Robert Congell is a mall developer in Syracuse, NY. Senator Hillary Clinton helped Mr. Congell secure millions in federal aid for his Carousel Center/DestinyUSA mall expansion project in 2004. Interestingly, Mr. Congell also donated $100,000 to former President Bill Clinton’s foundation right around the same time.

Of course, both sides deny that one had anything to do with the other. I wondered what else Bob Congell’s been spending money on. He seems to follow the political winds while hedging his bets. On 9/22/08 he donated $10k to the Democratic Committee of New York State. He also donated thousands to Hillary Clinton’s campaign as well as the campaign of newly elected congressional Democrat Dan Maffei.

Before mid 2007 Congel gave mostly to Republicans (other than Hillary Clinton) but when the political winds shifted so did his political contributions.

By way of background, Mr. Congel’s been promising Central New York that his DestinyUSA dream will be the saviour of our local economy for years. There was a big media blitz a while ago. At one point they hired a group of unskilled workers at a salary of $60,000 apiece to do unspecified duties. It was all very confusing. Most were later laid off and I have no idea what happened from there.

In the meantime DestinyUSA has been more hype than anything else. Every time a new piece of steel appears on site it’s big news but other than that there hasn’t been much going on. As far as I can tell no new tenants have been announced, and with the way the economy’s going it’s doubtful any large retailers are planning to expand.

Were those DestinyUSA jobs part of the quarter million or so jobs promised to New Yorkers by Hillary Clinton? I suppose we’ll never know.

I just find it interesting the way the press is treating all of these little scandals surrounding President-elect Obama. They never questioned his own fundraising activities, they’re downplaying his and Rahm Emanuel’s connection to Rod Blagojevich, ignoring the story about Hillary Clinton while glossing over the grand jury investigation of Bill Richardson. 

When Democrats are in charge this is all just politics as usual.

Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals and moderates can all agree that 2008 was an interesting year, to say the least. Who would have thought the New York Football Giants would have bested the New England Patriots in the Superbowl? If you thought that would be the strangest thing to happen this year you don’t follow politics too closely.

2008 kicked off in the midst of the Presidential primary season. Democrats bickered over who cared more about the impoverished and who wanted our troops out of Iraq sooner. Republicans went back and forth, each claiming to be the most conservative, while Republican voters kept wondering how they could channel Ronald Reagan. Read the rest of this entry »

Remember all the criticism heaped on Sarah Palin, you know, former Mayor and Energy Commissioner and now sitting Governor of Alaska. She was too inexperienced to be our Vice President. So why aren’t those same people up in arms about Caroline Kennedy attempting to be appointed to Hillary Clinton’s senate seat? What has Caroline done other than being born into the right family. Has anyone else out there just had it with the legacy politics? Enough already!

Okay, there is one qualification for the job of junior Senator from New York: last name.

The Kennedy’s are lobbying hard for Governor Paterson to appoint Caroline Kennedy to Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat. Rumor has it that Ted Kennedy contacted Paterson and told him Caroline would be the natural selection because “Ms. Kennedy - backed by the Kennedy family’s extensive fund-raising network - would have the wherewithal to run back-to-back costly statewide races…”

Is this New York or Illinois? Regardless, I don’t see how another Senator Kennedy would bring about change we can believe in.

H/T Hot Air

I think Deepak Chopra should stick to aromatherapy and enemas and leave the war on terror to the experts. Heal thyself, Deepak!

The Dow dropped almost 700 points today. Will George Stephanopoulos attribute it to Barack Obama’s press conference this morning? Oh come on, you know that’s funny!

Is it just me, or does it make anyone else nervous that Barney Frank will have a role in the Fannie/Freddie makeover? As a mom, I’m all for cleaning up our own messes, but come on!

If we close Gitmo, where will wounded terrorists go for treatment after trying to kill members of the US military?

When Hillary spoke earlier at Barack Obama’s news conference, she expressed that the decision to leave her job as a NY Senator was a tough one. I found that odd, since she’s been trying to leave her job for several years now.

While Americans line up at food pantries, Barack Obama ordered a $30,000 ring for wife, Michelle. I wonder why he couldn’t find an American jeweler from which to make such a grand purchase.

