• Del.icio.us Links

    links for 2011-01-31

    • The White House expects Jon Huntsman, the U.S. Ambassador to China, to resign his post this spring to explore a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, top Democrats said.

      GOP allies of Huntsman have already begun laying plans for a quick-start campaign should the former Utah governor decide to enter the ill-defined Republican field.

      ++++++

      Read it all

      I don't really see another rich Mormon doing very well running for President – especially since he has been part of the Obama Administration.

      Looks like the political consultants have found another cash cow who covets the White House

    • Leaders of more than 70 Tea Party groups in Indiana gathered last weekend to sign a proclamation saying they would all support one candidate — as yet undetermined — in a primary challenge to Senator Richard G. Lugar, the Republican who has represented the state since 1977.
      ++++++

      Read it all

      If Tea Party activists can agree on one GOP/Tea Party challenger to Sen. Lugar he is gone.

  • Obamacare

    ObamaCare: All Senate Republicans Ready To Repeal Obama Health Care Reform Law

    drobama5116834 ObamaCare Poll Watch: 75 Per Cent Want Health Care Law Changed

    Today, a Florida federal judge ruled that ObamaCare was unconstitutional and held that for the entire law, not just the individual mandate.

    Now, it appears that every Republican Senator is prepared to vote to repeal ObamaCare.

    Every Republican in the Senate now appears ready to revoke President Obama’s signature health care law. This comes as a federal judge, in Florida, strikes down key parts of the law as unconstitutional.

    The GOP holds 47 seats in the Senate.

    According to Sen. Jim DeMint’s office, 45 of them will co-sponsor the South Carolina Republican’s legislation – introduced last week – to fully repeal the health law. Republicans are “standing with the American people who are demanding we repeal this government takeover of health care,” DeMint said at the time.

    DeMint’s office told CNN it did not yet have confirmation that Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran would sign on. But CNN contacted Cochran’s office and confirmed that he would.

    Of course, President Obama would more than likely veto the repeal legislation. But, all those Democratic Senators up for re-election in 2012 would have to choose between supporting the President of their party or voting for repeal and saving their Senate careers.

    A win-win for the GOP.

    ObamaCare’s repeal is almost a certainty now – as I predicted even before passage.

  • Mitch Daniels

    President 2012: Mitch Daniels Favored 2:1 in Washington State GOP Straw Poll

    Senior Dominique White, right, chats with Gov. Mitch Daniels during the two-term Republican’s visit Thursday to Thea Bowman Leadership Academy in Gary

    Looks like Indiana Republican Governor Mitch Daniels has some support in the Far West.

    A new straw poll of Washington state Republicans preferred Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (R) with two-to-one over all other potential Republican presidential candidates.

    Daniels had 31 percent of those surveyed in the poll conducted by the Washington GOP during their annual Roanoke Conference.

    That’s more than twice the level of support won by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Romney won 14 percent of support, while former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty won 13 percent.

    More than a dozen other potential GOP candidates — including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour — failed to break double digits in the poll.

    In the Pacific West, Republicans want competence, experience and ideology. In Mitch Daniels they have all three – and certainly a recent record of accomplishment in Indiana.

  • Mitch Daniels,  President 2012

    President 2012: Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels Close to a Presidential Decision?

    Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., left, and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels speak about Indiana’s fiscal health as the two meet in the governor’s office at the Statehouse in Indianapolis, Monday, Jan. 10, 2011

    Now, that GOP Rep. Mike Pence has decided against running for the Presidency in 2012 (Pence will likely run for Indiana Governor, since Mitch Daniels is term limited out of running for re-election), Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels says he will make up his mind soon about a possible race for the White House.

    “I think I have got to make up my mind fairly soon,” Daniels told The Times Editorial Board Thursday during a visit to Northwest Indiana.

    “I don’t think that I’ve waited too long, but I believe I should come to some decision. There are a lot of people waiting and I owe them an answer.

    “The country is facing survival-level problems.”

    Daniels questions whether any new president could replicate nationwide the successes he’s enjoyed as Indiana governor, upgrading the license branches of the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles or the state prisons of the Indiana Department of Correction.

    “I’d love to tell you we could fix (those) the way we fixed the BMV, the way we fixed corrections, but I think I would be kidding you. But in terms of better stewardship of public money, I think (the next president) could make a difference,” Daniels said.

    He said the president needs the power of impoundment — refusal to spend all the money the Congress budgets. He said as governor he has used impoundment to cut state spending and avert a billion-dollar deficit that would have taken place if the state had gone ahead with the General Assembly’s spending goals, which were based on overly optimistic tax revenue projections.

    Daniels said he is optimistic his goals for school and local government reform will be achieved through new legislation now brewing in the legislature as his term as governor comes to a close next year.

    Mitch Daniels would make a formidable candidate against President Obama. His Midwestern roots and political experience, plus accomplishments would play well in the 10 or so key battleground states, including Indiana, Wisconsin, Colorado, Florida and North Carolina.

