Morning Bell: Believe it. Obama’s A Big Spender.

Mike Brownfield via heritage.org There are some things that are so apparent that they’re not even worth mentioning. What goes up must come down. The earth is round. President Barack Obama is a big spender. But this week, some in the media and in the White House are denying one of these totally obvious truths. It shouldn’t be a big surprise which one it is. On Tuesday, MarketWatch’s Rex Nutting wrote that claims of Obama’s big spending ways are overblown and that the “Obama spending binge never happened.” In a press gaggle on Wednesday, White House spokesman Jay Carney picked up on the argument and claimed that “this President has been–has demonstrated significant fiscal restraint and acted with great fiscal responsibility.” But sure as the sun rises in the east, not in the west, claims of Obama’s supposed “fiscal restraint” are just plain wrong. Heritage’s J.D. Foster explains: "Federal spending as a share of the economy will average over 24 percent during Obama’s term, and each and every year of that term will see a higher share than during any year since the Second World War. That apparently qualifies as ‘significant fiscal restraint’ Obama-style. Fiscal responsibility? Obama has had by far the largest budget deficits, driven in large part by the eruption in spending." Heritage’s Alison Fraser and Emily Goff thoroughly dismantle of the Nutting-Carney claim and point out that President Obama’s near-trillion-dollar stimulus “drove spending to a record 25.2 percent of the economy in 2009 and deficits topped $1 trillion for the first time in the nation’s history.” You can see the proof for yourself in Heritage’s 2012 edition of the Federal Budget in Pictures. Of the last ten presidents, going back to John F. Kennedy, president Obama’s budget deficits as a percentage of GDP have exploded. And if you take a look at where spending is headed under President Obama’s budget, you’ll see that the country’s debt crisis just keeps getting worse. The President’s FY 2013 budget would increase the debt to 76.5 percent of GDP by 2022, despite $2 trillion in tax hikes. That’s not “fiscal restraint,” no matter how you slice it. As bad as spending is today, President Obama wants to spend more, especially on transportation, infrastructure, education and research. He says that more spending, paid for with higher taxes, is the key to getting the U.S. economy back on track — even though that strategy has failed miserably over the past three years. Here’s the president’s problem. The American people don’t want Washington to spend more, they want it to spend less. They don’t want Washington to tax more, they want it to tax less. According to a new Rasmussen Reports poll, 53 percent of voters believe that tax cuts help the economy, and most say that more government spending has a negative impact. The president wants to have it both ways. He’d like to be viewed as someone who cuts taxes and has demonstrated fiscal restraint, but he also wants to keep on taxing and spending. But sure as apples fall from trees and go down, not up, President Obama is a big spender who has done anything but show fiscal restraint. There are some laws of nature that just can’t be denied.

Rally for Rebecca: An SOS for Wisconsin's Lieutenant Governor

by Dana Loesch w/ Breitbart.com Wisconsin's recall elections are but days away, and most of the coverage has surrounded Scott Walker's gubernatorial battle. It's an important battle, one of the most important elections of 2012. There's another battle raging, however--that of his second-in-command, his Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch. The state GOP reacted to the challenge on Walker by diverting resources away from all other contested lawmakers and shoring up the Governor. While Walker is running away from Barret in the polls, Kleefisch is only points ahead of her challenger, a candidate chosen by out-of-state union bosses. Democrats are already trying to reposition their narrative; since it looks more and more like Walker will beat Barrett, they're shifting focus to the more vulnerable Kleefisch. If Walker wins but Kleefisch loses, labor and their Democrat allies will still claim victory and Walker won't be viewed as having won absolutely. Kleefisch is dangerously low on funds, too, as Big Labor drops major coin against her this week in an all-out ad war leading up to election day. This is where you come in. Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch's reforms worked. Voters elected them to office by majority in 2010, and angry labor wanted to abuse the recall function by charging taxpayers millions for a "re-do." While they talked about "repealing the reforms," their candidates are careful to avoid such talk in campaign speeches because Wisconsinites voted for those reforms and are happy with the results. The best way to shore up Walker is to ensure that his second-in-command is in office with him. Today Michelle Malkin, Teri Christoph of Smart Girl Politics and ShePAC, and I are launching a #Rally4Rebecca money bomb to help the conservative, grassroots mom defeat big labor on June 5th. Will you help? Every bit counts. I'll be in Racine June 2nd with the Racine Tea Party to help rally voters. If you're within driving distance, come; if you can't come, please consider fortifying Lt. Governor Kleefisch and stand with Wisconsin. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said that Wisconsin was a "test run" for November. If the Obama-backed labor machine fails a second time to oust Walker-Kleefisch, this defeat will resonate all the way back to the White House. Send a message. Do your part today.

Exclusive - The Vetting - Barack Obama, the First Tea Partier

by John Sexton - Breitbart.com In 2009, President Barack Obama reportedly called members of the Tea Party "teabaggers." It turns out that our fourth greatest president, first in so many things, may have been the first "teabagger" himself, as seen in the 1997 photograph above. Yes, that really is Barack Obama wearing a regimental coat and carrying a tricorn hat in his hand. And that flag behind him really is a Gadsden flag, with its serpent and its "Don't Tread On Me" slogan. You may want to let all of this sink in a bit, especially if you're a Tea Party-bashing progressive. Neither Democrats nor the media have been particularly kind to the Tea Party. There is hardly space to go through all the times the Tea Party has been compared to terrorists (including by the Vice President) or fascists, or the many times it has been accused of racism by progressives in supposedly mainstream news outlets. That's a book-length story of its own. But given the photo above, it is certainly a good time to think back upon some of the ridicule Tea Party members were forced to endure for evoking the Revolutionary War era by their dress and choice of symbols. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow was one of many who saw mockery of the "teabaggers" as the first recourse. (The word was used so often by liberals in 2009 that Oxford made it a Word of the Year finalist.) Liberal sites like Talking Points Memo presented attendees who dressed up the way Obama did above as weirdos. The ever-predictable Bill Maher got hoots from his audience when he donned his own tricorn hat (complete with dangling tea bags) to bash the Tea Party on TV. President Obama blamed the "teabaggers" for his failures, according to Jonathan Alter's book The Promise: President Obama, Year One, complaining that his own 2009 stimulus "helped to create the tea-baggers and empowered that whole wing of the Republican Party to where it now controls the agenda for the Republicans." (Vice President Joe Biden is blaming them still.) Yet in the dramatic battles over trumped up charges of Tea Party racism and extremism, Obama never mentioned his own "Tea Party" episode--and neither has anyone in the media, even as Obama's allies and friends on the left ridiculed the Tea Party for seeking to make the same symbolic connections to the country's founding. The media's failure is all the more glaring, given that the forgotten photograph has been in plain view for fifteen years. It appeared on the front page of Chicago's Hyde Park Herald on July 9th, 1997, and was taken by legendary photographer Nancy Campbell Hays. (The larger version of the image is below this article. The original, which was donated to the University of Chicago, is not yet available for public view; the image obtained by Breitbart News was very dark, and so it was lightened in Photoshop). The Herald's caption below the photograph read: Hey, look over here! Something catches the attention of Sen. Barack Obama (13th), Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie (25th), Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) and Stephanie Franklin as they lead the annual "4th on 53rd" parade. In 1997, Obama was beginning his first term as a state senator in Illinois. He and his fellow politicians were asked to lead the "4th on 53rd" parade, which is Hyde Park's 4th of July celebration--one not too different from many other places in America, it turns out. All the politicians who attended were expected to dress the part. The Herald even published a story the week before, on July 2nd, confirming in advance that Obama would be "wearing colonial attire." With most politicians, wearing colonial dress for a public celebration like the 4th of July would be considered a bit colorful, but not extraordinary. In Obama's case, it's more like proof of hypocrisy. Since 2009, the ridicule of Tea Party signs and costumes has been so constant from Obama, the mainstream media, and the left that Glenn Beck encouraged people to stop dressing up so as not to give them an excuse. It didn't work, though. The NAACP still saw the costumes as part of a disturbing, nationalist impulse: The Revolutionary War-era costumes, the yellow “Don’t tread on me” Gadsden flags from the same era, the earnest recitals of the pledge of allegiance, the over-stated veneration of the Constitution, and the defense of “American exceptionalism” in a world turned towards transnational economies and global institutions: all are signs of the over-arching nationalism that helps define the Tea Party movement. So, by the NAACP's logic, it would appear that Barack Obama is an over-arching nationalist, and perhaps a racist, antisemitic nativist as well. That, or the left has been engaged in three years of juvenile character assassination to protect a guy who never got the memo about the worrisome deeper meaning of regimental coats and tricorner hats.

Sanford judge rules in favor of motorist who flashed his headlights

Who hasn't done this? By Rene Stutzman, Orlando Sentinel A judge in Sanford ruled Tuesday that a Lake Mary man was lawfully exercising his First Amendment rights when he flashed his headlights to warn neighbors that a deputy had set up a speed trap nearby. That decision is another victory for Ryan Kintner, 25, who sued theSeminole County Sheriff's Officelast year, accusing it of misconstruing a state law and violating his civil rights, principally his right to free speech. He was ticketed Aug. 10 by a Seminole County deputy, but Kintner alleges the officer misapplied a state law designed to ban motorists from flashing after-market emergency lights. Circuit Judge Alan Dickey earlier ruled that that state law does not apply to people who did what Kintner did, use his headlights to communicate. On Tuesday the judge went a step further, saying people who flash their headlights to communicate are engaging in behavior protected by the U.S. Constitution. "He felt the police specificially went out of their way to silence Mr. Kintner and that it was clearly a violation of his First Amendment free speech rights," said his attorney, J. Marcus Jones of Oviedo. Jones has filed a similar but much broader suit in Tallahassee against the Florida Highway Patrol. A hearing in that case is scheduled next month. "This stuff is fun," Jones said after Tuesday's hearing. Each suit asked that police agencies be ordered to halt writing those tickets. The highway patrol stopped voluntarily, awaiting the outcome of the suit. So have theSeminole County Sheriff's Officeand other agencies. In addition to Kintner's civil suit against the sheriff's office, he also is fighting the ticket. It is still pending in county court in Sanford. The officer also ticketed him for running a stop sign, saying Kintner had pulled beyond a stop bar before coming to a complete halt. In an interview in August, shortly after filing suit, Kintner said, "I felt an injustice was being done. … I have nothing against officers … keeping speeding down, but when you cross a line and get into free speech, I feel it's gone too far." According to his suit, Kintner was home Aug. 10 when he saw a deputy park along a street and pull out his radar gun. Kintner then got in his car, drove a couple of blocks away, parked and pointed his vehicle at oncoming traffic and began flashing his lights. He was ticketed a short time later. rstutzman@tribune.com or 407-650-6394.

Mark of the Beast: Bilderberg Pushes Mandatory Internet ID for Europe

Aaron Dykes Infowars.com May 23, 2012 While the international ACTA treaty and United States’ CISPA legislation are setting the stage to clamp down on the world wide web, technocrats are working overtime to try to pin down your identity and make sure all your activities are thoroughly monitored and under control. The European Union is now moving to create a mandatory electronic ID system for all EU citizens that would be implemented across Europe to standardize business both online and in person, authenticating users via a common ‘electronic signature.’ A single authenticating ID would guard access to the Internet, online data and most commerce. It is nothing short of an attempt to phase in a Mark of the Beast system, and a prominent Bilderberg attendee is behind the scheme. Neelie Kroes is the EU’s Digital Agenda Commissioner, and is introducing legislation she hopes will force “the adoption of harmonised e-signatures, e-identities and electronic authentication services (eIAS) across EU member states.” The extent of such a system would, of course, expand over time, particularly as many EU nations have resisted the big government encroachment of ID requirements on civil rights grounds, which even now smack of the Nazi regime’s draconian “papers please” policies that empowered their other avenues of tyranny. According to EurActiv.com, Neelie Kroes would later “widen the scope of the current Directive by including also ancillary authentication services that complement e-signatures, like electronic seals, time/date stamps, etc,” as the supra-national body attempts to corral more nations into participation. This big brother system will be implemented in Europe first and later pushed in North America and the remainder of the globe, as the world is nudged step by step towards a total cashless control grid in the name of ‘safe, verifiable commerce,’ and of course, in the name of “security.” Nevermind that the plan would invite the hacking of identities and fast track forgeries. In the case of Europe, special emphasis is placed in part on “establishing a truly functioning single market” — part of the larger EU goal even now floundering. Neelie Kroes has been a long term Bilderberg attendee, showing up annually since 2005. She was on the official list for the 2006 meeting in Ottawa, Canada, then the 2007 meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, 2008 in Chantilly, Virginia, 2009 in Vouliagmeni, Greece and 2010 in Sitges, Spain as a delegate from the European Commission. But in 2011, Kroes came to the table in St. Moritz, Switzerland with a new title: the EU’s Commissioner for Digital Agenda, so obviously now seeing development on that agenda was not unexpected. Kroes latest effort will surely be bolstered during the 2012 meeting now just days away. It dovetails with the creation of US CYBERCOM in recent years and the appointment of NSA head Gen. Keith Alexander, who also meets annually at Bilderberg, to wage offensive cyberwar across the globe. Further, technocrats from Silicon Valley and other locales have also converged around the secretive meetings to coordinate their developments with emerging regulations, new Internet laws and treaties, and to further the data mining efforts of the clandestine intelligence communities they work with.

Little Johnnie's Weekend Assignment

The kids filed into class Monday morning. They were very excited. Their weekend assignment was to sell something, then give a talk on productive salesmanship. Little Sally led off: "I sold girl scout cookies and I made $30" she said proudly, "My sales approach was to appeal to the customer's civil spirit and I credit that approach for my obvious success." "Very good, Sally" said the teacher. Little Jenny was next, "I sold magazines" she said, "I made $45 and I explained to everyone that magazines would keep them up on current events." "Very good, Jenny" said the teacher. Eventually, it was Johnny's turn. The teacher held her breath, as Johnny always had a 'different' take on things. Johnny walked to the front of the classroom and dumped a box full of cash on the teacher's desk. "$2,467" he said. "$2,467!" cried the teacher, "What in the world were you selling?" “Toothbrushes" said Johnny. "Toothbrushes" echoed the teacher, "How could you possibly sell enough tooth brushes to make that much money?" "I found the busiest corner in town" said Johnny, "I set up a Dip & Chip stand, I gave everybody who walked by a free sample." They all said the same thing, "Hey, this tastes like rotten dog food!" Then I would say, "It is rotten dog food. Wanna buy a toothbrush? I used the President Obama method of giving you something bad, dressing it up so it looks good, telling you it's free, and then making you pay to get the bad taste out of your mouth." Johnny got five stars for his efforts, bless his little heart...

NC teacher captured on video suggesting student could be arrested for Obama criticism

A North Carolina high school teacher was captured on video shouting at a student who questioned President Obama and suggesting he could be arrested for criticizing a sitting president. The Salisbury Post, which first reported on the YouTube video, did not identify the teacher in question, who is reportedly on staff at North Rowan High School. The video does not show faces, but the heated argument in the classroom can clearly be heard. "Do you realize that people were arrested for saying things bad about Bush?" the teacher said toward the end of the argument, telling the student, "you are not supposed to slander the president." The student told the teacher that one can't be arrested "unless you threaten the president." The argument started when the classroom began discussing news reports that Mitt Romney bullied a fellow student when he was in high school. At the time, The Washington Post had recently published a lengthy article alleging that Romney, as a teenager, had cut off another student's hair. "Didn't Obama bully somebody though?" a student in the North Carolina classroom asked when the report was brought up, referring to an incident Obama described in his memoir "Dreams From My Father." In the book, Obama wrote that, as a child, he once pushed a female classmate after other students taunted them -- the only two black students in their grade -- and called Obama her boyfriend. The teacher, in the video, said she didn't know whether Obama bullied anyone -- but the argument quickly escalated, as the teacher yelled at the student, telling him "there is no comparison." "He's running for president," she said of Romney. "Obama is the president." The student argued that both candidates are "just men," but the teacher took issue with the statement. "He's just a man. Obama is no god," the student said. The teacher responded: "Let me tell you something ... you will not disrespect the president of the United States in this classroom." The teacher went on to say the two candidates are "not equal." According to the Salisbury Post, the teacher is still employed and has not been suspended. "The Rowan-Salisbury School System expects all students and employees to be respectful in the school environment and for all teachers to maintain their professionalism in the classroom. This incident should serve as an education for all teachers to stop and reflect on their interaction with students," the school said in a statement, published by the Post. "Due to personnel and student confidentiality, we cannot discuss the matter publicly." See the video and Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/21/nc-teacher-captured-on-video-suggesting-student-could-be-arrested-for-obama/#ixzz1vWQ1r2QL

The Vetting - Exclusive - Obama's Literary Agent in 1991 Booklet: 'Born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii'

by Joel B. Pollak Note from Senior Management: Andrew Breitbart was never a "Birther," and Breitbart News is a site that has never advocated the narrative of "Birtherism." In fact, Andrew believed, as we do, that President Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961. Yet Andrew also believed that the complicit mainstream media had refused to examine President Obama's ideological past, or the carefully crafted persona he and his advisers had constructed for him. It is for that reason that we launched "The Vetting," an ongoing series in which we explore the ideological background of President Obama (and other presidential candidates)--not to re-litigate 2008, but because ideas and actions have consequences. It is also in that spirit that we discovered, and now present, the booklet described below--one that includes a marketing pitch for a forthcoming book by a then-young, otherwise unknown former president of the Harvard Law Review. It is evidence--not of the President's foreign origin, but that Barack Obama's public persona has perhaps been presented differently at different times. *** Breitbart News has obtained a promotional booklet produced in 1991 by Barack Obama's then-literary agency, Acton & Dystel, which touts Obama as "born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii." The booklet, which was distributed to "business colleagues" in the publishing industry, includes a brief biography of Obama among the biographies of eighty-nine other authors represented by Acton & Dystel. It also promotes Obama's anticipated first book, Journeys in Black and White--which Obama abandoned, later publishing Dreams from My Father instead. Read the rest of the article and see the posting go to: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/17/The-Vetting-Barack-Obama-Literary-Agent-1991-Born-in-Kenya-Raised-Indonesia-Hawaii

School Teacher get the GOP nomination!

What a weekend for those of us who attended the MN State GOP convention. We had the pleasure to hear Dr Ron Paul speak. We also, in short order, selected a great candidate for U.S. Senate. Kurt Bills! I make two suggestions to you. 1> Visit his website and learn about him if you do not know him. 2. Visit his website and make a donation. Let's get Klobuchar out of there this fall. kurtbills.com

A day off.

Just so you know today is Minnesota's GOP State Convention. I'm there casting my vote for Mr. Kurt Bills. Talk to you again on Monday.

Facebook Co-Founder Saverin Gives Up U.S. Citizenship Before IPO By Danielle Kucera, Sanat Vallikappen and Christine Harper - May 11, 2012

Eduardo Saverin, the billionaire co- founder of Facebook Inc. (FB), renounced his U.S. citizenship before an initial public offering that values the social network at as much as $96 billion, a move that may reduce his tax bill. Facebook plans to raise as much as $11.8 billion through the IPO, the biggest in history for an Internet company. Saverin’s stake is about 4 percent, according to the website Who Owns Facebook. At the high end of the IPO valuation, that would be worth about $3.84 billion. His holdings aren’t listed in Facebook’s regulatory filings. Enlarge image Facebook Co-Founder Saverin Gives Up U.S. Citizenship Before IPO Saverin, 30, joins a growing number of people giving up U.S. citizenship, a move that can trim their tax liabilities in that country. The Brazilian-born resident of Singapore is one of several people who helped Mark Zuckerberg start Facebook in a Harvard University dorm and stand to reap billions of dollars after the world’s largest social network holds its IPO. “Eduardo recently found it more practical to become a resident of Singapore since he plans to live there for an indefinite period of time,” said Tom Goodman, a spokesman for Saverin, in an e-mailed statement. Saverin’s name is on a list of people who chose to renounce citizenship as of April 30, published by the Internal Revenue Service. Saverin renounced his U.S. citizenship “around September” of last year, according to his spokesman. Singapore doesn’t have a capital gains tax. It does tax income earned in that nation, as well as “certain foreign- sourced income,” according to a government website on tax policies there. Exit Tax Saverin won’t escape all U.S. taxes. Americans who give up their citizenship owe what is effectively an exit tax on the capital gains from their stock holdings, even if they don’t sell the shares, said Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, director of the international tax program at the University of Michigan’s law school. For tax purposes, the IRS treats the stock as if it has been sold. Renouncing your citizenship well in advance of an IPO is “a very smart idea,” from a tax standpoint, said Avi-Yonah. “Once it’s public you can’t fool around with the value.” Saverin previously scuffled with Zuckerberg, his Harvard University classmate, over his ownership in Facebook. Saverin sued him and settled for an undisclosed amount. The 2010 movie “The Social Network” added to Saverin’s fame after it portrayed him as a scorned friend who provided the company’s early financing and then was squeezed out. In the film, written by Aaron Sorkin, Saverin was portrayed by Andrew Garfield, who will play Spider-Man in “The Amazing Spider- Man.” Saverin’s Investments Saverin moved to the U.S. in 1992, and became a citizen in 1998, his spokesman said. He has invested in Asian, U.S. and European companies, according to his spokesman. He plans to invest in Brazilian and in other global companies that have strong interests in entering the Asian markets. “Accordingly, it made the most sense for him to use Singapore as a home base,” Goodman said in the statement. His U.S. holdings include Jumio Inc., an online payments company, and ShopSavvy Inc., a price-comparison service. Renouncing citizenship is an option chosen by increasing numbers of Americans. A record 1,780 gave up their U.S. passports last year compared with 235 in 2008, according to government records. Income-tax rates for top U.S. earners will rise to 39.6 percent from 35 percent next year, and rates on capital gains and dividends also are scheduled to rise unless Congress blocks the increases. ‘Tax Cost’ “It’s a loss for the U.S. to have many well-educated people who actually have a great deal of affection for America make that choice,” said Richard Weisman, an attorney at Baker & McKenzie in Hong Kong. “The tax cost, complexity and the traps for the unwary are among the considerations.” Some of the world’s largest wealth-management firms have ramped up efforts to fight tax evasion ahead of Washington’s implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, known as Fatca, which seeks to prevent tax evasion by Americans with offshore accounts. HSBC Holdings Plc, Deutsche Bank AG, Bank of Singapore Ltd. and DBS Group Holdings Ltd. all say they have turned away business. The 2010 law, to be phased in starting Jan. 1, 2013, requires financial institutions based outside the U.S. to obtain and report information about income and interest payments accrued to the accounts of American clients. That means additional compliance costs for banks and fewer investment options and advisers for all U.S. citizens living abroad, which may depress banks’ returns. Facebook plans to price its IPO on May 17, offering 337.4 million shares at $28 to $35 each. The shares will be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol FB. Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are leading the sale. To contact the reporters on this story: Danielle Kucera in San Francisco at dkucera6@bloomberg.net Sanat Vallikappen in Singapore at vallikappen@bloomberg.net Christine Harper in New York at charper@bloomberg.net

Obama campaign adds 'clean coal' to website after GOP complaints By Andrew Restuccia

The Obama campaign added a section on “clean coal” to its website this week after House Republicans alleged that the president’s “all-of-the-above” energy plan neglected the fossil fuel. “President Obama has set a 10-year goal to develop and deploy cost-effective clean coal technology,” the website now says. “The Recovery Act invested substantially in carbon capture and sequestration research, including 22 projects across four different areas of carbon capture-and-storage research and development.” As of Wednesday, the website did not include “clean coal” in a graphic outlining the president’s much-touted “all-of-the-above” energy plan. The graphic mentions oil, natural gas, biofuels, wind, solar and nuclear. Asked about the change, Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said "clean coal" has "been an essential part of the president’s all-of-the-above energy strategy." Republicans, earlier this week, highlighted the website to bolster their longstanding allegations that Obama has “declared war on coal.” “Coal is still a valuable resource … and yet this administration has been open in the business of putting coal out of business,” Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), a vocal proponent of the coal industry, said during a House hearing. “To not even mention coal as an important energy sector is unbelievable to me,” he added. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), another advocate of coal-fired power, piled on, claiming that the administration has a “deep-seated hatred for coal and the electricity generated by coal.” Coal-fired power releases into the atmosphere high levels of greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution, which scientists say contributes to climate change and has been shown to harm public health. The administration has said it supports the expansion of coal for electricity generation if companies install technology to reduce emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency has imposed a number of new regulations aimed at reducing pollution from coal plants, and proposed first-ever national standards to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants in March. The regulations deal a blow to foundering efforts to build more coal-fired power plants in the United States. Many plans to build new coal plants have been shelved as a result of competition from inexpensive natural gas — which is undergoing a production boom — and other factors. The regulations would require new power plants that burn fossil fuels to release no more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt‐hour. The agency said new natural-gas plants will be able to meet the standard without adding any additional technology. But new coal plants would need to add new technology like carbon capture and storage (CCS), in which carbon dioxide emissions are collected and sequestered in the ground rather than released into the atmosphere. But EPA has worked to ensure the rules aren't overly burdensome to the coal industry. Instead of meeting the standard on an annual basis, new coal plants that install CCS technology can use a 30-year average of their carbon dioxide emissions.

Poll: Obama Learns What Happens When You Ignore Voters by Mike Flynn

I swear, most days I think I inhabit some weird no-man's-land between parallel universes. In one, the economy is sputtering and people are anxious about their long-term prospects. Government is borrowing money we can't pay back to prop up a political status quo who's foundation is cracked. At the end of the year, the economy will get a knock-out blow when the largest tax hike in history takes effect. In the other world, though, the economy is just fine and the most pressing issues on voters' minds is whether Billy can marry Bob and if women can get someone else to pay for their birth control. Oh, and in this world, apparently racist, homophobic thugs roam the streets ready to harm gays and minorities. Obama and his allies in the media clearly live in the latter world. Unfortunately for them, the voters live in the other. Today's Rasmussen poll should be a shocking wake-up call that the Obama campaign needs to quickly find a way into the real world: The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows Mitt Romney earning 50% of the vote and President Obama attracting 43% support. Four percent (4%) would vote for a third party candidate, while another three percent (3%) are undecided. 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. See tracking history. Thirty-seven percent (37%) give the president good or excellent marks for his handling of the economy. Forty-eight percent (48%) say he’s doing a poor job. Consumer confidence has slipped four points since last week’s government report on job creation and unemployment. The number who believe their personal finances are getting better slipped from 30% a week ago to 28% today. The number who fear their finances are getting worse increased from 43% before the jobs report to 47% today. Romney has only just wrapped up the GOP nomination. Obama has been campaigning for... well, he's never actually stopped campaigning. He has access to all the tools of the Presidency and benefits from a sycophantic press corps, who focus their considerable resources on diverting attention away from the sad state of the economy. We're told ad nauseum that Obama is "winning" the news cycle and forcing Romney to respond to him, rather than drive his own campaign. And yet, Romney is absolutely crushing Obama. The problem for Obama and the compliant media is that the economic news is so bad that their old trick of focusing on social issues, which few people really care about, isn't working. When you can't find a job, worrying about whether Billy marries Bob is pretty far down on your priority list. Don't get me wrong; there are people who care passionately about social issues. They see both gay marriage and free birth control as fundamental civil or human rights. There just aren't that many of them. Obama's campaign needs to find a way to talk to the 99% of us who are worried about the economy and our children's future. Even messianic politicians ignore the voters at their peril. for more visit breitbart.com

Carolina Blues for Charlotte Convention

By Chris Stirewalt Power Play Published May 11, 2012 FoxNews.com “The president’s in favor of it — I’m sure it will be [included].” -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid when asked by a reporter whether the legalization of gay marriage will be included as a plank in the Democratic platform at the party’s convention in September in Charlotte, N.C. As of this morning, nearly 30,000 people had signed an online petition from the group Gay Marriage USA demanding that the Democratic National Convention be moved out of Charlotte, N.C. because the state’s voters Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a stringent ban on same-sex marriage. The petition says the party should move the convention, set for Sept. 3 through Sept. 6, to “a state that upholds values of equality & liberty, and which treats ALL citizens equally.” This petition drive is not likely to be effective since tens of millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours have already gone into the gathering and its culminating moment when President Obama will formally accept his party’s nomination at Bank of America Stadium (weather permitting). The cost and embarrassment of such a move would be simply too great. But Obama no doubt wishes he could. The North Carolina convention has turned into a misadventure. Obama this week announced that he was partly reverting his public position on gay marriage to his pre-2008 stance. From 2008 until this week, Obama said that he was personally opposed to gay marriage but indifferent to state-level efforts. Prior to 2008, Obama said he was personally supportive and would fight efforts to block gay marriage. He now says that he is personally supportive but will not move to undo state-level efforts to prohibit the practice, like the one in North Carolina. The change is only symbolically significant. Obama already has a record as the most pro-gay president in history, and his attitudinal change has no policy implications. The rhetorical shift seems mostly to be related to placating pro-gay marriage supporters and donors, coming as it did just ahead of a huge fundraising push in Hollywood and at specifically gay and lesbian events. The other part of the move seems to be a search for a wedge issue against Republican Mitt Romney and a desire by Democrats to shift the conversation away from Romney’s preferred topic, the saggy economy. Even so, the president was obviously concerned about how his partial reversion to his pre-2008 stance would play. In his interview with ABC News announcing the shift, the president said that he was pushed into the move, among other things, by his daughters’ experiences with classmates with same-sex parents. Obama also blamed Vice President Joe Biden’s statement of support for gay marriage on Sunday for the timing of the move, an idea reinforced Thursday with a White House leak that Biden apologized to Obama for forcing his hand. The reason for putting out all of these mitigations is to suggest that Obama is no willy-nilly culture warrior but simply a man forced to confront an issue. The hope is that it will be enough to calm gay activists but not so much as to push away more moderate Democrats. North Carolina voters, including at least 35 percent of Democrats, on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment that bans gay marriage or any equivalent form of domestic partnership. If Obama believes that marriage is a fundamental right for same-sex couples, how can he tolerate state laws that deny that fundamental right? Shouldn’t his attorney general be suing the state, just as he is elsewhere in an effort to strike down constitutional amendments requiring voters to show identification? How can Obama reward the state with glory and revenue given a law that he says, de facto, suppresses the natural rights of American citizens? One can expect the ditch-Charlotte movement to gain ground among the Democratic base. And while these philosophical questions are important to party activists, there are more immediate and practical considerations. The state’s Democratic Party is in rough shape following same-sex workplace harassment claims made against the party’s former executive director. The chairman has refused calls for him to step aside, and has become something of a pariah. The state’s incumbent Democratic governor, Bev Perdue, who won a narrow victory with the help of Obama’s coattails, opted against seeking a second term because of miserably low job approval ratings. Her 2008 Republican opponent, former Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory is favored this year to beat the Democratic nominee, Perdue’s lieutenant governor. With state Democrats in disarray and voters moving right, the prospects for Obama repeating his stunning 2008 win there look increasingly remote. That’s the same kind of experience John McCain had in 2008, when he had to accept his party’s nomination in Minnesota. Republicans in 2007 thought Minnesota might be in play when they announced the convention location. By the end of August 2008, it most certainly was not. It looks like it was Democrats who were doing some wishful thinking when they chose North Carolina in 2011. It would be bad enough for Obama to have to accept the nomination in a state where voters had turned away from him, but to do so amid so much controversy on divisive issues and in a stadium owned by a bailed-out bank is seriously uncool. Cleveland, another finalist for the convention site, must be looking pretty good right now. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/11/carolina-blues-for-charlotte-convention/?test=latestnews#ixzz1uaNBuPA2

Picking the right guy.

Minnesota is only a week away from picking the man who will run against Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Who do you think is the best candidate and why?

Biden dangles prospect of teaming with Hillary in 2016 - story by AFP

Vice President Joe Biden, who is preparing to embark on the 2012 re-election campaign trail, suggested Sunday he might be interested in running in 2016 -- paired on a ticket with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "I think we may run as a team," Biden teased in an interview on NBC television to discuss his political future as President Barack Obama's right hand man in the White House, during the campaign leading to November's presidential election, and beyond. "I'm only joking obviously. I don't know. I don't know whether I'm going to run and Hillary doesn't know whether she's going to run," the Democrat stressed. Clinton, who ran a tight campaign against Obama in 2008 in a failed bid to win the Democratic Party nomination, has so far strenuously ruled out making any further bid for the White House. What he can declare with 100 percent certainty, Biden said, is that he will be Obama's 2012 running mate, despite speculation the president would try to strengthen the ticket's appeal by choosing Clinton instead. "There is no question about it. There's no way out. They've already printed Obama-Biden (campaign posters)" he said. "You are looking at the vice presidential candidate of the United States of America."

More reason to get angry.

by Ben ShapiroObama Launches Campaign with Alleged Wife-Abuser Sherrod Brown

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has put himself at the center of the Democrats’ latest meme: the war on women. Brown recently launched his “Women For Sherrod Brown” subgroup; in doing so, he stated, “There’s a war on women’s rights in Ohio and across the country by some who don’t want women to be in charge of their own health care decisions. I remain committed to ensuring that the voices of Ohio’s women are always heard in the United States Senate.” One of the chief points of Brown’s political agenda has been the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. And tomorrow, President Obama is slated to use Brown to launch his formal re-election campaign in Columbus, Ohio. But perhaps Brown isn’t the best person to lead off the Obama campaign – particularly not if the “war on women” is to remain one of Obama’s key campaign themes. Divorce records from Brown’s first marriage, obtained by Breitbart News, show that during the contentious proceedings, his wife accused him of “extreme cruelty” and “harassment”; she said she was “in fear for the safety … of myself and our children,” and accused Sherrod of “physical violence.” In fact, she said, Brown had “struck and bullied me on several different occasions.” The allegations apparently first became fodder for campaigning during Brown’s race for Congress in 1992. In May 1986, Larke Brown filed for divorce from her husband, then Ohio Secretary of State Sherrod Brown (who, in court filings, called himself S. Campbell Brown). In her divorce complaint, she alleged that Sherrod had been guilty of “extreme cruelty toward her.” Larke filed for a motion for a restraining order against Sherrod Brown (below). The motion asked the court to stop Sherrod from “harassing, including telephone harassment, annoying, interfering with or doing bodily harm to this Plaintiff at her residence or elsewhere.” The affidavit to the motion alleged that Larke believed that unless restrained, Sherrod would “harass” or “do bodily harm” to her; she further stated, “I am also intimidated by the Defendant and am in fear for the safety and well-being of myself and our children due to the Defendant’s physical violence and abusive nature.” The restraining order was granted by the court, and prevented Brown from “harassing, including telephone harassment, annoying, interfering with or doing bodily harm to this Plaintiff at her residence or elsewhere.” In fact, the restraining order enjoined Brown from “coming in or around the Plaintiff’s residence … except for purposes of visitation with the parties’ minor children.” In October 1986, Larke filed a multi-pronged motion asking for limitation of visitation rights of Sherrod due to “physical and emotional harassment of the Plaintiff” and an order preventing him from coming no closer than the curb of their home during the times he exercises his visitation privileges. Her affidavit in support of this motion alleged that Sherrod had “embarked on a consistent course of conduct designed to destroy the Plaintiff’s peace of mind as well as to physically and mentally intimidate her.” On several occasions, Larke alleged, her husband had “intimidated, pushed, shoved, and bullied her.” On October 11, 1986, she alleged, for example, that she was “entertaining out-of-town guests for breakfast” when Sherrod stopped by to pick up the kids for visitation. She aalleges she sked Sherrod to put the kids’ things out to the car while she told them to come out. Instead, “Defendant refused to return to van, pushed me up against the wall with his arms in order to pass and entered the house. He refused to leave when asked and began to say insulting, derogatory things about me, my mothering of my children and my character in front of my friends and children.” Larke alleged that “Defendant has embarked on a course of conduct designed to destroy the children’s peace of mind by making defamatory and slanderous remarks about me to them, as well as insisting that they repeat untruthful things that he had coached them to state.” She summed up: “I am definitely afraid of my husband, that he has struck and bullied me on several different occasions, he has completely destroyed my peace of mind and that I am extremely intimidated by him.” Sen. Brown is currently enmeshed in a highly competitive re-election race with challenger Josh Mandel, the State Treasurer. Polls show the two running neck and neck. Courtesy of Breitbart.com

Speaking German in North Dakota:

Near Minot, North Dakota there is a town called Hettinger where there is a large German-speaking population. One day, a local rancher driving down a country road noticed a man using his hand to drink water from the rancher's stock pond. The rancher rolled down the window and shouted: "Sehr angenehm! Trink das Wasser nicht. Die kuehe haben darein geschissen." Which means: "Glad to meet you! Don't drink the water. The cows shit in it." The man shouted back: "I'm from New York and just up here campaigning for Obama. I can't understand you. Please speak in English." The rancher replied: "Use both hands."

Today is meeting day.

Want to join us? mncommonsense@hotmail.com

Sickly Job Growth Sets Up Unhappy Choice for Obama By Chris Stirewalt

“14.5 percent” -- U.S. unemployment rate in April including those who have given up looking for work, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The U.S. economy added a sickly 115,000 jobs in April, but as discouraged workers continued to leave the labor force, the benchmark unemployment rate nudged down from 8.2 percent to 8.1 percent. The more important number, the size of the potential labor force that is not employed, remained at a crushing 14.5 percent. Economists are alarmed not only at the puny jobs number in April but at the fact that the difference between the two figures, 6.4 percent, stands near an all-time high. Having 6.4 percent of the nation’s employable adults out of economic circulation is big trouble. For older adults in that category, they may never be able to return to work. For younger adults, it means a lifetime of lower wages and slower advancement if they eventually get back in the hunt and find a job. In April, about 522,000 Americans left the labor force, making the addition of 115,000 jobs look all the more alarming. In 2011, about 2.7 million Americans left the work force while only 945,000 came in. This is similar to what Europe, which has alternated between recession and stagnation for a decade, has experienced. Long-term unemployment begets permanent unemployment. Permanent unemployment begets lower economic output, higher welfare costs and eliminates hopes for more rapid growth. Liberals and conservatives disagree sharply about how to solve this downward cycle, but both advocate forms of economic defibrillation for a patient in cardiac arrest. The left is calling for big stimulus spending – a round of borrowing and government spending to jolt the economy back to life. Conservatives want tax cuts and deep government spending cuts to spur investments and rein in massive federal debts. The concern for President Obama is that not only will he have to talk more about the economy and his previous policies as the cycle continues, but that he may have to offer a new prescription to reverse the trend. The president has been calling for the nation to stay the course and give his prior policies a chance to work, meanwhile focusing on ancillary issues like income inequality and green energy. If Obama is forced to make a broader policy prescription it will be a very bad. He can hardly call for another deficit-fueled stimulus given the low estimation in which voters hold his 2009 one. But neither can he move right and suddenly embrace tax cuts and austerity. There is good news here though: The utter uselessness of the old baseline unemployment rate may have finally been fully exposed. The baseline is a useful indicator in times of growth or recession, but not during periods of stagnation. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/04/sickly-job-growth-sets-up-unhappy-choice-for-obama/#ixzz1tvO97M7Z

Spanish Company Will “Count” American Votes Overseas In November April 10, 2012 By Doug Book

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.” And although the votes will be cast in hometown, American precincts on Election Day, with the Barcelona-based SCYTL taking charge of the process, they will be routed and counted overseas. SCYTL itself is a leader in internet voting technology and in 2010 was involved in modernizing election systems for the midterm election in 14 American states. But although SCYTL’s self-proclaimed reputation for security had won the company the Congressionally approved task of handling internet voting for American citizens and members of the military overseas, upon opening the system for use in the District of Columbia, the University of Michigan fight song “The Victors” was suddenly heard after the casting of each ballot. The system had been hacked by U of M computer teachers and students in response to a challenge by SCYTL that anyone who wished to do so, might try! Nevertheless, in spite of warnings by experts across the nation, American soldiers overseas will once again vote via the internet in 2012. And because SCYTL will control the method of voting and—thanks to the purchase of SOE–the method of counting the votes as well, there “…will be no ballots, no physical evidence, no way for the public to authenticate who actually cast the votes…or the count.” The American advocacy group Project Vote has concluded that SCYTL’s internet voting system is vulnerable to attack from the outside AND the inside, a situation which could result in “…an election that does not accurately reflect the will of the voters…” Talk about having a flair for understatement! It has also been claimed that SCYTL CEO Pere Valles is a socialist who donated heavily to the 2008 Obama campaign and lived in Chicago during Obama’s time as Illinois State Senator. Unfortunately, given what is known about the character of Barack Obama, such rumors must be taken as serious threats to the integrity of the 2012 vote and the legitimate outcome of the election. Though much has been written about the threat of nationwide voting by illegals in November, it is still true that most election fraud is an “inside” job. And there now exists a purely electronic voting service which uses no physical ballots to which an electronic count can be matched should questions arise. Add to this the fact that the same company will have “first count” on all votes made in 14 US states and hundreds of jurisdictions in 12 others, and the stage is set for election fraud on a scale unimaginable just a decade ago. Perhaps Obama had reason for supreme confidence when he said “after my election” rather than “in case of” to Russian President Medvedev a week ago.

Bill Clinton teams up with Obama for fundraising tour Published April 30, 2012 Associated Press

McLEAN, Va. – There were no bear hugs on display, but President Obama and former President Bill Clinton looked relaxed and friendly as they began a fundraising blitz that demonstrates their shared hopes for Democratic victory despite past differences. Although Clinton had dismissed Obama in 2008 as undeserving of the presidency his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton was then seeking, on Sunday evening Clinton warmly declared "Barack Obama deserves to be re-elected president of the United States." Obama is "beating the clock" to restore the nation's economy to health, Clinton told about 500 cheering supporters who had paid as little at $1,000 and as much as $20,000 apiece to see, as Obama put it, "two presidents for one." Digging out of similar financial holes has historically taken five to 10 years, Clinton said. Longtime Clinton backer and strategist Terry McAuliffe hosted the event, the first of three planned joint appearances for Clinton and Obama. Once a tense rivalry, the relationship between Obama and Bill and Hillary Clinton has evolved into a genuine political and policy partnership. Suspicions remain in both camps, but both sides have a strong incentive for making the alliance workable and lucrative. For Obama, Bill Clinton is a fundraising juggernaut, a powerful reminder to voters that a Democrat ran the White House the last time the economy was thriving. For the spotlight-loving former president, stronger ties with the White House and campaign headquarters mean he gets a hand in shaping the future of the party he led for nearly a decade. Obama's re-election campaign has put Bill Clinton on notice that he will be used as a top surrogate, further evidence of how far the two camps have come since the bitter days of the 2008 Democratic primary battle between Obama and Hillary Clinton, now his secretary of state. Neither Clinton nor Obama mentioned presumed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney by name, but both Democrats zinged Romney for his economic plan and foreign policy credentials. Obama's likely GOP opponent "basically wants to do what they did before, on steroids," Clinton said, "which will get you the same consequences you got before, on steroids." Obama said he and Hillary Clinton have "spent the past three-and-a-half years cleaning up after other folks' messes." He ridiculed "the presumptive nominee on the other side" for "suddenly saying our No. 1 enemy isn't Al Qaeda, it's Russia." "I didn't make that up," Obama said to loud laughter. "I suddenly thought maybe I didn't check the calendar, and we're back in 1975." Obama stood smiling, arms crossed, as Bill Clinton spoke. They complimented one another's performance in office, but with few personal asides or anecdotes that would suggest they are close or speak often. Clinton guffawed when Obama made gentle fun of him, and himself, by noting that every presidential candidate always says the next election is crucial. Obama acknowledged that he was about to make the same argument. "Well, let me tell you," he said to laughter and applause, "this one matters." There was no direct reference to the bitter contest between Obama and Hillary Clinton in 2008, which split the Democratic Party. Obama's circle still remembers that the former president slammed the narrative set out by Obama's campaign as a "fairy tale." The tight network of Clinton family supporters recall that Obama sarcastically told Hillary Clinton that she was "likable enough." The thaw started as a matter of political necessity: Their party was desperate to retake the White House after eight years of Republican rule. Hillary Clinton offered Obama a gracious endorsement, both Clintons campaigned for Obama, and the newly elected president picked his former rival to be America's chief diplomat. It took longer for Obama's relationship with Bill Clinton to soften as the two men found common ground in the pressures of the presidency. Clinton's willingness to be a good soldier for the Obama campaign could end up paying political dividends for his wife, who is frequently talked about in party circles as a potential presidential candidate in 2016 despite her repeated denials. Hillary Clinton has benefited enormously from her partnership with Obama, with her popularity skyrocketing during her time in his Cabinet. Democrats say the overt signs of unity between the Clintons and Obama put the president at a distinct advantage over Romney. The former Massachusetts governor must soothe the wounds from his GOP primary fight and figure out whether the last Republican president, George W. Bush, will have a role in the 2012 race. "It makes absolutely clear that, to the extent that there were different wings of the Democratic Party, there is now one wing of the Democratic Party," said Chris Lehane, a Clinton backer. "And it's the president's party." Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/04/29/obama-clintons-deepen-political-ties-as-election-day-looms/?test=latestnews#ixzz1tWqXNizg

Why are you not involved?

http://chisagogop.org/