Erick Erickson's Blog, page 45

From the Mail Bag

Ahhh . . . . this is all it said:

From: “Mike Leary” varmjl@verizon.net

Subject: f*ck ted cruz, and f*ck you

Date: May 25, 2012 10:12:06 AM EDT

To: contact@redstate.com

Mike, you stay classy.

Attacked for Being a Conservative: Ted Cruz Needs Our Help

I never thought I’d see the day when a Republican attacks another Republican for being a free market conservative, but that’s what David Dewhurst is doing in his attempt to buy the Texas Senate Election.

New polling out shows that Dewhurst is close to, but not at, 50% — the threshold he needs to reach to avoid a runoff with Ted Cruz. So now Dewhurst is attacking Ted Cruz for being a free market conservative aligned with . . . wait for it . . . no serious, wait for it . . . free market groups like the Club for Growth.

Dewhurst is a multimillionaire who intends to win this thing by going negative on Ted Cruz. Cruz does not have Dewhurst level resources, but we can get him close. He absolutely needs your help right now. Got to www.tedcruz.org and pour the cash in.

When a candidate is attacked for being a free market conservative, we need to have his back and help him fight back.

The most stunning irony in the latest Dewcrist . . . er . . . Dewhurst attacks is that Dewcrist is trying to tie Ted Cruz to amnesty proposals when Dewcrist voted for the Texas DREAM Act and blocked efforts to enact e-Verify.

Meanwhile, Ted Cruz not only opposes amnesty, but drew ire from the left for successfully defending Texas’s right to execute an illegal alien for raping and murdering two teenage girls.

We need to do everything we can to get Ted Cruz elected.

Morning Briefing for May 25, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing

May 25, 2012

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

1. Attacked for Being a Conservative: Ted Cruz Needs Our Help

2. The Growth Deficit and Spending Fairy Tales

3. The REAL Problem With the NLRB’s Ambush Elections Rule: Unions LIE.

———————————————————————-

1. Attacked for Being a Conservative: Ted Cruz Needs Our Help

I never thought I’d see the day when a Republican attacks another Republican for being a free market conservative, but that’s what David Dewhurst is doing in his attempt to buy the Texas Senate Election.

New polling out shows that Dewhurst is close to, but not at, 50% — the threshold he needs to reach to avoid a runoff with Ted Cruz. So now Dewhurst is attacking Ted Cruz for being a free market conservative aligned with . . . wait for it . . . no serious, wait for it . . . free market groups like the Club for Growth.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. The Growth Deficit and Spending Fairy Tales

The United States faces a number of economic and fiscal challenges in the short and long terms. But the single biggest is the Growth Deficit: the problem of government spending and government debt growing faster than the private sector. That deficit needs to be reversed; we are on an unsustainable path unless we start producing a Growth Surplus. And Republicans and conservatives need to put more effort into emphasizing the importance of the Growth Deficit to the public.

The Obama Administration seems to recognize that this is a political vulnerability, as it has lately been spinning the notion that the last few years have not actually grown federal spending. Below the fold, I’ve collected a number of charts that illustrate why this is nonsense. But first, a word on how we should be measuring our solvency.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. The REAL Problem With the NLRB’s Ambush Elections Rule: Unions LIE.

Recently, a federal court smacked down Barack Obama’s union appointees at the National Labor Relations Board for the manner in which they imposed their ambush election scheme. The scheme is, however, far from dead as the union-controlled labor board is “determined to move forward” with the needless rules. While there is much opposition to the NLRB’s ambush election rules, few have yet to address the underlying issue that makes the scheme unfair to workers and a disaster for America’s union-free workplace and that is: Unions and their organizers LIE to and deceive workers…All. The. Time.

What’s worse is that, not only do unions lie to, trick and deceive workers into unionizing, it’s perfectly legal to do so.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

The Media Dismisses Obama’s Bad Primaries

Tonight on the radio I’m going to talk about the media dismissing Barack Obama’s poor primary showings in a way they’d never dismiss it were it a Republican President.

Also, I’ll explain the B.S. in that CBS Marketwatch report about Obama’s spending.

You can listen live tonight on the WSB live stream and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.

Consider this an open thread.

Democrats Lie About Violent Crime to Beat Scott Walker

They thought it would help Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, running as the Democrat against Governor Scott Walker in the Wisconsin Recall. If the headlines said Milwaukee had lowered its violent crime rate under Barrett’s leadership, well then he must be a real leader. So that’s what the headline said. Only problem was it is a lie. Crime has not gotten better. State and local officials are demanding an audit of the Milwaukee Police Department’s crime numbers.

The Journal Sentinel found enough misreported cases in 2011 alone that violent crime would have increased 1.1% instead of falling 2.3% from the reported 2010 figures, which had their own errors.

Dozens of misclassified assaults were sent to FBI crime reporting experts, who confirmed that they should have been marked as aggravated assaults, which are counted in the city’s violent crime rate.

When even violent crime becomes a political topic to be fudged in advance of the left’s agenda, you know the situation has gone Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull bad for them. Oh, and we are at 7 of the 7 most recent polls having Scott Walker ahead of Tom Barrett.

Thanks unions for blowing all your cash and credibility in Wisconsin!

Bomber Turned Left Wing Activist, Brett Kimberlin, Tries to Silence Conservative Opposition

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Tip of the hat to Michelle Malkin, whose May 23 column does one of the best jobs I’ve seen of laying out the convoluted tale of a low-level Democratic activist named Brett Kimberlin and his attempts to shut down those who criticize him. She applies the “disinfectant of sunshine” to a seamy story that deserves mainstream play.

Brett Kimberlin, subject of the book Citizen K, is the Speedway Bomber. If that is not familiar to you, you might remember him as the man who claimed he sold Vice President Dan Quayle drugs. Kimberlin is also, now, decades later, a left of center activist, former Independent Music Awards Industry Judge, involved in organizations getting Tides Foundation and Heinz Family Foundation grants, and is back in the media for harassing and bullying anyone who mentions his past.

According to the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, Brett Kimberlin was convicted of a series of bombings in Speedway, Indiana, and other drug related matters. From the Court of Appeals:

Kimberlin was convicted as the so-called “Speedway Bomber,” who terrorized the city of Speedway, Indiana, by detonating a series of explosives in early September 1978. In the worst incident, Kimberlin placed one of his bombs in a gym bag, and left it in a parking lot outside Speedway High School. Carl Delong was leaving the high school football game with his wife when he attempted to pick up the bag and it exploded. The blast tore off his lower right leg and two fingers, and embedded bomb fragments in his wife’s leg. He was hospitalized for six weeks, during which he was forced to undergo nine operations to complete the amputation of his leg, reattach two fingers, repair damage to his inner ear, and remove bomb fragments from his stomach, chest, and arm. In February 1983, he committed suicide.

After being convicted of the bombings and related offenses, Kimberlin was sentenced to a fifty-year term of imprisonment for manufacturing and possessing a destructive device, and malicious damage by explosives with personal injury in violation of 26 U.S.C. §§ 5861(d) and (f), and 18 U.S.C. §§ 844(f) and (i). He received a concurrent twelve-year sentence for impersonating a federal officer, illegal use of a Department of Defense insignia, and illegal use of the Presidential Seal in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 912, 701, and 713, respectively, and a five-year term for receipt of explosives by a convicted felon in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 842(i)(1). Finally, he was given a four-year sentence by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas on an earlier, unrelated conviction for conspiracy to distribute marijuana.1

Kimberlin’s sentences were aggregated by the Bureau of Prisons and, pursuant to 28 C.F.R. § 2.5, were treated by the Commission as a single aggregate sentence of fifty-one years, six months, and nineteen days. He received an initial parole hearing by a two-person panel of the Commission on July 28, 1988.

Of late, Kimberlin’s name has surfaced because one blogger claims to have been driven from his home due to Kimberlin’s harassment. Why the harassment? Various bloggers and others have pointed out that Kimberlin runs a variety of left-wing organizations getting money from the deep pockets of the left. As the web of connections has increased, so has the harassment. Yet again, the left tries to silence dissent.

Kimberlin is involved in and founded Justice Through Music, an activist site billing itself as “Music. Politics. Activism.” He has also been involved in a group called the Velvet Revolution. Back in 2010, the Velvet Revolution spearheaded an effort to have Andrew Breitbart, Hannah Giles, and James O’Keefe prosecuted for their investigative work around ACORN.

Justice Through Music, which claims to do “voter education and registration” is a Tides Foundation grant recipient. According to Breitbart’s Big Journalism site, Justice Through Music “has received a total of over $1.3 million in public gifts and grants since 2005 for these efforts.” (See also the Justice Through Music Project 2008 Form 990-EZ)

Likewise, Velvet Revolution, started with Brad Friedman of BradBlog, received $51,000.00 in 2009 from the Tides Foundation, which also gave Media Matters for America $75,000.00 the same year.

As individual bloggers and sites like Breitbart.com have begun shedding light on Brett Kimberlin, Kimberlin has resorted to suing them.

In an email to noted conservative blogger (and prosecutor) Patterico, Kimberlin threatened to sue Patterico writing,

I have filed over a hundred lawsuits and another one will be no sweat for me. On the other hand, it will cost you a lot of time and money and for what. I run a small non profit that works to inspire youth to get involved. I have only met Brad Friedman one time in my life. Your piece is a smear job against both me and Brad.

Robert Stacey McCain has posted his intentions to go into hiding after his wife’s employer was harassed relating to McCain’s blogging about Kimberlin.

Others, including Aaron Walker, and Breitbart blogger Liberty Chick have likewise been notified of lawsuits and other harassment for pointing out Brett Kimberlin’s background and sources of funding from prominent organizations like the Tides Foundation.

As Patterico notes, back on January 24, 1995, the Washington Times posted a editorial made a point about Democratic activists rallying to Kimberlin that rings true today.

those who have befriended and promoted Kimberlin should be ashamed. Kimberlin committed a truly monstrous crime. He planted a bomb in a high school parking lot on game day -an act that was random, brutal and targeted at children. It is a testament to the viciousness of Washington politics that such a man has been embraced by some in the firmament of the Democratic establishment.

That was in 1995. In the past decade, the Tides Foundation and others have been subsidizing organizations Kimberlin helped set up for political activism, much the way Barack Obama once used foundation money to subsidize Bill Ayers. And now, when Kimberlin’s past is brought up, he has sought to silence his critics.

As Michelle Malkin points out today, “The mainstream press, not just the conservative blogosphere, needs to hear and report their stories.”

Morning Briefing for May 24, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing

May 24, 2012

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

1. Bomber Turned Left Wing Activist, Brett Kimberlin, Tries to Silence Conservative Opposition

2. Romney closes the gender gap

3. Well Thank God Nikki Haley Isn’t a Democrat Or It’d Be A Hate Crime

4. The Truly Massive ALEC Protests (Video)

———————————————————————-

1. Bomber Turned Left Wing Activist, Brett Kimberlin, Tries to Silence Conservative Opposition

Tip of the hat to Michelle Malkin, whose May 23 column does one of the best jobs I’ve seen of laying out the convoluted tale of a low-level Democratic activist named Brett Kimberlin and his attempts to shut down those who criticize him. She applies the “disinfectant of sunshine” to a seamy story that deserves mainstream play.

Brett Kimberlin, subject of the book Citizen K, is the Speedway Bomber. If that is not familiar to you, you might remember him as the man who claimed he sold Vice President Dan Quayle drugs. Kimberlin is also, now, decades later, a left of center activist, former Independent Music Awards Industry Judge, involved in organizations getting Tides Foundation and Heinz Family Foundation grants, and is back in the media for harassing and bullying anyone who mentions his past.

According to the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, Brett Kimberlin was convicted of a series of bombings in Speedway, Indiana, and other drug related matters.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Romney closes the gender gap

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds that in the last month Romney has closed his so-called gender gap from 19 to 7 percent. Last month Obama led among women 57 to 38 percent. Now that lead is down to 51 to 44 percent.

The new poll found voters would be split 49 percent for Obama and 46 percent for Romney if the November election were held now, but with regard to whom they prefer on handling the economy, Romney and Obama are tied at 47 percent. That is a 4 percent gain for Romney from last month’s Post poll.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Well Thank God Nikki Haley Isn’t a Democrat Or It’d Be A Hate Crime

If you haven’t seen it yet, Newsbusters has the video of South Carolina AFL-CIO president Donna DeWitt beating the hell out of a piñata with a picture of Nikki Haley taped to it. The union crowd cheers her on.

This comes just days after Phil Bailey of the South Carolina Democratic Party called Nikki Haley a “sikh Jesus” multiple times on Twitter.

Were Nikki Haley a Democrat, the media would make this the front page story across the nation — racist tea partiers beating up the minority governor in effigy.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. The Truly Massive ALEC Protests (Video)

The way the media is covering the ALEC protests, you would imagine they were about as huge as the OWS protests (which were also by and large pathetically attended in comparison to the TEA Party protests but endlessly hyped by the media). Turns out, maybe not so much. Check out this video from Ben Howe about the truly massive anti-ALEC posts in Charlotte.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

The GPPF T-SPLOST Analysis

Here is the T-SPLOST analysis from the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. The GPPF is less than thrilled with the T-SPLOST (Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) and the Atlanta area T-SPLOST’s emphasis on rail. There is one graphic that stands out in my mind.

From page 19 of the report:

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Atlanta and Barcelona have the same number of people and Atlanta uses 30 times the physical land area as Barcelona. In other words, rail works great in Barcelona due to population density, but not Atlanta for the same reason. Zoning in Atlanta doesn’t help the matter.

Tonight on the Erick Erickson Show, I’m going to get into this topic and also Joe Biden’s comments that the tea party is to blame for the lack of economic recovery. You can listen live tonight on the WSB live stream and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK. The show is from 6pm to 9pm ET on the nation’s most listened to talk radio station.

Consider this an open thread.

Well Thank God Nikki Haley Isn’t a Democrat Or It’d Be A Hate Crime

If you haven’t seen it yet, Newsbusters has the video of South Carolina AFL-CIO president Donna DeWitt beating the hell out of a piñata with a picture of Nikki Haley taped to it. The union crowd cheers her on.

This comes just days after Phil Bailey of the South Carolina Democratic Party called Nikki Haley a “sikh Jesus” multiple times on Twitter.

Were Nikki Haley a Democrat, the media would make this the front page story across the nation — racist tea partiers beating up the minority governor in effigy.

But no, Nikki Haley is a Republican minority. The media views most stories like this in terms of victim and victimizer and a minority who signs on with the Republicans has, in the mind of so many reporters in America, chosen to join the victimizer class. Therefore, when she herself is a victim, it’s just payback.

It’s sad that this would be the case, but the media has for decades shown us how they operate. What would be front page for days in a row on the New York Times were Nikki Haley a Democrat will be barely covered.

But on the bright side, we lose one less news cycle to a story of union violence and keep the focus on how Barack Obama is destroying the economy.

Like His Policies, His Attacks Are Not Working Either

Barack Obama’s economic policies have failed to do anything except drive up the national debt. He has not created or saved jobs. He has not gotten Americans back to work. About the only significant industry he has expanded is the printing industry printing all the extra food stamps Americans now depend on.

His campaign attacks do not seem to be working either.

He is winning women, but not by the overwhelming margins he needs to get elected.

He is now losing Catholic voters, a key constituency he won in 2008.

He is even losing Democrats on his Bain Capital attacks. His campaign has spent more time explaining itself to Democrats this week on those attacks than it has been able to level the attacks. It doesn’t help when the Obama campaign is raking in money from Bain Capital and private equity firms while trying to demagogue them.

In a nutshell, the Obama campaign must convince Americans that Mitt Romney would be a worse option on the economy than Americans already believe Barack Obama is. Running a campaign on the message of “you think I’m bad, just look at him” is not really a winning message.

Last night, Barack Obama got a lower percentage of the vote among Democrats in Kentucky and Arkansas than Mitt Romney did with his base. Over 40% of Democrats in Kentucky voted against Barack Obama. Even at 11pm ET last night, the Associated Press had called the Arkansas Republican Primary for Mitt Romney, but still had not called the Democratic race for Barack Obama.

This is not good for the incumbent President.

While all of this is going on, Cory Booker of Newark, NJ, Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, Harold Ford, Jr. of Tennessee/New York, and Duval Patrick of Massachusetts were chiming in to defend Bain Capital.

The attacks are not working.