24 Days

95,000 Americans lose their jobs in September

The economy lost 95,000 jobs in September, and the national
unemployment rate remained steady at 9.6 percent, according to numbers released
by the U.S. Department of Labor on Friday, presenting Democrats with another
challenge in making their case to voters that they should remain in control of
Congress.

Friday's unemployment report is the last that will be released
before voters go to the polls on November 2 in midterm elections that will
widely be perceived as a referendum on President Obama's first two years in
office.

The economy lost 159,000 government jobs and added 64,000 private
sector jobs. Though the unemployment rate held at 9.6 percent, the job losses
were worse than expected.

This is not the message you wanted to hear if you are a democrat.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/10/08/final_unemployment_numbers_before_election_day_107488.html

CNN Poll: Was Bush better president than Obama?

(CNN) - Americans are divided over whether President Barack Obama or his
predecessor has performed better in the White House, according to a new national
poll.

And a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday also
indicates in the battle for Congress, Republicans hold large advantages over the
Democrats among independents, men and blue-collar whites. The poll also
indicates that Republicans are much more enthusiastic than Democrats to vote.

By 47 to 45 percent, Americans say Obama is a better president than
George W. Bush. But that two point margin is down from a 23 point advantage one
year ago.

"Democrats may want to think twice about bringing up former
President George W. Bush's name while campaigning this year," says CNN Polling
Director Keating Holland.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/08/cnntime-poll-was-bush-better-president-than-obama/

Another Reason the Democrats don’t deserve to retain control

For the first time since modern budgeting was introduced with the Budget Act
of 1974, the House failed to even write a budget. This in a
year of extraordinary deficits, rising uncertainty and jittery financial
markets. Gold is going through the roof. Confidence in the dollar and the
American economy is falling -- largely because of massive overhanging
debt. Yet no budget emerged from Congress to give guidance, let alone
reassurance, about future U.S. revenues and spending.

That's not all. Congress has not passed a single appropriations bill. To keep
the government going, Congress passed a so-called continuing resolution (CR)
before adjourning to campaign. The problem with continuing to spend at the
current level is that the last two years have seen a huge 28 percent jump in
non-defense discretionary spending. The CR continues this profligacy,
aggravating an already serious debt problem.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/07/AR2010100705106.html


The Elections: How Bad for Democrats?

Here’s an interesting if self serving look at what liberals think went wrong and continues to go wrong to the left.

How did things get this bad for Obama? The reasons are numerous. The
condition of the economy is of course the chief one. If the stimulus had kept
unemployment below 8 percent, as Christina Romer, recently departed chairwoman
of the Council of Economic Advisers, once promised it would, in one of the least
advisable public comments by any Obama administration official so far on any
subject, then discontent across the land would not be so great, and the bayings
of the furious Tea Party minority would likely not be resonating as they are. By
all accounts, top presidential economic advisers like Timothy Geithner and
Lawrence Summers (who will leave office at the end of the year) really did think
the economy was going to be in recovery by now. Had they been right, the
political prognosis for Democrats would consist of lost seats, but not on nearly
the scale predicted today…..

This is not the sort of thing that is
measured by polls, but I believe the Democrats’ hesitance to tie their programs
to larger beliefs has been demoralizing to liberals and confusing or off-putting
to independents. The impression is left with voters that Republicans are fighting for the country, while Democrats are fighting for their special
interests. The pre-presidential Obama powerfully made this kind
of broad, patriotic appeal, both at his 2004 convention keynote address and in
his stirring Jefferson-Jackson Day speech in Iowa in November 2007. But any
sense that the Democrats are now making a coherent argument about what kind of
country they want has vaporized. Underneath all the Democrats’ bickering about
such issues as health care and the performance of Tim Geithner, that is their
real problem.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/oct/28/elections-how-bad-democrats/


Rasmussen sees more Democrat seats in danger

With the Crystal Ball shifting 21 House race
ratings in the direction last week, the national picture looks bright for Republicans, both from a
birds-eye view and also from a race-by-race perspective. This week we nudge
three more Democratic-held House seats into more competitive categories, as we
hone in on where exactly the GOP gains we have long projected will come from.

