I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree with every—or any—opinion in the posted article.
I’m putting this together before the polls close in Massachusetts, by will pop online and add a story about the outcome. I start the blog post by reviewing my e-mail in the evening. The next day, I add to it as news stories cross my desk (my job requires me to track the news in a specific area, but lot of incoming material means I have to slim it down). Late in the day I usually send to my mailing list, and put on the blog for posting the next morning—which means this is not usually the place to go for breaking news. Anyone who is disappointed with that delay may cheerfully receive a full refund. Because of the election, I’ll post this early.
No predictions from me. Having been a Massachusetts Republican state senator, it’s hard for me to believe a Republican can win this seat. I’ll be disappointed, but not stunned, if the Democrat machine pulls it out for her. But by even making it a contest, Sen. Scott Brown has done the nation a service. Hardly any Democrat can now feel secure voting against the wishes of the people.
Some of the articles may be made moot by events, but I’ll leave them for their insights into the sausage-making process.
The Fix: Special election day in Massachusetts
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/morning-fix/special-election-day-in-massachusetts.html?wprss=thefix
Excerpt: Voters are voting in Massachusetts! Polls in the Commonwealth are open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. and conventional wisdom has gelled that state Sen. Scott Brown (R) enters election day as the slight favorite to pull an upset of massive proportions over state Attorney General Martha Coakley (D). As always in an election, there things we know and things we don't know. Here's a look at a few of the most critical knowns/unknowns. What We Know: Independents are breaking heavily for Brown. What We Don't: By how much can Coakley afford to lose independents given the state's strong Democrat leanings? 60-40? 65-35? What We Know: Democratic intensity/interest in the special election has improved considerably over the last few days. What We Don't: Does the fact that loyal Democrats are now more keen on turning out to vote make Coakley more competitive? Or are these people who would never have voted for Brown anyway? What We Know: Millions -- upon millions -- of dollars have poured into Brown's campaign account over the past 10 days. What We Don't: With television time entirely sold out, can Brown smartly spend those dollars on get out the vote efforts? Or will millions go wasted simply because the financial piece of the race broke too late? What We Know: National Democrats with a major assist from organized labor are going all out from an organizational perspective -- they have taken over every aspect of Coakley's campaign -- to save this race. What We Don't: Is everything national Democrats are doing too little, too late? Can organizational might save what has been, to put it mildly, a campaign with deep messaging problems? What We Know: The broad swath of polling released over the last few days suggests that Brown has the momentum. What We Don't: How reliable any of this polling is given that there is no historical parallel for a Senate special election in January, making it extremely difficult to figure out who will vote and who won't vote.
The Fix: What to watch for in the Massachusetts special election
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/senate/what-to-watch-for-in-the-massa.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics
Excerpt: Polls don't close for another six and a half hours in Massachusetts and without any exit polling in the race -- booo! -- political junkies (like yours truly) are left to wait and wonder about the outcome of today's special Senate election between state Sen. Scott Brown (R) and state Attorney Martha Coakley (D). To make that process slightly more palatable, we talked to a number of senior strategists in both parties in search of the key geographic areas and demographic groups to keep an eye on as results roll in tonight in order to best understand what's happening and why. A sampling of their thoughts is below. * City turnout: Coakley must maximize the power of the city turnout machines in Boston (led by Mayor Tom Menino), Worcester (in the hands of Rep. Jim McGovern) and Springfield. Three close-in communities to Boston report their results early -- Cambridge, Somerville and Arlington -- and, according to one Democrat, if Brown is close or leading in those areas, the race is effectively over. * The South Coast: While almost all of the state is reached by Boston television, the communities in hard-scrabble town like Fall River -- home of former Boston schoolboy hoops legend Chris Herren -- gets Providence television and is culturally a far different place than the Hub. These are the sort of Democrats -- blue-collar -- that Coakley must win but, as the race entered its final stages, wasn't winning. * Independent women: The Brown surge has been fueled -- primarily -- by independents who have moved strongly in his favor over the past ten days. Democrats acknowledge independent men are a lost cause for Coakley but they are hoping that her historic candidacy -- she would be the first woman elected to the Senate or governor in the state -- is a significant draw among independent women. The working theory among Democratic modelers is if Coakley can win 35 percent of the independent vote, she can win; if she goes below that number, Brown will win. * The Beltway Vote: The most critical area for Brown is in between Rt. 128 -- the inner Beltway that rings Boston and 495 -- the outer Beltway to the west of the city. That area, which includes the critical swing suburban community of Middlesex, is filed with independent and Republican voters that Brown needs energized to offset the likely swamping he will take in Boston proper. * Boston Catholics: While the city of Boston is strongly Democratic, it is also -- in parts -- strongly Catholic (and pro-life). In communities like South Boston, Dorchester and the North End, Republicans believe Brown has made significant inroads. Worth noting: In the two most recent Republican victories in Massachusetts (Gov. Mitt Romney in 2002 and Gov. Paul Cellucci in 1998), the Catholic vote went Republican. Are you looking at certain key towns/cities or demographic groups?
Scroll down for it: Why is This Woman Handing Out Blank Absentee Ballots?
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/01/19/why-is-this-woman-handing-out-blank-absentee-ballots/
Excerpt: This YouTube just went viral. It appears to show a woman handing out blank absentee ballots in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Now, why would she do that? Dear me, what a mystery.
Gasps at MSNBC as Chris Matthews Reports GOP’s Brown Ahead by Double-Digits in MA Bellwether Areas
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=9534
Excerpt: Here is video of MSNBC’s Chris Matthews this morning saying he just talked with Suffolk University pollster David Paleologos who told him that the GOP’s Scott Brown is leading Martha Coakley by “double-digits” in the “Bellweather areas” of Massachusetts.
Matthews said “it looks like Brown.” He went on to say “if the Bellweather areas are double-digits for Brown, it’s over.” There were gasps on the set at MSNBC when Matthews said “It looks like Brown.”
Coakley's Election Day scramble
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/76785-coakleys-election-day-scramble
Hope this isn’t a Brown error. I stopped campaigning when the polls closed at 8:00 pm, then started again the next day for the next election. Democratic candidate Martha Coakley is spending Election Day on the trail in Massachusetts, while her Republican rival has one event scheduled. After voting at her Medford polling place this morning, Attorney General Coakley hit the campaign trail as polls show her trailing state Sen. Scott Brown (R). She's scheduled to make appearances in New Bedford, Fall River, Springfield and Worcester before ending her day with an election eve party at the Sheraton Boston Hotel. And she’s not alone. Reps. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Niki Tsongas (D-Mass.) are traveling with Coakley, a campaign spokeswoman said. In contrast, Brown had one public event this morning. He cast his vote in Wrentham and isn’t expected to appear again until his election night party at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston…. A recent poll by InsiderAdvantage had Brown ahead by nine points. But in the unpredictable environment of a special election, one Democratic strategist said, polling universes can fail to capture likely voters. Moreover, the Democratic Party structure in the Bay State will help turn out voters for Coakley. There are no exit polls in the race, but anecdotal evidence being reported by Boston news radio stations says turnout has been heavy so far. WTKK FM reported 500 votes were cast in two hours at a polling place in Foxborough. The Boston Globe reports that more than 23,000 ballots had been cast in Boston by 9 a.m., which is significantly higher than in the primary last month. Some 2 million votes are expected to be cast for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy's (D) seat. Weather could be a factor as the snow that was falling in Boston this morning turns to rain in the afternoon.
Democrats' 60 hangs by thread
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/76731-dem-60-hangs-by-thread
Democrats pulled out all the stops in Massachusetts on Monday but are bracing for a loss in Tuesday’s special election. The final day of one of the biggest special elections in United States history was marked by even more help from President Barack Obama, continued Democratic attacks and a growing sense that Scott Brown is primed to rob Democrats of their 60th vote in the Senate, just six months after they secured it and with a healthcare bill hanging in the balance. The latest polling in the race shows the GOP state senator with leads in the single digits or tied, but some predict the swing in momentum means he’ll win Tuesday, and possibly by a comfortable margin. That would be a stunning result for Democrats, who were hardly alone when they failed to foresee a tough race for the seat of Sen. Edward Kennedy
Upset could trigger healthcare rush
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/76725-upset-could-trigger-dash-on-healthcare
The ironically-named “democrats” again reveal their contempt for democracy. If Brown wins, and they do this, they will bring down a firestorm on their party, but they seem increasingly power-mad and tone deaf. When Ted Kennedy won a special election to replace JFK, the media reports he was seated the next day. Excerpt: Congressional Democrats are considering passing healthcare reform before the winner of the Massachusetts special election is seated in the upper chamber, Democratic sources say. The expedited endgame would be necessary only if Republican state Sen. Scott Brown defeats state Attorney General Martha Coakley in Tuesday’s special election to fill the seat left vacant by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). That would be an option,” said a senior Democratic aide, who downplayed an alternative scenario wherein the House would pass the Senate-approved healthcare bill without changes. If Coakley wins, Democrats will retain their 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Leaders will make a final decision when results of the election are known, but sources close to the Democratic leadership in both chambers say a speedy vote is the best option. The plan could backfire if a single Democratic senator, such as Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.) or Sen. Evan Bayh (Ind.), objected on grounds that it would violate the will of voters in Massachusetts.
Senate election in Massachusetts could be harbinger for health-care reform
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/18/AR2010011803450.html?wpisrc=nl_politics
Excerpt: Democrat Martha Coakley's struggle to stave off a potentially devastating defeat in Tuesday's special Senate election in Massachusetts marks a critical turning point in the year-long debate about health-care reform. Regardless of the outcome of the race, the two parties appeared headed toward a monumental clash over the issue in the coming midterm elections.
Democratic candidates closely watch Mass. special election
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/76713-democratic-candidates-closely-watch-mass-vote
Excerpt: Regardless of what happens in Tuesday’s special election in Massachusetts, several Democrats in big races will have to rethink themselves on healthcare. And it’s incumbent senators in particular who have strategists concerned. Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) face electoral peril similar to that of Martha Coakley, except they aren’t running in the bluest state in the union. They are running (save for the case of Colorado in 2008) in a trio of red states. Democratic strategists worry that what has happened in Massachusetts will make the lawmakers gun-shy. If voters can elect a Republican in Massachusetts, why wouldn’t they unseat, for example, an incumbent polling in the low 40s in Arkansas? (And regardless of the outcome, unknown as I write this, Sen. Brown and his supporters have thus done a great service to the Republic.)
Ten reasons why the Massachusetts Senate race is very, very important
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?blogid=14&entry_id=55468
Good summary. Excerpt: It's almost impossible to overstate the political significance of tomorrow's Massachusetts Senate election. Here are ten reasons why the election is so important nationally:
The Political Blunders of the Obama White House
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/horseraceblog/2010/01/the_political_blunders_of_the_1.html
Excerpt: If Scott Brown should defeat Martha Coakley in the Massachusetts special election tomorrow, it will be a fitting metaphor for the political trajectory of President Obama's first year in office. A year ago Democrats were talking about Obama as the next Franklin Roosevelt, and suggesting that they were on the cusp of an enduring majority. Today, they are struggling to hold Ted Kennedy's old Senate seat. Coakley will rightly get most of the blame should Brown actually pull off what once seemed to be an impossible victory. Yet much of the responsibility will have to rest with Barack Obama, who has guided his party so poorly that it is having trouble making an appeal to voters in Massachusetts. To put it bluntly, the Obama White House has been politically inept in the last year. It has made serious miscalculations, and today it is paying a price. Ultimately, the reason for these errors goes back to the greenness of the Commander-in-Chief himself, who lacked executive experience and had little first-hand knowledge of the way Washington functions. He put together a team too full of Chicago strongmen, campaign hacks, and sympathetic "Friends of Barack." Accordingly, he and his executive staff were ill prepared for managing the government. This led to three significant political blunders.
Scott Brown’s wife could kick your ass
http://www.ihatethemedia.com/scott-brown-wife-could-kick-your-ass
Excerpt: Turns out Mrs. Brown is a reporter for WCVB-TV the ABC affiliate in Boston using her maiden name, Gail Huff. She’s kept a low profile because has an agreement with the station that she won’t cover politics nor appear at any of her husband’s campaign events to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest. Here’s Gail taking the Navy SEAL fitness test. We’d bet on her in a death cage match with Barney Frank. And we’d pay to see it, too.
Massachusetts - the Chicago Way
http://townhall.com/columnists/DouglasMacKinnon/2010/01/18/massachusetts_-_the_chicago_way
Excerpt: How best to steal the election from Brown and the people of Massachusetts? Absentee ballots. As has been shown time and again across the nation, Democrats like to lose, misplace, or never count absentee ballots. Traditionally, they tend to favor the Republican candidate. Especially those from overseas military personnel.
Kabul paralyzed by bombings, shootouts with Taliban fighters
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/18/AR2010011800237.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Bad timing for Martha “Clueless” Coakley, who said all the terrorists have left Afghanistan.
Satire. Humor. Joke. Please don’t write and ask, “Is that true?”
Obama: Coakley Victorious if Brown Gets Less Than 60%
http://www.scrappleface.com/?p=4489
Excerpt: As voters in Massachusetts go to the polls today to decide who will complete the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s unexpired term, President Obama declared that “anything less than a 20-point win by Scott Brown represents a resounding endorsement of my entire domestic and foreign policy agenda.” “If Brown ends up with less than 60 percent, there’s gonna be a lot of sullen Republicans, moping around, hanging their heads,” said the president to a crowd of supporters that greeted him upon his return from stumping for Democrat Martha Coakley. “Such a thin margin against such a historically weak opponent would be tantamount to a crushing loss for Scott, and would signal a clear rejection of the GOP platform in general.
Are Republicans "Due"? by Thomas Sowell
http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2010/01/19/are_republicans_due
Excerpt: Those of us who are not Republicans nevertheless have a huge stake in this fall's elections, because the current administration in Washington is not merely deficient but dangerous, both at home and abroad. In just one year in power, the Obama administration has not merely tripled the deficit and circumvented the Constitution with their "czars" who rule by decree, but have moved to dictate the medical treatment of all Americans-- which is to say, they are moving toward getting the power of life and death, to add to all the other powers they have seized. Increasing numbers of Americans are saying that they are having trouble recognizing the country in which they were born and grew up. They will have even more trouble recognizing America if the Washington juggernaut does not lose a substantial part of its power in this year's election. The dangers are not only in domestic policy but even more so in the Obama administration's foreign policy. Their diddling around while fanatical leaders of a terrorist-sponsoring nation like Iran are moving toward producing nuclear bombs can take us and the world to a point of no return.
Why Martin Luther King Was Republican
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=16500
Rather a different view. Excerpt: It should come as no surprise that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican. In that era, almost all black Americans were Republicans. Why? From its founding in 1854 as the anti-slavery party until today, the Republican Party has championed freedom and civil rights for blacks. And as one pundit so succinctly stated, the Democrat Party is as it always has been, the party of the four S's: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: supporter of Israel
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/01/martin-luther-king-jr-supporter-of-israel.html
Don’t tell Obama or Jessie Jackson. Excerpt: Martin Luther King, Jr., was an opponent of the jihad against Israel. Some key and authenticated quotes: "I cannot stand idly by, even though I happen to live in the United States and even though I happen to be an American Negro and not be concerned about what happens to the Jews in Soviet Russia. For what happens to them happens to me and you, and we must be concerned." "Israel's right to exist as a state in security is uncontestable." "Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality."
"Reviving the Constitution" An Online Town Hall
http://www.hillsdale.edu/KirbyCenter/programs/townhall/default.asp
January 30, 2010, 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM. The Kirby Center cordially invites you to participate in an online town hall on Saturday, January 30, 2010. There are two ways to participate in this event--in person or by viewing a live video stream ("webcast"). Advance registration is required for both forms of participation. Please spread the word to friends and family about this day-long town hall, which will feature presentations and interactive Q&A sessions led by Kirby Center faculty and Hillsdale College President Dr. Larry P. Arnn. The event will run from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and will be broadcast from the offices of TVWorldwide.com in Chantilly, VA. Participation via live webcast is free of charge; persons who wish to participate online will receive a link to the webcast upon registering. In-person participation costs $10, and payment will be collected at the door (checks, cash, and major credit cards will be accepted). Lunch will be provided to those who register to be part of the studio audience. TVWorldwide.com is located at 4206 F Technology Ct. in Chantilly, VA, 20151. Although space is limited, groups are welcome.
Bank Tax Misses the Real Bailout Deadbeats in Detroit and DC
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/01/15/morning-bell-bank-tax-misses-the-real-bailout-deadbeats-in-detroit-and-dc/
Excerpt: Facing rising populist anger over his administration’s billion-dollar bailouts, President Barack Obama proposed a $117 billion tax over the next 12 years on financial companies with assets of more than $50 billion. “We want our money back, and we’re going to get it,” the President said. The President is half right. Taxpayers are going to get their money back from the banks that received bailout money … but don’t expect to see any of the money the Obama administration poured into General Motors and Chrysler at the behest of their union allies. That is where the real losses are coming from. The TARP program has so far distributed $247 billion to more than 700 banks. Of that, $162 billion in principal and $11 billion in interest and dividends have already been repaid. Except for AIG, almost all banks that received taxpayer money are expected to pay back the American taxpayers in full. As The New York Times reports: “The losses from the bailout fund are expected from money paid to rescue Chrysler and General Motors and the insurance giant American International Group, and from a program to help homeowners avert foreclosures.” So the real deadbeats that are not giving us “our money back” are not the banks, but the union-backed car companies and failed government mortgage modification programs. But guess what? The White House has chosen not to include the car companies among the institutions that will pay this so called “Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee.” Also exempted are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored entities that helped create the crisis. (Let’s discourage lending in this economic crisis.)
Obama’s Inaugural Lies Exposed
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=35218
Excerpt: Barack Hussein Obama made a lot of promises during his two-year long campaign, and attempted to solidify these pledges in his inaugural address. True, these promises took a softer form (some might call it pap) in his inaugural speech, but those who supported him and voted for him in 2008 understood what he was meant to do on their behalf. This was, of course, before most of us, both on the left and on the right, knew what his real agenda was.
Chicago’s Real Crime Story
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/01/19/chicago%e2%80%99s-real-crime-story/
Excerpt: Barack Obama has exploited his youthful stint as a Chicago community organizer at every stage of his political career. As someone who had worked for grassroots “change,” he said, he was a different kind of politician, one who could translate people’s hopes into reality. The media lapped up this conceit, presenting Obama’s organizing experience as a meaningful qualification for the Oval Office. This past September, a cell-phone video of Chicago students beating a fellow teen to death coursed over the airwaves and across the Internet. None of the news outlets that had admiringly reported on Obama’s community-organizing efforts mentioned that the beating involved students from the very South Side neighborhoods where the president had once worked. Obama’s connection to the area was suddenly lost in the mists of time. Yet a critical blindness links Obama’s activities on the South Side during the 1980s and the murder of Derrion Albert in 2009. Throughout his four years working for “change” in Chicago’s Roseland and Altgeld Gardens neighborhoods, Obama ignored the primary cause of their escalating dysfunction: the disappearance of the black two-parent family. Obama wasn’t the only activist to turn away from the problem of absent fathers, of course; decades of failed social policy, both before and after his time in Chicago, were just as blind. And that myopia continues today, guaranteeing that the current response to Chicago’s youth violence will prove as useless as Obama’s activities were 25 years ago.
Carville Poll: Just One-Third of Voters Support Obamacare http://www.redstate.com/brianfaughnan/2010/01/18/carville-poll-just-one-third-of-voters-support-obamacare/
Excerpt: Here’s a shot of cold water for Democrats figuring out how to force an unpopular health care rationing bill through, despite the fact that it’s proving an incredibly hard lift even in liberal Massachusetts. Even Democratic pollster James Carville - and his partner, Stanley Greenberg - are finding that American voters are decisively against the proposal. Not only that, Carville’s most recent poll - which he has not discussed or promoted since it was quietly posted last week - shows that as Democrats have focused on health care over the last few months, their ratings are collapsing.
Seven Lowlights From Obama's First Disastrous Year in Office
http://townhall.com/columnists/JohnHawkins/2010/01/19/seven_lowlights_from_obamas_first_disastrous_year_in_office
Only seven?
Al Qaeda in Yemen Warns It Is Intact and Will Strike
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703626604575010851735076606.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines
Hope BO can explain to them that Islam is a Religion of Peace in time. Excerpt: The al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen issued fresh threats against the U.S. and its Mideast allies, promising to retaliate against a surge of strikes launched in the past month against its leaders and havens. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula also denied statements made by Yemeni authorities late last week that six of al Qaeda's senior leaders in the country, including the man identified as the leader of the group's military operations, had been killed in an airstrike. "The Yemeni government has been making many false claims … against the mujahedeen leaders in the Arabian Peninsula. The latest of these claims is that it killed six of them," the group said, according to a statement posted on Islamist Web sites. "We assure our Muslim nation that none of the mujahedeen were killed in that unjust and insidious raid; rather, some brothers were slightly wounded."
Iran Demonstrators Facing Death Sentence
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/Iran-Demonstrators-Facing-Death-Sentence-81930617.html
Excerpt: The Iranian judiciary will put 16 opposition protesters on trial, Monday, in connection with demonstrations last month on the holy day of Ashoura. Press reports and recent statements by Iranian prosecutors indicate several will be charged with the offense of "mohareb" or "making war against God and his prophet." Conviction on such a charge carries the death penalty. (See how useful Shari’a Law is for quelling dissent? Coming soon to a location near you.)
Obama! It’s Okay to Be Proud of The United States
http://www.gulf1.com/Columns/Pappas/PappasFrame.htm
Excerpt: If the tragedy of the earthquake in Haiti proves anything, it proves that the U.S. continues to be the bright and shining beacon in the darkness. Have there been and will there be mistakes? Of course. Will some of Obama’s cronies get filthy rich? Yes. Even as one reads that China was first on the ground, that Chavez was the first to send an airplane of relief supplies, and that France accuses the U.S. of turning away a relief flight, there is no doubt about which nation is the giant in the relief operation…. Maybe Obama will get the chip off his shoulder through this experience and come to an understanding that America, is in fact the shining light on a hill, a port in the storm, the land of freedom, promise and opportunity; and, that those qualities predated him by nearly two and a half centuries. Maybe, just maybe this event will mark a change in his thinking and attitude and that it is only because the Constitution which he overtly holds in great disdain that makes possible the engine of America’s free market economy; and it is from that engine that America’s economic greatness springs. Maybe he will wake up to the reality that everyone achieves more when they are free to compete within a framework of civility and fairness; that the solution to spreading the wealth around is not tons of stifling regulatory reports or government control; rather, the solution is rooting out corruption in both the private and government sectors of the economy. Maybe, just maybe Obama will join America. There is always hope! If not, the Drummers will come; and they will drum you out of Washington!
Hoyer: Passing Senate healthcare bill 'clearly better than nothing'
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/76801-hoyer-passing-senate-healthcare-bill-qclearly-better-than-nothingq
excerpt: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Tuesday said passing the Senate healthcare bill would be “clearly better than nothing.” The second-ranking House Democrat said “moving ahead on healthcare is essential,” regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s special election to fill the seat held for four decades by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).
Vietnam bans media from recording democracy activists' trial
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/304539,vietnam-bans-media-from-recording-democracy-activists-trial.html
John Kerry’s Communist friends in Vietnam, whom he helped to power. Excerpt: A Vietnamese court has banned the used of recording devices and computers by media covering the trial of four democracy activists scheduled to begin Wednesday. "These are the regulations of this court," said an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who refused to be named. "No one is allowed to bring cameras, tape recorders, mobile phones, or computers into the courtroom."
Showing posts with label Massachusetts senate election. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Massachusetts senate election. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Latest from the Front in Massachusetts
Marines, fellow countrymen and friends abroad,
The Massachusetts Regiment is being reformed this very date.
Today, at daybreak, I went and parked my pickup truck with my 4’X8’ SCOTT BROWN for US SENATE sign at my local polling place. I went home and had a cup of tea and awaited the opening of the polls. I returned at 0800 EDT with trepidation that there would be the usual turn out of a few folks who want to vote before going off to work and the odd housewife voting after dropping the children at school. To my utter amazement the school where I vote was mobbed! I live in a small community of seven thousand. My wife and I voted and departed the immediate area of the voting booths and went out doors. Now there was no place to park and people were arriving by the score. Everyone was saying the same thing---“ We are sending Washington a message.”
“ We the People.”
“This is not Kennedy’s seat---this is the PEOPLES seat.”
My wife returned home and myself and other Scott Brown poll workers had a large 4’X8’ sign and greeted voters upon arrival and encouraged them to vote for Scott Brown.
Most replied, “ Is there anyone else on the ballot?” or they gave us a thumbs up. Others were more vocal. There were NO—none---zero---Coakely supporters or sign holders and this is not a Republican community. As a matter of fact there are only eight souls on the Hanson Republican Town Committee. BTW we doubled our number this week and today with folks asking to join! Now we are up to twelve. A mighty oak from an acorn grows.
There is no exit polling---but it appears that it is 10:1 in my small community for Brown. BTW—it is gray overcast, on and off snow and approximately 33F. It is snowing out west in MA.
If this keeps up here and in other Massachusetts communities---it will be a stunning victory. The only issue is Suffolk County (Boston) where the democrat political machine lives and breathes. The word corruption does not do them justice. Most of the politicians in Boston have not breathed an honest breath in their miserable lives. Despicable and reprehensible thieves and liars comes to mind.
I’m about to go back out after getting warmed up. I have been battling a severe case of pneumonia for two weeks now. This is too important for me to pass up--- I want to be part of history.
Many, many thanks for your support. We wouldn’t be here now if it was not for your support and generosity. Keep this rolling across USA. We are going to take our country back from all politicians, lobbyists, and special interest groups who wish ill upon us and serve no one but themselves.
Each state can begin to form their own regiments and battalions----it takes but one man to take the initiative.
I’ll try and give an update this evening---watch the news!
Tom Constantine
US Marine ret
The Massachusetts Regiment is being reformed this very date.
Today, at daybreak, I went and parked my pickup truck with my 4’X8’ SCOTT BROWN for US SENATE sign at my local polling place. I went home and had a cup of tea and awaited the opening of the polls. I returned at 0800 EDT with trepidation that there would be the usual turn out of a few folks who want to vote before going off to work and the odd housewife voting after dropping the children at school. To my utter amazement the school where I vote was mobbed! I live in a small community of seven thousand. My wife and I voted and departed the immediate area of the voting booths and went out doors. Now there was no place to park and people were arriving by the score. Everyone was saying the same thing---“ We are sending Washington a message.”
“ We the People.”
“This is not Kennedy’s seat---this is the PEOPLES seat.”
My wife returned home and myself and other Scott Brown poll workers had a large 4’X8’ sign and greeted voters upon arrival and encouraged them to vote for Scott Brown.
Most replied, “ Is there anyone else on the ballot?” or they gave us a thumbs up. Others were more vocal. There were NO—none---zero---Coakely supporters or sign holders and this is not a Republican community. As a matter of fact there are only eight souls on the Hanson Republican Town Committee. BTW we doubled our number this week and today with folks asking to join! Now we are up to twelve. A mighty oak from an acorn grows.
There is no exit polling---but it appears that it is 10:1 in my small community for Brown. BTW—it is gray overcast, on and off snow and approximately 33F. It is snowing out west in MA.
If this keeps up here and in other Massachusetts communities---it will be a stunning victory. The only issue is Suffolk County (Boston) where the democrat political machine lives and breathes. The word corruption does not do them justice. Most of the politicians in Boston have not breathed an honest breath in their miserable lives. Despicable and reprehensible thieves and liars comes to mind.
I’m about to go back out after getting warmed up. I have been battling a severe case of pneumonia for two weeks now. This is too important for me to pass up--- I want to be part of history.
Many, many thanks for your support. We wouldn’t be here now if it was not for your support and generosity. Keep this rolling across USA. We are going to take our country back from all politicians, lobbyists, and special interest groups who wish ill upon us and serve no one but themselves.
Each state can begin to form their own regiments and battalions----it takes but one man to take the initiative.
I’ll try and give an update this evening---watch the news!
Tom Constantine
US Marine ret
Political Digest January 19, 2010
I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree with every—or any—opinion in the posted article.
Showtime in Massachusetts
It blows my mind that a Republican is believed to have a shot at the US Senate from Massachusetts. If Brown is within 5 points of Coakley, almost no Obama Democrat in the country is safe.
538 Model Posits Brown as 3:1 Favorite
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/
Silver is, as his columns show, a liberal Democrat, but he tries to get the polls right. Excerpt: The FiveThirtyEight Senate Forecasting Model, which correctly predicted the outcome of all 35 Senate races in 2008, now regards Republican Scott Brown as a 74 percent favorite to win the Senate seat in Massachusetts on the basis of new polling from ARG, Research 2000 and InsiderAdvantage which show worsening numbers for Brown's opponent, Martha Coakley. We have traditionally categorized races in which one side has between a 60 and 80 percent chance of winning as "leaning" toward that candidate, and so that is how we categorize this race now: Lean GOP. Nevertheless, there is a higher-than-usual chance of large, correlated errors in the polling, such as were observed in NY-23 and the New Hampshire Democratic primary; the model hedges against this risk partially, but not completely.
Plagiarist’s Day
http://web.archive.org/web/20070808024857/http:/chem-gharbison.unl.edu/mlk/chronology.html
As I write this on Monday, we are celebrating the birthday of America’s most famous plagiarist. Of course, repeating this truth, like many truths, is politically incorrect. Nor does it take away King’s great contribution to Civil rights, though it calls into question if “Doctor” is a proper title. One wonders if he had not been famous if the doctorate would have been revoked. It also points out the dangers of viewing any person as the perfect one. That includes me. I live in fear that someone will reveal my many affairs with Hollywood actresses and supermodels to my wife.
Church
Brown is doing so well in Massachusetts that Obama went to church Sunday for a photo op with God.
Brown Rally Video
http://www.youtube.com/scottbrownma#p/a/u/0/CCcxxnBNwUM
Pictures from Worcester Brown rally
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=9434
Brown Rally at Northeastern University, Huntington Ave, Back Bay section of Boston.
http://www.youtube.com/reasontv#p/a/u/0/HsFnT2koaY4
Interview with a gay, union member for Brown! Unbelievable excitement. Think this was outside Obama’s speech.
Chris Matthews Worried There Aren't Any Votes for Democrats to Buy in Massachusetts Tuesday
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/01/16/chris-matthews-worries-there-arent-democrat-votes-buy-massachusetts-t
Excerpt: Things are looking so bad for Democrats in Tuesday's special election for the Senate seat vacated by Ted Kennedy that MSNBC's Chris Matthews is concerned there aren't any left-leaning votes for his Party to buy. "You know in the old days...if the Democrats faced this kind of a disaster in the works, you`d go back to your ones, the people you were sure are going to vote Democrat, and you`d make sure they got to the polling place," Matthews told NBC's Chuck Todd on Friday's "Hardball." "You`d get them lunch, you`d get them a car. You`d make sure they got there, and in some cases you`d be buying people to get them," he continued.
Who's investing in Martha Coakley: AHIP, BIO, and the billion-dollar winner of Obamacare
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Whos-investing-in-Martha-Coakley-AHIP-BIO-and-the-billion-dollar-winner-of-Obamacare-81884232.html
They aren’t investing in Coakley because they want to help the little guy. Excerpt: Tuesday night in the back room of Capitol Hill's Sonoma wine bar, Coakley campaign staffers counted the checks they had reeled in at that night's fundraiser. This morning, at FEC.gov, we get a chance to see some of the big names who forked over $1,000 to $2,400 -- or, for political action committees, up to $5,000. [Click here, and then press the button to generate a pdf or the report.] Mary Beth Donohue is the executive vice president at America's Health Insurance Plans, the Washington-based lobby for the health insurance industry. She spent $1,000 Tuesday night to help elect Coakley. Also interesting: The Medicines Company, the drug maker that reportedly stands to profit $1 billion off the health-care reform bill, gave Coakley $2,400 through its PAC on Tuesday.
Last-minute TV ad buys raise the stakes in Massachusetts Senate race
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/17/AR2010011703246.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Excerpt: Just how big are the stakes in the Massachusetts Senate race? Independent and party groups were set to spend nearly $5 million on television ads in the final weeks leading up to Tuesday's special election between state Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) and state Sen. Scott Brown (R). According to ad-buy information provided to the Fix, there are 13 -- yes, 13 -- groups paying for ads in the race's final days, with Democratic groups outspending Republican-aligned by more than $1 million. Coakley's ad advantage comes from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is set to spend $1.4 million on ads in the final week of the race -- a staggering sum given the overwhelming Democratic tilt of the Bay State, and yet another sign of how worried the party is. (The National Republican Senatorial Committee is not running ads in the state.) The other major Democratic groups in the mix are labor-affiliated. The Service Employees International Union is up with $549,000 in ads, and Citizens for Strength and Security, which is funded by unions, is spending $425,000 on ads. On the Republican side, there are more groups airing television commercials -- including the Chamber of Commerce and a group affiliated with the conservative Tea Party movement -- but they are spending just about $1.6 million. Add those numbers to the $2.2 million Brown is spending on television and the $1.9 million by Coakley, and the total in the contest's final days is near $10 million.
CNN: Brown Looks to Pull Off Upset
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/01/18/cnn-brown-looks-to-pull-off-upset/
Excerpt on CNN: Several Democratic sources say multiple Obama advisers have told the party they believe Coakley is going to lose. The sources said they still hoped Obama's weekend visit to the state, coupled with a late push by party activists, could tip the balance in her favor, but Obama aides have grown increasingly pessimistic since Friday. The race is so close that Democrats are trying to figure out if they can pass health care reform without that crucial 60th Senate vote. Top White House aides insist they are not engaging in any talk of contingency plans, because they believe Coakley will come out on top Tuesday.
If It’s Close In Massachusetts, Expect ACORN To Lead Vote Fraud Effort
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/01/18/if-its-close-in-massachusetts-expect-acorn-to-lead-vote-fraud-effort/
Excerpt: Then there’s always the possibility of massive electoral fraud by ACORN. Note that ACORN national president Maude Hurd herself resides in Dorchester, Mass., and ACORN is actively involved in the get out the vote effort in the Bay State.
World misled over Himalayan glacier meltdown
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6991177.ece
Gee, more junk science from the –science-is-settled crowd. What a shock. Excerpt: A WARNING that climate change will melt most of the Himalayan glaciers by 2035 is likely to be retracted after a series of scientific blunders by the United Nations body that issued it. Two years ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a benchmark report that was claimed to incorporate the latest and most detailed research into the impact of global warming. A central claim was the world's glaciers were melting so fast that those in the Himalayas could vanish by 2035. In the past few days the scientists behind the warning have admitted that it was based on a news story in the New Scientist, a popular science journal, published eight years before the IPCC's 2007 report. It has also emerged that the New Scientist report was itself based on a short telephone interview with Syed Hasnain, a little-known Indian scientist then based at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. Hasnain has since admitted that the claim was "speculation" and was not supported by any formal research. If confirmed it would be one of the most serious failures yet seen in climate research. The IPCC was set up precisely to ensure that world leaders had the best possible scientific advice on climate change.
Ethics committee probing Visclosky, Tiahrt for ties to PMA lobbying firm
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/76479-ethics-panel-probing-visclosky-tiahrt-for-ties-to-pma-lobbying-firm
With a Republican in the net too, might get some fast action, not the extended foot-dragging of the Charlie Rangel tax investigation—and others. Excerpt: The House ethics committee is examining Reps. Peter Visclosky’s (D-Ind.) and Todd Tiahrt’s (R-Kansas) ties to PMA Group, a now-defunct lobbying firm that was raided by the FBI last year. The ethics panel Friday announced that it has extended a review of Visclosky’s and Tiahrt’s activities for 45 more days after an initial probe that began Dec. 2. The committee said it will announce its “course of action” by March. 2.
Ford's willingness to defy Democratic establishment may be an asset in 2010
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/76569-ford-has-shown-willingness-to-defy-dem-establishment
Excerpt: If Harold Ford Jr. defies the White House and launches a Senate bid in New York, it wouldn't be the first time that he has taken on powerful players in the Democratic Party. Ford's unsuccessful bid to challenge Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for minority leader in 2002 was a setback to his career, but one that he overcame. His looming decision of taking on President Barack Obama, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the rest of the Democratic establishment could be more costly. Should Ford run and defeat Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), it would be an enormous accomplishment. If he runs and loses, Ford's bright political future would dim considerably. (Could help a Republican—if Massachusetts is in play, what isn’t?)
Thorny votes await lawmakers this week
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/76565-thorny-votes-await-senate-as-lawmakers-get-back-to-business
Excerpt: The national debt, healthcare and the dispute over who can make airline travel safe from terrorists will dominate a contentious week in the Senate. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will seek to cut off debate on the stalled nomination of Erroll Southers to head the Transportation Safety Adminstration (TSA). The week will also include votes to raise the federal debt ceiling and on a pay-as-you-go measure, while looming in the background will be what Democrats hope to be the final stages of the precarious healthcare negotiations. Reid has charged the GOP with “playing politics” with the Southers nomination and has used the Christmas Day bombing attempt of a Detroit-bound airliner to push his confirmation through.
The 'Responsibility' Tax
Fannie and Freddie are exempt from the White House banker 'fee.'
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704281204575003041489144962.html
Excerpt: The White House has spent months imploring banks to lend more money, so will President Obama's new proposal to extract $117 billion from bank capital encourage new bank lending? Just asking. Welcome to one more installment in Washington's year-long crusade to revive private business by assailing and soaking it. Mr. Obama's new "Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee"—please don't call it a tax—is being sold as a way to cover expected losses in the Troubled Asset Relief Program. That sounds reasonable, except that the banks designated to pay the fee aren't those responsible for the losses. With the exception of Citigroup, those banks have repaid their TARP money with interest. The real TARP losers—General Motors, Chrysler and delinquent mortgage borrowers—are exempt from the new tax. Why the auto companies? An Administration official told the Journal that the banks caused the crisis that doomed the auto companies, which apparently were innocent bystanders to their own bankruptcy. The fact that the auto companies remain wards of Washington no doubt has nothing to do with their free tax pass. Also exempt are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which operate outside of TARP but also surely did more than any other company to cause the housing boom and bust. The key to understanding their free tax pass is that on Christmas Eve Treasury lifted the $400 billion cap on their potential taxpayer losses expressly so they can rewrite more underwater mortgages at a loss. In other words, the White House wants to tax more capital away from profit-making banks to offset the intentional losses that the politicians have ordered up at Fan and Fred. The bank tax revenue will flow directly into the Treasury to be spent on whatever immediate cause Congress favors. Come the next "systemic risk" bailout, taxpayers will still be on the hook. "Responsibility" is not the word that comes to mind here.
Eureka, I Am a Conservative!
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/eureka_i_am_a_conservative.html
Excerpt: Now that Barack Obama and the Democrats have taken over the presidency and both Houses, more and more Americans are starting to gag from the stench of unfettered liberalism. Horrified by out-of-control spending, a socialist agenda, and weak foreign policy, a growing number of outraged Americans have been doing some major political soul-searching. Intuitively, they sense America has dangerously changed course, and a growing sea of citizens are now on the same page and thinking the same thoughts:
Sweet Economy Alabama
http://reason.com/blog/2010/01/15/sweet-economy-alabama
Excerpt: Is the U.S. rich because it's rich because it's rich, thus obviating any worries that socialist-leaning policy change could make us poorer, as Matt Yglesias sort of argues here? The Super-Economy blog has some analysis about economic growth levels and rates worth contemplating on this point, accusing Paul Krugman of leading Yglesias astray on this point, and loaded with charts showing per capita GDP growth rates circa 1980-2008 for the U.S. and Europe, including U.S. broken down by state. Some of his conclusions: Theory and a mass of empirical evidence show that in general, richer countries grow slower and poorer countries grow faster....The fact that America has not only kept its advantage over Europe but also even expanded the gap is extraordinary. The US is the exception, the only country in the top five 100 years ago that is still in the GDP top five (and yes, the snide remark aside, the US in 1900 had far more pro-market institutions than Germany or France). And even the gap between the US and Western Europe has closed in the last 100 years, it only stopped converging in the 1980s. The pattern during the last 100 years has been for countries with functioning economies to grow faster the lower they start...I pointed out yesterday that the E.U 15 has the same per capita GDP as Alabama. Being a poor American state, Alabama grow faster than the US average between 1990-2008. In fact it grew by 1.75% per year. During the same period the EU.15 managed to grew at 1.64%. (in other words Alabama per capita earnings grew by 37%, the E.U 15 by 34%). In the same period rich Maryland grew by only 1.39%. By Krugmans "logic", Maryland should be learning from Alabama.
Head Start Basically Has No Effect
http://ow.ly/WPCm
But a lot of people get Head Start dollars, they vote, so the program is safe. Excerpt: The Department of Health and Human Services has been sitting on an evaluation of the Head Start government run pre-school program. Well, the study was released. As the leaks suggested, the study found virtually no lasting effects to participation in Head Start. The study used a gold-standard, random assignment design and had a very large nationally representative sample. This was a well done study.
Fake Marine General pleads guilty
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/15/phony-marine-general-enters-guilty-plea/
I suggest a year of community service…cleaning Marine gravestones with a toothbrush.
No comrade left behind?
http://www.theveteransvoice.com/stoddert.html
Not true for the ARVN who fought at our side. One place to help those still in Vietnam is:
http://www.thevhf.org/
Vietnam's War on Religion
http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36282
Excerpt: The United States’ decision not to put Vietnam back onto the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) regarding religion flies in the face of absurdity given that repressive country’s ongoing war on religion. Religious repression appears to have actually increased since Vietnam was taken off the CPC list. The Washington Times' August 7 article “Zen master at center of row” exposes but one more example of Vietnam’s war on religion, this time against the disciples of famous Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh: “The monks and nuns at Bat Nha monastery in Vietnam’s Central Highlands have been quietly meditating and studying the teachings of the 82-year-old Vietnamese sage who is perhaps the world's best-known living Buddhist after Tibet's Dalai Lama.” Rather than roll out mainline military units as in the past, the Vietnamese communists changed tactics and used gangs of plain clothes police and hired thugs - a parastatal army - armed with sledgehammers, axes, iron bars and other weapons to attack the monastery. They smashed windows, damaged buildings and threatened the monks and nuns. By using this mix of plain clothes police and hired thugs, Hanoi feels it has plausible deniability by claiming that the attack was caused by inter-factional fighting within the Buddhist Church, and in other cases “citizen anger toward inhabitants. Many believe that the real reason for the attack was because of Nhat Hanh's call on President Nguyen Minh Triet for Vietnam to abolish government control of religion. Others say that the attack may have been predicated on pressure from China on Hanoi for Nhat Hanh's praise for the Dalai Lama.
Defaulting the Hmong
4,000 Hmong, America's erstwhile allies, head off to persecution
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2010/012010/01042010/517631
Excerpt: SOME AMERICANS are alive today because of what the Hmong-- mountain-dwelling Laotians--did during the Vietnam War: harass North Vietnamese columns along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, gather intelligence on the enemy, and rescue downed airmen before they fell into communists' clutches. Those Americans must now be weeping. During the last week or so, Thailand, a fast American friend from which one expects better, has forcibly repatriated to communist Laos some 4,000 Hmong refugees, with whom that country's regime has scores to settle. Not only are the Hmong despised as illiterate barbarians by lowland Laos, but casting their lot with America during the Vietnam War makes them ripe for retribution in their home country. Moreover, the Thai boot given to the 158 Hmong (90 of them kids) who were officially designated by the United Nations as refugees "is a violation of international customary law," said one U.N. refugee specialist. "It's a departure from Thailand's longstanding humanitarian practice as a major country of asylum in the region." (The Misery created by the Democrat Congress in 1975 goes on.)
Syria allowing Hizballah to train with advanced anti-aircraft missiles on Syrian territory
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/01/syria-allowing-hizballah-to-train-with-advanced-anti-aircraft-missiles-on-syrian-territory.html
Excerpt: And remember: Syria has a great friend in the Oval Office. JERUSALEM, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- Syria has allowed Lebanese Hezbollah militants to train with advanced anti-aircraft missiles in its territory, a U.S. source says. The Kuwaiti daily al-Rai quoted an unnamed U.S. official Sunday as saying Hezbollah operatives trained in Syria on SA2 anti-aircraft missile batteries, and that Israel has warned Damascus that if such weapons are given to the Shiite Arab militants, Jerusalem would view it as crossing an undeclared "red line," the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported....
Saudi Arabia: 80-year-old man marries 11-year-old girl
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/01/saudi-arabia-80-year-old-man-marries-11-year-old-girl.html
Excerpt: "There is no law that prohibits the marriage of a girl under 18," says the randy old goat, and he's right. After all, Muhammad did it: "The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with 'Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)." -- Bukhari 7.62.88
Navigating new naval threats
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/18/navigating-new-naval-threats/?source=newsletter_opinion_headlines
Excerpt: Terrorist's threats against the U.S. Navy are nothing new. The latest threat declared on Dec. 31 that al Qaeda plans to target areas of naval interests, including ship movements and logistic support services by other countries. Data on possible weapons aboard as well as information on crews and their families does add a new dimension. As a result, the U.S. Navy stated that the Naval Criminal Investigation Service is aware of the threat and has heightened its alert posture in the Middle East. However, let's be clear: This is not a law enforcement issue. It requires all the elements of our national intelligence agencies working with those of our allies to defeat the threats. With known al Qaeda "sleeper cells" here in the United States, we need to broaden our area of concern to include not only our domestic naval facilities but our broader maritime environment. This should include our liquified natural gas terminals, major commercial ports and facilities. The closure of a major seaport shipping channel such as at Long Beach due to a terrorist attack could have a devastating impact.
The Hurt Locker: Great Action Film or Anti-War Propaganda?
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/01/17/the-hurt-locker-great-action-film-or-anti-war-propaganda/
Could Hollywood have actually made a balanced film?
Showtime in Massachusetts
It blows my mind that a Republican is believed to have a shot at the US Senate from Massachusetts. If Brown is within 5 points of Coakley, almost no Obama Democrat in the country is safe.
538 Model Posits Brown as 3:1 Favorite
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/
Silver is, as his columns show, a liberal Democrat, but he tries to get the polls right. Excerpt: The FiveThirtyEight Senate Forecasting Model, which correctly predicted the outcome of all 35 Senate races in 2008, now regards Republican Scott Brown as a 74 percent favorite to win the Senate seat in Massachusetts on the basis of new polling from ARG, Research 2000 and InsiderAdvantage which show worsening numbers for Brown's opponent, Martha Coakley. We have traditionally categorized races in which one side has between a 60 and 80 percent chance of winning as "leaning" toward that candidate, and so that is how we categorize this race now: Lean GOP. Nevertheless, there is a higher-than-usual chance of large, correlated errors in the polling, such as were observed in NY-23 and the New Hampshire Democratic primary; the model hedges against this risk partially, but not completely.
Plagiarist’s Day
http://web.archive.org/web/20070808024857/http:/chem-gharbison.unl.edu/mlk/chronology.html
As I write this on Monday, we are celebrating the birthday of America’s most famous plagiarist. Of course, repeating this truth, like many truths, is politically incorrect. Nor does it take away King’s great contribution to Civil rights, though it calls into question if “Doctor” is a proper title. One wonders if he had not been famous if the doctorate would have been revoked. It also points out the dangers of viewing any person as the perfect one. That includes me. I live in fear that someone will reveal my many affairs with Hollywood actresses and supermodels to my wife.
Church
Brown is doing so well in Massachusetts that Obama went to church Sunday for a photo op with God.
Brown Rally Video
http://www.youtube.com/scottbrownma#p/a/u/0/CCcxxnBNwUM
Pictures from Worcester Brown rally
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=9434
Brown Rally at Northeastern University, Huntington Ave, Back Bay section of Boston.
http://www.youtube.com/reasontv#p/a/u/0/HsFnT2koaY4
Interview with a gay, union member for Brown! Unbelievable excitement. Think this was outside Obama’s speech.
Chris Matthews Worried There Aren't Any Votes for Democrats to Buy in Massachusetts Tuesday
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/01/16/chris-matthews-worries-there-arent-democrat-votes-buy-massachusetts-t
Excerpt: Things are looking so bad for Democrats in Tuesday's special election for the Senate seat vacated by Ted Kennedy that MSNBC's Chris Matthews is concerned there aren't any left-leaning votes for his Party to buy. "You know in the old days...if the Democrats faced this kind of a disaster in the works, you`d go back to your ones, the people you were sure are going to vote Democrat, and you`d make sure they got to the polling place," Matthews told NBC's Chuck Todd on Friday's "Hardball." "You`d get them lunch, you`d get them a car. You`d make sure they got there, and in some cases you`d be buying people to get them," he continued.
Who's investing in Martha Coakley: AHIP, BIO, and the billion-dollar winner of Obamacare
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Whos-investing-in-Martha-Coakley-AHIP-BIO-and-the-billion-dollar-winner-of-Obamacare-81884232.html
They aren’t investing in Coakley because they want to help the little guy. Excerpt: Tuesday night in the back room of Capitol Hill's Sonoma wine bar, Coakley campaign staffers counted the checks they had reeled in at that night's fundraiser. This morning, at FEC.gov, we get a chance to see some of the big names who forked over $1,000 to $2,400 -- or, for political action committees, up to $5,000. [Click here, and then press the button to generate a pdf or the report.] Mary Beth Donohue is the executive vice president at America's Health Insurance Plans, the Washington-based lobby for the health insurance industry. She spent $1,000 Tuesday night to help elect Coakley. Also interesting: The Medicines Company, the drug maker that reportedly stands to profit $1 billion off the health-care reform bill, gave Coakley $2,400 through its PAC on Tuesday.
Last-minute TV ad buys raise the stakes in Massachusetts Senate race
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/17/AR2010011703246.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Excerpt: Just how big are the stakes in the Massachusetts Senate race? Independent and party groups were set to spend nearly $5 million on television ads in the final weeks leading up to Tuesday's special election between state Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) and state Sen. Scott Brown (R). According to ad-buy information provided to the Fix, there are 13 -- yes, 13 -- groups paying for ads in the race's final days, with Democratic groups outspending Republican-aligned by more than $1 million. Coakley's ad advantage comes from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is set to spend $1.4 million on ads in the final week of the race -- a staggering sum given the overwhelming Democratic tilt of the Bay State, and yet another sign of how worried the party is. (The National Republican Senatorial Committee is not running ads in the state.) The other major Democratic groups in the mix are labor-affiliated. The Service Employees International Union is up with $549,000 in ads, and Citizens for Strength and Security, which is funded by unions, is spending $425,000 on ads. On the Republican side, there are more groups airing television commercials -- including the Chamber of Commerce and a group affiliated with the conservative Tea Party movement -- but they are spending just about $1.6 million. Add those numbers to the $2.2 million Brown is spending on television and the $1.9 million by Coakley, and the total in the contest's final days is near $10 million.
CNN: Brown Looks to Pull Off Upset
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/01/18/cnn-brown-looks-to-pull-off-upset/
Excerpt on CNN: Several Democratic sources say multiple Obama advisers have told the party they believe Coakley is going to lose. The sources said they still hoped Obama's weekend visit to the state, coupled with a late push by party activists, could tip the balance in her favor, but Obama aides have grown increasingly pessimistic since Friday. The race is so close that Democrats are trying to figure out if they can pass health care reform without that crucial 60th Senate vote. Top White House aides insist they are not engaging in any talk of contingency plans, because they believe Coakley will come out on top Tuesday.
If It’s Close In Massachusetts, Expect ACORN To Lead Vote Fraud Effort
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/01/18/if-its-close-in-massachusetts-expect-acorn-to-lead-vote-fraud-effort/
Excerpt: Then there’s always the possibility of massive electoral fraud by ACORN. Note that ACORN national president Maude Hurd herself resides in Dorchester, Mass., and ACORN is actively involved in the get out the vote effort in the Bay State.
World misled over Himalayan glacier meltdown
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6991177.ece
Gee, more junk science from the –science-is-settled crowd. What a shock. Excerpt: A WARNING that climate change will melt most of the Himalayan glaciers by 2035 is likely to be retracted after a series of scientific blunders by the United Nations body that issued it. Two years ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a benchmark report that was claimed to incorporate the latest and most detailed research into the impact of global warming. A central claim was the world's glaciers were melting so fast that those in the Himalayas could vanish by 2035. In the past few days the scientists behind the warning have admitted that it was based on a news story in the New Scientist, a popular science journal, published eight years before the IPCC's 2007 report. It has also emerged that the New Scientist report was itself based on a short telephone interview with Syed Hasnain, a little-known Indian scientist then based at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. Hasnain has since admitted that the claim was "speculation" and was not supported by any formal research. If confirmed it would be one of the most serious failures yet seen in climate research. The IPCC was set up precisely to ensure that world leaders had the best possible scientific advice on climate change.
Ethics committee probing Visclosky, Tiahrt for ties to PMA lobbying firm
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/76479-ethics-panel-probing-visclosky-tiahrt-for-ties-to-pma-lobbying-firm
With a Republican in the net too, might get some fast action, not the extended foot-dragging of the Charlie Rangel tax investigation—and others. Excerpt: The House ethics committee is examining Reps. Peter Visclosky’s (D-Ind.) and Todd Tiahrt’s (R-Kansas) ties to PMA Group, a now-defunct lobbying firm that was raided by the FBI last year. The ethics panel Friday announced that it has extended a review of Visclosky’s and Tiahrt’s activities for 45 more days after an initial probe that began Dec. 2. The committee said it will announce its “course of action” by March. 2.
Ford's willingness to defy Democratic establishment may be an asset in 2010
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/76569-ford-has-shown-willingness-to-defy-dem-establishment
Excerpt: If Harold Ford Jr. defies the White House and launches a Senate bid in New York, it wouldn't be the first time that he has taken on powerful players in the Democratic Party. Ford's unsuccessful bid to challenge Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for minority leader in 2002 was a setback to his career, but one that he overcame. His looming decision of taking on President Barack Obama, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the rest of the Democratic establishment could be more costly. Should Ford run and defeat Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), it would be an enormous accomplishment. If he runs and loses, Ford's bright political future would dim considerably. (Could help a Republican—if Massachusetts is in play, what isn’t?)
Thorny votes await lawmakers this week
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/76565-thorny-votes-await-senate-as-lawmakers-get-back-to-business
Excerpt: The national debt, healthcare and the dispute over who can make airline travel safe from terrorists will dominate a contentious week in the Senate. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will seek to cut off debate on the stalled nomination of Erroll Southers to head the Transportation Safety Adminstration (TSA). The week will also include votes to raise the federal debt ceiling and on a pay-as-you-go measure, while looming in the background will be what Democrats hope to be the final stages of the precarious healthcare negotiations. Reid has charged the GOP with “playing politics” with the Southers nomination and has used the Christmas Day bombing attempt of a Detroit-bound airliner to push his confirmation through.
The 'Responsibility' Tax
Fannie and Freddie are exempt from the White House banker 'fee.'
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704281204575003041489144962.html
Excerpt: The White House has spent months imploring banks to lend more money, so will President Obama's new proposal to extract $117 billion from bank capital encourage new bank lending? Just asking. Welcome to one more installment in Washington's year-long crusade to revive private business by assailing and soaking it. Mr. Obama's new "Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee"—please don't call it a tax—is being sold as a way to cover expected losses in the Troubled Asset Relief Program. That sounds reasonable, except that the banks designated to pay the fee aren't those responsible for the losses. With the exception of Citigroup, those banks have repaid their TARP money with interest. The real TARP losers—General Motors, Chrysler and delinquent mortgage borrowers—are exempt from the new tax. Why the auto companies? An Administration official told the Journal that the banks caused the crisis that doomed the auto companies, which apparently were innocent bystanders to their own bankruptcy. The fact that the auto companies remain wards of Washington no doubt has nothing to do with their free tax pass. Also exempt are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which operate outside of TARP but also surely did more than any other company to cause the housing boom and bust. The key to understanding their free tax pass is that on Christmas Eve Treasury lifted the $400 billion cap on their potential taxpayer losses expressly so they can rewrite more underwater mortgages at a loss. In other words, the White House wants to tax more capital away from profit-making banks to offset the intentional losses that the politicians have ordered up at Fan and Fred. The bank tax revenue will flow directly into the Treasury to be spent on whatever immediate cause Congress favors. Come the next "systemic risk" bailout, taxpayers will still be on the hook. "Responsibility" is not the word that comes to mind here.
Eureka, I Am a Conservative!
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/eureka_i_am_a_conservative.html
Excerpt: Now that Barack Obama and the Democrats have taken over the presidency and both Houses, more and more Americans are starting to gag from the stench of unfettered liberalism. Horrified by out-of-control spending, a socialist agenda, and weak foreign policy, a growing number of outraged Americans have been doing some major political soul-searching. Intuitively, they sense America has dangerously changed course, and a growing sea of citizens are now on the same page and thinking the same thoughts:
Sweet Economy Alabama
http://reason.com/blog/2010/01/15/sweet-economy-alabama
Excerpt: Is the U.S. rich because it's rich because it's rich, thus obviating any worries that socialist-leaning policy change could make us poorer, as Matt Yglesias sort of argues here? The Super-Economy blog has some analysis about economic growth levels and rates worth contemplating on this point, accusing Paul Krugman of leading Yglesias astray on this point, and loaded with charts showing per capita GDP growth rates circa 1980-2008 for the U.S. and Europe, including U.S. broken down by state. Some of his conclusions: Theory and a mass of empirical evidence show that in general, richer countries grow slower and poorer countries grow faster....The fact that America has not only kept its advantage over Europe but also even expanded the gap is extraordinary. The US is the exception, the only country in the top five 100 years ago that is still in the GDP top five (and yes, the snide remark aside, the US in 1900 had far more pro-market institutions than Germany or France). And even the gap between the US and Western Europe has closed in the last 100 years, it only stopped converging in the 1980s. The pattern during the last 100 years has been for countries with functioning economies to grow faster the lower they start...I pointed out yesterday that the E.U 15 has the same per capita GDP as Alabama. Being a poor American state, Alabama grow faster than the US average between 1990-2008. In fact it grew by 1.75% per year. During the same period the EU.15 managed to grew at 1.64%. (in other words Alabama per capita earnings grew by 37%, the E.U 15 by 34%). In the same period rich Maryland grew by only 1.39%. By Krugmans "logic", Maryland should be learning from Alabama.
Head Start Basically Has No Effect
http://ow.ly/WPCm
But a lot of people get Head Start dollars, they vote, so the program is safe. Excerpt: The Department of Health and Human Services has been sitting on an evaluation of the Head Start government run pre-school program. Well, the study was released. As the leaks suggested, the study found virtually no lasting effects to participation in Head Start. The study used a gold-standard, random assignment design and had a very large nationally representative sample. This was a well done study.
Fake Marine General pleads guilty
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/15/phony-marine-general-enters-guilty-plea/
I suggest a year of community service…cleaning Marine gravestones with a toothbrush.
No comrade left behind?
http://www.theveteransvoice.com/stoddert.html
Not true for the ARVN who fought at our side. One place to help those still in Vietnam is:
http://www.thevhf.org/
Vietnam's War on Religion
http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36282
Excerpt: The United States’ decision not to put Vietnam back onto the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) regarding religion flies in the face of absurdity given that repressive country’s ongoing war on religion. Religious repression appears to have actually increased since Vietnam was taken off the CPC list. The Washington Times' August 7 article “Zen master at center of row” exposes but one more example of Vietnam’s war on religion, this time against the disciples of famous Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh: “The monks and nuns at Bat Nha monastery in Vietnam’s Central Highlands have been quietly meditating and studying the teachings of the 82-year-old Vietnamese sage who is perhaps the world's best-known living Buddhist after Tibet's Dalai Lama.” Rather than roll out mainline military units as in the past, the Vietnamese communists changed tactics and used gangs of plain clothes police and hired thugs - a parastatal army - armed with sledgehammers, axes, iron bars and other weapons to attack the monastery. They smashed windows, damaged buildings and threatened the monks and nuns. By using this mix of plain clothes police and hired thugs, Hanoi feels it has plausible deniability by claiming that the attack was caused by inter-factional fighting within the Buddhist Church, and in other cases “citizen anger toward inhabitants. Many believe that the real reason for the attack was because of Nhat Hanh's call on President Nguyen Minh Triet for Vietnam to abolish government control of religion. Others say that the attack may have been predicated on pressure from China on Hanoi for Nhat Hanh's praise for the Dalai Lama.
Defaulting the Hmong
4,000 Hmong, America's erstwhile allies, head off to persecution
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2010/012010/01042010/517631
Excerpt: SOME AMERICANS are alive today because of what the Hmong-- mountain-dwelling Laotians--did during the Vietnam War: harass North Vietnamese columns along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, gather intelligence on the enemy, and rescue downed airmen before they fell into communists' clutches. Those Americans must now be weeping. During the last week or so, Thailand, a fast American friend from which one expects better, has forcibly repatriated to communist Laos some 4,000 Hmong refugees, with whom that country's regime has scores to settle. Not only are the Hmong despised as illiterate barbarians by lowland Laos, but casting their lot with America during the Vietnam War makes them ripe for retribution in their home country. Moreover, the Thai boot given to the 158 Hmong (90 of them kids) who were officially designated by the United Nations as refugees "is a violation of international customary law," said one U.N. refugee specialist. "It's a departure from Thailand's longstanding humanitarian practice as a major country of asylum in the region." (The Misery created by the Democrat Congress in 1975 goes on.)
Syria allowing Hizballah to train with advanced anti-aircraft missiles on Syrian territory
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/01/syria-allowing-hizballah-to-train-with-advanced-anti-aircraft-missiles-on-syrian-territory.html
Excerpt: And remember: Syria has a great friend in the Oval Office. JERUSALEM, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- Syria has allowed Lebanese Hezbollah militants to train with advanced anti-aircraft missiles in its territory, a U.S. source says. The Kuwaiti daily al-Rai quoted an unnamed U.S. official Sunday as saying Hezbollah operatives trained in Syria on SA2 anti-aircraft missile batteries, and that Israel has warned Damascus that if such weapons are given to the Shiite Arab militants, Jerusalem would view it as crossing an undeclared "red line," the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported....
Saudi Arabia: 80-year-old man marries 11-year-old girl
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/01/saudi-arabia-80-year-old-man-marries-11-year-old-girl.html
Excerpt: "There is no law that prohibits the marriage of a girl under 18," says the randy old goat, and he's right. After all, Muhammad did it: "The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with 'Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)." -- Bukhari 7.62.88
Navigating new naval threats
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/18/navigating-new-naval-threats/?source=newsletter_opinion_headlines
Excerpt: Terrorist's threats against the U.S. Navy are nothing new. The latest threat declared on Dec. 31 that al Qaeda plans to target areas of naval interests, including ship movements and logistic support services by other countries. Data on possible weapons aboard as well as information on crews and their families does add a new dimension. As a result, the U.S. Navy stated that the Naval Criminal Investigation Service is aware of the threat and has heightened its alert posture in the Middle East. However, let's be clear: This is not a law enforcement issue. It requires all the elements of our national intelligence agencies working with those of our allies to defeat the threats. With known al Qaeda "sleeper cells" here in the United States, we need to broaden our area of concern to include not only our domestic naval facilities but our broader maritime environment. This should include our liquified natural gas terminals, major commercial ports and facilities. The closure of a major seaport shipping channel such as at Long Beach due to a terrorist attack could have a devastating impact.
The Hurt Locker: Great Action Film or Anti-War Propaganda?
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/01/17/the-hurt-locker-great-action-film-or-anti-war-propaganda/
Could Hollywood have actually made a balanced film?
Monday, January 18, 2010
Marines for Brown
Report from a retired Marine in Massachusetts:
Three weeks ago I sent out an ALMAR throughout USA advising MARINES that we had a fight on our hands, of epic proportion, here in Massachusetts, that would likely affect every man, woman, and child in America for generations to come. I asked for support—any support—well wishers or phone calls, perhaps emails and most importantly, financial contributions. Anything would be enthusiastically and warmly received. I had no idea what the response would be.
I want to let you know that ACDU and retired Marines and their families stepped up to the plate. The Republican/conservative candidate for US Senate from Massachusetts , Scott Brown, Lt Col MNG, received a tsunami of contributions both manpower and money. Enthusiasm in infectious. The “can do spirit” spread like wildfire. “ Situation in doubt---WE WILL PREVAIL”. “The Tea Party of America jumped aboard, NRA shortly behind. Grass roots Republican organizations across America began to send in money and making phone calls. Literally within hours a beleaguered band of Massachusetts Republicans, “ We few, We happy few, We band of brothers” received reinforcements by the thousands, I would like to think initiated by Marines. The democrats were hit by an unstoppable counterattack that continues to push them right into the Atlantic Ocean. There is no Dunkirk. There is no flotilla steaming across the Channel to save them. Obama’s feeble attempt to rescue the democrat candidate, fell flat. There were more Brown supporters outside his venue than Democrat supporters inside. Forty five miles away—Scott Brown had the City of Worcester, MA shut down because the enthusiastic crowds overwhelmed the ability and capacity to deal with the multitude. Victory is just 24 hours away. I and my fellow conservative and Patriotic Americans here in the Bay State will continue to hold the colors high. We will get out the vote—and we WILL send the White House and Congress a message loud and clear: The PARTY IS OVER!
Thank you all for your support and enthusiasm. Please note below---two Marines who jumped immediately into the fray----locked and loaded.
Thank you all so very much and Semper Fidelis
As Tod Beamer said to his fellow passengers on Flt 93: “ Let’s Roll”
This fire must spread across America.
Tom Constantine
US Marine Ret
-------------------
For Scott Brown -
Hopefully you will have time in what must be a very hectic schedule for you now, to read the following. This morning (Friday, January 15th) I donated $200 to your campaign. In doing so, I sent out the message below to approx. 100 military veterans and others who belong to an organization I started back in '86. The name of the organization was first called the USMC/Vietnam Helicopter Pilots and Aircrew Reunion. The organization was not planned for, as I simply wanted to get together with those I had flown with in-country. It took off like a rocket. At the first reunion we had 6 people, we have now found over 6,000 and have reunions every two years in different parts of the country. In 2004 we changed the name of the organization to also include those who are currently fighting in the Mid-East. I have a feeling that the message below will continue to be forwarded to many others. My aim is to generate as much support for you as possible in the short time left before the election. This idea grew from a conversation I recently had with a very good friend of mine, John "JD" Barber, a retired Quincy firefighter who was a crewchief on CH-46s in Vietnam, and followed me as president of the Association. Another friend of mine who also served in Vietnam, a retired MA state trooper, Tom Constantine, was also an inspiration for me to do what I could to help. Hopefully, this effort will in some small way help your campaign knock out the competition and help us save the traditional, conservative country that we have all fought to defend. The oath of office we all took... "to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic" is forever!
Best of luck on Tuesday. If you get a chance to visit our website sometime, the address is: http://www.popasmoke.com/ . To be clear, the organization is not making an official endorsement, as I am no longer in charge of it, but I can assure you that the overwhelming majority of its members feel exactly the same as I do. Go get 'em!
Semper Fi,
Roger Herman
San Diego, CA
--------------
Don -
Thanks for sending the link to Scott Brown's website. I just donated $200 and called and spoke with his campaign office. Had to redial several times because the lines were so busy. As the individual in the office said, it is not too late to donate with the election being just four days away. A lot of the bills for the campaign come due after the election. With Coakley calling in all the big guns (translation - the leftist radicals from the 60s now in power) who want to change this country into a Socialist state or worse, and her also flying to D.C. to hold a $10,000 a plate dinner, I see it as our duty to take action immediately. Never thought that I would ever donate any money to a politician again, but like you and many others feel, this is probably the most important election in decades, as we try to save our great country. I am infoing approx. 100 others on this reply to you in order to further help get the word out.
Semper Fi,
Rog
Three weeks ago I sent out an ALMAR throughout USA advising MARINES that we had a fight on our hands, of epic proportion, here in Massachusetts, that would likely affect every man, woman, and child in America for generations to come. I asked for support—any support—well wishers or phone calls, perhaps emails and most importantly, financial contributions. Anything would be enthusiastically and warmly received. I had no idea what the response would be.
I want to let you know that ACDU and retired Marines and their families stepped up to the plate. The Republican/conservative candidate for US Senate from Massachusetts , Scott Brown, Lt Col MNG, received a tsunami of contributions both manpower and money. Enthusiasm in infectious. The “can do spirit” spread like wildfire. “ Situation in doubt---WE WILL PREVAIL”. “The Tea Party of America jumped aboard, NRA shortly behind. Grass roots Republican organizations across America began to send in money and making phone calls. Literally within hours a beleaguered band of Massachusetts Republicans, “ We few, We happy few, We band of brothers” received reinforcements by the thousands, I would like to think initiated by Marines. The democrats were hit by an unstoppable counterattack that continues to push them right into the Atlantic Ocean. There is no Dunkirk. There is no flotilla steaming across the Channel to save them. Obama’s feeble attempt to rescue the democrat candidate, fell flat. There were more Brown supporters outside his venue than Democrat supporters inside. Forty five miles away—Scott Brown had the City of Worcester, MA shut down because the enthusiastic crowds overwhelmed the ability and capacity to deal with the multitude. Victory is just 24 hours away. I and my fellow conservative and Patriotic Americans here in the Bay State will continue to hold the colors high. We will get out the vote—and we WILL send the White House and Congress a message loud and clear: The PARTY IS OVER!
Thank you all for your support and enthusiasm. Please note below---two Marines who jumped immediately into the fray----locked and loaded.
Thank you all so very much and Semper Fidelis
As Tod Beamer said to his fellow passengers on Flt 93: “ Let’s Roll”
This fire must spread across America.
Tom Constantine
US Marine Ret
-------------------
For Scott Brown -
Hopefully you will have time in what must be a very hectic schedule for you now, to read the following. This morning (Friday, January 15th) I donated $200 to your campaign. In doing so, I sent out the message below to approx. 100 military veterans and others who belong to an organization I started back in '86. The name of the organization was first called the USMC/Vietnam Helicopter Pilots and Aircrew Reunion. The organization was not planned for, as I simply wanted to get together with those I had flown with in-country. It took off like a rocket. At the first reunion we had 6 people, we have now found over 6,000 and have reunions every two years in different parts of the country. In 2004 we changed the name of the organization to also include those who are currently fighting in the Mid-East. I have a feeling that the message below will continue to be forwarded to many others. My aim is to generate as much support for you as possible in the short time left before the election. This idea grew from a conversation I recently had with a very good friend of mine, John "JD" Barber, a retired Quincy firefighter who was a crewchief on CH-46s in Vietnam, and followed me as president of the Association. Another friend of mine who also served in Vietnam, a retired MA state trooper, Tom Constantine, was also an inspiration for me to do what I could to help. Hopefully, this effort will in some small way help your campaign knock out the competition and help us save the traditional, conservative country that we have all fought to defend. The oath of office we all took... "to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic" is forever!
Best of luck on Tuesday. If you get a chance to visit our website sometime, the address is: http://www.popasmoke.com/ . To be clear, the organization is not making an official endorsement, as I am no longer in charge of it, but I can assure you that the overwhelming majority of its members feel exactly the same as I do. Go get 'em!
Semper Fi,
Roger Herman
San Diego, CA
--------------
Don -
Thanks for sending the link to Scott Brown's website. I just donated $200 and called and spoke with his campaign office. Had to redial several times because the lines were so busy. As the individual in the office said, it is not too late to donate with the election being just four days away. A lot of the bills for the campaign come due after the election. With Coakley calling in all the big guns (translation - the leftist radicals from the 60s now in power) who want to change this country into a Socialist state or worse, and her also flying to D.C. to hold a $10,000 a plate dinner, I see it as our duty to take action immediately. Never thought that I would ever donate any money to a politician again, but like you and many others feel, this is probably the most important election in decades, as we try to save our great country. I am infoing approx. 100 others on this reply to you in order to further help get the word out.
Semper Fi,
Rog
Political Digest January 18, 2010
I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree with every—or any—opinion in the posted article.
Scott Brown Files Ethics Complaint- SEIU Used State Resources to Urge Workers to Volunteer for Coakley
http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/01/breaking-scott-brown-files-ethics-complaint-seiu-used-state-resources-to-urge-workers-to-volunteer-for-coakley/
Excerpt: FOX News Boston reported: Republican Senate hopeful Scott Brown has filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission after a report that a union backing rival Martha Coakley used state resources to urge workers to volunteer for Coakley’s campaign.
The report by FOX25 said the Service Employees International Union used state computers and e-mail addresses to direct state employees to volunteer for Coakley, the Democratic state attorney general. Coakley’s campaign referred questions to the attorney general’s office. A spokeswoman said the attorney general’s office has received the letter from Brown’s attorney and will review it before commenting. The SEIU did not immediately return a call for comment. (No big deal. If the SEIU isn’t beating people up, they still expect to win.)
Democrats scramble in Massachusetts to retain Ted Kennedy's old Senate seat
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/15/AR2010011504069.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Excerpt: BOSTON -- Shaken by polls showing Republican Scott Brown surging in the Senate race that could decide the fate of President Obama's agenda, Democrats on Friday scrambled to shore up the battered candidacy of Martha Coakley, the state attorney general whose once-commanding lead appeared to vanish in the space of two weeks. The White House announced that Obama will campaign here Sunday. Former president Bill Clinton broke away from promoting Haitian relief to rally the Democratic faithful, which polls show has taken a victory by Coakley as much for granted as analysts say her campaign clearly did. Both candidates announced plans to barnstorm the three days before Tuesday's special election. Brown will mount a bus tour; Coakley will place her hopes on a recast stump speech unveiled at the rallies with Clinton.
MSNBC’s Schultz: “I’d Cheat To Keep These Bast*rds Out”
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/01/16/msnbcs-schultz-id-cheat-to-keep-these-bastrds-out/
No surprise here. The statists are committed to statism, and to get it will kill freedom, like the freedom to vote. Alert ACORN. Excerpt: MSNBC’s Ed Schultz told radio listeners yesterday he thinks cheating is justified in order to prevent Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts.
Mark Steyn: Can Obama hold Teddy's seat?
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/educated-229341-massachusetts-obama.html
Excerpt: I've been out of the country for a couple of days, so let me see if I've got this right: America's preparing to celebrate the first anniversary of Good King Barack the Hopeychanger's reign by electing a Republican? In Massachusetts? In what the tin-eared plonkers of the Democrat machine still insist on calling "Ted Kennedy's seat"? Remember the good old days when the glossy magazine covers competed for the most worshipful image of the new global colossus? If you were at the Hopeychange inaugural ball on Jan. 20, 2009, when Barney Frank dived into the mosh pit, and you chanced to be underneath when he landed, and you've spent the past year in a coma, until suddenly coming to in time for the poll showing some unexotically monikered nobody called Scott Brown, whose only glossy magazine appearance was a Cosmopolitan pictorial 30 years ago (true), four points ahead in Kennedy country, you must surely wonder if you've woken up in an alternative universe. The last thing you remember before Barney came flying down is Harry Reid waltzing you round the floor while murmuring sweet nothings about America being ready for a light-skinned brown man with no trace of a Negro dialect. And now you're in some dystopian nightmare where Massachusetts is ready for a nude-skinned Brown man with no trace of a Kennedy dialect. How can this be happening? You don't need to have been in an actual coma. Subscribing to The Boston Globe, the unreadable and increasingly unread Massachusetts snooze-sheet, has much the same effect. As the house organ of a decrepit one-party state, the Globe endorsed Martha Coakley with nary a thought using its Sober Thoughtful Massachusetts Election Editorial template ("[INSERT NAME OF CAREERIST HACK HERE] For Governor/Senator/Mayor/Whatever") and dutifully obscured what happened when one of the candidate's minders shoved to the sidewalk a reporter who had the lese majeste to ask an unhelpful question. If you're one of the dwindling band of Bay Staters who rely on the Globe for your news, you would never have known that a Massachusetts pseudo-"election" had bizarrely morphed into a real one – you know, with two candidates, just like they have in Bulgaria and places. On Friday, the paper finally acknowledged that something goofy was happening: As the revealing headline put it, "Race Is In A Spinout." As in "spinning out of control"? You mean, out of the control of the party and its dopey media cheerleaders? What they really mean is that the Democrats' coronation procession is in a spinout.
