Good riddance to Steve Stockman

OK, Texas, what was all that about?

Steve Stockman, the Lone Star state’s weirdest lawmaker, crashed and burned spectacularly in the Republican Senate primary this week, losing to incumbent John Cornyn by 41 percentage points in one of the strangest campaigns I’ve ever covered. He’ll soon be gone for good, having given up his relatively safe East Texas seat under the state’s campaign rules.

And I couldn’t be happier. I hope to hell I’m done writing about Steve Stockman.

When I last wrote about him for Politico Magazine, the Texas congressman had just declared he would challenge Cornyn, and people here were struggling to figure out why. Stockman, who submitted his papers to run about 15 minutes before the filing deadline, was a known quantity in Texas for his below-the-belt politicking and his vituperative, paranoid political style. Now he was in the process of reintroducing himself to a national audience, which no doubt saw Stockman’s mere presence in Texas public life a sign of deep statewide dysfunction. Whether that’s true or not, he was crushed on Tuesday, winning only 19 percent of the vote to John Cornyn’s 60 percent. It was, in the end, a non-event.

A lot of people I talked to issued unvarnished opinions about Stockman’s chances (none) and his persona (nuts.) But they’d hedge their words when it came to a much more difficult question: Does he really believe what he says? Is he serious?

“There’s a tendency among insiders [in Texas] to give Tea Party people credit for not really believing what they say,” Jason Stanford, an Austin-based Democratic political consultant, told me at the time. “Stockman’s candidacy will test the proposition.”

Some, like Stanford, saw an ideologue who was deranged but essentially earnest in the major points of his worldview. Others, like one senior political reporter in Austin, thought you couldn’t say much of anything about Stockman’s motivations.

He’d seen Stockman’s first term in Congress, from 1994 to 1996, and he’d watched how desperately Stockman had tried to get back into public office before he won a congressional seat again in 2012. He figured Stockman would stay in that seat as long as he could. But now he was essentially throwing it away. “You can’t talk about ‘reasons’ with a guy like that,” he said.

Republicans I talked to—none would take up for Stockman, even in private—struck a different tone when asked, given the certainty of his humiliation at the hands of Cornyn’s political machine, why he would run. The common assumption was that he had to something to gain—in other words, that he was, on some level, not a fool but a slick operator.

Some thought it was a simple debt retirement operation—his past campaigns had left him deep in the red—or that he was collecting statewide email addresses and voter information to sell or rent for his life after Congress. One congressional aide who got to know Stockman’s staff during his second term said they used to talk about how lucrative that particular line of business was. Stockman, after all, ran his first elections supported almost solely by a direct mail-order firm with a grudge against his opponent. He knows a good racket when he sees one.

Now that Stockman’s been predictably crushed, what can we say about that question—was Stockman serious? It’s a question worth asking in light of the other candidates who’ve invaded our airwaves recently—are they serious? Is Herman Cain serious? Is Donald Trump?

***

Stockman’s “seriousness” can be assessed in two stages. First, did he run a serious campaign? The answer, of course, is no. I don’t just mean that he spent his time hawking Obama barf bags. Stockman never made the slightest attempt to win. It couldn’t be called ineptitude or incompetence, because there was no effort. It was an un-campaign, an anti-campaign. It was the negative space where a campaign could have been. It may have been the worst political campaign ever conducted in the state of Texas.

Setting money aside, here’s the first thing to do if you want to run as a conservative in Texas: talk to Tea Party groups. Stockman, whose politics tend towards the idiosyncratic “liberty wing” fringe, never had any real connection to these groups, but that shouldn’t have been a problem. Tea Partiers in Texas value charmingly old-school retail politics. If you come correct, they’ll listen. It’s how Ted Cruz first gained traction. Stockman didn’t do this. I don’t just mean that he reached out to too few Tea Party groups—I mean he never went to any, as far as I’m aware. It’s possible that Stockman never attended a single public event in his three-month campaign. No one can really say for sure because his campaign would never talk about it—at all.

In January he was scheduled to address the Northeast Tarrant Tea Party, a particularly feisty group—the kind that would love to see an establishment, inside-game political player like Cornyn challenged. They accommodated Stockman’s request to hold a special meeting before the regular meeting, closed to the press, so that he could talk freely. He didn’t show. He had just been in Cairo, a surrogate said—one of a number of strange international absences—and he had been delayed by traffic on the drive from Houston to Fort Worth. It was seemingly the last attempt Stockman made to show his face—anywhere.

Online, though, it was a different story. Stockman’s social media accounts told frequent and grandiose lies, including many, many variations of the refrain “Cornyn voted for Obamacare.” His Twitter account, long a bedrock of his appeal (to journalists, anyway) shifted into even-higher gear. Run by his spokesman Donny Ferguson, it became a constant stream of invective. Another constant feature: He would tout months-old tepid statements from activists as full-throated endorsements. His website featured a list of past or implied endorsements, many from groups that didn’t back his Senate run.

Christopher Hooks is a politics writer for the Texas Observer based in Austin.

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Good riddance to Steve Stockman

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DEAL IN UKRAINE? – No chained CPI in Obama budget – Steve King, still not apologizing – KINGSTON"S TAXPAYER-BACKED HEALTH CARE – The new Ted Cruz?

TENTATIVE DEAL IN UKRAINE CRISIS – The New York Times with the breaking news this morning from Kiev: “The government of President Viktor F. Yanukovych announced a tentative resolution on Friday to a crisis that has brought days of bloodshed to Ukraine. The agreement, which has yet to be signed, was announced after all-night talks with opposition leaders, Russian representatives and the foreign ministers of Germany, Poland and France. In a statement later on his website, Mr. Yanukovych said he would call early presidential elections, form a coalition and reduce presidential powers through constitutional reforms. Any deal that does not include the president’s departure, however, is unlikely to get very far with protesters and it was uncertain whether, in the event of a final deal, the protest movement’s political leadership could deliver the support of an angry base comprising many different groups and factions.

–“Opposition representatives did not immediately comment on the tentative agreement or the president’s apparent concessions but leaders of the demonstrators on Independence Square called for their supporters to remain calm and avoid provoking the security forces. Previous settlements and truces have broken down several times, though those previous deals were not reached with the high-level involvement of European Union and Russian mediators, as was the case in the overnight talks Friday. The statement from Mr. Yanukovych’s office said the talks had been ‘very difficult.’ The statement said negotiators had agreed to initial an agreement to ‘settle the crisis,’ without elaborating, and that a settlement would be signed later on Friday.” http://goo.gl/HV1YC6

–The Hill’s Julian Pecquet has the details of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez’s (D-N.J.) plan for Ukrainian sanctions, announced Thursday evening: http://goo.gl/54aFqE

OBAMA DROPS CHAINED CPI FROM BUDGET – The Washington Post’s Zachary Goldfarb: “President Obama’s forthcoming budget request will seek tens of billions of dollars in fresh spending for domestic priorities while abandoning a compromise proposal to tame the national debt in part by trimming Social Security benefits. With the 2015 budget request, Obama will call for an end to the era of austerity that has dogged much of his presidency and to his efforts to find common ground with Republicans. Instead, the president will focus on pumping new cash into job training, early-childhood education and other programs aimed at bolstering the middle class, providing Democrats with a policy blueprint heading into the midterm elections.

–“As part of that strategy, Obama will jettison the framework he unveiled last year for a so-called grand bargain that would have raised taxes on the rich and reined in skyrocketing retirement spending. A centerpiece of that framework was a proposal — demanded by GOP leaders — to use a less-generous measure of inflation to calculate Social Security benefits. The idea infuriated Democrats and never gained much traction with rank-and-file Republicans, who also were unwilling to contemplate tax increases of any kind. On Thursday, administration officials said that the grand-bargain framework remains on the table but that it was time to move on.” http://goo.gl/Zgdma8

A roundup of some congressional reactions on Obama’s proposed budget –

–Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.): “President Obama’s budget will be a powerful statement of Democratic principles. The policies it contains will provide a blueprint for creating jobs for the middle class, forging an economy where economic opportunity is shared by all – not just the top one percent – and protecting retirement security. In particular, I commend President Obama for his commitment to keeping Social Security strong, and for rejecting Republican calls to cut badly-needed cost of living increases.

–Brendan Buck, spokesman for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio): “This reaffirms what has become all too apparent: the president has no interest in doing anything, even modest, to address our looming debt crisis. The one and only idea the president has to offer is even more job-destroying tax hikes, and that non-starter won’t do anything to save the entitlement programs that are critical to so many Americans. With three years left in office, it seems the president is already throwing in the towel.” 

–House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.): “House Democrats have stood behind President Obama’s honest efforts in recent years to forge a bipartisan grand bargain with congressional Republicans.  In the course of those negotiations, he put chained CPI on the table as a gesture of good faith; yet Republican leaders were unwilling to budge or close a single unfair tax loophole, and decided to walk away from opportunities to find common ground.  Democrats applaud the President for eliminating chained CPI from his budget, and we look forward to working across the aisle to adopt a responsible fiscal framework.”

–Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairs Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.): “Americans and the Congressional Progressive Caucus have always known that cutting earned benefits for seniors is unacceptable and that chained CPI is a benefit cut for seniors, veterans and people with disabilities. The CPC applauds the president’s decision and looks forward to hearing more about his budget in the coming days.”

WHITE HOUSE MUM ON DEM IMMIGRATION DISCHARGE PETITION – House Democrats haven’t taken the step yet to try to force a vote on comprehensive immigration reform in their chamber, but the White House is staying quiet on whether the Dems should pull the trigger on a discharge petition, per NBC News’s Luke Russert: “After House GOP leaders all but shelved immigration reform this year, the White House sidestepped questions about whether it backs what’s known as a ‘discharge petition’ to force a vote on a House bill that closely mirrors the Senate-passed comprehensive immigration bill. ‘The president and this administration have committed to taking a step back and giving House Republicans the opportunity to consider a range of proposals … on immigration reform,’ spokesman Josh Earnest said at a daily press briefing. ‘So, we’re going to give House Republicans the opportunity to have some conversations among themselves.’” http://goo.gl/0zvJc5

STEVE KING, STILL NOT APOLOGIZING – The Iowa Republican tells his local newspaper that he doesn’t regret making controversial comments about immigrants – including remarks last summer likening young undocumented immigrants to drug mules – and in fact, says his words have helped change the rhetoric of immigration reform backers like Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). Roll Call’s Emma Dumain writes it up: http://goo.gl/DJkBe6

SHADOW CAMPAIGNING FOR GOP LEADERSHIP? – The Washington Examiner’s David Drucker has the palace intrigue behind the jockeying for leadership positions among House Republicans, even as Speaker John Boehner says he has no plans to step down: “[T]here remains considerable speculation that Boehner will retire, and members interested in moving up are quietly exploring their options and laying the foundation for a leadership bid. They include members of Boehner’s team who are eyeing promotions and rank-and-file Republicans looking to win their first elected position in conference leadership. Overt campaigning, considered unseemly and counterproductive at this early stage, could accelerate over the summer. ‘There is definitely a lot of shadow campaigning going on,’ said a Republican lobbyist with relationships on Capitol Hill. ‘They all want to be ready.’

