Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Dan Seals' New Media Strategist Sensitive About Humans vs. Zombies Criticism (UPDATED)

We noted earlier this week that Dan Seals got himself a new New Media director who likes to play a game called Humans vs. Zombies. Max Temkin, the young man in question, is apparently rather sensitive to this topic and responds to Team America on his blog:

Listen ideologues: You have to make up your mind, because I’m tired of Zombies getting attacked from the extreme left and the extreme right. If you goofballs had your way, the rest of us would never have any fun. I guess running around outside with your friends probably doesn’t stack up to blogging about the perils of ACORN from your mom’s basement.

See the whole rant here.

Congrats, Max. You only just got hired and you've already become what we call in the political world a "distraction."

Can't wait to see what Julie Hamos's team does with this.

UPDATED 10:15 p.m.: I visited Max's website tonight just for kicks. It appears he's scrubbed all references to his position as Dan Seals' New Media Director from his website. But, that blog rant I linked to above is still there. Wonder for how long.

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

He also has a blog with lots of hateful nasty things about women and craziness-the sign of a poorly educated wackjob. I'm sure team hamos will scour it for a good clip to pin on the pup.

The most interesting thing is that his "secret project"is the new seals website which is filled with resume lies and distortions, not to mention it looks like something from 1999. Dan is not jewish and not from the 10th yet he claims to be a member of the 10th jewish community with references to attending JCC camps. He also claims falsely to have been an aide at the senate and commerce department. These are also lies the size of the grand canyon. He was a fellow meaning graduate school intern. I worked with people that had his fellowship at OSD-office of secretary of defense, and they got coffee for us and other top people-no one ever confused them for being actual aides. No mention of national security issues, Israel is buried at the bottom-wonder if the pup will just finally admit he's an arabist like we all know him to be?


http://10thdistrictfordanseals.com/danseals

There are distortions-quotes from newspapers from previous campaigns to make it look like endorsements, but overall it's an effort of a poorly educated soul and awful candidate.

Oh and then he lies about his residency, again.

FOKLAES

Anonymous said...

Foklaes, this Temkin kid is just a 22 year old smart ass from Highland Park. I think it's great that Seals chose him. This is just another indication that Dan Seals is the epitome of an empty suit with a cardboard head. Max Temkin will soon become THE issue, not Seals. And isn't life grand.

tikkunolam said...

FOKLAES-
Wow, lots of "swing and a miss" today.

-He doesn't "claim to be a member of the 10th Jewish community." He did, indeed attend JCC camps as a kid. It's the truth. I'm a member of the 10th district Jewish community, and I went to JCC pre-schools, and I have no problem with him including that fact as a single dependent clause in his biography.

His claims about being an aide in Commerce and the Senate are both true, as well. If those claims were lies, which you exhort, then that would mean he was never employed as an aide to the Assistant Secretary of Commerce, or he was never employed as an economic policy aide to Senator Lieberman. Since both of those statements are false, and he did indeed hold both positions, you are incorrect in calling Dan a liar.

You also call Dan a "poorly educated soul." You have always been an advocate on this blog for candidates with particularly impressive higher-education credentials, and I don't disagree with you, for the most part. Dan has a Bachelor's in Journalism from Boston University, a Master's in Business Administration from University of Chicago, and a Master's in International Business from Johns Hopkins University. Are these suddenly the mark of a "poorly educated soul?"

And he really, really, truly does not lie about his residency. If he claimed to live in the district, that would be untrue. But, the site says he lives in Wilmette. Shockingly enough, Dan lives in... Wilmette!

I know you disagree with his candidacy, FOKLAES, but labeling simple, harmless, biographical truths as dirty, evil lies isn't really the best way to go about it.

Anonymous said...

I'm looking for a post that apologizes for the posts excusing Kirk's previous vote for cap & trade, many of which said he had to appeal to the electorate beyond the 10th District and criticized those of us who condemned his lack of principle. Now I hear that he's explaining that vote for the exact opposite reason: that his 10th District wanted it. Tsk, tsk.

Anonymous said...

Tik,

1. JCC camp reference is an insinuation that dan is jewish and a member of a 10th district jewish community. He doesn't list his elementary schools but he lists jcc camps? Next thing we know he'll have a paragraph about how he eats lox and bagels at max and bennys all the time. Spare us. We don't teach Dan's dishonesty in the tribe here.

