The Amazing Human Nancy Pelosi Pretzel

by the Left Coast Rebel

Laugh along with the amazing human pretzel, her name is Nancy:

(WSJ) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she has the “overwhelming support” of fellow Democrats in her bid to become minority leader in the next Congress, and says she’s not to blame for the Democrats’ mid-term debacle.

“We didn’t lose the election because of me,” Ms. Pelosi told National Public Radio in an interview that aired Friday morning. “Our members do not accept that.”

Instead, the California Democrat attributes the loss of at least 60 seats to high unemployment and “$100 million of outside, unidentified funding.”

“Any party that cannot turn (9.5% unemployment) into political gains should hang up the gloves,” she said.

Among those rooting for Ms. Pelosi to stick around are Republicans, who are giddy at the prospect of reprising in 2012 the attacks they used in the past election cycle, tying Democratic incumbents around the country to the liberal from San Francisco.

Ms. Pelosi’s reply: Bring it on. “The reason they had to take me down is because I’ve been effective in fighting special interests in Washington, D.C.,” Ms. Pelosi said, citing the health insurance and financial services industries. “I’m effective. They had to take me out. I’m also the most significant attractor to support for the Democrats.”

“So, I’m not looking back on this,” Ms. Pelosi said. “They asked me to run, I’m running. We don’t let the Republicans choose our leaders, and again, our members understand, they made me a target because I’m effective, politically and policy-wise.”

So let's get this straight. Nanny-Government-Nancy thinks that she has absolutely no culpability in Democrat losses on November 2. She also thinks that shadowy, outside conspiratorial funding is to blame for the Democrat rout. Beyond that as well she thinks that angry, unemployed folks that bolted GOP are to blame (how dare they vote against their own interests, better, rulers and philosopher-king superiors).

And, she is effective, because she rammed a disastrous health care takeover (that she wanted everyone to read to find what was in it) through the Congress.

How can someone in power truly be this stupid?

Compromise With The Democrats?

Inside the Beltway and around the country, people (mostly liberals) are talking about how the Republicans should compromise with the Obama administration. The following graphic probably states the feelings and intentions of most conservatives:

I've Got Good News and Bad News...

The good news is that the Republicans are taking over control of the House. The bad news is, in California, Jerry Brown is going to be our governor and Babs Bouncer will remain in the Senate.

In a related story, California Republicans are on suicide watch...

Fox News Projects: Boxer, Whitman Wins

One out of two ain't bad! But, color me confused. The story with that headline had this gem:

In other California news, Fox News projects, also, that Meg Whitman will go down to former (now future!) Governor Jerry Brown.

So...it's either good news...or it's not!

The Fox affiliate is reporting Fiorina up by two with 9% of the vote counted. I'll hold on to a forlorn hope until morning...

Send in the Clowns, er, Lawyers

According to Fox News:

Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Chairman of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, says the DSCC is already taking legal action in some areas across the country.

In Bridgeport, Ct., Democrats are looking for an hour-long extension in that precinct since polling stations ran out of ballots. According to the Connecticut Mirror, the registrars of voters sent police officers with photocopied ballots to the stations, but some voters left without voting. Photocopied ballots can be used in an emergency, but they must be counted by hand.

And in Illinois, the DSCC has filed Freedom Of Information Act requests to take a look at provisional ballots.

Via Drudge Report

Election Returns Open Thread

Not quite sure how this will work...But if it's related to the "Dia de los Muertos Democrats" election going on today, give us your opinion on it.

First up: Fox News is predicting a win for Rand Paul in KY.
and for Marco Rubio over Charlie Christ in FL.
Also in FL: Republicans lead in 16 House races (including Allen West) and the governor's race.
Dems lead in four, one of them narrowly (but not Alan Grayson. See 16 above)

Fox is projecting a Senate win for Rob Portman in Ohio.


In a noon email alert to supporters, Coons campaign manager Christy Gleason said close monitoring of voter turnout in the state’s 41 representative districts showed “lower turnout in New Castle and Kent counties than we’re comfortable with.”
Election Night Updates

To win, Mr. Coons will have to get heavy support from Democrats and independents in New Castle, the state’s most populous county

If Chris Coons is "not comfortable", that's a good sign! (Delaware being called for Coons)

5:30 PDT Senate race 10 Republicans, 3 Dems

Looks like the Governors' races have gone to Republicans two to one.

