Category Archives: 2012 Primary

2012 Primary, Health Law, Lies, Taxes, True Talking Points

Obamacare to Increase Individual Insurance Premiums by 55-85% in Ohio

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I am in Indiana and my premiums just went up by a factor of 12 – Editor

Forbes:

Individual-market premiums to increase by as much as 85 percent

In August of 2011, the Ohio Department of Insurance retained Milliman, the prestigious actuarial consulting firm, to estimate the impact of Obamacare on the private insurance market. Milliman’s 159-page report makes clear that Obamacare’s blizzard of insurance mandates and regulations will dramatically increase the cost of individually-purchased insurance.

By 2017, write the Milliman researchers, “individual health insurance market premiums are estimated to increase by 55% to 85% above current market average rates (excluding the impact of medical inflation).” Because Obamacare forces insurers to cover a buffet of benefits that they don’t have to today, the cost of insurance will go up. Another driver of higher premiums is the fact that insurers will have to cover everyone, regardless of previous health status, a change that will attract sicker enrollees at the expense of healthier ones.

Some Obamacare defenders try to argue that these cost increases don’t matter, because a slice of the low-income population will benefit from the law’s subsidies. But if you’re not eligible for subsidies, or only partially eligible, you will be exposed to the law’s dramatic increases in the cost of insurance. And remember that Obamacare has an individual mandate, which will force most Americans to absorb these higher costs.

Obamacare to cut Medicare by $10,763 per Ohio retiree

Obamacare cuts Medicare by $716 billion between 2013 and 2022 in order to pay for part of the law’s $1.9 trillion in new health-care spending for younger people over the same time frame. My co-blogger Robert Book and Michael Ramlet have published a paper for the University of Minnesota showing that Ohio’s share of those Medicare cuts is $21.2 billion dollars. This year, Ohio has 1,971,260 Medicare enrollees, which means that these cuts amount to $10,763 for every senior in Ohio.

Robert Book published another paper, this time with former White House budget official James Capretta, detailing Obamacare’s cuts to Medicare Advantage on a state-by-state basis. Robert and Jim found that, in 2017, Obamacare will cut $3,390 in Medicare Advantage services for every Ohioan enrolled in the program: a 26 percent cut. And 36 percent of Ohioan seniors—709,313—are enrolled in Medicare Advantage.

Survey: 24 percent of Ohio doctors will stop accepting Medicare patients

Last month, the Physicians Foundation published one of the largest physician surveys ever conducted in the United States, with 13,575 respondents. They asked physicians a broad range of questions, including several about their views on Obamacare. 62 percent of Ohio physicians said that the Affordable Care Act made them “less positive about the direction and future of healthcare in America.” Only 16 percent said it made them feel more positive.

If Medicare fees decrease by ten percent or more—as the Affordable Care Act will require—30 percent of Ohio doctors say that they will place “new or additional limits” on accepting Medicare patients. 24 percent say they’ll stop accepting Medicare patients altogether.

The survey also has bad news for Ohioans on other forms of insurance. 22 percent of Ohio physicians say that they’ll place new or additional limits on Medicaid patients as a result of the Medicare cuts; 22 percent also say they plan to raise fees on those with private insurance in order to compensate for the cuts.

Obamacare’s tax increases

Finally, it’s worth touching on Obamacare’s tax increases. From 2013-2022, Obamacare increases taxes by $1.2 trillion, which amounts to $15,796 for the average family of four. Ohio’s share of those taxes is approximately $46 billion.

Obamacare’s defenders will claim that many of Obamacare’s taxes fall on corporations and upper-income individuals. But these taxes will get passed down to every American. For example, the law applies an excise tax to health insurance premiums, which insurers will be forced to pass down to individuals in the form of higher premiums. Analysts estimate that this tax could increase premiums by as much as 3 percent,  amounting to around $500 for the average Ohio family in 2014.

Other state-specific analyses of Obamacare

This is the first in a series of posts I have published on the effect of Obamacare on individual states. The complete series includes Ohio, Wisconsin, Virginia, Florida, Colorado, New Hampshire, Nevada, Minnesota, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

Patrick Paule, an insurance broker in Ohio, says that the huge spike in costs for young people will force many employers to drop coverage or pass on premiums for those making more than $21,000:

Avik, As a broker in Ohio who has read the entire 159 page Milliman report I would add that the bigger issue is in the small employer (2-50 employees) group market where premiums are expected to increase by 150% for younger and healthier groups yet could also have a decrease of 40% for older and unhealthy groups. It is important to note group policy premiums will have significant variability for adjusted community rating.

Smaller employers will observe the greatest impacts since they are more likely to be at one extreme or the other of the total current premium range because of health status tier, age band, and gender.

Why is this most important? Because in Northwest Ohio the average small employer pays 80% of the premiums for single coverage and 65% for family coverage. According the the Kaiser Family Foundation Health Reform Subsidy Calculator, for a single person to get 80% of his/her premiums covered by a subsidy under Obamacare, one’s income would have to be less than $21,000 per year. Our average wages are above that figure.

Simply put, if costs rise for an employer they will do one of two things. Either increase the employees share of premiums or drop their plan. Simple conclusion, if you are employed and making over $21,000 per year plan on seeing your insurance costs increase.

2012 Primary, Econ, Jobs, Obama, Pay to Play, True Talking Points

Obama’s IRS targeting small business, less focus on mega-corps

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Breitbart News:

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recoups $702 in taxes for every hour it spends auditing small businesses, versus $9,173 an hour for auditing large corporations. But under Barack Obama, audits of small and medium-sized businesses have skyrocketed.

