Recently in Politics, Government & Public Policy Category
Larry Sabato has consulted his crystal ball and released some predictions for November's mid-term election.
Given what we can see at this moment, Republicans have a good chance to win the House by picking up as many as 47 seats, net. ...In the Senate, we now believe the GOP will do a bit better than our long-time prediction of +7 seats. Republicans have an outside shot at winning full control (+10), but are more likely to end up with +8 (or maybe +9, at which point it will be interesting to see how senators such as Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and others react). ...
The statehouses will provide the third leg of the Republicans’ 2010 victory. We have long suggested the GOP would gain a net +6 governorships. We now believe they will win +8. This boon to the GOP for redistricting will be enhanced by a gain of perhaps 300 to 500 seats in the state legislatures, and the addition of Republican control in 8 to 12 legislative chambers around the country.
Increased Republican control of the impending redistricting process could move as many as 20 House seats into the GOP column for the next decade.
1. Don't get cocky.
2. Don't forget the Tea Partiers who are poised to put you back in power.
This paragraph about President Obama's Afghanistan policy is pretty disturbing if you take it at face value:
One adviser at the time said Mr. Obama calculated that an open-ended commitment would undermine the rest of his agenda. “Our Afghan policy was focused as much as anything on domestic politics,” the adviser said. “He would not risk losing the moderate to centrist Democrats in the middle of health insurance reform and he viewed that legislation as the make-or-break legislation for his administration.”White House officials reject the linkage, but said Mr. Obama believed that the wars should be judged against other priorities.
The anonymous Obama adviser is saying that the President made a decision to commit troops in Afghanistan in order to further an unrelated domestic political goal. That is a damning accusation. It's good that the White House denies the accusation, and I hope it isn't true. I'd like to find out more, if any journalists are willing to investigate.
(HT: Best of the Web Today.)
Hey, why not another Harry Reid post?
(HT: Legal Insurrection.)
In 1993 Harry Reid wrote a bill to abolish birthright citizenship. Now in 2010 he claims that anyone opposed to birthright citizenship is either insensible or unprincipled.
For all the brouhaha over Republicans wanting to review the interpretation of the 14th Amendment, the citizenship/birthright clause, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, once supported revising the current interpretation of the birthright citizenship clause in 1993.Mr. Reid introduced a bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee as the Immigration Stabilization Act of 1993. The bill, which died in committee after it was referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Affairs, includes tough immigration provisions that would make many wonder where Mr. Reid truly stands on the immigration and border debate.
Title X of the Reid introduced bill shows the Nevada Democrat took Senator Lindsey Graham's, South Carolina Republican, idea on the interpretation of the 14th Amendment and documented it into legislation:
"TITLE X—CITIZENSHIP 4 SEC. 1001. BASIS OF CITIZENSHIP CLARIFIED. In the exercise of its powers under section of the Fourteenth Article of Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the Congress has determined and hereby declares that any person born after the date of enactment of this title to a mother who is neither a citizen of the United States nor admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident, and which person is a national or citizen of another country of which either of his or her natural parents is a national or citizen, or is entitled upon application to become a national or citizen of such country, shall be considered as born subject to the jurisdiction of that foreign country and not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States within the meaning of section 1 of such Article and shall therefore not be a citizen of the United States or of any State solely by reason of physical presence within the United States at the moment of birth."
I hope Dingy Harry takes a stab at explaining this flip-flop. My guess at the truth: Reid has no principles and simply advocates whatever he thinks will keep him personally in power.
(HT: Moe Lane, Gateway Pundit, Ed Morrisey, Brian O'Connor, Weasel Zippers.)
It's stunning that Democrats simply can't resist pulling the race card at every opportunity. I know I'm not the only one who laughs at it these days.
While campaigning in Nevada Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told an audience of mostly Hispanic voters: "I don't know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, okay. Do I need to say more?"
If Reid really wants an answer to his rhetorical question he should ask Brian Sandoval, the Hispanic Republican running for governor of Nevada who is cruising to victory over the head of Reid's son, Rory.
Democrats should be scared by Missouri's overwhelming rejection of ObamaCare.
Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a federal mandate to purchase health insurance, rebuking President Barack Obama's administration and giving Republicans their first political victory in a national campaign to overturn the controversial health care law passed by Congress in March."The citizens of the Show-Me State don't want Washington involved in their health care decisions," said Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, one of the sponsors of the legislation that put Proposition C on the August ballot. She credited a grass-roots campaign involving Tea Party and patriot groups with building support for the anti-Washington proposition.
With most of the vote counted, Proposition C was winning by a ratio of nearly 3 to 1.
We're the first to opt out of ObamaCare, but certainly won't be the last.
Missouri was the first of four states to seek to opt out of the insurance purchase mandate portion of the health care law that had been pushed by Obama. And while many legal scholars question whether the vote will be binding, the overwhelming approval gives the national GOP momentum as Arizona, Florida and Oklahoma hold similar votes during midterm elections in November.
The federal government will almost certainly win if it sues Missouri to block Proposition C... and then the situation will escalate. The courts are not the final arbiters of Constitutionality -- the People are.
Barry Cipra examines the math behind the decennial apportionment of Congressional seats. It's geeky and political!
What does America have in common with every third-world country? Our capital city is now also our richest city.
According to a new Regional Income Earnings Index developed by the Martin Prosperity Institute, Greater Washington, D.C. is the nation's metropolitan region with the highest income. The index measures income trends across all 342 of America’s metro regions.
Seems like an indicator that political power is often abused for personal profit.
Tax dollars will be spent to kill babies:
The Obama administration has officially approved the first instance of taxpayer funded abortions under the new national government-run health care program. This is the kind of abortion funding the pro-life movement warned about when Congress considered the bill.The Obama Administration will give Pennsylvania $160 million to set up a new "high-risk" insurance program under a provision of the federal health care legislation enacted in March.
It has quietly approved a plan submitted by an appointee of pro-abortion Governor Edward Rendell under which the new program will cover any abortion that is legal in Pennsylvania.
Nice work, Bart Stupak. This blood is especially on your hands.
Matt Welch waxes nostalgic over pro-capitalism Democrats from the 1990s.
But there’s a larger disconnect here. Twenty years is a long time for ideas to percolate. Younger voters and pundits supported Obama without understanding why Democrats were saddled with the “big government” label in the first place. The only Democratic president in their memory was also the only one who didn’t seriously goose the size of government. And the Democrat who won in 2008 was a serious-sounding fellow from the University of Chicago who repeatedly promised “pay as you go” budgeting, no tax increase for 95 percent of Americans, and a “net spending cut.”Did these liberals—some of whom frequently flashed their free trade credentials during the Bush administration—just forget what they used to believe? Or are they suppressing their principles until Obama announces that the economic crisis has finally been solved and we can resume regularly scheduled fiscal sobriety? Either way, their ongoing silence has to count as one of the great underreported political stories of the Obama presidency.
The New Democrats may be gone, but many of their worst policies—on criminal justice and foreign policy especially—are still locked into place. We replaced politically insincere, base-distancing market enthusiasts with deadly serious, interest-group-embracing Keynesians. Come back, 1990s. All is forgiven.
Save us Bill Clinton!
Rory Cooper lists 10 things President Obama can do immediately to speed up the clean up of the gulf oil spill. Numbers five and six strike me as an opportunity for some enterprising state or local official:
5. Remove State and Local Roadblocks: Local governments are not getting the assistance they need to help in the cleanup. For example, nearly two months ago, officials from Escambia County, Fla., requested permission from the Mobile Unified Command Center to use a sand skimmer, a device pulled behind a tractor that removes oil and tar from the top three feet of sand, to help clean up Pensacola’s beaches. County officials still haven’t heard anything back. ...6. Allow Sand Berm Dredging: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recently prevented the state of Louisiana from dredging to build protective sand berms. Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser immediately sent a letter to President Obama requesting that the work continue.
For a huge burst of positive publicity with almost guaranteed immunity to prosecution, one of these state or local officials should just ignore the stop signs thrown up by the federal government do what they know needs to be done. The feds will be dumb enough to come down hard on them, and 99% of the public will condemn the feds and praise the daring official. This kind of opportunity is rare, and looks like a sure springboard into Congress for anyone bold enough to take it.
(HT: Instapundit.)
Republicans need to stop assuming that American blacks are a lost demographic, because there are several conservative issues that seem to appeal to them. Al Sharpton himself admits that the vast majority of blacks are in favor of gun rights.
