The Other McCain

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

GOP Freshmen Will Call for Congressional Investigation of Planned Parenthood

Posted on | July 13, 2011 | 19 Comments

Reacting to a new report about the taxpayer-funded activities of Planned Parenthood, Rep. Renee Ellmers has warned her House colleagues of “systemic fraud and abuse” by the nation’s largest abortion provider.

A first-term North Carolina Republican, Ellmers will be joined by fellow GOP freshmen Rep. Rep. Randy Hultgren of Illinois and Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan, as well as third-term Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado) at a Capitol Hill press conference Thursday to express their concerns about evidence of wrongdoing contained in The Case for Investigating Planned Parenthood, a new 181-page report by Americans United for Life.

In a letter to fellow Congress members, Ellmers wrote:

“I invite my colleagues to review the findings of this Report and to join us on Thursday as we voice our concerns about the issues raised by AUL’s Report and express our renewed commitment to seeking accountability for taxpayers and for investigating whether taxpayers are funding an organization that misuses government funding and violates state laws.
“I will be hosting a press conference on Thursday, July 14, 2011 together with Rep. Randy Hultgren to discuss the AUL Report’s extensive documentation of the systemic fraud and abuse inherent within Planned Parenthood and the need for Congress to investigate how Planned Parenthood is using federal money.”

Thursday’s noon press conference in room 2360 of the Rayburn House Office Building is expected to be the first step toward congressional hearings into taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood.

UPDATE: Linked at The Conservatory — thanks!

UPDATE II: Linked at Maggie’s Notebook and by The Lonely Conservative — thanks!

Category: Abortion, Congress, Planned Parenthood, Renee Ellmers, Republicans

On My To-Do List For R&R:
The Undefeated

Posted on | July 13, 2011 | 13 Comments

by Smitty

I’m within about 36 hours of starting the trip home. Travel within Afghanistan is simply not a fun thing for anyone. And there are more important things, like greeting the World’s Youngest Blogger on the plate. Still, there are other things on the to-do list.
Nice Deb posts a review of The Undefeated. Yeah, I’ll be busy massaging my wife’s feet. But you gotta do what you gotta do. Maybe Stacy McCain and I can get together for the show.

The movie is not really about Sarah Palin. The movie is about a distinctly American conservative spirit that will not die.

Oh, bring it. The point of American exceptionalism is that our country is modeled on the individual, not the state. “Progress” has been about destroying the individual, while claiming to save that person. It’s a godfosaken lie, and I hope the attendance recordes on this movie pummel that lie into dust.

Category: Uncategorized

VIDEO: Obama in His Own Words

Posted on | July 13, 2011 | 28 Comments

“You see, you see, we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country. We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage, whether you can put a little extra money away at the end of each month so you can someday watch your child receive her college diploma. . . . We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business. . . . The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great.”
— Sen. Barack Obama, Aug. 28, 2008, in his speech
to the Democratic National Convention at Denver,
accepting the party’s nomination for president

Readers will note that this ad was produced by the Republican National Committee, and was released Monday on YouTube where, as of 3 p.m. Wednesday, it had been viewed 307 times. Read more

Category: Barack Obama, Economics, Election 2012, How This Here Internet Thingy Works, Republicans, Video

All You Need To Know About Why McConnell’s Plan Is A Soup Sandwich

Posted on | July 13, 2011 | 7 Comments

by Smitty (h/t Memeorandum)

Harry Reid thinks it’s swell.

“He spent a great deal of time working on this. I commend him for his thoughtful and unique proposal, something that we have to look at very closely,” Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said on the Senate floor. “I’m heartened by what I read. This is a serious proposal, and I commend the Republican leader for coming forward with it.”

That’s like having Jack Kevorkian endorse your funeral arrangements.
In defense of McConnell, he can no longer be said to have failed to provide a suggestion.
I can get a little stronger: maybe he’s just trolling. Throwing out a little bait to see what the blowback is like in the dextrosphere. In that case, one hopes that the napalm shower is sufficient for all the GOP to realize that this is the time, this is the place to stick a fork in this Progressive beast.

