Maybe I should’ve left this for Kay, but it’s that kinda night. Via Locker at LGF, “Wisconsin GOP official resigns after drunken crash with kids in car”:
Columbia County Republican Party chair Amber Hahn resigned on Friday after drunkenly crashing a car carrying herself and her three children, according to The Wisconsin State Journal…
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Ms. Hahn, a Poynette School Board Member and volunteer firefighter said in her resignation statement, “It is clear to me now that I have lost focus and I am trying to do too much. I have an addiction to alcohol and need to address it.”
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UPDATE: Ms. Hahn is also the GOP official who appeared on Fox News last February masquerading as an “upset Wisconsin parent” weighing in on the issue of public school teachers teaching union history in the classroom. Neither Ms. Hahn nor the hosts and producers of “Fox and Friends” felt the need to disclose that Hahn was a Republican activist and local GOP chair.
Busy busy busy!
Villago Delenda Est
This stuff never ends! Ever! All these bad examples, brought together in one single political party, and the media LOOKS THE OTHER WAY while they drive drunk, cavort about in wet suits, get spanked while wearing diapers by the hired help.
Comrade Mary
Thank goodness no one was hurt. And thank goodness (and badness) that Lady Gaga can still write a hook.
boss bitch
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/us-to-grant-waivers-for-no-child-left-behind/2011/08/05/gIQA52ra1I_print.html
Yutsano
@Comrade Mary: Autotune still sucks massive donkey dick. I can’t ever forgive Cher for giving that legitimacy as a sound effect.
Arclite
Straight out of the Pravda playbook.
Spaghetti Lee
Ms. Hahn is also the GOP official who appeared on Fox News last February masquerading as an “upset Wisconsin parent”
Phil Disclosure? Nope, never heard of him.
El Cid
Woman Calls 911 To Report A Dangerous Drunk Driver — Herself.
JGabriel
WaPo via boss bitch:
That’s just begging to retitled:
.
sb
@boss bitch:
Dear Secretary Duncan,
You have made a career of looking teachers in the eye and saying class size doesn’t matter, accountability has to happen and, gee, why can’t we all be like Michelle Rhee.
Having second thoughts, Arne? Would they be the same thoughts that so many educators tried to get through your thick skull for years now?
I want to be there when you ask congress for the exemptions to DADT, a law designed to punish teachers for daring to unionize. A law you loved.
I want to be there when you say, “Look, if we don’t change the law, the states won’t get federal money for public education.”
I want to be there when you see the smiles on their faces after you utter those words.
If you care about education at all, think about another line of work. Please.
Sincerely…
Felanius Kootea
@El Cid:
Favorite part:
“You behind them or…?”
“No I am them.”
“You am them?”
JGabriel
@Yutsano:
A bit harsh, don’t you think? Without Autotune, Rebecca Black’s Friday would be unlistenable.
.
Yutsano
@JGabriel: Ohh you’re a sneaky one there. Never listened to it, if I can help it never will. Same prohibition with teh Bieber.
sb
@JGabriel: It was up on youtube for I don’t know how long and I still couldn’t make it through the whole song.
Frankensteinbeck
@Yutsano:
I just can’t stand the guy’s hair. It’s freakish to me that he’s constantly praised for his hair, when it’s Celestia-awful. It’s oily, lank, and flat. Who thinks that’s good hair?
My theory is that it’s cognitive dissonance. Having committed themselves to him being a hearththrob, they cannot maintain the belief that his hair sucks. Since his hair is so bad it cannot be ignored, the conflict makes them not merely like it, but rave about it as the strength of emotion is channeled in the opposite direction.
EDIT – I’m going to go to bed. I don’t know the source of this ghastly insomnia, but I think I can let go enough to sleep now. Anyway, the argument in the last thread petered out, presumably because NR was smarter than me and went to bed himself.
El Cid
“Do you want to stop driving before you get in an accident?”…
…”Can I take my seat belt off? I haven’t turned my car off. I have the parking break on. Can I take my seat belt off?”
…”How many people do you get that call in on themself?”
“Not many.”
joel hanes
Busy busy busy!
Ah, a fellow Bokononist.
(I wrote “Bokononist” in the block marked “Religion” on all my Army forms during the draft induction process)
JGabriel
@Yutsano:
I protest. I was not being sneaky; I was being drily snarky.
.
Yutsano
@JGabriel: Uh-huh. Don’t you even break out the Astley. I’m watching you meester.
FlipYrWhig
@Frankensteinbeck: If NR had _really_ wanted to go to bed, he would have done so much earlier and more decisively. So the fact that he was awake at all shows that he was in league with Big Corporate Insomnia all along.
Sharl
Maybe of interest to DougJ:
Time for more screechy WaPo op-eds, decrying the Dept. of Education for cracking down on for-profit post-secondary educational institutions for lovin’ then leavin’ their
marksstudents, once they deposit that sweet, sweet money from those government-backed student loans.*Original WSJ source article here (subscription required).
Alwhite
It would be nice to think that the excessive drinking was an attempt to drown a guilty conscience. But this is Wisconsin, land of the most lax DUI laws in the country & highest per capita alcohol intake. The search for a modern Republican with a conscience must continue. Surely there must be ONE . . . somewhere out there.
R-Jud
@Alwhite:
And suddenly, I understand why most of the Irish wing of my family moved there. “For the lakes”, my ass.
@Sharl: I’ve done writing work for one of these companies before. It’s been interesting to see how their legal department has restricted the language of their marketing copy more and more as the crackdown has progressed.
Danny
OT, but Howard Dean was pitch perfect on Face the Nation. Very, very good. And that’s exactly how it should go down, good surrogates forcefully staying on message. No need for President and magical bully pulpit getting themselves muddy wrestling with pigs.
Southern Beale
It’s not air pollution, it’s “Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment“! And it’s good for you! Honest!
That’s the latest from the ALEC conference in New Orleans, at least.
If these people could just step away from counting the money to look at themselves for a minute they’d be appalled.
Bruce S
Hey, in fairness neither did Fox & Friends disclose that the people who produce and host that show are both GOP activists and total morons posing as “journalists.”
kay
I’m glad you didn’t Anne Laurie, because I didn’t know about it.
As Fox News goes further and further into state level issues and people, I like to think about the people watching who are actually familiar with those issues and people. In Columbia County WI, for example, many viewers would recognize the GOP county chair and activist, and also know that Fox News deliberately deceived viewers.
It’s surreal to watch them do it. The news people on FOX were ordered (or volunteered) to sell the idea that Jennifer Brunner, the former Democratic Sec of State of Ohio, was countenancing voter fraud in 2008. Because I’m familiar with both Jennifer Brunner and Ohio election process at the county level, I knew the news people were lying, and I knew exactly how and when they were lying. It’s pure propaganda, but weirdly compelling viewing if you’re an ordinary person in one of the states or counties or cities Fox/NewsCorp is targeting electorally. It’s somehow much more personal than hearing them lie about DC or federal issues, because the people in these counties and states know what they’re saying isn’t true.
gene108
Star Strek Tik Tok mix a wonderful job of editing to the music.
A MUST SEE FOR A SENTIENT BEINGS ON CLASS M PLANETS EVERYWHERE!!!
kay
Her problem won’t be the DUI. Her problem will be having her kids in the car. That will trigger a concurrent investigation into whether she’s a fit parent.
Did she resign from the school board? I think she has to. Public schools deliver almost weekly lectures on impaired driving to high schoolers.
I don’t know that she’s a good example there.
Be nice opportunity to replace her on the school board, as she apparently objects to teaching US history “in the classroom”.
Mark S.
@boss bitch:
Jesus Christ, did anyone think that might be a tad unrealistic? That’s gotta be the stupidest law ever written.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
Hey now. Fighting against the forces of Islamohomocommunist union thugs isn’t easy. Of course this poor lady has been hitting the bottle until it cries for mercy.
Mark S.
@Southern Beale:
I eagerly await Radley Balko’s defense of the Koch brothers on that one.
OzarkHillbilly
How can she be masquerading when she is a parent, she is from Wisconsin, and she is upset by union history being taught in the schools? That has to be one of the stupidest things I have ever read.
@Spaghetti Lee:
Yeah, full disclosure would be nice, but it is Fox, one should just assume it is a Republican hack there.
PurpleGirl
@Mark S.: At the same time there is also the requirement that schools improve every year by a set percentage. Schools that were already doing well faced losing money when there was no place for them to go, improvement-wise. Many schools began to downgrade their assessments right after the law was passed to get some room to move about in. It was really creepy reading about that aspect of the law. (At the time I worked for an educational non-profit and while the law didn’t affect us directly, it was going to affect the schools we worked in.)
Among professional educators there was lots of talk — but no one listens to them anymore, and certainly not Arne Duncan.
RossInDetroit
@Mark S.:
Maybe a feature, not a bug. If they really don’t want to give schools money what better way to leave them behind than to put the bar out of reach?
PurpleGirl
@RossInDetroit: Yes, it was a feature. And it got pointed out at the time.
PurpleGirl
What I want to know is where Ms. Hahn sends her children to school. Do they attend private schools, the public schools or does she home school them?
Ash Can
@PurpleGirl: I’d bet dollars to donuts she home schools them, and bitching about what’s being taught in the local public school was just part of her “concerned parent” shtick on Fox.
Sharl
The tough and brilliant Barbara Ehrenreich is on with Amy Goodman today (Democracy Now). It’s the 10th anniversary of the release of her Nickled and Dimed.
My, how time flies when
you’re having funyour economy is going in the crapper.burnspbesq
Can I just say that the high slide that ended Daniel Murphy’s season was the dirtiest play I have seen in baseball this year. Deliberate intent to injure, no doubt about it. If Costanza doesn’t receive a long suspension, Mets pitchers should be throwing at him every time he faces them for the remainder of his career.
vtr
The picture that accompanies the story in the State Journal shows a former chairperson looking a bit disheveled, but wearing a lovely orange casual suit.
gene108
@Ash Can: Why would she be active in the local school district, if she home schools her kids?
I’ve not seen any parents, who home school their kids that want to be active in their local school district. The two actions seem mutually exclusive.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@burnspbesq: That is absolute bullshit. What game were you watching.
“The Mets said Constanza’s slide was clean. If the organization had any ideas of making Murphy a full-time second baseman in the future, that plan is probably dead: Murphy missed most of last season after a collision, while he was playing second base for Triple-A Buffalo, tore the medial collateral ligament in his right knee.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/mets/double_trouble_for_hexed_mets_FdgaD76hoYSTBFqhrJQwuJ#ixzz1URNHvGOD“
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Watch the replay from a number on angles, Constanza’s foot hits the bag, jams his knee and the force of the impact popped his foot off the bag and into Murhpy’s knee. When you spike someone you go in spike high.
Jay in Oregon
@Southern Beale:
That story immediately brings to mind this Bill Hicks clip expounding on the value of marketing and advertising…
RossInDetroit
Ms. Hahn might have gotten away with this little escapade if the car hadn’t squealed on her. The OnStar system issued a Collision Alert through the cell system. This usually happens when the airbags deploy. OnStar Assistants log the alert and call local law enforcement to respond. Plenty of people have skated from drunk driving accidents with no witnesses but not this time.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
“I’m sick to my stomach for Murph,” Collins said. “I was there to watch him rehab last year, and what he went through, so I feel terrible for him.”
Collins added that he thought Constanza’s slide was clean.
more from the Mets
“When Jose Constanza’s spike drove into Daniel Murphy’s left leg in the seventh inning on Sunday, there were surely grumblings among Mets fans over whether there was any intent behind the spikes-high finish to Constanza’s slide.
For the record, none of the Mets accused Constanza of anything dirty after the game.
“Every guy that went up and saw it said that it was just a good, clean slide. A straight-in slide,” Terry Collins said. “Matter of fact I thought Murph might have tagged him out. Obviously, due to the speed of Constanza it just hit him hard.”
arguingwithsignposts
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): Okay, I’m assuming you’re not “The Raven” who’s showing up in the previous thread.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@arguingwithsignposts: Negative
PurpleGirl
@gene108: School boards are a good portal for political activism. The fact that any one home schools their kids doesn’t mean they don’t want to wreck the local school system and the best place to do that is on the school board. Also, when they run for a different political office, saying they are/were on the school board sounds really good.
burnspbesq
@Raven (formerly stuckinred):
I saw what I saw.
Ash Can
@gene108: Although I was half-joking in my comment, in all seriousness, if Wisconsin’s local school councils are structured the way they are here in Chicago, there are a small number of seats on them reserved for community members with no direct involvement with the school. If she’s looking to impose a political agenda on her community, that would be a perfect place to start.
ETA: Or, what PurpleGirl said. :)
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@burnspbesq: Yea, it doesn’t matter what the fucking player and manager saw. Whiny fucking bullshit.
The Raven
Oh, BTW, thoughtful article on Aaron Swartz, link.
Gus
Well it is Wisconsin. I’m not sure driving drunk is illegal there.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gus: It is. FWIW Columbia County is a rural county north of Madison. It has a total population of about 52,000. It includes part of the town of Wisconsin Dells.
shortstop
I considered and discarded several Dells jokes.
Not sure that FOX’s duplicity at the local political level really carries a price tag. Most activists and county chairs are recognizable to a pretty small range of people, and most of those are going to be sympathetic, anyway, if they’re FOX viewers. They’ll either fail to pick up that the person’s affiliation isn’t mentioned, or they’ll notice and approve. Tapping local GOP diehards to portray random “concerned citizens” is a good way to keep up FOX-GOP connections at the grassroots level with hardly anyone the wiser. God, I hate these people.
TRex
Gosh, you’d think that SOMEBODY around here would recognize my real name in the byline for that Raw Story piece.
Love,
TRex
bcinaz
What is this….Republican Voter ID Self Suppression?
Frankensteinbeck
@FlipYrWhig:
I’m cracking up, and that’s not sarcasm.
Suffern ACE
@Mark S.: Yes it is. Some of us have been noting that for quite some time. This demand of impossible standards or else, along with the reform ideal that involves firing mass numbers of teachers for “underperforming,” then expecting to replace them by drawing on an imaginary pool of teachers from either better schools or with people who demonstrated such a committment to education that they hadn’t bothered to choose it as a major in college, are two of the CW platforms that just aren’t to be questioned.
joel hanes, sp4
@Ash Can:
If she’s looking to impose a political agenda on her community, [the local school board] would be a perfect place to start.
Or, OTOH, if someone were really serious about forming a truly progressive third party in the United States, local school boards would be a perfect place to incubate potential candidates for mayor, city council, and county supervisor, a few of whom might be material for the state legislature.
Michael Hall
God, that was an awful movie. Oh, yeah–and the GOP sucks, too.
Catsy
@burnspbesq:
As usual, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.
Do yourself a favor and watch the replay on the link provided above, all the way through so that you see it from multiple angles and in slow mo. Costanza’s foot was clearly low, jammed against the bag and skipped up into Murphy’s leg–in a way that clearly caused Costanza pain as well.