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Posts Tagged ‘democrats’

Gallup: Electorate decidedly more Republican than in 2008

Posted by Richard on November 4, 2012

Gallup has compiled demographic data on 2012 likely voters (sample size 9424, margin of error 1%), and in most respects the electorate is essentially unchanged from 2008. The only exception is party identification. The electorate this year is significantly more Republican (and leaning Republican) and less Democratic (and leaning Democratic). Here are the numbers:

2004

2008

2012

Democrat

37

39

35

Independent

24

31

29

Republican

39

29

36

Democrat/Lean Democratic

48

54

46

Republican/Lean Republican

48

42

49

Of course, state-by-state distributions matter. But basically, it looks to me like success for the Romney campaign depends on getting their supporters to the polls.

It concerns me a bit, therefore, that I’m still getting robocalls from both the Romney campaign and the RNC urging me to vote. I cast my ballot a week ago, and they should know that and stop wasting time on me.

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More damning “Fast and Furious” revelations

Posted by Richard on October 3, 2012

A week or so ago, the Spanish-language network Univision aired an interview with President Obama. As Investor’s Business Daily observed, it was a far cry from the fawning interviews full of softball questions that Obama has been able to count on from the mainstream media. They actually asked tough questions, particularly regarding Operation Fast and Furious and the administration’s immigration policy, and followed up with more tough questions when fed the usual pabulum. (The Daily Caller has the video and more about the interview.) I wish the presidential debates were being hosted by people like Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas.

Last Sunday night, Univision aired an hour-long investigative report on Operation Fast and Furious with lots of new revelations. The Examiner called it “hard-hitting” and “devastating.” The Blaze called it a “bombshell” and highlighted “5 Things You Didn’t Know About Operation Fast and Furious” (although those of us who get our news online and don’t rely on the MSM knew some of them).

Breitbart and Newsbusters both noted the almost complete absence of interest in these revelations by the mainstream media. ABC News did report on the story online (but not on ABC Nightly News), but not exactly prominently:

Nothing shows how much the media wants to downplay this story more than the ABC News site, which finds the Fast and Furious scandal a lower priority than Woman Sues Over Personality Test Job Rejection, Anne Hathaway Marries Adam Shulman, Banned Books Week: 10 Books That Keep Censors Jumping.

Why do I single out ABC News? Univision and ABC News enjoy a partnership. So what you have here is ABC downplaying the superb investigative work of its own partner.

Is anyone surprised by the MSM blackout? Not me. I admit I’m somewhat surprised (pleasantly) by Univision’s interview and investigative report. I understand they generally lean liberal. But in these two instances, they did journalism as it should be done — and as the MSM has long since quit doing it.

Thank you, Univision! These two stories could (and should) reduce the support for Obama in the Hispanic community by a small but measurable amount.

 

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How ‘Pro-Choice’ are Democrats?

Posted by Richard on September 6, 2012

When Socialist Democrats talk about being “pro-choice,” they’re invariably referring to a woman’s right to choose abortion over childbirth. Reason TV went to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte and asked delegates and attendees about some other choice issues, like what you choose to put in your body, what school you choose for your child, and whether you choose to join a union. The result is amusing and (to me at least) not at all surprising.

It seems that Socialist Democrats strongly support your right to make the choices they approve of. And the government’s “right” to stop you from making “bad” choices.


[YouTube link]

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Democracy, Socialist-Democrat style

Posted by Richard on September 5, 2012

Yesterday, the Democratic National Convention adopted a platform from which references to God and to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel had been removed, and Republicans wasted no time seizing on these issues. I’m guessing that the campaign consultants ran those changes past some focus groups or did some quick overnight polling and told the party leadership those changes were suicidal. Because this afternoon, God and Jerusalem were restored to the platform. How it was done is illustrative of the approach to governance of today’s Socialist Democrat leadership.

Amending the platform from the floor requires a two-thirds supermajority. After former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a minister and the chair of the platform committee, introduced the amendments, the convention chair, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, called for a voice vote.

