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links for 2010-10-12
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One of the sharpest moments in the debate has come after moderator Tom Brokaw broached the recent recording of someone on Jerry Brown’s campaign calling Meg Whitman a “whore” during an endorsement phone call.
Brown began by dismissing the recording, calling it a “five-week-old private conversation” before eventually offering a half-hearted apology to Whitman for the “garbled transmission.”
She didn’t accept it. “It’s not just me but the people of California who deserve better than slurs,” Whitman said.
The remark, she said, was “not befitting of the office you are running for.”
Brown began to defend the recording again, saying he was “not even sure it’s legal,” suggesting the campaign had not consented to being recorded. Brown’s former communications director, in his attorney general’s office, resigned after secretly recording interviews with reporters.
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A poor response by Brown. Likely to be seen in ads. -
An alliance of Republican groups is launching a $50 million advertising blitz this week in a final push to help the GOP win a majority in the House, representing the biggest spending blitz ever by such groups in a congressional election campaign.
The coordinated effort, which the groups have dubbed the "House surge strategy," tops what the official Republican House election committee expects to spend on television ads for the entire contest. It is aimed at the few dozen competitive races where Democratic candidates have significantly more money in the bank than their Republican opponents, eating into one of the Democrats' last financial advantages.Democratic candidates, notably incumbents, have raised more cash than many of their Republicans rivals in this year's most competitive House races, according to a Wall Street Journal tally of Federal Election Commission data.
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This surge will offset the Democrat incumbent advantage in campaign money. -
In the latest of personal skirmishes leading up to the last gubernatorial debate Tuesday, Jerry Brown's wife, Anne Gust Brown, is now at the center of speculation over who advised Brown to call Meg Whitman a "whore" in a private conversation recorded by a voice message machine last month.
A Fox News blog, quoting an unnamed source with reportedly close ties to Jerry Brown's campaign, said Brown's wife was the culprit, though the Brown campaign continued to insist it didn't know who it was. A woman can be heard on the audio tape saying "what about saying she's a whore?" in a private conversation among Brown's campaign aides about how to respond to an endorsement a small police union was giving to Whitman.
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Come on Jerry admit it…. -
President Obama will be spending one of those last precious days just before the election helping California incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer in her race against GOP challenger Carly Fiorina. It's yet another sign of the rising national attention on the California Senate race, which until now has been overshadowed by the gubernatorial contest between Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman.
This direct from the White House: Obama will be at a DNC fundraiser in San Francisco on Oct. 20th and again in Los Angeles on the 22nd, after which he heads straight for Las Vegas to help embattled majority leader Harry Reid, a close Boxer friend.
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Will this pull it out for Boxer and Reid?Doubtful
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Nearly half the people who once considered themselves supporters of President Barack Obama don't anymore.
Other than that, his virtually nonstop cross-country campaigning for embattled Democrats in the Nov. 2 election is working perfectly. Monday night, he spoke to two party fundraisers of ordinary American millionaires in Miami, as The Ticket reported here.
A new poll released today by Bloomberg News finds all that hopey-changey stuff is rapidly turning to disappointment and disenchantment. While 47% of all voters approve of Obama's job now, ominously for 2012 only 36% of onetime Obama supporters now approve. Feeling jilted?
Someone named Hillary Clinton is now viewed favorably by fully 64% of Americans, even more than like Obama's wife.
+++++Hope and change has clashed with reality of governing
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Progressive attack dogs are trying desperately to drag Colorado GOP Senate candidate Ken Buck’s name through the mud. They will only end up with the indelible smell of dog crap on their own hands.
The non-issue: Buck’s decision not to prosecute a five-year-old alleged rape case for lack of evidence.
Responsible district attorneys have to make tough decisions like these all the time. Since even the Huffington Post was forced to acknowledge that such prosecutorial calculations are “not entirely rare with such delicate cases,” the best they can do is accuse Buck of “insensitivity.” The lefties then contradict themselves by attacking Buck for sensitively and sensibly advising the accuser of the consequences of moving forward and going public given the ambiguities of her case:
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Read it all… -
15. Michael Leahy, blogger
Author of the forthcoming book “The Ideological Origins of the Tea Party Movement” and co-founder of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, Michael Leahy had a role in the coordination of the first round of Tea Party protests in 2009. Leahy hosts two programmes on Pajamas TV, The Tea Party Coalition Show and TCOT. Leahy is the publisher and managing editor of The TCOT Report, which publishes breaking news reported by conservatives from a list he created on Twitter called Top Conservatives on Twitter. Leahy calls himself a grassroots new media strategist and blogs about conservative issues.
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Michael was instrumental in Top Conservatives on Twitter which drove the early Tea Party Movement. -
Republicans are expanding the battle for the House into districts that Democrats had once considered relatively safe, while Democrats began a strategy of triage on Monday to fortify candidates who they believe stand the best chance of survival.
As Republicans made new investments in at least 10 races across the country, including two Democratic seats here in eastern Ohio, Democratic leaders took steps to pull out of some races entirely or significantly cut their financial commitment in several districts that the party won in the last two election cycles.
Representatives Steve Driehaus of Ohio, Suzanne M. Kosmas of Florida and Kathy Dahlkemper of Pennsylvania were among the Democrats who learned that they would no longer receive the same infusion of television advertising that party leaders had promised. Party strategists conceded that these races and several others were slipping out of reach.
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The Dems will lose big or really big. -
Republican challenger Ron Johnson continues to earn more than 50% of the vote in his U.S. Senate bid against incumbent Democrat Russ Feingold in Wisconsin.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Wisconsin finds Johnson with 52% support. Feingold, who has represented the state in the Senate since 1993, earns 45% of the vote. Two percent (2%) are undecided.
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Leans Republican as another long time Dem Senator finds himself in trouble
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Kristi Noem – Another Republican Star?
Television Ad, “One Way” for Kristi Noem: Democrat Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin acts one way in South Dakota and another way in Washington, DC.So screams the Matt Drudge headline as Noem raises the most in campaign cash.
Republican Kristi Noem’s campaign reported raising more than $1.1 million from July through September, twice the amount incumbent Democratic Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin collected.
Noem, a Castlewood rancher and state legislator, also leads Herseth Sandlin in cash on hand, with almost $777,000 compared to about $500,000 for the Democrat, according to figures released by each campaign Monday.
In a difficult political environment nationally for Democrats, Herseth Sandlin had been able to count on a significant fundraising edge to pay for ads and other campaign resources to win over voters. But the latest figures suggest that Democratic money either is drying up or, worse, that supporters are losing confidence in the incumbent, said Ken Blanchard, a political science professor at Northern State University in Aberdeen, who also runs a conservative blog.
“Raising half the funds of a challenger in a race where you’re tied or behind in the polls is a very bad sign for an incumbent,” he said.
A Rasmussen Reports poll released last week of 500 likely voters showed Noem with 47 percent and Herseth Sandlin with 44 percent, a statistical draw considering the survey’s 4.5 percent margin of error. Some observers say the Rasmussen polls typically lean toward Republican candidates.
Kristi Noem’s website is here.
This race is a key one for the GOP in capturing a majority in the House. So, visit her website and send her some coin.
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CA-Sen: S.E. Cupp’s 8 Questions for Carly Fiorina
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Read the light-hearted and more personal interview of Carly Fiorina here.
SE: Politicians are much maligned in America right now. If you want some love, why not go into the NFL or hip hop?
CF: Because I throw like a girl, and my hip-hop skills are worse than Betty White’s.
But in all seriousness, the last thing I want to do is become a politician. I am doing this because I think our nation is headed in the wrong direction and I think that my experience in job creation can help inform the solutions to our challenges.
I think our government was designed to be comprised of citizens from the real world who took time to serve a term or two in Congress
and then to return to private life. That’s what I think our Founding Fathers intended in establishing a citizen government. But in recent decades, we’ve seen more and more career politicians who become beholden to the special interest groups that fund their campaigns and who are more interested in winning re-election than they are in serving their constituents.SE: Who would you want to play you in a movie?
CF: Annette Bening.
SE: Your house is going up in flames and you can save one (non-living) thing. What is it?
CF: A painting my mother completed that hangs in our living room.
SE: If you can make one promise to voters, what would it be?
CF: I will never forget whom I work for. I will always want to hear from my employers, the people of California, and I will always want them to be honest with me, whether it’s the good, the bad or the ugly.
And, Carly can have some fun.
Quite a contrast from Babs Boxer, no?
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The Daily Show Video: Jerry Brown and Calling Meg Whitman a Whore
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Indecision 2010 – Unforced Errors Edition Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity Oh My and this gaffe, reportedly, Jerry Brown’s wife who said the word will not endear him to California voters.
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CA-Sen: Time For “Out of Touch” Boxer To Go
Republican California U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina’s latest television ad, “Label.”So says the North County Times (San Diego) in their editorial endorsing Carly Fiorina for U.S. Senate.
Finally, Barbara Boxer’s air of entitlement —- an arrogance aired for all to see when she upbraided a general testifying before Congress for addressing her as “ma’am” instead of her preferred “senator” —- is intolerable. We need public servants who understand they work for us, not career politicians who believe themselves a modern form of royalty.
Her combination of apparent personal humility and substantive emphasis on growing the economy and creating jobs through the private sector lead us to believe Fiorina would be a far better representative of the people of California than the out-of-touch Boxer.
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Day By Day October 12, 2010 – Shell Game
The Democratic Party and Obama game plan has been “hide the ball” with regards to federal abortion funding and ObamaCare. They know it would never pass Congress since the American people do not favor it and they do not want to take the political heat/fallout.But, their Far Left constituency demands free, unfettered abortion FOR ALL, since they know best.
In today’s internet world, isn’t it naive for Obama to think that he can “shell game” this issue?
Yes and another reason his Presidential approval ratings are in the dumpster.
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Shocker: Israelis Throwing Shoes at President Obama
An Israeli right-winger throws a shoe at an image of US President Barack Obama in protest at US pressure to halt the building of Jewish settlements during a protest outside the American embassy in Tel Aviv. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under intense international pressure, especially from Washington, to renew a freeze on settlements construction in the occupied West Bank.Not really shocking since President Obama is NOT viewed as a supporter of the Jewish state of Israel. Note the spin of the MSm with the term of right-winger – whatever that means.
I thought Obama, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in his first year of office (without any real accomplishments in foreign policy) was going to be “The One” to heal America’s reputation throughout the world?
Uh……No.
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CA-Sen: Carly Fiorina Launches New Statewide Television Ad – “Buck”
California Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina’s latest television ad – “Buck”I was waiting for this Fred Davis Ad pointing out the failure of Barbara Boxer, Obama’s economic policies and the sad state of California.
From the press release:
Facts About “Buck”
NARRATOR: “The reckless spending must stop.”
SALLY: “Boxer voted for trillions in spending.”- The 2010 Annual Deficit Is Forecasted To Reach A Record $1.47 Trillion, Which Will Force The Government To Borrow 41 Cents Of Every Dollar It Spends. “The latest forecast from the White House budget office shows the deficit rising to $1.47 trillion this year, forcing the government to borrow 41 cents of every dollar it spends. Contrary to official projections, the budget gap will not begin to narrow much in 2011, because of an unexpectedly big drop in tax receipts.” (Lori Montgomery, “Federal Budget Deficit To Exceed $1.4 Trillion In 2010 And 2011,” The Washington Post, 7/24/10)
- Today, The U.S. Government Has A Total Debt Of More Than $13.5 Trillion, An Increase Of Nearly $3 Trillion Since Democrats Took Control Of Washington. (U.S. Treasury Department Website,www.treasurydirect.gov, Accessed 8/16/10)
- In Just Over Two Years, Boxer Has Supported Raising The U.S. Debt Limit By Nearly $4.5 Trillion.(H.R. 3221, CQ Vote #186: Motion Agreed To 72-13: R 27-13; D 43-0; I 2-0, 7/26/08, Boxer Voted Yea; H.R. 1424, CQ Vote #213: Passed 74-25: R 34-15; D 39-9; I 1-1, 10/1/08, Boxer Voted Yea; H.R.1, CQ Vote #64: Adopted 60-38: R 3-38; D 55-0; I 2-0, 2/13/09, Boxer Voted Yea; H.R.1, CQ Vote #397: Passed 60-39: R 1-38; D 57-1; I 2-0, 12/24/09, Boxer Voted Yea; H.J. Res. 45, CQ Vote #14: Passed 60-39: R 0-39; D 58-0; I 2-0, 1/28/10, Boxer Voted Yea)
- According To The National Taxpayers Union, Since 2001, Boxer Has Sponsored 655 Bills To Increase Government Spending, And Just 14 Bills To Cut Government Spending. (National Taxpayers Union, “NTUF BillTally — 111th Congress, 1st Session — Dollar Figures In Millions,” www.ntu.org, Accessed 9/27/10; National Taxpayers Union, “NTUF Bill Tally Senate Sorted By Net Spending,” www.ntu.org, Accessed 9/27/10)
- Boxer Has Voted Four Times Against The Bipartisan Sessions-McCaskill Budget Caps Amendment That Would Have Restrained Spending, On Average, To 1.5 Percent For Three Fiscal Years Beginning In 2011. (H.R. 4213, CQ Vote #181: Rejected 57-41: R 40-0; D 16-40; I 1-1, 6/9/10, Boxer Voted Nay; H.R. 1586, CQ Vote #57: Rejected 56-40: R 40-0; D 15-39; I 1-1, 3/18/10, Boxer Voted Nay; H.R. 4213, CQ Vote #42: Rejected 59-41: R 41-0; D 17-40; I 1-1, 3/4/10, Boxer Voted Nay; H.J. Res. 45, CQ Vote #11: Rejected 56-44: R 39-1; D 16-42; I 1-1, 1/28/10, Boxer Voted Nay)
JOANNA: “Billions in new taxes.”
- Since Obama Took Office, Boxer Has Voted In Favor Of More Than $500 Billion In Higher Taxes, Including Tax Hikes On The Poor. (“Estimated Revenue Effects Of The Amendment In The Nature Of A Substitute To H.R. 4872, The ‘Reconciliation Act Of 2010,’ As Amended,” Joint Committee On Taxation, 3/20/10; H.R. 2, CQ Vote #31: Passed 66-32: R 9-32; D 55-0; I 2-0, 1/29/09, Boxer Voted Yea; Matthew Sturdevant, “Tanning Tax Called Unfair,” The Hartford Courant [Connecticut], 7/19/10; H.R. 1586, CQ Vote #228: Motion Agreed To 61-39: R 2-39; D 57-0; I 2-0, 8/5/10, Boxer Voted Yea; “Estimated Budget Effects Of The Revenue Provisions Contained In Senate Amendment #4575,” Joint Committee On Taxation, 8/5/10)
- In 2009, Boxer Voted In Favor Of Raising Taxes On Individuals And Small Businesses That Earn More Than $250,000 Each Year. (S. Con. Res. 13, CQ Vote #173: Adopted 53-43: R 0-40; D 51-3; I 2-0, 4/29/09, Boxer Voted Yea)
DENNIS: “Millions unemployed.”
- More Than 2.2 Million Californians Are Currently Unemployed. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics Website,www.bls.gov, Accessed 10/11/10)
STEPHANIE: “Yet, Boxer says the stimulus is working?”
- Boxer: “The Stimulus Bill Was Very Successful.” “I also wanted to inform colleagues and this is very good news for us that AASHTO which is the group that represents the State Highway and Transportation folks that we work with so closely at home, they’ve released a new report today, Senators. They are basically saying that the stimulus bill was very successful, that it created hundreds of thousands of jobs. They have it actually summarized here, and all the various projects.” (Sen. Barbara Boxer, U.S. Senate, Committee On Environment And Public Works, 2/9/10)
ROGER: “It isn’t working for me.”
- California Has Lost 573,000 Nonfarm Payroll Jobs Since The Stimulus Passed In February 2009.(U.S. Bureau Of Labor Statistics Website, data.bls.gov, Accessed 9/24/10)
CARLY FIORINA: “We can make Washington work. Cut spending. Ban earmarks. But Washington won’t change unless you vote to change the people we send there.”
Note the faces of every day ordinary Californians who are saying that Barbara Boxer and Obama’s Economic Stimulus has failed.
Guess that is why Obama is returning to Los Angeles in about ten days to campaign AGAIN for Senator Boxer. The White House is worried about this seat – and they should be.