The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Santorum Campaign Sends 60,000 Mailers to Iowa Voters: ‘No Surrender’

Posted on | December 18, 2011 | 7 Comments

What’s interesting in this news is the relatively small number — which may be a sign that Santorum’s campaign has really done its homework. No more than 140,000 people are expected to vote Jan. 3 in the Iowa caucuses, and the press release says these mailers are only being sent to 60,000 “likely caucus-goers.”

Rick Santorum has campaigned in all 99 Iowa counties, and his campaign volunteers have relentlessly canvassed the Hawkeye State by phone. So we can assume that they have compiled a database of addresses for their supporters and “leaning” undecided voters. Such a “targeted” mailing could be expected to yield the maximum effect. Here are three images from the mailer:



And here is the text of the mailer:

A number of Republican leaders have suggested that the best way to win back the White House is to call a truce on talking about social issues. Issues like abortion, marriage, school prayer, and immigration. In my book that’s not a truce… it’s a surrender!
The day we stop fighting for the unborn child, or fighting to protect the sanctity of marriage, expel God from public, or decide we will no longer enforce the laws of land, is the day we surrender all our founding father’s created.
I believe what makes America exceptional is not just our economic potential or our remarkable innovation, but the fact that we are a moral enterprise. As President, I will protect American’s moral foundation, empower American families and build America’s economic freedom. And I won’t compromise on my values to do it.
Rick Santorum: A history of fighting for our values.

  • Author of the bill that ended partial birth abortions in America;
  • Named by Time Magazine as one of the 25 most influential Evangelicals in America
  • Washington Post called Rick Santorum a “Tea Party guy before the Tea Party even existed,” for his efforts fighting corruption in Congress, and returning to Constitutional government;
  • Founded the bipartisan House/Senate working group on religious liberty;
  • Co-authored and fought for the only vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment in the U.S. Senate;
  • Rick was an author and floor manager of the landmark Welfare Reform Act that moved millions from welfare to work;
  • Rick was a leader on U.S.-Israel relations, authored legislation to stop the growing nuclear threat from Iran, and has led the fight to protect America from Islamic radicals;
  • Rick is the best-selling author of It Takes A Family, Rick and his wife Karen have home-schooled each of their children;
  • Has passionately fought for a balanced budget amendment, and to take the immoral debt off the backs of our children.

The Associated Press has an article about Santorum’s “old-fashioned” Iowa campaign:

URBANDALE, Iowa — In a presidential campaign marked by sharp rises and falls, Republican Rick Santorum has experienced neither.
“I’m counting on the people of Iowa to catch fire for me,” the former Pennsylvania senator, who described himself as a “strong conviction conservative,” said Thursday during a debate with his rivals. “Iowans are beginning to respond.”
His dogged courting of Iowans the old-fashioned way — campaigning in living rooms, coffee shops and town squares — may be starting to pay off and at just the right time, as Iowa’s Jan. 3 presidential caucuses approach.
“Rick Santorum is the best-kept secret in the campaign,” said Tom Clark, a West Des Moines Republican and one of about 150 people who came to hear the candidate at a suburban Des Moines restaurant this past week.


Category: Election 2012, Iowa, Rick Santorum

FMJRA 2.0: Toys In The Attic

Posted on | December 18, 2011 | 9 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Barack Obama’s ’60 Minutes’ Interview Has Me Screaming at My TV Again

Rule 5 Sunday: Obsolete

Christopher Hitchens, R.I.P.

#OWS: Obama’s Willing Scum
UPDATE: Occupiers Wreck Stolen Truck En Route to Portland Demonstration

Unprecedented Uprising in Chinese Village Chases Out Communist Party

SIOUX CITY IOWA DEBATE TONIGHT

New Robert Spencer Book Promises To Be An Interesting Read On Islam

‘Resist We Much!’ MSNBC’s Bogus Populist Al Sharpton Living Large

Santorum: Election ‘About Obama’

LIVE AT FIVE – 12.11.11

ACORN Returns as ‘Occupy’

Iowa State University ‘Sexuality’ Professor Heckles Rick Perry at Campaign Event

Conflation

SANTORUM EXPRESS UPDATE: Pulls Even With Bachmann in New Iowa Poll, Gains Endorsement by Influential Pastor

Why Does Obama Hate Jews?

