Our choice in Virginia: Tim Kaine for the U.S. Senate

[BayGBM]

Our choice in Virginia: Tim Kaine for the U.S. Senate
By Editorial Board, Monday, October 15, 4:06 PM

TWO FORMER Virginia governors, Timothy M. Kaine and George Allen, are running for the U.S. Senate seat that Mr. Allen fumbled away six years ago. They are partisan stalwarts who disagree on deficit reduction, energy policy, health care, abortion, the death penalty and much else. The contrast in character and intellect is even more stark. On those grounds, Mr. Kaine, a Democrat, is a better choice by leaps and bounds than Mr. Allen, a Republican.

We happen to agree on many issues with Mr. Kaine, who favors a balanced approach to deficit-cutting. He would allow Bush-era tax cuts for the rich to expire — he’d set the bar at incomes of $500,000 a year, twice the level proposed by the Obama administration — while targeting some overseas military bases for cuts.

Mr. Allen favors a different approach, having signed a pledge never to raise taxes, thereby allowing ideology — and specifically anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist — to trump bipartisan compromise. After excluding the military from cost-cutting, he offers only fuzzy ideas for charting a path toward a balanced budget: cutting regulations (but which ones?), goosing the oil and gas industries (which are already booming) and implementing enormous phased-in spending cuts — again unspecified.

Mr. Allen and the anonymous, deep-pocketed allies who have paid for the barrage of TV ads against Mr. Kaine have traded in distortions. They accuse Mr. Kaine of advocating draconian cuts to the military that would result from automatic spending cuts known as sequestration. In fact, Mr. Kaine has urged a compromise to avoid such an outcome. They say Mr. Kaine wants to raise federal taxes on everyone; he has never proposed or endorsed such a policy.

Mr. Allen paints himself as a fiscal conservative, but general fund spending jumped when he was governor, in the boom years of the ’90s. It was flat during Mr. Kaine’s term, which coincided with the sharp economic downturn of 2008-09. Moreover, by embracing the Bush-era tax cuts and opposing their repeal, Mr. Allen helped dig the massive fiscal ditch in which this country is mired.

In their debates, Mr. Kaine has displayed a command of detail while Mr. Allen trades in gauzy hyperbole. In one such exchange, it was apparent that Mr. Allen did not understand how birth-control pills work nor the implications of “personhood” legislation he supports, which declares that life begins at the moment of conception. As Mr. Kaine has pointed out, such a measure could imperil legal birth-control pills.

Mr. Kaine, admired as governor for his straight talk and civility, guided the state sure-handedly through the worst months of the recession. He made judicious budget cuts forced on him by plummeting revenue — for which Mr. Allen is now attacking him — while pursuing goals he’d set as a candidate, including broadening access to early childhood education.

He has refrained from raising questions about Mr. Allen’s character. But when a sitting U.S. senator brandishes a racist term to single out and humiliate a person of color — as Mr. Allen did with the “macaca” episode in his 2006 reelection campaign — the stain is not erased by the passage of six years.

That unscripted moment came from a man with a long-standing fondness for Confederate flags and who opposed a public holiday to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.

In a Congress seized by partisan acrimony, Mr. Allen, who once pledged to knock Democrats’ “soft teeth down their whiny throats,” would be a force for divisiveness. Mr. Kaine, like his mentor Sen. Mark Warner, has the potential to be a deal-maker. That’s more what the Senate needs.

[Soul Crusher]

Romney and Allen are going to steamroll VA

Kaine is an obama drone and going nowhere 

[Shockwave]

Our choice in Virginia: Tim Kaine for the U.S. Senate
By Editorial Board, Monday, October 15, 4:06 PM

TWO FORMER Virginia governors, Timothy M. Kaine and George Allen, are running for the U.S. Senate seat that Mr. Allen fumbled away six years ago. They are partisan stalwarts who disagree on deficit reduction, energy policy, health care, abortion, the death penalty and much else. The contrast in character and intellect is even more stark. On those grounds, Mr. Kaine, a Democrat, is a better choice by leaps and bounds than Mr. Allen, a Republican.

