links for 2010-09-10

Some 300 people, many of them members of the Bay Area Patriots and the San Francisco Tea Party, heard U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina speak Friday at the Mill Valley Community Center, where they were joined by about 50 California Nurses Association members who picketed the event.
After a stump speech indoors, Fiorina answered questions from the audience. One woman insisted that she make her stand on AB 32 explicit. Fiorina had drawn criticism for dodging the issue after her Sept. 1 debate with Democratic opponent Sen. Barbara Boxer.

At Friday's event, Fiorina said, "I support 23." She said she didn't make that clear during the debate because she was waiting so she could study all of the propositions on the November ballot and issue all of her stands at once.
+++++++
AB 32 is a disaster and will drive jobs out of California

Republicans have a two-in-three chance of claiming a majority of House seats in November, the FiveThirtyEight forecasting model estimates. And their gains could potentially rival or exceed those made in 1994, when they took a net of 54 seats from the Democrats.

In one sense, a strong performance by the Republicans on Nov. 2 is to be expected. The opposition party typically gains seats – on average, about 20 in midterm elections since 1994 – after the other party wins the White House, as the Democrats did in 2008. Nevertheless, both the magnitude of the Republicans’ potential gains, and the rapidity with which the political balance is poised to shift back to them after two cycles in which Democrats won nearly every competitive election, is unusual by recent standards. According to the model, Republicans have about a one-in-three chance of winning at least 54 seats, their total in 1994, and nearly a one-in-four chance of gaining at least 60.
++++++
To think it has been only 2 years….

On the eve of Sept. 11, Fox News has learned the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has attempted to block a book about the tipping point in Afghanistan and a controversial pre-9/11 data mining project called "Able Danger."

In a letter obtained by Fox News, the DIA says national security could be breached if "Operation Dark Heart" is published in its current form. The agency also attempted to block key portions of the book that claim "Able Danger" successfully identified hijacker Mohammed Atta as a threat to the United States before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
++++++++
Hummmm national security you say?

Barack Obama hit the campaign trail this week to resurrect some of that hopey-changey stuff and to complain that his critics talk about him "like a dog." Turns out the president wasn't, in fact, referring to his own party.

Voters might be forgiven the confusion. It isn't as if Democrats have been showing Mr. Obama much love. Quite the opposite. Seven weeks from Election Day, the vulnerable wing of the majority has finally found itself a campaign issue: blunt opposition to Mr. Obama and his agenda.

Has it only been 20 months? Candidate Obama swelled into office with an ambitiously liberal plan. He promised his party that his legislative items would be more than policy triumphs; they'd be political triumphs. Stick with me, he said, and we'll get credit for leadership. Voters will come to love this stuff. Polls will improve. I'll campaign in your district.

It was bunk, as many Democrats knew even back then.
+++++++
Hope and Change are on the way from the GOP

Over at Reason.com, Peter Suderman has a handy list of seven claims that the president and his allies made about the new health care law to help it get passed and how those claims have held up over the last few months. (Hint: Not well.)
1. If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.
2. It will put Medicare on better fiscal footing.
3. It will cost around $900 billion.
4. It won’t cut Medicare benefits.
5. It will be paid for “mostly” by shifting around money that we’re already spending.
6. It will give consumers more access and greater choice.
7. It will bring down the price of insurance.
++++++++
Read it all