Daily Archives: August 8, 2017

The Liberal party has elected to stick with its plebiscite policy with a postal vote as a backup rather than moving immediately to a free vote, after a special party room discussion on Monday evening.

Liberals were told at the opening of the party room meeting the cabinet was in favour of resuscitating the governments original plebiscite proposal, followed by a postal vote in the event the plebiscite is rejected by parliament once again.

After a two-hour discussion, only a handful of Liberal MPs, some sources say six, others say eight, raised their hands when Malcolm Turnbull asked people to indicate whether or not they wanted the plebiscite dumped now, and the party to move to a free vote.

No formal vote was taken in the party room on the plebiscite, either the current policy or the postal option.

Only one of the group of Liberal campaigners for marriage equality who have reopened the internally incendiary issue over the winter recess Warren Entsch publicly reserved his position during Monday nights meeting on bringing on a bill to legalise same sex marriage after the Senate had reconsidered the plebiscite.

But while the party room tacitly endorsed the position favoured by the cabinet to reintroduce the plebiscite, then proceed with a postal vote in the event the plebiscite was again knocked back by the parliament a number of concerns were ventilated during the meeting about the postal vote.

Government sources have told Guardian Australia the attorney general, George Brandis, also has reservations about the postal vote option.

The Victorian Liberal MP Russell Broadbent said the government should just maintain its original policy, not the postal vote, and the New South Wales MP Julian Leeser expressed concerns about the postal vote, arguing if the government tried hard enough, it would get the original proposal through.

The former prime minister Tony Abbott and Victorian Liberal Kevin Andrews also said the government should maintain the original plebiscite position.

Abbott said if the government moved off its plebiscite commitment, then voters would again gain the impression the government didnt stand for anything or fight for anything.

The prime minister pushed back against Abbotts intervention, saying the government did plenty and stood for plenty.

Entsch told the ABC on Monday night he was happy to go through the process of seeing the original plebiscite proposal resubmitted to the Senate, but he predicted the crossbench would not budge.

Entsch also argued the postal plebiscite was fraught. If they then put up a plebiscite, a postal plebiscite, they will see the warts and the prickles attached to that.

Conservative MP Craig Kelly said after the meeting the Senate negotiating team should be given wider latitude to attempt to get the original plebiscite policy through the Senate.

Specifically, he suggested the government could compromise by ditching the $15m of public funds for each of the yes and no case in the plebiscite because theres been so much debate it may not be needed, and even consider what the bill would look like.

Marriage equality campaigners have foreshadowed a legal challenge to the postal plebiscite in the event the government proceeds down that path without appropriate underpinning legislation.

In an effort to strong-arm the Senate ahead of the reintroduction of the plebiscite legislation, the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, told reporters after the Liberal party meeting if there were concerns about the legality of the voluntary postal vote, then I would encourage those Senators who are so concerned to consider supporting the governments bill for a compulsory attendance plebiscite.

The government is committed to keep faith with the promise we made at the last election, Cormann said Monday night.

It is now up to others in the Senate, who may have voted against the plebiscite in the past, the full compulsory attendance plebiscite, and make a decision on whether they prefer a compulsory attendance plebiscite or whether they prefer a postal voluntary plebiscite.

Cormann declined to say how much any postal vote would cost.

Some in the government are hopeful that marriage equality groups could swing behind the original plebiscite proposal if the alternative is a postal vote.

Advocates were giving no sign of that on Monday night. Long-time marriage equality advocate Rodney Croome urged Liberals to press ahead with trying to engineer a parliamentary vote.

We urge Liberals who support marriage equality to table marriage equality legislation and cross the floor to vote for it, Croome said.

Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays national spokesperson, Shelley Argent, said: We will lobby the Senate to continue to oppose a plebiscite and we will move to have a postal vote struck down in the high court.

We do not accept, and will never accept, the demeaning terms and conditions the government has attached to marriage equality.

Political parties in the Senate opposed to the plebiscite have given no sign they will budge on their opposition to the governments proposal.

Same sex marriage will be considered again by the joint party room meeting in Canberra on Tuesday, and will continue to play out as a divisive issue for much of the rest of the year.

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Marriage equality: Liberals vote to keep plebiscite with postal vote as backup - The Guardian

John Green

An airline providing subsidized service to Dodge City and Liberal has filed for bankruptcy and notified local and federal officials it will be discontinuing its Kansas services.

Recognizing the airline, Alaska-based PenAir, has struggled almost since it began providing service to the area about 11 months ago, however, Liberal Airport Manager Debbie Giskie sees the change as an opportunity.

I think it was struggling and had some difficulties in the past, Giskie said. This is an opportunity to search for another carrier and try to build up the service.

PenAir filed for Chapter 11 reorganization with the state of Alaska. The filing will not affect scheduled air service operations in Alaska or Boston, the airline reported in a news release.

However, PenAirs Portland, Oregon and Denver, Colorado hubs will begin the process of closing scheduled service over the next 90 days, the release stated.

The Denver hub serves Dodge City and Liberal with twice-daily weekday and once-daily weekend service on a 30-seat turboprop plane.

Through April, Dodge had about 2,800 boardings and Liberal nearly 1,950, according to a previous report in The News about federal Essential Air Service (EAS) subsidies.

The steps we are taking today will allow PenAir to emerge as a stronger airline, while continuing our focus on safe operations, PenAir CEO and Chairman Danny Seybert stated in the news release. We will be working with a restructuring officer to present a reorganization plan that will allow the management team to focus on our employees, safe operations, retiring debt and taking care of our customers.

Because it received EAS subsidies, the airline must get approval from the federal Department of Transportation before it can discontinue the route.

That gives federal officials time to advertise for a new provider, Giskie said.

Besides Dodge City and Liberal, the company also plans to discontinue EAS routes operating between Denver and North Platt, Kearney and Scottsbluff, Nebraska.

Once approved, this transition usually takes 30 to 90 days until a new carrier can be secured in the market, the release noted.

PenAir, founded in 1955 by Orin Seybert in Pilot Point, Alaska, serves eight destinations within Alaska and three routes in the Boston area, including flights to Presque Isle, Maine and Plattsburgh, New York. PenAir has 700 employees.

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Airline plans to discontinue subsidized service to Dodge City, Liberal - The Hutchinson News

The song Chicago, made famous by Old Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra, refers to Chicago as a toddlin town. Sadly today, thanks to decades of dreadful leadership, Chicago more resembles a tottering town, as in a place nearing collapse.

Let me preface my indictment of Chicago and particularly Mayor Rahm Emanuel with the important disclaimer that I love this city and Ive raised a family here for two decades. If cut, I would bleed the orange and navy of the Monsters of the Midway, my beloved Chicago Bears.

But no amount of hometown affinity can color the reality of a city in systemic decline. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that from 2015 to 2016, Cook County where Chicago is located lost more people than any county in America. A U-Haul rental from Chicago to Texas can cost as much as six times more than the return trip, an indicator of the heavy outward flow of people. Its no wonder people vote with their feet and escape the endemic corruption, escalating taxes, and rampant crime. As Ive argued repeatedly on Fox News, Chicago is certainly the most dangerous place in the developed world, with over 2,200 shooting already this year.

So what is Mayor Emanuel doing to address this migration out of our city? How is he ameliorating the mammoth $838 million property tax increase thats crushing disposable incomes in our city? Is he searching for solutions for the most under-funded pension system in America, obligations that will cripple our budget in just a few years? Is Rahm empowering police to stem the bloody carnage that afflicts the streets, especially in predominantly black neighborhoods?

Chicago, like other blue cities, has pursued a so-called sanctuary city policy, whereby police are forbidden from alerting federal authorities when they arrest someone for a crime and that perpetrator is also in the United States without permission.

No. Instead, Mayor Emanuel is wasting time and focus and resources on suing the Department of Justice for daring to enforce federal law. Chicago, like other blue cities, has pursued a so-called sanctuary city policy, whereby police are forbidden from alerting federal authorities when they arrest someone for a crime and that perpetrator is also in the United States without permission. I prefer the term Renegade Cities because such politically correct nonsense hardly provides sanctuary to the victims and cops forced to deal with criminal aliens who are allowed to hide in plain sight.

The real world ramifications of such willful disregard for federal protections can prove horrible, as evidenced just last week in Portland, Oregon, where local police ignored an ICE deportation order for a 20-times deported illegal immigrant, who was then released and committed a brutal sexual assault on a 65-year-old woman sleeping in her own home.

Chicago is a tottering town a fiscal and public safety implosion. Mayor Emanuel would do well to address our very real and imminent problems rather than posturing for liberal elites and trying to turn the Justice Department and federal law enforcement into the bad guys.

Steve Cortes is a Fox News contributor, former Trump campaign operative and spokesman for the Hispanic 100. For two decades, he worked on Wall Street as a trader and strategist.

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Chicago Mayor Emanuel would rather posture for liberal elites than enforce the law - or fix his city - Fox News

Everyone knows that Republicans have political problems, from their failure to repeal Obamacare to President Trumps erratic tweets to his sputtering efforts to make populism a governing philosophy. But what about Democrats? While their problems dont get as much media attention, Democrats are now both the minority party and a toxic brand to much of middle-class America.

Take last Friday, when Governor Jim Justice of West Virginia announced he was becoming a Republican. The Democrats walked away from me, he told a Trump rally in Huntington. Today I tell you as West Virginians, I cant help you any more being a Democrat governor.

I think its a sign of the times, Jose Gonzalez, a 37-year-old project manager at a local steel plant, told the Washington Post at the rally. The Democratic Party used to look out for the downtrodden, but more and more working people are going for Republicans.

Trump certainly broke the mold in 2016. He did better among low-income whites than among upper-income whites the first time a Republican has done that at the presidential level. He won 62 percent of the vote among white voters without a college degree who make less than $30,000 a year. In 2012, Mitt Romney had only won 52 percent of votes in that group. They made the difference in key working-class states that Trump won, carrying them for the GOP for the first time since the 1980s Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Republicans now control the White House and both houses of Congress and have complete executive and legislative control in 26 states.

Since the November election, Trumps popularity has largely held with those voters. Concerns about his lack of focus have been assuaged by the recent growth in jobs and wages. Democrats have not improved their position in part because of their obsession with leading the resistance against Trump. A Washington Post/Abc News poll published July 19 found that 52 percent of Americans dont believe the Democratic party stands for anything beyond opposing Trump. Even 42 percent of nonwhite voters agree that Trump-bashing is all the party is focused on.

The Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic party is convinced it has a solution: have the party move left. People are looking for a populism, but a multi-racial populism, Heather McGhee, of the leftist voting-rights group Demos, said on Meet the Press this morning. Theyre looking for candidates who say, Im willing to take on the wealthy and powerful, and also Im not willing to let the wealthy and powerful divide us from each other so that they can have the spoils of our great nation.

But thats not what the polls taken by Democrats themselves are showing. The House Majority PAC last month released an exhaustive survey. McClatchys Alex Roarty summarized the findings as white voters without a college degree still view Trump relatively favorably, their opinion of Democrats is in the dumps, and they reject some of the partys favored economic initiatives.

Asked which party will improve the economy and create jobs, Republicans have a 35-point edge among white working-class Democrats. They have a 19-point edge when it comes to ensuring people are rewarded for their hard work, and a 15-point edge on middle-class tax cuts. Democrats have only a four-point edge on health care, a surprise given the unpopularity of the GOPs failed Senate plan.

The poll and its accompanying focus group found that Democrats are hurt by the perception that they care mostly about upper-income concerns such as free or reduced college tuition, and they look down with thinly veiled contempt on working-class voters. Many of those voters dont think college is a ticket to prosperity, and many prefer blue-collar jobs. In short, when these voters hear people tell them that the answer to their concerns is college, their reaction is to essentially say dont force your version of the American Dream on me, the House Majority PAC concluded.

Indeed, the biggest challenge that liberals will face in trying to win back the voters who have drifted to the GOP is finding a way to conceal their agenda which is now geared toward identity politics, job-killing environmentalism, and expanding the welfare state. We are seeing an ongoing class war by liberal elites against the middle and working classes, Joel Kotkin, a demographer and executive director of the Houston-based Center for Opportunity Urbanism, told me in an interview.

Donald Trump won because he recognized the nature of that class war and appealed to those who were being hurt by it. Democrats arent likely to win back the voters theyve lost until they realize that many of those voters wont even listen to them if there isnt a truce in the class war they see being waged against them.

READ MORE: Whats the Matter with Democrats? The Lefts Hamburger Problem Is Not Going Away The Fusion Party: Democrats and the Progressive Media

John Fund is NROs national-affairs correspondent.

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Liberals' Class Warfare on the Working Class Keeps Trump Afloat - National Review

DENVER A free market guy like the Independence Institutes Jon Caldara normally doesnt have much in common with progressives, except when it comes to ballot measures.

Liberal activists are furious after spending millions of dollars to pass left-wing ballot initiatives in November in states such as Oklahoma, Maine and South Dakota, only to see Republican lawmakers use their legislative muscle to gut, modify or outright repeal them this year.

Mr. Caldara feels their pain. A frequent sponsor of right-tilting ballot measures in Colorado, he has watched for years as Democratic state legislators chip away at a conservative favorite: the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, passed by voters in 1992.

The coup de grace came in June, when the Colorado state legislature voted to levy a charge on hospitals without putting the issue on the ballot, even though the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, also known as TABOR, requires all tax increases to go before the voters.

There is no better poster child for the political system destroying an initiative by the citizenry, Mr. Caldara said. Let me say it really clear: TABOR is dead. The Taxpayer Bill of Rights, for all intents and purposes, is dead in Colorado.