We happen to agree on many issues with Mr. Kaine, who favors a balanced approach to deficit-cutting. He would allow Bush-era tax cuts for the rich to expire — he’d set the bar at incomes of $500,000 a year, twice the level proposed by the Obama administration — while targeting some overseas military bases for cuts.

Mr. Allen favors a different approach, having signed a pledge never to raise taxes, thereby allowing ideology — and specifically anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist — to trump bipartisan compromise. After excluding the military from cost-cutting, he offers only fuzzy ideas for charting a path toward a balanced budget: cutting regulations (but which ones?), goosing the oil and gas industries (which are already booming) and implementing enormous phased-in spending cuts — again unspecified.

Mr. Allen and the anonymous, deep-pocketed allies who have paid for the barrage of TV ads against Mr. Kaine have traded in distortions. They accuse Mr. Kaine of advocating draconian cuts to the military that would result from automatic spending cuts known as sequestration. In fact, Mr. Kaine has urged a compromise to avoid such an outcome. They say Mr. Kaine wants to raise federal taxes on everyone; he has never proposed or endorsed such a policy.

Mr. Allen paints himself as a fiscal conservative, but general fund spending jumped when he was governor, in the boom years of the ’90s. It was flat during Mr. Kaine’s term, which coincided with the sharp economic downturn of 2008-09. Moreover, by embracing the Bush-era tax cuts and opposing their repeal, Mr. Allen helped dig the massive fiscal ditch in which this country is mired.

In their debates, Mr. Kaine has displayed a command of detail while Mr. Allen trades in gauzy hyperbole. In one such exchange, it was apparent that Mr. Allen did not understand how birth-control pills work nor the implications of “personhood” legislation he supports, which declares that life begins at the moment of conception. As Mr. Kaine has pointed out, such a measure could imperil legal birth-control pills.

Mr. Kaine, admired as governor for his straight talk and civility, guided the state sure-handedly through the worst months of the recession. He made judicious budget cuts forced on him by plummeting revenue — for which Mr. Allen is now attacking him — while pursuing goals he’d set as a candidate, including broadening access to early childhood education.

He has refrained from raising questions about Mr. Allen’s character. But when a sitting U.S. senator brandishes a racist term to single out and humiliate a person of color — as Mr. Allen did with the “macaca” episode in his 2006 reelection campaign — the stain is not erased by the passage of six years.

That unscripted moment came from a man with a long-standing fondness for Confederate flags and who opposed a public holiday to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.

In a Congress seized by partisan acrimony, Mr. Allen, who once pledged to knock Democrats’ “soft teeth down their whiny throats,” would be a force for divisiveness. Mr. Kaine, like his mentor Sen. Mark Warner, has the potential to be a deal-maker. That’s more what the Senate needs.

This reads like a bad TV political ad Bay. I can practically hear the evil music. Our guy is perfect and their guy is evil incarnate! Lol.
I don't know anything about these two and I don't really care, but it's pretty hilarious.

[BayGBM]

This reads like a bad TV political ad Bay. I can practically hear the evil music. Our guy is perfect and their guy is evil incarnate! Lol.
I don't know anything about these two and I don't really care, but it's pretty hilarious.

"Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise."  Enjoy.   

[Fury]

Nice source. Too lazy to even provide a link.

Secondly, why should I give a shit about a newspaper's endorsement?

"Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise."  Enjoy.   

Very fitting. Do you let newspapers tell you how to live every aspect of your life?

[BayGBM]

No. I let the literati on bodybuilding forums like you do it.

[Shockwave]

"Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise."  Enjoy.   

I fail to see why these 2 should warrant my concern, as I have absolutely zero influence in deciding which one gets elected.
Why, pray tell, should I care about either of these 2 when I cannot do a damn thing about either of them?

[Roger Bacon]

Do you let newspapers tell you how to live every aspect of your life?

Obviously not... 

























