Ted Cruz (and Myself) Climb Aboard the Stop SOPA Bandwagon

January 18th, 2012

I’m sure that if you do any web-browsing at all, you’ve noticed all the Stop SOPA Blackouts (or, in the case of Fark, a white out) in opposition to the ill-conceived, MPAA-backed SOPA IP “protection” bill that would open up roughly, oh 99% of the web or so to frivolous lawsuits and censorship in the name of copyright protection. I haven’t been blogging about it because: A.) I have other fish to fry, B.) Lots of other bloggers are carrying the load there, and C.) I have a innate aversion to jumping on big internet bandwagons that everyone seems to agree with.

But now that Texas Senate Candidate Ted Cruz has climbed aboard the Stop SOPA bandwagon, I have an excuse to do so. This is another example of how quickly the Cruz campaign acts on current events, and seems to get a jump on its rivals when it comes to hot-button issues, as it did on Fast and Furious, and a quick look showed nothing about SOPA up on the David Dewhurst, Tom Leppert or Craig James websites.

SOPA is a bad bill, and while not nearly as big a concern as out-of-control spending by the federal government, it deserves to be killed.

I note that one of the bill’s main backers, Republican Lamar Smith of San Antonio, has not yet drawn any primary opposition for House District 21. Perhaps some San Antonio conservative might rectify that when the extended campaign filing period opens up after the redistricting case is settled…

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Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | 1 Comment »

New PPP Poll: Cruz Up, Dewhurst Still Leading But Down

January 17th, 2012

The latest PPP poll has David Dewhurst still leading the Senate race at 36%, but that’s down five points since their last poll, while Cruz is up 6 points at 18%. Leppert is a distant third at 7% and Craig James comes in at 4%.

Most surprising piece of data: 39% of Dewhurst supporters identify with the Tea Party.

Caveats: The margin of error is +/-4.2%, and PPP is a left-leaning polling company. Still, even at twice Cruz’s support, the Dewhurst campaign can’t be happy with the overall trends…

Full report here.

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Dewhurst Raises Disappointing $1.54 Million From Donors in Q4

January 17th, 2012

David Dewhurst only raised $1.54 Million from donors in Q4.

While far from chicken-feed, those numbers seem really disappointing to me, especially given that he pulled in $2.64 million in donor contributions in Q3. Those are just donor numbers, and we don’t know much of Dewhurst’s own considerable wealth he tossed in until he tells us, or his official FEC numbers go up (there’s usually a significant lag between the campaign announcement and the FEC putting the numbers up).

As the establishment candidate and presumptive favorite, Dewhurst should be running away in the fundraising race. He’s not.

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Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | 3 Comments »

TPPF Texas Senate Debate Roundup and Video, Plus A Few Other Race Tidbits

January 16th, 2012

I was busy with a family even over the weekend, so I haven’t had a chance to sit down and watch the debate all the way through. But I’ll go ahead and put it up for others to take a gander at (Hat tip: The Right Side of Austin). Be aware that the debate doesn’t actually start until over an hour into the video. I’ve heard of long intros, but that’s ridiculous…

Watch live streaming video from texaspublicpolicyfoundation at livestream.com

I’ll save my own comments until I get a chance to watch the whole video.

Here’s a live blog of the debate.

The Cruz campaign sent out a list of links, and rather than link all of them and claim them as my own, I’ll just direct you thataway.

One link they didn’t send out was this review over at Big Jolly Politics, where he gave James, Addison and Dewhurst As, Cruz a B, and Leppert a C.

Kathleen McKinney ranked it Cruz first, James second, and Leppert last (“Not a lot of flash there”), though her overall impressions of all were positive.

In other Senate race news:

  • Reuters on the Tea Party/Establishment dynamic of the race.
  • Here’s another piece on how Ted Cruz told the absolute truth, but lazy reporters might misinterpret what he said.
  • Craig James appears on Fox News:

  • Democratic candidate Paul Sadler finally has a website, plus Facebook and Twitter pages.

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    Posted in Elections, Media Watch, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »

    Saddle Up Texas Straw Poll Results

    January 14th, 2012

    I’ve been busy hosting a family even this weekend, so I haven’t been able to do a post on Thursday’s debate. But I wanted to point out the results of the straw poll at Saddle Up Houston (which, with 3,321 voters, had a lot more attendees than I suspected).

    Keep in mind all the usual caveats that apply to straw polls: They don’t tend to mean a lot when it comes to real voting.

    President

    Ron Paul: 54.4%
    Rick Santorum: 15.6%
    Rick Perry: 13.3%
    Newt Gingrich: 11.9%
    Mitt Romney: 4.2%
    Jon Huntsman: 0.5%
    Charles “Buddy” Roemer: 0.0% (Jeeze, how do you not manage to snag even .1% of the vote?)

    That’s an excellent showing for Ron Paul, but Paul has consistently proven himself much more adept at winning straw polls than primaries. Caveats aside, it’s a bad showing for Rick Perry (if you can’t win a straw poll in your own state, where can you win it?) and Mitt Romney (the frontrunner should get more than 4.2% of the vote, even against two favorite sons).

    Senate

    Ted Cruz: 49.1%
    Craig James: 12.9%
    Glenn Addison: 12.0%
    Tom Leppert: 9.1%
    Lela Pittenger: 9.1%
    David Dewhurst: 7.1%
    Charles Holcomb: 0.3%
    “Doc Joe” Agris: 0.3%
    Curt Cleaver: 0.0%
    Ben Gambini: 0.0%

    That’s good news for Ted Cruz, Craig James and Glenn Addison, and bad news for David Dewhurst. And even though Tom Leppert outpointed Dewhurst, he can’t feel good at merely tying Lela Pittenger, who has neither campaigned as much as him, nor spent 1/1000th of what he has. (Also, Doc Agris can’t feel good about putting up such a paltry total in his own back yard.) Gambini getting 0% isn’t a surprise, since he’s been the invisible man. Cleaver getting 0% is a bit more surprising, since he’s had at least the semblance of a campaign.

    But again, these results don’t mean much, as I seriously doubt we’re going to see Craig James battle Glenn Addison for a spot in the runoff against Cruz. They do highlight an enthusiasm gap between Cruz and Dewhurst, but just how much of that gap will translate into votes remains to be seen. I don’t think we’ll get a glimpse of how the race is shaping up in the minds of actual primary voters until we see polls from some of the established polling companies like Gallup, Zogby and Rasmussen.

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    Going Down, Down, Down…

    January 13th, 2012

    France’s credit rating, that is. “Standard & Poor’s has downgraded France’s credit rating, French TV reported Friday, while several euro zone countries face the same fate later in the day, according to reports.” Maybe because that “strict” 2012 budget France passed still had a budget deficit of 4.5% of GDP, despite the EU having a “limit” (in much the same way the Professional Wrestling has a “limit” on fouls) of 3.0%.

    That would be the second largest economy in the Eurozone behind Germany, and the fifth largest in the world.

    And the U.S. Federal Government’s 2012 budget deficit is running at about 6.9% of GDP…

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    LinkSwarm for January 12, 2012

    January 12th, 2012

    I had a maid service come clean my house in advance of a family event I’m hosting this weekend. It’s amazing the difference between “Bachelor Clean” and “Clean Clean.” It’s almost as big as the difference between “Obama Smart” and “Actually Smart”…

  • Micheal Totten could use your help. He does good work, and I still need to review The Road to Fatima Gate. I donated, and so has insta.
  • Rick Perry tears into “Big Government Conservatism.”
  • Comptroller Susan Combs denies a wind farm subsidy. Personally I’d end all “green subsidies.” Let the market pick energy winners and losers, not government.
  • Free Pepper Spray for women being handed out in Austin. (Hat tip: Stuff From Hsoi)
  • Why it’s uneconomical to manufacture anything in the UK:

    If we build the Raspberry Pi in Britain, we have to pay a lot more tax. If a British company imports components, it has to pay tax on those (and most components are not made in the UK). If, however, a completed device is made abroad and imported into the UK – with all of those components soldered onto it – it does not attract any import duty at all. This means that it’s really, really tax inefficient for an electronics company to do its manufacturing in Britain, and it’s one of the reasons that so much of our manufacturing goes overseas. Right now, the way things stand means that a company doing its manufacturing abroad, depriving the UK economy, gets a tax break. It’s an absolutely mad way for the Inland Revenue to be running things.

    (Hat tip: Slashdot)

  • The difference between Obama’s vision of America and Republicans’.
  • After blowing over half a billion dollars in taxpayer funds, Obama’s green energy crony capitalism favorites are asking the bankruptcy judge to let them pay bonuses to remaining employees. And that’s on top of the hefty bonuses they paid executives right before declaring bankruptcy. Your tax dollars at work…

  • Obama is not so popular in Florida.
  • The New York Times, in its infinite genius, sends a vegetarian to review steakhouses and BBQ joints in Kansas City. That’s some mighty fine reporting there, Lou. (Hat tip: Dwight)

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    Posted in Austin, Crime, Media Watch, Obama Scandals, Regulation, Texas | No Comments »

    The Federal Debt In Household Terms

    January 12th, 2012

    Something to show those who think the rising national debt is no big deal…

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    Texas Senate Race Update for January 11, 2012

    January 11th, 2012

    I expect the campaigns to start announcing Q4 fundraising results any day now, and I just sent off a list of interview questions to the Craig James campaign today. So here’s one final news roundup of the senate race before an expected avalanche of news.

  • Young Conservative of Texas endorse Ted Cruz.
  • Though tickets are gone, you can catch Thursday’s Texas Public Policy Foundation candidate debate the live webcast.
  • A brief overview of the candidates in that debate.
  • The Statesman notes the absence of Lt. Governor Chupacabra at that Williamson County candidate forum.
  • Craig James unveils his first ad, talking about how awesome…Rick Perry is. Hmmm. Rick Perry + Craig James = Rick James???

  • And speaking of James (Craig, not Rick), heh. It was still up as of this posting…
  • James also appeared on the Joe Pagliarulo show on KPRC-AM 950 in Houston:

    Looking at James’ Twitter feed, he seems to have done a number of radio shows.

  • Ross Ramsey wonders why James is running.
  • Cruz, Dewhurst, Tom Leppert and James will all be appearing at a March 2 debate sponsored by The Dallas Morning News.
  • An interesting piece on a David Dewhurst proposal (or maybe just a trial balloon idea) for, not an illegal alien amnesty “path to citizenship,” but a path to a work visa, in which “if an undocumented/Illegal resident paid for thumb prints, criminal background checks, and verification of residence, we could grant them a two year Visa…renewable only if they have not been convicted of a felony and have paid their taxes.” I’m not sure if this is the right place to mention it. I’m not in complete agreement with the writer, but I will say that Dewhurst’s proposal is far from the worst illegal alien proposal I’ve read.
  • Back on October 11, I noted that Cruz had picked up the endorsements of “over 115 leaders of the Texas Federation of Republican Women.” The Cruz campaign has now upped that count to over 200 leader Republican women.
  • Still waiting for Democrats Paul Sadler to put up a campaign website, and Jason Gibson to put up one that’s more than a placeholder. Come on people, putting up a page with a brief bio and a donation link is not that freaking hard. With Daniel Boone not having updated his pages in over a month, maybe Sean Hubbard will capture the Democratic nomination simply because he can update his Facebook and Twitter feeds.

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    Posted in Austin, Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »

    EuroDoom Roundup for January 11, 2012

    January 11th, 2012

    The race to a Euro-crackup seems to have slowed down to merely a jaunty saunter this week. Maybe once everyone made it to the New Year without a sovereign default, the Eurocrats might have breathed a sigh, confident that there’s still a few miles yet before they went over the falls…

  • In The Wall Street Journal, Robert Barro provides a credible exit strategy for the Euro:

    Germany could create a parallel currency—a new D-Mark, pegged at 1.0 to the euro. The German government would guarantee that holders of German government bonds could convert euro securities to new-D-mark instruments on a one-to-one basis up to some designated date, perhaps two years in the future. Private German contracts expressed in euros would switch to new-D-mark claims over the same period. The transition would likely feature a period in which the euro and new D-mark circulate as parallel currencies.

    Other countries could follow a path toward reintroduction of their own currencies over a two-year period. For example, Italy could have a new lira at 1.0 to the euro. If all the euro-zone countries followed this course, the vanishing of the euro currency in 2014 would come to resemble the disappearance of the 11 separate European moneys in 2001.

    Of course, this would mean that any bonds from the PIIGS with a maturity date more than two years in the future would trade at a heavy discount, but that’s far preferable to the looming Euro crash. But a bigger problem to this proposal actually being implemented is that it reverses the drive to centralize European bureaucracy, and Eurocrats will never stand for that.

  • Speaking of PIIGS bonds, there are more downgrades coming.
  • Could Spain be the next of the PIIGS to go bust?
  • There’s a good chance that Germany will let the Euro die this year.
  • Also, Germany’s economy is shrinking.
  • Denmark says no thanks to the new financial transaction tax.
  • For some reason, Greece is still able to sell six month bonds…
  • …despite continuing bank runs. “All faith in the country’s banks has now been lost and Greece is officially a zombie economy.”
  • Hell, Greece can’t even afford asprin.
  • The government might have a bit more money if they didn’t subsidize pedophiles.
  • The strange conversion of Irish Euro-skeptic Declan Ganley to proposing a “United States of Europe”.

    • (Hat tips: Insta, Ace (most of the Greek stories), and Sundry.)

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    Posted in Budget, Economics, Foreign Policy, Welfare State | No Comments »

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