Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has dropped out of the 2016 Presidential race. While Jindal is much more qualified to be President than Donald Trump or Carly Fiorina, he was always a longshot, He exceeded expectations in that he outlasted Scott Walker and Rick Perry, but he never managed to gain any traction.
Bobby Jindal Drops Out
November 18th, 2015Texas Democratic Congressman Ruben Hinojosa Retiring
November 16th, 2015“Longtime Rio Grande Valley Congressman Ruben Hinojosa (D-Mercedes) is not seeking re-election in 2016.”
Rio Grande Valley is the Democratic Party’s last stronghold outside a few urban cores. The Texas 15th Congressional District runs in a strip from the valley up to near San Antonio. The district was formerly held by John Nance Garner and Lloyd Bentsen, and has never elected a Republican. It’s an 80% Hispanic district.
A 2016 pickup target for Republicans? I think they’ll take a run at it, but it’s a tough nut to crack. Hinojosa won in 2014 with a solid, but not overwhelming, 54% of the vote, but garnered 61% in 2012’s Presidential election year. I could see Republicans sneaking a win if everything broke just right (having Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio on top of the ticket wouldn’t hurt), but this probably only takes it from Solid D to Leans D.
Tweets About The Paris Attack
November 14th, 2015Current news from Paris: the death toll is now at 128 and the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for what French President Francois Hollande calls (correctly) an “act of war.”
A few tweets about the Paris attacks and reactions to it:
#BREAKING One attacker saying "This is for Syria" and the other attacker saying "Allahu Akbar"!before being killed. Per @FoxNews
— SusanKnowles (@SusanKnowles) November 13, 2015
BREAKING: French authorities say #Paris police have retaken a concert hall where gunmen held at least 100 hostages. https://t.co/Xf7nZwkplk
— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 14, 2015
So, any guess as to the identity of these "gunmen"? A. Presbyterians. B. Mormons, or C. Muslim men between the ages of 18 and 45? @FoxNews
— BattleSwarm (@BattleSwarmBlog) November 14, 2015
If open borders aren't a threat, then why did France close their borders? https://t.co/mAUxQbzxh3
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 14, 2015
At least 5 #AllahAkbar attackers "neutralised," international press reports. And this: https://t.co/Fu90rIIdQa
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) November 14, 2015
French President Francoise Hollande says blamed Islamic State for #Paris attacks, labelling it an 'act of war'. https://t.co/IOcvCvSbob
— smh.com.au (@smh) November 14, 2015
I turn on CNN for news about heinous terror attack & I get gun control propaganda & stupid Muslim backlash unicorn talk.
Garbage fire.
— John Nolte (@NolteNC) November 14, 2015
The wake of a mass murder perpetrated by immigrants in the name of the religion they brought with them is no time for talking about borders!
— Conservative Pundit (@DemsRRealRacist) November 14, 2015
Do we yet know what offensive YouTube video caused them to commit this spontaneous act? @Hegghammer @pspoole #Paris
— BattleSwarm (@BattleSwarmBlog) November 14, 2015
I bet your Paris peace symbol will be just as effective at fighting radical islam as your coexist bumper sticker. @mydailyissue
— BattleSwarm (@BattleSwarmBlog) November 14, 2015
@KurtSchlichter what ever gave you that idea "Terrorism has a religion." pic.twitter.com/Oow76Xxn7R
— mikem (@kidflash112) November 14, 2015
.@piersmorgan ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has a PhD in Islamic theology from Islamic U of Baghdad. What are your credentials?
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) November 14, 2015
I'm imagining @piersmorgan standing outside the 1938 Nuremberg with a big sign saying THESE AREN'T REAL NATIONAL SOCIALISTS! @LilMissRightie
— BattleSwarm (@BattleSwarmBlog) November 14, 2015
Remember when @BarackObama went to Paris after the Charlie Hebdo attacks to denounce Islamic terror? Probably not, because he played golf.
— Steve Goddard (@SteveSGoddard) November 14, 2015
These Mizzou protesters are actually trying to compare their crap to what happened in Paris. Please just don't. You look ignorant
— Ryan Armstrong (@rmarmstrong88) November 14, 2015
Paris death toll up to 100. U.S. college students need to tell Parisians about real violence from Halloween costumes & "trigger words."
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) November 14, 2015
150 dead is EXACTLY the same as the horror of gendered pronouns https://t.co/Ey9YqulnmE
— Michele Frost (@michelelfrost) November 14, 2015
100+ Dead in Islamic Attack on Paris
November 13th, 2015“Terrorists wielding AK-47s and hurling explosives executed at least 100 people inside a Paris concert hall late Friday night, in a massacre that followed coordinated attacks that killed at least 40 more people, rocking the French capital — prompting President Francois Hollande to close the entire nation’s borders and order a state of emergency.”
There are reports that the Islamic State took responsibility. Also reports that Belgium has closed their border.
This is not a “tragedy,” as so many mealy-mouth leftists are calling it. This was an act of war. And Europe’s current open borders policy on Middle East “refugees” almost certainly contributed to it.
Two exceptionally obvious courses of action present themselves:
- All of Europe, not just Paris, should close their borders until adequate border controls are in place, and immediately start forcibly deporting illegal aliens from Muslim countries.
- Paris should ask that Article 5 of the NATO treaty be activated, to be followed shortly by a broad coalition (including the United States) completely destroying the Islamic State and followed by a heavy, lasting multinational occupation of the territory formerly held by it.
For a long time, liberals have soft-peddled and downplayed Islamic terrorism so they could continue their moral preening about how enlightened and sophisticated they are. The time for people dying so liberals can avoid feeling bad about themselves is over. Either confront radical Islam with the force necessary to destroy it, or cede power to those willing to do so.
Texas vs. California Update for November 12, 2015
November 12th, 2015Time for another Texas vs. California roundup:
Waco Update: 106 Bikers Indicted
November 11th, 2015106 bikers involved in the Waco biker shootout have been indicted. (A complete list of those indicted can be found here.)
However, as far as I can tell, the indictment is only for engaging in an “organized criminal conspiracy.” No one has yet been charged with murder.
More indictments may be due the next time a grand jury meets, which will be later this month. Hopefully standard information (like ballistics reports) the Waco police have thus far withheld will finally be released.
Shrimp Boy Chow Trial Begins
November 11th, 2015Looks like it’s going to be all crime blotter news today.
First up: Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow’s racketeering trial started November 9.
Chow, 56, is charged with running the Ghee Tung Kong, a Chinese American community organization he has led since 2006, as a racketeering enterprise that trafficked in guns, drugs and stolen goods. He is also charged with arranging the murder of the organization’s previous leader, Allen Leung, and with conspiring to seek the murder of an alleged gang rival, Jim Tat Kong, who was shot to death in Mendocino County in October 2013. He has been held without bail since his arrest in March 2014.
First Democratic State Senator Leland Yee was supposed to be the big fish, but then he plead guilty to one piddling count of racketeering. That leaves Chow as the big fish, especially since so many lesser defendants have plead guilty to lesser charges.
The biggest charge against him is, of course, murder, but the evidence presented thus far on that is hardly conclusive.
(Hat tip: Dwight.)
Have Austin Taxpayers Finally Had Enough?
November 10th, 2015One of the more surprising results from last week’s election was Austin voters defeated a courthouse bond package.
Austin City Council Member Don Zimmerman, who led the opposition to the courthouse project, said the last-minute defeat of the bonds was an “absolute stunning result.”
“The corporate downtown special interest lobby spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on this,” he said. His anti-courthouse campaign through the Travis County Taxpayers Union barely spent anything, he said. “I think a lot of people heard that and said, ‘Well why are hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent if it’s such a good idea?’”
He said part of the reason the bonds were rejected is that Austin-area voters are increasingly concerned about affordability and increasingly loathe to support tax increases.
Because I live outside the city limits and in Williamson County, I was only vaguely aware of the Courthouse bond issue. As long as I’ve been in the Austin area, I can’t recall another bond issue going down in flames like this one. Could the People’s Republic of Austin finally have had enough of tax increases?
“It is not that complicated,” said local attorney Mark Pulliam. “Travis County homeowners are sick of property tax increases.”
“Only pompous, out-of-touch downtown lawyers — like those who belong to the Austin Bar Association — would think that a 14-story high-rise costing more than The Austonian, and almost as much as the just-completed JW Marriott, the largest in the North America, made sense,” he told Watchdog.org.
The Watchdog piece suggests that the long overdue move to single City Council districts may have been a factor in defeating the bond issue.
Also, Travis County suburbs may finally have become populous enough to balance out the liberal central city for county elections like this one. Indeed, that’s what this map suggests.