Which newspaper says to go around being an annoying gaylord, drooling over and trying to convert straight men on bodybuilding forums. 

[BayGBM]

George Allen shows a more cautious, humbler side
By Marc Fisher, Published: October 17

George Allen displays three totems on the top shelf of the bookcase in his Old Town Alexandria office. The bust of Thomas Jefferson is a natural; Allen’s first elective office three decades ago was Jefferson’s seat in the Virginia House of Delegates.

There’s a football, of course, an inevitable nod toward Allen’s father, the longtime Washington Redskins coach.

And then there’s the latest addition to the showcase: a shofar, the ram’s horn that Jews blow to signal the annual time of repentance.

Six years ago, then-U.S. Sen. Allen (R) — now in a tight race with former governor Timothy M. Kaine (D) to regain his seat — found himself portrayed in news reports and voters’ minds as a colossally insensitive brute, a senator who publicly slurred an Indian American man who was working for his opponent at a campaign event, calling him “macaca.”

After that, a torrent of reports about Allen’s past poisoned his campaign: As a young man in California, he wore a Confederate flag pin in his high school senior class photo; later, he displayed a Confederate flag in his home (part of a flag collection, he said) and a noose in his law office (Allen said it fit the room’s Western motif); associates said he had used racial slurs about black people, which Allen resolutely denied.

Then, during a debate with Democrat James Webb, a TV reporter asked Allen whether it was true that his mother’s family was Jewish. Allen reacted angrily, accusing the questioner of casting “aspersions.”

“My mother is French-Italian with a little Spanish blood in her,” Allen responded. “I’ve been raised, and she was, as far as I know, raised as a Christian.”

That was not true. Allen knew then (he’d learned it a month before) that his mother was indeed born and raised Jewish.

A few days later, after admitting that, Allen, feisty as ever, told an interviewer that despite his newfound Jewish heritage, “I still had a ham sandwich for lunch. And my mother made great pork chops.”

Allen, who was widely believed to be using the Senate race to launch a presidential run, lost by 9,000 votes among 2.4 million cast. It was his first defeat since his initial run, for Virginia’s House, in 1979.

Now, six years later, Allen points out the shofar to a visitor. There is no more denial. No more jokes. He has studied his family history, learned about his roots.

Quietly, he tells about the day he asked his mother, now 89, whether the rumors were true that she really wasn’t Anglican but had grown up Jewish in Tunisia. Henrietta “Etty” Allen wept as she agreed to tell him the truth, but only “if you swear on Pop-op’s head that you won’t tell anybody.”

George Felix Allen blushes tomato red as he speaks about his Jewish grandfather, Felix Lumbroso. The former governor stares at the floor and recalls his mother’s fear of exposing her children to the hatred and venom she had seen as a child in Nazi-occupied North Africa.

After Allen’s mother revealed the secret she’d kept from her husband and children for six decades, Etty Allen asked her son, “Do you still love me?”

Of course he did, and he told her so. And then she asked whether her friends would still like her if they found out.

“Oh, Mom,” he said. “Of course they love you. Why wouldn’t they?”

“No,” said his mother, “they tell Jewish jokes.” She shook with fear.

“So I felt I had to keep it secret,” Allen says. He acknowledged publicly what she’d told him only after a cascade of news reports made it clear that the truth would come out.

Now, Allen says, he regrets some things he said in that losing campaign. He says he has embraced his newfound heritage. He’s proud of the shofar, a gift from a Hasidic Jewish group he addressed last year.

At that meeting, he tried to blow the horn, a difficult task even for some rabbis. “I couldn’t get much of a sound out of it,” Allen says, but that night, “I had the best dreams . . .   http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/george-allen-shows-a-more-cautious-humbler-side/2012/10/17/15143bf4-fde8-11e1-a31e-804fccb658f9_story.html?hpid=z1

[Fury]

Obviously not... 


Which newspaper says to go around being an annoying gaylord, drooling over and trying to convert straight men on bodybuilding forums. 

Hahaha. Tier 1 response!


Expect Bay to now make some obscure reference or comparison in an effort to insinuate that you're homosexual.

[BayGBM]

It is difficult to believe that this Klan Grand Wizard is now proud to be Jewish.  Even if he is, his Virginia Klan buddies may not be so accepting: he will not get their vote.  History really does repeat itself. 



Hungary far-right leader discovers Jewish roots
By By PABLO GORONDI

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — As a rising star in Hungary's far-right Jobbik Party, Csanad Szegedi was notorious for his incendiary comments on Jews: He accused them of "buying up" the country, railed about the "Jewishness" of the political elite and claimed Jews were desecrating national symbols.

Then came a revelation that knocked him off his perch as ultra-nationalist standard-bearer: Szegedi himself is a Jew.

Following weeks of Internet rumors, Szegedi acknowledged in June that his grandparents on his mother's side were Jews — making him one too under Jewish law, even though he doesn't practice the faith. His grandmother was an Auschwitz survivor and his grandfather a veteran of forced labor camps.

Since then, the 30-year-old has become a pariah in Jobbik and his political career is on the brink of collapse. He declined to be interviewed for this story.

At the root of the drama is an audio tape of a 2010 meeting between Szegedi and a convicted felon. Szegedi acknowledges that the meeting took place but contends the tape was altered in unspecified ways; Jobbik considers it real.

In the recording, the felon is heard confronting Szegedi with evidence of his Jewish roots. Szegedi sounds surprised, then offers money and favors in exchange for keeping quiet.

Under pressure, Szegedi resigned last month from all party positions and gave up his Jobbik membership. That wasn't good enough for the party: Last week it asked him to give up his seat in the European Parliament as well. Jobbik says its issue is the suspected bribery, not his Jewish roots.

Szegedi came to prominence in 2007 as a founding member of the Hungarian Guard, a group whose black uniforms and striped flags recalled the Arrow Cross, a pro-Nazi party which briefly governed Hungary at the end of World War II and killed thousands of Jews. In all, 550,000 Hungarian Jews were killed during the Holocaust, most of them after being sent in trains to death camps like Auschwitz. The Hungarian Guard was banned by the courts in 2009.

By then, Szegedi had already joined the Jobbik Party, which was launched in 2003 to become the country's biggest far-right political force. He soon became one of its most vocal and visible members, and a pillar of the party leadership. Since 2009, he has served in the European Parliament in Brussels as one of the party's three EU lawmakers, a position he says he wants to keep... http://news.yahoo.com/hungary-far-leader-discovers-jewish-roots-155354165.html

[BayGBM]

Romney and Allen are going to steamroll VA

Kaine is an obama drone and going nowhere 

Extract foot from mouth.  Lather. Rinse. Repeat.


Kaine wins Virginia Senate race
By Ben Pershing, Laura Vozzella and Errin Haines

Timothy M. Kaine defeated George Allen in Virginia’s Senate race Tuesday night, the climax of an intensely watched matchup that cost more than $80 million.

Allen (R) conceded the race to Kaine (D) just before 11 p.m. Tuesday. With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Kaine had a narrow but clear lead in the nation’s most expensive Senate race.

The contest for the seat held by retiring Sen. James Webb (D) had been neck-and-neck all along, confirming Virginia’s battleground status. For the past decade, Republicans and Democrats have traded control of the governor’s mansion, the General Assembly and U.S. Senate seats.

Once reliably Republican, the commonwealth has become much more competitive because of its changing population, particularly in fast-growing Northern Virginia. Its evolving demographics helped Barack Obama carry the state in 2008, the first Democratic presidential candidate to do so in 44 years, and Obama won it again Tuesday.

“Both Tim and I have had the highest honor anybody can be accorded, to serve as governor. . . . I also had the opportunity to serve in the U.S. Senate,” Allen told supporters at the Omni Hotel in Richmond. “Now, Tim Kaine will have the opportunity to serve in the United States Senate.”

Kaine, who was at the nearby Marriott Hotel, thanked Allen for his public service and said that although they disagreed on many issues, “we both share a deep love for the commonwealth and this country.”

“This is the time to find common solutions to our nation’s common problems,” Kaine told supporters. “That is the Virginia way.”

The balloting marked the end of a marathon race between two widely known, personally popular former governors with national profiles who made sharply different bets about what message would resonate in Virginia.

Kaine’s victory is a vindication of the moderate, bridge-building brand of politics touted by both him and Sen. Mark Warner (D), the man Kaine succeeded in the governor’s mansion. Kaine repeatedly touted his willingness to strike compromises and work with both parties, particularly on averting looming defense cuts that would disproportionately affect Virginia.

“Kaine ran as a centrist, in fact he ran to the right of the top of the ticket,” said Mark Rozell, a public policy professor at George Mason University. “That has been the formula for success for Democratic candidates in Virginia.”

Allen, by contrast, ran on a solidly conservative platform of lower taxes and smaller government. Although he cited his past record working with Democrats, particularly as governor, Allen emphasized that a leader’s job is to set clear priorities and persuade others to follow.

Allen’s defeat marked a failure in his quest for redemption after losing the seat to Webb in 2006. Allen had been the favorite in that contest, and a legitimate contender for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, until an incident when he referred to an Indian American Democratic campaign worker as “macaca,” an ethnic slur in some cultures. The unwelcome spotlight was then turned on Allen’s temperament and past brushes with racial controversy.

Calling himself humbled by the loss, Allen ran in 2012 as a calmer, less colorful and more on-message candidate. His campaign worked to boost his standing with women and moderates, while keeping a narrow focus on economic issues.

“Tonight after a very hard-fought contest, we’re reminded how closely divided we are,” Allen said Tuesday. “I’m very glad we did get off the sidelines.”

The two men squabbled over tax cuts for the wealthy, health-care reform, defense spending cuts and Obama. Allen frequently accused Kaine, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, of putting Obama’s interests ahead of Virginia’s, while Kaine dismissed the charge as divisive and disrespectful to the office of the presidency.

Combined they raised more than $30 million, with Kaine beating Allen in every fundraising period. An additional $50 million was pumped in by outside groups — 60 percent of it to benefit Allen — the most of any contest in the country other than the presidential race.

At Terrace Elementary School in Annandale, retiree Eddie Ward, 73, said he chose Democrats in the House and Senate races, voting for Kaine and Rep. Gerald E. Connolly.

“I like where Kaine is on women’s issues and on the environment,” Ward said. “I feel like he’s got the best interest of Virginia in mind, and I wasn’t sure about the other guy.”

Tine Beam, 66, a retired flight attendant, made a similar case in Leesburg, backing Kaine and other Democrats because she said Republicans posed a threat to women’s rights.

“I really felt that I needed to vote for my reproductive rights,” she said.

In Prince William County, David Williams, 50, voted for Allen, saying he especially appreciated Allen’s initiative as governor to ensure criminals served 85 percent of their terms.

“We saw the crime rate for Virginia go down after that,” he said.

Brenda Reid, a 53-year-old homemaker in Prince William, said she mostly liked Kaine because “he’s a supporter of the president.”

But it was a personal touch that Reid remembers most, when Kaine stopped by her Mount Zion Baptist Church. She said he was likable and a good man.

At Pinchbeck Elementary School in Richmond, Abigail Pegram, 30, cast her vote for Allen and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. A literature teacher at a Powhatan Christian school, Pegram said neither was fiscally conservative enough for her liking. She said that Allen, in particular, had hardly been a deficit hawk in the Senate. But she figured the Republicans would hold the line on spending better than Democrats.

“I wish there were different [choices], but I think they will take us in a new direction,” she said. “It’s a different direction, and I think we need that right now.”

[Roger Bacon]

Hahaha. Tier 1 response!


Expect Bay to now make some obscure reference or comparison in an effort to insinuate that you're homosexual.

haha... The germy motherfather fucker prove us wrong I guess.  

[240 is Back]

george allen is just a phony liar.   not built for politics.  he'll be a good lobbyist.