Another Top Democrat Says President Must Ask Congress for Authority Before Launching Airstrikes

I tell you, these Dems are really coming down hard on the President for his unilateral action, and not showing any double standard, at all.

“If the administration believes that any, any use of force… is necessary, the president must come to Congress to seek that authority,”

To find out who said that, go here.

See also:

Moonbattery:Warmongers for a pictorial that shows that not all war Presidents get the same treatment.

Previously:

Noted Democrat: War Without Congressional Approval Warrants Impeachment

Freshman Dem Senator Comes Out Strongly Against Military Intervention In Middle East

“A Disconnect With Reality So Profound That It Verges On Mental Illness”

That’s John Hayword at Human Events unloading on Obama for his risible smear against the Bush administration, yesterday:

Speaking in Chile to defend his decision to launch Operation Odyssey Dawn, President Obama couldn’t resist taking a swipe at George Bush, in a clumsy attempt to make himself look superior.

As reported by Fox News, the President declared: “In the past there have been times when the United States acted unilaterally or did not have full international support, and as a consequence typically it was the United States military that ended up bearing the entire burden.”

As the folks at Fox quickly pointed out, Bush actually had twice as many international allies for the invasion of Iraq as Obama has put together for his adventure in Libya.  They even put together a list.

***

Serious questions are being asked about the long-term objectives of Odyssey Dawn, how much of it we’ll be expected to pay for, and whether promises to avoid the commitment of ground forces will be kept.

Against this backdrop, Obama decided to throw out an offhanded smear of his predecessor… a slander so transparently false that it was debunked within minutes?

That’s a disconnect with reality so profound that it verges on mental illness.  It also highlights just how half-hearted and poorly thought out this decision was.

The President has a massive staff and an enormous political team, but apparently no effort was made to put together a comprehensive response to critics of Libya policy.  Nobody gamed out the scenario, considered the most predictable developments, and developed comprehensive, well-researched answers to likely challenges.  Instead, it was Improv Night in front of a brick wall in Chile, and the President decided to haul out the old joke about Bush the Unitary Executive.

The President’s comment demonstrates an appalling lack of knowledge about the Iraq war.  He ran as an outspoken opponent of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay… but has continued all three, and now added Libya.  It would seem his campaign criticism was not informed and intelligent opposition, but rather a general conviction that George Bush is the devil, and anything he did should be mindlessly denounced from every possible angle.

I’ve said on a number of occasions, (and only half joking), that sometimes it seems like we are being governed by left-wing trolls. This latest idiotic quip from the President only strengthens that perception. How many times did conservative keyboard warriors have to slap down that stubborn little misconception during the Bush years? It was one of those cute little left-wing lies that was believed without question by the faithful, but made little sense, and could be easily checked.

The fact that we have a President of the United States who would peddle this contemptible bull to prop himself up is atrocious and depressing.

SEE ALSO:

Donald Rumsfeld reminds us that as far as Bush is concerned,  maybe a “thank-you” is in order?

Hot Air: Rumsfeld: If you’re wondering who to thank for Gaddafi’s lack of nukes …

Moammar Gaddafi’s decision to voluntarily surrender his nuclear-weapons program made the US significantly safer as a direct result of the Iraq War.  Had we not invaded Iraq in 2003 and captured Saddam Hussein in December of that year, Gaddafi would hardly have felt compelled to protect himself from similar American action at the time.  We found out shortly afterward that Libya had succeeded in making weapons-grade plutonium, and oh by the way also had 44,000 pounds of mustard gas.  In fact, Gaddafi’s rush to demonstrate his good citizenship only ended in 2007, when domestic opposition to Bush’s efforts in Iraq emboldened Gaddafi back into defiance.

Lady Penguin at United Patriot: Whatever Happened to Barack Obama?

Many of us knew in 2008 that an individual without a past, with the ardent support of the Left, had been packaged by Madison Avenue and sold to the American people.  Now he is our president.  How far back and how deep this goes, only the future can reveal, but the results of that election are going to haunt us for decades.  So, while the questions remain about who and what this man is, unfortunately, the answers remain the same.

Barack Obama is an individual who was groomed for this time, a product of his Leftist upbringing, but malleable in that he believes in his own deified status; still, a man unable to lead, and unable to engage in a way that makes sense to the American people.  There is a disconnect, and he appears disconnected; he doesn’t react or behave as we expect him to; he really doesn’t feel our pain, because, quite simply – he can’t.  There is a psychological component, as well as ideological basis for this belief.

We should no longer beat our heads against the wall – asking the unthinkable, “How can this man be our president?”  All we can do, and must do, is know that in 2012 we must elect an individual who is everything Mr. Obama is not.  The answer to the title, “Whatever happened to Barack Obama?”  The answer…”Nothing.”  He is exactly what he always was, a Marxist who wanted to transform America; he is a man who has nothing in common with her, nor does he accept  what is beautiful about this nation – her exceptionalism.  No matter how the MSM spins the next two years of this presidency, we must remember that while Mr. Obama is entitled to be himself, it should not be at the expense of the American people.

And on a lighter note…

Warning Signs: Top 10 Rejected Obama Mission Names

Elizabeth Taylor RIP

CNN reports:

Taylor died “peacefully today in Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles,” said a statement from her publicist. She was hospitalized six weeks ago with congestive heart failure, “a condition with which she had struggled for many years. Though she had recently suffered a number of complications, her condition had stabilized and it was hoped that she would be able to return home. Sadly, this was not to be.”

The legendary beauty had suffered from a plethora of maladies that threatened her health in her later years.  That she made it to her 79th year is perhaps a blessing.

Here’s a short bio of her life via Sky News:

 

Rest in peace, Ms. Taylor, may your star shine brightly in heaven.

Man Encouraging Economic Terrorism Visited Obama White House Four Times In Past Two Years According To White House Logs

Yesterday, a video taken at a closed session at a Pace University forum over the weekend, exposing the nefarious plans of former a SEIU official to destroy the US capitalism, made the rounds in the right wing blogosphere. Stephen Lerner can be heard saying:

“It seems to me that we’re in a moment where we need to figure out in a much more, through direct action, much more concrete way how we really are trying to disrupt and create uncertainty for capital, for how corporations operate,” Lerner said during the progressive conference last weekend in New York.

Some dismissed the story because Lerner had been fired by the SEIU for wasting money pushing this very project.  Anyone who is too radical for the SEIU, is a crackpot with very little influence one would think.

But as the Blaze reports, today, a look at White House visiter logs shows that a Stephen Lerner has visited the White House four times in the past two years.

Two of these visits were for public gatherings: a large group’s private White House tour and a White House Hanukkah celebration. But at least two other visits were scheduled for private meetings with high-level executive offices.

On May 22, 2010, Lerner met with a presidential personnel officer who manages economic agencies. While the minimal information in the WH visitor log offers no real information on what this meeting was about, it’s distressing to know a) anyone in the White House would meet with the kind of man who could openly call for the deliberate dismantling of the American economy, and that b) that White House official works to recruit personnel for the federal government’s economic agencies.

Perhaps more telling, the Stephen Lerner listed in the White House logs had an October 16, 2010 appointment scheduled by Tara Corrigan, executive assistant to then-WH political director Patrick Gaspard. Like Lerner, Gaspard spent much of his career working as a lobbyist and executive vice president for SEIU‘s Local 1199 in New York one of the union’s most powerful and notoriously militant chapters. You may recall that Gaspard announced his departure from the White House earlier this year in order to focus on the upcoming 2012 campaign. He now serves as executive director of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) under chairman Tim Kaine.

We have asked the White House to confirm that the reported “Stephen Lerner” is indeed the veteran SEIU organizer, however we still have received no response.

Read The Blaze’s full report.

The White House will no doubt say that this Stephen Lerner is yet another “false positive” like they have with other radicals who’s names have appeared on the  White House guest rolls. Andrew Breitbart noted the dilemma, in this Huffpo oped, yesterday:

The visitor logs that have been released are problematic, because they are simply lists of names, with no way to verify whether a specific name belongs to a particular person.

