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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Morning Briefing for July 31, 2012

RS MB CleanMasthead

RedState Morning Briefing

July 31, 2012

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the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

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1. Counting Chickens in Texas

Some friends in Texas are privately worried about Ted Cruz. The polls are very close. David Dewhurst has vastly outspent him. There is a huge turnout happening in random places in Texas — lots of people showing up in the runoff who do not normally vote in runoffs, let alone in Republican primaries.

That could be a sign that people are really fired up for Ted.

That could be a sign that Dewhurst is beating the bushes trying to get Democrats and typically disengaged voters to save him.

The only way to ensure a victory for Ted Cruz today is for you, if you live in Texas, to go vote. If you do not live in Texas, track down any friends you have in Texas and get them to go vote for Ted Cruz.

We need him. Today is election day.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. The Politician and the Crackhead

If Satan’s best trick is to make us believe he does not exist, his second best trick is to convince us that one more taste of sin will satiate our desire.

It is the same with the politician and the crackhead.

The crackhead holds the pipe in his hands and thinks, “Just one more hit and then I’ll get clean.” It is never really enough. He gets his fix. It wears off. And then . . .

“Just one more . . .”

It is the same with politicians and our tax dollars. “Just one more penny is all we need,” says the politician. But one more penny is never enough. The devil is always in the details.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Government Determined to Waste Money on Catfish

It’s easy to guffaw at $14 million in waste when we are running a $1.7 trillion deficit, but let’s not forget our collective (and appropriate) outrage at NPR funding which by many accounts, receives less than $4 million per year directly from the government.

But $14 million is precisely what will continue to be wasted after the House Agriculture Committee approved the Farm Bill while rejecting an amendment by Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) which would have streamlined catfish inspections (yes, catfish inspections) and save taxpayers millions.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Don’t Tell the NRA, but Fred Upton is Anti-Gun

As we noted last week, Fred Upton is not running on his record as a moderate Republican in the August 7 primary against Jack Hoogendyk. He is eschewing decades’ worth of big government values so he can hold onto his seat in Congress.

One of the most common stratagems employed by moderate Republicans (and Democrats) in an effort to ingratiate themselves to conservative voters is to tout their support from the NRA. In May, Fred Upton sent out mailers, which were overtly political (with his congressional Frank), that flaunted his credentials as an A rated pro-gun congressman from the NRA. The mailers reveal the vacuous content of Upton’s record, as well as the foolish electoral approach pursued by the NRA.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

COMMENTS

  • commonsenseobserver

    http://gop.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/obamaisntworking.jpg

  • commonsenseobserver

    Not the Indian princess :(

    They must be desperate for the Hispanic vote.

  • commonsenseobserver

    I’m believing in Mitt and in America more and more.

  • commonsenseobserver

    Shows people the difference between Obama’s lies and Clinton.

    But I like it that Mitt’s finally defining himself. We really need a President with his record and vision.

    Biopics are, of course, not unprecedented. I think Obama made use of them, so did John Major as far back as 1992.

  • commonsenseobserver

    Ahmadinejad?

    yet-another-foreign-leader-denounces-romneys-trip

  • commonsenseobserver

    http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/312724/yet-another-foreign-leader-denounces-romneys-trip

  • commonsenseobserver

    http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnstanton/republican-moderates-tire-of-leaders-tea-party-ti

  • westcoastpatriette

    Awesome.

    http://soforamerica.org/?page_id=102

  • kipling

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-man-87-robbed-on-southwest-side-20120731,0,588549.story

    Great job Rahm!

  • westcoastpatriette

    Thanks.

  • emptybucket

    on pins and needles waiting to hear if the Conservatives were able to get Cruz in. It is like, ah, I can’t think about anything else. I so want the Texans to get Cruz.

    Am so tired of the media trying to call our elections for us. Was impressed with Cruz the other day when I listened to him on FoxNews.

  • westcoastpatriette

    Good.

  • PowerToThePeople

    which should come within a couple of hours after polls close or maybe even sooner.

  • PowerToThePeople

    http://enr.sos.state.tx.us/enr/results/july31_162_county56.htm

  • westcoastpatriette

    For a huge win for Cruz… :)

  • garfieldjl

    http://nation.foxnews.com/new-black-panthers/2012/07/30/federal-court-finds-obama-appointees-interfered-new-black-panther-prosecution

    I think people will find this important.

  • lineholder

  • lineholder

    The left has been hot on the trail trying to pressure Mitt Romney into releasing more tax returns, right? I mean…from their viewpoint, if they can get their hands on those tax returns, they can prove what a lying evil capitalist Romney is, and how he is just another 1% er, and they believe that this will send droves of people stampeding back to Obama!

    So, what’s their latest spin to try to get what they want?

    ?He didn?t pay taxes for 10 years! Now, do I know that that?s true? Well, I?m not certain,? said Reid. ?But obviously he can?t release those tax returns. How would it look?

    ?You guys have said his wealth is $250 million,? Reid went on. ?Not a chance in the world. It?s a lot more than that. I mean, you do pretty well if you don?t pay taxes for 10 years when you?re making millions and millions of dollars.”

  • lineholder

    http://hotair.com/archives/2012/07/31/harry-reid-this-might-be-not-true-but-some-bain-investor-who-i-wont-name-told-me-romney-didnt-pay-income-taxes-for-10-years/

  • Melody Warbington (rwm52)

    Harry Reid is losing it AND the Dems are hitting high-anxiety panic levels! If the election weren’t so serious, I’d be laughing at this. Maybe they’ve been reading Moe’s DOOM diaries.

  • cbartlett

    and they are usually pretty fast about getting results out here. The box where I turned in my ballot (early voting last week) had a scanner slot on top – ballot was scanned/recorded on the spot. Computers should know results almost immediately in each precinct – should be able to upload data to state level pretty fast too. Don’t actually know if the scanner boxes are state-wide or not, but we should at least know about our local races in a few hours and start to see trends in the state-wide ones like Senate. I have never watched an election like this one before in my life…… wow.

  • cbartlett

    This link shows the page with results for just the Senate race (Cruz/Dewhurst). There is a line for each county so you can see them come in as each county reports in:

    http://enr.sos.state.tx.us/enr/results/july31_162_race0.htm

    The other one listed above only shows results for one county (Dallas) and all of its races – you probably aren’t as interested in the local races. I think there are something like 256 counties in Texas – you probably don’t want to wade through all of them to find out if Ted is winning! Looks like they will refresh the screen every three minutes so this is probably just as good or better than we are going to see on local TV stations here in TX. I’m planning to have both:-)

  • avagreen

    Polls close at 7p. No results yet.

  • Melody Warbington (rwm52)

    Big turnout where you voted? Everybody in line said they were voting for Cruz? I’m on pins and needles.

  • lineholder

    Can you think of any way to dig deeper into this:

    http://www.wtop.com/?nid=41&sid=2720349

    Lots of people in the federal government who aren’t paying their “fair share” these days, huh?

    Just looking at the table, House and Senate, and wondered who these folks might be. Heard anything along these lines?

  • westcoastpatriette

    not really, just a little pumped.

  • gekster

    Don’t worry about something until after it happens.
    And after it happens, there is nothing to worry about.

  • westcoastpatriette

    Don’t worry, be happy. :)

    Or as the Lord would say, cast all your cares upon Him for he cares for you.

  • Melody Warbington (rwm52)

    around these parts either knows about this or has better resources than Google.

    Certainly helps explain why those D.C. staffers don’t like turnover. I don’t recall hearing anything about this before, but a quick google turned up this article – here.

    And apparently, back in 2010, Rep. Chaffetz proposed legislation that would allow the firing of government employees who aren’t paying their taxes. Of course, you’d think that would be assumed, wouldn’t you? That story is
    here.

  • avagreen

    There weren’t many there when I voted in mid-afternoon. Didn’t talk to anyone, but when I said that a “big turnout” was GOOD, all the ladies manning the counters nodded vigorously. I’ve heard that a large turnout would favor Cruz.

  • westcoastpatriette

    wonderin’

  • avagreen

    But, even then, Cruz managed to come w/n 1% of the total votes from here in the Primary.

    One sobering thought I just read at Dallas News.com (and fodder for those that criticized Perry for making his weak endorsement of Dewhurst:

    If you understand Texas politics, you know the Lt. Governor is the most powerful elected official in Texas, because not only is he president of the Senate, but he controls the budget, and also is part of the executive branch.

    Dewhurst will still be Lt. Governor if he loses the runoff, and if any of them back Cruz, they can pretty much forget about anything they ever want from the legislature from then on.

  • westcoastpatriette

    It doesn’t say what county those votes are from.

  • avagreen

    with 219 to Cruz’s 98 out of 317 votes counted.

    ??

  • avagreen

    Cruz – 33,966 Dewhurts – 32,037 Total (so far) 66,003

    WCP, I guess we’ll have to wait until all the counties are in to see who got what where.

  • avagreen

    but not all at this point.

  • avagreen

    both are liberal college towns.
    Denton is Texas’ Berkley. (Men wear skirts down there, with combat boots of course.)

  • acat
  • westcoastpatriette

    Looking good so far.

  • acat

    callin’ it for Cruz.

    Seems early, but …

    Mew

  • rbdwiggins

    Senate Race by County.

    They’re all early voting results right now.

  • Freiheit (ZachV)

    n/t

  • westcoastpatriette

    Lookin’ good, so far.

  • westcoastpatriette

    Goody.

  • cbartlett

    It’s 7:35 and we don’t even show early voting results yet. Blah! Like ava, we are a college town too and there are few liberals – but most of them voted in the Dem primary so they can’t vote against Cruz.

    I heard at noon today that turnout for early voting in our county was less than we had in the May primary but my source said turnout today was very, very steady. They consolidated a bunch of precincts together this time – only 3 polling places in the entire county. A very heated runoff race for State Rep here (+ 2 other counties) is getting out more voters than normal, I think.

    The most liberal areas will be Bexar County (Austin – we try to lock up most of the liberals there – lol) and parts of Harris (Houston), Dallas & Tarrant (DFW area), and probably a few of the border counties because of the Hispanic vote but they may not get good turnout for a runoff. I don’t know – everything this election is so weird because of the very late primary and more contested runoffs than I remember ever seeing – been voting in Texas since 1976.

    Heading home now. Will move to iPad in about 15 minutes…..

  • avagreen

    Cruz just took Dallas county. Heh!

  • avagreen

    nt

  • westcoastpatriette

    Am I wrong on that you math whizs?

  • avagreen

    Cruz is about 27 thousand ahead of Dewhurts right now.

    What I’ve found astounding is that the more cosmopolitan counties (with colleges, universities, museums, live theatre’s, etc.) went for Cruz.

    The hardline farming communities (largely older Yellow Dog Democrats) went with Dewhurts.

  • commonsenseobserver

    Did not get 2/3 majority.

  • rbdwiggins

    It’s on the “Statewide” page…

  • Melody Warbington (rwm52)

    no text
    .

  • avagreen

    Cruz – 289,095 53%
    Dewhurst – 252,594

    http://enr.sos.state.tx.us/enr/results/july31_162_race0.htm?x=0&y=9765&id=18

  • commonsenseobserver

    http://www.therightscoop.com/mark-levin-slams-house-republicans-for-voting-to-eliminate-senate-confirmation-for-169-presidential-appointments/

    I think Levin’s overreacting here.

    “The positions in that category, such as assistant secretaries for public affairs or for administration or management, are ones that rarely spark partisan Senate battles.

    All told, those actions, which also affect some 3,000 members of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Public Health Services Corps, would streamline or reduce confirmation requirements for about 30 percent of the positions now needing committee hearings and Senate floor votes.”

    Doesn’t actually seem that important, given that we would be unlikely to fight a President on any of those anyway. I can see why Romney would be lobbying Congressmen to pass this.

    Maybe the Senate could use that free time to do something important, like, say, pass a budget?

  • commonsenseobserver

    http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=9CE3422E-F821-4561-B624-E97E09C3680F

    This ought to be a little more.. publicised, as we fight to repeal and replace Obamacare (and Obama). Not only does it contain a dozen job-killing taxes and red tape, puts government in between patients and doctors, and gives unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats the power to ration healthcare for seniors, all of which do the opposite of giving patients high-quality, affordable health coverage and care, it is a giveaway to special interests in the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Democrats really do stand for cronyism, and Americans should get to know that.

    (And erase our image as the party of big business at the same time, but that’s beside the point :P )

  • Freiheit (ZachV)