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Flap’s Links and Comments for March 31st on 18:52
These are my links for March 31st from 18:52 to 18:55:
- Rudy Giuliani Blasts Obama on Libya Action – Rudy Giuliani told Laura Ingraham that "since this whole thing in the Middle East began," the Obama administration "doesn't know what it's doing."
"This is probably the worst handled national security military action I have ever seen. From announcing — when he didn't know what to do — that Gadhafi must go to then making that speech the other night, which was internally contradictory. You cannot say we're there to protect the Libyan people, but we're not going to be for regime change with Gadhafi because the reason we are there to protect the Libyan people is because of Gadhafi."
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Obama does not understand foreign policy and has no experience in it.
- President 2102: Can Obama Lose? – Perhaps – So what combination of factors in this complex system of politics must come together to cause a catastrophe for Obama politically that would result in his defeat?
Only one Democratic president has lost a reelection bid.
I see three, and all have to be in place and reinforce each other for Obama to lose. First, the economy in 2012 has to be either stagnant or in decline in the 10 or so key electoral states (especially the ones in the Midwest) as he heads into the election. This would mean that the economy is creating very few net jobs in 2012 and that prices (including food and gas) are still rising.
Second, no new major international crisis arises that causes people to rally behind Obama because of his competent handling of it. And I emphasize the words “new,” “major,” and “competent.” Afghanistan and Iraq devolving again into a problem will not help Obama, and actually may hurt him because our country has basically moved on from the situation in both places.
Third, a Republican nominee has to emerge who is charismatic; is a very good communicator; is in touch with the country’s economic and social needs; and is a new brand of GOP leader whom many younger voters can connect with. Think of what it took in 1980 to defeat the Democratic incumbent—Ronald Reagan and crises galore.
All three factors must converge for Obama to lose, and two of them are needed to drive his job approval down to a place, as I have written before, that makes it difficult for him to win. As one can see, these three elements don’t include how much money the Democratic National Committee and Obama have at their disposal; how much cash the Republican National Committee or the Republican nominee raises; the quality of each campaign staff; the legislative machinations of Congress; or the use of modern technology in the campaigns (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.). Those are all tactical factors that, ultimately, will have little influence on whether Obama wins or loses.======
It will have to be a new GOP candidate like Mitch Daniels or Chris Christie – not a retread like Huckabee or Romney.
- Rudy Giuliani Blasts Obama on Libya Action – Rudy Giuliani told Laura Ingraham that "since this whole thing in the Middle East began," the Obama administration "doesn't know what it's doing."
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Flap’s Links and Comments for March 31st on 11:41
These are my links for March 31st from 11:41 to 11:56:
- President 2012 GOP: S.C. Republicans Escalate Election Calendar Feud – South Carolina Republican Party Chair Karen Floyd today brought into the open the simmering tensions between the traditional early states and the others — particularly Florida — jockeying to break into the primary calendar.
Floyd's demand: If Florida won't step aside, the RNC should move its convention out of the state.
She writes to fellow RNC members:
Unfortunately, our Party stands on the precipice of our hard work being rendered meaningless, with the very real possibility looming that Florida’s Presidential Preference Primary may be held prior to March 1, in contravention of Party Rules – a move that would precipitate numerous other states similarly violating Party Rules.
As conservatives, we believe in the rule of law, and that rules are made to be followed. To that end, I am sure we all appreciate our state Party counterparts in Florida advocating for the RNC rules being obeyed. But what is disconcerting is the apparent recalcitrance of Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature, which is in effect thumbing its nose at the RNC – and feels emboldened to do so because of the 2012 convention location….
Simply put, if Florida does not respect the process by which our primary calendar was set, the RNC should not be bound to the process by which the convention site was selected.
If Florida refuses to move its primary date into compliance with RNC rules, I am respectfully requesting that the Committee convene a special task force to select a new site for the 2012 Convention outside the state of Florida…
She suggests the labor battlegrounds of Wisconsin, Ohio, or Indiana, Senate battlegrounds of Virginia, Missouri, or Michigan, or the Democratic convention spot of Charlotte as possible alternatives.
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Florida is > than South Carolina
- The AARP America Doesn’t Know – An Investigative Report – AARP, formerly known as the American Association of
Retired Persons, is a tax-exempt non-profit membership
organization for those aged 50 years and older. As
such, AARP has long been regarded as a protector and
advocate of the nation’s senior community.
