Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Daily Links-March 30, 2012

Today is March 30. On this date in 1867, the u.s. purchased Alaska from Russia for 7.2 million smackers. So if you win the lottery tonight, you can buy, like, 80 million, that is way more Alaskas Alaskas all at once than most people will themselves in your life! Also on this date in 1981, Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, Jr. in Washington, DC. He is the only American President to have survived shot in an assassination attempt. Reagan once said "facts are stubborn things." Facts have repeatedly insisted that they are not. On this date in 1993 hit Charlie Brown his first homerun in the comic strip Peanuts. To this day, accusations of performance-enhancing hang and a pall over his victory ink. And finally today is national pencil day, in honor of which this whole post is written in a pencil. Consider this a Open Thead.

Historical recall elections for Walker, Kleefisch GAB sets | JS Online
"Election officials ordered a set of historic recall election Friday, Scott Walker the third Governor in the nation to face a recall and Rebecca Kleefisch Lieutenant Governor to make the first one face."

The "flexibility" doctrine | Charles Krauthammer
"First of all, to speak of the Russian elections in the same breath as ours is a mockery. Theirs was a rigged, predetermined farce. Putin ruled before. Putin rules after. "

American soldier dies save Afghan girl | CNN
"The official press release of Pentagon says that he died" of injury in a noncombat related incident. " But there is much more to the story. Weichel, 29, of Providence, died save the life of a little girl. "

The Franklin Center fuels rise of citizen journalism | Red alert politics
"The Franklin Center is a non-profit organization designed to work with non-traditional news sources such as non-profit journalism groups, independent activists and bloggers to help state capitals that the gap of shrinking media."

Contemporary Merriam-Webster Word of the day comes through.
atavism (AT-uh-viz-um): noun 1. a: repetition in an organism of a property or character typical of an ancestral form and usually due to genetic recombination b: repetition of style, manner, or return to a past outlook, approach or activity 2. one that manifests atavism: throwback

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Time of the FIRST Show #

You can listen live tonight on the WSB live stream and on-demand dialing 1-800-WSB-TALK.

I'm on to 9 hours.

Consider this an open thread.


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RSC budget vote flippers

As we yesterday, a number of Republicans who inherently oppose the budget still wanted to go on record as RSC, vote for this report, switched their votes of no to aye when she realized that the Democrats would not vote for presenting and let it pass.  This stratagem was orchestrated by the GOP whip team.  Here is a list of the vote switchers (from the Congressional Record) that supported the RSC-budget, but only after it was clear that it would never pass:

Gentlemen RIVERA, HARPER, THOMPSON of Pennsylvania, Mrs. ELLMERS, Mr SHIMKUS, HUNTER, HULTGREN, MICA, FINCHER, COFFMAN of Colorado, TIPTON, Ms. FOXX, gentlemen OLSON, MURPHY of Pennsylvania, SHUSTER, BUCSHON and changed their vote from "no" to "aye."

In addition, four members switched from aye on no; Gentlemen DREIER WALZ, BILIRAKIS and young of Florida.

I was curious to see which members voted for the budget this year but not last year, and vice versa:

The new Yes the (30)(asterisks next to those who vote switching game played)

Adams

Amodei

Black

Boustany

Buschon *

DesJarlais

Ellmers *

Farenthold

Fincher *

Gardner

Gohmert

Graves (MO)

Griffin

Hultgren *

Jenkins

McCotter

McMorris Rodgers

Murphy (PA) *

Pearce

Pitts

Rivera *

Rooney

Scott (SC)

Sensenbrenner

Shuster *

Simpson

Thompson (PA) *

Tipton *

Upton

Yoder

It's always good to new additions, but note that some of these members, such as Boustany, Ellmers, Simpson, Murphy, Rivera, Upton, primary challengers.

The new no's (13)

Bachus

Calvert

Carter

Denham

Duncan (TN)

Gallegly

Granger

Kelly

Miller (FL)

Smith (NE)

Southerland (he is very conservative.  I can't imagine that he opposed the cuts.  He is presumably because the provision that would open up drilling voted along the coast of Florida)

Terry

Turner (NY) (new Member States)


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By Even Academic Standards, David Dewhurst is “centrist”

 

In the race for U.S. Senate in Texas, the conservative candidate clearly is Ted Cruz. His record of fighting for conservative ideals is clear, as I have noted before. Senator DeMint has endorsed him, as has Senator Mike Lee, the Club for Growth and a number of other important conservative voices.


But the establishment and conventional wisdom remains behind Lt. Gov Dewhurst as the favorite – despite the fact he has shown relatively poor polling, mediocre fundraising and is relying on his personal wealth to try to persuade Texans he is actually conservative. But the truth is hard to hide. I have pointed out before that Dewhurst is a moderate in the mold of Florida Governor Charlie Crist. Thus, we affectionately refer to him as Dewcrist.


Everyone in Austin knows DewCrist is a moderate. Everyone in Austin knows he stands in the way of conservative policy. Everyone in Austin knows he would be the first guy in the U.S. Senate to join the “club” and saddle up to Mitch McConnell to be a “team player,” no matter what principle dictates or what the people of Texas actually want.


But now, even academic research is making this crystal clear. In the Texas Tribune, Rice University Professor Mark Jones explains his rather detailed analysis of Dewcrist and his ideological placement among those in the Texas Senate, the body over which he presides as Lt. Governor. Jones describes him as follows:



“Is Dewhurst a “moderate?” Yes, if by that one means that he would appear to be significantly less conservative than approximately one-third of the Republican delegation in the Texas Senate.”


and



“The [data] reveals a Dewhurst-run Senate where the senators who enjoyed the most success were in the moderate and center wings of the Republican Party. Bills opposed by these senators rarely were passed — a sharp contrast with both their more conservative colleagues as well as the most liberal members of the Democratic delegation.”


Reports of cheering from Mitch McConnell’s office just came in…


The problem with the race for Senate in Texas is that no one is focusing on it and too many people believe Dewcrist is actually conservative because he can hide behind Governor Perry’s conservative leadership and he is ostensibly pro-life. But when push comes to shove, Dewcrist has consistently been a “centrist” – which is not-too-tricky-code for future establishment hack in Washington if we don’t stand up for the only real conservative in the race, Ted Cruz.


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Overnight Open thread: Bohemian Rhapsody Edition

Slowing Down. Hits.

If you can't watch the video, become depressed. It is a man who is drunk as you proclaim, who bursts into a spontaneous rendition of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody a capella, including some of the music, and it is glorious.

Enjoy a drink on me, drunken off-key singing guy beard arrested Queen. Have one on me. h/t Bookworm room.

This is an Open thread.


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Tech at Night: House passes key FCC reform, House and Senate SECURE IT bills deserve passage

Tech at Night


FCC reform advances in the House. Greg Walden’s FCC Process Reform Act is a needed bill, so I’m glad that it went from committee to the floor, and took minimal modification in passing. I like that it got an extra poke at FCC being more closed on FOIA requests than even CIA.


Locking in the reforms is important, and CTIA is right in saying we need a “more transparent, predictable regulatory process.”


The SECURE IT cybersecurity alternative is also important. Ron Johnson is a key champion of the bill in the Senate, so you know it has conservative support. As it should, since the core of the bill is to enable important but voluntary information sharing. The bad guys online are already sharing data freely. The good guys must be able to share data and to be flexible on defense.


My own representative* Mary Bono Mack is backing a similar the bill in the House, so you know it has broad support across the spectrum of the GOP. Likewise John McCain’s driving the bill in the Senate instead of working with Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins tells you that the Democrats (plus Susan Collins) really aren’t interested in compromising on their attempts to empower government, including DHS. Naturally FCC loves the smell of expanding government in the morning, too. Smells like picking winners and losers.


George Soros-funded Public Knowledge is wrong on its push to impose Net Neutrality, er, Open Internet penalties on Comcast. Of course, as radical as PK is, it’s not surprising that Michael Copps is going directly from the FCC to that organization. I would have guessed Free Press, but Public Knowledge is just as out of the mainstream.


Good bill, bad bill: Good bill: outlaw UN regulation of the Internet. Bad bill: new American regulation of the Internet in the form of, get this, Facebook password regulation.


Spectrum: Getting government spectrum in use by the private sector is a great tool to add to our options in fixing the coming spectrum crunch. Blocking private spectrum transfers, as T-Mobile suddenly wants now that it’s Verizon and Comcast, not AT&T and T-Mobile, is not something we should be doing.


* Bono Mack has been my representative since Sonny died, and will be until Monday when I leave California for good, and move to Jim Moran’s district.


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Brave New Foundation Needs Some Brave New Basic Phone Training

Hanging Up 090 – Remedial Call Termination Procedures


Meet Jesse Lava, campaign director – campaign director – at Brave New Foundation: progressive, comedy savant, and first-time user of phones. If you’ve never heard of the man or the group, well, no surprise there. But they do exist, and they are hilarious.


Oh Jesse, you so crazy! They eat babies? YOU ARE A COMIC GENIUS! SOMEONE GET THIS MAN AN HBO SPECIAL RIGHT NOW!

The fake sincerity, the outburst of laughter releasing his obvious nervousness … you’d almost think it was a job interview or an audition or an 11 year old who just asked if your refrigerator was running. I’ll hand it to him, though; he did manage not to babble on about the Kochtopus or the Illuminati.


Tonight, Brave New Foundation is debuting a “documentary” titled Koch Brothers Exposed, which if the trailer is any indication, will consist in the main of accusations that the Kochs have lots of money, and that you should probably be upset about that. (George Soros could not be reached for comment.) You can read “sincere” Jesse discussing the premiere here. Just don’t bother trying to click on his link to the film, it doesn’t work. First day on the internet, too, one might assume.


The best part of the faux call above, for me at least, was the voice at the end suggesting they do a “second take” because “there was so much sirens? When you were talking?” Like, Oh. My. Gosh. For sure. As organized, bought-and-paid for fake grassroots harassment campaigns go, this one clearly needs a little more practice. I mean, if you’re going to be in the business of demonizing rich people for being involved in political causes, you might try starting out not being funded by Soros. Step two is to find people who know how to use things like, oh I don’t know, phones, the internet, English .. you know, starter tools.


By the way, if you’d like to fail to hang up on Brave New Foundation, you can reach them at 310-204-0448.


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