So says Peter Schweizer, President of the Government Accountability Institute:

According to IRS statistics, from 2009 to 2011, the coverage rate (number of audits as a percentage of total returns filed) for corporations with assets between $10 million and $50 million has increased 32 percent. The coverage rate for corporations with assets between $50 million and $100 million has increased at the same rate. Some businesspeople file individual returns, and those with incomes higher than $1 million have experience a 94 percent increase in their coverage rate, and a 29 percent increase in the actual number of exams since 2009. Those with incomes $200,000 and higher have seen a 36 percent increase in their coverage rate.

We are not surprised. As we have reported many times before the leadership of the Democratic Party has no interest in taxing the mega-corporations and super rich, rather they are targeting small to medium sized domestic businesses and upper middle class wage earners.

Political Arena:

Democrats want to tax the rich?

This is perhaps the biggest false narrative of all. The Democratic Party leadership has never been interested in taxing the very rich. They have been “taxing the rich” for 50 years. Is it just a coincidence that they just happened to keep missing the target? President Obama gave the speech at Google, which paid 2.4% federal tax on 3.1 billion in income. In that speech he trashed the Chamber of Commerce for fighting against raising the tax on most small businesses which actually employ people from 35.5% to 39.9% . In the 2008 elections President Obama railed against Wall Street, but not only did he take more money from Wall Street and “the big banks” and such, but as if to add insult, their executives became the who’s who of those running his administration (LINK – LINK). Keep in mind that CNN once said Obama attacks private equity at 6am and is fundraising with private equity at 6pm. Wall Street and the big banks made more under three years of Obama than they did under eight years of Bush. His Treasury Secretary says that taxes on small businesses must rise so that government doesn’t shrink, and Obama’s new health care taxes target you, not just the rich. All of the stimulus and spending and so forth all in the name of the poor sounded nice, but look who got rich.  Odds are that people who buy into the false narrative know none of this.

2012 Primary, Energy Policy, Jobs, Lies, Obama, Treason, True Talking Points

Promise from the debate broken already: Obama Shuts Down 1.6M Acres to Oil Shale Development

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So much for the “all of the above” policy….

Via Breitbart News and The Hill:

Just two days after President Obama’s re-election, the Obama Interior Department announced a plan to shut down 1.6 million acres of federal land to oil shale development. The land had originally been slated for drilling under President George W. Bush.

“By significantly reducing the acreage of wilderness potentially available for leasing, Secretary Salazar is laying out a creative, thoughtful and more responsible approach in managing some of our most precious resources,” said Bobby McEnaney, senior lands analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

From the debate October 16th, 2012:

OBAMA: That’s the strategy you need, an all-of-the-above strategy, and that’s what we’re going to do in the next four years.

ROMNEY: But that’s not what you’ve done in the last four years. That’s the problem. In the last four years, you cut permits and licenses on federal land and federal waters in half.

OBAMA: Not true, Governor Romney.

ROMNEY: So how much did you cut (inaudible)?

OBAMA: Not true.

Obama debate approved drilling permits
Hey President Obama – What was that you said about how you approved more drilling permits than Bush?
2012 Primary, Culture War, True Talking Points

Lewis: The Death of Ordinary Decency

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James Lewis:

This has been a mean-spirited campaign, and the meanest, most destructive people won.

So be it.

In the last two Democratic administrations we have seen a sleazier, angrier and more selfish part of America rising up more and more in our political class. The Founders told us that ultimately our elected politicians are a mirror of ourselves. Just like you, before November 7, 2012, I lived in the fervent hope that the degradation of the Clinton and Obama years might be an exception to the long trend of American history. But two times eight years of radical leftists in high office can’t be an accident. We can’t just blame our sleazy media, or just the leftist political class, as corrupt and malevolent as they truly are.

No — the balance of decency in America has changed. Every society has normal, decent people and the other kind. The America we grew up in was fundamentally decent. Decency was the expected standard.

Now the balance has changed.

The evidence for our sleazified culture can be seen all around. It is in our pop music, which has lost melody and now just has rhythm. We have a President who won on revenge against middle class values. That’s what he meant by telling his people to vote for revenge. And they did — showing us exactly who they are.

We are now a society divided between the makers and the takers, and the takers are on a campaign of theft and revenge.

We have a President who takes dangerous pride in his hatred for “middleclassness” as Jeremiah Wright taught him to believe. We have a President who culminated his campaign with a ghetto singer rapping about hoes and bitches, about drug-ridden and broken families, as if all those cruelties were good.

This is not normal, decent America.

It is not.

We need to face that.

Morality and values are not small things. The new tide in the affairs of America also means that we can no longer be trusted to defend civilized values around the world, as we have done for the last hundred years.

It’s a sea change. Fools around the world will applaud Obama as a savior, but wise people will see us crumbling. They know they will be the worse for it.

Today the world is far more dangerous place than four years ago.   If you doubt that, keep an eye on the rise of barbarisms around the world. Obama constantly facilitates barbarism, and the barbarians understand that much better than decent people do.

History buffs will remember that we’ve had decades of sleaze before. The Founders were followed by Jacksonian corruption. Abraham Lincoln was followed by Reconstruction. Yet we somehow found our way back. Come-backs can happen, but probably not soon.

So this is an elegiac moment, a moment of mourning for what has passed. From Truman and Eisenhower to Bush 43 we have had leaders of character.

No longer.

Republicans by and large still look, act, and speak like normal, decent people. But they have a hard time even understanding a thoroughly sleazified America. Normal, decent people do not know how to live in this new, barbaric society. We live in protected communities, we drive around in SUVs, like armored cars.

The left knows exactly how to act in this Brave New World. They’ve made it. We are now ruled by sleazy demagogues who take bribes from foreign nations that do not wish us well. Obama is the worst example so far. Even the Clintons, both selfish narcissists, were somewhat better.

With the decline of American decency, the civilized world has lost its foremost defender. America wasn’t a world power in earlier times of corruption. We could afford to make mistakes. Today, our national decay endangers the world. The left has purposely attacked our self-respect, our pride in our morality and decency, and our crucial role in the defense of civilized values. We are no longer the Leader of the Free World, because we have lost — for now — the values that guided us.  America can no longer be trusted, as we saw so clearly in Benghazi and the fraudulent Arab Spring. Any nation that places any trust in our promises today is run by fools. Our allies must arm up to protect themselves, or they must find new, trustworthy allies.

For sixty years Europe has lived off our willingness to come to its defense.  The southern rim of Europe is now going bankrupt, and even France looks ready to crumble. Without our leadership Europe has to rely on itself, or on Russia, or on the spreading Muslim empires. But Europe has shown no capacity to defend itself. Maybe they will learn. Or maybe they will be swamped.  We can no longer be trusted.

Read more HERE.
2012 Primary, Jobs, Obama, Treason, True Talking Points

72% of Obama job creation in conservative “Right to Work” states

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Via Breitbart News:

From June 2009 to September 2012, America gained some 2.59 million jobs. That weak recovery was the basis for the Obama re-election campaign. But as it turns out, virtually all of that job creation happened in states that are right-to-work – states in which no industry can force people to join a union in order to work. There are 22 right-to-work states. During that period, those states saw an increase in employment of 1.86 million. That means, according to the National Institute for Labor Relations Research, that “Right to Work states … were responsible for 72% of all net household job growth across the US from June 2009 through September 2012.”

That 72% statistic is all the more stunning when you realize that according to 2010 census numbers, the right-to-work states included in this calculation — which does not include Indiana, since it just went right-to-work — represent just under 40% of the population of the country. Right-to-work states disproportionately create jobs.

President Obama has been a violent opponent of right to work laws. He sees them as an attempt to quash his union buddies – which, of course, is right, since the unions bankrupt states (see Illinois, California). But Obama won re-election on the backs of those who rejected his policies.

2012 Primary, Israel, Jihad, Obama, Treason, True Talking Points

Democrat House Leader Pelosi holds secret fundraiser with Islamist terror linked groups

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Pelosi holds secret fundraiser with Islamists, Hamas-linked groups

The Daily Caller:

Pelosi at secret Hamas fundraiser

Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi headlined a high-dollar fundraiser in May that was attended by U.S.-based Islamist groups and individuals linked by the U.S. government to the Hamas jihad group and to the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood movement.

The donors at the undisclosed May 16 event included Nihad Awad, the co-founder of the Council on American Islamic Relations, according to data provided by the nonpartisan Investigative Project on Terrorism.

The CAIR group was named an unindicted conspirator in a 2007 trial of a Hamas money-smuggling group.

A covertly-taken photograph provided by the IPT shows Pelosi standing near Awad at the fundraiser. Roughly 30 people attended the fundraiser, according to the IPT.

The cheapest tickets cost $5,000, and the most expensive were $30,800 per couple, according to the event invite from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which used the cash to fund Democratic candidates. (View the invite here)

The hosts of the event were DCCC chairman Rep. Steve Israel and two Muslim representatives, Rep. Keith Ellison and Rep. Andre Carson.

Ellison is the DCCC’s “national community outreach chair” and the co-chair of the House progressive caucus.

On Oct. 29, The Daily Caller asked Ellison’s press aide if the congressman would decline donations from Islamist groups. The aide replied that Ellison was not available to comment.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/02/pelosi-holds-secret-fundraiser-with-islamists-hamas-linked-groups/#ixzz2CH9fxE3K

2012 Primary, Mitt Romney, Stuck on Stupid, True Talking Points

Did the RNC’s expulsion of Ron Paul delegates from the convention cost Romney the election?

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We are not huge fans of Ron Paul, but numbers are numbers and facts are facts. What is also a fact is that political payback has always been a factor in politics.

There are several mistakes that cost Mitt Romney, as well as several Republicans down the ticket, the election. The election was so close that a change in any one of these mistakes very well could have reversed the results.

The Republican National Committee’s (RNC) expulsion of legitimate Ron Paul delegates from the convention is likely one of those factors.

It is up to the candidate and the party to WIN the votes of the people, no one is entitled to them.

Gary Johnson and Ron Paul got up to six percent of the vote in several states, including enough in Ohio and Florida to win it for Romney? Libertarians also cast enough votes to hand the Indiana Senate race to Joe Donnelly. IF you ever wondered why Marxists from Code Pink work Ron Paul’s booths at CPAC, well now you know why.

At the convention the RNC passed a new rule over the objections of the floor to give the RNC Chairman the power to eject and replace any delegate he wished. Then they took the credentials of Ron Paul delegates who were elected fair and square and escorted them out of the convention and replaced them with hand picked cronies. Would you vote for the party that did that to you? It was totally against the democratic process.

You can be sure that almost every Ron Paul supporter in the country knew very well what happened; if there is one thing that Ron Paul supporters are the undisputed masters of, it is networking.

Note to the RNC: Addition by subtraction usually messes up the math.

How bad is this rule? Under the rule they crammed down the throats of the convention, Ronald Reagan could have never mounted the floor fight against Ford in 1976 which set Reagan up for 1980. Remember the “establishment” GOP hated Reagan.

Later the RNC agreed to modify the rule to make it less severe, but this is absolutely irrelevant. Why? Because they can come out to the floor and over the objections of the floor deem a rule passed at the next convention and do it again and later just apologize for it…again.

Mark Levin has more details on the rule change HERE.

UPDATE – WND’s resident Mensan thinks so as well – LINK.

The other mistakes:

Not standing up the elite media corruption and lies

Not fighting the “Mitt Romney killed a man’s wife” lie

Not fighting the “Republicans want to ban birth control lie”

Not taking advantage of half a dozen opportunities to land hay-makers in the debates

Not having a bold enough economic plan, thus not having a bold policy for people to vote for

Not having enough contrast with the incumbent resulted in a lot of conservative and disillusioned voters staying home

Going “scorched earth” in the primary to cram Romney down the voters throats which most of the base opposed at one time or another; resulting in a lot of conservatives staying home

2012 Primary, Communications Theory, Culture War, Lies, Obama, True Talking Points

40% of TEA Party Activists are Independents & Former Dems Focused on Economic Results, Leads Democrats and Republicans on Generic Ballot Poll

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[Editor’s Note – Flashback 2010: Who is the TEA Party?

While Democrats and establishment liberal Republicans say that Romney lost because the TEA Party is too conservative, they are forgetting information just like this. They are also forgetting that in 2010 more women voted GOP/TEA Party candidates, in nine of the top ten swing states, since the 1984 Reagan 49 state landslide.]

The Hill: Four in 10 Tea Party members are Democrats or independents

Wait, you mean these folks are people just like you and me? Looks like the elite media lied again….

The Winston Group found nothing extreme or racist about the Tea Party at all:

Behind the Headlines: What’s driving the Tea Party Movement?

New polling data examines the demographics and political philosophy behind the Tea Party Movement

In one of the most extensive looks to date at just who Tea Party activists are, how they think, and the ideas that matter to them, the report found that 17% of the people polled considered themselves “part of the Tea Party movement” and more than four in ten Tea Party members said they were either Independents or Democrats.

In three national surveys, done for New Models from December 2009 through February 2010, 57% of Tea Party members called themselves Republicans, another 28% said they were Independents, and 13% were Democrats. Two-thirds of Tea Party members identify as conservatives but 26% say they are moderate and 8% described themselves as liberal.

Tea Party members prioritize job creation over deficit, spending, and tax issues. However, they view these items as critical precisely because they are seen as a means to reducing unemployment and improving the economy. Tea Party members are very dissatisfied with the current direction of the country, the policies of the administration, and those currently in office, and as a result the Tea Party movement is breaking heavily in favor of the Republican Party. This is a movement defined by its focus not just on the policies of economic conservatism but on the desired economic outcomes.

Tea Party leads both Democrats and Republicans on the generic congressional ballot among independents

We informed readers previously that Democrat Party ID (voter self identification) is at an all time low, but now we move to something even more interesting.

The Tea Party leads both Democrats and Republicans on the generic congressional ballot among independents. This means that generic tea Party candidate vs generic Democrat candidate vs generic Republican candidate the Tea Party candidate wins.

Rasmussen polls have called elections often within a tenth of a point of the actual result.

It is difficult to understate the impact of this news.

Keep in mind that Ross Perot received about 19% of the vote and the last successful third-party sweep of election was Abraham Lincoln’s new Republican Party which formed to oppose the Democrats and the Whigs.

Expect Democrats to try and demonize the Tea Party people with smears and lies, such as what MSNBC has been doing by taking pictures and information from LaRouchie’s and attributing them to the Tea Party participants LINK.

Rasmussen Reports:

Among voters not affiliated with either major party, the Tea Party comes out on top. Thirty-three percent (33%) prefer the Tea Party candidate, and 30% are undecided. Twenty-five percent (25%) would vote for a Democrat, and just 12% prefer the GOP.

Among Republican voters, 39% say they’d vote for the GOP candidate, but 33% favor the Tea Party option.

Only 21% Say U.S. Government Has Consent of the Governed

One reason why people are so upset, and either not voting or protest voting for Libertarians is because they are sick and tired of politicians promising the world and delivering more suffering.

We have never witnessed polls like this, Americans are showing a clear contempt for both political parties and after seeing this it becomes clear why Tea Party is polling ahead of both Democrats and Republicans. Also note the massive disconnect between the political class the the governed.

Speaking as a political scientist, these numbers show that the government is losing its legitimacy (please be sure you know what that word means in poli-sci terms before you comment). This can only mean big changes are ahead.

There is also an indicator that independents may be more conservative than Republicans now, if this trend continues it changes everything.

Rasmussen Reports:

The founding document of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, states that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Today, however, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 61% disagree and say the government does not have the necessary consent. Eighteen percent (18%) of voters are not sure.

However, 63% of the Political Class think the government has the consent of the governed, but only six percent (6%) of those with Mainstream views agree.

Seventy-one percent (71%) of all voters now view the federal government as a special interest group, and 70% believe that the government and big business typically work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors.

That helps explain why 75% of voters are angry at the policies of the federal government, and 63% say it would be better for the country if most members of Congress are defeated this November. Just 27% believe their own representative in Congress is the best person for the job.

2012 Primary, Communications Theory, School Indoctrination, True Talking Points

Reporters chose Obama donors as “unbiased experts”

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The simple fact is that reporters do not seek out random “experts” to see what their opinion is; rather they pick pundits and know full well what their opinion is and it usually matches the editorial point of view.

The Hill:

At least a half-dozen professors who gave political donations to President Obama have been quoted in news articles opining about his administration and the 2012 race for the White House.

The findings of The Hill’s months-long investigation come as Republicans have been crying foul, alleging a media bias for Obama and against Mitt Romney.

The Hill cross-checked academics who have been quoted in news articles with Obama’s donor list and eliminated those who worked in prior Democratic administrations. The half-dozen professors detailed in this article do not mention their political affiliations in their bios online. A similar search for Romney donors did not yield any results.

2012 Primary, Treason

Vote Fraud Likely Cost Romney the Election

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This post is stickied top the top of the page! So be sure to scroll down to see new posts and updates!

There are new links and stories coming out by the hour and the list is already a LONG one.

It seems likely that the combination of systematic military ballot suppression and other vote fraud swung this election. We will keep posting links so be sure to stop back by….

State “concerned” about St. Lucie County results

Poll watcher sees Romney ballots changed

In 59 Philadelphia voting wards, Mitt Romney got zero votes

SHOCKING AUDIO: Dem Poll Watcher Kicking Out GOP Inspectors in Philly :

DEMOCRATS Arrested and/or Convicted of Voter Fraud

Voter Fraud: Obama Won %108 of Registered Voters in Ohio County

Breaking: Florida Showing Massive Voter Fraud

Philly Polling Stations Where GOP Inspectors Were Kicked Out Had 90% Voter Turnout, 99% Voted For Obama

Voter Fraud Watch: Two Election Judges Replaced After Illegal Activity in Ohio – Fox News Insider

Crooked Politics: Obama Lost in Every State With Photo ID Law

Heather Ginsberg – BREAKING: Massive Voter Fraud in St. Lucie County, Florida

Allen West for Congress Statement “Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker clearly runs most corrupt elections office in the state of Florida

TRR: Allen West Seeks Recount Amid Growing Vote Count Scandal – Washington Times

Military Absentee Ballots Delivered One Day Late, Would Have Swung Election For Romney | The Duffel.

CAUGHT ON TAPE: Ohio Voter Fraud Update

The Kansas Citian:  WI Turnout Reaches 119 Percent

Did Obama Rig The Voting Machines?

Cast aside: Thousands of votes from our military troops uncounted or missing

Pundit Press: Good News: Obama Won County in Ohio with 108% Voter Registration

Barack Obama Voter Fraud 2012

Another Florida recount: Allen West

Colorado Counties Have More Voters Than People | RedState

Programmer under oath admits computers rig elections MUST SEE NOW TOOK PLACE TODAY!!!

Illegal Aliens Caught Voting and Stealing Elections In Florida In Vast Numbers

Ballot shortages, incorrect replacements plague Election Day

Pundit Press: What Luck! Obama Won Dozens of Cleveland Districts with 100% of the Vote

Vote was astronomical for Obama in some Philadelphia wards

N. Ind. county runs out of ballots at 12 precincts

Massive Voter Fraud in Broward County Florida: Poll Watcher Ejected From Station

2012 Primary

Why did 5 million conservatives stay home?

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By Chuck Norton

Bush got over 62 million votes in 2004. Romney got just under 57 million.

Stop right there and let that number sink in. We are a nation where conservatives self identify more than liberals two to one.

Romney led the ticket in votes in every state he won meaning that he appealed to those moderates who are willing to lean conservative just fine, but evangelicals stayed home and so did traditional conservatives in North Florida.

Some people are saying “It is because this time more Hispanics went for Democrats instead of Republicans. This is true, but it is still dwarfed by the fact that five million conservatives stayed home.

This is what happens when you have a perceived “Massachusetts moderate who passed Romneycare” who runs a scorched earth primary as Romney did. The GOP establishment crammed him down our throat. In Florida, where Romney played those horribly dishonest ads against Newt it seems many stayed home. Romney also ran dishonest ads against Rick Santorum. Many evangelicals stayed home. This explains why we did good in polling and poor on election day. They participated in the polls, got pegged as likely voters and stayed home.

Weekly polling for two years tells us 61% of the people want Obamacare repealed, but too many voters simply didn’t believe that Romney and the Republicans were serious. Newt Gingrich warned that this very thing would happen. I know plenty of people who are conservatively minded who have said, “there is no difference between the two parties” and they essentially believe they are all socialist big spenders. Look at how ineffective John Boehner has been in the House. Libertarians in Indiana got 6% of the vote in some races, which is another indicator of this reasoning.

Another indicator is that traditionally the GOP has received about 80% of it’s donations from individuals in amounts of less than $200.00. This was not the case with Mitt Romney, although in the last eight weeks small contributors did donate more heavily, but none the less this indicates a problem with the base.

Another indication that the American voter believes that voting this time was futile is that 118 million people had voted in this White House race, far below 2004, and 2008 numbers.

The Republican Party needs to regain credibility with it’s base, who is so disgusted that three out of four of the last elections (2006, 2008 and 2012) the traditional conservative wing of the Republican Party has stayed home. In 2010 we had a clear message, this time we had “Obamacare vs Romneycare”. Lessons: Messaging and contrast matter; “electability theory” should now be put to bed as Dole, McCain and Romney were the “only electable ones”.

UPDATE – Our friends at Red State also had a similar take:

The question that many of these politicos have not answered is this: how could we possibly be more moderate than we already are?  We ran with Dole in 1996, and we lost; we ran with McCain in 2008, and we lost; we ran with Romney, and we lost.  Romney took the issue of Obamacare off the table and barely attacked Obama directly for much of anything.  There was no potent conservative philosophy that was offered to provide voters with a sharp distinction between the parties.  The Republican convention was a pathetic Oprah show and the entire campaign was basically an advocacy of Obama’s policies, albeit with less enthusiasm.  And let’s not blame the loss on Paul Ryan and Medicare reform; he outperformed Bush and McCain with seniors.

For all the talk of the need to moderate in order to win, Obama ran the most divisive, radical, and negative campaign, while Romney ran a relentlessly positive campaign with incessant promises to work with the other side.  People are attracted to a show of strength, not a promise of bipartisanship, which smacks of insecurity in one’s own virtues and ideas.

2012 Primary

Feds fine small business $4,000 over a missing trash can lid, $70,000 over a broken car horn…

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More of the same?

Richmond Times-Dispatch:

According to conventional progressive wisdom, regulation is the means by which a compassionate government protects the weak and innocent from the strong and malevolent.

Try telling that to Brad Jones.

Jones is one of the owners of Buckingham Slate, a Virginia business a little over an hour’s drive west of Richmond. The company is distinguished by the quality of the highly valued Arvonia slate it produces. And by the fact that its roots trace back almost to the Civil War. And by the fact that federal regulators smacked it with a $4,000 fine.

Over a trash can.

The offending can — or “waste receptacle,” in the words of the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s official citation — was “not covered.” What’s more, “the receptacle was full.” It “could be smelled.” There were — brace yourself — “flies fl[y]ing in and around the receptacle.” And to crown all, “management engaged in aggravated conduct constituting more than ordinary negligence” by allowing this “condition to exist.” The horror.

Buckingham Slate has racked up other fines, too — such as a $70,000 fine imposed because one of its trucks had an inoperable horn. Perhaps regulators were following the approach advocated by Al Armendariz, the former EPA official who said enforcers should “crucify” offenders to “make an example” of them, which would then make others “easy to manage.”

According to President Obama’s campaign rhetoric, Republicans have nothing to offer but “the same prescription they’ve had for the last 30 years. . . : ‘Feel a cold coming on? Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations, and call us in the morning!’ ”

Funny stuff. But Martha Boneta isn’t laughing.

Boneta, a Fauquier County farmer, hosted a birthday party for eight 10-year-old girls — an occasion for which she lacked the proper “events permit.” For this, the county slammed her with a $5,000 fine. She also got in hot water for selling items, such as yarn and birdhouses, that she had not made herself.

Outraged over how the county was treating her, local farmers showed up at a zoning-board meeting a couple of months ago with pitchforks in hand. But the demonstration was only so useful. She ended up closing her shop anyway.

Americans should place more trust in “the guiding hand of government,” according to the president and his supporters.

But try telling that to Nathan Hammock and his family. The Hammocks own a dairy farm in Museville. Because of drought, they wanted to put an irrigation pond on their property. They eventually managed to — after three years trying to get permission from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers. “I think we’ve spent close to $30,000” in the process, Hammock says.

Hammock made the comment in a video you can find on the website of Rep. Robert Hurt (go tohttp://hurt.house.gov/ and click on “Videos”). Hurt, who represents Virginia’s Fifth District, has introduced legislation to let farmers farm without having to navigate a “tremendous bureaucratic maze.” It is moving through Congress — slowly.

2012 Primary, Econ, Health Law, Jobs, Obama, Taxes, True Talking Points

New Tax Hikes Motivating Small Businesses to Sell

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Going Galt.

Wall Street Journal:

A looming increase in the capital-gains tax rate next year is fueling sales of some privately-held businesses.

Many business owners—mostly founders who could gain a lot from a sale—are looking to close deals before next year, when the maximum tax on investment income is scheduled to rise from 15% currently to at least 23.8% on most capital gains, at least for higher-income households. Many sellers intend to convert their equity into retirement funds or just start anew.

“It just made more sense for me to take my chips off the table and go do something else,” said Bert Wolf, 60 years old, who has an agreement to sell his compressed-gas business, Acetylene Oxygen Co. of Harlingen, Tex., before year-end.

Mr. Wolf added that if he waited until after the tax increase to sell, he would have to expand the business at the current rate “for at least 3 or 4 more years to achieve the same after-tax sales dollar.” He is profiting on the sale of his business to PraxairInc., a public company.

“There’s a kind of a panic on to get things done,” said Beatrice Mitchell, co-founder of Sperry, Mitchell & Co. Inc., a New York investment bank that is advising Mr. Wolf on the sale.

The top tax rate will go up at year-end by at least 3.8 percentage points because of a provision in President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul law. But that will be added onto a top rate that will depend on negotiations between Mr. Obama and Congress after the November election, when they are expected to seek a deal on numerous tax and spending measures.

Mr. Obama and Congress agreed in late 2010 to extend the current 15% capital-gains tax rate through this year. Absent further action, the top capital gains tax rate will rise to 20% on Jan. 1. After adding the extra charge from the health-care law for higher-income households, the maximum tax on investment income would be 23.8%. When combined with the scheduled expiration of some other tax breaks for high earners, the maximum tax on investment income would be as high as 25%.

Many Republican lawmakers want to extend the 15% rate. If they prevail, the maximum tax likely would rise to at least 18.8% because of the health-care charge.

Mr. Obama proposes to let the top capital gains tax rate rise to 20% on income above $250,000 for couples, but hold it to 15% on income below that threshold.

But here is the rub, most “couples” that make 250k aren’t the one’s who pay these taxes, small businesses and investors do. It directly chases jobs and investment out of the country.

2012 Primary

Top Clinton Staffer Endorses Romney

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Hillary Clinton’s New York Senate Director tells Politico:

For most of my life, I’ve been an active Democrat. I am proud to have worked for President Bill Clinton and then-Senator Hillary Clinton, and, during that time, I saw firsthand what can be accomplished by strong, bipartisan leadership. I know what it means to work across the aisle on issues that are important to the American people. And that’s why I am supporting Mitt Romney. Governor Romney has a plan to restore the prosperity this country deserves and expects. He will work with people of good will no matter what their party, and he will pursue the policies that are in the best interest of our country, no matter who proposes them. That’s what President Obama promised to do four years ago. But like so many of his promises, bipartisan cooperation is just another one he has broken. We can’t have four more years of failed policies and two parties that can’t work together. We need the change Mitt Romney is offering.

2012 Primary, Communications Theory, Elite Media, Jihad, Libya, Lies, Obama, Treason, True Talking Points, Unions

Veterans and Newspapers Blast Obama on Benghazigate

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Be sure to read about the lies and more lies from this administration. Also see Benghazigate part I (warning: long) and Benghazigate part II.

If you have read the above you know that President Obama watched in live video feed from our drones as our embassy staff was slaughtered. The CIA, State Department FEST (Foreign Emergency Support Team), Military, and the Counterterrorism Security Group were all told to stand down. Even after our Benghazi Consulate was the fourth embassy to come under attack in 24 hours. There is no excuse.

The Veterans

Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS), a Marine veteran, says that every meeting he has held lately is filled with veterans who want to know more about the Benghazi massacre and cover-up.  “The military no longer trusts that Obama has their back” Roberts said.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) said that, veterans and the military “Have no confidence in this President as Commander in Chief” and he said that “the military is angry like I have never seen before”.

Remember the Iranian Hostage Crisis that President Reagan put to an end? Don Cooke  was one of those taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Today he said that President Obama is showing the same ambivalent foreign policy as Jimmy Carter.

The Newspapers

While the CBS, NBC and ABC evening news ignore this story (CBS did report on this on their web site) Fox News, some newspapers, blogs  and talk radio are all over it and the word is getting out.

Famed Democrat pollster and pundit Pat Caddell:

Las Vegas Journal-Review: 

Obama unworthy Commander-in-chief

The Obama administration sat by doing nothing for seven hours that night, ignoring calls to dispatch help from our bases in Italy, less than two hours away. It has spent the past seven weeks stretching the story out, engaging in misdirection and deception involving supposed indigenous outrage over an obscure anti-Muslim video, confident that with the aid of a docile press corps this infamous climax to four years of misguided foreign policy can be swept under the rug, at least until after Tuesday’s election.

The Obama administration was warned. They received an embassy cable June 25 expressing concern over rising Islamic extremism in Benghazi, noting the black flag of al-Qaida “has been spotted several times flying over government buildings and training facilities.” The Obama administration removed a well-armed, 16-member security detail from Libya in August, The Wall Street Journal reported last month, replacing it with a couple of locals. Mr. Stevens sent a cable Aug. 2 requesting 11 additional body guards, noting “Host nation security support is lacking and cannot be depended on,” reports Peter Ferrara at Forbes.com. But these requests were denied, officials testified before the House Oversight Committee earlier this month.

Based on documents released by the committee, on the day of the attack the Pentagon dispatched a drone with a video camera so everyone in Washington could see what was happening in real time. The drone documented no crowds protesting any video. But around 4 p.m. Washington received an email from the Benghazi mission saying it was under a military-style attack. The White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and the CIA were able to watch the live video feed. An email sent later that day reported “Ansar al-Sharia claims responsibility for Benghazi attack.”

Not only did the White House do nothing, there are now reports that a counterterrorism team ready to launch a rescue mission was ordered to stand down.

The official explanation for the inadequate security? This administration didn’t want to “offend the sensibilities” of the new radical Islamic regime which American and British arms had so recently helped install in Libya.

The official explanation for why Obama administration officials watched the attack unfold for seven hours, refusing repeated requests to send the air support and relief forces that sat less than two hours away in Italy? Silence.

These behaviors go far beyond “spin.” They amount to a pack of lies. To return to office a narcissistic amateur who seeks to ride this nation’s economy and international esteem to oblivion, like Slim Pickens riding the nuclear bomb to its target at the end of the movie “Dr. Strangelove,” would be disastrous.

Boston Globe:

Obama’s failed foreign policy

The Obama administration entered office with a theory of foreign policy that has failed the test of practice.

Candidate Obama promised a responsible end to the war in Iraq. But in 2008 the war was won and Iraq on a fragile path to stability and alignment with the United States. His administration declared that it wanted a continuing presence of thousands of American troops in Iraq; in fact, it appears, he did not believe in his own policy. President Obama’s policy has thus left us today with no presence, no leverage, and no credibility with the Iraqi leadership. Iran uses Iraqi air space and roads to resupply the Assad dictatorship.

Candidate Obama called Afghanistan a “war of necessity,” and promised to win it. But President Obama’s declaration of a date certain to end American combat operations discouraged our friends and heartened our enemies. Afghans, who know from bitter experience what abandonment can mean, are picking sides. In 2008 there were two “green on blue” attacks by Afghans against NATO forces. In the first nine months of 2012 there have been 33.

Candidate Obama defined our war with Islamist terrorists as being against the Al Qaeda organization that existed on September 10, 2001. But targeted killing is a tactic, not a strategy. The president and his advisers have crowed that the enemy is “on the verge of strategic defeat.” That complacency explains their bafflement at the precisely executed mortar barrage, the rocket propelled grenades and machine gun fire that demolished our consulate in Benghazi, killing four Americans, including the first American ambassador to die violently in over three decades.

The lapping of the Islamist tide through North Africa, Yemen, parts of South and Southeast Asia, and now in Syria suggests that they never really came to grips with who the enemy is. We have changed; so too has Al Qaeda, which has spread far beyond the Pakistan borderlands.

Candidate Obama believed that his life story would win over the Muslim world. He attempted to realize that notion in his Cairo speech, delivered on a trip to the Middle East that deliberately avoided Israel. But President Obama’s charisma and personal history failed him. In 2008, for example, 19 percent of Pakistanis had a favorable view of the United States. Today 12 percent do. And Pakistan is far from the only case.

The true audacity of the Obama administration lies less in its proclaimed foreign policy hopes, than in its insistence that its record is one of foreign policy success. It has, rather, been one of embarrassment, failure, and in some cases, disaster.

Because of the last four years, we face a world in which our enemies do not fear us, our friends do not believe they can trust us, and those who maneuver between the two camps feel that they will not get in trouble by crossing us. It is time, and more than time, to choose a different course.

The Wall Street Journal has more of the same, and even the “in the tank” for Obama Washington Post is stunned. They give Fox News credit for solid, aggressive reporting while insulting them later in the same sentence (to save face with liberal readers no doubt).

2012 Primary, Communications Theory, Dirty Tricks, Elite Media, Lies, Obama, True Talking Points

How CNN rigged the poll to make the race “A dead heat”

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It is just a fact of journalism today that most polls are designed to make news, create drama, conflict and partisan bias. They are not designed to reflect the mood of the nation properly and not designed to be honest.

If they reported that the race is going to be a blowout are you going to stay glued to the 24 hour news channels?

So let me ask you, how is the poll a “dead heat” when Romney is winning independents by a whopping 22 points?

CNN:

CNN National Poll: Dead heat between Obama and Romney

Washington (CNN) – It’s all tied up, according to a new national poll released two days before the presidential election.

And the CNN/ORC International survey not only indicates a dead heat in the race for the White House, but also on almost every major indicator of President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney that was tested in the poll.

So let us examine the internals of the poll:

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2012/images/11/04/top16.pdf

METHODOLOGY

A total of 1,010 adults were interviewed by telephone nationwide by live interviewers calling both landline and cell phones. All respondents were asked questions concerning basic demographics, and the entire sample was weighted to reflect national Census figures for gender, race, age, education, region of country, telephone usage and whether respondents own or rent their homes.

Registered voters were asked questions about their likelihood of voting, past voting behavior, and interest in the campaign; based on answers to those questions, 693 respondents were classified as likely voters. Respondents who reported that they had already cast an absentee ballot or voted early were automatically classified as likely voters. Among those likely voters, 41% described themselves as Democrats, 29% described themselves as Independents, and 30% described themselves as Republicans.

They over-sampled Democrats by 11%. Keep in mind that in this country self described conservatives outnumber self described liberals by almost two to one. There is no way that this was an accident. If I had turned this poll in as a classroom assignment in a political science or communications class it would be rejected and I would be told to do it right if I wanted a decent grade.

UPDATE – Dick Morris weighs in:

2012 Primary, Obama, True Talking Points, Unhinged, Unions

More incidents of union thugs busted stealing Romney signs….

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There are several reports like this one from the Toledo Blade around the country.

Toledo Blade:

Perrysburg police today issued misdemeanor citations to four men for allegedly being in possession of stolen political signs.

Those charged with receiving stolen property included John Russell, 39, of Toledo, and Chris Monaghan 41, of Rossford, who are both listed on the Sheet Metal Workers Local 33 Web site as business agents for the union’s Toledo district.

The men were in a pickup truck registered to Local 33 in Parma, Ohio, police said.

Also cited were Corey J. Beaubien, 37, and Sean Bresler, 33, both of Toledo.

A Tea Party Web site reported Friday the truck was loaded with the campaign signs of GOP Presidential nominee Mitt Romney and running mate Paul Ryan. Perrysburg police did not confirm that, but a police incident report said that the summonses were issued about 12:30 a.m. in the 11100 block of Fremont Pike “after several reports were taken of political signs being stolen in the city of Perrysburg.”

2012 Primary, Obama

Still no federal assistance on Staten Island. Mayor Bloomberg turns away national guard help. Obama not leading….

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This is a disaster and this is not partisanship, it is a cold reality.

The federal response in New York and parts of New Jersey is not going well. After 72 hours FEMA and the military should be engaged full speed ahead. It isn’t. Main roads still have boats sitting on them.

Mayor Bloomberg is keeping out the National Guard because they have guns… no kidding. Obama should assert FEMA emergency powers since this is a multi-state disaster and over rule the Mayor. Bush did the same thing after Louisiana Governor Blanco refused to cooperate during Katrina. Bloomberg may know how to make money, but that is all he knows how to do. His failure as mayor is truly epic.

There is a shortage of water. So what you do is call in the Navy as the ships have large desalination machines to make fresh water which could be sent inland.

After Katrina Bush sent in the Navy, the Coast Guard and Army General Honore into New Orleans and the General got it under control and had choppers and trucks moving debris just after 72 hours. Bush also parked the US Navy a hospital ship just off the coast. By the way, federal guidelines say that FEMA’s and the federal response time should be 48-72 hours.

Honestly I was expecting the disaster response for this hurricane to go well like it did in Mississippi for Katrina.  Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour had asked for the military and national guard to come in before Katrina even hit. The damage to the Mississippi Gulf Coast was FAR worse than the damage in New Orleans, but they got things going in a hurry, got relief delivered well. This is what happens when Governors and local authorities cooperate with and coordinate with FEMA like they are supposed to. The reason the press didn’t tell you this was because what news is there report when the news is good?

Via Jim Hoft:

Staten Island resident John Tabacco told Neil Cavuto this morning that Staten Island is still alone.
** There is no federal help.
** The feds just drive by with their clipboards.
** We just found three more dead people in the pile this morning.

2012 Primary, Econ, Jobs, Lies, True Talking Points

Obama STILL isn’t attending Jobs Council monthly calls or meetings! (Video)

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Via our pal Jim Hoft:

Robert Wolf, a member of Barack Obama’s Jobs Council and a top campaign donor, admitted this morning that Barack Obama does not even join in on the regularly scheduled calls. The calls are held every two weeks.

In July, the administration told reporters Barack Obama was too busy to meet with his jobs council.

 

2012 Primary, Communications Theory, Elite Media

Rush Limbaugh destroys NBC’s Brian Williams (video)

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Rush Limbaugh made a joke that wasn’t even serious and Brian Williams spun it on the NBC News to make it appear something really ugly. Rush Limbaugh than not only defends himself, but points out the constant journalistic failures of Brian Williams and NBC is news story after news story that they either ignore or get obvious facts wrong.

As a trained journalist myself, I ask you to set whatever feeling you have about Limbaugh aside, because in this he is spot on.