Senior executives, on-air personalities, producers, reporters, editors, writers and other self-identifying employees of ABC, CBS and NBC contributed more than $1 million to Democratic candidates and campaign committees in 2008, according to an analysis by The Examiner of data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The Democratic total of $1,020,816 was given by 1,160 employees of the three major broadcast television networks, with an average contribution of $880.

By contrast, only 193 of the employees contributed to Republican candidates and campaign committees, for a total of $142,863. The average Republican contribution was $744.

Disclosure of the heavily Democratic contributions by influential employees of the three major broadcast networks follows on the heels of controversy last week when it was learned that media baron Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. contributed $1 million to the Republican Governors Association.
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Uh, not really shocking is it?

Last week, Capitol Confidential reported on a new scheme being pursued by California Democrats to force out-of-state, online retailers to collect and remit California sales taxes.

But in a new development, it is now being reported that the proposal has attracted support from Republican State Sen. Roy Ashburn, making it technically bipartisan.

In addition, while proponents have been arguing that if pursued, this tax maneuver will not hurt smaller, online retailers, Capitol Confidential has learned that the preferred language of some movers and shakers in fact fails to exempt smaller retailers and would draw a surprising category of those selling to consumers online into the California sales tax net: Out-of-state small and medium-sized businesses that market through eBay.
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Yeah, this really helps the California economy.

Note what connects these issues. In every one, liberals have lost the argument in the court of public opinion. Majorities — often lopsided majorities — oppose President Obama's social-democratic agenda (e.g., the stimulus, Obamacare), support the Arizona law, oppose gay marriage and reject a mosque near Ground Zero.

What's a liberal to do? Pull out the bigotry charge, the trump that preempts debate and gives no credit to the seriousness and substance of the contrary argument. The most venerable of these trumps is, of course, the race card. When the Tea Party arose, a spontaneous, leaderless and perfectly natural (and traditionally American) reaction to the vast expansion of government intrinsic to the president's proudly proclaimed transformational agenda, the liberal commentariat cast it as a mob of angry white yahoos disguising their antipathy to a black president by cleverly speaking in economic terms.
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Read it all.

he Obama administration claimed this week that $100 billion invested in innovative technologies under the economic stimulus law is "transforming the American economy" by putting the nation on track for technological breakthroughs in health care, energy and transportation.

But an examination of details in the 50-page report unveiled Tuesday by Vice President Joe Biden reveals something a bit different: a collection of rosy projections that ignore many of the challenges, pitfalls and economic realities in all those areas.

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Not!

Read the exaggerations at the link.

The tie is broken for now, with Republican Meg Whitman, coming off last weekend’s state GOP Convention, moving out to her best showing yet in the race to be the next governor of California.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in California finds Whitman earning 48% support, while Democrat Jerry Brown picks up 40% of the vote. Six percent (6%) prefer some other candidate in the race, and six percent (6%) are undecided.
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Meg Whitman will win this race.

Jerry Brown is too old with OLD Left Wing Ideas.

By considering the so-called “Amazon tax,” lawmakers in Sacramento are dangerously close to making a tough economy even tougher for many of California’s struggling tech employers.

Like many states, the California Legislature has sought to wring revenue from e-commerce many times by taxing companies with no physical presence in the state – a measure the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited in 1992. The latest scheme is an end run around the Constitution that would only chase legitimately taxable e-commerce revenue out of the state. Taxpayers, California Internet companies and their employees will certainly be worse off if this measure passes as part of the 2011 state budget.

The fact is that this proposal would not close the tax gap – it would drive ad revenue away from affiliates based in California and toward affiliates based in other states.
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And, drive away my ad revenue from my blog.

Read it all – we don't need more taxes!

The current economic climate in California simply cannot afford to put 25,000 small businesses at risk. Yet a current proposal within the budget process will do just that. Legislators are debating an ‘Affiliate Nexus Tax’, a sales tax scheme that has enticed legislators because on the surface it looks like free money for the struggling state economy. However, in fact, it has a design flaw that will threaten thousands of small California businesses, at the same time netting the state zero dollars in new sales tax revenue. We know this for a fact because it was passed in New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island with disastrous results.

It starts with the legislature’s desire to get out-of-state Internet retailers to collect sales tax for purchases made online by California consumers.
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Read it all

Top Democrats are growing markedly more pessimistic about holding the House, privately conceding that the summertime economic and political recovery they were banking on will not likely materialize by Election Day.

In conversations with more than two dozen party insiders, most of whom requested anonymity to speak candidly about the state of play, Democrats in and out of Washington say they are increasingly alarmed about the economic and polling data they have seen in recent weeks.
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The Dems will lose control of the House

A new Franklin & Marshall poll in Pennsylvania shows Pat Toomey (R) leading Rep. Joe Sestak (D) in the U.S. Senate race among likely voters, 40% to 31%.

The contest is closer among all registered voters, with Toomey leading by only 3 points.

Said pollster Terry Madonna: "The Democratic Party's difficulty in this election is their voters do not have the same motivation and they're less likely to vote. That is a huge problem for them."

Key finding: 35% say President Obama is doing a "poor" job, while only 37% feel he is doing an "excellent" or "good" job as president.

The Hotline: "It's hard to see how Sestak wins his Senate match up against Toomey if Obama remains so unpopular."
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Wonder if Arlen Specter would have matched up better?

Probably not – just a thought.