Tommy Thompson Wisconsin

By: Tim Jones

Posted: Aug. 13th, 2012

Tommy Thompson, the longest-serving governor in Wisconsin history, dropped to the floor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board room last week and ripped through his morning push-up routine, as a video camera recorded a state political icon exercising in his stocking feet.

“Thompson flexes muscle,” read the headline on a video posted by the newspaper in its Aug. 8 online version. “Senate candidate, 70, knocks out 50 push-ups.”

The comeback trail for Thompson winds through a landscape foreign to a Republican accustomed to working with Democrats. The politics of confrontation now dominate Wisconsin, as Tea Party-backed Governor Scott Walker sparked and then survived a recall battle prompted by curbs on public employee collective bargaining. The state will be even more in the spotlight now that Mitt Romney has chosen Wisconsin Republican congressman Paul Ryan, chairman of the House budget committee, as his vice presidential running mate.

Vitality is not the issue for four-term governor Thompson, who started the national welfare-reform debate by requiring able-bodied recipients in his state to find work and served as secretary of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush. In Wisconsin, a state whose motto is “Forward,” the political rebuttal to Thompson and his more than 40 years of public service is “backward.”

“Tommy needs to retire now,” said Susan Corkum, who runs an art gallery in Menominee Falls, a Milwaukee suburb that is part of the Republican stronghold of Waukesha County. “I enjoyed him as governor and I have nothing bad to say about him, but we need fresh faces and voices. Otherwise, everything stays the same.”

Primary Victories

The anti-tax Tea Party is fresh from Republican primary victories in Indiana and Texas, where establishment-backed officials were overthrown by candidates eschewing political compromise. In the Indiana race, Tea Party-backed state Treasurer Richard Mourdock defeated six-term Indiana Senator Richard Lugar.

In Wisconsin, tomorrow’s primary for the right to fill the U.S. Senate seat of retiring four-term Democrat Herb Kohl, 77, features four conservative candidates who disagree on little.

Banker and investor Eric Hovde, 48, former Congressman Mark Neumann, 58, and State Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, 45, and Thompson have pledged that after they defeat the Democratic nominee, Representative Tammy Baldwin, in November, they will go to Washington and cut taxes, balance the budget and repeal President Barack Obama’s health-care law.

Unemployment Rate

While Wisconsin’s 7 percent unemployment rate in June ranked below the national jobless figure of 8.3 percent in July, the state suffered a net loss of 2,100 nonfarm jobs during the first two quarters of 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The absence of policy differences has put the spotlight on the authenticity of the candidates’ conservative credentials. That has magnified the influence of the Tea Party, which didn’t exist when Thompson left the governorship in 2001. Besides Walker, the group helped elect Ron Johnson to Wisconsin’s other Senate seat in 2010.

As governor, Thompson “was always willing to talk compromise,” said Mordecai Lee, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who served in the legislature when Thompson was governor. “The lines of communication were always open. He did not view government as the enemy. Now compromise is a dirty word. Tommy is really sort of swimming against the tide.”

Others disagree. Representative Tom Petri, who defeated Thompson in a 1979 run for Congress, said the former governor still fits in a changing Republican Party. “He’s a tough old bird, as they say,” said Petri, 72.

Welfare Overhaul

Thompson’s advocacy of a welfare overhaul and school choice demonstrates how Republicans in Wisconsin have “been on the forefront of new innovations for a century,” said Petri. “That continues, although the vocabulary has changed.”

Read More: Page 2

Source: SFGate.com

Ted Cruz wins Texas Senate primary in a victory for tea party

Posted: Aug. 1st, 2012

Ted Cruz’s Senate primary victory in Texas will provide a boost for tea party-backed, no-compromise conservatives in Congress.

His all-but-sure win in November will increase the number of tea party-aligned senators to six, and as many as seven more could win election. That will ensure a bigger impact on both politics and policy on Capitol Hill, even if Democrats manage to retain a Senate majority and the White House.

Dozens of tea party-supported candidates won House seats two years ago, but only four were elected to the Senate: Marco Rubio of Florida, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah. They joined South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, an ideological godfather of a movement born in the aftermath of Congress enacting President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul two years ago.

As a result of those small numbers, the tea party’s impact in the Senate has been less than in the House — for both parties.

Republicans speak optimistically of possibly taking Senate control — though Cruz will take a safely Republican seat — and most GOP senators tout their own conservative credentials. But Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has generally not had to contend with conservative insurrections, while House Speaker John Boehner regularly faces fierce resistance from blocks of conservatives at the mere mention of compromise with Democrats.

Cruz defeated the establishment favorite, Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, on Tuesday after spending his entire campaign aligning himself with the tea party. He was endorsed by DeMint more than a year ago.

“We are witnessing a great awakening,” he said of his victory, presenting himself as part of a new generation of conservatism.

With just three months until the general election, however, the 2012 campaign season has been anything but a tea party sweep. The movement couldn’t settle on an opponent to Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination, although more than half a dozen auditioned.

Read More: khou.com

Many Wi police labor leaders picked a fight they should have avoided.

There has been much discussion of winners, losers and the effect on public employee unions elsewhere in the US after the failure to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. But there has been little comment on one group of unionized workers that were unaffected by public employee union reform, yet joined the losing side anyway. And not once, but on three different occasions.

When Gov. Walker first introduced his plan to eliminate public employee collective bargaining, automatic union dues deduction and require annual union recertification votes there were two notable exceptions: police and fire unions.

This exemption was a godsend and it would have been perfectly natural, and tactically sound, if Wisconsin police labor leaders had simply breathed a sigh of relief as the Angel of Death passed over their house on its way to visit AFSCME households.

Instead many police leaders shinnied up the downspouts so they could get on the roof and try to flag him down.

One expects this type of behavior from firefighters. They’ve always been more committed to labor “solidarity” and most probably know the words to “Joe Hill.” Firemen are accustomed to volunteering in political campaigns and charitable efforts. (Cops say it’s because firemen only work part–time.)

So when Wisconsin firemen began beating on drums in the state capital and protesting the reform legislation it was not surprising. (One unexpected side effect of the Migration to Madison was the absence of fire trucks blocking the curb at grocery stores and the welcome shortage of firemen brandishing boots in left turn lanes.)

Cops, on the other hand, don’t volunteer.

Part of the difference is attributed to how police and fire unions are organized. Firefighters are much more hierarchical, with the locals sending dues money up to the state and national organization, where spending decisions are made. Consequently fire locals usually have a shortage of money, but plenty of manpower.

Police unions are feudal. Many locals are independent baronies and keep all the dues money within city limits. Even those locals affiliated with the Fraternal Order of Police or other national organizations, still keep local dues money at home and remain politically independent. That’s why effective police unions (those with over 450 dues–paying members) usually have money for political action, and the disinclination to volunteer is not so damaging.

I’ve worked with police (and some fire) unions for over 20 years and aside from union officers, you get almost no rank–and–file participation. Clients have had to hire temporary workers to gather signatures for a police pay raise election because the officers wouldn’t volunteer.

Which is why it was so surprising to see all those motivated cops enjoying “mic check” communication and employing their decoupage talents on poster board.

Other public employee unions want the cops to join their campaigns because conservatives and taxpayers usually support police. Consequently, police participation can generate public approval.

Unfortunately for cops, labor “solidarity” usually runs in one direction. When is the last time you saw AFSCME members picketing city hall when some rabble–rouser accuses the police of brutality? How many times have public employee union leaders defended police officers accused of “racial profiling?”

The answer is never.

Gov. Walker treated law enforcement differently and police union leaders should have done their best to make sure the precedent continued. Instead of encouraging members to join a pointless and destructive protest in the capital, (the notable exception being the Milwaukee police union that stayed with Gov. Walker), officers should have been meeting with individual legislators to thank them and explain how law enforcement is the equivalent of domestic defense: a spending priority conservatives can and should support.

In Congress few if any members are calling for military pay cuts, reductions in health coverage and limiting pensions, even though the tail–to–teeth ratio in the military is much higher than it is in domestic law enforcement.

Police officers have a difficult and inherently dangerous job. Librarians are rarely shot down during the course of their duties and they almost never have to fight a patron when it’s time to pay an overdue book fine. Cops are faced with this possibility on a daily basis.

It makes sense for them to be able to retire after 25 years on the job, have access to comprehensive medical coverage before and after retirement and receive a hazardous duty pay differential, just like the military. What’s more, police unions, in stark contrast with other public employee unions, have fought to maintain strict hiring standards, extensive background checks and stringent physical qualifications.

Law enforcement, like national defense, is not an area where wise conservatives seek to cut corners. I doubt even the most frugal Tea party member would want to exchange US law enforcement for Mexico’s.

Fortunately for Wisconsin cops they have a chance to recover from their leadership’s serial errors. Currently there is no sentiment in the legislature to revisit public employee union reform or public safety employee status. Wise police union leadership should take advantage of this truce and seek to repair their relationship with Republicans.

“Cake Walker”

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Wins Recall Election by a Wide Margin

A New Republican Star is Born

by Scott Rohter, June 2012

In my last article I speculated about who pulled the plug on the TEA Party. I thought that the TEA Party might be running out of juice because we wound up with Mitt Romney as our Republican nominee instead of a solid conservative in 2012. But maybe nobody pulled the plug. Maybe we haven’t lost our mojo, after witnessing the enormity of Scott Walker’s victory in Wisconsin. But I can tell you this…They won’t stop trying to pull the plug on the TEA Party!

