• Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for July 8th on 17:24

    These are my links for July 8th from 17:24 to 17:29:

    • Media Bias 101: How liberal lies seep into our pop culture and become “fact” – I know there are people who have issues with Michele Bachmann, primarily due to her stance on social issues like gay marriage and abortion. I understand that and can respect those disagreements. But what I will NOT respect nor tolerate is when mainstream media outlets accept without question the bogus “reporting” done by prominent liberal blogs and websites, which is clearly what has happened here. As a result, their lack of reading the actual document itself and instead relying on a liberal blog whose reputation is questionable at best has poisoned the information stream that Average Joes who do NOT follow politics like you and I do rely on to help them form opinions on both issues and candidates.

      This is unacceptable.

      ======

      The LEFT and MSM are trying to Palinize Michele Bachmann. But, I believe it will slide off like Teflon.

      I have asked the Washington Post, Liz Flock, ABC News, and Russell Goldman to issue corrections but at this point, even if they were gracious enough to do so, the damage has already been done. The “porn ban pledge” lie has seeped into the pop culture and this is the gross misinformation we get as a result. Mission Accomplished? You betcha.

    • Did Michele Bachmann Sign a Pledge to “Ban Pornography”? – When I read that, it’s not clear to me that a ban on porn is what is intended. It may be, but it also could be interpreted to say that candidates are expected to work against the “seduction into…pornography” of women and girls, which is not the same thing as calling for a ban.

      Notice that footnote at the end of the quote? If you scan down, footnote 17 provides further evidence that this is not about banning porn:

      17 Human trafficking, child pornography and prostitution, pimping, sexual slavery and forced abortion are inherently coercive of vulnerable females. Infanticide and abortion are inherently coercive of the babies who are killed…

      The rest of the footnote is about their opposition to various abortion procedures.

      I’m waiting for someone to confirm this, but it looks as if the Family Leader pledge is not calling for a ban on porn. Indeed the word “ban” does not appear in the pledge. It appears to be calling for candidates to work against the abuse of children and women for purposes of porn and prostitution. The footnote seems to emphasize situations (trafficking, child porn, sex slavery) that are coercive in nature.

      Now it’s possible this group is completely against pornography of any kind. In fact, I would bet they are. But being against something and desiring to protect children and women from it is not the same as calling for a legal “ban” on it. It seems to me Think Progress is overreaching here. I guess we’ll see.

      Update: Just noticed that Sister Toldjah beat me to all of these points by at least an hour. She’s as outraged by this as I am.

      =====

      Yeah the LEFT is going wildly after Bachmann like they did Palin.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for July 8th on 12:23

    These are my links for July 8th from 12:23 to 14:08:

  • Barack Obama,  Michele Bachmann,  Mitt Romney,  Polling,  President 2012,  Unemployment Rate

    President 2012: Romney Slams Obama for Poor Employment Numbers

    Hope and changey will be coming from the GOP. Help is on the way, no doubt.

    Republican White House hopefuls on Friday charged that dismal new jobs figures reflected President Barack Obama’s botched handling of the economy, US voters’ top grievance ahead of the 2012 elections.

    “Today’s abysmal jobs report confirms what we all know — that President Obama has failed to get this economy moving again,” thundered the field’s frontrunner, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

    “With their cavalier attitude about the economy, the White House has turned the audacity of hope into the audacity of indifference,” he said, playing off one of the key slogans of Obama’s historic 2008 presidential campaign.

    Romney’s broadside came after the US Labor Department said that the ailing US economy, still digging out from the 2008 global meltdown, had generated a paltry 18,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate had ticked up to 9.2 percent.

    “Today?s unemployment report is another stark reminder of the failure of President Obama?s economic policies,” charged Republican Representative Michele Bachmann, who has surged in recent polls.

    Bachmann, who is close the archconservative “Tea Party” movement, cited news reports that US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner aimed to step down pending a deal to raise the US debt ceiling and avert an early August default.

    “We can only hope that the president will be right behind him after the next election,” said the Minnesota lawmaker, who accused Obama of putting the US economy into “freefall.”

    There you go. Romney and Bachmann will be tag teaming against Obama.

    And, there is your potential GOP ticket in 2012.

    Did you see the poll numbers in Pennsylvania today?
    Obama is sinking like a stone and sinking fast.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for July 8th on 12:08

    These are my links for July 8th from 12:08 to 12:11:

    • The Elmendorf Rule – The president who ignored the debt problem for two years now tells Congress to get serious about the budget – Here we go again. An approaching crisis. A looming deadline. Nervous markets. And then, from the miasma of gridlock, rises our president, calling upon those unruly congressional children to quit squabbling, stop kicking the can down the road, and get serious about debt.

      This from the man who:

      Ignored the debt problem for two years by kicking the can to a commission.
       
      Promptly ignored the commission’s December 2010 report.
       
      Delivered a State of the Union address in January that didn’t even mention the debt until 35 minutes in.
       
      Delivered in February a budget so embarrassing — it actually increased the deficit — that the Democratic-controlled Senate rejected it 97–0.
       
      Took a budget mulligan with his April 13 debt-plan speech. Asked in Congress how this new “budget framework” would affect the actual federal budget, Congressional Budget Office director Doug Elmendorf replied with a devastating “We don’t estimate speeches.” You can’t assign numbers to air.

      =======

      Read it all

      Pretty amazing….. but the Presidential 2012 polls tell the story – Obama is sinking.

    • Dem Senator Patty Murray Asked Koch Industries for Donation – Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), head of the Senate Democratic campaign effort, apparently left a voice mail for the president of Koch Industries asking for a donation. The company is owned by billionaire conservative donors Charles and David Koch.

      Koch president Philip Ellender wrote back: "I'm hoping you can help me understand the intent of your request because it's hard not to conclude that DSCC politics have become so cynical that you actually expect people whom you routinely denounce to give DSCC money."

    • DSCC asking Kochs for cash – The Kochs have become a major target of Democratic ire recently — but that hasn't stopped the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from asking their company for money. A Koch company executive fires back in a letter to DSCC chairwoman Sen. Patty Murray:

      For many months now, your colleagues in the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee leadership have engaged in a series of disparagements and ad hominem attacks about us, apparently as part of a concerted political and fundraising strategy. Just recently, Senator Reid wrote in a DSCC fundraising letter that Republicans are trying to “force through their extreme agenda faster than you can say ‘Koch Brothers.’”

      So you can imagine my chagrin when I got a letter from you on June 17 asking us to make five-figure contributions to the DSCC. You followed that up with a voicemail* indicating that, if we contributed heavily enough, we would garner an invitation to join you and other Democratic leaders at a retreat in Kiawah Island this September.

      I’m hoping you can help me understand the intent of your request because it’s hard not to conclude that DSCC politics have become so cynical that you actually expect people whom you routinely denounce to give DSCC money.

      ======

      Pretty amazing – bash and then ask for cash.

  • Craig Huey,  Janice Hahn

    CA-36: Democrats Are Nervous About Janice Hahn Losing to Craig Huey

    110630hahnhueyap328 CA 36: California Early Voting Forecasts a Close Race for Craig Huey Vs. Janice Hahn

    Los Angeles City Council Member Janice Hahn and GOP Congressional Nominee and businessman Craig Huey

    I think they are justified in being worried.

    Dems getting nervous about CA-36: And for next week’s special congressional run-off in California to replace ex-Rep. Jane Harman (D), Dems are starting to get a bit nervous about a race that — at least on paper — they should easily win. The contest is between L.A. City Councilwoman Janice Hahn (D) and businessman Craig Huey (R); Obama got more than 60% of the vote in the district in ‘08. “We’ve been saying for a while that this one is closer than people think – whenever you have a multi-millionaire willing to self-fund it’s never a slam dunk,” one DC-based Democratic operative emails First Read. “It was a safe seat for Jane, but not necessarily Dems.”

    Craig Huey and the California GOP are ramping up the GOTV campaign and transporting their voters to the polls, making the calls, etc.

    Huey has a definite shot to pull off the upset.

  • Polling,  President 2012

    President 2012 Pennsylvania Poll Watch: Obama in Trouble

    electoral college President 2012: The Electoral College Map

    Electoral College vote map of Larry Sabato

    According to the latest PPP Poll.

    Pennsylvania is looking more and more like it could be a tough hold for Barack Obama in 2012. His approval rating in the state continues to be under water at 46/48. More voters have expressed disapproval than happiness with Obama on all three polls PPP has done in the state so far in 2011. And even though Obama took Pennsylvania by 10 points in 2008 the best he can muster right now in a head to head match up with Mitt Romney is a tie.

    Obama’s problem in Pennsylvania appears to be the ‘Hillary Democrats’ finally causing him a real issue. There was a lot of speculation in 2008 that they wouldn’t vote for him in the general election but in the end they did. Now though his approval rating with Democrats in the state is only 74%, well below his national numbers, and with white Democrats it goes down even further to 70%. Meanwhile Republicans are much more unified in their disapproval of Obama (85%, with only 10% approving) and the President’s not getting any favors from independents either who break down slightly negatively (44/45) in their assessments of him.

    Obama’s poll numbers are worse in Pennsylvania than they are in places like Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, and New Mexico, all states that went Republican in 2004 even as Pennsylvania voted Democratic. The President’s persistently poor numbers in a state that’s gone Democratic in every Presidential election for the last 24 years probably make Pennsylvania the place where Obama should be most concerned about his current standing.

    President Obama won Pennsylvania by 10 points in 2008. If he is in trouble there and this early, his decline could cascade to other key battleground states.

    Most pundits have not considered Pennsylvania to be in play for 2012 and 20 Electoral College votes are a lot for Obama to make up in Virginia and North Carolina which looks like he must both hold.

    Needless to say Mitt Romney is running the best against Obama with Michele Bachmann running second. As I said, do not be surprised of a Romney and Bachmann ticket going against Obama and Biden (but don’t be surprised if the Hillary rumors resurface).

    It does though look like the Republicans are going to need to nominate Mitt Romney to take advantage of Obama’s weakness in the state. He fights Obama to a tie while all the rest of the Republicans, including home state candidate Rick Santorum, trail him by at least 7 points. Obama and Romney run even at 44% with the former Massachusetts Governor picking up 18% of the Democratic vote and holding 80% support from GOP voters. None of the other Republicans get more than 15% of the Democrats and Romney’s the only one who gets 80% of his own party’s vote.

    After Romney the next strongest candidate is Michele Bachmann who trails by 7 points at 50-43. Then it’s Tim Pawlenty down 8 at 47-39, Santorum with a 10 point deficit at 50-40, Hermain Cain 12 points behind at 49-37, and Sarah Palin as always bringing up the rear with a 14 point disadvantage at 53-39.

    The entire poll is here.