LIVE AT FIVE – 12.13.11

Two Weeks From Today …

Santorum: The ‘Least Worst’ Candidate?

Santorum Surge: New Poll Shows Gains in Iowa, Closing in on Perry, Bachmann

Rick Santorum: Beer Gourmet?

Burning Mosques, Rabbi Hammerman?

Newt Gingrich Fires Iowa Political Director for Calling Mormonism a ‘Cult’

LIVE AT FIVE – 12.14.11

Christine O’Donnell Endorses Mitt Romney; Des Moines City Council Member Endorses Rick Santorum

I Can’t Understand Why Everyone Hates The New Aristocracy

Occupy Wall Street Demonstrations Destroy Jobs for New York Cafe Workers

Newt Staffer Fired for Mormon ‘Cult’ Comment Got a Raw Deal, Source Says

Jeffrey Lord vs. the Paulistas

Judges [Update: Or Legislators] That Should Be Cashiered

Complete Insignificance of This Blog Now Confirmed by Recognized Expert
UPDATE: Necessary Correction

Rep. Jim Moran Does The Right Thing On The National Defense Authorization Act

Is Congress, Unexpectedly, Robbing Us Deaf, As Well As Blind?

Joe Scarborough’s Weird Man-Crush on Jon Huntsman: Get a Room, You Two!

LIVE AT FIVETENNINE – 12.15.11

We Needed ‘Science’ to Tell Us This?

Billionaire Prepared to Spend $20 Million on My Blog Newt Gingrich’s Campaign

Determined to Lose the Catholic Vote, Newt Gingrich Says Homosexuality Is a Choice Like … Clerical Celibacy?

Just Because We Can Does Not Mean We Should

A. Because She’s a Slut

LIVE AT FIVEEIGHT – 12.16.11

Santorum Iowa Ad: ‘Join the Fight’

The World’s Youngest Blogger: Despite The Iraq Exit, I Insist Upon Clashing

You See, Mr. Paul, History Does Not Support Scientific Experiments

Rick Santorum Iowa Schedule Dec. 16-20

Scott Ott Serves It Dry

‘Embattled.’ IYKWIMAITYD.

Sean Hannity Flummoxed By Michelle Malkin

Bibi, You Rock

Shorter Ace: ‘Bitches Lie’

Politico Stirs The GOP Pot

‘Fatwa’ Against Bollywood Actress

Minnesota Republican Resigns Post Over Allegations Of “Inappropriate” Behavior

Top linkers this week:

  1. The Pro From Poca (11)
  2. The Camp of the Saints (10)
  3. Lonely Conservative (9)
  4. (tied) Lisa Graas and Daily Pundit (8)
  5. Pirate’s Cove (6)
  6. The Conservatory (5)

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! Deadline for next week’s links is Friday, December 23; please include “FMJRA” or “Shameless Blogwhoring” in the subject line.

Category: FMJRA Award

From an Undisclosed Location

Posted on | December 18, 2011 | 33 Comments

Where am I? Why am I wearing a Guy Fawkes mask and standing in front of a green screen in a studio? Read more

Category: Uncategorized

Rick Santorum Will Campaign Today in Council Bluffs, Red Oak and Atlantic, Iowa

Posted on | December 18, 2011 | 6 Comments

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum will travel about 90 miles through Western Iowa today and hold three public events:

11:00am CT: Senator Santorum will have brunch with supporters at the HyVee Instore in Council Bluffs, IA.
Location: Treynor State Bank
HyVee Instore, 1745 Madison Avenue, Suite 1002, Council Bluffs, IA

2:30pm CT: Senator Santorum will host a “Faith, Family and Freedom” Town Hall in Red Oak, IA.
Location: Pizza Ranch
1511 North Broadway Street, Red Oak, IA

5:30pm CT: Senator Santorum will host a “Faith, Family and Freedom” Town Hall in Atlantic, IA.
Location: Farmers Kitchen Restaurant
319 Walnut Street, Atlantic, IA

Santorum’s “No Surrender” Money Bomb has raised nearly $200,000 since Dec. 14, and continues with the goal of reaching $250,000.

