Cuomo is there to praise Foley, but it's what he has to say about who those people outside are and what they want that really struck me.
And forget the labels. Forget the labels. Look at what they are saying and look at what they would do to this state. Look at what they believe in! Look at their platform. Listen to them when they tell you what they want to do.
I think Cuomo is exactly right. Listen to them when they tell you what they want to do. It's not like they are being coy or secretive. It's right out in the open, especially with a certified nut like Paladino at the top of the ticket.
Women's tight to choose? Gone. Not even in the case of rape or incest. Poor people shipped to reconditioned prisons to be taught hygiene. Brown folks? Not welcome. Marriage equality? Not chance.
That's what Carl Paladino wants. That's what Lee Zeldin wants. That's what proto-teabagger Greg Ball wants. That's what that David DiPietro wants. That's what Jim Russell wants
Listen to these people when they tell you what they want to do.
After electing a Democrat to a Republican seat for the first time in forever, North Country Cons seem poised to split their vote once again and return Bill Owens to Congress again in what is shaping up to be a tough year for Dem incumbents. It seems they just can't help themselves. Again.
Well, Republicans are set to split the ballot again this November: not only has Hoffman been assured to have the Conservative line again, but now the Independence Party has given their line to Republican Matt Doheny. That means that no matter who wins the primary this September for the official Republican line, the GOP will have at least two viable candidates splitting the center-right vote.
Seems they haven't learned much up there. Liz Benjamin has more:
The state Independence Party has endorsed Republican Matt Doheny's challenge to Democratic Rep. Bill Owens in NY-23 - a move that could prove significant in the GOP's effort to win back the North Country seat it had held for over a century until last year's special election loss.
...
Doheny is fighting Doug Hoffman for the GOP line against Owens. The Conservative Party, which backed Hoffman against Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava in the special election, is so far sticking with him this time around, too.
That's in spite of the fact that local Republican leaders have complained Hoffman isn't working hard enough and are behind Doheny.
The Indys backed Assemblywoman Scozzafava last year, and were stuck with her after she was pushed out of the race by the more conservative Hoffman just days before the election.
It's still not a gimme, but I think Bill Owens must again be thanking his lucky stars.
At the recent New York Republican convention in NYC, teabaggers succeeded in getting one of their own nominated for a hopeless challenge of Sen. Chuck Schumer, and in nothing else.
Because, in NY as most elsewhere, teabagger candidates will get the party nod only when there's no else interested. Despite a few outliers in slave/Mormon states, teabagger candidates who have lost in GOP primaries this year are legion.
NY teabaggers like Carl Paladino for governor; the convention did not, giving Paladino about 8 percent of the vote, well short of the 25 percent needed to make the primary ballot. Rick Lazio was the overwhelming convention favorite for the opportunity to lose in a landslide to Andrew Cuomo.
Paladino, a wealthy Buffalo developer, will press ahead, organizing and funding a statewide petition campaign to get on the Republican primary ballot that started today, and another statewide petition campaign to get a Tea Party independent line for November.
Many active teabaggers are also Republican activists (surprise!), and are being pressured by establishment Republicans not to carry Paladino petitions.
Fred Dicker is the most prominent member of the Albany, NY, press corps -- longtime Capitol bureau chief for the New York Post, host of a must-listen daily radio show on WGDJ-AM, and regular contributor to the news on WRGB-TV.
Dicker is conservative, especially on taxes, spending, Second Amendment and environmental issues, and he has impeccable sources among high-level Republicans in and out of government.
This morning, WGDJ co-owner/morning host Paul Vandenburgh eagerly asked Dicker about how the teabaggers were helping Gary Bernsten, a hopeless no-name who's running against Sen. Chuck Schumer after giving up a Congressional primary campaign in NY-1.
The self-proclaimed Tea Party candidate, Bernsten did win the nomination at the state GOP convention yesterday, though he will face a primary from another unknown, Jay Townsend.
A few dozen teabaggers around Albany, NY, gather every Monday night for a Sons of Liberty meeting, that is usually part Paul/Bircher "education" and part "planning strategies to have maximum influence on issues of local and national concern."
Last Monday was unusual in two regards -- the teabaggers were "vetting" a Democratic candidate, and a producer from Ira Glass' "This American Life" was there.
The local alternative weekly, Metroland, also had a reporter there, and wrote a pretty good story about it, with one glaring error of omission.
Check out Paladino's Halloween website for some real crazy wingnuttery, one proposal after another with no basis in political reality.
Like this one:
Eliminate the automatic cost of living pay raises State Legislators get.
Which does not exist, legislators have not had a pay raise in more than a decade.
And even with the active teabaggers around Albany getting all gaga about Paladino on local blogs, their turnout for a free dinner on the Albany barge Wednesday was disappointing.
NY-20 Rep. Scott Murphy won a special election a year ago by 700 votes in the most Republican-by-registration district in the state.
Even so, no one of any political stature will be challenging him this year -- the several Republican state senators, assemblymembers and county executives in the county declined, as did at least one former statewide candidate.
And today the teabagger candidate ended his campaign when it became clear that he did not have enough support to win a primary against the candidate chosen by the county GOP bosses.
Murphy will be facing recent Army retiree Chris Gibson in November
Rep. Scott Murphy, NY-20, won his seat in a March 2009 special election by a mere 700 votes, and has always been a top 2010 target for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
After voting to support the HCR bills that passed this week, Murphy has now been called a "traitor" by Republican pundit/profiteer Dick Morris, and will have local teabaggers hitting the doors tomorrow with a strong anti-Murphy message.
Morris' "traitor" slur has nothing to do with giving aid and comfort to enemies. It's about Murphy, and some other House Democrats, voting no on the first House HCR bill, then voting yes on the final package.
And the teabaggers, like the conservative Republican activists they are, would be out knocking on doors no matter how Murphy voted on anything -- because he's a Democrat and they are angry Republicans.
Albany, NY-area teabaggers have been harassing Rep. Scott Murphy, NY-20, for months about the health care reform legislation inching through Congress.
So when Murphy announced yesterday that he would vote for the bill, teabaggers went nuts in the comments at the Times Union's Capital Confidential blog.
Most of the teabagger comments (of which more below) were weirdly triumphant, because they are dead certain that Murphy signed his political death warrant.
It won't surprise anyone here that right-wingers who consider Glenn Beck a political prophet are totally deluded about Murphy's re-election prospects.
It's pretty obvious that the anti-government "Tea Party Patriot" movement is anti-Obama and all other Democrats.
Its recent event in D.C. was organized by a Republican astroturf group and featured several prominent Republican politicians as speakers. Nary a good word about any Democrat was heard from the stage, or from the crowd.
And the teabaggers have been rudely disrupting town hall meetings held by Democrats, and showing up as a cheering section for town hall meetings held by anti-Obama Republicans.
And yet, the Democratic mayor of Green Island (a small village just north of Albany, NY) will be hosting a Tea Party/wingnut radio event this Saturday.
When the teabaggers claimed that there was two million or more at their rally and then told the audience at the event that ABC News was reporting between one and 1.5 million, they were obviously lying. They exaggerated the totals to a major news outlet and that outlet, rightfully so, not only called them out on it, but delivered the correct information to the public.
It was actually "tens of thousands." One number I heard was 75,000. ABC News said between 60,000 and 70,000. So instead of having a "million teabagger march", they had a football stadium full of teabaggers protesting in our nation's capital, labeling anyone who is in disagreement with them a Nazi and passing around signs that read "Bury Obamacare with Kennedy."
There is something about activism, class and decency that should go hand-in-hand.
While listening to the claims of how many people attended the event, Glenn Beck and other right-wing mouthpieces have said there were millions in attendance. Conservative estimate according to Beck? 500,000.
For some comparison, here is what 1.8 million looked like earlier this year at some event involving the same guy that the teabaggers are calling a Nazi.
For an even better shot of the inauguration, check this out.
The 1.8 million figure was an official estimate from D.C. officials. Such an event had D.C. officials preparing. It was a record crowd. Meaning that if any event rivaled it, it would mean a serious strain on D.C.
But that's not what happened.
This gives you some idea of what the tea party protest looked like on Saturday:
I just got back from D.C. a couple of weeks ago. I walked from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument. I then continued along the National Mall and ended up at the Capitol. That's a long walk. On Inauguration Day, there were people from the Capitol to the Washington Monument. On Saturday, they had a fraction of the people who were there on Inauguration Day.
I don't know why you would want to exaggerate a figure and say that "millions" were there. A number like 75,000 isn't bad. But when you have a problem with the truth, "millions" sounds better.
