NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT
"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams
"The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation." -- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, First Leader of the Soviet Union
By Gary:
It all comes down to this: Mitt Romney vs. Karl Marx. No more. No less.
The US will either drift down the Socialist road and become a Hugo Chavez Banana Republic or Mitt Romney will strengthen and expand Capitalism and economic freedom.
This is the hour of the Republican Party. The nation is at a crossroads. An economic debt abyss of epic proportions. The old Big Government Republicanism of endless government spending in order to buy votes has to end or the nation is doomed.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are imperfect vessels to save America from Big Government. Romney because he is the author of Socialized Medicine in Massachusetts. Ryan because he voted for every big spending and debt increasing program that came before the House.
But we must go to the political wars with the candidates we have, not the candidates we wish we had.
Full Speech from Rep. Paul Ryan at RNC
Mitt Romney gave a good, solid speech. Better than McCain in 2008. But Romney is no Reagan. Then again, who is?
Vice Presidential Nominee Paul Ryan did a bit better when he addressed the Convention. Ryan pledged to take on tough issues, take responsibility and stick to their "founding principles."
Ryan characterized Obama administration big government.
He said: "I was on my own path, a distinct journey, an American journey ... that's what we do in this country - that's the American Dream. And I'll take it any day over the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners," Ryan said.
It was a frontal assault on the president and his policies - the first direct
assaults of the convention - and a message to disaffected voters that it doesn't
have to be this way.
"If you're feeling left out or passed by: You have not failed, your leaders
have failed you," Ryan said.
It was a speech full of vivid images, with some aimed at a young generation.
"College graduates should not have to live out their twenties in their childhood
bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move
out and get going with life," Ryan said.
So after nearly four years of political fighting the day is almost here. God help America if Marxism wins the day.
Islamist Insanity - Spiritual leader of Dagestani Muslims killed in suicide blast
Female suicide bombers are used in recent attacks.
A Muslim leader of the Russian Republic of Dagestan has been assassinated in his home, according to law enforcement sources. Sheikh Said Afandi died after a suicide bomber apparently set off an explosive device in his house.
According to police officers on the ground, at least six other people died in the blast, including the female suicide bomber. The house has been surrounded, and police are working at the scene. The device, according to sources close to the investigation, was not very powerful, so the officers have already managed to identify the attacker. According to preliminary data the attacker was Aminat Saprykin, a local resident of Makhachkala and the wife of a militant trained as a suicide bomber, sources told Interfax.
Two blasts kill 14, injure over 80 in Dagestan
The Republic's President Magomedsalam Magomedov, has announced August 29th will be a day of mourning. . "After suffering multiple injuries, Sheikh Said Afandi died on the spot. Another 5 people, including a child, were also killed. Many were injured. This horrible tragedy has shaken Dagestan, and caused pain and outrage among our people". .
74-year-old Said Afandi, a well-known Sufi cleric, was considered one of the Republic's top spiritual leaders. His father died when Afandi was just seven years old. Halfway through high school, he dropped out to become a shepherd and financially support his family. He served in the Soviet Army and worked as a firefighter before coming to religion at the age of 32. '
In his last years, Afandi mostly wrote books, many of which were translated into Russian and English. He was also fond of poetry, and was a keen poet himself. . (RT News)
Five Police Killed By Female Bomber in Dagestan Murders by insane Islamic terrorists go on and on.
Connecticut likely voters put
Republican former wrestling executive Linda McMahon on the right side of a 49 -
46 percent too-close-to-call U.S. Senate race against Democratic U.S. Rep.
Christopher Murphy, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.
. .
This is the first look at likely voters by the independent Quinnipiac
(KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University and can not be compared to earlier surveys of
registered voters.
. .
In today's survey, McMahon's 54 - 42 percent lead among men swamps
Murphy's small 50 - 46 percent lead among women. McMahon leads 88 - 10 percent
among Republicans and 55 - 40 percent among independent voters, while Murphy
takes Democrats 82 - 16 percent.
. .
"The poll is good news for Linda McMahon. In our first likely voter poll
in Connecticut, McMahon has a 3 point advantage in a too-close-to-call-race. Her
edge is due to her double- digit lead among independent voters and being close
among women, a group she struggled with in her 2010 run," said Quinnipiac
University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz, PhD.
And then there's
this:
President Barack Obama holds a narrow 52 - 45 percent lead over Gov.
Mitt Romney, his Republican challenger, among Connecticut likely voters. Twelve
percent of Obama voters and 12 percent of Romney backers say they might change
their mind.
Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church are allies . . . or at least it a marriage of convenience.
Like the Czars of old, Putin sees advantages to having God on his side while ruling over the new Russian Empire.
The alliance of religion and the state is still common around the world in nations like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Morocco, Tunisia and now in Egypt.
Our American Founding Fathers believed in a separation of church and state. They could see rulers like England's George III or Sultan Abdülhamid I of the Ottoman Empire act as both head of state and religion. It was an evil combination when a political leader could claim that everything he did was God's will.
Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Now we see authoritarian heads of state like Vladimir Putin fully embracing the Russian Church ( and vice versa).
The gradual intrusion of the Orthodox Church into Russian secular life and the state is something that went largely unnoticed by the Russian public.
Orthodox Priest tries to Kiss Vladimir Putin's hand Vladimir Putin visits a 14th century monastery on Russia's northern Valaam Island, but appears ruffled when a Russian Orthodox priest tries to kiss his hand.
The Pussy Riot affair pushed the issue of relations between society and the Russian Orthodox Church to the very top of the media and political agenda in Russia over Spring/Summer 2012. Did that media situation reflect underlying reality? Was the conflict simply the result of radical protest activity?
The answer to both questions is a very obvious ‘no’. However, the collision of the Russian Orthodox Church with the ‘protest movement’ was, it seems, a collision foretold. All it took was one sudden turn for all the simmering contradictions to be laid bare, and for the conflict to move from its latent to active phase reports the Open Democracy Blog.
Pussy Riot's main crime was that their stunt was
directed precisely against authority of the
Church and of the Kremlin.
This standoff is much more than simply an issue of respect for religious space and the legitimacy of punishing those who do not respect it. The Russian public is already beginning to recognise this, but it still has a lot to discover along the road that lies ahead. Ultimately, it must begin to understand the relationship between the religious and public space, how that relationship came about, and how the criminal prosecution and harsh sentencing of Pussy Riot became possible. The following article attempts to offer helpful assistance in that process.
The Church applies for special status
In the mid 1990s, the Russian Orthodox Church began to lobby for a new law on freedom of conscience. This law proposed to 'put a barrier' in the way of 'destructive sects', though the definition of this was wide enough to include religious dominations with large worldwide followings (for example, the Hare Krishnas, Jehovah's Witnesses and neo-Pentecostalists). President Yeltsin initially refused to ratify the new law, which had been passed by the then-hostile parliament, but was eventually forced to give way. The law remains in force today.
The law changed little, complicating the process of registering new religious organisations, and introducing a rather abstract formula of the 'special role' of traditional faiths (Orthodox Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism). In practice, however, the blossoming relationship between local/regional governments and the Church meant that registering a new religious organisation was near-impossible, permission to build non-Orthodox places of worship was only granted in exceptional circumstances, and churches, hospitals and prisons were closed to all 'non-traditional' religious organisations.
Crowned Czar by the Church. President Vladimir Putin and Alexei II, former leader of the
Russian Orthodox Church.
Vladimir Putin began his presidency with a promise to help traditional religions.
The terms of the social contract that stood behind the first two Putin terms was, broadly speaking, stability and prosperity in exchange for the political dependence of society. The presidential term of Medvedev was marked by promises of reform and democratisation. Putin annulled these promises, hence the surge of popular discontent.
Lacking any other strategy, the authorities have returned to play the same old card of ‘stability’ as before, and have dreamt up all kinds of imaginary threats and enemies to help them. The Kremlin’s ideological position will continue to be broadly protective.
In turn, the Russian Orthodox Church is ready and interested in becoming a protector of traditional values, should the situation demand it. In their proposed offering of ‘traditional christian values’, obedience and submission to authority (ecclesiastical and secular) only accentuate the Gospel truth. The Kremlin’s ideologues have themselves been busy embedding an Orthodox component into their own political work (as the long-established Russian Orthodox wing of the Nashi pro-Kremlin youth movement would demonstrate).
Democrats are shitting bricks as more and more middle class African, Hispanic and Asian Americans see they have a home in the Constitutional-Conservative movement.
Her profile and backstory alone have made her a compelling presence in the conservative movement.
She is a first-generation Haitian-American, a Mormon and a small-town Utah mayor. Love, who is black, is also running for Congress in mostly white Utah. If elected, she would be the first black Republican woman ever to serve in Congress.
In her prime-time address Tuesday, the mayor of Saratoga Springs present herself to the nation as the embodiment of the American Dream -- and touched on themes of self-reliance, small government and fiscal responsibility.
Her parents had $10 in their pockets when they left Haiti for the U.S. 39 years ago. Her father worked several jobs to support the family, including paying for his daughter to attend the University of Hartford, where she graduated with a degree in fine arts.
"I remember taking my dad to college with me on the first day of orientation and he looked at me very seriously and he said 'Mia, your mother and I have done everything we could to get you here. We've worked hard. We've never taken a handout. You're not going to be a burden to society. You will give back,'" Love said in an interview with Fox News.
"It actually stayed with me," she said.
Mayor Mia Love Mayor Mia Love of Saratoga Springs, Utah addresses the 2012 Republican National Convention.
Mia Love - On Fox News with Megyn Kelly
Love, who was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and raised primarily in Connecticut, moved to Utah in 1997 and married Jason Love. She converted to Mormonism, and served on the Saratoga City Council for six years before running for mayor.
Love, a favorite among the Tea Party movement, champions fiscal responsibility and limited government. Her chief mission, she says, is to run a "fiscally sound city."
"It's not rocket science," she told Fox News. "The most I've done is really step out of the way and allowed the economy to thrive ... allowed businesses to come and add resources."
Love has also spoken openly about her Mormon faith, saying that "you're going to find a lot of similarities with any Christian faith." Her remarks could help Romney, who is also Mormon, in dispelling any public misperceptions about the Republican presidential nominee's faith. .
You can hope for a better tomorrow, but from here the future looks really fucked.
Socialism Gone Mad - Stalinist Central Planning has banned the evil light bulb and created a "Black Market"
A Socialist loophole accidentally allows consumers to buy a product they want and need.
‘You cannot get a compact fluorescent or an LED that does what an incandescent does – it’s physically impossible. They don’t warm up as quickly, they glow a different colour, and they are ridiculously expensive.’
Daring to make an Edison light bulb could cost you up to $70,000 in Socialist fines.
Shoppers fed up with feeble energy-saving light bulbs are getting round the EU ban on traditional bulbs by buying models meant for industrial use. . The European ban on 40-watt bulbs is being phased in from this coming Saturday, September 1, following bans already imposed on 100W and 60W versions reports the UK Daily Mail. .
Illegal in Europe and America.
Socialists have banned Edison's light bulb
and forced consumers to use a more expensive
product loaded with deadly mercury.
But poor drafting of the EU directive banning the 40W bulb means that shops can continue to supply bulbs intended for ‘industrial use’ in factories. . At least two British manufacturers are exploiting the loophole to mass-produce ‘rough-service’ bulbs, which look almost identical to and work in exactly the same way as traditional incandescent bulbs. .
The rough-service bulbs come in both screw and bayonet versions, and will cost around £1 – not much more than the household bulbs they will replace and half the price of energy-saving alternatives. .
They are not being sold by major supermarkets but will be available from specialist lighting and hardware shops and online retailers. .. . The loophole has occurred because the EU directive banning 40W incandescent bulbs refers only to those intended for ‘household lamps’, meaning shops can continue selling those intended for ‘industrial use’. Manufacturers are allowed to make and sell the incandescent bulbs if they are described on the box as ‘rough-service lamps’ that are not for domestic use. .