What is less known is the extent to which AARP
operates as a massive for-profit enterprise and how
that conflicts with its legal requirements to “primarily
operate to promote the common good and social
welfare of a community of people.”
This report highlights AARP’s increasing reliance on
the “for-profit” sale of insurance, particularly health
insurance, and the underlying implication for this storied
“non-profit” organization. In conducting the research,
one of the central questions became: Why would AARP
aggressively advocate for the Democrats’ health care
law last year which contained nearly one half-trillion
dollars in cuts that independent analysts said would
negatively impact seniors’ access to affordable health
care services.=======
Read it all
- President 2012 GOP: S.C. Republicans Escalate Election Calendar Feud – South Carolina Republican Party Chair Karen Floyd today brought into the open the simmering tensions between the traditional early states and the others — particularly Florida — jockeying to break into the primary calendar.
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Flap’s Links and Comments for March 25th on 06:38
These are my links for March 25th from 06:38 to 06:55:
- President 2012: Scapegoating Mitch Daniels – Over the past year, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has been a case study in how not to seek the Republican presidential nomination — if indeed that is his intention.
Despite having a generally conservative governing record, in the run-up to a possible candidacy, Daniels has managed to alienate all parts of the GOP’s so-called “three-legged” stool. He has rattled economic conservatives by floating the possibility of a VAT tax, unnerved national security hawks by talking about defense cuts and seeming indifferent about foreign policy, and angered values voters by calling for a “truce” on social issues while the country confronts the national emergency of our fiscal crisis.
It’s the latter comments that have drawn the most heat, giving his potential rivals an easy opening at conservative events to say that yes, social issues are a priority.
But while Daniels has become a popular target for social conservatives who understandably don’t want to see their issues downplayed, the reality is that Daniels’ crime was to say explicitly what most of the other potential candidates are saying and doing implicitly — that is, emphasizing the importance of economic and fiscal issues over moral matters.=======
Read it all.
- Sen. Jim DeMint’s Defense of RomneyCare is Ignorant…And Dangerous – Jennifer Rubin alerts me to these disturbing comments Sen. Jim DeMint made to the Hill in defense of RomneyCare:
“One of the reasons I endorsed Romney [in 2008] is his attempts to make private health insurance available at affordable prices,” said Sen. Jim DeMint (S.C.), a GOP kingmaker.
DeMint blames Democrats in the Massachusetts State Legislature for adding many of the features to Romney’s plan that many on the right decry.
“It just depends on how he plays it. For me, I think he started with some good ideas that were essentially hijacked by the Democrat Legislature,” DeMint said.
To start with, blaming everything on the Democratic legislature is simply not an accurate account of what happened. Romney helped craft the basic architecture of the health care plan, and pursued it even though he knew that he was working with an overwhelming Democratic legislature who he knew would override his symbolic line-item vetoes of parts of his bill. He signed the bill with Ted Kennedy at his side, and did so knowing he wasn't seeking reelection and that it would almost certainly fall on a Democratic governor to implement it….======
Read it all
Sen. Jim DeMint is turning out to be just another POL.
- President 2012: Tea party leader says he’d endorse Mitch Daniels – Gov. Mitch Daniels: the tea party pick for president?
That could happen, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, said Thursday.
Armey, now the leader of the tea party group FreedomWorks, was in Indiana to begin a three-day campaign-training seminar his group is conducting along with the Indiana-based tea party group America ReFocused.
He met with Daniels privately before a Statehouse ceremony honoring the governor with a "legislative entrepreneur award" and told reporters he encouraged Daniels to "think about the service he could do for this nation as president."
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Some on the right are scapegoating Mitch Daniels but Dick Armey knows Daniels is a credible conservative office holder with a track record.
- President 2012: Scapegoating Mitch Daniels – Over the past year, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has been a case study in how not to seek the Republican presidential nomination — if indeed that is his intention.
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Flap’s Links and Comments for March 24th on 08:00
These are my links for March 24th from 08:00 to 09:50:
- How television created and then killed Sarah Palin’s political prospects – It was television that destroyed Sarah Palin, just as it made her. I’ve said before and I’ll say it again – the arrival of Palin as a major political figure in 2008 was an emanation of the reality-TV culture, anchored in the belief that ordinary or “everyday” people, inarticulate though they may be, and with all the baggage of messy personal lives, are truly compelling public figures. Palin was the political equivalent. A figure who refracts national identity as it is shaped by the culture’s most powerful medium. Authentic, populist and dismissive of sophistication in thought and action.
Then, television duly destroyed the Palin authenticity. The arc of her national political career began with a defining speech at the Republican National Convention in September, 2008, and ended in November, 2010, a few episodes into Sarah Palin’s Alaska. The show, a cringingly inevitable reality-TV series, gave her a huge platform and she blew it. If her exposure on TV in 2008 brought out the authenticity, the show brought out Palin’s inner princess. She talked about being a mom 87 times an episode (I’m exaggerating , but only a little) and made dubious attempts to make political parables linking her family, the outdoors and wildlife. It was ego unbounded. And this after quitting her job as governor of Alaska.
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Interesting enough Sarah Palin's next career will most probably be on television. - Why is Jon Huntsman running for president? – This is like Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) without the war record and without the bona fides on national security. And speaking of which, Huntsman’s hiring “key members from McCain’s team at the helm.” That alone is enough to freak out many in the base, who came to detest the McCain campaign crew for incompetency and disloyalty to its VP pick.
I’m trying to figure out who a “Huntsman voter” is. Rudy Giuliani attracted moderates before his campaign imploded (fizzled, actually). But he led New York through Sept. 11, governed like a no-nonsense fiscal conservative and offered up conservative positions on school choice, health care and tax policy. And he never served in a liberal president’s administration. Perhaps there is an untapped segment of the electorate to the left of Giuliani who doesn’t think that poorly of Obama. Unfortunately for Huntsman, they likely are Democrats.
You do have to wonder how Huntsman, an intelligent man with business experience, was sold on taking the plunge. And you really have to wonder how thrilled his family will be if he decides to risk a chunk of the family fortune.
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Good question – because he has the massive fortune to do so?
- California must enforce ‘use’ law — now – Or Support Internet Taxes – So be it. Holding affiliates hostage in a desperate effort to continue tax-exempt merchandizing shouldn't be condoned. Barnes & Noble, which does collect the sales tax, has offered to pick up some of the Amazon affiliates. Other online retailers could, too.
If the tax-free e-tailers retained their affiliate marketers and began collecting the taxes, Skinner estimates, her bill would net between $250 million and $500 million annually for the bleeding state general fund.
But California this year will be stiffed much more: $1.7 billion in taxes that should have been paid on Web purchases, according to a University of Tennessee study.
Another bill, by state Sen. Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), would grant the Board of Equalization more power to force tax collections. She estimates it could gain the state more than $1 billion annually.
A key backer is Democratic equalization board member Betty Yee.
"Amazon used to argue that it didn't have the capability to collect the taxes, given the various different tax rates," she says. "They can track individual consumer preferences about products but can't track sales taxes? That's kind of crazy."
Runner says, "The only way to solve this problem is with a national solution. You can't do it piecemeal."
Perhaps. But a lot of California retailers could fold before the feds ride to their rescue. Meanwhile, deficit-plagued states are denied the taxes they're owed.
Sacramento politicians should move swiftly to protect local businesses and demand the state's legal share. They should get off their inertia.
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George Skelton, the LA Times Columnist is an old tax and spend liberal who never met a tax he didn't like.
He supports the loss of jobs to California affiliates of Amazon.com and Overstock.com.
I suggest that those affiliates cancel their paid subscriptions to the Los Angeles Times.
Oh wait, they already read the rag for free on the internet.
Internet taxation is a bad policy for California and America.
- How television created and then killed Sarah Palin’s political prospects – It was television that destroyed Sarah Palin, just as it made her. I’ve said before and I’ll say it again – the arrival of Palin as a major political figure in 2008 was an emanation of the reality-TV culture, anchored in the belief that ordinary or “everyday” people, inarticulate though they may be, and with all the baggage of messy personal lives, are truly compelling public figures. Palin was the political equivalent. A figure who refracts national identity as it is shaped by the culture’s most powerful medium. Authentic, populist and dismissive of sophistication in thought and action.