Does anyone else feel like you’re watching reruns of old classic sit coms like The Aventures of Ozzy and Harriet or Leave it to Beaver when you turn on the news? You know, as if the world has suddently become a big beautiful place where everyone loves each other and problems are solved in thirty minutes or less?

Listening to Obama’s news conference today and Hillary Clinton’s remarks about how America’s standing in the world is going to be restored made me want to skip down the sidewalk while whistling the Mayberry tune.

The media credits Obama for any Wall Street spikes, yet when Wall Street tanks it’s blamed on bad economic news or George W. Bush.

Reporters wonder how those awful terrorist attacks in India were carried out after the election of our new Dear Leader. It’s amazing the media even bothered to report the carnage in India, it certainly doesn’t fit their narrative. But not to worry, it can still be blamed on George W. Bush, as, much to their chagrin, Bush is still the President.

I get the feeling the next four (God help us if it’s eight) years the workings of our government will be presented to us as a massive Hollywood production. Scripted questions and answers, favorable lighting and feel good story lines. The villain will continue to be George W. Bush and the hero will (of course) be Barack Obama who can do no wrong.

Happy Days are here again, but I wonder how long it will take this production to jump the shark.

All week the local news has been pre-empted by news conferences from the Office of the President Elect, which doesn’t officially exist. The media and pundits are swooning over the team of experienced centrists being put together by the inexperienced, radical leftist Barack Obama.

Some groups on the left are unhappy that he isn’t filling the cabinet with radical left wingers like himself. I don’t think they have anything to fear. He needs to look like a centrist or the odds of him being re-elected are slim to none. America simply doesn’t like radical leftists so he must pretend he’s a centrist. It seems even the Communist Party USA recognizes this fact, as they are calling for maintaining unity.

Barack Obama is the ultimate politician and he knows how to play the game. He’s so good at it many Republicans have joined the Obamalovefest. Janice Shaw Crouse summed things up brilliantly, arguing that the left’s buyers remorse is misguided.

What Obama’s critics are overlooking is that he is a former community organizer; he prefers to work under the radar, starting from the grassroots. Those who are looking at the top layer of the Obama Administration wanting to see a sign of the “second coming of Saul Alinsky” (as one blogger put it), are going to be disappointed. Those who watched First Lady Hillary Clinton set up little fiefdoms in all the government agencies to push the policies of the Beijing Platform for Action and those who observed Senator Barack Obama utilize ACORN to build a political machine that spread from Chicago throughout the nation will recognize the strategy and tactics of master manipulators.

Even though they differ on many other fronts, Barack and Hillary are kindred spirits when it comes to using the government’s legendary “soft power” and the national “bully pulpit” to achieve their personal and political ends. So, while the nation is lulled into thinking that Barack is moving to the center, his minions who are actually carrying the water will be hard-core “progressives” moving the leftist agenda forward largely out of the public’s sight in the mid-level management positions of the government’s sprawling bureaucracy. Much of the real action will happen behind the scenes in thousands of small decisions and initiatives that will remain nearly invisible until — like the explosion in the number of mother-only families that followed from Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty — the transformation of their cumulative effects begins to emerge.

Barack Obama didn’t come this far to  give up on his core beliefs. He’s just smart enough to know how to get things done without drawing attention. Again, he’s the ultimate politician, or as Ms. Crouse put it, a master manipulator.

Charles ‘Chuck You’ Schumer paid a visit to Syracuse today to tell us how he and his pals are going to create lots of jobs for the people of Central New York. Sort of like Hillary Clinton’s promise to bring 250,000 new jobs to Upstate New York. We’re still waiting. Read the rest of this entry »

Moderate Democrate John Dingell’s out as Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Henry Waxman’s in, which doesn’t bode well for the business community.

John McCain and Barack Obama met earlier this week. I was thinking “Now McCain can go back to being a Democrat.” Apparently, I wasn’t the only one thinking that.

Barack Obama has named Tim Geithner as his pick for Treasury Secretary and Bill Richardson for Commerce. The market reacted positively. Whether that holds up next week is unknown. Didn’t Geithner have a hand in the bailout of AIG?