All night long yesterday I listened intently to reports on the radio from ABC, the BBC, FOX News, and NPR about the recall election going on in Wisconsin. I went back and forth between wondering and worrying. When it was clear that Governor Walker was actually going to win the election, that’s when I noticed the Liberal’s spin machine kick into high gear. That’s when their denial began to set in too. Mainstream media reporters began saying things like, “Embattled Governor Scott Walker survives an historic recall election.” The mainstream media reported that Governor Walker was actually the first and only Governor to ever survive such a recall election. This observation seemed to legitimize their efforts to recall him, and the arrogance of the organizers of this recall election, when in reality Governor Walker did nothing at all to deserve a recall election. The Left just didn’t like the way he was governing. They didn’t like his policies, but that is not a reason to call for a recall election. However, stating that he was the only Governor to ever survive such a recall election seemed to justify their efforts all the same.

Furthermore reporters in the mainstream media said that, “The very polarizing Governor Walker somehow managed to retain his Wisconsin Governorship.” Somehow, I asked myself? They mentioned nothing at all about the huge cost of conducting this unnecessary exercise in democracy, and how it wasted vast sums of the taxpayer’s money. Instead they pointed out that, “Democrats say they will have to invest even more assets now in Wisconsin in order for their Party to prevail again in November, but the failure of the Wisconsin Recall Election is no reflection either on President Obama’s popularity or on his chances of winning in November… “Yea, right. I have some swampland for sale in Florida. Would you like to buy it?”

Never did I once hear a mainstream news media source realistically admit, or even allude to the huge size and scope of Scott Walker’s victory. Only once after listening for more than five hours did I ever hear a single word mentioned, or a single dissenting voice even hint at the huge scope of the defeat for the organizers of this recall election. “It wasn’t even close,” one reporter from NPR said later. Governor Walker won by an even bigger margin than he did two years ago… It was 54% to 46%. “Two years ago his margin of victory was smaller than that,” they said.

To read more , see any photos, and other related articles please visit my website   http://lessgovisthebestgov.com/Wisconsin-recall-Scott-Walker-wins-big-star-is-born.html

California Governor Jerry Brown

Moonbeams and Wisconsin

By: Bill Colley

Posted: June 5th, 2012

California Governor Jerry Brown wants to hopscotch several environmental regulations in order to quickly build a high-speed choo-choo train.  Nicknamed “Governor Moonbeam” by the late newspaper columnist, Mike Royko, the Governor is in reality a cafeteria environmentalist.  While you’re told you must walk, bike and exercise to save the planet and yourself the rules are for bending if you’re the smartest guy in the room, in other words a liberal politician.  You just never know, as you’re reading this the Mayor of New York City could be guzzling a 44 ounce Cherry Coke.  He must because otherwise it might fall into your hands.  Service to our fellow men (and women) carries a heavy burden, albeit in this case it’s likely described as just a big-boned burden.  Governor Brown needs to suspend the rules right now because the latest polls show support for the rail project flagging.  It appears the public has heard something about a massive state budget deficit plus the expected expense for building the railroad.  Factor in the costs government ignores (union labor sleeping through shifts, the mafia stealing concrete and work stoppages for celebrity photo shoots) and we’ve got the little train that couldn’t.

As I write this on Tuesday morning there are people going to the polls in Wisconsin to determine the future of Western Civilization.  A win for Governor Scott Walker and his allies likely delays the inevitable for a few more years.  A Walker loss is a victory for the dark forces and very shortly Wisconsin will resemble California but only colder.  On really cold days, Sarah Jessica Parker would hide her face behind a knit face mask to keep warm.  Ah, there is possibly a silver lining!

For all the hyperbole it’s quite clear Wisconsin remains important.  I’ve spent all but a couple of my adult years working in media in markets of varied sizes and in a variety of jobs from reporting to budgeting to offering opinions.  A poll released just this week explains Americans have closed old divides over race, ethnicity and education.  There are only a couple of places where the divide is growing wider.  Fans of the Dallas Cowboys are increasingly marginalized.  No, seriously, there aren’t many Americans left in the political middle.  People who tell pollsters that politicians need to stop squabbling and all just get along really mean they want disagreeable opponents to come in from the cold and not always the chill associated with Wisconsin.

The divide is quite stark.  On one side you have labor leaders, entertainers and mainstream media insisting we can keep printing money, borrowing money and confiscating other people’s money to feed the social welfare state.  They can’t see any consequences or illogic in their position.  Try and explain the flaws and you’re accused of being mean-spirited, un-Christian and an agent of greedy industrialists.  Then when the torrent has been hurled and the liberal quiver is empty the next step from the left is to plug ears, close eyes and stamp away.  For full disclosure I’m on the other side of the great divide.  While I also enjoy a free lunch, spending other people’s money and drinking my neighbor’s beer I realize it’s not a consistent track for success.  The longer I freeload it appears I create resentment and while I enjoy freeloading I don’t think I’m entitled to an easy ride.

During one interruption in my personal media history I spent one year working inside a postal sorting plant.  It’s no different than any other workplace.  Some people work gangbusters.  Others are slow but steady.  The last third bragged about the best secret places in the plant for taking naps and not getting caught sleeping.  There was also honor among the lazy.  Like nearly every work environment the other slackers were impressed by creative efforts at avoiding work.  “Man, they owe it to us,” is how one man explained it for me.  My state’s senior U.S. Senator promises to save the jobs of these people by constructing offshore wind farms to power the land bound postal fleet.  As a liberal Democrat I’m sure he’ll rationalize skirting environmental regulations to speed construction.  The next time you see Tom Carper you need ask him if they’ve got really good dope in the Senate cloakroom.

