Saturday, December 3, 2011

Quick Hits - December 3, 2011 - UPDATED

Today is the date of a 'big announcment' by GOP Presidential candidate Herman Cain.  Speculation is leading towards to the likelihood that the candidate will suspend or drop out of the campaign as the candidate has been plagued by four women accusing him of committing sexual harassment in the late 1990's and another recently came forward claiming a 13 year 'inappropriate' relationship with Cain.

There still remains no solid evidence beyond the 'she said / he said' accusations against Herman Cain and the latest, Ginger White, is another troubled person.  Will accusations alone be sufficient to derail the candidate?  If so, we've come a long way from the Bill Clinton 'bimbo erruptions'...or is the real difference the party of the accused?

UPDATE - Herman Cain speaks @ 1:40 PM Eastern about the future of his campaign for the GOP Presidential nomination....

"I am at peace with my God...I am at peace with my wife and she is at peace with me...I am at peace with my family....I am at peace with myself..."

Announces "Plan B" - "I am suspending my Presidential campaign....."  but, "I'm not going to be silenced, and I'm not going away...."

Launching The CainSolutions / TheCainSolutions.com  - The People Will Choose

Cain still vows to use his voice and ideas to help drive change in Washington DC from the outside.  Pledges to make an endorsement in the near future of another candidate - jokes will not be endorsing the current occupant of the WH.

***Another note / observation:  Great speech by Cain - but this entire event demonstrates as why very good people decide not to run for office.  Unproven allegations from over a decade ago (dating to when Bill Clinton was being impeached for lying to a Grand Jury) used to derail Cain's candidacy.  Added irony that Gloria Allred, the smear merchant who derailed Meg Whitman, another political outside gaining traction running for a political office, was instrumental in derailing Herman Cain with a major assist by a biased and unprofessional mainstream media.

The main battle for the GOP Presidential nomination appears to be, at this time, will be between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.  Charles Krauthammer has the the scorecard thusfar between these two candidates.  Both candidates have issues which raise questions about them as candidates - ranging from Romney's changing positions (flip-flop moniker) to troubling positions and actions taken by Gingrich (Pelosi Climate Warming Ad, Fannie / Freddie Consultancy).  Krauthammer, however, hits the key point that GOP voters need to address..  'If Obama wins, he will take the country to a place from which it will not be able to return (which is precisely his own objective for a second term).'  [I make a similar point in my post on the 1st 'Understanding President Obama'. ed]

With that point, as Krauthammer continues...
Every conservative has thus to ask himself two questions: Who is most likely to prevent that second term? And who, if elected, is less likely to unpleasantly surprise?

Mitt Romney has declined Newt Gingrich's invitation to a one on one Lincoln-Douglas style debate.  Voting starts on January 3, 2012 for the Iowa caucus followed by New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida throughout the rest of the month.  In a campaign race notable for the number of changes in the 'top tier', will this first month of voting decide the direction for the rest of the primary season?  Will there be more changes in leadership as conservatives try to answer the questions posed above?

In Washington, DC several big stories are dominating the newsfront.  The main showdown today is the issue related to new legislation extending the current 2% temporary payroll tax cut for another year.  This is a cut on the taxes collected from every worker of their contribution towards Social Security benefits.  The payroll tax cut was first established in 2009 as part of the government's effort to stimulate the economy. 

The GOP leadership is in favor of the extension of the payroll tax cut for another year - but the catch is that the Democrats and Administration are calling for tax increases on the 'wealthy' to offset the costs of the tax cut on the Federal budget.  Rank and file GOP members are looking at the fuzzy math of the Administration and Democrats and seeing that the tax increases on the wealthy aren't covering the tax cuts - and that this not only puts more pressure on Social Security, but is nothing more than yet another income redistribution effort by the Administration.

So far, votes for the approval of the extension have failed in the Senate.  This has prompted the President to demand that 'Congress shouldn't go home until the tax cut is extended' - just as it is announced that the President and his family will depart Washington DC mid month for a 17 day vacation in Hawaii at a $3500 / day rental property.  Do we really need to say this is another - 'Do as I say, not as I do' moment?

The other major story resonating in Washington this morning comes from yet another late Friday afternoon document drop from the Administration.  This one, from the Department of Justice, is a 'rare exception' by the DoJ made to attempt to explain and undo the Department's deception and lies provided to Congress regarding the Fast and Furious program which supplied assault weapons to Mexican drug cartels.

These documents and the 'rare exception', prove that the DoJ has lied and actively worked to obstruct Congressional investigation and oversight into the actions of the DoJ regarding this Operation.  The materials also confirm that the information brought forward by ATF whistleblowers was truthful and accurate.  Most importantly, the materials also raise many more questions about the decision making in the DoJ which will bring new calls for the resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder, his senior staff, and perhaps more links to the White House.

California Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, a Democrat, has started the process to get a ballot initiative for California voters to authorize a state level amnesty program for illegal immigrants in California.
Nearly 1 million undocumented immigrants could live and work openly in California with little or no fear of deportation under an initiative unveiled Friday by a state legislator and others.

Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, a Democrat, is helping spearhead the measure, called the California Opportunity and Prosperity Act.

The proposal was filed Friday with the state Attorney General’s Office, marking a first step toward a drive to collect the 504,760 voter signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.
Fuentes called the measure a “moderate, common-sense approach” necessitated by the federal government’s inability to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

“I hope this shows Washington, D.C., that if they fail to act, California will take the lead on this critical issue,” Fuentes said in a written statement.

Supporters say the initiative could generate up to $325 million in new tax revenue from undocumented workers that could assist education, public safety and other state programs.



Also in California comes this video that shows it is costing $3.5 million dollars to fire incompetent teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Thank you, Teacher's Union...



Don't tell Andy Stern, but China's economy appears to be rapidly heading towards a hard landing...

From American Thinker, George Will picked up an interesting insight from Barack Obama himself from inside Obama's 'Dream's from My Father' - that Obama had written that during his brief sojourn into the private sector he felt like 'a spy behind enemy lines'.  Interesting.  To the President, the 'enemy' is the private sector / free enterprise / capitalism... and that as a 'spy' he is waging a form of warfare against that 'enemy'.  Factor this into my post from the 1st on 'Understanding President Obama' - it's just one more point of evidence.

Another point, one of the major actions that is choking the economy, and will choke the economy even more, is Obamacare.  The sad part is that we've still not seen the full effect of Obamacare on the national economy - but it's interesting that the Democrats in Congress are already trying to eliminate the Medicare payment cuts to Doctors and Hospitals that are built into the Obamacare 'cost savings'.

Wrapping up today's Quick Hits, let's look at some cases where the stupid is put in stupid....

First from the nitwits of the TSA - the story of a 17 year old who was stopped at a TSA airport checkpoint because of a design on her purse...
Gibbs said she had no problem going through security at Jacksonville International Airport, but rather, when she headed home from Virginia.


“It’s my style, it’s camouflage, it has an old western gun on it,” Gibbs said.


But her preference for the pistol style didn’t sit well with TSA agents at the Norfolk airport.


Gibbs said she was headed back home to Jacksonville from a holiday trip when an agent flagged her purse as a security risk.


“She was like, ‘This is a federal offense because it’s in the shape of a gun,’” Gibbs said. “I’m like, ‘But it’s a design on a purse. How is it a federal offense?’”


After agents figured out the gun was a fake, Gibbs said, TSA told her to check the bag or turn it over.


By the time security wrapped up the inspection, the pregnant teen missed her flight, and Southwest Airlines sent her to Orlando instead, worrying her mother, who was already waiting for her to arrive at JIA.
The next example of stupid comes from the insufferably tedious blowhard Megan McCain - who MSNBC pays attention to only because of 2 reasons...1) she's the daughter of RINO Senator John McCain, and 2) she takes cheap shots at Republican's - and because of #1, she's a double win for the liberal cause. 

According to Meghan McCain - 'Bachmann is 'just more smarter' than Palin'

My English Springer Spaniel is smarter than Meghan McCain.  But MSNBC won't hire her because she doesn't tweet stupid things and she follows Reagan's 11th Commandment....

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