SHARPTON (4:52): I would say 90% of the calls I received yesterday were in support of the Supreme Court and people say they want to bear guns. They’re tired of the violence and it’s very very interesting. I have had a few on both sides today, but yesterday was overwhelming, it was stunning to me.I just told Attorney Lou Meyers, lady stopped me last night; I did the commencement address at Boys and Girls High. She said I listen to your show Reverend and I want you to know I’m saved sanctified by feel of the Holy Ghost, but if they come in my house I’m going to drop them right where they stand. So, and she looked like she was in her eighties.
Blacks also support school voucher programs and start a lot of small businesses. There's no reason for Republicans to give into the race-baiting of the Democrats and concede the demographic to leftism.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer to President Obama:
In a disgraceful abdication of their duties, the Democrat majority in Congress has decided not to pass a national budget resolution in 2010.
House Democrats will not pass a budget blueprint in 2010, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) will confirm in a speech on Tuesday.But Hoyer will vow to crack down on government spending, saying Democrats will enforce spending limits that are lower than what President Barack Obama has called for.
Such vows -- by Democrats or Republicans -- are never kept. This is theater.
In the scheduled address to the progressive think tank The Third Way, Hoyer will acknowledge that the lower chamber will do things differently this election year.“It isn’t possible to debate and pass a realistic, long-term budget until we’ve considered the bipartisan commission’s deficit-reduction plan, which is expected in December,” according to Hoyer’s prepared remarks that were provided to The Hill.
The real point here is that Democrats don't want to pass a budget with zero Republican votes that shows trillions of dollars in red ink for decades. Reality sucks.
Michael Barone unleashes a devestating broadside against Obama, labeling not merely a thug, but an ineffective thug.
Finally, the $20 billion escrow fund that Obama pried out of the BP treasury at the White House when he talked for the first time, 57 days after the rig exploded, with BP Chairman Tony Hayward. It's pleasing to think that those injured by BP will be paid off speedily, but House Republican Joe Barton had a point, though an impolitic one, when he called this a "shakedown."For there already are laws in place that insure that BP will be held responsible for damages and the company has said it will comply. So what we have is government transferring property from one party, an admittedly unattractive one, to others, not based on pre-existing laws but on decisions by one man, pay czar Kenneth Feinberg.
Feinberg gets good reviews from everyone. But the Constitution does not command "no person . . . shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law except by the decision of a person as wise and capable as Kenneth Feinberg." The Framers stopped at "due process of law."
Obama doesn't. "If he sees any impropriety in politicians ordering executives about, upstaging the courts and threatening confiscation, he has not said so," write the editors of the Economist, who then suggest that markets see Obama as "an American version of Vladimir Putin." Except that Putin is an effective thug.
It seems that when Obama put himself forward as a candidate he had no real idea of what the President is actually supposed to do. It says a lot about his character that he assumed that he would be worthy of the office despite any evidence.
Obama in the Oval Office is like a child running hurdles in the Olympics.
It's completely humiliating for me as an American to read that the federal government has basically allowed Mexico to annex southern Arizona.
Imagine the federal government closing a section of the Lincoln Memorial because it was under the control of Mexican drug lords and bands of illegal immigrants.That scenario is playing out as reality in southern Arizona, where parts of five federal lands -- including two designated national monuments -- continue to post travel warnings or be outright closed to Americans who own the land because of the dangers of "human and drug trafficking" along the Mexican border.
Roughly 3,500 acres of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge -- about 3 percent of the 118,000-acre park -- have been closed since Oct. 6, 2006, when U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials acknowledged a marked increase in violence along a tract of land that extends north from the border for roughly three-quarters of a mile. Federal officials say they have no plans to reopen the area.
Elsewhere, at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, which shares a 32-mile stretch of the border with Mexico, visitors are warned on a federally-run website that some areas are not accessible by anyone.
"Due to our proximity to the International Boundary with Mexico, some areas near the border are closed for construction and visitor safety concerns," the website reads.
Instead of issuing warnings to Americans the government should put the United States Army on the border to protect us from this invasion. The Army can't be used for law enforcement, but it sure as hell can be used in a military capacity to defend us from foreign incursion.
