2010 Election

[American Patriot]

The new treaty is a cornerstone of a much-touted "reset" in relations under Obama and the failure of the legislative chambers to ratify the treaty risks turning into a major diplomatic embarrassment.

This has much farther reaching ramifications than I even wanted to imagine.

This means Obama has been in cahoots with these magots to "reset" not our "relations" but rather our "relationship".

He has been slowly, surely numbing this country for an internal take over after all.

I've never wanted to believe that - thinking that a real American could NEVER be a traitor like that.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Basically the USA is a piece of tough steak that was being pounded on by one of those wooden mallets used to tenderize meat. The last few minutes of pounding were stopped suddenly on 2 November and the Chef is going to have to get out of the country now.

WTF?

[Ryan Ruck]

Alright, I finally have a chance to put pen to paper as it were and lay out my thoughts on the ramifications of the election on the TAA.

In the short term, I believe we've helped protect ourselves internally. We've helped keep our enemies within from doing more damage. We'll have the chance to shore up our beachhead in 2012.

What this means to the TAA is that they have to shift gears. I would assume that had things not gone our way during the election we'd be continuing to accelerate down the path toward internal decay and eventual weakening to the point where we become a ripe target offering little to no resistance.

Now that we have a fighting chance, this is forcing the TAA to take a different approach since they won't be able to have us cause our own downfall (at least not quickly enough). I suspect that this will mean that the TAA will become more openly militant and in the end I believe this election win makes it much more likely that the TAA will resort to open conflict, including nuclear weapons, to achieve the same ends that they had hoped to achieve without warfare. The article I posted above hints at as much.

Of course, I believe that they never really intended to abide by any arms reduction treaties so that they had an ace in the hole but, I think they are now going to be more likely to play that ace.

[vector7]

Harry Reid’s Son Oversees Suspect Election Machines In Nevada

Posted by Lady Liberty on Wednesday, October 27, 2010, 10:56 PM


(Photo via antzinpantz.com)

Rush Limbaugh reported today on his radio show that Rory Reid, the son of Nevada U.S. Senator Harry Reid, is in charge of the voting machines that were reported as malfunctioning and are serviced by the SEIU.

Rory Reid is running as the Democratic nominee for governor of Nevada against Republican Brian Sandoval. Rory currently holds the office of Chairman of the powerful Clark County Commission and is the former chairman of the Nevada Democratic Party; he was elected to the Clark County Commission in 2002.

Rory, in his position as Chairman of Clark County Commission, is a member of The Nevada Association of Counties (NACO). NACO’s Mission Statement is,

“To encourage county government to adopt and maintain local, regional, state and national cooperation which will result in a positive influence on public policy and optimize the management of county resources; to provide valuable education and support services that will maximize efficiency and foster public trust in county government.“

Rush Limbaugh added this on the controversy:

This is Mark Hemingway in the Washington Examiner: “Clark County is where three quarters of Nevada’s residents and live and where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s son Rory is a county commissioner.” That means that Harry Reid’s son is the person in charge of overseeing the election machines that are being maintained by the SEIU. Now, why would Rory Reid be suspected of any shenanigans here? But he is.

Yes. Yes he is.

Rasmussen reports that with one week to go, Republican Brian Sandoval leads Democrat Rory Reid by more than 20 points in Nevada’s governor race. I guess his “Call Me Rory” campaign didn’t fool the voters of Nevada.

Hat Tip Rachel Pulaski

Comments (36)

[vector7]

Hmm...

Russia May Not Ratify Treaty After U.S. Election Results

This article dovetails extremely well with some of my thoughts I had mentioned that I wanted to post about the TAA and this election. I promise to do that soon, just had a lot going on today!

Analysis: Strategic tensions threaten Asia as China rises


Paramilitary policemen hold red flags during a ceremony where flower baskets are laid at the Monument to the People's Heroes to mark the 61st anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in Beijing October 1, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Jason Lee

By Linda Sieg
TOKYO | Thu Nov 4, 2010 8:18am EDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Asia-Pacific region faces a period of strategic tensions that could damage economic ties as key national players adapt to an increasingly assertive China growing impatient with U.S. efforts to shore up its influence.

The November 13-14 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Japan, coming on the heels of a gathering of G20 leaders in Seoul, will test how much regional powers allow those strains to overshadow efforts to show collective goodwill.

Warning shots fired on Wednesday by South Korea's navy to drive away a North Korean fishing boat at a maritime border were a reminder of tensions in a region where Pyongyang is a persistent threat to stability.
No one is predicting a shooting war in the world's fastest growing economic region, but experts warn the danger of unintended military clashes has risen as Beijing tries to extend its naval reach and ties chill with rival Japan.

Security tensions could also spill over into trade and investment, while rivalry over resources from oil and gas to rare earth minerals risks fuelling strategic conflicts in turn.

"It could well turn out that after another 12 months of this, everyone pulls back and settles down and new lines are drawn ... But I don't actually think that is going to happen," said Alan Dupont, a professor at the University of Sydney's Center for International Security Studies. "I see this as the beginning of a more volatile period strategically in East Asia."

Sino-Japanese relations have taken a sharp dive due to a feud over claims to isles in the East China Sea near potentially huge maritime gas and oil reserves, just as a vibrant China grabs stagnant Japan's No.2 world economic ranking.

U.S-China ties have been strained by currency and trade rows and Beijing's push to expand its sphere of influence.

Aides to President Barack Obama, who heads to Asia on Friday after his party's devastating defeat in U.S. elections, will raise the issue of what Washington says is China's undervalued yuan currency when he meets Chinese counterparts.

Russia also leapt into the fray this week when President Dmitry Medvedev visited part of an island chain north of Japan claimed by both countries, sparking another row with Tokyo.

Until recently, China's rapid economic growth was seen by many as a force for stability, but now its economic strength allied with big military spending is prompting second thoughts.

"The only thing we had before was the economic intertwining, and we know from experience prior to World War One that this does not guarantee stability," said Andrew Horvat, director of the Stanford Japan Center in Kyoto, western Japan, although he played down any view of East Asia as a military powder keg.

ECONOMIC FALLOUT
Tokyo, Washington and Southeast Asian nations have grown increasingly wary of China's intentions as it spends heavily to modernize its military, sends its navy further afield and asserts sovereignty over the contested South China Sea.

Push-back from the United States and China's Asian neighbors seems only to have made Beijing feel more threatened, while Chinese nationalist sentiment, seen in a series of anti-Japanese street protests, makes it harder for China to compromise.

[American Patriot]

Harry Reid's son.

How quaint.

[Aplomb]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44630.html

Oklahoma bans Sharia law



By ANDY BARR | 11/3/10 8:26 AM EDT Updated: 11/3/10 8:34 AM EDT


Oklahoma on Tuesday approved a ballot measure blocking judges from considering Islamic or international law when making a ruling.


Nearly 70 percent of voters in the state cast ballots approving the measure.

The proposition’s sponsor, Republican Rex Duncan, told reporters Tuesday that the proposition is a "preemptive strike" against judges who he worries could be “legislating from the bench or using international law or Sharia law.”


Opponents of the measure pointed out that the First Amendment bars Congress from make any law respecting the establishment of religion.


The proposition also faced criticism from Muslim leaders who have said they intend to challenge it in court.


Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is one of the top voices spreading concern that Islamic law may creep into American courts, although he has not provided proof that such fears are justified.


Gingrich attracted national headlines in September at the Values Voter Summit in Washington when he declared, “I am opposed to any efforts to impose Sharia in the United States.”


“We should have a federal law that says under no circumstances in any jurisdiction in the United States will Sharia [law] be used in any court to apply to any judgment made about American law,” Gingrich said.

[Backstop]

Ryan, that's a most interesting hypothesis.

I'll have to think on that a bit before commenting.

BTW though - I think you're right.

[American Patriot]

Ryan, that's a most interesting hypothesis.

I'll have to think on that a bit before commenting.

BTW though - I think you're right.

You didn't think on it long. lol

I think he's dead on.

[Ryan Ruck]

Justice Department Weighs Voter Intimidation Complaint Against Reid Camp

November 5, 2010

The Justice Department is reviewing a complaint from failed Republican Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle after allegations that Sen. Harry Reid's campaign engaged in voter intimidation and broke campaign finance law in his re-election campaign.

Laura Sweeney, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, told FoxNews.com on Friday that the department is reviewing the complaint filed by an attorney for Angle that followed a National Review report about internal e-mails among Harrah's casino executives and a campaign staffer for Reid. The e-mails appear to show the group orchestrating an effort to push Harrah employees to get out and vote for Reid.

Sweeney would not comment further on the status of the review.

The complaint came after Reid prevailed Tuesday over Angle in their high-profile, bruising election, allowing Reid to remain as Senate majority leader.

Hans A. von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a former Federal Election Commission member and Justice Department official, told FoxNews.com that there is enough evidence in the e-mails to warrant opening an investigation because they suggest that both the Reid campaign and Harrah's may have violated federal campaign finance law that "prohibits in-kind corporate and union contributions to, and coordination with, political campaigns."

"Look, a company can encourage its employees to go out and vote, but if you have e-mails coming in from a candidate like Harry Reid saying you've got to get out the vote for me, you have coordination going on between the candidate and the corporation," he told FoxNews.com.

Von Spakovsky also argued they Harrah's may have violated federal criminal law that prohibits intimidation and coercion of citizens exercising their right to vote -- or not to vote.

"On coercion, it boils down to what kind of threats, if any, were used against employees," he said. "Were they told there will be adverse employment consequences? The only way to figure out is to open an investigation, subpoena all the e-mails ... and get the employees in front of a grand jury so they can testify to what they were being told by supervisors."

But Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, CREW, said the case doesn't hold up.

"I think this is all quite a stretch," Sloan told FoxNews.com. "This isn't going to change an election outcome."

Sloan said she couldn't find any evidence of coercion of Harrah employees, and the Justice Department doesn't need to open an investigation into that unless there is an allegation.

On the campaign finance charge, Sloan said past regulations prohibiting partisan get-out-the-vote activities may have been wiped out by the Supreme Court ruling in January that gave corporations and trade unions broader First Amendment rights in political advertising.

"There's at least a question," she said.

In an opinion article published Friday in the Washington Examiner, Von Spakovsky said the Justice Department has to choose between investigating "what seems to have been blatant violations of federal law" or making "the same type of political decision that it has made in numerous other cases, including the New Black Panther Party."

Von Spakovsky said that if the Justice Department "fails to investigate, it will be telling the country that as long as you are an important political ally of the president, you need have no worry about violating federal law."

But Sloan said she found it "ironic" that Von Spakovsky complained about the lack of campaign finance rules only when it helped a Democrat instead of a Republican.

"I'm not very sympathetic," she said.

The exchange among Harrah's executives revolves around an e-mail received from an unknown Reid campaign staffer who promises to do "ANYTHING" to drive votes, offering to work with unions and provide access to the senator if it would help drive votes, the National Review report says.

The complaint from Mitchell specifically cites the National Review report, saying that the story "documents an orchestrated effort" by Harrah's "to intimidate and coerce" employees for the casino to vote for Reid, "to track whether or not employees had or had not voted and to pressure supervisors to ensure that the employees reporting to those supervisors were voting."

"And those overt activities were specifically demanded by one or more persons who work for Sen. Reid," the complaint reads.

Harrah's declined to comment.

A spokesman for Harry Reid's campaign dismissed the National Review report.

"This 'report' by a right-wing blogger who was literally embedded within the Angle campaign has no credibility on its face," Reid campaign spokesman Zachary Petkanas said in an e-mail to FoxNews.com earlier this week. "I'm not even sure the nature of the e-mail this blogger references. That being said, given Sen. Reid's work to strengthen the state's top industry, it should come as no surprise that casino employees support his re-election."

[American Patriot]

"This 'report' by a right-wing blogger who was literally embedded within the Angle campaign has no credibility on its face," Reid campaign spokesman Zachary Petkanas said in an e-mail to FoxNews.com earlier this week. "I'm not even sure the nature of the e-mail this blogger references. That being said, given Sen. Reid's work to strengthen the state's top industry, it should come as no surprise that casino employees support his re-election."

Sorry this blogger has as much right to be CORRECT as anyone. Investigate it until the facts are set straight.

If there was no collusion, fine. But find it if there was, regardless of WHO REPORTED IT. You political hacks.

[Backstop]

You didn't think on it long. lol

I think he's dead on.

Right or wrong, I make quick decisions.

[American Patriot]

LOL...

"Lemme think on that... ok... I made a decision"... without taking a breath. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Backstop]

Irrefutable proof.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con....0110305648.html

Calif. poll worker accused of stealing ballots

The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 3, 2010; 2:58 PM

SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco police have arrested a polling inspector on suspicion of stealing up to 75 ballots, a voting roster and other election materials in a bizarre heist.

Lt. Lyn Tomioka said Wednesday that 50-year-old Karl Bradfield Nicholas was arrested around 1 a.m. She said none of the ballot items has been recovered.

Director of Elections John Arntz says a polling inspector broke into the ballot-counting machine Tuesday afternoon and took off with the ballots and a memory pack that records the information from the ballots.

Arntz says the inspector also stole the cell phone of a teenage poll worker.

Police say Nicholas was booked on three felonies, including burglary. He's being held in the county jail.

A message left at a number listed for Nicholas in voter registration records was not immediately returned.

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2010/11/05/S....66841288980006/

Stolen ballots found in pond
Published: Nov. 5, 2010 at 2:00 PM

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- San Francisco election authorities said 75 stolen ballots were recovered intact but "soggy" in a pond across town from the polling place.

John Arntz, the city elections chief, said the ballots, allegedly stolen from a polling place by election worker Karl Bradfield Nicholas, 50, were found Thursday in the pond outside the Palace of Fine Arts, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday.

Arntz said it was unclear whether the ballots would be counted because the chain of custody had been broken. He said the memory pack used to electronically count the ballots is still missing.

"They're very soggy," he said.

Arntz is facing a felony burglary charge and two election code violations.

[Ryan Ruck]

Hmmm... Interesting angle.

And I wouldn't say that it is a necessarily disagreeable angle from my analysis either. I would say taking into account your possibility we'd ultimately have to see how the 2012 election shakes out and what happens in the outcome.

All I can say is that the next 10 years or so will be quite pivotal to this nation.

[Backstop]

Appears more was stolen than just ballots.

I'm searching and waiting to hear who he is affiliated with.

http://www.examiner.com/elections-2010-in-los-angeles/ballots-and-election-materials-stolen-san-francisco-on-election-day

Karl Bradfield Nicholas has pleaded not guilty to stealing about 75 ballots, the voter roster, and the voter machine memory pack and access key.

The materials were stolen from a polling location in San Francisco's Excelsior district.

[American Patriot]

I respectfully disagree with your analysis. I believe that we have to think like Marxist Revolutionaries like Lenin or Gramsci to 'get' what might be going thru Obama's mind right now. I believe that he secretly welcomes a reactionary turn to the republican party by white male voters, so that he can engender conflict and stoke the fires of civil war in the minds of his lumpenproletariat electoral base...If the GOP is obstructing him in Congress even more than before the election, he can count on an even greater radicalization of his voter base in time for the coming 2012 debacle.

I don't disagree with this, but I think this is Plan B actually.

[American Patriot]

Who was voted for on the ballots? That'll tell you who he was affiliated with.

Either they are all DIMs and he was hiding the evidence.

Or they were all Republicans and he was.... destroying the votes.

[vector7]

Minority leader Nancy Pelosi would play rough with GOP

By Greg Sargent



As you know, a lot of people have been arguing that Nancy Pelosi is a bad choice for minority leader because she presided over major losses in the House, she's not a natural communicator, she's deeply unpopular, and she'd represent the face of unrepentant liberalism. Today's much-discussed New York Times editoral opposing her candidacy hits on some of these arguments.

But all this seems to badly miss what one of the most important roles of the new minority leader will be: to draw a very sharp line against GOP efforts to roll back Obama's accomplishments.

This task could matter at least as much for the new minority leader as communications or presenting a new face for the party. And while Pelosi clearly has a negative and polarizing image, few would argue that she hasn't succeeded at building coalitions and maintaining unity at moments of extreme political stress -- exactly what she'll need to do if she's going to hold the line against repeal efforts.

The key thing to understand is that we're about to enter a period of bruising procedural wars -- precisely the type of thing that Pelosi has already excelled at. Republicans are already discussing ways to starve the new health-care law by, say, limiting funding to agencies that would implement portions of it or using spending bills to block federal insurance regulations they don't like. The next minority leader will have to be ruthless in her willingness to use procedural tactics to combat this kind of stuff.

I just checked in with Norm Ornstein, a congressional expert and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and he confirmed the above reading of her role to me. He allowed that Pelosi had made some missteps -- moving on "cap and trade" before health care, and failing to adequately sell the stimulus.

But he dismissed the idea that Dem losses last week are relevant, insisting that the new minority leader's chief role will be to "hold the line against repeal and keep the troops together and use the limited weapons available to the minority to put the Republicans on the defensive."

"She's in a stronger position to do that than others," Ornstein continued. "She showed in the last two years how strong she is as a strategist, and she may very well be able to use that strategic capacity to exacerbate some of the schisms that Republicans already have. She understands at least as well as anyone else how to use the process."

One other thing: It turns out this isn't the first time the New York Times has opposed Pelosi for minority leader. Back in 2002, the paper editorialized against her candidacy on the same grounds as today, noting archly that she isn't "a powerhouse on television."

That shortcoming, however, didn't stop her from a tenure that enabled Dems to take back the House in 2006, to win another huge victory in 2008 and to pass more major legislation than any Congress in decades.

By Greg Sargent | November 8, 2010; 12:29 PM ET
Categories: 2010 elections, House Dems, House GOPers

[Ryan Ruck]

Update on Uncalled House Races: GOP Takes IL-8; GOP Net Gain at +62

November 16, 2010

Republicans have claimed another House seat in the 2010 Midterm Elections. Incumbent Democrat Rep. Melissa Bean conceded tonight to Republican Joe Walsh in the Illinois 8th Congressional District:

POLITICO: Illinois Democratic Rep. Melissa Bean has conceded to GOP challenger Joe Walsh, handing Republicans another victory in a race that stretched two weeks beyond Election Day.

Bean, a third-term congresswoman, phoned Walsh late Tuesday to congratulate him after final vote totals showed the Republican with a 291-vote plurality. Local election officials earlier in the day completed their tally of absentee and provisional votes in Lake, Cook and McHenry counties. . . . Read More

Walsh’s victory brings the GOP Net Gain in the House to +62, with four uncalled races remaining. The GOP leads in two of those remaining four races. It appears the GOP is headed for a +64 final net gain, six less than what we projected at +70. That’s still an amazing total!

Remaining Uncalled Races: NY-1, NY-25, CA-11, CA-20. Republicans lead in NY-1 and NY-25.

[Ryan Ruck]

FNC just now saying Murky won the write-in over Joe Miller in the AK race.

I hope Joe makes sure all of those votes are gone over with a fine tooth comb before conceding.