Rand Paul’s immigration plan: Border security before probationary legal status
[HotAir.com]
posted at 12:01 pm on March 19, 2013 by Allahpundit
The AP claimed this morning that Paul was set to endorse a path to citizenship in his speech today. Not so, countered conservatives on Twitter: Read his prepared remarks and you’ll see that citizenship is never mentioned. Which is true, and also irrelevant.
The whole point of Paul’s speech is GOP rapprochement with Latino voters; he spends nearly two-thirds of it extolling Latinos’ work ethic, reminiscing about his friendships with Latinos growing up in Texas, name-checking Jaime Escalante and Pablo Neruda, and of course citing the ancient canard that Latinos are really just Republicans who don’t know it yet. (He mentions abortion and gay marriage as particular areas of overlap.
In fact, younger Latinos support legal abortion in all or most cases and nearly 60 percent of Latinos overall support state recognition of gay marriage.) There’s no earthly way that Paul, having made a conciliatory pitch that florid, would ultimately turn around and insist that illegals be forever barred from seeking citizenship. In his op-ed on immigration today at the Washington Times, he actually refers to them at one point as “undocumented citizens.”(!) When pressed on the issue in the Q&A after his speech, he said this:
So no, he won’t create a special path to citizenship to help move illegals quickly through the green-card process but there’s a path to citizenship through normal channels in the end. Then again, with the singular exception of Jeb Bush, whom no one believes is serious anyway, every prominent Republican politician I can think of supports a path to citizenship eventually. That’s my whole point: If you’re trying to build goodwill with Latinos, there has to be. But what about the rest of Paul’s plan? Quote:
The first part of my plan – border security – must be certified by Border Patrol and an Investigator General and then voted on by Congress to ensure it has been accomplished…
With this in place, I believe conservatives will accept what needs to come next, an issue that must be addressed: what becomes of the 12 million undocumented workers in the United States?
My plan is very simple and will include work visas for those who are here, who are willing to come forward and work…
Report: ATF review board recommends firings over Fast and Furious
[INFOWARS.com]
Wall Street Journal
December 5, 2012
Four senior managers who oversaw the ill-fated federal gun-tracking probe called “Fast and Furious” will be fired if recommendations from a disciplinary panel are accepted.
People familiar with the matter said the Professional Review Board of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sent notices of its decision in recent days to bureau managers, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
In addition, two lower-level employees face disciplinary actions, short of firing. The move from the ATF’s review board is the first step in what could be a months-long process, including appeals.
FBI asked to probe Obama ‘vote-changing’ machines
[WND.com] EXCLUSIVE
State lawmaker says she has concerns over election tampering
Posted: November 28, 2012
by 
Subscribe to author feedA state lawmaker in Maryland has asked the FBI to impound two voting machines used in the 2012 election to determine whether there was a malfunction or something nefarious going on.
“I just feel it is my duty to try to get to the bottom of this,” state Delegate Kathryn Afzali told WND today. “We’re not making any accusations. The Board of Elections are good people. They have checks and balances … but we want to make sure everything is fair.”
She said a number of people contacted her after the Nov. 6 election to report that they pressed a touch-screen button for GOP candidate Mitt Romney, but the vote registered for Barack Obama.
Shock poll: Obama could lose Illinois, Romney leads in Chicago suburbs
[DailyCaller.com]
Political Reporter
President Barack Obama could lose his home state of Illinois in November, a new poll shows.
A poll conducted by Illinois-based pollster and political strategist Michael McKeon found Obama leading Republican Mitt Romney by 49 percent to 37 percent in Cook County, the home of Chicago. That puts him ahead by a far thinner margin than expected in a county he should be winning handsomely.
Cook is the most Democratic leaning county in the state. It is also the most populous.
Those numbers do not bode well for the president.
“He has to come out of Cook County with a big lead or he’s gonna have problems downstate,” explained McKeon, who said that based on the numbers he had seen, Obama polled only in the forties in downstate Illinois.
‘Politics of insult’ alive and well despite Obama’s 2008 lament
[FoxNews.com]
Published October 29, 2012
Four years ago, then-candidate Barack Obama decried what he described as [childish lies and] “the politics of insult.”
“You don’t deserve a bunch of name-calling,” he told a Virginia crowd in the summer of 2008. “You don’t deserve a bunch of mudslinging.”
But lately, there have been more than a few insults flying on the 2012 campaign trail. Whether it’s with cute turns of phrase like “Romnesia” or more serious invective, the president’s campaign has gotten increasingly aggressive over the last few weeks in its denunciation of Mitt Romney.
The tone likely reflects the polls, which have been tightening ever since the Republican nominee’s opening debate performance. Whatever the reason, it’s evident that the “politics of insult” have not faded.
The following were overheard on the 2012 campaign trail:
“Bullsh–ter”
The president took a rip at Romney after a recent interview with Rolling Stone. In the article, published over the weekend, writer and historian Douglas Brinkley said that editor Eric Bates told the president that when he asked his six-year-old daughter if she wanted to say anything to Obama, she said: “Tell him: You can do it.”
Texas AG Tells International Election Monitors to Butt Out
[CNSNews.com]
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has warned the OSCE that its observers risk criminal prosecution if they approach polling stations in the state. (AP Photo/File)
(CNSNews.com) – The head of an international body that will monitor the U.S. elections next month protested to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday after Texas’ attorney-general warned that any international observer who approaches a polling station in the state risks criminal prosecution.
“The threat of criminal sanctions … is unacceptable,” said Janez Lenarcic, the Slovenian diplomat who heads the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), a part of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
“The United States, like all countries in the OSCE, has an obligation to invite ODIHR observers to observe its elections,” he said in a statement. It added that he “shared his concerns in a letter” to Clinton.
Lenarcic was responding to a letter sent by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to the ODIHR Tuesday informing it that “groups and individuals from outside the United States are not allowed to influence or interfere with the election process in Texas.”
American Crossroads Ad Appeals to Women’s Brains and Pocketbooks, Not “Ladyparts”
[Townhall.com]
October 17, 2012 02:49 PM EST
Political Editor, Townhall.com
Rattled by recent polling showing Mitt Romney drawing roughly even with President Obama among female voters, Democrats are making yet another hard play over “ladyparts.” American Crossroads is answering back with an ad blitz of their own, also targeting women. It seems conservatives view women as more than just uteruses. Weird, right?
This spot — which focuses on spending and debt — has $11 million behind it, and will air in swing states:
Rice Pins Faulty Libya Story on Intel
[FoxNews-Reuters-AP]
Published: October 16, 2012
US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice blames talking points from intelligence community as source of controversial account of Libya attacks, as lawmakers continue to press White House for a clearer explanation; and, in her first public comments on Libya since her controversial account days after the attack, blamed intelligence community talking points for the faulty narrative.
The light-on-details explanation Monday came as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took responsibility for any security failures leading up to the consulate attack last month.
But with the accounts coming as both presidential candidates head into a debate Tuesday night that will focus in part on foreign policy, neither appeared to settle mounting questions on the Hill about how the administration got the story so wrong.
Rice did not offer many details on the nature of the intelligence updates or whether they reflected a more nuanced version of events than the one she told the Sunday after the attack. In those interviews, Rice repeatedly claimed the deadly assault was a “spontaneous” reaction to protests over an anti-Islam film.
The administration later acknowledged it was a coordinated terror attack on the anniversary of 9/11.
Priebus asks for FBI investigation of Obama’s online donations
[DailyCaller.com]
The Republican National Committee is spotlighting campaign-season worries that Team Obama is in covertly violating campaign laws by accepting online donations from foreigners.
Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, announced today he’s asking Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the president’s fund-raising system.
“The President’s campaign committee does not use the industry standard practices to guard against receiving fraudulent or excessive contributions via the internet… I therefore call on the Department of Justice to investigate this troubling pattern of behavior by the President’s campaign,’ said Priebus in a Oct. 11 letter to Holder.
The request follows an investigation by the Government Accountability Institute, which highlighted the campaign’s low-grade anti-fraud measures, the large amount of online traffic between the campaign’s fundraising pages and overseas Internet users, plus foreigners’ claims they had donated to the campaign.
Big Bird, just another corporate welfare queen
[HumanEvents.com]
By: Mark LaRochelle
10/9/2012 09:40 AM
Apologizing for his disastrous performance in his first head-to-head debate with Mitt Romney, President Obama told a Hollywood fundraiser that the celebrities present “just perform flawlessly night after night. I can’t always say the same.” On his equally disastrous performance in office, the president admitted, “I goofed up.” But Romney, he joked, “is finally getting tough on Big Bird. … Rounding him up. Elmo has got to watch out, too.”
Liberals in the media have tried to help the president out by amplifying this joke into a serious charge, raising the ante from rounding up Big Bird to killing him. CNN’s Soledad O’Brien said, “my son was devastated when he heard that Big Bird might be killed.”
BUNK.
As Sherrie Westin, vice president of Sesame Workshop — which owns Sesame Street — had just explained to O’Brien, “The Sesame Workshop receives very, very little funding from PBS. So we are able to raise our funding through philanthropic, through our licensed product, which goes back into the educational programming, through corporate underwriting and sponsorship.
US officials knew Libya attack was terrorism within 24 hours, sources confirm
[FoxNews.com]
Published September 27, 2012
U.S. intelligence officials knew within 24 hours of the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Libya that it was a terrorist attack and suspected Al Qaeda-tied elements were involved, sources told Fox News — though it took the administration a week to acknowledge it.
The account sharply conflicts with claims on the Sunday after the attack by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice that the administration believed the strike was a “spontaneous” event triggered by protests in Egypt over an anti-Islam film.
Two senior U.S. officials said that the Obama administration internally labeled the attack terrorism from the first day in order to unlock and mobilize certain resources to respond, and that officials were looking for one specific suspect. The officials said the intelligence community knew by Sept. 12 that the militant Ansar al-Shariah and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb were likely behind the strike.
Further, an official said, “No one … believed that the mortars, indirect and direct fire, and the RPGs were just the work of a mob — no one.”
Yet a congressional source told Fox News that CIA Director David Petraeus, during a briefing with members of the House Intelligence Committee three days after the attack, espoused the view that Benghazi was an out-of-control demonstration prompted by the YouTube video. According to the source, this was “shocking” to some members who were present and saw the same intelligence pointing toward a terrorist attack.
Romney paid extra taxes in 2011, Democrats complain
[DailyCaller.com]
Get Neil Munro Feed 
Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign fundraising event in Sarasota, Fla., Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Democrats complained Friday that Gov. Mitt Romney boosted his federal income bill to fend off criticisms about the low tax-rate owed on income earned from investments.
“Romney manipulated one of the only two years of tax returns he’s seen fit to show the American people — and then only to ‘conform’ with his public statements,” said a statement from Sen Harry Reid, the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate.
“Had he not limited his [charitable] deductions … what would Gov. Romney’s effective tax rate have been?” asked an afternoon email from Obama’s campaign staff.
In 2011, Romney choose to deduct from his taxable income only $2.2 million of the $4 million he donated to charity. By limiting that deduction, he increased his own federal tax rate to 14.1 percent, and deflated Democratic allegations that he paid little or no taxes in some years.
Obama’s DOJ Grants ATF New Gun Grab Authority
[FreedomOutpost.com]
by Tim Brown
September 12, 2012
The Obama administration via the Department of Justice has given authority to the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to “seize and administratively forfeit property involved in controlled-substance abuses.” This means now that people who are not dealing illegal drugs, just using them and anyone who might associate with them in the same residence or be in a vehicle can have their God-given right of keeping and bearing arms revoked by the government god. In fact, no conviction is even required in these instances.
U.S. Department of Education: 79% of Chicago 8th Graders Not Proficient in Reading
[CNSNews.com]
By Terence P. Jeffrey
September 10, 2012
Chicago Public Schools – [Editor: Here's a statistic I just heard from Rush. The average salary for a teacher in Chicago is $76, 000 Per Year excluding bennies. The average citizen in Chicago makes $48,000 Per Year. AND THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT SATISFIED WITH A WHOPPING 16% RAISE! Also, 71 cents out of every new dollar taxes goes towards Public Union Pensions. Is that fair? Is it "social justice" when all this money produces results indicated in this story?]
(AP Photo)
(CNSNews.com) – Seventy-nine percent of the 8th graders in the Chicago Public Schools are not grade-level proficient in reading, according to the U.S. Department of Education, and 80 percent are not grade-level proficient in math.
Chicago public school teachers went on strike on Monday and one of the major issues behind the strike is a new system Chicago plans to use for evaluating public school teachers in which student improvement on standardized tests will count for 40 percent of a teacher’s evaluation. Until now, the evaluations of Chicago public school teachers have been based on what a Chicago Sun Times editorial called a “meaningless checklist.”
In 2011, the U.S. Department of Education administered National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests in reading and math to students around the country, including in the Chicago Public Schools. The tests were scored on a scale of 0 to 500, with 500 being the best possible score. Based on their scores, the U.S. Department of Education rated students’ skills in reading and math as either “below basic,” “basic,” “proficient” or “advanced.”
Official Accounting: $10T Withdrawn From U.S. Treasury This Fiscal Year Alone
[CNSNews.com]
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)(CNSNews.com) – Although the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the federal government will spend $3.563 trillion in fiscal year 2012 and the White House Office of Management estimates it will be $3.795 trillion, actual withdrawals from the U.S. Treasury have already exceeded $10 trillion.
In fact, as of the close of business Wednesday, withdrawals from the Treasury equaled $10,201,615,000,000 for fiscal 2012, which began on Oct. 1, 2011 and will end on Sept. 30.
According to the Daily Treasury Statement–the official daily accounting sheet for the federal government—withdrawals from the Treasury exceeded $10 trillion this year on Aug. 30, when they rose from $9.903 trillion to $10.035 trillion.
How can this be?
Budget cuts to silence military buglers, replaced with recorded renditions of Taps at New York funerals
[FoxNews.com]
By Joshua Rhett Miller
Published September 05, 2012
A bugler plays ‘Taps’ during the 2009 funeral for Army Spc. Stephen Mace at Arlington Cemetery in Arlington, Va. Due to a looming budget cut on Oct. 1, virtually all military funerals in New York state will use an electronic bugle instead of a live performance. (AP)
As budget cuts are set to silence live performances of Taps at military funerals in New York, one military bugler told FoxNews.com the iconic musical piece should always be performed by an Honor Guard musician.
Jari Villanueva, director of the Maryland National Guard Honor Guard and a bugler at thousands of military funerals, said having a phony hornsman hold up an instrument while a recording plays isn’t befitting of the somber task of burying a veteran. Yet, the piped-in version is what mourners will hear at virtually all New York military funerals beginning Oct. 1, due to a 25 percent reduction in federal funding for the state’s Military Forces Honor Guard.
Congress Probes Obama Green Stimulus Funds for MSNBC
[TheNewAmerican.com]
Monday, September 3, 2012
Written by Alex Newman
Lawmakers are investigating the Obama administration’s controversial decision to purchase over 100 advertisements touting so-called “green jobs” on the far-left MSNBC cable television outlet using “stimulus” funds, raising serious questions among analysts about misappropriation of taxpayer money to reward allies of the president who parrot White House talking points. No other TV media channels received similar contracts and no jobs were “created.”
The dubious Obama-friendly commercials touting “green” stimulus schemes ran over 100 times on MSNBC, costing taxpayers about half of a million dollars. But after the administration’s decision became a public scandal in the wake of watchdogs and media reports exposing it, criticism of the plot is growing. And now, members of Congress want answers.
Republican Convention: In Spite of Background Differences, Susana Martinez Backs Romney
[Fox News Latino]
Published August 29, 2012
In a sign of her rising stature within the Republican Party, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez took center stage Wednesday night at the Republican Convention in Tampa – speaking right before vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
In her speech, an emotional Martinez attacked President Barack Obama for the U.S.’s growing national debt while calling for bi-partisan politics to solve America’s problems. Martinez, like her fellow Latino politicians Ted Cruz of Texas and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, began her convention speech by recalling her family’s blue-collar past.
“We grew up on the border and truly lived paycheck to paycheck. My dad was a golden gloves boxer in the Marine Corps, then a deputy sheriff. My mom worked as an office assistant,” Martinez said, adding that her family opened up a security business that had her guarding a church parking lot with a Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum. “And sure, there was help along the way. But my parents took the risk. They stood up. And you better believe that they built it.”
Too many Americans are out of work, and our debt is out of control. This election needs to be about those issues.
Spanish Company, Owned By George Soros, Will “Count” American Votes Overseas In November
[WesternJournalism.com]
When the Spanish online voting company SCYTL bought the largest vote processing corporation in the United States, it also acquired the means of manufacturing the outcome of the 2012 election. For SOE, the Tampa based corporation purchased by SCYTL in January, supplies the election software which records, counts, and reports the votes of Americans in 26 states–900 total jurisdictions–across the nation.
As the largest election results reporting company in the US, SOE provides reports right down to the precinct level. But before going anywhere else, those election returns are routed to individual, company servers where the people who run them “…get ‘first look’ at results and the ability to immediately and privately examine vote details throughout the USA.” In short, “this redirects results …to a centralized privately held server which is not just for Ohio, but national; not just USA-based, but global.”
Without teleprompter, Condoleezza Rice brings GOP faithful to their feet
[DailyCaller.com]
Follow Caroline May 
TAMPA, Fla. — Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rallied the GOP faithful at the Republican National Convention with a barn-burner speech Wednesday night.
The only speaker of the convention thus far to take the podium without the assistance of a teleprompter, Rice spoke of the challenges facing the country, both foreign and domestic, and the need for a leader.
Commencing with an anecdote about the events of Sept. 11, 2001, Rice transitioned to the economic crisis and turmoil abroad. She pointed out that around the world people ask “Where does America stand?” only to find that the answer is ambiguous. To Rice, the country is in need of leadership.
“I know too that there is a weariness I know there is a sense that we have carried these burdens long enough,” she said, noting that the country has no other choice by to be a leader, because “either nobody will lead and there will be chaos or someone else will who does not share our values. We do not have a choice. We cannot be reluctant to lead — and you cannot lead from behind.” Rice asserted that Romney and Ryan are the ones who can lead.
Ryan on tap to deliver ‘hard truths’ in VP nomination speech
[FoxNews.com]
Published August 29, 2012
If Chris Christie lit a fire under Republicans last night, it’s now up to Paul Ryan to provide the fuel to keep it burning for what promises to be a hard-fought two-month battle to win the White House.
The Republican vice presidential candidate is teed up Wednesday to deliver the “hard truths” Christie talked about in his rousing keynote address on opening night. While Christie is known as the GOP fighter, Ryan is the point-man for budget-balancing solutions the party claims to represent.
The Wisconsin congressman has been quietly preparing his speech for days. Members of Ryan’s staff contacted by Fox News earlier this week said they couldn’t say precisely how long it would be, but that he has “teased” some of the ideas in it before.
Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, is best known for his controversial plans to overhaul Medicare and the tax system. They are likely the kinds of “hard truths” Christie raised Tuesday night, as the New Jersey governor claimed Mitt Romney and Ryan would lead a “new era of truth-telling” in Washington.
Getting Rid of the ‘Likable’ President
American [Spectator.org]
By Andrew B. Wilson – August 29, 2012 @ 6:08AM
Or is he just an “untouchable” member of the Ruling Class?
Barack Obama floats like a butterfly, even if he lacks the verbal facility to sting like a bee. He was lucky to draw the befuddled John McCain as his opponent in the 2008 presidential race. Rather than exposing Obama’s bloated ego to the ridicule that it so richly deserved, McCain decided to make nice — adding his voice to the hosanna chorus greeting the young Messiah. “And, finally, a word to Senator Obama and his supporters,” McCain said in his acceptance speech at the Republican National convention. “We’ll go at it over the next two months — you know the nature of this business — and there are big differences between us. But you have my respect and my admiration.”
Obama to Campaign as Hurricane Hammers Gulf Coast
[Breitbart.com]
by John Nolte
Posted: August 28, 2012
There’s a bubbling narrative in the media right now that’s spreading a poison by asking if it’s really appropriate for Romney to even hold his convention as Hurricane Isaac heads towards New Orleans. The ever so thoughtful among Obama’s Media Palace Guards are concern-trolling themselves into a lather as they beard-scratch over the “unfortunate” optics of a partisan party as our fellow American are pummeled by Isaac.
That’s right, Obama’s media shills are all but saying that Romney needs to cancel his coming out party that has been in the planning for over a year now because he might get a bounce that forever puts him ahead of Their Precious One it might politically hurt…Romney — and we wouldn’t want that now, would we?
This is the Media-Collective quietly laying a Narrative Track that will allow them to question the wisdom and heart of the GOP as their convention rolls on. It’s a political tactic; nothing more, nothing less.
Nowhere, however, is the media at all worked up or even calling attention to the fact that yesterday – long after we knew Isaac could be a terrible storm — Obama announced his intention to still hold campaign rallies in Iowa, Colorado, and Virginia over today and tomorrow.
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