Democratic Donors From 2008 Going GOP in 2010
Posted by Lance Haynie
It's no secret that the Democrats will have difficulty in fundraising after their appalling record over the past two years. Is it really a surprise that Wall Street donors have shifted their money to the right? This trend started about a year ago and has only accelerated since. The real astonishing fact is that Tony Podesta's lobbyists have begun speculating a GOP takeover in the Senate.
The majority party often faces the ire of the population-at-large (and businesses) during the midterm election cycle of a new president. Democrats lost seats during the first term of President Bill Clinton.
But even the firm controlled by the brother of Clinton’s former chief of staff is shifting their donations in a conservative direction.
“Tony Podesta is one of the best-connected rainmakers in the nation’s capital, with a web of personal contacts stretching back 42 years and six Democratic presidential candidates. His brother John was Bill Clinton’s White House chief of staff and an adviser on President Barack Obama’s transition team,” the Chronicle reporters note. “But in an uncharacteristic twist this year, people at Tony Podesta’s powerhouse lobbying firm have chosen to donate $32,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee to help its chairman, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, wrest control of the Senate from the Democrats.”
Cornyn and his allies have convinced a quarter of the 478 active political action committees that gave to the DSCC in 2008 to cut or eliminate donations to Democrats this year.
Porkulus II: The Next Flop – Obama to Propose $50 Billion for Stimulus
Posted by Lance Haynie
Question: What happens when the government spends $100,000,000 in borrowed dinero on infrastructure and it fails to bolster the economy?
Answer: According to President Barack Obama, spend another $50,000,000,000 on the same failed policy.
US President Barack Obama unveils plans Monday to spend at least 50 billion dollars to expand and renew US roads, railways and airports, in a fresh bid to fire up sluggish economic growth.
Obama, under intense pressure over November’s mid-term congressional elections in which his Democrats fear heavy losses, was set to make the announcement in a speech in Wisconsin, an official said. …
President Obama's Debt Policy
A White House official said that the “bold” infrastructure plan will be front loaded and make significant investments in the first year, in a bid to stimulate the sagging economy and boost jobs growth.
It appeared unlikely however that Obama could get the plan passed through Congress before the mid-term elections.
Don't for a second think that Congress won't shove this one through (without reading it) before the November elections. Bills like this give our lovely representatives in Washington plenty of opportunity to send home pork -- who doesn't like bacon?
It didn't work the first time, it wont work this time. The original bill included infrastructure investments. It provided energy and infrastructure, and research and development. Did it produce any economic growth? Nope. Just a mere eighteen months later we are still in a flatlining economy -- just with a lot more debt.
I find it a bit amusing though really. Obama recently was calling for "new" ideas on how to energize and restart American grown. Yet, all he has to offer is the same failed and expensive ideas he had in February of 2009.
This administration is in dire need of an alternate plan. Yet all they want to do is keep trying the old failed way. It makes me picture some family with debt up to their eyeballs saying "maybe if we spend a little more this problem will go away."
Really Florida, You’re Going to Burn the Qur’an?
Posted by Lance Haynie
Yeah, this will do a lot of good.
The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., said it will burn the Islamic holy book on the ninth anniversary of the terror attacks. Local officials have denied a permit for the bonfire on the church's grounds. But the center, which made headlines last year by distributing T-shirts that said "Islam is of the Devil,'' insists it will go ahead with the plan.
Since when are the actions of a few the viewpoint of the masses? I am repulsed when people are so simpleminded and bigoted. How would you feel if some group started burning Bibles?
Furthermore, incase you did not realize. Islam and Christianity both are Abrahamic religions. Therefore have the same basic roots. No wonder so many turn away from Christianity these days. People like this make us all look terrible and closed minded. You are the same group that preach acceptance yet do this.
Make sure to use their contact page to let them know how bigoted and moronic this is.
Top Iran Cleric: Holocaust is a ‘Superstition’
Posted by Lance Haynie
The one the the Third Reich did well was document everything. Hitler himself often referred to it as "die Endlösung der Judenfrage" or "the final solution of the Jewish question." That question referring to the sense that the existence of Jews in Germany posed a problem for the state. There is no question that the Holocaust is fact. To even attempt to brand it as anything other than such is nonsensical.
A senior Iranian cleric, Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, dismissed the Nazi Holocaust of Jews during World War II as a new "superstition" for the West, media reported on Saturday.
"The Holocaust is nothing but superstition, but Zionists say that people of the world should be forced to accept this," he was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA."Americans and Westerners are affected by newly appeared superstitions such as the Holocaust," he said according to ISNA news agency.
"The truth about the Holocaust is not clear, and when the researchers want to examine whether it is true or the Jews have created it to pose as victims, they jail the researchers," said Makarem Shirazi, who is a "marja," or among the highest authorities in Shiite Islam.
Arbeit Macht Frei: Work Will Make You Free
Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly branded the Holocaust a "myth" in his frequent anti-Israel diatribes drawing international condemnation, but Iran's prominent clergy have rarely echoed such comments.
Several opposition figures have also rebuked Ahmadinejad over questioning the Holocaust while backing the Palestinian cause.
The comments came after Ahmadinejad dismissed on Friday revived Israeli-Palestinian peace talks as "doomed" to fail and said the people of the Middle East are "capable of removing the Zionist regime" from the world scene.
Iran does not recognise Israel -- the sole if undeclared nuclear-armed state in the Middle East -- which accuses the Islamic republic of seeking nuclear weapons and has never ruled out a military strike to curb its atomic drive.
I understand the tension surrounding that region specific to Israel. However, what unintelligent is sounding going to do other than bolster their resolve in Israel? Iran is going to push one too many buttons one day and they will be the one obliterated.
If their is one life lesson I have learned that it appears Iran should learn as well is that history repeats it's self. Maybe they should read up on the Israeli War of Independence, the Sinai War, the Six-Day War, and the Yom Kippur War. Israel has a clear military history of victory. Take in to account that they are such a small nation and surrounded by enemies. Israel is one nation I would not want to pick a fight with.
Aside from serving in the United States Armed Forces, the Israeli Defense Force is the only other military I would ever voluntarily join -- if they would let me.
Iran Paying $1000 Bounty Per American Soldier Killed
Posted by Lance Haynie
The Shi’ite dominated Iran would never support a Sunni organization like Taliban right?
Iran is paying Taliban fighters $1,000 for each U.S. soldier they kill in Afghanistan, according to a report in a British newspaper.
The Sunday Times described how a man it said was a “Taliban treasurer” had gone to collect $18,000 from an Iranian firm in Kabul, a reward it said was for an attack in July which killed several Afghan government troops and destroyed an American armored vehicle.
The treasurer left with the cash hidden in a sack of flour, the newspaper said, and then gave it to Taliban fighters in the province of Wardak. In the past six months, the treasurer claimed to have collected more than $77,000 from the company.
The Sunday Times said its investigation had found that at least five Kabul-based Iranian companies were secretly passing funds to the Taliban.
Actually, it turns out that Islamists of different stripes see this rather pragmatically:
“We don’t care who we get money from,” the treasurer was quoted as saying. He described the relationship with Iran as a “marriage of convenience.” Iran is a predominantly Shiite country, while the Taliban is dominated by Sunni Muslims.
“Iran will never stop funding us because Americans are dangerous for them as well. I think the hatred is the same from both us and Iran. The money we get is not dirty. It is for jihad,” the treasurer told Amoore.
When Barack Obama finally meets with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “without preconditions.” Will he insist that Iran stop funding the Taliban based on a bounty system for dead Americans, at least?
Let’s Get Serious
Posted by Guest Blogger
**Written by Garry Gross
Reid Wilson’s article isn’t just delusional. It’s denying reality. Wilson makes some traditional, conventional wisdom arguments that aren’t persuasive, starting with this one:
Money: On both a macro level and a micro level, Republicans are seriously behind in the money chase. Most candidates enrolled in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Frontline program for endangered incumbents have huge cash leads over their rivals, and the DCCC has nearly twice as much on hand as the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Plenty of newly elected Democrats won in 2006 and 2008 while being outspent, but they weren’t outspent by much. Only Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., won after being outspent by more than a 3-1 ratio. Republican challengers will close the gap over the next few months, but they have a long way to go.
Wilson didn’t learn the lesson that he cited. Rep. Shea-Porter won in a wave election though she was clearly outspent. The lesson Wilson should’ve learned is that a different set of rules apply in wave elections than in typical elections. This is, in every credible political expert’s view, a wave election. The only thing left to be determined is the size of the wave.
Here’s another reason Wilson cites:
Turnout: Beyond advertising, money pays for turnout operations, another area in which Democrats have a clear advantage. The Democratic National Committee has pledged $30 million in cash and services to turn out the estimated 15 million voters who cast their first ballots for President Obama in 2008, and the DCCC has put an average of five field staffers on the ground in 75 districts.
If there’s anything that’s been proven througout the primaries it’s that Democrats aren’t energized. Money is important in putting the mechanics in place. Money won’t take the place of enthusiasm, though, to voters. Right now, independents are turning out for Republicans because they’re appalled with President Obama’s radical agenda.
Furthermore, it’s obvious that, in state after state, the GOP’s GOTV operations are operating efficiently.
That radical agenda probably is driving the problems that this Politico article highlights:
In two close races, endangered Democrats are even running ads touting how they oppose their leadership.
“Democrats kept thinking: ‘We’re going to get better. We’re going to get well before the election,’” said one of Washington’s best-connected Democrats. “But as of this week, you now have people saying that Republicans are going to win the House. And now it’s starting to look like the Senate is going to be a lot closer than people thought.”
A Democratic pollster working on several key races said, “The reality is that [the House majority] is probably gone.” His data show the Democrats’ problems are only getting worse. “It’s spreading,” the pollster said.
Each week, we read of new races that weren’t endangered that now are. Look at Barney Frank’s sudden Come-to-Jesus moment with Fannie and Freddie. If he wasn’t at least worried, there isn’t a chance that he’d turn on his friends running Fannie and Freddie. Now, he’s telling everyone they should be abolished.
“We have been saying for the past 18 months this will be a politically challenging environment,” said Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “That being said, we will retain the majority in the House. All of what you are hearing is the inside-the-Beltway chatter.”
Politically challenging??? When the other party is poised to win 10-15 seats, it’s a politically challenging year. Republicans aren’t looking at winning only 15 seats.
If GOP strategists don’t have a realistic goal of winning at least 50 seats, then they’re shooting too low. I’m not saying that they should be saying that publicly but I’m saying that they should be shooting for it privately.
Rep. van Hollen is kidding himself if he thinks that they’ll be competitive this year. I’m certain he doesn’t think that. When private polling shows Lou Barletta leading Corruptocrat Paul Kanjorski by 12 points, that isn’t inside-the-beltway imaginations running wild. That’s inside-the-district reality setting in.
If I had to bet, I’d bet that van Hollen’s comments are based more on keeping morale from tanking so they don’t get totally obliterated this November. Obviously, that’s speculation but that’s what it looks like to me.
Tonight during Greta’s interview with Dick Morris, she said that nationwide, 350,000 more people had voted in Republican primaries than in Democratic primaries. That’s a huge disparity in turnout, indicating a significant enthusiasm gap. That gap won’t close between today and Election Day. If anything, it might widen a bit in that time.
Morris said that the biggest gain in a midterm election by either party came from the 1920s. That net gain in seats was 74. Tonight, Dick Morris predicted that the Republicans will eclipse that record. I’m still skeptical of that prediction but I’m thinking that the end result will be alot closer to 74 than to 34.
I’ll also predict that the fundraising advantage that the Democrats currently hold will flip as people start realizing that Republicans will be taking control of the House. That isn’t a bet-the-ranch type prediction but it’s in the ‘tidy sum of money’ category.
If I had one piece of advice for my Democratic friends, it’s that they’d better resign themselves to defeat and/or they start buying Maalox a couple bottles at a time. It’s gonna be that bad.
**Written by Garry Gross
Is the Second Recession Bush’s Fault, Too?
Posted by Guest Blogger
**Written by Gary Gross
Months ago, when the Q4 GDP numbers came out, the Obama administration touted how their stimulus bill had pulled the country back from the brink of a new Great Depression. The Q4 GDP was 5.7 percent annual growth rate, a strong showing.
After seeing first time unemployment applications jump to 500,000 this week and with Q2 GDP getting revised downward again to an anemic 2.4 and poised to be revised downward again to possibly 1.4 percent, it’s obvious that the economy is slowing mightily, possibly slowing enough to bring us into a second recession.
The reality of it is that President Obama’s policies and legislation are dragging the economy down.
People have said that there are too many unknowns for businesses, which is leading to job creators to sit on the sidelines. A legitimate argument can be made for that, especially with it being unknown whether the Bush tax cuts will expire or whether they’ll pass Cap and Trade or Card Check. These obviously weigh heavily on the minds of entrepreneurs.
Still, I’m certain that a potent argument can be made that employers aren’t jumping in because they know that labor cost are too expensive. They know that the cost of compliance with the financial regulations bill will be expensive. Ditto with Obamacare. It’s to the point that Democrat pollsters and strategists are telling their candidates not to tout the main talking points about Obamacare:
“The fiscal and economic arguments that were the White House’s first and most aggressive sales pitch have essentially failed” to persuade the public, the consultants argued, based on polling about voters’ attitudes and beliefs about the new health-care law. They advised the candidates to stay away from claims that the law will reduce costs and deficits. Instead, the Democrats should “use personal stories, coupled with clear, simple descriptions of how the law benefits people at the individual level.”
People haven’t forgotten President Obama’s sales pitch that Obamacare would reduce health care costs and shrink the deficit nor have they forgotten Speaker Pelosi’s asinine statement that they had to pass the bill for everyone to see all the great things that were allegedly contained in the bill.
There’s no doubt but that President Obama has “owned the trend”, as Greta van Susteren says, since passing ARRA. Though President Obama refuses to accept responsibility, that’s essentially irrelevant because he’s being overridden by the American people. People didn’t complain when the Obama administration took credit for the 5.7 percent GDP in Q4, 2009.
Politically speaking, President Obama took ownership of the economy at that point. When the economy either dips into recession a second time or growth stagnates, which it’s doing right now, will the Obama administration argue that the second recession is President Bush’s fault?
We don’t have to worry about the public. They’ll, correctly, assign the blame to the Obama administration’s anti-growth policies. The simple fact is that President Obama’s policies have catered to public employee unions. It’s been hostile to the job creators. That’s why $2,000,000,000,000 of private capital has been sitting on the sidelines for a few months. That’s why the Obama administration can’t talk about anything except green shoots and jobs saved.
This administration can’t point to robust private sector growth. This administration can’t point to job growth outside the Beltway. This administration can’t talk about unquestioned economic successes.
Think about it: This administration can’t talk about any widespread economic success that their policies have brought to the American people. President Obama is the only president in the last 40 years that that can be said about.
The bottom line is this: There’s no arguing that President Bush’s policies contributed to the economy’s decline, although there’s plenty of blame to go around. The American people accept and know that. They also know that President Obama promised to fixed what ailed the American economy.
That’s why his whining about the economy’s struggles are all President fault has worn out its welcome. Whether the economy takes a second dip into recession or just barely avoids it, there’s no question that President Obama’s policies brought about the current downturn/recession.
**Written by Gary Gross
Why I’m Not Hiring
Posted by Guest Blogger
**Written by Michael Fleischer
When you add it all up, it costs $74,000 to put $44,000 in Sally’s pocket and to give her $12,000 in benefits.
With unemployment just under 10% and companies sitting on their cash, you would think that sooner or later job growth would take off. I think it’s going to be later—much later. Here’s why.
Meet Sally (not her real name; details changed to preserve privacy). Sally is a terrific employee, and she happens to be the median person in terms of base pay among the 83 people at my little company in New Jersey, where we provide audio systems for use in educational, commercial and industrial settings. She’s been with us for over 15 years. She’s a high school graduate with some specialized training. She makes $59,000 a year—on paper. In reality, she makes only $44,000 a year because $15,000 is taken from her thanks to various deductions and taxes, all of which form the steep, sad slope between gross and net pay.
Before that money hits her bank, it is reduced by the $2,376 she pays as her share of the medical and dental insurance that my company provides. And then the government takes its due. She pays $126 for state unemployment insurance, $149 for disability insurance and $856 for Medicare. That’s the small stuff. New Jersey takes $1,893 in income taxes. The federal government gets $3,661 for Social Security and another $6,250 for income tax withholding. The roughly $13,000 taken from her by various government entities means that some 22% of her gross pay goes to Washington or Trenton. She’s lucky she doesn’t live in New York City, where the toll would be even higher.
Employing Sally costs plenty too. My company has to write checks for $74,000 so Sally can receive her nominal $59,000 in base pay. Health insurance is a big, added cost: While Sally pays nearly $2,400 for coverage, my company pays the rest—$9,561 for employee/spouse medical and dental. We also provide company-paid life and other insurance premiums amounting to $153. Altogether, company-paid benefits add $9,714 to the cost of employing Sally.
Then the federal and state governments want a little something extra. They take $56 for federal unemployment coverage, $149 for disability insurance, $300 for workers’ comp and $505 for state unemployment insurance. Finally, the feds make me pay $856 for Sally’s Medicare and $3,661 for her Social Security.
When you add it all up, it costs $74,000 to put $44,000 in Sally’s pocket and to give her $12,000 in benefits. Bottom line: Governments impose a 33% surtax on Sally’s job each year.
Because my company has been conscripted by the government and forced to serve as a tax collector, we have lost control of a big chunk of our cost structure. Tax increases, whether cloaked as changes in unemployment or disability insurance, Medicare increases or in any other form can dramatically alter our financial situation. With government spending and deficits growing as fast as they have been, you know that more tax increases are coming—for my company, and even for Sally too.
Companies have also been pressed into serving as providers of health insurance. In a saner world, health insurance would be something that individuals buy for themselves and their families, just as they do with auto insurance. Now, adding to the insanity, there is ObamaCare.
Every year, we negotiate a renewal to our health coverage. This year, our provider demanded a 28% increase in premiums—for a lesser plan. This is in part a tax increase that the federal government has co-opted insurance providers to collect. We had never faced an increase anywhere near this large; in each of the last two years, the increase was under 10%.
To offset tax increases and steepening rises in health-insurance premiums, my company needs sustainably higher profits and sales—something unlikely in this “summer of recovery.” We can’t pass the additional costs onto our customers, because the market is too tight and we’d lose sales. Only governments can raise prices repeatedly and pretend there will be no consequences.
And even if the economic outlook were more encouraging, increasing revenues is always uncertain and expensive. As much as I might want to hire new salespeople, engineers and marketing staff in an effort to grow, I would be increasing my company’s vulnerability to government decisions to raise taxes, to policies that make health insurance more expensive, and to the difficulties of this economic environment.
A life in business is filled with uncertainties, but I can be quite sure that every time I hire someone my obligations to the government go up. From where I sit, the government’s message is unmistakable: Creating a new job carries a punishing price.
Mr. Fleischer is president of Bogen Communications Inc. in Ramsey, N.J.
**Written by Michael Fleischer
California, the Red State?
Posted by Lance Haynie
I have always thought of California as one of the more liberal states in the union. Even with a Republican as Governor the state has always been more to the left. Obama's rating are plummeting in other states; he remains mildly positive in California. Maybe it is time for change, welcome to California -- the Red State. At least that is how survey's are portraying it. With the lastest polls for California's gubernatorial and Senate races, where Whitman and Fiorina still lead. Meg Whitman is still leading Jerry Brown outside of the margin of error.
Incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer remains locked in a tight fight with Republican challenger Carly Fiorina, according to this latest SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for KABC-TV Los Angeles, KPIX-TV San Francisco, KGTV-TV San Diego, and KFSN-TV Fresno. 3 identical SurveyUSA tracking polls have shown the contest within the theoretical margin of sampling error, though, in all 3 cases, the Republican has been nominally ahead, confounding many observers and, for now, preserving the possibility of a take-away. Today, it’s Fiorina 48%, Boxer 46%. There is movement, or perhaps statistical noise, among Hispanic voters.
In the contest for Governor of California, it’s Republican Meg Whitman 47%, Democrat Jerry Brown 40% today. Compared to an identical SurveyUSA poll 3 weeks ago, Whitman is up 3, Brown is down 3. But, compared to a SurveyUSA poll 7 weeks ago: no change. Among men, the race has been flat since polling began in July, with Whitman at 50% in each poll, and Brown at 35% to 37%. Among women, more volatility, with Brown 13 points atop Whitman 3 weeks ago, but tied with the former eBay CEO both 7 weeks ago and today.
I am not sure how I feel about Meg Whitman actually. A far as the environment goes I agree with her positions. She has said that if elected, she would suspend AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, to study its potential economic implications. On water issues, Whitman opposes further restrictions on water supply in the Central Valley and has suggested President Obama should overturn a federal judge's ruling under provisions in the Endangered Species Act which reduced water supplies another 5% to 7%.
As far as marriage goes, we are not on the same page. Whitman supported California's Proposition 8 in 2008, which reversed In re Marriage Cases and defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman in the state. She is a supporter of civil unions, but why even bother with that. I just do not see the issue with gay marriage. You love who you love, let them wed and be miserable with the rest of us.
In regards to the legalization of marijuana she said that it is not what any law enforcement person would suggest for any reason and that "this is the worst idea [she has] ever seen". This I would have to completely disagree with. I view the legalization of marijuana as a positive social step. It is not better or worse than alcohol, which is obviously legal. Granted, how often do you hear of people smoking pot and going on rampages and abusing family members. If anything, legalizing marijuana may calm us down a bit. We are a bit uptight as a whole, just relax a little! I do not smoke myself, I however do not see anything wrong the practice. I will be voting for the legalization of marijuana via Proposition 19.
The demographics for Meg Whitman are actually pretty interesting. She has 60% of the independent voters, but also get's 20% of Democrats as well. While she may not grab all of the ethnic voters, I believe she is doing rather well. She has 32% of the African-American vote, and 37% of the Hispanic vote as well. Also, with the exception of the San Francisco Bay area, she win's every income bracket. Not too surprised with the Bay area result.
Really though, if both Boxer and Brown lose what is that saying about the direction of California? More importantly what does that mean for the electorate? If California truly does become a Red State as far as the electorate the Democrats could potentially lose the state with the largest number of votes in 2012.
Blog
- Democratic Donors From 2008 Going GOP in 2010
- Porkulus II: The Next Flop – Obama to Propose $50 Billion for Stimulus
- Really Florida, You’re Going to Burn the Qur’an?
- Top Iran Cleric: Holocaust is a ‘Superstition’
- Iran Paying $1000 Bounty Per American Soldier Killed
- Let’s Get Serious
- Is the Second Recession Bush’s Fault, Too?
- Why I’m Not Hiring
- Enjoy your Labor Day Weekend
- California, the Red State?
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