What a difference a day makes!
Toomey's chances of beating Specter in a head-to-head match-up just went from 100% to ZERO. All because Specter changed parties.
There was no way for Specter to beat Toomey among the increasingly conservative base, and no way for Toomey to win in a general election.
There was little hope among the Dems to defeat Specter (R) in the General. The only Big Name that could defeat him was Rendell himself. Most of the likely Dem candidates didn't want in unless they were sure to face Toomey. Sestak waited too long (see below). Now, the Dems aren't likely to challenge Specter (D) because he has the backing of Rendell and Obama (if he stops filibusters).
Sestak's the funniest and saddest story. Ever since he violated his campaign promises and voted to give Bush a blank check in Iraq, he lost the support of the hard-core liberals that worked the hardest for his 2006 campaign. He chaffed at the constant criticism (Admirals aren't used to being questioned) and even threatened not to run again. Being accountable to the people, and not having his ego stroked, seemed too much to bear. Plan A of being a US Congressman wasn't going to cut it.
Plan B emerged almost immediately: Hillary.
Sestak worked his ass off traveling around for Hillary in 2007. The obvious reason was to get an appointment and not have to earn our votes every two years.
In 2007, he COMPLETELY ABANDONED the people that got him elected when he refused to lift a finger to help our county council race. Election day 2007 found him NOT at the PA polls promoting his local ticket, but rather in New Hampshire campaigning for Hillary.
(Clinton Launches Assault on Obama's Foreign Policy Experience)
Sestak raised his Hillary profile when on March 6th, 2008 he (in)famously sat with Hillary and other former military as Hillary declared herself and McCain ready, and Obama not ready. Slamming your own party candidate while elevating the opposing party is the kind of classless move that cost Hillary the election, and Joe was right by her side.
Plan C: Kiss Obama's ass
As soon as Hillary lost, Joe immediately jumped on the Obama wagon faster than you can switch from war with Eastasia to Eurasia. Obama won. Joe kept his seat and was stuck with us another term.
Plan D: Run for Senate
Joe's been raising tons of cash and being very coy in his denials of a Senate run. He spent hardly anything to crush Craig Williams, all the while sending out desperate donation requests. I don't recall seeing a single TV ad for Sestak in 2008. For what did he need all that money? His next ambition: Senate.
The problem was that Specter was running, not retiring. Enter Toomey and conservative anger to unseat Specter. Sestak hopes increased with his bank account ($3.5 million) equally the total of the likely Dem candidates.
Joe's a hard worker, part bulldozer part bulldog when it comes to totally dominating a campaign. However, that's part of his problem. He's a piss-poor strategist. His first victory was born more of circumstance and forcefulness (and a desire to boot Weldon) overcoming his many missteps, rather than any actual political skill. His 2006 win would have been slightly easier if he hadn't ignored months of sound advice.
Now that Specter is in the Dem column, Sestak is completely screwed, yet he can't fully comprehend it. On MSNBC he was still playing coy like he might run. He didn't have enough balls to run against the lesser unknown and lesser funded Dem primary field. Why should anyone expect him to challenge a Rendell/Obama backed Specter (with $6 million in the bank)? After he screwed Obama for Hillary last year, Obama's not going to back him. Besides, Sestak is irrelevant in a big Dem Congress and Specter is essential to a 60-Dem Senate.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Gil Week of Tortured Logic
On Gil's ever weakening, redundant and irrelevant blog, he's had an interesting assortment of topics in the past week. He's made over 45 different posted topics, with little variety and fewer comments. He got only 19 comments total. His biggest hit rate came on the topic of ME with 13 comments.
By far his biggest bugaboo this week was Torture. He had 11 different postings defending it, all filled with lies, half-truths and misrepresentations.
Cheney's calling for the declassification of two cherry picked memos claiming torture was a success. Yea, human rights violations!
This flies in the face of recent reports and conclusions that the most fruitful information came BEFORE the torture and that the information obtained through torture wasn't worth it.
Gil falls to "shock our conscience" with his attempts to defend and redefine torture. Gil tries to equate the "training" we give our soldiers with the experiences of a captured prisoner undergoing 183 waterboarding sessions in one month.
Gil defends the Bush lawyers that clearly violated the ethical standards of their profession in rubber stamping legally unsupported justifications for torture and violations of the Geneva Conventions and our own laws and Constitution. These ARE war crimes. We've prosecuted, convicted and executed for far less.
Gil even goes so far as to compare torture with abortion. If you aborted the same baby 183 times in one month, then Gil might have a point (besides the one on top of his head).
About having a reasonable definition of torture, "shock the conscious" is too vague, since Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, ... and Gil, haven't shown they have a shred of conscious.
First of all, some techniques have not only been designated as torture for centuries, but are frequently used as examples in the definition. Waterboarding is already defined as torture. Second, these actions violate our own Constitutional prohibitions against inflicting cruel or unusual punishments. Third, the United States has prosecuted or gone after foreign governments for using these techniques on US soldiers, or their own dissidents. Finally, is it acceptable to Gil if these techniques are applied to our captured soldiers without punishment to their captors? I would hope not (but Gil and the other armchair warriors were eager to sent them into harm's way without body armor and keep them there after their tour of duty).
The rest of Gil's postings covered his continuing denials of global warming and his misguided faith that nuclear power plants will solve everything (except if Iran has any). He got his panties in a bunch about the Tea Parties, but had me choking with laughter when he claimed: "Dems Scared of Tea Parties". Those weak-ass parties are the gift that keeps on giving by showing how the GOP idea machine threw a rod, just as it ran out of gas.
Gil's seems awfully defensive about Miss California and anyone else against gay marriage being portrayed as bigots. Gee, I wonder why. :-)
The rest was the usual rotation of anti-Obama, Clinton, Pelosi, Murtha and Sean Penn with a little anti-Sebelius and Napolitano thrown in for seasoning.
Most of Gil's posts are links to some far right-wing blog or opinion piece. No surprise there. Gil's intellectually lazy, seems incapable of genuine research, and treats opinion pieces as actual news.
It's no wonder Gil's site is such a deserted wasteland.
By far his biggest bugaboo this week was Torture. He had 11 different postings defending it, all filled with lies, half-truths and misrepresentations.
Cheney's calling for the declassification of two cherry picked memos claiming torture was a success. Yea, human rights violations!
This flies in the face of recent reports and conclusions that the most fruitful information came BEFORE the torture and that the information obtained through torture wasn't worth it.
Gil falls to "shock our conscience" with his attempts to defend and redefine torture. Gil tries to equate the "training" we give our soldiers with the experiences of a captured prisoner undergoing 183 waterboarding sessions in one month.
Gil defends the Bush lawyers that clearly violated the ethical standards of their profession in rubber stamping legally unsupported justifications for torture and violations of the Geneva Conventions and our own laws and Constitution. These ARE war crimes. We've prosecuted, convicted and executed for far less.
Gil even goes so far as to compare torture with abortion. If you aborted the same baby 183 times in one month, then Gil might have a point (besides the one on top of his head).
About having a reasonable definition of torture, "shock the conscious" is too vague, since Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, ... and Gil, haven't shown they have a shred of conscious.
First of all, some techniques have not only been designated as torture for centuries, but are frequently used as examples in the definition. Waterboarding is already defined as torture. Second, these actions violate our own Constitutional prohibitions against inflicting cruel or unusual punishments. Third, the United States has prosecuted or gone after foreign governments for using these techniques on US soldiers, or their own dissidents. Finally, is it acceptable to Gil if these techniques are applied to our captured soldiers without punishment to their captors? I would hope not (but Gil and the other armchair warriors were eager to sent them into harm's way without body armor and keep them there after their tour of duty).
