Erick Erickson's Blog, page 101

Herman Cain's Sense of Humor #EERS

Herman Cain has a sense of humor that a lot of uptight people are offended by. Tonight on the Erick Erickson Show we're going to get into it.

You can listen live at http://wsbradio.com and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.

Herman Cain Singlehandedly Revives an Old Stereotype

The other day, Herman Cain said if he was in charge of defending our borders, he'd build a twenty foot high wall, put barbed wire on the top, electrify it, and put a big sign on it that read "if you touch this, you will die!"

On Sunday, asked about it by the dimwit who replaced Tim Russert, Cain said he was joking.

The media headline: "Cain Retreats From Hardline Immigration Position."

Herman Cain has done something we all owe him a debt of gratitude for doing. He has singlehandedly revived a stereotype many people thought had been forgotten — the humorless liberal.

I was on CNN last night with a guy from New York who was just downright angry about Herman Cain's statement. "There's nothing funny" about the issue he said. Well, actually, there is a lot funny about it — a massive federal government capable of launching a stealth bomber from the heartland to drop bombs on Afghanistan is incapable of securing its own border.

If we can't laugh about it, we'd be crying about it. But Herman Cain is an optimist with a sense of humor. He's not retreating from his positions. He's laughing about the incompetence of both political parties letting a situation get so out of hand.

Liberals don't have one and many of us have forgotten it. They are starting to come back out of their caves and from under their bridges to be angry on TV about Herman Cain smiling.

We should rejoice. Humorless liberals are our greatest PR advantage in 2012 with independents who just want something to smile about.

By the way, at the RedState Gathering 2010 in Austin, Herman gave the more expanded immigration position:

I'm going to build a wall twenty feet high, cover it in barbed wire, and electrify it. I'm going to put a big sign on it that says if you touch this, it will kill you. Then I'm going to dig a big moat as long as a football field and I'm going to fill it with alligators.

If anyone can climb that wall, swim that moat, fight off the alligators and live to tell about it, I'm going to find them a job.

Jim DeMint Is NOT Endorsing Mitt Romney

Roll Call is running a story that Jim DeMint may endorse Mitt Romney. Here's what you need to know about it.

A number of DeMint past and present consultants in South Carolina work for Mitt Romney. I'm not sure the reporter knew just how heavily he was being spun, but he was.

The story is mostly wishful thinking by Romney consultants in South Carolina who have ties to DeMint. If you need further proof the story is bogus, consider DeMint's own office calling the story "a fabrication."

"That story is a fabrication made up of anonymous sources that obviously have no clue what Senator DeMint is thinking," spokesman Wesley Denton said. "He has said over and over again that he is not leaning toward any candidate yet and may end up not endorsing in the presidential race."

Matt Hoskins, who runs DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund, said DeMint is "looking to see who wins over the grassroots, and so far Governor Romney has not done that."

Save The Date: RedState Gathering 2012

We're going to the swing state of Florida in 2012. For Republicans, August will start and end there with the RedState Gathering the first weekend of the month and the Republican National Convention the last weekend of the month.

By then we should have the nominee and we hope he'll be at the Gathering. Of course, we're inviting Governor Scott, Senator Rubio, and senate candidate Adam Hasner, among others.

It should be a fun time. I'll have hotel details forthcoming and a great introductory rate.

But here's one thing you need to know — the event is expanded by a full extra day so it is going to be a bit more expensive. Why expand by a day?

2012 is an important election year and we want to spend extra time letting American Majority train all the attendees to be the most effective grassroots activists in America. If you attend, you'll leave not only having been eye to eye with some of the most important leaders in the country and up and coming stars, you'll also be able to get back to your community and get it organized for the November election.

See you in Jacksonville next August!

