Cop unions using tax dollars stolen from the American people to keep the ability throw them in prison. **** them. **** government unions. **** socialists. But Republic Report reviewed lobbying contracts during the Prop 19 fight, and found that Lovell’s firm was paid over $386,350 from a wide array of police unions, including the California Police Chiefs Association. Shortly after President Obama’s stimulus program passed, Lovell went to work channeling the taxpayer money for California into drug war programs. According to documents Republic Report obtained from the Police Chiefs Association, Lovell helped local departments apply for drug war money from the Federal government. There is big money in mar1juana prohibition. Lovell represented a police union in a bid to steer some $2.2 million dollars into a “mar1juana Suppression Program.” In 2009 and 2010, California police unions sought a $7,537,389 chunk of Federal money for police to conduct a “Campaign Against mar1juana Planting” program. The anti-mar1juana money went directly into the paychecks of many officers. For example, police departments in Shasta, Siskiyou, and Tehama Counties formed a “North California Eradication Team” to receive $550,000 in grants that helped pay for overtime, a new officer, and flight operations: The total amount awarded was $550,000, to be split between Shasta, Siskiyou and Tehama counties, which make up the Northern California mar1juana Eradication Team (NorCal-MET). Broken down in the agenda worksheet, the sheriff’s office is expecting to spend $20,000 on flight operations, $94,895 for the full-time deputy’s salary and benefits, $16,788 for the administration assistant salary and benefits and $29,983 to cover up to 666.29 hours of overtime. The Federal anti-mar1juana honeypot might have dried up if Prop 19 had passed. Legalizing mar1juana would have generated billions in tax revenue for the state of California, while also reducing victimless crime prosecutions. But for lobbyists like Lovell, legalization was a direct assault on hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential fees for helping to solicit taxpayer money for his clients. Police unions also contributed about $100,500 to a campaign account used to coordinate opposition to Prop 19. Of the $386,350 in fees paid by police unions to Lovell through 2009 and 2010, status update reports reviewed by Republic Report reveal that Lovell worked on a number of issues, from advocacy against Prop 19 to channeling grants and monitoring legislation.
I believe there were polls prior to all this spending that showed the same thing. He's been leading since basically day #1 of this recall process. Yes, there are a lot of maybes. Because the reality is that we don't know what drove a bunch of Obama supporters and Democrats to vote for Walker, despite your claims to the contrary. That's true. Democrats managed to get control of the Senate yesterday for the next 6 months, during which time the Senate was not expected to meet anyway. Huge win there. Sorry - I was referring to the strategy of playing the petulant child and not participating in governing and then trying to win a majority based on that. The GOP is very good at that when they get into the minority. The Dems are much better at actually crafting legislation and getting stuff done, because at the end of the day, that's what attracts the Dem constituency to the party. It's just not fueled by anger in the same way the GOP is. So the Dems in Wisconsin tried to use the GOP strategy of not governing but trying to stir up anger to win the next election. They failed miserably.
one of the more (unintentionally) hilarious takes on the evening. <iframe width="853" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pchwcD4IPzs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
interesting; Barone is a pretty sober guy. -- Exit poll: Wisconsin in play in November The Wisconsin exit poll evidently reported the race for governor in the recall ballot as 50%-50%. With 92% of the vote in, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s excellent website reports the score as 54%-46% Walker. Let’s say that’s the final results: only 13% of precincts from Milwaukee County and 3% of precincts from Madison’s Dane County—the Democrats’ two reservoirs of big majorities—remain uncounted. It has been emblazoned on mainstream media that the exit poll also showed Barack Obama leading Mitt Romney in the state 51%-45%. But if you think the exit poll was 4% too Democratic—and that’s in line with exit poll discrepancies with actual vote results over the last decade, as documented by the exit poll pioneer, the late Warren Mitofsky*—that result looks more like 49%-47% Romney. Or assume the remaining Milwaukee County precincts whittle Republican Governor Scott Walker’s margin over Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett to 53%-47%, which looks likely, the Obama-Romney numbers would look like 48%-48%."Wisconsin is very much in play in November. And Scott Walker’s victory will not, to say the least, hurt Mitt Romney." -Michael Barone This is in a state that Obama carried 56%-42% in 2008. But those putative numbers also look very much like the numbers in 2000, when Al Gore carried Wisconsin 47.8%-47.6% over George W. Bush, or the numbers in 2004, when John Kerry carried Wisconsin 49.7%-49.3% over Bush. Turnout was high in Wisconsin, at least 7% above that in the November 2010 general election. Which leads me to this conclusion: Wisconsin is very much in play in November. And Scott Walker’s victory will not, to say the least, hurt Mitt Romney. *Mitofsky found that the biggest WPE, Within Precint Error, where exit poll results tilted most heavily toward Democrats compared ithe actual vote, were in precincts where the interviewers were female graduate students. Go figure.
Except this isn't true. That was the early exit poll. The final exit poll showed a 4 point margin for Walker (52-48). Nor is this true. The final exit polls showed Obama with a 12 point margin (54-42). Kind of blows up his whole premise when you use the right numbers.
More Interesting - both you and gwayneco have a bizzare affinity for pointing out that Fox news wingnut talking head barone, seen here predicting Republican electoral success in 2006, is some sort of magical impartial figure who shold be greatly respected. What a strange, strange coincidence.
Except then you would've seen Romney leading in exit polls instead of Obama since Romney agrees with Walker's policies.
Would it have been better for Obama to back what was very likely going to be a losing cause especially given that the tipping factor was likely Democrats and independents who didn't approve of the recall process? In my opinion this was one of the smarter political moves of Obama to stay away from the WI recall.
i'm not in the habit of counting chickens in June that won't be hatched until november. the data is interesting, but no more. that said, how fascinating that you would feel the need to attempt to discredit something that can't be proven for another 5 months.
I agree. However, by visiting all the surrounding states with personal campaign appearances and not stopping by to stump for Barrett, Obama did himself no favors in the public's perception of him as, at best, cowardly.
Because had he gone, the likes of you (people who call our president 'devil') would've just completely changed their opinion of him. A better bet would be people complaining he used taxpayer money to fly to Wisconsin.
If yu were reading more carefully, you might have noticed that I referred to Romney as glynch's devil and Obama as my devil. A little hyperbole never hurt anyone -- except you. BTW, he did use public money to further his campaign in surrounding states. Psst, all incumbent presidents do.
Sure - if the Democrats abdicated leadership and threw a fit. But they didn't. They led and worked towards legislation. See the differenence? If they do it without an actual plan to then help people, yes.
