Shutdown Fallout: Obama Approval Rating Slides to 37 Percent

Via Jonathan

A senior White House official told the Wall Street Journal that the administration doesn't really care when the shutdown ends because they're "winning" the PR fight against the GOP. While it's true that Republicans are absorbing more blame than Democrats for the dysfunction, the gap isn't especially wide, especially compared to the 1995 rout. Plus, voters are heaping opprobrium upon all parties involved in the squabble; most people are insisting on compromise -- which isn't helpful to Obama's "no negotiations" stance.

The White House must ask itself if the presidentmay be"winning" in relative terms, but losing in absolute terms. A new Associated Press poll shows Congressional approval at five (!) percent, which is almost within the margin of error. The American people, needless to say, are disgusted by the spectacle playing out on Capitol Hill. Despite his efforts to play the role of an above-the-fray, frustrated bystander, Obama is also taking a hit from this mess. As well he should. Between his atrocious leadership on shutdown talks, which he's single-handedly blocked, and the ongoing Obamacare meltdown, Obama's overall job approval has sunk to 37 percent. For perspective, as he prepared to leave office in January of 2009, President Bush's approval rating was 34 percent.

This ain't pretty:

More @ Townhall

Saiga-12 vs Remington 870

Via grossfater_m

 

'Martial law' declared by Democrat in Congress Ratcheting up argument over federal shutdown

A Democratic congresswoman from Texas has declared “martial law” is the solution to the current partial shutdown of the federal government.

The comments from Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, took some listeners by surprise, since a common understanding of “martial law” would be of an authority – a president or a military commander – using military force to impose its will on an uncooperative people.

Think tanks, machine guns and jail cells.

More @ WND

Eric Holder's 2014 Racial Politics. The Attorney General tries to reverse a Supreme Court ruling by the back door.

 

For Eric Holder, American racial history is frozen in the 1960s. The Supreme Court ruled in June that a section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act is no longer justified due to racial progress, but the U.S. Attorney General has launched a campaign to undo the decision state-by-state. His latest target is North Carolina, which he seems to think is run from the grave by the early version of George Wallace.]

The real current Governor, Republican Pat McCrory, signed a law in August that requires voters to present government-issued photo ID at the polling station, including a state driver's license or military ID. Voters who show up without one can still cast a provisional ballot pending their return with a photo ID. The law also shortens early voting to 10 days from 17 and ends a program that preregistered high school students before they were eligible to vote.

According to Mr. Holder, this amounts to a shocking return to the Jim Crow era. He describes these modest measures to secure the integrity of the ballot as "aggressive steps to curtail the voting rights of African Americans." And he is suing the state to bring it back under the federal supervision of the Voting Rights Act for all of its future voting-law changes.

The Supreme Court held in June that such federal "preclearance" under Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act had outlived its usefulness in states where black and white voter registration and participation rates are roughly equal. That should have been good news, but now Mr. Holder wants to haul North Carolina and Texas back into long-term federal supervision through a back door.

More @ WSJ

Will Obama Stop the Music This November?

Via Peter

The current “shutdown” of 17% of the federal government has primed America for chaos with constant left-wing rhetoric and news media reports couched in apocalyptic terms such as crisis, brink, catastrophe, hostage, arsonist and terrorist. But a catastrophe is useful to a would-be tyrant only as long as it can be blamed on a hated enemy. In 1933 Hitler’s agents burned the Reichstag, not just to sow fear and confusion, but primarily in order to charge his Communist enemies with treason as an excuse to obliterate them. The German “mainstream media” dutifully parroted the Nazi Party line, without investigating the true source of the arson.

A similar pattern of scapegoating has been followed in the United States throughout the term of President Obama. For example, leading Democrats and their shills in the mainstream media have long been salivating at the prospect of a “Tea Party” conservative going on a violent rampage. We saw this in Tucson immediately after the Gabby Giffords shooting, after the Aurora, Colorado, theater attack, and after the recent Washington Navy Yard shooting, when Democrats and their media allies rushed to blame “Tea Party terrorists” in early reports based upon zero evidence. As far as we know, all of these attacks were carried out by deranged individuals following the orders of inner demons, but still the left hopes for a violent response by right-wing “bitter clingers,” so named by President Obama himself during a private fund raiser.

The current “government shutdown” seems to be designed to provoke a violent right-wing reaction.
 

More @ WRSA

Occupy America! Park Visitors Storm the Barrycades

 

Could this be the end of Monument Syndrome? Across the country, ordinary Americans are rising up in revolt against the old Washington tactic of closing public parks and memorials during selective government "shutdowns" to score political points. Tax-paying tourists are tossing off the orange traffic cones and "Barrycades." Enough is enough.

The movement started with waves of World War II veterans who flew to D.C. last week as part of the Honor Flight Network. (The nonprofit group brings our surviving heroes to visit the memorials that honor their service and sacrifice.) The vets and volunteers breached the fences last week, exposing the tone-deaf tactics of President Obama's Spite House. Honor Flight visits continue this week, and more vets vowed to defy the cynical closures.

They are not alone.

More @ Townhall

'Gestapo tactics' trap Americans at Yellowstone 'They looked like Hulk Hogans, armed. They told us you can't go outside'

 

Authorities used “Gestapo tactics” on senior citizens visiting Yellowstone National Park,   locking them inside their hotel under “armed guard” during the Obama administration’s government shutdown, according to a guide.

Officials even refused to allow the tourists to stop for bathroom breaks during the two-and-a-half hour drive out of the park, he said.

Gordon Hodgson spoke in a telephone interview with the Livinston, Mont., Enterprise about the 41 tourists he took into the nation’s first national park, in the northwest corner of Wyoming, on a trip scheduled before the shutdown.

Park officials told him they were allowed to stay their scheduled two nights at the historic Old Faithful Inn, but they could not do anything, Hodgson said.

More @ WND

Rick Warren tweets visit from radical Muslim Cat Stevens. Yusuf Islam endorsed call for Salman Rushdie's death

Megachurch pastor Rick Warren, who often has drawn criticism in the Christian community regarding his engagement with Islam, is stirring the pot again.

This time he’s tweeted about a visit from Yusuf Islam, who was Cat Stevens before he became a radical Muslim.

On his @RickWarren account, Warren said: “Legendary Cat Stevens came by to see me today as I worked at home on a sermon.” The tweet includes an image of the two.

The statement immediately drew a reaction from Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, who noted Stevens enthusiastically endorsed the Ayatollah Khomeini’s death fatwa against author Salman Rushdie in 1989 for insulting Islam.

“Who knew that Rick Warren and Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) were this close?” Spencer wrote. “Did they sing a few choruses of Cat’s nasheed that contains the lines, ‘I’m praying to Allah to give us victory over the kuffar?’”

Spencer said he was not surprised, however, noting Warren previously has addressed the convention of the Hamas- and Muslim Brotherhood-linked Islamic Society of North America.

Warren, Spencer said, also “apologized to Muslims, but wasn’t sure what for” and now “he is palling around with Mr. Peace Train” in the name of “dialogue” and “interfaith outreach.”

More @ WND

Spread the Word

Via David

 

Print this out and post as you like at any federal park. 

David DeGerolamo

Patriot Plates

Via WiscoDave