BloggeRhythms

Among the many surprises arising from Tuesday’s election results, a few directly illustrate that the administration’s manipulation of data and alteration of facts not only didn’t help them a bit, but came back to harm them considerably at the polls.

 

When they needed clear information for their own benefit and use, to determine how and what to do to increase their chances of election wins, it seems they too were mislead by the data gathered whereas in many cases it was totally false or completely inaccurate.

 

In that regard, yesterday Stephen Moore, Chief Economist at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative research and educational institute (aka “think tank”) appeared in an interview on the Fox Business Channel.

 

His comments drew interest because while talking about the status of US employment, which appears to be steadily growing, he interrupted his own answer to note that he could no longer trust the reported figures. Since the administration had changed the criteria in the calculation,  long-term unemployed were no longer included in the results.

 

Mr. Moore went on to state that since his job is to provide his own organization, as well as those relying on it, with accurate information he now has to use other means and additional formulations to try and determine the truth.

 

His perspective made perfect sense, because in gathering information for the daily entry’s made here, very similar steps are taken. On the subject of unemployment alone, on numerous occasions the points been made that while the administration sought to present a far better picture than the reality, those without jobs or had their hours slashed weren’t fooled and, obviously, made sure that they voted Republican.

 

But in the end, as ought to have been expected had Democrats used their heads, they painted a picture that was so far from the truth about how good things were that they made the fatal mistake of believing their own BS.

 

And therefore, along with the incumbent president, they paid for it with the biggest Congressional losses in a midterm election ever recorded. Which they may not even be able to recover from if they don’t come up with a presidential candidate better than the recycled Bill Clinton’s wife.

 

Because, in her case it wasn't doctored polls or misrepresentation of facts and statistics that were foisted on the voting public. The actual election results show that every candidate supported or endorsed by, or having anything at all to do with either Clinton at all were soundly defeated across the nation, including Arkansas.    

 

That's it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms

In a lackluster meeting with the press yesterday afternoon, the incumbent president offered his explanation of the Republican landslide giving them absolute control of Congress. The problem. he said, was that most of the usually reliable Democrat base chose not to vote. Therefore, to him, it wasn’t really a meaningful win because only a third of qualified voters participated, nullifying the importance of the results.

 

While his delivery of his opinion seemed quite glib and the vote results of little interest to him, he disregarded the implications clearly made by the elections outcome which are directly in conflict with his verbiage.

 

Although Democrats invested millions of dollars in an expansive effort to persuade young and nonwhite voters, who do not usually participate in midterm elections, to head to the polls they still didn’t show up in sufficient numbers. There’s no question turnout among core Democratic groups was lower in 2014 than it was in 2012 or even 2010. Furthermore, Democrats also lost in states where turnout surpassed 2010, “according to an Upshot analysis of preliminary returns and voter turnout data.”

 

And that brings me to today’s point, which is that the decision not to vote is an expression of preference too. Because, when these same Democrats were inspired by the incumbent’s words, promises and rhetoric, they arrived at the polls in droves. They swept him into office twice, delivering the Senate too both times.

 

However, things have changed in those same voters minds, whereas most of the promises made to them haven’t really materialized as presented. And therefore, not only didn’t disappointed Democrats flock to the polls, they stayed home holding their noses. Yet they clearly understood that by doing that, the despised Republicans were getting a boost toward the record wins they accomplished.

 

A couple of other items turned out to be quite interesting as well. It’s estimated that California hedge fund titan Tom Steyer’s invested $74-million of his own, trying to persuade voters to select global-warming advocates in congressional elections. However, not only didn’t the money help, one of the first agenda item’s for new Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell is approval for completing the Keystone XL pipeline.   

 

Outgoing Majority Leader, Harry Reid, got some very bad blowback too. Because he changed the rules that allowed the minority party to require 60 votes to confirm nominees in order to make it harder for Republicans. But now that they have control, the rules would help them put ‘committed constitutionalists’ on the bench if the White House changes hands in 2016.

 

That’s why Art Carney on the old Jackie Gleason show, when playing Ed Norton who worked in a city sewer, always said that you should always be nice to the people you meet on the way down, because they’re same one’s you’ll meet on the way up.

 

That's it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms

As one who’s expected and been writing about the eventuality of the outcome for four years now, there’s no need for a long dissertation on yesterday's election results. The votes have now been counted for the most part, with two major conclusions vividly obvious.

 

The final tallies show that the mid-term election was indeed a referendum on the incumbent president whose policies, platforms and ideology were clearly and resoundingly rejected. Republicans now have a Senate majority of seven seats, which may grow to nine after runoffs are conducted next month.

 

As far as the House is concerned, Republicans attained the highest number of seats since World War ll, another conformation of almost total dissatisfaction in the nation of the current administration’s beliefs and performance.

 

In attempts to defend the Democrat party itself, many of the faithful are already working diligently, placing blame for their losses on the incumbent’s shoulders only. Saying that the vote wasn’t about their overall performance, but instead a show of rejection only of POTUS. However, that premise isn’t accurate either, because a slew of gubernatorial contests went to Republican candidates too.

 

Not only do Republicans now have 31 governorships in total, they won in states won overwhelmingly by Democrats in 2012, including the strongholds in Maryland and Massachusetts along with the incumbent’s own adopted state of Illinois.

 

Furthermore, in addition to the resounding humiliation of the numerous Democrat defeats for the present, Bill Clinton and his wife were soundly rejected as well. Not only was every state lost where one or the other, or both, campaigned for contestants, in Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton was elected Senator while Republicans now have every congressional seat in the state for the first time in 141 years.

 

So, it’s now up to the Republican winners to prove they’re worthy of the contests won. But, if they can actually deliver on even half of their goals, such as full employment, true economic recovery, energy independence, undoing the health care tax, curtailing illegal immigration and establishing border security, the presidency becomes far more plausible, perhaps even probable in 2016. 

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios 

BloggeRhythms

Today's the day much of the nation’s been eagerly waiting for. Win or lose, the Congressional votes will reflect, for the most part, as a referendum on how voters feel about the incumbent president far more than on local issues.

 

Fox News Carl Cameron wrote that: “Sources also say that Democrats in competitive states, win or lose, have validated the GOP criticism of the Obama agenda on issues including guns, Keystone XL Pipeline and national security policy, which includes Syria, the Islamic State, Vladimir Putin, Ebola and more.” 

 

Although, “it is expected Obama would veto the first few bills to reach his desk,” anticipated new Senate leader, Mitch McConnell “is prepared to bide his time.”

 

Therefore, “if a Republican-controlled Congress passes bills next year with a few Democratic votes and the president doesn't sign them, the GOP 2016 field could look stronger. In turn, Democratic White House hopefuls, including Hillary Clinton, would either have to side with or against Obama as they run to replace him.”

 

What’s  quite interesting is that one of the first, and most important items Mr. Cameron listed is the Keystone XL pipeline, which leads right into another article, this by Victoria Stilwell and Shobhana Chandra, on www.bloomberg.com, about lower fuel costs, as follows:

 

“Cheaper fuel will give consumers extra spending money heading into the holiday-shopping season, the most important time of year for retailers. While the hit to oil producers will be small and take longer to emerge, one thing is certain: collectively, the economic positives will outweigh the negatives." 

 

“It’s beneficial for the economy,” said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York. “It should give some support to holiday sales. Money that consumers would otherwise put in the gas tank they’ll put under the Christmas tree instead.”

 

As far as the actual savings are concerned: “A $20-a-barrel decline in the price of crude saves U.S. oil consumers about $140 billion over a full year, according to Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics Inc. in White Plains, New York. 

 

“As a result, cheaper oil prices could boost annualized GDP growth by one to two percentage points in the fourth and first quarters, mostly through increased household spending, Shepherdson said. This “raises the possibility that GDP could expand by more than 4 percent” in each of the two quarters, he said. 

 

Every one-cent change in gasoline prices is equivalent to about a $1 billion shift in household spending on energy over a year, according to Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. Were gas costs to hover around current levels, they’d deliver about $50 billion in energy savings for households, and push GDP up by 0.3 percentage point over the next year, he projects.

 

Therefore, what’s painfully obvious is that if it were not for political pandering to his base of environmentalists, the boost to the nation’s economic recovery could have been accomplished six years ago. However, partisan politics obviously outweighed the needs of the majority of people.

 

Further evidence of highly biased political priorities was delivered by Secretary of State, John Kerry, as reported by Brittany M. Hughes on cnsnews.com.

 

The secretary said, “The bottom line is that our planet is warming due to human actions, the damage is already visible, and the challenge requires ambitious, decisive and immediate action in a statement released earlier on Sunday. He was reacting to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's latest climate assessment.

 

Those who disagree with his position on climate change are “stuck in a debate over ideology and politics,” Kerry said, adding that “[t]hose who choose to ignore or dispute the science so clearly laid out in this report do so at great risk for all of us and for our kids and grandkids.”

 

Kerry also warned of a “large-scale disaster” if the threat of global warming is not addressed.”

 

In this case, while Secretary Kerry continues to emphasize global-warming as the nation’s most pressing problem despite the general public’s concerns about far more serious issues, Mother Nature once more snowed on his parade, whereas, “On the same day the State Department released Kerry’s statement, a “record-breaker” nor’easter slammed into Massachusetts, bringing with it “the most snow recorded on any Nov. 2 in 120 years,” the Boston Globe reported on Sunday.

 

And lastly, a long but quite accurate comment from a reader of an article by Piers Morgan titled: “Ten reasons why bluffing, boring, blame-pointing Obama can expect a well-deserved shellacking in the midterm elections,” in the dailymail.co.uk.

 

Paulo m., new york, wrote” “Some of saw this coming 6 years ago. Our sadness over obama winning then wasn't due to partisan politics, it was because we love the country. It was obvious even back then that the man was lying. He promised a new openness in government, while hiding his own radical school records. And the lapdog press found this unnewsworthy. He claimed to have sat under Rev. Wright for 20 years without ever hearing what he said, and then gave a vacuous race speech in Philadelphia that, again, the media swooned over. The facts were available back then, in books by Corsi and Frederosso, and the right questions were being asked in the conservative blogosphere. Where we are now was quite predictable. The salient point is that mainstream media proved itself wholly corrupt and biased, and sold the electorate down the river. Now we get these articles in which that same media scratches its head and wonders what went wrong. I hope that an entire generation has been inoculated against progressivism.”

 

Which means that, if Paulo is correct, and the projected Democrat losses actually materialize this time around, those same Democrats surely know full well and precisely who to blame directly and precisely why. 

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms

The day of reckoning is finally arriving tomorrow, with both major political party’s predicting prevalence (try repeating that one 10 times without a mistake) in the Congressional elections. And we’ll all find out who was right after all the votes are finally counted. 

 

However, until it’s known what the actual results are, speculating on the winners not only doesn’t matter, hordes of others have been doing that for months now. Instead, there’s another point that’s been hammered continually by Democrats during the past two years as a major reason for keeping them in office, or electing first-time candidates: the popularity and successes of Bill Clinton.

 

Considering how much credit is given to the extremely popular former-president, I looked up his performance record again, and found the following:  

According to findthebest.com, president Clinton,

• Presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history
•  Signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, cutting taxes for fifteen million low-income families, making tax cuts available to 90 percent of small businesses, and raising taxes on the wealthiest 1.2 percent of taxpayers
• Passed welfare reform and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), providing health coverage for millions of children
• Signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) into law and implemented Don't Ask Don't Tell in the armed services. Despite these anti-gay policies, Clinton also doubled federal funding for HIV/AIDS research, prevention and treatment and pushed for passing hate crimes laws for gays
• Signed the 1993 Brady Bill imposing a five-day waiting period on handgun purchases and the 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill expanding the death penalty for drug kingpins, murderers of federal law enforcement officers, and nearly 60 additional categories of violent felons
• Signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) creating a trilateral trade bloc between Mexico, Canada, and the US in 1994
• Deployed American troops in Somalia and Yugoslavia as part of peacekeeping missions
• Ordered cruise missile strikes on terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan in retaliation for al-Qaeda bombings of US embassies in East Africa in 1998
• Was impeached for perjury before a grand jury and obstruction of justice during a lawsuit against him, both related to a scandal involving White House intern Monica Lewinski, but was eventually acquitted by the Senate

Therefore, when you study the results, you find that except for several social issues, not very much ground-breaking legislation was enacted. In fact, the most outstanding achievement was the performance of the economy for eight years, which was the actual key to his popularity.

 

Which is why it’s important to remember that, although Bill Clinton knew virtually nothing about how the US economy functions, he was wise enough to realize his own shortcomings and left holdover Alan Greenspan, a conservative Republican, as head of the Federal Reserve. 

 

Consequently, whenever Democrats use the economic successes of the Clinton years as reasons for voting for them, they’re actually endorsing Republican economic policy as being best for the country.

 

Then, on another subject, there’s this  item a friend posted on Facebook, which underlines how brilliant a philosopher Albert Einstein really was.

 That’s it for today folks.
Adios

BloggeRhythms

While most polls indicate that many key electoral races are too close to call at present, pundits still predict a Republican takeover of the Senate. Nonetheless, advertising dollars keep pouring in for both major parties, in last minute attempts to sway those who are still undecided.

 

As far as “undecided’s” are concerned, it seems incredible that at this late date anyone truly intending to vote has yet to make up their mind. Especially since in this particular election, lines have been clearly drawn regarding major issues.

 

Those favoring continuation of growing government, high taxation and increasing dependence on the administration will almost surely vote Democrat, while those seeking a strong economy, increased military strength, border security and a return to full employment will ordinarily vote Republican. And since those lines have been quite clearly drawn for almost six years now, it’s extremely likely that those still claiming they haven’t made made up their minds aren’t going to vote at all.

 

Nonetheless, pollsters and pundits are still discussing the elections, most trying to predict the outcomes. In that regard, yesterday on Fox TV’s Wall Street Journal Report, Host Paul Gigot interviewed GOP pollster Whit Ayers.

 

What was most interesting was Mr. Ayers input on how major environmentalists are not only pouring huge sums into Congressional campaigns, but manipulating their spending in order to gain significant influence with candidates gaining electoral victory.

 

For example, in most of the nation, the environment and global-warming is last on the list of likely voter concerns, if it’s considered at all. Therefore, activists such as Tom Steyer, are investing significant funds into candidates strongest other causes, such as contraception, abortion, and gay marriage, hoping for Democrat wins. And then, if victory is gained, climate-change will then be introduced by those elected as a key issue in return for the funds received when electioneering.

 

While to date it seems that the only state that’s buying the global-warming story is Florida, it’s also interesting to learn that the environmentalist investment in campaigns is much larger than that of the often vilified oil-refiners, the Koch brothers.

 

However, while local election wins would surely help the environmentalist cause, the most important ally was bought and paid for a long time ago. Because no matter how the Congressional elections turn out, the incumbent president will remain in the White House.

 

That's it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms

It may be far too early, but an article by Jackie Calmes in yesterdays New York Times indicates that should the Democrats fair poorly in Tuesday’s elections, a major mistake was likely their misjudgment regarding the issues most important to women, a usually very reliable voting bloc.  

 

Ms Calmes writes: “Democrats are nervously counting on an enduring edge among female voters in most states to prevent a Republican rout in Tuesday’s elections. Yet so great is the uncertainty that even before the returns are in, some are second-guessing the party’s strategy of focusing more on issues like abortion and birth control than on jobs and the economy.”

 

And that’s really no surprise, because it’s been the history of the Democrat party, and especially its leadership, to always ignore economic issues entirely. As clearly evidenced by the performance of the current presidential incumbent, who has no concerns or cares whatsoever about the productive sectors of the society he leads, except for demands that they pay everyone else’s bills.

 

What’s even more ridiculous, for elected officials who depends on voter preferences to gain and retain their posts, is that Democrats are so focused on issues they deem important, virtually always social in nature, they don’t even realize how the demographics of their own constituencies are changing. Because, today in the US the number of single and/or working women keeps expanding rapidly. And therefore, issues like employment opportunity and higher wages mean as much, if not more, than they do to men.

 

That’s why, Anna Greenberg, a Democratic pollster, believes, as do many others, the party’s suffering because not enough’s been done on abortion and birth control also “complains their party has not effectively espoused a broader economic agenda, when women tell pollsters their top concern is jobs and the economy.”

 

Consequently, whereas there are virtually no issues that the current presidential incumbent and his party has done well or correctly, it’s really no wonder that all that’s left to promote and tout is climate change, and raising fears about global-warming.

 

Unfortunately though, not only does it seem that Mother Nature has other ideas, she appears to be purposely flaunting her powers over mankind by bringing record early cold to the incumbent’s home town.

 

According to NBC News, “An arctic blast is giving millions of people a real reason to shiver on Halloween.”.

 

“Trick-or-treaters from the Midwest to the Mississippi Valley to the East Coast face a deep chill Friday, and strong, freezing winds are taking hold across the Great Lakes region, which is expecting the season’s first lake-effect snow. Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport had already seen more than 260 flight cancellations and delays by early Friday afternoon because of the winds and snow, according to FlightAware.com.

 

The southern Appalachians are expected to get up to 8 inches of snow by Saturday morning, forecasters say. Record low temperatures are expected as far south as Miami.

 

“It’s certainly unusual,” Weather Channel lead meteorologist Michael Palmer said. “It’s early for snow in many areas, and the temperatures are definitely lower than we would expect.” In the Midwest, winds gusting to 50 mph and snow showers are expected around a stormy Lake Michigan.”

 

On the same topic, Roy W. Spencer, who received his Ph.D. in meteorology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981 and was awarded NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for global temperature monitoring work with satellites and has provided congressional testimony several times on the subject of global warming, hosts his own website. 

 

Today, Dr. Spencer reports that, “the earliest snows on record are beginning to occur in the Carolinas.

 

“Columbia, SC has just experienced their earliest snow in 125 years of weather records, beating the Nov. 9, 1913 earliest snow record by 8 days. Current South Carolina weather shows it’s still snowing in Greenville, SC.” And, “The Christian Science Monitor is reporting Greenville was especially hard hit with downed trees and power outages. The Smokey Mtns received up to 16 inches overnight.”

 

So, although its still far too early to predict the outcome of next Tuesday’s Congressional elections, if the early predications prove to be true, the Democrat party has no one to blame but themselves.

 

Because every single issue that cost them votes was one they chose to pursue, regardless. And while that made their leadership, and top contributors extremely happy, it appears that although voters, including their own usually reliable base, didn’t agree with them, they went ahead and committed ideological and political suicide anyhow. 

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios