Libertarian Republican the "most articulate" spokesman for the GOP today

New Ad by the Governor

"Governor Sanford is the most articulate Republican out there right now, and the other Republicans ought to pay attention, or if they don't, they're numbers will continue to languish." -- Frank Luntz, Fox News Analyst

(H/t GOP 12)

LR Blog receives recognition for work on Sarah Palin-ADN story on Chrysler dealer closings

From Lisa Grass of Why Mommy Is A Republican blog:

Blogger Eric Dondero helps clear up False Reporting by Anchorage Daily News

Blogger Eric Dondero has helped to uncover and reveal to the public some false reporting on the part of the Anchorage Daily News regarding the closing of a Soldotna, AK, GM dealership.


Great work, Mr. Dondero. Hats off to you and a hat-tip, as well, to Josh Painter [of RedState.com].

Visit Libertarian Republican and be sure to add it to your blogrolls.

From the Editor: This same piece also ran at other Sarah Palin sites and at Mainstream Conservative. Thanks Lisa, that was very kind.

Alaskans to Rally for Reagan Values: Sarah Palin Guest Speaker

From Jason Dowell, Anchorage:

On Wednesday, June 3 Alaska conservatives and libertarians will hold a rally celebrating Ronald Reagan. It will be held at the downtown Anchorage Center for the Performing Arts. It starts at 7:30 pm.

The rally will feature a speech by radio talk show host Michael Reagan.

The keynoter will be Governor Sarah Palin.

The event is sponsored by Action for America, a pro-strong on defense, pro-free enterprise group. Libertarian Republicans and Libertarian Party members are expected to attend.

For ticket info:

http://www.bluescentral.biz/

Note - Jason Dowell is the former State Chairman for the Libertarian Party of Alaska. He currently lives and is employed in Anchorage, and active with both the Libertarian Party and the Republican Liberty Caucus. In 2006, Dowell was a volunteer campaign worker for Sarah Palin's campaign for Governor, and was influential in winning her the endorsement of prominent Libertarians in the State.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kenya's PM Raila Odinga sign historic agreement

Obama ally Odinga, brings closer relations with Iran

The governments of Iran and Kenya have signed a bi-lateral partnership for cooperation between the two countries on capital investment projects.

Kenya Prime Minister Raila Odinga was quoted in East Africa Capital Business, May 29:

“We agreed to have co-operation in fields of higher education, science and technology, water, irrigation and livestock development with special focus to arid and semi arid regions in Northern Kenya,” he told journalists upon his arrival from the successful working trip to Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted in Fars News as saying that he hoped the agreements would lead to: "deepening and expanding ties."

Anti-Communist blogger and KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn gave an overview of the trip, May 29:

Iran is eager enough to expand close ties to a variety of African states. Among them include Kenya being ruled by its Prime Minitser Raila Odinga whom managed to come to power via violent protests. The Iranian foreign minister even admits that a certain Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is planning on visiting Kenya in effort to get Obama’s possible relative to give key support.

Background

Odinga is the leader of the Orange Democratic Movement, which has been linked to Islamic extremism, particularly in the northern part of the country near the Somali border. Northern Kenya has been the scene of recent incursions by Al-Shabab Jihadists. And there is increasing evidence linking Al-Shabab to Islamic extremist groups operating within Kenya itself.

In 2006/07 Odinga is alleged to have led riots against the democratically elected government. Thousands were killed, mostly Christian and pro-democracy civilians. Some were brutally massacred by machete' wielding Luo Tribesman. Others were burned alive, including 600 in a village church.

US President Barack Hussein Obama, son of Luo Tribesman Hussein Obama, campaigned for Odinga in Kenya in 2006. Upon his return to the US he raised millions of dollars among US donors for his election.

Obama and Odinga are relatives. Odinga even claims that they are "first cousins."

LINKS

This post linked in full by Larry M. Walker at Natural Born Conservative blog. Larry is a Black Republican, and regular reader of this blog. Please visit his site.

Chryslergate: The Numbers tell the Story

Doug Ross, the man who started it all, has a new round of figures up on his blog. And some nifty charts to go along with it.

Ross finds overwhelming evidence of Republican-owned Dealerships being closed by Chrysler. He includes one graphic, above, showing the: "ratio of GOP-to-Democrat donations for the dealerships that were closed by Obama and his minions."

You can read it all at DirectorBlue.blogspot.com

AP: Scandal-plagued Democrat Congressman switches to Republican

From Eric Dondero:

The always reliable and distinguished Associated Press reported the following on May 28, in an article titled, "Corruption probe heats up on Capitol Hill":

On Friday, Rep. Pete Visclosky, R-Ind., acknowledged the grand jury has demanded documents from his office, certain employees and his campaign committees.

The probe focuses on the PMA Group, a now-defunct lobbying firm that specialized in securing federal contracts for defense firms from Visclosky, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., and others on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee that Murtha chairs.

Just one teensy weensy problem with the story: Visclosky is a Democrat, not a Republican as AP notes with an 'R' by the side of his name.

Doubtful, that Viscloskey, who hails from the far left of the Democrat Party, has "made the switch." A completely honest, unintentional mistake by the AP?

The names of the reporters on the story, incidentally: Pete Yost and Henry C. Jackson.

You can see the screen shot of the AP story, courtesy of JamieWearingFool who is credited with discovering the error, here.

RELATED INFORMATION

Radical Gay Agenda pushes Dem to switch to Republican in SC

In serious Party-switching news, the Republicans picked up a State House member last week when Rep. Dennis Moss of Cherokee County, South Carolina did in fact, switch from the Dems. Moss cited his opposition to Gay Marriage. And he was quoted as saying: "I believe in less government and that government should be responsible."

Full story at WYFF TV 4. Note - the AP did not pick up this story.

Judge Sotomayor and Racial Politics: A Nation of Cowards on Race

Guest Post by: W. E. Messamore, The Humble Libertarian

Last week news broke that Sonia Sotomayor would be President Barack Obama's pick for the Supreme Court of the United States. In the aftermath of his announcement, there has been a flurry of articles analyzing the racial issues underlying Sotomayor's appointment, like an article on CNN.com, which said:

"The Republican Party risks further alienating Hispanic voters if it challenges the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, who would become the first Hispanic, and the third woman, on the Supreme Court..."

Or one on Bloomberg.com, which said:

"By nominating Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be the first Hispanic justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, President Barack Obama all but dared Senate Republicans to risk alienating Latinos by trying to block her confirmation."

It is sad to see that in our supposedly post-racial country, presided over by our first black president, that if Senate Republicans have legitimate, non-racial concerns about Judge Sotomayor sitting on our nation's highest court, that they will be shut down and written off as racist, that there can be no argument, that there can be no debate, and that Sonia Sotomayor's race is the final argument to which there can be no answer.

If this is the state of the Union, then perhaps Attorney General Eric Holder's words ring true, if not quite the way he meant them. When it comes to race, we may in fact be a nation of cowards.

Sotomayor's Own Racially Charged Rhetoric

According to the New York Times, Judge Sotomayor gave a speech in 2001 declaring that a judge's sex and ethnicity "may and will make a difference in our judging." She is likely correct. Even empirical studies have validated the idea that the sexual composition of a court has an effect on its rulings.

The moral question here is whether that should make any difference, or whether justice should be blind and grounded objectively in the exercise of human rights irrespective of sexual or ethnic differences. On that question, Judge Sotomayor dispenses with objective justice in favor of racism and sexism, departing from the philosophy and liberal values that undergird the modern Western system of justice:

"In her speech, Judge Sotomayor questioned the famous notion — often invoked by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her retired Supreme Court colleague, Sandra Day O’Connor — that a wise old man and a wise old woman would reach the same conclusion when deciding cases.

'I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,' said Judge Sotomayor."

This in itself should disqualify Sotomayor from sitting on any court, much less the Supreme Court of the United States. But it gets worse...

Sotomayor's Personal Qualifications

The Cato Institute's Ilya Shapiro noted that "Judge Sotomayor is not one of the leading lights of the federal judiciary and would not even have been on the shortlist if she were not Hispanic. She has a mixed reputation, with a questionable temperament and no particularly important opinions in over 10 years on the Second Circuit." It would appear his words ring true.

Jeffrey Rosen at The New Republic writes the following in "The Case Against Sotomayor:

"I've been talking to a range of people who have worked with her, nearly all of them former law clerks for other judges on the Second Circuit or former federal prosecutors in New York. Most are Democrats and all of them want President Obama to appoint a judicial star of the highest intellectual caliber who has the potential to change the direction of the court...

The most consistent concern was that Sotomayor, although an able lawyer, was 'not that smart and kind of a bully on the bench,' as one former Second Circuit clerk for another judge put it. 'She has an inflated opinion of herself, and is domineering during oral arguments, but her questions aren't penetrating and don't get to the heart of the issue...'

Her opinions, although competent, are viewed by former prosecutors as not especially clean or tight, and sometimes miss the forest for the trees... Sotomayor, several former clerks complained, rankled her colleagues by sending long memos that didn't distinguish between substantive and trivial points, with petty editing suggestions--fixing typos and the like--rather than focusing on the core analytical issues."

Judge Sotomayor's Record

Sotomayor's legal skills however are less troubling to me than her record of trampling on our basic freedoms as enumerated in the Constitution. Take her extreme stance on the 2nd Amendment as an example:

"Earlier this year, President Obama's Supreme Court nominee joined an opinion with the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that Second Amendment rights do not apply to the states.

A 2004 opinion she joined also cited as precedent that 'the right to possess a gun is clearly not a fundamental right.'"

Then there's Sotomayor's dubious record on the 1st Amendment:

"[I]n a case that was later reversed by the Supreme Court as Randall v. Sorrell, Judge Sotomayor voted to leave intact a ruling that not only upheld extremely low candidate contribution limits imposed by the State of Vermont, but also more than suggested that candidate expenditure limits might be constitutional, too, despite the First Amendment."

And that's not all. Listen to this:

"Sotomayor was criticized by some student-speech advocates after a decision in May 2008, in which she joined two 2nd Circuit colleagues in deferring to Connecticut high school administrators who had punished a student for an off-campus blog entry about a canceled student event."

The list goes on and on. There's Judge Sotomayor's weak stance on private property rights, her activist ruling on the 90s baseball strike, and her decidedly unempathetic decision in Ricci v. DeStefano to summarily affirm a district court's ruling against a hispanic firefighter who was denied a promotion by the city of New Haven because no black firefighters passed the race-neutral exam they had to pass in order to qualify.

In addition to all of these dreadful aspects of Judge Sotomayor's record, there's one other thing you need to know. She said this once:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfC99LrrM2Q

Editor's Note - Wes is Editor of the Humble Libertarian. He is a "Rand Paul Republican." His blog recently released the list of the Top 100 Libertarian websites and blogs.

LINKS

This piece was picked up by CNN What the Blogs are Saying.

Editor's Note - As always we are grateful to our friends at CNN. They have the most excellent of political coverage, and all LR readers are urged to follow their site.

Calling Bullsh*t on La Raza Pres. Janet Murguia on group's name: Tancredo is right, it does mean "The Race"

by Eric Dondero

Janet Murguia must think us Gringos are stupid. She must think that we'll all just buy her "mierda" because surely none of us speak Spanish.

From CNN, "White House responds as GOP continues Sotomayor attacks":

On CNN Friday, La Raza president Janet Murguia disputed Tancredo's statements about the 40-year-old group. The motto, she said, is not "All for the race, nothing for the rest," the organization is very much "mainstream," the group's name does not translate to "the race" as understood in English.

Our name has a long history to it, but the bottom line is that words in English and in Spanish, have different meanings," she said. "Race in Spanish, la raza in Spanish, has a broader meaning. It means the people, the community. And it really is meant to be a very inclusive term. It comes from the term 'la raza cosmica,' the cosmic race, which is a very inclusive term."

I'm a certified Spanish/English interpreter. I've lived in Mexico, twice, once for 3 months in Tampico, and another stint for 2 months in Guadalajara. I've visited 11 Mexican states from Veracruz in the far southeast, to Baja in the far northeast. I've been to Spain numerous times, and was stationed in Puerto Rico in the Navy. I've even written two books on language learning, one titled "Vacation Spanish." (I speak over a dozen languages, and am fluent in five).

I can tell you that completely contrary to what Ms. Murguia is saying, the term "La Raza" is a strictly Mexican term. It's not used by Puerto Ricans, and certainly not Spaniards. In fact, Mexicans are often disdainful of other races, most certainly of Central Americans (Guatemalans, Hondurans, Salvadorans), who they see as purely Indio. Mexicans hold themselves in esteem, for their mostly Spanish blood. Thus the term "La Raza."

What Ms. Murguia is not saying here, and what she expects no Gringo to be privvy too, is that the term "La Raza," is as much about distinguishing Mexicans from Central Americans, than it is about Norteamericanos norte de la frontera.

Mexicans are extremly prideful people. In my own region of South Texas, Tejanos wear their family names on the backs of their pick-ups in big white letters: "Garcias," "Hernandez," "Castros," and "Morales."

Imagine if Euro-Americans did the same with "Smiths," "Johnsons," or "McCains."

That Family pride extends to the entire Nation of Mexico. They view all fellow Mexicans as part of their extended Familia. It doesn't extend to Central Americans or Puerto Ricans, however.

You'll rarely find a dude from El Salvador here in the US with "Espinoza" plastered on the back of his pick-up. And the custom does not extend at all to Caribbean Hispanics or South Americans.

Don't fall for the bullshit line that Ms. Murguia is peddling. Just because you may not speak Spanish, doesn't mean you have to believe everything a native Spanish speaker is trying to feed you.

La Raza, most certainly means The Race. And it is a term fully intended to evoke pride and sectarianism; in other words, if you ain't part of the Mexican! family, you ain't one of us.

Note - the Eagle and the colors from the Mexican flag in the La Raza logo on top.

LINKS

This piece was linked to at Memeorandum.com. It is currently linked to the Number 3 headlining story.

GOP Libertarian Political News Briefs

Bush backs Rubio

Jeb Bush, Jr. issued this release on Wednesday:

My choice was a simple one: Marco Rubio represents the best in what our Party should strive to be and who it must engage – he is young, conservative, and believes in the principles of our Founding Fathers, that individual freedom and liberty are what makes our country great and always will.

Marco Rubio is a candidate who can help to bring our Party back on track by reaching out to our youth, entrepreneurs, Hispanics and those who believe that if you work hard enough, anything you dream can be achieved. With Marco, we have a great opportunity to elect a true conservative and a greater obligation to elect a man of principle.

I hope that you will join with me in this exciting journey to elect my friend Marco Rubio to the United States Senate in 2010. ...

Schiff leaning towards Senate run in Connecticut

The Hartford Courant is reporting that libertarian investments guru Peter Schiff, son of well-known tax protestor Irwin Schiff, is now leaning towards announcing for a Senate run. He'll be challenging embattled incumbent Democrat Chris Dodd. From the Courant:

Schiff, the broker and financial pundit who is widely credited with having predicted the world financial meltdown, told Greg Sargent's Plum Line blog theplumline.whorunsgov.com that there's a "better than 50-50" chance he will run against U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd. Schiff added that he'd decide in the next "two to three weeks."

That's a shift from what he told the Courant back in February, shortly after a loose group of Libertarians launched an internet-based Draft Schiff movement. ""It's not something I was planning on my own," Schiff said back in February. "It wouldn't be easy to win in a state like Connecticut."

If he were to run for Senate, Schiff, who lives in Fairfield County, said he would run as a Republican.

Some are speculating that he may make the announcement at the CT Libertarian Party conventon this weekend. His name suddenly appeared on the list of speakers.

Libertarian Party Chairman accuses Sotomayor of racial discrimination

In a strongly worded press release, LP National Chairman Bill Redpath of Virginia called Judge Sotomayor an "activist" nominee and accused her of supporting racial quotas. Redpath from Small Gov. Times:

“It is troubling that Obama, who won the highest elected office in the world without racial preferences, would nominate someone who openly admits the government should racially discriminate against its own citizens to serve the needs of political correctness,” said Redpath.

“Libertarians believe that, while the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of association allows private parties to hire whomever they please, government has no right to discriminate."

Schwarzenegger "viciously slashing" state government

Just Breaking...

Word out of California, that formerly libertarian-leaning Republican Governor Arnold Schwarazenegger, a self-professed "Milton Friedmanite," may be returning to his libertarian roots.

Reports from various media that Schwarzenegger is proposing a 5% across the board pay cut for all state government employees, the closing of 220 state parks, and even the closing of his own governor's mansion. This on top of his earlier proposal to slash Medi-Cal, elimiante 5,000 state worker jobs, and completely abolish the California Work Opportunity welfare program. The cuts are being called "vicious" by union representatives and newspaper editorialists.

Developing...

Debt, debt, and more debt, Yet MSNBC still drinking the Obama Kool-aid

By Robert Stacy McCain

You've got to hand it to MSNBC. It takes a lot of moxie to look at an economy shedding jobs, with unemployment and interest rates rising, and come up with the headline: "Evidence mounts that recession may be ending."

In March 2008, I attended a panel discussion where an economist for a private investment firm explained that rising bankruptcy rates pointed toward an impending financial crisis -- which was exactly what happened six months later. At last night's annual gala for the America's Future Foundation, I ran into the same economist, who shook his head and said of the current policy, "They're trying to re-inflate the bubble!"

Ultimately, however, this policy will yield higher interest rates or inflation, or perhaps both. The Wall Street Journal explains what's happening:

Bond markets continued to gyrate Thursday after a sharp run-up in 10-year Treasury yields the day before. The bond market pushed yields of 10-year Treasurys down to 3.674% from 3.70% Wednesday, but they remain well over mid-March's 2.5% level. Yields on mortgage-backed securities continued to climb, pushing 30-year fixed-rate mortgages to 5.44%, the highest since early February.

The Fed has embarked on a massive effort in recent months to buy Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities, a bid to drive up their prices and push down yields. It aims to keep borrowing costs low, hoping cheap mortgages in particular will spur the still-weak economy. . . .

So far, the Fed has purchased $130.5 billion of the $300 billion in long-term Treasury debt it began buying in March. It also has bought $481 billion in mortgage-backed securities and has said it could buy as much as $1.25 trillion worth.

In other words, the monetary dog is chasing its fiscal tail -- a can't-miss formula for stagflation. Pity the investor who is foolish enough to rely on MSNBC to stay informed about economic news.

Editor's Note - Stacy McCain has been called a "top conservative blogger." He averages 7,000 visitors a day. Please visit his site: The Other McCain.

LR Blog on the forefront of the Chrysler GOP owned dealership closure story

From the Editor:

Wow! Seven days and counting since this story first broke. It's been a whirlwind. We are very proud to have been one of the very first blogs on this story. And now look. It's on Fox News, in the Wall Street Journal, Daily Kos, and all over the Auto Industry news.

And our hits show it. We had 2,072 unique visitors yesterday, 1,113 the day before.

I just got a email from a friend of this Blog, a Beltway libertarian think tank insider who had beers last night with a very "top conservative blogger." He said this: "I talked with Xxxxx XxXxxx last night here in Washington …he was pretty impressed about LR’s momentum on this."

But now folks, our job is largely done. We helped pushed this "wingnuttery" story into the mainstream media, where it is now being investigated and reported on from every imaginable angle. Even the lawyers (for the closed dealerships), are smelling blood.

It's time for us to return to our regularly scheduled programming. We'll absolutely continue to cover Dealergate. But we must also return to reporting on our mainstay - hardcore politics.

Nasvhille Hotel cancels English Literature conference over speech by Dutch Libertarian Geert Wilders

by Eric Dondero

Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders was set to appear this weekend at a conference on Western Culture and the rising threat from Radical Islam, scheduled for the Loew’s Vanderbilt Hotel in Nashville. But Managing Director Thomas A. Negri cancelled the entire conference upon learning that Wilders would be a speaker.

New English Review: Cultural Libertarian Warriors

The Conference was sponsored by the New English Review, a traditional English Literary society. Their website features opinion pieces celebrating Western Cultural values and reviews works of English literature. The Society takes an unabashedly Pro-English language stance.

The site is the project of the World Encounter Institute, which is:

a non-profit corporation dedicated to defending the values of Western civilization, including the freedom of the arts and music, women’s and children’s rights, the abolition of slavery worldwide and the defense of the Constitution of the United States of America through research, publications and educational outreach.

The Society Editor is retired Medical Doctor Theodore Dalrymple of London. Dr. Dalrymple has written for National Review, The Spectator, The Daily Telegraph and the Cato Institute. He's also a contributing Scholar for the free market Manhattan Institute. He is active with Britain's Libertarian Alliance (video of his speech to LA conf.).

In a review of his book "The Politics and Culture of Decline," the Washington Times Paul Hollander wrote in 2007:

Theodore Dalrymple is a prolific British author of wide-ranging interests whose previous book, "In Praise of Prejudice," I reviewed on these pages in November 2007. He may best be described as a culture critic and essayist, but he has also written several unusual and riveting travel books, erudite literary criticism and books about health issues since he also happens to be an M.D. and psychiatrist. In the latter capacity, he worked in a British prison for many years and acquired firsthand knowledge of present-day social pathologies...

Society stands up against Political Correctness in the English language

The Society is also known for having defended London's iconoclast and often times "libertarian" Mayor Boris Johnson against charges of using politically incorrect speech. Johnson was castigaged by Leftists for using the term "Bollocks," (cow's balls in British lingo) at a City Council meeting. The Society was one of his most ardent defenders.

Wilders was set to give a talk and a screening of his film Fitna, at the invitation of the society. Many American liberals have sought to ban the film as too "offensive" to Islam, and keep it from being shown at various venues.

Nashville Hotel may have just snubbed the next Prime Minister of the Netherlands

NewsMax reports that Negri cancelled the conference immediately upon learning of Wilder's attendance, "for the health, safety and well-being of our guests and employees." Though, the hotel management admits no threats to security over Wilders' appearance were received.

New revelations emerging indicate that Negri may have had another agenda.


According to NewsMax:

Negri serves on the board of advisors of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, TIRRC, an activist group that states its mission “is to empower immigrants and refugees throughout Tennessee to develop a unified voice” and “defend their rights.”

The group boasts of having helped to defeat an “English only” amendment this January that would have required all Nashville government communications to be in English.

Earlier this month, the group won an award from the Migration Policy Institute, which is funded by grants form the J.M. Kaplan Fund, a left-wing group that also funds the ACLU, the Tides Foundation, the Tides Center, the Sierra Club, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and other left-wing causes.

Additionally, Negri appears to have ties to local Somali immigrant groups, and was even a speaker at a Pro-Immigration Rally for Muslim Somali immigrants in Nashville in 2003.

The very latest polls out of the Netherlands indicate that Wilder's Freedom Party, holds a narrow lead over the Christian Democrats, 27 Members of Parliament seats to 26. Elections are set for June. Ironically, by late June, MP Wilders could very well be the next Prime Minister of The Netherlands.

LINKS

This story received a link from Memeorandum. The site listed LR and Pamela Geller's Atlas Shrugs, as the two blogs covering the story.

Response to Huffington Post: The Libertarian argument against Liberal push-back on Chrysler Dealergate story

From Eric Dondero:

Mark Tapscott, Editorial Director for the Washington Examiner, succinctly makes the argument that indeed this Chrysler dealer story is even worse than initially appears.

The Liberal media, particularly on-line, is finally pushing back. It took them at least a week to even recognize the story. And now they're line is, "well, naturally it's Republican dealerships that are being closed down, cause the vast majority of dealers lean Republican."

Tapscott blows that line right out of the water with simple logic:

post up by Nate Silver on Huffpo making the argument that nobody should be surprised that lots of the Chrysler dealers getting the axe are GOP contributors because car dealers as a group are overwhelmingly Republican. Says Silver:

"It shouldn't be any surprise, by the way, that car dealers tend to vote -- and donate -- Republican. They are usually male, they are usually older (you don't own an auto dealership in your 20s), and they have obvious reasons to be pro-business, pro-tax cut, anti-green energy and anti-labor. Car dealerships need quite a bit of space and will tend to be located in suburban or rural areas. I can't think of too many other occupations that are more natural fits for the Republican Party. Unfortunately, while we are still a nation of drivers, we are not a nation of dealers."

That's true, of course, but I'm not sure that it ends the discussion. In fact, it may even make the discussion of possible partisan considerations behind the closings even more relevant. Think of it this way: If 88 percent of all car dealers were Democratic contributors, rather than GOPers, how likely is it that the Obama folks would be delivering such an egregious economic blow to the group, a blow that put thousands of people out of work and deprives hundreds of Democratic donors of their means of making contributions?

Or, a heavily Democrat-dominated industry, like say the government?

Chrylser Dealergate: Another skeptic comes around

Robert Siegel, publisher of Mind Your Own Damned Business blog:

I initially dismissed these stories, assuming that there was some other factor at play here, perhaps a majority of car dealers are Republicans or maybe rural car dealers are Republicans. Unfortunately the facts got in the way of that easy answer.

But Siegel also breaks some other news. Attorneys are now looking into the matter:

The data makes this story look ugly. Attorneys are gathering facts and legal actions are coming because there are serious questions as to how the criterion Chrysler claims to have used to identify the dealers aligns with the actual cuts made. And because it looks ugly it will be a moral stain on this President, if not a serious legal problem, that could have and should have been avoided.

On Fox, Michelle Malkin comes around on Chrysler Dealergate scandal

Top Right Blogger Michelle Malkin gives an extensive overview of the whole Dealergate scandal. Malkin, who was at first cautious on the story, changes her tune signicantly, with new and breaking evidence coming to light.

She starts to really rev up at 1:30 minute in.

Ouch! Michelle takes a swipe at Bill O'Reilly at the end of the segment.

STUNNING REVELATION!! Obama's Car Czar Rattner married to former Democrat National Committee fundraising Chair

JUST BREAKING...

Reported by InstaPundit at 8:40 am, and mentioned by at least one other news source - Bakersfield.com (Calif.) morning edition

From Instapundit:

UPDATE: A reader notes something about “car czar” Steven Rattner: “Rattner is married to Maureen White, the former National Finance Chair for the Democratic Party.” The comment: “So one of the guys advising SecTreas on this thing is married to someone who used to be one of the people in charge of fundraising for the Democratic Party. This explains so much it’s scary.” Well, it bears a close look.

From Bakersfield.com:

UPDATE II: White House car czar married to Democratic fund raiser

Maybe it's significant, maybe not, but a colleague here in the Examiner newsroom just reminded me that White House car czar Steven Rattner is married to Maureen White, the former national finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee. And let's not forget that before Rattner became a Wall Street mover and shaker, he was a New York Times reporter.

From the Editor - You would think that the former Chair of the DNC Fundraising Committee would have abundant access to special political contributions data, including cross-referenced lists of Major Car Company dealerships around the Nation, no?

Soldotna, Alaska Chrysler dealership Interview: Politics played a role

"They went out of their way to connect this to Sarah Palin"

On May 20, the Anchorage Daily News, ran a story with the headline: "Is Obama closing the Soldotna dealership?"

Staff writer Sean Cockerman in Anchorage wrote the following:

Gov. Sarah Palin’s new statement criticizing Barack Obama blames the president for the closure of a Soldotna car dealership.

But the dealership tells me it’s not closing.

Here’s the relevant part of the statement Palin put out through SarahPAC.

"Today, we learned that Obama’s decisions continue to impact Alaskans; while we as taxpayers now own General Motors, Obama closes another dealership – this time in Soldotna as more of Alaskans’ hard-earned money and jobs are lost to big government."

Libertarian Republican interviewed the Hutchings brothers, and got a different story from the Anchorage Daily News. In fact, both Shea and Shawn Hutchings, expressed their disatisfaction with how the ADN spun their comments. Shawn Hutchings mentioned how he had to go back and forth through email numerous times, with the reporter to ensure he got the story right.

Finally, the reporter relented and published this statement from Hutchings as an Update on the news blog:

"The bottom line is this: Governor Palin is correct: Soldotna lost a new car dealership as part of the federal intervention. 44 local jobs were terminated. Over a million dollars in annual payroll was lost. The net effect to Soldotna is substantial. Obama's actions have directly impacted Alaska and Soldotna. The Governor is correct."

Contrary to what the newspaper version originally published, the Hutchings brothers both confirmed to LR, that the bulk of the dealership is indeed closing down. As one brother described it; the "lifeblood," of the dealership will be closed. Both brothers expressed their suspicions that indeed politics may have played a role in their ultimate closure, in the "boardrooms of Detroit."

Interviews with Soldotna's Hutchings Brothers

Interview with Shea Hutchings, Soldotna City Councilman & Hutchings GM Dealership Asst. General Manager

ERIC: First, do you think that the Anchorage Daily News misrepresented what happened at your dealership?

SHEA: Yes.

ERIC: And why do you think that they may have done that?

SHEA: Tough to say... With the Anchorage Daily News they take such a liberal point of view. They went out of their way to connect this to Governor Palin.

ERIC: So, you're closing the dealership?

SHEA: We're closing the lifeblood of the dealership. Yes, we are closing. They misreported the story... not an accurate portrayal of what is happening.

ERIC: You serve as a City Councilman there in Soldotna, and I'm sure you run as non-partisan, but officially do you consider yourself to be a Republican?

SHEA: I am a registered Republican. I've never voted for a Democrat in my life. I am a Karl Rove NeoConservative Republican, not a Sarah Palin grass roots Republican. I'm more of a Christian Conservative Mike Huckabee sort, more so than a libertarian Republican.

