November 16, 2006

And now for something completely different

I'll take a break from my normal collection of brewing related, computer related, or bad joke related posts to make this political insight: Hugh Hewitt fervent support for both Lott and Martinez will become his Harriet Meirs II moment. Excerpt:


I have to agree with Paul Mirengoff at Powerline about some reactions to the election of Trent Lott as Senate Minority Whip and Mel Martinez as RNC Chair. Both have the potential to be huge wins for the GOP, especially given Lott's command of Senate procedure.

I like Hugh Hewitt. his radio show is one of the better ones on the air, although I rarely get to listen to it. His unwavering support for almost anything that this administration support baffles me at times, especially on an issue which most conservatives oppose. Check out the excerpt from this post:


Regularization of the nation's millions of illegals along common-sense lines such should follow the fence's construction --or at least robust beginning of construction. If the GOP avoids plainly inequitable proposals such as the grant of social security benefits for the wages earned while illegally in the country or a path to citizenship for those who do not return first to their home countries, the comprehensive legislation can be worked out quickly.

Allow me to translate:

Regularization: amnesty for illegals

Comprehensive legistlation: amnesty for illegals

While working in IT the last decade or so, I had to opportunity to work with lots of foreign nationals, most of whom have to jump through hoops on a yearly basis just to guarantee that their visas stay up to date; this includes those attempting to get their green cards. Some of them, from India mostly, go back home for a few weeks each year to work through all of the technicalities at the local consulate. Anyway, that group of individuals is large and well-educated. They are almost unilaterally opposed to this amnesty talk. It pisses them off that some people lolly-gagged their way illegally across our borders and are about to be rewarded for it.

I know what the problem is: Hugh has swallowed the big effing lie that illegal immigration wasn't a winner in this past election. Bill Quick delivers a swift kick in the nads to this bullshit. Excerpt:



Fred Barnes in the Weekly Standard makes the case that immigration restriction wasn't a plus issue for House Republicans. In Arizona, with the biggest illegal border crossing crisis in the nation, two loud advocates of immigration restriction and opponents of guest-worker and legalization provisions lost: incumbent J.D. Hayworth in the Scottsdale-Tempe Fifth District and open-seat primary winner Randy Graf in the Eighth, which includes the east side of Tucson and Cochise County, site of most of the illegal border crossings. In 2004, Graf won 43 percent in the primary against incumbent Jim Kolbe, who favored guest-worker and legalization provisions. With Kolbe retiring, Graf won the same 43 percent in the primary again, but that was enough to win a three-candidate race. I tend to agree with Barnes's take. If an anti-immigration candidate can't win in these two districts, where can he win?

Pity. Mike Barone used to be a reasonably honest, reasonably trustworthy reporter, but here, he outright lies by omission.

An anti-illegal immigration candidate did win in both districts.

Here's Hayworth's opponent:


Every sovereign nation has a responsibility to secure its border. In Congress, I'll make it a top priority to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and stop illegal immigration.
...

And here is Graf's opponent's position on the issue:

is "absolutely unfair," she said. Republicans have not done enough to stop illegal immigration, she added, ridiculing Graf's idea that tougher enforcement will lead immigrants to go home.

"I don't believe they're going to stand up, walk home and self deport," Giffords said, carefully adding "I do not support amnesty."

Immigration nerds understand the difference in positions between the Democrats and the Republican candidates, but the average voter probably thought their positions were identically tough. For Barone - and the sleazy RNC hack Barnes - to intimate otherwise is, frankly, nothing more than ideological dishonesty.


Update: Check out Blogs of War for a roundup of the conservative[translation for Hugh Hewitt: not Republican] opinion. It isn't pretty.

Time for the GOP to go the way of the Whigs. The way leadership is behaving right now, I expect the Democrats to own all 3 branches of government in early 2009. Might as well gear up for the revolution now instead of waiting for the self-immolation to be complete.

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November 07, 2006

Game on

So I'm late. Sue me. I had two small children to tuck into bed. Priorities. Now on to the results:

VA: Allen leads by 3% with 48% reporting. That's good, but he'd better have a decent margin before Fairfax county comes in, or he will be a one-termer.

The marriage amendment is winning handily, after recent polls showed it within the margin of error. I guess that's true if your margin of error is large as John Kerry's face.

Update:

1,404 of 2,443 (57 %) Precincts Reporting
George Allen 629,330 50 %
Jim Webb, Jr. 609,220 49 %

Looks like a nailbiter in the Old Dominion.


Update: Mother of God, Shumer is smiling. Smiling. It's creepy. Also, not a good sign.

Update:

1,502 of 2,443 (61 %) Precincts Reporting
George Allen 679,127 50 %
Jim Webb, Jr. 653,942 49 %

Also, it appears that Ace and Dave of Garfield Ridge are liveblogging, too. I'll stick with Virginia, because, well, I live here.

Update: I lied. Corker is up big in TN right now.


1,625 of 2,443 (66 %) Precincts Reporting
George Allen 741,790 50 %
Jim Webb, Jr. 713,794 48 %

Update: CNN just called the race for Lieberman. A Dem hold on a bad night for the GOP, but I like bitchslapping those krazy Kos kidz.


Update:

1,803 of 2,443 (73 %) Precincts Reporting
George Allen 822,186 50 %
Jim Webb, Jr. 788,704 48 %

Spoke too soon. The lead is down to a percentage point with 77% in. Starting to sweat a little bit now.

Update: Jim Geraghty thinks that Allen will win. I hope that he's right.

BTW, WTF is up with Maryland? Steele up by 11% with 1% of the votes in and they called it for Cardin? I think that I'll watch the actual count come in, thankyouverymuch.

Oh, and apparently the exit polls blow chunks. Again. Fox kicked them to the curb and took the unorthodox method of counting the actual votes.


Final update: Barone just stated that we might not know the VA senate winner for a month. Under state law, if the margin of victory is within 1% of the total cast, an automatic recount is triggered.

Go-go absentee ballots!

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Pre-election predictions: 2006 edition

My guesses are of the aggregate kind. I don't feel like going through each race. Anyway, here goes:

Senate: Republicans hold serve, maintaining a 52-46-2(okay, 52-4 edge.

House: Democrats manage to wrest control from the GOP for the first time in 12 years, grabbing a grand total of 218-220 seats, which would give them a 1 to 5 vote margin.

These predictions are free, which means double your money back if I'm proven wrong.

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November 03, 2006

Up yours

The Defense Department implemented a program that allows members of the US military stationed abroad to submit ballots via email or fax. It's designed to make certain that our men and women in uniform get the opportunity to cast a meaningful ballot. That's a good thing, right? Apparently not if you're Democratic Rep. Rush Holt from New Jersey:


In a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Democratic Rep. Rush Holt said the electronic registration and voting service is well-intentioned, but could expose troops to identity theft, or allow hackers or others to tamper with the ballots when they are in transit.

You mean like having illegal aliens or dead people vote? I'll tell you what: when you author legislation in New Jersey requiring people to show ID at the polls, I'll give you a pass. Until that day, when monkeys will be streaming out of my ass in large numbers, you can take your military vote suppressing ass-because they vote strongly Republican- somewhere and drink a nice, tall glass of STFU.

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November 01, 2006

Nice move, John "by the way, I served in Vietnam along with the other child killers and rapists" Kerry

I tried to stay of the Kerry snafu. I figured that no one was dumb enough to double down on a sure loser of a hand. Apparently, I don't know Lurch all that well, because the dumbass didn't apologize about his comments, but rather complained because someone was making his comments an issue. Some former fence-sitters have now chosen a side. I give you Neal Boortz:


OK ... all bets are off.

Don't get me wrong ... I still have this deep felt desire to see the Republican's get punished by the electorate in next week's midterm election ... but suddenly the stakes seem to be too high.

What turned the tide for me? John Kerry, that's what. That insipid, haughty, pretentious jerk uttered another one of his absurd statements about our men and women in uniform ... and in a flash my fear of Democrats and their disdain for our military services overcame any desire I had to put Republicans over my knee.

You did hear what Kerry said, didn't you? Come on now .. surely you have. [refresher] For the few of you who might have been in a 48-hour coma, The Poodle was talking to a group of college students in Pasadena, California (where else?) on Monday when he said: "You know, education--if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

So there you have it. There's your choice. According to Mr. Band-Aid Purple Heart, you either become smart, or end up serving in our armed forces.

John Kerry seems to have a deep-seated disdain (bordering on hatred) for those in uniform. Remember, please, that it was John Kerry who, many years ago, talked about our troops in Vietnam regularly committing atrocities against innocent women and children. It was also John Kerry who remarked earlier this year about American troops in Iraq "terrorizing" women and children. How dare that pompous ass suggest that it is our troops who are doing the terrorizing over there?

For the record, Kerry is dead wrong. Not that he cares. Just four days ago The Heritage Foundation issued a report by Tim Kane entitled "Who Are the Recruits? The Demographic Characteristics of U.S. Military Enlistment, 2003-2005." You have the link, go and read the report for yourself. If you do you will find that a higher percentage of military recruits have graduated from high school than the general population. In 2004 82.7% of recruits were high school graduates while another 7.03% had their GEDs. The national high school graduation rate that year was 79.8%. Even today, in 2006, the high school graduation rate for recruits is still higher than the high school graduation rate for the civilian population. Looks to me like the recruits are doing pretty well. You'll also find that "the Department of Defense reported that the mean reading level of 2004 recruits is a full grade level higher than that of the comparable youth population."

Clearly John Kerry had no idea what in the hell he was talking about .. the arrogant putz.

So .. the firestorm erupts, and here comes Kerry to the microphones to set the record straight. Did he apologize for his insult against our troops? Are you kidding? Not only did he not apologize, but he actually had the stones to try to tell us he wasn't talking about our troops, he was talking about Bush! I would ask just how stupid Kerry thinks Americans are --- but the very fact that he thinks we should have made him president indicates what his answer, were he to be truthful, would be.

These men and women are on the front lines, giving up their lives, to defend us from Islamic fascism -- and Kerry is back here talking about what intellectual failures they are. Intellectual failures that terrorize women and children in the night.

Do we hang the sins of John Kerry around the necks of all Democrats? Well, let me ask you. Did you hear of one single Democrat .. just one .. anywhere .. stepping forward to repudiate what Kerry said? Maybe some Democrat did, but I sure as hell haven't heard anything about it. Have you? A Democrat congressional candidate in Iowa has gone so far as to say Kerry's words were "inappropriate." Hardly an apology .. but he did ask Kerry to cancel a planned campaign visit to his district.

In other words ... these gutless wonders who just love to tell us how much they truly do support our troops won't even stand up to be heard when our soldiers are slandered by this rich woman's boy toy.

This is such a gift to the Republicans. It's as if Karl Rove himself paid John Kerry a large amount of money to read from a script. It couldn't be better. Here we are, on the even of the 2006 mid-term elections...in which the Democrats are poised to take over the House and maybe the Senate. Now here comes John Kerry, standard-bearer of his party in the last presidential election...to slander our troops. Bad move....even the most anti-war politician never blames the troops. It's political suicide.

So .. that's it. We're six days out, and I've come unglued. Sure, the Republicans have become just another party of big government and pork barrel spending ... but at least they don't slander the very men and women who are shedding blood every single day to defend our country.

Give me the big-spenders who support our troops over the big-spenders who slander them any day.

I'm voting Republican.

We'll just have to figure out another way to take these Republicans miscreants to the woodshed.

Good job, John. You might the guy who forces Pelosi to send her new drapes back.

Update: Jay Tea and I are on the same page.

Final update: Looks like Kerry ignored the Nutroots folks- who must be apoplectic right now- and finally did the right thing.

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