Friday, December 02, 2005

Bayh Birthday Bash

Check out Bayh50.com for a great flash website and information on tonight's party/fundraiser. I'd be there if I could but I cannot. The Fix has some other information about this black tie affair.
Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh (D) will do just that tomorrow night at a black tie event in his homestate slated to raise $600,000 for his campaign committee. Bayh's father -- former Sen. Birch Bayh -- is one of several guests scheduled to address the crowd.

Bayh's expected fundraising take from the event is among the largest single-night hauls in the history of Indiana politics. So why would a senator who just won reelection with 62 percent of the vote last November and has $7.2 million in the bank (as of the end of September) spend his 50th birthday raising money?[...]

Through his leadership political action committee -- All America PAC -- Bayh raised $1.2 million in the first six months of the year, more than the leadership PAC of any other potential 2008 contender other than Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). Any money banked in his Senate account can be transferred to a presidential committee -- providing a considerable jumpstart to a national bid.

In the next week Bayh will be in Texas, Chicago, New Jersey and New York to raise money. To date in 2005, he has traveled to 22 states.
It also looks like this year's Wendell Ford appreciation dinner will be in March--assuming I have the finances, I'll be there as it is spring break that week.

An email from Senator Biden's PAC said that Senator Joe Biden will be on Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer debating Senator Dick Lugar.

Former Senator Tom Daschle calls for new leadership at FEMA and criticized the disaster relief.

Some information from JTA with regards to our friends up north in Canada:
A Canadian diplomat said Canada would vote against more of the U.N.’s annual litany of anti-Israel resolutions.

Last year Canada took a more pro-Israel stance on four of the annual package of 20 or so anti-Israel resolutions, and Deputy Ambassador Gilbert Laurin on Thursday told the General Assembly that Canada would vote against three more of the "divisive and unhelpful" resolutions this year. B’nai Brith Canada called the stance a "welcome first step."

"Canada’s recognition of the injustice of the entrenched ritual of politicized anti-Israel resolutions ought to be part and parcel of a policy of zero tolerance on the part of our government for Israel-bashing at the U.N.," said Frank Dimant, B’nai Brith’s executive vice-president. According to Shimon Fogel of the Canada-Israel Committee, Canada’s intention to sponsor a more balanced resolution next year "represents a substantial contribution to rehabilitating the U.N."
Speaking of the United Nations and Israel, here is another JTA article:
The U.N. General Assembly passed a series of resolutions widely seen as anti-Israel.

The body passed its annual resolutions Thursday extending the mandates of the so-called Palestinian committees, which support the Palestinian agenda at the United Nations.

The assembly also again passed resolutions on Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the "peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine." On Wednesday, a senior American adviser at the U.N. General Assembly called for the elimination of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and the Division of Palestinian Rights within the Secretariat, which, along with the Special Information Program on the Question of Palestine, had their mandates approved in Thursday’s vote.

"Endorsing resolutions that condemn Israeli actions but that fail to address Palestinian actions or inactions have real consequences," Robert O’Brien, senior U.S. adviser to the 60th session of the General Assembly, said in advance of the vote. "One-sided resolutions such as these before us today undermine the ability of the United Nations to play a constructive role in furthering peace."

Israel, its supporters and Jewish leaders have also called for the committees to be abolished.
Again, another article from JTA dealing with American support for Israel, especially of Jewish citizens here in the states. This is important because I am very vocal when it comes to my support of Israel.
Most American Jews support Israel but rarely defend the Jewish state in public, a new poll found.
The study, conducted by Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research for the Israel Project, found that 82 percent of American Jews support Israel — 63 percent said they did so strongly — and that Jewish identity is more intense for Republican Jews and synagogue members.


The survey also found that 19 percent of American Jews never defend Israel, while 24 percent said they did it rarely and 18 percent said they did it a few times a year. The remaining people said they talk about or defend Israel at least once a month. The study also found Jewish identity for men aged 18-49 was 13 percent lower than for women of the same age.

Pollster Frank Luntz, who explained the results in Washington on Thursday, said the Jewish community should do more to reach young men, by discussing Israeli sports and pop culture, and placed the onus on parents, from whom 45 percent of Jews said they first learned about Israel.

"Jewish parents need to understand their kids are listening to them in what they say and every way they say it," Luntz said.
I am appalled at the 19%.

NJDC needs your support today.

Kenton County PVA Merrick Krey will announce for re-election next Wednesday, December 7th at 5:30pm over at the Lookout Farms Clubhouse in Crestview Hills.

No comments: