Dianne Feinstein Battles Ted Cruz in Heated Senate Showdown Over Guns: ‘I’m Not a 6th Grader’
[TheBlaze.com]
Mar. 14, 2013 12:23pm Becket Adams
Senators Ted Cruz and Dianne Feinstein during a Senate Judiciary Hearing on Thursday got into heated exchange while discussing the California congresswoman’s proposed ban on so-called “assault” weapons.
“The question that I would pose to the senior senator from California is,” Cruz said, referring to Feinstein, “Would she deem it consistent with the Bill of Rights for Congress to engage in the same endeavor that we are contemplating doing with the Second Amendment in the context of the First or Fourth Amendment, namely, would she consider it constitutional for Congress to specify that the First Amendment shall apply only to the following books and shall not apply to the books that Congress has deemed outside the protection of the Bill of Rights?”
“Likewise, would she think that the Fourth Amendment’s protection against searches and seizures could properly apply only to the following specified individuals and not to the individuals that Congress has deemed outside the protection of the Bill of Rights?” he added.
Apparently, Sen. Feinstein was not amused with the Texas senator’s line of questioning.
Obama meets with House Republicans, downplays ‘immediate’ debt crisis
[FoxNews.com]
Published March 13, 2013
Pro-Obama group picks up president’s sequester…
President plays defense on the sequester
President Obama met Wednesday with House Republicans in an apparent bid to find consensus on fiscal policy, even as he seemed to antagonize the other side by claiming there’s no “immediate crisis in terms of debt.”
His statement would be sharply at odds with a core Republican principle that the debt must be addressed soon — and which underpinned the cost-cutting GOP budget released Tuesday. The president also acknowledged, in an interview aired earlier in the day, that differences with the GOP might be “too wide” to bridge.
Still, the president made the rare visit with House Republicans on Capitol Hill as part of what some are calling his charm offensive. The president is making a renewed effort to meet with Republican leaders and rank-and-file lawmakers amid overlapping budget battles and a series of deadlines on the horizon.
The president is trying to find common ground with Congress in order to halt the sequester spending cuts, which have already taken effect — as well as pass a stopgap budget bill in order to avert an end-of-the-month government shutdown, pass a bona fide budget for next year and once again raise the debt ceiling.
A source in the room during the meeting with Republicans told Fox News that Obama told them he’s looking for bipartisanship on a range of issues, including fiscal matters, immigration, gun regulation and foreign policy.
One skeptical source told Fox News, “we shall see.” Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., though, later emerged saying the president “did himself some good.”
Obama went into the meeting with his aides and allies ripping House Republicans for their newly introduced budget, which aims to balance the country’s finances in 10 years. In an interview with ABC News, the president declared that there is no “immediate” debt crisis and that “for the next 10 years, it’s going to be in a sustainable place.”
That message is likely to rile Republicans, who cite widespread economic warnings in saying the debt — which is nearing $17 trillion — must be addressed.
“We are addressing the most predictable debt crisis in this country’s history,” Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, said Tuesday while introducing his budget plan.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday that “everybody” recognizes there is a “long-term debt challenge.”
And he said the president “believes that bipartisan cooperation is possible.”
Senate Democrats were unveiling their budget proposal Wednesday afternoon, in response to the House Republican plan introduced Tuesday.
The Republican plan touts longstanding party proposals to cut funding for domestic programs, repeal Obama’s health care reform law and overhaul the Medicare health care program for the elderly. It would balance the federal budget in 10 years with steep spending cuts alone — a nonstarter with Democrats.
“Ultimately, it may be that the differences are just too wide,” Obama said in the interview broadcast Wednesday.
If Republicans insist that their only solution is to avoid tax hikes and “gut” entitlement programs, “then we’re probably not going to be able to get a deal,” he said.
Obama has continued reaching out to lawmakers in hopes that he can somehow reach a “grand bargain” that reins in deficit spending without hurting the economy and stops Washington from lurching from one self-induced fiscal crisis to another.
The fence-mending campaign started with an unusual dinner Obama hosted last week at a hotel near the White House for a dozen Senate Republicans and continues Wednesday with his meeting with House Republicans.
Obama, who also will meet with Senate Republicans and House Democrats on Thursday, has shown a willingness to reduce spending on big entitlement programs but has not agreed to the kinds of changes Ryan and other Republicans have sought.
Republicans, however, object to any more tax increases, insisting that Obama got his way with tax hikes on top earners in the New Year’s Day deal that averted the “fiscal cliff.” That last-minute deal prevented automatic tax hikes for all federal income tax payers, but merely delayed $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts.
The parties were unable to reach a compromise on a deficit-cutting plan, so the automatic spending cuts began taking effect March 1 and are set to continue through the decade.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
BLIZZARD WARNING: Northeast Bracing for ‘Dangerous’ Winter Storm
[FoxNews.com]
Associated Press
February 08, 2013
Forecasters say a massive blizzard poised to dump up to 3 feet of snow on the Northeast may be one for the record books and is following the same path as Superstorm Sandy, which devastated parts of the region less than six months ago.
It began snowing Friday morning in some areas, with the heaviest amounts expected to fall at night and into Saturday. Wind gusts are expected to reach up to 75 mph.
Widespread power failures were feared, along with high tides and flooding in much of the coastal areas still recovering from Superstorm Sandy in October.
Only the deceit is transparent
[FloppingAces.net | Reader Post]
November 19, 2012
Barack Obama promised his administration set a new standard in transparency:
I will also hold myself as president to a new standard of openness …. Let me say it as simply as I can: Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.
Obama even issued a memo
My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.
How’s That Obamacare Waiver Workin’ Out for Ya?
[MichelleMalkin.com]
Copyright 2012
How’s That Obamacare Waiver Workin’ Out for Ya?
Exactly two years ago this week, the Obama administration announced it had issued more than 100 waivers en masse to a select group of companies, unions and other health insurance providers seeking relief from the onerous federal health care law. The Obamacare waiver winner’s club now totals 2,000. Where are they now?
Answer: In the same miserable boat as every other unlucky business struggling with the crushing costs and burdens of the mandate.
Among the first and most prominent recipients of the Obamacare waivers for favors were large restaurant chains that provide low-wage, seasonal and part-time workers with low-cost health insurance plans called “mini-med” plans. An estimated 1.7 million workers benefit from such plans. Obamacare forced companies carrying such coverage to raise their minimum limits on coverage to no less than $750,000 annually. Another Obamacare provision forces all employers to spend at least 80 percent to 85 percent of their premium revenue on medical care.
State troopers deployed as tensions boil at gas stations in Sandy’s wake
[FoxNews.com]
By Greg Wilson
Published November 01, 2012
People line up to fill gas containers at the New Jersey Turnpike’s Thomas A. Edison service area Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012, near Woodbridge, N.J. After Monday’s storm surge from Sandy, many gas stations in the region are without power and those that are open have very long lines. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
State troopers have been deployed at all gas stations along the NJ Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, where dwindling gasoline supplies are causing frayed nerves as the region endures its third full day with massive power outages.
Frustration with gas supplies topped the list of issues causing tensions to boil over in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, the states hardest hit by power outages in the wake of superstorm Sandy. Residents jockeyed for fuel at the few stations still pumping, searched store shelves in vain for batteries, struggled with sporadic cell phone service and found themselves unable to buy necessities at supermarkets.
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.”
WHITE HOUSE INSIDER: The Only Way Obama Wins This Election Is To Steal It
[TheUlstermanReport.com]
by Ulsterman on October 24, 2012
(The sound of ominous thunder now hangs over the Obama White House)
As Benghazi news reports now pummel down upon the head of President Barack Obama, a longtime D.C. political operative who has spent the past three years attempting to correct the mistake that was the 2008 election, declares in this brief communication that the only way Obama can now be allowed a second term is if he steals the 2012 election.
Ulsterman: Can you confirm the Benghanzi news reports? The emails? Was this the breaking story you referenced earlier? Is momentum still with Romney? How does Obama try to win this? Or does he? Please respond ASAP. I’ve kept quiet as requested. Now with media openly reporting on the emails I am hoping to get feedback directly from you again. -UM
WHI: Which question you want answered? You got a list there.
UM: You choose.
WHI: Benghazi story now breaking out even bigger. As promised. I was pissed the governor did not push the issue during last debate. Now I understand. I was not in the loop on that but that’s ok. Very smart move by the campiagn. Don’t count on media falling over themselves to make this a headline though. That will be done with them kicking and screaming. And read that first report carefully. And then smile. The Old Man made this happen. At least some of it. It’s pretty much spelled out in first report. He’s got to have logged about 30,000 miles in the last month alone. Don’t know how he’s doing it healthwise. But he is. Thank God.
CIA’s Hayden: Romney Right On Iran
[Newsmax.com]
By Jim Meyers and John Bachman
October 23, 2012
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden tells Newsmax that Mitt Romney was right — and President Obama wrong — when the GOP candidate said during the Monday debate that a nuclear Iran and not a terrorist attack was the biggest threat to America’s national security.
The retired 4-star Air Force General also says he is “not very hopeful” that negotiations with the Iranians will dissuade them from developing nuclear weapons. And he predicts that a President Romney would “review” Obama’s exemption of some of Iran’s major trading partners from imposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
La Boca Grande [The Big Mouth]
American [Spectator.org]
Political Hay
By George Neumayr on 10.23.12 @ 6:10AM
Obama talks big [boca/mouth] in the final debate in Florida.
Barack Obama came to the last presidential debate ready for a fight. But he didn’t get one. Romney seemed more interested in talking to moderator Bob Schieffer than engaging Obama in a scuffle.
That relaxed strategy didn’t hurt Romney very much. At worst, the debate was a draw, which will only serve to seal the tightness of the race.
Though Romney kept stepping back from his punches, Obama didn’t tire of throwing them. Apparently Romney not only kills his sacked employees’ wives he also takes glee in outsourcing jobs to China and (in a new line of attack from Obama) invests in an Iranian company. Obama was unloading all the opposition research that he couldn’t cram into the previous debates.
OCTOBER SURPRISE: Romney Wins Big in First Debate
[Breitbart.com]
Posted: October 4, 2012 – By Joel B. Pollak
Halfway through, they should have stopped the fight.
Gov. Mitt Romney eviscerated a staggering and bewildered President Barack Obama tonight in one of the most lopsided presidential debates in American history. Throughout the debate, which focused on domestic policy, Obama looked shaken, rarely looking at the camera, reciting old talking points and filibustering as Romney gave a master class at the University of Denver.
The debate had been described as a must-win for Romney–and he delivered. Using a rapid-fire style that had not been seen even in the numerous Republican primary debates, he bobbed and weaved through Obama’s attacks and moderator Jim Lehrer’s interjections, launching bullet-point policies that displayed not just a familiarity with the wonkish details but a focus on the travails of ordinary people he had met on the trail.
Again and again, Romney returned to his theme: creating jobs. He did–as expected–take Obama to task for misrepresenting his policies, principally Romney’s tax policy, which Obama referred to, even after being corrected, as a $5 trillion tax cut. But Romney exceeded expectations in focusing on the end result he wished to attain–and which, he said, the president wished to sacrifice: creating jobs for a struggling American workforce.
Obama could not have pleased anyone except those playing drinking games at home, with familiar references to corporate jets (drink!), job training programs (drink!), and tax cuts for shipping jobs overseas (drink!). And for these tired suggestions, most of which appeared in Obama’s talking points in 2008, Romney reminded the president that he had four years in which to enact his policies, to which the president could only nod.
Every Governor a Walker
American [Spectator.org]
By GROVER G. NORQUIST from the SEPTEMBER 2012 issue
Posted: October 2, 2012
THE TAX AND SPEND SPECTATOR
Republicans control 24 states. Where are the rest of our Scott Walkers and Bobby Jindals?
IN LESS THAN TWO YEARS, the governor of Wisconsin has reformed public sector unions so that they can no longer withhold union dues from every worker’s paycheck; ended teacher tenure; required government employee unions to be re-certified each year; signed legislation that made Wisconsin the 41st state with “shall issue” concealed carry; cut over $800 million from the state budget; and expanded parental choice in education by removing the 22,500-student cap on the Milwaukee Parental Choice program and extending the program to include the city of Racine. The governor of Louisiana, elected in 2007 and re-elected last year, has helped usher Republican majorities into the state house and senate; signed legislation that gives more than half of the state’s students (380,000 out of 700,000 total) a voucher for the amount the state government spends per pupil; signed a strict ethics law; and moved government worker pensions to a blend of defined contribution and defined benefit.
But Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal are only two of 29 Republican governors. They are only two of 24 Republican governors who enjoy the company of Republican-controlled state legislatures. In theory, in two dozen states for 2011 and most of 2012, if the Republican governor, house speaker, and senate leader could agree on any particular reform, it would be the law of the land now. Why are we not reading about the groundbreaking Reaganite agendas passing in 24 states? Why are we not hearing the howls of the labor union bosses and trial lawyers in two dozen states?
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.
Fraud concerns swirl around Florida’s unregulated absentee ballot brokers ahead of election
[FoxNews.com]
Published September 26, 2012
AP
Recent allegations of absentee ballot fraud in Florida have shined a light on the shadowy work of so-called “boleteros” – absentee ballot brokers who, in some cases, have been accused of cajoling, bribing and even forging the names of unsuspecting voters.
The most recent claim involves Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who hired an alleged “boletero” for his 2010 campaign. In Scott’s case, the campaign claims it did nothing wrong and indeed nobody has been charged. But the claim follows the arrest of a boletero in a separate case, and coincides with a wave of coverage and attention in the Miami-Dade, Fla., area surrounding what for authorities is an illicit practice.
Boleteros — translated roughly to mean ticket-person — assist in collecting absentee ballots and helping primarily elderly and disabled voters in filling them out. This can be entirely lawful, but sometimes these workers walk a fine legal line.
For many boleteros, it can be a profitable enterprise – with some guaranteeing votes in exchange for money, authorities say. They are particularly prominent in heavily Republican Spanish-speaking communities, like Hialeah.
Under Florida law, it is legal to assist voters in ensuring their absentee ballots are properly mailed. But it’s illegal to influence voters, request ballots on behalf of someone else and forge signatures. The state no longer requires witness signatures on absentee ballots, officials note, and many of the boleteros will illegally “follow the ballots all through the process.”
“This is a dirty business and unfortunately it’s become pretty common.”
- Joe Centerino, director of Miami-Dade’s Ethics Commission
Obama permanently out to lunch
[RedState.com]
By: Dan Spencer (Diary) | September 22nd, 2012
When even the media is starting to point out that the incumbent president is too busy campaigning for re-election to govern, you know you have a problem.
Yet that’s precisely what the Associated Press noticed in a new report this morning. The first line: “It’s awfully quiet at the White House these days.”
Sure, when you have a president who spends most of his time on the trail spinning rhetoric and fundraising for his campaign coffers, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will tend to be “awfully quiet.” This might explain why while our Libyan ambassador is dead and our embassies are under repeated siege, the White House still appears to know next to nothing about what went down in Benghazi. Even top Senate Republicans are fuming today that they are learning more details from the New York Times than from closed-door State Department briefing. Unemployment is rising in half of the states, and US industrial production is falling at the sharpest rate in three years, and our President is focused on hard-hitting interviews with radio hosts like Pimp with the Limp. On David Letterman, he casually admitted that he doesn’t know what the national debt is, and that it’s not a pressing concern.
Obama said this week that he has learned you “can’t change Washington from the inside.” Apparently his solution is to go AWOL. It’s definitely not going to change from his campaign re-election HQ in Chicago.
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.
Networks That Hyped Romney’s ‘Bombshell’ Tax Tape Now Skip ObamaCare ‘Penalties’
[MRC.org]
Subscribe to Scott Whitlock
The same networks that have been hyping secret video of Mitt Romney talking about who pays taxes, hyperventilating about the Republican’s “seismic” bombshell,” have, thus far, completely ignored the revelation from the Congressional Budget Office that “significantly” more Americans will have to pay a “tax penalty” for being uninsured, many in the middle class.
All three evening newscasts on Wednesday and the morning shows on Thursday totally skipped this report. The Associated Press explained, “The new estimate amounts to an inconvenient fact for the administration, a reminder of what critics see as broken promises.” Writer Ricardo Alonzo-Zaldivar added, “Nonetheless, in his first campaign for the White House, Obama pledged not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 a year and couples making less than $250,000.”
Yet, World News, the NBC Nightly News, the CBS Evening News, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning and Today all avoided the topic.
GMA opted for more important topics, such as an amusement park mishap that caused several people to be stranded on a roller coaster for hours.
This Is a Recap of Mass Islamist Protests Against the U.S. Over Anti-Islam Film
[TheBlaze.com]
- Posted on September 14, 2012 at 11:34am by
Billy Hallowell
Protests in Tunisia (Photo Credit: AP)
Monitoring the massive protests that continue to spread to various cities and localities in the Middle East is a tough task, as the response continues to grow exponentially. Islamists and others who find themselves immensely offended over a now-infamous anti-Muslim film have taken to the streets to target U.S. interests and defend their faith, sometimes using violent means to do so.
TUNISIA
On Friday, protests in the Middle East hit Tunis, Tunisia, where a large cloud of black smoke has risen around the U.S. embassy there. Outside the building, protesters are throwing stones, as police attempt to stop the activity unfolding.
Thousands of demonstrators massed outside the embassy and several were seen climbing the outer wall of the embassy grounds and raising a flag on which was written the Muslim profession of faith, an Associated Press reporter on the scene says. ”There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet,” the flag purportedly read.
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?
Occupy Wall Street Shows up at DNC, Bashes Obama
[Reason.com]
Garrett Quinn | September. 4, 2012 4:34 pm
CHARLOTTE – The Occupy Wall Street movement has materialized in zombified form near the venues of the Democratic National Convention. In Marshall Park, a leafy city property complete with a shallow pond, a camp of approximately 50 tents has sprung up in typical Occupy fashion. It’s not as developed as some of the camps that appeared during the “American Autumn” but its occupants are cantankerous and disappointed with President Obama, much as they were almost a year ago.
When I visited their encampment, they were mustering for a march that focused on Bradley Manning and unmanned drone strikes. The Occupiers were maneuvering a close to life-sized replica of an unmanned drone that they would later parade through the police-lined streets like the statue of a saint on a Catholic feast day.
“People like Obama garnered support from a lot of people when he was running. Once he got into office he basically turned his back on the working class. He said he was gonna end the wars, he escalated the war in Afghanistan, he continued use of mercenaries in Iraq, he said he was gonna close down Gitmo. He hasn’t done that,” said Travis Cummins, 27, of Mobile, Alabama.
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.”
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