A little story from our neighbor to the north, Montgomery County.
Just like Delco has it's crybabies and sore losers, like Gil Spencer, Montco has former DA Bruce Castor.
Some background and comparison: Delco's GOP solidified their political power 30 years ago when they changed the county charter to remove the guarantee of minority party participation. Since then, the 5-member Delco County Council has been all-GOP and votes almost exclusively in 5-0 decisions that seem to have been made behind closed doors (and likely by GOP party bosses pulling the strings). The nepotism and corruption in Delco are infamous throughout the state.
In Montco, their County board has 3 members, with minority representation (often 2-Rep and 1-Dem). In 2007, something interesting happened...
Bruce Castor left his popular DA position to run for County Council. The result was Castor getting the most votes, then Chris Matthews' brother (Rep) and then Joe Hoeffel getting the most Dem votes.
But here's where it got interesting: it turned out that Matthews and Castor hated each other, and Hoeffel was able to work with Matthews, so Castor wound up being the odd-man out. After crying publicly about what a traitor Matthews was, Castor found himself on the perpetual losing end of 2-1 votes and the loss of whatever power he hoped to have, and basically left pouting in his office with nothing to do.
Matthews' decision to work in a bi-partisan manner with Hoeffel (rather than ignore the Democrats) makes sense because the Dems actually became the majority party in Montco.
Now, ex-DA Castor finds himself in some legal hot water. Testifying in the Vince Fumo trial, the tables got turned on him when he admitted conducting political campaign activities from his taxpayer funded government job/office and work email. (This was Castor's losing 2004 campaign against Tom Corbett.) There also seems to be some funny business with Christian Marrone, a former assistant district attorney who had worked on Castor's campaign and some timing on when he got hired/fired based on what was happening in the campaign.
Joe Hoeffel asked the current Montco DA to investigate Castor's admissions under oath. However, the current DA appears to be a protege of Castor, and will likely drag her heels on this. Given the court testimony, the State could step in if the DA doesn't.
I think the coroner should be able to sign the death certificate for Castor's political future.
----
Here in Delco for 2009, we have two of the five Council seats up for election. This is an opportunity to get some Dems on the Council since Obama won 60% of the county, and the GOP opposed him and are out-of-touch with the majority Delco voters.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Obama's First Week and the Crying GOP
What a great week is had been. It's like a giant albatross has been lifted from the collective citizenry of America.
The failed policies and philosophies of Bush are falling like dominoes, along with the foolish neocons that supported at promoted them. From the National media to the local Delco Times, the conservatives are pouting and whining like school children, unable to comprehend the fundamental change and awakening taking place around them.
At the national level, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Kristol and others are delusional in their claims of success in Iraq and of conservative ideas in general, despite their overwhelming rejection in November, and current approval of their dismantling by Obama. Rush "American Last" Limbaugh is openly clamoring for Obama's failure.
At the local level, clueless fools like Gil Spencer and his ragtag bunch of ignorant followers are grasping at straws, misinformation, distortions and childishness in feeble attempts to knock Obama.
Some examples:
- pretending like there is no safe place to house Gitmo detainees (despite all the thousands of more dangerous prisoners already housed in US Federal prisons).
- criticizing Obama's missile strike in Pakistan as a continuation of Bush's policy (when in fact Bush was following the policy Obama put forth on the campaign trail)
- Claiming that that water boarding has never been considered a war crime (and this assertion was from a Spencer fanboy that claims to be a Delco lawyer). Spencer refused to post any counter-proof to this ridiculous position, which is easily found: Waterboarding Used to be a War Crime
Of course, such minimal research would be expected from an actual journalist, rather than a tired hack of a columnist like Gil.
- quoting Dick Morris on nonsense like Obama is going to bring about socialism (nothing like a defrocked political consultant that got caught with a toe-sucking prostitute to give your arguments credibility, even though he's right less often than a stopped clock).
- claiming that Dick Cheney is the most pro-gay VP in history (is it because he sodomized Uncle Sam?)
- racist postings about whether Obama cares about de-ghetto-ing the urban communities (ie blacks and their hip-hop culture are bad and does Obama want to make them less black)
Quote: "An African American columnist asks if Barack Obama can change the hip-hop culture that infects and ghetto-izes poor urban communities today.
We don't know. Does he really want to?
This is the level to which Gil and his ilk have stooped. Gil is an old white guy in the mold of Archie Bunker (but without the charm or conscience) who is rebelling against the multi-cultural blend that makes America truly great. Gil is happy to kick Muslims, Arabs, etc. off of planes if they pray or exhibit any behaviors of their culture because some ignorant, xenophobic or racist passengers feel discomforted. He's fine with torture, US run secret prisons, and holding people without trail. He's quick to trot out the sexual orientation of gay Dem Congressmen when he disagrees with their political choices, as though the two are related and gays are ill-suited for public service.
