Dick Bennett has been polling New Hampshire voters for 30 years. And he's never seen anything like it.
"Lying b** . . . shrew . . . Machiavellian . . . evil, power-mad witch . . . the ultimate self-serving politician."
No prizes for guessing which presidential front-runner drew these remarks in focus groups.But these weren't Republicans talking about Hillary Clinton. They weren't even independents.
These were ordinary, grass-roots Democrats. People who identified themselves as "likely" voters in the pivotal state's Democratic primary. And, behind closed doors, this is what nearly half of them are saying.
"I was amazed," says Bennett. "I thought there might be some negatives, but I didn't know it would be as strong as this. It's stunning, the similarities between the Republicans and the Democrats, the comments they have about her."
Bennett runs American Research Group Inc., a highly regarded, independent polling company based in Manchester, N.H. He's been conducting voter surveys there since 1976. The polls are financed by subscribers and corporate sponsors [...]
His conclusion? "Forty-five percent of the Democrats are just as negative about her as Republicans are. More Republicans dislike her, but the Democrats dislike her in the same way."
Hillary's growing brain trust in the party's upper reaches already knows she has high "negatives" among ordinary Democrats. They think she can win those voters over with the right strategy and message.
But they should get out of D.C., New York and L.A. more often, and visit grassroots members.
Because we're not talking about "soft" negatives like, say, "out of touch" or "arrogant."
We're talking: "Criminal . . . megalomaniac . . . fraud . . . dangerous . . . devil incarnate . . . satanic . . . power freak." Satanic. And: "Political wh***." [...]
But Bennett says he's never before seen so many N.H. voters show so much hatred toward a member of their own party. He's never even seen anything close.
...but I want to know why the demon in Mel Gibson is hatred of the Jews to begin with (I know, the father). Why, when Mels's id is released, its about the Jews fucking everything up, just like it was with Hitler. Except Mel Gibson, when his id is in check, I believe, really knows how wrong that is, and how stupid. He, I believe, at least fights with himself about this.
But he'll never win as long as he's so religious, because, I hate to tell you, the disease isn't alcoholism, the disease is religion.
But that's another essay.
Evolution opponents lose control of Kansas school board
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Conservative Republicans who brought international attention to Kansas by approving academic standards calling evolution into question lost control of the state school board in primaries.
As a result of the vote, board members and candidates who believe evolution is well-supported by evidence will have a 6-4 majority. Evolution skeptics had entered the election with a 6-4 majority.The Full Report is Here
The Big Number: 18
According to a new Mason-Dixon poll, 56% of VAans plan to vote in favor of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, while 38% plan to vote against it, a margin of 18%. That's just 18%.
A reader notes these numbers and concludes that either VA isn't as conservative as many think it is, or that widespread opposition to same-sex marriage is tailing off as people turn their attention to other hot-button issues.
Historically, statewide same-sex marriage bans have passed by consistently high margins. In '04, bans passed in KY (75%-25%), GA (76%-24%), AR (75%-25%), MS (86%-14%), MT (67%-33%), ND (73%-27%), OH (62%-38%), OK (76%-24%), UT (66%-34%), MI (59%-41%) and OR (57%-23%). This year, AL passed a ban by an 81%-19% margin.
If the assumption that VA is not as conservative as we all think is to be made, compare the relatively low percentage of people favoring a ban to OR and MI, as opposed to the recently-passed AL ban. If we assume the issue's hot-button potential is waning, it may not be unreasonable to believe that AL was just the last inevitable wall to fall in the South. [REID WILSON]
Ohio GOP in denial over e-mail questioning Stricklands’ sexuality
Sunday, July 30, 2006
JOE HALLETT
Standing over the body with bloody knife in hand, the Ohio Republican Party pleaded innocent.
It didn’t kill the candidate it had just stabbed to death, the party said. And if it did stab the candidate, it didn’t know it was stabbing him. Most assuredly, the party protested, it would never condone stabbing the candidate it had just stabbed.
Only a political Houdini could rationalize that twisted logic. Still, that was the GOP’s explanation — for a couple of days, anyway.
By Thursday, state Chairman Robert T. Bennett knew the party had been caught red-handed and issued an apology to the victim, U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, the Democratic nominee for governor. But the scurrilous mission had been accomplished: Let the whispering campaign begin.
The attack had nothing to do with records or resumes or policy. It was brutally personal – and a lie. The message the GOP had asked its followers to spread across the Ohioscape is that Strickland and his wife are gay, never mind their nearly 20 years of marriage.
In yet one more perversion of religion, the state party hired a conservative Christian to do the dirty work, using a computer at party headquarters to spread the rumor via e-mail to "profamily" conservatives. Gary Lankford, headmaster of a Christian home school, started in early July as the Ohio GOP’s "social conservative coordinator."
On July 17, Lankford launched an e-mail titled "10 Things to Know About Ted Strickland." The e-mail noted that Strickland married his wife, Frances, at 46, they have no children and they live apart, which, in truth, is the case when Strickland is tending to his congressional duties in Washington. Lankford linked readers to an Internet blog written by Scott Pullins, who questioned the sexual orientation of both Stricklands.
Pullins is best known as the former anti-tax crusading head of the Ohio Taxpayers Association. He lost his credibility around the Statehouse when he gave the green light to corporate-tax increases in a budget-balancing bill and later attacked GOP lawmakers for tax increases.
After appalled recipients of Lankford’s e-mail forwarded it to news organizations, including The Dispatch, and reporters began asking questions, the GOP went into its Houdini act. The party didn’t know about Lankford’s attempt to assassinate Mr. and Mrs. Strickland’s good name, a spokesman said. That is not a strategy the party would ever contemplate. Certainly, the party would never condone Lankford’s tactic.
But emerging details about Lankford’s connections make it difficult for the party to disavow knowing exactly who it was getting when it hired him. Lankford was less than two months removed from serving as a paid "voter contact consultant" for the primary election campaign of Republican gubernatorial nominee J. Kenneth Blackwell.
And before being hired by the GOP, Lankford worked for the Ohio Restoration Project, a conservative religious group that has been accused of violating its tax-exempt status by favoring Blackwell at its meetings. The group is headed by the Rev. Russell Johnson, a staunch Blackwell supporter and pastor of the Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster.
In an interview Thursday, Johnson perpetuated the rumor by suggesting that the Stricklands file a lawsuit and go to court to prove they are heterosexuals. If Lankford’s claim is untrue, Johnson said, "It’s slanderous and they’ve got a case. I’m withholding judgment until the facts are in."
Boxed in by a rash of incoming bad publicity, Bennett did the right thing: He fired Lankford and sent a letter of apology to Strickland, continuing to disavow any prior knowledge by him or his senior staff of Lankford’s e-mail.
Strickland accepted the apology with skepticism, saying it was issued only after "they got caught." Meanwhile, the e-mail is wending its way to "pro-family" homes and echoing in the blogosphere.
"I’m pretty battle-hardened when it comes to politics, and I’m not a novice at this, but I think it’s very unfortunate that they would draw Frances into this," Strickland said.
Sadly, it’s just the start of what portends to be the ugliest governor’s race in state history. By Nov. 7, Ohio voters might be too sickened by it all to go to the polls.
Maybe that’s the goal.
Joe Hallett is senior editor at The Dispatch.
Unions line up to oppose ban on gay marriage, civil unions
RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. - Labor unions are joining forces to fight a proposed ban on gay marriage and civil unions in what could become a powerful force in the Nov. 7 referendum.
The groups, representing employees ranging from teachers to prison workers, say they are worried the amendment will take away their ability to bargain for benefits such as health insurance for the domestic partners of gay and straight employees.
They are making donations, organizing volunteers and educating their members as part of their attempts to make Wisconsin the first state to defeat a constitutional ban on gay marriage.
AFSCME, which represents 44,000 public service and health care workers in Wisconsin, became the latest to join the cause on Monday with a strong denunciation of the ban from its political arm and a vow to get its message out.
Here at GT12 Central we are preparing for our more or less annual Summer Meeting. Primary Topics: 'Democrats who will be casting their first Republican vote ever in Cook County', 'Sam Adams Summer Lager vs Goose Island Summertime Ale: Which Refreshes The Most?' and 'Today's Music: What The Hell Is This Stuff?'
Welcome The Fuck Back!
Army Dismisses Gay Arabic Linguist
By DUNCAN MANSFIELD The Associated PressThursday, July 27, 2006; 7:17 AMJOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, though he says he never told his superiors he was gay and his accuser was never identified.
Bleu Copas, 30, told The Associated Press he is gay, but said he was "outed" by a stream of anonymous e-mails to his superiors in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.