There may be a rift between Nancy Pelosi and the new adminstration. It’s been reported that Obama supports a pre-packaged bankruptcy for the US automakers (who reject the idea), while Pelosi says bankruptcy should be taken off the table. This could be interesting.

It’s almost official, Hillary Clinton will be our next Secretary of State. I wonder who will take her place in the Senate. I need a Tagamet.

Sarah Palin pardoned a turkey and during a post-pardon interview another turkey met his maker. I don’t understand the big deal. Where do people thing their Thanksgiving turkeys come from?

Five million people are expected to descend on Washington DC for Barack Obama’s inauguration. Why does the thought of 5 Million people in one place conjure up images of the Super Dome after Hurricane Katrina? All I can say is “Good luck, folks.”

Why would the federal government even consider bailing out a corporation that has made horrible business decisions for years? GM should go bankrupt and re-organize under new management, at least that’s what Michael Levine writing for the Wall Street Journal thinks. I agree.

At least one United States Senator has some common sense. Sen. Jim Inhofe proposes a freeze on the “bailout” funds given to Secretary Paulson. That’s a fine idea. No more bailouts!

If you like conservative talk radio, you may want to consider satellite. It looks like the left is gunning for making right wing talk show a thing of the past on terrestrial radio.

Do you remember Barack Obama denouncing lobbyists? Funny, isn’t it that he’s hiring a whole host of lobbyists to work on his transition team?

What does HIllary Clinton have on Barack Obama that makes him willing to offer her the job of Secretary of State?

Now I remember what I didn’t like about Mike Huckabee. What’s up with him?

You probably won’t read about it in your local newspaper or hear it from the MSM, but the issue of Barack Obama’s birth certificate has not been resolved. Which just makes one wonder, why won’t he just produce the darn thing?

And just to show how bi-partisan Barack Obama is when disrespecting colleagues who disagree with him, here he is flipping off Hillary Clinton.

Can’t you just wait until he’s President and he’s down in the polls and flips all of us off!?

We keep hearing about how the Bradley effect may change the outcome of the presidential campaign. Some believe Americans are just a bunch of secret racists. I’m not buying that. Sure, in a country with 300 million people there are racists. There are a lot of “ists” out there. They probably cancel each other out.

What I haven’t heard much about is the effect the P.U.M.A. voters will have on the election. I happen to be related to a few. I don’t know if they call themselves P.U.M.A.’s, but after the coverage of the Democratic primaries they were disgusted. They were angry at Hillary Clinton’s treatment by the media and the Obama campaign. They started watching Fox News and realized that Fox wasn’t so bad after all. They started hearing the other side and found they’d rather hear both sides of an argument or issue. They are voting for John McCain. Read the rest of this entry »

Who knew John McCain is a comedian? He was very funny tonight at the Alfred E. Smith Dinner.

He lampooned Obama but remained gracious. I’ve never seen Hillary Clinton laugh so hard or smile so broadly.

The roast was delightful to watch and his closing was fantastic! A little bit of humor really goes a long way.

In Politico’s Arena, Leon Panetta called George Bush AWOL on the economy. These Democrats have such short memories.

Who was AWOL in 2003 when President Bush called on Congress to pass legislation to better oversee the dealings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Who was AWOL in 2006 when Senator McCain gave a speech on the same subject?

Where was Senator Clinton? Senator Obama? Nancy Pelosi? Harry Reid? Barney Frank? I’ll tell you where, they were in Fannie and Freddie’s pockets, in the name of “housing for the poor”. That’s where they were!

I wouldn’t blame President Bush if he pulls a John Galt and just walks away. Why shouldn’t he? He’s gotten nothing but grief and partisan games from Democrats since the day he took office. It’s only gotten worse since 2006.

America-you wanted change. You got it in 2006 when you turned the House and the Senate over to the Democrats. How is that working out? You want more of that kind of change? If that’s the case Atlas has already shrugged.

Lynn Forester de Rothschild who was one of Hillary Clinton’s biggest campaign fundraisers, is endorsing John McCain for President over Barack Obama. Interestingly, Ms. Forester de Rothschild has built a multi-million dollar company and is married to an international banker. Apparently she trusts John McCain more on the economy than Barack Obama. Read Fox News story.