–“The politics of running for a congressional leadership post differ from campaigns for public office. In a leadership election, members are the constituency, and winning is primarily about relationships, favors and fundraising. In other words, members with friends, who have helped boost colleagues’ legislation and campaign coffers, tend to have an edge. That a member might enjoy the support of party activists or influential outside groups usually matters much less. That is one reason why Boehner’s team has been remarkably stable despite the challenges it has faced periodically in rounding up the 218 votes required to pass legislation.” http://goo.gl/wAo7fW

TALK RUSSIA, UKRAINE & THE OLYMPICS with Greg Feifer, POLITICO Magazine contributor of “What Americans Don’t Get About Putin”, in today’s Facebook chat. Read Feifer’s story (http://politi.co/OgNAT7) and ask your questions at www.facebook.com/politico beginning at 9:45 a.m. ET today with live answers from Feifer at 10 a.m. ET.

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GOOD FRIDAY MORNING, FEB. 21, 2014, and welcome to The Huddle, your-play-by-play preview of all the action on Capitol Hill. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints, corrections and your sympathies about Yuna Kim not winning the gold medal to skim@politico.com. Your usual Huddle host, Scott Wong (swong@politico.com), returns Monday. 

My new followers include @HotlineSteve and @johoeck.

TODAY IN CONGRESS – Nada. Why are you even at work?

AROUND THE HILL – All is quiet. USA-Canada men’s Olympics hockey semifinal starts at noon.

KINGSTON ATTACKS TAXPAYER-FUNDED HEALTH SUBSIDIES, GETS TAXPAYER-FUNDED HEALTH SUBSIDIES – National Journal’s Shane Goldmacher with the scoop: “As Jack Kingston runs for Senate in Georgia, the veteran Republican congressman has needled his GOP primary opponents over the issue of taxpayer-funded health insurance subsidies … [but] Georgia taxpayers are footing as much as 75 percent of the bill for his own health insurance. That’s because Kingston, 58, receives health coverage through a plush package that has allowed him access to a lifetime of subsidized health benefits due to his past service in the Georgia statehouse. Former state legislators pay ‘approximately 25 percent of the cost’ of their health insurance, said Pamela Keene, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Community Health. ‘The rest is paid by the state,’ she said.

–Kingston spokesman Chris Crawford responds: “‘The State of Georgia health care plan is administered [in] Georgia. He has no vote on the rules of the plan and abides by those established by state lawmakers … He chose to stay on the Georgia plan when he first came to Congress because he did not want any part of the Potomac lifestyle.’” http://goo.gl/vqUTHt

LABRADOR FOR SPEAKER? – Buzzfeed’s Kate Nocera profiles the second-term House Republican who everyone seems to have an opinion on: “His allies love him. Labrador’s the smartest guy in the room, they say. Opinionated, principled, trustworthy — a leader. His detractors certainly don’t. Those who bristle at the mention of his name contend he’s misguided at best and self-serving at worst. ‘People aren’t indifferent to him,’ offered one Republican congressman. There’s good reason: Since he was elected to office just three years ago, Labrador’s built up a powerful base among conservatives and has never been shy about speaking his mind. On everything from immigration to the debt ceiling, the conservative wing of the party has tended to look to Labrador as a leader — and he clearly has big ambitions.

–“Does he want to be speaker someday? ‘I don’t think about it that often,’ Labrador replied in an interview with BuzzFeed. He then elaborated, ‘I think a person who is in his second term in the House of Representatives is not qualified to be speaker of the House.’ That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have big plans for this year. Many in the GOP blame the new breed of staunchly conservative members like Labrador for much of the infighting over the last few years, but to hear Labrador tell it, all he’s trying to do is unify the conference. While the legislative load for the rest of the 113th Congress looks light, Labrador says he and other conservatives will be pushing leadership to come up with ‘a bold agenda, putting things on the floor we are for—that unify the party.’” http://goo.gl/hCDDyM

THE NEW TED CRUZ? – Yahoo News’s Chris Moody profiles Rob Maness, the long-shot Louisiana Senate hopeful who’s got a lot of similarities with the Texas conservative firebrand – right down to the same black ostrich-skin cowboy boots: “Maness embraces Cruz’s hard line on federal spending bills. He believes there’s ‘no need to raise the debt ceiling’ under any circumstances. He opposes the Affordable Care Act and Obama’s 2014 strategy of using executive action to get around a deadlocked Congress, saying, ‘I’m with Sen. Cruz on that. It’s completely lawless.’ Both men went to Harvard — Cruz to Harvard Law and Maness to the Kennedy School of Government. Maness even wears black ostrich-skin cowboy boots, just like Cruz’s. And he decries political ambition. ‘Actually, I don’t want to be a senator,’ he told me when we met for coffee recently near Capitol Hill.”

