Story here.
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Three Supreme Court vacancy precedents have averaged 550 days: We need only 340
From the story here:
President John Tyler had a particularly difficult time filling vacancies. Smith Thompson died in office December 18, 1843. His replacement, Samuel Nelson, was in office starting February 14, 1845. That’s a vacancy of 424 days. Henry Baldwin died in office April 21, 1844. His replacement, Robert Cooper, was in office starting August 4, 1846. This vacancy lasted 835 days because Tyler could not get the Senate to work with him. During Tyler’s presidency, the Senate rejected nine separate Supreme Court nominations!
Most recently, Abe Fortas resigned May 14, 1969. His replacement, Harry Blackmun, was in office starting June 9, 1970, making the gap just longer than a year.
Jeb Bush deserved everything he got from Trump at the SC debate
In the run-up to this South Carolina debate, Jeb Bush said Donald Trump would make a worse president than Barack Obama.
And now Little Jebbie is surprised The Donald won't shake his hand after the debate?
Jeb deserved everything Trump said about him and more (debate transcript here). This is a war for the soul of the Republican Party, and it's high time someone had the balls to tell the Bushes to go to hell. They've been anti-Reagan from the beginning and never defended his legacy, and 41 and 43 were terrible presidents who raised taxes (41 gladly accepted the Democrats' Profiles in Courage Award for raising them), fumbled three wars, grew the size of government, actively worked against those trying to stem the tide of illegal immigration and shipped America's jobs to China by the boatload.
Under George's watch the World Trade Center came down to kick off his presidency, and to end it he proudly announced that he had abandoned free market principles in order to save the free market system!
Republicans need to be rid of the Bushes once and for all.
Laura Ingraham tweets the Valentine's Day massacre: Trump launched preemptive first strike v GEORGE Bush in debate
Sharp cookie that Ingraham is.
Saturday, February 13, 2016
In 2000 debate, George W. Bush was more concerned about racial profiling Arabs than preventing terrorism
The Boston Globe, October 17, 2000, reported what Bush said in the second debate with Gore here:
"Arab-Americans are racially profiled in what's called `secret evidence.' People are stopped and we've got to do something about that."
Everything's fine one minute . . .
. . . and the next you're in the car on an errand and suddenly hear on the radio that Antonin Scalia has died.
When you get home you learn your kid has just come down with a cold.
Then you go into the bedroom to get something and discover the cat has barfed up a hairball on the bed!
Arghhhhh.
Paw said there'd be days like this.
Jeb Bush, the Obamacare pot, calls the kettle John Kasich black for expanding Obamacare in Ohio
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| Tenet Healthcare stock while Jeb Bush was a director |
The Hill reports here:
The “telling thing” about Kasich, Bush said, is that “when he had a chance, he expanded ObamaCare through Medicaid. Governors across this country had a chance to take a stand against ObamaCare, many did. In Ohio it was expanded, and he’ll have to explain that down here, where ObamaCare, people want it repealed, they don’t want it expanded,” Bush added.
Bush made a small fortune as a Tenet Healthcare director from 2007-2014, a company which profited from increased utilization of hospital services under Obamacare. He conveniently sold the bulk of his stock near its peak during his tenure, at the beginning of October 2014. The stock has more than halved since then.
The libertarian Investor's Business Daily: Conservative talk-radio is in favor of Ted Cruz but it's too late
Naming Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, and Glenn Beck, here in "Are The Right’s Pro-Cruz, Anti-Trump Moves Too Late?":
Rush Limbaugh and other big names in conservative talk radio have come out in favor of Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz, but the support comes late in the game.
IBD doesn't mention Laura Ingraham, who is favorably disposed toward Trump because of the illegal immigration problem in the United States, nor Michael Savage, who has actually endorsed Trump, nor Sean Hannity, who pretends like Limbaugh to be non-partisan during the primaries but repeatedly asserts that Marco Rubio will be president one day.
Laugh of the Day: Libertarian Charles Murray says only business elites, the Republican establishment and New Dealers remain true to the American creed!
In The Wall Street Journal, here:
For the eminent political scientist Samuel Huntington, writing in his last book, “Who Are We?” (2004), two components of that national identity stand out. One is our Anglo-Protestant heritage, which has inevitably faded in an America that is now home to many cultural and religious traditions. The other is the very idea of America, something unique to us. As the historian Richard Hofstadter once said, “It has been our fate as a nation not to have ideologies but to be one.”
What does this ideology—Huntington called it the “American creed”—consist of? Its three core values may be summarized as egalitarianism, liberty and individualism. From these flow other familiar aspects of the national creed that observers have long identified: equality before the law, equality of opportunity, freedom of speech and association, self-reliance, limited government, free-market economics, decentralized and devolved political authority. ...
Who continues to embrace this creed in its entirety? Large portions of the middle class and upper middle class (especially those who run small businesses), many people in the corporate and financial worlds and much of the senior leadership of the Republican Party. They remain principled upholders of the ideals of egalitarianism, liberty and individualism.
And let’s not forget moderate Democrats, the spiritual legatees of the New Deal. ... But these are fragments of the population, not the national consensus that bound the U.S. together for the first 175 years of the nation’s existence. ... Operationally as well as ideologically, the American creed is shattered.
---------------------------------
Of all the objections to the essay which leap to mind perhaps the most important objection is the way Murray glosses over the religious interpretation of the formation of the American character in favor of the modernist preoccupation with ideology.
The English Dissenters who helped establish our country from the beginning did so finally out of a frustration born of being treated as second class citizens, for whom the chartered rights of Englishmen were denied on specifically religious grounds. The desire for equal status has to be understood from its Christian setting, not from the arid point of view of a seminar in political philosophy. These Dissenters went on to populate our country along with other Christians who set about erecting a society, not a libertarian paradise where everyone did as he pleased. Built on agrarianism and the local Protestant church, it is hard to imagine a place less conducive to letting people be all that they could be.
The Richard Hofstadter reference is telling. A former communist, the liberal historian was a life-long anti-capitalist who had a reputation as an historian as something of a hack because he relied on secondary sources, ignoring the primary.
As every ideologue knows, when the evidence doesn't support your view, just ignore it.
Friday, February 12, 2016
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Little Jebbie Bush's March to the Sea: We will be worse off with Trump than we are now with Obama
Quoted here, destroying whatever possibility there might have been for a truce between the Establishment and Trump:
“We will be worse off than we are now” with Trump as president, Bush said.
That's rich coming from someone who profiteered off of Obamacare while the rest of us were trying to stop it.
Emerson poll, touted as most accurate in Iowa by brain surgeons Limbaugh and Hannity, was 33% more inaccurate in New Hampshire than average
But the Emerson poll was worse, off 18.9%, which was 33.1% more off the mark than the average miss.
Emerson underestimated Trump by 12.2%, Kasich by 17.7%, Cruz by 6% and Christie by 18.9%. It overestimated Rubio by 13.2%, and Little Jebbie by a whopping 45.5%. Average miss: 18.9%.
Republican New Hampshire Primary polling was off on average by 14%
Final New Hampshire result v Real Clear Politics poll average:
Trump 35. 3 v 31.2, underestimated 11.6%
Kasich 15.8 v 13.5, underestimated 14.6%
Cruz 11.7 v 11.8, overestimated 0.9%
Bush 11.0 v 11.5, overestimated 4.5%
Rubio 10.6 v 14.0, overestimated 32.1%
Christie 7.4 v 5.8, underestimated 21.6%
Average miss: 14.2%
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Chris Christie dropped out of the race today, notably on friendly terms with Donald Trump
Reported here:
“I think that Chris did an amazing job in terms of the debate, as a prosecutor, and he’s a friend of mine,” Donald Trump said Wednesday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “And he actually called me last night, and we had a long talk, and he’s a little disappointed because he really did do a great job, he did an amazing job during that debate,” he added.
The current El Nino now qualifies as a very strong one, but not as severe as 1997-98
The current El Nino now qualifies as a very strong one because there have been three consecutive measuring periods at 2.0 or greater on the Oceanic Nino Index: 2.0, 2.2 and 2.3.
This is the third very strong El Nino since 1950.
For the current three month measuring period it averages 2.166, in the middle between the similarly measured 1982-83 El Nino averaging 2.033, and the 1997-98 episode averaging 2.266.
