Ten Buck Friday: The Haunting Of Harry Reid And The Democrats

With four days to go before Election Day, there is a palpable hope that control of the Senate will change hands.  The Democrats have had control of the Senate since 2006—eight years of purgatory for the American people.

The obstacle to bipartisan cooperation, Harry Reid has “piles of bills waiting for attention that could help Americans with jobs and help move the economy forward.”  Blocking GOP proposal after proposal after proposal, Reid has deliberately avoided tough votes that would embarrass The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer.

His strategy may have backfired.  Some are saying that not taking up GOP amendments gave embattled Democrats few chances to break with the president.  Their lockstep allegiance isn’t playing well and may portend a disastrous day at the ballot box.  Reid’s stifling hold on the Senate shaped the records they are defending this midterm.

Roll Call, which covers Capitol Hill, reported this week that “all of the most vulnerable Democrats voted with the president at least 96 percent of the time on the 120 votes on which he urged a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote.”  So, yeah, when The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer said his “policies are on the ballot, every single one of them,” you’d better believe they are.

Aaron Blake of The Washington Post cites the latest Harvard Institute of Politics poll which shows that Latinos, unmarried women and young people “have soured on the Democratic Party” and favor a GOP-controlled Senate.

Paraphrasing Dr. Charles Krauthammer, an anemic economy, governmental incompetence and the sense of national decline under this president and the minions in his party are the impetus for the current disenchantment.

Stuart Rothenberg opines that "President Barack Obama is about to do what no president has done in the past 50 years: Have two horrible, terrible, awful midterm elections in a row."

For the past nine weeks, a handful of conservative bloggers have taken part in a movement called Ten Buck Friday.  We highlighted a different senate race each week encouraging our readers to contribute $10 to the campaign coffers of Republican challengers to entrenched Democrats in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, New Hampshire and North Carolina.

In this, our final posting before Election Day next Tuesday, our message is to ask you to volunteer by making phone calls, talking with friends, family, co-workers and neighbors encouraging them to exercise their right of franchise by casting their ballot.  Low turnout leads to bad government.  Make sure your vote counts to prevent a theft-proof election.  Let’s make this midterm a haunting experience for Harry Reid and his messiah.

Please consider visiting the other bloggers who are participating in Ten Buck Friday: Adrienne's Corner, Diogenes' Middle Finger, Fisherville Mike,  For God, Family & Country, Laughing Conservative, Left Coast Rebel, Mind-Numbed Robot, PoliNation, 
Proof Positive, Texas Conservative News, Theo Spark and Wyblog.

How You Can Help Make Election Day Theft-Proof

VerifiedVoting.org indicates that 34 states have a requirement that allows voters the ability to verify their vote on a paper record or ballot.

You’re going to invest time on November 4th to cast your vote.  Please take just a few more minutes to verify that the vote you cast is for the candidate/party you intended.  Take a lesson from Illinois State Representative candidate Jim Moynihan who cast his vote in early voting in Cook County.  He tried to cast a vote for himself but the machine he used cast the vote for his opponent.  The same thing happened in a number of races when he tried to vote for a Republican and the machine registered a vote for a Democrat.

Moynihan notified an election judge at his polling place and demonstrated that it continued to cast a vote for the opposing candidate’s party.  He was eventually allowed to vote for Republican candidates and the machine was removed from service due to a “calibration error.”

Katie Pavlich notes, “This machine error was visible, what about the changes these machines are making to votes cast for Republicans that aren't visible? How many registered voters have had their votes and participation in the process stolen as a result of ‘faulty’ machines?”

Cook County is the cradle of corruption.  Democrats are terrified that control of the Senate will be wrested from their control.  The desperation includes dead people voting and liberal activists in Colorado who think it’s “truly awesome” to illegally fill out discarded ballots in favor of Democrats so votes “are put to good use.”  These are just a few egregious examples.  There are many, many more.

Voter fraud is something the Democrats deny, deny, deny.  Take a moment to look at the map below.  It indicates the red and blue counties following the 2012 presidential election.  If you go to the link it is interactive.  

If your polling place is in a blue county, you’ll want to make sure you have your vote audited.  Before you head out, check out this map that indicates the type of voting equipment your polling place will be utilizing. 

Far too many states use unreliable and insecure electronic voting machines.  Is yours one of them?

There’s an app for that.  It’s called the Election Protection Smartphone app.  You can download it here.  It allows you to confirm your registration status, look up your polling place, review key voting rules and regulations for your state, see what type of machine you’ll be voting on and allows you to contact Election Protection via phone or email to report a problem.

Finally, too many people don’t take the time to learn about candidates on the down ballot, specifically judges.  Judges become valuable tools for a certain political party.  Find out which judge is conservative and insure that the Constitution cannot be skirted in the manner in which it currently is.  Check the links below to find out which judicial candidate you should cast your vote for.  Don’t blow this part.

Arkansas Supreme Court, 2014

Idaho Supreme Court, 2014

Kentucky Supreme Court, 2014

Michigan Supreme Court, 2014

Minnesota Supreme Court, 2014

Montana Supreme Court, 2014

North Carolina Supreme Court, 2014

Ohio Supreme Court, 2014

Tennessee Supreme Court, 2014

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, 2014

Texas Supreme Court, 2014

Washington Supreme Court, 2014

UPDATE:  Welcome iOTWReport readers and a special thanks to Cardigan for linking to this post.

Ten Buck Friday: The Train Wreck's Arriving Right On Schedule

Graphic courtesy of Diogenes’ Middle Finger and modified with permission

Eleven days remain until Americans cast their ballots in the 2014 midterms.  Conservatives need to show up in record numbers if there is any chance to offset the stuffed ballots, rigged voting machines and illegal immigrants voting not only in early voting but on Election Day.

In 2010, voters gave the GOP historic victories and handed The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer a “shellacking” at the polls.  Most notable was the ouster of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House and Scott Walker’s victory in Wisconsin.

While I am loathe to quote a Democrat, this one from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sums up what Ten Buck Friday is all about:

“Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves—and the only way they could do this is by not voting.”

When retiring Tom Harkin (D-IA) isn’t confident Democrats can hold the Senate the edge the GOP has in the polls seems promising, but the decades-long agenda of the political/judicial/bureaucratic Democrat infrastructure will continue to give elections to Democrats unless we fight them at the voting booth.

If control of the Senate can be wrested from the hands of Harry Reid, America may be able to secure enough breathing room to recover from the failed presidency of The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer.

If Americans are truly dissatisfied with the direction of the country they simply must turn out at the polls.  Not bothering to vote because you are disgusted by politics guarantees the continued entrenchment of corrupt Democrats.  Rest assured they are counting on you staying home. 

Don’t kid yourself.  By staying home you are doubling the value of some diehard Democrat’s vote.  Is that what you want?

Get off your duff.  Talk with your friends, family, co-workers and scoop up five people on Election Day and go to the polls.  Stand guard over liberty and live in dignity.  We cannot afford to sit this election out.

Please consider contributing $10 to the candidate(s) listed below.

Contribute to Bill Cassidy (LA) here.

Contribute to Tom Cotton (AR) here.

Contribute to Joni Ernst (IA) here.

Contribute to Cory Gardner (CO) here.

Contribute to Thom Tillis (NC) here.

Please consider visiting the other bloggers who are participating in Ten Buck Friday:

Adrienne's Corner, Diogenes' Middle Finger, Fisherville Mike,  For God, Family & Country, Laughing Conservative, Left Coast Rebel, Mind-Numbed Robot, PoliNation, Proof Positive,  Texas Conservative News, Theo Spark and Wyblog.

Ten Buck Friday: Helping Harry Lose His Gavel

Graphic adapted from NCGOPVictory.org/TakeBackTheSenate

As of today, there are 18 days left before the nation goes to the ballot box.  The latest ABCNews/Washington Post poll shows the Democrat Party’s popularity is the weakest it has been in 30 years meaning they are “heading into the midterm election in trouble.”

Seventy-seven percent of Americans are worried about the economy’s future, and 57 percent say the country has been experiencing a long-term decline in living standards; a grim assessment for the party in power.

We’ve been hearing good news coming out of Iowa for Republican challenger Joni Ernst and The Denver Post is conceding polls are favoring Republican Cory Gardner at a key moment in the election season.

The DSCC has chosen to go dark in Kentucky realizing that Mitch McConnell is likely to hold his seat.  They’ve shifted their attention to Georgia’s open seat and are saturating Michelle Nunn’s campaign coffers.  They see a Nunn victory as a way to “stymie the growing odds of a Republican takeover of the U.S. Senate.”

North Carolina is my home state and I’ve been sweating out the contentious battle between incumbent Kay Hagan and challenger Thom Tillis.  More than $6.5 million has been spent against Hagan and nearly $19 million opposing Tillis according to the Sunlight Foundation.

Hagan’s minions have repeatedly charged that Tillis "cut $500 million" from the state's education budget.  That charge is false.

Other attack ads have claimed Tillis "raised taxes on 80 percent of North Carolinians."  This is also fabricated.

Hagan’s campaign claims Tillis "supports a plan that would end Medicare as we know it and raise premiums."  Nope.  Not true.

Attack ads repeatedly maintained her challenger "supports a plan that could end up costing seniors $1,700 more every year for prescription medicine."  This claim refers to Paul Ryan's Medicare plan, on which Tillis has not taken a position.

Joel Gehrke at National Review believes that cracks are beginning to appear in Harry Reid’s North Carolina firewall.  “North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan’s admission that she skipped a hearing about the Islamic State to attend a campaign fundraiser threatens to waste the $42 million that Democrats have spent in this race to protect her candidacy and their Senate majority.”

Tillis hammered her for that during their last debate. Local press has also focused on how the Hagan family has benefited from government spending programs that the senator supported, such as the 2009 stimulus.

Ten Senate races are rated toss-ups by Real Clear Politics, where the ratings are based on poll averages. The GOP must get to 51 seats to control a Senate majority.

Current polling of the races the Ten Buck Friday bloggers have been watching:

Arkansas:  Tom Cotton leads by 3.6 points

Colorado:  Cory Gardner leads by 3.0 points

Georgia:  David Perdue leads by 1.2 points

Iowa:  Joni Ernst leads by 2.0 points

Kansas:  Tie

Louisiana:  Bill Cassidy leads by 5.3 points

North Carolina:  Thom Tillis trails by 1.4 points

Each Friday between now and November 4th we are asking our readers to consider contributing $10 to the campaign of the candidate(s) we have highlighted that week.  Make sure to mark your contribution “Ten Buck Friday” so the candidate(s) will know the conservative blogosphere is with them in standing guard over liberty.  

If you are unable to make a contribution, you can help the candidate(s) tremendously by encouraging friends, family, neighbors and/or co-workers to vote.  Volunteer your valuable time.  Put up a campaign sign in your yard.  Make sure you go to the polls.  We cannot afford to sit this election out. 

Contribute to Tom Cotton (AR) here.

Contribute to Cory Gardner (CO) here.

Contribute to Joni Ernst (IA) here.

Contribute to Bill Cassidy (LA) here.

Contribute to Thom Tillis (NC) here.

Please consider visiting the other bloggers who are participating in this movement:

Adrienne's Corner, Diogenes' Middle Finger, Fisherville Mike, For God, Family & Country,Laughing Conservative, Left Coast Rebel, Mind Numbed Robot, PoliNation, Proof Positive,  Texas Conservative News, Theo Spark and Wyblog.

Ten Buck Friday: Clearing The Decks

As recently as Wednesday of this week, The Hill  reported that dingbat Nancy Pelosi said voters weren’t responding to the GOP agenda.  She said, “We’ve out-mobilized them; we’ve out-recruited them; we’ve outraised them to a shameful extent. They’re desperate.”

She further opined, “Their days are numbered. I know that in two years, I know we’ll have a Democratic Congress and a Democratic president. I’d like it to be in two months.”

Asked if she was conceding that Republicans would hold the House in November’s midterms, Pelosi insisted, “No, I’m not." 

Michael Barone begs to differ. “Republicans retain big leads to pick up three open seats in states carried by Mitt Romney—West Virginia, Montana and South Dakota. Republican nominees have moved ahead of three Democratic incumbents in Romney states (Alaska, Arkansas, and Louisiana) and in two target states carried by President Obama (Colorado and Iowa)."

"Only in North Carolina, which Romney narrowly carried, has the Republican not yet overtaken the incumbent Democrat Sen. Kay Hagan—and her edge is narrowing in the most recent polls."

If Barone’s pedigree as a political analyst isn’t convincing enough, he points to analysts at The Washington Post, The New York Times, Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight, The National Journal’s Charlie Cook, Stuart Rothenberg and the guy who’s analysis I put great faith in, Larry Sabato, who all agree.

Sabato contends, “Right now, Democrats are behind the eight-ball.  So many undecided contests are winnable for the GOP that the party would have to have a string of bad luck—combined with a truly exceptional Democratic get-out-the-vote program—to snatch defeat from the wide-open jaws of victory. Or Republicans would have to truly shoot themselves in the foot in at least one race, which has become a clear possibility over the last few weeks in Kansas.”

The Free At Last PAC uploaded a damning ad on YouTube™ which employs a powerful quote from Thomas Sowell to criticize Louisiana’s Democratic senator Mary Landrieu:  “Politicians are not trying to solve our problems.  They’re trying to solve their own problems of which getting elected and re-elected are No. 1 and No. 2.”

Elbert Guillory expounds on Sowell’s quote, “You’re not Mary’s cause and you’re certainly not her charity.  You are just a vote.  Nothing less and nothing more.  For her, you’re just a means to an end so that she remains in power.  While you scrounge to gather food stamps to buy Kool-Aid™, she sips champagne at cocktail parties.  While you dig through the couch for gas money, she flies around in private jets funded by taxpayer dollars.  Mary Landrieu knows she doesn’t have to do anything for our community because no matter what she does 95% of us will line up and vote for her every single time.  Since 1996 black unemployment has doubled and the poverty rate for blacks has skyrocketed.  Mary hasn’t helped us at all.  So on November 4th, let’s send her back home to her father’s house or to her mansion in Washington, D.C. or to wherever the heck she lives because one thing is for sure she does not live here.”

While Guillory is critical of Landrieu, the sentiments are certainly applicable to too many incumbents, especially of entrenched Democrats.

While speaking at Northwestern University on Thursday, The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer said, "I am not on the ballot this fall.  Michelle’s pretty happy about that.  But make no mistake: these policies are on the ballot.  Every single one of them."

If ever there were a reason for Americans to be motivated to vote 31 days from today, those words from the president should be all the impetus they need.

Doyle McManus seems to think the November balloting is a “Seinfeld election” inferring its because “so much of the campaign seems to be about nothing.”  McManus writes for The Los Angeles Times.  It is a well-known fact that California has the largest state deficit in American history. Furthermore, California also has the dismal distinction of having the nation’s second-highest unemployment rate.  To this observer, McManus’ assertion that this election is about “nothing” is patently and egregiously absurd.

Each Friday between now and November 4th we are asking our readers to consider contributing $10 to the campaign of the candidate(s) we have highlighted that week.  Make sure to mark your contribution “Ten Buck Friday” so the candidate(s) will know the conservative blogosphere is with them in standing guard over liberty.  Remember to call your friends and remind them to go to the polls, to volunteer.  We cannot afford to sit this election out. 

Contribute to Bill Cassidy (LA) here.

Contribute to Tom Cotton (AR) here.

Contribute to Joni Ernst (IA) here.

Contribute to Cory Gardner (CO) here.

Contribute to Thom Tillis (NC) here.

Please consider visiting the other bloggers who are participating in this movement:

Adrienne's Corner, Diogenes' Middle Finger, Fisherville Mike, For God, Family & Country, Laughing Conservative, Left Coast Rebel, Mind Numbed Robot, PoliNation, Proof Positive,  Texas Conservative News, Theo Spark and Wyblog.