Governor Andrew Cuomo earned a grade of "D" from the CATO Institute in their latest Fiscal Policy Report Card on America's Governor's: 2012.   You can read the whole report here.  CATO states that "much more needs to be done to reduce government spending in New York" precisely what we have said for years!

And according to the Tax Foundation, New York ranks number 50 in the 2013 edition of the State Business Tax Climate Index based in part by having the worst individual income tax rate. Read more here on how New York compares to the other 49 states.

While on the tax subject, the NY Post has an article on the cigarette tax and how it does nothing to curb smoking.  Read the great cigarette tax lie here.  High cigarette taxes do little to curb smoking, but higher taxes promote illicit trade in cigarettes (both smuggling and counterfeiting).  (Education into the long term effects of smoking is the best way to curb an unhealthy but legal product.)

Cigarettes are a legal product constantly under attack as detrimental to your health, but this November, on Election Day. three states, will vote on the recreational use of marijuana, still a Schedule 1 Drug according to the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the President and Attorney General have not spoken out against this proposal.  Why not?  “We need to understand that drugs and gangs go hand in hand,” says Paul Chabot, who advised Presidents Clinton and Bush on drug policy. “They destroy communities. What we have to do is work keeping people off this stuff, not liberalizing policies.”

The Heritage Foundation with more on President Obama's failing foreign policy.

Read what Lt. Col. Andy Wood told CBS News here. 

Investors Business Daily explains how a 47% dependency on government helped Hugo Chavez win his election Sunday. (Hmm, 47%, where have we heard that number before?)

Charles Payne opines on Friday's jobs numbers.  So does Cal Thomas.

Tuesday's with Thomas Sowell who writes about Phony in Chief.

Happy Columbus Day

Kathryn Jean Lopez has a delightful interview with Judge James L. Buckley in National Review Online.

Remember in 1970 when we elected Jim Buckley to the Senate despite terrible odds?  All things are possible if you work hard to overcome the odds.  Our 2012 US Senate candidate, Wendy Long, knows she is running uphill, but that fact does not deter her determination.  If you don't want more of this, do what you can now to help elect Wendy Long to the United States Senate.  Click here to help Wendy Long.

Jim Geraghty opines on why he (Obama) is falling apart.

Ken Blackwell writes about the Obama Mandate.  

The New York Sun critiques Governor Romney's speech today on foreign policy.  

Uncollected tolls on Thruway hit $35 Million....yet Thruway still wants a 45% increase in tolls.

E. J. McMahon explains the problems with populist pandering.

Are  you comfortable with fires fought with less than the best?  Absolutely NOT.  Read Steve Cassidy' s column in today's New York Post.

Weekly Wrap-Up

“The effort by Team Obama... to turn the page from Wednesday's disaster reached comedy status this morning with the dancing break-out over the unemployment rate of 7.8%,” Hugh Hewitt notes in response to today’s new jobs numbers.

Or, as the Weekly Standard gently puts it, “This morning's jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is being met withskepticism.”

According to The Heritage Foundation, “Economists arealready looking into the drop, saying it seems to be a statistical fluke, because it doesn’t match up with the sluggish job creation and recent downward revision of GDP growth.”

What’s your take? Are these new unemployment numbers for real, or for show? Vote today in our new Weekly Poll.

Wednesday’s debate didn’t decide the election – there are still miles to go – but it was such a strong performance by Romney, I can’t help but savor all the post-game analysis.

John Podhoretz gives his take on “Why Romney Romped,” while his colleagues on the Post Editorial Board demolish Team Obama’s post-debatestrategy of calling Romney a liar...

Charles Krauthammer declares the winner: “Romney by two touchdowns,” while George Will explores Romney’s debate trifecta...

“For the first time, the carefully crafted campaign illusions that the President has constructed were exposed,” the Wall Street Journal says of the debate – and Peggy Noonan predicts, “This whole race is on the move again, it's in play again, and it's going to get fun.”

In the Weekly Standard, Fred Barnes defends the performance of the left’s new villain, moderator Jim Lehrer.

So how will Obama and Co. try to bounce back from the debate debacle?

The Heritage Foundation asks an alarming and not at all unreasonable question: “Will the Obama Administration Attack Libya Before theForeign Policy Debate?”

We’ll see what happens... and in the meantime, have a great weekend!

Good news from the Bronx!

Our US Senate candidate, Wendy Long, was on the Fred Dicker radio show this AM. You can listen to the pod cast here or read about it here.

Why does Senator Schumer always lead from behind?

