Romney alone?

Last week Romney had suggested it was impossible for him to win the election given the promises of gifts by Obama.  Do you agree with him?  Bobby Jindal and others have turned there back on Romney for his comments.  Are they correct to do that?

Submitted to the Star Tribune.

The Problem with Vikings Stadium Funding

In a letter to the Vikings earlier this week concerning terms in the stadium agreement he negotiated, signed and touted, Governor Dayton took exception to Personal Seat License revenue (PSL’s) the Vikings are counting on to help fund their portion of the stadium costs.   

As a sitting lawmaker, I worry that this bit of political theatre, may now be water under the bridge and, either intentionally or not, takes us farther away from recognizing a increasingly significant problem concerning stadium funding -- how the taxpayer's portion of the stadium will be paid for.

The taxpayer portion of stadium financing relies on taxes generated from charitable gaming revenue, specifically new “electronic pull-tabs.”. This revenue has to exceed $1.8 billion per year so that the resulting taxes can pay for the public's share of the costs.  Simple math tells us that monthly sales of electronic pull tabs need to reach $150 million.  If the first month of operation is any indication, this may be a losing bet for taxpayers. Electronic pull tab revenue reached just slightly more than $1 million in its first month of operation.  While there is no question this revenue will increase, the public needs to understand the increase has to be substantial to reach $150 million in sales each and every month.

If this doesn’t happen, then backup funding sources, like Viking scratch off lottery games and additional suite revenue taxes, kick in.  These back-up funding sources, however, were never substantial in amount so when they don’t fill the hole, the state’s general fund will inevitably be tapped.  Therein lies the problem. The Vikings stadium will then compete with schools, roads, bridges and health care for the poor/disabled for funds, or will result in tax increases to make up for the deficit.

So while the Governor professes concern about how the Vikings will be paying for their portion of the stadium using a clause in the contract that was specifically given to them by Governor Dayton, many lawmakers, including myself, will be getting headaches over how the State of Minnesota will find the money to pay for the taxpayer portion when taxes from gambling revenue don't come in as projected.

State Representative Bob Barrett

Romney: Obama’s ‘gifts’ to key demographics helped him win Posted by Natalie Jennings on November 14, 2012 at 6:09 pm

Mitt Romney, on a call with top donors on Wednesday, referred to some of the policies enacted under the Obama administration as “gifts” that helped him win young, minority and low-income voters.
Here’s The New York Times’s account of the call:

“In each case they were very generous in what they gave to those groups,” Mr. Romney said.
 “With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest, was a big gift,” he said. “Free contraceptives were very big with young college-aged women. And then, finally, Obamacare also made a difference for them, because as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents’ plan, and that was a big gift to young people. They turned out in large numbers, a larger share in this election even than in 2008.”

According to that account and another in the Los Angeles Times, Romney also apologized to donors and said he was surprised by the loss.
Just a few hours earlier, Obama said in his news conference that he hoped to meet with Romney to discuss ideas for ways they could work together.

Benghazi

Say that name 10 times...............do you feel like Washington is hoping we forget it.  Don't!!  The scandals that have engulfed the news media have conveniently pushed BENGHAZI to the side.  Talk to your friends and remind people on social media.  This administration cannot get away with this unchecked!

In 59 Philadelphia voting wards, Mitt Romney got zero votes

Miriam Hill, Andrew Seidman, and John Duchneskie, Inquirer Staff Writers

Posted: Monday, November 12, 2012, 3:01 AM
 

It's one thing for a Democratic presidential candidate to dominate a Democratic city like Philadelphia, but check out this head-spinning figure: In 59 voting divisions in the city, Mitt Romney received not one vote. Zero. Zilch.

These are the kind of numbers that send Republicans into paroxysms of voter-fraud angst, but such results may not be so startling after all.
"We have always had these dense urban corridors that are extremely Democratic," said Jonathan Rodden, a political science professor at Stanford University. "It's kind of an urban fact, and you are looking at the extreme end of it in Philadelphia."
Most big cities are politically homogeneous, with 75 percent to 80 percent of voters identifying as Democrats.
Cities are not only bursting with Democrats: They are easier to organize than rural areas where people live far apart from one another, said Sasha Issenberg, author of The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns.
"One reason Democrats can maximize votes in Philadelphia is that it's very easy to knock on every door," Issenberg said.
Still, was there not one contrarian voter in those 59 divisions, where unofficial vote tallies have President Obama outscoring Romney by a combined 19,605 to 0?
The unanimous support for Obama in these Philadelphia neighborhoods - clustered in almost exclusively black sections of West and North Philadelphia - fertilizes fears of fraud, despite little hard evidence.
Upon hearing the numbers, Steve Miskin, a spokesman for Republicans in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, brought up his party's voter-identification initiative - which was held off for this election - and said, "We believe we need to continue ensuring the integrity of the ballot."

