Obama decides to continue Holiday in Hawaii despite Muslim Terrorist attack on US

Nigerian Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up a Delta jet yesterday en route from Amsterdam to Detroit Metropolitan Airport in the US. The suspect is a UK Engineering student. He attempted to combine a powder and liquid explosive mix before he was overpowered by a fellow passenger. The suspect now claims to have ties to Al Qaeda, based in Yemen. He told authorities that he was traveling to Detroit for a "religious seminar."

The White House is taking a cautious approach.

From the BBC, 3 hours ago:

President Barack Obama, on holiday in Hawaii, has ordered increased security for air travel.

White House spokesman Bill Burton said the president was monitoring the situation.

Meanwhile the Washington Post reports:

The FBI is investigating the incident. President Obama, celebrating Christmas in Hawaii, was informed about it, a spokesman said... Officials said they are not prepared to raise the terrorism alert level, currently at orange -- or the second-highest of five levels -- for domestic and international air travel.

WaPo notes a delay in notifying Obama, who "was told of the incident about three hours after the plane landed."

UPDATE!

Ace of Spades is now headlining that the Washington Post changed their story to reflect a more favorable "hands on" view of the White House. They changed their original piece deleting the mention of Obama being told of the Terrorist incident 3 hours later. Asks Ace:

So why was the President allowed to snooze in Hawaii undisturbed?

I'm trying to not get too partisan about this, but it sure seems to me that this evidences a casualness about terrorist incidents that seems pretty dangerous.

Political Correctness at CNN: Interviewer Ali Velshi clamps down on mention of Muslim-named Terrorist Suspect on Live Air

CNN Anchor Ali Velshi was born in Kenya, and raised in Ontario, Canada. The son of a liberal Canadian parliament member, Velshi has a history of opposing rightwing politicians in Canada and working for Democrat elected officials here in the United States.

Interviewing Republican Congressman Peter King yesterday on CNN, Velshi shut him up in mid-sentence. Velshi halted the Congressman from mentioning the name of the suspect of yesterday's attempted bombing of a NorthWest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

The suspect in custody is 23-year old Nigerian national Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He is identified as an Engineering student at University College London.

Transcript (h/t Conservative Blog Watch):

REP. PETER KING (R), NEW YORK (via telephone): Basically the person's name. I understand he's a 23-year-old Nigerian who boarded the flight in Nigeria, his name is Abdulmattal (ph)...

VELSHI: Representative King, I've got to tell you, we have not got any information on anyone being charged. So thank you for bringing us information. But would ask you not to name anybody on TV right now, we do not have any word of official charges. Let me know what else you know other than the identity of the person who may be charged.

KING: His name did appear in a database as far as having a terrorist nexus.

Later on in the interview:

VELSHI: Ok, I understand that you do know -- or you believe you know the name of the identity. We're not in a position to say that on CNN yet. We are working to confirm that.

KING: Again, my understanding is his name was in the database. That he does have al Qaeda connections. Certainly extremist terrorist connections and his name popped up pretty quickly.

The name of the suspect had been released hours earlier by Fox News, Reuters, and various other media outlets.

How Libertarian Republicans celebrate Christmas: Honor our Troops

by Denise Clark

Two weeks ago on a Saturday I went to our local Wal-Mart here in Western PA. Party supplies for the big Steelers game, clothes for work....it was a two-hour affair.

Shortly after I got there, I was walking around enjoying some alone time and looking for bargains when I see a couple of soldiers from the PA National Guard headed to the checkout. I swear, God spoke to my heart and told me what to do.

I noticed in their cart that they had about five cases of bottled water. I hopped in line immediately behind them at the checkout and watched as they grabbed some gum, some beef jerky, and a couple bottles of pop and threw them in the buggy as they waited.

A little side bit of info here. This is the Wal-Mart I have a relative working at, so I am no stranger to most of the cashiers. In fact, I feel a part of their little family. Back to the story....

Right before the cashier finished the sale of the lady in front of our soldiers, I tapped the one soldier on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, but could I just hop in front of you guys? I only have to get one thing," I said.

Looking a bit understandably miffed, he allowed me to go ahead of them.

The cashier was just finishing the previous sale as I took my place at the register. "Leah," I said, "All I need is to pay for what these guys are getting." She looked stunned.

She waved the soldiers over to have their order rung up. "What's going on?" asked the one soldier. I explained that with all the sacrifice they make, paying for their items was the least I could do. They tried to argue with me, but, after giving them those lost-puppy eyes, they agreed to let me pay for the bottled water. Fair enough. The girl in line behind them rolled her eyes when she saw what I had done (She's lucky I didn't blacken them), but by the time this was settled, a small group of people had gathered and sent our heroes off with best wishes.

I walked away after thanking them for everything they do and receiving thanks from them (I really wasn't worthy, but appreciated it). I cried like a baby for the next 15 minutes and didn't care who saw me.

It wasn't a huge gesture on my part when compared to everything these men and women do on a daily basis, but I felt it necessary to thank them in whatever way I could.

Thank you, God, for telling me to do that. I got much more out of the experience than our soldiers did.

Editor's Note - Denise Clark is editor of the The Right Stuff blog. Her site meter shows that she's nearing 5,000 visitors. How about giving her a little Christmas cheer and visiting her site to help her over the top.

Libertarian Party offers different solution: De-regulate Health Care industry and get the Government out of it

by Dr. Mary Ruwart

Why is health care so expensive? Why does it cost so much more every year?

The health care industry is one of the most highly regulated in the country. These regulations drive up costs enormously. About 80% of the costs of new drugs, for example, are due to regulations that are intended to make them safer. In practice, however, these regulations cause millions of premature deaths by adding 10 years to the drug development time of life-saving drugs and favoring new, expensive drugs over nutrients and older pharmaceuticals with good safety records.

In addition to driving up the costs of drugs, regulations have created a shortage of health care professionals by limiting the number trained each year. When the number of practitioners go down, prices go up.

Clearly, lowering health care spending by doing away with wasteful practices should be at the top of our health care reform list. Such reforms include:

1. Allowing individuals, as well as businesses, full tax credits/deductions for medical insurance and/or medical expenditures.

2. Ending insurance mandates that states impose.

3. Making doctors and their insurers liable only for actual negligence and malpractice.

4. Ending the regulation of medical professionals and employing a system of voluntary certification instead.

5. Ending FDA regulation of pharmaceuticals and employing a system of third-party certification instead.

Each of these measures by itself can decrease health care costs by at least 10%. Taken together, they can slash health care costs by 50% or more. This is true health care reform.

Editor's Note - Dr. Ruwart, generally regarded as a "Left-Libertarian," is a lifelong Libertarian Party member. She is the Author of the 1988 book "Healing our World." She has served on the Libertarian National Comm. and also for a period as an elected local public officeholder in Kalamazoo, MI. Today she's active with the Texas Libertarian Party.

Excerpted from a press release from Libertarian Party National HQ. Read the full release/editorial at LP.org. Hat tip to IPR.

Libertarian Robert Ringer warns of the coming Fascist Police State under Obama

Robert Ringer is the best-selling author of "Looking out for No. 1," and "Restoring the American Dream," both libertarian classics that espoused individualist values. He was also a regular on the Libertarian Party convention circuit throughout the late 1970s and '80s.

Today he is a syndicated columnist and writes for World Net Daily. His regular column: "A Voice of Sanity."

In his Christmas Day column Ringer asks, "Can America be Saved?" Excerpt from WND:

America will go through a fundamental change in 2010 – guaranteed. Either it will be fundamentally transformed into a full-fledged socialist police state, then, ultimately, a communist police state, or those who still believe in freedom will do whatever it takes to overthrow the oligarchy that now rules over us

But, as I have so often pointed out, the caveat is that the fascist president and Congress may very well find a Chavezian reason to declare a state of emergency and "postpone" the 2012 presidential election. Regardless of whether that emergency is a total collapse of the U.S. economy or a terrorist attack, don't be fooled. If it happens, it will be a planned event by those who are now in power.

Via health care, cap and trade and other wildly unconstitutional measures, BHO and the criminal Congress will assure that the economy is many times worse off by next November's elections than it is now. The objective, of course, is to bring people to their knees so they will have "no other choice" but to look to benevolent government for help.

Ringer goes on to warn that the only way that America can be saved from Obama's "fundamental transformation," is if "Conservative Republicans sweep into power [in 2010]."

Perry hits back: Vows Texans won’t subsidize Nebraska for Medicare coverage

Health Care legislation 1 day old, and already Governor of Nation's largest State Rebels

From Eric Dondero:

Texas Governor Rick Perry is again moving to assert State Sovereignty over the Feds. According to The Gov. Monitor, Gov. Perry sent a letter to other Governors reiterrating "constitutional rights of states as guaranteed under the 10th Amendment with regard to the federal health care bill being forced through by Congress."

At his urging Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is leading an effort to determine the Constitutionality of the special exemption for Nebraska allowing the State to skip Medicaid payments according to the Harry Reid compromise final package.

Quoted by The Gov. Monitor:

“As the chief executive officers of our individual sovereign states, we must stand up to this unprecedented intrusion in to our lives and the rights of our citizens. We must demonstrate resolve in the face of this infringement,” Gov. Perry wrote in the letter.

“Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (photo) is joining with several other state attorneys general to place this deal under proper scrutiny, to determine if such an exclusion is unconstitutional.

His office, along with mine, will continue to explore all options available to us as we attempt to minimize the damages that can be caused to Texans by this ill-advised piece of legislation.”

From the text of the letter itself (pdf):

This health care bill and its unfunded mandates are unhealthy to taxpayers, our economy and our democracy itself. I urge you to support the efforts of these attorney generals, and ask your own to join it, and to work with me in ongoing efforts to assert the constitutional rights of states guaranteed under the 10th Amendement... Together we can forge a powerful coalition... without the states left holding the budgetary bag for Congress yet again.

Late word that the Attorney General of the State of South Carolina has already responded positively to Governor Perry's request to excert State Sovereignty. The move came at the urgings of the State's two US Senators Lindsey Graham, and Jim DeMint.

UPDATE!

There are indications that newly-elected libertarian Republican Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia Ken Cuccinelli, is prepared to sign on to the agreement with TX AG Abbott. Also mentioned by various sources as likely to sign on, AGs and other "high-ranking Republican officials," in Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Colorado, Utah and North Dakota.

LINKS

Bungalow Bill's Conservative Wisdom blog:

Article: TX Gov. Rick Perry Hopes to Take Back Ben Nelson's Christmas Present to Nebraska

Excerpt: This makes me wish Governor Jay Nixon would grow a set of balls and start standing up for Missourians who are getting screwed by the federal government... Of course, Jay Nixon doesn't want to upset the federal government because he is going to need a bailout too since he expanded Medicaid in the state as quickly as he was sworn in.

Senator Orrin Hatch uses the ‘S’ word on ObamaCare


The typically mild-mannered and sedate distinguished Senator from Utah, Orrin Hatch, raised the issue of Socialism in describing the legislation the Democrats just pushed through the Senate.

From Politico.com, "Parties risk it all on Health Care reform," Dec. 24:

“If the majority refuses to listen to what Americans are telling them now – I’m sure they will have a rude wake-up call waiting for them later,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said Wednesday. “To date, we have been rebuffed by an unfailing determination by a few to pursue a nearly socialist agenda.”

Next Party Switchers in the House – Travis Childers of MS, Bobby Bright of AL, or Walt Minnick of Idaho?

"GOP sources hint that there may be more party switches to come..."

Under reported political story of the year: Since September over 40 Democrat elected officials in at least 5 states have switched to the Republican Party. They include county clerks, judges, a state attorney general, and one state representative. The switches have come in Vermont, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas.

Yesterday, a United States Congressman switched to the Republican Party from the State of Alabama: Parker Griffith of the AL's 1st District. Now, there's news of even more to come. Four names come up most frequently. And all four have voting records even further to the conservative side than Griffith's.

From the Hotline (National Journal) Dec. 24:

But after a Dec. in which 4 Dems in swing districts announced they would not seek re-election, Griffith's decision to abandon his party cannot be seen as anything but a blow to Dems. If someone with his voting record is deciding to run as a GOPer instead of a Dem, that could suggest he is seeing polling that scares him.

Expect GOPers to suggest that the next to flip may be Reps. Walt Minnick (D-ID), Bobby Bright (D-AL) and Travis Childers (D-MS). All 3 represent deep red districts, and all 3 vote with their party 80% of the time or less -- a lower frequency than Griffith voted with Dem leaders, according to the Washington Post vote tracker.

GOP sources hint that there may be more party switches to come, sounding as confident as they have been with an impending, but not yet obvious, wave of retirements.

Meanwhile, MSNBC identifies three potential switchers post-Griffith switch, including two who made the Hotline list:

The other three: Walt Minnick (ID), Bobby Bright (AL) and Gene Taylor (MS).

UPDATE!

The buzz in Washington, is that a new name has surfaced as a potential party switcher: Democratic Rep. Chris Carney of Pennsylvania. John McCain is said to be seeking to broker the switch.

Olympia calls Health Care Bill’s Sweetheart Deals "Politically Grotesque"

Just Breaking...

Moderate Republican Senator from Maine Olympia Snowe, a friend of Nebraska Democrat Senator Ben Nelson, had some strong words for her colleague, and other Dems for securing special deals for their home states in the health care legislation.

Nora O'Donnell, MSNBC, this afternoon, Interview with Sen. Snowe (via Brietbart):

"They denied us the opportunity to amend the legislation, and then they dropped a 400 page amendment... that's what's wrong with the process, and that's why rushing is wrong...

And now we learn they rushed to do it with sweetheart deals that have erroded the public's confidence and it's politically grotesque."

Nebraska Gov. Heineman to Ben Nelson: Give back the Cash $$$

"Absolutely. We don't want a special deal"

Nebraska Republican Governor Heineman told Democratic Senator Ben Nelson to give Majority Leader Harry Reid back his $100 million bribe. Reid slipped the bribe in the Obamacare bill to buy Nelson's vote.

At 1:10 in:

GRETA: What about the money coming to your State. Are you willing to give up the $100 million that's coming to Nebraska?

GOV. HEINEMAN: Absolutely. Nebraska doesn't want a special deal. We only want a fair deal.

Libertarian Policy Expert Peter Ferrara says there’s a Huge Difference between Major Parties

Libertarians and others who see no difference - "gullible boobs"

From Eric Dondero:

Many Libertarians, particularly those in the Libertarian Party, like to say there's "no difference between the Democrats and Republicans." Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum is their common refrain.

Now, top libertarian policy analyst Peter Ferrara is taking fellow libertarians and others on the Right to task for being sucked into Obama's seeming "post-partisanship." Ferrara points out that with a straight party-line vote on Health Care, and near Party-line vote on Cap & Trade, the old Tweedle-dee, Tweedle-dum line has become obsolete.

Ferrara argues that Obama has proven to be the ultimate Uber-Leftist extremist Partisan.

Excerpt from "Too Many Democrats in Washington" at AS Political Hay.

From the American Spectator Dec. 23:

The Senate's votes this week on the pending government takeover of health care are highly instructive. With all 60 Democrats voting yes, and all 40 Republicans voting no, the simplistic homily that there is no difference between the parties has now proven to be a very costly fallacy...

the House passed the President's cap and trade tax bill on a virtual party line vote. Then the House did the same with its health bill. Now we have the completely partisan Senate vote as well...

This has been a persistent pattern all year. When campaigning for office in 2008, candidate Obama promised the American people a new era of post-partisanship, where he would bring Democrats and Republicans together to solve the nation's problems. There was nothing in Obama's ultraliberal background to suggest he would be remotely capable of this. Sure enough, since his election, this promise of post-partisanship has proven to be boob bait for the gullible.

He goes on to call so-called moderate Democrat Senators Ben Nelson, Jim Webb, Mark Warner, Blanche Lincoln and Evan Bayh, "phonies," who have "duped the voters of their state."

Ferrara continues, that in contrast to the Republicans:

Democrats are the party of Big Government bureaucracy and runaway government spending.

Peter Ferrara is a libertarian public policy analyst based in DC. He has worked for the Cato Institute, and other economic libertarian groups such as Americans for Tax Reform. In 2005 he received national acclaim, along with vicious criticism from the Left, for having authored the outline for President Bush's Social Security privatization plan.

An Obama meets with Islamic Terrorist supporter Libyan President Moamer Kadhafi

Breaking News out of Africa...

Barack Obama's elderly grandmother has traveled to Libya to honor Moamer Kadhafi. Sarah Obama is a lifelong Muslim, and is a member of the Muslim-dominated Luo Tribe in northern Kenya. The Luos currently have nominal control of the Kenyan government. Luo Tribe member Raila Odinga, and Obama ally, is Prime Minister.

The Libyan President has been in the news recently for harboring convicted Lockerbie bombing terrorist Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi. Scottish courts convicted the Libyan terrorist for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. Al-Megrahi is responsible for the deaths of 270 people, including 189 Americans. But UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government gave him a reprieve last summer and allowed him to return to Libya.

From the Singapore Press Straights Times, Dec. 23:

Kadhafi meets Obama 'granny'

TRIPOLI - LIBYAN leader Moamer Kadhafi received the third wife of the grandfather of US President Barack Obama on Tuesday, Libyan state media reported.

Mrs Sarah Obama, who the US leader refers to as his granny... came to Libya to congratulate Mr Kadhafi on his efforts to unify the African continent...

She told the Libyan leader she had come 'to tell him of her pride as an African citizen in the efforts he has made to unify the African continent and his humanitarian initiatives for Africans,' JANA said.

Sarah Hussein Onyango Obama is 87 years old, and lives in a small village in Western Kenya. She gained notoriety in 2007 for making two claims to interviewers that she was present at Barack Hussein Obama's birth in Kenya.

(H/t WND)

Red State America is about to get Bigger, as in Texas-sized Big

Texas will gain 4 new Congressional Seats: Big Losers - New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio & Illinois

From Eric Dondero:

In addition to the growing trend of Party Switchers, and an unfavorable electoral environment for the Donkey Party in 2010, Democrats may be facing some very unfavorable demographic trends in the coming years.

According to new Census figures, the increasingly solid Republican South stands to gain a multitude of new seats for Congress, after 2010. Texas stands to gain an astonishing 4 new congressional seats. Other winners include: Florida, Arizona, Nevada and Utah.

According to an independent analysis by Polidata, LLC:

[This will] confirm expectations that voters living in manufacturing states are beginning to retire and head south or are otherwise leaving their homes in pursuit of new jobs.

From The Hill:

Nine states, all but one of which are located in the Northeast or Midwest — Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania — could each lose one seat next year, according to the firm.

Consequently, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington state could each gain one seat.

The report cited Texas as the big winner, set to gain 4 new seats. It also cited Ohio as possibly losing 2 seats. Obviously, Louisiana is losing a seat do to the special circumstance of migration caused by Katrina.

Johanns, We Nebraskans "don’t want a special deal"

Calls his Senate colleague Ben Nelson "Un-Nebraskan"

Republican Senator Mike Johanns was quoted yesterday highly critical of his colleague Ben Nelson's decision to trade his vote for a bribe for the State. Nelson got what ammounted to $100 million for Nebraska paid for by the Federal Government for future Medicare payments, in exchange for his "Yes" vote on the Health Care package.

Nebraska's Republican Governor John Heineman said yesterday, that he would "absolutely" oppose the State taking the money, which he said amounted to a bribe.

Nelson is receiving condemnation statewide from all quarters for his vote trade. Even the liberal press in Omaha have been running cartoons lampooning him, and lambasting him in editorials.

From Politico.com, this morning:

“We don’t like that,” Johanns, also a former governor, said in an interview. “We just think that’s so un-Nebraskan. You know, we live out there on the prairie. It’s hot in the summer. It’s cold in the winter, and we’re kind of less-government sort of people. We don’t want a special deal.”

Johanns continued:

“This violated our sense of ethics.”

Ohio college student regrets vote for Obama: Calls on fellow youth to turn libertarian Republican

"We have a historic opportunity to participate, to push for a libertarian Republican Party with a live and let live agenda consistent with our generation’s principles..."

by Nate Nelson

The Democratic Party is waging an intergenerational war. Their primary targets? Those of us who are 35 years old and younger. The question is: Are we going to fight or are we going to surrender?

Socialists, by definition, are the enemies of youth. The Marxist imperative — “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” — exhorts socialists to enslave the young, requiring our hard work and then taking what we earn from our work and giving it to older generations.

Who will pay for insolvent entitlements for the elderly like Social Security and Medicare? We will. Those well over the age of 35 initiated the government takeover of health care, but we will benefit the least from it while paying the most for it (h/t The Two Malcontents). Those over the age of 35 are engaging in massive deficit spending primarily for their own benefit, but we will bear the responsibility of paying that debt back. Congressmen and senators who are far older than 35 are planning to implement the largest tax increase in American history in the dubious pursuit of curbing carbon emissions, but citizens under 35 will pay those taxes and suffer through the job loss created by such stifling taxation.

Democrats at the state and local levels won’t balance their budgets by cutting spending. So what do they do instead? They tax your college tuition to pay pensions, insisting that providing income for the retired is more important than your education. You can bet that a similar tax is coming to a college town near you. Meanwhile, in California, college tuition is going up 32% because of the ineptitude of liberal Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democratic legislature. Here in Ohio, at my own Ohio University, I’m looking forward to a 3.5% tuition increase next year because of fiscal irresponsibility on the part of Gov. Ted Strickland and OU administrators.

People from our generation turned out in record numbers to elect Barack Obama last year and give Democrats huge majorities in both chambers of Congress. Maybe you were one of them. I was, and I’m smart enough to regret it today because I see them using their power to subjugate my future to the insatiable hunger of the state. How many UC students helped elect the legislators responsible for their 32% tuition increase? How many OU students hit the ballot box for Ted Strickland?

If you were duped like I was duped, it’s a forgivable offense. The genius of socialism is that it exploits youthful inexperience and idealism to its own advantage. Socialists make utopian promises of hope and change, of slowing the rise of the oceans and healing the planet, but they never explain to the young people they’re busy mesmerizing that these promises come at a cost. The cost is your freedom and prosperity, yours specifically.

If you were duped, you’re forgiven. But the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. I began this post asking a very simple question: Will we fight or will we surrender? If we turn our heads and ignore the political process next year and in 2012, we surrender. If we get all wrapped up in fads and third parties that aren’t electorally viable, if we declare ourselves Anarchists or Greens or Libertarians, we surrender. If we go back to the ballot box and cast votes for the same Democrats who are waging intergenerational war against us, we surrender.

I, for one, am going to fight. If you want to fight, if you’re not willing to give up your freedom and prosperity in exchange for empty utopian promises, then you should join me. The alternative, the only alternative, is the only existing political opposition — and that is the Republican Party. It’s at a crossroads right now, a time of soul-searching and getting back to basics. Those of us who are under 35 have a historic opportunity to participate, to push for a libertarian Republican Party with a live and let live agenda consistent with our generation’s principles. We can either participate or we can withraw. But remember, withdrawal is surrender and your future, yours, is at stake.

Don’t surrender. Fight. Join the Republican resistance and demand freedom and prosperity for Generations Y and Z. This is your wake-up call.

Editor's Note - Nate Nelson, is a twenty-something OU Poli Sci Student and now active College Republican. He describes his views as "Neo-Libertarian." His favorite politicians: Jim DeMint, Sarah Palin, Aaron Schock and Benjamin Netanyahu. His blog is From the Rust Belt

Ohio’s Ted Strickland blasts Kasich’s plan to Abolish the State Income Tax

Republican for Governor, fmr. Congressman John Kasich, has been campaigning on a platform of abolishing the state income tax. Kasich believes the move would help spur Ohio's weak double-digit unemployment plagued economy. The incumbent Democrat Governor disagrees.

According to Examiner.com, from a recent town hall for Ohio Youth:

The still young-looking Kasich... said lowering overhead and modernizing and shrinking government would entice companies to again do business in the Buckeye State.

He again said the state's income tax is a "strangle" to small business...

From Cleveland.com, Dec. 21:

Asked about his challenger, the governor criticized Kasich's plan to phase out the state's income tax. Kasich has offered little detail on how he would replace that money in the state's general revenue fund.

"If the citizens of Ohio think times are tough now, if you were to eliminate nearly 40 percent of our state's general revenue you would see. . . our state fall backwards quickly," Strickland said. "And that's what he seems to be advocating with the elimination of the state income tax."

Currently 9 States do not have an Income Tax, including Texas, Florida, Tennessee, New Hampshire and Alaska.

Pro-Defense Libertarian GOPer Rep. Tom McClintock warns of Iran’s Nuclear ambitions

Stands in Strong Support of Israel

Known more so for his staunch fiscal conservatism rather than foreign policy views, California Congressman Tom McClintock (R) rose on the House floor to deliver the following remarks.

House floor remarks via the Auburn Journal on-line, Dec. 16:

Iran’s regime has consistently lied to the world over its nuclear ambitions. Yesterday’s revelation that Iran has been working on nuclear bomb detonators, should convince the most naïve voices in our nation of Iran’s ultimate intention.

I do not believe that petroleum sanctions alone will dissuade the Iranian regime from its obvious intention to acquire nuclear weapons; nor from its stated goal of “wiping Israel off the map,” nor from its unremitting hostility toward our country.

But I do believe it will send a vital message of growing Western resolve at a critical moment in world history. Iran should interpret the House’s action today as an overwhelming expression of American commitment that spans the wide spectrum of political views within our nation.

Mass Dem for Senate Martha Coakley, says Reagan was bad for America

Republican Scott Brown defends Reagan's record

Republican nominee Scott Brown and Democrat Martha Coakley squared off in a live debate on radio station WBZ Boston last night. Both are vying for the Ted Kennedy seat. The special election is Jan. 19.

The two candidates disagreed sharply over a number of issues. But Coakley may have stumbled towards the end, making what many would regard as an insulting comment to a former President.

From Boston.com:

They disagreed, however, over Ronald Reagan’s effectiveness in the second half of the century.

“While everybody thought he was fun to have a beer with . . . I think that he did a great disservice to this country,’’ Coakley said.

“I have to respond to that,’’ Brown said. “He brought great pride to our country at a time when we needed it and helped to bring down the Soviet Union, Iron Curtain. Just to [say] go out and have a beer with him, that’s, I think, inappropriate.’’

Libertarian candidate Joe Kennedy (real name), also participated, but was mainly relegated to the background.

Next Party Switchers in the House – Travis Childers of MS, Bobby Childers of AL, or Walt Minnick of Idaho?

"GOP sources hint that there may be more party switches to come..."

Under reported political story of the year: Since September over 40 Democrat elected officials in at least 5 states have switched to the Republican Party. They include county clerks, judges, a state attorney general, and one state representative. The switches have come in Vermont, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas.

Yesterday, a United States Congressman switched to the Republican Party from the State of Alabama: Parker Griffith of the AL's 1st District. Now, there's news of even more to come. Four names come up most frequently. And all four have voting records even further to the conservative side than Griffith's.

From the Hotline (National Journal) Dec. 24:

But after a Dec. in which 4 Dems in swing districts announced they would not seek re-election, Griffith's decision to abandon his party cannot be seen as anything but a blow to Dems. If someone with his voting record is deciding to run as a GOPer instead of a Dem, that could suggest he is seeing polling that scares him.

Expect GOPers to suggest that the next to flip may be Reps. Walt Minnick (D-ID), Bobby Bright (D-AL) and Travis Childers (D-MS). All 3 represent deep red districts, and all 3 vote with their party 80% of the time or less -- a lower frequency than Griffith voted with Dem leaders, according to the Washington Post vote tracker.

GOP sources hint that there may be more party switches to come, sounding as confident as they have been with an impending, but not yet obvious, wave of retirements.

Meanwhile, MSNBC identifies three potential switchers post-Griffith switch, including two who made the Hotline list:

The other three: Walt Minnick (ID), Bobby Bright (AL) and Gene Taylor (MS).