The story:

It’s really looking like a brutal year for Democrats in the Big Ten states.

Barack Obama’s approval numbers in the two places we polled this week- Wisconsin and Ohio- tell the story. He won Wisconsin by 14 points in 2008 but we find his approval there at a net -2 (46/48) for a 16 point drop since the election. It’s a similar story in Ohio. He won there by four points in 2008 but our approval numbers there for him tomorrow will show him at -13 (40/53) for a drop of 17 points. If his national approval rating was falling the way it is in these two states he’d be at about 43/53 for the whole country.

If the election was today Democrats would likely lose something they currently hold in every state where they have something to lose- Pennsylvania Governor and perhaps Senate, Michigan Governor, Ohio Governor, Indiana Senate, Iowa Governor, Wisconsin Governor and perhaps Senate, and Illinois Senate and/or Governor. Only Minnesota doesn’t join the party because Democrats have nothing to lose there.

Its still a long way from election day and the Democrats and their MSM stooges will pull out all the stops – short of outright murder, we have to expect them to use every trick, fair and foul, which can be imagined.

Clearly, though, the times have changed – and in spite of Democrat talking points, once you’ve become unpopular it is very difficult to return to popularity. The real Democrat strategy is to throw out so much muck that people get disgusted – low turnout is the Democrats only hope of holding their losses to the mid-term usual.

Our job is to focus on a couple core issues and just relentlessly hammer home on them. My choice is the debt and the Democrat Culture of Corruption, as they are two sides of the same coin – they spend money like this because they need to payoff those who back them…its a cycle of corruption which ensures that spending will ever increase because once you start bribing someone, you have to keep doing it. As debt piles on debt and more and more of the Democrats’ corruption comes to the surface, we’ll have the narrative we need to beat back all Democrat attempts to change the subject.

We are in a position to score a big victory in November and follow it up with an even bigger one in 2012 – we have to keep our spirits up, never get mad and be relentless. We do this, we’ll be able to rescue our beloved country from the liberals who would destroy it.

UPDATE: Barone crunches some numbers for Illinois House Democrats and it ain’t a pretty picture for the Obamatons.

They corruptly look after their own – always have, always will:

While many Chicago parents took formal routes to land their children in the best schools, the well-connected also sought help through a shadowy appeals system created in recent years under former schools chief Arne Duncan.

Whispers have long swirled that some children get spots in the city’s premier schools based on whom their parents know. But a list maintained over several years in Duncan’s office and obtained by the Tribune lends further evidence to those charges. Duncan is now secretary of education under President Barack Obama.

The log is a compilation of politicians and influential business people who interceded on behalf of children during Duncan’s tenure. It includes 25 aldermen, Mayor Richard Daley’s office, House Speaker Michael Madigan, his daughter Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, former White House social secretary Desiree Rogers and former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun…

…The list was maintained by a top Duncan aide, David Pickens, currently chief of staff to the president of the Chicago Board of Education. Pickens said he created the log at Duncan’s behest to track the flood of calls pouring into district offices from parents, politicians and business leaders trying to navigate the system’s mysterious and maligned application process.

But Pickens acknowledged the list was kept confidential. The vast majority of parents who follow the system’s school application process never knew they could appeal to Duncan’s office for special consideration.

“We didn’t want to advertise what we were doing because we didn’t want a bunch of people calling,” Pickens said.

Translation from the liberalese: “bunch of people” = “you and me, dear regular citizen”.

This is the way they work; they want equality, but some people are more equal than others. After all, we can’t expect that the selfless, dedicated leaders of liberalism to slog through the bureaucratic nightmare, can we? Do you really think it right that an Alderman’s daughter be placed on the same footing as a plumber’s daughter? After all, who is more socially useful: they guy who can fix your sink, or the guy who can propose new government spending?

I’m telling you, fellow Americans, if we don’t stop ObamaCare and roll it back, there will one day be lists for the best health care, too. And you won’t be on it – not if your child is at risk of death will you get on that list…but a hangnail on the child of an elite liberal will get seen right away. Its in the nature of things when we have people deciding how others live.

…

Dana Loesch:

Last night the Democrat party died as it drove a spear through the torso of the Constitution and passed legislation that the majority of Americans overwhelmingly opposed. Nancy Pelosi sauntered into the capitol surrounded by fellow socialists, carrying the gavel used in 1965 to pass the now-bankrupt Medicare.

All summer long Americans filled town halls, emailed, called, and faxed their lawmakers, and they were forsaken. They were called Nazis, racists, homophobes; they were threatened, beaten, and called stupid because they disagreed with the minority who feels that the government should run our lives. Our lawmakers unofficially stopped representing us last spring.

Last night, our legislators officially broke the contract with America that is the Constitution. Last night, they ceased to represent us. Last night, a new party was born; the malignant tumor that is the progressive caucus consumed the Democrat party from within and gave birth to the mainstream Socialist Party.