In my opinion, the majority shouted “no.” Watch the video and judge for yourself.

Villaraigosa repeated the vote, with the same result. Then he repeated it again! The third vote was just about even. Good enough — Villaraigosa ruled that two-thirds had approved.

Would it be too  snarky of me to bring up “voter suppression”?


[YouTube link]

 This is reminiscent of the Obama administration’s behavior with regard to the legislative branch. “If Congress won’t act, I will,” the President has declared multiple times, and then proceeded to act extra-legally in defiance of the elected representatives of the people. So now his minions at the DNC have acted extra-legally in defiance of the elected representatives of the party’s rank-and-file members. This is what passes for democracy in the world of Socialist Democrats.

 

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It’s not 2008 anymore

Posted by Richard on September 4, 2012

Remember the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver? To accommodate the throngs who wanted to be there, they moved the grand finale to Invesco Field (now Sports Authority Field) at Mile High. A full house of 80,000 watched candidate Obama stand in front of the styrofoam Greek columns and accept his party’s nomination. Men cheered, women swooned, and children experienced The Rapture.

What a difference four dismal years make:

 Democrats are poised to avoid the danger of President Barack Obama accepting his party’s nomination before a partially-empty stadium by shifting his speech to an indoor arena and citing ‘severe weather’.

As officials prepare to open the Democratic convention this afternoon, there are strong indications that the speech will be moved to Time Warner Cable Arena, which has a capacity of just over 20,000.

The current Weather Underground forecast for Charlotte on Thursday is: ‘Partly cloudy with a chance of a thunderstorm and a chance of rain. High of 93F with a heat index of 99F. Winds from the SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.’

Democratic convention sources have indicated that the ‘contingency plan’ is at an advanced stage and that a move to the stadium appears certain.

‘It looks like a done deal to me,’ said one convention worker. ‘The decision’s apparently been taken and it’s just a matter of spinning it as being forced on us by the weather.’

I’m guessing it’s not yet a done deal. I’ll bet they’re moving heaven and earth to bus in enough students, teachers, and other union members to more or less fill Charlotte’s 74,000-seat Bank of American Stadium. We’ll see.

UPDATE (9/5/12): It’s a done deal. They’re going with the 20,000-seater. Even though Charlotte’s top meteorologist says Thursday night’s weather “will likely be the best weather of the week.”

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Obama administration is creating another housing crisis

Posted by Richard on August 2, 2012

Pretty much everyone agrees that the financial crisis of 2008 was precipitated by the collapse of the housing bubble and subprime mortgages.

The left blames “predatory lenders” who somehow coerced or swindled borrowers into signing up for mortgages they couldn’t afford.

The right blames government regulations and intimidation, corruption and irresponsible practices at Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, and lawsuits and intimidation from non-profits like ACORN for pressuring banks and mortgage institutions into making countless bad loans, which they then turned into CDOs and other derivative instruments in a futile attempt to avoid the consequences.

Unlike the left, which has only demagoguery and accusations, the right has facts to support its view. See also this and especially this.

But in any case, everyone pretty much agrees that vast numbers of loans to borrowers who would never be able to repay them were the root of the problem.

So why is the Obama administration trying to coerce lenders into making vast numbers of loans to borrowers who will never be able to repay them?

Well, this time it’s different. Because this time it’s not Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Community Reinvestment Act. This time it’s the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, a creation of Dodd-Frank (two of the prime architects of the 2008 crisis). This time they’re also going after the credit rating agencies.

And this time the subprime mortgages, lowered credit standards, and liar loans are limited to just blacks and Hispanics. Who will no doubt be protected from the consequences of whatever irresponsible choices they may make by the beneficence of the redistributionist Obama administration (if it continues for another four years).

Or maybe this time it will lead to yet another housing bubble ending in yet another housing collapse leading to yet another round of smaller financial institutions going under or being absorbed by the “too big to fail” institutions that have friends in Washington looking out for them — who will once again be bailed out at the expense of taxpayers who acted responsibly.

Read the whole thing.

