Posts Tagged ‘Democrats’
Wednesday, May 14th, 2014
Time for another Texas vs. California roundup:
Chief Executive ranks the states for business friendliness. Once again, Texas is ranked the best state for doing business in. And once again, California is ranked the worst.
“Texas is the best state for business and I don’t see anything to slow TX down. The education and quality of eligible employees is excellent right now. Business is booming and growing quicker and more rapidly in 2014 than any other year. It’s an exciting time in Texas.”
“California goes out of its way to be anti-business and particularly where one might put manufacturing and/or distribution operations.”
“California continues to lead in disincentives for growth businesses to stay.”
“California’s attitude toward business makes you question why anyone would build a business there.”
“California could hardly do more to discourage business if that was the goal. The regulatory, tax and political environment are crushing.”
California Governor Jerry Brown unveils a budget that takes baby steps toward actual pension and budget reform. Naturally Brown’s fellow Democrats in the state legislature are fighting him every step of the way.
Texas vs. California? Try Houston vs. California:
California state rep thinks the minimum wage in the state should be $26 an hour. I agree, especially if they call it the “Let’s Drive All Remaining Business to Texas Act”…
When he was a San Diego City Councilman, California Democrat Congressman Scott Peters not only underfunded the city’s pension plan while hiking benefits, he indemnified the pension board for doing so.
More on Peters, via an attack ad:
“A new analysis of California’s independent public retirement systems suggests they are more woefully underfunded than they appear, and that Los Angeles County is among the worst of all.”
Bankrupt Stockton’s last remaining big creditor refuses to take 1¢ on the dollar for debts the city owes. (Remember: State pension fund CalPERS didn’t take any haircut at all.)
In bankrupt San Bernardino, talks between the city and CalPERS are making the federal judge overseeing the case impatient.
Chuck DeVore on why Texans trust their state government more than most:
Then factors that appear to explain from 13 percent to 30 percent of the differences in trust among the states: rate of union membership,with more trust in states with lower union membership; state’s level of soft tyranny, a measure of the power of state government over its people; percentage of state and local taxes as a share of income, with lower taxes leading to more trust; the right to keep and bear arms, with citizens trusting a government that trusts them to defend themselves; a business-friendly lawsuit climate; the days the legislature is in session, with less trust as the legislature approaches full-time; and the average commute time, with less time spent in traffic leading to more trust.
Lastly, a combination of from two to four of the previous factors correlates to 34 to 41 percent of the trust in each state with a mix of four: taxes, gun rights, lawsuit reform and commute time, showing the highest link to trust. Comparatively speaking, Texas lawmakers have done well in these four areas of public policy.
When building trust in state government, enacting liberty-minded legislation is a good place to start.
But it isn’t all sunshine in Texas Local debt continues to rise, though Eanes School District voters finally decide that they’ve had enough and defeat a bond proposal.
Tags:Budget, California, CalPERs, Chuck DeVore, Democrats, Jerry Brown, pension crisis, Regulation, San Bernardino, Scott Peters, Stockton, Texas, unions, video
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Regulation, Texas, unions, video, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »
Monday, May 12th, 2014
Health care costs up most since 1980. Thanks, ObamaCare!
And low wage workers are the ones hurt worst by the employer mandate.
Adventures in Liberal Racism:
The late Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V., a former leader of the KKK, twice was elected the majority leader in the U.S. Senate and served a 6-year stint as, ironically, minority leader in between. Add Harry Reid, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton and countless others to the list of elected Democrats who’ve said things just as racist as Sterling, yet faced no consequences.
To liberals, people are their skin color first, and that should dictate their thoughts and behavior. To stray from that is somehow a betrayal. It’s the basest form of racism, even if the victim and the perpetrator share the same melanin.
To progressives, you aren’t an individual, you’re your skin. Clarence Thomas isn’t a man, he’s a black man. He isn’t an American, he’s an African American. It’s the prefix, not the person, that matters. That, at its core, is racism.
(Hat tip: Instapundit.)
“There’s no getting around the fact that people who reject everything the West stands for are guaranteed to live in poverty with a boot on their neck.”
Democrats doing as bad as they were in 2010? Nope. Worse.
Even the Washington Post has Republican chances of retaking Senate up to 82%.
They also admit that Obama’s ratings are hitting new lows.
Mark Steyn slams #BringBackOurGirls: “The wretched pleading passivity of Mrs Obama’s hashtag is just a form of moral preening.”.
Democrats can’t find anyone to run as a Democratic against David Jolly in FL-13 race. And the “independent” they endorsed doesn’t live in the district…
In Illinois, little things like being a convicted felon won’t keep you from overseeing millions of “anti-violence” program dollars.
Alan Derschowitz gets it right: “I don’t think we want the thought police to be intruding on people’s private conversations.”
Is China’s military a paper dragon?
Missed this: Defeated Democratic congressman (and Stupak-bloc flip-flopper) James Oberstar dead.
“What is hereditary in the United States is not wealth but poverty.”
The Left’s focus on the status of wealthy and high-income Americans is precisely backward — backward if improving the lives and opportunities of those born into poverty is your goal. If your goal is to increase the income and power of the public sector for your own economic and political ends, then of course it makes more sense to focus on the rich: That’s where the money is, and the perverse reality of the Left is that it cannot fortify its own interests by improving the lives of the poor but can do so by pillaging the rich.”
GOP establishment leader Eric cantor booed in his own district.
Nothing says “liberal tolerance” quite like a UC Santa Barbara teacher threatening to send Ted Cruz supporters home in a body bag.
Russia passes a “bloggers law.”
2013 Walter Duranty awards for media liars were given out. Seymour Hirsch received a lifetime achievement award…
Egyptian Muslim group declares that democracy must be eliminated because ”it does not allow to save Muslims and theorizes the equality of Jews, Copts and Muslims and must therefore be condemned”.
Three girls fined $3,500 for wearing bikinis. In Italy. [Edited to add: Jihad Watch has updated the story as a hoax.]
Democratic trial lawyer and Wendy Davis backer Linda Blue Baron is leaving Texas. Tort reform just keeps paying dividends…
Jeeze, you commit one or two little axe murders, and suddenly you’re not dating material.
The novel is dead yet again. Or: Will Self implores those uncouth striplings to vacate his sward.
Crazy spider gymnast.
Tags:2014 Election, Alan Dershowitz, China, David Jolly, Democrats, Elections, Eric Cantor, Florida, Illinois, IRS, James Oberstar, liberal racism, Mark Steyn, Obama Scandals, ObamaCare, Robert Byrd, Ted Cruz, Texas
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Media Watch, Obama Scandals, ObamaCare, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 7th, 2014
The United States House of Representatives votes 231-187 to hold former IRS Lois Lerner in contempt over the IRS scandal. Six Democrats joined House Republicans in voting for the contempt charge. The House also voted to request that Eric Holder appoint a special prosecutor, with an additional twenty more Democrats voting in favor of that as well.
This vote follows on the heels of emails that revealed Lerner coordinating with Obama’s Department of Justice to harass conservative groups.
If Nixon’s IRS did what Obama’s IRS did to suppress the speech of his political opponents, is there any doubt those charges would receive their own line items in his articles of impeachment?
Tags:Crime, Democrats, IRS, Lois Lerner, Obama Scandals
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Obama Scandals | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 5th, 2014
If you’ve been following the story of Newsweek‘s demise (click those two links if you haven’t), then this Politico piece on Tina Brown’s ill-fated editorship is required reading, both for what it says, and for what it doesn’t say.
What it says is that Brown was a creative, involved editor who hired good writers and worked long and hard to make the magazine a success. It also says that she was a spendthrift perfectionist who called people at 3 AM, expensively redid things at the last moment and never had a solid business plan for putting the magazine back in the black. She also had sensibilities that only rarely aligned with the world of news, and readily fell back on stale tabloid topics that were only slightly more hip than disco (Regis Philbin, Jerry Seinfeld, Zombie Princess Diana).
Because Politico is part of the Democratic media complex, one thing they barely even allude to is Newsweek‘s decision to change itself into a liberal opinion magazine, in essence alienating (at least) half its readers. Brown did nothing to change the magazine’s disasterous, naked liberalism, and indeed abetted the trend (like her desire to make Michelle Bachmann look crazy on the cover). Newsweek had a choice between being profitable and being liberal, and they chose liberal. The course may have been laid in before she climbed into the cockpit, but Brown never veered from it. In plane crash parlance, this was “controlled flight into ground.”
Saving a declining newsweekly was always going to be a difficult job in the Internet age; the relentless liberal slant and Brown’s feckless ways just made it an impossible one.
Tags:Democrats, Media Watch, Newsweek, Tina Brown
Posted in Democrats, Media Watch | No Comments »
Thursday, May 1st, 2014
Ask Bo Delp.
“Bo Delp, spokesman and former communications director for Sen. Wendy Davis’ campaign for governor, has resigned.”
(By the way, Delp seems to go by Dr. Robert Delp for his resume.)
The Davis campaign has been roundly criticized from all sides (including liberal pundits and members of the press) for continued organizational problems and a candidate who did not appear to be ready for prime time. But for her spokesman to leave the most important, high profile, and well-funded Democratic campaign in Texas, things there must be even more dysfunctional than they appear.
Delp said Thursday that he is “considering a number of other opportunities in Texas Democratic politics.” Yes, because there are so many Texas Democrats with a higher profile than Wendy Davis.
Also, this bit is hardly reassuring for voters who want Davis to actually represent Texans and Washington, not just be another tool of the liberal elite:
“Zac Petkanas, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s former communications director, became Davis’ communications director in March.”
Evidently getting her money out-of-state wasn’t enough for Davis; now she has to import her personnel from the national Democratic Party elite as well…
(Hat tip: Moe Lane.)
Tags:2014 Governor's Race, Bo Delp, Democrats, Texas, Wendy Davis
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Texas | No Comments »
Monday, April 28th, 2014
Not so much a #LinkSwarm per se, as a roundup of news you might have missed over the weekend:
NBA owner Donald Sterling, under the spotlight for a bizarre racist rant captured on tape, is a Democrat.
Catholic Church canonizes Popes John Paul II and John XXIII as Saints.
3,000 Florida voters are registered at a single UPS store.
“The Europeans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz.”
John Kerry still pursuing the mirage of Middle East peace.
Obama Administration watchdog actually a lapdog.
Man up, Nancy Boy.
CNN analyst welches on Zimmerman bet.
William Friedkin’s brilliant movie Sorcerer is finally out on Blu Ray.
Tags:Catholics, Democrats, Donald Sterling, Foreign Policy, Jews, John Kerry, John Paul II, Media Watch, Obama Scandals
Posted in Democrats, Foreign Policy, Media Watch, Obama Scandals | No Comments »
Saturday, April 26th, 2014
Unless you follow the NBA, you may be unaware that owner Donald Sterling’s Los Angeles Clippers were, until very recently, regarded as one of the worst-run franchise’s in the league. Between moving to Los Angeles in 1983 and 2010, they only had two winning seasons.
The Clippers have recently been on the upswing, having drafted one All Star (Blake Griffin) and traded for another one (Chris Paul), that Sterling wisely let have more input in composing and running the team. The input Sterling has on running the team, the better they tended to do. So the Clippers are in the playoffs in the powerhouse NBA West. Things were looking up.
Well they were, until Sterling was recorded as telling his hot young girlfriend that he doesn’t want her seen in public with black people.
It takes an extra-special brand of stupid for a man who owns a team in a league with predominately black players, with one and half black superstars on his team (Griffin is half-black, half-leprechaun) and a black coach (Doc Rivers) to be caught saying he doesn’t like black people. It’s tantamount to declaring “I never want to have another big name NBA free agent come to my team ever again!”
Now, as for why I’m blogging it here: Though Sterling hasn’t been active giving campaign donations recently, guess which political party to which all the candidates receiving his donations belonged?
Go ahea(D). Guess.
STERLING, DONALD BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90210 BEVERLY HILLS PROPERTIES 11/30/89 $1,000 Bradley, Bill (D)
STERLING, DONALD BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90210 BEVERLY HILLS PROPERTIES 11/30/89 $1,000 Bradley, Bill (D)
STERLING, DONALD BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90212 9/27/91 $1,000 Davis, Gray (D)
STERLING, DONALD MR BEVERLY HILLS,CA 90212 REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER 9/9/91 $1,000 Leahy, Patrick (D)
I’m guessing the NBA will give him a token fine, but little more. One dumbass owner makes it just a little easier for all the other teams…
Tags:Democrats, Donald Sterling, liberal racism, NBA
Posted in Democrats | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2014
I know it’s more of a “dog bites man” story by now, but given Obama’s ever-louder declarations that “debate is over,” here’s the most recent reminder that ObamaCare still has all the popularity of an album of Yoko Ono/Gilbert Godfried duets:
One indication of how unpopular ObamCare remains is how little Democrats want to talk about it. “If the law was really working, and voters were excited about it, Democratic candidates would be talking about it all the time, rather than trying to change the subject.”
Did you get health insurance through ObamaCare in Concord, New Hampshire? Sucks to be you. “Only a single insurer in the state offers policies through the new law. Ten of the state’s 26 hospitals and one fifth of its primary care providers aren’t in its network. Residents of Concord, the state capital, have to drive to other cities to get covered hospital care.”
Should Democrats run on ObamaCare in November? In a deeply shocking and unexpected development, Democratic consultants say yes, while Republican consultants say no.
Signed up for ObamaCare? Thanks to Heartbleed, you might want to change your password.
North Carolina Democratic Senator Kay Hagen dishonestly accuses her Republican opponent of supporting ObamaCare. Even liberal Politifact rates it mostly false.
Temporary workers are at an all-time high. Guess which piece of legislation NBC declined to mention when reporting on the story?
Wisconsin Rep. Ron Johnson and 38 other Republican congressmen fle suit against the Obama Administration over congressional ObamaCare subsidies.
Tags:2014 Election, Democrats, Elections, Heartbleed, Kay Hagan, New Hampshire, ObamaCare, Ron Johnson
Posted in Democrats, Elections, ObamaCare | No Comments »
Monday, April 21st, 2014
More details and repercussions from the indictment of California State Senator Leland Yee and his criminal associates on gun-trafficking and other charges:
Feds plan to add racketeering charges to the Yee indictment.
Prominent Democrat Willie Brown (former Speaker of the California House and Mayor of San Francisco) wonders what the big deal is with the Yee indictment:
Give the guy a break. When all is said and done, his alleged crimes come down to taking campaign contributions in return for issuing proclamations, using campaign funds to set up a meeting and taking campaign funds for writing a letter.
Never did he sell his vote, steal public money or actually put money in his own pocket, as far as I can tell.
None of Yee’s decisions affected the public.
I’ve gone over the FBI’s criminal complaint and, from what I can see, the biggest crime he was accused of was trying hustle some undercover FBI agents who were out to get alleged Chinatown gang leader Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow.
First, I don’t think Brown has read that indictment carefully enough. Second, notice how prominent Democrats seem to think that some felonies are just no big deal…
“Leland Yee symbolizes the pay-to-play virus that has infected our entire body politic.”
But don’t worry, Californians! Your Democratic Party-controlled government has the solution to all this slime and corruption: “intensive ethics training for senators and staffers.” Because ordinarily people just wouldn’t know that engaging in illegal arms trafficking to Islamic rebels was wrong. “Was that wrong? Should I not have done that?”
Alleged money laundering co-conspirators Leslie Yun and James Pau granted bail. They’re also accused of stolen stolen cigarette smuggling, marijuana distribution, and owning “a massage parlor that provides sexual services for its customers.”
Back when Yee was a mere school board President, someone once sent him a message in the form of a pig’s head with a clever embedded in its skull.
Yee’s defense team accuses FBI of entrapment.
Chow’s lawyers also accuse the FBI of entrapment, saying that the FBI threw millions of dollars at him. His lawyer also says that “the $58,000 Chow received from undercover agents were legal gratuities, not kickbacks for illegal activity.” Yeah, good luck pushing that theory…
Tags:California, Crime, Democrats, FBI, Guns, James Pau, Leland Yee, Leslie Yun, prostitution, Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow, San Francisco, Willie Brown
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Guns | No Comments »
Monday, April 14th, 2014
Time for another LinkSwarm:
By the standards of signing up the previously uninsured, “Obamacare may be headed for an epic failure.”
Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius resigns, leaving behind a legacy of incompetence and deception. “Rarely has any single public official done more to undermine the public’s confidence in the ability of government to function than Kathleen Sebelius.”
This just in: People still think ObamaCare sucks the farts out of dead wildebeests.
“Democrats face this reality: [ObamaCare]’s a political loser, and there’s no easy fix.”
New Jersey children lose health insurance thanks to ObamaCare.
The real reason for the Bundy Ranch standoff: Harry Reid’s son is in the pay of a Chinese solar power company that wants the land.
How Harry Reid’s insider trading and crony deals have made him a wealthy man.
Speaking of Harry Reid (via Iowahawk’s Twitter feed):
It turns out that the Overland Park Jewish Center shooter shared two fraternal organizations with late Sen. Robert Byrd.
Left out of all the left-wing Cesar Chavez hagiography: “Chavez had a very strong dislike for illegal immigrants.”
Indeed, we can best honor Cesar Chavez by making his birthday National Border Controls Day.
Backers of illegal alien amnesty may think it’s now or never.
It must have been a sad day for John Edwards, being barred from his sugar momma’s funeral.
Jay Carney is so use to lying, he can’t even resist PhotoShopping his own house. Badly. (Or maybe The Washingtonian is simply desperate to glamorize all Democrats profiled they won’t let little things like “competence” stand in the way…)
Is it just me, or did Hillary Clinton choose a singularly unflattering outfit for ducking shoes in?
The ideological slap-fight between radical lesbian feminists and tranny activists. “But all crazies are not created equal and, as crazy as the radical man-hating lesbians may be, they at least have valid science on their side in saying that ‘female’ is a biological category — genetically determined, rather than being a ‘social construct.'”
Vermonters just aren’t sure they want eyeball-bleeding tax rates just to satisfy the left-wing fantasy of single-payer health care.
France’s ruling socialists get their collective (ha!) asses kicked in municipal elections.
Property prices collapse in China. (Hat tip: Ann Althouse.)
Puerto Rico: 1.2 million workers, $70 billion in debt.
DC Power couple divorcing. Hilarity to ensue for, oh, probably a year or so.
Cowardly Brandeis University withdraws planned honorary degree for Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Who is killing the bankers of Europe?
Ex-Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wants to “fix” the Second Amendment so its easier to disarm citizens.
Alec Baldwin forgets yet again that Twitter is not his friend.
Round Rock incumbent City Councilman Carlos Salinas appears to be benefiting from his position in a way that violates both city and state codes. How nice to pass a city-funded, interest-free loan for a building to a crony, then lease the same building back at below-market rates…
Well, this is disturbing: Kobe Bryant dispensing actual wisdom: “If we’ve progressed as a society, then you don’t jump to somebody’s defense just because they’re African-American. You sit and you listen to the facts just like you would in any other situation, right?” (From a New Yorker piece behind a paywall.) And naturally a firestorm erupted…
Speaking of the NBA: How two brothers owning a failing ABA franchise managed to earn a cool$1 billion from the NBA. The advantages of foresight,,,
PAX coming to San Antonio in 2014.
And remember that your taxes are due tomorrow…
Tags:Alec Baldwin, amnesty, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Border Controls, Brandeis University, Carlos Salinas, Cesar Chavez, China, Democrats, Elections, France, Guns, Harry Reid, Holly Hansen, Illegal Aliens, John Paul Stevens, Kathleen Sebelius, KKK, Kobe Bryant, LinkSwarm, Media Watch, NBA, New Jersey, ObamaCare, Puerto Rico, Round Rock, Supreme Court, Vermont, video
Posted in Border Control, Democrats, Elections, Guns, Media Watch, Supreme Court, video | 1 Comment »
