Stormy Daniels creates exploratory committee

(Bill Haber/AP)
It's time for another bump in my hits...

Stormy Daniels Set To Make Run At Senate

Yesterday, adult film star and fledgling politician Stormy Daniels announced the creation of an exploratory committee to raise funds and determine the feasibility of her challenge to Republican Senator David Vitter.

From the Associated Press (KEVIN MCGILL):

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Porn star Stormy Daniels said Thursday she has formed a committee to explore a possible run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican David Vitter and will begin raising money for a potential 2010 campaign.

Daniels, in an e-mail news release, said she will soon visit western and northern Louisiana to hear from voters. Brian Welsh, her spokesman, said he would serve on the committee but declined to discuss details. He said committee members and other details will be released soon, along with plans for the continuation of Daniels' "listening tour," which began in early May with appearances in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

Daniels has said she is seriously considering the race as the result of a draft movement reportedly started by a New Orleans college student after Vitter's phone number appeared on the records of a Washington prostitution ring in 2007. She insists she is not seeking publicity for her films or simply attempting to embarrass Vitter, whose family values reputation took a hit as a result of the scandal.

[..]

Vitter kept a low profile for months after the prostitution scandal broke but has emerged over the past year as a vocal conservative critic of government bailouts of businesses and of the tax, spending and homeland security policies of President Barack Obama. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Daniels committee on Thursday.

He admitted to a "serious sin" in the Washington prostitution matter but has steadfastly refused to answer questions. He has denied other allegations involving prostitution in New Orleans.

Daniels hasn't decided on any party affiliation yet. So far, Vitter has no other challengers in either a primary or the general election.

Her exploratory website is here: Team Stormy

...and they didn't need to waterboard anyone

(Police guard a NYC synagogue after the exposure of the plot)
A case of homegrown terrorists was squashed this week by the FBI with the assistance of an informant. Four men from the Newburgh NY area were arrested outside a Bronx synagogue, where they had just left a fake bomb provided to them by an undercover FBI agent.

This is just one of many cases of homegrown terrorism that have been averted since 2001 by the use of systematic surveillance, informant networks, and the sheer incompetence of some of these "terrorists".

From the ConnPost:

The four men were ex-convicts who envisioned themselves as holy warriors, ambitious enough to concoct a plot to blow up synagogues and military planes, authorities said.

But they were amateurs every step of the way. They had trouble finding guns and bought cameras at Wal-Mart to photograph their targets. One was a convicted purse snatcher, another smoked marijuana the day the plot was to be carried out.

Muslims fueled by hatred of America and Jews, they spent months scouting targets and securing what they thought was a surface-to-air missile system and powerful explosives -- all under the watch of an FBI informant.

[..]

Relatives said the defendants were down-on-their-luck men who worked at places like Wal-Mart, a landscaping company and a warehouse when they weren't behind bars. Payen's lawyer said he was "intellectually challenged" and on medication for schizophrenia. Marilyn Reader said he has "a very low borderline" IQ.

The point of this gets back to the argument that torture isn't necessary to get the information necessary to combat these planned terrorist attacks. Since 9/11 our intelligence network has expanded and become much more effective in exposing potential threats. Besides the fact that torture is illegal and it degrades our national character in the process.

Videos from Alpert's announcement

I only arrived home from work a little while ago, so I haven't had a lot of time to read and digest feedback from Merrick Alpert's announcement today. There's a lively discussion over on My Left Nutmeg, and I'm going to repost the videos from the MLN article:

Ventura on waterboarding

This pretty much sums up the insanity of trying to justify waterboarding as, not an instrument of torture, but as simply a type of "enhanced interrogation".

"If waterboarding is OK, then why don't we let our police do it?"
- Jesse Ventura on "The View"

Ventura later asks, why do we only seem to waterboard Muslims?

I still think Ventura is kind of nutty, but occasionally he cuts through the static and makes a crystal clear point that gets right to the heart of the matter. Good work, governor.

Alpert to announce tomorrow at 10AM

Continuing the developing saga of Merrick Alpert, the attorney and CEO who is interested in running for senate, and I spoke to his press secretary today and she told me that he will announce his challenge to Sen. Chris Dodd from Alpert's home in Mystic at 10AM tomorrow.

In a weird development, Alpert's former boss was quoted as saying that he thinks Alpert shouldn't run.

Here's the statement from Jonathan Pelto in The Hill blog:

"I'm surprised, even a bit stunned, that my former intern Merrick Albert is interested in running against Chris Dodd, let alone that he believes he is prepared to serve as Connecticut's United States Senator.

"I've known Merrick for more than 20 years. He worked as my legislative intern when he was a student at Trinity College and later helped with various political campaigns. Always eager and ambitious, everyone who has ever worked with Merrick knows that he's always wanted to run for political office. Hopefully, he'll reconsider this strange decision and focus instead on getting his political career underway by running for a position that he is more qualified for like state representative or state senator."

In fairness to Mr. Alpert, Jon Pelto is a longtime Democratic insider, who is obviously a dedicated Chris Dodd supporter.

The weird thing is how Pelto's statement seems to echo many similar remarks that were conveyed to Ned Lamont when he began his upstart political challenge that upset Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary and forced Lieberman to form his own party and run as an independent in order to preserve his seat.

Then, in the Hartford Courant blog Capitol Watch, former Greenwich First Selectman Roger Pearson (a rarity for a Democrat in a very Republican town) spoke up in support of Alpert's candidacy, saying:

"I think Merrick deserves a lot of credit for sticking his neck out,'' Pearson said Monday. "To Jonathan Pelto, I say this: Was little known Vice President Harry Truman, a bankrupt haberdasher, ready to become President when FDR died suddenly during World War II? And whatever happened to that community activist from Chicago who wanted to lead this nation during its worst and continuing financial crisis since The Great Depression? Doesn't that great old political adage "Time for a Change" ring true for Democrats as well as Republicans, especially since we're talking about an entrenched 30-year incumbent who has terribly lost his way to the detriment of the people he is charged with serving?"