–“Maness has yet to prove himself as a candidate who can dazzle conservative audiences in the same way Cruz did last year. His opponents cast him as less a Cruz mini-me than a more polished version of tea party-backed Texas Reps. Louie Gohmert or Steve Stockman, who has won Internet fame for outlandish comments made during his primary campaign against Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn.” http://goo.gl/CRM2mn

SPEAKING OF STOCKMAN …. – POLITICO’s Katie Glueck writes about how the House Republican’s primary challenge against Cornyn, the second-ranking GOP-er in the Senate, has fizzled out: “It’s a disappointment for many national political watchers who had pulled out the popcorn for this race. Stockman has a penchant for making inflammatory statements — one of his bumper stickers read: ‘If babies had guns they wouldn’t be aborted.’ In December, he tweeted a picture of a can of ‘liberal tears,’ calling it the ‘best gun lubricant around.’ While that kind of rhetoric resonates with a corner of the GOP base, establishment Republicans trying to avoid intraparty warfare are relieved to see Stockman’s campaign founder. And as Cornyn sails toward the nomination and back to the Senate, even the most ardent Texas tea party activists are distancing themselves from the firebrand congressman — and wishing he would quit saying he’s one of them. ‘I think it’s horrible,’ said JoAnn Fleming, a prominent Texas tea party leader, of Stockman’s campaign. ‘We didn’t support Congressman Stockman, we haven’t had one conversation with him, he is a no-show at events. I’ve made it clear that Stockman’s unwillingness to be honest … disqualifies him from our organization to even consider him.’” http://goo.gl/rWUkzL

MERCURY NEWS CALLS FOR HONDA-KHANNA DEBATE — The San Jose newspaper acknowledges that Honda has not yet declined a debate against primary challenger Ro Khanna, but it’s still putting the pressure on the House Democrat: “The seven-term Democratic congressman and many of his colleagues are shocked, shocked that a young upstart Democrat is challenging him. It just isn’t done. And it’s not unusual for an incumbent, with that huge built-in advantage, to avoid events that would bring attention to a challenger. But declining to debate is wrong. It shows a fundamental disrespect for the democratic system and ultimately for voters. It was wrong when Sen. Dianne Feinstein stiffed her token Republican opponent in 2012. It’s worse for Honda, who faces a legitimate opponent in Khanna, a former Obama administration trade official whose campaign is getting national attention and raising tons of money. Honda technically has not refused to debate. He just hasn’t accepted any invitations — including (full disclosure here) one from this newspaper and the Santa Clara County League of Women Voters for a forum in Milpitas. His campaign manager said Wednesday no decisions have been made.” http://goo.gl/Om9vXz

‘HOUSE OF CARDS’ TO MARYLAND: WE NEED MORE TAX CREDITS – The Washington Post’s Jenna Johnson: “In his letter to [Maryland Gov. Martin] O’Malley, Charlie Goldstein, a Media Rights Capital senior vice president, wrote that the filming schedule for Season 3 has been pushed back to June to ensure that a big enough increase has been approved. ‘In the meantime I wanted you to be aware that we are required to look at other states in which to film on the off chance that the legislation does not pass, or does not cover the amount of tax credits for which we would qualify,’ the letter says. ‘I am sure you can understand that we would not be responsible financiers and a successful production company if we did not have viable options available.’ The letter does not specify the amount of tax credits the show is seeking. Last year, lawmakers increased the total allocation for film tax credits to $ 25 million, which made the larger credits for the first two seasons of “House of Cards” possible. But lawmakers are divided on whether it is prudent to continue giving away that much tax revenue.” http://goo.gl/Slcfzt

THURSDAY’S TRIVIA WINNER – Sean Neary of Edelman (and Baucus/Conrad alum) was the first to correctly respond that Jill Docking, the likely Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in Kansas, has a husband (Tom) who previously served as lieutenant governor and his father (Robert) and grandfather (George) both served as governors of the state.

TODAY’S TRIVIA – Neary (still reeling from Wednesday night’s Boston College upset over previously undefeated Syracuse) offers today’s trivia question: What current Cabinet secretary received his law degree from Boston College? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day’s Huddle. Email me at skim@politico.com.

GET HUDDLE emailed to your Blackberry, iPhone or other mobile device each morning. Just enter your email address where it says “Sign Up.” http://www.politico.com/huddle/

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POLITICO – Top 10 – Huddle

DEAL IN UKRAINE? – No chained CPI in Obama budget – Steve King, still not apologizing – KINGSTON"S TAXPAYER-BACKED HEALTH CARE – The new Ted Cruz?

Full On War And Economic Collapse With Steve Quayle & V The Guerrilla Economist

Full On War And Economic Collapse With Steve Quayle & V The Guerrilla Economist
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The Hagmann And Hagmann Report Sep 1 2013 Steve Quayle and V

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The Hagmann And Hagmann Report Sep 1 2013 Steve Quayle and V

STEVE QUAYLE: The Dangers of Continued Middle East Meddling

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STEVE QUAYLE: The Dangers of Continued Middle East Meddling

Steve Lonegan Says He"s Running For Congress

Steve Lonegan, the outspoken Republican who mounted an unsuccessful Senate campaign in New Jersey against Cory Booker (D) last year, is back.

Lonegan told the Star-Ledger on Friday he intends to run for the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Jon Runyan (R) in the state’s 3rd Congressional District.

“I have the hottest donor list in the country. My name ID there is over 90 percent. I have a terrific campaign team that’s ready to rock, is experienced and seasoned,” Lonegan told the newspaper. “I have coordinators in every town in the district, in every church and synagogue.”

Lonegan currently lives at least 70 miles away from the 3rd District in the borough of Bogota, N.J., where he served as mayor for three terms, ending in 2007. However, he confirmed to the Star-Ledger that he’s closing on a house in the district. He said he doesn’t expect his status as a new arrival to hinder his chances.

“Over the past decade or more, I’ve spent an awful lot of time in Ocean and Burlington. I’ve had a strong presence there. I performed very well. I’ll be living there a year before I even get sworn in,” said Lonegan. “By October that’s old news.”

In addition to his Senate bid last year, Lonegan has previously run two unsuccessful gubernatorial campaigns. He also lost a House race to former Rep. Steve Rothman (D) in 1998.

All TPM News

Steve Lonegan Says He"s Running For Congress

TestThe Truth About Nephilim Giants (Full Video) - Steve Quayle

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TestThe Truth About Nephilim Giants (Full Video) - Steve Quayle

Steve Harvey Scores Sit-Down Interview With Obama

“Hardball’s” Chris Matthews was just a warm up for President Barack Obama. The real test comes on Friday when he sits with Steve Harvey at the White House for his syndicated daytime show.

Harvey plans to speak with the POTUS about the hard-hitting topics of “family, fatherhood and his plans for the holidays” for the episode airing on Friday, Dec. 20.

“Sitting down with the President is something I’ve always dreamt of doing, and I am honored to have the opportunity,” said Harvey in a statement. “I’m grateful to President Obama for welcoming me and I’m thrilled to share this experience with all my viewers.”

Harvey may have earned the coveted interview with the promise of his 2.5 million daily viewers and growing. During November, the show earned series highs for four consecutive weeks.

The interview should be a welcome reprieve for Obama from the tougher media appearances he has been doing lately, which include having to speak on topics ranging from NSA surveillance, the affordable health care act AKA Obamacare and a nuclear deal with Iran, among other major issues.

© 2013 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.

Newsmax – America

Steve Harvey Scores Sit-Down Interview With Obama

TIME IS UP FOR AMERICA! 2013 [FULL] Steve Quayle

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TIME IS UP FOR AMERICA! 2013 [FULL] Steve Quayle

In conversation with: Prof. Steve Keen

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In conversation with: Prof. Steve Keen

Steve Lonegan unites New Jersey Republicans

When Senator Frank Lautenberg died in June, it was a foregone conclusion in New Jersey politics that Newark Mayor Cory Booker would look to take his seat. If Booker wanted it, the seat was his. After all, New Jersey had not elected a Republican to the United States Senate in more than 30 years. Similarly, the state had not leaned Republican in the Presidential election since 1988.

Enter, Steve Lonegan, the former mayor of Bogota, NJ, a tough talking, confident politician who has watched the margin of error between him and his opponent shrink in recent weeks.

With the election only hours away, Republican Lonegan believes that the liberal-leaning state will choose old-fashioned conservative values over a man who he refers to as the “poster child for a poll-driven, speech coach, consultant-trained candidate,” the senatorial candidate told Rare in a phone interview over the weekend.

Lonegan’s has contrasted his campaign with the notion that Cory Booker is not a genuine politician, but rather a self-contained puppet of the Obama administration. New Jersey needs a “leader, not a Tweeter,” his campaign slogan goes. The line references his opponent’s massive online following and widespread national name recognition, a presence that Lonegan believes should trouble the people of New Jersey.

Lonegan believes that Booker should focus more on the state’s problems and not “[run] around Hollywood and San Francisco trying to hang out with a bunch of movie stars.” The idea that Mayor Booker is pre-occupied with his own brand and image has been a hallmark of rhetoric during the four-month long campaign. Lonegan decries Booker as an “example of another politician whose own self-promotion at the expense of the taxpayers has come before his commitment to govern.”

While many in the state have applauded Booker’s connection to his citizens, Lonegan doesn’t buy it. He believes that Mayor Booker’s track record in Newark indicates that he is unfit to hold a higher office. Lonegan is quick to point out his opponents failures and refers to Newark not as a city in northern New Jersey, but as a “black hole.”

“Robberies have hit a 14-year high, where murders are off the charts and crime is up,” Lonegan said. “High school dropouts rates range from 15 percent to 17 percent, unemployment has hit 14 percent.”

“It just demonstrates that when you don’t pay attention to your business, and anyone who has run a business knows, that when you neglect your business, it falls apart. And Newark is falling apart,” Lonegan added.

Though the Republican candidate admits that the country is divided, he is proud of his ability to bring the party together. Lonegan boasts marquee Republican names on his side through his entire campaign.

“I have brought together the entire Republican Party, from Governor Christie, to Governor Palin, to Governor Perry to Rand Paul, to Tom Coburn,” he said. “The entire party from the tea party, the conservatives, the pro-life, not so pro-life, the pro-gun, not-so pro-gun.”

At a recent campaign rally, Governor Palin spoke on Lonegan’s behalf, repeating his signature phrase: “New Jersey needs a leader not a Tweeter.”

According to the candidate, the Republican unity has brought in outsiders as well. Polls show Lonegan leading among New Jersey independents.

“[People] recognize that the real threat to our liberty is Barack Obama and his administration,” Lonegan said. “It’s not fellow Republicans or independents; it’s the Obama administration. There is a huge contingent of conservative Democrats, those are the working union men and women, guys that go to church on Sundays and go shooting on Saturdays, and like to hunt and fish and they are Boy Scout leaders and football coaches. Those are my voters.”