Rick Santorum has picked up another big endorsement:

An influential retired Iowa pastor is asking Michele Bachmann to fold her presidential campaign into Rick Santorum’s before the Jan. 3 caucuses — and offered Iowans a scathing critique of the rest of the GOP field.
The Rev. Albert Calaway, a retired Assemblies of God minister who lives in Indianola, [Saturday] endorsed Santorum — but said he’d like to see Bachmann as the vice presidential nominee.
“There’s absolutely, positively no divine power vested in me for this, but if I had it, I’d personally love to pronounce Rick and Michele as lawfully wedded running mates,” Calaway told The Des Moines Register in a written statement.
Calaway . . . is president of the Truth, Values and Leadership, an organization that serves about 200 Iowa churches and pastors . . .
“Santorum has never embarrassed us in debate or on the campaign trail. He has a plan to bring back U.S. manufacturing and cut five trillion dollars over his first five years. He is very pro-Israel and sober minded about the Islamist threat, and I’m convinced he has the maturity and experience to run the government,” Calaway said.

Meanwhile, Santorum’s Iowa campaign is “in grief” today:

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum’s Iowa campaign is mourning the sudden death of its hardest-working volunteer, Wendy Jensen of Ames.
Jensen, 55, who had been an active member of the Story County Republican Party, had made thousands of calls to Iowans, imploring them to support Santorum’s presidential candidacy in the Jan. 3 Iowa Caucuses.
“Our campaign is in grief,” said Jamie Johnson of Stratford, a top aide to the Santorum campaign in Iowa, on Saturday.
Jensen was found dead at her apartment in Ames on Thursday, apparently of natural causes, said Cody Brown, Santorum’s state campaign director. She had attended a Christmas party on Wednesday night at Santorum’s Iowa headquarters in Urbandale and was tickled when the candidate thanked her for her hard work, gave her a hug and autographed a coffee mug for her. . . .
Jensen was a remarkable volunteer who routinely made 400 to 500 calls, working a volunteer shift from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Johnson said.

Santorum supporters who want to travel to Iowa to volunteer during the final two weeks before the Jan. 3 caucuses are urged to contact Kristin Beaulieu ([email protected]). Santorum supporters who can’t make it to Iowa can still sign up as volunteers, to participate in the campaign’s call-from-home Iowa phone-bank operation.

RICK SANTORUM
‘NO SURRENDER’
MONEY BOMB

 
RECENTLY:

Category: Election 2012, Iowa, Rick Santorum

Minnesota Republican Resigns Post Over Allegation of ‘Inappropriate’ Relationship

Posted on | December 18, 2011 | 24 Comments

This news was a shock to me, involving allegations — and we must stress that these are only allegations at this point — against a female politician whom I have actually met:

Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch resigned from her leadership post the day after fellow Republicans confronted her about allegations that she had an “inappropriate relationship” with a staff member.
“We’re here today with a lot of humility and some sadness and even shock,” interim Senate Majority Leader Geoff Michel said Friday at a hastily called Capitol news conference. . . .
Koch could not be reached for comment Friday. Michel and the others refused to identify the staffer by name.
Michel and other senators said they had heard from several staffers over the past two weeks that Koch was having a relationship with one of her direct subordinates. They said that when they confronted Koch on Wednesday night, she didn’t admit to the relationship or deny it.
“Her response to the conversation was …’I think I need to consider resigning,’ “ said Assistant Senate Majority Leader David Hann, R-Eden Prairie. . . .
Not long after the news conference, Michel announced that Michael Brodkorb, who was Koch’s powerful communications chief, was no longer employed as a Senate staffer, effective Friday.

(Via TPM and Memorandum.) Gays are celebrating Koch’s downfall because she was an opponent of same-sex marriage. And enemies of Michele Bachmann are celebrating because Koch endorsed Bachmann’s presidential campaign in October. 