Dia de los Muertos Democrats - November 2nd.

What a fantastic coincidence that Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, should occur on November 2nd election day*.
Perhaps we should rename it "Dia de los Muertos Democrats" in their honor?

H/T Western Hero

Cross posted at Lady Cincinnatus, LCR, Say Anything.

*Dia de los Muertos, I have been reminded, always falls on November 2nd.

Virginia Puts the Lie to Obama's Lameness

Lame. [leym] lam·er, lam·est, verb, lamed, lam·ing, noun
–adjective
1. crippled or physically disabled, esp. in the foot or leg so as to limp or walk with difficulty.
2. impaired or disabled through defect or injury: a lame arm.
3. weak; inadequate; unsatisfactory; clumsy: a lame excuse.
4. Slang . out of touch with modern fads or trends; unsophisticated.

Now that we have thoroughly discussed President Obama's "drove the economy in the ditch" analogy, let's take a look at how Republican "drivers" are making out in states where they are still "behind the wheel". From the Washington Post:

President Obama and other Democrats are going around the country making the same argument as party leaders made in Virginia last year: If you elect Republicans, they'll drive the car right back into the ditch.
Virginians overwhelmingly ignored that advice, and a year later many say they have few regrets and are generally pleased - if not ecstatic - about what Republicans have done.

Excuse me, but did she say "ecstatic"??

Voters are crediting republican Gov. Robert F. McDonnell with coming up with deep budget cuts and even ending the fiscal year with a small surplus, without the tax increase that former Gov. Kaine had recommended.

..."This state hasn't gone backwards," said Steven Herborn, 55, of Chesapeake. He has supported candidates in both parties over the years but wants Republicans to take over Congress next week.

...And more than a dozen independent voters in Virginia who backed Obama in 2008 said in interviews that they didn't think the state had moved backward under McDonnell and Republicans in the past year. A few who didn't vote for him still gave him credit for working hard and focusing on the right priorities.

Sounds like a case of "Who are you going to believe? Me, or your own lying eyes?"
The Democrats' lack of traction with with their message, combined with a disastrous economy and double digit unemployment caused Virginians to look at the results of their politicians and not the rhetoric.

How bad is it for Democrats in Virginia? They're losing retired government workers!

Mary Kay Rieg, 60, a retired federal employee from Alexandria...enthusiastically backed Obama in 2008, hoping he'd bring a new brand of post-partisan politics to Washington.

She's been so disappointed that next week she plans to vote against Rep. James P. Moran Jr., a 10-term incumbent, for the first time and cast her ballot for Republican Patrick Murray instead.

"President Obama came in under very special circumstances, and those circumstances called for restraint," she said. "And Democrats have not shown restraint."

That's not to say that the election will be a cakewalk or that there are no problems to overcome. Yet, these are encouraging signs that Tuesday's election might be like the punchline to a lawyer joke:

What do you call 100 lawyers on the ocean floor?

A start.

H/T 2H9

Cross posted at LCR, Lady Cincinnatus, Say Anything.

Barbara Boxer: Family Profits From Fake Indian Tribe She Helped Create

Funny thing! I wasn't even going to write about this, I was just going to post a link to it in the Saturday Linkaround and let people read or not read it as they will. Then, getting ready to post the link, I went to The Hill and found this:

Although, if you look, the comments below the "page not found" reference this story. But, I guess it could have been a "broken link", so I took their advice and searched "Barbara Boxer Indian", was taken to this page:

And when I clicked on the link guess where it took me? (Bonus points if you guessed "page not found"). Here's from a helpful email from the Fiorina camp:

The Hill’s Pundits Blog: Barb Boxer’s Indian tribe take
By Rick Manning
October 30, 2010
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/lawmaker-news/126619-barb-boxers-indian-tribe-take


For the past 10 years Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has been playing a game that would make Jack Abramoff blush, a game that can best be described using the language of “Get Smart’s” Maxwell Smart as “the ole family-profiting-off-of-the-Indian-tribe-that-you-created trick.”


Here’s the story.


In 1998, Lynn Woolsey introduced legislation reinstating an Indian tribe in the wine country of Northern California that had been declared defunct by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1958. None of the Indians of the tribe objected at that time; they received a payment and went about their lives. The Woolsey bill would reinstate the tribe but specifically prohibited them from starting a casino. The legislation ran into trouble when the Bureau of Indian Affairs opposed the legislation because it had not seen any evidence that the tribe was significantly tied to the terminated tribe.


In 2000, Boxer helpfully picked up the Woolsey bill, but changed the prohibition against gaming, and designated any land that the group owned to be considered as a reservation.


In the same year, Boxer got her language into the Omnibus Indian Advancement Act of 2000, and with the changes unbeknownst to either fellow Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) or House sponsor Woolsey (D), the bill was signed into law by then-President Clinton.

With us so far? A defunct tribe of Indians gets reinstated and Boxer inserts language that states in essence, any land they purchase becomes a "reservation". Neat, huh? Get around all those federal and local laws and taxes with the stroke of a pen. But as they say on the infomercials, Wait! There's more!

Shortly after passage, the newly minted Indian tribe declared that after much soul-searching, the only thing it could do was open a casino on the outskirts of San Francisco in the town of Rohnert Park.


The tribe turned its fortunes over to two firms to make its dreams of wealth come true — Platinum Advisers, a political consulting/lobbying firm, and Kenwood Investments 2. Amazingly, and I’m certain quite coincidentally, Barbara Boxer’s son, Doug, was a partner in each firm.


To avoid immediate citizen concern about a casino popping up in their posh neighborhood, Doug Boxer’s Kenwood Investments 2 kindly fronted for the casino interests in purchasing a tract of land in Rohnert Park, as well as helpfully taking options on adjoining parcels of land for themselves to sweeten the pot. (Can I say pot and Sonoma County, Calif., in the same breath?)


Then Platinum Advisers sprang into action to try to gain community support for the casino. They apparently didn’t do a very good job, because the casino still is not built 10 years later.


According to Reference.com, Doug Boxer’s take from the project was a very Abramoff-like $8 million.


What makes the story timely is that the federal government just a couple of weeks ago was compelled to declare the land that Boxer’s son had purchased on behalf of the Indian casino a reservation, effectively killing the local zoning and lawsuits that had tied the project up in knots for most of the past decade.


The Santa Rosa Press Democrat rightly pinned the federal decision right on the Senate Ethics* Committee chairwoman’s doorstep by pointing out that since she used the word shall, rather than may, in the legislation that birthed this tribe, the federal government had no choice but to declare the property that the tribe subsequently purchased to be tribal lands.

The rest of the post goes on to examine the, shall we say, less than stellar (or convincing) bona fides of this "tribe." Read the whole thing if it ever goes back up.

Both Boxer and Harry Reid have done very well by their children, by steering millions of dollars their way. Now if someone could only remind them to do right by the people who elected them and the taxpayers of this country.

Could you remind them for me next Tuesday?

*"Senate Ethics" - under Boxer, an oxymoron. (See: "Obama Justice Department")

Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything.

Update: Moe Lane has written on this as well here.

Pajamas Media: "Something Stinks in California's 47th Congressional District

by the Left Coast Rebel

Last night I wrapped up an article for Pajamas Media on California's CD-47. I focused on a funny bit of news related to the Van Tran campaign, here's the opener:

Away from the face-off between the two candidates, something smells as bad as trash-truck juice on a Death Valley summer day in California’s 47th.

In search of the olfactory offense, I point the reader to a Van Tran mailer masquerading as a fragrance sampler, making its way to the mail boxes of likely voters in Garden Grove, Santa Ana, and Anaheim.

Don’t judge this book by its cover; it’s no ordinary fragrance sampler:

Note that the mailer says: “Open for a Free Sample Fragrance of: Loretta, The Scent of Washington.

You have to read the rest to see what happens when the mailer is opened! Later on in the piece I describe Van Tran campaign HQ, it's a pretty neat story:

The folks in the Van Tran campaign were a pleasant bunch. After meeting them I could sense that they are having fun (easily evidenced by the humorous mailer too), working hard, and ready to win. At the same time, I gathered that they were perfectly able and willing to go back to normal life if the election doesn’t go their way on Tuesday.

Central command for Van Tran is set up in a foreclosed Blockbuster building in Garden Grove, a city of 175,000 in northern Orange County. The building was essentially stripped of most things that one would associate with the past life of movie rentals such as shelving and other interior structures. Although the sign had been removed, the outline of the letters B-L-O-C-K-B-U-S-T-E-R were still clearly discernible on the building’s stucco exterior.

It was somewhat dirty inside, a proverbial makeshift campaign war room with folding tables set up for walk-in volunteer phone bank folks. Van Tran signs were strewn graciously and haphazardly across the walls, and there was a constant buzz of activity. The accommodations were functional but not flashy.

Please read the rest, comment, Facebook 'like' it and pass it along to friends - especially those of you that live in California. And please, above all, support Van Tran and other conservative candidates in the closing days of the 2010 midterm election.

Nothing short of the future of the nation is at stake.

Allen West for Florida and the US

Florida has some good men running this year. I know I have readers in Florida, (and you know who you are!) so get out the vote for men like West and Rubio.

H/T The Other McCain

(VIDEO) MoveOn.org's Lauren Valle Proved a Liar by Just-Released Video Showing Events Before Head-stomping Incident

by the Left Coast Rebel

If you are like me and voraciously following election news this week, you are most-likely exhausted of reading about the "head-stomping" incident involving a violent, paid, far-left batsh$t-crazy MoveOn.orger with a mile-long rapsheet and a Rand Paul supporter. The left has found it to be the cause célèbre of the final week election push - proving just how desperate, doomed and pathetic they truly are. In some ways I consider the issue a blessing as it is distracting hundreds of Soros-funded Bolshevik-bloggers at this point and Rand is going to easily win his race.

Lauren Valle (the MoveOn.org activist) has repeatedly claimed that she was just trying to get a signature and photograph from Rand Paul. She said this on MSNBC last night:

Well just before the tape I was identified by the Rand Paul campaign because they’ve seen me around town at these events. And they realized they know me because of my work and they don’t support it. So they actually formed a blockade around me once they realized that I was there. And as Rand’s car pulls up they step in front of me and start to block me so I stepped off the curb to try and get around them and at that point they pursued me around the car, chased me around the car, and what you see in the video is when I’m in the front of the car and that’s when I’m pulled down and then my head is stomped on.

She is an out-and-out liar.

The following video clearly shows Lauren Valle rushing Rand Paul's vehicle and pushing her sign into the car. A clearly dangerous, provocative act that completely discredits her version of the events. Hat-tip to Redstate:



I guess that Lauren Valle and MoveOn.org assumed that the rest of the video would never surface, this revelation easily disproves the 'angry-white-male-mob' that the Bolshevik bloggers are running with.

And for the record - though it won't matter to the trolls out there - it is never ok to step on someone's head. Tim Profitt should face serious penalties and the full extent of the law for doing so.

Cross posted to LCR.

Watch This And Then Go Vote

Brought to you by Lady C.

Boxer to Drain Senate Swamp?

Remember when Nancy Pelosi likened Washington to a swamp that needed to be drained? Guess who's supposed to be draining it on the Senate side?


Creature From the Senate Swamp

Barbara (Ma'am) Boxer chairs the Senate Ethics Committee. That's right. E-T-H-I-C-S. She's the chair. She was the one to send Chris Dodd a letter making demands for him to come clean regarding his Countrywide mortgages. But, according to the Washington Examiner,

Boxer held no fewer than seven mortgages with Countrywide Financial, the company at the center of the mortgage scandal she was investigating as chair of her committee.

Then there's a matter of a million dollar property in Oakland that she failed to mention joint ownership of on any of her financial disclosure forms.

And somehow, should Ms. Bouncer be re-elected and the Dems retain control of the Senate, who do you think will be investigating Ms. Bouncer's financial lies irregularities? That's right.

Barbara Boxer.

Just one more reason to Bounce Babs this November 2nd.



Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything

Update: Maggie's Notebook has a good piece on this as well.

Storm Clouds Gather over Democrat Turnout

Storm clouds gather before the historic 2010 election

by the Left Coast Rebel

A new meme is developing that stormy skies in the Midwest, Southeast and Northeast may keep Democrats away from pols across the nation on November 2. The subtle reasoning for this is simple - folks that vote Democrat are so incredibly helpless that they cannot even brave bad weather to perform their civic duty.

Nothing shows the fall from our founding and rugged individualism quite like this. First, let's begin with this from The Hill:

According to Laurel Harbridge, a Northwestern University political science professor, GOP voters are not typically discouraged by rain. “Republicans are helped by bad weather ... it does harm Democratic prospects.”

What? Republicans are helped by bad weather? I thought that Republicans created bad weather on election day. Soros told me so!

More from The Hill:

Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown University, echoed Harbridge. “Bad weather almost always hurts Democrats,” she said. “The traditional Democratic base tends to include lower-income people and the elderly. Both of those demographic groups have a hard time getting to the polls.”

Now we are getting closer to the gist of theme here. Many Democrat voters are poor and lazy. In fact, they are so lazy that they may not attempt to manage a bit of wet weather to protect taxpayer-funded goodies.

Forget the old people too, they clearly are defenseless as cumulonimbus clouds approach.

However, on a more serious not, riddle me this - are dead democratic voters less likely to show because of bad weather?

I would crawl over miles of broken glass mixed with rusty nails, under spiral barbed-wire and dodge the occasional land mine to vote for the future of this nation on November 2, wouldn't you?

Apparently the Democratic base's ballot box 'robbing form Peter to pay for Paul' credo doesn't elicit an equivalent degree of emotional response as fighting for the very survival of one's nation.

Cross posted to LCR.

Clueless Joe Biden to Campaign for MyCongressmanIsNuts Alan Grayson.

Hey Joe! Just how many IQ points do you and Alan Grayson have between you?

Just how desperate do you need to be to invite Clueless Joe Biden to campaign for you? According to The Hill, that's exactly what's going to happen. (I love the smell of desperation in the morning!)
You have the historically illiterate plagiarizer Joe Biden, who thought that FDR went on TV for a fireside chat during the Great Depression, campaigning for the Oaf from Orlando, whose thin skin caused him to call for the arrest a person for merely expressing a political opinion (MyCongressmanIsNuts.com) of him. Good thing it wasn't Juan Williams, he'd have had him shot!

Among the outrageous things Grayson has said, was "The Republican health care plan is this: 'Don't get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly'.", and posting an ad of his opponent, edited wildly out of context, accusing him of being like the Taliban, for uttering words that were taken out of context from a heavily edited speech. Because Alan Grayson is a well spring of integrity, once the utter falseness of the ad was pointed out, he continued to run it.

He may not be your Congressman, but he is nuts. With any luck, Biden will regale Florida audiences of how he, Clueless Joe, son of a Welsh coal miner, was the first of his family to have a college education wasted on him...

H/T memeorandum

Herman Cain on the Fair Tax

Herman Cain on tax reform and dishonesty in advertising by a certain political party, whose symbol is a donkey*, who shall remain nameless.



More at the Blog Prof



*To put it charitably.

Boxer: I've Worked So Hard for this Title - the David Zucker Video

This may be the funniest video this election cycle:

Call Me Madam Joe from RightChange on Vimeo.

David Zucker, the creative genius behind Airplane! and Naked Gun movies, once supported Barbara Boxer. "Let this video be my apology"

More at Gina Cobb

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel

Jerry Brown Panders (More Than Usual*) for Votes

So what's new? Jerry Brown has been making a big deal over saying he will not raise taxes...without voter approval. What he has not said is that he won't further bankrupt the state. Here's what he has to say about paying for illegals to go to school:







"We have enough wealth..." We? You got a mouse in your pocket, Jerry? The state is broke. We don't have enough wealth to meet the obligations we already have without taking on more. This is pandering, plain and simple.



More at the Blog Prof



Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel, Say Anything



*Updated headline

Dirty Harriette - Walk Softly, Nevadans and Carry a Big Stick

"Are you feeling lucky, Mr. Reid? Well do you?"

“Man up, Harry Reid,” Sharron Angle taunted him at their Las Vegas debate here Thursday night. That’s not an idle insult, coming from a woman who campaigns at times with a .44 Magnum revolver in her 1989 GMC pickup.

-Maureen Dowd

Poor NYT columnist! Think Maureen's tighty whiteys are in a wad over the pickup or that she's packing? Strong, self reliant women seem to disturb liberals. I don't know about you, but this makes me like Angle even more! And since Dingy Harry is running ads in Nevada about his support for firearms and hunters, Mo Dowd may be helping Sharon with the very demographic Harry is trying to corral.

Ms. Angle, if you're listening? A good set of Pachmayr grips * will give you good control and help reduce the feeling of recoil.

*Not a paid endorsement. I have a set of Pachys on my .44 magnum. But if you guys at the factory wanted to show your appreciation, I have other handguns! Heh.

More at Contentions

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel, Say Anything