Posts Tagged ‘Democrats’

Democrats: Start Your Freak Out!

Tuesday, March 18th, 2014

There’s a lot of time before November, but Democrats are freaking out early and often:

National Democrats are in a near panic — if the media’s highly-attuned panic detectors are any indicator — with a “poisonous” president unable to use his popularity to sway voters, a “screaming siren” warning about mid-term turnout, and Republicans on the offensive on Obamacare. There are a long eight months until November, but Democrats seem unlikely to get much sleep over the interim.

Maureen Dowd expands on the theme:

So now Democratic panic has set in.

With the health care sign-up period coming to an end this month, Democrats in Congress are looking over at the White House and realizing that the president is not only incapable of saving them, but he looks like a big anchor tied around their necks.

That may be why incumbent Senator Kay Hagan is running from answering questions.

You tears, E. J. Dionne! Let me taste them! “Obama and his party are in danger of allowing the Republicans to set the terms of the 2014 elections.” Along with the usual Dionnean mush about Republicans are uniquely negative, evil, etc. He and Dowd both push the “It’s the evil Koch brothers! Evil I tells ya!” Meme of the Week. He also says to embrace ObamaCare.

That same “embrace Obamacare” advice is also offered up by Bob Shrum, and who are we to gainsay the keen tactical insight garnered from working on eight losing Presidential campaigns?

Columnist Eugene Robinson also says to defend ObamaCare. Hmmmmmm.

No wonder Democrats are freaking out. The tanks are converging on their position, crushing all before them, and their commander is telling them to be calm and fire back with their rifle. Those with even half a brain (asking a lot, I know) should remember back to 2010, where supporting Obamacare cost incumbent Democrats an average of 5.2% of the vote. The result was Democrats lost 63 seats in the House. This time it looks like Democrats’ embrace of ObamaCare will cost them the Senate.

Who can blame them for freaking out?

And what better music for a freakout than Austin’s own psychedelic pioneers, the 13th Floor Elevators?

Even More on Wendy Davis Failure

Monday, March 17th, 2014

Will Franklin has dug even deeper in to the primary voting statistics and they are, if anything, actually worse than previously reported (which were already plenty bad).

A few examples:

  • Her vote totals were down in the Rio Grande Valley when compared with Bill White.
  • Bill White’s two Hispanic opponents in 2010 received 2.83% and 4.95% of the statewide primary vote, compared to Davis Opponent Ray Madrigal pulling in just under 21% despite no fundraising and minimal campaigning.
  • “Despite Wendy Davis’ massive, hyped, well-funded, all-star staffed voter registration effort with Battleground Texas and millions of dollars from out-of-state, today there are 45,000 fewer Texans registered to vote than in November 2012.”
  • “In Texas’ 5 most populous counties, there were 12,897 fewer total Democratic votes than in 2010 and 62,469 fewer than in 2002.”
  • “In a practically uncontested primary, Wendy Davis spent more than Bill White in a contested primary, to achieve poorer primary results.”
  • The total vote margin Greg Abbott received in Harris County alone is almost double the vote margin Davis earned in the five largest counties she won more votes than Abbott in.
  • Read the whole thing.

    Tea Leaves Not Looking So Hot For Democrats in November

    Wednesday, March 12th, 2014

    Republican David Jolly beat Democrat Alex Sink in a special election for Florida’s 13th congressional district. CD13 is a swing district that voted narrowly for Obama in the last two Presidential elections.

    One district does not an election make, but a close look at the tea leaves suggests that the outlook for Democrats in 2014 is looking very dim, thanks to the albatross that is ObamaCare:

  • DNC was hoping Sink’s campaign would be “a blueprint to display public support for Obamacare”. Oh, I think it did a mighty fine job of showing how much the public supports ObamaCare…
  • The Tampa Tribune says that “David Jolly’s victory Tuesday in the U.S. House District 13 special election represents a clear repudiation of Obamacare.”
  • Even the Washington Post says Jolly’s win “illustrated the political toxicity of the law known as Obamacare.”
  • Well, guess what? seven competitive Senate seats are in states more heavily Republican than the district Jolly just won.

    you know what’s less Democrat-friendly territory than this R+1 swing district? The states of West Virginia (R+13), North Carolina (R+3), Louisiana (R+12), South Dakota (R+10), Alaska (R+12). Arkansas (R+14) and Montana (R+7). Those are all currently Democrat-held seats. And there are seven of them.

