Having covered Rick Santorum in Iowa, and having met his supporters, I know that he’s nowhere near dropping out. As he told me after our interview Saturday in Ames, they’ve run their entire campaign so far on about $600,000 in contributions and, according to Santorum’s staff, their online donations have increased since last Thursday’s debate.
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Finishing fourth in the Ames Straw Poll with 1,657 votes, Santorum spent a lot less per vote than did Bachmann, whose ads were all over Iowa TV in the two weeks leading up to the straw poll, while Santorum wasn’t advertising at all. Steve Ertelt of LifeNews.com says“with the Republican presidential race partly becoming an expectations game, Santorum gets a boost by performing much better than expected.”
I like Rick Santorum. In fact, and he’s one of my favorites in the race.He’s thoughtful, intelligent, well spoken, deeply conservative, and has done extremely well in all of the debates. As a fellow Catholic I appreciate the fact that he has “walked the walk” in his personal life, and fought for conservative, pro-life principles in his public life. But while his cultural conservatism is a plus for me, I understand it also turns many people off, and has in fact has inspired some of the most vile and profane critique ever witnessed in public discourse. It’s unfortunate because he’s really a top notch candidate.
What’s sad and ironic, is Obama’s response drew more attention to his lack of military service, and his thin skinned prickliness, than Perry’s supposed disrespect, so Obama”s the one who should watch what he says.
He also forced state health officials to make the vaccine available “free” to girls ages 9 to 18. The drug, promoted by manufacturer Merck as an effective shield against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) and genital warts, as well as cervical cancer, had only been approved by the Food and Drug Administration eight months prior to Perry’s edict.
Gardasil’s wear-off time and long-term side effects have yet to be determined. “Serious questions” remain about its “overall effectiveness,” according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. Even the chair of the federal panel that recommended Gardasil for children opposes mandating it as a condition of school enrollment. Young girls and boys are simply not at an increased risk of contracting HPV in the classroom the way they are at risk of contracting measles or other school-age communicable diseases.
Perry defenders pointed to a bogus “opt-out” provision in his mandate “to protect the right of parents to be the final authority on their children’s health care.” But requiring parents to seek the government’s permission to keep an untested drug out of their kids’ veins is a plain usurpation of their authority. Translation: Ask your bureaucratic overlord to determine if a Gardasil waiver is right for you.
Libertarians and social conservatives alike slammed Perry’s reckless disregard for parental rights and individual liberty. The Republican-dominated legislature also balked. In May 2007, both chambers passed bills overturning the governor’s unilaterally imposed health order.
Now, Perry is lamely trying to excuse this huge blotch on his record by saying that “he didn’t do his research well enough”:
And that’s just one of many examples of Perry’s crony capitalism. Left Coast Rebellists a few more:
The file on Perry’s abuses of power, insider deals with cronies and tax and spend policies is thick, but for a start here are what Texas RLC members voted as the top five Perry scandals which GOP primary voters need to know more about:
1.Business Slush Funds:Perry made heavy use of business incentive “slush funds” which used taxpayer dollars to subsidize selected businesses, many of them run by his major campaign contributors. Just two of these funds, the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Texas Emerging Growth fund, spent over $700 million to subsidize businesses to move to Texas or expand operations in Texas, with little evidence that these handouts of taxpayer money produced job or revenue growth anywhere near sufficient to justify the expense. In fact, many of these businesses eventually downsized or relocated long before they had earned the money Perry gave them, or even went bankrupt with $25 million fund dollars like Countrywide Financial.
Perry has never met a toll road project he wasn’t willing to seize huge amounts of private land for and then give the exclusive management contracts to foreign corporations. Perry’s time in office has set records for eminent domain land seizures – over a million acres have been seized. His toll road projects have confiscated family farms and torn communities apart. Toll roads have been used as a massive off-the-books tax program, taking money from Texas drivers and feeding it to foreign financial interests and management groups which lobbied the governor for special deals which produce much higher tolls and higher profits than are typical in other states.
In 2007 Perry issued an executive order which would have forcibly vaccinated every girl in Texas entering the sixth grade with Merck’s Gardasil vaccine for Human Papilloma Virus. This massive violation of the privacy rights of Texas teenagers and their parents would have come at a cost of $360 in taxpayer money per shot. It would have been a huge windfall for Merck, which had paid Perry’s former Chief of Staff $250,000 to lobby the governor and legislature to promote the forced vaccination program.
Knowing that it would be impossible to pass an income tax against popular opposition in Texas, Perry promoted the idea of a special business tax called the “Franchise Tax” which taxes businesses at different arbitrary rates set by the government. This tax expands business taxes to types of businesses which are not taxed in most states and in many cases taxes small businesses more than large corporations they compete with. For example it taxes small car repair shops at double the rate it taxes large dealerships for car repairs. It’s a small business and job killer.
When Rep. David Simpson led the Texas legislature towards passage of an enormously popular bill (HB1938) to hold the TSA accountable for intrusive searches of airline passengers, Perry played a key role in making sure that the bill was not passed. When the TSA and the Justice Department began pressuring him, although Perry had promised to submit the bill to the special legislative session, he delayed submitting the bill until it was so late in the session that it was virtually impossible to hold the constitutionally mandated votes necessary for passage. That way he could score points with the public for submitting the popular bill while at the same time making sure that it wouldn’t pass. It’s a classic example of Perry’s insincere pandering.
I remember that TX anti-TSA bill,and was pretty excited about it. Ugh. I’ve been waiting for a candidate to come out forcefully against the TSA’s grope and grab policies, and here we have someone, who when he had the power to do something about it, he caved to pressure from Obama’s corrupt TSA and DOJ? Ugh.
And another (former) Republican Governor, who spent her time in office fighting the type of crony capitalism we see coming out of Rick Perry’s Texas, still may enter the race.
P.S.
I’m open to any explanations Perry defenders have on any or all of these examples of what appears to be crony capitalism. In fact I’d like to hear his side of the story.
BARACK OBAMA: You know, Mr. Perry just got into the presidential race. I think that everybody who runs for president, it probably takes them a little bit of time before they start realizing that this isn’t like running for governor or running for senator or running for Congress, and you’ve got to be a little more careful about what you say.
But I’ll cut him some slack. He’s only been at it for a few days now.
Jeez, it’s hard to isolate the most egregious offense, here…
Is it the arrogance?: Deigning to school the inexperienced, political neophyte, Perry on how to run for President…like Perry needs his advice?
The condescension?: “I’ll cut him some slack....” (How big of him).
And then there’s the implicit warning—”He’s only been at it a few days now” ….We’ll give him a few days to get his bearings, then if he starts hitting me where I’m vulnerable (that would be all over – ed), Captain Kick-A$$ takes the gloves off. Obama’s warning to Perry to be “more careful” is self-serving – it’s designed to benefit him by intimidating Perry.
It’s obvious to everyone that Obama’s Midwest jaunt is a campaign bus tour.
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The president should simply refuse to talk about the GOP candidates until next spring. It’s just undignified for him to be attacking this early. And it puts him in the frame of mind where for the next year and two months, he’ll be making decisions based on what his political hacks – and Romney’s and Perry’s – are thinking.
He’d do better politically and for the country if he’d just be president. Responding to every peep out of the Republicans is amateurish self indulgence.
Shouldn’t the President be a little more careful?
The most egregious offense of all? Acting like Rick Perry said anything wrong. He didn’t:
“The men and women in the United States Military want someone who’s worn the uniform” – Perry’s worn the uniform.
Speaking obvious truths is “disrespectful”, how?
Note to the Perry Campaign: Don’t be deterred from speaking the truth. He’s going to come at you with both barrels blazing no matter what you do.
Oh, and btw, get used to being called a racist. Governor Perry, (R-Racist) is going to be a recurring theme for the next 14 months. Get used to it. His surrogates at PMSNBC are already pushing the narrative, and that clumsy oaf, Ed Schmultz is taking a leading role - going to the trouble of doctoring tapes to make Perry sound like he said something he didn’t. There’s going to be so much of this going on in the months ahead, the eventual back-tracks and weaselly statements “of regret”, won’t matter. The narrative will have been created and that’s all they care about.
Poor Obama gets a lot of flack from racist Republicans, especially that Texas “good old boy”, Rick Perry — just for being (half) black.
It’s a flawed strategy for a couple of reasons -
1.) The dim bulbs at MSNBC don’t have the persuasive powers to influence anyone but the dimmest of bulbs who watch them.
2.) The race card is about maxed out. Is this they best they’ve got?
Here’s a remake of a familiar tune commemorating President Obama’s Midwest bus tour in which he is attempting to resuscitate his failing presidency. Sound track courtesy of Minnesotan’s for Global Warming.
A few thoughts of reflection after consideringPJM‘s coverage of Rick Perry’s announcement of his candidacy:
1. Conservatives fear leftist government because they know the policies do not work and the country will suffer as a result.
2. Leftists fear conservative government because deep down they are afraid the policies will work and the country will prosper as a result and more people will abandon the progressive faith and they will no longer be able to live with the comforting delusion that they are superior to everyone around them.
3. The Left is permanently incapable of self-reflection. It cannot reverse its centuries-long cosmic quest for the Open Society based on Social Justice; but rather only shift its tactics when necessary.
4. Hence the only considered option when confronted with failure is to double down like an obsessive gambler, laying his family’s and our nation’s prosperity on the blackjack table. “The programs didn’t work to revive the economy/make health care cheaper because we didn’t ‘invest’ enough money!”
All countries that use the euro should have mandatory balanced budgets and better coordination of economic policy, the leaders of France and Germany said Tuesday, pushing for long-term political solutions instead of immediate financial measures like a single European bond.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also pledged to harmonize their countries’ corporate taxes in a move aimed at showing the eurozone’s largest members are “marching in lockstep” to protect the euro.
Both leaders stressed their commitment to defending the common currency, a cornerstone of integration on this long-fractured continent. They presented their proposals after meeting Tuesday in Paris amid signs of economic slowdown, and after an exceptionally turbulent week on financial markets prompted by concern about Europe’s financial health.
Take note: Republican internal polls have Simac up by at least 4 percentage points:
There are a pair of dueling polls, one from Public Policy Polling for their biggest partisan client, Daily Kos, and one from We Are America for the right-advocating Red Racing Horses (crosstabs of the latter courtesy WisPolitics). Even though both polled roughly the same number of people over the weekend and have an effectively-identical 2.6% margin of error, the top line can’t possibly be more different. While PPP/DKos has Holperin up 55%-41% overall, and 51%-43% among “independents”, WAA/RRH has Holperin up 51%-49% (actually a few tenths less) overall, and Simac up 52%-48% among “independents”.
The big difference is, as is often the case, the partisan weighting. PPP/DKos has the Democrat/Republican/”independent” ratio at 35%/26%/39%, while WAA/RRH has it at 28%/28%/43% (with 1% refused, and the Dems with a statistically-insignificant advantage). As followers of Wisconsin politics know, there is no such thing as partisan registration in Wisconsin, so one has to dig into the results to figure out which is right and which is BS. My “generic R-v-D” calculation, averaging out the 2008 Presidential and 2010 gubernatorial results, gives the generic Republican a 5.0 percentage point advantage. The high-water mark for the Democrats in competitive races this past decade was, ignoring minor-party and write-in candidates, a 7.0 percentage-point margin, gained by long-time incumbent state Senator Roger Breske in 2004 (who departed for a state job in 2008, opening the door for Holperin), US Senator Russ Feingold in 2004, and Barack Obama in 2008. Holperin, against the same opponent as Breske, managed only a 2.4 percentage point margin in 2008.
I could almost argue that both polls overweight Democrats, especially since Red Racing Horses cited Republican internal polls that have Simac up by at least 4 percentage points, and last week, incumbency was worth an average of roughly 3 percentage points over “generic”. However, the race is all about turnout, and despite both campaigns pouring everything into it (story via WisPolitics), nobody really knows what the turnout is going to be.
The country’s automakers should ditch their focus on SUVs and trucks in favor of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, President Obama said Monday.
“You can’t just make money on SUVs and trucks,” Obama said during a town hall forum in Cannon Falls, Minn. “There is a place for SUVs and trucks, but as gas prices keep on going up, you have got to understand the market. People are going to try to save money.”
Obama’s policies are, of course, designed to get us into smaller calls. Insufferable!
BTW, Commodore Snoogie Woogums at The People cube is experiencing “strong emotions and feelings” about Obama’s bus tour: Obama’s Bus Tour Inspires Emotions:
I have had some strong emotions of late watching how our Dear Leader has been held hostage by those Teabagging Neanderthals in Washington D.C. That very rabble who just refuse to get with our program and has been making live difficult for our beloved President.
It was with a gladden heart to hear that our mentor and inspiring leader would be able to forget his travails in Washington D.C and get on a bus for a little respite and mingle with the masses again.
In 2004, Barack Obama’s GOP opponent for Senate — Jack Ryan — “mysteriously” had his sealed divorce records un-sealed.But I’m sure that’s just coincidental.
You know, I find the media quite honest and diligent. It mocks and vilifies Rick Perry’s college transcripts, yet somehow forgot about checking Barack Obama’s: (see lengthy list at the link).
I’m going to assume that Obama barely squeaked by and wrote his papers on topics like “how to achieve a Communist revolution capitalistic America” until I see some transcripts.
Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan is strongly considering a run for president. Ryan, who has been quietly meeting with political strategists to discuss a bid over the past three months, is on vacation in Colorado discussing a prospective run with his family. Ryan’s concerns about the effects of a presidential campaign – and perhaps a presidency – on his family have been his primary focus as he thinks through his political future.
“He’s coming around,” says a Republican source close to Ryan, who has been urging the 41-year-old to run.
“With Paul, it’s more about obligation than opportunity,” says another Wisconsin Republican. “He is determined to have the 2012 election be about the big things. If that means he has to run, he’s open to it.”
Ryan hinted at his thinking during a candid interview Friday with Charlie Sykes, an influential talk radio host in Milwaukee, telling Sykes that he was unsatisfied with the current crop of Republican candidates.
The House Budget Committee Chairman’s Press Secretary Kevin Seifert tells Fox News: “While grateful for the continued support and encouragement, Congressman Ryan has not changed his mind.”
The Anchoress just finished Mark Steyn’s new book, After America, and shares her thoughts: Moments After America:
It is rare for a book release, no matter how timely, to coincide with breaking news. In the case of Mark Steyn’s After America the alignment was downright spooky. As louts, brats and the non-thinkers who wish merely to be part of a “moment” terrorized the citizenry and burned down London neighborhoods, across the pond one could enter a bookstore, lift Steyn’s latest from a shelf and read:
The United Kingdom seems to be evolving from a nanny state into a kind of giant remedial institution for elderly juvenile delinquents. At bus stops in London, there are posters warning, “DON’T TAKE IT OUT ON US.” At the Underground station, you see the slogan, “IF YOU ABUSE OUR STAFF, LONDON SUFFERS” . . . I found this one of the bleakest comments on modern Britain: all the award-winning wit and style of the London advertising world deployed in service of a devastating acknowledgment of civic decay.
Pondering the fact that in Wales, Northern Ireland and parts of Northern England the state accounts for up to 78 percent of the economy, Steyn wonders, “why wouldn’t you take it out on the state?”
The chapter may be specific to the United Kingdom, but Steyn is very clear: what is a daily reality in Britain will soon be America’s reality, too, unless the country reverses its embrace of the social and economic policies that are bankrupting Europe and bringing its society to its collective knees.
My friend Da Tech Guy got into an argument with Cynthia Yockey about Michele Bachmann’s husband, Marcus. Everyone is jumping up and down yelling that he sets off their “gaydar,” pointing especially to his (alleged) involvement with the NARTH “reparative therapy” movement. Between that and his (alleged) gay mannerisms, these armchair sexuality sleuths have concluded that Marcus Bachmann is a closet case, another Ted Haggard scandal waiting to happen.
What is at the heart of such speculation is a myth that arose in the 20th century, based largely on the theories of Sigmund Freud and Alfred Kinsey, which holds that all human beings have an inborn sexual essence which must be fulfilled in order for them to be psychologically healthy. This myth of “sexual orientation” (sometimes known as “sexual identity,” as it pertains to transgenderism) has so pervaded our culture that most people are no longer capable of understanding it as myth.
According to Fox News’ William La Jeunesse, Az’s US Attorney is doing more to protect his own office, than victim rights, by preventing the family from speaking at the sentencing of the man who bought the gun that allegedly shot their son. He calls it a “highly unusual” decision.
Fox News covers the latest details in Operation Fast and Furious. Arizona’s U.S. attorney rejected the claim to list the Terry family to receive “crime victim” status. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in a shootout in December 2010. Two of the guns found on the scene had been walked across the U.S.-Mexico border in the Justice Department approved Operation Fast and Furious.
It’s pretty sad that 16 months after Obama’s signature achievement, the abominable ObamaCare was passed, (against the will of the people), he is still out on the campaign trail his Magical Misery/Malaise Tourstumping for it. Sadder still that his position on the individual mandate is 180 degrees away from what it was when he was running for President, as this video, via Weasel Zippers, demonstrates:
So which Obama is right, A.) the 2008 Hope and Change Obama, or B.) the 2011 Misery and Malaise Obama?
If you chose A, the 2008 Hope and Change Obama (the one who was elected) *Ding Ding Ding!* you are correct!
ObamaCare’s defenders claim that all Americans consume health care, so Congress can use its power under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to compel everyone to pay for their care via insurance. The purpose of that individual mandate, they insist, is to prevent “free riders” from shifting their health-care costs on to others.
Nonsense, said the judges: The administration’s arguments are a “convenient sleight of hand,” obscuring what the law truly does. In reality, they concluded, it forces healthy people to buy “fully loaded” health plans to subsidize insurance companies — which in turn are compelled to provide unlimited coverage to people with chronic illnesses and pre-existing conditions.
In short, the law converts insurers into private tax collectors, collecting mandatory premiums from the healthy to pay for politically popular changes in the insurance laws.
Drawing on copious statistics, the judges show that today’s health-care “free riders” are largely illegal immigrants (who are exempt from the mandate) and low-income Americans (who will get coverage under the law’s vast expansion of Medicaid). In other words, the mandate doesn’t prevent free riding — it enforces it.
In imposing the mandate, wrote the judges, “the Congress sought to mitigate” the costs of popular reforms like covering pre-existing conditions and removing lifetime caps on payouts “by compelling healthy Americans outside the insurance market to enter the private insurance market and buy insurers’ products.”
That is, it forces people to enter the insurance market — and forcing people to enter into commerce is different from regulating them once they voluntarily engage in it. Only the latter is constitutional.
