Senator Patty Murray, Chair
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Dear Senator Murray:
For many months now, your colleagues in the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee leadership have engaged in a series of disparagements and ad hominem attacks about us, apparently as part of a concerted political and fundraising strategy. Just recently, Senator Reid wrote in a DSCC fundraising letter that Republicans are trying to “force through their extreme agenda faster than you can say ‘Koch Brothers.’”
So you can imagine my chagrin when I got a letter from you on June 17 asking us to make five-figure contributions to the DSCC. You followed that up with a voicemail* indicating that, if we contributed heavily enough, we would garner an invitation to join you and other Democratic leaders at a retreat in Kiawah Island this September.
I’m hoping you can help me understand the intent of your request because it’s hard not to conclude that DSCC politics have become so cynical that you actually expect people whom you routinely denounce to give DSCC money.
It is troubling that private citizens taking part in the discourse have become the targets of White House and DSCC fundraising missives, and we would certainly encourage you to rethink that approach. Ultimately, I expect voters will see through that and will weigh the issues on the merits alone. But in the meantime, if you could provide me some insight on what exactly you are asking of us and why, I would be most grateful.
Sincerely,
Philip Ellender
President, Government & Public Affairs
Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC
*Listen to Senator Murray’s voicemail message here.
Friday Smackdown Open Comments
by
Tags:
Well, we’re back im Alabama, left Orlando and meandered up this way, taking the senic route. Since we weren’t in a big hurry and didn’t know how bad the traffic would be on the Florida Turnpike, we headed up through Apopka, Leesburg, Ocala and stayed on US 27/Alt27 all the way up to Perry Florida, then US 98 to Newport,… Read more »
A former Florida assistant state attorney who lost her job over teaching about the Founding Fathers and the Constitution settled her case for an undisclosed amount Thursday against the Florida state attorney who fired her. KrisAnne Hall was fired last year after participating in a number of political speaking engagements, including at tea party rallies and on talk radio, in… Read more »
Always on My Mind or Always on My Mind?
Some Parents Turn In Their Children After Riverwes …
Good for these parents.
#70 – I’d suggest head south to Melbourne and take 192 over to Kissimmee but its a little too late.
#29 & #36
Meanwhile, U6 increased from 15.4% in May to 16.4% in June.
Oh, and did I say traffic?! It took me 3 hours to get from Cocoa Beach to Orlando this afternoon, this was after making 2 U-turns and starting over. I wound up taking I 95 north to State 50 then over to Christmas FL and turning north on CR 420 until I got close. The 528 toll road was bumper… Read more »
Hambone, Back in the early 90’s we took the kids on their first Disney World trip, the Shuttle was due to launch on a Monday and I started to drive over to the Banana River causeway and watch it, BUTT they were prone to delay and I only had 5 DAYS so we didn’t go, sure enough, we were standing… Read more »
#4 Darren The finding, published in the journal Science, provides the first direct evidence that sexual reproduction improves a species’ ability to survive in a fast-changing environment. This is old news. They were teaching this decades ago when I was taking biology classes at UT. You get LOTS more variability in the offspring when you mix the genes from 2… Read more »
Super Dave – glad you got to see one. I’ve been supremely lucky to see five or six from about 40 miles south of the Cape over the years. I just seemed to time my trips right. Three of them were at night and that is spectacular. The most interesting one was flying into the Orlando airport just as it… Read more »
60 & 62, Construction is about hustle and experience. You don’t need the brainiest of electricians to do construction…just the guy who can run conduit and make terminations fast and accurately. Some office pogues might have been able to do that in the past, but those are skills that are quickly lost if not used. I have been a Construction… Read more »
Here Ya’ go 😉
Scientists have finally demonstrated that sex is useful. A team from Indiana University found that worms that have sex were better able than asexual worms to stay one evolutionary step ahead of dangerous parasites. The finding, published in the journal Science, provides the first direct evidence that sexual reproduction improves a species’ ability to survive in a fast-changing environment. And… Read more »
Well I witnessed the last Shuttle Launch today. It was great, the clouds started clearing around 9 and although it was still overcast there were several clear spots. The shuttle went behind the clouds at about 3000′ and then came back out of another opening and disappeared again about the time it was turning downrange. Later in the afternoon it… Read more »
#60 goats
Sign of the (bad) times. The overqualified need not apply.
This is the website for the goons who ‘work’ for Boeing. http://www.goiam.org/ As of yesterday, they had a piece bashing Obama for bashing corporate jets. The same page champions the NLRB for dictating where Boeing can build jets. I thought the irony pretty funny. Looks like they took down the bash Obama bit. Boeing is going to be stuck in… Read more »
Some of the comments remind me of a local ad I saw for electricians. I don’t remember the exact wording, but it ended with this; ‘Only those actually working as electricians in the last six months will have applications taken. Estimators, project managers, or engineers will not be accepted.’
The central theme(s) to our current problems are: 1) The wissin lib-terd-nozzle Ds keep insisting that we use the tax code for social engineering instead of revenue generation 2) THe wissin lib-terd-nozzle Ds keep insisting that we let them buy votes with tax dollars 3) The Ds don’t understand that they spend too much wissin money 4) Joe McCarthy was… Read more »
Democrats seemed to be obsessed with corporate jets and yachts again. They tried this back in the 90s when they passed a “luxury tax”. Thousands of manufacturing jobs were lost and the amount of money we paid the unemployed was higher than the revenue generated by the tax. Damn those rich people! They’re not playing fair.
#42 Texpat
That was wonderful, it was a brilliant idea and I especially enjoyed seeing the reaction of the older shoppers — they are so much more aware of what has been lost.
Maybe I should start starting saying “we”… not “they”…
The band in the store brought back some memories. Our band used to have a tuba player that could play the piccolo part. What lungs!
#30 Texanadian Very interesting. But I hate the dry female voice narration, which sounds like all the movies where a female voice counts down the seconds till a doomsday event. No mention of what I thought was good evidence that the BOP had been damaged during an earlier test that gone awry due to a mistake made by someone on… Read more »
Godspeed Atlantis. Sad to see the US shuttle era end and the dependence on Russia begin for transport to the ISS (our ISS for the most part). I seem to recall that the rooooskies were not exactly, shall we say, dependable on holding up their end of the construction phase of the ISS. Weren’t they behind in payments as well… Read more »
#42 Texpat. What a pleasant interlude at the grocery store. The Sousaphone in the shopping cart should have tipped folks off that something was afoot. 🙂
Godspeed Atlantis. Sad to see the US shuttle era end and the dependence 🙁 on Russia begin for transport to the ISS (our ISS for the most part).
Heh
Obamanomics and the commodities redistribution boom
Several people in our area are cashing in on this burgeoning green business of commodities redistribution or covert green recycling.
I gotta go shopping soon and, man it’s hot out there right now.
Konop was raised in Lucas County. He attended Whiteford Elementary School and Ottawa Hills High School, where he played varsity basketball and baseball.[1] Konop’s father is a prominent Toledo lawyer. “We talked about politics around the kitchen table,” Konop told The Blade. “Obviously, I had a strong Democratic upbringing.” Ottawa Hills is where the rich folks in Toledo live. Then… Read more »
It seems this admin, as well as other D admins, makes a concerted effort to NOT ENFORCE existing gun laws/fully prosecute those who use guns in crime/let them out of prison way too early in order to generate public outrage, therefore giving them cover to enact far more draconian gun control legislation. The pattern is the same, create or magnify… Read more »
If every committee did such impressive work, committees wouldn’t have a bad name. Four hundred years ago, King James of England commissioned several dozen scholars to update and improve on prior translations of the Bible into English. Their handiwork — known as the King James Version — put an indelible stamp on the English language and on the Anglo-American mind.… Read more »
#44 and 46
Yeah, I liked it too.
I get unexplainably emotional whenever I hear John Phillip Sousa. It’s visceral and involuntary.
He’s a national treasure.
#42 Texpat: Well done, Sousa gets me everytime.
/dang it! something in my eye again.
#43 No doubt thanks to Boo Ben Konop, the JS of Toledo. Every time I hear that name it reminds me of a poem I had to learn in CCE classes: Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!) Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, And saw, within the moonlight in his room, Making it rich, and like… Read more »
Texpat #42;
That was excellent.
On the subject of unemployment, it is fairly bad here in the NYC/north NJ region, but it is much, much worse in other places. Yeah, talking to a buddy I grew up with in Toledo, he says there are places in town that I would no longer recognize as the middle-class, working neighborhoods I remember from my youth. Lots of… Read more »
You would think by the likes of typical leftist agitprop in the seething transnational swamps of coastal Massachusetts, the very idea of American patriotism would have long been in the grave.
Had you been there and stopped in the grocery in Cape Cod on July 1st at 5:00 PM, you would have seen this:
#12;
Uncle Rico. LOL!
On the subject of unemployment, it is fairly bad here in the NYC/north NJ region, but it is much, much worse in other places. No matter what it may seem like in your personal circumstances, Texas has it better than anywhere. The financial and securities industry is to this area what the oil & gas business is to Texas. As… Read more »
Atlantis is up up and away!
Ya just haaaaad ta say it, didn’t ya?
🙂
Tedtam’s eye-opening experience in listing the job opening should shake all of us out of the satisfaction we might have about the comforting economic security Texas enjoys. It ain’t optimum by a long shot; we’re just–by God’s grace–not as desperate as the rest of the country–other than likely North Dakota. Thinking about this makes the rage level shoot up when… Read more »
Wow. That’s ……. unexpected 😉
#29 texpat
That’s on top of yet another downward revision to prior data – in this case April & May of 44,000 jobs.
So the net would be a decline of 26,000.
#18 OTL. Beautiful video collage. An accomplished dressage rider and accomplished horses. Together they make it look so easy–which it is once both are accomplished. Not so getting there–that is work, but a labor of love. #19 mharper42. Don’t have any pictures of elephants on our place. 🙂 The fountain was down two gallons this morning, so I filled it.… Read more »
#30 A very cool presentation of the Blowout. I wonder if they are going to make a modification to the BOP to force the pipe, should it be bowed, back to the center so that proper sealing can take place.
#31 bone As I say many times, four things will keep you (and your family) out of poverty: 1. finish high school 2. get a job – any job 3. wait until you are married to have kids 4. stay out of jail You may not get filthy rich, but you will likely end up being fairly comfortable at the… Read more »
The destruction of lower income society at the hands of white liberals is devastating. Ann Coulter blasts single motherhood and the damage to the children as a result. Various studies have shown that children raised by a single mother comprise about 70 percent of juvenile murderers, delinquents, teenaged mothers, drug abusers, dropouts, suicides and runaways. Imagine an America with 70… Read more »
Here is a link to a video from TransOcean explaining, in their words what happened in the gulf last year.
.http://www.deepwater.com/fw/main/Blow-Out-Preventer-(BOP)-1079.html
#25 Tedtam
The jobs report came out yesterday for June and the American economy created a whopping 18,000 jobs in a nation of 320 milion people.
Instapundit is on a heavy roll today. He must have 20 posts this morning on the unemployment figures.
Take your pick.
Another brilliant column by the estimable Walter Russell Mead at the American Interest. And this is one Tedtam can especially identify with. To get these jobs, we have to change the way our cities work. Essentially, we have created urban environments in which the kind of enterprises that often hire the poor — low margin, poorly capitalized, noisy, smelly, dirty,… Read more »
There but for the grace of God, go I.
~ prayers ~