Ian Fursland, managing director of The Lamp Company in Hertfordshire, said there were ‘bucketloads’ of rough-service lights being produced. ‘This stupid ban was not thought out at all, it is absolutely ridiculous,’ he said. .
‘We sell loads of them.' .
‘You cannot get a compact fluorescent or an LED that does what an incandescent does – it’s physically impossible. They don’t warm up as quickly, they glow a different colour, and they are ridiculously expensive.’ . (UK Daily Mail)
Light Bulbs vs. The Nanny State
The European Union banned the sale of 100-watt incandescent light bulbs, with lawbreakers facing up to $70,000 in fines. .
The US light bulb ban was signed into law by a "small government" George W. Bush.
Corrupt Crony Capitalism - Bankrupt Solyndra insiders will get hundreds of millions in tax breaks
Corrupt businessmen dance all the way to the bank with your tax dollars. All it takes are a few well placed campaign contributions.
Two investment companies stand to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks under a bankruptcy exit plan for failed solar company Solyndra, government lawyers say.
Nearly a year to the day after the solar company filed for bankruptcy owing taxpayers more than $500 million, Solyndra is poised to restructure under a deal that government lawyers fear could provide a tax windfall to the investors reports the Washington Times.
The investment companies, Argonaut Ventures and Madrone Capital Partners, may be able to use net operating losses at Solyndra to avoid “hundreds of millions of dollars in future income taxes” unrelated to the solar company, according to a recent court filing by government lawyers.
In addition to earlier financing, both companies provided $75 million to Solyndra last year in a controversial restructuring deal approved by the Department of Energy that allowed the financiers to be paid back before taxpayers in case of a default.
Taxpayers are expected to receive little of the $528 million that Solyndra still owes the government, but DOE officials have defended the restructuring, saying it was the best chance of keeping Solyndra in business.
Argonaut is the investment arm of a family foundation in Oklahoma headed by businessman George Kaiser, who was a fundraiser for then-Sen. Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. . (Washington Times)
Crony Capitalism of Washington & Wall St. A blistering analysis of the breakdown of profit/loss capitalism that began under Bush, and which Obama has only accelerated in keeping the Banksters and Government in bed with each other.
An interview with David Stockman, Budget Director for Ronald Reagan.
The Romney controlled convention refused to read that any votes for Rick Santorum or Ron Paul were cast. Fox News went along with this insult are refused to list votes cast for other candidates on their screen.
"If you're trying to win a presidential campaign and put on a show, you shouldn't poke a sharp stick in the eye of conservative activists. That's what happened." - - - Dudley Brown, Colorado Delegate
By Gary;
Mitt Romney went out of his way to insult Ron Paul and Rick Santorum during the roll-call of states at the Republican Convention in Florida.
Paul amassed 177 delegates to this year's convention, but in an insulting and petty act, the Romney controlled Convention refused to even acknowledge that Paul votes were even being cast. Votes cast for Romney were read from the podium, but votes cast for Paul or Rick Santorum were ignored.
What rational politician would insult a defeated rival when he needs every vote in November?
In 2008 the GOP lost states like Nevada, Iowa and New Hampshire. For example, Ron Paul got 23% of the New Hampshire vote and Santorum got 24% of the Iowa vote.
Why insult those voters? It is the mark of small, weak, insecure and petty people.
Better Mitt than Marx.
Romney Changes the Rules
Feeling slighted, supporters of Texas Rep. Ron Paul's presidential bid chanted and booed after Republican convention delegates adopted new rules that could impede insurgent candidates in the future reports Associated Press.
The brief uproar was a rare unscripted moment in a carefully-choreographed convention that organizers hoped would showcase Republican harmony over nominee Mitt Romney. After the voice vote on the rules, the next speaker was quickly called in an attempt to limiting the amount of time Paul's supporters had to chant "Shame on you."
The rules are designed to limit the ability of insurgent presidential candidates to amass delegates to future Republican conventions. They will bind delegates to the outcome of presidential primaries and caucuses, preventing a candidate like Paul from pushing up their delegate counts at state conventions. .
Paul delegates saw them as a power play by the Republican old guard.
"If you're trying to win a presidential campaign and put on a show, you shouldn't poke a sharp stick in the eye of conservative activists. That's what happened," said Colorado delegate Dudley Brown, who leads a gun rights organization back home.
(Editor's Disclosure - In the 2008 California primary I voted for Mitt Romney to try and stop McCain. In the 2012 GOP primary I voted for Ron Paul.)
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, talks with a Texas delegate on the floor at the
4th Amendment Abolished - Court says the police do not need a search warrant to track your cell phone
The Founding Fathers are rolling over in their graves.
Both Democrat and Republican political hacks are silent as the Bill of Rights is being abolished before our eyes.
POLICE STATE - The US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the 4th Amendment to the Bill of Rights no longer exists. The courts said that Americans have no reasonable expectation of privacy when carrying cell phones, allowing police to track GPS signals without a warrant or probable cause.
The decision came the court ruled in United States v. Skinner that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) abided by the Constitution by using a drug runner’s cellphone data to track his location and determine his identity reports RT News.
Melvin Skinner, also known by his false name as “Big Foot,” was a drug mule with more than 1,100 pounds of marijuana in his Texas motorhome.
Police allowed to track cell phones without warrants A US District Court ruled last week that police don't need a warrant to obtain GPS data sent from a suspects cell phone.
The throwaway mobile phone he was using was registered under a false name, so agents did not know the identity of the drug trafficker.
By using GPS data from his disposable phone, police learned that “Big Foot” was planning to deliver a large shipment of marijuana from Arizona to Tennessee in his mobile home.
In 2006, agents obtained a court order – but not a warrant – to track the disposable phone’s location using its GPS.
After tracing the phone’s exact location, police dogs discovered the mobile home and indicated a presence of drugs. “Big Foot” was arrested and charged for drug trafficking and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
But on appeal, the defendant argued that his cell phone data could not be used because the DEA failed to obtain a warrant for it, thereby violating the Fourth Amendment.
The Fourth Amendment protects against “unreasonable searches and seizures” without the issuance of a warrant obtained due to probable cause.
The Court considers cell phone use to be a public – not private – action, thereby being ineligible for the protections of the Fourth Amendment. A court brief of the case states that “a suspect’s presence in a publicly observable place is not information subject to Fourth Amendment protection.”
Additionally, Judge John M. Rogers, writing for the majority, said Skinner “did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the data given off by his voluntarily procured pay-as-you-go cell phone. If a tool used to transport contraband gives off a signal that can be tracked for location, certainly the police can track the signal.”
Big Government GOP President Gerald Ford and his VP candidate Bob Dole. Both worked hard to defeat Ronald Reagan in the 1976 primaries.
1976 and 1996 GOP Nominee Bob Dole advised Mitt Romney not to bow to the Tea Party
Dole, a twice unsuccessful GOP nominee, advises Romney to beware of those "Conservative" types in the party.
For GOP Presidential nominee Bob Dole, now 89, disclosed that he had advised Mitt Romney on running for president during a meeting at his Washington office in November. He said the former Massachusetts governor showed "flexibility" and a willingness to forge the type of bipartisan deals rejected by current Republican leaders in Congress. .
He described Romney and Paul Ryan, his running mate, as a "great team", noting a similarity between Romney and himself. "When he said he could work across the aisle, it caught my attention, because that's what I tried to do," he said. Dole said Romney's recruitment of Paul Ryan, a disciple of Jack Kemp who worked as a speech writer on the 1996 campaign, was an "extension of Jack's legacy" reports the Business Insider. .
(Editor's Note - Truth in advertising disclosure. Your editor worked for the 1976 campaign of Ronald Reagan and was selected to be on the California Reagan delegation to the GOP convention.
Dole is correct that Ryan and Romney are a great team. Both are alike. Ryan has never voted to cut even one cent from the Federal Budget nor had he authored a bill to abolish even one Big Government spending program or one single government department.)
Reagan's Impromptu Speech at 1976 GOP Convention
Dole told supporters in his 1996 convention speech that "in politics, honourable compromise is no sin" and suggested Romney should not bow to pressure from the Tea Party and others pressing for evermore hardline stances that could alienate swing voters.
