I know money’s what makes the world go around – but is it the key to beating a constitutionally corrupt president?

If so, then this weekend’s three-day retreat in California, attended by some of the richest billionaires (is there really a poor billionaire?) is a step in the right direction.

The Huffington Post reports (read full story here) David and Charles Koch of Koch Industries pledged a combined $60M to defeat Barack Obama in the upcoming election. Some 250-300 other billionaires made the remainder of a pledge drive netting 100 million bucks to the overall effort (and what does it say, really that the majority of the pledges came from two men?).

To this I say, ‘Thank you billionaires for holding yourselves up in a plush hotel all weekend, buying out all the restaurants so you wouldn’t be discovered AND sitting around on overstuffed couches plotting how to take back the country … then deciding all you really had to do was throw a hundred million dollars into the fight and you’ve done your job.’

If it were really that easy (and if we all had that kind of dough to throw around at our problems) … then would we really be in this predicament right now?

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In the wake of the news that Obamacare will mandate all employers to provide for birth control, including Catholic employers, many have wondered whether President Obama will damage his standing with the Catholic vote. In 2008, the Catholic vote split for Obama by a large margin, 54-45. Much of this was driven by Obama’s support in the Latino community; white Catholics actually voted McCain by a similarly broad margin, 52-47.

But now, even Hispanics are having second thoughts about Obama. According to a December Ipsos-Telemundo poll, Obama’s approval rating among Latinos is now down to 56%, as opposed to 86% in April 2009. Although Obama’s unfavorables have risen among Latinos, however, only 14% strongly dislike Obama’s presidential approach. That means there’s room for Obama to move the needle up once again.

He’ll have to do it soon. Obama threatens to match John Kerry’s negative Catholic electoral record – Kerry lost the Catholic vote 52-47 in 2004, and he lost white Catholics 43-56. He still won Pennsylvania, a heavily Catholic state (53%), but he lost Florida (26% Catholic) and Ohio (24% Catholic). The most heavily Catholic battleground states other than those three are New Hampshire (35%), Arizona (31%), Louisiana (30%), and Wisconsin (29%). Obama’s anti-Catholic moves may hurt him there.

We’ve actually already seen some movement in terms of the Catholic vote.

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A couple of years ago, after the bubble crashed, my wife and I decided to buy a condo in Vegas.  There were many reasons behind that decision, but Sin City is known for delivering the unexpected.  And so, political junkie that I am, I suddenly found myself eligible to participate in an early, swing-state, caucus.  Las Vegas had taken me into virgin territory.

Being a caucus neophyte, I approached the matter gingerly.  I called the Clark County Republican Party office seeking guidance.  What happens at a caucus?  How long does it run?  What’s the procedure?  No one possessed definitive answers to these complex questions, but we were able to determine that folks in my precinct were caucusing at a nearby High School.  The doors opened at 8:00 AM, with the caucus itself slated to start at 9:00.  Anyone could speak on behalf of any candidate; each speaker would have two minutes.  Beyond that, things got a little vague.  I pre-registered on line “to avoid the crowds” of caucus day.

I arrived at Valley High School at 9:00 AM, impressed to see a sizable packed parking lot.  Perhaps these are the political activists I hear so much about, I thought.  Great to see how many of them show up early on a Saturday morning.  But for a group of activists, the lot seemed singularly inactive.  Where were the Paulistas, gesticulating wildly to emphasize that the Fed is our enemy, while Iran is not?  Where were the Romney and Gingrich surrogates deflating each other’s tires?  Where were Santorum’s nattily-dressed minions?  Where were the folks waving Perry and Bachmann signs, refusing to admit that their party was over?  Two helpful teenagers provided the answers: the caucus was on the other side of campus.  The folks parked in this lot were there for—get this—Valley High School.

I dutifully drove around the block to find the much smaller but equally pacific lot bearing two signs marked “Caucus here,” one sign for Ron Paul, and a TV truck.  I entered the school cafeteria, where a helpful volunteer directed me to the table for pre-registrants.  I surveyed the scene quickly: Fifty or so small tables, broken into groups, and perhaps two hundred people.  No politicking as far as I could tell, no speechifying, just a room full of Americans out enjoying their morning.  The young woman who checked me informed me that my precinct was convening in the gym.  I thanked her for the directions.  Then I told her that it was my first caucus, and asked her what the procedure was.  “It’s my first caucus, too,” she said.  “So I don’t know.”  I thanked her again and headed to the gym.

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The GOP Establishment we keep hearing about is real, and it is also doomed.

That will not change whether the Establishment’s candidate Mitt Romney wins in November or not.  After the election, the battle really starts; what is happening now are just skirmishes in a fight for control of the Republican Party.  Not the soul of the party – if it had one, it auctioned it off long ago – but the mechanism of the party.  The Grand Old Party matters only as a vehicle to carry our banner forward.

To do that, we need to seize control, and we do that by destroying the Establishment starting next November 7th.

Superficially, it might seem that we – the outsiders, the Tea Party, the conservatives, whatever the label – are outgunned by opponents with their hands on the reins of power, money in amounts we can’t hope to match, and pals in the media backing them.  But if we understand our strengths, and our opponents’ weaknesses, we can not only compete but eventually prevail.

First, let’s understand our opponent.

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The United States is at a fork in the road regarding which way we will go as a people. The 2012 election could be the most important in our lifetime, and conservative leaders have reached a consensus on how to channel the energy and concerns of the American people to realize historic change this year.

The status quo will not survive the year. Our debt and spending have reached catastrophic proportions in the context of global financial difficulties and political upheaval. Consequently, by the end of 2012, America will either have taken a decisive step toward socialistic collectivism in the name of “equality” and “social justice,” where businesses and owners are punitively taxed to “pay their fair share,” or America will take a major step in the direction of returning to our Founders’ constitutional government, restoring the rule of law, federalism, free enterprise, and individual initiative and responsibility.

The American people will decide which path to take in the 2012 elections, not only in the general election on November 6 but also in the nominating process in primaries over the next several months for all major offices, including the presidency. Conservatives must act in a concerted and informed fashion in all of these contests to shape the public dialogue and thoroughly vet the candidates.

To achieve these ends, top conservative leaders acting under the umbrella of the Conservative Action Project have released “A Conservative Consensus for 2012” announcing agreement on major policies. These issues span all three wings of the conservative movement: economic, social, and national security.

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Eric Holder’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched an all-out war on voter-ID laws and other measures to safeguard to the electoral process. Although Holder’s actions are purportedly to prevent African-Americans from being disenfranchised, the reality is that they serve the crass political purpose of ensuring that Holder’s boss gets reelected next year.

In the past several years states have increasingly focused on measures to protect the vote. After years of the federal government loosening voting regulations, such as through the Motor Voter Act and HAVA (Help America Vote Act), the pendulum started swinging back at the state level.

The clearest example of this trend is through voter-ID laws. In 2008 the Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s landmark law requiring citizens to show that they are the person they claim to be by showing government-issued ID before casting a ballot. But to ensure that those without driver’s licenses or passports are not disenfranchised, Indiana provides free ID’s to everyone who applies for one. The Court upheld this law, with the primary opinion written by no one less than liberal lion Justice John Paul Stevens.

Such laws combat voter fraud that we see on Election Day, especially in certain parts of the nation. In Washington State, King County suddenly “discovered” enough previously “unnoticed” votes for Democrat Christine Gregoire to edge out Republican Dino Rossi for Washington’s governorship in 2004. There are also examples from Wisconsin, Missouri, and other states.

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One cannot turn on the television or radio without some talking head or so-called political analyst pontificating about how Newt Gingrich is grandiose, how Mitt Romney isn’t really a Conservative – and how they both have flipped on several issues – or how Ron Paul’s foreign policy is isolationist. Glenn Beck, to many people’s extreme disappointment, even went so far as to call Speaker Gingrich a Progressive (I guess ratings are down at GBTV). It makes for good news show content, to be sure. In certain respects there is truth to the critiques. But this hyper-critiquing and self-immolation also does two things that Conservatives and Republicans fall prey to each and every time the General Election cycle comes calling: It deflects from addressing the differences between the GOP field and the opposition; and it provides the opposition with talking points, opponent research and the luxury of hiatus.

Make no mistake, the primaries are where each party – when not in incumbency – needs to critique and evaluate their prospective candidates. A hard-fought primary, when devoid of “it’s my turn” establishment national party politics, usually results in the fielding of the best candidate, and a candidate who is sufficiently prepped to engage in the “main event.” But there is a difference between an intellectual meeting of the minds, where policy differences and a juxtaposition of experiences are proposed, examined and debated, and the childish, nonsensical “braggateering” (to coin a word); of trading insignificant insults; of executing a campaign of personality-based mudslinging.

As we approach the actual start of the primary cycle – yes, we haven’t begun the cycle just yet – this act of political stupidity is coming into play, yet again, among the front runners for the 2012 Republican Presidential Nomination.

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On Tuesday, December 13 a rally was held near the LBJ Library at the University of Texas, Austin to highlight the attack on election reforms launched inside by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Holder went to Texas to denounce the Lone Star State’s voter ID laws and claimed that simple voter ID laws were somehow discriminatory. Holder ominously claimed that he would use the power of his office to “enforce civil rights protections” during the upcoming 2012 elections.

Outside the LBJ Library nearly 200 citizens gathered to hear a multi-racial panel of six speakers denounce Holder’s partisan attempts to push the administration’s agenda to turn a blind eye to continuing voter fraud that consistently favors candidates from the Democrat Party.

The rally was sponsored by the Houston-based True The Vote, a grass roots voter integrity project staffed by volunteers. True The Vote is a nation-wide organization that has affiliates across the country, every day citizens interested in the integrity of the elections in their home district.

True The Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht said she was thrilled by the turnout that was arranged on only a few day’s notice.

We gathered for the purpose of setting the record straight and people came from all over Texas to hear a host of speakers all representing different sides of the issue. All were clearly saying that the thought that photo voter ID laws would in some way suppress the vote or would in some way disenfranchise voters is on its face a farce. This is only being done to advance a politically motivated agenda that has at its core the themes of victimization and race baiting.

In his comments AG Holder cited one Republican in Maryland that was convicted of trying to trick black voters into staying home on Election Day, but what this single case has to do with voter ID laws was unclear. Holder’s intent, it seems, was to dismiss vote fraud from Democrats while shifting the blame to this one Republican. Holder did not mention such Democrat fraud as that seen in the 2008 Indiana primary, the New York Democrat that recently pleaded guilty to vote fraud, or any of the other such cases that can be easily found in the news.

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Media Trackers discovered that over 20 individuals voted, some illegally, from one of Senator Lena Taylor’s (D-Milwaukee) properties during the April 5, 2011 spring election. According to a Media Trackers open records request with the City of Milwaukee Election Commission, the property at 1018 N 35th St. in Milwaukee currently has 36 active voter registrations and at least 23 individuals voted using the address.

Media Trackers was tipped off to Senator Taylor’s property by the Wisconsin GrandSons of Liberty, who found 11 individuals that registered on election day to vote from Taylor’s property, 7 of which were corroborated by Senator Taylor’s mother, Lena J Taylor.

“Using open records requests, we obtained copies of the 11,017 Milwaukee County Election Day Registrations and created a database to analyze the entries from all 19 municipalities in the county,” said Tim Dake of the Wisconsin GrandSons of Liberty. Dake explained further that “our volunteers ran numerous queries on the data and were surprised to see the name Lena Taylor appear on so many forms.”

The Property

According to property records obtained from the Milwaukee Department of Neighborhood Services, Senator Lena C. Taylor owns the property at 1018 N. 35th St. in Milwaukee. The property has 6 units and is zoned by the Milwaukee Zoning Code as RT3. According to the City of Milwaukee Zoning Code, properties zoned RT3 are intended to “promote, preserve and protect neighborhoods intended primarily for two-family dwellings.”

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In one of the most galling attempts in history to politically reposition a failing presidency, President Barack Obama and his Hyde Park, Chicago Progressive machine handlers have launched a new propaganda campaign meant to absolve him of any blame where the failure of his administration is concerned. Instead the “Obamanation” is attempting to brand “Congress” and the “political system” as the culprits. Forget about hope and change. Forget about any dreams his Father may or may not have had. This is audacity at its most egregious.

Throughout his political career Mr. Obama has been no stranger to the practice of throwing once crucial-now dispensable allies “under the bus.” We first saw it with Bill Ayers and Rev. Jeremiah Wright. He then graduated to tossing whole demographics in his continued failure to address specific campaign promises to activist groups, i.e. anti-war groups, gay and lesbian groups, Black advocacy groups, community organizing groups, etc. Now, those who have put their careers on the line for his agenda – whether it was for Obamacare or for the failed stimulus – find themselves in the President’s opportunistic crosshairs. Mr. Obama is throwing his Progressive and Democrat allies to the wolves in a transparent and insincere attempt to tack to the center.

As reported in The Hill:

“In what at first appeared to be another of the president’s almost routine trips to an advanced battery manufacturer, Obama came out firing, saying that ‘what we’ve seen in Washington the last few months has been the worst kind of partisanship, the worst kind of gridlock.’

“And that gridlock has undermined public confidence and impeded our efforts to take the steps we need for our economy,’ Obama said. ‘It’s made things worse instead of better.’

“The president added what was unmistakably a new economic theme and reelection message: ‘There is nothing wrong with our country. There is something wrong with our politics.’”

In a failed attempt to invoke the spirit of the TEA Party movement, Mr. Obama added,

“…the public suddenly realized…we are going to have to get engaged. And if you agree with me – it doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or a Republican or an independent – you’ve got to let Congress know. You’ve got to tell them you’ve had enough of the theatrics. You’ve had enough of the politics. Stop sending out press releases. Start passing some bills that we all know will help our economy right now. That’s what they need to do; they’ve got to hear from you.”

It is stunning that Mr. Obama and his propaganda team believe that the American people are so completely devoid of any capacity to “remember”; that they believe they can rewrite or completely abolish recent history right before our eyes.

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That 20%, or approximately $400,000 of KY Gov Steve Beshear’s current primary dollars comes from state employees and appointees doesn’t help as whistle-blowers have come forward to allege strong-arm tactics were used to solicit campaign dollars on his behalf.

FRANKFORT—The Republican Party of Kentucky and an employee of the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet are alleging Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration strong-armed some state employees for contributions to Beshear’s re-election campaign.

Dr. Rodney Young, a 27-year state employee who works for the Department of Juvenile Justice, delivered a signed letter Monday to RPK Chairman Steve Robertson claiming the Cabinet’s Deputy Secretary, Charles Geveden, pressured him and other state employees for contributions to Beshear’s re-election campaign. The letter was also delivered to Attorney General Jack Conway’s office and Robertson filed complaints with the Executive Branch Ethics Commission and the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance.

The complaints cite a December 2010 CNHI News Service story about similar complaints by non-merit — or politically appointed — state employees that they felt pressured to attend a Frankfort fundraiser for Beshear shortly before Christmas. A spokesman for Beshear’s campaign told CNHI News at that time no state employees should feel any pressure to contribute to Beshear’s campaign which “strictly follows all campaign laws.”

There have been similar previous reports involving Beshear, one going back as far as December 2010.  This time, however, there is a whistle-blower involved, one who has named other individuals who reportedly suffered the same strong-arm tactics in a quest for campaign cash.

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From CNN:

Real estate mogul Donald Trump will not run for the Republican presidential nomination, he said in a statement released Monday.

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Sorry Mr. President, the party is over. Less than two weeks after Osama Bin Laden was killed by a squad of hero Navy Seals, the bump in Obama’s ratings has disappeared, in fact the latest Rasmussen poll shows that some of his numbers are worse than before.

For example the chart below reflects the President’s approval index from the day the Bin Laden news was released though today.  Approval index represents the people who strongly approve of the President’s performance minus the people who strongly disapprove. So it is an indication of the people most passionate about President’s performance, these are the people who are most likely to work toward/against Re-election of the present POTUS.

Keep in mind, the Bin Laden news was released well after the May 2nd sample was taken and released. Rasmussen numbers reflect three days sampling ending with the day prior to the numbers being released so, for example for the May 4th numbers only one third of the sample was questioned after the Bin Laden death was reported.  It was not until May 6th that the entire sample had the possibility of being aware of the death of Bin Laden.

On May 2nd, the day Bin Laden was killed the President’s approval index was at a -12. From there it generally rose through May 7th, and started falling through today’s report which shows him back at a -12.

Overall approval and disapproval numbers show the same pattern.

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First off, if you live in Wisconsin and haven’t yet voted to re-elect State Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, stop reading this and go vote. Secondly, if you know anyone in Wisconsin and haven’t yet called and urged them to vote for Prosser, stop reading this and go do so now. Put simply, this race is going to come down to who gets their base out and if we lose this one, we’ve not only lost hope for any kind of real reform in Wisconsin, we’ve also given Barack Obama an easier path to re-election in 2012.

Those of you under the misguided notion, that even in the event of a Prosser loss, his 4-to-3 tie-breaking swing vote in favor of judicial restraint will remain on the court long enough to validate Governor Walker’s Budget Repair Bill, had better think again. The Madison judge, Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi, who has pulled every judicial activist trick in the book to block Walker’s bill on an absurd technicality, has no doubt intentionally decided to run out the clock in the hopes liberal activist Joanne Kloppenburg succeeds in unseating Prosser. Sumi’s delayed her next ruling for nearly two months. This allows her to hold on to the case until the end of May or the beginning of June. Prosser’s term would end July 31, which make it very possible the State’s highest court won’t rule until long afterwards.

See how that works?

This isn’t an accident or coincidence. It’s by design. Delaying the enactment of a law over a technicality regarding an Open Meetings rule no serious person thinks was violated, is one thing. Throwing a wrench in the gears in order to slow down the process in the hopes a more favorable appeals court judge will win an election, is something else. The will of the people is being overturned by the worst kind of judicial overreach my former home state has seen in a long time — which brings me to the bigger picture.

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Carol Moseley Braun’s Chicago Mayoral bid is collapsing.

First she said she wouldn’t release her tax return because she “didn’t feel like it.”

Under intense pressure, she flip flopped, and decided to release just a little bit of her tax returns.

Questions erupted, so she released just a little more of her returns.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Now her campaign is on the verge of imploding under mounting questions about repeatedly late property tax payments and massive business losses.

Chicago Breaking News is reporting this revealing moment:

Braun said she has been transparent about her finances. When reporter questions persisted, a campaign aide put his hand over the reporter’s voice recorder as Braun walked away.

Panicked and bumbling.

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Click to Play

It’s the morning after and along with guests Jonah Goldberg and the WSJ’s Bill McGurn, we tackle what it all means, what the future may hold, Paul Ryan’s plan, Barney Frank’s victory speech, the repudiation of Time Magazine, and of course, a gratuitous Star Trek reference.

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After flying Andrew Breitbart all the way out to Phoenix, Arizona yesterday to participate in an online Townhall election event, after taking him out of his home state, away from his business, and nearly making it impossible for him to vote in today’s crucial midterm election (though he’s on an airplane now in order to cast his ballot), at about as close to the last minute as you can get, Andrew Morse, chief of the ABC News digital division, sent the following email late this afternoon abruptly canceling Breitbart’s appearance:

We have spent the past several days trying to make clear to you your limited role as a participant in our digital town hall to be streamed on ABC News.com and Facebook. The post on your blog last Friday created a widespread impression that you would be analyzing the election on ABC News. We made it as clear as possible as quickly as possible that you had been invited along with numerous others to participate in our digital town hall. Instead of clarifying your role, you posted a blog on Sunday evening in which you continued to claim a bigger role in our coverage. As we are still unable to agree on your role, we feel it best for you not to participate.

This is yet another obvious attempt to build a narrative that puts the blame on Breitbart when the truth is that this is nothing more than ABC News caving in to and attempting to appease the organized left’s outrage machine that went into full astroturf mode after Breitbart’s ABC News appearance was made public.

As a reminder as to who’s exaggerating, here is exactly how Breitbart’s election night townhall event was described by an ABC News producer to him in an email:

This program will broadcast on the ABC Television Network, abcnews.com, ABC News Now, and ABC News Radio. …

The show will be live on the web and ABC News Now as well as on the network from 4:00pm till 11:00pm MST.

With this in mind and in writing, here is how Big Journalism announced Breitbart’s ABC News appearance: (more…)

Those of you who have been following the New Black Panther Party scandal will be very interested in a new article published in The Washington Post last week. It includes some explosive new accusations of racism against the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) as documented in a draft report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, as a result of a year-long investigation into the DOJ’s decision to drop the Black Panther voter intimidation case.

Of course, much of this report necessarily relates to the specific voter intimidation case against the Black Panthers, who brandished weapons and threatened voters at a polling station during the 2008 elections.

According to Post excerpts, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report reflects a deep and rancorous divide within the DOJ over whether that case should have been prosecuted. Here are a few excerpts from the article, which I suggest you read in full:

•Interviews and government documents reviewed by The Washington Post show that the [Black Panther] case tapped into deep divisions within the Justice Department that persist today over whether the agency should focus on protecting historically oppressed minorities or enforce laws without regard to race.
•After the Obama administration took over, high-level political appointees relayed their thoughts on the case in a stream of internal e-mails in the days leading to the dismissal….That decision to pull back the lawsuit caused conflicts so heated that trial team members at times threw memos in anger or cursed at supervisors.

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Tea Party groups in New Jersey are outraged over ads that have mysteriously surfaced in support of a supposed Tea Party candidate.  The sponsored ads on Google are being served up all over the web, in places like BlogTalkRadio, in support of one Peter DeStefano, and direct viewers to the website of njteapartycoalition.org.

The problem is, the NJ Tea Party Coalition, the owners of that website, did not purchase any such ads.

“I find this ad extremely troubling,” Brian Baldwin of the NJ Tea Party Coalition told local press. “We did not authorize this nor are we supporting Mr. DeStefano.”

What’s worse is that the group – and every Tea Party group in NJ that I’ve communicated with – has been denouncing DeStefano as a “fake” Tea Party candidate for months now.  They’ve all been complaining about this to the appropriate authorities for some time now.  After seeing these latest ads, Tea Party leaders in NJ are urging their members and other like-minded leaders to contact the local election officials and the Secretary of States’ office to look into DeStefano’s candidacy.

After hounding the press about their suspicions, some in the media had taken notice of the Tea Party’s claims in NJ.  And they agreed.

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Click to Play

It’s a feisty edition of the podcast this week as we’re joined by Red Eye’s Greg Gutfeld and author/columnist David Limbaugh. We cover what the winners will do after election day, a great discussion about the Tea Party and why it is the most significant political movement in a generation, the Frum effect, the pros and cons of a VAT tax, a fashionably late arrival, and yes, some speculation about Peter Robinson’s sleeping attire.

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