Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
Henry David Thoreau
Fact of the Day
In the Flint Community School district, 94 percent of its teachers and 99 percent of administrators are rated "effective." At nearby Beecher Community Schools, the story was the same.The problem is that those two districts are among the lowest-rated in the state on report cards. - The Mackinac Center for Public PolicyImage of the Day
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| Via She Lew on FB |
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| Barry Obama Takes Selfie With A Senate Democrat Candidate |
Rand Paul and Religious Liberty
Choose Life: I Love Baby Girls and Black Labs
Lauren Hill: Terminal Cancer Patient College Basketball Player Scores in Her Final Game: Well Done, Sweetie!
Election Eve 2014
Tomorrow I may post twice like I did in the last election, one an earlier more standard format, probably by the afternoon after I've voted, the later tracking election night results. It will be my first vote in West Virginia's election; I expect to vote for Congressman McKinley's reelection and Congresswoman Capito for US Senate. (Capito has polled at 50% or better since August, one of the necessary seat switches the GOP needs to win back control of the Senate.)
The Senate has been the focus; I have to admit when Rasmussen released a NH poll with Shaheen at 52, I thought Brown was done. Frankly, I was mystified. Brown lost narrowly to Cherokee Lizzie in 2012--in far more blue Massachusetts. But of course Brown had a carpetbagger, political opportunist tag to address. But two late polls show Brown twith a 1-point lead and deficit, and RCP has both Shaheen and NC Sen. Hagan with less than a 1-point lead, A lot depends on turnout and polling models; I do not underestimate the Dem ground game. But considering these 2 candidates had up to a 2-3 pt. lead just a week ago, it looks like the undecideds are breaking for the challengers as I would expect. I still do not rule out the Dems pulling these two races out, but I think if you're an incumbent going into the election under 50, you're in trouble. I think if we see Brown or Tillis breaking out to, say, 3-point lead victories, we're probably going to see the Dems have a bad night.
Otherwise, there are a few other races I'm watching. Most pundits think the Dems' best hopes are to force GA and LA into runoffs. If Perdue or Cassidy (unlikely given a conservative spoiler) pull over 50 and win the election outright tomorrow, it's a long night for the Dems. Obviously, Roberts has a problem in KS with "independent" Democrat Orman hanging in with a 1-point lead; this is one case where a troubled incumbent may pull it out because Orman's one-time 10-point lead has evaporated and I seriously doubt Tea Partiers or independents want to tip control of the Senate to the Dems. I think if the GOP was assured of winning the Senate without KS, Roberts would be done. The Libertarian Republican website pays far more attention to polls than I do, and they don't rule out a surprise in seats that are thought to be safe Dem, like Tom Udall (D-NM) whom has seen a two-digit advantage erode to a single digit as the election approaches.
RCP has the race at 47-45 with 8 toss-ups; and 4 of those (IA, AK, CO, GA) have seen Republicans consistently in the lead, LA is probably GOP assuming Landrieu is forced into a runoff with Cassidy or Cassidy wins outright. Of course, it would help if Roberts can hold his seat with a good GOP turnout. The GOP needs to only break even in the 8 races to win the Senate; note that it looks like the GOP will gain SD and hold KY after earlier scares in the campaign. It's possible the GOP could sweep all 8. I had hopes at one point for MI, MN, VA, even IL. We have an outside shot at VA, but the others have held to 50 or above, which is a tough battle.
There are a few governors' battles I'm watching; if you've been following my FB Corner IPI posts, I'm hoping Quinn is defeated; he's holding a razor-thin lead for his second straight election. There's the marquee battle of governors in FL with incumbent Scott taking on former GOP Gov. Crist; at one point, Scott was roadkill but he's won some recent polls, with RCP showing Crist with a narrow overall advantage. The Dems are trying to take down Gov. Walker in WI for the second time in 2 years. Snyder is trying to hold onto his seat after guiding the state through the Detroit crisis, Brownback (KS) and Corbett (PA) face uphill battles for reelection. Hogan is surprisingly close to Lt. Gov. Brown in my former resident state of Maryland. LePage is trying to hold on in Maine. Some good shots at GOP takeovers in MA and CT. Parnell in Alaska is fighting for reelection. The only Democrat I could see myself possibly supporting is in RI, where the Dem state treasurer is not being supported by unions for her tough pension reform plan.
The House of Representatives looks almost certain to result in the GOP's strong majority since the 1920's; if they win half of the tossups, it'll put them at or over 240 seats. I'm looking forward to Mia Love winning UT-4 (RCP rates safe GOP), and I would like to see Dold in my old Illinois Congressional district win back his seat after barely losing in 2012.
Facebook Corner
(Rand Paul). See above Rand Paul clip.
And our founding father's intent was clear. Keep the churches out of government.
We have seen attempts by the fascists to force "gay marriage" in Christian chapels, attempts to ban political speech in churches, attempt to force Christian-owned businesses to underwrite the costs of employee abortifacients. OP is a polemical troll in denial.
(separate)
OP made a pathetic anti-Catholic smear to justify his idiotic interpretation of the First Amendment. In fact, he conveniently forgets that Jefferson believed in federalism or state regulation and a small central government. At the time of the Danbury Baptists, Congregationalism (until 1818) was the official Connecticut state religion and in essence the government collected taxes by default from non-Congregationalists to support the Congregationalists unless the resident proved he was financially supporting an alternative Christian denomination. Don't confuse Hugo Black's SCOTUS opinion with Jefferson's. The First Amendment on the federal level never meant a ban of religious speech in the public area; in fact, religious services were held in the Capitol and attended by Jefferson; plus, all the other details, swearing on a Bible, prayers at Inaugurations, etc. We know, for instance, the cleric Rev. Martin Luther King was heavily involved in the politics of civil rights; two Roman Catholic priests (Drinan and Cornell) served in Congress. (The Vatican around 1980 banned priests from holding elective office, and the Pope's authority only is relevant to matters of faith and morals, not politics.)
(Cato Institute). "The Obama administration released its 'gainful employment' rules aimed squarely at beleaguered for-profit colleges, which are the schools most likely to offer programs that are explicitly about supplying job skills."
This is just yet another example of this anti-capitalist administration protecting their crony nonprofit colleges from real competition from schools which depend for success on providing the education and training employers actually want. As a former professor, I know that there were no internal incentives to match those external criteria. Yes, let's eliminate subsidies for loans--including for those studying art, drama, music, journalism, sociology, psychology, political correctness majors, and dozens of other questionably marketable disciplines.
Only the Cato Institute would defend a predatory corporate complex who get the vast majority of their profits from government subsidies and call it a 'libertarian' stance. Our Corporations only need Obedient Slaves.
College monopolist fascist OP. Notice the commenter doesn't have a problem with for-profit supermarkets taking food stamps, or other government vendors making a profit. But if you're a for-profit school, somehow you're "evil".
In Germany is ILLEGAL to charge students money for college and health care. Germany knows the importance of Humans to their country's future.
Goddamn socialist OP. Only a socialist would be idiotic enough to believe that treating college or health as "free" is anything less than perverse State monopoly run amok, inflationary, and morally hazardous.
(Lew Rockwell). You will be shocked to learn that the Republicans were just kidding about repealing Obamacare. Since the corporatist scheme was written by big pharma and its cartel allies, the GOP secretly (and now, not so secretly) loves it. In the old days, Republicans pretended to dislike Medicare, too.
What part of the fact that Obama just needs a third of either the Senate or the House to sustain a Presidential veto does your mind fail to grasp? What part of the Senate, even under GOP control, will get past the 60-vote filibuster threshold?
I would hope at least some of you conspiracy kooks would think through your comments before posting them. I suspect that the GOP will focus on kicking out the legs under ObamaCare--e.g., deny funding of the subsidies, eliminating the unpopular mandates, etc.
Entertainment Potpourri
I'm going to pick a little bit on Hallmark Channel today, which this weekend started its annual holiday movies stretch through year end, premiering some originals on weekends in prime time. Actually, I love holiday movies. To be honest, I don't really care for most of the Santa Claus fantasies (except for "Miracle on 34th Street" (not on this channel), "Help For the Holidays", and "Farewell, Mr. Kringle": actually, I would probably retool the first, the classic, because I don't really like the contrived court sequence. In fact, I don't really like the mythology of bribing children for good behavior, Santa Claus being the NSA of childhood behavior. I'll give an original example of how I might tweak the legend: a young boy befriends an older man with a wood workshop; the old man makes furniture that he secretly donates to people in need, say, a wood cradle. The boy has a friend with a malformed hand. The old man acquires a 3D printer; he works with his young apprentice to build a prosthetic for the disabled boy.
The issue is, as much as I like the romance tales, they come across as a little too formulaic and predictable. Typically you have a young woman involved with or engaged to some insensitive, upward-bound, career-obsessed young man; she meets the "right guy" by accident during the holiday break--he's not as well-accomplished, but he sees the "real" girl, they share similar values, there's chemistry, the girl inevitably breaks things off with the incredulous boyfriend and lives happily ever after with her one true love. I can think of at least a handful of Hallmark movies involving some variation of this sequence, including last weekend's "One Starry Christmas"; just as Holly meets cowboy Luke on a bus trip which is meant to surprise her parents and boyfriend and sparks start to fly between the strangers, I instantly knew how the movie was going to play out... Just to give an example of a story I might write (call it 'A Miraculous Christmas'), it might be a young woman, stricken with a fatal disease; her boyfriend is determined to fulfill her dream of getting married on Christmas, and after they are married, she discovers her disease has gone into remission.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of the original artist via AEI |
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| Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via IPI |
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| Courtesy of Gary Varvel via Townhall |
Linda Ronstadt, "What's New"
