WMD on Beck

WMD released the following statement regarding State Representative Beck:

What a (&*^%#%^( tool. Get OUT of our party. Do NOT pass GO. Do NOT collect $200.

WMD is not at all surprised to see the return of the Culture of Corruption. When Bob Bennett was re-installed as Chairman, it was a sign of things to come. That the State Central Committee followed up that with Matt Borges made it official.

Clean house you fools.

WMD on Issues

Issue 1: NO -- Ohio's constitution requires that this question be asked every twenty years. We don't need a constitutional convention because we have an amendment process.

Issue 2: NO -- Ohio's redistricting process is kind of screwy but installing liberal special interest groups in to an unaccountable committee that can spend as much as they want is not the answer.

Issue 3 - City of Fairfield: NO -- WMD opposes the reallocation of taxpayer dollars from road repair to general fund. If the roads are perfect and the money no longer needed, then return said funds to the taxpayers.

Issue 4 - Hamilton County: NO -- Cincinnati City Clowncil members do NOT need four-year terms.

Issue 24 - Butler County: YES -- While I find their yard signs a bit creepy and their argument that "won't raise taxes" to be silly when it doesn't reduce taxes either, I have found that these people do good work for butler County's children and the renewal represents 55% of their operating budget. Jerome Kearns answered every question I had satisfactorily...

Any levy increase: NO -- You don't raise taxes during a recession.

Any levy renewal: MAYBE -- Depends on the individual agency requesting the renewal. If the services are vital to the community and the agency has run their operations in a fiscally responsible manner, then a YES is deserved.

ASK WMD: Another Round of Auditor / AG Questions

Jill asks:

Matt - I appreciate how candid you've been on your feelings about this situation. I am interested in knowing what YOU think the right thing to have happen is.
...
I think his choosing to run for Auditor could really taint him - I get the "for the party" but when The Party is as you've described it, right now at least, doesn't that kind of knock down his "doing it for the party" reason, if that ends up being it?

Thanks, Jill. I have always had a policy that if I am going to do this, I am going to stay true to myself and my principles. To that end, I can't imagine being anything but candid about this situation.

In an ideal world, we would have Kasich-Somebody Else running for Gov/LG; Taylor running for re-election; Anybody Else running for Secretary of State; Dave Yost running for Attorney General; and Josh Mandel running for Treasurer. Since we don't live in an ideal world, I'll take Kasich-Taylor, Husted for SOS, Yost for AG, Mandel for Treas, Seth Morgan for Auditor, and Mike DeWine for Retirement.

I think the State Central Committee ought to have issued an endorsement or at least released some numbers on where that body sits on the issue. They punted. I think Chairman Kevin DeWine should have done more to make sure that the committee discharged the one duty that actually matters: endorsements. The whole purpose behind having an endorsement process is to help the rank and file figure out who has support from where. It is silly to have an endorsement process in uncontested primary situations. The GOP backs Mandel for Treasurer? WOW! What a shock that is!!! I'd have never guessed that the Ohio Republican Party State Central Committee would back the only Republican candidate running. They back Kasich and Husted too? Color me all kinds of amazed...

But seriously, folks...

I do think that if he switches races, Yost risks losing a LOT of credibility with the very folks who made him such a viable statewide candidate. Yost ran with the slogan of being a Prosecutor, not a Politician; but if he switches races, for whatever reason, he is going to have to explain himself and I am not sure that he can do so. I don't think that it is a foregone conclusion that the people who support Yost for AG are automatically Yost for Auditor backers. In fact, I have heard more people saying that they are backing Morgan or Rob Montgomery if Yost jumps in to the race. Does that represent a majority of the likely Republican primary voters? I have no idea, but I do think it represents a significant problem for Kevin DeWine's "grand plan" for world domination this ticket.

It's a hot mess, that is for sure...

As for the "doing it for the party" bit... There is an argument that can be made that a Yost move to Auditor protects the Apportionment Board, but doing so requires ignoring all of the VERY vocal folks who have been saying that Yost needs to stay in the AG race. You also have to think that neither Rob Montgomery or Seth Morgan are both not qualified or capable of raising the funds. As Scott Pullins pointed out previously, the Auditor's race doesn't require a vast war chest. I am reasonably sure that either of these candidates is capable of getting the job done if they are diligent. Of course, the DeWine Family has to knock off their antics in order for that to happen, but that's a whole other story. I don't know much about Rob Montgomery or his credentials, but I know that Seth Morgan is a CPA so at least one of the candidates is MORE qualified than Yost.

I just don't see a way to frame that argument in such a way that it passes the smell test...

But what do I know, I'm JUST a stupid blogger.....

Ask WMD: MSM and Obama

Still catching up on some stuff from the WMD Mailbag:

We conservatives need to do something about the MSM. We can't let this happen again. My in-laws from NC believed what they read in Newsweek and saw on CNN. They would never have voted for Obama if they knew what we knew.

My own son just asked me when we would be receiving the $5000 that Obama promised.

I am still angry and ticked off.

Those of us in New Media have been trying very hard to convince the party to realize that they have to work around the 527 Media. We've made some progress on that front, but we still have a LONG way to go.

And let's be honest, New Media still has a LONG way to go too. We need to get better at original reporting, investigative reporting, and hyper-local programing.

Another interesting thing you allude to is the disappointment MANY in the Obama coalition are going to feel when he ultimately has to let somebody down. Obama has managed to piece together a group of people to vote for him that have opposing agendas and sooner or later, he is going to tick off a great number of people. We will just have to wait and see what happens, but I think Obama will have a tougher time getting re-elected because folks will have seen through the facade long before then. When that glorious day comes, you and I shall shake our heads and smile knowingly...

Ask WMD: WMD Mailbag Edition

I need to clear out the reader mailbag a bit. Sorry for the delay in responding, but as you can see we've been on the road a LOT the last few days...

Let's get this party started, shall we?

Sherrod Brown's wife said the state employee's 'should' investigate Joe the Plumber. She said it on Bill Maher Friday. She was also insulting to 'normal' people. They did not advertise that she was his wife but good grief.

I didn't see the show in question, but I would not be surprised to hear Connie Schultz-Brown say something like that. She is a member of the 527 Media and the wife of a socialist Member of Congress. This is what the fascists on the Left are all about and I can't think of a better reason to oppose them than the right to privacy.

Remember, Joe the Plumber did not seek Barack Obama out...Obama came to his home. The first rule of politics is to never take a question that you don't already know what the answer is... Obama made his own bed and now has to sleep in it. That Connie Schultz thinks that Joe the Plumber ought to be investigated for having the audacity to ask a candidate a question illustrates more about her and, quite frankly, her profession than it does about Joe.

Next question...

Hi, I love your blog and have a question. Are you able to sense if local's are motivated to vote McCain? I live out in [REDACTED-name of town] and I have a son at [REDACTED-name of college] and one is a Junior at [REDACTED-name of high school]. My son at [REDACTED] tells me that everyone around him and in his apartment complex are for McCain. He said they can't talk about it openly or in class. They talk about it in private. My son that is a Junior at [REDACTED] tells me that some students (mainly African Americans) wear Obama t-shirts every day plus talk about it all the time. The other students don't talk about it but appear to be for McCain. I think there is a hostility from the non-Obama students because they know they would be ridiculed as idiots if they said McCain. My kids are typical. They would not be considered conservative. My curiosity and thoughts are that these polls might be totally wrong. I think there are a lot of people that might just be saying their voting Obama and aren't. I think some people may resent the bias and having Obama shoved on us. I think some of us are seething and voting McCain. Sorry, this was too lengthy. Do you see this or am I just seeing what I want?

Okay...lots of good stuff to tackle there...

Let's start with the college kids. College is an indoctrination center. Politics is everything and it is everywhere. Right-leaning students do take a risk of being alienated by the peers and worse from faculty and administration. Am I surprised that there is a groundswell of private support for McCain on campus? Nope. Most of these kids have been raised right and understand the game playing out on campus. The conservatives have learned the secret signals and handshakes in order to recognize one another, but the best news is that in a couple of days it will all be over. I think the liberals would be surprised at just how badly their fascist efforts on college campuses are backfiring.

At the high school level, the social pressures are going to be even greater. While very few high schoolers are old enough to vote, EVERYTHING that can be used to divide their peers in to groups will be used to do so. As usual, the kids who take the "uncool" position will outnumber the "cool" kids, but they will continue to fear saying so because they will be ridiculed. This is normal behavior, sadly...

The polls are wrong. They continue to oversample Democrats (and I blame Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos for making that problem even worse) not only in the national tracking polls, but in the state polls as well. I continue to question the geographical sampling on most of these polls as well. Historically, the best national and state polling comes from Rasmussen Reports and the best Buckeye state (not ACORN state) polling comes from the Ohio Poll sponsored by the University of Cincinnati (the last Ohio Poll before election day is coming out tomorrow). The demographics on these polls have to be scrutinized before you can get any real information out of them and you have to examine the questions very carefully as well.

Rush Limbaugh has been saying all along that he would tell us when it was time to panic. Now, I don't know for sure if McCain will pull this thing off, but I am not getting any indication that there is a landslide in the works. I do predict that McCain will win Ohio and I think he will do so by a slightly bigger margin than Bush/Cheney '04. I also predict that it will be a LATE night here in Ohio on Election Day because there will be a fear of getting the call wrong.

At any rate...we'll just have to wait and see. Thanks for the questions...keep them coming!

UPDATE: Welcome to all you sick freaks coming to WMD from Glenn Beck's site!

Sean Update
Here is an interesting link relative to the college students and voting
Youth Political Engagement Grows

Ask WMD: Campaign Finance Question

Here is the question:

Hi Matt,

I have a dumb question.

I read about these high dollar fundraisers. Such as Bon Jovi $ 38,500 per person fundraiser for Obama.

I thought individuals were limited to $ 2300.

No such thing as a silly question. In fact, I've often wondered about this myself and this gave me a good excuse to ask my contacts about it...

Here is the answer:

Candidates often sign a Joint Fundraising Agreement with other entities that allows them to collectively raise a higher dollar amount from individual donors.

In the case of Sen. McCain, the joint “Victory” committee consisted of the campaign, the Republican National Committee and the Ohio Republican Party, with the first $2300 (or $4600 per couple) going to the campaign and the rest divided among the other entities. Because Sen. McCain has chosen to accept federal funding, the joint committee funds are now divided between the McCain-Palin compliance fund (to pay for legal/accounting work), the national committee and the state party.

I assume in Sen. Obama’s case, the fundraiser you mentioned is also for a joint committee. He has not chosen to receive federal funds, so he can continue receiving money directly through those events.

And now a follow-up question that I think I can take myself...

I read recently that John McCain cannot receive campaign donations due to public financing. If that is true, is it better to donate to the RNC or someone else?

My politico friends can correct me if I'm wrong, but you can still -- and should -- donate your full amount to McCain/Palin. As I understand it, you were able to "double" your maximum contributions to McCain if you had donated once prior to McCain accepting the nomination at the convention and then afterwards. Team McCain would have had to have used that money prior to the end of the convention.

Ask WMD: "How Long Would It Take to Get Oil From a New Source?"

Previously on WMD, our liberal commenters have been asking -- and I have been trying to get an answer -- about how long it would take to get oil to market if we started drilling today.

Well, I got a new source today...and, I think, the answer to the question. The American Petroleum Institute (API) "is the only national trade association that represents all aspects of America's oil and natural gas industry. Our 400 corporate members, from the largest major oil company to the smallest of independents, come from all segments of the industry. They are producers, refiners, suppliers, pipeline operators and marine transporters, as well as service and supply companies that support all segments of the industry."

The answer to the question, according to my new friends at API, is somewhat complicated and requires a little background...

The amount of time required depends on several factors:

Is the oil onshore or offshore? If it’s offshore and in deep water, it is likely to take longer because very sophisticated equipment will have to be designed and constructed to produce the oil.

How much information is available on the geology of the region? If little information exists, new seismic studies will be required to develop a map of the underground rock formations before any drilling can be started. Of course, this assumes that oil is found. Oil doesn’t exist everywhere.

Is the new energy prospect in a frontier or remote area where no infrastructure exists? If so, it will take time to a drilling permit, obtain a drilling rig, get the right-of-ways to build a pipeline that can carry the oil to a refinery for processing, etc.

If the well is close to existing pipelines, roads, etc., it could be producing in a few months, depending on the time required to obtain drilling permits, environmental studies, etc.

The answer -- depending on some of the factors listed above -- varies on the location of the well. Under the right conditions, oil could be ready within a "year or so" but the seven to ten years number represents what I would call the worst case scenarios.

UPDATE: I asked specifically about the 20 years or more scenario and this is the response that I received:

I have not heard anyone talk about oil production taking longer than 7 to ten years, so I can’t imagine a scenario that would take 20 years.

To pre-empt the critics in our audience, I trust industry-types over government-types...

Ask WMD: 08POTUS and Down Ticket Races

An Anonymous commenter asked this question last week:

What effect do you guys think having Obama/Mccain at the top of the ticket will do to the local Congressional races? I just read the story on Politics Extra about Chabot's chances in the fall with Obama bringing out new voters in droves. Do you think the democrats out east who heavily support Clinton over Obama will stay home, or will the vote republican?

Clearly, Barry Hussein O'Carter will bring out the drones in droves; but I don't think his appeal will be as broad as some may think. Obama isn't likely to appeal to much of the Purple Counties here in Ohio, for instance, as his values don't match up with theirs in most instances.

Steve Chabot, in OH-01, might be in some trouble as that is the only Purple County district that I see where the momentum shifts in Obama's favor; but there is no guarentee that Obama voters won't vote for Chabot anyway. Chabot has lived in this district forever and has worked very hard on their behalf. His fundraising prowess is exceeded only by the number of hours he's put in shaking hands and kissing babies. While the demographics of the district are changing, I think Chabot has at least one more cycle left before the numbers turn against him.

As for Democrats "out east" who support Commodore Decker's Planet Killer now... I think the quantity of those voters will dwindle with time, but I do think that there is a significant number of them who are likely to sit it out or vote McCain. Will that be enough? I'd like to think so, but I'm more confident that when the time comes those folks are going to return to form and vote for the guy with the "D" at the end of his name.

Mark? Sean? Any thoughts? Readers, have at it in the comments...

Ask WMD: Central Committee

Susan asks:

You said that there should be more Republicans on the Central Committee. How does that work?

If I actually said that, what I meant to say was that there should be more conservatives on Central Committees. You know, the people who generally refer to themselves as "real" Republicans.

And the larger point there is that if conservatives ever hope to impact the policies of the Republican Party -- at any level -- then they are going to have to stop shunning the process and jump in to reform it. One of my biggest pet peeves is listening to folks complain that the party isn't listening to them when they haven't engaged the party themselves. Prior to my joining the Central Committee in Butler County, I attempted to communicate with the party on several occassions to air my grievances. My name was cursed in the halls of the Columbus headquarters of this party for awhile too... The best way to effect change is to jump in and get your hands dirty...

Once the conservative gets on Central Committee, he or she needs to find likeminded fellow members and start advancing their agenda. It is not easy work, but that is what needs to happen if conservatives want to reclaim the party. And it needs to happen at all levels of the party, so it will take some time to get the right people in place.