Thursday Open Thread
Welcome to the Thursday edition of your open thread. It’s a hot and humid Thursday, perfect for staying indoors and playing on the computer. Share your wisdom below.
Rand Paul angers even Kentucky Libertarians.
The Associated Press reported today that Party Vice Chairman Joshua Koch “said the idea of fielding a candidate has been an ongoing discussion among Libertarian leaders in Kentucky and hasn’t been an issue of contention internally.”
“The reason why we would even consider running somebody in this race,” Koch said, “is because we’re not going to let Rand determine what a Libertarian stands for. I’m here to say Rand does not have the Libertarian ideology.”
However, the state party chair denies that Libertarians will field a candidate against Paul.
The state chairman of the Libertarians of Kentucky has disavowed statements by the party’s vice chair, that suggest the group is considering running a real Libertarian candidate against Kentucky Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul.
Chairman Ken Moellman told TPM that those statements were “not an official communication or an official stance.” However, Moellman did insist that Paul’s views are not in line with those of Libertarians’.
The Kentucky Libertarians are saying Rand Paul is not a Libertarian but are declining the opportunity to run a real Libertarian to explain who they truly are. It’s a missed opportunity, if this is true.
Another one from the Republican hypocrisy file. This time it’s Texas Governor Rick Perry.
At the time, Perry said rejecting the money “was pretty simple for us. … We can take care of ourselves.” “I am so concerned about the belief that has gained a foothold in our national consciousness that the best and only way to solve our nation’s problems is to drown them with taxpayer dollars,” Perry also said, adding that, with regard to the stimulus, Texas should “look a gift horse in the mouth.”
The Texas state legislature eventually pushed Perry to accept the money, but even in his official acceptance letter, Perry wrote that “I believe there are better ways to reinvigorate our economy and believe [the bill] will burden future generations with unprecedented levels of debt.” However, as the Wall Street Journal noted this morning, the stimulus is the reason that Texas currently has a balanced budget:
[T]he economic downturn is catching up with Texas. Sales-tax revenue started falling in February 2009 compared with the previous year, and only started to recover a bit in April of this year. Although Mr. Perry has railed against the federal economic-stimulus program, billions of dollars from that initiative helped Texas legislators balance the current budget.
Perry is only a more extreme example of Mike Castle. Instead of showing up at stimulus funding events, Perry just pretends that he didn’t take any stimulus money at all.
Tags: Open Thread
Markos previewing new poll results on Twitter, the results will be out today and tomorrow. Halter has a narrow lead on Lincoln, Paul has a small lead on Conway in KY, Blumenthal has a large lead in CT.
Latest on the Nikki Haley scandal in SC: there are pictures (not released yet).
Excellent. Halter is going to win the primary, and actually make Arkansas competitive in the fall (with Lincoln as our nominee it is a guaranteed Republican pickup). Conway is going to win Kentucky, which is simply amazing to me because Conway is actually a progressive rather than a Blue Dog.
Gafftastic candidate Sue Lowden strikes again!
On Haley in South Carolina…. you will remember that Sarah Palin endorsed her. Perhaps she recognized a bit of herself in Haley, or vice versa.
Lowden is done.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday authorized the deployment of up to 1,200 additional troops to border areas but State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters, “It’s not about immigration.”
He’s right, it’s about politics.
No, it is about reeducation. It is time to take Arizonans to those FEMA camps.
“Lowden is done.”
Careful, DD. You don’t want to cook your chicken rare.
Lowden’s now attacking the teabagger candidate, Sharron Angle, over her religion of Scientology. Harry Reid must be rubbing his hands in glee.
Harry Reid is the luckiest conservadem on the planet.
OK, my bad. Angle claims she isn’t a scientologist but she asked Sen. Ensign to sponsor a bill at the request of representatives of Scientology. Interesting read.
Here’s the new poll on Halter/Lincoln:
Both Lincoln and Halter lose to Boozman. Lincoln by 20% and Halter by 11%.
Yep. Halter will win the primary, and with those numbers, I think he has a good shot at winning the general.
KY-Sen numbers:
Assuming Rasmussen’s poll showing a 25-pt lead last week was correct this is a huge collapse in his poll numbers.
more on the Obama crime spree:
On September 27, 2009 the Denver Post reported that the Obama administration offered Senate candidate Romanoff a position if he canceled plans to run for the Democratic nomination against incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet. The paper said the job offer, which specified particular jobs, was reportedly delivered by Jim Messina, Obama’s deputy chief of staff. One position cited by the Post was a job at USAID, the…
You poor, naive fools. You don’t offer the job with the words “if you don’t…” You just have to offer the job. The person drops out of the race simply by accepting the job, so no quid pro quo is ever put forward. Geez, you folks are dumb. How did you think this system has been operating, under all parties, since the founding of the Republic?
If you are interested in going to Senator Kaufman’s Wilmington office tomorrow mid-day (at 12:30pm) to thank him for his great work on the financial reform bill, please contact me for details. paul@mallardadvisors.com The meeting with be with the Senator’s staff (his state director), not likely with the Senator himself.
I’m actually very concerned with the Obama administration offering jobs to qualified people. That’s extremely scandalous. Don’t they know they’re supposed to offer jobs to incompetent cronies?
EDITORIAL: Walpin-gate reopens–Fired inspector general files a new court petition
The Washington Times ^ | May 26, 2010 | Editorial
Republican senators ought to place an open and immediate hold upon the nomination of Jon A. Hatfield as inspector general of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). The legislative hold is necessary not to question Mr. Hatfield’s fitness for the job, but to insist that the job itself should not yet be deemed open. The former inspector general (IG), the improperly dismissed Gerald Walpin, filed a motion in court May 20 to force a judge to stop ignoring his lawsuit for reinstatement. Until he receives his day in court, no replacement should be confirmed.
President Obama dismissed the widely respected Mr. Walpin on June 11, 2009, shortly after Mr. Walpin issued two reports highly embarrassing to political allies of the president. Despite a legal requirement that presidents provide 30 days’ notice to remove any IG and provide an explanation for the dismissal, Mr. Obama originally did neither. When the White House belatedly offered some reasons, they were rife with errors, inconsistencies and a few outright falsehoods.
On July 17, Mr. Walpin filed a federal lawsuit demanding reinstatement. Since then, Judge Richard W. Roberts of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has sat on motion after motion, countermotion after countermotion, without lifting a finger to move the case along. In so doing, he has ignored specific time limits contained in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure…
rules? procedures? laws? the Dear Leader is bound by none of these earthly things.
“There was no governing legal authority.” – Al Gore
“Did you plug the hole yet, daddy?”
Just getting the word now that the DADT repeal passed the Senate Armed Forces Committee 16-12.
I wonder if the republickins will complain about oil company executives being read their Miranda rights before questioning?
A great former Delawarean has died.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10147/1061201-122.stm