Posts Tagged ‘Libertarians’
Wednesday, August 1st, 2012
I intend to do a comprehensive roundup of why Ted Cruz won the Senate race, and why David Dewhurst lost, but it’s such a big subject I’m having trouble getting started. There’s entirely too much to talk about, and I’m still digesting all the ramifications.
So instead, here are a few other random observations from last night’s runoff:
Republicans now have two Hispanic candidates running for statewide office: Ted Cruz at the top of the ballot (just below President) for United States Senate, and Elsa Alcala for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Place 8. Number of Democrats nominated for statewide office in Texas in 2012: Zero. (Even the Libertarians have more statewide Hispanic candidates than the Democrats this year, which is to say they have one.)
Actually, the Libertarians have more candidates running statewide than the Democratic Party does. And the Greens (five) have just as many.
Donna Campbell stomped Jeff Wentworth, taking two-thirds of the vote against a long-time incumbent which (absent a serious scandal) is almost unheard of. However, the result isn’t the “upset” some newspapers are proclaiming it, since Elizabeth Ames Jones split the anti-Wentworth vote in the primary, indicating deep dissatisfaction with the very establishment incumbent.
Tom Maynard edged Rebecca Osbourne in the State Board of Education District 10 race, 36,099 votes to 35,120. I’m sure that Holly Hansen will be pleased.
As expected, Paul Sadler beat Grady Yarbrough for the Democratic Senate nomination. Sadler is about to find out that when members of the national Democratic Party promised him adequate funding if he won the primary, they were engaged in what is commonly known as “lying.”
Republican U.S. Congressional Race runoffs: Ron Paul-endorsed Randy Weber beat Felicia Harris in CD14, Roger Williams beats Wes Riddle in CD25 (Last Williams Standing, and I think the only Senate race dropout to win their new race), once and future congressman Steve Stockman (part of the Gingrich wave in 1994) beat Stephen Takach in CD36. Plus longshots in two heavily Democratic districts: Dale A. Brueggemann over Eddie Zamora in CD15 to face incumbent Ruben Hinojosa, and Jessica Puente Bradshaw over Adela Garza to take on Filemon Vela in new “minority opportunity” CD34.
Pete Gallego beat former congressman Ciro B. Rodriguez for the chance to take on Republican incumbent Francisco “Quico” Canseco in CD23. Canseco took the seat away from Rodriguez in 2010, and CD23 is essentially the only realistic opportunity Democrats have to flip a Texas U.S. congressional seat this election.
The Tea Party is alive and well not only in Texas, but also in Georgia, where voters rejected a consultant pocket-lining mass transportation tax hike supported by the Republican governor.
July 19: Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson announces he’s supporting Dewhurst. July 31, 7:52 PM (just minutes after Dewhurst’s concession speech to Cruz): announces he’s running for Dewhurst’s current office: “I have great respect for Lt. Gov. Dewhurst. However, I’m running for LtGov in 2014.” And his campaign website is already up.
Tags:2012 Election, Adela Garza, Ciro Rodriguez, Dale A. Brueggemann, Democrats, Donna Campbell, Elsa Alcala, Felicia Harris, Georgia, Grady Yarbrough, Jeff Wentworth, Jessica Puente Bradshaw, Libertarians, Paul Sadler, Pete Gallego, Randy Weber, Rebecca Osbourne, Republicans, Roger Williams, Stephen Takach, Steve Stockman, Ted Cruz, Texas, Tom Maynard, Wes Riddle
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
This Houston Chronicle piece by Joe Holley is an example of why so many people are dissatisfied with the job the legacy media is doing of reporting events.
In covering the American Jewish Committee/World Affairs Council of Houston senate candidate forum on foreign policy I mentioned previously, we have a news story that is demonstrably deficient in several areas:
You get told who wasn’t there (Craig James, Paul Sadler, and Lt. Governor Chupacabra), and even how many of each flavor were there (“six Republicans, three Democrats and one Libertarian”), but the article itself only lists five of those ten. That would be the very first “W” of the “Five Ws and an H,” assuming they still teach that at journalism school. (Maybe they’re replaced it with another class on “Reporting Social Justice.”)
However, because I’m so Old School, I actually went out and got a list of who attended the forum from the AJC: Republicans Ted Cruz, Tom Leppert, Glenn Addison, Lela Pittinger, Charles Holcomb, and Ben Gambini (yes, an actual Ben Gambini sighting!), Democrats Daniel Boone and Jason Gibson, Libertarian Jon Roland, and independent candidate Mike Champion. So it turns out that even the summary of candidate affiliations was wrong.
In an article on a foreign policy forum that runs just shy of 500 words, a grand total of 96 of them actually dealt with the candidate’s foreign policy views, and even those are essentially free of concrete information. Let’s repost those parts in their entirety:
Cruz also said that “President Obama has been the most anti-Israel president this nation has ever seen.”
[snip]
Leppert emphasized his experience as an international businessman familiar with issues of currency and international trade.
[snip]
Cruz and Leppert were the only two candidates who were able to respond with practiced ease to a series of sophisticated questions dealing with world affairs, ranging from Israel’s response to the Iranian nuclear threat to whether the United States should help bail out faltering European economies. Most of the others on the stage seemed unfamiliar with even the most basic foreign-policy issues.
That’s it. That’s the extent of coverage of the candidates’ foreign policy views in a forum dedicated to that very subject. We are no wiser as to what any candidate thinks of our troops levels in Afghanistan, what our relations with Pakistan should be, whether we should help topple the Assad regime in Syria, how to counter an increasingly bold China, or whether we should use military force to prevent the Islamic Republic of Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Were those topics covered? We don’t know, as Holley and the Chronicle do not deign to tell us.
Instead of giving the candidates’ actual views, Holley merely gives us his dismissive analysis of eight of the ten candidates, telling us they are “unfamiliar with even the most basic foreign-policy issues” without bothering to provide a single example of this ignorance.
The rest of the piece consists of horse race analysis, noting Dewhurst’s absence, audience attendance figures, and an interview with a random forum attendee. All of which would have been fine in a longer piece.
Joe Holley and/or his editor have missed a chance to actually inform their readers. I have a hard time thinking of a blogger who couldn’t have done a better job.
Tags:2012 Election, Charles Holcomb, David Dewhurst, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Glenn Addison, Houston Chronicle, Joe Holley, Lela Pittenger, Libertarians, Media Watch, MSM, Republicans, Ted Cruz, Texas, Texas Senate Race, Tom Leppert
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Republicans, Texas | 1 Comment »
Monday, December 26th, 2011
Still getting back up to speed after Christmas, so here are a few links that I’ve been squirreling away like nuts for winter:
Is Obama preparing for war with Iran? This interview with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta sure makes it sound that way…
If I’m reading these tea leaves correctly, Gary Johnson is about to give up running as a Republican and run as a Libertarian. Which is a shame, because the Republican Party needs more libertarians. But his campaign never caught fire. Alternately, he’s going to pull out and endorse Ron Paul, which his front page sort of hints at.
To clear the air on Ron Paul: He’s not an Anti-Semite, he just wishes Israel didn’t exist, and he’s not a homophobe, he just refuses to shake gay’s hands or use their bathrooms.
Amy Alkon gets a TSA agent patdown. And by “patdown” I mean “repeatedly stick their fingers in her vulva.”
Jill Stanek on Christopher Hitchens and abortion. And Hitchens’ own, fairly conflicted thoughts here.
The Zeta Drug cartel has built their own national radio system. Let’s hope that Eric Holder didn’t give them that as well. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
Rebel Syrians holding a sign slamming Obama and praising Bush. Real, or Photoshop? I try to have a healthy suspicion of things that fit too neatly into my worldview.
Additional hat tips to Insta and Ace.
Tags:abortion, Amy Alkon, Gary Johnson, Iran, Leon Panetta, Libertarians, LinkSwarm, Mexico, Ron Paul, Syria, TSA, Zeta Drug Cartel
Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad, Regulation, Republicans | 1 Comment »
Sunday, June 13th, 2010
A few random links to while away your day:
- It must be hard for the New York City teacher’s union, the United Federation of Teachers, to make ends meet, what with the $183,603 per year they have to pay for office space. That is to say, their office space in Boca Raton, Florida.
- “Environmentalists, like feminists, are just another arm of the Democratic establishment: ‘running dogs’ to be loosed or reined in as politics require. It is thus unnecessary to pay attention to what they say, since it’s just politics anyway.”
- “Europe’s Lehman Bros. is actually Europe.”
- Lifestyles of the rich and famous drug lords, including lots and lots of guns.
- When you’re Barack Obama, and Maureen Dowd (of all people) says that Joe Biden (of all people) has better relations with the press than you do, you may have a problem. Also this about Obama: “he is an elitist, too, as well as thin-skinned and controlling.” However, I’m not buying Dowd’s attempts to defuse the “media as Obama worshipers” problem: “The press traveling with Obama on the campaign never had a lovey-dovey relationship with him. He treated us with aloof correctness, and occasional spurts of irritation.” However, if that was the case, I don’t recall seeing a single report from the mainstream media in all of 2008 that mentioned it, which rather confirms the idea that the media buried any negative reporting during the campaign because of ideological solidarity and wanting him to win, doesn’t it?
- California’s Proposition 14 may have just insured that Green and Libertarian Party candidates never get on the general election ballot.
- Wednesday before Dutch election: Geert Wilders is irrelevant. Friday after Dutch election: Geert Wilders is a kingmaker.
- Am I just going to link to every damn Mark Steyn piece that comes down the pike? Why yes. Yes I am.
(Hat tips: Instapundit, Real Clear Politics, NRO’s The Corner)
Tags:California, Crime, drug lords, Geert Wilder, gold, Green Party, Guns, Joe Biden, Libertarians, LinkSwarm, Mark Steyn, Maureen Dowd, media bias, Obama, Proposition 14, unions
Posted in Crime, Economics, Media Watch, Uncategorized, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | 1 Comment »