links for 2010-08-17

The Daily Caller has learned that Sharron Angle has former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s endorsement.

Palin’s brother, Chuck Heath, told The Daily Caller that his sister plans to “actively help” Angle and “do whatever she can” to help take out Democratic Sen. Harry Reid
, the Senate’s majority leader, in Nevada this fall.

“She’s got GUTS and is putting up with more crap than she deserves because the libs don’t know what to do with her and the support she has,” Palin said in a email provided to TheDC by Heath.

While Palin has not yet formally endorsed Angle in public before now, she said her support was offered to the Angle campaign when she recently made a donation to her. It is not clear if Palin was referring to a personal donation she made to Angle or the money her SarahPAC has contributed to Angle’s campaign. Palin has also supported Angle on Twitter, writing that Angle was “right” about wanting to allow workers to invest Social Security in private accounts.
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Will help w/ GOTV

California GOP Senate challenger Carly Fiorina says the group planning to build an Islamic center near ground zero in New York should move it to another location.

She told reporters on Tuesday in Sacramento that the issue was not about religious freedom. Rather, she says it is about being sensitive to those who suffered in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

She encouraged those promoting the $100 million Islamic center to "find some place else where their objectives can be met."

Debate over the planned mosque and Islamic center erupted after President Barack Obama spoke about it last week, saying it was a matter of religious freedom.

Fiorina's opponent, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, told reporters earlier in the day in Los Angeles that the mosque was an issue to be decided locally.
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As I thought……over to Boxer

The Ninth Circuit’s grant of a stay of Judge Walker’s judgment pending appeal provides yet further compelling evidence that Walker has gone utterly bonkers in his egregious mishandling of this case. Walker’s denial of the stay threatened to dramatically alter the status quo before a higher court could even review his radical ruling. Walker must have been thoroughly intoxicated by his own bias to imagine that his denial would stand.

This is the third time that a reviewing court has smacked down Walker in this case. The first time was an extraordinary writ of mandamus that a Ninth Circuit panel consisting entirely of Clinton appointees issued last year against the incredibly intrusive discovery, grossly underprotective of First Amendment associational rights, that Walker authorized into the internal campaign communications of the Prop 8 sponsors. The second time was the Supreme Court’s…..
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Read it all

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and Carly Fiorina, her Republican challenger, agree on something: Both say the controversial mosque proposed to be built near Ground Zero is a local issue best left to New Yorkers.

"As a former local government official, Senator Boxer believes the city of New York has the right to make this decision," Zachary Coile, Boxer's spokesman, said Monday.

On Sunday in Los Angeles, Fiorina called the mosque plan an "intensely personal and local issue" and said she didn't think it was helpful that President Barack Obama had waded into the controversy.

Obama made news over the weekend by defending construction of the mosque, saying it was consistent with religious freedom.

"I think it's now about the sensitivities of people who lost loved ones and honestly I think we ought to leave it up to the community of New York to work this through," Fiorina said.
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So, Boxer agrees or disagrees with Obama?

Honest to goodness, the man just does not get it. He might be forced to pull a Palin and resign before his first term is over. He could go off and write his memoirs and build his presidential library. (Both would be half-size, of course.)

I am not saying Obama is not smart; he is as smart as a whip. I am just saying he does not understand what savvy first-term presidents need to understand:

You have to stay on message, follow the polls, listen to your advisers (who are writing the message and taking the polls) and realize that when it comes to doing what is right versus doing what is expedient, you do what is expedient so that you can get reelected and do what is right in the second term. If at all possible. And it will help your legacy. And not endanger the election of others in your party. And not hurt the brand. Or upset people too much.
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Less likely if the GOP scores massive gains in November. But, if the economy remains poor, all bets are on.

The NRCC is planning on reserving $22M in TV time in 40 CDs — 39 of which are held by Dems — for the fall (Isenstadt, Politico, 8/17). The cmte hasn't reserved or purchased TV time; they're only planning on doing so (Hotline sources, 8/17).

While Dems have reserved ad time in 60 races so far, "the vast majority of those" — 54 — are designed to protect vulnerable incumbents. GOPers on the other hand "are investing in an almost entirely offensive effort." Notably, the NRCC "has yet to announce plans to defend several imperiled" incumbents, including Reps. Charles Djou (R-HI 01) and Joseph Cao (R-LA 02) — "the two incumbents widely considered to be the most endangered" GOPers. The lone GOP-held seat among the initial NRCC plans is retiring Rep. Mark Kirk's (R-IL 10) CD.

One senior GOP official stressed the cmtes plans were "tentative and could change in the weeks to come."

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Click the link for the list

It appears the NRCC has Michael Lewis' "Moneyball" in its library. The book – a must-read for sports fans – discusses how the Oakland Athletics and general manager Billy Beane skillfully utilized limited funds to yield maximum results from their team.

The NRCC is using a similar strategy for their television ad buys this year. Politico reported this morning that the committee is planning $22 million in ad buys running up to the election. The 40 districts – listed below – illustrate that the GOP is on offense; 39 of the seats are currently held by Democrats. 39, it should be noted, also represents the number of seats the GOP needs to win to take back the House this year.

Looking more deeply into those districts, it's clear that the NRCC is looking to stretch their dollars. That's important to them because they are at a significant cash on hand disadvantage to their Democratic counterparts. The DCCC has $34M in their bank account – double the NRCC's $17M.
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More for less…..

The GOP blueprint for winning control of the House is rapidly coming into focus, with the National Republican Congressional Committee readying a $22 million TV ad blitz aimed at a handful of powerful, long-serving incumbents and several dozen of the most junior members of the Democratic majority.

POLITICO has learned that the Republican campaign arm will invest in 40 districts around the nation in its first wave of television commercial reservations — a target list that ranges from powerful veterans such as Budget Committee Chairman Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.) and Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas), an Appropriations Committee cardinal, to endangered freshmen legislators including Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), Rep. Betsy Markey (D-Colo.), and Rep. Harry Teague (D-N.M.).
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Say good bye to Nancy Pelosi…..

A new crinkle may be developing in a bill to ban disposable plastic grocery bags to keep them out of California's waterways — one that could instead turn paper bags into a modest revenue stream for the cash-strapped state.

Assembly Bill 1998, authored by Assembly Member Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, would prohibit supermarkets and pharmacies from using the lightweight bags at their checkout counters starting in 2012, and at smaller grocers and convenience stores in 2013. Stores would be required to offer for sale reusable bags, and to make recycled-paper bags to customers "at a reasonable cost, but not less than 5 cents" per bag.

Earlier incarnations of the bill would have allowed grocers to pocket that per-bag charge, presumably to cover the higher cost of paper bags. Now an amendment being proposed by Brownley would require stores to send to the state any excess money they get from charging for paper bags.
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The Nanny State turns a profit – sheesh

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, says state leaders can use $1.2 billion in new federal money dedicated for California school districts to help plug the state's $19 billion deficit.

That's significant because Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Department of Finance has said all along that the school money can't be used as a budget solution. The money doesn't flow through the state's hands and goes directly to schools, so Finance has never treated it as a state budget answer.
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God forbid the money actually go to the schools. Tax and spend……..

Former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton said he didn't see "any signs whatsoever that President Obama would make the necessary decision" to strike Iran's nuclear reactor, speaking in an interview with Israel Radio Tuesday.

Bolton claimed Israel has only three days to strike before Russia "begins the fueling process for the Bushehr reactor this Friday," after which any attack would cause radioactive fallout that could reach as far as the waters of the Persian Gulf.
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No, Obama will not.

It’s ba-ack! Facing a $20 billion budget gap, California liberals in the state legislature are reviving a tax-hike plan targeting out-of-state, online retailers that has a diverse coalition of web entrepreneurs and business and political leaders fuming.

The proposal, mentioned during a California Senate hearing just last week, would force companies like Overstock.com to collect and remit to the Golden State sales tax where they advertise with California-based websites.

Supporters say it could add needed revenue to the Golden State’s coffers.

Opponents charge that deeming such out-of-state retailers to have “sales tax nexus” by virtue of advertising in the state would constitute a major tax hike that would worsen the state’s budget woes.

Furthermore, several prominent critics of the proposal contend that it could be unconstitutional.

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Great more taxes from the California LEFT