Jerry Duncan wished he had a "dirty bomb" to kill every liberal in Fresno

Fresno Bee ^ | August 15, 2003 | Pablo Lopez and Matt Leedy

[Saundra Duffy]

Duncan's e-mail note ignites fury - Fresno council member wrote of using 'dirty bomb' to kill liberals.

Fresno residents and community leaders, outraged by an e-mail message in which City Council Member - Jerry Duncan wished he had a "dirty bomb" to kill every liberal in Fresno, called Thursday for his resignation, recall or reprimand.

[Saundra Duffy]

I seem to remember you taking some heat a while back for giving out those awards on C-Span . . . something about how you wished you could give them posthumously. Seems you and Jerry Duncan have a little something in common. LOL!

[Saundra Duffy]

I'm more concerned about how the Fresno Bee twisted Duncan's words into "Jerry Duncan wished he had a "dirty bomb" to kill every liberal in Fresno".

Bingo!

[budwiesest]

HRC, Human Resourses Council

HRC, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

[Saundra Duffy]

The vitriol of the Bee towards conservatives is endless, and there is nothing too small for them to turn into something major.

Sad but true.

[Saundra Duffy]

He did apologize. Maybe it'll blow over. One can only hope - but the "Bee" has its liberal reputation to maintain.

[Saundra Duffy]

That wasn't a threat it was a off the cuff wish

The thought police are alive and well in Fresno.

[Saundra Duffy]

HRC, Human Resourses Council - HRC, Hillary Rodham Clinton

Now THAT'S funny!!!

[Saundra Duffy]

Today's editorial in the Fresno Bee (brace yourself):

City Hall's sandbox
Duncan's childishly offensive e-mail is part of a larger problem.

(Published Saturday, August 16, 2003, 6:05 AM)

The recent eruption over offensive e-mail exchanges involving some Fresno City Council members sets up a tug-of-war between outrage and apathy.

Outrage, because the content of some of the e-mails is so abhorrent -- particularly one from Council Member Jerry Duncan wistfully musing that with "one dirty bomb ... I could eliminate all the liberals in Fresno at once."

Apathy, because such childishness has become so commonplace at City Hall that it's harder and harder to summon the energy to object.

Duncan shrugged it off as an attempt at humor, and issued one of the emptiest apologies in recent memory for the comment. But less well-placed people around the country have gone to jail for making such threatening remarks.

Duncan's role at the center of this flap should surprise no one. His behavior as a member of the council has ranged from arrogant to boorish to sophomoric. That's sad, because he is capable of insights that could help the city, if he didn't have such a problem playing well with the other children.

Some of those other children on the council need to straighten up themselves, including Brian Calhoun, Duncan's playmate in some of the recent offenses. And one of those egregious e-mail offenses was committed by one of Calhoun's aides -- though it's hardly surprising to see subordinates mimic the behavior, however distatsteful, of their bosses.

But it starts at the top, and the people in the districts these "leaders" were elected to represent deserve better. All of Fresno deserves better.

Duncan and Calhoun are by no means the only culprits on the council, despite the fact that some of their colleagues have met this latest farce with unconvincing protestations of innocence.

The entire council is capable of the most astounding pettiness and narrow-mindedness, at a time when Fresno needs the qualities of vision and leadership as much as it has in its entire history.

Will it ever get better, or are we condemned to watching these and subsequent "leaders" plumb ever greater depths?

[Saundra Duffy]

Today's Fresno Bee editorial (barf alert):

City Hall's sandbox
Duncan's childishly offensive e-mail is part of a larger problem.

(Published Saturday, August 16, 2003, 6:05 AM)

The recent eruption over offensive e-mail exchanges involving some Fresno City Council members sets up a tug-of-war between outrage and apathy.
Outrage, because the content of some of the e-mails is so abhorrent -- particularly one from Council Member Jerry Duncan wistfully musing that with "one dirty bomb ... I could eliminate all the liberals in Fresno at once."

Apathy, because such childishness has become so commonplace at City Hall that it's harder and harder to summon the energy to object.

Duncan shrugged it off as an attempt at humor, and issued one of the emptiest apologies in recent memory for the comment. But less well-placed people around the country have gone to jail for making such threatening remarks.

Duncan's role at the center of this flap should surprise no one. His behavior as a member of the council has ranged from arrogant to boorish to sophomoric. That's sad, because he is capable of insights that could help the city, if he didn't have such a problem playing well with the other children.