In other words, the left now is learning the hard way what the right has long known: Just because the voters pass a ballot proposal doesnt mean the state legislature wont fight it.

For years, state ballot measures were the go-to mechanism for conservatives shut out of the lawmaking process by Democrats. But with Republicans in control of 32 state legislatures 33 with the nonpartisan Nebraska unicameral the citizen initiative process increasingly has morphed into a tool of the left.

Seventy-six initiatives appeared on U.S. ballots in November, the highest number in more than a decade, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts Stateline blog, and many were from the left, including minimum wage increases, tax hikes and criminal justice reforms.

Justine Sarver, executive director of the liberal Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, cited 2016 progressive ballot triumphs on raising the minimum wage in four states, increasing taxes in two and providing workers with mandatory sick leave in two states. She predicted those wins are only the beginning.

At BISC we are already more than one year into a multi-year, multi-state, proactive strategy, Roadmap to 2020, which will put measures on the ballot to address economic inequalities and expand access to democracy nationwide, Ms. Sarver said in a January press release.

In Maine, voters approved a marijuana legalization initiative as well as three left-wing measures an overhaul of the election system, a tipped minimum wage hike and a 3 percent income tax increase for top earners but the euphoria for the winners was short-lived.

No sooner had the Legislature convened than Republicans took on the measures, repealing the income tax hike, watering down the minimum wage law with the support of restaurant servers who feared it would reduce their incomes and securing a statement from the Maine Supreme Court indicating that swaths of the ranked-choice voting system were unconstitutional.

Ironically, the progressive ballot victories came even as Republicans gained ground in the Maine Legislature.

Its a result of the frustration that they have that they cant get these bad policies through the Legislature because we have a governor who will veto destructive policies, said Jason Savage, Maine Republican Party executive director. Instead, theyre just going directly to the ballot to pass their utopian ideas and not even trying anymore.

Will of the voters

The Republican Partys dismantling came at a price. In July, Maine Gov. Paul LePage briefly declared a partial government shutdown as lawmakers wrestled with headaches triggered by the passage of the measures, which dominated the legislative session.

It puts us in a defensive posture defending taxpayers, defending peoples freedom, defending the Constitution, said Mr. Savage. It would be a lot nicer for Republicans to talk about the policies that they think would help people instead of undoing policies that are hurting the economy or violating the Constitution.

There is no end in sight: Maine progressives already have placed an initiative on the November ballot to fund an expansion of Medicaid.

While Maine may represent the most extreme example of progressive ballot activism in Republican-dominated political territory, the Pine Tree State isnt alone.

In South Dakota, Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed in January a repeal of Initiated Measure 22, a campaign finance proposal passed two months earlier with pressure from a liberal Massachusetts advocacy group, after a court found it unconstitutional.

In Oklahoma, two ballot measures backed by the American Civil Liberties Union and approved in November were promptly met by Republican-sponsored repeal legislation. The bills failed, and the initiatives to reduce certain drug and property crimes to misdemeanors took effect July 1.

Progressives who have rallied behind efforts to shift their focus to the ballot initiative have decried Republican efforts to derail the measures, which include moves by state legislatures to make qualifying for the ballot more difficult.

What all these attacks have in common is a blatant contempt for the will of the voters, Ms. Sarver said. Conservatives disregard for ballot measures is especially hypocritical because they were once an important political tool for them.

Of course, conservatives also have had their best-laid ballot measures upended by Democrats. Exhibit A is same-sex marriage.

Voters in California approved same-sex marriage bans twice, in 2000 and 2008. The first time, the Democrat-controlled State Legislature voted to repeal the measure, only to have Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger veto it.

As attorney general, Jerry Brown refused to defend the traditional marriage initiative in response to a lawsuit, forcing the measures sponsors to hire private counsel. The legal challenge ultimately prevailed.

In the case of marijuana legalization, Democratic and Republican legislators in several states essentially have deferred the decision to voters. But on other issues, there is often a reason a proposal has not cleared the legislative process.

Generally speaking, its true that if the legislature thought it was a good idea, they would have done it already, said Craig Burnett, Hofstra University political science professor. Almost every policy proposed by initiative is almost by construction out of sync with what the legislature wants. If they really wanted it, they could have done it already.

That means passing the ballot initiative is only the first step. The real work begins afterward, Mr. Caldara said.

It all goes back to [Thomas] Jefferson saying the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Thats what this is, he said. Its not a victory until you secure and defend it year after year. Because they will find a way.

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With Republican turnaround, state legislatures now foil liberal ballot measures - Washington Times