The rest of Gil's postings covered his continuing denials of global warming and his misguided faith that nuclear power plants will solve everything (except if Iran has any). He got his panties in a bunch about the Tea Parties, but had me choking with laughter when he claimed: "Dems Scared of Tea Parties". Those weak-ass parties are the gift that keeps on giving by showing how the GOP idea machine threw a rod, just as it ran out of gas.
Gil's seems awfully defensive about Miss California and anyone else against gay marriage being portrayed as bigots. Gee, I wonder why. :-)
The rest was the usual rotation of anti-Obama, Clinton, Pelosi, Murtha and Sean Penn with a little anti-Sebelius and Napolitano thrown in for seasoning.
Most of Gil's posts are links to some far right-wing blog or opinion piece. No surprise there. Gil's intellectually lazy, seems incapable of genuine research, and treats opinion pieces as actual news.
It's no wonder Gil's site is such a deserted wasteland.
Diano Battles the UNGODs
I've been having fun on the Delco Times site debating the merits of my letter to the editor as I skewered the "Unknown Names: Gil's Obnoxious Defenders" (aka the UNGODs).
The UNGODs attacked me for calling Gil a bigot (completely missing the point that Gil is merely indistinguishable from a bigot). I had one person actually make the ridiculous "argument" that he was against gay marriage for purely selfish reasons: the gay spousal Social Security benefits would raise his taxes. He didn't seem to recognize the hypocrisy that he was okay with gays paying for his getting spousal benefits.
Away, as of this writing (less than one week from my letter), the Delco Times comment thread is over 40 posts (including 1/3 of them mine in rebuttal). This is more comments than Gil's blog has gotten all month, with dozens of posted topics (and a big link on the Delco Times online page and his own weekly column).
The UNGODs attacked me for calling Gil a bigot (completely missing the point that Gil is merely indistinguishable from a bigot). I had one person actually make the ridiculous "argument" that he was against gay marriage for purely selfish reasons: the gay spousal Social Security benefits would raise his taxes. He didn't seem to recognize the hypocrisy that he was okay with gays paying for his getting spousal benefits.
Away, as of this writing (less than one week from my letter), the Delco Times comment thread is over 40 posts (including 1/3 of them mine in rebuttal). This is more comments than Gil's blog has gotten all month, with dozens of posted topics (and a big link on the Delco Times online page and his own weekly column).
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Gil Spencer Promotes Gay Discrimination over Tolerance
On Friday, April 10th, The Delco Times resident blowhard (Gil Spencer) published a piece of political and social tripe. His argument boils down to advocating that anti-gay bigotry taught in the home should not be undermined with tolerance taught in the schools.
Here is his article: Gil Gets a Failing Grade on Tolerance
This was a follow-up to his equally outrageous blog article that actually declared teaching tolerance to be liberal tyranny.
The Delco Times finally decided to print my letter to the editor: Is Gil Spencer a Bigot?
Editor-
I was quite surprised to see Gil Spencer's spirited defense of gay discrimination appearing in the print edition of the paper. Gil uses classic straw man arguments to divert from the real issues.
First, he pretends that gay rights are some left-wing social agenda, rather than a Constitutional equal protection issue.
Second, he falsely claims that the left is accusing everyone opposed to gay marriage of being a bigot and a homophobe. This is completely untrue. Gil's goal here is to mask the fact that large numbers of bigots and homophobes ARE opposed to all sorts of gay rights, including marriage. Bigotry has its heart in ignorance. Judge for yourself in which camp Gil can be found.
Third, when Gil was in school, gays were considered to be sexual deviates and pedophiles preying on children, and they were barred from jobs like teaching. Our military still classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder. Maybe Gil would prefer to live in Iran, where they claim there are no gays and homosexuality is the result of our Western culture. Or maybe Gil agrees with his blogger friends that you can "pray away the gay".
Fourth, Gil actually equates the question of a gay baby-sitter with a baby-sitter with HIV. This is Gil's not so subtle way to push the idea in people's minds that being gay is somehow the same as a disease.
Our children should be receiving a solid education based upon real medical science and facts, and not illusions, perceptions, out-dated myths, ideology and propaganda.