I can tell you right now that the Hutchings have donated thousands of dollars to GOP candidates... That certainly could have played a role in the boardroom decisions in Detroit. We hosted a fundraiser for Ted Stevens. There are definitely a lot of Republican connections to this family.

Shawn Hutchings, General Manager, GM Dealership, Soldotna

ERIC: Do you believe that politics may have played a role in the decisions to close down your dealership?

SHAWN: I can't imagine why they're targetting dealerships. There's no question there might have been. In fact, our franchise is gone... 44 employees layed off.

ERIC: And the article in the Anchorage Daily News?

SHAWN: They put their spin on it...

ERIC: Any thoughts on why Obama and the folks in Washington might be doing this?

SHAWN: Dealerships do not cost the manufacturer money, so why would the administration make it a qualification to get loans from the government? Why is the government involved in dictating who will and who will not be in business. Shouldn't the free market be governing society?

ERIC: Thank you Shawn.

Note - This interview was cross-posted by Josh Painter at Texas4Palin blogspot and excerpted at Conservatives4Palin blog.

Dondero responds to Little Miss Attila on "libertarian Republican" leaning Dealership closings

by Eric Dondero

Since this story first began late last week, there have been a number of conservative bloggers who have expressed great skepticism about the whole deal. Note, that this story evolved mostly from the libertarian side of the Right spectrum. For example, Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs was one of the very first ones to really give it play. This blog Libertarian Republican was among the first. Josh Painter of Texans4Palin and RedState, a very libertarian-leaner was also very early on with this story. (In fairness, Director Blue, a conservative site, was the very first to break it.)

One of the conservative skeptics, an otherwise very fine blogger, Little Miss Attila (Joyce McCann), casts doubt on the growing allegations this morning. From her Blog:

The Director Blue blogpost on potential political motivations for the shuttering of Chrysler dealerships is being updated continually, and the hypothesis is now being examined very closely. The difficulty, of course, lies in finding a control group of dealerships that are not being shut down but have given money to the Obama campaign. They exist, but that does not establish whether or not the closings are politically motivated.

Amazingly, she goes on to write this:

Naturally, the situation is complicated by the fact that entrepreneurs may trend libertarian/Republican in the first place.

YES!! Precisely, Little Miss! That's exactly the point. I'm hesitant to use the overly colloquial and cliche'd "Duh!," but Joyce's comment screams out for its use.

Joyce, this is a Randian "thang." (No coincidence Pamela at Atlas - photo right, was near first on the story.) The Obama Administration is attacking these Dealerships precisely because they are independent, entrepreneurial, and generally anti-government.

It's not that they dislike the owners personally. Who knows? Maybe there's some personal political vendettas there. But we're likely to never know.

No, this is mostly about ideology.

Recall, in the final days of Campaign '08, candidate Barack H. Obama, went out of his way in speeches to attack Randian concepts such as the "Virtue of Selfishness." In every way the Obama administration has let it be known that libertarians are his main enemies, even more so than conservatives. Witness Napolitano's DHS report which focused on libertarians. Conservative "extremists" were just a sidebar of the report, though, they received the bulk of the attention.

This is all about Obama vs. libertarians. And the dealerships are the brave individualist champions in the fight.

While we fully welcome the support of our conservative allies in this battle, it must be understood, that it is the libertarian/Randist side on the Right, that is under attack here. Much less so conservatives.

Note - Photo above is of Joyce McCann, alias Little Miss Attila. Ironically, Joyce, a good friend of both Stacy McCain's and John Hawkins, both dear friends of this Blog, describes herself as a "conservative with a libertarian bent."

Minority-owned Chrysler Dealerships in Michigan to stay open: Virtually all GOP backed Dealerships to close

Tom Lamb of "It's a Kwazy Life" blog has done the yeoman's work on another angle of the story. Lamb has found that virtually all Republican-owned Chrysler dealerships in the State of Michigan are slated to be closed down. In contrast, he could not find a single Minority-owned Chrysler dealership in Metro-Detroit, slated for closure.

Out of the 38 scheduled for closure dealerships statewide, only one single dealership was a Democrat donor. That dealership is Bero Motors in Escanaba (Upper Peninsula). However, Bero Motors has also given to Republicans in the past, including a $2,000 contribution in 2000, and a $300 contribution in 2008.

The List of Republican donor owned dealerships to be closed includes some rather large markets, in some rather Republican areas of the State:

Birmingham Chrysler, Troy (Richard Mealy - Republican Donor)

Colonial Dodge, Eastpointe (Arthur Roshak - Republican Donor)

Dirk Waltz Buick/Olds/Jeep, Midland (Dick Waltz - Republican Donor)

Livonia Chrysler Jeep, Livonia (Collen McDonald - Republican Donor)

M & M Dodge, Kalamazoo (Rand Koetje - Republican Donor)

Martin Chrysler-Jeep, Saginaw (William Martin - Republican Donor)

Meadowbrook Dodge, Rochester Hills (Tony Viviano - Republican Donor)

Monicatti Chrysler Jeep, Sterling Heights (Kenneth Monicatti - Republican Donor)

Riverside Auto Sales of Marquette, Marquette (Irma Elder - Minority Owned - Republican Donor for Bush/Cheney 2004 and RNC)

Note - the only two dealerships in Detroit itself that are scheduled for closure are Republican donor owned:

Lochmoor Chrysler Jeep, Detroit (August Russo - Republican Donor)

Tamaroff Dodge, Southfield (Anthony Jerome - Republican Donor)

Lamb makes the point that spokespersons for Chrysler have repeatedly said that smaller dealerships were "not as profitable," and indicated early on that those were the dealerships most likely to be closed. But more recently the situation has changed. He asserts:

The question is why would they remain open… With the Obama administration running the show, you could call it business madness to close profitable dealerships while keeping dealerships who should be closed, open.

Lamb also calls attention to a video of a national conference of Minority Auto Dealers, and another video of Congresswoman Maxine Waters warning against closure of such businesses at a committee hearing.

Back in December of 2008, Waters harangued an Auto Industry Exec about closing "small independent dealerships," which some took to mean minority-owned. Her comments in the hearing:

"I understand when you talk consolidation... to me it means that, the big dealerships with access to capitol, and multiple locations will be able to buy up the small independent dealer, and just put them out of business. And that bothers me. I don't see the small dealerships having access to capitol from the banks and financial institutions."

Chrysler CEO Robert Nardell is questioned by Waters towards the end of the video. See the video here.

Evening Updates: latest on GM/Chrysler Republican dealerships closing

Director Blue (The blog that started it all)

The growing scandal of GM and Chrysler dealerships being forced to close due to pressure from the Obama administration, now has an official name. Right Blogger Doug Ross of Director Blue blogspot has dubbed it "Dealergate."

Wall Street Journal

James Taranto of the WSJ has picked up the story, just hours ago. Their story is titled: "Beat the Dealer - Is Obama administration turning Chrysler into a patronage machine?"

The article comments about Ross's findings:

This situation certainly bears watching. If Ross's suspicion is unwarranted, we're sure Obama's many online defenders will be along soon with data to debunk it. If he's right, though, it could complicate the bankruptcy proceedings by giving the jilted dealers a basis on which to challenge their termination. It would also demonstrate that political intervention in private business is an invitation for the most brazen sort of corruption.

