County News Online Blogs

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Heritage Network…New Poll Shows Support for Defunding Obamacare, By Amy Payne August 15, 2013
How do you feel about defunding Obamacare? A new poll of American voters shows a majority—57 percent—support defunding this unfair, unaffordable, unworkable law. Heritage Action for America and Basswood Research asked voters in 10 different congressional districts for their views on Obamacare, and respondents were decidedly against the law. Six of these House districts are represented by Republicans and four by Democrats, but across the board, an overwhelming 77 percent of voters favored ... read more

Townhall Finance…Apology to Barney, Barack and Bernanke: I Forgot You’re Exempt From Our Laws, By John Ransom
Aug 14, 2013 I want to apologize for doubting those guys, Barney, Barack and Bernanke. Turns out that giving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac $188 billion wasn’t going to entail any risk at all to the government, its employees, agents and beneficiaries. Richard Lehmann has the details in Forbes. “In fact, the two organizations... read more

Canton Repository…This is the next logical step for voters
The issue: Online voter registration Our view: Convenience, accuracy, cost are three advantages of this sound idea Ohioans already can update their address online for voting purposes. The next logical step is online voter registration. The Legislature is being asked to take that step in a bill introduced last week by Sen. Frank LaRose, R-Copley. It’s the right step to take. Senate Bill 175 would allow Ohioans to apply online for an absentee ballot as well as to register online. Doing so electronically would... read more

Obamacare Advancing in Ohio
On July 20th, the Cincinnati Enquirer published an article from their recent interview with Governor John Kasich and his thoughts on Obamacare-Medicaid expansion in Ohio. When asked if Ohio would take Obama’s money to expand this welfare program in Ohio, John Kasich’s response was “It’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of when. This is inevitable.” Before this Pelosi-like rhetoric, in May, backers of Obamacare expansion introduced a Kasich supported bill in the Ohio House of Representatives which... read more

Townhall Finance… The Top 7 Lies of Obam-a-CON-omists… So Far, By John Ransom
Aug 13, 2013 - There they go again: while admitting to their lie about first quarter GDP, government economists are finding new ways to lie about second quarter GDP. While all of the attention for market-watchers has been on will-they-or-won’t-they taper at the Fed, the real story GDPof the year is the fact that the Commerce Department just downgraded GDP growth once again, in at least a partial revision of the lie they first told last winter... read more

Townhall…Finance More Americans Going Galt, By Daniel J. Mitchell
Aug 12, 2013 President Obama promised he would unite the world…and he’s right. Representatives from dozens of nations have bitterly complained about an awful piece of legislation, called the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), that was enacted back in 2010. They despise this unjust law because it extends the power of the IRS into the domestic affairs of other nations. That’s an understandable source of conflict, which should be easy to understand. Wouldn’t all of us get upset, after ... read more

Heritage Network…13 Ways the 113th Congress Can Improve Education in America, By Lindsey Burke and Rachel Sheffield
Abstract Every year, taxpayers must send billions of dollars to Washington in order to fund federal education programs through the U.S. Department of Education and other agencies—which then redistribute that money back to individual states through a complex system of formula and competitive grant programs... read more

Townhall…The Half Full Economy, by Peter Schiff
Aug 11, 2013 The marginal economic strength that was described in the most recent GDP release from Washington has caused many to double down on their belief that the Federal Reserve will begin tapering Quantitative Easing sometime later this year. While I believe that is a fantasy given our economy's extreme dependence on QE, market observers should have learned long ago that the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) initial GDP estimates can't be trusted. A perusal of their subsequent ... read more

Townhall…3 Reforms for the War on Drugs, by Debra J. Saunders
Aug 11, 2013 Eric Holder, America's first African-American attorney general, and his boss, Barack Obama, the first black president, haven't been shy about pointing out racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Racial profiling? It's real, they say. State "stand your ground" laws? Obama says they don't work for minorities. Yet both have been conspicuously absent when it comes to redressing racial disparities in their own home ... read more

The Heritage Network…The Next Threat to Your Privacy, By Chris Jacobs
August 9, 2013–Who has access to your Social Security number, your bank information, and your tax records? When Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges open, your data could be exposed to shysters and hackers, thanks to serious vulnerabilities in the system. The exchanges are scheduled to open on October 1 (just 53 days away). But the list of implementation failures keeps growing, and the security of Americans’ data is threatened. THREAT #1: Obamacare “Navigators” Navigators... read more

Human Events…Jobs figures and growth rates show economy in decline, By Donald Lambro
8/9/13 WASHINGTON — Another weak jobs report came out last week, drawing yawns from Democrats, excuses from the White House, and shallow, incomplete reporting from the network news shows. President Obama has just finished a string of speeches on jobs and the economy, issues that pollsters say are the voters’ biggest concerns, but failed to offer any new ideas about how to deal with them. He traveled around the country repeating the same... read more

Monadnock Ledger Transcript…Bill would put us on a path to true energy efficiency
Wednesday, August 7, 2013–Often hidden in all the talk about our green energy future is the reality that we’re already well on our way. The question is, “Are we going fast enough?” We may not see many wind towers and solar farms lining our landscapes, and we’re not filling up our gas tanks with biofuel derived from non-food sources. But we are using a whole lot less energy than we used to, and we’re doing so with incremental lifestyle changes and an increased consciousness that transcends... read more

Redstate…David Vitter Fights Back Against Obamacare, By Erick Erickson
August 7th, 2013–I reported yesterday that Senate Republicans and Democrats have declared truce over Obamacare as it relates to congressional staffers and members of Congress themselves. Republicans have decided they will not attack Democrats because they want the exemption too. One member of Congress who is not only enraged by this, but is willing to do something about it, is Louisiana Senator David Vitter. This afternoon he has mailed letters to... read more

Columbus Dispatch… Baseless flap over JobsOhio, Most state assistance deals made before agency started operating - Wednesday August 7, 2013 - Ohio lost more than 400,000 jobs under former Gov. Ted Strickland’s bloated and outmoded development department. Under JobsOhio — Gov. John Kasich’s inventive team of sharp, connected business recruiters — Ohio has regained 162,000 private-sector jobs. Show of hands: Who wants to go back to the old way? That would be the guy running for Kasich’s job. Ed FitzGerald, a former suburban mayor who has been Cuyahoga County... read more

Obama's perverse notion of fairness, By David Limbaugh
8/6/2013 - In President Obama’s world, “fairness” seems to be of overarching concern. Too bad “fairness” means what he says it does rather than what Webster’s specifies. You’ll rarely hear Obama talk about economic growth — even as an aspiration — and not just because there’s been a dearth of it under his miserable five years in office. It’s not where his head is. It’s not his wheelhouse... read more

Fox News… Audit finds bloated budget for green jobs training despite lack of open positions
By Perry Chiaramonte - August 04, 2013 - A federal audit shows that nearly a half-billion dollars in government funds was spent on training workers for so-called “green jobs.” The only problem is that not enough positions in the growing industry exist. The findings -- released in a June report by the Government Accountability Office -- showed that only 55 percent of those trained were able to place in a new job, many of which were not technically green jobs. The $501 million in funding came from the 2009 stimulus... read more

Heritage Network… Indiana Set to Withdraw from Common Core National Assessments
By Brittany Corona - August 4, 2013 - Indiana Governor Mike Pence (R) announced that the Hoosier State will be withdrawing itself as a member of the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) Governing Board, effective August 12, 2013. For Indiana, this is one more step toward reclaiming control over what is taught in Indiana schools. PARCC is one of the two national testing consortia aligned to the Common... read more

Redstate…It’s up to you to stop ObamaCare, By Dan Spencer
August 4th, 2013–At the RedState Gathering in New Orleans on Friday, Sen. Ted Cruz called for a grassroots effort to persuade Republicans to eliminate funding for President Obama’s health care law. Or as he put it, the “biggest and the most important battle 113th Congress is going to face” — the battle to defund ObamaCare. Senator Cruz told the gathering of Conservative activists that the best way to defund ObamaCare is with the continuing resolution needed to fund the federal government. ... read more