Category: Budget, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Senate

Radtke Reports 2nd Quarter Fundraising Numbers for Virginia Senate Campaign

Posted on | July 13, 2011 | 4 Comments

Jamie Radtke is the Tea Party candidate in next year’s Republican primary for the Virginia seat being vacated by the retirement of one-term Democratic Sen. Jim Webb. Her biggest obstacle is overcoming the GOP Establishment’s support for former Sen. George Allen. While many conservatives know and admire Allen personally, Radtke’s grassroots campaign offers an opportunity to carry forward into 2012 the Tea Party momentum that helped Republicans retake the House in 2010. Here’s the press release from Radtke HQ:

Radtke Releases Q2 Fundraising Totals

The Radtke for Senate campaign raised $92,153.43 in the months of April, May and June. This represents a significant increase in receipts from Q1 2011, and brings the total raised to nearly $250,000 for the campaign.
Unlike other candidates, all of the funds reported by Radtke so far are primary election funds; no general election contributions are included in these totals.
To date, all of Radtke’s contributions come from individuals; none of the funds are from PACs, special interest groups or personal loans from the candidate.
The campaign enters the third quarter of this electoral off-year with almost $46,000 cash on hand.
“We are pleased with the direction our fundraising efforts are going, and we are confident we will continue to see momentum throughout the rest of the year,” said campaign manager Dave Johnson. “Like the ultimately successful grassroots Tea Party campaigns of 2008, we never expected to compete this early with the candidates of the Washington establishment. George Allen and Tim Kaine are clearly the Establishment candidates in this election.
“Although George Allen tries to pretend to voters that he’s never driven across the 14th Street bridge before, his position as a United States Senator and his support from Mitch McConnell makes him the ultimate insider candidate.
“As Jamie Radtke’s message of sending a new generation of courageous, conservative leadership spreads across the Commonwealth, our fundraising will continue to grow.”
Johnson noted that the campaign had been engaged primarily in “organic” fundraising efforts through mid-May, until it contracted with the firm of Concentric Direct and brought on an experienced finance director. As a result, June was the most successful fundraising month the campaign has had in 2011.

Visit Radtke’s Senate campaign Web site for more information.

Category: Election 2012, Jamie Radtke, Republicans, Senate, Tea Party, Virginia

Of Course, There Will Be No QE3

Posted on | July 13, 2011 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air seems to think that there will be another round of quantitative easing, but then explains why it won’t happen:

The “era of easy money” will have to come to an end at some point. As QE2 demonstrated, Fed monetary policy at the extreme of “easiness” has almost no impact any longer on investment or growth. It serves only as a backstop against deflation. Because the cost of money is now as close to zero as possible, the Fed can no longer provide short-term boosts through temporary reduction of interest rates. That makes them all but powerless, especially with an administration that has pursued anti-growth strategies for the last two-plus years in regulatory expansion and signaling of higher taxes.
If the Fed starts to pull cash out of the economy, interests rates will rise, which will make investment even more costly. It won’t bring us back to the stagflation of the Carter years, when inflation and interest rates skyrocketed, but the stagnation and unemployment will start to calcify in the absence of a reversal of economic policy from Washington.

By the time inflating the currency can no longer be avoided, there will be a new term. It will still be theft, you understand, but it will probably not be called ‘Quantitative Easing’. The problem is not the money supply; rather, giving vast power to a small number of un-elected officials. All we have to do is have those un-elected officials break out a new term, say, ‘Measured Flexibility’, and it’s all good.
Even less likely than QE3: political candidates with the courage to reform this over-centralized system. In my perfect world, the 49 states other than North Dakota would form their own banks, take responsibility for the housing and education loans connected to citizens residing in them, and the century of federal over-reach marked by the Federal Reserve would begin to wind down.
But no, we’ll just continue to stumble from verbal magic wand to magic wand, frantically expending charges like we’re in some lousy game of Economic Dungeons & Dragons. Or maybe World of Economic Warcraft.
What a pile of hooey.

