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Fact: Since the “War on Poverty” Began in 1964, Welfare Spending has Skyrocketed
Fact: Since the “War on Poverty” Began in 1964, Welfare Spending has Skyrocketed
Under the Fedora, Road Trip, Hookers and Elections
Under the Fedora is a day late today, a large chunk of the column disappeared down the memory hole and had to be re-written. It a pain but when you have people losing homes and business from a storm it’s a small thing to say.
With One week before the election it’s becoming increasingly clear, even to my fellow conservatives who have been telling me for six months to a year that my predictions of a Republican victory were wrong, to people who said my poll critiques was a case of denial, and to folk who said that no matter what Mitt Romney did Barack Obama’s team would come up with some way to win, that the re-election of Barack Obama is just not going to happen.
It’s a strange contrast, so many on the left are constantly forecasting an apocalypse in climate, massive disease due to franken-foods or that this or that method of energy production will doom all mankind. It’s always the cause of people and the world striking back at them for daring to move science or industry in a forbidden direction. Meanwhile many on the right while having optimism in the country’s people never seem to share that same optimism in their own electoral prospects just KNOWING some unexpected doom , that next shoe is just waiting to drop to spoil their electoral hopes, sort of like Red Sox Fans pre 2004.
It’s been quite a thing to see the slow conversions of conservatives, worry to optimism to confidence to cockiness.
The latest example comes from Ohio where Stacy McCain continues not only to see to see big crowds but also shows a GOP electorate that is willing to suffer extreme measures to do what needs to be done:
George Cullen has been canvassing door-to-door for the past five weeks. He usually hits about 50 doors a day, but only got 25 under the storm conditions yesterday.
If you have an electorate so motivated they are canvassing during hurricanes…
Meanwhile on the left you have actual breakdowns…
For the past several weeks, the 60-year-old San Francisco resident has frequently bolted awake in the middle of the night, in “a panic attack,” she said. She darts for her computer and checks the latest polls. Some days she’s so distraught that she can’t exercise.
Every morning, she gets e-mails from friends who’ve been just as sleepless. Most are so tense, they can croak out only a few words. “Very anxious.” “Worried.”
“Nothing more needs to be said,” said Edelman, a retired educational administrator.
How shallow are people who are having panic attacks over an election. We have people who have lost homes, business, states devastated, people killed and the left is having panic attacks over Obama losing?
There are two cultures in America these days, lets hope our friends on the left, living in their post Christian secular culture can find comfort somewhere.
Speaking of comfort Sen Bob Mendenez (D-NJ) is finding some in the Dominican Republic, or should I say buying some:
Two women from the Dominican Republic told The Daily Caller that Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez paid them for sex earlier this year.
In interviews, the two women said they met Menendez around Easter at Casa de Campo, an expensive 7,000 acre resort in the Dominican Republic. They claimed Menendez agreed to pay them $500 for sex acts, but in the end they each received only $100.
Jokes about democrat and deficits not withstanding I have to disagree with Stacy McCain who ends his piece with the line:
What would Lilly Ledbetter say?
I hate to be vulgar but as long as he was a secure vote for Abortion she would say “Vote Menendez”
Any person who thinks democrat women who still kneel and worship at the altar of Bill Clinton are going to care about Bob Menendez paying for sex from women in the Dominican Republic has not paid attention to the Democrat party and where they have gone in the last 15 years.
One woman who would not have is the latest Saint in the Catholic Calendar Kateri Tekakwitha the first American Indian, a Mohawk to be a canonized saint in the church. During my road trip I stopped by the shrine in Fonda NY and shot some video:
My full batch of photos are here.
That road trip was to cover different congressional & senate races in NY & CT. There are several worth looking at: Freshman GOP candidates Nan Hayworth in NY-18 & Chris Gibson in NY-19 and in NY-21 you have a GOP challenger Matt Dohney trying to retake the large northernmost district in the state.
The most famous race that I visited was the Senate race in CT as Linda McMahon makes her 2nd attempt to win a senate seat from the state, I spoke to one of her supporters
I also spoke to a women involved in CT politics on the local and state level
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4tVlWXUk5Q&feature=colike
The congressional race she is talking about in CT-5 I think this race is a real sleeper and Andrew Rorabach Is worth keeping an eye on.
So we have a GOP candidate with a long record and some crossover appeal running in an open seat. Unlike Scott Brown in 2010 he doesn’t have the advantage of an opponent making critical mistakes on the trail but also unlike Brown he is not running statewide so his familiarity with the district and the voters could make all the difference.
And in NY-24 Ann Marie Buerkle is running for re-election in a rematch of 2010 against former congressman Dan Maffei. I spoke to her campaign manager
He described Ann as a Great conservative in the NE, facing stiff challenge from a Washington insider well-funded. He calls Ann “the best conservative we have in the North East”, I’m inclined to agree but I wouldn’t limit the description to this area.
and some of her volunteers one of who was actually a intern at WCRN
Strangely enough her opponent Dan “Col Runaway” Maffei continues to duck her including a Candidate forum I covered the people there were not impressed by his absense
and Candidate Ann Marie Buerkle who is one of the most accessible candidates a district has ever seen, didn’t mince words
Dan Maffei should be ashamed of himself and I don’t know how he has the moxie to go out and ask the people for their vote after he has turned down four of these town hall debates, that he’s turned down major network debates, one with the local newspaper. He is afraid to reflect on his record, he is afraid to take responsibility for what he has voted for. All he wants to do is as you said: Attack attack attack rather than looking at what he voted for when he was in congress.
All of these races deserves some of that cash surplus the GOP has but I would particularly suggest the CT-5 race as an excellent chance for a pickup, and while the redistricting in NY-24 wasn’t kind to Congresswoman Buerkle it is an excellent opportunity to confirm that it’s not just Barack Obama but the Democrat party that is being rejected in 2012.
On that same line Ladd Ehlinger has produced this political ad for the Tea Party urging a vote for the GOP.
This is Ladd’s last political ad, he gives many reasons for leaving the realm of politics
Fourth, politicians are, for the most part, clueless. There are exceptions, and I’ve been lucky to have worked with some. But on the other hand… well, I’ll not name names, but for example, in 2010 I made a very popular viral video for one Congressional aspirant. He got hundreds of thousands of hits, and more importantly, hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. It was just about the only successful thing in his campaign (he lost big-time). But, in 2012, he used someone else – and received neither hits nor donations, and of this writing, seems destined to lose again.
Ladd is a great loss for the right but his movies will be a big gain for everyone.
Finally the World Series is over and the Giants have completed one of the great turnarounds in the history of baseball. Down 2-0 in a 5 game series and 3-1 in a seven game series they managed to win six elimination games and then sweep the formidable Tigers in 4. The most impressive stat. In their last 7 games Giant pitching threw 4 shutouts and gave up a mere 9 runs. That’s a 1.46 ERA those are Bob Gibson type numbers.
Now that’s something
See you after the election.
Polling Analysis: Fiscal Responsibility Resonates with Independents, Other Key Demographics
POLLING ANALYSIS: FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY RESONATES WITH INDEPENDENTS, OTHER KEY DEMOGRAPHICS
Arlington, Va. – Public Notice today released a comprehensive polling analysis memo showing bipartisan concern over debt and government spending, especially among Independent voters and middle-class families, key demographics in the presidential campaign. Public Notice has been polling regularly for the past year on the issues of government spending and the debt.
Public Notice Executive Director Gretchen Hamel issued the following statement regarding the polling analysis:
“As more Americans connect our national debt to the health of the overall economy and their personal financial situations, it’s no surprise that debt and government spending continues to be an area of steady and growing concern. Because this topic resonates so strongly among key groups like Independents and middle-class families, it is our view that the candidate who can win voter confidence on cutting the debt will win the election. And no matter who wins, the first order of business in Washington after the election should be to work together to avert this fiscal crisis.”
