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New WaPo/ABCNews poll out just before Super Tue. If this poll is predictive, then it looks like the GOP is going to cough up a sitting target to the DNC as early as next month.
By the way, if you’re a Republic and you’re sad clap your hands! …and blame Augustus Stupidus, because that boy’s coattails are a baaaad way to ride here in 2008. Think it was the codpiece that did it? :D
And yall dinosaurs (you know who you are) can thank the demon RINO’s for giving yall a SHOT at winning come November. Make that your ONLY shot. ‘Course I know you wouldn’t EVER stoop to THAT! :lol:
Left out the links, sorry about that. :?
Article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/02/03/ST2008020300009.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter
Poll:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/postpoll_020308.html
You heard it here first. If Hillary gets the nod, she taps Richardson for VP. That’s a lock.
With Maine’s multi-day caucus and the GOP unbinding delegates to support a candidate until the State convention in May, it would seem the delegate results are difficult to know, but caucus attendees reported to the website http://www.ronpaulforums.com, that Ron Paul is leading! Since Ron Paul supporters are liberty oriented, they never go back to status quo establishment thinking and always advocate the message. While the other CFR candidates supporters have time to be converted, Maine is looking like sure win. Maine is an important state because it is winner take all.
Just like Nevada, the media is reporting Romney won, but the reports are based on straw poll results and not the delegates. The MSM has not and will not give Ron Paul any fair coverage, so it’s important to remember a strategy that depends on favorable MSM coverage is a strategy that will fail. The solution is to bypass the media.
The three largest cities that cast the most delegates are Portland, Lewiston/Auburn and Bangor. Portland’s caucus lasted 6 hours partly due to a paid Romney staffer yelling as people cast their ballots. The Romney staffer also circulated a list of 23 names that favored Ron Paul, but totalled 65 names instead of the 59 in attendance. Nearly a dozen ballots were thrown out when this was discovered, but eventually, they voted for delegates by their number on the ballot and agreed that any ballot with more than 59 names on it would be invalid. Although dirty tricks ensued, Ron Paul still prevailed with 30 of 59 delegates.
Portland – 30/59
Bangor – 12/43
Augusta City – 13/20?
Scarborouguh – 1/20. The only 17 year old delegate was a RP supporter from a 60+ year old crowd.
Belfast – 6/13. One will be swayed at the State convention.
Lincoln – 8/11
Lee – 5/6
Bucksport – 5/8. The Bucksport GOP Chair is a Ron Paul Supporter.
Albion – 4/7
Sidney – 3/11
Liberty – 2/5
Waldo – 2/4
Washburn – 2/3
Stockton Springs – 2/3
Denmark – 1/2
Northport – 1/2. The other will be converted.
Waterville – won, no numbers yet
Winslo – won, no numbers yet
Thompson Island – unknown
Orono – unknown
Kennebec County towns are rumored to do well.
One member on http://www.ronpaulforums.com, “RufusTDoofus”, reports “I knew that I would most likely become a delegate simply by showing up. My wife and I were the only two people from our town to show up and by default we became the Chairperson and Secretary for our town. We’re both delegates now. Our town can send up to 7 delegates to the State convention. My wife and I will be recruiting five other people to fill those open spots.”
At the precinct chaired by “Gagonstudio”, only 3 of 5 people showed up. 2 were RP supporters. As chairperson, he can appoint two more delegates if he moves quickly to counter the Maine GOP filling the slots.
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=110299
Why in the world would anybody want to be Hillary’s VP when that job’s already filled?
Not so sure that Richardson is so stupid, Sol. Al Gore learned it the hard way. The Clintons are a “buy one get one” package: elect one and you get the de facto VP thrown in.
Another guess is that she’ll find an “up’n comer,” not a “been there seen that” veteran of Bill’s administration.
A more likely pick might be an attractive, ambitious black male from the South, one who’s a die-hard Democrat, who’s therefore likely to languish for decades within his state’s political landscape, who looks good in Brooks Brothers, wins votes south of the Mason Dixon line…and who could stem any Democrat crossover leakage to McCain. Being a veteran of Iraq couldn’t hurt.
Sol – that is the choice I have been pushing for months – for either Clinton or Obama.
I don’t like Richardson. He is too business friendly. We’ve had enough and too much of business friendly.
Richardson for Sec. of State!! What a Resume the man has!!
Someone should really ask, “Where have all the doctors gone?” Why are fewer young people are entering medicine, and a large number of senior doctors are going to retire?
Notes from the statehouse:
CRISES LOOMING IN TRAINING RURAL DOCTORS
The Wichita-based training program that produces most of the doctors for rural Kansas will need about $20 million in new state funding over the next two years, if it is to avert a crisis, school officials told lawmakers on Tuesday. The governor’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year includes an additional $1 million for the Wichita Center for Graduate Medical Education, but that is far short of what is needed for the school to deal with major cuts in federal dollars at the same time that new spending is required to meet new national accreditation standards, officials said. “We appreciate the marker,” Lana Oleen, a former state senator now working as a lobbyist for the center, said of the $1 million recommended by the governor. “But I don’t think people understand that without accreditation, they’ve got to shut down.” The center is a consortium formed by University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita and the city’s two major regional medical centers, Via Christi and Wesley.
Dr. Don Brada, a program director at the medical school and a spokesman for the consortium, told members of the House Government Efficiency and Technology Committee that the center provided 13 different residency programs ranging from primary care to pediatrics and that seven of them had recently been cited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education for having inadequate research activity.
The Wichita program has relied heavily for years on federal funding and focused on hands-on training for doctors and other caregivers, while most KU medical school research was done at the campuses in Lawrence and Kansas City. But Brada said the federal payments are being reduced and new accreditation standards require that faculty be compensated for time
spent on research, teaching and administrative tasks. According to a
document presented to the committee: “Because WCGME has been able to rely on 70% to 80% volunteer faculty, we are currently out of compliance with this new mandate, putting our accreditation at risk.”
Additional money from the state treasury would help pay the faculty salaries and benefits. “We’re not talking about building buildings or investing in equipment,” Brada said. “We’re talking about investing in people.”
Also making the case for more state funding were two young resident physicians, including Dr. Jennifer Koontz. She described how residents from the program go to small Kansas towns to provide weekend relief for the town’s doctors. “One of the things we do is to offer rural physicians a break,” Koontz said, “because they’re a little overwhelmed.”
School officials told lawmakers they face a funding shortfall of
$9.6 million this year and $12.5 million in 2009 and urged including the money as a regular line item in the state budget. Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence told the school officials, “There isn’t $6 million sitting out there available,” in the state general fund. He asked why the Wichita hospitals couldn’t help cover the center’s costs. His comments were echoed by other committee members including Rep. Kenny Wilk, R-Lansing, and Lee Tafanelli, R-Ozawkie, also a member of the House Appropriations Committee. Chad Austin, vice president of the Kansas Hospital Association, said the rural hospitals and communities that most benefit from the doctors produced by the program couldn’t afford to pitch in. Oleen said that the same problems faced by the Wichita center are also faced by schools in other states including TX and Florida. “Other states have the problem, too,” she said. “And they are stepping up through their state general funds.”
How do they know a smoking ban will save 10,000 Kansans lives?
Notes from the statehouse:
SMOKING BAN BILL WOULD HAVE COUNTIES VOTE IN November
Five state senators introduced a bill Tuesday calling for a county-by-county vote on whether to ban smoking in all public places.
“I believe this bill will save the lives of tens of thousands of Kansans,” said Sen. David Wysong, R-Mission Hills, one of the sponsors of SB 493. Other sponsors: Sens. Roger Reitz, R-Manhattan; Jim Barnett, R-Emporia; Vicki Schmidt, R-Topeka; and Pete Brungardt, R-Salina. Reitz and Barnett are medical doctors. The bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The bill would:
? Ban smoking in all public places. Motels could allow smoking in 20 percent of their rooms. Commercial truck drivers could smoke in their cabs. Casinos , bars and restaurants are not exempted.
? Fine violators $100 for their first offense, $200 for a second offense, $500 for a third offense. There’s a stiffer penalty for day care centers. An individual or a business can be fined.
? Direct each of the state’s 105 counties to put the question on their Nov. 4 general election ballots.
This year’s general election ballot will include the presidential candidates, all 125 state representatives and all 40 state senators.
The Kansas Health Policy Authority’s 21-point health reform package calls for a statewide smoking ban for public places and workplaces; it does not include a county-by-county vote. Health policy authority Executive Director Marcia Nielsen said the board would review the language in the proposed bill before taking an official position on the bill. A similar bill stalled in the Senate last year after smoking-ban advocates objected to an amendment that would have allowed county commissions to opt out of putting the measure on the ballot in their counties. Such an opt-out, they said, would have created a “patchwork” where some counties would have smoking bans and others would not.
Clean-air advocates said they hadn’t decided whether to support the new bill. Mary Jayne Hellebust, director of the Tobacco Free Kansas Coalition, applauded the five senators’ efforts, but said she remained “very concerned” about the language in the bill. “The usual way of these laws being passed is by legislative action,” she said.
“That has been the norm. As the momentum of this issue moves forward, statewide laws that are being enacted are becoming stronger.
This could easily push us back into that “patchwork” effect where some are protected and others are not.”
Reitz, Wysong and Barnett each said they were confident the bill
would pass the Senate. Other Senators weren’t so sure. “I think it
will suffer the same fate as last year’s bill,” said Sen. Phil Journey, R-Wichita. Journey said the bill puts legislators in a position of alienating their constituents who smoke or those who don’t. He said, “It’s not a good issue for any of us
(legislators) to take sides on. Myself? I don’t want bars and taverns in the bill.” He cited testimony from Lawrence tavern owners last year. “It’s killing them, they made that pretty clear,” he said.
Graig Moore, owner of Moorman’s Southside, a Pittsburg bar and deli, said a smoking ban would likely hurt his business but he expects it to happen “sooner or later.” “I don’t see Crawford County banning smoking — I think that it would be one of the counties that might do it later,” he said. “I do think it will happen someday. I don’t smoke, I don’t like breathing it, but it’s part of my job.” Sen.
John Vratil, R-Leawood, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said that he, too, doubted the bill’s chances for passage. He said that he thinks there’s a statewide educational process going on that’s probably going to take two or more years. The Speaker of the House said the fate of the measure in the House is difficult to predict. He said that local control is at the center of the dispute.
Excuse me, “tens of thousands of Kansans”
Can somebody say, “Prohibition” or “Speakeasy”
This kind of crap was tried once, with many disastrous effects! There is a POWERFUL anti-tobacco lobby all thru the country…
What is interesting is that many people who moan and groan over a “nanny” state… are FOR a smoking ban, to allegedly “save tens of thousands” of Kansans lives…
Can somebody say, “Prohibition” or “Speakeasy”
This kind of stuff was tried once, with many disastrous effects! There is a POWERFUL anti-tobacco lobby all thru the country…
What is interesting is that many people who moan and groan over a “nanny” state… are FOR a smoking ban, to allegedly “save tens of thousands” of Kansans lives…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY&3
See my thoughts at http://www.wen2k.com/tell.php?Id=1891 Herbert West III, west.herb@yahoo.com http://www.wen2k.com
Around 10% of our annual Federal budget deficit is EIC. That’s just the Federal share. I think most states also have their own EIC. Conservatively then, double the figures below to get the true EIC costs.
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earned_Income_Tax_Credit, the cost in 2004 was $36 Billion. That is, $120 for every man, woman, and child in the US. ($36 Billion/300 million people)
Note the last 2 pages of this document, the pictures on the Post Card mailers the IRS sends out to make sure people file for their EIC.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/eitc_effectiveness.pdf
Get this, the Government spent $716 million on PR over 5 years to make sure deadbeats get their welfare EIC:
In 1997, Congress instructed the IRS to use a five-year, $716 million Earned Income Tax Credit
(EITC) appropriation “for expanded customer service and public outreach programs,
strengthened enforcement activities, and enhanced research efforts to reduce EITC over claims
and erroneous filings associated with the EITC.”
The Unearned Income Credit has helped to ensure that millions of Americans remain dependent on Government for the rest of their lives.
From this web site, the 2008 cost is projected to be $41 Billion or $137 for every person in the US.
http://www.wkkf.org/DesktopModules/WKF.00_DmaSupport/ViewDoc.aspx?fld=PDFFile&CID=162&ListID=28&ItemID=1622666&LanguageID=0
How does it feel to be in the bottom 50% of the average income for America, and be told that you will be totally dependent on Government for the rest of your lives?
I can’t imagine anyone, much less my Government telling me that I can’t support myself.
I must depend on Big Government, and I must continue to vote for Liberal Socialist Democrats who continue to tell me how worthless I am, while they vote for renewed spending of the welfare programs that force me to keep voting Democrat.
Just shakin my head at how stupid millions of Americans have become. Complete Sheep, dependent on their master Government to shepard them.
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Before you vote against smokers rights, look at what is looming right behind it. I told you so.
[url]http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/01/no-fat-people-allowed-only-slim-will-be.html[/url]
“It has actually happened. Lawmakers have proposed legislation that forbids restaurants and food establishments from serving food to anyone who is obese (as defined by the State). Under this bill, food establishments are to be monitored for compliance under the State Department of Health and violators will have their business permits revoked.”
The legislation was introduced by TWO republicans and one dem. Before anyone starts in about the nanny liberal police.
http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/01/no-fat-people-allowed-only-slim-will-be.html
If the Democrats get their wet dream of free health care then I want the government to monitor health and force people to be healthy or punish them.
Why should we be paying for someone to be unhealthy?
Think about it.
Ooooh, I’m actually getting a tax return this year. Good to know $800 won’t be going to kill another million people in Iraq.
Sick people paid for all the equipment in Hospitals that the healthy people use when they crash their $50,000.oo cars into eachother while talking trash on their cell phones. The rich get to use the equipment that, us, the sick, unhealthy patients paid for. How dare this keep happening. If only healthy people deserved insurance and healthcare there would not be a need for equipment or Hospitals. We are wasting time having Doctors going thur Medical School. There is a short fall on nurses for the healthy patients in the USA. 100 poor people paid for the machine that help the few ungrateful rich idiots. Healthcare today, from yesterday and into tommorrow. Be careful for what you ask for. You might need to be x-rayed or might need a Nurse or Doctor available when you crash your car while talking on your cell phone bitchin about my unhealthy Cancer, Obesitied body suppling the machine your about to need. Hang up the cell phone and drive the car. If this is to difficult to do, I quess we might see eachother in the ER I paid for!!!!! Herbert West III, Disability Retired Paramedic, Obese Publisher/Journalist, Hospital Financer. west.herb@yahoo.com http://www.wen2k.com
36 bil. or 120 for every American, certainly pales against the per capita expenditures for Iraq, whether it is applied to Americans or even more so to each Iraqi!
America First. Should be the Dem. slogan.
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brigitte nielsen and flavor flav…
Thanks for the nice read, keep up the interesting posts…..