    If last night’s result means that a halfway decent Republican candidate can win on Republican-leaning territory by hammering away at Obamacare… then the odds of the GOP winning the Senate look very, very good.

  • The message of Sink’s defeat for Democrats? “‘Be afraid. Be very afraid.”
  • All this may be one reason Sean Trende now gives Republicans an 80% chance to win the Senate.
  • Of course, Trende also wrote not to read too much into the Florida CD13 special election. But he also thought Sink would probably win…
  • Meanwhile, a service workers union is talking about going on strike due to health care contract changes resulting from ObamaCare:

    Culinary members have long enjoyed health care that is fully funded by employers, but the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has increased medical costs to the point that many companies can no longer afford to pay full freight. The hotels want workers to pick up some of Obamacare’s new costs, a demand the Culinary won’t agree to.

    Of course, Obamacare is the law because of the Culinary’s political activism. The Culinary and the rest of organized labor poured untold millions of dollars and thousands of volunteer hours into the election campaigns of President Barack Obama and the Democrats who wrote and passed Obamacare, and the unions championed the reboot of American health insurance.

    Then they realized Obamacare’s critics were right. The law is wrecking platinum-plated union health plans, not to mention health insurance for tens of millions of people.

    Unions opposing Obamacare, Hispanics opposing unlimited abortion; that Democrat coalition is started to look more than a little frayed…

  • LinkSwarm for March 10, 2014

    Monday, March 10th, 2014

    Time for another LinkSwarm, sweeping up all the news that was happening while I was churning out Texas primary news:

  • “The uninsured just aren’t buying ObamaCare.”
  • A not-so-short compendium of all the people Harry Reid is calling a liar.
  • ObamaCare will slash wages by as much as $5 an hour for hospitality workers.
  • ObamaCare helps states transfer medical costs for imprisoned felons to Medicaid.
  • In Sean Trende’s latest senate simulation, Democrats are more likely to lose 14 seats than 0 seats.
  • Among those in trouble: Mo Udall. (Hat tip: Shall Not Be Questioned.)
  • Even Obama is worried that Democrats will get “walloped.” (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
  • This week’s Democrat caught beating his wife: Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida
  • Senate to Obama’s cop killer fan nominee: REJECTED!
  • But evidently Mary Landrieu and Kay Hagan are just fine with cop-killer supporters.
  • New York City’s new mayor is perfectly willing to screw poor black kids attending a charter school because it’s a non-union school run by his “political nemesis.”
  • Speaking of cities run by Democrats: woman’s mummified remains found in foreclosed Detroit house.
  • A great list of things Obama won’t even consider to stop Putin.
  • Time magazine continues its record of unrivaled prognostication: “No, Russia Will Not Intervene in Ukraine.”
  • “If economic success is all but criminal in France these days, why not depart for places that reward it instead?”
  • Israel intercepts more Iranian freedom missiles and happiness rockets in route to Hamas.
  • Nigerian Muslim defends daughter’s conversion to Christianity, pleads for multiculturalism and tolerance. Ha, just kidding! He hacked her to death with a machete.
  • “What Nigerian scams are to your grandfather, Bitcoin exchanges are to the 20-30 semi-tech-savvy libertarian demographic.”

    “The exchanges are based on layers upon layers of bad software, run by shady characters,” he writes. “The Bitcoin masses, judging by their behavior on forums, have no actual interest in science, technology or even objective reality when it interferes with their market position. They believe that holding a Bitcoin somehow makes them an active participant in a bold new future, even as they passively get fleeced in the bolder current present.”

  • The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin’…
  • Can anyone derail the juggernaut that is Biden 2016?
  • Vaunted liberal tolerance rears its head in Ireland:

  • We have an early winner for “stupidest Critical Race Theory race-baiting essay” from Salon (natch): “Why I can’t stand white belly dancers.”
  • Meanwhile, National Review is celebrating Chinese classical musicians. Now remind me again: Which side is racist?
  • More on Critical Race Theorist/Social Justice Warrior types: “These people don’t listen to things like “logic” and “reason” when they are in one of their social justice tizzies. It’s not even worth trying to be kind or polite to them.”
  • Winners and Losers from the Texas primaries.
  • The Return of Johnny Nuance

    Sunday, March 2nd, 2014

    So Russia is conducting a piecemeal invasion of Ukraine.

    And the American state department’s response?

    Ah, yes, “working with Russia.” I’m sure that has Putin quaking in his boots. How are we supposed to “work with” them? By helping them carry the loot back to Russia? Can you imagine George H. W. Bush threatening to “work with Iraq on Kuwait” after Saddam invaded?

    If Russia invades another country, will we work with them some more?

    I’m sure at this point, Putin must be quaking in his boots in fear at the thought of Kerry deploying more diplomacy to his tanks. Likewise, I’m sure the people of Ukraine are deeply grateful for those C-130s filled to the brim with diplomacy we’re sending…

    Given Kerry’s repeated threats of deploying yet more diplomacy to stop Putin, it’s time to break out Iowahawk’s classic Johnny Nuance, the story of a man fighting outlaws in the old west using only diplomacy:

    Johnny Nuance! Johnny Nuance!
    From the shores of Martha’s Vineyard he rode his horse out West,
    With a treaty in his holster and a medal on his chest,
    Bringing law and justice to a wild and violent land,
    Talking was his creed and sanctions were his brand!

    It goes about as well as you would expect…

    LinkSwarm for February 25, 2014

    Tuesday, February 25th, 2014

    Another roundup of tab-clearing news, much of which got pushed aside by Ukraine updates:

  • Obama Administration admits that ObamaCare will screw small businesses. (Hat tip: Instapundit.) Why are any Republicans futzing around with any fix but full repeal?
  • Bobby Jindal: “Obamacare is giving low-income Americans fewer reasons to work.”
  • How ObamaCare is turning into the Democrats’ own forever war.
  • Two more congressional Democrats retire.
  • And that doesn’t count liberal Democratic fossil John Dingell, who’s also retiring after a mere 58 years in office.
  • And speaking of Michigan Democratic congressman, here’s how Rep. Gary Peters is trying to kill a woman with cancer:

  • Democrats in denial over ObamaCare unpopularity. Well, those who haven’t retired yet…
  • How unions and Democratic cronies looted Detroit’s pension plans.
  • Former Democratic congressman and convicted statutory rapist Mel Reynolds arrested on child pornography charges in Zimbabwe. (You might remember that Bill Clinton pardoned him on the way out the door…)
  • Deeply incompetent New Orleans Democratic Mayor Ray “Chocolate City” Nagin convicted on 20 federal corruption counts.
  • NJ’s Democratic Rep. Rob Andrews: The Washington Generals of Legislators.
  • The top special interest donors contribute to Democrats.
  • This week in the Democratic Liberal Media Complex Revolving Door.
  • There are few people liberals hate more than conservative black men.
  • Ted Cruz is winning.
  • Food prices continue to soar, yet another sign that inflation figures are significantly understated.
  • Record numbers of college graduates are living with their parents. Thanks, Obama!
  • “*Somebody* at Cover Oregon will end up going to jail.”
  • “The combination of UAW micromanagement and adversarial culture, not wages per se, is what helped to do in GM.”
  • “The UAW couldn’t even win an election it had been handed on a silver platter by management.”
  • Venezuela continues to stumble along at a repressive simmer.
  • Too bad they’re out of toilet paper.
  • Catholic priest in Venezuela beaten unconscious by socialist state thugs.
  • Michael Totten points out that Che Guevara is a murderous communist scumbag. Bonus: “Cuba’s maximum wage is less than one percent of America’s minimum wage”
  • Battle is joined between EUroskeptic UKIP and the EUrophilic Liberal-Democrats.
  • John Kerry: There’s no room in the religion of global warming for cost-benefit analysis.
  • UK Leftists want punitive taxes even if they bring in no additional revenue.
  • Detroit home-owner with an AR pattern rifle 3, stupid thugs trying to break into her home 0.
  • Portugal decriminalized all drugs 11 years ago. Result? Addiction cut in half, and “Portugal’s drug usage rates are now among the lowest of EU member states.”
  • “Diversity demands that diversity of opinion not be tolerated anymore.”
  • “Anti-male misandry, like anti-female #misogyny, is unjust and dangerous.”
  • Paying attention to the victimhood identity politics crowd, or how to murder your writing career.
  • Sarah Hoyt further dissects Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America idiocy. She touches on many of the reasons I didn’t renew my membership, the main ones being that SFWA is no longer important enough to be worth fighting for, and was certainly not worth $90 a year in dues.
  • “Human Resources has been very reluctant to respond to my complaints about being invisibly strangled by a cyborg space wizard.”
  • One more Tweet:

  • UAW Gets Stomped in Chattanooga Volkswagen Vote

    Monday, February 17th, 2014

    Friday workers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga assembly plant rejected a UAW attempt to unionize them.

    “If the union can’t win [in Chattanooga], it can’t win anywhere.”

    The defeat is especially devastating for UAW because they had German-owned Volkswagen’s blessing to organize the plant, and regarded this as their best chance to unionize a southern automotive plant:

    This wasn’t merely one more failed union organizing attempt. The UAW and its chief Bob King spent years working toward this vote as part of its strategy to organize plants in the American South, and all the stars were aligned in its favor.

    Mr. King colluded with IG Metall, Volkswagen’s German union, to neutralize Volkswagen management. It pitched the collaborative vision of a labor-management “works council” at the plant that makes the VW Passat, and it claimed to have learned its lesson from the confrontation and strikes that hurt Detroit’s auto makers. Volkswagen management gave the union the run of the plant to lobby workers while denying similar privileges to union opponents.

    So it’s nothing short of remarkable that the union couldn’t make the sale. The failure reflects how well the plant’s workers are doing without a union, to the tune of $27 an hour including benefits. The defeat also speaks to the harm the UAW has done to itself by driving GM and Chrysler to bankruptcy and pushing companies like Caterpillar to move new production from union plants.

    Reports make it appear that unionized workers would actually end up taking $3 an hour less home after union dues were deducted. Gee, who could possibly turn down such a bounty?

    Said one worker: “‘Look at every company that’s went bankrupt or shut down or had an issue,’ he said. ‘What is the one common denominator with all those companies? UAW. We don’t need it.'”

    More from the Wall Street journal editorial:

    But the fact that unions must rely on brute government force shows how out of touch they are with modern economic reality. American manufacturing is making a modest comeback with the help of rising labor costs in China and the American energy revolution. But it could stage an even bigger revival without the threat that unions could once again make American production uncompetitive. The last thing the U.S. economy needs is to import European labor practices. In Chattanooga, and not for the first time, the workers are smarter than management.

    The results also shows why “card check” is bunk.

    For all the talk of “Republican interference” (local Tennessee elected officials like Senator Bob Corker opposed the unionization), little mention has been made of President Obama’s sticky fingers.

    It also ignores the grassroots efforts of plant workers themselves to stave off unionization, for many good reasons:

  • We are already among the highest paid in the region and, when compared to UAW-represented employees at the Detroit Three with the same length of service, VW Team Members make more.
  • The UAW is increasing union dues by 25% to fund a strike against Detroit automakers. The UAW will use our money to fund their strike after years of irresponsible spending (e.g., the UAW golf course and Las Vegas conventions). Remember, about half of the money you pay to the UAW will be sent directly to the union in Detroit.
  • The UAW wanted to unionize us without an election. When that failed, behind closed doors, they got VW to agree to a 9-day “ambush” election, giving UAW organizers dispatched from Detroit access to our plant.
  • And a defeat for unions is a defeat for the Democratic Party:

    Unions are the single biggest source of funds for Democratic causes and candidates.

    According to Opensecrets.org, of the top ten political donors in the last 25 years, six are unions. And they all overwhelmingly donated to Democratic causes and candidates. The UAW, for instance, has donated $41.7 million over the last 25 years. That’s well over twice what the infamous Koch brothers have donated, mostly to Republican causes. (The Koch brothers actually gave 8 percent of their money to Democratic causes and candidates.)

    Of the UAW’s donations, 71 percent went to Democrats and zero percent went to Republicans. The other 29 percent went to organizations not formally affiliated with either party but it’s a safe bet they are left-leaning. Unions can also mobilize large numbers of “volunteers” for phone banks and get-out-the-vote efforts.

    Thus, unions have such a disproportionate influence over the Democratic Party for the simplest of reasons: they buy it. How much longer that will continue is a good question. There is no reason to think that the long-term decline in the private sector will not continue. And in places where union dues are no longer collected by governments (such as in Wisconsin), public sector union members have been leaving in droves. Obviously, they don’t think they have been getting value for their money. That is also a trend that is likely to spread.

    Here’s an analysis from the enemy camp of five things the UAW did wrong.

    A few Tweets:

    And just in case you don’t get that last reference

    Hillary Clinton | Victor Pinchuk | Viktor Yanukovych

    Friday, February 14th, 2014

    Well, this is interesting.

    Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton have built a sprawling network of powerful friends around the globe, one that could aid Mrs. Clinton’s chances were she to seek the presidency. But those relationships often come with intersecting interests and political complications; few people illustrate that more vividly than the Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk.

    A steel magnate and major contributor to the former president’s foundation, Mr. Pinchuk was in frequent contact with Mrs. Clinton’s State Department, at meetings arranged by a Clinton political operative turned lobbyist, Douglas E. Schoen.

    Is Mr. Pinchuk politically collected in Ukriane? And how.

    Mr. Pinchuk’s image is not without blemish: His father-in-law is Leonid Kuchma, who was president of Ukraine from 1994 to 2005 and led a government criticized for corruption, nepotism and the murder of dissident journalists. As president, Mr. Kuchma privatized a huge state steel factory and sold it to Mr. Pinchuk’s consortium for about $800 million, which competitors said was a laughably low price.

    And who did Mr. Pinchuk’s father-in-law appoint Prime Minister?

    That’s right: Viktor Yanukovych, current President of Ukraine and Putin toady.

    Do Pinchuk and Yanukovych know each other?

    I think that’s a safe assumption.

    Victor and Viktor

    Pinchuk backed Yanukovych in the 2004 election, but since then he appears to have broken away from Yanukovych and is a EuroMaidan backer. Maybe Pinchuk is on the side of the angels (even if only for business reasons). That Tablet piece also notes his Jewish roots and says he’s the second richest man in Ukraine.

    But I thought it was a connection worth noting. Mr. Pinchuk is an interesting figure, and it’s interesting that he’s in Hillary’s circles of associates. And I’m not sure it’s a good thing for potential presidential candidates to pal around with foreign oligarchs…

    Woman Famous For Filibustering Bill Banning Abortions After 20 Weeks Open To Banning Abortions After 20 Weeks

    Wednesday, February 12th, 2014

    Wendy Davis is trying to make my head hurt.

    Wendy Davis said Tuesday that she would have supported a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, if the law adequately deferred to a woman and her doctor.

    In other news, LeBron James announced he was “open” to banning basketball, and Michael Bay announced he was protesting “loud, brainless action movies.”

    As Ace of Spades HQ puts it: “Wendy Davis apparently just realized that she’s running for Governor of Texas and not New York.”

    Evidently Davis never heard the phrase “You’ve gotta dance with them that brung ya.” The only reason Davis is the overwhelming favorite to win the Democratic nomination for governor of Texas is her pro-abortion filibuster. Davis is essentially saying to her national pro-abortion donors: “Thanks for all that money. Now I’ll just set this bucket full of your water down here on the steps, and you can carry it your own damn self.”

    The flip-flop is an obvious pander, but how on earth could Davis or her camp think it a remotely effective pander? It’s like PETA announcing they’re considering opening a steakhouse.

    It’s a brazen, shameless, dishonest, and ineffective ploy. Of course, all of those are pretty good adjectives to describe Davis’ gubernatorial campaign, if not her entire political career.

    No wonder, as Perry vs. World notes, her campaign logo looks like a sinking ship:

    LinkSwarm for February 10, 2014

    Monday, February 10th, 2014

    These LinkSwarms tend to get pushed back to days when there’s not a big story jumping up and requiring my attention. It seems like the Olympics have created a bit of a news lull

  • Democratic congressmen abandoning ObamaCare in droves.
  • Obama’s fake recovery sucks in comparison to Reagan’s real recovery. Why? ObamaCare.
  • People who overestimate their income, thus getting a subsidy rather than thrown into Medicaid, might be in for a nasty surprise come tax time.
  • Today’s Democratic representative retiring after getting caught with his hand in the till comes to you from Rep. Ron Andrews of New Jersey.
  • Today’s example of a Democratic member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns being convicted of a felony (in this case bribery) also comes to you from New Jersey, in the form of Trenton Mayor Tony Mack. But as you observe all this Democratic malfeasance in New Jersey, never lose sight of the truly important thing: Chris Christie might have closed a bridge!
  • Here’s a fascinating piece from Ace of Spades HQ on class identification among the gentry left.
  • And this piece on “Love in the Time of Obama” is well worth reading on its own.
  • Massachusetts state Democrat Rep. Carlos Henriquez’s schedule: 1. Smack my bitch up, 2. Mark my bills up. Yes, assaulting a woman is evidently no reason to keep him from working as a legislator…
  • More black Chicago residents question what the Democratic Party has done for the black community.

    Heartening, but I can’t help but notice that some of the same people appear in this video as the one from that town hall meeting in December. Makes it hard to gauge just how widespread black America’s dissatisfaction with Obama is…

  • The Turncoat Diaries: “The conversions of Charlie Crist, from Republican to independent to Democrat, make up one of the least inspiring tales in modern politics. To take it seriously is to admit you’re the sort of person who takes Scientology stress tests and supplies credit card info to anyone who claims to need help from Nigeria.”
  • People move from high tax, high regulation states bleeding jobs to low-tax, low-regulation states gaining jobs. Gee, who knew?
  • How Russia is trying to keep control of Ukraine.
  • NBC calls the end of the Soviet Union “bittersweet”. Much like Hitler’s suicide…

  • Tweets from Sochi: Missing floors, open manholes, yellow tap water, and “cakes in ass.”
  • More: “Three of the nine mountain hotels have not been completed.”
  • Title company executive dead in nailgun “suicide.” Patrick Bateman wanted for questioning.
  • Inside the Red Light Camera Bribe Machine. Redflex has done business with several cities, including “Austin, El Paso, Plano, Corpus Christi, Grand Prairie, North Richland Hills, Hurst, Port Lavaca, League City, Carrollton, Killeen, Mesquite, and Longview.” (Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • Even Howard YEAGGGGHHH Dean thinks the Iran deal sucks.
  • When principled lefty Alan Derschowitz says the Dinesh D’Souza case is “selective prosecution,” perhaps we should listen.
  • New York City schools Harrison Bergeron a gifted students course because of their unacceptable albedo index. (Hat tip: Indapundit.)
  • Michael Totten visits some of the least-crappy parts of Cuba.
  • When I think “high tech giants,” certainly the first name that comes to mind is Chelsea Clinton. Nepotism much, SXSW? (Hat tip: Jim Geraghty in NRO.
  • Slashdot users in open revolt over a redesign. Take one look at the Beta site and you know why: It is indeed a big, festering mound of suck.
  • Adobe to release new DRM scheme that’s annoying, useless, and screws older customers.
  • Ten scenes from Blazing Saddles too politically incorrect to be made today.
  • Did Bill Clinton add Elizabeth Hurley to his list of in-White House conquests?
  • Round Rock ISD committee chairman tries to bypass laws to make changes to sex ed.
  • On tour with the Sex Pistols in Texas.