From the Orange County Weekly, there's coverage of the race for Governor in New York and the prospect of marijuana being taxed. Wikipedia tells us that the Orange County Weekly is affiliated with the LA Times and the Village Voice. So, that explains the interest in the New York election. And then there's the Roger Stone connection.
You remember Roger Stone. He's the guy that was trying to appeal to Tea Partiers last summer in Quincy, Illinois
and then promoted that fellow who pushed Dede Scozzafava to quit the race in NY-23--a caper that backfired when voters elected Democratic Bill Owens to Congress, replacing the Republican, John McHugh, whom Obama had promoted to Secretary of the Army.
But, let's keep our eyes on Roger Stone, now managing the campaign of Kristin Davis when he's not in Florida testifying against his old buddy Scott Rothstein.
"Trickster" and former Nixon, Reagan and Bush operative Roger Stone, who tipped the FBI off to Spitzer's ho'-bangin', is pushing the Davis campaign, which was admittedly launched last month in a fit of revenge for the candidate having served nearly four months on Rikers Island while Spitzer escaped indictment in the case that resulted in his resignation.
Naturally, Zoo Yawk's media have had a field day with the campaign development. The New York Daily News reported, "Manhattan Madame Kristin Davis is tossing her lacy brassiere into the political ring," while CBS News echoed she "has thrown her double D's into the ring."
But Davis and Stone now swear her campaign is no hoax or publicity stunt, branding her as the bleach blond reincarnation of Barry Goldwater, advocating free men, free women and free markets.
What's my point in inflicting these jokers on people who are serious about good government? Merely to remind that, in addition to trying to discourage voter participation at the ballot box, the conservative agenda, in true bi-polar fashion, aims to make politics ridiculous--something that nice people don't want to be a part of. That's where the tricksters come in.
Conservative political strategies aren't just aimed at candidates or office holders; what needs to be manipulated is the electorate, especially the serious and principled voters. And that's a 365/24/7 enterprise. Elections aren't just won by getting out the base and keeping progressives away on election day.
So, what I'd say to all those progressives, tempted to get discouraged by the shenanigans and misrepresentations, is that they need to get just a little bit angry at the scum trying to degrade the process of the people governing.
Oh, and btw, after the kerfuffle over Scozzafava, Roger Stone, along with his friend Breitbart, was one of the main promoters of that scurrilous James O'Keefe and his Hannah to get revenge on ACORN for joining forces with the Working Families Party to elect municipal candidates.
His motivation? Getting rid of the competition.
WFP is essentially a money funnel which pays for an aggressive door to door canvas. Largely funded by unions, the WFP is ACORN’s "political arm" in New York State. Candidates supported by the Working Families Party and issues supported by ACORN are both advocated on the door steps of target voter homes as they share one major voter canvas.
The Working Families Party has no county organizations or county committee men or women and no local structure beyond its top leadership and an army of paid canvassers. Since the major parties no longer have the man power to organize an effective voter canvas, Democrats have turned to the WFP for their door to door campaign activities.
But more importantly, the Working Families Party is a criminal enterprise utilizing a for-profit political consulting firm, Data and Field Services (DFS) to skirt New York City election laws regarding public finance and campaign spending limits.
Stone sees ACORN as his competition. In the process, he tells us how the modern PR campaign is run.
But the WFP-DFS scam is even more insidious than that. DFS provides the candidates a discounted rate on their canvassing, staff and get-out-the-vote services – thus allowing the candidate to cheat the public campaign finance system which enforces strict campaign spending limitation.
For example, a voter file like the one public advocate candidate Bill de Blasio purchased from Data and Field Services should have cost $40,000. Instead, he paid only $5,000.
And, as someone who's made a living as a paid operative, Stone doesn't like DIY politics. Did you know that all DIY enterprise is now considered to be part of the shadow/underground economy? That's what happens when you try to restrict the flow of money. People go back to doing without. Same thing with the mainstream media. Strip out the news and people find it somewhere else. Conservatives may scoff at Organizing for America having a million member list. Let them. How much is each name worth?