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Home Front: Politix
71% of NJ voters say corruption is a "very serious problem" - Corzine shows slight gains
New Quinnipiac poll finally has a tiny bit of good news for beleaguered Democratic Governor Jon Corzine. Corzine still has a dismal approval rating (36%) and still trails his Republican challenger Chris Christie by a wide margin (9 points), but both numbers are up slightly from Quinnipiac's survey last month.

Christie (R) 51 (-2 vs. last poll in July)
Corzine (D) 42 (+1)

Overall, Christie now leads Corzine by 12.1% in the RCP Average.

Corzine's 36% approval rating is a three point improvement from last month, while his disapproval rating dropped two points to 58%.

These slight improvements come amid one of the biggest corruption busts in New Jersey history. According to the Quinnipiac survey, 71% of voters say corruption is a "very serious problem" in New Jersey, with another 22% declaring it a "somewhat serious problem." Additionally, when asked which party is more associated with the corruption issue, 50% said the Democrats, while only 15% said Republicans and 34% said they didn't know.

Despite those numbers, when asked if the recent arrest of many New Jersey Democrats on corruption charges made them less inclined to vote for Corzine, 67% said "no" while only 28% said "yes."

Lastly, Corzine does lead Christie by six points (42-36) on the all important question "who would you rather spend an afternoon at the Sandy Hook beach with?"
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 08/11/2009 14:16 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Rep. John Dingell: Health Care Opponents Remind Me of the Klan & White Supremacists
That's because he's

a) an idiot, and
b) ignoring the non-white members of the crowd.

Not everyone is as perceptive as they think themselves.
Posted by: Beavis || 08/11/2009 13:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Funny, because the health care supporters and the tactics they are using to silent people and strong arm them into submission remind me of the nazis.
Posted by: DarthVader || 08/11/2009 14:48 Comments || Top||

#2  I'll take the "Klan" over the Geheime Staatspolizei which Dingell represents.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2009 15:21 Comments || Top||

#3  The Klan, eh, Rep. Dingdong Dingell?

You mean like your fellow Democrat Senator Robert "Sheets" Byrd?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 08/11/2009 16:04 Comments || Top||

#4  RKC: "Health care proponents remind me of the Sturmabteilung."
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 08/11/2009 16:28 Comments || Top||

#5  if Dingell entered into a civil union with Marion Berry would they both be Dinglell-Berry's?
Posted by: Gerthudion Gragum1387 || 08/11/2009 16:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Perhaps he's worried about being lynched.

Perhaps he should be!
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 08/11/2009 17:30 Comments || Top||

#7  No need, GG1387 - they both are already. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 08/11/2009 17:58 Comments || Top||


NV Poll: Reid Would Lose to Lowden
New poll in Nevada by Vitale & Associates (July 29-30, 510 LV, MoE +/-4.4%) shows incumbent Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid losing by six points to Sue Lowden, chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Party, 44-38, with 10% undecided.

From the Las Vegas Review-Journal write up:


Pollster Todd Vitale said the most telling numbers might be the ones related to Reid.

In three Reid-related categories -- image, approval and whether they would vote to re-elect -- respondents gave the senator a thumbs down. Just 39 percent viewed Reid favorably, and 34 percent said they would vote to re-elect him.

"All of those are very, very telling pieces of information," said Vitale, who has been a pollster for 15 years. "I've never seen an incumbent with numbers this bad who hadn't had some scandal."

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 08/11/2009 10:26 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I've never seen an incumbent with numbers this bad who hadn't had some scandal.

Looting the public treasury for patronage isn't a scandal? /rhetorical question.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/11/2009 10:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Reid doen't need a scandal since he is a complete disgrace.
Posted by: DarthVader || 08/11/2009 11:15 Comments || Top||

#3  ...You know, I've been saying since the 2000 elections that we're going to see a (D)incumbent at the national level (Congress/Senate/President)who is going to lose - and lose big - and refuse to leave office.

Any takers on whether or not Reid will be the guy?

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 08/11/2009 12:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Favorable rating below 50% is very bad news for any incumbent. 39% is death.
Posted by: Iblis || 08/11/2009 13:38 Comments || Top||

#5  Peloski has been shooting her mouth off like crazy but Reed has been pretty quite. He knows now is not the time to give his opponent ammunition for the coming race.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 08/11/2009 13:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Smartest thing Harry could do is give up being Senate Majority Leader and spend the next year working on his image back home.

