Steve Scalise (R-LA)
House Majority Whip
By Elaine Magliaro
News broke this week that House majority whip, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), spoke at a conference hosted by the white supremacist group European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO) twelve years ago. Huffington Post reported today that Louisiana political blogger Lamar White Jr. had dug up a number of posts on Stormfront, the Internet’s oldest and most notorious white nationalist and neo-Nazi forum, which showed that Scalise was allegedly an honored guest and speaker at an international conference of white supremacist leaders in 2002. HuffPo said that according “to one user who attended the conference, Scalise — then a state representative — spoke to the organization at a workshop ‘to teach the most effective and up-to-date methods of civil rights and heritage related activism.'”
The Washington Post said Scalise, the third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, acknowledged today that he spoke at a gathering hosted by white-supremacist leaders while serving as a state representative in 2002, “thrusting a racial controversy into House Republican ranks days before the party assumes control of both congressional chambers.” The paper also reported that an adviser for the Congressman from Louisiana “said the congressman didn’t know at the time about the group’s affiliation with racists and neo-Nazi activists.”
HuffPo noted that EURO, which was founded by former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke in 2000, “seeks to fight for ‘white civil rights.'” The organization has reportedly “been called a hate group by several civil rights organizations.”
Huffington Post:
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), whose office has been beating back criticism about a speech he gave at a 2002 gathering hosted by a white supremacist group, received some ill-timed praise from the group’s founder Monday evening. The notorious former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke described Scalise as “a fine family man” with whom he often agrees.
For his part, Scalise’s office has said he was unaware of the white supremacist group’s views when as a state lawmaker, he spoke at the 2002 conference. But in 1999, then-state Rep. Scalise told a Washington newspaper that he agreed with many of Duke’s “conservative” views.
The Washington Post said that the news of Scalise’s appearance at the EURO conference “could complicate Republican efforts to project the sense of a fresh start for a resurgent, diversifying party as the new session of Congress opens next week. In the time since voters handed control of Congress to Republicans, top GOP leaders have been eagerly trumpeting their revamped image and management team on Capitol Hill.”
Huffington Post said that two years “after speaking at the conference, Scalise was one of just six state representatives who voted to oppose making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a state holiday in Louisiana.” He was also one of three lawmakers who voted against it in 1999.
The Times-Picayune said that “Several Republicans — as well as Democratic Rep. Cedric Richmond — have come to Scalise’s defense, saying he is not a racist.”
SOURCES
House Majority Whip Scalise confirms he spoke to white nationalists in 2002 (Washington Post)
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise Spoke At White Supremacist Conference In 2002 (Huffington Post)
Majority Whip Steve Scalise Struggles To Distance Himself From David Duke (Huffington Post)
GOP Leader Steve Scalise Admits to Addressing White Supremacists (Daily Beast)
Steve Scalise: ‘I detest any kind of hate group’ (The Times-Picayune)
Nicole Plyler Fisk
Gene Howington
FFS Guest Blogger
Joy of Fishes
Chuck Stanley
shortfinals
Terry Welshans
ann li-summers
wordcloud9
Flowers For Socrates 
Why doesn’t this surprise me?
To quote, and second, rafflaw: “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
Po & raff:
Probably guys because you realize that today’s neo-conservative is one thin cotton sheet to the wind away from yesterday’s night riders.
No doubt, Mespo! We can sense them, kinda like knowing porn when we see it!
Yeah and those guys are porn.
Careful raff. Your shadow will be stalking you over at our bar and then running to tell mama about all the bad things he saw when his nose pressed to our window. “You should resign … Squeak, squeak … Do the honorable thing …. Squeak, squeak.” As if a guy skulking around at midnight to spy on people knows the first thing about honor. Yeeesh.
I know, han? He sure does love Raff though! Instant comment! You should be flattered, Raff.
None of those big brave boys over there would have the guts to comment here. Not a one of them could stand up to what they’d get here. Scalise should lose his leadership position, but I bet he won’t.
Inga:
Those pussies travel best in clowders. Otherwise they scratch themselves.
Being somewhat familiar with the part of the country Scalise comes from, his views are held by a substantial segment of his constituency.
The truly funny thing about the Old South’s ‘white power’ advocates is that the worldwide DNA project, the lodestar for genealogy hobbyists everywhere, reveals an interesting fact about the old south red states. Self-identified white people who live in the South have the highest concentrations of African DNA.
In South Carolina and Louisiana, one in 20 people who call themselves white have at least 2 percent African ancestry. In most of the southern states of the old Confederacy, about 10 percent of people who identify as white have at least some African DNA. As one might expect, these scientific findings are often rejected as incomprehensible and unacceptable by a portion of the population.
Pussies??? Who ran away w/ their ball, crying like little girls? You are the pussies, otherwise you would be over there helping me argue w/ these jerks.
mespo, You obviously have your nose up at the window over there. Why didn’t you reply over there? You talkers need to look in the mirror.
Erick Erickson Apalled That GOP Whip Spoke At White Nationalist Event
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/erick-erickson-scalise-david-duke
Excerpt:
Erickson was not willing to give Scalise the benefit of the doubt.
“How do you not know? How do you not investigate?” Erickson wrote on Monday. “By 2002, everybody knew Duke was still the man he had claimed not to be. EVERYBODY.”
“How the hell does somebody show up at a David Duke organized event in 2002 and claim ignorance?” Erickson asked.
The conservative writer then suggested that Scalise lose the support of House Republican leaders over his decision to speak at the 2002 event.
Jolene:
Tis a pointless task to argue with folks paid to think otherwise.
jolene,
You would have a valid point except for one thing. If one of the trolls gets nailed too hard, your comment will “disappear.” Furthermore, astroturf commenters are not there to get new ideas; they are there to disrupt and destroy. And as I said the other day, the overall intellectual quality of the comments these days makes one long for an intelligent conversation with a bowl of turkey innards.
You might find some of the discussions on FFS more like it used to be elsewhere a couple of years ago. After all, for the most part, it is the same cast of characters. If any trolls or astroturfers show up, we plan to use them for batting practice. The one thing they will NOT be allowed to do is flood the comments, machine gun style, with one-liners designed to disrupt and derail the conversation.
jolene,
We left RIL primarily over substantive policy differences. In case you haven’t noticed, RIL isn’t a level playing field and those jerks of which you so rightly complain are given preferential treatment by Jonathan Turley. Some would go so far as to say “protection”. No. Mespo was referring to the very people you are complaining about as jerks. In a fair fight, none of them stand a chance. But when the owner of the forum is tipping the scale in their favor via manifestly biased and subjective moderation practices (which are done not openly as they are here – we have objective rules and any author/editor may enforce them)? What is the point of working for a hypocrite for free when you can do just fine for yourself?
Rest assured, what sets us at FFS apart from from RIL is:
1) We don’t give lip service to political free speech. No one will be moderated here simply for taking an unpopular opinion. Acting like a troll or a jackass who makes ad hominem attacks and avoids any substantive arguments? You bet. But simply disagreeing with the majority? Nope. Agreement is not required.
1.5) To date only three people have run afoul of the rules here and they literally cover a large part of the political spectrum in this country with one being a liberal, one arguing a conservative position (although they ran afoul of the rules before it could be ascertained if they were truly conservative on the whole or just on that one position) and one person who was banned here from the start. That person, who is protected over at Turley’s, is best described as a big “L” libertarian as well as a raging troll asshole and general mental defect.
2) Our standards of behavior are not subjective like Turley’s ridiculous “civility policy”. Civility is a standard that not only varies from person to person, but culture to culture and even within those cultures it is often contextual. Our rules are objective and their enforcement equitable.
3) We distinguish between insult and ad hominem. Ad hominem is not allowed. Insult is just fine so long as there is a substantive argument with it.
Ex. Elvis is wrong because Elvis is a douche. – Unacceptable ad hominem.
Ex. Elvis is wrong because of this evidence and/or logic. Elvis is also a douche. – Acceptable insult.
This is done for two reasons. First, insult has a place in informal discourse. It is a social way to express disdain. You are not required to pretend to like people if you do not. That is “civil” but dishonest discourse. Second, you have a right to self-defense (even verbally). If someone insults you or uses ad hominem against you? You have every right to defend yourself. Rights – even free speech – do not exist in a vacuum. Turley deprives people of their self-defense in the name of a subjective standard, all the while preening about free speech being absolute when he regularly deprives people of it.
4) Yes, we do have rules and enforcement, also known as moderation. We allow for the maximum free speech possible while doing the minimum required to preserve the integrity and use of the commons this forum provides in the comment threads. We don’t pretend otherwise. We take this approach because we value the marketplace of ideas over any particular political ideology and feel that the best ideas are just that – the best ideas – and they should stand or fall with the audience on their merits. Some will agree. Some will disagree. Some with find no presented standpoint satisfactory. Such is the nature of public discourse. But when people like the jerks you rail against are not only allowed to dominate a forum but also given protection and preferential treatment as to both rule enforcement and rights recognized and protected? You see the results in the tailspin going on at RIL. It has degenerated into a Koch Brothers event by in large with no marketplace of ideas present (at least not in a substantive form).
No, jolene.
We didn’t take our ball and go home.
We got a better ball and better rules and are playing a different game.
One that used to be played at RIL, true, but that was before the dawn of the FOX age and we could see that Jon’s independence in thought only goes so far as his financial interests. If you get tired of the rigged game over there and want a place where the rules are objective and you can fight any jerks you see on a level playing field?
You are welcome here . . . so long as you abide the rules.
You know who uses the w/ symbol for “with” quite often at RIL? THE PI. I believe “Jolene” is him trying to do some ‘undercover’ work here. Not really using good stealth work, using the w/ symbol that I have seen only the PI use, lol.
Inga,
I don’t recall ever seeing a “Jolene” comment over at RIL.Like you, I think I smell a rat.
Elaine, I think one could hardly forget such an event and he probably has been sweating bullets for years hoping it wouldn’t get discovered. His time of ‘grace’ ran out. Time to pay the piper, but if the Republicans actually remove him, I’d be shocked.
Elaine yep, no one else over ther ever used w/ for “with”. The ferret often did.
Inga,
Don’t go giving ferrets a bad name!
😉
Inga,
He’s tried to get here before, but he’s always found out in the end.
Ferrets are nasty little creatures, pee in the house.
Whoops!
Some of Rev Wrights sermons were pretty bad. And Uncle Louie’s too. Have the dems asked any of their members to step down for speaking at organizations which are clearly racist?
One might also include La Raza in that calculus.
Should he step down, absolutely, he should resign from congress as should all scum bag racists from any group.
I assumed “Jolene” was really Inspector Clouseau-nic in a transparent disguise — sort of a Bobby Valentine mustache and glasses — hence my pointed reply. Mischaracterizing the insult and its target was the tip-off along with the juvenile jab. On the plus side, I taught him what a clowder is all about. Silly rabbit – tricks are for kids.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/30/steve-scalise-republicans-neo-nazis-ron-paul “Washington Post reported that Paul was deeply involved in production and proofing of his newsletters to create a paleo-libertarian movement; hell, not even when one of his Michigan campaign coordinators turned out to be a neo-Nazi.
None of that would matter in 2014, of course, except that Ron Paul gifted his entire fundraising and grassroots apparatus to his son Rand (including Stormfront moneybombs), who hopes to be elected president in 2016. Rand even added some of his own neoconfederate flavor, with a neoconfederate aide and a spokesperson who publicly posted an image of a lynching. Besides, what’s passing a legacy between father and son? That’s not hate; that’s heritage.
Poor Steve Scalise, it seems, just jumped the gun. People weren’t ready for his sound yet, man. It took years of prep work to make this sort of Übermensch thing socially acceptable, let alone hot – lots of “legalize it!” and “you are economic supermen!” appeals to the balled-and-entitled toddler-fists of the sociopathic libertechian madding crowd to really get mechanized mass-death neo-fascism taken mainstream.”
Gene:
“We didn’t take our ball and go home.
We got a better ball and better rules and are playing a different game.”
***********************
To continue the baseball metaphor, I like to think we made the majors.
Isreal is the real rogue state and not Iran.
I wonder how many left/progressives think this way?
How many in congress will resign for supporting the same ideas as David Duke? I guess they are smart enough to not go out in public.
I wonder if David Duke is also a socialist?
To win in Louisiana, Steve Scalise compromised with a racist political culture
http://www.vox.com/2014/12/30/7467621/steve-scalise-racist-group
Excerpt:
Scalise emerges from — and there’s really no other way to say it — an incredibly racist political culture. David Duke was elected to the state’s House of Representatives in the same district that Scalise later served. When asked by the Washington Post how Scalise ended up at a EURO meeting, Duke explained that Scalise was friendly with Kenny Knight, Duke’s former campaign manager, because being friendly with Duke’s operation was savvy for anyone with Scalise’s political ambitions.
Scalise “recognized how popular I was in his own district,” Duke said. “He knew that knowing what I was doing and saying wouldn’t be the worst thing politically. Kenny would keep Scalise up to date on my issues.” It’s Kenny, in Duke’s telling, who got Scalise invited to the conference.
It’s clear from Duke’s comments that he didn’t think Scalise a brother-in-arms. “No lunches, no dinners with Scalise. I never supported him in any campaign,” Duke told the Post. “I didn’t get the impression that he was one of us. I didn’t cultivate a relationship. Kenny was the one who did.”
This is the line Scalise appears to have walked while rising in Louisiana politics: not pro-Duke, but not anti-Duke, either. There’s a telling quote from 1999, when Duke was running for Congress and Roll Call asked Scalise to comment.
Another potential candidate, state Rep. Steve Scalise (R), said he embraces many of the same “conservative” views as Duke, but is far more viable.
“The novelty of David Duke has worn off,” said Scalise. “The voters in this district are smart enough to realize that they need to get behind someone who not only believes in the issues they care about, but also can get elected. Duke has proven that he can’t get elected, and that’s the first and most important thing.”
The question was an opportunity for Scalise to go much further, to say something like, “David Duke is a racist who this state should be ashamed of. He would be an embarrassment to this district if he was elected to Congress.” Instead, he implies sympathy with Duke’s ends, but argues that Duke can’t win. He argues, in effect, that even if you agree with Duke — and Scalise suggests that maybe he does, at least on some issues — voting for Duke is counterproductive.
“After all, it’s probably not hard to turn a neo-Nazi into a potential Republican voter by telling him that a corporatized, authoritarian, nationalistic, militaristic party is the only thing standing between him and effete, war-losing, left-wing elites who are trying to destroy the homeland via a fifth-column of non-native minorities, college professors, “homosexuals” and other cultural degenerates.” from the Guardian article. Read that kind of stuff daily on RIL.
I’d like to know what Duke’s conservative ideas are? He hates Isreal, I think he is an environmentalist, if he is a Neo-Nazi, chances are he believes in national health care, a government supported retirement plan, a strong regulatory environment, and a strong military.
With the exception of a strong military, I dont see any conservative ideas. If Scalise is for all of those things, he ought to go.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/29/steve-scalise-euro-conference_n_6392036.html “According to a contemporaneous Stormfront post, Scalise referenced such funds in his remarks to the EURO conference.
“In addition to plans to implement tactical strategies that were discussed, the meeting was productive locally as State Representative, Steve Scalise, discussed ways to oversee gross mismanagement of tax revenue or ‘slush funds’ that have little or no accountability,” user Alsace Hebert wrote on May 21, 2002. “Representative Scalise brought into sharp focus the dire circumstances pervasive in many important, under-funded needs of the community at the expense of graft within the Housing and Urban Development Fund, an apparent give-away to a selective group based on race.”
The same user also referenced Scalise’s remarks in a post on Feb. 2, 2004.
“It was just announced that Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson will enter the race in the 1st Congressional District,” Hebert wrote. “Those that attended the EURO conference in New Orleans will recall that Scalise was a speaker, offering his support for issues that are of concern to us.”
Two years after speaking at the conference, Scalise was one of just six state representatives who voted to oppose making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a state holiday in Louisiana. That was at least the second time Scalise had voted against an MLK holiday. He was one of three lawmakers to vote against it in 1999, too.
Founded in 2000 by former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke (who served as a Louisiana state representative from 1989 to 1992), EURO seeks to fight for “white civil rights.” The group is recognized as a white nationalist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. As the SPLC notes, the group is largely inactive, serving primarily as a vehicle to promote Duke’s books.
“EURO already was well known as a racist hate group at the time that Steve Scalise apparently spoke to its workshop, and it is hard to believe that any aspiring politician would not have known that,” Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement to The Huffington Post. “In any case, it’s worth noting that Scalise apparently did not leave even after hearing other racist speakers spouting their hatred.” “
swm:
” Read that kind of stuff daily on RIL.”
**************************
It’s getting like Stormfront over there. Some guy named Paul H. Lemmen, self-proclaimed conservative Christian, has this to say on his blog which he linked by his name to RIL:
Published on Dec 27, 2014
Pittsburgh Monroville Mall Fight Up Close MASSIVE Mall Brawl: Hundreds Of Teens Involved In ‘Multiple Fights’ WATCH: Pittsburgh Monroeville Mall Fight Up Close, Multiple Fights Prompt Closure Of Monroeville Mall
This comment on youtube offers up an increasingly common realistic option to deal with the savages who walk upright among us:
I’m waiting for the racial revolt to start. Decent citizens (non-blacks) have now become overwhelmingly disgusted over the mayhem that now passes for 21st-century black culture.
