Obama's Etch-A-Sketch

Via RedPlantetCartoons

GOP Majority Leader Working With Dems to Defeat Conservatives

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is recruiting Democrats to help him defeat a conservative running for the U.S. Senate from Indiana:

The Young Guns Network, a group affiliated with House Republican majority leader Eric Cantor, is encouraging Democrats in Indiana to vote in the May 8 GOP primary for incumbent senator Dick Lugar. Politico's Maggie Haberman first reported that the YG Network has been sending mailers to Indiana voters reminding Democrats and independents that they can register to vote in the open primary and encouraging those folks to vote for Lugar and against his conservative challenger, Richard Mourdock...

...the rest of the mailing criticizes Mourdock's conservative views on eliminating federal education spending and says the choice is "between extreme cuts and mainstream Indiana leadership"

The GOP's new "big tent" philosophy: Big enough to include borrow-and-waste Dems, small enough to keep conservatives out.

Contact Eric Cantor and his "Young Guns Network" via email and on Facebook and Twitter:

Email: info@ygnetwork.org

Facebook: YG Action Fund

Twitter: @EricCantor

Twitter: @GOPLeader

Web: GOP Young Guns

More:

• Unreal. Majority Leader Eric Cantor went way over the line.

• The Ultimate Treachery

• Tell Eric Cantor to Stay Out of Indiana.

• Tell the Young Guns to stop aiming at Mourdock.

• $100,000 could go a long way to supporting a Republican against a Democrat this year in a competitive House race. Is helping a six-term Senate incumbent who's not so conservative try to beat back a conservative primary challenge by someone who would hold the Senate seat for the GOP really the best use of that money?

• Eric Cantor is encouraging Democrats in Indiana to vote in the May 8 GOP primary.

• ...a group dedicated to supporting HOUSE candidates, have you noticed that Lugar is in the Senate?

Conservatives Are Their Enemies: Example #104,628

The Republican "Young Guns" of the U.S. House of Representatives are spending beaucoup bucks to help an octogenarian Senate RINO fight a losing battle against a conservative challenger:

"Young Guns ... was designed to help leaders like Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy chart a new course for the center-right movement and the House majority,” Young Guns Action Fund super PAC founder John Murray has said. It's not clear how this donation to Lugar furthers that cause. And it's not clear why Young Guns is meddling in a GOP Senate primary. Indeed, Mike Pence, another young gun-type House member who's now running for Indiana governor, has conspicuously failed to endorse Lugar for reelection.

More important: $100,000 could go a long way to supporting a Republican against a Democrat this year in a competitive House race. Is helping a six-term Senate incumbent who's not so conservative try to beat back a conservative primary challenge by someone who would hold the Senate seat for the GOP really the best use of that money?

This would be hard to understand if you didn't know that Republicans hate conservatives.

Racist Interest Rates?

A short conversation with an Obama-bot educator:

@LakiaMScott @BarackObama Make everybody else pay for your bad borrowing decisions? How is that fair?

— RightKlik (@RightKlik) April 25, 2012

@LakiaMScott That's a nice sentiment, but there's no such thing as a free lunch

— RightKlik (@RightKlik) April 25, 2012

I did my very best to ignore and deflect a racialist implication...

@LakiaMScott Eurocentric thought? How did Europe work its way into this topic?

— RightKlik (@RightKlik) April 25, 2012

@LakiaMScott No, you can explain what you mean by "Eurocentrism" & how Eurocentrism has anything to do with interest on student loans in USA

— RightKlik (@RightKlik) April 25, 2012

Could she give me a straight answer?

No she could not!

Speaking of "Eurocentric thinking," here's an endorsement of some dead white Europeans:

I'm so inspired by President Obama's address. I also see social theories at work! @CHANGEducation did you notice Marxism, Durkheim, & Weber?

— Lakia Scott (@LakiaMScott) January 25, 2012

So much irony, so little hope for Lakia's students...

Lakia Scott

Graduate Assistant

Department: Middle, Secondary and K-12 Education

lscott33@uncc.edu

Lakia M. Scott is an urban education doctoral student in the Department of Middle, Secondary, and K-12 Education in the College of Education at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Lakia serves the Urban Education Collaborative by assisting with the procurement and implementation of grant funding and serving as a point of contact for the Scholarly Lecture Series. Having obtained her Bachelor’s (Texas Southern University) in Journalism, she continued on to receive her Master’s (Prairie View A&M University) in Curriculum & Instruction with special emphasis in Reading. Lakia also serves as the Editor for the Urban Education Research & Policy Annuals, a graduate student journal that seeks to elaborate on relevant issues and implications in the field of Urban Education. Her current research interests include: urban literacy, technology and accessibility for urban student populations, and charter school environments as an educational equalizer for vulnerable populations.

Coco, Steel & Lovebomb - Yachts

With Age Comes Wisdom

Gallup

The Tea Party is Not Dead

TEA! Temecula

X-Posted from the Left Coast Rebel

According to Politico, Republican party power-mongers seems to think that the Tea Party is dead.

I think the death of the Tea Party is highly exaggerated.

Many are tired and dispirited. Most Tea Partiers have simply moved into underground Sons of Liberty liberty watch-guards.

Instead of orchestrating historic national protests, they are in one way or another changing the nation from within the political system.

One can argue that the system is so beyond hope and repair that it cannot even be saved at this point.

But, like it or not, that's the now-somewhat underground position the Tea Party has naturally transitioned into.

From Politico....

Bad:

GOP elders sympathize with the movement’s ideas and want to channel whatever energy the decentralized groups offer for November. But when asked about the tea-party’s influence in interviews here, the movement was always spoken of in the third person and as one constituency in the larger Republican coalition, sort of like defense hawks or fiscal conservatives. Many Republicans here said that tea-party activists now understand that things will run more smoothly if those with experience are in charge rather than those who put a premium on ideology over process.“The important thing for any group in the party to understand…is that you need experience to govern,” said New Hampshire Republican Chairman Wayne MacDonald. “Everybody has to start somewhere. It’s just important they learn the mechanics of how the party operates…It doesn’t mean new ideas aren’t welcome.”

(SNIP)

The tea party movement’s influence has waned everywhere since its apex in 2010. Most visibly, the Republican Party is poised to nominate the most pragmatic of the men who ran for president this cycle even though many tea-party groups vocally opposed him during the primary. Indeed, Mitt Romney received a coronation of sorts at a unity lunch here Friday, soaking up standing ovations and basking in blessings from 2008 rival Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Good:

In fact, libertarian supporters of Ron Paul made more successful inroads into the party organization in 2012. A.J. Spiker, the vice chairman of Ron Paul’s Iowa campaign, became state party chairman in February. James Smack, a vocal 2008 Paul supporter Nevada, got elevated from vice chair to acting state chair in February after Amy Tarkanian resigned to help her husband run for Congress. Now he’s challenging former Nevada Gov. Bob List for Nevada’s committeeman slot at next month’s state convention. Morton Blackwell, the longtime national committeeman representing Virginia, believes it’s only a matter of time before tea-party activists end up in the highest echelons of the party. But when they do, he doesn’t think they’ll be thought of as tea partiers.

Exit question: If the Tea Party is dead -- as many power-broking GOP honchos insist -- then why, as of yesterday, is progressive-statist three-decade-serving Utah Senator Orrin Hatch fighting for his political life?

Hmm?

Updated: The Tea Party is dead! Or is it?

Check out former Commmunist sympathizer David "comb-over" Axelrod's ridiculous statement today on the Tea Party's congressional "reign of terror." That's some pretty violent imagery from the White House Occupier's chief campaign adviser, no?

Added (by RightKlik): While we all know that the Tea Party is practically dead, we also know that the Tea Party is actively destroying the GOP (and the entire country) with its radical extremism. It works both ways like that.

Liberal New York Times: Orrin Hatch is Too Liberal for Utah

To those who say Orrin Hatch is "conservative enough," here's a little reminder. This is from Nate Silver (not a conservative) at the New York Times (not a conservative publication):

...the dashed line represents how conservative we would expect a Republican senator to be, based on the partisan composition of her state. The further below the dashed line that the senator appears, the more liberal he or she is, relative to the state. Those far below the line, from a Republican point of view, are arguably not pulling their weight.

Five Republicans stand out as being especially far below the line — that is, they are more liberal than you would typically expect a Republican from their state to be. The list includes George V. Voinovich of Ohio, who is retiring, and Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, along with Mr. Hatch. And, sure enough, we also see Ms. Murkowski and Mr. Bennett.

Details on the numbers are here.

Silver wrote what I quoted above back in September of 2010.

Subsequently, conservitive Mike Lee (R) displaced liberal Republican Bob Bennett and liberal George Voinovich (R) retired and made way for conservative Rob Portman (R). Liberal Republican Olympia Snowe is retiring this year. Liberal Lisa Murkowski lost the GOP primary in 2010 to a conservative (but with the help and encouragement of -- drum roll --- liberal Republican Orrin Hatch, she went on to win in the general election as a write-in candidate ).

Now Richard Lugar is in trouble (update, 5.8.12: he's out) and Orrin Hatch is feeling the heat.

Hatch will now face a June 26 primary election against a conservative -- state Sen. Dan Liljenquist.

I leave you with a quote:

"What do you call a Senator who's served in office for 18 years? You call him home."

— Orrin Hatch, 1976 (Orrin has been in the U.S. Senate now for 36 years.)

Hatch Blocked (For Now)

Doggone Offended? Credit: Gage Skidmore

X-posted from the Left Coast Rebel

Good news regarding Utah's 36-year progressive Republican Orrin Hatch over at Memeorandum, via today's Washington Post:

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch will face off against conservative former state Sen. Dan Liljenquist in a June primary after the six-term incumbent failed to win 60 percent of the vote at the state Republican convention on Saturday. Hatch took 57 percent on the first ballot and then 59 percent on a second ballot, one on one fight against Liljenquist. Hatch needed to win 60 percent of the vote to avoid a June 26 primary.

Hatch forces had hoped to win the nomination outright on Saturday. He came up short on that goal. But, Hatch did avoid the fate of Sen. Bob Bennett (R), who two years ago lost his bid for reelection when he finished third at the state party convention amid deep discontent directed at him from conservatives.

Previously at the Left Coast Rebel:

• Orrin Hatch's anti-Constitutional progressive record.
• Orrin Hatch is "doggone offended" by Tea Partiers and libertarians within the GOP!
• Hatch loathes tea party conservatives.
  

If you're a liberal, statist or progressive Kool-Aid drinker, what's not to like about Orrin Hatch?

Could Dan Liljenquist be the next Rand Paul or Mike Lee?

Dan Liljenquist for the United State Senate?

Updated: Malkin has more, including a lot more info on Liljenquist.

Added: Donate to Dan Liljenquist HERE.

*The runoff election will be on June 26.

Instapundit: "TEA PARTY FORCES ORRIN HATCH INTO PRIMARY. That’s huge..."

Don't Bite The Constitution That Feeds You

George Will:

The Constitution is a companion of the Declaration of Independence and should be construed as an implementation of the Declaration’s premises, which include: Government exists not to confer rights but to “secure” preexisting rights; the fundamental rights concern the liberty of individuals, not the prerogatives of the collectivity — least of all when it acts to the detriment of individual liberty...

Wilkinson worries about judges causing “an ever-increasing displacement of democracy.” Also worrisome, however, is the displacement of liberty by democracy in the form of majorities indifferent or hostile to what the Declaration decrees — a spacious sphere of individual sovereignty.

While our statist tormentors in Washington seem to think that it's to their advantage to ignore our founding documents, these power gluttons have apparently lost sight of the fact that the U.S. Constitution is the very reservoir from which they draw their borrowed power.

Thus, a Supreme Court justice (or a congressman or a president) who undermines the U.S. Constitution undermines the source of his own authority.

Isn't that ironic?

Obama Loves All of God's Creatures

With Lolo, I learned how to eat small green chill peppers raw with dinner (plenty of rice), and, away from the dinner table, I was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper (crunchy). Like many Indonesians, Lolo followed a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths. He explained that a man took on the powers of whatever he ate: One day soon, he promised, he would bring home a piece of tiger meat for us to share.

Back-story: James Taranto (emphasis added)

Colombian Prostitutes

Hat tip: William Jacobson, via David Burge

Primarying Utah's Progressive Republican, 36-Year Senator Orrin Hatch

Cross-posted from the Left Coast Rebel

Gage Skidmore

"He's been there a long time, and with that length in service comes a lengthy record of expanding the scope and size of government."

