Friday, January 15, 2010
Brown surges ahead
Although Brown’s 4-point lead over Democrat Martha Coakley is within the Suffolk University/7News survey’s margin of error, the underdog’s position at the top of the results stunned even pollster David Paleologos.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Hollywood abandoning Obamacare?
Alec Baldwin, award winning actor and wannabe leftist political commentator, called on Congress to sink congressional health care legislation today, saying he would rather the federal government "Put a Major Oil Company Out of Business," according to the headline of his column at the Huffington Post.Baldwin isn't the only liberal entertainer calling for the death of ObamaCare. Plans to tax so-called "Cadillac" health care plans--or the most expensive insurance plans--have riled up some key Democratic supporters. The Teamsters Union and the AFL-CIO have protested, but now objections are also being raised by Hollywood's biggest unions.
Ben Nelson booed
Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson and his wife were leaving dinner at a new pizza joint near their home in Omaha one night last week when a patron began complaining about Nelson’s decisive vote in favor of the Senate’s health care bill.
What a horrible woman!
Heh. That's the way to win
Coakley Takes Slap Shot At Fenway Fans
The Massachusetts special election continues to amaze. Democratic candidate Martha Coakley has taken a swipe at Fenway Park fans:Well yes, politicians go out to meet the voters even if it means standing out in the cold. At least politicians who want to win in Massachusetts.Coakley bristles at the suggestion that, with so little time left, in an election with such high stakes, she is being too passive.
“As opposed to standing outside Fenway Park? In the cold? Shaking hands?’’ she fires back, in an apparent reference to a Brown online video of him doing just that.
Save Our Seals!
If you don't like your numbers, make up some
Even more blatant is the numbers game being used to justify health-insurance reform legislation, which claims to greatly expand coverage, decrease health-insurance costs, and reduce the deficit. That magic flows easily from counting 10 years of dubious Medicare "savings" and tax hikes, but only six years of spending; assuming large cuts in doctor reimbursements that later will be cancelled; and making the states (other than Sen. Ben Nelson's Nebraska) pay a big share of the cost by expanding Medicaid eligibility. The Medicare "savings" and payroll tax hikes are counted twice—first to help pay for expanded coverage, and then to claim to extend the life of Medicare.
Police union endorses Brown in Mass.
Mass. Democrat/state Attorney General Martha Coakley can’t keep the vote of a sheet metal worker/union member she paid to hold signs for her.And despite her “law and order” platform, she can’t keep the votes of police unions, either. Not even one affiliated with her Purple Shirt patrons at the SEIU.
The One quadruples deficit
Considering these numbers it is likely that after tripling the US national deficit from the previous year in 2009, Barack Obama is on track to nearly quadruple the national deficit from 2008 when George W. Bush left office.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Everyone must sacrifice
Former Mardi Gras queen and current White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers has a favorite French saying originally attributed to the Cajuns who settled in pre-colonial Louisiana: “Laissez les bon temps rouler!”In fact, according to the Chicago Tribune, the stylish Ms. Rogers and the party-hearty First Couple hosted no less than 170 parties and social events through December 3 of 2009. And that does not even include the 17 parties and 11 open houses – feting more than 50,000 guests – ABC News reported the Obamas hosted throughout the Holiday Season.
And it is all by design. As Politico recently reported, Social Secretary Rogers says the Obamas want to “replicate the same kind of environment they had in Chicago.” In the Windy City, the paper reported an Obama friend as saying, “If there was a party or an event, they were there.”
How public servants became our masters
People who are supposed to serve the public have become a privileged elite that exploits political power for financial gain and special perks. Because of its political power, this interest group has rigged the game so there are few meaningful checks on its demands. Government employees now receive far higher pay, benefits, and pensions than the vast majority of Americans working in the private sector. Even when they are incompetent or abusive, they can be fired only after a long process and only for the most grievous offenses.
More on the elited "educated" class
People in newsrooms all over the country decided that someone who talked the way they did was the cure for what ailed the country, and are stunned to find out it is not.
Obama, Brooks concedes, has "recoiled" the country, but seems at a loss to say why.
Remarkable video
More on Coakley's cluelessness
The Democratic primary may have produced the single worst possible candidate for a hotly contested statewide election in this environment.
Coakley slept through December, has an arrogant attitude of entitlement which must put off voters, is mired in the past with her Bush-Cheney Derangement Syndrome, and doesn't seem to understand that the voters are pissed off at the political establishment of which she is a part. The optics of Coakley going to D.C. tonight for a lobbyist fundraiser are horrible.
Scott Brown is a great campaigner. Martha Coakley is a horrible campaigner. The stars may be in alignment.
Union members voting for Brown
More info on Coakley's fundraisers
With Democrat Martha Coakley in trouble in the Massachusetts special election to fill Ted Kennedy's seat, Democrats could lose vote No. 60 for President Obama's health-care bill. In response, an army of lobbyists for drug companies, health insurance companies, and hospitals has teamed up to throw a high-dollar Capitol Hill fundraiser for Coakley next Tuesday night. The invitation is here.
Of the 22 names on the host committee--meaning they raised $10,000 or more for Coakley--17 are federally registered lobbyists, 15 of whom have health-care clients. Of the other five hosts, one is married to a lobbyist, one was a lobbyist in Pennsylvania, another is a lawyer at a lobbying firm, and another is a corporate CEO. Oh, and of course, there's also the political action commitee for Boston Scientific Corporation.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Brooks sniffs at tea parties
In the near term, the tea party tendency will dominate the Republican Party. It could be the ruin of the party, pulling it in an angry direction that suburban voters will not tolerate. But don’t underestimate the deep reservoirs of public disgust. If there is a double-dip recession, a long period of stagnation, a fiscal crisis, a terrorist attack or some other major scandal or event, the country could demand total change, creating a vacuum that only the tea party movement and its inheritors would be in a position to fill.
Lobbyists, unions & opportunists rush in to fund Coakley
New Rasmussen poll
A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state finds Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley attracting 49% of the vote while her Republican rival, state Senator Scott Brown, picks up 47%.
More on the Brown Coakley debate
The debate was moderated by CNN's David Gergen. Near the end of the debate, he had two questions for Brown and Coakley each. After putting Brown on the spot over Roe v. Wade and "climate change," Gergen turned to the Democrat with his hardest hitting questions of the night.
Oh, brother! Suicide?
A user named Mike wrote on the fan Web site "Naviblue" that he contemplated suicide after seeing the movie.
"Ever since I went to see 'Avatar' I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na'vi made me want to be one of them. I can't stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it," Mike posted. "I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in 'Avatar.' "
Other fans have expressed feelings of disgust with the human race and disengagement with reality.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Over 20 people and millions of $
But finding out more was a bit like trying to get the keys to Ft. Knox. Many referred us to Speaker Pelosi who wouldn't agree to an interview. Her office said it "will comply with disclosure requirements" but wouldn't give us cost estimates or even tell us where they all stayed.
Senator Inhofe (R-OK) is one of the few who provided us any detail. He attended the summit on his own for just a few hours, to give an "opposing view."
"They're going because it's the biggest party of the year," Sen. Inhofe said. "The worst thing that happened there is they ran out of caviar."
Obama's approval on health care at new low
Just 36 percent of Americans approve of Mr. Obama's handling of health care, according to the poll, conducted from Jan. 6 – 10. Fifty-four percent disapprove. In December of last year, 42 percent of Americans approved of the president’s handling of health care, and 47 percent approved in October.
Detroit tea partiers assemble at Detroit Auto Show!!
Scott Brown update
The Brown campaign’s online moneybomb fundraising effort that Imentioned this morning has surpassed its $500,000 goal and hadcrossed the $625,000 threshold late this afternoon.C-SPAN will air the final debate between Coakley and Brown tonight at 7pm Eastern. Go here.
Sarah Palin
The gossipy new campaign book that has the political world buzzing portrays Sarah Palin not just as an ignoramus who believed Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 but also as possibly mentally unstable."Game Change," the 2008 deconstruction, says the stress of vaulting onto the national stage caused Palin to have wild mood swings.
"One minute, Palin would be her perky self; the next she would fall into a strange blue funk," the authors write.
Scott Brown moneybomb!
What I saw today was just a snapshot of the campaign. But that snapshot showed to me a truly grassroots campaign bursting at the seams with energy and enthusiasm and support.
If what I saw accurately reflects what is happening statewide, it is going to be very, very interesting on January 19.
Update: What I saw is echoed in what PPP found in the poll released tonight, huge excitement for Brown, not so much for Coakley. And Boston Globe poll released Sunday morning contains much spin, but shows tie among most motivated voters.