Posts Tagged ‘Joel Pollak’

Publius

GOP Debate Reactions: Romney on Points

by Publius

Alex Marlow, Managing Editor, Breitbart.com:

New, aggressive Mitt Romney, who debuted in the goofy Brian Williams quasi-debate last week, was out in full force tonight and he was very, very good. Romney needs to be ready for a fight if he’s to go toe-to-toe with Obama, and the former Massachusetts Governor is finally showing some grit. Rick Santorum drew some blood on him in a heated exchange on healthcare, but Mitt has sworn he’d repeal Obamacare, and that should mitigate many voters’ concerns about his sub-par record on that issue.

Newt Gingrich is most effective when he’s bashing the media and taking the fight to the left (as opposed to strictly Obama), and he wasn’t able do much of either tonight. He called moderator Wolf Blitzer on one “nonsense question,” which was fun, and was able to shoe-horn in one Alinsky reference (which he didn’t have the chance to flesh-out), but those high-ish-lights weren’t enough to make up for an otherwise pedestrian performance.

Rick Santorum spent the first two thirds of the debate yelling at people—though his talking yelling points were generally quite good—and then got sweet and sensitive for the latter third. I like my President cool, calm, and collected, and Santorum needs work on that front.

Thanks to Ron Paul for the comic relief.

As usual, the real winner tonight was President Obama and his palace guards we call the mainstream media. While Wolf Blitzer wasn’t overtly partisan, he was able to keep the focus off of the failure currently occupying the White House or left-wing values and on moon colonies and which wife is best.

Mike Flynn, Editor, BigGovernment:

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Publius

*Election Night Special* Breitbart News South Carolina Primary Coverage

by Publius

Live, from Charleston, SC, Breitbart News presents exclusive election night coverage starting tonight at 6:00 PM ET.

From their special election desk at the Tea Party Patriots Conference, Breitbart.TV Editor Larry O’Connor and KABC talk radio host Stephen K. Bannon will host a live broadcast featuring exclusive interviews with political experts, news makers, media personalities, politicians and the Breitbart editorial board including Andrew Breitbart, Dana Loesch, Mike Flynn, Peter Schweizer, Joel Pollak and Alex Marlow.

Watch the broadcast right here at Big Government and join the live chat room moderated by Breitbart Associate Editor Meredith Dake where she will be taking your questions and comments throughout the evening for a truly interactive and unique experience exclusively available to the Breitbart News audience.

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Wynton Hall

Newt Super PAC Senior Adviser ‘Not Prepared’ to Commit to Returning Contributions from Bain Capital

by Wynton Hall

In an editorial board interview with Breitbart.com, Rick Tyler, a former spokesman for Newt Gingrich and current senior adviser to Mr. Gingrich’s Winning Our Future Super PAC, told Editor-in-Chief Joel Pollak he was unsure whether the Gingrich Super PAC would return and refuse any contributions it has or will receive from employees of Bain Capital, the company Mitt Romney previously ran.

“I’m not prepared to comment on that right now,” said Mr. Tyler. “I hadn’t even contemplated that idea… I don’t know. I don’t know that there are any Bain employees giving money. I don’t really have an answer for you. I don’t have an adequate answer for you.”


Pollak raised the question as Gingrich and his Super PAC have targeted Romney’s tenure as CEO of Bain Capital, casting Bain as a firm of corporate raiders whose business model was allegedly to “loot” American companies and ship jobs overseas. Logically, Pollak implied, if Bain is evil, then Winning the Future should return and refuse contributions connected to Bain.

It is unknown whether Gingrich’s Super PAC, “Winning the Future,” has in fact received donations from Bain employees or investors, since it is not due to report its contributions to the Federal Election Commission until January 31.

On Wednesday, Winning Our Future is set to release a movie titled When Mitt Romney Came to Town in advance of the Republican South Carolina primary. The Washington Post says the film, which was made by a former Romney advertising adviser, “savages” Mr. Romney’s record as head of Bain Capital. The film’s website describes Mr. Romney as a “predatory corporate raider” who “looked for businesses he could pick apart.”

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Jeff Dunetz

Buh-Bye-Barney: A Video Tribute to a Lying, Arrogant SOB

by Jeff Dunetz

So Elmer Fudd Barney Frank announced yesterday that he would not be running for re-election in 2012.  His stated reason was that his district was gerrymandered, which is true.  But Frank was no longer safe in a  safe-district. Remember it took a last-minute infusion of DNCC money to save Barney Frank in 2010 and even then, his 54% of the vote was the lowest he had ever received since his first election in 1980. Frank is retiring because he is chicken, he almost lost last time, and doesn’t have the guts to try again.

In his 31+ years in the House of Representatives Frank was always there to remind people why term limits should be added to the constitution. Be it the brothel that was operated out of his house, his lover that worked for Freddie Mac which led to his unbridled support of Fannie and Freddie which helped cause the housing bubble and great recession, his progressive stances which would make the most avid socialist proud, or that unexplained arrogance (he has nothing to be arrogant about).

Today is a good day for America because Barney Frank’s days in Congress are numbered, to understand why he was so bad for the country, I put together this video “tribute.”

In the video below Frank sits in a 9/10/03 House Financial Services Committee hearing and says Fannie and Freddie are sound, and there is no housing disaster coming.

Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.): I worry, frankly, that there’s a tension here. The more people, in my judgment, exaggerate a threat of safety and soundness, the more people conjure up the possibility of serious financial losses to the Treasury, which I do not see. I think we see entities that are fundamentally sound financially and withstand some of the disaster scenarios.


Here Congressman Fudd Frank stood up on the floor of the House of Representatives and told America that there is undue concern about the housing market and even though prices were growing very quickly the housing market is not like the Dot.Com industry, the housing bubble will not burst.

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Publius

Congratulations to Airman Julia Pollak, From Your Proud Breitbart Family

by Publius

This past weekend, a member of the Breitbart family reached an achievement we’d all like to acknowledge and applaud.  Julia Pollak, wife of our very own Joel Pollak, graduated from U.S. Navy Boot Camp and was awarded the Navy Club of the United States Military Excellence Award, given to the top recruit in each class of roughly 1,000 or so future sailors.

Julia’s story is the perfect allegory of what is great about America and speaks to the possibilities of achievement that is in inherent in the American promise.  In an age where much of what we hear focuses on the decline of America’s excellence and the perceived limitations for ethnic minorities in our culture, this story is something we all need to know.

She was born in Cape Town, South Africa. Her parents were married in South West Africa (now Namibia) because at the time it was illegal for people from different racial groups to marry or to have intimate relations. Julia was born in 1987 in a racially segregated hospital, and as a child was denied admission to public schools based on race. She was accepted by Catholic and Anglican schools (she is now an observant Jew), which were the first to desegregate until the end of apartheid. (more…)

Joel B. Pollak

Why the Tea Party Is Here to Stay

by Joel B. Pollak

My campaign for U.S. Congress ended with a smile–not because of the results, which were disappointing, but because of what it achieved. We ran a tough, issue-oriented, well-organized campaign. We out-raised incumbent Democrat Jan Schakowsky 2-to-1 in the third quarter. We raised the Republican vote by nearly 40 percent over 2006, and helped Republicans nearby and statewide by forcing our opponent to defend her seat.


We also sent a powerful message to the Obama administration about the need for stronger U.S. support for Israel. While Israel was never the focus of the campaign, it was an important priority. We led a nationwide push-back against the far-left J Street organization, which supported Schakowsky lavishly. In so doing, we helped Republicans defeat J Street Democrats in races across the country, further marginalizing the group.

Still, losing by a 66-31 margin is tough. Part of the reason we lost was that our opponent ran a relentlessly negative campaign, spending massive amounts of money on mailings falsely accusing me of wanting to “dismantle” Medicare and the like. She also made full use of the advantages of incumbency–dominating media coverage, promising federal dollars to key voting areas, and (corruptly, I believe) intervening in local foreclosures.

Yet even those deplorable tactics cannot, by themselves, explain the result. The reason 9th district voters chose to retain the biggest spender in the U.S. House, in a year when much of the rest of the country rose up in revolt against excessive spending, was that Chicago and its immediate surrounding areas are heavily dependent on that spending. Cities like Chicago are no longer engines of industry, but wards of the government.

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Andrew  Marcus

Jan Schakowsky Refuses To Answer Tough Questions

by Andrew Marcus

On October 17, 2010, Democrat Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky and her Republican challenger, Joel Pollak, faced off before a largely Jewish audience in Chicago to address Israel-specific foreign policy issues.  After the forum was over, we attempted to ask both candidates a number of questions unrelated to, and indirectly raised during the Candidates’ Forum.  While Mr. Pollak was more than willing to answer our questions, Representative Schakowsky refused to comment.


Andrew  Marcus

Coming Soon – Schakowsky Versus Pollak (Video Preview)

by Andrew Marcus

We attended the 3rd candidates’ forum between Democrat Congresswoman, Jan Schakowsky, and her Republican Challenger, Joel Pollak, in their hotly contested race for Illinois’ 9th district.

There is a lot of content to process, but in the meantime, we bring you these two preview clips.

In the first clip, we ask Representative Schakowsky about recent claims on NRO that she has been an active Socialist.

Yet as I document in detail in Radical-in-Chief, the Midwest Academy’s leadership, including Jan Schakowsky, really was socialist. [emphasis added]


In the second clip, we ask Congresswoman Schakowsky if she thinks CodePink should be investigated for its role in the Hamas Flotilla.

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Andrew  Marcus

Jan Schakowsky Faces Joel Pollak – Full Report

by Andrew Marcus

Below is our full-length report on last Sunday’s Candidates’ Forum with Democrat representative, Jan Schakowsky, and her challenger, Republican Joel Pollak.


As you can see from the video, Jan Schakowsky’s campaign greets our challenging questions on Health Care, Israel, and Ms. Schakowsky’s support for the Democratic Socialists of America, with evasion, derision, and borderline harassment.

Despite the fact that we were attending as credentialed media, the Schakowsky camp insisted that we were “trackers,” out to “get Joel Pollak elected.” While we are admittedly not fans of Representative Schakowsky’s positions on many issues, we were not paid to be there by any campaign or party. As challenging as it is for the Schakowsky camp to accept, we are merely citizen-journalists who are not afraid to ask the questions that the so-called mainstream media have failed to ask – questions such as where in the Constitution does Congress have the authority to force Americans to purchase a product or service? Is it inappropriate for American Progressives to take part in organizing flotillas against Israel, in support of Hamas? Who are the Democratic Socialists of America, and what is Democratic Socialism?

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Andrew  Marcus

Jan Schakowsky Forced to Defend Obamacare

by Andrew Marcus

The following video is a preview of our full report on the recent candidates’ forum in Illinois’ 9th congressional district between Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and her Republican challenger, Joel Pollak.

After the forum concluded, the candidates mingled in the crowd and fielded questions from the attendees. Adam Sharp of sharpelbows.net took the opportunity to ask the Congresswoman exactly where in the Constitution the Congress is given the authority to force American citizens to purchase health insurance. It is a perfectly reasonable question that everyone who voted for Obamacare ought to be prepared to answer. Representative Schakowsky was not ready.

Joel B. Pollak

ShoreBank: The 11th-Hour Cover-up

by Joel B. Pollak

Late last week, at the 11th hour, the Senate removed an amendment that would have required the inspector general of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to investigate the corrupt ShoreBank bailout, as well as every other bailout since January 2009. It is the clearest sign yet that the White House and Democrats in Congress are covering up the truth. If there is nothing to hide, why block the ShoreBank investigation?

Even Rep. Barney Frank had publicly given his support to a ShoreBank probe. The bank claimed an investigation would delay the arrival of funds needed to keep it afloat. Yet Frank made sure that none of the banks being investigated would have had their federal assistance suspended (as the amendment originally provided). So there was no chance that ShoreBank’s bailout–if it were to be approved–would have been stalled.

Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times–who is close to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), the main political sponsor of the ShoreBank bailout–asks: “What exactly does Chicago’s ShoreBank have to do to survive?” But the real question she and other journalists must ask–and would ask, if this were any other bank–is: “What exactly are Democrats trying to hide?” If this Congress won’t investigate corruption, we ought to elect one that will.

Larry O'Connor

The Blueprint Penned From the Pen: Manufacture a Crisis, Manufacture Rage

by Larry O'Connor

In today’s Big Government post by Joel Pollak readers were treated to an amazing glimpse into the political strategy that has been put into place over the past year by the Obama Administration to force the radical overhaul of the American health care system all under the guise of “Health Care Reform”

HC2

If anyone doubts that the strategy blue print written by convicted felon Robert Creamer (while he was serving his time in Federal Prison) was really put into action by the administration, one only needs to look at the endorsements page and notice a rave from none other than David Axelrod:

Bob Creamer has devoted his life to progressive causes.  Here he provides a fascinating narrative of how progressives have won in the past and provides a blueprint for future victories.

When David Axelrod reads and endorses Creamer’s book and describes it as a “blueprint for future victories” then it might be more than just a coincidence that what Creamer suggested/predicted is exactly what has come to pass.

As odd as it seems that President Obama’s top political advisor would see fit to publicly endorse a book by a newly released felon, it is still instructive to actually look at Mr. Creamer’s “blueprint for future victories” and see how Mr. Axelrod and the Democratic leadership has used that blueprint for President Obama’s Health Care scheme.

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