Month: September 2010

Christine O’Donnell’s Ex-Campaign Manager Accused Her of Embezzling Donations, Said O’Donnell ‘Just Wanted to Make a Buck’

Jon Ponder

As we noted earlier, the announcement by the nonpartisan ethics group CREW that it will file a complaint on Monday charging Delaware’s GOP-Tea Party Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell with misappropriating campaign donations apparently struck a nerve. O’Donnell reneged on two invitations to appear on Sunday political shows, including — and this is telling — the GOP-friendly show on the Fox.

O’Donnell’s alleged financial corruption may be news to the rest of the country, but on Election Day, the Delaware Republican Party, no less, released an anti-O’Donnell robocall in which Kristin Murray, O’Donnell’s former campaign manager accused O’Donnell of using campaign donations to pay personal expenses and of incompetent financial management that left bills unpaid and the campaign thousands of dollars in debt.

Transcript:

KRISTIN MURRAY: This is Kristin Murray. In 2008, I was the campaign manager for Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell. I got into politics because I believe in conservative values and wanted to make a difference. But I was shocked to learn that O’Donnell is no conservative.

You see, this is her third Senate race in five years. As O’Donnell’s manager, I found out she was living on campaign donations — using them for rent and personal expenses, while leaving her workers unpaid and piling up thousands in debt.

She wasn’t concerned about conservative causes. O’Donnell just wanted to make a buck. That’s why I left and why I won’t trust O’Donnell with my hard-earned tax dollars.

This ad has been paid for by the Delaware Republican party, www.delawaregop.com. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

As Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said in a release last week, “Ms. O’Donnell has had no discernible job for several years, and instead has lived the life of a professional candidate, using the generosity of her campaign donors for her support … That may just be freeloading to most people, but it’s embezzlement for a federal candidate.”

In the robocall, Murray suggests that O’Donnell’s financial shenanigans somehow make her “no conservative.” This is laughable, of course. Based on the right wing’s abysmal track record in managing the economy, O’Donnell’s financial incompetence and malfeasance make her a textbook conservative.

Sanity and Fear Will Collide in Washington Events

Trish

RallySanityWatchers of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report know about the “competing” rallies planned in Washington on Halloween weekend, a couple of days before the midterm elections. Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity seems to be beating out Stephen Colbert’s March to Keep Fear Alive in the Facebook fans department.

On the Rally to Restore Sanity Facebook page, there is an open challenge to come up with 25 things that would not help restore sanity at the event. Among the suggestions:

  • Talking about the miracle of the size of the crowd
  • Wearing a McCain/Palin 2008 campaign button
  • Wearing the American flag as an article of clothing or an accessory
  • Bringing small rugs, turning toward FOX “News” and praying six times during the rally
  • Safety pinning copies of our birth certificates to our chests
  • Starting a movement to change the National Anthem to “The Thong Song” because “The Star Spangled Banner” is anti-colonialist
  • Inviting a local coven to provide insight on the Delaware Senate race
  • Have speeches fact-checked by Andrew Breitbart

There’s also a call for slogans for hand-painted signs but so far, the results are more earnest than funny. Among the better submissions are, “FOX–the only network where you are dumber after you watch it,” and “Sarah Palin is proof you’ll never go poor appealing to the lowest common denominator.”

Can you do better? Share your suggestion for either category in the comments.

Republican Senators Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and Don’t Answer the Phone for Lady Ga Ga

Trish

Ga Ga: “I am here to be a voice for my generation, not the generation of the senators who are voting, but for the youth of this country, the generation that is affected by this law, and whose children will be affected. We are not asking you to agree with, or approve of the moral implications of homosexuality.”

There is so much wrong with these assumptions that it’s hard to know where to start (many Guard members are in their 30s, 40s, and even 50s, and why NOT ask the senators to stop declaring homosexuality is immoral?) but as the aunt of a 12-year-old, I know that Ga Ga is correct that she speaks for youth, and her heart is definitely in the right place on this one.

Christine O’Donnell Abruptly Cancels Fox Appearance After CREW Says It Will File Complaint Charging She Embezzled Donations

Jon Ponder

Why would a media savvy candidate like Christine O’Donnell blow off a coveted opportunity to appear on the Sunday political shows? Could it be because her lawyers warned her against risking incriminating herself by discussing on-air an ethics watchdog group’s charge that she embezzled campaign funds?

Christine O'Donnell speaking a Christian political rally after filing of embezzlement complaint was announced
Christine O'Donnell speaking a Christian political rally after filing of embezzlement complaint was announced
On CNN Friday night, CREW, the nonpartisan Washington ethics watchdog group, announced it will file a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission on Monday charging that Delaware’s new Republican U.S. Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell lied on forms she filed when she launched her candidacy and misappropriated $20,000 in campaign funds from two prior failed runs for the Senate.

