North Carolina’s Amendment 1 Passes

By William Teach May 8, 2012 – 11:14 pm

WRAL is so bummed that they can’t even write a detailed story on it (and the story still isn’t showing up on my Droid app)

North Carolina voters elected to change the state constitution on Tuesday, prohibiting any union outside of a marriage between a man and a woman from being recognized in the state.

The marriage amendment captured 61 percent of the vote, with about 80 percent of precincts reporting late Tuesday.

Much of the rest is a reiteration of opponent talking points. At 11pm, with 94% reporting, it is 1,244,833 for Amendment 1, 795,628 against. A 61/39 split.

How soon till a lawsuit is filed to stop A1? I’m betting by the end of Thursday.

Lots more going on. Romney took NC. Of course. It’ll be McCrory (R) vs. Dalton (D) for the governorship. George Holding took out incumbent Paul Coble. I’m regretting my vote for Tim D’Annunzio. He’s a flake, but, he’s the GOP candidate for NC4. Renee Elmers cruised to an easy primary, as did Walter Jones. District 8 doesn’t have anyone above 40%, which is necessary for a win.

Allahpundit has more on non North Carolina races. Oh, and for those carpetbagging liberals who don’t like it, I95 and I85 run north and south, I40 heads west. Funny how so many northern liberals who denigrate the South keep moving from their northern cities to the South.

Morning update: unshockingly, Liberals are pushing the “FRAUD!!!!!!1!!!!” meme because some people were given the wrong ballot. In NC, if one is 17 but will be 18 on election day in November, they can vote in a primary, but not for things like the Amendment, where the actual substantive vote is today. There were some reports that some 17 year olds were given the ballot with the Amendment, and some over 18 weren’t. Obviously, this is some deep, dark, Christian Taliban conspiracy, rather than simple errors on voting day.

John Hawkins highlights some of those ultra civil and tolerant liberals opining on the issue.

And more: for those pushing the “fraud” meme, that’s not working in the typical liberal areas

The Triangle voted against the amendment. It lost 43-57 in Wake County, 30-70 in Durham, 21-79 in Orange County, and 46-54 in Chatham.

Mecklenburg County also voted against the measure, 46-54. And it was narrowly defeated, 49-51, in both Buncombe and Watauga Counties.

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The Avengers 3D – The Review

By William Teach May 8, 2012 – 5:20 pm

Eh.

That’s pretty much it. Perhaps I expected too much after all the hype. Perhaps it’s because it seemed to be a stilted movie with boring dialogue which superimposed visuals for 3D effect over a good screenplay, which creates little emotion, as happens with many 3D movies. It becomes more about explosions and violence and mayhem simply for the sake of explosions and violence and mayhem.

It also seemed to mostly be the next Ironman movie. Captain America, the Hulk, etc, tended to be more of supporting characters. Scarlett Johansson was pouty and….that’s about it. I kept expecting Samuel L. Jackson to deliver lines from Revenge Of The Sith. I really did not like the Captain America line about the stars and stripes being outdated. Surprisingly, Joss Whedon turned in a rather emotionless movie.

Is it worth seeing? Yeah, the afternoon matinee. Perhaps it would be better to see in 2D. Remember, I wasn’t particularly pleased with Avatar in 3D, but, I really like that movie on ye olde Blu-ray player. 6 out of 10 crossbones.

Read: The Avengers 3D – The Review »

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If All You See…

By William Teach May 8, 2012 – 1:00 pm

…is snow created by warmth, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Blackfive.

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Liberals Not Too Upset About Using Campaign Donations For Political Sway

By William Teach May 8, 2012 – 11:30 am

In this case, the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent notes

Some leading gay and progressive donors are so angry over President Obama’s refusal to sign an executive order barring same sex discrimination by federal contractors that they are refusing to give any more money to the pro-Obama super PAC, a top gay fundraiser’s office tells me. In some cases, I’m told, big donations are being withheld. (snip)

Now these and other donors are beginning to withold money from Priorities USA, the main pro-Obama super PAC, out of dismay over the president’s decision. (Some of these donors have already maxed out to the Obama campaign, I’m told.) It’s the first indication that areas in which Obama is at odds with gay advocates — and in fairness, his record on gay rights has been very good — could dampen overall fundraising.

DrewM at Ace Of Spades muses

Wait, you mean to tell me people use donations to politicians to influence policy? That they are more apt to give contributions to office holders who institute policies that they support and withhold those same contributions when they don’t get policies they like?

Why last I heard, when the Koch Brothers (aka Evil Incarnate) support institutions that reflect their political preferences the very life of the republic itself is endangered.

Well, yeah, because when liberals use money to sway politicians it is Good And Right And Just. When Conservatives do it, well, Satan is rising. Neither Firedoglake nor Steve Bennan (at The Maddow Blog) see the rank hypocrisy of supporting the notion of using campaign contributions to sway politicians on their side after spending years demonizing any entity (like Wall Street, Big Oil, Koch Brothers, Crossroads, etc) that does the same but opposes the far left agenda.

PJ Tatler: Straight up: These donors are trying to buy an executive order that benefits their businesses. At least, that’s how Sargent and other leftwing bloggers would write about this if the donors were conservatives withholding money from the RNC or Mitt Romney over some specific issue. Set the gay angle aside for a moment, and we have wealthy donors withholding campaign funds to apply pressure to get an executive order that would set aside federal contracts business they believe is owed them. That’s buying an executive order. If Obama ever signs that EO, then he has been bought. I bet he signs it in September or October, if the polls show that it benefits him.

I’m sure the Occupiers, who’ve spent almost a year complaining about money in politics and stuff, will get right out and picket and boycott these groups, right?

 

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Ever Notice That Warmists Are Really Fond Of Their “Land Yachts”?

By William Teach May 8, 2012 – 8:56 am

Also, have you ever noticed that Warmists aren’t willing to shell out the boatloads of cash necessary to purchase one of these expensive “green” vehicles? Over at Grist, Warmist David Roberts wonders “What car should my family buy“? I suppose he’s assuaging his guilt over driving a vehicle that is Killing Gaia by asking for consensus

Shortly after we got married almost 11 years ago, my wife and I bought a used 2001 Honda Odyssey minivan. We have been driving it ever since. We drove both of our kids home from the hospital in it. We picked up our puppy in it. It’s been on every one of our road trips. I’m incredibly fond of it.

My wife, not so much. She does most of the day-to-day driving, so the nostalgia factor isn’t enough to overcome her aversion to piloting a suburban land yacht. It’s too big, too hard to maneuver and park on city streets, too fuel inefficient. She’s over it.

The MPG of an Odyssey is 16/23. Not particularly Gaia friendly, eh? But, the Robert’s want a new car

Just to anticipate: Yes, I’m sure it would be wonderful if we had no car at all and got our kids around on the bus or in some fancy four-seater bike contraption. But … no. Where we live, what we do, we have to have a car. Maybe someday we’ll live in a walkable enough place that we won’t need one — I hope! — but not today. And also to anticipate: Yes, I’m aware the “greenest” thing we could do is just keep driving the minivan into the ground. But that ship has sailed. So, moving on … here’s our thought process so far:

I love how Warmists always complain about gas guzzling autos and Big Oil, yet, when push comes to shove, they “have to have a car.” The Roberts’ have ruled out sedans, too tiny, and that Chevy Volt “which is too expensive for us anyway.” The Nissan Leaf is too darned expensive, as well. As is a Prius. So, what does Dave get?

Well, really, he and his family should walk. But, the climate change hoax is not about doing anything other than spreading awarness. Real life always intrudes. That said, a different Warmist discusses the challenge of making consumers buy electric vehicles.

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Ever Notice That Warmists Are Really Fond Of Their “Land Yachts”?

By William Teach May 8, 2012 – 8:55 am

Also, have you ever noticed that Warmists aren’t willing to shell out the boatloads of cash necessary to purchase one of these expensive “green” vehicles? Over at Grist, Warmist David Roberts wonders “What car should my family buy“? I suppose he’s assuaging his guilt over driving a vehicle that is Killing Gaia by asking for consensus

Shortly after we got married almost 11 years ago, my wife and I bought a used 2001 Honda Odyssey minivan. We have been driving it ever since. We drove both of our kids home from the hospital in it. We picked up our puppy in it. It’s been on every one of our road trips. I’m incredibly fond of it.

My wife, not so much. She does most of the day-to-day driving, so the nostalgia factor isn’t enough to overcome her aversion to piloting a suburban land yacht. It’s too big, too hard to maneuver and park on city streets, too fuel inefficient. She’s over it.

The MPG of an Odyssey is 16/23. Not particularly Gaia friendly, eh? But, the Robert’s want a new car

Just to anticipate: Yes, I’m sure it would be wonderful if we had no car at all and got our kids around on the bus or in some fancy four-seater bike contraption. But … no. Where we live, what we do, we have to have a car. Maybe someday we’ll live in a walkable enough place that we won’t need one — I hope! — but not today. And also to anticipate: Yes, I’m aware the “greenest” thing we could do is just keep driving the minivan into the ground. But that ship has sailed. So, moving on … here’s our thought process so far:

I love how Warmists always complain about gas guzzling autos and Big Oil, yet, when push comes to shove, they “have to have a car.” The Roberts’ have ruled out sedans, too tiny, and that Chevy Volt “which is too expensive for us anyway.” The Nissan Leaf is too darned expensive, as well. As is a Prius. So, what does Dave get?

Well, really, he and his family should walk. But, the climate change hoax is not about doing anything other than spreading awarness. Real life always intrudes. That said, a different Warmist discusses the challenge of making consumers buy electric vehicles.

Read: Ever Notice That Warmists Are Really Fond Of Their “Land Yachts”? »

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Robinson: You Crazy GOPers Need To Give This Austerity Thing Up

By William Teach May 8, 2012 – 8:33 am

Liberals love government spending. They don’t like using their own money on it, of course. They refuse to send in extra money to the IRS, always wanting Someone Else to be taxed higher. But, they love government spending. And the elections in Europe remind me of a Ben Franklin quote “When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” Excitable Eugene Robinson would like to herald in that end

(Washington Post) Economic austerity is a dangerous, self-defeating intellectual fad. Perhaps I should say that’s what it was, given Sunday’s election results in Europe. Perhaps I should also say good riddance.

Voters in France, Greece and even Germany — a hotbed of the austerity cult — told their political leaders, in no uncertain terms, that boosting economic growth is more important than cutting government spending. Here in the United States, I hope that Democrats, at least, were paying attention; I fear that the addled ideologues who control the Republican Party will never get the message.

These United States haven’t even had a chance to try austerity. The GOP only controls the House, and has not been able to really implement any sort of budget cutting. But, we have tried the “spend obscene amounts of money” route. How’s that worked so far? It’s almost three years since the official end of the recession, and the US is still stuck with high unemployment, huge numbers of people abandoning the job market, low consumer confidence, rising energy and food prices, the home market is still a mess, and the roads haven’t been fixed, despite Obama’s prolificant spending, including his “Stimulus”. Among other economic issues.

On Sunday, French voters elected Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande as president, ousting center-right incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in what amounted to a referendum on Sarkozy’s embrace of austerity.

But on Sunday, even Merkel got a message from voters: Her party was punished in local elections in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, where it appeared that a center-left, anti-austerity coalition would end up in control.

Also on Sunday, voters in Greece tried their best to say no to austerity. For them, sadly, it’s probably too late. The fiscal and debt crises there were so acute that the Greeks, from the start, have had only painful choices.

The anti-austerity votes included a huge number of neo-Nazi’s being elected in Greece, which the media dutifully calls “ultra-Right“. Which is strange since these elections were supposed to be about the far-left being elected on a “we need to spend a ton more money. We don’t really know how that will work, but, we want more money.” In fact, just like during Hitler’s time, these Nazi’s are far left progressives, just more extremist. Like progressives, they want more and more power held in the hands of the central government.

But putting a chokehold on government spending at a time when economies are just sputtering back to life — as the austerity fetishists have tried to do in Europe, and as Republicans solemnly pledge to do in the United States — is monumentally self-defeating. Governments end up magnifying the constituent parts of the economic crisis, not minimizing them.

Therein lies the problem with Liberal ideology: they think Government is the answer, not the problem (or at least part of the problem). Even before the Great Recession, most EU countries were mired in high unemployment and low GDP after decades of trying the huge spending government gig.

What Lefties like Robinson do not understand is that continuing to increase spending and social programs will eventually lead to complete collapse.  Any uptick in the economy is temporary, masking the symptoms of complete insolvency. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc, will go bankrupt. That’s the reality. People in Europe thought of themselves only when going to the voting booth. They wanted money for themselves. So, they voted for some. Left side ideology in practice is a very selfish one.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

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Good Grief: Here We Go With The “Climate Change” Causes Volcanoes And Earthquakes Again

By William Teach May 7, 2012 – 9:17 pm

If you remove a few letters from “earthquakes” and the “-” from the “e”, you’re left with “quacks”

(Environment360) Geological disasters might influence climate, for instance when volcanic debris blots out the sun. But climate cannot disrupt geology. Right? Well, actually no, says a British geologist Bill McGuire, in a troubling new book, Waking The Giant: How a Changing Climate Triggers Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Volcanoes.

There is, McGuire argues, growing evidence to incriminate changing climate in the planet’s most destructive geological events. Melting ice sheets and changes in sea level can, he maintains, set off the largest earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Indeed, thanks to climate change, a human hand may already be at work. Potentially, McGuire’s argument adds a whole new dimension to why we should be worried about climate change.

Except, there were no receding glaciers near the massive earthquakes in Japan and Indonesia. Nor the big ones in Mexico, Chile, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and many others. Yet again, much like with “climate change” and weather, they’re taking events and assigning causation with inference. Much like “man induced “climate change” itself.

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Obama Finding That Young Voters Aren’t That Into Him Anymore

By William Teach May 7, 2012 – 3:44 pm

They aren’t flocking to Romney (yet), but, Obama is losing quite a few

(Daily Beast) It’s no surprise President Obama officially kicked off his reelection campaign on two college campuses Saturday. You’re supposed to apply pressure at the site of bleeding. And the president’s support among young voters is bleeding away.

While others in the media are focused on the upward trend in the president’s approval ratings over the last four months in this age group, as shown in the latest survey of young Americans’ attitudes toward politics and public service from Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, there are troubling signs for the campaigns and the country embedded more deeply in the numbers.

A snapshot comparison of the college-age subset of millennials from this point in the 2012 election year versus the same point in the 2008 campaign (when only 18- to 24-year-olds were surveyed) should worry Team Obama.

What do these folks care about?

“It’s jobs, stupid.” Of 20 issues presented to the young millennials polled, 78 percent rated jobs as the most important. Only 31 percent of those in college or with some college education thought student-loan debt would create “a lot” of impact on their financial circumstances going forward.

So, while Obama is running around pushing the college loan issue, most don’t care. They want jobs. And Obama is exactly the wrong person to create a positive job situation.

In terms of policies and priorities, the group appears more right of center than imagined. Almost four in 10 believe cutting taxes is key to growth. Just 19 percent think government spending is the answer. And those who believe health insurance is a right dropped from 61 percent in 2008 to 43 percent in 2012.

The top-10 issues ranked in importance for this cohort were creating jobs, reducing the deficit, lowering the tax burden for all, becoming energy-independent, ensuring affordable access to health care, creating a world-class education system, addressing Social Security, preventing the spread of terrorism, protecting individual liberties from government, and preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Combating the impacts of climate change fell near the bottom of the list.

Everything that Obama is incompetent at are important issues. Obama can try the “climate change” route, but, no one will care. He can try all the deflections and silly memes he wants, but, when push comes to shove, he is an unmitigated disaster on the issues that matter. Romney might not get the votes for himself, but, he can keep Obama from getting them with solid messaging.

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Posted in Barry Obama, Elections | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach May 7, 2012 – 1:00 pm

…is an awesome Gaia compliant bicycle that everyone else should ride, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is the Air Vent.

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