• Del.icio.us Links

    links for 2010-09-23

    • Democrats abandoned plans to vote before Election Day on extending Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class while eliminating them for better-off Americans, spooked by protests from vulnerable incumbents and bleak prospects for passage.

      With time running out to plan for 2011, the delay raises uncertainty for small businesses and individual taxpayers over their future liabilities. It also sets up a titanic battle over taxes after the election.
      +++++++
      But, it continues tax uncertainty which will NOT help the economy.

    • Comparisons between the Obama White House and the failed presidency of Jimmy Carter are increasingly being made—and by Democrats.

      Walter Mondale, Mr. Carter's vice president, told The New Yorker this week that anxious and angry voters in the late 1970s "just turned against us—same as with Obama." As the polls turned against his administration, Mr. Mondale recalled that Mr. Carter "began to lose confidence in his ability to move the public." Democrats on Capitol Hill are now saying this is happening to Mr. Obama.
      +++++
      Read it all

    • Republicans don't need a Contract or a Pledge. Their base is energized. The Democratic base is not. The folks who are going to vote arguably know Republicans stand for the stuff in the pledge because Republicans have been talking about this stuff since the beginning of the cycle. Arguably, it gives Democrats more of a defined target, something that they can redirect attention to. Arguably, had the Republicans been able to produce a more substantive governing document, they would have made it harder for Democrats to demagogue.

      Alas, "The Pledge" is pretty easy to make fun of. And that's just among conservatives. (Erick Erickson calls it "just meaningless stuff the Democrats can easily undo and that ultimately the Senate GOP will even turn its nose up at.")
      ++++++
      Is this something better than nothing?

      Doubtful…..

    • 3. A Plan to Repeal and Replace Obamacare

      First – just repeal it, and if you can’t repeal it… de-fund it. Period. Stop babbling about “replacing.” I don’t want the federal government to “replace” Obamacare. I want the federal government to get out of the health care business and to take the minimal steps necessary to free up competition.

      Second – STOP WITH THE MANDATES. STOP IT. STOP IT. MANDATING THAT INSURERS COVER PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS IS JUST AS BAD AS THE INDIVIDUAL MANDATE ON ITS FACE – BUT WORSE, YOU IDIOTS, IT WILL LEAD TO AN INDIVIDUAL MANDATE BECAUSE YOU CANNOT COVER THE ALREADY SICK WITHOUT MANDATING THAT THE HEALTHY PARTICIPATE. JUST STOP IT. And mandating a prohibition of caps on lifetime benefits is just as silly.
      ++++++
      Agreed.

      The GOP would have been better to do nothing because this Pledge is worse than nothing. It isn't meaningful reform.

      Read all of the piece

    • From 2001 to 2006 – with precisely one Boxer Senate campaign during that period – Boxer paid her son more than $320,000, according to a report by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. During the 2008 election cycle, Boxer’s PAC gave $141,000 to the firm Douglas Boxer & Associates. So far this cycle, Boxer’s PAC has paid another $108,000.

      It adds up to nearly $570,000 over 10 years. Hey, she’s a loving mother.

      “It is an area that’s ripe for abuse, for someone who wants to turn campaign funds into personal use,” said Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the nonprofit group Public Citizen told the Washington Post in 2008. Although most lawmakers do not abuse the practice, he said, “those campaign funds always come from special interests, and those special interests are always looking for something in return.”
      ++++++
      And, what do the special interests get for their money?

      Hummmmmmmm

    • As the President of Common Cause, a non-profit citizens’ lobbying group, Representative Chellie Pingree criticized lawmakers who traveled on corporate jets.

      But Rep. Pingree is engaging in the same activity she derided four years ago.

      An investigation by MaineWatchdog found that Pingree has been traveling on a private plane owned by the firm of her significant other, Donald Sussman, Founder and Chairman of Paloma Partners, a billion dollar hedge fund.

      When AOL reported in late July that Pingree’s office was reimbursed for more travel expenses than any other house member in 2009, MaineWatchdog asked whether any of those reimbursements were related to travel on private planes. A spokesman for Pingree said: “To my knowledge, the Congresswoman does not fly on privately chartered jets.”
      ++
      Read it

      The investigation, however, produced a video of Representative Pingree and Sussman disembarking at Portland International Jetport after a flight from Bridgeport, Conn., on September 17, 2010.

  • Iran,  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

    Iran’s President Ahmadinejad Speaks of 9/11 Trutherism at the United Nations And the U.S. Delegation Walks Out

    Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today speaking in New York City at the United Nations

    So, the Iranian President thinks the United States brought down the Twin Towers on 9/11.

    Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke to the United Nations General Assembly this afternoon, sharing some rather provocative rhetoric over the United States worst terrorist attack in history. Ahmadinejad suggested to the assembled diplomats, ambassadors and world leaders that the events that occurred on 9/11 were actually orchestrated by the U.S. Government.. This prompted the U.S. delegation to abruptly leave the assembly hall while many other national delegates followed suit.

    Ahmadinejad also insists that the Iranian nuclear program is peaceful and Iran is not developing a nuclear weapon. Yet, President Obama wishes to diplomatically engage with this head of a state who is the most egregious exporter of terrorism.

    Can we say that Obama is weak on Iran?

    But, the State Department issued a statement anyway.

    Rather than representing the aspirations and goodwill of the Iranian people, Mr. Ahmadinejad has yet again chosen to spout vile conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic slurs that are as abhorrent and delusional as they are predictable.

  • Chris Christie,  Meg Whitman

    CA-Gov Video: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Confronts Meg Whitman Heckler

    New Jersey GOP Governor Chris Christie goes after a heckler of California Republican Governor nominee Meg Whitman

    The guy was probably a plant.

    True to his tough-guy persona, Gov. Chris Christie mixed it up today with a political naysayer, who heckled California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman at a political rally.

    Christie was concluding a town hall meeting with Whitman when an angry audience member criticized her for not taking questions.

    “What are you hiding?” shouted Ed Buck, in jeans and a light shirt in the front row of the 400-person event. “You’re looking like Arnold in a dress,” he said in a reference to outgoing California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

    Before Whitman could respond, Christie stepped down from the stage and got in Buck’s face.

    “Hey, listen. You know what. You want to yell, yell at me,” Christie said, shutting down Buck as Christie’s bodyguards calmly but quickly approached the two men. “It’s people who raise their voices and yell and scream like you who are dividing this country. We’re here to bring this country together.”

    Governor Christie defused the Alinsky situation pretty well, wouldn’t you say?

  • Jerry Brown,  Meg Whitman

    CA-Gov Field Poll: Brown 41% Vs Whitman 41% Vs Undecided 18%

    Pollster’s interactive California Governor’s Poll with Meg Whitman 45.9% Vs. Jerry Brown 44.4% on average

    After all of the $million spent by Meg Whitman, the Republican and, Jerry Brown, the Democrat this race is tied – a dead heat. The venerable California Field Poll in pdf format is here.

    There are really no surprises in the cross-tabs.

    I think this race is going to come down to the enthusiasm factor rather than paid television media in the weeks before the race. In this, Meg Whitman should have the edge, since voters are angry and angry voters VOTE.

  • Barack Obama,  Sarah Palin

    Sarah Palin Says She Will Jump Into 2012 Presidential Race

    Sarah Palin on Fox News last night

    The video appears to be taken down but can be watched here at around 6:00 minutes in.

    Sarah Palin says she will run for President in 2012 if “nobody else were to step up.”

    Former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin gave her strongest indication yet that she may run for president Wednesday night, saying she would jump into the race if “nobody else were to step up” with the proposals she wants to see.

    Palin’s recent trip to Iowa has increased speculation that she may run for the Republican nomination in 2012, and she has seemed more open to the possibility in recent interviews.

    Asked by Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren what “would be a reason to run” during an interview Wednesday night, Palin laid out her criteria:

    “A reason to run is if nobody else were to step up with the solutions that are needed to get the economy back on the right track and to be so committed to our national security that they are going to do all that they can, including fighting those on the extreme left who seem to want to dismantle some of our national security tools that we have in place,” Palin said.

    “If nobody else wanted to step up, Greta, I would offer myself up in the name of service to the public,” Palin added. “But I also know that anybody — anybody — can make a huge difference in this country without a title, without an office, just being out there as an advocate for solutions that can work to get the country on the right track. And that’s where I am now.”

    Palin said she is currently in a “comfortable place” and said that if “my candidacy wasn’t good for my family, if it wasn’t good for the common sense conservative agenda that needs to be adhered to, then certainly I wouldn’t run.”

    “I don’t need the title,” she insisted. “I don’t need … any kind of self-gratification or personal power- seeking of my own to run for office.”

    Yet, President Obama is continuing to sink in the polls and is extremely unpopular.

    The Democratic Party is posed to lose its super majority in the Congress and may very well lose control of the House and/or the Senate in November.

    President Obama is vulnerable and there is talk that Hillary is available to challenge him in the Democratic primary elections.

    So, will Sarah run?

    Why not?

    Sarah Palin will WIN the GOP nomination. The Republican primary election season favors her over Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. The GOP “young guns” of Bobby Jindal, Mitch Daniels, Tim Pawlenty, Haley Barbour, et. al. will not challenge her and would lose to her anyway.

    No one besides Mitt Romney will really step up on the Republican side. Sarah beats Romney like a rented mule in Iowa, South Carolina, Florida and California

    If Obama beats her, Sarah is ready to run again in 2016 and, like, Richard Nixon can come back and win the second time.

    Sarah Palin runs for President in 2012.

  • Barbara Boxer,  Carly Fiorina

    CA-Sen Video: Carly Fiorina Launches California-Wide Television Ad Campaign

    GOP U.S. Senate nominee Carly Fiorina’s first television ad against Senator Barbara Boxer – “Sir”

    I tweeted last night that Carly Fiorina would soon begin her California State-Wide television media campaign since it was apparent from the election calendar (absentee and early voting will start in California in a few weeks) that she would either begin or allow Barbara Boxer have a full two week start on television (she began her television ads over 10 days ago). Then, I learned that my assumptions were correct and that the first ad would begin its run on Thursday.

    I haven’t seen it yet on Los Angeles channels as of yet but the rotation will begin soon. The Carly Campaign will probably not reveal the extent of their ad buy for obvious strategic reasons.

    From the early morning press release:

     U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina today launched her first television advertisement of the general election, “Sir.” The 30-second ad marks the start of a series of statewide advertisements Fiorina will air during the general election campaign.

    “It has only taken 30 years, but California voters have finally been afforded the complete and accurate picture of Barbara Boxer. In her own words, she demonstrates the arrogance that is the hallmark of a career that has gone on for far too long and will mercifully end on November 2. She’s invested much in furthering her career and liberal ideology but has delivered little for the people of California,” said Carly for California Campaign Manager Marty Wilson. “Boxer’s treatment of General Walsh is seared into the minds of Californians, and this is the beginning of our campaign’s fact-based approach to exposing the lowlights of Barbara Boxer’s career dedicated to raising taxes, increasing the size of government and promoting policies that strangle the private sector’s ability to create jobs. Carly provides the perfect contrast through her background in business and commitment to addressing our country’s challenges with bipartisan, common-sense solutions.”

    “Sir” features the infamous exchange between Barbara Boxer and Brigadier General Michael Walsh in which she demands he call her “senator” rather than “ma’am.” “Sir” underscores the arrogance that has become the hallmark of Barbara Boxer’s nearly three decades in Washington and contrasts that to Carly Fiorina’s commitment as a political outsider to focus on bringing people together to get the nation’s economy back on track and restore accountability in our government.

    The timing of the ad for the Fiorina Campaign is interesting. Carly is in DC fundraising through Saturday (Boxer is in DC attending Senate sessions) asking donors for campaign cash to pay for “on air” time. Fred Davis, her ad creator, has delivered the product, now it is up to either Carly or political donors to distribute them. My bet is that Carly will pull out her own checkbook, if campaign cash is slow in delivery.

    The television media campaign of Carly Fiorina Vs. Barbara Boxer has begun – watch for Fiorina to start to pull away in the polls in about three weeks.