April 25, 2005

Red States Rising (Part Deux)...

Earlier this month, I posted some projections from an organization called Polidata that looked at the potential for Electoral Votes shifting to Red States after the 2010 Census. The news was good for the GOP.

Well, James Taranto's Best of the Web from Friday features more long range projections from the U.S. Census Bureau. If you look at the 10 "biggest" States in terms of population and the 10 "fastest growing" States, the numbers paint a rosy picture for Red States. USAToday has a table with the data.

The top 8 fastest growing States are all Red: Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Texas, Utah, Idaho, North Carolina & Georgia. Washington and Oregon are numbers nine and ten, respectively. An A/P story looking at the data reports that the most Liberal region of the country, New England stands to lose about 20% of its Congressional seats (and Electoral Votes) over the next twenty-five years and the demographics suggest that much of the population will by dying off during that time.

Population projections released today by the US Census Bureau project much slower growth in New England. They also paint a picture of a region that is increasingly elderly, especially in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, where statisticians expect a dramatic spike in the number of residents 65 and older.

If the projections hold true, Massachusetts would lose two of its 10 congressional seats, Connecticut would lose one of its five, and Rhode Island would lose one of its two, according to an Associated Press analysis of the data.

Vermont only has one Congressional seat, so they can't get any more irrelevant. With my luck most of the people fleeing my own State of Connecticut will be of the "center-right" political philosophy, making my environment "Bluer". This sucks for me, but at least a more Liberal New England will have less political influence on a national level.

Interestingly enough, the one New England State expected to show significant growth is New Hampshire. Of course, NH has no State income tax and no State sales tax. Says a lot about the other five States, doesn't it?

But the A/P story did have a dissenter about the region's waning influence:

''It's not our electoral college base that's been the source of political clout in New England," said Garrison Nelson, a University of Vermont professor who also has taught classes on New England politics at Boston College. ''Massachusetts has been losing seats for a while, since 1930, yet three presidential nominees have come out of Massachusetts in the last 50 years." [emphasis mine]
Yeah, and the only one of the three that actually won - Kennedy - did so 45 years ago. Moron.

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GOP still confident they have the votes...

Yesterday on CBS's "Face The Nation", Majority Whip Sen. Mitch McConnell expressed confidence that the Republicans have the necessary votes to enact judicial filibuster reform.

The big question is when. Sen. Frist continues to drag his feet on this matter - perhaps hoping it will go away?

Anyway, assuming they move forward with it, the best indicator that they have the votes in the bag is the whining of Democrats:

Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat appearing with McConnell, said conservative Republicans including former Senate leader Bob Dole "have urged the Republican leadership today to think long and hard about doing what they want to do."
and
[Sen. Joseph] Biden, appearing on ABC's "This Week," said, "I think we should compromise and say to them that we're willing to -- of the seven judges -- we'll let a number of them go through, the two most extreme not go through and put off this vote" to end the filibuster.

When Democrats are in "let's talk" mode, you know that they know their cause is lost.

UPDATE: 7:05am

Captain Ed has more on the Dem reaction:

Biden may not be the brightest member of the Democratic caucus, but he's wiser than Reid. He understands that if the Republicans have two choices -- no opportunity for their nominees to get votes for two years or a few weeks of bad press -- even Bill Frist will eventually pick Door Number Two. The only way out will be a compromise, which allows the Democrats to look magnanimous and still hold the filibuster as a trump card.

Needless to say, Frist would be an idiot to bite at this. For one thing, agreeing to such an arrangement amounts to a validation of both the unprecedented use of the filibuster and the notion that the judicial nominees are "extremists". It also solves nothing -- it just postpones the fight until a Supreme Court seat opens up. The compromise amounts to nothing except a tactical retreat for Democrats to avoid a huge loss. If Frist accepts such an offer, it will signal that he has no intention of providing leadership to the Republican contingent.

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April 24, 2005

Keep an eye on Cheney this week...

He will be key to the enactment of the filibuster rule change. Per Newsday:
In one option, Republicans would bring a nomination to the floor and ask Senate president Dick Cheney to rule a filibuster unconstitutional. A Democratic appeal would be tabled by a majority vote, and the rule would be changed.
I recall reading of the procedural ins and outs of this move, but this reminds me that the first step is a request (probably from Sen. Frist) directed to the President of the Senate to enact the change. Usually the "President" of the Senate is a role served by regular Senators on a rotating basis. However, if the VP is present then he assumes his role as outlined by Article I, Section 3.4 of the Constitution. Cheney's presence as Senate President will ensure that the request will be ruled in the affirmative, and the rest will be history. Hopefully.

