Peter gets his marching orders

King and a dozen or so other representatives met with Bush and Cheney for a closed-door Social Security pep talk. One other attendee, Rep. Vito Fossella from Staten Island reacted the same way that King did when asked to attend a townhall meeting on Social Security in his district... RUN AND HIDE!

Schiavo

What happened to King? He co-sponsored the original legislation for the US Congress to step in and take away spousal rights from Michael Schiavo. King said on the House floor:

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 686, to provide for the relief of Terri Schiavo's family. In 1990, Terri Schiavo suffered a heart attack and subsequent brain damage due to lack of oxygen. She is not in a coma, and with the exception of the feeding tube, requires no artificial life support to keep her alive. Removal of the feeding tube, as was done this past Friday, will result in Terri's death by starvation and dehydration. By some estimates, she could be left to suffer for up to a month. This is a drawn out and painful process and Terri can feel pain. In a case like this one, where there is a clear dispute between Terri's parents and husband as to her wishes, the presumption should always be on the side of life. Every effort should be made to ensure that no mistakes have been made in this case. I urge support of this important legislation.”
(FOR THE RELIEF OF THE PARENTS OF THERESA MARIE SCHIAVO -- House of Representatives - March 20, 2005 http://thomas.loc.gov)

So where was King for the crucial vote? He had a “previously scheduled medical exam.” Doctor’s have office hours at midnight on Sunday? 'Cause that’s when the House vote was getting under way. Roll call was at 12:45 on March 21st. King is listed as “Not Voting.”
For such an important issue which King believed deserved special legislation, he couldn't be bothered to show up for the vote?
He was HIDING from getting more involved in bad legislation.

Happy St. Patricks Day: IRA supporter King makes more excuses

From the NYPost 3/16/05
"And while there were murders, atrocities and human-rights violations on all sides, the security forces and the loyalist paramilitaries caused more civilian casualties than did the IRA."
No matter what King says now like the IRA should be disbanded, King will still make excuses for the terrorism of the IRA. They ain't so bad, King says cause those bruuddish soldiers did worse.
Make no mistake, for years King was a supporter of the IRA, calling them "freedom fighters." What freedom fighters kill civilians?
King wants the IRA to disband now because they are seemingly mucking up the progress made in the peace process. That is is ONLY reason. King has never called on the IRA to disband when they were murdering British soldiers and Loyalists.
King says now the IRA has "outlived it's usefullness" and "made a series of poor decisions." Gee, murder isn't a "poor decision?" That's what IRA thugs have been doing for years while King cheered them on.

A VERY personal note: I was in London when on November 14th, 1992 the police stopped the IRA from planting a 1000 pound bomb at Canary Wharf. A police officer was shot and wounded during the arrest. How usefull is a 1000 pound bomb ready to kill civilians?

Long time, no see

Many things have conspired to keep me from updating regularly. Here's something to chew on while this site gets revving again.....

Bush's plan for Social Security is to give enrollees the ability to play the stock market with their future safety net. Everyone knows that bad investments happen and the market is not guaranteed in any way.
King is straddling the fence here but he really comes across as supporting this incredibly bad idea.
Now who will really profit from the influx of money into the investment market? Investment bankers and brokerages.
Follow the money:

2003-2004 PAC Contributions
Finance/Insur/RealEst $57,676:
Securities & Investment $14,000
Accountants $8,676
Commercial Banks $7,500

2001-2002 PAC Contributions:
Finance/Insur/RealEst $265,700
Securities & Investment $18,000
Accountants $3,500
Commercial Banks $29,000

1999-2000 PAC Contributions:
Finance/Insur/RealEst $111,281
Securities & Investment $20,500
Commercial Banks $32,000
Accountants $2,000

1997-1998 PAC Contributions:
Securities & Investment $20,000
Accountants $5,500
Commercial Banks $51,495

Developing......

The Get Up and Go that Got Up and Went

MEET THE PRESS
May 14, 2000, Sunday

MR. RUSSERT: Peter King, if Rudy Giuliani does not run for the Senate, will you?

REP. KING: Yeah, I certainly intend to. If he drops out of the race, I certainly intend to pursue the nomination, yes.

MR. RUSSERT: Well, you give up your House seat?

REP. KING: Well, if that's what it takes, I would, sure. I mean, the convention's only in two weeks, but I would do all I could to get the nomination. And I wouldn't have to give up the House seat to get the nomination in May, or if I got the nomination, yes, then I would give up the House seat.

Racing for the Senate
May 30, 2000

Rep. Rick Lazio accepts the Republican nomination to run for Senator of New York after campaigning for a week and a half, and prepares to face Hillary Clinton this fall.

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree

We had heard about this but held off until there was confirmation. Seems on the local politics scene, Erin King Sweeney daughter of Rep. Peter King is being implicated in a petition signature scandal. Word is she signed other peoples signatures on a nominating petition. Someone will be doing a perp-walk soon.
More to come......

