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Daily Kos by Diary Rescue 2 Sep 2010 at 11:16pm Tonight's Diary Rescue comes to you courtesy of the hard work and diligence of the following Rescue Rangers: Louisiana1976, ItsJessMe, YatPundit, sunspark says and srkp23. dadanation is thought to have done double duty both rescuing and editing, but we all have our doubts... thE rescueD diarieS Young diarist Earley Post tells us that regarding corporate influence in politics, "What if...'" iis the Wrong Question. (Louisiana 1976)amybdean graces us with an eloquent essay steeped in memory all the while looking towards the future: Labor Day’s Legacy: A More Inclusive America. (dadanation) Ojibwa keeps on teaching: Indians 101: The Tuscarora & the Iroquois League. (srkp23) faithfull brings to light a most unsettling reality in West Virginia due to Nike in Mountaintop Removal - JUST DO IT! (dadanation) americandad provides a Wisconsin congressman with a Wisconsin (and American) history lesson in May God smite us with Rep. Paul Ryan's "cancer"! (sunspark says)
thE usuaL suspectS jotter has High Impact Diaries: September 1, 2010. sardonyx brings us tonight's Top Comments: Blameless Edition. thE requisitE disclaimeR Please use this as an Open Thread as well as your chance to promote your favorite diaries of the day. Respectful engagement is most welcome here. Please keep in mind that each Diary Rescue's daily purview extends from 3pm PST yesterday to 3pm PST today
by Steve Singiser 2 Sep 2010 at 10:46pm There is a lot of polling in the Thursday edition of the Wrap, and little-to-none of it is bound to make Democrats terribly optimistic about the direction in which the 2010 election cycle is heading. Sure, a lot of the less-than-charitable data comes from partisan sources. But even a couple of independent sources come up with data that shows Democrats in considerably bleaker positions than earlier data would seem to indicate. That warning offered in advance, let's trudge forward with the Thursday edition of the Wrap.... THE U.S. SENATE FL-Sen: Crist internal gives him (narrow lead), as he gains Dem nod KY-Sen: New Braun Research poll puts Paul back in the lead NY-Sen: Primary poll puts undecided in the lead...by a lot OH-Sen: PPP poll gives Portman a solid edge over Fisher THE U.S. HOUSE IA-03: Boswell gets key endorsement as Dems hammer Zaun NY-23: Hoffman vows to fight until November PA-12: GOP internal predicts GOP to snag Murtha seat in November VA-05: The ugliest poll on Earth just got...uglier RACE FOR THE HOUSE: Ayers McHenry heads west, and the ugly continues AZ-01: Paul Gosar (R) 47%, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D) 41% THE GUBERNATORIAL RACES FL-Gov: Scott selects running mate for November MD-Gov: Dems pounce on Ehrlich union endorsement NY-Gov: Republican primary poll shows race still in the air OR-Gov: Labor comes in big for Democrat John Kitzhaber TX-Gov: Even GOP internal polls have Perry sitting at 50% THE RAS-A-POLL-OOZA Not a ton of data from the House of Ras today, but it joins the rest of the numbers from their day in that unremittingly negative tone. Team Ras-sie put both Rick Scott (FL-Gov) and Dino Rossi (WA-Sen) out in front today. The only poll that can come close to being construed as positive for Dems is the relatively small lead for GOP incumbent Sean Parnell in Alaska. AK-Gov: Gov. Sean Parnell (R) 53%, Ethan Berkowitz (D) 43%
by Chris Bowers 2 Sep 2010 at 10:00pm After a two-week absence, the Senate Snapshot is back. The charts are a lot cooler, but the news is grim: Senate Snapshot, September 2nd, With Rasmussen Polls Thanks to user Dbug, the snapshot now comes with a chart displaying the odds of each possible seat outcome:
The chances of 50 and 51 Democratic seats are almost identical, with 50 Democratic seats slightly more likely (and those totals include Sanders and Lieberman). Republicans have an 18.7% of taking control of the chamber. Senate Snapshot, September 2nd, Without Rasmussen Polls Without Rasmussen polls included in the averages, the picture is not much better. In fact, it is only about as good as the snapshot was one month ago, with Rasmussen polling included. A narrow Democratic majority of 52 seats is the most likely outcome:
Looking desperately for good news' President Obama's job approval is back in positive territory, according to Gallup. If the situation is going to turn around for Democrats, that positive trend will have to be more than a blip. Notes --If a campaign isn't listed here, then it is not currently as close as any of the campaigns listed here. --Charlie Crist's chances of victory are not included in the overall Democratic, or Republican, chances of victory. --A * indicates that the candidate has a primary challenger, but is the favorite to win the nomination. --All polls used in the averages are taken from Pollster.com. --A complete description of the methodology behind this forecast, along with all the research and a FAQ, can be found here.
by Joan McCarter 2 Sep 2010 at 9:10pm Add VoteVets to the growing list of organizations calling for Simpson's ouster from the catfood commission. You'll recall that this week Simpson aimed his fire at disabled veterans who are "not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess." See, the benefits they receive in return for having sacrificed their health to defend the country cost too much. One veterans' group, VoteVets, is demanding Simpson's removal on behalf of the millions of veterans who receive Social Security and the millions of disabled vets Simpson blames for the deficit. Via e-mail: Washington DC – The nation’s largest progressive veterans organization, VoteVets.org, is calling on President Obama to relieve former Senator Alan Simpson from his chairmanship of a deficit reduction commission for defamatory comments about veterans. In a letter to the President, Jon Soltz, Iraq War Veteran and Chairman of VoteVets.org, wrote, "On Tuesday, Senator Simpson actually put veteran's benefits on the chopping block... blaming disabled veterans for the country's fiscal situation. And for us, that is the final straw." Soltz says, "President Obama, this week you called for all Americans to honor and thank our troops. I know you agree that honoring our troops can't just be lip service. And the best way to honor those who serve our country is to make sure that we take care of them once they return home. That means strengthening the vital programs we rely on, including Social Security and veterans' health care, not undermining them as Senator Simpson seems intent on doing." The full letter is below the fold.
by kos 2 Sep 2010 at 8:26pm Again, facts get in the way of scary wingnut hate rhetoric. The number of illegal immigrants entering the United States has plunged by almost two-thirds in the past decade, a dramatic shift after years of growth in the population, according to a new report by the Pew Hispanic Center. Between 2000 and 2005, an average of 850,000 people a year entered the United States without authorization, according to the report released Wednesday. As the economy plunged into recession between 2007 and 2009, that number fell to 300,000. Undocumented immigration is not on the rise. Crime is not up in border areas. Immigrants do not fuel what crime exists. Dishwashers and landscapers have nothing to do with the drug cartels. Etc. The entire xenophobic case is built on a foundation of lies and fear mongering.
by kos 2 Sep 2010 at 7:40pm Nothing is more important to Republican politicians these days than jobs and the deficit—at least according to Republican politicians. As House Minority Leader John Boehner put it in a "major economic address" on Tuesday, President Obama is "doing everything possible to prevent jobs from being created" while refusing to do anything at all "about bringing down the deficits that threaten our economy." Elect Republicans in November, Boehner assured his audience, and we will put an end to this insanity. There's only one problem with Boehner's message: so far, the things that Republicans have said they want to do won't actually boost employment or reduce deficits. In fact, much the opposite. By combing through a variety of studies and projections from nonpartisan economic sources, we here at Gaggle headquarters have found that if Republicans were in charge from January 2009 onward—and if they were now given carte blanche to enact the proposals they want to—the projected 2010–2020 deficits would be larger than they are under Obama, and fewer people would probably be employed. Follow the link to the math, but the synopsis is this -- the stimulus created or saved between 1.4 and 3.3 million jobs. While the health care reform bill and letting tax cuts lapse for the wealthiest Americans actually lower the deficit. Republicans opposed all those things, hence, we'd have fewer people employed, and we'd be suffering from even higher deficits. Not that Republicans care. All the talk about "deficits" is empty rhetoric. It's time Republican candidates are pressed on exactly how they'll balance the budget. Because given the reality of their proposals (like Boehner's), it's clear the math simply doesn't add up.
by Barbara Morrill 2 Sep 2010 at 7:02pm
by Joan McCarter 2 Sep 2010 at 6:20pm House Democrats, led by Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Raul Grijalva, are pledging to stand against any recommendation from the catfood commission to cut Social Security. In a letter obtained by TPM's Brian Beutler, they write: We write today to express our strong support for Social Security and our view that it should be strengthened. We oppose any cuts to Social Security benefits, including raising the retirement age. We also oppose any effort to privatize Social Security, in whole or in part. You have charged the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform with proposing recommendations that improve the long-term fiscal outlook and address the growth of entitlement spending. It is our view that Social Security--which is prohibited by law from adding to the national budget deficit--does not belong as part of those recommendations.... If any of the Commission's recommendations cut or diminish Social Security in any way, we will stand firmly against them. We urge you to join us in protecting and strengthening Social Security rather than letting it fall victim to a misguided attempt to reduce budget deficits on the backs of working families. The full text of the letter is below the fold. The original co-signers of the letter are Grijalva, John Conyers (D-MI), Dan Maffei (D-NY), Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), and CPC co-chair Lynn Woolsey (D-CA). Beutler reports that "Democrats and advocates are rounding up signers, and will deliver the letter to Obama once the numbers climb, likely after Congress returns later this month." As Beutler notes, the CPC has drawn such lines in the sand previously, most notably with the public option in health reform. This time is different, though, in that it's not pushing uphill to establish a new policy but in defense of the most popular and effective long-standing programs in the nation's history, with a massive constituency, and it's probably not just going to be the CPC in this fight. If you have a Democratic representative, call (the Capitol Switchboard number is (202) 224-3121) or write and ask them to sign on to the letter.
by Joan McCarter 2 Sep 2010 at 5:36pm At the risk of sounding too shrill about the extremism of the Republicans nominated to run for Senate this year, let's take a look at Alaska's Joe Miller Washington (CNN) - Joe Miller calls President Obama "bad for America" and suggests he is leading the nation on a path to socialism. But the newly minted GOP Senate nominee from Alaska also has a message for the Republican Leadership. Not to mention unapologetic views on cutting federal spending and even possibly phasing out Social Security.... "There is an opportunity to lead this country out of the crisis its in and I believe the Republican Party is well suited to take up that mantle," Miller said in an interview for Wednesday's "John King, USA." which will air at 7pm. "The question is whether or not there's the courage and leadership in that party to seize the moment and to recognize that the only way out of this is to get out of the age of the entitlement state to return power back to the states and recognize that central government is broken and see what we can do about fixing things and getting the government focused on those areas the enumerated powers that it should be doing. And the Republican Party can do it but it does require courage." .... KING: "It is an issue that you well know can be easily demagogued, so I want to deliver a statement. You tell me if it's fair or not: That anybody in the [Social Security] system or close to the system is fine. We won't do anything significant to change your benefits. But how about an American born tomorrow or born the day after Joe Miller was sworn in in Washington' Would that person perhaps grow up in an America where there is not a federal Social Security program if you got your way' MILLER: "Absolutely." KING: "That's a fair statement'" MILLER: "No demagoguery there at all." Miller, like Rand Paul before he was advised to keep his mouth shut, is saying out loud what the Republican ethos is. Returning "power back to the states" and limiting the "central" government (with that hint of creeping socialism) to its "enumerated powers" is the quiet fight in which the Republicans have been engaged since the New Deal. When I wrote that post about Paul, I included this from a 2004 post by DavidNYC: I'm hardly the first person to make this point, but it's one that bears repeating: While conservatives are preparing to pack the Supreme Court and the rest of the federal judiciary with right-wing judges who will seek to overturn Roe v. Wade, their real aim is a stealth campaign against the New Deal interpretation of the Interstate Commerce Clause (ICC). Don't get me wrong: Roe and other hot-button social issues matter a great deal. But the power to destroy the ICC has much more far-reaching consequences.... Every time someone like this comes up for a nomination, we need to say that they want to make Social Security illegal. Not get rid of it - make it illegal. They want to make the minimum wage illegal. They want to make clean water laws illegal. This is not a mis-statement or exaggeration of their position. This is exactly what they propose. That was in the context of Supreme Court nominations, but it's what Joe Miller is articulating as the conservative governing philosophy.
by kos 2 Sep 2010 at 4:50pm Failure to act on Comprehensive Immigration Reform, despite overwhelming (and all-partisan) public support, isn't just bad policy, it's terrible politics for Democrats. More than a third of Latino voters blame both parties in Congress for not trying hard enough to pass immigration reform, and Latino enthusiasm for voting in this year's mid-term elections is down, a new poll shows. Those findings of an election-year tracking poll by Latino Decisions -- released this week and to be updated weekly -- underscore Latino voter dismay over the lack of progress on immigration, an issue that ranks second in importance to them, behind the economy, says one analyst. "They are frustrated with both parties, and it would appear from the goings-on in D.C. that they are right - both parties are ignoring or avoiding the issue," said Matt Barreto, director of the poll and a political science professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. The telephone poll of Latino registered voters in 21 states -- which comprised 94% of the Latino electorate in '08 -- was conducted from Aug. 13 to Aug. 26, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5%. Given that Latinos are now a 2-1 Democratic constituency, and a fast-growing one at that, the lack of action and anti-Democratic blowback will be deadly at the polls. Right now, most of the voters surveyed said they planned to vote Democratic. But a high percent remain uncommitted two months out, even though about 64% described themselves as Democrat, and only 24% said they were Republican. Still, right now, only 52% said they planned to vote for Democrats in the upcoming House and Senate races, 23% plan to vote Republican, and 25% say they remain undecided. Spanish-language media has been brutal against Obama and the Dems. They have pointed to the 60-vote Senate threshold as an excuse for inaction, but that has been an empty excuse. Had they put forward a bill, it would show a commitment to Latinos to the issue. And if it was defeated' So what' It would then be clear to Latinos who stood in the way of progress, and who was their real enemy. Dithering and inaction are the GOP's best friends. But here's the thing -- there are several Democrats who also didn't want to see this bill introduced. Whether it's genuine electoral fear (even though the issue polls at over 60% for Republicans, Democrats, and Independents), or whether it's substantive hostility toward reform, the fact is that both internal and external pressures paralyzed Dems on the issue. That weakness isn't going unnoticed by Latinos. And for a party struggling to survive what is shaping up to be a cataclysmic year, that inaction will only compound their problems.
by Joan McCarter 2 Sep 2010 at 4:10pm Via Armando, TIME magazine's Michael Scherer fires the first real salvo in the "it's the progressives fault" for the looming Dem disaster in November. In the section subtitled "The Overreach" (you didn't see that coming, right') he says: After a meeting in December 2008 about the severity of the economic crisis, Axelrod pulled Obama aside. He recalls saying, "Enjoy these great poll numbers you have, because two years from now, they are not going to look anything like this." But even as Obama aides were aware of a growing disconnect, it didn't seem to worry their boss. Instead, the ambitious legislative goals usually trumped other priorities. Both in the original stimulus package and then in the health care and energy measures, the White House ceded most of its clout to the liberal lions who controlled the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. That maneuver helped assure passage of reforms, but it also confirmed some of the worst fears about how Washington works. "I'd rather be a one-term President and do big things than a two-term President and just do small things," he told his team after Republican Scott Brown was elected Senator in liberal Massachusetts and some in the Administration suggested pulling back on health reform. Those "liberal lions" like Max Baucus who wrote most of the health insurance reform' Or Lindsey Graham who was a lead in the energy reform drafting, until he got into too much trouble with his base and left in a hissy fit' And as far as the stimulus goes, well, Krugman takes that one: The way the right wants to tell the story — and, I’m afraid, the way it will play in November — is that the Obama team went all out for Keynesian policies, and they failed. So back to supply-side economics! The point, of course, is that that is not at all what happened. A straight Keynesian analysis implied the need for a much bigger program, more oriented toward spending, than the administration proposed. And people like me said that at the time — we’re not talking about hindsight. It's obviously not just the way the right wants to tell the story--it's how the Village wants to tell the story. The evil liberals got their way and forced Obama to overreach on all these policies--never mind that there is no public option, that the energy bill is a shell of what it should have been to either address energy independence or climate change, and the stimulus was about half a billion less than most liberal economists (and WH advisor Christina Romer) thought was necessary and less than what the more liberal House wanted. One has the feeling that Michael Scherer wouldn't recognize a liberal lion if it bit him on the ass. Say what you will about the stimulus, health care reform, the as-of-yet unpassed energy reform bill, you can't say that they ended up looking like the proposals progressives put forward.
by Jed Lewison 2 Sep 2010 at 3:40pm NEW ORLEANS, La. – A mile-long oil sheen spread Thursday from an offshore petroleum platform burning in the Gulf of Mexico off Lousiana, west of the site of BP's massive spill. Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Coklough said the sheen, about 100 feet wide, was spotted near the platform owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy Inc. Information is still scarce, though the presence of the sheen does not necessarily indicate an ongoing leak. La. Gov. Bobby Jindal says that he's been told the well has been "shut in" which would suggest that no oil or gas should be flowing through it. If that's the case, the sheen could have come from a storage tank on the platform. According to an expert on CNN, the total spill from such a storage tank could be as many as 1,000 barrels, but unlike the BP disaster, would be finite -- assuming that the well is in fact shut in.