Since it's the smartest thing he could do, he won't do it.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/11/2009 15:50 Comments || Top||

#7  Searchlight Nevada misses its' Village Idiot
Posted by: Frank G || 08/11/2009 16:36 Comments || Top||

#8  Speaking of village idiot has anyone seen or heard from our vice prez???
Posted by: 49 Pan || 08/11/2009 17:14 Comments || Top||

#9  Have Reid represent your state in the Senate is almost as embarrassing as Franken.
Posted by: DMFD || 08/11/2009 17:34 Comments || Top||

#10  Lowden is a former Miss New Jersey and Miss America runner-up. If Lowden is any good, she might be the Republican to walk through the door that Sarah Palin opened up.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 08/11/2009 17:56 Comments || Top||


Obama Web-Tracking Plan Stirs Privacy Fears
The Obama administration is proposing to scale back a long-standing ban on tracking how people use government Internet sites with "cookies" and other technologies, raising alarms among privacy groups.

A two-week public comment period ended Monday on a proposal by the White House Office of Management and Budget to end a ban on federal Internet sites using such technologies and replace it with other privacy safeguards. The current prohibition, in place since 2000, can be waived if an agency head cites a "compelling need."
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/11/2009 09:50 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Following Barry's democratic town hall meeting today, many evil doctors and surgeons had better watch out. In another rare Joe Biden moment, Barry alluded to "those unneeded foot amputations of diabetes patients as opposed to medical professionals providing badly needed preventative treatment."
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/11/2009 15:10 Comments || Top||


Democrat fratricide: White House disputes Pelosi's view that protest is "un-American"
Jake Tapper, "Political Punch" @ ABC News

The White House disagreed this afternoon with the contention by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, that the disruptions at town hall meetings are "un-American," as the Democratic congressional leaders contended in a USA Today op-ed this morning.

"I think there's actually a pretty long tradition of people shouting at politicians in America," White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton told reporters on Air Force One when asked about the comments....
Posted by: Mike || 08/11/2009 07:46 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "under the bus, b*tch"
Posted by: Frank G || 08/11/2009 8:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Ask the White House if the protests are unbecoming of New S0cia1ist Man.


PS. Any reason why "S0cia1ist" is blocked?
Posted by: ed || 08/11/2009 8:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Nancy is in a safe district. Someone at that White House can't be sure of that for all districts [or at least 50.01 percent of those needed in 3 more years].
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/11/2009 8:42 Comments || Top||

#4  Ed: S0cia1ist is sometimes blocked as it contains the word "cia1is", an erectile dysfunction medication that generates a great deal of spam.
Posted by: Excalibur || 08/11/2009 8:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Search for "MSNBC Anchor: ''S0cia1ist' Is Becoming the New N-word'" from Newsbusters.org. Can't link it since the Word That Must Not Be Mentioned is part of the link.

Newspeak is alive and well.
Posted by: ed || 08/11/2009 8:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Thanks Excalibur.
Posted by: ed || 08/11/2009 8:51 Comments || Top||

#7  "MSNBC Anchor: ''S0cia1ist' Is Becoming the New N-word'"

If it swims like a duck, flies like a duck, waddles like a duck and quacks like duck, it's a duck. Redistribution not based upon free economy but government dictation it is. The real question is why they shy away from embracing the title if they believe their agenda is so good for America? /rhetorical question.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/11/2009 10:24 Comments || Top||

#8  Heh, both words mean dysfunctional.

Know what I think is un-American, that these elected Congress critters are not required by law to participate in at least 40 hours of open participant forums in order to qualify their position in office. Every - Single - Year.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 08/11/2009 11:19 Comments || Top||

#9  I love watching the Dems turn on each other. It's kinda' like watching sharks in a feeding frenzy. Or, should that be, minnows in a feeding frenzy?
Posted by: WolfDog || 08/11/2009 12:15 Comments || Top||

#10  There must be a third way, neither one of these wackos can be right. Perhaps its Pro-American, which neither wacko seems to be.
Posted by: whatadeal || 08/11/2009 12:33 Comments || Top||


Gillibrand open to second, 'significant' stimulus
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said she would back another big stimulus package if unemployment remains high.
And if New York gets enough to cover its state budget deficit ...
Gillibrand, in an interview Saturday with North Country Public Radio, said she could support another stimulus between $500 billion and $700 billion to help put people back to work. She said she wouldn't be surprised if lawmakers make a "second investment" to follow the $787 billion stimulus passed in February if jobs keep disappearing.
Where the money comes from she doesn't know ... maybe pixies ...
"My view is if we don't have the recovery that we're looking for in the next year and a half, [another stimulus] is something I would certainly look at, and you probably want it to be on a significant magnitude if you need it," she said.

Gillibrand said she could back more money spent on energy and infrastructure projects, which could help all of New York. She added, however, that the need for another big jobs bill will depend on how well the $787 billion package works over the next few months.

While several House Democrats have said they're open to another stimulus, the Obama administration and Senate leaders have largely avoided the topic. Like Gillibrand, the White House and top Democrats in Congress have said that the current stimulus needs to be given more time to work.

Though the unemployment rate fell from 9.5 percent in June to 9.4 percent last month, Gillibrand said more job losses could come. "I don't think we've seen exactly how high unemployment will necessarily go," she said.

The rate dropped in July for the first time in 15 months, but much of the decline was due to Americans leaving the workforce. In July, the labor force shrank by 422,000 people. In June, just 122,000 had stopped looking for jobs.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) said Congress should pass his proposed $500 billion surface transportation authorization bill to create more jobs. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has backed Oberstar's bill, said that it could serve as stimulus should one be needed later this year.

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said last month that he didn't see the need for another stimulus package when just 10 percent of the $787 billion act had taken effect.
Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How about giving each family of four $130,000, the cost of Obama's deficits. Though most will just blow it on food, fuel and other luxuries.
Posted by: ed || 08/11/2009 7:53 Comments || Top||

#2  You've pissed away the better part of 1 TRILLION dollars. You do not get a mulligan.
Posted by: eLarson || 08/11/2009 7:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Considering that relatively little of the $787 B has been spent yet, why in hell would anyone say we need a second package? The best thing to do would be to repeal what's left of the first and eliminate other spending. That would send a message and get things rolling.
Posted by: Spot || 08/11/2009 8:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Where the money comes from she doesn't know ... maybe pixies ...

Donks are basically Economic Creationists. They believe value/capital magically appears out of thin air [or off of printing presses or at the push of a computer button].
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/11/2009 8:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Gillibrand's a pimp. But I didn't know until this day, it was BarziniSchumer all along.
Posted by: Black Bart Ebberens7700 || 08/11/2009 9:17 Comments || Top||

#6  Nonsense, P2k.

They think it falls off the Magic Money Tree.™
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 08/11/2009 11:21 Comments || Top||

#7  Well...considering the amount or pre-adolescent displays on their part, you might be correct for a good number of them.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/11/2009 16:18 Comments || Top||


Intrigue In Jersey Gov Race
NEW Jersey's incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine thinks Republican challenger Chris Christie, who's clobbering him in the polls, is hiding something.

A press release sent out by Corzine, a former US senator as well as the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, accuses Christie, a major fund-raiser for George W. Bush, of failing to comply with his campaign's efforts to obtain basic information about Christie's stint as the Garden State's US attorney.

According to the release, more than 20 requests for Christie's budget, travel expenditures, and no-bid contracts made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) have gone unfilled. Jersey State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, says, "Mr. Christie's campaign Web site says he will demand greater transparency and accountability in government. So why doesn't he start with himself? What's he hiding?"

According to the most recent polls, Corzine trails Christie by anywhere from 8 to 14 percentage points.

One Republican operative tells Page Six, "It's more than a little ironic that Corzine is going on and on about transparency here after what happened with Carla Katz," referring to the governor's ex-girlfriend, the former head of New Jersey's Communication Workers Union.

In May of 2008, New Jersey Superior Court ruled that 745 pages of e-mail correspondence between Corzine and Katz should be made public in light of complaints that their relationship might have impacted negotiations between Corzine's administration and state labor unions, but his lawyers appealed the decision. Katz dated Corzine for two years before splitting in 2004.

Still, a Jersey Democratic operative said, "Everyone's wondering what's in the documents that the Corzine campaign requested." A Christie campaign rep said, "The campaign has nothing to do with fulfilling FOIA requests, and as such these requests are in the hands of the Justice Department."
Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When you have no facts, sow doubt.
Posted by: eLarson || 08/11/2009 7:58 Comments || Top||


Dingell forum rowdy; Peters' office protested
U.S. Rep. John Dingell was greeted with jeers and cheers Thursday as he tried to explain why changing the nation's health care system -- as he has advocated for more than a half century in Congress -- makes sense.

