In general, the GOP treats conservatives like we’re figurative “mopeds”. Fun to ride (in elections) until your progressive Democrat friends find out you were hanging out with neanderthal pro-lifers or NRA members.

I can’t stand Delaware Rep Mike Castle (Rino)’s views on a lot of things: gun control, stem cell funding, cap-and-trade, not to mention the joy he seems to get from bucking the party. His letters back on issues quote the Brady Campaign (to ban handguns), the Center for American Progress, and left-leaning environmental groups. He’s running for US Senate to replace Biden seat-warmer Ted Kaufman.

I predict that if elected, he can’t wait to out-Brown Scott Brown, and to out-Snowe Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. He’s not even being tested. I expect he’ll ride the anti-progressive wave this Fall and then go give progressive representation. Generally, I like his opponent Christine O’Donnell, but it looks like there’s no point holding a primary as far as the party’s concerned. This is why so many like me have left the GOP- they decide the candidate, we’re just supposed to hold our noses and vote:

Also: Covered in the News Urinal’s poli-blog DE GOP lashes out at O’Donnell (link).

MEXICO CITY (AP) – The discovery of 72 slain Central and South American migrants on a ranch just south of the U.S. border provides a horrific reminder of the brutality of human trafficking in a country dominated by drug cartels.

A wounded Ecuadorean who escaped the killing ground in Mexico’s Tamaulipas state told authorities that the migrants’ abductors identified themselves as Zetas, a drug gang whose control of parts of the state is so brutal and complete that even many Mexicans avoid traveling its highways.

One-party rule in Delaware doesn’t lead to corruption (link):

WILMINGTON — State Treasurer Velda Jones-Potter has been paid $108,400 in consulting fees by the city since 2007 to teach leadership skills to 40 city employees, according to city records.

The $150-an-hour contract with the city and the treasurer’s consulting firm, Jones-Potter & Associates Inc., began in October 2007 and continues today. She was appointed treasurer in January 2009, a full-time position that pays $110,000 a year.

Gov. Jack Markell, who appointed Jones-Potter, said he was surprised…

Jones-Potter’s husband, Charles Potter, is a Wilmington councilman. City Solicitor John Sheridan said Potter should have announced that his wife had a contract with the city.

There’s no such thing as a hate-crime against “White” people (link):

Des Moines police are trying to determine what led to a series of attacks outside the Iowa State Fairgrounds over the weekend that included the assault of two police officers.

At least three people were arrested Friday through early Monday morning. Other arrests may occur as officers investigate the incidents, officials said.

There are indications that some of the fights – which appear to involve mostly teenagers and young adults – were racially motivated, police said.

“We don’t know if this was juveniles fighting or a group of kids singling out white citizens leaving the fairgrounds,” Sgt. Lori Lavorato said. “It’s all under investigation, but it’s very possible it has racial overtones.”

Officials announced last week that they were stepping up security outside the fairgrounds after a series of attacks Aug. 14 that included a pair of stabbings. Investigators are still investigating those assaults and victims intend to pursue charges.

Sgt. David Murillo stated in a report on Friday night, “On-duty officers at the fairgrounds advise there was a group of 30 to 40 individuals roaming the fairgrounds openly calling it ‘beat whitey night.’ “

The news-media loves a good fight, especially in the GOP (link):

WASHINGTON – A Republican civil war is raging, with righter-than-thou conservatives dominating ever more primaries in a fight for the party’s soul. And the Democrats hope to benefit.

The latest examples of conservative insurgents’ clout came Tuesday at opposite ends of the country. In Florida, political newcomer Rick Scott beat longtime congressman and state Attorney General Bill McCollum for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. And in Alaska, tea party activists and Sarah Palin pushed Sen. Lisa Murkowski to the brink of defeat, depending on absentee ballot counts in her race against outsider Joe Miller.

The media really did expect the election of Obama to lead to manna falling from heaven without examining what his policies would be, and what policies like those lead to (link):

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — New home sales unexpectedly fell in July to the lowest level on record as the housing market continued to suffer from the end of the homebuyer tax credit boost.

New home sales dropped 12.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 276,000 last month, down from a downwardly revised 315,000 in June, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Sales year-over-year fell 32.4%.

Commerce started tracking new home sales in 1963.

Who expected otherwise?  They ought to be drug-tested and fired. Speaking of which, Joe “Blow” Biden needs a drug test. I’ve theorized before that he’s mooching daughter Ashley Biden’s coke stash, and now I’m convinced (link):

Biden Recovery Tour: Making Stuff Up in Toledo

August 24, 2010 1:00 P.M.

By Henry Payne

The White House’s “Recovery Summer” tour is beginning to resemble a jalopy wheezing from town to town, consuming whatever fuel will keep it going. Throw in Veep Biden, and it is a full-blown farce.

Biden dove into Toledo, Ohio, on Monday amid evidence of a stalled economy to once again boast to yet another UAW audience of the president’s “transformed U.S. auto industry.” A month ago, Biden came to Midland, Michigan, to advertise a subsidized green-battery plant as our auto-jobs future. But America.wants to see evidence of jobs today. So Obama did an encore in Detroit, proclaiming that “this industry is growing stronger. It’s manufacturing the fuel-efficient cars and trucks that will carry us toward an energy independent future.”

Trouble is, the jobs Detroit is creating aren’t green. As Americans flock back to SUVs (now 50 percent of the market again), the Big Three are thriving as customers buy their bread and butter. The White House Dynamic Duo wants to brag about added assembly-line shifts — so they have visited the Cherokee plant, Chicago’s Ford Explorer SUV plant, and now Toledo’s Jeep Wrangler plant. All three are humming with low-mpg SUV production.

Biden didn’t even bother to talk green at the Wrangler plant Monday — which was just as well, given his commute from Indiana involved a gas-guzzling Boeing 747. Bounding on stage at Toledo Assembly just south of the Michigan border, Biden just made stuff up.

“There was a sense in that (previous) administration that we had to move over and make room for China,” he fibbed. “That we had to make room for other nations.” It’s remarkable how quickly this administration can go from We-Are-The-World-speak to xenophobia.

Michael Smerconish is totally relevant, insightful, and his columns are hard-hitting and timely… Eh, notsomuch. Maybe if they were filed two weeks before they are! His column should be titled “Yesterday’s News and Reports from The Obama/New Donner Party Bandwagon” (link).

I’m embarrassed to take credit for predicting this because it’s so obvious (link). You’d have to be stupid not to expect Iran, Syria, and indigenous insurgents to try to blow up Iraq after we boast of removing combat troops (though we really didn’t):

For American troops pulling out of Iraq, Wednesday’s news of the string of attacks across the country must come as a kick in the solar plexus. Despite the soldiers’ hard work and sacrifice for over seven and a half years, it took the enemy hardly any time at all to reassert its presence across much of the country. What was it all for, a soldier may well ask.

For Iraqis, the question is not philosophical, it’s existential: who can protect them now? If there was any doubt about the incompetence of their own security forces, the attacks have laid them to rest. More such spasms of violence will inevitably lead to calls for the remaining U.S. forces to drop their non-combat status and ride to the rescue. How will they respond?

Another B.I.G. prediction (if it hasn’t happened already): this guy won’t be the commanding general of the US Marines in Afghanistan much longer (link):

The top U.S. Marine general in Afghanistan said President Barack Obama’s announced July 2011 deadline to start withdrawing troops from the country had given “sustenance” to the Taliban.

“We know the president was talking to several audiences at the same time when he made his comments on July 2011,” Gen. James Conway told reporters on Tuesday. “In some ways, we think right now it’s probably giving our enemy sustenance….In fact, we’ve intercepted communications that say, ‘Hey, you know, we only have to hold out for so long.’”

“The two-term Nebraska Senator will speak about Joe’s independence and focus on doing what’s right not for Wall Street or Washington special interests but for Pennsylvania’s working families,” reads a release from the Sestak camp announcing the news.

Hagel’s endorsement comes less than a week after New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg backed Sestak, touting — you guessed it! — his independence.

After some debate over where the Bloomberg endorsement fit into our Fix Endorsement Hierarchy, we decided that it was rightly understood as an out-of-state statewide endorsement. That is, not exactly a game changer.

At first glance, the Hagel endorsement would seem to fit into the same category. After all, Hagel spent two terms as a Senator from Nebraska before retiring from the Senate in 2008, and, like Bloomberg, has some level of a national profile as a politician not terribly constrained by the ties of party affiliation.

Dig slightly deeper, however, and it seems clear that Hagel’s endorsement is more about his own future political prospects than those of Sestak. The simple fact is that Hagel is virtually unknown in Pennsylvania and his endorsement of Sestak won’t even register with most Keystone State voters.

Read the rest (link), his hierarchy of endorsements is pretty funny.  I find Hagel to be similar to the others who assume the position to be part of the in-crowd.  There’s been a lot of buzz about the “ruling class” lately, which is pretty much what it turns out to be.  You want to get invited to the WH for some wagyu steaks? Bend over.  In Delaware, we know Mike Castle will gladly supplicate himself to Obama for glowing reviews in the fossil media.

On the other side of things, the Obama administration could use this to really haze people.  I’d like to see them haze Chuck Hagel some more. Make him endorse a socialist like Chris Coons… or campaign for Kucinich.  How funny would that be?

8/18/10 – UPDATE 1: Speaker Pelosi has sent out a statement regarding her comments on investigating those who she believes may be funding the opposition to the mosque:

“The freedom of religion is a Constitutional right. Where a place of worship is located is a local decision.

“I support the statement made by the Interfaith Alliance that ‘We agree with the ADL that there is a need for transparency about who is funding the effort to build this Islamic center. At the same time, we should also ask who is funding the attacks against the construction of the center.’

“For all of those expressing concern about the 9/11 families, we call upon them to join us in support of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act when Congress returns in September.”

“I support the statement made by the Interfaith Alliance that ‘We agree with the ADL that there is a need for transparency about who is funding the effort to build this Islamic center. At the same time, we should also ask who is funding the attacks against the construction of the center.’

I must ask you: who has allowed this ignorant, botoxed, Stalinist cunt to run the House of Representatives for four years?  America voted her in. Ladies and Gentlemen, your first female House Speaker. Congratulations. Your neighbors who vote Democrat and RINO voted her in.  Any politician, especially in the House, that doesn’t call for her immediate censure and resignation is compliant in this and deserves to be voted out.  You wanna see how far we are from the US Constitution?  Look at the Congressional silence!  Look at the RINOs, running for cover.

I initially didn’t give a crap about the Ground Zero Mosque (aka 9/11 debris field mosque).  I thought it was a bad idea for sure, but New Yorkers love this kind of crap.  They vote for it all the time.  New Yorkers are so stupid, they’d probably elect Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki if he ran for governor.  They elected Cuomo, Spitzer, Clinton.  Just like the California freaks who elected Pelosi (time after time).  You want a multi-cultural freakshow?  Welcome to (bedbug-ridden) NYC!  (***Note: I know not all New Yorkers are crazy, our buddy GlennB of Ballseye’s Boomers wouldn’t stand for this. Just the voting majority***)

Let me put it this way, you lie down with freaks, you wake up with bedbugs.  If the NYCity council is too stupid to say it’s a bad idea, screw them. It’s not a national issue.  It’s a terrible idea, but not a national issue.  When a US House Speaker says those speaking in opposition to the mosque must be investigated, it’s a crime.

But hey, get used to it, because thought crime prevention and control is part of the Obamanation.

Attorney General Tom Corbett should quit his day job and focus on running for governor. It’s nearly impossible lately for the public to separate Corbett’s law-enforcement duties from his role as the GOP nominee for governor. Increasingly, his actions as attorney general are tinged with political ramifications for the November election.

For example, Corbett decided last week to pit Pennsylvania against the Obama administration’s effort to overturn Arizona’s new stop-on-sight immigration law. He joined several other state attorneys general in filing a court brief, arguing that the federal government’s action violates state authority. Corbett’s move came without any consultation or warning to Democratic Gov. Rendell, who happens to disagree with Corbett….

Corbett would be well-advised to disregard this advice.  Since the Philadelphia Inquirer stands on two facts (suit against Obamacare and signing the brief in favor of the Arizona law), it needs to do a lot better before asking for this resignation.  They’re just trying to help Dan Onorato get some good quotes for his campaign.

LAS VEGAS — In this election season, Senator Harry Reid’s campaign events often include claims of how many stimulus funded jobs he’s created. But how many of these construction jobs are going to workers in the country illegally?

E-Verify is a computer program many employers use to determine if job applicants are U.S. citizens. Construction companies are not forced to use the official E-Verify system to determine if construction job applicants are in this country legally.

Republican Senator Jeff Sessions introduced an amendment in 2009 that would have made E-Verify permanent and mandatory for all construction companies. Senator Reid did not allow the idea to come up for a vote.

“The reason: we need to do comprehensive immigration reform. We cannot do it piecemeal,” said Reid.

“When you go to the unemployment office there’s many U.S. citizens who are unemployed construction workers and they don’t have jobs because right now, some of those construction companies find it easier to hire undocumented workers,” said Reporter Nathan Baca.

“I think that any information you have in that regard is absolutely without foundation,” responded Reid.

But a Pew Hispanic Center study shows 17-percent of all construction workers are in the United States illegally. Reid says not in Nevada. “That may be some place, but it’s not here in Nevada.”

But their latest 2009 numbers show Nevada is the state with the highest percentage of “unauthorized immigrants” in the labor force.

Hopefully Angle takes advantage of this.

It’s really ok though, the Obamessiah doesn’t require your confidence, he requires your dependence to fulfill his role in the prophecy called “The Road To Serfdom”.

29 mins ago

The Democratic National Committee on Tuesday unveiled “The Accountability Project,” a website where visitors are encouraged to display their own recordings of Republican candidates’ bloopers and missteps on the campaign trail. The hope is to create a clearing house capably of delivering Democrats their next “macaca” momen—and put strong GOP candidates on the defnesive for a gaffe-ridden political performance much as Virginia Gop Sen. George Aleen was during his failed 2006 re-election bid.

Of course, the site doesn’t things quite that way. The site explains that it seeks to target candidates who say “one thing in Washington and another back home” and can therefore get away with statements they don’t have to answer for in either venue. “But it doesn’t have to be this way—you can make sure that this year’s elections are contested in the light of day,” the site reads. Visitors are encouraged to upload video, audio, campaign mailings, and notify other volunteer trackers of upcoming events.

Videos displayed on the site Tuesday afternoon were far from shocking. One showed Sen. Jim DeMint speaking at February’s Conservative Political Action Conference, while election-themed videos of Republican candidates in Florida topped its list of available media. Lately, video trackers themselves have been the ones making headlines. Democratic Rep. Bob Etheridge of North Carolina apologized for grabbing a self-identified student who was videotaping the lawmaker on a D.C. street and a tracker was thrown out of an event for Illinois Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias this month.

But each new campaign tactic, of course, generates its equal and opposite reaction: Republican strategists are trying to get out ahead of the expected influx of video trackers this season. The Republican National Committee has already issued a memo to campaign staffers instructing them on how to properly deal with videographers from the opposition.

–Rachel Rose Hartman is a politics writer for Yahoo! News.

Yahoo! News also points out the “gaffe” of the Palin campaign in sending out a rough draft of an email (see above passage from Yahoo! news for what a rough draft looks like) and for Palin’s misstatement of where Ronald Reagan’s alma mater was (link):

Following in others’ grand tradition of demonstrating gaps in knowledge while addressing a university, Sarah Palin told a crowd at a fundraiser at California State University in Stanislaus last weekend that Ronald Reagan, personal hero and inspiration, was a California college graduate. She told the cheering crowd: “This is Reagan country, and perhaps it was destiny that the man who went to California’s Eureka College would become so woven within and interlinked to the Golden State.”

There’s just one problem here: Reagan went to Eureka College in Illinois from 1928 to 1932, the Alaska Dispatch reports. He didn’t move to California until five years after his graduation. There’s no Eureka College in California (though there’s a town of Eureka that has a College of the Redwoods nearby).

Immediately after her speech, a live microphone caught voices in the press area trashing the former Alaska governor, Mediate reported. “The dumbness doesn’t just come from soundbites,” one complained. The Fox affiliate owned the microphone but says their reporters did not make the comments.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports on a more serious recent mistake of Palin’s political organization. Administrators for her legal defense fund accidentally sent out a rough draft of an email to thousands of supporters that falsely claimed she faced “millions of dollars” in legal fees because of “frivolous” ethics suits against her. The corrected version of the email said the fees numbered in the hundreds of thousands, not millions.

Critics say several more claims in the email were not true. The email said 26 of 27 ethics violations against Palin were dismissed outright, which is false: Three moved into the investigative phase. One inquiry resulted in a cash settlement; another found that ethics had been abridged but declined to recommend legal proceedings because the charge involved the dismissal of the head of the Alaska state trooper force, who was an at-will employee of the governor.

The email also alleged that the Democratic National Committee created a website whose goal is to keep Palin out of public office — a charge that the organization says is untrue.

So Palin lost in 2008 and is not running for anything at the moment, yet every day the administration that did win and resides in the White House backpedals on campaign promises, lies, hides info from the public, and has gaffe after gaffe.  But you’re watching Sarah Palin.

By the way, if the (unofficial) Palin campaign wants a 24/7 available fact-checker with encyclopedic trivia, editing ability, and grammatical genius, my contact info is available on the “about” page.

Black lawmakers want to limit new ethics office

Jun 2, 3:24 PM (ET)

By BEN EVANS

WASHINGTON (AP) – Stung by a series of inquiries, nearly half the members of the Congressional Black Caucus want to scale back the aggressive ethics procedures that Democrats trumpeted after gaining control of Congress.

Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, and 19 fellow black lawmakers in the all-Democratic caucus quietly introduced a resolution last week that would restrict the powers of the new independent Office of Congressional Ethics. The office, formed by Congress in 2008, is run by a panel of private citizens.

Black caucus Chairwoman Barbara Lee, D-Calif., is among the sponsors, but the full 42-member caucus did not endorse the measure. Lee declined comment through a spokesman.

The absence of support from top Democratic leaders for Fudge’s proposal – including from House Whip Jim Clyburn, a black caucus member from South Carolina – suggests that it isn’t going anywhere. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered no immediate comment.

Since its inception, the ethics office has investigated at least eight black caucus members, including veteran Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., and five others in that group over privately funded trips to the Caribbean.

Some lawmakers have complained that the increased transparency of the new office is unfair to lawmakers who are ultimately cleared of wrongdoing.

Fudge’s spokeswoman did not immediately respond Wednesday to requests for comment on the proposal.

Or maybe they’re just vampires.