Tag: shenanigans

Cochran’s Pyrrhic Victory: Bribery, Racism, and Fear…Oh, My!

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

Thad Cochran CartoonWe had a dream and the dream is still with us. Today the conservative movement took a backseat to liberal Democrats in Mississippi. – Chris McDaniel, 6/24/2014

The fallout continues, as more and more information pours in, as to how incumbent Mississippi Republican Senator Thad Cochran achieved his victory in Monday night’s Primary Election against TEA Party Candidate Chris McDaniel.

The truth ain’t pretty.

The New York Times reported that

With an unusual assist from African-American voters and other Democrats who feared his opponent, Senator Thad Cochran on Tuesday beat back a spirited challenge from State Senator Chris McDaniel, triumphing in a Republican runoff and defeating the Tea Party in the state where the movement’s hopes were bright.

“We all have a right to be proud of our state tonight,” Mr. Cochran said at his victory party in Jackson, Miss. “This is your victory.”

Mr. McDaniel, speaking in Hattiesburg, was angry, and he did not hesitate to say so. “There is something a bit strange, there is something a bit unusual about a Republican primary that’s decided by liberal Democrats,” he said.

He accused Mr. Cochran of abandoning the conservative movement. “So much for principles,” he said.

Mr. McDaniel, an uncompromising conservative, relied on the muscle of outside groups and the enthusiasm of conservative voters who are weary of Mr. Cochran’s old-school Washington ways.

The 76-year-old senator ran a largely sleepy campaign until the primary on June 3, when he was edged out by Mr. McDaniel but won enough votes to keep his opponent from outright victory. Mr. Cochran, who is seeking his seventh term, used the past three weeks to turn out Democratic voters — especially African-Americans — to make up that deficit.

Which begs the question: Why would a bunch of Black Democrats down here in Mississippi, vote for a 76-year-old “cracka”, who bills himself as a “Conservative Republican”?

Back on June 17th, Breitbart News reported the following:

Rickey Cole, the chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party, says Cochran’s allies are paying Democratic operatives to help get out the vote with a questionable tactic.

“Pete Perry” – the chairman of the Hinds County Republican Party – “is paying James ‘Scooby Doo’ Warren thousands of dollars to funnel to black preachers and others to get-out-the-vote for Cochran,” Cole wrote in a Facebook message sent to a top aide of state Sen. Chris McDaniel’s campaign, Ric McCluskey, just after midnight Tuesday.

“Large sums of cash are being passed around. These guys are old school ‘walking around money’ vote buyers,” Cole wrote in the message, obtained by Breitbart News, adding, “Need some out of state media to put some heavy scrutiny on Pete asap.”

In a phone interview, Cole confirmed he made the allegations and that he thinks there should be an investigation. “I can’t prove any of it yet,” Cole said. “This is just what I had heard. It think it warrants investigating, because I don’t know all of the details on it I just got word that James [‘Scooby Doo’ Warren] was bragging that he got money.”

“The reason I sent that text is because I wanted the McDaniel people to know that there was an effort out here ongoing to mobilize Democratic voters to vote for Cochran,” Cole added. “That’s simply because I don’t like the idea of Democrats voting in the Republican primary or Republicans voting in the Democratic primary. I believe members of each party should vote in their own primaries.”

Warren confirmed to the Clarion-Ledger that he is working for Cochran, and got approval from Washington, D.C., Democrats to do so. “I called D.C. and told them what was going on with the tea party,” Warren said. “But I can’t do anything after the 24th because I’m a Democrat … Whoever wins will have to deal with me in November.”

In the story, Warren is not quoted addressing allegations of impropriety from Cole.

In an interview Monday, Perry said he hopes that money routed through him won’t end up used to pay for votes.

When asked if he thinks there’s payments for votes happening in this election, Perry said that “I certainly hope not” adding that while he’s “been against that all my life since the 60s” he has “seen it done and I’m totally against it.”

And, if paying them off did not motivate Black Democrats to vote for an old White Republican, the Cochran Campaign used another time-proven tactic.

