Cuba Dwight Pelz appears to have been elected chairman of the Washington state Democrat Party. Pelz was endorsed by Mrs. Gregoire1 and Sen. Patty Murray:
Dwight will come to this job with a wealth of experience in precisely the areas that will make him an effective Chair, and he has been a passionate advocate for the values we all share.[emphasis added]. Such values apparently include Fidel Castro, election fraud and campaign finance violations.
For the record, I spoke with representatives of both Mrs. Gregoire and Sen. Murray yesterday to inform them of Richard Pope's formal complaint against Pelz and to ask for comment. I received no comment, but Gregoire and Murray cannot claim they were ignorant of these allegations at the time that Pelz was elected state party chairman with their endorsements.
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1 The haughty, French-named Massachusetts-style Democrat, who by the way was president of a segregated sorority in college.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=1211
Some excerpts:
This February, Pelz led a delegation to Cuba "on a fact-finding mission to explore building this relationship." He recounts the trip in "County could build ties with Cuban people" (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 11, 2002).
Pelz refers to Cuba’s "first rate education and health care system" and describes it as "a nation with little crime." "I encountered safe streets with a steady police presence," he writes. Indeed, police states tend to have a steady police presence. ...
Lo and behold, the Cubans Pelz met were Fidelistas: "I met people with a rich understanding of their own history, and a shared commitment to the direction their country is taking." He reiterates, "We found support for Castro." (Castro enjoys so much support that he has refused electoral accountability for forty-three years.)
Posted by: Richard Pope on January 28, 2006 06:57 PMThis is the best thing to happen to the Republican Party since Rossi.
I am a Marxist Leninist and I will be one until the day my hair grows back.
Dwight Pelz
Is it merely a coincidence these 2 have such similiar beliefs???
Posted by: dude on January 28, 2006 08:12 PMThe entire world hates America and so do I.
Dwight Pelz
You are being TOO CYNICAL. While Laura Ruderman is an extremely electable commodity in a general election, she is far too moderate to be chosen for a leadership position in the Democrat party. The election was far closer than it would have been otherwise, but Dwight Pelz was in no danger of losing against Ruderman, given their relative philosophies and the makeup of the Democrat party.
It would sort of be like having a moderate such as Fred Jarrett or Bill Finkbeiner challenging Chris Vance for leadership of the Republican party. Some major scandal could come out against Vance at the last minute, and still not very many people would be inclined to vote for a moderate like Jarrett or Finkbeiner.
In any event, the members of the state Democrat committee were given fair notice of Pelz's likely FINE (as in PDC) leadership potential. I heard a rumor that someone distributed flyers prior to the meeting today to all of the Democrat committee members, outlining Pelz's PDC problems and reminding them of the $337,500 in PDC fines already paid by the Democrat party.
Given the closeness of the Democrat election, and Ruderman's strong campaign, it is probably good that I was only inspired to discover this situation yesterday. If I had found out about it, let's say a week ago, and made it public back then, there would have been time for Democrats to analyze it and discover that I was really correct. That might have made Pelz vulnerable to Ruderman's challenge, or resulted in Pelz being withdrawn in favor of another true liberal (and one probably not as extreme as Pelz) with unblemished credentials who could have defeated the moderate Ruderman.
Posted by: Richard Pope on January 28, 2006 08:18 PMThe University of Washington must only teach Marxist Leninist propaganda.
Dwight Pelz
Seems like Pelz and Fidel are truly birds of a feather.
Posted by: dude on January 28, 2006 08:18 PMDiscovering Marxism was like finding directions on a flush toilet.
Dwight Pelz
I will be filing a similar complaint against Mrs. Christine Gregoire very soon. It involves chronic late reporting during 2005 and failure to file reports electronically.
Posted by: Richard Pope on January 28, 2006 09:09 PMIt's surreal the way these people close their eyes to human rights violations up the wazzu and continue to praise a communist dictator.
Posted by: Misty on January 28, 2006 09:44 PMThe liberal fantasy is to have us pay 100% of our income in taxes, 100% tax on estates. They will tell us how to live our lives, how to think, what to say and do, where to work, etc. The book, "1984" is the democrat's dream. They rule us, we live in squalor, while they retire to their dachas to plot their next version of repression. Housing will be free, health care will be free, and that's just the start. Next, food will be free, transportation will be free…Your pension will be confiscated to be shared with everyone else, after all, it's only "fair."
The Soviet Union worked so well I don't fault the democrats from wanting to implement a Marxist society.
Remember what Madam FatAss Hillary said not too long ago, "we're going to have to take things from you for the common good." I don't see her and her lecher husband giving up their fortunes for our "common good." Of course like Kennedrunk they put their money into trust funds beyond our tax laws. They believe that they are above the law. The rule of law only applies to us "little" people, not the ruling class like Bill and Hill. Oops, I almost forgot to mention John "do you know who I am" Kerry. What a loser Kerry is. After his divorce from his first rich wife he lived a live of poverty, sleeping on donor's couches, demanding free meals, etc. Isn't it amazing that he "fell in love" with a rich widow? The only thing Kerry loves is himself. Poor Teresa, the wacky witch, she married a gigolo.
John Kerry. What a loser.
This is the democratic party today. Taking "things" i.e., income, away from us, to give to the "poor." Their plan is to raise taxes on the "upper class," which means anyone employed, and lower taxes on the "under class," which means anyone unemployed. Once the income tax burden is on the upper 49% of income earners the dems revolution will be complete. They can raise taxes on a minority based upon the votes of the majority.
We saw what a success Communism was. Do we want that vision for our society? I don't think so.
Hillary and Patty Murray do.
That's the danger we have to fight.
Posted by: Obi=Wan on January 28, 2006 11:21 PMReminds me of the line about Seattle: easier for Fidel to get elected to anything than for a republican...
Posted by: righton on January 29, 2006 08:34 AMAlthough it's now become official, they've always been de facto members. How else to explain the election of someone like Patsy Murray, Gollum in tennis shows, to the US Senate?
Posted by: Cartman on January 29, 2006 10:27 AMLast April, Pelz submitted a resolution to establish a "sister-county relationship" with Cuba’s Granma province. Cuba is one of only seven countries classified by the U.S. State Department as a sponsor of terrorism.
This February, Pelz led a delegation to Cuba "on a fact-finding mission to explore building this relationship." He recounts the trip in "County could build ties with Cuban people" (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 11, 2002).
Pelz refers to Cuba’s "first rate education and health care system" and describes it as "a nation with little crime." "I encountered safe streets with a steady police presence," he writes. Indeed, police states tend to have a steady police presence.
Regarding education, Castro said as early as 1965 that "our children are being educated to live in a Communist society" and "they must be discouraged from every egotistical feeling in the enjoyment of material things, such as the sense of individual property." How this perversion constitutes "first rate education" is unclear. (Private schools are prohibited, so parents have no educational options.)
Health care is also far from first-rate and predicated upon ideological apartheid. Dr. Miguel A. Faria, Jr. notes in Cuba in Revolution: Escape from a Lost Paradise, "It is certainly true that in Cuba everyone (i.e., except those branded as counterrevolutionaries) has, at least on paper, access to physicians and health care, although in practice it is a most rudimentary form of medical care." (Even if health care were superb and non-discriminatory, it would not mitigate the regime’s totalitarianism.)
Lo and behold, the Cubans Pelz met were Fidelistas: "I met people with a rich understanding of their own history, and a shared commitment to the direction their country is taking." He reiterates, "We found support for Castro." (Castro enjoys so much support that he has refused electoral accountability for forty-three years.)
Pelz ends his account with the hope that "the Garfield High Jazz Band could travel to the city of Bayamo, Granma and demonstrate to Cubans the beauty of American jazz."
Absent from Pelz’s Cuba is Castro’s totalitarianism, manifest in prohibitions like "disrespect," "illicit association," and "illegal exit." Pelz criticizes the federal government for "restrictions on my right as an American citizen to freely travel to Cuba" but ignores restrictions on Cubans’ right to freely travel to America or anywhere else.
Absent is the terror Castro inflicts through his secret police, the DSE (Department of State Security), the brownshirt-like Rapid Response Brigades, and thousands of chivatos (informers).
Absent are the persecuted dissidents and Amnesty International prisoners of conscience such as Vladimiro Roca and Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet.
Absent are the horrors at Bayamo’s Las Mangas prison and State Security headquarters.
Somehow these facts eluded Pelz during his "fact-finding mission."
Consider the image of a high school band playing in Santiago during Pinochet. As the dictator’s functionaries applaud the melodious performance, discordant knuckles and boots fall upon others in Santiago. The students do not know this, but those who brought them there should.
If the Garfield High Jazz Band played in Bayamo, would it know of its hosts’ captivity or the dissidents in the dungeons of Las Mangas and State Security? Probably not, but I wouldn’t blame these adolescents for what would seem like a tropical excursion.
Dwight Pelz is no adolescent."
Posted by: dude on January 29, 2006 11:25 AMSounds like a real nightmare...
Not like the Nirvana we have here of $53 billion dollars in cuts on much needed social sevices that the idiot Republicans recently served up! Did you know that in Europe 7% of the total GNP is spent on health care. Sounds like a lot, doesn't it? But when you compare it to the over 15% of GNP that we spend yearly in the U.S., it's really not much. ALL THAT MONEY AND WE DON'T EVEN GET THE HEALTHCARE!!! Who do you suppose is getting those big bucks? People like Bill Frist are and people like you allow them to vote on bills that take money out of your pocket and you don't blink an eye. Give a poor person a slice of cheese and you're up in arms!
You're an idiot. You will be Obi=GONE in '06!!!
That makes them the enemies of democracy, not the loyal opposition.
Posted by: JCM on January 29, 2006 11:55 AMFamily members of mine who recently went to Kiev saw firsthand what communism did to those people. It isn't pretty. The air-quality in these former communist cities is awful compared to what we have here in Seattle, proving that a hard-left state will NOT produce things like clean air, as claimed by the left. I understand China is heavily polluted, too. I am grateful to live here, instead, for that and for so many reasons.
Posted by: Misty on January 29, 2006 03:46 PMPerhaps we can fit him with a tight, white jacket and send him to Europe (or even Cuba) for evaluation.
He might fit right in.
Posted by: rickyragg on January 29, 2006 05:07 PMAlso, how soon before Mrs. Gregoire moves the state's economy to the Ruble???
Posted by: Cartman on January 29, 2006 07:18 PM"We will bury you!" (In Bullsh!t!)
Posted by: alphabet soup on January 29, 2006 08:15 PMYou're right--health care is 15% of GDP in the US, and lower in Europe. Why do you think that is, exactly? Is it because there is less profit motive in Europe, fewer evil capitalists in the mix? Or is it mostly that the European health care systems ration health care to the point where in virtually every European nation there are movements to add in private care? The UK right now has a waiting list of more than 800,000 patients who need some sort of surgery but can't get it immediately, and if they do they are four times more likely to die in surgery than they are in the US. Lawyers recently sued Quebec contending that more than 10,000 breast cancer patients were denied treatment in a timely manner leading to the need for unnecessary mastectomies.
The real situation in health care is that the US, as the only major system without this sort of rationing, is also the only major system where health care innovation occurs on a large scale. The Europeans then take the advances that Americans pay for, but they ration them.
I know you're all worried about the supposed huge number (whichever number you like--there are numerous estimates out there for you to choose from) of uninsured, but 1) there's a huge difference between being uninsured and being without care (just like in Europe and Canada there is a huge difference between having universal insurance and being able to get care); and 2) having 40 million of people without health care insurance (to use one common number) is hardly an argument that the 260m that do have insurance should be part of a universal care program that would destroy their choices and quality of care. This is what happened in Canada, and Canadians make up for it by having their surgeries south of the border; this is also why as of last year a majority of Canadians surveyed would break the government monopolies on health care.
Posted by: Marc on January 30, 2006 06:03 AM