As I say, I actually met Amy Koch while I was in Iowa in August. It was at a reception at the Iowa Governor’s Mansion, and I got a photo of Sen. Koch posing with Caffeinated Thoughts blogger Shane Vander Hart:

Of course, this was perfectly innocent, although I’m sure when I get to Iowa next week Shane will kill me for posting this. But how were we to know, in August, that Sen. Koch would subsequently be embroiled in a scandal? And I think this illustrates another unfortunate aspect of such a situation: Once a person is accused of an “inappropriate” relationship, this creates a shadow of suspicion about all of their other relationships.

Maybe Shane and I can hold a joint press conference in Iowa:

Bloggers Claim ‘We Did Not Have Inappropriate
Relations With That Woman, Senator Koch’

 

Category: Minnesota, Scandal

‘Fatwa’ Against Bollywood Actress

Posted on | December 18, 2011 | 27 Comments

Model and actress Veena Malik’s appearance on cover of the men’s magazine FHM caused a huge controversy in Pakistan, including threats of a fatwa from a Muslim cleric:

She claimed she only posed topless for FHM, but that photos were doctored to make her look completely naked.
Since the pictures appeared of her, with just an ISI (an acronym for the Pakistan spy agency) fake tattoo on her arm, she has been the subject of death threats from militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba.
The Lahore-based militants issued a statement saying: “She has made fun of all Muslim women and brought shame to the entire nation. Veena Malik will be dealt with accordingly on her return to Pakistan.” . . .
And prominent Muslim cleric Maulana Abdul Qawi warned of a fatwa against Malik for shaming Islam.
Malik said attitudes in Pakistan were from the ‘Stone Age’, adding: “The things I have done in life, I have the guts to stand by. This is my body; this is my life.”
Vowing not to back down she said she was being vilified by her compatriots.
“This attitude, I’m sorry, is in the society. When they say they have become modern, grown up, that’s wrong. They still live in the Stone Age.”
In a text to journalists Pakistan’s military press office said the scandal was “the height of humiliation for Pakistan, done by a Pakistani on Indian soil”.

(Via Memeorandum.) There was a two-day panic after Veena Malik’s manager said she went missing Friday, but today the news came that she was “fine and in a hotel in Mumbai.”

The concerns for her safety highlight the “Stone Age” attitudes Malik had complained about. Americans may agree that posing for nude photos is shameful, but nobody has issued a fatwa against Lindsay Lohan.

Category: Pakistan

Politico Stirs The GOP Pot

Posted on | December 17, 2011 | 7 Comments

by Smitty

According to Politico, a phalanx of Herman Cain accusers disguised themselves as the House GOP and staged a telephonic cat fight* over the Senate’s two month payroll tax holiday package:

In a private conference call on Saturday afternoon, rank-and-file House Republicans complained bitterly about the contents of the deal, which would extend through February the president’s Social Security tax cut, unemployment insurance and Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors. The sweetener of a provision requiring the president to expedite consideration of the Keystone XL oil pipeline wasn’t enough to offset the bitterness of a deal that gives the president two more months to pillory Republicans on a tax cut that is one of his most popular policies.
Republican leaders were warned that they could expect a rebellion if lawmakers are forced to vote on the Senate version of the bill, according to a source on the line.

The two month tax holiday passed 89-10 in the Senate. Interestingly, as you read Power Line, it was the $1 trillion continuing resolution to fund the government that was the harder sell, passing 67-32, eliciting some high dudgeon from some geezer named John McCain (a relative of the marquee name on this blog, I guess)

“Here we are again,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). “Not one member of this body has read the 1,221 pages of this bill representing $915 billion of the taxpayers’ money. Here we are with 15 minutes to consider a document representing $915 billion of taxpayers’ money filled with unauthorized, unrequested spending.”

Hey, you know, Senator McCain: that’s 1,221 more reasons why nominating your war record in 2008 and sending it on a bus tour around the country was a suck-tacular idea. Furthermore, it underscores the dangers of allowing the media and the cranial rectalitis setGOP elite decide whose ‘turn’ it is to fumble the ball.

One could rant further about the clowns in charge, but what we really need here is a of
Separated at Birth gag.

Read more

Category: Democrats, Republicans

Bibi, You Rock

Posted on | December 17, 2011 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

Keep on rockin’, Bibi. Maybe you’ll teach #OccupyResoluteDesk something about leadership, in spite of himself.

Via Barbara

Category: Barack Obama, Israel
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