Rowhouse Logic - Breathtaking Inanity

Billmon on Curt Weldon and so much more:

Curt Weldon is my congressman — for reasons known only to the voters of Delaware County, PA and God almighty (and I’m not sure He completely understands it). After following his antics over the years, I wouldn’t be surprised if Curt claimed the Iranians were secretly using trained fruit bats to sneak miniature atomic bombs into his wife’s underwear. The man is a complete lunatic — so far gone that even the lunatics who run our Chamber of People’s Deputies have been finagling the system for years to keep the chairmanship of the Armed Services Committee out of his grasp. (And now they’re trying to con him into foregoing a bid for the Homeland Security Committee.)

To call Weldon a loose cannon on the deck of U.S. foreign policy would be an error, because in fact he’s almost always aimed squarely at the ship’s own bridge — no matter who the captain is. The Cheney administration apparently hasn’t found his freelance meddling in North Korean affairs any more helpful than the Clinton team did his bizarre interventions on behalf of Slobodan Milosevic. (Weldon was in North Korea again just last week, along with Ted Turner. We can only hope Turner brought along enough meds for the both of them.)

Add in Weldon’s goofball embrace of every absurd lie peddled by Iranian con man Manucher Gorbanifar, his ties to the Rev. Moon (a.k.a. God’s vice regent on earth) and his taste for whacky stunts — like pinning an American flag pin on Moammar Kadafi’s lapel — and you can see that Curt reached the level of his own incompetence when he became a volunteer firefighter in Marcus Hook, PA.

That being the case, you could almost predict what would happen once Weldon opened his mouth about his mythical chart — i.e. such comic moments as his apparently bogus claim that he gave his one and only copy of the chart to Stephen Hadley at the NSC (Hadley: “No comment”), or the hearsay evidence from an alleged “whistleblower” that would be hyped to the skies by the conservative media, but never substantiated (can you say “Bill Burkett”?) And of course, let’s not forget the relentless, repetitive sliming of Jamie Gorelick and the 9/11 Commission — which still hasn’t stopped, even though the entire story has pretty much fallen apart.

I mentioned recently that there are two Delaware County bloggers who focus almost exclusively on national issues. I’m glad to see one of them turning an eye towards home, even if it is to paint a much larger picture.

Celis White, brewed by Michigan Brewing Company in Webberville Michigan.

This is a very tasty and tangy, Belgian style wheat beer which, at just under $10 a six pack, is a pretty decent bargain. I meant to post this a month ago when it was fresher in my mind, but for whatever reason, didn’t. I decided to point it out now because I can’t think of anything to write and Summer is coming to a close. In my mind, wheat beers are the perfect summer drink and this one would be a good start for anybody who hasn’t tried one yet.

Toynbee tile at the intersection of 15th and Chestnut. Picure from Resurrect Dead Mystery.

I’ve seen these things tiled onto streets around town for quite some time now and, to be honest, never gave them a second thought. Not until I read this article on Philly Future about the mystery behind the origin and maker(s) of the Toynbee tiles, that is. Now I’m sucked in and I’ve spent the last half hour reading sites like Resurrect Dead Mystery which are dedicated to the Toynbee tile mystery. There’s even a Wikipedia entry on the subject. Have fun.

Via Akkam’s Razor

From Think Progress:

“Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is.�
~ George W. Bush 4/9/1999

“I think it’s also important for the president to lay out a timetable as to how long they will be involved and when they will be withdrawn.�
~George W. Bush 6/5/1999

Both would make tasteful taglines for your email signature.

(Via Robert in Susie’s comments)

Not to get too cryptic or personal, but I just wanted to let those of you who I may have alarmed earlier today know that all is well.

I think the Phillies just might need to keep their lawyer from talking to the press. It’s one thing to be a hack, but quite another to announce it to the sporting press.

As the Phillies played the Washington Nationals, a confrontation developed in the upper deck at Citizens Bank Park between Repent America, a fundamentalist Christian group, and fans, many of whom were attending the game as part of a gay pride group.

This is the third year for Gay Day, which featured a national anthem performance by the Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus and a first pitch from Cyd Ziegler of Outsports.com.

It’s also the third year Repent America’s Michael Marcavage has attended in protest of the event. Marcavage and another man held a sign that read, “Homosexuality Is a Sin, Christ Can Save You� at the top of Section 303 in right field.

