The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts. – Edmund Burke
From the category archives:
Marco Rubio on Neil Cavuto on Obama’s ideology and Obamacare:
Rubio on why the rush and the secrecy on specifics: “The less public scrutiny something receives the worse the idea usually is. That is why they are not allowing people to fully vet it.”
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While Charlie Crist doesn’t want to scrap Obamacare even though he is unable to say what he likes about it, Marco Rubio, his opponent in the Republican primary for US Senate from Florida, is clear in his rejection of Obamacare and in how he would reform health care:
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Florida Governor Charlie Crist again demonstrates why he doesn’t deserve support from conservatives and Tea Party independents. In an interview with the Palm Beach Post he stated President Obama should not scrap the current health care proposal and then is unable to identify a single part of the current proposal that is worth keeping:
Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate, told The Palm Beach Post editorial board on Friday that, unlike many Republicans in Washington, he didn’t think President Obama should scrap his health care reform proposal:
“There may be parts of it that you don’t have to scrap. There are three parts of it that I would like to see scrapped: It would raise taxes significantly, it would raise rates significantly and it would take half-a-trillion dollars out of Medicare.
“I think the real issue here, as it relates to health care, is that people want it to not cost so much and people want to have access to it. I think there is a consensus of agreement that the health care that is delivered in America is good. But it’s not easy to get it and it’s too expensive when you do get it.”
Asked if there were any parts of the bill he liked, Crist said:
“I don’t think a whole lot. Watching the discussion yesterday (Thursday) you get a chance to sort of see more of it be ferreted out. You know, I’m the kind of guy … I’m pragmatic. The stimulus is a great example. We needed the money. Every other Republican governor took it, too. I was just maybe a little more honest and straight forward about it. Well, shame on me for being honest. But, you know, as it relates to health care, if there are good ideas, I’m willing to look at them. And I would take that same approach to any issue in Washington.”
Asked again if there were any parts he liked he said:
“Not at present. No.”
Not one good idea?
“There may be. There may be. You know, I’m pretty focused on Florida right now. I mean, after the session I’ll be more focused on the issues in Washington. But I’ve got to do my first job first.”
So understanding how major legislation in Washington that will have huge impacts on the state’s finances and on Floridians is not part of Charlie Crist’s current job as governor? And a candidate for US Senate doesn’t need to understand major legislation currently considered by the Senate?
It is time for the voters in Florida to retire Charlie Crist in the Republican primary for US Senate. Then again, maybe Crist will confirm rumors that he plans to leave the Republican Party and self-destruct on his own.
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Is Florida governor Charlie Crist running away from a Republican primary challenge by Marco Rubio for the US Senate? Current polls have Rubio beat Crist by 18 percent. There are rumors that Crist will leave the Republican Party and run as an independent. Jack Funari of the Sun-Sentinel:
Two highly placed and independent sources, speaking strictly on background, tell me that Gov. Charlie Crist is preparing to leave the Republican Party and run as an independent in the race for the U.S. Senate.
With Crist trailing Marco Rubio by 18 points in the latest polls, the Crist campaign has been in panic mode, launching attack after attack on the conservative Rubio.
Yesterday, the attacks reached a crescendo with the Crist campaign, and/or his disgraced Republican Party of Florida thug bootlickers, leaking Rubio’s credit card expenses from his time as speaker of the Florida House.
According to published reports, the former RPOF chair, the bovine bully-boy buffoon Jim Greer, spent more in a month than Rubio did in his entire two years as state House speaker. If all the Crist campaign has on Rubio is $53.49 at Winn-Dixie in Miami for “food” and a couple of plane tickets for his wife, then it’s game, set and match, as far as the Republican primary for Senate is concerned.
From what’s been made public, Rubio’s credit card expenses make him the most frugal of the Republican leaders with RPOF credit cards.
The attacks are not having the desired effect on the conservative Republican base because Crist, and the people who enable and support him, have lost all credibility with the majority of activists and Republican primary voters throughout the state.
Another well-placed source tells me the reason several Crist campaign staffers left recently is because, being committed Republicans, they refused to take part in an independent Senate run by Crist. That’s not confirmed by an independent second source, but it does ring true.
Now, reports from anonymous sources are sometimes wrong, so I have stopped short of reporting a Crist independent run as a verifiable fact, even though I believe my sources are accurate.
Here, in a minimalist nutshell, is why Crist will lose to Rubio in a Republican primary:
If someone told you that Sid Dinerstein, chairman of the Republican Party of Palm Beach County, was going to leave the Republican Party to become an independent, would you believe them? Would you believe it about Marco Rubio? No. If you knew anything at all about politics, or anything about Rubio and Dinerstein, you would dismiss out of hand such a ridiculous report as not being credible and just another silly political rumor.So tell me, do you believe it is possible that Crist will leave the Republican Party to run as an independent?
You do, don’t you?
And that is why Crist will lose to Rubio.
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Go here for the full text of the speech.
Rubio embraces the tea party movement and defines ground rules for collaboration with Democrats:
From tea parties to the election in Massachusetts, we are witnessing the single greatest political pushback in American history. Now, the political class tries to make sense of all of this, but they can’t, because never has the political class or the mainstream media that covers them been more out of touch with the American people than they are today. You see, 2010 is not just a choice between Republicans and Democrats. It’s not just a choice between liberals and conservatives. 2010 is a referendum on the very identity of our nation.
And the issues are so big, so consequential, so generational that many of the old rules of political engagement will not apply. For example, a long list of early establishment endorsements will not spare you a primary. Clever one line slogans aren’t going to spare you the need to discuss policy issues in detail. And the old, tired political attacks that worked once in the past aren’t going to get you elected this time.
And the reason is simple because people get it, because they understand that if we get this wrong, there may be no turning back for America. That’s why the second thing leaders want — the second thing that people want are leaders that will come here to Washington, D.C. and stand up to this big government agenda, not be co-opted by it.
After all, the U.S. Senate already has one Arlen Specter too many. And after all, America already has a Democrat Party, it doesn’t need two Democrat parties.
Now, look, it’s true, Americans do want leaders that will come to Washington, D.C. and work together to get things done, but that comes with a very important caveat, it depends what they’re trying to do. If they’re working to lower tax rates, simplify the tax code, they want us to work together. If they’re working to get control of a runaway of a federal debt and annual deficits, they want us to work together.
If they’re working to defeat radical Islam and the threat that it poses through terrorism, they want us to work together.
However, however, if the goal is to abandon America’s free enterprise economy, if the goal is to convert America into a submissive member of the international community, if the goal is not to fix America, but to change America, then they want leaders that are going to come up here and fight it every step of the way.
Rubio on what makes America unique:
Let me close by saying this. For many of us who were born and raised in this country, including me, it’s sometimes easy — sometimes easy to forget how special America really is. But I was raised by exiles, by people who know what it is like to lose their country, by people who have a unique perspective on why elections matter, or lack thereof, by people who clearly understand how different America is from the rest of the world. And they’ve taught me this my whole life.
And they taught me, by word and by deed, that what makes America great is not that we have more rich people than anybody else. What makes America great is that there are dreams that are impossible everywhere else but are possible here. And why is that? It’s because of the choices that people that came before us made.
Almost every other country in the world chose to have the government run the economy. They chose to allow government to decide which companies survive and fail. They chose to allow government to determine which industries are to be rewarded. But the problem is that when government controls the economy, those who can influence government keep winning, and everybody else just stays the same. And so in those countries, the employee never becomes the employer, the small business can never compete with a big business, and no matter how hard your parents work or how many sacrifices they make, if you weren’t born into the right family in those countries, there’s only so far you can go.
Now, we’ve had our excesses here in America, but for the better part of 234 years, Americans have chosen something very different, Americans chose individual liberty instead of the false security of government. Americans chose a limited government that exists to protect our rights, not to grant them.
Americans chose a free enterprise system designed to provide a quality of opportunity, not compel a quality of results. And that is why this is only place in the world where you can open up a business in the spare bedroom of your home.
That is why this is the only place in the world where a company that started as an idea drawn out on the back of a cocktail napkin can one day be publicly traded on Wall Street. That’s why this is the only country in the world where today’s employee is tomorrow’s employer. And yet, there are still people in American politics who, for some reason, cling to this belief that America is better off adopting the economic policies of nations whose people who immigrate here from there.
Rubio’s conclusion on the choice we have:
It’s a clear choice between two very different futures. And the task this year for us is to make sure that Americans choose the right one. You see — my four children, your children and grandchildren are members of the most important generation in American history. If we succeed in convincing the American people to follow up, theirs will be the most prosperous generation in the history of our country. But if we fail, they will be the first to inherit a diminished nation.
The final verdict on our generation will be written by Americans who haven’t even been born yet. Let us make sure they write that we made the right choice, that in the early years of this century, faced with troubling and uncertain times, there were those who believed that the great American story had run its course. But we did not agree. Fear did not lead us to abandon our liberty. Uncertainty did not lead us to abandon the entrepreneurial spirit. We fought for and held on to those things that made us exceptional. And because we did, there was still one place in the world where the individual was more important than the state. Because we did, there was still at least one place in the world where who you come from does not determine where you get to go.
Let us ensure that history’s record of this time is clear that like those Americans that came before us, we rose to face the challenges of our time. Like those Americans who came before us, we made the right choice. And because we did, at least for one generation more the American miracle lived on.
Thank you all. And God bless you. Thank you for having me.
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The latest Rasumssen poll has Marco Rubio leading Florida Governor Charlie Crist by 12 percent. The Voters’ revolt of 2010 against Obama socialism and against Republican fellow travelers continues.
Former state House Speaker Marco Rubio has now jumped to a 12-point lead over Governor Charlie Crist in Florida’s Republican Primary race for the U.S. Senate.
A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely GOP Primary voters in the state finds Rubio leading Crist 49% to 37%. Three percent (3%) prefer another candidate, and 11% are undecided.
For more coverage on the grassroots campaign of Marco Rubio click here.
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January 20, 2010 is a day to celebrate. But who would have thought that it is Tea Party activists, Republicans, Independents and all Americans that love liberty that would be celebrating 10 months before the November 2010 Congressional elections?
It is the first anniversary of Barack Obama’s inauguration and the day after the voters of Massachusetts elected Scott Brown to succeed Ted Kennedy as Senator from Massachusetts. The voters’ revolt of 2010 has begun.
As Scott Brown said in his victory speech tonight “when there is trouble in Massachusetts there is trouble everywhere and they know it.”
This ends the Democrats’ absolute control of Congress.
Next in the revolt of 2010: Florida District 19, where Democrat Robert Wexler has taken voluntary early retirement. There will be a special election April 13 and Republican Edward Lynch is running to win this traditional Democrat district.
There will be more great Florida races in November including South Florida congressional candidate Allen West’s run to unseat Democrat Ron Klein.
The Florida race to draw most national attention will be Marco Rubio’s run for the senate. In the Republican primary, Rubio is well-positioned to defeat an establishment Republican governor, Charlie Crist, who endorsed Obama’s pork-barrel stimulus bill.
Redstate posted some advice to vulnerable Democrat representatives:
This message goes out to every vulnerable Democratic Congressman representing a Republican or even centrist district – and after tonight, who among you is not vulnerable? It is a simple message: we can do this the easy way, or we can do it the hard way. The easy way is, you suddenly decide that you have a burning desire to spend more time with your families. So you don’t run for re-election, you walk off stage technically undefeated, and you go join a lobbying firm. The hard way is, you do run for re-election, and we pry you out of your seats.
We want to do this the hard way. We will enjoy doing it.That’s your only warning. And remember: nobody is going to be able to save you. If the President, the DSCC, the DCCC, the DNC, the SEIU, ACORN, and the netroots couldn’t manage a win in Massachusetts… what do you think that they can do for you?
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After seeing ice on my car in South Florida on three mornings in the past week, I almost started to hope that there is something to Al Gore’s global warming religion. Florida has not experienced temperatures like this in more than 30 years. The current cold spell has caused major damage to Florida’s citrus and vegetable industries. Iguanas, who are not native to Florida, are falling from trees. Floridians are discovering that the heating function of their air conditioning systems are barely able to keep up.
Of course one cold winter does not mean we are entering a new ice age just like record temperatures in summer do not mean that global warming is real.
It is ironic though that starting in December as global warmists and world leaders gathered in Copenhagen for the failed (in their view) climate change summit, the news has been full of stories of record cold, ice and snow throughout the northern hemisphere. Passengers on trains going beneath the Channel between Britain and France have been stuck several times due to equipment failure attributed to the cold weather.
Since there seems to be unusually cold weather wherever Al Gore travels, could he please relocate to some hot place without air conditioning where people would welcome a little cooling?
Seriously though, in the midst of all this freezing weather, a scientist who was part of the UN IPCC climate change panel writes that we may be headed for 30 years of cooler temperatures.
According to IPCC scientist Mojib Latif in an article for the Daily Mail, it could be just the beginning of a decades-long deep freeze. Latif is known as one of the world’s leading climate modelers.
Latif, is a professor at the Leibniz Institute at Germany’s Kiel University and an author of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. Latif is a prominent scientist in the UN’s IPCC climate research group.
Latif thinks the cold snap Americans, Brits, and Europeans have been suffering through is the beginning of another cycle, this one a down cycle. He says we’re in for 30 years of cooler temperatures. While maybe it is a harsh prediction, he calls it a “mini ice age”. That phrase is sure to stick in the craw of more than a few people. His theory is based on an analysis of natural oscillations in water temperatures in the oceans.
He believes our current cold weather pattern is a pause, a “30-years-long blip”, in the larger cycle of global warming, which postulates that temperatures will rise rapidly over the coming years.
At a U.N. conference in September, Latif said that changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation could mask over any “manmade global warming” for the next few decades. He said the fluctuations in the NAO could also be responsible for much of the rise in global temperatures seen over the past 30 years.
In a stunning revelation, he told the Daily Mail that:
“a significant share of the warming we saw from 1980 to 2000 and at earlier periods in the 20th Century was due to these cycles – perhaps as much as 50 percent.”
Quite a revelation, and a smack down of much of the climate science in the last 30 years that attributes the cause mostly to CO2 increases.
In other news, Arctic sea ice is on the rise too.
According to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center Arctic summer sea ice has increased by 409,000 square miles, or 26 per cent, since 2007.I’m betting that summer 2010 will have even more ice retained.
It looks like Al Gore and the Obama administration will have to face some inconvenient truths.
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A quick analysis of Obama administration data on stimulus money spent in Florida and the supposed jobs “created or saved” reveals that most funds have gone to government rather than private sector jobs, that the cost per job “created or saved” is exorbitant and money has gone to zip codes that do not exist.
Florida Pundit found this information in data that was posted at recovery.gov on October 30, 2009. We have only looked at one state. Where are the journalists picking apart the claims of the Obama administration?
According to the Obama administration’s website recovery.gov, Florida has received $6.8 billion in stimulus money in contracts, grants and loans which have resulted in 29,321 jobs “created or saved.”
Never mind the absurdity of measuring “jobs created or saved.” Even if we take the administration at their word, they have spent $232,241 per job “created or saved.”
One recent report puts the wages for the average private sector job at $40,331. So $232,241 would pay for almost six private sector jobs.
It gets worse.
23,722 of the 29,321 jobs “created or saved” or 81% of the total were reported in one zip code – 32399. The US Postal Service zip code lookup lists the appropriate city for 32399 as Tallahassee, the state capital. It also states that “State of FLorida” is not an appropriate city designation for this zip code.
Surprise, surprise – 81% of the jobs “created or saved” are state government jobs. Could this be a payoff for Florida Republican Governor Charlie Crist who endorsed the stimulus plan in February 2009?
If we take out the jobs and dollars spent on paying off the Governor, we are left with 5,599 jobs “created or saved” at a cost of $919,059 per job, an amount that would pay for more than 22 average private sector jobs. It is reasonable to assume that a large portions of these jobs are government jobs as well. They just don’t happen to be in zip codes that are as incriminating as the zip code for Florida’s state government. Obama’s stimulus is aimed at protecting government workers, a key constituency of the Democrats.
A total of $1.174 billion of the $6.8 billion or about 17 percent of the total was spent in zip codes where not a single job was “created or saved.” Should we record this as “waste, fraud and abuse?”
Digging a little further into the data, we find four zip codes, 32103, 32488, 32921 and 34501 that don’t exist according to the US Post Office in which $785,712 of stimulus funds were spent and no jobs were “created or saved.”
Another four zip codes, 31905, 35768, 44114 and 44853 do exist, but are not in Florida. $736,065 in stimulus money was spent in these zip codes and no jobs were “created or saved.”
At best this is sloppy accounting that would get any publicly traded private company in trouble. More likely, this points at widespread corruption.
What is most troubling is that this data has been available for more than two months and the media is not reporting on it. One of the few reports, Florida Pundit found is on a New Mexico blog about similar data for New Mexico.
If the media is too lazy or too in love with Obama to report on readily available information, they are failing in their mission.
The internet has made it possible for concerned citizens to find this information and publicize it. Florida Pundit is hoping that blogs and other new media outlets will publish what they find in the recovery.org data for their states and that new media journalist will synthesize this information to expose what Michelle Malkin has appropriately called the “culture of corruption” that is ingrained in the Obama administration.
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Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio’s message of American exceptionalism, limiting government’s role in our lives and not being the first generation to leave to our children a country worse off than what we inherited has won him increasing support among Florida Republicans. The latest Rasmussen poll has him tied at 43 percent with Governor Charlie Crist.
The Republican establishment initially endorsed Crist, but the first cracks are starting to appear in his support among Florida Republican leaders. Last week South Florida Republican U.S. Representatives Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart pulled their endorsement of Governor Charlie Crist for the Senate.
Media coverage of Rubio’s remarkable campaign against a popular governor who has gained notoriety for supporting Barack Obama’s stimulus program is increasing. Here is a report and interview with Michael Putney on a South Florida TV program:
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