The polling indicates four key points for candidates to focus on as we enter the final countdown to Election Day:
- Government spending and the debt are top concerns and have been for the past year.
- Concern over debt and spending has grown over the past year.
- Voters make the connection between the debt and how it impacts the overall health of the economy and their own personal financial well-being.
- Voters don’t see higher taxes as a solution to our debt problem.
AFP Launches $3 Million Ad Buy in Final Week of the Election
Americans for Prosperity’s latest ad buy during the final week of the election that will be running in battleground states. The latest $3 million ad buy features two ads that expressly call for the defeat of President Obama and will start running tomorrow.
The first ad features former Obama voters who express their great disappointment in President Obama.
The second ad shares the personal experience of Shona Holmes, a Canadian citizen who was forced to seek treatment in the U.S. when the government-run Canadian system denied her the care she needed.
Vote Could Shape the Supreme Court
Editors Note: The Minority Report would like to welcome guest poster Bob Numbers and thank him for this excellent post.
This year’s presidential campaign has focused, in large part, on the economy and who can best help us escape from the recent economic doldrums, and rightfully so. While economic issues will continue to dominate, voters should not overlook another issue that will have a lasting impact well beyond the next four years: the president has the power to appoint justices to the United States Supreme Court and judges to the lower federal courts. Voters must consider with whether they want a president who will appoint judges who apply the Constitution and laws as written and originally understood or a president who will appoint judges willing to impose their own policy preferences on the public.
The nomination of Supreme Court justices is a particularly important issue this year because the winner of this election can dramatically reshape the Supreme Court. The winner of November’s election will likely have the opportunity to replace three current justices, including stalwarts from both the liberal and conservative sides of the bench.
If President Obama is reelected and appoints three justices during his second term, he will have appointed five justices, including Justices Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. This would be the first time one president has nominated a majority of the Supreme Court since the Eisenhower administration. Make no mistake, if this happens, the Supreme Court will be dominated by justices who are politically to the left of the American public for a generation.
Mitt Romney could have a similarly drastic impact on the Court, in the opposite direction. For example, it is widely anticipated that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg will retire during the next four years. If President Romney replaced the liberal-leaning Justice Ginsberg with a justice who had, presumably, a more conservative judicial philosophy, conservatives will have a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court. This could usher in an era in which the Supreme Court will restrain the development of an all-powerful federal government and ensure that the Constitution and laws are interpreted as written and originally understood.
However, the conservative and liberal labels are not nearly as important as a justice’s commitment to a particular judicial philosophy. Experience has shown that, over time, some judges experience a change in their judicial philosophy. To the extent this occurs, judges tend to drift in one direction: from conservative to liberal. In consideration of this trend, a Romney administration must appoint judicial nominees who are not only intelligent and well-qualified, but who also have a demonstrable track record of being committed to the Constitution as it was originally written and to the rule of law. Additionally, a Romney administration must ensure that his nominees have the fortitude to apply the laws and Constitution as written, even in the face of criticism from the other branches of government, the chattering classes inside the Beltway, and the media.
The ideological balance of the Supreme Court is more than an academic matter. Ensuring that the Constitution’s limitations on federal power are respected and that laws are enforced as written has a significant impact on the country’s fiscal wellbeing. A federal government that meddles in every aspect of a business’s operations will impose a myriad of taxes and regulations on businesses large and small that can stifle economic growth and job creation. Just look at what has been done over the last few years in the areas of health care, banking and environmental regulations. When laws are interpreted and applied not as they are written, but as a judge thinks they should have been written, makes it exceedingly difficult for business owners to plan for the future and to manage risk. If you believe that the Constitution and its unique limits on government power are part of what allows individuals and businesses to prosper in America, you should be very concerned with the composition of the Supreme Court.
The economy is obviously important to everyone, but the decisions made by the next president regarding appointments to the Supreme Court will impact our nation for decades to come. Given the importance of the court to matters of individual liberty, economic liberty and the rights of citizens across the country, we must ensure that our next president appoints judges who are unapologetically committed to a judicial philosophy that puts the rule of law and the Constitution ahead of personal or political preferences.
(Bob Numbers is an attorney with Womble Carlyle in Raleigh. Originally posted at Winston-Salem Journal)
Media Refusal to Report Obama’s Failure to Save Benghazi Heroes, Bozell Says Scandal Bigger than Watergate
Media Research Center President Brent Bozell called the Obama Administration’s cover-up of Benghazi “bigger than Watergate” in a statement released this morning. According to the MRC, ABC, CBS, NBC, The Washington Post, and the New York Times haven’t produced a single news story between them about reports that the White House told agents on the ground to “stand down” during the terrorist attack. “This reeks of a cover-up,” Bozell went on to say. “This scandal could and would derail the Obama re-election efforts.”
LIBERAL MEDIA ARE ACCESSORIES TO BENGHAZI COVER-UP
ABC, NBC, CBS, WaPo, and NYT Refuse to Report Obama’s Failure to Save Benghazi Heroes
ALEXANDRIA, VA – For the sixth night in a row, ABC World News, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News refused to give one single second of coverage to a Fox News report that the Obama Administration denied help to those attacked and killed by terrorists at the US consulate in Benghazi on September 11. According to a Media Research Center analysis, ABC, CBS, and NBC have failed to cover this devastating story – not to confirm it, not to knock it down, and never mind do their own investigation. The story broke last Friday, long before Hurricane Sandy swamped the news cycle.
Further, neither The Washington Post nor The New York Times has committed a single inch of their newspapers to a news story about this report.
According to Fox News, “sources claim officers at the nearby CIA annex in Benghazi were twice told to stand down when they requested to help those at the consulate. They later ignored those orders. Fox News was also told that a subsequent request for back-up when the annex came under attack was denied as well.”
Media Research Center President Brent Bozell reacts:
“The liberal ‘news’ media’s refusal to cover this story exposes how corrupt they have become. Four Americans died in Libya in a coordinated terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9/11. The Obama Administration has been caught in a maze of falsehoods. This reeks of a cover-up. This scandal could and would derail the Obama re-election efforts. ABC, CBS, NBC, The Washington Post, and the New York Times are so vested in the re-election of Barack Obama that they are deliberately spiking this huge story. It’s sickening.
How big is this story? Bigger than Watergate. No one was killed in that burglary, and no one covered up the truth about the deaths of four brave Americans.
“Now there are rumblings that one or more of these so-called news networks have emails from the National Security Advisor’s office telling a counter-terrorism unit to stand down. If that’s true, they must tell the American people what they know, and how long they’ve known it. And if it isn’t true, then the networks need to say so. Their silence is deafening.
“The Obama administration’s cover-up of their deceitful response to the Benghazi terrorist attack is without a doubt the biggest political news story of 2012. The American people have a right to know what really happened before they cast their ballots on Election Day.
“If ABC, CBS, NBC, The Washington Post, and the New York Times refuse to ask the tough questions, then they no longer serve any purpose. And if they’re sitting on evidence to help Obama win re-election, they’re as guilty in this cover-up as is the administration.”
GM Earnings Drop (Remember, We Still Own It)
GM reported earnings of $1.5 billion for the third quarter, as reported by Auto Blog.. This marks a 14% drop from the third quarter of 2011, when the auto giant earned $1.7 billion. It contrasts unfavorably to Ford and Chrysler, both of whom reported up quarters.
Two trends contributed to the decline, and they have long-term implications: 1) the continuing weakness of European markets, and 2) the increasing popularity of small cars in an environment of rising energy prices. The latter sounds eerily familiar, as GM’s traditional reliance on large vehicles, especially SUV’s, helped push the company into bankruptcy.
The American taxpayer still holds an enormous stake in GM thanks to the 2009 bailout. Domestic political rhetoric often obscures the fact that GM is a complex global company whose foreign sales and production are a critical component of its overall health. Moreover, the company still has enormous benefit costs, but the third quarter did see some positive news on that front. GM reduced its liability for salaried employees’ pensions through a widely-subscribed buyout and an annuity conversion executed with Prudential.
GM’s chairman highlighted the complexity theme in the company’s earnings release:
GM had a solid quarter because customers around the world love our new vehicles and we’re also seeing green shoots take hold on tough issues like complexity reduction, pensions and Europe,” said Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson. “We are going to keep playing offense with growth products like the Chevrolet Onix, Opel Mokka and Cadillac ATS and continue to systematically address business risks.”
Photo Credit: Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz, via Wikipedia
BA Spending Daily November 1, 2012
Spending Daily | November 1, 2012
Polling Analysis: Fiscal Responsibility Resonates with Independents, Other Key Demographics
Public Notice today released a comprehensive polling analysis memo showing bipartisan concern over debt and government spending, especially among Independent voters and middle-class families, key demographics in the presidential campaign. ”As more Americans connect our national debt to the health of the overall economy and their personal financial situations, it’s no surprise that debt and government spending continues to be an area of steady and growing concern,” said Public Notice Executive Director Gretchen Hamel. “Because this topic resonates so strongly among key groups like Independents and middle-class families, it is our view that the candidate who can win voter confidence on cutting the debt will win the election. And no matter who wins, the first order of business in Washington after the election should be to work together to avert this fiscal crisis.” Click here to read more.
HAMEL: Voters want a president who will rein in spending
Gretchen Hamel editorializes in The Washington Times, “Flashback: In November 2011, a special ‘Super Committee’ established by Congress to develop a 10-year deficit reduction plan announced it was disbanding, having failed to agree on a workable solution to the nation’s spending woes. Flashback: Just one year earlier, in December 2010, a blue-ribbon commission of congressional leaders and budget thinkers, appointed by President Barack Obama to develop a long-term fiscal sustainability plan, issued its own final proposal. Their plan was dead on arrival—the commission couldn’t even garner enough votes to approve its own recommendations. See a pattern here? Despite Washington’s supposed efforts to rein in spending, pushing responsibility to committees and commissions has failed repeatedly. The lesson is clear: The government’s spending addiction, which has saddled us with endless deficit spending and a skyrocketing $16 trillion debt, will only be addressed through leadership from the president.” Click here to read more.
Layoffs Hit Five-Month High in October
Reuters reports, “The number of planned layoffs by firms jumped 41.1 percent in October to the highest level in five months, although the number includes more than 10,000 jobs in U.S.-owned auto plants in Europe, a report said on Thursday. Employers announced 47,724 planned job cuts last month, up from September’s 33,816, according to the report from consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. It was the highest level since May. … The consumer products industry announced 5,250 cuts, while electronics companies laid off 4,491 workers as the sectors were hurt by a slowdown in consumer and business spending. The report comes a day ahead of the key U.S. labor market report, which is expected to show job growth picked up modestly last month to 125,000 jobs.”
Election Winner Will Have Fiscal Cliff to Deal With Instead of Celebration
USA Today reports, “Confrontations abroad. A divided Congress at home. A budget stalemate on the horizon that threatens another recession. Come Nov. 7, President Obama or President-elect Mitt Romney might be forgiven if he pines for the good old days of campaign rallies and negative ads. The worldwon’t wait for either man to enjoy his victory celebration. The bad blood and battle lines between Democrats and Republicans are likely to spill over rather swiftly from politics to policy matters. And only 55 days will remain before a convergence of tax increases and spending cuts threatens to throw the slowly healing U.S. economy back into recession. … The president also will have to contend with outside pressures from lobbyists, unions, corporate interests and ideological foes.”
Debt Ceiling Coming Before 2013
Reuters reports, “The Obama administration said on Wednesday that the nation would hit the legal limit on its debt near the year’s end, although it can tap emergency measures to stave off a default and keep the government running into early 2013. As of Monday, the U.S. Treasury was $235 billion below the $16.4 trillion statutory ceiling on the amount it can borrow. That gives the government enough funds to pay its bills, including interest on its debt and retirement health benefits, until the end of the year, the Treasury said, reiterating a forecast it made in August. If Congress fails to raise the debt limit, analysts expect the Treasury will run out of options to avoid a default sometime in the latter half of February. … After Tuesday’s presidential and congressional elections, Washington will have less than two months to find a solution to the so-called fiscal cliff – the $600 billion in tax increases and budget cuts that could fuel a fresh recession.”
“Tax bill set to rise for 30 million households unless Congress acts”
The Hill reports, “More than 30 million households could be hit with the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) if Congress doesn’t take action after the election, adding another pressure point to talks on the ‘fiscal cliff.’ Democrats and Republicans agree that Tuesday’s election will go a long way toward determining which party has leverage in the post-election negotiations on taxes and spending. …The task at hand could be complicated, however, by the bitter debate over the Bush-era tax rates. Democrats only want to extend those rates for family income up to $250,000, while Republicans want to continue them for all taxpayers. … The Congressional Research Service has estimated that, without a legislative fix, more than a third of households who owe the AMT for 2012would be concentrated in just those three states.”
Greece in Downward Spiral as Economic Crisis Worsens
The Associated Press reports, “A sign taped to a wall in an Athens hospital appealed for civility from patients. ’The doctors on duty have been unpaid since May,’ it read, ‘Please respect their work. ‘Patients and their relatives glanced up briefly and moved on, hardened to such messages of gloom. In a country where about 1,000 people lose their jobs each day, legions more are still employed but haven’t seen a paycheck in months. What used to be an anomaly has become commonplace, and those who have jobs that pay on time consider themselves the exception to the rule. … Life in Athens is often punctuated by demonstrations big and small, sometimes on a daily basis. Rows of shutteredshops stand between the restaurants that have managed to stay open. … Private businesses have closed down in the thousands. Unemployment stands at a record 25 percent, with more than half of Greece’s young people out of work. Caught between plunging incomes and ever increasing taxes, families are finding it hard to make ends meet.”
BA FLASHBACK: Is America headed down the same path? Check out our infographic!
Voters Want An End To Political Gridlock
The Associated Press reports, “Just about everybody agrees Washington is a gridlocked mess. But who’s the man to fix it? After two years of brawling and brinkmanship between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans, more voters trust Mitt Romney to break the stalemate, an Associated Press-GfK poll shows. Romney’s message – a vote for Obama is a vote for more gridlock – seems to be getting through. Almost half of likely voters, 47 percent, think the Republican challenger would be better at ending the logjam, compared with 37 percent for Obama. … There’s a good chance that a President Romney would face a split Congress, as well. Democrats appear to have an edge in holding onto their Senate majority, especially if the presidential race remains close. “
There’s Been A Shift In Thinking On The Global Economy — And It’s Not Good For The United States
Business Insider – The latest batch of global manufacturing data is helping to confirm a shift in conventional wisdom that’s been brewing over the last couple of weeks.
Whereas before, the thinking was that the US economy was the lone pillar of strength in a world that was seeing declines in Europe and China, the new thinking is that Europe and China are starting to turn the corner, and that the US is just starting to hit its slowdown. Today’s manufacturing and trade data from Asia confirm the idea that Asia is turning around.
In a note to clients yesterday, SocGen’s Sebastien Galy wrote:
The economic theme has been that as the US economic data improved, the Asian one eventually followed led by South Korea and then China in a fairly traditional recovery. The US picture is now on the margin more mixed, while Canada is taking a larger than expected correction from the consequence of the slowdown in Asia. If one continues this logic China and South Korea should surprise to the upside while the picture is more mixed in the US.
Along these lines, Goldman’s Shuyan Wu wrote yesterday that Goldman’s own proprietary Goldman Sachs Analyst Index was seeing a “Spooky October.”
The key points:
-The Goldman Sachs Analyst Index (GSAI) tumbled to 32.9 in October from 44.1 in September. Underlying components also fell across the board, suggesting depressed business activity from the bottom-up.
-The employment index remains weak, while lower price indexes continue to suggest softening inflationary pressure, in line with our current expectation.
The Redemption of New Super Mario Bros. U
