Back to Basics

The election in Queensland is devastating for the Australian Labor party.

With about 70 percent of the vote from Saturday’s poll counted, the Liberal National Party (LNP), led by former Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman, has won 78 of the state’s 89 parliamentary seats while the Labor government led by Premier Anna Bligh has seen its representation slashed from 51 to 7.
Bligh accepted responsibility for the defeat and despite winning her own seat of South Brisbane, announced her resignation from politics.
That triggers an immediate by-election, further threatening Labor’s weak showing in the state. . . .

The sea change in Australian politics:

“Since Labor won the 2007 federal election, it’s lost power in the four most important states, significantly reducing its influence,” said Hughes. “Gillard may be starting to feel a bit lonely in Canberra as she doesn’t have many friends left in the states.” . . .

New South Wales 2011 election

The NSW Coalition, which won more than half the primary vote, is poised to secure 67 seats in a 93-seat lower house, with Labor’s numbers more than halved. The ALP is currently on 19, with three independents and four seats undecided. The two-party swing is estimated at 16.5 per cent, with a two-party preferred vote of 63.9 per cent for the Coalition to Labor’s 36.1 per cent. . . .

Victorian election 2010 results show Labor could lose 13 seats

A HUGE swing against Labor has brought down many long-standing MPs with the election results expected to see as many as 13 seats lost. . . .

Oldest election

South Australia Election March 2010

In South Australia, with 73 percent of the vote counted so far, Labor suffered a 7.3 percent “swing” against it, compared with the last election in 2006. The Rann government is predicted to retain 25 of its 28 seats, with the Liberals winning 18, and independents 4. Liberal leader Isobel Redmond, however, is yet to concede defeat.
If, as looks likely, Labor again forms government, it will do so having lost the two-party preferred vote. Labor won just 38 percent of tallied primary votes, the Liberals 41.4 percent, the Greens 7.8 percent (up 1.4 percent from 2006), and right-wing Christian outfit Family First 5.3 percent (down 0.6 percent).

The bad old volcano days are but a distant memory for Lt. Governor Bill Bolling. That’s when he was trapped in Florence Italy for almost a week during April 2010. European air travel was canceled after an Icelandic volcano, with a name no Virginian could pronounce, spewed ash and gas into the skies over Europe, canceling the Lt. Gov’s flight plans.

Now you may contend a politician stranded by hot air is a situation rich in irony, but it’s not funny when you are the strandee. The particularly humiliating part was almost no one noticed.

No Amber Alerts for Bill Bolling. No thwap, thwap, thwap from helicopters searching overhead. Just an empty coffee cup, abandoned on a lonely desk in Richmond. The Commonwealth even managed to conduct both a special session of the legislature and the annual Shad Planking in Bolling’s absence, with no one — other than a few thousand shad — inconvenienced in the least.

But it’s a situation that won’t be repeated. On Election Day Democrats suffered losses in both the Senate and House, but the loss of two Senate seats created a 20–20 tie, which makes Bolling ‘Mr. Tie Breaker’ and rockets him from vestige to Viceroy.

Senate Republicans are considering requiring Bolling to wear one of those home detention ankle bracelets so they can locate him at a moment’s notice.

Virginia’s absentee ideological nanny, The Washington Post, feared that in spite of Senate Democrat’s gerrymandering efforts, an ignorant electorate might put Republicans in control of all three branches of government.

The WaPost tried its darndest to warn us regarding the dangers of conservative government. In endorsement editorials Democrats were glowingly portrayed as: “smart,” “sober,” “sane,” “savvy,” “sensible” and “grown–ups.” Conservative Republicans, on the other hand, were: “incendiary,” “loopy,” “reckless,” “extreme,” “partisan” and “over–the–top.”

But if anyone is out of step with Virginia, it’s the WaPost.

In Prince William County the Post endorsed Del. Luke Torian (D–Dumfries) described as an incumbent who “must woo a swath of new voters in this redrawn district.” What is not said is the district was designed to elect a black delegate, new voters or not.

Staunch conservative Del. Bob Marshall, (R–PWC) also had a newly drawn district that removed much of his base and put him in a politically precarious situation. Our betters at the WaPost describe Marshall as a “loopy…take–no–prisoners culture warrior.” Naturally, since Marshall is one of the Republicans too extreme for Northern Virginia, WaPost endorses his “smart, sane, sober, moderate” opponent.

Torian wins re–election with 61 percent of the vote and Marshall also won with an almost identical 60 percent of the vote, so who is out–of–step with whom?

We have the same phenomenon in the Senate. Incumbent Sen. Chuck Colgan (D–PWC) gets the endorsement as a “civil, widely respected and deeply committed lawmaker.” In Loudoun County’s open senate race, conservative Republican Dick Black is characterized as, “one of the legislature’s most over–the–top ideologues.” His Democrat opponent is endorsed as “a cogent, serious–minded businessman who has common–sense proposals.”

Strangely enough, on election night Colgan wins by 55 percent, while non–incumbent Black wins his hotly contested seat by 57 percent. If I didn’t know better, I’d think Virginia voters support conservatives.

Proposition 103, the only statewide tax increase on the November ballot across the country, is going down tonight, according to number-crunchers in my home state of Colorado. If the results of this massive tax hike referendum had gone the big government/big labor lobby’s way, it would be front-page news tomorrow and Debbie Blabberman-Schultz would be crowing about it non-stop on MSNBC.

Instead, crickets will chirp. White House, pay attention:

Colorado voters have rejected an attempt to raise state income and sales taxes to fund education, The Denver Post has declared.

Colorado voters were saying no to a major tax increase proposal Tuesday night, as early returns appeared to show Proposition 103 failing across the state.

With 38 percent of precincts reporting, Proposition 103 looked to be headed to defeat, with 36.9 percent in favor to 63 percent against.

That was also true in Denver. With 68,471 ballots that had been counted through 7 p.m., the measure was failing 43.7 percent to 56.3 percent.

Even in liberal Boulder County — home to the measure’s chief supporter — the measure was failing, though by a narrow 93 votes.

Our Democrat governor here in Colorado, John Hickenlooper, refused to endorse the $3 billion measure. Voters were mercifully unswayed by the progressive human shield strategy of adorning the job-killing tax hikes with shiny apple images and elementary school kids. Analyst Ben DeGrow noted that contrary to hysterical ed lobby propaganda, total annual expenditures on K-12, adjusted for inflation, from 1999 to 2010 have actually “increased by $3.2 billion or 46 percent. Per pupil spending is up 24 percent.”

Fiscal sanity and the facts trumped teachers’ union demagoguery. Taxpayers in this battleground are not in the mood for more tax-and-spend sinkholes.

Hope for change? Yes, we can!

For election results go here. Amazingly the Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State races only had Republicans running against each other. Hurricane Katrina has really changed the state’s electoral politics dramatically.

To conservatives who support the budget ideology and austerity program set forth by Representative Paul Ryan, May 24 was a black day, indeed, in New York City.

For on that date, a special election was held to replace Republican Chris Lee in New York Congressional district 26. Lee had been forced to resign his seat owing to dispatched photos of himself in a partially disrobed state via e-mail. At the time, Lee’s indiscretion seemed nearly pornographic in nature.

The special election resulted in the seating of Democrat Kathy Hochul in the U.S. House, a result that was touted as a referendum of Paul Ryan’s proposed budget cuts and on Republican austerity measures in general.

Republicans started to scramble in fear, while Democrats celebrated the election far and wide as a vindication of reckless spending, trillion dollar deficits, and a badly needed win for President Obama.

All was cool in the sick, sick world of lib moon bats, but only briefly.

Enter the person of Anthony Weiner, seeming invincible in New York’s 9th district. That is, until it was discovered that Weiner made Lee’s antics look puritanical by comparison.

As it turns out, Weiner photographed his genitals and, for whatever reason, decided that his Junk was worthy of Tweeting.

Weiner battled fiercely to preserve his elitist political advantage by employing a favorite stand-by for liberals since the beginning of time: Weiner lied through his bloody teeth!

The disgraced Weiner finally opted for ‘redemption by victimization,’ leaving his seat in the House for a seat in rehab.

Twelve steps, a higher power, and brutal honesty were on the agenda for the loose canon whom Senator Chuck Schumer sprung on New York, a crime for which Schumer should be tried and convicted.

By now the cheers and chortling over the Democrat victory in the 26th district were all but forgotten as liberals prepared to defend what had been the ultimate safe seat for progressive malfeasance and abuse.

Fast forward to September 13, 2011. Election day in New York!

Going into the election, the big questions were: Will voter repudiation of Paul Ryan and the GOP continue with the election of Democrat David Weprin?

Or will Barack Obama and Weiner combine to hand a big W to Republican Bob Turner, thereby signaling the official end to the Obama era?

The answer: Voters in New York’s 9th have seen the light and have elected Bob Turner to the U.S. House.

Thanks to the Incompetence of Obama and the sleaze of Weiner, New York’s 9th has shaken loose from the shackles of progressive insanity and has joined mainstream America.

Hooray and congratulations!

Last night was certainly interesting for me, politically and personally. First, the live recording of The Delivery was plagued with occasional internet outages that I very much hope are not related to these acts of sabotage alleged committed by disgruntled, striking Verizon workers.

Then, once my internet connection did stabilize (too late to finish this post so it would drop at its customary time), I learned that the public sector unions, who spent millions upon millions in a fit of juvenile temper to recall enough Republicans to take over the Wisconsin state Senate, failed about as completely as they could have. Democrats won two of the 6 seats they targeted for recall but will face two recall elections of their own next week. The most likely result of the Great Wisconsin Hissy Fit is that Democrats will have spent a lot of money that could have helped union workers struggling to pay the bills in the Obama Economy in order to win one seat in a state legislature.

On the whole, not a bad night, technical problems notwithstanding. Oh, the picture of Che? That’s Justin Hart’s contribution to the victory dance. I approve!

The show post will be out a bit later today, so keep your eyes peeled!

It is clear that the takers are in full control of this country’s economy. A Republican stronghold in NY was overtaken by a Democrat who demagogued the Ryan plan as it relates to Medicare. The American people seem to only care about what the government is going to provide them. Democrats seized on this mentality.

Democrat Kathy Hochul drew on voter discontent over Republican plans to revamp Medicare to score an upset win on Tuesday in a special election to represent a conservative upstate New York congressional district.

road to nowhere

Virtually this entire race was fought over Medicare. Never mind that none of the changes in Medicare would effect anyone over 55 today. Never mind the system is broken and Republicans  took a stab at fixing it with a better plan. No, the people listened to the Democrats saying that the Republicans are taking away your Medicare. Nothing could be further from the truth.

See, if Medicare continues the way it is it will bankrupt this country. NOBODY will have this gov’t safety net. These assholes who voted to keep the status quo in NY just shit all over their kids and grandkids. Sure they will keep theirs but any meaningful changes to the plan in 20 years won’t happen. The attitude that NY has is the same across the country. Do not touch Medicare. Period. No matter if the changes will never affect me. Don’t even talk about it.

Socialism always succumbs into an inglorious death. Statists continue to prop it up because they know that if they can keep people reliant on the government then they can stay in power. These Socialist programs will ultimately collapse and may even destroy this country. We cannot keep kicking this shit down the road. But as long as we have takers overwhelming the makers in this country nothing will ever change. Grandpa should be ashamed that he is screwing his grandkids in a most egregious manner. Do we not wish that our children and theirs to have a better life than ours? As it is grandpa is further enslaving his future generations in government debt.

“The worst form of tyranny the world has ever known: the tyranny of the weak over the strong. It is the only tyranny that lasts.” –Irish writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

It is good news that the Waukesha County tabulation error is going to be properly investigated. Reuters has this:

Michael Haas, Government Accountability Board staff attorney, told Reuters on Friday the watchdog agency was looking into vote tabulation errors in Republican-leaning Waukesha County which gave the conservative incumbent a net gain of more than 7,000 votes — a lead his union-backed challenger seems unlikely to surmount.

“We’re going to do a review of the procedures and the records in Waukesha before we certify the statewide results,” Haas said.

“It’s not that we necessarily expect to find anything criminal. But we want to make sure the public has confidence in the results.” . . .

But what isn’t mentioned in the news stories is that all six member of the board have been appointed by the previous Democrat Governor. This is important for getting over the anger that many Democrats feel over having lost the vote.

The Government Accountability Board is overseen by six board members. All of them were appointed by former Governor Jim Doyle, a Democrat. . . .

Total pick ups so far for Prosser
Winnebago 244
Waukesha 200
Milwaukee 12
Total 456 at 5:58 PM EDT

UPDATE: NRO reports that the entire City of Brookfield was left out of the totals for heavily Republican Waukesha County. If so, that would give Prosser a net pick up of 7,381 votes. Placing the vote safely in Prosser’s column. Note that Waukesha County is a heavily Republican county originally giving Prosser 73% of the vote and 27% for Kloppenburg. There is no evidence that the city of Brookfield had been included in the original results, but that it had simply been left out of the original totals. It isn’t like 10,000 ballots simply being discovered uncounted after all the other votes have been turned in (think Seattle). Yet, Democrats are screaming:

Kloppenburg supporters reacted with alarm, pointing out that Nickolaus had worked in the Assembly Republican caucus during the time that Prosser, a former Republican lawmaker, served as the Assembly speaker and that Nickolaus also had faced questions about her handling of elections as clerk.

“Wisconsin voters as well as the Kloppenburg (campaign) deserve a full explanation of how and why these 14,000 votes from an entire city were missed. To that end, we will be filing open records requests for all relevant documentation related to the reporting of election results in Waukesha County, as well as to the discovery and reporting of the errors announced by the county,” Kloppenburg campaign manager Melissa Mulliken said in a statement.

Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) raised the possibility of an independent investigation over the recovery of the votes. . . .

The Daily Kos has figured out that the Republican conspiracy needed to make up exactly 7,500 votes to prevent a recount.

In WI, an automatic recount at state-expense is triggered if an election is within .5%, and we have a fully verifiable paper trail to audit election results. That means in this election with approximately 740k for Kloppenburg and 739k for Prosser, the vote gets recounted at state-expense if the election is within ~7400 votes.

So the last 2 days the WI-GOP has been scrambling trying to figure out how they can still get Prosser into office. What was the result of their brain-storming? Add a few extra votes in a friendly area (Waukesha), and call it a clerical error. But in order to steal the election, they NEED to be able to keep a recount from occurring, because a recount would expose their attempted fraud to the light of day. . . .

It is NOT a coincidence that Prosser didn’t get +300 votes or +1000, it had to be +7500 or more in order for the fraud to work. +7400 just wouldn’t have been enough. . . .

Apparently the AP missed some votes in its total. Note that Winnebago is a very closely divided county that was originally divided 52% for Prosser and 48% for Kloppenburg.

I’ve been tied up with other work and family matters (here’s my Fox News appearance today talking about Marizela), but you have probably already heard the stunning (though not completely surprising) news that some 7,500 ballots were suddenly discovered today in the key Supreme Court race in Wisconsin.

I say not surprising because, as long-time readers know, Wisconsin and election shenanigans are like peanut butter and jelly.

Here’s the latest:

In a political bombshell, the clerk in a Republican stronghold released new vote totals adding a net total of 7,582 new votes in the tight state Supreme Court race to Justice David Prosser, swinging the race significantly in his favor.

Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus said Thursday that she failed to save in her computer and then report 14,315 votes in the city of Brookfield, omitting them entirely in an unofficial tally released after Tuesday’s election. The new totals give 10,859 more votes to Prosser from Brookfield and 3,456 more to Kloppenburg, she said. Smaller discrepancies turned up in two other communities as well.

“I’m thankful that this error was caught early in the process. This is not a case of extra ballots being found. This is human error which I apologize for, which is common,” Nickolaus said, her voice wavering as she spoke to reporters.

She said she had reviewed numbers from all the other municipalities in the county to ensure that no other similar errors were made. She said she was not aware of any error of this size being made in any past election in her county.

Stay tuned…