State parties look past RNC for cash

Tx Champ Party: ConservativeReply #2Sep. 3, 2010 - 5:28 AM EST

That's not exactly the case, Trick Dick. People are not sending $$$ to the RNC because Michael Steele has proven to be a bad steward of the organization.

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Ariz. rematch hinges on nat'l party

9/3/10 3:18 PM EDT Updated: 9/3/10 3:34 PM EDT

The question facing voters in Arizona's 5th District is whether Democratic Rep. Harry Mitchell is more lap dog or lone wolf.

GOP challenger David Schweikert has posted signs across the Tempe-based political battleground calling the two-term incumbent a "lap dog" for Speaker Nancy Pelosi, after Mitchell voted for the bank bailout in 2008, the $787 billion stimulus law in 2009 and this year's health care overhaul.

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Brewer: No more debates

9/3/10 3:39 PM EDT Updated: 9/3/10 4:13 PM EDT

After freezing for more than 10 seconds in Wednesday’s debate, Arizona GOP Gov. Jan Brewer has announced that she will not agree to another engagement with her rival.

Brewer appeared to forget portions of her opening statement Wednesday during her first debate against Democrat Terry Goddard.

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McCain embraces the GOP's right

AMAT Party: NAReply #1Sep. 5, 2010 - 4:18 PM EST

Graham called Obama "tone-deaf" and his administration's policy work "the most liberal agenda in modern times" while McCain slammed the White House economic policies as "Obama Keynesian on steroids," which have failed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ok Mr McCain it is words like (Obama Keynesian) what has this country in hate mode. Now we really see where you stand Mr. Mccain you are a racist

OK POLITICO LETS GET GOING WITH THIS STATEMENT

THAT IS GONE TO FAR COMING FROM A MEMBER OF CONGRESS

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Rubio's father dies

beisbolfan Party: NAReply #1Sep. 5, 2010 - 12:29 PM EST

My sympathies for Rubio's loss. I hope this does not derail his campaign. I hope he wins, but it is looking more and more that Crist is gonna winnit. And it looks like Reid hangs on in Nevada, and Boxer beats Carly in Cali.

Republicans are doomed.

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Anti-war groups battle for survival

9/4/10 5:37 PM EDT

As President Barack Obama formally declared an end to combat operations in Iraq this week, the anti-war movement that helped sweep him into office — and that worked for seven years to bring U.S. troops home — finds itself struggling for survival.

Several factors — war fatigue; a deep, lingering recession; and the presence of a Democratic president they helped elect — have drained the energy from organizations that led the fight against the Iraq war. Some of the most influential anti-war activist groups that once summoned half a million people to march against the Iraq war and the policies of former President George W. Bush are straining to raise the money and attention to fight what they see as Obama’s military entrenchment in Afghanistan.

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Small business prods Senate

9/5/10 12:35 PM EDT Updated: 9/5/10 3:01 PM EDT

The effort to pass a small-business bill that stalled in August is gaining urgency, as small-business advocates echo President Barack Obama’s call for action on the legislation that would provide tax relief and access to Small Business Administration loans to small businesses.

“Putting money in the pockets of both consumers and small-business people so they can take advantage of the opportunities when they come along is crucial,” said Todd McCracken, president of the National Small Business Association, in an interview on CNN’s "State of the Union" on Sunday.

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Latest mosque issue: The money trail

9/4/10 7:05 AM EDT Updated: 9/5/10 11:33 AM EDT

First there was the battle over the mosque. Now there’s the battle over who’s funding the mosque and the campaign against it.

The fact that it’s not easy to figure out where proponents and opponents of the mosque project in lower Manhattan are getting their money has given each side the opportunity to cast the other’s finances — and motives — in a sinister light.

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Dems have few options on economy

9/3/10 5:23 PM EDT

With another tepid jobs report in the books Friday, Democrats desperate for quick policy action to boost the economy face an excruciating dilemma, experts say.

The few things that might pass Congress — such as a payroll tax holiday or extended research-and-development tax credits — won’t work, or at least not before November’s midterm elections, when Democrats face potentially devastating losses.

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Summers' tough words for China

9/5/10 2:00 PM EDT Updated: 9/5/10 2:22 PM EDT

National Economic Council Director Larry Summers’ trip this weekend to China for a series of high-level meetings is a rare opportunity for the Obama administration to deliver a potent message to the Chinese government.

