FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS

First, she's dumb enough to "vote" with an "invisible ink pen." Then, after being written about by newspapers and bloggers nationwide, she's dumb enough to write a letter of complaint to two local bloggers. It must be remember that she, herself, is a blogger. The foul part of it all: Amy "I'm not dumb" Carlton was dumb enough to write a letter asking Craig (Broken Heart) and I (this blog) to back off - after liberally insulting us in the same breath. She continued her fit of stupidity by copying the email to one of the most reviled men on the north side of Chicago, Tom "wee wee" Westgard, a liar and a bigoted pig of small, underemployed mechanics liens attorney who has lately been spending more time licking the boots of Alderman Joe Moore here in the 49th than he has been with clients. But I digress. By copying others in what should have remained a private email, Carlton foolishly put Craig and I into a position of having to respond, lest it appear that we backed down. Ironically, that's exactly what Carlton's new mentor, wee wee, was hoping for. No, that's not the ironic part. The ironic part is that Westgard is apparently unfamiliar with the old bit of advice to be careful what one wishes for. He has unleashed more than he thinks he has. He has enemies within his own party. Tom Westgard disgusts many, and many are starting to say so who would not have a year ago. The gloves are off. Not just for Westgard. No, not for poor pitiful Amy Carlton, who is yesterday's news and just one more useful idiot pawn in the insideous game that Westgard, Ginderske, Moore, Fagus, and others in this rotten 49th Ward play with sadistic delight. Amy Carlton was forgotten until she made the mistake of copying Westgard and Company, and of having the unmittigated nerve to ask Broken Heart and The Bench to back off just because we have the misfortune of living in close proximity to her. Did Amy Carlton launch an email campaign to ask bloggers nationwide to back off? No, of course not. Why not? Because she - and more to the point - her handlers Westgard & Company, would get no political mileage out harassing a blogger in, say, Sarasota, Florida. The cheap trick of bringing her allegedly ailing mother in law into the fracas is unforgiveable. SHE brought that poor lady into this, not Broken Heart or The Bench. In a cheap bid to grab sympathy, Carlton and Westgard are hypocritical. How many times did they laugh about Nancy Reagan's misfortune of nursing a husband suffering from alzheimer's? They are not compassionate, and to beg for compassion so cheaply is disgusting. Furthermore, for Thomas J. Westgate to AGAIN invoke the imagery of Nazis and the Third Reich is so hideously typical of not just Westgard but of so many on the Left that is almost laughable. Tom Westgard STILL owes the world an apology for slandering a perfectly decent man, Don Gordon, as a Nazi. Westgard is about as low as you can get, and is barely tolerated by the Moore camp but for his usefulness as a waterboy. It is well known that when Anne Sullivan jumped from the Gordon aldermanic camp to Joe Moore's, she briefly considered going to the Ginderske camp. Ginderske himself told me, however, that Sullivan chose Moore over him because she could not bear the thought of working with the likes of Westgard, who one year ago was "managing" Ginderske's amateurish bid for public office. This is just the beginning, people. It's gonna git rough. I wrote a letter to a new friend earlier this evening. I'd like to share part of it with you: I can't begin to tell you how good it was to read your note (below). You are truly a free thinker, and God love you for that. Fasten your seat belt, the ride is going to get bumpy. You know that I am a "conservative," for lack of a better term; but I have great sympathy for friends and neighbors who consider themselves to be Democrats, for their own party has been hijacked by a wicked alliance of the Far Left and Machine Politics. They tell me this themselves, that they are disgusted with their own party. Sadder still, however, is the fact that most of them repeatedly chant that they could never vote for a conservative or a Republican, even in the face of overwhelmingly depressing facts. Facts: Todd Stroger. Rob Blagojevich. Nancy Pelosi. David Fagus. And on and on and on. So here's where the seat belts are advised: I intend to take the gloves off. No more holding back. Oh, I won't use the cheap trick of using Revolutionary Truth (lies used as a means to an end, and the end always justifies the means for the Leftists). But I will hit harder than I have previously with actual truth. No sanctuary for the bastards, no quarter, no mercy. I hope you enjoy the fireworks. You may wish to publicly distance yourself from me. But here is a serious, very serious request. Keep doing what you've been doing. Keep up the public discussion. Wake up your fellow Democrats to the threat from the Lunatics, from the Westgard-Ginderske-Fagus types. The Soviet Union came to be in a quick and brutal revolution. The revolution that is happening right now, right beneath our noses, is being sold to us with a dash of granola, sex and fear of polar bear extinction. It scares the hell out of me, and I pride myself in not being a paranoid. It is painful to see so many around me, blind to that which is so obvious, perhaps to obvious that it goes unnoticed by the masses. The People need a cold bucket of water in their collective face. It is not too late. But the moment of no return is but moments away. History is a good barometer of what the political weather will be in the near future. Right now, the reading says "storm ahead." I know which side I am on, which side I will be on, which side I must be on. The lunatics will chatter and scream. The sane will recognize the Truth, as they always do.

"You're not heartless bastards, right?"

The magic pen voter writes a crazy letter to two local bloggers. This blogger shows no mercy. From: Amy Carlton Date: Feb 10, 2008 11:34 PM Subject: A request from your neighbor To: craiggernhardt@comcast.net, rogerparkbench@yahoo.com Cc: michaelharring@gmail.com, twestgard@gmail.com Tom and Craig, I just spent the weekend in a downstate hospital with my mother-in-law as she got her first chemo treatment for stage 4 lung cancer. As you can imagine, I have greater concerns than what a couple of local bloggers are saying -- repeatedly -- about me. But still. Why can't you let this go? It's pretty clear from your own comments pages that almost none of your readers support your inexplicable crusade against me, so why don't you please just knock it off? You've made your points (mostly by misrepresenting what I've said), you've had your fun at my expense, now leave me alone. And take down the wedding picture you took from my site. Thanks in advance (because you're going to stop bothering me, right? You're not heartless bastards, right?), Amy (PS: I've copied a few other neighbors on this message just in case you try to misrepresent what I wrote or use it to make further fun of me. But I'm sure you won't, because you are decent people, yes?) Dear Amy: Best wishes to your mother in law. Now, back to you. Allow me to quote from your own blog: "Anyway, for reasons ranging from being lied to to just not thinking clearly at 7 am, I got screwed yesterday, and I fought back. And now I'm an object of ridicule from the neighborhood jagoff's* blog (the execrable Morse Hellhole) to Wonkette. So the moral of the story is: Never try. No, wait! The moral of the story is: Who gives a rat's ass what people think?" Hmmm. So let's put this into context, sweetie. 1) YOU are not the one with lung cancer, so the pity act doesn't cut it here; 2) Funny how you never mentioned the cancer thing on your own blog (not recently, anyway); 3) After calling Craig a "jagoff" and spending considerable time and energy on lots of things OTHER THAN your mother in law, why this sudden oh-pity-me act, six days after the magic pen incident? 4) I was over you and the magic pen thing, really. So was Craig. I would have still been willing to let it go if you had done one incredibly stupid thing: You "copied a few other neighbors on this message just in case [I] try to misrepresent [you]." Trust but verify, Amy? Tsk tsk. Tell your neighbors that you were fully quoted (above). Remember that Craig and I both have copies of the same email. 5) Are you going to send the same sad email to Wonkette and hundreds upon hundreds of other web sites and newspapers across North America, Amy? No? Well, guess what: You don't need to. It's now out there. 6) Did you or your friends ever show the same compassion that you ask for to Dick Cheney when he accidentally shot a friend? How many dead baby jokes do make in month? You ask for sympathy, but the sympathy in fact is not for you but for your "mother in law." Last time I checked, nobody was picking on your mother in law. 7) I promise to never pick on your mother in law. 8) You remain fair game as long as you continue to (a) willingly remain in the public eye vis a vis your public writings and pronouncements and (b) do stupid things like write that email. 9) When you wrote, "But I'm sure you won't, because you are decent people, yes?" I nearly gagged. Are you shitting me? You and your crowd do not consider either Craig or me to be "decent." Frankly, I consider you to be indecent. Honestly. 10) Of Craig, you wrote on your blog, "I changed "drunk" to the all-purpose Chicago insult 'jagoff.'" How kind of you, Amy. Let me return the kindness. Instead of "media whore," I'll just refer to you with the all-purpose American insult "bitch." Now go away and maybe we'll ignore you for another week.

You Can Pick Your Nose...

...and David Fagus can pick your election judges in the Wacky 49th Ward of Chicago. See, he's the 49th Ward Democrat Committeeman. What did Fagus know about the "magic pens," and when did he know it?

When voters questioned why the "pens" weren't showing up on their ballots, one of the election judges told them that it was "invisible ink," Chicago Election Board spokesman Jim Allen said.

Allen said he has since been fielding calls from national media, asking about the "invisible ink" pens in the 49th ward.

"It was the only precinct out of the 2,579 precincts in the city where we saw this come up," Allen said. "Who is picking these (election) judges?" FULL STORY at Chicago Journal...

