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Florida: 3,000 Voter Registrations List a UPS Store as a Residence

April 25, 2014/in Elections, Featured, News, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Gregg Prentice

Voter Fraud? If they’re not catching the easy stuff, what else are they “missing”?

Are some of Florida’s Supervisors of Elections skirting the law? Supervisors are tasked with maintaining an accurate voter roll. One of the requirements on the Supervisors is to ensure that voters provide a legal residence address. Yet a December 2013 analysis shows more than 3,000 voter registrations statewide listing their residence address at a UPS store, potentially illegally.

Florida Law is clear and, with minor exception, requires that voter registrations listing other than an address of legal residence should not be accepted, because they are “ineligible” (F.S. 98.045 (1)(h)). This is considered so important, that it is a felony to willfully submit any false voter registration information (F.S.104.011(2)).

Accordingly, if these “ineligible” registrations are found to exist, Florida statutes also provide for their prompt correction or removal (F.S. 98.075(6) & (7)).

This correction or removal process is supposed to be enabled by Florida Law mandating that each Supervisor maintain a list of valid residential street addresses. This list is explicitly for the “purposes of verifying the legal addresses of voters residing in the supervisor’s county”, (F.S. 98.015(12)).

Yet, further review of this mandated list reveals that of the 3,000 UPS store registrations, more than:

A) 1,200 match addresses already known as commercial that were ignored,

B) 500 match addresses erroneously marked as residential,

C) and 1,100 have no match at all.

Unbelievably, even though our Supervisors are required to submit to the State their updates for their valid residential street address lists on a monthly basis, B & C above could be fixed by the trivial repair or addition of around 120 records.

This mandated list of valid residential street addresses, combined with the simplest of today’s computers, should enable every Supervisor to easily and routinely identify these “ineligible” registrations at the touch of a button. But, it seems actually finding that button is for too many of our Supervisors a step too far.

Now an optimist might think perhaps all these UPS store registrations occurred only recently, and we just need to allow enough time for the Supervisors to do their job. But that optimism would be naive. Because more than 2,300 of the more than 3,000 recently discovered UPS store registrations had the exact same UPS store listed as their residence at least 15 months prior.

Think about that. As we approached our 2012 General Election, Supervisors across our State, for the lack of 120 records and a button press, allowed at least 2,300 likely “ineligible”, potentially law-breaking registrations to remain on the rolls, ready to vote, potentially in the wrong precincts and races.

And vote they did. Approximately 800 of those 2,300 likely “ineligible” registrations voted in our 2012 General Election.

Even more condemning, since Federal Elections occur in even years, the Supervisors are required by law to perform their primary “list maintenance” during the odd years. Yet these 3,000 UPS store registrations were identified in December of 2013 as the Supervisors’ odd year voter roll efforts came to a close. So it’s pretty clear too many of our Supervisors aren’t nearly as effective in their jobs as one might hope.

On a brighter side, of the 67 counties in Florida, 38 were clean. And of the other 29 counties with UPS store registrations, 19 have promptly responded with “Thank-you”, and/or indicate they are following the law and promptly working on the issue. Another 7 counties required phone calls before responding with claims they were making progress.

But even though the Supervisors by law must “Notify the registered voter of his or her potential ineligibility by mail within 7 days after receipt of notice or information” (F.S. 98.075(7)), the remaining 3 counties after more than a month have either not responded at all to multiple requests, or are have only responded weakly. And these three offenders are some of Florida’s most populated counties: Broward, Orange and Hillsborough.

Broward county receives the “here’s your sign” award with fully 40% of the 3,000 potentially ineligible records, and simply responding they’re in process.

Orange County indicates, without explanation, they have sent zero letters to their 116 registrations.

And even though every one of their 117 registrations were from addresses already listed as commercial, and 83 of those have been that way for at least 2 full years, Hillsborough’s response via their County Attorney was to charge $58 for a Public Records Request to determine that zero letters had been sent out.

The Florida Division of Elections is aware of these findings and, under Governor Rick Scott, has shown an interest in following-up on and ensuring our Supervisors’ compliance with the law. But to ensure free and fair elections it clearly is the citizens who must demand all of our Supervisors go well beyond the bare minimum passiveness required by law.

Because all this nonsense leaves one to wonder: If some of our Supervisors lack sufficient skills or decency to catch the easy stuff, what else are they “missing”?

UPDATE: The following comments were received from:

Kathy Dent, Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections, “We immediately took action on the list supplied to us. Sarasota County appreciated the tip.”

Paul Lux, CERA, Supervisor of Elections Okaloosa County:

I don’t know that I would necessarily characterize it as “skirting” the law, which implies duplicitous action on the part of SOEs. In Okaloosa County, like my counterparts I assume, we make every effort to keep abreast of new mail rooms as they crop up.

The real problem in this equation, typically, is HSMV. They do not have access to our street index and as such, “register” voters at whatever address they provide. We have to clean these up on the back end after those records are suspended to us from the State Central Voter System.

Likewise, voter registration forms processed at the State level suffer a similar fate.

We do find the new mail rooms as they come and go, and we do make every effort to clean up those records inadvertently registered there.

Ouch! Washington Post Calls Keystone XL Delays, “Embarrassing”

April 25, 2014/in Economy, Elections, Energy, Environment, News, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Science/by Sean Hackbarth

The Washington Post editorial board excoriated the Obama administration for holding up the Keystone XL pipeline [emphasis mine]:

If foot-dragging were a competitive sport, President Obama and his administration would be world champions for their performance in delaying the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Last Friday afternoon, the time when officials make announcements they hope no one will notice, the State Department declared that it is putting off a decision on Keystone XL indefinitely — or at least, it seems, well past November’s midterm elections. This time, the excuse is litigation in Nebraska over the proposed route, because that might lead to a change in the project that various federal agencies will want to consider. The State Department might even decide to substantially restart the environmental review process. This is yet another laughable reason to delay a project that the federal government has been scrutinizing for more than five years.