Many Apologies

Boy, talk about not getting our act together. Literally MONTHS worth of stuff and we don't bother to post. What's wrong with us?
New Years Resolution: The updates start January 11th.
On Deck:
Congressional Ethics
Tom Delay
Blast from the Past: 1% Kickbacks
More Bush-Iraq War

More Draft

On CNN King said
"But, again, I say, if the military shows they cannot get what they need, then we should certainly consider the draft, absolutely. I just don't see it happening right now.

I guess King is either not paying attention or not counting former military members who served their time being forced to return.

Frederick Pistorius got a grand suprise when he was informed that not only was he being ordered back to duty but he has been considered a deserter since July. Mr. Pistorius recieved a letter from the army that said "On 12 July 2004 you were involuntarily mobilized to active duty in the United States Army... To date you have not reported to your mobilization station as required by your orders."
What is this all about? The Individual Ready Reserve which are former military members are being used to fill in where the various branches find themselves short of troops.
For more read this story (via DailyKos) from the Pittburgh Post-GazetteThe Army's long arm.

King by the Numbers

So King is back for another two years unless the rumors (probably false) of him running against Tom Suozzi for Nassau County Executive. King has floated other trial baloons for other runs against Schumer and those baloons popped pretty quickly.

The 3rd CD is a republican-heavy district if all you go by is party registration. Clinton and Gore did very well in the 3rd CD and so did Kerry. Voter registration is slowly tilting towards Democrats but King is safe with just the Republican party-line voters.

King has been scoring above 60% for the past elections even garnering 72% in 2002 against Stu Finz.

Where does Kings future lie? Possible re-election in 2006 unless his
opponent can
In an off-year election (meaning non-presidential) King does better with 65% in 1998 and 2002 with 72%. When there is a president on the ballot, King's numbers are lower... 60% in 2000 and 63% in 2004.
This year while King got 3% more and added to his total vote total by , his opponent got 7000 more voters than 2000.
The numbers are really all over the place for both King and his Democratic opponents....
From Presidential years 2000 to 2004 King gained 31,680 votes while his opponent gained 7244. This is only for 2000 and 2004 changes.
From year to year 2000 to 2002 King lost 18,397 and his opponent lost 46,001
From 2000-2004 King gained 50,077 votes but his opponent gained 53,245 votes.
In all, King has gained less since 2000 than his Democratic opponent.

What does this all mean? The Democrats are making strong gains and if they can make gains in voter registration in the next two years, raise the candidates profile and expose King's dismal record King can lose. Incumbents always have a huge advantage and as long as they haven't been caught with a dead hooker, they start with 60% and the numbers go up or down from there.

Great stuff from the Mailbag!

Big thanks to the reader who sent along a clip from the Alexandra Pelosi HBO documentary "Diary of a Political Tourist."
Here is the transcript...... (Note: I don't know the date this was filmed but it seems to be early fall.)
The set-up: Bush and King hanging around the White House lawn being interviewed by Pelosi

Bush: The panhandle.....
(unintelligible)
Bush: She's a panhandler
King: It's over..... The election's over. We won.
Pelsosi: How do you know that?
King: It's all over but the counting. And we'll take care of the counting.

What was that? Oh, "... we'll take care of the counting."

Yes, it does look like someone "took care" of the counting.

Here is a little from Keith Olberman on MSNBC who seems to be the only journalist interested.
From today: "There, 52 counties tallied their votes using paper ballots that were then optically scanned by machines produced by Diebold, Sequoia, or Election Systems and Software. 29 of those Florida counties had large Democratic majorities among registered voters (as high a ratio as Liberty County— Bristol, Florida and environs— where it’s 88 percent Democrats, 8 percent Republicans) but produced landslides for President Bush. On Countdown, we cited the five biggest surprises (Liberty ended Bush: 1,927; Kerry: 1,070), but did not mention the other 24."

In Ohio, Cuyahoga County has 93,000 MORE votes than registered voters. In Gahana, Ohio one district registered Bush getting 4,258 out of 638 cast. That is 667% of the vote. What an incredible Get Out the Vote effort! And that is only one district that was scrutinized. How many more are there?

So when Warren O'Dell the CEO of Diebold the company that makes most of the electronic voting machines says he is "...committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year, " King says non-chalantly "It's all over but the counting. And we'll take care of the counting" and this really huge number of irregularities pop up, it looks like there is a there there.

As John Edwards said "John Kerry and I made a promise to the American people that, with this election, every vote would count and every vote would be counted,"... "Tonight, we are keeping our word and we will fight for every vote. You deserve no less."

Here is the link to the video clip again. Click Here.

Say it Loud, Say it Proud

Bumper Stickers, T-Shirts and More

It's getting Drafty

King had this to say about Rep. Charlie Rangels military draft bill "I think it should be a military decision, not just -- not the philosophical decision Charlie wants it to make. If it's in the best interests of our armed force to have a volunteer Army, we should keep a volunteer Army. If we need a draft to have sufficient forces, then we should certainly consider a draft. I think it should be on the table.But I'm just saying I think Charlie is bringing it up in the context of Iraq. We could have brought it up in the context of Haiti or Bosnia or Kosovo. And we didn't."