Democrat need to defend what has been their territory

Republican advances in traditionally
Democratic states, including Connecticut, Oregon and Washington,
may not translate into a wave of GOP victories. But they have rattled local
campaigns and forced the Democrats to shift
attention and money to races they didn't expect to be defending.

Rising sentiment against the party in power has washed ashore even in
coastal Oregon, where Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio won his 10th re-election two
years ago with 82% of the vote.
"I am having the same problem that Democrats
are having across the country, which is ennui," he said, noting that his
opponent's yard signs "are thick" across much of the district. Mr. DeFazio said
he is facing the fight of his political life.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575540300424055286.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop

Dumbing down of America—but it’s in a good cause.

Nearly half of American history teachers believe it is less
important that their students understand the common history, ideas, rights, and
responsibilities that tie the country together as Americans than that they learn
to celebrate the unique identities and experiences of its different ethnic,
religious, and immigrant groups.

Advocates of radical "social-justice"
multiculturalism in many university schools of education -- the places where
most K-12 teachers are trained -- continue to oppose assimilation with a
common culture while instead seeking to radically transform an
"oppressive" America.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/10/do_american_history_teachers_v.html

I find stories like this frightening. This might also explain the next story.

Ignorance and the New York Times

The people who run the New York Times, along with columnists like Paul
Krugman and Maureen Dowd, are so ill-informed and out of touch that their
efforts to tell the rest of us what to think grow more pitiful every day. This
is from today's NYT Corrections Section. The paper corrects a news story written
by a reporter who has no comprehension of the tax code, but nevertheless tried
to make a political point by implying that subchapter S corporations represent
some kind of tax dodge:

An article on Wednesday about the business
culture at the Tribune Company after its acquisition by Sam Zell referred
incorrectly to federal taxes on an S corporation, which Tribune became after the
deal. S corporations pay no federal taxes because shareholders are
responsible for all taxes; therefore, taxpayers do not become
"essentially silent partners in the deal."

So we have a NYTimes reporter seeing a conspiracy in the tax code that didn’t exist. But the fact checking editors didn’t seem to know better either.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/10/027404.php

Just for fun—Irony Alert

The American Postal Workers Union has extended its internal election after
thousands of ballots appeared to have gotten lost . . . in the mail.

The
union's election committee was supposed to be counting those ballots this week
in downtown Washington, D.C., following a tradition mail-in election. But the
union announced that only about 39,000 ballots were turned in -- and that "a
large number of union members had not received their ballots."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/10/07/postal-union-election-delayed-ballots-lost-mail/

A Republican Congress

Obamacare under a Republican Congress—what could they do?

From the Wall Street Journal, here's some of the things a Republican Congress could do about Healthcare.

Information is the key weapon. Republicans can use congressional hearings to explain what ObamaCare is doing to the economy and the health sector. Their strongest cases would be built around jobs, the cost of health care, and the rising deficit.

If evidence shows that looming mandates on employers are crippling job-creation, they should be repealed. If health costs are rising, as they inevitably will be, Congress needs to hold hearings to investigate the causes and explain why the offending taxes and regulations must be repealed.

Here are six key strategies that a Republican Congress could employ
to put on the brakes:

• Defund it. House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio has vowed to choke off funding for implementation of the legislation, starting with parts that are especially egregious such as the "army of new IRS agents" needed to police
compliance.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703649004575437271015655924.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Ugly report on existing home sales is latest setback for Democrats

Things aren't working out well for the Democrats as the midterm elections approach.

Democrats are finding little success in their nearly two-year campaign
to ease the nation’s housing woes.

Since coming into office, President Obama has undertaken a series
of policy initiatives intended to stabilize home prices, boost demand and reduce
foreclosures.

