County News Online Blogs

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Mail Magazine 24… Obama Doctrine Leading America Toward Another 9/11, by Ernest Istook
According to national security expert Dr. James Carafano, the terrorist attack in Algeria shows that America is on the path to another 9/11, thanks to the Obama Administration's foreign and military policy. Carafano is Vice President of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. He told me, “The warning lights are blinking red,” even while President Barack Obama pretends that things are under control. The terrorists, Carafano claims, showed in Algeria... read more

Heritage Foundation Video… Couple Faces Jail Time for Saving Baby Deer’s Life, By Daniel Dew
January 30, 2013 - An Indiana couple is facing up to 60 days in jail and $2,000 in fines for saving a deer from death. Jeff Counceller, a police officer, and his wife Jennifer spotted an injured baby deer on their neighbor’s porch. Instead of turning a blind eye to the dying fawn, the Councellers took the deer in and nursed it back to health. They kept the deer, Little Orphan Dani, in their backyard as it recovered. Everything was fine until an Indiana Conservation... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Stall: Unemployment Ticks Up to 7.9%, by Mike Flynn
The Labor Department reported this morning that the economy added 157,000 jobs in January, down sharply from November and December. Revised hiring figures show the economy added 247k and 196k jobs, respectively in the final two months of 2012. The apparent slowdown in hiring is consistent with this week's report that GDP contracted in the 4th Quarter. January's jobs number is about break-even with population. The economy generally needs to add 150-200k jobs a month to keep pace with... read more

Washington Examiner… Study: New E15 gas can ruin auto engines
Paul Bedard, Washington Secrets - January 30, 2013 - This week's warm Washington temperatures had some thinking about rolling the Lawn-Boy out of the garage for the first cut of the year. And we all know what that means: Difficult starts due to E10 gas that gels when it sits. Now, according to a new study, cars and truck may face the same fate thanks to President Obama's demand for a higher ethanol in the new E15 gas... read more

E-Mail Tracker Programs and More, From a CNO Reader
By now, I suspect everyone is familiar with snopes.comand/or truthorfiction.com for determining whether information received via email is just that: true/false or fact/fiction. Both are excellent sites. Advice from snopes.com 1) Any time you see an email that says "forward this on to '10' (or however many) of your friends", "sign this petition", or "you'll get bad luck" or "you'll get good luck" or "you'll see something funny on your screen after you send it" or whatever --- it almost always has an email... read more

Pew Center on the States… Fracking for State Dollars, By Pamela M. Prah, Staff Writer
Natural gas being drilled by hydraulic fracturing on a farm near Wyalusing, Pennsylvania (Corbis) - Could Ohio, New York or Pennsylvania be the next North Dakota and “frack” its way to budget surpluses? The United States is on track by 2020 to become the world’s largest oil producer and a net exporter of natural gas, a reversal of fortunes with huge consequences for many state budgets. But it depends on what kinds of taxes the states want to impose. States as varied as Pennsylvania... read more

Investors.com… Rahm Emanuel Goes After 1st And 2nd Amendments
01/30/2013 - Sturm Ruger's and Smith & Wesson's profits don't come from gun violence or selling to gangs, but rather from the millions of law-abiding American citizens legally buying their completely legal products, including military and law enforcement. How many lives their weapons have saved in thwarting home invasions or other instances of self-defense against criminals and predators is not known. Chicago does a lot of business with these banks and does... read more

Purdue University… Letter from University president Mitch Daniels
“There’s a tsunami coming” This quote from Stanford President John Hennessy was one of many comments presented to the students and faculty in an Open Letter from Purdue University President Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. Daniels was referring to college education as we know it today. In his letter he noted that student debt has soared past the $1 trillion mark, more than the total credit card debt. He said that some “insiders” have noted... read more

Artur Davis: School Choice Is About “Basic Principles” T. Elliot Gaiser
Heritage Foundation - National School Choice Week - January 30, 2013 - The 7th grade class in Highland Park, Michigan’s school district was given an assignment: Write a one-paragraph essay on “what could make the school better.” Former Alabama congressman Artur Davis, who celebrated National School Choice Week at The Heritage Foundation’s event “Choosing to Succeed,” presented a particularly alarming response: [Y]ou can make the school gooder by getting people that will do... read more

Townhall Finance… Who says Obama Doesn’t Like to Prey? by John Ransom
President Obama- and yes I only capitalized the “p” in president because it was at the beginning of the sentence…. Anyway, as I was saying, president Obama can be best described as the anti-president. He apparently doesn’t care much for getting things done as long as not doing something doesn’t interfere with neglecting keys areas. Got it? Because, there are some areas in which action is absolutely... read more

Investors.com Obamacare's Insurance Exchanges Are Already Turning Into A Disaster
by By Sally C. Pipes - 01/29/2013 - Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, speaking on June 28, 2012, said at a Madison news conference that Wisconsin will not move ahead with... View Enlarged Image Devoted users of Internet radio apps like Pandora may soon hear unexpected sound bites on their favorite music channels — ads touting ObamaCare. That's right. In an attempt to drum up support for the law's health insurance exchanges, some states are planning advertising campaigns that could include everything from... read more

Forbes… How President Obama Lost His Shirt to John Boehner
The House, under the leadership of Speaker John Boehner, has precipitated a postponement in the debt ceiling fight until May. This represents a strategic choice by Boehner to make the Sequester fight, not the debt ceiling fight, the next major engagement. Much of the mainstream media now is accusing Congress of “kicking the can down the road.” They are missing the strategic implications. In retrospect, at the Battle at Fiscal Cliff, Boehner took President... read more

Nullification and What They're Not Telling You, by KrisAnne Hall
I am compelled to share with you a dirty little secret. This secret is one that the government doesn’t want you to know, especially your State legislators, that is if you have one like my dear senator Don Gaetz. You see, senators like Don Gaetz will tell you that if you believe in the sovereignty of the States, if you believe that the States bear the right to nullify unconstitutional federal law, well, you should be “shot and hanged”(yes, he actually said that, read here). These legislators will explain to you... read more

Townhall… Whose Welfare? by Thomas Sowell
Jan 30, 2013 - If there is ever a contest for the law with the most grossly misleading title, the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 should be a prime candidate, because the last thing this Act protects is the welfare of Indian children. The theory behind the Indian Child Welfare Act is that an American Indian child should be raised in an American Indian culture. Based on that theory, a newborn baby of American... read more

Townhall Finance… Welfare Competition Among Nations, by Daniel J. Mitchell
The welfare state creates some amazingly pathetic and disgusting individuals. In the battle of the bums, we’ve had the spectacle of “Diaper Man” vs “Footless Hans.” In the contest for most despicable moocher, we have the “Florida Pedophiles” vs the “Gimme Babymaker.” And the fight for most pathetic victim of dependency features the “Connecticut Kid” vs the “English Loafer.” But I’ve never found a match for Olga, a Greek woman who thinks it is government’s job to take care of her from cradle to... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Vanishing Vote: Rural Influence Dwindles, by Salena Zito
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack warns that rural America is becoming less relevant to the politics of this country, and he urges people to push lawmakers to do something about that. In rural areas, "there just isn‘t as much political juice as there used to be, and I think we have to address that," said Vilsack, a former Iowa governor who grew up in Pittsburgh. Many voters in this state with more than 7.7 million acres of farmland might agree... read more

Redstate… Obama losing his gun control campaign, By Dan Spencer
January 24th, 2013 - New polling from Washington Post-ABC News and Pew find that President Obama’s campaign to repress the Second Amendment right “keep and bear arms” is faltering. On January 22, 2013, Pew released polling results that found the public followed news about Obama’s gun control proposals closely and the reaction is mixed. Only 39 percent think Obama’s proposals are about right, while 31 percent think the proposals go too far. Or, as Politico put it, “39 percent back Obama gun plan... read more

Gun Laws and the Fools of Chelm, By David Mamet
The individual is not only best qualified to provide his own personal defense, he is the only one qualified to do so - Jan 29, 2013 - Karl Marx summed up Communism as “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” This is a good, pithy saying, which, in practice, has succeeded in bringing, upon those under its sway, misery, poverty, rape, torture, slavery, and death. ‘In announcing his gun control proposals, President... read more

Mail Magazine 24… County Sheriff: Power To Protect, by Chuck Baldwin
The local FOX affiliate in Salt Lake City, Utah, has reported that the Utah Sheriff’s Association has written a strongly worded letter to President Barack Obama regarding any potential federal laws that would restrict the citizens of the State of Utah from practicing their Second Amendment rights. The letter was signed by every sheriff in the State of Utah except one. The letter reads in part: “With the number of mass shootings America has endured, it is easy to demonize firearms; it is also... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: Marching for Life, Sarah Torre
January 25, 2013 - Later today, hundreds of thousands of people will descend on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the annual March for Life. Crowds are expected to exceed last year’s 400,000 participants, to walk a now-familiar route to the steps of the Supreme Court to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that, along with an accompanying ruling... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Obamacare Starts Crippling Hospitals, by Gailon Totheroh
Perhaps Obamacare should be titled PenaltyCare. With Medicare now rolling over into Obamacare, many hospitals are taking a hit and losing payments. Particularly hard hit, strangely enough, was well-to-do Connecticut–as reported by Hearst Media Group. Eighty-six percent of the state’s acute-care hospitals were penalized, that is, are losing lots of money under a new Medicare program put in place by Obamacare requirements. One reason for the penalties was readmission. If a person... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: The Urgent Danger in the Senate, By Amy Payne
January 24, 2013 - Think your state has equal representation in the Senate? Well, that could be eliminated soon. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid—a Democrat from Nevada—is trying to ensure that he personally has the final say on all legislation. And under one plan being considered, only three other Senators would be allowed any meaningful contributions. Reid has been talking with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) about an agreement on this nefarious plan. But whether it passes... read more

Townhall… Obama Inaugural: Full of Audacity, but Little Hope, By Michael Barone
Jan 24, 2013 - Commentators both left and right agree that Barack Obama's second inaugural speech Monday was highly partisan, with shout outs to his constituencies on the left and defiance of his critics on the right. Obama quoted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and made brief reference to Abraham Lincoln's sublime Second Inaugural ("blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword"). But there was not much in the way of... read more

Investors.com… What Obama really said in that inaugural speech (And what he left out)
By Andrew Malcolm - 1/22/13 - Not many inaugural addresses go down in history books as memorable, especially second inaugural addresses. Lincoln aside. With few exceptions, inaugurals are mere aspirational tone poems, providing a generally warm, good feeling about where the new or renewed leader wants to take the country although, truth be told, events usually begin reshaping those goals within days. And coming very soon after Inauguration Day is the chief executive's annual State of the Union address... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Hillary on Libya: 'What Difference Does It Make?', by John Nolte
After being pressed today by Republican Senator Ron Johnson to explain how it was that over the course of weeks, the Obama Administration stood by an absurd story claiming that four Americans we're murdered in Libya due to a spontaneous protest gone bad, outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton played the indignation card. Because she obviously had no answer to justify the ongoing White House deception, Secretary Clinton chose... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: Obama’s Second Inaugural Address, Translated
By Amy Payne - January 22, 2013 - Members of Congress—who are about to debate raising the debt ceiling tomorrow—should have paid attention yesterday. The President was very clear that he sees no urgency about reducing the debt and cutting the deficit. In fact, in his second inaugural address, President Barack Obama was honest about his intentions to grow government in order to remake our country along his progressive vision. To sell his agenda, the President borrowed imagery and... read more

Townhall… Beware of Those Advising GOP To Unilaterally Disarm, by David Limbaugh
Jan 22, 2013 - Isn't it ironic that Republicans keep receiving advice to be more conciliatory and work with President Obama while President Obama not only is receiving the opposite advice but fully intends to be even more divisive in his second term? On "Meet the Press" last week, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said: "There's also a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the (Republican) party. What do... read more

Mail Magazine 24… How Washington D.C.’s Gun Ban Led to a Crime Wave in the 80s, by Daniel Greenfield
If there’s any place in America where everything must go smoothly, it’s Washington D.C., the city that runs the country. And that’s true of gun control, which went as smoothly in Washington D.C. as it has everywhere else. The formula is simple. Ban guns. Encourage criminals. As a former prosecutor in Washington, D.C., who enforced firearms and ammunition cases while a severe local gun ban was still in effect, I am skeptical of the benefits that many imagine will result from additional gun-control... read more

Townhall Finance… Federal Court Upholds Wisconsin Law on Unions, By Mike Shedlock
Those looking for excellent news in the midst of a clearly-souring global economy can find it in Wisconsin. I am pleased to report Federal appeals court upholds Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s restrictions on public unions. A federal appeals court on Friday upheld Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s contentious law stripping most public workers of nearly all of their collective bargaining rights in a decision hailed by Republicans but not undoing a state court ruling... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Who’s Afraid of Fracking? by Deroy Murdock
If frackophobes are to be believed, natural gas fracking is the most frightful environmental nightmare since Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant melted down after an earthquake and tsunami. In "Promised Land," Matt Damon's new anti-fracking movie -- funded in part by the United Arab Emirates -- one character demonstrates this production technique's "dangers" by drenching a toy farm with household chemicals and then setting it ablaze... read more

Townhall… The War on Pot: Not a Safe Bet, by Steve Chapman
Jan 20, 2013 - As recreational drugs go, marijuana is relatively benign. Unlike alcohol, it doesn't stimulate violence or destroy livers. Unlike tobacco, it doesn't cause lung cancer and heart disease. The worst you can say is that it produces intense, unreasoning panic. Not in users, but in critics. Those critics have less influence all the time. Some 18 states permit medical use of marijuana, and in November, Colorado and Washington voted to allow recreational... read more

Investors.com… Obama's Social Security Games Make Case For Private Pensions
01/15/2013 - Politics: President Obama threatened Social Security checks would be delayed if Congress didn't play ball on the debt ceiling. Once again, he turned pensions into a political football. There are ways to stop this. Americans should know: Social Security payments won't be affected by debt-ceiling talks, and Obama knows it. Still, it's not as if the Social Security system is healthy. In a Page 1 story Monday, IBD's Jed Graham reported that 2013 marks the first year new Social... read more

Townhall Finance… Without Deep Spending Cuts, the Republicans Lose the House in 2014
by Larry Kudlow - Okay, it’s official. According to the Treasury Department, the U.S. debt jumped to $16.1 trillion in 2012 from $14.8 trillion in 2011. That’s a $1.3 trillion deficit for the last year. Remarkable. During President Obama’s first term, the federal debt rose by roughly $6 trillion. Now, if they are bold, House Republicans will take advantage of these dismal numbers. Bold means bold spending cuts... read more

Investors.com… President Obama's Cat-Food Future For Retirees
01/16/2013 - The Obama Economy: Americans are drawing down their 401(k)s for nonretirement needs in record numbers, just as Social Security goes bust. This portends poverty for millions as the White House fiddles. Cat food, anyone? One out of four U.S. workers with 401(k) retirement savings accounts has been forced to cash them out or borrow from them at high costs just to stay solvent. The Washington Post, citing a report from financial advisory firm HelloWallet, said the withdrawals have... read more

Canada Free Press… Why are we pretending? By EK Robinson
Sunday, January 13, 2013 - Why are we pretending? Pretending that elections in 2014 might change things, that elections in 2016 could too? Even now the Republicans and their talk show supporters are flailing about as if there is some future in electoral politics for them. They discuss strategy as if it mattered, not seeming to get that they have been marginalized. It is over. It is part of the plan. The template for stealing elections in America at the national level has been set in the 2012 election... read more

Redstate… Spending at Gun Point, By Breeanne Howe
January 17th, 2013 - In the days leading up to President Obama announcing his gun control plans, and now that he has, the focus of Republicans and Conservatives has been squarely on his ever-encroaching attack on the Second Amendment. As Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus stated on the President’s move, “He paid lip service to our fundamental constitutional rights, but took... read more

Townhall… The Government Giveth, by Marita Noon
Or, do they take and then give? It appears to be a vicious cycle with no beginning or end. For the last four years, President Obama and his EPA have waged a war on coal. Though they deny it, their regulations have cost thousands of miners their jobs, and hundreds of coal-fueled power plants are scheduled to be closed within the next few years. On January 7, Georgia Power announced that it will “shut down 15 coal and oil-fired units, cutting nearly ... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Facts Anti-Gun Advocates Don’t Want You to Know, by Giacomo
After last summer’s shooting in Aurora, Colorado and last month’s shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, anti-gun advocates want you to believe that America is a nation infected with violent crimes and murders. They want you to believe that we are one, if not the, most violent nation in the world and that we have to rid the nation of guns to solve the problem.But what are the real facts? Amidst the Noise released a video on You Tube (you can watch the video on the right) that... read more

Townhall… How I Spent My Sick Days, by Steve Chapman
Jan 13, 2013 - Recently, after a couple of days of feeling a bit run down, I groused to my wife that I didn't feel bad enough to miss work, just bad enough to make work a lot harder than usual. "It might be nice to feel bad enough to have to stay home," I said sardonically. Scratch that thought. The microbes have ears. A couple of days later, I had gotten my rash wish -- complete with cough, sneezing, scratchy throat... read more

Townhall… You Can't Call a Pretty Girl Pretty; What Kind of Country Are We Becoming?
by Mark Davis - Jan 11, 2013 - Before examining the ridiculous controversy stemming from Monday night’s college football championship broadcast, let us stipulate that there are more urgent and scary ways to describe the current changes in America. We are becoming a culture of dependency. We are becoming a neo-socialist experiment. We are becoming a dumbed-down nation unappreciative of its founders. We are losing touch with the Constitution and the very concept of liberty... read more

Townhall Finance… 24 Million Martyrs, by John Ransom
I wish Obama and the Democrats could be as passionate about jobs as they are about, say, the contents of Happy Meals. Or the dust from cement factories. Or the habitat of the red-cockaded woodpecker. While the wizard of DC remains a master of illusion and delusion, focusing everyone’s attention on the man behind the curtain- and his 20 Little Martyrs- the jobless recovery now enters its fifth year with no signs that hiring will be picking up soon... read more

Townhall Finance… America’s Future? Look to Illinois, by Fritz Pfister
Somewhere along the line I remember a song about how you can take the kid out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the kid. Guess one could write a song, you can take the kid out of Chicago but you can’t take Chicago out of the kid. In October of 2008 my warnings went unheeded regarding candidate Barack Obama. All one needed do to see America in four years was to look at Blagojevich’s Illinois. It turned out worse than imagined. Blagojevich’s Illinois was reeling in corruption... read more

2012 Darwin Awards, Sent by a CNO Reader
Nominee No. 1: [San Jose Mercury News]: An unidentified man, using a shotgun like a club to break a former girl friend's windshield, accidentally shot himself to death when the gun discharged, blowing a hole in his gut. Nominee No. 2: [Kalamazoo Gazette]: James Burns, 34, (a mechanic) of Alamo MI, was killed in March as he was trying to repair what police describe as a "farm-type truck." Burns... read more

Mail Magazine 24… IRS Watchdog Says Tax Code Too Complex, Recommends Romney’s Tax Plan
by Duane Lester - In her annual report to Congress, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson told them what most Americans already know: the tax code is too complex. It’s so complex, she said, it actually hurts revenue: The report said Congress should approach tax reform in a manner similar to zero-based budgeting — encouraging Congress to examine the entire tax code with the idea of scrapping all tax breaks except those with the greatest public benefit. That’s the rub, isn’t it? After all, who... read more

Huffington Post… The Soul of America, By Bernie Sanders
Despite such terminology as "fiscal cliff" and "debt ceiling," the great debate taking place in Washington now has relatively little to do with financial issues. It is all about ideology. It is all about economic winners and losers in American society. It is all about the power of Big Money. It is all about the soul of America. In America today, we have the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth, and more inequality than at any... read more

Redstate… Fact-Checking Matt Damon’s ‘Promised Land’, By: Steve Maley
Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kentucky any more. ... Kentucky, Kansas, whatever. January 8th, 2013 - I wasted $7.75 on Hollywood’s latest anti-fracking agitprop “Promised Land” (1) so you won’t have to. You can read movie reviews elsewhere. From what I’ve seen, they’ve been rather lukewarm. And in its first weekend of nationwide distribution, audience response was tepid at best. In the words of lead actor/screenwriter Matt Damon, “Who ****ing wants to go see an anti-fracking... read more

Townhall… The Role of 'Educators', by Thomas Sowell
Jan 08, 2013 - Many years ago, as a young man, I read a very interesting book about the rise of the Communists to power in China. In the last chapter, the author tried to explain why and how this had happened. Among the factors he cited were the country's educators. That struck me as odd, and not very plausible, at the time. But the passing years have made that seem less and less odd, and more and more... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: 13 Tax Increases in 2013, By Curtis Dubay
January 8, 2013 New Year’s Day was tough for taxpayers. Thirteen tax increases kicked in. The deal that Congress and President Obama struck that finally—but only partially—avoided the fiscal cliff resulted in seven tax increases. Those hikes combined with six tax increases from Obamacare that also began on New Year’s Day. 13 Tax Increases That Started January 1, 2013 Tax increases the fiscal cliff deal allowed: 1. Payroll tax: increase in the Social Security portion of the payroll tax from 4.2 percent... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: The Slow Dismantling of Obamacare, By Amy Payne
January 7, 2013 - Things aren’t going so well for Obamacare. Even Democrats in Congress aren’t huge fans any more. It seems after passing the law and finding out what’s in it, the allure has faded—so much so that Congress actually repealed part of Obamacare in the fiscal cliff deal last week. That’s right—part of Obamacare has been completely undone. It was the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act, essentially a new entitlement program for... read more

Townhall… Five Good Men, by Katie Kieffer
Jan 07, 2013 - There are a few good men. And by “a few,” I mean five. Certainly there are far more than five good men in America. But in the U.S. Senate, there are just five moral Republicans. Who am I referring to? Let me introduce you to the five men in the Senate who stood their ground while their Republican peers (save two abstainers) voted for a fiscal cliff deal that essentially codifies theft: Sen. Rand Paul... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Obama's 'Cash For Clunkers' Unleashed 'Environmental Nightmare'
by Wynton Hall - In a classic tale illustrating the “law of unintended consequences,” a new report concludes that President Barack Obama’s $3 billion “Cash for Clunkers” taxpayer-funded boondoggle artificially drove car prices up, not down, and unleashed an “environmental nightmare” through shredding, not recycling, many of the 690,000 cars people traded in for an up to $4,500 car credit. In 2009, Mr. Obama proudly declared that his Cash for Clunkers program, officially known as the Car... read more

Redstate… The Trouble For Conservatives, By Erick Erickson
January 7th, 2013 - Jim Bridenstine may get a primary challenge. You may not know who he is, but Jim Bridenstine is a brand new member of Congress, a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy Reserves, a fighter pilot from the Iraq and Afghan Wars, and a strong fiscal conservative. He should be a hero to any and all Republicans. He’s a genuine bad ass. And on Day 1, he decided not to vote for John... read more

Akron Beacon Journal… Defining ‘college ready’
January 3, 2013 - Slowly, Ohio’s public colleges and universities are raising the expectations bar, spelling out more precisely the minimum preparation they require for incoming students. This week, the college presidents unveiled a uniform set of standards to serve as a measure of the ability of freshmen to handle postsecondary coursework. The step is a critical part of a sharper focus on performance and accountability in higher education. If anything has become clear in recent decades, it is that personal... read more

Townhall… Getting Dirty Getting bin Laden, by Debra J. Saunders
Jan 06, 2013 - During George W. Bush's presidency, it was a matter of liberal faith that the use of enhanced interrogation techniques on al-Qaida members "undermine our moral authority and do not make us safer," as Barack Obama once put it. According to Obama, "enhanced interrogation techniques" are wrong, and -- no matter what common sense tells you -- they never work. Asking nicely works best with terrorists. "Zero Dark Thirty"... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Middle-earners Hit Hardest By Fiscal Deal, by Hayley Peterson
Middle-class workers will take a bigger hit to their income proportionately than those earning between $200,000 and $500,000 under the new fiscal cliff deal, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Earners in the latter group will pay an average 1.3 percent more - or an additional $2,711 - in taxes this year, while workers making between $30,000 and $200,000 will see their paychecks shrink by as much as 1.7 percent - or up to $1,784 - the D.C.-based think tank reported... read more

