Chad’s Morning Brief: Lubbock County Voters Are to Blame for Tax Hike, Obama/Israeli Relations, & More
Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of September 12, 2012. Give us your feedback below and tune in to Lubbock’s First News with Chad Hasty for these and many more topics from 6-9 am.
1. Whose to Blame for the Lubbock County Tax Hike? The Voters
The tax hike passed by the Lubbock County Commissioners and supported by Judge Tom Head should make conservatives mad. The worst part is, you only have yourselves to blame. Sure, not all of you reading this are to blame, but the majority of Lubbock County voters shoulder the blame for the tax hike.
You may be asking why I'm blaming the voters for taxes going up, but it's easy to see why. You keep sending these people back to work. Let's face it, conservatives have long complained about Patti Jones and Bill McCay yet voters keep electing them. On LFN, Bill McCay was asked repeatedly where he would cut spending and the best answer he could come up with was this:
“Specific areas to cut spending? When we look at the budget requests, that’s the best time to answer that question.”
Yet instead of electing Frank Morrison to the Commissioners Court, the voters sent McCay back because they liked his last name.
Over and over again, voters have been warned about Patti Jones and the fact that she isn't a small government Republican. However, when election time comes around the vast majority of you re-elect her. Why? The people in Precinct 1 and Precinct 4 must get their heads out of the sand and start voting these people out. Otherwise you will continue to see taxes going up and promises not kept. Lubbock County voters can't even trust the so-called "conservative" Judge Tom Head. He supported the tax increase and was ready to give the Sheriff's and D.A.'s office a blank check.
I support public safety, but I don't support runaway spending and that's what I believe we have in Lubbock County.
The people in Precinct 3 will replace Gilbert Flores and I hope they make the right choice. The rest of Lubbock County needs to wake up and elect commissioners who will cut spending and act like they are conservatives. You can't blame Patti Jones and Bill McCay 100% for this tax hike. We all knew their history yet they were re-elected. Will you let it happen again?
2. Obama-Netanyahu Meeting (link)
President Obama is too busy to meet with our closest ally in the Arab world. The reason? Scheduling conflicts.
The White House has turned down an offer by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet with President Obama later this month, U.S. and Israeli officials confirmed to Fox News.
Though the White House is citing scheduling conflicts, the chilly reception is sure to be seen as a snub among Israel’s biggest defenders – and it comes amid a state of heightened alert over Iran’s nuclear program and the possibility of Israeli action.
Sources said Netanyahu, though he plans to be in New York City during his brief stay, was offering to travel to D.C. to make the meeting happen. However, the White House apparently said Obama’s tight schedule – the president is in the middle of a feverish campaign run -- would make a meeting difficult.
White House spokesman Tommy Vietor later confirmed to Fox News that Obama is not expected to meet with Netanyahu, though insisted it was just a scheduling problem. He said Obama will be at the United Nations on Sept. 24 and leave the following day, while Netanyahu won’t be in the city until later in the week.
“They're simply not in the city at the same time,” Vietor said.
He also said Netanyahu and Obama are in “frequent contact,” and that Netanyahu has instead been offered meetings with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other top officials.
But the turn-down comes amid increasing international anxiety about Iran’s nuclear program. The U.N. reportedly has found new intelligence showing Iran is moving toward nuclear weapon capability.
So Obama can't take time out if his campaign to meet with the Israeli Prime Minister? What an insult and politically, what a stupid move. Just another reason to throw Obama out of the White House. Is there an ally he hasn't insulted?
Too busy to meet with the Israeli Prime Minister, too busy to take National Security meetings, and too busy to actually help this country.
3. Ted Cruz: A Social Media Upset (link)
According to this article, Ted Cruz won partly because of his social media game.
From the outset, we knew a strong digital presence was critical to Cruz’s chances because initially the campaign simply did not have the funds to compete with Dewhurst on TV. Social media allowed the campaign to motivate and coordinate grassroots supporters, which was critical for an insurgent campaign in a state as big as Texas. Most importantly, digital was baked into all aspects of the campaign from communications to political fieldwork to polling.
Ted announced his candidacy for Senate on a conference call with conservative bloggers. Texas has a large network of active conservative bloggers and giving access to them was important to promoting Ted’s conservative message and helping generate buzz about his candidacy among the party base. Ted met with bloggers in person and via phone often, and the campaign created a robust blogger action center encouraging bloggers to post supportive widgets, and created a segmented email list to update bloggers from.
Social media and the digital space were used as a tool to raise Cruz’s name ID, generate online donations and respond to attacks from the Dewhurst campaign. Additionally, Ted utilized web videos early on to break through the clutter and gain some earned media.
Paving the way for the campaign’s online success was a consulting team that completely bought in when it came to digital. General Consultant Jason Johnson and Campaign Manager John Drogin both believed that digital was an inexpensive way to help level the playing field with the wealthy Dewhurst. Josh Perry, a young conservative who had experience in digital, was brought on to manage the campaign’s day-to-day web operations. Josh understood the quick pace at which news spreads online and worked tirelessly with Drogin to respond to voters across the state.
I have no doubt that social media played a key role in getting Ted Cruz across the finish line. I believe that we will see more candidates start to use social media in their campaigns from here on out.
4. Scarborough 2016? (link)
Joe Scarborough for President? Yeah, I see that happening.
Since taking over the 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. slot on MSNBC, Joe Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski have carved out a place at the liberal cable network with solid ratings, second to only the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends.”
But Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, may have his sights set on a much bigger prize than just second place in the cable news ratings race.
The article, accompanied by a provocative photo of Brzezinski alongside Scarborough, written by presidential historian Douglas Brinkley for Vanity Fair’s website suggests as much. Brinkley chronicles some of Scarborough and Brzezinski’s recent endeavors, but says a forth coming book by Scarborough will set the MSNBC host for a 2016 presidential bid: :
After the presidential inauguration in January, Joe (no fan of Mitt Romney’s — ”I’ve been very critical”) plans on publishing a memoir that will serve — no joke — as a vehicle to test the waters for a presidential run in 2016. Take that, Mr. Romney.
Thoughts?
Other Top Stories:
These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of Lubbock’s First News with Chad Hasty. Tune in mornings 6-9am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App. All guest interviews can be heard online in our podcast section after the show at kfyo.com.
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