The absence of a voter-ID law, however, would not stop anyone from voting for a Republican candidate.
Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia who has studied African American precincts, said he had occasionally seen 100 percent of the vote go for the Democratic candidate. Chicago and Atlanta each had precincts that registered no votes for Republican Sen. John McCain in 2008.
"I'd be surprised if there weren't a handful of precincts that didn't cast a vote for Romney," he said. But the number of zero precincts in Philadelphia deserves examination, Sabato added.
"Not a single vote for Romney or even an error? That's worth looking into," he said.
In a city with 1,687 of the ward subsets known as divisions, each with hundreds of voters, 59 is about 3.5 percent of the total.
In some of those divisions, it's not only Romney supporters who are missing. Republicans in general are nearly extinct.
Take North Philadelphia's 28th Ward, third division, bounded by York, 24th, and 28th Streets and Susquehanna Avenue.
About 94 percent of the 633 people who live in that division are black. Seven white residents were counted in the 2010 census.
In the entire 28th Ward, Romney received only 34 votes to Obama's 5,920.
Although voter registration lists, which often contain outdated information, show 12 Republicans live in the ward's third division, The Inquirer was unable to find any of them by calling or visiting their homes.
Four of the registered Republicans no longer lived there; four others didn't answer their doors. City Board of Elections registration data say a registered Republican used to live at 25th and York Streets, but none of the neighbors across the street Friday knew him. Cathy Santos, 56, founder of the National Alliance of Women Veterans, had one theory: "We ran him out of town!" she said and laughed.
James Norris, 19, who lives down the street, is listed as a Republican in city data. But he said he's a Democrat and voted for Obama because he thinks the president will help the middle class.
A few blocks away, Eric Sapp, a 42-year-old chef, looked skeptical when told that city data had him listed as a registered Republican. "I got to check on that," said Sapp, who voted for Obama.
Eighteen Republicans reportedly live in the nearby 15th Division, according to city registration records. The 15th has the distinction of pitching two straight Republican shutouts - zero votes for McCain in 2008, zero for Romney on Tuesday. Oh, and 13 other city divisions did the same thing in 2008 and 2012.
Three of the 15th's registered Republicans were listed as living in the same apartment, but the tenant there said he had never heard of them. The addresses of several others could not be found.
On West Albert Street, Duke Dunston says he knows he's a registered Republican, but he's never voted for one.
The leader of the 28th Ward is Democrat Anthony Clark, who grew up under the tutelage of the late power broker and Democratic ward leader Carol Ann Campbell. Clark is also a city commissioner, one of three elected officials who oversee Philadelphia elections.
"In the African American community from 33d to 24th between Ridge and Somerset, there is a large population of Democrats and there are not many Republicans in there at all. I think it's the issues. People are not feeling that Romney is in touch with them," Clark said.
Despite the Democratic advantage in the 28th Ward, Clark says he also makes sure party workers are getting the vote out.
"People get out, give out literature, talk to people about the issues. Also, they work the polls," Clark said. "People know them in their divisions."
Clark struggled to recall anyone in his area who ever identified as a Republican. Though that is not something anyone would likely volunteer to a Democratic ward leader, Clark eventually remembered Lewis Harris, the GOP leader in the nearby 29th ward, and that rare species: an urban black Republican.
Harris, in an interview, said he works for the GOP mostly because he believes city neighborhoods need attention from both parties.
"I open the door to the community and let them be exposed to diversity in the political party," Harris said. "I want political community-based leverage."
Harris cast his vote for Romney, but he's also an Obama fan.
"I love both of those people," he said.
Nationally, 93 percent of African Americans voted for Obama, according to exit polls, so it's not surprising that in some parts of Philadelphia, the president did even better than that.
In the entire city, Obama got 85 percent of the vote. His worst showing was in South Philadelphia's 26th Ward. There, the president garnered 52.3 percent of the vote, compared to 46.6 percent for Romney.
Paula Terreri, 57, a 26th Ward Republican who describes herself as a devout Catholic, said outside the polls on Tuesday that she voted for Romney because she opposed abortion.
Many parts of Philadelphia and other big cities simply lack Republican voters, a fact of campaigning that has been true since Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, Stanford University's Rodden said.
In 2008, McCain got zero votes in 57 Philadelphia voting divisions. That was a big increase from 2004, when George W. Bush was blanked in just five divisions.
As the first African American president, Obama held immense appeal to black voters, but skin color is only part of the story, said Mark Sawyer, a political science professor at UCLA.
Previous Republican candidates, including Richard Nixon and Jack Kemp, supported affirmative action and urban development, but their party has abandoned those stances, Sawyer said.
Romney's comments, including talking about people who want "more free stuff from the government" after a visit to the NAACP, only further distanced African Americans who felt the comments played to stereotypes about welfare, Sawyer said.

Petraeus mistress may have revealed classified information at Denver speech: The real reason for the attack on CIA operation in Benghazi

Biographer Paula Broadwell may not be getting investigated by the FBI for sending threatening e-mails to Petraeus family friend Jill Kelley, who neither works for the State Department, nor Joint Special Operations Command.
Now, Broadwell could be facing questions about whether she revealed classified information that she was privy to due to her relationship with then-CIA director David Petraeus.
At an Oct. 26 speech at her alma mater, the University of Denver, Broadwell was asked about Petraeus’ handling of the Benghazi situation.
Her response was reported originally by Israel’s Arutz Sheva and Foreign Policy’s Blake Hounshell.
Broadwell quoted the Fox report when she said: “The facts that came out today were that the ground forces there at the CIA annex, which is different from the consulate, were requesting reinforcements."
Broadwell’s affair with Petraeus was likely known to Holly Petraeus, according to family friends. The FBI reportedly knew about it months beforehand and White House Counterterrorism advisor John Brennan reportedly was aware that there was a relationship in the summer of 2011.
Broadwell went on to explain more details from the Benghazi attacks.
“Now, I don't know if a lot of you heard this, but the CIA annex had actually, um, had taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner and they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to try to get these prisoners back. So that's still being vetted.”
Click here to watch Broadwell's speech on YouTube. 
In the original October 26 Fox News report, sources at the Annex said that the CIA’s Global Response Staff had handed over three Libyan militia members to the Libyan authorities who came to rescue the 30 Americans in the early hours of September 12.
A well-placed Washington source confirms to Fox that there were Libyan militiamen being held at the CIA annex in Benghazi and that their presence was being looked at as a possible motive for the staged attack on the Consulate and Annex that night.
According to multiple intelligence sources who have served in Benghazi, there were more than just Libyan militia members who were held and interrogated by CIA contractors at the CIA Annex in the days prior to the attack. Other prisoners from additional countries in Africa and the Middle East were brought to this location.
The Libya Annex was the largest CIA station in North Africa, and two weeks prior to the attack, the CIA was preparing to shut it down. Most prisoners, according to British and American intelligence sources, had been moved two weeks earlier.
The CIA categorically denied these allegations in response to a query by reporter Eli Lake: “The CIA has not had detention authority since January 2009, when Executive Order 13491 was issued. Any suggestion that the Agency is still in the detention business is uninformed and baseless.”
Broadwell, whose affair with Petraeus reportedly ended earlier this year, continued to serve as an informal spokesman for the CIA director. She suggests in her Denver speech that Petraeus knew almost immediately that the attack was a terror attack - possibly to free militia members.
A few days later, Petraeus testifies in a closed session to Congress that the attack was due in large part to an anti-Islam video and a spontaneous uprising, according to reports from the hearing.
Congressional leaders say privately they believe they were lied to by Petraeus when he testified shortly after the attack. Some of these members already considered charging Petraeus with perjury, but said they planned to withhold judgment until he testified this week. After resigning as CIA director, the CIA said acting director Mike Morrell would testify in his place.
All of this raises the question: what was the CIA really doing in Benghazi in addition to searching for Qaddafi’s stash of more than 22,000 shoulder held missiles that could bring down commercial airplanes, and who in the White House knew exactly what the CIA was up to?

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/11/12/petraeus-mistress-may-have-revealed-classified-information-at-denver-speech/#ixzz2C0ohzSKl

Distraction?

Is the recent news of Petraeus' affair just a distraction?  Was it held until after the election on purpose?  What are your thoughts?  Notice not one word about Benghazi since.  Is it all tied together or is it simply coincidence?