I'll have more on Merrick Alpert tomorrow. Stay tuned.

More on Merrick Alpert

John over at CT Blue has more on Alpert's candidacy.

This is from his article:

Merrick is on our town committee. I first met him several years ago, when I got the distinct impression that he was interested in running for the House seat that Joe Courtney now holds. He backed off, for whatever reason. That seat is now beyond the reach of any Democrat, so I guess if you’re a Southeastern Connecticut Democrat with lofty ambitions of a federal kind, Dodd is as good a target as any.

[..]

As our Town Chairman, Betsy Moukawsher remarked to me, this sort of explains why Merrick has been evasive about running for Town Council, which we’ve been urging him to do. He has bigger fish to fry.

BTW, CT Blue is one of my favorite blogs on the local political scene, with very reasoned commentary and an understated style that contrasts nicely with a goofy blog like this one. I strongly recommend making it a regular stop on your daily blog roundup.

Alpert's website posted an update this morning:

This morning Merrick Alpert filed the Statement of Organization (Form 1) with the Federal Elections Commission. He will file the Statement of Candidacy (Form 2) with the Federal Elections Commission on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 when he formally announces his candidacy for the United States Senate from Connecticut.

This morning the Hartford Courant finally picked up on the story that I reported here first.

Primary challenger to Dodd will announce

According to his website, lawyer & CEO Merrick Alpert intends to announce on Monday that he'll seek the Democratic nomination for Senate in the 2010 election.

From his website:

Merrick Alpert | May 18, 2009

Welcome. The website is up. The office is operational. The countdown starts! Today we inform the media of our plans. Tomorrow the journey begins. I look forward to sharing every step of this journey with you. This blog will be the ultimate behind the scenes look at the campaign. For a more casual view of the campaign, join me on facebook, twitter, and flickr to see up-to-date candid photos, daily on-the-road videos, and what really goes on at the ground level.

It'll be very interesting to see what Alpert brings to the table in a contest against the firmly established five-term incumbent Sen. Chris Dodd.

More details later.

UPDATE - Alpert's Youtube video:

What I'm doing today

...and tomorrow, too. Sanding the hull to get it into racing shape. Three days until launch, then I retire the Tyvec suit and the dust mask (not shown) for the season.

(disclaimer: that's a photo from May 2006...my camera is being shipped back after warranty repair, so I won't have any new photos until sometime next week)

Thank Joe Lieberman

If you're ever late with your payment for the water or electric bill, and your credit card interest rate suddenly zooms to 35.9% on your outstanding balance, you now have someone you can thank for it.

Sen. Joe Lieberman.

(Laughing all the way to the bank!)
In a procedural vote on capping credit card interest rates at 15%, Joe Lieberman sided with ALL the Republicans (save one, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa), along with 20 Senate Democrats to easily defeat the amendment.

Sen. Chris Dodd supported the amendment and voted in favor of limiting those usurious and ridiculous penalties, commonly known as "universal default". This is a wicked practice that the deregulated banking industry uses to fleece borrowers of their money in the event of being late on nearly ANY bill, not simply their credit card payment.

Which means you can be diligent about paying your monthly vig (hey, if the banks are going to act like loan sharks, I'm going to use the nomenclature that fits), but if your gas bill is a week late, they can immediately smack you with the penalty rate; not only on new purchases, but also on your current balance even if you're in good standing!

While this amendment didn't address the practice, it would have lessened the financial squeeze that universal default puts upon borrowers. Usually the clause is hidden in the tiny print on that two or three page "terms & conditions" document that requires you be a financial wizard to decipher.

But good ol' Sen. Joe found yet another way to "stick it" to all those voters who didn't "stick with" him back in 2006. And, he also punished those who did, but in the parlance of government, they were unavoidable "collateral damage".

Now, I'm not gonna let those Democrats who voted against the amendment off the hook. Here's a list of the guilty parties:

Tom Carper (DE)
Maria Cantwell (WA)
Robert Byrd (WV - will this guy ever retire?)
Jeff Bingaman (NM)
Evan Bayh (IN)
Max Baucus (MT)
Daniel Akaka (HI)
Mark Warner (VA)
Jon Tester (MT)
Debbie Stabenow (MI)
Arlen Specter (PA - this guy isn't a Democrat; he's a sleazy Republican Incumbent who desperately wants to retain his seat at all costs. I hope he gets primaried HARD! by a true Democratic candidate)
Jeanne Shaheen (NH)
Mark Pryor (AR)
Ben Nelson (NE)
Bill Nelson (FL)
Patty Murray (WA)
Blanche Lincoln (AR)
Joseph I. Lieberman (CT - of course)
Mary Landrieu (LA - of courser)
Ted Kaufman (DE - both DE Dems voted NO of coursest)
Tim Johnson (SD)
Kay Hagan (NC)

Shame on you all.

But Bravo to Senator Bernie Sanders (VT) for introducing the measure, and for Chuck Grassley for having the balls to vote against the GOP obstructionists.

DFA Health Care forum Q&A

I decided to put together the entire video of the Q&A session at last week's DFA health care discussion, even though the audio isn't as clear as I'd like because the audience members asking the questions weren't mic'd. In some cases I was able to swivel the camera around and point the shotgun mic at them, making them a bit more audible. And I edited the audio track to boost the levels when they asked the questions, and it helped.

Enough with the geek talk. Here's the video: