December 17th, 2015
The filing deadline has passed for 2016 races in Texas, and once again several U.S. House seats will go uncontested.
The first step to winning a race is showing up for one. Even token candidates force the opposition to expend time and attention on races they could use elsewhere. And having a candidate in the race helps you win during improbable circumstances (indictments, scandals, wave elections).
As usual, Democrats passed up more races than Republicans, but Republicans seemed to pass on a higher number of races as well.
Races Democrats Failed To Field a Challenger
Here are the races Democrats failed to show up in, and the current Republican incumbent:
4th Congressional District (John Ratcliffe, who drew two Republican primary opponents)
5th Congressional District (Jeb Hensarling)
8th Congressional District (Kevin Brady, who drew two Republican primary opponents)
11th Congressional District (Mike Conaway)
13th Congressional District (Mac Thornberry)
19th Congressional District (No incumbent, as Randy Neugebauer is retiring; five Republicans will be vying to take his place)
32nd Congressional District (Pete Sessions, who drew two Republican primary opponents)
36th Congressional District (Brian Babin)
With Democrats not contesting eight districts, it allows Republicans to shift time and effort into defending incumbents in more marginal districts (such as Will Hurd in the perpetual battleground 23rd).
Races Republicans Failed To Field a Challenger
Here are the races Republicans failed to show up in, and the current Democratic incumbent:
9th Congressional District (Al Green)
16th Congressional District (Beto O’Rourke, a white Democratic incumbent in a heavily Hispanic district whose drawn a Hispanic Democratic primary opponent, albeit one he already defeated four years ago)
20th Congressional District (Joaquin Castro)
On Republican missed opportunities, Joaquin Castro is the sort of rising star you want to force to defend his home territory, rather than go off gallivanting at the national level.
A few other points of interest:
Sheila Jackson Lee drew no less than four Republican opponents in District 18.
District 15, where Democratic incumbent Ruben Hinojosa Sr. is retiring, has seven Democrats (including Ruben Ramirez Hinojosa) and two Republicans vying for the seat.
Matt McCall (and two other Republican challengers) are gunning for Lamar Smith in District 21 again.
Tags: 11th Congressional District, 13th Congressional District, 16th Congressional District, 19th Congressional District, 2016 Election, 20th Congressional District, 32nd Congressional District, 36th Congressional District, 4th Congressional District, 5th Congressional District, 8th Congressional District, 9th Congressional District, Al Green, Beto O'Rourke, Brian Babin, Democrats, Elections, Jeb Hensarling, Joaquin Castro, John Ratcliffe, Kevin Brady, Lamar Smith, Mac Thornberry, Matt McCall, Mike Conaway, Pete Sessions, Randy Neugebauer, Ruben Hinojosa, Ruben Ramirez Hinojosa, Texas
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »
December 16th, 2015
The always outspoken and quotable Camille Paglia has another interview up on feminism, this one with Spiked. A few excerpts:
The problem with too much current feminism, in my opinion, is that even when it strikes progressive poses, it emanates from an entitled, upper-middle-class point of view. It demands the intrusion and protection of paternalistic authority figures to project a hypothetical utopia that will be magically free from offence and hurt. Its rampant policing of thought and speech is completely reactionary, a gross betrayal of the radical principles of 1960s counterculture, which was inaugurated in the US by the incendiary Free Speech Movement at the University of California at Berkeley.
I am continually shocked and dismayed by the nearly Victorian notions promulgated by today’s feminists about the fragility of women and their naive helplessness in asserting control over their own dating lives. Female undergraduates incapable of negotiating the oafish pleasures and perils of campus fraternity parties are hardly prepared to win leadership positions in business or government in the future.
The anti-porn crusader Andrea Dworkin (who died a decade ago) was a rabid fanatic, a self-destructive woman so consumed by her hatred of men that she tottered on the edge of psychosis. Dworkin and her puritanical henchman Catharine MacKinnon (born into wealth and privilege) were extremely powerful in the US for a long time, culminating in the major media’s canonisation of MacKinnon in a 1991 New York Times Magazine cover story. When I burst on the scene after the release of my first book in 1990, I attacked Dworkin and MacKinnon with all guns blazing. I am very proud of the role I played in defending free speech and helping the pro-sex wing of feminism to go public and eventually win its great victory over both Dworkin-MacKinnon and the priggish feminist establishment typified by Steinem. Hence the unthinking backward turn of current feminism toward censorship is appalling and tragic. Young feminists seem to have little sense of the crucial battles that were waged and won a quarter century ago.
‘Rape culture’ is a ridiculous term – mere gassy propaganda, too rankly bloated to critique. Anyone who sees sex so simplistically has very little sense of world history, anthropology or basic psychology. I feel very sorry for women who have been seduced by this hyper-politicised, victim-centered rhetoric, because in clinging to such superficial, inflammatory phrases, they have renounced their own power and agency.
Read the whole thing.
(Hat tip: Ann Althouse.)
Tags: Andrea Dworkin, Camille Paglia, Catharine MacKinnon, feminism, Social Justice Warriors, victimhood
Posted in Social Justice Warriors | No Comments »
December 15th, 2015
It seems that the entire Los Angeles School District is closed today due to a bomb threat.
If it’s that easy to close down the country’s second largest school district, what’s to prevent Islamic State sympathizers from getting the district shut down every day?
Tags: bomb, California, Jihad, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Unified School District
Posted in Jihad | No Comments »
December 14th, 2015
Congressional Medal of Honor winner Tibor Rubin, who went from being a prisoner at Mauthausen concentration camp to being one of the baddest bad-asses in the Korean War, died at age 86 last week.
In summer 1950, Mr. Rubin was “volunteered” to defend a strategic hill while the rest of his company withdrew to safety near the Pusan Perimeter amid an onslaught by North Korean troops. He armed himself with grenades and guns and waited, knowing the sergeant had no intention of relieving him, ever.
The enemy attack began at dawn, and Mr. Rubin said he became “hysterical” as they swarmed the hill “like ants.”
He fired helter-skelter, lobbing grenade after grenade to create the impression of more than one man. “Pull the pin, boom, pull the pin, boom,” he said. Unable to see through the resulting smoke, he kept up the defense for a full day, defending his post until American-manned Corsairs repelled the remaining North Koreans from the air.
“He inflicted a staggering number of casualties on the attacking force during his personal 24-hour battle, single-handedly slowing the enemy advance and allowing the 8th Cavalry Regiment to complete its withdrawal successfully,” read his citation for the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest award for valor.
Later he was captured by the communist Chinese, and repeatedly risked his life sneaking out to find food for his fellow prisoners.
And after all that, he got screwed out of his medal until George W. Bush set it right in 2005.
Also, the book about his life just came out this year: Single Handed: The Inspiring True Story of Tibor “Teddy” Rubin–Holocaust Survivor, Korean War Hero, and Medal of Honor Recipient.
(Hat tip: Legal insurrection.)
Tags: Congressional Medal of Honor, Military, Obituary, Tibor Rubin
Posted in Military | No Comments »
December 13th, 2015
An explosion has ripped the facade off a townhouse in the Belgian town of Verviers. While it’s possible it was a gas leak, the town “has recently appeared in the headlines in connection with the mastermind of the Paris terror attacks in November. Abdelhamid Abaaoud was one of the leaders of a terrorist cell in the town. During a raid on the cell in January 2015, two of its members were killed.” Which makes me think that radical Islamic terrorism is yet again the culprit (either intentionally, or via premature detonation of an IED), rather than, say, radical Flemish separatists. (Mutters) Stupid Flanders…
No report of casualties yet, and there’s a dearth of news on the topic.
Update 1: Seeing Twitter reports of 13 people injured but no fatalities. Still no cause listed.
Tags: Belgium, explosion, Foreign Policy, Jihad, terrorism, Verviers
Posted in Foreign Policy, Uncategorized | No Comments »
December 13th, 2015
It was easy to dismiss the first poll that showed Ted Cruz up over Donald Trump in Iowa as an outlier. However, a new Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll shows Cruz up a hefty 10 points over Trump.
“Seven weeks from the caucuses, Ted Cruz is crushing it in Iowa.
“The anti-establishment congressional agitator has made a rapid ascent into the lead in the GOP presidential race here, with a 21 percentage-point leap that smashes records for upsurges in recent Iowa caucuses history.”
Snip.
“‘Big shakeup,’ said J. Ann Selzer, pollster for The Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll. ‘This is a sudden move into a commanding position for Cruz.'”
Cruz is in a great spot. I just hope he’s not peaking too early…
Tags: 2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, Donald Trump, Elections, Iowa, polls, Republicans, Ted Cruz
Posted in Elections, Republicans | No Comments »
December 11th, 2015
Been an awful week for a variety of reasons, perhaps the least of which is I’m getting over a nasty cold.
Hillary Clinton and the Chamber of Suckups.
Hey Democrats: Why do you insist in shoving Hillary down our throats?
“Our royal elites have decreed that we must stop worrying about terrorism. Now shut up and eat your Syrian refugees!”
Speaking of which, Obama shut down an investigations that could have thwarted the San Bernardino attack. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Gozer: “Choose your destructor!” Liberals: “Donald Trump!”
Meanwhile, Ted Cruz has picked up the key endorsement of Bob Vander Plaats in Iowa.
Old and Busted: We need to tone down violent rhetoric. The New Hotness: We need to shoot Trump supporters. Bonus: Same guy.
Principled lefty Nat Hentoff says the ACLU is worse than useless when it comes to defending campus free speech.
Largest percentage of hate crimes are against Jews.
Study shows campus rapes are actually very rare, on par with numbers seen in the general populace. Naturally, feminists are enraged…
More stomach-churning details of how Rotherham’s Muslim child rape gangs operated. Funny how our elites, when faced with real Muslim child rape gangs, prefer to talk about a pretend campus rape epidemic…
After twenty years of relentless anti-gun propaganda from the mainstream media, a majority of Americans now oppose an “assault weapons” ban. Good work, New York Times!
El Chapo, the head of the Sinaloa Mexican drug cartel, threatens the Islamic State.
Signs that the life of “everybody makes $70,000” Gravity CEO Dan Price may not be perfect: accusations he waterboarded his wife.
Wendy Davis even lies when shes admitting to lying.
There can be only one.
Tags: ACLU, Dan Price, feminism, feminists, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jews, Jihad, LinkSwarm, Muslim, Nat Hentoff, rape, San Bernardino, Sinaloa Cartel, Social Justice Warriors, Swords, Syria, Ted, terrorism, Wendy Davis
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Guns, Jihad, Media Watch, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | No Comments »
December 10th, 2015
Hey remember how the state legislature told they Texas Racing Commission that they didn’t have the authority to approve “historical racing” machines (i.e., gambling machines prohibited by law)? And remember how the Racing Commission said “Screw you, we’re doing it anyway because we’re total lapdogs for the gambling lobby?” (I may be paraphrasing just a wee tad here…)
Well a solution appears to be at hand:
There’s been another shakeup of top leadership at an embattled state agency as the push to derail historical racing — a hotly contested new way to gamble at tracks statewide — continues in Austin.
Gov. Greg Abbott has named Rolando Pablos of El Paso to lead the Texas Racing Commission, replacing local orthopedic surgeon Robert Schmidt, who has guided the agency since 2011.
Schmidt, who will continue to serve on the commission, resigned as chair after declining Abbott’s request to place the issue of repealing historical racing, the replaying of past races on slot machine-like devices, on next week’s agenda.
The governor accepted that resignation; a proposal to repeal historical racing rules is now on the commission’s Dec. 15 agenda.
You would think it wouldn’t be that hard to reign in a rogue commission that refuses to obey the law, but I guess gambling lobby money talks pretty loudly…
Tags: Greg Abbott, Robert Schmidt, Rolando Pablos, Texas, Texas Racing Commission
Posted in Texas | No Comments »
December 9th, 2015
There appears to be a new GOP front-runner in Iowa.
Sen. Ted Cruz more than doubled his support among Iowa Republicans since October and now leads the field with 24%, according to a new Monmouth University Poll released today.
It is the first time the Texas senator has been at the top of any early state poll of the 2016 cycle, according to Monmouth.
Polls come and polls go, and others with different screens show different results in Iowa. But Cruz’s presidential campaign is mirroring the shape of his Senate campaign: Launch early, be a disciplined and indefatigable campaigner, and position yourself as the true conservative in the field. Just as in his campaign against David Dewhurst, Cruz has gone from no-chance, to long-shot, to competitive, to a serious force to be reckoned with.
Other candidates sleep on him at their peril…
Tags: 2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, Donald Trump, Elections, Iowa, Republicans, Ted Cruz
Posted in Elections, Republicans | No Comments »
December 8th, 2015
Shot:
Noted Trans-Black Social Justice Warrior Shaun King flipped his position on guns from pro- to anti-, then went on a Twitter deleting spree in a clumsy attempt to hide his tracks.
Chaser:
Nightcap:
Tags: Democrats, Guns, Shaun King, Social Justice Warriors
Posted in Democrats, Guns, Social Justice Warriors | No Comments »