Can you say, FEAR, boys and Girls? Sure you can. Check this Cochran Campaign Flyer out:

Cochran Flyer #2

The undisputed Godfather of Conservative Radio Talk Show Hosts, Rush Limbaugh, said the following about this disgusting flyer on his program , yesterday:

Now, it would be one thing if the Democrats did that. They do it every election cycle anyway. But for them to be joined, even if from a distance, by the Republican establishment here, simply confirms what we have long said on this program about establishment Washington. It is ruling class vs. country class. It’s elites vs. the plebes. You and me are the plebes, and they are the elites, and they are aligning together.

My friend Mark Levin, F. Lee Levin, makes the point that Washington is not going to be fixed from Washington. This proves it, if there was any proof needed. Washington is not going to be fixed in Washington. The establishment is going to align itself every which way it can against any outside challenger, like this Tea Party candidate. But it does look like African-Americans.

Democrat African-Americans really did secure the victory for Thad Cochran in a Republican primary. So here we have a result that is not representative of the Republican Party thinking in Mississippi. The technique that was used and the manner in which this was achieved is reprehensible.

Former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin also shot from the hip, concerning Cochran’s “shenanigans” on her Facebook Page, yesterday:

With Friends Like These, Who Needs Liberals?

As we pointed out last week (see: http://t.co/y8T64iZQyR), there were several potentially illegal political games afoot in Mississippi to motivate Democrat voters to “switch” over to the GOP for a day to help save a 42 year Republican member of Congress. On top of that, millions of dollars from out of state liberal billionaires like Mike Bloomberg poured in at the last minute on that same incumbent’s behalf. You have to ask yourself why? When a primary election is lost fairly, I am all for unifying behind the victor and joining forces to fight in November. When an election is questionable, with potential legal violations, politics MUST be put aside and the irregularities MUST be fully investigated. Regardless of party, we owe it to voters and to democracy within our Republic. The integrity of the vote speaks directly to the integrity of those who serve and the trust we ask the American public to put in our institutions. I told Chris McDaniel last night that I stand with his effort to get to the bottom of this – he needs to know average, but tremendously concerned, citizens want to make sure the integrity of last night’s results in Mississippi are verified. Voting shenanigans never cease to amaze, but they had better cease altogether for the sake of ethical elections. And any GOP “architect” behind these abhorrent voting shenanigans should be ashamed of this Pyrrhic victory for the establishment. If we find out it’s true that some of the characters alleged to have masterminded this Mississippi hijacking are the same ones who’ve tried to destroy other Republicans’ careers, they need to be taken to task and only be hired by unethical campaigns. Fool us once, shame on you; fool us twice, shame on us. And if any news organization ignores a free and fair elections issue like this, than whether left-leaning or center right, their silence will speak volumes.

As a Mississippian, I have lost all faith in my state’s Republican Party. As regular readers know, I have gone after the out-of-touch National GOP Establishment incessantly, bestowing upon them the title of “Vichy Republicans”. However, in my naiveté, it never occurred to me that a politician from the Magnolia State, where we pride ourselves on our gentlemanly manners and Christian upbringing, could be just a big a cold-hearted snake as the spineless Speaker of the House and that product of Chicago Backroom Politics, the fallen messiah in the White House.

Brother,was I wrong.

So, don’t come begging to me and my fellow Conservative Mississippi Republicans for “unity” this November, Senator Cochran. After last night, it will probably fall on deaf ears.

Shame on you.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obamacare: The Failure of Healthcare.Gov Due to Old-Fashioned Political Shenanigans

On By kingsjesterIn Politics8 Comments

obamadoctorRemember all the promises that President Obama made concerning his plan for a National Healthcare System?

It was going to be the great thing since sliced bread. Millions would have access to “affordable Healthcare”.

Well, to say that Scooter’s Signature Program’s Launch has not lived up to expectations is like saying The Titanic ran into an ice cube.

There are more problems with this fiasco than you can shake a stick at.

For example, let’s look at the first point-of-contact with the program for an American Insurance-seeker: the website, Healthcare.gov.

According to reuters.com…

A Reuters review of government documents shows that the contract to build the federal Healthcare.gov online insurance website – key to President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare reform – tripled in potential total value to nearly $292 million as new money was assigned to the work beginning in April this year.

The increase coincided with warnings from federal and state officials that the information technology underlying the online marketplaces, or exchanges, where people could buy Obamacare health insurance was in trouble.

In March, Henry Chao, deputy chief information officer at the lead Obamacare agency, said at an insurance-industry meeting that he was “pretty nervous” about the exchanges being ready by October 1, adding, “let’s just make sure it’s not a third-world experience.” At the same event, his colleague Gary Cohen said, “Everyone recognizes that day one will not be perfect.”

The contract to build Healthcare.gov, issued to the CGI Federal unit of Montreal-based CGI Group, has come under scrutiny after the site, offering new subsidized health insurance in 36 states, stalled within minutes of its October 1 launch, leaving millions of Americans unable to create accounts or shop for plans.

In its third week of operations, the website continues to experience problems, which government officials say they are working day and night to repair. Even allies of the Obama administration have been highly critical, with former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs calling it “excruciatingly embarrassing” and calling for “some people” to be fired.

How and why the system failed, and how long it will take to fix, remains unclear. But evidence of a last-minute surge in spending suggests the needs of the project were growing well beyond the initial expectations of the contractor and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“Why this went from a ceiling of $93.7 million to $292 million is hard to fathom,” said Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group that analyzes government contracting.

“Something changed. It suggests they ran into problems and knew last spring that they couldn’t do it for $93.7 million. They just blew through the original ceiling. Where was the contract oversight?”

Just who is the CGI Group? What sort of reputation did they have, even before they built this massive failure of a website?

According to a website, out of Fairfax County, VA, fairfaxunderground.com…

Canadian provincial health officials last year fired the parent company of CGI Federal, the prime contractor for the problem-plagued Obamacare health exchange websites, the Washington Examiner has learned.

CGI Federal’s parent company, Montreal-based CGI Group, was officially terminated in September 2012 by a Ontario government health agency after the firm missed three years of deadlines and failed to deliver the province’s flagship online medical registry.

The online registry was supposed to be up and running by June 2011.

The CMS officials refused to say if federal officials knew of its parent company’s IT failure in Canada when awarding the six contracts.

It wasn’t just those contracts. As mentioned earlier, Obama dumped huge amounts of money on CGI.

CGI Federal is a subsidiary of Montreal-based CGI Group. With offices in Fairfax, Va., the subsidiary has been a darling of the Obama administration, which since 2009 has bestowed it with $1.4 billion in federal contracts, according to USAspending.gov.

HHS is by far the single largest federal contractor of CGI, showering it with $645 million in contracts. The Defense Department pays the Canadian company $254 million, the EPA $58 million and the Justice Department $36 million.

In comparison, in 2008, under President George W. Bush, CGI contracts totaled only $16.5 million for all federal departments and agencies.

The interesting question is why Obama dumped 1.4 billion in taxpayer money on a company this incompetent and ignored all the warnings.

It’s one more thing that ought to be investigated.

I agree. Let’s investigate. With any corporation, all negotiations begin with the CEO.  CGI Group, Inc. is no different.

Allow me to introduce you to Mr. George Schindler…

Mr. George D. Schindler has been the President of United States and Canada at CGI Group Inc. since January 2013 and served as the President U.S. Operations since October 2011. As a member of CGI’s Management Committee, Mr. Schindler also participates in the development and execution of CGI’s global strategy. Mr. Schindler served as the President of Stanley, Inc. since August 2010. Mr. Schindler served as the President of CGI Federal Inc. from 2006 to October 1, 2011, where he led CGI’s business with the Civilian, Defense, and Intelligence Sectors of the U.S. government. Under his leadership, CGI Federal was named the 2010 Greater Washington U.S. Government Contractor of the Year (greater than $300 million) by the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, PSC and Washington Technology. CGI was also named one of the “9 Hot Companies to Watch” by Federal Computer Week.

In August 2012, Schindler donated $1,000 to Obama’s Re-Election Campaign,according to opensecrets.org. However, by then, his company had already secured the contract to build the website.

That donation was made at the very same time that a bunch of business leaders, including Schindler, met with the president at the White House, to talk about “insourcing”, a pleasant little term which the Administration made up to describe their pleading with American Corporations not to move their assets out of the country to get away from all the taxes that the same Obama Administration was penalizing them with.