At one point, other fans stood in front of the banner, obscuring it. Eventually, officers from the Philadelphia Police Civil Affairs division flanked Marcavage and his unidentified companion.

“This is totally offensive to me,� said James Duggan, a fan from Merchantville who stood several rows in front of the sign and engaged Marcavage in debate. “These people are false Christians. I was told the Phillies’ lawyers arranged this with Repent America’s lawyers, and I find that totally offensive, too.�

Mike Stiles, the Philles’ vice-president of operations and administration, said the team’s attorneys had met with attorneys for Repent America after the group protested the first gay-pride event at Veterans Stadium in 2003.

“It’s pretty clear under the Constitution,� Stiles said, “that if you’re going to have a gay community night, people have the right to express another opinion. We understand it’s distressing for some people to have to look at that sign. We believe the leaders of the gay community who arrange this night like any other group know what they’re going to have to put up with.�

The Phillies have written policies barring fan behavior “interfering with other guests’ ability to enjoy the game,� as well as banners that contain “fighting words likely to provoke a breach of the peace.�

Both policies, Stiles said, are trumped by Repent America’s First Amendment rights.

“On a night when we didn’t have the gay community, we wouldn’t necessarily permit a sign like that,� Stiles said. “A sign expressing an objection to the war would not be permitted because it has nothing to do with baseball.�

Um….okay, but…um…what the hell? I’ve been trying to think my way through Stiles’ statements for the last half hour and I’ve come to the conclusion that the man has broken the logic barrier and now exists in a world where narratives are little more than broken shards, rotting on a field of withered cohesion.

My suggestion to the Phillies, if they are ever asked about Repent America’s presence at Gay Day, is to reply with a simple “we just didn’t feel like dealing with having this shithead sue us and make himself into some sort of bullshit First Amendment matyr, so we let him make a complete ass of himself in front of 35,000 people instead.”

Not that I’d buy it. If you are going to have special First Amendment seats for hateful people on nights when those hateful people can taunt the objects of their hate, then you need to open the doors to everyone. For instance, I hate people who use the “th” sound at the end of the word “height.” According to one broken shard of Stiles’ logic , I should be allowed display something about how much I hate people with an unfortunate idea of how to pronounce “height” at every game, as there is at least one bastard like that in every crowd.

Anyway, the article ends of a very cool Philadelphia note; with some very classy boos.

Marcavage and the second man rolled up their sign at the end of the sixth inning, prompting cheers from the fans around Section 303. As the police officers and Phillies officials escorted them out of the grandstand and to an employees’ elevator, fans booed and chanted obscenities.

Duggan left the section a few minutes later and headed over to buy a beer.

“I moved here from New York,” Duggan said, “and I’ve traveled a lot. I’ve found Philadelphia to be the most tolerant place I’ve ever been. I think that says something. I’m a gay man, I confronted this guy, and I’m not the one who got booed. He is.”

(Via Susie)

They hate you. They really hate you.

In his wrap-up of last night’s Paul Scoles conference call, Dan from Young Philly Politics highlighted a 2004 Pittsburgh Post Gazette article about some funny business in the Weldon family. Dan was nice enough to forward me the article, so I’m going to post a little of it here as well. The article was originally published on February 22, 2004 and was written by Ken Silverstein, Chuck Neubaure and Richard T. Cooper.

Karen Weldon, an inexperienced 29-year-old lobbyist from suburban Philadelphia, seemed an unlikely choice for clients seeking global public relations services.

Yet her tiny firm was selected last year for a plum $240,000 contract to promote the good works of a wealthy Serbian family that had been linked to accused war criminal Slobodan Milosevic. Despite a lack of professional credentials, she had one notable asset: her father, Pennsylvania Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Delaware County, who is a leading voice in Washington on former Eastern Bloc affairs.

She got the contract after he championed the efforts of two family members, Dragomir and Bogoljub Karic, to win U.S. visas from the State Department, which so far has refused them entry.

Intelligence officials warned Weldon that the brothers were too close to Milosevic, who is accused of leading the “ethnic cleansing” in the former Yugoslavia.

But the congressman has praised the Karics, who own a vast empire of banking, telecommunication and other companies, as model business leaders and humanitarians. He has portrayed them as victims of faulty intelligence reports and last month asked the CIA to sit down with them and sort things out. He has repeatedly pressed the State Department to give them visas.

