Emphasis on ‘may:’ they’re considering coming up with an alternative to the GOP budget plan that was released today. If the Democrats feel like it. And if Ranking Budget Member Chris Van Hollen can get his head around the big numbers involved. That’s not guaranteed, given that Van Hollen’s past experience with big, scary numbers shows that he has a bad tendency to go full-bore | Read More »
Jim Geraghty has the report. And it is my devout hope that Tim Kaine brings the same competence and drive to the upcoming Senate election in Virginia that Tim Kaine previously brought to the Chris Christie, Bob McDonnell, Scott Brown, Martha Roby, Mo Brooks, Rick Crawford, Tim Griffin, Steve Womack, Paul Gosar, Ben Quayle, David Schweikert, Jeff Denham, Scott Tipton, Cory Gardner, Steve Southerland, Rich | Read More »
Background: Ken Snider, Illinois state trooper and former regional head of Quinn’s security detail, abruptly resigned both positions (among others) last month. Turns out the resignations are allegedly related to Snider using a racial epithet – the racial epithet, in fact – towards an African-American college student, as prelude to a fight (it would be stretching things to call what happened next a ‘brawl,’ but | Read More »
Three things immediately leap out at me regarding this first look at the GOP’s long-term budget proposal: As Hot Air put it, everything’s apparently on the table. Everything. 6.2 trillion cut in spending over the next ten years*; 4.4 trillion cut from the deficit. Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security reform. An implicit promise of an end to ethanol subsidies. Defense cuts. Ending the bailout mindset. Top tax rates | Read More »
(H/T: @jaketapper) Tim Pawlenty’s got a new campaign ad out (“A New Direction“) in response to the President’s formal announcement that he’s running again; and it features… Paul Krugman. Paul Krugman, criticizing Washington for giving up on jobs. I don’t care who you are: that’s just funny, right there. If you’ve lost Paul Krugman… Moe Lane (crosspost) PS: Tim Pawlenty’s site is here. PPS: Also: | Read More »
I’m repeating myself, but the Left keeps trying to push back on this ad highlighting Wisconsin Democrat (and candidate for Supreme Court Justice) Joanne Kloppenburg’s utter lack of compassion for abuse survivors: …so pass it along. Make sure that the Wisconsin voter in your life watches it. The vote is tomorrow; the incumbent is David Prosser; and his site is here. Moe Lane (crosspost)
It’s quite fun, for given values of “fun:” The US Government subsidizes the production of corn-based ethanol, as a substitute/supplement for gasoline. To maintain a demand, the US Government pushes for standard gasoline mixtures containing 10% ethanol. This will supposedly decrease pollution and increase efficiency. Corn is then turned into ethanol wholesale. Corn-based food prices rise. That includes critters that eat corn, by the way. | Read More »
Because why have a nice, sunny morning? We probably can’t afford those anymore, anyhow. H/T AoSHQ Headlines: Primed by the financial meltdown; took off like a rocket in January 2009, and is now reaching for the stars. Over 44 million on the rolls (somewhere around 14.3% of the population), which is about 14 million or so more than when this administration took office. The graph | Read More »
Glenn Reynolds reprinted an email from a reader describing the alleged condition, a portion of which is reproduced below: For the last couple of years, every time Obama backs either a particular sports team in a playoff, super bowl, world series, what have you, or a candidate running for office, the team or candidate endorsed by Obama immediately tanks. Doug Powers noted this phenomenon over | Read More »
Background: Earlier this month, Wisconsin Democrats* created a campaign ad against incumbent Supreme Court Justice David Prosser that was so slimy that it sparked a formal protest by one of the abuse victims that Wisconsin Democrats were pretending to care about. Not that such a protest even remotely slowed down Joanne Kloppenburg, of course: the woman is so desperate to win next week’s Supreme Court | Read More »
The R/C/I stands for “Republican/Conservative/Independence:” New York is one of those fusion states with viable third parties, thanks mostly to the rule that votes for the same person on different “lines” can be combined and count towards the total vote total. We’ll address whether that’s a good idea or not at a different time; for right now, I spoke with Assemblywoman Jane Corwin this morning | Read More »
Let’s recap what happened in Wisconsin (that link leads to a whole slew of links that track this epic foul-up by the Democratic party in Wisconsin over what should have been a simple enough demonstration of the principle that elections have consequences). Wisconsin Democratic Senators run away rather than do their jobs. This prevents a quorum for bills that are primarily financial in nature. Wisconsin | Read More »
No, really. President Obama met with the transparency award givers in private; the award ceremony did not appear on his schedule, and had no press presence whatsoever. There wasn’t even a staff photographer there, much to the surprise of the transparency/open government people, who are all of them kind of confused that they had to give this award under the rose and in an undisclosed | Read More »
The below is being floated as a potential redistricting map for Missouri: I’ll summarize the changes as follows: Missouri loses a district, thanks to the 2010 Census. On the Republican side, Vicki Hartzler is liking this map least: she had some R areas taken away from her and given to Emanuel Cleaver, and has been given some D areas from Luetkemeyer. On the other hand, | Read More »
In Ohio, the final vote on SB 5 was 53-44; it’s already passed the Ohio Senate, but changes made to the bill require another quick vote on the legislation either today or tomorrow. This particular legislation goes a bit farther than the groundbreaking Wisconsin union reform bill; it redefines collective bargaining privileges for public sector union employees to cover wages only, institutes merit pay for | Read More »
As you are undoubtedly aware, Wisconsin has become one of the primary battlefields for labor union reform: having lost at the ballot box last November, Democrats and Big Labor both have been fighting a vicious rear guard action against any attempts to reform collective bargaining and organizing ever since. Currently, the focus is on several hypothetical recall elections – and an actual judiciary election (David | Read More »
I believe that this qualifies as a “Kinsley gaffe:” which is to say, a politician accidentally telling the truth. Background: this was from a press conference where the President was trying to explain why his foreign policy was such an improvement over georgewbushgeorgewbushgeorgewbush’s, despite the fact that it lacks a coherent conceptual framework, an overall philosophy, a clear set of objectives, and any sort of | Read More »
I think that this is a fair assessment to make. You see, in his haste to drum up some new clients (Garry South is head of the Garry South Group, a Californian Democratic political group*) by banging the drum that is We Hates Us The Koch Brothers, Yes We Do, South wrote for the Politico: Why don’t [the Koch Brothers] spend their money building libraries, | Read More »
“Humanitarian imperialism” is the phrase Mickey’s come up with to describe Whatever The Heck It Is We’re Doing These Days In Eurasia, and it’s a good one. It’s also one that implies a constant, low-level state of war that goes a good deal beyond the one that we’re in now; and I should make a distinction here between the Bush and the (unstated) Obama Doctrines. | Read More »
This is all very symbolic: Orlando Sentinel reporter Scott Powers was assigned to cover a fundraiser for Senator Bill Nelson (D, FL) that was being thrown by local real estate bigwig Alan Ginsburg. The fundraiser featured Vice President Joe Biden (D), whose staff promptly tossed Powers into a closet and refused to let him out except for the actual speeches [themselves]. This… is problematical, particularly | Read More »
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