The great Nor’easter of 2011
Okay, 2011 has seen many “great” storms, including the blizzards earlier in the year. But yesterday’s storm dumped about 3-4 inches of global warming onto central Jersey, and today was just warm enough to melt most of it away, creating miles of heavy, wet slush throughout the area. My friends and family in Northern Jersey were the hardest hit however, with over 6 inches in most areas (and over a foot in Sussex County).
With one of the earliest snowstorms on record (early being late October), piling snow onto trees which are still laden with leaves, which have only just recently begun to turn, the biggest danger we’ve had has been snapping trees and tree branches. Thanks to that, power is out all over the state.
During the warmer months, and into the fall, and before after daylight savings time, I usually forgo the gym for walking and hiking. I really enjoy the seclusion and austerity of an hour-or-so walk. Roosevelt Park is somewhat close to my home and one of its great features is a 3+ mile hiking trail, which includes a paved walkway for about a quarter of the trail, and forest trails for the remainder.
This morning I bundled up to take a walk in the brisk post-storm air (sunny and upper 40s most of the day today) to find that the Nor’easter did a job on the trail that would make any landscaper proud. The trail already took a hit with Hurricane Irene this past August, and now even more damage was done. I took some photos with my iPhone.
Upon entering the trail:
Amazing how this happened:
In the following shot, you can see a stream. Up until August, you couldn’t see it from the the trail path. After Irene, it was partially visible. This morning, it’s in plain sight:
More ruined trees:
Finally, you can’t make it out to well, but here is significant damage to the trail which all but blocked the path:
Harry Reid: Private sector employment is ‘fine’
The irresponsible leader of the irresponsible Democrat majority in the US Senate:
James Sherk clarifies:
Senator Reid is not just mistaken; he has his facts exactly backwards. If the recession has barely touched one sector of the economy, it is government. Since the recession began in December 2007 the private sector shed 6.3 million net jobs, while government payrolls are down by just 392,000.
That amounts to a 5.4 percent drop in private sector employment, while government employment has slipped only one-third as much (1.8 percent). Education-related government jobs have fallen even less, down 1.4 percent.
The majority of the American unemployed, those not employed by the public sector, will be glad to know that their Senate leaders are completely clueless about what’s going on in the real world.
More on Steve Jobs
He left a personal fortune of approximately $6 billion and, interestingly, the bulk of his net worth was not in Apple, but rather his holdings of Disney and Pixar.
And, he appeared to be a relatively practical individual:
Jobs did not part with money easily, as he showed in June when he rejected a Cupertino City Council request for something extra for approving Apple’s new headquarters.
City council member Kris Wang jokingly asked the mogul at the time, “Do we get free Wi-Fi or something like that?”
Jobs replied, “Well, see, I’m a simpleton. I’ve always had this view that we pay taxes and the city should do those things.”
Democrats have their Wall Street cake, and eat it too.
This is certainly not surprising to learn, but it is amazing that Democrats are always this brazen about their hypocrisy:
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said taking money from a group doesn’t equate to supporting them. “It’s what you fight for and how you vote, it always has been,” Kerry said in a recent interview. “It’s hard to run for office and not have somebody in some sector or some industry have contributed to you; but the question is, are you voting commonsense and values and for the interests of the people, broadly?”
See? It’s ok to pander for money from greedy, Wall Street 1%-types, who, say some OWS clowns, should be executed, and throw them under the bus while on the campaign trail at the same time.
It’s also OK for Senator Kerry to dock his boat in Rhode Island to avoid his state’s onerous luxury yacht taxes. It’s all for the betterment of Massachusetts voters, and Americans in general. So, when will you ignorant Tea Partiers stop being such rubes?
Remembering Steve Jobs
I’m still sifting through all of the remembrances and recollections about Steve Jobs since his passing last week, and here’s a bit of one that stuck out:
One of Jobs’s many gifts was that he knew what to give a shit about. He knew how to focus and prioritize his time and attention.
That would strike me as being true about most successful entrepreneurs and innovators.
This past weekend, I made a trip to the Berkshire mountains in western Massachusetts to take advantage of the long weekend, so I kind of unplugged myself from everything and tried to relax.
Yesterday, the Steve Jobs news really hit me upon waking into a Barnes & Noble, with all of this week’s news magazines were on the racks, with several of them featuring Jobs’ likeness on their covers.
Long weekend time
It’s a three day weekend, so me and the signifcant other are packing up the car and headed to western Massachusetts, the Berkshires to be exact. As of right now, we should be driving up I-95.
Normally it’s supposed to be in the 50-60 degree range up there, but this weekend is supposed to be sunny and unusually warm–more like low 70s. Hopefully, I can get to relax and recharge from an anxious, stressful few weeks. And some nice New England foliage won’t hurt. To wit:
Occupy Wall Street to lawmakers: “Time to kill the wealthy”
The leftist MoveOn.org/union-sponsored Occupy Wall Street crowd is doubling down on the anger:
Several influential New York lawmakers have received threatening emails saying it is “time to kill the wealthy” if they don’t renew the state’s tax surcharge on the millionaires, according to reports.
“It’s time to tax the millionaires!” reads the email, according to WTEN in Albany. “If you don’t, I’m going to pay a visit with my carbine to one of those tech companies you are so proud of and shoot every spoiled Ivy League [expletive] I can find.”
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos reportedly received the email, as did Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari. The governor’s office did not tell the New York Daily News whether the governor himself received the email.
The email, with the threatening subject line of, “time to kill the wealthy,” was detailed and disturbing.
“How hard is it for us to stake out one of the obvious access roads to some tech company, tail an employee home and toss a liquor bottle full of flaming gasoline through their nice picture window into their cute house,” wrote the author of the email.
The email references terminology that has been used in the “Occupy Wall Street” movement – that of 1 percent super-rich exploiting the remaining 99 percent of Americans. The angry message demanded that Albany politicians “stop shoveling wealth from the lower 99% into the top 1%” and “set aside your ‘no new taxes on anybody’ pledge.” [...]
“You’re going to do [renew the surcharge], or we are going to sow the kind of choas [sic] you are unequipped to deal with,” the email said. “And you’re going to find yourself in a country where you and your wealthy friends are gonig [sic] to be hunted.”
But this is not class warfare. No. That’s legitimate protesting right there.
Question for those Democrats in Congress who have not yet supported this protest–will you be denouncing the vagrants at Occupy Wall Street now, or after blood is shed?
Andrew Sullivan can’t help himself
On a night when the news of Steve Jobs’ passing and Sarah Palin’s announcement not to run for president take place within two hours of each other, he chimes in comparing the two:
It’s a fitting comparison: achievement versus resentment, creativity versus narcissism, hope versus fear. I know which one will get the bigger headlines tomorrow. And there is some comfort in knowing it will pain her.
Yeah, Steve Jobs will be getting the headlines tomorrow, Andrew. The man just passed away after a life of changing the very fabric of our lives through technological innovations, the founder and leader of one of the most powerful companies in the world.
Palin merely announced she wasn’t running for office. One definitely takes precedent over the other in the news cycle. This, despite the importance that you, yourself, and your psychotic, obsessive ramblings about Palin and her uterus have placed on her.
The weed and the meds take its toll on the normalcy of the brain, Andrew. Stay classy.
Yemen or not?
Newsweek ran an interesting piece this morning on how President Obama was briefed on the possibility of a terrorist attack during the holiday season just passed.
It appears to be standard stuff, but something left me scratching my head (emphasis added):
The briefing was centered on a written report, produced by U.S. intelligence agencies, titled “Key Homeland Threats,” a senior U.S. official says.
The administration official, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information, says that nowhere in this document was there any mention of Yemen, whose affiliate of Al Qaeda is now believed to have been behind the Christmas Day attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bring down a transatlantic airliner with a bomb hidden in his underpants.
However, the official declined to disclose any other information about the substance of the briefing, including what kind of specific warnings, if any, the president was given about possible holiday attacks and whether Yemen came up during oral discussions.
[...]
Presidential aides are concerned that Obama will somehow be unfairly accused of dropping the ball on the fight against terrorists in Yemen—a country where, in fact, the evidence suggests that Obama, as early as last summer, ordered a significant increase in U.S. intelligence activity.
In the weeks before the Christmas incident [...] Obama authorized a major expansion in U.S. intelligence, military, and material support to Yemen’s government—an escalation that some officials acknowledge could be characterized as a new covert war. But Obama’s public and private actions in expanding counterterrorism operations in Yemen may not help him avoid answering further questions about what intelligence agencies told him—and didn’t tell him—about possible threats to the U.S. homeland in the days and weeks before the alleged underpants bomber boarded his Christmas Day flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
Interesting that an “administration official” is acknowledging that the briefing did not include any mention of terrorist activities coming from Yemen, the country from which it has been confirmed that Abdulmutallab received his terrorist support.
Yet, in the past few months, the President has initiated a “covert war” in Yemen, sending military and intelligence personnel, and money, to counter Yemeni terrorist activities. Obviously, Yemen was an area of concern. The article notes that an attack was suspected, but had originated in Pakistan.
How is it that a Presidential intelligence briefing so close to the day of the attack not mention Yemen at all?
Yemen or not, (continued)
In my previous post, I noted how the President’s briefing a few days before Christmas regarding potential holiday-season terrorist attacks, supposedly gave no mention of any attacks coming from Yemen, according to a piece in Newsweek.
Now a second post from Newsweek says that a White House adviser was briefed not only on the threat of bombs sewn into underwear, but the Saudi official giving the brief was pounding the table on Yemen as a serious threat (emphasis added):
The briefing to Brennan was delivered at the White House by Muhammad bin Nayef, Saudi Arabia’s chief counterterrorism official.
The briefing to Brennan was delivered at the White House by Muhammad bin Nayef, Saudi Arabia’s chief counterterrorism official. In late August, Nayef had survived an assassination attempt by an operative dispatched by the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda who was pretending to turn himself in.
U.S. officials now suspect that Nayef’s attempted assassin and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian suspect aboard the Northwest flight, had the same bomb maker in Yemen, intelligence experts tell NEWSWEEK. At the briefing for Brennan, Nayef was concerned because “he didn’t think [U.S. officials] were paying enough attention” to the growing threat from Al Qaeda in Yemen, said a former U.S. intelligence official familiar with the briefing. (A senior Saudi official told NEWSWEEK Saturday that “we don’t have any concerns that the U.S. government isn’t sufficiently concerned about Yemen. In the latter part of the Bush administration and in this administration, the U.S. has been very focused on the dangers emanating from Yemen.”)
The briefing for Brennan could raise questions on Capitol Hill about how widely information was shared within the government about the apparently new technique used by Al Qaeda. A senior administration official said, however, that within a week after the assassination attempt on Nayef, President Obama had dispatched Brennan to Saudi Arabia to discuss the attack.
[...]
Former U.S law-enforcement and intelligence officials are scathing about the U.S. government’s handling of pre-Christmas intelligence about Abdulmutallab and the prospect of a possible attack from Yemen. “The system should have been lighting up like a Christmas tree,” said Ali Soufan, a former senior FBI counterterrorism agent who spent years tracking Qaeda suspects in Yemen (and often battled with the CIA over information sharing).
Much of the blame for the breakdown is being aimed at the National Counterterrorism Center, a unit of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which was created as part of a host of 9/11 reforms aimed at promoting better information sharing within the U.S. intelligence community. Frances Fragos Townsend, President Bush’s chief homeland-security adviser, says that analysts at the NCTC should have been pushing, or pinging, the system for more information on Abdulmutallab. “It was NCTC’s responsibility to connect the dots, and ask for additional dots if they don’t have enough,” she said. Instead, the original report about the visit of Abdulmutallab’s father appears to have been dropped in a “dead-letter file.”
This just gets more depressing.
No surprise here, that the massive bureaucracy created as per the 9-11 Commission is dropping the ball on making sure critical intelligence is getting to into the hands of those most capable of using that information. To me the issue is: how many bells have to ring before the before the right people pick up on the threat? I mean, here you have a guy who was trained by Al Queda’s Yemeni branch, whose father told the CIA about his radial intentions and was barred from entry into the UK.
And now we’re learning that terrorism experts from around the globe were essentially pointing fingers at Yemen and told us to look at what’s going on. Only to get swallowed up in the bureaucracy of good intentions? Ughh…
UPDATE. Allahpundit asks the same question I’ve been asking myself all day:
So never mind the detail about the underwear. Here’s the real question, which we’re asking for the second time today: Why wasn’t Yemen given special attention as a potential threat under the circumstances? If, per the Saudis’ tip, Brennan had asked the NCTC to re-review leads related to that country, they may well have connected the dots and nailed Abdulmutallab before he ever got on the plane. What happened?
UPDATE. William Jacobson is on the right track:
So what did Obama and/or administration officials know, and when did they know it? If we knew all bits of information about this individual, the Yemen problem, and the bomb technique, how did we not take preventative measures?
It is interesting that Obama now is taking an unusually aggressive posture, after mostly silence for several days, pointing out that the attack was planned in Yemen and that there will be retaliation.
Something sparked this rather dramatic change in tone. In the past few days, Obama undoubtedly has received multiple after-action briefings dissecting what went wrong.
Given what has leaked, and what has been disclosed publicly, it seems pretty clear that the answer to “who knew what and when” is not going to be favorable to the administration generally, and to Obama specifically. Again, not that someone knew of this actual plot, but rather, that someone or some collection of people knew the facts which under other circumstances would have alerted them to the danger.
Lifting the HIV travel ban
The Obama administration announced today that the ban on HIV-infected travelers to the United States has been lifted. The liberal blogs are applauding their hero, Barack Obama. (Emphasis added)
The HIV travel ban ends today. This marks one promise that Obama kept in 2009.
In 1987, the Reagan administration and then-Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) imposed a travel and immigration ban more than two decades ago on those who are HIV-positive. The misguided policy has led to separated families, avoided medical tests, and highly-skilled workers taking their expertise elsewhere.
In October, President Obama announced that he’s ending the ban, calling it a decision “rooted in fear rather than fact.” The ban officially ended today.
Typical reaction I guess. Too bad they left out one bit of important information though.
Lifting the ban began with the prior administration:
Repeal of the ban - which was shepherded through Congress by Senator John Kerry, Congresswoman Barbara Lee and former Senator Gordon Smith – began under the Bush Administration, as part of the former president’s PEPFAR legislation to curb and treat HIV/AIDS around the globe.
What a guy, that President Obama. A real leader. It takes real guts to follow up on your predecessor’s human rights initiatives. I don’t think this bit of information will make it to the major networks.
C-SPAN throws the gauntlet
Via Michael Calderone’s blog at Politico:
C-SPAN chief executive Brian Lamb, who has long fought for more television access in Congress, is now asking House and Senate leadership to allow cameras inside while members hammer out differences between the two health care bills.
Lamb, in a letter dated Dec. 30 and made available today, requested opening up “all important negotiations, including any conference committee meetings, to electronic media coverage”
[…]
The C-SPAN networks, he wrote, are willing to commit the necessary resources to cover sessions live and would offer the network’s multi-camera feed to those in the Capitol Hill broadcast pool.
I love this move on the part of Brian Lamb. It puts these cowardly Democrats currently running the Congress on the spot. Especially in light of the recent news that the Democratic leadership will skip the conference process, effectively shunning the Republicans from reconciliation of the House and Senate healthcare bills and put the final bill together—in secret. Nearly 16% of the American economy.
What a disgrace.
It also invokes the lies coming from then-candidate Obama about how the debate on healthcare reform would be open to the public.
It should be interesting to see how this plays out.
Byron Dorgan cries uncle
Even I didn’t think hope and change would make it this bad for the Democrats in 2010:
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) announced this evening that he’s retiring at the end of his term, a shocking development that threatens Democratic control of his Senate seat next year.
Dorgan was up for re-election in 2010, but the third-term senator wasn’t facing any strong Republican opposition– but was facing the growing possibility of a serious challenge from popular Gov. John Hoeven (R-N.D.).
In his statement, Dorgan said his retirement was borne out of the desire to spend more time with his family.
Let me be clear. An incumbent Senator, in the majority party which controls both congressional chambers as well as the White House, with an alleged “mandate” in the prior year’s election, does not retire his seat to “spend time with his family”. It just doesn’t happen. Unless, of course, their political ship is sinking. Period.
A lot of reaction across the blogosphere right now. Even liberals are finding it difficult to spin. As I’m sure will be the case for the 2010 midterms in general, Obamacare is playing a big part in the North Dakota race.
Meanwhile, a Dorgan smack-down:
Dorgan faces almost certain defeat if Republican Governor John Hoeven runs against him. According to Rasmussen’s latest poll on December 21, Hoeven would trounce Dorgan, 58% to 36%. Health care is a huge problem for the senator, as a whopping 64% of North Dakotans don’t want what Dorgan is voting to give them.
What a schmuck Dorgan is. Rather than doing what his constituents want him to do and vote against the Democrats’ health care catastrophe, he’s going to vote for it anyway and then retire and enjoy the government’s fat pension and high quality health care, all funded by the US taxpayer. What a freaking coward.
Jonathan Chait and liberal nonsense
My take on Jonathan Chait is that he’s an entertaining and informative read. I disagree with his views about 90% of the time, but overall he’s one of the few liberals whose work I can read without wanting to pull my hair out. Most of the time, anyway.
He just began his own blog over at TNR and while perusing, I came across this post about the Obama administration’s recent appointment of the first (allegedly) transgender to some bureaucratic position in the Commerce department.
So writes Chait:
It just hired a person who’s transgendered. The religious right obviously opposes that, but they can’t say so. Thus they have come to employ words like “quota” to mean something entirely different than their literal meaning.
It’s very odd to witness a part of the political discourse where one side understands that its actual views are so completely socially unacceptable that they can’t be expressed, and must be replaced with nonsense terms.
Now, I understand Chait’s political point of view. I understand that he sees this as some moral victory for the transgender community (?) and…well, yeah. Whatever.
But when he refers to one side of the “discourse” that can’t express their views and so must replace them with nonsense, he’s mistaken if he thinks it’s a conservative or right-of-center trait.
Was he not been around in the 1990s? When political correctness came of age? “Handicapped” became “disabled”. “Midget” became “little person”. And on and on.
These didn’t come from right-wing circles, but were liberal contrivances.
And it hasn’t stopped.
“Global warming” needs to be called “climate change”. And perhaps the most egregious of them all—-the “war on terror” is now called an “overseas contingency operation”.
Talk about nonsense.
The Other Senator Dodd
I was glad to see the news that Senator Dodd decided not to seek another term. To me, Chris Dodd is the epitome of the hypocrisy that is the modern Democratic party and of slimy politicians in general. So obnoxious, and your typical corruptocrat.
Good riddance.
I knew that Dodd’s father, Thomas Dodd, was also a Senator from Connecticut. But despite being one of the few Senators censured by Congress, he had an interesting resume:
Thomas Dodd was a young F.B.I. agent, a prosecutor who went after the K.K.K., and part of the American team at the Nuremberg trials, where he cross examined the likes of Baldur von Schirach and Alfred Rosenberg, and made the prosecution’s first major presentation on concentration camps.
And there’s even video of Dodd at Nuremberg:
Pretty fascinating stuff.
Scott Brown for Senate
The special election for the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat in Massachusetts was pretty boring to me as of late. Not just because I just assumed, as most political observers and junkies did, that the Democrat would just win the seat, but because it’s so difficult to gauge a special election.
My interest was piqued a bit when Rasmussen released their poll earlier this week showing the Republican Scott Brown within 10 points of Democratic candidate, Martha Coakley. Interesting yes, but I’m always skeptical of polls. And I knew some different polls on the race would be pouring in from different shops as we drew closer to the election on January 19th.
But I wasn’t expecting something like this—-from Public Policy Polling, hardly a conservative polling outfit:
At this point a plurality of those planning to turn out oppose the health care bill. The massive enthusiasm gap we saw in Virginia is playing itself out in Massachusetts as well. Republican voters are fired up and they’re going to turn out. Martha Coakley needs to have a coherent message up on the air over the last ten days that her election is critical to health care passing and Ted Kennedy’s legacy- right now Democrats in the state are not feeling a sense of urgency.
[…]
This has become a losable race for Democrats- but it could also be easily winnable if Coakley gets her act together for the last week of the campaign. Complacency is the Democrats’ biggest enemy at this point and something that needs to be overcome to avoid a potential disaster.
I’m a pessimist generally speaking. It’s just my nature. Especially when it comes to the ineptitude of the establishment GOP and the clueless leadership at the RNC.
But this PPP poll is welcome news. As the story says, healthcare reform will play big part in turnout which, in turn, will decide this election—as is the case with most special elections. This should show how fired up the conservative base is after all.
And from what I’ve read at the Boston papers, Coakley has laid back and just assumed she would win—being the apparent successor (read Democratic nominee) to the Kennedy political lineage in this particular Senate seat and all. And more importantly, a Brown victory pretty much assures that the healthcare bill won’t pass the Senate. And that’s a very, very good thing.
Meanwhile, Brown has running full steam since the primary in early September. He’s also put together an effective ad campaign. Here’s the best of the ads in my opinion:
Again, I still have doubts that Brown will win this seat. A Democrat has occupied that seat my entire life so it’s pretty ingrained in my brain that it will continue that way. But Brown definitely has the momentum here so who knows?
So here’s hoping the Coakley’s bid to keep this seat in Democratic hands goes down in flames.
Democrats love them some light-skinned negroes
The awesomeness of the Democrats is neverending:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) apologized today for referring to President Barack Obama as “light skinned” and “with no Negro dialect” in private conversations during the 2008 presidential campaign.
And the real first black President Bill Clinton, too:
[A]s Hillary bungled Caroline, Bill’s handling of Ted was even worse. The day after Iowa, he phoned Kennedy and pressed for an endorsement, making the case for his wife. But Bill then went on, belittling Obama in a manner that deeply offended Kennedy. Recounting the conversation later to a friend, Teddy fumed that Clinton had said, A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee.
There is however, no truth to the rumor that Senator Reid refers to the President as “boy”.
See, what Clinton and Reid really meant to say, was that Obama is truly a clean and articulate negro. Not like the rest of them thar negroes. Got that, boy?
Imagine if George W. Bush or Sarah Palin had uttered any of this nonsense? There would be a public firestorm, riots in the cities, demands for hearings, breaking news stories in the MSM. It would be all over the Sunday morning shows.
Scott Brown for Senate, cont.
From a potentially “losable race” for Democrats to a tossup. Publiv Policy Polling has released their poll on the Massachusetts Senate race, and it’s looking a bit dicey for Democrats
The Massachusetts Senate race is now a toss up.
Buoyed by a huge advantage with independents and relative disinterest from Democratic voters in the state, Republican Scott Brown leads Martha Coakley 48-47.
As I noted in my previous post, I’d like to see polls from other outfits. But nevertheless, wow.
If independents are making the difference in the 2010 midterms, things look exceptionally well for Brown:
Brown has eye popping numbers with independents, sporting a 70/16 favorability rating with them and holding a 63-31 lead in the horse race with Coakley. Health care may be hurting Democratic fortunes with that group, as only 27% of independents express support for Obama’s plan with 59% opposed.
In a trend that’s going to cause Democrats trouble all year, voters disgusted with both parties are planning to vote for the one out of power. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Brown’s standing is that only 21% of Massachusetts voters have a favorable opinion of Congressional Republicans…but at the same time only 33% view Congressional Democrats favorably. And among voters who have a negative take on both parties, who account for more than 20% of the electorate, Brown leads 74-21.
Jim Geraghty writes that the Boston papers will be releasing polls of their own tomorrow, showing very different numbers, which only adds to my skepticism. But seriously, this race should have been a no-brainer for the Democratic party. What with healthcare reform within reach, a Democratic majority in both chambers of Congress wanting to pass it, the legacy of Ted Kennedy, hope and change and all the other nonsense, you would think they would be running away with this. But clearly there is momentum here for Scott Brown. Even the DSCC is getting nervous.
Polling the Massachusetts Senate race
Polls drive me crazy.
After last night’s PPP polling data showing Scott Brown in what is essentially a dead heat, the Boston Globe releases their poll this morning showing Coakley with a 15 point lead.
The big disparity so far is just an indication of how hard it is to figure out special elections. But still, 15 points is a big swing. I’m assuming as we get closer to election day, the picture will get clearer.
Josh Marshall tries to unpack the data (via):
So what explains this crazy spread? One thing to note is that the PPP poll is a bit more recent, though seemingly not enough to explain the huge spread. At least not all of it. Another interesting thing about the two polls is that they’re not that far off on Coakley’s number: PPP has her at 47% and the Globe has her at 53%. The difference is in Brown’s number — 48% vs. 36%. As I said, I think the whole story here is that screen the two pollsters are using to see who’s is going to vote.
Now PPP is actually a Democrat-associated firm. So while I think I think they’re top-notch, no one who’s inclined to be suspicious should have any thought that they’re somehow biased in favor of Republican candidates.
Who is going to vote, indeed. As I’ve noted and as mostly everyone agrees, this election will be determined by turnout. Turnout, turnout and more turnout. It’s imperative that Republican voters come out in droves on the 19th. That seems to be the only way.
Also, I’m in complete agreement with Phillip Klein here:
My personal take is that I simply cannot imagine Massachusetts voters electing a Republican to fill Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat so that he can become a vote against the health care bill. I think the PPP poll was enough to scare Democrats into doing what they need to in the week leading up to the Jan. 19 election to make sure their voters turn out. But it will be interesting to see how independents do vote, because that will be an indication of what we may expect in other states and districts that aren’t as deep blue as Massachusetts.
Spot on.
UPDATE. Karl over at Hot Air has some interesting observations:
One point of agreement between the two polls is the role of relative intensity. PPP reports that “66% of GOP voters say they are ‘very excited’ about casting their votes, while only 48% of Democrats express that sentiment.” The Globe reports that “Brown matches Coakley – both were at 47 percent – among the roughly 1 in 4 respondents who said they were ‘extremely interested’’ in the race.” Some might be tempted to frame these numbers as an “enthusiasm gap,” though it is probably more accurate to note that the Right tends to vote more regularly than the Left, and that the key for Coakley will be turning out enough of the state’s much larger pool of Democrats.
Finally, I should add a note about PPP. The news accounts (and blog commenters in stories involving PPP) almost always note that the Democratic firm infamously showed Conservative Doug Hoffman leading Democrat Bill Owens by 17 points in its final poll of the NY-23 Congressional special election last November (Owens won by 4 points). There were a number of practical problems with polling that particular election, though I do not think they fully explain PPP’s call. Rather, everyone should remember that the margin of error reported by most polls assumes a 95% confidence interval. That means that given repeated samples, 19 of 20 would produce results for any given question falling within the stated margin of error. PPP’s call in NY-23 was likely that bad outlier for which the risk always exists, even with the best of pollsters. That is why it is always better to have more than one poll to examine, even if the results are maddening when we have only two to examine.
Turnout, turnout, turnout.
Green Bay Packers
Olliander is a very big Green Bay Packers fan.
And my favorite NFL team happens to be in a playoff game starting in about five minutes. And, as such, I am about to puke from the anxiety.
Let’s Go Pack!
UPDATE. Ugh. That wasn’t good at all. Some quick points:
- Aaron Rodgers is one of the toughest players in the game right now and proved his worth in this game.
- Any Packer “fan” who thinks Ted Thompson is the “problem” for this team doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
- Mike McCarthy is more of a problem than Thompson is right now.
- If I see one more running play on 2nd and long, I will pull my hair out.
- Saint Vince is rolling over in his grave.
Until next season.
Just words?
Last week, President Obama acknowledged that the we are at war with Al Qaeda.
It has been confirmed that the Christmas day crotch-bomber was recruited, trained and provided support by Al Qaeda.
Am I missing something here? Why is Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab still considered and treated as a criminal offender, and not an enemy combatant?
Just words from the President? You betcha…
Who is Michael Steele?
[...]Steele is the Soupy Sales of the right wing, debating with hand-puppet celebrities and taking a shaving-cream pie in the face for laughs on the cables.
That sums it up pretty well. If there’s any sanity left in the Republican party, Steele will be out as RNC chairman soon enough.
Taken from John Batchelor’s latest column. As usual, an insightful and well written piece by an astute political observer, and a sobering piece for the Republican party.
Brown’s moneybomb goes boom
OK, so get this.
The Scott Brown campaign was looking to raise about $500,000 for the stretch run of this campaign. Turns out, the money bomb was a lot bigger than even pessimists like myself would have thought.
And I’m sure it caught not only the Brown campaign by surprise, but the Coakley camp as well.
The Brown campaign raised over $1.3 million last night! That’s almost triple their initial goal.
Obviously, something is going on here and the Democratic party was forced to take notice and act accordingly. They’re sending personnel and money to Massachusetts.
Meanwhile, last night the candidates had their final debate and by most accounts Brown had Coakley beat. The highlight of the night:
Check out David Gergen’s smug Beltway arrogance. “Ted Kennedy’s seat”??
My pessimism is never easily deterred, but Scott Brown’s campaign is making it harder for me to remain so bleak. I finally broke down and donated to the campaign. The stakes are so high, it’s probably the last defense against a grotesque health reform bill passing in the Senate. That alone is worth the contribution.
“Frightening” Scott Brown gaining on Coakley
On a private conference call with DNC chair Tim Kaine and top Dem donors this afternoon, Dem Senate candidate Martha Coakley acknowledged that GOPer Scott Brown’s surge was “frightening,” said top Dem donors had been complacent, and promised a last burst of TV ads to close out the race.
“It’s a little frightening how much traction he’s been able to get so quickly,” Coakley said on the call, which I was able to listen in on this afternoon, adding that he’d successfully used terror and joblessness to stoke voter fears.
Coakley also pleaded with donors to come through with last-minute funding for what she said would be an extremely pricey home-stretch. “It’s astounding how expensive this is,” Coakley said, saying additional TV ads are on the way. “We can’t stress enough how urgent it is. We need $400,000 in additional TV, $325,000 in getting out the vote mailings, and $80,000 in robocalls.”
And, a whole lot of awesome from Rasmussen (emphasis mine):
The Massachusetts’ special U.S. Senate election has gotten tighter, but the general dynamics remain the same.
A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state finds Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley attracting 49% of the vote while her Republican rival, state Senator Scott Brown, picks up 47%.
Three percent (3%) say they’ll vote for independent candidate Joe Kennedy, and two percent (2%) are undecided. The independent is no relation to the late Edward M. Kennedy, whose Senate seat the candidates are battling to fill in next Tuesday’s election.
Coakley is supported by 77% of Democrats while Brown picks up the vote from 88% of Republicans. Among voters not affiliated with either major party, Brown leads 71% to 23%. To be clear, this lead is among unaffiliated voters who are likely to participate in the special election.
A week ago, the overall results showed Coakley leading by a 50% to 41% margin. The closeness of the race in heavily Democratic Massachusetts has drawn increasing national interest, and Brown made it clear in the final candidate debate last night that a vote for him is a vote to stop the national health care plan Democrats are pushing in Congress.
There’s a lot of panic out there by the Democrats. If anything, I am enjoying watching the DNC and the DSCC flush over $500K down the toilet, money I’m sure they intended for other “more competitive” races.
And so much for hope and change. A Republican in “Ted Kennedy’s seat” would be the could be the best change a conservative could ever hope for.
Donate here: Scott Brown For Senate
Coakley: There are no terrorists in Afghanistan
No terrorists in Afghanistan? Really?
Blog Maintenance
It’s been nearly two weeks since I started this blog and I keep neglecting to start a blog roll.
Well, here goes…it’s an historic day in Olliander’s Blog history.
I’m adding Jim Geraghty’s Campaign Spot blog to the blogroll. I’ve been reading his blog forever. If you’re a political junkie, his blog is a must-read.
More on the Massachusett(e)s Senate Race; “It’s a Brown out”
Democratic desperation and other compelling evidence strongly suggest that Democrats may well lose the late Senator Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat in Tuesday’s special election. Because of this, we are moving our rating of the race from Narrow Advantage for the Incumbent Party to Toss-Up.
Whatever the shortcomings of the Coakley campaign (and they certainly exist), this race has become about change, President Obama and Democratic control of all of the levers of power in Washington, D.C. Brown has “won” the “free media” over the past few days, and if he continues to do so, he will win the election.
Late Democratic efforts to demonize Republican Scott Brown, to make the race into a partisan battle and to use the Kennedy name to drive Democratic voters to the polls could still work. But the advertising clutter in the race works against them, and voters often tune out late messages, which can seem desperate.
The Rothenberg Policital Report has declared the race a toss-up and so has the Cook Political Report.
And this is just breaking, via William Jacobson’s blog:
Riding a wave of opposition to Democratic health-care reform, GOP upstart Scott Brown is leading in the U.S. Senate race, raising the odds of a historic upset that would reverberate all the way to the White House, a new poll shows.
Although Brown’s 4-point lead over Democrat Martha Coakley is within the Suffolk University/7News survey’s margin of error, the underdog’s position at the top of the results stunned even pollster David Paleologos.
“It’s a Brown-out,” said Paleologos, director of Suffolk’s Political Research Center. “It’s a massive change in the political landscape.”
The classless and just plain appalling behavior of Martha Coakley in this campaign has come into plain view in a little over a week, what with the goonish behavior against a Weekly Standard reporter. the stupid, asinine comments, the arrogance. If anything, every move she makes just highlights the stark differences between the two candidates.
This is such a historic election. If Brown can pull this out, I think it could stop healthcare reform dead in it’s tracks or at least slow it down considerably. Just think—a year ago the President wanted a bill on his desk by August. Here we are in January 2010, and the Democrats have spent the better part of the past 12 months making complete asses of themselves, wasting any political capital they ever had. I’d rather not get ahead of myself, and I don’t want to jinx it, but a Brown victory could drive the stake right through the heart of a monstrous legislative nightmare.
Just saying
Blogging is not a full time gig for me, unfortunately. I work at a start-up community bank, having been in banking for most of my 10+ years young career. I helped to organize and start the bank, at which I have been working for slightly over four years.
So technically, it’s really not a start-up any longer. It’s more like your typical corporate environment, just not as stringent.
That being said, corporate life blows. Seriously.
Nate Silver: MA Senate race a toss-up
Looks like Brown is keeping some momentum going into the weekend.
“This shouldn’t be happening, but it is..”
Democrats are bracing for the worst possible scenario in the Massachusett(e)s senate race:
…[A] growing sense of gloom is setting in among Democrats about the fortunes of Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley. “I have heard that in the last two days the bottom has fallen out of her poll numbers,” says one well-connected Democratic strategist.
In her own polling, Coakley is said to be around five points behind Republican Scott Brown. “If she’s not six or eight ahead going into the election, all the intensity is on the other side in terms of turnout,” the Democrat says. “So right now, she is destined to lose.”
Intensifying the gloom, the Democrat says, is the fact that the same polls showing Coakley falling behind also show President Obama with a healthy approval rating in the state. “With Obama at 60 percent in Massachusetts, this shouldn’t be happening, but it is,” the Democrat says.
I love the sweet smell of liberal Democrats panicking in Massachusett(e)s.
Read all of Byron York’s piece.
Quote Of The Day
On the Massachusetts Senate race this Tuesday:
“This, in my life, is probably the most important vote I’ll ever make. It’s important for America. This isn’t just a Senate vote. This is going to change America…I’ve even got Democrats voting for him.”
Kevin Pinto, 50, a commercial fisherman from Plymouth and Brown supporter who met the candidate at the Water Street Café.
Two weeks and still crankin’
Well, the blog has been live for a week and one day now.
It’s a miracle I still remember the login ID and password. I know I mentioned this in my first post, but WordPress has really stepped up its game since I started looking at the platform nearly a year ago. Kudos to them.
Looking at the stats, the blog has 210 unique visitors since it went live. That’s an astounding fourteen views a day, on average! Who would’ve thought?
Is this thing even on?
Sabato and Silver
The pessimist in me has been creeping up again as we are into the final hours before this special election in Massachusetts.
At the end of the day, it’s still Massachusetts for pete’s sake. Massachusetts. No way Brown can pull this off…
And then, of course, I see Larry Sabato’s latest tweet:
Once in a blue moon, hell freezes over. The Bay State gives every indication of being very cold.
As if that wasn’t enough, Nate Silver left-wing crystal ball seer extraordinaire (and who runs a great site), sees Brown as a 3 to 1 favorite to win.
Massachusetts?!?
Congratulations to Scott Brown on winning what was Ted Kennedy’s the vacant Senate seat in the Bay State. Wow! Unbelievable.
Time to play “Who Said That?”
Which politician just said the following about a recent EPA report advising to curb carbon emissions?
“I am very concerned about the burden that EPA regulation of carbon emissions could put on our economy and have questions about the actual benefit EPA regulations would have on the environment….Heavy-handed EPA regulation, as well as the current cap-and-trade bills in Congress, will cost us jobs and put us at an even greater competitive disadvantage to China, India and others…”
Sarah Palin?
Mike Huckabee?
Scott Brown?
Mitt Romney?
If you chose any of these Republicans, you are dead wrong. In fact, if you pick any Republican at all, you’d be wrong. In fact, the answer is Senator Blanche Lincoln—Democrat of Arkansas. A Democrat who is in a bit of trouble this November unless she doesn’t start ditching the Obama liberalism. In other words, she’s a Democrat from a red state. Which is about as dangerous as say…a Democrat in Massachusetts these days.
Blurring the lines
The other night I was watching the news reports about Scott Brown’s first trip to Washington as Senator-elect, meeting and greeting with other Senators. For me, the most awkward part was watching the meeting with Senator McCain.
It was that same uncomfortable awkwardness I’d feel during the 2008 campaign whenver McCain was asked a tough question or went off on an obviously staged speech about this, that or the other.
I have no misconceptions that McCain supporting Brown, meeting with Brown the other day, was nothing more than crass opportunism. It’s politically convenient for John McCain after spending the better part of the last decade embracing RINOism, especially the whole amnesty thing. Convenient because of a dead re-election campaign back home, convenient because conservatism is on the rise again, a belief system that he failed to defend during the 2008 election, letting Sarah Palin do all of the heavy lifting.
But I have to say, I was a bit put back to read this in Michelle Malkin’s column this morning:
A reader from Arizona informed me the day after the Bay State Bombshell that he had received a robo-call from Massachusetts GOP Sen.-elect Scott Brown. “He basically wanted me to vote for John McCain in November,” the reader said in his description of the automated campaign call supporting the four-term Sen. McCain’s re-election bid.
Read it all.
I understand this to the extent that McCain was one of the first Republican politicians to endorse Scott Brown, even while Brown was still considered a long shot to win his election, and probably feels grateful for that. But seriously, that’s where it should end. I’m sure the McCain campaign’s media people are busy splicing together the robocalls and the awkward images in DC the other day for his primary. Makes me sick.
I tweeted last night that it’s important for the conservatives to make a clear distinction between grassroots, real conservatism versus establishment Republicanism, the latter to which, John McCain belongs.
Andrew Sullivan: Hey, these independent voters are extremists
It appears that Andrew Sullivan’s crush on President Obama is causing the blogger to morph from a mere shill for the President to borderline insanity. The ramblings are almost unbearable to read any longer. Of course being the glutton for punishment that I am, I must read.
His latest post on how the President must react to this week’s special election in Massachusetts and how it pertains to Obama’s agenda is all sorts of fail—major fail:
…[T]he ferocity of the campaign against Obama, the sheer dickishness of the GOP and its acolytes, the total oppositionism to everything he has done and indeed anything he might do… suggests that any hope for some kind of cooperation from this rump is impossible.
But the truth is that these forces have also been so passionate, so extreme, and so energized that in a country reeling from a recession, the narrative – a false, paranoid, nutty narrative – has taken root in the minds of some independents. Obama, under-estimating the extremism of his opponents, has focused on actually addressing the problems we face.
So let’s get this straight—the stupidity and ignorance of the right-wingers is so fierce and so dominant that it’s “taken root in the minds of some independents”? Clearly this is a jab at the overwhelming support that Scott Brown received by non-affiliated voters who, by definition, are not the extremist lunatics that Sullivan implies. It’s amazing to see the liberal/progressive blogosphere plus political observers in complete denial about the special election results earlier this week, and what a debilitating blow it is to Obama’s agenda.
The people have spoken—that’s what elections are for—and Sullivan, looking through his sycophantic glasses—refuses to acknowledge that.
And then, there’s this:
Look at what we are facing right now: a take-no-prisoners right, empowered by a massive new wave of corporate money unleashed by the Supreme Court, able to wield a 41 seat minority to oppose anything Obama wants, setting up a cycle of failure for a president whom they can then pillory at the polls…These forces cannot be appeased. They simply have to be confronted.
A “41 seat minority” that is opposing “anything Obama wants”? What the hell? The last I checked, this week was the one year anniversary of the President’s inauguration, not his coronation. It is the minority party’s duty to oppose the President or his party, or both, if their beliefs contradict and if it means accomodating their constituents. Isn’t that the nature of constitutional democracies that Sullivan holds so sacred? Sullivan seems to be putting Obama’s agenda and legacy ahead of everyday Americans.
And finally:
But it is absurd that one special election should upend a clear campaign promise, a year of work, and a necessary start on a critical reform without which we hurtle toward bankruptcy even more quickly.
“One special election”? Apparently Sullivan is thinking with blinders on. After a summer of bitter tea parties that Sullivan and liberals wrote off as outliers, the proverbial chickens came home to roost in November—-with GOP wins in New Jersey and Virginia—the former a blue state with an incumbent governor who embraced Obama and his policies every chance he could, the latter a southern state where Democrats were supposed to be making inroads. For healthcare and Democrats, it was all downhill from there. And then came Massachusetts. The bluest of blue states was supposed to be a slam dunk for Democrats. And healthcare was at the center of it all.
In the weeks leading up to Christmas, the American people saw slimy backroom deals, the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, the Christmas Eve Senate vote, the union tax exemption, and on and on. People apparently got fed up with the politics as usual that Sullivan’s beloved Obama encourages in his government. So it’s not just “one special election” in January, but more like the build-up of frustration on behalf of most Americans.
Normally, I would say Sullivan needs to get a grip—but it looks like it’s way beyond that right now. Sullivan has a crush that nothing can cure.
Why does Newt keep talking?
It was over 15 years ago when Newt Gingrich led the Republican revolution which ended up in the GOP takeover of Congress, keeping the Clinton agenda in check. This is forever cemented into the great annals of GOP history, and rightfully so.
The downside is that his tenure as House speaker ended in disgrace and he is forever branded (in my eyes anyway) as not so much what was right about the Republicans in the 1990s, but more of what was wrong.
Fast forward to 2010 and, despite recent electoral victories this past November and a miraculous Senate seat pick-up in deep blue Masachusetts, the Republican brand is still toxic. I’m sure I wouldn’t be reaching if I said that Republicans are as equally despised as Democrats.
And I’m sure it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that American electorate is still not so enamored with Newt as a person and/or candidate, given his past (ahem) marital issues and ethics problems.
Given that the Republican brand needs some serious refurbishing, I don’t think Newt is the ideal person to be out there pushing his ideas on reviving “Republicanism”. And I don’t think I’m the only blogger who thinks that Newt is trying to hijack the Tea Party movement for his own political ends. Nah.
So why does Newt keep talking? And who is actually listening?
Solar Power Relief For Haiti
Instead of risking getting scammed in donating to Haitian relief efforts, this seems like a better way to contribute to the cause:
A non-profit called EarthSpark International, which has been trying to improve conditions in poor countries with clean, renewable energy, is organizing a campaign to distribute 20,000 solar-powered lamps in Port-au-Prince. People can help pay for the lamps by donating here.
The lamps, in addition to lighting up neighborhoods and improving public safety, could help reduce pollution from the charcoal and kerosene used for lighting now. Some of the lamps can also recharge mobile phones.
Click through to get to the donation page.
Game Change
I’ve been catching up on my reading and just finished the New York Magazine piece on John Edwards, an excerpt from the new book Game Change. This part was particularly interesting:
[...]Edwards had no intention of going quietly into any good night. He had a contingency plan. Two months earlier, he had asked Leo Hindery, a New York media investor who was one of his closest confidants, to convey an audacious proposal to Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader and a mentor to Obama: If Edwards won the caucuses, Obama would immediately drop out of the race and become his running mate; if Obama won, Edwards would do the converse. Wounding though a loss in Iowa would be to Hillary, she might be strong enough to bounce back. The only way to guarantee her elimination would be to take the extraordinary step of uniting against her.
Hindery had presented the proposal to Daschle, with whom he’d long been friends. Daschle brought it to the Obama campaign. The talks were tentative; nothing had been decided.
Now, with the results of Iowa in, Edwards determined it was time to make the deal. A little while before taking the stage to deliver his concession speech, he summoned Hindery to his hotel suite and issued a directive: “Get ahold of Tom.”
Hindery considered the timing miserable. Obama just frickin’ won Iowa, he thought. Give him a chance to savor it. But Edwards wanted to set the wheels in motion—immediately.
Hindery left the Edwards suite and tried frantically to locate Daschle, but discovered that he wasn’t in Iowa. Calls were placed. Messages were left. No one knew where he was.
As Edwards delivered his speech, Hindery stood to his right, until an aide alerted him that Daschle was on the phone. Hindery stepped offstage and took the call, straining to hear Daschle over the noise of the crowd. “Tom? I’ve got John right here,” Hindery said. “You aren’t going to believe this, but he’s willing to cut a deal right now. He’ll agree to be Barack’s V.P.”
“Are you sure you want to do this now?” a dumbfounded Daschle asked.
“I’m not, but he is,” Hindery replied.
All right, Daschle said. I’ll take it to Barack.
But with the victory in Iowa now gusting at his back, Obama rejected the entreaty out of hand. Convinced along with his advisers that he was all but certain to win the New Hampshire primary five days later, he was poised to plunge the dagger into Hillary all by himself.
Clinton’s astonishing comeback in New Hampshire put an end to Obama’s hopes of a quick finish to the nomination contest—and led Edwards to believe that there was still an opening to strike a bargain. On the eve of the South Carolina primary two weeks later, he again dispatched Hindery to make a revised offer, this time a trade for Edwards’s endorsement.
“John will settle for attorney general,” Hindery e-mailed Daschle.
Daschle shook his head. How desperate is this guy?
“Leo, this isn’t good for John,” Daschle replied. “This is ridiculous. It’s going to be ambassador to Zimbabwe next.”
It’s a telling piece on Edwards and his wife Elizabeth, and all but confirmed my view of John Edwards—that he is an arrogant, classless douche. And pathetically desperate as well.
I just picked up the book over at Amazon.
Partying like it’s 2008
Break out the styrofoam columns, the soaring rhetoric and mind-numbing townhalls—the president is asking his 2008 campaign machine to essentially take charge of the DNC because the election of Scott Brown obviously meant nothing in order to better understand “where things stand” for the midterm elections:
President Obama is reconstituting the team that helped him win the White House to counter Republican challenges in the midterm elections and recalibrate after political setbacks that have narrowed his legislative ambitions.
Mr. Obama has asked his former campaign manager, David Plouffe, to oversee House, Senate and governor’s races to stave off a hemorrhage of seats in the fall. The president ordered a review of the Democratic political operation — from the White House to party committees — after last week’s Republican victory in the Massachusetts Senate race, aides said.
[...]
As Mr. Obama prepares to deliver his State of the Union address on Wednesday and lay out his initiatives for the second year of his presidency, his decision to take greater control of the party’s politics signals a new approach. The White House is searching for ways to respond to panic among Democrats over the possible demise of his health care bill and a political landscape being reshaped by a wave of populism.
[...]
The reinforcement of the White House’s political operation has been undertaken with a sense of urgency since Tuesday, when a Republican, Scott Brown, won the Massachusetts Senate seat that had been held by Edward M. Kennedy. The White House was caught off guard when it became clear that Democrats were in danger of losing it, and by the time alarm bells sounded from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, it was too late.
[...]
The White House intends to send Mr. Obama out into the country considerably more in 2010 than during his first year in office, advisers said, to try to rekindle the relationship he developed with voters during his presidential campaign.
Remember the last eight years? Remember how liberals and Democrats did nothing but bitch and moan about how President Bush was “politicizing” the White House and turning the government into nothing but a 24 hour polling station for Bush’s political agenda? Yeah. About that.
In the Obama era, it’s ok to blur the line between partisan party politics and the federal government—you get a free pass from a complacent, partisan media and the liberal blogosphere, who all but called for Bush’s impeachment over the last decade for similar sins. Nothing but hypocrisy from the left. But that’s nothing new.
This is an insult to the American people, and specifically those in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts, who spoke out with their votes, and have rejected the Obama agenda, at least as it pertains to healthcare reform. The president and his handlers are effectively ignoring them and figuring out a way to best advance their agenda with minimal damage to already tenuous Democratic majorities in Congress. All politics. All partisanship. No governance.
And does the White House actually think that the reason that people despise healthcare reform is because the President has not been seen enough? Really?? Last I remember, the president gave some 158 interviews—158—over the past 12 months on the subject. That includes speeches to the AMA, an address to Congress, and let’s not forget the ABC infomercial last summer. Yeah, that’s the problem—the president just needs to get out more. That, despite the fact that the more the president speaks about it, the less popular it becomes, and so does Obama and the Democrats. As a conservative, I implore the administration to keep talking.
Senator DeMint to Dems: “Um, you guys have been running Congress for three years now”
Finally! A Republican is starting to point out the obvious— that Democrats have controlled Congress since 2007—that’s three years of controlling the federal purse-strings, and as such, should, you know, take some responsibility for the current condition of the US economy.
Kudos to Senator Jim DeMint, who appeared on ABC’s “This Week” earlier today, and drove the point home (emphasis mine):
[…] I’ve been amazed to hear Mr. Axelrod and what the president said this week. After three years of controlling both houses of Congress, they’re still trying to blame someone else.
[…]
The president’s stimulus has been a massive failure. When the Democrats came into power three years ago, unemployment was half what it is today.
[…]
[W]e’re not going to have bipartisanship as long as the Democrats are moving towards just more spending and debt. Listen, when the president came into office, the Democrats had controlled Congress for two years. Presidents don’t write policy and spend money. The Congress does.
The Democrat Congress had taken us in the wrong direction. And the first year of the Obama’s presidency, he created more debt than George Bush did in eight years.
So we’ve got to get rid of this inheritance idea. The president and the Democrats need to take some responsibility.
This has been driving me nuts for a while now. What was lost in the haze of hope and change fever a year ago was that Democrats won back the majority in Congress back in 2006, and now that it’s 2010, this fact can and should be driven home every time a Republican speaks to the media, to their constituents, on their Facebook pages, on Twitter, etc. In other words: POUND THE TABLE!
I watched This Week earlier today and Jim DeMint made Senator Robert Menendez look like a buffoon. All Menendez could do was flail around saying “Bush! Bush! Bush!”, and DeMint would just land another jab saying “Hey, you guys have been running the show for three years.” It’s a simple meme, but it works, and its accurate.
Republicans need to drive the point home that eventually the campaign for new leadership in Washington has to end and the victors need to govern, which is exactly what the Democrats have not been doing over the last few years. And the president still brings up the Bush bogeyman everytime he is in a corner.
I know this is too much to ask of establishment Republicans, who refuse to rock the boat and enjoy their minority status. Conservatives like Jim DeMint get it. The Tea Partiers should get it, also. I can’t overestimate how much this should be one of the defining themes of the coming midterm elections.
UPDATE. Much like Menendez whining about President Bush, the Democrats targeted strategy to blame Bush doesn’t fly with Americans any longer, either. (Via Hot Air)
Senate Commission on Federal Deficit Falls Flat
Leave it to the United States Senate to come up with a lame idea like this:
Despite growing public anger about the burgeoning federal deficit, the Senate today rejected a proposal to establish a commission to devise ways to cut spending and raise taxes — and to give the panel teeth by essentially forcing Congress to consider its recommendations.
The bipartisan amendment would have required Congress to vote on the deficit commission’s recommendations — up or down, without change — in an effort to prevent lawmakers from sidestepping politically difficult choices and cherry-picking easier but less effective measures.
If I picture the meetings between Senators when they were coming up with this incredibly toothless and complacent idea, I’d imagine they went something like this:
Yes. With deficits at record levels, soaring public debt and a seemingly bottomless appetite for more spending, the Senate decides….to form a commission to look for ways to curb the deficit. Good grief.
And with a Democratic majority in the Senate, you can see how seriously Democrats take their spending problems.
The SOTU Speech, continued
Jules Crittenden has a roundup of the usual Obama-hugging commentariat here.
And also, this:
Which I think sums it all up perfectly.
Friday
I already knew this week was going to stink to high heaven on Sunday—that’s how bad it was going to be. Maybe it was because this was the first truly full workweek of 2010. New Years Day was on a Friday. The following two weeks went by went by realtively quickly with no office related B.S, and last week was a short week due to the MLK holiday.
Sunday came and there was a feeling of blah. Thank goodness it’s finally over.
Corporate life really stinks. It sucks the blood from you.
Anyway, this song shuffled onto my iPod on my way to the office this morning. It’s as good a tune as any to wrap up the work week:
RNC clowns on parade
The Republican Party steered clear of passing a so-called “purity test” proposed by a handful of conservative members of the Republican National Committee and instead passed a toothless watered-down resolution that “urges” Republican Party leadership to consider a candidate’s record and statements and fidelity to the party platform before providing financial support or an endorsement.
[...]
In the wake of the special House race in upstate New York last November where the Republican Party candidate DeDe Scozzafava found her campaign derailed by conservatives, several RNC members proposed the idea of passing a resolution where GOP candidates would have to agree to eight out of 10 stated policy positions before being eligible for support from the RNC.
The proposal, initially drafted by Indiana national committeeman James Bopp, was met with strong resistance by state party chairs concerned about such a one-size-fits-all approach. This week, RNC Chairman Michael Steele made clear that he, too, opposed the proposed resolution.
[...]
After the vote, Oregon Republican Party Chairman Bob Tiernan and Bopp got into what became a heated exchange over the resolution.
“I would say read the resolution,” Tiernan said. “It says what it says. It is a suggestion, it’s common sense, we do stick to our principles, but there’s nothing mandatory down there, there’s nothing required. I am a chairman and I’m not going to take that back and make my candidates sign it. That’s ridiculous. We rejected the litmus test today.”
Bopp quoted from the resolution: “This is binding, you are to determine – determine — that the candidate wholeheartedly supports the core principles.”
When Tiernan again asserted that there is nothing binding in what passed today, Bopp told him to “shut up.”
I have no misconceptions about the dearth of leadership and cohesion, and the outright incompetence of the establishment Republican party. It’s been painfully obvious for years now.
When the party proposed the so-called “purity test” after the NY-23 special election debacle, I disagreed with it from the outset. I didn’t think then, and I don’t think now, that the party should paint itself into such a corner with what I felt were uncomfortably restrictive prerequisites for RNC funding and support. This was a reactionary, tactical move by the RNC, not a long-term strategic one.
Yes, I believe that conservatism and adherence to conservative ideals are critical for the Republican party and its candidates’ electoral success. It’s the national party’s job to support REPUBLICANS and to do what they can do get REPUBLICANS elected. (As for NY-23, there was nothing conservative about Dede Scozzofava—the RNC had no business supporting her. Had it stepped in with support for Doug Hoffman earlier, the result would have been different—-heckuva job, RNC)
Having said that, I understand why this was brought to a vote—after a summer of contentious town halls and staving off left-wing vitriol, the Republicans felt like they had a shot in the Northeast, a region of the country where Republicans were effectively disappearing. Needless to say, NY-23 was the only loss of any significance that day with GOP victories in New Jersey, Virginia and later, Massachusetts.
But let’s not kid ourselves here. It’s not like the GOP is making great strides in brand recognition over the past year or so. I really believe that the Republican gains over the past several months is due more to the incompetence of the Democrats than anytthing the Repubclians are doing. I think it was LBJ who said, and I’m paraphrasing: “If your opponent wants to make an ass of himself, get out of his way.” That sums up what’s been going on here. The Republicans have been smart enough to just let the Democrats ride the healthcare debate over a cliff with their 2010 electoral hopes along for the ride. Voters are moving over to ther Republicans because they are realizing the damage that Democratic party rule can have on the country, and they want no part of that.
Republicans need to understand that a small government, low taxes, fiscal conservative message will win out over spendthrift liberal Democrats—-always. The key to that understanding, the key to across the board electoral victory, should come from the top. When the Republican party establishment can’t even agree on that—that they have to water down a lame purity test—shows that they’re not ready for what needs to be done to revitalize the party.
Democrats asleep at the switch on national security
Screenshot of Janet Napolitano, she of the “system works”, anti-terrorism operation in the USA, taking in the energizing President Obama at the SOTU speech the other night:
Keep in mind that this person is in charge of HOMELAND SECURITY—keeping the country safe from terrorism, securing the borders, the whole bit.
So has she been keeping the homeland secure? Probably not. The same day of the SOTU speech, she skipped out on the Congressional comittee that oversees the DHS:
Top Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee publicly scolded Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for failing to show up at a Wednesday hearing where the committee examined the attempted Christmas Day suicide bombing of Northwest Flight 253. One Democrat on the committee said he wanted to know “where the hell” Napolitano was.
That evening, Napolitiano did prominently show up at the Capitol to attend President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. But earlier in the day, she dispatched Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Jane Holl Lute to testify on her behalf in the Homeland Security Committee on what went wrong in the homeland-security process that allowed would-be suicide-bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to board a plane bound from Amsterdam to the Detroit.[...]
Democrats openly expressed their dismay with Napolitano as the hearing proceeded. Rep. Chris Carney (D.-Pa.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Management, Investigations and Oversight, said during his question period: “I am very dismayed that the Secretary herself isn’t here. I mean it’s probably fair to ask: “Where the Hell is Secretary Napolitano?”
Rep. Jane Harman (D.-Calif.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Intelligence, said: “I would like to welcome our witnesses but comment on the absence of Secretary Napolitano. This is the committee with primary jurisdiction over the Department of Homeland Security. She is the secretary of Homeland Security. She is in Washington, D.C. She was invited to testify at this very important hearing, and she should have been here. … I am very personally disappointed that she isn’t here.”
Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson (D.-Miss.) rebuked Napolitano for a lack of courtesy in dealing with the committee. Thompson said during the hearing that he had spoken with Napolitano just two days before and that there had been no discussion of her not attending.
Apparently the only things that keeps America safe from terrorism are faulty underwear detonators and fellow passengers who decide to take matters into their own hands.
That should be enough, because “the system works” and those in charge of our safety have better things to do—like napping in front of 60 million people while the President rambles on about how we are going to be safer because Democrats run the government now, and giving the finger to your congressional oversight committee.
It’s funny, because I’ve been told for several years by my leftie friends that it was Republicans that didn’t take governing seriously.
Just as disturbing, is that this story is not getting any real play in the media, not that I should be surprised. I can only imagine the uproar if these things occurred in a Republican administration. And I seem to recall Democrats criticizing everything the Bush administration did to try and stop terrorism. Now that Democrats run all facets of the Federal government, they’re asleep at the switch—literally. God help us.
Sir Krugman of Shrill
The television was on in the background yesterday morning when I heard the shrill Paul Krugman on ABC’s This Week, lamenting the election of Scott Brown:
[W]e have a super majority system [...] in which you cannot at this point get anything done without 60 points in the Senate. I mean, what I’ve been thinking about right now is at this point, the House of Representatives has passed a health care bill and has passed a strong financial reform bill. It has passed a strong climate change bill. In any other advanced democracy, that would mean that all of these things would have happened. But in the U.S. system, it takes 60 votes in the Senate to accomplish anything and because the Democrats nominated somebody in Massachusetts who didn’t know her Red Sox, that entire agenda has run aground — incredible.
That’s right. You see, you people, in this case the Massachusetts voters who elected Scott Brown, are a bunch of ignorant rubes. Smart people like Paul Krugman understand that we will never be this close to enabling universal health care in our lifetime, which will inevitably help us attain the quality of life and the type of Euro-style, government utopia of our European equals. How dare you even question the intellectual superiority of those in your government? Why can’t you all just STFU?
All joking aside, is it really beyond Krugman’s scope of imagination to understand that it wasn’t about not knowing that Curt Schilling played for the Red Sox while campaigning to represent the people of Massachusetts? That it wasn’t just about Martha Coakley being a bad candidate? That stuff just piled on to Coakley’s overall stench as a candidate. No, it wasn’t about all that.
It’s about democracy in action. The stakes in the Massachusetts special election couldn’t have been more transparent—Brown campaigned on being the deciding factor in the vote on the Senate bill and Coakley campaigned on voting in the affirmative on that bill. Sure there were other issues, but it was clear that this was a vote on healthcare reform, and the good people of Massachussets made their point quite loudly. And, I might add, they did it the way it’s supposed to be done in our country—at the ballot box.
Krugman would much rather pontificate from the confines of his ivory tower, shaking his head as he peers down to the rabble below, wondering how we’re not all as enlightened as he and his intellectual bretheren. Krugman and his ilk see the democratic system and the Senate rules as an impediment to the betterment of our society, when in fact, it’s an integral part of the process.
I’m not pretending to be shocked at Krugman’s drivel, it’s pretty much standard fare from these elitist types. I’m the idiot I guess, for getting so irked every time it happens.
UPDATE. King Banaian has an interesting post over at Hot Air about the same point I was trying to make and does a better job of spelling it out. Read the whole thing.
China on its way to clean energy domination
China is on its way to dominating the world in manufacturing the picks and shovels needed to produce clean energy.
The reason? They’ve got huge competitive advantages that are making it possible:
[China's] efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China.
China’s biggest advantage may be its domestic demand for electricity, rising 15 percent a year. To meet demand in the coming decade, according to statistics from the International Energy Agency, China will need to add nearly nine times as much electricity generation capacity as the United States will.
So while Americans are used to thinking of themselves as having the world’s largest market in many industries, China’s market for power equipment dwarfs that of the United States, even though the American market is more mature. That means Chinese producers enjoy enormous efficiencies from large-scale production.
[...]
Interest rates as low as 2 percent for bank loans — the result of a savings rate of 40 percent and a government policy of steering loans to renewable energy — have also made a big difference.
As in many other industries, China’s low labor costs are an advantage in energy. Although Chinese wages have risen sharply in the last five years, Vestas still pays assembly line workers here only $4,100 a year.
$4,100 a year? A 40% personal savings rate?
Seriously, how does the United States ever expect to compete in this market? Right now, the personal savings rate here in the US is somewhere around 6%—and even that’s an increase from where we were a few years ago. The reason money rates are so low is because the Federal Reserve is artificially keeping rates low by printing money.
And forget about being competitive on wages, with unions and the stifling regulation of industry in this country, I can’t see how we’ll be able to get a toe into the water, let alone be competitive.
For all the talk about creating green jobs and forging ahead on alternative sources of energy, I feel that too little attention is paid to the economics of the whole exercise. Investors are putting money into China because they can generate profits.
I hate to make this a political issue, but seriously, does the left give any consideration to these factors at all? There is no way we can be competitive with China or India given our economic disadvantages in labor and regulatory costs. Yet they’re always the ones screaming about how we need to develop these technologies now and compete with other nations.
We need to create the incentive and climates necessary not only to invest in these technologies in the US, but to lead the market. I don’t see that happening at all.
FL-Sen: Democrats in trouble
Barring any major Republican mistakes or meltdowns, it’s not a question of whether Democrat Kendrick Meek gets put out to pasture in November, but rather which Republican gets to do the deed:
Both Republican hopefuls hold a double-digit lead over their likeliest Democratic opponent, Congressman Kendrick Meek, in the latest Rasmussen Reports survey of this year’s race for the U.S. Senate in Florida.
[…]
The real battle for now is for the Republican Senate nomination in Florida. Crist started off well ahead of Rubio. But his embrace last year of President Obama’s stimulus package helped prompt a conservative backlash against the governor, who last month found himself tied with Rubio among likely GOP Primary voters.
The head-to-head numbers are staggering: Governor Charlie Crist leads Kendrick Meek by 15 points (48%-33%) among likely voters, with Marco Rubio leading the Democrat by 17 points (49%-32%). The caveat here is the undecided voters which run at 9% for the Crist vs Meek race and 13% for Rubio’s contest.
Some interesting takes from Rasmussen:
While the president called for a three-year freeze on discretionary government spending in his State of the Union speech last week, 58% of Florida voters say cutting taxes is the better way to create new jobs, while 12% favor increasing government spending.
Obama narrowly carried Florida – 51% to 49% – over John McCain in November 2008. Only 42% of Florida voters now approve of Obama’s performance as president, while 58% disapprove. More tellingly, 25% strongly approve of the job he’s doing, but 47% strongly disapprove.
And the vaunted and much-cherished “independent voters” want nothing to do with tax and spend Democratic policies:
Voters not affiliated with either major party prefer either of the Republicans to Meek by roughly 20 points.
Cutting taxes is favored over more government spending? Who would’ve thought that that was a winning formula? I hope the RINOs caucusing with Congressional Republicans are listening—-what’s going on here is a lesson for Republicans AND Democrats.
Democrats appear to be in serious trouble in Florida, and these numbers are just more evidence that the special election result from Massachusetts was not as isolated an incident as Democrats want us to believe.
Baby Brielle
This past weekend I was browsing some of the news sites and I came across this depressing news story from Florida.
You can click through to the story here. DO NOT CLICK THROUGH if you get squeamish easily and/or have a soft spot for babies and children.
To make a long story short, Brielle Garrison was born this past October with a rare condition called anophthalmia, which means she was born with no ocular tissue—she was born with no eyes.
She needs several surgeries to ensure that as she grows, the bone structure in her face develops normally. She may eventually be able to get at a later date. By all indications, she should be fine but has a long road ahead of her. I live in New Jersey, I don’t know this family or anyone related to them, but this story broke my heart and I felt like I needed to help in some way.
Some blogs have already posted about the story and, according to the local news story, a Wachovia Bank branch has set up fund for Brielle and is accepting donations. The bank address is as follows:
Wachovia Bank
Wellington Green Financial Center
2205 South State Road 7, Suite 100
Wellington, FL 33414
Call the branch at (561) 333-6140 before sending any donations. I spoke with the branch yesterday and they confirmed that there is a fund there. Call ahead to ask for specific instructions.
I know times are tough but anything anyone can do to lighten their financial burden at this time will be appreciated, I’m sure.
The Day The Music Died
Corporate life sucks—there’s no denying it.
The past two days are no exception, and as a result, time for blogging has been minimal. There’s so much stupidity going on at work, it wore me out by the time I got home last night. I didn’t even want to look at a computer, so I went to bed a little earlier than usual.
But all that doesn’t stop the massive idiocy coming from the Obama administration. Like transportation secretary Ray LaHood saying “don’t drive any of the recalled Toyotas” and then saying “my bad, it’s ok to drive them”—all in the same day.
But don’t worry about stupid statements like that, when the government takes over healthcare, we’ll be in good hands. Promise.
Idiots on parade, I swear.
Anyway, today is the 51st anniversary of the death of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Richie Valens.
Buddy Holly—one of the greats:
R.I.P.
Also, remember to help Baby Brielle
Yes, Dan Coats.
I’m getting a little nervous about all of this “Republican retaking Congress” talk that’s been building over the past few days.
It’s been picking up momentum since Massachusetts a few weeks back and, although I still believe the Republican party has made huge gains over the past few months, I still don’t see them picking up more than a handful of seats in the Senate (let alone take back the majority) and I’m still not sure about the House.
Maybe it’s just the pessimist in me, but I can never count out the Republican party’s ability to shoot itself in the foot, even as the political environment seems to be turning in their favor.
Still, November is nine months away, and nine months is an eternity in politics. So many things can happen and momentum can change.
My pessimism didn’t budge when I saw than Dan Coats is entering the Indiana Senate race to try and knock off Evan Bayh.
Yes, that Dan Coats. Coats is a good conservative, although he does come with some baggage.
But the story just reminded me that there appears to be a dearth of potential younger, new faces for the conservative cause, especially in the Senate. I mean, Harry Reid’s seat has been in trouble for a while now (only recently has it become tenuous for him), and the NRSC was dragging their feet to find a suitable candidate (that didn’t have legal problems) to challenge him.
And yes, I understand that Scott Brown just won an election in Massachusetts, and that Marco Rubio is looking strong in Florida. Maybe I’m exaggerating a bit in that case, but it’s still an indictment on the inompetence of the Republican party at the national level. It’s still aggravating to watch.
Of course, I want a Republican to take Bayh’s seat—-Bayh exemplifies the typical, corporatist, moderate politician in my opinion—but I was just a bit taken back. Dan Coats? Really?
Understanding Hillary
My copy of Game Change arrived last week and I have to say it reads very smooth and it’s a must read for political junkies like myself. What makes the book good is that it’s recounting very recent history—the 2008 primary season was barely over two years ago.
Almost into the fourth chapter, and I find myself almost feeling sorry for Hillary. Almost.
But imagine this. It’s 2006. Hillary is coming to a decision on whether or not she wants to run for president. Halperin and Heilemann are delving into the mindset of the Senatress of New York and what she can bring to the Democratic party in 2008.
Then I read this:
Clinton’s prescription for both her and the party’s reformation was rooted in the lessons she drew from recent history, from the failures of 2004, 2000, and especially the nineties. Although her husband had dragged Democrats kicking and screaming into the modern age substantively and ideologically, she considered his administration a tactical and operational disaster: soft, undisciplined, woolly minded, and leaky.
I understand that the Clinton years are a sense of pride for Democrats in mostly moderate and even some liberal circles.
Yes, the Clinton administration ideologically “dragged” the party into its new reign of power, after 12 years away from the White House—healthcare reform, gays in the military, et al., were all on the agenda in that first year of 1993. And all of it was radical for its time. In fact, these were the impetus for the Republican tsunami awaiting the Democrats the following year.
And it was the Republicans taking control of Congress which kept the otherwise radical Clinton agenda (with Hillary in the sidecar) in check.
But is that really how Hillary looks back at the Clinton administration? As a disaster?
Unless I’m reading this wrong, the implication in this excerpt is that she didn’t like the moderation of the administration, a moderation which probably won Clinton a second term.
Did she really believe that Bill didn’t pull hard enough to the Left? Did she really think that she needed to forge ahead on her disastrous push for healthcare reform that resulted in massive fail? Does she still think this way now?
Sorry, David Gergen
This was Ted Kennedy’s seat:
Shelby pushes for his own personal porkulus
There’s plenty of things to be frustrated about in the latest bit of news from Senator Richard Shelby and his pork grab.
My first reaction is best summed up by Marc Ambinder:
Seems to me that if you’re a party frustrated by procedural roadblocks erected by Republicans, if you’ve lost a Senate race in part because of a trade known as the Cornhusker Kickback, if the White House communications director gently (but actually) upbraids Republicans for their out-sized penchant for filibustering, if you’re trying to really hammer the point home that the reason why it seems that your party can’t govern or get results is due to factors beyond your control… you’d turn Richard Shelby’s unprecedented blanket hold on 70 nominees for reasons no more pure than the preservations of two favorite programs into not only a talking point… but also a way of justifying recess appointments for these nominees.
Last year, when Congressional Republicans began posturing themselves as fiscal conservatives in the face of the impending stimulus bill, one of the battles between them and the Democrats was over earmarks. Remember, it had been one of John McCain’s biggest pet peeves during the 2008 campaign—”gotta stop the pork” and all that.
In a time where the Republicans’ resurgent conservatism is starting to differentiate it from incumbent Democrats, this doesn’t help at all. What it does, as Ambinder notes, is give the Democrats and the White House a new talking point and a reason to wag their finger.
I always felt the issue of earmarks was a double-edged sword for politicians. One of the primary functions of elected congressmen is to represent their constituents. The word “represent” thrown around recklessly, but in reality it means “representation” in the federal budget. In other words—bringing home the moolah.
In this case Shelby, who was a big opponent of the stimulus and the earmarks it included, is making an ass of himself demanding that the Feds pull out all the stops and demanding that this contract be award so as to benefit his home state. Fair enough. But let’s not pretend we don’t know where this is all coming from:
While by all accounts a Northrop Grumman contract would create significant numbers of jobs in his home state, Shelby’s initiative is also a move to secure funding for a company that has long funded him. The fourth-term Senator has received at least $108,233 in PAC contributions to his political campaigns and leadership PAC from Northrop Grumman’s corporate PACs. This includes contributions, dating back to his first Senate election in 1986, from the company’s political action committee and from the PACs of companies that are now part of Northrop Grumman.
It’s stories like this that drive me nuts about politics. Sure, bringing jobs to your state should be is priority number one for politicians, but I can’t help but feel queasy about all of this. It’s what most Americans hate about politicians—the smugness, the ambivalence brought on by the eternal incumbency in the US Senate.
Good to see
After years of some of the most inane and frustrating arguments over how and what to build on the WTC site, some visible progress is being made:
More photos here.
Jacob Weisberg: Our politicians are awesome, you voters are the idiots
Continuing in the endless line of liberal brains whining about how we’re too stupid to know what’s good for us, Jacob Weisberg decides to jump into the pool.
So many things are wrong with our political system, so many different factors in Democrats failure to get things done. But the most important factor?
The American people are just too stupid:
[T]hat list neglects what may be the biggest culprit in our current predicament: the childishness, ignorance, and growing incoherence of the public at large.
Anybody who says you can’t have it both ways clearly hasn’t been spending much time reading opinion polls lately. One year ago, 59 percent of the American public liked the stimulus plan, according to Gallup. A few months later, with the economy still deeply mired in recession, a majority of the same size said Obama was spending too much money on it.
There’s nothing wrong with changing your mind, of course, but opinion polls over the last year reflect something altogether more troubling: a country that simultaneously demands and rejects action on unemployment, deficits, health care, climate change, and a whole host of other major problems.
[…]
To change this story line, we need to stop blaming the rascals we elect to office and start looking to ourselves.
He then goes on to trash Scott Brown, tea partiers, Ronald Reagan, etc.
There’s so much fail in this piece, although that’s to be expected. For example, the polls he’s quoting on the stimulus were taken a year ago, when the country thought they could expect good things to come from the administration. The stimulus turned out to be a disaster as unemployment ran up to 10%. The American people soured on it. Why?
– $233,000 to the University of California at San Diego to study why Africans vote. Jobs created: 12, but seven of those are Africans in Africa.
– In Nevada, $2 million in stimulus money built a new fire station, but because of budget cuts, the county can’t afford to hire firefighters to work there.
– Penn State University got $1.5 million to study plant fossils in Argentina. Of 5 jobs created, 2 belong to Argentines.
– Researchers the State University of New York at Buffalo got $389,000 to pay 100 Buffalonians $45 each to record how much malt liquor they drink — and how much pot smoke each day. Consumption is then reported via an automated phone hotline. Cost per job: almost $200,000.
[…]
Paying people to tell us how much booze they drank and pot they smoked? Paying Argentines to plant fossils in South America? And on and on.
Yes, it’s all becoming clearer now.
Here’s a clue for Weisberg. Maybe it’s not so much that our elected leaders are doing something with their power, but what exactly it is their doing. “Stimulus” sounds great, until the only people being stimulated are some random upstate stoners.
Same thing with healthcare reform. I’m sure if you polled some people at any given point in time, I’m sure they’d say that the system needs “reform”. Supposedly, the Democrats had the “mandate” to do this from the 2008 election, complete with a Congressional super-majority and control of the White House. It was the perfect storm to reshape healthcare into the liberal utopia the educated class had been dreaming about for decades.
And what did the rubes get for their faith in these elected “rascals”?
They got the Cornhusker Kickback and the Louisiana Purchase. We got fake doctors in White House-issued lab coats promising a united front for reform. We got unions and Obama campaign donors being exempt from a Cadillac-plan tax to fund reform. But, hey—it’s good enough for us ignorant slobs. For that, the American people would rather stick with the status quo.
The only issue that the Obama Democrats were intent on pushing, was that Republicans were the reason that healthcare reform was not sailing through a Democratically-controlled White House and Congress.
So why blame the politicians? It’s us ignorant and amateurish buffoons that don’t know what’s good for us.
Conservatives vs Tea Partiers?
An interesting post over at Founding Bloggers.
At the Tea Party convention, they found a Democrat running as… a Tea Party Independent?
He’s was a union guy his whole life, and calls himself a JFK Democrat. He passionately believes the Democrat party he once knew is gone, and now he finds more common ground with the Tea Party than the Democrat party.
Like I said earlier, although I’m glad to see the growth of the movement as a way to keep the Republican party in check, I still have some misgivings.
Why isn’t Mr. Brown considering running as a Republican? An Independent with tea party (read conservative principles) motivations? I really don’t think this helps the Republican party much, so let’s just hope this is an isolated example (although I get a strange feeling that we’ll be seeing more of this kind of stuff).
I sincerely hope the Tea Party is not about building a third party. That’s a recipe for disaster for conservatives and a no-win situation for the Republican party.
Super Bowl Thread
There’s a big football game today.
Everyone is saying this will be close—an offensive showdown with Brees and Manning going at it, pass for pass.
But defenses win championships—too bad I can’t figure either of these defenses out.
I want to agree with the experts that are saying this will be somewhat close. But something tells me the Colts will come out big in this one. Like it won’t even be close. Now that I’ve said that, I’m sure the Saints will score about 10 TDs.
So I’ll go out on a limb. Colts in a blowout.
Enjoy the game
UPDATE. Yeah. I really know what I’m talking about. If I paid attention to the President, I would have ran the other way.
Congrats to the Saints.
Scott Brown…Democrat?
Old habits die hard for a lazy media I guess:
Click the picture for a larger image. Via Jim Geraghty.
Making a difference
Commenter Tim writes:
I contacted the branch and spoke to a representative that handles this. You can make a check out to Brielle Garrison and send it to the address you provided above.
It will be deposited in her account (the fund). The bank will photocopy any checks so the grandmother will be able to send a thank you.
He also noted that he has made a donation to Brielle’s fund and pointed out that there is another child with similar problems to Brielle.
Thanks to Tim and anyone else who has donated or spread the word about Baby Brielle because of this blog.
I can’t express how gratifying it is that this blog was able to make a difference for someone in need. Of course, I don’t want it to stop there. If you’re reading this and are new to the blog, try and give what you can. Email your family and friends.
Snowpocalypse 2.0
Snowpocalypse 2.o will be here (New Jersey) in a matter of hours. From what I’m hearing, this storm will make last week’s Snowpocalypse look like a sun shower. The good news is, it’s looking more and more likely that I won’t have to come into work tomorrow.
If Christie calls a state of emergency, the bank will be closed. And even if he doesn’t, I might not show up anyway. All of the hype surrounding these storms reminds me of this guy:
Now, will everyone who ran out to buy gallons of milk and eggs and shovels for last weekend’s storm be in the stores tonight hoarding for tomorrow’s snowstorm? I mean, how much milk, eggs and toilet paper can people go through in five days?
Senator Bob Menendez, Corruptocrat
This morning I got up at the usual time and surfed my favorite local New Jersey news sites for blizzard updates, when I saw this story about my ethically-challenged Senator, and head of the DSCC, Robert Menendez:
U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez today defended his efforts to convince regulators to save a struggling minority-owned bank in Union County that failed last year.
[…]
First BankAmericano had been under financial pressure for more than a year because of mounting loan losses. A highly critical report by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. also found the institution had engaged in unsafe or unsound banking practices, including operating without adequate supervision by its board of directors, an excessive level of delinquent or bad loans, inadequate earnings and insufficient coverage of its assets.
Last May, BankAmericano negotiated a merger agreement with the parent holding company of Crown Bank of Brick, another community bank. Michael Horn, who served as BankAmericano’s attorney, said the $1 million deal was meant to keep the bank branches operating in the community it had served for more than a dozen years.
Horn said the long delay led to a decision to seek the help of Menendez. The senator, in a July 21 letter to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, urged expedited action on the acquisition plan before a likely takeover by the FDIC. “Putting First BankAmericano into receivership would send yet another negative message to consumers and investors and further impact our fragile economy,” Menendez wrote.
The issue as far as Menendez is concerned, is that he regrets the “wording” of his letter to the FDIC which demanded action, rather than “encouraging” it.
But what’s the real issue here? Despite Menendez’ bogus concern for “consumers and investors” in general, it’s actually for certain, specific investors:
The chairman of First BankAmericano at the time of the letter, Joseph Ginarte, is a high-profile attorney with offices in New York and New Jersey. He has given a total of about $30,000 to Mr. Menendez and his political-action committee since 1999, according to federal records.
The vice chairman of the bank was Raymond Lesniak, a New Jersey state senator and local political heavyweight. He also has given generously to Mr. Menendez’s campaign coffers. In 2006, Mr. Lesniak held a fund-raiser at his home for the senator featuring former President Bill Clinton, according to news reports at the time.
When the bank failed, the shareholders, many of them board members, lost their investments. Had the acquisition been approved, Messrs. Ginarte and Lesniak still would have lost a large chunk of their investment but not all, according to First BankAmericano’s former chief executive, Holly Bakke.
One of the reasons Republicans lost their majority status and have suffered at the ballot box over the last few cycles is because of the open corruption and hubris that infected the party. The media was quick to report it and voters acted accordingly.
Part of the problem with our mainstream media is that they turn a blind to Democratic corruption. Here is a blatant conflict of interest—a politician demanding that taxpayer money be used to help line the pockets of his political donors. And then turns around and says he’s concerned about the “message” of the bank’s failure.
I’m not surprised about any of this—I’ve been wary of him since his days as mayor of Union City.
Establishment Democrats are corrupt and sleazy, and Menendez is no exception. Too bad there’s a double standard when dealing with corrupt Republicans versus corrupt Democrats
Sen. Kerry: Edwards story a “tragedy”
Somebody get this man some perspective:
Last p.m., Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry went on “LKL” to discuss her recent breast cancer diagnosis, but the continued John Edwards saga and MA politics were also on the mind.
Kerry, the man who is arguably most responsible for thrusting John Edwards onto the national scene, discussed what he makes of his ex-running mate’s demise. “What can you make? I mean, honestly, it is a tragedy,” Kerry said.
When I think “tragedy”, I think of an earthquake in Haiti that kills over 200,000 people.
I think of 3,000 innocent Americans being slaughtered on 9-11.
I think of reformists in Iran getting beat down by a brutal dictatorship.
What I don’t think of, is a narcissistic, egomaniacal ambulance-chaser, with tons of money thinking he can screw every broad that walks just because he’s a limousine liberal running for President. A sleazy politician who was dumb enough to knock up some New Age pot-head with a camcorder, and be forced to admit it to his cancer-stricken wife, and ultimately, ends his campaign to be a bogus populist savior to the Democratic faithful.
The John Edwards story is not a “tragedy”, its a national disgrace. That the Democratic party came this close to nominating this piece of garbage to the highest office is scary.
These limousine liberals will never get it, will they?
That’s not what I call a “tragedy”. And I don’t think that’s what most decent people would call a “tragedy” either.
Liberals have no shame.
Tea Party truther exposed
Like I’ve said before, I have some reservations about the tea party movement. It draws attention to a fine line between conservative activism versus a motley crew of libertarians, Perotistas and other assorted extremist fringe types.
While the main thrust of Tea Party Nation is rooted in promoting conservatism, I’m afraid others will try to co-opt the movement and run with the TPN banner, when in fact, they have no business being there.
That concern has just been exposed:
Tea party candidate Debra Medina was thrashed Thursday by her two powerful Republican rivals in the Texas gubernatorial race after suggesting that the United States government may have played a role in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The businesswoman and grass-roots activist has been surging in recent polls and is even threatening to beat out three-term Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison for a second-place finish to Gov. Rick Perry, despite having neither the money nor the staff that both Perry and Hutchison boast.
But Medina’s slip Thursday — telling conservative talk show host Glenn Beck that “good questions have been raised” about the federal government having a hand in the terrorist attacks — has Perry and Hutchison smelling blood in the water and hoping to crush the insurgent candidate.
In case I haven’t made myself clear before, let me just say BIRTHERS ARE INSANE.
But I need to amend that statement slightly: BIRTHERS AND TRUTHERS ARE EQUALLY INSANE.
These people have no place in the Republican party or the conservative movement, and should have no place in Tea Party Nation’s platform.
As the Politico piece notes, Hutchinson and Perry have a huge opening and, rightfully so, will wail on Medina’s campaign mercilessly. If there is any sanity left in the Republican cosmos, Medina will quickly fade away.
Patrick Kennedy bows out
This Obama-as-President thing is working wonders for the Republican party:
Rep. Patrick Kennedy has decided not to seek re-election to Congress, saying his life is “taking a new direction” just months after the death of his father and mentor, Sen. Edward Kennedy. The Rhode Island Democrat taped a message to be aired on the state’s television stations Sunday night. The Associated Press viewed the message Thursday, ahead of the announcement.
“Now having spent two decades in politics, my life is taking a new direction, and I will not be a candidate for re-election this year,” Kennedy says in the ad.
The decision by the eight-term congressman comes less than a month after a stunning Republican upset in the race for the Massachusetts Senate seat his father held for almost half a century.
If you think back to a year ago, when Uncle Ted endorsed Obama (which effectively put an end to Hillary’s campaign), it was celebrated by the left and the mainstream media as the Kennedy torch being passed to the “true heir” to Camelot. Who would’ve thought that less than twelve months later, a Republican would be sitting as the junior senator from the Bay State, and Patrick Kennedy would step down before facing almost certain defeat.
Ironically, you could say that it was Obama’s policies that put an end to the Kennedy stranglehold on New England representative politics.
It will be interesting to see the spin on this one—who will be blamed? Tea Party Nation? Right-wing anger? The filibuster? Blue Dogs?
Lepers
Erik Erickson is banning the lunatics from Red State:
The tea party movement is in danger of getting a bad reputation for allowing birfers and truthers to share the stage. At the National Tea Party, Joseph Farah treated the birfer issue as legitimate. In Texas, tea party activists have rallied to Debra Medina who, just yesterday, refused to definitely dismiss the 9/11 truther conspiracy as crackpot nonsense. If a candidate cannot do that, we cannot help that candidate. It’s that simple.
So we arrive at one of those moments where I am fully prepared to part ways with the individuals and groups willing to share the stage and treat as legitimate the crazies who believe the President was born in Kenya, the crazies who believe our government was complicit September 11th terrorist attacks … two groups, incidentally that increasingly overlap.
This sets us up for attacks from the left and from within that we must anticipate. It is one thing to separate ourselves from these individuals and groups. It is quite another to know that these people are among us. We should be careful. All of us have an obligation to vet those who we ally with. Just because someone is stridently against the size of government does not make him an ally if he also believes the U.S. Army blew up the World Trade Center. Such a person brings disrepute on us all, deservedly so.
Erickson is more or less in tune with my post the other day. These people are a cancer on the conservative movement, to the extent that Tea Party Nation expects to be a factor in that movement. They need to be banished.
Valentine’s Day
I’m off to church and afterwards, the obligatory brunch with my significant other.
Let’s just say I’m not the biggest fan of Valentine’s Day. We’ll leave it at that.
But it does give me an excuse to post this song by Sam Cooke. Cooke left us way too early. What a talent:
Plus there is no better way to express love than to give to those who need it most. Give to Baby Brielle
NV-Sen: Tea Party “candidate” running against Reid
This may not turn out so good:
Sun columnist Jon Ralston is reporting that the Tea Party has qualified as a third party in Nevada and will have a candidate in the Senate race to battle for the seat held by Majority Leader Harry Reid.
The party has filed a Certificate of Existence but needs to get 1 percent of the electorate to vote for its candidate in November to permanently qualify, according to the report.
Ralston reported that Jon Ashjian will be the Tea Party’s U.S. Senate candidate on the November ballot.
[...]
According to the party’s constitution, the Tea Party of Nevada will “promote this nation’s founding principles of freedom, liberty and a small representative government. We believe that our government under both Democrat and Republican control has led to massive national debt, crushing deficits, increased taxes; while establishing a large and powerful federal government in a direct refutation of the founding ideals of America.”
Am I completely out of left field if I think that this will hurt the Republican party’s chances to defeat Reid? I see a split Republican base with the tea party candidate siphoning off votes, giving an already deflated Reid the win here. Polls have put him below that critical 50% level, so winning against a split Republican party may not be so crazy.
To be fair, some blame goes to the RNC, which has failed to find and support a strong candidate in Nevada to take advantage of Reid’s weak position. Contrast that to what’s going on in Florida, where Rubio has been pounding away at Charlie Crist for almost a year—with relatively no party support. But I digress.
The concerns I’ve been having about the Tea Party are growing every day. Lately, we’ve seen Democrats wanting to run on the tea party platform and now in Nevada, the Tea Party running on its own.
The perception in the media is that Tea Party Nation is a Republican phenomenon. This is a fair assumption, but it remains to be seen if it continues that way in that it might one day actually hurt them.
On Joe the Plumber
His fifteen minutes of fame were up over a year ago, but he’s trying to nudge his way back:
Joe, also known as Sam Wurzelbacher, told an audience in Pennsylvania this week that McCain “is no public servant.”
“McCain was trying to use me,” Wurzelbacher said, according to public radio correspondent Scott Detrow. “I happened to be the face of middle Americans. It was a ploy.”
“I don’t owe him s—,” Wurzelbacher continued. “He really screwed my life up, is how I look at it.”
In fact, Wurzelbacher’s dislike for McCain is so strong that he no longer supports Sarah Palin simply because Palin will campaign for McCain’s re-election.
Is there any doubt that this moron is trying to co-opt Tea Party Nation for his own benefit? That he misses the attention and the spotlight the national media gave him for that brief window during the 2008 campaign?
And, yeah. Of course the McCain campaign was trying to use him. At the time JTP came onto the scene the McCain campaign was reeling and needed a spark desperately. He had no problem with McCain as a public servant to campaign for him the rest of the way as he did.
If Tea Party Nation welcomes Joe the Plumber into their fold, along with the birthers, truthers, etc., then they deserve to reap whatever they sow.
IN-Sen: Bayh not running
The Obama/Pelosi/Reid junta’s liberal agenda is working wonders for the Democratic party. That is, if by “working wonders” you really mean destroying their 60-seat Senate majority:
Senator Evan Bayh, the Indiana Democrat, said on Monday that he will not seek a third term in Congress.
The decision, which he announced at an afternoon press conference, was closely held by Mr. Bayh, and came as a surprise to Democrats in his state who had already started working on his campaign.
Mr. Bayh made his decision even after entreaties by President Obama and White House aides, including the chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, who urged him to run.
What’s even more interesting is that his decision puts Indiana Democrats in a bit of a bind:
Sen. Evan Bayh’s (D-IN) decision to retire has sent Dems scrambling to figure out who will carry the party’s standard — and how to go about getting that person on the ballot in the first place.
Candidates running for statewide office in IN have to collect 500 signatures from each of the state’s 9 districts. Those signatures are due by tomorrow.
Once signatures are in, candidates have until Friday to officially file for office.
Clearly, Evan Bayh is in a rush to leave the re-election process—enough to step on the toes of the local party machine on the way out. Something’s up here.
This is interesting news as Bayh has $13 million in the kitty and decent (but not great) poll numbers for re-election, and has name-recognition. Did he really think Dan Coats was that formidable a foe that he couldn’t be dealt with?
Seems that it all boils down to the “h” word:
On the most important issue of the year — health care reform — Bayh had a long hard time making up his mind. He told reporters there was no difference between voting for cloture on the bill and approving his bill on October 28; just a day later he abruptly reversed course and announced to Rachel Maddow that he’d definitely vote for cloture.
Weeks later Bayh was singing a different tune.
In a conservative state like Indiana, voting for cloture on the Senate healthcare bill (while equating that with passage of the bill) could have put the nail in the coffin.
Going into this election season, I didn’t think Dan Coats was a strong enough candidate to take the seat. But from what I can tell right now, barring any missteps by the Republicans, it looks like Indiana is going red.
Lastly, I just finished watching Bayh’s press conference and I get the impression that Bayh may be positioning himself for 2012:
I am an executive at heart. I value my independence. I am not motivated by strident partisanship or ideology. These traits may be useful in many walks of life, but they are not highly valued in Congress
The Hotline post noted that he may be making a move for the Indiana governorship, as well.
Bottom line is that in lieu of some looming personal or professional scandal, there is no way an entrenched politician, especially a US Senator, with a huge cash hoard and non-crippling poll numbers, doesn’t seek higher office. No way.
Bayh’s next move: to run or not to run
Charles Lane makes sense here:
Quitting the Senate was a no-lose move for the presidentially ambitious Bayh, since he can now crawl away from the political wreckage for a couple of years, plausibly alleging that he tried to steer the party in a different direction — and then be perfectly positioned to mount a centrist primary challenge to Obama in 2012, depending on circumstances.
A lot of speculation out there right now about the motives for Bayh’s decision. The more I think about the circumstances, the more I’m inclined to think that yes, Evan Bayh will be running for president.
Allahpundit, makes a good argument against a 2012 bid:
As for a primary challenge to Obama in 2012, please. Obama’s problem among Democrats isn’t with the center, it’s with the left; a challenge from Bayh would force liberals to grudgingly unite behind The One, which, combined with support from young voters and minority voters, would carry him through. (Don’t forget that O will be forced to tack right next year after the GOP picks up seats in Congress, so Bayh’s appeal as a centrist alternative come 2012 will be blunted.)
Meanwhile, the Dem establishment would be royally pissed that anyone would try to weaken Obama ahead of a tough general election campaign. In which case, why would Bayh risk his chances in 2016 at a quixotic 2012 bid?
And why, if he needs to build bridges inside the party for a future run, would he reportedly sandbag the Dems by not telling them of his decision until three days after he made it? He’s put them in a horrible position here, not only by making them scramble to recruit a candidate but by boosting the GOP’s chances to retake the Senate considerably. Not a smart move for a guy thinking about a nomination down the line.
I have to disagree with the presumption that Obama will move to the right if the GOP makes significant noise in the midterms. Nothing’s a given here. The left wing of the party will be pulling him more and more to the left. We’re seeing this now with healthcare reform. As toxic as that is (and it looks like healthcare reform was the big reason for Bayh stepping down), the liberal base insists that its toxicity is because the White House hasn’t gone left enough.
And independents are jumping SS Hopenchange faster than Democrat congressmen can step down. That doesn’t bode well for Obama Democrats in 2010 or, if things continue on this path, in 2012 either. The left-wing may be the only solid support left for Obama, but that might not be enough.
I agree with Allahpundit’s point that Bayh definitely didn’t make any friends with the party by leaving them in such a tight spot. But this guy’s been planning to run for the Presidency since forever. There may be something more to this side-story than not, and that remains to be seen.
The bottom line is that 2012 is still light-years away politically, and Obama himself may himself be toxic come election time. At that point a primary challenge may so not be so crazy (pass the popcorn).
Why do progressives hate America so much?
Add John Podesta to the list of haters:
John Podesta, president of the Center for American Progress, can describe the state of Washington politics with a single word. And it’s not a nice one.
Asked in an interview with the Financial Times to comment on “the health of American political system,” Podesta responded: “Sucks.”
Podesta made the remark with a chuckle, but the man who chaired President Obama’s transition team expressed deep concern about the White House’s ability to pass big ticket items in the current political climate.
He blamed much of the gridlock on Republicans and a newly “strengthened” conservative movement.
Shorter John Podesta: “Why can’t you ignorant rubes and just shut the f**k up and let us pass our radical agenda?”
You can really sense the frustration and anger bubbling up in the progressive elites. They’re underlying cynicsm of American government and democracy in general is finally coming out as they’re seeing a groundswell of opposition to their agenda. They can’t help it. And like I’ve been saying, the list is long and getting longer.
Functioning markets are allowed to move in both directions
The New York Times ran this piece on the struggles of the federal government in “supporting” the housing market.
Yes, I understand it’s the New York Times but, still, the nuances are killing me (emphasis added):
Over the next six months, the federal government plans to wind down many of its emergency programs for housing. Then it will become clear if the market can function on its own.
People here are pretty sure the answer will be no.
[...]
To the extent that the real estate market is functioning at all, people here say, it is doing so only because of the emergency programs, which have pushed down interest rates on mortgages and offered buyers a substantial tax credit.
[...]
The Obama administration has offered few ideas about reforming the housing market. Proposals for the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage holding companies taken over by the government at the height of the crisis, were supposed to be introduced with the president’s budget this month. They were not.
The government programs, however crucial, are distorting the market. The tax credit produced sales last fall, but some lenders here say it has troubling implications.
The implication here is that the market “functions” only if it benefits property owners, which is to say that property values will only increase. This of course, is a complete falsehood.
What the government backstops, guarantees and subsidies are doing is artificially propping up falling home prices, and temporarily stabilizing the market. The problem here is two-fold.
First, the consumer spending boom was largely related to a soaring home prices. People were using their homes as giant ATMs, and instead of using the cash to invest in profitable assets, they splurged on themselves. As long as values increased, there was more than enough mortgage brokers to help refinance. And on and on and on. The bubble was insatiable.
Lastly, the growth in housing inventory eventually outstripped demand causing market values to plummet. This is the natural swing of markets–whether it be real estate, equities, tulips, whatever the asset. The ebb and flow will continue as long as it’s allowed to.
All the government is doing is trying to hold up the floor, which eventually, will come crashing down. This could have happened on its own. But the government has insisted on using billions in taxpayer dollars to ensure a result that will happen anyway, and at none of the cost.
Spring Training
I loathe the winter months. After Christmas, I really just can’t wait until the spring thaw. Being a baseball fan, it means when spring training rolls around, I generally feel a bit of optimism about everything. And for me, that’s pretty big.
This year is a bit different.
I’m a Mets fan.
It’s hard—really hard—to be anything but pessimistic about this team heading into the 2010 season. After 2006, I looked forward to the following year. After the debacles of 2007 and 2008, it took a bit longer, but hey—we had a new stadium to look forward to, etc., etc. I can’t say I was completely optimistic, but there’s always the promise of a new season.
But this year. Nothing, if anything. I mean seriously. Johan Santana? He’s the only real given the rotation has right now. There’s a major drop-off after that, and even Johan is coming off of surgery.
David Wright? It really can’t get any worse offensively than what he put up last year, and I hope he’s been brushing up on his defense. Some of those errors are brutal.
Who knows what to expect from Reyes, who hasn’t been the same since sometime around 2007-2008. Luis Castillo? His value was the highest it was going to get last season and I can’t see him repeating the same this time around. Of course, if we had a competent GM, we wouldn’t be talking about our second baseman Luis Castillo anyway.
I actually have faith in Dan Murphy. I think his game will pick up this year. But what do I know.
As far as I’m concerned, Jerry Manuel should have been let go after the 2008 season. And the Wilpons should have made Omar walk the plank politely asked Omar to leave. Seriously.
We’re talking about a team that’s going into spring training with Omar Santos and Josh Thole competing for the catchers spot! You can’t make this up. Only the New York Mets.
If there are any Mets fans out there reading this blog who would like to convince me otherwise about the state of the Mets in 2010, then feel free to comment. I’d love to hear it. They’re still my team after all.
It felt good to get this first Mets post out there. And I’m certain there’ll be plenty more to come. It’s like therapy. Little by little I’m looking forward to the spring. Baby steps.
Retro Cereal
Call me lame but when I was growing up, the only cool thing about going to the supermarket was walking down the cereal aisle to check out the goods. I was a corporate marketer’s dream.
Here’s some cool retro cereals:
I don’t remember Kaboom at all…
Never had Mr. T’s cereal, but I vaguely remember it on the shelves…
Never heard of King Vitaman, but he looks a lot like Howard Dean…
My guess is that “Rice Krinkles” with its interesting geisha girl character would never get pass muster these days…
See more via Now That’s Nifty
Time to choose
To the extent that Sarah Palin speaks for the tea party movement, this should be a defining moment in the “where does the Tea Party fit in” narrative:
Asked what her advice would be to conservatives as the November elections approach, Palin first lavished praise on the Tea Party movement, calling it “a grand movement” and adding, “I love it because it’s all about the people.”
But she quickly pivoted to the broader question of whether the Tea Party movement might successfully field its own candidates in national elections, and on that point she sounded far from convinced.
“Now the smart thing will be for independents who are such a part of this Tea Party movement to, I guess, kind of start picking a party,” Palin said. “Which party reflects how that smaller, smarter government steps to be taken? Which party will best fit you? And then because the Tea Party movement is not a party, and we have a two-party system, they’re going to have to pick a party and run one or the other: ‘R’ or ‘D’.”
Palin said that the Republican platform best meshed with the Tea Party’s creed. However, she mentioned that her husband Todd was not a registered Republican and that the party should be open to embracing independents.
The 2010 midterms are coming up fast. If Tea Party nation wants to make an impact on these elections by showing that it’s influence can be felt in electing conservative Republicans to office, then it’s time to start uniting to that end.
Unfortunately, I keep reading about Democrats potentially running “on tea party lines”, or about the Tea Party putting up their own candidates to run against both Democrats and Republicans. As noted in the piece, Palin acknowledges that the tea party principles are in line with the GOP (or should be anyway). That someone has to point this out to the establishment Republican Party is an indication as to how far off the path the party had become.
The next step of course, is to make sure the loons (birthers, La Rouchies, et al.) are banished from the movement.
PA-Sen: Sestak says WH offered him “high ranking” position to bow out of primary
You can take Obama out of Chicago, but you can’t take Chicago out of Obama:
Rep. Joe Sestak (D., Pa.) said yesterday that the White House offered him a federal job in an effort to dissuade him from challenging Sen. Arlen Specter in the state’s Democratic primary.
The disclosure came during an afternoon taping of Larry Kane: Voice of Reason, a Sunday news-analysis show on the Comcast Network. Sestak would not elaborate on the circumstances and seemed chagrined after blurting out “yes” to veteran news anchor Kane’s direct question.
“Was it secretary of the Navy?” Kane asked.
“No comment,” Sestak said.
“Was it [the job] high-ranking?” Kane asked. Sestak said yes, but added that he would “never leave” the Senate race for a deal.
A White House spokesman this morning strongly denied Sestak had been offered yesterday. Before the spokesman issued the denial a senior Pennsylvania Democrat yesterday said Whitye House officials there were angered by Sestak’s account.
This shouldn’t be surprising to anyone who’s been paying attention to the Obama White House over the last thirteen months, and it certainly isn’t surprising to me.
Obama is all about his own legacy and using the power of the office to screw with a state election is definitely not below his pay grade. Definitely not looking good for the White House if this allegation is true. What’s that about transparency and changing the way Washington works again?
And is this a Hail Mary for Joe Sestak’s campaign? It sure looks like it as he hasn’t exactly been polling well going into this summer’s primary.
UPDATE. Allahpundit makes the case that it’s Specter who comes out as the biggest loser in this story:
[F]or Specter the optics are horrible. First he switches parties for no grander reason than to save his own ass by avoiding a primary against Toomey, now he’s got Captain B+ — whose approval rating in Pennsylvania is 44/55 — trying to save his ass for him a second time by buying off, of all things, a retired admiral. Good luck in November, chump.
Seriously.
Tiger Woods
I really couldn’t care less about this story. It’s just that as I went to pick up the papers this morning, turned on the radio in the car, on the television in the waiting room as I waited for my car to be serviced, it was all Tiger, all the time.
Tiger doesn’t owe me an apology. I don’t know Tiger, I’m not friends with Tiger—-if I bumped into Tiger on the street and I asked him for a hundred bucks, he would ignore me. That’s the extent to which he owes me an apology.
If anyone really thinks that his “apology” was anything but genuflection to his corporate sponsor overlords, then you’re sadly mistaken.
That’s my two cents on this non-story and I’m sure this will be the one and only post on Tiger Woods. Ever.
Rubio at CPAC 2010
Marco Rubio’s CPAC speech last week blew me away.
I just got around to listening to the whole thing and I have to say that in a party that’s experiencing a dearth of conservative leadership, Marco Rubio should have an easy path to being one the future leaders of the Republican party.
Read the transcript. Read it again. And again.
The speech was great—he hit all the right notes and held back no punches. In less than a half an hour he tried to clear the blurred lines between conservatism and a lackadaisical Republican establishment, stuck it to his primary challenger Charlie Crist, and ripped the radical Obama/Democrat agenda to shreds. It was fun.
If you consider yourself a conservative and/or a Republican and weren’t amazed by this man speaking, then you might have to re-evaluate your political priorities.
But the lifeblood of modern political campaigns is still money, and although Rubio has been catching up to Crist in that department, he’s still lagging. A moneybomb two weeks ago helped the Rubio campaign raise almost $1 million, and every bit helps.
DOJ clears Bush lawyers
They told me if Barack Obama became President, that justice and the rule of law would be “resurrected” in the United States.
Bush administration lawyers who wrote memos that paved the way for waterboarding of terrorism suspects and other harsh interrogation tactics “exercised poor judgment” but will not face discipline for their actions, according to long-awaited Justice Department documents released Friday.
The decision represents the end of a five-year internal battle and flatly rejects recommendations by the department’s ethics investigators. They had twice urged that allegations against John C. Yoo and Jay S. Bybee be sent to state disciplinary authorities for further action, including the possible revocation of their licenses to practice law.
[...]
But the evidence gathered by the investigators, who spent five years on the issues, did not persuade Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis, a senior career attorney who acknowledged that the allegations at times presented a “close question.” He described the episode as “an unfortunate chapter in the history” of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, where Yoo and Bybee had worked.
[...]
But Margolis concluded that despite significant flaws in the documents, the memo authors did not intentionally violate ethics rules. Instead, he said, they were struggling to prevent another terrorist strike on U.S. soil. Margolis also pointed out that the legal issues were far from a close call: OPR investigators repeatedly shifted their own views and analysis in the course of multiple drafts.
The Democratic chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary committees immediately scheduled hearings on the investigative report.
It really isn’t a shock that Democrats are calling hearings. They were going to stick it to the Bush administration one way or another. Democrats have always had it in for the Bush administration for “war crimes”, whether they were real or imaginary.
Holding hearings will satiate their collective wet dream about parading Bush-era officials before their committees while pretending to admonish admonishing them. And with the DOJ report slapping Yoo and Bybee on the wrist, and acknowledging no wrong-doing, the majority party holding hearings will look real petty. But then again, they are Democrats.
Hollywood B-List Actor: “I’m fond of the rapist Roman Polanski”
As is my ritual every Sunday, this morning I picked up my local paper, the Newark Star Ledger.
The entertainment section ran an interview with Ewan McGregor,who apparently is starring in the latest film by Hollywood’s favorite pedophile, Roman Polanski.
Does Ewan have any problems starring in a film by a child rapist? Of course not.
This is Hollywood we’re talking about after all:
Eventually, McGregor mumbles his way through some comment about “Roman’s situation,” which is “a tricky thing.” He pauses and looks around the table. “I just introduced the topic for you, there you are,” he announces, almost sounding relieved.
[...]
[W]ill audiences see past the artist and appreciate the art? Should they even try?
“It’s very, very difficult issue,” McGregor admits later, sitting in his hotel room. “I worked with him incredibly intensely over four months and was left feeling very fond of Roman. I was sad for him that he was arrested. I was sad for his kids, whom I got to know. I would like very much, for everybody involved, that things are rectified quickly.”
That’s great Ewan. Unfortunately, there’s nothing “tricky” about it. Your director, whom you think so fondly of, is a grown man who drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl.
The only way any sane society can “rectify” a situation like that is if Polanski spends the rest of his life in a small and dark prison cell–preferably with a much larger cell mate who loves to have anal sex with aging pedophile film directors.
Why is Hollywood culture such a cess-pool? Are there really any “good” actors any more? Any with a sense of reality? Any with a sense of what’s right and wrong? Is every decision they make solely based on their arrogant sense of their “art”, whatever that is?
I really loathe Hollywood culture, what a bunch of degenerates.
NH-2: Bass wants Tea Party blessing
Tea Party Nation has thrown an interesting dynamic into the 2010 elections. The CW is that the movement will cause more pain for the Democrats in November than it will Republicans. This is about right.
But what happens when a socially moderate, fiscal conservative Republican wants to run for Congress with the Tea Party seal of approval?
In announcing his decision to run for the 2nd District congressional seat, a seat he held from 1994 to 2006, [Charlie] Bass said, “[The Tea Party] agenda is exactly the same as mine. . . .Their whole mission is to stop the spending.”
The Tea Party movement, most associated with politicians like Sarah Palin, seems an odd choice for Bass, a Republican who was viewed as a moderate for much of his former tenure. But it could follow a trend of setting his own path – Bass has a history of both breaking with his party and conforming to it.
One area of Bass’s expertise is seldom raised by Republicans: energy. Since leaving politics, he has consulted with several companies working on renewable energy technology. In Congress, as a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, he supported the development of alternative energy sources, including biomass, wind and solar power. Don’t expect any Palin-esque “drill, baby, drill,” since Bass opposed drilling for oil in Alaska. On the other hand, Bass took flak from environmental groups for crafting a 2005 energy policy bill that gave large subsidies to oil companies.
Bass was also a major supporter of campaign finance reform, which put him at odds with some in his party.
In his announcement, Bass talked about his activism in the Republican Main Street Partnership, what he called an advocacy center of “fiscally conservative Republicans.” What he didn’t add is what defines the group is its openness to fiscally conservative Republicans who are moderate on social issues.
Bass is pro-choice, voted against banning same-sex marriage, and was a key player in getting a bill allowing stem cell research passed in Congress (it was vetoed by President George W. Bush).
On the other hand, Bass seems prepared to stress the areas where he has generally voted with his party – his fiscal conservatism and strong line on national security. Bass favored the tax cuts implemented by President Bush in 2001 and 2003, defending them as having “stimulated economic growth.”
“It’s not tax hikes that balance budgets; it’s spending control,” he said.
Google Charlie Bass and you’ll find that he is what most would expect in a Republican congressman from New England over the past twenty years or so–effectively another Olympia Snowe. To the extent that the hot button issues for Tea Partiers are fiscal responsibility and national security, then Bass has the street cred.
But he also faces a primary from Jennifer Horn, who was the nominee for this seat in 2008, is a fiscal and social conservative, and just received the endorsement of the Family Research Council.
More importantly, from what I’ve been reading, she’s also hanging out at Tea Parties throughout New Hampshire over the past few months.
This presents an interesting story line and may present some problems for the Republican party in 2010 and going into the 2012 election as well.
The way I see it, Charlie Bass is was a politically palatable to moderate Northeastern Republicans, but is a career politician who got booted out in the anti-GOP wave of 2006. Now, with the political winds blowing in the opposite direction, he wants to run as the anti-incumbent, anti-establishment candidate. And again, he seems to be electable. But his moderation on energy and social issues (and the government role in these issues) may scare away Tea Party Nation.
Horn on the other hand, is trying to break in as an across-the-board conservative, and my guess is she will appeal more to the Tea Partiers than Bass.
Which leads us to the age-old question of party politics: Ideologoical purity or electability?
Here’s a clue—real conservatism wins elections.
I’m sure I’ll be seeing tons of stories like this in races across the country. It will be interesting to see how they play out.
A bit premature on Scott Brown
This kind of chatter from the think tanks may keep the commentariat humming, but I don’t see how it benefits the Republican party.
Scott Brown pulled off one of the biggest political upsets in modern memory and he deserves all the credit in the world for that.
But I’d like to see some results as a legislator before there is any talk of running for President:
Conservative political observers say the excitement around Brown could dim the lights on the other ambitious Massachusetts Republican. Romney, the state’s former governor and a 2008 presidential contender, is widely considered a GOP front-runner in 2012.
“It would be a huge problem,” said Brian Darling, director of Senate relations at the conservative Heritage Foundation, who expressed skepticism that Brown would run for president in 2012.
“You’re talking about a similar base of support between Brown and Romney,” Darling said. “If Brown were to run and capitalize [on] new rock-star status in the conservative movement, it would clearly be a problem for Romney.”
This could just be confirmation of what I’ve long believed, that there is a serious drought of ready candidates to carry the Republican standard in the next presidential election, and a sobering reminder that the GOP is not even two years removed from John McCain as the answer to their prayers.
I’d like to see how Scott Brown fares as a legislator before throwing him into the pool of potential candidates. Too many times I’ve seen politicians run as conservatives only to water down the conservative brand while actually in office. That is not to say he won’t actually govern as a conservative—but I’d want to see some steak with the sizzle.
Or even just to get some experience under his belt. This is why I think Sarah Palin made a critical error in resigning from the governorship in Alaska. That she resigned in the middle of her first term, with a strong approval numbers and apparently doing well for her state, leaving at she did last summer just smelled of opportunism.
Obama’s healthcare proposal does all the wrong things
I could easily tell you that the President’s healthcare reform plan will do significant damage to the economy and little to truly “reform” healthcare. Even I would know that. But what do I know?
Harvard professor Greg Mankiw:
[T]he new proposal would do less to bend the curve of rising healthcare costs and more to impede long-run economic growth. This change was probably made to attract more House Democrats. It will likely make the plan even less attractive to congressional Republicans.
A year ago when the debate over healthcare reform began in earnest, the administration focused on the fiscal benefits of reform—-lowering costs, the overall positive effect on federal budget deficits, etc. That all seems to be out the window. Nothing in the Senate bill or the President’s proposal addresses the issue of the rising cost of healthcare in this country. Taxing higher income earners, capping insurers rates, fees on medical devices—all of this just accomplishes the opposite.
Donate your money to conservatives, not the RNC
Sure, there’s a lot of momentum on the side of the Republican party these days, but I refuse to give in completely to the optimism. And it’s because of crap like this:
Republican National Chairman Michael Steele is spending twice as much as his recent predecessors on private planes and paying more for limousines, catering and flowers – expenses that are infuriating the party’s major donors who say Republicans need every penny they can get for the fight to win back Congress.
[...]
A POLITICO analysis of expenses found that compared with 2005, the last comparable year preceding a midterm election, the committee’s payments for charter flights doubled; the number of sedan contractors tripled, and meal expenses jumped from $306,000 to $599,000.
“Michael Steele is an imperial chairman,” said one longtime Republican fundraiser. “He flies in private aircraft. He drives in private cars. He has private consultants that are paid ridiculous retainers. He fancies himself a presidential candidate and wants all of the trappings and gets them by using other people’s money.”
Stories like this are not new. In my first post about my dislike for Michael Steele, I linked to this great piece by John Batchelor, and it’s worth another read in light of the Politico story:
Cash is the blood of partisanship, and without it you are in for an endless Night of the Living Dead.
In an adult world, where hirelings are accountable for their record, the whole apparatus deserves the boot with Steele—after a scrupulous audit of those 2009 consulting contracts determines where the money really went. An RNC official recently moaned that the empty till is “really troubling,” which sounds the same sort of charming defeatism as Mr. Micawber’s when he realized that “twenty pounds’ income” and “twenty ought and six expenses” must result in misery.
[Michael Steele is] so ineffective at gathering and husbanding cash that the GOP prospects for the 2010 election are now ordinary and could soon be disastrous.
Ignore the rosy scenario of Rasmussen polls and Charlie Cook; ignore the “Happy Days Are Here Again” of the burlesque acts like Limbaugh and the cable channels. The RNC numbers are inarguable and damning, and there is only Steele to blame.
When Steele was elected, the RNC had $22 million and no debt. At the end of November, it had less than $9 million, which is a pittance of what the RNC possessed going into the midterms of 2002 and 2006. This is the result of both dismal fundraising and a spendthrift decision to push large sums on consultants and other baubles in the off-year elections without a White House on your team to replenish the account.
This is why I’ve refused to give my support to the RNC and to an extent, the Republican congressional election committees—so much incompetence, hubris and waste.
Between the libertarians, birthers and third-partiers of the Tea Party, and the total incompetence of the RNC and establishment Republicans, it’s not hard to see why conservatives should be are questioning the party that they should be calling home.
Apparently, as conservatives we can’t count on the RNC to gather enough resources to support the right candidates. In fact, we can’t count on them to even pick the right candidates until the grassroots gets involved (see 2009 Special Election, NY-23)
I’m not fully convinced that Republicans can take back the House or the Senate in the 2010 midterms, although they will be gaining seats. I hope I’m wrong and that they will be able to take back both. But let’s be realistic. Any gains the GOP does make will be in spite of the RNC and not because of it.
In the meantime, if conservatives want to donate money to support real conservatives instead of supporting Wolfgang Puck’s catering business, then donate to the candidate directly. Keep your cash away from the RNC.
Healthcare reform depends on the House
Based on this WaPo story, the fate of healthcare reform could rest in the House of Representatives.
If that’s the case, it could be good news for us anti-reformists:
In the House, the only way to cobble together a majority will be to secure votes from moderate Democrats who balked at passing the bill the first time around. These are the lawmakers who are most rattled by the Massachusetts vote — with good reason. For a Democratic House member in a swing district, the politics counsel against voting yes. “This is a career-ending vote,” one Democrat told me — and this was a lawmaker who voted for the original bill.
With the House down a few members, 217 votes will be needed for passage. The original House measure passed with 220 votes — with 39 Democrats defecting. But two of those yes votes are gone: John Murtha of Pennsylvania died; Robert Wexler of Florida resigned. A third, Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, is leaving at the end of the month to run for governor. The lone Republican voting for the measure, Joseph Cao of Louisiana, is no longer on board.
Meanwhile, the president’s proposal does not include the anti-abortion language inserted in the House-passed measure by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), largely because the Senate would have difficulty fiddling with abortion language under the restrictive rules of the reconciliation process. So Stupak will be gone, and with him another five votes, perhaps more.
When you build a majority based on the election of predominantly centrist members, you shouldn’t be surprised when your coalition crumbles when party leadership (including the President) tries to ram through radical legislation. That’s what’s happening here.
The Democrats built their majorities on the elections of Blue Dog Democrats or conservative Democrats in red states, during the last two years of the Bush administration, not because of the country “moving left” or rejecting conservatism. This is something the majority leadership will never understand and will lead to their undoing.
Republicans were voted into the minority because they acted like liberal Democrats. Democrats are facing similar issues now because they are acting like….well, liberal Democrats. And that’s more of a win-win situation for Republicans, if they play their cards right.
Celebrity Fatigue
Kurt Schlichter asks if celebrity status has jumped the shark:
Somewhere over the last 25 years, the idea of what constitutes a “celebrity” changed from a person with some kind of history of achievement to pretty much anyone with a pulse who manages to get his, her or its mug splashed across a TV screen. Actually, as the wailing and gnashing of teeth surrounding the death of Michael Jackson demonstrated last year, the pulse is now optional.
Nowhere is this more apparent than the ridiculous, cynical remake of “We are the World,” an exercise that according to news accounts seemed less focused on assisting the people of Haiti than on stroking the egos of the pseudo-stars and future nobodies who did the yodeling.
[...]
The point is that in 25 years the concept of celebrity has degenerated into parody. Borderline cretins with fake boobs and bulging wallets wander the streets of Los Angeles pursued by hordes of shutter-clicking parasites in self-reinforcing cycle of publicity whetting the appetite for more publicity.
[...]
The original “We are the World” was an event; this one is a mere occurrence. And the reasons are not hard to see. We have celebrities who do not deserve celebration. We have a public grown weary of the shameless antics and craven pandering of the celebrity culture. Who actually believes that most of the participants want anything more from this recording session than a close-up on Entertainment Tonight before they slink back across to the far side of the velvet rope?
Or perhaps this really isn’t a just another ploy designed to feed the fame machine.
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
Everything Schlicter says here is spot on accurate, and you should read the whole post.
Hollywood cerca 2010 is a cesspool of crap (this is purposefully redundant). Celebrity status has been irrelevant for the better part of the last 10 years or so, maybe longer.
Ignoring cost containment
For all the President’s blabbing about keeping costs down as a key component of healthcare reform, it didn’t take long for politics to win out over policy:
When Obama launched his health care project, the case for reform rested on two pillars. One was helping people who had no insurance or were otherwise struggling with the current system. The other was taking dramatic steps to halt the growth in costs. As the debate lurches toward a close, the emphasis in Obama’s plan now rests overwhelmingly on the first pillar — with only the most modest and preliminary measures being embraced for cost control.
“[...] And now, at least until after 2017, it doesn’t look like they will bend the cost curve,” said Ken Thorpe, an Emory University professor and Democratic health policy adviser.
Despite all of the rhetoric of the last year or so about cost-containment, there was never any serious attempt by the White House or the congressional Democrats to actually propose any serious cost bending provisions. The problem of course, is that any real cost measures would involve rationing or abolishing the fee for service model—none of which was ever discussed.
I don’t expect liberals to be swayed on this but is there really anyone out there who still believes that healthcare reform is a truly genuine effort by Barack Obama to actually reform the system? That it was never about politics? Or that it was about putting a bureaucratic structure in place that would benefit his political donors for decades?
Unemployment still going strong
Lost in all the buzz over today’s healthcare summit, this week’s unemployment numbers were released:
The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance unexpectedly increased last week, a sign that the economic recovery will be uneven as the labor market struggles to rebound.
Initial jobless applications rose by 22,000 to 496,000 in the week ended Feb. 20, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The total number of people receiving unemployment insurance gained and those receiving extended benefits decreased.
[...]
A Labor Department spokesman said part of the reason for the increase in weekly claims was the processing of a backlog of applications in mid-Atlantic states and New England, where snowstorms hit earlier this month.
The 4-week moving average was 473,750, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 467,750.
Without a doubt the bad weather will affect these reports, that much isn’t up for debate. But as an overall trend these numbers aren’t pretty.
This is a crude assumption, but my guess is that until the average claims reach 400,000 there won’t be a significant change in the unemployment rate to the downside. And maybe even to 350,000 before we see any net positive effect on the economy as a whole.
Media declares healthcare summit a “tie”
That is to say, the Republicans “won” the summit:
[T]he tie goes to Republicans, according to operatives on both sides of the aisle — because the stakes were so much higher for Democrats trying to build their case for ramming reform through using a 51-vote reconciliation tactic.
“I think it was a draw, which was a Republican win,” said Democratic political consultant Dan Gerstein. “The Republican tone was just right: a respectful, substantive disagreement, very disciplined and consistent in their message.”
The White House and Hill Democrats had hoped congressional Republicans would prove themselves to be unruly, unreasonable and incapable of a serious policy discussion — “the face of gridlock,” as one Democrat put it hours before the summit.
It’s bad news for the left when Democrats acknowledge that Republicans–Republicans—came out looking like the winner in what essentially was a debate with the Obama-led Democrats.
I really don’t think that anyone who even bothered to pay attention was swayed in either direction. If you opposed reform the summit didn’t change your mind, and likewise if you support reform. But I think the onus was on reformists who desperately needed to sway undecideds. Looking at a room of politicians trying to make sense of taking over almost 20% of the US economy, it wasn’t hard to see why they hadn’t moved at all.
GOP needs to be vigilant against healthcare reform
Andy McCarthy warns Republicans about the dangers of complacency:
The Democratic leadership has already internalized the inevitablility of taking its political lumps. That makes reconciliation truly scary. Since the Dems know they will have to ram this monstrosity through, they figure it might as well be as monstrous as they can get wavering Democrats to go along with. Clipping the leadership’s statist ambitions in order to peel off a few Republicans is not going to work.
I’m glad Republicans have held firm, but let’s not be under any illusions about what that means. In the Democrat leadership, we are not dealing with conventional politicians for whom the goal of being reelected is paramount and will rein in their radicalism. They want socialized medicine and all it entails about government control even more than they want to win elections. After all, if the party of government transforms the relationship between the citizen and the state, its power over our lives will be vast even in those cycles when it is not in the majority.
This is about power, and there is more to power than winning elections, especially if you’ve calculated that your opposition does not have the gumption to dismantle your ballooning welfare state.
Read the entire post.
The fight against healthcare reform should never have been and never should be, solely about electoral victory in November of 2010 or 2012.
McCarthy is right in that the real modus operandi behind progressive healthcare reform has always been about expanding the power of the Federal government—the only vestation of power in which the left believes.
But I would take it a step further. Part of the end-game is the destruction of the private insurance industry, which eventually makes way for government-run healthcare, single-payer and all the rest. Liberals, along with the President, are on record acknowledging or embracing these ideals. As a result, we have the President calling for price controls on the insurance industry, a public option that would “compete” with the healthcare insurers and “keep them honest”, and on and on. Either way, government encroachment has always been the desired result.
Having said that, the worst thing Republicans could do is to cave and engage the Democrats in “bi-partisan” efforts at reform, which only encourages growth in the Federal government. This is where all of the “conservative ideals” talk and all the Tea Party rhetoric will be put to the test. If Republicans are truly worth their conservative salt, then they should continue their obstruction and continue until healthcare “reform” is dead.
Baseball
Pete Hamill reviews the new book, Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend in today’s New York Times.
The opening paragraph struck me as brilliant:
A long time ago in America, there was a beautiful game called baseball. This was before 30 major-league teams were scattered in a blurry variety of divisions; before 162-game seasons and extended playoffs and fans who watched World Series games in thick down jackets; before the D.H. came to the American League; before AstroTurf on baseball fields and aluminum bats on sandlots; before complete games by pitchers were a rarity; before ballparks were named for corporations instead of individuals; and long, long before the innocence of the game was permanently stained by the filthy deception of steroids.
In that vanished time, there was a ballplayer named Willie Mays.
Call me sappy, call me old-fashioned, call me whatever. But without having lived through that era of baseball, that excerpt sums up my feelings of the game perfectly.
Sunday Night
Nothing like a Sunday night in late winter to crush the soul…
Summers tries to preempt potentially bad unemployment report
There’s really no other way to frame this one:
WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) – White House economic adviser Larry Summers said on Monday winter blizzards were likely to distort U.S. February jobless figures, which are due to be released on Friday.
“The blizzards that affected much of the country during the last month are likely to distort the statistics. So it’s going to be very important … to look past whatever the next figures are to gauge the underlying trends,” Summers said in an interview with CNBC, according to a transcript.
Like I’ve said before, watch the average number of unemployment claims week over week for a clearer picture, and there’s a possibility that unemployment may be revised downward.
But seriously, there’s also the chance that this could be an ugly report. Maybe not enough to push the unemployment rate over 10%, but still ugly.
The reality is that if they saw anything positive coming from this report, they’d say nothing at all.
Missing the point on battling healthcare reform
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell:
The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, warned Democrats on Tuesday that Republicans would use the issue of health care to bludgeon them in the November midterm elections if Democrats succeeded in passing a comprehensive overhaul.
“It will be the issue in every race in America,” Mr. McConnell said at a news conference in the Capitol. He also referenced the Republican victory in the Massachusetts special Senate election as evidence of the price Democrats would pay if they “jam” a health care bill through Congress “over the objections of the American people.”
What I find most astounding is how Democrats have passed up an opportunity to both reform health care and remain in a strong position by doing this with a more scaled-down, piece-by-piece process. The best thing the Democrats could do at this point is take the Republicans’ advice and hit the reset button.
These bills are so toxic and so loaded down with nonsense that the American people will be outraged if they pass. Why not start over, bring Republicans on board for commonsense items like tort reform, and come out with a political victory and some change to the system?
This seems to be the consensus on the right with regards to fighting healthcare reform—”Democrats are screwed in November” and “if only Democrats worked with Republicans”.
I’m not going to deny that the momentum is clearly on the Republican side headed into the 2010 midterms, nor will I argue that Obama and the Democrats have no interest in engaging Republicans at all, let alone using Republican ideas in any healthcare bill.
But I find the Republican argument about the 2010 elections to be almost disingenuous. The Republican caucus can harp all they want about how Democrats will get trounced in November. The problem is that the Democrats have realized this already and some of them will even take seriously Nancy Pelosi’s orders that they fall on the sword for healthcare reform.
This is no longer about electoral victory in November. This is about our nation being at a crossroads. This is about whether we acknowledge that implementing the kind of reforms that Obama and the Democrats want will takes us down the road of ever-increasing statism and more power wielded by the Federal government. This is about enacting reforms that effectively surrenders any notion that the United States stands above the nanny states of Europe with respect to personal freedoms.
Where are the Republicans pounding the table on those criticisms? McConnell and the Republican caucus should be screaming about the Democrats’ ideas for reform equal a government expansion so strong that it will be almost impossible to roll back, even if the Republicans do take back both chambers of Congress in November. Republicans and the grassroots need to do all they can to stop the bill from coming to a vote if possible, and keep up the obstruction.
Two Timin’ Goldman Sachs
The Times ran an interesting piece the other day about the private equity boom of the last decade and the investment bankers that financed them.
Sometimes the PE guys and the bankers were one and the same:
Goldman Sachs had representatives sitting on both sides of the table: the firm was one of the large private equity investors but had also acted as investment banker and lender and would, ultimately, nab a big piece of TXU’s huge commodity hedging business. The bank’s representatives sat quietly during the talks, according to participants.
Goldman was on so many sides of the TXU deal that its representatives made other lenders nervous, according to participants, because it was hard to ascertain whose interests the bank was serving.
Surely there’s nothing illegal here, but how ethical can this be? I would never try to stop anyone in their ability to make as much money as possible so long as they’re not breaking the law or harming anyone. And I don’t agree with the latest populist aversion to bankers’ salaries and bonuses and such. But I guess there’s a reason why Goldman is called the vampire squid.
Democrats: “Hey its great that only 36,000 people lost their jobs”
Democrats are strange.
Up is down. Black is white. Good is bad.
TX-Gov: Perry leading by 6
The first poll on the Texas gubernatorial race is out:
The first poll of the November general-election race between Rick Perry and Bill White shows the Republican governor with a 6-point lead over his Democratic challenger, supporting predictions that the Texas gubernatorial battle will be one of the most competitive in years.
Perry led White 49 to 43 percent in the latest Ramussen Reports survey of likely Texas voters. Three percent of respondents prefer some other candidate, and 6 percent are undecided.
Keep in mind that White won the Democratic primary with 75% of the vote vs Perry’s 51% of the Republican primary vs popular Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Debra Medina, truther and Tea Partier.
For what it’s worth, the article also notes that Charlie Cook has switched the race from “lean Republican” to “toss-up”
Perry won his last two gubernatorial races by 10 percentage points and 18 percentage points, and before him, George W. Bush won by 7 percentage points and 37 percentage points, so “the most competitive gubernatorial battle in years” isn’t exactly the highest bar to clear.
Why am I getting an uneasy feeling about this race? I’m not sure.
In an election year where Republicans are supposed to run rampant all over the electoral map, six percentage points seems to be a little lean, especially for a red state like Texas. Are Democrats more engaged and united behind White than Republicans are for Perry?
Republican congressman goes birther
Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) said Thursday that he does not know if President Barack Obama is either a citizen or a Christian.
Broun made the claim during an interview with Sirius XM host Pete Dominick, which was first flagged by the liberal blog Think Progress.
Asked if he thought the president is an “American citizen and a Christian,” Broun first responded, “I’m not going to get involved in that.”
But pressed on whether he thought Obama is a citizen, he said “I don’t know.”
Enough is enough with the birtherism! There’s so much to go after the administration for and legitimacy of citizenship is not part of it.
At what point do we really have to start questioning the sanity of some people? And it’s not just the politicians. If Broun were to say “yes, Barack Obama is a citizen”, what would happen? Would he get voted out of office? Would the supporters in his district vote him out for that? Priorities people!
More waste at the RNC
Michael Steele runs a tight ship over at the RNC, a real no-nonsense operation:
Rob Bickhart, the Republican National Committee official behind the embarrassing fundraising presentation reported this week byPOLITICO, has been paid at least $370,000 since last June by the RNC in salary and consulting fees.
The size of Bickhart’s compensation has been the talk of Republican fundraising circles for months, and a source of displeasure among some RNC donors who have been generally unhappy with what they see as the RNC’s lavish spending. One complained to POLITICO that Bickhart earns “more than the President of the United States.”
Between Bickhart’s salary – he is on pace to earn a little more than $196,000 annually – and his consulting fees – which tallied $240,000 in the second half of last year alone – it appears Bickhart could receive north of $500,000 per year from the RNC.
Randy Pullen, the RNC’s treasurer and chairman of the Arizona Republican Party said Bickhart’s consulting fees – paid through a firm Bickhart started a week after accepting the RNC job – were unusual, and said he thought the RNC finance director should be paid as a full-time employee and not as a consultant.
That the Steele-led RNC loves to waste money is no surprise. But there’s something else:
One informed Republican said Bickhart was able to command such a salary — equivalent to what he’d made as a private lobbyist and fundraiser — because RNC chairman Michael Steele, embattled from the beginning of his tenure, was finding it difficult to hire experienced fundraising staff.
Isn’t one of the main functions of the RNC and, by extension it’s chairman, to be able to raise money for the party? And in order to do so, the chairman needs to have the network and the contacts to make it happen?
The spendthrift ways of Steele are not a surprise, at least not to anyone paying attention.
But beyond that, this nonsense just confirms that Steele is completely incompetent for this position. He can’t handle money. He can’t find the right people for the basic functions of the party. What purpose does he serve other than as fodder for people who want reasons to point and laugh at the RNC?
Like I’ve been saying—keep your money away from the national party. Donate to the conservative candidates you support individually.
Energy Dept. waives “Buy American” clause on green energy stimulus projects
When it comes to green energy and production in the United States, Democrats are absolutely clueless:
A group of Democratic senators called Wednesday for the government to halt a federal stimulus program aimed at building wind farms and other clean-energy projects, arguing that too much of the money spent so far has gone to create jobs overseas.
[...]
Joined by Sens. Robert P. Casey Jr. (Pa.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Jon Tester (Mont.), Schumer said at a news conference that the Obama administration has ignored concerns about foreign involvement in the clean-energy program and should halt funding until Congress can pass legislation to deal with the problem.
Schumer and the other lawmakers focused particular criticism at Cielo Wind Power of Austin, which has said it may apply for up to $450 million in stimulus funding for a massive wind farm that would be powered by turbines built in China.
“It is a no-brainer that stimulus funds should only go to projects that create jobs in the United States rather than overseas,” Schumer said. “These wind projects have a lot of merit, but the manufacturing should be happening here, not in China.”
[...] Obama administration officials and wind-energy industry representatives said that the complaints are misguided and based on faulty information, and they sharply disputed an American University study cited by the senators, which estimated that up to 80 percent of stimulus money spent on wind turbines so far had gone to foreign companies.
The administration says the complaints are misguided? Really? Maybe not:
The Department of Energy has waived a “buy American” requirement for government projects receiving money from last year’s stimulus bill so that recipients can purchase energy-efficient lighting products for public buildings and roadways.
The department issued the waiver after determining that products like compact fluorescent light bulbs and traffic signals made with light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, are manufactured almost exclusively in China and Mexico.
[...]
About $6.3 billion from the stimulus bill, also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is being distributed by the department’s office of energy efficiency for state and local energy programs.
But the lack of domestic-made lighting products “is currently impeding the progress of numerous Recovery Act projects” receiving funds from the agency, Ms. Zoi noted.
I would venture to say that the Obama administration is, in fact, that ignorant about the green economy, that they don’t even realize that a domestic-based product line doesn’t even exist. These are the people who want to take over healthcare.
Democrats are clueless because the “Buy American” cry rings very delusional when confronted with the economic reality. The reality being that the United States operates at a severe competitive disadvantage when it comes to production of clean energy infrastructure. And I’m sure labor costs are a big part of the problem.
But Democrats will continue to blow the “Buy Products Made Exclusively By Unions American” whistle, to the detriment of our economy and most Americans that don’t contribute to Democratic political campaigns.
The Who’s Your Daddy stimulus plan
In trying to help the struggling town of Moraine, Ohio, the Obama administration doesn’t bring incentives for job growth. Instead it sends a political emissary reminding them simply: “Who’s your daddy?”
In the weeks between Barack Obama’s election and his inauguration, General Motors closed the last big factory in Moraine, a four-million-square-foot plant that churned out S.U.V.’s.
The president never sought to reopen the factory, even after the federal government became controlling shareholder in G.M. during the auto bailout. What he has done instead is try to ease some of the pain by sending an ambassador as a salve for the community’s wounds.
The ambassador, Edward B. Montgomery, executive director of the White House Council on Automotive Communities and Workers, has made 23 trips so far to troubled cities like Moraine. In lightning forays, he flies out of Washington in the morning, offers hope and aid, and returns to the capital in the evening. He concedes that he is not bringing jobs, but acting as a facilitator to help pummeled communities gain access to various government funds.
During that visit, he told a gathering of local and state officials, “there may be some nontraditional, untapped sources of federal funds that we can help you tap.” He travels with an entourage of a dozen top officers from federal agencies, each with money to offer and an explanation of how to tap the funds.
“We are a means of coordinating across the agencies,” Mr. Montgomery explained, “and improving access to funding.”
On his travels he has helped to channel millions of dollars from the stimulus package and other government pools. He does not know, he says, just how many millions. At many of the stops, particularly in Ohio, which went for George W. Bush in 2004 and just barely for Obama in the last presidential election, there is an implicit political message in this largess.
It goes something like this: Stick with the president and the Democratic Party, and while we cannot bring back mass production with its large-scale employment, we can help you in the transition to other sources of income and jobs.
The stimulus package has failed to generate jobs to most areas of the country, let alone those hardest hit like towns that are dependent on an American manufacturing sector that is fading fast.
The administration is not providing the economic incentives required to revitalize the economy, namely across the board tax cuts for business.
Instead, they’re sending political bureaucrats whose only expertise is wading through the red tape necessary to tap Federal funds. Funds which apparently, are being used to bribe for Democratic votes.
NJ Transit raises fares by 25%
Brought to you by eight long years of Democratic governance and liberal compassion.
Having stopped commuting into NYC years ago, and I gladly embrace my 15 minute commute on the GSP versus taking mass transit to wherever it is that I happen to be working, this really doesn’t affect me. But when you live in New Jersey, especially the northern counties, every other person you know commutes to NYC by NJ Transit.
Every member of the Republican caucus should read Steyn’s column
Because what he’s saying is 1,000% spot-on and apparently, Congressional Republicans are missing the point with no sense of urgency:
[T]he governmentalization of health care is the fastest way to a permanent left-of-center political culture. It redefines the relationship between the citizen and the state in fundamental ways that make limited government all but impossible.
In most of the rest of the Western world, there are still nominally “conservative” parties, and they even win elections occasionally, but not to any great effect[...]
The result is a kind of two-party one-party state: Right-of-center parties will once in a while be in office, but never in power, merely presiding over vast left-wing bureaucracies that cruise on regardless[...]
Once the state swells to a certain size, the people available to fill the ever expanding number of government jobs will be statists — sometimes hard-core Marxist statists, sometimes social-engineering multiculti statists, sometimes fluffily “compassionate” statists, but always statists.
The short history of the post-war welfare state is that you don’t need a president-for-life if you’ve got a bureaucracy-for-life[...]
Look at it from the Dems’ point of view. You pass Obamacare. You lose the 2010 election, which gives the GOP co-ownership of an awkward couple of years. And you come back in 2012 to find your health-care apparatus is still in place, a fetid behemoth of toxic pustules oozing all over the basement, and, simply through the natural processes of government, already bigger and more expensive and more bureaucratic than it was when you passed it two years earlier. That’s a huge prize, and well worth a mid-term timeout.
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
I’m getting really tired of the blase attitude of congressional Republicans about this. Paul Ryan’s brutal lambasting of the fiscal disaster that is Obamacare seems like ages ago, and the Republicans seem content on plotting their short-term tactics instead of strategizing for the long-term.
Steyn is exactly right. They appear to be more than willing to just let the Democrats win this dangerous match of tug-of-war, let go of their end of the rope and pat themselves on the back for a short-term electoral victory.
AR-Sen: Interesting new Blanche Lincoln ad
I’m with Jim Geraghty on this one. This new ad by the Lincoln campaign is a blatant move to the center:
Lincoln is a career politician and would love to keep it that way–she’s not about to fall on any swords at the behest of Frau Pelosi. Also, keep in mind that Senator Lincoln is under a fierce attack by the liberal wing of her party and the nutroots who are actively supporting her primary challenger, Bill Halter, because of her stance on healthcare reform.
And so much for the political “realignment” we kept hearing about over the last two election cycles. This ad rails against the two crown jewels in the Democratic party agenda—cap and trade and healthcare reform. Hell, she even sticks it to the party itself with the “I don’t answer to the Democratic party” bit.
Even more striking was that she mentions opposition to “the public option” by name. As toxic as the public option has been over the past year. and to the extent that the left embraces it, that was real gutsy on her part.
Oscar Night Question
Which awards show is most irrelevant—the Oscars, the Emmys or the Tonys? Maybe all of them?
Pious Muslims forced to kill Christians in Nigeria
Actually, no.
The real story is that Muslim extremists slaughtered some 300 innocent men, women and children–all of whom just happened to be Christian:
Villagers in Dogo Nahawa, just south of the state capital Jos, said Hausa-Fulani herders from surrounding hills attacked at about 3 a.m. (10 p.m. EST), shooting into the air before cutting those who came out of their homes with machetes.
[...]
Some of the bodies seen by the Reuters witness — including those of women and children — were charred, others had machete wounds across their faces. Aid workers said some had been shot.
“The shooting was just meant to bring people from their houses and then when people came out they started cutting them with machetes,” said Dogo Nahawa resident Peter Jang, women crying behind him.
Dogo Nahawa is a Christian community. Eye-witnesses say the Hausa-Fulani Muslim militants came chanting ‘allahu akbar’ and broke into homes, cutting human beings including children and women with their knives and cutlasses.
Those radical Muslims sure have one peaceful religion there. Stories like this make me sick. Where are the stories of radical Christians mass–murdering thousands screaming “In the name of Christ“? And how long until the President come out to tell us how Muslims are impoverished people and how much we need to understand where they’re coming from?
Tell me again why I should get tickets for Citifield in 2010…
Roy Halladay isn’t exactly giving me optimism about the upcoming campaign for the Mets:
The first time he met Phillies pitching coach Rich Dubee over the winter, following the trade that sent him from Toronto to Philadelphia, Halladay showed him a binder of past spring training outings.
“It blew me away,’’ said Dubee.
“He’s Peyton Manning,’’ said former Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi. “That’s how prepared he is.’’
Lovely.
Real estate problems looming again
Florida may or may not encapsulate the country’s lingering mortgage mess. However, stories like this do not give reasons for optimism:
Record snowstorms in January and February had many Americans shoveling sidewalks and driveways instead of combing through listings for open houses. Partly as a result, an index that tracks sales agreement showed a 7.6 percent drop from December to a seasonally adjusted January reading of 90.4, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.
It was the lowest reading since last April and a disappointment to economists, who had expected it would rise to 97.6.
The weakness, however, was not confined to the wintry Northeast. The biggest month-to-month drop was in the West, where sales fell 13 percent. Sales fell almost 9 percent in the Northeast and Midwest and 2 percent in the South.
The weather isn’t the only culprit, wrote Jennifer Lee, an economist with BMO Capital Markets. “The impact of government incentives . . . appears to be running out of steam, which is, frankly, a scary thought,” she wrote.
When it comes to the economy, significant growth isn’t really possible until the real estate market corrects itself. With the American taxpayer owning virtually all of the US mortgage market via Fannie, Freddy and the FHA, plus subsidizing homebuyers with the tax credit, the market is being propped up by the US government—-its a false bottom.
The bubble burst but effectively, the market never crashed due to government support. Eventually markets need to crash in order to be made whole. Just like cash for clunkers, the tax credit is only bringing future sales into the present–there’s no other incentive.
It will be both interesting and scary to see what happens after the tax credit expires on April 30th.
Blogger’s Block
So much going on in the healthcare debate the past few days—a lot of peripheral stories too: the Eric Massa drama and Rahm Emmanuel for example. So much noise, and I can’t really get myself to write about any of it.
So here’s something—”Please Mr. Postman” by my favorite band of all time:
I hadn’t heard this one in a while until it popped up on my iPod this evening at the gym. A lot of the earlier Beatles stuff gets brushed off or ignored and that’s a shame. Sure, some of the early catalog is forgettable, but this recording is a great piece of music—a great production by George Martin and Lennon is at his best.
It’s about statism, stupid…
Congressman Paul Ryan on liberalism and what healthcare reform means to the left:
…[T]hey believe in a political philosophy that is more like a cradle to grave, more of a social welfare state, kind of like you see in Europe versus the American ideal that we’ve known and loved and grown up with. And, so really what this is more about is ideology than health care policy. Because if this was about health care policy we could get a bi-partisan agreement tomorrow. [...]
They are trying to ram it through as fast as they can before their power slips away from them and that’s why they’re trying to create this brand new entitlement which really does have the government takeover 17% of our economy.”
This is what congressional Republicans should have been saying for the last twelve months, instead of bitching about bipartisanship. Once again, they need to pound the table!
This should have been is not a debate about tinkering with the Senate bill to allow Republicans to get some goodies of their own into the legislation. This is not about who wins or loses in the 2010 midterms.
This is about the future of this country. This is about joining the mediocrity of the rest of the world versus holding up what’s left of an exceptional nation.
Unfortunately, time is running out–healthcare legislation is set for a vote within the next two weeks. Republicans are essentially powerless, and the fate of healthcare reform rests in the hands of a few Democratic congressmen in the House.
You still lie, Mr. President
Remember when Congressman Joe Wilson gained national attention last September when he blurted out “You lie!” in the middle of the President’s healthcare speech to Congress?
Rep. Wilson objected to the President’s statement that illegal immigrants would not be covered under the proposed healthcare proposal.
Well, it’s go time on healthcare reform and it looks like coverage for illegal immigrants is in the works:
…[Democratic party] leaders have their work cut out for them in the House to garner the 216 votes they need to pass the Senate bill and a corresponding package of changes.
New York Rep. Nydia Velasquez, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said her group is in talks with party leaders to change the Senate’s restrictions to bar illegal immigrants from purchasing insurance on the exchanges.
The President lies. Democrats are liars.
At this point, what are the odds that left wing goodies like this are NOT included in the final legislation? This is a literal cramdown of enormous proportions and a travesty of the American political system. W hat a disgrace…
UPDATE. Via Ed Morrissey, the Hill reports that the members of the CHC can be swayed:
…[O]ne member of the Hispanic Caucus said that, when the issue was raised in November, Cuellar was the only Hispanic Democrat who vowed not to bring down the House healthcare bill over the Senate’s tougher treatment of undocumented workers.
On Wednesday, Cuellar said he doubted he would be alone if it happens again.
“If [the Senate language] comes up for a vote over here, I think there will be other folks who’ll be with me in not voting no over that language,” he said. “Are you going to stop the whole thing because of this provision here? I almost hate to say this, but it’s a cost-benefit analysis, a big-picture view.”
That’s the argument Cuellar said he expects to hear from Obama at Thursday’s meeting.
Of course that’s what the CHC will hear from the President. The underlying narrative in the push for reform over the last few weeks has been the “fall-on-your-sword and we’ll work out the kinks later” meme. The abortion issue will be tougher for Democrats to overcome than immigration, but in the end I think the CHC will cave. I hope I’m wrong.
Madonna’s 13-year old daughter to launch clothing line for teens
Because it’s never to early to start selling out your kids for pop culture relevance.
Jerks
Senate Democrats held a news conference today on healthcare reform and I didn’t get to hear any of it. Reading up on the conference on the internet, it wasn’t so much what I heard about it that drove me nuts, but what I saw:
More shameless photos at the link.
Are the Democrats so desperate to ram healthcare through that they’re willing to debase themselves so much by trotting out the sick to prove their point?
You can see the smugness and arrogance in their forced concern and fake empathy. What a bunch of classless douchebags these Senators are—Durbin, Schumer, Reid and all the rest. Scum.
This charade was disgusting and an embarrassment to the US Congress, the Democratic party and the country as a whole.
UPDATE. “Harry Reid hides behind 11-year-old kiddie shield Marcelas Owens”
Healthcare vote timeline
I’ve been combing through the blogs and news sites trying to find a credible timeline for when the healthcare bill comes to a vote.
Jonathan Cohn posts a decent summation:
Assuming reformers get a favorable score on the reconciliation package from the Congressional Budget Office in the next few days–and one should never make assumptions about the CBO, even though a favorable score seems likely–the House will vote on the Senate health care reform bill sometime late next week.
Most likely it will be Saturday because the president is leaving Sunday, creating a deadline of sorts. Of course, don’t be surprised if Saturday becomes Sunday, as in the wee morning hours of…
All eyes are on the CBO report.
Sobering thoughts on Republicans and healthcare reform
Elections have consequences, and the consequences have left Republicans with little to fight with:
The only arrow left in the GOP’s quiver is to make sure the public knows precisely how obnoxious, illegal, and underhanded the Democrats’ behavior is. The media simply will not make this an issue unless Republicans drag them to it kicking and screaming, so start dragging.
I’m not going to pretend that I’ve been happy or satisfied with the Republican party over the past twelve months or so. Wavering Republicans who voted for bailouts and spending during the Bush era are still around. The only difference is that they’ve essentially kept quiet during the healthcare debate and allowed the Democrats to make asses of themselves.
But I’m not going to fool myself into thinking that most of them have found conservative religion. There’s a reason why the Tea Party was born. There’s a reason Scott Brown is a Senator from Massachussets. There’s a reason why Chris Christie is the governor of my state, the Garden State. People are fed up with statism that only demands more and more of their families’ resources.
For all of this, whatever the final outcome of this healthcare debate, and being so close to disaster, the Republicans really need to sit down and look at themselves in the mirror and figure out what they’re about.
Nice Deb says the fight over healthcare reform has become a spiritual one, and I concur. The debate has never and should never have been only about who wins elections in a midterm election. I’ve said it over and over and over again–this is about what’s right and what’s wrong. Encroaching statism vs individualism. The lines between conservatism and liberalism can never be more clear. This is a philosophical and political battle and conservatives need to fight tooth and nail.
Michael Moore: Hey, working class Michigan taxpayers should subsidize my crappy films
A real working class hero that Michael Moore:
A Republican [Michigan] state senator is calling out filmmaker Michael Moore for requesting $1 million in tax subsidies for his movie “Capitalism: A Love Story,” in which the filmmaker decried the government bailout of Wall Street executives.
State Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi, is asking Moore to withdraw his application from the Michigan Film Office, which would reimburse up to 42 percent for costs associated with filming in the state. […]
Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s Kathy Hoekstra broke the story last week that Moore applied for the tax subsidy[…]
“He got caught in his own rhetoric and double standards,” Cassis said. “He decried capitalism and big corporations getting government handouts, and he asked for a handout himself from all the taxpayers of Michigan. He presented himself as a defender of the poor and downtrodden, and government should not be supportive of corporate welfare, but he himself is taking money from taxpayers.
She continued, “Michael Moore, if you stand by your position in ‘Capitalism: A Love Story,’ then withdraw your application from the film office for refunds at the expense of and subsidized by Michigan taxpayers.”[…]
“He put himself on the movie-making landscape by trying to get GM’s Roger Smith on the record,” Hoekstra said. “I find it ironic that he seems to be just as elusive as the subject of his breakthrough movie ‘Roger and Me.’”
More from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s Michael LaFaive:
“You cannot create jobs, you cannot enrich both Peter and Paul by robbing one of them,” LaFaive said. “And that’s what is occurring here. Mr. Moore should know better, since he so long has railed against this type of cronyism, these cozy relationships between government and the private sector.”
Michael Moore is your typical progressive–a bitter and self-loathing hypocrite. Bitter that others actually risk their own resources and time to produce wealth for the benefit of themselves and their families.
This degenerate spends most of his time tearing into our free market economic system and proponents of the same. But apparently he has no problem with that institution when he can use it to line his own, fat pocket.
Deep Thought on the Coffee Party
If a group of Obama-supporting liberals organized a movement to counteract Tea Party Nation and nobody bothers to show up, does it actually exist?
The Pacific
Just finished watching the first episode and I find myself looking forward to next Sunday. The characters don’t seem as dynamic as Band of Brothers, but it’s still early. Next week should be interesting.
More importantly, it should be noted that one of the main characters in this true story is from Jersey. Jersey Pride!
Voting on healthcare reform
It all begins today. The healthcare reform reconciliation bill is moving its way through the House committees in order to be brought to the floor for a vote. What is the bill exactly? It’s essentially a blank contract that the Democrats are asking us to sign and that they’ll be glad to fill in the rest later.
…[A]s Rep. Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican member on the Budget Committee, explained to me last week, this is just the “shell” bill — the vehicle that Democrats need to get moving on health care. Once the bill gets approved (likely Monday), Democrats will send this phantom bill over to the Rules Committee, where it will be stripped, and then they’ll insert in all of the actual changes that they’ve negotiated.
Why all of the theatrics?
Well, under the reconciliation rules in last year’s budget, any reconciliation bill would have to have been submitted to the Budget Committee by October 15, 2009. It just so happens that earlier versions of health care legislation cleared the Ways and Means and Education and Labor Committees last year. So Democrats just dusted that legislation off, and are using that as the vehicle to begin the reconciliation process. That’s why, for instance, if you look through the 2,309 page bill that was released Sunday night, you’ll find a public option, which leadership has indicated would not actually be in the final bill. (Interestingly, the student loan bill is also tacked on at the end.)
Just a “simple up or down vote,” remember?
Swampland’s Jay Newton- Small has a comprehensive guide to the entire ugly process here.
Peter Graves, RIP
Although I wasn’t born when the series first made it to television, Mission: Impossible was on in syndication when I was really young, and I distincly remember seeing it on the tube.
It had one of the best opening credits of any television show. Ever.
Godspeed.
AR-Sen: New Lincoln ad attacks unions
The Lincoln campaign can’t be any more clear about separating its candidate from the lunatics running the Democratic party in DC right now.
First, there was the ad trashing the Democratic party platform. Now, her campaign goes after the lifeblood of the Democratic party–the unions:
Actually, the clip was a response to Bill Halter’s ad accusing Lincoln of being tied to special interests in Washington. Lincoln’s campaign is being really aggressive in distancing itself from the face of the Democratic party. So toxic is their agenda that she needs to run as a centrist.
But of course, Halter is more of an “insider” then he cares to let on:
National unions have pledged $4M for independent expenditure campaigns against Lincoln and for Halter. Lincoln has said she opposes the Employee Free Choice Act, and her concern over health care drove unions and progressive groups into Halter’s arms.
It’s hard to run as an “outsider” when you’re taking money from national labor unions. But facts never get in the way of left-wing talking points. Halter is now the darling of the radical left because Lincoln dares to oppose the labor union agenda and nationalizing healthcare.
This is real interesting, considering the alleged anti-incumbent mood of the electorate that the MSM keeps talking about. Or is it anti-Democrat? The Arkansas Senate race should be a good barometer of which way the winds are really blowing.
Eleven votes shy of killing Obamacare? (UPDATE)
CNN reports:
Five more House Democrats said Tuesday that they will vote against Senate health care legislation, which puts opponents of reform just 11 votes shy of the 216 needed to prevent President Obama from scoring a major victory on his top domestic priority.
An ongoing CNN analysis shows that opposition in the House to the Senate health care plan has reached 205 members.
This is not the best sign for stopping this nonsense.
Also, Dennis Kucinich is holding a press conference to announce his decision tomorrow at 10 am. Allahpundit says this means he’s voting “yes”.
I agree with this—why would he hold a conference to announce he would figuratively kick the Obama administration in the teeth and/or risk a naked Rahm smackdown in the House gym shower? It looks like he was waterboarded with some serious Obama Kool-Aid.
My question is this—assuming Kucinich is voting yes, will Kos call off the dogs? Doubt it.
UPDATE. And it’s a yes from Kucinich on Obamacare:
“I have doubts about the bill,” Kucinich said. “This is not the bill I wanted to support. . . However, after careful discussions with President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, my wife Elizabeth and close friends, I’ve decided to cast a vote in favor of the legislation.”
A real piece of work these progressive Democrats are, aren’t they? ”Doubts” about the bill and “not the bill” he wanted, but…..he’ll vote for it anyway. Hey, whatever it takes to save the Obama legacy. I’m wondering how big the payoff will be.
To all the Tea Partying, third party advocates and Glenn Beck fanatics
I’m not a big poll geek, but here is an interesting question from a WSJ/NBC News poll out yesterday:
(ASKED OF RESPONDENTS WHO HAD HEARD OF THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT, Q10:1-5)
Q13 From what you know about the so-called Tea Party Movement, would it be a third party that you would be interested in voting for this year for Congress?
3/10+
Yes …………………………………………………………………………………………… 20
No ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 50
Depends (VOL) ……………………………………………………………………….. 5
Not sure …………………………………………………………………………………… 7
Unaware of Tea Party (10:6) ……………………………………………….. 18
+ Results shown reflect responses among registered voters.
Got that? 50% say that they won’t consider voting for a third-party candidate. So can we stop with the third-party nonsense already? You want conservatives in Washington? Then it’s the GOP or bust.
Instead of trashing the GOP, move to reform it. That’s part of what grassroots organizations are supposed to be doing–keeping the party in check.
If you’re not happy with the direction of the party establishment, then don’t feed the beast. Hit them where it hurts the most–in the wallet. Support conservative candidates directly instead of donating to the GOP.
Don’t waste your resources on third parties as you’ll only be helping to elect Democrats.
The CBO numbers end the debate
Ezra Klein reports that the Democrats have their hands on the numbers:
According to a Democratic source, CBO has finished its work and will release the official preliminary score later today. But here are the basic numbers: The bill will cost $940 billion over the first 10 years and reduce the deficit by $130 billion during that period. In the second 10 years — so, 2020 to 2029 — it will reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion. The legislation will cover 32 million Americans, or 95 percent of the legal population.
To put this in context, that’s more deficit reduction than either the House or Senate bill, and more coverage than the Senate bill.
That does not bode well for opponents of the bill. Meanwhile, Paul Ryan’s office has released a statement reasserting that the CBO has not released its report yet:
“The Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that there is currently no official cost estimate. Yet House Democrats are touting to the press – and spinning for partisan gain – numbers that have not been released and are impossible to confirm. Rep. James Clyburn stated he was “giddy” about these unsubstantiated numbers. This is the latest outrageous exploitation by the Majority – in this case abusing the confidentiality of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office – to pass their massive health care overhaul at any cost.”
UPDATE. Luke Russert confirms the numbers are genuine. My gut is that if the numbers hold, then this ends the debate and the bill will pass. There’s too much heat on the fence-sitting Dems for it not to pass.
Whip counts got you confused?
The Washington Post has a useful comprehensive chart.
Hannity charity scam?
Never been a fan of Sean Hannity. I don’t particularly care for the cheap theatrics and smugness of his style. (I love how the “fight for conservatism” doesn’t start until his book is released). Also, having Karl Rove and Dick Morris on your show three times a week doesn’t exactly help the cause.
Stories like this from Debbie Schlussel don’t help change my opinion of him one bit.
Obamacare is merely the next bulkhead
[...] Western civilization, over my lifetime, has been a slow-sinking ship. The few who have known what is happening have worked desperately to seal the watertight doors, repair the fissures, pump out the flooded zones. It’s been a losing fight, though.
The tilt of the decks is harder and harder to ignore. Last night, a major bulkhead gave way. Soon a funnel will topple over with a great crash and a shower of sparks. Yet still the band is playing, the people are dancing, the food coming up from the galley.
I’m finding it hard to disagree with him here. A few more days, maybe.
Surprise!
What did you think healthcare reform was all about?
The bill is the most sweeping piece of federal legislation since Medicare was passed in 1965. It aims to smooth out one of the roughest edges in American society — the inability of many people to afford medical care after they lose a job or get sick. And it would do so in large measure by taxing the rich.
A big chunk of the money to pay for the bill comes from lifting payroll taxes on households making more than $250,000. On average, the annual tax bill for households making more than $1 million a year will rise by $46,000 in 2013, according to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research group. Another major piece of financing would cut Medicare subsidies for private insurers, ultimately affecting their executives and shareholders.
The benefits, meanwhile, flow mostly to households making less than four times the poverty level — $88,200 for a family of four people. Those without insurance in this group will become eligible to receive subsidies or to join Medicaid. (Many of the poor are already covered by Medicaid.) Insurance costs are also likely to drop for higher-income workers at small companies.
Finally, the bill will also reduce a different kind of inequality. In the broadest sense, insurance is meant to spread the costs of an individual’s misfortune — illness, death, fire, flood — across society. Since the late 1970s, though, the share of Americans with health insurance has shrunk. As a result, the gap between the economic well-being of the sick and the healthy has been growing, at virtually every level of the income distribution.
You didn’t think it was actually about healthcare did you??
Rumblings in the Garden State
Chris Christie, the governor of my home state of New Jersey, is making a name for himself.
How does a chief executive do that? By standing up to the special interests and public sector unions which have held the state in a financial strangle-hold for years.
Specifically, Gov. Christie isn’t making any friends at the NJEA, the belligerent state teachers union:
All around the state, school districts are planning painful, unprecedented amputations of staff and programs. Local officials are cursing Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed cuts in state aid, but they should be pointing fingers at themselves, too.
When they should have been holding the line on salaries for the past several years, many boards of education instead hugged teachers at the bargaining table and slipped tens of millions of dollars into their pockets with a wink. Now, we’re paying a price.
[...]
This week, the governor called for a one-year pay freeze for teachers, and the New Jersey School Boards Association immediately announced its support.
The Star-Ledger has called for a pay freeze for teachers and all public employees to help drowning taxpayers catch their breath.
But the teachers union doesn’t believe its members should share the pain.
When asked why not, the New Jersey Education Association’s defiant president Barbara Keshishian told a Star-Ledger editorial board recently, “Because we have negotiated contracts.”
[...]
If the NJEA has its way, teachers will watch friends and colleagues get laid off, class sizes increased and extracurricular programs eliminated — rather than reopen sacrosanct contracts and accept a pay freeze. Remember, these are the same teachers who chanted, “Think of the kids!” during their protest of the governor’s proposed funding cuts. Local union chapters should think of the kids (and the suffering taxpayers), defy their militant state leadership and agree to a pay freeze. It’s the right thing to do.
A decade of liberal governance by Democrats like John Corzine and Jim McGreevey have left the state on the brink of financial disaster. Governor Christie has made it abundantly clear to Jerseyans that tough choices will have to be made to correct our fiscal situation.
In order to do this, concessions need to be made by public workers and their unions, to alleviate the pressure on what is one of the highest middle class tax rates in the country.
But politically, conservatives across the country should learn from what Gov. Christie is doing here. He’s not afraid to call out the unions and take them to the mat. He makes it clear that the citizens and the administration have nothing against teachers. Nothing against students. It’s about the unions and their radical allegiance to their union bosses instead of educating children. Christie isn’t afraid to make this distinction. For too long the radical left has been allowed to use students and teachers as human shields against necessary fiscal action that hurt their pocket books. Christie is calling them out on it, with success.
The last polls show that Christie has an approval rating of 52%. As he calls out the unions more, his poll numbers increase. It’s not about the teachers–it’s about the unions.
As conservatives try to regain their voice on the national stage, as they attempt to take steps back towards fiscal conservatism, they should look here to New Jersey and see how it can be done.
Senator Menendez is keeping busy
Speaking of New Jersey, how pathetic is our Senate delegation?
The economy is in shambles, the state is facing a severe budget crisis and we have the highest tax rate in the nation. Senator Lautenberg is close to ninety years of age and is basically a rubber stamp for a left-wing agenda.
And then there’s Bob Menendez.
In the midst of our economic issues and championing a ruinous healthcare reform legislation, what’s on the top of his list of priorities?
He’s worried about the scourge of diversity:
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) has begun an unofficial “diversity survey” of Fortune 500 companies and has told the companies that if they do not participate in the survey, he will make their names public.
The survey has already drawn fire from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as “a fishing expedition” and from legal experts, who say companies may violate federal employment laws by even asking such questions of their employees or suppliers.
Menendez, the only Hispanic in the Senate, wants to find out how many minorities, women and disabled people serve as top executives or members of the firms’ corporate boards, as well as the “demographic makeup of your suppliers.”
If a company responds to Menendez’s request, its information will be kept anonymous, although it will be aggregated in a report Menendez plans to issue later this year.
“Completion of this survey will show your commitment to improving diversity among the highest ranks of your corporation,” Menendez wrote in a March 8 letter sent to the companies.
[...]
Menendez said the survey had nothing to do with being chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, where one of his main roles is raising money and courting wealthy donors. And he rejected any suggestion that a company that did not comply with the survey could be the object of a boycott.
Yeah. This has nothing to do with Democratic party fundraising, baseless and frivolous lawsuits, the 2010 elections or any of that nonsense. This is about diversity. Because it’s a US Senator’s job to intimidate and bully private enterprise into hiring the right color people.
2012 can’t come soon enough to be rid of this jerk.
Chris Christie unleashed
Governor Chris Christie is pulling no punches in what’s shaping up to be an epic battle between fiscal sanity and the obstinate teachers union.
As I wrote earlier this week, conservatives nationwide should be paying attention to how the governor is calling out the teachers union and isn’t buying into their sob stories and their constant self-victimization.
Yesterday, Christie landed another jab:
Christie said teachers could avoid layoffs if they reopen their contracts, take pay freezes and pay 1.5 percent of their salary toward their health care. He said students should ask their teachers why they are unwilling to do that.
“They should ask their teachers, if they want to teach free thinking, why they’re in the throes of the dicta from their union, rather than resorting to common sense,” he said. “This is where they abuse their position of trust. Those are our children in that classroom. To be inundated with that type of propaganda – self-serving, self-interested, greedy propaganda – is reprehensible. And they know it.”
It’s so refreshing to see a Republican show some spine and not cave into the same, tired left-wing tactics. Under the Corzine regime, when the teachers union yelled “Jump!”, the only answer from Trenton was, “How high?”.
Christie apparently, doesn’t play by those rules. He’s calling them out for the hypocrites that they are, and provided he himself doesn’t cave, the citizens of New Jersey will be much better off.
UPDATE. The Washington Times picks up on the Christie story:
Most contentious have been his attacks on teachers and public-sector unions, which are getting a 7 percent pay raise over two years but contribute little or nothing toward health care at a time when one in 10 New Jerseyans are out of work. This week, the governor called on all public school employees to agree to salary freezes for the coming year and to contribute to their health insurance.
Mr. Christie’s budget proposal calls for laying off 1,300 public employees and looks to save $50 million by privatizing some state services.
“The leaders of the union who represent these teachers have used their political muscle to set up two classes of citizens in New Jersey: those who enjoy rich public benefits and those who pay for them,” he said in his budget address last week.
Here in New Jersey, the Christie/public union fight is all we’re hearing about on our local television and radio news. Jersey is still deep blue, but that voters put Christie into office speaks volumes. And I hate to rehash the election of 2009, but Christie picked up support in blue precincts and counties, especially in middle class areas, like along the Middlesex County corridor.
Long story short, this is not a fluke. Christie is doing exactly what the tax-weary electorate voted him in for. The teachers union can stuff it!
I can’t repeat it enough–this story should be getting national attention from conservatives and the Republican party.
Democrat party fail and the myth of the “last eight years”
It’s about time Democrats start accepting some responsibility of the ship they’ve been running for the better part of three years now.
Via Instapundit, a Goy and His Blog notes:
The horror of “the last 8 years” has become it’s own self-perpetuating meme. The problem is that it’s a meme without meaning. Two of those eight years – now stretched to three out of the last nine – saw fiscal and regulatory policies determined by the Democrat Congressional majority, elected in 2006. Every economic indicator available shows that this is where America’s recent tribulations began.
The real horror – the years since the Democrat Congress rose to absolute power – hasn’t seen much discussion. It’s “all Bush’s fault”, as they say. But as the last ten years recede into the rear view mirror, we can see them in context. And 20/20 hindsight can often be quite revealing.
And if they don’t take most of the responsibility, which I’m sure they won’t, the Republicans need to force it on them come the midterm campaign, and establish that narrative.
I wrote along these lines back in January and how Republicans need to keep pointing out this fact. I’m not excusing the blatant excessive spending of the Republicans back during the Bush administration. But as Goy notes in his post, those years are quickly receding.
One other point worth noting–the entire “success” of the Obama administration and to an extent, that of Democrats in control, depends on the “Bush and Republicans screwed things up and we’re making it better” meme. This is made easier thanks to a complicit media. If Republicans want to roll back healthcare, if they want to stop whatever more economic destruction the Obama Democrats want to bring down on the country from now until November, Republicans need to grow a backbone and fight back–hard.
Senator Smalley is angry
Watch this video.
Apparently, the new healthcare law mandates all sorts of great stuff–like building playgrounds to “encourage” healthy lifestyles.
Jason Mattera asks Senator Al Franken how things like that help to lower healthcare costs, as proponents of reform says it does. And the larger question–is it the Federal government’s place to mandate these kind of things?
Age has not been good to Al Franken. He’s obviously a bitter and angry person. More importantly, he appears to have no clue about what exactly is in the healthcare reform bill. It’s probably a fair guess that not many Democrats do either.
And yes, at one point Mattera refers to Franken as “Senator Smalley”. Priceless!
Breaking: Tea Party activist charged with threatening to kill member of the Congressional Black Caucus
And when I say “Tea Party activist”, I really mean “extremist left-winger”. And when I say “Congressional Black Caucus member”, I really mean “conservative Republican”.
Actually a Muslim convert and Barack Obama supporter has been charged with threatening to kill the Jewish and white Eric Cantor, House Minority Whip.
How long will the White House, the Congressional Democrats and left-wing media types wait to denounce the hateful rhetoric and incendiary actions from the extreme right-wing left?
Shocker: Micahel Steele and the RNC love to waste money
It’s all to attract the “big” donors, I’m sure:
A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,620.71 spent [update: the amount is actually $1,946.25] at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex.
RNC trips to other cities produced bills from a long list of chic and costly hotels such as the Venetian and the M Resort in Las Vegas, and the W (for a total of $19,443) in Washington. A midwinter trip to Hawaii cost the RNC $43,828, not including airfare.
None of this crap comes as any surprise of course.
My only question is this: at what point does the RNC realize that Michael Steele is more of a negative than a positive for the party? Hell, for that matter what are the positives? Have there ever been any?
IRS to rubes: Don’t worry about new healthcare requirements, it’s not a big deal
That the new healthcare law requires the hiring of over 16,000 new IRS agents tells you all you need to know about healthcare reform. It’s about government, not healthcare.
But the IRS says we have nothing to worry about:
[...]IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said taxpayers have nothing to fear.
“I think there have been some misconceptions out there,” Shulman told a House committee last week, insisting the new law will not fundamentally alter the relationship between the agency and taxpayers.
Shulman said the new health care law puts the onus on taxpayers to report their insurance coverage on tax forms much as they report income and interest earnings.
“All that will happen with the IRS is similar to a current 1099, where a bank sends the IRS a statement that says ‘here’s the interest’ someone owes, and they send it to the taxpayer,” he said. “We expect to get a simple form that … says this person has acceptable health coverage.”
He said the Department of Health and Human Services will set guidelines for what constitutes “acceptable” health coverage.
See? That’s all there is to it. It will be just like getting a 1099 in the mail every January. Except instead of it having to do with how much money you make, it will be about how much and what type of healthcare insurance you have.
And in five years, it will be about how much energy you use.
And five years after that, it will be about what kind of car you drive.
The bottom line is once you start feeding the beast, it will always demand more.
McCain: Sure, Obama could cave and repeal the new healthcare law himself
God bless him:
Political pressure might become so intense that President Obama would agree to repeal major portions of the healthcare bill he signed into law recently, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said today.
Even if Republicans win Congress in 2010, Obama could veto any legislation repealing healthcare reform. But McCain suggested the public might feel so strongly that Obama would cave.
“If the intensity level is as high as it is, I can draw you a scenario where the president would be forced to repeal or really replace it with the provisions [Republicans] wanted,” McCain said in an interview with KFYI 550.
Words fail.
What can you say after statements like that? Keep in mind that this was the Republican party’s candidate for President less than two years ago. Completely devoid of any political reality.
One wonders what the Senator would be saying if he wasn’t in a tough primary battle for his political life?
POTUS: Drill Baby, Drill
Obama opens up to offshore drilling:
The Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling, much of it for the first time, officials said Tuesday.
Under the plan, the coastline from New Jersey northward would remain closed to all oil and gas activity. So would the Pacific Coast, from Mexico to the Canadian border.
The proposal — a compromise that will please oil companies and domestic drilling advocates but anger some residents of affected states and many environmental organizations — would end a longstanding moratorium on oil exploration along the East Coast from the northern tip of Delaware to the central coast of Florida, covering 167 million acres of ocean.
Yet another flip-flop by the President, but at this point nobody in the media or the Obama sycophants in the blogosphere appear too concerned about that. Obama is a “D” after all.
But I’m a bit more cynical than that.
This is, effectively, home state pork for Conservadem Senators who are viewed as winnable votes on the energy bill. Five of the original fifteen Conservadems are listed above (Webb and Graham are not Conservadems). Of course, since the new offshore drilling policy will operate through the executive branch, there is no guarantee at all that the Obama administration will actually get an energy bill out of this deal. Nonetheless, and leaving aside the political efficacy of this ploy, it is clearly a political move designed to make a bill more viable.
This makes sense. I think the White House has cap-and-trade next on the agenda. Winning the healthcare fight was huge, but I don’t think Obama wants another long and drawn out battle like that again–especially as we get closer to the midterms. Today’s announcement seems to be made to win over the moderates in the party for the energy bill in the Senate.
Like healthcare reform not being about healthcare, this proposal is not about energy but about getting votes.
And one more thing—it seems Sarah Palin was right.
Gallup: GOP gaining advantage post-healthcare vote
Clearly, Gallup must be some sort of racist polling outfit:
Turns out the Democratic Congress’ passage of the Democratic healthcare legislation signed last week by Democratic President Obama is so wildly popular that a new Gallup Poll finds for the first time this survey cycle registered American voters now prefer that a Republican represent their district.
The new survey of the generic congressional ballot, taken after the massive healthcare bill’s partisan votes last month and just released overnight, finds 47% say they’d like a Republican representative and 44% prefer a Democrat.
According to Gallup’s interpretation, this new finding would indicate an even stronger GOP outcome if November’s midterm elections were held now because Republicans tend to vote at higher rates than members of the president’s party.
Given that these numbers are credible, my take is that Republicans will have the advantage only as much as they can frame the narrative through the summer—-that healthcare reform needs to be (eventually) repealed, that if Republicans take back the House and Senate (fingers crossed) then they will stop the appropriations funding for the legislation.
Also, Senate Republicans need to man up, grow a spine and take the bull by the horns. I’m already hearing noise about them getting squishy. No surprise there.
Forty is the number
Expanding on Gallup’s numbers on GOP favorability on the generic ballot, I thought this was interesting from Hotline:
Meanwhile, Pres. Obama’s approval rating isn’t helping Dems at all. As of this morning, Pollster.com’s running average shows 47.6% of Americans approve of the job Obama’s doing, while 47% disapprove. Historically, when a WH incumbent’s approval rating is under 50%, his party has lost an average of 41 seats, according to an analysis by the GOP polling firm Public Opinion Strategies (which we first wrote about last year).
That’s a significant number — after all, the GOP needs 40 seats to take back the majority.
Campaigns don’t win themselves, and strategists in both parties know it. But with an advantage like they haven’t enjoyed for years, the GOP is in good position to take back a large number of seats.
Yes, campaigns definitely don’t win themselves, and I never underestimate the GOP’s ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. And yes, I’m still pessimistic about raising the bar on GOP gains this November.
That being said, it’s still a bit nebulous, but it seems as if the post-healthcare bump is fading for Democrats. Like I’ve been saying, the Republicans need to frame the narrative–this healthcare legislation was bad for the country both economically and politically.
Republicans should be hammering away at the need to focus on the economy, on job creation, on the jobs that have been lost under a government that’s been controlled by Democrats for almost three years. That’s the best hand they have.
Government-run healthcare in England not so great for women
Hey, let’s have government-run healthcare like other industrialized nations!
Healthcare in England is so poor that women live longer in the former Communist state of Slovenia.
A shocking report yesterday showed that female life expectancy here is also lower than in almost all Western European countries.
[...]
Experts said the difference can be put down to NHS failures to spot cancer and heart disease early enough – as well as the fact that the British diet is worse than in other countries.
[...]
Mark Wallace, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said last night: ‘It is shocking that England is falling behind other European countries – and even more that we are falling behind a country like Slovenia. We spend a vast amount on healthcare but we don’t get the results that we should.
‘The important thing is not simply having government pour money into the NHS – but making sure the money is spent properly and the service works. This is the most important measure of all: how long people actually live.’
But of course, it won’t be like that in the United States. We’ve heard over and over and over again how big government sticking it to those evil insurance companies will stop kids from being born with autism, stop women from dying from breast cancer, etc. So surely a massive Federal healthcare bureaucracy will only work wonders here in the States.
First guy in line for the iPad was also first for the iPhone
His name is Greg Packer, a highway maintenance worker from Jersey and as of yesterday, he’s claimed his spot at the 5th Avenue Apple store in NYC:
I initially considered myself in the camp of people who think the iPad is nothing more than a big iPod Touch. Packer’s answers to the question of why he wants an iPad are really not too convincing.
But the more I read about it, the more interesting it gets.
Incidentally, here was Parker in 2007, on a steamy hot June afternoon:
Good luck.
Will iPad users “strain” AT&T’s wireless network on Saturday?
AT&T Inc., facing criticism for jams in its network in cities like New York, may find the Apple Inc. iPad adds more strain than officials anticipated.
The biggest U.S. phone carrier has played down the expected impact of Apple’s iPad tablet computer, which goes on sale this weekend in the U.S., saying many consumers will choose to run it on Wi-Fi hot spots rather than on AT&T’s wireless network.
I’ve used AT&T/Cingular for a long time now, and I don’t intend on changing. For me, the benefit is pricing and I’ve yet to see Verizon be more competitive on that end. On the other hand, I’m getting tired of the dropped calls. They happen in the same spot all the time (after a specific exit on the GSP and near one corner of a local road near my home) but usually when I’m driving, so I won’t go nuts about that.
Let’s just say I’ll do my best to stay off the phone most of the day on Saturday.
Good Friday
Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
The New York Times goes above and beyond
An actual headline in yesterday’s paper:
Asked to Declare His Race, Obama Checks ‘Black’
The lead-in paragraph:
It is official: Barack Obama is the nation’s first black president.
A White House spokesman confirmed that Mr. Obama, the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, checked African-American on the 2010 census questionnaire.
The president, who was born in Hawaii and raised there and in Indonesia, had more than a dozen options in responding to Question 9, about race. He chose “Black, African Am., or Negro.” (The anachronistic “Negro” was retained on the 2010 form because the Census Bureau believes that some older blacks still refer to themselves that way.)
My brain is missing some grey matter after reading this article. Is it any wonder why the Times and the Old Media journalism is are dying out? Is it any wonder why ‘blockhead’ is the perfect description for these people?
Happy Easter
…Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.
For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.
We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin.
For a dead person has been absolved from sin.
If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.
We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him.
As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God.
Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as (being) dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.
It’s a beautiful weekend here in Jersey—no signs of blizzards, nor’easters or floods. Enjoy the day.
NJEA robbing New Jersey taxpayers blind
The fight between taxpaying New Jersey families and the crooked interests of the NJEA, the state’s teachers union shows no sign of letting up. Governor Christie is taking the battle very seriously, and is proving that he really means business when it comes to calling out the corrupt and wasteful union.
One of the excuses the union is using is that the governor is playing politics, that the union is standing up for middle class working teachers and has the interests of the New Jersey students at heart.
Really?
The average New Jersey family has an annual income of approximately $77,875.
How much do NJEA bosses make?
[NJEA] executive director Vincent Giordano received $421,615 in salary and $128,508 in deferred compensation and contributions to benefit plans, according to the filing.
Union officials say the pay represented a temporary, one-year spike for Giordano, a former middle school science and social studies teacher who joined the NJEA staff as a field representative in 1970. He is now paid $300,000.
Barbara Keshishian, the NJEA president, is currently paid $256,450. Vice president Wendell Steinhauer and secretary-treasurer Marie Blistan are paid $170,974 each, according to the union, which said the salaries are appropriate to the demands of a 24-hour job.
That means that the top four individual positions in the union average over $255,000 a year–about three times more than the average NJ family makes in a year. Giordano himself makes almost six times more than the average family. If he were to give up just half of his salary, he could pay union dues for almost 300 teachers in the state. Or maybe even pay health benefits for some of them.
The union really has some chutzpah. Despite all the bellyaching and whining about playing politics, despite all the bitching about inequality and claiming to support middle class teachers, the bosses are making out like bandits. At the least, they’re making out better than most middle class New Jersey families–the very people they are screwing over.
What the NJEA is doing to New Jersey taxpayers is nothing short of robbery.
Fantasy Land
Speaking of the iPad, I was able to play around with the device this weekend at my local Apple store (about a 10-person long line and a 5 minute wait to get in, and this was early Saturday afternoon in a suburban New Jersey shopping mall).
The iPad was preloaded with some apps to let customers kick the tires. But what about the content apps? Will Old Media content providers find a way to give consumers a decent product while not screwing them over on price?
Don’t bet on it:
[W]e have a set of pricing models that deliver marginal value for premium prices and show very little that differentiate themselves from the web experience, although they expect to charge more. These pricing models are based on a sense of entitlement to set pricing as it was in the days of print. I won’t even call them strategies because they lack any kind of realistic strategic thinking.
[...]
If any company thinks that the iPad will allow them to rebuild the monopoly rent pricing structure of the 20th Century, then you’ve really fallen prey to the Steve Jobs’ reality distortion field, and you’ve blown yet another chance to build a credible digital business.
[Via]
Opening Day
It’s an unbelievable spring day here in Jersey–about 75 degrees and sunny, with no clouds. A perfect day for Opening Day baseball.
I’m slightly optimistic for the Mets, as most baseball fans should be on opening day. As of right now, the Mets are leading the Marlins 6-1, behind a nice effort by Johan. I was able to get out of the office for a bit to watch the first few innings and I have to say David Wright looked sharp with his first HR of the season.
Perfect day for baseball and plenty to be optimistic about with the Mets before the roof crashes in, starting with John Maine’s start on Wednesday, which I’m sure will last all of 5 innings, with several hits and runs given up and….
Let’s go Mets!
Everyone has the right to an iPad, dammit!
It’s just not fair that some people can afford an iPad, while some people cannot. I mean, it’s every American’s right to have the latest and best smart tablet available, regardless of quality.
Clearly, an oPad will solve that dilemma:
Classic. This video needs to go viral.
World War II posters before political correctness
Via the 2 or 3 blog, a great collection of posters before we became more concerned with offending our enemies instead of snuffing them out.
My favorite:
Click through the link for more.
File this under “Yeah, no kidding”
The United States should consider raising taxes to help bring deficits under control and may need to consider a European-style value-added tax, White House adviser Paul Volcker said on Tuesday.
Volcker, answering a question from the audience at a New York Historical Society event, said the value-added tax “was not as toxic an idea” as it has been in the past and also said a carbon or other energy-related tax may become necessary.
Though he acknowledged that both were still unpopular ideas, he said getting entitlement costs and the U.S. budget deficit under control may require such moves. “If at the end of the day we need to raise taxes, we should raise taxes,” he said.
I don’t think I’m being presumptive when I say that the President’s “nobody making under $250,000 will see a tax increase” pledge was made just to get elected. Just a thought.
McDonnell apologizes for error in Confederate History Month
Governor Bob McDonnell, jackass of the week:
Facing a national political firestorm and criticism from local allies, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell apologized Wednesday night for not including any reference to slavery in a proclamation he issued last week honoring Confederate History Month.
“The proclamation issued by this Office designating April as Confederate History Month contained a major omission,” McDonnell said in a statement. “The failure to include any reference to slavery was a mistake, and for that I apologize to any fellow Virginian who has been offended or disappointed.”
The governor did not rescind his original statement but added language recognizing slavery and stated flatly that the practice led to the Civil War – a widely accepted historical view but one that may stir anger among the corps of Lost Cause traditionalists who liked his original statement.
This story just keeps getting worse.
Things like this fortify my deep-rooted belief that Republicans will always find a way to shoot themselves in the foot somehow. McDonnell had built himself a good national following after his winning election back in November, part of a resurgent Republican mini-wave, if you will.
Declaring April as “Confederate History Month” was asinine enough–but excluding any reference to slavery, just adds to the idiocy, not to mention the political toxicity. Who knows, maybe McDonnell doesn’t want to further his political career. Maybe he just doesn’t care. Then so be it. Still, I’m scratching my head at this whole episode.
Larry Sabato:
“I’m amazed, because McDonnell is smart and he and his staff have been so careful to be inclusive and not fall into the usual trap for a Republican of being defined by the words and symbols of Ol’ Virginny,” said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia professor and longtime student of his home state’s politics.
And, Sabato said, the issue will dog the ambitious governor in the future.
“This is now a permanent part of McDonnell’s political file,” he said. “[McDonnell] had shrewdly separated himself from [conservative Attorney General Ken] Cuccinelli’s fringe mischief, but now he’s being lumped together with him. McDonnell wants to be a man of the 21st century but now, in the national mind, he’s more associated with the 19th.”
Just a dumb move no matter how you look at it.
Revolution in the Kyrgyzstani air
Stunning developments in Kyrgyzstan over the past two days:
The president of Kyrgyzstan was forced to flee the capital, Bishkek, on Wednesday after bloody protests erupted across the country over his repressive rule, a backlash that could pose a threat to the American military supply line into nearby Afghanistan.
Opposition politicians, speaking on state television after it was seized by protesters, said they had taken control of the government after a day of violent clashes that left more than 40 people dead and more than 400 wounded. The instability called into question the fate of a critical American air base in the country.
Riot police officers fired rounds of live ammunition into angry crowds of demonstrators who gathered around government buildings to rally against what they termed the government’s brutality and corruption, as well as a recent decision to increase utility rates sharply. Witnesses said that the police seemed to panic, and that there was no sign of supervision. In several cases, demonstrators wrested their weapons away from them.
By early Thursday morning, opposition officials occupied many government buildings in Bishkek, and were demanding that the president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, sign a formal letter of resignation. Mr. Bakiyev has issued no public remarks since the protests began, and it was unclear whether he was still in the country after he left the capital on the presidential plane.
A coalition of opposition parties said a transition government would be headed by a former foreign minister, Roza Otunbayeva. “Power is now in the hands of the people’s government,” she said in an televised address on Wednesday evening.
Saw this on Euronews earlier:
Why should we care about this Central Asian nation?
[I]f your reaction is, “Who the hell cares about Kyrgyzstan?” recall that Manus Air Base is the key transit point for US and NATO resupply in Afghanistan.
Steele making his mark at the RNC
Heckuva job Mike, heckuva job:
[...]Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council last week broke with RNC Chairman Michael Steele by publicly urging conservatives to stop supporting the Republican National Committee.
Now, as Steele and Perkins both prepare to address the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, Perkins has a new message for the RNC: Shape up, or risk seeing your supporters ship out and support Tea Party candidates instead.
“I think the Republicans have to realize they’re not operating in a vacuum. Now, while Democrats may be in trouble coming into November’s election, the Republicans are not the only game in town,” Perkins told us on ABC’s “Top Line” today.
“As we see the Tea Party movement taking on a life of its own, the Republicans have some competition, which I think is actually good for the conservative vote. And they’re going to have to be responsible with how they spend their money, they’re going to have to be I think very measured in their message, and that they are embracing a conservative message …. ”
“And they have to I think convince voters that they’re back on the right track,” Perkins said. “And I don’t think what we see coming out of the RNC at present is doing that.”
There’s so much fail at the RNC it’s almost laughable.
I’ve never been fond of how Perkins and the FRC have led the GOP around by the nose.These third party threats from various factions of the party are nothing new. I recall Perkins threatening to back a third party in the run-up to the 2008 primaries, when Giuliani seemed to be the apparent nominee. These threats are never good for Republicans, never good for any political party. Those who make them are never the half-loaf types.
That being said, can you blame Perkins at this point? It’s getting to the point now where even asking Steele to step down would be an embarrassing side-show unto itself as the GOP needs to gear up for the midterms, something the GOP definitely does not need.
And I repeat my assertion that I’m still not convinced that November will be as easy a cakewalk as everyone seems to think.
Then again, when it comes to Steele’s tenure as RNC Chairman, maybe it’s best to rip the band-aid off now and get it over with. With any luck, it would be a one week (two week tops) story at most.
Gallup poll shows Democratic party ratings at an all-time low
The Gallup poll is here. The report shows an across the board decline among Democrats, Indies and Republicans
Allahpundit notes that the leg down began early last summer, around the time that the great healthcare debate began:
One of the great what-ifs for future historians will be what might have happened if The One had held off on O-Care and focused instead on jobs and, say, deficit reduction. Would that have cemented the sweeping gains made by Democrats in 2006 and 2008? Would it have increased his political capital to the point where he’d now be in position to ram through an even more liberal health-care bill?
Maybe a bit presumptuous, as the healthcare bill was passed less than a month ago. But the implication is clear–ramming through an unpopular entitlement on a strictly partisan line should will be an albatross for the Democrat party. Definitely in November. But after November? The jury’s still out. Yes, clearly the alleged move to the left that was supposed to have happened in 2006-2008 never occurred and if it did, it’s all but crumbled.
Two caveats. First, never underestimate the GOP’s ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory (and the Gallup report is not exactly kind to Republicans either). And second, never underestimate the American people’s growing affection for a new entitlement.
Romney’s Obamacare problem
The road to the White House is a bit problematic for the creator of Masscare:
How do you run as the candidate of the party of repeal, when what you want to repeal is a federal version of your own signature initiative? Masscare may be to Romney in 2012 what abortion was in 2008—an issue where a critical mass of conservatives don’t quite buy his explanations [...]
The best thing for Romney to say, I think, is that he flat-out made a mistake, that he tried an idea that ran off the rails. It would also have the advantage of being true. But he can’t bring himself to go there yet.
Lowry makes a fair point. But Obamacare is likely to grow into a bigger hot button issue than it already is. If that’s the case, I find it hard to see a situation where Romney can dodge this monster of his own creation, no matter how quickly he rips the band-aid off. Methinks healthcare touches such a nerve with the Republican base that they won’t be willing to let him live it down.
Iron Man 2
Here’s my take on comic-based movies. I don’t like when they stray from the comic book storylines and motifs, if you will. It’s why I enjoyed the first Spider Man–they stuck to the comic book script, making the proper adjustments from early 1960s Queens to 2001.
As for Iron Man, the movie was phenomenal. Again, sticking to the comic book line, Pepper Potts, Rhodie, etc. And I especially appreciated how the screenwriters made the transition from Iron Man’s Vietnam War-era origins into our modern-era Vietnam, Afghanistan.
Although I’m really looking forward to Iron Man 2, I tend to be skeptical of trailers. The first was so successful, the inevitable train of bandwagon actors jawbone their way in–Samuel L. Jackson, for example, could put the whammy on this film. And they could have done better than Don Cheadle as Rhodie.
The trailer looks great:
Even the NYC bus ads look awesome:
Me and the iPad
I’ve had a serious case of blogger’s block the past few days. When I heard about Justice Stevens’ retirement the other day, it kind of sapped the political energy right out of me. The last thing I want to see is a second consecutive summer of political fighting over a SCOTUS nominee.
So for now, here are pictures I took of the iPad at my local Apple store:
This happened on April 3rd, the day the iPad was released. Just for the record, my Apple store is in a suburban shopping mall, and it was about 1pm. I wanted to see if there was any buzz here in the ‘burbs. Sure enough, there was a small line of about 15 people waiting to get in the store. I asked the girl at the door and she said the line was just to get in the store, not for buying an iPad. The line moved quickly and we were in the store in about 10 minutes—the Apple people even handed out bottles of water.
At the moment, I’m sure I won’t have much use for an iPad right now, and my feelings were pretty much muted going into the store. But I have to say it is a beautiful device–it’s sleek and not too big, but big enough. With some 10 hours of battery time, I can see how it would eventually be useful around the house or on the road.
Being a book person–as in actual books, no Kindles or Nooks–I wouldn’t appreciate the books application. But again, having checked it out it really is impressive.
I”ve been back to see the iPad again this past weekend, and I think I enjoyed it more than I did initially. I guess the more I see it, the more it will grow on me.
There. That’s the extent of my tech blogging.
The Obama administration and Kyrgyzstan
I’ve been trying to keep up with what’s going on after last week’s coup and ouster of President Bakiyev
That the US has an airbase in the country that is key to supplying our troops in Afghanistan doesn’t seem to be as important to our mainstream media as say, Tina Fey making yet another joke about Sarah Palin.
Surely, the Obama administration didn’t see this coming and nobody is asserting as much. As Dan Larison notes, the longstanding US attitude towards the region is culpable:
…[T]he latest events there should serve as yet another reminder that the Bakiyev regime has been significantly worse for Kyrgyzstan than the government Western governments and media outlets were so happy to see overthrown in yet another “color” revolution.
Of all the governments challenged by “people power” protests in the last decade, Akayev’s was probably the most inoffensive and Akayev himself was a fair sight better than some of the other Central Asian rulers Washington continues to embrace to this day.
More recently however, under the Obama administration, nothing has changed. Simon Tisdall of the Guardian warns:
[...]Washington’s self-interestedly insouciant disregard for the regime’s egregious human rights abuses and disregard of democratic norms earned the US few friends among the opposition groups that now wield power.
In his pragmatic dealings with Iran, Burma’s generals, North Korea and other unsavoury regimes, Obama has shown himself at home in the compromised world of realpolitik. Kyrgyzstan demonstrates how the turn-a-blind-eye approach can rapidly backfire. Even as Bakiyev was fleeing for his life on Wednesday, the US government was gearing up to entertain his heir-apparent, Maksim, on a visit to Washington.
Obama has no excuse for being unaware of what was going on. According to Human Rights Watch, several of Kyrgyzstan’s best-known opposition leaders were jailed on politically inspired charges in the past year. Amid intensifying street demonstrations in March, opposition websites and independent radio stations were blocked or jammed, and the publication of three newspapers was suspended. Two prominent journalists were killed last year.
Let’s hope the situation doesn’t grow any worse than it already is. But if it does, I doubt the Obama administration will know how to react.
Governor Christie keeps pounding away
Here in Jersey, the budget battle between the governor and the angry and bitter NJEA is taking up all of the local media coverage–local radio, newspapers, etc.
As I’ve noted before, conservatives across the country should be taking notes from what’s going on here. Specifically, that the governor is taking no crap from the special interests that are used to having a governor who caters to their needs instead of the needs of hard-working, tax-paying Jersey families.
The WSJ ran a piece this morning which I hope will help this story get some traction in the national media:
…[I]t’s been a long time since anyone in New Jersey has been serious about the budget. This year, gross mismanagement and accumulated fictions have left state taxpayers a $10.7 billion gap on a total state budget of $29.3 billion. Mr. Christie’s answer is simple: “a smaller government that lives within its means.”
However quaint that may sound, when you have to cut nearly $11 billion in state spending to get there, you are going to get a lot of yelling and screaming. Most comes from the New Jersey Education Association, hollering that “the children” will be hurt by Mr. Christie’s proposals for teachers to accept a one-year wage freeze and begin contributing something toward their health plans. What makes the battle interesting is the way Mr. Christie is throwing the old chestnuts back at his critics.
Yes he has. Read the whole thing.
Earlier today, Christie made the rounds of the talk shows, and kept pounding away. I was able to see the interview with CNBC which aired this morning, and it’s well worth a listen:
Part 2:
It’s no surprise to see Kernan and Quick trying to trap Christie with their political partisanship. Here you have the governor of a state, trying to make the hard choices necessary to turn it around from a decade of ruinous Democratic administrations, and they respond with “but…but Obama is president now….and things will turn around…aren’t you worried about how that will contrast with your bitterness?!?” The look on Christie’s face is priceless.
Here’s to Governor Christie for being brave enough to stand up to the special interests and hoping he has the tenacity to keep at it.
Obviously racist poll: Healthcare reform bill is unpopular
It’s been nearly about three weeks since the cramming down passage of healthcare reform, so it’s had a while to sink in.
How does progressive left-wing utopia feel?
Three weeks after Congress passed its new national health care plan, support for repeal of the measure has risen four points to 58%. That includes 50% of voters who strongly favor repeal. Also, 47% of voters believe repeal of the recently passed health care law will be good for the economy.
Following passage of the health care bill, 53% say they trust Republicans on the issue of health care. Thirty-seven percent (37%) place their trust in Democrats. A month earlier, the two parties were essentially even on the health care issue.
Apparently when Senator Chuck Schumer said Democrats would benefit from healthcare reform in November, he didn’t say exactly when the benefits of passing the monstrosity would kick in. But what the hell—there’s still seven months left to go.
NJEA applauds author of Gov. Christie death memo…literally
Joe Coppola is the chairman of the Bergen County Education Association, and the architect of the Governor Christie death wish memo.
Apparently, he doesn’t think wishing the death of the chief executive of the state is a big deal, and neither do his comrades:
Governor Christie wants him canned. Commentators in the national media have called him a moron.
And people won’t stop asking about his infamous memo for teachers union members that ended with a “prayer” wishing for the governor’s death.
“It’s history, it’s over,” said Joseph Coppola, the embattled Bergen County Education Association president who signed the memo. After it was made public by The Record a week ago, union officials apologized for the inappropriate “joke” that was meant to stay private. But Coppola said Thursday he felt trapped in repetitive days like Bill Murray in the movie “Groundhog Day.”
“At least I was able to turn that off,” he said.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Record in his Teaneck office, Coppola said he was worn out from fielding calls from radio and network television shows about the memo mess. While critics abound, he said he has the backing of educators — at a Cumberland County dinner for about 450 union members and legislators on Tuesday night, he got a standing ovation.
“The membership is very supportive,” Coppola said. “I go to bat for each and every one of them.”
A standing ovation? Very supportive? Wow.
Keep in mind that these are the people who supposedly have the interest of New Jersey students at heart, that their primary goal is our children’s education.
Seems to me that they’re nothing but angry and bitter political hacks, with the selfish interests of the union members first and foremost in their minds. Kids and New Jersey taxpayers come next, in no particular order.
But then again, most New Jersey residents realize that already.
“Reality show stars cost less”
Why anyone would want to be within a 10 mile radius of hang out with Snooki, or anyone from the Jersey Shore reality show, or any reality tv series for that matter, is beyond me:
When George Fox landed America’s most famous guidette for his Jersey Shore party, he managed to score himself a deal, he says. “She was getting 2k plus expenses, which was cheap,” he explains, stretching the meaning of that word. “Seminole Hard Rock had just paid her 10k to host a “fist-pumping contest.”
One other difference between hiring a musical act and a fameseeking reality star: a certain amount of humiliation is part of the package. “We paid her for three hours but I actually had to ask her to leave after two hours,” Fox says. “She was sweating so hard on the dance floor that her spray tan bled on my girlfriend’s $300 Ed Hardy tank top.” He goes on to recount a conversation he supposedly had with Snooki while she was at the club:
George: Hey Snooks, can you do a couple back handsprings for us?
Snooki: I cant because I’m wearing a thong. Plus I’m on my period… and it’s really heavy today.
I really don’t know what’s more disturbing: Snooki or the people who want to be seen with her. Seriously, if you need to hang with a pungent piece of trash to feel better about yourself then you have some serious issues. Hell, at least Snooki’s getting paid. What’s your excuse?
That people are paying enough attention to entice other people to pay these pieces of shite speaks volumes about our society. Sure, people like seeing or being seen with celebrities, but this is basically scraping the bottom of the barrel.
The Chinese takeover is imminent. We’re decaying from within.
Tea Party Angst
It has nothing to do with Tea Partiers.
But rather with those who can’t stand the thought of Americans exercising their right to free speech and specifically, those who actually oppose the direction that the Obama-led Democrats are leading the country:
An Oregon teacher who announced his intention to “dismantle and demolish the Tea Party” has been placed on administrative leave until his school district finishes its investigation into whether his political activity crossed the line.
The state’s Teacher Standards & Practices Commission is also conducting an investigation into Jason Levin, a media teacher at Conestoga Middle School in Beaverton.
[...]
Levin has come under fire for saying he’d do anything short of throwing rocks to bring down the Tea Party. In the last two days, the Beaverton School District has received thousands of e-mails and phone calls from people across the country who said they were outraged at his behavior.
The school district is defending Levin’s right to free speech, but it’s investigating whether he used district computers to spread his political message or worked on his “Crash the Tea Party” Web site during school hours.
It’s amazing. As the mainstream media and left-wing blogosphere get the vapors over the alleged inflammatory rhetoric by the Tea Party organizers, the actual record is showing that the only ones unhinged are leftist idiots like Jason Levin.
I thought this was cute:
Levin has said he would seek to embarrass Tea Partiers by attending their rallies dressed as Adolf Hitler, carrying signs bearing racist, sexist and anti-gay epithets and acting as offensively as possible — anything short of throwing punches.
Got that? When you can’t find any real evidence of racism or Nazi analogies at the true Tea Parties, what’s a deranged moonbat to do? Make it up! Brilliant!
Keep in mind that this is straight from the classic Democrat party playbook. This is Alinsky-style “debate”. Democrats have been shamelessly using this tactic for decades. When your opponent is winning the debate, just call them racist.
Pelosi: Liberal utopia almost here
Good lord this woman is an idiot:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said the Democrats are one bill away from completing President Barack Obama’s “blueprint for American prosperity.”
“We have passed two of the three pillars in the historic healthcare and education reform and are working towards a clean energy and climate agenda in Congress,” Pelosi said in her remarks to the California Democratic Party state convention in Los Angeles on Saturday. “And essential to prosperity for middle-income Americans is reining in Wall Street.”
“The House has passed Wall Street reform, and working with our colleagues in the Senate, we will ensure that never again will those who are reckless on Wall Street make people jobless on Main Street,” she said.
The state of California deserves what it gets if they keep electing imbeciles to Congress.
These people actually believe that what they’re doing to our economy is good for the country. They actually think that Obamacare means affordable and quality care for all Americans. They actually believe that higher taxes on producers benefits the middle class. They actually believe that the government running the student loan program means lower rates and easy access for students.
God help us all.
The same old Bubba
I’ve been seeing a lot of Bill Clinton lately, as Democrats try to find a way to counter the rising popularity of the Tea Party movement and unite behind President Obama’s agenda post-healthcare reform.
But of course, a Bill Clinton sighting wouldn’t be complete without him passing the buck on decisions made while he was in charge:
Former President Bill Clinton said his Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers were wrong in the advice they gave him about regulating derivatives when he was in office.
“I think they were wrong and I think I was wrong to take” their advice, Clinton said on ABC’s “This Week” program.
Their argument was that derivatives didn’t need transparency because they were “expensive and sophisticated and only a handful of people will buy them and they don’t need any extra protection,” Clinton said. “The flaw in that argument was that first of all, sometimes people with a lot of money make stupid decisions and make it without transparency.”
“Even if less than 1 percent of the total investment community is involved in derivative exchanges, so much money was involved that if they went bad, they could affect 100 percent of the investments,” Clinton said.
And, as in everything the Democrats are trying to do, a little Bush bashing is in order:
I think what happened was the SEC and the whole regulatory apparatus after I left office was just let go,” Clinton said. If Clinton’s head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Arthur Levitt, had remained in that job, “an enormous percentage of what we’ve been through in the last eight or nine years would not have happened,” Clinton said. “I feel very strongly about it. I think it’s important to have vigorous oversight.”
That’s fantastic, Mr. President. It’s fantastic that you feel so strongly about regulating derivatives some 10 years after you left office, and to know that in your heart of hearts that the right thing to do is to have “vigorous oversight”. Too bad none of this foresight was around when you were actually running the show, instead of after the fact. Actually, it’s kind of pathetic that your insight is actually being taken seriously in some circles right now, considering how obviously inept and admittedly ignorant you were of the issue back then.
Is the economic boom of the 1990s attributable to Clinton or advice from his economic team? Or the Republican-controlled Congress? Just curious.
And how about that Tea Party movement?
Former President Bill Clinton warned Friday that the anger some members of the Tea Party movement express about higher taxes and the size of government could feed the same right-wing extremism that led to the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, which killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.
“Before the bombing occurred, there was a sort of fever in America,” Clinton said at a symposium commemorating the 15th anniversary of the bombing. “Meanwhile, the fabric of American life had been unraveling. More and more people who had a hard time figuring out where they fit in, it is true that we see some of that today.”
This is political cowardice of the worst kind. This kind of hate-baiting is so repulsive and disgusting it makes my stomach turn. But then again, it is Bill Clinton we’re talking about here. Here is a man who essentially turned the White House into a 24-hour hour focus group when he wasn’t using it as an outlet for his sex addiction. How can we expect any less. Here is a man who exemplified the Democratic party principle of “never let a crisis go to waste”, when you can exploit it for political gain.
Clinton was in deep political trouble in April 1995. Six months earlier, voters had resoundingly rejected Democrats in the 1994 mid-term elections, giving the GOP control of both House and Senate. Polls showed the public viewed Clinton as weak, incompetent and ineffective. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and his GOP forces seized the initiative on virtually every significant issue, while Clinton appeared to be politically dead. The worst moment may have come on April 18, the day before the bombing, when Clinton plaintively told reporters, “The president is still relevant here.”
And then came the explosion at the Murrah Federal Building. In addition to seeing a criminal act and human loss, Clinton and [pollster Dick] Morris saw opportunity. If the White House could tie Gingrich, congressional Republicans and conservative voices like Rush Limbaugh to the attack, then Clinton might gain the edge in the fight against the GOP.
Morris began polling about Oklahoma City almost immediately after the bombing. On April 23, four days after the attack, Clinton appeared to point the finger straight at his political opponents during a speech in Minneapolis. “We hear so many loud and angry voices in America today whose sole goal seems to be to try to keep some people as paranoid as possible and the rest of us all torn up and upset with each other,” he said. “They spread hate. They leave the impression that, by their very words, that violence is acceptable.”
[...]
It was a political strategy crafted while rescue and recovery efforts were still underway in Oklahoma City. And it worked better than Clinton or Morris could have predicted. In the months after the bombing, Clinton regained the upper hand over Republicans, eventually winning battles over issues far removed from the attack. The next year, 1996, he went on to re-election. None of that might have happened had Clinton, along with Morris, not found a way to wring as much political advantage as possible out of the deaths in Oklahoma City. And that is the story you’re not hearing in all the anniversary discussions.
There’s really nothing left to say.
You can’t fight city hall. Or the NHS (Government is so virtuous edition)
Yet another disturbing government-run healthcare story from across the pond (my bold):
Jenny Whitehead, a breast cancer survivor, paid £250 for an appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon after being told she would have to wait five months to see him on the NHS. He told her he would add her to his NHS waiting list for surgery.
She was barred from the list, however, and sent back to her GP. She must now find at least £10,000 for private surgery, or wait until the autumn for the NHS operation to remove a cyst on her spine.
“When I paid £250 to see the specialist privately I had no idea I would be sacrificing my right to surgery on the NHS. I feel victimised,” she said.
[...]
Whitehead’s case [...] reveals that patients who go private in despair at long waiting lists still risk jeopardising their NHS treatment. Department of Health officials admit it remains official policy.
Whitehead, 64, a former museum assistant from Yorkshire who works as a volunteer at a hospice, went to her GP in December for back pain. Because of her breast cancer history, she was immediately offered an MRI scan to check the disease had not returned. It revealed a cyst on her spine, pressing against her sciatic nerve. Her GP referred her to a consultant at Airedale NHS hospital.
She was told the next available NHS appointment was in May, so she accepted the offer of a private slot to see him the following week.
[...]
The specialist promised to add her to his NHS waiting list for surgery. After two months, however, hospital managers told her she had been barred from the waiting list because she had seen the surgeon privately. Now her only alternative to paying £10,000 privately is to go back to her GP, seek another referral to the same specialist, this time on the NHS, and face another 18-week wait.
“We will scratch together the money if we absolutely have to, but I feel it’s incredibly unfair,” said Whitehead. “I’ve paid full National Insurance contributions all my working life and feel I should get this operation on the NHS.”
[...]
Bradford and Airedale NHS trust said it was looking into the case “as a matter of urgency” but added: “Anyone who chooses to pay for a private outpatient consultation cannot receive NHS treatment unless they are then referred on to an NHS pathway by their consultant.”
Isn’t government grand? Specifically, isn’t government determining which procedures you can or cannot undergo, grand?
I’m not saying this is going to happen once the US officially completes its transformation into a nationalized healthcare system in about 10-15 years. If anything, I’d ask my liberal and progressive friends who think that government, and only government, is so virtuous and kind so as to look after the healthcare needs of it’s citizens, if this is the kind of government they’re constantly referring to? Surely a government bureaucracy in the USA is far more superior to those in the UK? Those in France? Italy?
The bottom line is that the power of government is scary.
The next generation iPhone
The new model has been spotted. It’s been “spotted” because someone (presumably from Apple) left the prototype (which was disguised as a 3G model) in a bar.
Gizmodo has the goods. They say the chances of it being a fake is “almost none”.
IN-Sen: Coats on cruise control
Wow. Didn’t see this coming:
Former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats (R) holds a 21-point lead over Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.) in a new Rasmussen poll for the open Senate seat (April 13-14, 500 LV).
Also leading Ellsworth in general election matchups are former Rep. John Hostettler and state Sen. Marlin Stutzman. It’s a positive poll for the GOP, but especially Coats — who outperformed Hostetller for the first time.
I admit that I have my misgivings about Coats, but it appears there’s an underlying theme here.
Clearly, Indianans are not too happy with squishy, moderate Democrats as part of their Senate delegation. Well, either that or they just don’t like the radical Obama agenda:
Following his vote for the national health care plan, Democratic Congressman Brad Ellsworth’s support remains stuck in the low 30s, while two of his Republican opponents now earn 50% or more of the vote in Indiana’s U.S. Senate race.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in Indiana finds that 65% favor repeal of the recently passed health care law. Just 29% in the state oppose repeal. Those findings include 56% who strongly favor repeal versus 21% who strongly oppose it.
Support for repeal is even stronger in Indiana than the national average.
So there you have it. The state of Indiana despite turning Obama blue for the 2008 general election must be comprised of right-wing, racist, extremist Tea Baggers.
Nothing like it for Ike Davis
Baseball is great because of the myriad intricacies that make it the most unique of sports. Being called up from the minors for your first shot in the bigs is one of those moments.
I’m sure Ike Davis felt the same way yesterday:
In the morning he left his apartment in Buffalo, took batting practice, figured he was going to bat clean-up for the Bisons against the Scranton / Wilkes-Barre Yankees. He was changing into his game uniform when he learned there was a slight change of plans.
“Get to the airport,” Ike Davis said he was told. “You’re going to New York.”
If he plays another 20 years, he may never hear nine more meaningful words in a baseball clubhouse. Before he could do anything, he called his mother, got her voicemail, called his father, Ron, the former Yankees pitcher.
“Congratulations,” Ron said after a few silent moments, when the words finally arrived in a rush. “You deserve everything you’ve got there. You’ve worked your behind off, and now your dream is coming true.”
[...] “Even if you only make it for a day, you’re a major leaguer. Anything after that is gravy.”
The afternoon was a blur for Ike Davis: leaving behind his new apartment, leaving behind his car, leaving behind his first paycheck, in his locker at Coca-Cola Stadium as he rushed to catch his US Airways flight from Buffalo-Niagara Airport to La Guardia. No worries, of course; the pay’s a bit better up here.
Davis went 2-4 last night with an RBI–better than Strawberry’s debut, better than Wright’s. I was impressed with his plate presence.
In the long run, these things mean nothing. But for a team that’s struggling out of the gate this season, it’s just about what they needed. Hopefully.
The only time the government is efficient
My tax payment to the IRS was mailed on April 14th, as I owed a considerable amount (being the patriot that I am–thanks, Plugs Biden!) and I figured the Feds could wait until the last possible second for to cash the check.
The check cleared yesterday, the 20th. So it took about six days, including a weekend. It’s amazing how the beast reacts when you’re feeding it.
Wanker of the Week
The Obama/Goldman Sachs White House
Just look away, nothing to see here:
While Goldman Sachs’ lawyers negotiated with the Securities and Exchange Commission over potentially explosive civil fraud charges, Goldman’s chief executive visited the White House at least four times.
White House logs show that Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein traveled to Washington for at least two events with President Barack Obama, whose 2008 presidential campaign received $994,795 in donations from Goldman’s political action committee, its employees and their relatives. He also met twice with Obama’s top economic adviser, Larry Summers.
[...]
Meanwhile, however, Goldman is retaining former Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig as a member of its legal team.
[...]
Several former Goldman executives hold senior positions in the Obama administration, including Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Mark Patterson, a former Goldman lobbyist who is chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner; and Robert Hormats, the undersecretary of state for economic, energy and agricultural affairs.
One can only imagine the uproar if the Bush administration had such extensive connections and ties, both financially and familiarly, with companies like Enron or Worldcom back in the day. Sure, Bush had ties to Enron’s Kenneth Lay, but not nearly to the extent that this administration has. And even then, the media outcry and the left were furious. Where’s the anger now? Hypocrites.
Like I’ve said earlier, the SEC coming down on Goldman Sachs was purely political and corrupt–the administration is using various arms of the government for political gain. Just disgusting.
Governor Christie wins Round 1
It was a historic day here in the Garden State on Tuesday. Middle-class voters all across the state made their voices heard behind one unmistakable message: Stop the insanity in Trenton.
What’s been getting the most attention since January of course, has been the governor’s battle with the NJEA. The only reason for that is that the union is the only party that has not agreed to any concessions. Concessions that would help alleviate the hard times of working middle class families in Jersey. The union would have none of that, of course, and now they are feeling the wrath of the average citizen. All of this came to a head on Tuesday.
George Will has a good piece in today’s WaPo on the significance of all this, and is definitely worth a read. He writes:
New Jersey’s governors are the nation’s strongest — American Caesars, really — who can veto line items and even rewrite legislative language. Christie is using his power to remind New Jersey that wealth goes where it is welcome and stays where it is well-treated. Prosperous states are practicing, at the expense of slow learners like New Jersey, “entrepreneurial federalism” — competing to have the most enticing business climate.
What we’re seeing here is a classic ideological case of collectivism vs individualism, of liberalism vs conservatism. I’ve been making the point all along that conservatives and Republicans all across the country should be watching what Governor Christie has been doing to the mindless robots of the Left, and learn from his example. This can be repeated over and over and over again, because in the end, individualism always wins out.
NJ school district superintendent in FBI raid
The Toms River school district approved their budget in this week’s vote. Superintendent Ritacco will soon have to find some new taxpayers to milk:
FBI agents this morning executed a search warrant at the offices of the Toms River Regional Board of Education and the home of School Superintendent Michael J. Ritacco in connection with a fraud and corruption investigation that may involve the district’s insurance contracts, sources said.
[...]
At least eight unmarked vehicles that appear to belong to FBI agents were at the 62-year-old Ritacco’s modern, three-story home on 11th Avenue in Seaside Park, where a black Mercedes E550 sat in the driveway. FBI agents photographed the interior and exterior of the car.
The home, with a fountain in the meticulously manicured front yard, is one house away from Ocean Avenue, which runs along the ocean. It is one of the few houses on the block with a lawn. It was purchased by Ritacco in 2004 for $882,000.
Wow. A three-story house a block away from the beach? For nearly $900,000? A Mercedes E550? As recently as 2008, Superintendent Scumbag was making about $347,400–all of it on the backs of New Jersey taxpayers.
Doesn’t much sound like the funding-starved public school employees we’ve been hearing about in Jersey the past couple of months does it? Did I mention that he also has an arena named after him?
So much corruption, so much waste, so much crap. No wonder why New Jersey is finally starting to stand up to the nonsense.
Steve Wynn: Obama’s policies are ruining the economy
Steve Wynn is one of the country’s wealthiest entrepeneurs, a self-made man and capitalist in the truest sense of the word. If you’ve been to the Bellagio hotel/casino in Vegas, you can thank Steve Wynn.
You would think he knows a thing or two about business, about creating wealth. You would be correct:
“The economic outlook in the United States, the policies of this administration, which do not favor job formation, do not encourage investment at all.”
[...]
“The governmental policies in the United States of America are a damper, a wet blanket,” Wynn said in Macau. “They retard investment, they retard job formation, they retard the creation of a better life for the citizens in spite of the rhetoric of the president.”
A wet blanket indeed. Every time this President and his Democratic flying monkeys in congress open their mouths it’s about punishing the productive class–investors, capitalists, risk-takers, small businesspeople, the engine of economic growth in the United States–with onerous tax increases, regulations, etc.
Funny how the President, who never worked a day in the private sector somehow knows what makes it tick. While in actuality, he and his congressional cohorts are intent on destroying it.
Somehow I don’t think the administration cares about what people like Steve Wynn have to say. But then again, what does Steve Wynn know anyway?
Paterson School Chief makes $300K
It’s all for the children, I’m sure:
Federal tax records show a preschool and child-care agency here mainly funded by government pays its top executive more than $300,000 a year [...]
The report said Ron Williams, executive director of the B.J. Wilkerson Memorial Child Development Center, which serves about 350 children, has his pay set by the center’s board. Its $4.3 million in revenue in 2008 included $4.2 million in government funds and the remainder from tuition and donations.
As always, remember stories like this when the our state’s public education system cries poverty, that they can’t get enough of New Jersey’s middle class tax dollars.
Keep in mind also, that the average NJ family makes $70,000 a year.
Hoyer: No, we haven’t created many jobs, but the economy’s still great
If passing Obamacare was such a great leap forward for the country, you’d think Democrats would be screaming about it from the rooftops instead of, you know, admitting how much they suck on every other issue like, oh I dunno….jobs:
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer gave a gloomy assessment of his party’s prospects at a media breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor this week.
When reminded that political handicapper Charlie Cook is predicting a loss of 30 to 40 seats and perhaps more for House Democrats this fall, Mr. Hoyer didn’t push back. “It’s an accurate view of what the polls reflect right now. Yes. I have great respect for Charlie Cook.” Democrats would lose control of the House if they drop 40 seats.
Mr. Hoyer went on to say he believes a strong Democratic campaign can still save a House majority for his party. He said a bleak job picture is blinding voters to improvements in the economy in other areas.
But….but….HEALTHCARE REFORM!
This has to be a head fake or something. The Dems can’t be that dumb, can they?
Here you have the majority leader all but admitting that the $800 billion stimulus was a bust. The one thing that the stimulus was meant to create was jobs, and he’s all but acknowledged that the job outlook is in dire straits. But it’s all good, there’s “improvement” in “other areas”
And wasn’t it just about a month ago that top Democrats like Senator Chucky Schumer were saying how great it would be for Democrats in November when voters realize that they passed healthcare reform? And how screwed Republicans were in those elections?
Yeah, about that.
Off to Citifield
Bought tickets for today’s game last week, which is good because last week the Mets looked more like a Triple A team than a MLB club.
The Mets have been on somewhat of a roll this week, taking 3 of 4 from the Cubs at home this week, and really impressed me with last night’s performance against Larry Jones and the Braves in the series opener. Remarkably, the Mets pitching held Justin Heyward to 0-4 with 3 strike-outs.
As I’ll be there for the 1 pm game, I’m sure Heyward will make up for yesterday by hitting for the cycle, or maybe a grand slam or two.
More importantly, it’s supposed to be a beautiful spring day here in the Tri-State area….perfect baseball weather.
Apple has been around a while
Went to my parent’s house this past weekend. I was rummaging through some of the junk I’ve accumulated over the years, some of which I’ve had for close to 25 years, and housed it all in as many boxes as I could lay my hands on as I grew older.
I happened to come across this box:
Yes, I admit it—I owned an Apple IIe. The system itself is long gone, and the box is currently being used to store many many books. And this was just the box just for the monitor.
As you can tell my by the print, the monitor was monochromatic–a black background with bright green text. That’s it. Almost 30 years later, it’s easy to mock and scorn this collection of hardware, but to me I will always recall using the Apple IIe as a great experience.
P.S. I owned a Commodore VIC-20 before the Apple.
About that healthcare bounce for Democrats
Health care’s passage did not produce even a point rise in the president’s approval rating or affection for the Democratic Congress. Virtually every key tracking measure in April’s poll has remained unchanged, including the Democrats’ continued weakness on handling of the economy.
[...]
With independents even more conservative and Republican-leaning in this survey, the congressional battle in 2010 looks like a dead-heat at best – a 12-point swing in this poll from 2008.
Yeah, we Americans really love us some healthcare reform.
Democrats have their work cut out for them over the next few months. You can sense the desperation as they try to regain the narrative as they bogusly (?) push for bogus financial reform. They need something–anything–in their holster to be able to point at during the campaign and yell, “See? Look what we did! We did something!”
Never mind that most prominent Democrats, especially those who were active in shaping and passing healthcare reform, are essentially keeping mum about passing it at all.
And Republicans better not get complacent here. Polls are just that–polls. They can and will change and there’s still six months left until the election, which is an eternity in politics. They need to stay on the offensive and maintain the narrative. Keep reminding people that Democrats have more or less been in control of DC for almost four years now. Simple majorities are not enough to repeal healthcare reform. Large majorities are needed in 2010, bolstering those majorities in 2012 and taking back the White House. That’s a very tall order.
The GOP can’t quit Newt
I noticed that PPP has added Newt in their polling for the 2012 GOP nomination:
For our look ahead to the 2012 Presidential race in Arizona this week we added Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul to go along with our usual choices of Mitt Huckabee, Sarah Palin, and Mitt Romney. And although we’ll certainly need to see polling from more states to confirm a trend, the numbers suggest a Gingrich candidacy could hurt Palin’s prospects.
[...]
Palin and Gingrich both have a unique appeal to the most partisan of Republican voters, but it may be that they see Gingrich as a more substantive and ‘Presidential’ candidate. They could end up competing for the same pool of GOP partisans, and if they both run it may prove to be a good thing for Romney.
Prospects for the 2010 are certainly high, but I’m not too confident about the race for the White House in 2012.
I’m increasingly becoming of the opinion that as conservatives, we are better off if Governor Palin wouldn’t run for President in 2012, not so much because I’m not 100% sure that she could win, but her contributions to the cause are better suited for other uses–like at the RNC, for example. Building up the base, lining up donors, etc.
And about Newt. I’m under no misconception that Newt will not make a run for the nomination in 2012. By all means he will. If the climate for Democrats continues as toxic as it is right now, if all of the momentum that we’re seeing from grassroots conservatives keeps up into the end of the year, then you can take it to the bank—Newt will be throwing his hat into the ring.
That won’t be a good thing neither for the Republican party or conservatism.
Americans are not stupid. We’ve seen this movie before. Newt would be bad news. The Republican party needs to move forward and cultivate younger talent, some new faces. Newt is not the way to do that and the Republican party deserves what it gets if it nominates the former Speaker for 2012.
Wannabe populist President’s friends are all millionaires
Finally, we have a President who understands the average American:
When President Barack Obama moved into the White House earlier this year, he took several of his fellow Chicago millionaires with him.
Newly released disclosure reports show virtually all of the top Chicagoans serving in the West Wing had assets valued at a million dollars or more at the end of 2008.
In several cases, the reports provide the first detailed look at the finances of some of the president’s top aides and friends from Chicago who have risen with him. They also show the salary haircut many have taken to be in the White House, at least until they return to the private sector.
Have the President and his cronies made “enough money”? Probably not. Sky’s the limit for them.
But for us rubes, we shouldn’t be so fracking greedy. Hypocrites.
And here’s an interesting bit from the same article:
Obama’s personal wealth soared in the past decade. His annual household income fluctuated in the range of about $250,000 during the first half of this decade, before his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004 and millions in book royalties and advances that started rolling in during 2005.
Apparently the Bush years weren’t so bad after all. But that doesn’t fit into the President’s “I’m here to rescue you from the economic devastation of the last eight years” narrative.
Again. Hypocrites.
Anthora
Leslie Buck has passed on. Who is Leslie Buck?
He designed this:
If you’ve never spent some time in New York City you probably couldn’t care less. Having went to school and worked in NYC for over a decade (before the place was taken over by Starbucks), this cup said “New York City” just as much as Central Park or Wall Street or the subway, or anything else really. In my humble opinion, of course.
R.I.P.
FL-Sen: Charlie Crist, what a maroon
He ditches the Republican party and decides to run as an Independent for Florida’s Senate seat in November.
I’m in complete agreement with Jay Cost. This is a career killer:
Ask people you know in life and they’ll complain about politicians who are only out for themselves, who aren’t looking out for the interests of the people. And now here comes good old Charlie Crist, who just a few weeks ago swore off an Independent run. This is a dishonest and nakedly self-interested move, and voters are fed up with this kind of behavior. The only compelling motivation that Charlie Crist has to run as an Independent is so that Charlie Crist can stay in elective office.
[...]
I know why Crist is doing this. He’s not on the ballot for governor this year, and he doesn’t want to lose his seat at the table. Yet this is not going to work. And it will end his political career for good.
The alternative would be to bow out gracefully, heartily endorse Marco Rubio, campaign like the dickens for him in the fall, and wait for the next opening in Florida politics.
Instead, he is about to piss off every Republican in the country, and he’s not going to win over the affections of the Democrats, who clearly sense an opportunity to get one of their own into the seat.
Stupid, stupid move.
No more blizzards
It feels like New Jersey isn’t having a spring season this weekend. We took a drive down to Long Branch yesterday for a walk on the beach, and our second first Surf Taco run of the season.
It’s been a balmy 80+ degrees here in the Garden State all weekend. It’s actually very muggy this morning, and we’re supposed to hit 87 today.
I’ll take it. It beats shoveling out of two feet of snow every weekend.
Times Square bomb plot
So much for the one-man operation theory:
Sources tell CBS News that multiple people have been taken into custody for questioning in Pakistan in connection with the Times Square bomb plot.
Authorities are not saying who the potential suspects are or where they are being held, but they say there were raids Monday night and Tuesday morning in different locations. It’s believed between four and eight people are being held, and there are reports that some of them may be related to the suspect arrested overnight in New York.
The Associated Press said that Pakistani authorities have detained at least one man in connection with the Times Square bombing attempt in New York, two intelligence officials said Tuesday.
The man, identified as Tauseef, was a friend of Faisal Shahzad, the American of Pakistani origin who is in custody in the United States over the failed attack, one official said. He was arrested in the southern city of Karachi, said the official, who like all Pakistani spies refuses to be named in the media.
Another official said several people had been taken into custody in Karachi since the failed attack Saturday.
Between these scumbags and the Christmas Day underpants bomber, the only thing that has kept us from disaster are two failed detonators and the courage of the FBI.
Democratic Party revelling in healthcare reform and FinReg bounce
President Obama is working wonders for the Democratic Party:
Bone-tired and facing a tough political landscape at home, House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey announced Wednesday that he won’t seek re-election, ending a 41-year House career stamped by his unique talent and tempestuousness.
Rarely does a committee chairman of such power just walk away, and Obey’s decision is both a blow to Democrats and marks the passing of one of the last major leaders of the 1970’s reforms that reshaped the modern House.
“I am ready to turn the page, and frankly, I think that my district is ready for someone new to make a fresh start,” Obey said in an afternoon press conference in his committee’s meeting room.
Since the passage of healthcare reform, there appeared to be a lull in Democratic party drop-outs and retirements from this November’s midterms. As I wrote when Senator Bayh announced his decision not to run for re-election, career politicians don’t just give up their offices because of family time or from being tired, no matter what Obey says.
This is just more proof that the political climate is dark and ominous for Democrats this November.
Obama administration all over the oil spill in the Gulf
If by “all over” you really mean whitewater rafting on a “working vacation” with your wife, while a “potentially unprecedented” environmental disaster unfolds on a significant portion of US coastline, then yeah:
Though his agency was charged with coordinating the federal response to the major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Department of the Interior chief of staff Tom Strickland was in the Grand Canyon with his wife last week participating in activities that included white-water rafting, ABC News has learned.
Other leaders of the Interior Department were focused on the Gulf, joined by other agencies and literally thousands of other employees. But Strickland’s participation in a trip that administration officials insisted was “work-focused” raised eyebrows among other Obama administration officials and even within even his own department, sources told ABC News.
[...]
One government official, asking for anonymity because of the political sensitivities involved, told ABC News that some Interior Department employees thought it was “irresponsible” for Strickland to have gone on the trip, given the crisis in the Gulf, which was fully apparent at the time he departed for the Grand Canyon.
I don’t begrudge anyone a vacation now and then. Except if you’re a fracking high-ranking government official in a department that’s fracking in charge of overseeing the containment of an unfolding disaster.
Despite the bogus memes that the administration is trying to push, crap like this just accentuates my beliefs that: a) these people are completely inept and b) they are mostly liars.
Also, can you imagine the uproar in the mainstream media if this was George Bush’s administration??
Yeah, the oil spill is horrible but…
This is hysterical. Somebody needs to get a grip:
Either that or she needs to be medicated or locked up. Or both.
UK Elections 2010 (Monty Python edition)
I find myself tuned into BBC television watching as the election results roll in. On a beautiful Thursday night in the middle of spring. I guess I really am a political junkie.
There’s really nothing I can add to the election, although I’ve been following the news for the past several weeks. All I can say is that whenever I think of elections in Britain, I think of this:
Earlier in the broadcast, I heard an analyst say “Here’s the swing from Belfast” and the first thing I thought of was “There’s the swing. Where’s the swong?”
Angela Merkel doesn’t like the banks
The German leader unloads with some arrogant and ominous rhetoric:
“First the banks failed, forcing states to carry out rescue operations. They plunged the global economy over the precipice and we had to initiate recovery packages. Because of these packages, we have become indebted and now, they are speculating against these debts — that is really very treacherous,” she said.
“Governments must regain their supremacy over the markets, which they no longer have, and for that we need much stricter global rules,” she added, at a debate on Europe organised by a public broadcaster.
States must “regain their supremacy over the markets”? I understand this is Europe, where most people have it ingrained in them that government is the ultimate and most virtuous solution to their problems, but this is some harsh rhetoric in light of recent events. Especially when considering that three bankers were killed during the Greek riots this week. Not to mention the upheaval in the markets.
You would think that these arrogant buffoons would try to bring some confidence into the markets instead of using the bully pulpit to agitate. It’s unfortunate because we’re seeing the same idiocy coming from our benevolent elected politicians here in the United States.
NJEA fighting Governor Christie and Obama administration on education reform
Governor Christie and state eductation chief Bret Schundler are proposing a reform plan that would reward teachers based on a far-out and radical concept–actually teaching students.
The proposal is being made as the state tries to bid on Federal funding for education reforms:
The overhaul plan will be included in New Jersey’s new application for Race to the Top, a federal grant program the Obama administration is using to reward states for school reforms. New Jersey could get up to $400 million if selected.
We stand shoulder to shoulder with the president on this,” Gov. Chris Christie said. “This is an incredibly special moment in American history, where you have Republicans in New Jersey agreeing with a Democratic president on how to get reform.”
Christie said adopting the proposed changes are “very necessary” to get the much-needed federal funding for the cash-strapped state. But it was unclear if the governor can get the reforms through the Democrat-controlled Legislature.
[...]
“It is our responsibility to implement these kinds of reforms,” said Education Commissioner Bret Schundler, who unveiled the plan. “It is what is morally right and it will bring dramatic improvements in the education system to the benefit of all children.”
However, Schundler said many details — including the cost of the new statewide computer system — have not been worked out.
There you have it. Governor Christie is willing to work with the Obama administration to bring significant change to our state’s bloated and inefficient education system.
So who’s standing in the way?
The New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union, said it has doubts about the proposal. The plan is “terrible policy” that relies too heavily on standardized test scores, NJEA spokesman Steve Wollmer said.
“If someone said to you, ‘Your job is dependent on raising student test scores,’ what are you going to spend your time doing?,” Wollmer said. “They will have to teach to the test all of the time.”
[...]
Teachers would also have to wait five years, instead of three, to get tenure under the proposal. The state would also start a “bonus pool” to reward teachers who work in the state’s lowest-performing districts and allow the best-performing teachers to open their own schools.
I’m no fan of taking Federal money for state and local education–I think the Federal government has no place there. But all of that aside, the politics here are such that it’s almost inevitable–or at least it was at one time.
Let’s put it this way–if Corzine were still in office, and continued his ass-kissing of the NJEA as he did for eight years, I would suspect that this Federal money would already be slated for New Jersey before the bidding process was even completed.
But Governor Christie is not Jon Corzine, and his battles with the NJEA since January have been well documented. This is a smart move by Christie. Given the near-inevitablity of Federal money to the state (money that the Feds would have wanted to go straight to the unions, I’m sure), why not elbow out the greedy unions, and try to implement some real and significant education reform? Because if not, it would just go to the NJEA to line their union bosses’ pockets. In other words, business as usual in the Garden State.
The April jobs report
Pining for a glimmer of good economic news for their beloved President, the media cheered the report, which showed 290,000 new hires for April (60,000 coming from Census padding), while the unemployment rate creeped to 9.9%.
The rate increased because more unemployed “entered” the work force by actively looking, as opposed to sitting out the search. So the increase in the rate while over 200,000 workers were hired is a statistical anomaly, but enough to get the administrations cheerleaders in the press all giddy.
Buried towards the lower half of this AP piece however, a not-so-great indicator:
Counting people who have given up looking for work and part-timers who would prefer to be working full time, the so-called underemployment rate rose to 17.1 percent in April, up from 16.9 percent in March. It’s close to record high of 17.4 percent set in October.
The number of people out of work six months or longer reached 6.7 million in April, a new high. These people made up 45.9 percent of all unemployed people, also a record high.
Calculated Risk digs deeper into the BLS report:
The number of long term unemployed is one of the key stories of this recession, especially since many of them are now losing their unemployment benefits. Note: In Q1, all of the increase in income – and much of the increase in consumption – came from government transfer payments for unemployment benefits.
So, the “encouraging” news from this employment report is that more unemployed people are deciding to get back to looking for work! Meanwhile, the government is subsidizing incomes and consumer spending. Our transformation to a liberal utopian Eurostate is right on schedule.
Fannie and Freddie again
Freddie Mac released its Q1 report last week and it was dog-ugly, prompting the GSE to request more taxpayer money–this time to the tune of another $11 billion. This is the bailout that never ends.
Gretchen Morgensen wonders why the mainstream punditocracy ignores the money pit:
The news caused nary a ripple in the placid Washington scene. Perhaps that’s because many lawmakers, especially those who once assured us that Fannie and Freddie would never cost taxpayers a dime, hope that their constituents don’t notice the burgeoning money pit these mortgage monsters represent. Some $130 billion in federal money had already been larded on both companies before Freddie’s latest request.
But taxpayers should examine Freddie’s first-quarter numbers not only because the losses are our responsibility. Since they also include details on Freddie’s delinquent mortgages, the company’s sales of foreclosed properties and losses on those sales, the results provide a telling snapshot of the current state of the housing market.
That picture isn’t pretty. Serious delinquencies in Freddie’s single-family conventional loan portfolio — those more than 90 days late — came in at 4.13 percent, up from 2.41 percent for the period a year earlier. Delinquencies in the company’s Alt-A book, one step up from subprime loans, totaled 12.84 percent, while delinquencies on interest-only mortgages were 18.5 percent. Delinquencies on its small portfolio of option-adjustable rate loans totaled 19.8 percent.
You have to assume that the GSEs own anywhere from about 50% to 70% of the country’s mortgage market, with taxpayers continually on the hook for mounting losses. Surely, they are a target for the recent calls for financial industry reform right?
Don’t count on it:
[...]Freddie and Fannie are nowhere to be seen in the various financial reform efforts under discussion on Capitol Hill. Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, offered a vague comment to Congress last March, that after some unspecified reform effort someday in the future, the companies “will not exist in the same form as they did in the past.”
[...]
To some, the current silence on what to do about Freddie and Fannie is deafening — as is the lack of chatter about Freddie’s disastrous report last week.
“I don’t understand why people are not talking about it,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, referring to Freddie’s losses. “It seems to me the most fundamental question is, have they on an ongoing basis been paying too much for loans even since they went into conservatorship?”
Morgensen brings up a great point. Why the silence? How come we don’t hear about the excessive executive bonuses at Fannie and Freddie, especially after those executives were caught cooking the books? Where’s the demonization from the White House or the Democrats in Washington? For that matter, where’s the liberal blogosphere?
If you’re asking these questions, go no further:
Renewed scrutiny of the two institutions would remind the public that senior Democrats were in bed, sometimes literally, with Fannie and Freddie.
House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts spent a number of years blocking various attempts to regulate government-sponsored enterprises, famously saying that that he did not see any “safety and soundness” problems worthy of note.
Many other top Democrats were friends with financial benefits from Fannie and Freddie. Franklin Raines, a former Carter- and Clinton-administration official, pocketed $90 million as Fannie Mae’s CEO – a figure bolstered by the agency’s overstated earnings.
Former Clinton appointee Jamie Gorelick was paid $26 million as Fannie’s vice chairman. Veteran Democratic honcho Jim Johnson, who led Sen. John Kerry’s vice presidential search committee and temporarily led Mr. Obama’s veep search, enjoyed $21 million.
Mr. Johnson later resigned from the Obama team when he was identified as a “friend of Angelo” – one of those who were given below-market loans directly by Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo.
Among other “friends of Angelo” were Mr. Raines, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd of Connecticut. Fannie Mae was the biggest buyer of the outrageously risky mortgages that proved to be Countrywide’s undoing.
Fannie and Freddie’s campaign donations almost always have gone heavily to Democrats.
According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Barack Obama was the second-largest recipient of contributions from Fannie and Freddie sources during his brief Senate tenure
Shocker. Fannie and Freddie are the Democrats instrument of choice when it comes to social engineering over the past few decades. They are implicit in the implosion of the mortgage market in 2007-2008, which led to the financial crisis. In complete control of the government now, they can lash out against Goldman Sachs, Wall Street executives, etc., and the media will just lap it up and gladly push it on the nightly news shows.
Keep in mind that what the Feds are doing with the GSEs is essentially similar to what Enron was doing in the late 90s. The government uses the GSEs as off-balance sheet items, they’re not on the government’s books. But the taxpayer takes all the risk in the event of default. This is a massive shell game and when the house of cards fall, and it will fall, taxpayers will get smoked—big time.
And we will have nobody to blame but the Democrats.
UPDATE. Reforming Fannie and Freddie is too complicated for our elected overlords. It all makes sense now.
Markets soar on $900 billion bailout for EU, or Wither the Euro?
That’s a lot of short-covering.
Stocks reached levels they haven’t seen since…last week.
The markets saw some serious volatility towards the end of last week and that continued as the market surged today. But plugging the holes via a massive liquidity intervention is not exactly a sure thing:
Just hours after leaders agreed to provide nearly $1 trillion as part of a huge rescue package, central banks began buying euro zone government bonds directly on Monday — an unprecedented move to inject cash into the financial system.
[...]
In response, the euro has rallied against the dollar, markets surged and the risk premium on Greek and other government bonds plunged. But analysts pointed out that the package did little to reduce overall debt, and that the uncertainty that has plagued the markets could return if European nations did not take bold steps to reduce their borrowing.
“If the will for fiscal discipline in the E.U. is plainly evident, long-term confidence in the euro will be restored,” Michael Heise, chief economist of the German insurer Allianz, said in a note to investors.
The Euro seemed to hit bottom last week at $1.25, and surged to $1.31 early this morning on the bailout news. But that didn’t last long as the Euro was last trading at $1.277 vs the US dollar.
So much for confidence in the Euro.
Shocker: Unemployment benefits encourage unemployed to stay, um…unemployed
Michigan landscapers are coming across an unexpected phenomenon. Who would’ve thought?
In a state with the nation’s highest jobless rate, landscaping companies are finding some job applicants are rejecting work offers so they can continue collecting unemployment benefits.
[...]some seasonal landscaping workers choose to stay home and collect a check from the state, rather than work outside for a full week and spend money for gas, taxes and other expenses, raises questions about whether extended unemployment benefits give the jobless an incentive to avoid work.
Members of the Michigan Nursery and Landscape Association “have told me that they have a lot of people applying but that when they actually talk to them, it turns out that they’re on unemployment and not looking for work,” said Amy Frankmann, the group’s executive director. “It is starting to make things difficult.”
Business owners are stunned:
Chris Pompeo, vice president of operations for Landscape America in Warren, said he has had about a dozen offers declined. One applicant, who had eight weeks to go until his state unemployment benefits ran out, asked for a deferred start date.
“It’s like, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Pompeo said. “It’s frustrating. It’s honestly something I’ve never seen before. They say, ‘Oh, OK,’ like I surprised them by offering them a job.”
And yet another shocker…taxes are a deterrent against working:
Some job applicants are asking to be paid in cash so they can collect unemployment illegally, said Gayle Younglove, vice president at Outdoor Experts Inc. in Romulus.
“Unfortunately, we feel the economy is promoting more and more people and companies to play the system and get paid or collect cash money so they don’t have to pay taxes,” Younglove said.
Something tells me that stories like this suit the Obama administration just fine. Nothing spells second term better than millions of unemployed but eligible voters sucking at the government teat.
The bad news for whatever’s left of the producing class in the USA is that we’re looking more and more like Greece every day.
The bell tolls for Greece and everyone else
This Robert Samuelson column is a must-read:
What we’re seeing in Greece is the death spiral of the welfare state. This isn’t Greece’s problem alone, and that’s why its crisis has rattled global stock markets and threatens economic recovery.
Virtually every advanced nation, including the United States, faces the same prospect. Aging populations have been promised huge health and retirement benefits, which countries haven’t fully covered with taxes. The reckoning has arrived in Greece, but it awaits most wealthy societies.
Americans dislike the term “welfare state” and substitute the bland word “entitlements.” The vocabulary doesn’t alter the reality. Countries cannot overspend and overborrow forever. By delaying hard decisions about spending and taxes, governments maneuver themselves into a cul de sac.
[...]
If only a few countries faced these problems, the solution would be easy. Unlucky countries would trim budgets and resume growth by exporting to healthier nations.
But developed countries represent about half the world economy; most have overcommitted welfare states. They might defuse the dangers by gradually trimming future benefits in a way that reassured financial markets.
In practice, they haven’t done that; indeed, President Obama’s health program expands benefits. What happens if all these countries are thrust into Greece’s situation? One answer — another worldwide economic collapse — explains why dawdling is so risky.
Samuelson needs to be careful. He might be tarred and feathered as a racist teabagger because what he’s talking about goes up against the entire foundation of the left-wing power base in Washington right now. Democrats’ (and, to be fair some Republicans) solution to every crisis and problem is spending more money and expanding the bureaucratic beast that is the Federal government. All of it financed on the backs of an increasingly smaller group of American taxpayers. That’s not a recipe for long-term growth or solvency.
Governor Christie getting s**t done
The grown-ups in Trenton are trying to get things done, and that means having to just ignore the cry-babies as they pout and stamp their feet:
Political theater in Trenton reached new heights today as lawmakers advanced a school choice bill in hearing that was moved outside after a leading lawmaker publicly tangled with the state’s largest and most powerful teachers union.
While hundreds of private and charter school students staged a rally in support of the measure outside the Statehouse Annex, the New Jersey Education Association members packed the hearing room to show their opposition. That upset Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Union), who wanted to free up some seats for supporters, much to the NJEA’s chagrin.
“They said, ‘We’re not moving,’” Lesniak said. “So I said, we’ll have it outside.”
Statehouse staff carried out desks and chairs for senators, and the hearing was held in front of hundreds of demonstrators under sunny skies.
[...]
In the end, the Senate Economic Growth Committee unanimously approved the bill (S1872), which will provide scholarships for students to attend private schools.
So while a bipartisan effort to bring real change to our state’s educational system is winding through the senate chamber, the NJEA does what it does best–act like complete douchebags, making the issue a political one as opposed to being about educating disadvantaged students. The very same students that the NJEA claims to care so much about.
Let’s make it clear, that this school voucher bill is being shepherded through the legislature with bipartisan support. Politicians from both sides of the aisle are joining with civic groups to bring about real change here.
Only two explanations come to mind. First, the state of our education system must be in much worse condition than any casual observer is being led to believe. For this sort of cooperation to take place, things must really be desperate. Better late than never.
Secondly, nobody can overestimate the effect that Governor Christie is having on the political environment here in the Garden State. He survived whatever vile and malicious crap the NJEA threw at him during the budget battle earlier this year (including a union moron wishing death on the governor), and although he took a hit in the polls, it obviously hasn’t fazed him.
He’s making such a name for himself, he’s beginning to get noticed in larger circles.
Christie is tackling the nation’s worst state deficit — $10.7 billion of a $29.3 billion budget. In doing so, Christie has become the politician so many Americans crave, one willing to lose his job.
Indeed, Christie is doing something unheard of: governing as a Republican in a blue state, just as he campaigned, making good on promises, acting like his last election is behind him.
The crux of this opinion piece is that Christie is making a name for himself in national Republican politics, the implication being he will run for President one day. A possibility? Definitely.
But he has a boatload of work to do here in Jersey first, and he’s doing a much better job than I ever thought he would. So here’s hoping he stays put.
Attention all conservatives and Republican milquetoasts!
Watch this video and pay attention:
That is how you deal with a complicit media that insists on towing the liberal line. The media will trash you regardless of what you say or believe, so you might as well show some cajones and stand up for yourself and your beliefs.
More importantly, let this sear into your brain:
Christie said he isn’t bothered when tempers flare in the state’s political dialogue, pointing out that he intends to be tough in his opposition to Democratic initiatives.
“They believe in certain things. They believe in bigger government, higher taxes and more spending,” the governor said. “I believe in less government, less taxes and in empowering local officials who were elected by their citizens. Now I can see where there could be a disagreement or two.”
“Now I could say it really nicely. We could say it in a way you all would be more comfortable with. Maybe we could go back to the last administration where I could say it in a way that you wouldn’t understand it,” Christie said, taking a swipe at Democratic former Gov. Jon Corzine. “But the fact of the matter is, this is who I am and this is who the people elected.”
See that? This is a recipe for electoral victory–smaller government, lower taxes and less spending. That applies to our national politics under the Obama administration as much as it does in New Jersey.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Like I’ve been saying, conservatives and Republicans all over should be paying attention to what Christie’s doing here in New Jersey.
He’s taken on the powerful teachers union, Democrats in the state legislature and a local media that is mostly sympathetic to their cause. But like the Governor said, the people of New Jersey have spoken. He’s just doing what they sent him to Trenton for. Plain and simple.
UPDATE. It seems the babies over at the Star-Ledger (the journalist he pawned works there) have pulled the video. Just shows that the governor is pissing off all the right people.
The future of cellular phones
Industry statistics are showing that for the first time, Americans are using their cell phones more for texting and web surfing than for traditional phone calls.
Kit Eaton at Fast Company argues that network providers better change their business models:
…[W]hen next-gen 4G networks start to take off properly, cell phone use will be almost exclusively about data consumption, and voice calls will remain as a needed but deprecated service.
And when that happens, something odd will happen to the cellphone providers themselves–they’ll be relegated to merely being vanilla pipes over which your lovely smartphone data flows.
This is why they’re scrambling to establish some mindshare at the moment, with weird efforts like Verizon’s own App Store.
What to do about this friggin’ oil spill?
Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given.
“There’s a shocking amount of oil in the deep water, relative to what you see in the surface water,” said Samantha Joye, a researcher at the University of Georgia who is involved in one of the first scientific missions to gather details about what is happening in the gulf. “There’s a tremendous amount of oil in multiple layers, three or four or five layers deep in the water column.”
The plumes are depleting the oxygen dissolved in the gulf, worrying scientists, who fear that the oxygen level could eventually fall so low as to kill off much of the sea life near the plumes.
Just when you thought you heard the worst, the news just gets more grim.
HELP WANTED: Teacher in New Jersey
We offer you the fourth highest average salary in the nation (behind Connecticut and financially strapped New York and California), an average salary of $63,154, two months vacation and an excellent health package that you contribute little if nothing towards.
The great Obama/Pelosi/Reid-Keynesian government stimulus experiment is not so great
The U.S. economy may return to its pre-crisis peak next quarter after a recovery former Federal Reserve official Peter Hooper calls “surprisingly strong, historically weak,” which has seen corporations and the rich prosper while small companies and the unemployed struggle.
The economy has expanded an average 3.7 percent a quarter since the middle of last year, two-and-a-half times more than the median forecast of 58 economists surveyed in June 2009 by Bloomberg News. That still left first-quarter GDP shy of its previous pinnacle, according to Commerce Department data — the only time since 1955 the U.S. hasn’t gained back all the ground lost in a recession during the first nine months of a rebound.
The advance has “substantially exceeded expectations but remains well behind the norm,” said Hooper, chief economist for Deutsche Bank Securities in New York.
It would seem to me that, in the words of our benevolent Democrat overlords, “the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression” would require an even greater response, one that would not only work, but grab the economy by the scruff of the neck and haul it to some serious growth.
But we have none of that.
And when you start from economic contraction, any move to the upside can be spun as great and be seen as “coming back from the brink”. Which is why the administration can blabber on with nebulous phrases like “moving in the right direction” and so forth.
But it’s all a crock. The normal ebbs and flows, the peaks and troughs of the economic cycle will see growth and contraction on its own. The job of any economic policy is to encourage the peaks and minimize the troughs.
As the experts are saying, to the extent that the stimulus had any effect on the economy, the results are less than inspiring. No matter how the White House’s propaganda machine tries to spin them.
Elections, shmelections—tomorrow’s primaries and special elections mean nothing
Our national media is on the case to explain why tomorrow’s primary results should be ignored.
Newsweek leads the charge with this horrible piece from its blog. Read it at your own peril, you could lose some grey matter.
The money quote:
Despite recent GDP growth, job gains, and stock-market rallies, whatever economic recovery we’re currently supposed to be experiencing hasn’t really trickled down to Main Street.
Most ordinary Americans are still stuck in the Great Recession—still struggling to find work, still tightening their belts, still worried about paying the bills. And so, as poll after poll has shown, they are angry, agitated, and restless.
See, everything is going great. The economy’s booming, companies are the government is hiring, the stock market is breathing life into our 401(k) accounts, the birds are chirping, etc. So why are we rubes so pissed off?
Well, according to the geniuses at Newsweek, we’re so agitated and angry because we don’t understand that the wonderful trickle down effects of liberal utopianism take forever to um….trickle down. Dumb rubes!
So the results of tomorrow’s primaries and elections are irrelevant, because we’re too dumb to know how to vote and what to expect from our benevolent Democrat overlords.
Expect to see more of this preemptive sore loser crap from our media into tomorrow.
KFC’s Double Down sandwich is on fire
We can’t get enough of our recommended monthly allowance of sodium in one craptastic sandwich:
KFC says Americans are gobbling down so many Double Down sandwiches that the fast-food chain will offer the bunless, meaty sandwich longer than it had planned.
Originally the sandwich — bacon and cheese surrounded by chicken filets — was to have been available through Sunday.
But KFC said Wednesday that the sandwich will be available now for as long as customer demand remains high.
The Double Down came onto the market on April 12 and was supposed to have lasted about six weeks.
[...]
KFC said it has been one of its most successful sandwich launches ever. Later this month, KFC expects to sell its 10 millionth Double Down. They cost about $5.
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the utter crap that the American people are willing to eat.
Ineptitude abounds in Europe
Markets are down big all over the world and Wall Street opened sharply lower.
Worries about Europe’s sovereign debt crisis are the backdrop for all of this, precipitated earlier this week by Germany’s decision to place a ban on all naked short selling, in an attempt to stop the bleeding. The fools.
The market overlords are scratching their heads, wondering why their magic pixie dust isn’t working. If you want to attempt to understand why markets are crumbling, look at idiocy like this:
Asian stocks tumbled, with the Nikkei at a three-month low, amid worries there about the European debt crisis, market regulation and growth in China. Plus, riots in Thailand that saw 30 buildings torched including the stock exchange, a massive shopping mall and a TV station, added a layer of unease to the region.
“I’m convinced the markets are really out of control,” said German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. ” That is why we need really effective regulation, in the sense of creating a properly functioning market mechanism.”
And this:
[...]The German government faces a stormy debate in parliament this week over its participation in the €750bn stabilisation plan for the eurozone and the move on a transaction tax could persuade the opposition Social Democrats to support it.
Berlin has promised to give credit guarantees up to €150bn as part of the stabilisation package, if weaker eurozone economies come under renewed pressure in the capital markets. The finance minister rejected domestic criticism of the rescue, saying it was essential to preserve the stability of the euro.
[...]
He expressed disappointment at the market reaction. “We would rather see the markets react a bit more positively,” he said. “But when the euro was launched, its exchange rate to the US dollar was lower. So we’re not getting too worked up about it.”
Got that? It’s the MARKETS that are the cause of the problem. Those silly markets, refusing to abide by the temporary bandaids bailouts and other lame measures that Europe’s central bankers have put in place to try and stop the sell-off.
Of course, they want to use the volatility to take more control, implement more regulation on the markets.
Such hubris and arrogance. The “markets” are not acting “out of control”. The markets are RE-acting to the ineptitude and ignorance of central bankers and European leaders! The out-of-control spending, the deficits, all of it unsustainable. The markets (investors) realize this and are acting accordingly. There’s a big difference.
FinReg passes with help from Senator Brown
Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) said Thursday that he flipped his vote on the financial regulatory overhaul because of assurances he received from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
Brown on Wednesday voted against cloture to move to a final vote on the bill, saying that he had reservations with the flawed bill. The motion failed, which upset Reid.
But on Thursday, Brown said he received enough guarantees from Reid to feel confident about crossing the aisle.
“I supported moving the financial bill forward today because I received assurances from Senator Reid and his leadership team that the issues related to Massachusetts in the financial reform bill will be fixed before it is signed into law,” he said in a statement. “We are still working to ensure these commitments are fulfilled prior to a final vote.”
You just have to laugh. Maybe it’s just the greenness of being a first term senator, but seriously man….Harry Reid?
The consensus on FinReg seems to be that it’s a toothless “reform” bill, a bill passed just so Democrats and the President can say they “did something” on reforming the financial industry while campaigning for the midterms.
But the merits of the bill notwithstanding……Harry Reid? You took “assurances” from Harry Reid? Maybe it’s just that he’s a rookie senator. Or maybe he’s trying to flex his bipartisanship muscles for the constituents back in the Massachussets. I can’t tell for sure.
But I do know that taking any sort of promise from Harry Reid will not end very well.
UPDATE. It’s getting clearer now:
So why did Brown buckle, after voting to uphold the filibuster on Wednesday?
For starters, he received 3,000 phone calls to his office over the last week, all of them by supporters of Organizing for America, the apparatus that sprung out of President Obama’s campaign for the White House that is now housed inside the Democratic National Committee.
Brown received around 900 calls on Thursday alone, a DNC source said.
Then there is guilt. Reid all but called Brown out by name on Wednesday when he said that the Senate did not move forward on a procedural vote to end debate and overcome the filibuster because a senator had “broken his word.”
So Senator Brown, who campaigned as a rebel-in-a-blue-state type, hero of the resurgent conservative movement, who promised he would stand up to the statist agenda of the Democratic majority in Washington, is easily led around by the nose by said Democratic party. Lovely.
As I noted in the original post, perhaps this is to be expected from a Republican from the Bay State.
Allahpundit ponders the same, which leads to an interesting, if not unwelcome, question:
The left knew they could make things uncomfortable for him in Massachusetts if he didn’t cave, so they turned the screws — and he caved. Which, admittedly, was fully expected after the first filibuster, but is no less depressing for having been predictable.
Exit question: Forgivable offense for a blue-state Republican worried about reelection or primary-worthy sin that’ll have Red State pounding the table tomorrow?
This is the last thing the Republicans need right now.
I like books. REAL books.
Not e-books. I don’t care for reading books on Kindles and Nooks, although I tip my hat to the technological advances that make it possible–I think it’s all fascinating (seriously).
I like the iPad, and it’s e-book reader, but I can’t see myself getting into a book with that either.
The die is cast however, for actual books:
…[T]he digital revolution sweeping the media world is rewriting the rules of the book industry, upending the established players which have dominated for decades.
Electronic books are still in their infancy, comprising an estimated 3% to 5% of the market today. But they are fast accelerating the decline of physical books, forcing retailers, publishers, authors and agents to reinvent their business models or be painfully crippled.
“By the end of 2012, digital books will be 20% to 25% of unit sales, and that’s on the conservative side,” predicts Mike Shatzkin, chief executive of the Idea Logical Co., publishing consultants. “Add in another 25% of units sold online, and roughly half of all unit sales will be on the Internet.”
Maybe the 25% number that Mr. Shatzkin is forecasting is a bit steep, as that’s a huge swing towards e-book consumption in a relatively short time frame. Progress is progress, however. As much as I hate to admit it, the death march of the book has begun.
NYT: The reckoning is coming to Europe
Hey, guess what? LIBERALISM. DOES. NOT. WORK.
Across Western Europe, the “lifestyle superpower,” the assumptions and gains of a lifetime are suddenly in doubt. The deficit crisis that threatens the euro has also undermined the sustainability of the European standard of social welfare, built by left-leaning governments since the end of World War II.
Europeans have boasted about their social model, with its generous vacations and early retirements, its national health care systems and extensive welfare benefits, contrasting it with the comparative harshness of American capitalism.
Europeans have benefited from low military spending, protected by NATO and the American nuclear umbrella. They have also translated higher taxes into a cradle-to-grave safety net. “The Europe that protects” is a slogan of the European Union.
But all over Europe governments with big budgets, falling tax revenues and aging populations are experiencing rising deficits, with more bad news ahead.
With low growth, low birthrates and longer life expectancies, Europe can no longer afford its comfortable lifestyle, at least not without a period of austerity and significant changes. The countries are trying to reassure investors by cutting salaries, raising legal retirement ages, increasing work hours and reducing health benefits and pensions.
[...]
In Rome, Aldo Cimaglia is 52 and teaches photography, and he is deeply pessimistic about his pension. “It’s going to go belly-up because no one will be around to fill the pension coffers,” he said. “It’s not just me; this country has no future.”
Changes have now become urgent. Europe’s population is aging quickly as birthrates decline. Unemployment has risen as traditional industries have shifted to Asia. And the region lacks competitiveness in world markets.
According to the European Commission, by 2050 the percentage of Europeans older than 65 will nearly double. In the 1950s there were seven workers for every retiree in advanced economies. By 2050, the ratio in the European Union will drop to 1.3 to 1.
[...]
In Athens, Mr. Iordanidis, the graduate who makes 800 euros a month in a bookstore, said he saw one possible upside. “It could be a chance to overhaul the whole rancid system,” he said, “and create a state that actually works.”
At the end of the day, two plus two always equals four, no matter which country you live in.
Europe is only beginning to realize the big steaming pile of crap it’s gotten itself into. Meanwhile, here in the United States our elected overlords would rather not get into the lifeboats, but are content to climb back onto the Titanic.
During the healthcare debate, the favorite mantra of the pro-reformers was that the United States was “the only Western nation” that didn’t “provide” healthcare to its citizens. This is emblematic of the entire progressive doctrine–that government not only can provide for the cradle-to-grave well-being of its citizens, but it’s imperative that it must do so. All of it of course, paid for by taxing the productive class and/or public debt.
This is a recipe for a Euro-style disaster.
What’s the deal with the White House? Leftists want to know…(Gulf Oil spill edition)
Browsing the blogosphere, I’m starting to get the feeling that the hard left is none too happy with the Obama administration’s lackadaisical response to the oil spill in the gulf. Exhibit A here.
Then there’s prominent leftist Peter Daou’s piece in the Huff Po, in which he clearly has a case of the vapors:
The Gulf disaster is a singular moment – an opportunity to bring the human race together to save itself, to protect its only home.
This should be a rocket-boost for the environmental movement, a time to finally put to rest the notion that environmentalists are misguided alarmists, a chance to finally marginalize green-bashers and put an end to their fatal obstructionism.
Instead, this grand debacle will gradually fade into the background once some political gaffe or sports game or celebrity scandal occupies us.
But kudos to Daou for laying blame at the feet of the administration:
[...]President Obama can launch as many fact-finding commissions as he sees fit. But we shouldn’t be impressed that they are doing what we elected them to do – it’s their job to deal with emergencies promptly and effectively.
[...]
The administration seems miffed and mystified that it is being criticized. After all, it can reel off dozens of swift actions taken in the aftermath of the spill.
[...]
The White House’s defenders want the spotlight aimed exclusively at BP. But this is a situation where body language and words are just as important as actions.
Scheduling an ‘angry’ presidential news conference weeks after oil started gushing into the Gulf waters is exactly the wrong thing to do.
Authentic anger isn’t something you turn on for the cameras and leak to the press the previous day. Indignation and defensiveness are precisely the wrong message…
Two things here.
First, I agree with his take on American ambivalence towards crises facing the country. The looming debt crisis, financial and mortgage crises of the last two years might as well be ancient history for example. And I’m in the camp that these are merely in remission and they will rear their ugly heads yet again. It’s speaks volumes of our political class’ whatever attitude and their unwillingness to make hard and uncomfortable decisions.
Which brings me to the second point. Despite campaigning as a different politician, one who was willing to make these hard decisions and change the way “Washington works”, Barack Obama is proving to be the complete opposite–your standard fare for DC.
This is nothing new. But it presents an interesting dynamic. The memories of the Bush administration are just beginning to fade, but the Left’s gnashing of teeth over perceived errors and bureaucratic hubris over Hurricane Katrina, the wars, etc. is essentially what got Obama elected. Obama was the anti-Bush.
So now you have the Left getting agitated over the White House sticking its thumb in their collective eye over a disaster that makes Katrina look like a spring shower.
Part of the problem is that the left assumes government can “solve” these problems. Hence, their aneurysm over Bush and Katrina. In reality, there’s not that much the federal government can do and government bureaucracy is horribly inefficient in these situations. And one could make the argument that Republicans lost the White House for less.
All I ask is for consistency from the Left on their moral equivalencies. Time will tell.
Sestak admits WH offered him job; Democrats lament potential electoral risk
Democrats want to nip this in the bud before the rubes begin to notice come election time:
Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner (N.Y.) called on the White House on Monday to detail conversations it allegedly had with Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) to try to convince him to drop his Senate bid.
Weiner said that allegations that White House officials had offered Sestak an administration job in exchange for his dropping of his primary bid against Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) had become a growing political liability.
[...]
Weiner said that he saw it as likely that nothing inappropriate did happen, but reasoned that this was why the administration needed to be more forthcoming about the case.
“When we’re having conversations like this three days after the nomination, that’s a problem,” said Weiner, who also expressed support for Sestak’s Senate campaign.
But the New York Democrat said the best way to do that was with some sort of release of information, which he said would bury the story.
“Someone has to help us out here, and I think the White House and Congressman Sestak need to make sure we’re not talking about this next week,” Weiner explained.
Are we allowed to refer to Democrats as “corrupt” yet? Or is corruption just a label for the Republican party?
It isn’t so much about the potential violation of Federal law, or the continuation of politics as usual in Washington.
No, it’s not just that.
I don’t hear any Democrats going on about how unethical this all is–the White House handing out official administration jobs like candy on Halloween, just as long as it gets its way. Not to mention interfering with a Senate primary.
We hear none of that. What we do hear is Democrats lamenting the fact that this “issue” could be damaging to their electoral prospects come this November. You know, priorities.
Congressman Weiner and the rest of these corrupt Democrats can take a hike.
Kudos to Congressman Issa who’s been pounding the table on this issue for months.
Oil Spill Flyover
Holy crap:
I’ve read a lot regarding the oil spill, but the devastation never really hit me until I saw this video.
Keep in mind, the video is dated May 6th, so you can only imagine what’s happened since then.
Taking back the Senate
Still highly unlikely for the GOP, but Jay Newton-Small seems to think it’s within reach.
The key for the Republican party is to put forth competitive candidates in states where less than twelve months ago, the idea of a competitive GOP was laughable.
Still, I will not underestimate the ability of the Republican party to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They’ll shoot themselves in the foot somehow.
Financail Crisis Redux 2.0
All of this talk of liquidity in the markets and confidence between banks sounds vaguely familiar:
Dollar Libor rates gauging stress within the interbank lending market have jumped to a 10-month high of 0.5363pc, with credit contagion spreading to every area. The iTraxx Senior financials index – banks’ “fear gauge” – rose 20 basis points on Tuesday to 184. “It turns out we weren’t seeing the light at the end of the tunnel after all, but a train with a big light on it coming towards us of double-dip,” said Dr Suki Mann, at Societe Generale.
While the Libor rate is still far below peaks reached during the Lehman crisis, the pattern has ominous echoes of credit market strains before the two big “pulses” of the credit crisis in August 2007 and September 2008. In each case a breakdown of trust in the interbank market was a harbinger of violent moves in equities and the real economy weeks later.
RBS’s credit team said Libor strains were worse than they looked since most banks in Europe were paying much higher spreads, especially in Spain. The “implied” forward spreads were nearer 1.1pc.
To me, there seems to be a lot of complacency here in the United States. The subprime mortgage crisis came around less than two years ago and destroyed much of Wall Street in its path, and took back hundreds of billions of dollars in equity from everyday Americans. And nobody seems to worry about a second wave of failing banks and the tenuousness of our economy and financial markets.
When the dominoes start falling in Europe, only a fool will think that the American market will be immune to the mess. We’re a global marketplace now, and the idiocy of our central bank, the Treausry and our political leaders will not change that fact.
Democrats running the mortgage market into the ground. Again.
Remember during the 2008 campaign when Democrats couldn’t stop telling us how the Bush administration and Republicans caused the mortgage crisis? And how Barack Obama and Democratic majorities in both houses of congress was the only way to heal the mortgage market?
Loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration, the U.S.-owned mortgage insurer, may be involved in more home-purchase transactions than borrowing financed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The FHA and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which regulators seized in 2008, have been financing more than 90 percent of U.S. home lending after a retreat by banks and the collapse of the market for mortgage bonds without government-backed guarantees.
FHA lending last quarter may have topped the combined volume of government-supported Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a home-lending market that’s still a “government-financed market,” David Stevens, the agency’s head, said today at a conference in New York, citing research by consultant Potomac Partners.
“This is a market purely on life support, sustained by the federal government,” he said at the Mortgage Bankers Association conference. “Having FHA do this much volume is a sign of a very sick system.”
The FHA, which backs loans with down payments as low as 3.5 percent, insured $52.5 billion of home-purchase mortgages in the first quarter, compared with $46 billion of purchases of the debt by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to data compiled by Washington-based Potomac Partners.
Got that? Very. Sick.
As much as the American people and our elected overlords in Washington would like to just wish the mortgage mess away, the reality is that there still is a mortgage mess.
The GSEs are accumulating mortgage loans and are housing them off the books of the federal budget. In other words, the liabilities are off-balance sheet items, and the risk is swept under the rug. But now the rug is one big bloated rug, bursting at the corners.
The Federal government now holds the majority of mortgage loans in the United States, and with delinquencies on the rise, guess who’ll be left holding the bag when the whole thing comes crumbling down? Yours truly.
But let’s see now. The Democrats have essentially been in control of the Federal government for the better part of three years now. They’ve had the majorities and the wherewithal to shape economic policy to their liking. And the mortgage market is still in the toilet.
Miss Bush yet?
Obama’s Katrina
This post by Marc Ambinder is an excellent take-down of the flailing administration. The money bit:
The public is sick of political posturing. These Congressional hearings that Democrats are holding — they certainly are useful exercises in ventilation, but really, the focus right now shouldn’t be on blame assigning, it should be on crisis mitigation. Congress needs to stop yapping and start figuring out what it can do to support the administration, which, whether you like it or not, is on the hook for this.
Obama ran for president because he wanted to make government work again. He’s had a tough time convincing people that it is possible for government to work benignly. A crashing economy will just make it tough to change opinions. But now he’s faced with an equally impossible task — one that he did indeed sign up for when he decided to run for president — what happens when you’re called upon to solve an unsolvable problem?
This links up a bit with the bubbling controversy over whether Joe Sestak was offered a job in exchange for not running against Sen. Arlen Specter. One furthers the knife in the “open, honest, transparent” theme that has been on life support since health care, and the other furthers the knife in the “neither big government nor small government but efficient government” theme that has been on life support since the stimulus. The administration will need to fight these two issues immediately, consistently, and relentlessly.
I am in the camp that believes Presidents can have little effect on actual results in situations like this—that is to say, little in the effect that the American people think they can have on these crises. There’s only so much the President can do.
That being said, there’s no doubt that the Bush administration were more in control of the Katrina situation than the Keystone cops running the show now.
If anything, all of this should confirm that the Obama administration is in over their heads when it comes to governing. If government can be efficient, if it can work to solve these problems, we’re certainly not seeing any of that from this White House.
Governor Chrisite strikes again
Earlier this week, this video made the rounds and shows Governor Christie at his best.
Rita Wilson is a public school teacher and decides to go on about how she doesn’t teach for the money and that based upon her class size, she should be making around $83,000.
Watch the governor’s response:
Turns out Ms. Wilson actually makes $86,000 and, as I’ve noted before, the average NJ family makes $77,875 a year. So Ms. Wilson, for all her complaining, makes about 94% of what the average family makes annually.
Two things to take from this:
First, just when I think Governor Christie can’t get any better he always manages to surprise. If anything, it’s a relief to see a politician not only refuse to take any crap from special interests, but also speak straightforward and not in political legalese. Usually, an official would listen to Ms. Wilson’s complaining and tried to assuage or soothe, which is usually the point at which politicians fail, because they’re not being honest.
One of the things we hear from the teachers is that they never became a teacher for the money. But yet every time they open their mouth they’re bitching about–money. So kudos to the governor for the brutal honesty.
Lastly, tip your hat to Red State for picking up on Ms. Wilson’s actual salary. Teachers salaries are a matter of public record. Would it have hurt the Star LEdger or the Record or any of the local papers to look this up and try to find the facts rather than let Wilson’s lies go unaccounted for, especially after she tried to stick it to the governor?
I guess so.
Again, Steve Wynn is spot on
About a month ago, Wynn sounded the alarm on the idiocy coming out of Washington.
CNBC had an interview with Wynn this week, and he was even more adamant about his concerns:
He’s concerned about the prospect of inflation, of FHA repeating the mistakes of Fannie and Freddie, and the cost to business from the new healthcare law. “We’re on our way to Greece, in the hands of a confused, foolish government,” Wynn says. “It’s got to stop. It’s got to stop.”
Clearly Wynn hasn’t been drinking the Kool-Aid. And just like last time, what the hell does he know? He’s only a successful, self-made millionaire right?
The Ethic of the Link
Jay Rosen, journalism professor at NYU on the importance of links to information on the Web via blogging:
The link [...] is actually building out the potential of the web to link people, which is what Timothy Berners-Lee put into it in the first place.
[...]
…[W]hen we link, we’re actually expressing the ethic of the Web, which is to connect people and knowledge. And the reason you link doesn’t have anything to do with copyright and property, it has to do with that’s how we make the Web into the Web of connections and that’s how we connect knowledge to people.
[...]
As a blogger, what I try to do is do everything well, all the time, and give you way that you asked for every single time you come to my blog. More knowledge than you thought, more links than you’d bargained for, more nuance, more depth, more education than you imagined when you clicked that link.
That last paragraph is the essence of blogging as I see it. It drives me nuts when bloggers don’t link to sources.
[Via]
AR-Sen: Bubba the big gun
Things are getting testy in the Arkansas Democratic primary:
Former President Bill Clinton returned to his home state Friday to help a beleaguered ally and delivered a broadside against some of the most powerful interests in the Democratic Party.
Using unusually vivid language to describe the threat against Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Clinton urged the voters who nurtured his career to resist outside forces bent on making an example out of the two-term Democratic incumbent.
He pounded the podium with Lincoln at his side, warning that national liberal and labor groups wanted to make her a “poster child” in the June 8 Senate run-off to send a message about what happens to Democrats who don’t toe the party line.
“This is about using you and manipulating your votes to terrify members of Congress and members of the Senate,” Clinton said in the gym of a small historically black college here.
This is getting fun. Here you have Blanche Lincoln, a vestige of the Clinton era up against the progressive nutroots, who have funneled buckets of cash to Bill Halter’s campaign.
That Lincoln requested Clinton’s appearance reeks of desperation, especially in a deep red state. It’s a last gasp for a career incumbent in a year of anti-incumbent, anti-Democrat voter discontent.
If Lincoln were to lose the runoff, it would show that the nutroots are really, really pissed. My gut’s telling me that this panic button time for the Lincoln campaign.
One last thing. It’s funny how I don’t hear progressive and liberal bloggers bitching about out-of-state money and influence in this election, as they did when conservative groups were helping Doug Hoffman in the NY-23 special election, or for Scott Brown’s election in Massachusetts.
Memorial Day
Bloggers and pundits and all of the commentariat can bloviate all they want from the comforts of their own home, tapping away on their keyboards about war, what to do about it, what not to do, etc. Anyone can be an armchair general and pound their chests. But the fact is, most people have no clue what war is like, myself included.
Remember the fallen. Remember the sacrifices.
SC State Senator calls Haley, POTUS “ragheads”
Lexington state Sen. Jake Knotts called political rival and Republican gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley a “raghead” on an Internet political talk show Thursday evening.
The term is a slur typically used against Arabs or other ethnic groups who wear turbans or headdresses. Haley, a state representative from Lexington, is the child of Indian immigrants.
“We already got one raghead in the White House,” Knotts said. “We don’t need another in the Governor’s Mansion.
What began as an ugly gubenatorial primary race in South Carolina just keeps getting uglier and uglier.
I knew nothing about Knotts before this week, didn’t know who he was, what he stood for, etc. By now, most people in this country know all they need to know.
What a piece of garbage.
And just for the record, Haley has vigorously denied any affair that Will Folks, the political blogger alleges to have had with her. Folks has yet to provide any evidence for any of his allegations, which makes him a complete douchebag at this point, until proven otherwise.
All of this that’s being hurled Haley’s way is so trashy and pathetic, it’s like we’re holding society in a zoo, with all the monkeys flinging crap at each other. Normally, I would just chalk it up to politics as usual, but it’s especially disturbing that this is coming from fellow Republicans!
And Senator Knotts is obviously a deluded cracker who has yet to enter the 21st century. Seriously, the “Obama is a Muslim” thing is the tool of morons.
A year with Camera Obscura
One year ago, on Saturday June 6, 2009, I was at my non-local Barnes & Noble perusing some books, when I noticed the music piping in from the store’s sound system.
What struck me instantly was the siren-like quality of the female lead vocals. Her voice blew me away to the point where I stayed in the store just to keep listening. The tunes were catchy, melodic and excellently produced. I went over to the music section and asked an employee whose music was playing.
The voice was of Tracyanne Campbell, lead singer of Camera Obscura and the album I was listening to was My Maudlin Career, their latest album which had just been released about a month earlier. I had never heard of the group before in my life.
After I got home, I downloaded most of Maudlin from iTunes and, within 2-3 days I had purchased other songs.
I tend to dichotomize my life into categories based on the music I’m listening to, and 2009 (or most of it anyway) was the year of Camera Obscura. As of today, their music holds a regular place in my iPod rotation.
As I said, it was Campbell’s voice that first caught my attention. With a Scottish accent easily identifiable the more you listen, its soothes the soul. And then there’s the music. From Maudlin, the song “Honey In The Sun” is probably the most perfect pop song I’ve ever heard (this is coming from a die-hard Beatles fan). Songs from previous albums are well-known to Obscura fans (as I discovered) like “Lloyd, I’m Ready to be Heartbroken” and “If Looks Could Kill”, both again, are excellent pop tunes with great vocals.
One of their first albums has the nugget “Shine Like a New Pin”, another tune that I often find myself replaying several times on my iPod.
To make a long story short, I’ve become a Camera Obscura fan.
It’s worth noting that I’m a big music fan, but I’m not fond of concerts. I’ve been to several, but when I’m into an artist’s music, I don’t necessarily have to see them live.
As you can guess, such is not the case with Obscura. Over the past several months, I found myself checking their website to see if they were going to be in my area.
It turns out, they were going to be in NYC to play at the Grand Ballroom last night. Prior commitments kept me from attending that show.
But then I find out about the Brooklyn Flea, the weekend flea market in Williamsburg. I found out that the band would be playing a free short set in the vault of the old Williamsburg Savings Bank building, where the market is usually held.
Not being a fan of going into NYC on a humid and muggy day in June, I decided almost instantly to make this trip. I had to see this band live.
The show was this past Sunday, June 6, 2010.
Upon entering the building and immediately to our left, were the stairs down to the vault. There was an enormous amount of people, packed like sardines from the basement to the top of the stairway. My anxiety started acting up.
After an approximately 10 minute wait, the line started moving. I snapped this picture going down the stairway, towards the entrance of the vault (I was being pushed and shoved, so a clear picture didn’t materialize):
I’d say there was about 400 people crammed into the vault of a less-than-air-conditioned bank building, on a muggy day. After about a 10 minute wait for sound check, and the show was on:
Sure it was hot. Sure the people around me had various smells. And I wouldn’t call a 400 people show “intimate”, but it beat any stadium show I’d ever seen. It beats Bon Jovi at an 80,000 seat arena. Hell, Camera Obscura can play with the best of whatever radio stations consider “music” today.
A splendid time was had by all. I know I did. I even got to meet the Tracyanne herself:
She was surprisingly pleasant, very polite and apologetic that Camera Obscura was not able to play more shows in the area. I told her what a pleasure it was to hear their music and how their enjoyment came through in their music. She happily posed for pictures and signed autographs for the fans that greeted her after the show.
And it all happened exactly one year from the day that I had first heard their music in that bookstore.
Of course the stimulus was a bust
So much for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009:
Last Friday’s Department of Labor jobs report, which showed private sector job creation fell by 190,000 between April and May of this year [...]
In total the U.S. economy has now lost a net of 2.2 million jobs since President Barack Obama signed his stimulus bill, and his administration is now 7.2 million jobs short of what he promised his $862 billion stimulus would help create by 2010.
This morning on MSNBC, former Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-FL) pressed prominent Keynesian economist and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University Jeffrey Sachs on whether it was too early to declare President Obama’s stimulus a failure. Scarborough had to ask the question twice, but Sachs finally relented: “It did fail.”
The one thing that sticks out in the early days of the Obama administration and its push for the stimulus bill was the focus on jobs. Remember all the talk of “shovel ready” jobs that were part of public works projects that just needed that boost of Federal cash to get them off the ground?
Remember the Vice-President running around the country lying about the number of jobs “created or saved” on such-and-such project?
Meanwhile, the most glaring aspect of this bogus “recovery” is the lack of any job creation at all. And they continue to lie about job creation and the “success” of the stimulus.
Smoke and mirrors, people. Smoke and mirrors.
AR-Sen: Lincoln pulls it off
Senator Lincoln just showed that winning in today’s Democrat party is all about moving further to the left and supporting the public option, Card Check and cap-and-trade means sticking it to the unions and basically running against the most contentious parts of Obama’s extremist agenda.
Sure, it seems that Bill Clinton gave her some much-needed support at the eleventh-hour. But the results are in and she ended up edging out an opponent who had the support of the unions and $10 million of their money, and was the lightning rod for the angry nutroots, who raised over $3 million for Bill Halter.
Maybe it’s not all about the money:
It’s a rejection of the ideas the unions are peddling. The unions wanted this election. Bill Halter, Lincoln’s Democratic primary opponent, is for card check. Lincoln is not. Card check is the unions’ signature issue.
This election is just weeks after big labor suffered another major loss. In Pennsylvania, big labor wanted Arlen Specter, offering money and institutional support. That didn’t matter to the voters, who elected not to send Specter back to Washington.
Progressives inside and outside Congress said they would not accept a health-care bill without a public option—and then they folded.
The unions tried to take out Senator Lincoln, and failed. The Left campaigned against Rep. Jane Harman, and failed again. Democrats really shouldn’t worry about threats from their left.
Maybe Ponnuru’s comments are a bit simplistic, and we should remember that Arkansas remains a red state.
But since 2006, one of the most annoying mantras of the left has been how the country is moving towards a left-of-center nation, and that the nutroots and the left-wing of the Democratic party are the purveyors and in the vanguard of that movement.
Well, in Arkansas, despite millions spent by the unions and the concentrated anger of the left, the people of Arkansas who was pulling the strings in Halter’s campaign and woke up to reality. The reality that unions don’t stand for the average American, that the nutroots are extremist dreamers, who want to take the country in a direction most Americans don’t want to go.
More importantly, as this is a defeat for liberals, it’s a defeat for Republicans too unless they can pull the upset come November. Momentum is good, but victory is better.
World Cup 2010
I’ve been watching international soccer for over twenty years now. With my parents being straight off the boat from Italy, I’ve watched mostly nothing but Serie A games, although Premier League soccer is great to watch on Saturday/Sunday mornings during the winter months. For my money, La Liga is becoming (if it hasn’t already) the elite league in European soccer.
That being said, as much as I loved the Azzuri winning it all in 2006, I doubt they will repeat this year. They essentially have the same squad that they fielded four years ago, and those guys were in their prime. They’re four years older now, and that’s not good for soccer at this level.
I’ll be surprised if Italy makes it past the Round of 16. Of course, you can never count out the defending champs, but time is not on their side.
You can never count out Brazil and Germany, as well. But my favorite right now is Spain. They have that look in their eye, and it could be their time.
Finally, one of my sleepers is Uruguay, who I think will make some noise in the tournament.
Anyway, the World Cup is a great event, and it’s good to see ESPN coming around and showing every game live. I’ll be watching as much as I can.
Keep tabs on the World Cup with the best calendar I’ve seen so far here.
The Guardian has a good live blog of the tournament here.
POTUS to give Oval Office speech on oil spill
Cue up the propaganda machine:
President Obama will give an address to the nation on the BP oil spill this week, delivering remarks Tuesday night at the end of a two-day trip to the Gulf region.
In the address from the White House, Obama will map out the government’s next steps, senior adviser David Axelrod said on NBC’s Meet the Press. He is expected to announce plans requiring BP to put billions into an escrow account to be used for compensating victims. “We want to make sure that money is escrowed for the legitimate claims,” Axelrod said.
Asked about a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll showing public dissatisfaction with the federal response to the oil spill, now nearly two months old, Axelrod said it cannot be compared to a single-moment event such as a hurricane. “This is an ongoing crisis, much like an epidemic,” he said.
Looks like those poll numbers are really hitting the floor. Am I the only one that gets the feeling that this is just more flailing around on the part of the President, and a blatant act of desperation?
We can expect everything plus the kitchen sink in this address–the demonization of BP, the demagoguery, the implication that Republicans have to share some, if not all of the blame, etc. This should be really fun.
Switzerland over Spain
My prediction just took a nice blow to the gut.
No other team in recent memory underachieves as much as Spain does in the World Cup. Expectations are always high, but they always come up short.
It’s only one game, but their road got that much narrower. Chile beat Honduras earlier this morning, so the Swiss and Chile now lead the group with 3 points each.
The next two games are now must wins for Spain, and from what I understand no team in the history of the tournament has ever lost their opening game and won the whole thing.
North Korea gives up on totalitarian economics
If this is true, then there’s good news coming out of North Korea:
Bowing to reality, the North Korean government has lifted all restrictions on private markets — a last-resort option for a leadership desperate to prevent its people from starving.
In recent weeks, according to North Korea observers and defector groups with sources in the country, Kim Jong Il’s government admitted its inability to solve the current food shortage and encouraged its people to rely on private markets for the purchase of goods. Though the policy reversal will not alter daily patterns — North Koreans have depended on such markets for more than 15 years — the latest order from Pyongyang abandons a key pillar of a central, planned economy.
With November’s currency revaluation, Kim wiped out his citizens’ personal savings and struck a blow against the private food distribution system sustaining his country. The latest policy switch, though, stands as an acknowledgment that the currency move was a failure and that only capitalist-style trading can prevent widespread famine.
Over the past year or so, as debates here in the States raged about whether government control over aspects of the economy were favorable or not, I’ve heard people say things to the effect of “maybe [aspects of] socialism aren’t so bad” and “what’s wrong with the government guaranteeing this social benefit or that subsidy”.
Actually, everything’s wrong with command economies, where the motive for economic gain and self-sufficiency are out of the equation. North Korea may have realized this too late. Better late than never, I guess.
New home sales plunge most since…forever
Thank goodness Obama and the Democrats are really on the ball when it comes to the economy:
Sales of new homes collapsed in May, sinking 33 percent to the lowest level on record as potential buyers stopped shopping for homes once they could no longer receive government tax credits.
The bleak report from the Commerce Department is the first sign of how the end of federal tax credits could weigh on the nation’s housing market.
The credits expired April 30. That’s when a new-home buyer would have had to sign a contract to qualify.
“We fear that the appetite to buy a home has disappeared alongside the tax credit,” Paul Dales, U.S. economist with Capital Economics,” wrote in a note. “After all, unemployment remains high, job security is low and credit conditions are tight.”
New-home sales in May fell from April to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 300,000, the government said Wednesday. That was the slowest sales pace on records dating back to 1963. And it’s the largest monthly drop on record. Sales have now sunk 78 percent from their peak in July 2005.
Analysts were startled by the depth of the sales drop.
“We all knew there would be a housing hangover from the expiration of the tax credit,” wrote Mike Larson, real estate and interest rate analyst at Weiss Research. “But this decline takes your breath away.”
It’s almost as if the Federal government was subsidizing market behavior and created an artificial floor in the housing market.
Nah. That couldn’t be.
USA advances in dramatic fashion
Ninety minutes of fruitless attacks and blocked shots, plus yet another questionable call by a FIFA referee denying the USA a goal, and in the 91st minute Donovan punches one in:
If you can watch that goal and not get excited for World Cup soccer, then you’re hopeless.
FinReg bill just a ruse. Really.
It’s amazingly sad that the majority of the commentariat in the media and the blogosphere see the new regulation as actual “reform” with teeth, as something other than political theater:
Analysts pored over the specifics of the deal as they emerged on Friday and expressed a wide array of views about the impact it would have. Some saw the bill as more of a political statement than a practical measure that could prevent another financial meltdown. Others said banks’ costs would increase, but banks would pass the increased costs along to consumers.
[...]
Richard Bove, a banking analyst with Rochdale Securities, said the bill would not severely curtail banks’ operations.
“I don’t see there being a tremendous clampdown on the ability of banks to make money,” he said.
“The banks will have numerous methods of getting around the most onerous provisions in this bill to maintain their earnings growth,” he added. “But the things they will do will increase the cost of banking to everybody in this country.”
For instance, Mr. Bove pointed to last year’s credit card bill, which led banks to push up rates pre-emptively or reduce customers’ credit limits.
“You’re going to get a letter from your bank saying you now have to pay $1 to $15 a month to pay for this bill,” he said. “The banks are going to get the money back because the consumer is going to pay for the bill, and that’s the killer for the consumer.”
Every decade or so, a bubble happens, irrational exuberance reigns and markets overreach. Bubbles and bull markets, although not synonymous, are inevitable in free markets. It’s the nature of the beach. And whenever they burst or correct, politicians cry foul and demand bigger and “better” regulation. It happened after the crash of ’29, it happened after the dot-com bubble, and it’s happening again.
And every time it happens, chest-thumping politicians claim they are sticking up for the average American, when in fact, most of the time, the new regulations are superfluous and useless. What’s more, the average American is usually worse off.
Apparently, we’re on that ride once again.
About that war in Afghanistan…
The Rolling Stone article aside, perhaps there was something more to the McChrystal firing last week:
…[T]he “campaign overview” left behind by General McChrystal after he was sacked by President Barack Obama last week warned that only a fraction of the areas key to long-term success are “secure”, governed with “full authority”, or enjoying “sustainable growth”. He warned of a critical shortage of “essential” military trainers needed to build up Afghan forces – of which only a fraction is classed as “effective”.
He pinpointed an “ineffective or discredited” Afghan government and a failure by Pakistan “to curb insurgent support” as “critical risks” to success. “Waning” political support and a “divergence of coalition expectations and campaign timelines” are among the key challenges faced, according to the general.
It was this briefing, according to informed sources, as much as the Rolling Stone article, which convinced Mr Obama to move against the former head of US Special Forces, as costs soar to $7bn a month and the body count rises to record levels, because it undermined the White House political team’s aim of pulling some troops out of Afghanistan in time for the US elections in 2012. In addition to being the result of some too-candid comments in a magazine article, the President’s decision to dispense with his commander was seen by the general’s supporters as a politically motivated culmination of their disagreements.
The comments made in the article by McChrystal’s inner circle were reason enough to be rid of the general. But I can never underestimate the ulterior motives of this President. He will never admit that the commander he chose for the campaign in Afghanistan was coming up short, and by extension so was his administration.
Just another shell game by the Obama administration.
Dylan Ratigan is really ticked off!
The former Bloomberg reporter/CNBC host is mad as hell by golly, and he’s not taking it anymore:
On most cable newscasts, the people who are writing new financial regulations are called congressmen. But on “The Dylan Ratigan Show” on MSNBC, some are called “banksters.”
That term, a twist on gangsters, tells viewers a lot about Mr. Ratigan, a financial news apostate who has transformed himself into an outspoken opponent of too-big-to-fail banks and the politicians whom he calls their servants. In the recent fight over financial reform, he lent a megaphone to people who wanted an end to “too big to fail,” and he called on viewers to lobby the Senators in his imaginary Bankster Party.
All this from a man who, until recently, hosted a stock-picking show on CNBC, the cable personification of Wall Street. Now Mr. Ratigan, who labels himself a taxpayer advocate, rails against the “vampire” banks who “have assumed control of our government.”
[...]
Mr. Ratigan underwent a “Lou Dobbs-like transformation,” from sober-minded journalist to all-out advocate, said Andrew Leckey, the president of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University.
In a nod to his old network, Mr. Ratigan said that CNBC “does more good than bad,” because it “still shines the light on the debate about ideas in the financial markets.” But MSNBC seems to be a better platform than CNBC for a political crusade against corruption, said Mr. Ratigan, 38, whose one-year anniversary at MSNBC will come on Tuesday.
Good grief. Doesn’t this all smell of crass opportunism? A lame attempt by MSNBC to get themselves a shrill, pseudo-populist for their network?
If there’s any question about the reasons behind the downfall of the MSM, look no further than Dylan Ratigan–man of the people!
Such bull.
POTUS: Hey, let’s talk about energy policy but don’t mention the BP oil spill
We can’t have Obama-led government incompetence suck up all the oxygen in the room now, can we?
That wouldn’t be prudent:
In the wake of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, President Obama today summoned a bipartisan group of over 20 senators to the White House to push for energy and climate change legislation.
But one thing the President did not want to talk about at the meeting was the BP disaster, a Republican source told ABC News. And that, the source said, led to a pointed exchange with GOP senator Lamar Alexander from Tennessee.
“The priority should be fixing the oil spill,” Alexander told the President, according to the source. “That’s what any meeting about energy should be about.”
But when Alexander tried to interject the BP leak into the meeting, the source said, the President told the senator, “That’s just your talking point.”
Retorted Alexander, “No, it’s my opinion.”
Senator Alexander made the critical mistake of highlighting a situation where government is not only not a solution, but impeding progress towards a solution.
Given that the Barack Obama is all about bigger and intrusive government, bringing up such issues are verboten. Government, and by extension, Barack Obama, can only do good things.
Once again, it’s all about Obama. Narcissism prevails in this White House.
Keith Richards wasn’t available?
This was amusing:
Alcohol and drug abuse has killed too many rock stars to mention, but at 61, Ozzy Osbourne is going strong.
Now DNA researchers in St. Louis say they’re part of a team working to determine why decades of substance abuse didn’t take down the Prince of Darkness.
Jon Armstrong is chief marketing officer for St. Louis-based Cofactor Genomics. He said Wednesday that Osbourne has asked a Massachusetts human genomics company to map his DNA. Cofactor is partnering in the effort.
Methinks Richards would’ve been the better guinea pig.
Long weekend
Headed to a long weekend in New England this morning.
We’re about to embark on the 3+/- hour drive up to the beaches of Rhode Island and the weather is expected to be perfect. We’re driving back to Jersey on the 5th.
This will be a much-needed getaway from the corporate hell-hole.
Happy Fourth!
Happy Fourth of July to anyone and everyone reading this blog…
LeBron goes to Miami
I really couldn’t care less about LBJ or the NBA. Occasionally, I flip over to ESPN to see if I can catch a score update or for the weekly baseball game, but other than that, the network is useless.
The buildup and hype in the weeks up to his announcement was embarrassing, a ridiculous spectacle. Anyone who watched a second of the ESPN stroke-fest last night, unless you work in the business, should not be allowed to vote or drive, because you must be a brain-dead moron.
That’s pretty much my reaction. Also, this piece in New York Magazine hits the nail squarely on the head:
Loving sports, by definition, requires a certain suspension of disbelief and logic. We are all pouring our hearts and souls into cheering for men (and women) who do not care about us, who are not like us, who are not the type of people we would ever associate with (or even meet) in real life.
[...]
That trust felt broken tonight. Not because LeBron James went to the Heat, even though he referred to his destination as “South Beach,” not “the Miami Heat and their fans.” Not because LeBron James didn’t go to the Knicks, even though of all the cities he mentioned enjoying during this free agent “courtship,” New York was the one he omitted.
Not even because LeBron was so, so cruel to Cleveland, not once thanking the fans who made him into what he was, the fans who have to wonder if their absurd investment in their sports franchises will ever be rewarded.
No, tonight, it felt like everyone involved — LeBron, ESPN, Bing, the University of Phoenix, Stuart Scott, the man who once chastised fans for having the audacity to boo, Jim freaking Gray — treated the millions of people watching like stupid, mindless consumers, empty lemmings ready to follow Sport into the abyss. Here, here are the Boys & Girls Club props. Here, here is your search engine. Here, here is your online college, Here, here is your Athletic Hero. Eat. Eat. Consume. You like it. You love it. You’ll always come back for more.
FTW
German government raising taxes to fill its healthcare deficit
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition backed higher health-insurance premiums, a move some critics from her own party said will fail to curb rising health-care costs and might undermine the German economic recovery.
Coalition leaders meeting in Berlin today agreed to raise health premiums to 15.5 percent of gross pay from 14.9 percent, Health Minister Philipp Roesler said. Employers will contribute 7.3 percent with 8.2 percent paid by employees.
“We’re including everybody, workers, employers and taxpayers,” Roesler said in a statement distributed to reporters in Berlin.
The measure is part of an overhaul of health care intended to plug an 11-billion euro ($13.8 billion) deficit in the public health-insurance system in 2011. It follows Cabinet agreement on June 29 to cuts in spending on drugs to reduce soaring costs to public health-insurance funds.
This is what happens when governments create massive entitlements designed to “benefit” the population–ineptitude, mismanagement and a complete waste of resources.
Eventually the bureaucracy becomes so big, it needs to be fed with the blood and sweat of the taxpayers, as politicians scramble to find more and more sources of revenue to plug the inevitable funding shortfalls, while praising the purported benefits to the people.
Why does anyone watch CNBC? Or, why Old Media blows…
An interesting bit from Tyler Durden at Zero hedge:
…[F]ormerly reputable channels such as CNBC are in the process destroying their credibility and causing an exodus of viewers, with the few remaining viewers remaining primarily for the opportunity to heckle the openly lying talking heads.
This made me laugh because pointing out the idiocy and heckling the stooges at CNBC is the only reason I watch the network anymore.
Read the entire post.
Chucky Schumer is really, really concerned about the iPhone 4
So, the iPhone 4 has a bit of a signal problem. These things happen.
Consumer Reports commits the ultimate sin of declining to recommend purchasing the new smart phone, causing a bit of a ruckus in the blogosphere. Again, to be expected.
This prompts Apple to schedule a press conference for Friday, a day usually reserved for bad news. Fair enough.
Then I see this story about an Apple engineer who warned Steve Jobs that the new antenna design for the iPhone 4 could lead to dropped calls. Things get a bit more interesting, considering that I have an iPhone 3Gs, and have contemplated getting the upgrade.
To be fair, I know a few people who have the iPhone 4 and I have asked them repeatedly if they’ve been having issues, and each one has said there have been no problems.
Reading through the Bloomberg piece on the Apple engineer, I read this:
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, issued a public letter to Jobs saying Apple’s efforts to address the matter so far are “insufficient” and asking the company “to address this flaw in a transparent manner.”
Good grief. Is there nothing else more pressing that needs to occupy the time of New York’s senior senator? Financial regulation? The double-dip recession? New York state’s budget crisis?
Really, the iPhone 4 is what’s bothering Chucky? I wonder what his angle is? What an idiot.
More healthcare reform lies biting us in the ash
This shouldn’t surprise anyone who had paid attention:
The Democratic co-chair of President Obama’s fiscal commission said Wednesday that the president’s health care bill will do very little to bring down costs, contradicting claims from the White House that their sweeping legislation will dramatically impact runaway entitlement spending.
“It didn’t do a lot to address cost factors in health care. So we’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Erskine Bowles, former White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, speaking about the new health law, which was signed into law by Obama this past spring after a nearly year-long fight in Congress.
Bowles, speaking at an event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said that even with the passage of Obama’s legislation, health care costs are still going to “really eat us alive” unless dramatic changes are made. The commission will submit recommendations on how to fix America’s long term fiscal problems to Congress in December.
I really believe this was intentional by the Democrats. In a mad rush to get any piece of healthcare reform legislation to President’s desk, the Democrats just crammed in any piece of statist healthcare policy under the sun, and decided to worry about the rest later.
This is what we’re seeing now.
Not to mention, we have a White House and congressional majority that is outright lying to our faces. Remember all the talk of how healthcare reform would help with our fiscal problems? How runaway healthcare costs contributed to the deficit and how this bill would rectify those problems?
That’s all out the window right now. They lied to your face.
But like I said at the top, anyone who was paying attention shouldn’t be surprised.
FinReg passes, bubble-less and crash-less markets await us all
The Senate has passed FinReg by a vote of 60-39, with three Republican helping the Democrats.
The scope of the “reform” is staggering–a 2,000+ page bill, creating some 243 new bureaucratic offices. Like most reform packages to come from Congress, it will hardly be a model of efficiency.
But perhaps the most alarming aspect is the broad, new powers it gives to existing regulators, regulators who should have been minding the store back in the 2000s, when the financial system was ready to implode.
When politicians begin to take notice of an issue, and start whining about “reform” and “action” to be taken, it’s usually too late, and is really just an indication that said politicians have no clue about what they are trying to do.
Such is the case with Wall Street reform. Since the 1930s, with the establishment of the SEC and the creation of our modern financial regulatory state, politicians have deemed themselves the white knights and saviors of bubbles and crashes, wrought by “evil and greedy” Wall Street bankers.
And anyone who actually believes that this is the case, is being extremely ignorant:
This isn’t the first time Congress has expanded the Fed’s role. After the Great Depression, it passed the Employment Act in 1946, charging the Fed with averting the huge unemployment seen in the 1930s. After the double-digit inflation of the 1970s, the Fed was formally given a dual mandate of promoting both price stability and maximum sustainable employment. In the wake of the latest financial crisis, the Fed is effectively being told to add the maintenance of financial stability to its responsibilities.
The risks, however, are that the Fed still won’t be able to prevent another crisis, and that it will be an even clearer target for blame if that occurs. “The bill has good intentions, but I’m worried about its implementation. If I were the Fed, I’d be seriously worried about being left holding the bag,” said Anil Kashyap, a professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
As long as there are free markets, and market participants free to engage in those markets, there will be bubbles and crashes, peaks and troughs–such is the nature of the system.
The problem is and never was lack of regulation–the banking industry is one of the most heavily regulated in the country. It comes down to who is doing the regulating.
When you see Dodd, Frank, Reid, Pelosi, and all the rest up there patting themselves on the back for passing yet more “reform” of the industry, ask yourselves who is the real problem here.
Bachmann forming an official Tea Party Caucus
Michelle Bachmann wants to give the Tea Partiers a voice into the halls of Congress:
Bachmann, already a hero within the tea party, sent a letter to House Administration Chairman Robert Brady (D-Pa.) Thursday to register the House Tea Party Caucus to serve as an “informal group of members dedicated to promote Americans’ call for fiscal responsibility, adherence to the Constitution and limited government.”
Bachmann, in a statement, said Americans have “had enough of the spending, bureaucracy and the government-knows-best mentality running rampant today throughout the halls of Congress.”
Fiscal responsibility? Limited government? Constitutional principles? Isn’t that what the Republican party should be standing for?
After all of the debate over the past year including healthcare reform, government spending, stimulus, etc., after all of that, you would think that most if not all Republican members would be signing on to the principles of fiscal responsibility, limited government, and all the rest. This should be relatively easy, as it goes against the entire Obama-Democrat agenda.
I’ve had my issues with the Tea Party, and have made them known on this blog. One of my biggest fears was that the Tea Party activists would become a wedge that splits up the base of the Republican party. That Michelle Bachmann has made it a point to single out certain Republican members as Tea Partiers, makes me a bit uneasy along those lines.
On repealing FinReg
John Boehner is calling for a repeal of the FinReg legislation passed by the Senate a few days ago.
Ramesh Ponnuru doesn’t think this is smart politics:
[...]I hope other Republicans don’t join this bandwagon.
While I don’t accept the conventional wisdom that repealing Obamacare is impossible, it is certainly going to be difficult. It is highly, highly unlikely that Republicans will be able to repeal two of the Democrats’ recent major pieces of legislation.
If Republicans promise to repeal several laws, they will reduce the likelihood that they will repeal any of them.
A few other points worth considering.
First, the financial-regulation bill isn’t as bad as the health-care legislation—it even has some good points. Second, the bill wasn’t passed in the manner the health-care bill was. No state re-wrote its laws to enable it to get a 60th vote, and public sentiment wasn’t against it.
For both of these reasons, I think it makes more sense for conservatives to try to modify the legislation in the future—replacing its worst parts, dealing with Fannie and Freddie, etc.—than to try to repeal it.
The merits (or lack thereof) of the FinReg legislation notwithstanding, I agree for the most part with Ponnuru’s assessment. Having previously called for the reform of Obamacare, doing the same on FinReg makes the minority leader look shrill. Politically, this will become an albatross for Republicans heading into the midterms and beyond, if they don’t learn to frame the debate as providing alternatives to the creeping statist policies of the left.
Republicans have to learn the fine art of playing politics, something they have failed to do despite gaining significant momentum over the past twenty months.
Beach Day (Mellow Yellow edition)
Beach day for me today. It’s supposed to be about 92 and slightly less humid, which is not saying much, but it’s looking like a good one for the shore.
I usually get to the shore as early as possible, mostly to find a decent parking space, but also to beat the army of bennies that come down from various parts north. They’re like leeches. And for the record, the idiots you see on the “Jersey Shore” reality show are bennies–mostly from Staten Island or New York.
Anyway…
Donovan’s classic 1966 tune shuffled onto my iPod since what seems like forever. Hadn’t heard the song in a while, and forgot how great it was:
It’s well-known that Paul McCartney was in the studio providing back-up vocals to this record, sometime in the summer of 1966, which is probably about the last time he was actually cool.
Enjoy the day…
Writers Blog
One of the local websites that I go to for local news in Jersey just started a writers blog called Writer’s Retreat, where the goal is to discuss established writers’ work and for locals to submit their own work.
This should grow into a great resource for writers and bloggers here in New Jersey.
How did “$” come to represent US currency?
Christopher Beam writes an interesting piece on the origins of some world currencies.
The evolution of the US dollar’s “$” symbol is relatively complex compared to other well-known currency symbols:
We got the $ from the Spanish. In the late 18th century, merchants in the North American British colonies traded mainly with two currencies: the British pound and the Spanish dollar. When the United States adopted its own currency in 1785, it used Spanish money as its model—a deliberate “screw you” to the British.
Scholars have since theorized that the $ sign evolved out of an abbreviation for peso: The plural for pesos was “ps,” which eventually became “ps,” and then simply an “S” with a single stroke denoting the “p.”
We Americans, of little faith
Despite constant harping by Democrats that the economy is being lifted from the doldrums, the message from the real world is a little more, um…real:
Consumer gloom in July reached its highest level since the recession was near the bottom amid fears that the expansion remains too weak to create many jobs, according to the IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index out Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a gauge of small-business confidence retreated in June to a level typical of a “weak or recession-mired economy” as the sales outlook deteriorated sharply, the National Federation of Independent Business said Tuesday.
Political success owes a lot to perception and right now the perception by average Americans is that economically speaking, things are just as bad as they were when Obama took office.
In other words, trillions in dollars of new spending, billions in stimulus and a shiny new healthcare entitlement is not filling us with any sense of optimism. And that shouldn’t be good is not good for Democrats.
Non-racist, virtuous left-wingers in the media are race-baiters
In other news, the sky is blue and the grass is green.
What else is there to do when you can’t win in the arena of ideas?
The crisis reached a howling pitch in mid-April, 2008, at an ABC News debate moderated by Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos. Gibson asked Obama why it had taken him so long – nearly a year since Wright’s remarks became public – to dissociate himself from them. Stephanopoulos asked, “Do you think Reverend Wright loves America as much as you do?”
Watching this all at home were members of Journolist, a listserv comprised of several hundred liberal journalists, as well as like-minded professors and activists. The tough questioning from the ABC anchors left many of them outraged. “George [Stephanopoulos],” fumed Richard Kim of the Nation, is “being a disgusting little rat snake.”
Others went further. According to records obtained by The Daily Caller, at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their favored candidate. Employees of news organizations including Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon and the New Republic participated in outpourings of anger over how Obama had been treated in the media, and in some cases plotted to fix the damage.
In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”
Let’s put this in its proper perspective. Ackerman wasn’t talking about a strategy to expose real racists, in the media or anywhere else. The Washington Independent reporter wanted to conduct a campaign against any figure on the Right, including journalists like Fred Barnes, to smear him as a racist for the political purposes of electing a Democrat to the White House.
Notice that Ackerman doesn’t even bother to ask people to look for actual evidence of racism, but just suggests to pick a conservative name out of a hat.
You can substitute Ackerman for any of the endless list of progressive/liberal journalists, reporters and talking-heads.
Clearly the real problem in American politics today is that a Tea Party leader was forcibly ejected from the Tea Party Federation. Clearly.
The World Cup final on Twitter
Some eye-opening Twitter action during the World Cup:
In a post on the company’s blog, Matt Graves, a Twitter employee, said that the final match of the World Cup “represented the largest period of sustained activity” for a single event since Twitter started several years ago.
Mr. Graves also said that during the final 15 minutes of the game the company was seeing more than 2,000 World Cup-related tweets per second, being generated from over 170 countries in 27 languages. Once Spain scored its winning goal, that number passed 3,000 posts per second.
Pretty remarkable stuff considering that there was nearly a revolution in Iran tweeted on Twitter.
Tea Party caucus getting tepid reception
…[T]he tea party movement is a loaded political weapon for Republicans heading into the midterm elections.
Until now, they have had the luxury of enjoying the benefits of tea party enthusiasm without having to actually declare membership. But now that Bachmann has brought the tea party inside the Capitol, House Republican leaders and rank-and-file members may have to choose whether to join the institutionalized movement.
The more I hear about this idea, the more I disagree with this move.
Heading into the midterms, Republicans have history and momentum on their side–for now. I never underestimate the GOP’s ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Already, Eric Cantor has said that the caucus is not such a great idea, along with Tea Party favorite, Marco Rubio. To the extent that the caucus is to represent the principles of the Tea Party, how does the movement interpret Rubio’s and Cantor’s decision? Is it less inclined to support these candidates and members?
But forget the distractions that are bound to come up with this idea. My biggest issue is about credibility.
A Tea Party-backed candidate has yet to win a significant election. It seems to me that having a caucus would mean the members of the caucus would have some clout in their representative body. If the Tea Party movement shows that it has the push to swing elections overwhelmingly, then forming a caucus would make more sense. After the fact.
If the Tea Party falls flat come election night, then the caucus will look pretty silly.
To be continued…
FinReg adds mountains of bureaucracy
This is what “reform” looks like:
Before the financial reform law, the SEC already had a full plate. It is working to implement or finalize nearly 20 new regulations covering areas ranging from money market funds to high-speed electronic trading. It is also conducting numerous investigations growing out of the financial crisis and is in the early stages of implementing many internal reforms in its enforcement and examination divisions.
The agency’s new tasks are just as onerous. Schapiro said at a congressional hearing Tuesday that the SEC will have to hire 800 new employees.
“The act requires the SEC to promulgate a large number of new rules, create five new offices, and conduct multiple studies, many within one year,” Schapiro told Congress in prepared testimony. “The importance and complexity of the rules coupled both with their timing and high volume and the rule writing agenda currently pending will make the upcoming rule writing process both logistically challenging and extremely labor intensive.”
Do Democrats have solutions to any issue that doesn’t require tax increases or increased bureaucracy?
The idea that multiplying the number of bodies in a federal office, or legislating reams of new regulations on existing regulatory bodies, will prevent these crises from happening is insane.
But it does provide a sense of accountability, right?
The next time a market bubble bursts or there is some sort of financial crisis to deal with, we’ll know who to call. Just look up the number of your nearest Democratic representative or Senator and ask them to fix the mess with the massive, new layers of regulation they just dumped onto the financial system.
The politics of SB 1070
Yesterday’s Federal court decision to strip the law of its key provisions is a blow to state’s rights and the will of the people of Arizona.
Governor Brewer has confirmed that Arizona is appealing the decision.
Doug Mataconis wonders how this will play out for the midterms:
…[I]t’s going to be interesting to see what impact this decision has across the country. Polls have shown repeatedly that a large majority of Americans support Arizona’s law and a new polls shows that similar majorities oppose the Justice Department’s decision to sue the State of Arizona.
One can imagine that these voters are going to react negatively to this decision, although, of course, there’s not really much they can do about it since the matter is in the hands of the Court.
Andy McCarthy thinks this decision means tough political seas ahead for Democrats:
…[T]he gleeful Left may want to put away the party hats. This decision is going to anger most of the country. The upshot of it is to tell Americans that if they want the immigration laws enforced, they are going to need a president willing to do it, a Congress willing to make clear that the federal government has no interest in preempting state enforcement, and the selection of judges who will not invent novel legal theories to frustrate enforcement. They are not going to get that from the Obama/Reid/Pelosi Democrats.
Elections have consequences. The Federal judge who wrote the decision was an appointee of President Clinton, who has been out of office for a decade, yet his decisions and appointments have ramifications today. And President Obama has made his opinions on judicial activism very clear.
These elections–midterms, the general election in 2012–have consequences. Dire consequences. Conservatives need to mobilize and step up to the plate.
NV-Sen: Reid and Angle in dead heat
Democrats will be hard pressed to find a positive spin on this:
Sen. Harry Reid and Sharron Angle are locked in a dead heat, says a new poll for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and KLAS-TV, Channel 8 that shows the GOP challenger regaining ground after going on the offensive with a TV ad blaming Reid for Nevada’s deep economic troubles.
The high-profile contest with implications for President Barack Obama’s agenda promises to be a bare-knuckled fight to the finish as voters decide between Reid’s promise that the recovery is coming under Democrats and Angle’s call for a new conservative fiscal direction, analysts said.
[...]
The new survey by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research shows Reid and Angle neck and neck. The Senate majority leader would win 43 percent and Angle 42 percent of support from likely Nevada voters if the election were held now. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points on the statewide telephone survey of 625 registered voters taken Monday through Wednesday.
A July 12-14 Mason-Dixon poll showed Reid 7 points ahead of Angle, 44-37. It was the best showing for the four-term incumbent — and the worst for Angle — in a head-to-head matchup, according to a series of surveys for the Review-Journal since last year.
That Reid cannot get over that 50% mark as an incumbent, not to mention Senate majority leader, is really bad news for Democrats, and good news for the people of Nevada.
The Angle campaign needs to go on the offensive and establish the narrative of the midterm elections this campaign–it’s all about the economy:
Since the last poll, Nevada’s record high unemployment jumped to 14.2 percent, something Angle highlights in her first general election ad that notes it was 4.4 percent when Reid became Senate majority leader five years ago. The state also has record high bankruptcy and home foreclosure rates with one in every 15 homes in vote-rich Las Vegas in foreclosure.
[...]
Despite Reid’s efforts, a vast majority of Nevada voters remain unhappy with Democratic leaders and the direction of the country, the poll shows, which hurts his chances of winning come Nov. 2.
Six out of 10 voters think the country is on the wrong track, while more than half disapprove of the job Obama is doing. Four out of 10 think his actions to stabilize the economy are hurting, while three in 10 believe they are improving things.
The Angle campaign needs to drive home the point that Reid and the Democrats are bad news for their economic health.
Oh well…
Nine times out of ten, I’ll go to the local bookstore during my lunch break.
Most of the time it’s because I love to read, but also because it recharges my brain from the mental atrophy I undergo in the corporate hell-hole.
Today I went there during lunch, desperately looking for some inspiration. Found none…
Democrat party lies and propaganda vs. economic reality
Nancy Pelosi, after Democrats won back the House in 2006 (via):
The American people called for greater economic fairness, and we pledge to work for an economy that enables all Americans to participate in the economic success of our country.
While this statement might be accurate, the problem is that most Americans are “participating” in a crappy economy.
The economic reality:
The recovery is losing so much momentum that employers are unlikely to step up hiring anytime this year, and unemployment could return to double digits.
That was the bleak conclusion of analysts Friday after the government said economic growth crawled at a 2.4 percent pace in the spring. It was the economy’s weakest showing in nearly a year. And many economists think growth is even slower now.
Consumers spent less, companies slowed their restocking of shelves and the nation’s trade deficit exerted a stronger drag on the economy in the April-to-June quarter.
[...]
“We’re headed into the third quarter with little momentum, and most everything is tracking weaker,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “Because of that, I expect unemployment to rise back to double digits, hitting 10 percent in December and staying there early next year.”
Businesses stepped up their spending last quarter, propelled in part by government stimulus. But those gains aren’t likely to be repeated, economists said.
Yeah, so the $787 million stimulus package failed miserably and the economy is swirling the drain. After all these years, Democrats are still lousy at handling the economy.
But that doesn’t stop the administration and Democrats from travelling the country and lying about its phantom success.
The real question is: will the American people use their power to vote these morons out of office?
Missouri voters push back against Obamacare
It’s one battle in what will be a long fight against Obamacare:
Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a federal mandate to purchase health insurance, rebuking President Barack Obama’s administration and giving Republicans their first political victory in a national campaign to overturn the controversial health care law passed by Congress in March.
“The citizens of the Show-Me State don’t want Washington involved in their health care decisions,” said Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, one of the sponsors of the legislation that put Proposition C on the August ballot. She credited a grass-roots campaign involving Tea Party and patriot groups with building support for the anti-Washington proposition.
With most of the vote counted, Proposition C was winning by a ratio of nearly 3 to 1. The measure, which seeks to exempt Missouri from the insurance mandate in the new health care law, includes a provision that would change how insurance companies that go out of business in Missouri liquidate their assets.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Cunningham said at a campaign gathering at a private home in Town and Country. “Citizens wanted their voices to be heard.”
Ed Morrissey breaks down the results:
How big was this victory? Three weeks ago, Rasmussen polled likely voters in Missouri and asked whether they supported repeal of ObamaCare. At that time, 58% said they supported its repeal, with 50% strongly supporting it. Thirty-eight percent said they opposed repeal. That 58/38 split turned into a 71/29 disaster for Democrats and Obama.
[...]
Even Rasmussen may be underestimating the power of ObamaCare repeal in its likely-voter turnout, as their last poll on this question in Missouri clearly underestimated (in an indirect survey, of course) the results for this election.
[...]
Bear in mind that over 315,000 Democrats turned out to cast ballots in the primary that nominated Robin Carnahan, while over 577,000 Republicans hit the polls. That is about a 65/35 split — which means that a significant amount of Democrats either supported the ballot measure repudiating ObamaCare, or didn’t bother to cast a vote to defend the program. Actually, Prop C got more votes than the combined voting in both Senate primaries — which tells us something even more about the passion in the electorate.
Democrats may have to hit the panic button after seeing the results from this swing state. ObamaCare set fire to the electorate last year, and that may be an inferno for Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in November.
As goes Missouri, so goes the nation?
Like I said, this is great news. But I remain pessimistic on the probability of repeal. So much has to fall into place for repeal with teeth to happen. Republicans need a massive victory in November. That includes the Tea Partiers, who better make a big splash in November, if they want to be taken seriously. Other state referendums need to be won.
But more to Morrissey’s point, and this is good to see, the Obamacare push-back appears to be hammering Democrats even harder than expected.
This is a great first step. But it’s a first step in a long walk nonetheless.
Newsweek, the money pit
The magazine was sold this week, allegedly for a dollar. Here’s why:
Revenue dropped 38 percent between 2007 and 2009, to $165 million. Newsweek’s negligible operating loss (not including certain pension and early retirement changes) of $3 million in 2007 turned into a bloodbath: the business lost $32 million in 2008 and $39.5 million in 2009.
Even after reducing headcount by 33 percent and slashing the number of issues printed and distributed to readers each week from 2.6 million to 1.5 million, the 2010 operating loss is still forecast at $20 million.
The slow, miserable death of Old Media is no surprise, but these numbers are jaw-dropping.
Revolver
On this date in 1966, the Beatles released Revolver.
Revolver was right on par with, if not better than, Sgt. Pepper.
Beatles hagiography drives me nuts. The Beatles were not gods, and were by no means perfect musically. But their music stands the test of time. Like all other musical acts, their music needs to be put in the perspective of the era in which it was produced.
And not for nothing, that period from 1966 through early 1968 is probably the best quality period in pop music history.
More on Prop C
With the passage of Prop C as a backdrop, Michael Barone sifts through the results from this past Tuesday’s primaries, and what appears to be serious trouble for Obama and the Democrats:
Heavy Republican turnout helps account for the 71%-29% majority for Missouri’s Proposition C, which purports to ban any mandate to buy health insurance. But it doesn’t explain the whole thing.
[...] Proposition C carried all 115 counties in Missouri (St. Louis City is separate and apart from St. Louis County, which voted for C; Kansas City, whose results are reported separately, is part of Jackson County, which as a whole voted for it as well. To have the mandate rejected by 71% of voters in a state Obama missed carrying by only 0.2% is a pretty devastating result.
What does Chuck Schumer think about all of this?
Democrats and the media can spin this all they want. It’s looking more and more likely that there really is a groundswell of voter dissatisfaction out there for Democrats and their left-wing agenda.
Open Thread
It’s about 85 degrees today and sunny and, more importantly, no humidity. Until today, this has been the summer of 100 degree temps and full-blast humidity. Either that or it rains.
Going out to enjoy the day.
But first, some summer music:
Obamanomics lays an egg
Some call it Obamanomics, but really it’s just more of the same failed Keynesianism. The same economic theories that the left was praising in the pre-inauguration winter of 2009, as the salvation for our economic woes.
No coincidence that Peter Orszag and now, Christina Romer have jumped ship:
Romer is best known for drafting the February 2009 report “The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan,” which the White House used as an ammunition belt in the fight to gain passage of its $862 billion economic stimulus bill (the actual cost of which exceeds $1 trillion when interest is included).
Romer predicted that following passage of the stimulus bill, unemployment would plateau below 8 percent last fall and by this month register at 7 percent. That’s not close enough for government work, as unemployment stands at 9.5 percent today. It would be higher except that hundreds of thousands of frustrated job seekers have given up looking for new jobs and dropped out of the labor force.
Those who fail miserably in the real world, go back to teaching at Berkeley I guess.
Meanwhile, the $787 billion porkulus is flushed down the toilet:
…[T]he stimulus bill has proven to be an extraordinary waste of borrowed money that has failed to create jobs, generate economic growth or do much of anything other than line the pockets of White House political allies. That and give $308 million in subsidies to BP before the Gulf oil spill disaster, and subsidize a study on what happens when monkeys snort coke.
As Romer fades back to her teaching post at Berkeley, Obama is adding to the economic misery by creating an environment of regulatory uncertainty.
There is no accountability at all to what these people bring to the table. The Obama administration was heralded by the press and the blogosphere as young blood, a haven of Democratic intellectualism that was supposed to do away with fiscal recklessness of the past, repudiate a failed Republican agenda, and jump-start the economy.
Now, with the better part of two years behind them (not to mention almost four years of a Democratically-controlled congress), the administration is trying to put lipstick on a pig of an economic landscape.
The worst part of all of this is that real Americans are suffering. Nobody is asking for a handout, but the government’s actions appear to exacerbate the problems.
“Recovery Summer” crawls along
This morning’s job report was ugly:
The economy is looking bleaker as new applications for jobless benefits rose last week to the highest level in almost six months.
It’s a sign that hiring remains weak and employers may be going back to cutting their staffs. Analysts say the increase suggests companies won’t be adding enough workers in August to lower 9.5 percent unemployement rate.
First-time claims for jobless benefits edged up by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 484,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s the highest total since February. Analysts had expected claims to fall.
Initial claims have now risen in three of the last four weeks and are close to their high point for the year of 490,000, reached in late January. The four-week average, which smooths volatility, soared by 14,250 to 473,500, also the highest since late February.
[...]
Claims fell steadily last year from their peak of 651,000, reached in March 2009. But they have mostly leveled out this year at or above 450,000. In a healthy economy with rapid hiring, claims usually drop below 400,000.
Seeing the endless stream of bad economic news over the past several months, and especially the weak jobs situation, I can’t help but think about the early days of the Obama administration, and their push for the trillion dollar $800+ stimulus package.
Remember the boasts made by both the administration and congressional Democrats, about the number of shovel-ready jobs that were lined up, waiting for federal funding? And how those jobs would set in motion this miraculous economic recovery rooted in Keynesian economics? And how not one Republican representative voted for that monstrosity in the House?
Me too.
The ball’s in the American people’s court this November–hold the politicians accountable for the lies.
Those classy Democrats
It was a dramatic but fitting start to an evening that brimmed with political defiance. About 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, as guests began strolling into the Plaza Hotel to celebrate Representative Charles B. Rangel’s 80th birthday, former Mayor David N. Dinkins turned to confront a heckler.
“You know you are attending a party for a crook,” the man yelled.
At that, Mr. Dinkins, a paragon of statesmanship and dignity, raised his middle finger at the man, displaying it for all to see, according to witnesses, whose accounts were confirmed by the former mayor.
The former mayor of New York city, attending the birthday party of one of the country’s most corrupt politicians, confronted by a bystander pointing out that fact, tells said bystander to go screw himself.
These Democrats really have their priorities straight don’t they?
China knocking on the door
China is now the second largest economy in the world, passing Japan:
…[U]nseating Japan — and in recent years passing Germany, France and Great Britain — underscores China’s growing clout and bolsters forecasts that China will pass the United States as the world’s biggest economy as early as 2030. America’s gross domestic product was about $14 trillion in 2009.
“This has enormous significance,” said Nicholas R. Lardy, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “It reconfirms what’s been happening for the better part of a decade: China has been eclipsing Japan economically. For everyone in China’s region, they’re now the biggest trading partner rather than the U.S. or Japan.”
No thrills up my leg
Via Ben Smith, Iowa Republicans were polled on the outlook for the 2012 field, and it isn’t exactly a barn-burner:
The poll shows that the 2012 contest is going to begin right where the 2008 Iowa Caucuses left off, with Mike Huckabee leading Mitt Romney. Huckabee comes out on top of the poll garnering 22 percent, Romney finishes second with 18 percent, and Newt Gingrich finishes surprisingly well with 14 percent in third place. Sarah Palin finishes a disappointing fourth with 11 percent. Texas Congressman Ron Paul garnered 5 percent, while Pawlenty, and South Dakota Senator John Thune each received 1 percent.
Yes it’s still very early. But I have no faith in any of these candidates–not Palin, not Romney, certainly not Huckabee–to be able to win a national election against Barack Obama.
Despite Republican momentum in 2010, which was to be expected, 2012 is light-years away politically speaking. The grassroots activism is certainly a plus, but the RNC is still a rotten apple. It’s virtually a headless operation (thank you Chairman Steele).
And as if things weren’t murky enough, this also stuck out from the Iowa Republican piece:
If there is a surprise in the poll, it’s the strength of Newt Gingrich. Gingrich has been a frequent visitor to Iowa over the past decade. He has headlined events for the Republican Party of Iowa, various political candidates, and held activist workshops across the state. His affection for and understanding of Iowa will definitely be an asset should he seek the Republican nomination.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Gingrich is running. But we have been warned. Gingrich winning the nomination would be a disaster for the Republican party and would ensure four more years of an Obama presidency.
Quote of the Week (2010 Midterms edition)
Charlie Cook is pretty optimistic about the coming GOP victory this November:
This doesn’t look or feel like a normal midterm election. “There are two kinds of elections,” [Charlie Cook] said. “There’s sort of the Tip O’Neill all-politics-is-local, and then there are wave elections. We’re seeing just every sign in the world that this is going to be a wave, and a pretty good-sized wave.”
Apparently that wave doesn’t touch the other chamber of Congress:
Republicans would have to take over 10 seats now controlled by Democrats to pull off that feat, and even this wave doesn’t appear sufficient to accomplish that. In numerical terms, Mr. Cook sees 18 Senate seats up for election this year that could, plausibly, change party hands one way or the other, and Republicans would have to win 16 of the 18 to take over.
That task is “a couple of orders of magnitude higher” than the challenge Republicans face taking back the House, he said.
As always, take the prognosticators with a big, grain of salt. I understand the political and ideological differences between the House and Senate–the former being more extreme ideologically (more conservatives and more liberals), while the latter tends to have more of a moderate blend among its members.
That being said, although it feels as if the GOP is in for a big November, anything can happen to make it less so. I hope I’m wrong. But it seems that if an enormous wave of the caliber that Cook is expecting can inflict serious damage to the Democratic majorities, shouldn’t some of that fall onto the Senate as well?
The RNC vs conservatives
R.S. McCain brings my attention to this blog post from Duane Lester of the All American Blogger, in which Lester sticks it to the RNC and their money woes:
It’s very simple. If you want our money, you have to espouse our beliefs. I’m not going to part with my dollars so you can direct them to Dede Scozzafava’s campaign in New York. Instead, I’ll drop $20 to a candidate I know needs the money and shares my values.
[...]
The establishment Republicans are in trouble and have to change. Until they get that message and make some adjustments, the money is just not going to be there.
This is spot on. Clearly Lester is following the lead of other intelligent, but not so sophisticated, conservative bloggers out there.
In all seriousness, though. Be sure to read Lester’s entire post.
It serves as a reminder that, in this very important mid-term election year, it would serve conservatives well to note how inept and incompetent the RNC really is. Imagine if they really had their act together? Sure the rot began to set in before Michael Steele became chairman, but he hasn’t exactly been a guiding light for conservatives or the party.
The Republican party should not be about the RNC anymore. It should be about the grassroots. We each have the ability to make it so. Observe the field in your local and state elections. Pick the conservative candidate and support them. Plain and simple.
Existing home sales lowest since 1995
Sales of previously owned U.S. homes took a record plunge in July to their slowest pace in 15 years, underlining the housing market’s struggle to find its footing without government aid.
Tuesday’s report from the National Association of Realtors, which was much worse than market expectations, was the latest data that indicated economic activity continued to slacken into the third quarter.
The NAR said overall sales were at their lowest since it started the existing-home sales data series in 1999, with single-family home sales that account for most business at their lowest since 1995. Association chief economist Lawrence Yun characterized overall sales as the softest since 1995.
The dismal sales report came as Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans warned the risk of a double-dip recession was higher than six months ago. He doubted that output will actually shrink but said recovery will be modest.
“It is becoming abundantly clear that the housing market is undermining the already faltering wider economic recovery. With the increasingly inevitable double-dip in prices yet to come, things could yet get a lot worse,” said Paul Dales, a U.S. economist at Capital Economics in Toronto.
How bad was this report? Very bad:
This is a really, really bad report. The awfulness of July’s sales were a little exaggerated due to all of the demand having been pulled forward form the buyer credit. But it’s unclear how many months of demand were captured early by the credit, so it’s hard to know when its effect will wear off.
Bah! It’s all good. Joe Biden, the Veep in charge of overseeing economic stimulus says we’re on the right track.
Beyond the 2010 midterms
Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio made an interesting statement this week, noting that should the Republican party win big in November, as they are expected to do, it should provide a springboard for the 2012 election.
Of course, the left side of the blogosphere is tsk-tsking the comments (how dare politicians actually think about playing politics!).
But I seem to recall back in 2006 that the liberals were openly applauding the idea of that year’s midterms as a “first step” in their agenda–that the election was just a building block for congressional majorities and the White House in 2008. Again, when the Left engages in politics, its for altruistic betterment of society. When the Right does it, it’s well—just dirty politics.
This kind of rhetoric is plain ignorance and propaganda. To the extent that what conservative activists are supporting is the antithesis of everything that the Obama Democrats stand for, then yes–2010 should be setting the stage for 2012. Part of that is making sure that Barack Obama is a one-term president.
But I digress.
Andy McCarthy is up with an interesting post agreeing with Congressman Jordan’s statement:
Even if the GOP takes back both chambers, they will not have veto-proof majorities (either in straight Republican numbers or in the sense of a “working majority” that assumes peeling off some Dems). The president is obviously not going to sign off on what he regards as his signature progressive achievements. Consequently, the best the Republicans can expect — and this would be pretty good — is to tee up repeal, force Obama to veto it, and set up the 2012 election as being about the president who is the obstacle to reversing policies the American people despise.
I don’t have great hope for repeal, though I devoutly hope I am wrong. In any case, though, it’s a project that has to take at least two election cycles: first developing a mandate for repeal and finally electing a president who is willing to execute the mandate. So if they win in ’10, they have to start the ’12 campaign instantly. Anything else means collaborating with the White House in the consolidation of Obama’s new New Deal — which, though it would force Obama to give some ground, would on the whole be a permanent victory for big government.
I’m just as pessimistic as McCarthy. I’ve written about this over and over. Sure, the GOP has a great shot at taking back the House and an extremely outside shot in the Senate. But in terms of having enough firepower to push-back on the progressive agenda (the crown-jewel of which, healthcare reform, has already been passed into law), the Republicans pretty much need the 2010-2012 strategy, as it were.
But take note conservatives, the most critical bit of McCarthy’s post, which I completely agree with:
If I am right that Obama is not a conventional politician, that he is a movement leftist who cares more about imposing his program than being reelected, we are in for a very difficult time, beginning with the lame-duck session right after the election. And if you thought the last two years were bad in terms of transparency, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.
As long as the president had commanding majorities in Congress (2009-10), he had a powerful incentive to ram through unpopular legislation. Legislation is a relatively open process. Even with all the backroom horsetrading, the process of passing laws requires public debate and public voting. But executive agencies conduct much of their business behind closed doors, and they are notorious for ignoring congressional oversight demands.
We could end up longing for the days when you had to pass the bill in order to know what was in it; soon, you won’t know what your government is doing until it’s already done.
Is there anything more socially and politically dangerous as a politician who doesn’t care about getting re-elected? We’ve been warned.
House Democrats feeling the heat
Trying not to get too optimistic here, but I have to admit this is awesome:
Top Democrats are growing markedly more pessimistic about holding the House, privately conceding that the summertime economic and political recovery they were banking on will not likely materialize by Election Day.
In conversations with more than two dozen party insiders, most of whom requested anonymity to speak candidly about the state of play, Democrats in and out of Washington say they are increasingly alarmed about the economic and polling data they have seen in recent weeks.
They no longer believe the jobs and housing markets will recover – or that anything resembling the White House’s promise of a “recovery summer” is under way. They are even more concerned by indications that House Democrats once considered safe – such as Rep. Betty Sutton, who occupies an Ohio seat that President Barack Obama won with 57 percent of the vote in 2008 – are in real trouble.
In two close races, endangered Democrats are even running ads touting how they oppose their leadership.
“Democrats kept thinking: ‘We’re going to get better. We’re going to get well before the election,’” said one of Washington’s best-connected Democrats. “But as of this week, you now have people saying that Republicans are going to win the House. And now it’s starting to look like the Senate is going to be a lot closer than people thought.”
A Democratic pollster working on several key races said, “The reality is that [the House majority] is probably gone.” His data shows the Democrats’ problems are only getting worse. “It’s spreading,” the pollster said.
But…but….healthcare reform! Financial regulation reform! Cap and trade in the pipeline!
Yeah, Democrats love the congressional leadership, the White House and their progressive agenda so much, they feel they have to run away from them in their campaign ads.
I’m also looking forward to reading the liberal blogs and watching the media explain how these at-risk moderate Democrats are not “real” Democrats, and how what the American people want are solidly liberal Democrats to be in the majority in Congress. So much so that they’re willing to throw these bums out and replace them with…Republicans?
Cowards.
Republicans maintaining its edge going into September
I’m not a big polling cheerleader but here goes, as per Rasmussen:
Voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats on all 10 of the important issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports.
The GOP has consistently been trusted on most issues for months now, but in July they held the lead on only nine of the key issues.
Republicans lead Democrats 47% to 39% on the economy, which remains the most important issue to voters. Those numbers are nearly identical to those found in June. Republicans have held the advantage on the economy since May of last year.
But for the first time in months, Republicans now hold a slight edge on the issues of government ethics and corruption, 40% to 38%. Voters have been mostly undecided for the past several months on which party to trust more on this issue, but Democrats have held small leads since February. Still, more than one-in-five voters (22%) are still not sure which party to trust more on ethics issues.
Wow. A two point lead on the ethics issue. This certainly isn’t 2006 anymore.
Not to be a wet blanket, but it’s a byproduct of the two-party system that voters are turning to the Republicans. Polls still show that the Republicans along with Democrats, are still held in complete disregard.
But voters are appearing to realize that corrupt, Democrats with pocket-book power, running wild in Washington D.C., is not in their best interests.
Open Thread (Weekend edition)
The weather’s supposed to be beautiful here in Jersey the next few days and as such, I am headed to the shore for a few days.
In the meantime, some cool music:
Enjoy the weekend…
Happy Labor Day Weekend
Only one friggin post Light blogging this week, as I’ve taken advantage of the beautiful weather and have been down to the Jersey shore. Came back up to “North” Jersey last night to take care of some things, and will be headed back down tonight. So most likely, I won’t be able to post anything until after the weekend.
I was perusing the various blogs for this week, especially regarding Joe Miller’s huge win over RINO Lisa Murkowski in the GOP Senate primary up in Alaska.
Stacy McCain has been doing a yeoman’s job covering the story, and he links to this standard boilerplate AP story about how radical, racist extremists have (ahem) hijacked the GOP.
Again, standard fare for the AP. McCain hits the nail right on the head:
Remember when underdog Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primaries? That was the Triumph of Hope. When an underdog wins a Republican primary, however, that’s Hijacked by Extremists.
Bingo!
On that note, enjoy the weekend all!
Very public City Council meetings to begin with very religious prayers
The Hartford City Council will be beginning their meetings with prayers. Prayers of the Muslim variety:
In the wake of the battle over a mosque at Ground Zero, a move by Hartford City Council is sure to have its critics.
The Council announced Tuesday that it has invited local imams to perform Islamic invocations at the beginning of the Council meetings in September.
Though meetings don’t regularly begin with any form of prayer, an email from the Common Council called it “an act of solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters.”
The email even referenced the ongoing issue in New York. “One of the goals of the Council is to give a voice to the many diverse peoples of the City, which is especially important given the recent anti-Islam events throughout the country.”
Council President rJo Winch called it an important move for the Council. “I feel it is very important that, as a Council, we project a culture of inclusiveness in the City of Hartford. Too often it is our differences that divide us. In my opinion, it is our combination of differences that makes us strong,” Winch said.
No word on Jewish or Christian prayer invocations. Just the “inclusiveness” of Muslim prayers.
What’s the over/under on how many days until the ACLU starts filing lawsuits? I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one. And I’m sure the left-wing blogosphere will be outraged at this blatant commingling of religion and government.
Senator Reid: Don’t blame me for the economy
Despite being Senate majority leader for the better part of the last four years, and having a majority in the other chamber, and with a Democrat in the White House for 20 months, the economy has nothing to do with Harry Reid:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, facing a tough re-election bid in one of the states hardest hit by the recession, said today that the economic downturn was not his fault.
“I had nothing to do with the massive foreclosures here,” Reid said during an appearance on the ABC News/Washington Post “Top Line” program, adding that he also had no part in contributing to the state’s dismal unemployment figures.
At 14.3 percent, Nevada’s unemployment rate ranks the highest in the country. The Silver State has also been hit hard by foreclosure and bankruptcy; an Associated Press analysis found that Nevada is the most economically stressed state in the nation.
[...]
Instead, Reid argued, he worked against many of the policies enacted during the administration of George W. Bush that were to blame for the economic crisis.
“I don’t have any hand in what took place during the Bush administration. I tried to rein that in,” Reid said.
Reid is certainly a piece of work. A piece of slime of the largest magnitude.
I’m not sure how the Senate race in Nevada will turn out this November. Certainly Sharron Angle has her work cut out for her, and little would be greater than for Republicans to knock the current Democratic majority leader off of his perch.
The people of Nevada need to do some serious thinking here. Voting Harry Reid in for another term, with his current track record of hubris and complete disregard for the will of the people, would get Nevadans exactly what they deserve.
Fed: Economy “decelerating”
The Fed’s latest Beige Book report is out and shows an economic pulse that’s barely beating:
The U.S. economy continued growing this summer but “with widespread signs of deceleration,” according to a new report on business conditions around the country.
The Federal Reserve’s “beige book,” an eight-times-a-year compilation of anecdotal information from companies in the 12 Fed districts, offers a portrait of an uncertain economic moment in which growth has slowed in much of the United States.
“Economic growth at a modest pace was the most common characterization of overall conditions,” said the report, released Wednesday afternoon and based on interviews with businesspeople from mid-July through the end of August. However, five of the regional Fed banks east of the Mississippi River “highlighted mixed conditions or deceleration in overall economic activity.”
[...]
The anecdotal information contained in the beige book is consistent with a slew of economic reports showing that the burst of growth in late 2009 and early 2010 has not persisted through the summer, as the impact of businesses rebuilding their inventories and fiscal stimulus fades.
Therein lies the failure of Keynesian government spending used to stimulate demand. It generally is a one-time shot in the arm and does little to promote sustainable long-term growth.
NFL 2010 opening weekend
One of the best weekends of the year.
Now we will see if Aaron Rodgers and my Green Bay Packers can deal with all the hype. I’m extremely superstitious when it comes to sports, so Sports Illustrated putting Rodgers on the cover of their NFL preview issues doesn’t exactly bode well.
Let’s go Aaron and let’s go Pack!
Yeah, the liberal media loves to concern troll on behalf of the Obama administration
Bob Schieffer made a complete ass of himself on CBS’ Face The Nation this morning.
I was picking up my morning newspaper when I heard this exchange between Schieffer and John Boehner, and I swear I almost threw something heavy into the television:
BOB SCHIEFFER: Mister Boehner, I’m going to ask you this question because I’m not objective about this. I’m– I’m a cancer survivor. I used to be a heavy smoker. Do you still smoke?
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER: I do.
BOB SCHIEFFER: You have taken three hundred and forty thousand dollars from the tobacco industry. They’ve been the largest contributor to your political campaigns over the year. How do you square that with the fact that cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths in this country?
Four hundred and thirty-five thousand people, their deaths are linked to cancer. That’s one in five. Ho– how do– how do you justify that in your own mind?
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER: Bob, tobacco is a legal product in America. And the American people have a right to– to decide for themselves whether they want to partake or not. There are lots of things that we deal with and come in contact with every day from alcohol to food to cigarettes, a lot of things that aren’t good for our health. But the American people ought to have the right to make those decisions on their own.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, I mean, they– they have a right to shoot themselves if they choose to. But I mean, shouldn’t we do something to try to encourage them not to? I mean, do you think that’s a good example?
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER: Well, listen. I wish I didn’t have this bad habit, and is a bad habit. You’ve had it. You’ve dealt with it. But it’s something that I choose to do. And, you know at some point maybe I’ll decide I’ve had enough it.
Gotta love that logic. Not only is John Boehner indirectly related to hundreds of thousands smoking-related deaths in the country every year, but the federal government isn’t doing enough to force people to stop smoking, but it’s also allowing thousands of suicides a year.
What a bunch of idiotic rubes we are! If only we had the foresight and intelligence to live our lives as determined by a Sunday morning talk show host, there would be no more suicides and no more smoking-related deaths. Such brilliance!
Good grief. Either Schieffer is finally succumbing to senility, or the predilection towards Big Brother nanny-statism by left-wingers is so innate and so ingrained in their conscious that they really don’t even realize the idiocy of what they say. Seriously.
And let’s not kid ourselves. Last week the President decided to personalize his political opposition by lashing out at John Boehner (just forget that his party has run both chambers of Congress since 2007). The New York Times took their cue and ran with a political hit piece in this morning’s edition.
Meanwhile, White House spokesman Gibbs has been pimping the piece all over Twitter.
What liberal media??
The Delaware primary conundrum
Last night’s stunning PPP poll, which puts Christine O’Donnell in a statistical tie with Republican veteran and Delaware political fixture, Mike Castle, adds some sizzle to tomorrow’s already contentious primary.
Ed Morrissey sums up the situation:
It still comes down to the question of electability, though, although perhaps at this point neither candidate could survive this primary.
If control of the Senate comes down to this race, and it very well might, would it be better to have a Republican squish holding the seat and give the GOP control of the Senate floor and all the committees, or to hand it to either Harry Reid or Chuck Schumer for the next two-year period in which we’ll see at least one Supreme Court retirement and Obama still attempting to push through his radical agenda?
It’s a tough decision for Delaware Republicans, and not an easy choice at all.
Morrissey brings up an excellent point–if the Senate is in play, and the Republicans are within striking distance of winning the majority in that chamber, then they will set the agenda. Which is to say, they can stop slow down the President’s agenda.
And, unless I’m mistaken, being that the Delaware senate seat is an open one, then November’s winner is seated immediately. A Republican in that seat who’s voting with Republicans 50%-60% of the time would be better than a Democrat who votes with their party 100% of the time, no?
Look, I’m all for voting in the most conservative candidates. But those candidates who win their primaries, whether it be because of the Tea Party or conservative activists in general, need to win their general elections as well. Moral victories will not help to repeal government-run healthcare, or stop incessant government spending.
If O’Donnell wins tomorrow, and goes on to win the general, then I will be more than happy to eat crow and withstand the barrage of “I told you so’s”. Hell, I would look forward to that, if that were the case. That would be the upsets of all political upsets–a la Scott Brown. And thanks to Scott Brown, we know anything is possible.
I’m still undecided on this. I just hope that whoever wins the primary will have the support of a unified Republican electorate.
The Delaware primary conundrum (Ctd.)
Mark Hemingway is in the Castle camp, pointing to the Congressman’s “no” vote on healthcare reform:
Castle may be a liberal Republican, but that’s better than a liberal Democrat. True, Castle has in the past supported cap and trade and other legislation that makes conservatives wince. But he’s also a co-sponsor of the bill to repeal Obamacare. Good luck getting a Democratic senator from Delaware to sign on to that.
Jeffrey Lord, an O”Donnell supporter, (making some great arguments for her candidacy at the American Spectator over the past several weeks) on why Castle’s anti-healthcare reform stance is less than genuine:
[...] Castle defenders cite Castle’s signing on to a legislative repeal of ObamaCare. On the surface, this is laudable. Castle did in fact vote against the bill in the first place. But the date plays a role here. Castle is listed by the House of Representatives itself as having signed on for this on…July 30. Which is to say, the law was signed in March.
[...]
Where was Castle then? Out there demanding repeal the next day? Introducing his own version of total repeal? No.
What did happen is that on May 9, Utah GOP Senator Robert Bennett abruptly lost his Senate re-nomination to a Utah version of Christine O’Donnell. On June 8, Nevada Republicans threw over two establishment frontrunners to nominate Tea Party backed Sharron Angle to oppose Harry Reid.
[...]Mike Castle, liberal Republican, cautious Republican, Ruling Class Republican, Establishment Republican, seems to have had his finger up in the air, detected an oncoming political tornado in the form of O’Donnell — and by July 30 was a co-sponsor of repealing ObamaCare.
Which, one suspects, is why he’s trailing by three points in the latest poll.
So Mike Castle is a crass, political opportunist, on top of being one of the most liberal Republicans in Congress. At the least, both candidates have dubious histories. But one is more conservative than the other, with the potential for a shift in Senate control hanging in the balance.
I’d hate to be a Delaware Republican right about now.
The Delaware primary conundrum (Ctd.)
Michelle Malkin runs a great post on what the Mike Castle choice means–more lethargic, political careerism.
She makes the case for O’Donnell:
…[S]he is certainly far from perfect (who is?). But I think nine terms are enough for duck-and-hide, cap-and-tax liberal Republican Mike Castle — and it looks like GOP primary voters in Delaware are coming to the same conclusion as the primary looms tomorrow. I repeat: Entrenched incumbency is not an argument for more entrenched incumbency.
As I thought in my earlier post, Malkin confirms that the winner of the general election, will be seated immediately, with huge implications:
[T]he stakes are raised — not just for Delaware, but for the nation — in this race because this is a special election for VP Joe Biden’s Senate seat. The next Senator from Delaware will serve the remaining four years of Biden’s term. Which means he or she will be seated immediately after election and will be in place to vote in any lame duck Senate session. Cap-and-tax is on the table for this session. From his record and from his radical enviro associations, we know what Castle would do in the name of “Republican Main Street” values to screw over not only Delawareans, but all taxpayers.
Click through the link and read the entire post. Also, Michelle has a list of Castle’s hideous voting record. Yeesh.
Meanwhile, Castle appears to be girding his loins for a potential defeat by playing the victim card:
Rep. Mike Castle is blaming the influence of outsiders for the closer-than-expected GOP Senate primary he’s locked in against tea party favorite Christine O’Donnell.
Castle, who last faced a primary election challenger in 1992, said the six-figure sums pumped into the state by the Tea Party Express, and the recent endorsements of O’Donnell by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, prove that his opposition is being powered by out-of-state forces.
[...]
“It’s clear they have spent several hundred thousand dollars to not only take me out but to take anybody who dares to vote with the other party at any time out,” he said.
What’s startling to me about this whole debate is the extent to which the establishment Republicans are willing to trash the grassroots activists. Pathetic.
More Delaware primary action
The day is finally here.
The Castle vs O’Donnell flame war has gotten ugly, at a time when the Republican party needs to be unified.
Stacy McCain unearths the root cause of our dilemma:
Let’s be clear who is responsible for this vituperative environment: Mike Castle, his campaign consultants, Delaware GOP chairman Tom Ross and the national Republican Establishment.
Just as when they tried to fix the Florida primary for Charlie Crist — “Those treacherous bastards!” — the Establishment’s cliquish favoritism angered and alienated the grassroots. O’Donnell’s candidacy thus became a rallying point for those who have tired of the top-down control approach to politics that became standard operating procedure for Republicans during the Bush administration, when the Rove-Mehlman axis called the shots and expected everyone to fall in line.
Such centralization of political authority might have been tolerable if it had actually led to the promised “Permanent Republican Majority.” Instead, it gave us Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid in 2006, then gave us President Obama in 2008.
So this online fight in Delaware isn’t about who’s a “True Conservative.” It’s about whether we are going to let the GOP elite do our thinking for us.
The problem with the GOP elite is not that they’ve got all the money and prestige. The problem isn’t that their egos are swollen with the arrogance of entitled privilege. The problem is that they’re politically incompetent.
Yes, yes! A million times yes!
One of the reasons I started blogging in the first place was this pent-up frustration I had with the establishment GOP, the RNC and the rest of the DC cocktail party set that were setting the rules from Washington. All the while neglecting the average Republican (read: conservative) voter.
McCain is right–this primary encapsulates that entire dynamic in a nutshell.
Who to vote for in Delaware
Has to be Christine O’Donnell.
Is O’Donnell the perfect candidate? Of course not. Comparing what she stands for vs. Mike Castle’s horrendous voting record, the choice gets clearer.
The way I look at it, having Mike Castle caucus with the Republicans is like having another Blue Dog Democrat in the Senate. Yeah, they might vote with you some of the time. But then again, they probably won’t.
That being said, there are Blue Dogs like Ben Nelson who voted for Obamacare, and there are moderate Republicans even, like Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins who vote for billion dollar Democratic-sponsored stimulus bills, defying their own party’s stance. And we all know how the Arlen Specter debacle turned out.
Mike Castle is a career politician. Someone who has made his living by doing nothing but planning for the next election. All on the taxpayer’s dime. He’s a Republican establishment darling and for that, he deserves extra scrutiny.
Nobody is giving O’Donnell a chance to win. True, Delaware is not Kentucky, where Rand Paul surprised the experts. It’s not Nevada either, where Sharron Angle, despite her missteps, remains in a competitive race versus majority leader Harry Reid.
Yes, this is Blue Delaware. Just like blue New Jersey, my home state. A state where a Republican like Chris Christie not only won his election versus corrupt liberal and Obama fan, Jon Corzine, but is doing great things taking on the left-wing public employee unions and fighting corruption. That wasn’t supposed to happen either.
And remember Massachusetts? The bluest of the blue states? When Uncle Ted passed on a little over a year ago, it was just assumed that the Democratic nominee would just coast to an easy victory. The experts and pundits just assumed voters would just have the common sense to send a Democrat to that seat. And I seem to recall that Martha Coakley had a hefty 25+ point lead after the primary in September, which of course, slowly and steadily dissolved. Republican Scott Brown is now the junior senator from the Bay State.
All politics is local, and as such, the people of Delaware will have to decide if they want to send the long-serving congressman to the other chamber as their voice in the Senate. It’s their absolute right and duty to do so. And if moderate Republicans in Delaware want to make him their choice, so be it.
But if Republicans there want change, or the chance for real change, then maybe its time to think twice about sending an establishment Republican to DC.
Geographically speaking, Delaware is my neighbor to the south and if I were a resident of that state, I would have to vote for Christine O’Donnell.
Tomorrow morning there will be a lot of huffing and puffing about how this primary will affect Democrats and how the GOP missed out on winning a majority in the Senate. This may be true. And yes, there’s an excellent shot that O’Donnell will lose big. But then again, maybe conservative activists should try and beat the odds on this one. Take their case to the voters over the next six weeks or so.
One last thing. The NRSC and the RNC have for too long taken Republican voters down the wrong path of playing defense when a good offense is warranted, of backing horrible candidates, of forcing milquetoast Republicans and shying away from conservatism.
But Republican leaders in Washington need to know that their time is up.
This is as good a year as any to start.
About Delaware
Congratulations to Christine O’Donnell on last night’s victory! That was pretty amazing.
Stacy McCain, who’s been all over the O’Donnell story, sums it up best:
[T]he Tea Party stuffed a torpedo right up John Cornyn’s tailpipe.
As made ridiculously obvious by this Memeorandum thread, O’Donnell’s victory has caused convulsions throughout the blogosphere and others who wish they were relevant, otherwise known as the media.
There’s so much information out there but the meme goes like this: We (being the press/liberal blogs) hate Sarah Palin and the Tea Party. O’Donnell was endorsed by the same. Ergo, Christine O’Donnell is a moron and deserves to be mocked.
That’s pretty much it. That and the NRSC made idiots of themselves yet again, by not only dipping their toes in primaries (which they should not be doing) but backing candidates that really suck.
Oh, and Karl Rove is a real douchebag piece of work.
Now–activists, bloggers, conservatives, door-knockers, whatever–have to go all out and make sure O’Donnell wins this thing. Remember, we can’t stop statism and the Democrats’ liberal agenda with moral victories. This is serious stuff we’re talking about here. Cap and trade. Healthcare reform. Tax policy. All of it is on the table. We have a chance to set the agenda by winning the Senate–and yes, yes, it’s a long shot–which starts with Delaware.
It’s a rough road ahead for the next six weeks or so. The media onslaught will be massive. The blogosphere will be venomous. But remember, if Castle had won last night, do you really think they would be conciliatory and polite and patting us on the back for voting for the “right” candidate?
Conservatives need to stand strong against it all.
It’s up to O’Donnell and her team to run a smart and efficient campaign. There’s little room for error.
That being said, the campaign needs financial support.
Support the Christine O’Donnell campaign.
Support other conservative Senate candidates.
UPDATE. Smitty over at The Other McCain links! Part of the Reach Around—thanks guys!
Some free advice for the O’Donnell campaign
By way of Harry Reid, my advice is to please use the following in an advertisement of some sort:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday predicted to The Hill that Democratic Senate candidate Chris Coons will safely win the Nov. 2 general election against GOP nominee Christine O’Donnell.
[...]
“I’m going to be very honest with you — Chris Coons, everybody knows him in the Democratic caucus. He’s my pet. He’s my favorite candidate,” Reid said.
[...]
I told him that and I tried to get him to run. I’m glad he’s running. I just think the world of him. He’s my pet.“
This is pathetic. If I was Coons, I’d feel a bit disgusted after hearing that. Seriously, his “pet”? What a strange comment.
Despite a bitter primary, the general election in Delaware will be about how Democrats have been leading this country down the wrong path for the better part of four years, and how more Republicans in Congress should will rectify that problem.
Most incumbent Democrats are running scared from being associated with the Obama/Reid/Pelosi junta this fall. In one statement, Reid has essentially tied himself to Coons.
It would probably make sense for the O’Donnell campaign to drive this point during the next six weeks. Just a thought.
Coons: This is “Joe Biden’s seat”
From the party that desperately tried to save “Ted Kennedy’s seat” last January, we now have this.
Chris Coons, pandering to the lemmings at Daily Kos, writes that the people of Delaware need to wake up and smell the tea:
Make no mistake – Sarah Palin, Jim DeMint, Michelle Bachmann, and the Tea Party Express will invest to make sure O’Donnell joins them in Washington.
We cannot let that happen.
We cannot let Joe Biden’s seat fall into ultraconservative hands – into the grasp of a candidate who is out of touch with Delaware and the challenges Americans face every day. [Emphasis added]
What a bunch of arrogant, self-righteous babies.
Here’s a clue Democrats–the seat’s no longer Joe Biden’s seat. In fact, it never was Joe Biden’s seat. As hokey as it sounds, the “seat” belongs to the people of Delaware, to elect to it whomever they see f it.
If anything should rile up the people of Delaware to consider voting for O’Donnell, it’s nonsense like this. The arrogance and the sense of entitlement. I guess its part of what pissed off the voters in Massachusetts when they voted for Scott Brown as well.
O’Donnell wants the Senate seat because she’s hoping to bring some real change to Washington.
Coons just want to…er, keep Biden’s seat. Out of spite.
Have fun with that.
UPDATE. Just a thought. If Chris Coons is Harry Reid’s pet, then doesn’t that make it Harry Reid’s seat?
Chris Coons is a liar who obviously reads my blog (UPDATED)
That’s the only conclusion I can come to this morning after reading this story from The Hill on the first debate between Coons and Christine O’Donnell:
Coons appeared steady Thursday, if not a bit boring — something that could actually prove an asset in this general election contest. He emphasized his experience as county executive while drawing contrasts between himself and O’Donnell without truly going on the attack.
[...]
Borrowing a line from Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), Coons suggested the race would be fought on issues important to Delaware voters, rather than in the national media spotlight. “It’s often said that this is Joe Biden’s seat,” Coons said. “It’s not. It’s Delaware’s seat.”
That’s what he said last night.
As I posted yesterday, this is what Coons said earlier this week in a post at Daily Kos:
Make no mistake – Sarah Palin, Jim DeMint, Michelle Bachmann, and the Tea Party Express will invest to make sure O’Donnell joins them in Washington.
We cannot let that happen.
We cannot let Joe Biden’s seat fall into ultraconservative hands – into the grasp of a candidate who is out of touch with Delaware and the challenges Americans face every day. [Emphasis added]
How Scott Brown-esque of Mr. Coons–downplaying the image of Democratic entitlement and dynastic politicians in their ranks when he’s talking to Delaware voters in the debate, but reasserting that Democrats need to hold “Biden’s seat”, while talking to the moonbats. All in the span of about two days.
There are words to describe people like this. ”Hypocrite” and “liar” both come to mind.
UPDATE. Jim Geraghty links.
UPDATE. Red State links.
UPDATE. Moe Lane links to his own blog.
UPDATE. The Daily Caller links.
UPDATE. Doug Ross links.
Thanks to everyone for the links!
Support Christine O’Donnell’s campaign!
UPDATE. What is it with Democrats and their obsession with entitlement? Ed Morrissey reports on Jack Conway’s comments on the Kentucky Senate seat he’s trying to win.
UPDATE. Doc Zero links at his place, cross-posted at Hot Air.
NJ-3: Adler campaign creep caught photographing Runyan’s daughter, house
Democrats are a really seedy bunch:
Police are investigating an alleged trespassing incident involving a Democratic campaign volunteer and the family of Republican congressional candidate Jon Runyan.
Last Wednesday, Fredric C. Samson of Mount Holly allegedly trespassed on the Runyans’ Mount Laurel property and took photographs as their youngest daughter, Isabella, played in the front yard, according to a Mount Laurel Police report.
The 8-year-old went into the house and told her mother that Samson was standing in the driveway, according to Jon Runyan. Loretta Runyan, a former Houston police officer, got into her car and followed Samson for four miles until he stopped at Rep. John Adler’s Evesham campaign office.
Runyan notified both her husband and 911 using her OnStar system, he said. An Evesham patrol car met them at Adler’s office, and the investigation was transferred to the Mount Laurel Police Department.
Samson, a Burlington County Democratic committeeman, said Tuesday that he didn’t “have anything to say” about the investigation.
“There’s nothing to talk about here,” Samson replied, when asked to comment on the incident and his role in Adler’s re-election campaign.
According to a records search, Samson, 64, is a licensed social worker in Burlington County.
“Last Wednesday a volunteer photographer took seven photos of the front of Jon Runyan’s house, nothing more,” said Carol Gaskill, spokeswoman for the Adler campaign, in a statement e-mailed late Tuesday afternoon. “The photographer was instructed not to take any photos of Jon Runyan or any member of his family.
“We apologize if images of the Runyan property have brought any discomfort to Mr. and Mrs. Runyan.”
Yeah. We apologize that taking pictures of your house, with your eight year old daughter playing on the front lawn brought you any distress, bitches.
These people are sick.
This story leads the news on CNN, MSNBC and all the rest, if this was a Republican campaign worker or–heaven forbid–a Tea Party activist who was snapping pictures of a Democrat candidate’s home.
But alas, it is not, so most people won’t be hearing of this story.
iPod Open Thread
A random track from my iPod:
A great tune to wrap up a long week
Road Trip Open Thread
It’s a beautiful late summer/early fall day here in Jersey, a perfect day for a road trip.
Have I mentioned that Chris Coons is a liar?
Road Trip Photos
Yesterday we took a road trip to Lambertville, which is about an hour to an hour and a half from where I live, to enjoy the sights and some “pre-foliage” foliage.
Here are some pics:
Corn rows:
The early signs of beautiful Jersey foliage:
There’s a reason why Jersey’s called the Garden State:
The Lambertville Bridge where you can walk over to New Hope, Pennsylvania:
A nice shot of the Delaware River:
This guy was perched on the bridge railing as we began the walk from the Jersey side. Someone walking back from Pennsylvania told me it had been there when he walked in, nearly an hour before. The thing barely moved and didn’t seem bothered–you can see how close I was able to get for a picture. I loathe birds but I thought this was somewhat intriguing:
The entrance to St. John the Evangelist Church on Bridge Street:
Another shot. We were able to catch some of the 5 o’clock Mass, and the inside was just as striking as the facade:
Please note that all of these photos were taken with my iPhone. Overall, I’ve been impressed by the quality of pictures that the camera takes, but for some reason the quality of these were somewhat average.
Lambertville is a quaint and riverside town (neither of us had been there before), and the locals are very polite and accommodating. One store owner practically begged us to come back to town. We’ve already made plans to go back in a few weeks, as the autumn season settles in.
More on Delaware (and did I mention Chris Coons is a liar?)
Witchcraft and masturbation notwithstanding, the 2010 Senate race in Delaware is about much more important things.
Take it away, Stacy McCain:
[T]he issues in Delaware are even more starkly defined between Chris Coons and O’Donnell than they were in the GOP primary. A vote for Coons is emphatically an endorsement of the policies of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama. A vote for O’Donnell is a rejection of those policies.
Every indicator of electoral sentiment currently suggests that voters are prepared to deliver one of the loudest “no” votes in American political history. Therefore, it behooves Democrats to make the mid-term election a vote about something — anything — other than the Democratic Party’s policies.
Indeed.
And then there’s this–Coons is a tax and spend liberal. That is to say, he loves raising taxes:
Coons, 47, is the top executive of New Castle County, home to a majority of Delaware’s population. From a Republican perspective, there’s one really important thing to know about his time in office: In 2004, when Coons first ran for the job, he promised not to raise taxes. Since then he has raised taxes not once, not twice, but three times.
Coons inherited a surplus. Celebrating victory on election night in 2004, he said his “top priority would be to continue balancing the budget without increasing property taxes,” according to an account in the local News Journal. Yet in 2006, he pushed through a 5 percent increase in property taxes. In 2007, he raised property taxes 17.5 percent. In 2009, he raised them another 25 percent.
Coons wanted to raise other taxes, too. He proposed a hotel tax, a tax on paramedic services, even a tax on people who call 911 from cell phones.
So there you have it. This is a race between conservatism and liberalism. Plain and simple. And since the ruinous policies of liberalism have clearly been on display since January 20, 2009 2007, voters in Delaware (and throughout the country) have a clear choice.
And have I mentioned that Chris Coons is a liar?
UPDATE. Via Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, this:
Since upsetting party-backed Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) in Delaware’s GOP Senate primary Tuesday, Christine O’Donnell has raised nearly $2 million online.
A source with knowledge of the campaign’s online fundraising operation said that not only is the money is coming in as fast as it did for Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) ahead of his special election, but that O’Donnell’s raising money online at a pace that’s two to three times faster than Sharron Angle in Nevada after her win in the primary.
A week before his special election with Democrat Martha Coakley in Massachusetts, Brown raised $1.3 million online in a single day with some 16,000 individual donors.
Being that O’Donnell is the true anti-establishment candidate in Delaware and, given that she’s raised a boatload of cash over the past week and, that Coons is a tax and spend liberal, how long before the O’Donnell campaign switches to offense and make this campaign NOT about masturbation and witchcraft?
The Chinese black market for iPhones
An interesting piece in today’s New York Times.
Senator Kerry, man of the people: Voters are dumb. Hence, Democrats are losing this election
A testy U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry yesterday blamed clueless voters with short attention spans for the uphill battle beleaguered Democrats are facing against Republicans across the nation.
“We have an electorate that doesn’t always pay that much attention to what’s going on so people are influenced by a simple slogan rather than the facts or the truth or what’s happening,” Kerry told reporters after touring the Boston Medical Center yesterday.
Excuse me while I channel my inner Pontius Pilate here, but what is “the truth”? Perhaps its the truth that most Americans are suffering financially right now? After three years of Democrats running both chambers of Congress, coupled with the last twenty months of complete Democratic control on the trifecta of Federal power? And all they hear coming from Washington by elitist snobs like Kerry is just more ways to squeeze the middle class?
That truth?
Or is it the “truth” that only ineffectual and sloth-like buffoons like Kerry and his ilk see from their focus group polling and endless adherence to failed, idealistic “better-living-through-government”, policies from inside the Beltway?
There’s more:
Kerry made the remarks on voters following questions about U.S. Rep Barney Frank’s re-election campaign and queries about securing federal funding for the Hub hospital.
“I think a lot of the anger today – while it’s appropriate because Washington is broken – is not directed at the right people,” said Kerry. “Barney is prepared, as others are, to explain what we’re doing. I think when people hear the facts and they see what we’re doing, it frankly makes sense.”
In the interview, Kerry added that voters should be mad at stonewalling Republicans and “big money” in politics instead, referring to a bill blocked by Republicans Thursday that would reveal corporate and union leaders who fund big-bucks political ads.
Idiot. Washington is indeed, broken. Does someone have the cojones to tell Kerry that he is ”Washington”? That he and the other entrenched and arrogant leftist douchebags that infiltrate Washington D.C., are the Establishment?
Someone also please tell the senior Senator from Massachusetts that “the facts” are out there. Now more than ever, more people have access to more information about anything they’d ever wanted to know about, and then some. The facts are out there Senator, and the people are not liking what they see.
And it takes some real hubris to complain about “big money” in politics, when you’re John Kerry, husband to the heiress of the Heinz family fortune, and when the biggest political splash you’ve made this year is that you were caught docking your yacht in Rhode Island to avoid paying your home state’s luxury tax.
This is your modern Democratic party, ladies and gentleman. Hubris and entitlement, all while walking all over the sensibilities and intelligence of the American people. The basis for modern Democratic politics is that they know better than you about what’s in the best interest of yourself and your family. You shouldn’t make any decisions on your own because, well….you’re just too ignorant.
California’s 47th: Democrats’ racism and lies
It’s what desperate Democrats do best:
Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, D-Santa Ana, said in a recent Spanish-language interview that “the Vietnamese” and Republicans are trying to wrest control of her seat in Congress, from which “we have done so much for our community.”
Her opponent, Republican Assemblyman Van Tran – who immigrated from Vietnam — asked for an apology Thursday. He described Sanchez’s remarks as “offensive and wrong.”
Sanchez, D-Santa Ana, is facing her toughest re-election challenge in years, separated in polls by only a few percentage points from Tran. Her reference to “the Vietnamese” has bounced around the blogosphere in recent days and fired up talk radio.
“During the interview,” her campaign said in a written statement, “Rep. Sanchez was referencing those in the Vietnamese community who are supporting her opponent.”
[...]
“The Vietnamese and the Republicans are, with an intensity, (trying) to take this seat – this seat (from which) we have done so much for our community – to take this seat and give it to this Van Tran, who is very anti-immigrant and very anti-Hispanic.”
You can almost feel the fear and desperation of Democrats this cycle.
Notice the sense of entitlement: “her seat”, Republicans want to “take this seat and give it to this Van Tran”, etc.
Then come the lies about being “anti-immigrant”. It’s hard to be “anti-immigrant” when you’re an immigrant yourself, as Van Tran is, having come from Vietnam.
The big thing about this story is that Sanchez had no problem race-baiting and spewing her racism on Univision, thinking that “her community” would be the only people listening. As the article notes, she was dead wrong as this story has been bouncing around the blogosphere for most of this week. It’s a testament to the conservative blogosphere that this story is even getting this much attention.
Conservatives and Republicans in the 47th Congressional district of California should get active and join the “Vietnamese” in ousting the racist Loretta Sanchez.
Gitmo to be shut down
Eventually. Someday.
In the meantime, the United States is getting really tough against these terrorist scumbags:
Detainees’ diets at Guantanamo Bay have been a controversial issue for some time and now the U.S. prison is said to be rationing ice cream.
The frozen dessert is allegedly being tightly measured, with only one ice cream allowed for each of its 147 detainees.
Journalist for The Miami Herald, Carol Rosenberg, photographed a refrigerator at Guantanamo, with two signs reading ‘DETAINEE FOOD ONLY’ and ‘Only 1 Ice Cream For each detainee!’
Ice cream is allegedly being tightly measured at Guantanamo Bay, with only one ice cream allowed for each of its 147 detainees
Rosenberg revealed: ‘Found this fridge for Guantanamo detainee food in the rotunda of Camp 6, the most populous of the U.S Navy base prison camps on Sept. 23, 2010 with nearly 90 captives.’
The report comes after much debate on the feeding of U.S. detainees suspected of terrorism, where under feeding in the past has angered human rights advocates.
‘Until recently the prison camps boasted on their website that they provide the 174 war on terror detainees with 5,500 – 6,000 calories a day’, Rosenberg wrote.
But early detainees were said to have been barely given enough food to survive, while others later tried to starve themselves by attempting hunger strikes.
The ice cream rationing has now led the journalist to question Guantanamo Bay’s motives, suspecting that it might be an attempt to reduce spending.
I’m sure some bleeding heart somewhere will find this sort of treatment offensive or a violation of some “right”. Sure these people are being detained for wanting to kill Americans. But that’s no reason to deprive them of satisfying their sweet tooth. Poor bastards.
Left-wingers astroturfing a smear campaign
It was just a matter of time before the whole thing got really, really ugly.
Democrats, with an abysmal track record to show for the last 20 months of full government control, are about to hit the panic button–with an all out assault of crap mud:
Democratic candidates across the country are opening a fierce offensive of negative advertisements against Republicans, using lawsuits, tax filings, reports from the Better Business Bureau and even divorce proceedings to try to discredit their opponents and save their Congressional majority.
Opposition research and attack advertising are used in almost every election, but these biting ads are coming far earlier than ever before, according to party strategists. The campaign has intensified in the last two weeks as early voting begins in several states and as vulnerable incumbents try to fight off an onslaught of influences by outside groups.
As they struggle to break through with economic messages, many Democrats are deploying the fruits of a yearlong investigation into the business and personal histories of Republican candidates in an effort to plant doubts about them and avoid having races become a national referendum on the performance of President Obama and his party.
Aren’t these Democrats a petty bunch?
Apparently, the pettiness morphs into seediness. Byron York reports:
Onlookers were startled last Thursday when a man with a video camera approached House Minority Leader John Boehner after the event in Sterling, Virginia at which GOP lawmakers outlined their “Pledge to America” for this November’s elections. The event had been open only to credentialed press, but as Boehner left, he saw a group of Tea Partiers standing across the street and went to speak with them. That’s when the man with the camera moved in. “Speaker Boehner [sic], have you been cheating with Lisbeth Lyons, the lobbyist for the American Printing Association?” the man asked. “Have you been sleeping with Lisbeth Lyons?” Boehner walked silently past the man and never acknowledged his presence.
[...]
The man was a left-wing blogger and provocateur named Mike Stark, who has made a career of trying to publicize sensational charges against Republican politicians. A few hours after his encounter with Boehner, Stark posted video of the moment on the left-wing Daily Kos website as well as his own website, StarkReports.com.
[...]
Prior to Stark’s confrontation with Boehner, no one had publicly suggested that the Minority Leader was having an affair with Lyons, or with anyone else, for that matter. (Boehner’s office says the accusation is completely false.)
[...]
The incident in Sterling was reminiscent of another Stark operation in 2006 that targeted George Allen, the Republican senator from Virginia who was running for re-election against Democrat James Webb. At the time, Stark wrote on his then-website, callingallwingnuts.com, that he wanted to put his “guerilla tactics to use where it matters: winning elections.”
[...]
It was a big success for Stark; he had taken a rumor on the left-wing blogs and pushed it into the mainstream media. Now, he’s trying to do the same thing with Boehner.
Read York’s entire post.
So much for your “principled” left-wing blogosphere, concerned only with issues and policy and the like, to win elections.
See, when Democrat politicians lie about cheating on their wives, getting oral sex in the Oval Office and lying about it to Federal juries, it’s all good. Who cares, right? It’s his private life (despite being in government) they say.
When Republicans are merely accused of doing it and in order to satisfy some loser’s unilateral wet dream do it, it must be dug up, reported and all interviews and correspondence and all the rest must be made viral in one big, hypocritical smear campaign across the moonbat blogosphere. Because the American people need to know.
Tech Blogging
This is an interesting piece on Techmeme, the news aggregator for technology which I frequent almost as much as I do Memeorandum, and its founder Gabe Rivera.
What’s driving the growth of reporting on technology? The blogs:
“In technology coverage, what happened was blogging,” [Rivera] said. “And the best bloggers got readers, which encouraged more bloggers to emulate them. And it just added pressure for everyone to become better and faster. A lot of the characteristics of blogs made their way into more established media sites, even as some of the larger blogs became more like mainstream media. And mainstream media got a lot more bloggier.”
Fear and loathing in the Midwest (2010 Democrats edition)
We can only pray that what Maggie Haberman writes in this Politico piece is accurate.
Democrats are in for some ugly times in the Midwest come November, a “killing field” as per a GOP polling outfit. They could be in for some heavy losses up and down the ticket all throughout the region. You know, those key states that flipped for the Hope N’ Change snake-oil wagon in 2007-2008.
This stuck out like a carrot in an omelette:
In every state in the region, the top of the ticket is struggling and the problems are rolling downhill. Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, who’s run an energetic reelection campaign and still trails former GOP Rep. John Kasich, isn’t even cracking 35 percent approval, according to PPP’s surveys.
Yet he’s at the top of the Midwestern gubernatorial heap, with most incumbents not even breaking the 30 percent mark.
“When Obama was elected, it was almost like he was the second coming of a political Jehovah, who was somehow going to deliver us into the promised land,” said Bill Ballenger, the pundit behind Inside Michigan Politics. “And more and more things have happened that have disillusioned people.
Yikes.
Green Bay Packers Open Thread
I’ve got a bad feeling about this game. The Pack has beaten up on one average team (Buffalo) and beat the Kolb-led Eagles lead in the opener at Philly (unleashing the despicable Michael Vick upon the NFL once again). And let’s not forget that Ryan Grant is gone for the season (although Brandon Jackson has been respectable so far).
But then again, it’s a division game at Soldier Field, so anything can happen.
Let’s go Pack!
Lunatic Alan Grayson strikes again
The lunatic Alan Grayson, Congressman from Florida’s 8th Congressional district, put together this lame, yet offensive smear ad vilifying his opponent, Republican Daniel Webster as “Taliban Dan”:
Some background on the ad:
Grayson accuses his Republican opponent Daniel Webster of being a religious fanatic and dubs him “Taliban Dan.” But to make his case, Grayson manipulates a video clip to make it appear Webster was commanding wives to submit to their husbands, quoting a passage in the Bible. Four times, the ad shows Webster saying wives should submit to their husbands. In fact, Webster was cautioning husbands to avoid taking that passage as their own. The unedited quote is: “Don’t pick the ones [Bible verses] that say, ‘She should submit to me.’”
The ad, which first aired Sept. 25, starts by saying, “Religious fanatics tried to take away our freedom in Afghanistan, in Iran and right here in Central Florida,” cutting to a clip of Grayson saying, “Wives submit yourself to your own husband.” Later the ad cuts to a clip of Webster saying, “She should submit to me. That’s in the Bible.” And twice more, it shows him saying, “submit to me.”
It’s standard extremist left-wing fare: scare mongering, religious bigotry and nothing but hate. In other words, a perfect ad for a nutcase like Alan Grayson.
The problem is that the accusations are false and misrepresents Webster’s recorded comments.
Fact Check.Org reports:
We contacted both campaigns to gather information on the claims in the ad and to obtain a copy of the video to better understand the context of Webster’s remarks. We also contacted the Institute of Basic Life Principles, which is a non-denominational Christian organization that runs programs and training sessions. Robert Staddon at the institute provided us with the section of Webster’s speech (see the video below) that deals with the Bible verse in question.
In an email, Staddon said the video was “taken from a talk to fathers” at the Advanced Training Institute regional conference in Nashville in 2009. ATI is a religious-based program developed by the Institute of Basic Life Principles “to support parents in raising their children to love the Lord Jesus Christ.” Bill Gothard, the founder of the Institute of Basic Life Principles, said that Webster home-schooled his children using the institute’s curriculum and has given speeches at the training institute on more than one occasion.
The full context of the remarks make clear that Webster is not telling wives to submit to their husbands. Just the opposite.
[Transcript of original comments]
Webster: So, write a journal. Second, find a verse. I have a verse for my wife, I have verses for my wife. Don’t pick the ones that say, ‘She should submit to me.’ That’s in the Bible, but pick the ones that you’re supposed to do. So instead, ‘love your wife, even as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it’ as opposed to ‘wives submit to your own husbands.’ She can pray that, if she wants to, but don’t you pray it.
Fact Check continues:
…[T]he Grayson campaign’s interpretation is aided only by selectively editing the video to concoct a phrase that doesn’t even exist in the video: “She should submit to me. That’s in the Bible.” That’s a mash-up of two sentences that read: “Don’t pick the ones that say, ‘She should submit to me.’ That’s in the Bible, but pick the ones that you’re supposed to do.”
This is the second time in as many weeks that the Grayson campaign has resorted to cheap gimmicks to attack his opponent. As we wrote last week, Grayson falsely claimed Webster “refused the call to service” during the Vietnam War. In fact, Webster received routine student deferments in high school and college, and was disqualified for medical reasons after college.
[...]
[T]he ad’s claim that Webster would “deny battered women . . . the right to divorce their abusers” is a distortion. The claim is based on legislation he sponsored in the Florida House of Representatives 20 years ago. The bill, HB 1585, would have allowed Florida residents the option of a “covenant marriage,” which would limit their divorce rights. Under the proposal, couples could dissolve a covenant marriage only in cases of adultery. But that would not have applied to anyone who did not choose to enter a covenant marriage. The legislation died in committee in June 1990. Webster has not advocated for covenant marriages as a congressional candidate.
When the ad was first put up in the 8th CD, the left-wing blogs had a field day, mindlessly following Grayson’s lies without looking into the facts or background of the statements. Again, the ad plays into the left-wing thirst for hate and smears, facts and the truth be damned. It’s like throwing fish to the seals and the seals applauded accordingly. Will any of them correct themselves? Will any of them retract their ignorant statements condemning Webster or his wife?
Don’t hold your breath.
Finding out what’s in the health-care reform bill
“If you like your existing health insurance plan, you can keep it” was the big pseudo-slogan for President Obama while stumping for healthcare reform last year.
It’s so benevolent and kind for our Federal overlords to bestow upon us the privilege of keeping existing healthcare coverage.
That is until, you can’t:
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care has notified customers that it will drop its Medicare Advantage health insurance program at the end of the year, forcing 22,000 senior citizens in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine to seek alternative supplemental coverage.
The decision by Wellesley-based Harvard Pilgrim, the state’s second-largest health insurer, was prompted by a freeze in federal reimbursements and a new requirement that insurers offering the kind of product sold by Harvard Pilgrim — a Medicare Advantage private fee for service plan — form a contracted network of doctors who agree to participate for a negotiated amount of money. Under current rules, patients can seek care from any doctor.
“We became concerned by the long-term viability of Medicare Advantage programs in general,’’ said Lynn Bowman, vice president of customer service at Harvard Pilgrim’s office in Quincy. “We know that cuts in Medicare are being used to fund national health care reform. And we also had concerns about our ability to build a network of health care providers that would meet the needs of our seniors.’’
Cuts in Medicare you say? There’s a couple hundred Democrats out on the trail right now who will deny this fact to the bitter end of their political careers (in about five weeks), not to mention that healthcare “reform” will eventually price out private healthcare providers, thus leaving consumers with–little choices and higher costs.
Funny how that is the opposite of what Democrats promised healthcare reform would accomplish.
The Great War is finally over?
This is amazing. Apparently, the First World War officially ends this weekend. Who knew?
FL-8: Grayson down 7 in latest poll
Eventually, being an insane liar catches up with you. Being part of Obama’s Democrats circa 2010 doesn’t help much either:
In one of the most closely watched U.S. House races in the nation, Republican Daniel Webster now holds a 7-point lead over Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson in Central Florida’s 8th Congressional District, according to a new Sunshine State News Poll.
Webster, a former state senator, leads the freshman congressman 43-36 in the survey of 559 likely voters conducted Sept. 25-27. TEA (“Taxed Enough Already”) Party candidate Peg Dunmire drew 6 percent and NPA hopeful George Metcalfe garnered 3 percent, while 9 percent remained undecided (2 percent cited “other” and 1 percent refused to state).
Digging deeper, the numbers look even worse for Grayson as 51 percent of respondents said they had an unfavorable view of the Orlando-area congressman.
“Grayson has real problems here,” said Jim Lee, president of Voter Survey Service, which conducted the poll for Sunshine State News.
“He’s even more unpopular than the president, which is not surprising given how controversial he has been with his rhetoric, overall style and TV ads.”
Lee added, “It’s fascinating that both Grayson and the president have virtually the same image (a positive/negative ratio of 34/51), but Grayson is actually disliked more by independents (36/47 favorable/unfavorable) while Obama is only 36/37.”
Keep in mind that Grayson is a rock-star to liberal Democrats. To them, his flame-throwing and ignorant comments and lies exemplify what the entire Democratic party should be about. No moderates, remember?
Grayson’s lunacy helps out Webster
Being a liar and a lunatic has it’s advantages for your opponent:
Daniel Webster, a Republican running for the House in Florida, sent out a fund-raising appeal Tuesday, according to a spokesman — not long after his Democratic opponent, Representative Alan Grayson, went up with an advertisement comparing Mr. Webster’s stances on women’s issues to the Taliban’s.
The response? Brian Graham, the Webster spokesman, says the campaign raised more than its original goal of $50,000 the first day the appeal went out. On Wednesday evening, a graphic on the candidate’s Web site appeared to show that the campaign had surpassed its revised goal of $100,000.
“Today has been better than we expected,” said Mr. Graham, who added that the campaign had also placed fund-raising pleas on Google and the Drudge Report. “We’ll be re-evaluating that goal again.”
Coupled with this morning’s bombshell poll from Florida, this is even more good news from Florida’s 8th district.
What’s going on in Delaware?
I’m having some trouble trying to comprehend this:
Ms. O’Donnell is ubiquitous on conservative cable shows and talk radio, with her candidacy hyped by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and the Tea Party Express, based in California. But you can barely find a trace of Ms. O’Donnell or her campaign in Delaware itself, a state that is smaller than some national parks.
Whatever else Ms. O’Donnell may symbolize, she stands for the idea that politics in the online age is increasingly borderless and can often be shaped more by national causes than by anything having to do with local constituents.
[...]
The bulk of the contributions her campaign has received have come from outside Delaware, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and until this week she had no campaign office in the state. She and a few aides were working out of her town house.
If Ms. O’Donnell is actually running anything like a traditional campaign for the Senate, there isn’t much evidence of it right now. The campaign’s Web site lists no public events at which voters or reporters can meet her or hear her speak. (And in any event, Ms. O’Donnell has declared herself off limits for interviews with national reporters.) Last week, a spokeswoman for Shirley & Bannister, a Virginia-based consulting firm that the O’Donnell campaign recently hired, said she would find out about any scheduled appearances by the candidate, but then she stopped returning e-mails.
At the state Republican headquarters in Wilmington, staff members said Monday that they had no information about whether Ms. O’Donnell was out campaigning. A pile of O’Donnell yard signs, leaning against a wall near the door, was the only obvious signal that the party even had a Senate candidate. (The headquarters continues, though, to get calls from out-of-state voters who are furious at the local party for not supporting Ms. O’Donnell.)
After she won the primary, I wrote that the O’Donnell campaign would have to hunker down and work their tails off to get the message out about what she stands for, set the narrative and take her message to the people of Delaware. Part of that was going out and pressing the flesh with some old-fashioned politicking.
I disagree with O’Donnell’s decision to stop doing media interviews–I’m not a fan of when politicians do that as it makes it appear as if there’s something to hide, or they lack confidence in themselves.
But back to the Times piece. I understand the grassroots campaign is an online phenomenon more than anything (over $2 million raised doesn’t come in the mail), and people more astute than I on these matters have better insight as to what’s really going on in Delaware. At least I hope so, anyway. But I’m just getting the feeling that O’Donnell is not going about this the right way, and needs to get out there more and not less. Again, I hope I’m wrong.
UPDATE. It’s been a little more than two weeks since the primary and the O’Donnell campaign still hasn’t run a television ad. Jim Geraghty scratches his head:
We are a month away from Election Day, and so far, the O’Donnell campaign has yet to air a television ad. I am informed by those close to the campaign that the ads should be going up “soon,” with the precise launch date still being determined by those producing the ads.
[...]
[T]he Chris Coons campaign and the DSCC have each aired two ads since the primary, and obviously O’Donnell has endured being the punchline of every late-night comedian and Saturday Night Live. This race may turn on whether or not her image in Delaware voters’ minds has been irrevocably set, or whether she can show that there’s much more to her than her old appearances on MTV and Bill Maher’s show.
T minus thirty days…
Paladino vs the Post
Conventional wisdom says that this Carl Paladino versus Fred Dicker of the New York Post episode probably won’t go over very well for Paladino as he tries to become the next governor of New York.
Then again, this not your conventional election year. I’ll be interested to see what the next round of polling data has on this race.
And this is somewhat interesting–this isn’t the first time that Dicker and New York politicians nearly came to fisticuffs.
GOP chances for taking over the Senate
Not a slam dunk by any means, but improving. Nate Silver reports:
Republican chances of taking over the Senate have improved again in this week’s forecast. They are now 22 percent — up from 18 percent last week and 15 percent two weeks ago. Republican chances are now approaching the point where they stood prior to the Delaware primary, when they had peaked at 26 percent before Christine O’Donnell’s victory.
[...]
[I]t is a set of seven states that are likely to determine Republican chances to control the Senate. These are Nevada, Illinois, West Virginia, Washington, California, Connecticut, and the New York special election. Republicans would need to win four of these seven races to take claim of the Senate.
[...]
[T]he Senate will not come easily for Republicans. But, in contrast to previous weeks, the party seems to have multiple pathways toward gaining control of it: one path running through “new” states like West Virginia and Connecticut where the polling has been moving in their favor, and the other through “old” states like Washington and California where the numbers had been running against them, but the momentum could reverse itself.
The Republicans will come up short of winning a majority in the Senate, in my opinion. But I’m generally more pessimistic so we’ll see.
Dead heat in New Jersey’s 3rd CD
The latest poll puts Jon Runyan in a statistical dead heat with freshman Congressman John Adler. Seediness has it’s downside, Mr. Adler.
Red Washington
A bunch of liberal Democrats held some sort of rally in D.C. today, which essentially was born of a knee-jerk, cry-baby reaction to the success of the Tea Party over the past 19 months.
Supposedly, the people who attended this rally represented the (ahem) “real” America. Note the ignorant MSNBC blowhard Ed Schultz:
“This is a defining moment in America. Are you American?” Schultz told the raucous crowd. “This is no time to back down. This is time to fight for America.”
Got that? Time to fight for America. Despite the fact that liberals like Schultz and the dregs at this rally have elected and supported Obama and the Democrats, who have held majorities in Congress for nearly four years now. They’re fighting for what, exactly?
I’ve been listening to Ed Schultz’s radio show and I’ve heard him shoot down assumptions from the Right that this rally would be astroturfed by unions and a platform for American socialists. Keep that in mind as you watch this video:
Doug Ross has a boatload of photos. Here’s a taste:
Another:
Click through for more of what Ed Schultz, the SEIU and the base of the Democratic party consider their “America”. Looking at these images, it should be clear that next month’s election just took on some added significance.
As for the professional Left, what gets them all giddy is the rally size measuring stick, which amounts to nothing more than a childish “nyah nyah” cry about whose crowd size was bigger. See this pathetic post here.
Of course everything is not as it appears.
On Joe Biden
The man second first in line for the Presidency opened his mouth again:
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden says he believes Democrats are beginning to rebound in their effort to hold onto the House and Senate in this fall’s elections.
Biden says his party has been able to reverse its slide toward the kind of wave election that would hand Republicans control of the House and, possibly, the Senate, The Hill reported Friday.
“The truth is we’ve turned things around,” he said at an Albuquerque fundraiser for the Democratic candidate for governor. “Not enough, but we’ve turned it around.”
Are there people out there who actually look forward to what Joe Biden has to say about anything? We know that he’s been wrong on just about everything regarding foreign policy (his alleged expertise), but this has to be about the most irrelevant and meaningless statement made during this election cycle.
Senator Sherrod Brown, voice of desperation
He pens an op-ed in USA Today comparing the Tea Party to the John Birch Society.
Mark Hemingway points out the obvious:
Did anyone warn [Senator Brown] that he might be inadvertently pumping up the wrong party’s base? [...]
The John Birch Society? Seriously? I mean we had honest to goodness Communists marching side-by-side with unions over the weekend, and Senator Brown is invoking the John Birch Society to call the Tea Party extremist?
CT-Sen: McMahon lands a punch
A new ad by her campaign strikes the right note–drive home the fact that her opponent is a liar:
Seems pretty effective. It’s true that most politicians lie, but lying about sacrifices you made by allegedly putting your life on the line while not serving your country in uniform is tasteless an insult to every voter.
Voters in Connecticut showed their willingness to put party aside for principle in 2006, when they re-elected Joe Lieberman on the Independent party line. The question is now, if they can do it again.
Poll Position
Rasmussen reports the Republican lead is down to 3 points in the generic ballot.
Gallup says the Republican lead is up to 13 points.
The bottom line is, nobody really knows for sure, even the so-called experts. Seriously.
It’s the taxing and spending, stupid
Governor Chris Christie, continuing his road trip campaigning for Republican candidates throughout the country, stops in Iowa, with a warning to the GOP rank and file:
Christie said Republicans must deliver on their conservative promises if they gain power during the November elections. If they don’t follow through, he said voters will send the GOP “to the wilderness, and they are going to send us there for a long, long time.”
“As a party, it is put up or shut up time,” he said.
Voters are willing to accept the political pain of deep cuts in government spending as long as they know the pain is being spread equally, Christie argued. It makes sense to shrink government in tough economic times, and politicians seem to be the last to get that message, he said.
“We lost our way a number of years ago, and we became tax and spend light,” he said. “Less spending, smaller government, less regulation, smaller government — we’re going to be all about that again. We have to step up and stand for those principles again.”
It’s refreshing to see a Republican being fearless about his conservatism. The party needs more of this in order to win. Period.
O’Donnell’s first campaign ad
Released yesterday:
I first saw the ad last night and my first reaction to it was that if your first campaign ad has you proclaiming “I’m not a witch”, then there’s definitely a problem.
Watched it again this morning, and my feelings really haven’t changed much, although putting everything in perspective is helpful. Considering the relentless attacks she’s taking from the Left, I’m guessing that this is the ad where she says enough is enough and hopefully, turns the spotlight on Chris Coons and the issues that should be what this election is about.
Allahpundit writes:
…[A]dmittedly, most “everyman” appeals don’t include a, er, formal denial that one is a witch. But the situation is what it is. She’s got a big pile of lemons and now she needs to make lemonade. No sense pretending voters haven’t heard about what most of them have already heard about.
Jim Geraghty likes the ad, and thinks it has the potential to be a game changer, or not:
Intensely personal, perhaps the only approach that could cut through the noise that has surrounded her bid since she stepped into the spotlight. There’s almost a bit of vulnerability or awkwardness, and that almost becomes charming.
I hope her campaign is getting this ad into heavy rotation. If it does, and the numbers don’t move, it’s effectively over…
I’m still not fond of the spot. It doesn’t work for me. I understand what she’s trying to do here, and like I said, it needed to be done. But it just reaffirms the overall perception of her not being ready for prime-time. But I’m a misanthropic pessimist–what do I know?
The appeal to the sympathy vote didn’t work for Palin as she was getting lambasted by the Left and the media every day during the 2008 campaign, and I doubt it will work here. Even with an energized base. I hope I’m wrong, though.
Let’s just say I’m really interested in seeing the next batch of polls for this race after this ad’s release.
Update. For what it’s worth, Rush isn’t so fond of the spot. [Via The Right Scoop]
Lisa M.
Lawyers for U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s campaign want Alaska broadcasters to refuse to air TV ads by a national tea party group.
The campaign says the ads are “littered with lies and intentional mischaracterizations” about Murkowski and her write-in campaign. Attorney Timothy McKeever, in a letter sent to broadcasters Monday, said they are under a “legal and moral obligation” not to air them.
At issue is an ad unveiled Monday by the Tea Party Express entitled “Arrogant Lisa Murkowski — You Lost!” It seeks to paint Murkowski as more interested in political self-preservation than in serving Alaskans’ interests. It also claims she “tried to manipulate the Libertarian party into giving her their slot” on the ballot.
I can’t put into words how repulsive this entire Lisa Murkowski debacle is. Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, the display of hubris that she’s putting on display in Alaska is insulting.
Old Media death watch (Richard Cohen edition)
According to Richard Cohen’s latest column, the Tea Party is just like..(wait for it)….the National Guardsmen who killed the college students at Kent State in 1970. Or something.
But forget the politics of it. This is one seriously bad piece of writing.
Update. I’ll leave it to Ann Althouse to sum up the idiocy of Cohen’s column:
Cohen plunges into his 40-year-old memories about how awful it was when the National Guard shot and killed 4 college students who were protesting the Vietnam War. And naturally, in Cohen’s bike-drained, folk-music befuddled brain, that leads to what’s wrong with… Glenn Beck!
Parker Spitzer a bust
The new CNN entry “Parker Spitzer” may not be the answer to that network’s chronic ratings problems in prime time – at least from the evidence of its first night on the air.
The political discussion program, featuring the hosts Kathleen Parker, the conservative columnist, and Eliot Spitzer, the one-time governor of New York, fizzled badly in its initial outing Monday, attracting only 454,000 total viewers.
That not only left CNN far behind its main rivals — Bill O’Reilly on Fox had 3.1 million on Fox News and Keith Olbermann had 1.1 million on MSNBC – but it also trailed Nancy Grace on the HLN channel, who had 468,000 viewers.
Even worse for the new CNN program, it lost viewers from the show on just ahead of it, “John King USA,” which had 471,000 viewers.
Apparently the only people shocked by the failure of a political talk-show hosted by failed liberal governor and scumbag Elliot Spitzer and an establishment-approved ”conservative” in Kathleen Parker, are those in the media.
Idiots.
A message to Murkowski and Castle
Sure these midterm races are tightening, as they always do. But as Chris Cilliza notes, Republicans are still gaining momentum.
WaPo has now moved two states–Wisconsin and Rhode Island–into the Lean Republican box, while West Virginia moves from Lean Democratic to Toss Up.
Nothing new here if you’ve been following these races on an hourly basis like yours truly, but nonetheless it’s still great to see the GOP being competitive in places like West Virginia and Wisconsin.
There’s a nugget in Cilliza’s piece that stuck out to me:
In New Hampshire, former state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte (R) appears to have quickly put her narrow primary win behind her and united the GOP. Polling suggests that she has a comfortable lead over Rep. Paul Hodes (D).
Got that? Party unity helps win elections (or at least keeps them competitive).
I know it’s too much to ask of career politicians like Mike Castle and Lisa Murkowski to not think of themselves for once, and think of their party, but this just irked me. Sure, Delaware will most likely probably be a hold for the Democrats, but an endorsement of O’Donnell could have helped. Two weeks ago anyway.
And what to say of Princess Murkowski up in Alaska? The seat’s almost certainly a Republican hold if she stops being so pig-headed and stops the write-in insanity up there. But again, too much to ask.
Ed Schultz not crazy enough for Kossacks
This kind of ignorance is disturbing but still, to be expected considering the source:
Not everyone at the Daily Kos was happy about the “One Nation” rally on Saturday. The blogger “One Pissed Off Liberal” was upset with MSNBC host Ed Schultz for honoring the troops, and that God person:
I was a little disappointed in Ed Shultz [sic], who at the end of his talk said, “God bless the troops who are keeping us safe.” And I thought, and Daniel later echoed, did he have to say that? Do we have to parrot rightwing memes to set the patriot heart-strings a quiver? With all the gut-wrenching problems that face us and the dire consequences of doing the same old nothing, must we resort to fairy tales and bull—- to inspire the masses? Do we have to create boogeymen who hate us for our freedoms before we get off our asses and do something about global warming, ocean acidification, resource depletion, planet-wide pollution, joblessness, homelessness, increased human suffering and all the rest?
Ocean acidification? Wow.
This reminds me of my evening commute the other day. Occasionally, I’ll listen to my local “progressive talk” radio on AM 1600, to see what’s driving the other side crazy. Extremist Thom Hartman usually has a show during the 5 PM spot, but on this particular day some other liberal was substituting, someone whose name I can’t remember at the moment.
She was talking to a caller about why Democrats were about to get destroyed in November’s midterm. I don’t remember word for word exactly, but it was something to the effect of “Democrats are not acting on the issues that are important…and two of those “big issues” are federal funding of elections and overturning the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling.
No joke. I wish I can get my hands on a transcript.
These people create their own alternate realities and yet, these are the people who are embraced by the Democratic party. They’re so outside the mainstream it’s scary.
Mo’ money, mo’ money…
The NRCC has some money to spend and it looks like they’re going all out:
House Republicans have drafted a go-for-broke blueprint for the final weeks of the midterm campaign that will bring them to $45 million in television ad spending, with spots reserved in 62 congressional districts across the nation.
POLITICO has learned that the National Republican Congressional Committee will take a bank loan of at least $6.5 million — but likely more — to expand its ad buys into seven additional districts beyond the 55 where the committee has already reserved time.
According to an NRCC source familiar with the effort, the newly added targets include five Democrats whose districts, until recently, were thought to be out of reach this year: Reps. Tim Walz of Minnesota, Sanford Bishop of Georgia, Phil Hare of Illinois, Zack Space of Ohio and John Salazar of Colorado.
Republican strategists say that the $45 million figure is far more than they expected the committee to have for the fall campaign and represents an effort to take full advantage of the Republican-friendly political environment by investing in as many potentially winnable Democratic districts as possible. The NRCC initially reserved $22 million across 41 districts in August before expanding to $35 million in 55 districts in September.
“When we look up at the scoreboard on Nov. 3rd, we’ll look back and know that we left everything on the field,” said an NRCC source familiar with the effort.
By all means gentlemen–go all out.
I haven’t donated to neither the NRCC nor the NRSC in some time, but I’m glad to see this bit of news.
$45 million is a lot of money. Even so, I’ve read that the Democratic election committees have an edge in their coffers, but are being forced to be much more selective in how they deploy the cash.
Shocker: MSNBC edits out Brown’s “whore” comment
Rumblings in Pennsylvania
More bad news for Democrats from the Rust Belt. In Pennsylvania, it’s not looking so hot for Democrats in three weeks:
“For at least this past decade, Pennsylvania has been a battleground state where the political parties have fought over competitive House seats,” said Lara Brown, a political scientist at Villanova University.
[...]
Since 2002, Pennsylvanians opted for Democrats by voting for Gov. Ed Rendell, Sen. Bob Casey Jr. and, for president, John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008.
“This year the tables have turned,” Brown said.
She pointed to recent opinion polls showing that most Pennsylvanians disapprove of President Obama’s job performance and hold unfavorable views about the stimulus legislation and health care overhaul championed by a Democratic Congress.
“This disapproval of the job the Democrats are doing in Washington has created opportunities across the Keystone State for Republican candidates for the House,” Brown said.
[...]
Two House members who benefited from the Democratic surge in the 2006 elections were Rep. Chris Carney of Dimock in Susquehanna County, who represents northeastern Pennsylvania, and Rep. Jason Altmire of McCandless, whose district stretches from Mercer County through the North Hills to Murrysville.
Carney’s seat is a case study of what is happening across the nation, Brauer said.
“He portrayed himself as a centrist and bipartisan; yet he voted for large government solutions like the stimulus package and health care reform, which drives up the national debt,” Brauer said.
In 2006, the Democrats took back control of the House on the backs of conservative Democrats in Rust Belt states and red states throughout the nation, not because they were being asked by voters to veer left, but because they were being asked to fill a void that used to be filled with moderate to conservative Republicans, a response to a Republican party that wasn’t as conservative.
The Democratic majorities were not built on a liberal/progressive groundswell, as much as the current majority leadership in both chambers wanted us to believe it was so. With the hard left turn that the Obama Democrats have taken, it’s no wonder that their majorities are quickly about to unravel.
And this is just Pennsylvania. We’re talking about this against a backdrop of Republican gains in states like West Virginia, Wisconsin, Ohio and Illinois.
Boehner: “Republicans have learned their lesson”
The House GOP leader, speaking at a campaign stop for Allen West in Florida:
I think Republicans learned their lesson. They understood that we were spending too much, government was growing too much,” Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said this morning at a campaign appearance for Republican House candidate Allen West at the Gun Club Cafe in unincorporated West Palm Beach.
Boehner added: “I think if you’ve watched what we’ve done over the last 22 months you’ll see that Republicans all voted against the stimulus bill, all voted against their budget, almost all voted against cap and trade, and we all voted against health care, which demonstrates that we understand that people want a smaller, less costly and more accountable federal government.”
[...]
If Republicans win control of the House, Boehner said, “You’ll see us every single week move bills that will cut spending.”
Boehner promised a House bill to repeal the new health care law, but conceded repeal would likely be vetoed by President Obama. Still, Boehner said, “They’re going to need money from us to hire those 22,000 federal employees we think it’s going to take to run this monstrosity. And I’ll just tell you, they’re not going to get a dime from us.”
This is a start, I guess. I’d be interested to see the House’s take on entitlement reform and defense spending. Will they be on the table?
New York Times profiles Pamela Geller
In case you missed it, the Times ran a lengthy piece on Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs on Sunday.
The problem with this of course, is that the Times took liberty with the truth. Shocker.
CNN’s historic “Parker Spitzer”
Historic as in “bad”:
CNN’s prime time ratings woes are only increasing with new program Parker Spitzer.
Monday night was the lowest weekday prime time rating average in more than 10 years, since June 28, 2000. And it wasn’t just the 8pmET that was seeing low ratings.
Larry King had even lower ratings tha Parker Spitzer, with just 196,000 total viewers. That’s less than Rachel Maddow’s A25-54 demo average in the same hour.
The jokes pretty much write themselves at this point.
Angle’s $14 million haul
Former Nevada state Assemblywoman Sharron Angle (R) raised an eye-popping $14 million between July 1 and Sept. 30 for her challenge to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D), a stunning number that far eclipses the cash-collection totals of other prominent candidates seeking Senate seats next month.
“Sharron Angle produced one of the most successful single quarters of fundraising in the nation’s history for a U.S. Senate campaign,” said Angle communications director Jarrod Agen. “This is a testament to the hatred of Harry Reid, the nation’s disapproval of President Obama, and the unprecedented grassroots support for Sharron Angle.”
Ninety four percent of the money raised in the third quarter by Angle came in the form of donation of $100 or less. Ninety six percent of the contributions were $200 or less.
Small individual donors, grassroots support and getting around the Republican establishment in DC. That’s what it’s all about for Republican candidates in this cycle. The left, of course, calls it pandering to the “crazies”.
But when half-term Senator Barack Obama raises money from small donors and gets grassroots support from the moonbats, it’s called unprecedented “hope and change.”
What we’re up against
Congressman Charlie Wilson is running for reelection to Ohio’s 6th congressional district, having won his first term in 2006. He’s also a wife beater.
Until Jim Geraghty brought this to my attention, I never would have known. The media is silent. You would think that any of the news networks would be running with this story on their home pages and on their nightly news shows. Nothing. It’s the same with the liberal blogosphere. Silence. In politics, silence means acceptance and affirmation.
A few days ago, the Anchoress wrote in response to the media’s blatant bias against Christine O’Donnell:
…[It] pretty much sums up why, as long as the mainstream media has control over the national conversation, things won’t change much.
They don’t have the control they had even two years ago, but unfortunately, they still control too much.
I’ll agree with that 100%.
Charlie Wilson, of course, is a Democrat:
We don’t have a news business. We have a narrative-reinforcement business, and they do a strikingly effective job of collectively averting their eyes from information that hurts their preferred cause. For Pete’s sake, this is wife-beating we’re talking about, and it is admitted in a public record. How is this not news? How is this not something that the voters in Ohio’s 6th congressional district ought to know about before they cast their vote?[...]This, in part, is what this election is about. The double standard is now so large you can’t get your head around it. We cannot have a healthy democracy where those whose job is to inform the public see their first duty as protecting the reputations of their preferred incumbents.
If these wife-beating revelations came out on say, Joe Miller running for Senate in Alaska, or Rand Paul in Kentucky, there would be calls for withdrawal and gnashing of teeth throughout the media. On top of that, as Geraghty points out, look at what happened with Mark Foley in 2006. Four years ago at this time, you knew everything you needed to know about Mark Foley. Today, the Charlie Wilson story remains buried.
So even now still, in 2010, as we head into the home stretch of what is shaping up to be a special midterm election, conservatives and the Republican party, as they have since I can remember, are still fighting on two fronts–Democrats and the media.
Federal judge says states can sue on Obamacare
Just hit the wire:
States can proceed with their lawsuit seeking to overturn President Barack Obama’s landmark reform law, a Florida judge ruled on Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson had already indicated at a hearing last month that he would reject parts of a motion by the Justice Department to dismiss the lawsuit, led by Florida and 19 other states.
The suit was originally filed in March by mostly Republic state attorneys general.
In his formal ruling on Thursday, Vinson said the case would continue as scheduled. He had previously set a hearing for December 16.
T minus 18 days and counting…
Jim Geraghty gives his summation of what Election Day 2010 is all about and where we are less than three weeks until the wave comes:
[T]he subtext to this is that we were told, repeatedly, that President Obama was the smartest, most savvy, most prepared man to step into the Oval Office. We were told, by liberals and the MSM and by almost every Democrat except Hillary Clinton, that Barack Obama was just about the most ideal candidate the party could imagine in 2008. And look at where we are as a country.
[...] The floor is a pretty darn good Election Day; the ceiling is if not the Extinction of the Modern Democratic Party, then the end of Keynesianism, the end of the notion that entitlements are untouchable, the end of the public trusting the mainstream media, the end of the notion of public option and nationalized health care, the end of amnesty, the end of Card Check and the end of the demonize-first-and-ask-questions later mentality of today’s Democrats.
Read the whole thing.
Season of the Witch
Summer ended later than usual here in the Garden State. As late as less than two weeks ago, we had temperatures hit the low 80s.
Temps have dropped considerably over the last ten days, and over the last few days specifically. Today there was a crisp breeze in the air, temps got no higher than low 60s and you can finally notice some pronounced foliage.
Summer’s long gone, but you gotta love autumn.
CT Insurance Commissioner on health insurance rate increase: “Blame Congress”
Time to bend over, Connecticut. You wanted healthcare reform? You got your healthcare reform:
The state has given Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield the go ahead to raise premiums by as much as 47 percent for some members, and says health care reform is the reason why.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to Insurance Commissioner Thomas Sullivan on Oct. 6, asking what he called “excessive” increases were approved without full consideration of all the facts. His letter mentioned rate increases for both Anthem and Aetna.
[...]
Sullivan responded to Blumenthal saying the new rates included “very rich benefits” mandated by federal law.
“There is not one person in the state of Connecticut who will see an increase in their current premiums based on what the department approved for Anthem and Aetna,” Sullivan said in a release. “The rates that were filed and approved reflect the current cost to deliver care and the impact of more comprehensive benefit designs required under the federal healthcare reform law. If the attorney general wants to complain to someone, he should complain to Congress.”
[...]
“I find myself in an unprecedented place and time, as do my counterparts throughout the country, in overseeing one of the most far-reaching policy initiatives enacted by the federal government in recent history,” Sullivan said in the letter. “It is unfortunate that this reform, while addressing insurer behavior, has provided little to no reform of the escalating costs of the health care delivery system.”
Let’s not forget that Dick Blumenthal is also the Democratic party’s candidate for Senate in this year’s midterm election.
So there you have it. Left wing utopian fantasies of “bending the cost curve” and greater accessibility of healthcare always fall to economic reality. The road to full nationalization of healthcare comes at a steep price.
A note to Connecticut voters–this insanity doesn’t end with a Senator Blumenthal as part of your Senate delegation.
NJ-6: Governor Christie stumps for Anna Little
The Governor made an appearance at Anna Little’s campaign rally in Piscataway earlier today, before her debate with entrenched liberal incumbent, the 22-year congressman, Frank “I helped write Obamacare” Pallone.
Christie came out to introduce Little to the crowd and gave a classic Christie speech in support of the candidate. I caught some of his speech on my iPhone:
Say what you want about Christie, and as I’ve noted on this blog before, I wasn’t a fan before the 2009 election. But seeing what he’s done in less than a year, makes you proud to be conservative from New Jersey. It’s a relief to hear a Republican not apologize for being conservative.
Once Christie entered the hall, the place went nuts. I took some photos:
Tea Party-approved:
Look at that glare:
Here is the Governor telling us all to just STFU and vote on November 2nd:
Another shot:
The place was SRO, but I got there early and got a good spot before the place filled up. Notice the racist “Don’t Tread On Me” flag. This is New Jersey for pete’s sake, it’s happening all over:
More ”afraid and confused” racists voters at the rally:
This sign got the Governor’s attention and pointed it out to the crowd:
Here’s my take on this race. New Jersey’s 6th District is historically a deep blue Democrat distrcit running northwest from Asbury Park in Monmouth County on the coast, into parts of Middlesex County, and President Obama won the district easily by a margin of 61-39. Pallone has been representing the district since George H. W. Bush was first elected President, a full eleven terms.
The latest polling has Pallone winning by 12 points and RCP recently moved the district from Safe Dem to Likely Dem. The problem for Pallone is that 12 points is less than half of the 30+ point advantage he usually gets at reelection:
“A 12 point lead may look comfortable, but not when you consider the fact that Pallone regularly wins reelection by more than 30 points,” Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said. “District demographics are the key to this race. Little does well in the independent-minded parts of the district. The question is whether it will be enough to overcome the built-in Democratic advantage here.”
Look at the last three election cycles for Pallone:
2008: Pallone (D) 67%, McLeod (R) 32%
2006: Pallone (D) 69%, Bellew (R) 30%
2004: Pallone (D) 67%, Fernandez (R) 31%
If you look at the most recent Monmouth University poll (PDF), you’ll find that Republicans are definitely not very popular in the district. But also worth noting is that 45% of respondents said they had “no opinion” of Anna Little. In other words, voters in the district really don’t know much about her. Voters here feel they don’t really have much of a choice, that it’s just automatic for Pallone to win. That’s not good for democracy.
The Little campaign is really energized about what they’re doing. Over the past few months, and few weeks especially, I’ve seen supporters all over the district, lawn signs are all over, even in the bluest of neighborhoods, they’ve been at local fall festivals, etc. I overheard one of Little’s campaign workers talk to some attendees at the rally who were obviously undecided, and he mentioned that at recent event where both candidates were present, about 106 Little supporters showed up versus 10 for Pallone. Take that for what it’s worth.
Turnout will be key to turn this district red, plain and simple. With a 12 point deficit and two weeks left, the campaign will certainly have its work cut out for it. It will be difficult, but not impossible.
Time is of the essence, so if you’re so inclined, throw the campaign a few shekels.
NJ-6: Governor Christie speech for Anna Little (VIDEO)
Chris Christie’s speech at yesterday’s campaign rally for the Little campaign are available on YouTube in two separate videos.
Here’s the first part, which includes the portion from the clip that I posted yesterday:
Part two is important as the Governor implores the grassroots to remain active and most importantly, to get out and vote:
My original post on the rally is here.
Governor Christie, social and fiscal conservative
New Jersey politics has been the focus of my last few posts, so why stop now?
The Newark Star-Ledger reports:
Two weeks ago, the federal government awarded Gov. Chris Christie’s administration nearly $4.7 million in federal funding for teenage pregnancy prevention programs. But one-fifth of the money comes with one unbreakable string attached.
Nearly $1 million must be spent teaching kids to say no to premarital sex.
New Jersey had not sought abstinence funding since shortly after Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine took office in 2006, and he stopped competing for it the following year, said Michele Jaker, executive director of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of New Jersey. “We were among the first states to stop,” she said.
The decision to pursue abstinence funding didn’t get much attention as Christie carved himself a national reputation as a fiscal conservative. But it is the latest sign the governor is also beginning to pursue a socially conservative agenda, according to some advocacy groups from both the left and right, lawmakers and political scientists.
[...]
“Governor Christie is our first pro-life governor,” said Marie Tasy, executive director of New Jersey Right to Life. “He is trying very hard to fix our state and restore our culture from the bad decisions and failed policies of previous administrations so that it will be a better place to raise our children and future generations.”
Social conservatives had eyed Christie warily as a gubernatorial candidate, questioning the sincerity of his conversion from being pro-abortion-rights to anti-abortion in the mid-1990s after becoming a father.
All of this, of course, doesn’t stop the extremism:
Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) said the change in state health policy “is not pretty.”
“Between the cuts in funding access to birth control and applying for abstinence education, somehow we have people caught somewhere in the last century mentally,” she said.
Yeah. Who would’ve thought that teaching personal responsibility to teenagers and kids was a “last-century” concept? That, instead of the incessant funding of abortions and unlimited condoms on the back of taxpayers and at the expense of being able to teach their own children. What a novel idea.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve heard some concern-trolling on behalf of conservative commentators and others, that Christie is not really a conservative for any number of reasons– he supported Mike Castle in the Delaware Senate race, or his position on immigration reform, etc.
To that I say, wake up! Dare I say that Chris Christie is as conservative a governor as New Jersey will get in probably my lifetime. That he’s willing to bring his fiscal conservative ideals to fruition in the Garden State is more than what most voters imagined. For conservatives, that he wasn’t trumpeting his social conservative beliefs shouldn’t be so much of an issue, at least not in New Jersey, where fiscal matters were primarily on the minds of most voters. It doesn’t really matter anyway, as he’s speaking with actions and not words.
That’s what’s key.
NJ-6: Anna Little closing in on Pallone?
Take it for what it’s worth, but a National Research poll is giving Anna Little’s campaign some juice:
Gov. Chris Christie campaigned with Tea Party-endorsed 6th District challenger Anna Little last night in Piscataway and intends to campaign again with her later this week. Christie has some inside intel on the race from his favorite pollster.
Republican numbers cruncher Adam Geller of National Research, Inc. shows Republican challenger Little with a shot to win in her challenge of a vulnerable U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch).
Commissioned by the Little campaign, Geller puts Pallone ahead of Little by one point, 44-43%, in a survey Geller conducted from Oct. 5-6.
I’m too ignorant to figure out how much weight to give that poll. I mean really, Frank Pallone. Up by only 1 point?
Jim Geraghty cautions:
This is a D+8 district, and Pallone usually wins by wide margins — with 67 percent in 2008, 69 percent in 2006, 67 percent in 2004, 66 percent in 2002. One of the reasons I had never put this race terribly high on my list of competitive contests is Pallone’s gargantuan financial advantage. As of September 30, he has more than $4.2 million cash on hand (a side effect of his interest in running statewide for a long while) while Little’s financial resources align with her surname, a little over $109,000 cash on hand as of October 13.
A poll like this one, commissioned by Little, might get Pallone to dip into his considerable cash reserves to ensure his traditional advantage. (After Christie carried his district, Pallone would be a fool to take his reelection for granted.) But if Pallone really is at 35 percent in his job-approval rating, as the Little poll suggests, then perhaps all the money in the world can’t persuade his constituents to keep him.
I stick by my initial take on this race–it will be tough, but not impossible. If Little could pull this off, it would be a coup of ginormous proportions.
(H/T: Ace)
OFA: The enthusiasm gap is for suckers
I get e-mail from the Central Committee New Jersey branch of the OFA:
It seems like not too long ago–two years to be exact–that all the left and the Obama campaign were willing to talk about was how energized and ready the electorate was to go out and vote for Hope and Change.
In 2010, on the eve of the President’s first midterm cycle, enthusiasm is so overrated. Can you blame them?
Early voting has started and results are starting to trickle in, and that enthusiasm gap that the OFA wants Obamabots to ignore is alive and well–for Republicans.
Democrats are bracing for a political bloodbath in Ohio. Perhaps no state has swung more dramatically away from the Democratic Party over the past two years.
John Kasich, former chairman of the House Budget Committee and Republican candidate for governor, is feeling confident about his chances of victory in November, and a poll out today from Quinnipiac University might be a good indication why: Kasich leads Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, 51 percent to 41 percent, with just 7 percent of Ohio voters undecided.
[...]
In Cuyahoga County, where tens of thousands of ballots have already arrived and are being sorted, an undeniable enthusiasm gap is emerging. According to the county board of elections, Republicans are voting at twice the rate they did in 2008.
Early-voting numbers out of Nevada’s two biggest counties could spell trouble for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in his tough contest against Republican Sharron Angle.
In Reno’s Washoe County and Las Vegas’s Clark County, Republican turnout was disproportionately high over the first three voting days, according to local election officials.
[...]
The disproportionate turnout is a concrete indication of the Republican enthusiasm that is expected to portend a nationwide GOP wave.
These indicators are enough to get any conservative excited, as they should. But now is not the time to get complacent and content–keep your foot on the gas and GOTV! Heed the words of Stacy McCain:
Wherever you are, and whichever candidate you support, your duty now is to do all you can for the next two weeks.
We’ve got the dreaded enthusiasm. Let’s turn it into action and results!
Democrats’ desperation down the stretch
Expect to see a lot more stories like this over the next twelve days:
A Pennsylvania Democratic House candidate on Tuesday admitted to helping a third candidate get on the ballot in the hopes he would siphon votes away from his Republican opponent.
Bryan Lentz, the Democratic nominee running for the seat being vacated by Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), said he knew that volunteers from his campaign helped Tea Party candidate Jim Schneller.
“If somebody’s already made the decision to run, I didn’t think that ‘helping’ with the process of signature petitions was improper,” Lentz told told theDelaware County Daily Times editorial board in an interview.
Republicans have accused Democrats of helping set up Tea Party candidates as spoilers in several House and Senate races around the country. Democrats face a tough political environment this fall, when they are trying to maintain their congressional majorities against a GOP wave spurred in part by Tea Party groups.
Democrats’ trying to steal elections? Who would’ve thought?
RCP has Pennsylvania’s 7th District as Lean Republican. Don’t take anything for granted.
Calling Mrs. Hill
This Ginni Thomas story is generating a lot of buzz from the usual suspects. Anything to do with Clarence Thomas and his wife always causes some consternation from the Left, but here’s the gist:
Nearly 20 years after Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his contentious Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Justice Thomas’s wife has called Ms. Hill, seeking an apology.
In a voice mail message left at 7:31 a.m. on Oct. 9, a Saturday, Virginia Thomas asked her husband’s former aide-turned-adversary to make amends. Ms. Hill played the recording, from her voice mail at Brandeis University, for The New York Times.
“Good morning Anita Hill, it’s Ginni Thomas,” it said. “I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband.”
Ms. Thomas went on: “So give it some thought. And certainly pray about this and hope that one day you will help us understand why you did what you did. O.K., have a good day.”
Ms. Hill, in an interview, said she had kept the message for nearly a week trying to decide whether the caller really was Ms. Thomas or a prankster. Unsure, she said, she decided to turn it over to the Brandeis campus police with a request to convey it the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“I thought it was certainly inappropriate,” Ms. Hill said. “It came in at 7:30 a.m. on my office phone from somebody I didn’t know, and she is asking for an apology. It was not invited. There was no background for it.”
In a statement conveyed through a publicist, Ms. Thomas confirmed leaving the message, which she portrayed as a peacemaking gesture. She did not explain its timing.
Maybe it’s just me but I think this is a very bizarre story.
Unemployment claims at 452,000 last week
Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits fell last week to a level that’s consistent with little improvement in the labor market.
Initial jobless claims declined by 23,000 to 452,000 in the week ended Oct. 15, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The prior week’s figures were revised up by 13,000, to the highest level since late August.
The pace of firings has persisted since the start of the year, indicating it will take longer to reduce an unemployment rate that’s near a 26-year high. A Federal Reserve report yesterday showed the economy is growing at a “modest pace” with companies still hesitant to hire, a reason central bankers may ease monetary policy.
Claims are “still consistent with a sluggish labor market,” said Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse in New York. “We’ve been stuck in a range for most of the year. It doesn’t tell you that the layoff trend has improved dramatically this year.
Any number over 450,000 will not get the unemployment rate to decrease. The trend over the past several months has been hovering around this mark or higher. Bad news going into the new year.
Republicans gearing up for a big night
Philip Klein parses through the latest Pew Research Center poll and finds that it’s not going to be pretty for Democrats on November 2nd:
The new survey shows GOP candidates building a 50 percent to 40 percent lead among likely voters. In November 2006, Pew’s pre-election poll showed Democrats with a narrower 47 percent to 43 percent advantage among likely voters. The GOP opens up an even larger lead in competitive districts at 51 percent to 39 percent.
Whereas Democrats enjoyed a 7-point edge among independents in 2006, Republicans now hold a staggering 19-point advantage among this group. In fact, the Republicans’ lead extends to nearly every demographic category — they’re ahead among men and women; all education levels; all age groups; among those earning above $30,000; and in the West, Midwest, and South. The only segments of the population where Democrats enjoy advantages are among black voters, those earning less than $30,000, the religiously unaffiliated, and Northeasterners (where they lead by just 1 point). But even where Democrats do hold advantages, they have lost considerable ground relative to 2006.
It’s going to be an interesting night.
Clinton scratches his head
President Clinton has been on the road stumping for Democrats, trying to alleviate the inevitable smack-down on November 2nd.
Ben Smith highlights this bit out of yesterday’s WaPo, which says a lot:
Over the past two weeks, Clinton has had one day off, Saturday, which he spent in Northern California with his close friend Terry McAuliffe. The two stayed up late, playing cards and drafting new talking points for Democrats to trot out on the trail.
“He literally sat down with a yellow legal pad,” said McAuliffe, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, adding that Clinton told him: “Make sure, Terry, you get these talking points out to every candidate.”
It was then, McAuliffe said, that Clinton confided that he has been frustrated with the Democrats’ message.
“He is just baffled and bewildered about why there has not been a more coherent message talking about what the party has done, why we allowed ourselves to become human pinatas,” McAuliffe said. “I think he is agitated that Democrats haven’t put their best foot forward in explaining to the American public what they’ve actually done.”
The fact that most Democrats are political cowards doesn’t come across to Bubba, I guess.
He’s “baffled” as to why Democrats aren’t running around in their red and purple state districts proclaiming the supposed the benefits of healthcare reform, the repeal of which, most Americans now favor. Or that they should be happy with their stealth $17 a week tax-cut (for a married couple).
You’re welcome, bitches.
Baffling indeed.
Blogroll
Just added The Unofficial Apple Weblog to the blogroll, as I can’t stop reading the damn thing.
Sen-KY: Conway campaign’s stupid campaign ad backfires
By all accounts, Conway’s “Aqua Buddha” ad was a dud. MSNBC reports:
Rand Paul’s (R) campaign team has polled Jack Conway’s (D) “Aqua Buddha” TV, and it suggests that the Conway ad has backfired on the Democrat.
Per the Paul poll that First Read obtained, more than 80% of Kentucky voters said they have heard of the Conway ad, which says that Paul belonged to a secret society while in college that called the Bible a “hoax,” and that he allegedly tied up a woman and made her bow down to the god “Aqua Buddha.”
Nearly 70% said the ad went too far, versus 31% who said it raised valid questions.
And get this: 45% of Kentucky voters (including 70% of Republicans, 53% of independents, and nearly 25% of Democrats) said the ad would make them more likely to vote for Paul. That’s compared with 26% (40% of Democrats, 19% of independents, and 9% of Republicans) who said it made them less likely to vote for him.
That poll was questioned by the Conway campaign as too biased towards Paul. But the problem is that the results in a Mason-Dixon poll released earlier this week, shows that voters are turned off by the ad as well:
With less than two weeks to go before the Nov. 2 election, Republican Rand Paul holds a slim lead over Democrat Jack Conway in their race for the U.S. Senate, a new Kentucky Poll shows.
Paul, a favorite of the Tea Party movement whose campaign has focused on limited government, holds a 5 point lead over Conway among likely voters — 48 percent to 43 percent, with 9 percent undecided.
[...]
The number of undecided voters could reflect uncertainty about a TV ad Conway launched last weekend regarding Paul’s behavior in the 1980s as a member of a secret society at Baylor University called the NoZe Brotherhood, said University of Louisville political science professor Jasmine Farrier.
The ad, which has gotten mixed reaction from many Democrats, raised questions about Paul’s religious beliefs and referred to an anonymous woman who alleged Paul tied her up and forced her to worship a god called “Aqua Buddha.”
I implore the Conway campaign to continue putting out more venomous attack ads.
RCP lists this race as a Toss Up with Paul ahead by 4.3 points over Conway.
A GOP cleansing
RNC Chairman Michael Steele has been touring the country stumping for GOP candidates in the “Fire Pelosi” tour bus. The latest stop was in Concord, New Hampshire.
A Republican voter had an interesting take on what Republicans are doing in 2010:
Steele closed his remarks with a request that audience members take time to write down a headline they hope to see the morning after the election and put it somewhere they can see it every day.
“Ask yourselves: What have I done today to make that headline come true?” Steele said.
Sue Companion, a 46-year-old from Northwood, attended Steele’s speech with her 3-year-old son Austin. A Republican since she began voting during the Reagan administration, she had been following the bus tour online and saw that it was coming to New Hampshire.
“I want to see something different happen in Washington,” she said. Instead of “more politics and more business as usual,” Companion said she wants “more of what the American people want to see happening.”
Republicans who get elected in the coming tsunami on November 2nd, better take note. This is a call for real change in Washington. People are disgusted by what they’re seeing in Washington. Poll after poll shows that we hold Washington pols in complete and utter contempt. Republicans are no exception to this–they are just as unpopular as Democrats.
We can expect to see a lot of new faces in the Republican caucus in the 112th Congress. Those who were real Tea Partiers, I expect to do what they were elected to do–for the most part. The other Republicans who just rode the coattails of the anti-Democrat party sentiments of the electorate, had better step up to the plate and listen to the message that voters are sending.
Dems in a “world of hurt”
A little over a week left and taking over the House is pretty much a done deal for the GOP:
[...] Republicans have placed enough seats into play that Democrats now seem likely to give up many of the gains they made in the last two election cycles, leaving Washington on the brink of a substantial shift in the balance of power.
The final nine days of the midterm election are unfolding across a wide landscape, with several dozen House races close enough to break either way, determining whether the election produces a Republican wave that reaches deep into the Democratic ranks. In the Senate, Democrats were bracing to lose seats, but the crucial contests remained highly fluid as Republicans struggled to pull away in several Democratic-leaning states.
[...]
While the outlook is grim for Democrats in the House, according to interviews with candidates, pollsters and consultants involved in races, the field remains volatile and strong voter turnout could save some seats. Yet even by conservative calculations, Republicans are well within reach of winning back a majority they lost four years ago.
“There are Democratic candidates who still appear to be in the race, but our candidates are delivering the fatal blow,” said Representative Pete Sessions of Texas, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. “If we look all across the country, we are seeing incumbent Democrats in a world of hurt.”
Step on the gas. Destroy every little bit of their vanishing majorities in both chambers as much as humanly possible.
Wikileaks document dump shows there were WMDs in Iraq
Another left-wing lie to the trash heap:
By late 2003, even the Bush White House’s staunchest defenders were starting to give up on the idea that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
But for years afterward, WikiLeaks’ newly-released Iraq war documents reveal, U.S. troops continued to find chemical weapons labs, encounter insurgent specialists in toxins, and uncover weapons of mass destruction.
An initial glance at the WikiLeaks war logs doesn’t reveal evidence of some massive WMD program by the Saddam Hussein regime — the Bush administration’s most (in)famous rationale for invading Iraq. But chemical weapons, especially, did not vanish from the Iraqi battlefield. Remnants of Saddam’s toxic arsenal, largely destroyed after the Gulf War, remained. Jihadists, insurgents and foreign (possibly Iranian) agitators turned to these stockpiles during the Iraq conflict — and may have brewed up their own deadly agents.
In August 2004, for instance, American forces surreptitiously purchased what they believed to be containers of liquid sulfur mustard, a toxic “blister agent” used as a chemical weapon since World War I. The troops tested the liquid, and “reported two positive results for blister.” The chemical was then “triple-sealed and transported to a secure site” outside their base.
Three months later, in northern Iraq, U.S. scouts went to look in on a “chemical weapons” complex. “One of the bunkers has been tampered with,” they write. “The integrity of the seal [around the complex] appears intact, but it seems someone is interesting in trying to get into the bunkers.”
Meanwhile, the second battle of Fallujah was raging in Anbar province. In the southeastern corner of the city, American forces came across a “house with a chemical lab … substances found are similar to ones (in lesser quantities located a previous chemical lab.” The following day, there’s a call in another part of the city for explosive experts to dispose of a “chemical cache.”
Nearly three years later, American troops were still finding WMD in the region. An armored Buffalo vehicle unearthed a cache of artillery shells “that was covered by sacks and leaves under an Iraqi Community Watch checkpoint. “The 155mm rounds are filled with an unknown liquid, and several of which are leaking a black tar-like substance.” Initial tests were inconclusive. But later, “the rounds tested positive for mustard.”
Will the media hold itself accountable and call itself out on the lies and the misinformation over the last seven-plus years regarding the Iraq War? What about the left and their venomous tirades against President Bush? Don’t hold your breath.
AZ-7: Ruth McClung moneybomb tomorrow
Ruth McClung is making life hell for the socialist Democrat, Raul Grijalva in Arizona’s 7th congressional district. RCP currently lists this race as a Toss Up which is something the Democrats were not expecting as recently as September, and has caught the Grijalva campaign off-guard and light in the treasury.
The Democrats don’t want this to be a problem:
Democrats won’t let Grijalva go down without a fight, and his once-depleted coffers are beginning to swell again.
Since Saturday, he’s reported raising $75,500 — $15,400 of which came from Arizona, according to campaign finance records.
The competition for the seat was sleepy until the last few weeks when polling showed the contest tightening. Many Democrats believe Grijalva will pull it out in the end — mostly because the Democratic-leaning district gave President Obama 57 percent of its votes in 2008.
But they are privately critical of his failure to build a stronger campaign and of his political misfire on the boycott, which he endorsed in response to Arizona’s tough new immigration crackdown law.
The book on Grijalva: If he loses, it will be from a self-inflicted wound. If he wins, he will have drawn valualbe resources away from other Democratic campaigns that could have used the money.
Democrats losing districts like Arizona’s 7th means the difference between a wave and a tsunami for Republicans in 2010. I prefer the latter.
Conservative activists need to bleed Grijalva’s coffers dry by supporting Ruth McClung and get out the vote.
And what better time for a Ruth McClung moneybomb than tomorrow?
DE-Sen: Coons supporters assault O’Donnell staffers
Several supporters of Chris Coons, the Delaware Democratic U.S. Senate candidate did it again. As you enter the Glasgow Medical Center on Glasgow Avenue in Bear, DE, Coons supporters started out by holding a peaceful protest.
But, while leading doctors from across the state held a press conference with Christine O’Donnell, two Coons disrupted the press conference and were asked to leave. By way of disrupting the press conference which was held in a conference room inside the Glasgow Medical Center, the Coons supporters trespassed on that property since they were not seeking medical care.
It was reported that they were asked to leave, but re-entered the building defying orders from security guards and possibly even Delaware State Police.
One Christine O’Donnell staffer is suffering from a head pain as she was shoved into a wall. Two other staffers were also shoved, but their injuries are not known at this time.
What are Coons’ thugs doing roughing up O’Donnell campaign staffers if Coons is supposedly sailing to an easy, double-digit win next week?
UPDATE. Just a reminder as to the Left’s legacy of violence when it comes to getting out the vote. Violence is all they have.
Election 2010: These are the stakes
Mark Steyn’s latest column is required reading for everyone:
In America, one party is openly committed to driving the nation off the cliff, and the other party is full of guys content to go along for the ride as long as we shift down to third gear. That’s no longer enough of a choice. If your candidate isn’t committed to fewer government agencies with fewer employees on lower rates of pay, he’s part of the problem. This is the last chance for the GOP to restore its credentials. If it blows it, all bets are off for 2012.
Once the clock strikes midnight on November 2nd, no matter how big or how small the Republican wave will be, the same activists, bloggers and figureheads on the Right who’ve spent the better part of the last two years getting Republicans elected, need to start holding their feet to the fire. Period.
King Michael
Bloomberg has decreed that now that he’s into his third term, it’s OK for New York City to revert to its original, two-term limitation for mayors:
New York City’s three-term mayor says he plans to cast his vote in favor of returning to a limit of two, consecutive, four-year terms.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he supports the recommendation of the City Charter Commission to return to two terms.
“It’s not the bill that I wanted,” Bloomberg said. “It’s not the bill that I think the commission should have passed. It’s not the bill, I think, that most of the members of the commission wanted to pass. But it’s better than what we have now, and I committed that we would have that referendum, and I personally am going to vote for it.”
In 2008, Bloomberg persuaded the city council to extend term limits to a third term, so he could run again. He said he was needed to help the city through the financial crisis. A spokesman said Bloomberg only supported three terms for himself because the situation was extraordinary.
“When they changed term limits, I had said, it was changed legally by the city council, and that we would give the public another chance in a referendum to decide whether they want two or three,” Bloomberg said. “And now they can do that.”
Not for anything, but I think I’m the only one that finds this completely repulsive.
Is it wrong to think that Mayor Bloomberg represents a lot of what’s wrong with our political system today? Would he not have been able to “persuade” the City council to bend the law in order to allow him to serve a third term, if he wasn’t worth a couple of billion dollars?
NJ-6: Monmouth University poll shows Pallone losing ground to Little
Several weeks ago, RCP moved this race from Safe Dem to Lean Dem.
Earlier today, Jim Geraghty wrote that Charlie Cook has now moved New Jersey’s 6th CD to Likely Dem as well.
Today, the Asbury Park Press and the Star Ledger are both reporting that the latest Monmouth University poll shows Anna Little gaining ground, narrowing Frank Pallone’s lead from twelve to seven points. The APP writes:
In the Monmouth County portion of the district, Little leads Pallone 52 to 45 percent. Three weeks ago, Pallone led Little by 49 to 47 percent. Pallone continues to hold a sizable 58 to 37 percent lead in the other parts of the district, including urban strongholds in Middlesex and Union counties.
Pallone’s job performance approval rating among likely voters is 45 percent, virtually the same as three weeks ago, when it was 46 percent. His job performance disapproval rating has gone up from 36 to 46 percent, however.
More voters are now aware of Little: only 31 percent said they have no opinion of her, down from 45 percent three weeks ago.
Last week I wrote:
[...] worth noting is that 45% of respondents said they had “no opinion” of Anna Little. In other words, voters in the district really don’t know much about her. Voters here feel they don’t really have much of a choice, that it’s just automatic for Pallone to win. That’s not good for democracy. [...]
Turnout will be key to turn this district red, plain and simple. With a 12 point deficit and two weeks left, the campaign will certainly have its work cut out for it. It will be difficult, but not impossible.
This is what happens when voters begin to realize that they have a choice, and they have the power to break the vise grip of lethargic incumbency. This is what GOTV efforts are all about. In a matter of weeks, support at the grassroots level in the Little campaign has taken a virtually unknown candidate to within striking distance of a 22-year incumbent Democrat, comfortable in his blue district.
Speaking as a Mets fan, all I can say is: you gotta believe!
UPDATE. It appears that the sample used in the Monmouth University poll might be skewing what’s really going on in NJ-6:
The poll [...] could underestimate Little’s performance. The Monmouth University poll’s sample was 40 percent Democrats, 22 percent Republicans and 38 percent Independents. [...]
In 2006 the Republican sample was 28 percent (a depressed year for Republicans nation wide, but especially dower in the North East) and the independent Sample was 31 percent. In 2008 the Republican sample was 33 percent and the independent sample was 38 percent.
It is fairly dubious assertion that this year will yield fewer Republicans at the polls than even 2006. It is even more suspicious that 38 percent of the Monmouth University poll’s sample is 38 percent; this independent sample outperforms their best year by 7 points. For a particularly good Republican year, when both the GOP and Democratic bases were engaged, 2004 is a decent place to start.If you adjust the sample of 647 likely voters (257 Democrats, 141 Republican and 249 Independents) to reflect the exit polls from 2004, (253 Democrats, 201 Republicans and 194 Independents) then the race becomes 51 to 49 percent for Pallone. This is a minor adjustment from Monmouth University’s findings for Pallone but a major boost for Little. It also puts this race within the margin of error for most pollsters.
Boehner: Not a time for compromise
Maybe a bit too presumptuous, but good for John Boehner:
Republicans aren’t in the mood for compromise, especially on repealing healthcare reform, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Wednesday.
Boehner, the party leader who would likely become Speaker in a GOP-controlled House, distanced himself from a senior senator’s suggestion last week that trying to repeal the new healthcare reform law wasn’t in Republicans’ best interest.
“This is not a time for compromise, and I can tell you that we will not compromise on our principles,” Boehner said during an appearance on conservative Sean Hannity’s radio show.
The political gods are fickle, and they have decided to give Boehner and the Republicans the mother of all second chances. If indeed, the GOP wins control of the House, let’s hope that Boehner stays true to his word.
Gallup and the NY Times agree–a GOP tsunami is coming
Gallup breaks down their latest report on likely voters in Tuesday’s election and it’s not looking good for Democrats:
Gallup’s latest figures on the composition of the 2010 electorate suggest that, consistent with an earlier Gallup report, those voting in this year’s congressional elections across the country will be similar in gender, age, and education to 2006 voters. At the same time, they will be substantially more Republican in their party orientation, and more conservative than has been the case in the past several midterms.
The current and historical likely voter data reviewed here assume an approximately 40% turnout rate among national adults for each election, close to the typical turnout rate recorded in recent midterm years. (Gallup has also calculated the 2010 congressional vote using an assumption of higher turnout.)
Specifically, 55% of likely voters in Gallup’s Oct. 14-24, 2010, polling are Republicans and independents who lean Republican. This is higher than the Republican showing in the past four midterm elections, although not too dissimilar to the 51% found in 2002. The corollary of this is that the 40% of likely voters now identifying as Democratic is the lowest such percentage of the past several midterms.
Notably, this year’s high Republican representation among likely voters stems mainly from a substantial increase in Republican-leaning independents in the likely voter pool — now at 16% — reflecting the broader shift toward the Republican Party among independents evident since 2009.
With respect to political ideology, the 48% of likely voters now describing their political views as conservative is slightly greater than the 42% to 45% seen in each of the prior three midterms. However, the percentage of likely voters identifying as liberal has also generally increased over this period. Both changes are consistent with broader patterns Gallup has identified in the past year.
Meanwhile, the Hope And Change coalition, the mindless robots who pulled the lever for Barack Obama based on nothing but words and fake Greek columns, is–surprise!–falling apart:
Critical parts of the coalition that delivered President Obama to the White House in 2008 and gave Democrats control of Congress in 2006 are switching their allegiance to the Republicans in the final phase of the midterm Congressional elections, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
Republicans have wiped out the advantage held by Democrats in recent election cycles among women, Roman Catholics, less affluent Americans and independents. All of those groups broke for Mr. Obama in 2008 and for Congressional Democrats when they grabbed both chambers from the Republicans four years ago, according to exit polls.
If women choose Republicans over Democrats in House races on Tuesday, it will be the first time they have done so since exit polls began tracking the breakdown in 1982.
The poll provides a pre-Election Day glimpse of a nation so politically disquieted and disappointed in its current trajectory that 57 percent of the registered voters surveyed said they were more willing to take a chance this year on a candidate with little previous political experience. More than a quarter of them said they were even willing to back a candidate who holds some views that “seem extreme.”
On the issue most driving the campaign, the economy, Republicans have erased the traditional advantage held by Democrats as the party seen as better able to create jobs; the parties are now even on that measure. By a wide margin, Republicans continue to be seen as the party better able to reduce the federal budget deficit.
Talk about a new era in American politics. President Obama and his partners on the fringe of the Democratic party have taken their party majorities and flushed them down the toilet of partisan, left-wing utopian fantasies, in a space of less than two years.
What these polls suggest is that the American people were sold a bill of goods with empty Democrat promises of bigger and better government, of expanding the power of the government for the greater good. They’re now seeing the disastrous fruit of those promises and are acting accordingly.
DSCC buying ad time in Alaska
The Senate race in Alaska is turning out to be a major clusterfark for the GOP:
In a last-ditch effort to aid their Senate nominee Scott McAdams, Democrats purchased airtime Friday in Alaska.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee purchased $165,000 worth of ads that will start airing this weekend, according to Andrew MacLeod, the general sales manager at Anchorage television station KTUU.
The DSCC’s eleventh-hour independent expenditure suggests the committee believes McAdams has a chance to defeat Republican Joe Miller and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who is running a write-in campaign to retain her seat. McAdams was widely viewed as a long-shot candidate when he filed to challenge Murkowski earlier this year, but the unique dynamics of what became a three-way race have given the Democrat an opening — although it’s unclear yet from recent polling how much of a shot McAdams truly has.
Two polls released this week show the initial front-runner in the general election, Miller, losing ground.
A month ago, I didn’t think anyone in the Republican party could possibly beat Mike Castle as wanker of the year. Lisa Murkowski has done that, and then some.
UPDATE. And just to prove my point even further, Dan Riehl has this bit of Murkowski insanity.
GOP registration soaring in New Jersey
Stories like this are great news for Republicans 48 hours before the election. Not only are Republicans here in New Jersey more energized to vote, but we’re building a nice grassroots organization:
The GOP has added 18,241 voters to the rolls since the June primary, a 1.7 percent increase, according to figures at the state Division of Elections. The number of Democratic voters has increased by 3,199.
The Democrats still hold a 3-to-2 margin over the Republicans. There are 1.7 million registered Democratic voters, compared with 1.1 million Republicans.
But the state’s 2.4 million unaffiliated voters still dwarf both major parties and usually prove to be the deciding factor in any major election.
Brigid Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair State University, said the GOP statewide and nationwide has the upper hand in an enthusiasm gap between the two major parties.
“Republicans are much more excited about their chances,” Harrison said. “They have the momentum their volunteers are organized and energized.”
Harrison said that Republicans learned much from Gov. Chris Christie’s successful get-out-the-vote effort from last year’s gubernatorial election. Then, the Republicans used social networking efforts on the Internet and used volunteers in suburban neighborhoods to boost totals in GOP strongholds such as Monmouth and Ocean counties.
“Part of this (voter) surge is due to the fact that there is a much more sophisticated Republican organization on the ground in this state,” Harrison said.
These developments should be huge for Anna Little in the 6th congressional district and Jon Runyan in the 3rd:
[Joseph Marbach, provost at LaSalle University] said one indicator of the how things have changed is the relatively close race between Republican challenger Anna Little and Democratic U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. Pallone is well financed and has been a congressman for more than 20 years, while Little served less than two years as a county freeholder and is now Highlands mayor.
Pallone is up by 7 points, the latest polls show. “Little (winning) would be a real upset, and it already is with it as close as it is,” Marbach said.
Another indicator of the Republican surge is in New Jersey’s 3rd District, where U.S. Rep. John Adler is running neck-and-neck with Republican challenger Jon Runyon, the former Philadelphia Eagles lineman, Marbach said.
Donate your time, money and/or energy to help put Anna Little and Jon Runyan over the top in their districts. There’s still some time.
KY-Sen: Paul headed for comfortable win
PPP is out with their last poll for Kentucky:
Rand Paul has expanded his lead in the Kentucky Senate race even further over the last week and is headed for a blowout win. His margin over Jack Conway is 55-40.
Kentucky is obviously a conservative state. Conway’s ability to win was always going to depend on getting a lot of folks who supported John McCain in 2008 to vote Democratic for the Senate this time around. The most amazing finding on this final poll is that Rand Paul is actually picking up more Obama voters (15%) than Conway is McCain voters (9%). That’s the formula for a landslide.
It doesn’t hurt to have an opponent run tasteless and desperation-tainted ads, either.
Dems use anonymous “front” groups too
But we already knew that didn’t we?
While President Obama and other Democrats have excoriated Republican “front groups” for using secret money to pay for attack ads, the party’s political committees have begun doing something similar: collecting cash from outside nonprofit groups that don’t disclose their contributors and using the money to pay for negative campaign commercials, campaign records show.
One group, Patriot Majority PAC — a Democratic political committee that has run a hard-hitting $1.7 million attack ad campaign against Sharron Angle, the Republican candidate for Harry Reid’s Senate seat in Nevada — has gotten one of its largest donations, $250,000, from a liberal nonprofit that doesn’t release the names of any of its contributors, the records show.
Another newly formed political committee, America’s Families First Action Fund, which is running negative commercials against Republicans in House races across the country, recently got $1 million from a closely related nonprofit affiliate, the records show. Both organizations were set up over the summer by Democratic strategists, who emphasized in a memo to donors that contributions to the nonprofit could be kept anonymous.
Another left-wing, echo-chamber talking point. Down in flames.
World Series, Game 4
Saw this as it happened live.
Jim Hoft at GWP has video of Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush throw out the first pitch:
People genuinely love these men. What a great moment.
Gallup: Yeah, that GOP tsunami is right on schedule
Their last generic ballot poll is full of win, and history:
The results are from Gallup’s Oct. 28-31 survey of 1,539 likely voters. It finds 52% to 55% of likely voters preferring the Republican candidate and 40% to 42% for the Democratic candidate on the national generic ballot — depending on turnout assumptions. Gallup’s analysis of several indicators of voter turnout from the weekend poll suggests turnout will be slightly higher than in recent years, at 45%. This would give the Republicans a 55% to 40% lead on the generic ballot, with 5% undecided.
…[T]his year’s 15-point gap in favor of the Republican candidates among likely voters is unprecedented in Gallup polling and could result in the largest Republican margin in House voting in several generations. This means that seat projections have moved into uncharted territory, in which past relationships between the national two-party vote and the number of seats won may not be maintained.
It looks like we’re definitely not in Kansas anymore.
Evan Bayh
David Weigel is no fan of the soon-to-be former Senator from Indiana, who’s been making the rounds of the cable talk shows, opining on tomorrow’s midterm elections:
If you’re a Democrat, watching Bayh predict that his party will only lose seven seats is remote-control-through-the-screen stuff — Bayh quit his job with $13 million in the bank and polls showing him with a very good chance of holding his seat. It’s now one of the three to five seats seen as certain to go Republican.
But if you’re a Republican, surely you find Bayh’s circus act tiring, too. This is a guy who voted with his party on every significant vote of the Obama presidency thus far — Supreme Court judges, health care reform, stimulus package, all of it that actually got through the Senate. And yet whenever he gets a microphone, he whines that Obama made too many moves to the left and ignored the center. All by himself, Evan? We’re lucky this guy didn’t find his calling as a guidance counselor.
[...]
Nothing should give Obama supporters as much doubt in their man’s political acumen than the fact that this quivering mound of generic brand jell-o was on the shortlist for the vice presidency.
I have to agree with most of Weigel’s post.
But still, as Democratic party big shots assess the damage from tomorrow’s election, I’m sure there will be a sizable push to moderate. And there really isn’t a more clear example of moderation than Evan Bayh. And if the polls showing that Democrats favor a primary challenge to President Obama, are even somewhat accurate, you can be sure Mr. Bayh will be paying attention.
Election Day Eve Music Post
Listen to Count Five:
Election Post
Needless to say, last night was a big win for Republicans and specifically, for conservative grassroots activism. As of midnight, the GOP picked up a minimum of 63 House seats–anything over 39 would have been considered a huge victory, and there are still some races left to be called.
Despite all the hand-wringing over the Senate, picking up 6 seats was nothing to sneeze at, and as I’m writing this, the seats in Colorado, Alaska and Washington, are still not decided. I say this only because of the mind-boggling ineptitude of John Cornyn and the NRSC throughout the campaign.
I’m looking forward to seeing all the new conservative Senators in the GOP caucus–especially Marco Rubio and Kelly Ayotte. These two are special because they showed that conservatives can win as long as we have strong candidates, in spite of party issues. Ayotte won her primary a few months back, and the New Hampshire GOP rallied behind her, and she brought a decisive victory. In Rubio’s case, the guy was 30 points down in the polls, when the geniuses at the NRSC tapped Charlie Crist for the spot, resulting in an embarrassing turn of events for the Obama-hugging Crist.
Take all of this, plus the huge gains that Republicans made in state governments and you have, well…a tsunami.
Here in New Jersey, Jon Runyan won decisively in the 3rd CD, while Scott Sipprelle and Anna Little came up short. Kudos to all three for running good campaigns and especially to Anna Little in the 6th CD. She missed the mark by about 11 points, which is honestly not so good in a Republican wave year, but it’s better than anyone has been able to get to Frank Pallone in forever. More importantly, the Little campaign was a true grassroots campaign and it’s a solid foundation for us to build on here in New Jersey.
Similar campaigns throughout the country should take note of what happened here in the 6th, as electoral change doesn’t just happen overnight and from the top. It’s a bottom-up operation that takes a while to cultivate. We’re headed in the right direction in that aspect.
Some other election night thougths:
- Despite my initial misgivings, Michelle Bachmann can have her Tea Party caucus now. And speaking of Michelle Bachmann, a tip of the hat to her for pushing back against the insane clown posse that is MSNBC:
- Obviously I was wrong in my assessment of Dan Benishek in Michigan’s 1st congressional district. Picking up spineless Bart Stupak’s old seat after he caved in voting for Obamacare, this win was one of many sweet ones last night.
- MSNBC’s election night “panel” of idiocy, ignorance and immaturity made CNN’s coverage appear watchable by comparison.
- The US Congress is a better place now that there is a former Representative Alan Grayson. Later, jerk.
- Congratulations to Speaker-elect, John Boehner.
To wrap it all up, I like this excerpt from Mike Allen yesterday morning. It was aimed at the candidates, but I think it sums it up for everyone else as well:
Soak it in – people will write books about this day. Enjoy the ride – the bonds from this campaign will last your life. Give someone grace, a break, karma – we all need it sooner or later, usually sooner. Thank you for putting up with the press, and congratulations on your hard work and dedication to something larger than yourself.
Congratulations to all the conservative Republicans out there in the new House majority.
Now get to work…
New Jersey has true leadership
Governor Christie has announced that 1,200 public jobs will be trimmed from the state payroll before the end of the year.
More importantly, the Christie administration is making the case for businesses and private sector growth in the state, something that has been trailing off over the last decade or so:
Christie cited a new report out by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, which predicted New Jersey’s economy will grow by more than 4 percent in the next six months, a projection based on increased building permits and a drop in new unemployment claims.
Christie said reduced government expenses have prompted businesses to begin thinking about expanding again in New Jersey, and that will grow the state’s economy.
The governor also noted that many municipalities are struggling to put together budgets for the next year, and he said reducing public employee costs were a key to controlling property taxes and helping the private sector.
Restraining the cost of salaries, restraining the cost of benefits, is one way of doing that; layoffs are another way,” Christie said. “Government is too big in New Jersey. You’ve seen that in the time we’ve been in office, a 4.6 percent reduction in government jobs, and there may have to be more.”
Part of the reason that liberals and Democrats across the country loathe Governor Christie is because he’s not waiting around, genuflecting before President Obama, begging the Federal government for some lame stimulus package. He’s being proactive about the problems that are facing us here in New Jersey, and makes no apologies for that.
Suffice it to say that the actions he’s taking would never have happened under the Corzine regime.
Nice try Blue Dogs, but the Democrat party is the party of lunatics
The mainstream media will focus on whatever problems the Republican party is having post-election, but the real fireworks are in the Democrats’ camp:
An elder statesman of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition is calling on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to step down from party leadership after a historic election in which she presided over the loss of 60 seats and control of the House.
Utah Rep. Jim Matheson, a co-chairman of the Blue Dogs, told POLITICO on Thursday that Pelosi should not be a candidate for minority leader —a sign that other Blue Dogs are ready to pounce if Pelosi doesn’t voluntarily cede her power.
“No,” Matheson said flatly when asked if Pelosi should seek the job. “We just got whupped.”
Matheson, one of a handful of Democrats who still represent districts that backed Republican Sen. John McCain in the 2008 presidential election, said he does not have a favorite candidate in mind to support for minority leader. But he contends that Pelosi is no longer in position to lead the party.
“I’m just suggesting that when you have the largest turnover since 1948, then it’s time to shake things up,” said Matheson, who watched as more than half of the Blue Dog districts flipped into Republican hands on Tuesday night.
His comments come on the same day that fellow Blue Dog leader Heath Shuler of North Carolina told CQ-Roll Call that he would run against Pelosi if she runs for minority leader — echoing an earlier suggestion that he would have challenged her for speaker had Democrats held the House.
Shuler told the paper that he didn’t think she would run for the job of leader.
What Congressmen Matheson and Shuler are failing to realize is that there is no room for moderates in the modern Democrat party. The party is now in the vise grip of the lunatic fringe–the Pelosis, the Clyburns, the Waters’, the Grijalvas, etc., and it’s going to take a lot more than tough words for that to change. In fact, the damage that the Left has done to the party will take years to reverse. Blue Dogs don’t have the spine to do anything about that.
Pass the popcorn.
Big banks testing out iPhone to replace Blackberries
The amazing thing about this is that companies like Bank of America and Citigroup have actually taken this long to just think about switching to the iPhone.
NJ Tea Party gearing up for state races
This is good to see on a beautiful, post-election day Saturday here in New Jersey:
Avowed Tea Party conservatives from Central Jersey gathered two days after Tuesday’s midterm elections to exchange views and look ahead to next year’s election, when all members of the state Legislature will face the voters.
“State elections, the Assembly and state senators,” said Tea Party activist Peter Carroll when asked where the group would likely direct its energy.
Carroll and a dozen others met Thursday night in the Peter Pank Diner on Route 9, where they analyzed the ways they believe they affected Tuesday’s local voting. They also heard from a representative of the group FairTax.org.
[...]
During the meeting at the diner Thursday, John Day of Piscataway said he does not believe the movement will become a political party. “I don’t see it as a party,” said the marketing executive who said he is particularly bothered by government debt.
“You have as much responsibility for your governance as you do for your daily obligations – working or raising a family…Debt equals slavery. Your political freedom is dependent on your economic freedom,” he said.
Retired sales executive Bob Letu of Monroe said, “The country is going in the wrong direction and it has to change.”
“We have a trend in this country of rewarding people for doing less and punishing people who produce…We are giving people more and more reasons not to get up in the morning and be productive. Government give-away programs are not going to solve the problem,” Letu added.
It’s great to see regular American citizens use their God-given right to speak up for conservative principles. That’s essentially what the Tea Party was all about.
New Jersey’s state legislature is up for reelection next year. With the grassroots foundation the Tea Party and conservatives have built here in central Jersey over the past year, plus the massive turnover in state legislatures all throughout the country this past Tuesday, the Republican party should be in good shape for 2011. That, and we should be bolstering the support for the 2012 general election and Governor Christie’s reelection in 2013.
More importantly, the buzz from Tuesday’s results should wear off fast. The holidays are coming and there is a natural propensity to kick back and relax. There’s nothing wrong with that. But I can’t overemphasize that the easiest part of these midterms was getting up and voting. A grassroots organization needs to be continually cultivated. The work should continue.
Breeders Cup party and autumn’s here
Today is the Breeders Cup race at Churchill Downs. The only reason I even acknowledge the race is because of a good friend of mine, who I’ll call Felix, celebrates his birthday each year by having a house party with his friends and family, on the day of the race. Felix is a big sports fan. He and I are disgruntled Mets fans–we typically spent the season bitching about the club’s misadventures from April through October each year, and we’ll go to a few games each season.
But he’s also big on the ponies. He’s the only person I know who collects bobble head dolls of jockeys.
His birthday is in November and it sometimes coincides with the day of the Breeders Cup, which is why he throws these parties. I’ve been going every November for the past several years and we’ve lucked out with the weather each time. They’re usually chilly days with no rain, just like today, and are spent outside in the yard, with a television set up near the patio.
Before the race, he’s usually running DVDs of The Honeymooners reruns (most of us are fans). There are plenty of drinks and food, and he’s usually got the grill going with hot dogs, burgers and chicken. The day usually ends up watching the race in a buzzed fog (I’m not a big drinker) and Felix arguing with his wife. Last year, in typical Ralph Kramden fashion, he drunkenly ordered everyone to leave. These are good times.
I guess this party is becoming an autumnal ritual of sorts–it’s an acknowledgement that Fall is here. It’s not as close to the end of summer, but not quite the Thanksgiving “season”, and all before the holiday rush. It’s good to savor these days. These are the good times.
Who’s out of touch with reality?
Hard core liberals are hell-bent on proving that the beating that Democrats took on Tuesday was not because they were too liberal, but rather, that they weren’t liberal enough.
People are suffering economically and Democrats have done little about that. Beyond that, they failed to inspire their own voters to go to the polls. Therefore, they lost. By basing their power in Congress on Blue Dog dependence — rather than advocating for the views of their own supporters and implementing those policies — they failed, and failed resoundingly.
Building their party around a large number of muddled, GOP-replicating corporatists not only creates a tepid and failed political image, but far worse, it prevents actual policies from being implemented that benefit large number of ordinary Americans. Democrats repeatedly refrained from advocating for such policies in deference to their Blue Dogs, failed to do much to alleviate the economic suffering of ordinary Americans, and thus got crushed.
[...]
The DCCC constantly works to prop up the most “centrist” or conservative candidates — i.e., corporatists — on the ground that it’s always better, more politically astute, to move to the Right. Even in the pro-Democratic wave years of 2006 and 2008, the Democratic Party blocked actual progressives and ensured that Blue Dogs were nominated, even though the anti-GOP sentiment was so strong that any Democrat, including progressives, could have won even in red districts (as Alan Grayson proved).
Seriously?
My guess is that this is the prevailing view by liberals–that the big-shots at the DSCC and the DCCC failed to promote real progressives (whatever that means) and therefore, liberal-leaning voters were forced to vote for these watered-down Democrats, and built majorities in 2006 and 2008 doing so.
This view is somewhat myopic. The fact of the matter is that there would have been no majorities if it wasn’t for the Blue Dogs. During the Bush years, voters in red districts took out their frustrations by voting Democrat. It really is that simple. Greenwald cites GOP corruption and the Iraq war as the reasons for the flight to Democrats, and these reasons are accurate, but they weren’t the only ones. Profligate spending by a GOP-led Congress turned off voters as well and dare I say it, was probably the biggest reason for their change of heart.
Do liberals like Greenwald really believe that voters are really so progressive-minded, yet would overwhelmingly throw out conservative Democrats in record numbers in favor of conservative Republicans on Tuesday night? After voting to pass legislation like healthcare reform and the financial regulation bill? Those progressive voters are certainly fickle–and dumb, if that were truly the case.
But if the left insist that they need to push for more liberal candidates, even in red districts, then by all means. Forge ahead.
Olbermann back on MSNBC tomorrow
This big ado about Keith Olbermann being suspended from and, now reinstated to, his show on MSNBC is something I generally consider a non-story. I mean, really…political donations to liberal politicians? Is anyone really surprised that Keith Olbermann is a political hack?
MSNBC made a big stink about it (Olbermann apparently broke some in-house rules about such donations) and now–not so much of a stink. I’m not a fan of Olbermann, but the geniuses at MSNBC look like real buffoons right about now.
Defeated Dems to Pelosi: No mas!
The Republican Tsunami smacked down Democrats at all levels of state government last Tuesday. But that’s not stopping Nancy Pelosi for making an arrogant move to make a go for majority leader of the now much-smaller Democratic caucus in the House.
This is such a bad idea for Dems that even the New York Times is trying to talk her back from the ledge.
Now, defeated House Democrats are begging Pelosi to put the insanity bitterness and partisanship aside, and step aside for the good of the party:
FOX has obtained a letter being penned by defeated House Democrats that implores House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to step aside.
The letter is now circulating Capitol Hill and has not yet been sent to the Speaker. FOX has obtained draft language of the letter.
In the draft of the letter, the members say that they were “victimized by a national wave of resentment toward Democrats, a wave that ensnared you along with us.”
The letter goes on to say “Madam Speaker, fairly or unfairly, Republicans made you the face of the resentment and disagreement in our races. While we commend your years of service to our party and your leadership through many tough times, we respectfully ask that you step aside as the top Democrat in the House.”
The letter says that the defeated members “fear that Republicans will further demonize you, and in so doing, they will scare potential candidates out. The prospect of having to run against their own party leadership, in addition to their Republican opponent is simply too daunting.”
The lawmakers also say that “one mark of a strong leader is the ability to discern when it is time to pass the baton” and calls this a “dark hour.”
The letter closes asking Pelosi to step aside.
Sounds like a beaten and demoralized political party who’ve had their spirits crushed, eh?
Hey, remember two years ago? When liberals and the media were proclaiming the end of the Republican party? How Democrats were on the verge of majorities to last for generations? Yeah. About that.
Pataki: Sure I’ll be a decisive leader as President. Maybe.
The problem with a midterm election victory for conservatism is that squishy moderates feel they’re part of the wave.
To wit, we have George Pataki dipping his toes into the water:
On ABC’s “Top Line” today, former Gov. George Pataki, R-N.Y., told us that – as Palin has said – he’ll run for president if he determines the other Republican candidates don’t offer the right kind of leadership going forward.
“When you look back at the past two years, it’s been very disappointing, not only — not just for Republicans, but for the American people,” Pataki told us. “And I think it shows the importance of experienced leadership — leaders who have shown the ability to govern and to move forward in a nonpartisan way, leaders who have been tested and shown their ability to get through those tests.”
“What I’m going to be looking at is, do we have the right people out there who have that experience, who have experienced leadership, who have been challenged and who can bring people together — not just Republicans and conservatives, but conservatives [and] Democrats. And make a decision on who else is out there, and whether or not they have those characteristics we need to be able to win this election and govern successfully.”
Pataki, like Palin, was a mayor before he was governor.
Running for president takes the right mixture of confidence, arrogance and principled leadership. That mix is what gets supporters energized and enthusiastic, and ideally, leads to success in our politics. By saying things like Meh, sure, I’ll run for president if nobody seriously steps up to the plate, really doesn’t inspire any of those things. That and Pataki running for the White House is doomed to failure.
And just for the record, this blase attitude is wrong for Sarah Palin as well.
Despite Fed pumping, economic outlook is anemic at best say experts
With the Obama administration’s attempts at fiscal policy on steroids failing miserably, the last tool at lawmakers disposal, to help boost the economy is monetary policy on steroids, or in Federal Reserve parlance: “Quantitative Easing, part II”.
That would mean another $600 billion in crisp, newly minted bills to purchase securities:
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. economy is expected to grow only modestly through next year, despite the Federal Reserve’s pledge to buy another $600 billion of government bonds and better signs in the job market, a Reuters poll showed.
U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) will grow at a 2.0 percent annualized rate in the current quarter, the same pace as the third quarter and unchanged from the consensus last month, according to the median forecast from almost 70 economists.
Growth is expected to accelerate to an annualized 2.2 percent in the first quarter of next year, and 2.5 percent in the second quarter of 2011, also unchanged from the last poll.
“We expect that the Fed’s new large-scale asset purchase program — dubbed QE2 — will likely boost growth only modestly, perhaps by 0.2 percent to 0.3 percent in 2011,” said Richard Berner, chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley.
Berner added that QE2 ought to help limit downside risks to both growth and inflation. The Fed said last week it could make further purchases beyond the middle of next year if it deems that necessary.
The first round of QE totaled about $1.7 trillion. Add in QE II, and we’re looking at over $2 trillion in newly printed greenbacks, in an economy whose GDP is approximately $14 trillion.
Think about that for a moment–the Federal Reserve has created about 16% of the total US GDP’s worth in new currency, right out of thin air. I’m certainly no expert in monetary policy, but that gives me an uneasy feeling. In fact, that should scare the bejesus out of us all.
UPDATE. What happens when the Federal Reserve shifts the printing press into overdrive? You get too many a lot of greenbacks floating around the world, and when that happens, the value of the dollar heads south. And when that happens, you get a boom in gold. (It’s almost as if the Feds are purposely trying to destroy our currency. That, or they have no clue what they’re doing.) If anything, Glenn Beck is guilty of honesty in advertising.
UPDATE. Welcome The Other McCain readers…
Veteran’s Day
Thanks to all our veterans past and present, for their sacrifices.
Another year, another Beatles/iTunes rumor
Take it for what it’s worth, but the WSJ is reporting that Apple has struck a deal with EMI and the surviving Beatles to release their catalog on iTunes:
Apple Inc. is preparing to announce that its iTunes Store will soon start carrying music by the Beatles, according to people familiar with the situation, a move that would fill in a glaring gap in the collection of the world’s largest music retailer.
The deal resulted from talks that were taking place as recently as last week among executives of Apple, representatives of the Beatles and their record label, EMI Group Ltd,, according to these people. These people cautioned that Apple could change plans at the last minute.
Spokesmen for Apple, EMI and Paul McCartney declined to comment.
Apple on Monday posted a notice on the home page of its iTunes Store that it would make “an exciting announcement” Tuesday morning.
First off, I’m a Beatles fan but I’m no sycophant. The first thing I did when I got my iPod was download my entire Beatles catalog, and I’m sure most Beatles fans did the same. If the catalog was available at midnight tonight, I don’t think I’d be paying to download songs I already have, even if they were Beatles songs. Maybe I’d stare at the iTunes screen for a bit, but that’s about it. Bottom line is, anyone who really wants Beatles music on their iPod so badly, would have bought the CDs and ripped them. End of story.
On its website, Apple is saying that an announcement for something is coming tomorrow and that “Tomorrow is just another day. That you’ll never forget”. Here is a screenshot:
The tie in of course, is that McCartney released a tune called “Another Day” early in his solo career. But some people are reading way too much into that message, among other subliminal clues, although it would be cool if it came to fruition. As for me, nobody really knows what’s going down with Apple tomorrow. To wit, here is a Beatles tune that is a bit more relevant:
Just for the record, I would seriously consider a yellow Beatles iPod preloaded with the catalog.
The Beatles are now on iTunes
Longest imprisoned blogger is released from Egyptian prison
The man believed to have been imprisoned longer than anyone else in the world for the contents of a blog, Egyptian Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman, has been released after four years and 10 days of detention, his supporters have announced on their blog.
Suleiman, who blogged under the name Kareem Amer, was sentenced in 2006 to four years of jail for insulting religion and the leadership of Egypt on his blog. He was critical of, among other things, Egypt’s treatment of women and of its Coptic Christian minority. Supporters report that during those four years, Amer was tortured, beaten, attacked by other prisoners, disowned by his family and had his books, letters and personal effects taken away.
His case is of international interest not just because of his humanity, but because of the political conflict between authoritarian states and a new world of freely self-published bloggers who would challenge them with new Web technology.
Idiot Nation
The decline of the American Empire is right on schedule, and I for one am hopeful that our new Chinese overlords will have show some leniency:
Actor Kal Penn, who is best known for his role in the “Harold and Kumar” movies, has returned for a second round of work in the Obama administration.
Penn is returning to the Office of Public Engagement to work as an associate director, White House spokesman Shin Inouye said in a statement to ABC News. He will “be the point person for those in the Arts, Youth, and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities,” Inouye said.
The actor, who goes by his given name Kalpen Modi in Washington, has been in and out of the political world in the last few years.
After campaigning on behalf of then-candidate Barack Obama in the 2008 campaign cycle, Penn left the television show “House” in mid-2009 for a similar job in the Office of Public Engagement that began in July of that year.
Penn resigned that post on June 1, 2010, to fulfill his commitment to film the latest, Christmas-themed “Harold and Kumar” film installment, according to CNN. The movie is set for release during holiday season 2011.
Here’s the exit question: What’s more moronic? Kal Penn working in the Obama administration to begin with returning to the Obama administration, or that there is a third Harold and Kumar film?
Vikings may have carried a Native American to Europe
A study by Spanish and Icelandic researchers reveals an amazing finding:
The first Native American to arrive in Europe may have been a woman brought to Iceland by the Vikings more than 1,000 years ago, a study by Spanish and Icelandic researchers suggests.
The findings boost widely-accepted theories, based on Icelandic medieval texts and a reputed Viking settlement in Newfoundland in Canada, that the Vikings reached the American continent several centuries before Christopher Columbus traveled to the “New World.”
Spain’s CSIC scientific research institute said genetic analysis of around 80 people from a total of four families in Iceland showed they possess a type of DNA normally only found in Native Americans or East Asians.
“It was thought at first that (the DNA) came from recently established Asian families in Iceland,” CSIC researcher Carles Lalueza-Fox was quoted as saying in a statement by the institute. “But when family genealogy was studied, it was discovered that the four families were descended from ancestors who lived between 1710 and 1740 from the same region of southern Iceland.”
The lineage found, named C1e, is also mitochondrial, which means that the genes were introduced into Iceland by a woman.
“As the island was virtually isolated from the 10th century, the most likely hypothesis is that these genes corresponded to an Amerindian woman who was brought from America by the Vikings around the year 1000,” said Lalueza-Fox
Blogger’s block
There’s nothing worse than a blogger forcing a post, which is why this blog has been a bit silent over the past few days. There’s a lot going on, but nothing is getting me going in terms of blogging.
But I have this clip of Frank Zappa on the Monkees:
Zappa ripping into the synthetic Monkees phenomenon of 1966-1967 always cracks me up.
Thanks, but no thanks Mr. Buffett
The Sage of Omaha thinks he should be paying more in taxes:
Billionaire Warren Buffett said that rich people should pay more in taxes and that Bush-era tax cuts for top earners should be allowed to expire at the end of December.
“If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further,” Buffett said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week With Christiane Amanpour” that is scheduled to air on Nov. 28. “But I think that people at the high end — people like myself — should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we’ve ever had it.”
Let’s bear in mind that Mr. Buffett is one of the wealthiest people in the world. So much so that he is privy to the sort of preferential business transactions that only those in the upper stratosphere of wealth can enjoy. Let us also not forget that he is a big supporter of President Obama, and was on his short list for Treasury Secretary early in the transition.
That being said, these kinds of statements by the richest of the rich, are so disingenuous, they border on insulting. Buffett can say these things, because he and everyone else knows it will never happen. People like Buffett are relatively immune from the ruinous nature of our tax codes, especially in the age of Obama.
If Buffett was really serious about what he’s saying, then I’d expect to see news that he has voluntarily mailed in a check for several hundreds of millions of dollars, payable to the US Treasury. Until then, thanks for the advice Warren, but no thanks.
UPDATE. What Fausta says.
Is the legend of Brett Favre officially dead?
The legend of Favre is dead, and Aaron Rodgers killed it.
Aaron Rodgers and the Pack dismantled the Vikings today, with a robust 4 TDs and 301 yards. It was the Packers’ fourth straight victory, and swept the season series with the Vikings. More importantly, it should put an effective end to the whiny soap opera that is the Brett Favre story.
As a Packers fan, it’s tough to watch. But seriously, the guy should have hung up the cleats back in 2008, because since then, he’s embarrassed himself and his legend.
Happy Thanksgiving
Everyone has some sort of tradition for the Thanksgiving Day holiday. My personal tradition involves watching March of the Wooden Soldiers starring Laurel and Hardy on WPIX (Channel 11 here in Jersey) first thing in the morning. The film has been on at the same time on Thanksgiving morning, and on the same channel as long as I can remember. Here is the original trailer:
After the movie’s over, my fiance and I start cooking for family who will be over around three, but I’ll try to get in as much football as possible. Clearly, it doesn’t take much for me to be content.
Someone once told me that Thanksgiving is the most stressful holiday of the year, and I have to say that probably the best Thanksgiving I ever had was about four years ago, when I blew off every family invitation, and spent the day alone, giving thanks on my own. But then again, I’m a hopeless misanthrope, and this is probably not for everyone.
The Wall Street Journal runs a great editorial called “The Desolate Wilderness” which is very well worth a read, and puts things in perspective, as we complain about important things like our iPhones not operating fast enough, that there’s too much food around the holidays, or that our favorite football team never plays on Thanksgiving.
Priorities, people.
UPDATE. Doug Ross has plenty to be thankful for, as do we all, and Stacy McCain has a nice family story for the holiday season.
UK death watch continues
Yeah, things are looking real great on the other side of the pond:
A teenager has been arrested on suspicion of inciting religious hatred after allegedly burning an English language version of the Koran.
The 15-year-old, who lives in the West Midlands, allegedly posted the video, filmed two weeks ago on her school premises, on Facebook.
The video was reported to the school and subsequently removed, police said.
A 14-year-old boy was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of making threats. Both have been released on police bail.
It is thought the girl, who lives in the Sandwell Council area, was allegedly filmed setting the booklet alight while other pupils watched.
Two Facebook profiles have also been removed from the site, police added.
It is understood that the group who published that version of the Koran have since been to the school to talk to pupils.
Good lord. Anyone who’s been paying attention knows that England has been headed to the crapper for some time, with their subjugation to radical Islam. I just never realized it was this severe.
Tea Party keeps growing and growing
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the post-election reaction of the Tea Party here in New Jersey, and the importance of establishing a foothold in state and local races for 2011 and beyond.
Apparently, this is happening in other states as well:
With the November elections behind them, tea party activists are working to solidify their movement by pivoting quickly to state and local issues they think will allow them to show that theirs was not a one-time uprising tied to this year’s congressional contest.
A major focus will be Virginia – one of only four states to hold elections next November. They are also launching a political action committee to recruit, train and fund candidates, and help them drive a legislative agenda during January’s General Assembly session.
The groups see the state’s legislative contests as an opportunity to build a network of officials who someday can rise through the ranks and compete for statewide offices.
[...]
The new strategy represents something of a course correction for a movement that this year often promoted political newcomers.
FreedomWorks, a national tea party group led by former House majority leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.), and other national and local groups are working to ferment and expand their organizations in battleground states including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Florida.
For the national groups, assisting activists with local elections helps sustain grass-roots enthusiasm with an eye toward the next round of congressional elections – and the presidential contest – in 2012.
And for the activists, local and state elections are opportunities to nurture candidates who share their political beliefs and to win offices the activists say hold the most influence over people’s lives. After all, they say, their movement is built on the premise that power should be concentrated locally instead of in Washington.
“The tea parties are growing momentum every day,” said Fran Telarico, a tea party organizer near Fort Collins, Colo., who is helping build a communications network among other local groups in Colorado to look ahead to 2012 as well as local races. “There are more people joining tea parties now than ever.”
As I alluded to in my earlier post, complacency is easy and contagious. It’s good to see the momentum and determination stay alive all throughout the country.
“I want[ed] whoever to leave dead or injured”
The FBI thwarted an attempted terrorist bombing in Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square before the city’s annual tree-lighting Friday night, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon.
A Corvallis man, thinking he was going to ignite a bomb, drove a van to the corner of the square at Southwest Yamhill Street and Sixth Avenue and attempted to detonate it.
However, the supposed explosive was a dummy that FBI operatives supplied to him, according to an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint signed Friday night by U.S. Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta.
Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, a Somali-born U.S. citizen, was arrested at 5:42 p.m., 18 minutes before the tree lighting was to occur, on an accusation of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. The felony charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The arrest was the culmination of a long-term undercover operation, during which Mohamud had been monitored for months as his alleged bomb plot developed.
More Islamofascist tolerance:
The FBI operatives cautioned Mohamud several times about the seriousness of his plan, noting that there would be many people, including children, at the event, and that Mohamud could abandon his plans at any time with no shame.
“You know there’s going to be a lot of children there?” an FBI operative asked Mohamud. “You know there are gonna be a lot of children there?”
Mohamud allegedly responded he was looking for a “huge mass that will … be attacked in their own element with their families celebrating the holidays.”
Mohamud dismissed concerns about law enforcement, explaining that, ” … It’s in Oregon; and Oregon, like, you know, nobody ever thinks about,” according to the affidavit.
“The threat was very real,” said Oregon’s FBI Special Agent in Charge Arthur Balizan. “Our investigation shows that Mohamud was absolutely committed to carrying out an attack on a very grand scale. At the same time, I want to reassure the people of this community that, every turn, we denied him the ability to actually carry out the attack.”
But, hey, we’re not at war with this vermin right?
Religion of peace strikes again
A tragedy is unfolding again in Iraq, and this time it’s the genocide of Iraqi Christians:
Fresh death threats against Christians residing in Iraq are terrorising families and inciting them to flee, according to reports from ‘al-Hayat’ newspaper, which cites interviews from Iraqi security officials.
Seven hand written messages for which Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility were found in various locations throughout the city, Abdullah al-Nawafili, a Christian community leader in the Iraqi capitol, Baghdad confirmed.
“Threats of these types have been coming in over the past few days that push us to leave the country,” he said.
The messages were delivered to the Camp Sara neighbourhoods of Baghdad which is home to a predominantly Christian population as well as the districts al-Amin and Baghdad al-Jadid and were written on white paper resembling doctors prescription pads. “Leave Iraq immediately or you will be killed by us,” the notes read.
The response from the United States? Near silence, and this only perpetuates the tragedy:
[...] without enormous pressure from his backers in the U.S., [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki] has little incentive to turn his attention to this problem. And yet the U.S. and the international community thus far have barely managed to muster the most muted response to anti-Christian violence in Iraq.
[...]
What is needed is a firm condemnation by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reacting specifically to al Qaeda’s explicit plans to rid Iraq of its Christian communities and warning the Iraqi government that there will be dire consequences to its continuing inaction on this urgent matter.
[...]
This silence cannot stand. Americans of all faiths must band together and pressure the State Department to do something about the wanton murder of Iraqi Christians before it’s too late and there are no more Christians in Iraq to protect. What is happening in Iraq is genocide, plain and simple. It must be stopped now.
The Anchoress has done a great job bringing attention to this horrible turn of events, along with Frank Weathers, who offers some ways to help.
As Advent approaches for Catholics, its second-nature for us to involve ourselves with the traditions of the faith and go about our business. While we deal with the stresses of the season, and conveniently and vociferously complain (myself included), let’s not forget that there are those on the other side of the world, who are literally dying to practice the tenets of Christianity.
The Federal employee pay-freeze scam
There’s something really disingenuous–insulting even–to say that you’re going to freeze wages on Federal workers, in order to help cut the budget deficit. Hell, even the New York Times sees through the sham:
The pay freeze will save $2 billion in the current fiscal year that ends in September 2011, $28 billion over five years and more than $60 billion over 10 years, according to Jeffrey Zients, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget and the government’s chief performance officer. That represents just a tiny dent in a $1.3 trillion annual deficit but it offers a symbolic gesture toward public anger over unemployment, the anemic economic recovery and rising national debt.
In the same vein of aggressive cost-cutting, I propose the Federal government turn off all the lights at every government building when not in use, along with the draconian Sheryl Crow-method of cost-savings: how about using only one square of toilet paper when using the toilet? Surely these suggestions will put a dent into our massive budget deficit.
All joking aside, the reason why the President’s proposal is a bust is because, like all things Obama, it’s presented under the assumption that the majority of Americans are complete morons, because Federal workers’ salaries are at their highest levels ever:
At a time when workers’ pay and benefits have stagnated, federal employees’ average compensation has grown to more than double what private sector workers earn, a USA TODAY analysis finds.Federal workers have been awarded bigger average pay and benefit increases than private employees for nine years in a row. The compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade.Federal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private workers made $61,051 in total compensation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Indeed, Federal employment is a booming industry in the age of Obama:
The number of federal workers earning $150,000 or more a year has soared tenfold in the past five years and doubled since President Obama took office, a USA TODAY analysis finds.
[...]
Federal salaries have grown robustly in recent years, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Office of Personnel Management data. Key findings:
•Government-wide raises. Top-paid staff have increased in every department and agency. The Defense Department had nine civilians earning $170,000 or more in 2005, 214 when Obama took office and 994 in June.
•Long-time workers thrive. The biggest pay hikes have gone to employees who have been with the government for 15 to 24 years. Since 2005, average salaries for this group climbed 25% compared with a 9% inflation rate.
•Physicians rewarded. Medical doctors at veterans hospitals, prisons and elsewhere earn an average of $179,500, up from $111,000 in 2005.
Narrow the timeline from a decade to five years, and the growth is startling:
Obviously, freezing Federal wages at these levels does little to seriously reduce our budget deficit. In fact, one can reasonably assume that President Obama isn’t really serious about our fiscal problems at all. All this does is give the President the opportunity to throw the ball back in the Republicans’ court, something to the effect of: See what I proposed? If you guys have any better ideas, I’d like to see it.
This of course makes for good copy, and would have the national punditocracy tingly for POTUS again, and if there’s one thing Obama is good consistent at is giving the media a shiny new object to play with and salivate over. Which is, of course, all this proposed salary freeze is–nothing more than a distraction, so nobody should be taking it seriously.
(Hat tip: Zero Hedge)
Michael Jordan schools LeBron
Any opportunity to put LeBron James in his place is fine with me. This mash-up of two separate commercials–the latest Nike ad with LJ vs a Michael Jordan ad from the past–is priceless:
Hat Tip: Kottke
News from the front in the War on Christmas
Some people need to get a life are having a problem with this high school’s “winter tree”:
A Christmas tree in Ames High School’s cafeteria was taken down just two days after it was donated to the school for its winter dance. School officials say they removed the decoration after several phone calls stating it was “offensive.”
Ames school district officials call it a “winter tree,” but students say the tree was clearly a Christmas tree. Both described it as a pine tree decorated with cardinal and gold lights and ornaments.
Students say the tree went up on Monday, then suddenly taken down on Wednesday. All school officials would tell Channel 13 today was that they received several calls that the tree was “offensive.”
Officials declined our repeated requests for an on camera interview, but the district’s principal told The Tribune, “I didn’t want this to become a distraction that would take away from the precious time we have to educate students. We decided it would be best to take down the tree.”
“You can’t stop the world from celebrating. You shouldn’t be offended by the tree it was donated and we had to take it down. It was kind of heartbreaking. People liked tree in the lunch room,” says student Jay Hoskins.
I seriously don’t know whats more idiotic–that students are reduced to referring to a Christmas tree as a “winter tree”, or that someone was actually “offended” by any of this.
Mel Gibson’s “The Beaver”
Allahpundit calls this the bottom of the barrel (to be kind) for Mel Gibson. When I first heard that the plot of Mel Gibson’s new film after his recent, ahem, domestic problems, would involve him and a talking beaver hand puppet, I was very skeptical.
Here’s the trailer:
I’m still skeptical, but I must say I laughed watching this clip, and dare I say it, would actually consider seeing this film. Call me crazy.
John Lennon, RIP
One of the saddest things about Lennon’s murder is that despite the wealth and fame he found in his years with the Beatles, in 1980 he was only just beginning to find happiness in his life.
At the risk of sounding hokey, Lennon and the Beatles remain one of the few inspirations in my life, and I’ve been a fan for nearly thirty years. They inspired me to play, respect and enjoy music.
R.I.P.
The iPad is killing off the newspaper industry
Not a surprise, but still eye-opening:
[...] 84.4% of iPad owners primarily use their iPad to follow breaking news and current events. As a result, newspaper subscriptions, once the staple of the newspaper industry, are being cannibalized by the iPad. Slightly more than 30% of iPad owners do not subscribe to a newspaper, preferring to consume news on their tablet device. Of the 931 respondents that have a newspaper subscription and read an hour’s worth of news each day on their iPad, more than half (58.1%) intend to cancel their newspaper subscriptions within six months. A growing 10.7% have already canceled their subscription and have switched to iPad-only reading.
The corporate ladder vs entrepreneurship
An interesting piece in today’s New York Times on how recent college graduates are ditching the presumed, conforming career path of corporate America, and blazing their own trails.
…[Scott] Gerber started the Young Entrepreneur Council “to create a shift from a résumé-driven society to one where people create their own jobs,” he says. “The jobs are going to come from the entrepreneurial level.”
[...]
Council members assert that young people can start businesses even if they have little or no money or experience. But whether those start-ups last is another matter. Roughly half of all new businesses fail within the first five years, according to federal data. And the entrepreneurial life is notoriously filled with risks, stresses and sacrifices.
But then again, unemployment is 9.8 percent; Mr. Gerber’s in-box is flooded with e-mails from young people who have sent out hundreds of résumés for corporate jobs and come up empty. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, only 24.4 percent of 2010 graduates who applied for a job had one waiting for them after graduation (up from 19.7 percent in 2009). What do some people have to lose?
THE lesson may be that entrepreneurship can be a viable career path, not a renegade choice — especially since the promise of “Go to college, get good grades and then get a job,” isn’t working the way it once did. The new reality has forced a whole generation to redefine what a stable job is.
Moving away from a resume-driven society sounds great to me.
Christmas with Governor Christie
Governor Christie, with help from the Boston Pops, reads ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.
WP doesn’t allow embedding of this video format, so click-through the link and enjoy.
Senate Democrats to American taxpayers: “F— off. And then f— off some more.”
Senate Democrats have filed a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill that would fund the government through fiscal year 2011, according to Senate GOP sources.
The 1,924-page bill includes funding to implement the sweeping healthcare reform bill Congress passed earlier this year as well as additional funds for Internal Revenue Service agents, according to a senior GOP aide familiar with the legislation.The package drew a swift rebuke from Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee.
“The attempt by Democrat leadership to rush through a nearly 2,000-page spending bill in the final days of the lame-duck session ignores the clear will expressed by the voters this past election,” Thune said in a statement. “This bill is loaded up with pork projects and should not get a vote. Congress should listen to the American people and stop this reckless spending.”
Just a complete and utter disregard for the will of American voters taxpayers.
Oh, and did I mention they’re Democrats? By that I mean, there are Republicans in the mix too:
Despite strong opposition from Thune and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), several Senate Republicans are considering voting for the bill.
“That’s my intention,” said retiring Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) when asked if he would support the package.
Bennett said earmarks in the bill might give some of his GOP colleagues reason to hesitate but wouldn’t affect his vote.
“It will be tough for some, but not for me,” he said.GOP Sens. Kit Bond (Mo.), George Voinovich (Ohio) and Susan Collins (Maine) also told The Hill on Tuesday they would consider voting for the omnibus but want to review it before making a final decision.
Hey Senator Bennett, don’t let the cloakroom door kick you in the backside on the way out. Did I mention that these people are all a bunch of lying, sanctimonious douchebags?
Senator McConnell says he’s trying to stop this insanity:
“I think there are many Senate members who have provisions in it for their states who are also actively working to defeat it. This bill should not go forward,” he said. ”And regardless of whether members had some input in the bill much earlier in the year when the bills could have been moved to the floor bill by bill by bill, it is completely and totally inappropriate to wrap all of this up into a 2,000-page bill and try to pass it the week before Christmas.”
“It’s completely inappropriate. I’m vigorously in opposition to it. And most of the members of the [Appropriations] committee are as well,” McConnell added.
For some reason, Mitch McConnell vowing to stop the bill from coming to a vote doesn’t fill me with any sense of confidence whatsoever.
If you’re looking for reasons why the American people are sick of politicians and don’t particularly care about the political process in this country, this whole episode is a prime example of one.
Creating ringtones for your iPhone
Watch and learn:
This is by far the easiest way I’ve found to create a ringtone for the iPhone.
It’s Christmas
This was on the other night so I guess the holiday season can officially start:
As for me, I’m officially suffering from a case of the holiday blues.
Wikileaks cables confirm Michael Moore, darling of the progressive left, is a liar
Who would’ve thought that Michael Moore is a lying sack of…er, something?
Cuba banned Michael Moore‘s 2007 documentary, Sicko, because it painted such a “mythically” favourable picture of Cuba’s healthcare system that the authorities feared it could lead to a “popular backlash”, according to US diplomats in Havana.
The revelation, contained in a confidential US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks , is surprising, given that the film attempted to discredit the US healthcare system by highlighting what it claimed was the excellence of the Cuban system.
[...]
Castro’s government apparently went on to ban the film because, the leaked cable claims, it “knows the film is a myth and does not want to risk a popular backlash by showing to Cubans facilities that are clearly not available to the vast majority of them.”
Sicko investigated healthcare in the US by comparing the for-profit, non-universal US system with the non-profit universal health care systems of other countries, including Cuba, France and the UK.
[...]
The secret 2008 cable is based on reports from the USINT’s foreign service health practitioner (FSHP) of her conversations with local people, unauthorised visits to Cuban hospitals, and experience of helping USINT American and Cuban personnel access healthcare.
The cable describes a visit made by the FSHP to the Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital in October 2007. Built in 1982, the newly renovated hospital was used in Michael Moore’s film as evidence of the high-quality of healthcare available to all Cubans.
But according to the FSHP, the only way a Cuban can get access to the hospital is through a bribe or contacts inside the hospital administration. “Cubans are reportedly very resentful that the best hospital in Havana is ‘off-limits’ to them,” the memo reveals.
What’s not a surprise is that liberals still need to lie about the “benefits” of the left-wing utopian idealism that they try so hard to push on others.
[Hat Tip: Memeorandum]
Good riddance, Arlen
As he ends his political career, Senator Arlen Specter’s parting shot to the Republican party takes real cajones:
Mr. Specter, who lost his state’s Democratic primary after switching from the Republican side of the aisle in 2009, did not mince words as he assailed unnamed colleagues (read Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina) for violating Senate tradition and politically undermining members of their own party.
“Senators have gone into other states to campaign against incumbents of the other party,” Mr. Specter said. “Senators have even opposed their own party colleagues in primary challenges.
“That conduct was beyond contemplation in the Senate I joined 30 years ago,” said Mr. Specter in a speech that the onetime prosecutor billed not as a farewell, but as a closing argument. “Collegiality can obviously not be maintained when negotiating with someone simultaneously out to defeat you, especially within your own party.”
[...]
“The spectacular re-election of Senator Lisa Murkowski on a write-in vote in the Alaskan general election and the defeat of other Tea Party candidates in 2010 in general elections may show the way to counter right-wing extremists,” he said.
Shorter Arlen Specter: We had it so good for thirty years, with nobody paying any mind to what we did in the Senate, and just accepting everything we told them, the dumb rubes.
This kind of rhetoric gets me steamed, typical of the decrepit, old and bitter career politician that so infuriates most Americans when they look at Congress.
Here you have a man, who after spending decades as a Republican, refused to acknowledge the shifting political winds, and rather than fight for whatever he considered his principles, jumped ship and became a Democrat. The irony is that he failed to see the extremists on the left which have hijacked the Democratic party, where moderates are becoming extinct. But I’m sure Specter won’t be lamenting those extremists.
In the end, Specter only reinforced the image of himself that I always saw–a petty and bitter man.
Merry Christmas
Here’s hoping that most of you out there are not like me this Christmas Eve, and subjecting yourself to mandatory face-time with family members that will stress you out to no end.
But it’s important to find a moment of peace sometime this evening and reflect on the reason for the season, as it were.
I’m wishing everyone who would read this blog a Merry Christmas. Enjoy.
Packers’ playoff hopes
It’s looking extremely tight, but the Packers have destiny in their own hands. This is why I don’t take “expert” predictions in June/July for a four-month season that begins in September.
The game plan is simple for Green Bay for later today and next week–don’t lose.
Go Pack!
House Republicans to begin 112th Congress by reading the Constitution
“The goal, backers said, is to underscore the limited-government rules the Founders imposed on Congress – and to try to bring some of those principles back into everyday legislating.
“It stems from the debate that we’ve had for the last two years about things like the exercise of authority in a whole host of different areas by the EPA, we’ve had this debate in relation to the health care bill, the cap-and-trade legislation,” said Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte, Virginia Republican, who proposed the reading. “This Congress has been very aggressive in expanding the power of the federal government, and there’s been a big backlash to that.”
Setting aside time at the beginning of the congressional session for the reading is just one of the changes to House rules that Republicans say are designed to open up the legislative process. They say the new rules also will try to bring some restraints to lawmaking after decades in which both Republican and Democratic leaders whittled away opportunities for real legislative give-and-take.
The biggest changes would make it easier to cut spending and harder to create entitlement programs, while imposing restrictions that could keep leaders from jamming massive bills onto the House floor before lawmakers have had a chance to digest them.
This is all well and good, but reading the Constitution is one thing. Governing based on its principles is quite another.
Voters need to keep an eye on what our representatives do in Congress, as well as what they say. I’ve read that the Republican party is on probation in this Congress, and I agree with that.
The Tea Party is the proverbial tail trying to wag the Republican Party dog, not the other way around. And to paraphrase Bart Simpson, Washington D.C. is a hideous bitch goddess. Tea Partiers in Congress are only human after all (with the exception of Congressman-elect Allen West) , and are susceptible to its free-spending and corrupt ways. These things can happen in spite of the symbolism of reading the Constitution out loud.
That being said, I am as cynical as they come, and I would love to be proven wrong.
[Hat Tip: Hot Air Headlines]
UPDATE. When the House Republicans are done reading the Constitution, they may want to figure out how to fight and beat the Obama adminstration on political battles like this:
When a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning touched off a political storm over “death panels,” Democrats dropped it from legislation to overhaul the health care system. But the Obama administration will achieve the same goal by regulation, starting Jan. 1.
Under the new policy, outlined in a Medicare regulation, the government will pay doctors who advise patients on options for end-of-life care, which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment.
Congressional supporters of the new policy, though pleased, have kept quiet. They fear provoking another furor like the one in 2009 when Republicans seized on the idea of end-of-life counseling to argue that the Democrats’ bill would allow the government to cut off care for the critically ill.
The final version of the health care legislation, signed into law by President Obama in March, authorized Medicare coverage of yearly physical examinations, or wellness visits. The new rule says Medicare will cover “voluntary advance care planning,” to discuss end-of-life treatment, as part of the annual visit.
More to the point of my original post, does the new House majority have the backbone to go to the mattresses on these issues?
Ed Morrissey writes:
This is just the opening gambit of a strategy Obama will use throughout the coming year in order to achieve through regulation what a Democrat-run Congress could not deliver through legislation. The new Republican House will have to use its power of the purse to stop this autocratic imposition of regulation, and remain vigilant in doing so on all fronts. Let’s hope the GOP gets used to fighting this process over the next two years.
Yes, let’s hope.
Snow Day
Yesterday morning, I went to get the paper and did some grocery shopping for the impending snow storm. As I got back to my place around 11 am, the snow flurries began. It didn’t stop until sometime early this morning.
Here in Central Jersey, we got about 18 inches, so it came down about almost two inches an hour. I just got in from shoveling out my car, but it was almost useless as there is a biting wind and I’d say the temperature is not getting above 30 degrees, which really doesn’t help at all.
I have no problem with snow and cold weather, but this is ridiculous. Winter is not even a week old, and it’s already picking up where last winter left off. Somebody pissed off the snow gods royally.
So basically, I’ve been inside since Christmas night. It’s worth noting that the Green Bay Packers shellacked the New York Giants yesterday afternoon at Lambeau Field, or rather, the Giants beat themselves with six…SIX…turnovers. It’s not done yet for the Packers as they finish out the season at Lambeau in what is essentially a play-off game versus the Bears. And nobody can confuse the Giants defense with Julius Peppers and the Bears. The playoffs begin for the Pack this Sunday. I’m hopefully optimistic.
The housing double-dip is here
Housing prices take a tumble:
A new bout of declining home prices is threatening to hamper the U.S. recovery, just as consumers and the overall economy have been showing signs of healing.
[...]
Home prices across 20 major metropolitan areas fell 1.3% in October from September, the third straight month-over-month drop, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index released Tuesday. Many economists expect the declines to continue into at least next spring, erasing most of the gains made since prices bottomed out in early 2009.
The housing market, which appeared poised for a recovery earlier in the year, now could be heading for a second downward drift.
“This looks like a double-dip [in housing] is pretty much on the way, if not already here,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the Standard & Poor’s index committee. “Somebody who thought last year that it’s going to be straight up from here was wrong.”
[...]
Homes remain a key part of Americans’ wealth. Households held $6.4 trillion of home equity at the end of the third quarter, alongside $12.2 trillion in stocks and mutual-fund shares, according to Federal Reserve data.
Wasn’t the government supposed to put an artificial floor in the real estate market financed by taxpayer dollars implement benevolent government programs designed to reverse evil George Bush’s real estate recession? Isn’t that what we heard incessantly from the Obama Democrats in the early days of this administration?
Yeah, about that.
Indian, Chinese entrepreneurs eating our lunch
It’s not about whose education system is better, but basically who wants it more, “it” being the desire and capacity to spur innovations in technology which in turn help our economy:
India and China now graduate three to six times more engineers than does the United States. The quality of these engineers is, however, so poor that most are not fit to join the workforce; their system of rote learning handicaps those who do get jobs, so that it takes two to three years for them to achieve the same productivity as American graduates. As a result, significant proportions of China’s engineering graduates end up working on factory floors; Indian industry has to spend large sums of money on retraining its employees[...]
Despite this, India has built a $73 billion-per-year information technology service business and has been offering IT services of steadily increasing sophistication. Its engineering R&D industry is now a $10 billion business — a three-fold increase in four years. It develops sophisticated products for Western firms in the aerospace and automotive industries, and in telecommunications, semiconductors, consumer electronics, and medical devices. And most significantly, there are thousands of new startups that are building web technologies, clean-tech products like low-power lighting, and mobile applications.
China has built world-class universities and state-of-the-art research facilities. [...] The big change that has occurred in China, however, is the emergence of technology startups: thousands of them, just as in India.The first generations of Indian startups focused on selling IT services, and the Chinese developed copycat web technologies such as Baidu, China’s Google rival, and Sina, its Twitter clone. But they are going beyond that now. They are gaining the knowledge — and developing the confidence — to create innovative products, not only for domestic markets, but also for global ones.
This is not to say that entrepreneurship is dead in the United States, but rather falling behind economic powers like China and India, which is definitely not a good thing.
[Hat Tip: Techmeme]
Time for House Republicans to put up or shut up
With less than a week until Republicans take over the House, their mission couldn’t be any more clear:
With Republicans in control of the House and Democrats in charge of the Senate, not much is likely to get done on the congressional front. But over at the executive branch, the race is on to control whatever isn’t already federally nailed down.
Last year, congressional Democrats gave us Obamacare against our will.
Last week, the executive branch’s elves tacked on an end-of-life planning mandate. (But no death panels here, folks. Nothing to see. Healthy people to the right; elderly and infirm to the left. Move along.)
Also last week, the Federal Communications Commission made its second lunge for the Internet, promulgating a slew of rules it clearly has no authority to make.
The Republican response to each of those massive federal power grabs has been a united and resounding, “No.” That was the correct answer.
As this coming congressional session unfolds, they’re going to have to continue giving that answer, continue telling the people why and offer wiser alternatives. That’s especially true of the House, where the Republican proposals will actually see the light of day. The House must build a record of freedom-promoting alternatives to the incremental lockdown on the public that the Obama administration is doggedly pursuing.
That’s it in a nutshell. The campaign is over–no more ads, no more sound bites. Time to act accordingly. The 112th Congress is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the Republican party to redeem itself.
Illinois at the fiscal precipice
You can add the Land of Lincoln to the list of states that are in dire straits:
Illinois lawmakers will try this week to accomplish in a few days what they have been unable to do in the past two years — resolve the state’s worst financial crisis.
The legislative session that began today as the House convened will take aim at a budget deficit of at least $13 billion, including a backlog of more than $6 billion in unpaid bills and almost $4 billion in missed payments to underfunded state pensions.
The fiscal mess is largely of the lawmakers’ own making, and failure to address the shortages threatens public schools, local governments and other public services, said Dan Hynes, the state’s outgoing comptroller.
“We’ve reached a very critical and concerning point,” Hynes said in an interview in his Chicago office, with packing boxes stacked in the corner. “What’s missing right now is a general understanding by the public of where we are, of how bad it is, and what the fallout would be if we don’t deal with it properly.”
[...]
Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, California, said Illinois was one of the states whose debt he would avoid.
“Illinois is probably in the worst shape,” Gross said in a Dec. 28 interview on CNBC.
The widening gap between Illinois’s expenses and revenue drew criticism from Moody’s. The disparity underscored the state’s “chronic unwillingness to confront a long-term, structural budget deficit,” it said in a Dec. 29 study.
Here in New Jersey, Governor Christie has spent the better part of a year tackling our fiscal problems head on, and not by skirting around the edges of the problem, but engaging them head on. For that he has ticked off the right people drawn the ire of the national media, left-leaning bloggers and pundits, and quite frankly, people who don’t know any better.
He has directly and intentionally taken on the public-sector unions that at this point are nothing more than parasites on the financial well-being of our state. And even then, it might not be enough to turn us around from the mess that 12+ years of Democratic “fiscal” policy have left the Garden State.
Looks like Illinois needs their own Chris Christie. And from the looks of things, I won’t hold my breath.
112th Congress
First session, swearing-in and all the rest, taking place now. You can watch it live on C-SPAN here.
More leftist vitriol and anger
Today was a good day for the Republic. A grassroots revolt took place among the citizenry over the better part of the last two years. Conservatives mobilized, organized and made change happen. The changing of the guard as it were, from one political party to another, in a chamber of Congress. Peaceably, without a nasty coup, violence or bloodshed. Breathe that all in. For the most part, the system works.
But that doesn’t stop the bitter, partisan and very, very angry left. See, they don’t like what happened today. In their eyes, this wasn’t supposed to happen. But who to blame for Republicans taking a sizable majority in the House of Representatives?
Why it’s you, you f***ing rubes!
I am still in mourning for not only the results and losing my favorite girl, Pelosi, but i am ALSO in mourning for my realization of the sheer stupidity of all these American voters.
How ironic is it for the typical rust belt white blue collar worker to lose patience in mere months and then vote in someone who gets turned-on by wanting to ELIMINATE that same voters’ unemployment benefits?
Stupid macabre, masochistic, dumbfuck voters!!! And, ya know what? I say, let ‘em lose their benefits if they’re that stupid to NOT realize who is FOR them and who is AGAINST them. Serves them right. No sympathy anymore here!!! Cuz with it, went MY issues like gay rights cuz Boner won’t do shit for GLBTs.
That’s right. Don’t you idiots get it? See, four years of Democrat Party rule has brought us endless reams of ruinous economic policies, helped raise the unemployment rate to near 10%, and initiated the government takeover of healthcare. You morons don’t understand how great you have it, and don’t even have the decency to re-elect the same corruptocrats that brought us to this glorious liberal utopia called the United States, circa 2010. And who’s gonna look out for teh gheys? Priorities, you idiots!
This is a microcosm of how the Left sees the United States. The politics of adolescence. The politics of hate and anger, of bitterness and jealousy. The majority of Americans be damned.
NH Journal poll: Romney with a double digit lead in GOP field
New Hampshire Republicans love them some Mitt Romney:
Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney holds a commanding lead in New Hampshire in the early stages of the race for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination, according to a new survey commissioned by NH Journal and conducted by Magellan Strategies. The survey is the first statewide survey of Granite State Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in 2011.
Romney leads former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin by 23 points, with Romney earning 39% and Palin earning 16%. Mike Huckabee (10%), Newt Gingrich (8%), Texas Congressman Ron Paul (7%), former MN Gov. Tim Pawlenty (4%), Rick Santorum (3%) and MS Gov. Haley Barbour (1%) all trail significantly behind. Romney finished second to Sen. John McCain in the 2008 New Hampshire Republican Presidential primary.
[...]
In a memo released about the survey, Magellan pollster David Flaherty stated, “This survey is a very early measurement of the potential 2012 Republican Presidential primary field. Mitt Romney’s strength is not surprising considering his close second place finish to John McCain in 2008 and his regional advantage of being a former border state Governor.
It’s January 2011, and polling this far out is a bit of a stretch (just ask President Edwards). And as the pollster alludes to, this poll says more about Romney than it does Sarah Palin. But soon it will be less than a year until the primaries, and the clock really starts ticking.
That being said, it does show that Palin has a long, tough road ahead of her.
[Hat Tip: Hot Air]
Giuliani considering another run for President
The alternate title for this post is “Glutton for punishment attempts another flushing of donors’ contributions down the toilet.”
Sources close to former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani confirm to CBS News that the Republican is talking to his political advisers about mounting another presidential bid.
Giuliani, whose 2008 presidential campaign fell flat, has learned from his mistakes, a source says, and will retool his strategy, beginning with a strong start in the early primary state of New Hampshire.
The New York Post first reported on Giuliani’s moves Friday morning. According to the Post, Giuliani is optimistic about his chances, predicting a Republican primary populated with far-right candidates like Sarah Palin. That would allow him to stand out as a moderate candidate with strong national security credentials. The Post reports Giuliani will meet with voters in New Hampshire next month.
I’d like to know who these “political advisers” are and, if I ever run for President, immediately burn their business cards.
Seriously, is he really considering this? In the wake of an election that saw conservatives all over the country organize and assert themselves as the driving force in the party, one which propelled Republicans into majority status in the House, Giuliani really wants to paint himself as a moderate savior for the GOP? Really??
Wow.
[Hat Tip: Memeorandum]
Packers vs Eagles
There’s an amusing little football game going on today at 4:15 pm.
The game is in Philly, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem for the Pack. Since Christmas, the weather here in New Jersey (I’m only about a 40 minute drive from Philly) has been more Green Bay-like than anything, with about 40+ inches of snow, and temperatures averaging around 30 degrees during the day. That’s not too much higher than the 23 degrees Green Bay will be getting today. Let’s hope the Packers defense shows up for this playoff game, unlike last years embarrassing first half performance vs the Cardinals.
Let’s go Pack!
Also, Ravens at Kansas City at 1 pm.
Heed these words
Regarding the tragedy in Arizona over the weekend, I’ve sat back and read and watched as much as I could as everything unfolded. I wasn’t able to stomach the crap that I saw on my Twitter feed, the amateurish ignorance coming from the Left (and some from the Right) boggles the mind.
One thing’s for sure—Palin Derangement Syndrome is alive and well. You can feel the anger and maniacal hatred they have for her, with baseless allegations all over the place. You almost get the feeling that they love tragedies like this–it’s the only way they can justify their anger.
In all the chaos, here’s some words of advice from Stacy McCain:
…[I]t’s just politics, people!
No matter how intense the debate or how serious the issues, no one ought to fear for their safety merely because they become involved in the political process, either as an elected official or any other capacity.
Amen to that.
Poll: Political “rhetoric” had nothing to do with the Arizona shooting
Nearly 60% of the country agree that liberal bloggers, pundits and politicians live in a tightly sealed echo chamber:
Nearly six in 10 Americans say the country’s heated political rhetoric is not to blame for the Tucson shooting rampage that left six dead and critically wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, according to a CBS News poll.
In the wake of the shooting, much focus has been put on the harsh tone of politics in Washington and around the country, particularly after a contentious midterm election. Rhetoric and imagery from both Republicans and Democrats have included gun-related metaphors, but the majority of the country isn’t connecting the shooting to politics. [...]
Overall, 57 percent of respondents said the harsh political tone had nothing to do with the shooting, compared to 32 percent who felt it did.
It’s sad to see the gleeful way in which the left is trying to pin this on their political opponents. Pick your poison. Over the past few days, we’ve heard the blame lays at the feet of Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, talk radio, Rush Limbaugh, etc. The left is venomous and hateful, full of nothing but anger. And the reality is that there is no evidence to tie the Arizona killer to anybody on the right.
But that won’t stop the left and our complicit media from pushing the meme.
BREAKING: Senate making progress on meaningless gestures
This is an actual story at Politico. When the pundits scratch their heads as to why Congressional approval ratings are at all-time lows, its partially due to things like this:
Momentum is building to mix the traditionally partisan seating arrangements at the State of the Union later this month, even though there’s no clear plan for how to actually make that happen.
Several Senate Republicans have signed on to the effort, along with a few key House leaders, who have endorsed Democratic Sen. Mark Udall’s proposal to head across the aisle – literally – and sit with members of the opposite party during the annual address on Jan. 25.
All told, more than two dozen members of Congress have publicly endorsed the idea.
Congressional seating is open at the State of the Union on a first-come basis, so anyone can sit anywhere — outside of the first few rows reserved for cabinet officials, Supreme Court justices and certain congressional leaders.
The real test will come the evening of the address, when members will choose to sit with their parties or mix it up. But at least on paper, Udall’s request for a “symbolic gesture of unity” is gaining support.
Unemployment is over 9%. Economic growth is anemic, and the housing market is in a double-dip. But Americans should be comforted in the fact that our elected overlords are making progress on Congressional comity and seating arrangements all in the name of bogus “unity”.
Speaking for me as well
A single post by Don Surber encapsulates what I’ve been feeling about the Left’s reaction to the Tuscon massacre:
Last week, the left quickly blamed the right for the national tragedy of a shooting spree by a madman who never watched Fox News, never listened to Rush Limbaugh and likely did not know who Sarah Palin is.
Fortunately, the American public rejected out of hand that idiotic notion that the right was responsible.
Rather than apologize, the left wants to change the tone of the political debate.
The left suddenly wants civil discourse.
Bite me.
The left wants to play games of semantics.
Bite me.
The left wants us to be civil — after being so uncivil for a decade.
Bite me.
Be sure to read the entire post.
[Hat Tip: Memeorandum]
Ryan Grant talking smack?
Ryan Grant hasn’t played since suffering a season-ending ankle injury in Week 1, but the Packers running back still could end up having an impact on Sunday’s NFC title-game showdown against the Bears.
As if being three-point underdogs (despite being the higher seed and playing on their home field) isn’t enough to feed the Bears’ eternal appetite for motivation through disrespect, they can use this Twitter post from Grant, sent Saturday night after Green Bay’s blowout win in Atlanta:
“1st n last tweet .Pack Fans might want 2 start booking flights 4 feb. Not looking ahead but u c we just have better players than other teams.”
That’s right, as if the Bears need more motivation. They’re 3 point underdogs on their home field to their most hated rival. Now they have to deal with Ryan Grant, who hasn’t played since September, making asinine comments.
Not for nothing, but seriously Grant, shut the hell up.
ND-Sen: Kent Conrad not seeking reelection (UPDATE)
It’s been about a year and two weeks since Byron Dorgan called it quits in North Dakota. Today, the now-senior Senator Conrad does the same:
North Dakota Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad announced today that he will not seek reelection, creating a potentially prime pickup opportunity for Republicans in a GOP-leaning state.
“After months of consideration, I have decided not to seek reelection in 2012,” Conrad said in a letter to constituents. “There are serious challenges facing our state and nation, like a $14 trillion debt and America’s dependence on foreign oil. It is more important I spend my time and energy trying to solve these problems than to be distracted by a campaign for reelection.”
[Hat Tip: Memeorandum]
UPDATE. Lieberman’s out too.
Be wary of politicians bearing committees
So Europe sets up an oversight committee called the ESRB to make recommendations and assess the financial markets in order to prevent the next financial crisis. What a brilliant idea! It’s a shame nobody ever came up with that idea before.
Too bad though, as the ESRB, like most bureaucratic self-congratulating committees will probably do nothing to stop whatever it is it was created to prevent.
The European Systemic Risk Board, which aims to identify and warn of brewing risks in the financial system, may fail to prevent future imbalances as it doesn’t have any legal power to enforce action, according to economists at ING Group,Barclays Capital and ABN Amro. [...]
“The problem is that these bodies are set up to solve yesterday’s problems,” said Peter Hahn, a former Citigroup Inc. banker who lectures on finance at Cass Business School in London. “They can never do more than flagging any issues,” and whether they can stop a crisis “is questionable.”
The European Union is trying to avoid a repeat of the financial crisis that followed the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and resulted in European governments setting aside more than $5 trillion to support banks. Part of a wider regulatory overhaul, the ESRB is similar to the Financial Stability Oversight Council in the U.S.
“The idea is excellent, but if the thing is not going to have any teeth, it is not going to be good enough,” said Nick Kounis, an economist at ABN Amro Bank NV in Amsterdam.
The piece is talking about financial markets, but you can substitute any other issue–healthcare reform, the housing market, whatever. The point is that politicians and bureaucrats will always make themselves seem more important than they really are. They do that by forming “committees” to oversee this or that emergency to make it appear as if they’re on the case and working to protect you–the citizen. Meanwhile, they do it only to justify their political existence.
Like the article suggests, more likely than not, their actions will do little if anything to prevent said problems. In fact, they can make it worse. So remember that the next time politicians (Republican or Democrat) tell us not to worry, that they’re on top of things and forming committees and whatnot.
Packers vs Bears
In January.
The NFC Championship Game.
This is the only tune that fits:
Go Pack!
Packers going to the Super Bowl!
Just went to the Packers website, and look what’s on the home page:
This is insane. The Packers had so many injuries, going without four or five starters at a time earlier in the season. What was really the Aaron Rodgers show for the first two rounds of the playoffs, became a defensive standoff for most of today’s game vs the Bears. In the end, the Packers defense saved the day. And now they’re four quarters away from another championship!
Sweet…
Days of Rage in Egypt
First Tunisia, now Egypt is the next tinderbox in the Arab world. The Mubarak government is trying to suppress the flow of information by “shutting down” the Internet, but apparently that’s not working so well:
CNN’s Ben Wedeman, who maintains an active Twitter presence, reports that cell phone relay towers were deactivated but that Egyptians are still able to access Twitter. Other Twitter streams belonging to well-known Egyptians in English, Arabic and French corroborate Wedeman’s claim.
While access to Twitter via mobile phones is painfully slow in Egypt, users with access to computers have been posting stunning videos and photographs via Twitpic, Facebook and YouTube that are then being widely retweeted, reposted and reblogged by sympathizers around the world.
Meanwhile, imagine you’re an Egyptian government stormtrooper, and this is what you’re seeing:
Yikes.
More eye-opening photos here.
Flipping the switch: cutting off the internet in Egypt
In the form of a graph:
[I]n an action unprecedented in Internet history, the Egyptian government appears to have ordered service providers to shut down all international connections to the Internet. Critical European-Asian fiber-optic routes through Egypt appear to be unaffected for now.
But every Egyptian provider, every business, bank, Internet cafe, website, school, embassy, and government office that relied on the big four Egyptian ISPs for their Internet connectivity is now cut off from the rest of the world. [...]
What happens when you disconnect a modern economy and 80,000,000 people from the Internet? What will happen tomorrow, on the streets and in the credit markets? This has never happened before, and the unknowns are piling up.
Is Bernanke partially to blame for the Egyptian crisis?
Interesting take from Kudlow:
[...] Egypt is the world’s largest wheat importer. Because of skyrocketing prices, Egyptian inflation is now over 10 percent.
[...]
Commodities are priced in dollars, and the Fed has been overproducing dollars for more than two years. Consequently, emerging markets throughout the world — and the food sector in particular — are suffering from rising inflation.
The CRB food index is up an incredible 36 percent over the past year, including 8 percent year-to-date. Raw materials are up 23 percent over the past year. Inflation breakouts have occurred in China, various Asian Tigers, India, Brazil, and other Latin countries. Even Britain and Germany are registering higher inflation readings.
Florida district judge rules Obamacare unconstitutional
And here’s the money quote:
It is difficult to imagine that a nation which began, at least in part, as the result of opposition to a British mandate giving the East India Company a monopoly and imposing a nominal tax on all tea sold in America would have set out to create a government with the power to force people to buy tea in the first place.
If Congress can penalize a passive individual for failing to engage in commerce, the enumeration of powers in the Constitution would have been in vain for it would be “difficult to perceive any limitation on federal power” [...] and we would have a Constitution in name only. Surely this is not what the Founding Fathers could have intended.
Judge Roger Vinson issued the ruling earlier today:
Vinson rejects the administration’s argument that the health care market is unique since nobody can truly opt out. Vinson mocks this argument a bit, writing: “Everyone must participate in the food market… under this logic, Congress could [mandate] that every adult purchase and consume wheat bread daily.” Later he offers another analogy: “Congress could require that everyone above a certain income threshold buy a General Motors automobile — now partially government-owned — because those who do not buy GM cars (or those who buy foreign cars) are adversely impacting commerce and a taxpayer-subsidized business.”
Vinson concludes: “The individual mandate exceeds Congress’ commerce power, as it is understood, defined, and applied in the existing Supreme Court case law.”
As the piece notes, the law will probably end up in front of the Supreme Court at some point.
UPDATE. This is a bit inconvenient:
In ruling against President Obama‘s health care law, federal Judge Roger Vinson used Mr. Obama‘s own position from the 2008 campaign against him, when the then-Illinois senator argued there were other ways to achieve reform short of requiring every American to purchase insurance.
“I note that in 2008, then-Senator Obama supported a health care reform proposal that did not include an individual mandate because he was at that time strongly opposed to the idea, stating that, ‘If a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody to buy a house,’” Judge Vinson wrote in a footnote toward the end of his 78-page ruling Monday.
Here’s a glaring case of waffleitis on the part of a Democrat politician, doing the opposite of what he proposed as a candidate. I wonder if anyone outside the conservative commentariat will notice point this out?
And just as an aside, if a Federal court deems a statute unconstitutional, shouldn’t that require the executive branch to immediately cease enforcing said statute? I’m waiting for the wailing and lamentations from the virtuous left about respecting the judiciary branch of government and the Constitution in 3…2…1…
[Hat Tip: The Other McCain]
Obama Administration drops the ball on Fannie, Freddy reform
Most efficient administration evah:
The Obama administration failed to release a report today on how Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae could be reformed, despite being required to do so by the Dodd-Frank law passed last summer.
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R., Texas), who chairs the House Republican Conference, said in a statement that the White House’s failure to meet the deadline made it “crystal clear that the President is not serious about reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”
“The Obama Administration’s repeated inability to propose a plan to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac calls into question their commitment to taxpayer protection and their ability to effectively govern on this issue,” Hensarling added. “After more than $150 billion in Fannie and Freddie bailouts, we can no longer afford to allow the Administration to kick the can down the road.”
Kicking the can down the road is being kind. One of the most egregious storylines of the whole financial crisis, was the implicit corruption of the GSEs. Remember Franklin Raines? The accounting scandals? The royal screwing they gave to US taxpayers?
Yeah? Well, the administration would rather we didn’t.
Shocker: Small business owners don’t care about government lending programs
John Krubski of the Guardian Life Small Business Institute runs a study and finds that small business entrepreneurs don’t really care much for small business “help” from Washington:
[...] 20 small business owners recently responded to the following question from a researcher: “What do you think of the small business lending act recently passed by the U.S. Senate?”
Nineteen quizzical looks and a few yawns clearly telegraphed the answer, “What bill would that be again?” One participant, the founder and CEO of a 150-person firm, was more specific: “I heard something about some legislation, but I didn’t find it interesting enough to want to know more.”
[...]
The sentiments I heard from the entrepreneurs confirmed [...] that there is a discernible incongruity between the economic “world view” of big business and government and the economic “ground view” of 26 million small business owners.
[...]
The fact that small businesses go out of business when they run out of money, while big ones often stay in business long after they run out of money helps to explain why the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act is largely being seen as irrelevant by the very constituency it was created to assist. It simply doesn’t address their needs.
[...]
Instead, they would prefer that government create laws that are more simplified and reduce the red tape that slows small business down and actually encumbers their efforts to earn a living.
Who here is shocked that there’s a disconnect between Washington DC and the private sector?
This goes for politicians of both parties, but rings especially true for liberal Democrats, who feel that government, and only government, has the virtue and the knowledge to bestow upon the private economy what it thinks we need and want. Meanwhile what they really are providing is more bureaucracy, more red tape and more taxpayer money flushed down the toilet.
That most politicians in DC have no clue how to help the private sector should surprise no one outside of the Beltway.
A 1960s Packers commercial
This thread is brought to you by the 1960s Green Bay Packers, and Norelco shavers:
Five more days until Super Bowl XLV
The Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers
High speed rail is the answer to everything
Worry not, you loathsome cretin, our economic utopia is upon us:
Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced an ambitious $53 billion program to build new high-speed rail networks and make existing ones faster over the next six years.
Biden, who estimated he has ridden Amtrak between Washington and his home in Wilmington, Delaware, some 7,900 times, made a strong pitch for rail transportation to enable the United States to compete and lead internationally.
“This is about seizing the future,” he said, making the announcement at Philadelphia’s busy 30th Street station with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
Japan and China are already building high-speed rail, and “there’s no reason, none,” that the United States cannot do the same, Biden said.
“If we do not, you tell me how America is going to be able to lead the world in the 21st century.”
I don’t think I fully understand the liberal obsession with high-speed rail. Is it because of their love for everything European, as in political systems and economic policy? (“Most of Europe has government-run healthcare, why don’t we”, was the mantra during the Obamacare debate, for example.)
Apparently, they’d like us rubes to forget that the United States has dabbled in public rail systems before, and um, well….that hasn’t worked out so good.
Of course, if anyone is opposed to flushing more taxpayer money down the toilet for the sake of “high-speed rail”, they will no doubt be labeled as racist or hate-mongers, or “against progress” and the like, because the media left supports it.
So be prepared for that meme, as the White House pushes its next government solution to solve everything high-speed rail.
Senator Jon Kyl retiring
The number two Republican in the Senate is calling it quits:
Three-term Sen. Jon Kyl will announce his retirement at a noon ET news conference Thursday in Phoenix, two Republican sources confirmed to Fox News.
The Arizona lawmaker, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, will be the fifth senator scheduled for re-election next year to announce a departure from Congress in 2012.
Kyl, 68, served four terms in the House before winning a Senate seat. In 2006, he was named one of the 10 best senators by Time Magazine.
That leaves, I believe, John Cornyn and Lamar Alexander for the number two slot.
Angry, left-wing rhetoric: Hey, let’s punch Paul Ryan in the face for being “stupid”
Matt Yglesisas writes a post on Paul Ryan, criticizing the congressman’s comments at a recent congressional hearing.
Some violent left-wing rhetoric intelligent and learned thoughts , those that only progressives are capable of, ensue in the comments:
Clearly, ”TL Jackson” is a moron who really needs to be punched in the face. And I’m waiting with bated breath for Yglesias to call out his commenters for singling out public officials and advocating violence against them.
Hypocrites.
Hollywood is as white as MSNBC
The New York Times laments the predominant whiteness of today’s morally superior Hollywood:
CRAMMED into this year’s field of 10 best picture Oscar nominees are British aristocrats, Volvo-driving Los Angeles lesbians, a flock of swans, a gaggle of Harvard computer geeks, clans of Massachusetts fighters and Missouri meth dealers, as well as 19th-century bounty hunters, dream detectives and animated toys. It’s a fairly diverse selection in terms of genre, topic, sensibility, style and ambition.
But it’s also more racially homogenous — more white — than the 10 films that were up for best picture in 1940, when Hattie McDaniel became the first black American to win an Oscar for her role as Mammy in “Gone With the Wind.” In view of recent history the whiteness of the 2011 Academy Awards is a little blinding.
Why does Hollywood hate black America so much? And when will our media overseers and hate-watchers in the liberal blogosphere issue their proclamations of racism?
The new civility: Lawbreaking Wisconsin teachers have Gov. Walker in the crosshairs…literally.
Behold, the new civility. Brought to you by Wisconsin’s public school teachers and their union puppet masters:
That’s a screenshot from this video:
This is an example of the pure vitriol and hypocrisy that embodies the modern Left. Governor Walker is trying to balance the state’s budget and put their fiscal house in order, which is his obligation as chief executive of the state, a position to which he was elected in November. That’s his crime here. For that he deserves to be target with a gun-scope by leftists.
And where’s Eugene Robinson on all of this violent rhetoric? Where’s Nancy Pelosi? MSNBC? The liberal blogosphere? Where are all the calls for civility and for “new tones”?
That’s all out the window when liberals need to speak their mind. Targeting public officials with violence is normal for them. Glaring hypocrisy is what it is.
[Hat Tip: Badger Blogger via the Corner]
More incitement to violence from the left in Wisconsin
Via Big Government, a “Wanted Dead or Alive” poster for Governor Walker:
More hatred here.
Stimulus
I’m reminded by Jim Geraghty that yesterday was the two-year anniversary of the stimulus package–the $800 billion Keynesian boondoggle merely added to the deficit with no substantial gain. The NRSC has put together a commemorative video that should remind us all of the outright waste of taxpayer money:
It’s ironic really. A big portion of the stimulus went to plug the holes of states budgets, so that they could paper over their individual deficits. Despite warnings from conservative circles, those measures only acted as a band-aid, kicking the can to…2011. Now we have union protests in Wisconsin led by law-breaking teachers and their union, Democrat politicians literally running for their political lives out of state to avoid the reckoning. Now those protests are spreading to Ohio and possibly Indiana.
And let’s not forget what Chris Christie has been doing here in the Garden State in addressing the public union parasites straight on for the past year or so.
Yeah. Happy Anniversary, Stimulus.
Who’s getting shafted in Wisconsin?
The Milwaukee Area Technical College, like most of Wisconsin, had known about Governor Walker’s budget proposal for weeks now, but decided to vote on a new, budget busting contract for its teachers anyway (my bold):
The vote occurred against the backdrop of Walker’s proposal for sweeping changes in public employee union bargaining rights. The new contract replaces the current one that expires June 30. It cannot be overridden by the Legislature if Walker’s bill passes.
Clearly, the MATC union, which long has called the shots at the school, has every right to bargain hard – and try to lock in the best deal it can get for its 1,933 members before the climate for collective bargaining chills. The union claims it made significant concessions to help close the projected $23.4 million budget shortfall for fiscal 2011-’12. MATC says the deal saves the school $11.6 million.
But the board erred by not holding out for an even better deal on behalf of taxpayers, who pay 60% of MATC’s operating costs. That board, by the way, isn’t accountable to voters; it’s appointed.
To summarize: Wisconsin taxpayers pay the bulk of the schools operating costs, but essentially get no say in how the money is being spent. They’re hard-earned money is at the whim of greedy and parasitic unions who really don’t care about anything other than their precious contracts.
Someone’s getting the shaft in Wisconsin, but it certainly isn’t the union.