2. Tik, unlike you I have worked and still do some work in d.c. in the foreign policy and high level government establishments and it's a downright lie that Dan was anything more than a gopher intern.

Aides to assistant secretaries are what are called "schedule c" political appointees or special assistants/advisors-Mark was one at what is now called the bureau of western hemisphere affairs or WHA as it is known.

Senate aides are staff assistants that open mail, legislative coresspondents that write responses to nutbag catwomen that ask for the senator's position on female genital mutilation, legislative assistants or counsels that write bills, legislative directors that oversee the staff, or chiefs of staff/aa's that run the office.

Dan was none of those things, he was a pimple on the ellen of the staff.

I'm sure senator lieberman couldn't pick him out of a lineup to save his life.

He mentions living in wilmette-he lives outside the district, no mention of this.

The grand problem with all this lying and distortions is that dan is a member of the most corrupt party this side of a former soviet kleptocracy. Everything Illinois democrats tell us or do these days turns out to be lies and corruption whether its the U of I admissions, Dan's residency, Dan's position on Israel (he's an arabist). Most people start clean and then go to d.c. and become dirty. Dan's already dirty.

If he can't tell us the truth on basic things like his employment, his residency, his position on Israel, his religion, how the heck are we supposed to trust him on actual votes?

FOKLAES

Anonymous said...

TA and FOKLAES,

It is ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC that the best you can do is go after Dan Seal's new media staff member. It says much more about you then it does about him. If FOKLAES wants to make the debate about Max Tempkin--someone hired to write a website, blogs, and manage a facebook account--instead of the issues facing our nation, then he makes even the dumbest of Republicans (and there are some pretty stupids GOPers) look smart. Yet another fine example of you all using ad-homenym, personal attacks because you know that if you debate THE FACTS with Tikkun or I that you will LOSE. No need to respond, the fact that you are attacking mid-level Seals campaign staff says more than your hateful and close-minded words ever could.

Until Next Time,
A Concerned Colonial

Team America said...

CC - as a politician, you're judged by the company you keep, and more importantly, your campaign team.


Deal with it.

The fact that this guy has responded and now made it a campaign issue is further evidence of the Seals "C" team.

Anonymous said...

Campaign issue? Like the issue of Dan Seals not living in the 10th right? As in, it's a NON-ISSUE, something that has been explained by the candidate and the only people who object to it are the people that have Nothing Of Substance to argue.

Talk to me about healthcare, the economy, either of the 2 wars started by George W., or anything of substance and I'd be glad to come to the table.

Pundits and bloggers are judged by the common people for the hype they create, but those of us who actually understand politics judge you by the arguments you make. So go ahead...ruin what little credibility that you have developed as a conservative, but fair forum for our district...become the ad-homenym conservative blowhole of the 10th. I know you would make Rush and Glenn Beck proud.

I was convinced you held yourself to a higher standard...guess not.

Until Next Time,
A Concerned Colonial

Team America said...

CC - I find your sense of outrage amusing. Your reaction is not unlike many Dems when the GOP points out the questionable associations of Obama with Bill Ayers, Van Jones, Rev. Wright, and others.

If anything, I've probably done Mr. Temkin a favor by illustrating to him the danger to a client of posting anything that some might consider a bit... avant guarde, shall we say... on one's personal website and also making it known that you are associated with a political campaign.

I doubt this will make or break Seals considering all the other stuff we have on him, but it might make Mr. Temkin and others like him a bit more aware of the repercussions that can occur when you mix political work and your loudly-declared personal life on the Internet.

Wonder if Dan Seals will take up Humans vs. Zombies with all the free time he'll have after he loses to Hamos in February.

September 16, 2009 3:15 PM

Anonymous said...

Concerned,

Catwoman went after Mark's wife and Caryn Garber,one of the best public servants the jewish community has ever had on the north shore and had her fired. Lauren Beth Gash also implemented a nasty smear campaign against Caryn in her own synagogue-for a woman who spent years earning not much money helping local jewish groups and senior with social security issues-nothing on this blog comes close to that.

If the pup had ever held a job in the district or did something besides lecture us on how he's the greatest thing ever, we might have something to judge by other than his lies, pro-Iran policies, blagoyevich worthy truthiness and distortions.

Temkin wrote lies about Dan and now it's up to dan to take his website down, fire max, write the truth that he was the secretary of folgers coffee making not the secretary of commerce, that he lives in the 9th district, that he's not a member of the 10th jewish community-we don't lie, that he is unemployed and that when it comes to having israel obliterated he believes in "peace".

How can we begin to trust him on policies when he can't even identify himself without lying?

FOKLAES

Team America said...

And to FOKLAES's points above, I'm not even blaming Temkin for the actual content of Seals' site.

But, having an issue like "Zombies" so easy to trace back to the source and tie it to Seals (just took a couple klicks directly from Seals' website) is not very wise. If I'd gone rooting around in this kid's dumpster at his dorm for personal dirt, that'd be one thing, maybe. But when you loudly tout your affiliation with a candidate, that candidate has to live and die by his/her hires.

Anonymous said...

TA,

The site reads like it was written by a 12 year old. No way a graduate of SAIS or chicago wrote that, but Dan signed off, and he needs to come clean or face the consequences.

Kirk had a high quality staff, if this is what dan thinks he can bring us then fuggedaboutit.

FOKLAES

Anonymous said...

Yes, Foklaes, you're right about Senator Lieberman not knowing a thing about the pup. When asked about him in the last cycle Mr. Lieberman had no idea who he was or what he did as some kind of intern. Tikkun is a young kid who thinks he has all the answers. I've been reading his posts for quite some time. Like Max Temkin, he or she is a twit of person from the golden ghetto of the north shore. Kids like this are, or believe themselves to be priviledged and very smart. What they say and do is evidence that they have a steep learning curve.
I like the rationale from Tikkun about residency. Not all of Wilmette is in the 10th District. We all know it. The pup loves to bend the truth on this and so many other things, as we well know. Professor Seals? He is what he is and that's why Hamos will have a field day with him come 2/2/10.

Anonymous said...

Northwestern's hiring of Seals shows it's desperate to beat U of I as school whose reputation has been most tarnished by Illinois Dems.

Dold has videotape up. looks like a nice guy, but not a champ and it looked like he had 5 people from his office there. No memorable message, no new ideas, no loud clapping and cheering. YAWN.

Perhaps we could invest in a plane ticket for Rockin Reed Bundy or coax Cholly Smith or Doug O'Brien out of retirement to come in and give us something to support. Doug would have pup or hamos the hog filleted in about the time it takes a dem to register a goldfish to vote.

FOKLAES

Anonymous said...

Slim to no chance, Foklaes, of convincing Cholly, Reed or O'Brien to make a return to this district. Cholly is doing well, lives in the city, ditto for Doug. Reed would be my choice but he has no interest at all. Let's see how the announced candidates begin to find their feet and their voices. I know you have a closed mind where Coulson is concerned. You might just want to re-visit that thinking if she continues to build the organization I see coming. Don't blast away at me. I want to hold onto this seat for OUR side.

Anonymous said...

The difference between Mark, Cholly, Reed, Doug ,Porter and Coulson is that the first 5 stuck to the party and the last one quit on us because she had no ideas or leadership or guts. Mark endorsed Bush 3 times 2000 general and primary and 2004 general and still won and bush had a 10 percent popularity in the district when he left. Coulson sucked the toes of blago and barely beat a neophyte liberal in Dan Biss who makes Dan look like barack obama. Remember she has chicago machine democrats running her campaign-go on linkedin and has been endorsed by ACORN best friends the service employees union and afscme-the beuracrat union.

She's a total FAIL, and I have no taste in my mouth for watching pup run ads next fall calling the republican the only candidate who's ever been endorsed by blago. I will not go to my neighbors and answer questions on what the heck a republican like coulson was doing getting endorsed by blago in 2006 when every democrat in the state wouldn't touch him with a 30 foot pole and every u.s. attorney in Illinois was crawling all over him.

There's a capitol fax blog posting from 2004 to remind you of the flyer, I suggest Dick Green put his millions to work pronto showing voters who she is. If he's going to hire a tom delay strategist he might as well use him to do what delay did best which is to destroy coulson.

If coulson is our nominee, I will stay home and wait to 2012 until we get a real republican that won't embarrass the party by carrying water for blago.

FOKLAES

Team America said...

FOKLAES, what did Coulson do, run over your dog with her truck or something? ;-)

Seriously, did you hear that Seals is teaching again at the NU school of continuing studies? Otherwise it's old news- and I would be shocked and horrified if they let him teach again (even night school) after the Rosty debacle.

Crazy4glf said...

Where to begin:
I am not aware that one must be Jewish to attend a JCC camp. Who cares if Dan is Jewish or not, if he attended a JCC or Asian benevolent association (for example) activity, etc.? Such exercises outside one's comfort zone and culture of origin may indicate a sensitivity to or understanding of other cultures which seems to not be in vogue in the GOP.

Distractions were mentioned. While I myself do not believe a separate appointment to establish advance directives is necessary, its hardly a death panel. Also, the State of Illinois has a very comprehensive Advance Directives law that came about during a GOP Governor's term and there was no mention of death panels.

Distractions II: when does a news channel become an entertainment channel? When they schedule events they want to become news. What was the cohesive message expressed by the tea-partiers? Was it the Medicare recipient that wants the government out of their healthcare?
Was it the Senator that thinks the government is a problem but we'll have to take his cold dead hands off of his own government provided healthcare? Was it that we shouldn't tax too much but we should have pre-emptive strikes and tax cuts which is the other half of tax and SPENDING?

Distractions III: Grassley - is he in favor of a bi-partisan solution or not. The answer is not, if you read his campaign material. The appearance of bi-partisanship by people who claim Obama doesn't want bipartisanship has delayed a much needed move to SOME TYPE OF REFORM. Even before reform comes, the upcoming increased cost of healthcare for THOSE WITH insurance will be eye-opening. Sens. Collins and Snowe: the insurance companies have had their 'chance' and have not demonstrated a willingness to maintain costs. Its hard when you pay your CEO millions and the cost of Jet A is $4 per gallon.

For a party that did not like 'that depends on what your definition of is, is' there is a lot of hair-splitting going on in these posts. I didn't like Clinton's dance, but if one is an intern or a fellow, they can claim to have experience in a certain industry.


Finally, what, exactly is an 'Arabist?' Is the term not suggestive of disdain on the part of those who would use such a term? Does it not suggest that unfamiliar cultures are to be feared and possibly separated from the rest of us?

Does anonymous recall that the bombers in Okla City were not 'arabists, Jews, or other apparently unfriendlies? Does anonymous recall that some of the more radical factions in our own country are white, 20-something, and wouldn't be able to find the Middle East if paid them.

Again, the standards for conduct and verbiage on this blog continue to decline despite how they might reflect on GOP citizens, candidates, organizations and public officials. When's Oberweis running?

Anonymous said...

Now you've all gone and done it! The slippery slope is in place.

First you bring out the Humans vs. Zombies game.

Then we will see a bunch of Zombies going door to door for Dan Seals again! Some of them will be members of the Zombies union!

And finally, ACORN will try to register all the Zombies to vote! :-)

Louis G. Atsaves
(Always Vigilant!)

Crazy4glf said...

Your known by whom you associate with:
Bush, Jr. is the son of someone implicated in the Iran-Contra Affair and he appointed Poindexter to work in the White House.

Speaking of Iran Contra, Reagan engaged in high level interactions with out and out terrorists and dictators.

Bush's family of old didn't necessarily keep open-minded and diverse company, either.

Bush, Sr. allowed a dictator to remain in power for the duration of his term. He and his son also went to great lengths to protect Saudi interests despite their treatment of some segments of their society.

Bush, Jr. joked of WMD's when troops were in harms way and lost interest in finding public enemy #1(of course, Kirk must have forgotten about this when he demanded Bin Laden get caught ASAP when speaking to the DuPage GOP - home of an unnecessary airport expansion, by the way).

Karl Rove is not America's sweetheart and some of the 'clergy' of the religious right blaming people they've never met before for natural disasters is not the club I want to be accepted by. If you don't contribute to their cause, you are inferior, are going to h*ll, and are the reason the tide is higher than it should be.

I sense an absent-mindedness by some on this blog regarding anything the GOP has possibly not excelled in and a propensity to smear anyone that disagrees with them.

Where do I sign up to associate with Wilson, Foley, Craig, Sanford, and Ensign? Oh that's right. Your known by whom you associate with so I WOULDN'T want to associate with them, pay for their salaries and benefits, or be represented by them.

Pre-emptive strike: no one argues that Blago is a saint or anything like it. When it comes to eradicating corrupt, insensitive leaders with the exception of Daley, Dem's clearly have a better record. You will recall BOB DOLE vigorously defended Nixon in the court of public opinion. (McCain picked Palin?)

Anonymous said...

Crazy,

Your rants are sounding absolutely zombie like! "All Republicans Bad!" "All Democrats Good!"

Oooooooooooooh! :-)

Honestly, is that the best you can do?

Louis G. Atsaves
(Still having fun with this Zombie Thing!)

Team America said...

(sigh). Crazy, the only thing I have to say to you is that neither Bush, nor Rove, is running for election, and Seals is.

'Nuf 'Sed.

Anonymous said...

Team,


Back to coulson. next year's election is all about blago. period . the chicago media is too stupid, too liberal and too lazy to cover anything other than that trial and if we already have a dead chief of staff, a suicide, a book tour, a book, a burris, a jesse jackson junior likely headed to jail, jan's senate dreams derailed over her involvement, an international embarassment, a gov booted from office, in the preseason, well, you're the lawyer, you know there's A LOT left to come and for once it's not our fault. I can't remember the last time Republicans here didn't have to face an election without bush, ryan, or gingrich/far right for dems to flog us to death with. 1990 perhaps?

coulson puts us on defense on the issue and squanders our ability to tag the dems with all the bad stuff. choosing her would be like the dems choosing a pro-bush guy in 2006 for this seat-it takes away our best issue.

She takes away our best weapons, why disarm ourselves?

That and do you really want to be on the same side as ACORN and trashy afscme chicago government workers unions that will help her but otherwise be working to end Mark Kirk much less for a campaign run by 2 kids just out of wisconsin who are trained democratic hacks? Politics makes for strange bedfellows, but I'm not jumping in the sack with that.

FOKLAES

Anonymous said...

FOKLAES,

You lack of respect for and underestimation of young, politically active Americans is incredible. For someone who says they "do work in Washington", you should know better than anyone that the wheels in Washington are turned by people under the age of 30. Every office on Capitol Hill, every major consulting/lobbying firm, and even much of the mid-level staff in the White House are all under the age of 30, with many being recent college grads. Your ignorance, like many Republicans, towards young people not only upsets a rising sect of political activity in this country, but will cost the Republican part elections for yeard to come. Maybe it's because they are tired of seeing people from your generation run our country into the ground?

Anonymous said...

coulsons young people are chicago democrats.

a vote for her is a vote for the policies of blago, the dude that endorsed her, and ACORN, the group our congressman blasted this evening.

no thanks

foklaes

Crazy4glf said...

TA,
Bush ran for re-election after the war began, despite his record prior to being President, despite his actions as President, and despite the company he kept.
He was re-elected. If you are known by those you associate with, the people Bush's family associated with, the special interests Bush catered to from day one, and the people Bush appointed to positions of power are not what I'd consider commendable, intelligent, diverse, and capable. Now we have to fix the outcome of his Presidency; go figure.

Kirk is blaming his constituents for how he voted on cap and trade. Now, which is it? Did he vote based on burning the midnight oil reading the entire legislation or did he depend on the people of his District? I would hate to live in his District and be blamed for wanting to be represented. Regardless of Party affiliation, that's just slimy. And, by the way, he is running for office and enjoys knee-jerk support here.
I'd hesitate to associate with someone who can't figure out what he wants or believes despite being thoughtful and studious. Its almost a joke; that we're all paying for.

It is unique that you state my
-apparent- belief is that all Dem's are good, and all GOP'ers are bad as I've openly admitted here and elsewhere that Dem's are less than perfect. (reference to Blago and to how Dem's react to untoward Dem behavior in the very post you supposedly read and responded to). Also, if I saw something Radogno, Kirk, Murphy, McKenna, or Curran did that I liked or thought was prudent, I'd comment on it. Nothing doing as of yet and that's not my fault or due to my belief system.

Also, I've yet to see anyone here comment on an untoward action of a GOP'er except when the person possibly voted based on their review of the information at hand or flipped a coin or something in a manner the people of TA disagreed with.

I would like someone to take a hidden camera into club meetings that Todd Palin and Joe Wilson attend and see if they are more problematic than Acorn and other organizations.

Of course after chastizing Dem's for wasting time on reprimanding the untoward behavior of one of their own, the GOP rushes to limit funds to Acorn. An isolated incident where those responsible were dealt with (unlike what the GOP thought should occur with Joe Wilson) where the initiation of the situation was questionable at best.
This after Bush allows religious organizations to receive federal funds while proselytizing and discriminating. Why should these faith-based orgaizations adhere to federal law when the previous President didn't?
Again, the hypocrisy (references to wastes of time, references to dichotomous thinking, references to the minutiae of a person's record when over-looking gaping problems with previous and current GOP'ers) is beyond belief.