LD-3 Democrats Select Savage, Disrespect Females

The Erie County Democratic Committee selected loyal City Hall soldier Peter Savage III to fill the seat that Erie County Legislator Lynn Marinelli vacated in January. A vote Monday is expected to formalize the recommendation. Here is the press release that went out this past weekend: 

(Buffalo, NY) Democratic committee members in the 3rd Legislative District voted today to recommend Peter J. Savage III to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Lynn Marinelli. Savage currently serves as Senior Deputy Corporation Counsel in the City of Buffalo Department of Law.  He has worked in a number of roles in city government and served on the boards of West Side Neighborhood Housing Services and the Good Government Club of Western New York.

Erie County Democratic Committee Chairman Jeremy Zellner said, “I would like to congratulate Peter Savage on his decisive victory in today’s vote.  He will bring a wealth of knowledge and passion for his community to county government.  On Monday I am sending a letter to the Erie County Legislature calling on them to appoint Peter quickly.  The people of the 3rd Legislative District deserve representation.  I look forward to working closely with Peter and County Executive Mark Poloncarz to continue moving our party and community forward.”  

When Bob McCarthy wrote about the hand-wringing that’s taken place over the past few months over this, he focused on factionalism; whether Savage is too close to City Hall.  That is far from any reasonable point.  

Under normal circumstances, it would be good form for Democrats to nominate and select a female to replace an outgoing female – not because of any quotas, but because women are generally underrepresented in elective office. The Erie County Legislature has three women remaining in an 11 – person entity. Savage’s entry does nothing to change that. Frankly, because Democrats are supposed to stand for some semblance of gender equality, justice, and fairness, you’d expect that the 3rd District would get it together to recommend one of the qualified females to replace Marinelli. 

Michele Iannello is a veteran of the factional wars, so I can see the committee passing her over, but what about Jennifer Diagostino or Amber Small? You mean to tell me there did not exist one qualified female in the 3rd Legislative District to replace a female legislator? 

This is not to say Savage is unqualified – he surely is. I also don’t much care whether Savage was Deputy Mayor Steve Casey’s right-hand man. The question is one of judgment, and what it means to be a Democrat. 

My problem is that Savage carried Conservative Party petitions for Republican Chris Collins during the 2011 County Executive race against Democrat Mark Poloncarz. He carried petitions for a piece of garbage fusion party that opposes reproductive rights for women, same-sex marriage, and every other social justice item for which Democrats are supposed to stand. He carried those petitions in opposition to a qualified Democratic candidate who had a very difficult race. Some say that sort of thing is just politics as usual; I call it an unforgivable betrayal. 

City Hall was quite open about its support of Collins in 2011 – after all, many of the benefits then-extant legislative coup granting Collins a de facto legislative majority inured to City Hall.  The quo for that quid came about with some Republicans close to Collins reportedly helped Brown against Sergio Rodriguez last year. 

It’s also come to light that Chairman of the Conservative Party – Ralph Lorigo (whose son is a County Legislator) – lobbied the Tonawanda Democratic Committee on Savage’s behalf. The Conservative Party which, when it isn’t busy wielding political influence that it hasn’t really earned, is busy advocating for things Democrats are supposed to hate, like reduction in spending on social programs and education. The tea party, for God’s sake. 

Savage heads up a PAC called the “Committee for Change” and is active in Steve Pigeon’s “Democratic Action”. Board of Election filings reveal that the “Committee for Change” donated to Joe Lorigo, who is a Conservative Party member who caucuses with the Republicans. How, precisely, does “Committee for Change” back Democratic candidates, as claimed, if it’s supporting Conservative candidates? Based on this, what guarantee is there that Savage will caucus with the Democrats at all? 

That’s some change. 

Congratulations seem to be in order for young Mr. Savage. But the Democrats in the 3rd LD should take a good hard look in the mirror and ask themselves whom they’ve become. It’s still a man’s world when a guy who so actively campaigned against the Democratic County Executive can get a nod to replace a female on the county leg. It’s a sick joke that an active supporter of the notorious Conservative Party – which stands against everything the Democrats should – gets an appointment such as this. 