…

As for the pipeline’s routing, planners and regulators have already considered all sorts of options through Nebraska, and they already shifted the route once. Neither route posed environmental concerns of a sort that would justify concluding that Keystone XL is outside the national interest. It is bizarre to imagine that a new route from an even more careful process in Nebraska would significantly increase environmental concerns.

The administration’s latest decision is not responsible; it is embarrassing. The United States continues to insult its Canadian allies by holding up what should have been a routine permitting decision amid a funhouse-mirror environmental debate that got way out of hand. The president should end this national psychodrama now, bow to reason, approve the pipeline and go do something more productive for the climate.

That will leave a mark.

Along with that scathing editorial, the American Petroleum Institute released a poll of registered voters that shows 70% support building the Keystone XL pipeline. Here are some other findings:

78% agree that the pipeline would improve America’s energy security by helping to create jobs.
78% believe that the pipeline is in America’s national interest because it would increase North American oil supplies.
67% say that if the United States has to import oil, they would like to see more of it come from Canada rather than other foreign countries.
68% say they’re more likely to support a candidate who supports the pipeline.

UPDATE: This political cartoon illustrates how these delays have become a farce.

[via memeorandum]

Follow Sean Hackbarth on Twitter at @seanhackbarth and the U.S. Chamber at @uschamber.

EDITORS NOTE: The features photo of sections of pipe for the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline in Oklahoma in 2013 was taken by photographer Daniel Acker/Bloomberg.

Updated Status of the Climate Change Fraud

April 25, 2014/in Elections, Energy, Environment, Must Read, News, Policy, Politics, Science/by Richard C. Savage, Ph.D.

McCarthy testifies before a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on her nomination to be administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency

Gina McCarthy, EPA

Happy Earth Day! Heck, Happy Earth Week!! Gina McCarthy, Chief Protector of the Environmental Protection Agency, is engaged in a week of traveling the USA – five cities in all – “to ask Americans to act on climate change through simple actions to reduce carbon pollution in their daily lives.” In case you were planning to fly to five cities to celebrate Earth Week, don’t. Take Gina’s advice – not her example. Incidentally, Gina flies home to Boston most weekends to be with her family.

Earth Week is wonderful because it makes so many people happy. The Greenies and Alarmists are happy because they get to do something to save the planet. We skeptics are happy because we get to watch the ridiculous, hypocritical, foolish things they do that they think will save the planet. This week their obvious hypocrisy and stupidity illustrate the weakening of their Climate Change fraud.

To start things off, President Obama, late on Friday afternoon, decided to delay yet again a decision on the Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline, until after the November midterm elections. Tom Steyer, the billionaire hedge fund manager, who has pledged $100 million to support Democrat politicians who oppose KXL, was jubilant. Warren Buffet, an Obama supporter, whose BNSF railroad carries oil from Alberta to the Gulf, was pleased. Mr. Steyer has also pledged additional millions for the Obama Presidential Library. Nothing could better illuminate the venality of the Obama administration and the Democrat Party.

Working men and women, however, hoping for the 40,000 jobs the pipeline would create, were not as pleased. “This is once again politics at its worst,” said Terry O’Sullivan, general president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America.“In another gutless move, the administration is delaying a finding on whether the pipeline is in the national interest based on months-old litigation in Nebraska regarding a state level challenge to a state process — and which has nothing to with the national interest.”

I’m sorry for the members of O’Sullivan’s union – which twice endorsed Obama for president, claiming he would “work to create jobs.” Pretty obvious who Obama works for, and that the “climate change” fraud is a weapon against the American middle class – whose median wealth is now second to the Canadian middle class. That’s why the latest Gallup poll shows increasing skepticism and decreasing belief. Since 2001, the number of the deeply skeptical has doubled; the number of “concerned believers” (Gallup’s term) has remained the same; the “mixed middle” group has lost about 10% – all of whom have joined us, the skeptics. None have joined Gore, Obama, the IPCC, and the other alarmists. There’s a reason for that.

Remember the TV Showtime documentary, Years of Living Dangerously, airing on Sunday evenings? I wrote about the first episode a week ago, pointing out that drought in West Texas is not convincing proof of “climate change.” The second episode aired this week; it failed to make the top 100 cable shows, and was beaten in its time-slot by a rerun of the animated cartoon, Bob’s Burgers. Yikes! Showtime spent $20 million on this turkey, directed by James Cameron. The emotional appeal doesn’t seem to be working.

Financially, you’ll be happy to know our Federal Government is spending less of your tax dollars on subsidies for wind power farms. The bird lovers among us will be pleased that fewer raptors and song birds are being sliced and diced. From Investors’ Business Daily:

The federal government has spent some $100 billion in taxpayer subsidies on green energy since 2006. Now we are seeing the flimsy and declining returns on that investment.

The wind industry saw its growth tumble by 92% last year, according to a new report from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), and that’s off of a very low base to begin with.

Big Wind blames the decline in output on uncertainty over the future of a federal wind industry tax credit — an absurdly generous subsidy of 2.3 cents per kilowatt hour produced.

This handout is what keeps those giant turbines twirling. These subsidies have been thrown at the renewable energy industry for more than a decade and always with the promise by AWEA that profitability is right around the corner. Sure it is.

The reality is that the wind industry is to energy production what Amtrak is to intercity transportation — a perpetual tax-dollar burning machine.

