kpete
kpete's JournalBye-Bye, Cooch - VA Women Voted To "Protect" Themselves From Ken Cuccinelli
But don’t let that distract from what really happened in Virginia today: An official who consistently used his elected office to promote policies that shamed, marginalized, and patronized women and other minorities was met with a “no.” This wasn’t just about money, or the shutdown, or Star Scientific, or Terry McAuliffe’s fancy Clinton-era friends. It was about voters and what they know to be true. The vote may have been close, but in the end Virginians, especially women, showed that they simply don’t believe that the commonwealth of Virginia should be in the business of discriminating against homosexuals, legislating an extreme anti-sodomy agenda, shuttering Planned Parenthood clinics, pressing an invasive trans-vaginal ultrasound law, and supporting a draconian illegal immigration law.
[...]
Virginia women who were mostly affronted by talk of trans-vaginal ultrasounds and clinic closures and constraints on birth control, know a whole lot about what they need to be protected from and when. And today they voted to “protect” themselves from Ken Cuccinelli.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/11/05/ken_cuccinelli_loses_in_virginia_women_say_no_thanks_we_re_cool.html
31 percent. That's the number of the night, people.
Big Chicken In ExcelsisBy Charles P. Pierce at 10:00am
31 percent.
That's the number of the night, people.
That's the percentage of self-identified "liberals" that voted for Chris Christie, essentially endorsing the idea that he should run for president of the United States, since that was the real purpose of the New Jersey gubernatorial election yesterday. It certainly wasn't about who's going to be the governor of New Jersey, since Big Chicken is eighty-eight-and-out-the-gate as soon as the dust clears from next autumn's midterms, if not sooner. (All that talk about "Washington" in his acceptance speech was a pretty clear indication that the man has his travelin' shoes on already.) No, as soon as it was determined by the strategic geniuses in the Democratic party that Barbara Buono would be fed to the woodchipper -- and good on her for calling the duplicitous bastards on it last night -- the only issue in the election became whether or not you think Chris Christie should run for president. And 31 percent of the liberals who voted assented to that proposition. How the hell did that happen on a night when the state also kicked him squarely in the nuts by overwhelmingly reversing his veto of an increase in the minimum wage, a veto that is the perfect expression of everything Chris Christie stands for as a politician? If you want to know why actual liberalism continues to be a dead parrot in our politics, and why the only real political dynamic in the country revolves around a choice over whether we will drift slowly to the right or stampede headlong in that direction, look to that number.
There is no reason on god's earth why a self-identified liberal would vote for Chris Christie. He's a tool of the ascendant oligarchy, awful on women's rights, terrible on infrastructure, very high on union-busting, and a short-tempered, thin-skinned bully into the bargain. If you're a New Jersey Democratic legislator who needs a little somethin'-somethin', I can see why you would support him. But 31 percent of liberals? Please. Because of that number, and because he also got 32 percent of the overall Democratic vote, the Christie '16 narrative is now set in stone. He's the Obamist candidate who can bring folks together. He can end the "divisiveness" in our politics, which will be a way for us to anesthetize ourselves to the reality that one of our two major political parties determined that the nation would not be governed by a black man. We will all move on to glory together because of Chris Christie's healing hand.
It is to wonder.
Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/chris-christie-re-election-110613
Pelosi Reads Letterman’s ‘Top 10 Things You Never Knew about the House of Representatives’
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi joined David Letterman for his nightly “Top 10? list, offering little-known facts about the House, including its monthly steroid testings and Steny Hoyer’s unique middle name. And, of course, there’s a cheapshot at the Tea Party in there.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/363242/pelosi-reads-lettermans-top-10-things-you-never-knew-about-house-representatives
Serial plagiarism is the very definition of "intended to mislead."
Paul, a likely candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, also said he is sensitive about his character being questioned. “What makes me mad about the whole thing is that I believe there is a difference between errors of omission and errors of intention,” he said. “We aren’t perfect and we have made errors of omission, but we never intended to mislead anybody.”
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/363246/rand-paul-fights-press-robert-costa
Morning Plum: Virginia race not a referendum on Obamacare, after all
Morning Plum: Virginia race not a referendum on Obamacare, after all
BY GREG SARGENT
November 6 at 9:07 am
Democrat Terry McAuliffe squeaked out a closer than expected victory in the Virginia governor’s race last night, edging Republican Ken Cuccinelli by two points. Republicans such as Cuccinell, Marco Rubio, and RNC chair Reince Priebus had repeatedly cast the race as a “referendum on Obamacare.”
Not so much.
Indeed, it’s hard to look at last night’s results as a definitive declaration of public opinion on Obamacare either way — whether for or against. The only conclusion I think you can begin to draw from the results is that an absolutist position against the law doesn’t command sufficient support to win statewide in Virginia, a state that is widely seen by observers as a key indicator of national demographic and political trends. The law is probably still on probation with many voters, but the law’s most ardent foes are wrong — they just don’t represent a majority or mainstream position.
According to the exit polls, only 27 percent of Virginia voters saw the health law as the top issue, and among them, only a bare plurality (49-45) supported Cuccinelli. Far more (45 percent) named the economy.
MORE:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/11/06/morning-plum-virginia-race-not-a-referendum-on-obamacare-after-all/
Virginia Gun Shop Handed Out Free AR-15 Magazines To Voters
Virginia Gun Shop Handed Out Free AR-15 Magazines To Voters
In an attempt to get out the vote on Election Day, Quantico Tactical in Woodbridge, VA handed out free 30-round AR-15 magazines to anyone who showed a Virginia voter ID or active duty military ID. A post on the gun shop’s Facebook page advertised, “No Strings Attached – No Purchase Necessary.”
It’s illegal to give out free rewards for voting, as it’s considered electioneering under federal law — which probably explains why the magazine giveaway was not explicit tied to proof of voting. According to Capitol City Project, there was a line of people at the store waiting to claim their free magazine.
Even with this incentive for gun-owning voters, gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli II still lost the election. Cuccinelli touted his pro-gun stance often on the campaign trail, even boasting about his “A” NRA rating during a speech at Virginia Tech, the site of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
MORE:
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/11/06/2898201/high-capacity-magazines-giveaway-vote/
Christie won big because he wrapped his arms around president & Dems rewarded him by standing down.
Chris Christie had a big win and gave a pretty good speech. But the theme he took was about cooperation. The reality is that Christie won big because he wrapped his arms around the president and the Democrats rewarded him by standing down. What kind of message does that send to the rest of the Republican Party?
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/11/5/232623/965
Sen. Graham: Obama Told Me to 'Take a Hike' on Benghazi
Sen. Graham: Obama Told Me to 'Take a Hike' on Benghazi
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when Graham, who is on the Armed Services and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees, approached Obama, asking him for more access, he says he was told to "take a hike."
"I'm not trying to impede a criminal investigation. I'm not looking to figure out who to blame or who to prosecute. I want to hear from the survivors," Graham said.
"Can you imagine what former Sens. Hillary Clinton and Obama would be saying if this were the Bush administration denying access to the witnesses? There would be a riot in the street."
Graham thinks the details surrounding the Benghazi attack were swept under the carpet because the presidential election was just weeks away.
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/NewsmaxTv/Lindsey-Graham-Barack-Obama-hike-Benghazi/2013/11/05/id/534947#ixzz2jsLVZB9A
House Leader Accidentally Admits GOP Has No Interest In Governing
As chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) plays an integral role in determining exactly how productive Congress can be in passing legislation. In an interview with Roll Call published Tuesday, however, the nine-term Republican admitted that the GOP's primary interests aren't even in the chamber it controls.
"Everything we do in this body should be about messaging to win back the Senate,” Sessions said. “That’s it. If you don’t want Benghazis to happen or you want an investigation for Benghazi, if you want an investigation on the IRS as opposed to the excuses that (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid [D-Nev.] is all about, if you do not like what’s happening at the (National Security Agency), then you gain the Senate.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/05/house-gop-leadership_n_4221876.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
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