At this rate, I’m shocked that Kathy Weppner wasn’t under consideration. She’s a conservative and a woman, but lives outside that particular district. 

The Weppner Files

I know some of you think that it might have been a little much with the Weppner posts over the past week or so.  You have my sincere sympathies.  My most fervent wish is to never again have to dive into the fever swamps of ultra-right wing fascistic chatter in order to find tidbits of information that render local tea party candidates, to my mind, unelectable. 

The scary thing is that, in terms of politics, opinions, and pronouncements, there’s hardly much difference between Weppner’s lunatic ravings and Chris Collins’ constant drumbeat of anti-middle class millionaire resentment; it’s a very fine line between WBEN caller and representative from NY-27. 

A few weekends ago, the Buffalo News’ Jerry Zremski picked over some of the more malodorous parts of the Weppner mindswamp, and asked her for an interview. She declined, and agreed instead to answer via email. The result was a glorious, factual recitation of some of the things she’s promoted and said, and her weak explanations for them. (Weppner Vetted 3/24/14) Much of it surrounded her very outspoken involvement in the “birther” nonsense, questioning whether Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, or part of some half-century-long conspiracy to overthrow America. 

The candidate’s response to Zremski’s article was jaw-droppingly horrible. (Kathy Weppner Tries to Explain; Fails 3/25/14) I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself. The passive-aggressive whining about being on vacation, the declaration of war on the librul meediya. 

Among Weppner’s defenses was that she was just asking questions, like everyone else, about the birther issue, and other halfhearted denials about being part of some wider birther movement. A quick listen to an online radio show on which Weppner appeared reveals not only that she was more than just “asking questions”, she was an active believer in the lunatic rantings of the fringe dead-ender birther movement. (How Not To Be A Birther, By Kathy Weppner 3/26/14). 

Now, much of the information that the Buffalo News and I had been using to vet Weppner came from recordings of her own WBEN radio show, as well as materials that she published on her blog “str8talk.wordpress.com”. Up until Zremski’s article, that site was still intact. After Zremski’s piece, she began selectively deleting certain passages, such as the racist “White Guilt” article she reprinted, verbatim, without comment. Soon, she took the entire site down altogether, and redirected the url to her campaign website; it remained, however, still visible via the waybackmachine. Finally, by 3/31, her campaign had successfully petitioned Archive.org to remove her entire internet archive from its site, and we are now left with not a single piece of evidence that she ever published a blog or had a radio show. Despite the fact that she proudly touts her WBEN radio show on her campaign bio, you’ll be hard-pressed to find any lasting evidence of its existence. (Kathy Weppner: So Proud of Her Radio Program She Deleted All Evidence of It 3/31/14). 

All we’re left with now is transcripts of her several calls to the Rush Limbaugh radio program.  Everyone knows who Rush Limbaugh is – he’s the fascist, racist, drug-addled, misogynist radio troll who spits hatred on a daily basis over the publicly owned airwaves. 

In 2008, Weppner called in with a particularly dumb theory about how Hillary Clinton was going to get the Democratic nomination because Obama was such a racist who “bathed his children” in hatred of white people.  Also, “October Surprise” and other such half-baked nonsense. (Kathy From Williamsville Calls Rush Limbaugh in 2008 3/31/14). That same day, I found a campaign image on her Facebook page that used the House seal, in direct violation of federal law. (Kathy Weppner Violates Federal Law 3/31/14)

In 2011, Weppner called Limbaugh to vent about how people need to start attending tea party rallies, or else we’d have “nothing left”. Also, her kids are serving in the military to protect things like Chris Lee and sovereign debt. It was a quick recitation of a couple of dopey talking points generating no discussion whatsoever. (Kathy Weppner: Why Are American Troops Fighting for Shirtless Chris Lee? 4/2/14). 

This one is one of my favorites – Kathy Weppner complaining about how no one from Congress held any town hall meetings in WNY so she and her cohorts could go and disrupt them. Yet she is so deathly afraid of the opinions and pronouncements that she spat when no one was looking, she deleted all evidence of them. I can only hope that Weppner takes her own advice and hosts some town halls.  I have some questions for her. (Kathy Weppner on Town Halls 4/3/14

Weppner called Limbaugh in July 2008 to ramble off a litany of groups whom she resents.

You know, we have ended up with a society where all the people that work in government, all the politicians, the teachers, the firemen, the policemen, all of our state governments, municipalities, and we are in a very heavily governed area here in western New York, all of them are living inside the castle walls, and all of us, everybody else is living outside of the castle walls. And all of the rules they make protect them, where our people, the public employee, they can retire at 55 here and they live to 85.

Yeah! To hell with our first responders and educators! Good talk, Kathy! (Kathy Weppner on Whom She Resents 4/4/14). 

Finally, there was the call to Limbaugh in 2009 – just a month after Obummer overthrew ‘Murrka, and Weppner threatened to go Galt because Barry and his cadres were going to just take everything anyway and give it to the lazy takers, (ostensibly the aforementioned teachers, firemen, policemen, and lazy blacks). Meanwhile, I learned that even physicians who receive Mexican medical degrees can earn a tremendous amount of money here in the United States. Weppner. What a card! (Kathy Weppner on Going Galt 4/4/14)

The best part? This campaign has barely started. 

Kathy Weppner on Whom She Resents

On July 14, 2008, Kathy from Williamsville called Rush Limbaugh to whine about those greedy teachers, firemen, and policemen who rape the poor taxpayers who earn over $250,000.

CALLER: You know, we have ended up with a society where all the people that work in government, all the politicians, the teachers, the firemen, the policemen, all of our state governments, municipalities, and we are in a very heavily governed area here in western New York, all of them are living inside the castle walls, and all of us, everybody else is living outside of the castle walls. And all of the rules they make protect them, where our people, the public employee, they can retire at 55 here and they live to 85.

You see, it’s not the wealthy families of physicians who live in castles – it’s the teachers and firemen and policemen.  We need to begrudge them their pensions because they didn’t do important work, teaching our kids and protecting our families. They’re the classic “takers” to people like Kathy “from Williamsville” Weppner. 

Limbaugh shares her resentment, and the Republican running against Brian Higgins declared, 

Well, New York is slated to go bankrupt first, and we are a state that’s shrunk in population and grew in government workers, again. And I don’t understand why they don’t get that this model is not gonna work.

RUSH: Well, there’s a simple human nature answer for that, and that is until it happens to them, it’s not happening.

CALLER: Well, they’re just saying, “Well it’s not going to happen in my lifetime, so it doesn’t matter.” That’s what it is. 

RUSH: That’s true, too, because the things that this generation, couple of generations before us have caused, they’re trying to insulate themselves from dealing with.

CALLER: Well, I’ll tell you, I know the car companies, we have GM and Ford here, and my dad used to sell to them, and I said, “What were they thinking?” He said, “They were thinking that by the time that it all crumbles, I’ll be retired,” and that’s it. These people that are in office right now —

RUSH: I know, I know. 

CALLER: — in our state capital, just don’t think it’s going to happen in their lifetime, so who cares.

RUSH: I know. A lot of people outside government think that, too. They really do. Look, that’s great, Kathy, I appreciate the call.

Seriously, who the fuck even understands what she’s talking about anymore? She just babbles on and on about her resentments and her idiotic semi-literate predictions of imminent doom and failure because the left is busy taking America down. This person begs to be taken seriously, but it’s an impossible task. She is the perfect reflection of tea party inanity. 

Kathy Weppner on Going Galt

On February 26, 2009 – just about a month after President Obama’s inauguration – Kathy from Williamsville called into the Rush Limbaugh program to complain about how hard it is to earn over $250,000 in Obama’s America. 

RUSH: To the phones we go, Kathy, Williamsville, New York. Glad you waited. Welcome to the program.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. How you doing?

RUSH: Fine. Thanks much.

CALLER: My husband was having a bowl of cereal this morning, and he commented to me that, you know, we had to start socking away more for our retirement. And I said, “No, we’re not going to do that,” and he stopped eating, and he looked up and he said, “What do you mean?” I said, “If we do that, by the time we are ready to retire, they will take it because we will be people that have ‘enough,’ and they will confiscate that retirement.” I said, “We’re going to enjoy it today, because I am not hopeful.” And he said, “Well, then maybe it’s time I cut back a little bit and earn less,” because, Rush, he has worked so many hours a day providing for his family that he’s missed 95% of all the kids’ basketball games, and soccer games, everything. I’m there alone; he’s working. I said, “You know, maybe it is time. Maybe it’s time that you stop working so hard and spend more time with your family.” So that’s what we’ve decided to do because we’re in New York State. Governor Paterson is coming after his income and now the feds are coming after his income. He is not going to work so hard, because it’s a lot of sacrifice. Within an hour of that conversation, the Republican National Committee called me looking for a donation.

You see? New York has its hand out and so does the federal government. They actually expect people to pay taxes to, e.g., fund the most spendthrift military on the planet. 

CALLER: I said, “When we had power, you all acted like Democrats. The only time we act like Republicans is when we have no power! So don’t ever call me again.” So we are going to earn less. I am not contributing any more because they say one thing and they do another, and I really feel it’s too late for our country.

RUSH: May I ask a personal question?

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: No?

CALLER: Yes. Go ahead.

RUSH: Oh. Does your husband, your family income, exceed right now $250,000?

CALLER: Yes, it does. It’s not going to. We’re going to fix that. We are going to fix it.

They are going to earn less, by gum. It must be an absolutely wonderful place to be – well-off enough that you can consciously choose to work less in order to earn less. I know people who work several jobs just to make ends meet.  This is elitism run amok. 

RUSH: Well, I hate to tell you. (sigh) Your day is already bad enough. You’re in a state of shock. I mean, you live in the United States of America — and you had this conversation with your husband this morning?

CALLER: Yes, this morning.

RUSH: Over cereal.

CALLER: Over cereal.

RUSH: Look, I know how you feel. You live in the United States of America, and you have decided that in order to be secure you gotta work less and earn less, so that you can hide from the revenuers, right?

CALLER: Well, there’s so… I mean, he works 12- and 14- and 15-hour days and it’s because he wants to provide nice things for his family.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: And if working all of those hours and missing all of that stuff —

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: — is not going to allow him —

RUSH: I hear you.

CALLER: — to do that, there’s no reason to do that.

RUSH: I understand it. I know exactly how you feel. I know what you’re saying. You are engaging in Atlas Shrugged kind of activity. But let me just tell you that it is a misnomer if you think your taxes are not going to go up if he earns less than 250.

CALLER: I know. I know. I know. And we’re the people that pay for everything. We get no breaks. We don’t get tuition assistance.

RUSH: You ought to be thanked.

CALLER: We don’t get anything.

RUSH: The people who are paying, they ought to be thanked. They ought to be wined and dined. Instead people like you are impugned. You are attacked; you are targeted. It makes me livid. I understand exactly how you feel. Let me just tell you a little story.

CALLER: Yeah.

Limbaugh here is likening Weppner’s husband’s decision to work fewer hours to “going Galt”. But, you know, even if you earn less than $250k Obama and his cadres are going to come after you because communism. 

RUSH: I told this on the air the other day. I met with my financial advisor and he’s running through all the numbers.

“You got this over here; you got this over here.”

I said, “No, no, no. You’re looking at it the wrong way.”

“Why? What do you mean?”

“I don’t have any of it. I want you to understand that my attitude now is that if I ever do retire, that money isn’t going to be there. I’m counting on the fact that this administration is going to find a way to come get it, just like you think.”

It is 2014 and I can confirm that this is Rush Limbaugh’s estate

They didn’t come get it. Obama didn’t nationalize Limbaugh’s estate. Weppner continues, 

Well, they will. They absolutely will, because the country will be in such a bad shape that it will be totally reasonable in everybody’s mind, “Well, we need that money, and it’s just sitting there and we’ve gotta get out of the crisis.” That’s the way New York State is talking right now. “We need to have the baseline be the tax rate right now, but it has to be ‘progressive.’ Those who can give more should give more, just ’til we’re out of the crisis.” I don’t think we’re going to… The last week has made me so upset because they keep pulling hundreds-of-billions-of-dollars figures out of the air and they’re just spending, spending, spending. How are we going to get out of that? I don’t get it. I just don’t get it.

New York didn’t balance its budget on the backs of millionaire talk-show hosts or well-to-do physicians. It balanced its budget, in part, on the backs of middle-class families and the public schools with the Gap Elimination Adjustment. 

Fuck Kathy Weppner and her bullshit “I make $250k and Obama’s going to come and get me” resentment. 

Kathy Weppner On Town Halls

In August 2009, Kathy from Williamsville called Rush Limbaugh to bemoan the absence of congressional town hall meetings in western New York

RUSH: Kathy in Williamsville, New York, hello and welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. You know what? What I can’t understand is we have Marines and soldiers that are being blown up and facing down terrorists, and our politicians cannot even face an angry senior citizen? I just can’t even believe that. You know, in upstate New York where I’m from in western New York, we don’t even have one this entire summer, not one town hall meeting with one politician because our districts are so gerrymandered they don’t have to get our opinions, but we’re holding them without them.

Indeed, Chris Collins and his immediate predecessor are all about “telephone town hall” meetings rather than in-person ones. I know I’ve never seen an invite to one, and I’m a prime voter. 

I wonder if Kathy from Williamsville, now that she’s running for Congress, will hold some town hall meetings where she has to respond to be-Snopes’d questioners in person? 

HAHA! Won’t happen. She’s blocked people from commenting on her Facebook page, deleted non-profane comments, deleted any evidence of her own blog and radio show, and is otherwise concentrating on clown things. 

2014 Undy 5000: Please Support the Poo Choo Train

The 2014 Undy 5000 in support of the Colon Cancer Alliance is being held in Buffalo’s Delaware Park on April 26th. It is – astonishingly enough – the only Undy 5000 being held in New York State, and people are coming from throughout the region to participate in a fun event designed to raise money for – and awareness of – a particularly deadly but especially preventable cancer that has an unfortunate stigma.

For those of you squeamish about getting a perfectly painless colonoscopy, you now have a new FDA-approved, non-invasive screening method. To that end, this is a bleg for support as my wife and kid will be participating in the Undy run, and we’re hoping that you’ll help us to raise $4,000 (or more) for the CCA and its mission to help victims of colon cancer, provide free screenings, and raise awareness.  

I seldom write about my personal life, and when I do I keep it as vague and general as possible. You’ll forgive me for making an exception today, but it has to do not with me, but with all of you. 

Back in October 2012, my wife’s gynecologist Dr. Judith Ortman-Nabi advised her to undergo a colonoscopy due to a significant family history of colon cancer. Usually, people aren’t prescribed colonoscopies until the age of 50, which we haven’t yet reached. She went to the endoscopy center on Maple near Millersport. It wasn’t an uncomfortable procedure, but the sedation knocks you out for a day. Bad news – they found a polyp; devastating news – it was cancerous.

That commenced a particularly scary and difficult time. We had to find an oncologist. We had to find a surgeon. My wife returned to the endoscopy clinic, where they tattooed the area so a future surgeon would know from where the polyp had been removed. The area “looked clean” but we didn’t want to take the chance that it hadn’t all been caught. We were exceedingly lucky to discover Dr. Timothy Adams, a talented, young, and friendly surgeon who performs laparoscopically-assisted colon resection surgeries. 

In November 2012, my wife underwent a successful resection surgery and we were overjoyed to find out that the section removed contained no cancer, and the bundle of lymph nodes that were removed along with it showed that the cancer had not spread. We had found it early – had we waited another year or until we were 50, the result likely would  have been tragically different.  That diagnosis leads to a lifetime of follow-ups; bloodwork, testing for markers which may indicate a recurrence of cancer. 

Catching this early was the difference between a full and curative recovery, and something far worse. 

