NYT: Talking about a candidates religion is racist but only if that candidate is Obama

Just last week the media and Democratic operatives went crazy at the idea that a GOP Super PAC was going to run ads highlighting President Obama's 20 year association with Rev. Wright.

It would put "race front and center" claimed NBC, the NYT termed it "racial politics, 2012 style." Even Obama's own campaign claimed that to talk about Obama sitting in Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years as he said things like "God Damn America" was racist and therefore off limits.
Surely Mitt Romney's religious background should be off limits, right? Wrong.

It goes on for 4 pages and then the "reporter" went on MSNBC to talk about how much of a hypocrite Romney is for engaging in political attacks.

"The way I reported the story is I really talked to members of the LDS church who are close to Romney, who have worshiped with him over the years, who really know him. And they see one conflict in particular, which is between the kind of ideals that Romney professed in church. He put a lot of emphasis on treating other people well, on being sensitive and respectful, on being generous and giving, talked a lot about Jesus' lessons in those manner. And yet these Mormons see the way Romney is carrying out political attacks, some of which are very harsh and they see a conflict between what he taught in church and what he does on the campaign trail," Kantor said.

My question is why exactly is Romney's religious history fair game but Obama's is verboten? Enough with the double standard bull. Either Obama's 20 year friendship and church membership in a church that preached black liberation theology is fair game for political attacks or Romney's Mormon roots are not.

Latest DCCC Fundraising Pitch

The DCCC sent this out last night after Mitt Romney's killer speech.

Did tonight’s Mitt Romney speech make you want to throw your remote at the TV?

He must think he can distract voters from his extreme agenda by lying about President Obama. And he could be right.

If Romney and the Republicans can erase their radical record and attack President Obama with enough secret SuperPAC-funded smears, then they will win in 2012.

Mitt made his case. Now, it’s time for us to make ours.

Contribute $3 right now to make sure no one forgets what radical Republicans have in store for America >>

Mitt called his speech, “A Better America Begins Tonight.”

He should’ve named it, “Forget All That Stuff I Said Yesterday.”

Now that the Republican primary race is over, Romney is trying to etch-a-sketch away his “severely conservative” policy positions. Republicans nationwide won’t be far behind. Don’t let them get away with it.

http://dccc.org/Stand-with-Obama

Thanks,

Kelly

Kelly Ward DCCC Political Director

My favorite part is the letter claiming that Romney is simply lying about Barack Obama's record. Of course, they can't actually point to where Romney was lying they simply say he was. Nothing Romney said in his speech was a lie about Obama's record

Is it easier to make ends meet? Is it easier to sell your home or buy a new one? Have you saved what you needed for retirement? Are you making more in your job? Do you have a better chance to get a better job? Do you pay less at the pump?.....

We know that this election is about the kind of America we will live in and the kind of America we will leave to future generations. When it comes to the character of America, President Obama and I have very different visions.

Government is at the center of his vision. It dispenses the benefits, borrows what it cannot take, and consumes a greater and greater share of the economy. With Obamacare fully installed, government will come to control half the economy, and we will have effectively ceased to be a free enterprise society.

This President is putting us on a path where our lives will be ruled by bureaucrats and boards, commissions and czars. He’s asking us to accept that Washington knows best – and can provide all.

Median Income is down significantly from 2009 to 2012 - Falling 6.7% In fact, Obama's policies have led to incomes falling more during the 2 year "recovery" period than they did during the actual recession under Bush.

New Homes sold are down from 374,000 a year in 2009 to 328,000 last month. With new homes for sale is down 34% since 2009.

The unemployment rate was at 7.7% when Obama took office and today is at 8.2%, and if the labor participation force was the same as when he took office the actual unemployment rate would be above 10.5%.

What about gas prices? From $1.87 the day Obama was inaugurated to $3.88 on April 23, 2012.

Clearly everything that Mitt Romney said last night about Obama's policies was true. America is not better off today than we were 4 years ago. Unemployment is up, labor participation is down, gas prices are up, incomes are down. The Obama campaign will continue to claim Romney is lying about Obama's record - just remember if Romney really was lying the Obama campaign would actually refute him with hard facts.

Stay informed and let's kick Obama out of the White House this November.

Romney/Rubio 2012?

For someone who has said multiple times that he isn't going to be the Republican Vice Presidential nominee, Marco Rubio sure has spent a lot of time campaigning with Romney in the swing state of Pennsylvania.

Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney dodged mounting speculation Monday about a potential running mate, even with Senator Marco Rubio, the man now in the VP spotlight, standing right beside him...

It had the looks of a running mate audition, with the two men striding together through the Mustang Expediting delivery company's warehouse, and Romney occasionally stepping back to let Rubio handle some questions

And now Rubio has scheduled a major foreign policy speech. We still have at least 3 months of speculation on who the VP pick will be but I hope it is Marco Rubio just so I can see a bunch of birthers heads explode.

Politifact: Shills for Obama and House Democrats

Politifact has long described itself as a neutral arbiter of truth in politics but is that true? After today's dust up in which they refused to issue a rating in the claim that Obama ate dog when he was younger I decided to take a deeper look.


Let's start by looking at the Obamater, a handy way to track Obama's campaign promises. It shows 63 promises "broken" 67 "stalled" Looking through that list I noticed something interesting - many of those classified as such are should be rated as "failed" promises. For example

Eliminate all oil and gas tax loopholes - Failed in the Senate multiple times.

Close loopholes in the corporate tax deductibility of CEO pay - No action at all by Obama on this. Broken promise

Lift the payroll tax cap on earnings above $250,000 - No Action, not even a proposal = promise broken

The list goes on. In fact on the first page alone 18 of the 20 listed are actually failed promises. I could go on but the first 3 on page 2 are also actually broken promises so I think it is clear virtually everything listed under "stalled" is actually a broken promise.


Now let's look at how they rate House Republican promises. 5 promises are rated as "stalled" is that true?

Repeal the Healthcare Bill - The House GOP promised to "immediately take action to repeal" and they did. The House voted overwhelmingly to repeal Obamacare. Promise kept.

Increase access to domestic energy sources - The House passed 3 separate bills. Promise Kept

So 2 of the 5 rated as stalled were actually promises kept, 1 I would consider failed (the no earmarks promise), and 2 actually stalled. That brings us to the "In the Works" claim. Of the 14 rated as in the works, 10 are actually promises kept.


Politifact is a joke and nothing more than a shill for Obama and House Democrats.

Disability Claims Skyrocket Under Obama

If you're a fan of discouraged workers giving up hope and signing up to get on the government dole then Obama is the President for you. To the other 90% of America Obama has shown himself to be an abject failure.

A record 5.4 million workers and their dependents have signed up to collect federal disability checks since President Obama took office, according to the latest official government data, as discouraged workers increasingly give up looking for jobs and take advantage of the federal program

Obama's policies simply aren't working. Massive unemployment, huge spikes in food stamp recipients, and now a record number of workers who have given up looking for a job and now depend on the government to provide for them. Obama is a SCOAMF.

Mitt Romney Versus Reality

That is the title of Obama's newest web ad. It should be called "Barack Obama Versus Truth"

If you don't want to watch the ad, and I don't blame you if you don't, I'll break it down for you. First it starts off with a statement by Romney and then it cuts to something Obama has said that "contradicts" Romney. For instance:

Romney: He went around the world and apologized for America
ObamaWe will not apologize for our way of life.

So who is correct in this instance? Why Romney of course. Here is a short list of the times Obama has apologized for America... all within months of his taking office.

1. Apology to Europe: Speech in Strasbourg, France, April 3. “In America, there’s a failure to appreciate Europe‘s leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.”

7. Apology for America before the Turkish Parliament: Speech to the Turkish Parliament, Ankara, Turkey, April 6. “The United States is still working through some of our own darker periods in our history. Facing the Washington Monument that I spoke of is a memorial of Abraham Lincoln, the man who freed those who were enslaved even after Washington led our Revolution. Our country still struggles with the legacies of slavery and segregation, the past treatment of Native Americans.”

8. Apology for U.S. Policy toward the Americas: Editorial “Choosing a Better Future in the Americas,” April 16. “Too often, the United States has not pursued and sustained engagement with our neighbors. We have been too easily distracted by other priorities, and have failed to see that our own progress is tied directly to progress throughout the Americas.”

Another part of the video has Romney correctly claiming that we have high energy prices because Obama stopped drilling in the gulf. Obama hits back "under my administration we have a near record number of oil rigs operating" In truth, in 2011 oil production in America was down almost 275,000 barrels a day and much of the expansion in 2009 and 2010 came from leases made under both the Clinton and Bush administrations that were just coming online.

There is a reason that ad doesn't use anything but statements from Obama - because flowery rhetoric is all they have. If they had hard facts rebutting Romney they would've used them similar to the hard hitting ad from Romney attacking Obama's failed administration.

The Obama campaign will continue using nothing but flowery rhetoric because it works to convince the segment of the population that isn't engaged in politics. Obama has been a Stuttering Clusterf*** of a Miserable Failure and we need to make sure the facts are out there so that Obama can't lie his way to another four years.

Nancy Pelosi: Democrats want to amend the First Amendment

The only protected speech should be speech that Democrats approve.

“We have a clear agenda in this regard: Disclose, reform the system reducing the role of money in campaigns, and amend the Constitution to rid it of this ability for special interests to use secret, unlimited, huge amounts of money flowing to campaigns,” Pelosi said at her Thursday press briefing.

“I think one of the presenters [at a Democratic forum on amending the Constitution] yesterday said that the Supreme Court had unleashed a predator that was oozing slime into the political system, and that, indeed, is not an exaggeration,” said Pelosi. “Our Founders had an idea. It was called democracy. It said elections are determined by the people, the voice and the vote of the people, not by the bankrolls of the privileged few. This Supreme Court decision flies in the face of our Founders’ vision and we want to reverse it.”

That's exactly why the Founders included the little known clause in the First Amendment that says "when you exercise your freedom of association you lose your right to free speech."

First off, our Founders didn't create a Democracy they established a constitutional republic - there is a huge difference between the two. Second, Nancy doesn't believe in Freedom of Speech or the sanctity of the Constitution. She, and the rest of her ilk, only believe in a liberals Freedom of Speech. Too bad for her that the Supreme Court has found, time and again, that you don't lose your Freedom of Speech because you exercise your Freedom of Association. NAACP v Patterson found:

"It is beyond debate that freedom to engage in association for the advancement of beliefs and ideas is an inseparable aspect of the "liberty" assured by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which embraces freedom of speech. See Gitlow v. New York, 268 U. S. 652, 268 U. S. 666; Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U. S. 319, 302 U. S. 324; Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U. S. 296, 310 U. S. 303; Staub v. City of Baxley, 355 U. S. 313, 355 U. S. 321. Of course, it is immaterial whether the beliefs sought to be advanced by association pertain to political, economic, religious or cultural matters,

There is no fundamental difference between a business owner choosing to use company money to run a political ad or engage in political advocacy and a bunch of friends and I pooling our money to air a political ad in support of Mitt Romney or low taxes.

Of course everything Nancy Pelosi said could be summed up in 7 words - "Free speech for me but not for thee."

I'm here to scout out vacation spots

....Part of My Job Is to Scout Out Where I May Want to Bring Michelle Back Later for Vacation’

Disgusting.

Yet another wealthy democratic woman says Ann Romney can't speak for women because she's wealthy

With the way the media keeps digging at this Ann Romney story they are gonna hit china soon.

And work as she may, that’s one place Ann Romney has never been. She has spent her life in the private precincts of the marital workplace, where emotional ties replace the financial norms of the factory or office.

Now, she has emerged to campaign for her husband and to explain to him what women want. “I’ve had the fun of being out with my wife the last several days on the campaign trail,” Mitt Romney told Fox Newsthis month. “And she points out that as she talks to women, they tell her that their number one concern is the economy.”

At a recent campaign event, Romney said he wished his wife were there to help answer a question about female voters. “She says that she’s going across the country and talking with women, and what they’re talking about is the debt that we’re leaving the next generation and the failure of this economy to put people back to work.”