Morning Briefing for October 17, 2011

RedState Morning Briefing

For October 17, 2011

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

1. What the GOP Must Do: Finding Common Ground With the Occupiers

2. The President Is Not Going to Africa To Kill Christians

3. RedState Endorses Tom Cotton for Congress

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1. What the GOP Must Do: Finding Common Ground With the Occupiers

A friend of mine chastised me the other day. He said I was being too hostile toward the occupiers on Wall Street and elsewhere. He conceded that many of them are the ragtag group of hippies, hipsters, and communists I've said they were. But he also said that around the country there are also a lot of angry, unemployed people who just think the deck is stacked against them. They don't want to punish the top 1%. They don't want "free" anything. These people, he said, are reachable. And they are open to listen to anyone who is willing to take on Wall Street. We shouldn't let unwashed hippies be the only people they hear speaking to their concerns.

This touches on something I've written about before and think the time is right for a Republican candidate to take up the cause of populism against Wall Street.

Most of the common ground with most of these damn dirty communists is superficial. But let's presume there are some people out there who are reachable. We on the right should not be as dismissive of what is happening in this movement the way the left, to their determine, wholly dismissed the tea party movement. There is, in fact, some shared ground even beyond the superficial ground I've already covered.

What's the message?

First of all, the message is not punishment and retribution for success.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. The President Is Not Going to Africa To Kill Christians

It is ridiculous that I'm even having to write about this, but I am.

In the past 72 hours, I have gotten lots of emails from lots of people who should know better asking me if I've heard about Barack Obama sending American troops to Africa to go after the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The people hearing the name assume it is a Christian group fighting radical Islamists in the Sudan or some such.

It is no such thing.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. RedState Endorses Tom Cotton for Congress

RedState is proud to issue its first Congressional endorsement for 2012: RedState supports Tom Cotton for Congress in Arkansas' Fourth Congressional District.

Tom Cotton has perhaps the most compelling story of any new Congressional candidate this election season. This profile in the Weekly Standard lays it out in detail and is well worth the read. By way of summary, Cotton grew up in Southwest Arkansas, went to Harvard undergrad and Harvard Law, and was headed for a lucrative career as a high-profile attorney. However, along the way, 9/11 happened. Cotton decided that he needed to serve his country, so after completing his judicial clerkship and paying off his student loans, Cotton enlisted in the military. Cotton was offered a commission as a Captain in the Army JAG corps, but refused this position because he wanted to enlist in the infantry. He served combat tours as an Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan.

What sort of person leaves a cushy job with a huge salary for the privilege of being shot at by terrorists? The sort of person we need more of in the United States Congress.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

The President Is Not Going to Africa To Kill Christians

It is ridiculous that I'm even having to write about this, but I am.

In the past 72 hours, I have gotten lots of emails from lots of people who should know better asking me if I've heard about Barack Obama sending American troops to Africa to go after the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The people hearing the name assume it is a Christian group fighting radical Islamists in the Sudan or some such.

It is no such thing.

We can debate whether sending military advisers — the numbers range from a few dozen to a hundred — to Uganda to help track down and capture LRA members, but let us not claim the LRA is something it is not.

A new movie will be out soon called Machine Gun Preacher documenting an American missionary's struggles against the LRA.

The group claims to be an emissary from God capable of channeling the Holy Spirit. The group has notoriously gone through Uganda capturing children and turning them into soldiers and, when not successful, murdering them. The group engages in sex trafficking, slavery, murder, mutilation, and the list goes on and on.

LRA members have been hunted by George W. Bush and now by Barack Obama. They are an evil group and while we can debate the policy implications of the President sending troops off to Africa, we should not make victims or political points off the group the President will hopefully eradicate.

What the GOP Must Do: Finding Common Ground With the Occupiers

"The playing field does not need to be tipped back in favor of others. Just level it. An upright tower build on a slope will topple the moment the slope is laid flat."

A friend of mine chastised me the other day. He said I was being too hostile toward the occupiers on Wall Street and elsewhere. He conceded that many of them are the ragtag group of hippies, hipsters, and communists I've said they were. But he also said that around the country there are also a lot of angry, unemployed people who just think the deck is stacked against them. They don't want to punish the top 1%. They don't want "free" anything. These people, he said, are reachable. And they are open to listen to anyone who is willing to take on Wall Street.  We shouldn't let unwashed hippies be the only people they hear speaking to their concerns.

This touches on something I've written about before and think the time is right for a Republican candidate to take up the cause of populism against Wall Street.

Most of the common ground with most of these damn dirty communists is superficial. But let's presume there are some people out there who are reachable. We on the right should not be as dismissive of what is happening in this movement the way the left, to their determine, wholly dismissed the tea party movement. There is, in fact, some shared ground even beyond the superficial ground I've already covered.

What's the message?

First of all, the message is not punishment and retribution for success.

Most of us actually think the deck is stacked these days against entrepreneurs and that it was done so by bipartisan coalitions. Most of us do think the deck is stacked against the little guy. It is not, however, that the top 1% stacked the deck against the rest of us. It is that the government, in its expansion of the nanny-state, drove up costs to everyone and only the rich had the capital to overcome it. Only the wealthy and powerful can hire the lobbyists to write exemptions in big new taxes and regulations and the army of lawyers and accountants to comply with them.  Only the big guys can get a seat at the table where Washington hands out loans and grants and bailouts to its friends in Big Business and Big Labor.

The rich have kept getting richer and it is harder to break into the top ranks of salary. But that has very little to do with the rich blocking people from getting there. It has pretty much everything with the government. And that is the fundamental difference between the occupiers and the tea party movement.

Both are opposed to TARP. Both are opposed to bailouts. But the rabid occupiers want more government and the tea party wants less government. The occupiers think only the government can solve the problem and the tae party thinks a free market can solve the problem.

The occupiers think the government should pick the winners and losers and the tea party thinks the free market can.

"But wait," they say, "the market is not free." And they are right. But the solution should be to free up the market, not shackle it or nationalize it.

Back in 2009, I asked when the people would revolt. The left went nuts, accusing me of fomenting the very violence they are now fomenting. But this is precisely where I saw us heading. The left has whipped people into a sentiment against Wall Street and bankers and the rich, but as I pointed out then and still maintain, it is the politicians who are to blame. People are reacting now, as I predicted they would, to the tyranny of small things.

The bankers on Wall Street have the same number of votes the rest of us have. But it is the politicians, not the banks, who have made the playing field unlevel. And the banks and their derivatives and new fees, etc. are all in response to the playing field being unleveled.

What has happened is government has made it more and more difficult for anyone to make a profit. So the financial industry got more and more creative in trying to make a profit. The house of cards eventually came tumbling down. But it never would have happened, but for the government — from Fannie to Freddie to the Community Redevelopment Act and on and on and on.

Only those with money could stay ahead. To be sure, some of them were crooked bastards who should go to jail along with some politicians. But not all of them or even most of them. More so, many on the left right now ignore the fact that these guys are bipartisan in their giving, if not slightly left, and the Obama Administration has done nothing about them. In fact, many of this administration's legal reforms have actually benefited the biggest financial service firms like Goldman Sachs.

The point to all of this is that a Republican candidate can run against Wall Street, though probably not Mitt Romney. A Republican can run on a very simple message — in this country we should all be able to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, but government and big business have gotten in the way.

Government added more and more regulations and complications all the way down to the local level. Big business then used its money to go hire lobbyists to go to Washington to carve out loopholes to benefit themselves. The rest of us are unable to compete.

The point is not that we now need to punish those big businesses. The point is that we need to re-level the playing field and make it a fair competition between entrepreneur and corporation again. We need big business to stop living off the taxpayer dole.  We need a new age of corporate welfare reform like the welfare reform of the 1990s.

So what should we do?

First, we need to blow up the tax code. The tax code is the source of much of the problems. It has become a costly burden for individuals to try to stay in compliance with the tax code. People should not need an army of accountants just to avoid the IRS nor should they need an army of lobbyists to secure their fair treatment from the tax code.

Second, we need to get rid of a lot of regulations on small businesses. Big businesses have the budgets to do compliance. Small businesses do not. Small businesses can never become big businesses when the small businesses must spend money on compliance instead of business.

Third, we need to get rid of patents for software and process. When big businesses can patent processes that should otherwise be common sense, small businesses can never enter the market. Likewise, more and more we are seeing patent trolls abuse the patent process by hoarding patents on processes and software that shut out innovation by entrepreneurs. Software can be handled with copyright. Processes should not be patentable.

Fourth, state and local governments need to get in on the act. For as many federal regulations as businesses have to comply with, states and local governments are the same. It is notoriously impossible in some parts of the country to run a noninvasive business from a home. Even kids cannot start lemonade stands in some parts of the country without a business permit.

The business permitting racket at the local and state level needs to be shut down. Sole proprietors should not need business permits and the extra compliance that comes from applying for a business permit. People should be permitted to run noninvasive businesses from their homes without zoning waivers and permits and inspections and extra fees.

We should make it easier and easier for people to go into business for themselves without the headache of government regulatory and tax compliance.

Many of the occupiers have traded in greed for envy and jealousy. They want to punish the big financial institutions. But that is unnecessary.

The playing field has been tilted toward the big businesses because they are the only ones who had the capital to stay ahead of government regulations and new government burdens, and the influence to bend new laws in their direction. The playing field does not need to be tipped back in favor of others. Just level it. An upright tower build on a slope will topple the moment the slope is laid flat.

Life is not fair. But if all men are created equal, conservatives should not shy away from making the creation point a level field for everyone. Abraham Lincoln said that in this country, unlike any other on earth, "every man can make himself." As government grows and creeps into every aspect of our lives, that is less and less true except of those who have the means to pay off government and cover the increasing costs of doing business.

Instead of punishing those people, we should lower the bar to entry for everyone else.

Morning Briefing for October 14, 2011

RedState Morning Briefing

For October 14, 2011

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

Dear Wife of Mine,

Thanks for putting up with me for eleven years. Oh, and thanks for two wonderful kids and all the wonderful things you cook with bacon drippings. Love, Erick

1. Are Republicans Just This Stupid?! Apparently So.

2. Environmentalists Battle Lawn Mowing

3. Sen. Richard Shelby on Why He's Blocking the New Consumer Czar's Confirmation

4. Behind The Pink Ribbon

5. Fraud in signature collection for Obama and Hillary in 2008

6. Returning an Obscure Congressman to Permanent Obscurity

7. The Horserace for October 13, 2011

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1. Are Republicans Just This Stupid?! Apparently So.

Billie Tucker down in Florida makes an excellent point worth reiterating. The GOP is set, yet again, to have a debate on MSNBC.

Seriously.

Dare I refresh your memories on the last one? For two hours we were stuck with Brian Williams and John Harris of the Politico asking questions no one cared about in picking the Republican nominee. It was a dreadful debate that was capped off with Al Sharpton, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Ed Schultz, and the rest of the crew at MSNBC commenting on the debate.

Why does the GOP do this to itself? Seriously? These people are not your friends. The people who watch that network are not the great unwashed willing to be persuaded. MSNBC is actively opposed to the GOP.

At the end of the last debate millions of Republicans suddenly cried out in terror and suddenly switched the channel upon seeing the MSNBC panel show up.

Those who stuck around saw a network biting the hands of the candidates who had just given that channel more traffic in one night than it probably had ever gotten.

The GOP should stop being stupid and just tell MSNBC no way. Why waste the candidates' time or ours — particularly since every bit of demographic data on that network shows the typical MSNBC watcher would rather vote for Charles Manson than any of the Republicans.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Environmentalists Battle Lawn Mowing

Environmentalists are up in arms and going to court to try to prevent the mowing of grass taking place around the future site of the Keystone XL Pipeline, an oil pipeline connecting Alberta, Canada with Gulf Coast refineries.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Western Nebraska Resources Council and Friends of the Earth have filed a lawsuit making the charge that the mowing of grass along the proposed route is really the beginning of construction.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Sen. Richard Shelby on Why He's Blocking the New Consumer Czar's Confirmation

Richard Cordray, President Obama's pick to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, won approval from the Senate Banking Committee last week on a party-line vote. His confirmation to run the new agency faces fierce opposition from Republicans, who have vowed to block Senate approval until reforms are made to the agency.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) is leading those calls for reform. As the ranking Republican on the Banking Committee, Shelby has maintained a hard line with Obama and Democrats on Cordray's confirmation.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Behind The Pink Ribbon

Every year thousands of women train and prepare to Race for the Cure organized by Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world's largest breast cancer nonprofit. During October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, almost every product on the shelves, from batteries to blenders, turns pink and contributes a portion of their sales to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. One needs not see the name to know who is behind the pink ribbon. Most people, however, do not know what is beyond the ribbon and the name for which it stands.

$731,303. That is the amount donated to Planned Parenthood by Susan G. Komen for the Cure in 2009 alone. The relationship between Planned Parenthood and Susan G. Komen has been documented and objected to for so long that Komen actually has an explanation letter on their website.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. Fraud in signature collection for Obama and Hillary in 2008

Getting a candidate on the ballot in Indiana is not easy. I know, from first hand experience, that many campaigns struggle to do it. But it now appears that in 2008, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton took a short-cut. They just cheated.

It turns out that someone appears to have forged the signature of former Democratic Governor Joe Kernan on the petition to get Barack Obama on the ballot.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

6. Returning an Obscure Congressman to Permanent Obscurity

He was elected in 2000, and is serving in his 6th term in Congress as a Republican.

He is pathetic on education issues and school choice reforms in particular. He voted in favor of No Child Left Behind, and earlier this year, was one of only 4 Republicans to oppose reinstating opportunity scholarships for poor children in D.C.

He is a restrictor of free speech. He supported McCain-Feingold campaign finance "reform," along with 527 reform a few years later. He even opposed a bipartisan bill to ensure that campaign finance laws would not apply to bloggers.

He is a defender of seemingly every liberal spending program, including: the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Amtrak, Headstart, Americorps, the National School Lunch Program, the Legal Services Corporation, etc. He is serial reauthorizer of farm subsidies, highway subsidies, and energy subsidies.

He is profoundly unserious about cutting spending. He voted to earmark funds for Kentucky's tourism industry, the DC metro system, a National Mule and Packers Museum, researching the genetic makeup of grapes, the Bronx Council of Arts, etc. He consistently votes against the conservative budgets offered by the Republican Study Committee (with one exception, which must have been a mistake). He opposed comprehensive reforms to the budget and spending process designed to limit government rather than expand it, probably because they were opposed vigorously by the appropriators.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

7. The Horserace for October 13, 2011

It was the one question in the Bloomberg-Washington Post debate that gave away the game. A source close to, but not in, the Bachmann campaign told me it was that question when he realized the game was over for Michele Bachmann. It was that one question that, according to a source close to the Perry camp and a source close to the Cain camp, raised a red flag for the Romney campaign and shows just how worried the Romney camp is about the race consolidating.

It was that one question that also shows why the Romney campaign is, behind the scenes, furiously pushing states to move up their caucuses and primaries.

That one question spoke louder to more people than all the other questions asked Tuesday night. And in that question lies Michele Bachmann's ultimate defeat and Mitt Romney's Achilles heel.

Yes, one question did all that. Find out what that question was in this week's horserace.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

The Erick Erickson Show is Live #EERS

You can listen live right here from now till 10pm.

And call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.

Consider this an open thread.

Are Republicans Just This Stupid?! Apparently So.

Billie Tucker down in Florida makes an excellent point worth reiterating. The GOP is set, yet again, to have a debate on MSNBC.

Seriously.

Dare I refresh your memories on the last one? For two hours we were stuck with Brian Williams and John Harris of the Politico asking questions no one cared about in picking the Republican nominee. It was a dreadful debate that was capped off with Al Sharpton, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Ed Schultz, and the rest of the crew at MSNBC commenting on the debate.

Why does the GOP do this to itself? Seriously? These people are not your friends. The people who watch that network are not the great unwashed willing to be persuaded. MSNBC is actively opposed to the GOP.

At the end of the last debate millions of Republicans suddenly cried out in terror and suddenly switched the channel upon seeing the MSNBC panel show up.

Those who stuck around saw a network biting the hands of the candidates who had just given that channel more traffic in one night than it probably had ever gotten.

The GOP should stop being stupid and just tell MSNBC no way. Why waste the candidates' time or ours — particularly since every bit of demographic data on that network shows the typical MSNBC watcher would rather vote for Charles Manson than any of the Republicans.