…

The Weldons are the latest example of special interests hiring relatives of important members of Congress as lobbyists and consultants. Over the last year, the Los Angeles Times has identified 11 other House members and 17 senators with relatives who lobby or consult, many of them for clients the members have helped through legislative or other action.

Congressional ethics rules provide few barriers to the practice. They do not forbid members of Congress from helping companies or others who are paying their relatives.

Charming stuff right? Cozying up to buddies of Milosevic is hardly endearing, to say the least. Getting your kid involved with Milosevic’s buddies is downright freaky.

Here are few more choice snippets.

After a Russian aerospace manufacturer hired Karen Weldon’s firm for $20,000 a month plus 10 percent of any new business it generated, Rep. Weldon pitched the company’s saucer-shaped drone to the Navy, which signed a letter of intent to invest in the technology. And Weldon, who chairs a subcommittee that oversees $60 billion in military acquisitions, has been working to get funding for the project, Navy officials say. An attorney for Solutions said the firm did not collect the finder’s fee, and it was later removed from the contract. Federal law bars companies from paying commissions to lobbyists on government contracts.

The congressman helped round up 30 congressional colleagues for a dinner at the Library of Congress to honor the chairman of a Russian natural gas company, Itera International Energy Corp., that had just agreed to pay his *daughter’s* firm $500,000 a year to “create good public relations.” Records show that Solutions North America helped arrange the privately funded affair for the company, which has been trying to improve its image with U.S. officials after questions were raised about its acquisition of vast natural gas fields in post-Soviet Russia.

Karen Weldon’s firm paid for her father’s chief of staff to take a “fact-finding” trip to Serbia, where he met with U.S. Embassy officials about the Karics’ visa problems. The congressman approved the arrangement, travel records show. House ethics rules bar members or staff from taking official trips paid for by lobbyists or registered agents of foreign companies. The chief of staff, Michael J. Conallen Jr., said he reimbursed Solutions with his own money last week after The Times raised questions about the trip.

And just for Jeff, here’s a little Boeing.

Until she launched Solutions, Karen Weldon had been following an entirely different career path. She had an undergraduate degree in education and a graduate degree in information systems. She spent six years, she said, working on “learning and training programs” for Boeing Co., which has a big helicopter plant at the edge of her father’s district. Conallen said Weldon did not help his daughter get the job at Boeing.

Um…right, I’m sure he had nothing to do with it. Anyway, there is plenty more where this came from, but I decided against tempting the Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s lawyers by posting the whole thing. Maybe I’ll do it a little closer to the election.

What would be terrific is if some solid lefty bloggers who live in Delaware County would post it. I only know of two liberal political bloggers who live in Delaware county and both of them only do national stuff. There’s an opening there for somebody who wants to really dive into fray and scream into the void for the underdog. The idea, at least in my mind, would be to start by getting Scoles name into the Delaware County Times or the News of Delaware County as often as possible.

This probably won’t be all that hard. It’s an open secret that the majority of newspaper writers Google their own names at least 4 times a day. Write about the writers, maybe some school board politics, your favorite bar, local traffic headaches, why you’re supporting Paul Scoles and you will have yourself a little audience of self-Googling DCT and NDC writers checking in every day to see if you mentioned them. Before you know it, you’ll pick up one of those nasty little rags and find out that they have a story on page 2 about Delaware County’s exciting blog scene and how it’s really pulling together around Paul Scoles. Not long after that you and others will be asking the ever pertinent question “why are there so many lefty bloggers in Delco?”

I’m not at all joking about this. This would be a great project for somebody to take on. Sound good to you? Then do it. If you live in Delaware County and know how to create a blog then get to it. If you live in Deleware County, but don’t know how to create a blog and this whole shouting into the void thing sounds like fun, feel free to email me and I’ll help get you started.

If there is already a huge contingent of Delaware County political bloggers that I’m not acknowledging, it’s really nothing personal, I just didn’t know.

Go have a look at which senator has the lowest average approval rating of any senator in the nation, according to SurveyUSA. Way to go Rick!

Santorum Hatred™ - Always a good choice.

So what’s the point? Why bother with these supposedly hopeless races? I think Booman sums it up wonderfully with four points.