Meanwhile, back in Wisconsin and perhaps the outcome won’t create its own momentum, however.  The California poll numbers raise serious doubts about the Moonbeam Express.  Even the kookiest liberals appear to be losing confidence in promises of a socialist paradise-on-the-Pacific.  Wisconsin may not be quite yet so evolved and it may have to get much worse before it gets better and, yet.  Liberalism and its Marxist siblings simply can’t survive when the treasury is bare.

Poised to Win Again in Wisconsin

Governor Scott Walker Prepares for Recall

By Scott Rohter, June 2012

Today is Monday June 4th. Tomorrow there is a recall election in Wisconsin. It is an election of significant national importance, and vast amounts of money from all over the country have been flowing into Wisconsin in order to try to influence the results of this election. Governor Scott Walker is running again for the office he won only two years ago against the Democratic Mayor of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett, the same man that he defeated two years ago in the General Election. Outside money has been freely flowing to both candidates in this race. Corporate money has been going into Walker’s campaign treasury, and Union money has been going into Barrett’s. But all of the money in the world cannot influence the course of events in Wisconsin if the underlying cause that it seeks to support is not just! All of the money cannot turn wrong into right, nor can it turn back the hands of time. The race is almost over. The statewide voting begins tomorrow. And we should know the results of the election by Tuesday evening.

Governor Walker was elected in 2010 on a program of statewide reforms. Since then he has been trying to implement these reforms. He has been trying to undue over thirty years of progressive damage that has been done to Wisconsin’s economy by Democrats. In only two years he has done a good job of balancing the State Budget, creating a business friendly climate that is conducive to bringing more jobs to Wisconsin, and reversing the traditional strangle hold that the Public Employees Unions have had on State and local governments.

His greatest crime to some on the Left is not the cuts that he has negotiated in Union pay and benefits and packages, nor the fact that he has eliminated the automatic Union employee payroll deduction, nor is it the fact that he is opposed to card check, and favors secret union balloting instead. His greatest offence in the eyes of the Public Employees Unions, not the least of which is the powerful, national American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Union (AFSCME) is that he signed legislation in Wisconsin making Union membership voluntary instead of mandatory.

For this reason the Public Employees Unions in Wisconsin, as well as nationwide have determined that Scott Walker has to go. They have forced a recall election to remove Governor Walker from office. That election will be held Tuesday , June 5th. The Public Employees Unions know that their guaranteed government instituted advantage in the workplace, and their government supported monopoly over the workforce are both being threatened by the new law signed by Governor Walker… To read the rest of this article, view all photos, and see any related articles please visit my website

by Dan Backer / May 21 2012

The reigning narrative is of Super PACs dominating the 2012 elections. But elections are finite moments in time, before and after which the ongoing battle to shape policy continues. The story we may not hear until 2013 is the quiet emergence of Hybrid PACs as a tool of political operators who understand the difference between winning elections and winning policy.

Policy professionals know successful advocacy as a “3-legged stool” that requires three elements: (1) professional advocacy, (2) grassroots and grasstops advocacy, and (3) PAC money.

Professional advocacy is delivered by organizational staff, in-house advocates, or contract lobbyists who shape the overall strategy for a program and the messaging that accompanies it. Those professionals deliver that message to key Members of Congress and staff, and engage the media, coalitions, and manage other efforts.

Grassroots advocacy enhances the message by putting a human face on it—often the face of a constituent or representative member of the affected community. Grassroots’ corollary, known as “grasstops,” uses a representative’s most prominent constituents, or those with direct personal contact, to leverage either their prestige or a relationship with a member to enhance the delivery of the message.

PAC funding creates receptive audiences for the message that can then be delivered to the right people at the right time and, for sophisticated PACs, on an ongoing basis.

All three legs are essential to an effective lobbying strategy that achieves results. Bumping headlong into that dynamic of effective advocacy is the dichotomy of PACs.

Many practitioners still think of PACs in terms of “Connected PACs”—those affiliated and controlled by corporate, union, or association sponsors—and “Non-connected PACs,” essentially grassroots organizations. Thanks to recent cases, most notably SpeechNow.org v. FEC, non-connected PACs now includes Super PACs, which have the ability to raise unlimited funds from anyone, and tend to raise them largely from a few core benefactors.

There is, however, a more practical division, often lost on lawyers, between policy-oriented PACs and electorally-oriented PACs

Policy-oriented PACs tend to focus not on elections but on specific and often very narrow policy objectives. Regardless of who wins what election, they will spend their resources year round in D.C. to provide their grassroots, grasstops, and professional advocates with a steady stream of opportunities to effectively convey their message to whoever happens to be the key Members of Congress. In that way, policy oriented PACs—largely the Connected PACs of corporations and associations—are an integral part of that three-legged stool utilized by sophisticated advocates.

