Whether you’re making plans to picnic, paddle on a lake, play at a park or beach, or are packing bags for a road trip, Labor Day weekend is a welcomed three-day breather for Americans needing a break from grim economic news. A few headlines:

National unemployment rate rises to 9.6 percent as more look for work – Sept 3, 2010:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. unemployment rate rose in August for the first time in four months as weak hiring by private employers wasn’t enough to keep pace with a large increase in the number of people looking for work.

The Labor Department says companies added a net total 67,000 new jobs last month, down from July’s upwardly revised total of 107,000. Wall Street analysts expected a smaller gain, according to Thomson Reuters.

Overall, the economy lost 54,000 jobs as 114,000 temporary census positions came to an end. State and local governments shed 10,000 positions. The jobless rate rose to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent in July.

More than a half-million Americans resumed their job searches in August, which drove up the jobless rate. When the unemployed stop looking for work, they are no longer counted in the jobless rate.

(my emphasis)

Recovery Summer Ends with Economic Pothole - Sept 3, 2010:

Whatever happened to recovery summer?

This was supposed to be the season the economy heated up, thanks to a wave of public works projects, funded by the government’s stimulus program. But summer is coming to an end, and the recovery has not taken root.

[…]

And before long, stimulus dollars will be fading like autumn leaves.[...]

Jobless Rate Climbs to 9.6 Percent as More Americans Seek Work – Sept 3, 2010:

[...]The numbers added pressure to the Obama administration to marshal all its resources toward coaxing employers to hire again, something President Obama this week pledged to do.

“A year that began with Americans bracing for a jobless recovery has instead turned into a full-blown search for both jobs and a recovery,” House Republican Leader John Boehner said in a written statement. “President Obama’s agenda represented ‘change’ once, but now it is time for him to change course, abandon his job-killing policies and find himself a new economic team.” [...]

The economic news release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that the U.S. economy LOST 283,000 jobs during the three months of the Summer of Recovery.

120 Days to Go Until the Largest Tax Hikes in History – Sept 3, 2010:

In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families. These will all expire on January 1, 2011:

Personal income tax rates will rise. The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

- The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%

- The 25% bracket rises to 28%

- The 28% bracket rises to 31%

- The 33% bracket rises to 36%

- The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%

Higher taxes on marriage and family. The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income. The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level. The dependent care tax credit will be cut.

The return of the Death Tax. This year, there is no death tax. For those dying on or after January 1 2011, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.

Higher tax rates on savers and investors. The top capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011. The top dividends tax rate will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011. These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.

Read about the second and third waves of looming tax increases here.

New home sales plummeted to record lows in July and auto sales for August were a real clunker – lowest since 1983 (GM sales have plunged 25%). Only three states in the union are not upside down budget-wise.  One out of every six Americans are now on government assistance. The number of  underemployed Americans is now at 16.7% (a 5.2% increase in August).

This is what $814 BILLION of spent STIMULUS  bought. How many generations will be been enslaved to pay the bills for this recovery?

Yes, Labor Day weekend is a welcome respite from the daily grind for those fortunate enough to have a job. For those who are anxiously looking for work, it’s one more day with no money coming in. Whatever you do this weekend, do a couple of things: 

1. Re-read Mitt Romney’s economic op-ed Grow Jobs Shrink Government (8/18/10).
2. Tuck a copy of No Apology: The Case for American Greatness under your arm. Read Chapter Five. It’s 49 pages on  A Free and Productive Economy. 

A FOX News panel today discussed Obama’s mantra that “better days are ahead” and the question was asked “When do they get here?”  The answer: November 3rd.

As crucial as November 3rd is (and it is), Obama will still hold the veto pen. It’s also about 2012. So, between the hiking and biking this weekend, it would be a good idea to delve further into No Apology and to continue to support the Free and Strong America PAC. With every passing day, it becomes more evident that Mitt Romney is the one to ensure ‘better days’ for America. 

► Jayde Wyatt

A new Zogby poll shows voters prefer Mitt Romney over Barack Obama and Michael Bloomberg in a hypothetical three-way race. Independent voters, small business owners, voters who pay federal income taxes, and Tea Party voters strongly prefer Romney.

Today from NewsMax.com:

Washington, D.C. — If the 2012 presidential election were held today, and the race was between Democrat President Barack Obama, Republican candidate Mitt Romney, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg running as an independent, Romney would prevail. This according to a recent poll conducted August 20-23 by Zogby International of 2,062 likely voters.

The poll asked:

If the election for President in 2012 were held today and the candidates were President Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney running as the Republican nominee, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg running as an Independent, for whom would you vote?

Romney would win the election with 42 percent of the vote, barely edging out President Obama, who would garner 41 percent of the vote. Bloomberg would receive 6 percent of the vote.

Among independent voters, 40 percent would choose Romney and 30 percent would vote for Obama. Just 11 percent would pull the lever for Bloomberg.

Romney would also hold a significant edge over both rivals among small business owners, with 49 percent voting for Romney, 32 percent voting for Obama, and only 5 percent of small business owners voting for Bloomberg.

Tea party supporters would overwhelmingly support Romney in this three-way race, with 84 percent siding with the former Massachusetts governor, and just 2 percent voting for Obama and 1 percent voting for Bloomberg.

There is one just one area where voters preferred Obama over Romney; those who don’t have any skin in the game:

However, among those voters who do not have to pay federal income taxes – either because their income level is below the taxable threshold, or their deductions negate any tax liability – President Obama would receive the most support. Among the non-taxpayers, Obama would get 47 percent of the vote, Romney would get 32 percent, and Bloomberg would get 4 percent.

The Zogby International poll was commissioned by The O’Leary Report newsletter. The Poll surveyed 2,062 likely voters August 20-23, and has a margin-of-error of plus-or-minus 2.2 percentage points.

My feeling is that Zogby, wanting to include a third party candidate that may have a fair amount of appeal to independents, chose Bloomberg. It’s significant that, even with a third party detractor factored in, Romney still beats Obama.

► Jayde Wyatt

What was Mitt Romney referring to when he clicked his Twitter send button this morning?

Stallone is right. US does apologize too much. Hope he doesn’t get in trouble with Hollywood friends: http://bit.ly/bco0ND

An explanation from The Hill - Tweets you need to read:

Former Massachusetts Gov. and potential 2012 White House contender Mitt Romney (R) took a cue Wednesday from Sylvester Stallone when he tweeted: “Stallone is right. US does apologize too much.”

The quote referred to a comment the veteran film star made Aug. 19 to Bill O’Reilly while promoting his new film “The Expendables” in an appearance on Fox News.

O’Reilly opened the segment by referring to a Los Angeles Times review arguing the film taps a vein of “apple-pie patriotism … [that is already] behind the success of a cable news network,” taken to mean Fox.

Stallone denied the film, which he directed, has any intended subtext at all.
“Some people read [into it] that I was maybe putting the focal point on the American intrusion into other countries. You know, ‘We tend to overstep our boundaries.’ I don’t believe that at all.”

“I think America apologizes too much,” he added quickly, as O’Reilly began to reply.
[…]

(my emphasis)

A stroll down Obama memory lane… Shortly after President Obama was coronated, he embarked on his ‘sackcloth and ashes’ tour to apologize for America to the world. To the French, he stated that America “has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive” toward Europe. He went to Prague to proclaim that America has “a moral responsibility to act” on arms control because only the U.S. had “used a nuclear weapon.” He told Londoners that decisions regarding the world financial system were no longer being made by “just Roosevelt and Churchill sitting in a room with a brandy.” Latin Americans heard our president’s apology when he said that the United States had not “pursued and sustained engagement with our neighbors” because we “failed to see that our own progress is tied directly to progress throughout the Americas.” Do you remember when Obama gave a full-waist bow when greeting the King of Saudi Arabia? How about his deep head dip to the Japanese Emperor?

Mitt Romney agrees with Stallone. In fact, you may have heard, Romney wrote a 305 page best-selling book entitled No Apology: The Case for American Greatness (released last March):

“This is a book about what I believe should be our primary national objective: to keep America strong and to preserve its place as the world’s leading nation. And it describes the course I believe we must take to strengthen the nation in order to remain prosperous, secure, and free.” ~Mitt Romney

Excerpts from Jedediah Bila’s (Human Events) No Apology review 3/2/10:

In No Apology: The Case for American Greatness, Mitt Romney discusses many foreign policy and domestic issues facing America and suggests solutions he believes will lead to a more safe and robust nation. Special attention is paid to national security, economic productivity, education, energy, and cultural fortitude.
[...]
Romney warns against American complacency by outlining the manner in which other nations have, throughout history, declined from greatness. The Ottomans, Spanish, Chinese, and British — among others — serve as potent examples of just how easily a great nation can fall from grace by virtue of such destructive policies as economic and cultural isolation, a withdrawal from the international marketplace, and spending far and above one’s means.

Romney’s declaration that, “We tend to repress the possibility of catastrophic events” is dead on. People tend to see what they feel they can handle, and the rest — despite potentially disastrous effects if not addressed — is often ignored. See our 2008 financial crisis for details.

Romney adeptly expresses America’s need for both “soft power” and “hard power” involvement in the international community. He doesn’t sugarcoat alarming realities with respect to China, Russia, radical jihadists, and Iran. Despite economic challenges, he rightfully prioritizes national defense and criticizes the UN’s “inclinations toward authoritarian regimes.” Romney unapologetically defends updating our nuclear arsenal, developing a powerful missile-defense system, adding a minimum of 100,000 soldiers to the Marines and Army, and pursuing new technologies to combat the likes of cyber-warfare.

Romney also proclaims American exceptionalism, defends the notion that, “The world is a safer place when America is strong,” and praises our hard-working roots. He duly cites welfare without work and entitlement program abuses as threats to the industrious character that birthed our unrivaled success.

Romney gives detailed emphasis on economic productivity, innovation, research and development, reducing taxes on investment, and curbing government’s growing deficits: “We need to stimulate the economy, not the government.”
[...]

All in all, Romney’s book provides a well-organized display of his stand on key issues. His Obama critique is well executed, including commentary on Obama’s abandonment of our missile defense program in Poland and the Czech Republic, his repeated apologies for America, his expansion of our debt, and his September 2009 UN address. Romney’s intermittent anecdotes with regard to business experiences, hands on encounters as governor, and the trials and tribulations of his own family, add a nice personal touch to his policy and statistical explorations.

My two favorite lines from the text include “But for most Americans, the pulse of freedom beats in our very DNA” and “The greatness of America lies not simply in what we have done with our power; it is also informed by what we have not done with our power”

Romney’s No Apology: The Case for American Greatness is a sound expression of his approach to some of our nation’s greatest present challenges.

While in Europe last year, Obama was asked if he believes in American exceptionalism. After thinking about it, he answered that he… did — in the same way that “the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks in Greek exceptionalism.”  In other words, ”No.”

As for Obama’s comments to the French that America “has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive” toward Europe,  this is how arrogant, dismissive, and derisive we’ve been:

It is time for America to pursue the difficult course ahead, to confront the looming problems, to strengthen the foundations of our prosperity, and to secure the sources of our liberty and safety. The sacrifice and hard work will not sap our national energy; they will restore it. I’m one of those who believe America is destined to remain as it has been since the birth of the Republic – the brightest hope of the world. And for that belief, I do not apologize. ~Mitt Romney No Apology p. 34

(my emphasis)

If you haven’t read No Apology, DO. If you have read it, keep it handy. It is THE reference book for getting America back to running circles around the world.

► Jayde Wyatt

Update by Luke: Video of Bill O’Reilly’s interview with Stallone can be found at GOP12

 A few surprises last night…Batter up!

We learned via Twitter last night that Governor Mitt Romney and Bill O’Reilly paired up to support a good cause and take in a baseball game at Fenway Park (Red Sox vs Toronto Blue Jays). Another nice surprise was seeing Ann Romney and son Tagg join in the fun, as well.

Tweet from Mitt which included this Twitpic: At Fenway with Tagg, Ann and @OReillyFactor

Another surprise… Romney and O’Reilly joined Meredith Vieira in the NESN stadium broadcast booth to help support a radio-telethon for the Jimmy Fund (helps fight cancer).

(By the way, although team Red Sox tried to put muscle in their hustle, Toronto rustled up the victory: Blue Jays 16, Red Sox 2.)

Topping the surprises, during last night’s airing of The Factor (Bill O’Reilly’s tv program) a timely re-run of an interview O’Reilly did with Romney back on April 12, 2010 was aired. Prefacing the interview, O’Reilly asked Romney how he would run against Obama if the election was in process today. Given Romney’s recent economic op-ed and Obama’s dismal showing on job creation, it’s worth seeing again:

A good night for the Gov… Do you think he ate a Fenway Frank with the woiks?

~UPDATE from Ross
If you want to see Bill O’Reilly in the booth, click here.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s Summer of Recovery Tour has morphed into a Summer of Flummery Side Show. As Obama jets across the country (vacationing between stops) reiterating rock-solid confidence that his economic policies are piloting our nation in the right direction, jobless claims have sprung to the highest levels since the middle of last November (500,000 Americans filed for unemployment the first time last week). Economists are increasingly fearful about the durability of this fragile jobLESS recovery. $862 BILLION stimulus dollars later, Obama’s failure to grow the economy in any significant way or create private-sector jobs is a reality Americans grapple with every day. Glossy talk isn’t hiding the tragedy… 

August 3, 2010 -- Peter Marshall (BBC) looks at America’s new poor in Nevada:

(A somber reminder of the necessity to defeat Harry Reid. Support  Sharron Angle!)

From Keith Hennessey (New York Daily News contributor) Aug 16, 1020:

At 9.5% the unemployment rate is 1.8 percentage points higher today than when the President took office. There are 3.3 million fewer U.S. jobs than there were in January 2009. The U.S. economy has lost jobs in 12 of the 18 months since he has been office, including the last two months.

In early August of last year, the President declared that, thanks in part to his policies, the U.S. economy was “pointed in the right direction.” We have lost jobs in six of the 12 months since then, for a net decline of 52,000 jobs. The 9.4% unemployment rate when he made this statement climbed to 10.1% and has since declined to 9.5%, still higher than it was last August.

The President signed into law a $682 billion stimulus law and two health laws that will create $788 billion of new entitlements over the next decade. Combine these with countless other smaller spending bills, several of which were labeled as emergencies and therefore not paid for, and the U.S. government is $2.5 trillion more in debt than on the day this President took office. That’s $8,000 more debt for every American man, woman, and child.

Wedged into Obama’s red-ink Stimulus Bill are expenditures that make Americans livid. At an oversight report press conference on August 3, 2010, Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) revealed Obama’s head-shaking one billion $ earmark of waste, abuse, and fraud in 100 frivolous stimulus projects. They called it Obama’s Summertime Blues. Here are a few examples of liberal congressional claptrap:

• $554,763 -- Forest Service to replace windows in closed Mount St. Helens visitor center
• $762,372 -- create “Dance Draw” interactive dance software
• $62 million -- tunnel to nowhere Pittsburg, PA -- even Governor, Ed Rendell called “a tragic mistake”
• $1.9 million -- international ant research
• $1.8 million -- road project that is threatening a pastor’s home
• $308 million -- joint clean energy venture with…BP
• $89,298 -- replace new sidewalk that leads to a ditch in Boynton, OK
• $3.8 million -- “streetscaping” project that has reduced traffic, caused a business to fire two employees
• $16 million -- help Boeing clean up environmental mess it created in 2007
• $200,000 -- help Siberian communities lobby Russian policy makers
• $39.7 million -- upgrade statehouse, political offices in Topeka, KS
• $760,000 -- Georgia Tech to study improvised music
• $700,000 -- study why monkeys respond negatively to inequity
• $193,956 -- study voter perceptions of economic stimulus
• $363,760 -- help NIH promote positive impacts of stimulus projects
• $456,663 -- study circulation of Neptune’s atmosphere
• $529,648 -- study effects of local populations on the environment…in Himalayas

To read the full McCain/Coburn report, continue here.

With the United States $2.5 TRILLION deeper in debt than on the day Obama was sworn into office (that’s $8,000 more debt for every American man, woman, and child) the Republican National Committee recently got creative and made an ad spoofing Steve Slater, Obama’s low poll numbers, Democrats, and mid-term elections:

Mitt Romney cares deeply about unemployed Americans and is laboring unceasingly to help elect candidates this fall who share his concerns. He published a plan yesterday which outlines how to remove uncertainty from the market, jump-start jobs, and grow the economy. (See Nate’s article here.)

From Romney’s book No Apology p. 167:

Our big government debt problem is not a Democrat problem – it is a Democrat and Republican problem. […] Neither party has been willing to say no to the people who want more and more from government. Saying yes wins votes. Saying no means concession speeches. But what America faces today calls for truth, and having just experienced a brush with economic collapse, the American people are ready for truth. They know that if we go on borrowing, we will do to the country what was done to Lehman and AIG and General Motors and to millions of homeowners. Except in the country’s case, there is no one that could bail us out.

If we wisely begin to reform entitlements and commit to live within our means, we will accomplish for our children what our parents did for us: Bestow upon them an America that is stronger and more prosperous even than what we have known. We do not have to become the “worst American generation.” There is still time to correct our course – barely.

Will Obama heed Governor Romney’s advice?
 

UPDATE 8/20/10: Obama now blames poor job numbers on congressional inaction. Wait! His party runs Congress. Is this the start of buddy-bickering within the Democratic huddle? Read more here.

With mid-term elections pushing presidential considerations into the ask-me-later department (according to potential presidential candidates), and twists and turns still to be taken on the thoroughfare to the White House 2012, this is still good to hear:

From Dave Wedge (Boston Globe):

Poll shows Romney has best shot at beating Obama

Former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney has the best shot at unseating President Obama in 2012, trailing the commander-in-chief by just two points in a new national poll.

The Zogby poll of 8,487 likely voters showed Obama slightly besting Romney 45 to 43 percent. Romney has yet to say if he’s running again but the venture capitalist has been traveling the country raising money for Republicans and handing out endorsements in state races.

The president would fare far better against Sarah Palin, garnering 48 percent of the vote to Palin’s 37. And Obama would beat former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee 46 to 37, the poll found.

Addendum by Nate:
Nice little news report from NECN about the Zogby poll:

UPDATE by Jayde: Public Policy Polling released a new poll of New Hampshire’s GOP voters regarding the 2012 presidential race:

Mitt Romney -31 percent
Newt Gingrich – 14 percent
Ron Paul – 13 percent
Mike Huckabee – 12 percent
Sarah Palin – 9 percent
Tim Pawlenty – 3 percent
Mitch Daniels – 1 percent
Someone else/undecided – 16 percent

This post has been moved here.

Bigger taxes are coming! Bigger taxes are coming!

Unless Americans usher a new Congress into office this fall, Obama’s redistribute-the-wealth-bankrupt-America agenda will likely smother our wheezing jobless economic recovery. The Bush tax cuts breathe their last at midnight on December 31, 2010:

The Tax Tsunami On The Horizon

Fiscal Policy: Many voters are looking forward to 2011, hoping a new Congress will put the country back on the right track. But unless something’s done soon, the new year will also come with a raft of tax hikes — including a return of the death tax — that will be real killers.

Through the end of this year, the federal estate tax rate is zero — thanks to the package of broad-based tax cuts that President Bush pushed through to get the economy going earlier in the decade.

But as of midnight Dec. 31, the death tax returns — at a rate of 55% on estates of $1 million or more. The effect this will have on hospital life-support systems is already a matter of conjecture.

Resurrection of the death tax, however, isn’t the only tax problem that will be ushered in Jan. 1. Many other cuts from the Bush administration are set to disappear and a new set of taxes will materialize. And it’s not just the rich who will pay.

The lowest bracket for the personal income tax, for instance, moves up 50% — to 15% from 10%. The next lowest bracket — 25% — will rise to 28%, and the old 28% bracket will be 31%. At the higher end, the 33% bracket is pushed to 36% and the 35% bracket becomes 39.6%.

But the damage doesn’t stop there.

The marriage penalty also makes a comeback, and the capital gains tax will jump 33% — to 20% from 15%. The tax on dividends will go all the way from 15% to 39.6% — a 164% increase.

Both the cap-gains and dividend taxes will go up further in 2013 as the health care reform adds a 3.8% Medicare levy for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and joint filers making more than $250,000. Other tax hikes include: halving the child tax credit to $500 from $1,000 and fixing the standard deduction for couples at the same level as it is for single filers.

Letting the Bush cuts expire will cost taxpayers $115 billion next year alone, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and $2.6 trillion through 2020.

A few other areas where tax changes will occur include: The Medicine Cabinet Tax, HSA Withdrawal Tax Hikes, Brand Name Drug Tax, Economic Substance Doctrine, and the widening net of Alternative Minimum Tax -- tax hikes on employers and the loss of deductions for tuition. Click here to read more on this tax nightmare. Read more here.

Behind Capitol Hill doors, some progressives have a gleam in their eyes for the Value Added Tax (VAT) which is especially common throughout the European Union. VAT would give Obama the boost to herald a solution for America’s deficit while allowing him to implement invisible capitalistic destruction.

A VAT is a sales tax imposed on every level of a product’s path from production to consumption. It already exists in Europe and many other struggling countries around the world. It’s a sneaky sucker, too, since it’s essentially built in ahead of time and doesn’t show up on a receipt like a sales tax would. If a VAT were in place that iPad you just bought would be $600 instead of $500.

A VAT would pull in massive revenues. Just think: a 10% VAT would produce 1 trillion in revenues. Cash register sounds go off in the minds of every leftist that hears it.
Obama and the Democrats are spending SO much that they’ll be forced to invoke a VAT. They are creating a crisis so that they can solve it with a mechanism that will serve as the catalyst for future spending on their massive government programs.

And even though our president said he wouldn’t raise taxes on 95% of Americans while he was on the campaign trail, this move would raise taxes on everyone.
[…]
What Obama will say is that he is putting together a commission to find a way to pay down our country’s maxed out credit card.

Expect that commission to recommend the VAT tax after the 2010 midterm elections. By then, we’ll be on the verge of Greece-like catastrophe and we’ll have no choice but to impose a VAT. But only one that will, coincidentally, go into effect after the 2012 presidential election.

Just yesterday Timothy Geithner quashed hopes of a Bush tax cut extension:

Mr. Geithner said there is “still some uncertainty about how strong the recovery is going to be,” which may be impacting spending decisions by businesses and individuals. But he discounted that as a reason to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for top earners, saying most private forecasts show moderate economic growth and increasing public confidence in the recovery.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is warning of unusual economic uncertainty.

No wonder Poll numbers for Obama are slippery sliding into the rocks; 27% of the nation’s voters strongly approve of his presidential performance and 44% strongly disapprove. Obama has a Presidential Approval Index rating of -17.  More and more of his supporters are beginning to feel like this (go full screen and crank up your speakers):

“The Democratic Party is obsessed with spending more, borrowing more, and taxing more, all of which sap our national strength. ~Mitt Romney

Keeping in mind that the real prize is what happens in 2012, we must not underestimate Obama. Let’s do all we can to help Americans find what they’re looking for!

Conservative victory 2010. Mitt Romney 2012.

Mitt Romney’s op-ed on the START treaty (7/6/10) urging law-makers to reject the lopsided agreement, rattled progressives. On the very next day Senator John Kerry (D-MA) railed that Romney failed the test in arguing against START. In the uproar, Obama tossed a life-line to tax-evader-ex-senator Tom Daschle to wrangle words on behalf of his New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Daschle dusted off the moth-balls and promptly hustled on over to left-of-left Center for American Progress to deliver his rhetoric, proclaiming that rejection of the treaty would be ‘nuclear anarchy’. With theatrical flair he added:

Republican senators “can choose Mitt Romney or they can choose the entire U.S. military establishment,” Daschle said.

The former senator went on to accuse some Republicans of caring more about scoring political points against the president than about the future of the country. He suggested that they are ignoring the responsibilities of their office to pander to the conservative chattering class.

“If Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh choose to make a living peddling partisan hate and anger and mangled conspiracy theories, there will always be people for them to sell a bill of goods,” Daschle said. “It is not healthy for our democracy.”

(emphasis mine)

Strongly supporting Governor Romney’s START assessment, The Heritage Foundation responded:  

New START’s Many Problems: What the Experts Say

Concern
• The Honorable Eric Edelman, Former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy: “[A] START-like treaty that ignores North Korea and Iran may be a step backward rather than forward.” Testimony, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, June 24, 2010

Constrains Missile Defense
• Ambassador Robert Joseph, former Undersecretary of State “Initially, the Obama Administration gave numerous assurances that there would be no limitations on missile defenses in the Treaty—‘no way, no how.’ Later, once the Treaty text was made public, the line changed to ‘no meaningful’ limitations and ‘no constraints on current and planned’ programs.” Testimony, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing, June 24, 2010

Weak on Verification
• Senator James Inhofe (R-OK): “[V]erification appears to be less robust than in the 1991 treaty. … I am concerned that it will make it harder for our intelligence community to monitor Russian nuclear forces and may require additional resources, which we do not currently have, to ensure we are adequately monitoring … developments. I am also concerned that 18 inspections per year … is not robust enough given the fact we conducted on the order of 600 inspections during the 15 years of START I.” Statement on the Senate Floor, June 18, 2010

Reverts to Cold War–Style Arms Control
• Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC): “We have the technology, the capability and the responsibility as a federal government to defend our citizens, and to sign a major treaty that agrees in perpetuity to make ourselves vulnerable to a nuclear attack. … I can’t accept that when we have the capability to change it.” American Foreign Policy Council conference, May 20, 2010

Click here to read more from The Heritage Foundation on:
‘The Advantage to Russia’ by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
‘America Less Safe’ by Richard Perle (former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Arms Control)
‘Fails to Advance Non-Proliferation’ by Kim R. Holmes (former Assistant Secretary of State)

Given its deep flaws, Americans should join Governor Romney and others to call for a halt to this treaty. In the meantime, what is Obama really doing to prevent Iran from weaponizing its nuclear program? What is Obama doing about North Korea’s obsession to create long-range nuclear warheads and their exportation of nuclear and ballistic technology?

UPDATE 7/23/10: Ratification uncertain with Republicans holding back support of U.S.-Russia nuclear treaty

An affiliate of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has taken the lead in opposing the treaty. The Heritage Action for America, an advocacy group, has started a petition drive and may run political advertisements on the issue during the election season. It also is lobbying in the Senate.

Though arms control is hardly a major issue in a campaign season dominated by economic worries, the divisive political environment makes it difficult for Republicans to buck the conservative mainstream and hand Obama a victory that might be considered his top foreign policy achievement.

Tom Daschle, a former Democratic Senate Majority leader, who supports the treaty, says Heritage’s influence may explain why so many Republicans have been reticent about taking a stand.

“It is certainly serious enough to silence some Republican senators,” he said. He added that he expected enough Republicans eventually would come around for passage.

Heritage won some prominent support when a likely GOP presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, announced opposition to the treaty in a newspaper column this month.

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There’s more.

A story within a story; connecting dots…

The Center for American Progress (CAP), where Daschle delivered his denunciation of Romney and other conservatives, is a consummate progressive ‘think tank’ based in Washington DC. (Surprise! Tom Daschle is a CAP fellow.) Created in 2003 by John Podesta, former Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton and head of Obama’s presidential transition team after the election, his goal was to create a liberal think tank on steroids. Think lefty-left-left. CAP is a 501(c)(3)organization whose major individual donors include George Soros, Peter Lewis, Steve Bing, and Herbert M. Sandler. CAP also receives undisclosed sums from unknown corporate donors. In 2009, they created Progressive Media:  

The Center for American Progress — which has emerged as perhaps Washington’s most influential idea factory in the age of Obama — is launching a major new war room, to be staffed by nearly a dozen people, that will focus on driving the White House’s message and agenda, I’m told. The Democratic operatives running the project are already holding a daily early morning call with dozens of operatives from liberal groups – labor, health care, the environment – to coordinate messaging and to deliver usable talking points for the day, according to liberal operative Jennifer Palmieri, who’s the project’s communications director.

The new war room – which is called Progressive Media – represents a serious ratcheting up of efforts to present a united liberal front in the coming policy wars. The goal of the war room will be to do hard-hitting research that boils down complex policy questions into usable talking points and narratives that play well in the media and build public support for the White House’s policy goals. …

The war room – a joint project of CAP Action Fund and Media Matters Action Network — will be headed by well-known liberal operative Tara McGuinness, who worked on John Kerry’s presidential campaign and was a major player in the anti-war movement during the Bush years. … ‘We do a coordination call to get our content out and to coordinate people so they can fire up for the day,’ Palmieri says.[…]

(emphasis mine)

Head of Media Matters war room Tara McGuinness’ ties to Senator John Kerry (D-MA) sheds extra light on Kerry’s media tirade against Gov Romney the day after Romney’s START article was published (July 7, 2010).

Another individual that may be motivating the barking against Romney is Tom Matzzie, a leader at CAP:

“Tom has worked in progressive politics for more than a decade – with MoveOn.org, the AFL-CIO, Campaign for America’s Future and campaigns at the presidential and statewide level. At MoveOn, he created ground-breaking campaigns on corruption and the war in Iraq that set the stage for the 2006 Democratic takeover. The MoveOn 2006 election program successfully targeted for defeat 29 out of 36 Republicans.” […] He has also served on the Board of Directors of Progressive Majority. […]

“The Politico wrote that the intensity of his 2007 Iraq campaign, “rattled the entire Republican caucus.” The New York Times Magazine said of the Iraq campaign that they are to progressives, “…what the NRA is to the Right.” “Tom was named one of the “Forty Under Forty to Watch” by Washingtonian Magazine for his role as a leader in the emerging Internet-powered politics.”

Tom Matzzie is a strategist on politics, media, and technology for the Huffington Post. His involvement with the groups listed above ties him with  notorious uber-liberals. Listed among Campaign for America’s Future‘s many founders and advisors are hair-raising SEIU’s Howard Stern and Frances Fox Piven of Cloward and Piven Strategy fame.

Matzzie is also the leader of Accountable America, a nasty organization aimed at defeating right-wing groups with threats: “… in 2008, he spearheaded an effort “to confront donors to conservative groups, hoping to create a chilling effect that will dry up contributions.” He described the effort a “going for the jugular.” The letter warned “donors who might be considering giving to right-wing groups [of] legal trouble, public exposure and watchdog groups digging through their lives.”

Still with me?

Looking further into CAP, two names caught my eye. Listed under ‘Personnel’ is the name of David Halperin, Senior VP and Director, Campus Progress. Listed under ‘Fellows’ (besides Tom Daschle and another name)  is Morton H. Halperin – also Executive Director of Open Society Policy Center. Halperin? Could they be related to THE Mark Halperin (senior political analyist for MSNBC and editor-at-large, senior political analyst for Time.com)? The one who started a conservative twitter war a few days ago by claiming unnamed sources associated with Mitt Romney had dissed Sarah Palin?

Yes. They are related. Morton H. Halperin is Mark’s father and David Halperin is his brother.

Morton Halperin, Mark’s father, served many years as Director of the ACLU Washington office from 1984-1992. While in that position he defended the right of the The Progessive to publish details on how to construct an atomic bomb. He was the Senior VP and Director of Fellows at the Center for American Progress. Morton Halperin is the Senior Advisor for the Open Society Institute. OSI was created in 1993 by investor George Soros and is a private operating, grantmaking foundation which aims to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, and economic, legal, and social reform. His current wife, Diane Orentlicher, serves as Deputy, Office of War Crimes, Department of State. To read more about Morton Halperin, George Soros, and The Shadow Party click here. (Scroll down to ‘The Southampton Meeting’.)

David Halperin, Mark Halperin’s brother, is a founding board member of the American Constitution Society (2001). He previously worked as a Special Assistant for National Security Affairs and speechwriter to President Bill Clinton, solo litigation practitioner, and legal associate to Professor Laurence Tribe. Tribe was a teacher and mentor of Barack Obama and one of his earliest supporters. Obama appointed Tribe as ‘Senior Counselor for Access to Justice’ in the Justice Department. David Halperin was a policy associate to Ralph Nader, counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, and served as a law clerk to District Judge Gerhard Gessell.

UPDATE 1:Click here for more info on David Halperin.

UPDATE 2: Mark Halperin appeared on Meet the Press on January 17, 2010. During the interview Halperin stated that he thinks Obama has done an extraordinary job. Click here to read article.

It’s hard to believe the cluster of punches at Romney from John Kerry, Tom Daschle, and Mark Halperin are coincidental. This brief rub-your-eyes look at the web of connections between them and Barack Obama is just the tip of the Obama spear. Romney makes them grind their teeth at night. They will stop at nothing to discredit him. Although Romney has said he won’t make any decisions regarding another presidential run until mid-term elections are over, Obama’s pre-emptive stealth campaign for 2012 has begun.

Are you ready?

According to a PPP poll (667 participants), Mitt Romney leads the pack of GOP 2012 contenders in two important areas. The new poll affirms claims that Mitt may be the strongest candidate for the GOP in a general election. This is what they found:

1 – Mitt Romney is the favorite among Obama supporters who are displeased with Obama’s job performance:

Among the people who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 but don’t approve of his job performance:
-Mitt Romney’s favorability is 32/31 (+1)
-Newt Gingrich’s is 32/40 (-8)
-Mike Huckabee’s is 20/39 (-19)
-Sarah Palin’s is 33/63 (-30)

It seems that Mitt has been well advised in his “non-campaigning” approach. He has been plenty critical of Obama and his policies, but his “attacks” have been strictly matter-of-fact, nothing personal or divisive. This seems a strong way to win over independents – make your arguments compelling and sincere, while not being reactionary or overly sensational. It’s the low-high profile tactic. Mitt has been called the only adult in the room on a number of occasions. Perhaps it’s because he keeps a cool head and continues to methodically “stick to the plan.” It’s the strategy of a front-runner.

2 – Mitt Romney leads GOP contenders in head-to-head polling against Obama:

Governor Romney gets a +3 percent over Obama in a match-up. This margin puts him ahead of the GOP pack, though the others aren’t far behind. The numbers:

• Romney vs Obama: 46 – 43 (+3)
• Huckabee vs Obama: 47 – 45 (+2)
• Gingrich vs Obama: 46 – 45 (+1)
• Palin vs Obama: 46 – 46 (0)

Amongst independents Romney wins 48 – 35 (+13). Two years ago those numbers would have been reversed. Is this evidence that people are starting to take off the ObamaGoggles™? I’m actually glad to see the whole group is doing well against Obama. I like Romney the most by far, but the most important thing is that Obama doesn’t get another 4 year term.

Go Mitt!

~Nate Gunderson

-All the fun (or tedious) cross-tabs can be found at the original poll: (PDF)

UPDATE: Mark B. Lowe has some graphs and history perspective with this poll at RightOSphere.com