When people forego insurance, that is “inactivity,” argued Judge Roger Vinson, who ruled for the 26 states and against the Obama administration in a lower court. Vinson said that if Congress “has the power to compel an otherwise passive individual into a commercial transaction,” there is no practical limit on Congress’ power.
Judges Hull and Dubina agreed with Vinson. But they made a further argument that may be decisive before the Supreme Court — namely, that the Obama administration contrived its Commerce Clause argument on a falsehood.
The Obama lawyers argue that health-care consumption is “universal” and “inevitable,” that there is no such thing as being “inactive” in health-care commerce, that people without insurance are actively deciding to be “free riders.”
That’s a whopper. Half the population consumes little or no health care, the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reports. Yet the law would subject them to the same insurance mandate as those who consume health care.
This is AWESOME video from Decorah, Iowa, one of Obama’s stops on his Misery Tour. Two “tea party activists” asked Obama about Biden’s alleged anti-tea party remarks. The comment, “they (the tea party) have acted like terrorists” was made in a closed door meeting with like minded Democrats according to several sources who were there, as reported by the Politico. Obama denied that it happened. He didn’t say, “The Vice President denied it, and I take him at his word”, or some such thing. He just flat out denied that Biden used the word, terrorist, to describe tea partiers.
What makes this video incredible is the fact that actual conservatives were allowed to get so close to the Messiah. How did that happen?
UPDATE:
Here’s the video, via Breitbart TVof Obama initially taking the tea party guy’s question, and brushing him off:
So, what is he saying here? Since individuals have called the President of the United States names, then it’s OK for the Vice President to label an entire group of citizens as “terrorists”?
“We have not been satisfied with the level of protection offered by leased buses,” said a Secret Service official.
Another official said the buses cost the service $1.1-million and are of a size and make the Secret Service finds most suitable for its equipment and protective requirements.
As Mr. Obama is increasingly overwhelmed by events, as he and his presidency shrink before our eyes, his worst tendencies are being exacerbated, his narcissism further exposed, his anger at an unaccommodating world more pronounced. A man of supreme self-regard is watching things crumble before his eyes. He is obviously not well equipped to process any of this. It is enough for one to feel, if only for a moment, some pity for Mr. Obama. These are not easy days for him, and certainly not for his country.
A new web video and harsh criticism emerged from the Mitt Romney camp today as President Barack Obama launched his three-day bus tour that will make stops in Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois.
Dubbing the president’s trip the “Magical Misery bus tour,” Romney said in a statement that “it is unlikely President Obama will speak with unemployed Americans, to near-bankrupt business owners, or to families struggling to survive in this economy.”
The Republican National Committee will launch a “grassroots, media and on-the-ground” effort during President Barack Obama’s bus tour through the Midwest this week, The Daily Caller has learned. The RNC has dubbed the trip the “Debt-End Bus Tour,” or “DEBT.”
RNC chairman Reince Priebus will hold a press conference on Monday with Minnesota GOP chair Tony Sutton in Cannon Falls, Minn. — the first stop on the President’s tour — to draw attention to the slow-growing U.S. economy. …
In a guide the RNC plans to hand out Monday morning, it slams Obama’s economic policies and criticizes him for taking a so-called non-campaign trip without producing a plan to deal with the country’s debt.
In the guide, the RNC calls President Obama’s debt plan “A Big Ol’ Hunk of Nothing on Two Thick Slices of Nada.”
Priebus “came out swinging” at the “campaigner in Chief” for his “joke of a bus tour” paid for by taxpayers in this Fox interview:
In a play for 38 percent, Obama embarks today on a three day bus tour, complete with town hall meetings. Then, in a move apparently planned by his campaign team to help him out, he sets out for a ten day vacation.
Watch his numbers start to improve.
I was gonna say —when he stays away from the cameras, his numbers do seem to improve.
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*EACH. I wasn’t sure about that when I first posted, so I purposely didn’t specify. But, it’s 1.1 million each according to CNN White House Correspondent Brianna Keilar: The President’s beastly bus
In the past, the Secret Service has leased buses, adding protective armor and advanced communications capabilities that must be stripped from the buses to restore them to their original condition before they are returned. It was an expensive practice, costing tens of thousands of dollars per month, Donovan said, and the Secret Service expects the new buses will ultimately save money over time.
So how pimped is this ride? We don’t know. The Secret Service won’t reveal details and so far members of the press have yet to sneak a peek inside.
No, wait! Fortunately for us, Doug Ross’s indefatigable cub reporter, Biff Spackle, was able to get his hands on the layout for the “Tragical Misery Tour Bus”, and has this exclusive.
An excellent rant (even by Condell’s high standards) to get Monday started:
Law and order has completely broken down in Jolly olde England, thanks to a left-wing ideology which elevates the mob above law abiding citizens. Home owners in Great Britain aren’t even allowed to defend themselves in their own houses. Condell’s absolutely correct that if the police had beaten back the mob before it had gotten out of control, race hustlers and liberal elites would have screamed bloody murder. Civilization retreats while the mob advances. Is the left happy with what it has wrought?
As the polluted flood (it is not a tide; it will not go back down again) of spite, greed and violence washes on to their very doorsteps, well-off and influential Left-wingers at last meet the filthy thing they have created, and which they ignored when it did not affect them personally.
No doubt they will find ways to save themselves. But they will not save the country. Because even now they will not admit that all their ideas are wrong, and that the policies of the past 50 years – the policies they love – have been a terrible mistake. I have heard them in the past few days clinging to their old excuses of non-existent ‘poverty’ and ‘exclusion’.
RELATED:
We have been seeing “flashes” of this same type of mob violence in the united states, and it’s on the increase.
Two of their Senators, Jim Holperin, D-Conover, and Sen. Robert Wirch, D-Pleasant Prairie, face recall elections on Tuesday, and I think they should be concerned. There is, what the pollsters call, an enthusiasm gap, in favor of the Republicans. Democrats, discouraged that they don’t control the Senate might not bother to show up at the polls to defend their Senators.
Um — I hesitate to mention this, because it’s PPP (and we all know how reliable they are, right?) – On a less positive note, Markos tweeted, earlier today:
Just got @ppppolls results from two Wisconsin recall elections Tuesd. Dems will win both by double-digits. Remember, PPP nailed last week.
We’ll have to take a good look at the internals when the poll is released Monday morning.
PPP has a split personality; some of its polls are straight up and in actual elections it seems to do as well as many other polling organizations. But PPP also engages in messaging polls, which help shape the debate. And on its blog, PPP spins its polling furiously for Democrats. PPP wants to have it both ways, being neutral professonal pollster and advocate; it’s a tough act to pull off.
It seems that every time I bother to look at the numbers behind a PPP poll, I find that they over sampled Democrats. While I have not tested a majority of PPP polls, in the times I’ve looked at their numbers I’ve never seen a sampling which reflected party-affiliation reality or which oversampled Republicans. Maybe I’ve just had bad luck, or maybe there is a problem at PPP.
A poll like this one may buck-up dispirited Dems, but it might also depress turnout to the polls; why bother when it’s already in the bag – and they’re not going to be controlling the Senate, anyway?
Steitz sums up the telling difference between the two recall elections Fox6Now:
Day after day the 14 state senators stayed away, much to the frustration of Republicans across the state. After three weeks, Republicans found a way to pass the collective bargaining bill without Democrats by removing all the financial elements.
The Democrat senators returned as heroes of the protesters, but were despised by conservatives in their districts. That’s what led to the recall of three Democrats including Wirch. Steitz says, “He needs to be thrown out of office, because he abdicated his responsibility, his job, despite what he’ll say, is to be in Madison voting on bills. He should have been there arguing against the bill, voting against the bill. I disagree with you, but don’t run away.”
The claim is made in a flier Wirch’s campaign mailed July 25, 2011 to voters. The flier cites Uline, a national distributor of shipping, industrial and packaging materials, and includes this headline:
“Bob Wirch helped bring Uline to our area — creating 800 local jobs.”
So, did he?
Uline describes itself as a family-owned company that employs 2,600 employees across the country. It was founded in 1980 by Dick and Liz Uihlein; Dick Uihlein is the great-grandson of the founder of the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co., one of Milwaukee’s famed beer makers.
The company was headquartered in Waukegan, Ill., just south of the Wisconsin border, when it announced n June 2006 that it would expand in Pleasant Prairie, a Kenosha suburb about 40 miles south of Milwaukee. Both Wirch and Steitz, a lawyer who is making his first run for public office, live in the village.
Uline made big news in January 2008, when it announced it would move its headquarters to Pleasant Prairie and build a distribution center there, investing $100 million and employing 1,000 people by 2010. The company also said it would utilize state government incentives that were later calculated to be worth up to $18.6 million over nine years.
The Wirch campaign flier led Dick and Liz Uihlein to issue a statement in response on Aug. 3, 2011.
“We worked with a variety of state and local officials during the relocation process; however, state Sen. Wirch was not one of them,” the couple said in the statement, noting they do not support Wirch’s campaign.
That’s a strong rebuttal to Wirch’s claim that he aided in the company’s move.
The statement also noted that a bill Wirch sponsored to help Pleasant Prairie with economic development — which is also mentioned in his campaign flier — was not introduced until July 2011 — months after Uline had completed its relocation. The bill was “by no means a determinative factor in our decision to relocate,” the company’s statement said.
***
Wirch’s claim of helping land a big new employer is not only false but ridiculous — or, Pants on Fire.