Informationweek.com reported at the time that…

“You’ve heard of outsourcing. Well, these companies are insourcing,” the president said. “That’s exactly the kind of commitment to country that we need–especially right now, when we’re in a make-or-break moment for the middle class and those aspiring to get to the middle class here in the United States.”

Obama added: “When a lot of folks are still looking for work, now is the time for us to step on the gas.” And while he gave a nod to what he said were the “the bottom line” benefits of sourcing domestically, Obama asserted “a moral case” for insourcing.

Great sound bites, especially in a political season where attention is focused on 99 percenters, Occupy protesters, and general class warfare. But here’s the reality: There’s no broad trend toward insourcing, but there is a recognition that the pressure to cut costs over the past decade led many companies to push the envelope on offshoring a bit too far, and that it’s time for some rebalancing.

…CGI Group is a midsize tech services company based in Quebec, with offices in more than 40 U.S. locations as well as centers in Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Mumbai, India. CGI employs roughly 10,000 workers in the U.S. and 20,000 elsewhere.

Of late, the company has been opening development centers in small U.S. towns such as Belton, Texas, Lebanon, Va., and Troy, Ala. CGI U.S. president George Schindler, who attended Obama’s insourcing summit, told me that such locales are becoming more cost competitive with India and offer a pool of untapped IT talent that can add some geographic balance to CGI’s workforce.

“These are areas that have been harder hit by the downturn than others, but they offer a set of dynamics that are working in our favor,” Schindler told me following his visit to the White House. “They offer a great cost of living, they are motivated from a local government perspective, and there’s partnerships with community colleges that can train people in the skills we need. It makes an attractive cost case, whereas the opposite is happening in some other parts of the world.”

As for creating jobs in the U.S., Schindler says it’s great to be able to contribute to local communities. “But it’s business first–the economics have to be there,” he says.

Since Schindler had already secured the Healthcare.gov contract, several months before Obama’s “Insourcing” Meeting, that means that the August 2012 meeting was, like everything else Obama does, a Dog and Pony Show, held for the purpose of Propaganda.

And, as reported above, Schindler’s Corporation had already been “outsourcing” to Canada., where their work was “less than stellar”, to say the least.

To summarize, the failure of Obama’s Rollout of Obamacare , specifically, his miserable excuse of a website, is the result of old-fashioned, “you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch-your’s” political shenanigans.

How’s that “Hope and Change” thingy workin’ out for y’all?

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

The Republican Primary: Shenanigans in the Show Me State

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

The Republican Primary is turning ugly in the Show Me State, as  shenanigans were on display on St. Paddy’s Day.

Stltoday.com has the details:

Crowds and chaos rattled Missouri’s GOP caucuses on Saturday, threatening to put further scrutiny on a process that was already a national anomaly.

In St. Charles County, which was to have been the biggest single prize of the day, the caucus was shut down before delegates were chosen after a boisterous crowd objected to how the meeting was being run, including an attempted ban on videotaping. Two supporters of presidential hopeful Ron Paul were arrested.

At other caucuses, participants gathered outdoors as the appointed locations turned out to be too small to accommodate crowds or waited for hours as organizers worked through procedural questions.

Even before the day’s events took a rancorous turn, state Republican officials said the winner of the caucus would not be officially known until next month. But with the confusion surrounding St. Charles, and many more delegates available in a pair of caucuses next weekend, the primary picture for Missouri may have only become murkier Saturday.

“It was a joke. It was a complete joke,” said David Nelson of St. Peters, who participated in the St. Charles County caucus.

The state party has not used a caucus to select its choice for presidential preference in 16 years — and the rust showed.

Several caucuses did not start on time as higher than expected turnouts packed the libraries, schools and grocery stores where the events were held.

In Jefferson County, where the caucus started about 25 minutes late so everyone could be registered, Clarence Mason brought a briefcase full of food.

“Any place working with Robert’s Rules of Order, you bring food,” said Mason, 62, of DeSoto. “I like to call them Robert’s Rules of Disorder.”

In Ballwin, participants were shut out of an appearance by White House hopeful Rick Santorum because the City Council chambers had reached its 118-person capacity.

“We have had people who left, elderly who could not find a place to sit,” said Craig Borchelt, a Mitt Romney organizer. “There was a guy out here with a cast — he finally sat down on the grass.”

The caucus was moved outside the building to accommodate the crowd.

Participants in Saturday’s caucuses weren’t actually selecting their choice for presidential nominee. They were selecting delegates who will appear at two larger meetings in April and June, who will in turn select delegates to the national convention in Tampa.

“Clear as mud, right?” said Chris Howard, who helped organize the outdoor caucus in Ballwin.

Nowhere in the state did the process veer more off course than in St. Charles, a key prize for the Romney, Paul and Santorum campaigns.

Because St. Louis County’s caucuses were divided into 28 township meetings, St. Charles County was slated to assign more delegates than any other single location on Saturday. Jackson County, which includes Kansas City, has more delegates, but, like St. Louis city, asked to hold its caucuses on March 24, so as to avoid a conflict with St. Patrick’s Day.

The caucus in St. Charles County, which was held at Francis Howell North High in St. Peters, was adjourned after police said they were going to “shut us down,” according to Matt Ehlen, the Republican activist who was named chairman of the meeting. Police said 2,500 people showed up, although organizers put the number at less than 1,000.

“For the safety and well being of the attendants at the caucus, we had to adjourn the meeting,” Ehlen said.

However, several individuals at the caucus said much of the consternation revolved around Ehlen himself. Ehlen became chairman after a voice vote, but the head of the county GOP organization failed to recognize any other candidate.

“All of sudden he’s the chairman and the place goes nuts,” said Tim Finch, a Paul supporter from Dardenne Prairie. “This is not how it’s supposed to work.”

Some of Paul’s supporters were also irked by an announced ban on video recording, with organizers asking police to help enforce it.

When the objections reached a fever pitch, the meeting was shut down without any delegates being awarded.

“We started speaking about the Constitution. Where’s our rights? Where are our votes? This is fascism,” said Jim Evans, another Paul supporter.

Buddy Hardin, a Romney leader and longtime behind-the-scenes force in GOP politics in St. Charles County, alleged that Santorum supporters and caucus organizers sought to close the meeting after they realized that Paul and Romney backers had formed an alliance to share the county’s delegates.

“Once they realized they didn’t have a slate and they wouldn’t get any delegates, they tanked it,” Hardin alleged. He said the shutdown was carried out “to avoid a Santorum embarrassment and loss.”

Karen Fesler, state director for the Santorum campaign, denied that. “We didn’t give any instructions to shut it down,” she said.

Eugene Dokes, the county GOP committee chairman who said he’s uncommitted, said organizers had been trying to select a slate of delegates that reflected the relative strength of all three candidates.

One caucus participant accused Paul and Romney supporters of “colluding” to make it impossible to conduct the meeting. Adrian Boyd, an undecided Republican from St. Peters, said both groups were so loud they drowned out the public address system.

“It was descending into an Occupy Wall Street type of an event,” Boyd said.

Police said members of the crowd were “verbally aggressive with event organizers and police officers at the scene.” Officers arrested two Paul backers after giving them “numerous warnings” to leave school property, St. Peters police said.

Brent Stafford of O’Fallon, a county GOP committee member and a leader in Paul’s county campaign, and Kenneth Suitter of St. Charles County were charged with trespassing, a municipal ordinance violation, and released.

Now the pressing question for the state GOP is what will happen to St. Charles’ rich supply of delegates — enough to make the difference in a close race. Party brass began immediately deliberating their next step, which could include holding a new caucus or breaking up the caucus into a series of smaller meetings, as in St. Louis County.

“Today’s events in St Charles were unfortunate, and the meeting was adjourned to protect the safety of all participants,” party chairman David Cole said in a statement. “Moving forward, the State Party plans to reach out to all parties involved. We will come to an agreement to ensure that St Charles County is fully represented throughout the nominating process.”

I can’t say that I’m surprised.  Judging from the attempted written intimidation (A vote for Santorum is a vote for Obama!) by Romney supporters, paid and unpaid, on Conservative websites, the Romney Campaign ‘s operatives will do anything and everything to keep the Republican Party’s Conservative Base from having a voice in the nominating process.

Just ignoring Conservatives isn’t working…and they want to avoid a brokered convention at all costs.