-- Russ Walker, FreedomWorks to NPR April 12, 2012

Senator Hatch’s record includes the following (hat-tip Club for Growth):

• Voted YES on TARP (RCV #213, 2008)

• Voted YES to increase the debt limit at least five times (RCV #354, 2007; RCV #54, 2006; RCV #213, 2004; RCV #202, 2003; RCV #148, 2002)

• Voted YES to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (RCV #157, 2008)

• Voted YES on SCHIP (RCV #353, 2007) • Voted NO on defunding the Bridge to Nowhere (RCV #262, 2005), and supported billions of dollars in other wasteful earmark spending.

• Voted YES on the Medicare drug benefit (RCV #459, 2003)

• Voted YES on No Child Left Behind (RCV #371, 2001)

In 2009 Hatch also called Obama's budget "reckless" yet he joined a dozen or so of the GOP's most liberal senators in voting for the corresponding Obama budget appropriation bills.

Yah, this guy deserves to be out of a job...

Orrin Hatch embodies the worst things the Republican party represents: cronyism and backdoor deals, big government just slightly to the right of the Democrat agenda, and -- perhaps the worst -- a feigning mentality of elitism and power entitlement. The guy's been in Congress for 36 years!

Utah: You did it right last round with RINO Bob Bennet -- It's time to primary progressive Republican senator Orrin Hatch at your May, 2012 state convention.

Hatch's chief primary challenger at this point (4/14/2012) is a fella named Dan Liljenquist. FreedomWorks is supporting him but beyond that, I know nothing about him although I found this morning that the lamestream press has been spreading a Liljenquist can't win meme for a while now. More on Liljenquist later either per LCR or RightKlik.

Hilary vs Hillary

Hat tip: DarkStar58

Quote of The Day: Romney or Obama?

It's Romney or Obama. Take your pick:

ABO.

At least Romney isn’t Obama and can be pressured into doing some of the right things. No hope for Barry, he’s rotten to the core.

As bad as Mitt Romney is, can anyone say that he'd be worse than Obama?

Update: I know conservatives are supposed to fall in line for Romney now that he's truly the inevitable nominee, but I cannot lie. To paraphrase a great leader, I'm not willing to light my pants on fire to try and get support for Mitt Romney. I am who I am...

As a conservative, I can't pretend to be keen on what Romney is selling.

This article is a few weeks old now, but I think it provides a timeless lesson on the folly of the rudderless, unpricipled "compromise" (and the rigidity and intolerance) of the standard moderate.

Update II: Another oldie but goodie: On conservative compromise, via Peggy Noonan, a yardstick metaphor...

Imagine that over at the 36-inch end you’ve got pure liberal thinking—more and larger government programs, a bigger government that costs more in the many ways that cost can be calculated. Over at the other end you’ve got conservative thinking—a government that is growing smaller and less demanding and is less expensive. You assume that when the two major parties are negotiating bills in Washington, they sort of lay down the yardstick and begin negotiations at the 18-inch line. Each party pulls in the direction it wants, and the dominant party moves the government a few inches in their direction.

But if you look at the past half century or so you have to think: How come even when Republicans are in charge, even when they’re dominant, government has always gotten larger and more expensive? It’s always grown! It’s as if something inexorable in our political reality—with those who think in liberal terms dominating the establishment, the media, the academy—has always tilted the starting point in negotiations away from 18 inches, and always toward liberalism, toward the 36-inch point.

Democrats on the Hill or in the White House try to pull it up to 30, Republicans try to pull it back to 25. A deal is struck at 28. Washington Republicans call it victory: “Hey, it coulda been 29!” But regular conservative-minded or Republican voters see yet another loss. They could live with 18. They’d like eight. Instead it’s 28.

For conservatives on the ground, it has often felt as if Democrats (and moderate Republicans) were always saying, “We should spend a trillion dollars,” and the Republican Party would respond, “No, too costly. How about $700 billion?” Conservatives on the ground are thinking, “How about nothing? How about we don’t spend more money but finally start cutting.”

Read the rest.

Obama's Question of the Day: What's Romney Hiding?

Barack Obama's question of the day: What's Romney hiding?

So what's Romney hiding? Tweet @MittRomney to demand he release his tax returns. #WhatsRomneyHiding

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 5, 2012

The answers:

#WhatsRomneyHiding Transmissions to Vladimir.

— Jenn Taylor (@JennQPublic) April 6, 2012

#WhatsRomneyHiding @mittromney is hiding a budget that the Democrats want to pass!

— Amy Kremer (@AmyKremer) April 6, 2012

His long friendship with murderous radical Bill Ayers? #WhatsRomneyHiding #OhWait

— Neocon Blonde (@NeoconBlonde) April 6, 2012

An explanation of how raising taxes on oil companies will lower gas prices #WhatsRomneyHiding @BarackObama

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 5, 2012

#WhatsRomneyHiding 1.2 million people that disappeared from the workforce a few months ago? #ohwait

— Alex P Keaton (@I_Hate_Hippies) April 6, 2012

#WhatsRomneyHiding not nearly as much as Obama, but he doesn't have a lapdog media to protect him

— E R I C(@EMcLean1982) April 6, 2012

#WhatsRomneyHiding the ATM's that stole all the jobs

— Teresa(@Herfarm) April 6, 2012

#WhatsRomneyHiding the secret to using the Commerce Clause to turn lead into gold

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) April 6, 2012

#WhatsRomneyHiding The person who refuses to let Obama be clear

— DrewM (@DrewMTips) April 6, 2012

#racist RT @snarkandboobs: #WhatsRomneyHiding A stash of 'Nilla Wafers.

— Tabitha Hale (@TabithaHale) April 6, 2012

Obama's college records? #whatsromneyhiding

— Ken Gardner (@kesgardner) April 6, 2012

#whatsromneyhiding the fact that he is a student of critical race theory? Or is that Obama.....?

— Adam Ebberts (@OklahomaAdam) April 6, 2012

#WhatsRomneyHiding that he knows what unprecedented means

— Sam Adams (@SamAdamsTPP) April 6, 2012

RT @gregb94 " #WhatsRomneyHiding: Season 2 of #Firefly"

— Adam Baldwin (@adamsbaldwin) April 6, 2012

#WhatsRomneyHiding He knows what Obama is smoking.

— Sam Adams (@SamAdamsTPP) April 6, 2012

He's richer than Obama because he actually understands how capitalism works #WhatsRomneyHiding

— RightKlik (@RightKlik) April 6, 2012

The secret to that great hair. #WhatsRomneyHiding

— Kevin (@keder) April 5, 2012

His phone number is 8675309#WhatsRomneyHiding

— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) April 5, 2012

I'm so old I remember when incumbent Presidents would tout their record instead of creating stupid hashtags. #WhatsRomneyHiding

— Kevin (@keder) April 5, 2012

WHAT'S OBAMA HIDING?

#WhatsObamaHiding I don't know, ask Vladimir #p2

— Red (@red_red_head) April 6, 2012

The scalpal he was going to take to the budget. #whatsobamahiding

— David Hammons (@MoparsRule) April 6, 2012

#WhatsObamaHiding all those shovel-ready jobs he promised. Also, the 6% unemployment he promised. #p2

— Kevin (@keder) April 6, 2012

#WhatsObamaHiding: lots of dead Mexicans. #latism #FastAndFurious

— el SOOPer (@SooperMexican) April 6, 2012

#WhatsObamaHiding The 7 additional States

— Love USA (@ILuvUSA) April 6, 2012

#WhatsObamaHiding Austrian language translation book

— Teresa(@Herfarm) April 6, 2012

Quote of the Day: Judicial Activism Redefined

Via P&P:

I'll reiterate for you that [Obama] has totally incorrectly defined judicial activism. Nobody ever accuses judges of judicial activism for following the Constitution. Judicial activism is when judges do not follow the Constitution, when they legislate from the bench, when they write their own law.

Don't let the left redefine judicial activism, turning the definition inside out.

Bonus quote via Protein Wisdom:

...if a “do nothing Congress” is one that refuses to rubber-stamp Obama’s policy dictates, and an “activist judiciary” is one that refuses to rubber-stamp legislation passed by a partisan, supermajority Democrat Congress, why don’t we simply just cut out all the overlap and go right to a dictatorship?