Electorally-oriented PACs are mainly Non-connected (and smaller) grassroots PACs and Connected Union PACs. They tend to be more interested in a broader ideology than any single issue, and are most active largely in the run-up to elections. While some are sophisticated D.C. operators, they are generally less active during the legislative season when it comes to promoting specific policy initiatives rather than general policy goals, and except for the larger Union organizations, tend to have a much smaller, impermanent presence in Washington to build those long term relationships. Many electoral PACs are not effectively used as part of the three-legged advocacy stool, but now can be.

Super PACs are the latest twist on electorally-oriented PACs, bringing vast new resources to bear by many new players to win elections today. And they do so by moving voters—the grassroots—to act on Election Day. But then what?

On November 7, savvy operators with plenty of money kicking about will need to justify payroll, and big-dollar donors aren’t likely to just abandon what they’ve built. The natural post-election progression of the Super PAC will be from an electoral focus to advancing specific policy goals. This will lead to significant growth in what is called the “Hybrid PAC”—a product of Carey v. FEC, which holds that a PAC can have both an account to accept candidate-contributable dollars and an account to accept unlimited dollars to make independent expenditures and offset operating costs.

Hybrid PACs offer the best of both worlds: Hard dollars to advance specific policy initiatives the way “traditional”, pre-Carey PACs have long done, and soft dollars to underwrite operations, hire advocacy-oriented staff, and support grassroots and grasstops advocacy—the other legs of the three-legged stool. The electorally-oriented Super PAC players of 2012 can easily become the policy-oriented Hybrid PAC players of 2013, marrying the ability to impact local constituents with the resources and advocacy to impact policy.

Hybrid PACs are the next rung on the evolutionary ladder of advocacy; they aren’t just a legal creation but a practical, operational tool. Sophisticated political operators will see and seize the opportunity.

Dan Backer is principal attorney at DB Capitol Strategies, which provides legal, strategic, and operational guidance to political organizations with a focus on PAC treasury and FEC reporting and compliance.

http://www.campaignsandelections.com/campaign-insider/320177/why-hybrid-pacs-matter.thtml

I wish the title of this column was just a joke but it is not. Florida has taken the lead in doing what each state is responsible for – insuring its voter rolls meet state voting requirement. For its efforts to insure only properly registered and legal voters vote it is being attacked by the ACLU, the media and other progressive groups for denying voting privileges to well dead people, illegal aliens, felons and others who are currently on Florida’s voter rolls.

I am not the only journalist who sees dead people voting. J. Christian Adams from Pajamas Media reports, “I have learned that Florida election officials are set to announce that the secretary of state has discovered and purged up to 53,000 dead voters from the voter rolls in Florida. How could 53,000 dead voters have sat on the polls for so long? Simple. Because Florida hadn’t been using the best available data revealing which voters have died. Florida is now using the nationwide Social Security Death Index for determining which voters should be purged because they have died.”

Christian gives a glaring example of a dead person voting. According to Christian, “Consider the case of Lafayette Keaton. Keaton not only voted for a dead person in Oregon, he voted for his dead son. Making Keaton’s fraud easier was Oregon’s vote by mail scheme, which has opened up gaping holes in the integrity of elections. The incident in Oregon just scratches the surface of the problem. Massachusetts and Mississippi are but two other examples of the dead rising on election day.”

Florida should be seen as an example of good government. Some supervisors of elections believe their role is to get citizens to register to vote. I humbly suggest that is the role of parents, families and political parties. It is the sworn duty of local supervisors to insure those who do register to vote are alive, legal citizens and have the proper identification as a citizen of the state in which they will cast their ballot.

Those in opposition scream that minorities, the poor and the elderly will be disenfranchised. This is a smoke screen to allow for voter fraud. Those who want to ignore fraud are promoting fraud. But it gets worse, there are groups that are fraudulently registering voters and in some cases illegally voting. Why, because some local and national political races come down to a few votes. Do you remember the narrow vote margin in Florida in the 2000 Bush/Gore election in Florida? Voter fraud has become a main stream ideal for many progressives. As they saying goes – the ends justify the means.

What can you and I do? It is simple, hold your locally elected supervisor of elections accountable to audit the voter rolls before the primaries in August. It does not matter which party you are affiliated with or if you are an independent – you do not want your vote canceled out by the vote of a dead person. That is the right thing to do.

http://www.drrichshow.com/blog_post.cfm?BlogID=988

Source: HumanEvents.com

By: John Gizzi

Posted: May 15th, 2012

It was a hard-fought race right up to the end, but when it was all over, the Republican who had been considered the long-shot in the race until the last few days clinched nomination for the U.S. Senate in Nebraska Tuesday night.  With near-final returns in, State Sen. Deb Fischer, the “late bloomer,” upset long-presumed front-runner and State Attorney General Jon Bruning by a margin of 41 to 36 percent.  State Treasurer Don Stenberg, once considered Bruning’s main rival, ran third with about 25 percent.