Do read the whole thing – she concludes thusly, with a call to arms:

…This is the dawn of the modern-day sons and daughters of liberty. We must heed the call of action and with courageous steps and humble hearts work against tyranny. We will guard our hearts and we will realize that the only fight worth having is a fight on the right side of God…

You need to decide right now: will you fight to preserve liberty? Will you give of your time, your money, your passion so that your future generations will benefit? Will you get behind groups like ELPAC, candidates who can best win the race and most mirror our platform? Will you become an evangelist for liberty?

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”

– Samuel Adams

I am a Republican and no one knows better than myself the imperfections of my party. We have our problems and the only way we can ensure that the Republican party stays right is be vigilant. That said, it is now the duty of all patriots to vote Republican in the 2010 and 2012 elections. Failure to secure the largest possible majority of Republicans is a dereliction of duty.

This is not because the Republican party will make everything all better. Far from it. We’re conservatives: we know the limitations of Fallen Man. But unless we turn back this socialist tide, our nation’s story is told. America is the land of liberty – not the land of government hand-outs. We’ve been slack for far too long – both in holding GOP feet to the fire, but also in quibbling about who is the purest Republican and thus allowing Democrats to slip in.

No more of that. It is time to change America back to what the Founder’s intended – not, mind you, a return to the past but, actually, a restoration of that timeless, sublime vision. We don’t hanker for the past – but we know that if there is to be an America in the future, it will have to be the Founder’s America, or not at all.

I’m ready for this battle. As I said on Sunday, I’m geared up, happy and willing to do what I must. Do not hold back, fellow Americans – give all you can, do all you can…we owe it to those who came before us…those who fought and died for liberty, not for a government run health care system.

Michael Yon reports on some of the very good work our troops are doing with the people of Afghanistan. Most of us talk a good game of helping the less fortunate – these men and women actually do it, and do it at the risk of their own lives.

They are the best we have, and a cut above the rest of us. God bless them all.

Liberalism: America’s Bane.

Pelosi at 11% approval – which is, astoundingly, better than Reid’s, at 8%.

ACORN goes out of business. Liberalism’s glad morn sure lasted a short amount of time – from November 4th, 2008 until March 21st, 2010. I know, liberals are calling Sunday a win…but, then again, liberals are pretty dumb.

A new “Decade of Greed”: investors are snapping up junk bonds at the fastest pace, ever. This is the change we can believe in? No – this is a fool’s errand. Eventually everything has to be squared. I didn’t think the Fed and Treasury could keep it going as long as this – I was wrong about that. Guess there are more “greater fools” out there than I suspected. But it will come crashing down – tomorrow, next week, next month, next year; who knows?, but it will come and it will be a mess.

Sunday’s vote is proof that abortion is the central pillar of the Democrat party. Trouble is, having death as your motive doesn’t work, in the long run.

The National Black Pro-Life Union speaks out:

Many Americans put so much trust in Rep. Bart Stupak and the other Democrats who stood with him when they promised that they would stand firm–no matter what–to insure there would be NO taxpayer funded abortion.

They caved! A very weary looking Stupak announced that he had changed from No to Yes.

Don’t you get it, Mr. Stupak? President Obama is a staunch abortion supporter! He doesn’t care about the 50 million children (including 17 million black babies) that have been butchered by abortionists since 1973. He is not going to give or “issue” anything of value. He will say whatever it takes to get this horrible bill passed including issuing an Executive Order to do so.

It’s amazing…President Obama insisted over and over that there was no tax payer funding for abortion in the 2700 page monster bill yet, he issued an Executive Order re tax payer funding for abortion. President Obama lied–again.

‘Nuff said.

The news:

The bond market is saying that it’s safer to lend to Warren Buffett than Barack Obama.

Two-year notes sold by the billionaire’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in February yield 3.5 basis points less than Treasuries of similar maturity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Procter & Gamble Co., Johnson & Johnson and Lowe’s Cos. debt also traded at lower yields in recent weeks, a situation former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. chief fixed-income strategist Jack Malvey calls an “exceedingly rare” event in the history of the bond market.

The $2.59 trillion of Treasury Department sales since the start of 2009 have created a glut as the budget deficit swelled to a post-World War II-record 10 percent of the economy and raised concerns whether the U.S. deserves its AAA credit rating…

You can’t borrow forever. The budget must be balanced. This is not a difficult task – just spend as much as we spent in 2004, and we’re in surplus.

Obama is digging our economic grave, and the Banksters and Bureaucrats re calling it a recovery.

Well, the Machine rolled over the people and got ObamaCare through. Illegally, unconstitutionally, but they got it through. Never under estimate the power of a corrupt political elite to get something done when they have the raw power to do it.

Some thoghts:

1. With Stupak’s cowardly defection on ObamaCare, it is time now for all pro-life people to understand that a vote for a Democrat will always be a vote to betray the cause of Life. Even if there is a Democrat who has solid pro-life credentials, the fact is that he’ll be adding power to pro-abortion politicians like Nancy Pelosi.

2. No one can ever rely upon a Democrat to do the right thing. Stupak was bought with mere $726,000.00 – “moderate Democrats” are just something liberal Democrats use to run in Republican districts. The very nature of a person who would lend power to someone like a Nancy Pelosi is that of a coward and an opportunist. Its not a matter of if they’ll betray, but when they’ll do it.