by kos 2 Sep 2010 at 3:00pm The Democratic generic ballot numbers may be plummeting, but Obama's are not. It's interesting. The media hyperventilates over any Gallup polling that finds the Democrats in despair. But when Gallup finds Barack Obama's approval rating jumping a net 12 percentage points in two and a half weeks, with more approving than disapproving for two straight days -- the first time that has been the case since mid-July -- all we hear is... crickets. Interesting. Well, Obama isn't on the ballot in November, most of Congress is. But still, this could be a green shoot. Glenn Beck's trouble with the truth. Out of 17 statements rated by PolitiFact, one was true, one was mostly true, the rest were bunk.In the meantime, we thought it would be timely to look at Beck's record on the Truth-O-Meter. As you can see from the running tally in his PolitiFact file, we've rated 17 statements by the Fox News talk show host. It's fair to say that record skews toward the False end of the Truth-O-Meter. His record (as of Aug. 27, 2010): True 1 A fire takes out all of Houston's voting machines, dealing a setback to Texas Democrats who have a legitimate shot at taking the governor's mansion. A mysterious fire last Friday destroys all of the voting machines in Harris County (Houston), Texas. Arson investigators have not yet issued an opinion. Meanwhile, a well-funded right-wing group emerges in Houston and begins raising unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud. A video on their website pictures only people of color when it talks of voter fraud. White people are shown talking patriotically about the need for a million vigilantes to suppress illegal votes. In the video, an unidentified spokesman for "TrueTheVote" says, "If we lose Houston, we lose Texas. And guess what' If we lose Texas we lose the country." The former Mayor of Houston, Democrat Bill White, is running against secessionist Republican Gov. Rick Perry this year. White's counting on a big turnout in his home town. The fire and the voter suppression campaign guarantee a greatly diminished turnout. Looking forward to the results of the arson investigation. Armando has more on weenie liberals and American Taliban. Tristero too.Maybe the right-wing will be so offended by [American Taliban], because it delivers the most potent insult – that they are not too different from their sworn enemies. It doesn’t take much to read about James Dobson’s obsession with sex to see parallels with how gays and single mothers are treated in the Arab world. Or when Dick Armey debated Joan Walsh on TV, and finally said he was glad not to be her husband so he wouldn’t have to "listen to that prattle" every day. Or the lengths that creationists go to deny the existence of evolution, which matches the anti-intellectual fervor we see in Islamic fundamentalist countries. Others have criticized American Taliban, because right-wing Republicans are not exactly like their Muslim counterparts. For example, they don’t stone gays to death – they just hate them. But that fundamentally misses Moulitsas’ point – it’s not that Jerry Falwell equates Osama bin Laden; it’s that they share the same world-view: a belief that puts women back in the kitchen, gays in the closet, believes war is righteous when God’s on our side, and believes in censoring books and movies that are "indecent." What the book exposes is the big right-wing Lie. Republicans say that Al Qaeda "hates our freedom" – but they seek to take away our very same "freedom" as well. For liberals who have endured McCarthy-ist character assassinations since 9/11 (because we "want the terrorists to win"), it is profoundly insulting when we unmask the Right’s real agenda. Glenn Beck, American Talibani.Last night, Fox News televangelist Glenn Beck railed on universities, declaring that "we have been setting up re-education camps. We call them universities." Beck also explained that "our children are being submerged in the filth of communism" at schools around the country. While Beck lobs the usual conservative vitriol at the supposed indoctrination taking place on many campuses around the country, he apparently does not think all institutions of higher learning are evil. Nope. Liberty University is A-OK! So what is the "whole philosophy" of Liberty University that really "impressed" Beck' Let's start with their draconian code of conduct, known as "The Liberty Way." Some highlights: It is a $50 fine and "12 Reprimands" for "attendance at, possession or viewing" of an "R"-rated movie. Involvement with "witchcraft" is treated harsher than sexual or racial harassment. While it is a $250 fine, "18 Reprimands," and "18 Hours Disciplinary Community Service" for sexual or racial harassment, it is a $500 fine, with "30 Hours Disciplinary Community Service," "30 Reprimands," and "Possible Administrative Withdrawal" for "involvement with witchcraft, séances, or other satanic or demonic activity." The fine for "involvement with witchcraft" is the same as "possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages." "Association with those consuming alcohol" results in a $250 fine and community service. Both men and women are not allowed to have "hair and clothing style related to a counterculture." Men cannot have hair that is "longer than the middle of the ear" and ponytails for men are strictly "unacceptable." Women must not wear anything "tight, scant, backless, see-through, low in the neckline or revealing the midriff," and any tank tops must have shoulder straps that are "no less than two inches wide." Violation of this policy results in "4 Reprimands" and a $10 fine. It is a $10 fine and "4 Reprimands" for "improper personal contact," which they define as "anything beyond hand-holding." (Side note: there would have been a lot of fines handed out at Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally, because he suggested that people greet each other with hugs.) "Attendance at a dance" results in "6 Reprimands" and a $25 fine. And that's before you even get into their curriculum, with their hostility toward science and knowledge. Ousted Conservative Rep. Bob Inglis of SC continues to open up on his party:Inglis called criticism lobbed at President Obama by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) "offensive to me," and encouraged members of his party to "unite" behind the president. Ha ha ha! Oh wait, he was serious' Bill Nye the Science Guy just told me he'll be on Larry King tonight talking about everything from the danger of human induced climate change and hurricanes, to space exploration. -- DS
by Jed Lewison 2 Sep 2010 at 2:16pm Just when you thought you've finally found an issue to rally the party around, along come a handful of Democrats trying to screw it up: WASHINGTON — Democrats in Congress are poised to play a leading role this month in thwarting their party's effort to raise income tax rates on the wealthy. Tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 expire at the end of this year. President Barack Obama and Democratic congressional leaders have been eager to extend the breaks for individuals who earn less than $200,000 annually and joint filers who make less than $250,000. Those who earn more would pay higher, pre-2001 rates starting next year. However, a small but growing number of moderate Democrats are balking at boosting taxes on the rich. McClatchy's David Lightman names three Senators (Evan Bayh, Ben Nelson, and Kent Conrad) as well as three Senate candidates (Jack Conway, Robin Carnahan, and Brad Ellsworth) who support extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. But as he also points out, Majority Leader Reid and President Obama have both come out strongly for allowing tax rates on the wealthy to return to 1990 levels. That's the position Obama campaigned on and won on in 2008 and it remains popular: last week, a CBS poll showed the public wants Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy to expire by a 56%-36% margin. Although it can be frustrating when President Obama takes a hands-off attitude towards Congress, stories like this underscore the extent to which problems really do start with conservative and weenie Dems in Congress. But it is also represents what may be Obama's best opportunity to beat those Dems -- along with the Republicans they are enabling -- at their own game. The reason is simple: this time, Obama doesn't just have politics and policy on his side, he also has procedure. Advocates for Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy have virtually no leverage -- unless they want to kill tax cuts for everybody else. If that's a fight they want to have, it's a fight the administration should welcome, starting by demanding Congress extend tax cuts for regular Americans and pledging to veto any permanent extension of Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy. While passing a permanent extension of Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy would be an unbelievable and pathetic letdown, winning this battle would be incredibly invigorating, especially given where things stand today. And with the election just two months away, the timing is perfect.
by Jed Lewison 2 Sep 2010 at 1:32pm Details are still emerging, but here's some of what is being reported about the explosion of an offshore platform earlier today 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay, Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico: The platform is in 340 feet of water and its 13 crew are alive, though one is injured.The platform is owned by Mariner Energy which says it successfully drilled a well there in Q309. The Coast Guard is leading the rescue operation. According to MSNBC, a company spokesman says there has been no "sheen" visible at the site of the explosion The platform issued a distress call at 9:00AM central time on Thursday, prompting the Coast Guard response. Although a well was recently drilled in the area, it is not currently producing oil or gas. As of noon central time, NOLA.com reported the platform was still on fire. Ironically, just yesterday Mariner Energy staged a protest against the Obama administration's offshore drilling policy, saying the White House is "trying to break" the oil and gas industry while Republicans in Congress lashed out at the administration for "demonizing" oil and gas companies with policies like the deepwater drilling moratorium. Of course, the truth is that the moratorium hasn't had a major economic impact but it has helped strengthen safety standards which will in the long run help the industry. But enlightened self-interest isn't a concept these guys seem to have wrapped their minds around. Update: Looks like there actually was active production at the platform, though it was natural gas, not oil. CNN: Mariner Energy, owner of the production platform, said in a press release that no hydrocarbon spill has been reported after an initial flyover of the incident. "Mariner has notified and is working with regulatory authorities in response to this incident," the statement said. "The cause is not known, and an investigation will be undertaken. During the last week of August 2010, production from this facility averaged approximately 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and 1,400 barrels of oil and condensate." The company also said no injuries have been reported. Join the discussion in marabout40's recommended diary, UPDATE: NATURAL GAS Platform Explodes in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Little Green Footballs 2 Sep 2010 at 8:48pm  Click to embiggen
(Camera: iPhone 4.)
2 Sep 2010 at 5:44pm On Sean Hannity's show yesterday, Sarah Palin uncorked a gloriously incoherent tirade against reporters who aren't engorged and throbbing: I hear there's some pretty ugly stuff right now coming out and what we predict, we always see a pattern. We've got some victories under the belt. Things are, things are going well, and then, then there is that public slam of us. So, we always expect what's coming. I don't read some of it because I know that those that are impotent and limp and gutless, and then they go on, they're anonymous, their sources that are anonymous, and impotent, limp and gutless reporters take anonymous sources and cite them as being factual references. You know, it just slays me because it's so absolutely clear what the state of yellow journalism is today that they would take these anonymous sources as fact. So, when a story especially is filled with those and we know it's bogus and we're not going to read it.
2 Sep 2010 at 4:59pm Adam Serwer talked to Anti-Defamation League director Abe Foxman about the planned September 11 protest against the Park51 Islamic community center in lower Manhattan; we criticized Foxman for his earlier statements, but on the issue of Pamela Geller and her allies (such as Dutch demagogue Geert Wilders) he seems to have regained his balance: ADL'S Abe Foxman denounces anti-mosque rally as 'un-American'. On the rally: I would agree with [Where to Turn], this is not a place for political demonstrations, for advocacy, especially on 9/11. This is a place for memory, for families to be together, to memorialize their loved ones, [to have] a moment of reflection and introspection. For people with political agendas to use the place and the moment for their own interests and their own platforms is desecrating the memory and very sad. Especially if some of the families of the victims are asking, their view should be taken seriously and respected. Foxman had some harsh words regarding the presence of Wilders, as well as for conservative blogger Pamela Geller and her group Stop Islamization of America, which is organizing the protest: [Wilders] is a bigot, he's an anti-Muslim bigot, and one of the demonstrations being called for is being headed by someone who has an anti-Muslim agenda, often under the guise of fighting 'radical Islam.' The group vilifies Islamic faith and is engaged in [claiming] there's a conspiracy to destroy American values, which is nonsense. The organizer in fact has stated that part of her agenda is to help garner support for Wilders, who is a bigot, who has a long record of anti-Muslim bigotry.
2 Sep 2010 at 4:25pm Music of the street: Don Ross and Jimmy Wahlsteen play "It's Your Favourite" from Jimmy's album 181st Songs. (iTunes Store.) [Video]
2 Sep 2010 at 2:46pm Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas met today at the State Department, shook hands, and managed to agree on something: to have some more talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet again on Sept. 14 and 15 in the Middle East, likely at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, with an eye toward forging the outline of a pact. They will also meet roughly every two weeks after that. UPDATE at 9/2/10 1:03:01 pm: The White House has posted embeddable video of the press conference, with President Obama, President Mubarak of Egypt, King Abdullah of Jordan, Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, and Palestinian Authority President Abbas. Video
2 Sep 2010 at 1:59pm So, without telling anybody, Twitter suddenly changed their remote login system to use OAuth instead of Basic Authentication, and my code to do Twitter updates automatically when I post to LGF stopped working. What' They did tell everyone, repeatedly, that they were going to change it' Oh. OK, my bad. Anyway, the purpose of this post is to test my new OAuth-based Twitter code. It could also be looked at as an open thread, if this stuff is Greek to you. If you should ever need to know how to access Twitter from a PHP script, here's a blog article I found very helpful: Posting from an RSS feed to twitter using OAuth.
2 Sep 2010 at 12:37pm Another oil drilling platform has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, but luckily no workers were killed. The latest reports say that officials don't know whether oil is leaking from the well; but it was not producing oil and gas at the time of the explosion. The good news: this platform is in relatively shallow water (340 feet), so if there is a leak it will be much easier to plug.
2 Sep 2010 at 12:03pm An awesome train wreck of an opening statement from Jan Brewer, in Arizona's gubernatorial debate. One of the most embarrassing political performances ever captured on video. [Video]And then, after the debate, Brewer refused to answer questions about her claim that there were "beheadings" near the border -- and ended up turning and running from the media. [Video]
2 Sep 2010 at 11:21am That suspected terrorist dry run on a United flight was a false alarm. Video
1 Sep 2010 at 7:47pm
Robert and I respectfully request that those of you who will be attending our protest against the Ground Zero mega mosque bring American flags, not signs. 9 x 12 sized flags. Nothing with big poles: the NYPD won't allow big poles. Please get the word out now. We will be confiscating signs. It is a solemn day. No signs. FLAGS. Tens of thousands of flags. "Tens of thousands of FLAGS," she wrote, rubbing her hooves in glee. Here's why Geller and Spencer are going to confiscate signs at their hate rally; because they know people like this will show up, as they did in November 2009 in Franklin County, Ohio. I hope they're ready to confiscate t-shirts too. 
1 Sep 2010 at 6:43pm If you can make neither heads nor tails out of @SarahPalinUSA's stream of consciousness Twitterspeak, follow @palinslation to find out what she's saying in English. Sort of.
1 Sep 2010 at 5:03pm It would be nice if everyone could just agree that James Jay Lee, the hostage taker killed today in a standoff at the offices of the Discovery Channel, was deranged. And leave it at that. But of course, we're already seeing some extremely partisan bloggers trying to put him in the "left wing" category, simply because his weird views sprang out of a kind of extreme environmentalism. (I'm not sure how caring for the environment makes one a "left winger," but that's another topic.) Lee's "manifesto" has been taken offline, but Google's cache still has it for a little while. If Lee was anything, he was a radical Squirrelist. Saving the environment and the remaning species diversity of the planet is now your mindset. Nothing is more important than saving them. The Lions, Tigers, Giraffes, Elephants, Froggies, Turtles, Apes, Raccoons, Beetles, Ants, Sharks, Bears, and, of course, the Squirrels. Of course. Lee also harbored a special animosity for immigrants: 5. Immigration: Programs must be developed to find solutions to stopping ALL immigration pollution and the anchor baby filth that follows that. Find solutions to stopping it. Call for people in the world to develop solutions to stop it completely and permanently. Find solutions FOR these countries so they stop sending their breeding populations to the US and the world to seek jobs and therefore breed more unwanted pollution babies. FIND SOLUTIONS FOR THEM TO STOP THEIR HUMAN GROWTH AND THE EXPORTATION OF THAT DISGUSTING FILTH! (The first world is feeding the population growth of the Third World and those human families are going to where the food is! They must stop procreating new humans looking for nonexistant jobs!) Do I need to point out that "anchor baby filth" is not exactly standard left wing terminology' James Jay Lee was a very disturbed individual who fixated on the Discovery Channel for some reason. He was not left wing, he was not right wing, and he was not sane. We should be glad that no one else was harmed when he snapped.
1 Sep 2010 at 2:01pm Another hate crime that Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer and the anti-Muslim Bigot Brigade can claim they have nothing to do with:Teenagers Charged in Harassment at Mosque. A group of teenagers in western New York has been accused of harassing members of a mosque by yelling obscenities and insults during evening prayers for Ramadan, sideswiping a worshiper with a vehicle and firing a shotgun outside, the authorities said Tuesday. The teenagers were cornered by members of the mosque, who held them for the police. They were charged with disrupting a religious service, a misdemeanor. The obscenities episode occurred Monday and the shooting last Friday, both outside the World Sufi Foundation mosque in Carlton, N.Y., the authorities said. They said a 17-year-old fired the shotgun; no one was hit. “We have had occasions in the past,” said Joseph V. Cardone, the district attorney in Orleans County, “and it seems every three or four years we have some kids drive by the mosque and make comments and that sort of thing. We’ve had minor incidents, but nothing of this magnitude in the past.” More details at TPM: Teens Harass Muslims In Upstate New York.
1 Sep 2010 at 1:24pm SWAT teams have just entered the offices of the Discovery Channel in Silver Spring, Maryland, where a gunman has apparently taken hostages: Reported standoff at Discovery Channel building in Silver Spring. The hostage taker has reportedly posted his demands online at this completely insane page: savetheplanetprotest.com. The Discovery Channel MUST broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet and to do the following IMMEDIATELY: 1. The Discovery Channel and it's affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn's "My Ishmael" pages 207-212 where solutions to save the planet would be done in the same way as the Industrial Revolution was done, by people building on each other's inventive ideas. Focus must be given on how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions continue pollution and are pollution. A game show format contest would be in order. Perhaps also forums of leading scientists who understand and agree with the Malthus-Darwin science and the problem of human overpopulation. Do both. Do all until something WORKS and the natural world starts improving and human civilization building STOPS and is reversed! MAKE IT INTERESTING SO PEOPLE WATCH AND APPLY SOLUTIONS!!!! 2. All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions. In those programs' places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it. 3. All programs promoting War and the technology behind those must cease. There is no sense in advertising weapons of mass-destruction anymore. Instead, talk about ways to disassemble civilization and concentrate the message in finding SOLUTIONS to solving global military mechanized conflict. Again, solutions solutions instead of just repeating the same old wars with newer weapons. Also, keep out the fraudulent peace movements. They are liars and fakes and had no real intention of ending the wars. ALL OF THEM ARE FAKE! On one hand, they claim they want the wars to end, on the other, they are demanding the human population increase. World War II had 2 Billion humans and after that war, the people decided that tripling the population would assure peace. WTF''' STUPIDITY! MORE HUMANS EQUALS MORE WAR! It goes on and on like this. And based on this crazed screed, I'm quite sure that the wingnut blogs will immediately start crowing that this person is a left winger. Predicted headline: "VIOLENT LEFT WING RAAAACIST MOONBAT TAKES HOSTAGES! RIGHT WING EXONERATED!"
1 Sep 2010 at 12:12pm Steve Jobs is hosting an Apple "special event" to announce some cool new stuff, including iOS 4.1, which will feature automatic High Dynamic Range photography for the iPhone 4 (I can't wait to try this). The event is streaming live at the Apple website here: Apple Special Event September 2010.
1 Sep 2010 at 11:40am This is the kind of stuff right wing morons do if you get them mad at you; someone is using my name with a link to my website to post disgusting comments at this popular business and finance blog: 99er 5 Tier Unemployment Extension: 2 Weeks Until Senate Reconvenes | Business & Finance News. Comments like this: Charles Johnson said... God is a myth just like karma. I support Islam over your ridiculous Christianity anyway. I saw one of you 99ers looking for handouts as I went into the comic book store. I walked out with a stack of comics including one #104 Captain America which is in incredibility mint condition. The guy was still standing their begging saying they just wanted $1 to feed their child something off a dollar menu at McDonald's because they hadn't eaten in 2 days. I spent over $1000 in comic books only moments earlier and I wouldn't spare that guy a single penny. He should have applied for a job at McDonalds, not begged for money. You 99ers make me sick. There are currently 10 comments similar to this one. Almost certainly, this is one of the freaks banned from LGF for posting racist or extreme comments, trying to get some kind of twisted revenge. This is far from the first time these lunatics have done this. Please note that I almost never post comments at other websites. If you see a comment like this posted somewhere else, it's a fraud. They do this deliberately, to try to get these comments to pop up in a Google search for my name; it's Internet character assassination. UPDATE at 9/1/10 10:22:05 am: This obsessed loon is also doing the same thing in the comments here: Politics and World News: Tier 5 Unemployment Extension A Big Need After Unemployment Claims.
31 Aug 2010 at 6:59pm President Obama's speech on the drawdown of US troops in Iraq is about to start; Sarah Palin started attacking it before it began, with a hilariously illiterate reference to George Orwell: Sarah Palin. 
When asked, "Which book by George Orwell is your favorite'" Palin replied, "All of them!" Ahem. Anyway, here's live video of the President's address, courtesy of the White House. [Video removed, because there's no way to disable autoplay.]
31 Aug 2010 at 6:40pm Here's another anti-Muslim hate crime that Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer and the anti-Muslim Bigot Brigade can claim they have nothing to do with: Charge: Seattle man attacked shopkeeper, calls victim a terrorist. A 35-year-old Seattle man is facing assault and hate crime charges following allegations that he accosted a clerk at a Queen Anne convenience store. According to police, Brock Stainbrook derided the man as being a terrorist during the Tuesday morning incident. Writing the court, a Seattle detective said Stainbrook entered the 7-11 store in at 362 Denny Way. The clerk was standing near a coffee machine when Stainbrook accosted him. "For unknown reasons a person threw change on the floor near the victim's feet then punched the victim on the left side of the head," the detective said. "After the suspect struck (the clerk) with his fist he said, 'You're not even American, you're Al-Qaeda. Go back to your country.'" Another employee then stepped in, forcing Stainbrook to leave the store. As he did so, police allege the man tried to kick the second employee and damaged a barcode scanner. Police arrested Stainbrook walking nearby minutes later. Confronted by police, he allegedly admitted that he "struck a person on his turban" because he disliked him. While the alleged victim's ethnic background is not noted in court documents, his surname is common within the Sikh community. That's right -- he wasn't even a Muslim. He was a Sikh.
31 Aug 2010 at 4:35pm Pastors Terry Jones and Wayne Sapp of the Dove World Outreach Center, sponsors of "Burn a Koran Day," let it all hang out. You won't believe this one. Warning: this insane video is absolutely not safe for work, and possibly not safe for human beings. [Video](Hat tip: KT.)
31 Aug 2010 at 3:59pm Pamela "Shrieking Harpy" Geller thinks Newsweek is out to get her, of course, and she doubles down on her support for the far right thugs of the English Defense League -- and announces that she's bringing them to the US to participate in her anti-Muslim protest on September 11. Thought you might like to see this piece Mark Hosenball did on the EDL. Clearly the left is attempting to split the counter jihad movement. They want me to distance myself from brave souls fighting Islamic supremacism. N-O-T G-O-I-N-G T-O H-A-P-P-E-N. If I lived in England, I would surely be active in the EDL Jewish division. Members of the EDL will be attending our rally to stop the Ground Zero Islamic supremacist mosque on September 11th (be there). People I know in Britain have told me that over there, there's absolutely no doubt that the EDL is a violent, hardcore group of extremists and racists, with neo-Nazi and BNP roots. Geller is relying on Americans' lack of knowledge about British politics to try to portray the EDL as peace-loving patriots, when the truth is exactly the opposite. Here's a documentary produced by the Guardian showing the actual people who belong to the EDL, doing what they actually do. The video, shot last May, includes undercover footage of the EDL goons planning to "hit" Bradford -- which they just did. This is what Pamela Geller is working hard to import to America. [Video] [Video]
31 Aug 2010 at 3:02pm Mark Hosenball notes anti-Muslim blogger Pamela Geller's support for the thuggish English Defense League: N.Y. Anti-Mosque Leader Defends Group That Clashed With British Police.
Pamela Geller is a conservative blogger, activist, and a principal organizer of Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), which seeks to block construction of the proposed center. The group is sponsoring a protest rally at the site on the 2010 anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, a week from Saturday. In a posting on her Atlas Shrugs blog, Geller expresses sympathy for the goals and actions of the English Defense League (EDL), a far-right group implicated in violent clashes with police during an anti-Islamic demonstration last Saturday in the northern English city of Bradford. "The stated goal of the EDL is to oppose militant Islam and the sharia," Geller writes. "What's wrong with that' Everything to the PC, leftist slaves in the media and the government." In an e-mail to Declassified, Geller affirmed her support for the EDL and defended the group's actions in Bradford, which, with its nearby sister city of Leeds, has a substantial Muslim population, many of Pakistani extraction. Geller wrote: "The media has been defamatory and libelous towards any and all counter jihad activists, including the EDL, which far from being neo-Nazi and racist, is pro-Israel and has Sikh and other non-white members and spokesmen. The EDL's own explanation of what happened in Bradford is here. As you can see from that statement, a group of Islamic supremacists and Communists actually began the violence by throwing rocks at EDL members. White supremacists at the demonstration did not represent the EDL, and EDL members actually removed them from the demonstration."
Also see:
31 Aug 2010 at 1:50pm Video fraud perpetrator Andrew Breitbart's getting frisky: Ibrahim Hooper on LGF: 'vicious, anti-Muslim hate site.' Antonia Zerbisias described LGF: 'virulently anti-Muslim/Arab website.' @lizardoid @andrewbreitbart Hope you realize that many of the now-banned LGF commenters responsible for those remarks are now bloggers at your sites. For example: Pamela Geller. And one more point about Breitbart's lame attempt at a smear: the accusations against LGF that he posted were all based on the comments at the site; not one of these critics ever found an actual post by me to back up their charges. And there's a reason for that: because I don't hate Muslims in general, and I never did. There was a time when I naively thought it was better not to moderate comments at all; I no longer believe this, and it's been years since those kinds of comments were tolerated here. But what we're seeing at Andrew Breitbart's sites, Pajamas Media, and nearly every other right wing blog is a level of hatred and vitriol directed at Muslims as a people that was never part of my writing -- and it's all on their front pages, proud and in your face.
31 Aug 2010 at 1:12pm Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, and the anti-mosque movement are the Taliban's best friends. Taliban officials know it’s sacrilegious to hope a mosque will not be built, but that’s exactly what they’re wishing for: the success of the fiery campaign to block the proposed Islamic cultural center and prayer room near the site of the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan. “By preventing this mosque from being built, America is doing us a big favor,” Taliban operative Zabihullah tells NEWSWEEK. (Like many Afghans, he uses a single name.) “It’s providing us with more recruits, donations, and popular support.” America’s enemies in Afghanistan are delighted by the vehement public opposition to the proposed “Ground Zero mosque.” The backlash against the project has drawn the heaviest e-mail response ever on jihadi Web sites, Zabihullah claims—far bigger even than France’s ban on burqas earlier this year. (That was big, he recalls: “We received many e-mails asking for advice on how Muslims should react to the hijab ban, and how they can punish France.”) This time the target is America itself. “We are getting even more messages of support and solidarity on the mosque issue and questions about how to fight back against this outrage.” Zabihullah also claims that the issue is such a propaganda windfall—so tailor-made to show how “anti-Islamic” America is—that it now heads the list of talking points in Taliban meetings with fighters, villagers, and potential recruits. “We talk about how America tortures with waterboarding, about the cruel confinement of Muslims in wire cages in Guantánamo, about the killing of innocent women and children in air attacks—and now America gives us another gift with its street protests to prevent a mosque from being built in New York,” Zabihullah says. “Showing reality always makes the best propaganda.”
31 Aug 2010 at 12:26pm Imagine the reaction if Pajamas Media started making videos titled "Does Christianity suck'" or "Does Judaism suck'" The ignorance and outright bigotry of this video is really quite amazing. "Why would anyone be phobic about 'Islamics,' those lovable rapscallions'" Andrew Klavan asks. "Islamics'" Combined with really lame graphics and painfully unfunny "jokes," this is one of the most disgusting pieces of dumb hate mongering to come from PJ Media yet. [Video](Hat tip: beekiller.)
30 Aug 2010 at 9:26pm Interviews with participants of Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally. Good grief. [Video]
30 Aug 2010 at 9:11pm Will Bunch says it all with his headline: It takes Beck just 55 hours to start cashing in on 'restoring honor' to America. Glenn Beck's original "I Have a Scheme" idea for his Washington rally that he announced in late 2009 was clearly one that was highly focused on a goal of....making boatloads of money for Glenn Beck. The concept, Beck told a large crowd in the Fox-happy retirement community of The Villages, Fla., was that he would consult a bunch of experts and develop a "100-year plan for America." Then, after luring a huge audience in person and on TV to watch him at the Lincoln Memorial on what he claims he then didn't know was the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, he would roll out new product, a book called "The Plan" that would surely be the Beckian best-seller to end all Beckian best-sellers. That didn't happen. Weeks later, the king of all right-wing media pulled a complete 180 (hardly the first time). The rally would still be on the same day and the same place, but everything else would be completely different. The event would be completely non-political, not about policy prescriptions but "Restoring Honor," with a goal of raising money not for a Beck book but for a four-star charity called the Special Operations Warrior Fund. And to some extent, that's what unfolded Saturday. Beck used his bully pulpit to urge America to turn inward, toward God as a source of answers, and although most of his aggressive fundraising went toward the massive cost of the National Mall event, Beck claims that SOWF will also reap a large donation. There is indeed no book called "The Plan" coming out this week. Nope. Instead, Beck -- basking in the wall-to-wall coverage on national TV and the front pages of America's newspapers -- is using that afterglow to roll out a completely different for-profit venture of Glenn Beck Inc., one that could greatly add to the showman's $32 million windfall that he reaped last year. His plan to stop America from wandering in the darkness apparently involves you visiting his new website aimed at competing with the Daily Beasts and Huffington Posts of the world.
30 Aug 2010 at 8:42pm Here's another photo from the Glenn Beck Restoration Minstrel Show; the rally's organizers banned signs, so the audience brought t-shirts. 
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The Corner 2 Sep 2010 at 9:35pm
Russia’s finance minister has told people to smoke and drink more, explaining that higher consumption would help lift tax revenues for spending on social services. Speaking as the Russian government announces plan to raise duty on alcohol and cigarettes, Alexei Kudrin said that by smoking a pack, “you are giving more to help solve social problems such as boosting demographics, developing other social services and upholding birth rates”. “People should understand: Those who drink, those who smoke are doing more to help the state,” he told the Interfax news agency. Andrew Stuttaford2 Sep 2010 at 8:13pm Bob Costa is having a cup of MSNBC's Morning Joe tomorrow. Tune in! Daniel Foster2 Sep 2010 at 4:38pm The Reason Foundation’s just-released study on state highway performance has been getting lots of national press (see here and here), but an important subtext may be missed as Democrats and skittish Republicans gear up for a second stimulus. Conventional wisdom will suggest that this new money go into a national infrastructure program, but the data suggest we should probably go in the opposite direction. The Reason report notes that highway performance, based on outcome and cost, has improved over the last several years when measured by nationwide averages. However, this national average masks substantial variation among states (and the base itself often sets a pretty low bar). Nationally, for example, nearly half of all the urban interstate road miles are congested. The share of roads congested ranges from nearly 80 percent in California and Minnesota to zero in Montana, the Dakotas, and Wyoming. The share of bridges that rate as deficient ranges from a whopping 38 percent in New York and Hawaii to just 11 percent in Nevada and Arizona. The lesson' Transportation is increasingly a state function and not a national one. A second stimulus is likely to serve as political cover for a further centralization of transportation finance and policy when the data are showing more clearly than ever that we need to decentralize policy and authority to the governments that have the most knowledge and understanding of their particular transportation challenges: the states. — Samuel R. Staley is director of urban and land-use policy at the Reason Foundation. Samuel R. Staley2 Sep 2010 at 4:31pm The White House economic team is reportedly considering pushing for a second stimulus comprised of "tax breaks" for businesses -- including a possible $300 billion payroll tax holiday, and a $100 billion extension of an R&D tax credit. The Washington Post reports: The staff-level discussions are in preliminary stages. But with the unemployment rate expected to rise again in new jobs numbers due out Friday, such a move could serve both to spur hiring and to combat Republican charges that Obama's tax policies would hurt small businesses. More spending on infrastructure - particularly transportation projects - is also under discussion, sources said. But a person familiar with the talks said it would be easier for a package consisting purely of tax cuts to "avoid the stain of a 'bailout' or 'stimulus' label." The proposals could be rolled out as early as next week. Daniel Foster2 Sep 2010 at 4:29pm A reader from Baton Rouge makes a totally fair point about my snarky post: "Cao is the absolute best that can reasonably be expected from this district for the next 20 years." Kathryn Jean Lopez2 Sep 2010 at 3:54pm
His ratings may be falling but one Republican is with him: "I love the president, and I believe he truly likes me," Congressman Joseph Cao explains. 2 Sep 2010 at 3:12pm Republicans are bragging that they’ve retaken the lead among registered voters in San Diego County, the second largest county in California. At the beginning of last month, Republicans trailed Democrats by 4,850 voters. Now, they lead by 891. Although the county has leaned Republican since the 1980s, Democrats claimed the lead in October 2008, during the “Obama surge,” says Ron Nehring, chairman of the California Republican Party. He tells National Review Online that the victory is due in part to a statewide campaign to register more Republicans, which the party started in October 2009. “Over the last 11 months, we registered over 220,000 Republicans in the state, and over 26,000 in San Diego,” he says. But Jess Durfee, chairman of San Diego County Democratic Party, says the GOP is buying voters. “They’ve spent literally tens of thousands on a paid registration program looking under every rock for a person to register,” says Durfee. “We depend on a volunteer program.” He also says that the Republican margin increased because the registrar of voters purged inactive Democrats — e.g. students — from the rolls. “Voters who request absentee ballots that are sent to homes and returned get purged. A lot of people we registered in 2008 were students. Many of the students, I’m guessing, got purged because they were somewhere else in the summer.” No one knows which towns in the county gave Republicans their new members. Traditionally, the Republican areas are the north and east; the Democratic areas are the city of San Diego and the south. Still, San Diego may be starting a trend. Republican registration is rising in Fresno County, where there are now 159,597 Republicans to 161,447 Democrats. And these are places where Democrats should be doing well. “When [the Democrats] took [San Diego County] in October 2008, they were crowing that demographic changes would ensure their control of the county,” says Nehring. “That only lasted less than two years, and here we are. This is a coastal county, a partially urban and suburban county, and it fits the typecast of what the Democrats claim favors them.” Or did favor them. Brian Bolduc2 Sep 2010 at 3:07pm Yesterday, Vanity Fair released yet another long hatchet job piece about Sarah Palin. But what this piece has generated -- well, besides incredulity that a magazine of Vanity Fair’s caliber would run a character assassination piece almost entirely based on anonymous sources -- is a bipartisan backlash. Not against Palin, but against Vanity Fair. Politico’s Ben Smith has already debunked two of the stories told in the piece. Clara Jeffery, editor of Mother Jones, tweeted that she was “annoyed by [Palin] being called to task things normal for any male pol. Like using cute kids as props.” Later, in response to Roger Ebert’s approving tweet, Jeffery sarcastically tweeted back: “Also bumming me out: That @ebertchicago would think Palin profile is ‘devastating.’ Uh, yeah, to journalistic standards.” Fellow Mother Jones editor Monika Bauerlein was also annoyed, tweeting, “‘Sarah, these aides say, seemed comforted by having the children around, and she seemed lonely when they were gone.’ Truly a monster.” And, via Ben Smith, former John Edwards aide and feminist/progressive blogger Melissa McEwan wrote: Gross' article, however, amounts to very little but "Sarah Palin is the worst because she's in politics...and is A WOMAN." Sure, it's covert sexism. Gross doesn't talk about her boobs or use identifiable misogynist epithets to describe her, but it's sexism nevertheless, as the (frequently dislikable) habits of many major politicians, of both parties, are used to build the case that Palin is remarkably awful. But there is nothing particularly remarkable about a politician who requires family members get permission to grant interviews. Nor about a politician who ambitiously trades favors and ruthlessly gets people fired who cross [him]. Nor about a politician who acts like an entitled a**. What makes this article the worst thing I've read all day is the fact that most of what's in it is the sort of s*** that is considered (rightly or wrongly) the mundane business of doing politics, and yet is somehow ZOMG SHOCKING when done by Sarah Palin. … I will continue to defend Sarah Palin against misogynist smears not because I endorse her or her politics, but because that's how feminism works. But I'd prefer not to be obliged in the first place. For those who weren’t satisfied by 10,000-plus word screed against Palin, VF also published an online-only bonus article going over (again!) how much the McCain campaign spent on clothes for the Palin family. But when you’ve got even Meghan McCain -- who’s admitted to being “conflicted” over what she thinks about Palin -- taking Palin’s side on the wardrobe malfunction, that says something about how way overblown the hysteria is. From Jay Newton-Small, blogging for Time about McCain’s new book: But McCain also sympathizes with the wardrobe debacle. “That's what it costs to outfit seven or eight people in designer clothes,” McCain wrote. “Other candidates had spent just as much, or more, but kept those kinds of expenses under wraps – sunk into promotion and advertising costs. What surprised me was that our campaign couldn't do the same.” The debate over Palin’s policies and role in the Republican party will no doubt continue. But when you’ve got liberal feminists defending her, it’s clear that the level of vitriol toward her is long past acceptable boundaries. UPDATE: Over at Slate, blogger David Weigel just posted an e-mail from Shannyn Moore (described by VF as “a green-eyed blonde who, like Palin, was once an Alaska beauty queen, albeit a few stripes more self-aware,”) regretting that she trusted the piece’s writer, Michael Joseph Gross. In the e-mail directed to Gross, Moore wrote that his depiction of her thoughts was “so completely wrong, and put me in such a completely inaccurate and unfavorable light.” She concluded with a harsh reprimand: “Shame on you. You're not a writer ... you're a climber.” Katrina Trinko2 Sep 2010 at 2:55pm Victor Davis Hanson notes how across the world, old political problems are emerging again. Jim Geraghty looks ahead to the challenges facing Republicans if they make significant gains in November. Michael Barone argues that the public is rejecting the “Big Units”: Government, Business, and Labor. Joshua Gilder explains why Islam doesn’t lend itself easily to a moderate interpretation. Cliff May criticizes Time for its refusal to denounce Muslim terrorist groups and willingness to bash conservatives concerned about Muslim extremism. Katrina Trinko2 Sep 2010 at 2:44pm From the Wall Street Journal: Mariner Energy's oil and gas platform continued to burn in the Gulf of Mexico more than three hours after it was reported to be engulfed in flame, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said Thursday at a news conference in Baton Rouge. But company says the fire has been contained and is close to being burned out, the governor said. Thirteen workers were stranded in the water but were rescued and transferred to another platform, the Coast Guard said. Mr. Jindal emphasized that all information on the accident is preliminary, noting that early reports on the Deepwater Horizon disaster suggested that the well was not leaking; that incident, which began April 20, left 11 dead and unleashed the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. The Mariner platform is about 100 miles south of Vermilion Bay and about 245 miles southwest of the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, operating in relatively shallow water. Officials have received conflicting reports on whether or not an oily sheen is streaking the waters of the Gulf from the Mariner platform, said Mr. Jindal, a Republican who has been urging the federal government to allow drilling to resume in the Gulf. But Mariner has told the state that all seven wells attached to the platform have been successfully shut down, he said, making it likely that the fire is being fed by petroleum stored on the platform. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined. Daniel Foster2 Sep 2010 at 2:31pm My colleague Jerry Kammer points to a piece today in the Mexican press by former foreign minister Jorge Castaneda blaming us for that massacre of 72 illegal aliens headed in Mexico for the U.S. Castaneda's piece is entitled "Immigration Reform or More Massacres," and argues that the United States is primarily responsible for this and future atrocities unless we effectively open our borders. I expect the State Department is already at work incorporating this into an addendum to its report to the U.N. Human Rights Council. Mark Krikorian2 Sep 2010 at 2:24pm The slickly redesigned Cook Political Report is saying that the Republicans are likely to pick up between seven and nine Senate seats in November, with an outside shot at getting the 10 they need for a majority: The macro political landscape strongly favors Republicans and it is not likely that it will change much between now and November. As a result, a look at the 37 Senate races on the ballot shows some deterioration for Democrats in some of the 19 seats they are defending, while Republicans’ prospects have stayed the same or improved slightly in their most competitive seats. As such, it is now likely that Republicans will score a net gain of between seven and nine seats. While there is a plausible argument for how Republicans could net the 10 seats they need to win the majority, it remains an unlikely scenario today. Daniel Foster2 Sep 2010 at 1:57pm Earlier this week, an appeals court in Texas ruled that Texas courts do not have jurisdiction to grant divorces to same-sex couples married in other states. The principle is simple: no valid marriage, no divorce. The Rhode Island Supreme Court issued a similar ruling a few years ago. The Texas court did note that the couple can get a declaration that the marriage is void, which would have the same effect as a divorce in ending the legal relationship.
