One governed by people who believe they are really good at governing, the other governed by people who would rather be out hunting of fishing – Michael Barone has an excellent article contrasting the miserably failed State of California and the stunningly successful State of Texas, here’s one of many points:

…From 2000 to 2009, the Census Bureau estimates, there has been a domestic outflow of 1,509,000 people from California — almost as many as the number of immigrants coming in. Population growth has not been above the national average and, for the first time in history, it appears that California will gain no House seats or electoral votes from the reapportionment following the 2010 census…

…Americans have been voting for Texas with their feet. From 2000 to 2009, some 848,000 people moved from other parts of the United States to Texas, about the same number as moved in from abroad. That inflow has continued in 2008-09, in which 143,000 Americans moved into Texas, more than double the number in any other state, at the same time as 98,000 were moving out of California. Texas is on the way to gain four additional House seats and electoral votes in the 2010 reapportionment…

Another point in the article is that California’s legislature meet year-round, while Texas is only burdened with such 90 days every other year. Texas is a State which has a government – California is a government which has a State.

I don’t know how California gets out of the mess – my bet is that the 1.5 million who left are of the conservative, will-work-for-money mindset. This means that those remaining are ever more likely to see government as the answer – whether its as a welfare distributor or as a path to personal riches via government employment. Meanwhile, the very rich who infect Los Angeles and San Francisco will continue to vote liberal because behind their gated communities and in their enclaves of wealth and privilege, California is still going great. There is a chance of revolution in California this year – and if Californians don’t take it, I think the Golden State is doomed.

Meanwhile, out here in Nevada one of our goals is not to become “Californicated”…naturally, our liberals are starting to say that the cure for our own budget woes is a round of tax increases…including, of course, the imposition of a State income tax. This sort of thing proves liberals are impervious to reason.

And draws fire from the Civil Rights Commission:

We write to you in our individual capacities as members of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.[1] We understand that the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act (the “Akaka proposal”) is about to be brought to a vote on the House floor. We also understand that the bill will be a substitute for the one considered by the Natural Resources Committee. The bill slated for a hasty House vote was apparently negotiated behind closed doors among Hawaii’s Congressional delegation, possibly the White House, and certain state officials, although those actually involved are unclear. Indeed, more changes were reportedly made over the weekend and released less than 48 hours prior to the expected House vote. The citizens of Hawaii, Members of the Committees on Natural Resources and the Judiciary, and any other experts will not have the normal opportunity to discuss or debate the revised provisions of the bill. Nor will members of the general public.

We wish to register our profound disappointment that a bill of this great importance would be dealt with in this manner. The creation of the largest tribal entity in the history of the nation – potentially 400,000 strong – is too important a step to take this lightly.

This bill is the result of political correctness and mult-cultural nonsense run wild. The alleged gripe is that Americans dared to participate in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy as prelude to Hawaii becoming free as part of the United States. This is considered a sin because, you know, if people of white skin color are involved in conflict with people of non-white skin color, then the motivation of the white people is purely racist – a least, so liberals believe. Mostly because they are terribly ignorant of just about everything to do with humanity. No thought is given by liberals to the fact that had the tiny white community in Hawaii not acted in accordance with the wishes of the non-white community, then the overthrow would not have worked.

Anyways – now in an act of pure racism, a separate government entity is to be set up in Hawaii just for people who can claim ancestry from people who were in Hawaii presumptively prior to 1893 – given the mixed-race nature of so many Hawaiians, this will mean that an untold number of people will sign up for whatever racial goodies they can, no matter how tenuous their connection to anyone who was living in Hawaii prior to the first Europeans showing up in the 18th century (which is the last time we can be sure there were nothing but full blooded Hawaiians living there).

Just another stupid idea which will cause trouble rather than solve problems.

Do any Democrats out there have any spine, at all?

Gov. Deval Patrick won’t take anymore action to prevent a convicted terror bomber from speaking at the University of Massachusetts Amherst despite his strong opposition, he said today…

…Even though the event will be held on the state-owned Amherst campus and a professor invited Levasseur, Patrick said he will take no more action to stop the terror leader from speaking.

“I can’t control the comings and goings on campuses,” Patrick said.

When asked if the professor should leave the university, Patrick said, “You can escalate and escalate, and I’m not going to go there. I get the academic freedom, all I’m saying is there is an issue of taste and sensitivity that also ought to be considered.”

How about just going there with 10,000 other people and simply not letting the terrorist in? How about doing whatever you can to stop this desecration of higher education?

Nope, none of that…just a mild rebuke. Gotta be careful, you know, get off that liberal ranch a bit too much and you’ll pay the price…especially when you’re a bit concerned about your re-election prospects in uber-liberal Massachusetts.

Bad enough for a floundering Democrat to call a legislative session for what will likely be a round of budget cuts, fiscal hocus-pocus and tax increases – worse that he’s also putting legalization of gay marriage on the agenda:

New York, November 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Gov. David Paterson has convoked an extraordinary session of the New York State Legislature to address the state’s soaring budget deficit, as well as to pass legislation that would legalize same-sex “marriage.”

Paterson issued a special proclamation Thursday announcing the special session would convene on November 10 at noon. He said the legislature would take up consideration of the Governor’s $5.2 billion “Deficit Reduction Plan” – a proposal which promises steep cuts in government spending – along with several other items including the same-sex “marriage” bill already passed by the Assembly.

Oh, but New York is liberal and so legalizing gay marriage is ok…sure, but please recall that Maine just rejected gay marriage on Tuesday. All Paterson is doing is ensuring that the social conservatives of the GOP are absolutely on fire to defeat him and the rest of the Democrats in 2010. 1,000 points for sticking to your liberal guns, governor, but minus a million for spectacular poor timing.

Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad – and our Democrats are completely ’round the bend these days.

And more power to him – after all, it was Obama (0-2 in helping Democrats win elections in 2009) who told Patterson to get out:

The governor is now taking to the air waves to convince New Yorkers he deserves to stay in office.

“What it’s geared to do is talk about his very good record over the last year, the things he’s done for the state, including closing a $35 billion budget,” said veteran political consultant Bill Lynch.

The ads are aimed at improving Paterson’s low poll numbers and sending a message to other Democrats, including President Barack Obama, that he is determined to seek another term in office.

“Once people know the things he’s done for this state they will start to look at him differently,” said Lynch.

Paterson, whose popularity currently hovers in the 20 percent range, was seriously wounded when Obama let it be known he didn’t want Paterson to run because Republicans like Rudy Giuliani consistently beat him in the polls. But Obama’s recent lack of success in backing local candidates, including New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, has empowered Paterson.

The normal way to put this is “rats deserting the sinking ship”, but however else you want to characterize Patterson, “rat” isn’t it. He’s been a loyal, liberal Democrat for decades and Obama cut him off at the knees. Small wonder that Paterson has decided to ignore The One’s advice and do his own thing. Its better, in the end, to go down fighting than to surrender with out a fight. I think we’ll beat Patterson next year – but we’ll have beaten a fighter, not a mere poodle for Obama and the Democrat bosses.

Writing about Harry Reid, naturally, as my first entry.

Down to the wire, indeed:

Republican Chris Christie continues to hold a three-point advantage over incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine in New Jersey’s down-to-the-wire race for governor.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state, conducted Thursday night, shows Christie with 46% of the vote and Corzine with 43%. Those numbers are unchanged from earlier in the week and little changed from polling conducted the week before.

The last four Rasmussen Reports polls have shown Christie with a very slight advantage ranging from two to four percentage points each time.

If Christie does manage 46% of the vote to Corzine’s 43% on Tuesday, then he’ll have won it – that is too much of a gap for the normal run of Democrat voter fraud to overcome…if its 44/44 with only a few thousand to a few hundred votes, then Corzine will win by the simple, Democrat expedient of stealing close elections. Right now, I expect Christie to actually approach 50% in his election day totals – but New Jersey is very hard to predict, and we’ll have to see how it goes. Heck, even if Corzine manages to win by stealing, it’s still a huge setback given Obama’s vote total just a year ago in New Jersey.

…then you liberals would be going ballistic. But since its one of your own – from the New Editor:

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine (D) has personally furnished $22.6 million of the total of $24.1 million existing in his re-election campaign’s coffers — more than 90% of the total — according to the New Jersey Star-Ledger.

Gov. Corzine has outspent his two competitors in the state’s gubernatorial race, Republican Chris Christie and independent Chris Daggett, by more than 2 to 1 combined.

This 2009 general election spending is in addition to the $100 million the former Goldman Sachs co-CEO spent in his two previous campaigns for US senator and NJ governor, in 2000 and 2005, respectively.

Is this what you liberals want? Is keeping a man committed to abortion rights and profligate spending in office so important that you’ll sell yourself to a corporate shill as long as he toes your ideological line?

Unless you liberals start demanding a vote for Christie, you’ll be shown up as a bunch of power-grubbing scoundrels…

I guess they’ve entirely written off Virginia:

Sensing that victory in the race for Virginia governor is slipping away, Democrats at the national level are laying the groundwork to blame a loss in a key swing state on a weak candidate who ran a poor campaign that failed to fully embrace President Obama until days before the election.

Senior administration officials have expressed frustration with how Democrat R. Creigh Deeds has handled his campaign for governor, refusing early offers of strategic advice and failing to reach out to several key constituencies that helped Obama win Virginia in 2008, they say.

Rather ugly, isn’t it? The votes haven’t even been cast and the man groomed and selected by the Democrat establishment is already a political un-person in Democratic circles. Well, he did commit the only sin a Democrat acknowledges – the sin of losing. To be sure, he hasn’t actually lost, yet; but he will, and it looks like by a wide margin. Additionally, it looks as though the whole Democrat ticket in VA is going down with him.

So, Democrats, just one year after your sweeping triumph, you’re about to not just get beaten, but crushed, in Virginia. To be sure, you might eke out a win in New Jersey (I don’t think you will, but anything is possible), but a bare win in a heavily Democrat State will not take the sting out of losing a State you thought had fallen your way for good in 2008. Get used to it, Democrats – unless there is a massive turn around in the economy, November of 2010 will go just like November of 2009…except it will be nationwide…

I’m sure we’re all shaking in our boots:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is prepared to run a sharply negative campaign if that’s what it takes to win reelection next year, with a top adviser predicting that the Nevada Democrat will “vaporize” his Republican challengers with attack ads.

This is the Majority Leader of the United States Senate? We can and must do much better.

He’s running for governor out here in Nevada:

The son of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has formally entered the Democratic race for Nevada governor, saying the state needs to diversify its economy and stop postponing difficult decisions.

Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid said Wednesday he doesn’t think his father will have a big effect on his campaign to become the state’s top executive. He says Nevadans ask him about issues, not his father.

He says Nevada has become too reliant on the gambling industry and needs a more diverse economy to pull out of the recession.

Which is true, and credit to Rory for seeing that – but with dear, old Dad having been in the Senate all this time, you’d think we’d have a bit of that economic diversity, already. Is Rory going to point out what his Dad failed to do, and how he’ll do it better? Or will the son claim that the father has done everything he can, but we’re still screwed? Either way, it doesn’t work out well for either Reid.

Outside of that, there is something distinctly un-American in all this – its one thing for a son to follow a father in to politics, quite another when father and son are attempting to obtain high office at the same time. If Harry wanted his son to be governor, he should have refused to seek re-election. I think, in the end, that having two Reid’s on the ballot will just help convince the voters of Nevada that we should have no Reids, in office.

UPDATE: Naturally, given he’s a Democrat, his platform conflicts with the State Constitution...when this is pointed out, Reid’s determination is to find a way around that august document…like father, like son…

A long way out, but still good news:

Republican-turned-Democratic Senator Arlen Specter trails potential GOP challenger Pat Toomey by five points in an early look at Pennsylvania’s 2010 Senate race. But another Democrat, Joe Sestak, runs dead-even with the likely Republican candidate.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Pennsylvania voters shows 45% would vote for Toomey if the election were held today. Forty percent (40%) would vote for Specter, while six percent (6%) prefer a third option. Nine percent (9%) are undecided.

If Sestak wins the Democratic nomination, however, the race is a toss-up: 38% for Sestak and 37% for Toomey. In August, Sestak trailed Specter by 13 points in the race for the nomination.

The bad news is that Democrats are figuring out that Specter may be a sure-loser…on the other hand, Democrat leaders never give a darn what rank-and-file Democrats want, and so they might muscle Specter through…which would be good news for us. Even if Democrats are smart enough to nominate Sestak, there is still a very good chance we’ll win in PA next year – the Democrat “brand” is becoming more toxic by the day, and with unemployment set to be 10% or higher all through 2010, there’s not much chance Democrats will be able to burnish their image.

Thank goodness Democrats are Democrats:

Governor Corzine said Monday he’ll consider raising the state’s gas tax during a second term or diverting money from other programs to keep the fund that pays for transportation projects afloat.

Yep, that’s it: three weeks before the vote in one of the most over-taxed States of the Union, suggest that more is coming! Brilliant.

I was wonder how Christie would put this one away…

Don’t break out the champagne, yet, but things are looking good:

Republican Robert F. McDonnell has taken a commanding lead over R. Creigh Deeds in the race for governor of Virginia as momentum the Democrat had built with an attack on his opponent’s conservative social views has dissipated, according to a new Washington Post poll…

…The poll indicates that the GOP is well-positioned to emphatically end a recent Democratic winning streak, with Republicans Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli each holding identical 49 to 40 percent leads over Democrats Jody Wagner and Steve Shannon for lieutenant governor and attorney general.

