• Del.icio.us Links

    links for 2009-08-04

    • The Democratic National Committee released a sharply-worded statement Tuesday accusing Republicans of colluding with "K Street Lobbyists" to incite "angry mobs" of extremists to disrupt health care town halls in congressional districts around the country.

      ++++++++
      I thought dissent was the highest form of patriotism?

      What happened Dems?

      (tags: Obamacare DNC)
    • A pair of nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines has been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States over recent days, a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies about a more assertive stance by the Russian military.

      The episode has echoes of the cold war era, when the United States and the Soviet Union regularly parked submarines off each other’s coasts to steal military secrets, track the movements of their underwater fleets — and be poised for war.

      (tags: Russia)
    • While the United States is properly concerned whenever its citizens are abused or held hostage, efforts to protect them should not create potentially greater risks for other Americans in the future. Yet that is exactly the consequence of visits by former presidents or other dignitaries as a form of political ransom to obtain their release. Iran and other autocracies are presumably closely watching the scenario in North Korea. With three American hikers freshly in Tehran's captivity, will Clinton be packing his bags again for another act of obeisance? And, looking ahead, what American hostages will not be sufficiently important to merit the presidential treatment? What about Roxana Saberi and other Americans previously held in Tehran? What was it about them that made them unworthy of a presidential visit? These are the consequences of poorly thought-out gesture politics, however well-intentioned or compassionately motivated.
    • The Ten Most Purchased Vehicles (vehicle's EPA mileage)

      1. Ford Focus (27-28 mpg) [domestic production, negative margin…in fact, Ford loses money on every one sold after factoring in legacy costs, see :WSJ article from earlier this year]

      2. Honda Civic (24-42 mpg) [Japan origin, decent profit margin]

      3. Toyota Corolla (25-30 mpg) [domestic production(?), low margin]

      4. Toyota Prius (46 mpg) [Japanese production, uncertain margin (depends on discounts)]

      5. Ford Escape (20-32 mpg) [USA/Canada production, decent margins depending on options, highly variable]

      6. Toyota Camry (23-34 mpg) [USA production, good margins]

      7. Dodge Caliber (22-27 mpg) [USA/Canada/Mexico production, negative margins, see WSJ article]

      8. Hyundai Elantra (26-28 mpg) [Korean production, decent margins]

      9. Honda Fit (29-31 mpg) [Japan production, good margin]

      10. Chevy Cobalt (25-30 mpg [USA production, negative margin, see WSJ]

    • A 30-year survey of polling data by the Field Institute shows that both major parties have declined in support over the past three decades, and while the Democrats’ edge over Republicans has decreased, the most important political trend is the substantial growth in the number of independent voters.

      Field also reports that while whites now represent less than half the state’s population, they still dominate the electorate, with non-Hispanic whites representing nearly two-thirds of voters. While Latinos have greatly increased their portion of the population – now 37 % – they vote in significantly lower numbers, making up only 21 percent of the electorate.

      (tags: California)
    • Jeff Emanuel at RedState calls attention to the new push by the White House to summon Obama-bots to monitor blog postings and “casual conversations” of health care takeover opponents — and then report them to the White House.

      As I noted earlier this morning, the White House pushback on the Internet is coming from the health care czar’s office.

      Nancy DeParle makes $158,500 as health care czar. Her flack, Linda Douglass, is not listed in the White House employee salary chart.

      What is the budget of the health care czar’s office, which was established by executive order in April? How much are they spending on the Internet snitch brigade initiative?

      Tell your congressional reps home from recess: Show us the transparency.

    • The Obama administration is refusing to release government records on its "cash-for-clunkers" rebate program that would substantiate—or undercut—White House claims of the program's success, even as the president presses the Senate for a quick vote for $2 billion to boost car sales.

      Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Sunday the government would release electronic records about the program, and President Barack Obama has pledged greater transparency for his administration. But the Transportation Department, which has collected details about 157,000 rebate requests, won't release sales data that dealers provided showing how much U.S. car manufacturers are benefiting from the $1 billion initially pumped into the program.

    • My syndicated column today investigates the deep pockets behind the “grass-roots” campaign for Obamacare. Chicago crony/White House senior adviser David Axelrod is, of course, the master of astroturfing. So it certainly comes as no surprise that left-wing puppetmasters are behind the government health care takeover lobby. But an informed citizenry needs to know the nitty gritty details.
    • This list is provided as a resource for our visitors. The information has been submitted to us from a variety of sources and has not been independently verified in all cases. Please contact the office of your representative or Senator to confirm meeting details.

      If you know of other Congressional Town Hall events taking place this summer, please feel free to email us at info@cprights.org.

      View the videos from the Congressional Town Hall meetings where constituents voice their concerns on healthcare reform.

      (tags: Obamacare)
    • Following reports that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has been orchestrating an effort to intimidate members of Congress and Governors who raise legitimate concerns regarding the effectiveness of the stimulus, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) sent a letter to Emanuel saying “While this type of scare tactic may work In Chicago, it will not work to intimidate me or other Members of the United States Congress.”

      “I and others have dared to bring these facts to the attention of President Obama, the Congress and the American people,” Issa wrote. “You’ve unfortunately reacted by once again resorting to the playbook of the Chicago political machine.”

    • Representative Steve Driehaus (D-OH) held a town hall on health care reform. While Driehaus campaigned as a fiscal conservative, a so-called "blue dog", he voted for the Stimulus bill as well as Cap-and-Trade. Driehaus was booed, laughed at and mocked by grassroots activists at his town hall event on Monday.
    • Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner blasted top U.S. financial regulators in an expletive-laced critique last Friday as frustration grows over the Obama administration's faltering plan to overhaul U.S. financial regulation, according to people familiar with the meeting.

      The proposed regulatory revamp is one of President Barack Obama's top domestic priorities. But since it was unveiled in June, the plan has been criticized by the financial-services industry, as well as by financial regulators wary of encroachment on their turf.

      Mr. Geithner told the regulators Friday that "enough is enough," said one person familiar with the meeting. Mr. Geithner said regulators …

    • Obama administration officials are holding discussions that could result in White House counsel Gregory Craig leaving his post, following a rocky tenure, people familiar with the matter said.

      Mr. Craig, the top lawyer at the White House and a close aide to President Barack Obama, has helped lead the administration's efforts on several national-security issues that once enjoyed popularity but have since become become political liabilities for Mr. Obama.

    • The White House on Tuesday posted a three-minute video punching back at an old clip of President Barack Obama that was featured on the Drudge Report with the headline, “Uncovered Video: Obama Explains How His Health Care Plan Will 'Eliminate' Private Insurance.”

      The White House response features Linda Douglass, formerly an ABC News correspondent and now a White House official, showing Drudge’s homepage on the screen of her office computer.

      Dan Pfeiffer, the White House deputy communications director, said: “We intend to use a lot of the grassroots viral Internet techniques from the campaign to beat back the campaign of misstatements and outright falsehoods about the president’s efforts to reform health insurance.”

  • Barack Obama,  Obamacare

    The Obama-Joker Poster is NOT Damaging But Counterproductive

    Obama “Joker” Poster Showing Up in Los Angeles

    Flap agrees with Geraghty on this one – although I originally said the poster was just stupid.

    But, the Democrats and the White House are using the Saul Alinsky tactic of ridicule to attempt to resurrect Obama’s poll numbers on Obamacare and conservatives really shouldn’t help them out.

    Obama is NOT a “Joker”

    But, like Geraghty says there are better terms for him:

    • Used Car Salesman
    • Not Stupid, but doesn’t know issue in depth (e.g.tonsil profiteering by doctors)
    • Bad first instincts
    • Wimp on foreign affairs
    • Melting before our eyes when he doesn’t have Bush or McCain to run against

    So, it is safe to disgard the Obama-Joker poster. Obama is far more sinister and dangerous as the smooth-talking left wing ideologue.


    Technorati Tags: , ,

  • Bill Clinton,  Kim Jong-Il,  North Korea

    Bill Clinton Delivers in North Korea – Freedom for Journalists That Is

    captphoto12494011774971 John Bolton: Bill Clinton Close To Negotiating With Terrorists

    This frame grab from South Korean television taken in Seoul shows former US President Bill Clinton(R) and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Il posing for a picture in Pyongyang.Clinton arrived in North Korea on a surprise mission to free two jailed American journalists, the highest-profile visit by an American to Pyongyang for nearly a decade

    Well,Bill Clinton got the journalists released.

    North Korean President Kim Jong Il has pardoned and released two U.S. journalists, state-run news agency KCNA said Wednesday.

    The announcement came after former U.S. President Clinton met with top North Korean officials in Pyongyang to appeal for their release.

    “Clinton expressed words of sincere apology to Kim Jong Il for the hostile acts committed by the two American journalists against the DPRK after illegally intruding into it,” the news agency reported. “Clinton courteously conveyed to Kim Jong Il an earnest request of the U.S. government to leniently pardon them and send them back home from a humanitarian point of view.

    “The meetings had candid and in-depth discussions on the pending issues between the DPRK and the U.S. in a sincere atmosphere and reached a consensus of views on seeking a negotiated settlement of them.”

    But, what did it really cost the United States? And, what did Clinton really negotiate?

    We will see in time.


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  • Barack Obama,  Cash for Clunkers

    Obama Administration Witholding Cash for Clunkers Program Data; Updated: Not Selling American Cars

    An old car dropped in an industrial trash bin advertising the Cash for Clunkers program at Battlefield Ford in Culpeper, Virginia, August 1, 2009

    Oh the transparency – NOT.

    The Obama administration is refusing to release government records on its “cash-for-clunkers” rebate program that would substantiate—or undercut—White House claims of the program’s success, even as the president presses the Senate for a quick vote for $2 billion to boost car sales.

    Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Sunday the government would release electronic records about the program, and President Barack Obama has pledged greater transparency for his administration. But the Transportation Department, which has collected details about 157,000 rebate requests, won’t release sales data that dealers provided showing how much U.S. car manufacturers are benefiting from the $1 billion initially pumped into the program.

    But, Obama wants $ 2 Billion MORE.

    Standard

    Without the information, the GOP should filibuster the bill in the United States Senate.

    Update:

    Guess there is a reason they don’t want to release the data. They are NOT selling American cars?

    LaHood has called the popular rebates to car buyers “the lifeline that will bring back the automobile industry in America.” He and other advocates are citing program data to promote passage of another $2 billion for the incentives — claiming dealers sold cars that are 61 percent more fuel efficient than trade-ins and Ford’s Focus is the top seller.

    LaHood also said this week that even if buyers aren’t choosing cars made by U.S. automobile manufacturers, many of the Honda, Toyota and Hyundai cars sold were made in those companies’ American plants.

    But there’s no way to verify his claims without access to DOT’s data.


    Technorati Tags: ,

  • Bill Clinton,  John Bolton,  Kim Jong-Il,  Madeleine Albright

    John Bolton: Bill Clinton Close To Negotiating With Terrorists

    This frame grab from South Korean television taken in Seoul shows former US President Bill Clinton(R) and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Il posing for a picture in Pyongyang.Clinton arrived in North Korea on a surprise mission to free two jailed American journalists, the highest-profile visit by an American to Pyongyang for nearly a decade

    Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton is NOT impressed with former President Bill Clinton meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il.

    The Obama administration is rewarding North Korea for its bad behavior by sending ex-president Bill Clinton to Pyongyang to win the release of two US journalists, the former US ambassador to the UN said Tuesday.

    John Bolton, an outspoken hardliner in the previous administration of George W. Bush, told AFP that Clinton’s mission to Pyongyang undermines a number of public stands held by his own wife, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

    “It comes perilously close to negotiating with terrorists,” Bolton told AFP when asked about Bill Clinton’s trip to secure the release of journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

    The pair were sentenced in June to 12 years in a labor camp for an illegal border crossing and an unspecified “grave crime,” after they were detained by North Korean border guards on March 17 while working on a story.

    “I think this is a very bad signal because it does exactly what we always try and avoid doing with terrorists, or with rogue states in general, and that’s encouraging their bad behavior,” Bolton said.

    In a US television interview here on July 26, Secretary Clinton warned North Korea that even its traditional allies had turned against it and that the communist state’s rogue behavior will no longer “be rewarded.”

    Bolton also scoffed the White House’s contention that Bill Clinton’s visit is “solely a private mission” when he said “this is a former president who is married to the secretary of state. There’s nothing private about this.”

    Remember this was the same President who sent his Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to visit Kim Jong-Il with a Michael Jordan autographed basketball.

    North Korea Leader Kim Jong-Il and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright

    Exit question: What is this diplomatic gesture by Bill Clinton going to cost the United States?


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  • Hillary Clinton,  Polling,  Sarah Palin

    2008 or 2016 Match-Up: Hillary Clinton 51 Per Cent Vs. Sarah Palin 39 Per Cent

    Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

    In a hypothetical poll match-up Hillary Clinton leads Sarah Palin.

    If America elects a woman president soon, right now her name appears to be Hillary Clinton.

    In a hypothetical match-up between the two most formidable female candidates in their respective parties, Clinton defeats former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin 51% to 39%, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely U.S. voters. Seven percent (7%) prefer some other candidate.

    Clinton performs better against Palin than President Obama who in a hypothetical 2012 match-up beats last year’s GOP vice presidential nominee by just six points, 48% to 42%.

    Women overwhelmingly favor Clinton over Palin, 59% to 32%. Men favor the GOP ex-governor by eight points, 48% to 40%.

    Palin gets 71% of the Republican vote, while Clinton captures 81% of Democrats. Voters not affiliated with either party break down almost evenly between the two candidates, giving Clinton a slight 44% to 41% edge.

    Some interesting results in this poll.

    • Obama is only beating Sarah Palin by 6 points
    • Men prefer Sarah Palin to Hillary Clinton
    • Independent voters edge toward Hillary by only 3 points

    Sarah Palin has her work cut out for herself but it is a shock that she only trails the incumbent President by 6 points.


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  • Cash for Clunkers

    Poll Watch: 54 Per Cent Oppose More Money for “Cash for Clunkers” Program

    According to the latest Rasmussen poll.

    Fifty-four percent (54%) of Americans oppose any further funding for the federal “cash for clunkers” program which encourages the owners of older cars to trade them in for newer, more fuel-efficient ones.

    A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 33% of adults think Congress should authorize additional funding to keep the program going now that the original $950 million allocated for it has run out. Thirteen percent (13%) are not sure.

    Will the GOP make a stand and filibuster this program in the United States Senate?

    I am positive they are watching the polling very closely.


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