Townhall… Sweet Reason, by Ken Blackwell
Jan 04, 2013 - Editor's Note: This column was co-authored by Bob Morrison. Much of the Internet exploded in wrath over Pope Benedict XVI’s Christmas greetings to the Roman curia. Delivered in those historic halls painted by Renaissance artists, the Pope’s address was given to those tasked with administering the Vatican State and serving the Catholic faithful worldwide. “Rant!” “Hateful!” “Outrageous!” These were some of the milder expletives cast at the... read more

Townhall… Ten Ways to Start the New Year Fresh, by Jackie Gingrich Cushman
Jan 03, 2013 - It's the beginning of a new year and a great chance to start over -- but how? Here are 10 ways to gain a fresh start in 2013. 1) What's past is past. Wipe all the disappointments of 2012 from your mind. They cannot be changed, and any amount of dwelling and wallowing will not help. Pretend you have amnesia and that it never happened, while retaining the lessons learned from the experience. Then do this again every month, every week, every... read more

Townhall… If Demography Is Destiny, Good News for Texas, D.C., by Michael Barone
Jan 03, 2013 - Demographics buffs get a special Christmas present every year courtesy of the Census Bureau: its annual estimates of the populations of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. This gives demographers a chance to see where the nation is growing and where it is not, and to get an idea of the destination of immigrants and of the flow of people into one set of states and out of another. Nationally, the Census Bureau estimates that the United... read more

Kim Komando… Historical newspapers
In today's digital age, newspapers have to compete with plenty of other formats. But that doesn't mean you can't still enjoy a good read - especially newspapers with historical value. The Library of Congress has collected thousands of newspapers from all over the U.S. since 1836 in its Chronicling America section. You can browse more than 100 newspapers printed from 1836 to 1922 online. They are perfect for use in research projects, or just... read more

Townhall… Obama's Tax Evaders of the Year, by Michelle Malkin
Jan 02, 2013 - President Obama will kick off the new year the same way that he kicked off the old year: by demanding that the wealthy pay their "fair share" in taxes. But while millions of small-business owners, struggling entrepreneurs, inventors and investors brace for a double whammy of fiscal cliff tax hikes and new Obamacare taxes, the class-warrior in chief's richest pals are getting a pass. It's a Golden Pass for liberal millionaires and billionaires who... read more

Townhall Finance… Putting the Spending Genie Back in the Bottle, By Bob Beauprez
As the following chart (click link below) from Investor's Business Daily demonstrates, The Bush Tax Cuts didn't starve the federal treasury – revenue flooded in as the economy expanded from the pro-growth policies implemented in 2003 and continued until the sub-prime mortgage market collapse. Even with the anemic Obama economic recovery, revenues are again nearly equal to the level required to fund the... read more

A Year of Time… Steven B. Cloud
Pulpit Helps, Vol. 14, # 2 …Though even thinking on the subject of time may prove discomforting, it is not a bad idea—especially at the beginning of a new year. As we look into <year> we look at a block of time. We see 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes, 31,536,000 seconds. And all is a gift from God. We have done nothing to deserve it, earn it, or purchased it. Like the air... read more

The Columbus Dispatch… Leap year; After repairing state, Kasich's bold 2012 course is transforming Ohio
For Ohio and its governor, 2012 has been a transformative year. John Kasich sped through his second year with his trademark zeal for getting done the big and difficult things, hardly skipping a beat after his 2011 reforms stabilized the state. When Kasich took office that January, the state’s budget had an $8 billion shortfall and its economy was in a freefall. More than 400,000 Ohioans had lost their jobs. Former Gov. Ted Strickland clearly was in over... read more

Townhall Finance… On Being a Man, By John Ransom
This week I will be taking selections from writings I've written elsewhere regarding life and liberty and sharing them with you. Today's selection is a letter I wrote to someone who was coming of age and wanted advice about being a man. It's not that I think I'm an expert. Far from it. But he thought it helpful and it can serve as a point of discussion for Christmas Day. Dear __________, Before this last century boys your age were considered men really. They held... read more

Verities & Balderdash... Lessons of the Season from our furry friends, Bob Robinson
I received these photos from a CNO reader… it was one of those email blasts that most of us receive on a fairly regular basis. While it was sent some time ago, I was too busy to put them into the system for publication. Now I’m glad. With Christmas and the Holiday Season upon us, I figured there wouldn’t be a better time. With the posturing and partisan bickering going on in Washington, a... read more

Redstate… Here, By Erick Erickson
December 21st, 2012 - On Christmas Day of 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned the poem “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” His oldest son had been badly wounded in the Civil War the prior month and Longfellow’s wife had died in an accidental fire. Among the lines were these: And in despair I bowed my head; ”There is no peace on earth,” I said; ”For hate is strong, And mocks the song Of peace... read more

Townhall Finance… So What if Congress is Missing a Screw? Or Two? by Bill Tatro
It’s Christmas time and ‘tis the season to be jolly. Yet, it’s also the season that tries men’s souls. Many Christmases ago, my young daughter requested a doll and a baby carriage. Making sure that Santa Claus found the correct toys was crucial because this just happened to be a last-minute request. I called around and found that of all the stores that carried these items, only one store still had them in stock. Apparently, these were very popular toys. With minutes ticking by until closing... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Obama, Clinton escape blame in Benghazi report, by Neil Munro
The State Department’s report on the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi describes a series of strategy and management failures, but does not assign responsibility to any individual Americans — not even to the secretary of state or the president of the United States. “Systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State Department... read more

Canton Repository… What will change? Probably nothing
The issue: Aftermath of Connecticut massacre; Our view: Washington won’t magically fix itself to tackle gun, mental health issues
President Obama has given Vice President Joe Biden until January to collect recommendations for proposals to reduce gun violence. It’s another sign that the senseless slaughter of 20 children and seven adults in Connecticut last week may be a tipping point in public opinion in what seems like an endless national conversation about violence... read more

Cleveland Plain Dealer… Make schools harder targets by giving them the means to fight back
By Kevin Obrien - Thursday, December 20, 2012 - After a horrific event like last week's mass murder at a Connecticut school, two questions immediately arise: "Why?" and "What are we going to do about it?" There are correct answers to both. How many such incidents it takes to drive us to them remains to be seen. Here's "why": We live in and promote a society that routinely dehumanizes people. A thriving abortion industry kills a million American children every year, because they are seen as... read more

Fox News… OPINION: The Issue Is Too Little Mental Health Care
Dec 17, 2012 - Adam Lanza, 20, who killed 20 children and 6 adults on Friday, has brought incalculable grief to dozens of families and stunned our nation. Now, the debate begins about what to do in the wake of his carnage in Newtown, Connecticut and the multiple murders in Aurora, Colorado and at Columbine High School, the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota and the West Nickel Mines School in Pennsylvania, Virginia Tech and Chardon High School in Ohio. Some will say that gun... read more

Townhall… "Forward" to the Past? By Thomas Sowell
Dec 19, 2012 - The political slogan "Forward" served Barack Obama well during this year's election campaign. It said that he was for going forward, while Republicans were for "going back to the failed policies that got us into this mess in the first place." It was great political rhetoric and great political theater. Moreover, the Republicans did virtually nothing to challenge its shaky assumptions with a few hard facts that could have made those assumptions... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Christiana's Nightmare – for the Rest of Us, by Craig Rucker
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ("UNFCCC") boss Christiana Figueres' dreams spell a nightmarish future for Earth's citizens. Talk about alignment of the stars! Barack Obama based his 2008 presidential campaign on the principle of "sharing the wealth." He won, got reelected and now has, at least in his own mind, a flat-out mandate to extend his vision for wealth redistribution (and wealth destruction) planet-wide. This week, as United Nations luminaries gather in Doha... read more

Redstate… Bull—- By Erick Erickson
December 19th, 2012 - An old joke, long attributed to Winston Churchill goes like this. Churchill asked a famous British socialite, “Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?” “My goodness, Mr. Churchill. Well, I suppose we would have to discuss terms, of course,” the socialite replied. Churchill then asked, “Would you sleep with me for five pounds?” at which the socialite angrily responded, “Mr. Churchill, what... read more

Mail Magazine 24… The Massacre in Connecticut - Food for Thought, by Bright Knight
“Every time something really bad happens, people cry out for safety, and the government answers by taking rights away from good people” - Penn Jilette - Before I'll give you some “food for thought” I want to say that this tragedy makes my heart feel sick and we must do whatever possible to avoid such massacres. I know that there is NO way to totally avoid them, thinking of that is like living in Utopia, but there are ways to at least increase the safety, minimize the risk and in case that an attack... read more

The Power of the Cartoon, Bob Robinson
The old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” pales in comparison to the potential power of a good cartoon, especially a good political cartoon. Political cartoons aren’t always “political.” They can tell a story, tell about an event… today or in history. They can capture the mood of a country, state or city. They can touch the emotions in ways that no written word ever could. And they do it with a simple... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: What Will the Fiscal Cliff Deal Look Like? By Amy Payne
December 14, 2012 - This week, President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) have been trading secret offers on the fiscal cliff. Last night, they met for nearly an hour, and emerged with zipped lips about what progress—if any—they made on averting tax hikes across the board and automatic, deep budget cuts that would devastate America’s defenses. While action is necessary to avoid the “cliff,” that is all they should do at this late date. Patrick Louis Knudsen, Heritage... read more

Redstate… Goodwill to Men, By Erick Erickson
On Friday in Connecticut, more than two dozen, mostly children, were gunned down in an act of evil. I once read an account that young men killed on the beaches of Normandy, as they lay dying, called out for their mothers. I tear up at even the glancing thought of the cries of the children in Connecticut and dare not take the mental walk down that road. Children cry out for their mommy and their daddy. Young men on the battlefield, as death comes over... read more

Mail Magazine 24… A victory for all law abiding gun owners in Illinois
Federal Court Strikes down Illinois' total ban on carrying firearms for self-defense outside the home or business
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled today that Illinois' total ban on carrying firearms for self-defense outside the home or business is unconstitutional. The case involves lead plaintiff Mary Shepard, an Illinois resident and a trained gun owner, who is licensed to carry a concealed handgun in both Utah and Florida. The National Rifle Association is funding... read more

Townhall… Tax Rich Liberals, by Ann Coulter
Dec 12, 2012 - Republicans have been forced into a Hobson's choice of either letting the Bush tax cuts expire for everyone or agreeing to a tax hike on the top 2 percent of income earners (not to be confused with "the rich," who have already made, inherited or married their money). If Republicans object to the Democrats' hitting job creators with a tax hike, three things will happen: Taxes will go up for everyone. Republicans will be seen as the... read more

Columbus Dispatch… Editorial: Begging for mercy, Crime victims asking for voice, accountability from Ohio Parole Board Wednesday December 12, 2012 - For nearly eight years, Robert Francis has begged the Ohio legislature to pass a bill in remembrance of his murdered daughter. But unless lawmakers vote on this important bill in Thursday’s final session of the 129th Ohio General Assembly, Roberta’s Law will die. Senate Bill 160 requires the state to attempt to notify victims of violent crimes, or their relatives, about the possible release of inmates, including those whose crimes predated the 1996 creation of a... read more

Investors.com… Taxpayers Suffer Where The 'Public Servant' Is King
Ohio ranks sixth on the upper end - Government Pay: Some big states get their money's worth from their workers, others could use more discipline, and California, as is all too often the case, is in a class by itself. How can you tell who really runs a state? Try following the money, especially in the rival realms of public- and private-sector pay. You'll find some sharp differences in how government work is rewarded, corresponding roughly to the fiscal and economic health of the states. Here... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Grover's Missing Piece, by Michael Snyder
For years, Grover Norquist and Republicans have tried "starving the beast" of the federal government by capping taxes. While they've been highly successful at preventing tax increases, they have been less effective at addressing one problematic aspect of fiscal policy: the ability of the Federal Reserve and Treasury to borrow more and more to finance massive spending, as they have done... read more

Investors.com… Union Violence In Michigan Is No Tea Party
12/12/2012 - Organized Labor: The assault on a Fox News contributor protecting women and seniors in a tent is but the latest example of the civil discourse and respect for democracy the president's union supporters really have. Imagine the outrage and the mainstream media feeding frenzy had it been a Tea Party member punching an MSNBC contributor covering a protest over ObamaCare. Or if Tea Party members had descended on a tent full of Occupy Wall Street supporters, flattening... read more

Townhall Government Gone Bad, by John Stossel
Dec 12, 2012 - Politicians claim they make our lives better by passing laws. But laws rarely improve life. They go wrong. Unintended consequences are inevitable. Most voters don't pay enough attention to notice. They read headlines. They watch the Rose Garden signing ceremonies and hear the pundits declare that progress was made. Bipartisanship! Something got done. We assume a problem was solved. Intuition tells us that government is in the ... read more

Heritage Foundation… Unions Losing in Their Last Stronghold, By Amy Payne
December 11, 2012 - This is the week that Michigan’s workers will finally be freed from forced unionization. After decades of United Auto Workers control over the struggling American auto industry, the Michigan legislature’s passing of a right-to-work law is historic. Governor Rick Snyder (R) is expected to sign the law as early as tomorrow. Regardless of news reports, the people of Michigan are behind this. A recent poll showed that 51 percent of Michigan voters support right-to-work. Only 41 percent... read more

Toledo Blade, Death by regulation
Don't let the perfect become the enemy of the good: That’s the best you can say about the Ohio House’s latest effort to get rid of the Internet sweepstakes cafés that have sprung up all over the state. The cafés sell prepaid phone cards or Internet time that customers can use to play Web-based games. Winning earns them more Internet time, as well as points that allow them to win money in... read more

Mail Magazine 24… GOP Establishment Sees Rise Of Conservative Movement As Problem, Bright Knight
There is a pattern: Conservative Congressmen are getting punished for being conservative, Michele Bachmann was attacked from RINOs for asking the right questions, Allen West didn't get support. And now the GOP establishment sees the conservative movement as a problem, i.e. they see their own roots, their (now forgotten) core values as a problem. Very interesting! Actually, that's exactly what I expected. The GOP moves to center-left, hoping to get those voters who are not comfortable... read more

Townhall… Adams 2016, by Mike Adams
Dec 10, 2012 - I'm getting sick and tired of people asking me why I'm running for president in 2016. The answer is that I have to run. The GOP can't run another big government establishment candidate masquerading as a true conservative. So I'm stepping up to the plate. And I'm going to win, largely because my policies will appeal to young people, libertarians, and Reagan Democrats. But that’s enough of the generalities... read more

Cleveland Plain Dealer… A college proposal worth enacting: editorial
Saturday, December 08, 2012 - By The Plain Dealer Editorial Board - Ohio Gov. John Kasich's penchant for breaking the mold in higher education deserves applause once again. Fresh off his success having Ohio's public college presidents work collaboratively to divvy up limited construction funds, Kasich's prompting has again spurred a successful collaboration -- this time to make college graduation rates a more important factor in state funding decisions. The governor again asked E. Gordon Gee of Ohio... read more

Redstate… Why John Boehner Must Not Fold on Tax Rate Increases, By Erick Erickson
December 6th, 2012 - Often things get lost in the daily grind of politics. The fact that the GOP is willing to raise taxes gets lost by the media because the media wants the GOP to raise rates. This Politico story makes very clear John Boehner must not raise rates. Better to go off the cliff than raise rates. In a meeting with leadership staff, [Rob] Nabors reiterated the administration’s hard line that tax rates on top earners must go up, according to Republican... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Where in the world have tax increases made things better? by Matt Purple
The left and much of the center are launching a scorched-earth assault against the right's position on taxes. Republicans are being told they must hike taxes on top earners if they're serious about paying down the debt. Grover Norquist is being portrayed as a mad sorcerer, staggering around and misfiring spells in fits of pique while his entranced minions slowly come to. Here in Washington, meaningless buzzwords are fluttering through the air like dead autumn leaves. "Serious." "Hostage takers... read more

MSN Money… Why not jump off the fiscal cliff?
We're now just weeks away from the "fiscal cliff" -- an austere package of tax hikes and spending cuts set to kick in Jan. 1, 2013, and worth $720 billion next year alone. Yet the politicos in Washington look miles away from even a short-term extension. President Barack Obama, charged up by his re-election, opened negotiations by offering a deal (similar to his 2013 budget proposal) that also includes... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Food stamp advocates misconstrue program, by Jim DeMint
Newark Mayor Corey Booker’s self-imposed challenge to subsist solely on foods purchased on a food stamp budget might be interesting if it were intellectually honest. Booker’s sacrifice is supposed to demonstrate how hard it is to rely solely on food stamps for adequate nutrition and why the government should increase those benefits. That suggests food stamps are supposed to pay for complete meal replacements. Not so. Food stamps are funded through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance... read more

Miss me yet? A surprise for returning troops, From Bob Robinson
I got these from a reader. I’d seen it before but didn’t do anything other than enjoy the photos. This time I checked it out just to make sure it was legit… Why? Because quite frankly, the way things are going today I miss the guy. And yes, the photos are legit. I didn’t like a few of the things our 43rd President did, but he did it with good old-fashioned “down-home” style. And he was passionate. He misspoke some words here and there, but his grin... read more

Heritage Network… Morning Bell: Obama Wants Power to Raise Debt Limit By Himself, Anytime
By Amy Payne - December 5, 2012 President Obama wants to do away with Congress when it comes to raising the country’s legal debt limit. Instead of getting permission from the people’s elected representatives to borrow and spend more money, he wants to do that all by himself. It seems typical of the President Obama we know, but just a few years ago, he spoke vehemently against putting America in debt. Here is then-Senator Barack Obama on March 16, 2006: The fact that we are here today ... read more

Townhall… Future Generations, by Walter E. Williams
Dec 05, 2012 Is there any reason for today's Americans to care about what happens to tomorrow's Americans? After all, what have tomorrow's Americans done for today's Americans? Moreover, since tomorrow's Americans don't vote, we can dump on them with impunity. That's a vision that describes the actual behavior of today's Americans. It would be seen as selfish, callous and ruthless only if it were actually articulated. Let's look at it. Businesses,... read more

Heritage Network… Morning Bell: House Republicans Cave on Tax Increases and Punt Entitlements
By Amy Payne - December 4, 2012 - When President Obama put forth his first offer on the fiscal cliff, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said, “You can’t be serious.” We could say the same thing to the Speaker after his counteroffer yesterday. In a letter signed by House Republican leadership, including Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), Boehner offered to raise taxes by $800 billion and cut spending by $1.4 trillion, with no substantive... read more

H.R. on Board… Fallen Soldier, From Fly Guy, an airline pilot
July 4, 2008 - Another 4th of July is here and all across the nation, millions of us will celebrate in thousands of different ways. Our military members around the world will miss out on hometown celebrations, instead, performing the duties assigned to them. This story is in honor of them. As a commercial pilot, I too see the effects of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last month I showed up to start a trip and... read more

Edgefield Daily… 16-Year-Old's Reaction to Obama's Reelection More Mature than News Anchors
By: Hannah P. Mosley - web posted November 9, 2012 - GUEST OPINION - I am writing to you today because I feel an enormous burden to do so. As we all know, President Obama was reelected [Tuesday] night. In the past years as I’ve gotten older it has become evident that many of the people I encounter don’t understand why I hold the political views that I do as an African-American. I pray that you will take the time out to read what I want to say. This election, in my opinion was significant not... read more

Townhall… 20 Observations About Human Nature That Liberals Would Probably Disagree With
By John Hawkins - Dec 01, 2012 - 1) Working hard, being self-reliant and taking responsibility for your own life are good for you and will make you much happier than having too much leisure time, being overly dependent and giving others responsibility for your life. 2) The more a behavior is rewarded with attention, fame, sympathy or money, the more of it we'll see. We recognize this almost instinctively when it comes to good behaviors, but we also tend to... read more

Mail Magazine 24… The Fiscal Cliff: Another Crisis the Dems Won’t Let Go to Waste, by Bruce Thornton
As the economy hurtles towards the Fiscal Cliff, President Obama on Wednesday scheduled a campaign event. There he recycled the class warfare rhetoric of rich people paying their “fair share” and the need to take a “fair and balanced” approach to the looming disaster. Ignored was the biggest driver of our impending bankruptcy: the runaway entitlement spending that for decades has been identified as our biggest fiscal challenge. Yet so far, the Democrats have taken a hard line against any reforms of... read more

Townhall… Five Percent, by Rich Galen
Nov 30, 2012 - The good news about coming to the end of November is that we will soon embark on December meaning the clock will be clicking toward January by which time the Fiscal Cliff business will dealt with. Until the long scythe of the grim reaper signals the looming end of 2012, the parties to a potential solution will spend as much time posturing in public as parleying in private. I gotta tell you. I don't understand all this anyway. I know my taxes are... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Obama demands $1.6 trillion tax boost, and an unlimited credit card
Neil Munro writes at the Daily Caller (dailycaller.com): President Barack Obama has dramatically upped his demands in the fiscal crisis negotiations: He wants Congress to levy twice as much in extra taxes from Americans as he urged during the election campaign, give up its control over the nation’s debt limit, and fund an immediate $50 billion stimulus for his political priorities. In exchange, Obama offered to consider — but not necessarily accept — GOP proposals for cutting $400 billion... read more

Townhall… An Overdue Book, by Thomas Sowell
Nov 28, 2012 - If everyone in America had read Stephen Moore's new book, "Who's The Fairest of Them All?", Barack Obama would have lost the election in a landslide. The point here is not to say, "Where was Stephen Moore when we needed him?" A more apt question might be, "Where was the whole economics profession when we needed them?" Where were the media? For that matter, where were the Republicans? Since "Who's The Fairest of... read more

Columbus Dispatch… Short takes
Dispatch editorials express the view of the Dispatch editorial board, which is made up of the publisher, the president of The Dispatch, the editor and the editorial-writing staff. As is the traditional newspaper practice, the editorials are unsigned and intended to be seen as the voice of the newspaper. Comments and questions should be directed to the editorial page... read more

Investors.com… Obama Sets GOP Trap With Fiscal Cliff Strategy
11/28/2012 - Fiscal Cliff: President Obama is back in fifth-gear campaign mode, in an around-the-country push to get Republicans to cave in on taxes. But his "My2K" strategy offers no concessions of his own. It can't be stressed strongly enough: What President Obama is now up to seeks to destroy the Republican Party as it has existed since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. That revitalized political institution became a party of ideas based on economic freedom, such as fighting for... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Obama Tax Hike on Small Business Would Chill Hiring, by Romina Boccia
“Would raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans have a chilling effect on hiring in this country?” When asked this question by Today’s Matt Lauer, Warren Buffett confidently answered, “No.” How could this be, when the tax hikes desired by President Obama would fall directly on some of America’s most successful job creators? As Kris Roglieri wrote in The Washington Post: What policymakers fail to realize is that most small business owners, who also employ most of the country... read more

Akron Beacon Journal… Poll: Powerful incentive
November 26, 2012 - The Department of Energy and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory recently declared wind “a credible source” of new electricity generation for the country. Their report noted that wind power has grown dramatically, prices falling by 20 percent to 30 percent the past four years. Only natural gas has added more electricity capacity since 2006. The development of wind power brings benefits in the form of cleaner energy and a more diverse set of energy sources, among other things ... read more

Townhall Finance… It's the Grand Spending, Stupid!, by Bob Beauprez
Supposedly there are grand negotiations ongoing in Washington in search of a grand bargain to avoid a grand calamity - pushing the nation over the fiscal cliff. It appears, however, that whatever discussion is really happening is focused on how much additional "revenue" to extract from taxpayers' pockets instead of how strict of a diet to impose on the federal government. The Democrats are obsessing about raising tax rates, while the GOP talks about ... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Poll: More Americans Blame Republicans For Fiscal Cliff Impasse, by Bright Knight
Here we go again! Whatever happens benefits the Failure-in-Chief: if it goes wrong, the Republicans are blamed and if it works the Failure-in-Chief gets the merit. There is NO chance that Obama will move one inch toward the Republicans. Why should he? It works perfect for him the way it is. This is just freaking unbelievable! I mentioned it before and I finally think it might be the best solution: the GOP should have a press conference and tell the American people that the Failure-in-Chief... read more