Read More At Investor’s Business Daily

From its dreadful effects on the working middle class to the subsidies it steals from our pockets, the “climate change” fraud has been a disaster. But perhaps its greatest failure has been its absurd catechizing in the halls of higher education, among those with the most advanced educations. For example, from The Yale News, dated 21 April:

Parts of ancient Antarctica were as warm as today’s California coast, and polar regions of the southern Pacific Ocean registered 21st-century Florida heat, according to scientists using a new way to measure past temperatures.

Led by scientists at Yale, the study focused on Antarctica during the Eocene epoch, 40-50 million years ago, a period with high concentrations of atmospheric CO2 and consequently a greenhouse climate.

Merciful Heavens! 50 million years ago, Antarctica, like India and Australia, was an island continent in the South Atlantic, 2000 miles from the South Pole. Northern hemisphere continents were also dispersed away from the North Pole. Ocean currents flowed freely across the poles; major mountain ranges had not arisen. For these and other reasons, world climate was much warmer and more equable. Apparently there are senior editors at the Yale News who are unaware of continental drift, the foundation of modern geology. Faculty adviser? Let’s hope not. The effect of the climate change fraud has been to dumb down science education, even at the highest levels. Unquestioning acceptance of authority is deadly to science.

We should be grateful for blessings – even small blessings. Vladimir Putin is helping convince even the most fervent believers in “climate change” that there are worse things. Michael Fallon says yesterday was the kickoff in development of shale gas in the UK. Who’s Michael Fallon? He’s the UK Minister for Energy and Climate Change! Even politicians can sometimes see the light – if the threat to reelection is strong enough.

Voter’s Remorse Over Obama

April 24, 2014/in Commentary, Elections, News, Politics/by Alan Caruba

I don’t recall when I first wrote about Obama telling lies, but it surely must have been early in his first term, if not even earlier in the 2008 campaign. So much of the information about his life was subject to question that it raised my concern.

The way Obamacare was reamed through a Congress that hadn’t even read the bill put me on full alert. No Republican voted for it.

When you have spent your early years as a journalist as I did you tend to develop a healthy skepticism regarding politicians. There are some very good people who go into politics, but they are vastly outnumbered by those who see it as an easy way to line their pockets. They are the “Eddie Haskell’s” if you are old enough to remember the unctuous character from “Leave It To Beaver.” Glad-handers, back-slappers, and generally smooth talkers.

I was not surprised to read a February 19 article in the Washington Examiner by Paul Bedard. “Poll: Only 79% of Obama voters would vote for him again” was the title and my first response was surprise that that many would still vote for him. Only???

In the poll 71% of the Obama voters now inclined to vote for someone else if they had the chance said they ‘regret’ their vote to reelect the President. So a majority of those taking The Economist/YouGov.com poll would vote for him again, but nearly all regret having done so.

This is a definition of stupidity. I think Obama and his cohorts counted on this high level of indifference to the facts about his first term.

Among the sample of those who would vote for someone else if they could, 100% of the Hispanics said they would and 80% of the whites said they would. However 61% of the blacks said they would still vote for Obama. It strikes me that many in the African-American community are quick to speak out against any perceived prejudice, but when it comes to electing Obama, skin color was a major factor. I suspect that many are unaware of how Obama’s policies have left the black community with soaring numbers of unemployed, far in excess of other racial groups.

Among women 84% said they would vote for someone else, but just 61% men agreed. The most surprising element of the poll was that 55% of Democrats—yes Democrats—wished they had not pulled the lever for Obama and 71% of independents agreed.

All second term Presidents achieve lame duck status at some point when their power to influence the Congress to support their programs kicks in. Arguably, Obama achieved that in 2010 when voters returned power in the House of Representatives to Republicans. The Senate’s response—mostly Majority Leader Harry Reid’s—was to deny any but a few of the many bills generated in the House an opportunity to be debated and voted upon.

The gridlock that resulted and which Obama endlessly decries was created by the Democrats in the Senate.

Efforts by Republicans were rebuffed along with all manner of charges that they were anti-women and anti-immigrant, among other absurdities. When the Republicans tried to get the insane borrowing and spending under control by shutting down the federal government as a response to raising the credit limits, they were portrayed as political cavemen.

Obama is a President who has made it clear that he considers the Congress as an obstacle to his transformation of the nation from a capitalist to a socialist economy in which Big Government functions as the re-distributor of taxpayer funding with an emphasis on programs that, like food stamps, added millions to that handout.

It took the launch of Obamacare to make it abundantly clear how incompetent the Obama administration was and is. The impact on the stagnant job market saw jobs disappear or be turned into part-time, lower-wage positions. People discovered they could not keep their family physician or specialist. Even access to nearby hospitals was denied for some.

We are now being told that being unable to find work is an opportunity to pursue one’s hobbies. Denigrating working for a living is so un-American it is mind-boggling.

The media coverage of Obama’s first term and now the first years of his second protected him against the failure to revive the economy after the 2008 financial crisis. The scandals from Fast and Furious to Benghazi were shunted aside so that the passage of time would diminish their impact. Those who reelected him were not paying attention! Or they just didn’t care.

One can only hope voters are paying attention now and, in the November 2014 midterm elections, they will elect Republican candidates who will have an opportunity—particularly in the Senate—to limit the damage that Obama continues to inflict on the economy and in the area of foreign affairs.

Based on the poll, it took Obama voters over five years, going on six, to conclude they had made a bad choice—but 79% would still vote for him!

That members of Congress, pundits, and others now routinely call Obama a liar is a good sign because he is. But he is also still President of the United States of America and I suspect he doesn’t care what people say about him anymore.

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is courtesy of The Peoples Cube.