On the other hand, the race for NJ governor is very tight. In the end, I expect we’ll win – but New Jersey has shown itself again and again to be a State which will vote Democrat no matter what. In a year of high unemployment and a very unpopular, incompetent Democrat governor, this might prove enough to convince even New Jersey that the GOP might be the better option.

Be that as it may, the fact that we’re surging so strongly in Virginia shows, I believe, that the effects of our 2006-08 losses have faded…we’re getting back on track. Of course, we’re being fabulously helped by the Democrats being more incompetent and corrupt than even we figured they’d be – but even taking in to consideration that help, its clear that the messages of low taxes and balanced budgets are once again winners for the GOP.

Interesting:

The gubernatorial race in New Jersey has not changed fundamentally recently, no matter what you may read in poorly produced Associated Press stories distributed by the Democratic Governors Association, the Democratic National Committee or Gov. Jon Corzine’s (D) campaign.

I’ve become accustomed to crazy rumors and assertions at the end of campaigns, and most of them are baseless.

A couple of days before Election Day 2006, CBS executives planning the network’s coverage were in a frenzy about a possible Republican surge that challenged all of their assumptions about the election and disrupted their plans for election night. After checking around with reliable pollsters, I told them the sky wasn’t falling on Democrats.

In other years, when Republicans were headed for gains, I’ve heard late rumors about Democratic surges that were equally untrue.

This in response to a recent poll which showed Democrat Governor Corzine only 4 points back against Republican challenger Christie. It was a bit of a shocker, to be sure – here is Corzine, arguably the worst governor in the nation presiding over a collapsing New Jersey economy and a hopelessly corrupt New Jersey political system, and he’s only 4 points back? It was looking like proof that a Democrat in a safely “blue” area just couldn’t be defeated. One was forced to ask: what does it take to convince Democrats that their guy is a loser?

But, then, on thinking about it, there came the realization – people aren’t that stupid. I mean, it’d be different if Corzine had been a good governor mired in problems not of his own making…but its all him, and its all bad. Then when you look in to that recent poll, you’ll see what Rothenberg notes later in his piece – while the GOP support has slipped a little bit, Corzine’s support hasn’t risen at all. Its clear what is happening in NJ – given its a three way race, Corzine and his Democrats are hoping to pump up the Third Party in hopes of getting Corzine a win with 40% or less of the vote. Won’t work – while a lot of people are flirting with the Third Party, when it comes down to it people will want to be sure of getting Corzine out – and that means back to the GOP.

I expect that next month we’ll win NJ with about 45% of the vote – and that, along with what is shaping up as a landslide win in VA, will be the signal we need to really rip things up in 2010.

The long battle begins:

The seesaw 2010 Senate race in Pennsylvania tips to Republican Pat Toomey, who has 43 percent to recently converted Democrat Sen. Arlen Specter’s 42 percent, too close to call, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. This reverses a 45 – 44 percent tip to Sen. Specter July 22 and wipes out a 20-point Specter lead May 4, in the flush of Specter’s switch from Republican to Democrat to escape a primary battle with Toomey.

President Barack Obama’s job approval rating in the Keystone State has dropped to a new low, 49 – 42 percent, the first time he has been under 50 percent in the state, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds.

The good news for Sen. Specter, who was first elected to the Senate as a Republican in 1980, is that he remains far ahead of his Democratic primary challenger, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak from southeastern Pennsylvania, 44 – 25 percent.

I think that Sestak might become more appealing to PA Democrats – certainly, if I were a PA Democrat, I’d be furious about the powers-that-be saddling me with a worn out, retread reject from another party. Be that as it may, the fact that Toomey is doing so well in this trial heat shows how precarious the Democrats’ hold on power has become.

Its still a near impossibility for the GOP to score a majority in the Senate, but we can certainly whittle down the Democrats majority by 5 or 6, if we fight hard.

Add another to the list of endangered Democrats:

…Arkansas’ Blanche Lambert Lincoln trails all four of her leading Republican challengers in the first Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 survey in the state.

Lincoln fails to get 50% of the vote in any of the match-ups, and any incumbent who falls short of that level is considered vulnerable…

Its polls like these which will make it very hard for Obama, Pelosi and Reid to push through much more of the leftist agenda. Dear Ms. Blanche just can’t afford to vote Obama at this point in time – it’ll cook her goose back home.