The couple involved in the case had also raised the exact same legal challenges to Texas’s marriage amendment that were brought in the Proposition 8 case, arguing that the amendment violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Texas Court of Appeals issued a ruling entirely at odds with Judge Vaughn Walker’s opinion.
‘right to marry a person of the same sex’” requires first “asserting that marriage includes the union of two persons of the same sex,” and concluded: “A fatal flaw in this position is that it assumes the truth of the proposition to be proved.” To the claim that same-sex marriage is rooted in the nation’s history and tradition, the court responded, “Plainly, it is not.”
' “The state has a legitimate interest in promoting the raising of children in the optimal familial setting. It is reasonable for the state to conclude that the optimal familial setting for the raising of children is the household headed by an opposite-sex couple.” 2 Sep 2010 at 1:54pm From Wednesday night’s Fox News All-Stars. On President Obama attributing our debt difficulties to the Iraq war: CBO shows by the numbers it has on the cost of the whole Iraqi operation [that] it is half of what the [2010] budget deficit alone will be. NRO Staff2 Sep 2010 at 1:08pm There are, of course, respectable arguments against the introduction of a VAT in this country. Sadly, they are not to be found in either the title (which may well not be the writer's fault), or (at least) the first two paragraphs of this IBD editorial: If VAT Is Rx For Deficits And Debt, Why Are VAT Users On The Brink' No surprise that the worst financial basket cases all have a VAT. Iceland has the highest VAT rates, but this didn't prevent its financial crisis and the near bankruptcy of its government. Italy's VAT rates are almost as high, and its debt exceeds its GDP. Financial crises are looming in Spain and Portugal, and of course they have a VAT. Greece has a VAT, too, and when politicians ran out of money to pay government employees for more than a year's worth of work every year, they rioted in the streets. Great Britain has a VAT, and its government finances are in the worst shape since World War II — its budget deficit is expected to be bigger than that of Greece... There may be some people who believe that introducing VAT would by itself be the answer to the U.S. government's broken budget, but I'd like to think that they are very few in number. My own suspicion is that a VAT could indeed be a part of the solution, but it certainly cannot do all the work by itself -- and nor should it be expected to. Turning to the argument that the financial woes of VAT-countries such as Greece, Italy, Britain and Iceland somehow disprove the idea that VAT can contribute to better balanced national finances, it is, at the very least, unconvincing, unless (I suppose) you are prepared to agree that the strong financial position of, say, Denmark and Sweden can be explained by the high marginal income tax rates levied in those countries. You don't want to accept that sort of logic' No, nor do I. Andrew Stuttaford2 Sep 2010 at 12:40pm UPDATED The Washington Times reports that the state of Arizona has essentially ceded parts of the southern border to Mexican drug cartels in what -- we hope -- is a tactical retreat: The federal government has posted signs along a major interstate highway in Arizona, more than 100 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, warning travelers the area is unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers, and a local sheriff says Mexican drug cartels now control some parts of the state. The signs were posted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) along a 60-mile stretch of Interstate 8 between Casa Grande and Gila Bend, a major east-west corridor linking Tucson and Phoenix with San Diego. They warn travelers that they are entering an "active drug and human smuggling area" and they may encounter "armed criminals and smuggling vehicles traveling at high rates of speed." Beginning less than 50 miles south of Phoenix, the signs encourage travelers to "use public lands north of Interstate 8" and to call 911 if they "see suspicious activity." Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, whose county lies at the center of major drug and alien smuggling routes to Phoenix and cities east and west, attests to the violence. He said his deputies are outmanned and outgunned by drug traffickers in the rough-hewn desert stretches of his own county. "Mexican drug cartels literally do control parts of Arizona," he said. "They literally have scouts on the high points in the mountains and in the hills and they literally control movement. They have radios, they have optics, they have night-vision goggles as good as anything law enforcement has. And blogger the Hyacinth Girl has experienced the warnings firsthand: On a recent trip to Phoenix, I pulled off the I-8 to let the dogs out and let the kid get her wiggles out. I’d stopped at this place before; it has some abandoned buildings I like to look at. About ten minutes after I’d stopped, a sheriff’s SUV pulled up and a very nice lady sheriff asked me politely but with some urgency if I could gather my wayward puppies and child and leave immediately. I asked her why, as I’m pretty familiar with Arizona and the freedom within its borders. She explained that it was too close to sunset for us to be on that particular side of the freeway, as the drug and human traffickers would be out very soon. “They’ll shoot you if they don’t know you,” she said, “Even if you’re just here with you kid and obviously not a threat.” Needless to say, I gathered everyone, and even though Mr. HG needed some convincing on account of his problems with authority, we got out of there posthaste. But hey, at least they didn't ask her for her identification or something. Two months ago, Arizona governor Jan Brewer cut a campaign ad standing in front of one of the warning signs, calling on President Obama to "do your job" to secure the border: Well, the Obama administration is doing something. Namely, suing Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for failing to turn over documents as part of a DOJ inquiry into whether Arpaio's intense illegal-immigration operations were discriminatory toward Hispanics. Our own Deroy Murdock had the scoop on a lot of what's in the Times article all the way back in mid-July, giving a great -- if chilling -- bird's eye portrait of the lawless border region. Daniel Foster2 Sep 2010 at 12:34pm Will Collier writes in response to the news about Yuval (which, yes, I know was mentioned around here the other day). My dad is a dentist, and took the honors option in dental school, which entailed a final dissertation. The school (UAB medical) invited a group of distinguished professors from Tufts down to Birmingham to judge his dissertation. Well into the verbal defense, questioning from the Tufts profs had dad and his research partner sweating things pretty hard, and according to Dad, they weren’t exactly sure whether they were going to get out of there with a passing grade. Right at that moment, the door to the auditorium burst open. A student ran in exclaiming, “Oh my God, oh my God, the President’s been killed!” The date: November 22, 1963. Complete chaos broke out; being from Boston, the visiting Tufts professors were even more stunned than everybody else. Dad and his partner stood there on the stage, wondering what the hell they were supposed to do next. Finally, one of the judges noticed them, yelled, “You passed!”, and led the rest of the Tufts contingent out of the room 100% true story. Dad is still practicing today, incidentally… Jonah Goldberg2 Sep 2010 at 12:27pm . . . another overwhelmingly white crowd gathers, anxious about the economy, eager to have its faith reaffirmed.
2 Sep 2010 at 12:00pm . . . could gang members hold a press conference to complain about police harassment: They aren't ministers leading a march. Nor are they activists and politicians rallying constituents around a cause. They are men who are affiliated with some of the city's most notorious street gangs. They are Vice Lords, Gangster Disciples, Kings, Stones, Hustlers, Souls and Cobras. And they are going to Columbus Park to let Weis know they believe the threats he made during a secret meeting amount to unfair harassment. Weis vowed to use federal RICO laws against gang leaders if a member of one gang shoots a member of another. The threat represents a new anti-violence strategy that includes seizing a gang leader's car and home. "The general feeling out here is that [the meeting] was a trick, and we feel it is unconstitutional for a person to be declared guilty before innocent," said Jim Allen, a self-identified Vice Lord and convener of the news conference. They aren't ministers leading a march. Nor are they activists and politicians rallying constituents around a cause. They are men who are affiliated with some of the city's most notorious street gangs. They are Vice Lords, Gangster Disciples, Kings, Stones, Hustlers, Souls and Cobras. And they are going to Columbus Park to let Weis know they believe the threats he made during a secret meeting amount to unfair harassment. Weis vowed to use federal RICO laws against gang leaders if a member of one gang shoots a member of another. The threat represents a new anti-violence strategy that includes seizing a gang leader's car and home. "The general feeling out here is that [the meeting] was a trick, and we feel it is unconstitutional for a person to be declared guilty before innocent," said Jim Allen, a self-identified Vice Lord and convener of the news conference. Daniel Foster2 Sep 2010 at 11:59am Boxer puppy fights off bees, saves boy's life. Cats snicker. Jonah Goldberg2 Sep 2010 at 11:56am Finally our friend Yuval Levin has an accomplishment under his belt. Yuval Levin is already a nationally recognized political thinker—he’s a former White House and Congressional staffer, prominent author, conservative commentator, and editor of National Affairs, a newly established quarterly on public policy. But as he stood behind a 30-foot wooden table earlier this summer in Foster Hall, surrounded by an audience of faculty, friends, and students, the 33-year-old PhD candidate in the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought couldn’t help but feel a little nervous as he prepared for the oral defense of his dissertation. He felt in command of his subject, which concerns political differences in the 18th century that helped shape the modern distinctions between liberals and conservatives. But speaking to such a distinguished audience gave Levin some pause. Jonah Goldberg2 Sep 2010 at 11:25am He talks to me about Barack Obama's Crimes Against Liberty here.
