71% to 18%
From Eric Dondero:
This poll just released by Rasmussen:
GOVERNOR – NEBRASKA (Rasmussen)
Dave Heineman (R-inc) 71%
Dave Meister (D) 18%
Meister recently told Nebraska Watchdog:
“If I didn’t think we could win I wouldn’t be in it.”
Hey there, Wes Messamore here. In my most recent Op Ed video, I take a look at the NAACP's absurd claim that the Tea Party is racist, examining the issues that really matter to the Tea Party, and showing how they have nothing at all to do with race. This is a video that I can't believe I actually had to make.
Full text here. For more, visit Young Americans for Liberty as well as my libertarian website, The Humble Libertarian.
From Cliff Thies:
"As this is my first visit to America as prime minister, let me emphasize that I am unapologetically pro-American. I love this country and what it's done for the world...." -- David Cameron, Prime Minister of Great Britain
We're still waiting on President Barack Obama to say something like this about the United States or about Great Britain or about any of our great allies around the world, whether small or big, new or long-standing.
Bad News for Liberal Media
From Eric Dondero:
There's virtually no change in the new numbers for the Kentucky Senate race. Rand Paul is holding a very steady lead with 49%. Democrat Jack Conway is stuck right at 41%.
From Rasmussen:
The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Paul picking up 49% of the vote, while Conway earns support from 41%. Four percent (4%) would prefer another candidate, while six percent (6%) more are not sure.
Support for both Paul has been at 49% for three straight surveys while Conway has held steady at 41% or 42%.
After two full months now of pounding by the liberal media, libertarian Republican Rand Paul is just where he was the day he won the nomination.
LATE NIGHT BREAKING NEWS!!!
From the Editor: We are running this press release unedited in full. A district judge in Illinois, late yesterday overturned a ruling by the local Democrat-controlled Elections Board keeping Republican Cedra Crenshaw off the ballot.
One Mom Beats the Chicago Machine and is Reinstated on the Ballot
Press Statement from the Office of Cedra Crenshaw
For Immediate Release
“I am just one mom, and today is a victory for all moms, dads, and regular people vs. the Chicago Machine and their political games. I am delighted by the news that I am back on the ballot. Together, we will hold my opponent accountable for his horrific voting record,” said Cedra Crenshaw.
From the inception, Crenshaw had called on Sen. Arthur Wilhelmi to stop his party’s ballot challenge. Instead, Wilhelmi encouraged the specious, technical attack to restrict Crenshaw’s ballot access, as he repeatedly said, “the law needs to be followed.” Today, the court spoke and the Wilhelmi machine lost. Good government and the rule of law won the first battle.
Throughout Wilhelmi’s entire political career, he has been timid in the face of corruption. Wilhelmi could not even stand up to corrupt Gov. Rod Blagojevich. On the question, should the people of Illinois have the right to recall corrupt Gov. Rod Blagojevich- he voted “present”. Even as the Crenshaw challenge became a national news story, Wilhelmi refused to defend the most basic principle in our representative democracy: ballot access. Wilhelmi was again “present” while basic democratic principles were being trashed by the leadership of his party. The people of Illinois are weary of Wilhelmi- politicians.
“My team worked very hard to get on the ballot, collecting 2,100 petition signatures in only 19 days. It is evident that our work ethic needs to go to Springfield and reform Springfield!”, stated Crenshaw.
This is a leadership election and once elected to the state senate Crenshaw will introduce legislation to clarify election law and help make ballot access less complicated for everyone -- even independents and third parties. The people of Illinois need to hold their career politicians to account, and competition at the ballot box means accountability for lawmakers.
If you'd like to make a donation to her campaign cedracrenshaw.com
"Leftist Asshole" interupts her Birthday party
From Eric Dondero:
Fireworks erupted at the Birthday Party of Kristin Davis, Anti-Prohibtion Party candidate for New York Governor, last Saturday night.
Davis interupted her prepared remarks to make a special statement on the Muslim Mosque at Ground Zero controversy.
"If I can ask you to be serious for one minute in a night which is supposed to be a party I want to talk about something I feel very, very strongly about- I do not want a Mosque built near the 9/11 sight. I think it is wrong and would be held up as an important propaganda victory by radical extremist Islamics. The people of New York, the families of those murdered oppose this monument to the attack on this country."
Semi-nude Models and Marijuana leaves
The event took place at the Lounge 49 Grove in Manhattan. About 40 guests were in attendance including celebrities, former escorts, and supporters of her candidacy.
As the blog BlaysianBitch describes:
Partygoers were greeted with semi nude models decorated with Davis’ name as well as marijuana leaves. Campaign workers made rounds asking everyone registered to vote in New York State to sign a petition.
Then a heckler interrupted. Continuing:
The crowd cheered after the madam condemned the proposal until a man in the audience, later identified as Scott Pellegrino, challenged her.
Pellegrino, who came in support Davis asked, “ Are you saying the people who are trying to start the mosque blew up the buildings?” He was met with jeers from the crowd...
Davis responded that building the mosque would “send a message to the terrorists who decimated the city that its ‘okay’ and I don’t want it there.”
Afterwards, Pelligrino said:
“I was extremely upset to hear her crazy, right-wing, racist view on the mosque. She seemed to collectively blame all Muslims, I tried to clarify.”
Reached by Libertarian Republican for a comment, Davis Campaign Consultant Roger Stone, said of Pelligrino, he's a "fucking leftist asshole."
Davis will be a guest on LR's "Libertarian Politics Live" tonight at 8pm cst to discuss the spat at her birthday party and the issue of the Muslim Mosque at Ground Zero.
Winning the Country back from the "Terrorists and Communists" in charge
From Eric Dondero:
Alvin Greene, US Army Veteran and now Democrat nominee for US Senate in South Carolina, challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Jim DeMint is speaking a bit of a conservative tone, some might even say radical right. He gave his first major speech over the weekend to about 300 gathered supporters, mostly with the NAACP in a Manning high school gym.
According to the Political Wire, Greene made the following comment in his speech:
"Let's get South Carolina back to work from Alvin, South Carolina, to Greenville, South Carolina. Let's reclaim our country from the terrorists and the communists."
Interestingly, the local press described Greene as being surrounded by full-uniformed retired Master Seargants during the speech.
by Dave Nalle
It always fascinates me how politicians who are running for office find ways to warp and spin their records to appeal to every audience regardless of what their past positions and actions really were. Ambiguous votes on peculiar bills, supporting legislation they know will get voted down just to get it on their resume, authoring hopeless bills which die in committee to pander to a single-issue constituency, trading endorsements with other candidates which are full of qualifiers which can then be quoted out of context — all of these are fair game when it’s time to hoodwink the voters.
Here in the Austin area, Democrat Mark Strama (Texas House District 50) (see permanently sneering image to right) has been particularly adept at trading favors and distorting his record to try to strengthen his position in a district which is fairly evenly split between Democrat and Republican voters. To win and hold his seat he has had to make deals with Republicans and do everything he can to win Republican votes, but since he doesn’t actually vote much like a Republican that means misrepresenting the substance of his record on key issues. He’s clearly feeling the pressure from insurgent Republican Patrick McGuiness and the resulting mendacity is enlightening.
To win over Republican voters, Strama has made use of supportive quotes from Republican Representative Jim Keffer (Tecas House District 60) to look like a model of bipartisanship. In 2006 Keffer said that Strama “worked with Republicans to cut property taxes and keep our public schools open.” Yet further investigation demonstrates that Strama really didn’t do either of these things.
The truth is that Strama did not work on or support any major education initiatives and actually voted against property tax reductions twice in 2006. I can’t imagine how voting against property tax reductions can possibly be defined as working for them, except maybe by a definition broad enough to classify opposing legislation as an important collaborative role.
What Strama actually did do in 2006 was to support Keffer’s anti-business, job destroying and tax increasing franchise tax bill, one of the most negative pieces of legislation to come out of the Texas legislature this decade. This is a classic example of a corrupt bargain. Keffer needed votes from Strama and other Democrats to pass his tax increase, and as payback he provided Strama with a supportive quote to use in his next campaign to hoodwink fiscally conservative Republicans into voting for a tax and spend leftist.
So not only did Strama not cut property taxes as claimed (though the legislature did it without his support), he helped create a whole new strongly anti-busienss tax structure with the collaboration of big government Republicans. Yes, this was certainly bipartisan, but is being bipartisan a good thing when it sells out the best interests of the voters? Bad legislation doesn’t become good just because unprincipled legislators from both sides of the aisle support it.
Despite Strama’s attempts to draw Republican votes by presenting himself as a tax cutter, what we learn from the facts behind his claims is that he opposed tax cuts and supported tax increases, and what’s more that there are some Republicans like Jim Keffer who maybe ought to be looked at with a skeptical eye. Keffer not only authored the franchise tax, but also opposed the indian gaming bill which would have brought in substantial additional revenue for the state without imposing new taxes on the public. Someone with more authentic Republican principles ought to think about running against Keffer in the GOP primary in 2012.
For voters in Texas House District 50 the maxim “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me” ought to apply. Strama may have fooled them through his tit-for-tat with Keffer and by misrepresenting his record in the past, but in this election Republicans and moderate but fiscally sensible Democrats ought to know better and vote for Republican challenger Patrick McGuinness instead.
Editor's Note - Dave Nalle is National Chairman for the Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC). He is also Communications Director for the Travis County (Austin) Republican Party.
From Eric Dondero:
Democrat Congressman Ciro Rodriguez of San Antonio has some anger management issues. Last week at a meeting with constituents at a local Mexican restaurant, Rodriguez lashed out at a lady who asked him a question. Being challenged by an attendee on the accuracy of his CBO numbers, he banged his stack full of papers on a table in front of her, and said:
"Let me finish, otherwise... if you're not willing to dialogue then... Ma'am don't accuse me of not saying the truth... It's not a (unintelligible) ego... If you're not going to dialogue... I'm not going to take this any more."
See the video at YouTube.
Rodriguez was forced to apologize. According to MySanAntonio.com he issued an apology:
"for losing my temper"
Rodriguez's outburst has now given under-dog Republican Quico Canseco an unexpected boost in his campaign.
"Quico Canseco had already outraised Rodriguez on the finances this quarter, and was running neck and neck with him in the polls," said Republican Party of Texas spokesman Bryan Preston. "But that video of Rodriguez losing it when a voter just asks him to tell the truth - that's so explosive that it may change the whole campaign. And though Rodriguez has tried to somehow blame it on Canseco, the fact is it's entirely his own fault for voting for Obamacare and believing anything that the Obama administration told him about that bill. Ciro is mad because he know's he's been had - by his own party."
Canseco also responded to the outburst saying Rodriguez:
“has a history of cursing and yelling at people who disagree with him.”
Canseco has gained additional strength on his tough on border control stance.
From Hispanic Trending:
We've haven't secured the border," said Francisco "Quico" Canseco, who is running for the Texas district Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, a Democrat, has held, on and off, since 1997. "Arizona acted because of a failure on the part of the federal government."
AZ about to go fully GOP?
From Eric Dondero:
Stunning new poll numbers just released from an Arizona polling firm. Reported on by the Arizona Daily Star, July 18:
PHOENIX - Most Arizonans no longer think Barack Obama is doing a decent job as president.
A new Behavior Research Poll released Sunday shows that nearly four out of every 10 Arizonans now rate Obama's performance as poor or very poor. That's up 5 points from the same survey taken in January.
What's different is that the number of those who think he's doing an excellent or good job has plummeted.