Coakley’s Top Ten
http://townhall.com/columnists/JillianBandes/2010/01/18/coakley%e2%80%99s_top_ten
Excerpt: Here are ten things you should know about Democrat Martha Coakley going into Tuesday’s primary.
Overwhelmed With Grief, Aging Rock Star and Special Envoy to Haiti Abandons Post, Flees to Massachusetts to Campaign For Coakley
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=9355
Excerpt: I heard Bill Clinton the other night saying how desperate the situation in Haiti is. Which makes you wonder how he, as “special envoy” to the crippled country, can find the time to abandon the suffering people to go campaign for a hack politician from Massachusetts. No wonder he and Obama roped George W. Bush into the Haiti relief effort. They’re too busy stumping for Martha Coakley.
Heckling Obama ...Blue Blue Boston U
UPDATE: BROWN Rally Breaking Records
https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&shva=1#inbox
Excerpt: Stumping for Coakley, Obama gets uh, stumped. It's not pretty, and the heckling goes on for a quite some time. And he couldn't fill the hall. “It holds 3,000 and frankly only 2,000 to 2,500 showed up.” (FOX reported) Obama Heckled at Coakley Rally in Boston… At a University? (Video)
New Coakley ad claims Scott Brown is Bill Buckner
http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/
Satire.
IDF in Haiti
www.youtube.com/user/idfnadesk?blend=1&ob=4#p/a/u/0/NdplDDY9MGA
And the Saudis are where? IDF Spokesperson January 16th, 2010: The IDF Medical and Rescue Team has arrived in Haiti, set up a field hospital in Port-Au-Prince and is beginning to treat patients there. In addition, the forces are locating and rescuing survivors trapped in ruined buildings, including many who were injured during the collapse of the UN headquarters. The field hospital is prepared to receive dozens of ambulances evacuating injured children from the different disaster struck areas. Between Friday night and Saturday, dozens of truckloads of medical and logistical equipment were unloaded and the field hospital set up. The Israeli delegation landed in the capital of Port-Au-Prince yesterday evening and has located itself in a soccer field near the air port. Upon arrival, C4I teams deployed communications infrastructure in preparations for the hospital's establishment. Two teams, comprised of search and rescue personnel and canine operators from the IDF canine unit were sent out on rescue missions. The first team was sent to the Haiti UN headquarters in order to assist in rescuing survivors. The rescue teams are working in cooperation with local authorities in order to reach disaster struck areas where survivors can be located and assisted. The delegation is scheduled to stay in Haiti for a minimum of two weeks. Further stay will be assessed at the end of this period.
The March Toward “Gleichschaltung”
Is the U.S. Heading Toward Socialism?
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.5272/pub_detail.asp
Excerpt: In 1933, Hitler began a systematic attempt to eliminate opposition and bring about conformity with the Nazi agenda. Using the policy of Gleichschaltung or “Synchronization,” he consolidated his authority within the Reich bureaucracy and key aspects of German culture and life using propaganda, intimidation, appointments of Party loyalists and new laws and directives. Hitler employed the services of an invasive police force and seized control of schools, labor unions, the military, media, the arts, churches, social service organizations and recreational clubs. Similarly, the United States is currently undergoing widespread economic and political change under the Obama administration which is using a series of extensive actions and techniques that, but for intent, bear a striking resemblance to steps taken in pre-war Germany. In the space of a year, the administration, which campaigned on a platform of “hope and change” and publicly avowed support for the redistribution of income in the notorious “Joe the Plumber” interchange, has begun sweeping programs utilizing a system of czars, costly spending plans, takeovers of entire industries and a proposed seizure of the healthcare and energy sectors. In this way, the administration has increased the size, power and jurisdiction of the federal government. It has also maintained unprecedented control of the media and the message, encouraged “spontaneous” content from children singing Obama’s praises on the Internet and begun legislation to secure government control over broadband and the Internet. America would do well during this time of economic and political upheaval to keep close watch on the measures taken by the administration to ensure that our free-enterprise system and our personal freedoms are not overwhelmed by the zeal for change that characterized prewar Germany and led to Hitler’s national socialist dictatorship.
Lawmakers protest healthcare bill’s caps on benefits over policyholder's lifetime
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/76519-lawmakers-protest-health-bills-caps-on-benefits
A cadre of Democratic lawmakers and patient groups is urging congressional Democratic leaders to abandon plans to permit health insurance companies to set lifetime limits on their customers’ benefits. In letters sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and the other senior Democratic lawmakers authoring the final version of healthcare reform legislation, 29 House Democrats and seven Senate Democrats press the leaders to adopt the House’s take on the bill, which would prohibit insurers from establishing a dollar cap on how much they will pay out during a policyholder’s lifetime. (And will policy holders or taxpayers pay the additional costs of this increased coverage?)
Payments to states emerges as major obstacle to healthcare reform
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/76487-payments-to-states-emerges-as-major-obstacle-to-health-reform
Bribes coming home to roost? Excerpt: Some House Democrats believe their states would get shortchanged in the overhaul of the nation’s healthcare system and the funding issue is fast becoming a major hurdle to getting a bill signed into law. How much of a burden states would have to shoulder for a proposed Medicaid expansion is the latest friction point between the House and the Senate, and is threatening to blow a hole in the measure’s price tag. There’s a lot of angst right now from members from states like New York and California over this,” a senior Democratic aide said. “And there’s a growing concern that these states are getting the short end of the stick. And that’s particularly frustrating because it was members from these states that carried this bill to the point we’re at now.” Lawmakers from these states and others are disgruntled because states that already offer more generous Medicaid coverage would be offered less additional assistance than states with relatively smaller programs.
Waupaca Woman Finds Gun in Airport Bathroom
http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=11831863
I blame global warming. Don’t you feel secure? Excerpt: A Waupaca woman finds herself in the middle of a major security investigation at Cleveland's airport. Kimmy Janke had gone through security. In fact, she was in a secure part of the terminal when she stopped to go to the bathroom before making her connecting flight. That's when she found a loaded handgun.
An investigation with our ABC affiliate in Cleveland uncovered what one U.S. senator calls a "serious breach of public safety." In an age of colored threat levels and heightened security, this investigation shows another lapse inside our airports. All Janke and her boyfriend Ryan really remember about last September's trip to Portland is what happened inside the Cleveland airport. "Panic. I didn't know what to do. I looked at it and was like, wow, that's a gun. We're past security. What do I do?" (Put it in your carry on. Free gun, past security, and what a surprise if a guy pulls a box cutter!!)
Copts to demonstrate at White House against Muslim persecution of Christians
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/01/copts-to-demonstrate-at-white-house-against-muslim-persecution-of-christians.html
BO will ignore this.
Playwright petrol attack handed to terrorist police
http://www.rfi.fr/actuen/articles/121/article_6538.asp
The intimidation of anyone who speaks out goes on. Excerpt: An investigation into an attack in Paris on the Algerian actress and playwright Rayhana has been handed over to anti-terrorist police. The investigators suspect the attack was linked to Rayhana's play, A mon âge, je me cache encore pour fumer, which focuses on the treatment of women in Algeria.
Husband Shoots Burglar During 911 Call
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ytn8uplERY&feature=rec-fresh+div-r-2-HM
I’m Tired
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/userletter/?letter_id=4494628646
Another Congressman puts up my piece. Maybe I should move to Oklahoma.
Scott Brown Files Ethics Complaint- SEIU Used State Resources to Urge Workers to Volunteer for Coakley
http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/01/breaking-scott-brown-files-ethics-complaint-seiu-used-state-resources-to-urge-workers-to-volunteer-for-coakley/
Excerpt: FOX News Boston reported: Republican Senate hopeful Scott Brown has filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission after a report that a union backing rival Martha Coakley used state resources to urge workers to volunteer for Coakley’s campaign.
The report by FOX25 said the Service Employees International Union used state computers and e-mail addresses to direct state employees to volunteer for Coakley, the Democratic state attorney general. Coakley’s campaign referred questions to the attorney general’s office. A spokeswoman said the attorney general’s office has received the letter from Brown’s attorney and will review it before commenting. The SEIU did not immediately return a call for comment. (No big deal. If the SEIU isn’t beating people up, they still expect to win.)
Democrats scramble in Massachusetts to retain Ted Kennedy's old Senate seat
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/15/AR2010011504069.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Excerpt: BOSTON -- Shaken by polls showing Republican Scott Brown surging in the Senate race that could decide the fate of President Obama's agenda, Democrats on Friday scrambled to shore up the battered candidacy of Martha Coakley, the state attorney general whose once-commanding lead appeared to vanish in the space of two weeks. The White House announced that Obama will campaign here Sunday. Former president Bill Clinton broke away from promoting Haitian relief to rally the Democratic faithful, which polls show has taken a victory by Coakley as much for granted as analysts say her campaign clearly did. Both candidates announced plans to barnstorm the three days before Tuesday's special election. Brown will mount a bus tour; Coakley will place her hopes on a recast stump speech unveiled at the rallies with Clinton.
MSNBC’s Schultz: “I’d Cheat To Keep These Bast*rds Out”
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/01/16/msnbcs-schultz-id-cheat-to-keep-these-bastrds-out/
No surprise here. The statists are committed to statism, and to get it will kill freedom, like the freedom to vote. Alert ACORN. Excerpt: MSNBC’s Ed Schultz told radio listeners yesterday he thinks cheating is justified in order to prevent Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts.
Mark Steyn: Can Obama hold Teddy's seat?
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/educated-229341-massachusetts-obama.html
Excerpt: I've been out of the country for a couple of days, so let me see if I've got this right: America's preparing to celebrate the first anniversary of Good King Barack the Hopeychanger's reign by electing a Republican? In Massachusetts? In what the tin-eared plonkers of the Democrat machine still insist on calling "Ted Kennedy's seat"? Remember the good old days when the glossy magazine covers competed for the most worshipful image of the new global colossus? If you were at the Hopeychange inaugural ball on Jan. 20, 2009, when Barney Frank dived into the mosh pit, and you chanced to be underneath when he landed, and you've spent the past year in a coma, until suddenly coming to in time for the poll showing some unexotically monikered nobody called Scott Brown, whose only glossy magazine appearance was a Cosmopolitan pictorial 30 years ago (true), four points ahead in Kennedy country, you must surely wonder if you've woken up in an alternative universe. The last thing you remember before Barney came flying down is Harry Reid waltzing you round the floor while murmuring sweet nothings about America being ready for a light-skinned brown man with no trace of a Negro dialect. And now you're in some dystopian nightmare where Massachusetts is ready for a nude-skinned Brown man with no trace of a Kennedy dialect. How can this be happening? You don't need to have been in an actual coma. Subscribing to The Boston Globe, the unreadable and increasingly unread Massachusetts snooze-sheet, has much the same effect. As the house organ of a decrepit one-party state, the Globe endorsed Martha Coakley with nary a thought using its Sober Thoughtful Massachusetts Election Editorial template ("[INSERT NAME OF CAREERIST HACK HERE] For Governor/Senator/Mayor/Whatever") and dutifully obscured what happened when one of the candidate's minders shoved to the sidewalk a reporter who had the lese majeste to ask an unhelpful question. If you're one of the dwindling band of Bay Staters who rely on the Globe for your news, you would never have known that a Massachusetts pseudo-"election" had bizarrely morphed into a real one – you know, with two candidates, just like they have in Bulgaria and places. On Friday, the paper finally acknowledged that something goofy was happening: As the revealing headline put it, "Race Is In A Spinout." As in "spinning out of control"? You mean, out of the control of the party and its dopey media cheerleaders? What they really mean is that the Democrats' coronation procession is in a spinout.
Coakley’s Top Ten
http://townhall.com/columnists/JillianBandes/2010/01/18/coakley%e2%80%99s_top_ten
Excerpt: Here are ten things you should know about Democrat Martha Coakley going into Tuesday’s primary.
Overwhelmed With Grief, Aging Rock Star and Special Envoy to Haiti Abandons Post, Flees to Massachusetts to Campaign For Coakley
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=9355
Excerpt: I heard Bill Clinton the other night saying how desperate the situation in Haiti is. Which makes you wonder how he, as “special envoy” to the crippled country, can find the time to abandon the suffering people to go campaign for a hack politician from Massachusetts. No wonder he and Obama roped George W. Bush into the Haiti relief effort. They’re too busy stumping for Martha Coakley.
Heckling Obama ...Blue Blue Boston U
UPDATE: BROWN Rally Breaking Records
https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&shva=1#inbox
Excerpt: Stumping for Coakley, Obama gets uh, stumped. It's not pretty, and the heckling goes on for a quite some time. And he couldn't fill the hall. “It holds 3,000 and frankly only 2,000 to 2,500 showed up.” (FOX reported) Obama Heckled at Coakley Rally in Boston… At a University? (Video)
New Coakley ad claims Scott Brown is Bill Buckner
http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/
Satire.
IDF in Haiti
www.youtube.com/user/idfnadesk?blend=1&ob=4#p/a/u/0/NdplDDY9MGA
And the Saudis are where? IDF Spokesperson January 16th, 2010: The IDF Medical and Rescue Team has arrived in Haiti, set up a field hospital in Port-Au-Prince and is beginning to treat patients there. In addition, the forces are locating and rescuing survivors trapped in ruined buildings, including many who were injured during the collapse of the UN headquarters. The field hospital is prepared to receive dozens of ambulances evacuating injured children from the different disaster struck areas. Between Friday night and Saturday, dozens of truckloads of medical and logistical equipment were unloaded and the field hospital set up. The Israeli delegation landed in the capital of Port-Au-Prince yesterday evening and has located itself in a soccer field near the air port. Upon arrival, C4I teams deployed communications infrastructure in preparations for the hospital's establishment. Two teams, comprised of search and rescue personnel and canine operators from the IDF canine unit were sent out on rescue missions. The first team was sent to the Haiti UN headquarters in order to assist in rescuing survivors. The rescue teams are working in cooperation with local authorities in order to reach disaster struck areas where survivors can be located and assisted. The delegation is scheduled to stay in Haiti for a minimum of two weeks. Further stay will be assessed at the end of this period.
The March Toward “Gleichschaltung”
Is the U.S. Heading Toward Socialism?
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.5272/pub_detail.asp
Excerpt: In 1933, Hitler began a systematic attempt to eliminate opposition and bring about conformity with the Nazi agenda. Using the policy of Gleichschaltung or “Synchronization,” he consolidated his authority within the Reich bureaucracy and key aspects of German culture and life using propaganda, intimidation, appointments of Party loyalists and new laws and directives. Hitler employed the services of an invasive police force and seized control of schools, labor unions, the military, media, the arts, churches, social service organizations and recreational clubs. Similarly, the United States is currently undergoing widespread economic and political change under the Obama administration which is using a series of extensive actions and techniques that, but for intent, bear a striking resemblance to steps taken in pre-war Germany. In the space of a year, the administration, which campaigned on a platform of “hope and change” and publicly avowed support for the redistribution of income in the notorious “Joe the Plumber” interchange, has begun sweeping programs utilizing a system of czars, costly spending plans, takeovers of entire industries and a proposed seizure of the healthcare and energy sectors. In this way, the administration has increased the size, power and jurisdiction of the federal government. It has also maintained unprecedented control of the media and the message, encouraged “spontaneous” content from children singing Obama’s praises on the Internet and begun legislation to secure government control over broadband and the Internet. America would do well during this time of economic and political upheaval to keep close watch on the measures taken by the administration to ensure that our free-enterprise system and our personal freedoms are not overwhelmed by the zeal for change that characterized prewar Germany and led to Hitler’s national socialist dictatorship.
Lawmakers protest healthcare bill’s caps on benefits over policyholder's lifetime
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/76519-lawmakers-protest-health-bills-caps-on-benefits
A cadre of Democratic lawmakers and patient groups is urging congressional Democratic leaders to abandon plans to permit health insurance companies to set lifetime limits on their customers’ benefits. In letters sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and the other senior Democratic lawmakers authoring the final version of healthcare reform legislation, 29 House Democrats and seven Senate Democrats press the leaders to adopt the House’s take on the bill, which would prohibit insurers from establishing a dollar cap on how much they will pay out during a policyholder’s lifetime. (And will policy holders or taxpayers pay the additional costs of this increased coverage?)
Payments to states emerges as major obstacle to healthcare reform
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/76487-payments-to-states-emerges-as-major-obstacle-to-health-reform
Bribes coming home to roost? Excerpt: Some House Democrats believe their states would get shortchanged in the overhaul of the nation’s healthcare system and the funding issue is fast becoming a major hurdle to getting a bill signed into law. How much of a burden states would have to shoulder for a proposed Medicaid expansion is the latest friction point between the House and the Senate, and is threatening to blow a hole in the measure’s price tag. There’s a lot of angst right now from members from states like New York and California over this,” a senior Democratic aide said. “And there’s a growing concern that these states are getting the short end of the stick. And that’s particularly frustrating because it was members from these states that carried this bill to the point we’re at now.” Lawmakers from these states and others are disgruntled because states that already offer more generous Medicaid coverage would be offered less additional assistance than states with relatively smaller programs.
Waupaca Woman Finds Gun in Airport Bathroom
http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=11831863
I blame global warming. Don’t you feel secure? Excerpt: A Waupaca woman finds herself in the middle of a major security investigation at Cleveland's airport. Kimmy Janke had gone through security. In fact, she was in a secure part of the terminal when she stopped to go to the bathroom before making her connecting flight. That's when she found a loaded handgun.
An investigation with our ABC affiliate in Cleveland uncovered what one U.S. senator calls a "serious breach of public safety." In an age of colored threat levels and heightened security, this investigation shows another lapse inside our airports. All Janke and her boyfriend Ryan really remember about last September's trip to Portland is what happened inside the Cleveland airport. "Panic. I didn't know what to do. I looked at it and was like, wow, that's a gun. We're past security. What do I do?" (Put it in your carry on. Free gun, past security, and what a surprise if a guy pulls a box cutter!!)
Copts to demonstrate at White House against Muslim persecution of Christians
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/01/copts-to-demonstrate-at-white-house-against-muslim-persecution-of-christians.html
BO will ignore this.
Playwright petrol attack handed to terrorist police
http://www.rfi.fr/actuen/articles/121/article_6538.asp
The intimidation of anyone who speaks out goes on. Excerpt: An investigation into an attack in Paris on the Algerian actress and playwright Rayhana has been handed over to anti-terrorist police. The investigators suspect the attack was linked to Rayhana's play, A mon âge, je me cache encore pour fumer, which focuses on the treatment of women in Algeria.
Husband Shoots Burglar During 911 Call
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ytn8uplERY&feature=rec-fresh+div-r-2-HM
I’m Tired
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/userletter/?letter_id=4494628646
Another Congressman puts up my piece. Maybe I should move to Oklahoma.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Political Digest January 17, 2010
I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree with every—or any—opinion in the posted article.
Purple for Brown: SEIU Member Supports Republican
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/01/15/purple-for-brown-seiu-member-s
Excerpt: Supporters of Republican Scott Brown lined the sides of a street here outside a Democratic rally at Worcester Polytechnic Institute where former President Bill Clinton came to campaign for Martha Coakley. More than 75 boosters of the GOP candidate turned out for the counter-rally, standing the sub-freezing weather to wave Brown signs and loudly sing (to the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic"), "Glory, Hallelujah . . . Send Scott Brown to D.C.!"
Among the Brown supporters were - believe it or not - rank-and-file members of the Service Employees International Union. "We're Americans - we have our free choice," said one of the SEIU members, who identified herself only as Michelle and said she drove more than 60 miles from Western Massachusetts - "The stepchild of this state" - to show her support for Brown in Worcester.
Cambridge Police Reject Retired Member's Wife's Candidacy for Senate
http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2010/01/cambridge-police-reject-retired-members.html
Excerpt: The Cambridge, Massachusetts police officers association wants to clear up the record. Just because Martha Coakley's husband is a retired Cambridge police officer, a fact which her campaign frequently mentions, they do not want you to think that they actually support Coakley. No, the Cambridge police officers association, at the insistence of its membership, has endorsed Scott Brown for Senate.
It will be tight
Heard from a former Massachusetts Senate colleague, a Democrat, who said that a Brown win is possible, people he’s talking to like Brown personally, always a good thing, or want to send a message. “It will be tight,” is his opinion. Stay tuned.
Joke
Harry Reid is sweating that Scott Brown might change his name to “Scott Tan,” thus ensuring a win.
Haiti
From what I read, things are likely to get a lot worse before they get better. This will not be Obama’s fault, any more than Katrina was Bush’s fault. But he may take a political hit the same way. However, the media were happy to pour blame on Bush, but will defend Obama—though not as much as they would have six months ago. Funny how the world hates us, until something like this happens and the US Military restores order. Then they shut up for a few weeks.
The Backlash Is Coming! The Backlash Is Coming!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704586504574654602781512842.html?mod=djemITP
Excerpt: With characteristic hubris, people in this state like to think they've been at the leading edge of American politics since the "shot heard 'round the world" in 1775. And in the past few years, we've given the nation a preview of Barack Obama's presidential campaign with Deval Patrick's successful 2006 bid for governor; provided a critical boost for Mr. Obama's candidacy in the form of an endorsement by Edward Kennedy; and enacted a health-care law that is a template for ObamaCare. But hubris has yielded to shock here at the possibility that the next political trend the Bay State might foreshadow is a voter backlash against the Democratic Party. After Kennedy's death in August, few imagined there would be any problem replacing him with another Democrat in the U.S. Senate. It's been 16 years since Massachusetts elected a Republican to a congressional seat, 31 years since the last Republican senator left office. Gov. Patrick appointed a former Kennedy aide as the interim senator, and Democratic primary voters chose the well-regarded state Attorney General Martha Coakley as their nominee for the special election. That election, which will be held on Tuesday, was widely seen as a formality. Ms. Coakley coasted through the holiday season while the GOP challenger, little-known state Sen. Scott Brown, scrambled for traction.
Should Democrats pass health-care reform even if Martha Coakley loses?
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/01/should_democrats_pass_health-c.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics
A month ago the question would have been unthinkable.
Clinton joins critics of Nebraska's extra health benefit
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/01/clinton-joins-critics-of-nebra.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics
Excerpt: The much-maligned agreement in the Senate health care bill that would provide Nebraska a special deal in which the federal government would pay forever for extra poor people to join Medicaid there gained another critic on Friday: former president Bill Clinton. "Get as much gunk out of the Senate bill as possible. That Nebraska thing is really hurting us," Clinton told House Democrats in a closed-door speech at the Visitors' Center at the Capitol, according to a House aide who attended the session. (Nelson is trapped, I think. He has to vote for it even if they take his bribe away. Otherwise, it’s like pleading guilty.)
Senate Can Pass Health Care With 51 Votes
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=9336
Even if Democrats lose the special election to pick a new Massachusetts senator Tuesday, Congress may still pass health-care overhaul through a process called reconciliation, a top House Democrat said. That procedure requires 51 votes rather than the 60 needed to prevent Republicans from blocking votes on President Barack Obama’s top legislative priorities. That supermajority is at risk as the Massachusetts race has tightened. “Even before Massachusetts and that race was on the radar screen, we prepared for the process of using reconciliation,” Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said.
Census Multilingual Ad Campaign Assures Illegal Aliens (they can reveal Status)
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2010/jan/census-multilingual-ad-campaign-assures-illegal-aliens
Excerpt: The U.S. government has launched and unprecedented $133 million advertising campaign—in dozens of languages—to promote the census with the Spanish ads assuring the decennial count is confidential and cannot divulge respondents’ immigration status.
Billed as the most diverse outreach campaign in U.S. history, the never-before-seen promotional blitz will include television commercials, print and outdoor ads as well as online advertising. Hundreds of ads have been drafted in 28 languages, including two Chinese dialects, Russian, Arabic and Tagolog. The Spanish advertisements, which will be distributed on national television and print media, are of particular interest because they guarantee the safety of illegal aliens who fill out the census forms. One of them calls on Hispanics to "make yourself count" because “your community needs you.” It encourages those who fill out the forms to assure their community that the census is secure because the confidentiality of every person is protected by law. The U.S. Census Spanish-language web site also guarantees that no questions regarding immigration status appear on the forms and that respondents’ identities are kept private and protected by federal law. (Hummm. So if you are a hard-working citizen, who lives in a blue state, in a place like Blagobamaville, where there is likely to be fraudulent counting of illegals and minorities, better if you don’t get counted, so blue states don’t get more Congresscritters than they deserve. Just saying….)
Cafferty on Pelosi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6_xgKWzhRw&feature=player_embedded
Ripping the taxpayer-paid Congressional vacations to Copenhagen. On CNN. Gotta lve it.
Candidate profile: Corrogan Vaughn for U.S. Senate (Black Republican)
http://www.examiner.com/x-9345-Baltimore-County-Republican-Examiner~y2010m1d14-
But is he light-skinned enough to serve with Harry Reid? Excerpt: Corrogan Vaughn is running for U.S. Senate against Barbara Mikulski. He has a larger than life personality, but it all comes down to a simple statement. It’s all about people and principles.
The Quiet Man
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/the_quiet_man.html
Excerpt: A few years ago, I met a very stone-faced facility manager to give him a quote for janitorial service. He was an old-school Asian businessman, and he wasn't about to give anything away in our conversation. It took about an hour, and throughout, he was never more than icily professional. It was a large facility in the suburbs, bordering some fairly wild open land. As we were winding up the quote, the room suddenly throbbed with the unmistakable beat of rotor blades and the growling whine of a jet-powered helicopter making a very low overhead pass. The melody was identical to a Viet Nam-era Huey. Suddenly, my indifferent friend's eyes widened as we exchanged glances, and both of us raced to the door to see what was going on. It wasn't a remake of Apocalypse Now. It was just the power company using the helicopter to set some new poles on the land next door. However, something happened to that man in our dash to the door. The sound instantly connected us to another time in both our lives. He suddenly opened up and ultimately told me what happened to him in the wake of April 30, 1975. His father was someone the communists wanted desperately to arrest. They badgered his mother daily in her home for over a month, but she never gave up her husband. When the daily interrogations stopped, they posted spies in the woods near this man's home. After six more weeks, the spies finally gave up and left. He said they could tell they were gone because they no longer smelled the cigarette smoke at night….. This April 30, it will be 35 years since that last Huey hovered above the embassy roof in Saigon. For 35 years we've been told that that shameful image represents America's defeat. It does not. It wasn't America who abandoned her allies, leaving hundreds of thousands of people to the vengeance of a ruthless enemy. It was America's elite: her politicians, diplomats, and most of all, her media that condemned them to their fate. That helicopter is an image of their failure, their treachery, and their mendacity. The shame and guilt is theirs, not America's. On the contrary, it was America who welcomed the survivors of that disgraceful day. It was America, and everyday Americans, who sponsored them as they established themselves in a strange land, with its strange language and culture.
Obama Rewards Losers, Punishes Winners
http://townhall.com/columnists/LarryKudlow/2010/01/16/obama_rewards_losers,_punishes_winners?page=full&comments=true
Excerpt: President Obama's misbegotten bank tax is precisely the wrong policy at precisely the wrong time. It will wind up backfiring across the board. Why? Because bank consumers and borrowers are the ones who will wind up paying this tax, creating an obstacle to economic recovery. Obama is actually rewarding losers and punishing winners -- exactly the reverse of free-market capitalism. Who's being rewarded? Obama's bank-tax penalty is being used to finance the failed government takeovers of GM, GMAC, and Fannie and Freddie. And let's not forget the $75 billion failure of the so-called foreclosure loan-modification program. To this day, no one knows where that money went. But the big banks are going to be forced to finance this through a tax that will damage lending, stockholders and consumers. This is sheer political favoritism. Crony capitalism at its worst, with a sub-theme of bailing out Obama's Big Labor political allies. It's just like his bailout of the unions by exempting them from the so-called Cadillac insurance tax until 2018, all while the rest of us may have to suffer under that tax. Speaking of political unfairness and favoritism, mortgage giants Fannie and Freddie will not pay a nickel of this tax. These government-sponsored enterprises were at the very center of the financial maelstrom, financing the government's quotas and targets for unaffordable mortgages. Think about this for a second. President Obama is out there bashing away at excessive bonuses. And yet Fannie and Freddie's CEOs stand to make $6 million in the next year or two.
Keep on Truckin', Detroit
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704281204575003323854572274.html?mod=djemITP
The highway death toll has dropped. If we are all forced into tiny cars it will rise, average citicens dying for the vision of Al Goreeand Barack Obama, who will be safe in their limos. What a shocker that GM reportedly plans to invest $1 billion to launch new versions of its big, fuel-guzzling pickups and SUVs. Does this mean the whims of the Obama administration can't be expected to trump economic reality after all, which would be a terrible precedent for health care? GM's surprise, of course, is no surprise, unless you live on some faraway world where the visions of the Sierra Club prevail. Demand for pickup trucks was said to "collapse" during the recession and home-building slump, but sales of all vehicles collapsed. In good years and bad, the two top-selling vehicles in the U.S. have almost always been Ford and Chevy pickups, with the Dodge pickup somewhere in the top five or 10. That hasn't changed. Out of bankruptcy and under new management, GM naturally wants to survive and prosper. Just as naturally, it intends to invest in the vehicles that traditionally have generated its best sales and earned its biggest profits, even as management flaunts teensy euro cars and electric vehicles at this week's Detroit auto show.
Cos Under Criminal Probe Get Stimulus Funds
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2010/jan/cos-under-criminal-probe-get-stimulus-funds
Excerpt: In the never ending list of examples of fraud and abuse in President Obama’s massive stimulus program, tens of millions of taxpayer dollars are going to large corporations with documented histories of criminal practices in one state alone. Several big—and no doubt politically connected—firms in California are raking in lucrative government stimulus contracts despite previous pollution violations, criminal probes and allegations of fraud, according to a local newspaper investigation. The businesses are all doing work in a relatively concentrated area of southern California, despite their shady pasts.
TB-Infected Man On TSA List Slips Onto Flight
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2010/jan/tb-infected-man-tsa-list-slips-flight
Excerpts: Once again highlighting how dangerously incompetent the nation's airline security system is, a passenger with tuberculosis took a 2,600-mile flight on a commercial plane even though his name appeared on a Homeland Security “do-not-board” list. Authorities evidently realized that the visibly ill man had violated their security system after the flight, which originated in Philadelphia, landed at its San Francisco destination more than five hours later. The man was then detained and whisked away to a local hospital after federal health officials were notified. The damage had been done, however. Hundreds of unsuspecting passengers were needlessly exposed to the highly contagious fatal disease that primarily affects the lungs and can spread to the kidneys and spinal column. The infected male passenger slipped through even though he appeared on a do-not-board list submitted to both the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
Palestinian gets 10 years for shooting Israelis
(http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2010/January/middleeast_January332.xml§ion=middleeast&col=
Didn’t get the memo. Excerpt: COPENHAGEN - A Danish court on Friday sentenced a Palestinian man to 10 years for the shooting of two Israelis in a Danish shopping mall on New Year’s Eve 2008, judicial authorities said.
Aafia Siddiqui demands no Jewish jurors at attempted murder trial
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6988777.ece
Excerpt: A Pakistani scientist who is the only woman accused of working with the al-Qaeda leadership has demanded that Jews should be excluded from the jury at her trial in New York. Aafia Siddiqui called for jurors to undergo genetic testing in an outburst in federal court in Manhattan yesterday.
Hamas fighter killed while handling explosives: medic
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100115/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazablast_20100115113707 Excerpt: GAZA CITY (AFP) – A member of the armed wing of the Islamist movement Hamas was killed while handling explosives in the Gaza Strip overnight, a Palestinian medic said on Friday. Imad al-Selkawy, 25, suffered fatal injuries in the accidental blast, which occurred at Deir el-Balah in the centre of the Palestinian territory, the medic said.
Class act from BYU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72OhOWFMf84
Honoring their opponent—worth watching.
Purple for Brown: SEIU Member Supports Republican
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/01/15/purple-for-brown-seiu-member-s
Excerpt: Supporters of Republican Scott Brown lined the sides of a street here outside a Democratic rally at Worcester Polytechnic Institute where former President Bill Clinton came to campaign for Martha Coakley. More than 75 boosters of the GOP candidate turned out for the counter-rally, standing the sub-freezing weather to wave Brown signs and loudly sing (to the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic"), "Glory, Hallelujah . . . Send Scott Brown to D.C.!"
Among the Brown supporters were - believe it or not - rank-and-file members of the Service Employees International Union. "We're Americans - we have our free choice," said one of the SEIU members, who identified herself only as Michelle and said she drove more than 60 miles from Western Massachusetts - "The stepchild of this state" - to show her support for Brown in Worcester.
Cambridge Police Reject Retired Member's Wife's Candidacy for Senate
http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2010/01/cambridge-police-reject-retired-members.html
Excerpt: The Cambridge, Massachusetts police officers association wants to clear up the record. Just because Martha Coakley's husband is a retired Cambridge police officer, a fact which her campaign frequently mentions, they do not want you to think that they actually support Coakley. No, the Cambridge police officers association, at the insistence of its membership, has endorsed Scott Brown for Senate.
It will be tight
Heard from a former Massachusetts Senate colleague, a Democrat, who said that a Brown win is possible, people he’s talking to like Brown personally, always a good thing, or want to send a message. “It will be tight,” is his opinion. Stay tuned.
Joke
Harry Reid is sweating that Scott Brown might change his name to “Scott Tan,” thus ensuring a win.
Haiti
From what I read, things are likely to get a lot worse before they get better. This will not be Obama’s fault, any more than Katrina was Bush’s fault. But he may take a political hit the same way. However, the media were happy to pour blame on Bush, but will defend Obama—though not as much as they would have six months ago. Funny how the world hates us, until something like this happens and the US Military restores order. Then they shut up for a few weeks.
The Backlash Is Coming! The Backlash Is Coming!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704586504574654602781512842.html?mod=djemITP
Excerpt: With characteristic hubris, people in this state like to think they've been at the leading edge of American politics since the "shot heard 'round the world" in 1775. And in the past few years, we've given the nation a preview of Barack Obama's presidential campaign with Deval Patrick's successful 2006 bid for governor; provided a critical boost for Mr. Obama's candidacy in the form of an endorsement by Edward Kennedy; and enacted a health-care law that is a template for ObamaCare. But hubris has yielded to shock here at the possibility that the next political trend the Bay State might foreshadow is a voter backlash against the Democratic Party. After Kennedy's death in August, few imagined there would be any problem replacing him with another Democrat in the U.S. Senate. It's been 16 years since Massachusetts elected a Republican to a congressional seat, 31 years since the last Republican senator left office. Gov. Patrick appointed a former Kennedy aide as the interim senator, and Democratic primary voters chose the well-regarded state Attorney General Martha Coakley as their nominee for the special election. That election, which will be held on Tuesday, was widely seen as a formality. Ms. Coakley coasted through the holiday season while the GOP challenger, little-known state Sen. Scott Brown, scrambled for traction.
Should Democrats pass health-care reform even if Martha Coakley loses?
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/01/should_democrats_pass_health-c.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics
A month ago the question would have been unthinkable.
Clinton joins critics of Nebraska's extra health benefit
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/01/clinton-joins-critics-of-nebra.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics
Excerpt: The much-maligned agreement in the Senate health care bill that would provide Nebraska a special deal in which the federal government would pay forever for extra poor people to join Medicaid there gained another critic on Friday: former president Bill Clinton. "Get as much gunk out of the Senate bill as possible. That Nebraska thing is really hurting us," Clinton told House Democrats in a closed-door speech at the Visitors' Center at the Capitol, according to a House aide who attended the session. (Nelson is trapped, I think. He has to vote for it even if they take his bribe away. Otherwise, it’s like pleading guilty.)
Senate Can Pass Health Care With 51 Votes
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=9336
Even if Democrats lose the special election to pick a new Massachusetts senator Tuesday, Congress may still pass health-care overhaul through a process called reconciliation, a top House Democrat said. That procedure requires 51 votes rather than the 60 needed to prevent Republicans from blocking votes on President Barack Obama’s top legislative priorities. That supermajority is at risk as the Massachusetts race has tightened. “Even before Massachusetts and that race was on the radar screen, we prepared for the process of using reconciliation,” Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said.
Census Multilingual Ad Campaign Assures Illegal Aliens (they can reveal Status)
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2010/jan/census-multilingual-ad-campaign-assures-illegal-aliens
Excerpt: The U.S. government has launched and unprecedented $133 million advertising campaign—in dozens of languages—to promote the census with the Spanish ads assuring the decennial count is confidential and cannot divulge respondents’ immigration status.
Billed as the most diverse outreach campaign in U.S. history, the never-before-seen promotional blitz will include television commercials, print and outdoor ads as well as online advertising. Hundreds of ads have been drafted in 28 languages, including two Chinese dialects, Russian, Arabic and Tagolog. The Spanish advertisements, which will be distributed on national television and print media, are of particular interest because they guarantee the safety of illegal aliens who fill out the census forms. One of them calls on Hispanics to "make yourself count" because “your community needs you.” It encourages those who fill out the forms to assure their community that the census is secure because the confidentiality of every person is protected by law. The U.S. Census Spanish-language web site also guarantees that no questions regarding immigration status appear on the forms and that respondents’ identities are kept private and protected by federal law. (Hummm. So if you are a hard-working citizen, who lives in a blue state, in a place like Blagobamaville, where there is likely to be fraudulent counting of illegals and minorities, better if you don’t get counted, so blue states don’t get more Congresscritters than they deserve. Just saying….)
Cafferty on Pelosi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6_xgKWzhRw&feature=player_embedded
Ripping the taxpayer-paid Congressional vacations to Copenhagen. On CNN. Gotta lve it.
Candidate profile: Corrogan Vaughn for U.S. Senate (Black Republican)
http://www.examiner.com/x-9345-Baltimore-County-Republican-Examiner~y2010m1d14-
But is he light-skinned enough to serve with Harry Reid? Excerpt: Corrogan Vaughn is running for U.S. Senate against Barbara Mikulski. He has a larger than life personality, but it all comes down to a simple statement. It’s all about people and principles.
The Quiet Man
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/the_quiet_man.html
Excerpt: A few years ago, I met a very stone-faced facility manager to give him a quote for janitorial service. He was an old-school Asian businessman, and he wasn't about to give anything away in our conversation. It took about an hour, and throughout, he was never more than icily professional. It was a large facility in the suburbs, bordering some fairly wild open land. As we were winding up the quote, the room suddenly throbbed with the unmistakable beat of rotor blades and the growling whine of a jet-powered helicopter making a very low overhead pass. The melody was identical to a Viet Nam-era Huey. Suddenly, my indifferent friend's eyes widened as we exchanged glances, and both of us raced to the door to see what was going on. It wasn't a remake of Apocalypse Now. It was just the power company using the helicopter to set some new poles on the land next door. However, something happened to that man in our dash to the door. The sound instantly connected us to another time in both our lives. He suddenly opened up and ultimately told me what happened to him in the wake of April 30, 1975. His father was someone the communists wanted desperately to arrest. They badgered his mother daily in her home for over a month, but she never gave up her husband. When the daily interrogations stopped, they posted spies in the woods near this man's home. After six more weeks, the spies finally gave up and left. He said they could tell they were gone because they no longer smelled the cigarette smoke at night….. This April 30, it will be 35 years since that last Huey hovered above the embassy roof in Saigon. For 35 years we've been told that that shameful image represents America's defeat. It does not. It wasn't America who abandoned her allies, leaving hundreds of thousands of people to the vengeance of a ruthless enemy. It was America's elite: her politicians, diplomats, and most of all, her media that condemned them to their fate. That helicopter is an image of their failure, their treachery, and their mendacity. The shame and guilt is theirs, not America's. On the contrary, it was America who welcomed the survivors of that disgraceful day. It was America, and everyday Americans, who sponsored them as they established themselves in a strange land, with its strange language and culture.
Obama Rewards Losers, Punishes Winners
http://townhall.com/columnists/LarryKudlow/2010/01/16/obama_rewards_losers,_punishes_winners?page=full&comments=true
Excerpt: President Obama's misbegotten bank tax is precisely the wrong policy at precisely the wrong time. It will wind up backfiring across the board. Why? Because bank consumers and borrowers are the ones who will wind up paying this tax, creating an obstacle to economic recovery. Obama is actually rewarding losers and punishing winners -- exactly the reverse of free-market capitalism. Who's being rewarded? Obama's bank-tax penalty is being used to finance the failed government takeovers of GM, GMAC, and Fannie and Freddie. And let's not forget the $75 billion failure of the so-called foreclosure loan-modification program. To this day, no one knows where that money went. But the big banks are going to be forced to finance this through a tax that will damage lending, stockholders and consumers. This is sheer political favoritism. Crony capitalism at its worst, with a sub-theme of bailing out Obama's Big Labor political allies. It's just like his bailout of the unions by exempting them from the so-called Cadillac insurance tax until 2018, all while the rest of us may have to suffer under that tax. Speaking of political unfairness and favoritism, mortgage giants Fannie and Freddie will not pay a nickel of this tax. These government-sponsored enterprises were at the very center of the financial maelstrom, financing the government's quotas and targets for unaffordable mortgages. Think about this for a second. President Obama is out there bashing away at excessive bonuses. And yet Fannie and Freddie's CEOs stand to make $6 million in the next year or two.
Keep on Truckin', Detroit
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704281204575003323854572274.html?mod=djemITP
The highway death toll has dropped. If we are all forced into tiny cars it will rise, average citicens dying for the vision of Al Goreeand Barack Obama, who will be safe in their limos. What a shocker that GM reportedly plans to invest $1 billion to launch new versions of its big, fuel-guzzling pickups and SUVs. Does this mean the whims of the Obama administration can't be expected to trump economic reality after all, which would be a terrible precedent for health care? GM's surprise, of course, is no surprise, unless you live on some faraway world where the visions of the Sierra Club prevail. Demand for pickup trucks was said to "collapse" during the recession and home-building slump, but sales of all vehicles collapsed. In good years and bad, the two top-selling vehicles in the U.S. have almost always been Ford and Chevy pickups, with the Dodge pickup somewhere in the top five or 10. That hasn't changed. Out of bankruptcy and under new management, GM naturally wants to survive and prosper. Just as naturally, it intends to invest in the vehicles that traditionally have generated its best sales and earned its biggest profits, even as management flaunts teensy euro cars and electric vehicles at this week's Detroit auto show.
Cos Under Criminal Probe Get Stimulus Funds
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2010/jan/cos-under-criminal-probe-get-stimulus-funds
Excerpt: In the never ending list of examples of fraud and abuse in President Obama’s massive stimulus program, tens of millions of taxpayer dollars are going to large corporations with documented histories of criminal practices in one state alone. Several big—and no doubt politically connected—firms in California are raking in lucrative government stimulus contracts despite previous pollution violations, criminal probes and allegations of fraud, according to a local newspaper investigation. The businesses are all doing work in a relatively concentrated area of southern California, despite their shady pasts.
TB-Infected Man On TSA List Slips Onto Flight
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2010/jan/tb-infected-man-tsa-list-slips-flight
Excerpts: Once again highlighting how dangerously incompetent the nation's airline security system is, a passenger with tuberculosis took a 2,600-mile flight on a commercial plane even though his name appeared on a Homeland Security “do-not-board” list. Authorities evidently realized that the visibly ill man had violated their security system after the flight, which originated in Philadelphia, landed at its San Francisco destination more than five hours later. The man was then detained and whisked away to a local hospital after federal health officials were notified. The damage had been done, however. Hundreds of unsuspecting passengers were needlessly exposed to the highly contagious fatal disease that primarily affects the lungs and can spread to the kidneys and spinal column. The infected male passenger slipped through even though he appeared on a do-not-board list submitted to both the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
Palestinian gets 10 years for shooting Israelis
(http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2010/January/middleeast_January332.xml§ion=middleeast&col=
Didn’t get the memo. Excerpt: COPENHAGEN - A Danish court on Friday sentenced a Palestinian man to 10 years for the shooting of two Israelis in a Danish shopping mall on New Year’s Eve 2008, judicial authorities said.
Aafia Siddiqui demands no Jewish jurors at attempted murder trial
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6988777.ece
Excerpt: A Pakistani scientist who is the only woman accused of working with the al-Qaeda leadership has demanded that Jews should be excluded from the jury at her trial in New York. Aafia Siddiqui called for jurors to undergo genetic testing in an outburst in federal court in Manhattan yesterday.
Hamas fighter killed while handling explosives: medic
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100115/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazablast_20100115113707 Excerpt: GAZA CITY (AFP) – A member of the armed wing of the Islamist movement Hamas was killed while handling explosives in the Gaza Strip overnight, a Palestinian medic said on Friday. Imad al-Selkawy, 25, suffered fatal injuries in the accidental blast, which occurred at Deir el-Balah in the centre of the Palestinian territory, the medic said.
Class act from BYU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72OhOWFMf84
Honoring their opponent—worth watching.
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