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Democrat candidate and caucus leader is 9/11 Truther

Posted by Richard on July 15, 2012

The Democratic Party is home to a number of Jew-hating 9/11 conspiracy theorists. This one is a state-wide candidate and has a national leadership role (emphasis added):

During a radio interview today, M.D. Alam, a Democrat activist running for Missouri secretary of state, defended his reported claim that 9/11 was a Jewish holiday and his questioning of why no Jews were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Sept. 11, 2001, however, was not a Jewish holiday, and estimates conclude at least 200 to 400 Jews, including five Israelis, died in the World Trade Center attacks.

In the interview, Alam also defended “Loose Change,” a series of online videos arguing the 9/11 attacks were planned and conducted by elements within the U.S. government.

Alam is national chairman of the Democratic Party Asian American Caucus and is founder of Missouri’s Democratic Party Asian American Caucus. He was a manager in Missouri for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Alam was speaking today on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” on New York’s WABC Radio.

WND has the audio of the interview.

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Electoral signs of the times — or something

Posted by Richard on May 9, 2012

I’m not sure what these things mean, but I suspect they mean something.

In the West Virginia Democratic presidential primary, Keith Judd, a convicted felon imprisoned in Texas, got 41% of the vote in his run against President Obama, who got 59%.

In the Indiana Republican senatorial primary, incumbent Sen. Dick Lugar got 39% of the vote against challenger Richard Mourdock, endorsed by Tea Party groups and the Club for Growth, who got 61%.

So a convicted felon in West Virginia managed a better showing against the sitting president than an incumbent senator in Indiana managed against a Tea Party challenger.

Meanwhile in Wisconsin’s run-up to the June 5 gubernatorial recall election, Democratic voters by a wide margin chose Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett over Kathleen Falk to challenge Gov. Scott Walker, even though Falk had the backing of the labor unions who bankrolled the recall effort and made it possible (and who tried to pressure Barrett, who lost badly to Walker in 2010, into not running).

But here’s what’s interesting: The Democratic primary was hotly contested, while Walker faced no meaningful opposition on the Republican side. Nevertheless, 626,000 Republicans turned out to vote for Walker, despite no compelling reason to do so — almost as many as voted for the four Democratic candidates (665,000). That seems like a good sign for Walker.

Make of all that what you will. Being optimistic by nature, I’m inclined to see these as signs that the American people aren’t ready to emulate France or Greece.

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SOTUS in a nutshell

Posted by Richard on January 24, 2012

For those who missed it, here’s my summary of the State of the Union speech:

We need to spend more on teachers, spend more on schools, spend more on infrastructure, spend more on teachers (did I mention teachers?), spend more on innovative technology companies like Solyndra, spend more on subsidies for other things I favor … and reduce the national debt.

We need to provide tax credits for job creation, tax preferences for alternative energy, tax breaks for education … and we need to simplify the tax code.

We need to punish achievement with higher taxes, reward failure with more subsidies, and regulate the hell out of everything … that’s how we’ll save our free-enterprise system.

We have a great military (isn’t it terrific how I got bin Laden?). We should emulate them more in the private sector and throughout society. Everyone must be made to work together for a common purpose, as decreed by those in command (me). Everyone must march in lockstep and follow orders. That’s how we’ll preserve this country’s great heritage of liberty.

Vodkapundit summed it up more succinctly: “nothing but promises to spend more, to regulate more, and to tax more. ”

I should be shocked, outraged, and disgusted — but honestly, it’s just about what I expected. So my reaction was basically “ho hum, what else is new?”

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Make SOTUS bearable with Vodkapundit

Posted by Richard on January 24, 2012

I understand that the President will be delivering his re-election campaign kickoff speech tonight. If, like me, you find the idea of watching almost unbearable, I suggest you drop by Vodkapundit and take in the event through the filter of Stephen Green’s drunkblogging. I can guarantee it will be more entertaining (and more enlightening) than watching it live. You might want to have a few adult beverages handy, too.

UPDATE: Go here for the drunkblogging.

And afterwards, watch Herman Cain deliver the Tea Party response here.

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1000 days without a budget

Posted by Richard on January 24, 2012

Tea Party Patriots reminds us that as of today, the U.S. Senate has failed to perform one of its primary functions for nearly three full years (emphasis in original):

Today marks the 1000th day that the US Senate has failed to pass a budget. Budgets are something that most Americans encounter, whether in their homes, in their jobs, in their businesses, or in their community groups, etc.

The purpose of a budget is to lay out a guideline for revenues and expenditures, so that one can have a forecast of the year to come.

It is no wonder our elected officials can’t seem to balance the budget and get our fiscal house in order. There is no budget; no guide to even point them in the right direction. In fact, they can’t find the “BOLDNESS” to cut even $1 from the federal budget!

In an economic environment where many Americans are out of work, losing their jobs, and struggling to find jobs, it is unacceptable that the members of the US Senate have been allowed to go on without completing a basic function of their jobs for nearly 3 years!

Call your Senator today. Tell them that Washington spending is out of control and must be cut. Tell them to take the first step and pass a budget.

Because of the baseline budgeting scam, Senate Democrats’ refusal to pass a budget lets spending grow on autopilot. The spendthrifts (of both parties) can claim they’re “holding the line” on spending if their continuing resolutions appropriate funds at somewhere near the “current level” — which is automagically about 7-8% higher each year.

Go to Tea Party Patriots to look up your senators’ phone numbers. Then give them a call and let their staff know that you’re on to their sleazy little game.

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Life imitates art, Atlas Shrugged edition, episode 137

Posted by Richard on January 23, 2012

Here’s some news you may have missed last week. From The Hill:

Six House Democrats, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), want to set up a “Reasonable Profits Board” to control gas profits.

The Democrats, worried about higher gas prices, want to set up a board that would apply a “windfall profit tax” as high as 100 percent on the sale of oil and gas, according to their legislation. The bill provides no specific guidance for how the board would determine what constitutes a reasonable profit.

The Gas Price Spike Act, H.R. 3784, would apply a windfall tax on the sale of oil and gas that ranges from 50 percent to 100 percent on all surplus earnings exceeding “a reasonable profit.” It would set up a Reasonable Profits Board made up of three presidential nominees that will serve three-year terms. Unlike other bills setting up advisory boards, the Reasonable Profits Board would not be made up of any nominees from Congress.

Co-sponsoring the bill are five other Democrats: Reps. John Conyers Jr. (Mich.), Bob Filner (Calif.), Marcia Fudge (Ohio), Jim Langevin (R.I.), and Lynn Woolsey (Calif.).

Pam Geller called it “Post-American Statism” and asked:

This is straight out of Ayn Rand’s novel, Atlas Shrugged — what next? The “Anti-Dog-Eat-Dog Rule,” and “The Equalization of Opportunity Bill”?

Didn’t Obama already appoint an Equalization of Opportunity Czar? I’ve lost track.

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Reid: It’s government jobs we need to create

Posted by Richard on October 20, 2011

It’s obvious to anyone who looks at how the 2009 stimulus bill spent $800 billion and how this year’s so-called jobs bill would spend another $450 billion that the jobs the Obama administration wants to “create or save” are government jobs and government contractors’ jobs. The only thing surprising about today’s outrageous statement by Sen. Harry Reid is that he’d admit this — and offer an absurd justification (emphasis added):

The Senate Majority Leader dropped this stunner in the context of explaining why Congress must drop everything and spend more money we don’t have to prop up public sector jobs.  Because, Reid apparently believes, government workers are the real victims of the great recession.  Ladies and gentlemen, the Democrat Party mentality, distilled:

“It’s very clear that private sector jobs have been doing just fine.  It’s public sector jobs where we’ve lost huge numbers.”

The private sector’s official unemployment rate has been stuck above 9%, and the real rate (accounting for all the people who’ve given up and left the labor force or are involuntarily working part-time) is at least 16% and maybe over 20%. Sen. Reid thinks that’s “just fine.”

Meanwhile, the government worker unemployment rate is 4.7%. And that’s where Reid and the Obama administration want to “create or save” more jobs, by spending another few hundred billion dollars we have to borrow from the Chinese — or take away from people whose spending and investments might otherwise create private sector jobs.

I’ve tried in the past to remember Hanlon’s (or Heinlein’s) Razor (“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity”). But the Socialist Democrats have demonstrated through both their words and their actions that their purpose is to create more jobs in government, where unemployment is at 4.7% (effectively full employment), and that they don’t give a rat’s ass about the 9-16% (or higher) unemployment in the private sector.

In fact, their massive new regulatory schemes can only make private sector unemployment worse.

Shrinking the private sector while growing government: The sum total of the evidence strongly suggests that this isn’t stupidity or happenstance — it’s their intent.

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Obama mail scavenger hunt

Posted by Richard on October 14, 2011

Apparently, President Obama is not too popular in Virginia. His only announced Virginia appearance during next week's bus tour is in a state senate district where the Democratic candidate has no Republican challenger in next month's election. Four previously reported stops in districts where the Democrat faces a challenger have apparently been dropped.

The Republican Party of Virginia says it's hard to find a Democratic candidate eager to be associated with the President. So they're having a contest, the "Proud to Stand with Obama" Direct Mail Scavenger Hunt (emphasis in original): 

Find any general election direct mail piece from a Virginia Democrat running for the state Senate – or one from a Democrat committee – that uses a picture of President Obama in a positive light, i.e. "Supported/Endorsed by Barack Obama" or "Supports Obama's policies."  (Note: Democratic primary mail pieces do not count!)

Then scan it and email it to contest@RPV.org  or fax it to us at: (804) 343-1060. The first qualifying mail piece in the door wins the prize, an autographed copy of Karl Rove's "Courage and Consequences," and a "Not Again!" bumper sticker.

If no qualifying entry is submitted by Oct. 28, they'll award the prize to the first person to submit a direct mail piece from any of 10 Democratic state senate candidates "that proudly identifies them as the Democratic candidate." 

The original contest idea, which involved the state's popular Republican governor, had to be scrapped:

The initial idea for this contest was to see how many different pieces of direct mail we could find in which Democrats running for the state Senate used the phase "worked with Governor McDonnell," or included a picture of themselves with Governor McDonnell… but we've seen several of those piece already, so that wouldn't have made for a very challenging scavenger hunt.

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What you need to know about Operation Fast and Furious

Posted by Richard on October 12, 2011

Congressional investigators are apparently about to subpoena Attorney General Eric Holder to find out who knew what when regarding Operation Fast and Furious, which led to the deaths of at least 200 people, including Border Patrol Agent Bryan Terry.

Here's the executive summary of Operation Fast and Furious: In an attempt to justify more gun control laws, the Obama administration wanted evidence that Mexican drug cartels were obtaining weapons from US gun stores. So they helped Mexican drug cartels obtain weapons from US gun stores. With the government's help, straw purchasers, some of them paid government informants, bought guns at US gun stores and smuggled them to the cartels in Mexico. The feds forced reluctant gun store owners to facilitate these straw purchases. When even that wasn't enough, ATFE agents themselves bought guns and transferred them to the drug cartels. They did all this without informing the Mexican government or even US ATFE agents in Mexico.

The few mainstream media reports about the operation invariably describe it as "botched." It was not botched. Operation Fast and Furious did exactly what it was designed to do: transfer lots of US guns to Mexican drug cartels in order to prove that Mexican drug cartels got guns from the US, thus justifying more US gun control laws. 

The scam failed only because of the death of Bryan Terry and the subsequent bouts of conscience that led some of the ATFE agents involved to become whistleblowers. 

That's the executive summary. For much more about the government-sponsored criminal enterprise known as Operation Fast and Furious, see Fast And Furious: 22 Shocking Facts About The Scandal That Could Bring Down The Obama Administration.

As somebody pointed out, this is worse than Watergate because no one died at Watergate.

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