When the first names were released on Oct. 30, 2009, late on a Friday afternoon, then-White House “ethics czar” Norm Eisen noted the lists included “false positives” — “names that make you think of a well-known person, but are actually someone else.” According to Eisen, these included ordinary visitors named “Michael Jordan, William Ayers, Michael Moore, Jeremiah Wright, Robert Kelly (“R. Kelly”), and Malik Shabazz.”

A number of conservative bloggers noticed the names, but not Eisen’s blog post. With speed and precision suggesting direct coordination from the top, ThinkProgress, the core of the heavily funded John Podesta/George Soros “progressive” world, gleefully attacked its ideological foes for reporting “false positives.” The next release included “Louis Farrakhan” and “James Taylor,” but this time conservatives were more careful.

Yet there is no way to prove that the “false positives” really are false, because the White House refuses to reveal identifying information about visitors. In December 2009, citing visitor logs, Big Government reported that ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis had likely visited the White House on a special “staff tour” on September 5. The timing of Lewis’s visit — as the far-left regrouped in the aftermath of the health care town halls — seemed suspicious.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for the the MSM to show an ounce of curiosity about it.

***

UPDATE:

Weasel Zippers: GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz Demands Holder Investigate SEIU Official’s “Terrorist Plans” to Bring Down Banks…

Noted Democrat: War Without Congressional Approval Warrants Impeachment

A top ranking Dem has noted the illegality of war without congressional approval!

“I want to make it clear. And I made it clear to the President that if he takes this nation to war …without Congressional approval. I will make it my business to impeach him. That’s a fact. That is a fact.”

To find out who, click here.

Previously:

Freshman Dem Senator Comes Out Strongly Against Military Intervention In Middle East

If Election Were Held Today, Michigan’s Governor Snyder Would Lose Still Win

MI Gov. Rick Snyder

Lefty blogs were on fire today with bad polling news for Michigan’s  Republican Governor, Rick Snyder. A new PPP poll shows “Snyder quickly falling out of favor” so that if the election were held today, he would lose by a slim margin, even though he won last November by an 18 percent margin:

If you could do last fall’s election for Governor over again, would you vote for Democrat Virg Bernero or Republican Rick Snyder?  (  D 47 R 45 )   D+2

That’s distressing news for the Governor. I wonder what could have caused such a precipitous drop in his popularity?

The AFLCIO blog has an idea:

… it’s all due to his anti-worker policies.

Here’s why Snyder lost favor so fast. According to a new Public Policy Polling survey released today, his financial martial law bill is hugely unpopular in the state with 50 percent of voters opposing it and only 32 percent supporting it.

Even more Michigan voters (59 percent—32 percent) believe public employees should have the right to collective bargaining and 49 percent would favor a state constitutional amendment to guarantee it and 37 percent would not. Even nonunion households understand the value of collective bargaining with 53 percent saying they support bargaining rights.

Snyder has fallen out of favor with his state’s voters even more than his fellow Republicans Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker have lost favor with their state’s residents.

Gosh, can the voters really be that convinced that Governor Snyder is “anti-worker”, or could there be another explanation. I’m going to check the polls internals…

The March 22 PPP Poll sample shows a Dem  party ID advantage of  +13 points. ….

PPP MARCH 22 2011 POLL SAMPLE PARTY ID:  D 41 R 28 (D+ 13 )

Compare that to their own their own 2010 likely voter survey:

PPP SEPT 21 2010 LIKELY VOTER POLL R 39 D 36 (R+3)

Good grief. It’s abundantly clear to me that the left is pulling out all the stops for their union buddies. They are trying to create an illusion that the budget fixes that are limiting collective bargaining are grossly unpopular with the voters. In order to do that, they have to fudge their numbers. PPP isn’t a trustworthy polling outfit, plain and simple.  Their credibility is on the line, and they don’t even care. The cause comes first.

UPDATE:

Rasmussen reports that there has  been almost no change in party ID since the 2010 election, but there are +8 more Republicans then the 2008 election.

See also:

Taxes, Stupidity, and Death: Why Bother With Facts? Why Finish The Thought? Let Feeeeellllinnnggss Be Your Guide for an explanation of the bill in Michigan.

Other bloggers weigh in:

The Poll Insider: Public Policy Polling: Uhhhh-nalysis

The Lonely Conservative: The end of Public Policy Polling’s Credibility and preparing yourselves for 2012 polling

Hat tip: Charles B.

Caught On Tape: A Former SEIU Official’s Plan to Destroy US Capitalism And Redistribute Wealth And Power

This is shocking stuff – not the fact that some forces on the left would try to achieve its goals using a strategy like this, but the fact that the former official of the  SEIU was caught on tape, frankly discussing his plan to destroy the US economy at a Pace University forum, last weekend.

Video via The Blaze.

The Business Insider reports:

The plan is designed to destroy JP Morgan, nuke the stock market, and weaken Wall Street’s grip on power, thus creating the conditions necessary for a redistribution of wealth and a change in government.

The former SEIU official, Stephen Lerner, spoke in a closed session at a Pace University forum last weekend.

The Blaze procured what appears to be a tape of Lerner’s remarks. Many Americans will undoubtely sympathize with and support them. Still, the “destabilization” plan is startling in its specificity, especially coming so close on the heels of the financial crisis.

Lerner said that unions and community organizations are, for all intents and purposes, dead. The only way to achieve their goals, therefore–the redistribution of wealth and the return of “$17 trillion” stolen from the middle class by Wall Street–is to “destabilize the country.”

***

Lerner’s plan is to organize a mass, coordinated “strike” on mortgage, student loan, and local government debt payments–thus bringing the banks to the edge of insolvency and forcing them to renegotiate the terms of the loans.  This destabilization and turmoil, Lerner hopes, will also crash the stock market, isolating the banking class and allowing for a transfer of power.

Lerner’s plan starts by attacking JP Morgan Chase in early May, with demonstrations on Wall Street, protests at the annual shareholder meeting, and then calls for a coordinated mortgage strike.

Lerner also says explicitly that, although the attack will benefit labor unions, it cannot be seen as being organized by them. It must therefore be run by community organizations.

Lerner was ousted from SEIU last November, reportedly for spending millions of the union’s dollars trying to pursue a plan like the one he details here.  It is not clear what, if any, power and influence he currently wields. His main message–that Wall Street won the financial crisis, that inequality in this country is hitting record levels, and that there appears to be no other way to stop the trend–will almost certainly resonate.

You can read the entire transcript at Business Insider, and watch the uncut video at The Blaze.

UPDATE:

Here’s Glenn Beck talking about the economic terrorism on his show, today:

MORE:

Doug Ross : Didn’t FDR execute a few people for doing what this ex-SEIU official is caught on tape espousing?

If we had a real Attorney General, Lerner would be arrested on the spot for plotting to overthrow the United States government. For waging war against the American people and our Constitution.

I hear that used to be a crime. In fact, if memory serves, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt executed a few American citizens on that charge.

My husband, upon hearing the tape, asked, “isn’t that treason?!” And I just shook my head and said – not to this President and Justice Dept.

 

Hat tip: Hot Air.

Cross-posted at The Minority Report.

-

Linked by Michelle Malkin in Buzzworthy, thanks!

Video: Air Claire

Yesterday the story broke that Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill failed to pay $287,000 in property taxes related to her co-ownership of a private aircraft.

The Weekly Standard reported:

This scandal comes quickly on the heels of recent revelations that McCaskill improperly billed taxpayers for use of the same private aircraft, for which McCaskill reimbursed the Treasury $88,000.

Sen. Claire McCaskill is selling the personal plane that has caused her turbulence in recent weeks after POLITICO revealed she used taxpayer money to cover the cost of political travel.

The first-term Democrat said she was very happy she was able to convince her husband to “sell the damn plane.”

In a conference call Monday afternoon, McCaskill revealed that after her own review of the plane’s records, she had not paid personal property taxes on the aircraft over the past four years.

The NRSC was quick to exploit the scandal:

I should note that conservative Republican Governors  Sarah Palin of Alaska, and Susana Martinez of New Mexico quickly put their expensive state owned planes up for sale when they took office, in order to save the taxpayers money.

That’s how conservative women roll.

UPDATE:

Gateway Pundit: Good Grief… Air Claire Registered Her Plane in Delaware to Avoid Paying Taxes Before She Moved It to Missouri Where She Didn’t Pay Taxes

UPDATE II:

Publius at Big Government reports that McCaskill’s tax problems go far beyond “Air Claire”:

So, Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill ‘forgot’ to pay property taxes on her private jet. (There are at least three things wrong with that sentence.) But, her ‘oversight’ in ‘forgetting’ about a $300,000 tax bill is just the latest example of her pattern of tax problems and obfuscation. The document below details a multi-decade pattern of an apparent belief that laws are for ‘the other people’, not important elected officials like herself. (Oh, and did we mention that one of her husband’s properties was used repeatedly as a crack house?)

See rest at link.

MORE:

Roll Call: Republicans Crowd Senate Field in Missouri:

The number of Republicans running against Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, who is widely considered among the most vulnerable Democrats up for re-election in 2012, could soon double as she looks to move past recent ethics questions.

Two Republicans are already in, and two more are taking serious looks at the race, which the GOP sees as increasingly winnable. Former Ambassador to Luxembourg Ann Wagner met with the National Republican Senatorial Committee last week to discuss her interest, and Rep. Todd Akin is actively exploring a bid.

The entrance of the former state party chairwoman and the six-term Congressman would further crowd a field that already includes former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman and 2010 House candidate Ed Martin.

As the most highly recognizable name among the four and likely able to raise the most money, Akin, who received a perfect score for the second consecutive year in the American Conservative Union vote ratings, would likely jump to the front of the pack should he decide to run.

Linked by Michelle Malkin in Buzzworthy, thanks!

Video: Chris Matthews And Left-Wing Panel Ridicule Sarah Palin’s Trip To Israel

A trip to India and Israel is a good first step  for a potential presidential candidate seeking acceptance on the world stage. Sarah Palin gave  a very well received speech in India, and met with the Prime Minister Of Israel. Her trip overseas went very smoothly, and bolstered her foreign policy credentials. The experience should be considered a net positive for her.

But no – the left won’t give Palin that. She can’t even take a trip Israel without them sniping at her, ridiculing her with anti-Christian slurs, and sounding like frantic poor-sports freaking out because a longtime Dem constituency seems to be turning away from them. Everything about her is “weird” and scoff-worthy.

David Corn snidely argues that Evangelicals only like Israel  because Armageddon is supposed to happen there – and… and –it’s not like they actually  like Jews or Israelis…

I’m almost sorry to lay this on you – it’s hard to listen to grown men sounding like this:

Transcript via Newsbusters:

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: This coalition between the Right and Israel, the evangelical right in the United States, is not founded on personal friendships or anything like that, or even values. It’s founded on some sort of weird, rightwing thing where you just high five each other there at the Western Wall and then that’s done, they’re trip.

DAVID CORN, MOTHER JONES: But there is a theological component which Gene was referring to…

MATTHEWS: Explain.

CORN: …Which is there’s a certain brand of evangelical Christians who believe in Revelations, that Armageddon is coming, and that will happen in Israel basically.

MATTHEWS: If they hold the West Bank.

CORN: If they hold, well there’s a lot of different components to that, but that’s why they like Israel. That’s why they want Israel to be strong. It’s not because…

MATTHEWS: It’s not personal.

CORN: Right. It’s not because they like Jews or Israelis.

MATTHEWS: [Laughs]

What insufferable jack-a$$es.

(Excuse my French).

Hat tip: The Blaze

Video: Palin In Israel

Sarah Palin was mobbed by paparazzi after she visited the Western Wall tunnels in Israel, on Sunday.

Video via Weasel Zippers.

Aaron Klein reported for Fox News, this morning, that although most Israelis have never heard of Palin, they know she’s pro-Israel, and they appreciate that:

Daylife -JERUSALEM, ISRAEL – MARCH 21: In this handout image provided by the Israeli Government Press Office, Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (2L) and her husband Todd Palin (L) meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and his wife Sara Netanyahu

AFP reports on her dinner with Netanyahu:

Sarah Palin, darling of the US Republican right, joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for dinner at his Jerusalem residence on Monday on the second day of a “private visit” to Israel.

The meeting, at which the two were accompanied by their spouses, was off-limits to the media, and Netanyahu’s office did not immediately publish any statement.

A photograph released by the Israeli Government Press Office showed the two couples standing in front of the Israeli and United States flags in the residence.

The former Alaska governor arrived on Sunday afternoon with her husband Todd and went straight to Jerusalem’s walled Old City where she visited the Western Wall, the most sacred site where Jews are allowed to pray.

Palin plans to visit Christian sites in Northern Israel before she leaves the country, tomorrow.  AFP reports that she plans on returning in the coming months for “an official visit”. Wonder what that’s all about…

See also:

Legal Insurrection: “Why are you apologizing all the time?”

With that single sentence made to her Israeli hosts, Sarah Palin demonstrated a greater understanding of the problems confronting Israel than the collective wisdom of all the J.D.’s, Ph.D’s, and Masters of International Affairs in the Obama administration combined.

The question was profound, as simple as it were, because it addressed the narrative of perpetual Palestinian victimization and grievance.

UPDATE:

Video of The Palins meeting with the Netanyahus via Gateway Pundit:

Linked by Free Republic, and Michelle Malkin, thanks!

Reason #863 Why NPR Should Be Defunded

Actually, it’s reason # infinity, because there’s no end to the reasons why NPR should  be defunded. But NPR’s airing of a lame left-wing comedy skit (complete with laugh-track), that chooses to attack a conservative pundit with dishonest smears at a time when she’s experiencing hellish heartache in her personal life… just adds fuel to the DEFUND fire.

Michelle Malkin: Hey, NPR: Fund your own lame liberal humor — and leave my family alone:

If the obscure and has-been comedians who appear on National Public Radio want to mock conservatives and spread left-wing propaganda, they should do it on their own damned dime.

The government-sponsored radio conglomerate broadcasts a weekend show called “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” It leans heavily on laugh tracks to prop up the lame punchlines of the likes of liberal humorist Paula Poundstone and describes its purpose thusly: “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! is NPR’s weekly hour-long quiz program. Each week on the radio you can test your knowledge against some of the best and brightest in the news and entertainment world while figuring out what’s real news and what’s made up.”

The “best and brightest” include a Muslim comedian named Maz Jabrani, whom NPR has been promoting as “the face of Middle Eastern humor in America today.”

Keep reading.

The latest on Marizela’s case here.

See also:

Hot Air: Juan Williams: Defund NPR:

After being fired from NPR for expressing a controversial opinion on Fox News — along with a suggestion that he had mental problems — Juan Williams remained supportive of federal funding for public broadcasting.  What Vivian Schiller couldn’t do, apparently House Democrats could.  After the DCCC sent out a fundraising letter based on Democratic support for NPR lauding its ability to get out the progressive message, Williams now says enough is enough.

Read what Williams has to say about the fund-raising letter that changed his mind at Hot Air.

The  proposal to defund NPR passed the House on March 17,  228-to-192, with one Republican voting present.

All but seven Republicans voted for the measure, and all Democrats present voted against it.

The measure is unlikely to be taken up by the Democratic-controlled Senate. The White House on Thursday issued a statement “strongly opposing” the bill but stopping short of a veto threat.

Linked by Michelle Malkin and Village of the Banned, thanks!

Scott Walker Was Right – Libs Were Wrong

Photo credit Joseph Storkson

Heh.

This is a fun story to wake up to.

Isthmus and the AP had both made requests for Walker to release his emails under the state’s Open Records Law, after he had claimed  that most of them were supporting his budget repair bill.  He told reporters on Feb 17, that “the majority are telling us to stay firm, to stay strong, to stand with the taxpayers.” The left was quite sure that Walker was lying about that, and he’d have to call in Karl Rove “to hide the emails that were sent to him”.

Sorry chumps:

Gov. Scott Walker was right: The angry crowds in Madison didn’t tell the whole story of how Wisconsinites felt.

In the week after Walker announced his plan to dramatically curtail public employees’ collective bargaining rights in the state budget repair bill, a wide majority of the emails to him expressed support, an analysis of those emails indicates.

But that support was significantly boosted by emails from pro-Walker senders from outside Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism analyzed a computer-generated random sample of 1,910 emails from the more than 50,000 that flooded Walker’s office in the week after he unveiled his plan on Feb. 11. Nearly all were related to the bill.

The emails were released Friday as the result of an open records lawsuit brought in Dane County Circuit Court by Isthmus newspaper and the Wisconsin Associated Press. A settlement reached earlier in the week required the governor to produce the emails and pay the plaintiffs’ legal fees, which totaled just over $7,000.

At the request of Isthmus, the Center analyzed the emails. A team of reporters logged each of the emails in the sample as for or against the bill, unclear or unrelated. They also noted the location of the sender when possible.

Of the emails related to the bill, 62 percent supported it, while 32 percent opposed it. The margin of error for the Center’s sample size is plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.

The percentages are muddied by the fact that some people wrote more than one email — sometimes many more. The Center ran a computer script on the full set of emails and found at least 47,752 unique email addresses. The most prolific person sent at least 252 messages against the bill.

Those percentages align with Walker’s characterization of the emails on Feb. 17, when he told reporters that “the majority are telling us to stay firm, to stay strong, to stand with the taxpayers.”

The bill, introduced Feb. 11, called for eliminating most collective bargaining rights for 175,000 state and local public employees in the state and led to massive pro-labor protests. For nearly four weeks, tens of thousands of protesters filled the Capitol Square.

Walker remained unmoved by the opposition.

“We’re not going to allow for one minute the protesters to feel like they can drown out the voices of the millions of taxpayers across the state of Wisconsin,” Walker said Feb. 18.

***

Among the Center’s findings:

• Of the 1,493 emails on the bill where the sender’s location was apparent, the Center found that a third of Walker’s support came from outside the state.

• Eight-nine percent of the emails against Walker came from Wisconsinites.

• Out-of-state emailers overwhelmingly supported Walker, 85 percent to 15 percent, or a margin of nearly 6 to 1.

• When the Center looked only at emails from Wisconsin, the margin was much slimmer, with 55 percent favoring his bill and 42 percent opposed.

“So, actually, this is close to what he was saying,” said Charles Franklin, a professor of political science at UW-Madison.

Oh…it’s actually “close”, alright. Let’s look again at what Walker said: “the majority are telling us to stay firm, to stay strong, to stand with the taxpayers.” Turns out he was exactly right.

Hat tip: Gateway Pundit.

Linked by Verum Serum, thanks!

Sunday Night Links

Stuff you just hafta read before you go to bed:

Sad Hill News: Another Gulf Oil Spill Near Deepwater Drilling Site – W&T’s Matterhorn SeaStar

Connect the dots…

• Obama dumps BP holdings weeks before last year’s Gulf oil spill.
• Investigative reporters who get ‘too close‘ to the Gulf oil spill face 5 years in prison plus a $40,000 fine.
• Obama bans Gulf oil drilling.
• Obama underwrites foreign offshore oil drilling, primarily in Brazil.
• Obama visits Brazil shortly after awarding Petrobras – Brazil’s state-owned oil company in which George Soros is heavily invested - $2+ billion to finance offshore oil exploration near Rio de Janeiro.

And while vacationing in Rio de Janeiro - perhaps reassuring the Brazilians $ billions more will be made available upon request, as discussed – another massive oil spill in the Gulf is reported just 20 miles north of the Deepwater Horizon gusher.

(Rocky Kistner) The Coast Guard is investigating reports of a potentially large oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico [that] was sighted by a helicopter pilot on Friday and is about 100 miles long. A fishing boat captain said he went through the slick yesterday and it was strong enough to make his eyes burn.

