Saturday, October 25, 2014

REPUBLICAN WOMEN RISING IN IOWA...


Close Iowa Senate Race Could Come Down To How Women Vote - NPR

Republicans Are Surging in the Prediction Markets - New York Times
My fellow election-watchers at The Upshot are tuned in to the polls. As new survey numbers are released, the Upshot team eagerly feeds them into our election forecasting algorithm, which we’ve affectionately named Leo, and it crunches the numbers to figure out the odds for each side.

Based on the latest data, Leo gives the Republicans a 64 percent chance to win control of the Senate. That is, while the odds slightly favor the Republicans, Leo still thinks the Democrats still have a pretty healthy chance of winning. Other models that aggregate the state-specific polling are in general agreement with Leo.

By contrast, tune in to prediction markets and you’ll see the great untold political story of this week: The odds on a Republican victory have shifted upward sharply, and it’s now extremely likely they’ll win control of the Senate.

Ebola in New York: Feel O.K.?


link - Nick Paumgarten/New Yorker Magazine
...But the Spencer scenario is a provocation. The germ trail, a sequence of familiar banalities, hits home. First, the apartment building: minds turn to door handles and elevator buttons. Next, the subway, including the L train, an essential interborough connector. Those of us fearless about gripping handrails might now think twice. Uber: the nifty new conveyance, abruptly associated with an alliterative plague. The High Line: the virus, like any tourist, hitting the hot spots on a tour of Bloombergian New York. Finally, the bowling: as a precaution, the parlor, called (evocatively) the Gutter, shut down, and a concert there was cancelled. You don’t have to be a germaphobe to have misgivings about the finger holes in bowling balls, but the mention of Ebola has the effect of a shark fin seen at the beach. Everybody out. The Ebowla jokes appeared early and often.

Did Spencer take the risk of infection too lightly, or was he acting rationally? Are we?

CITY OFFICIALS IN DESPERATE SEARCH FOR EBOLA DRUG - NY Daily News









Rules cause civil-liberties concern...





The Horror Before the Beheadings


ISIS Hostages Endured Torture and Dashed Hopes, Freed Cellmates Say - New York Times

The hostages were taken out of their cell one by one.

In a private room, their captors asked each of them three intimate questions, a standard technique used to obtain proof that a prisoner is still alive in a kidnapping negotiation.

James Foley returned to the cell he shared with nearly two dozen other Western hostages and collapsed in tears of joy. The questions his kidnappers had asked were so personal (“Who cried at your brother’s wedding?” “Who was the captain of your high school soccer team?”) that he knew they were finally in touch with his family....

The story of what happened in the Islamic State’s underground network of prisons in Syria is one of excruciating suffering....

Mr. Foley seemed to sense the end was near. In his letter, amid expressions of love, he slipped in a sentence instructing his family on how to disburse the money in his bank account.

In August, when the militants came for him, they made him slip on a pair of plastic sandals. They drove him to a bare hill outside Raqqa. They made him kneel. He looked straight into the camera, his expression defiant. Then they slit his throat.

Two weeks later, a similar video surfaced on YouTube showing Mr. Sotloff’s death. In September, the militants uploaded Mr. Haines’s execution. In October, they killed Mr. Henning. Only three from the original group of 23 remain: two Americans, Mr. Kassig and a woman who has not been identified, as well as a Briton, Mr. Cantlie.

The militants have announced they will kill Mr. Kassig next.

Across Europe, those who had survived gasped when they saw the footage of their cellmate’s death: The cheap, beige-colored plastic flip-flops splayed next to Mr. Foley’s body were the same pair the prisoners had shared.... MORE

#ISIS Hostage James Foley Campaigned for Barack Obama – But Obama’s Delays Cost Him His Life - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit

American journalist and freelance photographer James Foley campaigned for Barack Obama.
But when he was captured and held by ISIS, Obama was not there for him.

The Sunday Times reported in August that President Obama delayed a rescue mission for James Foley and the other prisoners for 30 days. Obama spent that time “fretting over his image”, playing golf and worrying his administration would be “Carterized” if the mission failed.... MORE

Ground game...



For Midterms, Betting on Feet and Good Apps - New York Times

The foot soldiers in the battle for control of the Senate come well armed. With data-infused smartphones and tablets in hand, they have an unprecedented amount of information about the potential voters they are trying to persuade and more money than ever in a midterm election to do it.

...With the political tide against them, Democrats’ last chance to hold their Senate majority comes down to a vigorous get-out-the-vote effort. But the fight has changed. Republicans, outflanked by a superior Democratic turnout operation in the past two presidential elections, have been spending tens of millions of dollars to improve data collection to achieve a rough parity....

Jaw-Dropping Study Claims Large Numbers of Non-Citizens Vote in U.S.

This study’s claim is pretty eye-opening… - Jim Geraghty/National Review Online

Artist Jon McNaughton:



Another drawing of a potential candidate for 2016. LIKE Jon on FACEBOOK

Not only is this election not about nothing, it is being fought over exactly the kinds of things that ought to determine our elections.

An Election About Everything - Stephen F. Hayes/Weekly Standard

It probably goes without saying that the networks found the prospective Democratic triumph in the 2006 midterms much more compelling....

Not only is this election not about nothing, it is being fought over exactly the kinds of things that ought to determine our elections.

It’s about the size and scope of government. It’s about the rule of law. It’s about the security of the citizenry. It’s about competence. It’s about integrity. It’s about honor.

It’s about a government that makes promises to those who have defended the country and then fails those veterans, again and again and again. It’s about a president who offers soothing reassurances on his sweeping health care reforms and shrugs his shoulders when consumers learn those assurances were fraudulent. It’s about government websites that cost billions but don’t function and about “smart power” that isn’t very smart. It’s about an administration that cares more about ending wars than winning them, and that claims to have decimated an enemy one day only to find that that enemy is still prosecuting its war against us the next. It’s about shifting red lines and failed resets. It’s about a president who ignores restrictions on his power when they don’t suit him and who unilaterally rewrites laws that inconvenience him. It’s about a powerful federal agency
that targets citizens because of their political beliefs and a White House that claims ignorance of what its agents are up to because government is too “vast.” In sum, this is an election about a president who promised to restore faith in government and by every measure has done the opposite.

As even Barack Obama acknowledges, the upcoming election is about his policies and those elected officials who have supported them. It’s about an electorate determined to hold someone responsible for the policy failures that have defined this administration and the scandals that have consumed it—even if many in the fourth estate will not.

And it’s about time.

The shiny object election - The Hill

...From the Secret Service to ISIS, Ebola to immigration, mistreated veterans to Ferguson and race relations, candidates and the president have been forced to react to the controversy du jour.

Strategists and experts say the result has been bad news for Democrats, who have had a tougher time underscoring their preferred campaign messages on their party’s support for women and the middle class.

Instead, each shiny object captivating a media that craves the hottest story has helped Republicans making the elections for the House and Senate all about President Obama.

“Every time there is a major issue — or as were now referring to everything, crisis — it seems to reverberate on Obama,” said Democratic strategist Peter Fenn. “It plays into what was already a sour political mood and compounds it.”...

HILLARY UNLEASHED: 'DON'T LET ANYBODY TELL YOU BUSINESSES CREATE JOBS'



Appearing at a Boston rally for Democrat gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley on Friday, Hillary Clinton told the crowd gathered at the Park Plaza Hotel not to listen to anybody who says that “businesses create jobs.” - Breitbart

“Don’t let anybody tell you it’s corporations and businesses create jobs,” Clinton said.



So Who Does Create Jobs? - Geoffrey Norman/Weekly Standard

Cameraman who came down with Ebola while working for NBC News in Liberia released

NBC cameraman: ‘I feel profoundly blessed to be alive’ after Ebola - Washington Post

"In the same breath," he added, he is "aware of the global inequalities that allowed me to be flown to an American hospital when so many Liberians die alone with minimal care. This circumstance weighs on my heart."

...They said that Mukpo had received a larger-than-usual transfusion of convalescent serum--blood plasma--from Kent Brantly, a missionary physician who contracted Ebola in July but recovered, and now has antibodies to the virus. Mukpo said the donation "played a pivotal role in my recovery." Mukpo also was given the anti-viral drug brincidofovir in pill form, rather than an intravenous therapy, because his illness was caught early enough that he could tolerate oral medication.

The CDC, officials said, is scrutinizing the blood of 15 people who have been treated with different drug regimens in an attempt to determine which therapies work and how quickly, because the tiny sample of recipients does not allow true research on the subject.

Friday, October 24, 2014

Gowdy Questions Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response about Ebola

BROWN'S LEAD IS ALL FROM LATINOS, KASHKARI LEADS AMONG WHITES

A new Public Policy Institute of California poll reveals that the huge lead California Governor Jerry Brown holds over his challenger, Neel Kashkari, can be attributed to one salient factor: Brown’s massive lead among Latino voters. The poll's data show Brown is winning 73% of votes from Latinos, as opposed to 19% for Kashkari. - Breitbart

As Joel Fox of Fox & Hounds Daily notes, Brown is trouncing Kashkari by 16 points overall, but his lead among Independents is only 44% to 40%. That 4% difference is within the poll’s margin of error. Even more remarkably, among white voters, Kashkari actually leads Brown by one percentage point.

Dems on FEC move to regulate Internet campaigns, blogs, Drudge

In a surprise move late Friday, a key Democrat on the Federal Election Commission called for burdensome new rules on Internet-based campaigning, prompting the Republican chairman to warn that Democrats want to regulate online political sites and even news media like the Drudge Report. - Paul Bedard/Washington Secrets/Washington Examiner

Under a 2006 FEC rule, free political videos and advocacy sites have been free of regulation in a bid to boost voter participation in politics. Only Internet videos that are placed for a fee on websites, such as the Washington Examiner, are regulated just like normal TV ads.

Ravel’s statement suggests that she would regulate right-leaning groups like America Rising that posts anti-Democrat YouTube videos on its website.

FEC Chairman Lee E. Goodman, a Republican, said if regulation extends that far, then anybody who writes a political blog, runs a politically active news site or even chat room could be regulated. He added that funny internet campaigns like “Obama Girl,” and “Jib Jab” would also face regulations.

“I told you this was coming,” he told Secrets.

Miraculous: Liberian Doctor Curing 90% Of Ebola Victims

Desperation and hope led Liberian doctor Gorbee Logan to treat a fellow healthcare worker for Ebola using Lamivudine, a drug used for treating HIV and hepatitis B. - Western Journalism
Over the next two days, the patient showed remarkable improvement and ultimately survived.

As of October 3rd, Dr. Logan had used the drug on at least 15 others, saving 13 of them. That’s a survival rate of 86.6%, a miraculous contrast to the 70% fatality rate observed during this year’s Ebola outbreak....

Megyn Kelly Blasts Ebola Physician As Irresponsible



"He knows he’s been handling Ebola patients..." - WJ

Megyn Kelly was speaking to Dr. Marc Siegel on The Kelly File when she criticized Dr. Spencer for not isolating himself when his symptoms began.
“This sounds irresponsible. You tell me if I am wrong, which very well may be the case. But you are over there, as this doctor, treating Ebola patients; you’re well aware of the contagiousness of this disease. He comes back into New York City. He knows he’s been handling Ebola patients, and he’s here for a week? He doesn’t tell anybody, and if he starts to feel symptomatic before his 103 fever, he’s still out there bowling and taking taxis and not self-quarantining.”
Dr. Siegel agreed with Kelly’s outrage, remarking that it didn’t seem like Dr. Spencer “took personal responsibility at all.”

School districts from New Hampshire to Oregon are revolting against the coming Common Core tests

Common Core revolt goes local - Politico

Even as political leaders in both red and blue states continue to back away from the standards — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is the latest example — the hottest battles have shifted to the local level, where education officials are staging public revolts against state and federal mandates to administer Common Core exams.

Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett this week announced she did not want students in the nation’s third-largest district to take the federally funded PARCC exam, which will debut next spring in 11 states, including Illinois.

Byrd-Bennett called the test “unproven” and said adding such a long exam to a year already crammed with standardized tests would be overwhelming to students, teachers and principals. The PARCC test takes nine to 11 hours, depending on a student’s grade level.

Her defiance was striking in a district that has long been viewed as a national leader in test-based accountability. It was also rich in symbolism because Chicago public schools were once run by Education Secretary Arne Duncan, a huge cheerleader for both the Common Core and the new exams, developed with $370 million in federal funds....

A huge suburban school district in Colorado — in one of the wealthiest counties in the nation — is pressing to be excused from the PARCC exam, calling it a “one-size-fits-all” approach that’s less rigorous than its students deserve. A second, smaller Colorado district has also asked the state to exempt most of its students from the exam....

Kentucky legislators have floated a plan to let certain districts develop their own assessments, rather than administering the statewide test. The Manchester School District in New Hampshire has demanded similar flexibility....

In Oregon, the Portland School District is refusing to set state-mandated academic achievement goals based on the Common Core test the state requires.

And in Florida, Lee County opted out of state Common Core testing entirely at the start of the school year. The district reversed course a few weeks later, after the state warned that students wouldn’t be eligible for a high school diploma unless they took the tests, but the issue continues to simmer in Lee County and other Florida districts.

Meanwhile, rural districts across the country are complaining that they don’t have the bandwidth or the computers needed to administer the most widely used Common Core exams, known as PARCC and Smarter Balanced. Those assessments will be available in paper-and-pencil versions next spring but are expected to be given exclusively online within a few years....

A New Ebola Vaccine? Thank Dick Cheney



When George W. Bush signed the Project BioShield bill into law, he claimed Cheney "was the point man in the White House" on the legislation.
How Dick Cheney Joined the Fight Against Ebola Without Even Trying - Bloomberg
Thomas Geisbert spent the ’90s scraping together funds to work on an Ebola cure. Occasionally, he’d get enough to test a potential vaccine in primates, but the monkeys always died. There was just never enough money.

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Dick Cheney helped change that. Cheney, then the vice president, said he feared assaults by bioterrorists could be far more devastating than what happened that day, and became an advocate in the George W. Bush White House for the appropriation of billions of dollars to stop deadly pathogens. Congress agreed, funds began flowing to scientists like Geisbert and breakthroughs followed.

At least seven drugs now being tested -- including some used to treat Ebola victims in the U.S. -- grew from biodefense measures first approved after Sept. 11. The National Institutes of Health budget for studying potential bioterrorism agents has grown to $1.6 billion from $53 million in 2001, according to Crystal Boddie, an associate with the UPMC Center for Health Security in Baltimore, Maryland.
The U.S. Is Working on an Ebola Vaccine — And You Have Dick Cheney to Thank - Policy Mic

Could It Possibly Get Any Worse?… It Already Did!

Only eight days ago, October 15, I wrote a piece asking “Could It Possibly Get Any Worse?” Although I was only half-serious and thought I was just being intentionally hyperbolic, it already did! - Roger L. Simon/PJM

Today, in my birth city of New York, within hours of each other, we had a doctor come down with Ebola and another quasi-Islamo-lunatic bash a cop in the head with a hatchet, only a day after a similar event in Canada....

Okay, no more Mr. Nice Blogger. Anyone who doesn’t realize our country is being governed by incompetents somewhere between Caligula and Nero (with golf replacing the violin) hasn’t been paying the slightest attention or, as many liberals are these days, is so delusional they are willing to sacrifice their children in a manner that would make even Aztecs recoil. Those latter people are what is known as “progressives,” a term so distorted and misapplied it could destroy the English language all by itself.... KEEP READING

First Time in History President Has Affected Public Safety of All Americans



AZ Sheriff: Obama Administration “Knowingly Lied” to US About Releasing Criminal Illegals (Video) - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit
Last year the Obama administration assured Congress and the public that the 2,200 people it freed from immigration jails to save money had only minor criminal records.

It was not true.
Judge Napolitano Slams Obama: First Time in History President Has Affected Public Safety of All Americans (Video) - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit
On Wednesday USA Today reported that Obama immigration officials released illegal immigrants who had faced serious criminal charges, including people charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, drug trafficking and homicide.

On Thursday Judge Andrew Napolitano condemned the irresponsible and dangerous move.
“The president releases people from a jail who have a record of violence, a criminal conviction of violence. It’s the first time in my memory in knowledge of modern American history… that the President of the United States has affirmatively, in a negative way, affected the public safety of the average American. I just don’t understand what kind of a possible justification, he or Josh Earnest could give for that.”
Sheriff Babeu: Administration Knowingly Lied About Release of Criminal Detainees – “It Went All The Way up to the WH” - Nice Deb
Where are the whistleblowers? Babeu told Jeanine Pirro that “several memos had been sent out to ICE agents about the prisoner releases, and anyone who talked about it “outside our agency shall be disciplined up to and including termination, creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.” He said, “these federal agents, who swore an oath to protect our country, are being intimidated from doing the right thing.”
But Jay Carney and ICE Chief John Morton insisted the released detainees were “low risk” and “non-criminal” – and the MSM apparently took their word for it, because that outrageous scandal – like so many other outrageous scandals – simply disappeared from the news.

So now, all these months later, the truth comes out.
The records, obtained by USA TODAY, show immigration officials released some undocumented immigrants who had faced far more serious criminal charges, including people charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, drug trafficking and homicide.

Top Iranian Official: Obama is ‘The Weakest of U.S. Presidents’

Adviser to Iranian president mocks Obama’s ‘humiliating’ presidency (UPDATED) - Washington Free Beacon

The Iranian president’s senior advisor has called President Barack Obama “the weakest of U.S. presidents” and described the U.S. leader’s tenure in office as “humiliating,” according to a translation of the highly candid comments provided to the Free Beacon.

The comments by Ali Younesi, senior advisor to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, come as Iran continues to buck U.S. attempts to woo it into the international coalition currently battling the Islamic State (IS, ISIL, or ISIS).

And with the deadline quickly approaching on talks between the U.S. and Iran over its contested nuclear program, Younesi’s denigrating views of Obama could be a sign that the regime in Tehran has no intent of conceding to America’s demands.

“Obama is the weakest of U.S. presidents, he had humiliating defeats in the region. Under him the Islamic awakening happened,” Younesi said in a Farsi language interview with Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency.

“Americans witnessed their greatest defeats in Obama’s era: Terrorism expanded, [the] U.S. had huge defeats under Obama [and] that is why they want to compromise with Iran,” Younesi said.

The criticism of Obama echoes comments made recently by other world leaders and even former members of the president’s own staff, such as Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.... KEEP READING

Thursday, October 23, 2014

IRS notches legal victory in tea party cases

The IRS may have inadvertently figured out how to win its legal battles against aggrieved tea party groups: Give them what they wanted in the first place — tax-exempt status. - Politico

That was a major reason a Republican-appointed federal judge on Thursday threw out two lawsuits brought by more than 40 conservative groups seeking remedies for being singled out in the tea party targeting scandal, a victory for the IRS.

Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia dismissed almost all counts brought against the tax-collecting agency in two cases, ruling that both were essentially moot now that the IRS granted the groups their tax-exempt status that had been held up for years.

Republicans said they were outraged at Walton’s decision.

“You get targeted and harassed for three years but, oh, because you finally get [tax-exempt status], the three years of harassment doesn’t mean anything?” asked Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who heads a congressional subpanel investigating the controversy. “I find that argument lacking tremendously in light of what these people went through.” KEEP READING

Doctor in New York City Tests Positive for Ebola

UPDATED and BUMPED:

CONFIRMED: NYC Patient Tests Positive for Ebola - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion









A doctor in New York City who recently returned from treating Ebola patients in Guinea tested positive for the Ebola virus Thursday, becoming the city’s first diagnosed case. - NY Times

While officials have said they expected isolated cases of the disease to arrive in New York eventually, and had been preparing for this moment for months, the first case highlighted the challenges surrounding containment of the virus, especially in a crowded metropolis.

Even as the authorities worked to confirm that Mr. Spencer was infected with Ebola, it emerged that he traveled from Manhattan to Brooklyn on the subway on Wednesday night, when he went to a bowling alley, and then took a taxi home.

The next morning, he reported having a temperature of 103 degrees, raising questions about his health while he was out in public.

People infected with Ebola cannot spread the disease until they begin to display symptoms, and it cannot be spread through the air. As people become sicker, the viral load in the body builds, and they become more and more contagious.

Dr. Spencer’s travel history and the timing of the onset of his symptoms led health officials to dispatch disease detectives, who “immediately began to actively trace all of the patient’s contacts to identify anyone who may be at potential risk,” according to a statement released by the department.

It was unclear if the city was trying to find people who might have come into contact with Dr. Spencer on the subway. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority directed all questions to the health department, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the issue.

At Dr. Spencer’s apartment in Harlem, his home was sealed off and workers distributed informational fliers about the disease. It was not clear if anyone was being quarantined.

Doctor With Ebola Symptoms In NYC Went Bowling Last Night - CBS New York
Sources said Spencer went bowling last night in Williamsburg and took an Uber car to get there and back, 1010 WINS’ Carol D’Auria reported.
Took UBER
Girlfriend quarantined
A Doctors Without Borders physician who recently returned to New York from West Africa has tested positive for the Ebola virus, becoming the first diagnosed case in the city, a law enforcement official briefed on the matter told CNN.

The doctor, identified as Craig Spencer, 33, came back from West Africa about 10 days ago, and developed a fever, nausea, pain and fatigue Wednesday night.

The physician, employed at New York's Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, has been in isolation at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan since Thursday morning, the official said....

The law enforcement official said the doctor was out in public. Authorities also quarantined his girlfriend, with whom he was spending time since his return from Africa.

The doctor began feeling sluggish a couple of days ago, but it wasn't until Thursday, when he developed 103-degree fever, that he contacted Doctors Without Borders, authorities said.

The case came to light after the New York Fire Department received a call shortly before noon Thursday about a sick person in Manhattan. The patient was taken to Bellevue.
Ebola Alert: NY City Dr. With Ebola Symptoms Hospitalized, Went Bowling Last Night (Video) - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit
New York City Ebola Doctor Took A-Train, L-Train and Went to the High Line (Video) - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit
GOOD NEWS! CDC Says NYC Ebola Doctor Cleared Enhanced Airport Screening - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit



__________________

BREAKING: Suspected Ebola Case Located In New York City



“We just can’t let anyone in the building right now..." - Western Journalism
America’s most populous city is the latest scene of an Ebola scare as a patient was rushed to Bellevue Hospital Thursday after showing symptoms of the deadly disease. According to the New York Post, Harlem resident Craig Spencer had recently returned from Guinea where he had been treating Ebola patients as part of the Doctors Without Borders organization.


Enhanced Ebola Screening Sends Three Liberians To US Hospitals - Western Journalism
Will the Liberian passengers with Ebola symptoms finally convince Congress to take action on travel controls from Liberia?

Major victory for Prop. 13! Bakersfield joins fast growing list of cities and local governments reaffirming their support for California's landmark taxpayer protection!

9th Largest City in California, Bakersfield, Passes Resolution Supporting Taxpayers and Proposition 13 - Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association

Just 20% of 2014 voters favor Obama

President Obama isn’t on the ballot this fall, but voters say they'll be turning out to oppose him. - Washington Examiner

Thirty-two percent of registered voters see the midterm elections as a vote against Obama, compared to just 20 percent in favor, with the midterm elections less than two weeks away....according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

The negative factor brought by Obama — who maintains a disapproval rating of 51 percent — could spell trouble for the Democrats on Nov. 4, who cling to a narrow Senate majority.

Breitbart Reporter Covering N.H. Senate Race Ordered to Leave Democrat’s Press Conference

Perhaps she doesn't like freedom of the press --
unless it's sympathetic to her agenda.

Breitbart News reporter Matthew Boyle was removed, without explanation, from a campaign event for Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in Exeter, N.H., yesterday despite the event having been advertised as a press conference open to media.

Breitbart News editor in chief Alex Marlow says the decision to block Boyle demonstrates hostility toward a free press.

“We are in a new era of media where large and influential news outlets treat Democrats much like the mainstream media has always treated Republicans: with a healthy skepticism,” Marlow told The Daily Signal. “The First Amendment gives us freedom of the press, but apparently Senator Shaheen believes that right only applies to publications sympathetic to her agenda. This should be troubling not only to conservatives, but to anyone who values the free flow of ideas.”

Why the House will stay Republican

You probably haven’t read much commentary about this year’s elections to the House of Representatives. There's a good reason for that: The majority in the Senate is up for grabs, but it’s clear to everyone who follows these things that Republicans will continue to control the House. But there are lessons to be learned from this year’s House races, some of them relevant beyond this election cycle. - Michael Barone/Washington Examiner @michaelbarone

The House math is fairly simple. Republicans won 234 House seats in 2012 and Democrats 201. There are three vacant seats now, but neither party has gained a seat in a special election or by a party switch.

Put that together with the fact that we’ve become a straight-ticket voting nation now, no matter how many voters swear they’re Independents....

Half a century ago, many political scientists wanted America to have one clearly liberal and one clearly conservative party. Most probably thought the liberal side would usually win.

Well, their prayers have been answered. We now have two ideologically distinct political parties. The liberal party seems to have an edge, though not an overwhelming one, in presidential elections. But the conservative party, to the dismay of many political scientists, has an edge, though again not overwhelmingly, in elections to the House of Representatives.

That advantage may not prevail through the whole 10-year redistricting cycle. But it will this year.

“I’d rather be boots on the ground."


This Spunky College Intern Is the Face of the New Republican Ground Game - The Daily Signal

...At 21, Johnson — like the college-aged interns he works with — thinks often about the GOP’s direction.

“We can be just as passionate as the next guy,” Johnson says.
“But we have to be open-minded. We want a sound economy. We are concerned about our college and our homes. We’re all just young guys starting our lives. It’s really exciting.”

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Obama mustn't bypass Congress with Iran deal

WASHINGTON EXAMINER EDITORIAL

As President Obama's negotiators met this April to continue discussions with Iran about its nuclear program, Secretary of State John Kerry was asked in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing whether the Obama administration would bring any deal it struck with Tehran for congressional approval. Kerry's answer was immediate and unequivocal.

“Well, of course, we’d be obligated to under the law,” Kerry said. “We would absolutely have to, and so clearly, what we do will have to pass muster with Congress. We well understand that.”

Six months later, the administration is less clear on the matter. Or maybe what's less clear is whether Kerry was sincere. The New York Times reports this week that administration officials are so eager to make a deal with the mullahs — whether or not it does “pass muster with Congress” — that “[i]f agreement is reached, President Obama will do everything in his power to avoid letting Congress vote on it.” In fact, Obama wants to prevent Congress from having any say in the matter “for years,” as one anonymous senior official put it.

The idea is to have Obama “temporarily” — which actually means “permanently but without formal congressional approval” — suspend sanctions against Iran. In exchange, Tehran would allow nuclear inspectors in and limit the number of nuclear centrifuges it has spinning.

Obama's trial balloon in a loyal media outlet this week suggests that he expects a deal that Congress would hate — one not in America's best interests. If so, it would not be the first time he was more inclined to side with Iran's government than with the overwhelming will of his own country's representatives on Capitol Hill....

American policy is not made by a single person acting unilaterally. The people also elect a legislative branch, the nearly unanimous input from which cannot be rendered meaningless by Obama's desire for a deal at any cost.

It's no surprise that Obama wants to sidestep Congress. He has done so repeatedly on less consequential matters, eliciting rebukes from the Supreme Court. Especially on a matter as serious as this one, he must do what his Secretary of State, on his behalf, promised, and bring any deal to Congress so that the people's representatives can decide.

The Democrats are running, but President Obama won’t let them hide

It is a constant frustration among Republicans that Democrats never seem to get called out for talking to the right back home and then governing to the left here in Washington. Well, maybe with some help from President Obama, voters will start to listen and recognize how deceptive the Democrats have been. - Ed Rogers/Washington Post

Yesterday, on Al Sharpton’s radio show, President Obama said that even though the most vulnerable Democratic candidates have actively avoided campaigning with him, “The bottom line is, though, these are all folks who vote with me; they have supported my agenda in Congress. So this isn’t about my feelings being hurt. These are folks who are strong allies and supporters of me…I tell them…you do what you need to do to win. I will be responsible for making sure that our voters turn out.”

...It is one thing for a president to have bad poll numbers six years into his term and be a drag on the ticket. It is another thing for a president to crush the messaging of the candidates in his party and be unable to hide his own vanity. Democratic candidates don’t want President Obama to campaign for them and now they don’t want him giving any interviews either. The Democratic candidates are running, but President Obama won’t let them hide.

She Tweeted Against the Mexican Cartels.
They Tweeted Her Murder.

No newspaper dares to publish the truth about the drug lords in Tamaulipas. Those who break the silence on Twitter and Facebook are marked for death. - The Daily Beast

She was a crusading Twitter journalist in a bastion of organized crime who chose a photograph of Catwoman as her online avatar and christened herself Felina. Like a comic-book avenger, her alter ego defied the forces of evil in her real-life Gotham of Reynosa, a border city in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas located a short drive from McAllen, Texas. Tamaulipas is notorious as a state caught in the iron grip of organized crime. Extortion, kidnappings, shootouts, arson, bodies excavated from arid pits, all of this happens in Tamaulipas, practically on a daily basis, but hardly any of it gets reported because of a media blackout the cartels decreed four years ago that is as strictly enforced as martial law after a coup....

Until early in the morning of Thursday, Oct. 16, when this message from Felina @Miut3 was posted:

# reynosafollow FRIENDS AND FAMILY, MY REAL NAME IS MARÍA DEL ROSARIO FUENTES RUBIO. I AM A PHYSICIAN. TODAY MY LIFE HAS COME TO AN END.

The next message, sent moments later, is supposedly her warning friends and family not to make the same mistake she did, using social media to report on organized crime, because “there is no point.” The message after that is a warning to her followers and to three prominent citizen journalists that the cartels “are closer to us than you think.” The last message sent from Felina’s account is not written but rather consists of two photos: in the first, a middle-aged woman keeps her hands folded in front of her and looks directly at the camera; in the second the same woman is lying on a dirty floor with a coup de grace bullet wound in the face. The founder of Valor por Tamaulipas confirmed that the photos are of Felina. Twitter has since shut down her account.

Canadian soldier, gunman killed in attack on Ottawa capital complex

Canada's parliament attacked, soldier fatally shot nearby - Reuters
link - FOX

A Canadian soldier was shot dead and a suspect killed in a brazen attack on the Canadian Parliament complex in Ottawa Wednesday morning that left the nation's capital on lockdown just two days after a terror attack in Quebec, officials said.



850 voters in NYC are officially 164 years old

A single Bronx voter listed in official records as being 164 years old led Board of Elections officials to review their files — where they turned up another 849 New Yorkers who were supposedly alive when Abe Lincoln was president. - NY Post

...Board officials chalked up the implausible age snafu to previous practices that allowed residents not to provide their exact birthdays when registering to vote.

Some of the new voters — mostly women — simply wrote that they were “21+” — above the legal voting age.

There was a reason to be vague. Voter registration records are open to the public, so anyone with the inclination can discover the real age of anyone in the files.

“It’s a left-over vestige from a bygone era,” explained Board of Elections executive director Mike Ryan....

Residents who registered after 2006 are required to provide their true birth dates. The board, under state law, must remove voters from the rolls who fail to do so. A voter without a date of birth who shows up on Election Day won’t be in the register, and will be declared ineligible to vote. They can fill out an affidavit ballot, but it won’t count.

But the old-timers are not affected.

James O’Keefe Strikes Again: Lawlessness and racism, unleashed by Colorado's vulnerable "vote-by-mail" system.



The guerilla filmmaker has exposed how voter fraud is both easy and condoned in Colorado. - John Fund/National Review
James O’Keefe, the guerilla filmmaker who brought down the ACORN voter-registration fraudsters in 2010 and forced the resignation of NPR executives, politely disagrees. Today, he is releasing some new undercover footage that raises disturbing questions about ballot integrity in Colorado, the site of fiercely contested races for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House, and the governorship. When he raised the issue of filling out some of the unused ballots that are mailed to every household in the state this month, he was told by Meredith Hicks, the director of Work for Progress, a liberal group funded by Democratic Super PACS.: “That is not even like lying or something, if someone throws out a ballot, like if you want to fill it out you should do it.” She then brazenly offered O’Keefe, disguised as a middle-aged college instructor, a job with her group.

The video of O’Keefe’s encounters with other operatives is equally disturbing. He has a conversation with Greenpeace employee Christina Topping, and suggests he might have access to unused ballots from people who have recently moved out of college fraternity houses. “I mean it is putting the votes to good use,” she responds. “So really, truly, like yeah, that is awesome.”

...I understand that Donna Brazile devoutly wants to wish away the notion of voter fraud. But by overwhelming margins, the American people believe it is a real problem and support steps to combat it. Indeed, a Rasmussen survey in 2013 found that a greater percentage of African Americans viewed voter fraud as a serious problem than did whites. That is because, as former Democratic congressman Artur Davis of Alabama told me: “Minority voters are often the biggest victims of voter fraud as reform movements in cities and depressed rural areas are crushed by fraudulent machine voting. I have seen it with my own eyes in Alabama.”

As with his expose of ACORN, James O’Keefe deserves credit for once again uncovering the potential for corruption at the ballot box while too many journalists keep their noses buried in campaign-finance reports. Both kinds of reporting are valuable, but O’Keefe appears to be a rare bird interested in ballot integrity.
O’Keefe Video: Voter Fraud Ground Zero in ‘Ghetto Aurora’ J. Christian Adams/PJ Media

A Greenpeace activist supporting Senator Mark Udall has been caught on undercover video by James O’Keefe claiming “Ghetto Aurora” is a great town in which to commit voter fraud. I can’t find Ghetto Aurora on a map, but the activist says it is in Colorado.


It’s no surprise that the best place to commit voter fraud is Colorado.

If you deliberately tried to design an election system to aid fraud, here’s how you’d do it: you’d put ballots in the hands of folks that you have some indication no longer live where they did long ago. You’d make sure folks got ballots, even if many of the counties had more people on the voter rolls than people alive. Then you’d make sure that voting is decentralized, out of the sight of election officials, so that there is no way to know who is really voting on the ballots.

Check, check and check. Welcome to Colorado’s new vote-by-mail system.

UPDATED:

"Thanks to a new California law, honest people trying to scrape by doing repair or construction work now face greater barriers to feeding their families." The law would make even the "most hardened Craigslist repair guy tremble."

On punishing plumbers - Ethan Blevins/Pacific Legal Foundation

In the midst of a struggling economy, California has decided to crack down on the nefarious handymen that you hire to fix your stuff. Thanks to a new California law, honest people trying to scrape by doing repair or construction work now face greater barriers to feeding their families.

California has long required costly licenses for construction contractors. For decades, the “Joint Enforcement Strike Force” (a group that sounds more like a legion of stormtroopers than a gaggle of nosy bureaucrats) has been “protecting” consumers from choosing who they want to hire. But the large contractors who might have to compete against unlicensed scallywags have asked the California government to do more. The state responded with a law that will make the most hardened Craigslist repair guy tremble.

Under this new law, the Joint Enforcement Strike Force will now have “full access to all places of labor” to check that contractors are licensed to do honest work. The new law also subjects unlicensed evildoers to criminal prosecution. As for the repeat offender who continues to enter into voluntary exchanges with abandon, a second offense will result in at least a $5000 fine and ninety days in jail. What else were California prisons going to do with all of that empty space, anyway? And Californians won’t find many cheap offers to fix stuff cluttering Craigslist anymore, because it’s now a crime for anyone to “advertise for construction or work of improvement unless that person holds a valid license.” But consumers won’t be accomplices in the crime of earning a living. Instead, if you hire the friendly neighborhood handyman to fix a leaky roof, you may be a “victim of crime” entitled to restitution for your “economic loss....”

Jonah Goldberg Slams Dems’ ‘Demeaning And Sexist’ Appeal To Women



Goldberg told host Jon Scott that the Democratic strategy of harping on the “War on Woman” was “demeaning and sexist” in that it treated all women as though they had the same, narrow priorities. - Daily Caller

"First, ask what have the last two Democratic administrations done for boys, men and fathers?"

For those not afraid of being “bullied” by the Democratic left, there are a half dozen long-ignored but critically important problems facing the nation’s males that should bring all voting-age men to the polls in 2014 – perhaps men’s last chance for hope and change before the ice age possibly returns in 2016. - Gordon E. Finley, Ph.D., & Dianna Thompson/WND
First, ask what have the last two Democratic administrations done for boys, men and fathers? Because of “The Woman’s Vote” and his powerful feminist base, Democratic President Obama has given us a Cabinet-level White House Council on Women and Girls. Despite extensive and repeated calls for a gender equivalent White House Council on Men and Boys, Democratic President Obama has refused even to consider the multitude of problems facing males in today’s economy and society.
Why Would Any Man Vote Democrat? - Dr. Helen Smith/Pj Media

The average individual Obamacare insurance deductible is 5 times higher than employer-sponsored coverage. Affordable?

Unable to Meet the Deductible or the Doctor - New York Times

Patricia Wanderlich got insurance through the Affordable Care Act this year, and with good reason: She suffered a brain hemorrhage in 2011, spending weeks in a hospital intensive care unit, and has a second, smaller aneurysm that needs monitoring.

But her new plan has a $6,000 annual deductible, meaning that Ms. Wanderlich, who works part time at a landscaping company outside Chicago, has to pay for most of her medical services up to that amount. She is skipping this year’s brain scan and hoping for the best.

“To spend thousands of dollars just making sure it hasn’t grown?” said Ms. Wanderlich, 61. “I don’t have that money.”

About 7.3 million Americans are enrolled in private coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, and more than 80 percent qualified for federal subsidies to help with the cost of their monthly premiums. But many are still on the hook for deductibles that can top $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for families — the trade-off, insurers say, for keeping premiums for the marketplace plans relatively low. The result is that some people — no firm data exists on how many — say they hesitate to use their new insurance because of the high out-of-pocket costs.

Insurers must cover certain preventive services, like immunizations, cholesterol checks and screening for breast and colon cancer, at no cost to the consumer if the provider is in their network. But for other services and items, like prescription drugs, marketplace customers often have to meet their deductible before insurance starts to help.

While high-deductible plans cover most of the costs of severe illnesses and lengthy hospital stays, protecting against catastrophic debt, those plans may compel people to forgo routine care that could prevent bigger, longer-term health issues, according to experts and research.... KEEP READING

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

WFB reported that Ebola czar was listed on Friday as a trustee to think tank with ties to Democracy Alliance - two days later his name is removed…

Ebola Czar Vanishes from Democracy Alliance Website - Washington Free Beacon

Third Way, a progressive think tank with ties to the Democracy Alliance, has removed newly appointed Ebola czar Ron Klain from its website, following a Washington Free Beacon report.

The Free Beacon reported Friday on Klain’s status as a trustee for Third Way, and his past experience lobbying on behalf of a drug company that was accused of denying life-saving drugs to dying cancer patients.

Mother Jones, libs launch preemptive attack on James O’Keefe’s unreleased voter fraud video

As Twitchy reported, James O’Keefe has been teasing a new undercover video that looks to be about Democratic voter fraud, but O’Keefe and his company Project Veritas have been tight-lipped as to any specifics. - Twitchy

POLL SHOCK: WOMEN WANT REPUBLICANS!


Two weeks before Election Day, most of the nation's likely voters now expect the Republican Party to take control of the U.S. Senate, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. And by a growing margin, they say that's the outcome they'd like to see. - Associated Press By JENNIFER AGIESTA and EMILY SWANSON

...Among all adults, 38 percent say they'd like the Democrats to wind up in control of Congress, to 36 percent for the Republicans. But the GOP holds a significant lead among those most likely to cast ballots: 47 percent of these voters favor a Republican controlled-Congress, 39 percent a Democratic one. That's a shift in the GOP's favor since an AP-GfK poll in late September, when the two parties ran about evenly among likely voters.

Women have moved in the GOP's direction since September. In last month's AP-GfK poll, 47 percent of female likely voters said they favored a Democratic-controlled Congress while 40 percent wanted the Republicans to capture control. In the new poll, the two parties are about even among women, 44 percent prefer the Republicans, 42 percent the Democrats.

In all, the poll finds that 55 percent of likely voters now expect Republicans to win control of the Senate, up from 47 percent last month. Democrats have grown slightly more pessimistic on this count since September, with 25 percent expecting the GOP to take control now compared with 18 percent earlier.

What's deeply important to likely voters after the economy? About three-quarters say health care, terrorism, the threat posed by the Islamic State group and Ebola.

The Fresno Bee endorses Pete Peterson


EDITORIAL: Pete Peterson for California secretary of state - Fresno Bee

ENDORSEMENT: ...We recommend Peterson. He is an expert in civic engagement whose passion for democracy and voting, and knowledge of technology should enable him to jump-start a Secretary of State's Office that is decades behind the times and an embarrassment to California, which prides itself on being cutting edge.

Peterson initially wasn't given much of a chance at winning because he was a little-known centrist Republican in a blue state.

...Peterson, executive director of the Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic Leadership at Pepperdine University, offers a refreshing alternative to voters tired of the political job-hopping in California.

Drug abuse is a women's issue. Together, it can effect our mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends.



Ron Nehring for Lt. Gov

A big reversal



BREAKING: Obama administration announces travel restrictions on people from Ebola-stricken countries - Susan Ferrechio/Washington Examiner

Travelers arriving from three Ebola-afflicted countries in Africa will have to land in one of five airports equipped with special screening measures for the disease, the Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday.

The DHS labeled the move a travel restriction, though it does not go as far as banning arrivals from those nations, which has been called for by many Republican lawmakers and some Democrats.

“The differences between the media habits of liberals and conservatives — and between those in the ideological ends and the middle — is striking,” said Amy Mitchell, director of journalism research.

Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project report revealed the “cleavage” in American media habits, with the Left picking CNN, NPR, the New York Times and MSNBC as their sources, and the right Fox. - Paul Bedard/Washington Examiner

The report was released at midnight Monday. It was part of Pew’s ongoing effort to chart the political division in America, seen most during election seasons.

The survey, titled “Political Polarization & Media Habits,” found that conservatives are more unified around Fox, with 47 percent calling it their main source of news about government and policy. They express greater distrust of media, though 88 percent trust Fox. And either with friends or on Facebook, they prefer those with similar political views.

Liberals are less focused on one news source and trust the media more than distrust it. They are more likely than conservatives to “defriend” or block “someone on a social network — as well as to end a personal relationship — because of politics,” said Pew.

CNN Tears Into Democrat Candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes Over ‘Hugh Jass’ Family Business - and minimum wage

On CNN’s The Lead, Jake Tapper bashed Grimes’ claims that she is for “a living wage” and a champion of women’s issues, bringing up her family’s minimum wage-paying business, Hugh Jass Burgers, and its rather risque entree names: “Charlotte’s Rack” and “Abby’s Hugh Jass” burger. - IJ Review

("Tipped" employees in Kentucky make $2.13 an hour. $7.25 for those who don't make tips.)

Remy Spoofs Obama with Remix of 'Shake It Off'



Music written and performed by Remy. - CNS

Change: Among Students, Republicans Crushing Democrats on Social Media


For eight years, Americans have been told that Democrats have a decisive advantage among young people, and especially on the Internet. That might have been true with the rise and re-election of Barack Obama. But as his presidency falters, and as Republicans invest in technology, the tide is rapidly turning. In fact, among students, Republicans are now far ahead of Democrats on social media, winning on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. - Joel B. Pollak/Breitbart California

As Sean McMinn of the Scripps Howard News Wire reported recently:
On Facebook, the College Democrats of America have just 17,400 “likes,” compared to the College Republican National Committee’s 124,700. That’s seven times more.

And on Twitter, the Democrats’ count of 33,600 followers is behind the Republicans’ 56,700.

Even more shocking: While the College Republicans are consistently churning out videos with several thousand views on YouTube, all but one video on the College Democrats’ YouTube account is set to “private.”
Democrats counter that mere numbers of users or views on social media do not translate into votes, and that the key in Internet campaigning is translating online enthusiasm into offline activism. Republicans also use professional staff to manage their social media presence among students, whereas Democrats rely on volunteer efforts. Still, the edge--even if symbolic--is significant as a possible indicator that the GOP can turn the tide.

Make Conservatism Cooler, College Students Advise GOP Candidates - Josh Siegel/Signal Daily Signal @JoshDaily

“Most people agree with conservative values, but don’t like the conservative brand."

Obama: Hey, all these red-state Democrats running away from me are strong supporters who vote with me!



President Barack Obama appeared on Al Sharpton’s radio show today to send a campaign message seemingly calculated to drive folks like Sens. Mark Pryor and Mary Landrieu to drink. - Mary Katharine Ham/HotAir
“So, this isn’t about my feelings being hurt. These are folks who are strong allies and supporters of me. And I tell them, I said, you know what, you do what you need to win. I will be responsible for making sure that our voters turn up.”

...As I’ve mentioned before, there’s maybe nothing that cheers me more about Republican prospects that Democrats acting so very, very desperate. You’ll hear not a thing about a tone of “unprecedented negativity” in this year’s ads because the worst examples are coming from endangered Democrats. But just because the press doesn’t report the pattern doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
More shocking than this jibberish is that we have a president who appears on a criminal's radio show. - Discussion at Lucianne

What It Looks Like for an Entire City to Flee ISIS – Right Before the Terrorists Get Bombed by the U.S.

Satellite images from September 6 and October 15 released by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research and made available at Mashable show what happens to a border when hundreds of thousands of people are forced to leave their home for refuge in another country. - IJ Review

A September image of a border crossing shows a desolate landscape on both the Syrian (southern) and Turkish side:


While an image taken of the same location the next month shows hundreds of vehicles which have been abandoned on the Syrian side of the border so that civilians can make their way on foot into Turkey:


MORE AT THE LINK

'NO NEW EBOLA IN 5 6 DAYS'

Washington (AFP) - With no new Ebola cases in five days, US authorities were cautious but hopeful that the virus has been contained in the United States after a flawed response revealed shortcomings in the system. - AFP
About 100 more people, most of them health care workers, are being tracked in Texas after coming in contact with the first patient diagnosed in the United States in late September.

Still, officials said it was reassuring that no new infections had emerged in recent days.

"We are breathing a little bit easier, but we are still holding our breath," said Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings.
Hospital Requiring Patients To Knock Before Entering ER...
Must Answer Set Of Questions Before Allowed In...
CDC releases new Ebola gear guidelines...
Liberia's broken medical system fails to keep track of patients...
Study Projects Spread of Virus...
Obama Repeats: You Can't Get Ebola on Bus -- Day After Bus Quarantined...
Drama continues around NBC News' chief medical editor...

The American Ebola patient you haven’t heard about - The Right Scoop

Apparently there is a secret Ebola patient that is on the way to a full recovery that no one has mentioned yet. As a friend of mine wondered, if this Ebola patient had died would anyone have told us about it?

Another U.S. Ebola Patient Recovers at Emory - NBC

Trial Ebola Vaccine Set for January Rollout in West Africa, WHO Says - NBC

The WHO, in consultation with health authorities in the countries most affected by the outbreak of the disease that has killed more than 4,500, will decide on how the experimental vaccine will be distributed and used. About 1,000 people a week are being infected with Ebola, according to the organization, which has warned the number could rise to between 5,000 and 10,000 a week. The WHO has cautioned that experimental vaccines cannot immediately help to control the worsening epidemic, but could be used to help protect the health workers needed to get it under control.

Infection Protection: New CDC Ebola Guidelines Stress Gear Ritual

...the CDC has received more than 400 calls from hospitals who feared they had an Ebola patient. About 10 percent seemed worth investigating, he said. Not one since Duncan has turned out to actually have Ebola. But the CDC expects more cases could come so long as Ebola continues to ravage Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Monday, October 20, 2014

California Judge Voter Guides

California voters often don't know much about judicial candidates - LA Times
"How many people know anything else about the judicial candidates?" said Jaime Regalado, professor emeritus of political science at Cal State L.A. "How do you know they're doing a good job?"

Most of California's roughly 1,600 Superior Court judges are first appointed by the governor. Those judges appear on the ballot only if they are challenged for a new term. Other judicial elections take place if a judge retires or resigns very close to an election. (Slots on state appeals courts and the Supreme Court are filled solely by appointment.)

Trial judges earn a base salary of $178,789 and serve for six years.

On Tuesday, Los Angeles County voters will weigh in on six judicial races, half of which involve sitting jurists. Strict ethics rules limit what the candidates can say, mostly stripping the races of the sort of controversy that makes voters take notice.

"Judicial races done right should be clean," said San Diego Superior Court Judge David M. Rubin, who's president of the California Judges Assn. "You don't want something that will sully the reputation of the bench."
Judges hold considerable sway over the lives of those in their courtrooms. But the average voter either has no clue how to assess judicial candidates or spends little time doing so.

Our Judge Voter Guide for California’s November 4th General Election will help you cut through the rhetoric, election propaganda and biased media coverage of the campaigns. This guide ranks every aspect of a candidate’s record according to experience, integrity and commitment to community. - Craig Huey/judgevoterguide.com via Tim Donnelly
How important is it for you to vote for the right judges?

Judges sitting on California courts may be incompetent, corrupt or lazy.

Even worse, many are political opportunists with a political agenda. They are “judicial activists.” A judicial activist legislates from the bench. Instead of strictly interpreting California law, these judges make the laws. Instead of applying the law to facts, they impose their own values on us all.

It is the voters of California and the legislatures that are supposed to make laws. Not judges. In fact, these judges ignore the law in favor of their own liberal, left-wing, anti-family agendas.

Legislating from the bench, these judges destroy or weaken constitutional protection, votes by the people, family values, marriage, religious liberty and economic freedom. SEE MORE at the link
California judicial elections, 2014 - Judgepedia
This year, voters have the opportunity to choose whether or not to retain certain justices of the supreme court and the courts of appeal. Such retention elections only occur every four years.
Robyn Nordell's Conservative California Election Website
__________________

CFRW Ballot Recommendations
CAGOP Ballot Recommendations
Tom McClintock Ballot Recommendations
Unofficial Guide to Judges on the Ballot

R.I.P. Oscar de la Renta



Iconic Fashion Designer Oscar de la Renta Dies at 82 - ABC





$21 million savings for McKinleyville taxpayers

Taxpayers in McKinleyville will save more than $21 million thanks to the refinancing of school bonds. - Jack Durham/Mad River Union

The McKinleyville Union School District recently refinanced $7.3 million in bonds, thereby saving $21.2 million over the next 36 years. That’s $4 million more than the savings anticipated back in August when the MUSD Board of Trustees approved the cost-saving measure.

The bonds were originally approved by more than 55 percent of voters in McKinleyville back in 2008 and were used to repair aging classrooms, upgrade utilities and improve energy efficiency at the district’s three schools – Morris, Dow’s Prairie and McKinleyville Middle School.

Cuomo Concedes Defeat in the Common Core Wars

A safe Democratic governor joins the conservative education wars. - Bloomberg



What a dizzying downward spiral it's been for Common Core. Just a few years ago, it was the joint product of agreements by 48 governors (minus only Rick Perry and Sarah Palin), an attempt to ameliorate the negative impacts of No Child Left Behind. (Cuomo was not elected until 2010, after the initial agreements.) Then conservatives rose in opposition – and for a while, progressives laughed at foolhardy lawmakers warning that these new standards would induct children into homosexuality. Later, as Tim Murphy has documented, suburbanites (in New York especially) started raging about the new testing that reflected poorly on their kids, and labor unions worried about the shuttering of underperforming schools.

That's how we ended up with this ad, from a center-left Democrat with heavy labor backing, promising voters that he will slow-walk the education standards that Glenn Beck had warned about first.

Last Day To Register To Vote In California



Only 15 days until Election Day!

Tina Brown: Obama Makes Women Feel ‘Unsafe’



“I think [women are] feeling unsafe,” Brown said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Monday. “They feel unsafe economically. They’re feeling unsafe with regard to ISIS. What they feel unsafe about is the government response to different crises.”

Brown said Obama’s smugness and willingness to place blame has also contributed to his declining support.

“I think they’re beginning to feel a bit that Obama’s like that guy in the corner office, you know, who’s too cool for school, calls a meeting, says this has to change, doesn’t put anything in place to make sure it does change, then it goes wrong and he’s blaming everybody,” she said.