Some interesting trends seen in the recent polling by PPP (Democrat firm). As we get closer to Nov 2, the more you will see these polls switch to likely voters. With that shift it should make these polls more accurate.
We'll start rolling out our Ohio poll results tomorrow but there's one finding on the poll that pretty much sums it up: by a 50-42 margin voters there say they'd rather have George W. Bush in the White House right now than Barack Obama.
I would have written about this yesterday but we had technical difficulties for over five hours yesterday. An inconvenient day all around the Jersey Shore.
Anyways, seeing this story raised some eyebrows with me even if it apparently didn't do the same to some TSA agents. Now look I am not going to disparage the screeners that work at TSA, tough job dealing with cranky and mostly rude travellers. BUT sometimes I get the feeling that they are not on the same planet we are. Never mind the errors all over the no-fly list, that's bureaucracy at its finest. These Pepto would-be bombers set off more internal caution alarms than I thought possible. As Phineas over at Sister Toldjah put it:
"So, what did they need to actually stop him? An autographed photo of Osama bin Laden and travel brochures for Waziristan?"
What is disturbing about this story, is that apparently they really didn't break any laws. It is not against the law to tape a cell phone to a bottle of Pepto-Bismol®. It seems to be a dry run of "what can we get away with", in order to make terror more effective. It is actually smart and it also shows that they are still fairly organized and funded. Who knows how many more of these dry runs are being performed across the country at any given time. It also illustrates our biggest weakness in airport security, not profiling behavior. One only needs to look at how Ben Gurion Airport in Israel handles security to find the ideal. Now does this country need that level? Not sure, but it wouldn't hurt to lean more towards that course of action.
What did not surprise me is the article that Beau Friedlander wrote. It's the typical tripe you would have expected from the former head of bankrupt Air America. I am not the biggest Glenn Beck fan, but soliciting for a sex tape to disparage and discredit him? It's distasteful.
The president’s $75 billion program guaranteed that homeowners with Fannie or Freddie mortgages would be eligible for refinancing to lower rates if their mortgages were between 80 and 105 percent of the home’s worth. Other borrowers facing foreclosure would be able to refinance their mortgages down to 31 percent of their monthly income. Didn’t this mean that taxpayers who didn’t buy too much house or who paid their mortgage bills on time would be subsidizing those who did not?
It is Friday in August, and in the spirit of the President playing his 48th round of golf yesterday I also will be mailing it in today. Today is 'links' day....get it? links? golf? I crack myself up....anyways I have scoured Al Gore's Internet for the best stories, so enjoy...
Nice to see a formerly solid blue state start to figure out that one party liberal rule for a generation is not a good thing. Michigan was in a one state recession for over a decade (when the rest of us were enjoying relative little unemployment this state has refused to evolve) and Granholm will be leaving with lower approval ratings than George W. Bush. To prove how clueless and insular NYC liberals are, I overheard this a couple of weeks ago (won't name names)..."Granholm is the hottest governor...besides her looks she really has turn it around there"....huh? I clearly ignored this stupidity as not to engage in lunacy:
The more press he gets, the more it legitimizes his approach. The approach that it is OK to talk to your constituents like an adult and be honest with them. I heart Christie:
Well that's about it hope everyone enjoys their Friday and weekend.
P.S. In honor of the recently deceased (man you are getting old when all the artists of your youth start dropping dead of natural causes) Michael Been of The Call:
UPDATE (8/27): H/T Cubachi
Apparently Bret Schundler fibbed to the Governor and has been canned. Cubachi has the details on her blog. Props to my fellow Cuban for bringing this to attention.
As advertised, Obamacare lowering premiums everywhere! Nah just kidding.
Look, the new regulations slowly being implemented (some starting in September) as part of this debacle (that apparently the "author" has not even read) will increase costs and drive out providers. Not sure how many times I have said that here, but I'll keep saying it. O'Care will force millions of seniors out of their current Medicare Part D drug plans almost immediately, even though the program has been fairly successful by government program standards.
How? Insurers will need to hike premiums as noted here to deal with these reform minded mandates. If health plans can't set premiums high enough to cover these new costs put on them by the government, guess what? They will go broke and exit the market. Making traditional health insurance unviable is the clear intent here, it is to have government control the delivery of medical care and that means controlling insurance companies. The state exchanges, which will allow people to buy gov't subsidized health insurance plans from private providers, that will be setup by 2014, will not have the consumer choices promised. Why? Well as I noted they will be all out of the insurance business by then. That will be just fine with the Democrats though, they will cry "market failure" and ask for even more government control, i.e. public insurance.
This stands in contrast to the last time we tackled a large entitlement program, the Part D plans began in 2006. The reason this program has cost not nearly as much as originally believed is that it did create an increase in consumer choice. It certainly is not a perfect plan and as most entitlements has its share of waste, bottom line is that it turned out way better than expected. The rules were purposely written to encourage plans to enter the market and allow them to turn a profit. Shocking, I know. The idea as it always is in a free market, is to allow the market to mature with competition. That in turn makes prices fall. Economics 101. I admit that any large entitlement isn't ever really "free" of government interference, but Part D was revolutionary in its implementation. Meaning it did not incur price controls or prohibit profit.
The President said a number of things about this current plan..."if you like your insurance you can keep it"..really? Chalk up the "choice and competition" myth as another promise it is clear he will not be able to keep. Not sure they were ever intended to be kept. Does this plan have an opportunity to surprise us and perform better than naysayers? I am a gambling man and I would put the likelihood somewhere between never and....well never. It must be repealed and replaced, short of that key parts must be defunded in order to get true reform of the insurance market.
Breaking story about Ken Mehlman, even though it was more or less an open secret in Washington for a while. And of course the gays on the left are angered. It's amazing how someone has to follow your identity group's supposed political leanings to the letter in order to be "accepted". The same goes with African-American conservatives, the energy spent on calling them Uncle Toms or race traitors is shameful if we are truly to judge a man by his character not by his presupposed "identity". Disgusting. I mean god forbid the timing of some guy's personal struggle with his sexuality didn't perfectly coincide with your freaking agenda. Sure hope that everyone right and left gives the guy a break because honestly most of us could give a crap about Ken's personal life. By the way Jim Geraghty's tweet shortly thereafter had it perfect.
"For eight years before we arrived in the West Wing, Mr. Boehner and his party ran the economy literally into the ground," VP Biden said. I am just wondering if it was put into the ground with shovels? Hammers? A backhoe? His misuse of the word 'literally' is kind of amusing. He literally uses it ALL the time. His whole point of contention with Boehner's address is that he is nostalgic for the Bush economy. I mean it's an outrage that Boehner wants to go back to the days of 4.5% unemployment. He clearly didn't hear or read Boehner, all the press going to his calling for the heads of O's economic team. But inside the speech were some undeniable facts and ideas going forward for a potential Republican run House. Everyone in media on the Left would rather just make fun of his name than argue on the merits.
Speaking of blunt instruments. Dan Quayle's kid Ben Quayle won the Republican primary in Arizona District 3, more than likely going to Congress in John Shadegg's vacant seat come November. It was a pretty tight race and there are a couple of good conservatives in that district that ran good campaigns and who we should expect to hear more from in the future. Namely Vernon Parker, he ran a good campaign based on principles and got his political start with Lee Atwater. Ben Quayle I am hoping will do a good job, but won this primary on name recognition and money advantage. He has tough shoes to fill as John Shadegg has always been one of the better members of Congress.
Good news out of Florida though, Meek won the Democratic Senate primary which is important. If billionaire buffoon Jeff Greene (who had Mike Tyson serve as his best man) would have beaten him, Democrats would have thrown their money and support behind Charlie Crist...he of the original orange tan. It also would have given traditional Democrats the excuse to pull the lever for Charlie, now that is gone. As election day nears I think you will see some of those Democrats pull away from Crist and return to Meek thereby giving Marco Rubio the easier road. I have made it no secretthat he is who I support wholeheartedly in that Senate race, from when he was 30 points down to Crist in the polls to now.
OK you get the picture he hates the surge, blames Bush for poor war execution, etc. What is so crazy about this? Everyone knows these were his stated positions going into the election of 2008. Well it is slowly boiling me up because he now wants to take credit for recent withdrawal of combat troops. Two things 'dear leader', first this withdrawal was setup by your predecessor, secondly it was only able to be negotiated because the surge you so excoriated as a failure actually succeeded, which thankfully you finally admitted. Mission Accomplished? The hope that this kind of whitewashing of history will occur is unlikely in this day of YouTube and blogs. So in short, I am more than happy that we are slowly drawing down in Iraq. BUT the biggest job still is in front, they have a nascent political system that needs America's diplomatic engagement. Yet what we have is a President who is completely removed from that process. Iraq may be viewed as a success through the prism of history one day, to no thanks from our current President.
As usual Dan Mitchell with Cato schools the Keynesians over at the NY Times. I do not understand why we still have to go through these exercises when Keynes has been disproven time and again. Hoover and FDR...Fail. Japan in the '90's...Fail. One just needs to look at how Germany has succeeded in the last year in part by shunning further stimulus. This type of stimulus has never shown itself to be a recipe for long term economic growth. Borrowing money from some people in the economy to hand it to others is counterproductive and too reliant on consumer spending to drive it. It never creates any sort of increase in aggregate demand, we have seen it time and again. Read Dan Mitchell below and just get smarter....
I am as fatigued about the Ground Zero mosque debate as the next guy BUT some of the arguments that have been coming out of the mouths from the supporters of the mosque couldn't be more intellectually dishonest. Now from the Left, opponents of the mosque are branded as ideologically Conservative Nazi sympathizers, madmen bombers or this doozy: that opposition is actually helping Al-Qaeda recruitment??? I really can't swallow this insipidness that becomes branded as conventional wisdom when they repeat it enough on the mainstream media outlets.
My favorite is of course the parallel to Nazi sympathizers, CNN uses pictures of Father Coughlin in the link above. He of the famous radio sermons of the late 20's and through the Depression. First off do lefties know he was a committed LEFTIST? One of the great liberal myths was that Father Coughlin's preachings were from the right of the spectrum. They are being disingenuous (or more likely just ignorant of history) with you if they say that. This was a man who praised the "New Deal" as "Christ's Deal" and that the choice was simply "Roosevelt or Ruin" during his first campaign for president. It was only when he started to oppose FDR in 1934 as not doing enough that he began to be seen as a "right-winger", but that is just a typical fascist ploy of marking anything that does not agree with them one hundred percent as "right-wing". Especially when you take into consideration Coughlin's formation of the NUSJ, hardly considered a classically liberal organization. This went on all during the 1930's, if you opposed FDR you were a right-winger. People like J.T. Flynn, a muckraking journalist at the time, was labeled a leader of right thinking for no other reason than he was a relentless FDR critic. He was a left leaning columnist for the New Republic (the bible of Progressives since the turn of the 20th Century) that denounced FDR for moving in what he perceived as a rightward tilt. There is a lot more to that story and for space reasons I will just leave it to others to do, Alan Brinkley is a good place to start.
The bringing up of Timothy McVeigh by some is quite interesting. Once again it is another twist of logic. He considered himself agnostic and did not bomb the Murrah building in the name of some sort of Christian ideology as some on the left have purported. He was if anything a white supremacist national socialist. He was an angry white guy so he must be a right winger, is how the Leftist string of logic goes. Just an odd leap for the Left to make to disagree with the opponents of the mosque/cultural center. But as noted above, with Coughlin and Flynn, a typical one. The people who commit terror like the WTC, the embassy bombings, and numerous other instances have done so specifically in the name of Islam.
Look we can have disagreements about this but to see the arguments now being used on the Left, it kind of smacks of reaching for something, anything that will stick. It is to us, the opponents of the mosque, that the Imam and his people have questionable motives since he continues to avoid meaningful questions. If it truly is about building bridges and outreach, why the insistence in continuing to avoid even listening to alternatives? The longer they show obtuseness toward prevailing American public opinion, the more it looks like their intent is a political statement in name of Islam NOT outreach or tolerance.
I really do hope to put this to rest very soon because this is a debate that will not further issues that really are at the root of an ailing economy. I will be happy again to discuss health care, tax policy and economics in the coming months leading to the mid-term election. At the same time I cannot ignore the continuing of specious arguments by those on the Left over the mosque.
In related lefty intellectual dishonesty, here is George Will dressing down Robert Reich on history and the typical liberal tropes about the Depression. BTW note Will's restraint while Reich is talking...he is great:
Will does slightly exaggerate, Hoover increased spending 88%...not quite doubling. Almost though.
Typical. To paraphrase Nathan Wurtzel, Grayson is what it would look like if some anonymous troll lefty blogger ended up with a Congressional seat. Truly disgusting and pathetic.
Thankfully the days of his first and only term are numbered, can't imagine his R leaning district will send him back for more. Can't wait until you get that host job on MSNBC come next January. Picture it now, The Ed & Alan Show.
Slowly but surely he is winning over the most cynical of New Jersey voters. Trust me, we have seen our share of placating and pandering politicians from both parties run this state over the last 10-11 years. If only we could clone more straight talking politicians (who don't need a bus to advertise it) across the country we could have our states in much better budgetary shape. Keep it up Chris, it's only going to get tougher with each successive budget you try to pass.
What the hell does The Gap Band have to do with politics? Well nothing really. Just delivering some sad news, the founder of the group Robert Wilson died two days ago at age 53. Sometimes I do miss that golden age of funk music, Dazz Band,Rick James,Parliament, etc....but I digress.
The title of the song could be a metaphor as to what President Obama and his agenda has done to Democratic Congressional candidates. Most of them can't run away from him fast enough. BTW after you watch the video, keep the 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' jokes to a minimum...
Simply put in Politico this morning:
"Key White House allies are dramatically shifting their attempts to defend health care legislation, abandoning claims that it will reduce costs and deficit, and instead stressing a promise to 'improve it.' . . . The confidential presentation, available in full here and provided to POLITICO by a source on the call, suggests that Democrats are acknowledging the failure of their predictions that the health care legislation would grow more popular after its passage, as its benefits became clear and rhetoric cooled. . . . The presentation also concedes that the fiscal and economic arguments that were the White House's first and most aggressive sales pitch have essentially failed."
That last sentence is a doozy. The arguments failed because they were never true in the first place, and most of us realized that. What made us so prescient? It's called math.
They just cannot run on any legislative accomplishments because basically almost everything they passed the American public hates. So continue to look for Harry Reid style campaigning from their candidates, that would be to malign your opponent on a personal basis and try to identify them as some fringe wackjob. As I noted the other day, it looks like the liberals are the fringe so good luck to them.
Outside of that Happy Friday to everyone and enjoy your weekend! I couldn't resist, one more for the road:
I linked to a similar article yesterday. I agree with Moe for the same reasons. Karma is a bitch and those on the Left have reaped what they sowed. I never did see the movie referenced in his post, but the clip makes sense in context. I also believe that this nostalgia is convenient and they will get back to pillorying the man soon enough. Agree or disagree (and I did on multiple fronts) with the previous President you treat the man with respect. The crap that we had to watch for most of the previous eight years was shameful. That goes for Obama as well, I can have policy and political disagreements with the man but I will not engage in any of the birther nonsense, and neither will the majority of conservatives. If you want that go read WND.
This is absolutely priceless. Especially coming from Maureen Dowd, who made a career of vilifying 43, it is rich. I sure hope he keeps his nose out of it. My favorite quote from Karl Rove:
"This Bush swoon by selected members of the left commentariat is temporary, their swamp fevers will return momentarily."
Do we need more proof that the "top" priorities of Congress and this administration are so upside down and completely out of step with the rest of the country? When you have the Speaker of the House saying this
"There is no question there is a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some. And I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded"
Who exactly is she joining? Secondly while I agree this has become a political football, she is WAY off thinking this is some concerted funded effort. This started back in May as a local NY issue, I commented about it at that time, and it was basically just covered in dailies here in the NY/NJ area. What really sent it national in my opinion was the ridiculous photo op speech that Mayor Nanny Bloomberg gave using the Statue of Liberty as the backdrop. It kind of mushroomed from there with everyone weighing in across the country. I give a lot of credit to Pamela Geller of the atlasshrugs blog for keeping the pressure on locally with the Community Board in lower Manhattan, and then taking to the news shows with her concerns over Imam Feisal Rauf. She is a tireless writer/activist exposing the bull of certain Muslim "moderates" along with CAIR and I applaud her for that.
Another issue most Democrats are finding themselves on the wrong side, and by wrong I mean 70-30 wrong according to polls, is the illegal immigration law in Arizona. Suing a state for enforcing a federal law the federal government has no intent of enforcing....got that? The suit is two things, logically specious and racial pandering. Then today news comes that they are ready to do this. Expending all of this energy instead of focusing on the root cause of the illegal immigration problem. That being our continuing policies of no border enforcement and not talking about assimilation, which has always been the route to success for immigrant groups. We have become so sensitive to cultural concerns that we never talk about what it is to be American. You could say that is the reason liberals on a whole support the mosque and tip-toe around every issue regarding Muslims. What? You think all of a sudden liberals are interested in property rights arguments? Or the fact our Attorney General can't call a terrorist, a radical islamist? And if you disagree with their approach you are a bigot. It's a joke. I find myself agreeing with Erick Erickson, that maybe liberals are finally realizing that they are the ones who are "fringe".
I am not one to usually parse over every single word our Presidents say. I mean when you make comments every single day for a few years occasionally you will make a gaffe here or there, some of them humorous. The problem Obama finds himself in more often than not is that his statements find him contravening American opinion on a hot button issue, and usually in a situation where his interference is not necessary. Long to short, these are self-inflicted political wounds. He should be worried about greater issues, like spiraling deficits, Iran getting nukes, etc. Much like his clumsy response to the Cambridge police last summer this similar tap dancing, or as Jim Geraghty at NRO called it this morning "[the] hokey-pokey", is creating unneeded distraction and erosion of political capital. The reaction to the police acting stupidly remark is eerily similar. It goes something like this: He makes an off the cuff statement of his position, then back tracks off it after seeing that he is out of the mainstream of American opinion. Why would he hand his political opponents such a layup? Especially when you are on the short end of an overwhelming majority opinion as it was during Cambridge.
The first problem with his comments on Friday at an iftar dinner was his tone. Often he is lecturing, his numerous "Let me be clear" statements, as if we don't understand. The condescension is a habit with him and don't think that it goes unnoticed by the great unwashed massses. The main problem is that he really stated the obvious by saying this,
"As a citizen, and as president I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable."
I mean I hate to say it but, uhhh no s*it Mr. President. Then after that statement he props up the usual strawman arguments and prattles on. The question over this has never been the right of the Imam to build this 13 story "cultural" center and mosque on private property, our laws protect that right. Everyone on the right and left can agree on that. Ironically the controversy has been over what the Imam's stated purpose has been; sensitivity and tolerance and then who deserves it. The decision to build this there is extremely insensitive to the families of loved ones who died on 9/11 and to American sensibilities in general. If this guy packed up and moved this a mile north, that would speak volumes for sensitivity and brotherhood with our fellow Americans that happen to be Muslim. I have said it in this space before, Imam Feisal Rauf has to answer to why he speaks out of both sides of his mouth. Why was his book titled What's Right with Islam: a New Vision for Muslims and the West here in the U.S. and then when it was translated into Arabic it became A Call to Prayer from the WTC Rubble: Islamic Dawah from the Heart of America Post 911. A dawah is a call to Islam, nothing about tolerance and coexistence there. Why did he say publicly that Muslims did not perpetrate 9/11? The list goes on and on and like I said I went over this back in May here.
When you do not have leaders of the Muslim faith (outside of a couple of organizations, namely the AIFD who does a great job) speaking out consistently against terror and crimes committed in the name of Islam, it is hard for most Americans to feel comfortable and very "brotherly". Look no one would care where a mosque is built, but many people view this area of Manhattan as a sacred battlefield much like Gettysburg and other national protected parks. Couple this with the perception by some that this may be a typical Islamist move to construct a house of worship over "conquered" land you have a recipe for feeding intolerance against the religion. The more this drags on you may see other communities across the country oppose mosque construction and that is NOT what this country is about, but the percieved provocation of the Ground Zero mosque may foment the exact opposite of its stated intent. Not only that but instead of really talking about religious tolerance and our founding principles we are talking about an increasingly inept President.
Just had this brought to my attention. How lame is this? The Left as usual having troubles staying mature and keeping the debate to real issues. Stay classy...
Lately there has been talk about the loan modificaton program and the administration perhaps passing a law to provide (more) subsidies to mortgage forgiveness programs. As usual the governmental alphabet soup is at play here confusing most of us. I mean who can keep up with HAMP, Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FHLMC)? I know not me, but there are some basic principles alive here that our government should start to reconsider in light of what happened in the meltdown, and post-collapse.
Misguided Subsidies?
A recent piece in the USA Today started with this,
If there are two things that middle-class taxpayers who behave responsibly don't like, they are (1) having their money go to irresponsible people, and (2) having their money go to richer people.
Our current housing policies continue to do both. The HAMP which I mentioned above has granted 340,459 permanent modifications but 429,696 trial modifications and over 6,000 permanent modifications were cancelled, generally due to insufficient income documentation. More startling is that only about 10% of these that got to the final stages of modification were able to bring their mortgage current. Another 23% were a variety of short sales, bankruptcies, or foreclosures. So it begs the question, how is that $50 billion dollar program helping? Are we going to continue to encourage bad lending and borrowing habits or should our policies be crafted towards a more fiscally responsible incentive to home ownership.
What we have now is a creation of both parties, and the result of the drive to make home ownership our primary industrial strategy in the last half of the 20th century. When the vote came to the House floor to renew the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit back in June, the vote was 409-5 in favor. Pretty amazing considering how polarized that body is at the moment. It was intentioned to be a one year one off stimulus, now it seems to be stated policy. That credit is a large transfer of wealth that has little to no economic impact for the country. What it did last year was similar to the cash for clunkers program, getting people to hasten a purchase they were going to make anyways. Harvard economist Edward Glaeser likened it to "mindless house swapping".
The effect of this and of our current tax structure (which is to allow mortgage interest deduction) is that it inflates the housing market unnaturally. What I mean by that is it inflates the value of homes outside of what the free market would intend. Because of the tax incentives, people are incentivized to take out a larger mortgage. If you can write off the interest why would you choose the smaller mortgage? It used to be quite difficult to own your own home, you had to have a good downpayment (back in the 1920's you had to have HALF down), so the political class argued to make it easier and have won that argument. Then in the last fifteen years you had the creation of mortgage finance products that reduced down payments and minimized equity. If homes increase in value for perpetuity then equity is not nearly important, but that is not realistic. What this homeownership without equity does is create macroeconomic costs not benefits. A recent paper written by Christopher Papagianis & Reihan Salam notes:
Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick has argued that such homeownership can exacerbate unemployment by making workers less likely to move from one labor market to another. Labor mobility is badly undermined when homeowners in a depressed market can’t sell their property for anything approaching the principal balance of the mortgage they originally took out to buy it.....since most homebuyers base their purchase decisions on the monthly after-tax cost of housing, reducing the deduction for mortgage interest would mean that the same monthly payment would buy “less house.” For example, a 25 percent deduction for mortgage interest allows buyers with a 6 percent mortgage to spend an extra $30,000 on a house without seeing any increase in their monthly payments.Similarly, an increase in down-payment requirements from the current 3.5 percent to 20 percent would mean that $20,000 of savings could be used to buy only a $100,000 house, rather than one priced at $570,000.
Combine that with the overall decline in housing equity in the country from 2001 to 2009 to the tune of $1.35 trillion and you have a society that has become stagnant, the opportunity of upward mobility (which so many tied into homeownership) has been damaged. That decline has more or less wiped out the real estate boom and then some on many levels.
Solution
The American people unwittingly propped up the housing market and by de facto the construction industry which has hemorrhaged jobs that may never come back. What may work to strengthen our economic prospects long-term is a tax deduction for home ownership akin to the child deduction. It must be a flat rate so as not to incentivize someone to purchase a house they really cannot afford. It would reward middle class homeowners but at a fraction of the cost of the current mortgage interest deduction. Other less likely solutions would be to revamp Fannie and Freddie which will not happen under current leadership. We the taxpayers have been put on the hook to them for over $150 billion dollars. These two GSE's operate as spigots of tax payer money to subsidize housing in this country, without serious reform there and in our tax structure our economy will not be better off for having experienced such a calamatious event. It would be nice, if for once, our policy makers could learn from prior mistakes and not double down on them.
This is a good one. Harry Reid, a Republican Spic, and a guy with "negro dialect" walk into a bar...
Hey I am just a raaaaacist conservative telling jokes here, don't get angry.
The hypocrisy from the left is rancid and nevermind that the mainstream media won't make a case that this jackass should resign a la Trent Lott. This is the kind of identity racial politics that is to be expected from a group (Progressives/Liberals) whose philosophical forefathers were Mussolini and Lenin. Here is how you answer such stupidity, my wonderful jokes not withstanding :)
Hands down the best and most comprehensive breakdown of the argument over the GZ Mosque by Dan McLaughlin over at Red State. On point and touches all angles, a must read! To me and the rest of us that oppose the mosque it really is a moral question, not so much do they have a right to build whatever they want there. When you look at all of the issues surrounding the project and the Imam directing it, there is no moral dilemma. The answer is clear, build it somewhere else or don't build it at all.
Pelosi,et al. have been called back from recess to pass this blatant payoff to the teachers' unions at the expense of $12 billion in food stamps benefits...so much for bleating heart liberals. Why couldn't they pay for this stupidity out of the unused stimulus funds, you know because so far the funds have really gone to good use. Well that wouldn't make much sense, let's just draw on the greatest credit card that is already $14 trillion in the hole.
The usefulness of unions has long passed. Democrats need to make these payoffs because without unions they lose the greatest 'get out the vote' apparatus any party has ever known. The reason so many of these teachers face getting the axe is because in many states the teachers unions do not know the word "concession". They think they can draw on their local taxpayers until infinity. They think that paying nothing into their benefits on the backs of taxpayers is ok. I for one am thankful to have a governor that has faced down these criminals and told them, "Enough is enough".
Does Obama think this pandering will work to electoral benefit in November? This would seem to back up the contrary. He, like most on the hard left, does not understand the work ethic and motivation of the American people.
The latest generic numbers over at RCP are linked to below. This is very bad news for Democrats based on historical data, since 1950 they have polled the question and Republicans have NEVER led by this many. The big news is not only the spread but what the trend means as we get closer to the midterms. It's just simple math, the Democrats have many more seats to defend and 25 of them reside in districts that have R+ numbers over 7 (PVI). Republicans need 40 to switch the House, you figure they may get all 25 of these. The balance of control will be in the swing districts and this is why the overall generic number is bad news for Democrats. In the months to come it will be interesting to see how this advantage in the generic translates to electoral results since we have not seen this type of lead. We very well could be on the cusp of a historical turnover in the House and more Republicans in the Congress since the 1920's. Three months is a lifetime in an election cycle but if Democrats and the tone deaf Obama administration continue on this course Ms. Pelosi will become Minority Leader....and who wouldn't enjoy that?
I recently have mentioned the murky prospects that the Democrats have of retaining power in the House. What I have not spoke about is the complete flip in statehouses that is likely. According to the RCP averages after November you could have as many as 35 Republican governors. That's right, 35 out of 57! Which is very important in a year ending in zero, redistricting after the census is under the aegis of each state legislature. So it's no surprise they are coming out swinging in the very tight Governor's race in Ohio. The problem is they are coming out with something that was discredited already months ago. As Erick Erickson over at Red State wrote some months ago, there is no "there" there. Secondly by attacking a worthwhile charity that assists our military families shows how truly despicable the Left is and typical of how they operate. The woman who originally raised the questions of the Freedom Alliance and Sean Hannity's involvement has been proven to live in a world where most of us do not reside. Where everyone is anti-Semitic and we all have some sort of sympathies for Islamofascists. People on the right and left have dismissed her for some time now, she calls herself Conservative but I am not sure what her philosophical leanings are. She is an angry woman who seems to have some sort of petty jealousy with successful Conservatives. I will not link to her here on sheer principle and she has been known to cyberstalk...haha. You can figure out who it is by clicking through some of the links in this story. I will give you two hints, I appeared on the same shovio.com show as her on June 10th of this year and her name rhymes with Mebbie Shoesell.
So I was looking at some of the Missouri primary election returns from last night, because I'm a total nerd. I notice a couple of interesting things that are being noted in some other circles as well. I never like to chase the news but these things are too obvious to not comment on it.
The Proposition C results are what everyone this morning is talking about. This bodes very poorly for Obamacare and it's continually anemic poll numbers. It was approved overwhelmingly, the 'yes' vote was a vote to amend current Missouri law to deny the government authority to "penalize citizens for refusing to purchase private health insurance or infringe upon the right to offer or accept direct payment for lawful healthcare services." I believe the fact that VA had a law similar to this already on the books is partially the grounds on which Federal Court did not dismiss the VA case against the Gov't. The guys over at volokh.com can address that WAY better than I can. In their opinions (they are mostly all legal scholars or law students) it paves the way for an appeal to the 4th Circuit which would then lead directly to the Supreme Court. In any case the fact that it passed by a 3 to 1 margin is telling. It shows the enthusiasm of the opponents of Obamacare and that they are willing to travel to the ballot boxes to make their voices heard.
To further illustrate the enthusiasm gap being discussed recenlty. I offer up what happened in St. Louis County, the most Democratic county, the votes for Robin Carnahan (D) were 58,775 in her primary. The numbers for Roy Blunt (R) while facing many more opponents in his primary was 59,274. Draw your own conclusion as to how that may translate in November for Carnahan the incumbent. But to me it shows the Democrats are headed for serious defeats in November. Now for the bad news...Sharron Angle. Would the election of Sharron Angle benefit conservative policies in the Senate moreso than Harry Reid? Of course it would, but I really would like a candidate who can get out of their own way. This video is hilarious:
Carl Cameron's incredulousness is priceless. If this is truly what she thinks we on the right need, she is sadly mistaken and needs a refresher course. I guess all candidates can't be as eloquent as Senate wannabe Democrat Alvin Greene. I kid of course, but would it be too difficult for the Republican Party to put someone up there who can communicate principles effectively? Senator Reid is eminently beatable and his struggling to get anywhere near 50% in polls shows that he is ripe for a beatdown. Then Nevadans give us Angle...oops. Don't get me wrong, I like her and when she is not sticking her foot in her mouth does stand for small government and consistently votes conservatively in her current role as a state representative. So I wish her luck and she has my support in this blog against Harry Reid.
The chart recently released by Rep. Kevin Brady's (R-Tx.) office is priceless. All of this stuff is no surprise to anyone that has been paying attention to the legislative debate over Obamacare. You know, the fact that the law creates 68 grant programs, 47 bureaucratic entities, 29 pilot programs, six regulatory systems, six compliance standards and two entititlements should not be new info. As Queen Pelosi said "we need to pass it to find out what's in it", well we really didn't because most of us knew it stunk to high hell and if the recent poll numbers are accurate so do the majority of the American people. I believe the liberal argument of "Don't worry they will like it once they get the free stuff" will not hold true here. One simple reason. When most entitlements are created it is new and nothing is taken away (except more of your tax dollars). With Obamacare once people start getting dropped from their employer based insurance, the wake up call of your lost freedoms will come too little too late.
As the article below notes, by the administration's own calculations as many as 117 million people will have to change their health plans by 2013 as the employer provided insurance loses grandfathered status. It's the leftist version of the end around, can't actually pass single payer so let's rig the system. So forget all the tax implications, the backroom deals struck to get this disaster passed, and the continual lies from Obama himself ("if you like your insurance you get to keep it"...what a load of sh*t) that last little piece of info is all you need to know what the true intentions were. It was not to get better health care for all, it was simply to grant government grand powers this country has never seen before. They were banking on the American people to be suckers and lay down and take it. Only 91 days until the midterms...
This is where the left is in this country. First off it doesn't surprise me that the Commies over at the CAP think that the majority of Americans are not in posession of true American values. Any organization run by alien abduction wack job Podesta should be questioned for its intellectual veracity. The opposition to this mosque has been deconstructed in my space here before so I won't go into it again, but the questions I posed then still have not been answered.
No not really. Over the weekend the FBI released documents regarding Howard Zinn. The radical "historian" was revealed to have Communist ties in the 1940's and '50's. The dirty secret of liberals is that most of them were/are Commies or were/are small "f" fascists. I will be dissecting the philosophical origins of liberal/conservative in a future post. Been doing my research on that for some time and want to put together a good full post about it. I have alluded to the origins of these terms in my past posts and have had some commenters comment about it so I figured it would be a good topic to tackle and in turn drop some knowledge. It has always been a root of my curiosity, the history of what constitutes today's modern liberal. The only reason for that curiosity is that for some reason the right is always held to some philosophical clarity test when we propose policy, while the left seems to escape similar scrutiny when they do.
Well as noted in the first sentence, here is the report about Zinn:
Typical Mets fans, making a political statement....using the flag of Mexico? By the way I always love how the press collectively describes the law as "Arizona's immigration law", funny. Seriously though, all joking about Mets fans aside, it is not a law against immigration it is a law on ILLEGAL immigration as if there is no difference to these leftist morons. The irony is that this combined with the recent judge's decision to hold back portions of the law, all add to more animosity against immigrants (legal or otherwise). I am glad that most of the crowd started chanting "USA! USA!" as these dipshits ran across the field. It is all about being a reactionary and protesting without even examining what it is they are protesting, it just looks cool to protest and yell and scream little slogans. They are just spoon fed that the law is evil and anti-Hispanic by most of the intellectually challenged members of the media (e.g. Rick Sanchez).
I honestly could have cared less if FNC got Helen Thomas' old seat in the front row of the White House press room. Although it is kind of fitting and indicative of the about face in the national mood in the last year. More people realize in this post JournoList world that the MSM and its ilk are unreliable in the distribution of the news sans bias. So Congrats to Fox on graduating from "not a news network" to the front row.