Despite the candidate’s gravitas and tough talk, recent polls still show Cory Booker holding a commanding double-digit lead. Already a tough road to a win, Lonegan’s chances were further wounded in recent days by allegations from his opponent and the New Jersey Star Ledger, that while mayor of Bogota, Lonegan received hundreds of thousands of dollars in a state bailout. Lonegan refers to this issue as one from the “junk pile of ideas,” and describes the allegations as “absurd.” According to Lonegan, the funds he received were mere “pennies” in comparison to funds Booker’s Newark receives regularly.

The spotlight on Lonegan’s Bogota scandal allows him to continue his comparison to Newark, he shared.

“All the money gets poured into what I call the big black hole in Newark, just like the big black hole in space that sucks things in and nothing comes out of,” he said.

“That’s what has happened, billions of tax dollars have been poured into the coffers of Newark, never to be seen again and there is no improvement. If you poured those billions in and Newark became this utopian city, that would be different. But all of a sudden it has disappeared, in the pockets of politically connected hacks.”

Only the polls will reflect how New Jerseyans feel about Steve Lonegan. The citizens of New Jersey are not looking for “someone who is going to agree with them on everything, they want someone who is going to speak with honesty and principle,” Lonegan shared.

Whether the people agree remains to be seen.

Related articles

Rare

Steve Lonegan unites New Jersey Republicans

Apple Has Lost Its Touch, Says the Man Who Helped Steve Jobs Design the Mac

Frog design founder Hartmut Esslinger says the Apple of today isn’t the Apple he experienced during his close collaboration with Steve Jobs. (AP)

Hartmut Esslinger knows a thing or two about industrial design and what it’s done for Apple. He worked directly with Steve Jobs to establish a “design language” that was used on the Macintosh line of computers for over a decade. Esslinger’s iconoclastic firm had already designed over 100 products for Sony when he signed an exclusive, $ 1-million-a-year contract with Apple in 1982.

But that Apple is mostly gone, says Esslinger in an interview with Quartz. The Apple of today resembles Sony of the 1980′s, says Esslinger, who witnessed the succession process at Sony first-hand: The visionary founder has been replaced by leaders who aren’t thinking beyond refinement and increasing profit.

“Steve Jobs was a man who didn’t care for any rational argument why something should not be tried,” says Esslinger. “He said a lot of ‘no,’ but he also said a lot of ‘yes’ to things and he stubbornly insisted on trying new things.”

One reason Esslinger is willing to recount his time with Jobs is that on October 9, at the Frankfurt book fair, he will release a design and management memoir recounting his time with Jobs, called Keep it Simple.

The origins of a design-led culture at Apple
By Esslinger’s own account, when he started working with Jobs in 1982, Apple was a fractious company in which designers reported to engineers and many in Apple’s corporate structure were openly hostile to the founder’s influence. (By 1985, Jobs had been forced out; he returned in 1996.) At the start of his work with Esslinger, Jobs knew that design could help define Apple’s brand in a way that no amount of marketing could accomplish, and from the introduction of the Macintosh SE, Esslinger’s “Snow White” design language defined the appearance of the Macintosh, visually integrating its outer plastic shell with the software it contained.

Apple’s “book-like” computer couldn’t be realized with the technology of 1982, but it would later succeed as Apple’s touch-based devices.Hartmut Esslinger

As early as 1982, Jobs had already conceived of a “book-like computer,” though the project was not discussed outside the company. That vision eventually led to the Apple Newton, a tablet that failed, and the iPhone and iPad, which made history. That kind of vision is now lacking at Apple, Esslinger says.

“As soon as you can copy something [like the iPhone,] it’s not smart enough anymore,” he says. “I think Apple has reached in a certain way a saturation—the curve [of innovation] was really steep seven to eight years ago […] but now my iPhone is so full I am deleting apps because I want to keep it simple.”

What the next Apple might come up with
So if a disruptive new company—the Apple of today—were to emerge, what kinds of products might it make? Esslinger, who retired from Frog design, the company he founded, in 2006, now teaches all over the world and especially in China, and he says that his students are primarily focused on three-dimensional interfaces as the “next big thing.” Their inspiration? Video games.

“Our students in China and in Germany, they come from the video game culture, and the video games are 3D,” says Esslinger. “I did a workshop a couple of years ago in Switzerland, and even MBAs said enterprise software should be like a video game.”

Just as important to the future of human-computer interaction, says Esslinger, will be a re-thinking of the integration of hardware and software. One example he gave was concept designs Frog did in collaboration with MIT, for flexible computers that responded to squeezing and other types of unconventional touch input.

“I think flat screens have reached a level of saturation,” says Esslinger. “Screens don’t have to be all right angles—the cheapest way is not always the best way. […] Not every country on earth likes square shapes, The cache and the memory makes it easier to have a rectangular screen, but it doesn’t have to be like that. There is much more freedom than we think we have.” (1)

Asia, young upstarts in the wings
Some of that radical thinking could come out of China, where Esslinger currently teaches. “What’s happening in China right now is a paradigm shift where they realize they have to innovate, and can’t just make cheap products,” says Esslinger. “The first generation of entrepreneurs just wanted to make money, but now you have a guy like Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei, announcing in public, ‘I want to beat Apple and Samsung.’”

Wherever the next big thing comes from, it’s likely to be from entrepreneurs and designers who are not steeped in existing ways of thinking in Silicon Valley, in part because they’re young—Steve Jobs was 28 when he began working with Esslinger. ”At Frog, our best ideas came from our youngest designers, fresh out of school,” says Esslinger. In part, he says, this is because of a willingness to fail—something that is, at least, still part of American culture. “In Europe you learn not to fail, and in America you fail to learn. You need failure.”