MORE!
Democratic Party - 49th Ward: David Fagus, Your Democrat Committeeman
Todd Stroger Turns It On!
The Bench: Flaming Fagus

Voting in the 49th Ward is Fun

RPKelly has left a new comment on your post "The 49th Mental Ward of Chicago": Honestly, Tom, I think you're being kind of a jerk here. Amy DID question authority. She DID fight back. She made a huge ruckus over the stupidity of this situation. She drew attention to the idiocy and got the problem fixed. The poll workers were the morons, not Amy. Might I suggest that if she had been casting her vote for Mitt Romney rather than Barack Obama, you'd be taking a different approach to this story? Response: I don't care who she voted for, that's really not a factor. Here's what Amy told the Chicago Tribune on Feb. 5: "I'm incredibly angry, and I feel so dumb," said Amy Carlton, 38, of Rogers Park. "And I am not a dumb person." Now, if Amy really DID question and fight authority, but fell for the bizarre explanation anyway, then she actually IS a dumb person. The Trib quotes continued: "Carlton said all the judges at the polling place insisted that they had been trained in the use of the 'magic' pens." So, after the judges TOLD HER that they had been trained for, as she quoted them, "magic pens," she voted with one anyway? O-mi-god. The fun continues in the Trib article: "I've voted before," Carlton said. "I was thinking, 'This is crazy,' but when someone in authority insists, what are you supposed to do?" Okay, she initially said something akin to, "Really? This pen will really, really work?" And a judge said something akin to, "Why yes! You see, Amy, it's a MAGIC pen! It'll work just fine!" I'm not sure where the fighting authority aspect comes in to play, however. But telling us that Amy "drew attention to the idiocy" is a bit like saying that someone who walked in front of a speeding bus has drawn attention to a dangerous intersection. The poll workers may indeed have been morons. But those morons convinced Amy to use a "magic pen" to cast her vote.

The 49th Mental Ward of Chicago

Honestly? Hmmm. I don't mean to beat a story that's already been beaten coast to coast, but let's face it: This is funny as hell. It's also about a woman who lives in what is quickly becoming known as the weirdest neighborhood in America. Thanks, in part, to folks like her. Honestly.

She is is Amy Carlton (photo). Remember, she insists that she is not dumb. Honestly.

According to a report in the Chicago Tribune, there was weirdness at a polling place in Rogers Park on Super Tuesday. "Later that afternoon," the Trib reported, "election officials shook their heads in disbelief as investigators confirmed 20 ballots in the 49th Ward's 42nd precinct were cast with inkless pens."

You haven't heard about this? Inkless pens, and 20 people were dumb enough to fall for it. Amy Carlton, for instance. Honestly.

The Trib reported that "Amy Carlton, 38, of Rogers Park said that all the judges at the polling place insisted they had been trained in the use of the pens." Okay.... uh, ... we'll come back to that training thing. Honestly.

"I've voted before," the Trib reports Carlton said. "I was thinking 'This is crazy.' But when someone in authority insists, what are you supposed to do?"

Whatever happened to that "Question Authority" thing that liberals are so fond of plastering on their bumpers and backpacks? Oh, yes, they no longer question it. They vote for more of it these days. Which brings us obtusely back to that training thing.

The authority for most of the election judges in the 49th Ward is one David Fagus. Now, I'm not saying he personally trained the judges in the use of the invisible ink pens, but I would not be surprised if he at least knew about it. Fagus, a Democrat, is one of the most faithful servants of 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore, also a Democrat. As the 49th Ward Democrat Committeeman, it's his job to know what's going on with election judges. Honestly.

Let's go back to Amy Carlton. I wouldn't pick on her in this public manner if she was just another gullible sucker who believes even the most ridiculous bullshit just because "someone in authority insists" that the bullshit is really strawberry shortcake. Honestly.

No, Ms. Carlton has been a seeker of the public eye. Therefore, The Bench considers her to be fair game. She runs a God-awful blog called RubberNun.net. On Wednesday, February 6 she wrote this brilliant defense of her authority-inspired gullibility:

"I told the Sun-Times that magic pens sounded just stupid enough to be true." But she's not dumb. Honestly.

"Anyway," Amy continued, "for reasons ranging from being lied to to just not thinking clearly at 7 am, I got screwed yesterday, and I fought back. And now I'm an object of ridicule from the neighborhood jagoff's* blog (the execrable Morse Hellhole) to Wonkette."

She "fought back" how? She swallowed the story and "voted." That's "fighting back"? She complains that she's now being made fun of all across this great land of ours, from neighborhood blogs to Wonkette. By the way, it's hundreds of bloggers posting about this. Honestly, hundreds.

Amy Carlton should just pretend that we're laughing with her, not at her. No, really. Honestly.

The not-dumb-honestly Amy Carlton continued her brilliant defense statement:

"No, wait! The moral of the story is: Who gives a rat's ass what people think? I'd do it again, people. It was the right thing to do.You gotta fight. For your right. To vooooooooooote! Just watch what you say to the media afterwards."

Sooooo, she'd fall for the invisible ink trick again. Falling for it the first time was "the right thing to do." And somehow doing that is fighting for your right to vote? Huh?

Honestly, folks. She's not dumb. Take her word for it.