CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Union paid demonstrators to occupy CPAC

The AFL-CIO and Occupy D.C. demonstrators that tried and failed to occupy CPAC 2012 told The Daily Caller that they were "paid 'sixty bucks a head' to protest outside the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C."

Watch The Daily Caller video:

Occupy D.C. fails to occupy CPAC

A few hundred occupiers and union activists showed up to occupy CPAC 2012, but never even made it into the driveway of the conference facility. The demonstrators were orchestrated by the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO.

The demonstrators I observed were not the violent disruptive thugs we saw at Occupy Denver's failed assault on Blog Con. They had their big inflatable rat and megaphones, but unlike the Denver occupiers, seemed uninterested in tangling with the police.

UPDATE: Big Government's Lee Stranahan and Brandon Darby report that the occupiers "instigated clashes with the police."

Obama was against super PACs before he was for them

Presidential candidate Obama, on December 22, 2007, railed against 527s and said that someone can't be against them one day and for them the next:

Now, after a year of denouncing the Supreme Court's Citizen United decision, and faced with fundraising lagging far behind the level necessary for the Obama campaign to reach its goal of amassing a $billion campaign fund, Obama committed the mother of all flip flops and embraced super PACs.

President Obama's denigration of the Court's Citizen United decision reached a rhetorical peak at an October 10, 2010,rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when Obama called outside spending groups like super PACs a "threat to our democracy." Now, after the big flip flop, Obama will have administration officials attend fundraising events for super PACs that support his reelection.

 

 

Watch CPAC 2012 Here

You can wactch a live stream of CPAC 2012 below.

The schedule is available here.

Mitt Romney wins Nevada caucuses

Mitt Romney was projected to be the winner of the Nevada Republican caucuses as soon as the polls closed. Like the Florida primary, this was not a just a win, but it looks like it will be an even bigger thumpin. 

With 70% of the Nevada caucus results in, Romney's margin was even larger than his 15% Florida margin:

• Romney 47.6%
• Gingrich 22.6%
• Paul 18.6%
• Santorum 11.1%

Based on entrance polling Romney won key groups including:

• Conservatives -- including 51% of "very conservative" voters
• TEA Party supporters
• Born-again and evangelical Christians 
• Protestants
• Catholics

Romney also won among voters who wanted a candidate who can defeat President Obama and among voters seeking a candidate  with the right experience and with strong moral character.

The one group Romney lost was Independents. Ron Paul carried that group 46% to Romney's 30%.

In his victory speech, Romney took it to President Obama saying Obama should be apologizing to America, not for America.

Gingrich, the campaign's true "grumpy old man," promises to remain in the race.

In the meantime, the Republican presidential nomination campaign continues. Tuesday there are caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado and a non-binding primary in Missouri --which will also hold a caucus on March 17. The Maine caucuses got under way Saturday and will continue this coming week. The Maine results won’t be announced until February 11, and delegates won’t actually be awarded until the state convention in May.