– The state Supreme Court ruled today that election officials must begin counting absentee ballots this Wednesday, as originally scheduled - a victory for Murphy’s campaign. The Tedisco camp wanted to wait until all the military absentee ballots have arrived from overseas next week before counting the absentees.
“The people of the 20th Congressional District need their votes counted in a timely manner, so they can be represented in Congress as quickly as possible in these tough economic times,” said Murphy attorney Henry Berger. “We are confident that once all the absentee ballots are counted, Scott Murphy will win this election.”
So far, at least 6,780 absentee ballots remain to be counted, according to the New York Board of Elections special election count. Of those, 3,107 are from registered Republicans, 2,383 are from registered Democrats and 973 are from unaffiliated voters.
It’s over. The dark era, when everything that could go wrong would go wrong within the Missouri athletic program, is something for the history books now, a period to be studied and analyzed by sports scientists and historians.
The era ended Tuesday night when athletic director Mike Alden smooth-talked basketball coach Mike Anderson into signing a below-market-value extension to remain at Mizzou. Tiger fans just knew Anderson would take Georgia’s $2-million offer and bolt, leaving behind 40 Minutes of Mel (Watkins) to replace the 40 Minutes of Hell that carried the Tigers to the Elite Eight and a whisker away from the school’s first-ever Final Four.
Today he sent a letter today to Toomey, who heads the fiscally-conservative Club for Growth, demanding details about all the organization’s contributors.
Dear Mr. Toomey,
I understand from numerous press reports that you are soon to leave the Presidency of the Club for Growth to run for the U.S. Senate.
In recent weeks as you have shifted your attention from a long-planned run for Governor to another Senate campaign, you have criticized the TARP bill I voted for last fall. Given the Wall Street background of your members, it seems clear that many of them would have received TARP monies.
Please gather a list of the contributors to the Club for Growth by contributor name, date, amount and whether they received TARP money and if so, how much and when
Sincerely,
Arlen Specter
This comes one day after Specter aired a television ad across the state attacking Toomey for his background as a former investment banker dealing in “risky derivatives called credit default swaps”.
But after a Factcheck.org analysis declared the ad misleading (credit default swaps didn’t exist when Toomey was an investment banker), the Specter campaign slightly revised its wording.
According to the Votemaster, the recent decision by the Iowa Supreme Court striking down a state law which defines marriage as the legal union between one man and one woman, “immensely complicates” the 2012 race for the GOP…
For social conservatives like Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R) it is a twofer: they can campaign for the Iowa caucuses by railing against (1) gay marriage and (2) activist judges. Iowa’s Republicans are deeply conservative and by moving the hot-button social issues to the front burner, Palin and Huckabee benefit from this. Mitt Romney is currently against gay marriage, but Iowa Republicans can never be sure what position he will take a week later in New Hampshire.
If Palin and Huckabee finish first and second in Iowa, in whichever order, whoever finishes fourth will have a hard time recovering in New Hampshire. If the #3 finisher is a relative moderate, such as Romney or Gov. John Huntsman (R-UT), he could still have a good shot at winning the New Hampshire primary. While winning Iowa is no guarantee of getting the nomination (just ask Mike Huckabee), it certainly is a good start. As a consequence, the likelihood of the Republicans nominating a highly conservative, deeply religious candidate has been greatly increased by the Iowa court decision.
1994-Justice Harry Blackmun announces his impending retirement after 24 years on the Court. His majority opinion in Roe v. Wade (1973) is rivaled only by Dred Scott as the worst opinion in Supreme Court history. As one of Blackmun’s own former clerks, Edward Lazarus (who described himself as “someone utterly committed to the right to choose [abortion]” and as “someone who loved Roe’s author like a grandfather”), aptly put it, “As a matter of constitutional interpretation and judicial method, Roe borders on the indefensible.”
April 4:
1939-Two weeks after President Roosevelt nominates SEC chairman (and former Yale law professor) William O. Douglas to the Supreme Court, the Senate confirms the nomination by a 62-4 vote. On the Court from 1939 until 1975, Douglas is the longest-serving justice in history.
Iowa Republican congressman Steve King’s statement:
This is an unconstitutional ruling and another example of activist judges molding the Constitution to achieve their personal political ends. Iowa law says that marriage is between one man and one woman. If judges believe the Iowa legislature should grant same sex marriage, they should resign from their positions and run for office, not legislate from the bench.
Now it is the Iowa legislature’s responsibility to pass the Marriage Amendment to the Iowa Constitution, clarifying that marriage is between one man and one woman, to give the power that the Supreme Court has arrogated to itself back to the people of Iowa. Along with a constitutional amendment, the legislature must also enact marriage license residency requirements so that Iowa does not become the gay marriage Mecca due to the Supreme Court’s latest experiment in social engineering.
Bill Galston at the NewRepublic‘s blog provides some clear thinking on the prospects for the Obama administration’s cap-and-trade legislation. His conclusion: ain’t gonna happen. Galston notes that national polls show that on the question of balancing economic against environmental considerations, voters have switched and are now more concerned about the economy-as in holding down utility costs-and less concerned about the environment.
And, as Galston points out, a cap-and-trade system would substantially increase the price of electricity produced by coal. Nationally, we get 49 percent of our energy by coal (these are 2006 figures, from the 2009 Statistical Abstract of the United States), but reliance on coal varies widely by state. The following table may help you to understand the political implications. It shows the percentage of electricity produced by coal in each state above the national average and the number of Democratic senators and representatives from each of those states.
Contrary to myth, New England is not firmly sewn in the Democratic bag. Three of the states — Connecticut, Vermont and Rhode Island — have Republican governors. Meanwhile, independents comprise huge voting blocs throughout the region.
In Connecticut, 45 percent of registered voters are independents. Only 34 percent are Democrats, and the remaining 21 percent Republican.
True, a Democrat took away Simmons’ House seat in 2006. But the three-term rep lost it by only 83 votes and in a dismal year for Republicans nationally. In recent elections, two other Connecticut House Republicans, Nancy Johnson and the aforementioned Shays, were defeated but not trounced.
“All those Republicans lost because of George W. Bush,” Kenneth Dautrich, an adviser to Republican Gov. Jodi Rel, told me. “He’s gone.”
- Twenty-one percent (21%) of U.S. voters now think Congress is doing a good or excellent job, its highest ratings in over a year, but nearly twice as many (41%) also think most members of Congress are corrupt.
-Democrats are more pleased with Congress than they were last month, with 37% who give the legislature good or excellent ratings. In early March, just 30% of Democrats felt that way. Only nine percent (9%) of Republicans and 13% of unaffiliated voters now rate Congress positively.
Many of you protectionists hyperventilate about America’s alleged loss of manufacturing prowess. Are you aware that your worries on this front arise solely because you confuse manufacturing jobs with manufacturing output? Manufacturing jobs, as a percentage of all jobs in America, are indeed declining (see top chart above). And you hysterically interpret this fact as somehow proving that foreign producers are undermining America’s economy.(more…)
GENEVA (Reuters) - Denmark boasts the world’s most networked economy, putting it and its Nordic neighbors in a good position to rebound from the current global downturn, the World Economic Forum said on Thursday.
Sweden ranked second in the annual WEF Networked Readiness Index, sponsored by Cisco, which measures information and communications technology availability and use, such as access to mobile phone and Internet services.
The United States placed third, Singapore fourth and Switzerland fifth among the 134 economies listed in the index; poor states including Bangladesh, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Timor-Leste and Chad rated worst.
In Friday’s IT Blogwatch, we wonder if we’ll be Skyping from our iPhones soon. Not to mention Atari 2600 powered by hope …
When Om speaks, we all listen:
Skype logo Exclusive Heads up: A few months ago, I asked Skype CEO Josh Silverman when was he going to launch the iPhone version of the P2P voice and IM service that has now been downloaded more than 405 million times. He smiled and said, “Stay tuned.” And so we did.
A tipster - a very reliable one - tells me that Skype is almost ready to launch that iPhone version, perhaps as soon as next week. CTIA Wireless, a large mobile industry trade event, kicks off in Las Vegas next Wednesday, so perhaps the announcement will be made there.
(CNSNews.com) - For the tenth year, the United Nations’ top human rights watchdog has passed a resolution on “defamation of religion,” in the face of growing international criticism that its Islamic sponsors are trying to place constraints on free expression.
The Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday approved the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)-proposed resolution by 23-11, while 13 countries abstained.
In a setback for opponents, the resolution won slightly more support than last year’s one, which passed by 21-10, with 14 abstentions.
Barack Obama revealed his long-term goals in a radio interview on Chicago’s WBEZ-FM in 2001. Asked about the Earl Warren court decisions that started long lines of activist decisions in many areas, Obama argued that the Warren court didn’t go far enough: the Warren court changed the laws, but failed to address the economic issues to bring about “redistributive change.” Henry Kissinger called on the Obama Administration to use the current financial crisis to create a “new world order.”
Obama complained that “the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth” or “economic justice” and failed to “break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution.” The Stimulus is designed to break through those constitutional restraints on government action.
First, the Stimulus repeals the essentials of Welfare Reform passed by the Republican Congress in 1996. It was reluctantly signed by President Bill Clinton after he realized the public was demanding reform, and after it proved popular he tried to take credit for it.
Quinn, Blagojevich’s one-time lieutenant governor, is seeking to close a growing budget deficit by increasing the state’s personal income-tax rate by an incredible 50 percent. He’s expected to receive support from the state’s General Assembly, where both chambers are controlled by his fellow Democrats.
Many observers are stunned by the low income levels at which the tax hike would take effect. Even with a higher personal exemption, a single taxpayer making as little as $14,000 would see a tax hike. Couples making more than $28,000 also would have to pay more in taxes, as would families of three earning in excess of $42,000.
And Quinn’s plan doesn’t just hike personal income taxes. It also would increase the state’s corporate income-tax rate (making it the fourth-highest rate in the nation) and elevate taxes on cigarettes and automobile-licensing fees.
At the same time, Quinn intends to continue the state’s reckless spending streak.
Spending in Illinois has skyrocketed in recent years - up approximately 45 percent per capita since 1998, even though the state’s population has grown a mere 4 percent during the period. Yet Quinn says proposals for significant spending cuts are “mean spirited,” all while calling for new and needless expenditures. The governor’s 2010 spending blueprint is laden with pork, including $150,000 for the state’s grape and wine industry, $71,200 for the horseracing and breeding industry, and $500,000 for mosquito abatement.
This Summary is of selected criminal trends and is not reflective of all police activity
For the two weeks ending 03/23/09 Lenexa officers investigated 625 incidents, conducted 192 street checks and field interviews, wrote 486 citations, and made 229 arrests, including 12 arrests for DUI and 25 arrests for narcotics violations including several “sales” cases. Directed Patrol officers also made multiple Prostitution related arrests and with the last week also being Spring Break, officers also arrested sixteen young persons at another underage alcohol party. (more…)
The Employee Free Choice Act of 2009 would fundamentally change the nature of the relationship between unions, employers, and employees. The only reason to eliminate the secret ballot in union elections is to give union leaders and managers the power to manipulate individual workers to guarantee the success of the union and not to reflect the true choices of the employees.
Study documents historic trend of decreased state tax revenues following cigarette tax increases
TOPEKA - The free-market grassroots group Americans for Prosperity-Kansas today released a study on the effects of cigarette taxes on the state’s economy.
The study “Masters of Tax Avoidance: Kansans and The Cigarette Excise, 1927-2009″ by Patrick Fleenor, chief economist of Fiscal Economics, Inc., outlines the history of Kansas cigarette taxes and the results on the state economy. (more…)
The Founding Fathers, who took such deliberate care to preserve personal liberty in our Constitution, would be ashamed by the hysteria and pandering that has consumed Washington over bonuses paid to AIG employees. There is no justification for rewarding people for failure, but the conduct of elected officials calling for legislative retribution is far more egregious. Members of both parties are tripping over each other in a rush to endorse legislation that would tax bonuses paid to employees of companies receiving ‘bailout’ money at rates as high as 90%. (more…)
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took a hard swing at the U.S. Thursday, suggesting a basket of strong regional currencies should replace the dollar as the world’s reserve money and saying the Kremlin had spent all it would on economic stimulus, according to a translation of his speech to the Group of 20 nations in London this morning.
A recent mailing by Wichita city council candidate Lavonta Williams contains an endorsement that seems a bit implausible.
I don’t know anything about the politics of Val Jackson, a prominent Wichita businessman who, in Williams’ recent mailer, is listed under the heading “Join us in voting WILLIAMS on April 7.”
On the day he was indicted on 19 counts, including racketeering, wire fraud, extortion conspiracy and lying to federal agents, former Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich spent the day at Disney World in Florida.
“I’m enjoying Disney World with my kids and I don’t think you’re supposed to be here. I’m happy to talk to you at the appropriate time,” he told the reporter.
