Posts Tagged ‘Democrats’
Wednesday, January 15th, 2014
Hey, remember Nurse Bloomberg’s gun-grabbing Mayors Against Illegal Guns? Turns out that yet another member has been sentenced to prison for an illegal gun crime.
A former Pennsylvania mayor who was a member of Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns has been sentenced to up to 20 months in jail for a gun-related crime. Last February, James Schiliro, the mayor of Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, fired a gun in an attempt to intimidate a man to whom he said he was attracted.
Schiliro had had police bring 20-year-old Nicholas Dorsam to his home to drink wine, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. When Dorman attempted to leave, Schiliro prevented him from doing so, shooting the gun into a stack of papers and threatened to kill himself.
Can Bloomberg pick them or what?
This is not the first time a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns has been convicted of a felony, nor even the first time one has been convicted of a gun crime.
By contrast the conviction rate among Texas CHL holders is exceedingly low. So why does Bloomberg’s group continue to push for the disarmament of the law-abiding?
Tags:Crime, Democrats, Guns, James Schiliro, Michael Bloomberg
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Guns | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 14th, 2014
Inexplicable goings-on down in the Valley:
“Donna school board President Alfredo Lugo hanged himself in his home on New Year’s Day, authorities confirmed Thursday.”
Donna ISD is located in the Rio Grande Valley between McAllen and Harlingen. Lugo’s reason?
“The motive for the suicide was not immediately clear, but it came shortly after federal authorities arrested three women accused of buying votes for school board candidates in the most recent Donna ISD election.”
A school board election? Really? It’s not exactly a small district, given it’s $150 million budget, but still. Why would you even rig a school board election?
Maybe for the graft? In 2011, six district officials were convicted “in a bribery scheme that that totaled more than $600,000” stretching back to at least 2002.
Also of note: former Donna schools Superintendent Andres Martinez was awarded $1.2 million in damages in 2009:
“Martinez, who served as the Donna school district’s chief administrator during part of 2001, sued the district and several of its then school board trustees, alleging they had conspired to illegally fire him because he refused to hire, promote or give raises to political operatives who supported the majority faction on the board.”
Donna also has a long-standing issue with the drug trade. Related? Maybe, maybe not.
Something stinks down in the Valley, and it’s not Mexican cheese. Attorney General Greg Abbott and/or the Texas State Board of Education (I’m unclear who would have the responsibility) might want to consider launching a full audit of the district to see just where the money has been going…
(Hat tip: Prairie Pundit.)
Tags:Alfredo Lugo, Crime, Democrats, Donna ISD, Texas
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Texas | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, January 8th, 2014
Time for another look at the respective fortunes of the nation’s two biggest states:
Between 1992 and 2010, California lost $45.27 billion in income while Texas gained $24.94B. (Hat tip: Moe Lane.)
That’s one of the many reasons Texas has a $2.6 billion budget surplus.
California’s Attorney General imposes some strange language choices on a proposed pension reform initiative.
California Governor Jerry Brown to shift money from a green “cap and trade” fund to the high speed rail boondoggle. “Brown, et al., apparently believe that diverting cap-and-trade fees into the bullet train may buy enough time to move some dirt and lay some track, with the hope that once construction begins, it will create a moral/political commitment to complete the project. But the proposed diversion is more likely to be dumping more money into a bottomless rathole.”
Remember: Spending money on green boondoggles means less is available for paying for luxuries like heating classrooms in winter.
Desert Hot Springs inches closer to bankruptcy. They’ve already eliminated their fire department, owe $4 million from last year, and are expected to run out of money in April.
How the California city of Pacific Grove broke the law and ignored voter wishes to accumulate massive pension debts. “Pacific Grove now has a new unfunded pension deficit of about $45 million, in addition to the $20 million in pension bonds. The deficit grows at 7.5% per year (about $3.2 million compounding).” A neat trick for a city whose entire budget is around $12 million a year. The first in what promises to be a 7 part series.
Orange County employees enjoy a whole bunch of plush benefits.
There’s a movement afoot in California to replace seniority with performance for determining teacher layoffs. Another group wants to make it easier to fire sex offenders. Naturally teacher’s unions are opposing both. (Hat tip: TPPF.)
California declares war on hot sauce maker Sriracha.
Is California’s 10 day gun waiting period unconstitutional? (Hat tip: Shall Not Be Questioned.)
Restaurant chain Mimi’s Cafe relocates their headquarters from California to Texas.
There’s a lot of talk (not yet confirmed) that Vista Equity Partners is planning to move Active Network, Websense, and Omnitracs to Texas.
Evidently Los Angeles can no longer support a WNBA team. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
Allied Van Lines confirmed that Texas remained the number one destination for relocation in 2013.
14 things non-Texans don’t understand.
Tags:Budget, California, Democrats, Desert Hot Springs, Jerry Brown, Pacific Grove, Texas, unions, waste, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | 1 Comment »
Monday, January 6th, 2014
It’s in the 20s here in Austin, which for Texas does indeed count as cold. Here are a few links to keep you warm:
Another cheerleader for ObamaCare finds out she can’t afford it. (Hat tip: Moe Lane)
ObamaCare supporter unable to obtain ObamaCare after two days of trying.
Evidently Sarah Palin was too optimistic. The vast confusion over ObamaCare has essentially made every hospital its own death panel.
The Obama Administration has lost 53 of 60 rulings on the abortion drugs mandate. To put that in perspective, they’ve won a smaller percentage of victories than the 2013 Houston Texans…
Volunteer firefighters still trying to figure out whether they’re screwed by ObamaCare or not.
I’ll just leave this here (Hat tip: Economic Policy Journal):
Chinese bubble looking ever-more pop-able.
There are reports that Zimbabwe’s President-for-Life and socialist thug Robert Mugabe has collapsed, much like his country’s economy.
The civil war in Iraq Bush had largely won is flaring up again thanks to Syria. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades.)
Actually residents of Prague would would like to see that Palestinian “embassy” disappear.
Brainwashed sheeple feed the poor.
Liberals make fun of black child because he’s Mitt Romney’s adopted grandson. Maybe they’d prefer adoption to be “separate but equal.”
It’s no wonder that MSNBC viewership is down 29% since 2012.
Ann Althouse: “The left I see isn’t critical of the fist [of government power]. It wants to be the fist.”
Paul Krugman’s SUPER-genius prediction about the Internet.
Obama enjoys what the New York Times describes as a “rare” vacation, in much the same way Charles Bukowski used to enjoy a “rare” drink. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades.)
Former Republican congressman lives entirely off the gird.
Unions should have to undergo regular recertifications.
Popehat channels David Brooks channeling Hunter S. Thompson. It’s a match made in Purgatory.
Infographic on The Raid: Redemption‘s body count.
Tags:abortion, Ann Althouse, China, Czech Republic, Democrats, Economics, Foreign Policy, Iraq, Jihad, Mitt Romney, MSNBC, New York Times, Obama, ObamaCare, Palestinians, Paul Krugman, Robert Mugabe, Sarah Palin, Syria, unions, Zimbabwe
Posted in Democrats, Economics, Foreign Policy, Jihad, ObamaCare, unions | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 31st, 2013
I thought I would do a better job of keeping tabs on Texas statewide races, but there are just too many for me to do a good job tracking all of them. Going into next year, I’ll try to do a decent job of keeping track of the Governor’s Race (Spoiler: Greg Abbot wallops Wendy Davis), the Lt. Governor’s race, and the Attorney General’s race, and tidbits on any other races will just be a bonus. (If you know of any sites doing extensive coverage of the Ag Commissioner or Comptroller races, let me know.)
Here’s a roundup that will include some oldish news.
The most hilarious liberal initiative in the Texas governor’s race has to be Lady Parts Justice PAC. No, this is not an Instapundit parody. Liberals have actually reduced half American citizens to their genitalia. “Ladies! Why think with your brain when you can think with your vagina?”
Wendy Davis hires out-of-state consultant to run her campaign. This is my shocked face.
On the Democratic side, Wendy Davis and a Reynaldo “Ray” Madŕigal have filed for governor (I’m assuming it’s the same Madrigal who pulled in 5.7% in a run for Corpus Christi Mayor in 2012) and outgoing El Paso Mayor John F. Cook is running for Land Commissioner.
Interview with Madrigal:
Greg Abbott pledges to keep Texas budgets small.
Abbot and Davis wrangle over redistricting lawyers fees.
Davis is not ready for prime time. “All this leaves me seriously wondering whether Davis’ campaign has any chance of winning in 2014. Or worse: whether Davis didn’t take the Valley seriously enough to come here polished and ready and with her A-team. Surely this type of poor venue and repetitive shallow non-statements and unprofessional media handling wouldn’t play, in say, a Dallas crowd.” And that’s from a liberal Democrat.
There was a Lt. Governor’s debate:
kcentv.com – KCEN HD – Waco, Temple, and Killeen
Todd Staples releases a good list of heavy hitting donors.
David Dewhurst releases a better one. Harlan Crow, Jerry Jones, Red McCombs and Drayton MacLane all stick out as particularly heavy hitters. (Another name, Kevin Eltife, is probably best know as a Republican state senator who wants to raise taxes.)
David Dewhurst has a campaign video out:
Jerry Patterson touts his 2nd Amendment credentials:
Dan Patrick touts the endorsement of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility.
A closer look at how Michael Quinn Sullivan and TFR do endorsements.
Democratic State Senator Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio makes her Lt. Governor’s run official.
Attorney General candidate Ken Paxton racks up over 220 East Texas endorsements for his Attorney General bid.
Paxton also campaigned in East Texas.
He also announced the endorsement of Ted Cruz for Senate chairman Kelly Shackelford:
As well as state senator Brian Birdwell
The Texas Tribune does a roundup of the AG race, noting Paxton had won 6 out of 6 straw polls, while Dan Branch raised the most money (including a check from George W. Bush).
Meanwhile, AG candidate Barry Smitherman touts his right to life endorsements.
AG candidate Dan Branch vowed to defend Texas Voter ID Laws. I doubt that’s a differentiator among GOP candidate…
Branch also picked up a lot of business endorsements, including Texas Association of Builders’ HOMEPAC, the Texas Farm Bureau AGFUND, and the Texas Apartment Association. It was always pretty clear Branch was going to get the lion’s share of “moneybags PACs” endorsements…
Susan Combs endorses Glenn Hegar for Comptroller.
Sid Miller is running for Agricultural Commissioner, and he’s already wrapped up endorsements from Young Conservatives of Texas, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, and Ted Nugent.
Tags:2014 Attorney General's Race, 2014 Election, 2014 Governor's Race, 2014 Lt. Governor's Race, Dan Branch, Dan Patrick, David Dewhurst, Democrats, Elections, Glenn Hegar, Greg Abbott, Jerry Patterson, Ken Paxton, Leticia Van de Putte, Michael Quinn Sullivan, Ray Madrigal, Republicans, Sid Miller, Susan Combs, Texas, Todd Staples, video, Wendy Davis
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas, unions | No Comments »
Monday, December 23rd, 2013
Saw this over on Ace of Spades, and thought it worthy of much wider distribution. Essentially, black voters in Chicago are tired of a political machine (including black aldermen and preachers ) that does nothing but screw them over.
Caveat: These are obviously excerpts, so we don’t know what the rest of the meeting was like.