For anyone who does not believe that Social Security needs reform,  this is a must read.  The article indicates that the interest on the principle is not included which would modify the 4% loss on payouts.  Interest?  Have you looked at what you earn in interest on your savings account?  Adding to the Social Security fiscal problems is the fact that baby boomers will be collecting for an average of 20 or more years, then add the fact that Americas birth rate is down for the fourth year in a row,  then you will have a better understanding of the urgent need for reform. 

First it was VP Biden who unwittingly spoke the truth, now David Axelrod is.  This morning on MSNBC he said ""You can't square the circle, and Gov. Romney is going to be held accountable for that."  Actually Mr. Axelrod, last night  Governor Romney held  President Obama accountable for trying to square the circle.

The Heritage Foundation assesses  on debate.  The Weekly Standard; Larry Kudlow; the Washington Examiner; Jonah Goldberg; the NY Sun; and the NY Post all give Governor Romney kudos. 

A very special thank you to Jim Geraghty who writes the Morning Jolt for National Review Online for the great recap of last night's debate or what he calls The Denver Knockout...the quotes are just too good to leave out of today's  blog.



Morning Jolt – October 4, 12

By Jim Geraghty

Here’s your Thursday Morning Jolt.

Enjoy!

Jim

The Denver Knockout

“I can't believe I'm saying this, but Obama looks like he DOES need a teleprompter.”

Guess who said that?

Bill Maher.

Chuck Todd: “Very important night for Mitt Romney. And he rose to the challenge.” Later in the evening, Todd reported, “[The Obama campaign] knows they lost tonight.”

Rachel Maddow began by saying, “I don’t know who won this debate.”

Chris Matthews was morose: "I don't know what he was doing out there. . . . He had his head down."

Go watch the video of the meltdown. It’s worth it. The transcript doesn’t capture just how epic it was:

"Where was Obama tonight? He should watch -- well, not just Hardball, Rachel, he should watch you, he should watch the Reverend Al [Sharpton], he should watch Lawrence. He would learn something about this debate. There's a hot debate going on in this country. You know where it's been held? Here on this network is where we're having the debate," Matthews said.

"We have our knives out," Matthews said, admitting his network is trying their best to defend Obama and his policies. "We go after the people and the facts. What was he doing tonight? He went in their disarmed."

"He was like, 'Oh an hour and half? I think I can get through this thing. And I don't even look at this guy.' Whereas Romney -- I love the split-screen -- staring at Obama, addressing him like prey. He did it just right. 'I'm coming at an incumbent. I got to beat him. You've got to beat the champ and I'm going to beat him tonight. And I don't care what this guy, the moderator, whatever he thinks he is because I'm going to ignore him," Matthews said.

"What was Romney doing?" Matthews asked. "He was winning."

Ed Schultz, MSNBC: "I was disappointed in the president tonight. . . . He was off his game. I was stunned."

Michael Moore: “This is what happens when you pick John Kerry as your debate coach. . . . What's that silence I hear? No one throwing a party? No one saying this election is a slam dunk for Obama? What happened to the victory lap?”

Van Jones: "Up until tonight, we were told Romney was Thurston Howell. . . . Tonight, he was presidential."

Larry Sabato: “Probably Romney's best debate ever. Maybe Obama's worst. I lost count of # of opportunities Obama missed. . . . This debate may build audience for other 3. Voters will want to see if Obama can stage comeback. . . . Mr. President, cancel all your golf games. You did miserably tonight.”

Wolf Blitzer: “This was a pretty good night for Mitt Romney. He clearly held his own. We didn’t hear the attack lines from President Obama that we were expecting . . .”

John King: “A lot of liberals complaining about Obama’s performance. He was rusty. He hasn’t done this for four years. We didn’t hear about Bain Capital, we didn’t hear about the 47 percent.”

Anderson Cooper: “Critics of the president often say he can be professorial, I imagine they’ll be saying that tonight.”

Terry Moran: “Obama's passivity in this debate, his lack of oomph and clarity, plays into the Romney narrative: Nice guy; can't lead. Big W for GOP.”

Nicholas Kristof: “Romney is relaxed and empathetic, while Obama comes across as a constipated professor. C'mon, Mr. President!”

David Corn: “Romney looks like he's having a good time. Obama does not.”

Josh Greenman of the New York Daily News: “Possible upside: Some people might feel a little sorry for Obama?”

Michael Crowley of Time magazine: “Sensing weakness, Sasha and Malia just hounded dad into doubling their allowances.”

I mention all of these liberals and MSM folks to demonstrate that it wasn’t just us feeling good about seeing what we wanted to see in Romney. One last one:

Andrew Sullivan:

“This was a disaster for the president for the key people he needs to reach, and his effete, wonkish lectures may have jolted a lot of independents into giving Romney a second look.