Yep. Disgusted we are. Blacks are digging their own graves, but are too stupid to understand it. (These are Lemmen’s comments about the Youtube comment)
He also thinks, via Twitter, that Obama is planning “TO UNLEASH A FALSE FLAG OPERATION INVOLVING A DIRTY BOMB ”
Civility problems? Heck, no. It’s
hatefree speech after all.Yep, Mespo, the coverage of the Ferguson issue has brought out many unsavory characters to overwhelm any attempt at rational discourse with those one liners, or diatribes that openly call blacks names like scorpion and the like. Funny that there is not even a threat of censure…free for all hate speech… One’s audience tells much about whom one speaks to…
Noticed however that more and more people are calling Turley on his fluff pieces, the click bait ones…as evidenced by his Erdogan post from yesterday. Yet he doubled down with another Erdogan piece today,
po;
I agree. Erdogan’s administration has about as much relevancy to me as Kim Jong-il’s. (Oh, there’s one about him, too, today). I guess JT has to write more stuff since the only ones regularly posting are Darren and usually raff. Dienes is a “no-show,” Gallagher’s work is sporadic and a tad too teeny bopper for my tastes, and Chuck and Mike A write only when it’s important. Thus quantity over quality to keep up the click-baiting. You bring in a cheap crowd, you better serve cheap drinks.
STROM WARNING
By Charles P. Pierce on December 30, 2014
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Strom_Warning
Excerpt:
It is impossible to believe that, in 2002, a career politician from Louisiana did not know who David Duke was, or what David Duke represented. David Duke was the most nationally famous white-supremacist since the death of George Lincoln Rockwell, and Louisiana spared itself his presence in the governor’s office only by electing the opulently corrupt Edwin Edwards. (“Vote For The Crook,” said the bumper stickers. “It’s Important.”) So, no, there’s no reason to get lost in the ink cloud with which Scalise’s office is attempting to cover his flight from accountability. In 2002, the same year that Scalise was slow-dancing with the white pride crowd, Trent Lott was being stripped of his Senate leadership position for having appeared before another white-supremacist outfit and having praised in his remarks the 1948 Dixiecrat presidential campaign of…wait for it…Strom Thurmond. Are you sensing a theme here?
I don’t know what the pushback will be—although I’m betting that we will be hearing a lot about Al Sharpton’s visits to the White House. John Boehner is not having the transition of his dreams at the moment, what with this, and with Congressman Michael Grimm’s resigning his seat, perhaps in anticipation of a stretch in the federal sneezer. Even Erick Erickson—who is currently the subject of a strangely hagiographic account in The Atlantic by the talented, and usually reliable, Molly Ball, even though Erickson is a creature of Thurmondized Republicanism, no better than the rest of them—has gone up the wall. I suspect Scalise may not be doing much Minority Whipping when the new Congress begins next week.
But the Republican party—and the Movement conservatism that is its only life force—once again faces the same choice it has faced since that day in 1964, when Strom Thurmond blew the trumpet and led his supporters out of the bondage of the party of equal rights. It can look at Steve Scalise and see that its success is that of the Political Party Of Dorian Grey. Steve Scalise is the public face. But, up in the corner of the attic, there’s a portrait of the rotting, decomposing corpse of Strom Thurmond, the decay deepening with every election won by the tactics he so completely pioneered. The Republican party can admit the truth of its history, and it can begin to reconcile itself with the sins that made it successful. Or, it can throw Steve Scalise overboard and wait for the next Steve Scalise to reappear. In either case, yes, I despair of the rebranding.
What did Scalise talk about? What was the content of his speech to this group?
I would go to a communist party convention and speak about free markets, just because I went and spoke doesnt make me a communist.
I would like to see his speech, I would also like to see how he has voted and what he has done in his personal life. I see none of that in all of these articles.
Bron98,
If you’re so interested in Scalise’s speech and his voting record, why don’t you do some research yourself?
I did note in my post that he voted against making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a state holiday in Louisiana at least twice.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/12/29/sleazy-skeezy-scalise/ “Bonus points for being the one Republican politician in Louisiana who was “unaware” in 2002 of who David Duke was. Rand Paul should really pick this guy to be his veep, they’d make a great team. You know, like nitro and glycerin.
Super bonus points for Steve Scalise having 12 years of a political career going from speaker at a David Duke convention to the number 3 guy in the House of Representatives without anyone in the Village noticing. The whole “Republican Party as the Last Bastion Of Pure Whiteness(tm) thing” is a feature, not a bug, America.
Now would be a good time to blame the problems in America with race on Obama, I guess.”
Bron,
Is communism on par with white supremacy? One is an extreme form of socialism, one is pure ugly bigotry.
Peek under any white sheet and you’re likely to find a neo-con as in neo-confederate. There’s a reason they wear sheets you know. Now the “sheet” is called Fox News.
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/07/jonathan-turley-drops-megyn-kelly-defend b Scalise is part of the house leadership team……..
Thanks for linking that article SWM, I hadn’t seen that this past summer. She sums it up perfectly. To think that someone who once appeared numerous times and actually said some great things on Olberman could have twisted himself into such a pretzel. I would like to think he is acting purely on principle, but the close relationship with FOX and CATO is disturbing. What a huge dissapointment.
Swarthmore mom:
Turley isnt against Obamacare or socialized medicine, he is just against how it has been implemented.
So dont worry, he may listen to Fox news but he isnt a conservative.
Mespo:
Who on Fox news is a racist/neo-confederate? Jeraldo Rivera? Kelly Wright? Loren Green? Uma Pemmaraju? Harris Faulkner? Juan Williams? Wendell Goler?
What white sheet do they hide under?
Sean Hannity.
Elaine:
He voted against it twice? How about the third time? Is it a law?
I could vote against an MLK, Jr holiday. George Washington Carver, Crispus Attucks, Chappie James, Thomas Sowell, what about them? I would vote for a holiday for any one of them before I would vote for an MLK, Jr. holiday.
Especially Gen. James, he flew 78 combat missions over North Viet Nam. He saw combat over North Korea during that war.
Inga:
how do you know that? What has he said?
Bron98,
You wanted to know about Scalise’s voting record. I responded by noting the only two votes of his of which I was aware.
Elaine:
I am not the one making the challenge. If I was going to call him a racist and a neo-Nazi, I would want to have some proof.
I think this is just a charcter assassination which the left is so good at but never has any facts to back it up unless it is some poor black republican who was sleeping with a woman not his wife and usually a white woman. Shades of bigotry and racism. Oh dont let them men sleep with our women, maybe liberal men and women are worried that if they sleep with a conservative black, they wont ever go back. To spreading the wealth.
Elaine:
So he doesnt like MLK, Jr., that doesnt make him a racist. Does he dislike the man, his ideas or his race? 2 of those are legitimate areas of disagreement.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/23/sean-hannity-confronted-o_n_92961.html
Seems Sean Hannity has ties to neo nazi Hal Turner. All ya need to do is lift the sheet. How about Hannity’s support for those nutty folks at the Bundy ranch?
Bron98,
I wrote a post that included excerpts of reports from a number of news media sources. What was my challenge? Did I call Scalise a racist and a neo-Nazi? Did Scalise speak at a white supremacist conference in 2002? Did I note in my post that several Republicans and a Democrat came to his defense?
You’re saying that I called Scalise a racist and a neo-Nazi. I hope you have proof to back that up.
re: “Jolene”, What a loser Nick must be to come here under an alias. One would ask himself. why would he do that since he is now Numerous Uno in his dung-filled playground? My guess is he knows that the only way he could win at RIL was to plead to the proprietor for mercy. This was because he is not the one with brains in his family, having failed at various careers and being bailed out by his wife. So he comes here under an alias with weak sallies of half-witted invective. We won by leaving Nicky, your victory covered in excrement is another loss in your hapless life. 🙂
Elaine:
Sure looks like the articles you posted are doing just that. So you dont agree with the articles you posted? Then why post them?
Bravo Mike! This guy is a sociopath IMO, I’m sure Chuck as a Psychologist knows better than I about how sociopaths operate. I feel sorry for his wife and children having to deal with this piece of dung for so many years. The way in which he tries to get others to believe the preposterous things he puts forth about other commenters he really knows nothing about, is crazy in itself. How many times did he try to say Elaine and myself and other females were “abused women”, carried “baggage”, knew what sort of neighborhoods we come from, I don’t know how many times he has tried to make others think I’m a drunk, or a druggie. He has made statements about my weight, my marital status, even my father. This ferret is the most despicable human being I’ve run across online. He does stalk others, but the pathetic part is he is so unskilled in his purported profession of being a PI, that he doesn’t really know anything much about anyone and makes up what he wants others to believe. He is a toxic, marijauna addled sociopath. My son in law who lives in Madison has volunteered to go over to his house to speak to him about his abusive behavior. Once when I was visiting my daughter in Madison, guess who was slowly walking outside her house, looking at the address? My daughter and son in law were livid. I was babysitting for my infant grandson at the time and was freaked out. What a creep. Sorry, but I needed to get that off my chest.
