This was posted over at Libertarian Republican. The discussion is one worth listening to:
Last Tuesday night, with hosts Andre Travesa and Eric Dondero.
Stopa is a libertarian Republican running against longtime incumbent Democrat Jim McGovern.
Election 2010
Loving Every Moment of the Democratic Implosion-Rasmussen: Repubs Leading Dems On All 10 Major Issues
(Rasmussen Report) Trust on Issues: Voters Now Trust Republicans More On All 10 Key Issues:
Voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats on all 10 of the important issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports.
The GOP has consistently been trusted on most issues for months now, but in July they held the lead on only nine of the key issues.
Republicans lead Democrats 47% to 39% on the economy, which remains the most important issue to voters. Those numbers are nearly identical to those found in June. Republicans have held the advantage on the economy since May of last year.
But for the first time in months, Republicans now hold a slight edge on the issues of government ethics and corruption, 40% to 38%. Voters have been mostly undecided for the past several months on which party to trust more on this issue, but Democrats have held small leads since February. Still, more than one-in-five voters (22%) are still not sure which party to trust more on ethics issues.
Government ethics and corruption have been second only to the economy in terms of importance to voters over the past year.
(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it’s in the news, it’s in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.
Two surveys of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters each were conducted August 19-20 and August 23-24, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Republicans hold a 52% to 36% lead over Democrats on the issue of taxes. It’s the only issue this month on which the GOP earns the trust of the majority of voters. In June, more than 50% of voters nationwide trusted Republicans more on the issues of national security, taxes and health care.
Voters trust the GOP over Democrats by a 49% to 37% margin on national security and the War on Terror but give the GOP just a 43% to 40% edge on the war in Iraq. Republicans are trusted more by 43% to handle the war in Afghanistan, compared to 36% for Democrats.
On the issue of immigration, Republicans are trusted more by a 44% to 35% margin. That gap has narrowed slightly from June, when the GOP led 47% to 32% on the issue. It was the party’s largest advantage since January.
Despite a judge’s ruling putting key provisions of Arizona’s new immigration law on hold, most U.S. voters still favor passage of such a law in their own state.
An overwhelming majority of voters think all those who vote in this country should be required to present photo identification before they cast their ballots.
On health care, voters now trust Republicans slightly more – by a 48% to 40% margin. In June, the GOP held a 51% to 40% edge on this issue. Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters continue to favor repeal of the national health care bill, with 46% who Strongly Favor it.
The parties remain close on the issue of education, with the GOP holding a statistically insignificant 41% to 40% edge. Both parties have held very modest leads on this issue for the past several months.
When it comes to the issue of Social Security, voters again give the Republicans the edge, this time by a 44% to 38% margin.
Republicans hold a nine-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending Sunday, August 22, 2010. They’ve led on the ballot since last summer….
…(read more)…
Dems are bailing on their leadership, here is an ad that shows how far right these Democrats feel they must go to win:
Discussing Mosques and Men
Here is a response to a conversation elsewhere. I originally was going to post this in multiple pieces on FaceBook, but it would have been too many posts. I post it here only because my comments section here at RPT and my response here are not limited to certain amounts of spaces or words. Enjoy, although as usual, I am long-winded. I should be a professor!
Sean, no one was lost at the Burlington Coat Factory (where the COMMUNITY CENTER, not “mosque” will be based). If we are to follow your logic, I guess no Catholic churches should be located within a few blocks of daycare centers, no? Anyway, I am a New Yorker and I also realize polls can be made to indicate almost anything. Most of the people I know think it is more important to hold up sacred tenants of our constitution than to cave in to very misguided xenophobia. There have been a LOT of people bussed in to protest and the anti-Islamic rhetoric is very damaging.
(SALON)
Thanks Nora for hopping into this conversation. This can be an emotional topic, so know that even though I cannot see your facial expressions, hear concern, humor, or consternation in your tone — I afford you the best of intentions. I do wish to, however, point out some mistakes in your thinking. I may take a post or two to do so as I respect where you are coming from… so bear with me. FIRST POINT, there will be a mosque in the community center. In fact, it will be the top two floors and be tall enough to view the site of the Twin-Towers. That’s number one.
NUMBER TWO, I wish to discuss this issue of molestation by priests that you intimated about.
School counselors, dentists, Buddhist monks, foster parents, and the like — all have abused children. Men who are pedophiles look for positions of AUTHORITY OVER [*not yelling, emphasizing*] children that afford MOMENTS OF PRIVACY with these same children. Dentists do not violate children or women in the name of dentistry. Buddhists monks do not sodomize children in the name of Siddhartha. School counselors in the name of psychology, foster parents in the name of Dr. Spock, etc, … you get the point. Likewise, priests do not violate children in the name of Christ. (The many terrorist attacks are in the name of something… can you tell me what Nora?)
So I hope you can see that mentioning churches next to schools is a non-sequitur, I think we can agree that any church moving priests (Catholicism) or pastors (Protestantism) from one parish or church to another is a problem that has to be dealt with. Just like teachers who have the same issues levied towards them are moved from district-to-district (N.E.A.).
b) [Stats] here is a portion of a post on my site (TIMES UNION):
When asked if they “support or oppose the proposal to build the Cordoba House,” New Yorkers said they oppose the facility, which is expected to cost $100 million, by a 63-27 percent margin. At the same time, by a 64-to-28 percent margin, New Yorkers say Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has the constitutional right to build it. A majority of every demographic group – by party, region, age, gender, political philosophy – agrees that there is a Constitutional right to proceed,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. “Even a majority of those who oppose building the mosque agree by a margin of 51-42 percent that they have the right to build it.”
These polls hit to what I and almost all conservatives have said, “yes they can build their Constitutionally, however, they should — if truly wanting to build bridges — build a bit further away.” Not a building where they found pieces of bodies from the plane and Tower of that first strike, as well as pieces of the plane. But the people of New York are making their choice… and if the elite in N.Y. continue on the road they are, in November many of these Democrats will be out. As is it looks as if we may take back the Senate AND House. So, keep it up Dems.
c) Xenophobia has nothing to do with this argument. Everyone I know of (Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh, [insert name here]) is making the same argument almost all moderate Muslims are making. To wit I would hope you look into this phenomenon, that is Muslims that stand against this mosque (Even More Muslims Come Out Against This Mosque). I included some links in that post to previous posts highlighting Muslims speaking out against this Mosques location. They are well worth reading/listening to. Obviously these religious Muslims are not xenophobic. It is similar to the stories I heard thrown in my face about heterosexual crimes (homophobia) committed against gays. However, what is often overlooked (like all the news stories of dentists, school counselors, Buddhists monks, etc — it is in the medias blood to highlight the Catholic version of these crimes) is that there are crimes committed by homosexuals towards heterosexuals as well. see for instance this story I posted quite some time ago:
These stories have no bearing on the morality (morally right or wrong) of racism, Homophobia, Heterophobia, Islamophobia, or xenophobia. So posting a story about a Muslim being stabbed would be like me showing the many stories of successful and attempted honor killings of women in the name of Islam, in America. The underwear bomber, the Fort Hood shooter, the family that converted to Islam and was stockpiling 27,000 thousand rounds of ammunition to commit Jihad. However, all those have no bearing on our particular dilemma [sorta]. Posting a stabbing also shows that this mosque is not building bridges, like moderate Muslims say it isn’t. (In other words, you would be proving my position.)
UPDATE (ANOTHER VIDEO ADDED):
This story has changed and I wanted to make sure people coming to this post are aware of it. I will post the video here as well as the insight as I posted it elsewhere:
Very quickly, I just posted on this Cabbie incident. He was stabbed by a leftist [that backfired a bit, both by whom did the stabbing AND that this mosque is not building bridges but causing film students to attack]:
Michelle Malkin and FOX & Friends discuss the medias proclivity to jump to conclusions in trying to blame the right… when in fact it is usually the left who is to blame.
This person who stabbed the New York cabbie was first reported to be a “right winger.” However, more-and-more information on this attacker that should have the book thrown at him is coming out. And he is anything but a “rightie.”
d) I wanted to deal with a few outlying issues here that are not necessarily geared towards you Nora.
i. More and more info has come out about this Imam even since the last time I said “more and more information has come out about this Imam.” (See for instance: Fact and Common Sense vs. Bad History and Analogies) So knowing what is plainly laid out in this and other places, what is the reason they want this place when they have been offered tax breaks, discounts, and offers of other properties close by. According to Muslims who have come out against this property it is to look (literally) at the spot that these Twin Towers were attacked and brought down. That is fellow Muslims words, not mine.
ii. Many people do not ask themselves this simple question about the founding of religions. “What were the founders of the major religions like.” Asking questions about the nature of these religions and their founder is not racist, xenophobic, etc. So let’s do this. Here is a favorite quote of mine:
The nine founders among the eleven living religions in the world had characters which attracted many devoted followers during their own lifetime, and still larger numbers during the centuries of subsequent history. They were humble in certain respects, yet they were also confident of a great religious mission. Two of the nine, Mahavira and Buddha, were men so strongminded and self-reliant that, according to the records, they displayed no need of any divine help, though they both taught the inexorable cosmic law of Karma. They are not reported as having possessed any consciousness of a supreme personal deity. Yet they have been strangely deified by their followers. Indeed, they themselves have been worshipped, even with multitudinous idols.
All of the nine founders of religion, with the exception of Jesus Christ, are reported in their respective sacred scriptures as having passed through a preliminary period of uncertainty, or of searching for religious light. Confucius, late in life, confessed his own sense of shortcomings and his desire for further improvement in knowledge and character. All the founders of the non-Christian religions evinced inconsistencies in their personal character; some of them altered their practical policies under change of circumstances.
Jesus Christ alone is reported as having had a consistent God consciousness, a consistent character himself, and a consistent program for his religion. The most remarkable and valuable aspect of the personality of Jesus Christ is the comprehensiveness and universal availability of his character, as well as its own loftiness, consistency, and sinlessness.
Robert Hume, The World’s Living Religions (New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1959), 285-286.
So this is where I like to ask persons if they would want followers of Christ to be more Christ like and followers of Muhammad to be more Muhammad like? When Peter cut the Roman soldiers ear off, Jesus healed it. Muhammad order the cutting of and personally engaged in the slitting of [700-to-900] men, women, and children’s throats. Jesus broke Jewish tradition by allowing children into the inner circles to exemplify them in regards to faith. Muhammad married a six-year old and consummated the marriage when she was nine. Did you need more examples?
iii. Comparison of Scripture. Some quick facts. Scripture in Islamic tradition is prescriptive. In the Biblical sense it is descriptive. This simple comparison goes a long way to explain why most of the terrorists in the world today are Islamic. Another explanation for this phenomenon is that in the Islamic fundamentalist tradition, verses in their Scripture. I guess the best way to exemplify this is with this final posting in a debate where a Muslim was trying to explain his faith to others. However, I showed him I had an in-depth understanding of his view of his scripture. Here is my response which is cataloged at my site Discussing God:
Kursat,
You see, unlike the Bible, the Qu’ran abrogates its “verses” and depending on what time period they were written (and depending on if the Muslim community was weaker than it was later), these later verses take over in importance (replaced with something “better”) in application for the Muslim.
So, Kursat, is this Sura Meccan? More specifically, is it the fifth and sixth years of the Prophet’s Mission? There is even a period after this in Mecca. After this period was Medina, right?
For those who are not aware of this abrogation (stated in the Qu’ran) and are use to thinking of Scriptures in a “Western” manner, this Sura you gave sounds great. But if one understands the full implications of 2:106 and 16:101. Then this changes the ballgame a bit, doesn’t it Kursat?
Obviously Kursat didn’t return because he was not a moderate Muslim. Moderates look at the Qur’an as descriptive and they reject the idea that these verses in the Qur’an are placed in any chronological importance. THUS, the later verses about Jihad in Islamic fundamentalism DO NOT trump the one’s about peace. It is these types of moderates that are sounding the alarm over this Imam and placement of the mosque. It are these Muslims we should be supporting.
Getting ReElected-Hurdles
Democrat Looney Toons
NewsBusters has a story about conservative candidates being covered in their various failings, but not the Democratic candidates:
(Jeff Greene… following in JFK’s footsteps)
Jeff Greene’s Boat Summerwind is the “Levi Johnston of Yachts”
- Convicted rapist and former boxer Mike Tyson traveled through Europe aboard the Summerwind with Greene in 2005, and recently had to clarify that he did not do drugs while aboard the yacht. Though he did do drugs during the trip, in Amsterdam, just not he claims, on the boat.
- Back in 2005, the Belize government claimed that Summerwind caused major damage to coral along one of the country’s most economically important coral reefs. Greene denies knowing anything about the incident.
- In 2007, the Yacht broke the embargo by docking in Cuba. Greene claims it was for emergency maintenance, and he took the opportunity to visit Cuban synagogues. The St. Pete Times says of the stop, “everybody talked about the vomit caked all over the sides from all the partying going on.”
- Sharyn Peach, a Fort Lauderdale woman who used to work as a stewardess for Greene aboard the yacht, recently wrote of her time aboard for our sister paper: “Working on Greene’s 145-foot Choy Lee yacht was like being ‘locked’ in Studio 54 in its prime. It was nothing short of ‘Sex, Drugs, and Techno Music.’ Celebrities, ‘hired’ party girls, mayhem, and debauchery. I saw more tits and ass in one night on Jeff Greene’s Summerwind than I have for the past seven years on South Beach …The real partying started in Sag Harbor, New York. That’s when a deckhand and Mr. Greene would go to a place named the Sex Castle and come back with new women almost daily. …Shortly after that party, I found four lines of cocaine in Mr. Greene’s stateroom bathroom marble vanity.”
- A 2009 account of Greene’s yacht habbit in The Greatest Trade Ever went like this: “Greene brought two Ukrainian strippers on board to make a cameo appearance and hired stewardesses from coastal towns to serve as his crew. Some doubled as massage therapists, which came in handy after a day of scuba diving, Jet Skiing or kayaking.”
- Several former employees of the yacht describe Greene as just a horrible, horrible boss.
- Just this past New Years Eve, Lindsay Lohan was a guest on the yacht while in St. Tropez.
New DNC Ad-BDS [Bush Derangement Syndrome]
Good News in the Bad and Crazy!
I think we conservatives should all be happy that the Obama administration is in complete and irreparable meltdown. We can add to Hugh Hewitt’s great rant the one judge in California overturning 7,000,000 voters, to Maxine “Marxist” Waters and Charlie “in a pinch” Rangels ethics charges, to the Commander in Chief supporting a Mosque and Imam who has terrorist ties and dirty money to build his project with. This is all coming up to bite the Dems in the ass in November. I already posted this, but look at all this with the eyes that the Dems are sealing their defeat.
Here is how Politico.com wrote about it:
President Barack Obama’s endorsement of the Ground Zero mosque has transformed an emotion-laden local dispute in New York into a nationwide debate overnight, setting nervous Democrats on edge and creating potentially dramatic political implications in the upcoming midterm elections.
Key Republicans think the president bought himself some political trouble by using his White House bully pulpit to announce his support for a controversial plan to build an Islamic center just blocks from nearly 3,000 people died in Manhattan at the hands of Islamic extremists on 9/11.
[….]
Obama has put Democrats from coast to coast in the tough position of having to weigh in on an issue they’d rather duck. Prior to his speech, a few candidates tried with limited success to make the proposed mosque an issue outside of the tri-state area around New York City. Now any Democrat facing an election – less than three months away – can be put in the uncomfortable position of being asked to reject the president’s stand or side with him.
Several New York Democrats either involved with members of Congress or strategists said privately that they are not happy about the speech because it puts them in a bind. A recent CNN polls found two-thirds of Americans oppose building the mosque in the neighborhood around Ground Zero.
They’re afraid to be up front in the same way as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who got national press for supporting the mosque but who is not facing a reelection campaign.
It’s going to be one of the most memorable – and debated statements – of the president’s first two years in office….
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Besides all the presidents tying together bad lines of non-related thinking. He also said something about U.S. History at this speech that was just flat wrong! A twisting of the truth.
Obama Misstates History… But It Sounds Good from Papa Giorgio on Vimeo.
Hugh Hewitt Smackdown!
Obama-Care (or major platforms of it) Rejected in Missouri-Headed for the Courts I Am Sure
Missourins’ say NO to Obama… our fist is now Consti-tutionally held high!
Drudge Props:
ST. LOUIS • Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a federal mandate to purchase health insurance, rebuking President Barack Obama’s administration and giving Republicans their first political victory in a national campaign to overturn the controversial health care law passed by Congress in March.
“The citizens of the Show-Me State don’t want Washington involved in their health care decisions,” said Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, one of the sponsors of the legislation that put Proposition C on the August ballot. She credited a grass-roots campaign involving Tea Party and patriot groups with building support for the anti-Washington proposition.
With most of the vote counted, Proposition C was winning by a ratio of nearly 3 to 1. The measure, which seeks to exempt Missouri from the insurance mandate in the new health care law, includes a provision that would change how insurance companies that go out of business in Missouri liquidate their assets.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Cunningham said at a campaign gathering at a private home in Town and Country. “Citizens wanted their voices to be heard.”
…(read more)…
…About 71 percent of Missouri voters backed a ballot measure, Proposition C, that would prohibit the government from requiring people to have health insurance or from penalizing them for not having it.
The Missouri law conflicts with a federal requirement that most people have health insurance or face penalties starting in 2014.
Tuesday’s vote was seen as largely symbolic because federal law generally trumps state law. But it was also seen as a sign of growing voter disillusionment with federal policies and a show of strength by conservatives and the tea party movement.
“To us, it symbolized everything,” said Annette Read, a tea party participant from suburban St. Louis who quit her online retail job to lead a yearlong campaign for the Missouri ballot measure. “The entire frustration in the country … how our government has misspent, how they haven’t listened to the people, this measure in general encompassed all of that.”
Missouri’s ballot also featured primaries for U.S. Senate, Congress and numerous state legislative seats. But at many polling places, voters said they were most passionate about the health insurance referendum.
“I believe that the general public has been duped about the benefits of the health care proposal,” said Mike Sampson of Jefferson City, an independent emergency management contractor, who voted for the proposition. “My guess is federal law will in fact supersede state law, but we need to send a message to the folks in Washington, D.C., that people in the hinterlands are not happy.”…
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Basil Marceaux on Jimmy Kimmel
Basil Marceaux was invited to the Jimmy Kimmel show… was Alvin Greene? Or is the only fascination on shows like these with Republican nimrods and not Democrat ones?
ED SCHULTZ-Boycott 2010 Elections (For Once I Agree with Him!)
I’m ashamed to admit it but what he says makes perfect sense this time. sounds like a plan to me. All ed shultz loyal listeners and viewers should back him up and boycott the 2010 elections!!! Show them you mean business by golly! Don’t vote.