Back in November of last year, Glenn Beck heard Freedom Works President Matt Kibbe speaking in South Carolina. One particular line from Kibbe’s presentation stuck with Glenn. Kibbe told the crowd; “I can’t believe we have to go fight the Republicans before we go fight the Democrats.” Tonight on GBTV, Glenn and Matt talked at length about the Tea Parties all across America and how these very diverse groups have the potential to change the direction of the country in the 2012 elections and beyond. Here’s part one. In second part of the interview, Beck and Kibbe drilled down a little deeper into the Tea Party’s beliefs on what makes a good elected official. The Freedom Works President clarified his thoughts: Our thing is constant accountability, transparency, holding everyone to the same standard regardless of whether they are Republican or Democrat… It’s based on the issues… it’s based on what you actually do in office. On the topic of the Fall election season, Glenn asked Matt about the Tea Party plans for making certain that the elections are legitimate: I think our whole strategy has to be based on freedom. That the fight against voter fraud is only going to be fought with a very decentralized system where each person takes responsibility in their community to police those voting booths, to volunteer, to actually be there. Despite the current tensions in the GOP Primary process, Kibbe maintains a positive outlook: That’s why I’m so optimistic, I think that a decentralized, freedom-based model can win and will win if each of us take responsibility and focus on the things that matter. The entire second part of the interview with Matt Kibbe is here:
At Los Angeles Times , ” Political Islam at a crossroads in Egypt “: The call to prayer quiets in the minaret as Mohammad Abbas, a street protester turned candidate for parliament, steps out of a decrepit elevator and hurries to his office. He’s still learning the art of politics but he can spin a sound bite better than most of his elders. Ask away: Facebook activists? “They sit in air-conditioned rooms but don’t touch real Egyptians.” Young Islamists? “Not yet strong enough to influence change.” The Muslim Brotherhood? His eyes narrow, the banter hushes. Abbas joined the Brotherhood, the Arab world’s largest Islamic movement, when he was in college. But the group that brought the 27-year-old closer to God and honed his social conscience booted Abbas out in July when he made clear that his ambitions for a new Egypt were much different from those of his mentors. The Brotherhood’s moderate Freedom and Justice Party and its more conservative Islamic allies are likely to win big in parliamentary elections Monday; no other organizations are as disciplined or as connected to the masses. But the Brotherhood’s unity, which buttressed it for decades against bans and repression by Hosni Mubarak’s police state, is splintering as both young and established voices break away. With about 6,000 candidates running for 498 seats, the elections are a crucial test for the Arab world’s most populous nation. The outcome, along with a presidential election scheduled for next year, will reveal whether Egypt emerges as a democratic inspiration in a region clamoring for change or slips back into a military-dominated autocracy where only the faces and illicit bank accounts have changed. Continue reading . Added: At Legal Insurrection, ” Egyptian Imam The NY Times called “moderate” holds “kill all the Jews” mass rally .”
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Islamists Expected to Win Big in Monday’s Egypt Elections
Voters booted the Socialist Party of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the prime minister who caved to terrorism in 2004, pulling Spanish forces out of Iraq. At New York Times , ” Spain Vote Deals Decisive Blow to Socialist Government “: MADRID — Spaniards struggling with high unemployment and a credit squeeze delivered a punishing verdict on almost eight years of Socialist government at the ballot box on Sunday, turning to the conservative Popular Party in the hopes of alleviating the pain of Europe’s debt crisis. With 99.8 percent of the vote counted Sunday night, the Popular Party, led by Mariano Rajoy, had won 186 seats and a governing majority in the 350-seat lower house of Parliament, while the governing Socialists plummeted to 110 seats from 169. It was the Popular Party’s best showing, and the Socialists’ worst, since Spain’s return to democracy in the 1970s. Spain is the third southern European country in two weeks to see its government felled by the debt crisis in the euro zone. In Italy and Greece, prime ministers were forced by mounting financial and economic woes to resign and give way to interim “unity” governments of technical experts, who are meant to take urgent but unpopular austerity measures to cope with the crisis and then call new elections. The new Spanish prime minister will have an advantage they lack — the solid backing of a freshly elected single-party majority in Parliament — but he must still cope with the same dire combination of economic stagnation, gaping budget deficits and crushing debts that brought down his predecessor, and that swept governing parties out of office in Greece and Italy this month, Portugal in June and Ireland in February. Also at Telegraph UK , ” Spain: Conservatives win landslide victory .” RELATED : From 2010, ” Aznar Calls for New Elections to Solve Spain’s Problems .”
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Socialist Party Delivered Humiliating Defeat in Spain’s General Election
**Written by Doug Powers It’s a special Tuesday edition of a Friday night email dump, and it comes near mid-week because Democrats don’t control the House committee in question. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is scheduled to appear before a Solyndra inquiry on Thursday, so I’m sure he’ll be asked about this : The Obama administration urged officers of the struggling solar company Solyndra to postpone announcing planned layoffs until after the November 2010 midterm elections, newly released e-mails show. Solyndra, the now-shuttered California company, had been a poster child of President Obama’s initiative to invest in clean energies and received the administration’s first energy loan of $535 million. But a year ago, in October 2010, the solar panel manufacturer was quickly running out of money and had warned the Energy Department it would need emergency cash to avoid having to shut down. The new e-mails about the layoff announcement were released Tuesday morning as part of a House Energy and Commerce committee memo… As you read content of one of the emails, keep in mind that the 2010 election was on November 2nd: “DOE continues to be cooperative and have indicated that they will fund the November draw on our loan (app. $40 million) but have not committed to December yet,” a Solyndra investor adviser wrote Oct. 30. “They did push very hard for us to hold our announcement of the consolidation to employees and vendors to Nov. 3rd – oddly they didn’t give a reason for that date.” This particular “investor adviser” posessed the kind of lack of inquisitiveness that probably contributed to the excitement level in the VP’s office. As instructed, Solyndra announced the layoffs and a factory shutdown just after the elections were over . In spite of that, the DoE continued to give Solyndra installments of their taxpayer backed loan. We all know how the 2010 elections turned out, so not disclosing the layoffs to the public until after the election didn’t exactly save Nancy Pelosi’s gavel. Update: Rahm Emanuel still doesn’t remember anything about Solyndra… whatever that was. **Written by Doug Powers Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Emails Show Energy Dept. Asked Solyndra to Keep Layoffs Quiet Until After 2010 Elections
Off-year elections: Catch the fever! Fairfax County, Virginia : “Eight hours after polls for Tuesday’s elections opened in Fairfax County most precincts have seen just 200 to 400 voters pass through their doors, county election officials said. General Registrar Cameron Quinn said she’s currently expecting a 25 percent voter turnout, but she’s still holding out hope for a last-minute surge at the polls.” Keep reading this post . . .
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Off-Year Elections, the Preseason Football of Democracy
As outrageous as this whole thing is, I’m still pretty taken aback by how amateurish was the Cain’s campaign’s response to the revelations. Here’s this from the front page at this morning’s Los Angeles Times , ” Harassment allegations trip up Herman Cain “: Many conservative activists were quick Monday to rally behind Cain. L. Brent Bozell III, a frequent media critic, called the allegations a “high-tech lynching,” summoning the language Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas used when accused of harassment at his explosive 1991 confirmation hearings. “This will play to his advantage with the grass roots,” predicted K.B. Forbes, a GOP strategist who has worked for previous insurgent candidates. “One of their favorite lines is, ‘It’s the liberal media.’” But for insiders — donors, Republican strategists and others among the political establishment — the episode could raise further doubts about Cain as well as concerns about the wherewithal of his seat-of-its-pants campaign operation. According to Politico, campaign operatives knew the article was coming for 10 days. And yet in its initial statement — which was widely circulated — the campaign did not deny the harassment allegations . That was left, many hours later, to Cain. The campaign had almost two weeks to prepare. Cain needed to have a press release ready to go, which would have also served as his crib sheet in responding to allegations. This is Campaigns and Elections 101. It’s the basics of rapid response politics. Had Cain come out with a strong statement Sunday night he could have stayed on message all day yesterday, during his whirlwind network interview rounds. Instead, he dug a hole from which he needs to quickly extricate himself. EARLIER : ” Herman Cain’s Accuser Speaks Out .”
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Herman Cain Campaign Knew of Politico Hit Piece 10 Days in Advance