All three were considered conservative, albeit in different degrees and styles.  But the primary drew national press attention and involvement from numerous outside organizations and politicians, among them three past GOP presidential hopefuls.  In large part, this was because involvement in Nebraska’s GOP Senate primary came with little risk.  The winner, no matter who he or she was, would be considered a sure bet in the fall to pick up the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson.

Almost universally, polls showed any of the three Republicans handily defeating Democratic nominee and former Sen. Bob Kerrey, who has voted, paid taxes, and lived in Manhattan since retiring from the Senate in 2000.

By all accounts, Fischer will become the Cornhusker State’s first female senator since fellow Republican Hazel H. Abel, who filled out a Senate term for two months in 1954.

Read More: HumanEvents.com

Undecided Voters Targeted by Last Minute Media Blitz

Mainstream Media Hijacks Elections

By Scott Rohter, May 2012

About every two years or so in America we have elections again. The two main “gangs” that control just about everything that goes on in our country from the lowly streets to the posh executive boardrooms are called the Republicans and the Democrats. They hold these so called “free and fair” elections all across America, from Bangor, Maine to San Diego, California… and they raise and spend hundreds of millions of dollars just to influence the results of these manipulated and scripted events. By doing so they are trying to persuade millions of undecided voters, especially in the final weeks before Election Day! Often their annoying political commercials are running right up until the very last minute on the very last day!

So what is really free or fair about these elections? The answer is nothing ! The two rival political gangs schedule these nationally televised, bi-annual “fundraising events” only partly to influence un-committed voters. But they are really held to line the pockets of the mainstream media! The liberal media need the money, and the two main political gangs need the face time on the television and radio to get their message out to the voters. So it’s a match made in Heaven, right?… Wrong! It’s more like an arrangement made in Hell.

To say that political Parties raise money to “influence or persuade voters is putting it rather mildly. Actually it’s more like trying to convince them by cajoling, bribing, bamboozling, and otherwise downright hornswoggling the voters into putting their X mark next to the particular candidate’s name that they are being asked to vote for!

When you think of gangs you probably think of the Crypts and the Bloods, or La Cosa Nostra, or Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) not the Republicans and the Democrats, but when you get right down to it there really isn’t much difference, except that political gangs are non-violent and perfectly legal in all fifty States. Just like street gangs they have their turf, and their turf wars, and they never quit! They just keep pressuring un-committed or non-aligned voters until they get them to join one of the two rival political gangs in the hood (the USA). By the time that Election Day rolls around, most Americans are so angry that they literally want to throw their television sets out of a third story window, and strangle whoever it is that is personally responsible for allowing all of these annoying political commercials to invade our lives. But that is the paradigm that we live by.

These numerous thirty second, or sixty second carefully scripted Madison Avenue sound bites are designed to target the undecided, last minute voters who don’t pay attention to politics until it is actually time to vote. These ads are often so frequent and so annoying that many Americans don’t even watch TV in the last days before a National Election. But each year the undecided voters are the ones who determine the outcome of our national elections, and the future of our country! And that fact is even more disturbing than the actual political commercials themselves!

 To read the rest of this article and to find other related articles please visit my website

http://www.lessgovisthebestgov.com/undecided-voters-Mainstream-Media-hijacking-American-elections.html

The Laird and the Republican Rabble 

By Bill Colley

The Delaware Republican convention is a right of spring and occurs along the beach just a few miles from where I work.  State Democrats, with claims of being more egalitarian, make their decisions behind closed doors.  You might think such a major difference would encourage more people to get behind what appears a more open Republican Party.  Don’t be fooled.

As a long time registered Republican friends often ask why I don’t attend the convention.  There are some folks in the party who appear to believe I’m on the payroll and should attend all of these events.  From the beginning I didn’t because I worried my presence could heighten factionalism within the party and also become cause for some conventioneers to check their thoughts if I’m sitting within earshot.  Apparently on the latter there isn’t much I’ve had to worry about.

The party sends some of its members as representatives to the Republican National Committee.  One is a woman named Priscilla Rakestraw.  For 37 years the woman has been a national party representative and I’m left absolutely flummoxed.  You see, I can’t find any Republicans willing to say any nice words about Priscilla.  In fact some Republican insiders have tagged her with a nickname I can’t repeat on the radio and, yet.  These tough guys sent her back to national for nearly four decades.  It doesn’t say much about some double talking Republican ringleaders.  You can’t blame Priscilla Rakestraw.  After all, she didn’t force anyone to repeatedly back her at the point of a sword.

A website I looked at Saturday displayed a photograph of the convention.  The Chairman of the Republican National Committee was all smiles chatting with Michael N. Castle and a former state chair named Tom Ross.  Castle was a political staple until dispatched during a 2010 primary by Christine O’Donnell.  His camp still blames her for getting more votes than the liberal Mr. Castle.  Newsflash, Michael, O’Donnell didn’t go into all those voting booths across the state and force voters under threat of sword to dismiss you!  Ross was simply nothing more than a throw rug where Castle wiped his feet.  He worked for Castle and not for Republicans and not for the betterment of Delaware.  I guess Ross confused his master with Louis the XIV.  L’etat c’est moi!  Lackey, lick-spittle and servile are all words I would use to describe the GOP stewardship under Ross.  I wonder what they were telling the National Chairman.  “Give us one more election cycle and we’ll put down the rebellion forever,” they might be saying.  Of course there wasn’t any rebellion but only a change in public mood and perception.  Castle and Ross certainly weren’t good party soldiers two years ago.  In their petulance they went home before Election Day and apparently instructed their minions to support Democrats.  Scores signed a statement urging votes for liberals.

As petty as these people sound I can’t think of any greater public relations disaster for the state GOP as a guy named Laird Stabler.  A wealthy fellow plying the halls of the General Assembly as a lobbyist and growing wealthier on contracts related to sports betting issues, Stabler gives campaign cash to leading Democrats.  He’s also a state representative to the Republican National Committee.  No, I’m not making any of this up!  There were rumors flying before the convention his Lairdship (Laird is Gaelic for Lord) would be replaced.  Then all the behind the scenes tough talking Republicans apparently got warned of a paddling as they entered the convention hall.  Stabler survived, which tells us a great deal about Delaware’s Republican Party.  Sets of stones are in short supply.

Why doesn’t the GOP capture more of the public imagination in Delaware?  Surely there aren’t any leaders in the party waking daily with intentions of hurting people.  On the other hand, public and state are secondary concerns.  The primary goal of leading Republicans appears to be, “How do I help myself.”  As for the people whispering naughty names in private you can’t count on them in public.  They’re all hoping Laird tosses them some table scraps.

I’d be a lonely figure at these GOP conventions.  I actually grew up believing the idea behind any political party was to promote a philosophy of how to best govern.  Good governance improves the lot of many over the few and from a Republican perspective it doesn’t require massive government.  Instead, all we get in Delaware are lords looking to milk the system for personal gain.  No wonder they were apoplectic when the rabble breached the wall 2 years ago!  Now they’ve reinstated control.  They’ve filled nominations for statewide offices with nebbishes.  If it means defeat what does it matter?  Laird will be just fine.

The most blatantly egregious statement from this convention came from one of Delaware’s few statewide Republican office holders.  I guess he may be the only statewide Republican office holder.  The State Auditor told a newspaper Laird doesn’t have any options.  He has to buy campaign paraphernalia for Democrats as a matter of succeeding in business.  Hooey!  Laird has an option.  He can get the hell off the stage.

Hatch (J. Scott Applewhite/AP File)n

Source: News.Yahoo.com

By: Rachel Rose Hartman

Posted: April 21st, 2012

SANDY, Utah–By a hair, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch was narrowly pushed into a Republican primary race against former state Sen. Dan Liljenquist Saturday after failing to capture the 60 percent necessary to win the nomination outright.

Hatch received 59.19 percent on a second-round ballot vote against Liljenquist, who received 40.81 percent. The Hatch campaign confirmed to Yahoo News they believe they were 32 votes shy of 60 percent (official numbers have yet to be released.)

“There will be a primary election,” state party chairman Thomas Wright told the delegates gathered here at the South Towne Exposition Center for Saturday’s convention.

Hatch told reporters following the final vote that he was “elated” by the results and “frankly” did not think he would win 60 percent. “It would have been nice if we could have gotten 60 percent… but I consider this a tremendous win,” the 36-year senate veteran said.

Hatch once again denigrated the “outside groups” that have been involved in this race. (FreedomWorks, which is backing Liljenquist, has invested significantly in an opposition effort to Hatch.) “They’re just vicious and awful and they don’t tell the truth. And that’s been really hard for me to take,” Hatch said.

Liljenquist told reporters he was thrilled with the results and is in the race for the long haul despite being the underdog. “We like our chances going into a primary,” he said. “We knew the moment we filed that we were going up against a man who has perfect 100 percent name recognition. We were going up with a man who has millions and millions of dollars in outside out-of-state contributions to his campaign.”

Liljenquist argued that his campaign will be buoyed by in-state support and in-state funds.

Hatch on Saturday received 57 percent support in the first round of voting against nine opponents. The vote totals pushed Liljenquist and Hatch into a final, second round.

Liljenquist downplayed his odds in the days leading up to Saturday’s convention, talking to Yahoo News about holding Hatch to a June 26 primary instead of knocking him out of the running completely, as tea party-affiliated Republicans in Utah did to Hatch’s former Senate colleague Robert Bennett in 2010.

Read More: News.Yahoo.com

Richaed Lugar

Source: KansasCity.com

By: James Rosen – McClatchy Newspapers

Posted: April 10th , 2012

Unlike in the last election cycle, Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina is maintaining a low profile as he appears to fulfill a promise to Senate Republican leaders that he won’t oppose any sitting GOP senators through his Senate Conservatives Fund.