Finally, Gil PRAISES a private Catholic prep school teacher for believing there was nothing he could do to admonish a student that verbally expressed hatred for gays. What if the kid had said he hated Jesus instead?
Gil may go around proclaiming that people can't prove he is an anti-gay bigot, but actions speak louder than words. Gil is giving the bigots aid, comfort and material support with his columns. Therefore, even if Gil is not a card-carrying bigot, it's a distinction without a difference.
Feel free to contact editor@delcotimes.com and ask him why the Delco Times has someone like Gil Spencer in such a prominent opinion role.
Here is his article: Gil Gets a Failing Grade on Tolerance
This was a follow-up to his equally outrageous blog article that actually declared teaching tolerance to be liberal tyranny.
The Delco Times finally decided to print my letter to the editor: Is Gil Spencer a Bigot?
Editor-
I was quite surprised to see Gil Spencer's spirited defense of gay discrimination appearing in the print edition of the paper. Gil uses classic straw man arguments to divert from the real issues.
First, he pretends that gay rights are some left-wing social agenda, rather than a Constitutional equal protection issue.
Second, he falsely claims that the left is accusing everyone opposed to gay marriage of being a bigot and a homophobe. This is completely untrue. Gil's goal here is to mask the fact that large numbers of bigots and homophobes ARE opposed to all sorts of gay rights, including marriage. Bigotry has its heart in ignorance. Judge for yourself in which camp Gil can be found.
Third, when Gil was in school, gays were considered to be sexual deviates and pedophiles preying on children, and they were barred from jobs like teaching. Our military still classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder. Maybe Gil would prefer to live in Iran, where they claim there are no gays and homosexuality is the result of our Western culture. Or maybe Gil agrees with his blogger friends that you can "pray away the gay".
Fourth, Gil actually equates the question of a gay baby-sitter with a baby-sitter with HIV. This is Gil's not so subtle way to push the idea in people's minds that being gay is somehow the same as a disease.
Our children should be receiving a solid education based upon real medical science and facts, and not illusions, perceptions, out-dated myths, ideology and propaganda.
Finally, Gil PRAISES a private Catholic prep school teacher for believing there was nothing he could do to admonish a student that verbally expressed hatred for gays. What if the kid had said he hated Jesus instead?
Gil may go around proclaiming that people can't prove he is an anti-gay bigot, but actions speak louder than words. Gil is giving the bigots aid, comfort and material support with his columns. Therefore, even if Gil is not a card-carrying bigot, it's a distinction without a difference.
Feel free to contact editor@delcotimes.com and ask him why the Delco Times has someone like Gil Spencer in such a prominent opinion role.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Did Specter Just Commit Political Suicide?
Arlen Specter has survived a number of otherwise fatal wounds during his career. From his "magic bullet" theory to his attack-dog role against Anita Hill to rolling over and selling out for the Bush Administration, Specter has gone from foolish to vicious to irrelevant.
However, this week, Specter may have dealt himself a fatal blow. In return for his vote on the Employee Free Choice Act (card-check), the Pennsylvania unions offered to back Specter in his expected 2010 Primary fight against expected challenger: Pat Toomey. Specter rejected that offer with his announcement that he would not support the EFCA pro-union bill.
Flash back to 2004, Toomey gave Specter the fight of his life and Specter managed to win by only 2%. Much of this margin was on the strength of Dem/Ind voters switching to Republican to help Specter in the primary. This was based on their (shortsighted) fear that a Toomey primary victory could lead to a Senator Toomey, rather than the likelihood that Pennsylvania would reject Toomey and give us a Dem senator.
Flash forward to 2010, many moderate Republicans and Independents switched to Dem in 2008 to vote for Obama vs Hillary. Therefore, the remaining GOP registration base is far more lopsided with the right-wingers, neocons, Palin-worshipers, gun nuts and religious conservatives that dislike Specter and consider Toomey a GOP wet-dream.