The message: Domestic patience with China is running out. The messenger: Summers, an unlikely diplomat by most accounts, whose brusque personality and communication style may be just what the White House needs to inject a sense of urgency into the tense negotiations.

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Dems run away from health care

9/5/10 7:24 AM EDT Updated: 9/5/10 12:25 PM EDT

A handful of House Democrats are making health care reform an election year issue — by running against it.

At least five of the 34 House Democrats who voted against their party’s health care reform bill are highlighting their “no” votes in ads back home. By contrast, party officials in Washington can’t identify a single House member who’s running an ad boasting of a “yes” vote — despite the fact that 219 House Democrats voted in favor of final passage in March.

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Blair: Iraq war was necessary

9/5/10 1:33 PM EDT

A candid former British Prime Minister Tony Blair stands by his and the Bush administration’s decision to pursue the Iraq war, even as he expresses regret for the lives lost in the conflict.

“You can't not have regrets about the lives lost,” Blair said. “I mean, you would be inhuman if you didn't regret the death of so many extraordinary, brave and committed soldiers, of civilians that have died in Iraq, or die still now in Afghanistan. And, of course, you feel an enormous responsibility for that, not just regret.”

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House Dems urged to aid colleagues

9/5/10 5:05 PM EDT Updated: 9/5/10 6:09 PM EDT

House Democratic leaders are pumping rank-and-file lawmakers for more campaign money as they hope to forestall Machiavellian decisions to cut off incumbents with dim prospects for winning reelection. 

On a conference call last week, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) briefed fellow leaders on the "state of play" two months before the midterm election and emphasized the need to collect money from lawmakers who are sitting on healthy campaign treasuries despite facing nominal competition for their own seats, according to Democratic aides.

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GOP gov hopefuls run against Obama

9/5/10 4:38 PM EDT Updated: 9/5/10 5:07 PM EDT

They’re all Rick Perrys now.

A year and a half after the governor of Texas energized his reelection campaign by casting himself as an antagonist to President Barack Obama, Republican gubernatorial candidates across the country are following his example.

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Job Creation - 15 Reasons The Obama Job Creation Plan May Actually Increase the Jobless Rate

Yep, I said it. And here are the reasons why Obama is going to have a difficult time creating jobs even with his new robust jobs creation plan proposed today.


The plans to “spend our way out” of the problem did not work the first time nor any other time for that matter. Money spent on entitlement programs isn’t likely to create net jobs

There are still funds available in the Stimulus for infrastructure projects. All we’re doing is adding another $70 Billion to these unspent funds.

Tax incentives to homeowners for investing in energy saving improvements will benefit consumers that have money to spend on those improvements. The unemployed auto worker in Detroit will not benefit from some granola eating hippie in Boulder, CO who puts a solar panel on the roof.

The only tax cuts that are effective in jobs creation plans are those targeted at businesses who hire.

Increasing spending until you get the result you want is similar to “doubling down” and is just as risky in D.C. as it is on Wall Street or in Vegas.

Obama is borrowing sound economic advice from Mitt Romney but mixing it with his own plans to spend, spend, spend on Government expansion. When it doesn’t work, he can blame republicans this time.

If it does work, he’ll take credit for the increase in net job creation as a result of the spending. It will be difficult to prove which part of the plan was successful although, we’ll all know it was a direct result if reducing taxes on small businesses.

Letting the Bush tax cuts on businesses expire and reducing taxes on capital expenditures is a zero sum game. All he’s doing is shifting revenue by eliminating one tax while implementing another.

If you’re going to take Romney’s economic advice, you’d better take it all, rather than pick and choose. Obama needs to implement Romney’s tax cut suggestions as a whole, by extending the Bush tax cuts on businesses as well.

It’s been proven time and time again that increased taxes result in lower federal tax revenues.

Democrats’ plans to pay for everything with tax increases has not worked in the past and is partly to blame for the mess we’re in now. U.S. businesses already have the some of the highest business taxes in the Global economy.

Americans’ are getting tired of the seemingly endless new tax proposals. It seems as though every day there is a new Democratic tax proposal, whether it’s on junk food, cigarettes, gas, investment trading, marijuana, tanning salons, etc. “Tax and Spend” policies do not and have not ever worked.

Obama plans to use money left over from a successful TARP program which funds were supposed to be used to pay down our debt. Instead he is proposing we spend those funds as well.

Obama has never actually been an employer or even worked for an employer. He has no knowledge or experience of jobs creation. Hell, he probably couldn’t even conduct a job interview himself. Just look at some of the people he’s hired: Van Jones, Kevin Jennings, etc.

Obama has a history of misrepresenting support for his programs. Remember the CEO of Caterpillar who had to correct Obama by saying “the reality is that we’ll have to lay off more workers before we’re able to begin hiring again…” People are starting to lose faith and trust in his words. We’re ready to see some action.
I’m sure there are other reasons why Obama will have an increasingly difficult time improving jobs. I, for one, do not trust what he says as he has not upheld many of his promises to American’s during his infamous campaign.

The Face of Healthcare Reform - Michael Scott - Huh?!

What?!  I can't be serious, right?  Well I am.  Recently I found a website featuring quotes from NBC's The Office starring Steve Carrell.  This is probably my favorite comedy tv show of all time.  Although, Modern Family is now becoming a close competitor.  Anyway...here is a quote that I find may resemble the true feelings of many Democratic leaders. 

You see, I believe elected Democrats truly believe in their cause to reform healthcare, but I think they might be a little out of touch with the majority of Americans on their process of doing it.  So read this quote and imagine, for a second, that it came from Nancy Pelosi, and not Michael Scott.  Kind of like what Liberals still do with Sarah Palin and Tina Fey.  People are still quoting Sarah Palin as saying "I can see Russia from my house..." and they didn't even know that Tina Fey said that!  So do the same thing here...

"The most sacred thing I do is care. And provide for my workers, my family. I give them money. I give them food. Not directly, but through the money. I heal them. Today I am in charge of picking a great new healthcare plan. Right, that’s what this is all about. Does that make me their doctor? Um… yes. In a way. Yeah, like a specialist."  -- Michael Scott

Obama, Net Neutrality Definition, and The FCC...WTF?!

Definition of Net Neutrality

The first thing to understand is that the vote which occurred this week was simply a vote to begin talks on net neutrality. So the debate begins.

Republicans haven’t really formed any type of opinion on this matter. Some have introduced a competing bill, like McCain’s proposed legislation that would prevent the FCC from regulating traffic on the internet. Democrats, largely, are all for it the new laws. I’ll opine on this in a moment. First, what is net neutrality?

Currently your ISP, internet service provider (like Comcast, Wild Blue, NetZero, etc) regulates the amount of bandwidth (juice) is able to flow through your internet connection. The amount bandwidth is what determines your ability to consume online content such as stream video from YouTube or Hulu or even speak on the “phone” over a VoIP connection such as Vonage or the Magic Jack. The FCC does not get involved right now in regulating how much juice is able to flow through the pipes.

Internet information that flows through your connection is segmented into what are called packets. These packets all have different identifiers that tell the ISP what kind of traffic they are. This allows companies like AT&T to slow down traffic (or packets) flowing through your internet connection so they can allocate more bandwidth (horsepower) to their own VoIP service which makes AT&T’s service more reliable than it’s competitors’ services being accessed through the same ISP. So, if I have Vonage, but get internet through AT&T, I may not get as reliable service if I had just subscribed to AT&T’s VoIP service. So already you can see the anti-competitive implications developing.

But, on the other hand say I’m a Comcast customer and I’m downloading huge HD movies from a peer to peer network like The Pirate Bay or some other torrent site. Currently Comcast has the ability to slow me down to the point that it’s not worth the wait to download Tilight New Moon since it’s going to take me 2 weeks to do it! So there are arguments both ways. But the bottom line is that the FCC Net Neutrality laws will seek to take that power away from the ISP’s and say “nope, you gotta open up the flood gates and let the internet juices flow!” No more discrimination based on traffic types!

Obama has stated his support in the FCC Net Neutrality laws. Some Republicans have said it is the Fairness Doctrine applied to the internet. So what do you need to know about it? What will it mean to you?
If Net Neutrality is passed eventually you will soon be able to download big files on the internet without limitations imposed currently by the ISP’s. The road will be paved to allow HD video streaming from the internet. YouTube videos could be hosted in full 1080P HD. Services like Vonage and Magic Jack will become more popular as the call quality will increase drastically. Illegal internet activity will spike because the ISP’s will not have the ability to block it. Comcast once tried to slow down peer to peer downloading traffic (notorious for illegal copy write infringement). They abandoned that activity for fear of falling under scrutiny of future net neutrality laws. Costs for internet service will likely increase as well because there will be an added cost to ISP’s in pure infrastructure. They will need to beef up their systems to allow full throttle internet access across the board to all subscribers.

