User talk:Conor Kenny

I'm the Congresspedia editor. Leave a message for me below or email me at CKenny [AT] Congresspedia.org.

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Delay blog
From Alternet:

Melissa McEwan, "Tom DeLay starts a blog", AlterNet, December 12, 2006

DeLay's blog started out allowing unmoderated comments. That would indicate a less than thorough internet knowledge, but it seems they quickly got an education, and deleted 111 comments, but one James Risser was quick and thoughtful enough to have archived them beforehand.

Note: the Alternet URL to Risser's post is incorrect. It can be found here:


 * original 111 comments to DeLays blog

From Countdown with Keith Olberman, december 11, 2006


 * And TomDeLay.com, a new portal in the blogosphere. Why it went online at 3:23 and offline at 4:38...


 * Meantime, Tom DeLay gets a blogosphere backhand when he seeks welcome on the Internets...


 * Speaking of comebacks, The Hammer has surfaced again, this time on the Internet with TomDeLay.com. The former House majority leader was hoping his first blog would provide a forum for conservatives.  Instead, it provided him with an unwelcome education.  Mr. DeLay launched his project despite the fact that he does not seem to understand that one of the points of having a blog is to, well, blog.


 * (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "HARDBALL")


 * MIKE BARNICLE, GUEST HOST: Do you get up first thing in the morning and start blogging away?  Or how, what do you do?


 * FORMER MAJORITY LEADER TOM DELAY: Well, I‘m not a very good writer.


 * I have the ideas, and I have somebody else put the words together.


 * (END VIDEO CLIP)


 * OLBERMANN: The ghost blogger must also be the individual responsible for checking the calendar.  Mr. DeLay said on “HARDBALL" the blog started today.  Actually it was yesterday.  It‘s that pesky ghost blogger who must have also written DeLay‘s opening statement about why he started a blog, even though he‘s not blogging.


 * Quote, "I did not fully realize the impact or potential of the blogosphere until very recently, when Red State gave me the opportunity to post some of my observations in the wake of the recent midterm elections. The response I received was overwhelming, and I would like to again thank the fine people at that site.  This experience brought me to the immediate realization that I needed to become more directly involved in the blogosphere," unquote.


 * And the so-called blogosphere got directly involved with him, thanks to his great idea to post unscreened comments. That experiment only lasted about 75 minutes before Mr. DeLay, or somebody, took the Web site down and deleted the 100-some comments, but not before one other sharp-eyed blogger saved them.  Most are far too blue for us to repeat.  We don‘t mean that in blue-versus-red.  But we can quote a few, and now you tell it all (ph).


 * Quote, "You corrupt hypocrite, crawl back to the hole you came out of." And, "This is a joke, right?"  And the winner for cynical wit, "Everyone already assumes bloggers are unemployed losers.  Thanks for reinforcing that stereotype."

From Hardball with Chris Matthews' for Dec. 11

Video is available. This is maybe a direct link to the video page, but no guarantees, as a set cookie might also be required.


 * BARNICLE:  Welcome back to HARDBALL.  We‘re with former Texas congressman and House majority leader, Tom DeLay.


 * TomDeLay.com, right? Is that—is that the blog?


 * DELAY: That‘s new today.  Yes.  That‘s my blog that we came out with today.  And we‘re very pleased with it.  We‘re getting a lot of comments and a lot of hits on it.


 * BARNICLE:  So, like, do you get up first thing in the morning and start blogging away?  Or what do you do?


 * DELAY: Well, I‘m not a very good writer.  I have the ideas, and I have somebody else put the words together.  But yes, we‘re going to post a lot during the day.  And we‘re going to respond to questions and comments.


 * And it‘s—the conservatives need to push back on communications, and we need to compete, instead of...


 * BARNICLE:  You‘ve got to be kidding me.


 * DELAY: No.


 * BARNICLE:  I mean, look at—you‘ve got Rush Limbaugh out there.


 * DELAY: Oh, yes.  Radio talk shows are great.


 * BARNICLE:  You mean conservative bloggers?


 * DELAY: In any media.  If there‘s a blogosphere, we are sorely lacking in enough conservative bloggers to offset the liberal bloggers that are there.  And I want to set—be a role model that the leaders ought to have their own blog, and they ought to talk to people around the country on these blogs.


 * BARNICLE:  So do you have contributors to your blog lined up?  I mean, other conservatives, other members of Congress or...


 * DELAY: Not right now, but we do have a grass roots organization that we‘re saying if you agree with me and want to be an activist and be part of driving a conservative agenda, sign up.


 * BARNICLE:  So I log on to TomDeLay.com, and I write you a question, you answer the question?


 * DELAY: That‘s right.


 * BARNICLE:  Like I write, you know, “Do you—Tom, do you think you‘d ever run again for anything.”  What would be your answer?


 * DELAY: Probably not.  I don‘t know where my future leads me.


 * BARNICLE:  Dear Tom, what do you think of your candidates in ‘08?  Do you think Romney has a chance?  Will his being a Mormon hurt him?  What do you...


 * DELAY: I think we need a good solid conservative, and I‘m not sure we know who that is yet.


 * BARNICLE:  What do you think of the Republican side of ‘08?  McCain, Romney, probably a couple of others?  Sam Brownback.


 * DELAY: I think they‘re all people that certainly can run in the Republicans, but I‘m looking for a good solid conservative to carry on the legacy of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.


 * BARNICLE:  What is a good solid conservative?  What‘s a good solid conservative?


 * DELAY: What‘s a good solid conservative?


 * BARNICLE:  Yes.


 * DELAY: A person that believes in the Constitution and believes in the first principles of order, justice and freedom, that—that wants to completely change and redesign the government, that wants fundamental tax reform, that wants to fight the culture war, end abortion as we know it, that wants to hold the judiciary accountable.


 * BARNICLE:  With only a couple of exceptions, I mean, you just described Barack Obama.


 * DELAY: No.  Barack—you‘re going to learn who the real Barack Obama is.


 * BARNICLE:  TomDeLay.com.  Thanks very much, Tom DeLay.

Some other links of note:


 * DeLays Blog
 * The Great Tom DeLay Blog Intrigue

cc: Conor Kenny, Elliott Fullmer, Artificial intelligence

Congressional staff
So I didn't see any articles where membes of congress staff was mentioned. Considering how much impact senior staff has on the actions of a congressman and the transition from one team to another can describe very deep linkages between people one thing I would like to see is that sort of information on the Congresscritter pages. But I am a little uncomfortable about it because on some level those are people just doing a job and have not accepted as public a roll as a sitting politician.

Do you think that information should be included?

CP: Orwell - steps on writing...
Here is the source I used for Wikinews: Davodd 18:55, 27 March 2007 (EDT)
 * G. ORWELL, Why I Write, in A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS 320 (1954).

Needed gun control articles
Cheers, --Beth Wellington 10:36, 2 May 2007 (EDT)
 * Assault Weapon Ban
 * Brady Bill

Duncan Hunter edits
Conor, I have posted some comments to the discussion page of the Hunter article. Thanks for your encouragement and keeping the dialog open on this. --James Cudahy 9:34 10 May 2007 (CST)

POGO (Project on Government Oversight)
Conor, I posted another note on the Duncan Hunter discussion page about POGO and bias. Could you please have a look? Thanks again. --James Cudahy 22:53 10 May 2007 (CST)

nice edits
Hi CK

Good changes to the Artur Davis article. I am generally pleased with it. However, one observation. I don't agree with attaching the longish proviso to the eIntifada website. There are two issues here: eIntifada plucks stuff off the web; Ben White didnt write that article for eIntifada... that is factually wrong. He wrote it for the media center in Bethlehem where he works. Second, eIntifada is a very good reputable website, and one wonders why it needed that proviso. Elsewhere in SW one finds references to dubious sources, say, FrontPage.com, but one rarely sees a proviso attached to it. May I suggest that we enter that proviso under an article about eIntifada? I could write that if that would allay your concerns about the provenance of the quote etc.

BTW: Richard Curtiss's book StealthPAC analyzes very nicely the constellation of the hundreds of little PACs around the US and how these are used to manipulate the US electoral system. NB: these actions violate US electoral laws... The Davis campaign was a classic case explained in that book, and thus the interest in having a reference to it.