The anti-government "Tea Party Patriot" movement had its big day in D.C. yesterday, with some tens of thousands convening in front of the Capitol to hear a bunch of Republican propaganda and preen for the cameras.
There have been more than a few diaries about that; this one will look to the future, with a focus on what the teabaggers are up to in upstate New York, near Albany.
The local teabaggers are active and persistent, with two more events planned this month, and another in November that will tie into a national "Tea Party"/Republican effort to win back control of Congress next year.
They are an easily mocked right-fringe micro-minority, more Ron Paul than John McCain, but they are organized, and they do turn out whenever there's a chance of media coverage.
The Tea Party Express national anti-Obama bus tour stopped in Albany yesterday, and attracted about 600 Obama-haters to the east steps of the Capitol.
This media/organizing event, extensively promoted on Fox News and talk radio, is bankrolled by the California conservative Republican group Our Country Deserves Better PAC, and features unemployed radio talk show host Mark Williams, "Marine Mom" Deb Johns, "union-thug victim" Ken Gladney, and a handful of D-list entertainers.
Congressman Scott Murphy had his last big "town hall" yesterday outside the Price Chopper in Clifton Park.
The local teabaggers, many of whom are securely in the Paul/Bircher/Beck anti-government fringe, had targeted the event, and turned out about 60 or 70 people.
But so did we, and the 50/50 balance in the crowd limited the teabaggers' tendency to be rude, disruptive assholes, as they have been at other events to Murphy and Paul Tonko (NY-21).
During the Congressional recess, Scott Murphy has held more than a dozen events for constituents, most of them Congress on your Corner informal meet-and-greets.
Tomorrow, Labor Day, he will be doing two of those, plus visiting the Rensselaer County Fair.
Our local teabaggers, many of whom are securely in the Paul/Bircher/Beck anti-government fringe, have targeted one Congress on your Corner for disruption
I am going to make something clear: I, along with many other Americans, are sick of these "concerned citizens" who stand up and ask questions that are meant to pose as legitimate questions but really are questions fed to them by Republicans, conservatives and the tea party organizers to shift the debate to their side instead of taking a serious look at health care reform.
So, here's the deal: You stand up and ask a question, I look into you. Period.
"On page 30 of that bill, you call it a committee, you call it a commission, you call it a death panel. Somebody is making a decision for my health, and I don't want that."
So who is Ms. Tillinghast?
She is a former Kodak executive who would not be impacted by the health care bill. After all, if she has private health insurance, she can keep that insurance. The goal isn't to target people like Ms. Tillinghast. The goal is to target people who don't have health insurance coverage.
Ms. Tillinghast also is a Republican donor, having given $1,450 to Republican candidates and committees in 2004 and 2006. She gave $200 to the George W. Bush presidential campaign in 2004, $250 to the RNC in 2006 and made two $500 contributions to the NRCC in 2006. Locally, she hasn't given much. She did make a $100 contribution to Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks, a Republican.
It is one thing to be a real, concerned citizen who has serious questions about the bill. Those people do exist. It's another thing when your question is derived from a desire to derail reform for political gain.
There are a lot of myths about health care reform. Part of the problem is that Republicans have made it their goal to oppose President Barack Obama at all costs. They do not care about reform. And to be blunt, they do not care about bettering America.
Unless, of course, they are the ones in power to "better America."
I attended a pro-health care rally in Hicksville today sponsored by the LI Fed. of Labor. It was a great turnout for a mid-day, mid-week celebrity free event. We had about 400.
Of course there were about 40 teabaggers protesting us. Most of the comments/signswere the usual; no socialism, hands off mine..., blah, blah, blah.
However, there were two sign of particular note: "Uncle Sam's Plantation" and one that was filled with Jim Crow imagery.You know, Obama with watermelon and all the oldies but goodies. There was also an interesting sign advertising some conservative group. I stumbled across their link and low and behold, found mixed in with their denial numbers commentary, some anti-Semitic and Israel rhetoric.
Once again confirming at the core, these are just a bunch of haters and right now healthcare is their cause celeb'
A closing note, I find it so interesting that those who claim to be defending the "Constitution" and the "Spirit of America" seem to consistently spew positions strongly advocated by the Confederacy.
The conservative activist who claims he was beaten up by union thugs in St. Louis while protesting against health care reform is accepting donations towards his medical care because he was laid off recently and ... has no health insurance.