When Ann Romney’s husband, who faces a gender gap in some polls, uses her experience and insight as a megaphone for women’s concern over fewer paid jobs, he mistakenly assumes that all women are fungible. Which was, I take it, Rosen’s original point.

That last part is rich coming from a woman who belongs to a party that believes not wanting to force religious institutions to violate their tenets is a "war on women" and other faux outrage over anything the GOP says about women that strays from liberal orthodoxy.

I guess these media shills will do anything to keep themselves from having to cover Obama's failures but this is doomed to backfire.

No accomplishments? No worries, just attack the other guy.

Great editorial over at the Washington Examiner this morning. Obama goes negative to sidestep his sorry record It's a short article, so I won't quote it here, but head on over there and read it.

In 2008 Obama didn't have to run a negative campaign because he was a blank slate upon which voters could think of him as being whatever they wanted him to be. Post partisan uniter, a real force for change, liberal agitator, someone who finally would make the dream of equality a reality. And it worked for him but now after four years with hundreds of thousands of Americans without jobs, the lowest labor participation rate in decades, massive deficits with no end in sight, gas prices already above $4.00 and climbing it won't work again.

Obama is still personally popular because despite his policy failings the general populace wants to see him succeed. They remember him as this great speech giver who inspired hope after 8 years of Bush but slowly that veneer is being stripped away. Will voters react to the horrible economy and bungled economic policy of Obama by voting him out in November? A couple new polls this week show that Mitt Romney leads Obama nationally but it is only April so while I will continue holding on to the dream that Obama will be a one termer only time will tell.

Obama Promises to Tackle Immigration Reform in 2nd Term

Is there a constituency this man won't shamelessly pander to?

Of course the answer to that is he won't pander to fiscal conservatives, budget hawks, supply-siders, people who have actually experience with creating jobs, conservative women, etc.

But today we see Obama going on univision, the nations largest spanish speaking network, and panders to Hispanics by promising to pass immigration reform in the first year of his second term.

“I can promise that I will try to do it in the first year of my second term,” Obama said in an interview with Univision set to air on Sunday. “I want to try this year. The challenge we’ve got on immigration reform is very simple. I’ve got a majority of Democrats who are prepared to vote for it, and I’ve got no Republicans who are prepared to vote for it. …

He made this same promise 4 years ago and for 2 years he had a filibuster proof majority in the Senate and a huge majority in the House yet he didn't bother trying to pass it then. Why? Well you and I both know the answer to that - because the vast majority of America opposes the sort of comprehensive immigration reform Obama wants to implement and it would have affected his reelection chances. Of course now he can say he wants to try to pass it but he can't because those evil, racist, immigrant hating GOPhers won't let him so he won't even try. This, ladies and gentlemen, is our post partisan President.

Now just for laughs let's take a look at what he said in 2008.

That’s the commitment I’m making to you. I marched with you in the streets of Chicago to meet our immigration challenge. I fought with you in the Senate for comprehensive immigration reform. And I will make it a top priority in my first year as President – not only because we have an obligation to secure our borders and get control of who comes in and out of our country. And not only because we have to crack down on employers who are abusing undocumented immigrants instead of hiring citizens. But because we have to finally bring undocumented immigrants out of the shadows. Yes, they broke the law. And they should have to pay a fine, and learn English, and go to the back of the line. That’s how we’ll put them on a pathway to citizenship. That’s how we’ll finally fix our broken immigration system and avoid creating a servant class in our midst. It’s time to reconcile our values and principles as a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws. That’s what this election is all about.

So Mr. President, the nation wants to know. Why didn't you pursue immigration reform when your party overwhelmingly controlled Washington?

Hello Everyone

Well, I've tried this once before and due to my laziness and lack of follow through it failed rather quickly. However, this time I am aiming to make it different and actually posting my thoughts regularly on the 2012 election, politics in general, random pop culture, sports (most notably LSU and Saints football), and whatever else crosses my mind.  I'll aim to do at least one post a day but often times it will probably be more so be sure to check back often. With that said I will leave you with a picture of the most amazing dog in the world.