Corruption at the highest levels:
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. has backed off his plan to investigate wrongdoing by the liberal activist group ACORN, saying “powers that be” put the kibosh on the idea.
Mr. Conyers, Michigan Democrat, earlier bucked his party leaders by calling for hearings on accusations the Association of Community Organization for Reform Now (ACORN) has committed crimes ranging from voter fraud to a mob-style “protection” racket.
“The powers that be decided against it,” Mr. Conyers told The Washington Times.
Is there any question who the ‘powers that be’ refers to?
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The dead vote (democrat, no doubt):
Today, Minnesota Majority announced the discovery of individuals who were deceased prior to November 4, 2008, yet have voter history records on the secretary of state’s files that indicate they voted in the 2008 General Election.
Minnesota Majority employed a data enhancement service to flag potentially deceased individuals on Minnesota’s voter registration file. Over 2,800 individuals who voted in the 2008 general election were flagged as being “deceased” prior to the election. Minnesota Majority then selected a sample of a dozen records for additional investigation. A representative drove to addresses listed on voter registration records. Interviews conducted with residents or neighbors confirmed that at least 5 individuals from the sample were deceased, the latest having died in March 2007.
So even if we take the low end estimate, 5 out of 12 being confirmed date, and extrapolate to the rest of the flagged individuals, that’s over 1,150 dead votes. That’s more than triple Franken’s margin of victory, should the current count hold up in court. Clearly, the result are now suspect.
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The realization that Obama isn’t the change we are looking for is costing democrats dearly as horrified voters switch their party affiliation and independents shy away from the democrats.
From Gallup:
In politics, as of today, do you consider yourself a Republican, a Democrat, or an independent? (Asked of independents: As of today, do you lean more to the Democratic Party or the Republican Party?)
Selected Trend on Party Affiliation: 2004-2009
Rep.
Ind.
Dem.
Republicans
(including
“leaners”)Democrats
(including
“leaners”)%
%
%
%
%
2009 May 7-10 32
34
32
45
45
2009 Apr 20-21 27
36
36
39
50
2009 Apr 6-9 24
40
35
34
53
2009 Mar 27-29 28
35
35
40
51
2009 Mar 5-8 25
35
38
35
53
2009 Feb 20-22 27
36
34
39
51
2009 Feb 9-12 29
36
33
39
51
2009 Jan 30-Feb 1 27
35
36
38
53
2009 Jan 9-11 30
33
36
41
51
2008 Dec 12-14 26
35
37
35
52
2008 Dec 4-7 27
33
37
39
51
2008 Nov 13-16 26
35
39
37
55
2008 Nov 7-9 28
37
33
40
51
The five point shift since the election is the entirely predictable result of campaigning on a pretense of moderation, and subsequently governing from the extreme left. The Republicans can capitalize on the momentum of this shift through continued opposition to Obama’s massive deficit expenditures. They should not fear identification as the “party of no”. Indeed, when faced with a $2 trillion dollar budget shortfall, “no” is the only thing I care to hear from my elected officials’ mouths on the subject of additional waste. Wear it proudly – restraint is an alternative to fiscal insanity, and the people know it. With the exception of a few liberal infiltrators in the Senate, the Republicans said “no” to the porkulus, and now stand unstained by the utter failure to accomplish the purpose of the legislation, and the squandering of a massive amount of American wealth. “No” was the right position. “No” is the message of the Tea Party movement, which the Republicans would be wise to court as the best opportunity they’ve had in over a decade to galvanize the broader conservative movement in coalition with independant sensibilities and turn it into a landslide machine.
Obviously “no” isn’t enough. The Republicans need to present alternative solutions to issues which concern people, and they are doing so. But when the media mischaracterizes these plans, as they do, and the democrats bury them in committee, as they must, then “no” is a perfectly acceptable position, because saying “no” to the democrats means saying “yes” to keeping around, for a little while longer, the America we’ve known all our lives.
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Fixed for accuracy.
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Even the observers and lawyers have been instructed by their respective campaigns to not talk to the media. But Minneapolis lawyer Bill Starr, who is volunteering for the Franken campaign, was willing to say a few words. He said he thinks Franken will prevail. His hunch is based on a theory he has.
“People who voted for Coleman are more likely to have taken the SAT in their lifetime,” he said. “They’ve filled in circles. Franken voters are probably not college-educated. They’re new voters and immigrants. They’ve been brought in by groups like ACORN, from the inner cities. They’re more likely to make mistakes. I’ve bounced this off of minority people, and they agree with me.”
“I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, idiot voters like me.”
Hat-tip: Crush Liberalism
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That’s the amount John Boehner says ACORN is known to have received from the taxpayers. There’s probably more.
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today sent a letter to President George W. Bush, urging his Administration to block all federal funding directed to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and its affiliates until federal investigations into the group are complete. Allegations of voter fraud perpetrated by ACORN in at least 15 states have triggered an FBI investigation of the scandal-tarnished organization. A preliminary analysis of federal data conducted by the Republican Leader’s staff has determined that ACORN has received more than $31 million in direct funding from the federal government since 1998 – and likely substantially more indirectly through states and localities that receive federal block grants.
Can you imagine the media outrage and hysteria if there was a federally funded criminal organization working as an arm of the Republican party to promote voter fraud on behalf of John McCain?
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Yesterday I predicted a leftist assault on Joe the Plumber. You simply do not challenge The One without facing the wraith of his accolades. WaPo goes for the red herring, hoping to distract from the issue by questioning Joe’s plumber bonafides:
Joe the Plumber’s story sprang a few leaks Thursday. Turns out that the man who was held up by John McCain as the typical, hard-working American taxpayer isn’t really a licensed plumber. And court documents show he owes nearly $1,200 in back taxes.
…The burly, bald man acknowledged he doesn’t have a plumber’s license, but said he didn’t need one because he works for someone else at a company that does residential work.
But Wurzelbacher still would need to be a licensed apprentice or journeyman to work in Toledo, and he’s not, said David Golis, manager and residential building official for the Toledo Division of Building Inspection.
State and local records show Wurzelbacher has no license, although his employer does. Golis said there are no records of inspectors citing Wurzelbacher for unlicensed work in Toledo.
Typical liberal reasoning. If you don’t have government papers, you aren’t legitimate. I don’t want to get into the folly of government licensing and how it’s used to protect businesses from competition rather than consumers, but it’s enough to point out that a government certificate is not the determinate of one’s occupational status. Nor does this have anything whatsoever to do with Obama’s declaring he wants to “spread the wealth.” His statement is no less socialistic for Joe not having a plumber’s license.
Liberals on the web have, not surprisingly, taken an even lower road, and are engaged in a furious verbal assault (via Moonbattery):
Joe the Plumber is the typical selfish American voter who only cares about his own personal situation and not the big picture. […] Guys like these disgust me.
[M]aybe Joe [the] Plumber and Joe Sixpack can meet up in Northwestern, New Hampshire with the Mooselady and talk about faucets!
I bet JOE PLUMBCRA^K has a criminal background. […] How was it that McCainRat knew what JOEA^ssCra^k said to Obama, if he was none other than a PLANT?
So the white guy is the only measure of this economy? I’m so sick of everyone else’s welfare being measured against the white guy.
You know what, screw Joe the plumber and Joe the electrician.[…] They all wanted to drive BMW’s and buy homes that were bigger and more expensive at 25 than their parent’s homes that they bought at 50.
Screw those guys! They won’t to do well for themselves, and they must be stopped! Yeah, Obama will do wonders for the economy, let me tell you.
Also from Moonbattery:
Having moved beyond sneering at him for probably liking beer at Huffington Post, the vermin at Daily Kos have tried publishing his address, tacitly encouraging Obamunists to throw Molotov cocktails through his windows or terrorize his family.
But the attack isn’t limited to sallow adolescents conducting a People’s Revolution from their moms’ basements. Left-leaning officials are moving to drive Wurzelbacher out of work on bureaucratic technicalities as punishment for not extolling their messiah’s smash and grab economic policies.
Welcome to the new tone of Hope and Change.
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Joe the Plumber has presented a bit of a problem on the way to Obama’s coronation. Faced with an unanticipated question about his tax policy, Obama let the socialist cat out of the bag:
Joe is Joe Wurzelbacher, a Toledo, Ohio plumber who showed up at an Obama rally to challenge the Democrat’s tax policies. Wurzelbacher wants to buy the business where he works but says he’s worried that, if the company is successful, he’ll face higher taxes. Obama has said that he’ll cut taxes for those making under $250,000 but that people making more than that would see an increase.
“It’s not that I want to punish your success,” Obama told him in an episode captured on a TV camera. “I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they’ve got a chance for success too…I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”
The government is busy spreading the wealth around enough already. We “spread the wealth around” when we give farmers giant subsidy packages. We “spread the wealth around” when we take from the young and give to the elderly. But at least, for once in the campaign, Obama has been honest about his agenda. His tax policy really is a massive new welfare program (not that he bothered to inform anyone he was running on a platform of undoing welfare reform). One can’t help but wonder, if spreading the wealth around makes everyone better, why haven’t all these programs ended, or even reduced, poverty?
On the contrary, “spreading the wealth around” means punishing economic success, which tends to discourage, big surprise, economic success. Of course, Obama only believes in spreading everyone else’s money around. His? Not so much. Between 2000 and 2004, the Obama’s earned $1.2 million in income and gave a paltry $10,770, barely more than 1%, to charity. Only when his Presidential ambitions forced him to atleast pretend to not be a hypocrat did Obama give 6% of his $1 million 2006 income to charity, though the largest single benefactor was Trinity United Church of Chicago, home of Reverend “I never knew he thought that” Wright.
But back to our friend, Joe. Wanting to receive the rewards he is due from of his own hard work, rather than give it to Obama redistribute to political constituencies the “needy,” Joe has become an obstacle to the Obama campaign. Obstacles are also targets. I predict a furious left-wing assault. Unfortunately for them, nothing they say about Joe the Plumber can erase Obama’s unguarded slip.
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Jack Murtha continues the if-you-don’t-vote-for-Obama-you’re-a-racist parade, going so far as to insult his own constituency:
Mr. Murtha said it has taken time for the state’s voters embrace a black presidential candidate.
“There’s no question Western Pennsylvania is a racist area,” said Mr. Murtha, whose district stretches from Johnstown to Washington County. “The older population is more hesitant.”
Bitter clingers, no doubt.
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Lost in the financial hysteria was a very important question asked of the two candidates during the second debate. Brokaw queried, “Is health care in America a privilege, a right, or a responsibility?”
McCain’s response was reasonable, though not profound:
I think it’s a responsibility, in this respect, in that we should have available and affordable health care to every American citizen, to every family member. And with the plan that — that I have, that will do that.
But government mandates I — I’m always a little nervous about. But it is certainly my responsibility. It is certainly small-business people and others, and they understand that responsibility. American citizens understand that. Employers understand that.
Obama’s reply, in addition to being a rambling excuse to hit on numerous irrelevant talking points, revealed a fundamental misunderstanding common to the left on the nature of rights:
Well, I think it should be a right for every American. In a country as wealthy as ours, for us to have people who are going bankrupt because they can’t pay their medical bills — for my mother to die of cancer at the age of 53 and have to spend the last months of her life in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies because they’re saying that this may be a pre-existing condition and they don’t have to pay her treatment, there’s something fundamentally wrong about that.”
The problem with Obama’ reply is that, in carving out a “right” for something like health care, he is creating a burden on others and violating actual rights. In order to supply this right to a product, Obama must ignore property rights and demand a specific allocation of resources that a respect for people’s property rights might not produce.
For a more thorough discussion on why health care is not a right, see my previous post on the subject.
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I am a libertarian-conservative blogger living in the DC area. I have a Master's degree in Political Science and work in public policy, but please don't hold that against me.
