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-- "Championship Season," by Robert Stacy McCain
"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." -- Arthur Koestler
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...the undead plan a march on Washington within the month, where they hope to meet Speaker Pelosi and eat her brains. "If they can find any," joked Saunders. "Just kidding. Hope that's not a hate crime."
"We're a little shell-shocked," said Eric Odom, a conservative blogger and Tea Party organizer, who'd been an early Hoffman backer. "It's not what we expected."OK, while Eric was on the phone with his source, I got a call from my source, officially confirming Dede's withdrawal. While Eric and Steve Foley went west to Watertown, Ali Akbar took the 100 mph thrill-ride with me on State Route 86 to Plattsburgh.
Odom was one of the first to hear the news. The Hoffman campaign made the call to Ali Akbar, one of the conservative bloggers rooming in Lake Placid with Odom. The bloggers hustled to get Internet connections to spread the news, then regrouped to head to Scozzafava's Watertown headquarters, based on rumors that the GOP candidate might be about to endorse Hoffman.
Hoffman has not won the election yet. Expect a full-out media blitz by the Democrats in the last three days of the campaign to portray Hoffman as the reincarnation of Timothy McVeigh.I'm sure that Joe Biden will be hammering that one thumb and nail, mostly thumb.
It's a meme the George Soros crowd is dusting off as we speak.
No one knows what might happen now.Well, Andrew, it's pretty much down to Owens and Hoffman now, isn't it? It might happen that one of the two candidates wins the election. Unless I'm missing something.
For the insurgents, it means a scalp they will surely use to purge the GOP of any further dissidence [Dissidents? Dissonance? I thought Brits were by definition educationally superior to mere colonials.]. But the insurgents were also backed by the establishment, including Tim Pawlenty, who's supposed to be the reasonable center.Awakening from a Progressive slumber, one can hope.
What we're seeing, I suspect, is an almost classic example of a political party becoming more ideological after its defeat at the polls.
[I]n order for that ideology to win, they will also have to portray the Obama administration as so far to the left that voters have no choice but to back the Poujadists[1] waiting in the wings. And that, of course, is what they're doing. There is a method to the Ailes-Drudge-Cheney-Rove denialism. They create reality, remember?Remember what, exactly, Andrew? One could find more coherence in a random page from Molloy than this Sullivan post. I hasten to add I'm no regular reader; this may be lucid for him.
With about 200 interviews down we had Hoffman 45 Owens 26 Scozzafava 17...her withdrawal will just make it that much easier for HoffmanHere are your two Koh-I-Noor-sized grains of salt. First, the poll only includes 200 people, which is at least a third of what a solid poll should have. Second, the poll started before Scozzafava suspended her campaign and it's going to take a day or so for that news to propagate.
Scozzafava dropping out leaves hoffman as only anti-tax anti-pelosi vote in ny 23 Every voter opposed to tax increases support doug hoffmanIt's clear that the only reason Gingrich flipped his endorsement is because Scozzafava suspended her campaign and dropped out of the race. He still holds to the delusion that Scozzafava is actually dedicated to lower taxes (she's not) and opposing the Pelosi/Reid/Obama agenda (except where it involves pro-life issues, massive government spending, support for ACORN and big labor, and pork-barrel projects as vote bribes).
Scozzafava has seen her negatives explode, while her two opponents have only become more accepted as they became more well known. She has no chance of winning this race, and her withdrawal leaves Hoffman with the Republican vote whether she endorses him or not.My buddy Jude Seymour at the Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times also has the story:
Ms. Scozzafava told the Watertown Daily Times that Siena Research Institute poll numbers show her too far behind to catch up - and she lacks enough money to spend on advertising in the last three days to make a difference.UPDATE IV: Also linked at Right Klik, which is aggregating the news of Scozzafava from all sources. No word yet from Tucker Carlson.
NEVER believe you don't have power. NEVER let them tell you that. . . .Note the New York Daily News summary of the Sienna Poll:
Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, the rest of the thieving, corrupt, smug, lying Democrat Party . . . NEVER believe we aren't coming for you
Hoffman's voters are the most committed, with 93 percent of them saying that are either absolutely or fairly certain they won't be changing their minds on Election Day, while 84 percent of Owens' voters say the same thing about him and 73 percent of Scozzafava supporters are loyal to her.There is something about the kind of grassroots underdog campaign that Hoffman is running that creates a resolute determination on the part of the candidate's supporters.
Hoffman's pro-life supporters have reportedly launched an e-mail campaign -- including prayer requests -- to secure the endorsement of Palin . . .Well, those prayers were answered, weren't they? When you pray for angels, keep an eye out for those "angels unawares."
For over 200 years we developed a preference within our constitutional system for just two parties – essentially the Ying and Yang of our unique history. Some have argued that we could use up to 5 political parties, with a new center and two additional extremes to the left and right along with the Republicans and Democrats. Without sizable financial support and charismatic leaders for all 5 points of view, plus some major changes in how we conduct Federal elections, I am unsure we could ever achieve such a multi-party system. And it might devolve into a free-for-all without effective party control that would result into more paralysis.Except that we've always had more than two, and the dominant two or three have changed over time. If you're peddling 20/20 hindsight, at least be clear. But you at least hint that control is your main issue here, in addition to willingness to free-base the Constitution.
Over the past 20 years with power shifting between Republicans and Democrats, we have had seen some incremental changes that interrupt the continuous flow of relative inaction. This comports with a political system that is not in control of major events and at best reacts to some. Both our political parties have ossified a bit over the past decade as many elected officials have become captives of large campaign contributors and powerful special interests. Some may argue we already have achieved complete systemic paralysis, but I respectfully disagree.No, there has been ~100 years of increased Federal control. Look at the action on the debt front. Of course the Federal government is reactive by design. Internationally, the US does not run the world, for all some seem to think that. Domestically, the whole point of the government is to support people figuring out their own destiny, de-conflicting as required.
It may be possible to see the growth of independent candidates that can win with just a plurality in 3-way elections is a distinct possibility for the U.S. Unfortunately, the results on governing our country would be anyone’s guess. After some reflection, most Republicans and Democrats might prefer a known opponent to an undulating group of people whose political, economic and social views are completely chimerical and unpredictable from issue to issue, and who have no party loyalty whatsoever.Completly chimerical? What chimericals are you smoking? Parties merit as much loyalty as they received Constitutional mention: 0. We're all one 330-million strong United States party, where Federal matters are concenerd, and 50 separate parties below the 10th Amendment waterline.
With a strong independent contingency of elected representatives not aligned with any political pole, and who float back and forth, in and out, around and around, and often completely out of the entire playing field, we might end up with absolute paralysis that would also result in a total inability to articulate any coherent policy positions, whether they be conservative or liberal.In other words, in a system where the voters elect principled representatives who remain un-owned by non-voter-based blocks like parties the potential for transparency is utterly terrifying.
There are limits to independent thought if it can never be focused anywhere. For each piece of legislation, not only would a dozen Senators need to be convinced, now 100 would be constantly in play. At that point, the only question would be "why bother?"Exactly. What in the name of Phineas J. Whoopie would we do if Senators were not fretting about the NFL? So, if independent thought makes a fine crap filter, why are you so inimical, Mark?
There may be no party leaders left because no one could exercise any control when the participants cannot reliably calculate any group patterns or loyalties from week to week. Being ruled by a group of pure independents might prove to be exciting and entertaining, but no guarantee anything will ever get accomplished.I'm willing to have a go at this theory. I want to test it to see if a large external threat will be less reliably managed in the absence of party control than, say, the Axis threat was under FDR. Because he certainly got way out in front of that one and saved millions of lives, didn't he? Oh, and the crushing debt burden brought on by his socialist policies was a big win, too. But you don't seem to notice the bills anywhere, Mark.
Over the past 30 years, Republicans have managed more party unity within their ranks so they have been more successful in promoting their agenda as compared to the Democrats. Due to their size and diversity, Democrats have been particularly poor at enforcing party discipline and that has been evident by their overall poor performance in actually getting their agenda passed, even when they have a clear majority.
However, demanding extreme fealty to a narrowly-defined party identity might shrink a party and permit the opposition to win and govern by default. But if the default winners still can't get their collective act together, then we are faced with continued stalemate and overall inaction. The overall success of any political party depends upon the particular leadership and cooperative talents of its member individuals, and how they can effectively work as a group to achieve specific goals.Action action action. 1,990 pages of "it's more important to employ bureaucrats than for you to have freedom" isn't enough action for you? Would that the Speaker's Botox would break free and paralyze the whole House of
This historical and constitutional preference for incremental slow change may have worked for the U.S. in the past when we were relatively isolated from each other and the rest of the world, and we were not a troubled global empire with more than 300 million inhabitants. Furthermore the rapid pace of change during the past decade will only escalate for the rest of the 21st Century. This is simply a result of our global communications and transportation systems, plus the actions of many other countries in an inter-connected global economy.You bozo. The requirement to preclude tyranny is in no way diminished by globalization. Just because information moves rapidly around the world doesn't mean that the entropy of the human soul has lessened. Far from it. A Madoff can steal more than any non-governmental thief in human history. So, instead of agreeing with your apparent tendency towards centralization, I'd argue the exact opposite. In communications, packet switching trumps circuit switching. Because centralization generally bites. I'd argue that the same holds true for politics.
However, in 2009, for the first time ever, the grassroots have tools they can use to find other like-minded people, communicate, develop a consensus, create a plan of action and implement it easily and cheaply — using just e-mail, blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube — with almost no leadership required.
The sweetest thing about this right now is that the Alinsky tactics that Obama and his team employ are founded on a now-obsolete model where there’s a leader to personify, isolate, demonize and destroy.
It's sort of like the Wizard of Oz meets Firing Line on a day when William F was drunk and opened with, just call me Bill.
Inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation.--Milton FriedmanThat quotation is mentioned in this clip:Also appearing in the video is Ron Paul, whose End the Fed is well worth your attention, irrespective of your opinion on the rest of his policy positions.
The new economic statistics put growth at a healthy 3.5% for the third quarter. We should be dancing in the streets. No one is, because no one has any faith in these numbers.It's not a religious question. Forget faith. It's a tacit admission that we all know the numbers are a godforsaken lie, a propaganda move, a fart in a thunderstorm.
The biggest threat to America right now is not government spending, huge deficits, foreign ownership of our debt, world terrorism, two wars, potential epidemics or nuts with nukes. The biggest long-term threat is that people are becoming and have become disheartened, that this condition is reaching critical mass, and that it afflicts most broadly and deeply those members of the American leadership class who are not in Washington, most especially those in business.Nitwit. Forget the mood ring: its color is a function of heat. The chief threat to the country the last century continues to be its slide in the direction of aristocracy. Take Newt's endorsement of Dede. Out back. Ventilate the endorsement with your weapon of choice.
I talked this week with a guy from Big Pharma, which we used to call "the drug companies" until we decided that didn't sound menacing enough. He is middle-aged, works in a significant position, and our conversation turned to the last great recession, in the late mid- to late 1970s and early '80s. We talked about how, in terms of numbers, that recession was in some ways worse than the one we're experiencing now. Interest rates were over 20%, and inflation and unemployment hit double digits. America was in what might be called a functional depression, yet there was still a prevalent feeling of hope. Here's why. Everyone thought they could figure a way through. We knew we could find a path through the mess. In 1982 there were people saying, "If only we get rid of this guy Reagan, we can make it better!" Others said, "If we follow Reagan, he'll squeeze out inflation and lower taxes and we'll be America again, we'll be acting like Americans again." Everyone had a path through.Peggy, have you seen the National Debt Road Trip? Three minutes might wash the filth from your eyes, so that you can see the threat:
This is historic. This is something new in modern political history, and I'm not sure we're fully noticing it. Americans are starting to think the problems we are facing cannot be solved.Absolutely, they can. Just not by you, not by elite North Easterners, not by Progressive thinking. Get the [debris] out of the way. You're part of the problem, not the solution, Peggy.
Part of the reason is that the problems—debt, spending, war—seem too big. But a larger part is that our federal government, from the White House through Congress, and so many state and local governments, seems to be demonstrating every day that they cannot make things better. They are not offering a new path, they are only offering old paths—spend more, regulate more, tax more in an attempt to make us more healthy locally and nationally. And in the long term everyone—well, not those in government, but most everyone else—seems to know that won't work. It's not a way out. It's not a path through.Oh, it's going to work all right, Peg. For certain sorry-about-your-liberty, sovereignty-was-overrated, meet-your-transnational-plutocratic-overlords values of "work". The demolition of the States and creation of the Imperial Fed in DC paves the way for the theft of all we hold dear via the Federal Reserve.
When I see those in government, both locally and in Washington, spend and tax and come up each day with new ways to spend and tax—health care, cap and trade, etc.—I think: Why aren't they worried about the impact of what they're doing? Why do they think America is so strong it can take endless abuse?Peggy, you article goes sailing majestically over the shark here. The only thing our aristocratic overlords feel is boredom at how long it's taking to subjugate the American people.
Well America, welcome to the place where Britain and Europe have been for roughly two generations. What you have discovered are the limits of Big Government – the no-hope, tried-everything, dead end of centralised formulae for ever more socially-engineered national "happiness". Please don’t give up. If any nation in the world is capable of seeing the real lesson in this, and of saving itself from the despair and cynicism which are now commonplace on this side of the Atlantic, you are. You could still teach the world to sing.Janet, it's not going to be easy. We've a century-long bout of Constitutional illiteracy from which we're awakening. The root of every evil before us can be traced to willfully ignoring the advice of our Founding Fathers. About the only thing the Progressives can note with validity is that we've been steering this course these many decades and administrations. They can claim precedent.
it should only fuel our spirits and inspire us to further growth and activism as we move on toward 2010. This is our time. And we should aim to bring Obama's grand time in the White House with a rubber stamp of a Democrat Congress to an end after 2010.These mid-term elections, and the Tea Party Express, have everything to do with building the steam for the 2010 elections.
That may be the one thing he has genuinely earned during his entire short national political career.
The offices of the Clinton County Democratic Party here in Plattsburgh -- Owens' hometown -- were busy this afternoon, as young Democratic staffers were ready to begin a weekend of door-to-door canvassing operations. Staffers were preparing to distribute stacks of door-hanger GOTV cards that tout President Obama's endorsement of Owens, telling voters: "Those standing in the way of Change want you to say home on Tuesday -- don't let them win." . . .Please read the whole thing. I've got to run over to Hoffman's local campaign office to meet with sources and then make the trip to Lake Placid, so I'll be busy for a few hours. Expect updates here from Jimmie Bise, and also keep an eye out for 73Wire's Campaign Trail -- those guys are breaking exclusive after exclusive up here.
How big has the Hoffman campaign gotten? Today at Duke's Diner here in Plattsburgh, Ali from 73Wire was having lunch with the correspondent for the Times of London. That's London, England.
Meanwhile, I'm preparing a report for The American Spectator.
Update (Smitty): Daily Pundit says "Drop out, Dede, drop out!"
And she can tell Newt to scoot, to boot.
EXPECT MORE UPDATES . . .
HOFFMANIA: CATCH IT!
Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election
Ironically, the one person who is doing the most harm in the race is Newt Gingrich. Scozzafava has no chance to win any longer. By Newt signaling to conservatives that it's okay to support Scozzafava, he is making it more likely that Owens wins.Boot Newt!
As a businessman, and as a life-long resident of the North Country Doug Hoffman understands the need to lower taxes on working families, the need to stand tall against terror and he won’t back phony stimulus programs that fail to create the jobs we need and leaves a mountain of debt to our children.Boom! Bombshell.When elected to Congress Doug will work to reduce our taxes, he will stand tall against those who despise our freedoms and he will be a vigilant stalwart against those who would substitute government programs for individual initiative.
And Doug Hoffman can win.
Allahpundit notes the poll with the reminder that this isn't actually a Daily Kos poll - they just paid for it. The pollster, Research 2000 is reliable. In addition, he says "Remember too that the campaigns have been whispering for the past week that internal polls show a two-man race now with Scozzafava fading. Consider this confirmation."Oh, ye of little faith! We're linked at American Power and, meanwhile, Jimmie's got the complete NY23 roundup at NTC News.
Obama does not understand the difference between profit margins and wages. This is exactly what you would expect from someone who always has been on the receiving end of wages, and never had to meet a payroll. Wages are not profits and have nothing to do with the success of a business. Just ask the auto companies.If we can't impeach the Speaker outright, we've got to implore the people of CA-8 to nominate anyone, ANYONE for their representative, instead of this piece of work. I truly think that even Sean Penn would be more competent than the woman, and I type that feeling full Cthulhu-ian horror of the concept.
I don't think Obama and the other Democrats are lying about this aspect of the health care tax. They truly do not understand how the private economy works. In their blissful ignorance they are designing job-killings provisions which they do not understand.
It is not an overstatement to say "be afraid, be very afraid" of this monstrosity.
One student, 16-year-old Jennie Steinberg, told the Associated Press that her mother has let her transfer from the school Tuesday.Of course it's not safe. It's a California public school. Details of the suspects and the crime:
"It's not safe there at all," she said. "I'm not going back."
Manuel Ortega, a 19-year-old former Richmond High School student, has been charged with robbery, assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury, rape in concert [gang rape] and rape with violence, according to Richmond Police Lt. Mark Gagan.To repeat: It's a California public school. If you live in California, don't send your kids into that mess.
The Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office is going to ask for a life sentence for Ortega, Gagan said. His bail has been set at $1,230,000
The other three suspects are juveniles, ages 15, 16 and 17, but are to be charged as adults, and the D.A.'s office will seek life sentences for the trio, Gagan said.
The three juveniles are being held without bail on charges of rape in concert and penetration with an foreign object in concert. In addition, the 16-year-old will be charged with robbery.
A fifth suspect, 21-year-old Salvador Rodriguez, arrested Tuesday night, has not yet been charged, although the district attorney's office continues to investigate his role. . . .
Police now believe that as many as 10 suspects took part in the gang rape, while 20 others stood by and watched the crime occur in a dimly lit corner of the sprawling campus, according to KGO. . . .
"These suspects are monsters. And, I don't understand how this many people capable of such atrocious behavior could be in one place at one time," Gagan told KGO.
"The situation in New York 23 is simply bizarre."
-- Michael Barone, Real Clear Politics
Let's fact it, folks: When the going gets bizarre, there's only one man for the job. And don't miss what Ed Driscoll called the "Scozzafava-palooza."
I don't know the answer to that question, and I don't care. What I do know is that Alyssa Milano has more than 300,000 followers, whereas she's following fewer than 450 people.Why do the searches for "tweets" that mention various twitter celebrities -- Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, and Alyssa Milano, and even CEOs like Klein -- almost invariably turn up such pleasant comments?
The Sarah Palin wing of the Republican Party could get a big boost if a far right, third party candidate wins a three-way House race in upstate New York. Election Day is Tuesday. Can you contribute to help Democrat Bill Owens pull out a victory?(Hat-tip to Eric Odom at 73wire.) "The Sarah Palin wing of the Republican Party" -- I like that! Paul Begala's worried, too:
The tea party crowd hopes to use Palin's endorsement in the NY-23 special election to send one of their own to Congress on the very first anniversary of President Obama winning the White House. And we can't let that happen. The inmates have taken over the asylum, and are abandoning the Republican candidate in favor of the extreme conservative.Dan Riehl acts like he's worried, but I don't think he really is. He's lovin' this "war raging in the GOP" stuff. He's linked by Erick Erickson. Life is good. This is a win-win situation.
Republican Dede Scozzafava, Democrat Bill Owens, and Conservative Party Candidate Doug Hoffman will all take part in a debate at the NewsChannel 9 studios Thursday night at 7pm on NewsChannel 9.That's why I'm leaving this morning for Syracuse. It would help if some people would at least learn to make a phone call or two before jumping to the unwarranted conclusion that the liberal MSM spin is always true.