"Not all the wisdom is in one party," Dole said. He added: "If you're a leader you pay a penalty. You can't be a leader and be everything to everybody. You gotta keep your word, you have to have trust, both from the Democrats and the Republicans".
Ronald Reagan - 1964 Republican National Convention
Reagan at the 1976 GOP Convention. Bob Dole, Gerald Ford and other Big Government Republicans opposed Ronald Reagan in 1976.
Big Government Republicans Donald Rumsfeld, Gerald Ford and Dick Cheney supported Big Government Republicanism against those of us fighting for Ronald Reagan in 1976.
Massive Tax Increases in Israel - Big Government is the same the world over
The government massively increases spending in order to buy votes.
Then the government screams "deficit" and increases taxes to cover the deficit they created.
And the Marxist re-distribution of wealth to buy votes with other people's money goes on and on.
The Big Government Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin
Netanyahu, surprised many this month by abruptly pushing through a platform
of massive tax increases, including:
higher income taxes for top earners (job creators)
new levies
on cigarettes and beer
raising the VAT tax from 16% to
17%
The bigger problem is Israel's increased government spending in recent
years. Since lifting a fixed 1.7% cap on annual spending increases in 2010,
government expenditures have ballooned, particularly for defense and social
services reports the Los Angeles Times.
Prime Minister
Benjamin
Netanyahu
"What has me most concerned is the very rapid growth in expenditures," said
Jonathan Katz, an economist at Leader Holdings and Investments in Tel Aviv. He
said government spending so far this year was running nearly 9% above the same
period last year.
Unemployment hit 7.2% in June, up from about 5.5% a year earlier. Exports,
which make up a big chunk of Israel's economy, recorded their steepest decline
in three years during the second quarter, according to the Israel Export
Institute.
Israel's budget deficit has doubled over the last year, leading economists to
predict that the government won't meet its 2013 goal of keeping the deficit at
3% of GDP. The Bank of Israel issued a stern warning this month that missing the
deficit target could erode international confidence in Israel's fiscal policy.
Special government perks for West Bank settlers added $270 million more,
according to Israeli media. And in response to last year's nationwide social
protests, the government increased spending on education and housing.
"The government has written a lot of checks for the future, and the future is
here," said Hebrew University economist Omer Moav.
Both parties in Congress create and fund un-elected "independent" government agencies who rule over the people like Kings.
These un-elected agencies tax and regulate and you have zero say in your own government.
The un-elected Federal Communications Commission is starting the process to tax broadband Internet services.
The move would funnel tax money to the "Connect America Fund", a subsidy the agency created last year to expand Internet access.
The FCC issued a request for comments on the proposal in April. Dozens of companies and trade associations have weighed in, but the issue has largely flown under the public's radar reports The Hill.
"If members of Congress understood that the FCC is contemplating a broadband tax, they'd sit up and take notice," said Derek Turner, research director for Free Press, a consumer advocacy group that opposes the tax.
Numerous companies, including AT&T, Sprint and even Google have expressed support for the idea. Why? Because they don't have to pay the tax, but they do get to reap the rewards from the government spending.
Consumers already pay a fee on their landline and cellular phone bills to support the FCC's Universal Service Fund. The fund was created to ensure that everyone in the country has access to telephone service, even if they live in remote areas.
.
"Taxation without representation is tyranny." James Otis
"If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare… The powers of Congress would subvert the very foundation, the very nature of the limited government established by the people of America." Alexander Hamilton
"The mistaken policy of the Stamp Act first disturbed this happy situation; but the flame thereby raised was soon extinguished by its repeal, and the old harmony restored, with all its concomitant advantage to our commerce.
.
The subsequent act of another administration, which, not content with an established exclusion of foreign manufactures, began to make our own merchandise dearer to the consumers there, by heavy duties, revived it again; and combinations were entered into throughout the continent to stop trading with Britain till those duties should be repealed. All were accordingly repealed but one, the duty on tea. This was reserved (professedly so) as a standing claim and exercise of the right assumed by Parliament of laying such duties."
From my view, Florida looks much nicer than Wisconsin.
Forget Ohio, no Republican nominee has won the White House without carrying Florida since Calvin Coolidge
And knowing this Mitt Romney deliberately selected a running mate from Wisconsin, a state that voted Democrat in the last six Presidential elections.
Once again, Florida is turning out to be a make or break state in the 2012 election. Both Comrade Obama and Republican Mitt Romney are focusing their campaigns on winning over the Sunshine State's diverse group of voters.
The country's biggest swing state has grown in size and importance since Comrade Obama won its 27 electoral votes in 2008. The state's increased population bumped its electoral prize up to 29 votes this November. That's more than one tenth of the total number needed to win the White House.
Dick Morris - Democratic Registration Craters!
"The Republican nominee has not won the White House without carrying Florida since Calvin Coolidge," Daniel Smith, a political scientist at the University of Florida, told the Orlando Sentinel. "So I would say Florida is pretty important for Republicans in November."
Two of the state's biggest demographics, Hispanics and seniors, could hold the key to the White House. Florida's seniors represent about 17 percent of the state's 18.8 million residents, reports the San Francisco Gate.
The 'senior spotlight' is going to be even stronger after the vice presidential selection of Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Many seniors count Medicare as one of their top issues and Ryan is the author of a controversial House budget proposal to overhaul Medicare and Social Security.
Florida Presidential elections results
Year
Republican
Democratic
2008
48.22% 4,045,624
50.96%4,282,074
2004
52.10%3,964,522
47.09% 3,583,544
2000
48.85%2,912,790
48.84% 2,912,253
1996
42.32% 2,244,536
48.02%2,546,870
1992
40.89%2,173,310
39.00% 2,072,698
1988
60.87%2,618,885
38.51% 1,656,701
1984
65.32%2,730,350
34.66% 1,448,816
1980
55.52%2,046,951
38.50% 1,419,475
1976
46.64% 1,469,531
51.93%1,636,000
1972
71.91%1,857,759
27.80% 718,117
1968
40.53%886,804
30.93% 676,794
1964
48.85% 905,941
51.15%948,540
1960
51.51%795,476
48.49% 748,700
Racial makeup
According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Florida had a population of 18,801,310. In terms of race and ethnicity, the state was:
75.0% White (57.9% Non-Hispanic White alone)
16.0% Black or African American
0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native
2.4% Asian
0.1% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
3.6% from Some Other Race
2.5% from Two or More Races
Hispanics and Latinos of any race made up 22.5% of the population
2010 Florida Gubernatorial race
The race for governor shows how close the parties are split in Florida.
"Dad, I want to screw the voters with more new taxes just like you did."
At last, a political ad that finally tells the truth! At least Willie tells the truth.
Raising taxes - It's a family tradition
Republican Jeb Bush says it is a mark of "leadership" to raise taxes.
Well, fuck the Bush family . . . . no new taxes. Period.
Former Republican Florida Governor Jeb Bush told the Tampa Bay Times in an interview published today that he thought both parties should embrace the Simpson-Bowles committee’s budget reform proposals.
He said GOP leaders should consider is even though that might mean a tax increase as part of any deficit reduction deal. Bush calls tax increases "reform".
Tampa Bay Times: Would you have embraced Simpson-Bowles?
Bush: To save the country’s fiscal future? I would.
Tampa Bay Times: Even though it has tax increases?
Bush: That’s the part of leadership. … Our biggest problem is spending, by far. But in order to get 60 votes for entitlement reform and tax reform to revitalize our economy and create hope for people? That’s what leaders are supposed to do.
Leadership????? - The Bush family is amazing. To a Bush it is "leadership" to compromise with Socialists and hand over your hard earned money to fund the Welfare State.
Pussy Republicans like Bush are always using the stupid 60 vote rule in the Senate as an excuse to cave in to Socialism or as an excuse to do nothing. The Democrats on the other hand said screw the rule and passed Obamacare.
It is far past time that Republicans grew a set and started passing legislation with 51 votes. A majority is democracy. The phony 60 vote "rule" is nowhere in the Constitution. . (Washington Examiner)