It’s Hard Being a Black Conservative

April 23, 2014/in Elections, News, Politics/by Alan Caruba

“We’re not being governed. We’re being ruled by incompetence.” – Allen B. West, LTC, US Army (Ret.)

Click on the book cover to learn more.

It is refreshing to read a book that reflects one’s own views and “Guardian of the Republic” by Allen West, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army for over twenty years and a former, one-term congressman from Florida, who is perhaps best known these days as a Fox News channel contributor. He is a very conservative, articulate black American.

As he points out, “The Left must destroy black conservatives because it cannot afford to have freethinking, independent-minded black Americans. When the Left wins, our community loses. The result of such blind loyalty is that many black voters have come to resemble Vladimir Lenin’s ‘useful idiots.’ They make up an electorate that is completely taken for granted and no one even bothers to listen.”

It is ironic that the first black President will not only be remembered as our worst, but that his failure will reflect on the entire black community in America even while men like West and other blacks of real achievement exist.

For now, it is definitely an uphill struggle for black conservatives, particularly for those in public life. “The mainstream media,” says West, “have a clear tendency to recruit other blacks to denigrate and demean black conservatives” and have “sought to disrespect and deny the existence of black conservatives, but they’re losing the battle and they realize it. The big lie that has resulted in the twenty-first century economic plantation will be exposed and defeated, and our community will be restored.”

I don’t know when I first heard West, but I suspect it was during his run for Congress. I do recall I was instantly and enormously impressed. He won that race and served from 2011 to 2013 representing Florida’s 22nd District. His race for reelection was a classic case of electoral tampering, misconduct, and political slander by those who wanted to defeat him.

“One of my biggest frustrations and concerns about America (is that) our electorate doesn’t have a clue about who we are or whence we came.” Much of his book is devoted to a mini-history lesson regarding the founders, the Constitution, and the principles that set America on the path to greatness among nations. West holds two masters degrees; one from Kansas State University in political science and the second from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in military arts and sciences.

He had just over twenty years to practice military arts, but he had set his heart on joining the Army early on, joining the ROTC in college and thereafter being recognized at every stage for his intellect and his leadership skills. He was deployed to Kuwait in 1991 and Iraq in 2003.

West is plain-spoken. He defines our fundamental governing principles as “limited government, fiscal responsibility, a free market, individual sovereignty, a strong national defense, and an understanding that all of man’s freedoms come ultimately from God.”

And then he says, “Measured against our fundamental governing principles, we clearly do not have good government—heck, we suck! We have excessive debt, growing poverty, exploding deficits, an expanding nanny-state, and an anemic economy.”

“The sad thing is,” says West, “there seems to be no reprieve in sight. Why? Because, as a nation, we have become uninterested, uninformed, and disengaged from the truth.”

Throughout his book, West mixes lessons regarding the system the Founders implemented and his fears about the present generations of Americans, given the last two elections. “I fear national-level elections have become nothing more than a version of American Idol,” says West at one point. He concludes his first book saying, “We have to turn off the brain-draining reality TV shows for a few hours and read, think, assess, and challenge ourselves to be better.”

West has had a remarkable life to this point and he could choose to make a lot of money in some corporate position or as an entrepreneur, but he wants to reach out, not just to the black community, but to all Americans because he is worried about where President Obama has taken the nation he loves and wants to see it saved from unimaginable and unconscionable debt.

We need a lot more men like Allen West. The black community needs to pay him and other black conservatives more attention. The rest of us should hope that a change in future administrations will bring his talent to bear on the restoration of America.

Poll: GOP Voters Want Politicians to Support Natural Marriage

April 23, 2014/in Culture War, Elections, Featured, News, Policy, Politics/by Dr. Rich Swier

Click on image for downloadable copy of the survey.

WASHINGTON, PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Family Research Council (FRC) and American Values released the results of a commissioned national survey conducted by Wilson Research Strategies showing that 82 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning independents believe marriage “should be defined only as a union between one man and one woman.” 74 percent strongly agreed with this statement.

The same survey found that the voters want their elected leaders to promote this view in public policy: 75 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning independent voters disagree that “politicians should support the redefinition of marriage to include same-sex couples.” 67 percent strongly disagreed with this statement.

FRC President Tony Perkins made the following comments in response to the survey:

“Republican voters continue to resist the demands of cultural elites who want to see the party abandon the very core values that gave rise to American exceptionalism. The vast majority of the GOP base continues to believe that marriage is a non-negotiable plank of the national platform and want to see their elected officials uphold natural marriage as the national standard, a goal to stand for, encourage and promote in law.

“The results of this survey are no surprise especially considering what has taken place in recent months. Republican voters, like everyone else, have seen that redefining marriage is really about fundamentally altering all of society. Redefining marriage undermines our fundamental freedoms of speech and religion and in the case of the Mozilla CEO, even the ability to engage in the democratic process without the fear of losing one’s livelihood.”

American Values President Gary Bauer made the following comments:

“Public policy makers are doing a great disservice to themselves and future generations by continuing to misread the convictions of the American people, who overwhelmingly support the institution of marriage as a unique union of one man and one woman. The misinformation campaign waged by media elites muddies the debate and attempts to isolate those who support the time-honored traditions and values shared by every major world religion throughout human history.

“Incredibly, the debate is no longer about privacy and tolerance. Religious liberty, free speech and rights of conscience are now at stake. This survey should remind political and cultural leaders that this debate is far from over. If anything, it is taking on a new sense of urgency for millions of men and women of faith.”

To view the results of the survey, click here: http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF14D62.pdf

Poll: 43% of the Dutch want fewer Moroccans

April 23, 2014/in Culture War, Elections, Must Read, National Security, News, Politics/by Jerry Gordon

The virulent attacks on Geert Wilders, leader of the Freedom Party (PVV) by opposition parties in the ruling coalition in The Netherlands and threats to have him prosecuted for his “fewer Muslim” comments in our April NER article “Geert Wilders Once Again Endures a Firestorm of Criticism” have backfired. A new poll commissioned by the PVV reveal that Dutch voters reject those threats categorically.

A news release by the PVV today noted “43% of the Dutch want fewer Moroccans”:

At the request of the PVV, the independent research bureau “Peil.nl / Maurice de Hond” conducted an opinion poll into the view of the Dutch regarding the presence of Moroccans in the Netherlands.

No less than 43% of all the Dutch prefer to have fewer Moroccans. Only 3% wants more Moroccans, while 48% does not care how many Moroccans there are in the Netherlands. A majority of the voters of PVV (95%) and of the governing VVD (59%), but also more than one third of the voters of the Socialist SP and more than a quarter of the Labor voters prefer to have fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands.

A majority of 55% of all Dutch is opposed to a criminal prosecution of PVV-leader Geert Wilders.

Geert Wilders: “The figures are very clear. Millions of Dutch agree with me. It is great, too, that a majority of the Dutch is of the opinion that I should not be prosecuted.”

This latest poll bolsters a previous one of Dutch parties in the European Parliamentary elections just one month away on May 22 to the 25^th that showed the PVV in the lead. See our March 17th Iconoclast post, “Wilder’s Freedom Party Leads Poll for Dutch European Parliament Elections”. We noted:

Geert Wilders” Freedom Party (PVV) leads in Dutch polls next month’s European Parliament elections. According to a report in the Dutch publication, Spitsnieuws:

A TNS NIPO poll published today predicts that the PVV, the Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders, will become the biggest party in the European elections in the Netherlands.

According to the poll the PVV is going to win the European elections on 22 May with 18.1% of the votes, followed by the Liberal VVD of Prime Minister Mark Rutte with 16.2% and the liberal-democrat D66 party with 15.7%.

The losers of the European elections would be the Christian-Democrats and Labor.

At the conclusion of our April NER article we said:

We hope that those Dutch folks who went to the polls on March 19^th and gave the PVV victories in several smaller municipalities may be joined by others in the majority, who didn’t vote. That might provide the PVV with a victory in the May EU parliamentary elections. We have seen Wilders bounce back from previous episodes like a proverbial cat with nine lives.

Both polls taken in the Netherlands clearly indicate that the groundlings aren’t buying the ‘extremist’ charges and calls for prosecution of Wilders. Instead they may be auguries of a possible significant victory for the Freedom Party candidates in the May 2014 European Parliamentary elections.

Amnesty for Illegals Cannot be Defended

April 22, 2014/in Commentary, Elections, Immigration, News, Policy, Politics/by Raynard Jackson

I am totally perplexed by Republicans who advocate amnesty for those who entered the U.S. illegally. We Republicans are supposed to be the party of law and order, a party that stands on clearly defined principles. Let’s cut through the pompous rhetoric: The issue of amnesty is only about cheap labor. All the other arguments are merely background noise. With the national unemployment rate just under 8 percent, how can you argue that illegals are doing jobs that Americans refuse to do?

With all the unemployed engineers (partly because of the shutdown of NASA’s Space Shuttle program), how do you justify increasing the number of H-1B visas? The special visa allows companies to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations for up to six years. How can six years still be considered temporary?

How do you explain to a kid in Virginia that he or she has to pay out-of-state tuition to attend the University of Maryland while but a student in the country illegally is allowed to pay in-state tuition? Why should someone in the country illegally be able to obtain a benefit that even an American citizen can’t have? Aren’t these Republicans supporting discrimination against American citizens in their lust of the Hispanic voter?
Linking amnesty to winning the Hispanic vote is not a winning or sensible strategy. One has nothing to do with the other. There is no unanimity within the Hispanic community on the issue of amnesty, therefore why are some operatives linking this issue to the future of the Republican Party? One can be against amnesty without being mean and nasty. But to equate supporting amnesty as a prerequisite to proving that you are not mean and hateful is an insult to our intelligence. As if this weren’t bad enough, can someone please explain to me the logic of any Black person supporting amnesty when the Black unemployment rate is in double digits?

We can have honest disagreements on the issue of amnesty; but please don’t give me the perverted reasoning supporters of amnesty have been using: “it’s an act of love,” “they are only looking for a better life,” “it’s not their fault.”

But these same proponents who want to justify ignoring the law based on some irrational, emotional tick refuse to apply the same empathy towards “Pookie” and “LaQueesha,” who represent inner city America.

When “Pookie” gets arrested for carrying a recreational amount of crack and get sentenced to a mandatory minimum of 20 years for a first time, non-violent offense, where are these Republican thespians advocating for an empathetic approach to law enforcement? When a Black woman in Florida fires a warning shot in the air to stop an abusive former husband from beating her and gets 20 years mandatory minimum, where are the Republican voices of empathy?

If we are going to claim to be a nation of laws, then we can’t allow emotion to cause the unequal distribution of justice to continue. If your basis for giving amnesty to illegals is “their intent”—they only want to make a better life; then how can you not apply the same logic to “Pookie” and “LaQueesha?” Can you not make the same argument that they only want to make a better life for themselves and their families?

Pro-amnesty Republicans sound like a bunch of liberals when they refuse to advocate for the enforcement of current immigration law because they claim to know the “intent” of the law breaker. These same pro amnesty members of the House and Senate have been relentless in accusing President Obama for not being trustworthy on health care (“you can keep your own doctor”), but are willing to work with and trust him on the enforcement side of the immigration debate.

If you can’t trust Obama on healthcare, how can you trust him on immigration?

Why won’t Rep. Jeff Miller (R FL-1) Co-Sponsor HR 36 establishing a Select Committee on Benghazi?

April 19, 2014/in Elections, Must Read, National Security, News, Politics/by Geoff Ross

U.S. Reps. Jeff Miller (center) and Blake Farenthold (right) visit Rear Adm. Bill Sizemore (left), Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA), at CNATRA Headquarters.

Today I spoke to the senior leadership at Special Operations Speaks (SOS).

Rep. Jeff Miller (R FL District-1)

They asked me why Rep. Jeff Miller (R FL District 1) has NOT co-sponsored HR 36 introduced by Rep. Wolf, Frank R. (R-VA-10) on January 18, 2013? HR 36 calls for a Select Committee to investigate the Benghazi, Libya scandal which cost the lives of 2 Navy SEALs, a US Ambassador and his aide. HR 36 will help uncover the truth about the Benghazi massacre, to include failed security preparations, intentional abandonment of US citizens in distress and the reported cover-up surrounding this national tragedy.

HR 36 establishes in the House of Representatives a select Committee to investigate and report to the House on:

any intelligence known to the United States relating to the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012;
any requests for additional security, or actions taken by federal agencies to improve security at the consulate before the attack;
a definitive timeline of it;
how the relevant agencies and the executive branch responded to it and whether appropriate congressional notifications were made;
any improper conduct by officials relating to the attack;
recommendations on what steps Congress and the President should take to prevent future attacks; and
any other relevant issues relating to the attack or the response to it.

Why won’t Rep. Jeff Miller of District 1 in Florida, a bastion of Special Forces Operators, not join 190 of his fellow colleagues and DEMAND an investigation into this tragedy?

Why is Jeff Miller following the same ideology as John Boehner?

Why won’t Rep. Miller join with Rep. Vern Buchanan, the Republican co-Chair of the Florida delegation, along with Rep. Bill Posey, (R-FL-8), Rep. C.W. Bill Young, (R-FL-13), Rep. Ron DeSantis, (R-FL-6), Rep. John L. Mica, (R-FL-7), Rep. Dennis A. Ross, (R-FL-15), Rep. Richard B. Nugent, (R-FL-11), Rep. Thomas J. Rooney, (R-FL-17), Rep.Steve Southerland II, (R-FL-2), Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis, (R-FL-12), Rep. Ander Crenshaw, (R-FL-4), Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, (R-FL-27), Rep. Ted S. Yoho, (R-FL-3), Rep. Daniel Webster, (R-FL-10), and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, (R-FL-25)?

I called John Krause who is running against Jeff Miller for Congress and asked him if he would sign HR 36 and he stated “absolutely.” “I would have signed it already” he said if he was in Congress. He would be demanding all the emails from the State Department to the White House regarding this event and would be “knocking on John Boehner’s door to find out his problem for not initiating this investigation.”

There you go boys and girls. Leadership requires guts and intestinal fortitude. It does not mean you follow the party line and meander in the stream like a stick. It means you get off your backside and lead from the front and protect the Constitution and our fellow veterans. Mr. Miller needs to go home to his family and enjoy his pension. We need a leader in Congress not a passive follower.

As for the families of those Navy SEALs killed in Benghazi, we will bring justice for these families trust me. Mr. Boehner we are not going away.

EDITORS NOTE: The author of this column has endorsed John Krause for Congress.

Florida 2014 Midterm Elections: Time for a change in District 1

April 18, 2014/in Elections, News, Video/by Geoff Ross

Congressman Jeff Miller (R) from District 1 in Florida no longer represents me or our fine military that sometimes come home in body bags or missing arms and legs. When Congressman Miller voted “Yes” to freeze all COLA raises on our military pensions this placed some of our brave disabled military in future financial jeopardy. There is no excuse for this vote but then again he is a former life long member of the Democrat party. He switched to the Republican team in 1997 to benefit him not us in this conservative stronghold in the panhandle.

Its time for this career politician to GO!

John Krause, Republican Candidate, US Congress, FL District 1

I am endorsing businessman John Krause for the US Congress in Florida District 1.

John Krause and I worked together in 2010 when he ran as an Independent. Now he is running as a member of the GOP. His philosophy and mindset is not on being a career politician or a member of the Republican Party but to go into Congress make changes that benefit us as a nation then come back home to his day job as a private investigator.

I respectfully request every one forward the link to this column across the nation and to study his website. If you like his platform please feel free donate to his campaign. John must raise $3,000 to get him on the ballot. It is time to focus on the 2014 midterm elections.

Its time for Jeff Miller to go home and be with his family.

Conservative Freedom Party Leads Poll for Dutch European Parliament Elections

April 18, 2014/in Elections, Must Read, News, Politics/by Jerry Gordon

Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV) leads in Dutch polls next month’s European Parliament elections. According to a report in the Dutch publication, Spitsnieuws:

A TNS NIPO poll published today predicts that the PVV, the Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders, will become the biggest party in the European elections in the Netherlands.

According to the poll the PVV is going to win the European elections on 22 May with 18.1% of the votes, followed by the Liberal VVD of Prime Minister Mark Rutte with 16.2% and the liberal-democrat D66 party with 15.7%.

The losers of the European elections would be the Christian-Democrats and Labor.

In our April NER article, Geert Wilders Once Again Endures a Firestorm of Criticism, we noted how Dutch voters in the March 2014 municipal elections had voted their disapproval of the ruling coalition parties in the Hague Parliament, noting how they immediately tried to pin the blame on Geert Wilders as an extremist. Presciently in our conclusion we suggested that those same Dutch voters would ultimately vindicate him in the May european elections. We wrote:

To paraphrase England’s Henry II regarding the fate of former boon companion, Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Beckett, the Dutch political and media establishment might say: “who will rid us of this upstart meddlesome blonde.” We hope that those Dutch folks who went to the polls on March 19^th and gave the PVV victories in several smaller municipalities may be joined by others in the majority, who didn’t vote. That might provide the PVV with a victory in the May EU parliamentary elections. We have seen Wilders bounce back from previous episodes like a proverbial cat with nine lives. His Euro-skeptic alliance partners, especially Ms. Le Pen in France, would deem that a stunning and well deserved turnabout.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The New English Review.

How one Congressional District can make a difference

April 18, 2014/in Elections, News, Politics, Video/by Joseph R. John

Kirk Jorgensen in Iraq as a Marine Captain. Photo courtesy of the Jorgensen family.

We are pleased that former Congressman Duncan L. Hunter, a decorated Army Ranger with combat duty in Vietnam, endorsed of LCdr Kirk Jorgensen, USCGR. On the weekends, LCdr Jorgenson serves in the US Coast Guard, interdicting illegal immigrants trying to enter the US by sea. Lcdr Jorgenson served four combat tours as a US Marine Officer in Iraq and Bosnia, and was the 22nd Combat Veterans For Congress endorsement in 2014.

We ask each of you who read this to either work in his campaign, contribute to his campaign in any amount. I encourage those you know in the 52nd Congressional District of California to vote for Kirk, and vote for Kirk Jorgenson in the June 2014 California primary. The below video will tell you why Kirk will make an important difference in Congress. Kirk Jorgensen is a Veteran who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to ‘The United States of America’ for an amount ‘up to and including his life.’”

Former Congressman Duncan L. Hunter writes, “People have asked me why I’m supporting Kirk Jorgensen over the other candidates on June 3rd to represent the people of California’s 52nd congressional district. His campaign showed me this video and I’m certain you’ll see why: It’s not so much that Kirk deserves to represent them, it’s the fact the 52nd congressional district deserves someone like Kirk. Take a moment to get to know Kirk and you’ll be impressed. He’s exactly what the 52nd district needs today.”

[youtube]http://youtu.be/dY2QSSClXxE[/youtube]

To learn more about Kirk Jorgensen click here.

EDITORS NOTE: The featured photo is courtesy of the Jorgensen for Congress campaign.

The War Within the GOP

April 15, 2014/in Commentary, Elections, News, Politics/by Alan Caruba

I started out a Democrat because my parents were Democrats. When I was old enough to conclude that the Democratic Party was so socialist I could not remain one, I became a Republican. In her nineties, even my Mother registered as a Republican. Times change and people change. Now I am considering registering as an independent. I am waiting for the outcome of the November midterm elections.

My decision will depend on how many Tea Party movement candidates are elected and my hope is that it will be a wave election that rejects so many Democratic candidates that power in the Congress–particularly the Senate–returns to the GOP. Then I will watch to see how much action they take to reverse the damage of Obamacare and other programs in much need of reform, replacement and rejection.

According to Gallup, currently an estimated 42 percent of voters today self-identify as independents. Those who identify themselves as Republicans fell to 25 percent. In 2013 Gallup reported that 41 percent regarded themselves to be conservative or very conservative, but that was the lowest since Obama took office in 2009.

A recent Rasmussen poll found that 59% of GOP voters say that Republicans in Congress are out of touch with the Party’s base. I suspect that’s because the base is more conservative than its elected representatives. Conversely, Democrats are quite happy with theirs.

The emergence of the Tea Party movement has dramatically demonstrated the unhappiness of voters with the direction the nation has taken since Obama was elected in 2008. At the heart of their displeasure are the dreadful state of the economy and the growing fear of a Big Government that extends more and more control over all aspects of their lives.

The internal debate within the GOP is showing up in commentaries among its pundits. It reflects to some degree the fears of its establishment elites who have managed to serve up John McCain and Mitt Romney, both of whom lost because they waged campaigns devoid of any serious criticism or confrontation with liberalism. The Party has lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections.

They suffered as well from an incessant Democratic Party campaign to define Republicans as indifferent to the poor, aligned with large corporations, and hostile to illegal immigrants, homosexuals and women.

With the help of the mainstream media, these themes are constantly repeated. Meanwhile, cities and states run by Democrats are going bankrupt thanks to their devotion to spending and alliance with public service unions. You could line up the agendas of the Democratic Party and the Communist Party USA side by side and find very little difference.

Unfortunately, there are voices in the GOP that sound more like Democrats than Republicans. The most visible to emerge is Jeb Bush, a former Florida Governor, whose informal recent remarks sound like Democrat-light. He could have better articulated the need for immigration reform, but he did not. This is a common problem among too many Republicans in office or running for one, no matter what the issue may be.

Jeb Bush favors Common Core, a federal program of education standards that represent why education in America is failing and has been for a very long time. Regrettably, his brother, George W. Bush advocated “Leave No Child Behind” with its comparable standards. Parents today are clamoring for charter schools to save their children from the indoctrination imposed by teachers unions since the 1960s. Democrat demands for pre-kindergarten programs are just a further intrusion into their lives.

In a Wall Street Journal commentary, former Florida Governor, William W. Galston, characterizes the war within the GOP as being between “the social conservatives and defense hawks that Ronald Reagan created in the late 1970s” and the current GOP leadership who think those values should be abandoned to entice youth, women, and homosexuals. He expressed the war as a generational one between younger and older Republicans.

“The tea party offers nothing except nostalgia for a demography that is in retreat and a Constitution that never was,” said Galston. “By contrast Mr. Bush wants to run as a conservative unafraid of the future.” His wish for a campaign that avoids mud-slinging betrays a timidity that could cost the GOP another loss if he were to become its presidential candidate. My view is that Republicans, as per the Rasmussen poll, want a candidate and a Party that would more boldly fight Democratic Party and liberal lies.

In a March commentary by Karl Rove, the former deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush, had nice things to say about the party’s reformers such as Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, and governors such as Bobby Jindal, Rick Snyder, Scott Walker, and John Kasich. He cited their efforts to help the poor, but left unsaid was that they are poor because they are either a permanent class of the poor or the result of Obama’s failure to turn the economy around.

Rove could well have mentioned Tea Party favorites such as Senators Cruz, Lee, and Paul who are reinvigorating Republican principles and giving voice to them.

The GOP is not about the poor. It is about the middle class and too many are sinking into poverty thanks to Democratic programs emphasizing spending, borrowing, and expanding programs such as food stamps, unemployment payments, and an increase in the minimum wage. All of Obama’s blather about income inequality is aimed at those who think such programs will help the economy, but all they do is undermine it.

“Conservative reformers seek to broaden opportunity, increase prosperity for every American, restore the value of work, and strengthen markets, competition and choice,” said Rove. “If successful, their efforts would help the GOP among middle class voters.” That could have been written by a member of the Tea Party movement.

“It is hard to overstate how much the Republican Party is hurt by the persistent belief of many voters that its candidates are out of touch and do not care about people like them,” said Rove. That’s the message of the Democratic Party and always has been. It is a message that mainstream media repeats.

The Tea Party movement, however, is overcoming that message and the success of Republican governors and the popularity of its candidates suggests that many Americans see the movement as the salvation of the nation. The Republican Party too often looks pale by comparison and that must change.

Continued High Legal Immigration Steadily Erodes GOP Prospects

April 15, 2014/in Elections, Featured, Immigration, News, Politics/by Dr. Rich Swier

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The nation’s prolonged flow of legal immigration has changed – and continues to change – the political landscape. A new Center for Immigration Studies report, “Immigration’s Impact on Republican Political Prospects, 1980 to 2012”, finds that each one percentage-point increase in the immigrant share of a large county’s population reduces the Republican share of the two-party presidential vote by an average of nearly 0.6 percentage points.

This shift is relatively uniform throughout the country, from California to Texas to Florida, regardless of the local party’s stance on immigration. It is due to immigrant communities’ lopsided support for big-government policies, which are more closely aligned with progressives than with conservatives. As a result, survey data show a two-to-one party identification with Democrats over Republicans. Increased immigration also significantly expands the low-income population, making voters overall more supportive of redistributive policies championed by Democrats to support disadvantaged populations.

See the report at http://www.cis.org/immigration-impacts-on-republican-prospects-1980-2012.

“As the immigrant population has grown, Republican electoral prospects have dimmed, even after controlling for alternative explanations of GOP performance,” wrote James Gimpel, author of the report and a professor of government at the University of Maryland at College Park. “Republicans are right to want to attract Latino voters,” he continued. “But expanding the flow of low-skilled immigrants into an economy ill-suited to promote their upward mobility will be counterproductive.”

Over one million legal immigrants enter the United States each year. If this number were drastically increased, as called for by the Gang of Eight bill (S.744), the decline of the Republican Party would be accelerated. “The impact of immigration is easily sufficient, by itself, to decide upcoming presidential elections,” Gimpel wrote.

ABOUT THE CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES

The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit research organization founded in 1985. It is the nation’s only think tank devoted exclusively to research and policy analysis of the economic, social, demographic, fiscal, and other impacts of immigration on the United States.

Florida: Providing in-state tuition to illegals is why politicians are held in such low esteem

April 15, 2014/in Commentary, Culture War, Elections, Immigration/by George R. Fuller

Every session examples pop up so let’s examine what the Florida Legislature is on the verge of doing this session which clearly illustrates a disconnect between them and their citizen constituents.

The Speaker of the House started the session supporting In-State Tuition for illegal aliens. In short order HB 851 sailed through the House and was overwhelmingly approved with strong Republican support and unanimous Democrat votes. This is legislation that was defeated numerous times going back to 2003 when Marco Rubio co-sponsored a similar bill.

In the Florida senate SB 1400 has passed three of four committees with the strong help of Republicans who control the senate as well. Many of the same Republicans who voted in previous committees with unanimous Democrat support are on the Judiciary committee, so passage is imminent.

This is a perfect example of the point I want to make. There is absolutely no way the voters of Florida who are forced to educate, medicate and incarcerate illegal at a cost of $5.2 Billion annually would vote for another tax imposed on them to further educate children who cost taxpayers substantially more to educate than our own children. There is not one state poll that would show any meaningful support rather overwhelming opposition to the idea. I would be willing to wager a bet there is not one Republican that has voted for in-state tuition for illegal aliens when running for election said they would vote to do it. Not one!

It is pretty certain the bill will be passed and sent to the governor for his signature who has said he supports it. Remember him, he is the guy that got elected because he said he wanted to pass a bill like AZ 1070 promising mandatory e-verify for all business owners while after four years in office he has done nothing and we have 600,000 illegal aliens employed in the state.

Two Faced Politicians cannot be trusted to fulfill their promises to support what the majority wants that voted them in office. They deserve to be held in low esteem since they basically say the voters opinions don’t count.

We will see what happen on November 4th, 2014. When they go against the wishes of Floridians who elected them, they deserve to be sent back to the private sector. They are not worthy of the public’s trust.