Some of those other children on the council need to straighten up themselves, including Brian Calhoun, Duncan's playmate in some of the recent offenses. And one of those egregious e-mail offenses was committed by one of Calhoun's aides -- though it's hardly surprising to see subordinates mimic the behavior, however distatsteful, of their bosses.

But it starts at the top, and the people in the districts these "leaders" were elected to represent deserve better. All of Fresno deserves better.

Duncan and Calhoun are by no means the only culprits on the council, despite the fact that some of their colleagues have met this latest farce with unconvincing protestations of innocence.

The entire council is capable of the most astounding pettiness and narrow-mindedness, at a time when Fresno needs the qualities of vision and leadership as much as it has in its entire history.

Will it ever get better, or are we condemned to watching these and subsequent "leaders" plumb ever greater depths?

[ladyinred]

What you may not know is that this is a personal vendetta against Duncan by the liberal (socialists) members of a should be abolished committee. Duncan removed one of them from the committee because he was protesting our war in Iraq, and trying to get the council to issue a statement against it. This was clearly not the purpose of this committee, and Duncan had enough of them. They advocated not saluting the flag, taking God out of the pledge, etc. etc.

The email was a private one to his staff, and Duncan, who is a very good guy, has a sense of humor. This Cary Catalona is a liberal socialist girlie boy who is doing this as payback.

[budwiesest]

Gotta wonder how long will it be before conservatives and liberals start trading real shots rather than words. The dialogue between ideologies is breaking down.

Nice observation. See the last line in post #108.

[ladyinred]

Your feelings about Saundra aside, Jerry Duncan is not an idiot. Should he have said it? No, did he apologize? Yes, but the facts are he was just commenting to his friends during a meeting, it was just a venting thing, and not serious, not a threat, and this is just hype to get back at him for replacing one of the committee members! End of story! Good grief, do you even know who Jerry Duncan is?

[ladyinred]

The email was personal, he did apologize, but they won't let it go of course. Also, they were all warned and deleted their emails. Trust me, if you knew these people he is talking about you would understand.

[budwiesest]

Good grief, do you even know who Jerry Duncan is?

Didn't he invent the Yo-yo? ;^)

[Saundra Duffy]

Well put! Thanks for giving the history and background. Much appreciated.

[Saundra Duffy]

Hi, Sis. Thanks again for chiming in with your take on this. You know what this is all about.

Again, Jerry Duncan has demonstrated side by side with the FReepers at Shaw & Blackstone. That says a lot.

[MightyMouseToSaveThe Day]

Typical double standard as usual. Mulholland gets a pass when he publicly declared that arnie would be facing 'real bullets' since "haha, I'm only kidding--lighten up". But a conservative writes the equivalent in a private email, and the libs are predictably outraged! Off with his head! How horrible to say something like that in jest!

Conservatives ought to know better by now that they're held to a different, higher standard than liberals. They need to speak/write carefully since they'll get no free passes (look at Bustamente and the N word, compared to Trent Lott's forced resignation over a toast).

[budwiesest]

In March, he removed Fresno State professor Sudarshan Kapoor -- his appointee -- from the HRC

Wouldn't you like to have seen some of this commissions emails after this? You're post illuminates just what's going on pretty well. Dissing liberals is probably more dangerous than most care to imagine.

[doug from upland]

There was only one award designed as a posthumous award --- to Alan Dirschowitz. I regretted that he didn't cooperate. Brokaw, Jennings, and Rather got Golden Kneepad awards; Sheila Jackson Lee was given the Carl Sagan Cosmos Award for being the only member of Congress to know that we have landed men on Mars; Bernard Lewinsky got the failed father award; Doris Kearns Goodwin got an award for being a RAT hack but posing as an historian; Alec Baldwin got an adios award; Mad Maxine Waters got a Put a Sock In It Award. The biggest controversy was when I referred to Hillary as Satan's Daughter. Subsequently, several people have told me I was right about that. :)

[Maccabee-AJB]

<< I was going to type "holier-than-thou alert" but then I remembered that Maccabee-AJB really is more holy than I, all kidding aside. >>

ROFLMTO...

But seriously, I think that, if we want to claim the moral high ground in the battle against the liberals, we must ACT like people on the moral high ground.


Adam