Redstate… A Primer for Rich Donors Who Got Taken by Republican Consultants
By Erick Erickson - November 27th, 2012 - When consultants told rich donors who were funding them that they were not making money off the Super PAC’s that the rich idiots . . . er . . . donors funded, they were being honest. They probably were not. But ad heavy Super PACs outsourced the ad buys, the mail, the data collection, etc. to other groups that got commissions and you can be sure that a lot of these supposedly... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Can America Handle The Truth? by Jeff Greenlee
The United States of America is at a tipping point. It is past time we are told the truth and begin to solve the problems. The time for false hopes, hugs, and feel-good can-kicking is over. The talk is all about the ‘fiscal cliff’ and whether or not we can figure out a bipartisan solution to the economic realities that are going to happen sooner rather than later. The Benghazi scandal and the true motives of abandoning our own brave Americans in a time of need are undergoing a huge whitewash. The number of... read more

Townhall… Minorities Disproportionately Worse Off Under Obama, by Rachel Alexander
Nov 25, 2012 - It is puzzling that so many minorities voted for Barack Obama over Mitt Romney considering how disproportionately they have suffered economically during Obama's presidency. Black unemployment under Obama increased at a higher pace than whites, from 12.7% to 14.1%, ending at almost twice the unemployment rate of whites. Now, one out of every seven blacks is unemployed. White unemployment barely increased under Obama... read more

Upstart Business Journal… 14 tips for dealing with angry customers, by Young Entrepreneur Council
November 19, 2012 - When addressing online complaints from customers, members of the Young Entrepreneur Council suggest getting the customer on the phone and having a kind attitude can help remedy the situation… Young Entrepreneur Council We have all heard "the customer is always right"—whether this adage is true or not is up for debate—but we can all agree customers are not always easy to deal with. We asked the Young Entrepreneurship Council how they handle angry customers, particularly... read more

Townhall Finance… Let's Tax Matt Damon, by John Ransom
In the name of shared sacrifice, it’s time to impose a tax on the $7 billion in box office receipts that Hollywood generates. I added up the domestic box office activity for the week August 26 through September 1st based on figures provided by Variety. The take for the week for Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Our Idiot Brother, Spy Kids: All The Time In The World, plus 130 other box office leaders was $136 million. Year-to-date those films... read more

Mail Magazine 24… How the public education system has failed Black and Hispanic students
In America's public high schools, 45% of black students and 43% of Hispanics (as compared to 22% of whites) drop out before their classes graduate. Dropout rates are especially high in urban areas with large minority populations, including such academic basket cases as the District of Columbia (57%), Trenton (59%), Camden (61.4%), Baltimore (65.4%), Cleveland (65.9%), and Detroit (75.1%). Of those black and Hispanic students who do manage to earn a diploma, a large percentage... read more

Some great puns to groan on, Sent by a CNO reader
When chemists die, they barium. Jokes about German sausage are the wurst. A soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran. I know a guy who's addicted to brake fluid. He says he can stop any time. How does Moses make his tea? Hebrews it. I stayed up all night to see where the sun went. Then it dawned on me. This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Jobless Claims Over 400k For Second Week, by Bright Knight
Don't think even for a minute that this will be getting better soon. People will learn that elections have consequences. Unfortunately it doesn't hit just the Obama-voters but everyone is hurt. John Nolte writes at Breitbart: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistic, for the second week in a row, over 400,000 new jobless claims were filed across the country. Last week the number was 451k, this week it's 410k, and as we saw last week, most of the blame is falling on Hurricane Sandy. Last week the... read more

Townhall Finance… Higher Taxes Mean Bigger Government, not Lower Deficits, by Daniel J. Mitchell
President Obama and other statists in Washington want a big class-warfare tax hike. They claim the additional revenue is necessary to reduce red ink. But their ideological crusade is based on some blatant distortions. They tell us that tax increases are necessary, but even CBO data shows that the budget can be balanced in just 10 years if politicians merely limit federal spending so that it grows by “only” 2.5 percent per year. They tell us the “rich” should pay more, but we know upper... read more

Morning Briefing… Happy Thanksgiving from RedState, By Erick Erickson
11/22/12 - Not even on Thanksgiving morning do I get to sleep in. I have to get my Big Green Egg up to temperature, smear butter all over a turkey that I’ve had brining all night, shove a few fruits, vegetables, and herbs up its rear end, and get to smoking over some hickory and apple wood. Regular readers of the site know my wife is an excellent cook. By sundown today we will have gone through 21 pounds... read more

Investors.com... Is The Obama EPA Running Its Own Black-Ops Program?
11/19/2012 Clandestine Government: During his first full day in the White House, Barack Obama promised he'd brought with him "a new era of open government." Yet again, we have a promise that hasn't been kept. Among the administration's many violations of public trust to recently become public is the Environmental Protection Agency's apparent attempt to keep some of its correspondence hidden from the light of day through the use of aliases. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, for... read more

Ronald Reagan and What I Got Wrong. By Erick Erickson
November 20th, 2012 Every person who talks and writes about politics gets stuff wrong. I’ve gotten my fair share wrong. But what I think I got most wrong in Campaign 2012 was the damage Mitt Romney’s “47%” remark would do to him. It may seem obvious, but bear with me. Mitt Romney was talking off the cuff to a supposedly off the record group of donors and muddled several data points together, ultimately telling the tale of the 47% who won’t vote for him for... read more

Toledo Blade… Get that degree
Editorial - Only 26 percent of Ohio adults have a four-year college degree, compared with 31 percent nationwide. Each percentage point by which the state lags the national rate costs the Ohio economy an estimated $2.5 billion a year. By 2018, a recent study projects, this state will have nearly a million new jobs that will require education after high school. If Ohio is to remain competitive in the national and global economies, it will have to graduate more of its residents from college, and keep more of... read more

Townhall Finance… How the Mainstream Media Finally Drove Me Mad. By Ann-Marie Murrell
Sex. That’s what it finally took to get anyone in the mainstream media to talk about Benghazi. But of course they’re not talking about the brutal murder of four Americans on 9/11/12, nor the potential cover-up occurring now—nope, it’s all about sex, baby. Yes, I’ve known for years that the mainstream media news was not only dead but had never really existed other than as a political tool for the progressive... read more

Mail Magazine 24… CEOs Warn Obama of Dangers Posed by Fiscal Cliff, by Tony Lee
Twelve prominent CEOs, many of whom have warned against the dangers of raising taxes on those making over $250,000 and creating more economic uncertainty, met with President Barack Obama on Wednesday to discuss the looming fiscal cliff. There were no CEOs from defense-related industries at the meeting, even though sequestration will occur if no deal is reached on the budget during Congress's lame-duck session. The group included prominent donors to Democrats and Republicans... read more

Townhall… Both Sides Must Give Ground To Avoid Fiscal Cliff, by Michael Barone
Nov 19, 2012 - In his first formal press conference in months, Barack Obama showed that getting re-elected can increase a president's confidence and combativeness. He staked out tough stands on several issues, especially on the looming budget negotiations. Looking ahead to the "fiscal cliff" on Dec. 31, when the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire and sequestration cuts government spending sharply, Obama demanded $1.6 trillion of increased revenues as... read more

Townhall… The Obama Recession, by John C. Goodman
Nov 17, 2012 - Full time work is about to get scarcer. The reason? By hiring part-time workers who put in less than 30 hours per week, employers can avoid a mandate dictated by the new health reform law: either provide expensive health insurance or pay a fine equal to $2,000 per worker. Avoiding the mandate becomes even more attractive for low-wage employees, since they can get highly subsidized insurance in the newly created health insurance exchanges. According to the Wall Street Journal... read more

Winning the Defense Spending Debate, by Ken Blackwell
Nov 16, 2012 - With no time to recover from a thorough election day whooping, Republicans in a lame duck Congress are facing an even worse budgetary nightmare than last year. And they only have two months to negotiate a solution with President Obama. Last time, as the Chair the Balanced Budget Amendment campaign, fellow conservatives and I were urging Republicans to tie the unavoidable increase in the debt ceiling to a balanced budget amendment... read more

NPR… A Week Later, Pollster Says: 'I Was Drinking That Republican Kool-Aid', by S.V. DÁTE
November 14, 2012 - If voters were surprised to watch TV networks call the election for President Obama over Republican Mitt Romney minutes after polls closed in California last week, perhaps it was because of earlier statements like these: —"Romney has pretty much nailed down Florida." —"I think in places like North Carolina, Virginia and Florida, we've already painted those red, we're not polling any of those states again." —"Minnesota is very much a battleground state due to the low... read more

Mail Magazine 24… No real solutions - part of the plan? by Bright Knight
There is a reason why Obama doesn't address real problems properly. In my last column (I want Obama to fail -- so America can succeed) I wrote that Obama did not address real problems on several big issues, such as GM and Healthcare reform. With this column I want to write in more detail about this fact. Generally speaking, you make a problem even bigger when you do not address... read more

Mail Magazine 24… What Are Economists Really Saying About Tax Rate Increases?, by Salim Furth, Ph.D
Beware of comparing apples to oranges when it comes to tax rate studies. On Friday, Representative Pete Sessions (R–TX) and House Speaker John Boehner (R–OH) ran afoul of Glenn Kessler’s “Fact Checker” blog regarding a study of President Obama’s proposed tax increase. Before deciding on a tax change, policymakers are wise to look at the economic impacts of the change. Two Studies: In fact, two studies released this year predict that raising tax rates on high-income families and small... read more

Happy Thanksgiving… The Turkey Trivia Quiz
I got this through my usual “email blast” channels and got curious. The sender said it might be worth checking to see how much you know about Thanksgiving. “It’s fun and has a couple of surprise answers,” he said. “Enjoy!” Following are just a sample of the 20 questions you will be answering. Interested? Go online and take the quiz. There are also other options to consider for a holiday that is often lost in the Christmas rush, such as graphics, facts... read more

Redstate… NLRB To Force Companies To Turn Over Employee Telephone Numbers & E-Mails To Unions? By LaborUnionReport - November 15th, 2012 - UPDATED: November 15, 2012–Now that the re-election of Barack Obama has taken place, this is back on the table. President Barack Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is considering a rule that would force private businesses to turn over their workers’ personal information — such as phone numbers, email addresses, and work schedules — to union organizers. While this rule would be intended to make it... read more

Townhall… Best Foot Forward? by Mona Charen
Nov 16, 2012 - Our large cruise ship sailed within view of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a gathering of conservatives sponsored by National Review magazine considered the wreckage of the 2012 election. Most of the writers and commentators on board agreed with Ralph Reed of the Faith and Freedom Coalition that the last thing conservatives need to do now is to form a "circular firing squad." But lessons... read more

Canada Free Press… The End of an Empire - The Will of the People Has Spoken and America Died
Dr. Ileana Johnson PaughWednesday, November 7, 2012 Our Constitutional Republic died a peaceful death on November 6, 2012. Having reached the point of no return in a comatose state after years of progressive and illegal immigration assaults, the fabric of conservative society is now completely unraveled and Uncle Sam’s America is no more. The United States of America is now relegated to the dust bin of history as a “has been” empire. The Shining City on the Hill, the hope of so many... read more

Townhall…… Senator Kyl Sees Higher Revenues Without a Tax Hike By Larry Kudlow
A federal budget deal to avoid the fiscal cliff can be achieved without raising tax rates, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl said Friday on the Kudlow Report. “Tax revenues can be generated by two ways other than raising tax rates,” he said. “One is to eliminate some of the deductions, credits, exemptions, special provisions in the code that end up producing more revenue but without affecting the rates. And the other is through economic growth.” The senator from... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Zero Romney Votes in 59 Philadelphia Voting Divisions, by Bright Knight
Election Fraud? 99% of the votes for Obama in more than 100 Ohio precincts - These are numbers you usually see in communist countries and countries under a dictatorship. Look at the numbers that are listed in the article. Do you think that's real? These results are almost as unreal as those in Florida. Michael writes at the American Dream (endoftheamericandream.com): Barack Obama received more than 99% of the vote in more than 100 precincts in Cuyahoga County, Ohio on... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Florida Showing Massive Voter Fraud, by Dr. Richard Swier
Click on the link below for the official St Lucie County, FL 2012 election results. Only one precinct had less than 113% turnout. The unofficial vote count is 175,554 registered voters 247,713 vote cards cast (141.10% ). The National SEAL Museum, a St. Lucie county polling place, had 158.85% voter turn out, the highest in the county. When asked about the 141% Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker stated, “They may have had something like that in Palm Beach County, but we... read more

Redstate… No. By Erick Erickson
November 12th, 2012 - For five years I have consistently maintained that Mitt Romney could not be elected President of the United States. The only thing that changed was Barack Obama’s terrible debate performance and I made the unfortunate mistake of going with the herd toward “he can win now.” A year ago — to be precise, November 8th of last year — I wrote that Mitt Romney would be the nominee... read more

WND… Did voter fraud swing election?, By Joseph Farah
Contrary to popular opinion, I am not a "conspiracy theorist." I live in the real world – always have. I've been a journalist who goes where the facts lead him all my life – unlike most of my colleagues whose "facts" are predetermined by their ideology. Bill Ayers… I understand Barack Obama and Bill Ayers because I was one of them early in my life. I even met Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn and Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda in the old days. I admired them. If Obama had been old enough during the 1960s and... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Was it stolen, by Bright Knight
When you add the information about the results in Cleveland and in the Philly locations, where Inspectors were removed, to the information in this article, you might question the whole election. Dave writes at tothepointnews.com: [Note by Dr. Jack Wheeler: We are being asked to believe that Romney got close to three million fewer votes in 2012 than John McCain got in 2008. That's not possible. This election is a fraud. I don't know exactly how - rigging voting machines, hacking tabulation software... read more

Mail Magazine 24… The Election's Disastrous National Security Implications, by Erick Stakelbeck
Last week, I posed five national security questions for the next American president. We now know that President Obama will remain Commander-in-Chief. Here are just some of my immediate thoughts on the implications of the voting public's decision--for America's security, the Middle East and beyond. And remember, now that reelection is secure, there are no restrainers for the Obama administration foreign policy agenda over the next four years... read more

Bangor Daily News… Veterans Day 2012
The recent war in Iraq and continuing war in Afghanistan give Veterans Day special urgency. The nation is encountering new types of warfare and its consequences, which include several deaths of soldiers from Maine this year. Today we recall with new respect the veterans of wars past and present. Congress voted for Armistice Day as a legal holiday in 1938, 20 years after the first armistice ended the carnage of World War I on Nov. 11, 1918. Although the first world war was originally called... read more

Townhall Finance… Fiscal Cliff? Tax the Rich, by John Ransom
Barack Obama wants you to know that the rich are out of control. And I partially agree. It’s a matter of fairness. After thinking about it for a few years, he has finally figured out that our economic problems have a very simple explanation: There are too many rich people. I know of at least one too many. The one occupying the White House? Way too rich. Too many rich people are causing a jobless “recovery.” Having... read more

Washington Times,,, Election 2012: What really happened? Idea lost to ideologue
LAS VEGAS, November 8, 2012 – After every election there are celebrations for the winning side and recriminations for the defeated. Yet what usually fails to transpire is an actual understanding of what happened. Recent past elections provided clues to what the Democrats grasped and the Republicans ignored in this last election. This was a very close election and recriminations are best left to the side. Leftists like E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post and Joan Walsh at Salon will write their... read more

Mail Magazine 24… An Energy Policy Preview of President Obama’s Second Term
President Obama’s win last night means four more years of ever-more damaging regulation and ever-increasing difficulties in developing our oil, coal, and natural gas resources. President Obama announced his intentions to drive up energy costs in order to reduce energy consumption before he was elected and there is no reason to suspect that he will change course now. The one difference between now and four years ago is that the House of Representatives is controlled by... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Catastrophe, by Ron Radosh
MM24: “This is one of the best - maybe THE best - articles about/analyses of the 2012 election and the situation our country is in, I have read by now. With this article, published at PJmedia, Bryan Preston hits the nail on the head - very precisely and hard.” Barack Obama has been re-elected president. Like most on the right, I misread America. The United States of America faces huge problems... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: The Next President and the Supreme Court, By Ed Meese
November 5, 2012 - Every vote counts. And this year, it could count double. One vote could decide both the immediate election and the course of constitutional law for decades to come. Just ask the senior federal officials responsible for our security immediately after 9/11 who were sued years later by Javaid Iqbal. During the investigation into the attacks, FBI officials identified Iqbal as a suspect of high interest and detained him in New York. He sued alleging that high government officials, including... read more

Kim Komando… Make money online for gifts
Q. Hi Kim. I love your show and listen every Saturday night here in California. I have a long list of gadgets to buy this Christmas, but I don't want to rack up a big credit card bill. Do you know of any ways to earn some quick pocket money online? -Darlene from Los Angeles, CA, listens to my national radio show in her hometown on KABC 790 AM - A. That's a great question, Darlene. It's hard to avoid the... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Look at who's running America
Just to let you know that when you vote for the man of your choice, then you also get a staff you have no control over! Appointed without Congressional approval and quietly changing the US policies. There are very few of us who know just what all of Obama's Czars do, as they quietly go about their "work" in the nation's capital. This listing of their names and job descriptions should be educational to all Americans, no matter what your political leaning. See who they are and realize what they want to do... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Cover-up: Obama Knew Benghazi Attack Was Terrorist
Very quietly, CBS released yesterday (Nov 4) hidden excerpts of a 60 Minutes interview with Obama, they taped on September 12. We all know, that the Failure-in-Chief watched the attack live. In the interview he admitted that the “spontaneous mob turned violent” story was untrue (but refused to call it terror attack!) and then lied two weeks by blaming the video - he even sent his UN-ambassador Rice out to spread this lie. And the Medias (especially CBS) covered Obama's lies. What exactly is... read more

Redstate… Who The Heck Knows? By Erick Erickson
November 6th, 2012 - Republicans are supposed to be “rah-rah” for Romney today. Democrats are supposed to be “rah-rah” for Obama today. I don’t much believe either side at this point. Democrats are supremely confident right now. Republicans not so much. It is a reversal from just two weeks ago. Here’s what I do know and do believe. I believe Mitt Romney will win Florida, Virginia, and Colorado. If he loses either Florida or Virginia, it’s an early night. If he... read more

Mail Magazine 24… What’s Scary: Federal Spending Per Household, by Emily Goff
On this Halloween, ghastly, ghoulish garb and haunted houses aren’t the only sources of spookiness in Washington. Americans across the country have cause for alarm, because the federal government spent a spine-chilling $29,691 per household in 2012. As The Heritage Foundation’s “Federal Spending by the Numbers—2012” shows, federal spending per household has grown 29 percent since 2002, when it stood at $23,010. Put another way, $29,691 is about two-thirds of the median household income... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Nine Economic Facts That May Determine Tuesday's Election, by Wynton Hall
Democrats and Republicans alike agree that jobs and the economy are the dominant issues that will drive Tuesday’s presidential outcome. Here, then, is a look at nine economic facts facing Americans as they head to the polls: 1. Every fifth man in America is out of a job. Black male unemployment is now at the highest rate it has ever been since the U.S. government began collecting statistics on the subject in 1972. Just 56.9 percent of black men over the age of 20 are now working... read more

Townhall Finance… Obamanamics Explained, by Mike Shedlock
In the following video (click link below), Porter Stansberry explains the difficulties facing small business owners using an easy to understand example of an Obama "offer" to create a partnership with business owners. Porter says "You'll see why there are no jobs in the U.S." Not quite. Jobs are soaring now because of Obamacare, just not in a way anyone should brag about. Businesses are reducing part-time hours across the board from 30-34 hours to 25... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Obama gets the credit -- and the blame! by Bright Knight
I'm sorry Mr. Empty Chair (and all the cheering Lib-crowd out there) but here comes the inconvenient truth (actually, for the first part, the Libs might love me - for the second... not so). Let's first go back to May 2, 2011. The Failure-in-Chief is sitting in the White House, together with a bunch of his incompetent crowd, and is watching live, how the Navy Seals got Osama Bin Laden. Of course, the failure-in-Chief wants to get credit for this action and ok, let's give it to him. Joe “the brain” Biden... read more

Heritage Foundation… Friedman Foundation Looks at Administrative Bloat in Public Schools
By Lindsey Burke - October 24, 2012 - The Friedman Foundation has published an excellent report detailing the administrative bloat plaguing our nation’s public schools. The School Staffing Surge: Decades of Employment Growth in America’s Public Schools shows dramatic increases in teaching and non-teaching staff over the past five decades despite modest increases in student enrollment. As we detailed in a recent report on growth in non-teaching positions in public schools across... read more

The 2012 Electoral College Map: States Sized By Votes, Not Geography
By Danny Sullivan - October 23, 2012 - It drives me crazy to see news outlets with US maps showing the states estimated to be either going for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election based on the geographic size of those states, rather than the number of Electoral College votes they carry. There are better maps they could and should use. Below, a guide to some you should... read more

Mail Magazine 24… The Benghazi Scandal, by Nonie Darwish
Americans need answers as to why the Obama administration had no response to the eight-hour terror attack on the US consulate in Benghazi and who was involved in the decision not to go to their aid despite their repeated requests for help. And why is the producer of the "Innocence of Muslims" video still in a California jail cell, allegedly for violating his parole, while none of the people who refused to rescue Ambassador Christopher Stevens and these immensely courageous former Navy SEALS has... read more

Townhall… The Uncool President, by Victor Davis Hanson
Nov 01, 2012 - In 2008, Barack "No Drama" Obama was the coolest presidential candidate America had ever seen -- young, hip, Ivy League, mellifluous and black, with a melodic and exotic name. Rock stars vied to perform at his massive rallies, where Obama often began his hope-and-change sermons by reminding the teary-eyed audience what to do in case of mass fainting. Money, like manna from heaven, seemed to drop spontaneously into his $1... read more

Thought to ponder, by Mona Lease
Attention voters: Concerning the upcoming Presidential Election and all the mudslinging we've been listening to and reading… "outsourcing" - jobs and the like, is a choice. It is available to any corporation or independent person that chooses to use this avenue to make money, have a product made, etc. As with all choices; there are good consequences and bad consequences. At the polls next Tuesday - take a deep breath. We rushed in with the election of our current president. We judged by the 1960's style of dress his "followers" wore, the peace signs, etc. Do not be deceived by what you "feel" or think you see. Ever Toodles!! MONA.

Heritage Foundation… It The Specter of Taxmageddon Rises
On this Halloween, a truly frightening specter is looming. No amount of garlic, crosses, or exorcists can help us—only Congress and the President can chase this ghoul away. It’s Taxmageddon. A horrifying combination of expiring pro-growth tax policies from 2001 and 2003, the end of the once-temporary payroll tax cut, and just a few of Obamacare’s 18 new tax hikes, Taxmageddon will be the largest tax increase EVER to hit... read more

Townhall Finance… Mitt Romney Is Tough On China, Weak On Reality, by Jerry Bowyer
Mr. Romney, here is the low point of your participation in this week’s foreign policy debate: SCHIEFFER: Well, Governor, let me just ask you. If you declare them a currency manipulator on day one, some people are — say you’re just going to start a trade war with China on day one. Is that — isn’t there a risk that that could happen? ROMNEY: Well, they sell us about this much stuff every year, and we sell them about this much stuff every year. So it’s pretty clear who doesn’t want a trade war. And there... read more

Townhall… It Could Still Go Either Way, by Rich Galen
Oct 26, 2012 - From Kiev, Ukarine - The answer to the question is: I'm here to be an official observer of the Ukrainian national elections on Sunday to select a new Parliament. I'll be back in the U.S. on Tuesday to unofficially observe our own elections. Speaking of our own elections ... Romney's bounce in the polls since the first debate remains stubbornly in place. According to the Real Clear Politics average of... read more

Redstate… Swingometer: Gallup Party ID figures predict solid Romney win, By Neil Stevens
October 26th, 2012 - We always talk about the independent, swing vote in elections because those tend to be the persuadables. But party ID numbers matter as well, because those partisan voters tend to split better than 90/10 for their party. It is for that reason that Gallup’s new partisan ID split, one that mimics what Rasmussen has been saying all along, predicts nothing less than doom for the Democrats, and a solid, national win for Mitt Romney this year. Ignore Gallup’s headline. They’ve buried the lede so far... read more

Redstate… Did Obama Refuse To Aid Our Men In Benghazi?, By streiff
October 27th, 2012 - In the month and a half since our consulate in Benghazi was sacked and our ambassador and three other staffers killed the Obama regime is no closer to presenting a coherent, truthful narrative of what happened before, during, and after the incident than it was when it uttered its first deliberate lies and misdirections on September 12. Right now we are being treated to the vision of the highest level of the ongoing criminal enterprise that governs us playing the equivalent of a game of... read more

Townhall… Rumbling Toward a Knockout, by Suzanne Fields
Oct 26, 2012 - Reporters and pundits writing about politics and particularly presidential debates can't resist the metaphors of the ring. And why should they? The metaphors work. "The incumbent fought with a challenger's aggression, while the GOP nominee mostly avoided heated disagreement, except to make jabs on the economy," reported the Hill, the Capitol Hill political daily. "But if Obama looked to lay Romney out on the canvas... read more

Redstate… Why I Think Obama Is Toast, By Dan McLaughlin
October 26th, 2012 - Barack Obama is toast. This is not something I say lightly. I generally try to remain cautious about predictions, because the prediction business is a humbling one. I have never been especially bullish on Mitt Romney, and I spent most of the summer and early fall arguing that this was basically a neck-and-neck race that would go down to the wire. But in the end, two things stand out: One, Mitt Romney has a consistent, significant lead among independent voters, which increasingly looks... read more

Salt Lake Tribune… Tribune endorsement: Too Many Mitts - Obama has earned another term
Oct 19 2012 - Nowhere has Mitt Romney’s pursuit of the presidency been more warmly welcomed or closely followed than here in Utah. The Republican nominee’s political and religious pedigrees, his adeptly bipartisan governorship of a Democratic state, and his head for business and the bottom line all inspire admiration and hope in our largely Mormon, Republican, business-friendly state But it was Romney’s singular role in rescuing Utah’s organization of the 2002 Olympics from a cesspool of scandal, and... read more

Townhall Finance… Al Qaeda is No "Remnant," Mr. President, By Bob Beauprez
During his interview recently on the Jon Stewart Show, President Obama continued his established narrative that he has driven al-Qaeda into the ground sufficiently that only a few "remnants" of the radical Islamic terrorist organization remain. A "remnant" is a "small group of surviving people" according to the dictionary. But, remnants don't grow, multiply, and spread. A remnant doesn't extend across a significant portion of the planet. In the final debate, the... read more

Mail Magazine 24... The Battleground States That Will Decide the Election, by Arnold Ahlert
Now that the debates are over, the most significant information Americans will get regarding how the candidates are doing will be from the polls. If those polls are any indication, it is Republican challenger Mitt Romney who has been the beneficiary of a bump that most likely came from his obvious win in the first debate, followed by two debates in which no clear cut winner emerged. This week Romney moved above 50 percent in his favorability rating with the voters for the first time. Yet it is no... read more

Redstate... Cheap Tricks and One Night Stands, By Erick Erickson
October 25th, 2012 - If you needed further proof about just how much the President has cheapened the Presidency, consider his latest ad, which not only compares voting for him for the first time to losing virginity, but also ridicules those who might not want to lose their virginity to just any politician. This is the peer group peer pressure people across the political aisle have complained about in high schools for years... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Obama Gets Military Tech All Wrong in Debate, by Bright Knight
That's what actually made the Failure-in-Chief win the debate: bullshitting around and telling all kind of crap in a way that makes the people believe he's right. That made him look like he has a clue what he's talking about and that he's doing a good job in regard to Foreign policy. If those who actually fell for his arrogant snake-oil-salesman attitude would know the facts, they would probably see him for what he really is... AWR Hawkins sets the facts straight at Breitbart: President Barack Obama ended... read more

Heritage Foundation… How Escalating Education Spending Is Killing Crucial Reform
By Lindsey Burke - October 15, 2012 - Abstract: In August 2012, the White House released the report “Investing in Our Future: Returning Teachers to the Classroom” to bolster President Obama’s call for massive new education spending. The report suggests that, absent an enormous infusion of more tax dollars, the nation’s public schools will lose teachers and programs, damaging American education. This claim ignores the fact that over the past 40 years, both teaching and non-teaching... read more

Verities & Balderdash… HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
From a CNO Reader and Halloween Humor - Two brooms were hanging in the closet and after a while they got to know each other so well, they decided to get married. One broom was, of course, the bride broom, the other the groom broom. The bride broom looked very beautiful in her white dress. The groom broom was handsome and suave in his tuxedo. The wedding was lovely. After the wedding, at the... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Some Post Debate Poll Data, by Bright Knight
The Presidential and Vice Presidential debates are over and IMO it went well for the Romney/Ryan-ticket. Romney crushed the Failure-in-Chief in the first debate (which was the most important, because the main issue and the basis for everything to come is the economy) and didn't lose ground in the other two. And Joe "the brain" Biden's weird appearance in the Vice Presidential debate as the Clown of a third-class Circus doesn't deserve any further comment. The people learned about the real Romney... read more

Townhall… Greed, by John Stossel
Oct 24, 2012 - On TV, my Fox colleague Bill O'Reilly says, "The recession was brought on largely by greedy Wall Street corporations."Give me a break. Bill's smart. If he believes such things, we who care about freedom have done a poor job communicating economics. Blaming problems on "greed" is a mindless cliche. Yes, Wall Street was greedy -- but that's nothing new. Greed is a constant. Did you ever turn down a raise? We need a free market because... read more

A Peek Inside the Corporate Taxation, From Mona Lease
This is from Wikipedia. Corporate Taxation is a tax imposed at the Federal level. Most states tax the corporations, too. Some local levels want their share, too. This can apply to estates and trusts, as well. Federal levels are some 15-35%. This is income over $365,000. (Interesting - that's over a $1.000 a week). Corporations are also subject to Federal Alternative Minimum Tax AND alternative state taxes. These are "flat rate taxes." There is a chart for these. For Corporations, they... read more

Mail Magazine 24… President Obama’s Taxpayer-Backed Green Energy Failures, by Ashe Schow
It is no secret that President Obama’s and green-energy supporters’ (from both parties) foray into venture capitalism has not gone well. But the extent of its failure has been largely ignored by the press. Sure, single instances garner attention as they happen, but they ignore past failures in order to make it seem like a rare case.The truth is that the problem is widespread. The government’s picking winners and losers in the energy market has cost taxpayers billions of dollars, and the rate of... read more

Townhall… Libya and Lies, by Thomas Sowell
Oct 23, 2012 - It was a little much when President Barack Obama said that he was "offended" by the suggestion that his administration would try to deceive the public about what happened in Benghazi. What has this man not deceived the public about? Remember his pledge to cut the deficit in half in his first term in office? This was followed by the first trillion dollar deficit ever, under any President of the... read more

The Washington Post… Presidential debate: Obama tells more about Libya to some guy than to American public - By Erik Wemple - For the good of the republic, Kerry Ladka must leave his job with Global Telecom Supply in Mineola, N.Y., and take up residence in the White House briefing room. Because, as it turns out, this 61-year-old undecided voter showed great skill in getting some much-needed candor out of the president on Benghazi. At Tuesday night’s presidential debate, Ladka stood up and asked about rejected requests for greater diplomatic security in Libya. “Who was it that... read more

Redstate… Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin, By Erick Erickson
October 22nd, 2012 - The whole time during the last Presidential debate, Mitt Romney looked like the incumbent and Barack Obama looked like a challenger trying to keep it together. More specifically, Barack Obama, when he made eye contact, looked like he was seeing and invisible hand writing “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin” on the wall behind Bob Schieffer. This was a man who knows the gig is almost up... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Winning Issue, by Frank Gaffney, Jr.
Today's rematch of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney is likely to be their first of two in which the incumbent's record as Commander-in-Chief is going to be a matter of direct debate. If last week's set-to between their running mates is any guide, there will be opportunities and perils for the challenger. It behooves Gov. Romney to maximize the former and minimize the latter if he wants decisively to defeat the President in these mass-audience settings, and in November... read more

Verities & Balderdash… The dumb things that people do
From bored.com - Time for a little pre-election humor… Two animal rights protesters were protesting at the cruelty of sending pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn. Suddenly the pigs, all two thousand of them, escaped through a broken fence and stampeded, trampling the two hapless protesters to death. A woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen, shaking frantically with what looked like a wire running from his waist towards the electric... read more

Political Humor About.com… Transcript of Barack Obama's Comedy Roast at Al Smith Dinner
By Daniel Kurtzman - By the way, John, I'm just curious, is Fox News included in the media? Because I'm always hearing about this love, just curious. Then at one of these campaign rallies, someone in the crowd started yelling, No-Bama, announcing to everyone in the room that I shouldn't be the Democratic nominee because there were far more qualified candidates. I really wish Joe Biden hadn't done that. But at least we've moved past the days when the main criticism coming from the McCain... read more

Real Clear Politics… Mitt Romney's Speech at the Al Smith Dinner, By Mitt Romney
October 18, 2012 - MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Thank you, thank you. Thank you so much. Your Eminence, Cardinal Dolan, Mr. President, Governor Cuomo, Mayor Bloomberg, Senator Schumer, Al and Ann Smith. Thank you for your invitation. Thank you for your extraordinary warm welcome. Ann and I appreciate your friendship very, very much. Thank you. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) Now, Al, you are right, a campaign can require a lot of wardrobe changes... read more

Upstart Business Journal… "New economy," entrepreneurs surface in Obama, Romney debate
by J. Jennings Moss - October 17, 2012 - Finally, those of us in the entrepreneurial ecosystem got to hear the presidential contenders talk about job creation in a truly 21st century context during their second presidential debate Tuesday night. The only problem is, neither President Barack Obama nor former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney went far enough in their second debate... read more

Why Mitt Romney is Unlikable!? From a CNO reader
A lot is being said in the media about Mitt Romney not being "likable" or that he doesn't "relate well" to people. Frankly, we struggled to understand why. So after much research, we have come up with a Top Ten List to explain this "un-likability." Top Ten Reasons To Dislike Mitt Romney: 1. Drop-dead, collar-ad handsome with gracious, statesmanlike aura. Looks like every central casting's #1 choice for Commander-in-Chief. 2. Been married to ONE woman his entire life, and has been... read more

Mail Magazine 24… School Bus Driver Tells Student He Should’ve Been Aborted for Supporting Romney, by Philip Hodges - A woman school bus driver got fired recently for telling a student passenger that his mother should have aborted him. This seems like it should be somewhat big news taking into account what’s considered “big news” these days, until you find out what the context was. The bus driver had been harassing the student because he had a Romney/Ryan sign in his front yard. At some point, the subject of abortion was brought up during their political arguments... read more

Townhall Finance… Student Savings Plans, by Carrie Schwab Pomerantz
Dear Carrie: I've always encouraged my daughter to work to contribute to her college costs and she's managed to save quite a bit. Now I'm told that her savings may actually work against her in terms of financial aid. Why is this? Is there anything we can do? --A Reader - Dear Reader: I think it's great that your daughter is saving for college. To me, having kids contribute to college costs has a double benefit: It not only... read more

Townhall… Only Republican Gaffes Dominate Presidential Coverage, by Matt Towery
Oct 18, 2012 - Most political pundits know that presidential debates, particularly these absurd "town hall" debacles, are more about who makes a gaffe or has an "oops moment" than about who brings the better policy to the table. But before I make my case with regard to the pushing of "gaffes" in one particular direction, let me disarm the same media I will later take to task (of course, you can never really disarm them ... they have a permanent round of journalistic bullets to fire). I know conservatives and... read more

Townhall... Obama at Hofstra: Relatively Alert, Ergo Big Winner, by Ann Coulter
Oct 17, 2012 - The best question at the second presidential debate came from Michael Jones, an African-American who said: "Mr. President, I voted for you in 2008. What have you done or accomplished to earn my vote in 2012? I'm not that optimistic, as I was in 2008. Most things I need for everyday living are very expensive." To which Obama said: "Are you my half-brother?" Actually, all Obama could say was that he had ended the war in Iraq (while... read more

Toledo Blade… Power of the court
During last week’s vice presidential debate, incumbent Democrat Joe Biden mentioned in passing a critical issue that has been largely forgotten in this year’s campaign: the power of the U.S. Supreme Court to bring fundamental change to American society. Mr. Biden brought up the future of the nation’s top court in the context of abortion and how Roe vs. Wade, the landmark ruling that established a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body, might be overturned by a Mitt Romney... read more

The Great “Secession” of 2013, Sent by a CNO Reader
Please note that Texas is the only state with a legal right to secede from the Union. (Reference the Texas-American Annexation Treaty of 1848.) We Texans love y'all, but we'll probably have to take action if Barack Obama wins the election. We'll miss you too. Here is what can happen: 1: Barack Hussein Obama is President of the United States, and Texas secedes from the Union in summer of... read more

Heritage Network… Nuclear War Averted, 50 Years Ago This Week
Fifty years ago, the world came to the brink of nuclear war. On October 14, 1962, U.S. policymakers learned that the Soviet Union was building missile bases in Cuba, which would have allowed Moscow to attack anywhere in the continental United States within minutes. An international crisis followed, and while the crisis did not end in a nuclear exchange, it is important that U.S. policymakers never forget lessons the crisis taught us. The most important one is that it is very difficult to manage... read more

Investors.com… Obama Administration Dooms Seniors To Painful Aging, By Betsy McCaughey
10/12/2012 - On Oct. 1, the Obama administration started awarding bonus points to hospitals that spend the least on elderly patients. It will result in fewer knee replacements, hip replacements, angioplasty, bypass surgery and cataract operations. These are the five procedures that have transformed aging for older Americans. They used to languish in wheelchairs and nursing homes due to arthritis, cataracts and heart disease. Now they lead active lives.... read more

Townhall Finance… You Just Lost the Presidency: What are you Going to Do?, by John Ransom
Editor’s Note: I typically ignore columns like this, but this time the title got my attention. Try to find the relevance in the following to the title… I couldn’t. Regardless, this turned out to be fascinating reading, offered for your enjoyment. Be sure to click on the link for the video and other interesting comments. BR - Doug3370 wrote: There are natural processes that will, ever so slowly, remove CO2 from the atmosphere. The sooner and the faster we reduce our emissions, the... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: Heritage Experts React to Vice Presidential Debate
By Rob Bluey - October 12, 2012 - Vice President Biden and Representative Paul Ryan squared off last night for a spirited and intense 90-minute debate at Centre College in Danville, KY. Topics ranged from foreign to domestic, touching on serious issues that Heritage policy experts grapple with every day. While many commentators were critiquing style, a team of 19 Heritage experts cut through the malarkey... read more

Redstate… An Insignificant Hour and a Half of Joe Biden Braying Like a Biblical Donkey
By Erick Erickson - October 11th, 2012 - I really do personally like Joe Biden, but he came across as a braying Biblical donkey tonight on stage in Kentucky. It was made worse by a moderator who lost repeated control of the debate. Up front, I have to say I’m hung up on one big thing. Joe Biden said the intelligence community got it wrong in Libya, but he says we can trust those very same people on Iran. That’d be a gaffe, but Joe Biden says he always says what he means. I really don’t... read more

The Kitchen Cabinet… Deliberate Or Stupid? By Sonja Eddings Brown
October 12, 2012 - Watching Joe Biden Is like watching ego in motion. Joe is always JOE. The Obama campaign pulled him out of travel and campaigning for SIX SOLID DAYS to prep him for this week’s Vice Presidential debate. Did it show? Perhaps. There is an old litigator’s strategy known among legal beagles. If you don’t have a good case, no facts to stand on, then INTERRUPT... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Bloomberg and Obama Misrepresent Tax Hikes on Small Business, by Curtis Dubay
In the recent presidential debate, President Obama said that only 3 percent of small businesses would pay higher rates under his plan to increase the top two marginal tax rates. The implication was that job creation wouldn’t suffer, because so few businesses would pay higher tax rates under his plan. Bloomberg, in an editorial after the debate, repeated this misleading statistic. This line of reasoning is a red herring, because the number of small businesses paying the higher rates is irrelevant... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Top 5 Obamacare Promises to Remember, by Nina Owcharenko
Remember when former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D–CA) told the American people that “we have to pass the [health care] bill so that you can find out what is in it”? Well, it’s been over two years since the enactment of Obamacare, and we’ve found out a lot. Not only are the provisions currently in place falling short; the promises made about the health care law look to be broken. Here are five of them. 1. The law won’t raise taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Looking the other way: President Obama's dangerous foreign policy
by Rep. Allen West - President Barack Obama has built a foreign policy on trying to appease and make friends with America’s enemies, rather than facing them head on with strength and clear consequences for their actions. The president’s approach, marked by his belief that he could transition from a community organizer to a global organizer, has been an utter failure. The president has diminished our nation’s international influence and stature, and most egregiously, has put the lives of all... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Median Household Income Down in Nearly Every Battleground State, by Tony Lee
In yet another sign of how poorly the economy is doing under President Barack Obama, the median household income declined last year in every key battleground state except for Iowa and Wisconsin. The American Community Survey compiled the data. Nevada and Florida were the hardest hit, seeing declines of 6% and 3%, respectively. New Hampshire, Virginia, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina, New Mexico also saw their median household incomes... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: There Was No Protest, Only a Terrorist Attack, in Libya, By Amy Payne
October 10, 2012 The Obama Administration’s story on the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens has changed yet again. In advance of a hearing on diplomatic security in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today, more details have leaked out—and the State Department is now saying it never thought that the attack in Benghazi was prompted by a YouTube video. “The State Department now says it never believed the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya... read more

Townhall… Mitt Romney, Big-Government Man, by John Stossel
Oct 10, 2012 President Obama tanked in the last debate. Good. Now maybe people will listen when Mitt Romney says things like, "The genius of America is the free enterprise system, and freedom, and the fact that people can go out there and start a business. ... The private market and individual responsibility always work best." They do. But then Romney responded to Obama by essentially saying: I want big government, too! We who hope for... read more

Investors Business Daily… The Obama Levee Breaks
Election 2012: President Obama might think sagging polls are his biggest post-debate problem. But it's really people like Buzz Bissinger, Stacey Dash and Bill Maher showing it's now acceptable in polite society to attack The One. In an eye-opening piece Monday on the Daily Beast, "Friday Night Lights" author and lifelong Democrat Buzz Bissinger announced he was voting for Romney. The tipping point, he wrote, "was last week's debate in Denver," which showed Obama out... read more

Common Sense Junction… “George Will: Romney’s trifecta”
Friday, October 5, 2012 - George Will reviews the debate and highlights three important things Romney accomplished. Here is one of them: Late in the debate, when Romney for a third time referred to Obamacare’s creation of “an unelected board, appointed board, who are going to decide what kind of [medical] treatment you ought to have,” Obama said, “No, it isn’t.” Oh? The Independent Payment Advisory... read more

Policymic.com: Latest Presidential Polls…
Romney Now Leads in Rasmussen Polls, Obama Losing Steam Elsewhere
Polls indicate that Romney did see a solid boost from his consensus total domination debate victory over President Obama last week. The right-leaning Rasmussen polls is now showing Romney ahead of Obama. Gallup shows a statistical dead heat. Either way, it is clear that Romney holds the momentum … for now. The Republican was looking for a slam dunk in the first presidential debate, and he seems to have gotten it. Many agree that Obama looked stale, rusty, cold, uninterested, short... read more

Townhall… The Multitudinous Mitt, by Steve Chapman
Oct 07, 2012 - In Wednesday's debate, Mitt Romney said he will "stop the subsidy" to public broadcasting. That's good to know, because Mitt Romney's campaign website says he will merely "reduce subsidies for ... the Corporation for Public Broadcasting." Kill Big Bird or just pluck some of his feathers? Or neither, in keeping with what often happens to promises made by politicians? As Ted Kennedy once said of Romney's abortion policy, "I am pro-choice... read more

Mail Magazine 24… The Green Job Myth
“We can invest $15 billion a year in renewable sources of energy … to create 5 million new jobs, new energy jobs, all across [the] country, jobs that pay well, jobs that can’t be outsourced,” candidate Obama promised.[i] President Obama spent $90 billion of his stimulus package on green energy projects, but according to the Labor Department, just 9,245 people landed new jobs in the “green energy” industry by the end of the third quarter of last year,[ii] well short of the 200,000 jobs that President Obama... read more

Townhall…Trading Places, by Linda Chavez
Oct 05, 2012 - Who was that stiff, out-of-touch guy onstage in Denver at this week's presidential debate? He looked a lot like Barack Obama -- but how could that be? It was as if the candidates swapped bodies before they went out onstage. The president became the Mitt Romney caricature the Obama campaign has created through millions of dollars of advertising: an elitist who has no idea what the middle class is going through. And Mitt Romney became... read more

The Heritage Network… Heritage Experts React to First Presidential Debate, By Amy Payne
October 4, 2012 - During last night’s debate between President Obama and former Governor Mitt Romney, Heritage’s domestic policy experts were live-blogging their analysis of the ideas discussed. Below are some of the highlights of our experts’ reactions to the major points made. Competing Tax Plans - Most of the time on taxes was spent on Romney’s tax plan. Romney’s plan, like most tax reform plans, would lower tax rates and make other changes to the tax code to encourage... read more

Redstate… Bam! Slam! Pow! Crash! BOOM! By Erick Erickson
October 4th, 2012 - There was a surreal moment after the debate last night. On CNN, the polling went overwhelmingly for Mitt Romney among debate watchers. Basically two-thirds of the American public who watched the debate claimed Romney won. A majority claimed Romney was with them on taxes, the economy, healthcare, their views of government, etc. He dominated. A CBS poll of undecided... read more

Heritage Network… Morning Bell: Anemic Job Growth Continues, By Amy Payne
October 5, 2012 - Job growth continues to sputter—this morning’s jobs report shows that 12.1 million Americans are still out of work. Going against other economic indicators, the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent. Economists are already looking into the drop, saying it seems to be a statistical fluke, because it doesn’t match up with the sluggish job creation and recent downward revision of GDP growth. Heritage’s J.D. Foster says: One time out of a hundred, the true figure will be much different... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Global Taxes are in Sight, by Luke Powers
The 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly has just convened and there are already devastating power plays going on. One is in the form of a series of proposals pertaining to global taxes, which are said to be for “developing” countries. That’s right, the UN is trying to tax people. These taxes include a tax on billionaires around the world, a tax on exchanging currency (e.g. changing U.S. dollars to British pounds at a bank), a tax on the use of fossil fuels, and a royalty on... read more

Verities & Balderdash… Different perspectives of the Political Process, Compiled by Bob Robinson
Everyone has heard the phrase, “a picture is worth a 1,000 words.” The same holds true with cartoons. They offer an artist’s perspective on thoughts, ideas and events of the day. Today, they are creating political commentary that can be consumed in a few seconds rather than reading long-winded rhetoric. County News Online was fortunate enough to receive some cartoons from the Democrats’ perspectives... read more

Verities & Balderdash Noah Today, Sent by a CNO reader
In the year 2012, the Lord came unto Noah, who was now living in Oregon, and said: "Once again, the earth has become evil and I see the end of all flesh before me. Build another Ark and save two of every living thing along with a few good humans." He gave Noah the blueprints, saying: "You have six months to build the Ark before I will start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights." Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah... read more

Mail Magazine 24… 'The Nearest Thing to Eternal Life on Earth is a Government Program!' by Frank Hill
Federal budgeting can be very confusing at times. But at its core, it is very simple arithmetic. As in 'addition and subtraction'. No advanced calculus required, ring theory or Boolean algebra. Just 1+1=2. Or preferably if you are a spending budget hawk: 100-50=50 as in 'reduce many federal programs by 50%...and hardly anyone would know the difference'. Take a look at how President Obama's economic stimulus has been recorded in official CBO documents in the summary... read more

Townhall… Real World Problems, by Rich Galen
Sep 28, 2012 - Living and working in Your Nation's Capital I forget, sometimes, that grand issues are fun to debate on CNN or MSNBC, but real people deal with real issues. At a fundraiser for Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Oh) last night, I heard from a nurse anesthetist that there is a continuing shortage of the basic drug she uses to put people to sleep for surgery. And that when they have the drug it often has a label written in some language other than English... read more

Townhall… An 80’s Remake, by Tim Phillips
Sep 28, 2012 - With millions of Americans out of work, unemployment is marching ever higher. Gasoline prices soar, painfully hitting family budgets with every fill-up. As fall approaches, an incumbent President holds a narrow lead, intent on gaining a second term. The key to victory is a relatively small group of undecided voters; a conflicted electorate who respect the President, but recognize his policies have failed to lift the economy out of a recession. Do they give the President a second chance and hope... read more

WND… When is Campaign going to get Nasty? By Joseph Farah
I know Barack Obama is serious about winning re-election. Sometimes I wonder if Mitt Romney and the GOP establishment are. If this is indeed the most important presidential election in American history, and if the contrast between the candidates is so clear, why are the Republicans so timid about going after Obama? I’ve given away far too much free advice to Team Romney, none of which was taken, with the possible exception of his... read more

Townhall Finance… Benghazi-gate – Obama Knew, by Bob Beauprez
In the days following the assassination attack in Benghazi, Libya on September 11 that left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three aides dead it was appalling to watch the Obama Administration's painstaking efforts to deny any connection to radical Islamic terror. A week later, the White House was forced to admit a connection to al Qaeda after the Director of the National Counterterrrorism Center, Matthew Olsen, testified to a Senate Committee that Benghazi was indeed a "terrorist... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Poll: Nearly 80% Think Everyone Should Pay Some Income Tax, by Bright Knight
When you see all the polls about the issues (not about the candidates - those polls canNOT be trusted), such as Obamacare, dependency on Government, the economy, the direction our country is headed, etc., you must think that the Empty Chair will lose by 30%. So, obviously many people think "right" but lose their common sense and betray their values as soon as they are in the voting booth and vote "left". Is it because they traditionally voted "D" (as Dad did, and Grandpa, and....) and don't... read more

Townhall… Al Gore Versus '2016', By Brent Bozell
Sep 28, 2012 - Two weeks ago, Dinesh D'Souza's documentary "2016: Obama's America" passed Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" for second place on the all-time box-office money list for political documentaries. It now has a box office gross of more than $32 million. But if you're an independent or a liberal who's unplugged from conservative websites and talk radio, you'd never know. You didn't see D'Souza on CBS or NBC (although he showed up on ABC's "Nightline" in late night). There... read more

Heritage.org… Obama and Congress Are Choosing to Cause a Recession, By Amy Payne
September 27, 2012 - President Obama recently said, “The most important lesson I’ve learned is you can’t change Washington from the inside.” That’s demoralizing to hear when a recession is bearing down on the economy—and it’s an inside job. The Congressional Budget Office has forecasted a fresh recession to hit next year if Taxmageddon, a nearly $500 billion tax increase, hits the nation and Congress and the President drive us off the “fiscal cliff.” President Obama has... read more

Columbus Dispatch… Incentive pay
Governor seeks to tie university support to performance - Monday September 24, 2012 - Giving state funding to colleges based on their performance makes more sense than doling out money mainly based on the number of students they enroll. That’s the governor’s newest idea, and college leaders have been asked to come up with such a formula this fall. Early this year, Gov. John Kasich asked Ohio’s 37 public universities and colleges to agree on one statewide “wish list” for... read more

Redstate… The Marriage Question, Romney’s Polling, and Bibi’s Red Sharpie, By Erick Erickson
September 28th, 2012 - You know that 50% of marriages in the United States end in divorce right? Every time gay marriage comes up, that data point comes up. Fifty percent of married couples get divorced. If heterosexual couples value marriage so little, why should they stand in the way of gay couples who really will value it as a civil right? You know that evangelical Christians in the United States get divorced at the... read more

Akron Beacon Journal… Persistent poverty
September 23, 2012 - It was good timing that the 2011 data updates of the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey Estimates were released last week, while a national debate — inadvertent, to be sure — was focused on questions of poverty, dependence and the role of government. More than the subjective impressions and assumptions that often drive political rhetoric, the hard data of the census reports capture the spread and depth of poverty as the nation grapples... read more

Townhall… Strangulation by Union, by John Stossel
Sep 26, 2012 - The Chicago teachers strike is over, but the public didn't win. Schools will still transfer bad teachers to other schools because it's nearly impossible to fire them. When bad teachers go from school to school, principals call it "the dance of the lemons." It would be funny if those teachers didn't slowly wreck children's lives. The basic issue is: Who decides how to manage a workplace? Unions... read more

Toledo Blade… Fast, furious fiasco
The scheme by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to track the movement of guns from their sale in the United States into the hands of Mexican drug dealers was just as misguided and mismanaged as it seemed. The best report the nation is likely to see about the scandal confirms this view. The first attempt at prying open the secrets of the scandal came through a partisan investigation in Congress led by Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican from California. Attorney General... read more

Cleveland Plain Dealer… Price of freedom of speech can be high
Sohaib Awan, Guest Columnist - Saturday, September 22, 2012 - My 10-year-old sister published her first Letter to the Editor in The Columbus Dispatch -- with the help of her big brother, of course. She had innocently expressed her dismay at the unbecoming conduct of some Disney Channel stars who were supposed to be her role models. She gazed in awe as I pulled up the letter online and began reading the comments to her letter. ... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Obama to UN: It's Not My Fault Stevens is Dead, by Joel B. Pollak
Passing the buck in dramatic fashion on the world stage, President Barack Obama told the UN General Assembly this morning that the U.S. government was not responsible for the anti-Islam video that he once again blamed for recent attacks on U.S. embassies in the Middle East. He added that more guards at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi would not have helped save Ambassador Chris Stevens, and that the real problem was "deeper causes" such as religious intolerance. "[I]t will not be enough to... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Obama Ducks Responsibility for Washington’s Spending Binge
by Emily Goff - In a recent 60 Minutes interview, host Steve Kroft primed President Obama with this statement: “Most Americans think we’re spending too much money.” To which Obama uttered a contemplative “Mm-hm.” An understatement, indeed. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that federal spending will reach $3.56 trillion, or about 23 percent as a share of the economy, for fiscal year (FY) 2012—well... read more

Mail Magazine 24… The Democrats’ False Narrative on the Auto Industry, by Bright Knight
Note: I’ve often thought a Chapter 11 court protection bankruptcy would have been the better option for GM and Chrysler but I never saw anything written about it. Finally! Thanks MM24 for providing it. Editor Romney was absolutely right with his statement at the time the auto-industry was going under in 2008: a managed bankruptcy would have been the only really stable and lasting solution. The Failure-in-Chief didn't address the problems that caused the financial problem but put some (very expensive)... read more

Townhall… Why Wisconsin is in Play, by Salena Zito
Sep 23, 2012 - MOUNT HOREB, Wis. – At first, Jeff Millard was undecided about who to vote for in November. “I am not particularly happy with Obama,” the retired auto-parts storeowner said of the man he supported in 2008. His wife, walking beside him on the Military Ridge state trail, overheard him voicing doubt. She let him know it was not an option. “What about my reproductive rights?” she asked, clearly upset. “No, we are voting for Obama!”... read more

Investors.com… We Need A Startup President Who Knows How Jobs Are Created
09/21/2012 - Economy: How can the next presidential get the American job machine functioning again? One way is establish a policy environment that incentivizes business startups, which have fallen hard under the current administration. President Obama tells small-business owners they "didn't build" their companies. But they know better. And they are also aware of the important role they play in employment. Small businesses employ about half of all U.S. workers and they create the majority... read more

Wall Street Journal… Transformers 2
Obama was honest when he said he wanted to remake America. For all the spin and deception of politics, sooner or later every politician reveals his true purposes. For Barack Obama, one of those moments came when he declared shortly before the 2008 election that "We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America." Above all else, the President who asked voters for a second term Thursday... read more

Heritage Foundation… Government Dependency Rises As Number of Taxpayers Declines
By Amy Payne - September 19, 2012 - The leak of a video featuring former Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) has sparked debate about government dependency and the number of people in the United States who do not pay federal income tax. In the video, Romney refers to “47 percent” of Americans and says that they are “dependent upon government” and “pay no income tax.” While these groups are not necessarily one in the same, there is overlap between the two, and the percentages... read more

Verities & Balderdash… Charley Reese's Final column! Comments by Bob Robinson
They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery. If I remember what I found the last time I researched this, Reese did originally write this column before it was enhanced a few times, and quite a few years ago. I think I checked about a year ago; CNO has already published this once. In reading through it, however, I noticed that once again it has been enhanced. Because of that, and an election of utmost... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: Our Constitution Is Under Fire, Matthew Spalding, Ph.D.
September 17, 2012 - Today, the federal government has acquired an all but unquestioned dominance over virtually every area of American life. It acts without constitutional limits and increasingly regulates our most basic activities, from how much water is in our toilets to what kind of light bulbs we can buy. So while we face many challenges, the most difficult task ahead—and the most important—is to restore constitutional limits on government. Forty visionaries signed a piece of paper 225... read more

Verities & Balderdash… We the People, With Comments by Bob Robinson
A friend sent me a link to a video. I hate video emails… I don’t have time to watch. I can get the gist of 99.9 percent of all the other emails with a 5-second (or less) glance. I can’t get that with a video. You have to wait for it to load. Nine times out of ten I have to have the sound turned way down because my “office” is in a family area… babies napping or playing plastic pianos, tv blaring, family discussions... read more

Mailmagazine24… President Obama's General Motors Hypocrisy, by David Harsanyi
The Wall Street Journal reports today that General Motors executives have asked the Treasury Department to sell its stake in the giant automaker. The administration has refused. Oddly enough, today we also learned that the Obama administration is launching a complaint at the World Trade Organization over China’s allegedly unfair subsidizing of its auto industry. The United States will charge the Chinese government with subsidizing auto and auto parts producers from 2009 and 2011 to the tune of .... read more

Redstate… Mitt Romney’s Remarks are Another Chick-Fil-A Moment, by By Erick Erickson
September 19th, 2012 - Just a few months ago, Dan Cathy of Chick-Fil-A, gave an interview to a Christian publication that asked him about the Chick-Fil-A Foundation’s support of marriage. Cathy defending his position and spoke about his family’s faith. CNN.com picked it up and ran a story that Cathy had come out against gay marriage. In fact, Cathy hadn’t been asked directly about gay marriage, but it was implicit in what he said. The CNN.com story... read more

Cleveland Plain Dealer… As newspapers reinvent themselves without paper who will responsibly inform our children - By Phillip Morris - Sunday, September 16, 2012 - Have you ever tried to explain to a really smart 9-year-old child what you do for a living? It's not quite as easy as it seems. If you fly airplanes, put out fires or arrest bad people, I suppose the job speaks for itself. That's why kids grow up pretending to be pilots or cops. But if you work in an industry like newspaper journalism (read: old school), an industry that is undergoing revolutionary change in terms of consumer demand and... read more

Heritage Foundation… School Choice Would Limit CTU Power and Free Children to Learn
By Lindsey Burke - Some 350,000 Chicago schoolchildren have spent the past few days either on the streets, sitting around empty school buildings, or at home. Their teachers, on strike at the behest of the Chicago Teachers Union, have been absent from classrooms that should have been filled with the noises of a bustling back-to-school season. Notably, tens of thousands of their public charter school peers... read more

Investors.com… Obama's Ham-Fisted Response To The Attacks On The U.S., By Mark Steyn
09/14/2012 - So, on a highly symbolic date, mobs storm American diplomatic facilities and drag the corpse of a U.S. ambassador through the streets. Then the president flies to Vegas for a fundraiser. No, no, a novelist would say; that's too pat, too neat in its symbolic contrast. Make it Cleveland, or Des Moines. The president is surrounded by delirious fanbois and fangurls screaming "We love you," too drunk on his celebrity to understand this is the first photo-op in the aftermath of a national humiliation... read more

Verities & Balderdash… WWII B17 Survival Story, Edited by Bob Robinson
This was sent by a reader. It has not been verified. From my perspective, I’d simply like to “believe.” Belief… faith… is something we are short on these days. I know men like this existed once. My father was one of them. And I know men and women like this exist today. My nephew is one of them. We need to honor them all and thank them for their service… past, present and future. A made in America story... read more

The American Thinker… Will Obama Keep Power 'by Any Means Necessary'? By Stella Paul
August 21, 2012 - Let's go there: if Obama thinks he's losing, will he allow safe and fair elections on November 6? And if he does lose, will he peacefully turn over power to Mitt Romney on January 20, 2013? Or will he cling to power "by any means necessary," as a highly placed insider alleges? Now, I'm truly sorry to raise such disgusting, un-American, crazy-sounding questions, but, alas, they're not crazy, and I've got a disquieting amount of evidence. The Democrats have already accused Romney... read more

Mail Magazine 24… U.S. Credit Rating Downgraded After Fed Pumps More Money, by Tony Lee
A prominent ratings firm downgraded the U.S. Government's credit rating from "AA" to "AA-" one day after the Federal Reserve announced it would pump more money into the economy by buying more than $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities per month until the economy improves. Ratings firm Egan-Jones said it cut its credit reating on the U.S. government because it felt the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing... read more

Mail Magazine 24… But... bin Laden!?! by Ben Shapiro
President Obama’s central foreign policy accomplishment, according to his campaign, is the killing of Osama Bin Laden. And it’s quite an accomplishment: finding a man hidden halfway around the globe, ensconced among his multiple wives, with no access to the outside world, protected by local Pakistani security forces, wielding little or no power. Meanwhile, however, other things were going on in the world. So let’s try to balance President Obama’s foreign policy record over the last four... read more

Townhall… Depending on Dependency, by Thomas Sowell
Sep 12, 2012 - The theme that most seemed to rouse the enthusiasm of delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte was that we are all responsible for one another -- and that Republicans don't want to help the poor, the sick and the helpless. All of us should be on guard against beliefs that flatter ourselves. At the very least, we should check such beliefs against facts. Yet the notion that people who... read more

Townhall… The Higher-Ed Bubble is Bound to Burst, by Jeff Jacoby
Sep 12, 2012 - "If you want to go to college," my mother said, "you'll have to get a scholarship." Luckily, I did. I was admitted to George Washington University, which generously awarded me a grant covering the full cost of my tuition. To the best of my recollection, that sum was $2,400 in 1975, the year I entered GW. To pay for my other expenses there were several forms of need-based financial aid, and I received what is now called a Pell Grant and a subsidized work/study job on... read more

The Heritage Network… America’s Debt to Its Diplomatic, Military, and Intelligence Personnel
By David S. Addington - September 12, 2012 - U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens was killed in Benghazi yesterday, along with reportedly three other staff and two Marines. The deaths in Benghazi, Libya, of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and others in the service of the United States provides a tragic reminder of the great sacrifices that U.S. diplomatic, military, and intelligence personnel serving abroad... read more

Townhall… Let Bush be, by Victor Davis Hanson
Sep 13, 2012 - The theme of the president's 2012 re-election campaign is that George W. Bush left such a terrible mess that Barack Obama could hardly be expected to clean it up in four years. In other words, 43 months of unemployment rates above 8 percent, $5 trillion in new borrowing, $16 trillion in aggregate debt, gas prices of nearly $4 per gallon, a dive in average family income and involvement in two wars were all due to George Bush and simply too difficult for anyone else to overcome. So... read more

Columbus Dispatch… Over-inflated
Obama campaign isn’t painting true picture of auto bailout in Ohio - Sunday September 9, 2012 - President Barack Obama and his supporters have made the $82 billion bail-out of General Motors and Chrysler a centerpiece of his re-election campaign. But there are a few things wrong with the picture they paint. First, the number of jobs they claim to have saved in Ohio is inflated. They cite 850,000 Ohio... read more

The President and the Arab Fall, By Erick Erickson
September 12th, 2012 - Oh if only Islamic radicals would riot over the HHS contraception mandate and gay marriage. If they did, the Administration would fall all over themselves to apologize. Don’t believe me? Consider yesterday’s events well chronicled by Jeff Emanuel. A group in the United States exercised their first amendment rights, which set off rioting yet again among the religion of peace. Egyptians stormed the American Embassy, torn down the... read more

Townhall Finance… America 2016, by Jeff Carter
Politicians love to tell stories. They put little heartwarming stories in their speeches. Today, everyone will try to define Obama’s speech. I saw the speech and there was nothing new in it. He tried to fire up his base. We will see if he did it. Last night, I saw a movie that you should see too. Dinesh D’Souza made a movie and wrote a book, “Obama’s America”. It’s a very pragmatic look at Obama’s upbringing. There isn’t any birther stuff, but there are some autobiographical facts presented about... read more

Patriot Voices… Day 3 of Poll Results: American Moms Concerned about Energy Production and Government Regulations - Verona, PA - On the third and final day of results from the Moms Know Best poll which sought opinions of moms in five important battleground states, American mothers revealed their strong views on oil and energy production, prices at the gas pump, the harmful effects of government regulations on middle class businesses and Medicare cuts within Obamacare... read more

Heritage Network… FACT CHECK: Secretary Arne Duncan on Education Cuts, By Lindsey Burke
September 10, 2012 - During remarks to attendees in Charlotte last week, Education Secretary Arne Duncan claimed that the budget passed by the House of Representatives would mean “fewer teachers in the classroom, fewer resources for poor kids and students with disabilities, [and] fewer after school programs.” However, the House budget does not designate specific cuts to K-12 education programs; it simply calls for reductions in non-defense discretionary spending over the next decade. Duncan, as he... read more

Patriot Voices… National Security Dominates Concerns in Moms' Poll
Verona, PA - As Democrats highlight President Obama's flawed foreign policy record at the Democratic National Committee Convention in Charlotte, NC, Patriot Voices releases Moms Know Best poll numbers indicating concerns over the administration's "leading from behind" approach to foreign policy. Day two of the poll, taken with mothers in five battleground states, reveals an array of questions concerning the Obama administration's... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: Obama’s Dismal Jobs Record, By Amy Payne
September 7, 2012 - The unemployment rate is now 8.1 percent, marking 43 months straight that it has stayed at 8 percent or above. At least 12.5 million Americans are out of work. Yet President Obama has been trying to convince people that he’s a job-creating President. Have 4.5 million new jobs been created under President Obama, as several speakers in Charlotte have claimed this week? A fact check shows that under President Obama, the U.S. economy has created a net... read more

Investors.com… Obama To Soldiers Overseas: No Voting For You!
Military: The administration thanks the troops for their service by failing to comply with a law requiring that it help soldiers deployed overseas cast ballots in their home states. The administration has taken various states to court to block voter ID laws on the grounds it will disenfranchise voters. But it has no qualms about the disenfranchisement of military voters overseas through its failure to comply with and enforce the Military and... read more

Economists for Romney… Economists Supporting Mitt Romney for President
Statement in Support: We enthusiastically endorse Governor Mitt Romney’s economic plan to create jobs and restore economic growth while returning America to its tradition of economic freedom. The plan is based on proven principles: a more contained and less intrusive federal government, a greater reliance on the private sector, a broad expansion of opportunity without government favors for special interests, and respect for the rule of law including the decision-making authority of states and... read more

WND Exclusive on Poverty… Heritage Foundation says 'Greatest Weapon' is NOT education
By Bob Unruh - A new study released just this week by The Heritage Foundation reveals that one factor alone can reduce by 82 percent the probability that a child lives in poverty – whether Mom and Dad are married to each other. “Policymakers on the state and national levels recognize that education reduces poverty, but they’re largely unaware that marriage is an equally strong anti-poverty weapon... read more

Redstate… Barack Obama and the Rise of Ineptocracy, By streiff
September 6th, 2012 - Bob Woodward is out with a new book, called “The Price of Politics.” The first excerpts appeared today as Barack Obama prepares to accept the Democrat Party nomination for president. Woodward makes the best case possible as to why Barack Obama should be denied a second term. As it turns out the fiasco of a vagina-based convention that denied God three times before the cock crowed — a convention that featured an adulterer and callous killer as its hero on the first... read more

Patriot Voices… Moms: Country on Wrong Track
New Poll Finds Majority of Moms Believe Country is on the Wrong Track - Verona, PA - As Democrats gather this week in Charlotte just as Republicans did in Tampa to discuss which is the better party for women, Patriot Voices is releasing results of a new poll that discusses which issues moms care most about and who stands on the right side of these issues. The poll, conducted by the Tarrance... read more

Heritage Foundation… Clinton Is Wrong on Welfare Reform
Last night, in his nationally televised speech, former President Bill Clinton said the charge that President Obama has gutted welfare reform was “a real doozy.” Clinton, who vetoed welfare reform twice before signing the welfare reform law in 1996, echoed the Obama Administration and media “fact checkers,” who have sworn that Obama’s Health and Human Services Department (HHS) is actually trying to strengthen the work requirements of the law by doing away with them. The fact is that... read more

WND Commentary… We Belong to the Government, By Joseph Farah
September 6, 2012 - Do you belong to the government? If you want to understand why the Democratic Party represents the gravest threat to America’s freedom, all you really need to know is that the convention planners in Charlotte didn’t see anything wrong with a video shown there Tuesday night. They made the video. They must have thought it was very good. I’m sure they listened carefully to every word uttered... read more

Salem News…Clean up tax breaks, loopholes
September 5, 2012 - When Ohio had a corporate franchise tax, companies were able to write off losses against future income. The idea was that the companies would generate taxable profits in the future. Ohio eliminated the franchise tax in favor of the commercial activity tax. However, the state never eliminated the write-offs against future income even though future profits are no longer taxed. This is one of 128 tax loopholes, some dating back nearly a century, that a variety of think tanks that... read more

mailmagazine24 ...Obama Election Manipulation in Swing State Ohio, by Matthew Vadum
An Ohio election law that eliminated an unfair advantage enjoyed by the Obama campaign has been struck down by an unelected federal judge under the guise of fairness. The heavy-handed court ruling probably gives the Obama campaign an edge in the vitally important battleground state. Acceding to a lawsuit from the Obama campaign, part-time, semi-retired liberal judge Peter C. Economus last week voided provisions of.... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of a New School Year
By Amy Payne - September 4, 2012 - As of today, the vast majority of American students have begun a new school year. As lunches are packed and carpool lines grow, Heritage reviews the good, bad, and ugly in education. The Good - Support for school choice is at an all-time high. In a poll released in August, school choice favorability jumped 10 percentage points since last year, a sign that the proliferation of options such as vouchers, education savings accounts, and online learning... read more

Governor Ted's Top Ten Talking Points for DNC, By Bob Bennett, Ohio Republican Party Chairman
Bennett on Governor Ted Stickland’s keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention, along with a list of 10 talking points… The Democratic National Convention is apparently so desperate for speakers they actually have Ted Strickland on the schedule. Whoever decided to give a speaking role to a fired governor responsible for 400,000 lost jobs ought to have their head examined... but then again, I've been... read more

Upstart Business Journal… Romney and Ryan have few convention words for entrepreneurs
By J. Jennings, Moss - August 31, 2012 - With the 2012 Republican National Convention now one for the history books, it's time to take stock of what Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan had to say to the nation's entrepreneurs. The answer: not a whole lot. Romney, the party's presidential nominee, mentioned "entrepreneurs" exactly once in his speech Thursday night. Ryan, his running mate, didn't say the word at all when he gave his address at the Tampa Times Forum on Wednesday. Both men gave... read more

Townhall Finance… Romney Didn't Make the Sale, By Larry Kudlow
Did Mitt Romney make the economic sale at the Republican National Convention? Did he convince people who are living at the margin or unemployed and discouraged that he has the answers to the economy? Frankly, I don't think so. I do not understand why he did not talk about his 20 percent across-the-board personal tax cut plan that would help the middle class enormously. He never mentioned it, and he went into no detail on the business tax... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Heritage Foundation “Cut Government Spending” Goal Gains Ground
by David S. Addington - As the public debate swirls over whether and how to limit the size and cost of the federal government, The Heritage Foundation’s longstanding efforts to shrink the government gain ground. In May 2010, Heritage published Saving the American Dream: The Heritage Plan to Fix the Debt, Cut Spending, and Restore Prosperity. The Heritage plan proposes to balance the federal budget within a decade and keep it balanced forever at no more than 18.5 percent of the total output of... read more

Human Events… Clint Eastwood’s Mysterious, yet kinda cool speech, By Hope Hodge
“Mystery speaker” Clint Eastwood gave something of a mysterious performance Thursday night to RNC delegates as the legendary actor and respected director was sometimes halting, other times humorous and didn’t exactly give Mitt Romney the ringing star power endorsement that many had hoped for. But, he did make his main point in a simple, Dirty Harry kind of way: “You, we, own this country. Politicians are employees... read more

Heritage.org… Morning Bell: We Can Change America’s Course, By Amy Payne
August 31 - Entering the final stretch of the presidential contest, Americans are facing a monumental choice. The American people will decide the direction of government and its role in their lives for the coming years. The debate in Tampa this week raised a number of issues, including preserving the American dream of working hard to achieve success. The Heritage Foundation has extensive research and policy prescriptions on each of these issues: Energy: America needs to end... read more

Townhall… The Ryan Vision: Let's Get This Done, David Limbaugh
Aug 31, 2012 - The Democrats and their mainstream media cheering section can huff and puff at Paul Ryan's convention speech, but they can't blow his house down. It was built on a solid foundation. So powerful was the speech that the liberal establishment is reduced to wailing about alleged lies the speech contained -- dishonest and easily refuted allegations. Ryan delivered a substantive indictment of the Obama... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Gallup: Americans Rate Public Schools the Worst Place to Educate Children
By Bright Knight - To be honest: that doesn't surprise me at all. Say "Thank You" to the Liberals - they have almost accomplished their mission: keep the people uneducated and poor and stay in power. Uneducated and poor people are reliable voters for the Liberals, so, after they took over the education (from the Department of Education over the Teacher Unions), they wrecked the education system and started to "produce" sheeples. After school/college the leftist medias continue dumbing... read more

Verities & Balderdash… A time to remember, Edited by Bob Robinson
I was in the seventh grade in 1957. By then I was already in a metropolitan area, so I don’t remember shotguns in cars… not in Lincoln, Nebraska. I do remember at Texas A&M shotguns on racks in the back windows of pickups a few years later. Everywhere. It wouldn’t be unlikely that one would end up on a high school campus following an early-morning quail hunt. I had my share of fist fights in high school... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Consumer Confidence Plummets To Year's Lowest Level, by John Nolte
As the corrupt media guards Obama's palace with narratives that sound something like, RichMormonFreakIsSoftOnRape AndWantsToEatThePoor BecauseTaxCheatFelonKilledMyWife, out here in the real world people are suffering under Barack Obama's failed policies. But the Media-Collective doesn’t want to talk about that. Might help Romney. The American people, however, beg to differ and are talking amongst themselves about an economy that's slowing and an... read more

Redstate… The Next President, By Erick Erickson
August 31 - What a difference a speech makes. As Ari Fleischer noted on CNN, the same media that was cool with the shallow vapidity of hope and change in 2008 is now demanding specifics from Mitt Romney. Last night in Tampa, he gave the one set of specifics he needed to give — a course correction.The Democrats are screaming that it is a return to the 1950's, when unemployment was less than it is... read more

Mailmagazine24… RNC Backup Plan: Just Read Obama's 2008 Promises From the Podium
by Joel B. Pollak - If, as George Orwell once observed, the greatest enemy of any left-wing government is its previous propaganda, then Barack Obama’s most fearsome enemy is a small volume his campaign published in 2008: Change We Can Believe In: Barack Obama's Plan to Renew America's Promise. I bought it after Obama won the presidency that November, and it makes for very entertaining--and somewhat sad--reading nearly four years later. Among the many promises Obama makes are... read more

Human Events… Christie Doesn’t Disappoint as he Rips into Liberals, By John Gizzi
TAMPA, Fla. – Chris Christie did not disappoint — the governor of New Jersey, with his signature “in-your-face” style, tore into the Obama record and hailed the Romney-Ryan team as if they were his beloved New York Mets. It was a performance that lived up to the expectations of enthusiasts like Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) who exclaimed to Human Events early Tuesday night, “He’s the most charismatic speaker we have — the right person to be... read more

Heritage.org… Back to School: Some Surprising Education Numbers, By Lindsey Burke
August 27, 2012 - As children head back to the classrooms, let’s look at two important figures to consider this school year: 308,000 and $11,400. 308,000: Number of members lost by the National Education Association. Education special interest groups, such as the teachers unions, are experiencing a decline in membership. As Stephen Sawchuck reports in Education Week, “by the end of its 2013–14 budget, NEA [the National Education Association] expects it will have lost 308,000 members and... read more

Redstate… On Lance Armstrong, By Erick Erickson
August 24th - If you haven’t heard yet, Lance Armstrong has given up on fighting the US Anti-Doping Agency. He’s throwing in the towel. I don’t really have a dog in the fight. I’m never cared much for competitive cycling. But it really does seem horrendous and un-American to me that a quasi-government agency, mostly funded by the government, gets to pretend it is not a part of the government and throw out due process... read more

Only in America, Submitted by Al Bliss
10 Political and Economic Imponderables that Every American Should Contemplate - 1. Only in America could politicians talk about the greed of the rich at a $40,000-a-plate campaign fund raising event; 2. Only in America could people claim that the government still discriminates against black Americans when we have a black President, a black Attorney General and a federal workforce that is roughly 18% black when the entire black population is only 12%... read more

The passing of Neil Armstrong, Sent by a reader
Neil Armstrong… RIP. Perfect! "I was certainly aware that this was a culmination of the work of 300,000 or 400,000 people over a decade and that nation's hopes and outward appearance largely rested on how the results came out. With those pressures, it seemed the most important thing to do was focus on our job as best we were able to and try to allow nothing to distract us from doing the very... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Small Businesses Worried More About Economic Uncertainty, Regulations Under Obama
by Tony Lee - Under Barack Obama, “Uncertainty Over Economic Conditions” and “Uncertainty Over Government Actions” are, respectively, the second and fourth most serious problems small business owners face, according to a quadrennial survey by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB). In 2008, the last time NFIB conducted its survey, these... read more

Heritage Foundation… Political Convention Drama Begins, By Julia Shaw and Amy Payne
August 27 - This week's Republican National Convention is already experiencing its own drama thanks to Tropical Storm Isaac, which has postponed most of the events until tomorrow. But this year marks the 100th anniversary of another Republican Convention embroiled in political drama of a different nature. Unlike today's conventions, which are little more than multi-day campaign rallies, at the 1912 affair in... read more

National Review... Reid’s Glass House, By Betsy Woodruff
Democratic senators have offshore accounts. August 24, 2012 - Good news for Senator Harry Reid: If he’s a little bored while waiting for Mitt Romney to release his tax returns, there are plenty of other elected officials — in his own party, to boot! — who merit the same eyebrow-raising he’s directed at the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. The Senate majority leader has expressed consternation about the fact that Romney has some money in offshore accounts, which probably... read more

Townhall… Downward, By Ken Blackwell  
Aug 25, 2012 - The progressive mindset is set. It believes that whatever it pursues at the moment must be progress. Think Progress is one of the groups that is convinced progress is achieved by the right people thinking the right thoughts. Or, the right people thinking the left thoughts. "We are the people we've been waiting for," said candidate Obama four years ago. Better to wait for Godot. The president's re-election... read more

Mail Magazine 24…. If I Were Romney, by Mychal Massie
I’ve never had a problem confronting a bully, but apparently Republicans do – and none more so than Mitt Romney. The Obama campaign has called Romney a criminal with no justification for same. They simply made up the false allegations, circulated the talking points per same to Obama’s minions, and then let Harry Reid do the rest. The result? Romney spends time and energy on defense. Now Obama and his campaign are demanding Romney release his tax returns for the past five... read more

Verities & Balderdash… Getting Old, Edited by Bob Robinson
Twenty years ago, I’d read something like this and get a good chuckle. “I’ve got a few years to go,” I’d always think to myself. Today, I’m there… well, getting there. For all you youngsters out there, join in the chuckles. Just don’t forget: Some day you’ll get there, too. Enjoy… I very quietly confided to my best friend that I was having an affair. She turned to me and asked, 'Are you having it catered'? And that... read more

Mail Magazine 24… CBO Warns: President Obama and Congress Risk Triggering Another Recession, by J.D. Foster, Ph.D. - About 1.6 million American jobs hang in the balance. That is the clear implication of analysis contained in the annual budget update by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Along with all manner of dire and dreary budget data reflecting President Obama’s budget and economic policies to date, CBO provides its assessment of what would happen if the President and Congress sit on their respective hands and fail to defuse the threats of Taxmageddon and the fiscal... read more

Cleveland Plain Dealer… More steps forward than back in GOP platform, By Kevin O'Brien
Thursday, August 23, 2012 - The battle between Mitt Romney and conservatives is joined. This is a healthy thing for Mitt Romney and the country. It's likely to be a little unnerving at times for Romney, who is trying on a brand of conservatism not native to Massachusetts. And it's likely to be frustrating at times for conservatives, because they're not going to convince the Republican standard... read more

The Daily Caller… More than 500 economists, 5 Nobel laureates back Romney’s economic strategy
By Caroline May - 08/20/2012 - More than 500 economists — including five Nobel laureates — have endorsed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s economic plan as the right choice for jobs creation and economic growth. The pro-Romney group “Economists for Romney” announced Monday that its statement of support for the former Massachusetts governor’s economic plan now has 526 signatories, up from 400 a week ago... read more

Townhall… "Issues" or America? By Thomas Sowell
There are some very serious issues at stake in this year's election -- so many that some people may not be able to see the forest for the trees. Individual issues are the trees, but the forest is the future of America as we have known it. The America that has flourished for more than two centuries is being quietly but steadily dismantled by the Obama administration, during the process of dealing with particular... read more

Akron Beacon Journal… Lawsuits without facts
August 20, 2012 - For $25 billion, five of the nation’s biggest mortgage lenders agreed early this year to settle charges that they initiated foreclosure proceedings relying on paperwork that frequently was incomplete, inaccurate or simply fraudulent. The “robo-signing” scandal exposed industry practices that were forcing thousands of borrowers into foreclosure every year, even though the lenders could not produce verifiable documentation that they owned the properties in question or that... read more

Townhall… America Ready for Paul Ryan’s Adult Conversation, By Star Parker
Aug 20, 2012 - There’s a line of thinking on the political left that Mitt Romney served them up a great softball in picking Paul Ryan as his running mate. According to Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page, “Ryan brings to the Romney campaign the tea party’s style of magical thinking, a blissfully simplistic, ideologically driven world view that seems to think candidates can win votes by promising to reduce popular... read more

Mailmagazine24… From Social Security to Federal Benefit, by Herbert London
In the parlance of Orwellian newspeak words often mean the opposite of their seeming intent. The Internal Revenue Service is anything but a service. Now we have yet another government inspired contradiction. Social Security has been transformed into the "Federal Benefits Payment." One might well ask how an insurance arrangement in which the recipient makes payments throughout his working existence is regarded as a "benefit." Whatever happened to "earned income"? At the moment... read more

Heritage.org … Back to School: The Rise of Customized Education , By Lindsey Burke
August 20, 2012 - Customized learning has led the education news cycle over the past few weeks as back to school season gets in full swing. And for good reason. Every day there is growing evidence that a seismic shift in the delivery of instruction is underway, bringing with it a tidal wave of educational options for families. Earlier this month, the news site Education Week published an inside look at one family’s hybrid schooling experience..... read more

Akron Beacon Journal… Battleground Ohio
August 16, 2012 - From the start of this election cycle, Jon Husted urged bipartisan county elections boards to reach compromises in setting hours for early voting. If they did not reach an agreement? The secretary of state emphasized that he would set the time to the board’s current office hours. The stance reflected his campaign promise. He wants — for good reason — a more uniform system of voting across the state. He didn’t want his office establishing varying hours in different counties. The trouble... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Obama Administration Already Tossed the Food Stamp Work Requirement
By Kiki Bradley - The Obama Administration sure is getting defensive about its recent action to waive all work requirements in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash welfare program. But this isn’t the first time or the first program in which Obama Administration policy has undermined work requirements. The welfare reform of 1996 requires that after three months on food stamps... read more

Townhall… Ethnocentric Studies, By Mike Adams  
Ethnocentrism is under-rated. Most college students are exposed to the concept only if they take a course in Introductory Sociology or if they should chose to major in sociology. Even then, the concept of ethnocentrism is presented as an evil to be extinguished by fostering the value of anti-ethnocentrism. For those who are not well-versed in the language of sociology, ethnocentrism refers to the tendency to... read more

Redstate… The Crazy Fool From the Attic Turned Vice President Race Baits
Posted by Erick Erickson - Wednesday, August 15 - In fairness to Vice President Biden, I supposed I should have a full post for our collective crazy uncle in the attic turned Vice President. The man from Delaware claimed that Republicans want to put people back in chains. Considering there is only one group of people ever put in chains in this country, it is clear he was race baiting. I have no doubt this was orchestrated...read more

Heritage... Morning Bell: Wind Energy Subsidies are as Useful as VHS Tape Subsidies
By Amy Payne, August 16, 2012 - The wind production tax credit is set to expire at the end of this year, which has the industry crying out for continued subsidies. Heritage’s Nicolas Loris has made the case that the wind energy tax credit makes as much sense as a VHS production tax credit. Can you imagine the logic: “We can’t afford to lose our VHS tape manufacturing plants. They provide...read more

Heritage.org... Higher Gas Prices Add to Economic Slump, By Amy Payne
Unemployment is at 8.3 percent. The economy is sputtering at 1.5 percent growth. Food prices are rising due to drought conditions across the country. And gas prices are up again, pinching Americans' summer budgets. It is past time for the President and Congress to pursue smart policies that would put us on a path to relief. According to AAA's Fuel Gauge Report, the current national average for regular is $3.66 per gallon. That's up 28 cents per gallon from a month ago, and July had its biggest... read more

Cincinnati Enquirer… Innovative thinking can fund our infrastructure, by Ellen van der Horst
Aug. 13, 2012 - Just as innovation leads to improvements in the way we do business, innovative thinking can also lead to improvements in the way we fund infrastructure. And the need for innovative thinking is more important now than ever. Investment in transportation infrastructure is critical to the growth of our economy. It impacts the very core of our economic ...read more

Townhall Finance… Paul Ryan's Old-Fashioned American Vision, By Larry Kudlow
When you think of Republican congressman Paul Ryan, terms like earnest, serious, and important come to mind. So does the term old-fashioned. Ryan comes from an old-fashioned place, the blue-collar town of Janesville, Wisconsin. He cherishes the old-fashioned values of a faithful family man. He even looks old-fashioned, with his white shirts and striped ties. And he uses old-fashioned...read more

Townhall Finance... The Last Ticket to Fantasyland Expires in Three Months, by John Ransom
The presidential playbook generally calls for a successful candidate to swing to the middle when they are running unopposed for their party’s nomination. But as we enter perhaps the final months of the Obama administration, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for anyone to make an appeal to the center, if indeed a center even exists in American politics anymore. Obama has destroyed the political center in this country, and for that we can be thankful. Because Obama’s policies have exposed the basic... read more

Investors.com... The United States Of Dependency?
Economy: New reports suggest America is not only hurting economically under President Obama, but also on a dangerous road to fiscal decline and growing dependence on government. This is the real legacy of Obamanomics. Before you shrug this off as an exaggeration or chalk it up to scare-mongering, check out the reports that have emerged in recent days suggesting just how dependent Americans have...read more

Akron Beacon Journal... Departure time
Stan Heffner quickly apologized “for my lack of judgment.” His words came in response to a report delivered Thursday by the state inspector general that concluded Heffner acted improperly when in May 2011, as the interim state schools superintendent, he testified in favor of legislation likely to benefit a private education company seeking to hire him. On Saturday, he expanded his expression of regret. He stepped down as the superintendent of public instruction in Ohio. The choice... read more

WND... Don’t Get Fooled, Again! By Joseph Farah
“This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.” Those are the now famous words of Barack Obama to Russian President Medvedev in Seoul, South Korea, regarding his need for “more space” in dealing with the sticky issue of missile defense – when he thought his conversation was off-microphone. In other words, Obama was ready to capitulate to Russia’s opposition to U.S. missile...read more

The Heritage Foundation... Obama Administration Nationalizing Common Core Standards
By Rachel Sheffield - At a Tea Party gathering last month, Indiana Schools Superintendent Tony Bennett expressed his concern with the growing federal overreach of Common Core education standards. “This administration has an insatiable appetite for federal overreach,” he said. “The federal government’s involvement in these standards is wrong.” The Indianapolis Star adds: Bennett pointed out that the Common Core’s standards originated with the National Governors Association... read more

Townhall... Sports Versus Politics, by Thomas Sowell
Aug 07, 2012 - It has long seemed to me that there is far more rationality in sports, and in commentaries on sports, than there is in politics and in commentaries on politics. What has puzzled me is why this is so, when what happens in politics has far more serious effects on people’s lives. To take one common example, there are many people who believe that if the market fails, the government should step in. But, if...read more

Of Managing Medicaid - Single agency should allow better coordination of giant health program
Monday, August 6, 2012 - Gov. John Kasich’s plan to create a separate cabinet-level department to handle all of Ohio’s Medicaid work is a good idea. No single state program spends more money than Medicaid, and no public service is growing in cost and complexity like health care, yet responsibility for the spending of more than $18 billion annually in state and federal Medicaid dollars long has been spread among six different state agencies. The Department of Job and Family Services.... read more

The Real Poll Numbers, by Dick Morris
August 6, 2012 - The media is trying to create a sense of momentum and of inevitability about the Obama candidacy. One benighted Newsweek reporter even speculated about a possible Democratic landslide. On Friday, I saw the real numbers. These state-by-state polls, taken by an organization I trust (after forty years of polling) show the real story. The tally is based on more than 600 likely voter interviews in each swing state within the past...read more

CNS News... Of Free Speech and Chick-Fil-A, By Ed Feulner
August 2, 2012 - Dan Cathy could have saved his company, Chick-Fil-A, a lot of trouble. All he had to do was keep his views about family to himself. Instead, he answered a question honestly. In a recent media interview, the company’s president and COO said what he believes and why he believes it. But his politically incorrect views are intolerable, judging from the anger of many on the left, including several big-city officials who are dead-set against his views. In the interview, Cathy said he is... read more

Townhall... Capitalism Did It, by Mona Charen
Aug 03, 2012 - A young Chinese man is under arrest for a rampage killing in Liaoning province. The knife-wielding 17-year-old reportedly killed eight people, including two relatives of his estranged girlfriend, and wounded five others. Terrible story. But Agence France-Presse, in an account widely circulated by Yahoo and other news outlets, knew just whom to blame: capitalism. AFP explained, “Violent crime... read more

Investors.com… Obama Embraces The Islamist Enemy Within
08/03/2012 - The Obama Record - The Obama Record: The Muslim Brotherhood doesn’t just threaten the Mideast. It threatens America. Instead of protecting the nation from these Islamofascists, the president has embraced them. Five patriots on Capitol Hill have cast political correctness aside and warned of Brotherhood plants inside the Obama administration. Led by House intelligence committee member Michele Bachmann, these GOP lawmakers have asked key agencies dealing with... read more

Townhall... President Obama: You’re no Bill Clinton, by Cal Thomas
Aug 02, 2012 - The Obama re-election team must be in panic mode. The president is stuck in a virtual tie with Mitt Romney in some polls and behind him in others, so in desperation it has reached out to the Big Dog, Bill Clinton, for help. Clinton will speak next month at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., in a Wednesday night position often reserved for the vice presidential nominee. Obama and... read more

Heritage Network... Morning Bell: Has Any Administration Policy NOT Killed Jobs Lately? Amy Payne
August 3, 2012 - Congress has headed off for its long vacation-and-campaign season, fleeing Washington as the unemployment rate rises. According to the Labor Department’s July jobs report, the unemployment rate ticked up to 8.3 percent, 12.8 million Americans are out of work, and 5.2 million have been out of work for at least a half a year. According to one survey, the country added a surprising 163,000 jobs in July, while according to a second Labor Department survey, employment fell... read more

Townhall... Want Hope? Make a Change. by Michael Reagan
Aug 02, 2012 - President Obama was supposed to be all about hope and change. But after almost four years he’s squeezed the hope out of most of us. A new Rasmussen poll is the latest proof that the only hope of getting out of our economic ditch is to fire the hopeless guy in the White House who keeps digging it deeper. Since early 2009 Rasmussen has been asking two questions that serve as a good barometer of what people think... read more

Mail Magazine 24... Win Olympic Gold, Pay the IRS, by Hugh Johnson
U.S. Olympic medal winners will owe up to $9,000 to the IRS - While 529 hardworking athletes proudly represent the United States in the 2012 Olympics, any medals and money they earn wearing red, white and blue will be taxed by the IRS. According to research done by the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation, U.S. Olympic athletes are liable to pay income tax on medals earned and prizes received at the London games. American medalists face a top income tax rate of 35 percent. Under U.S. tax... read more

Investors.com... Labor Dept. Waives 60-Day Notice To Help Obama Win
Politics: An administration that doesn’t want layoff notices required by law going out days before the November election is telling defense contractors they don’t have to send them for the cuts required by sequestration. As the heads of major defense contractors Lockheed Martin, EADS North America, Pratt & Whitney and Williams-Pyro testified recently before the House Armed Services... read more

Mail Magazine 24... New Study Crushes Global Warming Data Claims, by Michael Patrick Leahy
Global warming skeptic and meteorologist Anthony Watts, whose wattsupwiththat.com website has been called the “world’s most viewed climate website,” released a scientific discussion paper yesterday that crushes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s [NOAA’s] “global warming” data claims. The study, co-authored with Dr. John R. Christy of the University of Alabama at Huntsville, Stephen McIntyre of Toronto, Canada, and Evan Jones of New York, concluded that... read more

Mail Magazine 24... Louisiana Teachers Union Threatens to Sue Voucher Schools, by Bright Knight
This is just another proof that the Unions don’t care about the students and the student’s future. It’s just about indoctrination of the students and about power. They know, the easiest way to transform America is poisoning the brains of the students (the best proof that this works is the Socialist-in-Chief in the White House - he was indoctrinated by Marxists and Islamists from childhood on and you see where it ended) and they do whatever they can, using all methods, even mobster-methods, to get as... read more

Townhall... Election Integrity: It Matters, by Katie Pavlich
In 2009, Catherine Engelbrecht of Houston volunteered to be a poll watcher. From that moment forward, her life changed. During her time as an election volunteer, she saw people come in with duplicate registrations and people coming into the polling place to vote only to find out someone else had already voted for them through the mail. This, among other reasons, is why Engelbrecht founded True the Vote, a non-profit... read more

Redstate... Government Determined to Waste Money on Catfish, Posted by Ben Howe
Monday, July 30th - If you don’t remember the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act (FARRM), better known as the Farm Bill, here’s a quick refresher: Put simply, the farm bill is an anathema to free enterprise, limited government, and individual responsibility. The House version (H.R. 6083) authorizes $957 billion in spending over 10 years, 80% of which will go towards food stamps. Despite erroneous claims in the media regarding severe cuts to food stamps, this bill actually consummates... read more

Townhall Finance... Public Pensions Fail Simple Math, by John Ransom
There is a dirty secret about state entitlements that liberals don’t want you to know. The collection of a state pension increases the chances that a pensioner will live in poverty. That’s because money put aside for state-guaranteed benefits can not be safely invested at rates that provide for more than a modest retirement unless the state subsidizes retirement benefits through taxes or if retirement savings are invested in riskier, higher yielding investments. Since governments are loath to raise ... read more

Townhall... News Versus Propaganda, by Thomas Sowell
Jul 24, 2012 - Since so many in the media cannot resist turning every tragedy into a political talking point, it was perhaps inevitable that (1) someone would try to link the shooting rampage at the Batman movie in Colorado to the Tea Party, and that (2) some would try to make it a reason to impose more gun control laws. Too many people in the media cannot seem to tell the difference between reporting the news and... read more

Townhall Finance... The Fed Brought A Knife to a Gunfight, by Jeff Carter
Over the course of the past year, I have advocated the view that the Federal Reserve is out of bullets. All the central bankers of the world are out of bullets. They don’t have any ammo in their back pocket to reload. The entire EU is overwhelmed with government debt. Greece is running out of money due to entitlements, and France has turned socialist. Germany cannot save the EU by itself, and the entire region is spinning into recession. No doubt, it will have a hard landing. China is slowing. The EU is... read more

Townhall... Random Thoughts, by Thomas Sowell
Jul 25, 2012 - Random thoughts on the passing scene: Even squirrels know enough to store nuts, so that they will have something to eat when food gets scarce. But the welfare state has spawned a whole class of people who spend everything they get when times are good, and look to others to provide for their food and other basic needs when times turn bad. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution prescribes “equal... read more

Akron Beacon Journal... Trouble for the uninsured
July 25, 2012 - In its landmark ruling in June, the U.S. Supreme Court made Medicaid expansion optional, striking down the requirement in the Affordable Care Act that state governments, beginning in 2014, cover adults under age 65 with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level. On Tuesday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office clarified some of the effects of the court’s decision. According to the budget office analysis, permitting states to opt out of Medicaid expansion... read more

Heritage Foundation... Morning Bell: Obamacare Falls Short of Promises to Uninsured, by Amy Payne
July 25, 2012 - Two new reports out yesterday continue to knock down President Obama’s promises about Obamacare: his “If you like your plan, you can keep it,” and the promise to significantly shrink the ranks of the uninsured. According to a new study from consulting firm Deloitte, almost one of out of 10 employers said they are going to drop coverage for their employees because of Obamacare, while another 10 percent said they “remain unsure” about what they are going to do. As the vast... read more

Heritage Network... Morning Bell: Senate Votes to Raise Taxes on Small Businesses
By Amy Payne - July 26, 2012 - Yesterday, the Senate narrowly voted (51-48) to raise taxes on 1.2 million small businesses, which will likely kill more than 700,000 jobs at a time when nearly 13 million Americans are out of work. Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Jim Webb (D-VA) joined all Republicans in bipartisan opposition to the tax hike. This is President Obama’s economic plan. This is what he... read more

The Heritage Foundation... States Should Wait Before Accepting Obamacare
The Supreme Court upheld Obamacare’s individual mandate to purchase health insurance, but it also struck down part of the law. That part—forcing states to expand their Medicaid programs—offers governors some much-needed relief. Expanding Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor and disabled, was one of President Obama’s main ways to increase the number of insured people through Obamacare. This was no magic solution for the uninsured, especially since Medicaid... read more

Between the Lines... Proof! Establishment Media Controlled, By Joseph Farah
Exclusive: Joseph Farah scorches ‘journalists’ who are ‘selling their ethical, moral souls’ - There was a rather low-key confession made in the New York Times last week that deserves to be blared throughout this country so that every American understands what they are reading in the establishment’s ultra-controlled, government-managed “press” – and I use that last word loosely indeed. The admission... read more

Mail Magazine 24... Amonix: Another Obama-Subsidized Solar Company Fails, by John Nolte
Here we go again. Yet another example of the Obama White House’s failed attempt to pick winners and losers and doing so by gambling with our our tax dollars, this time to the tune of $6 million in tax credits and $15.6 in grant money from the U.S. Department of Energy. This company, Amonix, is only 14 months old. How in the world did it qualify for that kind of tax dollar windfall without any kind of track record? Oh: Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Gov. Brian Sandova... read more

The Columbus Dispatch... Farmers would benefit from income-tax cut financed by fracking tax
Gov. John Kasich’s push to establish a reasonable severance tax on drilling for oil and natural gas in Ohio stalled in the legislature earlier this year, but millions of Ohioans would benefit from the income-tax cut that the severance tax would make possible. Farmers are the latest group the governor is courting, and many stand to benefit from a tax on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to give Ohioans an income-tax reduction. Because most small businesses... read more

Mail Magazine 24... Actually, foreign companies invested in Bain Capital, creating American jobs
Another one of the Obama campaign’s attacks on Mitt Romney and Bain Capital is starting look pretty silly. New information turns the Bain “outsourcing” narrative completely on its head. As it turns out, instead of sending money overseas, Bain Capital actually received money from foreign investors while Romney was CEO, enabling him to start his company right here in the United States. from the LA Times: When Mitt Romney launched Bain Capitalin 1984, he struggled at first to raise enough... read more

Redstate... On Mitt Romney’s Taxes, Posted by Erick Erickson
Thursday, July 19th - I am a bit put off by the number of people on the right fighting amongst themselves over whether Mitt Romney should or should not release more tax records. As I said back in January, it was abundantly clear then that Barack Obama could just make Romney’s taxes an issue all the way to November. That the campaign hasn’t come up with a credible way to deal with it is appalling. A friend... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Thanks to Obamacare, Small Businesses Plan on Eliminating Jobs Before 2014
Obamacare’s employer mandate has small businesses scrambling to reduce their workforce in anticipation of the law’s implementation in 2014. Under the employer mandate, businesses with 50 or more full-time employees have to provide coverage or pay a $2,000 penalty for every worker minus the first 30. Growing businesses have discovered that expanding their workforce beyond 50 fulltime workers is simply too burdensome. In order to survive, many of these companies will have... read more

Townhall... What Patriots Can Learn to Do, by Bob Beauprez
It seems that virtually everyone agrees that the upcoming election in November is the most important in our lifetimes. And, while many people do engage in supporting candidates, the vast majority of citizens remain on the sidelines. Barely half of the eligible population bothers to vote even in a presidential election. Only a small fraction of the people ever step up to volunteer to help or write a check. But, that’s not the... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Obama Economy: Food Prices Skyrocketed in 2011
by William Bigelow - So you think you’ve been paying more for groceries because your food bill is too high? You’re right. Barack Obama is consuming fine dining while you’re putting another helping of macaroni on your plate. In 2011, with Obama’s inflation beginning to hit, prices skyrocketed for staples that you consume, according to the government: Beef... read more

Townhall... First Jobs, by John Stossel
Jul 18, 2012 - What was your first job? I stuck pieces of plastic and metal together at an Evanston, Ill., assembly line. We produced photocopiers for a company called American Photocopy. I hated the work. It was hot and boring. But it was useful. It taught me to get good grades in school so I might have other choices. Four years later, good grades got me a job as a researcher at a TV station. To my surprise, that... read more

Darke T.E.A. Patriots... Land of the Free, Jerry Gasquez
July 18, 2012 - DP&L has published that it is not going to use coal anymore because of EPA regulations starting in 2015 - 2016. It is a regulation that can skyrocket the price of electricity since 86% of Ohio’s electricity comes from coal. An Agenda 21 plan in the works. For you that don’t know about Agenda 21...don’t feel bad. Most people don’t. Agenda 21 was once thought to be a conspiracy theory. However, since there are books printed on the subject, and its plans are in the working... read more

Human Events... Like Charter Schools, Britain’s Academies Aim High, By Michael Barone
7/16/2012 - LONDON — 1776 is a number with great resonance for Americans, but not one you expect to be featured on a British government website. But there it is, on the home page of the United Kingdom’s Department of Education: “As of 1 April 2012, there are 1776 academies open in England.” Academies, as you might expect, mean something different in Britain than in the United States. They are, approximately, what... read more

Investors.com… Keeping Taxes Low At State Level Is Key To Growth
By Rex Sinquefield and Travis H. Brown - Posted 07/17/2012 - State taxes impact economic performance more than most people imagine. While the majority of attention is paid to the federal tax code, the evidence suggests that state taxes are just as important in determining economic competitiveness and often mean the difference between economic success and failure. The level and form of state taxation varies greatly, from no-income-tax states such as Florida and Texas to states like Hawaii... read more

Verities & Balderdash… The Death of Common Sense, Edited by Bob Robinson
I can’t remember the first time I saw this… it was probably 10 years ago after I first arrived in Greenville. I was still getting my feet wet in the “hot seat” as Managing Editor of The Daily Advocate. How many of you remember the publisher who hired me? Yup. Rodd Hale, Greenville’s current Safety Service Director. He’s a good man, and based on everything I’ve heard, doing an excellent job in his... read more

The American Thinker… Obama’s Second Term Transformation Plans, By Steve McCann
The 2012 election has often been described as the most pivotal since 1860. This statement is not hyperbole. If Barack Obama is re-elected the United States will never be the same, nor will it be able to re-capture its once lofty status as the most dominant nation in the history of mankind. The overwhelming majority of Americans do not understand that Obama’s first term was dedicated to putting in place executive power to enable him and the administration to fulfill the campaign promise of... read more

Wall Street Journal... Strassel: Obama’s Imperial Presidency, By Kimberley A. Strassel
When Congress won’t do what he wants, he ignores it and acts anyway - The ObamaCare litigation is history, with the president’s takeover of the health sector deemed constitutional. Now we can focus on the rest of the Obama imperial presidency. Where, you are wondering, have you recently heard that term? Ah, yes. The “imperial presidency” of George W. Bush was a favorite judgment of the left about our... read more

The Heritage Network... Morning Bell: Obama’s Imperial Presidency Guts Welfare Reform
by Amy Payne - The imperial Presidency has overturned Congress and the law again. Not content to stop at rewriting immigration policy, education policy and energy policy, yesterday, President Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)... Read More.

Canton Repository... CPAs: Kasich is right on the money
Can Republicans in the Ohio House come up with another reason for opposing Gov. John Kasich’s plan to raise the severance tax on oil and natural gas? Not that they should — the tax hike is a perfectly reasonable proposition that will benefit Ohioans in a big way. Thankfully, the drawback some GOP legislators are citing doesn’t pass the calculator test. Kasich wants to raise to 4 percent the tax on much of the oil and gas extracted by horizontal fracturing. Some of his fellow Republicans say this... read more

Human Events… Budget Insanity, By John Stossel
7/11/2012 - Last year, Congress agreed to $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts, unless politicians find other things to cut. They didn’t, of course. So now, with so-called sequestration looming in January, panic has set in. Even the new “fiscally responsible” Republicans vote against cutting Energy Department handouts to companies like Solyndra and subsidies to sugar producers. Many claim that any cut in military spending... read more

Townhall Finance... Hey Unions: Welcome to Politics, by John Ransom
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a hat tip to common sense, decided yesterday that nonunion members can opt out of union fees that are targeted towards political purposes. “Labor unions must give nonmember workers ‘fresh notice’ of unplanned increases in fees or assessments -- money that might be used for political purposes -- the Supreme Court ruled Thursday,” according to CNN. For labor unions around the country, it serves as a painful reminder that when they decided to go all-in for Obama in... read more

Mail Magazine 24... Governor Walker Breaks New Ground in Higher Ed
by Lindsey Burke and Teresa Shumay - Governor Scott Walker (R-WI), already well known for his efforts to curb union power, has now set out to tackle an equally big task: busting the higher education bubble. The problem of college affordability is recognized on both sides of the aisle, but sadly, most efforts to abate the problem – such as increasing federal subsidies – have only exacerbated it. Walker wants... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Unemployment Rate Dropped In Every State That Elected A Republican Gov. In 2010 - by Tony Lee - In 2010, influenced by the Tea Party and its focus on fiscal issues, 17 states elected Republican governors. And, according to an Examiner.com analysis, every one of those states saw a drop in their unemployment rates since January of 2011. Furthermore, the average drop in the unemployment rate in these states was 1.35%, compared to the national decline of .9%, which means, according to the analysis, that the job market in these Republican states is improving 50%... read more

Verities & Balderdash… You Just Can’t Make this Stuff Up, Edited by Bob Robinson
Messed up headlines is one of the “banes” of journalism. As a career journalist I’ve seen my share of dumb chucklers… and even made a few mistakes myself. Actually, far too many. Most of mine, however, were simply dumb grammar or spelling errors. I don’t think I ever gave anyone a good hearty laugh with their morning coffee and newspaper. At least I don’t think I did. The following? A CNO reader... read more

Akron Beacon Journal… Defining the deal
July 10, 2012 - Almost every word that emerges from the camps of Mitt Romney and Barack Obama must be filtered through the prism of campaign tactics. Yet there also are moments when a candidate lands on a defining issue, for the contest and the country. On Monday, President Obama did just that in proposing a one-year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for those households with annual incomes below $250,000. That translates into a tax increase for those households above the threshold... read more

Gingrich: President Obama must tell lies to get re-elected, By Audrey Hudson
7/9/2012 - The keys to victory for Mitt Romney this fall against President Barack Obama are amassing a formidable campaign war chest, projecting an unshakable confidence in the country’s future and marshalling conservative fear and anger. That’s according to former Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich, who told editors and reporters at Human Events Monday that voters are fearful of economic uncertainty... read more

Columbus Dispatch… Savings account... Restoring Ohio’s fiscal foundation is the proper goal
Monday July 9, 2012 - Rebuilding Ohio’s fiscal integrity after years of ruinous overspending is difficult and will take time. Gov. John Kasich is working on that by putting all surplus cash from the recent end of the fiscal year in the state’s rainy-day fund. What’s easy, on the other hand, is for state Rep. Vernon Sykes to accuse Kasich of “callous disregard,” for not spreading that money around to school districts and local governments whose budgets are squeezed because of previous... read more

Redstate… If Not Now . . . by Erick Erickson
Monday, July 9th - “At what point do we hold our side accountable? Contrary to what some of you want to think, it was not the Democrats who got us to $16 trillion in national debt. It was bipartisan.” Despite making clear that I was not advocating a third party, but rather recognizing that one will spring up if the Republican leadership does not pay attention to the state of its own party, many not only assumed wrongly my advocacy... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Obama Being ‘Outspent’? by Arnold Ahlert
According to the latest media-aided meme emanating from the Obama re-election campaign, the president and his supporters are being outspent by the Romney campaign. A fund-raising email sent out in late June reveals the level of purported angst. “I will be the first president in modern history to be outspent in his re-election campaign, if things continue as they have so far,” it reads. “I’m not just talking about the super PACs and anonymous outside groups–I’m talking about the Romney campaign... read more

Townhall Finance... Seizing Underwater Mortgages Through Eminent Domain
by Morgan Brittany = Crazy California is at it again. In another bone-headed attempt at messing up the real estate market instead of letting it reset on its own, officials in San Bernardino County have figured out a way to seize property. Yes, that’s right; they have come up with a way to “save” homeowners from underwater mortgages by using eminent domain. They call it the “Home Ownership Protection... read more

For the Thirtieth Time, the Obama Administration Admonishes Voters Not to Read Too Much into One Month’s Jobs Numbers, Posted by Jeff Emanuel
Friday, July 6th - In case you missed it, the June jobs report is out, and the numbers are not good (though the Obama administration had a ready-made – and well-worn – excuse ready to go at a moment’s notice; more on that below). As Daniel Horowitz wrote here this morning: The headline number of the establishment survey is that only 80,000 net jobs were created last month, about 100k under the requisite amount to accommodate the population increase... read more

Verities & Balderdash… The Post Turtle , Edited by Bob Robinson
‘Tis the season for political humor. Needless to say, the vast majority of emails received from readers are regarding the current administration. Check out the following collection if you’re ready for a chuckle or two. If not, take a pass. You’ve been warned. Solving the Budget Problem. To help save the economy, the Government will announce next month that the Immigration Department will start deporting seniors (instead of illegals)... read more

Akron Beacon Journal... Surplus of slogans
July 5, 2012 - John Kaisch declared Tuesday a “very good news day.” The governor cited the state’s improved balance sheet, Ohio ending the fiscal year with $482 million in its “rainy day” fund. This does deserve applause, reflecting a state in recovery, albeit a slow one. After the severe recession, the fund contained jut 89 cents. Might a portion of the revived sum go to school districts and local governments that are coping with sharp reductions in money flowing from the state? Not a chance... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Obama Administration Admits You Can’t Keep Your Health Plan
by Alyene Senger - On several occasions during the health care reform debate, President Obama promised the American people, “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.” Now, even the Administration admits that this isn’t the case, stating that “as a practical matter, a majority of group health plans will lose their grandfather status... read more

Toledo Blade... Aging Ohio
“State and local governments need to get ready” - Ohio is getting older, rapidly. In 2010, people who were 60 years old and older made up at least 30 percent of the population of only one Ohio county. By 2050, 50 of the state’s 88 counties could have populations at least 30 percent 60 and older. This graying of the Baby Boom generation will have huge ramifications for local governments. They need to prepare for those changes now. Researchers at Miami University’s Scripps... read more

Human Events... More Dems bail on Obama’s convention and refuse to endorse him
By John Hayward - 7/5/2012 - A fresh round of Democrats has announced they will not be attending the party convention in Charlotte. Most troublingly for President Obama, several of them are from North Carolina, and not only have they decided not to drop in on a convention held in their own state, they’ve refused to endorse Obama for president in 2012. The latest round of Democrats fleeing from Obama include North... read more

Vindy.com… Lessons to be learned from plan for Cleveland schools
Gov. John Kasich traveled to Cleveland Monday to sign a law designed to transform the troubled Cleveland City School System. But the governor’s presence wasn’t just about one school district. As he said at the signing, “Cleveland is now leading the way in school reform. Why shouldn’t I fight to make sure that every kid has the same opportunity that I had?” Why, indeed. The state’s urban school districts are in trouble, both financially and academically, and none is more indicative of this fact... read more

Verities & Balderdash… Why teachers age faster, Edited by Bob Robinson
God bless them. These are answers from 16-year-olds. Q. Name the four seasons. A. Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar. Q. Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink. A. Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists. Q. How is dew formed? A. The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire. Q. What... read more

Investors.com… Roberts, Blankenhorn And The Power Of Liberal Intimidation, By Dennis Prager
07/03/2012 - Given how many more Americans define themselves as conservative rather than as liberal, let alone than as left, how does one explain the success of left-wing policies? One answer is the appeal of entitlements and a desire to be taken care of. It takes a strong-willed citizen to vote against receiving free benefits. But an even greater explanation is the saturation of Western society by left-wing hate directed at the right. The left’s demonization, personal vilification, and mockery of its... read more

Mail Magazine 24... Obama Administration Already Granting Amnesty, by Tony Lee
President Barack Obama issued an executive directive in which his administration would not deport illegal immigrants who came to the United States before they were 16 years of age, are 30, and have been in the country for at least five years. Further, the Obama administration told Congress that it would take 60 days to implement the directive. It has not even been a month since Obama’s directive, but... read more

The Political Scene: The New Yorker… Unpopular Mandate: Why do politicians reverse their positions?
by Ezra Klein - June 25, 2012 - Republicans turned against the individual mandate after supporting it for two decades. In March 23, 2010, the day that President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, fourteen state attorneys general filed suit against the law’s requirement that most Americans purchase health insurance, on the ground that it was unconstitutional. It was hard to find a law professor in the country who took them seriously. “The argument about constitutionality is, if not frivolous... read more

Townhall Finance... The Chief Justice of the United States, by Rich Galen
Jun 29, 2012 - Just about everyone in Washington was wrong about what the Supreme Court would do yesterday on the Obamacare case. Well, we were sort of right but in the end we were wrong. First of all the official title of the case is: NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS ET AL. v. SEBELIUS, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, ET AL. Who knew that? Put your hand down, you didn’t... read more

An analysis of the Supreme Court decision on Obamacare, by Richard Bolen
Posted on Facebook by a CNO reader - To all my friends, particularly those conservatives who are despondent over the searing betrayal by Chief Justice John Roberts and the pending demise of our beloved country, I offer this perspective to convey some profound hope and evidence of the Almighty’s hand in the affairs of men in relation to the Supreme Court’s decision on Obamacare. I initially thought we had cause for despondency when I only heard the results of the decision and not the... read more

Townhall Finance... John Roberts Is a Super-Taxer, by Larry Kudlow
In the hours following the Supreme Court’s decision to ratify Obamacare, Romney got $4.6 million in donations from 47,000 individuals. The tide is with him. The Supreme’s are a game changer. But Romney has to make the case. He needs to link the anemic jobs and economic situation to the Obamacare tax, spend, and regulate fiscal drag. And he has to add to that mix the dangers to our freedoms embodied in Justice... read more

Townhall Finance... Stockton Bankrupt; Unions Pension Death Trap for Cities to Blame, by Mike Shedlock
The city of Stockton, California, is Bankrupt. It has stopped making bond payments and will become the largest city in the US to seek protection via US bankruptcy law. The bankruptcy was inevitable. California law requires blame to be assessed. To be sure there is plenty of blame to go around. Here are a few paragraphs from the LA Times that explain the setup. How Stockton found itself so mired in debt can be seen everywhere in the city’s core. There is a sparkling marina, high-rise hotel... read more

Townhall... Retaining Harder than Declaring Our Independence, by Jackie Gingrich Cushman
Jun 28, 2012 - We declared our independence from Great Britain 236 years ago next week. It was a declaration long in coming, brought about by the overreaching rule of King George III and Britain’s insistence on taxation without representation. The taxation began in the 1760s, the Boston Massacre occurred in 1770, the Boston Tea Party in 1773, and the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April of 1775. Patrick Henry’s... read more

Mail Magazine 24... The Supreme Court’s Obamacare Ruling, by Bright Knight
Anybody out there who has expected this decision (click here for the full text of the Court’s decision)? I doubt it. I assume, that even the Campaigner-in-Chief and his liberal gang were surprised (they would never admit it...) unless they knew (maybe via Kagan?) how the Court will rule. The only real positive thing out of this ruling is the fact, that IMO it will (or at least should) mobilize everyone who opposes Obamacare, because the only chance to get rid of Obamacare is getting rid of Obama... read more

Townhall Finance... Only 1-in-10 Finds Work, Middle-Aged Workers Hit Hardest, by Bob Beauprez
At the White House on June 8, 2012 Barack Obama uttered six words that will forever haunt and define him; “the private sector is doing fine.” His absurd statement came on the heels of a horrific May jobs report, an increase in the unemployment rate to 8.2%, retail sales declined for the second straight month, consumer confidence dropped for the third consecutive month, the number of job openings available dropped... read more

Mail Magazine 24... Court Upholds Greenhouse Gas Rule; Congress Needs to Step Up, by Nicolas Loris
Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia unanimously upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions are a threat to public health and the environment. Although not a surprising decision, the ruling is a disappointing one. Unless Congress prohibits the EPA’s regulatory assault on fossil fuels, Americans will suffer from dramatically higher energy costs and a slower economy-all for no noticeable change... read more

Investors.com… The Supreme Court’s Ruling Is As Damaging As It Is Historic
By Tom Stemberg - June 28 - This week the Supreme Court delivered one of the most consequential and highly anticipated rulings in history — it upheld President Obama’s health care law. In doing so, the court — and this administration — dealt a critical blow to free enterprise and ensured that taxes will go up for middle class working families and small businesses everywhere. This dims prospects for... read more

Townhall Finance... The Cinnamon Bun Solution, by Bob Goldman
If you’re wondering why your workdays are so miserable, I have the answer. The problem is not what happens when you get into work. The problem is what happens when you get up in the morning. Or, to be more specific, what doesn’t happen. If you’re the sort of person who drags themselves out of bed, praying that an injection of the magic elixir called caffeine will bring you to life, you are not using your mornings productively. I realize that this is a difficult concept to embrace -- especially if you... read more

Redstate... The Arizona Decision and What It Means, Posted by davenj1
Monday, June 25th - Today, the United States Supreme Court, in a 5-3 decision (with Justice Kagan recusing herself), mainly gutted Arizona’s SB 1070, the state’s immigration law. Make no mistake, although prevailing on the most publicized aspect of the case, Arizona lost. What is somewhat surprising is the legal rationale used and if you are a conservative proponent of state laws that address the problem of... read more

Redstate... I’m Not Down on John Roberts, by Erick Erickson
Thursday, June 28th - Having gone through the opinion, I am not going to beat up on John Roberts. I am disappointed, but I want to make a few points. John Roberts is playing at a different game than the rest of us. We’re on poker. He’s on chess. First, I get the strong sense from a few anecdotal stories about Roberts over the past few months and the way he has written this opinion that he very, very much was... read more

Redstate... Tax Cuts for the Rich – Bad; Subsidies – Good, by Daniel Horowitz
Barack Obama and the Democrats have promised to make this election a turning point in the fight to make the rich “pay their fair share” of taxes. They are using biblical innuendo to suggest that it is immoral for the top 1% of earners (who happen to make 17% of nation AGI) to only pay 36.7% of the federal income taxes. This is their hill to die on. Accordingly, one would expect Democrats to be the first ones to issue garrulous protestations against farm handouts for the rich. At present, more than... read more

Verities & Balderdash… The dog-eat-dog world of corporate life, Edited by Bob Robinson
There isn’t much to say about this one… the photos pretty much speak for themselves. I got this from a reader a while back and finally had time to format the photos. I’ve spent more time than I would like to admit working with people who come to mind with every picture in this set… from the CEO to the administrative assistant to the courier. I even had to help out a CEO after a company event. Didn’t get... read more

Monumental Mistake: Eisenhower Memorial, By Audrey Hudson
6/19/2012 - It has been described as sentimental kitsch, a “McMonument” flanked by Soviet-style iron curtains with towering columns that are reminiscent of missile silos. The proposed monument to honor Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th U.S. president and supreme commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during WWII, has also been labeled as sterile and beneath the great man’s dignity. Critics say the concrete and limestone tribute will clash with the classical designs of other noble monuments along.... read more

Townhall Finance... Job Openings drop 8 Percent; Private Sector Shoulders nearly all of the Pain
The CNBC headline says it all: “Job Openings Report Show Market is…Really, Really Bad” - not the stuff of which re-election campaigns are made. It is all about the newest JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey) report from the Labor Department that new job openings declined by 325,000 in April; an 8% drop in just one month. New hires also declined in April by 160,000. Nearly 9-out-of-10 of the decline in job openings was in the private.... read more

Mail Magazine 24... Obama Is in Serious Trouble in Pennsylvania, by Mike Flynn
One of my first jobs in politics--decades ago--was to analyze the “undervote” in uncontested primaries. An undervote happens when a voter fails to register a vote in a particular primary contest when there is only one candidate on the ballot. In essence, the voter simply skips over the race. It happens either because the voter hasn’t heard of that candidate or they have some basic opposition to that candidate. Our general rule of thumb was that a candidate who had more than 10% undervote was in... read more

Dayton Business Journal... Gov. Kasich rolls out reforms
Thursday, June 21, 2012 - An unprecedented, top-to-bottom review of state agency operations and programs, launched by Ohio Gov. John Kasich only months after passage of his historic Jobs Budget in 2011, has produced hundreds of common-sense reforms that reduce the cost of government and revitalize Ohio’s ability to keep and attract jobs. By challenging his cabinet agencies with this review, the governor has broken... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Unreal: EPA Mandates Oil Refiners Use Fuel That Doesn’t Exist, By Duane Lester
Just when you think you have heard the most ridiculous thing you can think of, the EPA goes and proves you wrong: Federal regulations can be maddening, but none more so than a current one that demands oil refiners use millions of gallons of a substance, cellulosic ethanol, that does not exist. “As ludicrous as that sounds, it’s fact,” says Charles Drevna, who represents refiners. “If it weren’t so frustrating and infuriating, it would be comical.” And Tom Pyle of the Institute of Energy Research says... read more

Human Events... TV Watching Dollars at Stake in Complex Policy Battle, By John Hayward
6/20/2012 - Broadcast television stations have a complicated relationship with cable and satellite television providers. A broadcast TV station is beaming its content into space, where it can be freely received and viewed by anyone with a suitable antenna. But the good old days of “rabbit ears,” wired into television consoles that could be used as furniture, are long behind us. Most people get their TV feed from cable or... read more

Akron Beacon Journal... Gone studyin’
June 20, 2012 - The Ohio House Finance Committee spent the spring brushing up on the basics of the school funding system. The House plans several regional hearings on the issue during the summer break. When it comes to funding public education, it is hard to say Ohio legislators have not done due diligence in one aspect: studying the issue. Since the Ohio Supreme Court first ruled the state’s funding system unconstitutional, a succession of governors and legislators have promised earnestly to... read more

Ohio.com... All layered up
June 18, 2012 - The hope of the Kasich administration, which last week released a report on local governments sharing services, is to encourage greater collaboration at the grass roots. To do so holds much potential for reducing expenses and improving services, quite a feat at a time of sharply curtailed state support for cities, counties and schools. “Beyond Boundaries: A Shared Services Action Plan for Ohio Schools and Governments” plows some familiar ground, previous reports establishing... read more

Human Events... Senate kills effort to block EPA regulations on coal-powered plants
By Audrey Hudson - 6/20/2012 - Legislation to defeat an EPA emissions rule that critics say would kill thousands of jobs and raise electricity rates for consumers was killed in the Senate Wednesday. A handful of Republicans sided with Democrats to block the measure on a procedural vote of 46 yeas to 53 nays, including Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Scott Brown... read more

Townhall Finance... The Schizophrenia of the AMA, by Hal Scherz
In the aftermath of the Obama presidential election, healthcare reform became an intensely debated political issue, and the American Medical Association (AMA) had a difficult time deciding their position on the Affordable Care Act (ACA, Obamacare). In 2009, the AMA initially announced that they could not support President Obama’a plan for healthcare reform. One week later, they abruptly reversed course, proclaiming that they were completely behind his plan; support which proved... read more

Townhall... A Change We Can Hope For, by Ken Blackwell
Jun 15, 2012 - Vice President Joe Biden is almost casual about ending marriage. It’s “inevitable,” he says. He thinks it’s not such a big deal. But it is a big deal. Recognizing same-sex couplings as marriages will mean the end of marriage. That’s because saying yes to two men or two women marrying opens the door to polygamy. Those who have delved into the issue know this. George Washington University Law... read more

The Nation... This Week in Poverty: Disposable Families in Ohio, by Greg Kaufmann
June 15, 2012 - Since January 2011, Ohio has thrown nearly 70,000 people—including 40,000 children—off of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance program, called Ohio Works First (OWF). That’s nearly 25 percent of the state’s TANF caseload. The reason? The state faces up to $130 million in federal penalties if 50 percent of the adults receiving assistance don’t meet the federal work participation requirement by September 30. “Seventy thousand people is... read more

Townhall Finance... Influence Peddling with a Shade of Green, by Bob Beauprez
Everybody has heard about Solyndra and the many other failures of the DOE green energy grant and loan program replete with scandalous political paybacks to Obama supporters. Now there’s another one. It involves the largest single loan guarantee of the entire $16 billion program, a current Cabinet Secretary and a former Chief-of-Staff to Vice-President Joe Biden. BrightSource Energy spent two years and half... read more

Verities & Balderdash... Life is Not Fair, Edited by Bob Robinson
This has often been attributed to Bill Gates. I have not verified that, but I’ve seen it in a few college classrooms. Bill Gates could have said it; Steve Jobs could have said it as just about any other self-made millionaire could have said it. It is intended for students... I say it is something that we ALL need to understand. If you want to succeed in life, don’t look to government or charity. Make up your minds that there’s a lot of hard work involved and, as they say... read more

Townhall... A Global Recession?, by Larry Kudlow
Is it possible that we are already in a global recession but just don’t know it yet? And is the U.S. itself -- still the epicenter of the world economy -- standing on the front edge of another recession? I sincerely hope I’m wrong. But warning signs are everywhere. The eurozone economy is flat on its back. Greece may be headed for a political crackup and an exit from the euro and European Union. Deposit runs in Greece and elsewhere are.... read more

Redstate... The White House Is Not Enough, by Erick Erickson
Monday, June 18th - Consider this Wall Street Journal editorial your must read of the day. It highlights why adding conservatives to the United States Senate is so important. This past week, Republican in the Senate, including Mitch McConnell’s leadership picks, sat idly by saying nothing while the Senate Democrats pushed forward the nomination of Andrew Hurwitz, who helped formulate the reasoning behind Roe v. Wade while a law clerk. Hurwitz is quite fond of that bit of his legacy. Andrew.... read more

Townhall Finance... Assuming the Future, by Bill Tatro
We all know what happens when we assume. We laugh at the break-up of the word and vow it will never happen to us. However, in the U.S., the word “assume” has a much broader meaning which is to “take for granted.” Think about it, every single hour of every single day we take many things for granted. For example, just by getting into our car, several assumptions are made. We believe the vehicle has been aptly assembled so that it doesn’t fall apart. It’s presumed the ignition system will fire and... read more

Townhall... Obama’s Ludicrous Self- Portrait as a Budget Hawk, by David Limbaugh
Jun 15, 2012 - I saw it with my own eyes on a video clip that Sean Hannity played. At a speech in Baltimore, President Obama laughingly dismissed the notion that he is responsible for our nation’s current spending orgy. Seriously. Sporting a wide grin, Obama said, “I love listening to these guys give us lectures about debt and deficits.” He must think this subject is a real knee-slapper. He continued: “I inherited a... read more

Christian Science Monitor... What Obama and Romney aren’t talking about: America’s class divide
By John J. Pitney Jr. - June 13, 2012 - CLAREMONT, CALIF. I am the proud son of a hardworking milkman. I also have a PhD from Yale. Such a combination is a bit unusual, and a new book suggests that it will become even rarer. Therein lies a story of class mobility, an issue that is crucial for our country’s future and that ought to be part of the presidential campaign. In “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010,” political scientist Charles Murray amasses a large amount... read more

Redstate... Liberal and Incompetent, Posted by Gov. Bobby Jindal
Thursday, June 14th - A few weeks back I found myself at the scene of the crime… campaigning in Wisconsin with Governor Walker. One thing was abundantly clear, and if you spent any time helping out Governor Walker in his campaign, you can attest to this — The radical left has taken over the Democrat Party. Last Tuesday in Wisconsin, the silent majority was very loud. Call it the... read more

Mail Magazine 24... The Trap of Minority Studies Programs, By John Ellis
When Naomi Schaefer Riley was fired by the Chronicle of Higher Education for her trenchant remarks on Black Studies programs, most of those who criticized the firing saw in it a display of the campus left’s intolerance. Fair enough, but this episode also has a much broader meaning. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, large populations of poor immigrants arrived in the U.S.--Irish, Italians, and Jews from Russia and Poland. Their extreme poverty placed them at the bottom of... read more

Verities & Balderdash... The Older Crowd, Edited by Bob Robinson
A distraught senior citizen phoned her doctor’s office. “Is it true,” she wanted to know, “that the medication you prescribed has to be taken for the rest of my life?” “’Yes, I’m afraid so,”’ the doctor told her. There was a moment of silence before the senior lady replied, “I’m wondering, then, just how serious is my condition because this prescription is marked ‘NO REFILLS’.” An older gentleman was on the... read more

Heritage Foundation... Auto Bailout Was Really Just a UAW Bailout
President Obama told the United Auto Workers (UAW) in February not to listen to critics of the auto bailout who said union members “made out like bandits—that saving the auto industry was just about paying back the unions.” “Really?” Obama said. “I mean, even by the standards of this town [Washington], that’s a load of you-know-what.” New research from Heritage labor economist James Sherk proves that it was, in fact, a load of truth. The Treasury Department estimates that taxpayers will lose... read more

More Evidence the GOP is Not Serious About Spending, Posted by Erick Erickson
Thursday, June 14th - I have repeatedly bemoaned the Republicans (and Democrats) for not doing enough to cut spending. Sixteen trillion dollars in debt and rising. Trillion dollar deficits. Billions of dollars spent every day. Well, the incredibly resourceful Club for Growth is out with another look at the GOP and Democrats’ commitment to cutting spending this morning, and it isn’t pretty. The Club has compiled a mini-scorecard... read more

Heritage Foundation... Postal Pension “Refund” Is a Disguised Taxpayer Bailout, By David John
June 12, 2012 - Abstract: Calls to refund “overpayments” by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to the retirement of postal workers are misguided. The estimates of overpayments are inflated by overly optimistic assumptions, as recent years have demonstrated. A refund would leave taxpayers on the hook for future shortfalls in USPS retirement funding. The better choice is to follow the private-sector practice of using the current surplus—whatever it is—to defray future retirement payments... read more

Human Events... Obama’s Public Sector Full Employment Plan, By Ann Coulter
6/13/2012 - Last week, President Obama said “the private sector is doing fine.” This was not reassuring to those of us who suspect the Democrats haven’t the first idea what “private sector” means. He did not help matters by becoming lachrymose over the suffering of public sector employees: “Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government. ... And so... read more

The Washington Times... GAFFNEY: Hold Obama accountable, By Frank J. Gaffney Jr.
America can’t afford malpractice in the Oval Office - Monday, June 11, 2012 - Suddenly, congressional leaders of both parties are demanding investigations into serial disclosures of national security secrets on President Obama’s watch. The truth of the matter is that we already know what we need to about those leaks. The question is: Will anybody do anything about them? Of course, the leaks are already out there - prominently featured, for example, on the front pages of the New York Times... read more

Townhall... Our Republic Depends on the Revival of Honor, by Gina Loudon
An excerpt from Ladies and Gentlemen: Why the Survival of Our Republic Depends on the Revival of Honor, by Dr. Gina Loudon and Dr. Dathan Paterno. Lady and gentleman are somewhat familiar terms, for sure. We hear them from magicians and carnival emcees. Billboard advertising manipulates those words into a twisted description of strip clubs. We sometimes view examples of them on quaint Hallmark... read more

ORP Chairman Bennett ... Obama: “The private sector is doing just fine.”
COLUMBUS - In a Friday morning press conference, President Obama said, “the private sector is doing fine.” In response Chairman Bennett issued the following statement: “President Obama has made it abundantly clear to the people of Ohio that he has no clue about the day-to-day challenges families face in this struggling economy. In Ohio more than 431,000 people are unemployed, and nationwide 23 million Americans are struggling to find work. "President Obama clearly can’t see what is.... read more

Townhall... The Real ‘War on Women’, by Thomas Sowell
Among the people who are disappointed with President Obama, none has more reason to be disappointed than those who thought he was going to be “a uniter, rather than a divider” and that he would “bring us all together.” It was a noble hope, but one with no factual foundation. Barack Obama had been a divider all his adult life, especially as a community organizer, and he had repeatedly sought out and allied himself with other dividers, the most.... read more

Redstate... If Only They Don’t Go Wobbly, Posted by Erick Erickson
Thursday, June 7th - Our Republican Leadership in Washington, D.C. is extremely risk adverse. It is very clear the leadership has convinced itself, despite historic truth, that Newt Gingrich lost his job because of the government shutdown way back when. They do not want to have protracted fights. They want to appear reasonable. They crave the press’s adoration of “grown ups” and “reasonable men.” I expect Barack Obama to capitalize on this Republican lack of self-esteem before October... read more

Townhall... The Four Lies About the Economy That Obama Needs Voters to Believe
by Larry Elder - Jun 07, 2012 - President Barack Obama’s re-election turns on his ability to convince voters that 1) Obama inherited a “Great Recession,” 2) every “independent” economist supported the “stimulus,” 3) “bipartisan” economists agree that Obama’s stimulus worked, and 4) as actor Morgan Freeman puts it, racist Republicans say, “Screw the country ... we’re going to do whatever we can to get this black... read more

Townhall… Three Cheers for Our National Anthem, by Jeff Crouere
Before athletic contests and major events, audiences across America are treated to the National Anthem, the song known as the Star Spangled Banner. The inspiring lyrics were written by Francis Scott Key in 1814 while observing the Battle of Fort McHenry. Eventually, it was set to music and became our country’s National Anthem in 1916. Sadly, this week, the Star Spangled Banner was attacked by liberal talk show host Bill Press, who claimed the song was “stupid.” Press is typical of... read more

Mail Magazine 24... The Other Union Takedown, by Arnold Ahlert
While most of the mainstream media focused their attention on Wisconsin and Scott Walker’s victory Tuesday night, an equally, if not more significant vote occurred in two California cities. Voters in San Diego and San Jose overwhelmingly approved cuts to retirement benefits for city workers. San Diego voters approved “Proposition B” by a 66-34 margin. It was even worse for government unions... read more

Townhall Finance... Democrats and Algebraic Death, by Mark Baisley
Something remarkable is happening in America; something that gives me hope for our economic and innovative future. Stodgy establishments are being superannuated. That’s right, superannuated. The Oxford Dictionary defines superannuated as “cause to become obsolete through age or new technological or intellectual developments.” As a personal example, I recently broke off my 23 year devotion to the local phone company in favor of a VOIP technology solution; more functionality at... read more

The Cost of Education is More than Just Dollars, by Michael Becker
Full disclosure, I have an undergraduate degree in engineering, went to a business graduate school and I’m currently working on a second technical bachelors degree. I’ve spent a lot of time hanging around higher education. And over my lifetime I’ve watched the value of “college” drop in direct proportion to the increases in the cost of college. The Washington Post’s Robert Samuelson more or less... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Businessman Faces Backlash After Appearing on Obama’s Enemies List
by Rob Bluey and Brandon Stewart - Frank VanderSloot grew up a poor kid in rural Idaho. His father made $300 a month. His clothes came from the Salvation Army. Yet through determination and hard work-and with the help of America’s free-enterprise system-today he’s the successful CEO of a global supplier of wellness products. VanderSloot’s rags-to-riches story is not unlike other American tales of individuals who have benefited from the free market. In VanderSloot’s case, however... read more

Catholics! Fight! Fight! Fight!, by Katie Kieffer
Jun 04, 2012 - If you love freedom, cheer up. For, Catholics are marching into the game, fighting the fight for you! Catholic leaders like the University of Notre Dame are battling an unconstitutional health care mandate. Rah! Rah! Rah! Fighting Obamacare is a hard job but somebody’s got to do it. Today, Catholics are doing it. Their lawsuits will help protect the First Amendment rights of all Americans. So, even... read more

The Foundry... Morning Bell: A Historic Win for Reform in Wisconsin, by Mike Brownfield
June 6, 2012 - The state of Wisconsin has once again lived up to its billing as a Midwestern incubator of Big Ideas. In yesterday’s case, when voters resoundingly defeated a liberal effort to recall Governor Scott Walker (R), the Big Idea was that reformers who come armed with the strength of their convictions can carry the day–even against mobs, labor unions, Hollywood, the media, academia and everything else the left throws up these days. All reformers need to do is lead. In Walker’s... read more

Townhall... A Grim Jobs Report for America, By Larry Kudlow
You would think $1 trillion in spending stimulus and $2.5 trillion of Fed pump-priming would produce an economy a whole lot stronger than 1.9 percent GDP, which was the revised first-quarter number. And you’d think all that government spending would deliver a whole lot more jobs than 69,000 in May. But it hasn’t happened. The Keynesian government-spending model has proven a complete failure. It’s the Obama... read more

Columbus Dispatch... Obama had help in creating spending mess
Here’s a simple suggestion for Mitt Romney: Admit that the Democrats have a point. Right before the Memorial Day weekend, Washington was consumed by a debate over how much Barack Obama has spent as president, and it looks like it’s picking up again. Romney says that he’ll “lead us out of this debt-and-spending inferno” ignited by Obama. The president’s defenders say, in effect, “What inferno?” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney scolded reporters last week not to “buy into... read more

Redstate... The Whupping in Wisconsin: Seven Key Conclusions, by Erick Erickson
Hey, we should do this again — one more recall in Wisconsin. Fourth time’s the charm. Right? Right? - Wednesday, June 6th - “Now I know what MSNBC means by lean forward. I leaned forward as I was viewing, watching for signs of possible coronaries live on TV.” Last night in Wisconsin, Democracy died because Republicans spent a bunch of money and Wisconsin saw record voter turnout levels across... read more

Akron Beacon Journal... Proficient learners
In 2001, education reformers on Capitol Hill and the White House set a high goal for the nation’s public schools: The No Child Left Behind Act would ensure that every child was proficient in math and reading by 2013-14. States would set proficiency targets and measure districts and schools on Adequate Yearly Progress. Progressively stern interventions awaited districts and schools that failed persistently to make the required progress. As an aspiration, the goal of 100 percent proficiency is ... read more

Investors.com... The Lowlights Of Obamanomics
The Obama Record: May’s weak jobs report further confirms the president’s policies are failing to help the economy. This is, indeed, the worst recovery since the Depression. Negative superlatives associated with this presidency keep piling up. The toll so far: • The share of Americans who’ve been out of work a long time — now at 42% of the unemployed — is the highest since the Great Depression.... read more

Townhall Finance... Does Anyone Still Like Obama? by John Ransom
In another blow to Obama’s reelection bid, consumer confidence, which has been low throughout Obama’s presidency, stumbled badly last month after economists initially predicted confidence would go up. The number indicates that the onslaught of people and politicians abandoning the S.S. Obama continues unabated. In recent weeks, allies of Obama have defected from his campaign message if not from his person. Forget about polls numbers for a moment. Consumer confidence is the number... read more

Human Events... Obama campaign may be fooling itself, by Michael Barone
May 31, 2012 - “Axelrod is endeavoring not to panic.” So reads a sentence in John Heilemann’s exhaustive article on Barack Obama’s campaign in this week’s New York magazine. Heilemann is a fine reporter and was co-author with Time’s Mark Halperin of a best-selling book on the 2008 presidential campaign. While his sympathies are undoubtedly with Obama, he does a fine job of summarizing the arguments and tactics... read more

Mail Magazine 24... Top Five Ways Obamacare Crushes the Middle Class, by Alyene Senger
President Obama has repeatedly claimed that he is “going to keep on fighting for what matters to middle class families.” Well, in this “fight,” the President seems to be his own worst enemy. His health care law does far more damage than good to the American middle class. Here are the five most prevalent and harmful burdens the middle class will be forced to bear under Obamacare: More taxes. Obamacare imposes $502 billion of new or increased taxes and fees. Heritage expert Curtis Dubay... read more

Redstate... Study Reveals the Gulf of Mexico Permitting Mess, Posted by Steve Maley
Thursday, May 31 - In a rational world, the Federal government would act as a motivated lease owner who was interested in promoting the safe and environmentally responsible development of his mineral resource, consistent with sound conservation practice. That’s why there’s a permit process in the first place. Since Macondo, that’s backwards. Operating practices must conform to the permitting... read more

Townhall... America and the Pursuit of Greatness, by Bill Tatro
“Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” seven words indelibly written to stand the test of time. When those words were originally written, it was with the idea that people from all over the world would have a safe place to live while escaping the oppression of their everyday life. Whether it was a government, a religion, or a political party that was dominating their existence, these foreigners understood that in a new world things would be different. America represented a place where... read more

Bush Was Right (in 2000), by Katie Kieffer
May 28, 2012 - Let’s make foreign policy like it’s 2000. I think we will support our troops and vets by revisiting the foreign policy that former President Bush expressed in 2000. Otherwise, we will send brave hearts into vain battles. In October, 2000, George W. Bush debated Al Gore on C-SPAN. He said: “I think one way for us to end up being viewed as the ugly American is for us to go around the world saying: ‘We do it this... read more

Townhall Finance... Outsourcing Our President, by John Ransom
Ok; I’ll admit that shipping Obama off to be president of Europe isn’t a very original idea. But still it bears repeating at this critical time because: 1) I don’t like Old Europe very much; 2) Under socialists it just got older; 3) Obama’s work is done here and the Mothership looks like it ran out of “green” fuel on 2008; and 4) Europe’s response to their reckless spending problem happens to be…BEGGING for more reckless spending. And I can’t think of anyone I’d rather see steward Europe’s... read more

Townhall... Improving Life for Workers, by John Stossel
May 30, 2012 - It seems intuitive that a free market would lead to a “race to the bottom.” In a global marketplace, profit-chasing employers will cut costs by paying workers less and less, and shipping jobs to China. It’s a reason that progressives say government must step in. So America now has thousands of rules that outlaw wages below $7.25 an hour, restrict unpaid internships and compel people... read more

Redstate... Sex Selection Abortion in America, Posted by Breeanne Howe
Tuesday, May 29th - In the wake of Chen Guangcheng arriving safely in the United States, after years of persecution in China for his anti-abortion activism, The House of Representatives will vote tomorrow on H.R. 3541 (also known as the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act – PRENDA), a bill to ban sex-selection abortions in the United States. Although the US has strongly condemned China for their sex-selection abortion practices, only four states (AZ, OK, PA and IL) currently... read more

Investors.com... The Notion Of “Meaningful Work” Is A Disservice To Society
By Thomas Sowell - ‘Education” is a word that covers a lot of very different things, from vital, life-saving medical skills to frivolous courses to absolutely counterproductive courses that fill people with a sense of grievance and entitlement, without giving them either the skills to earn a living or a realistic understanding of the world required for a citizen in a free society. The lack of realism among many highly... read more

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