Business Politics – 2008 Campaigns and Elections

The Huffington Post has an excellent map-app for following the money in the Presidential Campaign, check out the map for Las Vegas campaign contributions.

Posted by pokerprof at 3:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton clashed sharply in a high-stakes one-on-one debate on Tuesday, accusing each other of falsely portraying their stances on health care, trade and other issues. (Obama and Clinton clash in testy debate)

In a desperate move to salvage her campaign, Hillary–our very own Lady Macbeth–has unleashed what one campaign official called a “‘kitchen sink” approach, hoping that something will stop the slide which now shows Obama ahead in Ohio and Texas in several polls.

As Dick Morris, former Bill Clinton campaign manager, puts it in discussing Hillary’s pressure on Democrat Superdelegates and her wish to seat Florida delegates:

The Clintons’ approach is driving voters into Obama’s arms in droves. What better example of what he calls “old-style Washington politics” than the use of superdelegates to nullify the will of the voters?

National tracking polls show Obama gaining almost daily – and all now put him in the lead. That reflects popular anger at the Clintons’ tactics. (Hillary on the Rocks)

Is Obama ready to lead a nation? I have doubts that any sane person could or would but his experience in surmounting the “Clinton Machine” gives him better credentials than Bill Clinton ever had or Hillary ever will.

Posted by Zounds Off at 3:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the last Democratic debate Clinton gave us the “sincere” moment in her closing reminiscent of her “tearful” moment in New Hampshire which raised her to a primary win in NH. For anyone who believes that any of those moments are real, those people haven’t really known an attorney. Sincerity is where ever the money is coming from.

And yet, just when the pundits declared her closing statement as her valedictorian moment and applauded the high tone she took, Clinton has finally let her anger loose. Holy entitled place in history, Batman, Hillary just can’t believe that people could like another Democrat better than her; for that matter neither can Bill who decided to tell Texans that if Hillary doesn’t win Texas, it is their fault, not the Clintons. With another campaign policy shift hoping to revive her position, Hillary is “merely strutting her hour upon the stage, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” to paraphrase Shakespeare.

From the Los Angeles Times:

In a move to salvage her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton adopted a newly bellicose tone toward rival Barack Obama on Saturday, saying he was making false and shameful attacks on her record.

The New York senator mocked Obama’s speaking skills and his power to draw tens of thousands of supporters to rallies that have dwarfed her more modest events.

Yes, Clinton just can’t believe that Obama would dare to have bigger rallies than her, but the sudden passionate anger is too little, too petty, and most likely too late.

Posted by Zounds Off at 4:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just a few excerpts on Cybercast News Service you might not see in mainstream media.

According to recent reports, the cost of Massachusetts’ health insurance mandate will rise 85 percent, or $400 million, in 2009. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), meanwhile, has been on the presidential campaign trail praising the program he put into place.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) if he thought former President Clinton was telling the truth about some of Sen. Barack Obama’s statements, Kerry said: “I think that there have been some unfortunate distortions of Barack Obama’s positions that are not appropriate on any campaign in any campaign circumstances by anybody.” When Bill Clinton lies, Dems obfuscate; Kerry certainly wasn’t so polite over swiftboat ads.

A photograph of a smiling Bill and Hillary Clinton standing beside Tony Rezko surfaced on the Internet as well as on network and cable television Friday… In a Democratic debate last week, Sen. Clinton blasted Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for doing legal work for Rezko – “your contributor … in his slum landlord business in inner-city Chicago.”

A group that lobbies for needle exchanges, for allowing more immigrants with HIV/AIDS to legally enter the country, and for condom distribution in prisons received a $303,000 federal earmark pushed by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.). That was one of the 261 earmarks Clinton personally helped usher through Congress. I guess Hillary didn’t get the memo against earmarks that Pelosi was distributing in Congress when she vowed that the new Democratic Congress would end the practices enjoyed by Republicans. Then again, the other Dems didn’t read it either.

The New York Times – admitting its has “strong disagreements with all the Republicans running for president,” has nevertheless endorsed Sen. John McCain for the Republican presidential nominee, bypassing former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whom the newspaper endorsed for re-election in 1997.
…
the [Times] editorial called him “a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man who saw no need to limit police power. Racial polarization was as much a legacy of his tenure as the rebirth of Times Square … [his] arrogance and bad judgment are breathtaking.” But they liked him when New York became safe enough to walk to work.

Posted by Zounds Off at 9:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

*Conservative, Dull, Reaganesque, Lazy, Slow to Go, etc.

Republican Fred Thompson, the actor-politician who attracted more attention as a potential presidential candidate than as a real one, quit the race for the White House on Tuesday after a string of poor finishes in early primary and caucus states. For more go to Fred Thompson Quits Presidential Race.

Thompson becomes the biggest loser on the Republican side and joins the likes of Democrats Biden, Dodd, and Richardson as big name politicians who weren’t generating much excitement. Thompson, with uncanny savvy, timed his entrance into the race with the Hollywood writers strike and was never able to recover from his early lack of memorable lines.

Posted by Zounds Off at 12:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Steve Miller reports in CFP that although the Nevada caucus is over, “several issues emerged that help define the woman selected to be the state Democratic Party’s nominee.

First and foremost, it took dozens of translators stationed in the caucus locations to help the majority of Clinton supporters understand speeches and fill out their ballots. These “voters” who could neither speak nor write in our nation’s language were asked (in Spanish) to sign a document attesting to the fact that they were in the United States legally. After obediently doing so, the majority voted for Hillary Clinton at caucus locations within the hotels where they’re employed.”

Just a quick note…Spanish is the official language of Mexico, while politicians work hard to make sure that English never becomes the official language of the United States. That way they can keep directing the Spanish speaking immigrants both legal and illegal on how to vote. Perhaps in twenty years Spanish will become the official language of the U.S. Other countries in our hemisphere that have made Spanish the official language: Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatamala, virtually all Latin American countries except Brazil (Portuguese)…well, I suppose you see the picture. We are practically the only country in this hemisphere without an official language.

After looking at Hillary’s support group, I wonder if Steve has any information on whether Cook County (Illinois) politician and presidential hopeful, Barack Obama, has or had any ties to our infamous University Medical Center scandal perpetrator, Lacy Thomas, who came to us from Chicago.

Posted by Zounds Off at 12:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After all the hype, all Harry Reid’s strutting, and even a Democratic debate at UNLV, only 33 percent of Nevada’s voters said they would definitely or probably attend their party’s Jan. 19 presidential caucuses, according to a statewide poll conducted for the Reno Gazette-Journal and published Sunday.

Add in the long campaign season, lackluster candidates, caucus complexities, and just fighting traffic and seasonal affective disorder–it’s dark too early–and the actual turnout should be quite a bit lower, about the 20 percent who come out to give Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman his “mandate.”

Posted by Zounds Off at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yes I know…Las Vegas hosted a Democratic debate hoping to bring some attention to the Nevada caucus which is suffering from a complete lack of interest.

Hillary used it to expand the vast right wing conspiracy to now include Democrats who question her moveable stance on the issues…John Edwards is promising that third place is where he strategically wants to be for his big finish…and UNLV student Maria Parra Sandoval ended the evening with the question: “Do you prefer diamonds or pearls?”

It’s time to raise the voting age to 30 and designate UNLV as simply a large, four year day care center.

Posted by Zounds Off at 6:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Former MA Governor Mitt] Romney recently suggested that he believes the GOP primary is going to come down to Giuliani and a more conservative candidate. (MSN.com)

I didn’t know Mitt had even noticed Mike Huckabee. This just might be a possible Republican ticket–Giuliani and Huckabee. And on the Democrat side Obama was a bit premature considering Gore as V.P, possibility when Senator Clinton has locked down the nomination. Do you suppose Al Gore would like to spend another eight years as a Clinton machine lapdog, I mean V.P.?

Posted by Zounds Off at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The L.A. Times reported last week that, “[D]ishwashers, waiters and others whose jobs and dilapidated home addresses seem to make them unpromising targets for political fundraisers are pouring $1,000 and $2,000 contributions into Clinton’s campaign treasury. In April, a single fundraiser in an area long known for its gritty urban poverty yielded a whopping $380,000.

Along with the problems with Norman Hsu and the long recognized Chinese money connections associated with Bill Clinton’s presidential runs, it seems that Hillary Clinton is seriously compromised by Chinese influence in the form of illegal contributions through phoney donations. When will people stop being mesmerized by the Clinton machine and ask why another Clinton presidency is so important to China? It’s time to stop listening to what she says and simply look at what she does–collect money the old fashion way, i.e. as quid pro quo.

Posted by Zounds Off at 3:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that everytime Sen. Hillary Clinton is asked about an issue she begins with, “[Insert Name of Interviewer Here], I am deeply concerned over this issue.” and usually followed with, “As you know, I have worked tirelessly on the issue of [Insert Name of Issue Here] as Senator and when my husband, [Insert Bill here], was in the White House.” ???

Scriptwriter please…we need a rewrite. Oh, well, it’s working fine and I’m sure that Hillary will be the Democratic nominee for president; I just am not as sure of the VP–although Obama is popular I can’t see the Clinton machine welcoming him into the inner circle and Edwards already blew his chances by spending $400 on a haircut as a hopeful where, as president in 1993, Bill Clinton’s haircuts only cost $200.

Posted by Zounds Off at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was flipping channels the other night–since I never had the money to flip houses or stocks–and on PBS was a debate. I have to admit it sounded like a presidential debate but it sure didn’t look like one. Each time I look, the candidates appear to be more and more obscure. This debate included the slightly known Brownback and Huckabee, with Reps. Duncan Hunter of California, Ron Paul of Texas and Tom Tancredo of Colorado, and conservative activist Alan L. Keyes, who are virtually invisible to the regular media.

Without a doubt the other Republicans were doing “real” campaigning at the time–collecting the big donations needed to buy a White House.

Posted by Zounds Off at 5:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Obviously a slow week in the ponderous decade long run for the 2008 election as the mainstream media picks up on what appears to be a Dick Morris article on Hillary’s “spontaneous” laughter and her belief that the Clintons are still the targets of a “vast right-wing conspiracy” and that they are alone and under attack despite their manifest virtue and singular desire to do good.
.

When I hear Hillary laugh, I can’t help being reminded of another cackler:
“Well, my little pretty, I can cause accidents too!”
And,
“Give me the Presidency! I’m the only one that knows how to use it. It’s of no use to you.”
Opps, I mean…
“Give me back my slippers! I’m the only one that knows how to use them. They’re of no use to you.”
[Some quoted lines are from The Wizard of Oz from MGM.]

Posted by Zounds Off at 4:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From Fined group tied to Hillary
Officials of a defunct pro-Democratic group that was hit with a near-record campaign-finance fine last month hold strong ties to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign, documents show.

At least four persons who worked for the America Coming Together (ACT) fundraising group, which the Federal Election Commission recently fined $775,000, work directly for the Clinton campaign or hold top positions with consulting firms hired by it.

Fundraiser for Mrs. Clinton and other Democrats, Norman Hsu remains in jail without bond on charges he bilked investors in a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

Posted by Zounds Off at 4:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LAS VEGAS, Sept. 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Senator Barbara
Cegavske, Commissioner Rory Reid and Mayor Oscar Goodman, joined Ed in ’08
Campaign Chairman Roy Romer and other leaders at the Clark County
Government Center, during the campaign’s state-wide kick-off in Las Vegas
today, to challenge the presidential candidates to lay out their plans to
fix America’s public schools.

“The presidential candidates recognize that Nevada is a key primary
battle ground state,” said Romer, as he was flanked by parents, teachers
and school reform advocates. “I urge all voters to send a message to the
candidates: Tell them they must stand up to the special interests that
oppose fundamental reforms because America’s failing schools are a national
crisis that can only be solved with strong leadership.”

Strong American Schools’ Ed in ’08 campaign, an up to $60 million
nonpartisan effort supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The
Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, urges the candidates to put forth a plan
of action to implement stronger American standards, ensure that there is an
effective teacher in every classroom and increase time and support for
student learning.

In our society today we will NEVER have an effective teacher in every classroom.

1. Teacher programs don’t attract the best students; in the 1990’s 40 percent of all education
majors tested in the bottom 20 percent of all college students.

2. An extraordinary number of education majors want to be coaches, meaning that they get a certificate in physical education. A few years ago George Will wrote an opinion piece where he noted that in the state of Arkansas during a five year period its teacher programs graduated 4,400 p.e. teachers and 1 physics teacher. I challenge Nevada colleges to provide the numbers of qualified teachers in each discipline to the public. I will bet the numbers are frightening.

3. Corporations claim to want an educated population but, hey, it’s cheaper to outsource, and in Nevada the “corporation” is simply the gaming industry, an industry which relies on mundane service–parking valets, dealers, waitresses, room service, clerks, bartenders–so how much education do they really require from employees while taking money from the clientele.

4. Corporation have apparently more rights than individuals (and certainly buy more influence with our politicians than ordinary people) so it is more likely that the corporate tax will be lowered in the U.S. leaving less money for programs (but probably not ending corporate welfare).

5. If Nevada wanted to raise education standards, it could simply raise taxes on the “corporation” that controls all of Nevada: Gaming! Nevada taxes casinos at the lowest rate of any state or country in the world. But we know that won’t happen, because that would take “strong” leadership, something sorely lacking in Nevada.

6. There is just something basically wrong with expecting “fixes” to come from the federal level; it was the failing state of education which led to the “No Child Left Behind Act” which has caused school administrators to creatively find ways to skew numbers so they can remain in hiding, and done little to change education at its most fundamental levels–raise the damn bar back to where it was forty years ago when our county put men on the moon using slide rules.

And it is really time that we seek out talented people and pay them what they are worth to be teachers and truly forget about the obscenely overpaid celebrity monkeys making the news on ESPN or ET. The next news story on TV about O.J. Simpson, Brittney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, try turning off the TV; instead, read a book to or with a child; I guarantee you will survive.

Posted by Zounds Off at 1:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted on the Glenn Beck website is this transcript of a show from a week ago where Glenn plays part of an interview that was held at WPLR in New Haven, Connecticut. They had James Brolin (Mr. Barbra Streisand) on for an interview on a movie that he was doing, and it’s on September 11th.

VOICE: Yeah, and so, you know, this is based on a true story and I don’t know if the kid was there at the time. And, of course, they never really caught the guy and brought him into town in reality, but they sure as heck found him in one day where the CIA couldn’t find him in several years, supposedly. So, you know, it’s kind of a parody on how much we can’t catch war criminals with all of our sophisticated stuff, you know.

VOICE: That’s something we’ve been talking about a lot today on the show for obvious reasons, the sixth anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

VOICE: Right. Oh, yeah. Oh, happy 9/11.

VOICE: Well, that’s kind of a weird thing to say.

VOICE: Silence.

VOICE: Yeah. Well, we’re right outside of New York. I mean, I know people who lost family members. So I don’t know. We don’t say “Happy 9/11” around here.

VOICE: You celebrate the day, right?

VOICE: Well, we kind of commemorate the day by remembering the people who were lost and the families that they left behind.

And Americans seem to hang on the words of celebrities as if they had a special “truth.” For the most part, I view celebrities as empty people looking for a script writer to give them a personality, a voice, and a statement. Also, judging by the number of “bombs” many celebrities embrace–I mean movies–a large number of Hollywood celebrities don’t even have the brains to recognize a bad script.

And now a large number of people are pinning their hopes on Fred Thompson, as if his character on TV somehow translates to who he really is. Who he is should be judged by what he has done, not what his TV character says. Thompson has lobbied for special interests, such as Equitas–a British insurance company which tried to avoid paying for asbestos/cancer claims–a Tennessee savings and loan, Toyota, Perrier, and he and his past law firm even advised the lawyer working for the terrorists who brought down the Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie. See “Fred Thompson: Going Nowhere Fast” by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann.

Posted by Zounds Off at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Of course we have been hearing for weeks about the escapades of valued Democratic fund raiser and friend, Norman Hsu, who managed to raise some 850,000 dollars for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign only to have it come out that Norman has been running Ponzi schemes for years and has apparently bilked investors out of several millions of dollars.

Now comes Ray Hunt, friend of the Bush family, advisor to the President, contributor to the George W. Bush Library, and owner of Hunt Oil to poison relations within Iraq.

Hunt Oil announced this month that, after secret negotiations, it had struck a deal with leaders in the country’s Kurdish-controlled north to explore for oil in the Dahuk region near the Turkish border. News of the deal angered Iraqi Arab leaders, who saw it as a Kurdish power play for the country’s oil resources, one that appeared to disrupt already fragile talks over a critical benchmark for peace: an agreement among the Sunni, Shiites and Kurds to share profits.

Posted by Zounds Off at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Republican Mitt Romney, a former one-term governor with a thin foreign-policy resume, argued Wednesday that the Senate tenures of his top Democratic presidential rivals don’t automatically make them qualified to address world affairs.

“Sitting on committees in Washington does not guarantee that someone has the skills to solve the problems on the international stage,” Romney told The Associated Press

And apparently Romney’s foreign policy experience consists of spending 30 months in France as an LDS missionary in the 1960’s. Along with the apparent gaffes committed by his staff in South Carolina, Mitt just may end up as more joke than serious candidate, except for the fact that the Mormons really wants to see him in the White House and will surely pay into his campaign coffers.

Posted by Zounds Off at 2:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Web site ridiculing Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson – dubbed PhoneyFred.org – turned out to be real bad news yesterday for GOP rival Mitt Romney.

The salacious site, which labeled Thompson “Playboy Fred” and worse, was linked yesterday to Romney’s campaign, forcing the former Massachusetts governor’s red-faced aides to disavow the site.

The incident – sparking the first real mudslinging in the Republican primary – began when cybersleuths connected the anti-Thompson site to Romney’s top consultant in South Carolina, Warren Tompkins.

For more on how each candidate will spin this go to “Anti-Fred Thompson Web site linked to Mitt Romney.”

It’s nice to see that the candidates are hiring intelligent, professional juveniles to run their campaigns. Don’t they have enough sense to leave this sort of behavior to the the rabid bloggers on the net?

Posted by Zounds Off at 2:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A New Hampshire teenager’s yearbook photo has been rejected, because she’s holding a flower. Merrimack High School student Melissa Morin’s senior photograph featured her and a small red flower. School officials, however, said the picture is not going to make it in the yearbook because props aren’t allowed.

Wow! And this state gets to have the first primary! If you want to know what’s wrong with education it’s actions like this where common sense has been put to death and the foolish are in charge. And remember that this state ranks a lot higher than Nevada for education, which comes in at 49th, just a nudge ahead of Arizona. Think of all the crazy decisions Clark County schools will perform in the next couple of years before this state dies of thirst–I mean runs out of water.

Posted by Zounds Off at 4:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In case you didn’t care, there was a Republican debate in New Hampshire on Wednesday night. You probably didn’t care much, also, about what the candidates had to say as we know they have pollsters and consultants and media people to help them present themselves as caring, well-informed leaders and not meglomaniacs with strange private agendas.

But a few people not only care about their candidates but wrote in to Fox News touting which candidate they felt won the debate.

From their responses I learned two things:
1. Many of those who wrote in have bad grammar; the only writers who make more grammatical mistakes are the hard core liberal bloggers.

2. These people are about as likely to agree on what they saw and heard as a committee made of equal numbers of pro-lifers and pro-choicers.

For fun, here are a few of the responses on who won the debate:

“I believe Rudy G. won the debate. ”
“The clear winners were Giuliani, Romney, and Huckabee, in that order. Ron Paul is a very poor excuse for a Republican and should run with the other idiots on the Democrat side.”
“MITT ROMNEY.”
“Hands down, Mike Huckabee won the debate.”
“Rudy Giuliani was the clear winner. ”
“While McCain performed better than expected, I thought overall Romney won it. Giulani was just plain disappointing.”
“I liked Huckabee and McCain.”
“I believe that it was a toss-up between Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney.”
“Ron Paul has just lost what sanity he ever had. ”
“Ron Paul won.”
“Ron Paul was the clear winner tonight!”
“I think that Ron Paul was the best in the debate! He is someone that speaks truth and isn’t a phony, but he doesn’t fit the powerful peoples’ agendas!”
“The poll after the debate shows the clear leader of the pack. Ron Paul is the only hope for America.”
“Huckabee is the who should win out of everyone….”,
“I think Huckabee would be ideal, but I think Rudy is the one that can beat Hilary! Happy voting. Vote GOP!”
“I feel that Giuliani and Romney were very strong tonight.”
“JOHN MCCAIN.
“McCain won hands down.”
“Clearly, Ron Paul won the debate.”
“Giuliani is far from impressing.”
“Ron Paul won this debate.”
“I like Tom Tancredo’s stance on illegal immigration….”
“Mike Huckabee won the debate in my opinion.”
“Clearly Ron Paul won the debate.”
“Mitt Romney won the debate.”
“Giuliani and McCain were my favorite. ”
“John McCain. Romery was blah to me….”

“Fred Thompson wins hands down.”

Posted by Zounds Off at 3:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hillary Clinton’s handlers like to promote her image as an embattled warrior — a relentless foot soldier dedicated to the dual crusades of fighting for the exalted principles of goodness and light while simultaneously defeating the ever-present forces of darkness and evil. A modern-day Celtic warrior queen or Joan of Arc — that’s the spin on Hillary.

But in reality, Hillary’s favorite wars are much less lofty and much more self-centered and mean-spirited. Hillary emphatically comes from the “us versus them” school of American politics. Like Richard Nixon, the politician she so closely resembles, she sees the world in extraordinarily simple terms: there are those who agree with her and support her and then there’s the rest of the world. Those who don’t agree with her are bunched together and known collectively as “the enemy” — that vast right wing conspiracy that must be vilified, beaten, and destroyed … whatever it takes.

To Hillary, this easily quantifiable adversary is unquestionably the source of all evil. Therefore, any means of obliterating them is acceptable. She thrives on identifying, assailing, and defeating them. Her hatred for this ubiquitous enemy is actually a source of enormous strength — it motivates her, energizes her, keeps her going and reminds her of her superiority.

Ouch! And this glowing analysis of the Hillary psyche doesn’t come from the vast right wing conspiracy but from the man who orchestrated her husband’s successful presidential runs, Dick Morris.

But what I want to know is why the Clintons can’t seem to avoid getting mixed up with gangsters, crooks, and agents with Asian names, like John Huang, Charlie Trie, the Riadys of Indonesia. The latest Clinton donation relationship has blown up as the L.A. Times reported that Norman Hsu has been involved in several schemes that have Ponzi scheme all over the margins, who pleaded no contest to grand theft and agreed to serve up to three years in prison, and some past involvement with Chinese gangsters.

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