The Sanchez Report

Memorial Day Reflection

“It is the Soldier, not the reporter,
who has given us the freedom of the press.
It is the Soldier, not the poet,
who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the Soldier, not the agitator,
who has given us the freedom to protest.
It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
serves beneath the flag,
whose coffin is draped by the flag,
who gives that protester the freedom
to abuse and burn that flag.”

By Senator Zell Miller 9/04

Bush/Cheney Favorability Numbers Rising

This should not come as a surprise, but the latest CNN/Opinion Research poll has some good news for the former administration. The findings show that former Vice President Cheney has seen his favorability numbers rise eight points since leaving office in January. At first glance one might conclude that this is due to his visible opposition to the White House, but even President Bush has seen his numbers rise six points and he hasn't been seen since leaving office. I suspect that as time goes by more Americans will have a favorable view of the former administration.

From the CNN Political Ticker:

As Dick Cheney prepares to give a major speech on the battle against terrorism, a new national poll suggests that favorable opinions of the former vice president are on the rise.

Fifty-five percent of people questioned in the poll say they have an unfavorable opinion of the former vice president. Thirty-seven percent say they have a favorable opinion of Cheney, up eight points from January when he left office.

In the past two months the former vice president has become a frequent critic of the new Administration in numerous national media interviews.

“Is Cheney’s uptick due to his visibility as one of the most outspoken critics of the Obama administration?  Almost certainly not,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “Former President George W. Bush's favorable rating rose six points in that same time period, and Bush has not given a single public speech since he left office.”

The poll suggests that 41 percent of Americans hold a favorable opinion of the former president, with 57 percent viewing him unfavorably.

The 10 Most Liberal and Conservative Cities In California

The Sacramento Bee released a report that lists the ten most liberal and conservative cities in California. Their staff completed a data crunch using the latest voter registration numbers provided by the California Secretary of State. For you quants out there, you'll probably take this data and try to draw some correlations. If you come up with anything interesting, please let me know. The only surprise was that San Francisco ended up as the tenth most liberal city in the state. I thought it would place higher.

Conservative Places
10. Temecula (Riverside)
9. Palos Verdes Estates (Los Angeles)
8. Ridgecrest (Kern)
7. Coronado (San Diego)
6. Rancho Santa Margarita (Orange)
5. San Clemente (Orange)
4. Yorba Linda (Orange)
3. San Marino (Los Angeles)
2. Newport Beach (Orange)
1. Canyon Lake (Riverside)

Liberal Places
10. San Francisco
9. Compton (Los Angeles)
8. San Pablo (CoCo)
7. Fairfax (Marin)
6. Richmond (Contra Costa)
5. Albany (Alameda)
4. Inglewood (Los Angeles)
3. Emeryville (Alameda)
2. Oakland (Alameda)
1. Berkeley (Alameda)

Good News For The Economy

The Man, The Legend, Larry Kudlow provided an interesting take on the current state of the economy. He suggests that we will see continued improvement in the short term due to the stimulus provided by monetary policy and an improved banking sector. This coupled with the thrashing of the communists in India will ensure that the world's second largest nation will continue to move towards a pro-growth, free market economy. The bad news is that the Obama's administration war against capitalism will no doubt bring this economy to a screeching halt longer term down the road.

From Larry Kudlow:

Stocks had a huge rally today, including a Dow gain of 235 points. This is a very important signal of economic-recovery confidence. At least that’s how I’m reading it.

The brief correction appears to be over. And all sorts of important technical breakouts were registered in today’s bullish trading. Despite the future threats from Team Obama about command-and-control economics, corporate tax hikes, nationalized health care, and the cap-and-trade tax, the most important reality for share prices is still the near-term expectation of a cyclical economic recovery.

Long-term prospects are not nearly as good because of the administration’s lurch to the left and war against capital. But the stock market has in its sights a second-half economic rebound that will carry through next year.

Most of this rebound is a function of massive Fed liquidity pump-priming and the steeply upward-sloping Treasury yield curve. These factors will stimulate total spending in the economy, coupled with bank profitability.

The Far Left Is Beginning To Sour On Obama

It looks like the honeymoon is officially over between the far left and President Obama. On issue after issue, Obama has validated the Bush administration and the left is not happy. This disappointment has been kept under wraps for most of the past hundred days, but now they're beginning to voice their displeasure openly. These strains are not gaining much attention with the media, but this development could make it easier for the GOP to pick up seats in the 2010 elections. The President will need to excite his base in order to build upon their majorities in Congress next year, but with each tack to the center, he runs the risk of dampening that same energy that propelled him into the White House.

From Politico.com:

Barely four months into his presidency, Obama is confronting growing dissatisfaction among members of his liberal base, who feel spurned by a series of his early decisions on issues ranging from guns to torture to immigration

to gay rights.

The list got longer last week as Obama reversed his earlier decision to release photos of detaineesmilitary

A few, like MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, have even hurled the left’s ultimate epithet – suggesting that Obama’s turning into George W. Bush.

The building anger comes at a critical moment – just as Obama’s about to announce his choice for the Supreme Court. Fulfill their dreams of a “liberal Scalia,” a firebrand from the left, and much would be forgiven.

But if Obama opts instead for a decidedly centrist nominee aimed at winning a large number of Republican votes in the Senate, the growing concern could develop into something more politically dangerous.

