Category → Democrats
Kitzhaber decides his values trump Oregon voters
Apparently Democratic Oregon governor John Kitzhaber doesn’t intend to run for re-election.
That’s the only way to explain why the incumbent governor would defy the will of Oregon voters, who overwhelmingly approved the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1984, when he announced this week that he would not allow the death penalty to be carried out on Gary Dwayne Haugen, who had rejected all further appeals and was set for execution on December 6. Kitzhaber said he would disallow now only Haugen’s execution, but any other executions during the remainder of his term as Oregon governor, which expires in 2015.
Currently serving his third term in office, Kitzhaber had previously allowed two death penalty cases to be brought to execution in previous terms of office. Now, he’s decided to block the execution of Haugen and all other Oregon death row inmates during his term. Maybe he’s the recipient of Spine surgery Dallas-style? Hard to know. More likely, he just doesn’t care what voters think since he’s unlikely to run for a fourth term and won’t have to answer to voters for his actions.
Kitzhaber narrowly defeated former NBA star, Republican Chris Dudley, to win his third term a year ago. Kitzhaber, 64 currently, is probably unlikely to run again in 2014.
Whether one agrees with Kitzhaber’s insistence that he knows better than Oregon voters or not, what’s getting overlooked is what is in the interest of justice for Haugen’s victims.
Haugen was initially convicted of murder and sentences to life in prison in 1981, three years before Oregonians reinstated the death penalty by an overwhelming majority. His conviction was for the beating death of his ex-girlfriend’s grandmother, Mary Archer. Lovely guy.
Then, in 2007, he was convicted for the bludgeoning and stabbing death of a fellow inmate, David Polin, an act he committed with the help of one other inmate. Prior to being sentences to death, Haugen was a major rule-breaker in the prison system, and his state rap sheet includes the following:
“…in violation of Possession of Drugs four times, Drug Smuggling once, Contraband five times, Disrespect twice, Unauthorized Property once, Unauthorized Area once and Disobedience of an Order, three times. His last major rule violation was in 2006.”
With two violent murders and 17 major prison rules violations under his belt, one should not be distracted by his so-called “clean prison service record” since his transfer to death row; that’s more a result of the increased security on Death Row, and the decreased freedoms to be found there.
This is the man Governor Kitzhaber believes is undeserving of the ultimate penalty. This is the guy our graduate of the I Know Better Than Oregon Voters School of Law and Politics is willing to go to the mat for.
Decide for yourself, Oregon.
Politically Correct Gay Bashing?
While this is the season for beginning to think about unusual personalized gifts for the holidays, there’s a few folks in Dallas who earned nothing better than coal in their stockings.
Reality TV star and out-and-open homosexual Taylor Garrett, who stars in LOGO TV’s The A-List: Dallas, was “was punched to the ground and bloodied Friday night by someone vandalizing his car because he’s a gay conservative associated with conservative commentator Ann Coulter,” according to a report on The Daily Caller.
The beating came as he discovered someone defacing his car with the words “F*** Coulter!”
Said Garrett, ““The Democrats want me to live on their plantation as their slave, because I’m a gay person. And I refuse to do that.”
When he confronted the vandal, the man stood up and punched Garrett in the left eye before fleeing the scene. Garrett fell and was scraped up as well by some broken glass spread near his car.
It’s not the only time Garrett has been targeted by the left for being a conservative gay man; he recently had a rock thrown through his home window with an anti-conservative message attached; but the reports have drawn criticism from the left who are skeptical of his veracity.
“I would’ve thought people would have been a little more tolerant considering that our community advocates for tolerance, but it has been nothing but mean spirited attacks, especially after the Ann Coulter scene,” Garrett said. Explaining his lunch with Coulter, Garrett added he wanted to show people that “just because you don’t support gay marriage doesn’t make you a bigot, doesn’t mean you hate gay people, it just means you disagree on gay issues … The left has turned on anyone that might not agree with gay marriage, they have demonized them.”
Now GOP racist for supporting a black candidate
You know, Democrats are like collection agencies; they never really leave you alone, ever.
For ages, Democrats claimed the GOP was racist for being “too white.” Then they were racist for not supporting their own black candidates like the moderate General Colin Powell. And now that an genuine conservative black candidate is emerging in the form of Herman Cain, who is the apparent front runner in most areas nationwide for the GOP presidential nomination, have Dems backed off their racism claims against the GOP?
Perish the thought.
Now, we’re racist because we do support a black candidate for president.
Dem strategist Karen Finney blathered on like so recently on MSNBC:
One of the things about Herman Cain is, I think that he makes that white Republican base of the party feel okay, feel like they are not racist because they can like this guy. I think he giving that base a free pass. And I think they like him because they think he’s a black man who knows his place. I know that’s harsh, but that’s how it sure seems to me.
She’s joined in similar sentiment by Democratic Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings, who uttered this hate-speech recently:
I think when [members of the Tea Party] can vote for a Herman Cain and hear him say the things that he says they feel like, ‘Well, you know, I can, I support this guy and…so it shows that I’m not racist and I’m supportive.
Wow… and here I thought Herman Cain was garnering support because of his specific policy solutions, such as his 9-9-9 plan on simplifying the tax code as a first step toward a Fair Tax system. Or that he’s a red-blooded conservative with solid ideas on what he’s do if elected to change the course of this country’s economy. Or maybe even that he is a guy who’s well-qualified for his leadership in the private sector as well as the public sector, even though he’s never run for elective office and can therefore run as a Washington outsider ready to reform government.
Nah, none of that counts. It’s just our racism again. I should have known. Thanks, liberals.
Schultz reveals racism of the left
Ed Schultz, host of MSNBC’s “The Ed Show,” has revealed the virulent racist streak that runs through liberalism but is rarely talked about or criticized by the appropriate groups, purely because racists like Schultz hold the “proper” political views in the eyes of the Rainbow Coalition, the NAACP, and other liberal special interest groups.
On recent broadcasts, Schultz has bloviated about how black Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is pandering to “white Republicans out there who don’t like black folks.” That would be quite a trick, if that were even possible.
Schultz’ comment exposes the left’s overconfidence in their foothold among black voters. Even with the nation’s first black president in the White House, Schultz apparently believes it’s okay to play the race card and accuse a party that currently favors Cain over Mitt Romney, of racism.
If the GOP actually were as racist as Schultz suggests, Cain would’t be surging right now, regardless of the fact that he has presented what is consistently the most solid and conservative political message of any candidate running.
Schultz also railed against Senator Jim DeMint, whom Cain has mentioned as a potential running mate if he wins the nomination. Yet those comments aren’t even worth wasting virtual space on. Maybe Schultz simply needs to be sent a bunch of Christmas Cards to cheer him up.
Lack of leadership extends Occupy Portland
Due in large part to the fact that he shares most of the views of the protesters, Portland Mayor Sam Adams, who is retiring and won’t be running for re-election, has looked particularly weak in his response to the Occupy Portland movement. After protesters defied City Hall by deciding to camp in two downtown city blocks despite not having a permit to do so, the proper response would have been to begin handing out tickets and, perhaps, arrest some of the more intransigent members in need of RV repair.
Instead, Adams did nothing and in fact held meetings to reach accommodations when protesters refused to cede territory to a group that actually did obtain a proper permit last weekend: a marathon event. The talks were cast in a light that made them seem as grave and important as the Middle East peace accords.
Look, it’s simple: obtain a permit and camp to your heart’s content for that period of time. Defy City Hall, and the city is within its rights to fine, issue tickets, and even arrest, though the latter should be saved for a late-stage last resort method. But writing tickets and issuing fines for each day a protester camps illegally? That would put this thing to a stop both quickly and peacefully.
Mayor Adams’ choice to allow the illegal camping to continue without any response at all, though, exposes the city to legal challenges on their anti-homeless camping regulations, and other applications of the ordinances; it extends well beyond the current situation.
Pelosi needs to be institutionalized … not in a good way
Former Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who went back on her promise to step down from leadership if her party lost the last round of Congressional elections (which they did), is clearly unhinged.
Recently, while debating a GOP bill that would relieve taxpayers from having to pay for abortions through ObamaCare, Pelosi demonstrated her “off the deep end” address by claiming “Republicans want women to die on the floor.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. Conservatives in this country love women and tend to propose to them using ArtCarved wedding bands, at the very least.
In fact, the closest conservatives come to wishing any woman less than the best out of life is when we wish that former Speaker Pelosi would either gracefully retire, or lose her seat to a challenger in the next election cycle, because of her tendency to spew such untrue nonsense. That’s all.
Wausau politicizes Labor Day parade
Anyone who thinks union officials are satisfied with their efforts so far in protesting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s attempts to save their jobs, haven’t been paying attention. In Wausau, WI, a group responsible for organizing the Labor Day Parade in Marathon County has decided to use their control over the event into a political stunt.
No, they’re not giving away free Volvo S70 custom floor mats; they’re banning all Republicans from appearing in the parade. That includes popular GOP freshman US Congressman Sean Duffy, as well as state Sen. Pam Galloway (R-Wausau) and state Rep. Jerry Petrowski (R-Marathon).
It’s a sad day when a public holiday is so controlled by organized labor that only those who vote with them one hundred percent of the time are welcome to take part. The best way to protest? I suggest that all GOP-leaning voters boycott Marathon County’s Labor Day parade for the partisan shill-fest its organizers have transformed it into.
ObamaCare’s biggest setback yet
The Obama Administration thought it had an easy pass when its health care reform act came before Democratic judges at the U.S. Appeals Court for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, but they ruled 2-1 against ObamaCare, labeling the individual mandate unconstitutional. Democratic judges who still recognize a clear reading of the limits on Federal authority in the Constitution? Who woulda thunk it?
With the vast increase in Federal spending mandated by ObamaCare, and the recent credit downgrade on US credit by Standard and Poor’s, the fate of ObamaCare now clearly rests in the hands of a closely-divided US Supreme Court, but will become one of the key, signature issues of the 2012 election cycle.
Many analysts, some of whom live in Branson Lake homes, suggest that simply striking down ObamaCare and its oppressive increase in all future Federal spending, could be enough to regain the US’s triple-A credit rating. The stakes for the 2012 presidential election cycle have rarely been this critical.
GOP House, White House far apart on budget
The White House is claiming a budget that proposes spending cuts – they say – that consist of $51 billion less in spending in 2011. The House GOP’s budget proposes over $102 billion. So that’s not bad; at least the White House is only half-way to the GOP proposal, right?
Well, newsflash, both budgets are lying. They reach those totals by including a proposed $40.8 billion thanks to a spending freeze. Only trouble is, that money was not close to being spent; it was “built-in spending increases” due to the “cost of inflation.” Because Washington doesn’t do zero-baseline budgeting like normal Americans; they assume everything they spent last year will be spent again, plus more for “inflation.”
So all that’s being truly cut is the so-called “inflation adjustment” increase. But it’s not real money, so it doesn’t count.
Between Harry Reid’s Senate plan and the White House, the Democats came up with only $10.5 billion in additional cuts. That’s nothing compared to the cuts the GOP-led House came up with; subtract the same $40.8 billion in fake spending cuts from their budget, and you are left with savings of $61.5 billion.
That’s nowhere near close on the White House’s part. So at least the GOP budget is somewhat aggressive. But aggressive enough? By my count, the GOP still owes the American people at least another $40 billion in cuts. Real, actual spending cuts that shrink the size of government. Either that, or giving us each a set of nice shoulder braces. That might work, too…
Nah. I’d still prefer the spending cuts.
