19 Illegal Immigration Facts You'll Never Read in Legacy Media

Guest post by Michael Snyder

Should we roll out the red carpet and allow millions upon millions of thieves, rapists, gang members and drug dealers to come waltzing into this country any time they would like? Should we broadcast a message to the rest of the world that anyone that can find a way to enter this country and somehow get to a “sanctuary city” can sign up for a plethora of welfare benefits and live a life of leisure at the expense of hard working American citizens?

Yes, those questions sound absurd, but what I have just described will essentially be official U.S. government policy if the immigration bill going through Congress becomes law. And unfortunately, Democrats now say that they have the Republican votes that they need to get “immigration reform” through the House of Representatives. If this amnesty bill becomes law, it will encourage even more illegal immigration and it will be one more step toward making the U.S. border essentially meaningless.

Right now, we desperately need the American people to contact their representatives in Congress and demand that they vote against this bill. Sadly, this is not likely to happen because most Americans have absolutely no idea how negatively illegal immigration is affecting this nation.

The following are 19 very disturbing facts about illegal immigration that every American should know…

#1 57 percent of all households that are led by an immigrant (legal or illegal) are enrolled in at least one welfare program.

#2 According to one study, the cost to U.S. taxpayers of legalizing current illegal immigrants would be approximately 6.3 trillion dollars over the next 50 years.

#3 The Obama administration has distributed flyers that tell illegal immigrants that their immigration status will not be checked when they apply for food stamps.

#4 The Department of Homeland Security says that it has lost track of a million people that have entered this country but that appear never to have left.

#5 One out of every five children living in Los Angeles County has a parent that is in the country illegally.

#6 In one recent year, taxpayers in Los Angeles County spent 600 million dollars on welfare for children of illegal immigrants.

#7 Thanks to illegal immigration, California’s overstretched health care system is on the verge of collapse. Dozens of California hospitals and emergency rooms have shut down over the past decade because they could not afford to stay open after being endlessly swamped by illegal immigrants who were simply not able to pay for the services that they were receiving. As a result, the remainder of the health care system in the state of California is now beyond overloaded. This had led to brutally long waits, diverted ambulances and even unnecessary patient deaths. At this point, the state of California now ranks dead last out of all 50 states in the number of emergency rooms per million people.

#8 It has been estimated that U.S. taxpayers spend $12,000,000,000 a year on primary and secondary school education for the children of illegal immigrants.

#9 It is estimated that illegal aliens make up approximately 30 percent of the population in federal, state and local prisons and that the total cost of incarcerating them is more than $1.6 billion annually.

#10 The federal government actually has a website that teaches immigrants how to sign up for welfare programs once they arrive in the United States.

#11 The Obama administration recently introduced the very first “unmanned” border station along the Texas-Mexico border.

#12 The Obama administration has sued individual states such as Arizona that have tried to crack down on illegal immigration.

#13 According to the FBI, there are approximately 1.4 million gang members living in our cities. Illegal immigration has been one of the primary factors that has fueled the growth of these gangs.

#14 As I have written about previously, there are only about 200 police officers assigned to Chicago’s Gang Enforcement Unit to handle the estimated 100,000 gang members living in the city.

#15 Mexican drug cartels make approximately 6.6 billion dollars a year “exporting” illegal drugs to the United States.

#16 It is an open secret that Mexican drug cartels are openly conducting military operations inside the United States. The handful of border patrol agents that we have guarding the border are massively outgunned and outmanned.

#17 According to the Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center, Mexican drug cartels were actively operating in 50 different U.S. cities in 2006. By 2010, that number had skyrocketed to 1,286.

#18 Overall, more than 55,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since 2006. That same level of violence will eventually show up in major U.S. cities unless something dramatic is done about illegal immigration.

#19 It is being projected that the Senate immigration bill will bring 33 million more people to the United States over the next decade.

One of the very few things that the federal government is actually required to do by the U.S. Constitution is to defend our borders, and unfortunately the Obama administration has willingly chosen to leave our borders completely wide open. In fact, you can go down to the Texas border right now and watch illegal immigrants hop right across the Rio Grande.

Several retired Border Patrol agents recently drafted an open letter to the American people on the subject of illegal immigration, and what they had to say was quite startling. The following is an excerpt from that letter that was in a recent Breitbart article…

“Transnational criminal enterprises have annually invested millions of dollars to create and staff international drug and human smuggling networks inside the United States; thus it is no surprise that they continue to accelerate their efforts to get trusted representatives in place as a means to guarantee continued success,” the Border Patrol agents wrote.

“We must never lose sight of the fact that the United States is the market place for the bulk of transnational criminal businesses engaged in human trafficking and the smuggling, distribution and sale of illegal drugs. Organized crime on this scale we are speaking about cannot exist without political protection.”

According to those retired border agents, by refusing to secure our border the Obama administration is openly facilitating the trafficking of drugs into the United States…

“Most heroin, cocaine, meth, and marijuana marketed in the United States is produced outside of our country, and then smuggled into the United States,” they wrote. “The placement of trusted foreign employees inside the United States is imperative to insure success in continuing to supply the demand, and returning the profits to the foreign organization. Members of these vicious transnational crime syndicates are already well established in more than 2,000 American cities and their numbers are increasing as networks expand and demands accelerate. These transnational criminals present a real and present danger to all Americans, and they live among us.”

Sadly, in politically correct America you can’t even talk about the problem of illegal immigration these days without being labeled as a “racist”.

For the record, I believe that all people deserve love and respect no matter what they look like or where they are born. God created us all and He loves us all very much. I have long been a very strong advocate for racial reconciliation in this country, and I will continue to be.

And there are tens of millions of Latino-Americans in this country that are hard working, law-abiding citizens. They have done things the right way, and it is extremely unfortunate that they often get lumped in with millions of illegal immigrants that willingly choose to break our laws.

Unfortunately, we have a system of immigration today that greatly rewards lawless behavior. We have made coming into this country through the front door exceedingly difficult, but we have left the back door completely wide open.

So hard working, law-abiding people that want to do things the right way are kept out, but those that want to come here and commit crimes or abuse the system are free to come on over any time that they would like.

What sense does that make?

Our immigration system is completely broken, but these days we cannot even have a rational debate about these issues. In politically correct America, illegal immigrants have become a “favored class” of people that you are never supposed to say anything bad about.

In fact, one activist recently went out and actually got people to sign a petition that said that we should let illegal immigrants out of prison no matter what crimes they have committed…

What in the world is happening to this country?

If you want to make a difference, please call your member of Congress now and tell them to vote No on Amnesty.

CONFIRMED: John Boehner holding secret meetings with Chuck Schumer to slip Amnesty for Illegals past the GOP base

Awesome: Your Republican "leaders" are conspiring with one of the most malevolent and nefarious Statists ever to set foot in the Capitol Building to create a permanent Democrat majority. We know this because of an inadvertent slip by that very same Statist -- a lifetime politician who has never held a real job in his life -- and a man who can't seem to resist a reporter's microphone.

The most dangerous place in Washington: standing between Chuck Schumer and a camera.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) made his clearest indication yet that he would be fine with a piecemeal approach to immigration reform preferred by the Republican-led House.

Schumer, the leader of the Gang of Eight whose comprehensive immigration reform legislation passed the Senate in June, said even if the House passes separate bills, those measures could eventually be bundled in a House-Senate conference committee...

Schumer let slip that he is "having discussions" with House Republicans to get this deal done.

In other words, John Boehner and/or his committee chairs are secretly conspiring with Schumer and other Senate leftists to pass a series of "Security First" immigration bills to fool Americans into believing they're serious about border security.

Spoiler: they're not.

So Boehner and Schumer are hoping to get the package of bills into a conference committee, after which the full-blown Democrat Amnesty bill will emerge.

• It will be rushed to the floor of the House and Senate.

• It will consist of more than 1,000 pages of carve-outs, legal exceptions, payoffs to separatist groups like La Raza, bribes, wealth redistribution and corporate reach-arounds.

• Your elected representatives and the American people will have virtually no time to read the bill or understand it; they will be instructed to vote for it, or else.

“We would much prefer a big comprehensive bill, but any way that the House can get there is OK by us,” Schumer told CNN Wednesday. “I actually am optimistic that we will get this done.”

...Schumer also noted on CNN that a few of the House bills — such as one on agriculture workers and another on high-skilled immigrants — are “very similar” to components in the Gang of Eight bill.

Suffice it to say that Boehner and his apparatchiks, Paul Ryan among them, are conspiring against their base, their children, the American citizenry, and fiscal prudence.

Why am I certain Ryan is complicit with Schumer?

As a very visible spokesman for the corporatists' Amnesty campaign, I believe the odds that Ryan is scheming along with Schumer are slightly higher than the likelihood Lindsay Lohan will fall off the wagon.

By putting their own petty interests and personal power over principle, Boehner and Ryan appear ready to have the Republican Party commit political suicide.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

ROVE AND BOEHNER JUST SOILED THEMSELVES: Sarah Palin Issues Ultimatum to Feckless GOP Establishment

Sarah Palin, along with millions of Americans who have been ignored, insulted and disenfranchised by their "representatives" in Washington, has had just about enough.

Please take a look at the [accompanying] article ... to understand how the amnesty bill the Senate passed yesterday is a sad betrayal of working class Americans of every ethnicity who will see their wages lowered and their upward mobility lowered too. And yet we still do not have a secured border. This Senate-approved amnesty bill rewards lawbreakers and won’t solve any problems – as the CBO report notes that millions of more illegal immigrants will continue to flood the U.S. in coming years.

Great job, GOP establishment. You’ve just abandoned the Reagan Democrats with this amnesty bill, and we needed them to “enlarge that tent” of which you so often speak. It’s depressing to consider that the House of Representatives is threatening to pass some version of this nonsensical bill in the coming weeks.

Once again, I’ll point out the obvious to you: it was the loss of working class voters in swing states that cost us the 2012 election, not the Hispanic vote. Legal immigrants respect the rule of law and can see how self-centered a politician must be to fill this amnesty bill with favors, earmarks, and crony capitalists’ pork, and call it good. You disrespect Hispanics with your assumption that they desire ignoring the rule of law.

Folks like me are barely hanging on to our enlistment papers in any political party – and it’s precisely because flip-flopping political actions like amnesty force us to ask how much more bull from both the elephants in the Republican Party and the jackasses in the Democrat Party we have to swallow before these political machines totally abandon the average commonsense hardworking American. Now we turn to watch the House. If they bless this new “bi-partisan” hyper-partisan devastating plan for amnesty, we’ll know that both private political parties have finally turned their backs on us.

It will then be time to show our parties’ hierarchies what we think of being members of either one of these out-of-touch, arrogant, and dysfunctional political machines.

Palin is channeling the anger and rage felt deeply by millions of Americans -- citizens of every race, color, creed and religion -- who are at wit's end. They are disgusted with a massive, unelected leviathan of a federal government that keeps creating new programs when its existing ones are bankrupt. They are disgusted with thousand-page laws that get passed in the dead of night, without being read, without debate, and without any public scrutiny. They are disgusted with representatives of both parties who act more like a nomenklatura -- a ruling class -- than representatives in a republican form of government.

The country is nearing a breaking point. Palin knows it. You and I know it. Millions know it.

What the Republican leadership does next could well set the stage for a political sea change.


Hat tips: The Right Scoop> and BadBlue Uncensored News.

GEE, MARCO: What's in this Amnesty Bill for Us, the American People?

Could someone in the Republican establishment please answer a simple question for me: What aspect of this "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" bill will benefit the American people?

Can John Boehner step away from his bottle of Maker's Mark to tell us? Can John McCain peel himself away from the front of a camera to let us know? Can Karl Rove put the white board down, stop checking his E*Trade account for seven minutes, and explain? Can Paul Ryan take a break from PX-9 for a day and write a white paper explaining how this 1000-page monstrosity -- that, just like Obamacare, not a single person has read -- will benefit we, the people?

• It's not to drive down unemployment, because legalizing millions of mostly low-skilled workers will drive wages down, starting with the lowest wage-earners and rippling upward.

• It's not to improve border security, because they've already informed us they won't enforce the border as a pre-condition to passing the bill -- and they certainly don't enforce border security today.

• It's not to begin addressing the deficit, because illegal aliens are net "takers", on average receiving thousands of dollars more government benefits than they pay into the system.

• It's not to reinforce American traditions and values, because there are no enforceable language and education requirements in the bill that prevent the Balkanization of our society.

• It's not to enforce the rule of law or drive down crime, because illegals today can commit multiple misdemeanors and even felonies without fear of deportation or imprisonment.

• It's not to drive down dependency on government, because most illegals in the country today utilize food stamps, free health care, and other benefits subsidized by you and I.

Here's the straight truth: You and I, my friends, are second-class citizens. We pay for this government. We pay for this federal leviathan. We put our blood, sweat and tears into taking care of ourselves, our families, our churches, our charities, and our friends, sending 30, 40, 50, 60 cents of every dollar to the government for the privilege.

Some of us work two, three and even four jobs to send our kids to college. Some of us work 60, 70, 80, 90 hours a week to make a better life for ourselves. Some of us risk everything -- everything we possess -- to start a business.

But it is the illegal alien who is noble and virtuous. Not us. The illegal alien.

And Washington doesn't care. There's not a single redeeming aspect of this bill for us. Not one. It won't create jobs, it will destroy jobs. It won't help address the deficit, it will explode the deficit. It won't help national security, it will erode our security. It won't reinforce the use of the English language and teach our history, tradition and values, it will instead encourage multiculturalism and Balkanization. It won't drive down crime, it will encourage lawbreaking. It won't reduce government dependency, it will accelerate that addiction.

What's in this bill for us? Not a thing. This bill is for the ruling class, the Beltway elite, and it is designed to accelerate the fundamental transformation of America into something more malevolent, corrupt and tyrannical. For that is the way of the Statists who today treat us as subjects and not free men and women. These non-representatives do not have our best interests in mind and they are no longer operating with the consent of the governed.


Hat tips: BadBlue News Service and Mark Levin.

CALL THE GANG OF EIGHT'S AMNESTY BILL WHAT IT REALLY IS: Comprehensive Democrat Importation Reform

On the left side of the aisle stands Barack Obama, the racial separatist group called La Raza ("The Race"), Chuck Schumer, the government of Mexico, the SEIU, Bob Menendez, the AFL-CIO, Dick Durbin, Harry Reid and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Standing side-by-side with the Left are the "Republican" elements of the permanent Beltway ruling class: Karl Rove, The Wall Street Journal, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham. These are the monied elites who are using threats, promises, payoffs, twisted arms, and every other tool at their disposal to bring the likes of Marco Rubio, John Boehner, Paul Ryan, and Rand Paul to their side.

For the "Republican" establishment, it's about remaining in power. It's not about the country. It's not about stopping the importation of a permanent underclass of welfare recipients certain to vote Democrat. It's not about preserving American exceptionalism. It's not about rescuing the private sector from the damage decades of Democrat policies like "Great Society" and Obamacare have wrought.

It's not about the American people. You and I, my friends, are second-class citizens. Our voices are not nearly as important as those who have entered the country illegally.

The Heritage Foundation says the Senate's massive bill would "grant amnesty to 11 million illegal immigrants" while "recycling the flawed and failed ideas of the past".

Mickey Kaus warned earlier this week that 2016 hangs in the balance for the Republican Party on this bill: "If the conservative public were paying attention, the flaws and crude deceptions of the Schumer-Rubio bill would be common knowledge. They are so obvious, especially in the border enforcement area, that even Sen. Rubio pretends to be dissatisfied with his own bill."

The Senate Majority Leader has been very blunt: "Harry Reid indicated on Wednesday that he will not allow the Gang of Eight immigration bill to require stricter border security measures."

Ann Coulter: "It must be fun for liberals to manipulate Republicans into focusing on hopeless causes. Why don't Democrats waste their time trying to win the votes of gun owners? ... But rich businessmen don't care. Big Republican donors -- and their campaign consultants -- just want to make money. They don't care about Hispanics, and they certainly don't care what happens to the country. If the country is hurt, I don't care, as long as I am doing better! This is the very definition of treason."

Congress is about to fundamentally transform the very makeup of the American electorate into a permanent Democrat underclass addicted to government benefits.

You and I aren't going down without a fight. I urge you to call your Senator and two other Senators now (clicking will open a new window).

Tell them this bill is an IQ test for Republicans. Tell them in no uncertain terms that this bill must be stopped -- and anyone who supports it will be damaged goods from this point forward. No money. No support. And primaried, guaranteed. Call now. There is no time to waste. And thank you for your help.

FINALLY: House GOP Circulates a Plan to Oust Boehner

Matthew Boyle, writing at Breitbart, offers the best description I've ever seen on the inner workings of the House.

A coup appears to be in the works after John Boehner's two-year track record of failed leadership: repudiating the conservative base that brought him the Speakership; punishing Tea Party Republicans; abandoning first principles; and failing to address America's catastrophic spending problem.

[House s]taffers have compiled a detailed action plan that, if executed, could make this a reality.

The Republicans, both conservatives and more establishment members alike, are emboldened after the failure of Boehner’s fiscal cliff “Plan B” on Thursday evening. Dissatisfaction with Boehner is growing in the House Republican conference, but until now there hasn’t been a clear path forward...

...[T]he first step is to re-establish the election of the Speaker of the House by secret ballot, rather than by a public roll call vote. That’s because the members who would oppose Boehner, if there ended up not being enough votes to achieve their desired result or if Boehner scared via threat or coaxed via prize some of the opposition into voting for him, would be sitting ducks for retaliation in the near future.

...To establish a secret ballot election for Speaker of the House, one Republican member will need to step forward and introduce a resolution on the House floor on the morning of January 3, 2013, before any other business takes place. Those close to this plan are convinced that a member will step forward and introduce this resolution... the first order of business is for the House to elect a Speaker...

...[I]f a member introduces that resolution for a secret ballot, the whole House will vote on that first. That vote will need to have a public roll call, meaning the American people, the press, and Boehner will know who voted which way. Even so, those who are considering this path forward to unseat Boehner know that Boehner and other establishment Republicans can’t legitimately oppose the concept of a secret ballot election for a leader of a political body [because of widespread GOP opposition to union "card check" tactics].

...If a secret ballot election for House Speaker is established, step one of this plan against Boehner is complete.

...The second step of the circulated plan would require enough GOP members to band together and vote for somebody other than Boehner as Speaker... [for] someone to win the Speaker election, they’d need to secure 217 votes – or a majority of everyone voting... The House would continue having multiple elections throughout the day on January 3 until it agreed upon a new Speaker.

Republicans need not worry about handing the Speakership over to Nancy Pelosi or some other Democrat in this process, either. “Don’t worry about Speaker Boehner losing GOP votes in a secret ballot..."

It is still not possible for Pelosi to become Speaker even with 100 % of Democrats united behind her and a split GOP vote. The reason is to become Speaker it is not enough to win a plurality. One must win an absolute majority of all votes cast for an individual.

...even if all 201 Democrats vote Pelosi, Boehner gets 1 vote, and the remaining 233 Republicans each vote for a different individual, Pelosi does not win. Pelosi would need 218 to reach a majority of the 435 votes cast for an individual. Since Republicans have a 33 vote advantage in the House, the only way Pelosi wins is if 17 Boehner opponents affirmatively vote Pelosi or abstain rather than simply vote for an alternative candidate. Both these scenarios are easily avoided...

Rumor has it that Paul Ryan's name is being circulated. I believe he is one man who gets it; and who could unite the conservative base as well as the establishment.

THIS: The Gathering

You can feel the excitement. It's palpable.

...speaking of rallies, this was Romney's in Virginia last night:

...the Obama campaign resembles nothing so much as John McCain's did at this point in 2008 -- aware of its pending defeat, but struggling on and hoping for some enormous "game changer" to arrive... [Romney's] edge is so great --and the early voting during these weeks of Romney ascendancy so significant-- that the president knows and his inner circle knows there is defeat ahead...

Which means the last debate will be even more off-putting than the last two as a desperate incumbent again tries to make up for the lack of a record on which to run, and the failure to develop anything resembling a second term agenda. Too late for that as well.

Turns out the "brain trust" in Chicago didn't have that many brains and ought not to have been trusted.

And one reminder: take nothing for granted. Whether you live in a pure Red State, a pure Blue State, or anything in between:

• Vote and get everyone you know who supports liberty to vote.
• Vote the straight Republican ticket.
• Every radical Leftist Democrat must be fired with extreme prejudice.

Because if we are to repeal Obamacare, we must take not only the Presidency, but hold the House and take the Senate as well. It's time to rally everyone you know. Let's make this a moment we'll tell our kids and grandkids about.

THERE IS NO REST: Biblical Passages Perfectly Describe Joe Biden's Embarrassing Debate Performance

Proverbs 29:9: "When a wise man debates a foolish man, the foolish man either rages or laughs, and there is no rest."

Dennis also notes that Proverbs 30:32 is also apt: "There is one who has appeared foolish, after he was lifted up on high; for if he had understood, he would have placed his hand over his mouth."

And other passages seem to speak directly to those liberals who reveled in Biden's giggling, gesticulating and lying:

• Proverbs 1:22: Little ones, how long will you choose to be childish, and how long will the foolish desire what is harmful to themselves, and how long will the imprudent hate knowledge?

• Proverbs 3:35: The wise will possess glory. The exaltation of the foolish is disgraceful.

• Proverbs 10:14: The wise store away knowledge. But the mouth of the foolish is a neighbor to confusion.


Hat tip: Black & Right.

A SIMPLE CHOICE: Adolescent Rule or Adult Decision-Making

In the wake of the VP debate, Whoopie offers what I think is an incisive summary:

They say that VP debates never decide Presidential elections and maybe that’s so, but this one should because once again it showed the stark contrast that divides this nation.

Do voters want four more years of clownish adolescent rule or are they ready to let adults run the nation again?

...Apparently, unlike other Presidents who have calculated that besides their steadfast base, they need a majority of the middle to win, Obama and his Party have written off the political center entirely.

They feel that they can cobble together a coalition of fringe groups [including] the free Obama phone social parasites, anarchists, Animal Rights activists, the Green Movement, the open border crowd, the willfully uninformed and uneducated, the porn industry, the Hollywood elites, the criminal class and sundry malcontents with a grudge against society.

In short, all the elements that the conniving Communists of the old Soviet Union incubated in an attempt to undermine American society and erode our culture. It’s truly ironic that the Soviet Union has long since gone extinct, but their legacy lives on in our very midst.

To me the most troubling aspect of Biden’s childish behavior (laughing, chuckling, mugging faces) was that he was doing it while Ryan spoke of serious matters, like the death of a US Ambassador or our troops in harms way or the threat of a nuclear armed Iran.

My guess is that the Leftists' glee over Biden's performance will fade quickly. Anyone who watched the debate will remember only the Cheshire Cat grin of the Vice President during the most inappropriate of moments.

Helpful Chart: Focus Groups Contrast the Candidates

Spotted at HillBuzz:

This data is real. Daniel Foster explains the methodology "Meet the Deciders":

Yesterday afternoon, on the seventh floor of a nondescript glass office tower on the fringes of downtown Tampa, I sat in a dark room behind a two-way mirror and watched the one and only Frank Luntz put a focus group of 23 “swing voters” through the paces.

What I learned: Americans are worried.

Of course they are. See "The Five Charts You MUST Show Every Undecided Voter You Know."

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays the Obama campaign from fundraising during the funerals of heroes

That awful, awful Mitt Romney. Can you believe his hubris, what with he and his campaign tweeting during the funerals of American heroes?

Oh. What's that you say? It was the Obama campaign? That can't even wait a few hours after the funerals of American heroes to send crass fundraising tweets?

This is just unbelievable, especially in light of the Defcon 1 attack the MSM put on Romney for responding to a tweet from the US Embassy in Cairo without waiting some unspecified period of time. Will those same MSM bobble-head dolls criticize the president and his most trusted adviser for tweeting during a funeral?

Look at the time-stamp. This is literally in the middle of the ceremony... But not to be undone, David Axelrod also couldn’t wait to speak up:

At least Axelrod waited for the ceremony to end — by about 4 minutes, according to when Mark Knoller’s tweeted the doors to the hearses closing:

I will walk barefoot on broken glass in November to vote for Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and every single Republican on the ticket. The Democrat Party needs to be nuked from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Some good news for Romney-Ryan: the trend is your friend

Be of good cheer. The latest polls have caused a few shudders throughout the right side of the blogosphere (premature, to be sure), but there are several objective elements of which you should be aware.

First, the long-term InTrade trend-line -- generally a pretty good indicator since real money is at stake -- appears to be a positive one for the Romney-Ryan ticket.

As more people learn about the tremendous qualifications possessed by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, the more comfortable they become with the pair.

In addition, there are several reasons I think the polls are fundamentally misstating support for Barack Obama's obviously failed presidency:

1. The return of "The Bradley Effect": Barack Obama, a thoroughly likable and eloquent politician, marketed himself as a centrist and post-partisan figure in 2008. Unknown and un-vetted that year, he could get away with it. Pollsters are likely not accounting for the fact that Obama is a known quantity this year -- and the well-known Bradley Effect could very well resurface.

2. The revolt of the union rank-and-file: If you're a union member aware of Obama's destructive agenda -- killing the coal industry, oil drilling, trucking, and refining (to name but a few), you're not going to respond to some random call with the truth. Union members have to be cautious and they are used to being pressured and intimidated. I can assure you that pollsters are not taking the Reagan Democrat factor into account, just as they missed it completely in 1980.

3. Incorrect sampling of the population: As HillBuzz explains, polling firms are generally using 2008 party breakdowns when the entire country has changed dramatically:

1. Look at the partisan breakdown of the poll and make sure it is the 2012 numbers. The partisan breakdown I am using for the 2012 elections is: D=33.3%, R=37.6%, I=29.2%. We are at the highest percentage of Republican registrations and the lowest percent of Democrat registrations in history. The polls you see that show Obama leading in states like Ohio are deceiving you because they are running Democrat percentages that are 44% or MORE; that’s just ridiculous because the highest Democrat registration advantage in YEARS was in 2008, where Democrats were at 41.4% to just 33.8% for Republicans and 24.7% for Independents. 2008 was the Democrats’ high water mark...

2. Look at the gender gap in the poll and see if it is realistic. The second easiest way to cook a poll is to include a much higher percentage of women than men because women tend to vote Democrat more than men...

3. Look for the racial breakdown of the poll to check if that’s being cooked for Democrats’ benefit. This is similar to the above, but is a little more complicated because on average blacks are 12% of the population but have a very low turnout in typical election years. 2008 was an anomaly because race-pride drove a lot of blacks to the polls... There’s no way that blacks or any other Democrat identity bloc will vote in 2008 percentages, though, so any poll that’s saying these numbers will be the same (or higher!) is bunk...

Clearly, all of us still have work to do.

But old media and the polls didn't predict the 2010 wipeout until the last possible minute (even then, many of them flatly understated the seachange).

Nothing's really changed since then, except more people are out of work and more people are ticked off than two years ago.

Are you an attorney enjoying the riches of the Obama economy? Have I got an opportunity for you

My brother serves as both a lawyer and an attorney (to quote from Gilligan's Island) and he recommends Lawyers for Romney.

In all seriousness, its mission is an important one: to protect the integrity of the ballot box against, uhm, some of the more nefarious elements of the Democrat Party. You know, the felons, the illegal aliens, and the walking dead that somehow manage to vote Democrat in every election.

If you're an attorney and looking for a way to help protect this great country, click on over.

And tell 'em Doug sent you.

That Roar You Hear in the Distance May Be a Tidal Wave Building

I truly believe that the American people -- all races, all creeds, all colors, all religions, all income levels -- are marshaling together to try to save this Republic in November -- first and foremost, by rejecting the Cloward-Piven Democrat Party. Consider the following data points, all collected over the last 24 hours:

• Obama doubles field offices in "leans Dem" New Mexico:

Real Clear Politics currently has New Mexico leaning toward Obama by ten points...

...Given Obama’s troubles raising cash and Mitt Romney’s distinct campaign dollar advantage, you do not suddenly open up twice as many field offices in a state in which you’re polling ten points ahead, unless you are seeing something troubling going on.

There’s also the added advantage of the stress it places on Obama’s campaign purse. He can’t re-distribute tax dollars to pay for extra field offices he didn’t anticipate needing in the first place.

• Losing the Independents

Carville and Greenberg have just released a new poll, and it’s devastating for Obama. Among independents — the precious, eagerly sought, oh-God-everybody-loves-them independents — Romney leads Obama (this is a poll this week) by 15 points, 53 to 38 in independents. This is remarkable. This is a Stan Greenberg and James Carville poll. “Independents disapprove of Obama’s job performance 56 to 40%. And when looking at intensity, disapproval is greater than two to one, 47 to 20%.”


...Now, according to exit polling, Obama won a majority of independents in 2008. It was 52 to 44, an eight-point majority in the election of 2000, according to exit polls. “His cratering of support among swing voters reflected in this Carville poll,” and in many others, “is the equivalent of losing more than 5.3 million independent voters from his 2008 total.”

• Number of Republicans in America Reaches Record High

During August, 37.6% of Americans considered themselves Republicans. That’s up from 34.9% in July and 35.4% in June. It’s also the largest number of Republicans ever recorded by Rasmussen Report since monthly tracking began in November 2002. The previous peak for the GOP was 37.3% in September 2004.

• Boston Globe: Predictive Model Yields Romney Landslide

The Lexington economic forecasting firm takes two economic indicators plus three political variables, plugs them into a formula, and out pops the percentage of the popular vote the incumbent party is expected to win. The formula has correctly predicted the outcome in 14 of the last 16 presidential elections...

...The most recent update of the formula, using July economic data, shows President Obama losing decisively, with just over 45 percent of the popular vote.

• Scaled-Back DNC Due To Fundraising Shortfalls

At first pass, a shorter convention might not seem like a big deal. While convention organizers say it helps to open the convention to the people, even if only for another day, others see the curtailment as a potential red flag of fundraising woes.

The original plan started with a typical Monday opening and included four days of convention business -- just as Democrats have done for years... But in January, organizers announced they were scaling it back.

Finally, I'm even seeing signs of conservatism emerging at The New York Times. No, not by the editors and reporters. But if the comments at the Times are any indication, Barack Jarrett Obama is in deep, deep trouble.

I refer, of course, to the New York Times' stunning expose of Barack Obama's puppeteer, a classic, inept Chicago political apparatchik named Valerie Jarrett. Some of the highlighted comments include:

Can we take this country back and return it to its Constitutional roots? I believe we can. Take nothing for granted, however, because the time to save this Republic grows short.

Best Sign From Yesterday's R&R Rally in Jacksonville

Instapundit was emailed several photos of yesterday's monster rally in Jacksonville:

But the best sign was this one:

A reader of Legal Insurrection described the same rally as "insanely packed".

Nola.com: Hurricane Isaac heading west to Mississippi, Alabama border; may disappoint crazed theocrats on the Left

The outstanding track records of meteorologists notwithstanding, it would appear that Tampa and the GOP convention will be spared Hurricane Isaac's wrath.

The National Hurricane Center has shifted the landfall of Isaac west to Dauphin Island, Ala., with landfall at 1 a.m. Wednesday as a Category 2 hurricane. NHC forecasters say Isaac will have maximum sustained winds of 105 mph and have posted a hurricane watch stretching from the mouth of the Mississippi River to Indian Pass, Fla., including lower Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes. The New Orleans metropolitan area is not included in the warning area.

But forecasters warned that confidence in the storm's long-range track forecast "is quite low, and it is too early to determine exactly where and when Isaac will make landfall along the Gulf Coast."

"Further adjustments to the track may be necessary later today," wrote Senior Hurricane Specialist Michael Brennan in his 4 a.m. discussion message.

Much of southeast Louisiana remains within the "cone of uncertainty," which outlines the possible forecast track error.

The Slidell office of the National Weather Service is forecasting winds of 25 to 35 mph, with gusts of 50 mph, for the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain on Tuesday night and early Wednesday. Along the coast, the winds are expected to reach 35 to 40 mph, with gusts to 60, and likely increasing.

The crazed theocrat Dana Milbank hardest hit.

Kryptonite to Democrats

You and I know it as math. Monty Pelerin, writing at American Thinker, offers some sobering factoids that highlight how desperate a fiscal situation the United States is in.

• "The official federal debt is $16 trillion. This debt represents 100% of current GDP."

• "The U.S. has passed [the Rogoff and Reinhart*] danger point, and recent U.S. GDP experience conforms to their findings."

• "In addition to the debt of $16 trillion, the Treasury has explicitly guaranteed the debts of certain government agencies [including] Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, ...[the] Postal Service, Amtrak, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation... [and] These shortfalls are likely to be funded by the federal government, although none of these exposures is recognized as federal government debt or obligations."

• "The unfunded liabilities of the federal government are enormous, dwarfing everything else. They arise from promises made to citizens, primarily with respect to Social Security and Medicare. Government maintains that it has no legal liability to honor these promises and hence does not recognize them as debt... Estimates of the present value of these obligations range from $50 trillion to over $200 trillion... This estimate is [as high as] 14 times what government reports as debt ($16 trillion)."

And, most importantly, the "U.S. government has promised its citizens almost four times the entire net worth of the nation."

This is why America's Tea Party movement is so important. If this country can be saved -- and that's a big if -- it is fiscal, Constitutional conservatism that will save it.

Democrats (and RINOs, to a lesser extent) have spent this country into oblivion. The New Deal, the Fair Deal, the Square Deal, the Great Society, Obamacare: all Utopian, Statist plans that could never work and have never worked in all of human history.

We have a choice to make in November: try to save this Republic, or let it collapse in the manner the Cloward-Piven Democrats seek.


* Authors of This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly

Oh, my: Paul Ryan draws thousands to Miami University event

Shhh... no one tell vintage media that Paul Ryan may be exceptionally popular with college-age kids. Operatives for Karl Ushanka reported just moments ago from the scene in Oxford, Ohio, home of Miami University.

The crowd was estimated in the thousands for this hastily arranged event.

Ryan is an alumnus of Miami and could help the ticket significantly in Ohio.

What If CBS Had A Conservative Bias For Paul Ryan? [Looking Spoon]

The Looking Spoon posed the hypothetical question, above:

If you didn't hear about what 60 Minutes did to edit their interview with Paul Ryan get the story here.

Suffice it to say that any world in which vintage media promoted American values exists only in a science fiction writer's imagination.

As Seniors Flock to Paul Ryan and Fiscal Sanity, Axelrod Campaign Dials Smear-Ray Setting to "100"

David Axelrod just ran to the bathroom to change his Depends: "Ryan’s Popularity Among Seniors Up 18% Since Saturday."

Despite the shameless demagoguery already on display it appears Paul Ryan is quite popular among seniors: As noted, seniors are of interest given Ryan’s proposal to revamp Medicare with a system in which the government would give older Americans a fixed sum with which to buy insurance. They moved in Ryan’s favor, from a 28-28 percent favorable-unfavorable view prospectively to 46-28 percent this weekend. Again a sizable number, 26 percent, are undecided; debate over Ryan’s position on Medicare may inform their views.

Oh, and then there's this report from Roll Call ("Retirees Shower Paul Ryan With Contributions"):

Democrats say presumptive GOP vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan is a senior citizen's worst nightmare, but retirees seem to have no problem writing him checks.

One of the most prolific fundraisers in Congress, Ryan has drawn nearly $400,000 from retirees this election cycle, dramatically outperforming most House lawmakers, according to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The seven-term Wisconsin Congressman and House Budget chairman has come under fire for the controversial budget proposal he released last year that called for dramatically reshaping Medicare and repealing President Barack Obama's health care law. The plan would transition Medicare into a voucher-like system by 2022 and strike the 2010 health care law

Let me guess the theme of Axelrod's next ad... wait, I've got it! Paul Ryan... killed a man in Reno... just to watch him die.


Images hat tip: NakedDC.