O’Donnell became the right wing’s latest overnight celebrity when she defeated Rep. Mike Castle in Delaware’s Republican primary on Sept. 14. She promotes herself as a Christian whose morality forbids her from lying. “A lie, whether it be a lie or an exaggeration, is disrespect to whoever you’re exaggerating or lying to, because it’s not respecting reality,” she said in a televised exchange years ago. When asked if her adherence to the truth would have prevented her from lying to protect Jewish families who were hiding from Nazis during World War II, she demurred. “You never have to practice deception,” she said. “God always provides a way out.” (In other words, “no.”)

The funds in question were donated to her two previous Senate campaigns, first in 2006, when she came in third out of three in the Republican primary, and then in 2008, when she won the GOP nomination but was soundly defeated by Sen. Joe Biden in the general election.

On AC360 Friday night, CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan told Anderson Cooper that witnesses had come forward who had firsthand knowledge that O’Donnell had illegally put donated funds to personal use in 2009 and early 2010 when she was not an active candidate for any office:

[…]

Verbatim

Trish

This week saw some very surprising results in some Republican primaries, as Tea Party candidates defeated establishment figures. And this all has the effect of pushing the Republican party further to the right, and pushing it so far that it may well be approaching the city limits of Crazy Town now.

— John Oliver, Daily Show correspondent, commenting on the primary win in the Delaware Senate race by marketing consultant Christine O’Donnell. Oliver made the comment on the podcast he co-hosts with fellow comedian Andy Zaltzman, The Bugle.

CREW: Christine O’Donnnell’s Personal Use of Campaign Donations Is ‘Flat-out Illegal’

Jon Ponder

CNN:

A watchdog group says it plans to ask authorities in Delaware to investigate Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell’s finances.

At issue are more than $20,000 of spending in 2009 and 2010 that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington claims was illegal.

“It turns out Miss O’Donnell has treated her campaign funds like they are her very own personal piggy bank. She’s used that money to pay for things like her rent, for gas, meals and even a bowling outing. And that’s just flat-out illegal,” said Melanie Sloan, the group’s executive director.

In an interview on CNN’s “AC360,” Sloan said her organization would be sending letters to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware and the Federal Elections Commission on Monday asking them to investigate.

“For example, in 2009, Miss O’Donnell wasn’t a candidate for anything, yet she had numerous campaign expenses, things like travel and gas, and yet she had no actual campaign,” Sloan said.

Michele Bachmann Tells a Slanderous Lie about Speaker Pelosi at ‘Values’ Conclave

Jon Ponder

As lying politicians go, few can top Minnesota GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann. But she outdid herself on Friday — in front of an annual meeting sponsored by a Christian-oriented hate group, no less — when she claimed that Speaker Nancy Pelosi had spent $100,000 of taxpayer money on booze.

At the Values Voter Conference, sponsored by the anti-gay activist group Family Research Council, in Washington, Bachmann took the podium and made this outrageous statement:

BACHMANN: “Unlimited credit cards for our elected leaders have become an in entitlement. like Speaker Pelosi, who has been busy sticking the taxpayer with her $100,000 bar tab for alcohol on the military jets that she’s flying.”

Facts sourced below but here are the basics:

  • Pelosi does not drink. (Bachmann have confused Pelosi with Republican Speaker Wanna-Be John Boehner who is famous in the capital for doing nothing but boozing, schmoozing and playing golf with lobbyists.)
  • Bachmann’s lie is based on propaganda from two right-wing outlets with zero credibility, Judicial Watch and World Net Daily.
  • The original “research” looked at expenses official government trips called “congressional delegations” or CODELs, in which members of Congress go on fact-finding tours and inspections.
  • Judicial Watch deceptively did not compare Pelosi’s spending with her predecessor’s. Speaker Hastert’s spending was slightly higher.

[…]

Huckabee Signals GOP Will Repeal Ban Revoking Insurance Because of Pre-Existing Conditions

Jon Ponder

Here we have it, ladies and gentlemen, the GOP’s longstanding “compassionate conservatism” is over. Keep in mind, this cruel, heartless man is an ordained Southern Baptist preacher — and he said this at supposed conservative values convention:

According to Republican Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, that’s exactly right. People with pre-existing conditions, he explains are like houses that have already burned down.

“It sounds so good, and it’s such a warm message to say we’re not gonna deny anyone from a preexisting condition,” Huckabee explained at the Value Voters Summit today. “Look, I think that sounds terrific, but I want to ask you something from a common sense perspective. Suppose we applied that principle [to] our property insurance. And you can call your insurance agent and say, “I’d like to buy some insurance for my house.” He’d say, “Tell me about your house.” “Well sir, it burned down yesterday, but I’d like to insure it today.” And he’ll say “I’m sorry, but we can’t insure it after it’s already burned.” Well, no preexisting conditions.”

Facebook’s Privacy Problems

Buck Banks

privacy zuckering The act of creating deliberately confusing jargon and user interfaces that trick your users into sharing more info about themselves than they really want to.” (As defined by the Electronic Frontier Foundation). The term “Zuckering” was suggested in an EFF article by Tim Jones on Facebook’s “Evil Interfaces.” It is, of course, named after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.