Per the Washington Post:
MILWAUKEE — The son of a slain Sikh temple president plans to challenge U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan in next year’s congressional election, in a Wisconsin district where support for the 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee has been strong but slipping.
Amar Kaleka, 35, told The Associated Press he’ll file paperwork Wednesday to form an exploratory congressional committee. He plans to formally announce his candidacy as a Democrat next month.
Kaleka said he wants to bring accountability and transparency back to Washington. He blamed the government shutdown on Ryan, who’s the House Budget Committee chairman, and his GOP colleagues. He said citizens are tired of career politicians who care more about staying in power than serving the people…
Kaleka’s father, Satwant Singh Kaleka, was a small-business owner who founded the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in suburban Milwaukee. On Aug. 5, 2012, a white supremacist walked into the temple and opened fire, killing Kaleka and five others before taking his own life. The FBI was unable to determine a motive….
Kaleka knows he’d be taking on a formidable candidate. Ryan has so much political clout that he raised $1.7 million in the first six months of the year, nearly three times more than any other member of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation.
Kaleka hopes to counter in part by tapping into the wealthy Indian and Arabic communities that he said encouraged him to run in the first place. If he can demonstrate his fundraising chops he expects the national Democratic Party, which he said supports his candidacy, to step in with another $1 million to $2 million…
Anybody from the area have more information about this?
Jeff Spender
I am not from the area, but I thought it was pretty awesome.
I’ve also had a lot of wine and I’m pretty sloshed right now. Hey, the world is effing fantastic.
zombie rotten mcdonald
the local rag couldn’t improve on the AP story, even though it also includes the rumor that Rob Zerban, who ran against Ryan last time, might also be throwing in.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/son-of-murdered-sikh-temple-president-to-run-for-paul-ryans-seat-b99120132z1-227722121.html
I agree it’s awesome, but Ryan’s district is heavily caucasian and has a fair amount of rural areas, so racism will be in full play.
Chris
Someone at the FBI has a sense of humor of sorts.
zombie rotten mcdonald
Kind of appalling, while also being an accurate description of our current politics, that so much of the article revolves around fundraising.
NotMax
Open Thread?
Have seen way too many TV ads, but there is a local ad airing this month that ranks right down there among the lamest.
Joey Maloney
Kaleka hopes to counter in part by tapping into the wealthy Indian and Arabic communities that he said encouraged him to run in the first place.
The teatard noggin detonation will be seismic. I expect Pam Gellar alone to register at least a 3.5 Richter.
Hill Dweller
@zombie rotten mcdonald:
Ryan is a complete fraud, but that is a feature not a bug in DC(and apparently Wisconsin).
Also, too, TCM has/had quite the lineup tonight: Nights of Cambria, Winter Light, Pickpocket, Cleo From 5 to 7 and The 400 Blows.
dollared
So my people hail from Ryan’s district. It’s conservative. I can’t explain it, but it’s very ingrained. My grandparents were dirt poor and hated FDR. And of course played out their lives on Social Security, Medicare and finally the Medicaid funded nursing home….
Zerban ran a good race and would be a good choice to run again. The odds of a Sikh winning this race, especially with solid Muslim financial backing, um, well, he has a better chance of winning the lottery.
jl
@zombie rotten mcdonald: I know nothing of the Sikh community in Wisconsin, but California they are mainly in agricultural community, their familial histories usually being farmers or agricultural brokers or suppliers in Punjab.
I think anyone farming in rural areas between Fresno and Sacramento would know some Sikhs in the business somehow. I think only extreme weirdos or very ignorant in that area of CA would react out of knee jerk racism or (mistakenly applied) anti-muslin prejudice. Even my teabagger relatives in Central Valley know Sikhs are not muslin.
So, maybe the same in Wisconsin, or no?
Gex
@Chris: Hey, if they tallied every hate crime that was pretty clearly a hate crime, it’d be hard to deny the hateful bigotry in the country. I don’t know how many articles about people calling a guy faggot while beating him to death outside a gay bar ended with “police searching for a motive.”
Apparently it’s just a fucking mystery to the cops.
MattR
@zombie rotten mcdonald: I am on Zerban’s email list. I honestly don’t pay too much attention to them other than to delete them out of my inbox, but it seems like Zerban has been planning for a rematch since last November.
jl
@Joey Maloney:
@dollared:
“Indian and Arabic communities”
Communities from where? Local, national, or international?
Indian and Arabic does not necessarily mean Muslim.
Most of Arabic people I know personally around in Northern California are Christian. To the teatards it will make not white of difference. But if there are enough sane people in that district, it might not be a big deal, especially if the communities are in U.S.
mai naem
I just have to wonder if this guy announcing now doesn’t have something to do with Ryan being involved in the debt ceiling/budget/sequestration deal. I mean Ryan’s got to be worried about the Sikh guy, Zerban and a possible primary from the right if he “compromises” too much, kind of like McConnell in his race and Boehner with his caucus. .
zombie rotten mcdonald
@jl:
I don’t think so. My in-laws are farmers, albeit from the northern part of the state. The only real interaction with any minorities is hiring migrant workers for fieldwork, and those are Hispanic. I would be surprised if many of the whites in Ryan’s district will know the difference between Sikhs and Muslims, or even care; they are all ‘towel-heads”.
I suspect the farmers in Ryan’s district are largely struggling white family farms or industrial operations. The Sikhs in the area are more predominantly in small retail operations or technology, maybe medical. I would suspect there will be good financing prospects there, but I agree with dollared; Zerban has a better shot. At least right now.
jl
Also,
If the Senate bill with BS concessions to GOP goes through, and House passes it, then I want some CR/Debt Limit Crisis 2013 gear printed up and sent to House GOP caucus.
” I threatened to destroy the world economy, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt and bag of political shit I blew up all over myself”.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@jl:
But if there are enough sane people in that district,
Nope. Part of Ryan’s district is Janesville, which has been ghost-towning since the GM plants closed, and the blue-collar workers there have mostly bought into the Republican-pushed minority-blaming. Doesn’t much matter which minority they’re talking about; they’re hurting and are lashing out.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@mai naem:
If the national Dems don’t take advantage of this situation to put the squeeze on Ryan, they are useless. I suspect Feingold is looking to put some pain to him.
jl
@zombie rotten mcdonald: Thanks. Sounds like Ryan’s WI district different from comparable areas in CA. Lot’s of Sikhs going into technology or professions from farming. In fact, lots of youngin Sikh ID crises about conformity to religious ceremony and garb (some of which I have heard first person) as they move into urban non-farming. But in big swathes of Central Valley, you have to be a complete doofus to not know who a Sikh is. Around here I can imagine a lot more problems of ignorant prejudice in urban areas.
Edit: Sikhs have small and independent business cred, farming and otherwise around where I went to HS, aka, down the road a might from Kaepernick land, which would pull over some non-teabagger conservatives and independents.
ranger3
Dirty Hinduofascists want to establish Sharia Law. And Communism.
BENGAHZI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!!!!!!!!
jl
@zombie rotten mcdonald: There have been significant Sikh communities in Central Valley for over a hundred years. I guess not so in Ryan’s district.
zombie rotten mcdonald
Also, Ryan’s district is more in the center-south of the State, extending over to Lake Michigan; the Sikh population in that area will be mostly limited to the eastern areas, south of Milwaukee, encompassing Kenosha and Racine. So like Walker, he can play the white, rural, more racist parts of his district against the more urban parts of his district. It’s a well-worn part of the playbook.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@jl:
no, not so much. As I explained above, they still have issues with the minority populations in Kenosha and Racine. Those ‘troubled urban areas’ and whatever other racist dogwhistles you want to use.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@ranger3:
And the Gaybortionplex.
Radio One
Wow Fox has really been amped up on the whole patriotism/last refuge of the scoundrel message with their coverage of the WWII protests the past week or so.
Did anybody have this book when it came out in the early nineties:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Rolling-Stone-Album-Guide/dp/0679737294/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1381812067&sr=8-3&keywords=rolling+stone+album+guide
It got a few things wrong, obviously. I don’t think any Steely Dan or King Crimson album deserves 5 stars. But it also essentially introduced me to John Coltrane, the Carter Family, Dinah Washington, the Flying Burrito Brothers, the dBs, and Jimmie Rodgers, just because of their concise reviews not only of their albums but of what their music was intended to be.
jl
@zombie rotten mcdonald: Too bad. Kaleka running would be an inspiring story. I didn’t know there was another possibility who has run before and would have a better chance.I will read up on Zerban.
OK, took a peek. Zerban seems solid good alternative to Ryan. Would he go corporate conservaDem, though?
Seanly
@jl:
BS concessions? Going through all of this again in 3 months sounds like a big win for the Republicans. If they get to keep hamstringing & closing the government & taking us to the brink of financial calamity every 3 months then I would call them the winners.
Another Holocene Human
Can it be OT on an open thread? #racism
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/comment/47/10193158
wtf is this, i don’t even
zombie rotten mcdonald
@jl:
Maybe. The district, as has been mentioned before, is somewhat conservative. A flaming liberal will go nowhere. To be viable, he’s not going to be able to veer too far left.
But he will be MILES better than Ryan.
And Kaleka running WILL be an inspiring story; and hopefully he can take a shot at some other races if he performs decently and demonstrates some political chops.
Anne Laurie
@dollared: Any chance Kaleka could get some points as a “model minority” aka “the RIGHT kind of immigrant-offspring”? It sets my teeth on edge to phrase it that way, but there’s a certain amount of Indian-American celebrity exposure right now — Miss America, and Mindy Kaling, and Raj from Big Bang Theory, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta as NBC’s medical expert and this week’s Parade Sunday-newspaper-insert cover guy. All TV-friendly people who are going to be known even to fairly low-information voters. Of course there’s been some ugly backlash, but then, the standards of Midwestern Nice usually cringe away from the more overt experssions of unhinged bigotry…
jl
@Seanly: They asked for ONE MILLION dollars, no I mean destruction of ACA, and then for Obama to pretend he is Mitt Romney for the rest of his term, and then just had to start yapping about wanting to cut social insurance.
If the Senate deal goes through, and passes the House, GOP will get a BS commission, two ACA related taxes repealed (one of which unions wanted repealed anyway), and cumbersome revised income verification that will earn them hatred and resentment as people shop the exchanges.
Or, the House GOP refuses the Holy Bipartisan Compromise.
If this deal goes through, they lost. And I think if they are stupid enough to try again, they will lose again.
But, opinions may differ on it.
Jeff Spender
@Another Holocene Human:
He’ll start going full Tiger Blood soon enough.
Did that just make it more confusing?
trollhattan
@Another Holocene Human:
Uh. I don’t. Uh….
priscianus jr
@Seanly: It was not a big win for the Republicans. It wasn’t a win at all.
Suzanne
This is cool, and I hope he sends Ryan back to Janesville via a tailor where Ryan can buy some suits that fit.
jl
@Anne Laurie: I don’t think any Democrat can qualify as a model minority in GOP land or corporate media land, by definition, even if one were White, and not a minority.
Model minority would be translated into token (projection) or corrupt machine politician (projection, at least among any GOPers with cash, and they would convice the duped genuine grass roots teabagger poors, of which might be a dozen or so remaining)
Villago Delenda Est
@Chris:
I know. This is pretty much an example of duh, connect the fucking dots, but the FBI doesn’t want to go there because…well, the same people holding the country hostage right now to rid us all of health care also get their panties in a bunch if someone points out that one of their own has, again, mistaken someone whose skin is too dark and whose dress is too out of the ordinary as a Muslim terrorist.
Anne Laurie
@Another Holocene Human: Todd Kincannon has been down that troll-hole before. Guess he’s one of those sad souls who thinks negative attention is better than no attention at all.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@jl:
No, certainly not in Wisconsin, where the Republican Party doesn’t even bother to find someone to make it look like there are minorities. Not even pleasing ones like Marco Rubio, Jindal, or Nikki Haley.
I do wish him the best of luck, though, and maybe Zerban and Kaleka can rip Ryan from both sides, rather than damaging each other in a primary.
fuckwit
@jl: So far only anti-communist Cubans seem to qualify as model minority to the R’s.
My right-wing family used to call Armenians all kinds of Muslim-related and Arab-related ethnic slurs. I kept informing them that Armenians are christians, just like them, and neither muslims nor arabs. They laughed at me and kept on with bashing Armenians. Who knows, they might still be doing that, but I don’t know, because I don’t talk to them.
FREE-DUMB!!
BillinGlendaleCA
@Seanly: Dems wanted a short term CR, they want to try to get rid of the sequester long term.
jenn
@Another Holocene Human: Yeah, I … did not react well when I read that earlier. I’m a pretty non-violent person, but I found myself reconsidering for him.
Villago Delenda Est
@Anne Laurie:
This guy had better not wander on to some Indian reservation without a phalanx of bodyguards around him.
fuckwit
@Anne Laurie: What a fucking douchenozzle.
So far that turdball has got sexting random women (not his fiancee), making shitty racist (and homophobic) comments about Trayvon Martin, and now shitting all over Natives too.
There’s a weird thing in right-wing culture, that’s just mean and sadistic for the sake of flaunting the power of being able to get away with being mean and sadistic. I’ve seen it in O’Lielly, Hannity, Savage, Shrub, Limbaugh, and this turd too. It’s not just being shitty, it’s being PROUD of being shitty, doing it with an attitude, on purpose, asserting that privilege as a soverign right.
I’m not sure what kind of developmental malfunction happened there. It’s like they’re stuck as spoiled 2-year-olds, or spoiled teenagers, or something. There’s something just psychologically damaged there, some peice of their social development that went horribly wrong.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Villago Delenda Est:
yeah, like THAT’S gonna happen.
He might need to watch his step in some of the casinos, though.
Gretchen
Zerban ran a pretty good race last time and did fairly well. I’d rather see everyone get behind him, even though the other guy has an inspiring story.
JordanRules
@fuckwit: Yep. I always asserted it’s a disease but I don’t know if it can be cured.
And when they are so proud and flaunt it at every opportunity it’s such an ironic reminder that the system they keep shitting on still gives them a leg up. It’s such a sadistic affirmation of unearned privilege and they are going to throw that fact in our faces repeatedly. It’s like they’re screaming, I can be a shitty and horrible person and still won’t get stopped and frisked, ha, ha, ha, nannie nannie boo boo!!!!!
It disgusts me.
jl
@fuckwit: Maybe they were pulling your leg? You and your family don’t live in CA, apparently.
Armenians are another big group in California of which only the most oblivious and mentally impaired are uninformed. In Central Valley they are known as a conservative political power base, and in fact, were the last outpost of honest straightforward old school conservatism (Deukmejian might have been the last of the GOPer old school to hold statewide office).
Armenians still big in Central Valley GOP politics, but they are loons, like the (other) White GOPers.
I don’t know about political complexion of Southern Cal Armenian community, or if they have any distinct political bent at all.
fuckwit
@jl: No, actually they all lived in Southern Cal at the time, had moved there not long before, and this was only a few years after Deukmejian had been governor. My idiot cousin lived in Glendale, of all places. And she did nothing but talk shit about Armenians and considered them arabs. My old man was for sure well aware of Deukmejian, and voted for him. He still gleefully went along with the racism. They thought it was especially funny when I tried to correct them.
It’s that right-wing disease, a joy in being able to just be shitty for the sake of flaunting the privilege of being shitty, to take joy in ignorance, in the privilege of being ignorant and giving zero fucks. It’s basically trolling.
The Armenians I knew and worked with– indeed a lot of the non-Armenian Iranians I knew too– in Southern Cal were pretty fiercely right wing, very patriotically dedicated to America, anti-Communist, pro American military interventionism, and anti-Islamist in particular. They did remind me of Cubans to some degree, politically. Many had escaped Khomeni and still had family stuck in Iran, so in that sense they did have some things in common with Cubans who fled Castro.
So yeah, while the morans in my bloodline were dissing Armenians, those Armenians were going to church and voting Republican. And every time I pointed this out, I got laughed at and they doubled down on the stupid. After a while I learned to not take the troll bait. Many years later I learned just to stay away completely.
Trolls gonna troll. Eventually you just gotta block/ignore/avoid them.
BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: The SoCal Armenians are probably half and half Dem and Rethug.
max
@Gretchen: Zerban ran a pretty good race last time and did fairly well. I’d rather see everyone get behind him, even though the other guy has an inspiring story.
Zerban ran close against Ryan, considering the district. If Zerban wasn’t a potential candidate I’d be all like, ‘Keen’. On the other hand, if the DCCC wants to back this guy, then I guess Zerban is screwed. Not sure what’s going on.
Of course, if this guy flames out against Ryan, then Zerban can come back for 2016 – which just might be a wave.
max
[‘So, you know, uh, OK.’]
fuckwit
@jl: Those income verifications are unacceptable to me. It’s more bash the poor bullshit. Sure, here, both sides are eager to throw us under the bus. Who cares if we have to be humiliated, we’re a negotiating chip. Just make it harder on people who are already suffering. It’s not like we matter. Show up with all your tax returns, pay stubs, proof of residency, proof of citizenship, bank statements, and asset assessments. Let some stranger dig through your life, and judge whether you’re “not quite poor enough, sorry”. It’s a fucking forcible trans-vaginal ultrasound for your finances. Have fun.
MikeJ
@fuckwit:
I wonder if Google Glass could handle the load of real time speech recognition. You could have a wearable pie filter for real life interactions.
BillinGlendaleCA
@fuckwit: I think many ethnic communities that had a fear of Communism(Armenian, Cuban, Viet, and Korean) leaned strongly Rethug during the Cold War. Some of the older immigrants may becoming more liberal. The kids are like any other X’ers or Millennials.
BillinGlendaleCA
@fuckwit:
What do you have against Yutsy?
The prophet Nostradumbass
There’s going to be an avalanche of anti-union, anti-public employee horseshit tomorrow, if the BART strike happens. Interviews with ignorant, whiny, butthurt “commuters” who will demand that BART workers cave, because they make “enough money already”, will be prevalent.
There’s been a troll camera-chaser running around with his petition to outlaw BART strikes, who of course is featured on every single TV news report about the negotiations.
Skippy-san
The irony of the Zombie Eyed Granny Starver getting beaten by a Sikh is rich. I see teabagger heads exploding.
billgerat
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/01/doug-lamborn-colorado-con_n_915382.html
Republicans just can’t resist saying racist things. I can just imagine what they’ll say about a Sikh candidate.
JoyfulA
Nikki Haley is (was) a Sikh from a rural area (actually mostly Democratic) of South Carolina. Her family of origin were small merchants.
PurpleGirl
@jl: ARAB, the people are ARAB. Arabic is a LANGUAGE.
Also, Arab is not synamous with Muslim or Islam. A person can be Arab and be a Christian (I know it’s shocking!). One of the oldest nationality-based Christian churches is the Coptic Church of Egypt.
PurpleGirl
@jl: In NYC, many older Sikhs become that most NYC of jobs — Taxi drivers.
ETA: Younger men it seems don’t maintain the turban and facial hair but they do still wear the steel bracelet on their right wrist. Older men still wear turbans and beards.
And since they live in Queens, they know the addresses and different areas.
NotMax
@Purple Girl
It may be just that those younger men have not yet chosen or committed to the ceremony of baptism, after which cutting of hair is forbidden and the turban required for males (optional for females).
raven
Nicolle hates Obamacare because the government is a poor deliverer of health care but she loves Medicare.
mai naem
@raven: I heard that. She hates the big bad gubmint doing healthcare but somehow I’ve never heard her come out against Part D. Mmmm….I wonder why? Perhaps because Kkkarl came up with it so that they could sow up the Senior Vote and Big Pharma lobbying money?
mai naem
@raven: I heard that. She hates the big bad gubmint doing healthcare but somehow I’ve never heard her come out against Part D. Mmmm….I wonder why? Perhaps because Kkkarl came up with it so that they could sow up the Senior Vote and Big Pharma lobbying money?
JPL
@raven: I assume you mean Nicolle Wallace, the former campaign manager of Sarah Palin. Did Sarah’s idiosyncrasies rub off on her?
folkbum
I live adjacent to the district (I drive past the Sikh temple on a regular basis, even), and I’m on Zerban’s press distribution list. Yesterday’s email was subject lined, “FORMER RYAN CHALLENGER ROB ZERBAN PLANNING ANNOUNCEMENT EVENT SAT, OCT 26TH.”
So it looks like Zerban is in for sure.
Kay
@fuckwit:
Is that what it is, though? The original plan was to provide the subsidy and then correct up or down based on following year tax return. This looks like it’s a new rule that HHS have the process in place to do a verification.
I’m an appointed guardian of incompetents and I sometimes apply online for Medicaid for them (they’re all on Medicare because they’re on SS disability but they also need Medicaid, eventually).
I don’t provide all of the verification you listed even for Medicaid.
I actually “self report” (on their behalf) and if the form is complete they get the Medicaid.
The subsidy isn’t written to take assets into account at all. It’s based completely on reported income, which in practice means a tax return. They’re not going to conduct an audit comparing check stubs to tax returns and they’re not adding anything about assets.
Kay
@fuckwit:
I thought a more stringent verification would be a real-time check of your last tax return, on the individual level. They already have your last federal tax return, obviously. But it doesn’t even look like it’s that, so far, from what I’ve read. I don’t think they can make the huge jump from income into assets, certainly, or that changes the whole law.
dmsilev
Erick of the House of Erick has a sad:
I love that last bit. “America hates the GOP. How do we fix this? MORE COWBELL!”
Chyron HR
@Kay:
I think the preferred term is “office manager”.
Kay
@Chyron HR:
Actually, in this office, the office manager is my appointed guardian. She’s on maternity leave.
“What about MEEEE?!” I whine. I want her to come back :)
IM
@dmsilev:
This guy is a democratic plant.
In a few years he will swapped on the Glienecker Brücke against Nader or so.
PurpleGirl
@NotMax: Ah, I did not know that aspect of it. That makes it similar to Greek/Eastern Orthodox seminary students — they hold off on ordination until they decide to marry or not. Parish clergy can get married but then they can’t become monks and rise in the hiearchy to be a Metropolitan (RCC Cardinal). If they are ordained single, they must stay single; if ordained married, they get to keep the wife.
Kay
Still have their priorities in order, I see: Number One, my re-election!
This is what it’s like in a bubble. They forget to include some blather about the “American People”
Villago Delenda Est
Apparently, the NY State GOP has lost its collective mind. According to Noisemax, they’re actually seriously considering nominating Donald Trump and the Squirrel That Lives On His Head for governor…
Botsplainer
Screw all that. I’m trying contacts again for the first time since 1983. A lot has changed – they’re better and disposable, and my multifocal prescription presents challenges. Basically, I wear a contact for close stuff in my left eye, and for far stuff in my right eye, and my brain is supposed to make it all work.
Ash Can
@Kay:
::munches popcorn::
Mea
I voted/supported Zerban last time, and will do so again. He has a better chance of being elected than any person who has been working in California. I say that as someone who commutes back and forth between California and Kenosha, and thus has had a lot of chances to have the “oh, California” conversation. And Kenosha is the part of Ryan’s district that is NOT in his pocket. One wildcard, however, is ability to inspire voters: an upset against Ryan will require really, really strong democratic turnout AND republican supporters staying home. The presidential race, with its high democratic voer turnout, wasn’t enough to get Zerban over the top, so any democrat running has a hard climb.
boatboy_srq
it’s just
racism and bigotryestrangement and social isolation at work here.Were I a Wisconsin voter, I’d be strongly tempted to vote for the Devil himself over Ryan – but in that case I think Ryan would be running against himself so it would hardly matter.
me
@jl: I know Zerban personally and he’s no conservadem.
Matt
As others have pointed out, the same crowd that brought us “WADDYA MEAN THEY MADE A MOOSLEM MISS MERIKA” in all its nativist, can’t-even-hate-straight glory will be out in force on this one.
For that matter, independent expenditures may put so much nasty in the air trying to drum up votes for Ryan that even the suburbanites will wake up and say, “dude, that’s seriously racist”.
pharniel
My wife is from Kenosha and her family are all around the WI-1 district – and yeah – anyone non-white hasn’t got a shot in hell.
Even Kenosha (which is fairly liberal) is ‘liberal’ like 1960’s Romulus, MI was ‘liberal’ in tolerating my grand parents (it was a mixed marriage you see – he was catholic and she was baptist) EXAMPLE: Uncle-in-law that we stay with is a former mayor and die-hard Obot. Still says things like ‘those people in our old neighborhood’. Still has friends over who talk about ‘racial purity’.
But you head on out to Wakishaw or Racine and you get the fox new watching ‘both sides are to blame’ resentful bastard contingent.
Though to be fair only the younger cousins will engage with me about politics – simply because 14 is too young to realize just how badly you’ve lost when you start to quote glenn beck.
That district will eventually go purple – it’s just going to take awhile.
schrodinger's cat
@PurpleGirl: Whether you wear a turban depends on the individual, not all Sikh men leave their hair uncut tie it in a turban and grow a beard. My friend’s married to a Sikh who is clean shaven but his brother wears a turban and has a beard.
Phil Perspective
@dollared: Except Obama won Ryan’s district(at least in ’08 .. and might have again). The problem is the DCCC always let Ryan off. They’d never throw in with any challenger at all. Before Zerban, the Zombie-eyed Granny-starver never had any serious competition. Ever.
Phil Perspective
@Mea: Yeah .. because as I said .. the national orgs(DNC & DCCC) don’t want Ryan touched. I’ll let you guess why that is.
Phil Perspective
If he can demonstrate his fundraising chops he expects the national Democratic Party, which he said supports his candidacy, to step in with another $1 million to $2 million …
Has he actually talked to anyone at the DNC or DCCC? They don’t take too kindly to anyone challenging Ryan, or any GOP committee chair no matter how competitive the district.
jayackroyd
All I know is the dirty fucking hippies were pushing DTrips to put some money into the 2012 race. Zerban could have made his life miserable. And it’s not exactly a safe seat for a zombie eyed granny killer.
jayackroyd
Oh and what PPhil said. (HEY PP!)
Did you hear Joan on Sunday? She talked a bit about this post:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/10/1246004/-How-House-Republicans-guaranteed-a-nbsp-shutdown
which has not received enough attention.
KXB
@schrodinger’s cat:
Just as not all Jewish men wear yarmulkes, eat kosher, and observe sabbath, not all Sikh men will don a turban and let their beard grow long. I also know plenty of Muslim guys who enjoy whiskey and Hindus enjoying a cheeseburger. Not being very religious is not limited to Christians/Jews.
folkbum
Late to thread, but Kaleka may be a UFO truther:
http://www.bluecheddar.net/?p=35892