Also this summer, Google announced its plans to develop a micro-payment system for internet consumption. There is a group of people and companies which includes Google to push for transitioning internet service from a subscription base to a utility based service. Basically every household connecting to the internet would be connected at the full speed available and they would receive a monthly bill based on usage. This way the people consuming bandwidth would pay for their share. This would put an end to the cable internet providers promotion of low monthly fees for 6 months after which they “jack the price up.”

The WTF Report believes that we are now living in an environment where open internet access to all is vital to stimulate competition among the big companies. My current position is in support of the FCC Net Neutrality laws which Obama also supports. Although it would eventually create a headache for the company I work for. As a satellite tv provider, my employer would be faced with the transition of tv entertainment from the airwaves to the internet. Newspaper organizations will be able to actually transition their news from print to online versions and still receive payment based on consumption. Barring some hidden agenda or loopholes to nationalize media sources, I don’t see any reason for Republicans to oppose this type of legislation.

So….to John McCain we say…WTF?!

And....It's Official - HOAX!

But seriously, did anyone really believe that this nut was telling the truth?! My wife and I immediately knew it was a hoax when we heard who the family was. We watched that episode of Wife Swap they were on and knew there was something wrong with those people. But here's how I knew immediately that it was all a hoax:

1. They video taped the younger boy getting in the balloon, tape cuts out...then shows the balloon taking off.

2. The first call for help was made to the local 9News! The guy called the "media" to tell them his 6 year old boy was being carried away in an experimental weather balloon.

I hope they are prosecuted and reimburse the costs incurred. The farm field where the balloon came down was even damaged by all the rescue vehicles. There was extensive crop damage. They need to pay for that too.

On a related note, on the way to church today we saw a hot air balloon coming down in the trees at Chatfield state park. You could tell it was not intended, because there were people running across the field from where it launched over to the trees! I don't think anyone was hurt though, although, maybe some cuts and scrapes??

Healthcare Campaign Losing Steam

Recently Obama appeared on several Sunday morning talk shows in an effort to push healthcare reform.  It's been a few weeks now and I'm curious to see if it has had any effect on the interest of Americans.  So I turned to Google to gather some aggregated internet search data.  It's fairly effective to utilize Google data in determining public interest.  Below is a chart based on Google search data regarding four of the top issues facing Americans today.  This was eye opening to me.  I'll explain...but first, the chart: Right Click the frame to open in a new window or tab. For some reason Blogger is not showing the whole frame.




The results I found were nothing short of surprising. I would expect there to be a relatively higher amount of traffic around healthcare related searches. But over the last 30 days (since Obama's re-dedication to healthcare reform) public interest has been on a steady decline. In fact, the aggregated data indicate that there is more public interest surrounding the issues relating to Iran than there is interest in healthcare issues.

There are some disclaimers that need to be made. For example, this research doesn't differentiate between negative and positive searches. It only aggregates all searches around the term healthcare. I was able to filter the data to include only those searches relating to news and current events. This filters out searches around terms like "healthcare insurance" or "capital of Iran." However, this isn't all too important because I'm only trying to gauge public awareness of issues. Google search data is the best gauge because the majority of Americans now get news and information from the internet and conduct research through Google.

What do you think? Is this surprising?

Mmm....Mmmm...Mmmm...George W. Bush....Mmmm...Mmmm....Mmmm....

mmm, mmm, mmm....George W. Bush...mmm, mmm, mmm!  He said that we must all pitch in so the terrorist just cannot win...mmm, mmm, mmm.  George W. Bush.  He said we all should be brave don't fear the lame,  get back on the plane...mmm, mmm, mmm.  George W. Bush.

HA!!  If I had seen recordings of school children singing this tribute I would have been upset.  If you're a liberal and these words offend you and you profess NOT to be a hypocrite, then you must be upset that liberal school teachers are attempting to indoctrinate our children. 

Don't get me wrong, respect for the OFFICE of the President should be taught in schools.  But political opinion has no room in our classrooms.  I find it interesting that when the sitting president was a republican schools across the country were teaching that students should be skeptical of government.  Now that it's a democrat we're teaching that we should respect, honor, and support the government.  If my history lessons from HS serve me correctly, this country was founded by men who were pretty skeptical and critical of government.  WTF?!