San Francisco Tea Parties deliver for Romney

Taking time away from families and from work, one hundred and ten tea party activists drove for 5 hours from the dismally-blue San Francisco Bay Area to the swing-state of Nevada for a weekend of campaigning for Romney, Ryan, and Sen. Heller.  This project, dubbed NobamaNevada, was created by the Bay Area Patriots and MyLiberty with the goal of sending 100 volunteers to Nevada for two weekends.  With 110 at the first event, it is exceeding expectations.

Here, project leader Sally Zelikovsky greets the assembled volunteers at Friday night's dinner (click on any photo for a larger image):

After dinner, many went to the Romney-Ryan campaign headquarters to phonebank:

Nevada is a swing-state not just for the 2012 presidential election but also for the Senate where Sen. Heller (R-NV) is in a tight race with Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV).   Sen. Heller (right, rear) made a surprise visit to the phonebank to brief volunteers on the state of the campaign:

The next morning, everyone gathered for breakfast:

At breakfast, two representatives from the Romney-Ryan campaign provided instructions on precinct walking:

Then, it was back to campaign headquarters where volunteers line up to get their precinct assignments:

In 1996, Clinton won Nevada by a mere 4,730 votes.   So, get-out-the-vote efforts are critical.  This is complicated by the transient nature of much of Nevada's population.  The goal of this weekend's activities was to identify who on the voter rolls still lives in Nevada and, if they are Romney-Ryan-Heller supporters, what can be done to help them vote.

Is this election important to you?  Do you want your children and grandchildren to live in a country that is the world's beacon of liberty? If so, there is still time for you to register for the next NobamaNevada trip on October 26-27.

Regulations: they may strangle industry but at least they provide jobs for bureaucrats

The Gibbs Aquada

If you ever wanted to drive your car into the ocean and keep on driving, Gibbs Technology has the answer.  Their Aquada is an amphibious car that can do just that.  You can't buy it, though, in part because of contradictory Washington red tape.  The Wall Street Journal explains:

The Aquada could be put into mass production within six months after clearing all legal hurdles, [Gibbs Chairman] Mr. Jenkins says. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested.

The reason it is still in dry dock, he says, is a conflict between U.S. government regulations for vehicles on land and on water.

For example, air-bag sensors must be set according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration standards for the car to be approved for the open road. But on the water, the settings are too sensitive. Waves that crash on the vehicle deploy the air bags. Another problem: An Environmental Protection Agency rule requires a catalyst to control emissions which can heat up several hundred degrees. The Coast Guard bars anything even half that hot operating in the engine compartment.

If Henry Ford had had to face America's modern army of bureaucrats, we might still be riding horses to work.

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Global warming hypocrite of the day

As Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger championed some of the US's most draconian global warming laws (including California's infamous AB32 and SB375).  What does he drive?  He just took delivery (h/t Instapundit) on a Mercedes Unimog:

Unimogs are more typically used as military transportion.  Arnold's model is customized so we don't know its gas mileage but reports on gas mileage for Unimogs range from 4 to 13 mpg.

Reduced CO2 emissions are only for the little people.

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Democrats and their "new normal" economy

A variety of news articles are talking about high unemployment and slow growth being the "new normal" for the US economy.  They are echoing Pres. Obama from his 2010 interview on CBS's 60 Minutes.  As reported by the Washington Post:

"What is a danger is that we stay stuck in a new normal where unemployment rates stay high," [Obama] said in an interview aired Sunday night on CBS's "60 Minutes." "People who have jobs see their incomes go up. Businesses make big profits. But they've learned to do more with less. And so they don't hire. And as a consequence, we keep on seeing growth that is just too slow to bring back the 8 million jobs that were lost." [Emph. added]

Notice Obama's exceptionally superficial economic analysis.   The economy is stagnating, he claims, because businesses have "learned to do more with less" as if competitive businesses had ever behaved otherwise.

The liberal concept of a "new normal" and its substitution for rational economic thought is not new.  Michael Barone, for example, reviews (h/t Instapundit) the 1930s and how liberals at that time also thought that stagnation was the new normal:

Why did Roosevelt's second term turn out so poorly? Basically, because his policies were so unpopular. His 1935 labor act led to violent sit-down strikes in auto, steel and rubber factories, in which union victories were resented by the wider public.

His high tax rates on high earners -- the great white whale of the Ahab-like Obama -- plus something called the excess profits tax and the threat of onerous new regulation discouraged business investment, leading to what some called a capital strike.

In that setting, many liberals, as historian Alan Brinkley writes, "reached the pessimistic conclusion that stagnation had become the normal condition of modern industrial economies." Sounds like Bill Clinton's argument: No one could do better. [Emph. added]

 Democrats do the same thing (pursue anti-business policies) over and over again and each time are surprised to find the same result (economic stagnation).  Apparently, talking about "new normals" is a psychological defense mechanism that allows their minds to avoid reaching the obvious conclusions.

Egypt issues arrest warrants for 8 connected to controversial film. Liberals agree

If convicted, the eight could face the death penalty.  The LA Times has the details:

Egypt’s prosecutor general referred seven Egyptians Christians living in the United States and Florida-based Pastor Terry Jones to court for trial on charges that they offended Islam in connection with an anti-Muslim film that has triggered protests around the globe.

The seven Egyptians -- identified by state media as Morris Sadek, Morkos Aziz Khalil, Fekry Abdelmessieh, Nabil Adib Bassida, Nahed Metwally, Nader Farid Nicola and Elia Bassily, who is also known as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula -- were also accused of insulting the prophet Muhammad, inciting sectarian strife in Egypt and threatening the country's independence and peace, according to a state-run news agency.

The prosecutor general requested that the eight defendants be arrested by Interpol and handed over to Egyptian authorities. .…

Authorities issued arrest warrants against all defendants. No trial date was announced. The charges could result in a death sentence. [Emph. added]

Calls for prosecuting the filmmakers also come from American "liberals."   Take, for example, Bill Press, a former chair of the California Democrat Party and current talk show host, who said (h/t Ace):

What, if anything, should happen to the people who made this video? I gotta tell you, I think they are as guilty, that's my opinion, I think they are as guilty as the terrorists who carried out those attacks against our embassy in Libya.…

But these, I hate to call them Christians, these so-called Christians had to know that that video would result in certain parts of the world, it would result in violence, it would result in lives being lost. I think, again, they are every bit as guilty and I think the United States, this is not freedom of speech. It's just the old thing, you can't cry fire in a crowded theater and have people trampled to death and say, oh, I was just exercising my freedom of speech. This is an abuse of the First Amendment. It's using, abusing their freedom of speech to cost innocent lives and to cause the taking of innocent lives in certain parts of the world. So, I think the United States ought to identify, yeah, we oughta be going after these terrorists that carried out the attacks in Libya and we are. I think we also ought to be identifying the people who made this video and go after them with the full force of the law and lock their ass up.

Bill Press' reasoning about the film falling under the yelling-fire-in-a-theater exception to the 1st amendment is not to be taken seriously.  Mr. Press would understand that instantly if instead some group was trying to use violence to suppress Mr. Press's free speech.

It is frightening how quickly liberals are willing to abandon basic human rights, such as free speech, when they find those rights momentarily inconvenient.

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RELATED: Five claimed examples of the left attempting to suppress free speech are collected here.

How Liberalism resembles the Godfather movies

In the Godfather movies, the young Vito Corleone starts out with a friendly pitch: 'you do me a favor and I do you a favor.' After a time, however, he progresses to telling people that either they do what he wants or he'll blow their brains out.

Liberalism has proceeded along a similar path.  It started out promising to help the sick or the elderly or the unemployed.  After a while, liberalism started to look like this:

On orders from Pres. Clinton, Elian González is captured in a pre-dawn raid, April 22, 2000, for his forcible return to Fidel Castro.

Or like this:

Under pressure from the Obama administration, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies capture Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a parolee and the alleged inconvenient filmmaker, during a midnight raid on his home.

Today, we learn that General Motors will not be allowed to refuse Obama's continued 'help':

Francis Ford Coppola described the mafia in his movie as a "metaphor" for "capitalism."  Under capitalism (free enterprise), however, and unlike under liberalism, all transactions are voluntary.

Obama Flashback

Via Breitbart, in November 2007, Candidate Obama promises that, using his "intimate" concern for and knowledge of the Muslim world, he will "will ultimately make us safer":


In related news, some reports say that J. Christopher Stevens, the US Ambassador to Libya, was not just killed in the attack on our consulate, he was also raped.

NYPD identifies suspect Occupy Wall Street rape

Occupy Wall Street may have faded from the headlines but the rape and violence continues.  The NY Daily News reports that the New York Police Department is looking for Jackie Barcliff, 44, (pictured), an Occupy Wall Street protester.  He is a suspect in the brutal rape of fellow Occupy Wall Street protester this week.  The Daily News reports:

After the sex attack, the victim was tossed from the elevated park space, falling about 20 feet, breaking her pelvis and right arm, police sources said.

Rapes have been a continuing issue at Occupy Wall Street protests. ABC News reports on the Occupy leadership's evolving approach for dealing with the issue:

The recent reports of assaults have created a problem the "Occupy" movement is being challenged to address head-on.

"We always encourage victims to go through the proper channels and contact police," said Brendan Burke, 41, who helps run the security team in Zuccotti Park.

But that's not always the case. Burke admitted there have been times when members of the community have taken it upon themselves to chase off men who exposed themselves in the park.

If you see Barcliff, report his location to authorities.

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Pres. Obama explains the benefits of his plan for Medicare

From Hope n'Change:

This would be funnier if it wasn't so true.

Economists: Fuel economy standards: more expensive even than climate change

Environmentalists are "proud" of the onerous new fuel-efficiency standards for automobiles but new economic studies say the damage they cause will outweigh any benefits, environmental or otherwise.  Defending these standards, Pres. Obama, AKA the Empty Chair, said:

“It’ll strengthen our nation’s energy security, it’s good for middle class families and it will help create an economy built to last,”

Reality is otherwise, says the New York Times:

What the government didn’t mention is that these improvements come at a high cost for drivers, automakers and society in general.…

The new mileage rules are so expensive, in fact, that even if one factors in all the expected gains from the policy — like less damage from climate change and fewer deaths from respiratory disease — many economists think that the costs actually outweigh the benefits.  [Emph. added]

 Some more details:

According to the government’s analysis, the additional production and maintenance costs made necessary by the mileage rules will rise gradually to about $31.7 billion in 2025 — which will add about $1,900 to the average price of cars and light trucks. There are other costs, too. Some Americans will not be able to afford a new car. Profits of some automakers and dealers are likely to decline. Greater congestion will impose an added burden on health. 

According to economists crunching the numbers, this makes mileage standards somewhere between 2.4 and 13 times more expensive than a gasoline tax as a tool to reduce our use of fuel. Indeed, by some calculations, raising fuel-economy standards is more costly than climate change itself.  [Emph. added]

Let that sink in a moment.  The New York Times, a paper that liberals consider 'unbiased,' admits that "raising fuel-economy standards is more costly than climate change itself."

One of the studies supporting this article was written by the Congressional Budget Office and is available online (full text, PDF).

Hat tip:  Greg Mankiw.

The only known photo of Karl Marx and President Obama

Hat tip: Glenn and HotAir.

AP "fact checks" Romney

In regards to the Islamist riots, the US Embassy in Cairo issued a statement:

The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims.…  We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others

Normal people would consider that statement to be an apology for American freedoms.

In a story styled as a "FACT CHECK" with both words capitalized and attributed to reporters Philip Elliott and Matthew Lee, the AP attacks a statement made by Gov. Romney:

"The Obama administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks," Romney said in a statement…

In fact, neither a statement by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo earlier in the day nor a later statement from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton offered sympathy for attackers. [Emph. added]

That is not a fact.  It is merely an interpretation.  AP reporters are entitled to their opinions but they should not label their opinions as "facts."

Is Obama using Carter's speechwriters?

The photo in the post below shows how Pres. Obama's foreign policy has led to attacks on America very similar to what happened to the US under Pres. Carter.  These two videos show, in addition, how closely Obama's rhetoric echoes Carter's:


Hat tips to Instapundit and Greg.

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"Smart" Diplomacy ends in fire

On 9-11 and shouting "We are all Osama," an Egyptian crowd scaled the walls of the US Embassy in Cairo and tore down the US flag and tried to burn it. If this sounds familiar, there is a reason:

Tehran 1979 and Cairo 2012

In other commemorations of 9-11, a US consulate in Libya was burned down, leaving one diplomat dead.

In response, the US Embassy in Cairo apologized for American free speech. Exercising more "smart" diplomacy, they tried but failed to delete the apology.

Sanity 1, San Francisco 0

The Rutherford Institute reports that San Francisco has lost another round in its fight against science:

A federal appeals court has ruled that the City of San Francisco may not enforce an ordinance requiring wireless telephone retailers to warn customers of disputed health risks from using cell phones, concluding that such compelled speech is inconsistent with the First Amendment.

A lower court had previously concluded that the San Francisco ordinance was based on junk-science, as the SF Chronicle reported last year:

The warnings convey the "untrue and misleading" impression that "cell phones are dangerous and that they have somehow escaped the regulatory process," said U.S. District Judge William Alsup.

In fact, he said, all cell phones sold in the United States must meet safety standards set by the Federal Communications Commission, which has not found that the devices emit dangerous levels of radiation. [Emph. added]

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Four Democrats plead guilty to vote fraud

Fox 16 (Arkansas) reports:

A Democratic state legislator from east Arkansas, his father and two campaign workers pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy to commit election fraud after federal prosecutors said they bribed absentee voters and destroyed ballots in a special election last year.

Prosecutors said Democratic Rep. Hudson Hallum of Marion, Kent Hallum, Phillip Wayne Carter and Sam Malone acknowledged that they participated in a conspiracy to bribe voters to influence absentee votes in the Arkansas District 54 primary, runoff and general elections in 2011. [Emph. added]

More details:

Prosecutors said Hallum and his father, Kent, tasked Carter and Malone with obtaining absentee ballot applications for certain voters and assisting voters in filling out the ballots, "actually completing absentee ballots in some instances without regard to the voter's actual candidate choice."

The ballots were typically placed in unsealed envelopes before being mailed to local election officials.

"If a ballot contained a vote for Hudson Hallum's opponent, it was destroyed," prosecutors said in a bill of information filed with the court.

Prosecutors also accused the four of offering money and food to absentee voters in exchange for their support.

The absentee ballot system is an invitation to fraud.  If we are going to have honest elections, voters should, except in cases of genuine absence, show up at a polling place with photo ID in hand.

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Liberals mean not a word of what they say

ABC News quotes from a March 2006 speech by Sen. Obama:

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure,” he said. “It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.”

So said the man who has now raised our national debt by $5 trillion.

Whatever the Democrats say at their convention this week, remember that they mean not a word of it. Their sole goal is power.

"Government Is The Only Thing We All Belong To"

So says a video played at the Democratic National Convention that reveals just a little too much about how Democrats view the world.

Realizing the mistake, an Obama official has issued a statement claiming that it was not their video:

“The video in question was produced and paid for by the host committee of the city of Charlotte. It’s neither an OFA nor a DNC video, despite what the Romney campaign is claiming. It's time for them to find a new target for their faux outrage."

The Obama campaign is, of course, in charge of deciding what gets shown at the Convention.  It is not like this was an unscripted remark that caught them by surprise.

Are liberals nice people?

The Wall Street Journal reports this anecdote:

As Isaac Pollak, an ardent Republican, kissed his wife goodbye before heading out on a business trip to Asia several years ago, he handed her his absentee ballot for the coming presidential election and asked her to mail it.

Bonnie Pollak, a Democrat, weighed her options. Should she be loyal to her spouse, respect his legal right and mail the ballot? Or remain faithful to her deeply held beliefs and suppress his vote?

"It was a real dilemma," says Ms. Pollak, 58 years old, a student in a doctoral program in social welfare who lives in Manhattan. "I decided to do the right thing."

Ms. Pollak threw the ballot away.

Honesty, friendship, responsibility, and even marriage? All are secondary to the higher value of being liberal.

National Empty Chair Day

As seen on Twitter

As seen on Lucianne

Music for a Tea Party

Here is BeBe Winans singing "America, America," the title track from his new album:



Winans sang "America, the Beautiful" at the 2012 RNC convention in Tampa:



Singing at the Republican Convention was not without consequence. Winans is a registered Democrat who has campaigned for Pres. Obama and was scheduled to sing at the Democrat Convention next week. Because of his appearance in Tampa, however, the Democrats withdrew their invitation. The Washington Post reports:

But as for BeBe Winans? A registered Democrat, the gospel/R&B star sang at the 2004 Democratic convention and later campaigned for President Obama. But he gladly took the unpaid gig when invited by the RNC to sing on the convention’s closing night.

“I want to remind people that before any association with any party that we’re all Americans,” he told us. “No matter who wins, if we don’t come together and really invest in the country we love, we’re not going to solve the problems.”

Winans said he alerted the RNC that he would likely be singing at the Democratic convention in Charlotte, too, and that they had no problems with that.

Oh, and is he set to sing at the Democratic convention?

“I was, but the invitation was taken back,” Winans said. Oooh. “No hard feelings,” he added.

Remember this the next time a liberal wants to lecture you on "tolerance" or "diversity."

Hat tip: Powerline.

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