But Senate Republican aides and campaign-finance experts say DeMint has reneged on that promise by using a stealth funding mechanism to target Sen. Dick Lugar, an Indiana Republican who’s been in office since 1977 but now is facing a stiff tea party-backed primary challenge.

Team DeMint, the South Carolina Republican’s campaign political action committee, last month transferred $500,000 to Club for Growth, an influential free market advocacy group based in Washington with longstanding close ties to DeMint.

Club for Growth last week started running a hard-hitting TV ad in Indiana, accusing Lugar of having backed tax increases, along with federal bailouts of Wall Street bankers and mortgage giant Fannie Mae.

“Call Dick Lugar,” the ad ends. “Tell him — no more tax hikes and no more debt.”

Lugar recently voted against two top DeMint initiatives: codifying in law the current moratorium on spending earmarks and preventing U.S. funds from helping to bail out debt-laden European governments.

The anti-earmark amendment, defeated by a 59-40 Senate vote Feb. 2, was crafted by Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, the former Club for Growth head whom DeMint helped elect to the Senate in 2010 with $304,000 in donations from his Senate Conservatives Fund.

In its analysis of 36 key votes dating to 2003, DeMint’s fund ranks only three of the other 46 GOP senators — Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — as more liberal than Lugar.

Jennifer Duffy, a Senate analyst with the widely read Cook Political Report, said DeMint’s highly unusual transfer of such a large sum of money from his re-election PAC to a group that’s made Lugar its top Republican target this year received wide notice in GOP Senate offices.

“The fact that DeMint used his campaign account to take this action looks far more personal and drives the perception that he has gone back on his promise not to go after his Republican colleagues,” Duffy told McClatchy.

Two senior Senate Republican aides, who requested that they not be named in order to provide candid views, gave similar accounts.

In spite of talking about freezing government spending, President Obama reminded everyone during the State of the Union just how out of touch he is about the defining issue of our time — the fiscal dysfunction that threatens to rob future generations of today’s living standards and jeopardizes the global financial system. National debt has grown by $3 trillion since Obama took office, the most rapid growth under any president since FDR’s wartime

See more here: America’s Next Financial Crisis Is Already Here

WordPress Install Service

Some of the bipartisan pairings at the State of the Union Tuesday night seemed more like an ’80s TV sitcom than the U.S. Congress.

Original post: Perfect Strangers: State of the Union

Social Bookmarking Software

Many presidents delivered their State of the Union addresses in writing, a custom Thomas Jefferson started to avoid seeming aristocratic.

More: Why some speeches weren’t spoken

Hair Loss Treatment

The first official televised response to the State of the Union came in 1966. Since then, it’s been an on-and-off tradition for the opposing party.

More: Responses to the State of the Union

Adware Spyware Removal Software

They don’t have to deliver it in person, but the Constitution does require presidents to give Congress information on the State of the Union.

Original post: Presidents required to give speech

Vimax Affiliate

Mideast: Disguised as an indigenous political party, the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah has quit the Lebanese Cabinet, the latest step in its quest for an Islamofascist state on the border with Israel. Lebanon’s very own Valentine’s Day massacre, the February 2005 car bomb explosion that killed former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 others, has ever since been a central factor in Lebanese politics, as is the investigation into who did

Original post: Hezbollah Vs. Lebanon

SEO Software

Abuse Of Power: Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee is trampling the First Amendment by banning state employee appearances on talk radio. Equally condemnable is his complaint that talk radio is “for profit.” It’s no mystery why “Taxalot Linc” doesn’t want state employees appearing on talk radio. The new “independent” governor intends to tax everything that moves — plus a lot that doesn’t. “Textbooks, school meals and heating fuel are all there,” the

The rest is here: Chafing Capitalism

Free Wallpaper

George Washington gave the first State of the Union speech in 1790, and it remains the shortest to date.

The rest is here: The first State of the Union

Social Bookmarking Software

Diplomacy: If insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, how is one to characterize Hillary Clinton’s latest grip-and-grin encounter with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez in Brazil on Saturday? Less than two years ago, the Secretary of State made what might have been dismissed as a beginner’s mistake at a summit in Trinidad, going out of her way to shake hands and share laughs with the thuggish tyrant of Caracas. The

View post: Hugo Feels The Love

Free Wallpaper

Texas Tribune

Can the Republican establishment in Texas and the various Tea Party groups find enough common ground to keep the state GOP from splintering? …
Here is the original post: Let’s Stay Together

New York Times

They won as business-friendly moderates (the Golden State's Meg Whitman); as embattled incumbents (Arkansas's Blanche Lincoln); as Tea Party insurgents …
See all stories on this topic

Follow this link: No Mystique About Feminism

President Obama urged reluctant lawmakers Saturday to quickly approve nearly $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments, saying the money is needed to avoid “massive layoffs of teache

Excerpt from: Obama Asks for Another $50 billion in State, Local Aid