Category: Uncategorized

RS Interview: Jon Golnik (R CAND, MA-03).

MA-03 is a NE Massachusetts district currently represented by Niki Tsongas – and if you’re wondering who that is, don’t worry: nobody else particularly remembers her, either.  It’s an interesting district: represented by one of the more reflexively liberal Congresswomen in the House, but it has a history of voting for Republicans.  The current Republican candidate Jon Golnik is hoping to capitalize on that; we spoke to him this morning on the subject, as well as the race and Massachusetts generally.

Jon’s site is here.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

The NYT needs to read *itself* on the Syrian rebel situation.

Because first it’s writing things like this: “Most of the arms shipped at the behest of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply Syrian rebel groups fighting the government of Bashar al-Assad are going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster, according to American officials and Middle Eastern diplomats,” and then it visibly wonders why it is that such a thing could be happening.  Well, it’s probably happening at least in part because the Saudi and Qatar governments are being bullied by the Obama administration into not providing official support for the rebels, leaving private subjects in both countries to take up the slack: ” …there are signs of an uptick in the number of young men crossing illegally into Syria from Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries, and of private fund-raising efforts across the gulf to help the rebels acquire heavier weapons.”  Note: both quotes are from the New York Times. Continue reading The NYT needs to read *itself* on the Syrian rebel situation.

Obama: ‘protecting’ American lady-parts. Egyptian ones? …Well, not so much.

Let’s connect the dots:

One. This is from the official Tumblr of the Obama re-election campaign (click it fast, because it won’t be there soon): [UPDATE: Well, that was fast.]

 

Two. We are giving aid to Egypt.  Which is to say, we are giving Egypt $450 million of your tax money.

Three. Egypt, of course, is run by the Muslim Brotherhood.  This is what the Muslim Brotherhood thinks of Female Genital Mutilation:

  • “Saad El Katatny, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood bloc in parliament, says his movement is not opposed to the child law as a whole, rather “just those provisions that run counter to the norms, customs, and nature of the Egyptian people.” Aspects of the law that he takes issue with include articles that make it illegal to try children as adults, permit birth certificates for the children of unwed mothers, restrict corporal punishment, raise the marriage age to 18 years, and reinforce a standing ban on female circumcision.” (2008)
  • “Female Advisor to Egyptian President: Girls Not Circumcised “Lacking in Faith” Earlier this week, Egypt’s Tahrir News conducted an interview with Dr. Amina Kamal, advisor to President Morsi on Women’s Affairs, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party, and a member of the Constituent Assembly.” (2012)
  • “A number of Egyptian human rights groups have submitted a communication to the Attorney General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud against the Muslim Brotherhood`s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) to investigate the complaints of people in the village of Abu Aziz in the Minya governorate, south of Cairo, over the existence of a large medical convoy organized by the party that wanders streets and does medical examination on people, including female circumcision, or female genital mutilation, in violation of Egyptian law, conventions and treaties signed by Egypt.” (2012)
  • “Muslim Brotherhood (MB) MP Mohamed el-Omda objected to the criminalization of female circumcision in the presence of his three daughters and his mother.” (2012)
  • “For those wondering why on earth (in spite of the many rebuttals from Islamic clerics that FGM is distinctly un-Islamic) the Muslim Brotherhood have decided to virtually campaign on their support of it? Perhaps a view down the lens of social currency is helpful. Certainly we are not unfamiliar here in the UK with the idea of politicians aligning themselves with moral currencies such as marriage and sexuality in the face of the rapid decline of monetary capital. The Muslim Brotherhood also find that taking the [dubious] moral high-ground of chastity and honour avails them the opportunity to triumphantly reach into the heart of the vast majority of economically deprived Egyptians without offering any actual policies to relieve their hardship.” (2008)

Four.  Let’s look at that Tumblr again, shall we?

 

Five.  I think that I do agree with the Tumblr, after all: American women should vote to protect lady-parts.  Which is to say, they should be voting for Romney-Ryan.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

#rsrh Looking at/for the partisan enthusiasm gap.

The following is a fairly vivid example of why people want to see crosstabs whenever possible when it comes to polls:

A R L
Romney 37 40 46
Obama 52 50 47
Republican 37 38 44
Democrat 50 49 48

The above is from a just-released AP-GfK poll; as you can see, it shows Obama up by one (47-46) over Romney in a poll of likely voters.  Bad news for Obama, as the intent was that he was supposed to be opening up a lead at this point; not so great news for Romney either, since the D+4 sample is a lot more likely to be reflective of the actual voting electorate in November than the D+7 or higher nonsense that we’ve been seeing lately.  But that’s another post. Continue reading #rsrh Looking at/for the partisan enthusiasm gap.

Obama vs. Obama on whether Egypt is an ally.

Barack Obama, 2012:

Egypt is neither an ally nor an enemy of the United States, President Barack Obama said Wednesday in the wake of a violent protest at the US embassy in Cairo.

“I don’t think that we would consider them an ally, but we don’t consider them an enemy,” Obama said in excerpts of an interview with Telemundo aired by MSNBC.

Barack Obama, 2011:

Sunlen Miller and Kirit Radia report: President Obama today reiterated that Egypt is an ally of the United States and that the he’s “always said” to President Hosni Mubarak that reform, both politically and economically, is essential for Egypt.

“Egypt’s been an ally of ours on a lot of critical issues,” Obama said from the White House this afternoon, “President Mubarak has been very helpful on a range of tough issues in the Middle East. But I’ve always said to him that making sure that they are moving forward on reform — political reform, economic reform — is absolutely critical to the long-term well being of Egypt.”

Continue reading Obama vs. Obama on whether Egypt is an ally.

#rsrh QotD, Close But Not Quite edition.

This is interesting, but one quibble:

3. Americans like money. In the UK it’s considered gauche to want stuff. When we look at Mitt Romney on his jet ski we think, “How vulgar,” or “He should donate his jet ski to the poor.” When an American sees Romney having fun on the lake, they think, “Man, I’d love a jet ski.” For evidence, consider our very different attitudes towards inheritance/estate taxes. In the UK we regard them as a just way of redistributing money. In the US, a clear majority see them as legal theft. Even though few Americans make enough money to end up paying the estate tax, many hope that someday they will. Not only do Americans lack our jealously of other people’s jet skis, but they live in optimism that they will eventually own their own pair. It’s called the American Dream, and it’s why the Left’s message on taxes has never been wildly popular.

(Via @sissywillis)

…which is if you have a few grand handy and really want a jet ski, you can pick up one used.  So it’s not so much ‘optimism’ as it is ‘expectation.’  At least, it is when we have Presidents in office who have a clue about how to grow the economy.

Moe Lane