Archive for June, 2010

Ellsworth Goes on Offense Against Coats

Posted on: June 19th, 2010 by Kyle. | No Comments

You would be mistaken if you thought that Democrats were going to quietly cede Evan Bayh’s Senate seat. Brad Ellsworth, the Democratic nominee to replace Evan Bayh in the Senate, is going on an offensive against his Republican opponent Dan Coats. The Ellsworth campaign released a “campaign report” to supporters by e-mail. It’s a six page PDF document that basically outlines the arguments that they will be making in the fall.

“Dan Coats chose to lobby for unsavory entities such as Bank of America, which participated in some of the worst excesses that triggered the financial crisis, and Harvest Natural Resources, an oil company owned by the socialist country of Venezuela,” the campaign report reads. They also point out that Coats received only 39 percent of the vote among Republicans. While Coats won the GOP primary, 61 percent of Republicans chose someone else.

It was already clear prior to this that Ellsworth would be running as the former sheriff that he was rather than the Congressman from Southern Indiana that he currently is. It was also pretty obvious that Dan Coats’ role as a lobbyist for banking interests and foreign governments would play heavily into the campaign. You can count on this race in Indiana between Ellsworth and Coats to be one of the most hard fought in the nation this fall.

Book Interview for Game Freaks 365′s Review Guide

Posted on: June 17th, 2010 by Kyle. | No Comments

It’s been a little over a week since my last post on the site, mostly because I have been terribly busy with summer classes. Apologies for not keeping things more up-to-date! Anyway, I recently was interviewed (actually, it was a while ago, but they just got around to posting it) by a site that focuses on authors. Here’s just a small sampling of the interview:

What is your most recent book? Tell us a bit about it.

I love to write about politics, but my latest book is actually part of a series on video games. Known as Game Freaks 365’s Review Guide, it is a collection of reviews from my video game website of the same name. GameFreaks365 has been around since 2003, going on its seventh year April 19. Currently, I have three versions: one for the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360. I’ve found that people can never get enough outside advice when it comes to their purchasing decisions. Getting expert advice on a topic is important when you are dealing with a limited budget for recreational purposes. That’s what these guides are for. I want to help people make wise choices and buy games that they know that they will like.

How did you know you wanted to be a writer? How did you get started?

Writing has been something that I have enjoyed since I was a little kid. I used to have my aunt dictate stories before I even started school or could put pen to paper. Having the opportunity to write several books has been a real privilege for me. It’s something that I wouldn’t mind doing for a long time to come. Most of my experience has come from learning on my own – writing reviews for Game Freaks 365 or putting the rambling thoughts in my head about politics on a blog post. It seems like an odd marriage. But they are two topics that interest me the most. Hopefully my readers feel that I contribute something to the dialogue.

You can find the full interview at http://www.sellingbooks.com/kyle-w-bell-author-interview! You can find all of my books at Smashwords and on Amazon.com. Below are direct links to the review guides:

Nintendo DS Review Guide
Wii Review Guide
PS3 Review Guide
Xbox 360 Review Guide
PSP Review Guide

Tea Party Wins in Nevada, Moderates in California, Lincoln in Arkansas

Posted on: June 8th, 2010 by Kyle. | No Comments

The Tea Party candidate for Senate has won the Republican nomination in the state of Nevada. Sharron Angle will take on Majority Leader Harry Reid in November. The favorite in this race was Sue Lowden, who suggested that people should exchange chickens for medical care. Since then, her campaign has imploded, as evidenced by tonight’s results. Angle declared that “I am the Tea Party” and surged in the polls. Lowden ran an ad claiming that Angle proposed a bill that would give prisoners recovering from drug addiction massages as a part of treatment.

Nevada GOP Senate Primary

Sharron Angle – 38.6%
Sue Lowden – 27.9%
Danny Tarkanian – 22.7%

65.5% precincts reporting

Across the border in California, more moderate candidates succeeded in fending off Tea Party insurgents in both the Senate and Governor primary races. Carly Fiorina is the former CEO of HP, having been fired from that job due to poor performance. When she became CEO of the company in 1999, HP’s stock price was at $52 per share. When she left in 2005, the stock had fallen over 60% to just $21 per share. Fiorina will have an uphill battle against incumbent Senator Barbara Boxer in this reliably Democratic state. Her competence will be a big part of the Boxer strategy. Still, she managed to easily knock off Tea Party favorite Chuck DeVore, who received fewer than 1 in 5 votes.

California GOP Senate Primary

Carly Fiorina – 54.4%
Tom Campbell – 25.2%
Chuck DeVore – 17.6%

19% precincts reporting

The California governor’s race is another hot ticket item. Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay, easily defeated the more conservative Steve Poizner. She will get the rights to take on former governor Jerry Brown, the Democrat in the race. Whitman’s win was not without effort. She spent over $50 million of her personal wealth just to win the Republican nomination. It will likely take another $50 million to win a general election. Polls show her trailing Brown by single digits.