Category: Economics, Hot Air

Justin Elliott’s Lefty Math Calculation: Gov. Rick Perry Is A Bad Confederate Man

Posted on | July 13, 2011 | 14 Comments

by Smitty

Let me save you some self-abuse and summarize a post at Sal(ivati)on.

A 1998 voting guide published by a leading neoconfederate group and obtained by Salon not only endorses Perry for lieutenant governor, it also describes him as “a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.”
. . .
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the group experienced years of internal conflict between moderate and radical factions, essentially between those who wanted to focus on maintaining historical sites and supporting research and those who were committed to glorifying the Confederacy — in some cases, out-and-out white supremacists.

The latter faction seems to be in the ascendancy these days.

Now, it isn’t fair in a short online article to expect a doctoral thesis on what went on within the group.
On the other hand, Elliott seems to be of the modern ilk who thoroughly enjoy setting themselves up in judgement of precisely how much pure historical interest a Rick Perry or anyone else is permitted to express over 19th century American history. It is almost as though the Elliotts of the world want slavish control over Southerners of European descent.

After Bush was elected president and Perry became governor, he maintained his warm relations with Confederate-affiliated groups. Perry was featured in the United Daughters of the Confederacy magazine for a July 2001 visit to the 25th anniversary celebration of a library that had been given an archival collection of Confederate materials.

Breath deeply the scent of the non-falsifiable proposition: “Rick Perry did not do enough to distance himself from Confederate-affiliated groups.”

So how does the Perry of 2011 — the likely presidential hopeful who will have to appeal to plenty of Northerners — view the Civil War and these neoconfederate groups? We may find out soon. The Sons of Confederate Veterans is pushing for a Confederate flag license plate in Texas, but when the state motor vehicle board voted on the matter back in April, it was a 4-4 tie, with one absence. Since then, one member died and the board is waiting for Perry to appoint a replacement. Stay tuned …

OMG! Not the license plate!

Quick, Governor Perry! You better veto that plate, or this Lefty clown at Salon shall have successfully proven that you. . .allowed people freedom of speech or something.

Whew.
Slavery was morally reprehensible. However, Elliott’s attempt at saying

Slavery==Confederacy==Rick Perry

is just so much sad tripe.

Category: Uncategorized

Jim Hanson On Afghanistan, With A Side Of Military Voting

Posted on | July 13, 2011 | 6 Comments

by Smitty

Check out His Badness, Jim Hanson, of BlackFive fame:
Hanson’s a frequent visitor on RT, rapping with Alyona on various topics. I’m only endorsing Hanson himself, while not actually saying whether or not Hanson’s remarks reflect any ground truth. Dunno.
One side effect of the Surge Recover in Afghanistan is that there will be a flood of additional voters for 2012. Hopefully, despite problems that von Spkovsky notes over at NRO, this will have a positive effect on voting:

MVPP surveyed 24 states. Of the 2 million military voters covered by the report, 15.8 percent requested absentee ballots, but only 4.6 percent cast absentee ballots that were counted. This is at least partly due to the difficulty and uncertainty of the process. Both numbers were below the 2006 midterm election figures, when 5.5 percent of military and overseas voters cast absentee ballots that were counted.

MVPP also found that local election officials in 14 states and the District of Columbia failed to comply with the federal requirement that all absentee ballots must be mailed at least 45 days prior to the election. That requirement, imposed by the 2009 Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE Act), was intended to ensure that voters had enough time to receive and mail back a ballot, given the long transit times for overseas mail, particularly in war zones. These failures affected more than 65,000 voters.

Most of the states did a good job counting the ballots they actually got back — the overall acceptance rate was more than 94 percent. However, there was one glaring and shameful exception: The state of New York rejected nearly one-third of all absentee ballots from military voters. Based on a combined estimate of military members who voted in person in the U.S. as well as overseas voters, MVPP concluded that the overall turnout rate of military voters was 11.6 percent. Since the turnout rate of all voters was 41.6 percent in the 2010 election, this means that military voters were 3.5 times less likely to vote than other voting-age citizens.

This is a significant voting issue that the Left never seems to notice. Can’t figure out why.

Category: Uncategorized
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