But a series of recent reports indicate those policies have not
stopped the precipitous decline in housing, which began well before the official
start of the recession in December 2007. The National Association of Realtors on Tuesday reported that existing home sales plunged 27.2 percent in July, hitting the lowest level in more than a decade.

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/801-economy/115641-brutal-housing-report-is-latest-setback-for-democrats

Yet another reason for Democrats to worry

A new survey by the Democratic-leaning firm Public Policy Polling finds that even in Illinois voters are by 40% to 26% less likely to support a
candidate if he or she has been endorsed by President Obama. "If his
support isn't an asset in his home state it's hard to imagine where it is," says
PPP head Tom Jensen……

Mr. Obama's sagging popularity is even following him to his favorite vacation spot on Martha's Vineyard this week. According to the Boston Globe, last year the island's largest T-shirt store sold 4,000 shirts that read, "I vacationed with Obama." This year, those shirts are being outsold by others that have former President Bush asking, "Miss me yet?"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703447004575449572520837524.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLESecond


Democrats privately fear House prospects worsening

Top Democrats are growing markedly more pessimistic about holding the
House, privately conceding that the summertime economic and political recovery
they were banking on will not likely materialize by Election Day. …..

A Democratic pollster working on several key races said, “The
reality is that [the House majority] is probably gone.” His data shows the Democrats’ problems are only getting worse. “It’s spreading,” the pollster said…

And before Tuesday night’s races, 15.4 million Republicans had
already voted in primaries, compared with 12 million Democrats who have turned
out for primaries so far in 2010.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/41469.html#ixzz0xhkrD2ek

Even Letterman appears to be abandoning ship

On CBS’ “The Late Show” Tuesday night, David Letterman took a jab at the president, saying: “He’ll have plenty of time for vacations after his one term is up.”

Iraqis say 'wrong time' for US withdrawal

Leftist like to remind us that you can’t impose democracy on people as they explain our need to leave Iraq (and Afghanistan). But a recent poll shows that the Iraqi people actually would like for us to stay a bit longer.

BAGHDAD (AFP) – A majority of Iraqis believe it was the wrong time for a major withdrawal of US combat troops, a poll said on Tuesday, with more than half also warning that it would have negative consequences.

When asked if it was the right time for American soldiers to leave -- the US military earlier confirmed troop numbers in Iraq had fallen under 50,000 for the first time -- 59.8 percent said no, compared to 39.5 percent who said yes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100824/wl_mideast_afp/iraqusmilitarypullout_20100824133725

Journolist and other news of the Day

Journalist and Palin

Journalist was a political forum for left wing journalist. It is now shut down, but we are finding out more and more about it and as we do it becomes more apparent that rather than simply a forum where journalist could share ideas, leads, etc. it acted as a if it were part of the Obama campaign staff.

In the hours after Sen. John McCain announced his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the last presidential race, members of an online forum called Journolist struggled to make sense of the pick. Many of them were liberal reporters, and in some cases their comments reflected a journalist’s instinct to figure out the meaning of a story.

But in many other exchanges, the Journolisters clearly had another, more partisan goal in mind: to formulate the most effective talking points in order to defeat Palin and McCain and help elect Barack Obama president. The tone was more campaign headquarters than newsroom.

http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/22/when-mccain-picked-palin-liberal-journalists-coordinated-the-best-line-of-attack/#ixzz0uPdUUmID

Journalist and Palin part 2

Here are a few more specifics we are finding out.

Suzanne Nossel, chief of operations for Human Rights Watch, added a novel
take: “I think it is and can be spun as a profoundly sexist pick. Women should feel umbrage at the idea that their votes can be attracted just by putting a
woman, any woman, on the ticket no matter her qualifications or views.”

Mother Jones’s Stein loved the idea. “That’s excellent! If enough people
– people on this list? – write that the pick is sexist, you’ll have the networks
debating it for days. And that negates the SINGLE thing Palin brings to the ticket,” he wrote. . . .

