Erick Erickson's Blog, page 35
July 9, 2012
Morning Briefing for July 9, 2012
RedState Morning Briefing
July 9, 2012
Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.
1. Maybe We Really Do Need a Third Party
2. If Not Now . . .
3. John Mica Votes to Put Women Out of Work
4. Obama’s ‘billion dollar campaign’ getting increasingly desperate for cash
5. For the Thirtieth Time, the Obama Administration Admonishes Voters Not to Read Too Much into One Month’s Jobs Numbers
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1. Maybe We Really Do Need a Third Party
Senator Max Baucus of Montana receives campaign donations from the parent company of Phillip Morris. Senator Baucus then puts a provision in the highway transportation bill banning roll your own cigarette operations, a business that does not exist in Montana.
Forty people in Harry Reid’s Nevada and elsewhere will lose their jobs because a transportation bill actively and willfully legislated a legal business out of business by driving up the regulatory burden so excessively. Major cigarette manufacturers championed the legislation and Republicans supported it because it will increase tax revenue without them voting to raise taxes.
Put bluntly, Republicans voted to do exactly what they they accuse the Democrats of doing — shut down businesses by driving up regulatory burdens in an effort to increase taxes.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
2. If Not Now . . .
Friends, at what point do we hold our side accountable? $20 trillion in debt? $50 trillion in debt? Contrary to what some of you want to think, it was not the Democrats who got us to $16 trillion in national debt. It was bipartisan. Some of it legitimate and much of it not.
The leaders of the GOP give lip service to smaller government but shut down legitimate private businesses to feed the leviathan more tax revenue. Republicans in the House of Representatives urge candidates not to sign the ATR tax pledge and Republicans in the Senate cut deals that will boost revenue because — deficits. And still they add to the debt.
So if not now, when? Not until we’re all speaking Chinese apparently.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
3. John Mica Votes to Put Women Out of Work
John Mica and Sandy Adams are battling each other in the redrawn 7th Congressional District of Florida. The choice could not be clearer based on this vote.
It’s the highway transportation bill. Mica voted for it. Sandy Adams voted against it.
Contained within the legislation, which Mica helped sherpa through the House by the way as Chairman of the Transportation Committee, was a provision shutting down American small businesses out west that allowed people to roll their own cigarettes. More than one woman worked in those perfectly legal, perfectly legitimate businesses.
John Mica voted knowingly and willfully to put these women and men out of work.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
4. Obama’s ‘billion dollar campaign’ getting increasingly desperate for cash
In 2008, the Obama campaign raised and spent more money than has ever been spent in a presidential election, coming up with the “parallel public financing” crock* to cover for reneging on an agreement with John McCain to take real public financing once they realized just how much money they could raise, both at home and abroad.
The 2012 edition of Obama for America was supposed to be a billion dollar machine that would steamroll any Republican opponent without breaking a sweat. Unfortunately for the incumbent, a funny thing happened on the way to that fundraising total: despite holding over 160 fundraisers – more than the previous five presidents combined –, the money just hasn’t been there for the Democrat’s campaign (perhaps because so few people have money for their own expenses these days?).
Please click here for the rest of the post.
5. For the Thirtieth Time, the Obama Administration Admonishes Voters Not to Read Too Much into One Month’s Jobs Numbers
In case you missed it, the June jobs report is out, and the numbers are not good (though the Obama administration had a ready-made – and well-worn – excuse ready to go at a moment’s notice; more on that below).
July 7, 2012
John Mica Votes to Put Women Out of Work
John Mica and Sandy Adams are battling each other in the redrawn 7th Congressional District of Florida. The choice could not be clearer based on this vote.
It’s the highway transportation bill. Mica voted for it. Sandy Adams voted against it.
Contained within the legislation, which Mica helped sherpa through the House by the way as Chairman of the Transportation Committee, was a provision shutting down American small businesses out west that allowed people to roll their own cigarettes. More than one woman worked in those perfectly legal, perfectly legitimate businesses.
John Mica voted knowingly and willfully to put these women and men out of work.
John Mica voted against American small businesses and for more excessive government spending. Sandy Adams voted for small businesses and freedom.
The choice could not be more clear. Between John Mica and Sandy Adams, we should support Sandy Adams.
Maybe We Really Do Need a Third Party
Senator Max Baucus of Montana receives campaign donations from the parent company of Phillip Morris. Senator Baucus then puts a provision in the highway transportation bill banning roll your own cigarette operations, a business that does not exist in Montana.
Forty people in Harry Reid’s Nevada and elsewhere will lose their jobs because a transportation bill actively and willfully legislated a legal business out of business by driving up the regulatory burden so excessively. Major cigarette manufacturers championed the legislation and Republicans supported it because it will increase tax revenue without them voting to raise taxes.
Put bluntly, Republicans voted to do exactly what they they accuse the Democrats of doing — shut down businesses by driving up regulatory burdens in an effort to increase taxes.
Max Baucus may have inserted the provision, but it made it through Republican House of Representatives. Maybe we do need a third party to do the job Republicans campaign on doing, but then get to Washington and don’t actually do.
I am not at the point of really advocating a third party. But I know me writing this will get the attention it needs to get.
The Republicans in Washington really have no clue.
For several months members of the media have lusted after a third party candidate — a serious “grown up” to speak the hard truths about the deficit, the need to raise taxes, etc. In fact, pay attention you people in the media, there is a very simple formula I have developed to explain the media these days:
Greater the number of stories about Americans Elect and No Labels
Equals
The lower the number of viewers and readers of the media outlet
The media elite who get positively orgasmic about things like No Labels and Americans Elect are convinced they are tapped into the pulse of the American people, but in fact are only tapped into the pulse of their throbbing for people like themselves being put in charge instead of the hicks and rubes from America’s river valleys the tea party types keep agitating for.
A third party could have been successful in the United States this year, but it would have required a populist attack against Washington and spending. Done right, it would have resonated across Tea Party and Occupy circles. But it did not happen.
As media ratings have declined and the talk within Beltway media circles of “serious” “adult” “third party” challenges has increased, Republican leaders in Washington who have more and more in common with the media that covers them and less and less in common with their constituents back home — hell, look at Indiana’s Senator who does not even live in Indiana anymore and consequently got thrown out much to the outrage of Beltway elites — have become less and less like the Party of Reagan and more and more like the Party of John Anderson.
The problem for the GOP is that it is in danger of fracturing, not because it has moved so far right, but because it refuses to actually practice what it preaches.
The Republican Party’s actual policy positions help small businesses and individuals. It is the party of the individual against the collective. But Republican leaders are not willing to actually fight for those values in the face of media criticism.
In fact, the very types of people the media and more senior Republicans and Democrats alike are advocating are the very people who made the compromise decisions to get us to $16 trillion in debt. And, by the way, we spent ourselves there we didn’t tax ourselves there.
This comes full circle.
A Republican Party that has been unwilling to cut spending has now let go through Congress legislation to shut down lawful, legal businesses because cigarette industry lobbyists and a Senate Democrat wanted it done.
We’re not ready for a third party and both this site and I will continue advocating for conservative Republicans, but if the GOP doesn’t finally get a clue, I won’t be surprised to see it implode. By the way, this year fewer and fewer Republican candidates are signing the tax pledge on the advice of Republican members of Congress. This is another warning sign that the Eric Cantor led Republican conference is going far afield from what those who vote Republican actually want.
The GOP better get back to its pro-liberty roots quickly.
One editorial note: to save you all from yourselves, I’m not even going to entertain comments on this post. You can agree or disagree with me on twitter @ewerickson.
July 6, 2012
Convicted Terrorist to Protest Mitt Romney
A convicted terrorist is leading liberal groups to protest Mitt Romney and the Kochs. That’s right, there’s a fundraiser for Mitt Romney that the Kochs are in.
So the liberals are rallying. They’re rallying with a convicted terrorist, Andy Stepanian,
His claim to fame is being characterized as succeeding “where Karl Marx, the Baader-Meinhof gang and the Red Brigades failed.” He’s quite proud of it. And the left will mark with him to protest Mitt Romney.
Remember friends, this isn’t the first terrorist to support Barack Obama. It won’t be the last.
Martha Zoller for Congress
In my list of candidates the other day, I forgot to add Martha Zoller from Georgia. That was a real oversight on my part.
Folks, a lot of you know Martha because, like you, she’s been at many tea party events around the country. She’s spoken at Right Online. She’s spoken at FreedomWorks events. Down in Georgia she is fighting in a tough primary in Georgia’s 9th Congressional District. She is a dear friend of mine and we need to get her to Congress!
There’s a real difference between the candidates there. Martha, a talk radio host in Gainesville, has the pulse of the tea party movement and is a tea party activist. Please consider supporting Martha Zoller. Her’s really is one vote that will make a difference in Congress. And we can count on her to stand with genuine conservatives like Tom Graves, also from Georgia, and the members of the Republican Study Committee.
So, here’s Freedom’s Slate properly revised:
United States House
District
Website
Ron Gould
AZ-04
Matt Salmon
AZ-05
Dave Schwiekert
AZ-06
http://www.davidschweikert.com/
Ron DeSantis
FL-06
Sandy Adams
FL-07
http://www.sandyadams.com/home.php
Chauncey Goss
FL-19
http://www.gossforcongress.com/
Adam Hasner
FL-22
Martha Zoller
GA-09
Jeff Landry
LA-3
http://www.landryforlouisiana.com/
Jack Hoogendyk
MI-06
http://www.jackformichigan.com/
Kerry Bentivolio
MI-11
http://bentivolioforcongress.com/
Scott Keadle
NC-08
U.S. Senate
State
Website
Jeff Flake
AZ
Clark Durant
MI
http://www.clarkdurant.com/home
Ted Cruz
TX
My Concerns With Eric Hovde
Yesterday I noted that in Wisconsin there is a fight for the heart and soul of the right between Mark Neumann and Eric Hovde. Either would be preferable to Tommy Thompson. My preference is Mark Neumann who is the embodiment of the conservative warrior.
Many conservatives in Wisconsin, however, are gravitating to Eric Hovde. He is rich and willing to spend what it takes to win. He has a very conservative message. But time and time again we see people with the conservative message go to Congress and be anything but conservative. Before conservatives in Wisconsin embrace Eric Hovde, I hope they fully vet him.
Remember, 70% of congressmen who ran as tea party candidates went to Washington and promptly started voting like the Republican who helped get us to $16 trillion in national debt.
Here are a few concerns about Eric Hovde that need vetting.
Hovde is a hedge fund manager, which is awesome, but his company invested in banks that took government bailout money. Hovde made clear he was against TARP going back to 2009, but he’s also made clear he is not against government bailing out banks. That instinct troubles me.
He also lived voluntarily in Washington, D.C. for 24 years. That’s always a red flag.
Then there is Eric Hovde’s statement in 2009 that he would be okay with higher taxes.
“Look, I have no problem with me getting charged higher taxes. I’ve been blessed in my life. And I’ve been very fortunate.”
Sounds somewhat like the Buffett Rule before there was such a rule. The Buffett rule is named after billionaire Warren Buffett, who famously complained that he pays a lower effective tax rate than his secretary.
Hovde said that was not what he was talking about in 2009.
The first-time political candidate said he thinks he was referring to the tax break on “carried interest” – the portion of a fund’s investment gains taken by fund managers as compensation. He favors eliminating the tax break, which is never mentioned in the 10-minute video clip on CNBC.
I’m all for rich self-funders getting into politics when they are conservative. But I’m not really into rich self-funders claiming to be conservative just to get elected only to “grow” in office. Talking the talk and walking the walk are two different things. And I know for sure that Mark Neumann has walked the walk.
Wisconsin voters most definitely need to vet Eric Hovde before they decide he’s the guy to stop Tommy Thompson. Neumann is a sure thing when it comes to his conservative bona fides.
One more thing — the GOP also has a history of picking self-funders who turn out to be spectacularly bad general election candidates. See e.g. the varied Coors clan, Carly Fiorina, etc.
Caveat emptor, Wisconsin.
I Support Joe Walsh. You Should Too.
I support Congressman Joe Walsh a thousand percent and you should too. Pony up your checkbooks while you are at it. He’s in the midst of a manufactured scandal because he dared utter an inconvenient truth.
His opponent is the leftwing darling Tammy Duckworth. As CNN notes, “A Black Hawk helicopter pilot in Iraq, Duckworth lost both legs and the use of one arm when her crew was shot down in 2004. She was later awarded the Purple Heart and continues to serve as a lieutenant colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard.”
But, and here is where the outrage pimps have rushed to attack Joe Walsh, the Congressman pointed out that “she is a hero, and that demands our respect, but it doesn’t demand our vote. All she does, guys, is talk about her service.”
Duckworth is part of a contingent of liberal Democrats who served their country and then came back to the United States and promptly began running for office as anti-war Democrats. It was a clever tactic from the left. Left-wing groups went out and recruited anti-war veterans to put up against the Republicans. Duckworth ran and, like most of the other anti-war veterans who did the same, lost in 2006. Duckworth then became an Assistant Secretary in the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2009, then left in 2011 to run again.
Her service was noble, honorable, and commendable. She’s a war hero. Many politicians have transitioned from war hero to political career. The problem with Duckworth, as Joe Walsh noted, is that she’s running on her war service and not on the issues.
Naturally, of course, when Congressman Walsh pointed out that Duckworth’s service in the military is about the extent of her public campaign platform, the left went into overdrive. The Duckworth campaign and outside leftwing groups are attacking him as insensitive, hostile to veterans, etc.
All he did was tell it like it is. That’s what is so refreshing about Joe Walsh.
Morning Briefing for July 6, 2012
RedState Morning Briefing
July 6, 2012
Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.
1. Transportation Secretary Praises Murderous Communists as “More Successful”
2. I Support Joe Walsh. You Should Too.
3. My Concerns With Eric Hovde
———————————————————————-
1. Transportation Secretary Praises Murderous Communists as “More Successful”
Obama Administration Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood has come out in favor of the Chicoms over Americans claiming that in China “only three people make the decision. In our country, 3,000 people do.”
Hannah Sternberg of Regnery gives a great example of that Chinese 3 man success. Likewise, the famed high spec rail system in China has come under investigation for corruption, is not making money, and has repeated broken down. The same three people who make decisions decided to make the man in charge of the rail system disappear.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
2. I Support Joe Walsh. You Should Too.
I support Congressman Joe Walsh a thousand percent and you should too. Pony up your checkbooks while you are at it. He’s in the midst of a manufactured scandal because he dared utter an inconvenient truth.
His opponent is the leftwing darling Tammy Duckworth. As CNN notes, “A Black Hawk helicopter pilot in Iraq, Duckworth lost both legs and the use of one arm when her crew was shot down in 2004. She was later awarded the Purple Heart and continues to serve as a lieutenant colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard.”
But, and here is where the outrage pimps have rushed to attack Joe Walsh, the Congressman pointed out that “she is a hero, and that demands our respect, but it doesn’t demand our vote. All she does, guys, is talk about her service.”
Please click here for the rest of the post.
3. My Concerns With Eric Hovde
Yesterday I noted that in Wisconsin there is a fight for the heart and soul of the right between Mark Neumann and Eric Hovde. Either would be preferable to Tommy Thompson. My preference is Mark Neumann who is the embodiment of the conservative warrior.
Many conservatives in Wisconsin, however, are gravitating to Eric Hovde. He is rich and willing to spend what it takes to win. He has a very conservative message. But time and time again we see people with the conservative message go to Congress and be anything but conservative. Before conservatives in Wisconsin embrace Eric Hovde, I hope they fully vet him.
Remember, 70% of congressmen who ran as tea party candidates went to Washington and promptly started voting like the Republican who helped get us to $16 trillion in national debt.
Here are a few concerns about Eric Hovde that need vetting.
July 5, 2012
Transportation Secretary Praises Murderous Communists as “More Successful”
Obama Administration Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood has come out in favor of the Chicoms over Americans claiming that in China “only three people make the decision. In our country, 3,000 people do.”
Hannah Sternberg of Regnery gives a great example of that Chinese 3 man success. Likewise, the famed high spec rail system in China has come under investigation for corruption, is not making money, and has repeated broken down. The same three people who make decisions decided to make the man in charge of the rail system disappear.
Also, unlike the United States, the 3 men in China are able to have children forcibly aborted if their mothers exceed more than one child.
Also in China, unlike the United States, the 3 men in China are able to kill dissidents exercises what we hick Americans call our “first Amendment rights.”
But truth be told, in the United States, there are actually only 435 men and women who make decisions, with one Chief Executive to execute the law and 9 Justices to ensure equal protection of the law and justice.
The states have a similar construct. The barriers put in place to decision making have been put in place by people like Ray Lahood, a relic of Congress — and Republican no less — who voted to expand government and regulation and who still pushes an expansion of regulation.
Thomas Friedman disease has firmly set into the Adminstration. They’re rooting against us and for a murderous regime of despots.
By the way, objectively the United States is vastly superior both on the freedom scale and in terms of economic progress.
Monica Crowley’s What the Bleep Just Happened
This is one of those posts I intended to write a couple of weeks ago. Then the Supreme Court decision happened. Then my wife got sick. Then I started traveling. Then we had a holiday. So finally, at long last, I get to tell you about my latest book excursion.
Monica Crowley has a new book out called What the Bleep Just Happened?: The Happy Warrior’s Guide to Great American Comebacks. You guys know Monica, I’m sure. She’s the happy warrior often on Fox. I adore her and was delighted to get a review copy of her book.
A few weeks ago, I had her on my radio show in Atlanta to talk about the book. Before I get to that, let me just tell you that I don’t write about books unless I’ve read them. Sometimes it takes a while for me to write them up because I want to get through them.
Monica’s latest reflects her cheerful disposition in less than cheerful times. She and I are both big on the idea of being happy warriors. In this endeavor, Monica writes about how we got to where we are now and, unlike a lot of politically themed books these days, actually offers up how to get beyond where we are too. Throughout the book, Monica maintains a refreshing cheerfulness that so many other books haven’t had when its come to covering our current political predicament. It’s refreshing, honest, and pretty funny at times.
You can buy the book here at Amazon and if you want, you can listen to my interview with Monica from a couple of weeks ago right here from WSB.
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