Keep reading. There’s much more at the link.

***

Did Obama engage in identity fraud  in 1980, who helped him, and why?

Uncoverage: Obama’s Social Security Number: Dead Man Walking:

A licensed investigator from Ohio named Susan Daniels and investigator Neil Sankey have uncovered a startling thing about Obama’s SSN.  It was first issued to Thomas Woods who lived on Glenview Drive in Newington, Connecticut.  Sometime between March and May of 1977, Woods was issued the Social Security Number: 042-68-4425.  Sadly, a year later, Woods died at the age of nineteen.

On September 4, 1980, Obama registered with the Selective Service (i.e., the draft board).  On his form, Obama wrote his Social Security Number: 042-68-4425.

There are lots of questions one could ask about Obama’s SSN but the critical one to remember are the first three numbers – 042.  These identify the state which issued his number: 042 is Connecticut.  The problem, however, is that at that point in his life Obama had never stepped foot in Connecticut.  To the contrary, he was on the other side of the continent in Los Angeles attending Occidental College.

Keep reading.

***

Liberty Chick at Big Government: SEIU Hit With RICO Lawsuit:

After years of being harassed by the purple people beaters, one company has finally said ENOUGH.

In a press release issued Thursday, Sodexo USA announced that the company has filed a civil lawsuit against the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act., accusing the union of engaging in an “illegal campaign of extortion.”  The lawsuit representing Sodexo is Hunton & Williams – the same firm SEIU and its allies have accused of launching a “dirty tricks” campaign against them in retaliation for their anti-Chamber of Commerce campaigns. (more on that after the jump)

One of the largest food services and facilities management companies in the world, Sodexo is the provider of choice for most schools, universities, companies, hotels, prisons and other facilities that outsource their cafeteria and food catering operations, and for those that outsource industrial cleaning services.  SEIU has been incessantly battering Sodexo since 2007, in its desire to unionize some of its nearly 400,000 employees, many of them hotel and food service workers.  Exacerbating the tensions was a longstanding turf war between SEIU and UNITE HERE over hotel and casino workers, which often spilled over into SEIU’s antics prior to the settlement the warring unions reached this past summer.

Sodexo USA has filed the lawsuit in an attempt to halt the over-the-top harassment from SEIU, alleging that many of the acts are very serious and outside of the normal realm of union tactics, including acts of ” SEIU blackmail, vandalism, trespass, harassment, and lobbying law violations designed to steer business away from Sodexo USA and harm the company.” [emphasis added]

Aside from some of its usual corporate smear campaign tactics, certain organizers in the SEIU subscribed to some especially nasty, and frankly repulsive, tactics.

Continue reading at Big Government.

It’s about time someone sued these goons.

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The Shark Tank has the latest bon mots from Allen West, here and here.

Freshman Dem Senator Comes Out Strongly Against Military Intervention In Middle East

“The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”

To find out who said that, go here.

UPDATE!

Said Democrat debates himself on the use of force.

Hat tip: Charles B.

For Sale: Ex-Governor Bill Richardson’s Private Airliner For $3.3 Million

Governor Martinez

Taking a page out of Sarah Palin’s book, the thrifty new Republican Governor of New Mexico, Susana Martinez has put former Governor Bill Richardson’s expensive Cessna for sale:

 

“At a time when New Mexicans are struggling to make ends meet, their governor should not be leading a life of privilege,” Martinez said in January. “We will get rid of that ultimate symbol of waste and excess; we will sell the state’s luxury jet.”
Former Governor Bill Richardson bought the Cessna Citation Bravo in 2005 for $5.5 million and [state General Services Secretary] Burckle said he is listing it at $3.3 million.

From columnist Thomas J. Cole, Albuquerque Journal “No More High-Flying Governor for New Mexico”:

Martinez, who during the campaign pledged to sell the state jet and criticized aircraft use by the previous administration, hasn’t set foot on a government plane since taking office Jan. 1.

She has been traveling around the state in a government-provided Ford Expedition with a desk in the back seat.

Kudos to her.

Hat tip: Charles B.