2 Sep 2010 at 11:24am My thanks to Sean Hannity and Michelle Malkin for taking the time to highlight my report yesterday on the poor living conditions in one of the buildings apparently owned by Imam Rauf. It's a sad story and one I hope to follow-up on in the coming days. Perhaps before the good Imam worries about healing the world with the Park51 project, he should focus on getting the mold out of his tenants' homes. Daniel Foster2 Sep 2010 at 11:22am Over on the home page, Pat Caddell, a former top politico in the Carter White House, chats with NRO about the midterm elections. Caddell, a key strategist during Carter’s ’76 presidential campaign, says that hope has consequences: “President Obama’s undoing may be his disingenuousness,” Caddell says. After campaigning for post-partisanship, Obama, he observes, has lurched without pause to the left. “You can’t get this far from what you promised,” Caddell says, “especially when people invest in hope — you must understand that obligation. The killer in American politics is disappointment. When you are elected on expectations, and you fail to meet them, your decline steepens.” In 1979, as Carter’s poll numbers slid south amidst a sagging economy, Caddell drafted a memo to the president urging him to recognize that the nation was “deep in crisis.” Gazing upon today’s electoral landscape, Caddell paints an even bleaker picture. “We may be at a pre-revolutionary moment,” he says, unsmiling. “Everything is in motion.” This November, he predicts, “will be more of a national referendum than any [midterm election] since Watergate.” I’d like to share another point from my conversation with Caddell. Reflecting on the Carter years, Caddell says that when Carter stumbled, the press hounded him. Obama, he says, does not face similar media criticism. “Obama has an uncontested narrative,” Caddell says. This, he believes, is a short-term advantage for Obama — it enables him to coast unchallenged — but a long-term weakness. “With many members of the press cheerleading for his success, he does not get the same kind of pushback that modern presidents — Reagan, Clinton, Carter — normally received.” Obama, he says, ends up “unaccustomed to adapting and changing along with the country . . . he manages to avoid dealing with political reality but struggles to find a narrative — any narrative — that actually connects.”
2 Sep 2010 at 10:51am The Associated Press reports: GRAND ISLE, La. -- An offshore oil rig has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, west of the site of the April blast that caused the massive oil spill. Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel says the blast was reported by a commercial helicopter company about 9:30 a.m. CDT Thursday. Seven helicopters, two airplanes and four boats are en route to the site, about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast. Ranel says it hasn't been determined whether the structure is a production platform or a drilling rig or whether workers were aboard. Ranel says smoke was reported but it is unclear whether the rig is still burning. CNN has more. It looks like everyone in the crew has been accounted for: [Posted at 11:43 a.m.] U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough tells CNN that all 13 workers involved in the rig explosion are accounted for, but one person is injured. Coast Choppers are on the way to the site 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay. [Posted at 11:33 a.m.] An oil rig has exploded 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana, with 12 people overboard and one missing, the Coast Guard said Thursday morning. Rescue attempts are under way for at least 12 people, Coast Guard spokesman John Edwards told CNN. 13 people were on board the rig total, Edwards said, noting 12 have been accounted for, but one person was missing. The accident took place 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana on the Vermilion Oil rig 380, which is owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy. The Coast Guard has multiple helicopters, an airplane and several Coast Guard cutters en route. It's unknown if there are any injuries. Daniel Foster2 Sep 2010 at 10:28am If you ask me, government workers shouldn't be allowed to unionize, but they are; however, federal workers aren't allowed to go on strike. Well, here's the latest evidence that public-sector unions are a bad idea: According to the Washington Post, the U.S. Postal Service is on track to be at least $7 billion in the red this year, so they opened contract talks with its largest union; here's what the USPS wants: In addition to concessions on wages, health benefits and working conditions, the Postal Service says it must pare its full-time workforce and expand the use of part-timers to stay afloat. Postal officials said that with declining workloads -- Americans have sent 20 percent fewer letters and packages since 2007 -- they can no longer guarantee eight-hour shifts for clerks, mail handlers, carriers and other workers That makes sense, considering that labor costs accounts for 78 percent of the Postal Service's budget (that's $56 billion in FY 2009, and it's far more than what the employees of private competitors UPS and FedEx get in wages and benefits). If your business is down and you want to keep the customers you have left and start making a profit again, you have to cut costs. There is no way around it. It's adapt or die. Well, the union doesn't see it this way. Union officials said that while they recognize the Postal Service's precarious finances, they will fight to preserve hard-won working conditions and benefits that include the most generous health-care package in the federal government. As is often the case, it seems that the union is under the impression that the USPS's job is to hire unionized employees, not to deliver mail. I find it unbelievable that the Postal Service can't do what it should do to respond to the lack of demand for its services; it is being held hostage by unions. (Of course, I think the solution to the USPS's problem is privatization.) Considering the mentality of union bosses, it is really scary to think that union membership among public employees is growing. But not everything is good in the private sector, either. I do understand the role the unions played in the private sector in the past. The modern American movement grew out of an assembly-line culture where every product was identical and workers were viewed in a similar way. Unions, in this context, did help workers increase their bargaining power. However, as that mode of production has declined, so have unions’ relevance and power. But in an increasingly mixed economy in which the government exerts outright or implicit control over large swaths of domestic output, private-sector unions may experience a comeback. That’s especially true if the president delivers on his campaign promises. If that happens, we can expect businesses to be treated equally poorly by the government. (A good example of the perverse effect of the marriage between private-sector unions and government can be seen in the recent UPS vs. FedEx battle.) Veronique de Rugy2 Sep 2010 at 9:41am
During a debate last night, Barbara Boxer went after Carly Fiorina on abortion.
Fiorina is extremely comfortable in her pro-life position -- she spoke with ease about even embryonic-stem-cell research last night, turning the question into a little bit of a teaching moment. I wrote about this aspect of the race here a few weeks ago. Kathryn Jean Lopez2 Sep 2010 at 9:41am A new poll from Arizona State University finds that: Arizona voters overwhelmingly favor even the most controversial provisions within SB 1070, according to a poll released Wednesday Arizona State University's Morrison Institute for Public Policy. The electronic poll, conducted by the Morrison Institute and Knowledge Networks, sampled 614 Arizona voters regarding three of the most controversial measures in SB 1070: requiring people to produce documents verifying legal status allowing police to detain those unable to produce verification of legal status requiring police to question anyone they suspect may be in the country illegallyThe poll found that 64 percent of all registered voters support all three provisions, while only 17 percent oppose all three. In response to the finding that 93 percent of Republicans support the provision allowing police to detain anyone unable to verify their legal status, the research director for the institute said: "I've been doing research for 30 years, and it's really hard to get any group to have more than 90 percent agreement on any issue," Daugherty said. "The size of the majority supporting [these provisions] is a little eye-popping." Mark Krikorian2 Sep 2010 at 9:33am A slew of stories today about a new report from the Pew Hispanic Center estimating that as of March 2009, the illegal population had dropped to 11.1 million. Pew, though institutionally inclined toward amnesty and mass immigration, does honest work, and this is no exception. But many of the press reports are treating this as momentous, previously unknown news when, in fact, it's already been reported -- twice. In January of this year, DHS's Office of Immigration Statistics estimated that the illegal population as of January 2009 was 10.8 million (which, given the margin of error in such estimates, is basically the same as the Pew number). And fully six months before that report, my colleague Steven Camarota estimated that the illegal population as of February 2009 was -- 10.8 million. Pew did more slicing and dicing of the numbers (by state and country) than DHS, which in turn did more than CIS, but the bottom line for policymakers is the same: the illegal alien population can indeed be shrunk without amnesty. The decline started before the recession, in response to the stirrings of enforcement activity at the tail-end of the Bush administration, and then was accelerated by the economic downturn. Steve estimated that from August 2007 to February 2009 the illegal population declined from 12.5 million to 10.8 million -- that's more than 1.5 million illegal aliens we didn't legalize. Let's keep trying and see how much more we can reduce the total before we surrender and declare an amnesty. Unfortunately, the current crowd in the White House is undoing enforcement, not ramping it up, so if and when the economy ever turns around, we can expect a new surge in the illegal population. Mark Krikorian2 Sep 2010 at 9:23am The G-File will be coming tomorrow instead of today. I'd tell you my excuse, but I have to bury the body first. Jonah Goldberg |
Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer are 
A leader in the movement protesting plans to build an Islamic cultural center two blocks from Ground Zero in lower Manhattan is defending the actions of a right-wing, anti-Muslim group that was involved in violent clashes with British riot police over the weekend.
A proud member of the English Defense LeagueBritish media reports—including accounts from outlets known for their conservative political slants—and official police statements on the Bradford clashes do not offer much support for, and in some cases contradict, the account offered by the EDL. In an official chronology of last Saturday's events posted on the Web site of the West Yorkshire Police, the first reference to violence is a 2:30 p.m. entry that says: "Missiles have been thrown in the area around the Bradford Urban Gardens, however, this has been contained and the police are utilising their resources to manage the current situation."
