Posts Tagged ‘Democrats’
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2014
So Democratic state representative Trey Martinez-Fischer used his speech at the Texas Democratic convention to say that GOP stands for “gringos y ostros pendejos” (or, roughly, “gringos and other assholes”). In other words, he just insulted every black, Hispanic and Asian Republican in Texas.
I knew that name sounded familiar, mainly because he was born Ferdinand Frank Fischer III and formerly known as Tracey Fisher, then started going by Trey Martinez-Fischer.
I’m sure the fact he was running for office as a Democrat in a Hispanic majority district had nothing to do with that decision.
More and more it seems that racist condescension is the default liberal attitude to those who wander off the Democratic plantation…
Tags:Democrats, liberal racism, Texas, Texas Democratic Party, Trey Martinez-Fischer
Posted in Democrats, Texas | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 1st, 2014
The liberal outrage machine was working overtime yesterday to see who could issue the most hysterical denunciation of the Hobby Lobby decision. Without actually, you know, addressing the language of the decision.
First an foremost are the idiots who scream that the Supreme Court is “banning contraception.”
In fact, the decision doesn’t “ban” any form of birth control, it merely invalidates the Obama Administration mandate to provide abortifacients against their own religious beliefs. Or, to put it another way:
Second, it is amazing how few (if any) liberals mention how closely tied the decision is to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby was a statutory decision based on that act, not a First Amendment case.
[Facepalm]
Yeah, the Hobby Lobby ruling doesn’t involve the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, except for the tiny detail of basing the entire decision on the language of the act. Which it announces in the very first paragraph of the decision:
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) prohibits the “Government [from] substantially burden[ing] a person’s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability” unless the Government “demonstrates that application of the burden to the person—(1) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and (2) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.”
Finally, there’s the amazing ignorance of comparing not forcing a company to buy four specific types of birth control for their employees to a legal regime where a woman can be stoned to death for the crime of being raped:
The stupid. It burns.
Tags:Democrats, Hobby Lobby, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Supreme Court
Posted in Democrats, Supreme Court | 2 Comments »
Saturday, June 28th, 2014
Pretty much what the title says. Consider it a cheap but tasty add-on to your regular blogging menu, like those “crumblies” at Long John Silvers…
Tags:Crime, Democrats, gun control, Guns, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Michael Bloomberg
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Guns | No Comments »
Friday, June 27th, 2014
A small LinkSwarm for a busy Friday:
Evidently Obama wants $500 million to arm the Syrian rebels that we’re supposedly trying to fight in Iraq. Oh, the article says he wants to arm “moderate” rebels. Has anyone seen these moderate rebels? Who are they? Kurds? Oppressed Christians? The problem isn’t that they don’t exist, the problem is that the actual moderates seem to have forces too small to affect the outcome of the fight, and I don’t trust this administration on, well, anything, but especially on their ability to discern the difference between “moderate” rebels and radical Islamic militias from 6,000 miles away….
Welcome to the ObamaCare Death Spiral.
The War Nerd suggests that Putin is mucking around in eastern Ukraine less to take it outright than to keep it at a simmer so he gets to keep the Crimea without a fight. Also include this epic quote: “Tom Friedman, the Michael Jordan of wrong.”
Obama gets unanimous beatdown from the Supreme Court. For the 13th time.
Even liberals are turned off by Hillary’s poor, poor pitiful me act.
As Hillary Clinton gears up for a Presidential run in 2016, ABC decides to make one of Bill Clinton’s chief aides a network anchor. Lovely.
Hillary’s book sells more than 100,000 copies, but woefully short of what it would need to earn back it’s whopping $14 million advance…
“Did Obama Fail Black America?” Obviously the question mark is unnecessary, as the only question is whether that headline is one or two words too long.
Feminism: The Tiny Elite: “You don’t have to look far to realize that victimhood is the flavor of the moment in America. Deeming oneself a victim delivers an afforded reverence, especially if said victimhood is biologically based.” Today feminism is “a group working largely for the interests of elite white women.” (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
How the media discriminates against stories than indict big government.
Phil Collins donates his extensive collection of Alamo relics to the state. In fact, Collins is donating not only his existing collection, but stuff he continues to acquire. Three cheers for him.
Much like obeying the law, word problems are not Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings’ strong suit.
Texas man told to remove American flag from his balcony because it was “a threat to Muslims.” Get a rope…
Far-left cartoonist Ted Rall gets the axe. I’m not sure there’s a violin tiny enough…
Finally, you too can own the screenplay to Manos: The Hands of Fate.
I hope to have a longer post of the kangaroo court trying Michael Quinn Sullivan next week…
Tags:ABC, Alcee Hastings, Democrats, feminism, George Stephanopoulos, Hillary Clinton, Iowahawk, Iraq, Jihad, John Stossel, LinkSwarm, Media Watch, ObamaCare, Phil Collins, Syria, Ted Rall, Ukraine
Posted in Democrats, Foreign Policy, Media Watch, Military, Obama Scandals, ObamaCare, Regulation, Supreme Court, Texas | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 24th, 2014
Hot on the heels of Hillary Clinton claiming that her family was dead broke in 2001 (for certain values of “dead broke” that include being worth more than $20 million) comes news that Hillary has doubled down on the “shucks, we’re just regular folks” gambit.
In an interview with The Guardian, Clinton said she isn’t “truly well off”:
But with her huge personal wealth, how could Clinton possibly hope to be credible on this issue when people see her as part of the problem, not its solution?
“But they don’t see me as part of the problem,” she protests, “because we pay ordinary income tax, unlike a lot of people who are truly well off, not to name names; and we’ve done it through dint of hard work,” she says, letting off another burst of laughter. If past form is any guide, she must be finding my question painful.
The full quote is actually more damning than just the “not truly well off” bit because it suggests an even more radical disconnect from the economic reality most Americans face every day. Evidently Hillary is suggesting she gets a pass from class warfare envy because: A.) She and Bill have actually deigned to obey the law by paying taxes, and B.) Americans know just how hard it is for Bill to give $103 million worth of speeches.
A few choice reactions:
Moreover, Hillary’s daughter seems to have picked up on her mother’s entitlement issues. It seems that the woman married to a former Goldman Sachs manager who started his own hedge fund, the woman who owns a $10 million Manhattan apartment, the woman who was given a $3 million wedding and the woman who MSNBC paid $600,000 a year to (or $26,724 for every minute she appeared on-air) says she doesn’t care about money.
At least one pundit has suggested that Hillary’s clan suffers from “Status-Income Disequilibrium”, in which people with All The Right Opinions suddenly realize how much wealthier fellow members of the Overclass are. Or, as Rush Limbaugh puts it, “in [Hillary]’s world, $50 million is peanuts.”
Let’s give Bill Clinton one small piece of praise in all this: As far as I can tell, on this particular subject he’s apparently been smart enough to keep his mouth shut…
Tags:Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Democrats, Economics, Hillary Clinton, Rush Limbaugh, video, wealth
Posted in Democrats, Economics | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 18th, 2014
There’s so much news going on in the world that it’s hard to sit down and focus on one story to get a single blog post out of it when there’s another huge story coming down the pike. Iraq, Ukraine, the VA Scandal, the dog eating Lois Lerner’s emails (“Barack Obama has brought us Jimmy Carter’s economy and Richard Nixon’s excuses”); too damn much going on to focus on one thing. So here’s a LinkSwarm instead:
Barack Obama is not interested in war, but war is interested in Obama.
Obama golfs while the world burns. “Oh Lord, I was born a golfing man!/I get in a round whenever I can…”
Obama Administration admits that ObamaCare will cost people more for health care, even with the subsidies.
Russia cuts off natural gas supplies to Ukraine.
Russian tanks appear in eastern Ukraine.
Russia’s top anti-corruption cop decides to take up flying.
One reason the IRS went after the Tea Party: Chuck Schumer asked them to.
“The Obama administration has reached levels of hitherto unknown incompetence.” (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
A majority of Americans do not believe that Obama is trustworthy. You don’t say.
Another day, another 48 people dead at the hands of Jihadists in Kenya. There are days when 48 people killed at a hotel would top the news…
The Obama Administration also released 12 Jihadists in Afghanistan.
Won’t someone please think about poor, impoverished Hillary Clinton?
The Obama Administration’s intentionally lax border control enforcement is letting letting Mexican gang members waltz into the country.
“Thousands of young, poor would-be immigrants—90,000 this year alone—have swarmed across the border, the logical fruition of the entire cynical approach of the Obama administration toward illegal immigration.”
Bill Gates wants to propagandize you into accepting illegal alien amnesty. Actually, what Gates and his high tech baron compatriots really want is more H1-B visas, but since that doesn’t help the Democratic Party as much as illegal alien amnesty, it gets rolled into the giant “comprehensive immigration reform” ball.
Should Obama have erased the IRS emails Nixon have erased the tapes?
