Senator Rubio Opposes Pork-Laden Omnibus

◼ Washington, D.C. – Following his vote against H.R. 2055, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012, Senator Marco Rubio issued the following statement:

“This massive 1,200-plus page bill represents everything that is wrong with Washington. Our country faces major economic challenges, but Congress wasted the whole year stuck in partisan gridlock only to pass a funding bill that solves none of our problems, just to avoid a government shutdown. This plan spends too much, wastes precious taxpayer dollars to fund a menu of job-killing regulations, anti-life provisions and earmarks, and has been ushered through Congress in a highly secretive and non-transparent manner that didn’t allow for consideration of even a single amendment. I cannot support it.”

IS THE DEMOCRATS’ ATTEMPT TO RECALL SCOTT WALKER A MISTAKE?

◼ If they lose–as I think they will–the lesson will be that honest politicians can stand up to the union bullies, and win. - John Hinderaker/Powerline

NEWT'S DAUGTHER CAMPAIGNS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE

◼ Newt's daugther, Jackie Gingrich Cushman, was in New Hampshire yesterday to campaign for her dad and meet with voters. - Newt.org from ◼ Facebook
In between campaign stops, she set the record straight about a vicious lie about Newt, shared stories about campaigning at a young age, and how being a grandfather has made Newt a different person.

Signs of a Covert War Between the U.S. and Iran

◼ There are unavoidable signs that the U.S. and Iran are engaged in significant covert actions against each other, including cyber war. - ABC News

‘When the Legend Becomes Fact, Print the Legend’

◼ Barack Obama is a myth, our modern version of Pecos Bill or Paul Bunyan. What we were told is true, never had much basis in fact — a fact now increasingly clear as hype gives way to reality. - Victor Davis Hanson/PJM

Who was this Churchillian president so much smarter than the Renaissance man Thomas Jefferson, more astute than a John Adams or James Madison, with more insight than a Lincoln, brighter still than the polymath Teddy Roosevelt, more studious than the bookish Woodrow Wilson, better read than the autodidact Harry Truman?

...That his brilliance is a myth was not just revealed by the weekly lapses (whether phonetic [corpse-man], or cultural [Austria/Germany, the United Kingdom/England, Memorial Day/Veterans Day] or inane [57 states]), but in matters of common sense and basic history. The error-ridden Cairo speech was foolish; the serial appeasement of Iran revealed an ignorance of human nature; a two-minute glance at an etiquette book would have nixed the bowing or the cheap gifts to the UK.

In short, the myth of Obama’s brilliance was based on his teleprompted eloquence, the sort of fable that says we should listen to a clueless Sean Penn or Matt Damon on politics because they can sometimes act well.... READ THE WHOLE THING

North Dakota's energy lessons for California

◼ If California adopted similar approaches, perhaps the state's fiscal health would once again be the envy of the nation. - Brian Calle/Orange County Register

California's economic slide is one of choice and consequence, not of necessity. The state still possesses the resources for prosperity, even today, but policies advanced by ideologues and political zealots in the state capital have tarnished the Golden State.

North Dakota, by contrast, illustrates, as it rapidly becomes the economic envy of the nation, how a different approach to public policy bolsters economic activity and job creation.

North Dakota reaps the vast economic benefits of traditional energy procurement and production as well as agricultural spoils, while the Golden State reels from ideological obstinacy where its legislators kowtow to special interests and frolic in dream world where green jobs save the day. North Dakota's approach to energy policy has created a boon allowing the state to achieve notable economic accomplishments, especially as the rest of the nation, and world, lags....

The opposite is true of California, where people and businesses are fleeing the state en masse. Outward migration resulted in a net loss 129,193 residents in 2010, according to a recent Los Angeles Times analysis of United States Census data. More people want to get out than want to move in. The percentage of people born other states now living in California is the lowest it has been since 1900.... - read the rest.