And it’s probably a good thing he abuses medical marijauna, he probably needs it to keep him from acting out in even a more aggressive fashion. Why JT tolerates him on his blog is a mystery. It’s ruined his blog and his shift to the right has just added to the destruction.
Ode To Jolene
Sung to Dolly Parton’s tune, link given below.
————————————————————
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
It look’s like you’ve overplayed your hand
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Only three posts till you’re pounding sand
Your simple words are beyond compare
With such simple structures of debonair
With claims and stories only a fool would believe
Your silence is like the breath of spring
Your words always miss the brass ring
And your slip is always showing, Jolene
You set such plans in your sleep
Hoping there’s something to keep
But there’s nothing here for you, Jolene
———————————————–
Rinse, repeat.
Bron
You seem to be building a fort out of clouds! Me think thou protest too much…You are on the offensive wanting facts about something no one said!
I bet you that if Rep Keith Ellison, a Muslim, spoke at a Hamas event, you wouldn’t be so magnanimous in offering him the benefit of the doubt.
Bron,
Did you check out the last link Elaine offered? This one here — copied for your lazy ass:
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/12/steve_scalise_i_dont_support_a.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Get a grip, Bron.
bron98,
I have no way of knowing what’s in a man’s heart. We judge people by their actions…by what they say and do. Some people change their views over the years–as George Wallace did. Should the news media and people question the beliefs and actions of a member of Congress? Should we and the media ignore the fact that Scalise was an honored guest and speaker at a white supremacist conference? Should people be concerned that he may be a white supremacist? I’d say yes. I think it’s newsworthy.
Po:
If he spoke at a Hamas event 12 years ago? I sure would give him a pass.
bron98,
You didn’t answer my questions…so I’ll post them for you again:
What was my challenge? Did I call Scalise a racist and a neo-Nazi? Did Scalise speak at a white supremacist conference in 2002? Did I note in my post that several Republicans and a Democrat came to his defense?
gbk:
Thanks but I saw that.
Bron,
But, did you read it? Seeing and reading are two different things.
Boehner stands by Scalise, .a member of his leadership team. No wonder Jeb Bush is considered to be a moderate republican.
gbk:
That was terrific and a favorite song of mine. “Please
don’tdo take him just because you can.”AMERICA was FOUNDED on the PRINCIPLE of “ONE MAN – ONE VOTE”
AMERICA was founded on the PRINCIPLE of “EQUALITY for ALL”
RACIST, SEXIST, BIGOTS have the exact same CIVIL RIGHTS as PROGRESSIVES, LIBERALS and LEFT-WING-NUTS!
WE LOVE YOU REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE
SENATOR MARY LANDRIEU said that LOUISIANA was CHOCKED-FULL of SEXEST, RACIST, BIGOTS and she was 100% CORRECT!
SEXIST, RACIST, BIGOTS come in all SHAPES, SIZES and COLORS – not just in “WHITE”!
NAAWP RESPONSE: WHITE PEOPLE and WHITE GROUPS have the CIVIL RIGHT to MEET and GREET with our STATE and LOCAL REPRESENTATIVES, just as the BLACK CONGRESSIONAL CAUCUS does in WASHINGTON D.C.!
“What’s good for the BLACK GOOSES is also good for the WHITE GOOSES!” (TRAINAISM)
If AMERICA is to SURVIVE the 21st CENTURY, we can’t have one SET of RULES for BLACK AMERICANS, and another SET of RULES for WHITE AMERICANS!” (TRAINAISM)
BLACK CONGRESSIONAL CAUCUS = WHITE CONGRESSIONAL CAUCUS
MS. BLACK AMERICA = MS. WHITE AMERICA
BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS = WHITE CIVIL RIGHTS
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION for the ADVANCEMENT of WHITE PEOPLE – 2014
Mark, I can’t quite hear you. Some crazy person was SCREAMING while you were talking.
gbk:
“Your silence is like the breath of spring
Your words always miss the brass ring
And your slip is always showing, Jolene”
********************
I do love a cross dressing troll.
Heheheheh. Ferret is that you?
ALLCAPS=?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/22/school-psychologists-twee_n_1536870.html
Whoa, is this the same MARK TRAINA?
pete:
“ALLCAPS=?”
*******************************
To get the jump on Gene, you win the internet once again. 😀
Inga:
I sure hope so:
Holey Sheet.
Inga:
Like I said, lift any white sheet and there they ARE, as wacky Mark Traina might say.
We need Chuck Stanley on this guy.
Mark,
I sure as hell hope this racist doesn’t still have his job as school psychologist.
Inga:
He resigned under pressure and now, apparently, he yells about stuff.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/david-duke-steve-scalise-speech “”If Scalise is going to be crucified — if Republicans want to throw Steve Scalise to the woods, then a lot of them better be looking over their shoulders,” Duke told Fusion. He added that he wasn’t afraid to release a list of names of politicians he has connections to.”
swm:
I just became a David Duke fan. Never stop your adversary from triumphantly striding right over a cliff.
SWM, pass the popcorn, lol.
I am getting there really early to get a good seat for this one.
So let me get this right the President had to give up membership in his church because of what the PASTOR,not the President said ?And I don’t think the President was in attendance at the particular sermon,and I think we all remember what that brought about.I think this is only the beginning with the big majority the Republicans have in the House and Senate a lot more of this type of history coming out,and fox better be on it’s A game cause its going to be fun to watch.
b&eniobob popcorn down here.
The Ferret again. Go smoke some medical marijauna that your wife’s insurance paid for. That you continue to peddle this lie is pathetic, simply sad. How many times did you lie under oath to pretend you knew how to do a PI’s job? The Ferret thinks he knows something, yet because he didn’t do his stalking very well, he missed something else. I would ask that this stalker not be allowed to pollute this blog, as he did RIL.
Inga/Annie, and Nick/Jolene/Tommyboy [et. al.]:
The comment sections of three blogs, (Althouse, RIL, and now FFS), that you two have impressed upon others is not the place to work out your differences.
I would hope that the both of you understand that few care about your finger-pointing, and that both of you would have the grace to spare us of your personal animosities.
Gbk, I have no intention of responding any further to this person. I’ve sent off an email to the editors, I’m quite sure they will know how to handle it.
Stalking is against the rules as is ad hominem.
Inga,
Then why comment at all with your tome of:
https://flowersforsocrates.com/2014/12/29/house-majority-whip-steve-scalise-confirms-he-spoke-at-white-supremacist-conference-in-2002/#comment-28035
You obviously miss my point. If others care of the years of you and Nick chasing each other then I’ll hold my tongue. But in my opinion, this peculiar interaction has nothing to do with the political and social issues that FFS attempts to address.
I wish I had a personal stalker. I’d be made and finished.
Not a violent one, just a little crazy. Like the character played by Isla Fisher in the Wedding Crashers.
Thanks Gene for responding.
I don’t know who you are gbk. Do you speak for other FFSers? Others besides myself did some venting on that thread. Why do you not include them in your questioning? I see you want to either be an apologist for someone who is not very well liked here or you have another agenda, I don’t really care which one it is. I’m not going to apologize or explain my feelings to you. I’m here to get away from the stalker, not to turn FFS into another RIL or Althouse. End of discussion on my part.
Inga,
“Do you speak for other FFSers?”
I speak only for myself; this is well known.
All I ask is that you and Nick not bring your past here. There are more serious issues at hand.
I wish I had a personal stalker. I’d be made and finished.
Not a violent one, just a little crazy. Like the character played by Isla Fisher in the Wedding Crashers. – Bron
Consider your wish granted. I am now your official stalker. Complain away.
(gbk, As the pluperfect stalker song, this gets really creepy in a minor key, don’t you think?)
Inga,
“I see you want to either be an apologist for someone who is not very well liked here or you have another agenda . . .”
You couldn’t be more wrong.
“I’m not going to apologize or explain my feelings to you.”
I haven’t asked for either, and would not expect as much.
“I’m here to get away from the stalker, not to turn FFS into another RIL or Althouse.”
Then spare us of your continual references to such.
Gbk, I doubt nick will be commenting here, so the likelihood of an interaction is pretty low. I too am interested in discussing the many far more serious issues at hand, without stalkers or ad hominems. Please put your mind at rest.
What Eniobo said. Well done.
I was thinking along those lines also and the beer summit comes to mind too the how rabid right went to the outhouse on that event.
b&eniobob popcorn down here. – eniobob
We might want to think about expanding into the cotton candy market
… for fluff
Gbk, I was responding to YOUR comments. I really don’t know what else to say to you.
gbk,
Inga hasn’t been the only one who has made reference to a certain someone on this thread. Others have done it here…and on other threads at other times.
Blouise,
Minor keys are the only keys to stalk in!!! Dm being the best!
Inga,
“Please put your mind at rest.”
Time will tell, I’m sure.
Inga,
“Gbk, I was responding to YOUR comments.”
Don’t try too hard. Read the whole thread. I’ve been around for much longer than you know.