Footnote
(1) Esslinger speaks from experience: When developing the design language for early Macintoshes, he had to convince Jobs to adopt a more expensive manufacturing process in order to get the sides of the cases for Apple computers to be perfectly straight. (Injection molding processes demanded a 1 degree angle to otherwise boxy cases, so that molds could pull away from the cases easily.)

Subtle touches like that are now an Apple trademark, but refinement can only take a company so far, and the conservatism inherent in how design groups within companies must answer to their bosses means that companies tend not to innovate, says Esslinger.

Master Feed : The Atlantic

Apple Has Lost Its Touch, Says the Man Who Helped Steve Jobs Design the Mac

NJ Senate Hopeful Steve Lonegan Aims for Unique Fundraiser

Donors can shoot big guns in return for big donations in an unusual fundraiser for New Jersey GOP Senate candidate Steve Lonegan.

The Sept. 21 event is being hosted by the New Jersey Second Amendment Society, a gun rights advocacy and lobbying group, philly.com reported.

Lonegan is a staunch opponent of gun control.

According to the Sunlight Foundation, which first reported the event, Lonegan contributors are being invited to a “Fundraiser Shooting Event” at the South Jersey Shooting Club in Winslow, N.J.

“As opposed to a more run-of-the-mill congressional fundraiser, the event offers contributors a clear — and immediate — return on investment,” the foundation wrote on its blog.

“Instead of tying contribution levels to cheesy titles like ‘Friend’ or ‘Platinum Level Sponsor,’ Lonegan is literally providing a bigger bang for bigger bucks: The amount donors give directly corresponds to the amount of firepower they’ll get your hands on at the firing range.”

The Foundation says donors will choose from rifles or pistols.
For $ 40, a contributor gets to shoot five rounds from a Desert Eagle 50, or 20 rounds from an AR15.

Guests also have the option of paying $ 50 for the chance to take one of the event’s two “mystery rifles.”

For the big gun donors, forking over $ 125 will buy five shots from the Barret M107.50 BMG, a semi-automatic sniper rifle that is used by the military, the foundation promised.

Lonegan faces an uphill battle against Newark Mayor Cory Booker in the Oct. 16 election to replace the late Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

Lonegan made headlines this week with his comments about the “weird” comments of his Democratic opponent.

Lonegan started his campaign in August with just $ 150,000 cash on hand, The Hill reported.

© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Newsmax – Politics

NJ Senate Hopeful Steve Lonegan Aims for Unique Fundraiser

NJ Senate Hopeful Steve Lonegan Aims for Unique Fundraiser

Donors can shoot big guns in return for big donations in an unusual fundraiser for New Jersey GOP Senate candidate Steve Lonegan.

The Sept. 21 event is being hosted by the New Jersey Second Amendment Society, a gun rights advocacy and lobbying group, philly.com reported.

Lonegan is a staunch opponent of gun control.

According to the Sunlight Foundation, which first reported the event, Lonegan contributors are being invited to a “Fundraiser Shooting Event” at the South Jersey Shooting Club in Winslow, N.J.

“As opposed to a more run-of-the-mill congressional fundraiser, the event offers contributors a clear — and immediate — return on investment,” the foundation wrote on its blog.

“Instead of tying contribution levels to cheesy titles like ‘Friend’ or ‘Platinum Level Sponsor,’ Lonegan is literally providing a bigger bang for bigger bucks: The amount donors give directly corresponds to the amount of firepower they’ll get your hands on at the firing range.”

The Foundation says donors will choose from rifles or pistols.
For $ 40, a contributor gets to shoot five rounds from a Desert Eagle 50, or 20 rounds from an AR15.

Guests also have the option of paying $ 50 for the chance to take one of the event’s two “mystery rifles.”

For the big gun donors, forking over $ 125 will buy five shots from the Barret M107.50 BMG, a semi-automatic sniper rifle that is used by the military, the foundation promised.

Lonegan faces an uphill battle against Newark Mayor Cory Booker in the Oct. 16 election to replace the late Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

Lonegan made headlines this week with his comments about the “weird” comments of his Democratic opponent.

Lonegan started his campaign in August with just $ 150,000 cash on hand, The Hill reported.

© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Newsmax – Politics

NJ Senate Hopeful Steve Lonegan Aims for Unique Fundraiser

VIDEO: Volvo Trucks - Brian and Steve discuss the extreme driving conditions in Australia

The Volvo FH16, Volvo’s new truck for heavy long-haul operations, has been tested in the toughest of all environments: Australia. Over a period of two days, it was put through its paces by journalists Brian Weatherley and Steve Brooks, both of whom have many years of experience in the transport industry.

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VIDEO: Volvo Trucks - Brian and Steve discuss the extreme driving conditions in Australia

Minister for Censorship Australia - Steve Johnson Phone call Part 2

Former Apple CEO Sculley Says Steve Jobs Considered Phone Market In 1984

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Former Apple CEO Sculley Says Steve Jobs Considered Phone Market In 1984

Boehner condemns Steve King immigration remarks

• Rep. Steve King made controversial remarks about citizenship, undocumented immigrant children


• House speaker rebuked colleague at news conference, calling comments “deeply offensive”


• King doubles down, says his remarks were not offensive; criticizes Boehner


• Fate of immigration reform legislation uncertain in Congress

Washington (CNN) — House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday rebuked Iowa GOP colleague Rep Steve King for controversial comments on undocumented immigrants, calling the remarks “deeply offensive and wrong,” and acknowledged the fallout makes it harder to reach a deal on immigration reform.

