Quote of the Day I

Jim Treacher posts on Twitter about modern journalism:

Modern journalism is all about deciding which facts the public shouldn't know because they might reflect badly on Democrats.

No doubt about it, and it's hard work as so many facts do exactly that.

GOP Voters Reliable

The Los Angeles Times' Doyle McManus, often seen on PBS Washington Week, writes that the GOP has an edge in midterm elections:

The Democrats have a core problem that goes beyond the current polls: In congressional "off year" elections, their voters don't show up.

The numbers are stark. About 133 million people voted in the presidential elections of 2008, but only about 90 million turned up for the congressional elections of 2010 — almost one-third fewer. The no-shows included disproportionate numbers of young people, women and minority voters — all largely Democratic groups. The "reliable voters" were disproportionately elderly, white and male — all groups that tend to vote Republican.

I love it when voter turnout is low, it makes my vote worth more. Effectively my vote represents not only me but also several people who didn't bother to vote. As Woody Allen said, 80% of success is showing up, in this case to vote.

Federalism for the U.K.

You'll remember we wrote in late September about the unintended consequence of promises made to Scotland to keep it in the Union. Namely, that the English will want their own parliament like that of the Scots or the Northern Irish. Today comes an article in The Telegraph (U.K.) which underscores that drive.

I'm no expert but why don't the various regions elect their members of parliament and then have each region's members meet separately to consider regional issues. There is really no need for separate M.P.s at both the region and national level, and perhaps some advantage in having the same people making both regional and national decisions, in separate settings as needed.

Kotkin on CA's Infrastructure

In addition to demography, the prolific Joel Kotkin also chronicles the manifold problems besetting California in the 21st century. Writing here for New Geography, he focuses on California's unmet need for new-but-boring infrastructure spending.

We neglect roads, bridges, ports and economic energy projects because, in many ways, these are not a priority of the green lobby, which prefers less growth, more density and a shift from cars to transit. So, instead, we get money spent on high-speed rail and ultra costly, environmentally damaging solar panel farms or inefficient wind turbines erected in the middle of the desert.

These energy costs hit hardest the state’s interior and heavily Hispanic working class but this doesn’t seem to much bother the state political leaders, who come overwhelmingly from the affluent parts of the Bay Area and coastal Southern California.

Giving Dems Heartburn

The YouGov polling organization asked subjects in all 50 states whether they viewed their vote in 3 weeks as opposition to President Obama, support for Obama, or neither. Their findings: in only one state - Hawaii - did more people view their midterm vote as supporting Obama versus opposing him.

The most negative state was our home state of Wyoming where 65% will vote to oppose, whereas only 7% said they vote to support. Barack doesn't have many adherents across the Mountain West.

Jeb Jumps the Shark

Speaking in Grand Rapids, MI, on behalf of Governor Rick Snyder, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush remarks are characterized by the Grand Rapids Press/MLive website:

Jeb Bush voiced support for immigration reform and Common Core education standards while stumping for Gov. Rick Snyder and U.S. Senate candidate Terri Lynn Land on Monday in Grand Rapids.

Jeb's support of amnesty for illegal immigrants and for Common Core are sufficient to disqualify him as a GOP presidential candidate. Hat tip to Lucianne.com for the link.

Murder and Race

Folks in the greater St. Louis, MO, area are upset by the separate killings recently of two black youths by two white cops. Riots and demonstrations go on at this writing.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has data about murder and race in the U.S., you can view their website for yourself. My reading of it finds the following for the most recent year on record, 2012:

Whites murdered - 3128, whites killed by other whites - 2614.
Blacks murdered - 2648, blacks killed by other blacks - 2412.
Whites killed by blacks - 431.
Blacks killed by whites - 193. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. population is roughly 319 million, of which whites are roughly 80% and blacks are about 13%. Meanwhile blacks suffer roughly 46% of the nation's murders, over 90% of them committed by fellow blacks.

Overwhelmingly, we are at-risk from others of our own race, not from people of other races. And black people are particularly at-risk from other blacks.

WaPo: Republican Win Forecast

The Washington Post political prediction model, called the Election Lab, is out today with new predictions for the outcomes of the election which happens three weeks from tomorrow.

Republicans are favored to control the Senate.
95% chance as of today.
Republicans are favored to control the House.
99% chance as of today.

Their predictions for number of seats in each body controlled by each major party.

Senate: 48 Democrats, 52 Republicans (51 needed for majority).
House: 194 Democrats, 241 Republicans (218 for a majority).

I hope they are correct.

Happy Columbus Day

The second Monday in October is the day we celebrate the achievement of Christopher Columbus in making a daring voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to discover, not the East Indies he sought, but a new pair of continents: North and South America. Such celebration is no longer politically correct, because your European ancestors and mine stole this continent from the earlier arrivals, formerly and misleadingly called "Indians."

Here at COTTonLINE we occasionally enjoy being politically incorrect. We continue to honor the achievement of that intrepid Genoese navigator and explorer, Christopher Columbus, aka Cristoforo Colombo in his native Italian.

Obama Not Competent to Protect Us

Newsbusters.org quotes USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page, speaking yesterday on Face the Nation. Page takes a dim view of the Obama administration:

Both of these stories, the Ebola virus and the threat from ISIS, are feeding into a sense that a lot of Americans have that the world is not only a dangerous place but that the government is not competent to handle them. I mean even the Secret Service controversy I think contributes to that sense.

I think it is a very dangerous thing for President Obama, the sense that his administration is not competent to protect the American people. That is the most fundamental job of a U.S. president and I think it is a big factor in the midterm elections.

MSNBC Hurting

The Washington Post reports the ratings for cable news channel MSNBC are "sucking wind." In spite of what the network says about its ratings, WaPo concludes:

MSNBC Slides Toward Irrelevance

The reasons for this poor showing seem clear enough. MSNBC, as a self-proclaimed progressive leaning news outlet, competes with the major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN), most of the major newspapers (NYT, WaPo, LATimes, Atlanta J-C, etc.) and much of the relevant magazine coverage - all of which lean left and echo similar opinions. Among them they share the roughly 50% of Americans who lean that way too.

Compare their results with those of Fox News, and The Wall Street Journal, which provide news that leans right to the other half of the populace. Simple supply and demand explains the poor MSNBC outcomes, there are too many high quality suppliers of what they offer. Fox and WSJ don't face the same plethora of competitors.

Political Humor Alert

Mitt Romney told the following Obama story while campaigning in Iowa for Joni Ernst, as reported by the Christian Science Monitor for Yahoo News:

President Obama went to the bank to cash a check and he didn't have his ID. And the teller said, 'You've got to prove who you are.' He said, 'How should I do that?'

She said, 'the other day Phil Mickelson came in, he didn't have his ID but he set up a little cup on the ground, took a golf ball, putted it right into that cup so they knew it was Phil Mickelson. We cashed his check.

And then Andre Agassi came in. And Andre Agassi didn't have his ID either. He put a little target on the wall, took a tennis ball and racquet — hit it onto that target time and again. We knew that was Andre Agassi so we cashed his check.

And she said to him, 'Is there anything you can do to prove who you are?' And [Obama] said, 'I don't have a clue.' And she said, 'Well, Mr. President, do you want your money in small bills or large bills?'

The Democrat's Men Problem

You see articles like this one from Ramesh Ponnuru in National Review talking about the GOP's problem with women tending to favor Dems. Fair enough, single women in particular tend to find the mommy state politics of the Dems preferable.

It is certainly true that the GOP has an edge with men voters. Why don't we see the same number of articles bemoaning the Dems problem with men preferring Republicans? Answer: because the MSM wants there to be Republican problems, which are seen as opportunities for Dems.

The MSM doesn't want there to be Democrat problems, which are opportunities for Republicans. So we read about the GOP's "women problem" but not about the Dems' "men problem."

If gender theorists are correct that all differences between men and women are learned as opposed to innate, then do women learn to prefer Democrats? Do men learn to prefer Republicans? Does this make sense to you?

Guys, do you remember your Dad telling you "Real men don't vote for Dems?" I sure don't, my Dad was a Roosevelt Democrat who didn't live long enough to become a Reagan Republican.

Zakaria: Islam Has a Problem Today

CNN pundit Fareed Zakaria writes for The Washington Post about problems the world is having with his Muslim co-religionists:

Let’s be honest. Islam has a problem today. The places that have trouble accommodating themselves to the modern world are disproportionately Muslim. In 2013, of the top 10 groups that perpetrated terrorist attacks, seven were Muslim. Of the top 10 countries where terrorist attacks took place, seven were Muslim-majority.

The Pew Research Center rates countries on the level of restrictions that governments impose on the free exercise of religion. Of the 24 most restrictive countries, 19 are Muslim-majority. Of the 21 countries that have laws against apostasy, all have Muslim majorities.

There is a cancer of extremism within Islam today. A small minority of Muslims celebrates violence and intolerance and harbors deeply reactionary attitudes toward women and minorities. While some confront these extremists, not enough do so, and the protests are not loud enough. How many mass rallies have been held against the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) in the Arab world today?

Those are fair criticisms. Zakaria is a native of India which (a) is not Muslim-majority and (b) isn't among the bad actors he listed above.

Promises, Promises

Aaron David Miller writes in The Washington Post the incontrovertible truth about President Obama:

Whatever your judgment of Obama’s policies, there is a vast gap between the expectations he set for himself and his supporters and the realities of his presidency. 

Quote of the Day

Instapundit Glenn Reynolds provides a link to Matthew Continetti's Accept No Substitutes: Only American Ground Troops Can Defeat ISIS. Then Reynolds adds the following snarky comment:

Yeah, but that’s not Obama’s plan. His plan is to look like he’s kinda doing something until November, then let ISIS win.

I believe Obama wants to maintain the fictitious appearance of action for two more years. His people keep saying these are early days and it will take a long time for our "plan" to be effective, something it is unlikely ever to be.

Shockingly Non-PC

If you find vaguely ridiculous some of the more outré steps being taken to enable individuals with out-of-the-norm gender identities to feel comfortable, take heart. Andrew Klavan is here with a funny Truth Revolt column that burlesques these efforts. A sample:

Gender theorists today believe that the different behaviors and capabilities of men and women are not a reflection of their natural propensities and desires but were imposed on them by the gender stereotypes of society which were created at the conference of the Gender Stereotype Society, held in 1817 at a secluded chateau on the shores of Lake Geneva.  It was there that it was determined by secret ballot that from now on, men would be able to invent things and lie convincingly about their sexual conquests while women would talk a lot about clothes and then make dinner.

These oppressive and confining stereotypes were imposed on the population of the entire globe through repeated exposure to televised football and the movie Cinderella as well as Archie comics dropped from planes on primitive villages where, up to that point, people had been living lives of complete gender equality.

  Hat tip to Instapundit for the link.

Morales Ahead in Ecuador

Bloomberg Businessweek reports polling which shows Evo Morales should have no difficulty in winning the presidential election scheduled for tomorrow. His popularity is based on having nationalized the country's natural gas fields and then spending the profits on development projects.

Bloomberg believes the economic boom of the last 8 years has perhaps two more years before the developed gas begins to run out. Given the nationalization, nobody is much motivated to explore for new deposits to replace the one's already being depleted.

Putin's Problems

There is a tendency to think Russian President Vladimir Putin has had everything going his way recently. Reuters reports that isn't entirely true.

Putin's efforts to strengthen the Commonwealth of Independent States, former components of the Soviet Union, have encountered difficulties. Leaders of several member states see what happened to Ukraine and wonder if their country will be the next target of Putin's acquisitiveness.

Peña Nieto's Inadvertent Truth

Leon Krauze, a Mexican journalist, interviewed Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, as part of a panel of six journalists. He reports on that interview for New Republic:

When my turn came, I asked the president about corruption in Mexico. I wanted to know how Peña Nieto planned to prevent Mexico from turning into Russia, especially now that billions of dollars will be in play due to the recent opening of the country’s energy sector to private investors.

Peña Nieto shrugged off my concern. Corruption in Mexico "is a cultural matter,” he said, not realizing the implications of the sentence. For a second, the room fell silent. Was he saying there was no escaping corruption? 

That is exactly what he was saying; his PRI is notorious for whole-heartedly embracing corruption of every sort. Former Spanish colonies worldwide share this unfortunate cultural attribute.