've used against each other in what's quickly becoming a circular firing squad of attacks. In what's been a theme in all of Davis's campaigns, he begins by criticizing both parties for backing trade agreements that "shipped jobs overseas" and "gave tax breaks to multinationals."
Davis, a two-time Democratic nominee for the seat who petitioned himself onto the May 24 ballot as a Tea Party candidate after losing the GOP nomination, has received more attention from Republicans this week after polls have showed a close race between himself, GOP nominee Jane Corwin and Democrat Kathy Hochul. Corwin went up with an ad Thursday reminding voters of Davis's past support for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and President Obama, and the New York Republican Party has sent out mailers with similar messages.
"Both spent trillions bailing out Wall Street and the banks," the narrator says in Davis's ad, as pictures of Corwin and Hochul come into focus. "Now, to make us pay for it all, Republican Jane Corwin wants to replace Medicare with vouchers and Democrat Kathy Hochul wants to raise taxes again."
Say what you want about negative campaigning, but one tenant is more important than any other; don't edit a video to make your opponent look worse. Not only is it ethically wrong, but you'll probably get caught eventually. In this case, New Yorkers for Growth, a sort of mini Club for Growth in New York, has been caught editing a video of Sen. Oppenheimer as part of their attacks against the Senator in support of slumlord conservative candidate Bob Cohen.
The right-leaning New Yorkers For Growth group has already endorsed Cohen, pointing to a rather painful video that shows Oppenheimer -- chair of the Senate Education Committee -- struggling to answer questions from GOP Sen. John Flanagan about school funding.
However, a fuller version of the video...and a transcript of her exchange with Flanagan we obtained, which has the cut portions of their testimony highlighted in yellow, appears to show that the tape was edited to make Oppenheimer look, well, just plain bad.
This is a great catch by Celeste and the Daily News. The original ad, which can be found here makes it look like Senator Oppenheimer can't answer basic questions about the budget and has to rely on his staffer for all of the information. But the real video shows the Senator and her opponent, Senator Flanagan, having a pretty free-flowing and normal discussion on this subject with Senator Oppenheimer astutely answering most of Flanagan's questions. That video (which starting at around 1:16:00 gets to the good stuff) makes this point very clear.
And even better, there's a transcript that matches up to the alleged video and shows the actual answers to the questions!
Look, maybe NY Club for Growth doesn't like the substance of what Senator Oppenheimer was saying. And they're more than welcome to push against her on the substance of the issues. But when a group starts to edit videos down to make an individual look bad, they're playing a disingenuous game. It shows that they're bankrupt on ideas and stuck with just making stuff up to make their opponents look bad. And that's a game that the media and the blogosphere will catch them on every time.
I'm sure there are more than a few people from outside Rochester who are asking themselves just who Bob Duffy is this morning. Back in 2007, the Rochester mayor sat down with DMI's Mayor TV
I think we all could use a bit of fun after the last few days. Trust me, this video, The aptly named "This Too Shall Pass" (which has totally won the internet today) might be the most fun you'll have all week. Enjoy.
Career Naval Officer and member of the House Armed Services Committee Eric Massa on the President's plan to send 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan. It's defintely worth your time.
Whether you are deliriously happy, incredibly sad, or still uncertain about how you feel about what has emerged from the House this weekend, it's probably safe to say that one thing everyone is...is sick of the whole thing.
Of course, we're far from done-but just to give us all a break, I'm going to abruptly change the subject.
I have a Flip Video camera-which I am still getting used to-and last night we ran up the hill to Snoqualmie Pass, Washington, ostensibly to test the camera's low-light capabilities...but really so we could drive around in all the fresh new snow.
There's plenty of time to get back to the political wars in a bit; but for right now let's head up the mountain, see some cool stuff, talk about what the camera can-and can't-do, and, just for fun, we'll answer the age-old Seattle question: "how long does it take to find three places that sell espresso at the top of a mountain pass in the middle of nowhere?"
I like this ad because it gives you that personal side of a candidate while mixing in a strong policy issue (jobs) and that closing line ("right now, we need to fight for upstate New York") is a very good one.
In the video below, a woman who is need of health care reform speaks at a town hall meeting hosted by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK). Coburn, who is known for his anti-government sentiments (while being a member of government, oddly enough), listens to the woman and gives her the usual Republican line.
Since watching the video of the Oklahoma town hall I have forwarded it to thousands of people. Spreading the call for reform has never been simpler.
But by showing the video, we do much more than shine a light on the banality of health insurance evil, we also do our part to tip the narrative towards a more American set of values.
Until now, the health care debate has been pushed a larger story about "government run insurance will take away our freedom." The opponents of reform insist that a public option will lead to tyranny and the end of America. The tears in this video bring us to a new big picture: "Americans are not free so long as they can be deprived of care by a cruel industry." Those who advocate passionately for a public option can now insist with clear evidence that an America without health care reform is an America broken by fear.
One woman's tears and the courage to stand up and tell her story could give an opportunity to us all to push the kind of change this country so desperately needs. And all we need to do is show this video to everyone we know.
There is a Facebook group that Jeffrey started to rally around this video. Once you join (if you haven't already), invite your friends to join. We need to show that there are people out there who go to these town hall meetings with real stories and real problems with their current health insurance plan (or lack thereof).
Let's help get this video to the forefront of the debate. It highlights the need for changing a broken system and the response by Coburn shows the insensitivity Republicans show merely to hold the party line.
Watching this will not make you proud to be a New Yorker. Former Lt Gov, inventor of the "death panel" nonsense and long time professional liar extraordinaire Betsy McCaughey tries to bamboozle the Jon Stewart and the Daily Show crowd. The results are not pretty.