Turning point in the Brat campaign: crashing a staged event to prove Cantor was lying about amnesty.
“Prostitutes more than double their earnings by moonlighting as currency traders” in Venezuela.
Argentina runs out of rope.
European cab drivers protest Uber by halting traffic. Result? Uber sees 850% increase in signups.
I’m going to boil this down to the essentials: Never open an account with a Georgia bank.
But maybe they need to seize your money to pay for all that food stamp fraud.
Does anyone really think West Virginia Democratic Senate candidate Natalie Tennant is any more “pro-coal” or “pro-gun” than Bart Stupak was “pro-life”?
Another year, another lefty writer caught plagiarizing the work of others. And not just any lefty writer, but a Pulitzer Prize winner to boot…
Chelsea Clinton got paid $600,000 by MSNBC. That worked out to $26,724 for each minute she was on the air. In other news, your betters in the overclass really don’t care what you think of the financial compensation one member of the class gives to another…
Millions in “urban redevelopment” money in Democratic-controlled Philadelphia ends up in certain people’s pockets with almost nothing to show for it. Try to contain your shock. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
South Carolina university professors: “How dare you make us teach the Constitution?”
Violence and subway strike in advance of Brazil’s World Cup.
New guidelines for ignoring due process in accusations of college campus sexual assault = Lawsuitapalooza!
Erick Erickson calls out Ted Cruz for not endorsing more conservatives.
Dwight does some gun geeking for you Smith & Wesson fans.
Dear anyone who’s ever self-published their own book: you’re a fascist Ayn Rand supporter, using your evil individualism to bypass the holy gatekeepers of traditional publishing.
And if you think that’s the stupidest left-wing essay you’ll read today, think again.
There was enough voter fraud in a Weslaco City Commissioner Race for the judge to order a new election. “Some of the disallowed ballots were cast by voters claiming Rivera’s childhood home as their address.” Note: Weslaco is down in the valley right next to Donna, Texas, which had its own voting scandal.
Doggies! (Patriotic doggies, no less.) (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
“This harlot-sized ensemble will make you the envy of your trampish posse on your fraudulent wedding day.”
Tags:Argentina, Brazil, Chelsea Clinton, David Brat, Democrats, Eric Cantor, feminism, fraud, Georgia, Guns, Iraq, IRS, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jihad, Military, MSNBC, Natalie Tennant, ObamaCare, Philadelphia, Richard M. Nixon, Russia, Snith & Wesson, South Carolina, Ted Cruz, Texas, Ukraine, Venezuela, Victor Davis Hanson, Weslaco, West Virginia
Posted in Border Control, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Media Watch, Military, Obama Scandals, ObamaCare, Texas, Waste and Fraud | 1 Comment »
Monday, June 9th, 2014
Here’s a LinkSwarm to kick your week off with:
Gee, what could have possibly sent hospital prices skyrocketing? It’s an unsolvable mystery! (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Old and Busted: ObamaCare will save the government money. The New Hotness: “In its latest report on the law, the Congressional Budget Office said it is no longer possible to assess the overall fiscal impact of the law.”
“For Obama and his defenders to blame Bush — or anyone but Obama — 64 months into his administration deserves nothing short of lip-curling scorn.”
The New Narrative: Obama is just massively incompetent at everything but campaigning.
The VA Scandal displays “a systemic lack of integrity.”
Nothing says “socialism is a raging success” quite like rationing drinking water. Enjoy your socialist paradise, Caracas, Venezuela! (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
The idiocy of “white privilege.”
“It is not sufficient that transsexuals should be free to act on their delusions — the rest of us are expected to participate in them with unreserved enthusiasm, and the Left is willing to use the state to compel us to do so…The belief that members of minority political tendencies should be jailed for their views is very much in vogue for the Left at the moment.”
Steve Crowder: Having a Penis Doesn’t Equal Misogyny.
Another day, another Social Justice Warrior issung death threats against their political enemies.
50 Years of Democratic Rule tracking Detroit’s decay using Google street view.
Once again, liberal Democrats oppose a project that might give burly blue collar men high-paying jobs.
Christopher Hitchens on Hillary Clinton. Yes, it’s old. (The fact Hitchens exited this vale of tears over two years ago may have been the first tipoff.) But I suspect this will not be the last time I repost it between now and 2016…
New York City now has more cops collecting pensions than walking the street.
The indicted friend of the Boston Marathon Bomber wired $71,000 to people in six countries using fake names. I think we can all agree that that’s not even slightly suspicious…
Best and worst paying college majors.
Vasser’s new Stalinist show trials.
The Texas Republican Convention occurred in Ft. Worth over the weekend, and delegates killed a down-payment on illegal alien amnesty, the so-called “Texas Solution.” How many time does the GOP establishment need to be told that actual voters reject amnesty, and demand that the border be secured before any changes are made to immigration law before they start listening?
Speaking of amnesty, all this “Dream Act” talk has sent children pouring over the border, where there are no housed in overcrowded and unhygienic holding facilities. Thanks, Obama!
Some of them are being dumped in Arizona.
Even Obama’s own immigration adviser says says his amnesty plan is endangering children. Plus “roughly 70 percent of swing-voters want tougher immigration rules.” Obama seems unwilling to stop the flood of illegal aliens because he views them all as potential Democratic voters…
10 essential economic truths liberals need to learn.
Fight gearing up between the Bureau of Land Management and Texas.
Grammer Nazis.
Public Service Announcement: Try not to murder people for imaginary Internet memes.
Samuel L. Jackson takes a selfie at a an Israel Independence parade in New York City. naturally liberals freak out.
When I think “Hip-Hop” the first name that comes to mind is Ron Howard.
Al Sharpton vs. The Teleprompter:
Science Fiction Writer Jay Lake, RIP.
Tags:Al Sharpton, amnesty, Arizona, Border Controls, Critical Race Theory, Democrats, Detroit, Israel, New York City, Obama Scandals, ObamaCare, Samuel L. Jackson, Steve Crowder, Texas, victimhood, video
Posted in Border Control, Communism, Crime, Democrats, Obama Scandals, ObamaCare, Regulation, Texas, unions, video | No Comments »
Thursday, June 5th, 2014
I’ve been busy with other things, so until Dwight covered it, I didn’t realize that indicted California state senator Leland Yee’s suspended campaign still came in third in the race for California Secretary of State, pulling in a quarter-million votes.
Yee finished ahead of ethics watchdog Dan Schnur, a former chairman of the state Fair Political Practices Commission, who framed his campaign around cleaning up Sacramento. Yee also finished ahead of Derek Cressman, a Democrat and former director of the good-government group Common Cause.
“Sure, he’s been indicted on a gun trafficking and murder-for-hire scheme, but I really liked his opposition to banning shark fin soup.”
Alternately, maybe all California voters just naturally assume that all Democratic office holders in their state are crooked.
In other Leland Yee news:
California’s Senate Rules Committee refuses to release his legislative calendar. Because you puny peasants have no right to know what slimy deals your betters are making behind closed doors.
The presiding judge has ordered the material released to the defense attorneys sealed, as per Yee’s wishes, but over the objections of the lawyers for Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow.
“There are sensitive materials identifying numerous individuals who are not believed to have engaged in any criminal activities, but who were nonetheless captured on FBI surveillance or documented in FBI reports, for example after being introduced by charged defendants to undercover agents. Such materials, if improperly disclosed, could be used to besmirch these otherwise innocent individuals,” noted the April 8 motion for a protective order.
Chow’s lawyers, Tony Serra and his team, who claim their client is innocent, take issue with this reasoning.
”He knows the politicians, the celebrities who were investigated and through this order of his gagging us, there’s an implication he’s almost protecting their reputation,” Serra said about Breyer.
Tags:California, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Leland Yee, Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Elections | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2014
Lots of news on the Texas vs. California front. An audit turns up $31 billion in California budget mistakes, Democrats hike the minimum wage there, Jerry Brown tries to do something about the growing CalSTARS pension deficit, and people and businesses continue to depart the “Golden State” for Texas…
You know how Democrats were crowing that California had a budget surplus? Forget about it:
The California Bureau of State Audits set off a scandal on June 1st by disclosing that the State Controller’s Office made accounting misstatements amounting to $31.65 billion. The timing of the announcement may be devastating to the Democrats who expected to use their super-majority to pass billions of dollars in increased spending, but may now find the net effects of the accounting restatements are a $7 billion General Fund deficit.
Snip.
As the former Treasurer of Orange County, California it is my preliminary judgment that under state law the negative $7.847 billion impact from overstating general fund assets and revenues and overstating deferred tax revenues may create an “on-budget” deficit to the state’s $96.3 billion “General Fund Budget.”
From the same audit: “There was a deferred tax-revenue figure posted as $6.2 billion when it was actually $6.2 million.”
California Senate votes to hike minimum wage to $13 an hour. It’s like they want to export ALL their jobs to Texas.
Wealth continues to move from high tax states to low tax states. “The nine states without a personal income tax gained $146 billion in new wealth while the nine states with the highest income tax rates lost $107 billion.”
Union-dominated states are sinking further into economic stagnation as Democratic politicians increasingly dominate the local political climate. In 2012, California Democrats won a supermajority in both houses of the legislature and proceeded to accelerate a tax and spending spree that has been ongoing for two decades. For example, California now has the nation’s top state income-tax rate, at 13.3 percent.
Those kind of policies have consequences. The Manhattan Institute released a report in 2012 that found that since 1990, California had lost nearly 3.4 million residents to other states with lower tax rates.
Snip.
The U.S. is swiftly becoming a tale of two nations. States that are following the Reagan model of low taxes and incentives are booming while states that are opting for the Obama model of wealth redistribution and European welfare-state economics are stagnating.
Texas’ unemployment rate “has now been equal to or below the national average since January 2007 and below California’s rate—4th highest in the nation—for 93 consecutive months.”
A look at how many more billions per year California taxpayers will be coughing up for the inevitable CalSTARS bailout.
“Alameda Unified’s pension costs could nearly triple and those of its teachers could rise by 25 percent under Governor Jerry Brown’s proposal to reform the California State Teachers Retirement System.”
But even though its a step in the right direction, Brown’s proposals stretch out installments so far that they’re still not fiscally responsible. “Even with the higher rates, the debt would continue to grow until 2026. That’s because the amortization over 32 years means the payments would essentially not even cover the interest costs for the first 12.”
And the assumptions behind the repayment schedule sound like fantasy: “The state still faces a huge unfunded liability in the teachers’ pension fund—the governor’s proposal would increase employee’s contributions by 3 percent and increase school district’s by nearly 2 ½ times and it would still take 30 years to close the gap with a generously estimated 7.5 percent annual return.”
Judge rules CalPERS can be sued for mishandling a long-term insurance program.
Thanks to various legal rulings, there will be more felons on California streets. “Release on parole continues a steady climb in California. In just the past five years, over twice as many convicts serving life sentences have been paroled than in the last two decades combined.”
Cargo aviation firm Ameriflight is relocating from Burbank to Dallas/Ft. Worth.
Sony Pictures Imageworks visual effects house is relocating to Canada.
Tesla narrows down list of possible factory locations to Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas. Not on the list: His home state of California. “The winning state will need to have all the necessary permits approved by the time Tesla plans to break ground next month. With the onerous requirements of the California Environmental Protection Act (CEQA) and other environmental regulations, Tesla would be lucky to break ground by 2017 – when its battery factory is scheduled to open.”
New effort to bring California’s underfunded health liabilities onto the books. “Legislation in the early 1990s created an investment fund for California state worker retiree health care, but lawmakers never put money in the fund.”
Remember the FBI agent who shot and killed a suspect connected with the Boston marathon bombing? Turns out he receives $50,000 a year in disability pay from the Oakland Police Department. And he’s been getting that since 2004, when he retired at age 31. “59% of Oakland Police Department retirees have received disability retirements.” (Hat tip: Pension Tsunami.)
Why people are moving to Texas:
As a growing number of Americans choose to call Texas home, it is critical that policymakers not lose sight of the reasons why: low taxes, limited government, and personal responsibility. Liberty is popular. That’s a message that needs reinforcement, particularly at the local level where some of the macro level trends involving taxes, spending, and debt are moving in the wrong direction. We can keep Texas and our cities beacons of prosperity and flourishing — but to do that, we must understand the principles that got us here, and defend them in policy and the public square.
Some California cities have hidden taxes just to fund government worker pensions. (Hat tip: Pension Tsunami.)
Lawsuit over California teacher’s union seniority rules to go to trial.
Jerry Brown may let California commit more Kelo-like eminent domain abuses.
Sriracha followup: The Irwindale City Council voted Wednesday night to drop its declaration that the hot sauce plant was a public nuisance.
Just so I’m not accused of glossing over the occasional bit of bad Texas economic news, Motorola Mobility (which is owned by Google) is closing their Texas smartphone assembly plant. But I think this says more about Motorola Mobility’s viability in a smart phone market dominated by Apple and Samsung than about Texas’ economy…
Tags:Ameriflight, Budget, California, CalPERs, CalSTARS, Crime, Democrats, Economics, pension crisis, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Sriracha, Tesla Motors, Texas, unions
Posted in Budget, Crime, Democrats, Economics, Texas, unions, Welfare State | 1 Comment »