Erick Erickson's Blog, page 218
October 13, 2010
Kristi Noem for Congress
I have a co-worker who is a massive fan of Kristi Noem and is convinced we need to go as much for her as possible. I've been negligent in writing about her because, frankly, there are so many races and so much going on.
But this is great news. Noem has raised over $1 million, which puts her as one of the top challengers in the House.
She is running in South Dakota against Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin and is one of those Republicans we need to win to take back the House.
She's a rancher, a mother of three, and a staunch conservative who is running on a platform of slashing federal spending and repealing the new federal health care law. She's also an avid hunter known to hunt elk with a bow and arrow.
Kristi Noem for Congrss
I have a co-worker who is a massive fan of Kristi Noem and is convinced we need to go as much for her as possible. I've been negligent in writing about her because, frankly, there are so many races and so much going on.
But this is great news. Noem has raised over $1 million, which puts her as one of the top challengers in the House.
She is running in South Dakota against Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin and is one of those Republicans we need to win to take back the House.
She's a rancher, a mother of three, and a staunch conservative who is running on a platform of slashing federal spending and repealing the new federal health care law. She's also an avid hunter known to hunt elk with a bow and arrow.
Morning Briefing for October 13, 2010
RedState Morning Briefing
For October 13, 2010
Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.
1. Barack Obama the Birther
2. Dan Maes: Political Suicide Bomber
3. Tom Tancredo for Governor of Colorado
4. The 'PAC Man' Can't Take the Heat
5. Arianna Huffington: Astroturfer
6. Think Bigger: What's Really Behind Democrats' Attacks on the Chamber of Commerce
———————————————————————-
1. Barack Obama the Birther
Barack Obama accusing the Chamber of Commerce of laundering foreign money and putting it into the election this year is as crazy as the Birthers demanding to see his birth certificate having convinced themselves Obama is a foreign born manchurian candidate.
I largely agree with Glenn Reynolds on this. Obama is raising the specter of foreign influence in the election so his base views the 2010 election as stolen from them, not that their issues and agenda were rejected.
It is much easier for people to believe in a conspiracy of malice against them than to accept that they and their agenda have been rejected by the American people.
It makes the former no less nutty and the latter no less true.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
2. Dan Maes: Political Suicide Bomber
It's one thing to realize you have no shot at winning. It's quite another to prop up the liberal Democratic candidate that thinks the government creates jobs over the other conservative in the race. John Hickenlooper would continue the same failed policies of Bill Ritter. Maes isn't content with just going down with his ship, he's going to make sure Tancredo goes down with him.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
3. Tom Tancredo for Governor of Colorado
If the Republicans in Colorado get less than ten percent of the vote in the gubernatorial race, the Colorado GOP will lose its privileged position in Colorado as a major party — a designation that gives it automatic ballot access.
This will tremendously impact down ballot races in Colorado long term.
At a time when the GOP is set to pick up the Colorado Senate seat, thanks to the stubborn stupidity of Dan Maes and his refusal to get out of the race, the GOP will win the Senate and concurently and most likely lose its position on the ballot.
But there is hope.
Tom Tancredo, a man with whom I disagree on many issues, continues to go up in the polls. Republicans in Colorado need to rally to Tom Tancredo. He can save the GOP. Yes, the GOP will still lose majority party status thanks to Dan Maes, but having Tancredo in the Governor's Mansion will mitigate the damage Dan Maes is doing.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
4. The 'PAC Man' Can't Take the Heat
What's really insidious about Obama's hackneyed references to "special interests" is that members of his own party are huge benefactors of the type of financing that he's on the stump deploring.
Take Rep. Jim Matheson, Utah's only Democrat in Congress. His hometown paper, the Salt Lake Tribune, calls him the "PAC man" because, as they noted, "more than 84% of Matheson's contributions have come from the political action committees of businesses, labor unions and other politicians." To put this in perspective, House members typically only have 43% of their campaign contributions routed through PACs. Matheson nearly doubles that ratio.
What's the Utah Democrat have to say for himself? We caught up with Matheson and gave him a chance to defend his fundraising tactics—you know, since Obama tells us we should all be concerned about "special interests" and all.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
5. Arianna Huffington: Astroturfer
In what Freud would call projection, the Left continues to accuse the Tea Party of using tactics that they are using.
The accusations flew when around one million people attended last year's 9/12 Taxpayer March on Washington. How could that many people be that upset? Why would they come out en masse against the President that was to be America's Savior? Surely they must have been bought and paid for by foreign interests and evil corporations!
The truth is that there is no such thing as a political savior, and Americans realized very quickly that there is no way to spend yourself out of debt. The uprising was organic, and we could not have manufactured something on that scale if we'd tried. It simply doesn't work.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
6. Think Bigger: What's Really Behind Democrats' Attacks on the Chamber of Commerce
We have stated on many occasions in the past that union bosses are in control of the federal government and that today's Democrats are merely a bunch of puppets doing (or attempting to do) labor's bidding—a de facto Labor Party. For the latest example, one only needs to look as far as the controversy the White House and DNC have stirred up. The demonization of the Chamber of Commerce, accusing the federation of 'taking foreign donations' to 'steal our Democracy,' is but the latest attack in a multi-year campaign to destroy the federation.
This latest round, though, is an attack that is without foundation and one that has many people aghast at the transparency of the false charges.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
October 12, 2010
Barack Obama the Birther
Barack Obama accusing the Chamber of Commerce of laundering foreign money and putting it into the election this year is as crazy as the Birthers demanding to see his birth certificate having convinced themselves Obama is a foreign born manchurian candidate.
I largely agree with Glenn Reynolds on this. Obama is raising the specter of foreign influence in the election so his base views the 2010 election as stolen from them, not that their issues and agenda were rejected.
It is much easier for people to believe in a conspiracy of malice against them than to accept that they and their agenda have been rejected by the American people.
It makes the former no less nutty and the latter no less true.
I Endorse Tom Tancredo for Governor of Colorado
If you have not read Nightwister's post you need to.
If the Republicans in Colorado get less than ten percent of the vote in the gubernatorial race, the Colorado GOP will lose its privileged position in Colorado as a major party — a designation that gives it automatic ballot access.
This will tremendously impact down ballot races in Colorado long term.
At a time when the GOP is set to pick up the Colorado Senate seat, thanks to the stubborn stupidity of Dan Maes and his refusal to get out of the race, the GOP will win the Senate and concurently and most likely lose its position on the ballot.
But there is hope.
Tom Tancredo, a man with whom I disagree on many issues, continues to go up in the polls. Republicans in Colorado need to rally to Tom Tancredo. He can save the GOP. Yes, the GOP will still lose majority party status thanks to Dan Maes, but having Tancredo in the Governor's Mansion will mitigate the damage Dan Maes is doing.
Dan Maes should go. He is doing untold and long term damage to the Colorado GOP. But it is clear Dan Maes does not care. He is, as NightTwister called him, a political suicide bomber.
I am happy to endorse Tom Tancredo for Governor of Colorado. I urge all Republicans in Colorado to rally to him quickly and bring their checkbooks. Tancredo will be a great Governor — far better than the Democrat and far more viable than Dan Maes.
It is time to rally.
On the Battle Between Midgets vs. Tigers
In the battle between midgets versus tigers, the midgets can win. But a few of the midgets must sacrifice themselves to distract the tigers.
First of all, yes, yes I know it should be midgets versus lions, but that is an internet hoax, this is very real, and I'm an LSU fan.
This is precisely what is happening in the battle between the tea party and the establishment. The establishment controls the major party machines, the media, the fundraising tools, etc. The tea party is not in a fight against the Democrats or Republicans, but the establishment, which has grown out of touch with the people and is destroying the country. Democrat and Republican alike, the leadership of each is terrible and given voice by a media that is largely incapable of relating to the concerns of a group labeled fringe yet driving the election.
The tea partiers are the midgets. The establishment politicians and media are the tigers.
In Delaware, Christine O'Donnell is the midget sacrificing herself to the tiger of the mainstream media and establishment.
The odds are stacked against Christine O'Donnell. Thanks to the industriousness of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP Leadership, the Delaware GOP Leadership, and the assorted pundits, journalists, and other talking heads on TV and in print, Christine O'Donnell is really taking one for the team and will likely not make it past the tigers.
But because of Christine O'Donnell's willing sacrifice, the tigers are distracted. With only about twenty-two days left, the tigers are just now trying to refocus on Sharron Angle, Ken Buck, Mike Lee, Joe Miller, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Pat Toomey, and Ron Johnson. Meanwhile, for the past five weeks or so, these candidates have built up leads or drawn even with their opponents.
While the tigers have been taking out Christine O'Donnell, these candidates have surrounded the tigers and are preparing to slay the beasts.
There are many on the right who speak derisively of Christine O'Donnell. They lament her rise. They insult her. They spit when they say her name. Even here at RedState, many commenters pull out their hair over Christine O'Donnell.
Shame on all those who do that. When the book is written on Election 2010, the media will mock the O'Donnell candidacy, but whether she wins or loses she will be a hero in my book. But for her, neither Sharron Angle nor Ken Buck nor Mike Lee nor Joe Miller nor Marco Rubio nor Rand Paul nor Pat Toomey nor Ron Johnson would have had as strong a chance of winning in this last month before the general election.
Christine O'Donnell, willingly or not, has stood firm in the face of the media and establishment onslaught and distracted them all. And only now, with twenty-two days left, are the media and establishment turning, in terror, to realize how close the midgets are to slaying the tigers.
Do not insult or belittle Christine O'Donnell here at RedState. Because of her, even if she cannot win, she has distracted the tigers long enough so that others can win. She is owed our thanks.
One Editorial Note: Some of you are pounding your fists on the table and smacking your forehead wondering why on earth I'm pointing this out now instead of waiting. Well, I have a strong sense given the wires these past few days that the media is starting to realize they've been distracted so there is no harm in pointing it out now. And no, I'm not wrong.
Morning Briefing for October 12, 2010
RedState Morning Briefing
For October 12, 2010
Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.
1. On the Battle Between Midgets vs. Tigers
2. Are You Astroturf?
3. David Frum and the Limits to Deviancy
4. Turning the Lights On #2: Tim Walz & Nancy Pelosi's NRA Endorsements
5. "Economic Treason" & the Confiscation of America
———————————————————————-
1. On the Battle Between Midgets vs. Tigers
In the battle between midgets versus tigers, the midgets can win. But a few of the midgets must sacrifice themselves to distract the tigers.
This is precisely what is happening in the battle between the tea party and the establishment. The establishment controls the major party machines, the media, the fundraising tools, etc. The tea party is not in a fight against the Democrats or Republicans, but the establishment, which has grown out of touch with the people and is destroying the country. Democrat and Republican alike, the leadership of each is terrible and given voice by a media that is largely incapable of relating to the concerns of a group labeled fringe yet driving the election.
The tea partiers are the midgets. The establishment politicians and media are the tigers.
In Delaware, Christine O'Donnell is the midget sacrificing herself to the tiger of the mainstream media and establishment.
Because of Christine O'Donnell's willing sacrifice, the tigers are distracted. With only about twenty-two days left, the tigers are just now trying to refocus on Sharron Angle, Ken Buck, Mike Lee, Joe Miller, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Pat Toomey, and Ron Johnson. Meanwhile, for the past five weeks or so, these candidates have built up leads or drawn even with their opponents.
While the tigers have been taking out Christine O'Donnell, these candidates have surrounded the tigers and are preparing to slay the beasts.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
2. Are You Astroturf?
For the last year and a half the TEA Party movement has rallied Americans around the cause of bringing fiscal responsibility back to our Government. We have protested. We have made catchy t-shirts. We have raised awareness. We have confronted our liberal representatives and served notice that they will soon join the unemployed.
Each of those activities is important and has a place but now it's time to put your money where your mouth is: Protest must become action.
Winning requires action! It's politics 101 that if you want to make policy then you must win politically. The only way to do that is to get more of your people to vote than the other guy turns out.
On November 3rd, as we look back on this election, there will be no comfort in saying, "Well, we lost by 5% but check out those awesome signs and pun-ridden bumper stickers we had!!"
Please click here for the rest of the post.
3. David Frum and the Limits to Deviancy
NewsReal Blog has done an investigative piece into one of its former writers. The writer, Alex Knepper, now writes for David Frum.
Alex Knepper is a 20 year old adult who wrote longingly of CHILF's. You, like I, probably have no idea what that is. If you know what a MILF is (NSFW, but you can google it), substitute the "mother" for "child".
What makes this relevant, despite its sordid nature, is NewsReal Blog having tipped off Frum to his employee's behavior and other conservative sites giving this Alex Knepper character a forum. You'd like to think that had they known of his predilections, they would not.
Beyond this being a derivative and foreseeably byproduct of sexualizing teens like Mylie Cyrus and the whole Bratz phenomenon, the problem we have here is people like David Frum giving a 20 year old who goes on a gay teen forum to engage in fantasies about sex with underage boys a forum to espouse views that Frum and others characterize as conservative or libertarian, thereby giving him a legitimacy no one should.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
4. Turning the Lights On #2: Tim Walz & Nancy Pelosi's NRA Endorsements
By now, you've probably heard that the NRA has endorsed Nancy Pelosi.
Okay, so the NRA hasn't officially endorsed Pelosi, but it's leaders seem just fine with signing a Devil's Pact with her.
Having been a NRA member off and on for many years, like many, I too was a believer that the venerable gun-rights group was a firm defender in America's Bill of Rights—all ten of them. At least that's what I believed until recently. As it turns out, though, save the 2nd Amendment, the NRA no longer seems to care about the rest of the Bill of Rights at all.
Especially troubling about today's NRA is that fact that the organization has endorsed so many big-government Democrats in so many races, that gun owners might actually still take the NRA's endorsement seriously. This is especially the case when the NRA endorses certain Democrats who, like Nancy Pelosi, would just as soon use the Constitution as a piece of Charmin, as opposed to the guiding principles to which our nation should be governed.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
5. "Economic Treason" & the Confiscation of America
Over the last year (and longer), we've written on the union push to nationalize America's retirement system and how important the $165 billion union pension bailout bill is to union bosses and their lackeys in the Democratic Party. Moreover, for two years, we've written how America's health care system will be socialized medicine within three to five years. We've also forewarned, before it was too late, how "Wall Street reform" opens the door for unions to re-order America's companies into their own unionized image. We've shown how today's union bosses are wholly lined up with global socialists and you saw the Marxist March on Washington last weekend. And, finally, we've told you how unions or their allies may already be stealing the November elections.
Why has all of this been put before you? Very simply, to show you how unions and their minions in the Democratic party are stealing the nation out from under all of us.
October 11, 2010
BREAKING: DSCC Sending Reinforcements to Delaware for Coons
Is the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee a bit concerned about the potential impact of the Tea Party in Delaware or have the Democrats completely written off Carol Shea-Porter running for New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District?
I ask because the Democrats have sent the lady who was on the ground running operations for Carol Shea-Porter's congressional bid to Delaware to be the Field Director for Chris Coons canvassing operation.
That's a mighty odd expenditure to be making in shifting resources around if the Democrats are so sure of Chris Coons' victory.
It also seems certain the Democrats are now writing off NH-1.
David Frum and the Limits to Deviancy
NewsReal Blog has done an investigative piece into one of its former writers. The writer, Alex Knepper, now writes for David Frum.
Alex Knepper is a 20 year old adult who wrote longingly of CHILF's. You, like I, probably have no idea what that is. If you know what a MILF is (NSFW, but you can google it), substitute the "mother" for "child".
What makes this relevant, despite its sordid nature, is NewsReal Blog having tipped off Frum to his employee's behavior and other conservative sites giving this Alex Knepper character a forum. You'd like to think that had they known of his predilections, they would not.
Ironically, when I mentioned this on Twitter, the only people who spoke up in the guy's defense were some of the more rabid socialists defending the guy's "refreshingly unconventional conservatism," which is to say he is not a conservative at all.
Beyond this being a derivative and foreseeably byproduct of sexualizing teens like Mylie Cyrus and the whole Bratz phenomenon, the problem we have here is people like David Frum giving a 20 year old who goes on a gay teen forum to engage in fantasies about sex with underage boys a forum to espouse views that Frum and others characterize as conservative or libertarian, thereby giving him a legitimacy no one should.
Exacerbating it is that Knepper argues in defense of himself that were he a 20 year old guy talking about sex with a 16 year old girl, no one would have a problem. First, he's wrong. Second, he clearly discussed a desire to engage in sexual behavior with children under the age of sixteen — heck he made jokes about having sex with children under the age of ten. Third, this is what happens when we as a society keep accepting sexual behaviors that deviate from the norm to be considered normal.
Society begins sliding down all sorts of slippery slopes we shouldn't. What's not acceptable coming from straight males can't become acceptable just because it's coming from a homosexual male instead.
This, however, is a slide too far. (BE FOREWARNED IF YOU CLICK THIS LINK: IT IS NOT SAFE FOR WORK) You need to read this to understand just what we as a society are dealing with as we define deviancy as normal and what we deal with on a regular basis as pseudo-conservatives like David Frum give a forum to non-conservatives writing as conservatives who make jokes about having sex with eight and nine year old boys.
If we are to accept that Alex Knepper is 20 and therefore a kid, we should not treat this kid as any sort of authority on any vein of conservatism. If we accept he is an adult and we should engage on his thoughts, then we must recognize that his behavior is outside the bounds of acceptable conduct and he should not be rewarded while engaging in perverse behavior.
There is no place in normal society for this — no place at all.
Barack Obama Is 'A Threat to Our Democracy'
When you've hung around with so many people who idealize communism and socialism and loath the United States, you tend to develop an inner-Soviet voice. Barack Obama sure has.
He let it slip with Joe the Plumber and Obama's talk of wealth redistribution. He let it slip when declaring that "I do think at a certain point you've made enough money". He's now let it slip again.
His campaign farce, Organizing for America, sent out an email noting that Barack Obama declared the United States Chamber of Commerce "a threat to our democracy."
What. The. Hell.
Why would the President of the United States want to slander 3 million American companies, and their tens of millions of employees? Why would he assume them evil enough to subvert the law deliberately like this? Is the man who got his political start in the home of a terrorist, who spent twenty years worshipping in the church of a man who preached contempt for America, whose childhood mentor was a communist radical, and who shows no more understanding of basic economics than a cliff notes reading of Das Kapital . . . projecting?
He has now been echoed by his whole campaign team in an organized character assassination attempt with the Center for American Progress against the Chamber of Commerce.
Why?
The Chamber of Commerce accepts money from some foreign corporations that have American business interests. The Chamber has been quick to point out that it keeps those funds segregated and does not use them for political advocacy.
But there are two larger points worth noting. First and foremost, if this is the standard Barack Obama is using, then Barack Obama himself is a threat to our democracy. Why?
Barack Obama is the biggest recipient of British Petroleum dollars. British Petroleum is a foreign corporation.
If that is the standard the Chamber of Commerce is held to, Barack Obama should hold himself to that standard.
But there's more.
Back in 2008, the Washington Post documented the ease by which foreigners and others could give the Barack Obama's Presidential campaign. The campaign, in fact, boasted of it.
In addition to accepting pre-paid credit cards, the Obama campaign turned off the processing mechanism that verified only United States citizens were giving to his campaign.
As Patrick Ruffini documented in 2008 the Obama campaign turned off the Address Verification Service mechanism to the campaign website, allowing virtually anyone to give to the campaign.
In addition to this being another matter that Daryl Issa will have to investigate once the Republicans take back the House, the bigger issue is that several of us in the blogosphere back in 2008 knew people living overseas who gave to the Obama campaign just to see if it was possible. Yes, Europeans gave a few bucks just to see if they could. Of those I heard of who did this, I never heard of any of them getting a refund.
In other words, unlike the Chamber of Commerce, the Obama campaign most likely accepted into its campaign coffers donations from foreign individuals and never returned the money.
But there is a larger issue here too.
The President of the United States has taken to the bully pulpit to declare an institution as American as mom, apple pie, and flags on Main Street to be a threat to our democracy.
Were Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or Mark Levin or Glenn Beck to say anything of the like, the left would dismiss them and say they were no longer worthy of being taken seriously. How then can we take Barack Obama seriously?
Very easily — Barack Obama is the President of the United States. For him to call an organization instrumental to American commerce and business a 'threat to our democracy" should trouble all of us. He and his administration have shown no ability to get the economy going again. Every advice from the Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, and other supporters of the entrepreneurial class have been rebuffed.
To now declare one of the few groups that has the bona fides to get the economy going again a "threat to our democracy" is as extremist as anything he and his goons would accuse conservative talk radio of saying.
It also shows this President is out of ideas and is falling back on the Soviet rhetoric his mentors of long ago all embraced.
Erick Erickson's Blog
- Erick Erickson's profile
- 12 followers
