Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu Loses Runoff Campaign to Republican Challegnger Bill Cassidy

Red is for the parishes that Cassidy won while Blue is the parishes that voted for Landrieu. It wasn't even as close as it appears on the map.

The 2014 midterm elections officially wrapped up on Saturday and the Republican party extended their total gains to nine US senate seats when the polls closed in Louisiana for a runoff election for the US Senate seat held by incumbent Mary Landrieu. Observers both inside and outside the Sportsman's Paradise believe the December runoff campaign may not have been necessary if the ballot in the November general election wasn't split between multiple Republican candidates. Last month, both Landrieu and challenger Bill Cassidy failed to get more than 50% of the vote, making last week's runoff necessary.

Sen Landrieu's re-election bid seemed doomed late when she said in an interview shortly before the general election that she stated southern states like her native Louisiana were hostile towards women and minorities. Just days before the runoff voting, she gave a radio interview where she implied the host was illiterate and hung up only part way through when she was facing repeated questioning over her support for 0bamacare.

Nationally, Landrieu was further hurt by the Senate Democrats rejecting a hastily put together bill supporting the KeystoneXL pipeline by a lame-duck session of congress and President Obama's executive order that effectively gave amnesty to more than 5 million illegal immigrants late last month. Offshore drilling and energy exploration in the Gulf of Mexico contributes millions of dollars to Louisiana's economy annually and it's believed that the oil from northern Alberta's Athabasca oil sands that would be carried by the proposed pipeline would end up in a Louisiana refinery.

Senator-elect Cassidy had previously served as a Congressman from Louisiana's 6th district and in the Louisiana's Senate after receiving an MD from the LSU school of Medicine and helped establish the Greater Baton Rouge Community Clinic.

Election 2014- A Red Tsunami From Sea to Shining Sea

From Maine to American Samoa, Tuesday night was a bad night for the Democrats.

The big story of the night was that the Democrats and Majority Leader Harry Reid lost their majority in the United States Senate on election day after Republicans picked up no fewer than seven seats, with some race still to be decided through a recount or runoff. Although some Democrats had distanced themselves from President Obama while campaigning, the President in an interview said that his policies were on the ballot and he could count on support from Democrat incumbents- even the ones who were keeping him at arm's length on the campaign trail.

Heading into Election Day, the GOP needed a net gain of six seats in the Senate to regain a majority they hadn't held since 2006. It was widely believed that West Virginia, South Dakota and Montana would be fairly easy pickups for the Republicans, with states like Virginia, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Minnesota, South Carolina, Alaska, Louisiana, Arkansas and Colorado up for grabs in close races.

For veterans, one of the more noteworthy developments was that Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton became the first-ever Iraq war veteran elected to the US Senate after defeating incumbent Democrat Mark Pryor by a margin of nearly 10 points. Later on in the night, Cotton was joined by Joni Ernst, a fellow Iraq war veteran, Lieutenant Colonel in the Iowa National Guard and state senator who was campaigning against congressman Bruce Braley for Iowa's senate seat that was open after Democrat Tom Harkin announced his retirement.

In South Carolina, former Congressman Tim Scott became the first black US senator from the South since Reconstruction- and the first ever to be elected to both the House of Representatives and US Senate. Scott was technically the incumbent, since governor Nikki Haley appointed him to replace fellow Republican Jim DeMint who retired to become president of conservative think-tank The Heritage Foundation in 2012.

Before Tuesday, Democrats took some solace in the projections out of Kansas that had Independent Greg Orman leading incumbent Republican Pat Roberts before election day. Orman, who declined to state whether he'd caucus with Democrats or Republicans if elected although Orman reportedly received donations from Democrat-supporting PACs and Vice President Biden predicted that Orman would end up caucusing with Democrats and narrowly preserve the party's majority in the Senate.

But perhaps the biggest prize for either party was Colorado. Over the last decade, Democrats had prided themselves on making Colorado a model on turning a red state blue [and boasted they were going to repeat the process in Texas, more on that a little later- NANESB!]. Incumbent Mark Udall ran on a campaign reminiscent of the Democrat's 2012 "War on Women", claiming that GOP challenger Corey Gardner would outlaw contraceptives and earning himself the nickname Mark Uterus.

In Louisiana, that race is heading to a December runoff since incumbent Democrat Mary Landrieu failed to get more than 50% of the total vote. However, the DSCC reportedly yanked a proposed $1.5 million ad buy in certain Louisiana markets, indicating that donors are less than confident about Landrieu's chances against Cassidy in the runoff.

The 'wave' wasn't just limited to a pickup of seven seats in the US Senate for the GOP. In the House of Representatives, not only did beleaguered incumbents such as New York Rep Michael Grimm [R- Staten Island] survive, but the Republicans gained a total of 15 seats [with some races in California and Maryland so close they're awaiting absentee and provisional ballots to decide the campaign- NANESB!]. Some of these included retired Air Force colonel Martha McSally beating Democrat representative Ron Barber in Arizona's 2nd congressional district- which comprised much of former congresswoman Gabby Giffords' district that had been held by Democrats after a 2011 assassination attempt on Giffords and redistricting. In Utah, former Saratoga Springs, UT mayor Mia Love ran as a Republican against Democrat Doug Owens for Representative in Utah's 4th Congressional District for the House seat up for grabs when Democrat Jim Matheson announced his retirement after the 2014 elections. Love- the daughter of Haitian immigrants- is Utah's first female congresswoman and the GOP's first black congresswoman [the NAACP was remarkably silent on the results of her election- NANESB!].

Republican governors favored just as well as the Senate and House races as it turned out. In Wisconsin, incumbent Scott Walker was elected governor for the third time since 2010- after a protracted battle over public sector unions between Democrats and the first-terms governor, the Democrats and unions successfully launched a recall campaign against Walker in 2012. However, Walker ultimately prevailed despite a well-funded campaign from unions and wealthy Democrat donors and PACs.

Democrat state representative Wendy Davis made a name for herself with wealthy liberal donors and the pro-abortion crowd after a lengthy filibuster on the floor of the State House in Austin, TX last year that was meant to hold up legislation that would prohibit abortions after 20 weeks. Shortly after the filibuster made her a rising star with the Democrats, she announced her candidacy for governor against Texas attorney general Greg Abbott. Although Davis wasn't expected to win, her candidacy was a trial balloon by out-of-state liberal Super PACs to try and turn Texas into a blue state. Davis ended up losing to abbot by more than 20 points, which in turned siphoned Democrat donor money away from much more competitive races.

In Maine, incumbent Paul LePage carried all but two of the sixteen counties throughout the state. In Massachusetts, Democrat Martha Coakley- who lost the 2009 Massachusetts' special election for US Senate to challenger Scott Brown- lost to Republican challenger and businessman Charlie Baker on election day. In the Midwest, incumbent Michigan governor Rick Snyder won 51% of the voting after drawing the ire of unions by making the Wolverine state a right-to-work state in his first term as governor. In President Obama's home state of Illinois, incumbent Democrat Pat Quinn lost to republican businessman Bruce Rauner. Although Maryland's Democrat governor Martin O'Malley was term-limited, pundits both left and right believed that his Lieutenant Governor, Anothony G Brown, would coast to an easy election win over Republican challenger and Maryland businessman Larry Hogan but Hogan shocked the pollsters and pundits by getting just over 51% of the vote. Out west, someone forgot to tell incumbent GOP governors Brian Sandoval and Susana Martinez that their party has a problem with Latinos as the governors of Nevada and New Mexico coasted to an easy re-election. Sandoval received more than 70% of the vote just weeks after he had announced a deal that where Tesla Motors [NASDAQ- TSLA] announced they would open up a factory outside of Reno, NV in exchange for substantial tax breaks. Meanwhile, Susana Martinez won 57% of the ballots cast in New Mexico on election day.

UPDATED again: Evolution of state legislative control in the Obama era: pic.twitter.com/DvK4s8eWi9

— David Freddoso (@freddoso) November 6, 2014

It wasn't just the governor's mansions that were going red in 2014. On the state level, Real Clear Politics reports that the Republicans control an unprecedented 68 out of 98 possible partisan legislative chambers on the state level.

Scotland Votes to Remain With United Kingdom

Pro-independence supporter shown above

Scotland voted to maintain its 300 year union with Great Britain in a referendum last week that saw 55% of Scottish voters reject a 'Yes' vote to independence.

In an early sign that the nationalists were facing defeat, [pro-independence Scottish politician Alex] Salmond did not attend his local count in Aberdeenshire and instead flew back to Edinburgh by private jet alongside his wife.

Speaking at 6.30am, he accepted the verdict of the people as he conceded defeat in the referendum on Scottish independence.

However, he said that the people of Scotland had only rejected independence “at this stage”, suggesting he believes that another referendum is possible in the future.

With national turnout expected to reach around 85 per cent, Unionists celebrated overwhelming victories in their traditional strongholds such as Orkney, Edinburgh and the Scottish Borders.

Edinburgh voted against independence by 61 per cent to 39 per cent.

Better Together also had huge victories in East Lothian, where they had a 24 per cent lead, Stirling, where they won by 20 per cent, and Midlothian, where the margin of victory was 12 per cent.

A 'Yes' vote would've been devastating to Tory PM David Cameron's government, who had been actively lobbying for unity in the run-up to the vote- Cameron likely would've forever been known as the Prime Minister who oversaw the dissolution of Great Britain while in office.

The Pound Sterling, which had taken a beating ahead of the September 18th balloting, quickly bounced back to 2-year highs versus the Euro before the votes came in.

Once considered a longshot, polls showed that the pro Independence movement was gaining ground in the weeks leading up to the balloting. Pro-independence politicians such as Salmond had promised to use revenue from Scotland's offshore oil reserves in the North Sea to fund schools, healthcare, infrastructure and social programs [loosely modeled after Norway's sovereign wealth fund from their portion of the North Sea oilfields- NANESB] - even though its widely believed that supplies are dwindling. However, even with the declining oil reserves, Scotland has forestry, agriculture, whiskey production and tourism contributing to their economy would be the 14th wealthiest nation per-capita.

Multinational oil firm BP [NYSE- BP] was threatened with nationalization of their Scottish holdings by a Salmond ally should Scotland vote in favor of independence, leading the CEOs of BP and Shell to speak out against Scottish independence.

GOP Makes Gains in Florida, California Special Elections

In a race that was touted as the first electoral challenge to President Obama's signature healthcare law since it's been implemented, Democrat and former Florida gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink lost to Republican attorney David Jolly in a special election to fill the congressional seat in Florida's 13th Congressional district that was left vacant by the death of longtime GOP incumbent Bill Young.

Although 0bamacare wasn't the core issue in the Tampa, FL-area district, both Sink and Jolly made clear their respective stances on 0bamacare during their campaign. While acknowledging the flawed 0bamacare rollout and trouble-plagued healthcare.gov website, Sink stated that the Affordable Care Act was flawed and that she was favor of 'fixing' the law. Jolly, however, said he was in favor of a full repeal of the law if elected.

The race to replace the late Rep. Bill Young was considered a tossup, and was cast as a political bellwether, and a testing ground for each party's messaging strategy -- which revolves in part around the Affordable Care Act.

Jolly's election night headquarters in Clearwater Beach erupted into loud cheers as it became clear he was the winner. In his victory speech, Jolly simultaneously struck a conciliatory tone and expressed gratitude for his mentor, Young, and Young's family. Jolly was introduced by former "Price is Right" game show host Bob Barker, via video. Young's two adult sons were also onstage with Jolly, and he embraced them at the end of his speech.

Meanwhile, national Republican groups swiftly got to work casting Jolly's victory as a blow to ObamaCare and those who support it.

“Tonight, one of Nancy Pelosi’s most prized candidates was ultimately brought down because of her unwavering support for ObamaCare, and that should be a loud warning for other Democrats running coast to coast," said National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore. "Pinellas County voters have made the right choice; David will be a dedicated and thoughtful representative for them in Congress.”

The electoral victory comes despite Jolly trailing in early voting to Sink and Libertarian candidate Lucas Overbay getting nearly 5% of the vote. Although the Pinellas County congressional district was home to the longest-serving Republican in the House of Representatives, the district narrowly went to Obama in the 2012 Presidential election. With nearly 100% of the vote counted on Tuesday's special election, Jolly had 48.5% of the vote while Sink had 46.7%. Both parties had sent out

While pundits are cautioning against using the FL13 race as a bellweather for the 2014 midterms, this is the first chance either the Democrats or Republicans had to use Obamacare as an election issue in a competitive district since key provisions of the law went into effect.

Meanwhile in California, Republican Kevin Faulconer was sworn in as the mayor of San Diego. Faulconer, a former city councilman, garnered 43% of the vote in a special election in November 2013 to replace disgraced Democrat mayor Bob Filner. This set up a runoff between Faulconer and fellow city councilman, Democrat David Alvarez last month. Despite money coming in from big name donors, gains by Democrats in 2012 an endorsement from President Obama and campaigning across the border in Tijuana, Mexico by Alvarez, Alvarez lost to Faulconer by nearly 10 points in the runoff.

Two Colorado State Senators Recalled Over Gun Control Support

Two Colorado state lawmakers, including the President of the state Senate, were recalled from office in a first-of-its kind special election last week.

State Senator Angela Giron of Pueblo and state senate president John Morse of Colorado Springs had supported Colorado's sweeping gun control laws which had passed in a legislative session earlier this year, angering many Coloradans and forcing some businesses to move out of state. By Morse's own admission, he ignored his own constituents opposed to the gun control laws claiming he was receiving hate mail and threatening correspondence from them. Vice President Joe Biden and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg also reportedly lobbied Colorado state lawmakers to pass a landmark bill in the wake of the 2012 Aurora movie theater killings.

The bill, which banned magazines with a capacity of 15 rounds or more and required a background check for any transfer of firearms between private parties, was heralded as a relatively rare triumph for gun control advocates outside the liberal bubbles of California or the northeast corridor. Critics said the bill would do nothing to reduce crime while most Colorado sheriffs said the law as it was written would be unenforceable.

While the results of the election do nothing to shift the balance of power in the Colorado state legislature, its worth pointing out that both Morse and Giron hailed from majority-Democrat districts that went for Obama during the 2012 campaign.

Gun control advocates have been downplaying the results of the Colorado recall since Morse and Giron conceded, claiming there was no backlash over their gun control votes or that there was widespread voter suppression dampening turnout. Despite Morse openly seeking help from Boston and San Francisco, gun control supporters complained of the National Rifle Association's involvement even though observers say outside groups like Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns or the DNC outspent the NRA by a nearly 5 to 1 margin.

Former Colorado Springs city councilman and defense contractor Bernie Herpin won the campaign for Morse's seat while former Pueblo, CO deputy police chief George Rivera won Giron's district in the September 10th balloting.

Conservative Opposition Surges to Landslide Victory in Australian Federal Elections

A coalition of right-of-center parties handed the Labour party their worst defeat since the 1930s in last week's Federal elections in Australia. The defeat came only a few weeks after former PM Kevin Rudd ousted Julia Gillard as head of the Labour party and replaced her as Prime Minister. Gillard had originally called for the elections to take place in mid-September, but the date was moved up by a few weeks once she was ousted.

Tony Abbott of Australian Liberal Party [which would be more along the lines of 'classic liberalism' by US standards- NANESB!] will be sworn in as Australia's newest Prime Minister this week after coalition of Australia's Liberal and National parties had formed a coalition. Abbott campaigned on a number of hot-button issues including repealing the unpopular carbon tax and turning back 'boat people'- asylum seekers and illegal immigrants reaching Australia by boat in the hopes of being granted asylum upon arrival in Australia- at sea and processing them offshore.

Abbott stated this week that his first order of business will be to scrap the carbon tax, although remaining members of Australia's Labour party in parliament have vowed to fight such a move by the new government. The carbon tax was implemented by then PM Julia Gillard last year and faced considerable opposition from Australian mining firms, steelmakers and airlines as well as the public.

A campaign proposal by Abbott to pay Indonesian nationals bounties for information leading to human traffickers was also sharply rebuked by Indonesia's foreign minister this week. The two governments are expected to discuss the boat people issue in-depth during a summit next month.

Barack Obama Wins Second Term; Opportunities To Say "I Told You So" Immediately Present Themselves

County by county results of 2012 Presidential Election with red indicating counties that went with Romney and blue indicating counties that went for Obama.

Despite earlier indications to the contrary, the American electorate had apparently decided to double down on the previous four years of failure and re-elect Barack Hussein Obama to a second term. And I do have to use some sort of qualifier here not only because of widespread military disenfranchisement as well as election-day dirty tricks in some cities, but also some swing state counties having voter turnout as high as 111%.

It should probably go without saying that I was extremely shocked and disappointed in the outcome of the 2012 Presidential election. However, science fiction author and Mormon Democrat Orson Scott Card probably summed it up better than I ever could.

Of course, it didn't take long for harsh reality to rear its ugly head. On Wall Street in the days leading up to the election, there was talk of the markets rebounding regardless of who won because it removed 'uncertainty' from the longer-term picture, that turned out to be only partially true as the Dow-Jones plunged 369 points in a single day. Shares in finance and defense companies took a beating, but not nearly as bad as coal stocks. Since election day, shares of Arch Coal [NYSE: ACI] have dropped 14.78%, Oxford Natural Resources [NYSE: OXF] declined in value by more than 22% and shares of James River Coal [NASDAQ: JRCC] have lost 42.77% of their value.

Curously, the media decided to rediscover the 'fiscal cliff' and debt ceiling issues about one day after the election- issues the Romney/Ryan campaign had demonstrated they were at least capable of taking seriously while President Obama went on Letterman and denied there was even a debt problem. Some media types simply attributed the stock market freefall to uncertainty over the looming fiscal cliff.

Hardly 24 hours after Obama declared victory, a number of companies including Boeing, Energizer, Research in Motion, Lightyear Networks, Hawker Beechcraft, the Providence Journal, UtahAmerican Energy and Corning had announced a fresh round of layoffs while Olive Garden and Red Lobster parent company Darden and grocery chain Kroeger stated they were cutting workers' hours in anticipation of a number of 0bamacare provisions going into effect. A number of smaller businesses had reportedly trimmed their full time staff to under 50 employees so they could remain exempt from 0bamacare.

Financial consultants and industry observers also note that most of the smaller local and regional banks in the USA are set to disappear now that Dodd-Frank is here to stay for the forseeable future, leaving behind a number of the larger 'too big to fail' financial institutions that were bailed out with taxpayer money in 2008.

Of course, why should the bad news be limited to the economy and markets? On Friday afternoon, CIA Director David Petraeus announced his resignation, citing an ongoing extramarital affair. Interestingly, I heard this news being broken over CNBC, who claimed their parent network's Andrea Mitchell broke the story [given the close working relationship between the Obama campaign and NBC network's, I wouldn't doubt if she was handed the scoop in exchange for running interference on the Administration's behalf while on the campaign trail- NANESB!]. The affair reportedly came to light when Pretraeus' mistress sent threatening e-mails to another woman close to the CIA director who in turned reported the threatining messages to the FBI. Coincidentally, Petraeus was scheduled to testify before a Senate hearing on the September 11th terrorist attacks on the US consulate in Benghazi.

To hardly anybody's surprise, Petraeus' indiscrecions were made known to the White House by the FBI well before the election, but the White House reportedly held off on forcing him out until after November 6th- much to the chagrin of the FBI.

Keep in mind, all that wonderful news came within 48 hours of the election. If the Obama Administration can cram this much scandal and bad news into a timeframe of just under two days, imagine what could happen with four years.

Quick Blog Note- Gone Canvassin'

Just wanted to post a quick update that I will be travelling to my nearest friendly neighborhood swing state on the day leading up to the November 6th Presidential election, volunteering for the Romney/Ryan campaign.

While I figured my vote for Romeny/Ryan in my perpetually bankrupt and dysfuntional dark blue state wouldn't make much of a difference, I thought that I could perhaps offset that by spending time with other volunteers at the Romeny/Ryan campaign offices in a much more competitive state up the road. This was a last minute decision on my part, as I was uncertain about the roadworthyness of my car, not to mention the best route and travel time to the aforementioned swing state as well as my work schedule for the remainder of this week.

I will likely be doing alot of travelling on Election Day itself, but I have already voted by absentee ballot last week. As I'm writing this, the first polls are getting set to open in the tiny village of Dixville Notch, NH in about an hour.

Right now, there isn't a whole lot to do but encourage the few who are still sitting on the fence to go out and vote tommorrow and hope for nothing short of a Romney win beyond what columnist Mark Steyn referred to as 'The Margin of Lawyer'- a reference to the razor thin margin of the 2000 Presidential election.

Clear Eyes, Full Heart, Can't Lose.

Pre-Emptive Shennanigans? Military Voters Purged From Rolls in Florida; Aircraft Carrying Absentee Ballots Crashes in Afghanistan

With the 2012 Presidential campaign winding down, a number of incidents concerning active-duty members of the United States Military attempting to vote via absentee ballot have come to light.

According to an October 26th Associated report, a cargo plane crashed while on approach to Shindad Air Force Base in Afghanistan on October 19th. The plane was carrying an estimated 4700 pounds of mail at the time, and military investigators believe that this likely included a number of absentee ballots on board. The plane was reportedly carrying inbound mail and the ballots on board had yet to be filled out. All the mail on board was destined for a single APO Zip code and the plane was a civilian aircraft from a company that had been contracted to fly in supplies and mail to the base.

Over in Florida, active-duty military voters from the Tampa area were startled to learn that they had been purged from the roll of registered voters while they were deployed overseas. Valrico resident and Navy Captain Peter Kehrig, who has been abroad for five years tells 10 News he feels cheated by a system that removed him from the rolls.

Florida State Law requires county supervisor of elections offices to perform regular "maintenance" on its voter rolls to eliminate voters who have been convicted of felonies, moved out of the county, or may have died.

Voters who miss two consecutive general elections (2010 and 2008, for instance) are mailed a letter to their residence warning them they will be removed from the rolls. But since the post office only forwards mail for six months, Kehrig never got it.

Meanwhile, a couple from Palm Beach County, FL but stationed at Camp Lejune in North Carolina said they had yet to recieve their absentee ballot from the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections. When reached for comment, an official with the Supervisor of elections told a local TV station they were 'working on it' but declined to elaborate.

According to a recent Military Times poll, Republican nominee Mitt Romney enjoyed support from active duty and reservist members of the United States Military by a 66% margin compared to 26% for President Obama.

During the 2000 Presidential Campaign, lawyers for the Gore campaign fought to get absentee ballots from overseas disqualified from the recount as many of them were from soldiers, Marines, sailors and Airmen stationed overseas who had voted in support of Bush.

More recently, elections officials in Illinois and New York state had failed to mail off absentee ballots in time for the 2010 mid-term elections in violation of the 2009 MOVE act.

[Hat tip: Wyatt Earp]

Belated Post-Debate Musings

Well, here it is a few days after the second (and second to last) of the 2012 Presidential Debates and lord knows most of the other places on my blogroll have already commented, but I figured I should weigh in before the third and final debate on Monday night.

I missed the first debate at Denver University earlier this month- partly because I typically work evenings and partly because I was becoming burned out on politics altogether [not because I think Mitt Romney is such a shoddy candidate, but because I find it hard to believe there are people out there willing to defend President Obama's record over these last 3 years- NANESB!].

Apparently I missed a doozy, though. Romney repeatedly hammered President Obama over his economic record while Obama looked disinterested and even asked the moderator Jim Lehrer to change the subject at one point. Since then, Romney has been surging in the polls and gaining ground or pulling away in a number of battleground states while Obama's high-profile supporters have been blaming everything from the high altitude in Denver to the notion that Obama was being 'nice' and pulling his punches.

There was also a debate last week between VP Joe Biden and Romeny's VP nominee Paul Ryan that seemed to de derailed by the Vice President's facial tics and wierd grinning at the most inappropriate times.

The second Presidential debate took place on Tuesday night at Hofstra University in Long Island. The town hall format for this debate was different from the first, with Obama and Romney taking questions from an audience in a Q and A session that was moderated by CNN's Candy Crowley. I missed the first part of the debate- and I was told after the fact I didn't miss much at the time- but I caught most of the second half on radio.

I caught the moment everybody [who was paying attention- NANESB!] was talking about after the fact. Fielding a question about last month's terrorist attacks in Libya. Almost as soon Romney pointed out that it took nearly 2 weeks for the White House to acknowledge the attacks were the result of a planned terrorist action, not a spontaneous demonstration over a YouTube video, Crowley jumped in and said that Romney was wrong and at the Presiden't urging, produced a transcript of a September 12th statement to the press in the Rose Garden of the White House before flying off to a fundraiser in Las Vegas. After the debate, Crowley later walked back her words and said the Romney's statement was in fact correct.

Ignoring the fact that either the President and his proxies were lying to the press about the first terrorist attack to have killed an American diplomat in more than 30 years or he was callous enough to jet off to a high-end Sin City fundraiser while our diplomatic mission in Benghazi was still burning, there was something else I noticed that seemed to be overlooked by others in light of Crowley's blatant attempt to run interference for Obama.

Referencing the theater shooting in Aurora, CO, a member of the audience asked both candidates about revisiting the assault-weapons ban, which had lapsed under George W Bush. Gov Romney gave a fairly lengthy answer that mentioned enforcing laws already already on the books, before bringing up the Department of Justice's Operation Fast and Furious gunwalking program. Romney basically took a minute or so to explain what exactly was Fast and Furious to the audience of undecided voters, but as soon as he started mentioning the Obama Administrations' role in the ATF's gunwalking program, Crowley interrupted the governor in an attempt to steer the discussion back towards domestic gun control policy [most likely the original intent of Fast & Furious, according to some- NANESB!].

Apparently taking a cue from Joe Biden, President Obama apparently decided to start smiling at REALLY inappropriate times before Crowley allowed him to speak. Obama's long and rambling answer sidestepped Fast and Furious altogether and instead talk about the need for more teachers and funding for community colleges.

This likely won't be the last we hear from Fast and Furious at the debates- the third and final debate is scheduled for Monday, October 22nd and is slated to revolve around foreign policy. While some feel that this may be a strong suit for the President, there is not only the matter of Fast and Furious, the Libya terrorist attacks as well as the proposed KeystoneXL pipeline from Canada, there's also President Obama's persistent refusal to meet with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, the continuing threat from Iran's nuclear program, an increasingly aggressive Russia and China and deteriorating situations in Pakistan, Yemen, Syria and Turkey

Blue Red State Graft Watch- Democrat Officials in Arkansas, Mississippi in Trouble Over Ballot Fraud

An Arkansas state representative along with three others have pleaded guilty to federal charges of Consipracy to commit voter fraud last week.

Democrat State Representative Hudson Hollum, his father Kent Hollum, W. Memphis city councilman Phillip Wayne Carter and W. Memphis police officer Sam Malone admitted to securing absentee ballots from voters in exchange for food, liquor, cigarettes or cash as well as destroying absentee ballots in unsealed envelopes where Hollum's opponent was chosen

West Memphis City Councilman Phillip Carter, West Memphis Police Officer Sam Malone, Hudson Hallum, and his father Kent Hallum all pleaded guilty in a conspiracy to bribe voters to influence absentee votes in the District 54 primary election runoff in 2011. Hudson Hallum beat his opponent by just 8 votes. Many came from absentee ballots, reviewed by Hallum before they were mailed to election headquarters.

“The runners of this organization, the Malones and the Carters if you will, would accumulate the absentee ballots and give them to Kent or Hudson Hallum for basically their review," said the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, Jane Duke. “They wanted to make sure if the absentee ballots had been in fact cast for Hudson Hallum. If it had not been, in most circumstances if not all, the ballots were destroyed and were not mailed on to the clerk's office for count."

"I warned him,” said the police officer’s former friend and an attorney in Crittenden County, Hubert Bass. “He (Malone) would brag to me about how he was handling the absentee ballots, that he would go to people's mailboxes and get them out and I told him, Malone you can't do that, you're going to get in trouble.”

Hallum resigned as state representative for the 54th district on September 5th as the indictments were handed down. Arkansas's 54th district covers West Memphis as well as the towns of Marion, Earle, Turrell and other rural areas of Crittenden county.

Across the river and to the south, an NAACP official in Tunica county, Mississippi was sentenced in July on 10 counts of fradulently casting ballots in the 2008 Presidential campaign.

[...] a Tunica County, Miss., jury convicted NAACP official Lessadolla Sowers on 10 counts of fraudulently casting absentee ballots. Sowers is identified on an NAACP website as a member of the Tunica County NAACP Executive Committee.

Sowers received a five-year prison term for each of the 10 counts, but Circuit Court Judge Charles Webster permitted Sowers to serve those terms concurrently, according to the Tunica Times

Sowers was found guilty of voting in the names of Carrie Collins, Walter Howard, Sheena Shelton, Alberta Pickett, Draper Cotton and Eddie Davis. She was also convicted of voting in the names of four dead persons: James L. Young, Dora Price, Dorothy Harris, and David Ross.

In the trial, forensic scientist Bo Scales testified that Sowers’s DNA was found on the inner seals of five envelopes containing absentee ballots.

The Democrat Party has sought to minimize and ridicule allegations of ballot fraud- or even deny that it exists- in the face of voter ID laws being passed in a number of states.

Pentagon's Inspector General: Nearly Half of Overseas US Military Bases Lack Voting Facilities

An audit by the Pentagon's Inspector General office has discovered that fewer than half of overseas US Military facilities aren't in compliance with the Military & Overseas Voter Empowerment Act- or MOVE Act.

The 2009 Act is supposed to guarantee facilities for members of the Armed Forces and US civilians living overseas which would allow them to register to vote in their home state or vote by absentee ballot. It also requires individual states to send off absentee ballots to servicemen and women stationed overseas in a timely manner.

Officials at the Pentagon had blamed a lack of resources and outdated contractor information for the reported lack of voter facilities.

“We concluded the services had not established all the [voting-assistance offices] as intended by the [MOVE Act] because, among other issues, the funding was not available,” reads the report, published last week but first reported Wednesday.

The report said Congress failed to authorize additional funding to implement the MOVE Act and added that Pentagon officials estimate the costs of establishing the offices could exceed $20 million per year.

But Mr. Eversole said Congress had appropriated $75 million over the past three years for military voter assistance efforts.

“The notion that they didn’t have the money to do this, that’s laughable,” he said.

Barely a year after it was signed into law, a number of states had requested waivers from the Justice Department. The Justice Department ended up filing suit against Illinois and New York state ahead of the 2010 mid-term elections after a number of counties in those states failed to send off absentee ballots to members of the military stationed overseas in a timely manner as required by the MOVE act.

Presumptive GOP Nominee Mitt Romney Chooses Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan as Running Mate

GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced his VP selection at a campaign event in Virginia over the weekend. An announcement from the Romney campaign that a VP decision would be made over the weekend led to a flurry of rumors on social networking sites like twitter and unsubustantiated media reports on Friday night. Romeny introduced Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan [R- WI 1] as his running mate in front of the battleship USS Wisconsin at Norfolk, VA on Saturday.

Some analysts theorized that the former Governor Mitt Romney would've been reluctant to nominate somebody who is more charismatic or could outshine him on the campaign trail. Pundits had speculated that other potential nominees included New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, former Minnestoa Governor Tim Pawlenty, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, Ohio Governor Rob Portman or Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell [notice the abundance of governors and complete lack of community organizers! NANESB!].

Ryan, who chairs the House Budget Committee, had a number of high profile clashes with the Obama Administration over the federal budget, entitlement reform and the debt ceiling since 2010 when the GOP became the majority in the House after a number of Tea Party swept into office.

Romeny's Ryan pick has reportedly energized a conservative and Tea Party base who were wary of Romney's credentials as a moderate, with the selection garnering praise from a number of Tea Party affiliated PACs. The pick also puts the focus of the 2012 Presidential campaign squarely back on the economy.

The duo appeared before large and enthusiastic crowds in the swing states of Virginia, North Carolina and Ryan's native Wisconsin over the weekend. Like the Supreme Court ruling that upheld 0bamacare as a tax, the Romney campaign enjoyed a massive surge in donations shortly after the Ryan announcement was made- reportedly collecting as much as $3.5 million in the 24 hours after the two appeared in front of the USS Wisconsin.

Democrats, the media and Obama-alligned PACs reacted fairly predictably, claiming that the Ryan pick was a sign of 'desperation' from the Romney camp and struggled to portray the two as being out-of-touch Washington insiders who sought to take away entitlement programs from the elderly and women. However, the fundraising and large crowds turning out in battleground states to see both Romney and Ryan belied such claims from the Democrats. Also, the nominee could've been Pawlenty, Jindal, Chrisite or Portman and I imagine the left, the media and the Obama campaign would've been saying the exact same things about them, only altering the name for the script.

After appearing at a campaign event in Waukesha, WI, on Sunday the Romney camp announced that he and Ryan would be campaigning seperately until the Republican convention in Tampa at the end of the month. Ryan was slated to appear at the Iowa State Fair on Monday while Mitt Romney is supposed to head to Florida.

Borderline Psychosis Update- Nieto & PRI win Signals Shift? Abandoned Arms Cache Found in Arizona; ATF Sought to Punish Fast & Furious Whistleblowers

MEXICO- With nearly 100% of the ballots in Mexico's presidential elections counted, Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute has named the PRI's Enrique Peña Nieto as the winner in last weekend's balloting. Accusations of vote-buying from the PRI, which were circulating a month ago, increased shortly before last weekend's vote.

The count by the country's electoral authority will almost certainly become the target of legal challenges by leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who alleges Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, engaged in vote-buying that illegally tilted millions of votes.

The accusations began surfacing in June, but sharpened early this week as thousands of people rushed to grocery stores on the outskirts of Mexico City to redeem pre-paid gift cards worth about 100 pesos ($7.50). Many said they got the cards from supporters of PRI prior to Sunday's elections.

Simply giving away such gifts is not illegal under Mexican electoral law, as long as the expense is reported to electoral authorities. But giving gifts to influence votes is a crime, though is not generally viewed as grounds for overturning an election.

Although both leftist candidate Manuel Lopez Obrador and the former ruling PAN Party candidate have accused the PRI of vote-buying, PAN's Josefina Vazquez Mota stopped short of questioning the legitimacy of the election's outcome. While Nieto had an estimated 39% of the vote and Obrador followed up with 31%, Mota came in third with about 25% of the votes.

Until being defeated in the 2000 Mexican presidential election by PAN's Vicente Fox, the PRI had ruled Mexico for more than 70 years. Since then, the PRI operated as an opposition party, coming within 5% of a true majority in both the Senate and Chamber of Deputies only a few years of their 2000 loss of the presidential election.

However, in some states where PRI has retained power, governors, mayors and other PRI politicians have been accused of accepting drug money to allow certain cartels to operate with little to no police interference and some governors are accused of having cartel gunmen as part of their security detail. Tamaulipas is a particularly egregious example, with three of their former governors- all PRI- being investigated by Mexican federal prosecutors this year for corruption, accepting bribes and money laundering while in office. Some of the most high profile atrocities in Mexico's ongoing narcoinsurgency- such as the machine-gunning of more than 70 migrants on a rural ranch or more than 100 young men pulled off of intercity buses by masked gunment only to end up in a mass grave- have taken place in Tamaulipas within the last 2 years.

Without going into any specifics during his presidential campaign, Nieto promised a shift away from outgoing President Calderon's militarization of Mexico's anti-drug trafficking campaign. While the Beltran-Leyva and La Familia Michoacana organizations were effectively brought down on Calderon's watch the country has seen nearly 50,000 killed nationwide since 2006 and upstart organizations like New Generation and Caballeros Templar fill the void in territory once held by the defunct organizations.

Some observers have remarked that a PRI and Nieto victory is in fact a victory for the more powerful drug cartels. Prior to the election, there were theories that the PRI was going to embrace a 'most favored cartel' policy where a government crackdown on certain organizations would continue in exchange for one cartel providing intelligence and operational details on their rivals.

ARIZONA- A hiker in Southeastern Arizona's Coronado National Forest discovered a garbage bag filled with semiautomatic rifles last month. After receiving a report of the discovery on Wednesday, June 20, the Pima County Sheriff’s Office determined that the rifles were found in Santa Cruz County, and notified the local sheriff’s office.

Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies then went to the site and recovered what turned out to be a stash of AK-47 assault rifles.

Lt. Raoul Rodriguez said the rifles were “badly rusted” and had “obviously been there for quite some time.” Four rifle magazines were also recovered.

Rodriguez said the weapons were taken to the sheriff’s office and secured.

It is unknown exactly how long the weapons have been there for or whether or not they were part of the ATF's disatrous Operation Fast and Furious gunwalking program.

ELSEWHERE IN ARIZONA- Arizona's former US Attorney and the author of the Clinton-era ban on semiautomatic weapons ban is also one of architechts of the ATF's Arizona-based Operation Fast & Furious.

Shortly after the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry on Dec. 15, 2010, Attorney General Eric Holder's deputy chief of staff, Monty Wilkinson, received an email from U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke telling him just that:

"The guns found in the desert near the murder(ed) BP officer connect back to the investigation we were going to talk about — they were AK-47s purchased at a Phoenix gun store."

It is an email that helps demonstrate that Holder, despite his congressional testimony — as vague, contradictory and misleading as it was — could not have been ignorant about Fast and Furious and its deadly consequences.

It also brings to light the name of Dennis Burke, a seldom-mentioned Obama campaign donor who oversaw Fast and Furious and helped convert it from a gun-interdiction to a gun-walking program.

Burke, who resigned shortly after the scandal became public, has long been a gun-ban architect for the Democratic Party.

As a lawyer for the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, he was behind the ineffectual 1994 "assault weapon" ban that sunset in 2004. Burke was also the chief of staff for Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano for a number of years before she became the secretary of homeland security.

Burke also is an Obama donor, a prime consideration in the staffing of the Obama administration. Federal Election Commission records show that on Jan. 9, 2008, while working for Napolitano, Burke contributed $2,000 to Sen. Barack Obama's presidential primary campaign. Since 1997, according to FEC records, Burke has given $16,350 to Democratic candidates.

Burke would leave that Gov. Napolitano post to join the Obama transition team. He was soon rewarded for his many contributions, monetary and otherwise, when on July 10, 2009, the president nominated him to be the U.S. attorney in Arizona. The Senate confirmed him that Sept. 15.

In July 2010, Burke told the Arizona Capitol Times there had "clearly been direction provided already by President Obama and Attorney General Holder as to what they want to be doing."

That's an interesting statement, considering what Burke would do and how Holder and Obama would claim they were out of the operational loop.

The report bolsters some claims that the Department of Justice's gunwalking program that was repsponsible for hundreds of casualties in Mexico and the death of at least one Border Patrol agent was motivated at least in part by blaming the ongoing drug violence in Mexico on American guns to create public opinion in favor of more gun control.

In other Fast & Furious related news, excerpts from a House oversight memo dated May 2012 indicate that two ATF field agents turned whistleblowers were placed under the direct supervision of a senior ATF official who promised retaliation shortly after they went public.

When the ATF whistleblowers, Special Agents John Dodson and Pete Forcelli, went public last year, Scot Thomasson headed up ATF Public Affairs. According to an eyewitness, Thomasson stated "We need to get whatever dirt we can on these guys (whistleblowers) and take them down." Now, Grassley and Issa say the agents have been put under the charge of ATF's Scot Thomasson who is Division Chief of the Firearms Operations Unit.

Thomasson was also allegedly heard to have said "ATF needs to f__k these guys." And when asked if the whistleblower allegations were true, Thomasson purportedly said he didn't know and didn't care. The accounts are contained in a May 3, 2012 House Oversight memo attached to Congress' draft contempt report against Attorney General Eric Holder.

Dodson went public about the agency's controversial gunwalking tactics in an interview with CBS News in February 2011. He later testified before Congress along with Forcelli.

"It is difficult to understand why ATF leadership would put two of these courageous whistleblowers at the mercy of an individual who made such reckless, irresponsible and inaccurate comments about them 18 months ago," say the members of Congress in today's letter to the Inspector General. The letter also asks "what steps, if any, are being taken to ensure that Thomasson does not use his new position to engage in a campaign of retaliation along the lines he expressed a desire to conduct last year."

After ignoring the story for the better part of 18 months, a Fortune article released before last week's conetmpt vote in the House of Representatives attempted to depict Special Agent Dodson and other whistleblowers as disguntled malcontents and troublemakers.

Democrats Skipping National Convention, Seek to Distance Themselves From Obama

At least a half dozen elected Democrats announced that they will not be attending the party's upcoming national Convention at Charlotte, NC in September.

The latest no-shows who made the announcement came from two incumbent Representatives from Upstate New York who are trying to get re-elected in competitive districts.

Congressman Bill Owens [D- NY23] and Kathy Hochul [D- NY26] announced separately that they would be spending time in their respective districts and with their campaigns in lieu of attending the party's gathering in the Tarheel state. The two upstate Democrats' announced their decision a day after Pennsylvania Congressman [D- PA12] told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that he would be campaigning in lieu of attending the DNC's convention this September. The April Keystone state primary pitted two Democrat incumbents- Critz and Jason Altmire [D- PA4]- against each other to vie for the newly-redrawn congressional district. Critz fended off the challenge from Altmire by winning they newly-formed district's primary by a 52% margin.

Critz, Owens and Hochul each came into office during closely contested special elections since 2009 and all three of them are facing spirited challenges from Republican opposition in their districts, leading many to observe that they're distancing themselves from President Obama for their 2012 campaigns.

Meanwhile, the Democrat delegation from the Mountain State will be under-represented as Democrat governor Earl Ray Tomblin, US Senator Joe Manchin and Congressman Nick Rahall [D- WV3] all announced they would be skipping out on the DNC convention. The three West Virginia Democrats have criticized Obama's energy policies as effectively bankrupting the coal-producing state. Under the Obama Administration, the EPA has ordered the shutdown of dozens of coal-fired power plants and during the closing days of the 2008 Presidential campaign, Obama had promised that energy prices would skyrocket while he would bankrupt the coal industry.

Critz, Manchin, Tomblin and Rahall all represent coal producing regions while Owens and Hochul's districts could benefit from natural gas exploration on the Marcellus shale should New York state ever lift a moratorium on hyrdo-fracking. Despite being abundant and domestically available energy sources, President Obama, the Democrats and their environmentalist backers have demonstrated an inherent antipathy towards fossil fuels- including coal and natural gas- as a cornerstone of their energy policy.

In late May, prominent Democrats such as former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, Newark, NJ mayor Corey Booker and Massachusetts governor DeVal Patrick were rebuked by the White House after they were critical of the Obama campaign's attacks on private equity firm Bain Capital as a means of going after presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

The convention venue itself is a point of contention among some Democrats. Although North Carolina is a right-to-work state, local officials agreed to outsource some labor contracts to out-of-state union shops. Last month, Tarheel state voters approved an amendment to the state's constitution that would define marriage as between a man and a woman. The move draw ire from the gay community, who had unsuccessfully petitioned the DNC to change venues.

Egypt's Supreme Court Deems Elections Invalid, Orders Islamist-Dominated Parliament Dissolved

And just in time for Friday prayers! This oughta be good....

In a blow to the Muslim Brotherhood and their Islamist allies, Egypt's 18-judge Supreme Court has ruled that the post-Mubarak parliamentary elections invalid and that the new Islamist-dominated parliament be dissolved.

The sweeping ruling by many judges who were appointed by Mubarak drew immediate criticism from the Muslim Brotherhood, who compared the high court's ruling to a coup d'etat.

The decision by the Supreme Constitutional Court effectively erased the tenuous progress from Egypt's troubled transition in the past year, leaving the country with no parliament and concentrating power even more firmly in the hands of the generals who took over from Mubarak.

Several hundred people gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square after the rulings to denounce the action and rally against former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, the presidential candidate seen by critics as a symbol of Mubarak's autocratic rule. But with no calls by the Brotherhood or other groups for massive demonstrations, the crowd did not grow.

Activists who engineered Egypt's uprising have long suspected that the generals would try to cling to power, explaining that after 60 years as the nation's single most dominant institution, the military would be reluctant to surrender its authority or leave its economic empire to civilian scrutiny.

Shafiq's rival in the Saturday-Sunday runoff, Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, said he was unhappy about the rulings but accepted them.

In last year's parliamentary elections -- Egypt's first democratic ones in generations -- the Brotherhood became the biggest party in the legislature, with nearly half the seats, alongside more conservative Islamists who took another 20 percent. It is hoping to win the presidency as well.

The rulings, however, take away the Brotherhood's power base in parliament and boost Shafiq at a time when the Islamists are at sharp odds with a wide array of major forces, including the military, the judiciary and pro-democracy groups behind the uprising.

The law governing the parliamentary elections was ruled unconstitutional by a lower court because it breached the principle of equality when it allowed party members to contest a third of the seats set aside for independents. The remaining two-thirds were contested by party slates.

Earlier this week, the military appointed government gave police and military the authority to arrest civilians for poorly-defined and vague crimes such as disrupting traffic or the economy. This has led to speculation that the measures were designed specifically for cracking down on protests like the Tahrir Square demonstrations that ultimately toppled the regime of Hosni Mubarak and that military commanders plan on retaining power after the June 17th runoff presidential election between Muslim Brotherhood-backed Muhammed Mursi and Hosni Mubarak's former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.

Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court also struck down a law passed by the post-Mubarak Islamist dominated parliament that barred former officials with the Mubarak regime from running for office. The Muslim Brotherhood was hoping that Shafiq would be removed from the ballot, eliminating the need for a runoff campaign and effectively handing over the Presidency to Mursi.

Deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has been incarcerated since being found guilty of complicity in the deaths of more than 800 protesters in the 'Arab Spring' uprising that took place in early 2011. He reportedly suffered a heart attack shortly after arriving in prison and his health has been steadily deteriorating since then.

Effort to Recall Michigan Governor Abandoned After Walker's Wisconsin Win

Less than a week after Wisconsin governor Scott Walker handily survived a union-backed recall campaign, a group seeking to recall Michigan's Republican governor has abandoned their effort after coming up well short of the required 807,000 signatures.

This is actually the second time a liberal organization called Michigan Rising had attempted to reall Gov. Rick Snyder. Like Scott Walker, Snyder was elected to office with the backing of the Tea Party that saw a number of conservative candidates winning US House seats and governor mansions.

"It has become abundantly clear that Michigan Rising was not going to accomplish its goal," Fealk said.

The group will continue work to stop "the corporate takeover" of Michigan and plans to develop a progressive think tank and leadership development organization, he said

Meanwhile, teachers unions in Louisiana have begun circulating petitions to try and force a recall of Republican governor Bobby Jindal and a number of state lawmakers who backed the governor's statewide school voucher program.

The Louisiana Association of Educators Board of Directors unanimously voted Saturday to endorse the effort to recall Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Recall organizer Lee Barrios told the board she also is seeking endorsements from the Louisiana Federation of Teachers and the AFL-CIO.

She said a number of teachers signed the recall during a rally on the Capitol steps during the legislative session.

Barrios said there was some talk of dropping the recall because of insufficient signatures by the September deadline, but organizers decided to "double our efforts" and branch out and try to bring in organizations.

"We want it to look successful," Barrios told the LAE board.

In addition to Gov. Jindal, the Louisiana recall effort is targeting State Speaker of the House Chuck Kleckly- a Republican representing Lake Charles in Baton Rouge- as well as St Tammany Parrish GOP state representatives Kevin Pearson and Greg Cromer.

Badger State Beatdown- Scott Walker Becomes First US Governor to Survive Recall; Obama's Bad Week Continues

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker surivived Tuesday night's union-backed recall effort by a considerable margin. The results marked the first time that a sitting governor had survived a recall- a campaign that was about 18 months in the making and gained national attention for possible nationwide implications. Walker had earned the ire of organized labor and the left for legislation introduced curtailing the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions like the SEIU and AFSCME in 2011- prompting Democrat state senators to flee the state to prevent a quorum on such legislation.

Interestingly, the network who's 'personalities' were the most emotionally invested in seeing Walker unseated were the first ones who called the race for Walker. Less than an hour after the polls closed in the Badger State, MSNBC called the race for Scott Walker.



In the week prior to the election, the consensus among the media and punditocracy was that it would be an extremely close contest with Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett reportedly closing a significant gap with Walker. However, when the polls closed on Tuesday night, the results of the recall wasn't anywhere near as close as anticipated.



Not only did Walker handily surivie the recall effort, but Republican Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch retained her office by a similar margin against challenger Mahlon Mitchell. Kleefisch is the first ever Lt Governor in the USA to face recall.

Yay Wisconsin!

Three of the four state senators (all Republicans) also successfully held off challengers from the Democrat party in their respective state Senate districts. GOP State Senator Van Wanggaard [Senate District 21, which covers most of Racine county aloing the Illinois state line- NANESB!] was unseated by Democrat challenger John Lehman, giving the Democrats the majority in the Wisconsin State Senate. However, that majority would only be theoretical and may be short-lived- the Wisconsin State Senate has already adjourned for the year and the seat is up for re-election in November of this year- before the Senate re-adjourns. It's possible Lehman could serve out his entire term without the Senate ever being called into session.

Not surprisingly, some organizations did their best to spin the outcome in their favor, despite overlooking the agonizingly obvious in the process.

Win or lose, Scott Walker has joined ignominious company in suffering the humiliation of a recall election. 3rd ever. #wiunion
— AFL-CIO (@AFLCIO) June 6, 2012

Many of the same pundits, media figures and politicians who were emotionally invested in seeing Walker voted out of office before completing his first term could only point to the exit polls showing President Obama leading over presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney as a bright spot. However, these same exit polls showed that the race between Walker and Barrett was a dead heat- so their reliability is suspect at best.

Perhaps one of the most intruiging breakdowns of the recall is that Walker recived more than ⅓ of the vote from union households. Even before the polls closed, prominent Democrats such as former President Bill Clinton and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney began circulating the talking point that the only reason Walker could win was because of out-of-state support from the Tea Party and wealthy donors such as the Koch Brothers [rather conventiently ignoring the $20 million unions and Democrats spent on the recall, the margin which candidate Obama outspent candidate McCain in 2008 or President Obama's lavish Hollywood fundraisers this year- NANESB!].

I pointed out that Obama was conspicuously absent from Wisconsin just days before the recall voting despite fundraising in neighboring Illinois and Minnesota- one of the first bad omens for the Barrett campaign. Despite recent GOP gains in the Badger State, Obama was still considered a favorite to win Wisconsin in the November 2012 presidential campaign until Tuesday night. However, if the Obama camp decided to stay away from the Wisconsin recall as a pre-emptive means of damage control, it didn't do them any good.

Walker’s win prompted Democratic and Republican strategists to reassess Wisconsin’s political landscape and the role the state will play in the presidential race. Until earlier this week, target states listed by President Barack Obama’s campaign didn’t include the state, which has voted Democratic in the past six presidential elections, albeit narrowly at times.

In a campaign video released June 4 -- the day before the recall -- Obama campaign manager Jim Messina listed Wisconsin as “undecided,” along with Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Virginia.

So not only would Obama be facing an energized Republican base in Wisconsin come November, but a demoralized liberal and union base who won't forget that he had abandoned just before to the recall.

If that wasn't enough, the same day Walker cruised to an easy win, Bill Clinton questioned Obama's economic proposals of allowing the Bush-era tax cuts to expire.

Incredibly, Bill Clinton – the man the White House sent to represent the President during the election – compounded the result by admitting that the country was in a recession and by urging Congress to extend the Bush tax cuts. That makes him the most senior liberal in the nation to cast doubt on Obama’s economic strategy.

In recent weeks, prominent Democrats such as Clinton, former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick and Newark, NJ mayor Corey Booker have cautioned the Obama camp that they should back off their attacks on private equity as a means of attempting to attack Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital.

Wisconsin Recall-A-Palooza Update- With Walker Up in Polls, Democrats Getting Desperate; Walker Supporter Detained at Barrett Rally

With Wisconsin's June 5th recall election looming, the Democrat party and their union allies seem to be pulling out all the stops in their bid to unseat Gov. Walker. Running against Walker is Milwaukee's Democrat mayor Tom Barrett in what is basically a rematch of the 2010 Gubernerorial campaign.

Well.....almost all the stops. You see, just days before the voters were slated to go to the polls in Wisconsin President Obama hosted six fundriasers on Friday- dividing his time between the Twin Cities and Chicago. Yet Obama was conspicuously absent from that state that takes up real-estate between Illinois and Minnesota. If the Democrats on the national level were at all confident of a Barrett win, Obama likely would've made an appearence in the Badger State while on his Midwest fundraising trip (disguised as official business). Yet President Obama avoided Dairyland like it was a discussion on the most recent jobless numbers report.

Barrett has been trailing in nearly every poll in recent weeks. Although some polls had Walker up considerably in the last few weeks, Barrett was gradually closing the gap and while still behind Walker in some polling, he was within the margin of error.

Further telegraphing desperation is an early 'October surprise' liberal bloggers attempted to spring on Scott Walker over the weekend, citing anonymous and secondhand sources that Scott Walker fathered an illegitimate son with a classmate while attending Marquette University. The love-child story, floated by an outlet called "Wisconsin Citizens Media Co-op", unravelled in about an hour after a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter confirmed that the Scott Walker in question had a different middle name than the governor.

Around the same time, a left-leaning think tank began sending out mailers identifying individuals who did and didn't vote in prior elections.

When many Wausau voters checked their mail this past weekend, they got a glimpse of something unusual -- their neighbor's voting record.

"I had no idea that was a part of the public record," said Bryan Mergen, who lives in Wausau.

The mailer -- put out by the Greater Wisconsin Political Fund -- shows a list of people who live near you and whether they voted in two recent November elections. It doesn't show who you voted for, but even so, some voters said it's an invasion of their privacy.

Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board spokesperson Reid Magney said voter records are public records. With a name and a birth date, you can find election records right on their website. And some voters said they don't mind the exposure.

"My first reaction is, what's this?" said Mary Dominski, who lives in Wausau. "And then I thought, well, it's okay. I had no problem with it because I have no problem with my voting record."

Magney said many groups buy a copy of the statewide voter list. But he said this is the first time a group has used the voter information this way.

"I think it probably was not the smartest political move, because I think there's a lot of antagonism and a lot of people thought there was more information than there really is," said Dominski.

Meanwhile, in Milwaukee, a counterdemonstrator was detained by police at a Barrett rally that President Clinton was speaking at.

Particularly damning was the gathering crowd of Barrett supporters and union activists gleefully chanting 'Lock Him Up!' for the high crime of holding up a pro-Walker sign in a public park. The man identified himself as Dave Willoughby and in addition to being a former Marine, is reportedly the son of a prominent Florida Tea Party activist.

Attendees of the rally accuse Willoughby of acting in a belligerent and confrontational manner towards them and Milwaukee police cited him for disturbing the peace before booking him before getting released [During last year's protests against Scott Walker's budget proposal, union members and Democrats occupied the Wisconsin state capitol building, damaging doors, blocking traffic and threatening lawmakers- so even if the pro-Barrett crowd's version of events is 100% accurate, its pretty mild in comparison to what SEIU and AFSCME-affiliated protesters inflicted on the state capital last year- NANESB!]

That Was Then, This Is Now- March: Obama Holds $30K Per Ticket Fundraiser in Maine. April- Feds Set To Cripple Maine Fishing Industry

Less than a month after President Obama held a $30,000 per-ticket fundraiser in the state of Maine, a series of shutdowns off the coast by federal regulators is poised to deal a huge blow to New England's fishing industry.

In a move to protect the estimated 60,000 to 90,000 harbor porpoises that live in the Atlantic waters between North Carolina and the Canadian maritime provinces, NOAA officials have ordered the shutdown of a busy fishing ground that extends off the coast of Glouchester, MA to southern Maine that will take effect on October 1st- peak time for New England fishermen. According to federal statistics, fishermen in the region pulled in about $4 million during that time.

The loss is huge in an industry that’s fighting for its future as it faces significant cuts in key stocks such as cod in the Gulf of Maine and yellowtail flounder in Georges Bank. There’s also no obvious end to the annual closure to protect porpoise, since the requirement to reduce accidental porpoise deaths down to 70 per year looks a long way off. The team of regulators, fishermen and environmentalists that devised the closure could conceivably decide there are better alternatives to shutting down the area, but they don’t meet until this fall. 

The industry has been battered by a variety of regulatory actions starting with a rough 50 percent cut in catch limits mandated by Amendment 16 two years ago and right up to the recent 22 percent reduction in the amount Gulf of Maine cod that can be landed in the 2012 fishing year beginning May 1, a result of a 2011 benchmark assessment that contradicted the previous benchmark assessment from three years earlier.

According to the NOAA, a total of 2,103 square miles of prime fishing ground will be off-limits to fishermen effective October 1st, 2012.

While the porpoise population off the New England coastline is abundant, the species is considered protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Although the law reportedly takes into account that a certain number of porpoises would be accidentally snared in the fisherman's gillnets, that total number that have recently been killed will trigger a provision in the law that would put the waters off limits.

To minimize the number of dolphins or porpoises snagged in the nets, a device that emits an intermittent sound to ward off the mammals called 'pingers' are required to be attached to the gillnets. However, regulators and environmentalists claim that the fishermen in the region have failed to comply with these requirements. The fishermen counter that it's difficult to tell whether or not a pinger has broken down.

The NOAA ruling comes about two months after the Natural Resources Defence Council successfully petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service list the Atlantic Sturgeon as a threatened species- a ruling that could leave even more of the New England coastline off limits to fishing.

Ron Smolowitz of the Fisheries Survival Fund, a scallop industry group, warned the council that restrictions to protect the fish could affect many fishermen who don’t use sink gillnets. Under the Endangered Species Act, certain areas can be designated as “critical habitat” if those areas are seen as essential to conserving the species.
Such critical habitat designations can come with restrictions that “could wipe out the entire fisheries of the East Coast of the United States,” he said.
Brad Sewell, an attorney for the National Resources Defense Council, which petitioned to have the sturgeon listed under the Endangered Species Act, said in a phone interview said it’s extremely unlikely new sturgeon restrictions will have such a broad effect.
Changes to sink gillnet fishing will be the focus, and there are affordable, sensible measures can make it less of a danger to sturgeon, such as pulling up the nets more often or raising them off the ocean floor to avoid sturgeon, he said.

If you think the name 'Natural Resources Defence Council' sounds familiar, this is the same outfit of litigous enviromentalists who decided to sue BNSF and Union Pacific Railroads over deisel emissions in rail yards out west.
In January, Maine's Department of Marine Resources challenged a National Marine Fisheries Service ruling that required fishing boats in the state to be equipped with "rock hopper" bumpers on their nets in the middle of shrimping season.
Interesting that as federal regulators continue to crack down Maine's commercial fisherman (in addition to a number of paper mills shuttering- which in turn puts a number of truckers and railroaders out of work) the President shows up at a fundraiser whose price of admission is worth more than 60% of the state's median household income asking for another four years in office.