Leave your bullshit behind you, o.k.?
Elaine,
None have left a personal tome, addressed to any random writer on this blog, to garner forward admission of past tribulations:
https://flowersforsocrates.com/2014/12/29/house-majority-whip-steve-scalise-confirms-he-spoke-at-white-supremacist-conference-in-2002/#comment-28035
It’s time for this Inga/Nick/Annie/pseudonym bullshit to stop. Keep to the issues at hand that the author’s of posts on this blog bring forward.
Elaine, I’m puzzled as to why gbk seems to gloss that fact over. I don’t understand his focus on my comment, without mentioning the others. I’ve commented here many times now without any mention of a certain someone. Others were venting and so was I. To bring it up again, with a link to a comment I made as gbk has done, seems like it gives the unfortunate subject more attention than it deserves and has created a another controversy that really wasn’t necessary.
Jesus! Inga is my real name. This is ridiculous. I feel like I’m back at RIL, what gives?
gbk,
Em is my absolute favorite but try this on for size
Inga,
Do you always speak about someone in the third person, knowing they are listening?
Forget your Nick obsession; I know he’s an asshole. He couldn’t write a coherent paragraph to save his life.
You need to clean your slate, leave that shit behind you.
And if you can’t, I would suggest not bringing it here.
Gbk, you obviously have an issue with me. You keep your bullshit to yourself and I’ll keep mine to myself, now can we for the love of God go forward?
Inga,
Yeah, I know Inga is your real name. I read much more than I talk. Just chill, and recognize that most don’t care of your past.
Oy.
Inga,
“Gbk, you obviously have an issue with me. You keep your bullshit to yourself and I’ll keep mine to myself, now can we for the love of God go forward?”
I have no issue with you; I don’t know you. I’m just asking that you keep your past troubles out of this forum and quit looking for vindication here. Speak to the subjects written about.
Blouise,
The Doors. Please close them. 😉
Never got them. I don’t dislike them, but I don’t own any records/CDs of their work. Their music always sounded to trivial to me.
God, I’m such an asshole; but at least you know where I stand. 😉
Peace!!
Gbk,
Why don’t YOU start speaking to the subject at hand, which, excuse me while I go check what the hell it is, since you hijacked the thread, I’ve forgotten.Then I’ll follow your example like a good little girl.
Gbk said,
“God, I’m such an asshole….”
Woo hoo! Something I can agree with you on! Now that’s a good start wouldn’t you say? 😉
OK, kiddies. I am the hall monitor here, and am about to send you both to detention. Time out. If anyone has the last word, it is going to be me, and this is it.
To get back on track, The APA Ethical Principles has this section in the General Principles section, which is the overarching rule that guides all the rest of the ethical standards for psychologists:
That’s about it. I don’t condone any psychologist acting like the alleged school psychologist, who apparently needs to wipe the drool off his chin.
Gbk
Allow me to say that Inga seems to have heard you a while ago… so this where we just move on. 🙂
I also brought up someone, but as little gossip… like: “hey, did you hear what the boss at our past job did? They caught him masturbating to a picture of a dog…”
I mean, who else would understand but those who know?
Chuck, so this guy MARK TRAINA, does he get investigated by any ethics board after making such comments and probably mistreating the young black men he sent to alternatives schools wrongly? I understand he quit, bug I sure hope he isn’t practicing somewhere else.
Ha, but not “bug”, but bug works.
Blouise,
The Doors. Please close them. 😉
Never got them. I don’t dislike them, but I don’t own any records/CDs of their work. Their music always sounded to trivial to me.
God, I’m such an asshole; but at least you know where I stand. 😉
Peace!! – gbk
Yes, but, that’s a really good Em. Morrison had “IT” but the rest of ’em were mediocre at best and I like where you stand just fine. Well, maybe not when you’re trimming trees and fighting off canine attacks. How’s the leg?
Inga,
Since both the state psychological association and the APA are voluntary organizations, they have no control over non-members. That is why they were powerless to sanction Jessen and Mitchell. The state licensing boards can, but school psychologists don’t necessarily have to be licensed to practice by the state board unless they are in private practice. In most states, school psychologists are licensed more like teachers and guidance counselors.
Chuck,
“OK, kiddies.”
Fuck off.
Interesting, but I know that you are far more creative than that. Delivery needs some work.
Hahaha, embrace his mistress!
Personally, Chuck, I like your musical reply to clueless Davidm at RIL who just doesn’t seem to understand anything you say no matter how clear you say it:
blouise says:
December 30, 2014 at 8:51 pm
I wish I had a personal stalker. I’d be made and finished.
Not a violent one, just a little crazy. Like the character played by Isla Fisher in the Wedding Crashers. – Bron
Consider your wish granted. I am now your official stalker. Complain away.
============================================
I had orienteering and wilderness survival, they discontinued stalking in 1952.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discontinued_merit_badges_(Boy_Scouts_of_America)
pete,
Come on, tracking?! Bron isn’t Sasquatch.
Besides, I’m a new member of The Perverts of America and “Stalking” is one of our most prestigious badges. I can sign you up. I get bonus points for new members and we have great jamborees. I recommend you start with the “Nut Culture” badge. I’ll stalk Bron, then you can crack him. It’s a win-win.
kewl, sounds like my kinda club.
I didn’t get the name sneaky pete fer nuthin.
” House Majority Whip Steve Scalise Confirms He Spoke at White Supremacist Conference in 2002″
With that in mind let me just throw this into the pool:
” WASHINGTON – Staten Island’s controversial district attorney, Dan Donovan, emerged Tuesday as the likely Republican nominee in the special election to replace disgraced Rep. Michael Grimm.
“Almost all the elected officials in Staten Island will be by his side,” said party powerbroker Guy Molinari, the former congressman and borough president.
“I expect to wrap this thing up, in terms of the nomination, in short order.”
Donovan’s office handled the grand jury investigation that cleared a white cop in the death of Eric Garner, the black man who died after being placed in a chokehold – a takedown that was captured on videotape.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/da-dan-donovan-run-replace-rep-grimm-article-1.2061542
“Almost all the elected officials in Staten Island will be by his side,” said party powerbroker Guy Molinari, the former congressman and borough president.
Wasn’t it the same Molinari family who ensured Fredo’s safety on the west coast when Moe Green took him in? 🙂
David Duke’s aide gave one thousand dollars to Scalise.
Plum Line
Morning Plum: Anti-Defamation League weighs in on Steve Scalise-David Duke controversy
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/12/31/morning-plum-anti-defamation-league-weighs-in-on-steve-scalise-david-duke-controversy/
Excerpt:
In an interview with me, Stacy Burdett, the ADL’s Government and National Affairs Director, said that Scalise, unintentionally or not, had “legitimized” Duke’s “hate and bigotry.” However, she said she was satisfied thus far with his response, though she added that it was just an “opening” and that it is still on Scalise in coming weeks to convert the affair into a positive lesson for the American people.
“By standing on their platform, whether he intended to or not, he potentially sent a message that he endorsed their views,” Burdett told me. “ADL speaks out whenever political leaders in any way give bigotry a platform or legitimacy.”
“Hate groups like David Duke’s organization are a real part of American life,” Burdett said. “Any appearance before such a group risks legitimizing their bigotry. The public is absolutely justified in taking it seriously when a senior leader in Congress participates in an event like that, which is practically synonymous with hate and bigotry in Americans’ minds.”
But Burdett added that the ADL is satisfied with the statement that Scalise released yesterday. In it, Scalise said that speaking to the group was a “mistake I regret,” adding that “I emphatically oppose the divisive racial and religious views groups like these hold,” and that “I reject that kind of hateful bigotry.”
“The statement that he made hit the mark — it was the right thing to do,” Burdett said. “Rep. Scalise took the important step of rejecting those ideas. It’s the right first step. It’s not necessarily closure. He will have the opportunity to talk more about this and to embody what it is he learned from this episode.”
David Duke gave $10k to Hillary Clinton and other politicians through a shady offshore pac called Uncle Remus.
“Mark Levin and Sean Hannity are also calling for Scalise’s resignation because he’s an ally of John Boehner and is against the Tea Party.”
Politics make such strange bedfellows. I guess I am on board for his resignation if he is as liberal as Boehner.
Elaine, go get him.
Tea Party Gets a Seat in House Leadership
Steve Scalise will be expected to bridge the establishment and Tea Party wings of a often party at war with itself
6/19/14
http://time.com/2902699/steve-scalise-kevin-mccarthy-congress/
Excerpt:
Republican leaders hope Scalise’s ascension will satiate the Tea Party beast that claimed Cantor’s scalp so ignominiously in a primary last week, at least for a while. Elevating McCarthy, the most conservative member from liberal California, to Majority Leader did nothing to shake things up. But Scalise brings new blood to the team: He is the only Tea Partier and, excluding Texans Dick Armey and Tom DeLay, he’s the first Republican leader to be chosen from the South since Newt Gingrich resigned as House Speaker in 1999.
House GOP Whip Race Heats Up: Tea Partier Steve Scalise Gets Big Boost
6/16/14
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/house-majority-whip-race-steve-scalise-peter-roskam
Excerpt:
Scalise, first elected in 2008, chairs the Republican Study Committee, a bastion of right-wing policy ideas that boasts some 170 members. Scalise isn’t viewed as the worst sort of troublemaker but he has voted against leadership on key bills such as the debt limit agreement of 2011, the bill to re-open the government and avert default in 2013 and the two-year budget agreement in January.
Elaine:
So much for my source on this.
On a tangent, how about signing up to do some TV:
Dear Newsmax friend,
You can make guest appearances on Newsmax TV during our news talk segments with hosts J.D. Hayworth, Ed Berliner and Steve Malzberg.
Just fill in the info below and we’ll schedule a time for a pre-interview with you and one of our producers.
If Newsmax TV accepts you as an on-air call-in guest, you will be able to ask questions and make comments during our shows — which air in more than 35 million US homes via DISH 223 and DIRECTV 349 plus on online — More Info Here.
Please share with us some details on you and we’ll be in touch soon:
http://www.newsmax.com/skype/?ns_mail_uid=64717717&ns_mail_job=1600557_12302014&s=al&dkt_nbr=xnjwcpfv
Root Canal,Root Canal no novocaine available.Oh My !!!!!
“Republican leaders moved forcefully on Tuesday to control the damage from a pair of scandals that have suddenly disrupted the party as it prepares to take full control on Capitol Hill.
In back-to-back moves, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) pushed out Rep. Michael G. Grimm (R-N.Y.), who pleaded guilty last week to federal tax-evasion charges, and backed Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), who acknowledged that he once addressed a white-supremacist group before coming to Congress.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-republicans-struggle-to-contain-fallout-from-scalise-grimm-controversies/2014/12/30/8d252050-9043-11e4-a412-4b735edc7175_story.html
Five ways to know you’re speaking to white supremacists
And other useful tips for Steve Scalise and budding politicians everywhere
http://news.yahoo.com/five-ways-to-know-you-re-speaking-to-white-supremacists-004845526.html
Excerpt:
There was a simpler time in America, a time when racists wore white hoods and carried torches, when Nazis wore swastikas and a skinhead could shave his scalp without being mistaken for a metrosexual. But those days are long behind us. Now, apparently, white supremacists hold conferences with guest speakers and video hookups to their colleagues overseas, kind of like a Davos for the intellectually vacant.
This is tricky terrain for a politician, as Steve Scalise, the third highest-ranking Republican in the House, found out this week. Back in 2002, Scalise apparently spoke to a conference in New Orleans hosted by the European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO, for short), which is kind of like a lobby for neo-Nazis and other white extremists.
Scalise said he couldn’t recall the speech and had no idea who these people were. And really, how are you supposed to know these days if you’re talking to the Ku Klux Klan or, say, a “Star Trek” convention with an unusual number of Jean-Luc Picards?
There are no hard and fast rules, of course, but let’s consider a few useful guidelines for knowing when you’ve got a problem, just in case you’re thinking about a career in national politics.
1. The group was founded by David Duke.
To be fair, Duke is a relatively common name in public life, and it’s easy to get confused. You’ve got Patty Duke and Duke Ellington, and of course Michael Dukakis. This being Louisiana, you can’t forget Bo and Luke Duke. Why wouldn’t you show up at a convention if you thought you were getting a ride in that sweet car with Catherine Bach?
But pay careful attention here, because David Duke is actually a pretty notorious character. Starting in 1988, when he first ran for president as a Democrat (alas, only one Duke could emerge victorious), this Duke was for many years the most recognizable, articulate and unapologetic white supremacist in America — a glib and embarrassing reminder of the South’s ignominious past. He even served a term in the legislature. For those of us who came of age in the Reagan era, even if we never stepped foot in Louisiana, David Duke was like some touring museum exhibit, the last of the crusading Klansmen.
So if Duke is putting on your conference, or is speaking at it, or is anywhere in the same ZIP code and hasn’t yet been rearrested, you probably want to exercise caution.
2. Banners that say things like “White Power” hang from the ceiling.
Again, this is confusing. Because you might peer out through the blinding stage lights and think the banner says, you know, “white powder.” And you might think you’re at a drug legalization conference, which is all very mainstream these days, or maybe a ski industry confab. Or you might think “white power” actually refers to a kind of alternative energy, like “clean coal.” Although you can get intro trouble here, too — just look up Solyndra.
Anyway, this is why it helps to read some of the group’s written materials before you block off that date on the calendar. In this case, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, these have included whimsical remembrances of happier days in the 1930s when Germany was dominated by little Aryan kids frolicking through the fields. If that wasn’t in your briefing book, maybe hire some new staff.
Much of David Duke’s ’91 Campaign Is Now in Louisiana Mainstream
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/01/us/politics/much-of-david-dukes-91-campaign-is-now-in-louisiana-mainstream.html?_r=0
Excerpt:
BATON ROUGE, La. — David Duke seems a figure from the past, the former Klansman and white supremacist who two decades ago was almost elected Louisiana governor.
But this week when Representative Steve Scalise, the third-ranking House Republican leader, found himself trying to explain why he accepted a speaking engagement offered by a key aide to Mr. Duke in 2002, it was a reminder of the awkward dance and hard choices that Republicans in Louisiana faced in the 1990s when Mr. Duke was one of the most charismatic politicians in the state.
In his 1991 campaign for governor against Edwin W. Edwards, Mr. Duke largely avoided explicitly racial campaigning, appealed to the frustrations and resentments of white voters and won more than 60 percent of the white vote while losing in a runoff election. Two decades later, much of his campaign has merged with the political mainstream here, and rather than a bad memory from the past, Mr. Duke remains a window into some of the murkier currents in the state’s politics where Republicans have sought and eventually won Mr. Duke’s voters, while turning their back on him.
Echoing what mainstream Republicans did during the 1991 race for governor and since then, Mr. Scalise quickly distanced himself from Mr. Duke. Mr. Scalise said he only vaguely recalled his speech, had no forewarning it was a white nationalist group and would have avoided the meeting had he known.
Still, Roy Fletcher, a Baton Rouge-based political consultant who has managed campaigns for Republicans like former Gov. Mike Foster and Senator John McCain, said Mr. Duke may have become a toxic political personality, but he foreshadowed the state’s coming political and ideological shift.
Half the black population was lost due to Katrina making the state fertile ground for republican types with David Duke sympathies. Mary Landrieu was the last democrat to be elected statewide, but in the end the conservative democrat proved to be too liberal for the state and was defeated.
“… but in the end the conservative democrat proved to be too liberal for the state and was defeated.”
That encapsulates everything!
Really looking forward to see what 36% of the voting population has given us for this New Year .
Blouise,
“How’s the leg?”
It’s much better than I thought it would ever be. The scrubs ended sometime ago, the stitches were replaced with metal staples, which have also been removed, and now all that is left is to build the muscle up.
It’s amazing how quickly muscle enters the realm of entropy.
It’s all about as good as I can expect given my age.
It’s amazing how quickly muscle enters the realm of entropy. – gbk
Isn’t that the truth! But, otherwise, good to hear. That must have been a truly frightening experience.
Believe it or not, a couple of years ago, as Tex was trimming bushes in the backyard, he was almost trampled by a huge buck that came pounding through. The buck missed him by mere inches. He felt the ground shake, heard the sound of heavy hooves and looked up to see this very large buck coming right at him. He froze and the buck swerved just enough to miss him. Tex said he could feel the heat from the buck’s body as he thundered past him. He didn’t have a chain saw and was only armed with a pair of pruning shears. 😉
Happy New Year, my friend. I’m glad you’re on the mend.
Glad to hear you are healing well, GBK. Hope it soon be just a distant memory, just a scar to point to when telling the story to your grandkids of the time you were cornered by a pack of wolves and you took them out with a swiss army knife…:)
Blouise,
I still have sleepless nights thinking about what might have been if not for the running chainsaw in my hands! I heard the maniac dog coming through the ivy and turned just in time to unfortunately cut his left rear leg off just as he claimed my calf.
Sad day, and very scary. I’m just glad I’m still here, pruning shears would not have worked so well! 😉
Happy New Year to you, and Tex!
Po,
Graci, and peace; yes?
GBK, yes, indeed!
Chuck,
And so you use a lame video to augment your disdain? Short of words?
I’ll state mine clearly, again:
Fuck off.
GBK sez, “….augment your disdain?…”
=============================
You have used that word two or three times now. I haven’t the slightest idea where you got the notion that I somehow “disdain” you. There are only three bloggers with whom I have interacted that I truly dislike. You are not one of them. Obviously, I have come across as not liking you personally, and nothing could be further from the truth. Please disabuse yourself of the notion. As Gene, Mike, Bob and most of my family members will tell you, I have this strange sense of dry humor which I inherited from my grandfather, and which is sometimes misunderstood, but disdain? No. Never.
I started to send this to you backchannel as an email, but decided it would be best to say it out in the open. I only wish you the best, and while we are at it, rapid healing.
For anyone using this site, if I don’t like what you say, or how you are saying it, I will let you know. I have no trouble separating the statement from the person. Notice that some of the editors as well as commenters on this site can go at it hammer and tongs, but it’s not personal.
Blouise,
My favorite Em song is Pink Floyd’s “Breathe” from “Dark Side Of The Moon.”
I guess I’m wired differently!
gbk,
Pink Floyd is my son-in-law’s favorite group and the most widely played group on our local classic rock station. Considering that the Rock Hall is located here and here is where Pink Floyd is the most requested, well … you’d like Cleveland.
Moving away from Rock for about 10 minutes, here’s one of my favorite Sibelius movements
http://youtube.com/?#/watch?v=KoKG1cnYQKw
Blouise,
Not sure of your link as it seems recursive. But I’m sure it’s just me. 😉
But to move away from Rock, here’s this from another era of minor key interpretation:
Dm of course, which is the saddest of keys 😉
Double reeds have such expression! One has to be mad to hear this, let alone notate it.
It’s this kindle tablet. If I want to paste in a vid I have to do it from my laptop and I forgot this time. It’s the 1st symphony, 2nd movement.
Don’t you love that woodwind section!!! The last time I sang this I was in my 40’s and the last time I played it was in my 50’s. It is very hard work. Rehearsals are grueling.
Blouise,
“Don’t you love that woodwind section!!!”
Yes!
Alibi For Congressman Who Spoke To White Supremacist Group Completely Falls Apart
BY JUDD LEGUM POSTED ON JANUARY 1, 2015
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/01/01/3607463/alibi-white-supremacist-convention-completely-falls-apart/
Congressman Steve Scalise apologized earlier this week for speaking to a group of white supremacists in 2002. You would think that would settle the question of whether Scalise spoke to a group of white supremacists.
But no.
Two days ago, Slate ran a piece quoting Kenny Knight, a close associate of David Duke, who booked the room for the white supremacist group, known as EURO. Knight claimed that he invited Scalise to speak to the “Jefferson Heights Civic Association, which was largely comprised of elderly people who lived in his and Scalise’s neighborhood.” The meeting of the civic association, Knight said, just happened to be held in the same room as the EURO conference held later that day. Knight told The Times-Picayune that he “was not a member of EURO and did not arrange for any speakers at the 2002 conference.”
The right-wing ran was the story, billing the entire controversy as little more than a hoax…
But, as it turns out, Knight was lying. Not only was Knight a member of the EURO group but “documents filed with the Louisiana secretary of state’s office list him as treasurer…” He is also listed as a member of the group in a 2002 news release for the conference in question, where he was scheduled as a speaker.
Asked about the discrepancy and the state document listing him as treasurer of the group, Knight hung up twice on a reporter for The Times-Picayune. Eventually, Knight said “Is that 15 years ago? I don’t even remember that. I’m not communicating any more with the news media. I’m finished with y’all.”
If you have any further questions, ask David Duke. In an interview with the Washington Post, Duke said he “recalled Knight reaching out to Scalise in the weeks before the conference to come and update attendees on state affairs, and that Scalise accepted without reservation.”
gbk/Blouise:
Why do you like No. 9 in D minor? I ask that as someone who is not musically inclined but does like to listen.
Do you like Beethoven in general or just some of his work?
What is your most favorite work by Beethoven?
Bron,
I see you.
Beethoven’s 9th is considered, by some, to be the greatest piece of music ever written. The reasons are far too numerous and technical to go into here. Listen to the whole and I am certain you’ll recognize snippets you’ve been hearing all your life.
blouise:
“Beethoven’s 9th is considered, by some, to be the greatest piece of music ever written.”
**************
if they do requests in Heaven, you’re going to get sick of that one. Try some Chopin to break the sublimity — but only a brief interlude.
Me, I’m asking for the Hendrix song.
Philistine!
Chuck,
In all sincerity I apologize for my words. They were over the top — twice.
I guess being referred to as a “kid” as in “OK, kiddies,” gets my goat.
https://flowersforsocrates.com/2014/12/29/house-majority-whip-steve-scalise-confirms-he-spoke-at-white-supremacist-conference-in-2002/#comment-28119
There is perhaps fault enough, given the ambiguity yet potential precision of language, that I read your words as a slight.
I should have more discipline than to rush to such a brash conclusion, but in this I failed.
Please accept my apology and know that I harbor no grudges.
Bron,
“Why do you like No. 9 in D minor?”
Because it’s like hearing the sun coming up.
I’m actually not a huge Beethoven fan, though some works cannot be ignored.
I love Chopin, as Mark noted above (though the video misspells his name), Vivaldi, Debussy, and of course J.S. Bach of which I have probably two hundred CD’s of his works performed by many people.
All you need do is listen.
gbk,
Apology certainly accepted. One thing I dislike about electronic communications is the lack of nuance. The late Dr. Ray Birtdwhstell found that eighty percent of communication was non verbal, which means we cannot fully communicate feelings and intent through the dry written word.
Certainly not the wink and elbow nudge.
BTW, while I was out of town yesterday, I told my daughter about the dog. She said even the mental imagery of a dog attacking somebody with a running chain saw was too graphic for her. They owned a Rottie until he turned on their (then) four-year-old. Her husband did not kill the dog on the spot, but it was only because he did not have a weapon handy. They gave the dog away immediately. My grandson was not seriously bitten, but it was close.
gbk,
Ah, yes, Vivaldi. That’s my go-to guy. I’m also a fan of Strauss (Johann), simply because he is so much fun to play. There’s a comradery in a symphony orchestra that is unlike anything else and that commander just sparkles and shines when playing Strauss.
Blouise,
Julia still prefers Vivaldi–or–as she calls him–Avaldi. I’ve tried playing Mozart, Luciano Pavarottii, George Winston, and other music for her– but she still requests Avaldi.
Elaine,
A discerning child! 🙂
gbk … in the above post commander should be comradery. I have no idea why spellchecker decided to change it.
Blouise,
That’s ok — commander works to, because every orchestra is just a socialist rabble only held in check by scribblings on paper.
… and a dictator with a stick
A little info:
The Senate’s 46 Democrats got 20 million more votes than its 54 Republicans
Updated by Dylan Matthews on January 3, 2015, 10:00 a.m. ET
http://www.vox.com/2015/1/3/7482635/senate-small-states/in/5654656
eniobob, Small conservative states get the same representation in the senate as does California.
SwM & Eniobob,
This was the intent of our Constitution from the beginning. The Founding Fathers weren’t conceptualize a democracy, but a Republic which puts power in the hands of the “upper” classes.
Mike Spindell says:
January 4, 2015 at 10:46 am
SwM & Eniobob,
This was the intent of our Constitution from the beginning. The Founding Fathers weren’t conceptualize a democracy, but a Republic which puts power in the hands of the “upper” classes.
—————————————————————-
To be frank, I have never bought the idea that the founding fathers had a democracy in mind, but those who knew better and the consensus based on everything said just so. Despite their individual accomplishments, part of me could never really buy the idea that they had the foresight and inspiration, and willingness as upper class people, to go against all the better instincts of the upper class and spread the reach to power so widely. It was not just about means, it was also about education, and rarely do the educated not discriminate against the non-educated.
Fox host shreds Scalise for not having ‘moral courage’ to resign after ‘associating with David Duke’
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/fox-host-shreds-scalise-for-not-having-moral-courage-to-resign-after-associating-with-david-duke/
Excerpt:
Fox News host Greta Van Susteren over the weekend called on Majority Whip Steve Scalise, the number three Republican in the House, to resign after he admitted speaking at a conference of white supremacists in 2002.
Scalise, who once described himself as “David Duke without the baggage,” said last week that he had made a “mistake” by speaking to the group founded by the former KKK Grand Wizard.
During a panel discussion on Sunday, Washington Post reporter Robert Costa predicted that Scalise would weather the political storm because he had “expressed regret.”
But Susteren said that the Republican Party had missed a “huge opportunity” in its outreach to minority voters by not asking Scalise to resign.
“I don’t know if it’s fair to Scalise or not fair to Scalise, but associating with David Duke is grossly unwise,” she pointed out. “Everyone knows who David Duke is. I realized this was 12 years ago.”
“But if you want to send a message to the American people, the Republicans and Democrats, this would have been the opportunity to say he should step aside, whether it’s fair or not, and send a message that we’re not going to have this distraction, we really do want to have everybody on board.”
Chuck,
“Apology certainly accepted.”
Thank you, I’m sorry for the distractions that I caused.
“One thing I dislike about electronic communications is the lack of nuance.”