The basic philosophy is:

a) some of these races are very winnable
b) by making serious challenges in ’safe’ districts, we prevent the incumbents from sending their money to endangered friends.
c) we’ll never take back the house without some big upsets.
d) if the party won’t do what we want, we’ll do it ourselves.

Pretty staighfoward if you ask me. Contest every seat.

I just got off of fairly interesting conference call with Paul Scoles who will be running against Curt Weldon in Pennsylvania’s 7th district. The 7th district encompasses most of Delaware county along with portions of Chester and Montgomery counties. The district is interesting because it leans Republican even though the views of a great many of its voters may not line up all that well with the views of the national Republican Party. The continued loyality has quite a bit to do with history, family tradition and a pretty potent Republican machine with deep patronage roots. No doubt, this makes for an uphill climb for any Democrat. On the other hand, the district hasn’t gone for a Republican in a presidential race since the 1980’s - the last of the Rockefellers I suppose.

As for the conference call, I was impressed with Paul Scoles. He demonstrated a breadth of understanding on issues both local and national. He was able to navigate topics from the war in Iraq to the Haverford School District (where he lives) with knowledge and ease. I made a few crass comments about the Democratic party’s chances of beating Curt Weldon the other day. Let’s just say that I think a good, knowledgeable candidate like Paul just might make what I suggested unnecessary.

My one concern is that that if I and other Philadelphia bloggers start pumping up the volume for Paul, that we might inadvertently hurt him. Political support for a particular candidate coming from San Francisco would probably be more appealing to a good number of Delaware County voters, than it would coming from Philadelphia. Regional harmony is quite a bit better now then it was when I was a kid, but there is still a good deal of distain in the air, coming from all sides.

Anyway, this is still a while off so there is a lot of time to figure out the political hackery. Considering the candidate I heard tonight and some of the numbers I’ve seen, this looks like a solid chance for a nice pickup for the Democrats.

In an effort to speed this site as far from relevance as possible, I present you with the partial text of an email sent to me by a virus earlier today.

Lungs jousts I can himself your Manchester. Civilizing were Nagasaki him chronology’s scooped. They Lao are dynasties. You rural may launders its. Institution you is reviving, mine allays. Adjacency weis halls, him which flaunting. It Eleazar are railroader. Carbon Jaime, with he were decision’s mine. Ensnared lockout’s it be inhospitable them. We interrelates would communal me. Arch may conforms, mine is filtering replicated. Airport are Graff mine Pinsky. We intimater I enthusiast’s acceleration has been quantify her. Manville commiserate they does when leakage’s yours. Badinage is huckster, mine have been commoner’s fusty. Vance are notarizing, your is brotherhood adapt. She consular she daub accuse could gainful them. Jeweler can rims me batches chronology. They Denver in you inhibited quasi has been Indira its.

Arch may conforms, mine is filtering replicated indeed!

So what can we learn from this? First of all, this type of virus searches text documents on an infected computer and gathers ever nth word for the text of the email it sends out. Judging from the vocabulary used in the selected text, I would imagine that the owner of the infected computer is probably a little smarter than the average bear. Secondly, and most importantly, Manville commiserate they does when leakage’s yours.

This is too funny, go have a look. By the way, don’t you just adore eight word posts with no information at all? I know I do.

If I had to guess, I’d say your demise will probably happen on a form of mass transit you don’t use, in a city you don’t live in and have no plans to ever visit. Either that or that bird flu that’s all the rage with the kids. Anyway, time to get your affairs in order and then throw yourself into a full blown hysteria. By the way, I don’t have time for this crap. Have a nice day!

I’m sure those of you who saw Seymore Hersh on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart this evening would agree with me that Hersh spit out about eight minutes of quotes worth repeating for the next year or decade or so. I don’t have the transcript, and I’m sure I won’t get it until way after my more prolific brethren have long since posted it, so I probably won’t bother. Nevertheless, I’d urge everyone to seek out the tapes and the transcripts in the morning. The transcript will probably be everywhere so have a peak. Knowing is half the battle.

Nothing I can add to this one. Enjoy.

There is some not so surprising news this morning, revealing that Chaka Fattah sent a letter to the FEC stating that he is highly “highly likely” to run for mayor in 2007. The purpose of the letter is to get permission from the FEC to raise money for both his congressional and his mayoral campaigns at the same time. According to some analysis I heard on NPR this morning, the letter also served the purpose of rattling the cages of his 4000-5000 (very slight exaggeration) potential primary rivals. Tulin has the letter, if you’d like a look.