Gil's an arm-chair warrior that happily cheers on as young men (and innocent civilians) are killed in a war based on lies that was managed incompetently.
Why single out Gil? Because he is shill for the local GOP and represents them and their views as the lead opinion columnist for the county's main local paper.
This year, there will be an election for two of the five Delco County Council seats. All of the current all GOP members and any likely GOP candidates were all-in when McCain and Palin visited the Delco courthouse and acted like Palin was the Second-coming. Now, Alaska may be bigger than Texas, but the population is about the size of Delco's but with less infrastructure (not even public sewer system). A local Delco Council members is probably more qualified to run the country, and a local ward commission has MORE responsibility than Palin had as mayor. Yet, Gil and he local GOP considered her "Presidential" quality and likes her "ideas". What does that say about Delco?
Delaware County voters rejected McCain/Palin and picked Obama/Biden 60%-40%. Yet, somehow the Delco Times promotes Gil Spencer as he shills for the local out-of-touch GOP and plays to a diminishing audience of local rednecks and bigots.
In this era of newspapers going under, it's long past time that the Delco Times got a lead columnist that represents the view of the Delco majority and the future, instead of a horse's ass like Gil Spencer that should be on his way to the glue factory.
The failed policies and philosophies of Bush are falling like dominoes, along with the foolish neocons that supported at promoted them. From the National media to the local Delco Times, the conservatives are pouting and whining like school children, unable to comprehend the fundamental change and awakening taking place around them.
At the national level, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Kristol and others are delusional in their claims of success in Iraq and of conservative ideas in general, despite their overwhelming rejection in November, and current approval of their dismantling by Obama. Rush "American Last" Limbaugh is openly clamoring for Obama's failure.
At the local level, clueless fools like Gil Spencer and his ragtag bunch of ignorant followers are grasping at straws, misinformation, distortions and childishness in feeble attempts to knock Obama.
Some examples:
- pretending like there is no safe place to house Gitmo detainees (despite all the thousands of more dangerous prisoners already housed in US Federal prisons).
- criticizing Obama's missile strike in Pakistan as a continuation of Bush's policy (when in fact Bush was following the policy Obama put forth on the campaign trail)
- Claiming that that water boarding has never been considered a war crime (and this assertion was from a Spencer fanboy that claims to be a Delco lawyer). Spencer refused to post any counter-proof to this ridiculous position, which is easily found: Waterboarding Used to be a War Crime
Of course, such minimal research would be expected from an actual journalist, rather than a tired hack of a columnist like Gil.
- quoting Dick Morris on nonsense like Obama is going to bring about socialism (nothing like a defrocked political consultant that got caught with a toe-sucking prostitute to give your arguments credibility, even though he's right less often than a stopped clock).
- claiming that Dick Cheney is the most pro-gay VP in history (is it because he sodomized Uncle Sam?)
- racist postings about whether Obama cares about de-ghetto-ing the urban communities (ie blacks and their hip-hop culture are bad and does Obama want to make them less black)
Quote: "An African American columnist asks if Barack Obama can change the hip-hop culture that infects and ghetto-izes poor urban communities today.
We don't know. Does he really want to?
This is the level to which Gil and his ilk have stooped. Gil is an old white guy in the mold of Archie Bunker (but without the charm or conscience) who is rebelling against the multi-cultural blend that makes America truly great. Gil is happy to kick Muslims, Arabs, etc. off of planes if they pray or exhibit any behaviors of their culture because some ignorant, xenophobic or racist passengers feel discomforted. He's fine with torture, US run secret prisons, and holding people without trail. He's quick to trot out the sexual orientation of gay Dem Congressmen when he disagrees with their political choices, as though the two are related and gays are ill-suited for public service.
Gil's an arm-chair warrior that happily cheers on as young men (and innocent civilians) are killed in a war based on lies that was managed incompetently.
Why single out Gil? Because he is shill for the local GOP and represents them and their views as the lead opinion columnist for the county's main local paper.
This year, there will be an election for two of the five Delco County Council seats. All of the current all GOP members and any likely GOP candidates were all-in when McCain and Palin visited the Delco courthouse and acted like Palin was the Second-coming. Now, Alaska may be bigger than Texas, but the population is about the size of Delco's but with less infrastructure (not even public sewer system). A local Delco Council members is probably more qualified to run the country, and a local ward commission has MORE responsibility than Palin had as mayor. Yet, Gil and he local GOP considered her "Presidential" quality and likes her "ideas". What does that say about Delco?
Delaware County voters rejected McCain/Palin and picked Obama/Biden 60%-40%. Yet, somehow the Delco Times promotes Gil Spencer as he shills for the local out-of-touch GOP and plays to a diminishing audience of local rednecks and bigots.
In this era of newspapers going under, it's long past time that the Delco Times got a lead columnist that represents the view of the Delco majority and the future, instead of a horse's ass like Gil Spencer that should be on his way to the glue factory.
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