Huckabee's "Floating Cross"?

The Drudge report found the most reportable thing about this Huckabee Christmas Greeting was the way the bookshelves which obviously form a cross "float" behind him. His message is clear and the producer of the video creating a moving back ground gives it a nice touch. That there is a white cross in that background is obviously intentional and in good taste. It is a video Christmas card, mentions that Christmas is celebrating the birth of Christ and ends with a nice picture of Mike with a lit Christmas tree in the background.

Only a secular progressive would have any objection to that, and they should be objecting to the mention of Jesus Christ. Seems like there are people who are trying very hard to criticize everything Huckabee does. He really must have some people worried!

Although I rarely make political donations I believe I'll send one to him and you can too - using the slatecard widget here on my blog!



By the way - Merry Christmas

Cross Posted at RobBoyce

An appeal to end the income tax

A year end appeal for donations to a FAIR TAX Candidate - cross posted from aWILLTOWIN.blogspot.com



I know, Santa is coming but so is that crucial end of the year - gotta do this so it goes on this year's taxes - is only a week after Christmas. Why do we have to do that?

If the FAIR Tax were implemented that week between Christmas and New Years would be no big deal. It wouldn't matter what you bought or paid for or donated to before the end of the year! There would be no need because there would be no income tax.

This year you can do some year end - last minute donating that could mean in future years you would not ever have to think about income taxes (at least federal ones) again.

Make a donation now to a FAIR TAX supporter - Will Breazeale - who is running for Congress. Help him and the other FAIR TAX supporters build the momentum needed to dump the income tax and all that goes with it.

See that SlateCard widgit over there? Click on it, get out your credit card and send him $10.40 (or more) in honor of scrapping the income tax. You can then select the FAIR TAX Badge to show him you support him because of the FAIR TAX.

Send this message or a link to it to every one you know that hates the income tax (I know that is repetitive - cause every one I know hates the income tax - so just send it to everyone).

You can read more about Will at aWILLtoWIN.com

Contributions are not deductible for federal income tax purposes. Corporations, foreign nationals without green cards, federal contractors, and minors (under 18 years of age) are prohibited from contributing. The maximum contribution per individual is $2,300 per election. Therefore, a couple may contribute up to $4,600 per election. Multi-candidate PACs may contribute up to $5,000 per election. Federal law requires us to use our best efforts to report the name, mailing address, occupation and name of employer for each individual whose contributions aggregate in excess of $200 in an election cycle

Paid for by Breazeale for Congress

Update on Shaheen/Clinton Obama Drug Dealer flap

Blue Hampshire is saying that the backlash over Billy Shaheen's comments about Obama's drug use and possible drug dealing may be directed not at HRC but at his wife Jeanne who is seeking Sen. John Sununu's seat.

PS: Here's an uncomfortable thought, that I genuinely hope will not turn out to be true. This sorry episode may have singlehandedly cost Jeanne Shaheen the financial and activist support of the larger national netroots, who are at the moment calling for Bill's head.

So the nutroots might not support Jeanne because her blowhard hubby outed Obama on drugs? Obama outed himself on drugs - Billy just reminded everyone of it. And I have to wonder why right now the Clinton camp would want to distract the news media by putting this out (by mistake, wink wink)?
There is a debate in Iowa, where HRC's numbers are slipping. if yesterday's GOP version of the same debate is any indication, there will be nothing there to help HRC. In fact, it is likely that whatever comes out of the debate - it won't help her. So, have a top campaign official make a "mistake" that clogs the news media, disavow it as a "mistake", distract everyone as you are submarining the opponent and hope it works.
But then former NH Dem chairman Kathy Sullivan says "it was a mistake. What we were hoping to talk about today was Hillary's experience and leadership."
Which begs the question - what experience and leadership? One term as US Senator form a state she never lived in? Or as the spouse of a President and Governor? leadership in what? What has she ever led? Oh yeah, she led the debacle on Health Care (which now Bill says she had nothing to do with). She spent her whole life following Bill and standing in his shadow. When your candidate has no leadership experience and he opponent has a past history with drugs - which issue would you want on news? Well, it seems they made the obvious choice - Obama used drugs and maybe sold them!
Cross posted at RobBoyce.com

Billy Shaheen like Billy Clinton knows "dirty tricks"

The Clintons are not the only political couple where the hubby, named Bill, is trying to get the wife elected. And neither are strangers to dirty tricks.

There are a lot of similarities between the Clintons and the Shaheens. In both cases they follow the standard Democrat tactic of accusing the Republicans for the "dirty tricks" that they themselves employ. They assume that whatever they themselves do or would do is what the GOP opponent would do.

Billy Shaheen, who for six years was the New Hampshire "First Hunk" as his wife - former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen referred to him, is now co-chair of the Clinton national campaign (even as his wife is seeking to oust Sen. John Sununu is NH). Not at all surprising that he would bring up Osama's admitted drug use and blame the GOP.

"It'll be, 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?'" said Shaheen, whose wife Jeanne is the state's former governor and is running for the U.S. Senate next year.

"There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It's hard to overcome," Shaheen said.

Every opponent Shaheen faced in her campaigns for Governor and Senator has been a mean spirited, evil uber conservative who employed ever dirty trick imaginable - at least that was how the Shaheens portrayed them. Billy was the behind the curtain stage manager while Jeanne played Betty Crocker. Now there are claims the 2002 election where she lost her bid for the open Senate seat was stolen from her by some phone jamming at the Dem's call for a ride to the polls phones. Hard to believe that:

according to court documents...about 800 calls between 7:45 and 9:10 a.m.

could have prevented almost 20,000 Democrat voters from voting. Yes, the phone blocking was wrong. Yes, people who were responsible have spent time in jail for it, but no, it did not result in Shaheen losing to Sununu. She lost because he was the better candidate!

No one should forget, the Willey Horton issue that hurt Michael Dukakis was originated by the Gore campaign. The GOP only followed up on it and was then blamed for using a "dirty trick". The facts of that are clear - Michael Dukakis as governor allowed Horton out on a furlough - Horton raped and murdered while on that furlough - Gore asked Dukakis about "weekend passes for convicted criminals" during a 1988 Democratic primary debate. If it was a dirty trick to use these facts to defeat Dukakis - then every fact based campaign tactic is a dirty trick and a Dem started the whole thing.

Of course the Clinton campaign has disavowed the words of their national co-chairman, they never accept responsibility for anything. They never have - they never will!

Cross posted at RobBoyce.com

More gun Control or more people Controlling their Guns

How many people died in the Omaha Mall because the mall prevents people from carrying concealed weapons? It seems that the ban on concealed weapons succeeded, the shooting stopped when the one person with a gun in the mall shot the one person in the mall with a gun. If others in the mall had been carrying, it seems likely one of them would have ended it sooner.

When a lunatic invaded a Church in Arvada Co, he killed and left - he was the only one with a gun. When he or another lunatic (the news is not yet clear on that) entered a Colorado Springs Church, an armed citizen (in this case security personnel) ended the incident by killing the lunatic, not waiting for the lunatic to finish his demented plan.

Ever since guns were invented, lunatics have used them. This will continue as long as guns exist and, considering the ease of manufacture and the wide dispersal of that technology, they will exist for a very long time. The only defense against lunatics with guns is sane people with guns. It is clear that there is no way to guarantee that all lunatics will be identified prior to their first shot and considering the gross intrusion on individual civil rights that would be required to even try to identify lunatics prior to their going over the edge, thinking sane people will never allow it.

We can never know how many innocent lives are saved by the deterrent value of armed citizens because we do not have divine sight, we cannot see which hearts would have stopped beating, which bodies would have bled out. What we can know is that when even lunatics understand they will face other people with guns, they choose easier targets.

When Florida liberalized their carry rules to allow more citizens to carry concealed weapons, the criminals changed targets and tactics. Rather than face a possibly armed citizen, they targeted people who they knew could not be warmed - tourists flying into Miami and renting cars. They car jacked these unarmed travelers, in some cases killing them, specifically because they could not easily be armed.

When the UK banned nearly all civilian ownership of handguns, violent crime exploded. The criminals knew that they were free to use whatever weapon they wished and they would not be facing a superior weapon, a concealed gun. There were more attacks with guns than before the ban. The ban had exactly the opposite effect that those who imposed it envisioned. Similar explosions of violence have followed citizen gun bans around the world. The safest places continue to be those where individual citizens can be legally armed with concealed weapons.

If citizens are concerned about their safety in public and semi public places, they should avoid those that do not allow for armed citizens. If the mall entrance says no guns, then maybe there is another - safer - place to shop!

Cross posted at RobBoyce

The Huckabee Factor!

The MSM has noticed Mike Huckabee but barely, only that he has scored big in recent polls. An AP story about the GOP race mentions him exactly twice - both times simply quoting his standing in a poll of Iowa voters. They devote paragraphs to Rudy and John and especially Mitt.

Obviously the MSM doesn't know what to make of Mike, he wasn't someone they have been touting to their mindless readers and therefore they don't know how he is surging. He hasn't raised lots of money or contributed lots of his own money to get his message out. He hasn't benefited from tons of publicity over the past decade like Mitt, Rudy and John. He was Governor of a flyover state, not a big northeastern state, wasn't Mayor of the nation's largest city, hasn't been visibly running for President since the last millennium in the Senate.

No, Huckabee has done his thing quietly, consistently and - horrors, in the MSM's view - in the old fashioned retail politics way. He has appealed to individual voters, he has presented his views, his issues, his positions in a steady and believable way. When his record is criticized he answers is a calm and reasonable way - he points out what he sees as distortions of his record as Governor, he fleshes out his own view of the criticisms.

The MSM also doesn't understand how he doesn't take them up on opportunities to say really negative things about his opponents. When asked if he has misgivings about Romney's Mormon faith he changes the subject, he talks about his own faith. When someone outside his campaign uses negative push polling on his behalf, he denounces them for doing it and calls on them to stop.

A source I rarely cite, the NH Concord Monitor, has a piece on Mike saying:

Huckabee's best shot, of course, is just to keep being himself and meeting as many voters as possible.

If he schedules town meetings during the next several weeks, he'll be surprised at the crowds he'll draw.

And the crowds will give him a listen. Considering the polarized atmosphere of national politics, voters may be ready for an experienced chief executive who wants to narrow the partisan gap and take on the country's challenges with a can-do attitude...

The three most appealing things about Mike Huckabee are a self-effacing sense of humor, a pragmatic view of government and an impulse to depolarize politics. In other words, he can laugh at himself, and he thinks the public would prefer that leaders solve problems rather than play gotcha with the other party.

And here's a fourth appealing quality: Huckabee is a communicator. He speaks clearly, confidently and knowledgeably, and he exudes optimism.

Can Mike Huckabee keep climbing and actually win the NH Primary and eventually the Presidency? Only time will tell but I do know the methods he is using, the old style retail politics of having a good solid message and communicating it to the voters not by massive TV ad buys but with a grassroots effort, are the methods that have proved successful before and there is no reason that they cannot again!

Cross posted at RobBoyce

The Pledge is to the People not ATR!

After the CNN/YouTube debate debacle I wrote how the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) pledge is in fact a pledge to the American people and taxpayers, not to the ATR. Grover Norquist has now posted his YouTube response with the same message!

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Crossposted at RobBoyce