Posted on 06/29/2005 10:32:25 PM PDT by Coleus
Republicans' liberal use of Mafia metaphors has angered some Italian-American activists who weighed in on the contentious campaign for the governor's office Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Forrester enjoyed some unexpected praise from environmental leaders who are at odds with his Democratic opponent, U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine, over preservation of a Delaware River island.
The Italian-American activists gathered in Trenton to demand an apology from top Republicans, who have repeatedly compared Corzine and his allies to mobsters in an effort to underscore his links to the party's most controversial figures.
"To actually have a party organization that uses this as a playbook ... is disgraceful," said Robert Bianchi, president of the state chapter of the Italian-American Bar Association. "A lot of times, Italian-Americans have just accepted these insults as a punching bag, and I'm not going to do that."
Republicans have not said anything about Italian-Americans in general, but party Chairman Tom Wilson has on several occasions referred to "La Cosa Nostra," another name for the Italian Mafia, and called Corzine and other Democrats "capos," or mob chiefs. Bianchi said that perpetuates negative images of Italian-Americans to the exclusion of more laudable figures such as explorer Christopher Columbus and continental namesake Amerigo Vespucci.
Manny Alfano, who heads an organization called the Italian-American One Voice Coalition, wrote a letter to Wilson decrying the "cheap effort to taint the electoral process." Alfano was one of several critics who pushed Corzine to apologize for two jokes he reportedly made about Italian-Americans during the 2000 Senate campaign.
A call to Wilson on Tuesday was returned by two Italian-American Republicans, former acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco and Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce, who explained that Wilson meant no offense.
Earlier, several environmental leaders appeared with Forrester in Trenton to applaud the Republican's stance in favor of preserving a 300-acre island in the Delaware River near Camden. State and local officials have agreed on a plan to develop housing and a golf course on Petty's Island, but environmentalists say the state should accept owner Citgo Corp.'s offer to donate it as open space.
Corzine said in a statement Tuesday that it remains unclear whether the redevelopment plan is up to environmental and economic standards. However, he said the oil company's donation offer should be viewed "very skeptically" given pollution problems on the island, which is home to a pair of bald eagles.
Yep - he has credited his youthful vigor and vitality to having lots of sex with hot young women (and those are pretty much his words).
He has been known to hit the strip, in a tux and satin white scarf, with hot babes who could just as well be his grandaughter, and just mills about 'being' Tony Curtis and enjoying the attention.
I suspect he enjoys the sex with goodlooking 25 year old women, too. "If you are among the very young at heart!" ;-)
Germans always had a weird place in American culture. Two World Wars disrupted the natural immigration patterns. They also arrived with skills, which also screwed up the patterns, but made it easier for them to assimilate.
...and nobody has had the heart to tell him that they've torn down the Sands.
I remember the quote where he said, "kissing Marilyn Monroe was like kissing Hitler."
God bless'em -- he was always an under-used and under-appreciated talent.
you know what.. i don't remember the one your referring to... yea i did see the movie. i remember listening to tapes about 12 years ago when i was a laborer at a construction company. we could put the tape in the boom box and start tying re-bar, and laughing our butt off :D and call each other names.. "hey beefy tits...", "OK sizzle chest", "alright you milky licker" LOL good times :D
Tony is one of a kind, no question. Though I still chuckle at his performance in Spartacus - gee whiz, clearly a kid from the Bronx in that anicent epic! Haha!
Jerky Boys are laugh-out-loud funny, no question. Frank and Sol always make me laugh the hardest, especially when Sol will get confused a bit and say something like "Oh my word!"
I'm laughing just thinking about them!
...and Gore Vidal wrote the screenplay! That's when he was still a staunch conservative.
Curtis had two really good roles -- Some Like it Hot and the Boston Strangler. Very far apart and he handled both well. And then the rest seems to be a bunch of crap.
OK.. I think i'm gonna have to go out and get a tape of them tomorrow. :D err umm... maybe I can find something on the internet that the superme court would disagree with? :D
I just watched Some Like It Hot the other night - I don't watch much tv and have a large DVD collection and it gets me by. Great performance, you are right.
TC is a good guy, I think, and has gotten a bad rap from time to time over the decades.
I just watched Some Like It Hot the other night - I don't watch much tv and have a large DVD collection and it gets me by. Great performance, you are right.
TC is a good guy, I think, and has gotten a bad rap from time to time over the decades.
Not that I would know about that kind of illicit stuff, but type in Jerky Boys in Shareaza or Kazzaa, and you will probably find enough goodies to keep you laughing for hours, sizzle-chest! ;-)
But really, Tony/Bernie, is still somewhat prototypical of his Hungarian heritage, in that he still dresses like a peacock.
You're right! He is something else - when in Sin City, keep an eye out for him: the silver haired guy in a tux with a scortching hot chick about 50 years younger than him.
OK, that describes 1000s of guys on the LV strip, but you get the gist! ;-)
OK, beefy tits... :D
Actors didn't manage their careers as carefully as today -- nor did they get the big pay checks that could see them through until something good came along. So, you get talented guys like Curtis -- adrift after the studio system collapsed -- making complete crap.
Thinking about him just now, I gotta confess, I'm a big fan.
;-)
I'm a fan, too. :-)
This has been fun. I'm outta here. Work calls...
But here's a confession -- he made some really forgettable movie about living in the Village, being a hipster and making "bikini movies." Throughout the movie he wore a torn sweatshirt. I saw the movie very young and actually wore a sweatshirt like that for about a week trying to be a hipster. Mike Nichols and Elaine May comedy albums might also have been involved in that particular phase.
But I have followed Tony's career, since I was a bitty girl. He, like a lot of Hungarians/some first generation American males of Hungarian backgrounds, is the exemplar of a certain, old fashioned mentality. The male is ALWAYS the peacock, wearing THE best clothes. They are dashing, usually very handsome, and shallow.
Did you know that English wasn't his first language? Yes, he was born here, but ONLY Hungarian was spoken at home, so he really knew very little English, when he first went to school.
I've always been a BIG fan of his, too. :-)
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