Early Poll Shows Giuliani Trouncing Patterson and Gaining On Cuomo

From Townhall.com:

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's lead on Rudy Giuliani is 47-41 in a hypothetical 2010 gubernatorial match-up, according to a new poll released yesterday by Quinnipiac. That's down from a 53-36 percent lead at the beginning of April. Current New York Gov. David Patterson would be the biggest loser, according to Quinnipiac; no matter how you slice it, it's a hot race. From Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute:

If the Republicans nominate Mayor Giuliani, he beats Paterson by a lot. Cuomo beats Giuliani but that lead is shrinking as independent voters shift to the Republican. That's a trend to watch.

Is Hoyer Throwing Pelosi Under the Bus?

Don't look now, but it looks like House Majority Leader, Rep. Steny Hoyer-D, is keeping some distance from Nancy Pelosi and WaterBoardGate. He has yet to come out and offer a strong defense of Speaker Pelosi and instead has maintained that any Truth Commission established should investigate Speaker Pelosi as well.

From Hot Air :

Granted, he wasn’t at the briefing in 2002 so he can’t say which side is right, but it speaks volumes that he’s unwilling to offer even a pro forma “I’ve never known Nancy to be untruthful” in her defense. Combine this with him telling reporters a few days ago that any torture truth commission should investigate Pelosi too and it’s pretty clear that even her own number two’s not betting on her version of events. And why would he? She’s a terrible liar. No sense in letting the sinking ship take him down too.

Deficits Soar Even With Rosy Assumptions In New Obama Budget

I predict that at some point during the next two quarters, we will see some signs of positive GDP growth. The pundits and politicians will indeed declare that President Obama is the greatest president of all time. This will happen even though the President's policies and stimulus spending will not actually kick in for several more quarters. The pundits and most Americans for that matter don't fully understand economics and the capital markets, and those signs of life will only represent the calm before the storm. We will see inflation surge at an unprecedented rate and it will suffocate any growth that we may see this year. Just today, the White House announced that the projected deficits will be larger than initially expected despite their rosier assumptions.

From the McClatchy Newspapers:

The White House on Monday projected 2009 and 2010 federal budget deficits far higher than it forecast just two and a half months ago, even as it continued to defy most experts and predict that the economy is headed for a strong comeback starting late this year.

Economists scoffed at the latest administration predictions.

"If they keep playing this game, they're going to have real credibility problems," predicted Brian Bethune, the chief U.S. financial economist at IHS Global Insight, an economic research firm.

The new administration budget said that the fiscal 2009 deficit would reach $1.84 trillion, or $89 billion more than forecast in February, while the 2010 figure now is estimated at $1.26 trillion, or $87 billion above the previous number. The fiscal 2008 deficit was $459 billion.

Surprise, Surprise! Obama Set To Revive Military Commissions At Gitmo

Surprise, Surprise! The Obama Administration is set to reinstate Military Commissions as a way to prosecute terrorism suspects.  According to the Washington Post, the administration will propose changes that will grant the terrorists greater legal protections. This system was heavily criticized by the Democrats and members of the mainstream media for most of the presidential campaign. "By any measure, our system of trying detainees has been an enormous failure," then-candidate Barack Obama said in June 2008. This hypocrisy stinks to high heaven and I can't wait to see how the media spins this story.

From the Washington Post:

In one of its first acts, the Obama administration obtained a 120-day suspension of the military commissions; that will expire May 20. Human rights groups had interpreted the suspension as the death knell for military commissions and expected the transfer of cases to military courts martial or federal courts.

Officials said yesterday that the Obama administration will seek a 90-day extension of the suspension as early as next week. It would subsequently restart the commissions on American soil, probably at military bases, according to a lawyer briefed on the plan. 

The Obama administration's plan to reinstate the commissions with modifications reflects the fear that some cases would fail in federal courts or in standard military legal settings.

"It looks a lot more difficult now than it did on Jan. 20," said one government official.

Civil liberties advocates, who insist that federal courts can handle terrorism cases, vowed to challenge any new process.

What Did She Know And When Did She Know It?... The Evidence Is Mounting

The evidence continues to mount that Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D), was lying when she claimed that she was never told about waterboarding. This time, the evidence comes from someone on the Democratic side of the aisle. According to a Washington Post article, a top aide to Pelosi attended a classified CIA briefing in which waterboarding was discussed in 2003. I just can't imagine that this aide would have kept quiet and not discussed the contents of the briefing with Pelosi. On top of that, GOP Congressman Pete Hoekstra was present at those meetings and has requested that detailed notes of the briefings be released to the public. I'm not so sure this is what the White House had in mind when they decided to selectively release some of the CIA interrogation memos.

From the Hot Air blog:

Nancy Pelosi’s attempt to evade responsibility for her role in approving the use of waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques took another hit today in the Washington Post — and this time the fire comes from her side of the aisle.  Pete Hoekstra upped the ante as well, demanding the release of precise minutes of Congressional briefings, and Leon Panetta has promised to make them available, at least to Capitol Hill.

Pelosi’s attempt to weasel onto Harman’s objection fails when one looks at the briefing notes.  Both Pelosi and Sheehy attended a briefing on September 4, 2002, five months before Harman attended her first briefing.  That 9/02 briefing specifically covered EITs and their use on Abu Zubaydah.  Harman raised her objection in 2003, not in 2002, as she had yet to attend one of the EIT briefings.