Saturday, May 12, 2012

Rep. Kristi Noem: Weekly Republican Address



In this week's address, Rep. Kristi Noem (SD) discusses House Republicans' Plan for America's Job Creators. It's a plan to reduce burdensome regulations, simplify our tax code, expand American energy production, cut Washington's out of control spending binge, and provide an environment for our nation's small businesses to grow. Dozens of bipartisan House-passed jobs bills sit idle in the Democrat-controlled Senate, and the president continues to distract and divide on the campaign trail. We can't wait for Senate Democrats and the president to work with us to grow our economy and get Americans back to work.
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kristiforcongress.com
noem.house.gov

Rick Santelli to Generation Y: Wake Up!

Occupy LA turned out to be a lot more costly to the city than originally anticipated.


REPORT: OCCUPY LA COSTS TAXPAYERS $4.7 MILLION; ENTIRE MOVEMENT CLOSE TO $30 MILLION - John Sexton/Breitbart

Gov. Jerry Brown: State budget deficit now $16 billion

Gov. Jerry Brown said in a video release today that California's budget deficit has mushroomed to $16 billion, nearly twice as high as the $9.2 billion he estimated in January. - Sacramento Bee

"This means that we will have to go much further, and make cuts far greater than I asked for at the beginning of the year," Brown said in a 2 minute, 41-second video released on YouTube. "But we can't fill a hole of this magnitude with cuts alone without doing severe damage to our schools."

The Democratic governor then went on to ask voters to approve his November ballot initiative to raise taxes on sales and wealthy earners. The proposal would raise the sales tax by a quarter-cent and hike taxes on income above $250,000 for single filers and $500,000 for joint filers.

“Every election is important, but this one truly is the most important election in our lifetime,” he said. “The future of our country is at stake. It’s about preserving the American dream for our children and grandchildren.”

Bobby Jindal takes aim at Barack Obama in Alabama speech - Alabama Live

“He’s the most liberal president in my lifetime, and the most incompetent president since Jimmy Carter,” Jindal said. “Other than that, he seems to be a decent man.”

Jindal was the keynote speaker at a fundraising dinner for the Alabama Republican Party. He spoke to an audience of about 100 inside an aircraft hangar at the USS Alabama Battleship Park.

Jindal, 40, is raising his national profile, making campaign appearances across the country amid speculation that he may join the ticket with GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Who can forget the recession?



‎"For the President of the United States to reveal that he sometimes forgets about the suffering of the American people during this terrible recession is beyond the pale. How can he forget, albeit it sometimes? Is he so out of touch and so self absorbed that he fails to think about the children, families and innumerable Americans that suffer so?" ◼ A Sitting President Forgets – Irresponsible! - Mitt Romney Central

Happy Mother's day from Team Obama

"Nobody can sugarcoat the fact that we got problems here"

North Carolina a political headache for Democrats - AP

It wasn't supposed to be like this - at least that was the hope - when Democrats chose Charlotte to host the national convention, where Obama will formally accept his party's presidential nomination for a second time, Sept. 4-6.

When Democrats announced the choice in February 2011, they said selecting the Southern city signaled Obama's intent to fight hard for the conservative-leaning state like he did in 2008. They also highlighted the economic transformation in the state and in Charlotte - from tobacco, textiles and furniture-making to research, energy and banking. Party leaders noted the state's strong political leadership and expressed hope that a Perdue re-election bid would get a boost from the attention that would be lavished on the convention.

Now traditional Democratic Party groups are threatening huge protests in part because they're deeply uncomfortable that the convention is being held in one of the least union-friendly states. And thousands of Democrats across the country are calling for the convention to be relocated because of the gay-marriage vote.

Democrats say that won't happen.

Ann Romney: MS created challenge to my identity



Romney also said her faith and health struggles, including breast cancer, would influence her role as first lady should her husband win the presidential election. - FOX

Friday, May 11, 2012

“[W]hen I first learned that President Obama‘s campaign had singled me out on his ’enemies list,’ I knew it was like taping a target on my back”

Trolling for Dirt on the President's List - Kimberley Strassel/Wall St. Journal

First a Romney supporter was named on an Obama campaign website. That was followed by the slimy trolling into a citizen's private life.

Here's what happens when the president of the United States publicly targets a private citizen for the crime of supporting his opponent.

ROMNEY DONOR FINDS OUT WHAT IT MEANS TO BE ON PRESIDENT OBAMA‘S ’ENEMIES LIST - Becket Adams/The Blaze

The eight donors are “wealthy individuals with less-than-reputable records” and some of them have even been on the “wrong side of the law,” according to President Obama’s Keeping The GOP Honest site....
About a week after that post, a man named Michael Wolf contacted the Bonneville County Courthouse in Idaho Falls in search of court records regarding Mr. VanderSloot. Specifically, Mr. Wolf wanted all the documents dealing with Mr. VanderSloot’s divorces...
Mr. VanderSloot acknowledges that "when I first learned that President Obama's campaign had singled me out on his 'enemies list,' I knew it was like taping a target on my back." But the more he's thought it through, "the public beatings and false accusations that followed are no deterrent. These tactics will not work in America." He's even "contemplating a second donation."

The attacks on Frank VanderSloot and political 'civility.' - Wall St. Journal

Those are some ugly details that our Kimberley Strassel has been turning up about the effort to smear Mitt Romney's campaign donors. The dirt-digging exercise reflects the character of President Obama's re-election campaign, as well as what's really behind the drive for more "transparency" in political donations.

Richard Nixon's got nothing on Barack Hussein Obama. - Ace Of Spades (caution: language alert)

In 1971, America was introduced to President Richard Nixon’s “Enemies List.” The President had instructed staff to keep a list of political opponents, and as then-White House Counsel John Dean described it, they would “use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.” - Heritage.org
In 2012, President Obama’s campaign has managed to make Nixon’s list look quaint, legitimate and even routine. This week, on the president’s ominous “Truth Team“ campaign website, his staff listed the names of eight of his likely opponent’s donors. (See how they were listed, at the link)
Top Romney Donor on Obama's 'Enemies List': They're Stalking My Kids (Video) - Jim Hoft/Human Events
Frank is discovering what it means to be on a president's "enemies list." The top Romney donor says that Obama lackeys are attacking him and starting rumors about him and his family. Vandersloot revealed in an interview on Fox News that his business practice is being hurt by the attacks from the Obama team.

He also told Greta that Team Obama supporters are stalking his children.

"There's been a ton of electronic media... that have lodged all kind of innuendo in my direction, accused me of all kinds of bad things. People have called my children. They've been surfing their LinkedIn sites. They've been asking interviews of my kids."

It's the Chicago way.

BACKLASH: OBAMA TRAILS ROMNEY 7%


Romney 50% Obama 43%... - via Drudge

This is the first time Romney has reached the 50% level of support and is his largest lead ever over the president. It comes a week after a disappointing jobs report that raised new questions about the state of the economy.

Rasmussen daily tracking poll gives Romney his best lead yet - Ed Morrissey/HotAir

Thursday, May 10, 2012

The Washington Post’s Romney hit piece comes apart

Washington Post Changes Romney Bullying Story Without Issuing a Correction - The Weekly Standard

The Washington Post’s Romney hit piece comes apart - An astonishing journalistic train wreck. - John Hayward at Human Events

Romney friend Stu White dropped the first bombshell on the Washington Post’s phony story, telling ABC News “he was not present for the prank, in which Romney is said to have forcefully cut a student’s long hair, and was not aware of it until this year when he was contacted by the Washington Post.” The assertion that he was “long bothered” by Romney’s alleged display of full-contact barbering was entirely false, and there is no way to claim it was not a deliberately false impression inserted into the Post story, since they knew perfectly well that they are the ones who told White about it, just a few weeks ago.

Much worse for the Post was a statement released by John Lauber’s sister Betsy, which reads, in full: “The family of John Lauber is releasing a statement saying the portrayal of John is factually incorrect and we are aggrieved that he would be used to further a political agenda. There will be no more comments from the family.”

Wow. Just… wow.

...It’s really interesting the way the Washington Post chose to end their article, by noting that Romney received an alumni award just a year after John Lauber’s untimely death. You know what happened a year before Lauber lost his battle against liver cancer? A boat carrying a family of four, two friends, and the family’s dog sprang a leak on Lake Winnipesaukee, dumping them into the dark waters of early evening, and leaving them to howl in terror as other boats zipped around them. Mitt Romney and two of his sons happened to be vacationing in the area. They jumped onto jet skis and raced to the rescue. Governor Romney was pulled off his jet ski at one point. They even saved the dog, a Scottish terrier.

A couple of years before that, Romney performed a similar rescue for a group of kayakers who were shoved onto hard rocks by fierce winds.

In 1996, the fourteen-year-old daughter of a Bain Capital partner was kidnapped. When Mitt Romney learned of this, he shut down the entire multi-million dollar firm and flew the entire staff to New York, so they could help look for the girl. Romney hired private detectives, set up a toll-free tip line, coordinated with the NYPD, papered the streets with fliers, contacted every Bain customer in the city, and personally hit the bricks with the Bain crew to join the search. They found her, just in the nick of time – she was dying from an overdose of drugs in a New Jersey basement. She was only rescued because someone saw news coverage of Romney’s search efforts.

Thirty years earlier, Mitt Romney was a high school student who may, or may not, have been slightly more of a jerk than the average teenage boy. How’s that for an “evolution?” Why on Earth would any reasonable person think his high school misadventures tell us more about his character than his deeds later in life?

The cover of TIME


And the spoofs:




Glenn Beck on the lies that Barack Obama has told about his past



This clip from GBTV tonight is actually something you’ll all want to watch. Beck goes back though Obama’s statements about his past and points out the lies he’s told, including some in his big 2004 DNC speech. - The Right Scoop

Obama: Yeah, we’ve been fibbing about my position on same-sex marriage for a while now, or something



Now we discover — from Obama himself — that he’d made up his mind to change his position some time ago. Rather than honestly express that flip-flop in a timely manner or at least acknowledge the change when asked directly, though, Obama and the White House essentially lied about it for a while — at least on Monday and Tuesday, and presumably for a while prior to Biden’s statement on Sunday. - Ed Morrissey/HotAir

Apparently, Obama was satisfied until Sunday to have the White House keep right on misleading people through to the convention, too. Instead of taking a principled stand, Obama wanted time his pander for the most politically opportune time, even if that meant continuing to fib about his position.

PREMATURE ELATION: OBAMA'S STATES' RIGHTS HYPOCRISY

Amidst the elation in Hollywood and on the left about Obama's sudden flip-flop on gay marriage, gay rights activists are warning that Obama's "evolution" on the issue is incomplete. - Joel Pollack/Breitbart

His embrace of the position that "states should decide" not only runs into the leftist objection that racial discrimination was once a states' rights issue, but also contradicts his administration's decision not to defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

... Obama's new position in support of gay marriage fits well with his opposition to DOMA as regards federal recognition of same-sex marriages, but his resort to the states' rights argument would seem to affirm one of DOMA's central provisions.

The Incoherence of President Obama’s Stance on Gay Marriage - Jonathan H. Adler/Volokh Conspiracy

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

324,000 Women Dropped Out of Labor Force in Last Two Months--As Number of Women Not in Labor Force Hits Historic High

For both males and females combined, the rate of participation in the labor force dropped to 63.6 percent in April—the lowest rate since December 1981. - CNS

In fact, Obama has not “evolved”—he has changed his position whenever his political fortunes required him to do so.

Gay Marriage Reversal Means Cash For Obama - BuzzFeed
"Gay for pay." - Althouse
"Obama's reversal on same sex marriage comes just days after donors threatened to withhold funds." - Washington Free Beacon



Running for the Illinois state senate from a trendy area of Chicago in 1996, he was for gay marriage. - Weekly Standard via Drudge

“I favor legalizing same-sex marriages,” he wrote in answer to a questionnaire back then. In 2004, he was running for the U.S. Senate and needed to appeal to voters statewide. So he evolved, and favored civil unions but opposed homosexual “marriage.” In 2008, running for president, he said, “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage.” Now in 2012, facing a tough reelection campaign where he needs energized supporters of gay “marriage” and has disappointed them with his refusal to give them his support, he is for it.



The Influence Industry: Same-sex marriage issue shows importance of gay fundraisers - Washington Post
Hope and Change Go Gay
Of course, as ◼ Ace of Spades pointed out earlier, Obama had stated his support for gay marriage as early as 1996:
Answering a questionnaire in 1996, he wrote: “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages,and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.”
With the slavish assistance of the media, Obama has been conveniently permitted to pretend to be “moderate” on an issue where his actual position has always been radical.

What is pathetic, as I say, is that everybody knows Obama could not have won even the Iowa caucus in 2008 if he had been campaigning as openly pro-gay-marriage — that is to say, clearly to the left of Hillary Clinton on this issue.

In order to enhance his “viability,” the media bit their tongues and looked the other way while Obama engaged in a flimflam charade of moderation. He would have carried on that dishonest scam as long as necessary to win the general election, except that his big-money gay donors threatened to cut him off. And what his media idolators now will celebrate as another “gutsy call” never would have happened otherwise!


#LandOfTheGullible - Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

Lugar Defeated in Indiana GOP Senate Primary

After 3 1/2 decades in the U.S. Senate, Hoosier Republican Dick Lugar is now a lame duck. - Caitlin Huey-Burns/Real Clear Politics

With more than three-quarters of the vote counted, the winner had attracted 60 percent of the vote to Lugar's 39 percent in a race that showed the power and influence of outside groups, the liabilities now associated with having a long congressional career, and a Republican electorate trending more conservatively in Indiana.

The contest, though, was always about Lugar: Observers noted than any enthusiasm surrounding this race involved sending the incumbent into retirement.

The 60-year-old Mourdock will face three-term Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly in November. The fiscally conservative Republican has been elected to state-wide office twice, and is favored to win the seat, especially as the state is trending red in the presidential election.

Richard Mourdock wins Indiana primary - Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

Watch Richard Mourdock’s full victory speech after defeating Dick Lugar - The Right Scoop

Lead Story - Eye on Indiana and Wisconsin; Update: Lugar defeated; Barrett to face Walker - Michelle Malkin

Hey West Virginia, you’ll get yours my pretty, and your little federal inmate too - Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

Update: ◼ DrewM at Ace of Spades HQ has a pertinent observation:
Democrats are pretty mad about two states today, North Carolina over Amendment One and West Virginia over the felon vote. Keep in mind a few facts: Both states have Democratic governors, 3 or their 4 Senators are Democrats, Obama won North Carolina and picked that state to host his renomination convention.

Damn Rightwing nutters!

What's on your ballot?

California's 2012 primary election has begun: Ballots for the June 5 election went out in Monday's mail. - Josh Richman/Bay Area News Group Donna Tam/The Times-Standard

This is the Golden State's first full go-round with its new “top-two” primary system, in which voters of all parties can cast ballots for candidates of any party.

The top two vote-getters advance to November's general election, regardless of party. So in some districts with lopsided party registration, you might see two Democrats on November's ballot, in others two Republicans.

Californians also will vote on two statewide ballot measures, Prop 28 and Prop 29.

...Humboldt County residents will vote for the 2nd Congressional District, 2nd Assembly District, 1st, 2nd and 3rd county supervisorial districts, Democratic Central Committee District 3 and 4, and board members for the newly formed Fortuna Elementary School District, depending on where they live.

Several local measures also are on the ballot. According to the Humboldt County Elections Office, Measure W is a school bond measure in Trinidad, Measure X is a road improvement measure in Rio Dell and Measure Y is a countywide measure asking to continue a vehicle license fee for the abatement of abandoned vehicles. Measure V is a school bond for the Southern Trinity School District. The district has one precinct in Humboldt County, in the Mad River area.
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For more info, Visit LWV Smart Voter pages:
County contests
Measures
State Propositions
Schools
party Committee (Democrats)
State Assembly
US Congress
President

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

One might have assumed that there would be vastly more ballots cast in the hotly-contested Democratic primary, but in fact, significantly more voters have turned out to support Walker than all of the Democrats combined.

WALKER SHOWING STRENGTH IN WISCONSIN PRIMARY - Powerline

Obama Loses West Virginia Delegates To Prison Inmate

An obscure federal prison inmate gave President Obama an unexpected run for his money in the West Virginia Democratic Primary Tuesday, highlighting the deep dislike for the president in the Appalachian heartland. - buzzfeed

Judd is also known as federal prison inmate Number 11593-051 at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas, where Judd is serving a 210-month sentence for extortion and
making threats at the University of New Mexico in 1999.

The votes appear to be votes against President Obama rather than for Judd.

Voters in other states showed their displeasure with Obama in Democratic primaries last March. - AP/yahoo

North Carolina has become the 31st state to add an amendment on marriage to its constitution, with voters banning same-sex marriage and barring legal recognition of unmarried couples by state and local governments

Primary turnout was heavy. Though there were many other races on the ballot, including primaries for statewide offices and congressional seats, the amendment appeared to drive much of the political discussion. - NewsObserver

North Carolinians think of the state as progressive, but that’s within the context of the rest of the South, said Andrew Taylor, a political scientist at N.C. State University. “This is a socially conservative state,” he said. The state has a 16-year-old law banning same-sex marriage.

The White House Visitors Office requires that an unborn child—still residing in utero—must be counted as a full human being when its parents register for a White House tour

WH: A Full Human Being You Can Kill at Will - The Anchoress

White House Visitors Office director Ellie Schafer sent an email to a Capitol Hill staffer Tuesday morning explaining the process for registering an unborn fetus for a White House tour:
We have received a number of calls regarding how to enter security information for a baby that has not yet been born.

Crazy as it may sound, you MUST include the baby in the overall count of guests in the tour. It’s an easy process.

White House offers ‘Congress to do list’, citizens respond


◼ whitehouse.gov Tweeted: Today, President Obama travels to @CNSE to call on Congress to act on a #CongressToDoList that will create jobs: pic.twitter.com/4VJj2Jd7 - Twitchy.com

Twitter picks up the slack and helps out the President with his ‘to do’ list.

Find AG Holder in Contempt and start squeezing #DoJ from the bottom up #CongressToDoList

“@emzanotti: Pass a budget? Nahhhhh. #congresstodolist” but it's so haaaard.

Funny, voting against the student loan interest rate hike wasn't on Obama's #congresstodolist when he was IN Congress.
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"It does pay to get on Twitter. Every voice counts. And yes, Twitter is a political battlespace. Get on it." Michelle Malkin

It’s like the liberal Legion of Doom in a Bizarro World episode.

Bill Ayers to students: Join me and help drive NATO out of Chicago on May 20 - Morgen Richmond/HotAir

...this is unlikely to end well for the protesters, although the Chicago police are cordoning off so much of the city that Ayers and his mob may not be able to get arrested even if they try. Ultimately this all seems more than a little pathetic. With most of the Bush anti-war left exposed as the hypocrites they are under President Obama, Ayers has been left with no other option but to try to rally the occupy movement in support of this cause. Occupy is mostly drawn from the same crowd so I’m sure they will be game. And if there is any violence next week more likely than not it will be the anarchists from occupy instigating it. But now you know who will be pulling the strings.

Actually my favorite part of this clip comes right at very beginning when Ayers says: “the opposite of moral is not immoral, the opposite of moral is indifference“. This is the underlying liberal belief system in a nutshell isn’t it? There is no objective good or evil, or right or wrong. The only real sin is not to care and so long as you are motivated by this conviction then any action is justifiable....

I am the daughter of parents who were "The Greatest Generation." They gave me their spirit, their knowledge, their wisdom to keep going, fighting, and to never give up. In short, I'm proud they taught me to be self-reliant.

The Power of Self-reliance: Jane versus Julia - Melanie Kowalski/American Thinker

When we should be imbuing our children with critical thinking skills, encouraging their imagination and ingenuity, and helping them learn by doing, we've become a society that has over-swung the pendulum of "collaboration", the current buzzword synonymous with endless committees, commissions, councils, and teams.

Rasmussen: Mitt Romney 49%, Obama 44%



Daily Presidential Tracking Poll



Monday, May 7, 2012

Santorum endorses Romney in e-mail to supporters

"Above all else, we both agree that President Obama must be defeated," Santorum wrote. "The task will not be easy. It will require all hands on deck if our nominee is to be victorious. Governor Romney will be that nominee and he has my endorsement and support to win this the most critical election of our lifetime." - CNN

"The family and its foundational role in America's economic success, a central point of our campaign, was discussed at length," Santorum said. "I was impressed with the Governor's deep understanding of this connection and his commitment to economic policies that preserve and strengthen families."

California’s Party of Yes: The GOP

You know what they say about conventional wisdom. Right or wrong, conventional wisdom, like cement, hardens quickly. Once molded into public opinion, it takes a lot of chipping away to break that mold. - Tom Del Beccaro at Fox&Hounds

The conventional wisdom, largely wrong, among Californians was that Republicans in state government were obstructionists. The Party who wouldn’t compromise. The Party which responded to every call for reform with a chorus of “No’s.” These days, however, there are many more reasons to take a fresh look at who’s pushing for reform, and who has truly adopted the mantra of “No.”

Let’s start with Pension Reform. Public opinion polls affirm that Californians now recognize the need for substantive pension reform. Pension obligations for the retired, and soon to retire public workforce are already taking away monies that should be available for basic services like good schools, freshly paved roads and public safety. But when Republican lawmakers joined with Governor Brown, asking for nothing more than a simple up or down vote on his very modest pension reform plan – which prompted the LA Times to dub Republicans the Party of Yes, the Democrats who run the legislature said No, and have quietly pushed aside any hope of real pension reform for the foreseeable future...

Republicans are also saying Yes to common sense regulatory relief and Yes to budget plans that will boost hiring and perhaps let California at least catch up to the rest of the country’s jobs recovery.... More at the link

ANDERSON COOPER SMACKS DOWN MOVEON.ORG ON PARTISAN AGENDA



From the comments: RUSTY50
As Rush would call it, "random act of journalism", I think Cooper just doubled his cred....go figure
- Breitbart TV via @SarahPalinLinks

CALIFORNIA IS BURNING! QUICK, MORE GASOLINE!

There are good weeks and then there are bad weeks. For California, particularly its beleaguered taxpayer citizens, last week was a very bad week. - Jon Coupal, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association

It’s hard to know where to start. First, while the rest of the nation comes out of recession – albeit slowly – California is doing some serious backsliding. According to the Controller’s office, government revenues are down compared to this time last year. The percentage decline was not all that great, from $40.97 billion to $40.81 billion, but the shortfall from Governor Brown’s proposed budget is a big number; more than $2 billion.

Compare these dismal numbers with Texas which, as of March, has seen a 12% increase in revenue.

Second, credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s issued a sobering statement expressing a lack of confidence that California’s political leadership could resolve the budget shortfall without the usual gimmicks. Bluntly stated, S & P said that it anticipates “budget maneuvers that may be politically expedient but fiscally unreliable.”

Third, for the eighth year in a row, California is ranked by CEO Magazine as the worst state in America in which to do business. California’s anti-business climate is legendary in the rest of the nation, and this year proved to be no exception. What is notable, however, were the brutal comments by business leaders who participated in the survey.... More, at the link.

State GOP Chair Tom Del Beccaro on KERO discussing GOP Solutions to Protect Education and Taxpayers



Republican Party, "Right Track, California!" tour. Chairman Tom Del Beccaro and the California GOP talk directly to the people as a part of its whistle stop tour to raise voter awareness about GOP solutions to get California back on track.

THE CHICAGO WAY: JUSTICE FOR SALE AT HOLDER'S DOJ

In an explosive Newsweek article set to rock official Washington, reporter Peter Boyer and Breitbart contributing editor and Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer reveal how Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice are operating under a “justice for sale” strategy by forgoing criminal prosecution of Wall Street executives at big financial institutions who just so happen to be clients of the white-shoe law firms where Holder and his top DOJ lieutenants worked. - Wynton Hall/Breitbart's BIG Government

There’s more.

Even as President Barack Obama and Holder co-opt the Occupy Wall Street rhetoric of getting “tough” on the Big Banks and Big Finance, the Newsweek investigative report reveals that Eric Holder has not criminally charged or prosecuted a single top executive from any of the elite financial institutions thought responsible for the financial crash. And why would they? As Boyer and Schweizer report, “through last fall, Obama had collected more donations from Wall Street than any of the Republican candidates; employees of Bain Capital donated more than twice as much to Obama as they did to Romney, who founded the firm.”

Covering up Obama's scandals

CNN Anderson Cooper Exposes Obama & Bill Ayers



CNN showed how Obama and Ayers' "paths repeatedly crossed" as members of the board of the Annenberg Challenge Project, where for seven years, "Bill Ayers and Obama, among many others, worked on funding for education projects, including some experiments supported by Ayers." In another sound bite, National Review Online's Stanley Kurtz characterized how this funding worked: "Instead of giving money directly to schools, they gave men to what they called external partners, and these external partners were often pretty radical community organizer groups."

Ayers and Obama were board members for the Woods Fund, another foundation which donated money to liberal groups: "Among its recipients -- Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church, where Obama attended, and a children and family justice center where Ayers' wife worked."

Poll: Romney Opens 10-Point Lead Among Key Independent Voters

New poll results are delivering positive news for Republicans, including one survey showing that presumptive GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has opened up a double-digit lead over President Barack Obama among independent voters. - Newsmax

A Politico/George Washington University poll has Romney with a razor-thin lead over Obama among all likely voters, 48 percent to 47 percent. A similar poll in February had Obama ahead by 9 percentage points.

But among voters who identified themselves as independents, Romney garnered 48 percent of the vote to Obama’s 38 percent.

Romney also has a 6-point lead among respondents who said they are “extremely likely” to vote in November.

The borrowing hit $5 trillion under Obama, who between golf outings and campaign hit-ups of wealthy people, adds $1 trillion plus each year in more debt. To question how to pay it back is to pollute the air or abandon the children.

All Fall Down - Victor Davis Hanson/PJM

...Those with capital—slurred as one-percenters, fat cats, and corporate jet owners unless hit up for Obama campaign donations—are not hiring or buying. Maybe they think oncoming Obamacare will smash them. Maybe they see on the Obama horizon rampant inflation, debt cancellation, or higher taxes as planned liberal remedies for our endless borrowing. Maybe these shrugging Atlases see that fossil fuel energy is not pursued on federal lands, but needless new regulations are implemented.

Whatever the reason, they hesitate—only sorta buying here, kinda hiring there. And the result of millions of these collective hesitancies is an ossified Europeanized economy, run by technocrats without private sector experience and exempt from the sacrifice they demand of others, as they desperately try to borrow and grow the government to ensure a permanent lease on power...

Sarkozy voted out in France; Socialist Party candidate wins presidency

Part of Hollande’s platform includes initiatives that sound like they were scripted as porn for die-hard Keynesians, including what sounds like a Buffett Rule on steroids - HotAir
Hollande has promised more government spending and higher taxes — including a 75-percent income tax on the rich — and wants to re-negotiate a European treaty on trimming budgets to avoid more debt crises of the kind facing Greece. That would complicate relations with Germany’s Angela Merkel, who championed the treaty alongside Sarkozy.
Hollande also pledged to lower the retirement age from 62 to 60 (which Sarkozy had raised from 60 to 62) and to add 60,000 employees to France’s public education system. And yet the budget, according to another of Hollande’s campaign promises, will be balanced by 2017.
What’s French for “good luck with that”?

GENERAL: OBAMA KNEW BIN LADEN HIDEOUT SINCE SUMMER 2010



General Jack Keane (Retired), the former Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, told Mike Huckabee tonight that Barack Obama knew about Osama Bin Laden’s hideout since the summer of 2010. - Breitbart
Top General: Obama Knew About OBL’s Hideout in Abbottabad Since Summer of 2010 – Refused to Act Until May - Gateway Pundit

This follows the news from yesterday that the Obama Administration ◼ drafted a memo to protect the president from blame if the mission to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden would have failed.

“We’re not going to subpoena reporters in the future. We don’t need to. We know who you’re talking to.”

Investigative reporters are supposed to be the ones keeping an eye on the government. Instead, it turns out, it's the other way around. - Peter Suderman/Reason Magazine

...The public is generally unaware of how essential nominally classified information is to coverage of diplomatic and strategic news. As Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ government secrecy project, put it: “The administration’s aggressive pursuit of leaks represents a challenge to the practice of national security reporting, which depends on the availability of unauthorized sources if it is to produce something more than ‘authorized’ news.”

What’s behind the administration’s fervor isn’t clear, but the news media have largely rolled over and yawned. A big reason is that prosecutors aren’t hassling reporters as they once did. Thanks to the post-9/11 explosion in government intercepts, electronic surveillance, and data capture of all imaginable kinds — the NSA is estimated to have intercepted 15-20 trillion communications in the past decade — the secrecy police have vast new ways to identify leakers.

So they no longer have to force journalists to expose confidential sources. As a national security representative told Lucy Dalglish, director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, “We’re not going to subpoena reporters in the future. We don’t need to. We know who you’re talking to....”

Obama launches new $25M ad campaign in nine swing states

...they released a 60-second spot entitled “Go,” an add which touts Obama’s accomplishments and continues the campaign’s “forward-looking” theme. - Amie Parnes/The Hill

Sunday, May 6, 2012

More than 340,000 Americans dropping out of the labor force. Silence.



Yesterday, President Obama launched his campaign by telling Americans not to ask if they are better off than they were four years ago, but how they'll be tomorrow. This follows a jobs report that found more than 340,000 Americans dropping out of the labor force and an unemployment rate that remains unacceptably high.

An update: Occupy group plans response to UC on Albany land

Protesters occupying land in Albany used by the University of California at Berkeley for agricultural research missed a weekend deadline to agree to a negotiated departure, but representatives said they would respond Monday. - Peter Fimrite

University officials claim the protesters have disrupted agricultural research by faculty scientists and students in the College of Natural Resources. At one point, Mogulof said, the squatters pruned some fruit trees on the property and explained to the dean of resources that they had to do it because the trees were diseased. Turns out the pruned branches were part of a research project on how diseases affect fruit trees, he said.

The university wants the land vacated by mid-May in order for certain agricultural research studies to be conducted.

"We have stated publicly and made clear to the occupiers that research and a tent city cannot co-exist," Mogulof said.

◼ Earlier post: The farm they seized was not a working farm per se, but rather a “research farm” for the University of California, near its Berkeley campus. The only difference between the way the farm used to be (prior to a week ago) and the way it is now is that the Occupiers have transformed what was essentially a well-maintained and important open-air laboratory into a disheveled and ultimately purposeless pretend-farm for trustafarian dropouts.... via Zombie

Socialist Francois Hollande defeats Nicolas Sarkozy in French presidential election

Socialist Francois Hollande defeated conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday to become France's next president, heralding a change in how Europe tackles its debt crisis and how France flexes its military and diplomatic muscle around the world. - FOX

Sarkozy conceded defeat minutes after the polls closed, saying he had called Hollande to wish him "good luck" as the country's new leader.

(Absentee) Vote-by-mail ballots being sent Monday

The Humboldt County Elections Office will begin mailing out vote-by-mail ballots Monday. - Times-Standard Election RoundUp

Monday is the last day to register to receive a sample ballot booklet in the mail. Voters who submit voter registration cards after Monday will not receive a sample ballot booklet by mail. They'll only receive a notice advising them of their polling location.

Voters can request a vote-by-mail ballot from the elections department Monday through May 29.

Yesterday, after a hundred-something fundraisers and countless other rally-style speeches not officially labeled campaign events, President Obama officially kicked off his 2012 campaign.

President Obama finally starts his 2012 campaign - Doug Powers/Michelle Malkin

FAST AND FURIOUS: DRAFT CONTEMPT CHARGES SHOW DEPTH OF AGENCY INVOLVEMENT

Upcoming KEET-TV Channel 13 Forums

LWVHC Candidate Forums are here! The League's nonpartisan candidate forums are a wonderful opportunity, not only to see your candidates in action, but to ask them your most pressing questions:

Monday, May 7, 7:00-8:00 P.M.
County Supervisor, District One
Cosponsor: KEET-TV Channel 13
Candidates: ◼ Annette DeModena,Rex H. Bohn,Cheryl A. Seidner

Wednesday, May 9, 7:00-8:00 P.M.
linkCounty Supervisor, District Three
Cosponsor: KEET-TV Channel 13
Candidates: ◼ Karen Brooks;Mark Lovelace, incumbent
_______________
Note that County Supervisor is a non-partisan position

Monday, May 14, 7:00-8:00 P.M.
linkState Assemblymember, District Two
Cosponsor: KEET-TV Channel 13
Candidates: ◼ Wesley Chesbro, incumbent, DEM;Pamela Elizondo, GRN; Tom Lynch, DEM; Firenza Xuan Pini, DEM

lwvhc.org/events
_______________
29 days til the June 5th election.

More college-bound Californians are heading out of state

Fed up with tuition increases and frustrated by rejection at packed California universities, more high school graduates than ever are ditching the state to attend college. - Phillip Reese/Sacramento Bee h/t: MH

Boise State saw its freshmen enrollment from California rise tenfold during the last decade. Arizona State doubled its enrollment of freshmen from California. The University of Oregon has quadrupled it, with freshman enrollment from California growing from 280 in 2000 to 1,100 in 2010.

...The trend, revealed in a Bee review of federal data, comes as the University of California system has stepped up its own efforts to attract out-of-state students. Despite those moves, taken largely to pay the bills, the number of students leaving the state for a four-year college far outpaces the number coming here....

The worst-case scenario for California is that a large number of students who leave the state for college don't return, leading to "brain drain."

...California still retains a higher rate of high school graduates than many other states, including New York. It's fallen from near the top to the middle of the pack.

But California needs all the college graduates it can get, said Thad Domina, assistant professor of education at UC Irvine.

"The creation of human capital," he said, "is a major driver for economic growth."

Darby was part of a group calling itself the 2008 “RNC Welcoming Committee.” When Darby learned that the group planned to throw molotov cocktails at the crowds, he went to the FBI and became an informant.

THE MOVEMENT: OCCUPY UNMASKED -- AGAIN - David Bossie/Breitbart's BIG Government

The “RNC Welcoming Committee” obviously was an extreme group and he knew it. Darby is a hero for revealing and stopping their bomb plots. Of course, he was vilified by the Left as a “snitch” and a “rat,” while the media focused on the idea of him betraying the liberal cause instead of shining a light on the radicals who sought to attack and harm innocent people attending the RNC....

In ◼ "Occupy Unmasked," we seek to expose the roots of what is now called Occupy Wall Street, tracing its insidious origins. Check out ◼ the film’s trailer on our website for a snapshot of what’s to come, and be sure to sign up for email updates about the documentary’s progress. Together we can continue Breitbart’s legacy, do the job the media refuses to do, and unmask the radical Left 's plans to fundamentally change America and eliminate what makes it great.

Forty percent (40%) of voters believe the president’s policy views are extreme


The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows Mitt Romney earning 47% of the vote and President Obama attracting 46% support. - Rasmussen

Obama Approval Rating: Strongly Approve: 27%... Strongly Disapprove: 40%... Approval Index: -13... Total Approval: 49%.

What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Rasmussen

Obama tells Americans not to take chance on Romney

"We are not turning back the clock, we are moving forward," Obama said, seeking to revive the political magic that swept him to power in 2008, and unleashing his most strident attack so far on the man who wants his job.

He said Romney, a multi-millionaire former venture capitalist, wanted to reward himself and rich friends with tax reductions and "rubber stamp" slashing spending cuts on education, clean energy and health care for the elderly.
"Ohio, I tell you what, we cannot give him that chance ... this is not just another election, this is a make or break moment for the middle class," Obama said.

Barack Obama launched his campaign in unspectacular fashion today at Ohio State University