There is NO WAY that Specter can get all the moderates that switched to Dem in 2008 to switch back to GOP to help him. Add to that, a hotly contested Dem Primary for Governor to keep Dems registered. Finally add in that this week he alienated the Unions who won't help him party-switch voters.
If the Unions are smart (for a change) they will realize that their fortunes and well-being don't lie in a washed-up political shell of a man like Specter in the minority party (no chairmanships). The Unions need to go "all-in" for the Democratic ticket. Toomey will be easier to beat than Specter in the General Election. The best strategy is to let Specter lose the Primary and let the GOP cut it's own throat, rather than expend Union resources to support Specter.
The ONLY possible rationale for Specter was if he cut a deal on the Union Bill in hopes of avoiding a primary fight. This is a typically Republican short-sighted strategy and a another typical Specter sellout.
First, the far-right GOP can't be trusted to hold a promise when Specter still has another year of votes to go.
Second, the Unions will leave Specter swinging in the wind come the Primary.
Third, if Specter survives the Primary, the Unions will crucify him for his anti-Union vote with the Dem voters.
Finally, Pennsylvanians are ready for some new blood and the young voters aren't interested in an octogenarian senator in 2010.
Did Specter commit political suicide this week? Let's hope.
UPDATE the latest Quinnipiac University poll (which I didn't see before my blog analysis) shows Specter trailing Toomey by 14 points in a match-up. This is despite Toomey having a significantly lower name recognition. My conclusion: the poll shows a strong anybody but Arlen sentiment.
However, this week, Specter may have dealt himself a fatal blow. In return for his vote on the Employee Free Choice Act (card-check), the Pennsylvania unions offered to back Specter in his expected 2010 Primary fight against expected challenger: Pat Toomey. Specter rejected that offer with his announcement that he would not support the EFCA pro-union bill.
Flash back to 2004, Toomey gave Specter the fight of his life and Specter managed to win by only 2%. Much of this margin was on the strength of Dem/Ind voters switching to Republican to help Specter in the primary. This was based on their (shortsighted) fear that a Toomey primary victory could lead to a Senator Toomey, rather than the likelihood that Pennsylvania would reject Toomey and give us a Dem senator.
Flash forward to 2010, many moderate Republicans and Independents switched to Dem in 2008 to vote for Obama vs Hillary. Therefore, the remaining GOP registration base is far more lopsided with the right-wingers, neocons, Palin-worshipers, gun nuts and religious conservatives that dislike Specter and consider Toomey a GOP wet-dream.
There is NO WAY that Specter can get all the moderates that switched to Dem in 2008 to switch back to GOP to help him. Add to that, a hotly contested Dem Primary for Governor to keep Dems registered. Finally add in that this week he alienated the Unions who won't help him party-switch voters.
If the Unions are smart (for a change) they will realize that their fortunes and well-being don't lie in a washed-up political shell of a man like Specter in the minority party (no chairmanships). The Unions need to go "all-in" for the Democratic ticket. Toomey will be easier to beat than Specter in the General Election. The best strategy is to let Specter lose the Primary and let the GOP cut it's own throat, rather than expend Union resources to support Specter.
The ONLY possible rationale for Specter was if he cut a deal on the Union Bill in hopes of avoiding a primary fight. This is a typically Republican short-sighted strategy and a another typical Specter sellout.
First, the far-right GOP can't be trusted to hold a promise when Specter still has another year of votes to go.
Second, the Unions will leave Specter swinging in the wind come the Primary.
Third, if Specter survives the Primary, the Unions will crucify him for his anti-Union vote with the Dem voters.
Finally, Pennsylvanians are ready for some new blood and the young voters aren't interested in an octogenarian senator in 2010.
Did Specter commit political suicide this week? Let's hope.
UPDATE the latest Quinnipiac University poll (which I didn't see before my blog analysis) shows Specter trailing Toomey by 14 points in a match-up. This is despite Toomey having a significantly lower name recognition. My conclusion: the poll shows a strong anybody but Arlen sentiment.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Is Montco's Ex-DA DOA?
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.
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.
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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