I haven't decided who I am going to vote for yet, but it concerns many that McCain picked the theme song "Bomb, Bomb, Iran" so early on in his campaign.

The two states that are being excluded dug their own graves. They knew the rules and ignored them.

1. Rules is rules. Trust me, the other states get plenty of attention. The system works fine. FL and MI went ahead with changing their date, all the while being told that the vote would count.

2. Im sure theyll use the 50, but Ill have to get back to you on that.

3. Its one thing to associate with nuts when you are a city councilwomen (Campbell) or they are a significant aspect of your campaign (Harris), but once you get to a certain level, you cannot be held accountable for the nuts that try to attach themselves to you. You try your best to keep them at arms length, but sometimes they are persistent. Unless they are in the politicians tight circle or are playing a leading role in a campaign, no politician should be made to account for crazies that try to place themselves where they arent welcome. With a prime example of a toxic figure being someone that we are all familiar with, I would think that you would understand. And hey, sometimes you gotta kiss a few dirty rings on your way up before you can stand on your own and say no.

4. I didnt watch the debate, but it looks like they didnt ask much substantive stuff, only harping on negative Republican talking points.

5. I know how slow the bureaucracy can be with first hand experience with my girlfriend now, but I would rather have a government that needs- and can be- trimmed of fat, then no governmental structure at all. It comes down to money. Some of the best communities I have seen, Conservative and Democratic, have had wonderful governmental services. The catch is that the residents have enough money to make it work. But that issomething fundamental, would you rather have a little more money in your pockets or a nicer community to live your life? And it is personal preference to what you consider nice.

6a. See above

6b. A believe you are talking about the Generals. Do you not see the hypocracy in that the General takes his orders from the President and the President acts like he is just doing what his Generals tell him. That that report last fall came through the White House and not the Pentagon. That the Generals who are no longer active are the ones speaking out- one active one retiring because he disagreed with the surge so much.

The General follows the order of the President- and rightfully so. However, this President has showed more then in a long time the ability to politicize what has before never been touched by politics. Other presidents have had a clear line drawn between policy and politics. You cannot distinguish that line with this President, and that is scary. Why would you trust 100% a General who is taking orders from a dishonest and incompetant President like Bush?

And I swear to you this, even if I am no longer blogging in a couple years and Obama is screwing up the war as bad as the President AND politicizing the war to the detriment to my peers who are dying needlessly in a foreign country, I will come back to your blog and be the loudest critic.

Thanks, idiot! for making an argument I have been trying to make for a long time. You guys are associating Albero with Campbell and Cohen unfairly. Just because all three of them are critics of the mayor doesn't mean they are the same person, or that one or the other is merely a puppet. Set aside your hatred for Joe for a minute and look at what Campbell and Cohen have actually done for the city--they have found example after example of waste and an uncomfortably cozy relationship between the mayor, the landlords, and big money in the city. And for that, they get blasted constantly by the mayor and the rest of the council (members who proudly admit they do not actually read the documents the mayor places in front of them), and are ridiculed incessantly with unfair ad hominem attacks that don't actually look at their complaints! It's an age-old tactic--attack the messenger so nobody notices the message. you may hate their style or even intensely dislike them personally, but if you look at what they are actually saying, you will find that they are very brave--they have the guts to stand up and fight some pretty significant problems (i.e, the city attorney billing over $300,000 for one year of legal work, when no other city or county attorney even comes close).

"you may hate their style or even intensely dislike them personally, but if you look at what they are actually saying...they have the guts to stand up and fight some pretty significant problems."

Bingo!

This is exactly why 99% of the "bloggers" are mere fluff and playground resentment - they have no guts to say or do anything of substance.

1. For an EHT trip, I explained to wife we do not accept discounted charge from Hrz. She assumed CH claim was already taken care of- Hrz discount accepted. She knows for the EHT trip to call in to get balance. PT should have no co-pay or deductible.

2. 2. Im not blasting them for their work. They are doing a fine job representing their constituency- however, not the city as a whole- and I have made no comments about that. If anything Ive mentioned numerous times that perhaps the stupidest thing I have heard a politician say, was what the Mayor’s block had said last budget crunch time, which was in essence, “It isn’t my job to go through the budget line by line, merely to agree or disagree.” With an active opposition, facing a substantial rise in taxes, you are going to readily admit you aren’t going through the budget looking for fat to trim?!?!

3. 3. I can, and I will tie Councilwomen Cohen and Campbell to Little Joey. It is one thing to have to associate with citizens of ill repute, it is quite another to allow them to move among your trusted circle- not in it, obviously (I would hope)- and actively campaign against YOUR POLITICAL OPPONENT!!

4. How is it that Duvall and I are the only non-annoymous commentators that see the glaring conflict in this?!?!?!

Little Joey isn’t the cooky guy down the street wandering around in his underwear. He is in the corner of Campbell and Cohen. He is out there everyday crossing the line of decency attacking the Mayor.

You have got to be blind to not have a problem with the way he treats the Mayor. No Mayor or elected official should have to deal with that sort of abuse and attack.

Harris and the Councilwomen, actively utilize the resources of Little Joey to further their political ambitions. He is not merely supporting them as he is out there pushing them while trying to knock down their opponent.

The other Great Men (Politt and Lewis) will have to deal with this soon enough, but in the meantime they have managed to walk the line of humoring Joey while giving the appearance of keeping him at arms length. Granted someone came on my old blog insinuating a dislike of Little Joey by Councilwomen Cohen if you read between the lines. But that isn’t enough in my book and I will continue to say so, as he is still out there being a negative influence on the community. There needs to be a public accounting and preferably distancing from an egotistical man on a vendetta that could care less about the City they are working hard to seve.

My point to tie this all in, is that when a surrogate for a candidate goes off the range, it is incumbent on the elected official to attempt to either reign in the rogue surrogate or to cut all public ties. Harris and the Councilwomen have made no such attempt and that is my issue with them.

Idiot!
You and I actually agree on more than we disagree on generally, we just have a dispute over this issue, I think. In my opinion, you cannot put the onus on C&C to go after Joe A publicly unless you also put the onus on the mayor to denounce her supporters (Richard Insley) for their bad acts (i.e, Insley's infamous "memo" instructing landlords to slander Tim Spies in the last election). I totally agree that the personal attacks on the mayor need to stop--it is stupid and actually counterproductive for her opponents. Likewise, the mayor's supporters need to stop their personal attacks on Campbell and Cohen (calling the "B's" and "C's" in the Story Chat, as a minor example). Both sides are slinging around the mud, and BOTH sides need to be called out on it.

Final Frontier