Obama looked tired, even bored; he kept looking down; he had no crisp statements of passion or argument; he wasn't there. He was entirely defensive, which may have been the strategy. But it was the wrong strategy. At the wrong moment.

The person with authority on that stage was Romney -- offered it by one of the lamest moderators ever, and seized with relish. This was Romney the salesman. And my gut tells me he sold a few voters on a change tonight. It's beyond depressing. But it's true.”

As for the folks watching at home . . .

CBS News instapoll: 46% said Romney won. 22% said Obama won. 32% said tie.

CNN InstaPoll: 67% say Mitt Romney won, 25% Obama, registered voters who watched the debate.

Mark Knoller: “Poll shows 56% of uncommitted voters say their opinion of Romney has changed for the better. 13% say that about the President.”

Laura Ingraham: “Obama is not good at debates because Obama is rarely challenged by anyone on anything.”

Exurban Jon: “Expected spin: ‘Obama didn't lose this debate to Romney, he just lead from behind.’”

Jim Pethokoukis: “Romney's command of detail really showed on the small biz stuff. Knew both the sides of the argument cold.”

Matt Cover: “So, looks like Eastwood wasn't so crazy after all. #emptychair”

Biased Girl: “Barack Obama was exposed tonight.”

Jonah: “Romney should FedEx some apples to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave with a note, ‘How do you like these?’”

Iowahawk: “That faint sound? Millions of faded Obama posters coming down.”

The Right Dame: “This isn't breaking news to us, but to the rest of you who seem so confused, this is the result of an inept media. You didn’t know either man.”

Ross Douthat: “Sweet spot for GOP politicians: Center-right not hard right on substance, but w/strong attack lines against liberalism. Romney hit it.”

Patrick Ruffini: “The broader problem for Obama that surfaced tonight: He's acting like a liberal ideologue running against a pragmatic problem-solver.”

Kevin Eder: “Obama looked very tired. I'd be too if I spent all my time in partying in Vegas, chatting with Letterman, & livin' it up with Jay-Z. #buried”

AG_Conservative: “Liberals have been told for months that Romney has no specifics. No wonder they were shocked when Romney was the only one who did.”

Mary Katharine Ham: “I had no idea the 20th anniversary was the Embarrassing Capitulation Anniversary.”

Mark Hemingway: “That wasn't a debate so much as Mitt Romney just took Obama for a cross country drive strapped to the roof of his car.”

It will be interesting to see how the Obama campaign responds to this. Some new document dump? Surrogates playing the religion card more explicitly?

Josh Trevino: “Chance of unilateral US action in Libya in the coming fourteen days just went up by seventy thousand percent.”

How would you like to be Vice President Joe Biden right now? He already thinks he’s God’s gift to audiences, and in his one debate with Sarah Palin, he described some alternate-universe history that almost no one in the press called him out on, because of the ongoing Palin obsession at the moment. Michael Totten wrote:

“When we kicked -- along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, “Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don’t know -- if you don’t, Hezbollah will control it.” Now what’s happened? Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the government in the country immediately to the north of Israel.” [Emphasis added.]

What on Earth is he talking about? The United States and France may have kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon in an alternate universe, but nothing even remotely like that ever happened in this one.

That night Palin turned in a pretty solid performance, but she wasn’t prepared to fact-check Biden on the spot when he started telling tales about Middle East policy that sounded like they might be based on classified briefings or something. Yet if Biden starts rambling a week from now, and starts offering BS stories that sound good but that do not match any known facts at all, it’s easy to picture Paul Ryan staring at him, incredulous, and saying simply, “Mister Vice President, with all due respect . . . what in God’s name are you talking about?”

I want Joe Biden swinging for the fences a week from now, feeling like he has to turn the ship around all by himself.

ADDENDUM: Toby Harnden: “Jim Lehrer telling Denver audience that "absolute silence" is required: ‘If you hear something you don't like -- sit on it!’”

Who is he, The Fonz?

To read more, visit www.nationalreview.com

National Review, Inc.

Debate night!  The Heritage Foundation has a few questions it would like answered, good questions that if  answered honestly by President Obama, I doubt if anyone would vote for him since they would highlight his lack of  leadership in the last 3 3/4  years.

The Washington Examiner also has a list of questions that need to be answered by both candidates.  I sincerely hope that those who have taken advantage of early voting in the 34 states that allow early voting, will not hear an answer that will change their mind.

George J. Marlin gives  Governor Romney some advice as to what to say to Catholic voters.

Pete du Pont:  The Election Isn't Over. 

The American Enterprise Institute examines the Romney tax plan.

Obama's crumbling foreign policy.

The Taliban Was Dead But Have Returned Under Obama.