3. The liberal leadership is convinced that they’ll weather the storm. They are convinced that we, the people, are just a tiny, angry minority – mostly bitter at the fact that a black man is President. They kept pushing this not in a “votes be darned” mood but, instead, in a “we’re the majority and we won’t let a bunch of racist, gun- and Bible-clingers stop us”. If you listened to Nancy’s speech on the floor, its clear that they really believe that what they are doing is in accordance with the will of the people.

4. Now becomes the time for us to bear down on this. Next week, for instance, we have a rally against Reid in Searchlight, NV. I’ll be there. When ever one of these things comes up in your area – be there. No excuses. Donate to candidates. Volunteer. Give of yourself. If we come together and fight hard, then we will have a different Congress come next year.

As for me, I’m all geared up and happy – haven’t been this jazzed in ages. Don’t get angry – keep that fire, but remember that it is the cool headed person who prevails. We will have these people – and we will teach them what being an American is really all about.

The first votes to be cast will be in Hawaii – where Charles Djou carries the banner of responsible government in to battle. Go here and give until it hurts.

And don’t forget Stupak’s opponent.

UPDATE: DeMint is going to introduce a repeal of ObamaCare.

UPDATE II: Ever since Stupak became central in the ObamaCare drama the name kept nagging at me. I could swear he came up in the writing of Caucus of Corruption. I did a bit of checking and, sure enough, he did. Unfortunately, the bit about him wound up on the cutting room floor, but the basic is this – while running for re-election un-opposed he still raised more than 700 grand…and then did things such as pay his wife $36,000.00 per year out of campaign funds for alleged campaign work…Just another hack. And now he’s going to get what’s coming to him.

UPDATE III: Are you really, really disgusted with ObamaCare? Then you can now look to back candidates who will promise to vote for impeachment in 2013. Quixotic? Certainly – but also a lot of fun.

UPDATE IV: Allen West pledges to vote for repeal.

UPDATE V: A multi-State legal challenge is shaping up.

UPDATE VI: Racist slurs at protests? Not seen or heard on videos of the event.

UDPATE, by Matt Margolis: DeMint to intrudce repeal of ObamaCare.

UDPATE, by Matt Margolis: Check out RepealIt.Org

UPDATE IX: ObamaCare – a declaration of war.

So, there are claims that some of the demonstrators yesterday shouted racial epithets at Democrats. There is always the chance of one or two idiots showing up in any crowd of thousands, but I’m calling BS on this unless and until I get video and audio demonstrating it happened – with the number of devices for recording present, if this happened there simply must be something. And then if it did happen, we’ll want to check carefully the background of the person or persons who did it. As this dovetails perfectly in to the liberal lies about the TEA Party movement (ie, that we’re motivated by anti-black bias), its just too convenient for them at this critical moment.

Pictures of yesterday’s demonstration.

After unifying us on health care (though not the way he wanted), President Obama seems to want to also unify us around illegal immigration.

Obama: the Great Divider.

UPDATE: Vote “No” and get out?

UPDATE II: Former CBO Director says that  once all the budget gimmicks are removed, ObamaCare would raise federal deficits by $562 billion

UPDATE III: Video round up of the demonstrations

UPDATE IV: Been at work today so was unable to update. My first reaction on Stupak: the man is very easily bought. The Executive Order isn’t even a fig leaf. The lesson here is that there really is no way to be pro-life and do anything worthwhile in the Democrat party – when push comes to shove, life will be set aside in favor of loyalty to the Machine.

And that is what we have here, Americans, a remorseless, political machine just grinding it out until they get it done. We are going to take on this machine and we’re going to crush it in November.

UPDATE V: Stupak’s Opponent: Dan Benishek. Unless I find out he’s a pornographer or on the lam from a bank heist, or some such, he’s getting a donation from me.

UPDATE VI: It only cost $726,409.00 for Stupak’s vote. For a pittance of pork, he’s tossed aside the pro-life movement. It profits a man nothing to gain the whole world, yet lose his soul…but for pork?

Just got considerably stronger:

TALIBAN commanders have revealed that hundreds of insurgents have been trained in Iran to kill Nato forces in Afghanistan.

The commanders said they had learnt to mount complex ambushes and lay improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which have been responsible for most of the deaths of British troops in Helmand province.

The accounts of two commanders, in interviews with The Sunday Times, are the first descriptions of training of the Taliban in Iran.

According to the commanders, Iranian officials paid them to attend three-month courses during the winter.

It is time for Obama to stop his asinine, counter-productive policy of engagement and resort to the firmest measures possible. The Iranian government is, once again, waging unjust, aggressive warfare against us and our allies. We are fully justified in taking whatever measures we deem necessary to compel Iranian compliance with our wishes.

Given that our primary wish, at the moment, would be a cessation of terrorist training and nuclear development, the best course of action would be blockade of gasoline imports/oil exports and selective bombing of Iranian military and nuclear targets if the blockade doesn’t force Iran to capitulate.

We must press the issue, even at the risk of a general war with Iran – they must not, under their current government, obtain nuclear weapons. And now we’ve got all the justification we need.