Obama: Okay, Maybe This Wasn’t the Best Week To Fundraise on Economic Good News
Posted: October 9, 2014 Filed under: Economics, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Barack Obama, Billionaires, Democratic, Dow Jones Industrial Average, Fundraising, Millionaires, Wall Street Leave a comment
Image source: Mad Magazine
The Dow industrials fall nearly 2%, logging their steepest one-day decline since June 2013: http://t.co/OBNrmMeap0pic.twitter.com/T35H7OsDiI
— WSJ Markets (@WSJmarkets) October 9, 2014
Not Over Easy: Border Crisis Scrambling the Politics of Immigration Policy
Posted: July 13, 2014 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Politics, White House | Tags: Barack Obama, Cecilia Muñoz, Central America, Democratic, Henry Cuellar, John Boehner, Karen Tumulty, Obama, Washington Post 1 CommentFor the The Washington Post, Karen Tumulty and David Nakamura report: Until now, the politics of immigration have been *seen as a no-lose proposition for President Obama and the Democrats. If they could get a comprehensive overhaul passed, they would win. And if Republicans blocked it, the GOP would further alienate crucial Hispanic and 
moderate voters.
“Seen as” means “seen as, by the president’s supporters, senior White House staff , and Democrat-leaning members of the press”
— The Butcher
But with the current crisis on the Southwest border, where authorities have apprehended tens of thousands of unaccompanied Central American children since October, that calculus may be shifting.
“He can’t even go 242 miles to the Texas border? Border community leaders want to see him down there on the border.”
— Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Tex.)
Republicans and even some Democrats have accused Obama of being insufficiently engaged in a calamity that many say he should have seen coming.
And the president’s own party is deeply divided over what must be done now — particularly on the sensitive question of deporting children who have traveled thousands of miles and turned themselves in to U.S. authorities to escape from the desperate situations they faced in countries such as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
The emergency has also renewed questions about the administration’s competence, reminiscent of those raised during the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, last year’s botched rollout of the health-care law and more recent revelations of mismanagement that jeopardized care of patients at veterans hospitals. Read the rest of this entry »
Polling Data and Dem Think-Tank Messaging Tells Obama ‘Class Warfare’ Rhetoric Needs to be Replaced With ‘Gender Gap’ Rhetoric
Posted: July 6, 2014 Filed under: Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Barack Obama, Democratic, Economic inequality, Third Way, Wall Street, Washington Post, White House 1 Comment
All Politics All The Time
From Today’s Washington Post:
“…The shift also underscores the ongoing dispute between the Democratic Party’s liberal and moderate wings over how to address inequality issues. Whereas the left takes a more combative tone, seeking to focus on the income gap and what it views as the harmful influence of big business and Wall Street, more centrist forces in the party favor an emphasis on less-divisive issues.
White House officials say the change in the president’s rhetoric was driven by a desire to focus not just on the problem — economic inequality — but also on solutions that could address it. Others close to the White House contend that the move is at least partly driven by Democratic polling that found that talking about income inequality does not register strongly with the American public and risks accusations of class warfare.
“It was clear in 2013 that income inequality was the top narrative for the White House, but they abruptly switched away from it. Income inequality seems like it’s on the back burner now — at least in terms of their rhetoric.”
— Jim Kessler, senior vice president for policy at Third Way, a Democratic think tank
The shift hints at a broader repositioning of Democratic messaging ahead of the midterm elections and, perhaps, the 2016 presidential race….”
Zachary A. Goldfarb – The Washington Post
Rise of the Uncool: 2016
Posted: July 2, 2014 Filed under: Humor, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Al Gore, Ben Affleck, Black Eyed Peas, Bobby Jindal, Democratic, Jeb Bush, Jim Geraghty, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul Leave a comment
Maybe I’m perverse, but this made me laugh out loud. It’s so true. Over at The Corner, Jim Geraghty, observing that the time has never been better for a limited-government candidate, writes:
“…This is not to say electing a Republican candidate, pledging to limit and reduce the size, scope, cost, and reach of government is going to be easy, of course. For starters, no matter who the 2016 Republican candidate is, that person is going to face some variation of this:
All of the celebrities of Hollywood and the music industry will come out to rally and endorse the Democratic candidate — Ms. Perry and her latex dresses, Bruce Springsteen, Eva Longoria, the Black Eyed Peas, Ben Affleck, and all the other usual suspects. This reflects their reflexive insistence that the Democratic president candidate is the “cool” one. Most of these figures insisted John Kerry was the cool one in 2004 and that Al Gore was the cool choice in 2000. Ahem.
The 2004 experience ought to reassure us that Democrat-friendly celebrities cannot, by themselves, convince the public that the Democratic nominee is cooler and thus a better choice for president.
The 2016 Republican nominee is also certain to face some variation of this:
In some senses relating to the campaign, it does not matter whether Republicans nominate Jeb Bush, or Rand Paul, or Ted Cruz, or Marco Rubio, or Bobby Jindal, or Chris Christie, or Scott Walker, or Rick Perry, or any other GOP rising star. The 2016 Republican nominee will be attacked for being insufficiently “cool” and attacked for being “not one of us.” Read the rest of this entry »
It’s On: True The Vote Sues MS Secretary of State, GOP over Cochrans Alleged Voter Fraud
Posted: July 1, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Law & Justice, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Chris McDaniel, Delbert Hosemann, Democratic, Democrats, Mississippi, Mississippi Republican, Thad Cochran, Tuesday 1 Comment
For Breitbart.com, Matthew Boyle reports: Conservative election integrity organization True The Vote filed suit in federal court Tuesday against Mississippi’s Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann and the Mississippi Republican Party, asking a judge for an immediate injunction against them so that the election material from the state’s June 24 GOP primary runoff can be inspected.
“What must withstand the test of time is the integrity of the process by which we elect our representatives and establish our government. No candidate or party should ever be allowed to twist election laws or subvert voters’ rights in the interest of political ambition.”
— True the Vote president Catherine Engelbrecht
The lawsuit comes as allegations that Sen. Thad Cochran’s (R-MS) campaign and his allies engaged in voter fraud to win last Tuesday’s runoff against conservative state Sen. Chris McDaniel. Cochran bested McDaniel by fewer than 7,000 votes but did so with an overwhelming turnout from liberal Democrats in the black community.
True the Vote president Catherine Engelbrecht
“True the Vote has been inundated with reports from voters across Mississippi who are outraged to see the integrity of this election being undermined so that politicos can get back to business as usual. Enough is enough.”
“All we are asking is that the MS State Republican Party follow the law; allow their designated county representatives to inspect the poll books and ballots, give them the review time they are permitted by law, and allow them to uphold their responsibility to MS voters,” True the Vote president Catherine Engelbrecht said in a statement about the suit. “True the Vote has been inundated with reports from voters across Mississippi who are outraged to see the integrity of this election being undermined so that politicos can get back to business as usual. Enough is enough.”
[True the Vote v. Mississippi Complaint]
True The Vote wants the federal judge to order the state party and Secretary of State’s office to allow independent verification of the election results to ensure there were no “illegal votes.” Such votes could come as fraudulently cast absentee ballots—the runoff saw a massive spike in absentees over the primary a few weeks earlier—or by Democrats who voted in the June 24 GOP primary runoff after having voted in the June 3 Democratic primary. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] The Hammer: VA Mismanagement Evidence of Big Government’s Failures
Posted: May 21, 2014 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Barack Obama, Charles Krauthammer, Democratic, Department of Veterans Affairs, Eric Shinseki, government, National Review, United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration 4 Comments“It can’t even run a decades-old, normal, absolutely mundane health-care system that are run everywhere in the world between here and Togo…”
Democratic outrage over the fatal mismanagement at the Department of Veterans Affairs is the “precisely the paradox” of the failures of an expansive government that they advocate for, Charles Krauthammer noted on Wednesday’s Special Report. The allegations that the widespread malpractice led to several deaths in facilities nationwide is proof of the perils and limitations of a large bureaucratic, centralized system.
“The idea that this is government that’s going to do great new things — universal pre-school, and all of these wonderful promises — is totally dissolved and it redounds against the party of government.”
Unlike past scandals that Democrats have dismissed as manufactured Republican hysteria, Krauthammer said Democrats cannot simply ignore this problem…(read more)
[VIDEO] Dem Congressmen Fail When Confronted About Irresponsible Racism Claims
Posted: May 14, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Bennie Thompson, Democratic, Jesse Watters, O'Reilly Factor, Racism, Republican Party (United States), Steve Israel 3 CommentsNRO‘s Andrew Johnson has a good summary here.
Two Democratic congressman who recently charged Republicans with racism were forced to answer for their claims when confronted by Fox News’s Jesse Watters.
First, Watters took on Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Steve Israel (D., N.Y.) for telling CNN last month that Republican opposition to immigration reform is “animated by racism.”
“You are picking up on something that was out of context, and happened three weeks ago, so I question why you would even ask that,” Israel said to Watters as he tried to get into an elevator… (read more)
Elizabeth Warren: ‘Socialist? Why Do People Think I’m a Socialist?’
Posted: May 12, 2014 Filed under: Law & Justice, Politics | Tags: Daily Caller, Democratic, Elizabeth Warren, Face the Nation, Massachusetts, Student loan, United States, Warren 1 Comment
For The Daily Caller, Robbie Soave writes: Just days after proposing a massive bailout of indebted students that would subsidize their college loans and forgive some of their financial obligations, far-left Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said she has no idea why people think she is a socialist.
“…an effort to punish taxpayers for college students’ bad choices.”
Her bill, the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act, would lower the amount of money that students are obligated to repay to the federal government. If enacted, the bill would deprive the federal government of billions of dollars in interest payments owed to its shareholders: the American taxpayers.
[RELATED: Liz Warren Wants Feds to Subsidize Student Loans]
It is Warren’s belief that students — who voluntarily signed up for the loans and agreed to pay them back at certain interest rates — should be let off the hook. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Gowdy: Democrats’ ‘Selective Amnesia’ About Fundraising on Tragedies
Posted: May 11, 2014 Filed under: Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Benghazi, Democratic, Democrats, Fox News Sunday, Hurricane Katrina, Republican Party (United States), Sandy Hook, Trey Gowdy, YouTube 2 CommentsOn Fox News Sunday, Representative Trey Gowdy R-SC, the newly appointed chair of the Houses Benghazi select committee, accused Democrats of having “selective amnesia” when it came to fundraising off of tragedies, arguing they had no problem raising funds from everything from Hurricane Katrina to Sandy Hook.
Condolences to Harry Reid
Posted: May 9, 2014 Filed under: Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Chuck Todd, Cleveland, Democratic, Harry Reid, Koch family, Party leaders of the United States Senate, Senate, United States 1 Comment
“The Editors would like to extend our condolences to Senator Harry Reid and his family as they go through this difficult time. While we can only guess at the exact nature of the psychiatric or neurological trauma the Senate majority leader has suffered, we assume that it is severe, judging by his symptoms, the most prominent of which is his new habit of taking to the Senate floor to deliver speeches that sound like they ought to be coming from a man wearing a bathrobe in front of a liquor store in Cleveland…”
President Obama at Hollywood Fundraiser
Posted: May 8, 2014 Filed under: Politics, White House | Tags: Barack Obama, Barbra Streisand, Bruce Springsteen, Conan O'Brien, Democratic, Los Angeles, Obama, Steven Spielberg 1 Comment
Image: Jeff Kravitz/FIlmMagic
From Variety:
…Among the 90 or so in attendance were Barbra Streisand, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Tom Rothman and James Brolin, according to a pool report. Guests had dinner under a tent in the Horns’ backyard. The event at the Horns’ Bel-Air home was to raise money for the House Senate Victory Fund, a joint committee set up for congressional candidates.
“I know you left Washington 6 hours ago, But I left Burbank seven hours ago.”
— Conan O’Brien
The Horns are longtime Democratic donors, although this is the president’s first visit to their home for a fundraising event, which also included House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.). Cindy Horn introduced Obama…
Image: Jeff Kravitz/FIlmMagic
Tickets to the event started $10,000 per person, including dinner and a photo op. Those donating $32,400 per couple got listed as “sponsors” and could take part in a VIP reception. Those donating $64,800 per couple were listed as “hosts” and could take part in a “VIP clutch.”
The House Senate Victory Fund is splitting proceeds equally between the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Read the rest of this entry »
Demsocrat’s Plan to Counter Criticism: Outlaw It
Posted: May 4, 2014 Filed under: Censorship, Law & Justice, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: censorship, Chuck Schumer, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Democratic, Democrats, First Amendment to the United States Constitution, Freedom of speech, Harry Reid, Koch 2 Comments
For Commentary Magazine, Seth Mandel writes: A common pattern in American political discourse is for conservatives to accuse liberals of some statist extremism, liberals to insist the complaint has no merit whatsoever, and then when it’s clear conservatives are on to something liberals lament, more in sorrow than in anger, that conservatives had a point but took it way too far. How vindicated conservatives then feel if information comes to light to back up their warnings about the slippery slope of state power.
“I’m not sure how many times the White House and Democratic congressional leadership can hope to get their party to vote for abusive federal power grabs that are openly hostile to public opinion and individual rights.”
The evolution of the Democrats’ deranged attacks on the Koch brothers and political participation in general has followed precisely this pattern. The trickle of mentions of the Kochs turned into a flood, as Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid became thoroughly incapable of discussing any topic–campaign finance, Ukraine, the minimum wage–without calling out the libertarian philanthropists. He called their participation in the political process “un-American” in an ever-escalating crusade to declare them former people and seek to pressure the judiciary into permitting limitations on free speech rights.
“Schumer has proposed a solution: no need to change the policies to adhere to public opinion if you can just restrict the public’s ability to express that opinion.”
Conservatives warned that high-profile Democrats’ hostility to the First Amendment was liable to result in the curbing of Americans’ constitutional rights. Liberals scoffed. Yet now, the Hill reports, Democrats–who haven’t exactly been models of subtlety, but who at least permitted liberals some plausible deniability–are through beating around the bush. Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer has announced his party’s newest midterm election strategy: amend the Constitution to rein in its free speech protections. Read the rest of this entry »
Straight Talk About Gay Republican Congressional Candidate Carl DeMaio
Posted: April 28, 2014 Filed under: Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: California, Carl DeMaio, Dana Perino, DeMaio, Democratic, Fox News Channel, George W. Bush, Hollywood, LGBT, Republican Party (United States), San Diego City Council, Scott Peters 2 Comments
For Fox News.com, former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino writes: Let’s pretend you’re a screenwriter assigned to develop a character to run for Congress in California in 2014. You need a compelling story, so you make him an orphan at 13 – wait, even better his dad leaves the family two weeks before his mother died – and then social services splits up his brothers and sisters leaving him alone in the world.
“…DeMaio’s story is different to because it crosses the line from opposition to outright sabotage.”
Despite those challenges he perseveres, putting himself through a top-tier college and then building and selling two multimillion-dollar companies.
Thus financially secure, he decides to dedicate himself to public service and runs for City Council.
Isn’t his story what the people who fight for equality say they’ve been fighting for?
In his first term he works across party lines and four years after his first election he passes major pension reform that saves the city money and protects the retirement savings of thousand of people.
For good measure, you make him openly gay and in a committed relationship, the first to feature his partner in campaign literature. He’s the perfect candidate to send to Washington, D.C. and, of course, he’s a Democrat, right?
Wrong. The real story proves that truth is stranger and sometimes better than fiction. Your character already exists in Carl DeMaio of San Diego – except that he’s not a Democrat, he’s a (gasp!) Republican.
No one in Hollywood would write this screenplay — unless it was a tragicomedy that ends with the candidate realizing the error of his ways and fleeing to the nurturing embrace of doe-eyed and loving Democrats. Exit weeping.
Isn’t his story what everyone who fights for equality says they’ve been fighting for?
When I talked to DeMaio, he said he doesn’t want to emphasize his sexual orientation or his challenging childhood – he prefers to talk about the fiscal condition of the country and his candidacy to defeat freshman Rep. Scott Peters, a Democrat. But because he is who he is, and because his opponents are making an issue about his sexual orientation and lying about his record, he’s willing to talk about it. And he’s disrupting all of the stereotypes. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Goldberg: Polls Show Voters Intensity on the Anti-Obamacare Side
Posted: April 23, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Democratic, Mark Begich, Mark Pryor, Mary Landrieu, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Republican Party (United States), United States, YouTube 2 CommentsSenate Democrats Forced to Defend More Seats
Posted: April 21, 2014 Filed under: Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Alaska, Barack Obama, Democratic, Democrats, Mid-terms, North Carolina, Republican, South Dakota 1 Comment
For Breitbart.com, Mike Flynn writes: In even a neutral political environment, the 2014 midterms were going to be a challenge for Senate Democrats. They are defending 21 seats to the GOP’s 15, with only two of the Republican seats at any kind of risk of flipping to the Democrats. Moreover, Democrats were defending many freshman Senators who first won office in in Republican states in Obama’s wave election in 2008.
This isn’t a neutral political environment, however. Obama’s low approval ratings, the continued fallout over ObamaCare, current Democrat happy-talk notwithstanding, and the sluggish economy have provided Republicans with an enthusiasm and turnout advantage that could match 2010. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Hark! I Hear the Cannons Roar! Democrats Hark Back to the Politics of Race
Posted: April 18, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, The Butcher's Notebook, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Barack Obama, CNN, Democratic, George W. Bush, Matt Bai, Nancy Pelosi, Obama, Steve Israel, United States 1 CommentFor Yahoo News, Matt Bai writes: So now it’s out there. After five years of studied reticence (unless they were talking privately to one another or their supporters), Democratic leaders in Washington finally went public last week with what they really think is motivating Republican opposition to Barack Obama. As Steve Israel, one of the top Democrats in Congress, told CNN’s Candy Crowley, the Republican base, “to a significant extent,” is “animated by racism.”
Just to make himself clear, Israel did allow that not all Republicans were the ideological descendants of Bull Connor. To which I’m sure his colleagues across the aisle responded, “Oh, OK. Cool then.”
Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., chairman of the DCCC, speaks at the National Press Club’s Newsmaker series on how Rep. Paul Ryan’s, R-Wis., budget will effect the midterm elections. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images)
But it’s not the reaction of Republicans that Democrats should probably have some concern about. It’s the way American voters, and a lot of younger voters in particular, may view a return to the polarizing racial debate that existed before Obama was ever elected.
Note: one of Matt Bai‘s silly sentences:
“…Still, a lot of Americans who voted for Obama probably find the racism argument at least somewhat persuasive.”
A “lot”? Really? Any chance you can be more specific? Then, the deadly trio: “probably”, “at least”, and “somewhat”. Smothered in qualifiers, so weak and blurry, it undermines the author’s point. Imagine a voter thinking, “Wellllll…The Democratic Party’s opportunistic race-baiting and divisive name-calling is probably… at least….sommmeeewhat persuasive….I guess…”
Coming in an election year, and in the wake of sporadic campaigns to solidify support among women and gay voters, the sudden Democratic focus on race felt like an orchestrated talking point. Israel’s comments came just a few days after Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, suggested that racism was keeping Republicans from voting on an immigration bill. And Pelosi was reacting to a speech by the attorney general, Eric Holder, who complained to a civil rights gathering in Washington of “ugly and divisive” attacks against the administration.
“What attorney general has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment?” Holder, who is African-American, pointedly asked. “What president has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment?”
As far as I can tell, though, this eruption on race actually wasn’t born in the kind of strategy session where consultants lay out which issues will move which voters. What seems to have happened was something rarer: Washington Democrats, unable to suppress their frustration for a minute longer, simply blurted out what they have always believed to be true but had been reluctant to say. One catharsis emboldened the next. Read the rest of this entry »
Why are Liberals Afraid of Black Conservatives?
Posted: April 15, 2014 Filed under: Education, History, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: African American, Al Sharpton, Democratic, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Jesse Jackson, Liberalism, Washington Times 4 Comments
Good article here, recommended by a reader, Tim Shey. Go here for the full article, in Washington Times Communities. Here’s an introduction:
Wayne Dupree writes: Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman are heros. Their strength and conviction to free blacks from slavery are a testament to what happens when individuals think more of their community than themselves and are willing to risk everything for a cause greater than themselves.
In comparison, modern black “leaders” like Jesse Jackson Jr. and Al Sharpton are tiny and self-serving. They don’t serve black Americans or champion freedom and liberty for all. They champion liberal politics and ideology, and that’s odd; liberals want to see blacks tucked neatly into the roles of their design.
Liberals can’t abide a black person who leaves the black plantation of poverty and handouts to stand on his own two feet; they treat with contempt a black man who turns his back on their free money to work hard to make a good life for himself and his family. How dare these dissidents show the black community what they can do with their lives if they walk away from poverty and work to better themselves?
Too many liberals think they have the black race all sewed up, and it just paralyzes them to hear of black conservatives.
Pew: Democrats Losing Millennials
Posted: April 15, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Baby boomer, Barack Obama, Democratic, Democrats, Generation Y, Hurricane Katrina, Millennial, Pew Research Center 2 Comments
Breitbart.com‘s Chriss W. Street reports: Barack Obama may be the Republicans’ best friend when it comes to educating 18-33-year olds of the Millennial Generation about the downside of voting for the Democrats’ economic policies. According to a report from the Pew Research Center for Social and Demographic Trends, the 73.7 million Millennialsare “unattached to organized politics and religion, linked by social media, burdened by debt, distrustful of people, in no rush to marry— and optimistic about the future.”
This growing rejection of the Democrat Party will undoubtedly have consequences in the coming mid-term and presidential elections.
Millennials in 2008 were all about the Democratic Party, with only 38% identifying themselves as political independents. Millennials associated Republicans with “a wave of disappointments and embarrassments: Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, congressional corruption scandals, the mortgage crisis.” Millennials were extraordinarily motivated to turn out and vote in 2008 and even more motivated in 2012.
But 50% of Millennials now describe themselves as political independents, “near the highest levels of political disaffiliation recorded for any generation in the quarter-century,” according to the latest Pew Research poll. This comes despite 43% of Millennials and about half of their newborns being Hispanic, Asian, and black, ethnic groups that have strongly favored Democrats in the past. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] George Will: The Left Has ‘a Kind of Tourettes Syndrome’ in Constantly Blaming Race
Posted: April 13, 2014 Filed under: Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Barack Obama, Democratic, Eric Holder, George Will, Left Wing, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Racism, The Left 4 CommentsEric Holder’s suggestion earlier this week that he and President Obama receive more criticism due to their race is just the latest example of the “intellectual poverty” among Democrats, according to George Will.
“Liberalism has a kind of Tourette’s syndrome these days — it’s just constantly saying the word ‘racism’ and ‘racist.'”
With Democrats facing the unpopularity of Obamacare, a troubled foreign-policy, and an “unprecedentedly bad” economic recovery, the party had started to employ this strategy in to top-gear ahead of the fall midterms…(read more)
[VIDEO] ‘Groundhog Day’ Alzheimer’s Remix: All 134 Times Harry Reid Has Mentioned the Koch Brothers on the Senate Floor
Posted: April 11, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Democratic, Harry Reid, Koch family, Party leaders of the United States Senate, Reid, Senate, Un-American, Washington Free Beacon 2 CommentsFor the Washington Free Beacon, David Rutz writes: Harry Reid (D., Nev.) has a big problem. Or an infatuation, depending on how you look at it.
The Senate Majority Leader has gone to incredible lengths to demonize a pair of anti-cancer philanthropist brothers named Charles and David Koch, to the extent that he’s mentioned them 134 times in a series of strange diatribes on the Senate floor.
Nearly all of those mentions have occurred since Feb. 26, when he first went off on the Kochs as an unsubtle means of rallying support for the flailing Democratic Party’s hopes to retain a majority.
Ad Wars: Koch Network Fires Back at Liberal Billionaires
Posted: April 1, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Democratic, Harry Reid, Koch, Koch family, National Review, Senate, Tom Steyer, United States 3 CommentsFor National Review Online, Eliana Johnson writes: The 2014 ad war is on, with billionaires in both parties taking aim at each other in competing advertisements up in swing states.
In a new ad released Monday, the Koch network is pushing back against its Democratic critics, chief among them Harry Reid, and one of his billionaire backers.
California Obamacare Exchange Mails Couple Voter-Registration Form with Democratic Party Checked Already
Posted: March 31, 2014 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: California, Covered California, Democratic, La Mesa, La Mesa California, League of Women Voters, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Voter registration 1 Comment
A couple from La Mesa, Calif., received a voter-registration form from Covered California, the state’s Obamacare campaign, with an “x” already put next to the Democratic-party box.
The couple called their local 10News station to say they had received the voter-registration form — the couple have always been registered Republicans and are confused as to why such a form would be sent to their home.
CNN: Blowing Smoke
Posted: March 29, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Censorship, Crime & Corruption, Politics | Tags: California State Senate, CNN, Democratic, Leland Yee, lelandyee, Media malpractice, Politico, Texas, Twitter, Wendy Davis 3 Comments
@TheINDYpundit It’s in line with us covering state senators & state secretary of state races just about never. You see another conspiracy?
— CNN.com Writers (@CNNWriters) March 28, 2014
Shameless. Breitbart has coverage:
CNN dismissed complaints that the network was not covering last week’s shocking arrest of Democrat Leland Yee, the California state senator who was arrested for alleged arms trafficking and bribery, and falsely asserted that it does not give attention to state senators.
That standard did not apply to Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, whom CNN covered relentlessly. This was long before she even considered a gubernatorial run after filibustering a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks and make those conducted before then safer.
Viewers and readers on Friday complained that the network, just like Politico, was not reporting or discussing Yee’s scandal online, and the official and verified @CNNWriters account tweeted to one critic that ignoring Yee’s arrest was standard practice. (read more here)
Mainstream Media Runs Away from Democratic Chinatown Gangster/Gun-Controller Story
Posted: March 29, 2014 Filed under: Censorship, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Andrew Breitbart, Chicago Sun-Times, CNN, Democratic, Jonah Goldberg, Leland Yee, Los Angeles Times, National Review, New York Times 2 Comments
Was it Andrew Breitbart who coined “Democrat Media Complex“? [See James Taranto’s October 2009 article] When I first heard it I thought it was funny in a combative, mock-paranoid, anti-establishment, new media champion sort of way. Now I realize, it wasn’t meant to be funny. Jonah Goldberg’s column is about the lack of coverage (see below) We promise to cover Leland Lee abundantly in the coming weeks.
Alec Torres has an item at The Corner:
Leland Yee should be making national headlines…arrested on Wednesday by the Justice Department for wire fraud, corruption, and his alleged involvement in illegal gun deal between Chinatown gangsters and Islamist militants.
“Being a Democrat — even (or perhaps especially) a disgraced Democrat — comes with a lot of perks.”
And while he has been trying to put automatic weapons and shoulder-fired missile launchers into the hands of criminals, Yee was also an extremely vocal gun-control advocate whose mission was to take guns away from law-abiding citizens.
“The New York Times offered only one blurb of less than 200 words on Yee’s corruption charges.”
Leland Yee, the Kochs, and the Press
Posted: March 29, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Baptist, Democratic, Gun control, Jonah Goldberg, Keystone Pipeline, Koch, Koch Brothers, Leland Yee, media 1 Comment
Jonah Goldberg writes: Leland Yee, a Democratic state senator and candidate for secretary of state in California, has been a longtime champion of gun control. This week he was arrested on numerous charges, including conspiracy to deal firearms without a license and conspiracy to illegally transport firearms. Yee, a prominent foe of assault weapons, allegedly took bribes to set up a meeting between an undercover agent and an international arms dealer to broker the sale of automatic weapons and shoulder-fired missiles. A lengthy FBI affidavit also describes Yee’s ties to a Chinese triad and his desire to help out Islamist militants.
In short, the story makes for what journalists call “good copy.”
And yet, so far no reporter has raised the possibility that Yee supported tighter restrictions on guns in order to keep gun prices high and his own services in demand. Economist Bruce Yandle popularized the idea of the “Bootleggers and Baptists” coalition. The apocryphal Baptists want to ban alcohol. Bootleggers don’t make much money when liquor can be bought legally at a grocery store or bar. So the bootleggers bankroll the Baptists’ effort to ban booze.
[Jonah’s latest book, The Tyranny of Cliches,
Now I sincerely doubt that Yee was that clever. The more likely explanation is that he believes in gun control and he’s a greedy hypocrite (and maybe not too bright either). The fact that gun-control policies are to his advantage is just a happy coincidence.
What’s interesting — and vexing — to me is that this sort of analysis is all the rage when it comes to conservatives and Republicans, and utterly incomprehensible to most journalists when it comes to liberals and Democrats. Read the rest of this entry »
Poll: Americans Feel Safer With Gun in Their Home
Posted: March 29, 2014 Filed under: Self Defense, U.S. News | Tags: Breitbart.com, Democratic, Gun, Gun control, Republicans, Twitter, YouGov 1 Comment
AWR Hawkins writes: A poll from YouGov conducted March 22–24 shows that Americans who feel safer with a gun in their home far outnumber those who do not.
According to the poll, when asked, “Do you think you would feel more safe or less safe with a gun in your house?”, respondents said “more safe” by a margin of 42 to 20 percent.
Broken down by gender, 51 percent of males said “more safe” versus 15 percent who said less safe; 33 percent of females said “more safe” versus 25 percent who said “less safe.” Read the rest of this entry »
The Media’s Democratic Donor Delusions
Posted: March 23, 2014 Filed under: Politics | Tags: Democratic, Jane Mayer, Koch, Koch family, Matthew Continetti, Santa Claus, Tom Steyer, Washington Post 2 Comments
We’re supposed to believe the Kochs are evil but leftist billionaires are disinterested givers?
Matthew Continetti writes: Some lies just won’t go away. In February the Washington Post published an article with the following headline: “Why There’s No Democratic Version of the Koch Brothers’ Organization.” It was the umpteenth attempt to explain, in a particularly simplistic manner, how the millionaires and billionaires who donate money to the Democratic party are nothing, absolutely nothing, like those meanie cancer-research philanthropists Charles and David Koch.
“Does Reid Wilson believe in Santa Claus? His willingness to suspend disbelief when confronted with the image of a mythic creature — the un-self-interested liberal — suggests as much. The words “labor” and “union” appear nowhere in his article, despite the fact that unions are six of the ten top all-time donors…”
The author, Reid Wilson, interviewed “Democratic strategists who deal frequently with high-dollar donors,” and these Democratic strategists told him, strategically, that their high-dollar donors are better than Republican ones. “For the Koch brothers, electing the right candidate can mean a financial windfall,” Wilson wrote. “Democratic donors revolve more around social issues.” On the one hand you have petty, greedy rich men, and on the other you have committed liberals willing to sacrifice for causes they believe in. The morality play writes itself. Read the rest of this entry »
City vs. Country: How Where We Live Deepens the Nations Political Divide
Posted: March 23, 2014 Filed under: Think Tank, U.S. News | Tags: Church of God, Dante Chinni, Democratic, Detroit, El Dorado Springs, Laura Meckler, Mitt Romney, Rural, Saint Anselm College, United States, Urban, Wall Street Journal 1 Comment
Joe Trussell is pastor of the Church of God (Holiness), the largest church in El Dorado Springs. He has traveled to many parts of the world but says, ‘A lot of people here, if they get out of Cedar County it’s like they’ve been to another country.’ In his office is a trophy of a deer he shot himself. Catalin Abagiu for The Wall Street Journal
American politics have become increasingly divided in recent years. One reason: Rural residents are having vastly different life experiences from their big-city counterparts
This is a topic that I believe hasn’t been written about enough, or researched enough. When I saw the headline, I thought finally, I don’t have to try to write about this, because someone smarter has.
Our familiar perceptions about state political identities (red, blue, or swing) are useful, as far as it goes, but they conceal a more interesting story, about the county by county, town by town, neighborhood by neighborhood micro-regional distinctions. (and yes, I’m not the first to have this insight). And the ever-widening gulf between urban and rural America is the great underreported story.
This is a separate topic, but related: as cities continue to draw more population migration, rural America — and if you’ve driven through small towns that used to be thriving, you’ve seen it — is less vibrant than it once was. With rare exceptions, America’s urban centers are reliably blue. With outer pockets of red. One more example of long-term demographic trends that don’t favor conservatives, as city populations grow and smaller towns shrink. (though, Detroit’s historic shrinkage is the big exception, and it’s still suicidally blue) How divided is urban and rural U.S.A.? The political and cultural differences in one individual state in America can be more dramatic than the differences between distant regions in America.
For the Wall Street Journal, Laura Meckler and Dante Chinni report:
The owner of the nicest restaurant in town doesn’t serve alcohol, worried that his pastor would be disappointed if he did. Public schools try to avoid scheduling events on Wednesday evenings, when churches hold Bible study. And Democrats here are a rare and lonely breed.
“The difference in this country is not red versus blue. It’s urban versus rural.”
— Neil Levesque, director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College.
Older, nearly 100% white and overwhelmingly Republican, El Dorado Springs is typical of what is now small-town America. Coffee costs 90 cents at the diner, with free refills. Two hours north and a world away in Kansas City, Starbucks charges twice that, and voters routinely elect Democrats.
Ben Vickers, a 17-year-old high school junior, says he loves the farm where he grew up but looks forward to moving on: ‘Big cities are so complex and so awesome—just so many different people there.’ El Dorado, he says, ‘is a good place to be old.’ Catalin Abagiu for The Wall Street Journal
There have always been differences between rural and urban America, but they have grown vast and deep, and now are an underappreciated factor in dividing the U.S. political system, say politicians and academicians.
Polling, consumer data and demographic profiles paint a picture of two Americas—not just with differing proclivities but different life experiences. People in cities are more likely to be tethered to a smartphone, buy a foreign-made car and read a fashion magazine. Those in small towns are more likely to go to church, own a gun, support the military and value community ties. Read the rest of this entry »
Souped-Up Ground Game Could be GOPs Key to Winning Senate
Posted: March 22, 2014 Filed under: Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Barack Obama, California, Democratic, Democrats, GOP, Reince Priebus, Republican, Republican National Committee Leave a comment
Republicans are trying to copy an operation that the Democrats have been building, perfecting and training on for 10 years. (Getty Images)
This article caught my eye, mainly because of the bitchin’ headline. Souped-up. Yes, if the GOP can assemble a souped-up campaign Hot-Rod, in the old establishment’s spare garage, then things could be interesting.
David M. Drucker reports:
If Republicans win control of the Senate in November, they could owe their victory to a bunch of computer geeks and data nerds holed up in two offices 2,800 miles apart.
“We can’t, as a national committee, get to becoming a better presidential party unless I can build the tools, the data, the infrastructure, right now, in 2014…”
— Reince Priebus
The Republicans need to flip six seats to wrest the Senate majority from the Democrats on a playing field that is expanding in the GOP’s favor. Up to a dozen Democratic-held seats could be up for grabs — more than half of them in red states — as voters continue to sour on President Obama‘s leadership, health care law and stewardship of the economy. Only two Republican seats threaten to be competitive.
“We committed ourselves to a permanent, coast-to-coast, year-round ground game.”
Fleeing Democrats Will Turn Texas Blue
Posted: March 22, 2014 Filed under: Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Andrew Cuomo, California, Democratic, Democrats, Illinois, Jerry Brown, Joel Pollak, New York, Texas Leave a comment
Joel B. Pollak reports: In Los Angeles this week, three city council members blamed fracking for an earthquake, though they are not actually certain whether any fracking has occurred. In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio is continuing his fight to crush charter schools that are primarily helping black and Hispanic children. In Illinois, the House Speaker announced plans to raise taxes on millionaires, despite proof that doing so will hurt the state’s ailing economy.
Even some Democrats know that their party is being unreasonable.
California’s Gov. Jerry Brown, for example, refuses to ban fracking. New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo may hate conservatives just as much as de Blasio, but he is defending the charter schools. In Illinois, there aren’t yet any Democrats willing to oppose the millionaire tax. Yet millions of Democrats are voting with their feet, leaving Illinois for more conservative jurisdictions.
And perhaps that is the point.
Texas is the number-one destination for California’s émigré population, for example. It is popular among migrants from other blue states as well, owing to its warm climate, job opportunities, and lack of a state income tax. Over time, that is changing Texas’s political culture.
For years, Democrats have hoped to take Texas back. The Lone Star State has produced the last two Republican presidents, some of the most important conservative legislators, and untold millions of dollars for GOP candidates across the country. Read the rest of this entry »
Kirsten Powers: Millennial Isn’t Liberal
Posted: March 19, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, War Room | Tags: Barack Obama, Democratic, Facebook, Generation Y, Kirsten Powers, Millennial, SodaStream, USA TODAY 1 CommentThe generation making their own soda and designing their own shoes is voting Independent.
For USA Today, Kirsten Powers writes: Bad news for Democrats: It seems Millennials are special little snowflakes after all.
A new report by the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way highlights the political complexity of a generation raised to believe they were utterly unique. When it comes to politics, they do it their way. Which could make the cohort that turned out en masse for President Obama unpredictable as voters.
Third Way focused on how Millennials’ experience as the first generation raised in an information-on-demand culture has shaped them. They are not “adaptors.” They have only known a world full of endless choices, not a life where you make do with what is available.
Third Way reported, “Living in an à la carte world with unlimited options, Millennials don’t feel they have to choose between two limited choices.” For their elders, it was Coke or Pepsi. But Millennials create their perfectly flavored soft drink with a Soda Stream. They design their own shoes on the Internet. They buy just the songs they like.
Memo to GOP: Beware Triumphalism
Posted: March 19, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, The Butcher's Notebook, Think Tank | Tags: Barack Obama, Brit Hume, Democratic, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Obama, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Republican National Committee, Twitter Leave a comment
Pundits are calculating doom for Democrats, hyperactive journalists are trying to call it early, operatives are indulging in premature celebration. Here’s just a few examples out of the hundreds of articles in last few weeks:
- Democratic strategists in 2014 are like French generals in 1940
- Midterm mania: Democratic pundits hitting the panic button
- Why Democrats in Congress are in big, big trouble
- Obama’s Job Approval Points to 2014 Trouble for Democrats
- This Map Spells Trouble For Democrats in 2014
- Obama’s in Trouble, but it’s with the Democrats, His Pals…
- RNC chief: Party to win ‘tsunami’ of victories
At least Brit Hume is sober.
Pro tip: pipe down until you’ve delivered. http://t.co/HCTJgcgAJI
— Brit Hume (@brithume) March 19, 2014
Democrats Lining Up to Oppose Obamas Anti-Gun Nominee For Surgeon General
Posted: March 18, 2014 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Politics, Self Defense, White House | Tags: anti-gun, Barack Obama, cronyism, Democratic, Democrats, Gun, Murthy, National Rifle Association, Public health, Radical leftist, Surgeon General 4 Comments
Katie Pavlich writes: President Obama’s anti-gun nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Hallegere Murthy, could go down in flames on the Senate floor. Murthy, who has a history of calling guns a “healthcare issue,” classifying guns as a “public health threat” and of slamming the National Rifle Association, is being opposed not by just Republicans, but numerous Democrats in an election year.
[See Emily Miller: Obama’s Surgeon General Nominee Dr. Vivek Murthy is a Radical Gun Grabber]
[Don’t miss our Exclusive: Interview with Obama’s Surgeon General Nominee Dr. Vivek Murthy]
Democratic Senate aides estimated on Monday that from eight to 10 Democrats may oppose Murthy’s nomination if the vote were to be held soon, mostly because of his left-leaning views on gun policy, which have attracted opposition from the National Rifle Association.
[VIDEO] Gibbs: Even Though White House Won’t Admit It, Senate ‘Definitely in Danger ‘
Posted: March 16, 2014 Filed under: Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Andrew Johnson, Barack Obama, Democratic, Meet the Press, Obama, Robert Gibbs, Senate, White House Press Secretary 2 Comments
Kaffee: Grave Danger?
Col. Jessep: Is there another kind?
Andrew Johnson reports: One of President Obama’s top former advisers warned Democrats that if they can’t keep the Senate in November, that will effectively be the end of the Obama presidency. “If you lose the Senate, turn out the lights because the party is over,” former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said on Meet the Press.
Kaffee: I said, ”Grave danger?” You said, ”Is there any other kind?”
Col. Jessep: I recall what I said.
Kaffee: I can have it read back to you.
Col. Jessep: I know what I said! I don’t have to have it read back to me.
Gibbs encouraged the president to be more involved in rallying and exciting Democratic voters in the coming months, because otherwise the Senate is “definitely, absolutely” in danger of falling in to Republican control…Read the rest…
Delusional DNC Members Exposed: MRCTV Asks Democratic National Committee Members ‘How Much of Opposition To Obama is Racist?’
Posted: March 10, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Cybercast News Service, Democratic, Democratic National Committee, Hillary Clinton, Obama, United States Leave a commentOn February 28, MRCTV’s Dan Joseph decided to stop by the DNC winter meeting to ask committee members just how much of the opposition to President Obama is racist.
Joseph asked, How much of the opposition is race-based? And how much is policy based?
One commiteewoman said about half of the president’s detractors are against him because of his race, while another said it was over 50%.
The lowest guesstimate we got from a committee person was between 30-40%, which is still a ridiculous figure. And as always, there was some Bush bashing from folks, like calling the 43rd President of the United States illiterate, which is patently false.
When DETROIT is Complaining About a Corrupt and Dysfunctional White House, You KNOW Things Are Bad…
Posted: March 9, 2014 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Democratic, Mark Udall, Mary Landrieu, Obama, Obamacare, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, White House 1 Comment
THE DETROIT NEWS on Obama’s endless ObamaCare delays:
The serial delays of Obamacare are coming so rapidly and for such obviously political reasons that the White House is barely even trying to mask its real mission of protecting vulnerable Democrats in the mid-term elections.
In announcing the latest postponement this week — this one allowing individuals to keep their existing health insurance policies through 2016 — the Obama administration carefully credited Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Udall of Colorado, Ron Barber of Arizona and 10 other vulnerable Democratic lawmakers.
All face tough reelection fights in the fall in races in which Obamacare is a key issue.
While it may be politically expedient, rewriting a law passed by Congress simply to avoid ballot box consequences is an outrageous abuse of executive power.
Yes, and it’s illegal and unconstitutional. So where are the lawsuits?
Instapundit» THE DETROIT NEWS on Obama’s endless ObamaCare delays…
GAME ON: Michelle Malkin Performs an Exorcism on Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Posted: March 8, 2014 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: AdvaMed, Culture of Corruption, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democratic, Michelle Malkin, Obama, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Twitter, White House 2 Comments
Michelle Malkin writes: At the end of 2013, Democratic representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) had some nasty words for yours truly. Irked that I used my Twitter feed to criticize her Obamacare propaganda efforts, Wasserman Schultz snarked back at me: “Thanks for spreading the word! You’ll be eating them next year. #GetCovered.”
[Michelle Malkin is the author of Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies. It’s available for fast download as a Kindle book at Amazon ]
Classy as always. And completely wrong-headed as usual. Less than three months into 2014, how’s dutiful Debbie and her Dear Leader’s pet government-takeover program doing? The most recent retreat measures (call it the Obamacare Endangered 2014 Midterm Democrats’ Rescue Plan) include:
- Allowing insurers for two extra years to continue selling plans that otherwise would have been banned by Obamacare. Last fall, Americans across the country and from all parts of the political spectrum raised an uproar in the wake of millions of Obamacare-induced cancellation notices on their individual-market health plans. President Obama trotted out a “keep your plan” Band-Aid effective through this year. Now, the “transitional period” will extend through October 2016 and cover policyholders until the following September, after Obama is safely out of office.
- Extending the open-enrollment period for 2015 from November 2014 to February 2015, a month longer than originally scheduled. (It will no doubt be extended again as the midterm elections get closer.)
- Relaxing eligibility requirements for insurers to qualify for financial help under a three-year program intended to cushion insurers’ costs of complying with Obamacare mandates.
- Exempting labor unions, universities, and other self-insured employers from paying a fee that creates the above-noted fund.
- In addition, the White House last month allowed medium-sized employers an extra year to comply with the Obamacare mandate to offer insurance to all full-time workers and reduced the percentage of workers that large companies are required to cover. These latest regulatory walk-backs by administrative fiat all come on the heels of dozens of administrative delays and rollbacks.
While Democrats complain about Obamacare-repeal efforts by Republicans, we may be nearing a special turning point at which the White House will have reneged on more Obamacare regulations than it’s actually enforcing!
Déjà Vu All Over Again: Senate Democrats Decide Not to Write a Budget Again
Posted: March 1, 2014 Filed under: Economics, Politics | Tags: Democratic, Fiscal year, Jeff Sessions, John Boehner, Patty Murray, Senate, United States House Committee on the Budget, United States Senate Committee on the Budget 2 Comments
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Senate Democrats will not write a budget for 2015
One year after writing and passing the first Senate Democratic budget resolution in four years, Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said her conference will not make an effort in the 2014 midterm election year.
In a statement, Murray said there was no reason to do a fiscal 2015 budget after the two-year deal struck in December with House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).
That deal set budget ceilings for the 2014 and 2015 fiscal years. The 2015 fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.
“Fiscal Year 2015 is settled, the Appropriations Committees are already working with their bipartisan spending levels, and now we should work together to build on our two-year bipartisan budget, not create more uncertainty for families and businesses by immediately relitigating it,” Murray said.
“I went into my negotiations with Chairman Ryan hoping we could give the American people some much 
needed certainty after years of lurching to crisis to crisis, and I was very glad that our two-year budget deal accomplished that,” she added.
House Republicans are planning to do a budget, however. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday he “expects” it to be done.
That will set up a contrast with the Senate, where Republicans for years criticized Democrats for not doing a budget. Read the rest of this entry »
pundit from another planet 