More fact checking on Obama's small business tax cut claims.

Medicare reform:  battling the myths.  

More from Heritage Foundation on Welfare Reform. 

The one place there is great job growth our President ignores in favor of "green energy".

Finally, VP Joe Biden says something I can agree with. 

Wendy Long, our US Senate candidate, message is getting out there!  You can help by sending the links to your family and friends!  Here are some of the articles, more here and here. Wendy Long's latest press release is here. If at all possible, donate to Wendy Long,  here.

Two groups like campaign finance reform, the press and liberals, oh wait a minute, make that one group.

Thomas Sowell on Capital Gain Taxes

Wednesday's with Walter E. Williams

President Barack Obama may own the main stream media, but even he cannot stem the articles on the murder of four American patriots in Libya.  From today's USA Today editorial: Shifting Libya attack story raises red flags.  From the Daily Beast:  U.S. Consulate in Benghazi Bombed Twice in Run-Up to 9/11 Anniversary.  Neither publication is considered right leaning so it is heartening to know that they are questioning what is being spoon fed to them by the Administration.


Thankfully the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is demanding some answers.

The latest debacle in Libya is hurting President Obama among independent voters.

To believe Obama  is to forget the last four years.

Another major potential problem for the Administration here and more here.

Do you know how much foreign aid has increased under the Obama Administration?  You won't be happy about the fact that foreign aid spending increased more than boarder security.

A new study tells us what we already knew:  Obama's spending plan raises middle class taxes.

And who will be surprised that two liberal whoppers on Medicare are still being promoted by the left.

Doctors understand.

If the polls are right (I'm not convinced they are) then the fiscal cliff looms even steeper.

Are we heading to another recession?  David Malpass thinks we may be.

FDNY discrimination judge Must Go.  Good editorial in the NY Post on Judge Garaufis.

Governor Cuomo is the only one who thinks he isn't stalling.  The NY Post Editorial agrees with us.

Our US Senate candidate, Wendy Long, in NewsMax!  Where is the NY MSM on this Senate race?  Fred Dicker will have Wendy Long on his radio show on Thursday.  You can listen live on the internet @ Talk1300.com.

Seriously, why does Governor Andrew Cuomo want to pursue an extremely expensive, non-productive, easily abused campaign finance bill.  Remember it is your tax dollars that will be used to finance politicians, your tax dollars, not your voluntary donation to those you support.

E. W. Jackson has some wise words for his community.

Tuesdays with Thomas Sowell.

Just when you are beginning to think that Governor Andrew Cuomo understands the cost of running government, he reaches out aggressively to get ex-cons on Medicaid.  So much for understanding the plight of taxpayers in New York State.  Hard working citizens, struggling to make ends meet, constantly hit with higher cost  for health insurance (among other necessary items) having already paid the for the health care of convicts, will now be forced to pay for their health care when released from prison.  Chairman Long was right when he said "Evidently, crime does pay."

Why is Governor Andrew Cuomo dragging his feet when it comes to hydrofrackng?   New Yorkers can certainly use the jobs, the state would benefit from more New Yorkers working, yet Governor Cuomo is caving to the liberal agenda of fear mongering a process that is over 100 years old with no proof of any harmful side effects.  Sadly, the Governor says New York is open for business, then hides behind the Department of Environmental Conservation saying four years of reviews are insufficient and must be restarted.

New Yorkers and  even New Jersey residents forced (yes, forced since they have no say) into absorbing the additional cost for security et al when President Obama comes to New York.

More of your tax dollars being poorly managed.

Teachers' Union wants to sue the state over the property tax cap. What they should be demanding is mandate relief!

The President and his administration is in disarray over the murder of four Americans in Libya a full 20 days later.  Read the Heritage Foundation's analysis here, what the Washington Examiner has to say here and what Michael A. Walsh writes here.  Even the Washington Post says security was lax prior to the 9/11/12 attack. 

Of course, all of this is okay with Hugo Chavez, who would vote for President Obama, if he could.   That doesn't surprise anyone because like our President, Mr. Chavez, likes people dependent on government services,  even if they are not citizens. 

When Hugo Chavez does not get what he wants in Venezuela he just mandates it, what is getting little notice here in America, is that we currently  have a President who does the same by executive order. 
Here is an article from April of this year on President Obama's use of executive orders. Here is a list of executive orders from the White House website.

No surprise in this article. 

Since the MSM does not cover our US Senate candidate,  Wendy Long, it is up to you to forward these articles.  More here , here and here. We can make a difference!  Wendy Long is one of us and with your help we will get the word out that Wendy Long is just the person  New York residents need in Washington, DC to have their voice heard.