King, when discussing a proposal to give citizenship to the children of undocumented workers in an interview last week with Newsmax, suggested many of them were drug smugglers.

“For everyone who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds–and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert,” King asserted.

Democrats immediately denounced the comments and Boehner released a written statement with similarly sharp criticism two days ago.

But at a time when there is mounting pressure on House Republicans to address an overhaul of immigration policy, Boehner deliberately repeated the message before TV cameras at his weekly press conference.

“There is no place in this debate for hateful or ignorant comments from elected officials,” Boehner said.

He added that what King said “does not reflect the values of the American people or the Republican Party. We all need to do our work in a constructive, open and respectful way.”

Boehner and many other House Republicans are now backing a proposal that would allow children brought into the United States illegally by their parents to obtain citizenship.

But King isn’t backing off. He doubled down on Thursday, maintaining his remarks were based on facts.

“If people were offended, were they offended by the number or my choice of the fruit? And, if so, what’s offensive about the number or that? I can’t imagine why it’s racist and if I offended anybody it was drug smugglers and it doesn’t trouble me to offend drug smugglers. If I intended to offend anybody that would be the group,” King said.

After speaking on the House floor, King didn’t seem phased by Boehner’s comments.

“We know that the speaker responds to criticism in the press.” King said, adding that he would have preferred Boehner to approach him personally before speaking to the media.

Many House Republicans quickly recognized the potential political damage King’s remarks could have on the GOP as the party works to regain ground with Hispanic voters after losing badly among the group in the 2012 election.

California Republican Rep Jeff Denham, who represents a district with a significant Latino population, concurred with Boehner in a tweet.

“@SpeakerBoehner is right. Rep. King’s comments are hurtful & disrespectful. Lone member’s prejudicial statements won’t derail progress!”

The American Action Network, a GOP leaning group, released a poll on Wednesday that found a majority of Republicans in King’s district backed a comprehensive approach to immigration reform.

Without naming King, Dan Conston, the group’s spokesman, sent a statement stressing the public support for legislation.

“Hopefully with knowledge like this, the most ardent opponents of reform will pause to consider what they can support and how they can play a constructive role in fixing this broken immigration system.”

King brushed off the poll, and suggested the questions were crafted to get a specific response. He admitted his office has been inundated with calls since the public coverage of his comments, and said to date the reaction has been slightly more negative, with 55 opposed and 45 supporting his position.

CNN.com – Politics

Boehner condemns Steve King immigration remarks

Boehner condemns Steve King immigration remarks

• Rep. Steve King made controversial remarks about citizenship, undocumented immigrant children


• House speaker rebuked colleague at news conference, calling comments “deeply offensive”


• King doubles down, says his remarks were not offensive; criticizes Boehner


• Fate of immigration reform legislation uncertain in Congress

Washington (CNN) — House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday rebuked Iowa GOP colleague Rep Steve King for controversial comments on undocumented immigrants, calling the remarks “deeply offensive and wrong,” and acknowledged the fallout makes it harder to reach a deal on immigration reform.

King, when discussing a proposal to give citizenship to the children of undocumented workers in an interview last week with Newsmax, suggested many of them were drug smugglers.

“For everyone who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds–and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert,” King asserted.

Democrats immediately denounced the comments and Boehner released a written statement with similarly sharp criticism two days ago.

But at a time when there is mounting pressure on House Republicans to address an overhaul of immigration policy, Boehner deliberately repeated the message before TV cameras at his weekly press conference.

“There is no place in this debate for hateful or ignorant comments from elected officials,” Boehner said.

He added that what King said “does not reflect the values of the American people or the Republican Party. We all need to do our work in a constructive, open and respectful way.”

Boehner and many other House Republicans are now backing a proposal that would allow children brought into the United States illegally by their parents to obtain citizenship.

But King isn’t backing off. He doubled down on Thursday, maintaining his remarks were based on facts.

“If people were offended, were they offended by the number or my choice of the fruit? And, if so, what’s offensive about the number or that? I can’t imagine why it’s racist and if I offended anybody it was drug smugglers and it doesn’t trouble me to offend drug smugglers. If I intended to offend anybody that would be the group,” King said.

After speaking on the House floor, King didn’t seem phased by Boehner’s comments.

“We know that the speaker responds to criticism in the press.” King said, adding that he would have preferred Boehner to approach him personally before speaking to the media.

Many House Republicans quickly recognized the potential political damage King’s remarks could have on the GOP as the party works to regain ground with Hispanic voters after losing badly among the group in the 2012 election.

California Republican Rep Jeff Denham, who represents a district with a significant Latino population, concurred with Boehner in a tweet.

“@SpeakerBoehner is right. Rep. King’s comments are hurtful & disrespectful. Lone member’s prejudicial statements won’t derail progress!”

The American Action Network, a GOP leaning group, released a poll on Wednesday that found a majority of Republicans in King’s district backed a comprehensive approach to immigration reform.

Without naming King, Dan Conston, the group’s spokesman, sent a statement stressing the public support for legislation.

“Hopefully with knowledge like this, the most ardent opponents of reform will pause to consider what they can support and how they can play a constructive role in fixing this broken immigration system.”

King brushed off the poll, and suggested the questions were crafted to get a specific response. He admitted his office has been inundated with calls since the public coverage of his comments, and said to date the reaction has been slightly more negative, with 55 opposed and 45 supporting his position.

CNN.com – Politics

Boehner condemns Steve King immigration remarks