Ronald Reagan Flashback: A Rendezvous With Destiny

Will the GOP ever again have such clarity of vision?  He was usually called "amiable"  -- and he was.  But he could bark when barking was needed



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Voting fraud roundup

Philadelphia - Court-appointed Republican poll inspectors are being forcibly removed from voting stations in some Philadelphia wards and replaced in some cases by Democratic inspectors and even members of the Black Panthers, according to GOP officials.
Paul Bedard at washingtonexaminer.com

Philadelphia - One polling site in Philadelphia apparently had a mural of President Obama emblazoned on the wall directly behind the voting machines. The mural, at a local school being used as a polling site, contained the words "change!" and "hope," along with a quote from the president.
foxnews.com

Philadelphia Black Panthers - Jerry Jackson, who was charged in the 2008 case along with Minister King Samir Shabazz, but later saw charges dropped by the Department of Justice, was seen early Tuesday outside a North Philadelphia voting site wearing the group's trademark black beret, combat-style uniform and heavy boots. Fox News confirmed he is a designated poll watcher.
foxnews.com

Philadelphia, ACORN affiliate CVP - The Community Voters Project is a "non-partisan" lefty organization whose mission is to register people to vote, with a particular emphasis on minorities... This year, however, it seems they aren't registering everyone who wants to vote. Outside a CVP office in Philadelphia, for example, they shredded and threw away numerous registration forms.
Mike Flynn at breitbart.com

Perry County Pennsylvania - A video posted on YouTube  at a Pennsylvania polling station allegedly shows an electronic voting machine changing a man's vote from President Barack Obama to Mitt Romney.
CBS DC at washington.cbslocal.com

Chicago - "This photo, taken by a voter this morning at the Ward 4, Precinct 37 polling place shows an election judge checking in voters while wearing an Obama hat," a source writes. "Chicago's 4th ward is home to President Barack Obama." The voter who took the photo says: "Woman in front of me also given an extra ballot.
Daniel Halper at weeklystandard.com

Guilford County North Carolina - I cast my vote for Mitt Romney but Obama's name got the Check Mark (touch screen machine)! I was LIVID! So I called over a volunteer to show them. I clicked on Romney again and NO Check Mark appeared.  So I clicked Romney AGAIN and PRESTO CHANGE-O..Obama's name got Check Marked AGAIN right in front of the volunteers' eyes!
Voter, via Joel Pollak at breitbart.com

Charlotte North Carolina - On Tuesday morning, there was a concern raised at Winding Springs Elementary School. Two voters Eyewitness News talked with said when they pressed the button attempting to vote for Mitt Romney, the machine put the check mark next to the name of President Barack Obama.
wsoctv.com

St. Louis Missouri - Claims of faulty machines giving votes intended for Mitt Romney to President Obama are unfounded, the Missouri Secretary of State's office says.
Johnny Kampis at watchdog.org

Detroit - The Michigan Republican Party is alleging that a poll watcher in Detroit on Tuesday morning was threatened with a gun. According to the Michigan GOP the poll watcher's 911 call was rejected.
Kerry Picket at washingtontimes.com

Detroit - A woman in a Detroit polling location was aggressively campaigning for Obama. A female voter in line objected. The Obama supporter punched the woman in the face. Police came to arrest her and she smacked the cop.
@electionjournal via breitbart.com

Bay Area California - We found over 25,000 questionable names still on the state voter rolls.  A closer look at the data revealed that some of the dead people were not only registered, but somehow, even voted, several years after their death.
Stock, Escamilla and Nious at nbcbayarea.com

Pueblo, Colorado - officials have received reports of touch-screen voting machines casting votes for Obama after people intended to vote for Romney.

Las Vegas - Last week, I met with two immigrant noncitizens who are not eligible to vote, but who nonetheless are active registered voters for Tuesday's election. They said they were signed up by Culinary Local 226.
Glenn Cook at lvrj.com

Medina Ohio - Flyers claiming to be from a non-existent Tea Party in Medina, Ohio were placed in mailboxes on Monday urging Ohio voters to defeat "the n***er" in the White House to "help keep our country strong and white."
Tony Lee at breitbart.com

Sturtevant, Wisconsin - Voted this morning at 9:30 am.  I was confronted by two Obama supporters, wearing pro Obama shirts, taking pictures of everyone inserting their paper ballots in the voter machine asking how we were voting.  I told clerk and she kicked them out but they just moved to the hallway of the entrance.
breitbart.com

Boca Raton Florida - A woman attempting to vote in West Boca Raton this morning was initially prohibited from entering the polling place because she was wearing a tee shirt with the letters MIT.
bocanewsnow.com

Tallahassee Florida - A poster featuring President Obama that read "Change the Atmosphere" was reported to be hanging on a wall at a Florida, polling station. This photo was reportedly taken by a voter.
danjoseph at mrctv.org

SOURCE

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Romney made camo wearing voters disappear

Analyzing elections when feelings are still raw is usually a bad idea.  Of course that doesn’t stop those with an agenda from opining and pushing specific pet ideas.

That is what we have been witnessing in the wake of Tuesday’s massive disappointment.  The media and some talking heads have been all over the idea that changing demographics are the problem and that Republicans have to become Democrats in order to appeal to Hispanics.

However, digging into the numbers reveals a little more complex story.  Preliminary analysis of exit polls of people who voted suggest that many lower income white voters chose to stay at home rather than vote for the lesser of two evils.

By this analysis, this drop in white participation rather than a massive increase in ethnic participation is likely what caused Romney to lose.  These dropped out voters would not have liked Obama, but didn’t trust Romney either.  In fact, a good argument can be made that Romney, the candidate who establishment Republicans declared to be the most electable, was the worst possible choice to win this election.

In picking Romney, Republicans chose a candidate who personified big business, signed legislation banning semi-automatic firearms, and obviously wore the big government millstone known as Romneycare.

While those in the know continually urged social conservatives to keep quiet, because the election would be won on economic issues, the Obama campaign smartly exploited Romney’s weakness with lower income blue collar voters by playing to their natural suspicion of big business.

As a former state lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, I saw this dynamic repeated in election after election, as blue collar voters struggled between the candidate who they believed represented their economic interest against the one who represented their personal freedom interest.

The 2012 election was set up for these voters choice to be easy, as Obama’s four years in office forfeited any claim he had to being supportive of their economic interest.  Obama also is a threat to their firearm rights and is against them on every social issue.

But, without an opposing candidate who they believed was on their side, they stayed home.  While some might claim that this was a failure of the NRA or other lobbying groups who supported Romney, those groups can only open the door for a candidate, he or she has to walk through it.

Romney didn’t.  Instead, Romney stood at the threshold hoping that others would deliver blue collar voters into his column, without him risking taking any negative media hits.  But there is only so much an organization like the NRA can do when the candidate himself has both a terrible record and never addresses the overall issue in a compelling and convincing way.

SOURCE

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Reid Short on Votes for 'Filibuster Reform'

An important update to this report from last week -- it appears that Harry Reid is struggling to cobble together the requisite 51 votes to nuke long-standing minority prerogatives in the Senate:

Democrats don’t have the 51 votes they need in the Senate to change filibuster rules that could make it harder for the GOP minority to wield power in the upper chamber. Lawmakers leading the charge acknowledge they remain short, but express optimism they’ll hit their goal. “I haven’t counted 51 just yet, but we’re working,” said Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), a leading proponent of the so-called constitutional or “nuclear” option, in which Senate rules could be changed by a majority vote.

Part of the struggle here is that some tenured Democrats recall what things were like when the shoe was on the other foot:

The problem for Udall and other supporters of filibuster reform is that many veteran Democratic senators remember when the filibuster was a useful tool in their years in the minority. In the tradition-bound Senate, these veterans aren’t thrilled with changing the upper chamber’s rules, particularly with the use of the controversial constitutional option — which has never been used to change the chamber’s rules. Under the option, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) would send to the Senate desk a resolution changing the rules and ask for it to be adopted immediately. The parliamentarian would rule the request out of order and then the presiding chair — likely Vice President Biden — would affirm or ignore the parliamentarian’s ruling. The Senate could then uphold Reid’s move to change the rules with a simple majority vote. Biden could break a 50-50 tie in Reid’s favor, meaning Udall and others backing filibuster reform only need 50 votes in the Senate to win.

When Republicans were contemplating their own version of the nuclear/constitutional option during the Bush administration, it was to be limited to presidential judicial appointments only -- a response to Democrats' unprecedented campaign of obstructing majority-supported nominees. Their argument at the time was that the Constitution states that the president "shall appoint" members of the judicial branch, and that the "advice and consent" clause was never intended to entail super-majority support. (Article II, Section II of the Constitution does specify a two-thirds majority threshold for treaty approvals, but not for executive appointments). Democrats loudly objected to Republicans' proposal, eventually leading to the "Gang of 14" compromise, to which both parties have generally adhered ever since. At the time, one of the primary admonitions against the notion of changing Senate rules by a simple majority vote was that limiting the judicial filibuster would shove the Senate down a slippery slope to limiting or eliminating the "sacred" legislative filibuster -- which is precisely what Reid is seeking to do now. Though Democrats may be shy of the 51 votes they'd need at the moment, the complexion of the Senate majority coalition will change considerably in the upcoming session:

The most likely time for Reid to use this option is at the beginning of the new Congress. Supporters call it the constitutional option, but it is well-known as the “nuclear” option for the meltdown in partisan relations that it could effect. All seven Democratic senators-elect — Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Martin Heinrich (N.M.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Tim Kaine (Va.), Chris Murphy (Conn.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) — have pledged to support filibuster reform. Sen.-elect Angus King (I-Maine) made filibuster reform a central plank of his campaign.

Republican leadership is hinting it would wage partisan warfare against the majority's entire agenda if Democrats attempt to jam through their procedural "reforms" -- a warning shot across Reid's bow:

...Winning over Republican support for weakening a powerful tool for the minority party seems like wishful thinking. Senate GOP leadership aides say any effort to change the rules by a partisan party-line vote will “poison the well” for reaching bipartisan deals. “We hope Democrats will work toward allowing members of both sides to be involved in the legislative process — rather than poisoning the well on the very first day of the next Congress,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.).

Frustrated Democrats accuse the GOP minority of waging (or threatening) a record number of filibusters to thwart various initiatives and legislation over the last six years. Republicans counter that they've been forced to take these dramatic actions because Reid's unprecedented and imperious control has choked out other, less severe minority tools, such as offering amendments to bills. Facing another stalemate, and with both sides fuming, the Democrats are considering dropping a procedural bomb into the upper chamber. As I asked last week, shouldn't a non-nuclear compromise that addresses both sides' concerns at least be attempted before slinging partisan acrimony into the stratosphere?

The best solution to this problem would be for the Senate leadership to hammer out a compromise that would significantly curb the majority "filling the tree," in exchange for the minority curtailing their filibuster posturing.

...The manner in which this issue is handled could set the tone for the next two years of American governance. Will we witness reasonable solutions, or will comity erode further -- leading to increased legislative dysfunction, and plunging Congressional approval to subterranean new lows?

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ELSEWHERE

What does this tell you about the U.N.?:  "The U.N. General Assembly yesterday voted overwhelmingly to condemn the U.S. commercial, economic and financial embargo against Cuba for the 21st year in a row. The final tally yesterday was 188-3, with Israel and Palau joining the United States. The Marshall Islands and Micronesia both abstained. Last year’s tally for the symbolic measure was almost identical, 186-2, with three abstentions."

Should Christians use UPS?:  "United Parcel Service (UPS), one of the three largest shipping companies in the U.S., has announced that it is instituting a new policy governing its charitable giving that will restrict it from donating to organizations with discriminatory policies. According to Think Progress, Boy Scouts of America (BSA) will be one of the groups to lose funding from the UPS Foundation because of its refusal to shed its anti-LGBT policies."

Upstart Square battles payment giants:  "Two years ago, employees from the start-up Square Inc descended on farmers markets in San Francisco to hand out a new type of credit-card reader that let small, independent merchants accept plastic via their smartphones or tablets. But this month, when Starbucks Inc and Square announced that 7,000 coffee shops across the country would begin accepting payment through Square's smartphone app, the small white cubes that were Square's original calling card didn't merit a mention."

Africans launch campaign against gay marriage:  "A few hundred Liberians representing the Christian and Muslim faiths and civil society organizations gathered here Saturday to launch a campaign to press the government to ban same-sex marriage. The campaign is seeking 1 million signatures supporting a resolution to ban gay and lesbian activities here."

Israeli aircraft strike Gaza sites:  "Israeli aircraft struck three times in Gaza in the early hours of Tuesday morning, hitting a weapons storage facility and two rocket launching sites used by militants, the military said in a statement. As a growing crisis in the Gaza Strip moved into a fifth day, the Israeli army said it had scored direct hits on the targets. No casualties were reported in the strikes which caused loud explosions."

Obama considering John Kerry for “defense” secretary:  "President Obama is considering asking Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) to serve as his next defense secretary, part of an extensive rearrangement of his national security team that will include a permanent replacement for former CIA director David H. Petraeus. Although Kerry is thought to covet the job of secretary of state, senior administration officials familiar with the transition planning said that nomination will almost certainly go to Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations."

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The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist.  It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day.  It was only to the Right of  Stalin's Communism.  The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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