We have two upset specials that we are watching very closely. AL-03 and NC-10. The Swing State Project, who in our opinion is one of the best in handicapping horserace politics, has both of these in their races to watch category. Read SSP's Competitive House Ratings
I am asking you to take it a step further and help me make these races garner more national attention. Both Josh Segall (AL-03) and Daniel Johnson (NC-10) have a chance if they can raise enough money to get on the air.
Daniel Johnson, the Democratic challenger to Patrick McHenry of North Carolina's 10th district, just sent out an email announcing the birth of his daughter.
Daniel and Creecy Johnson joyfully announce the birth of their daughter, Emily Bowen Johnson. Bowen was born on Saturday, June 21 at 2:30am, 8lbs 3 ounces and 21 inches long. Everyone is happy and healthy.
This is number seven in a planned series of 50 entries between now and November, looking at each of the 50 states in terms of every race on that state's ticket--Presidential, Gubernatorial, Senate, House, State legislatures--the whole pack of cigarettes. Special attention paid to identifying and promoting the most important contests per state.
This time, we look at North Carolina, the state that made Barack Obama the Democratic nominee for President!
One of the greatest joys in the 2006 election, amid the triumph of capturing both the House and Senate, came with now Congressman Jerry McNerney's defeat of Richard Pombo in CA-11. Pombo was in real competition to be the worst member of Congress when it came to energy and environmental issues. On the other hand, McNerney knows energy, clean energy
During his career in wind energy, McNerney's work contributed to saving the equivalent of approximately 30 million barrels of oil, or 8.3 million tons of carbon dioxide - the main greenhouse gas - as well as other harmful pollutants.
In 2008, across the country, we have the opportunity for similarly stark shifts from Energy Dumb to Energy Smart elected officials.
On this 38th Earth Day, you (and I) can take action to help ensure that the 39th Earth Day will be better than today's by sending some $.01s toward Energy Smart/Earth-Friendly challengers across the country.
Congressman Patrick McHenry is having a bad week. First, the bellicose, 32-year-old chickenhawk from North Carolina got in trouble for calling a Green Zone sentry a "two-bit security guard" while in Iraq--a statement for which he was later forced to apologize. As if that weren’t bad enough, he’s now in serious trouble for trying to act like a tough guy at the expense of U.S. troops in Baghdad.
On Friday April 4, the North Carolina Congressman assisted insurgents in Iraq and endangered American lives by bragging cluelessly about being rocketed in the Green Zone in a homemade video he posted on his own Congressional website. In the video, he related to anyone with an internet connection just how effective those rocket attacks had been. This is a huge no-no for anyone who’s ever spent more than five minutes in a combat zone--and it’s worthy of both censure and another apology.
Representative Patrick McHenrymade a name for himself in 2007 as seriously Energy Dumb in his truthiness attack on the Energy Bill as focused on bicycles as the solution path. Amid the $billions of spending (and tax benefits) under consideration, the insightful McHenry focused on $1 million per year in spending on bicycles as somehow representing "the" Democratic solution path to America's energy challenges. While McHenry did use a true fact (yes, there was $1 million in funding), his commentary was neither truthful nor speaking truth, since it tried to represent this extremely small portion of the bill as central and somehow quite significant. (If he had used more accurate words like "less than 1/100 of 1 percent of funding", would his demogogyperhaps been undermined?)
Well, Energy Dumb McHenry showed his idiocy in the past month with his words and actions in Iraq. And, sadly, the idiocy goes well past questions of energy.
We've all long known that Republicans were in denial on just about every aspect of Iraq. They love to wave the flag, swear that things are getting better daily, chant "Support the Troops!"TM at every opportunity, and even go out of their way to sing the praises of the private "security contractors" we use to do our dirty work.
But what happens when one of the big-mouthed weasels takes an Army joy ride over there to play tough guy?
McHenry: Surge is working
Congressman impressed with progress during trip to Iraq
BY JENNIFER MENSTER
RECORD STAFF WRITER
Monday, March 24, 2008
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Congressman Patrick McHenry ate lunch with North Carolina soldiers stationed in Iraq on Saturday. McHenry was one of four members of Congress who went to Iraq over Easter weekend.
Well, here's McHenry telling the story of his reaction when his life was horribly disrupted by the tragedy of war-torn Iraq... when he was denied entry into the gym at his Green Zone compound. (h/t to Think Progress for the transcript.)
We spent the night in the Green Zone, in the poolhouse of one of Saddam’s palaces. A little weird, I got to be honest with you. But I felt safe. And so in the morning, I got up early — not that I make this a great habit — but I went to the gym because I just couldn’t sleep and everything else. Well, sure enough, the guard wouldn’t let me in. Said I didn’t have the correct credentials.
It’s 5:00 in the morning. I haven’t had sleep. I was not very happy with this two-bit security guard. So you know, I said, "I want to see your supervisor." Thirty minutes later, the supervisor wasn’t happy with me, they escort me back to my room. It happens. I guess I didn’t need to work out anyway.
"Two-bit security guard?"
"I want to see your supervisor?"
What. An. Asshole.
This M-Fer's in Baghdad, but whining like he's been denied a markdown by a cashier at Target.
And how about that old boilerplate crap, "the surge is working"?
As I'm in the process of going in the shower, I hear some noise outside that sounds... a little different. Wasn't quite sure what it was. But sure enough, the loudspeakers come on, with the announcement of, "Duck and cover."
I don't know what you do in a situation like that. So I'm just standing there, I guess, thankfully I'm alone, but I'm looking like a complete idiot because I'm thinking to myself, "What do I do?" The announcement's "Duck and cover," I mean, that's not too difficult, right? And so this goes off and on for the next 30 minutes. So I assume that there's some activity or something's happening.
Well, it turns out that there are rockets coming into the Green Zone. And when I went outside of the building, I noticed that the building next to us had been hit by rockets. Or a rocket. It was a warehouse. Some 50 yards in one direction, there are rockets that landed. Fifty yards in the other direction, the embassy fellow who's showing us around, his car was hit by a rocket. And as it turned out, I learned later in the day that the gym had been hit by a rocket.
Surge is workin', all right.
But there's even more. After wisecracking that he's "not trying to tell you a Hillary Clinton story," McHenry went on to claim that "one individual lost his life in the rocket attacks."
Green Zone attack originated in Sadr City, say witnesses
Near miss of US Embassy Sunday fits pattern of conflict with Shiite militias.
By Sam Dagher | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the March 24, 2008 edition
Baghdad - A barrage of rockets hit the Green Zone – landing near the US Embassy – in Baghdad on Sunday morning.
The rockets appear to have been fired from the Shiite militia stronghold neighborhood of Sadr City in what observers see as further evidence that a cease-fire by the group loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr may be unraveling.
Most of the rockets fell "really close" to the US Embassy that's located inside the heavily protected Green Zone, according to a diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to speak to the media about the attack.
"Yes we confirm there was an IDF (indirect fire) attack in the Green Zone. There were no dead or major casualties," said US Embassy spokesperson Mirembe Nantongo.
Did the little weasel just make it up? It sure sounds like the sort of thing the nutbar frothers like Michelle Malkin would spend days on end researching... if a Democrat had said it.
Guess he thought it made him sound like a hardened survivor or something. But to real people, he just sounds like an ass. And a stupid one at that. "Things are goin' great in Iraq, except for the fact that everything around me blew up while I was there. Oh, P.S., someone died, so that should show you how tough I am for being nearby at the time. Or something like that."
This idiot is in your Congress. Right now. Making laws that you have to live by.
I've realized that Patrick McHenry has been a water carrier for banking interests. What I hadn't realized was how low McHenry, along with Dick Armey's army, would go.
Representative Patrick McHenry (R-NC) has written Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass), Chairman of the House Financial Services, seeking a hearing on the issue of individuals and organizations allegedly using non-profits to manipulate real estate and other markets.
The basis of McHenry's complaint is a bogus report February 21st by the Consumer Rights League front group for the predatory lending industry operating out of FreedomWorks national HQ whose sole purpose appears to be attacking the Self Help Credit Union and, in particular, the affiliated Center for Responsible Lending (with, no mere coincidence, the same acronym, CRL) calling it a "predatory charity".
I am all for running everywhere, and the 50 state strategy.
But neither we nor the Republicans are running everywhere (at least not yet!) In this series, I will look at where we are not running (I am not going to look at where Republicans are not running, as I have no desire to help Republicans, however modestly)
This diary is partly inspired by the great work done by BENAWU.
Possible tax fraud, voter fraud, house mate of strapping young Republican lads, friends linked to the gay porn industry, and several murders of gay porn stars and a gay Young Republican. BlueNC pounces on McHenry's link to the apparent killer in the Orlando apparent double murder suicide.
McHenry (R-NC)..purchased a residence in Washington, DC...with another man. While he owned the home, McHenry claimed (the DC)Homestead Tax Deduction, a (tax break) to encourage residence in DC. At the same time McHenry was registered to vote, and did so, in Gaston County, North Carolina.
How many felonies did Congressman Patrick T. McHenry (R, NC) commit? It's hard to tell right now, but, it looks like several -- defrauded the District of Columbia out of $60,000; submitted fraudulent voter registration documents in his home state; violated several FEC rules regarding fund-raising. And let's not mention that he and another man owned a house, together, in DC for a year or so.
Congressman Patrick T. McHenry (R-NC), right, purchased a residence in Washington, DC's Capital Hill neighborhood with another man. While he owned the home, McHenry and co-owner Scott G. Stewart claimed eligibility for the District of Columbia's Homestead Tax Deduction, a tax reduction program to encourage homeownership and residence in DC. At the same time McHenry was registered to vote, and did so, in Gaston County, North Carolina.
According to records obtained from the Washington, DC Recorder of Deeds, left (click to enlarge), McHenry, who was first elected to Congress in 2004, and Stewart owned the three bedroom, three-and-a-half bath home from February 2001 to January 2002. The house is located at 1360 D Street, SE, in a neighborhood near the US Capitol.
It's ok if you are Republican. And yes, it applies even to drunk driving. Accoring to the Gaston Gazette and diaried on Blue NC, Patrick McHenry's aide, James Keeter was arrested for Driving While Intoxicated after blowing a 0.13.
President Bush has come out in opposition to a plan that would raise the gas tax to help fund infrastructure repair. Just a week after the bridge collapse in Minnesota, Bush is concerned that members of the Transportation Committee might not be able to put the public's interests above their own personal priorities, saying "I would strongly urge the Congress to examine how they set priorities." Really? Those pesky Democrats are the ones that are struggling with spending priorities?
Since there are so many, let's go through Republicans with questionable spending habits alphabetically by state:
McHenry EXPOSED, a McHenry watchdog site, was shut down at 3 p.m. this afternoon by the host.
The site's proprietor sent this message to fellow bloggers:
"In an apparent attempt to silence the message of Patrick McHenry Exposed, our website was disabled today around 3:00pm EST. This effort was undertaken by our host provider, AlphaOne Tech (aka 4Gays Hosting). While no further information is available at this time, we do know that someone contacted the host and made them aware of the site. This person’s complaint was that the information contained on the website was false, misleading and potentially in violation of corporate libel and slander laws. The hosting company is not providing any further details and acted only to protect their own interests - they are not the enemy."
I did a search and yes, there was a diary on this topic Saturday morning by BlogActive http://www.dailykos.com/... but I think the story deserves more attention than it received. I did some research and added some pertinent information and aspects to consider.
Michael Aaron Lay, campaign aide to Congressman Patrick McHenry R-NC, was indicted on May 7, 2007 on voter fraud charges. Lay was working for McHenry’s congressional campaign and getting paid for that with checks to a Tennessee address, but he registered to vote using the congressman’s Cherryville, NC address and voted in Gaston County, NC in 2004. When Lay received a traffic ticket in March 2005 in Gaston County, his driver’s license and auto registration still showed his Tennessee address. Well, no biggie on first sight, Lay at the time was a student in Knoxville, Tennessee. Students move a lot and no one is denying that Lay did spend a lot of time at the congressman’s residence. But a grand jury saw differently and Lay has been indicted for voter fraud.
CBS News reported today that Michael Aaron Lay, an aide to (the unmarried) Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), was arrested on voter fraud charges.
There is more to the story than you're reading in the CBS news item. LOTS MORE.
First here's the item from CBS on Lay:
The indictment charges that Michael Aaron Lay, 26, illegally cast his ballot in two 2004 Congressional primary run-offs in which McHenry was a candidate. The charges indicate that Lay voted in a district where it was not legal for him to vote.
At the time Lay was listed as a resident in a home owned by 32-year-old McHenry but campaign records indicate Lay's paychecks were sent to an address in Tennessee. McHenry won the primary by only 86 votes. According to Gaston County, North Carolina District Attorney Locke Bell, Lay was indicted on Monday, May 7 by a local grand jury.
There's A LOT more than this guy at McHenry's House!
See after the jump...
Congressman Patrick T. McHenry (R-NC), right, purchased a residence in Washington, DC's Capital Hill neighborhood with another man. While he owned the home, McHenry and co-owner Scott G. Stewart claimed eligibility for the District of Columbia's Homestead Tax Deduction, a tax reduction program to encourage homeownership and residence in DC. At the same time McHenry was registered to vote, and did so, in Gaston County, North Carolina.
According to records obtained from the Washington, DC Recorder of Deeds, left (click to enlarge), McHenry, who was first elected to Congress in 2004, and Stewart owned the three bedroom, three-and-a-half bath home from February 2001 to January 2002. The house is located at 1360 D Street, SE, in a neighborhood near the US Capitol.
