The Politico (which no one except me seems to read) is reporting a huge amount of infighting among Republicans about the nonbinding resolution to oppose escalation in Iraq. Debate is more civil in the Senate but in the House, things have gotten bad:

(Some Republican) lawmakers, several of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from party leaders or the White House, are stunned by the hostility expressed by fellow Republicans.

(snip)

One GOP lawmaker, who declined to be named, said it is “starting to get really ugly” among Republicans when they try to talk about Iraq and the wisdom of the new Bush policy. This lawmaker said when a Republican stands up who has doubts on Iraq, he’s immediately “beaten down” by other Republicans who believe that any deviation from the White House position is intolerable.

Said another Republican with concerns about Bush’s new strategy: “It’s as if we are stabbing the party in the back, and we are only trying to do what we think is right.”

Paul Wolfowitz visited a mosque in Turkey and as is custom removed his shoes prior to entry.  Well, the President of the World Bank needs to invest in some socks as he apparently can afford the suit and not the socks.
I saw these pictures and how the mind of the Iraq war architect worked immediately came to mind.

I guess you go to the Mosque with the socks you have not the ones you wish you had.  Then again,  if you knew you were planning on going to the mosque well, you’d buy some socks.  You get the pictures here.

It is worth a click

The Times has a nice, detailed obituary.  In this unfortunate era of mostly isolated, wealthy, arrogant, ignorant opinion writers, she may have been the last of her kind: someone who was proud to be liberal and happy to make trouble for those in power.

I’ve had such a good response from my prior references to Wu-Tang that I thought I’d give this a title from an Ol’ Dirty Bastard song. I just found out that Blogpac is giving a grant to our friends over at The Albany Project. Hopefully, someday we will get a grant so that we can…do whatever it is that we need money for.

Speaking of the the Albany Project, last time I was in New York City I got stuck in traffic exiting the West Side Highway and who was right in front of me, but NYBri from the Albany Project. How do I know it was him? His license plate said “NYBRI” on it.

George Pataki isn’t running for president. That campaign would have been a real juggernaut.

Later this afternoon — or tomorrow at the latest — I may have an announcement about a New York candidate who is running for something in 2008.

Dan Maffei has recently launched a blog off of his campaign site. In his first real entry, he reflects upon the decidedly the different tone President Bush was forced to take at his recent State of the Union address… We’ll keep a close eye on Dan’s blog from now on and will add it to our NY Politics Blogroll.

Welcome to the Blogosphere Dan!

Don’t know if that’s the correct “rap” spelling of “hater”, but, eh.

We recently announced a little fundraiser being held for Craig Johnson (yeah, it’s that big ‘ol ad down the middle of the page), and it attracted an interesting response in the form of a comment. Normally I’d laugh it off since it’s not very constructive, but I’m feeling a leeetle punchy right now so instead I’m going to use it as an opportunity to plug Craig.

Let’s take a look at what our commenter had to say, shall we? First off:

As someone who actually LIVES in the Senatorial District in which Mr. Johnson is running, I don’t share your excitement about him.

I’m sorry. As a fan of reform, I’m all about someone who can help change the Senate, “Where reform goes to die.” As The Albany Project puts it:

The Brennan Center has pointed out that New York State has THE most dysfunctional state government in the country, and lays most of the blame at the feet of the State Senate. Some have said, and quite appropriately, that the “Senate is where reform goes to die.” A quick read of their report will bear this out.

So I’m sorry you don’t share my excitement about fixing Albany and our state.

Your concern may be about the balance of power in the Senate, but mine is about being represented by someone who, until he took over his late mother’s legislative seat, had no political experience, involvement or even much about what happened in Nassau County.

Grammar aside, I get your drift. He took over the seat in, let me see– 2000. So, yeah, he’s only been at it for 7 years. Whatta newbie.

I don’t know what he did before, and frankly I don’t care. His record since he got involved speaks for itself.

Could you maybe just try to balance your Senate somewhere else. Please. Pretty please.

Buddy, it’s our Senate. Yours and mine. And it’s the only one we’ve got (at the state level, anyway). With an insanely high incumbency rate, you don’t get a chance like this for real change very often.

We should jump at this chance.

Oh, and here’s some fun info about Craig’s GOP challenger. This made me laugh– a pic from their debate, with a visual editorial comment.

Note to local Rochester area candidates from the 2006 races: this is why I begged you to take pics of your no-show opponents.

You may have missed this little beauty at the Daily Gothamist. The investigation into Jeanine Pirro has widened

Now the investigation is looking to see if Pirro and campaign workers trying to mount a Senate bid to challenge Senator Hillary Clinton used computers and databases at the Westchester DA offices to conduct background checks on donors.

Remember my rant about the D&C endorsement of Pirro? I couldn’t understand how a paper would endorse someone who apparently used their office for personal gain. (Yes, the D&C endorsed Jeanine Pirro for AG). I said then and I’ll say again

I don’t want someone as AG (or any office) who believes the law doesn’t apply to them.

If you need a refresher on Ms Pirro click here.

Hevesi is gone and would we dealing with the same crap from Ms Pirro once all these investigations were concluded?

The Walsh Watch finds Jim Walsh waxing eloquent about how much he loves the environment:

For the many years I have been in Washington, environmental issues have been among my favorite in which to work.

His voting record tells a different story, as the Watch points out:

Yes, Jim Walsh is such a lover of the environment that the League of Conservation Voters gave him a 37% for 109th Congress and 39% lifetime. So studies show 40% of the time, Jim Walsh loves the environment every time.

More than Kuhl, more than Reynolds, Jim Walsh has to go in 2008. He must be the most hypocritical, phony politician in all of upstate New York.

[gv data="http://www.youtube.com/v/0Fqx0sUk9I8"][/gv]

[gv data="http://www.youtube.com/v/WkkTFVIxMQs"][/gv]

Now that Senator James “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people” Inhofe (R-OK) has been replaced by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), America can start moving in the right direction to combat Global Warming. Today, Sen. Boxer is holding the first Democrat controlled Environmental and Public Works hearing on Global Warming, and all Senators are invited to speak. In fact, we’ll finally get to hear from 4 Presidential hopefuls (Biden, Clinton, McCain, and Obama)…

Should be interesting

If you have followed the thread, I’ve discussed Chinese food, plastic containers, oil, and recycling.

Well, reading recycling information it seems that one of the reasons #1 and #2 are recycled as opposed to #3 and #7 is there doesn’t seem to be a market or volume. Thomas even makes comments to that effect in the original post (no this isn’t dissing Thomas).  Well, I guess that’s it, or as the line from a movie name I can’t remember goes “Game over, Man”

Well, not exactly. I’m sure somewhere in America, someone recycles #3 to #7 plastics. If only this were close to Monroe County.

Well, How close is Wayne County? No, not the one in PA, the one right next door to Monroe county. Guess what they recycle Plastic #1 to #7.

Then there is Yates County. Know what? they too recycle Plastic #1 to #7.

So, a how is it that a county with a population of over 90,000 or another one with a population of 24,000 can institute a recycling program that collects Plastic #1 to #7. Somehow the volume generated by these counties is worth while. Then there is Monroe county with a population of 700,000 that cannot generate enough Plastic #3 to #7 to make it worthwhile?

Maybe someone can get a COMIDA grant to collect and ship plastics to Wayne county to it can be recycled.

Is this a business opportunity that is being wasted?

Everything goes somewhere. Where is this going?

Monroe County Democratic Committee Announces

Rochester, NY - Jan 27, 2007 Jim Vogel, acting chair, was elected as interim chairman of the Monroe County Democratic Committee in a county meeting held today at the Unite Hall on 750 East Ave. to replace former chairman, Assemblyman Joe Morelle.

The by-laws of the county committee state that in the absence of a chair a vote must be held within twenty days to fill the vacancy. The election of an interim chair for a sixty day period is meant to address the concern of committee members and elected officials that twenty days is an inadequate amount of time to conduct the election process. The additional sixty days will provide rightfully qualified candidates the opportunity to campaign amongst the 29 town and city committees and for committee members to then to have enough time to educate themselves on those seeking the chair position.

__(’Read the rest of this entry »’)

Well,  I picked this up over at MyDD in a post interviewing Phillip Anderson of the Albany Project and their focus on reforming NY state government. 

So Feburary 16 is a live chat with Seymour Lachman at the Albany Project. From the MyDD post

…If you’re interested in learning more about Albany, a good start is Seymour Lachman’s book Three Men in a Room: The Inside Story of Power and Betrayal in an American Statehouse. Phillip says: “Wanna understand why New York is as messed up as it is? Read Lachman’s book.” The Albany Project will be hosting a live chat with the author on February 16th at www.thealbanyproject.com.

Any readers read the book and care to comment?

 

Check out this video of John McCain’s “straight talk”:

[gv data="http://www.youtube.com/v/ioy90nF2anI"][/gv]