So if Dick Cheney is reported as being in the Senate chambers one day this week, then THAT will be the big day.

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Voinovich, the "maverick"...

You just have to get a chuckle at the MSM "groupthink". Michelle Malkin has the round-up of Voinovich stories - all of which refer to the OH Senator as a "Maverick".

Of course they think he's a maverick - because he's helping the Democrats. Funny, I don't ever remember reading about Democrat Sen. Zell Miller being a "maverick".

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Syria scheduled to complete pull-out from Lebanon today...


MSNBC reports:

Syrian troops burned documents and dismantled military posts in their final hours in Lebanon Sunday, before deploying toward the border and effectively ending 29 years of military presence in the country.

A few score Syrian troops will remain in Lebanon for a farewell ceremony Tuesday that the Lebanese Army plans to hold in a town close to the Syrian border.

In Damascus, the Syrian capital, a government official said: “Within the next few hours, all the troops will be out of Lebanon.” “What will be left are those who will take part in the official farewell” on Tuesday, the official said, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will confirm the pull-out with a report to the Security Counsel when it is complete.

Um, can't we get someone else to verify this?

H/T: Polipundit

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Things looking bleak for Canadian Liberal party...

The future of Paul Martin's Liberals got even darker this weekend as the leader of the ultra-Left New Democrat Party (NDP), Jack Layton, dismissed the possibility of building a coalition with the Liberals.

"We're certainly not talking about a coalition. We're talking about the budget ... there's nothing more," Layton told Reuters in a phone interview.

Layton said he would consider backing the budget if the government canceled planned corporate tax cuts and put more money into social programs.

In the face of the AdScam scandal, Canada's Liberals may be facing a sound beating this spring if the Tories and Bloc Quebecois unite to call for new elections. A recent Ipsos-Reid opinion poll released on Friday show support for the Conservatives surging:

The survey by Ipsos-Reid, provided exclusively to CanWest/Global, reveals Stephen Harper's Tories hold a "solid" five-point lead over the Liberals under Prime Minister Paul Martin. Thirty-five per cent would vote Conservative
nationally, compared with 30% for the Liberals, 18% for the NDP, 12% for the Bloc Quebecois and 5% for the Green party.

Most importantly, the Conservatives have broken the Liberals' grip in vote-rich Ontario, where the fate of the upcoming election will likely be determined. The Tories have the support of 40% of Ontarians, compared to 36% for the Liberals, 20% for the NDP
and 4% for the Greens.

"The minimum that you're looking at here is probably a pretty strong Tory minority government," Ipsos-Reid senior official Darrell Bricker said. "And they're now bumping up against a majority."

The erosion of support for the Liberals from their base in the Province of Ontario is the equivalent of the Democrats in the U.S. losing ground in solid Blue States like New York, Massachusetts or California.

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April 23, 2005

A Federal Marriage Amendment...

John Hawkins makes the case:
"[T]he attempts by advocates of gay marriage to denigrate the institution as it exists today are not only callow & colossally arrogant, they are quite telling. If someone wants to make the case that everyone from Jesus, to George Washington, to practically every American who ever lived up until say 20 years ago, is a racist, bigot, pig because they believed marriage is between a man and woman, so be it. But, everyone from polygamists, to adults engaged in incest, to even those who want to marry the dead, could effectively make the same claim using that sort of logic. So why go down that road? Because we're talking about myopic people who are more concerned with getting their way than the consequences of their actions. If trashing the institution of marriage is the price of getting their way, that's a price they're willing to pay."
Read the whole post here.

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Kerry "fuming" over fellow Dems backing Hillary...

You know for a long time I've been going under the assumption that Hillary Clinton will skate to the Dem Presidential nomination in 2008, with little or no opposition.

But it seems John "Francois" Kerry is serious about another run in four years. In fact, when fellow Senator Mark Dayton recently introduced Hillary as "the next great President of the United States" at a Democrat dinner in Minneapolis, Kerry was livid.

According to the NY Post, Kerry approached Dayton on the Senate floor a few days later "with daggers in his eyes" asking him why he would endorse his 2008 rival. It seems that Kerry isn't simply mulling the future run, he's already trying to lock down support.

Couple that with former VP candidate John Edwards' recent poo-pooing of Clinton's inevitability as the front-runner, and it looks like we could have some real vicious snipping in a couple of years. I love it.

But what I'm really looking forward to is seeing Hillary on the stump. At the dinner reported on above in the Post:

Clinton thrilled Democrats with her red-meat speech, accusing President Bush of ushering in "a brave new world of extremism."

She painted Republican lawmakers as "extras in the movie 'I, Robot' " and said Bush's call for an "ownership society" amounts to trying to turn America into a "you're-on-your-own society."

Clinton's fiery speech contrasted with her recent highly publicized moves to the center.

Ever seen Hillary fired up on the stump? She becomes "Shrillary". It's quite disturbing to watch. You expect her head to start spinning around. Sound bites of her screaming into the mike will make lovely political ads. Let the "blonde ambition" tour begin!!

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Optimism on the Environment...

Just in time for Earth Day, the American Enterprise Institute released it's 10th annual report on the state of the Environment. The full .pdf report is here.

In a nutshell:

  • Air Pollution has fallen to the lowest level ever recorded.
  • Mercury Emissions have declined by 45 percent during the 1990s, most of which is due to the phase-out of municipal and medical waste incineration.
  • Forestland in the eastern half of the United States is increasing at a rate of one million acres a year.
  • Wetlands continue to multiply, with a growth of 26,000 acres a year.
  • Car Emissions, one of the largest contributors to air pollution, will be reduced by more than 80 percent over the next 25 years, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
  • Toxic Releases have declined since 1988, a sign of increasing efficiency and the “de-materialization” of our economy.
  • Global WarmingÂ’s “hockey-stick” graph, believed to be one of the leading indicators of global warming, is now being called “rubbish.” Scientists have shown that the graphÂ’s underlying equation would generate the same result for any series of random numbers.

So why the outcry over the Kyoto treaty? Because it's Lilliputian-like regulations would serve to tie down and economically damage the Gulliver-like hyperpower that is the United States.

Where did all the Marxist-Leninists go when the Soviet Union collapsed? They became enviro-whackos as an alternative outlet to try and put the brakes on Free-Market Capitalism.

Nice try, suckers!!

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Atheist Guidance Counselor Makes A Statement...

Revises "Pledge of Allegiance" when leading the student body in its recitation over the PA system.
Margo Lucero, the eighth-grade guidance counselor at the school, substituted the phrase "under your belief system" [for "under God"] as she led the recitation of the Pledge on Wednesday.
What as asshat. Her rationale? It was the sixth anniversary of Columbine and she wanted to be "all inclusive". Great, what a perfect way to commemorate a day where two psycho kids go up to their fellow students, ask them if they believe in God and shoot them point blank when they answer "yes". This woman needs a swift kick in the ass.

Fortunately, the school didn't sanction this idiot's actions.

Meanwhile, Jefferson County School District spokesman Rick Kaufman was engaged in damage control, describing Miss Lucero's decision to rewrite the Pledge as "inappropriate" and stressing that she had acted independently, without consulting the district or other school officials.

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Diane Lane Photo of the Week...

Cute 'n Sassy!

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April 22, 2005

Rethinking the 2008 GOP contenders...

Jayson at Polipundit looks at the falling stock of some of the Republicans who could be President.

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Ace has been letting go of his anger today...

Five things he hates (and five more) that will make you laugh your ass off.

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New "Featured Timewaster": Drunk Walk

This is a good one for a Friday afternoon. (practice for later maybe?)

See how far you can make the Drunk German Guy walk down the alley. You control his balance my moving your mouse right or left. Here's the trick, though: you can't see your mouse pointer. Oops!

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35 Years Of "The Sky Is Falling" is Enough...

BullDogPundit revisits all those "dire" predictions that the eco-moonbats were making on the first Earth Day in 1970.

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Snap Out Of It!!!!!!

The GOP members of Congress need a good Cher-inspired "Moonstruck" slap across the face right now. John Podhoretz in the New York Post is getting righteously annoyed by Republicans who are starting to feel the fear - from the MSM spin.
No question about it, the media are on the prowl against the GOP - but there's something unseemly about the right-wing whining. Media bias isn't worse this year than last, when Republicans somehow managed to win the White House and gain three Senate seats.
The current hand-wringing about the fight over judicial nominations and how the MSM will present it is unfounded and down-right sickening. And if they lose this fight, then the Republican base will give them something real to worry about.

The public's ability to see through the media filter extends to social issues as well as political candidacies. Notwithstanding media proselytizing, the public has become more opposed to gay marriage over the course of the past year. Even so, the fear of media manipulation remains as strong as ever, and might well get stronger still. Conservatives are baffled at the weird turn in the political fortunes of the Republicans, and the anti-media line offers them an easy answer to a complex problem.

They're not only baffled. They're getting angry, and they're blaming the Republicans on Capitol Hill for causing the mess. My friend Hugh Hewitt, radio talk-show host and brilliant blogger, speaks for many when he hurls Cassandra-like prophecies of ruin at GOP senators if they don't immediately act on the so-called "nuclear option" and change Senate rules to force through judicial nominees now stymied by Democratic filibusters.

"The failure to break the filibuster," Hewitt writes flatly on his blog, "will result in the defeat of Sens. [Olympia] Snowe and [Lincoln] Chaffee in their 2006 re-election campaigns if they are among the defectors, the end of any idea of Susan Collins joining the leadership, and the end of Sen. [Chuck] Hagel's and Sen. [Bill] Frist's presidential ambition. Fundraising for the National Republican Senatorial Committee will crater, and the majority so recently and dearly won could well vanish in a matter of 18 months."

Hewitt's words suggest the depth of conservative anxiety and worry over the current political situation - the fear that Republican politicians are going to look at the polls and lose their nerve. Conservatives have cause for worry. Politicians tend not to be brave.

To paraphrase the words of a real leader, now is NOT the time to "go wobbly", gentlemen.

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Political Earthquake Brewing Up In The Great White North...

NealeNews has the round-up.

Canadian PM Paul Martin's six-minute speech last night is generating a lot of buzz today. He asked (begged, really) for patience from the Canadian population over the Gomery investigation into the AdScam scandal to wait for Parliamentary elections sometime next year.

CTV is reporting that Tory leader Stephen Harper says that members of his party will be spending the next week - during which the House of Commons is in recess - speaking to constituents to gage the pulse of the voters, and get their reactions to Martin's speech.

CTV's Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife said earlier speculation had suggested the start of an election around May 19. Fife said he has now heard that an election could be called as soon as May 3.

"There is a non-confidence motion that the opposition can vote on that day, and they very well may bring down the government then," Fife said. Fife said the Conservatives may want to bring the Liberals down sooner rather than later so that the Liberals don't have an opportunity to recover in the polls.

The Toronto Sun's Linda Williamson says it's time to do an "Apprentice" on Martin and say "Paul, you're fired":

Think about what Martin asked of us last night: He wants us to let ethically compromised Liberals continue to spend our money for almost a year, until the ongoing inquiry into how they stole our money is complete.
Greg Weston of the Calgary Sun observes that Martin's promise to call for an election after the final Gomery report was "more desperate than clever".

From The Globe and Mail, turmoil in Ottawa:


Minutes after the Prime Minster spoke to the nation, pledging to call an election 30 days after the Gomery inquiry report, the phones started ringing and the BlackBerrys began buzzing with instant reviews.
Canadians will soon be voicing their opinions and the politicians are listening. The Conservative Party is currently aligning with Bloc Quebecois to force an election soon. If the current polls are any indication, it would seem that the Liberals are doomed.

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So you wanna play?

House Republicans are calling on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to release documentation on a 2001 trip to Puerto Rico that may have been paid for by a Washington Lobbyist firm.

In the Washington Times this a.m.:

"We feel that such lingering questions undermine the integrity of the institution and we hope [the questions] will be cleared up as soon as possible," wrote Republican Reps. Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina and Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia.

The Washington Times reported earlier this week that Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Ohio Democrat and member of the House ethics committee, listed a registered lobbyist as the trip's sponsor. House rules prohibit registered lobbyists from paying for travel by members.

On travel disclosure forms filed with the House clerk, Mrs. Pelosi and others on the trip listed a group called Todo Puerto Rico con Vieques as its sponsor.

If "Miss America" wants to go around trying to raise unproven allegations about Majority Leader Tom DeLay, she better be prepared to answer some questions of her own. And some other Democrats as well.

Nice to see the GOP starting to push back. This isn't a game of tiddly-winks, here.

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Happy Earth Day!!!

I took a nice loooooong hot shower this morning to celebrate. Used about twice as much water and home heating oil that would I normally use, too.

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Pedro Shines In Sunny Florida! Mets Batter Marlins...

Whoo-Hoo!!!!!!

Wow, what a game. I felt bad for Al Leiter. When he was our Ace he was my favorite - and a nicer guy in MLB you'll never find. When he was "on", he was fantastic. But when he was having an off day, you knew it by the second inning.

And the Mets knew it last night and gave poor Al a shellacking. I've got tickets for tomorrow at Shea. Bringing my oldest to his first game, but the weather report says rain. AAARRRRGGGHHH!

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