It will be interesting to see how the mayoral primary (still a long way off) plays out in the local blogs. Most of us were fairly unified around one candidate during the D.A. primary. I don’t see that happening this time around. I wonder if it will get ugly?

But I’d rather you found a more rational way of picking senate candidates than this. My personal recommendation would involve primaries, but what the hell do I know?

Is it 1993 or 2005? Concerning the fate of the Palestinians, it sure feels like 1993 all over again, just with new players; however, the lies remain the same. Whenver leaders of a powerful state that was forged by war begin to talk about peace, its safe to assume that they’re actually telling us to prepare for more violence. The withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank (though only a paltry 4 settlements) is no exception. Israel is deploying 50,000 troops (the largest since the Yom Kippur war of 1973) under the perennial guise of ‘ensuring security’. Now I can’t help but wonder what such a sizeable force would be used for. Some will no doubt be used to demolish settlements following evacuation, and some to force out the more intransigent elements.

What worries me is Sharon’s vow for the “harshest response ever” to any Arab attacks, since every military action in Israel’s history has been justified as retaliatory despite the actual situation. The Six-Day War of 1967, after which Israel seized the territory it now professes to be giving up, began as a pre-emptive (not to be confused with ‘preventive’) strike against Egypt. The sheer amount of young, inexperienced Israeli troops operating in such a small area as Gaza amidst a sea of Arabs makes some type of provocation almost inevitable. Tragically, no matter what happens the blame will be placed solely upon so-called ‘Palestinian extremists/militants’, even if it is a simple matter of rock-throwing. At the very least, the disengagement process will be delayed and more Palestinians will be slaughtered. My worst fear, however, is that the process will be scrapped altogether and blamed on the Arabs. At this time, 60% of Israeli citizens favor disengagement, but I worry that such an incident would swing public opinion in the opposite direction and embolden the more extremist Jewish elements both on the street and in the Knesset. Even before today, the first official day of disengagement, Benjamin Netanyahu had already resigned in protest. So that’s the worst that could happen.

For now, let’s assume that the withdrawal proceeds to completion. Serious problems remain, predominantly with regards to the economy and the Arabs’ freedom of movement. Frighteningly similar to the Oslo Accords of 1993, the final status of the operation is as yet left unresolved. Israel has once again thwarted the possibility of a direct link (or ’safe passage’ as its being called) between the West Bank and Gaza, further limiting the territories to the status of mere cantons similar to apartheid South Africa. Furthermore, the Gaza airport will remain closed, and there isn’t a single seaport along the entire strip. Although movement within Gaza will become less restricted, passage to and from Israeli territory, where most Palestinians are forced to work, will likely be further strengthened under the guise of security. Talk about the status of the Wall has been suppressed to point of silence, yet construction moves on despite world protest and official condemnation by the ICC.

This leads us to ask some very obvious questions, most notably, how the hell are the Palestinians supposed to pursue the prospect of a viable state (which is the declared intent of the Peace Process) if it’s not allowed to construct the most basic economic necessities? The issue has been framed to ignore talking seriously about the economy, instead focusing intently on terror and security, Iraq being no exception either. This is where we writers come in. Don’t be content to accept disengagement at face value, as I’m sure many of you are not. If you’re unsure about what to say about this matter, simply start raising hell about the economic issues. Press for answers concerning the airports, seaports, etc., and most importantly, complete freedom of movement for the Arabs. Also, be on the watch for provacative action on the part of the Israeli military. We can’t neither allow another Lebanon no more than we can allow another minute of this brutal occupation.

Sources:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0815/p10s01-wome.html?s=itm
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/612878.html

Curt Weldon is the sort of congressperson that happens while you’re busy doing other things. Unfortunately, in the absence of a live boy or a dead girl, he’s there to stay.

Update: Chris Bowers has some info on Weldon’s rival in the 2006 election, Paul Scoles. Scoles did very well the last time out, breaking the 40% barrier. Delco is run by a Republican machine which has shown some cracks over the last decade or so, but remains very powerful. The national party has been moving steadily to the right of local Republicans, which presents some opportunities even without the live boy or the dead girl.