California GOP Governor Primary

Meg Whitman – 63.3%
Steve Poizner – 26.6%

19.4% precincts reporting

The final major race of the night was in the state of Arkansas, where two Democrats battled it out in a runoff after both candidates failed to reach 50% in May’s primary. Conservative Democrat Blanche Lincoln survived a close fight from the more liberal Bill Halter, who enjoyed support from organized labor and left wing blogs. Arkansas is one of the most conservative states in the country and it is also a right-to-work state, so there are few labor unions. Both factors made it difficult for Halter to overcome, despite Lincoln’s unpopularity. This seat was likely going to the Republicans come fall no matter who the candidate was anyway. It is also another race where a female won, which is quite the theme tonight.

Arkansas Democratic Senate Runoff

Blanche Lincoln – 52%
Bill Halter – 48%

99.8% precincts reporting

We’ll have updated midterm election projections soon! Stay tuned!

President Bush Admits to Ordering Torture

Posted on: June 3rd, 2010 by Kyle. | No Comments

President Bush was in Grand Rapids, Michigan yesterday giving a closed-to-the-media speech in which he admitted that he ordered the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Considering the fact that we already knew that this occurred would seemingly make this less newsworthy, but the fact that President Bush admitted to ordering it is a significant development.

“Yeah, we waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,” the former US President nonchalantly admitted to the Economic Club of Grand Rapids in Michigan. “I’d do it again to save lives.”

This is not a minor matter. Torture is not only illegal under international law, namely the Geneva Conventions, it is illegal under United States law as well. During World War II, we convicted Japanese and German soldiers that used waterboarding. For those that will say that waterboarding does not fit the definition of torture, I point to the definition set by American law, specifically Title 18 of the U.S. Code Section 2340:

(1) “torture” means an act committed by a person acting under
the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical
or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering
incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his
custody or physical control;
(2) “severe mental pain or suffering” means the prolonged
mental harm caused by or resulting from -
(A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of
severe physical pain or suffering;
(B) the administration or application, or threatened
administration or application, of mind-altering substances or
other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or
the personality;
(C) the threat of imminent death; or
(D) the threat that another person will imminently be
subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the
administration or application of mind-altering substances or
other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or
personality; and
(3) “United States” means the several States of the United
States, the District of Columbia, and the commonwealths,
territories, and possessions of the United States.

It could not be any more clear than that statute. By taking the oath of office, the President of the United States swears to uphold the laws of the land, not to pick and choose which ones he likes. President Bush has admitted to breaking the law and treaties (which have the force of law), committing an illegal act in the process, soiling the image of our nation and putting the lives of Americans at risk. Nothing is a greater motivational tool for terrorists than this policy. I am glad that President Obama has put an end to torture, but it is his duty to uphold the Constitution by prosecuting the criminals in the Bush administration that ordered this.

Party Switcher Parker Griffith Loses GOP Primary

Posted on: June 2nd, 2010 by Kyle. | No Comments

Just five months ago Parker Griffith called himself a Democrat. Today, he’s a soon-to-be former member of Congress. The party switcher lost in the Republican primary of his conservative Alabama district. Tuesday’s primary resulted in a victory for Mo Brooks, who received 51 percent of the vote to Griffith’s 33 percent, avoiding a runoff by 600 votes. This follows only two weeks after another party switcher, Arlen Specter, lost the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania’s Senate race after being a Republican for more than 40 years.

“I know who our general election opponent is: (Speaker of the House) Nancy Pelosi,” Brooks said, sounding themes for the general election. “Our ultimate goal is not to win the primary. We have to do for America one thing, which is to get a new Speaker of the House. We must, as a people, put a stop to what’s going on in Washington before the nation goes over a cliff. We must stop those who believe socialism is the way to go.”

Republicans tried to use Nancy Pelosi as a boogey(wo)man in Pennsylvania’s special election to replace the late John Murtha. They failed miserably, losing the district by roughly 10 percent. As has been stated many times in the media, this is the only district in the country that voted for John Kerry in 2004 and switched to John McCain in 2008. In other words, there is not a whole lot of love for Barack Obama here. That said, Democrats still managed to hold onto the seat comfortably.

The main problem with going after a Speaker of the House is that most people don’t even know who you are talking about. Worse yet, attacking a 70-something year old grandmother does not come across well, either. It could very well just end up alienating female voters. Considering the Alabama seat is safely in Republican territory (R+12), it is likely that Brooks will be the future Congressman from this rural Alabama district. In other parts of the country that are either swing districts or slightly Republican leaning, it is highly doubtful that such a message will prevail.