"I knew the policy going in," Copas said in an interview on the campus of East Tennessee State University, where he is pursuing a master's degree in counseling and working as a student adviser. "I knew it was going to be difficult."
An eight-month Army investigation culminated in Copas' honorable discharge on Jan. 30 _ less than four years after he enlisted, he said, out of a post-Sept. 11 sense of duty to his country........ More than 11,000 service members have been dismissed under the policy, including 726 last year _ an 11 percent jump from 2004 and the first increase since 2001.
That's less than a half-percent of the more than 2 million soldiers, sailors and Marines dismissed for all reasons since 1993, according to the General Accountability Office.
But the GAO also noted that nearly 800 dismissed gay or lesbian service members had critical abilities, including 300 with important language skills. Fifty-five were proficient in Arabic, including Copas, a graduate of the Defense Language Institute in California.
Discharging and replacing them has cost the Pentagon nearly $369 million, according to the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
But Samaritan’s Purse is not just focused on converting Muslims; its website adds that it is “helping provide food parcels to hungry Israelis living in the shelters”, and it suggests that we should pray for “Muslim and Jewish people to receive the Lord Jesus Christ and experience His peace in their hearts and homes”.
...in the midst of what is being called a humanitarian crisis of major proportions, Samaritan's Purse has continued to reach out through its partners to the war-devastated people of southern Lebanon. "Right now," Isaacs notes, "we're supporting a network of six pastors and over 20 volunteers who are working out through the schools."
...Also, Isaacs observes, a number of Muslim families have asked for Bibles. "So, where people are asking us for it, we're making that available -- that's up to them," he asserts. "As I said, it's a very difficult situation, and resources are tight right now."
Here's what we do. We run Bill Moyers for president. I am serious as a stroke about this. It's simple, cheap and effective, and it will move the entire spectrum of political discussion in this country. Moyers is the only public figure who can take the entire discussion and shove it toward moral clarity just by being there. [...]
[I]magine, if seven or eight other Democratic candidates, all beautifully coiffed and triangulated and carefully coached to say nothing that will offend anyone, stand on stage with Bill Moyers in front of cameras for a national debate...what would happen? Bill Moyers would win, would walk away with it, just because he doesn't triangulate or calculate or trim or try to straddle the issues. Bill Moyers doesn't have to endorse a constitutional amendment against flag burning or whatever wedge issue du jour Republicans have come up with. He is not afraid of being called "unpatriotic." And besides, he is a wise and a kind man who knows how to talk on TV.
It won't take much money---file for him in a couple of early primaries and just get him into the debates. Think about the potential Democratic candidates. Every single one of them needs SPINE, needs political courage. What Moyers can do is not only show them what it looks like and indeed what it is, but also how people respond to it. I'm damned if I want to go through another presidential primary with everyone trying to figure out who has the best chance to win instead of who's right. I want to vote for somebody who's good and brave and who should win.
To let Moyers know what you think of this idea, write him at PO Box 309, Bernardsville, NJ, 07924.
Chicago passes new restrictive ordinances
By DON BABWIN, Associated Press Writer Mon Jul 24, 5:17 PM ET
CHICAGO - If you're a cell phone-using, goose liver-eating, cigarette-smoking, fast food-loving person, Chicago might not be your kind of town.
In this city that once winked at Prohibition, members of the City Council are trying to crack down on things they deem unhealthy, immoral or just plain annoying.
A proposal that would restrict fast-food chains from cooking with artery-clogging trans fat oils got a public airing last week, and in the past year alone aldermen have banned smoking in nearly all public places and the use of cell phones while driving.
In April, Chicago became the first U.S. city to outlaw the sale of foie gras, a goose liver delicacy that is decried by animal-rights activists because it is created by force-feeding birds to fatten up their livers.The Remaining Scold is Here.
In the past two weeks, more Iraqi civilians have been killed than have died in Lebanon and Israel.
Q Is the country closer to a civil war?
SEC. RUMSFELD: Oh, I don't know. You know, I thought about that last night, and just musing over the words, the phrase, and what constitutes it. If you think of our Civil War, this is really very different. If you think of civil wars in other countries, this is really quite different. There is -- there is a good deal of violence in Baghdad and two or three other provinces, and yet in 14 other provinces there's very little violence or numbers of incidents. So it's a -- it's a highly concentrated thing. It clearly is being stimulated by people who would like to have what could be characterized as a civil war and win it, but I'm not going to be the one to decide if, when or at all.
