Blogs For Victory

Have at it everyone… I had to bring work from the office home tonight.

Special good lucks go to Timothy Burns, running for John Murtha’s former seat (PA-12), and to Princella Smith (who used to blog here back in the day) in her primary in Arkansas’s First Congressional District.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: Rand Paul declared winner in KY.

UPDATE II: From Saul Anuzis via Facebook: PA U.S. Senate Democrat Primary with 10.7% reporting: former RINO Specter 54.9% vs Sestak 45.1%

UPDATE III: Lowry on the Paul victory.

UPDATE IV: Critz cheating in PA-12?

UPDATE V: PA-12 not looking good so far for GOP. The Other McCain has the running details.

UPDATE VI: Looks like Burns will come up short in PA-12 – still, closer than GOP got in 2008; hard to overcome that kind of Democrat voter registration advantage especially when GOP State primary is a snoozer compared to red-hot Dem primary…

UPDATE VII: Specter defeated.

UPDATE VIII: 16,000 blank ballots for the PA-12 special? Theory: GOP Burns GOP opponent for the November nomination didn’t cast ballots in PA-12 special (makes sense) and thus Burns lost.

UPDATE IX: About 50,000 more GOPers cast ballots in the PA Senate primary than in 2006…both races with foregone conclusions and yet 50,000 more Republicans showed up. That is what will tell the tale in 2010.

UPDATE X: And let us not forget that we’re going to get the tonic of victory on May 22nd.

UPDATE XI: Lincoln forced in to June 8th run-off primary. Bad news for Donks – they’ll spend buckets of money only to come up with a sure-loser for November.

But it is narrowing:

Republican candidates now hold a five-point lead over Democrats in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot, a further narrowing of the gap between the two parties to the smallest margin this year…

…While solid majorities of Democrats and Republicans support their own party, the plurality (42%) of voters not affiliated with either major party now prefer the Republican candidate, while 24% like the Democrat. These findings have remained fairly consistent for months now.

Which indicates that Democrats have managed to shore up their base since the passage of ObamaCare – prior to that, when it looked like no health care bill would emerge, Democrats got very down on their own party and helped propel the GOP to a very large lead in the generic ballot.

Fundamentally, the Democrats remain in a weak position and I don’t see a path to victory for them (“victory” means, at this point, keeping their House losses to 30 or less seats). The only slight hope they have is a strongly improving economy, and that is (a) not happening and (b) wouldn’t have played as strong a role as it has in the past (and, indeed, there is evidence that we are right now tipping back towards recession…though the actuality of it might hold off till past November).

But it should also be kept in mind that this is a very strange year – we’ve already seen long-time incumbents dumped and we’ll see more of them, soon. And this includes GOP as well as Democrat dinosaurs. While the GOP will benefit for the overall election climate, one should not count on anything – people are furious at government and are tired of both parties (though more currently tired of Democrats than Republicans). Literally, anything can happen this year – throw out the rule books and just do what you think is best. And don’t worry too much about polls plus or minus – turn out models might be very off in 2010 (the models would be based upon 2002 and 2006 with additional info fed in from 2004 and 2008…but if a lot of one type stays home and a lot of another time turns out, then close races could be routs and sure losers could win).

The main thing, for me, is that I’m encouraged by the clear willingness of my fellow Americans to challenge the political establishment. Out of that will come the change we need, regardless of what particular events happen on November 2nd of this year.

The news:

The home of a Swedish artist who once drew a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad as a dog has been hit by a suspected arson attack, police said Saturday.

Lars Vilks, who lives in Nyhamnslage in southern Sweden, was not at home during the attack late Friday night and no one was reported injured.

It was the latest in a week of attacks on the 53-year-old cartoonist, who was assaulted Tuesday by a man while he lectured at a university and saw his Web site apparently attacked by hacker on Wednesday.

Now, Mr. Vilks should not have drawn Mohammed as a dog – just as I don’t like it when someone creates a disgraceful picture of, say, the Blessed Virgin, so I don’t think that anyone should create things which are intended to cause offense to religious sensibilities. There is such a thing as good manners – and they have been far too long ignored in our society.

On the other hand, I’m not going to torch the house of an artist who makes offensive pictures about things I hold sacred. And there in lies the difference between Christians, like me, and all to many representatives of the “religion of peace” (which phrase, by the way, annoys me no end – “Islam” does not mean “peace”, it means “submission” – we have to double lie about Islam in the name of political correctness, it would seem). I get upset, forgive and pray for the offenders – Moslems tend to burn and break things, and kill people when they can.

Until we acknowledge the truth, we’re just not going to get anywhere with Islam. Part of this truth is a penchant for violence of the vilest type – there is much good in Islam and, yes, there can be Islamic democracy (once you really understand what democracy means – it doesn’t mean legalized drugs or free access to porn…it means the people are regularly consulted on what policy shall be pursued, even if you disagree with the policy). But we won’t be able to help bring out the good in Islam unless we recognize and deal with the bad.

Great website – and yet another indicator that reducing debt (and, therefor, government spending) is becoming the popular alternative to endless tax and spend schemes.

It is time we stopped borrowing the grand kids future in order to help re-elect Democrats in 2010, don’t you think?

From Investors Business Daily:

Stumbling from one gaffe to another and showing little appreciation for our Constitution, Attorney General Eric Holder has become a major embarrassment. Time to admit he’s in over his head and let him go.

We were never big fans of the AG, but like many others, we had hoped our misgivings were wrong and that he’d be successful as the nation’s top law enforcement officer. Sorry to say, he hasn’t been.

Events in recent days and weeks show that Holder has little if any understanding of our nation’s most precious asset, the Constitution, and seems oblivious to the actual requirements of his job.

Holder does not understand – or refuses to see – the nature of the Islamo-fascist threat. He refuses to enforce the law against people who intimidate voters as the polls. He slams State laws he hasn’t even read. The man is either a complete fool, or just a blinded, leftist ideologue – in other case, he isn’t fit to be Attorney General.

During the Clinton Administration we were struck with Janet Reno – she, too, was unfit to be Attorney General, but then again we never really tried to force the issue. We can’t afford another such incompetent person at the head of national law enforcement. We must insist that Holder be replaced – and if Obama won’t do it now, then we might be able to exercise increased pressure in January.

Our nation and the enforcement of our laws are too important to be left to a man as out of touch as Holder. Hopefully, Obama will soon realize that Holder is becoming a political liability and will fire him. But we can’t count on that – Obama might, for all we know, think that Holder is doing a splendid job. This is why we Republicans must press President on this matter, lest Obama go on thinking that all is well.

Of course, we all knew that – and I wish that Merkel had actually said that it wastes time and money, but you can’t always get what you want. But what she said was still pretty devastating to the whole Euro bail out concept:

A trillion-dollar package to shore up ailing eurozone economies merely buys time until the deficits of certain members of the 16-member zone are cleaned up, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday.

Speaking at a conference of the Confederation of German Trade Unions, Merkel said that recent speculation against the euro “is only possible because of huge differences in the economic strengths and debt levels of member states.”

With the rescue package, “we have done nothing more than to buy time until we have brought order to these competitive differences and to the budget deficits of individual euro countries,” she said.

Brought order to the competitive differences? And just how, pray tell, does the good Chancellor propose to do that? Of course she’s talking nonsense – and I begin to suspect she knows she’s talking nonsense. More and more, I get the feeling of an eventual end to the Euro with the prospect of an end to the European Union.

There is no way to harmonize an economy like Germany and that like Greece. Other than the fact that they are both in Europe, they have pretty much nothing in common. Its good to keep in mind that Greece isn’t even two centuries out of Turkish rule – Turkish rule which kept Greece very backward. And since independence, Greece hasn’t exactly recaptured the glories of the ancient past – they’ve sort of wallowed along doing nothing of particular note. And now they’ve spent themselves in to oblivion, and the German taxpayers are supposed to bail them out?

I really don’t think that is going to happen.

The news:

CALIFORNIA Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has compared his state’s financial crisis to that of Greece and called for scrapping the state welfare system to close a $19.1 billion budget gap.

He said the US state, with an economy that ranks as the eighth largest in the world, faced the same budget deficit crisis as eurozone countries such as Greece, Spain and Ireland.

And it really is as bad as all that – and while this is a strong move by the governor, he still bears his share of blame for “papering over the cracks” in the budget for the past three years. Everyone in CA government seemed to just be hoping that the economy would turn around and thus the various scams they pulled to “balance” the budget these past few years would be ok. Turns out, it wasn’t ok – the economy hasn’t gotten better and now its crunch time.

Outside of Obama getting the Fed to magically create another trillion dollars out of thin air and then handing it to the States, there is no way around massive budget cuts. Democrats would prefer the magic money, but as November approaches it becomes ever less likely that any sort of State bail out will be forthcoming.

Even with such stark realities facing them, it is doubtful that California’s Democrats – who control the CA legislature – will agree to any such cuts. Maybe a little trim around the edges, but cutting welfare is just not something they’ll go for. And, no, its not because they care about poor people – its because if you eliminate welfare you also eliminate the bureaucrats who run it…and that means eliminating people who pay union dues, which are then used as campaign cash for Democrats.

So, California has no easy way out, and only a slight chance that even the hard way out will be chosen – which means that we might eventually see California default on its bonds. We’ll have to see how it comes out.

Brought out in an interesting Rasmussen poll on attitudes about the United State and the United Nations:

Seventy-one percent (71%) of U.S. voters say the United States is a more positive force for good in the world today than the United Nations, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Thirteen percent (13%) disagree and say the international organization is a more positive force for good. Sixteen percent (16%) more are undecided.

But there’s a sharp difference of opinion between Mainstream voters and the Political Class. While 79% of Mainstream voters view America as a more positive force for good in the world today than the UN, just 45% of the Political Class agree.

Only 45% of the ruling class believe the United States is a better force for good than the United Nations! That is just astounding. It shows the disconnect between the people and the powerful – and additionally demonstrates just how incredibly ignorant our power elite really is. They pride themselves on their Ivy League degrees and social pedigrees but the truth is that they don’t know anything – they just have attitudes in tune with what they are instructed is the proper view.

The people are angry at a governing class which is out of touch. Which doesn’t honor core, American values. Which acts against the best interests of the American people. Come November, this rising anger and disgust with the political system could result in the largest amount of political change in one election since the 1930’s.