So, my wife wants to help make sure others have as fortunate a result as she, and she is raising money for colon cancer research via this page, and if I’ve ever made you think, laugh, or angry via this blog, I humbly ask you to donate whatever you can – however smallYour donation is 100% tax deductible. If you don’t or can’t, I understand, but I urge you to take colon cancer seriously. If caught early, it could be the difference between life and death. Here’s where the money that’s raised will go – to advocate, to promote and to expand access to screening, to educate, and for cancer research. Because the Undy is intended to be a humorous way to deal with a sensitive subject, our team is called the “Poo Choo Train” in honor of Mr. Hankey and Eric Cartman. 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIgpvvA5jWw]

Every day is a gift. Thanks for reading and for considering this. 

Mercado WNY and Neapolitan Pizza

Back in 2010, we were driving home from a Spring break trip to the Destin when we stopped off in Knoxville, TN for the night. Having no idea where to go for dinner, I thought pizza would be good, so I looked on Yelp and Urbanspoon for the best pizza in Knoxville. The answer was “Hard Knox Pizza“.  A quick-serve location, it had a simple menu with a boxing theme, a few beers on tap, and a wood-burning pizza oven. It was one of the first and most successful purveyors of what’s known in pizza circles as “Neo-Neapolitan” – taking the basics of Neapolitan pizza-making and giving it a contemporary twist. I spoke with the owner back then and learned a lot about how he got started and what it took for him to make a successful business.  Here’s a picture of the pie I had in Knoxville in late April 2010: 

Pizza snobs will tell you that proper Neapolitan pizza is done in such a way that it’s even governed by a few ad hoc bodies approving places as being “Verace Pizza Napoletana”, or similar. Under the VPN guidelines, you have to use a specific type of flour, San Marzano tomatoes, “00” flour and a very simple dough recipe, specific types of cheeses, a dollop of olive oil, and a few basil leaves to make the proper Neapolitan “Margherita” pizza.  The only other two official Neapolitan pies are the Marinara and the Margherita “extra”. There are several authentic VPN-certified locations in Toronto that offer up not just great pies, but a fun atmosphere; Queen Margherita Pizza, Pizzeria Libretto, and Pizza e Pazzi, to name a few. 

There are none in Buffalo. There are a few places that do something very close to the real thing – the 99 Brick Oven in Lancaster has a Marra Forno gas-assisted oven and produces a good pie. Rocco’s on Transit in East Amherst has a certification from a competing Neapolitan pizza group, and produces quality pies in wood-burning ovens, but you have to ask them to not spread olive oil over the cornicione for it to be really good. But no one in WNY consistently does anything resembling what’s happening in Toronto and the rest of North America. 

Last February, we traveled to the Southwest US and one of the stops we planned was to visit Pizzicletta in Flagstaff. Caleb Schiff had bicycled throughout Italy and built a wood-fired oven in his backyard, and we followed along on Slice.com as he set up his tiny Neapolitan pizza place, and we had to try it. It was a revelation – again, simple little place with simple ingredients making outstanding pies – with no certification. My favorite was the Amore oi Mari – 

Pizzicletta's Amore Oi Mari

Mascarpone, arugula, pecorino, prosciutto di Parma, and a drizzle of Meyer lemon olive oil – it was a rich, satisfying concoction the likes of which I haven’t had before or since. Well, since – I’ve tried to duplicate it a few times, but the mascarpone gets too gloppy and I haven’t figured out how to spread it more evenly. That’s a picture of the one we had in Flagstaff last February.  If I could, I’d drop everything and fly out to Arizona right now to have one and spend the next day at the Grand Canyon. 

Here’s Caleb hard at work: 

Caleb at work

Simplicity. Simple, fresh ingredients and a pie made in a Stefano Ferrara oven with love. It’s art. 

This past week, we went to one of our favorite local pizza places – La Hacienda in Niagara Falls. The owner is a great guy and he makes one of the best pizzas in the area. His menu contains an entire history of the Margherita pizza, and a funny quote about how they’re still “learning the ropes” and they hope to get it right someday. 

So, Mercado Revolution is introducing a European market concept to WNY. It’s something that’s been done in other cities, and will be modeled after the markets in Spain and the Union Market in D.C. It’ll have tapas, cheeses, chocolate, coffee, nuts, ice cream from Lake Effect and a Lloyd’s Taco test kitchen. The ambitious Kickstarter campaign concludes this Thursday, and it has a way to go to meet its goal, but it’s almost halfway there. It needs your help. 

One of the foods on offer will be wood-fired Neapolitan pizza. Whether it’ll be certified VPN or not, it’s too early to tell.  I can tell you that I intend to be involved in that venture in some capacity. I want to introduce this product that I think is so awesome to WNY – one of the simplest and oldest Mediterranean foods there is. If all goes well, we’ll have a Ferrara oven and it’ll be done right – it will be done to my satisfaction and in a way that will hopefully convert people over to the Neapolitan way. I will be your wood-burning pizza proselytizer-in-chief. 

If you want to see this happen, kick in to the Kickstarter and get Mercado over the hump

(This is not an April Fool’s prank, BTW)

Kathy Weppner: Why Are American Troops Fighting for Shirtless Chris Lee?

Kathy from Williamsville calls in to Rush Limbaugh in February 2011 to urge people to attend Tea Party Rallies because Chris Lee

Hi, Rush! You know, I want the average American to listen to me. I have my most beloved son, and he’s sitting over in Afghanistan right now while everybody else here is going about their daily business. And we have elected officials getting on a bus so they don’t have to cast a difficult vote. We have president who just submitted a budget that 42 cents on every dollar will be borrowed from a foreign country so that there’s nothing left if he does make it back for his children and his future. We had a congressman here in the 26th District who put his picture — topless, shirtless — on Craigslist. There’s all of this nonsense, and is this what my son is willing to die for? Is this what our sons are doing really difficult things to die for? We’ve gotta rise up. The average American who disengaged a long time ago because they were disgusted, we had better get off of our couches. We had better show up at these Tea Party rallies. We had better reengage. Because there will be nothing left.

RUSH: The second woman in two days who could fill the job of spokesman for the Republican National Committee!…Well said, Kathy. Trust me, don’t doubt me, your passion is shared equally by millions of Americans that you don’t know. You just had ’em sitting up out of their chairs and applauding. I’m glad you called.

I can confirm in March 2014 that we have something left. 

Kathy Weppner Violates Federal Law

Kathy Weppner’s Facebook page contains this image: 

Notice the Congressional seal above the two “p”s? 

18 U.S. Code § 713 – Use of likenesses of the great seal of the United States, the seals of the President and Vice President, the seal of the United States House of Representatives, and the seal of the United States Congress

(a) Whoever knowingly displays any printed or other likeness of the great seal of the United States, or of the seals of the President or the Vice President of the United States, or the seal of the United States Senate, or the seal of the United States House of Representatives, or the seal of the United States Congress, or any facsimile thereof, in, or in connection with, any advertisement, poster, circular, book, pamphlet, or other publication, public meeting, play, motion picture, telecast, or other production, or on any building, monument, or stationery, for the purpose of conveying, or in a manner reasonably calculated to convey, a false impression of sponsorship or approval by the Government of the United States or by any department, agency, or instrumentality thereof, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

The Attorney General’s office may enjoin Weppner from using the House seal upon complaint by the Clerk of the House of Representatives. 

It should be noted that Weppner does not serve – nor has never served – in the House of Representatives. She is, however, the clownshoes-iest candidate ever to run for federal office, and to also enjoy the endorsement of a major party. 

Then again, Eddie Egriu has this inexplicable thing

Kathy from Williamsville Calls Rush Limbaugh in 2008

On June 5, 2008, a “Kathy from Williamsville” called into the Rush Limbaugh program. The topic? Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Kathy began, 

You know, I gotta tell you, if I thought Hillary was going away, I would remortgage my house and throw a big party, but I know, I have a very strong feeling that about a week before the Democrat National Convention, something is going to leak out about Obama that all of these superdelegates know that he will be unelectable, and she will get the nomination. I just don’t think for a minute she’s giving up that. I really don’t.

RUSH: In this market, you would remortgage your house and throw a big party?

CALLER: I would, if I thought they were going away, oh, my gosh, yes! I can’t stand her! And Obama is absolutely reaping the rewards of people’s disdain for the Clintons. That’s the only reason he’s there. People hate her enough and him, too, to throw their votes on the other person.

That’s some pretty cutting-edge political analysis. Obama was running because Democrats allegedly didn’t like the Clintons, and vice-versa! 

The other thing that I’m really upset about is a couple of years ago I told myself that I would vote for whichever candidate was going to fight the war on terror, period, because I know our country is in jeopardy, the UK is almost gone, they’re almost down that dark tunnel and there’s no turning around, and we could be there, and I am so ticked off that I’m going to have to go into the voting booth and vote for McCain! Because at least I know on that one issue that he will at least take care of business and we’re going to be back to Jimmy Carter, 70% income taxes and everything else, and I am just really ticked off that our party — you know, I’m ticked off at you, that you didn’t talk up Mitt Romney more because he was a true conservative candidate. You know? You talked up Operation Chaos. Why didn’t you convince people to cast their vote for a conservative candidate? Because now we’re stuck with, you know, Curly, Larry, and Moe.

 Having visited the UK in 2013, I can vouch for the fact that it is still there. Having paid income taxes, I can assure you that nobody in the United States pays 70% income taxes (Reagan dropped it to 50% for top earners until 1987). 

Then Limbaugh reassures “Kathy from Williamsville” by playing the audio of Clinton advisor Harold Ickes: 

ICKES: Barack Obama is a strong candidate; he’s a powerful spokesman; he’s run a good race. The fact is he is not going to be able to win the general election against John McCain. That is the message. And he can’t win it for two reasons: We don’t know enough about him, there may well be an October Surprise. And, two, he doesn’t have the general election electoral base that Hillary has.

RUSH: Do you hear the reference to Ickes about an October Surprise?

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: It dovetails with your theory out there, Kathy.

CALLER: Yeah, it sure does. It sure does. She’s not down. She’s not gone. She will be the Democrat nominee.

RUSH: What’s this going to be? What is this earth-shattering news?

CALLER: I have no idea. It’s going to maybe be a Vince Foster, a Monica Lewinsky, I don’t know. It would have to be worse than that. I have no idea. But there’s going to be something. And the superdelegates are going to be scared to death, and they’re going to go and they’re going to give it to her.

Kathy from Williamsville thought there’d be a “Vince Foster” or “Monica Lewinsky” October Surprise to ensure that Hillary Clinton would snatch victory from the jaws of electoral defeat at the hands of Barack Obama – a man who not only defeated John McCain, but even “real conservative” Mitt Romney. 

But when? When will these revelations take place?

I think it’s going to happen right before their convention, and even if it’s underground where the high rankers know what’s going to happen and I seriously, I don’t think Obama is going to be the candidate, because I don’t think he’s — he’s electable at all, I really don’t. Between Reverend Wright and Reverend Pfleger or the priest, gosh, I can’t believe he’s a priest, you know, he absolutely bathed himself, bathed his children in these sermons of hating white people and we’re the problem and I can’t imagine that being palatable to a majority of Americans regardless of party. The other thing is, is that if John McCain does get elected and it’s a disaster, like it’s going to be domestically and economically for everyone, you know, we’re going to get blamed for voting when probably a lot of Republicans are going to stay home and the Democrats are going to elect ’em. And it’s a mess.

Kathy from Williamsville is a white person who is dreadfully oppressed by the tyranny of “Reverend Wright and Reverend Pfleger” and Barack Obama, who “bathed his children” in hatred of white people. That was a popular trope among the pre-tea party ultra-right; that the Obamas, by dint of being black, hated white people.  It was also widely believed that a “whitey tape” existed where Michelle Obama was said to have spewed hatred towards “whitey” as a homophone of “why’d he”

Of course, this supposed hatred of white people was non-existent propaganda ginned up by people who felt that any expression of African-American pride was a logical denunciation of Caucasians. It was racism. 

In the meantime, Kathy “from Williamsville” Weppner has had her campaign scrub from the internet any and all evidence of her previous pronouncements

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