• Del.icio.us Links

    links for 2010-10-11

    • A mushrooming political battle over ObamaCare involving the White House, two incumbent Pennsylvania congressmen, three Catholic hospitals and a nun has just exploded in, of all places, Scranton, Pennsylvania. Charges from the Scranton medical community of intimidation by the Obama White House and its allies are filling the air.

      All of this just as Vice President Joe Biden arrives in Scranton today to raise money for one of the participants.
      +++++
      Read it all

      (tags: Obamacare)
    • Republicans maintain a substantial advantage over Democrats among likely voters in Gallup's generic ballot for Congress — in both lower- and higher-turnout scenarios — fueled in part by the GOP's strong showing among independents.
      +++++
      Big GOP gains on the horizon.

      Americans are saying help is on the way as they throw incumbent Democrats out of office.

      (tags: GOP democrats)
    • Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate for governor, often compares California's business climate, unfavorably, to that of Texas, and she's correct, says a new study for the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
      Laffer said, "A comparison between Texas and California is not only valid but vital for our country. Both are large, strategically located states, with strong demographics and bountiful natural resources. But California's regulatory and tax costs, coupled with budgetary and policy instability, render it an impotent competitor when standing next to low-tax, business-friendly Texas, which levies no capital gains or income taxes to support its affordable government."
      ++++++
      Unless California changes its tax and regulatory policy, it will continue to slide down into an economic abyss
    • Fox News is claiming it has sources whom have identified the person in Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown's campaign who called Republican challenger Meg Whitman a "whore."

      The comment was accidentally recorded on voice mail after Brown thought he hung up the phone after leaving a message for the Los Angeles Police Union.

      Fox News says people with knowledge of what happened say it was Brown's wife who suggested calling Whitman a "whore," for cutting a deal to get the union's endorsement.
      +++++++
      And, Jerry Brown agreed.

      (tags: Jerry_Brown)
    • On the campaign trail at a recent "tea party" event, Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina dropped a reference to her husband's guns, chided her Democratic opponent for vilifying backers of Arizona's tough immigration law and renewed her commitment to offshore drilling and to suspending the state's global warming law.

      Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has argued that her position on illegal immigration isn't very different from that of her Democratic rival, Jerry Brown. She recently pushed back against a hostile questioner by noting her support for abortion rights. And she announced that she would oppose a ballot measure that would roll back the state's climate change law.

      Those diverging messages have been secondary to the topic both women talk about most about: jobs. But they also illustrate the markedly different strategies they have chosen this year in a state where Democrats significantly outnumber Republicans
      ++++++
      Read it all.

    • President Obama’s baseless attack on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce underscores the routine hyper-partisan attacks his administration has become known for. Obama’s allegation was that the Chamber has been using money from foreign members to influence this election.

      Karl Rove, another target of the agitator/community-organizer-turned President of the United States, strongly refuted the accusations on Fox News Sunday yesterday.

      If the president and the Center for American Progress, which initially leveled the “foreign money” charge, were serious, they’d investigate the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a brass knuckles, take-no-prisoners pro-Obama union that admitted in 2008 that it had an avenue to accept funds from “foreign nationals,” allowing them to have a voice in the American political process.
      ++++++
      And, isn't the SEIU a big contributor to the Dems and Obama?

      (tags: SEIU)
    • In their latest attempt to distract voters from their job-killing policies, President Obama, his White House and senior Democrats in Congress have added to their long list of bogeymen the outside groups that seek to help elect Republicans in November. They threaten congressional investigations, leak private tax information and level baseless accusations of criminal activity against those who have been public in seeking to defeat Democratic candidates and their liberal agenda. Without a trace of irony, powerful Democratic officeholders lament that many who support these groups wish to remain anonymous.

      None of these Democrats expressed concern about such outside spending in 2008, when more than $400 million was spent to help elect Barack Obama
      ++++++
      Dems are trying to divert attention from their disastrous policy decisions which voters so not support. Hide the ball – foreigners are buying are elections.
      Oh the Humanity!

  • Barbara Boxer,  Carly Fiorina,  Rudy Giuliani

    CA-Sen Video Update: Rudy Giuliani Endorses Carly Fiorina and Disses Barbara Boxer

    +++++Update+++++

    Former NY city mayor Rudy Giuliani paid a visit to the Asian Garden Mall in Westminster to endorse congressional candidate Van Tran and U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina. Video by Eugene Garcia, ocregister.com

    Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Republican California U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina

    During a new conference this morning in Orange County, Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City Mayor and Republican Presidential candidate endorsed Carly Fiorina for U.S. Senate.

    “Carly Fiorina is a proven leader who shares my commitment to keeping our fellow Americans safe, restoring accountability to Washington and getting our economy back on track, and she has my full support. Her record of success in creating jobs in the business world stands in stark contrast to Barbara Boxers 28 years of partisan grandstanding and unproductive leadership that failed to protect the people of California from a 12.4 percent unemployment rate and sky-high taxes that threaten families and small businesses ability to make ends meet, said Giuliani. Barbara Boxer is an extreme partisan. Shes not a person who is interested in reaching across the aisle to get things done, but instead, shes someone who looks to score partisan points at the expense of the people she represents. Shes everything that is wrong with Washington today, and by ousting her on November 2, Californians will take a big step toward making real change in our government.

    Listen to Rudy DISS Barbara Boxer below:

  • Barack Obama,  United States Chamber of Commerce

    Is Foreign Money Financing U.S. Chamber of Commerce Pro-Republican Political Attack Ads?

    Well, no.

    President Obama and the LEFT are merely creating a diversion away form their disastrous public policy decisions that Americans do not favor.

    To many Democrats, the accusation by President Obama and other party leaders that foreign money might be bank rolling some pro-Republican political attack ads sounds both compelling and ominous — but is it fair?

    “We learned that one of the largest groups paying for these ads regularly takes in money from foreign sources,” President Obama said last week, referring to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the second biggest spender in the midterm elections, behind only the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

    “Are you going to let special interests from Wall Street and Washington and maybe places beyond our shores come to this state and tell us who our senator should be?”

    Democrats and liberal groups take the argument further.

    A Democratic National Committee TV ad warns conservative third-party groups like the Chamber are “stealing our democracy” and spending millions in “secret foreign money to influence our elections.”

    And, an ad by the liberal group MoveOn.org asks “Where has the Chamber been getting some of their money lately? From foreign corporations in countries like China, Russia and India — the same companies that threaten American jobs.”

    Yet while Obama is trying to tie Republicans and some of their backers to the specter of foreign interference in U.S. elections, an examination of the evidence provides little support for the claims.

    “We have no idea if the Chamber or any 501(c) organization as defined by the IRS code, is taking foreign money for the purposes of playing politics,” said Dave Levinthal of the Center for Responsive Politics. “Saying that that foreign money is actually going toward attack ads or any type of messaging in the political realm, you just don’t know. It’s speculation and nothing more.”

    So, it is speculation at best and demagoguery at worst. But, it does provide Obama cover after he leads his Democratic Party to disaster on November the 2nd.

    The foreign money beat us…..

  • Barbara Boxer,  Carly Fiorina,  Rudy Giuliani

    CA-Sen: Rudy Giuliani Endorses Carly Fiorina and Disses Barbara Boxer

    Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Republican California U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina

    During a new conference this morning in Orange County, Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City Mayor and Republican Presidential candidate endorsed Carly Fiorina for U.S. Senate.

    “Carly Fiorina is a proven leader who shares my commitment to keeping our fellow Americans safe, restoring accountability to Washington and getting our economy back on track, and she has my full support. Her record of success in creating jobs in the business world stands in stark contrast to Barbara Boxer’s 28 years of partisan grandstanding and unproductive leadership that failed to protect the people of California from a 12.4 percent unemployment rate and sky-high taxes that threaten families’ and small businesses’ ability to make ends meet,” said Giuliani. “Barbara Boxer is an extreme partisan. She’s not a person who is interested in reaching across the aisle to get things done, but instead, she’s someone who looks to score partisan points at the expense of the people she represents. She’s everything that is wrong with Washington today, and by ousting her on November 2, Californians will take a big step toward making real change in our government.”

    Listen to Rudy DISS Barbara Boxer below:

  • Barbara Boxer,  Doug Boxer

    CA-Sen: Barbara Boxer and the Indian Tribal Legislation that Benefits her Non-Native American Son

    While the Golden State struggles under the weight of an unemployment rate that has soared to 12.3 percent and with more than 2 million Californians out of work, Barbara Boxer is living off the spoils of elected office, having watched her salary more than double, become a millionaire and paid her family members hundreds of thousands of dollars out of her special-interest-funded political committees.

    Well, Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer has NOT sponsored much legislation during her 18 years in the United States Senate but the laws she does seem to benefit her own family members, particularly her son, attorney, Doug Boxer.

    Ten years ago, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)– currently chair of the Senate Ethics Committee– personally moved legislation that has financially benefited her son, Capitol Confidential has learned.

    Boxer, then in her second term as a U.S. Senator, carried legislation restoring federal recognition to a Native American tribe, the Coastal Miwoks.  At the time, the Miwoks claimed to be a “nongaming tribe.”  However, Boxer’s legislation, as signed into law by President Bill Clinton, allowed for a casino to be constructed– a result that would specifically have been blocked under similar legislation introduced by Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA).

    Now, with a major relevant condition having been met, local residents are bracing themselves for construction of a new casino, a project that has been pushed by none other than Boxer’s son, Doug Boxer.  Questions are being raised about the younger Boxer’s involvement and his mother’s legislative actions that paved the way for what looks like a financially lucrative deal benefiting him personally.

    Less than a year after Boxer’s tribal bill was signed into law, Doug Boxer helped negotiate a casino partnership between the tribe and Station Casinos of Las Vegas.  Doug Boxer’s firm also acquired options on 2,000 acres of land that was later transferred to Station Casinos for an undisclosed price, but which some reports indicate could have been as much as $24 million.

    In addition, Doug Boxer’s firm took a consulting fee for brokering the land deal.  The amount of that fee has also remained undisclosed, but in May 2003, tribal chairman Gregory Sarris told the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat that the consulting fee was “too much, more than I would like.”

    If and when the casino does in fact open, Doug Boxer will profit then, too: According to Boxer campaign spokesman Matthew Kagen, Doug Boxer and the developer involved in the project are partners in a limited liability corporation that would financially benefit from such a move.

    Sen. Boxer, for her part, appears to have been aware of the bad optics surrounding this situation for some time.

    Back in 2003, when news broke regarding Doug Boxer’s involvement in efforts to develop the casino, but long after her legislation was signed into law, Boxer “recused” herself from further Miwok dealings, citing a “flip-flop” by the tribe on the gambling matter.

    However, she predicted that the legislation, and her son’s apparent profiting from it, would prove a liability in future re-election campaigns.  Since then, Boxer has remained tight-lipped about the entire matter, with one notable exception: Pinned on it during an interview with the Sacramento Bee last month, Boxer said “I can’t talk about any developments because my son was a lawyer who was part of some consultant that was somehow related to this.”

    Indeed, Boxer’s pursuit of the legislation and her son’s involvement in the casino negotiations have riled fellow Democrats.  In 2003, Sonoma County Supervisor Valerie Brown told the Los Angeles Times “when the son of a senator works with a tribe to negotiate with an investor from Las Vegas, I have some questions. … It just doesn’t look good.”

    Barbara Boxer is a sleazy POL who has been caught sponsoring legislation which enriches her son. In the meantime, some California cities are experiencing over 15% unemployment. How about sponsoring some legislation for them, Ma’am?

    Granted this deal was ten years ago but what other sweetheart deals for Doug Boxer are there? And, he as already received over $500,000 from Mama Boxer’s campaign committees from 2001-2009.

    Strictly speaking, Boxer’s payments to her son are not illegal, the Senate having repeatedly rejected moves to change rules relating to the employment of family members. In 2008, Boxer voted “present” on a Senate amendment that would have blocked campaigns from paying relatives for campaign work.  She has also defended payments to her son as ethical and appropriate.

    Ethics are not in Barbara Boxer’s vocabulary list.

  • Joe Manchin,  John Raese

    WV-Sen: Democrat Joe Manchin Says Repeal ObamaCare – Say What?

    Democrat West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin’s latest ad portraying him as a gun toting moderate


    Say What?

    West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D), who is in a tough fight for a Senate seat, said Monday he’d support repealing the healthcare reform law if it can’t be fixed.

    Manchin, who’s been falling behind in his race against Republican John Raese, said he supports repealing part of the bill but would support repealing all of it if a partial repeal doesn’t fix its problems.

    “The president’s plan — ‘Obamacare,’ as it’s been called — is far too reaching. It’s overreaching. It needs to have a lot of it repealed,” Manchin said Monday on Fox News. “If you can’t fix that, repeal the whole thing.”

    The harsh take on President Obama’s signature legislative achievement this Congress is just the latest effort by Manchin to distance himself from establishment Democrats. Last week, the governor of coal-heavy West Virginia said Obama was “dead wrong” on climate policy and for supporting cap-and-trade legislation.

    Raese’s campaign charges Manchin with sending mixed messages on healthcare.

    You think?

    Here we go again with another Democrat bait and switch – talks like a Republican and will follow Harry Reid and Obama on policy votes in the Senate. Here is what Manchin really said on ObamaCare (note his change in position as he fell behind in his Senate race.

    • MANCHIN IN SEPT. 2009: “I Am Totally Behind Health Care Reform.” (Remarks by Gov. Manchin, UMWA Labor Day Rally, www.youtube.com, 2009)
    • MANCHIN IN MARCH 2010 (7 DAYS BEFORE HOUSE PASSAGE): “I’d Be For It.” (National Governors Association Health Care Roundtable, C-SPAN, 03/15/10)
    • MANCHIN IN APRIL 2010 (AFTER OBAMACARE WAS SIGNED INTO LAW):
      “[M]att Turner, spokesman for Gov. Joe Manchin, said the governor
      supported the legislation.” (Walt Williams, “Health Care Reform Has
      Unknown Costs For State,” The State [WV] Journal, 4/2/10)
    • SEPT. 9, 2010 RASMUSSEN MOVES WV SENATE RACE TO “TOSS UP”: Poll Also Shows 65% of West Virginians Favor Repeal Of Health Care. (West Virginia Senate: Manchin (D) 50%, Raese (R) 45%, Rasmussen Reports, 09/09/10)
    • MANCHIN IN SEPT. 18, 2010: “I Wouldn’t Have Voted For The Final Version Of That Thing With The Way That It Came Out,” (“Manchin health record mixed,” Charleston Gazette, 09/18/10)
    • SEPT. 21, 2010 PPP POLL SHOWS MANCHIN LOSING TO JOHN RAESE 46-43: “PPP’s
      First Look At The West Virginia Senate Contest Finds A Very Tight Race
      With John Raese Up 46-43 On Joe Manchin, A Result Within The Poll’s
      Margin Of Error.” (“Close Race In West Virginia,” Public Policy Polling, 09/21/10)
    • MANCHIN ON SEPT. 26, 2010 SUPPORTS REPEAL OF OBAMACARE: “Pressed On His Support For Repeal, Manchin Clarified That He Favored ‘Repealing The Things That Are Bad In That Bill.’” (“Manchin Calls For Partial Repeal Of Health Reform,” RealClearPolitics, 09/27/10)

    Geeeeez, Joe, take a principled position on ObamaCare would you? Or is POLITICAL EXPEDIENCE your middle name?

  • Barack Obama,  George W. Bush

    Video: Book Thrown at President Obama in Philadelphia

    A book was thrown at President Barack Obama yesterday in Philadelphia – at second 24 when he moves his hand down H/T Gateway Pundit

    Everyone wants to know if the book was the United States Constitution?

    But, seriously, when President Bush had the shoes thrown at him in Iraq, the MSM was all over the story. But, so far, mainly crickets here in America while the Brits have picked up the story.

    This is the astonishing moment a book was apparently hurled at the head of U.S. President Barack Obama during a campaign rally in Philadelphia.

    The flying missile narrowly missed hitting the President yesterday.

    It is not clear what the book was, where it came from in the crowd, or why it was thrown at Mr Obama – who did not appear to notice the danger.

  • Barack Obama,  Day By Day

    Day By Day October 11, 2010 – Audacity

    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    Chris, it is more like HYPOCRISY than audacity.

    The New York Times concluded on Friday that “there is little evidence that what the chamber does in collecting overseas dues is improper or even unusual, according to both liberal and conservative election-law lawyers and campaign finance documents. In fact, the controversy over the Chamber of Commerce financing may say more about the Washington spin cycle — where an Internet blog posting can be quickly picked up by like-minded groups and become political fodder for the president himself — than it does about the vagaries of campaign finance.”

    So, there is nothing to the story that Obama and the LEFT are planting around America that the GOP is using foreign money to steal the election of 2010. But, what do you expect from a President and Democratic Party whose failed policies are leading them to complete failure in the upcoming November Congressional elections.

    By the way, do you remember Obama and the Democrats have had problems of their own with foreign political contributions.

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