The latter event was 11.5% more severe in the current three month period than the '82-'83 episode, and the current event is only 6.5% more severe.
The 1982 episode lasted fifteen months and averaged 1.3 on the index, the 1997 episode lasted thirteen months and averaged 1.56, and the current episode is now ten months in duration averaging 1.41.
Little Jebbie spent $36 million in New Hampshire to come in . . . fourth
Reported here:
Cruz’s third-place finish also reflected badly on Rubio and Bush. Cruz spent less than $600,000 in the state yet finished ahead of fourth-place Bush who, between his super PAC and campaign, spent as much as $36 million on television. Rubio spent about $15 million and finished in a close fifth.
Trump buries #2 Kasich by almost 20 points in New Hampshire, Sanders staggers Clinton by 22
The race was called at 8:05 PM last night with just 4% of the vote counted.
Here are the results this morning with 88% of the vote counted.
Here are the results this morning with 88% of the vote counted.
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Supreme Court decision staying EPA power emissions rule means states likely to win in court
So reports The Hill, here:
The decision means that the EPA cannot enforce the rule until the litigation against it is finished.
It also means that the court believes that the states, companies and groups suing the EPA are likely to win their case when its merits are considered.
A big victory for electricity from coal and for Laurence Tribe: Supremes stay EPA rule implementation shutting down 53 plants
The New York Times reports here:
WASHINGTON — In a major setback for President Obama’s climate change agenda, the Supreme Court on Tuesday temporarily blocked the administration’s effort to combat global warming by regulating emissions from coal-fired power plants. ... “We are thrilled that the Supreme Court realized the rule’s immediate impact and froze its implementation, protecting workers and saving countless dollars as our fight against its legality continues,” said Patrick Morrisey, the attorney general of West Virginia, which has led the 29-state legal challenge. ... In a second filing seeking a stay, coal companies and trade associations represented by Laurence H. Tribe, a law professor at Harvard, said the court should act to stop a “targeted attack on the coal industry” that will “artificially eliminate buyers of coal, forcing the coal industry to curtail production, idle operations, lay off workers and close mines.” ... Mr. Tribe added that the plan “will cause the closure of 53 coal-fired plants in 2016 and another three in 2018.”
Laugh of the Day: Marco Rubio partisan Frank Luntz says Trump has to win New Hampshire by a minimum of 15 points
Rush Limbaugh here:
Frank Luntz is the guy bandying it about, that if Trump does not win by a minimum of 15, that he may as well consider it a disappointment.
As usual Rush Limbaugh gets it wrong, this time on the Emerson poll in Iowa and in New Hampshire
Here today:
There's an Emerson poll. The Emerson poll has... What does the Emerson have? Emerson poll has a shock. Find the Emerson poll. Emerson poll. Bush in second place and Rubio slipping to fourth, and everybody says, "Emerson poll? What the hell is the Emerson poll?" It's a student poll. Okay, so why does it matter? Well, because they called Iowa. Yeah. Emerson was the only polling outfit that said Trump was not gonna win Iowa. It had Trump and Cruz finishing in a tie.
No. And No.
Emerson had the Iowa race tightening to nearly even, but Trump was still +1 in the Emerson. Three major polls showed Trump reversing Cruz' lead, and all the polls after the first Emerson poll showed Trump winning. Even the Des Moines Register got it wrong. And of course Rush never mentions Cruz' cheating in Iowa against Carson and how the math involved mentioned by Karl Rove easily could have made the difference to Trump winning instead of Cruz.
And in New Hampshire, as we pointed out yesterday, Bush was second in the Emerson over a week ago but has DROPPED 2 points. Even Hannity is repeating similar drivel today about the Emerson poll. Bush in second according to the Emerson poll isn't news.
And there ends this episode of Dumb and Dumber.
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| Iowa polling |
RNC and Marco Rubio linked to law firm thought to be behind New Hampshire voter shaming letters
From the story here:
LawNewz.com dug through publically available records, and found the group is linked to a well-known DC lobbying/election law firm, which as recently as 2012 had ties to the Marco Rubio campaign.... Federal Election Commission records reveal that as recently as 2012, the Marco Rubio campaign paid this law firm for services. Bloomberg reports that in 2011-2013 election cycle, the Republican National Committee and Senator Marco Rubio’s campaign, spent $1.7 million for the firm’s services. LawNewz.com reached out to the Rubio campaign as well as the law firm for comment, but have yet to hear back. It is unclear if Rubio made any recent payments to the firm or any of their LLCs this election cycle.
