Brandon

Monday, October 31, 2011

Does This Look Like Global Warming to You?

Enviro-zealots try and change their tune after the opposite of their predictions comes true!
A yellow leaved three stands among snow covered hill outside the town of Westminster, MD, October 29, 2011. Unusually cold weather hit the North East part of the United States a few days before Halloween.
Remember this:

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) 2002: "Look at the kind of winter we have had. One snow, three inches...I don't need a scientist to tell me the differences in the winter and we had better do something about it."

Sen. Barbara Boxer(D-CA) 2007: "30-70% of the snowpack will disappear... recreation industry is already hurting....we've seen the melting snow and changes in the seasons."

Sen. Amy Klobachur (D-MN) 2008: "I've heard it from the head of our snowmobile association...decreasing snow levels."

Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) 2005: "Having no snow is consistent with what the models predict will become a significant problem for us in the future."
Pay special attention to that last quote: "no snow is consistent with what the models predict will become a significant problem for us in the future." It is a theme that was repeated over and over by the Warmists up until a few years ago when the snow cycle reversed and turned the white stuff on full blast.

Note the words of Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia (where the Climategate email scandal was centered),within a few years winter snowfall will become "a very rare and exciting event". "Children just aren't going to know what snow is."

The United Nation's International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)shared the Nobel Prize with former Vice President Al Gore said this:
FAQ 3.2:Observations show that changes are occurring in the amount, intensity, frequency and type of precipitation. More precipitation now falls as rain rather than snow in northern regions. For a future warmer climate, models project a 50 to 100% decline in the frequency of cold air outbreaks.
Last December, the news was filled with stories of mammoth snows and record low temperatures. About that time Al Gore and the Warmists changed their tune. In response to the frozen winter of 2010-2011 Al Gore said this: "increased heavy snowfalls are completely consistent with what they have been predicting as a consequence of man-made global warming.”

Of course this is the opposite of what they said just a few years before. Did they think no one would notice?

The Models Supporting Global Alarmism Are WRONG!

While the Warmists shift their predictions from one year to the next depending on the weather (what's that old expression: "as changeable as the weather") the fact remains they base their predictions of doom and gloom on a set of computer models.  But test their model against reality and the entire theory collapses.

Prof. John Christy, a lead author of the U.N. International Panel on Climate Change, recipient of NASA's Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal testified (PDF) before the House Ways and Means Committee in February 2009. In the hearing he showed a graph comparing the temperature change predictions of James Hansen, another NASA scientist who has become famous promoting the idea of man made global warming:

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The bottom line is that temperatures have not risen to anything close to the predictions of the computer models and new research continues to come forward to support the idea that climate change is due more to variability in the output of solar radiation from the Sun. Imagine that... the earth is warmed by the Sun. Who would have thought?

Hurricane Season 2011 Another Bust for the Warmists!

At the end of November the 2011 Hurricane season will come to an end. Despite the hopeful predictions of the Warmists like Al Gore who said that serious storms like Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (Gore used the satellite image of Katrina for his Academy Award movie as if it came out of a smokestack) would become more common the opposite, like snowfall, has occurred. Total measures of hurricane energy have declined to 20 year lows and only one storm, Irene had any major impact on the U.S. this year.

When will Dems Propose a Huge Tax Increase for Global Cooling?

The whole purpose behind the alarmism of the Great Global Warming Swindle ( film now available on You Tube) was to use the scaremongering to impose new taxes on energy and production to fund socialist government schemes worldwide. There was never any serious expectation that the tax scheme would result in significant reductions in carbon emissions of that any reduction which did occur would have the slightest impact on climate change.

But now that it looks like we are headed for a new ice age we can expect the same scaremongering tactics to be applied to global cooling. And the usual remedy will be more taxes to support whatever extreme solution the scaremongers think might sell.

Obama and Carter: Similarities in Failure!

Now, if we only had a Reagan to run in 2012!


Thanks Jay for tossing this over the electronic transom!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Al Queda Victory Flag Flies Over Libya

Someone tell Obama. He still thinks the Libyan rebels were moderates fighting for freedom and democracy!

Imagine waking up one morning in Benghazi Libya after the overthrow of dictator Muammar Gaddafi and seeing the Al Queda flag flying from the court house, the place of government for the city and the headquarters of the rebel forces that won the battle. You thought that the Libyan revolution was all about democracy with moderate Arabs of every class joining in to free themselves from an evil ruler.

Sherif Elhelwa, a resident of Benghazi went to the courthouse to see the flag close up:
Earlier this week, I went to the Benghazi courthouse and confirmed the rumors: an al Qaeda flag was clearly visible; its Arabic script declaring that “there is no God but Allah” and a full moon underneath. When I tried to take pictures, a Salafi-looking guard, wearing a green camouflage outfit, rushed towards me and demanded to know what I was doing. My response was straightforward: I was taking a picture of the flag. He gave me an intimidating look and hissed, "Whomever speaks ill of this flag, we will cut off his tongue. I recommend that you don't publish these. You will bring trouble to yourself.”
How lovely! Don't say anything bad about our Al Queda flag or we'll cut out your tongue! Is this what so many Libyans died fighting for?

How long will it be before Al Queda takes over completely and turns Libya into an enemy state worse than Gaddafi's regime? Will Obama and the Dems still be congratulating themselves for helping to bring that about?

Friday, October 28, 2011

Protesters Against Greed Want to Refuse Food to the Homeless

Occupy Wall Street protesters want to keep the goodies for themselves!

Want a perfect illustration of the hypocrisy of this protest movement that has been embraced by Obama and the Democrats? Here you go...
Occupy Wall Street kitchen staff protesting fixing food for freeloaders
By SELIM ALGAR and BOB FREDERICKS
New York Post
October 27, 2011

The Occupy Wall Street volunteer kitchen staff launched a “counter” revolution yesterday -- because they’re angry about working 18-hour days to provide food for “professional homeless” people and ex-cons masquerading as protesters.

For three days beginning tomorrow, the cooks will serve only brown rice and other spartan grub instead of the usual menu of organic chicken and vegetables, spaghetti bolognese, and roasted beet and sheep’s-milk-cheese salad.

They will also provide directions to local soup kitchens for the vagrants, criminals and other freeloaders who have been descending on Zuccotti Park in increasing numbers every day.
...
Organizers took other steps to police the squatters, who they said were lured in from other parks with the promise of free meals.

A team of 10 security volunteers moved in to the trouble-prone southwest section of Zuccotti Park in a show of force to confront them.

“We’re not going to let some members of this community destroy the whole movement,” a volunteer said.

Some arguments broke out as the security team searched tents -- but no violence erupted.

Overall security at the park had deteriorated to the point where many frightened female protesters had abandoned the increasingly out-of-control occupation, security- team members said.

Let's recap: the communist weasels that run this silly experiment in what they call "democracy" have called in the goon squad to clamp down on the needy so that elite protesters can go on enjoying gourmet meals without having to share them with people who really are down on their luck.

All the while these elitists are screaming about greed and making the rich pay their fair share!

One question: how are the protesters going to tell apart the real protesters from the vagrants they apparently despise? Most of these aging hippies look just like homeless people. What are the organizers going to do? Hand out identification cards? Won't that be fun watching the arguments over who is an authentic protester and who isn't. Will these "security volunteers" become the Brown Shirts of the movement enforcing their rules and discriminating against the homeless? Are we witnessing the birth of a new socialist secret police?


And what about the kitchen staff who complain about having to work 18 hour days without  appreciation? Maybe they should all get jobs on Wall Street where long hours are compensated for with the lavish salaries and benefits these protesters call greed.

One day the book of case studies coming from this farce will be written to show just how stupid these protesters are and how baseless their protest has been from the start. If there are any intelligent people left in that park I'd recommend one of them write the book. But I'd have to insist they offer it at cost, or free, to anyone wishing to read it so as not to be accused of being greedy themselves. Something tells me that won't happen. After all, history teaches us that communists are the most greedy elitists of all!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Obama Totally AWOL on Iraq

His goal all along was to pull out U.S. troops no matter what the long term consequences!

It used to be that Democrats said "listen to the generals" when it came to managing military affairs in Iraq. While campaigning for President, then Senator Obama suggested he would listen to the generals.

Yet, he has repeatedly overruled the military on policy for Iraq and Afghanistan. And now, the final pullout from Iraq is going forward despite clear military advice to the contrary.

No one should be surprised by any of this. After all, Iraq largely disappeared from the daily flow of news shortly after Obama was elected. Some of this was due to the good news that we had mostly won (which the "news" media wasn't about to report) but some of this was also due to the fact that Obama didn't appear to care what happened in Iraq one way or the other.

Instead of negotiating a long term military agreement with Iraq Obama let the matter drop. He could care less:
As U.S.-Iraq troop talks faltered, Obama didn't pick up the phone
He and vice-president Biden went nearly a year without contacting Iraqi prime minister, U.S. Embassy logs reveal
By Roy Gutman
McClatchy Newspapers
October 25, 2011

BAGHDAD — Throughout the summer and autumn, as talks on a continued U.S. military presence in Iraq foundered, President Barack Obama and his point man on Iraq, Vice President Joe Biden, remained aloof from the process, not even phoning top Iraqi officials to help reach a deal, according to logs released by the U.S. Embassy here.

The omission is an unusual one, given the high priority that U.S. officials had given to achieving an agreement for some sort of residual U.S. presence in Iraq after the Dec. 31 pullout deadline set in a 2008 pact between the two countries. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other senior Pentagon officials spoke often about the need for an agreement in a pivotal country in a volatile region and insisted talks were continuing up until Friday, when Obama announced that all U.S. troops would be coming home before the end of December.

A listing of direct conversations provided by the embassy — drawn, the embassy said, from the White House website — indicates that Obama had no direct contact with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki between Feb. 13, when he telephoned the prime minister, until Friday, when he called al-Maliki to tell him U.S. troops would be withdrawn by Dec. 31.

Also absent for nearly the entire year was Biden. According to the official listing, Biden telephoned al-Maliki on Dec. 21, the day al-Maliki formed a new government, and visited here Jan. 18, but had no direct contact after that date, according to the official listing.
Years of immense effort at great cost in lives and treasure and now all that has been abandoned by Obama who doesn't seem to care whether those sacrifices are lost by his indifference. Keep that in mind when you vote for the next Commander in Chief a year from now!

Obama's New Slogan: "We Can't Wait" for More Wasteful Stimulus Spending

I like my version better: We Can't Wait Until Obama is Out of Office!

Ever since his campaign speech to a Joint Session of Congress Obama has been running around saying "pass this bill" in support of his latest big spending, pro-labor bill which is nothing more than a con job to funnel more taxpayer dollars to labor unions with massive kickbacks from Big Labor back to Obama's campaign.

The old "pass this bill" phrase is now outdated as even Democrats refused to vote for the bill. Now, with the stripped down bill, which still has massive transfers of taxpayer money to Big Labor (and through it to the Obama campaign) as it's centerpiece, Obama is running around repeating his new phrase "we can't wait."

The U.K.'s Daily Telegraph has the story:
Speaking in Las Vegas, Nevada, where about 60 per cent of home owners are in negative equity, Mr Obama announced a plan, which will not require endorsement from Congress, to allow them to refinance their mortgages at lower interest rates.


“We can’t wait for a dysfunctional Congress to do its job,” Mr Obama told a rally on Monday night. “When they won’t act, I will.” He added: “I’ve told my administration to keep looking every single day for actions we can take without Congress.”
But visit the White House web site and you'll see that Obama is applying this latest campaign slogan to just about everything he is doing.

So, all of a sudden Obama "can't wait" for congress to act. He and his party had absolute control of both houses of Congress for two years. They squandered their majorities on a wasteful stimulus bill, health care, cap and trade and more. Of course next to none of their legislative efforts actually resulted in any positive change for the American people which explains why Republicans scored their largest legislative victories in modern times in the 2012 mid term election.

What Americans "can't wait" for is for Obama to leave office and to take with him all those White House Czars and V.P. Joe Biden who have proved they care only about propping up their Big Labor allies at the expense of average Americans.

We can't wait until Obama and his crew are history! One year from now we'll send them packing!

Monday, October 24, 2011

How to Get a State Pension with Only One Day's Work

Just another example of how corrupt Big Labor sticks it to the taxpayer. Think about this before you support another Obama "jobs" bill that benefits public sector unions!
2 teachers union lobbyists teach for a day to qualify for hefty pensions
By Ray Long and Jason Grotto
Chicago Tribune
October 22, 2011

SPRINGFIELD — — Two lobbyists with no prior teaching experience were allowed to count their years as union employees toward a state teacher pension once they served a single day of subbing in 2007, a Tribune/WGN-TV investigation has found.
...
Preckwinkle's one day of subbing qualified him to become a participant in the state teachers pension fund, allowing him to pick up 16 years of previous union work and nearly five more years since he joined. He's 59, and at age 60 he'll be eligible for a state pension based on the four-highest consecutive years of his last 10 years of work.

His paycheck fluctuates as a union lobbyist, but pension records show his earnings in the last school year were at least $245,000. Based on his salary history so far, he could earn a pension of about $108,000 a year, more than double what the average teacher receives.

His pay for one day as a substitute was $93, according to records of the Illinois Teachers Retirement System.

Over the course of their lifetimes, both men stand to receive more than a million dollars each from a state pension fund that has less than half of the assets it needs to cover promises made to tens of thousands of public school teachers. With billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities, the Illinois Teachers' Retirement System, which serves public school teachers outside of Chicago, is one of several pension plans that are in debt as state government reels in a fiscal crisis.
...
The revelation that one day of substitute teaching allowed officials from a state teachers union to tap into an ailing public pension fund is yet another example of how the Illinois pension system has been manipulated for political purposes and personal gain. A series of reports by the Tribune and WGN-TV have documented these pension games and how insiders have benefited.

Although the bill received bipartisan support, the benefit to union officials was sponsored by Springfield Democrats showered by IFT campaign contributions during the 2006 elections.
Note that last paragraph. Legislation that benefitted Big Labor was passed by DEMOCRATS who received large campaign donations from the union. Is it any wonder why Obama and the Dems are pushing billions for another bailout of public sector unions?

RomneyCare Helps Illegal Aliens

Texas Gov. Rick Perry should go after this story and not Mitt's lawn care crew!

In the last debate Rick Perry made it a point to go after Mitt Romney for hiring a lawn care firm that employed illegal aliens. While that might say something about Mitt's attitude towards illegal aliens, it's not that big a deal. BUT, what is a big deal is the provision of RomneyCare, the Massachusetts state run health plan, that does allow benefits for illegal aliens.

The L.A. Times has the story:
Uninsured, poor immigrants can walk into a health clinic or hospital in the state and get publicly subsidized care at virtually no cost to them, regardless of their immigration status.

The program, widely supported in Massachusetts, drew little attention when Romney signed the trailblazing healthcare law. But now it could prove problematic for the Republican presidential hopeful, who has been attacking Texas Gov. Rick Perry for supporting educational aid for children of undocumented immigrants in Texas.
Romney was able to deflect Perry's charge in the last debate. What about the next debate?

Hard Hitting GOP Ads in Advance of Obama Campaign Visit to Las Vegas

While Obama campaigns at taxpayer expense, Las Vegas with 13.6% unemployment is perfect example of Obama's economic plans failure!

So, despite raising $70 million in third quarter fundraising (more than all GOP presidential candidates combined) Obama is campaigning on Monday using tax payer dollars in Las Vegas which has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.

We already reported how Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid claimed last week that "private-sector jobs have been doing just fine," in an attempt to generate support for Obama's big union bailout "jobs" bill that is really a tool to funnel more taxpayer dollars to Democrat coffers through public sector unions.

Touching on some of these themes, the Republican National Committee put out two web ads in advance of Obama's trip:





Will the American people be fooled by Obama's campaign on behalf of big unions at the expense of the average American? Stay tuned!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Sympathizers Laughingly Try to Paint Wall Street Protest as Equivalent of Fall of Berlin Wall, Antietam; Protesters Equivalent of Aristotle

Many of these same writers bashed the Tea Party as un-American bigots. They must be smoking something if they really place smelly hippies and 20-something drug dulled victims of academic brainwashing in the same paragraph as the great movements and thinkers of history!

Publisher Roger Kimball has one of the best columns exposing the idiocy of the Wall Street protesters and the lap dogs from the liberal media which have embraced them. It's worth a read in it's entirety but here's a few excerpts:
I’ve always had a soft spot for Karl Marx’s famous mot about Hegel’s observation that history repeats itself. “He forgot to add,” said the Caliph of Communism, “the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” What happens, then, the third time around? The 1960s certainly had its tragic elements, and the passage of time, I suspect, mutes the bitterness of the many blighted lives and botched futures which that farcical repetition of earlier revolutionary idealism involved. Now, from our perch forty years on, it all seems faintly ridiculous: the incense and love beads; the imbecilic pseudo-radicalism; the bad taste in haberdashery, heroes, and haircuts; the mindless mantras of indemnified insurrectionists whose “idealism” was little more than an alibi for unfettered selfishness and insatiable hedonism. “We’re permanent adolescents,” boasted Jerry Rubin, a high priest of the movement. What sort of society produces “permanent adolescents” in any number? Only a very rich and a very indulgent one.
Back in the day, folks like Jerry Rubin at least had (briefly) the attraction of novelty. What about his heirs, the motley assemblage staffing the entertainment known as “Occupy Wall Street”? Isn’t it, as the philosopher Yogi Berra observed in another context, déjà vu all over again? First tragedy. Then farce. Now, incoherent childishness and pathetic exhibitionism.
...
The columnist Nicholas Kristof, for example, took one look at the spoiled children and social misfits cluttering up Zuccotti Park and declared that it was “reminiscent of Cairo’s Tahrir Square.” Here’s a question: How many things had to go wrong in Mr. Kristof’s brain for him to make that comparison with a straight face?
...
A more florid example of that yearning nostalgia is on view in “In Protest, the Power of Place,” Michael Kimmelman’s column for the October 16 Sunday Review section of the Times....“We tend to underestimate the political power of physical places,” Mr. Kimmelman writes. “Then Tahrir Square comes along. Now it’s Zuccotti Park.” But wait, he’s just getting started.
Kent State, Tiananmen Square, the Berlin Wall: we clearly use locales, edifices, architecture to house our memories and political energy. Politics troubles our consciences. But places haunt our imaginations.

So we check in on Facebook and Twitter, but make pilgrimages to Antietam, Auschwitz and to the Acropolis, to gaze at rubble from the days of Pericles and Aristotle.
I thought of Aristotle . . .

No, I am not making that up. Zuccotti Park and Antietam. Zuccotti Park and Ausch-
witz. Zuccotti Park and Aristotle, for heaven’s sake.
...
But whatever happens, a large slice of that “99 percent”—that would be me and you, Dear Reader—is not going to like what it sees. The Democrats did some hasty political calculation and decided to throw their lot in with the rabble fomenting Occupy Wall Street. The Democrats own, as a matter of political if not fiscal reality, Zuccotti Park. It will be interesting to see how that investment turns out for them. It’s getting to be lunchtime. The noise you hear is the tiger growling.
Thievery Common Among Protesters

I guess it's no surprise really that people who expect everything to be given to them and make the rich Jewish financiers pay would resort to putting their philosophy into practice on a personal level. The New York Post reports on the thievery going on at Occupy Wall Street. Protesters stealing money, computers and food all the while they are protesting greed! How ironic!

Shouldn't Sniffing Feet Be Legalized?

Finally, this story from Occupy Toronto where a protester snuck into the tent of other protesters and began sniffing the feet of a woman inside. The woman's boyfriend took objection to this and filmed it all for evidence. My question is: why are these other protesters trying to oppress the foot sniffer? Following the free love/free food/free everything philosophy of the protesters why should they object to another protesters right to self expression? If they can break half the laws on the book with their counter-culture protest why not foot sniffing?

