Yes, it’s still a long way until election day, and yes, anything can still happen.  However, it is interesting that in the last two months, Arlen Specter’s re-election prospects have grown increasingly dim.

Two months ago, in a Rasmussen poll of Pennsylvania voters, Specter led his Republican rival Pat Toomey by double digits.  The spread was 50% to 39%, giving Specter an 11 point advantage.  Today, the same poll shows Specter trailing 48% to 36% – a deficit of 12 points.  In addition, the poll shows Specter being viewed unfavorably by 54% of the voters while only 43% view him favorably.

 Most pundits are blaming the series of ugly town hall healthcare reform meetings for the decline in Specter’s numbers, but the bill itself may be the bigger problem.  According to Rasmussen’s polling 53% of Senator Specter’s constituents oppose the reform he’s been promoting.  In addition, Specter was one of only three Republicans to vote for the President’s stimulus package – a vote that was highly unpopular in his home state.

A more immediate concern for Specter?  His lead in the primaries has begun to dry up.  If it continues apace, there’s a good chance he won’t even be the Democrats nominee. 

Here at The Robalution, we hope Specter (who switched parties to avoid exactly this situation) hangs on to his health care reform position, because if these polls are any indication, the issue seems to be doing Democrats a world of good.

- Robert Laurie

Be careful, folks, because the next time you log on to the White House website to report that friend who sent you a “fishy” email, the government may begin tracking you.

Right now, there’s a ban in place on government computers using cookies, or any other technology, to track the activities of visitors after they leave a government site.  In place since 2000, the prohibition could be done away with only if agency if agency heads cited a “compelling need.”  According to the Washington Post, the White House Office of Management and Budget has proposed ending it, citing a need to take advantage of social networking sites (which tend to make heavy use tracking technology) as the primary reason. 

Ever the transparent administration, the White House has offered a two week period for public comment on the matter.  Here’s hoping you heard about it and made your opinions known, because it ended yesterday.

The ACLU has come out strongly condemning the move, claiming that the “sea change” policy shift will “allow the mass collection of personal information of every user of a federal government website.”

Given that the Obama administration had the Air Force monitoring Twitter and Facebook to gauge public reaction to the Air Force One New York flyover fiasco, that they’re actively asking people to report Obama-unfriendly email directly to the White House, and that Obama has supported and continued Bush’s domestic spy programs, we’re not exactly sure why they’re surprised.  Obama’s team have made it pretty clear that internet privacy is far from a priority.

- Robert Laurie

Today, heavyweights from the global warming movement are meeting in Vegas for the “National Clean Energy Summit 2.0.”  That they chose to have the convention in the most wasteful, energy inefficient city on the planet speaks volumes about the participants.  However, attendees like Clinton, Gore, and Schwarzenegger have bigger problems than simply being hypocrites. 

According to new Gallup numbers, they’re losing you.

In the last year alone, the number of people who think the media is exaggerating global warming have jumped 6 points from 35% to 41%.  In that same time, Gallup reports that the number of Americans who are seeing signs that the effects of global warming are occuring has dropped from 61% to 53%.  Dems have one bright spot in the poll, which indicates that DNC party members have remained faithful to the cause, but they’re losing independents rapidly.  The number of indies who doubt global warming jumped 10 points in the last year, from 33% up to 44%.

Most observers say the economy is behind the drop in support, but the coolest summer in decades can’t be doing them any favors.

We’d like to point out that they’re not helped by folks like Al Gore, who own several mansions, travel in private jets and limos, set environmental conferences in eco-unfriendly places like Vegas, and hold stakes in the very carbon credit companies that they’re pushing as the solution to all our woes.

A quick look at history will show: the first casualty of hypocrisy is credibility.

- Robert Laurie

Once again, when faced with voters who disagree with them, Dems have decided to attack rather than listen.

At the end of a town hall meeting in Douglassville Georgia, Representative David Scott (D) opened the floor to questions.  It seems he should have opened it to “questions I want to answer,” because a doctor got up and dared to inquire about health care. 

David Scott did not want to talk about health care.

Instead, he became incensed that someone would have the audacity to “take advantage” of the fact that he’d opened the forum for questioning, and berated the audience. 

Despite the Representative’s tirade, the Doctor who asked Scott why he would vote for a government plan that has already “failed in Massachusetts” is one of the Representative’s constituents.  According to the Atlanta newscast below, he has called several times asking for the meetings on health care which Scott claims he is willing to attend.  So far, however, he’s been unsuccessful in setting one up.

Scott is going to hold a health care specific meeting, one sponsored by his left wing pals from the AARP, but no one knows precisely when.  Hopefully, when he opens the floor to questions, the room  full of belligerent union members will allow the opposition to speak without roughing them up too badly.

We have two pieces of video on this. The first is a news story from Channel 11 in Atlanta.  The second is the uncut video feed of the event.

We’re starting to sound like a broken record, but we still have to say it: Who the hell do these Congressmen think they are? Representative Scott, when your constituents ask a question, you are to answer it, concisely and to the point.  If you can’t be bothered to do that, you don’t deserve your position.

Georgians?  Scott is up for re-election next year.  With his condescending, hubristic hissy fit, he’s shown he’s incapable of carrying out his office in an adult fashion.  Hopefully, you’ll take this child out of office.

- Robert Laurie

According to the Associated Press, George Vera is 25 years old and has been charged with smuggling a firearm into a Houston, Texas correctional facility.  He was searched twice, once during his initial arrest and again when he was processed at the county jail. 

Still, no one found the 9mm hand gun he’d hidden in his enormous rolls of fat.

In fact, no one ever found it.  Eventually, he pulled a guard aside during a shower break, admitted having it, and offered it up willingly. Yes, that’s right.  He came clean during a shower break.

We’re not sure if we should condemn the officers for not conducting a more thorough search, or just nod understandingly.  One thing’s for sure….it’s not a job we’d want.

- Robert Laurie

Yesterday we talked about Nancy Pelosi’s claim that she’s seeing swastikas at protests.  Today, we present a possible source of her confusion:  Maybe she’s just seeing Obama’s new health care logo.

This image greets visitors at Barack Obama’s official website:

Does it look familiar to anyone else?

Now, we’re not the type of people who run around claiming Obama is some kind of Nazi.  A misguided socialist, sure, but we leave the Nazi accusations to the lefties.  After all, as we pointed out in this post, they seem to have some kind of trademark on them.

That said, you’ve got to wonder who’s in charge of the Obama art department, and why they didn’t notice this before going national with it.

Seems like Barry’s bought into the idea that Changing a nation’s symbols is the first, and perhaps most difficult, step in changing a nation. 

- Robert Laurie

Pelosi’s at it again, this time complaining that right-wing protesters are carrying swastikas when they show up at town hall meetings.  To date, no one has been able to prove her claim – pretty impressive considering all the media coverage the “mobs” have been getting.  It seems to me that if any of them were actually carrying swastikas, the Dems would have that picture up all over the place.

So far, however, that photo hasn’t shown up, leading one to suspect that, if we’re being generous, Pelosi is a little unclear on the facts.  If we’re not being generous, we’d probably say she’s lying through her teeth as she desperately tries to save Obama’s sinking health care ship.  

Of course, there’s a third possibility.  We have seen people carrying the soviet hammer and sycle around, and one crazy did make a little sign with the SS logo on it.  Is it possible Pelosi doesn’t know the difference?

To help her learn, we figured we’d dig up this selection of Bush-era left wing protest posters.

Those are swastikas, Nancy, please try and make a note of it.

- Robert Laurie