According to Wisconsin native, Steve Eggleston in the Greenroom, the Steitz/Wirch race is tightening, what more, the Republican Party of Wisconsin is actively organizing GOTV efforts in both districts.
A colossal embarrassment to the Wirch campaign like this one could prove to be toxic for the embattled fleebagger in this tight race
Tarek Fatah, moderate Muslim advocate, and political progressive, recently told an auditorium, filled with thousands of Canadians, that Americans need to know that “the religion of Islam is being used as a tool by a fascist force,” and has infiltrated the White House. The speech was given in Toronto at Ideacity, “Canada’s premiere meeting of the minds”.
“The dangers we face; if we do not confront them today, our children will not forgive us tomorrow”. Tarek Fatah delivers a passionate call to action, asking the ideacity 2011 audience to draw the distinction between Islam as a faith and Islamism as an ideology.
Before we go on, here’s a little background on Tarek Fatah, via Wikipedia:
Tarek Fatah (born November 20, 1949) is a Canadian political activist, writer, and broadcaster. He is the author of Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State[1] published by John Wiley & Sons. In the book Fatah challenges the notion that the establishment of an Islamic state is a necessary prerequisite to entering the state of Islam. He suggests that the idea of an Islamic state is merely a mirage that Muslims have been made to chase for over a millennium. Chasing a Mirage was shortlisted for the $35,000 Donner Prize for 2008–09.
Fatah’s second book, titled The Jew Is Not My Enemy: Unveiling the Myths that Fuel Muslim Anti-Semitism,[3] was published by McClelland & Stewart in October 2010.
In May 2009, Fatah joined CFRB 1010. Later that fall, he joined John Moore‘s morning show as a contributor.[4] Currently, he co-hosts “Friendly Fire,” with Ryan Doyle on CFRB NewsTalk 1010′s evening show.
“I want you to focus and I hope you can talk to your families and your friends and your neighbors that when someone says that there is a penetration of Jihadi Islamists within Canadian society, do not dismiss it as some right-wing xenophobic racist rant.
Today in the White House there are three members of the Muslim Brotherhood that influence Obama’s policy.
One is Rashad Hussain of Indian origin who is the American Ambassador to the 52 nation organization of Islamic countries.
Dialia Mogahed who writes his speech who comes from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
Just day before yesterday, another woman, an academic, was appointed in that circle.
This is happening while we sit silent and I say that as a Liberal Democrat, as someone who worked and campaigned for Barack Obama.
We have evidence in Canada of this penetration that’s going on.”
When I hear this in the wake of our recent grievous losses in Afghanistan — losses that some are whispering could have, should have been avoided, I am sick to my stomach.
Longtime readers of this blog already know I, and many others in the conservative media went to great lengths to expose Obama’s radical associations and supporters in 2008. I can still hear the the left’s wailing refrain, “Guilt by association!”. No, you idiots. It was guilt of association. No normal person is friendly with that many Islamic radicals and Marxists as I tried to point out here, and here.
Khalidi, a Yasser Arafat toady, got $75,000 through Obama and Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers from the Woods Foundation, and later Khalidi returned the favor by hosting a fundraiser for Obama. Obama “lavished praise” on Khalidi in 2003 when the former PLO functionary took a job at Columbia University, according to an LA Times article last year. It’s hardly ancient history, and Khalidi is hardly an acquaintance.
Hey, LA Times. Now that we know, or at least suspect Obama is giving White House appointments to active members of the Muslim Brotherhood….do you think you release the freakin’ tape, already?
Noisy Room continues:
Obama’s embrace of those who hate America and actively pursue the destruction of our country from within and externally has been on display for quite awhile and it’s time we see, speak and hear the truth.
Obama brought the Muslim Brotherhood into our White House; no one but Obama did this. He brought George Soros into our White House, an anti-Semite who aided the Nazi’s and a financial terrorist who is making billions off the economic misery Obama has purposely caused in our country. Many Americans fail to understand this while the media hides the truth. From corrupt dictators (e.g. inviting President Ali Bongo of Gabon to the White House) to domestic terrorists (e.g. Bill Ayers) to self-proclaimed Communist/Marxist (e.g. Van Jones), these, and many more like them, are the people Obama brings into our White House… these are his friends and associates.
Do you know people like this? Do you work with people like this? Would you appoint three Muslim Brotherhood members to the White House if you were President?
The Muslim Brotherhood creed:
“Allah is our objective, the prophet is our leader, the Koran is our law, Jihad is our way, dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”
“Jihad is our way” explicitly endorses the reinstatement of a worldwide Islamic regime.
On February 14, (2010) the Global Muslim Brotherhood Report first broke the story of Rashad Hussain’s statements about Sami al-Arian:
Rashad Hussain, White House official and President Obama’s newly appointed Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference, has a history of participation in events connected with the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood as well as support for Brotherhood causes, once having called prosecution of the U.S. leader of a Palestinian terrorist organization one of many “politically motivated persecutions.”
In “Appeasing the Muslim Brotherhood” at FrontPage today, Nonie Darwish exposes his closest Islamic adviser, Dalia Mogahed:
When President Obama spoke to the Muslim world in Cairo last June, a large portion of his guests were leaders and members of the Muslim Brotherhood. The speech was designed to please them more than supporting the reformist movement in Egypt and across the Muslim world.
The Obama administration has hired the first White House Muslim advisor, Dalia Mogahed, who helped with writing Obama’s speech. Mogahed is herself an Islamic ideologue who supports Islamic Sharia and denies any connection between radical Islam and terrorism. Mogahed, who was born in Egypt, has also been a firm defender of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Both of these US groups are tied to the Muslim Brotherhood.
According to an article by Stephen Schwartz, a prominent American convert to Islam, in the Weekly Standard on October 20, 2009, it turns out that the Islam embraced by Mogahed is decidedly fundamentalist — a brand that endorses Shariah or Islamic law (which, of course, goes against American laws), approves of a restricted role for women (including the wearing of the Muslim headdress, hajib, in public), and calls for a global Islamic government.
Born in Egypt, Mogahed was brought to America as a child; earned a master’s in business; collaborated with tireless defender of radical Islam Georgetown professor John L. Esposito in producing a controversial study, Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think; and became a senior analyst and executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies.
Soros is waging his own personal ideological war against America by shoveling seemingly limitless funds into organizations giving life to his “progressive” vision of social justice.
That vision, like the Muslim Brotherhood’s, identifies America and Israel as the “Great Satan” and “Little Satan” respectively, who must be demolished to pave the way for a purifying, redemptive utopia. These common enemies unite progressives and Islamic fundamentalists in what David Horowitz has coined an “unholy alliance.” As Andrew C. McCarthy writes in The Grand Jihad, “With their collectivist philosophy, transnational outlook, totalitarian demands, and revolutionary designs, Islamists are natural allies of the radical Left.”
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Thus Soros and his spokesmen like Muasher see opportunity in the unrest roiling the Middle East and North Africa – opportunity to support the enemy of their enemy. The numerous ties of Soros and his Shadow Party cohorts have been documented; they include the master puppeteer’s own Open Society Institute and various anti-Western Islamist groups in the revolutions. It has been confirmed, for instance, that the International Crisis Group (ICG), led in part by Soros, has long petitioned for the Egyptian government to “normalize” ties with the previously banned Brotherhood – for example, in a June 2008 report called “Egypt’s Muslim Brothers: Confrontation or Integration?” And this talking point is echoed by Brian Katulis, senior fellow at the Soros-funded Center for American Progress: “Any real democratic opening would lead to greater participation of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood in a future Egyptian government.”
Soros himself has put forth this argument. In a February Washington Post editorial entitled “Why Obama Has to Get Egypt Right,” he asserts with almost comic optimism that “the Muslim Brotherhood’s cooperation with [Egyptian opposition leader] Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel laureate who is seeking to run for president, is a hopeful sign that it intends to play a constructive role in a democratic political system.”
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… by calling for the Muslim Brotherhood to be given a seat at the table and a hand in fashioning the future of the Arab world, George Soros may be biting off more than he can chew with this alliance of convenience. To quote Andrew McCarthy again:
Revolutionaries of Islam and the Left make fast friends when there is a common enemy to besiege. Leftists, however, are essentially nihilists whose hazy vision prioritizes power over what is to be done with power… Islamists, who have very settled convictions about what is to be done with power, are much less so. Even their compromises keep their long-term goals in their sights. Thus do Leftists consistently overrate their ability to control Islamists.
Whatever nasty surprise awaits Soros and the Left in the long-run, at the present time they and the Muslim Brotherhood are solidifying a formidable alliance that threatens American capitalism, sovereignty, and security at home and abroad.
The U.S. Defense Department on Thursday released the names of U.S. military personnel killed in Saturday’s downing of a helicopter in Afghanistan.
(CNN) Thirty-eight people were killed in that attack, eight of them Afghan military personnel. It was the single largest loss of life for U.S. troops since the Afghan war began in late 2001
Of the 30 Americans, 17 were Navy SEALs.
Twenty-two of the dead were U.S. Navy personnel, the Pentagon said. Fifteen were SEALs belonging to the top-secret unit that conducted the raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at a compound in Pakistan. Two others were SEALs assigned to a regular naval special operations unit.Five were so-called conventional forces with particular specialties who regularly worked with the SEALs. The other eight U.S. troops killed were three Air Force forward air controllers and five Army helicopter crew members.
NATO said it killed the militants responsible for the attack. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid rejected that, saying a NATO airstrike killed a separate group of insurgents.
The Latin lyrics and English translation below the fold:
