Tag Archives: Election

News

Australian conservatives elect social conservative as new leader of opposition party

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Story here from LifeSiteNews. (H/T Thoughts Out Loud)

Excerpt:

Tony Abbott, the former federal minister for health and a pro-life Catholic, has won the leadership of the opposition Liberal Party of Australia, putting him in line for possible leadership of the country in Australia’s next general election.

The Federal Member for Warringah and shadow Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, was voted in at the party’s Dec 1st leadership convention, beating the incumbent Malcolm Turnbull by a single vote. The vote makes Tony Abbott the first social conservative to lead the Liberal party since the resignation of John Howard.

Abbott is known for his outspokenness on life issues.

[…]In 2006, as health minister, Abbott refused to allow the abortion drug RU486 to be made available in Australia, arguing that it was more dangerous to women than surgical abortion. This led to a conscience vote in which the House of Representatives deprived the health minister of regulatory control of the drug.

[…]Abbott has also opposed the use of embryonic stem cells and cloning in health research in another conscience vote, preferring continued use of adult stem cells. In family law, Abbott proposed a return to at-fault divorce to reduce the divorce rate, a system that required spouses to prove offences like adultery, habitual drunkenness or cruelty before a divorce was granted.

[…]In comments after this week’s leadership race, Abbott also blasted the current Rudd government’s climate change legislation, a key issue for parliament in the coming weeks, denouncing it as a tax grab.

The article talks more about some of his positions and accomplishments. Does this guy ever sound awesome! Would my readers from Australia, New Zealand, India and the Phillipines please comment on Abbott? It seems to me like Australian conservatives have selected the equivalent of Michele Bachmann or Maurice Vellacott or Edward Leigh to head their party. Wow!

By the way, in Australia, the conservative party are called the Liberal party, and they usually form a coalition with the National party. The secular leftists are the Labor party and the Green party. The leftists are currently in power.

Commentary

Thomas Sowell explains how politicians cause recessions while getting elected

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Article here at Townhall.com. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

After the cascade of economic disasters that began in the housing markets in 2006 and spread into the financial markets in Wall Street and even overseas, people in the private sector pulled back. Banks stopped making so many risky loans. Home buyers began buying homes they could afford, instead of going out on a limb with “creative”– and risky– financing schemes to buy homes that were beyond their means.

But politicians went directly in the opposite direction. In the name of “rescuing” the housing market, Congress passed laws enabling the Federal Housing Administration to insure more and bigger risky loans– loans where there is less than a 4 percent down payment.

A recent news story told of three young men who chipped in a total of $33,000 to buy a home in San Francisco that cost nearly a million dollars. Why would a bank lend that kind of money to them on such a small down payment? Because the loan was insured by the Federal Housing Administration.

The bank wasn’t taking any risk. If the three guys defaulted, the bank could always collect the money from the Federal Housing Administration. The only risk was to the taxpayers.

Does the Federal Housing Administration have unlimited money to bail out bad loans? Actually there have been so many defaults that the FHA’s own reserves have dropped below where they are supposed to be. But not to worry. There will always be taxpayers, not to mention future generations to pay off the national debt.

Very few people are likely to connect the dots back to those members of Congress who voted for bigger mortgage guarantees and bailouts by the FHA. So the Congressmen’s and the bureaucrats’ jobs are safe, even if millions of other people’s jobs are not.

Congressman Barney Frank is not about to cut back on risky mortgage loan guarantees by the FHA. He recently announced that he plans to introduce legislation to raise the limit on FHA loan guarantees even more.

Congressman Frank will make himself popular with people who get those loans and with banks that make these high-risk loans where they can pocket the profits and pass the risk on to the FHA.

So long as the taxpayers don’t understand that all this political generosity and compassion are at their expense, Barney Frank is an odds-on favorite to get re-elected. The man is not stupid.

Can you guess which political party Barney Frank represents?

Podcasts

Interviews with Republican candidates for Iowa governorship in 2010

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Caffeinated Thoughts is interviewing with Republican candidates who are running to replace the Democrat governor of Iowa. Iowa is his home state. He’s interviewed my two favorite candidates for the post, Christian Fong and Chris Rants. Fong is the private sector business executive who is solid on family values, and Rants is the policy expert who has specific ideas on how to solve the problems that Iowa is facing.

Christian Fong

About Christian Fong:

He is the son of a Chinese immigrant and Nebraska farm girl, and as his website claims is a “product of the American dream.”  He graduated high school at 16.  He earned his B.S. from Creighton at 19.  He also holds an M.B.A. from Dartmouth College.

He is currently an executive with AEGON USA in Cedar Rapids and serves as chair for The Generation Iowa Commission.  He also founded and is President and CEO of Corridor Recovery, a non-profit flood relief organization that coordinated recovery efforts after the Cedar Rapids Flood of 2008.

We discussed his decision to run for Governor, why he believes he should be the GOP nominee, spending cuts, his plan to cut the state’s income tax, creating private sector jobs, the Iowa Supreme Court same-sex marriage decision, abortion, school choice, and Iowa’s growing prison population.

Here’s the MP3 of the interview with Christian Fong. (38 minutes)

Christian Fong’s blog is here.

Chris Rants

About Chris Rants:

Rants first elected to represent Iowa House District 54 (Sioux City and Sergeant Bluff) in 1992 and still serves his district today in that capacity. In 2003 was elected Speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives and served as Speaker until 2006.  He is one of six Republicans running for Governor.

We discussed a variety of different topics including state spending, property taxes, the Iowa Supreme Court ruling, abortion, what his priorities would be as Governor, our growing prison population, and why he decided to run.

One thing I certainly learned is that if you want to know what Chris thinks, just ask.  Also of all of the candidates running I would classify  him as the policy wonk of the bunch.  Especially when it comes to the budget.  He has also been talking up providing specific ideas for state government, and has many of those ideas listed at 99 Ideas.org.

Here’s the MP3 of the interview with Chris Rants. (60 minutes)

Chris Rants’ blog is here.

The latest poll shows the Democrat governor is vulnerable

The latest Des Moines Register poll shows these match-ups:

  • Culver (33%) vs Branstad (57%)
  • Culver (37%) vs Vander Plaats (45%)
  • Culver (42%) vs Rants (35%)
  • Culver (42%) vs Fong (34%)

The Des Moines Register is a left-wing paper, in my opinion, so the results are probably skewed toward the Democrat.

Why policies are interesting

Some of my Christian readers are mostly interested in apologetics who haven’t thought much about politics and economics. Listening to these interviews will provide you with some ideas about the kinds of issues that Christians should be interested in. It’s not just social issues – it’s school choice, tax cuts, runaway government spending, and a host of other issues that affect the way you live out your Christian life. I like listening to what politicians can do to make my life more free, more secure and more prosperous.

Shane has a rundown of all 6 Republican candidates for the Iowa governorship here.