Dem Leader Reid Reveals Purpose of Stimulus is to Help Dem's Allies in Public Sector at Expense of Private Sector

Reid says "private-sector jobs have been doing just fine!"

Plus: Great column: Time for Obama to "Get off the bus" and start working with Republicans!

This is revealing. Have you noticed that the Democrats entire focus in the last few weeks seems to be on public sector jobs? V.P. Joe Biden is out there suggesting that women might get raped unless the cops are funded for another year (what happens after that?). Obama used a fire station and a school among the many photo-ops on his recent bus tour. It's no secret that Obama and the Dems have a soft spot for public sector workers. Nearly every penny of the mandatory political contributions collected by public sector unions goes right into the Democrat Party coffers.

So, when Obama and the Dems talk about another bailout to public sector workers, what they are really talking about is another massive kickback of taxpayer money going straight to Obama campaign!

What really highlighted the Dems indifference to private sector employment was the statement by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV):

From The Hill:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday indicated Congress needs to worry about government jobs more than private-sector jobs, and that this is why Senate Democrats are pushing a bill aimed at shoring up teachers and first-responders.

"It's very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine; it's the public-sector jobs where we've lost huge numbers, and that's what this legislation is all about," Reid said on the Senate floor.
...
Reid reiterated his emphasis on creating government jobs by saying Democrats are looking to "put hundreds of thousands of people back to work teaching children, have more police patrolling our streets, firefighters fighting our fires, doing the rescue work that they do so well … that's our priority." He said Republicans are calling the bill a "failure" because they are "using a different benchmark for success than we are."
That should read above: "hundreds of thousands" of new contributions to the Democrat Party.

And in case Sen. Reid, President Obama and V.P. Biden are not aware, it's the private sector that has been hurting the most. While the Dems are out to protect the flow of campaign dollars, private sector workers continue to suffer in huge numbers:

From The New Editor:
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Since the beginning of the recession (roughly January 2008), some 7.9 million jobs were lost in the private sector while 590,000 jobs were gained in the public one. And since the passage of the stimulus bill (February 2009), over 2.6 million private jobs were lost, but the government workforce grew by 400,000.
Obama: Get Off the Bus

We've already discussed how Obama is using taxpayer dollars to campaign on his bus tour where he bashes Republicans for wanting "dirtier air, dirtier water, less people with health insurance."  [video]

A.B. Stoddard reminds Obama that it will be difficult to sit in the same room and negotiate with Republican leaders who he has accused of wanting to destroy America and kill people:
Time to get off the bus
By A.B. Stoddard
The Hill
October 19, 2011

Just weeks from now President Obama will be back in the room with GOP leaders, those Republicans he paints as pro-pollution and pro-disease, incapable of comprehending large legislative packages and so dimwitted they must tackle his jobs plan several pages at a time. Obama will pivot from hammering a snarky and snide sales pitch for his jobs bill on a campaign bus tour to sitting at the negotiating table, where he will have to rescue a debt deal and avert another credit downgrade. And he will be forced, once again, to strike a compromise on annual spending bills. He will attempt to become presidential again, and he might even tell us the world is watching. Will anyone be listening?

The President Obama who labored to strike a grand bargain with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) just months ago, who was willing to risk his party’s ire to cut into Medicare and Social Security, and who positioned himself as the open-minded, level-headed grown-up is gone. He will turn up again, rest assured, but the phone booth transformations aren’t working anymore. Independent voters have turned against him, he has no credibility with the Republicans he must govern with, and Democrats have concluded their Superman was actually the Wizard of Oz.
...
Forget that most centrist Democrats in the Senate — many of whom are facing difficult reelection campaigns — won’t vote for several key stimulus provisions in the president’s plan. And House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) just signed on as the bill’s only co-sponsors. In an effort to consolidate his base and raise fast cash, Obama has risked further alienating swing voters, who tune out rhetoric and wait for results, by choosing to leave Washington and throw bombs rather than trying to get a deal.
...
One of those super-smart advisers of his who helped get him into this mess should tell Obama it’s time to get off the bus and do his job.
Frankly A.B. I don't think it's possible for Obama to "get off the bus." He had his chance to be the unifying centrist that he campaigned as in 2008 and has done just the opposite at every available opportunity. It's not his advisers that are leading him astray. He's the one who cannot see policy in any other terms than class warfare demagougery!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Perry Ruffles Romney in Las Vegas Debate

I thought they might start slugging each other!

Texas Governor Rick Perry knows he is weak on the immigration issue and must have known it would come up in the debate held Tuesday night in Las Vegas. So, he took the initiative on the matter by attacking Mitt Romney's credibility on the issue. It turns out that Mitt did hire a landscaping crew that included illegal aliens despite his claim in the debate that "I don't think I've ever hired an illegal in my life." Politifact rates Romney's answer as "Mostly False."

But it was the fireworks between Romney and Perry that made this exchange great political theater:


This isn't the first time that Perry has attempted to illuminate Romney's habit of re-writing history and it probably won't be the last as it illustrates perfectly one of the reasons conservatives are uncomfortable with Romney. They just cannot be sure he would govern as a conservative if elected President.

This may be the first time that Romney, who usually tries to play it cool, got his feathers ruffled. Something tells me we won't be seeing a Romney/Perry or a Perry/Romney ticket!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Obama Violates Federal Law by Using Taxpayer Funded Trip to Campaign

If any Republican in the White House did this there would be a congressional investigation!

Obama is on another taxpayer funded bus tour this week and here is what he said at one stop in North Carolina (the longer version in full context is here):

OBAMA: Republicans want "dirtier air, dirtier water, less people with health insurance."

Forgive the crappy technical quality of the video but it suits the quality of the message.

It is a violation of federal law to use taxpayer resources for partisan political puroposes. No one in the White House can be ignorant of the Hatch Act which governs such activity. But apparently, this White House knows it has nothing to fear from such blatant violation of the law.

Is it somehow racist to insist that Obama live up to the very same standards of conduct he and members of his party daily demand of Republicans?

Monday, October 17, 2011

The Money Game in GOP Presidential Politics

Perry and Romney still FAR ahead of rivals!

Last week, all the major GOP candidates reported their quarterly fundraising results. Pay special attention to how much cash on hand each candidate has and any debt. The mad dash for Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina begins in a few months and money talks!

Candidate links are to individual stories on CNN about that candidates fundraising/spending.

NOTE:Reports cover the quarter which ended September 30 and do not include more recent contributions:
TEXAS GOV. RICK PERRY
Raised: $17,200,232.07
Spent: $2,121,816.85
Cash on hand: $15,078,415.22
Debts: $339,119.73

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY
Raised: $14,222,570.66
Spent: $12,281,100.24
Cash on hand: $14,656,965.83
Debts: $0.00

FORMER GODFATHER'S PIZZA CEO HERMAN CAIN
Raised: $2,813,341.52
Spent: $1,967,152.00
Cash on hand: $1,333,778.56
Debts: $675,000.00

FORMER UTAH GOV. JON HUNTSMAN
Raised: $4,514,188.95
Spent: $4,186,574.45
Cash on hand: $327,614.50
Debts: $3,145,593.75

FORMER PENNSYLVANIA SEN. RICK SANTORUM
Raised: $704,199.37
Spent: $743,757.29
Cash on hand: $189,556.94
Debts: $71,866.19

TEXAS REP. RON PAUL

Raised: $8,268,499.92
Spent: $7,559,908.76
Cash on hand: $3,674,768.16
Debts: $0.00

FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH
Raised: $807,962.45
Spent: $776,767.90
Cash on hand: $353,416.71
Debts: $1,192,865.82

MINNESOTA REP. MICHELE BACHMANN
Raised: $3,907,748.06
Spent: $5,947,630.95
Cash on hand: $1,339,184.10
Debts: $549,604.07
For those who want to tweak the numbers a bit further, the Washington Post offers a handy tool to compare the fundraising of two candidates side by side in graphic format. I compared Romney and Perry. If you do the same you'll note that Romney has raised over $32 million compared to Perry's $17 million but he's already spent $18 million and he can't seem to raise his national polling numbers above 30%. Note also that Romney's haul has declined slightly as he has maxed out a number of larger donors (limit is $2,500 for each election cycle primary and general). Perry too has a large number of max contributions and both men will need to go back to the smaller contributors and ask for more.

If you select Herman Cain, you'll see that most of his donations come from the smaller donors. He'll need to get a lot more of those or start scoring the big donors if he wants to have the money needed to compete with Romney and Perry as the we get nearer to the actual voting. As noted above, the reporting period ended September 30 and thus does not cover the last two weeks during which Cain has surged.

The same goes for all the other candidates. Money determines how many staff you can hire and how many ads you can run on television. Up to now, debates have been the primary focus of the campaign but that will soon change.

The bottom line? Unless Cain or one of the others behind in the pack is able to pull of a big win in Iowa and start raking in big bucks the contest will remain largely a two man race between Romney and Perry and as of now Perry is the only candidate who has the financial resources to be the alternative to Romney!

Friday, October 14, 2011

The Flea Party: They "Can't Protest Without Sleeping Bags"

And the Fleabaggers also insist that Porta-Potties are a "basic human right!"

I chroncile the idiotic demands of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters below but I couldn't pass up this article from New York concerning the effort by the City to reclaim Zuccotti Park, a privately owned space a block from Ground Zero (Google map). The park's owner has apparently had it with the space being used as a campsite and garbage dump and is planning to have it cleaned and to no longer allow camping.

Well, the idiots who make up this OWS bunch don't like it. But then, they don't like a lot of things about this country. While they are complaining about their "rights" they don't seem to recognize the rights of small businesses in the area or residents who want to enjoy their public spaces. And of course there are the concerns for public health caused by this "occupation."

Now the fleabaggers are demanding "portopans and dumpsters."
From CBS NYC: “There’s a lot of stuff we wouldn’t have to clean up if the city provided basic human rights, like a Port-A-Potty,” said demonstrator Gene Wagner. “If you would’ve given us a Port-A-Potty 30 days ago, we would’ve maintained it ourselves.”
...
“This is a protest; it’s not a camping area. People aren’t camping here, they’re protesting and we have the right to have sleeping bags. Where are they gonna sleep? How are they gonna protest? Without sleeping bags, they can’t protest,” one demonstrator told 1010 WINS’ Stan Brooks.
Local businesses have just about had enough:
Mike Keane, owner of nearby O’Hara’s Pub, told CBS 2′s Carlin demonstrators use his bathrooms and disrupt his business.

“I really hope this circus moves on. I’ve had my fill of these people,” Keane said.

He said the clean-up plan is not enough.

“Somebody’s going to wind up getting killed and maybe then someone will say let’s get them out of here. Hopefully it doesn’t take that,” Keane said.
Who has more "rights" here? The protesters or the local residents and business owners who pay their taxes and obey the law?

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Occupy Wall Street Manifesto Reveals Marxist Foundation for Protest

How can Democrats embrace a movement that advocates global economic chaos in the name of social justice?

Democrats and their Big Labor allies have embraced the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) crowd. Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO, visited the Occupy Wall Street protesters last week and went so far as to say: “We are going to support them in any way we can.” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said "God bless them!"

Considering how dependent elected Democrats are on the campaign contributions coming from Wall Street don't they seem a bit hypocritical embracing the Occupy Wall Street crowd? After all, Obama is the number one all time recipient of Wall Street campaign cash and his so-called "Jobs Council" is filled with the mega-business millionaire/billionaire types (who just happen to be top campaign donors too) that the OWS crowd attacks.

And  did I mention Big Labor? The AFL-CIO's Trumka and other union big wigs make a very comfortable living (this list doesn't count their numerous perks and expense accounts). But they are pikers compared to the report which surfaced recently showing Chicago union officials nailing down multiple pensions up to $500k after only a brief period working for city government. How's that fit with the OWS idea of fairness?

The OWS crowd has a web site which lists their "working documents." One of which is "The American People's Economic Charter." Put aside for a moment that this document is authored by a team of educators and persons with advanced degrees yet is full of typos and spelling errors. The content of the document is even worse than the spelling.

Chicks on the Right waded through the mess and pulled out some gems that should shock anyone who thinks this OWS movement has anything to offer but the same old shopworn shibboleths of socialism/marxism that has littered world history with the bodies of millions of it's victims during the 20th Century.

Among the OWS demands is the “New Salary Range Recommendations Based on Concepts of Economic Sustainability and Right Livelihood:”
“Bankers $20,000
Lawyers $27,500
Realtors $25,000
Doctors $28,000
Nurses $27,500
Teachers/Librarians/Train Engineers/Bridge Maintenance/Ship Pilots, etc. $35,000
Police $36,000
Public Servants $28,500
Laborers $20,000
Other public sector $30,000
Other private sector $29,000
Technical/Research/Academic $36,000
Entrepreneurs/Business Owners $10,000
Congress $30,000
President 40,000
Soldiers N/A
Defense workers $25,000
Government would actually pay people and set prices for all goods and services. In other words, total state control of all economic activity.

Note also that "Soldiers" are not applicable as they would be replaced with "Defense workers" paid $25k which I suppose covers everyone from generals on down to privates. But elsewhere in the document the OWS bunch decrees that total defense spending would be cut by 50% to fund education. So we'll have the "defense workers" but they'll be armed with slingshots.
“Education should be funded with some of the $2 billion/week that goes to war-funding. At least 50% of it. This will weaken our millitary (sic) by 50% at least, forcing the rest of the world to pick up the slack. This will in turn cause their economies to tank, taking ours with it. But at least we’ll be highly educated.”
"Millitary" cuts to fund education? And this was written by someone with an advanced degree? Forcing global economies to "tank?" Does this sound like a good idea?

Speaking of education, the OWS bunch will offer college free for everyone and make "failing impossible." No doubt that will be easy as they will only be paying the professors $36,000.

OWS would also create a government index for "happiness" with the prime directive being the legalizing of "psychedelic" drugs approved by the committee. And while the OWS bunch eschews capitalism they do believe in establishing a global market trading in marijuana. No doubt all those students who will no longer worry about flunking out of college will approve.

But what about the parents of those students? Well, if they don't toe the party line when it comes to "educating" their children; see what is in store for them:
Impose universal morality for parents who do not participate in raising their children. Remove children from households with parents who refuse to educate them properly. Provide for re-education of parents in how to properly raise their children for the happiness of the Party.”
In short, the OWS manifesto would mean total state control over every aspect of our lives. And if you don't approve, your children will be taken from you and you will be "re-educated."

Why not just admit that the philosophical underpinnings behind these and other absurd OWS demands is a state founded on communism. Will we see protesters carry this sign at their next rally?Photobucket

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Obama's Weakness Invites Iranian Acts of War

Latest attack plot shows the danger of Mr. Nobel Peace Prize's rejection of "peace through strength!"

There are a lot of reasons President Obama banished the bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office. One might be that Obama disagreed with Churchill's original formulation, later embraced by Reagan, of "peace through strength." A far left radical like Obama could never endorse something with so much common sense. We see how his world view is playing out now with Iran.

When Obama came into office it was clear he wanted to try a new approach with Iran. He started by cutting U.S. funding for pro-democracy groups in Iran. This was about the only direct internal pressure the Bush Administration had applied to the crazy mullahs that run Iran. At the same time in his 2009 Cairo speech Obama apologized for America and said nothing about the human rights problem in Iran. While Obama inserted himself directly into the "Arab Spring" and endorsed the effort to remove Egypt's Mubarak, he refused to support the desperate cries for help coming from Iranians who were being murdered in the streets while protesting their government.

Obama expected that his make nice approach with Iran might bear fruit by making progress in talks to contain Iran's nuclear ambitions. Iran thumbed their nose at the U.S. and went right on building nukes.

Years have gone by and not only is Iranian nuclear development a greater threat than it ever was but the Iranian government is advancing their war against the U.S. No longer content to murder Americans by the hundreds over 30 years in the Middle East through their proxies Hezbollah and the Mahdi Army in Iraq they have now been caught in a plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador by bombing a restaurant in Washington, DC along with bombs at the embassies of Israel and Saudi Arabia.

The attack would have amounted to a mini-911 and turned parts of Washington, DC into a war zone.

It's important to note that the Iranians never tried anything like this during the Bush years. They would have known that a crushing military response would most likely follow. But while Vice President Biden insists that "nothing is off the table" in terms of a response, does anyone, most of all the leaders in Iran, believe that the Obama Administration will do anything more than give Iran another slap on the wrist and perhaps send a strongly worded letter through the U.N.?

Iran has been getting away with murder for decades. Peace won't come through weakness. It's time Iran learned there was a real price to be paid for their blood lust!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Occupy Wall Street Protest Ain't No Tea Party

Hundreds of arrests, poor sanitation and foul mouths distinguish Wall Street protests from Tea Party!
Photobucket

Who can forget two years ago in September when then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi squeezed out a few tears [video] worrying about the possibility that Tea Party protests might turn violent:
"I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because i saw this myself in the late 70s in San Francisco, this king of rhetoric. ... It created a climate in which violence took place.
Pelosi and other top Democrats called Tea Partiers "unAmerican" and accused them of carrying Swastikas and much worse. Now, House MINORITY Leader Pelsoi is egging on the Occupy Wall Street Protesters. Instead of a violent threat to Democracy Pelosi praises the protesters. "God bless them" Pelosi said in a press conference last Thursday. And in an interview on ABC's "This Week" Pelosi who said we should never question the patriotism of our opponents validated the anger of protesters and embraced their role in the democratic process.

800+ protesters have been arrested in the Occupy Wall Street protest. The NY Post reports that to many the protests are another excuse to indulge in "Sex, drugs and hiding from the law:"
The criminals are crashing the party.

Lured by cheap drugs and free food, creepy thugs have infiltrated the crowd of protesters camped out in Zuccotti Park for Occupy Wall Street, The Post has learned.

“I got warrants. I’m running from the law,” boasted Dave, 24, a scrawny, unshaven miscreant in filthy clothes from Stamford, Conn. “I’m not even supposed to be here, but it’s as good a spot as any to hide.”

Wanted for burglary, the drug-addled fugitive said some of his hard-partying pals clued him in that the protest was a good place to be fed, get wasted and crash.

“I’ve been smoking and drinking in here for eight days now,” said Dave, booze on his breath and his eyes bloodshot as he lay sprawled on a tattered sheet of cardboard. “I need to get some methadone. Every day, I wake up, and I’m f--ked up.”

Drugs can be easy to score -- a Post reporter was offered pot for $15 and heroin for $10.

They’ve already fueled at least one violent incident, when a wasted nut job socked a medical volunteer in the face before others hauled the attacker away.
You recall reading anything about mass arrests, drug use or criminal activity at a Tea Party protest?

And while Tea Party protests were noted for the lack of litter and the relative civility of their participants, the protest at Wall Street and other cities is fast becoming a joke with poor sanitation, the smell, the garbage and the foul language. The Daily Mail, a British newspaper, has the details including the following photo which is behind the "more" button. Do not click if you are offended by disgusting public behavior.

Friday, October 07, 2011

Unemployment Remains at 9.1% and All We Get From Obama Is Another Speech!

The real "jolt" the economy needs is a defeat for Obama and the Dems in 2012!

At President Obama's news conference on Thursday Obama's teleprompter put these words on the screen for Obama to read: "Our economy really needs a jolt right now." Funny but we've heard those words before. Not only did Obama use nearly identical words to describe his latest "jobs" bill in the Joint Session speech in September but he used the word "jolt" repeatedly going all the way back to remarks about his original stimulus bill in 2009.

