Frank Wolf Talks about Voter Intimidation

While Democrats Continue to Take Minority Voters for Granted

Hat tip: IMAO

Great interview here with Fred Thompson:

Wow, Some “Moderate” He Turned Out To Be!

Radical Yes, Moderate No

Do you all remember the 2008 U.S. Senate campaign in Virginia? OK, would you rather not remember? Do you all remember how Mark Warner characterized himself as the “radical moderate?” Let’s recall how the Washington Post said that Mark Warner would “carry on John Warner's legacy of nonpartisan pragmatism.” EXCERPT:

Voters also must choose a candidate who can grasp the nuances of erratic financial markets and who will bring a deft touch to the difficult decisions that will determine the country's fiscal future. By these criteria -- and many others -- the choice between two ex-governors is clear. One candidate, Democrat Mark R. Warner (no relation to John), is a successful entrepreneur who rescued Virginia from insolvency by streamlining government while modestly raising taxes -- and still left office with an approval rating above 70 percent. The other, Republican James S. Gilmore III., is an unapologetic, not very thoughtful partisan whose reckless tax cuts nearly drove Virginia to financial ruin. We endorse Mr. Warner without reservations.

Of course, the Post was lying about Gilmore driving Virginia to financial ruin. What is so interesting, though, is the Post’s praise for Warner’s “deft touch.” Wow, did the Post notice the “stimulus bill” that was just signed by President Obama? I think that spending over a trillion dollars (including interest), most of it on pork, is anything but a deft touch! Even better from the Post endorsement:

His success was based in part on his business-like reform of state government, especially the transportation department, and in part on his willingness to listen to all players, from either party and every region of the state.

Okaaaay! So how does increasing the government’s interference in health care markets and forcing expensive unionization of Federal spending comport with “business-like” reform? Given the massive skepticism of this spending bill (with most people saying that it will either hurt the economy or do no good), how was Warner listening to all players?

Clearly, we have quick proof that Mark Warner is just another spendthrift leftist who would say anything to get elected. He may be riding high now, but we all remember that Chuck Robb did so also. Maybe Warner (along with Jim Webb) will learn the same lesson.

"Twas the Night Before Elections

This has been making the rounds on e-mail:

Twas the night before elections

"'Twas the night before elections
And all through the town
Tempers were flaring
Emotions all up and down!

I, in my bathrobe
With a cat in my lap
Had cut off the TV
Tired of political crap.

When all of a sudden
There arose such a noise
I peered out of my window
Saw Obama and his boys

They had come for my wallet
They wanted my pay
To give to the others
Who had not worked a day!

He snatched up my money
And quick as a wink
Jumped back on his bandwagon
As I gagged from the stink

He then rallied his henchmen
Who were pulling his cart
I could tell they were out
To tear my country apart!

'On Fannie, on Freddie,
On Biden and Ayers!
On Acorn, On Pelosi'
He screamed at the pairs!

They took off for his cause
And as he flew out of sight
I heard him laugh at the nation
Who wouldn't stand up and fight!

So I leave you to think
On this one final note-
IF YOU DON'T WANT SOCIALISM
GET OUT AND VOTE!!!! "

Shock: Important Democratic Constituency Seen Slipping away in the 11th District

Gerry Connolly Makes Desperate Attempt to Win Dead Voters

Hat tip: Too Conservative

Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chairman and candidate for Congress in Virginia’s 11th District Gerry Connolly (D) was caught doing some late “trick or treating” at the funeral for police Lieutenant Frank Stecco on Saturday, November 1, 2008. While Stecco’s family was receiving the love and support of friends and family, Connolly decided to be the “rotting pumpkin” at the door.

“Dead people are an important source of votes for the Democratic Party,” said an unnamed analyst. “However, with the investigations of ACORN as well as the rise in John McCain’s poll numbers, Connolly cannot afford to take anything for granted anymore.” It is also believed that the Connolly campaign has become paranoid over rival Keith Fimian’s (R) home inspection business, with the Connolly campaign holding the irrational belief that Fimian has the resources to find skeletons in all kinds of closets.

It is not known what kind of success Connolly had at the funeral. “Generally, Gerry talks about property taxes in a way that could wake the dead,” said a campaign source. Once that is accomplished, Gerry makes his pitch by threatening to raise takes on the cemetery plot. He has been known to bully quite a few of the deceased this way, though he wanders off to discussing rail to Hades in order to avoid delays at the River Styx, and in doing so can even kill off quite a few of the living voters.”

The Fimian campaign avoided comment out of respect for the deceased, though a spokesman did remind the public about a famous quote from Mark Twain. In his essay “At a Funeral,” Twain concluded with the words, “Do not bring your dog.” According to the Fimian campaign spokesman, “Clearly, the Democrats have forgotten an important lesson out of American literature.”

Military Being Disenfranchised in Fairfax County -- UPDATED

Hat tip: Ace of Spades

The Newport News Daily Press reports that Fairfax County is rejecting the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot. The registrar says he is only following the law. These military absentee ballots are used when members of the armed services who are posted overseas are not sure if the State absentee ballots will make it to them on time.

According to the article:

Fairfax general registrar Rokey Suleman said Thursday that he has had to reject some of the ballots because of a Virginia law passed in 2002. That law — then called Senate Bill 113, sponsored by then state Sen. Bill Bolling — requires that when an overseas citizen wants to request an absentee ballot and cast a vote with the same paperwork, it requires not only a witness signature but also the current address of the witness.

The McCain campaign said there's not even a space for the witness to list an address. Suleman agreed; he said the federal document was changed in recent years and the space for the witness address was removed. But the Virginia law hasn't changed.

Here's an interesting comment from the registrar:

"I can't ignore the law," Suleman said. "I think it stinks."

No, what stinks is Gerry Connolly's Fairfax County. For some reason, other jurisdictions don't seem to have a problem here. Is it just coincidence that 68% of the military favor John McCain over Barack Obama?

UPDATE: There may be a resolution to this issue. (Hat tip: The Corner) This still shows that the Fairfax Democrats tried to disenfranchise our military. Shame on them!

Thanks also to all the bloggers who carried this story. My apologies to those who posted on the subject before I did (like UCV), and I didn't catch it right away.

Union Dues Hard at Work

The latest Education Intelligence Agency Communiqué has an interesting item about how the teachers’ unions spend their members (often forced) dues money. It seems that without any major collective bargaining issues or ballot issues directly related to education, the union has a little more money than they know what to do with. But do you think the unions would ever return a surplus to its members? Naaaaah! As EIA writes:

But what happens if there are few or no major education-related issues or initiatives to battle, especially in a presidential election year, and your fund keeps filling up? Continually rolling it over eventually leads to delegates questioning whether that dues assessment is needed at that level. Even after accounting for a prudent reserve, the union has money to burn in 2008, and there is no shortage of people with ideas about how to spend it.

So the union's horizons broaden. Since there are no imminent threats, the union spends money on stamping out possible future threats (ConCons). There are 12 initiatives on California's ballot, none of which have the remotest relationship to public education. But the 800 or so members of the CTA State Council are mostly good liberals, their allies are all on the No on Prop 8 side, and the union's GLBT Caucus is powerful and influential. The result is a total of $1.25 million to protect gay marriage. If Prop 8 had been on the ballot in November 2005, along with Gov. Schwarzenegger's education initiatives, CTA would not have spent a dime on it.

The Sacramento ABC affiliate has more on this issue.

[Note to the reader: California Prop 8 is a ballot initiative to add a State Constitutional Amendment to support traditional one-man, one-woman marriage.]

So let’s remember this as Mark Warner, Gerry Connolly, Judy Feder, Jim Moran, and, of course, Barack Obama favor compelling workers to join unions and pay dues to support such causes. Not exactly Virginia (or American) values, eh? Remember, the unions always claim that dues do not go for political causes, but as recent filings required by the Department of Labor show, the unions have a way of making “grants” to “non-profits” that support various left-wing political agendas.

Barack the Plumber

I got the following cartoon from "Americans for Limited Government."

Spreading the Wealth

Plumbing the Obama Tax Hike

Wealth
Uploaded by luvnews

A plumber has figured out that Obama’s tax plan will raise his taxes and confronts Barack Obama about it.. Transcript (hat tip to The Corner at NRO):

"Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?" the plumber asked, complaining that he was being taxed "more and more for fulfilling the American dream."

"It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success too," Obama responded. "My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody ... I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

My wife and I heard the excerpt this morning. Her reaction was that maybe Senator Obama can take some of the money he is spending on his daughters’ posh private schools (which I am estimating is at least $30,000 per year) and spread some of that wealth around! She then proceeded to explain Obama’s destructive tax hikes to our seven-year-old son. He understood pretty well, I am proud to say.

What gets me is the fact that Obama didn’t try to deny anything. Didn’t he and/or Joe Biden claim in the debates that very few small businesses would be affected by the taxes on small businesses? Here is one plumber who has figured out that the tax burden would be increased! Clearly, Obama’s tax plan (assuming the Democrats in Congress don’t make taxes even higher) will affect several small businesses, whether they be plumbers, accountants, asphalt pavers, lawyers, doctors, etc.

As our Marxist friends like to tell us, "From each according to his ability; to each according to his need." I hope John McCain throws some “cold water” on the Obama business tax plans in the upcoming debate.

ACLU Tries to Get Virginia Registrars to Allow Students to Vote

Isn’t this Illegal?

Hat tip: Ace

Here is the article.

[Radford Registrar Tracy] Howard says student registration drives are an issue. Groups conducting these drives "have at best simply misinformed on-campus individuals and at worst lied to them" about registration rules, he wrote in his response to the ACLU. They are also holding applications longer than they're supposed to and flooding Howard's office with them.

I wonder how these students feel about having to register their cars in Virginia and paying personal property tax? Hmmm, I smell an ACORN!

To Err Is Human . . .

. . . to really screw up takes a community organizer!

Stanley Kurtz of National Review Online has the details of ACORN's pressure program.

CNN also Exposes the Ayers and Obama Connection

Hat tip: The Corner at National Review Online

HUD Audit: Virginia Misspent over $3 Million under Mark Warner

Just One Program

See audit from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Inspector General for Audit, Philadelphia Regional Office, dated September 18, 2006, here.

Summary of what HUD found:

The Commonwealth did not ensure that HOME [HOME Investment Partnerships program] funds were disbursed and used in accordance with federal regulations. We reviewed project funds disbursed through the Commonwealth’s Affordable Housing and Preservation program, operating assistance grants awarded to community housing development organizations, and downpayment and closing cost assistance provided though the Commonwealth’s Single Family Regional Loan Fund. The Commonwealth did not always comply with federal regulations and/or its own requirements in its disbursements and and administration of HOME funds for various purposes. These problems occurred because it did not develop and document critical risk assessments and implement an adequate monitoring program to ensure that it properly administered the HOME program. As a result, HOME funds totaling $183,706 were used for ineligible expenses or activities and $527,060 in expenses were unsupported. The Commonwealth also accumulated more than $3.2 million in administrative funds that should have been used to improve its administration of its HOME program and to fund eligible HOME projects. Doing so would have enabled the Commonwealth’s HOME program to better meet its main goal of providing affordable housing for low-income households.

[Emphasis mine.]

Wow! A waste of about $3.3 million in just one program! Note that the audit covered the time period from 2002 – 2005, just when Mark Warner was Governor of Virginia. If that much waste exists in one program, don’t you wonder what else is lurking out there?

I guess we really needed that tax hike!

Clinical Diagnosis: Palin Derangement Syndrome

Hat tip: Alarming News

The Dr. Helen blog at Pajamas Media quotes a request for advice sent from a Democrat mother of three to Salon:

And then came Sarah. My reaction to her, and the way the Republican Party threw her in our faces, and the pandering and hypocrisy that was behind their decision to do so, was immediate, visceral, and indeed, vicious. I have crossed every line I believed should never be crossed in public discourse — I have criticized not only her policies and her record, but her hair, her personal style, her accent, her abilities as a mother, etc. I’ve also begun to suffer personally and professionally. I bore my friends with my constant tirades against her, and am constantly distracted from my work by my need to continually update myself on the latest criticism, and indeed, ridicule, of her. In my hatred for her, I have begun to hate myself. I don’t want this woman ruining my life before she even gets a chance to ruin our country. How do I stop? Is there a self-help group for this? A “Hater”

Interestingly, friends and coworkers are mentioned in the letter, but no husband or family. Those three children of the letter writer must live in an interesting household, to say the least!

The Salon advice columnist comes up with some hokey psychoanalysis of his own and tries to create a Myers-Briggs profile for Governor Palin. Apparently, some of these Myers-Briggs personalities are downright dangerous! Who knew?

All this only confirms a theory of mine that if Sarah Palin did not exist, the angry leftists would have to invent her. She is the latest object of seething anger that dates back to Ronald Reagan, through both President Bushes, and now her. Sadly, I don’t think this will end with Gov. Palin, either. I can only hope that these sad, angry people don’t fly any more out of control than they already have.

I wonder of treatment of these derangements would be mandated under an Obama health plan?

As Tom Lehrer said back in the 1960s, “There are some people in this world who do not love their fellow human beings and I HATE people like that!”

Moonbats Strike Again

Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings (D), in front of a Jewish audience:

“If Sarah Palin isn’t enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention,” Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida said at a panel about the shared agenda of Jewish and African-American Democrats Wednesday. Hastings, who is African-American, was explaining what he intended to tell his Jewish constituents about the presidential race. “Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks. So, you just think this through,” Hastings added as the room erupted in laughter and applause.

Of course, anyone who goes to a church of a Jew-hating minister, takes big campaign contributions from corrupt Fannie Mae executives, and gets mentored by a terrorist does care about blacks and Jews?

Debate Scene I'd Like to See

Imagine this: At a Presidential debate, Obama does his usual stuttering and sputtering and self-contradiction. When it is McCain's turn, he looks at the press and says, "It's OK. You can turn on his Teleprompter now. It won't do him much good anyway."

Poll: McCain Winning the New York Jewish Vote

Kvell, Bubbie, Kvell!

Hat tip: SWAC Girl

I was absolutely shocked to read an article in the New York Post that said that not only had John McCain cut Barack Obama’s lead in New York to five points, but also that McCain was actually polling with a majority of the Jewish vote.

Obama has had a reversal of fortunes among Jewish voters. His support has plummeted 35 points, from a lead of 50-37 to a 54-32 deficit in the new poll.

This must be the first time since before the Great Depression that a majority of the Jewish vote has gone Republican. My guess is that a combination of factors are at work:

1) The New Deal generation (whose who came of voting age in 1932) has pretty much died out

2) Security concerns for the U.S. and Israel greatly influence the vote, and Obama’s weaknesses in this area are hurting him badly

3) Tolerance of anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish bigotry within the Democratic Party is finally starting to have negative repercussions

4) The proportion of Orthodox Jewish voters has grown, and like morally conservative Christians, they are pro-life and favor the Republican candidates

5) Like many voters (particularly in high cost of living areas like New York), Jewish voters are concerned about the economy and particularly Obama’s plans to raise taxes on income, investments, and estates.

6) The scandals and mismanagement brought about on the local level by Democrats like Eliot Spitzer and Jon Corzine are also reflecting badly on the national Democrats.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency is reporting that Florida Democrats are seeing increasing resistance to Obama among the normally reliably Democratic Jewish elderly. Maybe this explains McCain's expanding lead in Florida as well.

So should the symbol for excited Jewish Republicans should be called the KVELLephant?

Palin and Foreign Policy

Met with Israeli Consul

In an article that started by repeating the false charges by Rep Robert Wexler (D-MarylandFlorida) that Sarah Palin supported Pat Buchanan in 2000, the Israeli news service YNet News reports that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin keeps warm relations with Alaska’s Jewish Community (a.k.a the “Frozen Chosen”). More interestingly, the article also mentions that Palin met with Israeli Consul General for the Pacific Northwest David Akov.

Meanwhile, Jewish sources and Israel-friends in the United States told Ynet that the Alaska governor has maintained very warm relations with the small Jewish community in the state, which comprises roughly 4,000 people. Moreover, Palin met with Israeli Foreign Ministry official David Akov, who served as Israel's Consul General for the Pacific Northwest Region.

During the meeting, the two discussed cooperation between Israel and Alaska on various issues, such as counter-terrorism efforts. Akov invited Palin to visit Israel and the governor expressed her desire to do so. She also reportedly told Akov that Alaska's residents love Israel.

(Note: Sarah Palin was a supporter of Steve Forbes, not Pat Buchanan in the 1999 - 2000 time frame.)

Another YNet News article discusses Palin’s meeting with Israeli filmmaker Elan Frank. Frank was surprised to find that Palin Keeps an Israeli flag in her office. (Hat tip: Petitedov)

"She had an Israeli flag, of all the things, mounted on her office wall, and I have that on film" he said. "I was very surprised to see that and when I asked her about it, she said that she loves Israel and the she had friends who visited the country and brought her the flag."

Now we have given our friends on the unhinged left another reason to spew venom at Sarah Palin!

Debunking the “Troopergate” Myth

Investigations Began Before Palin Became Governor of Alaska

Hat tip: Ace of Spades

I found a helpful timeline from a blog called Flopping Aces. This is clearly a work in progress, but the information puts the whole police investigation in perspective. From the looks of things, Sarah Palin’s ex-brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, was a police officer who was under investigation for domestic violence and misconduct on the job. According to reports, this guy allegedly tasered his own child! The Palins were part of the investigation even before Sarah Palin was elected Governor. She is also fully cooperating with the investigation of the whole incident. The comments to this blog entry seem to clarify and explain things quite a bit.

UPDATE: Badrose has called my attention to this synopsis from BeldarBlog. It got me thinking about a couple of things:

1) What if Palin had done nothing? Wouldn't all the leftists be whining about her inaction against an abusive cop?

2) Note the difficulty in getting rid of such a bad actor and dealing with public employee unions. Now remember that Obama, Warner, Connolly, and Feder all favor forcing "card check" and union thugs on workers everywhere to force unionization on the rest of us. One reason many European economies are so sick is that union rules make it difficult to fire anyone. Here is a glaring example, so Obama, Warner, Connolly, and Feder must think that this is the proper role model for the rest of us.

Joe Biden Opposed the Alaska Pipeline

The 1970s Oil Pipeline, That Is

Hat tip: Powerline

See this interview CNBC's Maria Bartiromo had with Sarah Palin.

Do you think that Obama and Biden are still going to say that the Alaska pipeline was a bad idea and should be shut down and dismantled? Despite all that enviro-whacko screaming about dire environmental consequences, the caribou and other animals in the Arctic environment have flourished.

Let's keep reminding the voters about the Democrats, the party of darkness and shortages.

Counter-Protest Sign

Hat tip: Powerline

Zombietime has some great pictures up of the stinkfest known as "Recreate 68." A few counterprotesters showed up; here is an excellent sign:

I thought you guys at UCV would enjoy this one especially!