Three months after taking office, fully 51 percent of Arizonans gave Obama positive ratings, even though the state went for hometown favorite John McCain in the 2008 election.
A 28% approval rating beats even hardline Republican Red States like Idaho, Utah and Alabama.
In the crosstabs other stunning info: Only 52% of all registered Democrats now support Obama. His support among Independents is down to 22%. Only 8% of self-described Republicans still give him a positive job approval.
Note - Arizona has three Democrat Congressmen. The three of them are in tight races for reelection. With two GOP Senators, a Republican Governor, and Republican control of both legislative bodies, the State could go all GOP in November.
Has close ties to Van Jones
Sarah Palin sent out a simple message via Twitter yesterday:
"Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in interest of healing"
Now, according to Politico, a top aide to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has responded with a vicious attack on Palin, also via Twitter.
Andrea Batista Schlesinger Tweeted:
"@SarahPalinUSA whose hearts? Racist hearts?"
Hours later Schlesinger sent out an apology via Twitter - "I regretted curt response." And a Bloomberg spokesman scrambled to put out a statement that "Andrea was speaking only for herself."
Schlesinger is a frequent contributor to the far-left Huffington Post and the communist Nation.
She is also on the Board of the Applied Research Center which is based in Oakland, California. According to an investigative piece by NewZeal.blogspot on Obama's New York fundraising ties, the Board "is closely aligned with Van Jones' Ella Baker Human Rights Center."
U.S. Media ignores the story
From Eric Dondero:
Karim Boudouda, and another man attempted to rob a casino in Grenoble, France last Thursday. They fired at police while fleeing the scene. One officer was shot and injured. The police then shot Boudouda dead. Muslim Youth then went on a rampage in the streets of Grenoble to protest the shooting.
From the UK Daily Mail, July 18:
France was on riot alert yesterday after hundreds of Muslim youths went on the rampage in Grenoble. Shots were fired at police and dozens of shops and cars were set on fire in the Alpine town. Trams and buses were also held up by gangs brandishing baseball bats and bars, and a service station was looted.
At about 2.30am a handgun was used to fire shots at the police.
The European press has played down the Muslim angle, preferring to describe the rioters and shooters as simply "Youths."
There has been a media blackout in the American press. Only Right blogs in the U.S. and U.K. have reported on the story.
The libertarian blog Gates of Vienna commented, "Culturally enriched mayham in Grenoble":
The unacknowledged fact about these Muslim kids is that their routine behavior — beating, killing, raping, and stealing from the kuffar — is not considered criminal behavior under Islamic law. As a matter of fact, slaughtering the infidel and seizing his goods as booty is considered a duty under sharia.
See dramatic video of the police counter-attacking the rioters at our sister site WorldwideLiberty. Photo of Muslim riots in Paris 2005.
From Tim Daniel, Left Coast Rebel:
"Brown power, go back to Europe, Nazis, this is America, you are too white to be American"
Can you imagine if a Tea Party group displayed this kind of vile, racist militancy? Imagine how the main stream press would jump all over themselves to cover it.
Los Angeles is a filthy, rotting third-world hell-hole where this kind of disgusting, Marxist race-centric militancy is all-too-common. Wake up America.
"Are we going to outlaw kids from going to the beach?"
From Eric Dondero:
Under consideration in the New York Legislature is a bill that would completely ban Teens under 18 from visiting a tanning salon.
Two Legislators both from Staten Island have come out strongly against the ban. Surprisingly, one is a Democrat and the other a Republican.
From SILive.com:
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It's one thing for parents to try to enforce their kids' good behavior -- and quite another for state government to try to step in and do it for them.
So say Staten Island's two state senators, who are mostly of the same mind when it comes to pending legislation that would keep teens under 18 from visiting tanning salons...
Already on the books is a state law that requires parental consent before a young person between the ages of 14 and 18 can visit a tanning salon. Ms. Savino and Lanza think that's as far as it should go, and do not favor a bill that would ban teens under 18 altogether because of the potential cancer-causing health risks.
"Are we going to outlaw kids going to the beach?" asked Ms. Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn).
"Some things are harmful to your health and some things you need your parents' permission for," said state Sen. Diane Savino, "but where do we cross the line between having a nanny state and passing laws to protect kids? Are we, as lawmakers, trying to substitute our judgment for the judgment of parents?"
"As a lawmaker there is a tendency to want to help," said state Sen. Andrew Lanza. "But government goes too far when it tells people how to live, what to do and how to do it. We become a nanny state."
Savino is a very outspoken socially liberal Democrat, who is often highly confrontational with Republicans. Though oddly, she has been spotted at Republican fundraisers. (Source SILive).
From Eric Dondero:
Republican Liberty Caucus, and Tea Party-backed GOPer for Governor of Maine Paul LePage has taken a commanding lead over his Democrat and Independent rivals. Rasmussen now has LePage out ahead with 39%.
From Rasmussen:
The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Republican candidate Paul LePage receiving 39% of the vote, while Democrat Libby Mitchell picks up 31%. Democrat-turned-independent Eliot Cutler now earns 15% support. Three percent (3%) favor some other candidate, and 12% are undecided at this point.
LePage is the longtime Mayor of the working class coastal town of Waterville.
First Nikki Haley in South Carolina, now Karen Handel in neighboring Georgia
From Josh Painter:
With a little help from her friend Sarah Palin, former Secretary of State Karen Handel is now the front runner in the GOP governor's race, according to the results of a new statewide poll released Saturday. Atlanta radio station WSB reports:
Bolstered by an endorsement from conservative superstar Sarah Palin, former Secretary of State Karen Handel appears to have surged into the lead of the Republican race for governor, according to a new statewide poll conducted for the Georgia Newspaper Partnership.
The poll of 400 likely Republican primary voters taken Thursday and Friday put Handel in first place with 29 percent of Georgians polled saying she would get their vote. That's up 6 percentage points from an earlier poll that was partially taken before Palin's endorsement on Monday.
Handel is the former Secretary of State and a former Chair of the Fulton County Commissioners. From her website:
[In 2003] Running against two former commissioners and another candidate, Karen campaigned against high property taxes and for ethics reform. She won with nearly 60% of the vote in this heavily Democratic county.
During her tenure leading the most populous county in Georgia, she inherited a budget shortfall of nearly $100 million and was told there was no way to balance the budget without raising taxes. Karen said, “Bring it on.” She made the strategic cuts needed and balanced the county budget three times without raising taxes.
Georgians will go to the polls Tuesday to vote in the primaries of the two major political parties.
Josh is a longtime contributor to LR, and blogger for Texas for Palin.
by Eric Dondero
The National D-Day Memorial Foundation Park is located in Bedford County, Virginia. The National D-Day Foundation has sparked a controversy for including a bust of famed Soviet mass murderer Josef Stalin. A public-private partnership, the D-Day Park may soon become part of the National Parks if pending legislation is passed in Congress.
The Park lies within the District of Congressman Tom Perriello. But the Democrat has been careful in his criticisms of the Stalin bust, only saying that it's sparked "unneeded controversy." In a letter (pdf) to Foundation Chairman Robert M. Bradley, Perriello mentioned that he believed the bust was inconsistent with the goals of the Foundation, but made no mention of Stalin's atrocities, such as the mass starvations of the Kulaks, and his murderous record of ethnic cleansing against tens of millions of Poles, Ukraniuns, Jews and numerous other groups.
In stark contrast, the Republican Congressman from the neighboring district Rep. William Goodlatte however, has taken it on as a cause celebre.
From the Lynchburg News & Advance:
Goodlatte adds that he has heard from numerous constituents opposed to the Stalin bust, and in response, the Congressman wrote the D-Day Foundation multiple letters requesting that the bust be removed.
Goodlatte is quoted:
“Josef Stalin was a paranoid megalomaniac responsible for the slaughter of millions of his citizens and others. As leader of the Soviet Union, he led a campaign of terror including mass executions and forced labor in work camps at home in the Soviet Union and he oversaw the spread of communism throughout eastern Europe and is responsible for the Cold War. The appropriate location for the bust of such a dark and sinister man is off in a dark closet but the empty pedestal and telling plaque should remain as a reminder of this aspect of World War II history,“
Of course, FDR had a warm friendship with his pal "Joe" during the War. And his appeasement is credited with the handing over of Eastern Europe to Stalinist repression.
Only fitting; a member of the Party of Dwight D. Eisenhower gets it right, while a member of the FDR Party can only muster a half-hearted protest.
Photo from the 2007 film Katyn on the Soviet murderous rampages against Polish officers in 1939/40.
15,000 Poles murdered by the Socialists
An award-winning film by Wadja from 2007, with limited release in the United States.
Description:
In March 1940 Soviet leader Josef Stalin ordered the executions of 22,000 Polish army and police officers, intellectuals and clergy. The killings took place in the spring of the same year in the Katyn Forest. The victims, mostly from POW camps in Kozielsk, Starobielsk and Ostaszkow, were shot in the back of the head. The Nazis discovered the mass graves during their march on Moscow in the fall of 1941, but Soviet propaganda blamed the deaths on Adolf Hitler and punished anyone speaking the truth with harsh prison terms. In 1990, Moscow admitted that dictator Josef Stalin's secret police were responsible.
Note - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, deliberately covered up the massacre, and who was responsible, after the area was liberated from the Nazis in 1944. (Source: Katyn Forest Massacre film BBC).
The movie is available at Blockbuster.
BREAKING NEWS!!
From Eric Dondero:
Late Friday, Libertarian Republican received the news that our longtime international contributing editor James Fryar, has been nominated for a Senate seat in Queensland. This is the northeast province of Australia. The capitol of Queensland is Brisbane.
From Jim:
The Liberal Democratic Party has nominated me as Senate candidate for Queensland in the forthcoming election to be held on the 21st of August.
Gillard has panicked and decided that rather than try to fix the mess she and Rudd have left the nation in, her best option is to go to the polls now before her reputation starts to really stink with voters. Three weeks ago she was put in power by the unions and claimed that she would be the fixer and sort out the problems which she blamed on Rudd, even though she had clearly been involved in every decision the government had made.
The last straw for her was the details of Rudds political knifing being leaked to the media. She has to have the election now, while she is only on the nose, instead of waiting until she is putrefying.
Jim is an oil rig worker. He is a member of the Australian Libertarian Society.
You can read his full announcement, including an insider perspective on the mining industry and the controversy Gillard has gotten herself into over mining rights, at our sister site WorldwideLiberty.
BREAKING NEWS... LR EXCLUSIVE...
From Eric Dondero:
Kristin Davis is the Anti-Prohibition Party candidate for Governor of New York. She is a Libertarian. She is a follower of individual liberty philosopher Ayn Rand and a devotee of free market economics. She is a staunch supporter of drug legalization. She is also pro-defense and a patriot.
At her Birthday bash in New York City Saturday night, surrounded by celebrity invitees and supporters, Davis told the crowd she opposes the Mosque proposed near Ground Zero:
"this isn't about religious freedom this is about a monument to the attacks on America on 9-11."
Davis continued:
"If I can ask you to be serious for one minute in a night which is supposed to be a party I want to talk about something I feel very, very strongly about- I do not want a Mosque built near the 9/11 sight. I think it is wrong and would be held up as an important propaganda victory by radical extremist Islamics. The people of New York, the families of those murdered oppose this monument to the attack on this country."
Davis called on US Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand to pass federal legislation to block the Mosques construction.
Davis is currently in the middle of her statewide petition drive. If you'd like to help or offer a $$ donation visit KristinDavis2010.com