It's all rhetoric and political posturing in Obama-land and results don't seem to matter. We're listening to a broken record and few in the "news" media seem to notice.


If someone wants to "jolt" the economy how about selling a T-shirt that says "Unemployment is 9.1% and all I got was another lousy speech from Obama."

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Are You Better Off Under Obama Than You Were Under Bush?

The numbers don't lie!

My how he has aged! I guess incompetence takes it's toll!


13 months to go until election day November 6, 2012!

Thanks Always on Watch!

Wednesday, October 05, 2011

GOP Defeat in WV Special Election for Governor Should Be a Warning for 2012

Following the successful "Colorado model" Dems are able to overcome anti-Obama sentiment and Tea Party enthusiasm!

It was just two days ago that I repeated my warning that the paid, professional political infrastructure of the progressive/Big Labor axis was a real threat to unseating Obama in 2012. More evidence of this problem came from Tuesday's result in the special election in West Virginia to fill out the remainder of former Governor Manchin's term. The Democrat Earl Ray Tomblin beat GOP challenger Bill Maloney 50%-47% even though Obama's approval in the state is at 28% and Maloney had hung West Virginia's implementation of ObamaCare around the neck of Tomblin.

After big GOP wins in special elections for Congress last month Nancy Pelosi dismissed any hint of a message or referendum. Predictably, Democrats had no qualms about claiming a win for their message in this contest:
"Tonight the people of West Virginia sent a clear message to national Republicans," Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, chair of the Democratic Governors Association, said in a statement. "Even in the most competitive circumstances, Governor Tomblin was able to highlight his record of effectiveness and withstand Republican attempts to nationalize the race."
But the real story here is just how effective the progressive/Big Labor axis is in organizing a get out the vote effort despite the fact that the most residents in a particular state oppose Democrat policies. We saw the same paradigm at work in close elections in Colorado and Nevada last year.

Hence my repeated warning that even if Obama is down a few points in key states he can still win that state and put together the winning combination he needs in the Electoral College and claim re-election in 2012.

The GOP's best hope for winning big in 2012 means they must recognize that the old model of volunteer based campaigns no longer works against the well funded professional political infrastructure of the progressive/Big Labor axis. Get smart GOP and take a page from the Left's playbook while there is still time!

Michelle Obama's Vacations Cost $10 Million

At the very least this shows insensitivity to millions of Americans struggling in hard financial times. At the worst it shows a corrupt devil may care Administration sticking it to the American taxpayer!

For those readers who may still be wondering why the White House apparently tipped off an AP news photographer that First Lady Michelle Obama would be shopping at a DC area Target store we may have the answer. Perhaps it was a way to head off the coming slew of bad news by making Michelle look like the everyday housewife. How many housewives do you know that take private jumbo jets and fly their friends and family all over the world at taxpayer expense?

Photobucket
"Michelle One"
First there was Michelle's trip to London where she hopped on a Boeing 757 took her girls to get Fish and Chips and visited Westminster Abbey. Guards pushed aside tourists and worshippers in the ancient Abbey and made them stand against the wall so that Michelle could pass through with her entrouage.

And who can forget Michelle's trip to Spain with 40 of her nearest and dearest friends staying in a 5 star luxury hotel known as the "millionaire's playground."

Now there's Michelle's trip to Africa this summer with her mother, two daughters and over 20 staff. It may not be a big news item in the American Obama Mafia Media, but the Brits are talking about it. Here's a report from the Daily Telegraph:
Although ignored by most of America’s liberal-dominated media, several online US news sites are reporting that Michelle Obama’s grand tour of southern Africa earlier this year cost American taxpayers nearly half a million dollars – and that's just for the flights. This follows in the wake of claims this August from sources inside the White House itself that the First Lady may have spent “$10 million of taxpayers’ money on vacations alone in the past year.” Without all the figures available, it is impossible to establish the total cost to the public purse of Michelle Obama’s 42 days of holiday during that period, which included her trip to Spain last year (though not the Obamas' recent sojourn in Martha’s Vineyard).

But we do now know for sure that her visit to Africa in June, with a sizeable entourage in tow, cost taxpayers at the very minimum $424,142 in transportation costs, according to figures obtained by Washington-based watchdog Judicial Watch.
A report in the U.K. Daily Mail had this quote from an American source:
'The vacations are totally Michelle's idea. She's like a junkie. She can't schedule enough getaways, and she lives from one to the next - all the while sticking it to hardworking Americans.'
A rare view from the American media was this editorial by Mark Tapscott in the Washington Examiner:
How much does it cost taxpayers to fly First Lady Michelle Obama, her two daughters and her mother, a niece and a nephew, a hairstylist and makeup artists to South Africa and Botswana to give a few speeches, meet Nelson Mandela, and enjoy a safari on a private game preserve?
...
“This trip was as much an opportunity for the Obama family to go on a safari as it was a trip to conduct government business,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “This junket wasted tax dollars and the resources of our overextended military. No wonder we had to sue to pry loose this information.”

The documents made public by Judicial Watch do not include the total of all costs for the First Lady's trip, such as expenses for security, transportation on the ground and so forth. For more information, go here.
As I said after news broke of Michelle's vacation in Spain: If you're going to take a huge splurge on the taxpayer's dime, please do it in the U.S. and create the jobs your husband's stimulus failed to create!

Senate Democrat Leader Blocks GOP Bid to Vote Immediately on Obama Jobs Bill

So why does Obama continue to single out Republicans for blocking this bill?

While Obama is out there attacking Republicans like House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (V-VA) for failing to go along with Obama's so-called "jobs bill" with it's massive tax increases and more corrupt stimulus spending to benefit Obama's Big Labor buddies, the President's allies in the U.S. Senate are not so eager to vote on the bill themselves.

GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday cited Obama's repeated requests to 'Pass The Bill,' 'Right Away,' 'Immediately,' 'Right Now,' 'No Delays' and offered to put the bill up for an immediate vote. While waving a copy of the bill in his hand, McConnell traded remarks with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV):


Senator Reid refused to allow the bill to come up for a vote. Reid complained that McConnell's move was a "political stunt." Yet, isn't Obama's phony "jobs" bill the real political stunt?

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Obama Attacks GOP House Leader Cantor for Failing to Bring His Entire Jobs Bill Up for a Vote

At the same time, Obama continues to ignore or stall nearly ALL GOP jobs ideas!

Here's what President Obama means when he says he wants to work with Congress on a jobs bill. He means do it my way or else! In a speech planned for Tuesday in Texas Obama plans to attack House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) by name for failing to go along with his jobs plan. Is this the way to bridge the partisan divide and win friends and influence people? Or is this a transparent partisan political strategy by the fingerpointer in chief to divide and negate any possible bipartisan solution? You decide....
USA Today: President Obama will blame House Republican leader Eric Cantor for blocking his jobs package when he speaks later today in Mesquite, Texas.
...
"Yesterday, the Republican majority leader in Congress, Eric Cantor, said that right now, he won't even let the jobs bill have a vote in the House of Representatives. He won't even give it a vote," Obama plans to say, according to his prepared remarks.
OBAMA: Well I'd like Mr. Cantor to come down here to Dallas and explain what in this jobs bill he doesn't believe in. Does he not believe in rebuilding America's roads and bridges? Does he not believe in tax breaks for small businesses, or efforts to help veterans?

Mr. Cantor should come down to Dallas, look Kim Russell in the eye, and tell her why she doesn't deserve to get a paycheck again. Come tell her students why they don't deserve to have their teacher back.

Come tell Dallas construction workers why they should be sitting home instead of fixing our bridges and our schools.

Come tell the small business owners and workers in this community why you'd rather defend tax breaks for millionaires than tax cuts for the middle-class.

And if you won't do that, at least put this jobs bill up for a vote so that the entire country knows exactly where every member of Congress stands.
Obama has said repeatedly that he's willing to look at GOP ideas. Yet the reality is that the House has passed nearly a dozen bills which have sat in the U.S. Senate without even being brought up for a vote. Apparently is not able to persuade his former Senate colleagues to live by the standard of fair play he is demanding of Cantor.

Speaking of his Senate colleagues. They are the ones currently slow walking Obama's job's bill and freely admit they don't have the votes to pass it. Why no attack by Obama on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid? Why just Eric Cantor in the House? Answer: POLITICS!

And while Obama is attacking Cantor, it's important to note that Cantor has introduced legislation to approve the free trade agreements finally submitted by the Obama Administration. Cantor is doing his part to create jobs. When will Obama do the same?

Obama knows that the House GOP will NOT pass a huge tax increase that is masquerading as a job's bill. Yet he continues to stall and play politics with real bipartisan measures intended to address the jobs crisis!

If Attorney General Holder Were Held to the Alberto Gonzales Standard He Would Be Forced to Resign

But we all know that Democrats are exempt from the same standards they daily demand of Republicans!

By now readers are likely aware of the Fast and Furious scandal where the Obama Administration allowed guns to be taken into Mexico that were later used in crimes, including the murders of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and ICE Agent Jamie Zapata.

Despite the best efforts of the Obama Administration to deny any direct knowledge and their signature tactic of pointing the finger of of blame elsewhere mounting evidence shows that both staff in the White House and the Attorney General himself were informed.

And as usual with a scandal like this, the initial action is bad enough but it's the cover up that takes down high officials. Well, at least if they are Republicans.

From CBS News:
ATF Fast and Furious: New documents show Attorney General Eric Holder was briefed in July 2010
By Sharyl Attkisson
October 3, 2011

WASHINGTON - New documents obtained by CBS News show Attorney General Eric Holder was sent briefings on the controversial Fast and Furious operation as far back as July 2010. That directly contradicts his statement to Congress.

On May 3, 2011, Holder told a Judiciary Committee hearing, "I'm not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks."

Yet internal Justice Department documents show that at least ten months before that hearing, Holder began receiving frequent memos discussing Fast and Furious.

Read the new documents
Read the July 5, 2010 memo

Read the "It's a tricky case" email

Read the memo to AG Holder from Asst. AG Lanny A. Breuer
Keep in mind that A.G. Holder made his statement UNDER OATH in testimony before a Congressional hearing. Bush Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was forced to resign after offering differing accounts to Congress in the wake of the firing of seven U.S. Attorneys. In that case a full investigation was empaneled including a Special Prosecutor.

Can we expect the same standard of investigation in the wake of this huge scandal which cost many innocent lives? Don't bet on it!

Monday, October 03, 2011

Obama Owes the Bush Administration and America an Apology Says Dick Cheney

At least Obama didn't waterboard the two Americans killed in drone attack in Yemen!

Former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz were on CNN's State of the Union program on Sunday discussing the killing of two American Al Queda by a Predator drone strike in Yemen last week. Both were supportive of the action, but seem to think that Obama should apologize for accusing Bush Administration officials of misdeeds for waterboarding THREE terrorists (all of whom are still alive by the way):



Don't Dick and Liz Cheney know the rules are different for Democrats than for Republicans? The new rule, which applies only to Obama, is that you can shoot terrorists (even American citizens) without a trial but you just can't waterboard them!

Obama's Poor Poll Numbers Cause Shift in Electoral Strategy

Don't get too excited. Obama's far from finished. His billion dollar smear campaign hasn't even gotten off the ground yet!

An interesting article in the NY Times last week highlighted the shift in Obama's 2012 re-election strategy that has become necessary as blocs of voters in key states abandon Obama.

A companion to the Times' article is this chart which shows the band of states which went for Obama by narrow margins. Obama's continued slide in job approval in many of these states would signal that he is unlikely to win them again in 2012. But, head to head match ups between Obama and top GOP presidential contenders continue to give him a slight lead in many of these states.

Ohio and Pennsylvania were key to Obama's victory in 2008. Both are a problem now. In Florida,  Virginia and North Carolina it's the same story. Even in big states like New York and California which Obama is expected to carry he is in trouble.

For political junkies who follow these things, the electoral college map calculator is a useful tool to run through various electoral strategies and analyze possible outcomes as the race unfolds.

Obama Hasn't Begun to Fight!

With all this bad news for Obama it might be easy for Republicans to get complacent about the outcome. DON'T! Obama is planning one of the nastiest campaigns in memory funded with a billion dollar war chest which doesn't even count the hundreds of millions more that will be dumped into the race by the progressive political axis.

As the Times' article states, Obama is hoping to replicate the Colorado model from 2010 which successfully fought off the Tea Party challenge in the race for senate. Even though the polls showed the GOP challenger with a slight lead the Dems were able to win. I have repeatedly warned (1,2,3) that the Colorado model, relying on that axis of progressive groups with their permanent, paid political infrastructure were sufficient to overcome tea party enthusiasm channeled through 20th century political models based largely on volunteers.

In 2008 the Obama campaign funded a massive field operation with paid staff in key states. This chart shows where the money went:


Once Obama's billion dollar attack machine is fully up and running we can expect to see similar programs in key states.

I do not want to overstate Obama's strengths. I very much doubt he will be able to take Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina. Florida also looks like a problem. And with Pennsylvania and perhaps Wisconsin possibly coming into play his re-election headache is serious.

But one thing is for sure: unless the GOP has learned it's lesson and is willing and able to create a more effective field operation based on professional staff and not volunteers, we may be the ones waking up with a headache on November 7, 2012!
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