The real polls are open in New Hampshire, but the pollsters were still furiously polling up to the last second
Trump was last +15.9 in the Real Clear Politics average, but rose to +16.3 last night and now +17.2 this morning.
Enough already!
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| as of 9PM Monday night |
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| as of 9AM Tuesday morning |
Monday, February 8, 2016
Jeb Bush is a total hypocrite about eminent domain, taking an old man's home from him in 2005 when he was Florida Governor
As Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush in 2005 used eminent domain to take 70 year old Jesse James Hardy's house and 160 acres he built and owned since 1976.
It was harsh, unlovely land, miles from anything, with rocky ground, slash pines, swamp cabbage and sand gnat swarms so thick he had to hold his breath. No electricity or sewer or water. Hardy built a shed, then a house. Dug a well. For 30 years, nobody bothered him. Now they won't leave him alone. ...
Hardy spits fire when he talks about having to move next month to his new $750,000 house that has just a few more amenities than the rustic cabin he built in the Everglades with his own sweat more than a quarter-century ago.
Here's Bush in last night's New Hampshire debate:
But what Donald Trump did was use eminent domain to try to take the property of an elderly woman on the strip in Atlantic City. That is not public purpose, that is down right wrong. And here's the problem with that. The problem was, it was to tear down -- it was to tear down -- it was to tear down the house...
If Drudge had paid attention to the Emerson poll he'd have known Bush has DROPPED in it
The story here from Emerson which Drudge links to reports Bush in second with 16%. The trouble is a week ago he was second in the Emerson poll at 18%, so he's fallen!
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| Actually Bush has dropped in the latest Emerson poll to 16%, tho still in 2nd |
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| Bush was in second with 18% previously in the Emerson poll |
Sunday, February 7, 2016
Trump claims he had just 20 tickets for his New Hampshire Debate audience: Is the RNC treating him fairly?
Here:
"I had supporters," Trump responded. "I had 20 tickets. They gave me 20. All of those people in that crowd, 90 percent of them, were people that gave to the various candidates, and mostly to Bush."
John Hart says the pro-legalization of illegals Sen. Ben Sasse is the real conservative, not Donald Trump
Of course, Hart never mentions Sasse is pro-legalization.
Here.
The last thing we need is another Rubio posing as a conservative.
Like pornography, Donald Trump may not be able to define conservatism, but he knows it when he sees it.
Do you think National Review's candidate is Marco Rubio or what?
Headlines about Marco so far today at The Corner are 50% of the fourteen since the debate began last night at 8:00 PM (the other 50% are mostly about Hillary):
"Rubio Better Buckle His Chin Strap"
"Rubio vs. Christie and Bush on Life"
"Rubio's Tough Night"
"On Marco Rubio and Chris Christie's Brutal Exchange"
"Christie Bests Rubio in GOP debate while Cruz and Trump Coast"
"How Much of a Stumble?"
"What a Bad Debate Night Means for Marco Rubio".
Don't blame the Flint River for Flint's water problems
So says the Flint River Watershed Coalition, here:
"It was improper treatment of the water, rather than the health of the river itself, that sparked the suite of issues with Flint’s drinking water."
For more photos see "The Flint River isn't what you think it is, and here's why you should check it out".
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| clear waters |
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| diverse habitat |
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| thriving wildlife |
Saturday, February 6, 2016
"Michigan Man" (aka "Not the face of Islam") arrested in terror plot against Christian church
Mlive reports here:
A 21-year-old man charged in federal court with illegal firearm and drug possession is also accused of making threats and planning a terrorist attack on a church congregation.
Khalil Abu-Rayyan has not been charged with crimes directly related terrorism, but the complaint filed against him in Detroit federal court includes allegations of threats made to a Detroit church and a Dearborn police officer.
The FBI has been watching Abu-Rayyan, of Dearborn Heights, since May 2015, because of what federal agents called "increasingly violent threats he has made to others about committing acts of terror and martyrdom -- including brutal acts against police officers, churchgoers and others -- on behalf of the foreign terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and Levant."