    Would Daniels be able to win the GOP nomination?

    Yes, but he must begin NOW to build name identification in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

  • Center for American Progress,  Charles Koch,  Common_Cause,  David Koch

    The Uncloaking the Koch Street Protest: The Kochs Vs. Soros

    Photo from yesterday’s The Uncloacking the Kochs street protest

    As Tim Carney aptly points out in his piece the Koch Conference street protest yesterday is really a fight between free markets and state coercion. A fight between the Koch brothers and George Soros sponsored LEFTIST organizations.

    At the front gates of the Rancho Las Palmas resort, a few hundred liberals rallied Sunday against “corporate greed” and polluters. They chanted for the arrest of billionaires Charles and David Koch, and their ire was also directed at the other free market-oriented businessmen invited here by the Koch brothers to discuss free markets and electoral strategies.

    Billionaires poisoning our politics was the central theme of the protests. But nothing is quite as it seems in modern politics: The protest’s organizer, the nonprofit Common Cause, is funded by billionaire George Soros.

    Common Cause has received $2 million from Soros’s Open Society Institute in the past eight years, according to grant data provided by Capital Research Center. Two panelists at Common Cause’s rival conference nearby — President Obama’s former green jobs czar, Van Jones, and blogger Lee Fang — work at the Center for American Progress, which was started and funded by Soros but, as a 501(c)4 nonprofit “think tank,” legally conceals the names of its donors.

    In other words, money from billionaire George Soros and anonymous, well-heeled liberals was funding a protest against rich people’s influence on politics.

    When Politico reporter Ken Vogel pointed out that Soros hosts similar “secret” confabs, CAP’s Fang responded on Twitter: “don’t you think there’s a very serious difference between donors who help the poor vs. donors who fund people to kill government, taxes on rich?”

    In less than 140 characters, Fang had epitomized the myopic liberal view of money in politics: Conservative money is bad, and linked to greed, while liberal money is self-evidently philanthropic.

    You can hear CAP’s Lee Fang in his own words try to explain the difference between the LEFT’S private fundraising confabs and those of the Koch’s here in last Thursdays Common Cause teleconference.

    So, Big Labor busses out its minions and the FAR LEFT (see some of the sponsoring organizations here) puts on an UNCIVIL display, 25 people are arrested.

    BFD

    According to an eye-witness who contacted me by e-mail, protesters shouted “traitors,” held signs that said “Koch Kills” and chanted “No justice, no peace” outside the hotel.

    A Koch representative whom I contacted had this comment on the day’s events: “This is the kind of ‘civil debate’ the left wants to have after Tucson?” One additional note: Inside the same conference center as the conservatives was a conference of judges from the Ninth Circuit. The recent death of a federal judge in Arizona did not give the mob pause about the propriety of their actions.

    All Saul Alinsky type symbolism over substance with FAR LEFT hypocrisy over flowing = #EPIC FAIL.

    Previous:

    Updated: The Uncloaking the Kochs Street Protest is On in Rancho Mirage; Arrests Made; 25 Arrested

    Updated: The Uncloaking the Kochs Street Protest is On in Rancho Mirage; Arrests Made

    Far-Left Hot Air Flying Above the Koch Conference

    Audio: Common Cause Holds Teleconference to Bash Weekend Koch Sponsored Conference – Uncloaking the Kochs?

    Who is Sponsoring the “Uncloaking the Kochs” Protest?

    The LEFT ala Saul Alinsky Protest Koch Brothers Conference

    koch1web Updated: The Uncloaking the Kochs Street Protest is On in Rancho Mirage; Arrests Made
  • GOP,  Tea Party

    Poll Watch: Americans Believe GOP Should Heart the Tea Party

    Indeed, that is what the latest Gallup poll says.

    About 7 in 10 national adults, including 88% of Republicans, say it is important that Republican leaders in Congress take the Tea Party movement’s positions and objectives into account as they address the nation’s problems. Among Republicans, 53% rate this “very important.”

    However, the popularity of the Tea Party movement itself has remained the same as the GOP popularity has increased. See the poll graph below:

    So, what does this all mean?

    The GOP with the federal debt ceiling vote coming up will have to strike a delicate balance of Tea Party precepts and party politics.

    While media commentators duel over whether Bachmann’s response to the State of the Union address deserved prime-time coverage, the Republican Party has its own dilemma: how much deference to show Tea Party activists and their generally conservative proposals in crafting public policy. Almost all Republicans say it is at least somewhat important for GOP congressional leaders to take the Tea Party’s views into account, with about half saying it is very important. More broadly, the Tea Party has neither lost nor gained strength since the midterm elections. It remains popular with about 3 in 10 Americans who call themselves supporters of the movement, and it continues to generate as much opposition as support overall.

  • Egypt,  Internet,  Joe Lieberman,  Susan Collins

    Egypt’s Internet Goes Offline And Congress Readies Obama “Kill Switch” Legislation

    I don’t think after the events in Egypt this past week that this legislation has much of a chance of passing.

    As Egypt’s government attempts to crackdown on street protests by shutting down internet and mobile phone services, the US is preparing to reintroduce a bill that could be used to shut down the internet.

    The legislation, which would grant US President Barack Obama powers to seize control of and even shut down the internet, would soon be reintroduced to a senate committee, Wired.com reported.

    It was initially introduced last year but expired with a new Congress.

    Senator Susan Collins, a co-sponsor of the bill, said that unlike in Egypt, where the government was using its powers to quell dissent by shutting down the internet, it would not.

    “My legislation would provide a mechanism for the government to work with the private sector in the event of a true cyber emergency,” Collins said in an emailed statement to Wired. “It would give our nation the best tools available to swiftly respond to a significant threat.”

    The proposed legislation, introduced into the US Senate by independent senator Joe Lieberman, who is chairman of the US Homeland Security committee, seeks to grant the President broad emergency powers over the internet in times of national emergency.

    I don’t want President Obama, Susan Collins or Joe Lieberman having control of my access to a “free press” which today includes the internet.

    More communication and connectivity is better for liberty and freedom, than less.

    Hands off.

  • Day By Day,  Egypt,  Hosni Mubarak

    Day By Day January 31, 2011 – Talk Like an Egyptian



    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    I don’t think Americans, after the Mubarak government crack down on cell phone networks and the internet will take too kindly to giving President Obama a “Kill Switch” over American communications. Nor, will there be an allowance for the federal government to regulate speech.

    Americans remember way too much what the oppressive British government did to the American colonies prior to the Revolutionary War to allow ANYONE infringe on their free speech and freedom to assembly.

    We don’t want to talk like an Egyptian.

    Previous:

    The Day By Day Archive

  • Charles Koch,  David Koch

    Updated: The Uncloaking the Kochs Street Protest is On in Rancho Mirage; Arrests Made; 25 Arrested

    The first photo from the Koch Conference Street protest this afternoon.

    Will there by violence/arrests – like the LEFT is predicting?

    Rally will begin at 1:00pm in front of the Koch summit (at the entrance to Rancho Las Palmas Resort in Rancho Mirage). At 2:30pm, 2000 protesters will take an oath “To return our great nation to government of, by and for the people, not government of, bought and paid for by powerful corporate interests.” Then hundreds of protesters in HazMat suits and badges will try to encircle the summit with giant caution tape to “Quarantine the Kochs.” Scores of protesters are considering peaceful civil disobedience.

    Update:

    The answer is yes on the arrests: 

    Authorities in California say 25 protesters have been arrested for trespassing outside a strategy session of conservative political donors at a Palm Springs-area resort.

    Riverside County Deputy Melissa Nieburger (NEE’-bur-gur) said Sunday that the protesters were being booked at Indio Jail and released.

    Hundreds of people participated in the mostly peaceful demonstration that had been arranged with authorities, but some protesters crossed the street to the Rancho Las Palmas Resort.

    Deputies in riot gear arrested them without incident when they refused to leave the area.

  • Del.icio.us Links

    links for 2011-01-30

    • Jimmy Carter will go down in American history as "the president who lost Iran," which during his term went from being a major strategic ally of the United States to being the revolutionary Islamic Republic. Barack Obama will be remembered as the president who "lost" Turkey, Lebanon and Egypt, and during whose tenure America's alliances in the Middle East crumbled.

      ++++++

      And, Tunisia and Turkey

    • The Working Group on Egypt , which includes Michele Dunne, Robert Kagan, Elliott Abrams and Ellen Bork as well Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch and Brian Katulis of the Center for American Progress, has put out a statement with some smart advice for Obama to pursue the following goals:

      a call for free and fair elections for president and for parliament to be held as soon as possible.

      amend the Egyptian Constitution to allow opposition candidates to register to run for the presidency.

      immediately lift the state of emergency, release political prisoners, and allow for freedom of media and assembly

      allow domestic election monitors to operate throughout the country, without fear of arrest or violence.

      immediately invite international monitors to enter the country and monitor the process leading to elections, reporting on the government's compliance with these measures to the international community

      publicly declare that Mr. Mubarak will agree not to run for re-election.

      ++

      Yes

    • The Bee's editorial praised legislation by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner aimed at ending the so-called never-ending sales tax holiday granted to out-of-state Internet merchants.

      The editorial cites an out-dated Board of Equalization analysis suggesting that the legislation might bring $150 million into state coffers. For perspective, compare this number to the estimated $42.2 billion in sales and use taxes Californians paid last year or the $25.4 billion deficit the state is currently facing.

      One small problem: California isn't likely to see any of those $150 million. Instead Skinner's bill would cost jobs, hurt government revenue and drag taxpayers into costly litigation.

      ++++++++

      Absolutely true.

      The Amazon tax would contribute little to California's economy except grief.