links for 2010-02-02

A while back, we told you about the Tea Party Express III, a conservative rallying cry of a bus trip organized and fronted by, among others, Sacramento political organizer Joe Wierzbicki and Roseville resident Deborah Johns.

It will kick off March 27 in Searchlight, NV. Why there? It's the hometown of Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, D-NV, aka Incumbent Non-Gratis No. 1 Among TP types.

To me, Joe W. has jokingly referred to the event as "our Conservative version of 'Woodstock' or 'Burning Man' if you will." If so, he just contacted us with big news: The conservative "Jimi Hendrix" would be there: Sarah Palin is going to show up at the kickoff in Searchlight, NV.
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Well, it is a pretty small town between Laughlin and Las Vegas. Nice post office though and nice federal highway.

Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, has actually been spotted in California this week to push her bid for the 2010 CA GOP gubernatorial nomination — but will she debate as the campaign against State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner is heating up in a rather headline-grabbing fashion?

Poizner, speaking today on KPPC radio in Southern California, continued pounding Monday's big story, accusing her campaign aide Mike Murphy ("an imbecile") of political extortion in trying to get him out of the GOP governor's race. And he said Whitman, "for some reason doesn't want to campaign like a normal candidate," refusing to talk to California media" and sidestepping debates.

On the debate angle, he's got a point: looks like Whitman won't take part in a long hoped-for debate at the upcoming 2010 state GOP spring convention in March.
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A very bad move on the part of Whitman. Can Poizner make a come back?

Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams will undergo heart surgery later this week in the United States.

Deputy premier Kathy Dunderdale confirmed the treatment at a news conference Tuesday, but would not reveal the location of the operation or how it would be paid for.

"He has gone to a renowned expert in the procedure that he needs to have done," said Ms. Dunderdale, who will become acting premier while Mr. Williams is away for three to 12 weeks.

"In consultation with his own doctors, he's decided to go that route."

Mr. Williams' decision to leave Canada for the surgery has raised eyebrows over his apparent shunning of Canada's health-care system.
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Just shocking but hell if you want to live…..

John Boozman will enter the Arkansas Senate race this weekend as the frontrunner. He leads incumbent Blanche Lincoln by an amazing 56-33 margin in our first poll of the race.

Lincoln's approval rating has sunk to just 27%, with 62% of voters in the state disapproving of her. She's at a middling 51% even within her own party and just 17% of independents and 9% of Republicans are happy with how she's doing.

A look inside the health care issue gives a good indication of how Lincoln has managed now to get it from all sides. 61% of voters in the state oppose the President's plan, and among those folks Lincoln's approval rating is just 8% with 79% of them expressing the belief that she's too liberal. But she's managed to antagonize a lot of the people who support the Democratic health care plan as well- 36% of them think she's too conservative and her approval with them is just 57%. Barack Obama's at 95% with that same group of voters.
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Will she retire? or be asked to?

The medical journal The Lancet on Tuesday retracted a controversial 1998 paper that linked the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism.

The study linked autism with the MMR vaccine. The research subsequently had been discredited.

Last week, the study's lead author Dr Andrew Wakefield was found to have acted unethically in conducting the research.
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And, how many children plus adults suffered needlessly?

The Republican duel for governor turned nasty – and thus became much more interesting – Monday when Steve Poizner accused rival Meg Whitman of using threats and bribes to get him out of the race, and her campaign questioned Poizner's mental health.

Poizner released an e-mail from Mike Murphy, a top Whitman campaign adviser, to Poizner's pollster last week asking, "Is there anything we can do to get SP to reconsider this race?" and suggesting that Whitman, the very wealthy former eBay honcho, "can spend $40M+ tearing up Steve if we must."

A mudslinging primary battle would be "bad for him, bad for us," Murphy continued, suggesting that if Poizner would drop out, "we could unite entire party behind Steve right now to build a serious race against (Sen. Dianne Feinstein) in 2012."
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Did Meg Whitman pay off Tom Campbell to switch to Senate race?

There is an old adage that is not only true in our personal lives, but also in government: if you want to know what a person’s priorities are take a look at how they spend their money. The national budget reflects the priorities of the President and the Congress. It is one of the most important policy documents our government considers and it serves as the roadmap for years to come.

This week the President had the opportunity to set our nation on a healthy fiscal path by getting control of the budget deficit and the long-term national debt as part of his budget proposal. Unfortunately, instead of championing true fiscal responsibility, his budget drives skyrocketing federal spending to new heights, raises taxes by more than $2 trillion and increases the debt we are leaving to our children and grandchildren by trillions of dollars.
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