Many nuances are missed with only words on a monitor. It seems that at the very point of a cultural need for accurate discourse — due to wide and easy dissemination of “words” — that the very same use of said falls into the gutter; a failure I obviously contributed to given this thread.
_______________________________
Blouise,
For some strange reason I always forget about Strauss. I have some ten CD’s of his works performed by various orchestras. I will listen to them again this weekend. Thanks for the reminder!!
Steve Scalise: Damaged goods?
The majority whip may be toxic in some GOP circles.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/steve-scalise-republicans-113985.html
Excerpt:
The scandal over Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise’s 2002 speech to a white supremacist group has so badly damaged his image inside the House Republican Conference that he faces serious questions over his political future, according to interviews with multiple aides and lawmakers — including some Scalise allies.
Scalise’s job as House majority whip remains safe – and Speaker John Boehner has publicly backed him — but he may be too toxic for some Republican circles. Top GOP aides and lawmakers question whether he’ll be able to raise funds, especially on trips to New York or Los Angeles. Senior figures within the party doubt that the corporate chieftains and rich donors who bankroll Republican candidates will give him money to keep campaign coffers filled. Others say it will be difficult for him to persuade lawmakers to support the House Republican agenda.
Rank-and-file GOP lawmakers, meanwhile, found themselves defending Scalise back home, a potentially fatal flaw for someone who wants to serve in leadership. Many of these lawmakers are faced with blistering editorials from hometown newspapers calling for Scalise to step down. Conservative activists like Mark Levin, Erick Erickson and Sarah Palin have all said he should be booted out of GOP leadership.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bill-oreilly-david-duke-shouting-match
Fox News host Bill O’Reilly invited former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke onto “The O’Reilly Factor” Monday night to discuss whether Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) spoke before Duke’s white nationalist group in 2002.
Duke flashed one of his books and began a digression about the Iraq War at the start of the interview before insisting that he had never been a white supremacist.
“I’m not a white supremacist at all, in fact the European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO) was a charted civil rights organization,” Duke said, adding that he fought the “racial discrimination” of affirmative action while serving in Louisiana’s state legislature.
O’Reilly tried to direct the conversation back to Scalise’s scheduled appearance at EURO, which O’Reilly declined to call a “white supremacist” group later in the interview. But Duke soon brought up former Sen. Robert Byrd (D-VA).
Duke criticized Byrd for having more substantive ties to the KKK than himself and held up a photo of President Obama with the former senator. O’Reilly objected.
“Don’t sit there and tell me you’re not a white — that your organization isn’t looking out for the white, European race,” he said.
Duke protested, arguing that he was making sure Europeans aren’t “discriminated against” for jobs or scholarships. O’Reilly conceded that those kinds of issues are “being debated all over the place.”
Next, Duke brought up Nelson Mandela, slamming the media’s hypocrisy for attacking Scalise for his connections to EURO but seldom mentioning Mandela’s connections to international communism.
O’Reilly granted Duke’s point that the mainstream media is “sympathetic for the left.”
Speaking of the Constitution the other day I read about the fact that Alaska has a population of around 780,000. This state has two senators. Why? Add in States like Rhodes Island, the two Dakota’s, etc. and the lie of democracy becomes clear. We venerate the Constitution for being a better civil framework for a nation than most others in history and that is true. However, the Constitution in many ways also doesn’t represent a democratic system. Now I get the fact that our founders considered that a real democracy is rule by mob, in the sense that Bob for instance puts it. Certainly when we see people of Steve Scalise’s ilk, one wonders about the electorate. However, the problem is that too often under a Republic the needs of those not in the dominant class get trampled on, with no hope of redress. Not being a member of the dominant class this rightly concerns me.
Scalise must go, already: Seriously, why does he still have a GOP leadership job?
Reince Priebus said GOP would work hard to win black votes. Instead, it’s backing “David Duke without the baggage”
http://www.salon.com/2015/01/06/scalise_must_go_already_seriously_why_does_he_still_have_a_gop_leadership_job/
Excerpt:
Last summer, RNC chair Reince Priebus told the National Committee of Black Journalists he had a dream.
“If we work like dogs day in, day out — instead of getting 6% of black votes across the country … we can do a lot better,” Priebus told the group. “That’s our goal.”
It turns out he actually used that odd term – “work like dogs” – more than once in pitching his plan to expand black support for the GOP. “If we work like dogs…instead of 5% in the black community, can we get to 9 percent?” he asked NBC’s Chuck Todd. On the whole issue of the GOP’s demographic problems – with young, Latino, Black, gay and single women voters — Priebus pledged last year: “We’ll work like dogs to try to figure it out.”
Ironically, Republican leaders worked like dogs over the holiday season, but not to win black support. Instead they’re trying to hold on to a leadership role for Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, after it came out that he addressed former KKK grand wizard David Duke’s European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO), a white nationalist organization, in 2002. House Speaker John Boehner says he wants Scalise to stay as whip, and so does Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Meanwhile, Reince Priebus seems to be working like a dog to avoid commenting on the mess. Oddly, I can’t find any evidence of a statement on Scalise from the normally gabby media hound.
It’s particularly offensive that Scalise, who once pitched himself politically as “David Duke without the baggage,” is replacing the only Jewish member of House Republican leadership, or the House Republican Caucus generally (other than incoming freshman Lee Zeldin), Eric Cantor (h/t Rachel Maddow). Duke told reporters he founded EURO because white Americans were facing “genocide,” and the group’s Web site blamed Jews:
I’ve received email requests to sign petitions demanding that Scalise resign. I didn’t sign ’em. Scalise is exactly where he belongs.
What, tell everyone in the Republican party to resign?
I don’t petition the NRA, either.
If you belong, you believe what they believe. Otherwise, you wouldn’t allow your name to be associated with them.
Bob:
There are a few decent politicians in both parties.
People need to just say no to 2 party rule. I finally cast a vote for a third party candidate. I didnt like the republican or the democrat. Maybe in 2016 people will start doing the right thing instead of voting how their parents voted.
Steve Scalise Refused To Vote For 1996 Bill Apologizing For Slavery
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/13/steve-scalise-slavery_n_6464226.html
Excerpt:
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) voted against a bill that would have apologized for slavery to African-Americans when he was in the Louisiana Legislature, according to a 1996 New Orleans Times-Picayune article first reported on by The Hill.
The representative, who has been a target of civil rights groups after it was revealed last month that he spoke at a 2002 white supremacist conference, was one of two House and Governmental Affairs Committee members who voted down the bill.
“Why are you asking me to apologize for something I didn’t do and had no part of?” Scalise asked, according to the paper at the time. “I am not going to apologize for what somebody else did.”
GOP House Majority Whip Steve Scalise tried to kill Louisiana resolution apologizing for slavery
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/gop-house-majority-whip-steve-scalise-tried-to-kill-louisiana-resolution-apologizing-for-slavery/
Excerpt:
Embattled House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) — who has been trying to explain away his ties to white supremacist groups for nearly a month — is now being criticized for attempting to kill a 1996 Louisiana House committee resolution that would have apologized for slavery.
The Hill obtained the minutes from the 1996 meeting, and in them, Scalise is said to have taken “exception to being asked to apologize for something the present generation has no part in.”
State Representative Yvonne Dorsey had introduced the resolution, claiming that past Louisiana legislatures had “enshrined slavery, tearing families apart and making it legal and respectable to be slave owners.” Moreover, she contended that both blacks and whites continued to live in a state affected by the legacy of slavery.
Scalise, however, said that “as a voice for government, he opposes speaking on behalf of his constituents that way.” He said that apologizing for slavery constituted “an admission of guilt.”
Can’t recall a speech he gave to white supremacist and feels no quilt over slavery. What a guy. Maybe Bush will tap him for the VP spot.
“He said that apologizing for slavery constituted “an admission of guilt.”
***********************************
So? Were the slave states guilty of legalizing slavery or not? Really, Mr. Scalise, that is not a hard question.
Perhaps we could fey more clarity from Scalise on this point if he could answer a “yes” or “no” question: Was slavery wrong?
How “get more clarity” above was turned into “fey more clarity” by my Kindle is one of the mysteries of life.
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Steve Scalise To Meet With Civil Rights Leader
1/27/15
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/27/steve-scalise-marc-morial_n_6558688.html
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON — House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) has agreed to meet with the head of a civil rights organization who criticized the congressman for speaking to a white supremacist group in 2002.
Scalise will sit down with Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League and fellow Louisianan. Morial previously served as the Democratic mayor of New Orleans.
According to The Hill, Morial and Scalise spoke Monday night and agreed to meet in the “near future” to discuss issues that Morial and Wade Henderson, head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, outlined in a letter to Scalise on Jan. 6. Their concerns include the Voting Rights Act now weakened by a Supreme Court decision, the need for infrastructure investments and GOP efforts to overturn President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration reform.
Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, also told The Hill that he and Scalise spoke briefly last week on the night of the State of the Union speech and agreed to get together soon to talk more.