Marco Rubio was in the tank for illegal immigrants before he became the junior senator from Florida
From a Politico story in March 2010 here which should have put off Republicans on his candidacy but didn't:
A leader for a progressive group that used to heap praise on Rubio says there’s been a clear change in his approach to complex issues. Arturo Vargas, the executive director for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, said Rubio, the son of Cuban exiles born in Miami, blocked “scorched-earth” legislation that sought to clamp down on illegal immigration. “He, as speaker, kept many of those from coming up to a vote,” Vargas said. “We were very proud of his work as speaker of the House.” In 2006, Rubio even voted for a bill that would have allowed the children of illegal immigrants to pay the same tuition rates at Florida colleges as residents.
Vargas now says Rubio, the candidate, takes a more pointed, less nuanced tone as he stresses border enforcement and his opposition to amnesty. “He’s become your typical candidate in terms of playing to his primary election base,” Vargas said, acknowledging he’s more disappointed than surprised.
Bobby Jindal endorses the anchor baby
Here:
“Marco can unify our party. His optimistic message is bringing voters from across the party lines, from across different demographic groups. He can unify our party, he can win this election in November,” Jindal said.
Friday, February 5, 2016
Phyllis Schlafly slams Marco Rubio as an agent of the Republican establishment who has wanted amnesty all along
“When Marco Rubio ran for the Senate in Florida, I think I was the first one to endorse him."
“I made a trip down to Florida in 2009 just for the purpose of helping him.”
“Once he got elected, he betrayed us all."
“He said he was against amnesty and against the establishment. And once he got in, right away, he became an agent of the establishment. And now, of course, he’s big for amnesty and letting all the illegal immigrants in. He betrayed us a number of times on that issue.”
“Immigration right now is the biggest issue. All you need to do is look at Europe, and you can see that."
“But there are other issues like trade where Rubio has aligned with the establishment against the American worker.”
"Trade is a big issue."
"The whole thing with how they are pushing these trade agreements and mass immigration is a cheat and a lie to the American people. And Rubio has joined the group that is pushing it."
Ben Domenech says Trump and Cruz stole Rand Paul's libertarian foreign policy
But Domenech never mentions how Trump stole something else: attracting hordes of people to his appearances who come from all walks of life, but especially blue collar independents and Democrats.
That's what Rand Paul hoped to do all along, recreating the Republican brand.
Trump is succeeding at what elite libertarians have only been able to dream of politically, but now that they've got what they wished for they want nothing to do with it because Trump is uniting people through a conservative value: patriotic American nationalism.
Rand Paul doesn't get it, and neither does Domenech: Americans are conservative much more than they are libertarian.
FOX's Frank Luntz was paid over $345,000 by Florida's Republican Party when Marco Rubio was Speaker of the Florida House
Story here, questioning Luntz's objectivity in his current role praising Rubio in the debates.
Luntz was caught in an audio recording in 2013 complaining that conservative radio talkers Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin were destroying Rubio over the Gang of Eight immigration amnesty bill which Rubio co-sponsored.
It's safe to say that Luntz has been loyal to Rubio for a long time for a reason.
Thursday, February 4, 2016
Rush Limbaugh never mentioned the Karl Rove expose of Ted Cruz' lying today
Rush Limbaugh did his best to cover for Ted Cruz today by not mentioning the bombshell story which should persuade every honest observer that Ted Cruz is a lying sack of shit.
Real Clear Politics had video of the story here for at least 11 hours already, but Rush wouldn't touch it today.
As far as I can tell, neither did Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity nor Mark Levin, whose shows I could not listen to in their entirety. However Mark Levin spent considerable time ridiculing Karl Rove in the second half hour for some reason, but you can guess why.
Voicemail left by the Ted Cruz campaign to Iowa precinct captains at 7:29pm caucus night proves Cruz has been lying for the last 48 hours
From the story quoting a voicemail here:
"Dr. Ben Carson will be [garbled] suspending campaigning following tonight’s caucuses."
According to Breitbart:
"The calls were placed after the Carson campaign had already clarified that Carson was not suspending his campaign. ... [T]he Carson campaign had already clarified at 6:53 p.m. that he was not dropping out."
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