"I think we should put more incentives in to get voluntary Army -- more volunteers. But, again, I say, if the military shows they cannot get what they need, then we should certainly consider the draft, absolutely. I just don't see it happening right now."

Here is a great incentive for an all-volunteer army; take a vet who left the service after the Gulf War in 1991 after over 10 years in, did his reserve time and is now being ordered to report for duty. That's a back-door draft of vets. But this brave vet isn't taking this sitting down. David Miyasato is suing.

From The Honolulu Advertiser
"David M. Miyasato enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve in 1987, served three years of active duty during the first Gulf War and received an honorable discharge in 1991. He remained on inactive status for five more years, until 1996. Since then, the Kaua'i resident has married, started an auto window tinting business and this year, he and his wife had their first child.

But in September, Miyasato received a letter from the Army recalling him to active duty and directing him to report to a military facility in South Carolina on Tuesday."

"I fulfilled my contract," he said. "I just want to move on from this, and I'm optimistic that I'll be successful."

Hmmm.... wasn't King in the National Guard during the Vietnam War? MAybe King would like to "volunteer" his services. The Penatgon is calling up all ages for the Bush-Iraq War. 4,119 soldiers called up for Iraq and Afghanistan are 50 or older. King says Iraq is doing great so maybe he'd like to serve there.

Dear Peter, Up Yours

On October 28th, King expanded his "New Axis of Evil." Before it was the UN, the NYTimes and Dan Rather. On Hannity and Colmes, King added John Kerry to the list.

"KING: He's not being held accountable because the media is in collusion with him. I mean, this whole idea of it going from the U.N. to "The New York Times" to CBS to John Kerry, this is to me -- this is another axis of evil. It really is."

"COLMES: Congressman Smith -- you want to blame the media. Congressman King here said the media is the axis of evil?

KING: No. Not the media, the media, U.N. and John Kerry. Absolutely"

King will go to any length to lower the discourse in politics. It's just sad. And this man is still our representative in congress.

Election 2004

More news to about election 2004.

Peter King by the numbers:

1998
King ..... 65%
Langberg ..... 35%

2000
King ..... 135,328.... 60%
Lamagna ..... 90,290.... 40%

2002
King..... 116,931....72%
Finz ..... 44,289 .... 27%

2004
King ..... 167,008 .... 63%
Mathies ..... 97,534 .... 37%

A breakdown of the numbers up next.


Nassau County is Kerry Country.
JOHN F KERRY-JOHN EDWARDS........ 312,388
GEORGE W BUSH-DICK CHENEY........ 278,727

And it ain't over till it's over.

Voter irregularities being reported and verified in Ohio and Flordia. An Ohio precinct with 638 people voting showed 260 votes for Kerry and 4258 for Bush!!! How many more precincts did this happen to?

And Warren O'Dell CEO of Diebold the company that built the electronic voting machines said he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.''
Hmmmm......

King wins but loses ground

In 2002 King beat Finz with 72% of the vote. This year King won again but he lost 7%. 65-35 isn't great but for an unknown from the sliver of the district in Suffolk he did very well.

Soooo.. King Watch stays alive for two more years.

Regular updates start again tomorrow with some election wrap-up and other items we didn't get to.

King margin smaller than 2002

with 20% of precincts:


King....... 26,014....66%
Mathies...13,361....34%

Zogby's results

Right-leaning Zogby - the only pollster who did cell phone polling is calling teh election 311-213 EV for Kerry.
It's still early so we have to wait.

Guam goes for Bush.

AZ, VA and AR are in play. All "safe" Bush states that look to be tipping.

Early VNS exit polls

From MyDD:
AZ CO LA PA OH FL MI NM MN WI IA NH
Kerry 45 48 42 60 52 51 51 50 58 52 49 57
Bush 55 51 57 40 48 48 47 48 40 43 49 41

Take with a grain of salt but add in the huge early voting turn-out for Kerry and the numbers mean more in FL and OH.

The missing King

Last night there was a rally at Republic Airport in Farmingdale for republican candidates. The event was "hosted" by George Pataki. There was Garner, there was Mills, there was Manger and there WASN'T King.
Where was King?
King was on Crossfire on CNN. King was at the new Time-Warner building at Columbus Circle.
King was in no rush to leave the studios at 5pm when the show was over. He stopped to chat with former Sec. Def. William Cohen's security detail outside on 58th street and then he and his photographer strolled over the the parking garage across the street and took a leisurely drive out of the city.
Time from Midtown Manhattan to Farmingdale without rush-hour traffic? 50minutes. With rush-hour traffic? a couple of hours.

King cares so little about his supporters he chose CNN over a rally.

Election Day

6am polls opened. At 6:20 there was a steady stream at local polling places. No lines out the door like in Florida but it is still early.
People at Massapequa, Mass park and Seaford train stations headed to work and hopefully voting when they get home.
No politicians patrolling stations yet but they will probably be there soon.