WND

World Net Daily is now healining the story: "Chrysler's 'hit list' targets GOP donors
Dealers who give to Republicans much more likely to be shuttered"

Malkin

Michelle Malkin is now featuring the story: "A look at protected Chrysler Dealerships"

Earlier Malkin had been skeptical of the story. Now she comments: "Bloggers are doing excellent work digging into the Chrysler dealership closure list."

Washington Examiner

The news site Washington Examiner covers the story, titled "Furor grows over partisan car dealer closings," and includes this intro:

Evidence appears to be mounting that the Obama administration has systematically targeted for closing Chrysler dealers who contributed to Repubicans. What started earlier this week as mainly a rumbling on the Right side of the Blogosphere has gathered some steam today with revelations that among the dealers being shut down are a GOP congressman and closing of competitors to a dealership chain partly owned by former Clinton White House chief of staff Mack McLarty.

NewsWire GTS

And from the Newswire: "Anger Growing About Politically Targetted Chrysler Dealer Closings" From the article:

The evidence is growing that the President and his Auto task force used the Chrysler dealer closings as a way to reward his supporters and punish his detractors. Through the great investigative work of blogs such as Redstate, Joey Smith, Gateway Pundit, Reboot Congress and Libertarian Republican this is what we know so far...

Editor's Note - LR Blog will be publishing a groundbreaking interview tomorrow from a Dealership affected by the closings.

LR Publisher Eric Dondero guest on Fox News Tom Sullivan show: GM/Chrysler closing of Republican-owned Dealerships

Libertarian Republican publisher Eric Dondero was a guest this afternoon on the Tom Sullivan Show on Fox News Talk. Sullivan's show based in New York, is syndicated nationwide on XM and Sirius Radio.

Dondero was a guest for 15 minutes opening the 3:00 pm est. segment. He was invited to speak on the latest revelations in the growing controversy over GM and Chrysler closing dealerships nationwide whose owners are Republican contributors and backers, or are unaffiliated politically.

http://www.foxnews.com/radio/tomsullivan/

SHOCKING! Dialogue between US Senator Jim Bunning and a representative of the Auto Industry at Committee hearings, from the Tom Sullivan show. Auto Industry Rep. stumbles when asked about pressure from above to close dealerships. (Must have Windows Media Player.)

052009_Bunning_Geithner.mp3 (1095KB)

Note - LR hopes to have an audio podcast of the segment later today. Additionally, LR conducted an interview this morning with owners in one of the Dealerships in question. The interview will be posted on a major Right website later today, and here, as well.

Cato slammed by liberal media on Sotomayor pick, as tool of the GOP

From Eric Dondero:

The Cato Institute sent out a release early yesterday, in reaction to the Sotomayor pick. LR received the following two quotes from Chris Moody, Director of New Media, for Cato:

Ilya Shapiro: “In picking Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama has confirmed that identity politics matter to him more than merit. Judge Sotomayor is not one of the leading lights of the federal judiciary and would not even have been on the shortlist if she were not Hispanic…. If this is the kind of “empathy” the president wants from his judges, we are in for a long summer—and more bitter confirmation battles in the future.”

Roger Pilon: “President Obama chose the most radical of all the frequently mentioned candidates before him.”

The mainstream media also picked up on the quotes. And ironically, at least one media source is now slamming Cato as being in the bag for the Republican Party.

Bonnie Erbe, US News & World Report:

Blog posts such as this one from a Cato Institute fellow are so unfair, but simultaneously so helpful to the Democratic Party. It's confounding why the people making them would be so short-sighted...

The first thing conservative or, this is from the Cato Institute's website, libertarian bloggers do when they question Judge Sonia Sotomayor's qualifications, is send every swing Hispanic voter solidly into the Democratic camp. It's even worse when they question her intelligence (which this blogger does by excluding Judge Sotomayor from the category of judicial leading lights.)

Ironic, cause Cato has a reputation for being very socially liberal, and in no way aligned with social conservatives.

Note - LR Senior Editor Cliff Thies has a piece now up at our sister site Worldwide Liberty blogspot, titled: Is Sotomayor really the first Hispanic? What about ethnic Portuguese Justice Cardozo?

Hospital's African immigrant supervisor insults fellow employee, a US Army wife, throws her American flag on the floor

From Jim Lagnese:

CBS News TV in Dallas-Ft. Worth is reporting that an employee for a suburban Hospital had her American flag taken down by a fellow Supervisor during Memorial Day observance. The Supervisor who removed the flag from the shared workspace, said that he found it to be "offensive." From the report:

Debbie McLucas is one of four hospital supervisors at Kindred Hospital in Mansfield...

McLucas said the supervisor who complained has been in the United States for 14 years and is formerly from Africa. McLucas said the supervisor took down Debbie's flag herself.

"The flag and the pole had been placed on the floor," McLucas said.

Ms. McLucas is the proud mother of a daughter currently serving in Iraq as a combat media. Both her husband and sons are also Army Vets. CBS reports that the incident led her to tears.

The hospital in question is Kindred Corporation headquartered in Kentucky. Their affiliate in Texas is in the city of Mansfield. They are taking the matter under consideration.

Editor's Note - Jim's blog is RightGuy at blogspot.

UPDATE!

The local DFW NBC affiliate is now confirming that the Supervisor in question is indeed an "Emigrant," which appears in the headline of their story. NBC advances the storyline:

The coworker, who emigrated to America from Africa 14 years ago, was apparently so bothered by the timely display that a complaint was filed with upper management.

LINKS!

This story was linked by the top news website Memeorandum.

Mid-South Chrysler Dealerships owned by two prominent Democrats will no longer have competition in their Regions

RLJ-McLarty Johnson Chrysler Dealership serves 5 states: Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama, Louisiana and Kansas. New documents just uncovered show that the Dealership will no longer have any competiton within at least a 20-mile radius of their lots.

Mack McLarty is the former Chief of Staff for the Clinton Administration. Robert Johnson, is the Founder and former CEO of Black Entertainment Television. He is currently Co-Owner of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats. He shares ownership with Michael Jordan, and Rap star Nelly.

The 6 Dealerships owned by RLJ McLarty Johnson that are slated to remain open, are: Bentonville, AR, Kansas City, MO, Branson, MO, Oloath, KS (KC suburb), Bossier City, LA, and Huntsville, AL.


At least 11 competing dealerships surrounding RLJ McLarty Johnson dealerships have been eliminated in the new plan forced on Chrysler by the Obama administration.

Joey Smith who has been investigating the growing Chrysler Dealership closure issue comments:

It appears that the company will benefit greatly from the reduced competition in their markets. For the most part, the dealerships that are forced to shut down in the 5 markets have either given no money to candidates or have donated to GOP candidates in the past... McLarty campaigned for Obama in 2008, and Johnson has given countless amounts of money to Democrats over the years.

Meanwhile, a lawyer representing Chrysler dealers said that it is his impression that Chrysler Execs do not support the Obama administrations plan. Leonard Bellavia is a partner at Bellavia Gentile & Associates out of Detroit. He was interviewed by Reuters , after he deposed Chrysler President Jim Press. He was quoted (via Astute Bloggers):

"It became clear to us that Chrysler does not see the wisdom of terminating 25 percent of its dealers," Bellavia said. "It really wasn't Chrysler's decision. They are under enormous pressure from the President's automotive task force."

RLJ McLarty Johnson memo:

RLJ Dealerships

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Finance Business & Law dealers Chrysler

This Story is developing...

High correlation with Republican Districts set for Auto Dealership closures

JUST BREAKING...

Conservative blogger Joey Smith has uncovered new information overnight regarding the growing Obama/Chrysler Dealership closure scandal.

He is reporting via Gateway this morning:

I have obtained two pdf files from the bankruptcy court.

One is the list of dealers to close and the other is the list to stay open.

There is an extremely high correlation between dealers closing and congressional districts BHO lost.

He goes on to report that:

Texas is getting killed and Blue States are sliding by. Florida is also taking major hits and nearly all are in Republican Congressional Districts.

I will know much better when I start doing all the cross reference work after I finally get the data into Excel, but that is going to take time since the data has to be formatted up manually and there are over 2000 dealers involved between the two lists.

So far what I see smells big time.

Sarah Palin, Alaska Republicans targetted by Auto Dealership cuts

David and Linda Hutchings are big Alaska Republican Party donors. Now, they're long standing GM Dealership, a business that has received numerous awards for service and sales, is being forced to convert itself into a used car lot. The Obama administration informed General Motors that they needed to scale back dealerships nationwide. GM just informed the Soldotna dealership that they were on the list.

From the Anchorage Daily News (ADN):

"Hutchings Chevrolet in Soldotna did decide to terminate its General Motors franchise agreements. But it’s not closing.

“We’re terminating our GM franchise but we’re going to remain open for parts and service and used car sales,” General Manager Shawn Hutchings (sic) said when I called him about it....

...We had made the decision… but the Obama administration made a recommendation to GM that if they wanted to get any of their funding or loans moving forward that they would need to scale back their dealer body. And we did receive a letter on Friday saying that we were one of the dealerships they would be cutting."

A summary of an FEC report for Southeast Alaska political contributions shows:

MR. DAVID HUTCHINGS (HUTCHINGS CHEVROLET-CADILLAC INC./P), (Zip code: 99669) $1000 to JOHN MCCAIN 2008 INC. on 04/17/08

Additionally, since 2005, David and Linda Hutchings have made numerous $200 to $500 donations to the Republican Congressional Committee. And specific donations by the Hutchings include Senator Ted Stevens, and Katherine Harris, Republican for US Senate in Florida.

Shea Hutchings (photo) is also listed as a significant contributor to the GOP. He is Sales Manager of the Dealership.

Meg Stapleton, SarahPAC spokesperson had this to say:

Soldotna lost a new car dealership as part of the federal intervention. 44 local jobs were terminated. Over a million dollars in annual payroll was lost. The net effect to Soldotna is substantial. Obama's actions have directly impacted Alaska and Soldotna.

Side Note - Both Linda Hutchings and Shea Hutchings are active politically in Soldotna. Linda Hutchings serves on the Parks Advisory Board. Shea Hutchings is an elected City Council member.

Interestingly, the ADN failed to mention Shea Hutchings as a City Council member in their article, and did not mention the Republican affiliations of the Hutchings family.

First reactions from Senator Cornyn for Judge Sotomayor’s nomination

"It is imperative that my colleagues and members of the media do not pre-judge or pre-confirm Ms. Sotomayor. It is my hope that the process will allow her to prove herself to possess the impartiality, integrity, legal expertise and judicial temperament that we have come to expect from those that sit on our highest court. She must prove her commitment to impartially deciding cases based on the law, rather than based on her own personal politics, feelings, and preferences."

Sen. Cornyn serves on the Finance, Judiciary and Budget Committees.

Editor's Note - Sent to us from Sen. Cornyn's office this afternoon.

Government shutting down GOP-owned Chrysler Dealerships: Libertarian Republicans especially targetted

Like "Stalinist Russia"

The government is stealing my business... This is still America, I think. I mean, this isn't Stalinist Russia. This is not Nazi Germany where the troopers say you're out and their buddies are in. That's what I'm faced with." -- Jim Anderer, Chrysler Dealership, Long Island, NY (Neal Cavuto's show on Fox News)


An on-line researcher for DirectorBlue at blogspot, has uncovered some interesting information in regards to which Chrysler Dealerships are being closed down, and which ones are to remain.

According to the tipster on the Blog:

To quickly review the situation, I took all dealer owners whose names appeared more than once in the list. And, of those who contributed to political campaigns, every single one had donated almost exclusively to GOP candidates. While this isn't an exhaustive review, it does have some ominous implications if it can be verified.

Here's a list of the Top 10 donors:

• Vernon G. Buchanan: $147,450 to GOP candidates and organizations
• Wallace D. Alley and Family: $4,500 to GOP.
• Robert Archer: $4,600 to GOP and conservative causes.
• Homer S. Higginbotham and Family: $2950 to GOP.
• James Auffenberg and Family: $28,000 to GOP; $6,000 to one Democrat candidate.
• Michael Maroone and Family: $60,000 to GOP; $8,500 to two Democrat candidates.
• Jerome Fader: $6,500 to Democrats; $2,500 to Independent Joe Lieberman.
• Stephen Fay and Family: $13,500 to GOP.
• William Numrich: $20,000 to GOP.
• Robert Carver: $10,000 to Democrats including $1,950 to Hillary Clinton, nothing to Obama.

Of course, Vern Buchanan is a Republican Congressman from the Tampa Bay area. Robert Archer is the son of former Republican Congressman Bill Archer. John Culberson, a libertarian-leaning Conservative, is now the Congressman for that West Houston District. He was heavily supported in his election efforts by the Archers Family.

Additionally, James Crowley, owner of a Chrysler Dealership in Escondido, California is on the list to be closed. Crowley is a big backer of libertarian-leaning Republican Cong. John Campbell of Orange County.

Ron Paul's top funder is on the Targetted List

Ron Paul supporters may be interested to note that further down the list, Ray Huffines' name appears: Ray Huffines and Family: $18,500 to GOP. He is the son of Hard Right Gold Bug and longtime Paul supporter Donald Huffines (photo). The Huffines Family have been supporters of Ron Paul since his Libertarian Presidential run in 1988. More recently, Huffines made 4 contributions to the Committee to Re-Elect Ron Paul, and Ron Paul's other Campaigns of $2300 each in 2007/08. He also contributed to Ron Paul's friend Murray Sabrin in New Jersey for his Governor's race of $2300. (Source: Watchdog.net) The Huffines sprawling Dealership in Metro-Dallas/Ft. Worth is on the list to be closed down by Chrysler.

Fred Barber, owner of 9 Chrysler Dealerships throughout Utah, had this to say:

"Was there any rhyme or reason to why certain dealerships were selected and others not? What's next for the targeted dealerships, and what will be the ripple effects?

This is as close to socialism as I've seen — we've got the government running the automotive industry."

Developing Story...

(H/t Pamela at Atlas)

UPDATE!

A major Right Blogger, one of the Top 10 in the entire Rightosphere, just commented to LR Blog: "If this turns out to be true, Obama is behaving criminally."

UPDATE!!

This article was quoted at Mainstream Conservative blogspot. Publisher Josh Painter comments: "Shades of the Nixon enemies list..."

UPDATE!

LR has learned that a Major Right site may be breaking this story wide open later today. Stay tuned...

UPDATE!

RedState.com just picked up this story, and featured Libertarian Republican as one of the major sources for the piece.

Brit Expenses Scandal reaches Gordon Brown: Pay-outs to brother Andrew for Cleaning Services rendered

Nepotism and the Cleaning Man

A new revelation this morning coming out of the UK, and one that could reach to the highest elective office in the land.

From the Daily Mail:

THE financial scandal engulfing British parliamentarians now threatens to bring down the socialist government of Gordon Brown...


John O'Sullivan in the NY Daily News has the specifics. He calls it the "MOTHER OF ALL BRITISH SCANDALS," (all caps Mssr. O'Sullivan). The columnist let's loose:

Prime Minister Gordon Brown claimed $8,000 to pay for his brother to clean his London apartment.

Gordie's brother Andrew is listed as a "Researcher." He's been described as "thoughtful, calming and sensitive" in a Daily Telegraph profile piece. The younger Brown has had various job titles with firms charged with lobbying the government, since the Brown the elder took over as Prime Minister.

The Telegraph offers more info in a May 8 expose':

The receipts submitted to the Parliamentary authorities show that he paid his brother, a senior executive at EDF Energy, £6,577 over 26 months between 2004 and 2006 for cleaning at his flat.

Brown is trying to sweep the allegations under the rug, by claiming that he simply paid his brother to pay the cleaner. But the British press isn't buying the story. Questions are being raised by both media and other parliamentarians as to why then, didn't Brown simply pay the cleaner directly?

In the Daily Telegraph Matthew Elliott, spokesman for the Taxpayers Alliance said:

"Taxpayers will be appalled that the rot in parliament seems to go right to the Cabinet and even Downing Street."

Editor's Note - the photo above of the "Cleaning Man," is simply a depiction and not of Andrew Brown. Though, his photo can be seen at the link for the Telegraph above.

The Governator is back! Post-Proposition losses, Schwarzenegger is proposing Deep Cuts in Social Programs

by Eric Dondero

The glaring Headline in the L.A. Times:

Poor would be hard hit by proposed California budget cuts

So, you know from a libertarian perspective it's gotta be good.

The Times goes on to report:

Schwarzenegger is considering a plan to slash California's safety net for the poor by eliminating the state's main welfare program, health insurance for low-income families and cash grants to college students

And it gets even better for us libertarian government slashers.

The specifics outlined include:

Abolishing CalWorks that provides social services to 500,000 low income families

elimination of the Healthy Families program

Abolishing CalGrants that provides financial assistance to college students

and under consideration:

Eliminating $600 from state universities

and $750 million from state prisons, for rehabilitation programs

One conservative commentator is already cheering on the cuts. In the Marin Independent Journal, columnist Dick Spotswood opined:

The landslide loss both statewide and in Marin of Propositions 1A through 1E was a rare Republican victory.

What they didn't bargain for was that the conservative agenda of permanently capping taxes and shrinking government would carry the day.

They came to understand that the Golden State has too many public employees who are excessively compensated.

The reality is that it's state government that's bloated and broke. Terminate the thousands of bureaucrats clustered in Sacramento and few Californians would notice.

And don't count on the Feds stepping in. The Federal Government is giving off signs that it does not plan to bail California out.

Top GOP Consultant gives Libertarian Republicans the entire West

Frank Donatelli, Chairman of GOPAC made the following comment in a Washington Times editorial. From the "The Road to Recovery," Tuesday, May 26:

Although our party is dedicated to a set of principles, we must allow for different application and interpretation of those principles in various parts of the country. Should our candidates reflect the views of voters in given districts? Of course! How else will they get elected? We'll have strong conservatives elected in the South and Plains states, Republicans with more libertarian leanings in the West, and yes, a few moderates in the Northeast. A diverse party must be reflective of a diverse country.

Some prominent Western Republicans with libertarian leanings include:

Sarah Palin, Rick Perry, John Thune, Jeff Flake, John Culberson, and Tom McClintock.

Though, at least one Republican fits the Western mode, but governs in the South: Mark Sanford of South Carolina.

Honor our Veterans: Return remains of MIAs on the Lost US Territorities of the Pacific

by Eric Dondero

One of the fiercest battles of World War II was fought on Makin atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It was fought from November 20 to Nov. 24, 1943. The island, and surrounding islands in the Gilbert Island chain had been occupied by the Japanese since the beginning of the War. Admiral Charles Nimitz launched a plan to win these islands back from the Japanes after defeating them, and kicking them out of the Alaskan Aleutian islands chain.


The Japanese Garrison numbered 806 men. After bombing raids by American forces, Troops landed on Red Beach. Despite snipers, the Troops made steady progress, killing Japanese soldiers in bunkers. Eventually they made their way to the other side of the atoll and cleared all remaining Jap forces. But the real battles were fought at sea. American casualties combined for the US Navy and Marines numbered 697, and on the island itself another 66.

In 2000, remains of 19 US Servicemen were returned to the US and buried at Arlington Cemetery. But remains for the MIAs were never recovered. A number of expeditions by WWII Vets to the island to recover remains, including one Australian, were made over the years, but were ultimately unsuccessful.

In the 1990s, the Clinton Administration State Department quietly turned over Makin island and 3 other islands approximately 500 miles to the East, close to the US Territories of Palmyra and Johnston Atolls (directly south of Hawaii), to the Island Nation of Kiribati.

Veterans groups such as the VFW at the time objected. But the Islands were ceded without Congressional approval. (The office of Congressman Don Young of Alaska, Chairman of the House Committee on Territories and Insular Affairs, briefly looked into the matter in 2001, but could not come to any conclusions of the rightful status of the Islands.)

Retired Lt. Commander Carl Olson of State Department Watch asserts that the following islands were turned over: Washington Island, Fanning Island, Makin Island, and Little Makin Island.

Olson was featured in a 2001 article by the Atlantic Monthly commenting on Kiribati and other US Territories that have been turned over withouth Congressional approval.

From "The Lost Islands" by Richard Rubin, Feb. 2001:

Olson, a man whose flat midwestern accent and persistent geniality make him sound less like a political agitator than like a letter carrier in a 1950s television comedy, is the founder and chairman of State Department Watch, a small organization dedicated to, as he describes it, "following the bizarre behavior of the State Department."

The United States has lost three groups of islands: one off the coast of Alaska, one in the central Pacific, and one in the Caribbean. He asserts that some of the lost Alaskan islands—there are eight in all, including Wrangel Island, which he describes as being "the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined"

The rest of the islands in question, those in the Caribbean and the Pacific, were either taken by the United States during the Spanish-American War, Olson says, or acquired under the Guano Islands Act of 1856

The issue of the Caribbean islands was handed over to Paolo Di Rosa, at the State Department's legal office for Western Hemisphere affairs. Di Rosa acknowledges only that he has indeed been assigned to handle the matter and that "different islands are in a different status." Asked about Serranilla Bank and Bajo Nuevo, he responds cryptically: "Some of these islands or banks or whatever, we have asserted sovereignty over in various international contexts, even in the face of competing claims from other countries, and we consider our claims superior."

Di Rosa's counterpart at the legal office for East Asian and Pacific affairs, James Hergen, is even less specific regarding the status of the Pacific islands: "I have no position on it at all," he states cheerfully. He has passed Olson's inquiries on to the governments of Kiribati and the Cook Islands, he says, but "I'm still waiting to hear back."

Olson never heard back from Di Rosa, and to date the Island Nation of Kiribati has taken over the 4 US Islands without a murmur from Congress or the State Department.

And the status of the Makin MIAs remains unresolved.

Notes - Photos are of Tarawa Island in the Kiribati chain which come from the official Republic of Kiribati Tourism site. They are listed on the website as: Relics of World War 2 on Betio islet, South Tarawa. The photo at the top is of the original US invastion of the Makin Atoll. (Kiribati is pronounced Kir-a-bash).

Note - I am a Veteran of the US Navy, having served in the Pacific and Indian Oceans on the USS Kittyhawk CV-63, 1981-85. Currently, I am a member of the both the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion.