Erick's blog

The GPPF T-SPLOST Analysis

Wed, 23 May 2012 21:56:07 +0000

Here is the T-SPLOST analysis from the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. The GPPF is less than thrilled with the T-SPLOST (Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) and the Atlanta area T-SPLOST’s emphasis on rail. There is one graphic that stands out in my mind.

From page 19 of the report:

Atlanta and Barcelona have the same number of people and Atlanta uses 30 times the physical land area as Barcelona. In other words, rail works great in Barcelona due to population density, but not Atlanta for the same reason. Zoning in Atlanta doesn’t help the matter.

Tonight on the Erick Erickson Show, I’m going to get into this topic and also Joe Biden’s comments that the tea party is to blame for the lack of economic recovery. You can listen live tonight on the WSB live stream and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK. The show is from 6pm to 9pm ET on the nation’s most listened to talk radio station.

Consider this an open thread.

Well Thank God Nikki Haley Isn’t a Democrat Or It’d Be A Hate Crime

Wed, 23 May 2012 11:16:28 +0000

If you haven’t seen it yet, Newsbusters has the video of South Carolina AFL-CIO president Donna DeWitt beating the hell out of a piñata with a picture of Nikki Haley taped to it. The union crowd cheers her on.

This comes just days after Phil Bailey of the South Carolina Democratic Party called Nikki Haley a “sikh Jesus” multiple times on Twitter.

Were Nikki Haley a Democrat, the media would make this the front page story across the nation — racist tea partiers beating up the minority governor in effigy.

But no, Nikki Haley is a Republican minority. The media views most stories like this in terms of victim and victimizer and a minority who signs on with the Republicans has, in the mind of so many reporters in America, chosen to join the victimizer class. Therefore, when she herself is a victim, it’s just payback.

It’s sad that this would be the case, but the media has for decades shown us how they operate. What would be front page for days in a row on the New York Times were Nikki Haley a Democrat will be barely covered.

But on the bright side, we lose one less news cycle to a story of union violence and keep the focus on how Barack Obama is destroying the economy.

Like His Policies, His Attacks Are Not Working Either

Wed, 23 May 2012 08:46:00 +0000

Barack Obama’s economic policies have failed to do anything except drive up the national debt. He has not created or saved jobs. He has not gotten Americans back to work. About the only significant industry he has expanded is the printing industry printing all the extra food stamps Americans now depend on.

His campaign attacks do not seem to be working either.

He is winning women, but not by the overwhelming margins he needs to get elected.

He is now losing Catholic voters, a key constituency he won in 2008.

He is even losing Democrats on his Bain Capital attacks. His campaign has spent more time explaining itself to Democrats this week on those attacks than it has been able to level the attacks. It doesn’t help when the Obama campaign is raking in money from Bain Capital and private equity firms while trying to demagogue them.

In a nutshell, the Obama campaign must convince Americans that Mitt Romney would be a worse option on the economy than Americans already believe Barack Obama is. Running a campaign on the message of “you think I’m bad, just look at him” is not really a winning message.

Last night, Barack Obama got a lower percentage of the vote among Democrats in Kentucky and Arkansas than Mitt Romney did with his base. Over 40% of Democrats in Kentucky voted against Barack Obama. Even at 11pm ET last night, the Associated Press had called the Arkansas Republican Primary for Mitt Romney, but still had not called the Democratic race for Barack Obama.

This is not good for the incumbent President.

While all of this is going on, Cory Booker of Newark, NJ, Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, Harold Ford, Jr. of Tennessee/New York, and Duval Patrick of Massachusetts were chiming in to defend Bain Capital.

The attacks are not working.

Morning Briefing for May 23, 2012

Wed, 23 May 2012 08:45:00 +0000

RedState Morning Briefing
May 23, 2012

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. Like His Policies, His Attacks Are Not Working Either

2. Electoral implications of the Obama Administration’s War on Coal.

3. New ‘Basketball’ ad hits Obama for letting folks down

———————————————————————-

1. Like His Policies, His Attacks Are Not Working Either

His campaign attacks do not seem to be working either.

He is winning women, but not by the overwhelming margins he needs to get elected.

He is now losing Catholic voters, a key constituency he won in 2008.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Electoral implications of the Obama Administration’s War on Coal.

Will this be the 2012 election map?

If the Obama administration keeps up their War on Coal (literally: they consider coal more dangerous than terrorism), quite possibly. And it may be at least partially because of coal.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. New ‘Basketball’ ad hits Obama for letting folks down

The new Crossroads GPS ad “Basketball” could prove to be the most effective ad of the 2012 presidential campaign.

The ad is not red meat for right wingers. It does not go after President Obama for his associations with radicals such as Van Jones, Bill Ayers or the Reverend Wright. I doesn’t go after Obama’s Socialism — his desire to redistribute all our wealth. It doesn’t even go after Obama’s extremists efforts to radically transform America.

