links for 2010-11-15

What happened to the Central Valley?

We've heard for years about the man-made water shortages, high unemployment, local Latino politicians switching to the Republican party and how unpopular are the democrats. The only problem is that 5 key counties failed to vote.

Where was the gusto ?

The statewide average of registered voters is about 55%. Yet Fresno [44.7%], Kern [53.1%] , Merced [50.9%], Stanislaus [50.7%] and Tulare [42.5%] didn't pull their respective weights. Some Republican power bases performed well, such as Ventura [59.5%] and San Diego [ 60.3% ! ].

Had the 5 central valley counties voted at 55% , we might have a new congressman Andy Vidak. Steve Cooley would have netted an additional 30,000 votes. Today, Cooley is behind some 14,000 votes.
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What happened?

An ineffective GOTV plan in the Central Valley and other GOP dominated areas.

In the just concluded election, Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer captured 65% or 80% of that vote (depending on which exit poll you believe). More importantly, it was a bigger pie – 3 times larger than back in 1992. It was one of the major factors that kept the red tide out of California – and a factor that will only get bigger.

Here’s the story of how that happened…
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Read it all.
This analaysis will not bode well for the national GOP to ever fund California statewide races in the near future nor support illegal alien amnesty.

The Wall Street Journal has a lead editorial arguing that one of the big tests of whether Republicans are serious about limited government is whether they embrace a ban on earmarks. Earmarks only represent a small portion of federal spending, the editors note, but they help grease the wheels of massive spending bills and are also of great symbolic importance. While I agree with this as far as it goes — and support a ban on earmarks — I also think that the overemphasis on earmarks has distracted attention from the much more important issue of how to deal with the entitlement spending mess.
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Agreed – entitlement spending has to be cut and the states must do their part as well re: welfare.

But for all the maneuvering, not one of the possible 2012 Republican presidential contenders is planning to make a formal announcement before early next year or even later. Seeking to avoid the scrutiny and expenses that come with opening a full-fledged campaign, the potential candidates, including Sarah Palin and former Gov. George E. Pataki of New York, are instead quietly testing campaign messages, wooing local activists and trying to assess the shifting political climate.
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It will take $50 Million to run a good primary campaign. Romney plus either Palin or Huckabee are the most likely challengers to Mitt.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, HOST: But what is going to happen? I mean, are you clear on where a compromise is going to be? It's got to be discussed before the end of the year, no?

KRUGMAN: No. Some years down the pike, we're going to get the real solution, which is going to be a combination of death panels and sales taxes. It's going to be that we're actually going to take Medicare under control, and we're going to have to get some additional revenue, probably from a VAT. But it's not going to happen now.

So, we've got to get Medicare under control by deciding "what it's going to pay for…which medical procedures are not effective at all and should not be paid for at all."

AKA "death panels."

Desperate transplant patients are being given the lungs of chain smokers because the NHS is so short of organ donations.

Surgeons are also being forced to use diseased body parts from cancer sufferers, drug addicts and the very elderly.

Experts say that the waiting list for transplants has now grown so long that hospitals are increasingly resorting to implanting so-called 'high risk' organs.

There are around 8,000 people needing an organ donation at any one time and every day three patients die because they do not get one in time.

As a result, doctors say that most patients would probably accept a 'high risk' or 'marginal' organ as without it they may not survive the year.

They are also using tissue from those more at risk of carrying HIV and Hepatitis C such as gay men and drug users.

These groups are not allowed to give blood but they can donate organs simply because there is such a shortage.
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Good ol' socialized medicine. A preview of ObamaCare?