Shocker: CNN lowballs tea party turnout in Searchlight, NV

The kickoff to the next circuit of the Tea Party Express was held yesterday in Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid's hometown of Searchlight, Nevada.  Not surprisingly, it was sparsely or overwhelmingly attended, depending on where you get your news.  From Jeff Poor at News Busters:

If the media outlets are going to report on tea party events, they're not likely to get any benefit of the doubt much of the time.

Case in point - at the Tea Party Express event on March 27 in Searchlight, Nev., which former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spoke, CNN's Fredericka Whitfield wasn't quite prepared to give the rally credit it was due as far as participation. She estimated that hundreds, but if not, "at least dozens of people" were in attendance. (h/t fstaff with assist from Mark Finkelstein)

"Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin there in Searchlight, Nev., was the backyard of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, but today it's the backdrop of this Tea Party Express - making a stop here," Whitfield said. "Hundreds of people, at least dozens of people - we haven't gotten a count of how many people turned out there. We heard Sarah Palin talk about everything about the campaign, to unseat Sen. Reid to what she calls ObamaCare, on the heels of that health care vote and even talking about her definition of her love of America."

Politico's Kenneth Vogel had a little higher number, saying "an estimated 20,000 tea partiers gathered for a rally in a windswept desert lot," in his March 27 report on the event.

So predictable.

Senate warns employees: avoid the Drudge Report!

Senate officials have warned employees to "avoid the Drudge Report:"

Just as the healthcare drama in the capitol reaches a grand finale, congressional officials are warning employees to avoid the DRUDGE REPORT!

The Senate's Committee on Environment and Public Works issued an urgent email late Monday claiming the DRUDGE REPORT is 'responsible for the many viruses popping up throughout the Senate.'

The committee ordered hill staff: 'Try to avoid' the DRUDGE REPORT 'for now'.

On Monday DRUDGE served over 29 million pages with NOT ONE email complaint received about 'pop ups', or the site serving 'viruses'.

The site was seen 149,967 times since March 1st from users at senate.gov and 244,347 times at house.gov. [10,825 visits from the White House, eop.gov]

The Systems Administrator may want to continue taking her antibiotic until the prescription runs out.

Developing...

I have been reading the Drudge Report for many years, and do not recall any problems with pop-ups or malware.  If you search on the site for "Harry Reid", it will become clear why Senate Dems want to protect employees from Matt Drudge.

Harry Reid compares health care opponents to racists, sexists, bigots

Fox News replays Harry Reid's pathetic diatribe on the Senate floor this morning comparing opponents of his health care bill to proponents of slavery, and women's suffrage and civil rights obstructionists.  Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) voiced his outrage over Reid's statement shortly afterward on Fox:  From Talking Points Memo:

Hatch, later on Fox News, said the speech was "extremely offensive."



"If you go back into the civil rights debate, it was the Republicans who helped get it through. If you go back to women's rights, Republicans have always been there," Hatch said. "I could go on and on."


"Harry's a friend, but he shouldn't have used that language," he said, adding that it was a "slap in the face" to both Republicans and Democrats.

Here's the offending video clip:




Dingy Harry never lets the facts get in the way of the show.  Here's a little history recap which is instructive in laying bare Reid's absurd statement.
 
On the morning of June 10, 1964, Senator Robert Byrd (now 92, President pro tempore of the Senate and third in line to the presidency) ended his 14-hour address (see famous filibusters) delivered in an attempt to stop the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  From the senate website, here's what happened next:

As Senator Byrd took his seat, House members, former senators, and others—150 of them—vied for limited standing space at the back of the chamber. With all gallery seats taken, hundreds waited outside in hopelessly extended lines.



Georgia Democrat Richard Russell offered the final arguments in opposition. Minority Leader Everett Dirksen, who had enlisted the Republican votes that made cloture a realistic option, spoke for the proponents with his customary eloquence. Noting that the day marked the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's nomination to a second term, the Illinois Republican proclaimed, in the words of Victor Hugo, "Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come." He continued, "The time has come for equality of opportunity in sharing in government, in education, and in employment. It will not be stayed or denied. It is here!"

Never in history had the Senate been able to muster enough votes to cut off a filibuster on a civil rights bill. And only once in the 37 years since 1927 had it agreed to cloture for any measure. (red emphasis mine)

Oh, and about women's suffrage, here's a mini-refresher course from the National Federation of Republican Women's website:

The Republican Party pioneered the right of women to vote and was consistent in its support throughout the long campaign for acceptance. It was the first major party to advocate equal rights for women and the principle of equal pay for equal work.



The Women’s Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls, N.Y., in 1848 marked the beginning of the women’s suffrage movement in the United States. Two years later there was a nationwide meeting in Worcester, Mass.


By 1870, the Massachusetts Republican State Convention had already seated two suffragettes, Lucy Stone and Mary A. Livermore, as delegates. In addition, the National Republican Convention of 1872 approved a resolution favoring the admission of women to “wider fields of usefulness” and added that “the honest demand of this class of citizens for additional rights … should be treated with respectful consideration.”


Wyoming, the state that pioneered women’s suffrage, sent two women, Therese A. Jenkins and Cora G. Carleton, to the 1892 Republican Convention in Minneapolis as alternate delegates. This was the first time women were seated at a Republican National Convention.


This convention was also the first to be addressed by a woman, J. Ellen Foster, chairman of the Women’s Republican Association of the United States. A strong believer in organization, Foster said her association had prepared work plans for women’s involvement in national politics. Copies were given to each delegate and alternate. “We are here to help you,” she declared, “and we are here to stay.”


At the request of Susan B. Anthony, Sen. A.A. Sargent, a Republican from California, introduced the 19th Amendment in 1878. Sargent’s amendment (also known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment) was defeated four times by a Democrat-controlled Senate. When the Republican Party regained control of Congress in 1919, the Equal Suffrage Amendment finally passed the House in May of that year and in the Senate in June.


When the Amendment was submitted to the states, 26 of the 36 states that ratified it had Republican legislatures. Of the nine states that voted against ratification, eight were Democratic. Twelve states, all Republican, had given women full suffrage before the federal amendment was ratified.

I really think rebutting Reid on the slavery slander should be unnecessary, but in this time of revisionist dumbed-down history in our public school system, I feel I must finish what I started.  First this,

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

And this

The 13th amendment, which formally abolished slavery in the United States, passed the Senate on April 8, 1864, and the House on January 31, 1865. On February 1, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress submitting the proposed amendment to the state legislatures. The necessary number of states ratified it by December 6, 1865. The 13th amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

The leadership of Harry Reid reminds me of a favorite quote:

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Washington Post veteran calls Obamacare "budget buster"

I never thought I would be posting a favorable blog based on an article by David Broder in the Washington Post, but tonight I must.

In "Budget Buster in the Making", Broder shines a light on the public's true opinion of government sponsored health care reform.  It is a cogent article that you should read if you can find the time.  Here's a sneak peak:

It's simply not true that America is ambivalent about everything when it comes to the Obama health plan.

The day after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) gave its qualified blessing to the version of health reform produced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Quinnipiac University poll of a national cross section of voters reported its latest results.

This poll may not be as famous as some others, but I know the care and professionalism of the people who run it, and one question was particularly interesting to me.

It read: "President Obama has pledged that health insurance reform will not add to our federal budget deficit over the next decade. Do you think that President Obama will be able to keep his promise or do you think that any health care plan that Congress passes and President Obama signs will add to the federal budget deficit?"

The answer: Less than one-fifth of the voters -- 19 percent of the sample -- think he will keep his word. Nine of 10 Republicans and eight of 10 independents said that whatever passes will add to the torrent of red ink. By a margin of four to three, even Democrats agreed this is likely.

That fear contributed directly to the fact that, by a 16-point margin, the majority in this poll said they oppose the legislation moving through Congress.

I have been writing for months that the acid test for this effort lies less in the publicized fight over the public option or the issue of abortion coverage than in the plausibility of its claim to be fiscally responsible.

This is obviously turning out to be the case. While the CBO said that both the House-passed bill and the one Reid has drafted meet Obama's test by being budget-neutral, every expert I have talked to says that the public has it right. These bills, as they stand, are budget-busters.

Our country does not want and cannot afford this health care bill.  Notwithstanding recent forecasts that "The U.S. economy is coming out of recession thanks to massive government stimulus and will grow more than expected in 2010,", Americans are not buying it.

Bloomberg reports this week:

Confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly dropped in November as the loss of jobs threatened to undermine the biggest part of the economy.

The Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary sentiment index decreased to a three-month low of 66 from 70.6 in October. A report from the Commerce Department showed the trade deficit widened in September by the most in a decade as rising demand for imported oil and automobiles swamped a fifth consecutive gain in exports.

Rising joblessness puts the economy at risk of slipping into a vicious circle of firings and declines in consumer spending that will limit the emerging recovery.

Look at David Goldman's analysis of the monthly Labor Department survey released yesterday.  From his article "Unemployment rates rise in 29 states" at CNNMoney.com:

A growing number of states reported rising jobless rates in October, and thirteen states reported unemployment rates above the national average of 10.2%, according to a government report released on Friday.

Oh, I forgot, it's a jobless recovery.

Tonight Harry Reid got the 60 votes needed to send his 2074 page health care bill to the Senate floor for debate after the Thanksgiving break.  I am sure he thinks that people are going to be too busy celebrating with family, eating turkey, putting up Christmas decorations and shopping next week, to even think about health care reform.  Maybe he's right.  But I would bet that Senate phones will start melting on the morning of November 30.

Reid ad says he's America's most powerful senator

From the Hill:

Senate Majority Leader (D-Nev.) is touting his Senate influence in his latest campaign ad.

The top Senate Democrat, who has looked vulnerable to a Republican challenger in 2010 in a series of opinion polls, is on-air in Nevada boasting of his clout in a 60-second TV ad.

"He's the most powerful senator Nevada has ever had, and Harry Reid's working harder than ever to get Nevada's economy back on track," the narrator in the ad says.

The ad lays out a number of projects Reid has helped obtain or preserve for his home state.

"America's most powerful senator," the ad concludes. "Harry Reid: Determination that makes a difference."




The Las Vegas Sun paints a dismal picture of what "America's most powerful senator" has been able to do for the state of Nevada during his 26 years in the House and the Senate. 

On Oct. 15, foreclosure-tracker RealtyTrac reported Nevada led the nation in the percentage of housing units receiving foreclosure filings in September and the third quarter.

Today, the Irvine, Calif., firm broke out the numbers by metro area. They show Las Vegas leading the nation in foreclosure filings with one in every 20 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in the quarter -- well above the national rate of one in every 136 housing units.

The rate for Las Vegas was up 8.82 percent from the second quarter and up 53.6 percent from the third quarter of 2008, RealtyTrac said.

Reno came in at No. 9 on the list, with one in 37 homes receiving a filing in the quarter -- up 14.1 percent from the second quarter and up 80 percent from 2008's third quarter.

The Nevada numbers are related to the state's skyrocketing unemployment rate, which reached 13.3 percent in September.

Perhaps Nevadans would be better off taking a chance on a former UNLV basketball star or a former leader of the Nevada GOP in 2010.  It is unlikely either would do worse for Nevada.

Nevada architecture firm under scrutiny for contributions to Harry Reid

A Nevada architecture firm is being investigated by the Federal Election Commission for irregular campaign contributions to Senator Harry Reid who is up for re-election next year.  Las Vegas Review-Journal reports:

A local architecture firm that recently won an $8.3 million federal contract to redesign a U.S. border crossing in California is being investigated by the Federal Election Commission for irregular campaign contributions to Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, who is up for re-election next year.

Henderson resident Randy Spitzmesser prompted the FEC probe of his former employer, Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects.

On behalf of the architecture firm, Las Vegas attorney Stan Hunterton told the Las Vegas Review-Journal by fax last month, "We do not believe that anything was intentionally done wrong" regarding campaign finances.

Spitzmesser also thinks Henderson-based Tate Snyder Kimsey did not adequately disclose its recent history of legal disputes to the agency that awarded the border-crossing job.

His FEC complaint alleges the architecture firm illegally forced him to donate $1,000 to Reid in February and then covertly repaid him after he complained he didn't have the money to spare. The firm hid the transaction, he said, by adding an extra $1,000 to a check that was also his reimbursement for legitimate business expenses. Federal laws prohibit campaign contributions that come from corporations, disguise the true donor's identity or involve coercion.

"We should not force our political will" in the workplace, is how Spitzmesser explained his resistance to supporting Reid. He said he voiced his opposition directly to Windom Kimsey, a firm principal. Spitzmesser said Kimsey responded that individuals who did not support Reid "will not have any work for the upcoming year."

In late June, the firm laid off Spitzmesser, citing a lack of work. Less than a month later, it won a huge assignment from the U.S. General Services Administration to modernize and expand the land port of entry in Otay Mesa, Calif. Federal stimulus dollars will pay for the project.

Reid and his re-election staff are aware of the FEC probe, campaign manager Brandon Hall said Friday.

"The allegation is against the company, not the Reid campaign," Hall said. "It's an issue for the firm."

It has been my observation that when people break federal election laws, it is generally done in expectation of some payoff worthy of the risk.  This is bad news for dingy Harry, and bad news is the last thing he needs.  Rasmussen polling in September show Reid behind each of two possible GOP challengers.

In what is currently a difficult political climate for Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid trails two potential Republican challengers seeking to unseat him as he faces reelection next year in Nevada.

The first Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of the 2010 race shows Sue Lowden beating Reid by 10 percentage points, 50% to 40%. Lowden is chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Party and the preferred candidate of the Republican party establishment.
GOP hopeful Danny Tarkanian beats Reid by seven points, 50% to 43%. Tarkanian is a former basketball player for the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and the son of a legendary college basketball coach.

Any incumbent who polls below the 50% level is considered potentially vulnerable, and Reid is clearly in that category.

Nevada has one of the highest home foreclosure rates in the nation and a September unemployment rate of 13.3%, second only to Michigan.  The people of that state are hurting and need jobs.  Stimulus money paid to Reid's cronies to work on big projects in California isn't going to help.