Despite what some protesters said, "there will be no payment of taxpayer funds for abortion," Dingell, 83, told the crowd.
But you aren't in charge ...
As Dingell opened the forum, Mike Sola of Milan interrupted the congressman as he pushed his son, Scott, in a wheelchair, to the podium. He said proposed changes wouldn't help Scott and called Dingell a fraud.

Even before the Romulus town hall began, opponents engaged backers. "You may be dead in five years!" shouted Val Butsicaris, 60, of Taylor. "They may euthanize you!" She referred to concerns of government rationing of care for elderly people.

Mel Hoffer, 67, of Monroe, a retired Ford quality control worker, said he supports reforms because the country needs it. There's no assurance autoworkers will continue to get health care they now have. "We don't know what's going to happen."

Earlier in Troy, several hundred protesters gathered outside the office of U.S. Rep. Gary Peters.

The news release announcing the town hall wasn't issued until Thursday morning, but by 6 p.m., when U.S. Rep. John Dingell's meeting in Romulus began, the word was out and hundreds of people showed up, many intent on disruption.

Scott Hagerstrom, the Michigan director for Americans for Prosperity -- a group opposing President Barack Obama's health care initiative -- said that after he learned about it, he sent an e-mail alerting 18,000 members in southeast Michigan.

Dingell, 83, the dean of Congress and a man passionate about changing health care in America since first being elected in 1955, wasn't deterred by protests that had occurred at similar events around the nation, including one in Petoskey on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred || 08/11/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dingell, 83, the dean of Congress..

A professional politician [ie someone who's a professional at spending other people's money]. Term limits [you failed big time Newt].
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/11/2009 7:47 Comments || Top||

#2  hundreds of people showed up, many intent on disruption

I'd of expected that from the MSM, and The Detroit Free Press fits that bill.
Posted by: Bobby || 08/11/2009 13:03 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Congress Gets an Upgrade
550 Million Slated for Purchase of Eight More Planes as Lawmakers' Travel Soars

Congress plans to spend $550 million to buy eight jets, a substantial upgrade to the fleet used by federal officials at a time when lawmakers have criticized the use of corporate jets by companies receiving taxpayer funds.

The purchases will help accommodate growing travel demand by congressional officials. The planes augment a fleet of about two dozen passenger jets maintained by the Air Force for lawmakers, administration officials and military chiefs to fly on government trips in the U.S. and abroad.

Lawmakers in the House last week added funds to buy those planes, and plus funds to buy an additional two 737s and two Gulfstream V planes. The purchases must still be approved by the Senate. The Air Force version of the Gulfstream V each costs $66 million, according to the Department of Defense, and the 737s cost about $70 million.
Posted by: ed || 08/11/2009 08:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I heard on the radio this morning that some folks are having second thoughts, especially if the DoD really doesn't want them. [hint, hint]
Posted by: Bobby || 08/11/2009 13:05 Comments || Top||

#2  From Newsmax. No link. Murtha, again!

"If the Department of Defense does not want these aircraft, they will be eliminated from the bill," said Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat who chairs the panel that approved the additional spending.

A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she supported the decision, which was expected to face resistance in the Senate.
Posted by: Bobby || 08/11/2009 13:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Let them eat cake fly coach!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/11/2009 14:28 Comments || Top||



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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2009-08-11
  Kuwait arrests al-Qaida linked group
Mon 2009-08-10
  Tests say Noordin Mohammad Top's not the dead guy
Sun 2009-08-09
  Surprise! Abbas reelected Fatah chief
Sat 2009-08-08
  Noordin Mohammad Top reported titzup
Fri 2009-08-07
  Fat Lady sings for Baitullah
Thu 2009-08-06
  Bill Clinton springs journalists from NKor
Wed 2009-08-05
  Ansar al-Islam Number 2 nabbed in Mosul
Tue 2009-08-04
  Failed Coup Attempt In Qatar
Mon 2009-08-03
  Prince Bandar under house arrest: report
Sun 2009-08-02
  Iran puts 100 rioters on trial after post-election unrest
Sat 2009-08-01
  Al-Shabaab gets $8m for French hostage
Fri 2009-07-31
  Nigeria's Boko Haram chief deader than Tut
Thu 2009-07-30
  Nigeria to hunt down Islamic radicals: President
Wed 2009-07-29
  Nigeria fighting rages as death toll passes 300
Tue 2009-07-28
  Eight security guards killed in $7 million Baghdad bank robbery


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