Go negative – very, very negative:

With 34 days to go in New Jersey, Christie’s lead over incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine has been cut from 10 points to four, according to a new survey from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Christie now leads Corzine by just 43-39 percent, with 12 percent of the vote going to Independent candidate Chris Daggett.

On September 1, Christie led Corzine and Daggett by 47-37-7 percent.

What accounts for the halving of Christie’s lead?

Simply put, the pounding he’s taken at the hands of Corzine’s unmatched millions of dollars in negative advertising.

Corzine’s numbers have barely moved — from a favorable/unfavorable rating of 35 percent favorable, 53 percent unfavorable on June 10, he’s moved to 34 percent favorable, 56 percent unfavorable.

But Christie’s favorable/unfavorable rating has now moved to 38 percent favorable, 38 percent unfavorable. That represents a 20-point shift to the negative from June 10, when Christie’s favorable/unfavorable rating was at 36/16 percent.

In other words, since the week he won the primary election, Christie has moved his positives two points, from 36 to 38 percent, while Corzine has moved Christie’s negatives by 22 points, from 16 to 38 percent.

This is an almost exact duplicate of what Democrats did in California back in 2002. Back then, they had a horrendously unpopular governor (Gray Davis) and so what they did was poison the well so much that their man managed to squeek to a win. Helping the Democrats along is a strong, third party candidate who may siphon enough votes away from the GOP to allow Corzine to win with 40% of the vote (he’s a Democrat – that he’s been a miserable failure doesn’t matter, as long as there’s a “D” after his name, he’ll get that many votes in New Jersey). It is also, by the way, what I expect out here in Nevada next year – Reid is building up a $25 million war chest and will use it to smear whomever the GOP nominates.

Now, how does Christie turn this around? As noted later in the linked article – go after New Jersey’s horrific property tax rates. Why? Because it’s popular – the people are overburdened and want relief. But, more important than that, it puts Christie on the outside. In New Jersey, there is always talk of tax relief – but never any action. The people of New Jersey are used to this – they hate it, but its just expected that whomever is elected will break whatever tax promises made (as Corzine has done on the very issue of property taxes). But, still, if its clear and bold and hammered home relentlessly, Christie can put himself outside the New Jersey establishment, and surge to victory in November.

The whole of politics right now is “people vs powerful” – the outside is ticked off at the inside. If you can be outside the establishment, you can win – the establishment has no way to beat you, because you won’t be playing their game on their field. Christie can play it safe, hope his lead holds for the next month…and then get beaten, or he can understand that the old, dead ways of politics must be discarded.

We’ll see how he does. Meanwhile, are you a New Jersey GOPer? Then get out and help.

Well, that is the way it works, isn’t it? Do anything to oppose a black man in office, and that is proof of racism, right?

Embattled New York Governor David Paterson said on Sunday he was still running for office, in the face of reports that President Barack Obama had asked him to withdraw from the 2010 race for fear that he cannot regroup from a series of political setbacks.

“I am running for office,” Paterson told reporters at a Manhattan parade. “I’m not going to discuss confidential conversations,” he said, adding that he planned to continue focusing on matters related to the financial crisis.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that the Obama administration is worried Paterson’s unpopularity could drag down New York’s Democratic members of Congress and the Democratic-controlled state legislature in November 2010 elections.

Citing an administration official, the Times reported that Obama’s request that Paterson step aside was put forward by his political advisers, but approved by the president.

Of course, this means that Obama is a bit of a fascist, too – typical of modern liberals, he doesn’t want to let the Democrats of New York decide but, instead, wants to use political pressure to get the man he wants.

Wasn’t there a mention or two of “change” when Obama was running?

In New York:

New York City police and the FBI raided at least one home in the borough of Queens early on Monday as part of an investigation into suspected terrorism, focusing on one man who has been under surveillance, officials said.

Members of U.S. Congress briefed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation said there was no imminent danger.

“There was nothing imminent, and they are very good now at tracking potentially dangerous actions and this was preventive,” said Charles Schumer, a U.S. Senator from New York who was among those briefed by FBI officials.

And in Somalia:

A senior al Qaeda operative behind the 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania is believed to have been killed during a raid by covert forces in southern Somalia.

Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and another person are thought to have been killed in the southern town of Barawe during a raid by what was originally reported to be French commandos; the raid is now said to have been carried out by US Special Forces.

Congratulations to the magnificent men and women of the United States armed forces and American law enforcement – and a tip of the hat to President Obama for having the courage to sign off on the Somalia operation. If we let our troops do their thing, we’ll remain safe…