Time’s Joe Klein then linked to his own piece, parts of which he acknowledged came from strategy sessions on Journolist. “Here’s my attempt to incorporate the accumulated wisdom of this august list-serve community,” he wrote. And indeed Klein’s article contained arguments developed by his fellow Journolisters.

http://volokh.com/2010/07/22/latest-journolist-revelations-attacks-on-palin/

More Bad News if your are a Incumbent and it's even worse if you are an incumbent and in control

Underscoring Congress' image problem, half of Americans now say they
have "very little" or no confidence in Congress, up from 38% in 2009 --
and the highest for any institution since Gallup first asked this
question in 1973. Previous near-50% readings include 48% found for the
presidency in 2008, and 49% for the criminal justice system in 1994.

http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2010/07/congressional-approval-at-historic-low.html

So this Democrat congress has less confidence in it than the Bush administration did as it left office.

Fortunately for Obama there are no Mulligans in elections

The Democrat strategy of trying to "blame Bush" won't work for a number of reasons, but the biggests reason is that the people think Obama should have done a better job. Having spent in less than two years $3 trillion more than he had, Americans are rethinking the whole "hope and change" thing.

Democrats will be gulping this morning at the Quinnipiac Poll’s latest
results. For the first time in the survey’s history, Americans believe by a 48%
to 40% margin that President Obama doesn’t deserve re-election. Almost as stinging, a plurality believe the country would have been better off if John McCain had beaten Mr. Obama in 2008.

http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/22/plurality-of-voters-believe-the-country-would-have-been-better-off-if-john-mccain-had-beaten-mr-obama-in-2008/#ixzz0uPhCMjEm

Racism?

With all the noise about Shirley Sherrod, you might not have seen this. It appears race and gender were factors used by the government in deciding which dealerships to shut down when they took over GM and Chrysler.

Decisions on which car dealerships to close as part of the auto industry
bailout -- closures the Obama administration forced on General Motors and
Chrysler -- were based in part on race and gender, according to a report by
Troubled Asset Relief Program Special Inspector General Neal M. Barofsky.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/07/race_played_role_in_obama_car.html

It appears post racial as practiced by the Obama Administration means discriminating against a different racial and gender groups.

Question of the Day

Are Colorado Residents Racists?

A new poll by Rasmussen shows that 55% of Colorado residents favor an immigration law like Arizona's while 35% oppose such a law. How can that be when you hear so much in the media about how racists this is. Actually, Colorado's 55% is lower than the National average of 59% who favor such a law.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_state_surveys/colorado/55_of_colorado_voters_favor_immigration_law_like_arizona_s

The full court press you are seeing by the liberal establishment to me is a farce. The Phoenix Suns changed their jersey on Cinco de Mayo to Los Suns. To begin with if they really wanted to change their name to support Mexicans, they should have chosen "Los Soles." And since they objected to requiring people to come into the country "legally" couldn't they have shown their support by openning their gates that night and not collecting any tickets? Of course if you PAID for a ticket, you might be a bit upset.

Many years ago, I was living in Cincinnati Ohio and needed to go into town for something. I found a place to park on the street. When I got back to my car I still had 10 minutes on the meter but I had a ticket on the car. It seems there was no parking after 4 PM and instead of a $10 ticket, it was a $40 ticket. I hadn't seen the sign and was upset with myself.

I paid the ticket which was a lot of money back then. The day after I paid the ticket there was an article in the paper saying "no one" pays these tickets. I felt like a fool.

In essence this is what the left is telling all the people who immigrate legally to the US. They are saying to them, only fools do it the right way. Come on in illegally and we will ignore it.

I'm getting tired to the left playing us all for fools. They seem to want to pick and chose the laws they want to enforce and they want to do it in a morally superior fashion.

The problem we have is not Arizona's new law. The problem we have is that neither political party seems to have the guts to either enforce the laws we have on the books or change them. It is time for a change in congress.