No, the new “Basketball” ad subtly goes after those who were swayed by presidential candidate Obama’s eloquent offer of hope for change and the disappointment they are now experiencing. As the New York Times puts it, the ad is not a “searing denunciation” of Obama. It is more a soft-pedaled, deeply researched, delicately worded story of a struggling family let down by Obama’s failure to make things better.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Morning Briefing for May 22, 2012

Tue, 22 May 2012 08:46:00 +0000

RedState Morning Briefing
May 22, 2012

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. Barack Obama Will Not Defeat The Taliban

2. Obama allows your children to go swimming for one more summer

3. Democrats Question Republicans’ Patriotism Over Debt Fight

4. State Voices: National Progressive Network Funding Local Progressive “Grassroots”

5. Divide, Conquer & Destroy: NLRB Region Unleashes Micro-Unit On Retailer

6. The Earmark Battle That Won’t Subside

———————————————————————-

1. Barack Obama Will Not Defeat The Taliban

We have reached an endpoint of sorts in the decade-long Afghanistan War. President Obama will not keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban and force them to accept terms of any kind. Have we lost the war? Should we have left years ago, or never gone in? That depends on your view of what we were fighting for and about in the first place.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Obama allows your children to go swimming for one more summer

Last week, news was made as today’s deadline approached for commercial and municipal swimming pool owners to install means, by which disabled swimmers could enter the nation’s swimming pools. It is the kind of regulation that would make a great punch line for the conservative version of the Daily Show, if conservatives were that funny. The Obama Administration has recently construed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Standards for Accessible Design to apply to the act of swimming.

Today, this regulation was supposed to go into effect, opening up the owners to $100,000 fines as well as trial lawyer liability. However, thanks to the kindness of the Justice Department, existing pools now have until January 2013 to comply.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Democrats Question Republicans’ Patriotism Over Debt Fight

With House Republicans (and their few allies in the Senate) gearing up for another battle over whether to raise the national debt limit without doing anything to cut spending, Democrats (and their many allies in the media) are falling back on their favored tactic of attacking the other side’s motives, this time accusing Republicans of deliberately harming the economy for partisan gain. This is either a sign of Democratic desperation or, perhaps, proof that the Democrats are so far down the rabbit hole they cannot even comprehend why anyone would want to reduce spending when the nation has spent itself so deeply into debt.

The irony, of course, is that Democrats are the first people to shriek and run to the media’s self-appointed civility police when they feel their patriotism is being questioned; it’s always a big applause line for Democrats to claim that they will never question anyone’s patriotism…

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. State Voices: National Progressive Network Funding Local Progressive “Grassroots”

State Voices, a national network of Progressive 501(c)3?s, has targeted Colorado for years. They provide GOTV technology, polling data, various other political advocacy tools, and cash to state affiliates such as the Colorado Civic Engagement Roundtable.

The biographies for State Voices national staff tout connections to the AFL-CIO, Common Cause, the Sierra Club, and ACORN to name a few. Joanne Wright and Camellia Phillips were both longtime ACORN employees, working as deputy political director and assistant director of development, respectively. Joanne’s switch to State Voices has provided her with a handsome monetary benefit. The group’s 2009 and 2010 tax reports total her income to nearly a quarter of a million dollars in those two years alone.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. Divide, Conquer & Destroy: NLRB Region Unleashes Micro-Unit On Retailer

Over the course of the last two years, Barack Obama’s union appointees at the National Labor Relations Board have been waging a war against America’s union-free workplace. While the NLRB’s prosecution of the Boeing Company for the alleged “crime” of opening a non-union pant in South Carolina captured much media attention, when taken in their totality, the less-reported decisions and rule-making that Obama’s appointees have issued is, to America’s union-free workplace, akin to a death by a thousand cuts.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

6. The Earmark Battle That Won’t Subside

It seems that every week in Washington brings forth another story of Republicans trying to abjure the moratorium on earmark. On Friday, the Hill posted an article on the latest and greatest from the earmarxists.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Skyfall, the Avengers, 3D, and Cory Booker #EERS

Mon, 21 May 2012 21:53:27 +0000

Tonight, I’m going to spend some time talking about movies, what a waste 3D is, and of course talk about the new James Bond movie.

Oh, and I’ll get into the Cory Booker backtrack too.

You can listen live tonight on the WSB live stream and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.

The show is live from 6pm to 9pm ET.

Consider this an open thread.

In For the Talkmaster

Mon, 21 May 2012 12:26:12 +0000

I’m filling in for Neal Boortz this morning from 8:30 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. Then Herman Cain will take over. This morning I’ll get into the Occupy kids rioting in Chicago and the reeducation of Cory Booker.

You can listen live tonight on the WSB live stream and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.

Consider this an open thread.

Morning Briefing for May 21, 2012

Mon, 21 May 2012 08:46:00 +0000

RedState Morning Briefing
May 21, 2012

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. Thomas Fuentes, R.I.P.

2. Obama Once Again Shifting the Blame on Gas Prices

3. Tom Barrett (D CAND, WI-GOV RECALL) passes on honoring slain cops to… stump-speech the UAW.

4. Ad Wars

———————————————————————-

1. Thomas Fuentes, R.I.P.

You probably did not know Thomas Fuentes. I did.

He sat on the board of Eagle Publishing, Inc., our parent company. Today comes word that the Lord has finally called him home after a long battle with cancer.

Tom Fuentes was a grand man. He was a conservative fighter. Two words for you: Orange County. In the seventies, Orange County, California was starting to drift left. Tom Fuentes stopped that drift. He made Orange County safe for conservatives. From 1984 to 2004, he served as county GOP Chairman. Unlike so many, Tom Fuentes did not build up an organization making himself the indispensable man whose work would collapse without him. A true leader, he built up Orange County so it could go on as a Republican juggernaut.

Many men in conservative politics whose organizations will collapse the moment they are gone could take lessons from what Tom Fuentes did.

He will be missed.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Obama Once Again Shifting the Blame on Gas Prices

This week, President Obama and Interior Secretary Salazar returned to familiar territory, once again chastising energy companies for maintaining an inventory of undrilled Federal leases.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Tom Barrett (D CAND, WI-GOV RECALL) passes on honoring slain cops to… stump-speech the UAW.

When it came out last week that Milwaukee mayor (and Wisconsin Democratic candidate for governor in the upcoming recall election) Tom Barrett had skipped out on two ceremonies honoring Milwaukee police officers, there was some questions about what Barrett thought could possibly be more important that going to, say, a memorial service for slain Wisconsin policemen. It probably didn’t help either that Barrett was so evasive about the answer, either – to the point of convenient memory loss. Well, it turns out that Barrett probably wanted to forget the answer of where he was doing instead of honoring fallen officers, given that the answer was… ‘making a stump speech.’

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Ad Wars

I am a rabid online video consumer. I love them, I watch them, I make them. The greatest thing about online videos is that, unlike television, the creators have all the time they need to explain their point and they are, more importantly, a relatively inexpensive way to react quickly to the opposition.

I’m not sure the Obama administration has figured out yet that between our continual victories on twitter and our exploding video production capabilities, they aren’t the only game in town anymore. Back in 2008, most tech savvy people found the McCain campaign to be woefully inadequate online. This doesn’t appear to the be the case this election cycle with Romney’s camp & conservative SuperPACs pushing new content almost daily.

It is also making for an interesting back and forth between competing narratives. Take for instance this ad from American Crossroads about Obama’s broken promises.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Thomas Fuentes, R.I.P.

Sun, 20 May 2012 21:16:03 +0000

You probably did not know Thomas Fuentes. I did.

He sat on the board of Eagle Publishing, Inc., our parent company. Today comes word that the Lord has finally called him home after a long battle with cancer.

Many men in conservative politics whose organizations will collapse the moment they are gone could take lessons from what Tom Fuentes did.

He will be missed.

Over at Human Events John Gizzi notes

Fuentes is best known as the longest-serving (1984-2004) chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County, California. As the GOP leader of what until very recently was considered the most populous Republican county in the U.S., Fuentes built a vigorous, well-financed party organization that consistently captured most of the legislative and U.S. House districts as well as most of the county offices. Fuentes never backed away from being a conservative voice as well as party leader. Conservative leaders in the Golden State such as Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, former Rep. Christopher Cox considered him one of their closest allies as well as a friend.

Our owner, Thomas L. Phillips, asked invited his friend Mr. Fuentes onto the board of Eagle Publishing. He has a particularly good remembrance of his friend.

Thomas A. Fuentes was a sixth-generation Californian whose great-great-great grandfather emigrated from Mexico to what is now San Diego in 1834, when California was still a Mexican province.

From 1984 to 2004, Tom was Chairman of the Orange County Republican Party. In that role, he was one of the most influential party leaders both in California and the country. He grew the Orange County GOP into a bastion of Republican strength in the state. He stood firm for conservative principles and resisted attempts to water down Republican ideals.

He was a founding director of the National Conservative Campaign Fund, a political action committee I helped launch in 1999. His insight and sage political advice were invaluable in shaping NCCF into an effective source of help for bona fide conservatives running for the U.S. House and Senate.

I enjoyed getting to know Tom Fuentes and appreciated those times he gave me advice based on his experience. He’ll be sorely missed and our prayers are with his family.

Barack Obama: A Composite Kenyan

Fri, 18 May 2012 08:46:00 +0000

“The Breitbart Crew are kind of like illegal immigrants — doing reporting Columbia journalism grads won’t do. And doing it quite well.”

The Breitbart Crew has done the world a very valuable service in finding a 1991 biography of Barack Obama from his literary agent claiming he was “born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.”

Our own Jeff Emanuel also pointed out a 2004 Associated Press article that began, “Kenyan-born US Senate hopeful, Barrack Obama, appeared set to take over the Illinois Senate seat after his main rival, Jack Ryan, dropped out of the race on Friday night amid a furor over lurid sex club allegations.” [Editor's note: James Taranto pinged me on Twitter that this "Kenyan-born" bit was an addition added by a local editor of a Kenyan paper.]

I do not believe Barack Obama was born in Kenya. I don’t think it matters even if he were born overseas because his mother was an American citizen. I’m not going to debate it with the cult of birtherism.

But the Breitbart Crew has, only a few days after the Obama White House was caught editing the biographies of other Presidents on the White House website to insert Barack Obama into their Presidential legacies, done an invaluable service in highlighting two very important issues.

First, as someone who has written a book, I find Barack Obama’s literary agent’s explanation not very credible. The literary agent explains, “This was nothing more than a fact checking error by me — an agency assistant at the time. There was never any information given to us by Obama in any of his correspondence or other communications suggesting in any way that he was born in Kenya and not Hawaii.”

It was a fact checking error based on . . . no facts? Barack Obama never gave any information . . . suggesting in any way that he was born in Kenya and not Hawaii? Well where the hell did this very huge extrapolation come from? It’s like the virgin birth of a legend — some lady and God alone were involved.

That’s laughable. Miriam Goderich had to have gotten the idea from somewhere. But what is more laughable is that Barack Obama did not know and did not approve. When I wrote my book, I had to approve my biography multiple times. But more damning, this biography went to the press in 1991 and it circulated for more than a decade.

Even the Associated Press picked it up and I cannot find anywhere suggesting Barack Obama tried to have the AP correct its reporting.

The point is not that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. The point is that Barack Obama has repeatedly been perfectly okay embellishing and having others embellish his qualifications and biography to make himself someone unique instead of just another Chicago politician. The pattern goes back to his job as a “financial reporter”. A former colleague of his and Obama fan, way back in 2005, claims Barack Obama really embellished his resume describing his financial related reporting.

Second, and the largest point, however, is that the media is yet again caught flat footed, claiming the story is no big deal, irrelevant, or that somehow the Breitbart Crew is in the wrong and peddling Birtherism.

They are not peddling Birtherism. The Breitbart Crew are kind of like illegal immigrants — doing reporting Columbia journalism grads won’t do. And doing it quite well. In 2008, the New York Times ran a big story on John McCain having an affair with a lobbyist. It got picked up all over the place. Reporters were on the trail. There was no *there* there.

It took most of the month of August in 2004 for the media to pay attention to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth — men who served with John Kerry and had real problems with both his conduct in Vietnam and his conduct after he left Vietnam. The media did not want to cover the story. For a while, it was just Fox News. The clear demonstration of bias finally forced the New York Times and the big three nightly newscasts to play catch up as dismissively as possible.

This story has been out there since Barack Obama ran for the United States Senate. Even now the media is dismissing it as frivolous. If it turned out Mitt Romney had not actually been a missionary in France, it would be headline news.

Barack Obama embellishing his biography to make himself look unique? Hardly worthy of press attention. In fact, nothing Barack Obama has done suggesting serious character flaws — and that’s what this is about — is ever worth the media’s collective attention. Why? Because some people think Barack Obama was born in Kenya, but much of the press corps is pretty damn sure he was born in Bethlehem.

One last point — a friend raised this on email. Could this be why the campaign screams bloody murder about racists and birthers every time someone asks about Barack Obama’s college transcripts? This would explain why Obama is so squirrely about the issue and waited until Donald Trump caused him measurable damage in the polls on this issue before responding. He’s not embarrassed that people will find out he lied about being born in Hawaii; he’s embarrassed they’ll find out he lied about being born in Kenya.

Morning Briefing for May 18, 2012

Fri, 18 May 2012 08:45:58 +0000

RedState Morning Briefing
May 18, 2012

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. Barack Obama: A Composite Kenyan

2. Romney/RNC almost catches up with Obama/DNC in April.

3. Gov. Scott Walker might have been right – leads Barrett by 6

4. Media Trackers Uncovers Massive Ballot Irregularities in Montana

———————————————————————-

1. Barack Obama: A Composite Kenyan

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Romney/RNC almost catches up with Obama/DNC in April.

The New York Times reported this morning that the combined raised total for Romney and the RNC was $40.1 million in April, with Romney having $61.4 million in the bank: in comparison, Obama/the DNC raised $43.6 million. Barack Obama’s own cash on hand for April – it was $104.1 million at the end of March – and we probably won’t be told it until the Sunday deadline, or possibly a little later than that. Though, to be fair, Romney and the RNC haven’t submitted their latest fundraising reports to the FEC, either.

Also: while I give points to the NYT for mentioning that this was a significant jump from Romney’s March haul of $12.6 million, they might have kept comparing apples-to-apples and included the RNC’s March fundraising total ($13.7 million). Or noted that the Democrats’ $43.6 million number for April represents a drop from March’s $53 million. Then again, I suppose that there’s a narrative in place.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Gov. Scott Walker might have been right – leads Barrett by 6

It looks like Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker might have been right last month when he said would win the recall fight.

Three recent polls have found Governor Walker at 50 percent and leading Democrat Tom Barrett.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Media Trackers Uncovers Massive Ballot Irregularities in Montana

In at least two counties in Montana, the home of a competitive U.S. Senate race that could tip the balance of power in the upper chamber, massive mail-in absentee ballot irregularities have been uncovered by Media Trackers Montana, a non-partisan investigative research organization with operations in five states across the country. In Broadwater county alone, where Sen. Jon Tester received only 35 percent of the vote in the 2006 general election, up to 600 erroneous mail-in ballots have been reported. Over a dozen Billings-area voters have complained that they received incorrect ballots. Yellowstone county officials have also reported numerous complaints from voters receiving the wrong ballot.

And to top it all off, even a sample ballot available to individual voters on the Montana Secretary of State’s website is incorrect (this particular ballot allows the voter to select a state representative in two separate districts — districts 68 and 83). A majority of Montana voters are expected to vote by mail this November.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

No, He Wasn’t Born in Kenya #EERS

Thu, 17 May 2012 22:08:30 +0000

No, Barack Obama wasn’t born in Kenya, but we’re going to talk about it tonight.

Listen live right here and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.

Consider this an open thread.

Cleaning Up the GOP Moves to Texas

Thu, 17 May 2012 21:30:00 +0000

Late last evening came word that House Republicans intend to keep parts of Obamacare. Even if the United States Supreme Court throws the whole law out, House Republicans intend to resurrect portions of Obamacare. House Republicans publicly say the story is wrong. I’ve talked to several House Republicans who tell me the story is actually on the money and the Republicans now denying it are really playing at semantics.

These House Republicans tell me these denials about the accuracy of the story are equivalent to the House GOP semantically arguing it was living up to its Pledge to Nowhere requirement for $100 billion in cuts that actually amounted to something like $34 billion. Conservatives in the House of Representatives tell me explicitly to go with Politico on this and be very wary of the House GOP Leadership when it comes to repeal.

It is a sad time for the Republican Party. The base must treat its leaders as if they are Soviets — trust but verify their statements. And lately, it is harder and harder to verify their statements. The work of the Tea Party must continue or within a decade I honestly do not believe the GOP will be one political party.

In both Indiana and Nebraska, the Tea Party has continued to make gains. People have flat out rejected the establishment favorites for U.S. Senate – Dick Lugar and Jon Bruning, respectively – in favor of candidates who offer a challenge to the status quo.

Will Texans prove what they’re made of and do the same?

I love Texas. But let’s face it – the Texas congressional delegation is mediocre at best and leaves much to be desired.

Now, Texas has the chance to get it right – by sending Ted Cruz to the U.S. Senate. But will they? Maybe. But we have a lot to do and the Republican Primary in Texas is only 2 weeks from today.

But the payoff would be worth it – this is Texas for crying out loud. We’ve been given the opportunity to replace long time thorn in our side, Kay Bailey Hutchison, with an actual honest-to-goodness conservative. Ted Cruz is that conservative. David Dewhurst is not.

The first step is to prevent Dewhurst from getting to 50% on May 29th so that there is a head-to-head run-off between Dewhurst and Cruz in July.

The good news is that last week, Sarah Palin endorsed Cruz – adding to an already impressive list of solid conservatives like Jim DeMint, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Ed Meese, Mark Levin, the Club for Growth, the Madison Project, Gun Owners of America, RedState, and numerous others. These are not “DC insiders” as Dewhurst would have you believe, but strong conservatives who are fighting hard against the status quo and who know that Ted will join with them rather than the establishment.

Given Dewhurst’s rather paltry and almost embarrassing list of endorsements, it was not surprising that his response was to up the ante on spending – increasing his own ad buys, while his SuperPac launched another $1 million ad buy in Houston targeting Ted directly. In fact, while Dewhurst has spent just over $5 million on positive ads about himself – he or his SuperPacs have spent over $4 million on ads specifically going after Ted.

Why? It’s pretty simple – Dewhurst has been polling below 50% consistently despite having statewide name ID for over almost 15 years and hundreds of millions of dollars to throw around. And, he simply has no conservative record to run on. In fact, he would like people to ignore his record of proposed tax increases, higher spending and general incompetence as Lt. Governor. So, they are focusing on lies and distortions about Ted’s record.

The lies are extraordinary and should be ignored. The biggest lie – and one that sadly gained some traction – is that Ted is a “trial lawyer” who represented a Chinese company against an American company, and thus harmed American manufacturing jobs. This is facially absurd. Ted is an appellate lawyer – as Dewhurst well knows because Ted was the Solicitor General for the State of Texas, often fighting for the people of Texas in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. But even more, Ted represented one side of a dispute between two businesses – and the guy Dewhurst claims is an American manufacturer moved his business to China years ago.

The truth is simple. Everyone – and I mean absolutely everyone – in Austin who follows politics knows that David Dewhurst is a squishy moderate. They know he has been a major impediment – along with Joe Straus – to moving conservative reforms. They know he is boring and entirely unpersuasive. They know he is hiding behind the overall record of Governor Perry, who sadly is the lone conservative of any note who has supported Dewhurst… entirely out of loyalty to the man who has served as his Lt. Governor for some 12 years (in other words, don’t make anything of that support).

Meanwhile, Ted has a track record of fighting for conservatism. He has fought against ceding U.S. sovereignty to some unaccountable, leftist World Court… he has fought for religious freedom by successfully defending the placement of the 10 Commandments on the Texas Capitol grounds… and countless other efforts as a lawyer and a fighter for conservative principles.

Most importantly – Ted has sent a clear signal that he will work with conservatives in Washington to fight the establishment. Dewhurst not only will join the establishment – he is the establishment personified.

Texans have a chance to actually do something to change the direction of this country. They should do it, or perhaps we should stop looking to Texas as a leader of conservatism…

Morning Briefing for May 17, 2012

Thu, 17 May 2012 08:45:00 +0000

RedState Morning Briefing
May 17, 2012

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. Cleaning Up the GOP Moves to Texas

2. Will the South Carolina Democrats Tolerate This Racism?

3. How to Astroturf an Online Cause: the Story of “I Stand with Bill Powers”

4. The Club For Growth’s Depressing Study: Failure and Lies of the Tea Party Congresscritters

———————————————————————-

1. Cleaning Up the GOP Moves to Texas

Will Texans prove what they’re made of and do the same?

I love Texas. But let’s face it – the Texas congressional delegation is mediocre at best and leaves much to be desired.

Now, Texas has the chance to get it right – by sending Ted Cruz to the U.S. Senate. But will they? Maybe. But we have a lot to do and the Republican Primary in Texas is only 2 weeks from today.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Will the South Carolina Democrats Tolerate This Racism?

Phil Bailey sat next to South Carolina State Senator Jake Knotts when Knotts called Governor Nikki Haley, then a candidate for Governor, a “raghead.”

Phil Bailey did nothing.

Phil Bailey is the Executive Director of the South Carolina Senate Democratic Caucus. It seems he is now intent on one upping Jake Knotts.

Bailey, who had no problem with Knotts’ “raghead” comment when even the First Vice Chairman of the State GOP, Patrick Haddon, was calling for Knotts’s resignation, seems determined to one up Knotts with racism.

Bailey has been on twitter referring to Nikki Haley, a Methodist of Indian descent, as the “Sikh Jesus.” Governor Haley’s parents are sikh, but she and her husband attend a Methodist Church.

Not content to do it just once, Phil Bailey did it a second time, complete with a picture of a dog.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. How to Astroturf an Online Cause: the Story of “I Stand with Bill Powers”

Texas is ground zero in the national higher education reform movement. While the Washington crowd tends to fixate on President Obama’s piddling slap fight with Congressional Republicans over government-secured student loan rates, the real action on fixing higher ed is happening in Austin, Texas. The battle between Rick Perry and the higher ed reformers on one hand versus UT-Austin President Bill Powers and the Ivory Tower status quo on the other hand has been marked by years of grueling and often dull trench warfare that was punctuated last week by a flurry of bombs, beginning with a tuition freeze, followed by rumors of the UT President’s termination, and culminating in a textbook social media public relations campaign that deserves serious examination. And the consequences of this fight? Well, what happens in Texas won’t stay in Texas.

This is the story of “I Stand with Bill Powers,” a remarkably well-executed example of online astro-turfing.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. The Club For Growth’s Depressing Study: Failure and Lies of the Tea Party Congresscritters

There have been many studies out on the “tea party congress” and just how tea party it actually is. One study last year noted that 70% of candidates who went to Congress under the tea party banner were voting just like the Republican Leaders they ran against.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Will the South Carolina Democrats Tolerate This Racism?

Thu, 17 May 2012 01:57:28 +0000

Phil Bailey sat next to South Carolina State Senator Jake Knotts when Knotts called Governor Nikki Haley, then a candidate for Governor, a “raghead.”

Phil Bailey did nothing.

Phil Bailey is the Executive Director of the South Carolina Senate Democratic Caucus. It seems he is now intent on one upping Jake Knotts.

Bailey has been on twitter referring to Nikki Haley, a Methodist of Indian descent, as the “Sikh Jesus.” Governor Haley’s parents are sikh, but she and her husband attend a Methodist Church.

Not content to do it just once, Phil Bailey did it a second time, complete with a picture of a dog.

I know the South Carolina Democrats have low standards. But do they really want one of their employees to first be cool with the Governor of their state being called a “raghead” and then himself calling her a “sikh Jesus”?

The Club For Growth’s Depressing Study: Failure and Lies of the Tea Party Congresscritters

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:26:11 +0000

“If the tea party is not much more successful in primarying Republican candidates and then having those guys practice what they preach, the GOP is within a decade of going the way of the Whigs.”

Probably one of the best places to get a sense of this is the Club for Growth. Why? The Club ignores social votes and focuses only on fiscal votes — spending issues more than anything else. The tea party candidates went to Congress not just to repeal Obamacare, but were really motivated by out of control government spending, bailouts, etc. Remember, it was Rick Santelli of CNBC on February 19, 2009, who predicted this grassroots army of activists would rise up and say enough to out of control government spending and bailouts. Santelli said, in part,

The government is promoting bad behavior. Because we certainly don’t want to put stimulus forth and give people a whopping $8 or $10 in their check, and think that they ought to save it, and in terms of modifications… I’ll tell you what, I have an idea.

You know, the new administration’s big on computers and technology– How about this, President and new administration? Why don’t you put up a website to have people vote on the Internet as a referendum to see if we really want to subsidize the losers’ mortgages; or would we like to at least buy cars and buy houses in foreclosure and give them to people that might have a chance to actually prosper down the road, and reward people that could carry the water instead of drink the water?

…

We’re thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July. All you capitalists that want to show up to Lake Michigan, I’m gonna start organizing.

Things sort of spiraled from there sending a wave of candidates to Washington embracing the concerns of the activists who showed up to the tea party.

They wanted to cut spending because of out of control debt, stop Barack Obama, end Obamacare, and they were willing to primary Republicans to do it. A number of Republicans lost. In some open primaries, the candidates who were supported by the GOP out of Washington went down in flames.

But what of the candidates who actually went to DC on a wave of tea party support. Turns out some of them were liars and a lot of them behaved like the pigs in Animal Farm with some of them deciding they were more equal than others.

The Club for Growth’s new study of this Tea Party Congress paints a rather depressing picture. You can see how the freshman of the Tea Party Class of 2010 preformed by clicking right here.

If you want a more in depth look at the Congress as a whole, one of the best places to go is Heritage Action for America’s comprehensive score card. What you’ll find is not much better there.

I’m afraid if the tea party is not much more successful in primarying Republican candidates and then having those guys practice what they preach, the GOP is within a decade of going the way of the Whigs.

Will Mitch McConnell Stand With Conservatives Against Obama & the Federal Reserve?

Wed, 16 May 2012 08:46:00 +0000

The Federal Reserve is not my issue. Audit it if you want, I’m with you. But it’s not something that drives me crazy or makes me passionate. But there is one issue that really gets me and the Fed has been at the center of it lately — crony capitalism.

Barack Obama has nominated Jeremy Stein and Jerome Powell to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors for six years each. Senator David Vitter (R-LA — HAFA Score 85%) placed a hold on both men. They are creatures of Wall Street and, in the biggest red flag of the day, both Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have been pressuring Senator Vitter to drop his hold.

The issue here is bailouts. Mark Calabria notes the Federal Reserve has bailout powers, but it needs the support of five Federal Reserve governors. Stein and Powell are both in favor of the Federal Reserve continuing to bailout banks and other entities with little oversight.

Harry Reid can bring these men to the floor any time he wants. The word in the Senate is that he is about to.

Conservatives in the Senate and outside the Congress are deeply worried that Mitch McConnell will cut a deal with Reid to undercut David Vitter’s hold. We potentially could delay the appointments until after the November election if Mitch McConnell will side with David Vitter and Senate conservatives by objecting to Harry Reid’s cloture motion.

Please call Senator McConnell’s office today and encourage him to stand with David Vitter and object to cloture on Jeremy Stein and Jerome Powell. His office number is (202) 224-2541. Then call your own Senator at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to oppose Stein and Powell.

Morning Briefing for May 16, 2012

Wed, 16 May 2012 08:45:00 +0000

RedState Morning Briefing
May 16, 2012

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. Will Mitch McConnell Stand With Conservatives Against Obama & the Federal Reserve?

2. Narcissist in Chief Adds Himself to Every Presidential Biography (Except Ford)

3. The FY 13 NDAA Keeps Terrorists Off U.S. Soil without Compromising Civil Liberties

4. The DNC seems to be sitting out the Wisconsin recall.

5. House Republicans Still Hate Spending Cuts

6. Washington Post Promoting Misleading Filibuster Arguments

———————————————————————-

1. Will Mitch McConnell Stand With Conservatives Against Obama & the Federal Reserve?

Harry Reid can bring these men to the floor any time he wants. The word in the Senate is that he is about to.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Narcissist in Chief Adds Himself to Every Presidential Biography (Except Ford)

Many have called President Obama’s election historic, and rightly so. His presidency however, is another matter entirely. It’s historic in a lot of senses be it his record breaking debt accumulation & spending or his being the first president to have a rainbow halo placed on his head. But compared to the historic achievements of other presidents that did things like ending slavery or saving the planet, he falls woefully short.

Unless you ask him.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. The FY 13 NDAA Keeps Terrorists Off U.S. Soil without Compromising Civil Liberties

This week, the House will fulfill our most important constitutional duty by debating the FY 13 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). In accordance with the framer’s intent, this act is the primary check that Congress can apply to the Executive Branch on defense and national security policy.

Last year, constitutional conservatives raised the alarm bell about some provisions in the FY 12 NDAA; provisions that many were concerned would grant President Obama far reaching powers to detain American citizens without trial. The bill ultimately passed, but has become the subject of countless town hall meetings, tweets, and Facebook posts in the months since.

The debate has become so heated that many believe that the NDAA is a bill that deals strictly with detaining terrorists. It is much more than that. Aside from dictating how the military can handle any al Qaeda terrorists they capture, the FY13 NDAA deals with the full scope of national security issues. There is much in it, from a rejection of the Obama administration’s effort to raise health care fees on military retirees; to making sure the President doesn’t trade our missile defenses away to the Russians, that Conservatives can be proud of.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. The DNC seems to be sitting out the Wisconsin recall.

You know, when I saw this secondhand whine from Wisconsin Democrats upset that the DNC apparently wasn’t prepared to throw half a million dollars at the general recall election, I assumed that this would be resolved. I mean, really: the Left has already thrown away tens of millions of dollars; what’s a bit more? Admittedly, not throwing utterly horrible money after bad (we’ve passed the ‘throwing good money after bad’ stage already) would be the right answer, in a strictly utilitarian sense; but the state party is in a bad way right now. They sort of need an indication that the President cares for more than his own election, right?

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. House Republicans Still Hate Spending Cuts

Last week, the House passed H.R. 5326, the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, by a vote of 247-163, providing $51.131 billion in discretionary appropriations for fiscal year 2013. That’s $1.61 billion or 3% below the amount of funding provided for these programs in fiscal year 2012–and $731 million or 1.4% below the amount requested by the president for fiscal year 2013.

Not terrible, but clearly there was room to cut more spending, right? Surely House Republicans realized that Americans want them to cut more spending than 3%–and be more than 1.4% below where President Obama is, right?

Please click here for the rest of the post.

6. Washington Post Promoting Misleading Filibuster Arguments

Ezra Klein at the Washington Post put out a piece promoting Common Cause’s lawsuit to have the Senate filibuster declared unconstitutional. Klein repeats myth after myth about the filibuster. This piece should commence an interesting national debate finally putting the argument to bed that the filibuster is somehow unconstitutional. Abolition of the filibuster will lead to a Senate with less time for debate and limited transparency for the American people.

It is interesting to note that these short sighted leftists may be laying the table for an easy repeal of ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank and extending the Bush tax cuts. Clearly, Republicans control of the Senate is within reach (see RCP analysis of Senate polls). There is also a 50-50 chance that Republicans win the presidency. Liberals are trying to get rid of the one tool they would have to stop Republicans from dismantling the Obama legacy of higher taxes and more regulation.

I have to imagine that some Republicans will want to take liberals up on the offer of ridding the Senate of the filibuster in January of 2013.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

House Republicans Still Hate Spending Cuts

Tue, 15 May 2012 22:52:45 +0000

Right?

Well, some conservative amendments did indeed pass. See these, for example:

Diane Black (R-TN) – Prohibits the use of funds by the Attorney General to sue states over their immigration laws. Passed 238-173.
Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) – Prohibits DOJ from using funds to defend Obamacare. Passed 229-194.
Paul Broun (R-GA) – Cuts $181,000 from the Marine Mammal Commission. Passed by voice vote.
Bill Flores (R-TX) – Prohibits funding to continue the ban on federal procurement of unconventional fuels. Passed 250-173.
Trey Gowdy (R-SC) – Cut $1 million from the DOJ Administrative Account for Fast and Furious Program. Passed by voice vote.
Rep Andy Harris (R-MD) – Cut $542,000 from NOAA Climate Website. Passed 219-189.
Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) – Prohibits the use of funds by DOJ in contravention of the Defense of Marriage Act. Passed 245-171.
Ben Quayle (R-AZ) – Blocks Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidance that limits employers from looking at criminal records. Passed by voice vote.
David Schweikert (R-AZ) – Prohibits the use of funds by the Attorney General to sue states over their voter ID laws. Passed 232-190.
Joe Walsh (R-IL) – Prohibits funding for sanctuary cities. Passed by voice vote.
Daniel Webster (R-FL) – Prohibits funding for the American Community Survey. Passed 232-190.

But check out these conservative amendments that failed–and by how much they failed:

Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) – 1% across-the-board cut to discretionary spending. Defeated 160-251.
Paul Broun (R-GA) – A 3% cut to all salaries and expenses—as well as administrative costs—in the bill, for a total savings of $847 million. Defeated 137-270.
Paul Broun (R-GA) – 12.2% across-the-board cut, exempting US Marshals, FBI, and NASA. Defeated 105-307.
Paul Broun (R-GA) – Cuts $15 million from the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery program. Defeated 168-239.
Jeff Flake (R-AZ) – Cuts the National Science Foundation to fiscal year 2008 levels, for a total savings of $1.2 billion. Defeated 121-291.
Bill Huizenga (R-MI) – Strikes the provision that bans public-private sector competition within the Bureau of Prisons and Federal Prison Industries. Defeated 199-211.
Tom McClintock (R-CA) – Cuts $277.8 million from the International Trade Administration. Defeated 121-287.
Mike Pompeo (R-KS) – Eliminates all funding for the Economic Development Agency (EDA), for a total savings of $219.5 million. Defeated 129-279.
Ben Quayle (R-AZ) – Eliminates funding for the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia, for a total savings of $21 million. Defeated 147-259.
Steve Scalise (R-LA) – Reduces Economic Development Administration funding to fiscal year 2008 levels, for a total savings of $18.2 million. Defeated 174-233.
Austin Scott (R-GA) – Eliminates all funding for the Legal Services Corporation, for a total savings of $328 million. Defeated 122-289.
Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) – Cuts $128 million from the Legal Services Corporation. Defeated 165-246.

Are you kidding me?

House Republicans can’t come together to cut an additional 1%? Not $128 million from the much-hated Legal Services Corporation? Not $15 million from a salmon program?

House Republicans are still deaf to your requests to cut more spending. Make sure they hear you.

The Democrats Train to be Race Baiters #EERS

Tue, 15 May 2012 22:05:48 +0000

The Democrats have been taking professional training on how to be race baiters in this election cycle. I’m surprised this hasn’t gotten significant coverage.

I’ll get into it tonight and the logical outcomes of Obamacare start to kick in as Obama starts inserting himself into other Presidents’ biographies.

You can listen live tonight on the WSB live stream from 6:05 pm to 10pm and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.

Consider this an open thread. Also, please consider going to http://wsbradio.com to find out how you can help Amy Copeland.

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