Posts Tagged ‘Elections’
Tuesday, May 13th, 2014
I’m on enough mailing lists that I get a lot of campaign/PAC/etc. solicitations. One of the ones I get pretty regularly in email are missives from “Patriots for Economic Freedom” seemingly soliciting for one or another notable conservative candidates.
Take, for example, this one for Ted Cruz. They’ve also done solicitations featuring Allen West and Mia Love, and I just got one this morning for Oklahoma Senate candidate T. W. Shannon.
Just one tiny little problem: Ted Cruz never authorized Patriots for Economic Freedom to solicit on his behalf.
Well, actually two problems: The money Patriots for Economic Freedom raises doesn’t seem to get to the candidates. Indeed, the lion’s share seems to go to consultants Tyler Whitney and Dan Backer.
That’s right: “Patriots for Economic Freedom” is a scam PAC, and has been pulling their scam since at least 2012.
I don’t know who exactly is selling Patriots for Economic Freedom their email list (though I’m looking in your direction, NRO and Breitbart), but they need to stop. Every dollar spent supporting a scam PAC is a dollar not spent actually supporting a conservative candidate.
And someone should consider suing Patriots for Economic Freedom for false advertising.
And if you want to donate to Allen West, Mia Love or T.W. Shannon, do it directly.
Tags:Crime, Dan Backer, Elections, fundraising, Lee Stranahan, Mia Love, Patriots for Economic Freedom, scam, T. W. Shannon, Ted Cruz, Tyler Whitney
Posted in Crime, Elections | 6 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 »
Tuesday, May 6th, 2014
With so much Obama Administration scandal, sleaze and general fail, I haven’t devoted as much time to the statwide primary runoffs as they deserve. The Lt. Governor’s race in particular offers up the interesting dynamic of well-funded incumbent David Dewhurst getting trounced in the primary by state senator Dan Patrick. So here’s an update on the latest race news, which is lamentably heavy on who did what while owning a Houston business in the 1980s.
The two debated:
There has also been a lot of back and forth on two Dewhurst attack ads against Patrick:
There’s the little problem of Dewhurst accusing Patrick of having changed his name to “hide from debts.” In fact, Patrick had used the name Dan Patrick as a his working name since 1978, discharged all his debt in bankruptcy filings in 1987, and legally changed his name from Dannie Gobe to Dan Patrick in 2003. This is a case where the Dewhurst campaign connected two dots that simply weren’t connected for the sake of an attack ad. No wonder the claim got rated “Pants on Fire.” (On the other hand, Politifact also dings Patrick for suggesting they rated the entire ad as untrue, rather than just that one part of it.)
Politico also noted that Patrick discharged the payroll taxes debt in 1989. (Consider this your periodic reminder that Politico is considerably more trustworthy when the issue in question features no favored Democrats to protect…) Here are Patrick’s responses to the charges, where he also touches on tax problems Dewhurst’s companies had in the 1980s as well, and his own response ad:
Speaking of that second Dewhurst ad, Dewhurst supporter David Jennings dings Dewhurst for shirtless picture of Dan Patrick taken at a charity event. In fact, all the unflattering photos in that ad strike me as more than a little bush league.
As for the “hiring illegal aliens” charge Dewhurst has leveled:
Jerry Patterson tried using it in the primary, and it got him nowhere.
The idea that a restaurant or club owner in Houston might have hired illegal alien help shocks absolutely no one these days.
While if true, it does show a certain amount of hypocrisy on Patrick’s part, the charge is stale enough, and documentation of it so scanty, that I don’t see it being a successful line of attack for Dewhurst.
Dewhurst also spent an additional $600,000 on attack ads. It’s strange to see Dewhurst doubling down on the same tactic that backfired so badly in his race against Cruz. While there’s a bit more meat to the Patrick charges than the Cruz ads, I just don’t see the payoff putting so much money into attacks over business decisions Patrick made a quarter-century ago during the oil bust.
Other race news:
Patterson endorses David Dewhurst. That’s a good pickup for Dewhurst (certainly a lot better than the Craig James endorsement in the 2012 Senate race), but I don’t think it moves the needle.
Dewhurst picks up the endorsements of Battleground Tea Party of Texas (who I don’t know much about, except they’re from the Clear Lake area) and the Pearland Tea Party.
1980s Savings and Loan scandal figure W. Harold Sellers was involved in helping Patrick buy a radio station. Patrick says he didn’t know about Sellers loan issues, which were eventually settled.
I’d love to bring you news on this race that doesn’t revolve around business decisions in the 1980s, but I’m not seeing much…
Tags:1980s, 2014 Election, 2014 Lt. Governor's Race, Dan Patrick, David Dewhurst, Elections, Houston, Republicans, Texas
Posted in Border Control, Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »
Friday, May 2nd, 2014
Dan Patrick and David Dewhurst will be debating tonight at 7 PM.
Dewhurst trailed Patrick badly in the Lt. Governor primary, so he has the most to gain from a good showing. Unfortunately for him, his debates with Ted Cruz showed him to be a bad debater. Unless he’s managed to radically improve his debating skills, this could be the final nail in his coffin…
Tags:2014 Election, 2014 Lt. Governor's Race, Dan Patrick, David Dewhurst, debate, Elections, Republicans, Texas
Posted in Republicans, Texas | No Comments »
Friday, April 25th, 2014
Pressed for time, so here’s a quick LinkSwarm:
Forgot to include this in the Wednesday roundup: Massachusetts Democrat says that ObamaCare will “bury us”.
The “Obama Recovery” in action: Retail store closings worst since 2009.
12% of Americans are in the top 1%. Wait, what?
Republicans expand Senate map yet again.
Man threatened with federal $525 fine for an 89¢ soda refill.
Things America has that Communist Cuba doesn’t: freedom, human dignity, and soap.
China’s Ghost Cities redux.
Dr. Huey Shen Wu skips to China after thumbing his nose at U.S. courts.
Another day, another 71 killed by Jihadests with a car bomb in Nigeria.
#hashtag. #facepalm
AT&T is trying to shed it’s legacy landline business.
Things I did not know: Whittaker Chambers translated the first English language edition of Bambi.
Tags:2014 Election, China, Communism, Cuba, Dr. Huey Shen Wu, Elections, Ghost Cities, hashtag, Jihad, LinkSwarm, Michael Totten, Nigeria, ObamaCare, technology, Twitter, Whittaker Chambers
Posted in Communism, Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Media Watch | No 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 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 »
Thursday, April 10th, 2014
There’s an risible liberal talking point that continues to rear its ugly head regarding ACORN and the Democratic Party’s demonstrated record of voting fraud:
“That’s not voting fraud, that’s voter registration fraud.”
Before we address the talking point proper (which seems to have originated at the liberally biased “fact checking” site FactChek.org), let us note that:
- Voter registration is merely a specific type of voter fraud, not something entirely different.
- Both kinds are deeply destructive of the “one man, one vote” principles of representative democracy.
- The FBI places both registration and at-the-polls fraud in the same category of fraud.
So in summary, there is no legal distinction between “voting fraud” and “voter registration fraud.”
However, even when making that dubious distinction, there have been numerous, documented instances of Democrats and ACORN staffers (but I repeat myself) committing in-person voting fraud:
Take, for example, this case in Troy, New York:
Four Democratic officials and political operatives have pleaded guilty to voter fraud-related felony charges in an alleged scheme to steal an election in Troy, N.Y., FoxNews.com reports.
The group forged signatures on applications for absentee ballots and on the ballots themselves in a 2009 primary of the Working Families Party, which was affiliated with now-defunct community group ACORN.
Or how about Massachussets Democrat State Rep. Stephen Smith (a member of the Joint Committee on Election Laws” who plead guilty to voter fraud and resigned after casting fraudulent absentee ballots “in multiple elections.”
“Three Arkansas Democrats and a police officer pleaded guilty to…bribing voters for their absentee ballots for a local election in 2011.”
In Indiana, a “former state representative and longtime Jennings County Democratic Party worker received an 18-month sentence Wednesday for three felony convictions of voter fraud” for registering and voting the ballots of other people.
“A Milwaukee man pleaded guilty Monday to illegally voting five times last year in West Milwaukee, when in fact he did not have residency there.”
Here’s a Brownsville woman voting multiple times in the Democratic primary.
Here’s a Maryland woman who plead guilty to trying to cast the vote of her recently deceased mother.
So even by the standards of facetious distinctions between “voting fraud” and “voter registration fraud,” Democrats and ACORN have committed plenty of both.
No wonder they oppose Voter ID…
Tags:Crime, Democrats, Elections, Voter ID, voting fraud
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Elections, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, April 8th, 2014
I’ve been getting a lot of political solicitations this year, one of which came from the Draft Ben Carson for President campaign.
Since this is now a real thing (run by a John Philip Sousa IV) collecting real money, I would like to do my part to quash it.
Ben Carson is an impressive person with a compelling life story, but giving money to this particular cause is a bad idea, for numerous reasons:
Carson himself has said he’s not running.
As impressive as Carson is, he’s never held or run for political office. The Presidency of the United States of America is not an entry-level position. Potential Presidential candidates should run for and win at least one high profile office before running for President*. Carson has not done that, though I’d love to see him run for Governor of Maryland.
There are no shortage of potential first-tier conservative Republican candidates for 2016: Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Scott Walker and Rick Perry are all far more credible and experienced candidates than Carson.
The idea that MSM would “go easy” on Carson because he’s black is bunk. Were he to somehow become the nominee, he would instantly become a threat to their narrative, and I suspect the attacks we’d see on his history, character, etc., would probably make those against Sarah Palin in 2008 look mild by comparison.
Money is fungible. Every dollar you give to Draft Ben Carson is a dollar that could be spent defeating Democratic Senators or Congressmen this year.
The only thing donating to the Draft Ben Carson campaign will accomplish is to pad the bank accounts of political consultants and direct mail specialists.
Though I think we can all agree that Ben Carson would be a dynamite choice for Surgeon General…
*This requirement is optional for any candidate that kicked Adolf Hitler into the dustbin of history.
Tags:2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, Ben Carson, Elections, Republicans
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Friday, April 4th, 2014
My taxes and family health issues have curtailed blogging somewhat, so here are some statewide race updates, some of which stretch back to just after the primary:
The Weekly Standard covers the Abbott campaign.
One Abbott supporter in Edinburg, former state representative Aaron Peña, is a Democrat-turned-Republican with strong ties to the valley. He says his fellow Hispanic Texans may vote Democratic, but they are traditionalists on cultural issues, including abortion. Davis may be popular with the liberal set in Austin, but she doesn’t offer much to Peña’s constituents, he says.
Also this:
Davis herself doesn’t appear to be making much effort to court the Valley vote, or any vote for that matter. She’s noticeably inconspicuous on the trail, and even friendly media have a hard time finding her.
Davis gives a speech in Midland to sparse attendance. “Davis showed up to an almost empty room but despite the crickets, she told me she felt comfortable.” Ouch!
How Davis benefited from her law firm doing government bond work while she was a state senator.
At least she’s changed her logo from the sinking ship, even if the new logo looks a little familiar…
“Two Dewhurst aides quit amid campaign feuding about tactics.” This is not exactly the sign of a well-oiled campaign machine…
Paul Burka even goes so far as to say that Dewhurst is toast: “The reality is that Dewhurst has been politically dead since the night of the Wendy Davis filibuster, and he has no hope to retain his office. Unless something very strange happens, Dan Patrick is a lock to be the state’s next lieutenant governor.” I’d say he’s been politically dead since losing to Ted Cruz in 2012…
Rick Casey not only thinks Dan Patrick will win, he thinks “Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick will be more powerful than Gov. Greg Abbott.” Agree on the first, disagree on the second, mainly because Greg Abbott is a lot more formidable than Dewhurst. It’s an interesting piece, despite making (I believe) some subtly wrong assumptions about Tea Party politics.
State of play piece by Ross Ramsey.
Movement conservatives in Texas — a label that includes fiscal and social conservatives, Tea Partyers and the religious right — seem to be forming up behind Dan Patrick, a state senator running for lieutenant governor; Ken Paxton, a state senator running for attorney general; and Wayne Christian, a former state representative running for railroad commissioner. Each finished ahead of the establishment candidate in his race — in Patrick’s case, the incumbent lieutenant governor, David Dewhurst.
Ramsey also notes money switching to conservative challengers. Plus this: “Every Republican senator has probably given some private thought to state Sen. John Carona’s loss to Donald Huffines, and that kind of private thinking often leads to changed voting patterns.”
Dan Patrick endorsed by Buc-ees. If they throw in free fudge, this race is so over…
Mike Huckabee endorses Ken Paxton. That probably means more to Huckabee than Paxton…
14 Texas state house republicans ask Dan Branch to withdraw.
Democratic Agricultural Commissioner candidate Kinky Friedman calls marijuana farms the future of Texas.
Tags:2014 Attorney General's Race, 2014 Election, 2014 Governor's Race, 2014 Lt. Governor's Race, Dan Branch, Dan Patrick, David Dewhurst, Elections, Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton, Kinky Friedman, marijuana, Midland, Mike Huckabee, Paul Burka, Republicans, Rick Casey, Ross Ramsey, Texas, Wendy Davis
Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | 2 Comments »