But certainly black Americans in most American cities have real complaints about a welfare state that’s left them behind and made their lives worse rather than better, and those in Chicago, with one of the heaviest Democratic machines and the highest murder count in the country, have more cause for complaint than most. And it’s absolutely true that the Democratic Party takes them for granted, and will continue to do so as long as they blindly vote 9-1 straight ticket Democrat in every election. Why shouldn’t Democrats take them for granted if they continue to reap lockstep votes without having to exert any effort. (And whenever it waivers, they seem to feel they need only shout “Trayvon!” or some other race card distraction to continue their grip.) And the Great Obama Recession has consistently been worse for black America than white America.
(It also needs to be noted that at the state level, many Illinois Republicans are just guilty of ignoring voter needs as part of the corrupt bipartisan Combine that runs the state.)
But at least Chicago’s black community has made the first step of speaking out about how the Democratic machine has been harvesting their votes and handing out welfare, but otherwise neglecting them and taking them for granted. There’s no guarantee they’ll take the next step, be it actually talking to Republicans, consider abandoning the failed liberal welfare state model that’s destroyed their community, or even form a new political party (maybe The Urban Party) rather than demanding a bigger share of the corruption (as so many black politicians have). But at least the recognize there’s a problem.
Finally, I still think Al Sharpton is among the lowest of race-hustling poverty pimps, but let’s give him one cheer here for setting this up and actually letting people speak.
Tags:Al Sharpton, black, Chicago, Democrats, Illinois, illinois Combine, Rahm Emanuel, video
Posted in Democrats, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »
Thursday, December 19th, 2013
It turns out that PajamaBoy is not an unsuspecting pajama model, but an actual OFA minion named Ethan Krupp. So if you worried that all this ruthless mockery was unjustified, worry no more! He bought the ticket, he can take the ride.
I snarkily referred to PajamaBoy’s “Canadian Girlfriend.” It occurs to me that you could make a good case for “Truth,” “Transparency” or “Competence” being Obama’s Canadian girlfriends. He sure talks about them a lot, but no one has ever seen them in the same room with him…
Tags:Democrats, Ethan Krupp, ObamaCare, PajamaBoy
Posted in Democrats, ObamaCare | No Comments »
Friday, December 6th, 2013
It’s Friday, and I’m feeling to lazy to put up a real LinkSwarm, so here’s the Mini-Me version:
“Anger among Democrats over the rollout of ObamaCare is deep.” It’s nothing compared to the anger among voters…
An example of why Rick Santorum wasn’t the Republican Presidential nominee in 2012, and won’t be in 2016.
Once again, a super-secret military plane started under Republicans is revealed by a Democratic Administration.
Austin Attorney Marc Rosenthal, who helped bankroll the Williamson County Democratic Party, including gave $58,000 in donations to (now ex-) state rep Diana Maldonado, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for “racketeering, conspiracy, bribery, extortion, tampering, and mail fraud.”
Charles Barkley rides the New York City subway: “If they never see me again, tell my family I love them.”
You know that whole “I’ll never have to buy music ever again” thing? Yeah, not so much.
Texans fire head coach Gary Kubiak. It was time. Thy also fired Special Teams coach Joe Marciano, which was many, many years overdue…
Man survives two days in air pocket in overturned ship:
Tags:Austin, Charles Barkley, Democrats, Diana Maldonado, Marc Rosenthal, Military, New York City, Rick Santorum, RQ-180, Texas, Williamson County
Posted in Austin, Democrats, Military, ObamaCare | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 3rd, 2013
Some news from before Thanksgiving weekend, some after. Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.
Detroit is eligible for chapter 9 bankruptcy. “Judge Steven Rhodes turned down objections from unions, pension funds and retirees, which, like other creditors, could lose under any plan to solve $18 billion in long-term liabilities.”
Missed this earlier: The ObamaCare cancellation-to-enrollment ratio is 50-to-1.
Selling ObamaCare door-to-door is not exactly going swimmingly.
Colorado’s ObamaCare enrollment numbers are worse than the worst case scenario. Then again, Democratic losses in 2010 (and 2014) are probably worse than the worst-case scenario as well.
How the MSM is trying to cover for Obama’s ObamaCare lies and their own complicity in them.
How’s that “jobless recovery” coming along? “The number of people on payrolls in the U.S. is still 1.5 million below the number in 2008, even after a 5 year-old rally that has boosted the value of stocks by $14 trillion. A 167% advance of the Standard & Poor’s 500 index during the past 57 months has been driven by reduced costs and record-low borrowing costs boosting corporate profit, analysts say. Employee compensation relative to net corporate profit is at its lowest level since 1966.” To put it in lefty terms: Obama is obviously God’s gift to the 1%.
Paul Krugman, idiot. Though to be fair, long-term the Euro probably is doomed…
Ultra-liberal DailyKos accuses ultra-liberal cartoonist Ted Rall of being a racist. Rall is a nasty piece of work, and no liberal deserves a free “get out of charges of racism simply for being a liberal free” card, but he happens to be right in this respect. This has nothing to do with racism and everything to do with liberals circling the wagons to protect Obama in the wake of ObamaCare’s massive failure.
Non-poor preppy liberal campaign consultant whose mother bought her a house garners over $62,000 of donations by claiming to be poor.
The problem with linking to this Charles Davis article on liberal media exploiting intern labor is how the entire piece reeks of Special Snowflake Syndrome. It would be a far more compelling story if Davis didn’t come across as such a self-righteous, self-important douche-bag.
“It always cracks me up when I hear lefties like Matthews bemoaning “incivility”, as if their side didn’t invent it, didn’t expand it, and didn’t propagate it at every opportunity. They think all the disgustingly vile rhetoric they’ve hurled continuously at every conservative starting with Goldwater and continuing on through Nixon, then Reagan, Gingrich, Bush, Palin, etc. has been flushed down the memory hole. I think what they mean by “incivility” is really “conservatives talking back”.
A question for my readers: Can anyone tell me whether HR992 is good or bad for the taxpayer? On the surface it looks like more underwriting of crony capitalism, but the technicalities lie outside my sphere of expertise.
Tags:Democrats, Detroit, Media, ObamaCare, Ted Rall
Posted in Democrats, Media Watch, ObamaCare | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 19th, 2013
I actually forgot to add a bunch of ObamaCare links to yesterday’s LinkSwarm, so here they are along with some of newer vintage. Every day, the disaster get’s worse for Democrats (and the nation). It’s like a Hindenburg that never stops exploding.
More now think Obama bungled ObamaCare (63%) than now think Bush bungled Iraq (44%), or even at the Iraq war’s nadir of unpopularity (57%)
Why ObamaCare is on life-support.
How unpopular is #ObamaCare? Try “Fugitive Slave Act in Boston in 1858” unpopular.
Speaking of unpopular, Obama’s ratings are off the chart bad. (Hat tip: Moe Lane.)
It took Obama to turn the American public libertarian. “Majority in U.S. Say Healthcare Not Gov’t Responsibility”.
Ace explains the difference between the Upton and Landrieu bills.
D.C. insurance commissioner fired 24 hours after questioning ObamaCare “fix.” (Also via Ace.)
The New Republic develops a case of the vapors over ObamaCare dooming big government.
Does Obama’s latest “ObamaCare means what I say it means” open him up for a Supreme Court challenge?
Number of successful #ObamaCare enrollees in NC: 1. Wait, they haven’t paid yet. 0.
Not even Obama is saying the ObamaCare website will be fixed by the December 1st deadline. Now it will be “improved”. I guess they’re changing the clip-art…
Tags:Colorado Recall, Crime, Democrats, Guns, LinkSwarm, Mary Landrieu, ObamaCare
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Guns, ObamaCare | No Comments »