Kind rgds Antidotto

yahoo group
Hi Conor. I just sent you an email through the system with my offline email address. cheers, -Spacegrit 16:29 PDT June 13 2007

I signed up earlier... letting you know it was me. -Spacegrit 15:40 PDT June 27 2007

Yahoo group (2)
Hello Conor Kenny, thank you for inviting me to the "SourceWatch admin group". In the last 2 years I hardly ever logged in here because I'm too busy with other projects. I still hope to find some time for updating the articles I once started here (or to be more precise, when it was still called Disinfopedia). To be honest I don't think I will be active again at SourceWatch as an admin so I ask you as a bureaucrat to remove me from the list of administrators. Best regards, Bonzai 14:48, 22 July 2007 (EDT)

CPedia redirects / votes for deletion
hi, Conor,

Could you or another CPedia person please sort through the articles listed on SourceWatch:Votes for deletion? They're all double redirects to CPedia pages, with no incoming links.

Redtexture has been nice enough to ferret them out, and I've cleared out the previous round. But I think it's best for CPedia folks to handle these.

thanks, Diane Farsetta 12:10, 22 August 2007 (EDT)


 * And I add my voice to the request. Pretty please take a look at these. I first went over them in June, I think...I've been waiting months for attention on this issue. -- Redtexture 19:52, 30 August 2007 (EDT)
 * I've replied to your query at Help_talk:References. Thanks for asking. I do have a comprehensive view that I understand may not be easy to implement. I apologize for the slow response to my talk page. I have not logged in for a number of weeks. I have to say that I decided I'm not going to do any  editing until the deletion of un-used double redirects thing I put forward on the  SourceWatch:Votes for deletion is cleared up. Its been since June.  I'd like to think that these arer easy to handle. I hope that administration is not so hard. Anyow I'm waiting for these, before investing more energy in the project. I'm just trying to help. -- Redtexture 23:12, 20 September 2007 (EDT)


 * Thanks for clearing out those un-used redirects. Regards, Redtexture 00:42, 20 October 2007 (EDT)

New Template
Hi Conor,

Threw this together on Left.Wikia, and thought it might be useful here.

Chadlupkes 18:19, 23 August 2007 (EDT)

Reader Note Worth Checking
Hi Conor, it is worth having a look at the note posted by a reader at http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=SourceWatch:Contact&rcid=160930 cheers --Bob Burton 15:24, 7 October 2007 (EDT)

Here is the note:

In the Bio of Congressman Steve Pearce of the 2nd District of New Mexico you say that he "served in" Vietnam. I question this as I was a campaign volunteer for Congressman Pearce in 2002 and 2004 and was in several lengthy discussions with his Chief of Staff Bob Carter about his sytatus as a Vietnam vet. It is my understanding that his military service records do NOT reflect Vietnam service. Only Arkansas and the Phillipines and that he received a Vietnam Campaign ribbon ONLY because the Phillipines were part of the Vietnam theater of war. I am almost certain that this is correct and very well known among Pearce's inner circle. I believe that he flew into Vietnam a couple of times as a navigator on a military cargo plane but was nevever actually assigned for duty there.

I could be wrong but I think that calling Congressman Pearce a "Vietnam veteran" on this basis would be about the same as calling the civilian commercial pilots who flew troops in and out of Saigon and Cam Rahn Bay "Vietnam Vets" on the basis of their flights in and out of the country.

In Re: New Congresspedia Stub Pat meagher
Aside from it being pure campaign fluff, the title needs to be renamed to Pat Meagher (small cap m on last name). I don't want to step on anyone's toes though...

cheers, and Happy new Year Conor, --hugh_manateee 18:25, 1 January 2008 (EST)

CP: Corrupt forces at work on Alaska Gas Pipeline project
I just discovered Sourcewatch while doing a search on Drue Pearce and Exxon as she is threatening a Fed takeover of the Alaska gas pipeline project claiming it's not moving fast enough and former corrupt Alaska governor Frank Murkowski has jumped into the fray yesterday saying he wants to "get it moving". Present Alaska governor Sarah Palin is doing an honest job dealing with powerful corrupt corporate and political forces, but God help her, there is alot of greed afoot. I registered as a new user and received my password and verification via my yahoo but I would like to use my own password as the one issued is not easily remembered and so I don't have to keep digging it out of my yahoo email heap.

CP: Hutchison's husband
Conor, I just picked this up, and am unsure how or even if it should be entered into Kay Bailey Hutchison's Congresspedia stub, so I'm dropping the data here.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) issued the report:  Family Affair - Senate (Full Report 1mb PDF - text-no security restrictions). In the Kay Bailey Hutchison section it was noted that her husband Ray works for Vinson & Elkins.

Their references were
 * Vinson & Elkins profile of Ray Hutchison
 * Kay Bailey Hutchison Senate Web Site Biography Page

--hugh_manateee 09:31, 12 April 2008 (EDT)

CP: Typo in article name
Jill Morganthaler should be Jill Morgenthaler Jenkins 00:03, 28 May 2008 (EDT)

CP: Illinois Congressional races
Hi again! I updated the list at 2008 U.S. congressional elections (Illinois) and then found the Portal for Illinois. I had problems updating it (nothing lined up!) so would you mind updating the names? Thanks. I used the Illinois Board of Elections website to get the latest status of everyone so it should be accurate. Jenkins 01:32, 28 May 2008 (EDT)

Hello Conor about Carl Bunce page
I am new at this but have been keeping close tabs on Carl Bunce in my state Congressional race. I came across his page on this site and it was filled with out of control spin in favor of Nevada Republican State party views. I was a bit upset. I only want to represent facts on here, but I have been having to remove just bold lies from users Jenny A and Sue B who have only been contributing to Carl Bunce and Chris Dyer. I have read the rules and looked at other Congressman's page and am trying to remove bias as much as possible. Any general rules I could apply would be helpful. Also what are my options in dealing the the lies that these couple users keep placing on Carl Bunce. This is a tight race going on right now in NV, this is the reason these party people are placing these lies on his profile and other blogs. Thank you for any help. I am bothering you just cause I saw your username in history and read your profile and I thought you could assist an old lady with a passion for politics. --User:Twaters1

Hello Conor, I have been dealing with Carl Bunce's page and the user accounts Jenny A and Sue B. They appear to be the same person, I figured that out in the discussion when criticizing some smear left by Sue B and Jenny A responded as though that account had written it. It there anything that can be done to eliminate this relentless bias and smear from this single user trying to add creditability to their lies by using 2 accounts. My son said something about that you may track IP's whatever that is.--Tammy W 17:48, 11 August 2008 (EDT)

Sarah Palin article
Thanks for the reminder. I'll get that today and add some of her legal staff names that have popped up if they don't have articles already. I'm sure they'll appreciate the recognition. On an unrelated note, the Wall Street Journal article is, at best, outdated. I'm going to make a few obvious corrections, but a lot more could be added and updated.--Halliburton Shill 16:22, 12 October 2008 (EDT)

Gary Ackerman stub bias
Conor, I was just browsing congresspedia's Gary Ackerman thread, and was surprised at the following entry in it:


 * Christian values


 * Ackerman was one of only 22 Congressman and the only Democrat from New York to vote against protecting the symbols and traditions of Christmas.[1] The resolution, which did not include language that would protect the symbols of other religous holidays, passed 401-22 in the House in December 2005. This isn't the first time the Congressman was labeled as anti-Christian.

Ackerman's religious faith is Judaism. Am I missing the relevance pointing out his lack of "Christian Values"? I'm not a fan of Ackerman, and in fact, visited his stub today because of the stupid Caroline Kennedy (I have no opinion on the NY Senate appointment) derogations on Face The Nation, December 21, 2008 (website URL - PDF transcript link)


 * "I'm not sure I know who she is. I mean, everyone knows who she is, but we're not sure what she is. You know, they're Kennedys, they're all--they're all boats, but is she a sailboat when we need a battleship? That remains to be seen. And the very fact that she's sequestered herself for her whole life, nobody knows what her values are. We can assume, we don't know. The second thing, which is probably as important in New York and national politics, what kind of fighter she will be...And the very fact that right now that she has handlers around her, we've not been able to see who she's been all these years--she's never written a letter to the editor expressing a view or fighting, as far as I know. They've basically Sarah Palinized her, if I can coin a phrase.


 * You know, one of the things that we have to observe is that DNA in this business can take you just so far. You know, Rembrandt was a--was a--was a great artist. His brother Murray, on the other hand, Murray Rembrandt, wouldn't paint the house.

Pretty gutsy words from a House Member whose own competence should be a present issue, given three of his Committee membership appointments: Financial Services; Capital Markets; Insurance; and Consumer Credit? Hey Gary: UR doing it wrong!
 * House Committee on Financial Services
 * Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises
 * Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit

cheers --hugh_manateee 18:40, 21 December 2008 (EST)--hugh_manateee 18:39, 21 December 2008 (EST)