Townhall Finance…One Person Attends Obamacare Event, By Michael Schaus
Aug 05, 2013–One. That’s how many people showed up for a pro-Obamacare event in Centerville, Virginia. And let’s face it: People didn’t miss the event because they were working. The ambivalence toward the implementation of Obamacare is evidenced throughout the nation, as the President’s left over campaigning apparatus – Organizing for Action – held a number of unattended Obamacare events this weekend. The event, reported by ... read more

The Heritage Foundation… As Detroit Goes, So Goes the Nation
By Rachel Greszler and Alison Acosta Fraser - August 5, 2013 - Detroit is the poster child for economic decline. The city’s policies and politics over the past half-century should serve as a “do not” guide for policymakers across the country. There’s a great deal lawmakers in Washington can learn. The first is understanding that Detroit’s demise was the result of big-government, liberal policies promoted by self-interested politicians and coercive public employee unions. In the wake of America’s manufacturing... read more

U.S. News… Don’t Dems Want to Rein in the IRS? By Ron Bonjean
July 30, 2013 - Washington has been consumed by the Internal Revenue Service scandal of targeting conservative groups and mismanaging taxpayer dollars. There's never been any love lost between Americans and the IRS, but the outrageous actions and the stonewalling by the agency reached new lows. Obama quickly condemned the actions taken by the IRS, but seemed to let go of the subject. Most Americans think that the White House supervises the IRS and so to continue to publicly seek a... read more

Townhall Finance… President Obama Versus President Everyone Else, by John Ransom
Aug 03, 2013 - Another month and another jobs report that's so bad it’s good. At least that’s how Wall Street will look at it, because free money from the Fed will now continue. The economy added 162,000 jobs overall, well below the previous few months. Additionally wages and hours fell, meaning workers are bringing home fewer bucks. You'll likely hear that unemployment fell but that was largely due to people giving up looking for work. Obama’s best... read more

Wall Street Journal… Obama's 'Grand Bargain' With Obama
He proposes tax reform with higher taxes and not much reform. In Chattanooga on Tuesday, the latest stop on his economic inequality tour, President Obama made himself an offer he couldn't refuse. If Congressional Republicans agree to a corporate tax increase, he said, then he'll agree to spend more money on his favorite public-works projects. If Republicans bargain hard, will he also offer an expansion of ObamaCare as a sweetener? We know this sounds like an exaggeration, but that's the... read more

The Daily Caller… Energy secretary: Fracking can be done safely, by Michael Bastasch
08/01/2013 - Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said that hydraulic fracturing can be done safely and there has been no evidence the drilling technique causes groundwater contamination. “I still have not seen any evidence of fracking per se contaminating groundwater,” Moniz told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast on Thursday, adding that natural gas could be used as a “bridge to a low carbon future” as it releases... read more

Politico…Making case for energy efficiency, By Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Sen. Rob Portman
7-29-13–For the past three years, we have worked together to develop the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act, legislation that will go a long way toward making the United States more energy efficient and more economically competitive. Our bill makes good environmental sense. It makes good energy sense. And it makes good economic sense, too. Our bill curbs inefficient energy practices that cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars and millions of jobs every year. According ... read more

Redstate…From Pig to Man, and From Man to Pig, By Erick Erickson
July 31st, 2013 In 2003, then just Doctor Tom Coburn, published his book. It was titled Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders into Insiders. An eye witness account of the Republican Revolution of 1994 and following, journalist Robert Novak wrote the forward to the book. In his forward, Novak noted that Coburn, while serving in the Gingrich House of Representatives, realized “Speaker Gingrich, House Majority Leader Armey and the rest... read more

Why Is Washington Talking About a Government Shutdown? By Amy Payne
July 31, 2013–Is it that time again already?? It’s not even August, and Members of Congress are starting to buzz about the upcoming budget and debt ceiling fight—which likely won’t happen until later this fall. But the posturing has begun, and the media are happy to oblige. The thing is, a government shutdown isn’t necessary—and lawmakers aren’t proposing a government shutdown. What some are proposing is that Congress fund normal government activities, but refuse to fund Obamacare. The. ... read more

Human Events…Obama begins pivot to the economy No. 19, By John Hayward
7/24/2013–It was a nostalgic hour and seven minutes in Illinois today, as President Barack Obama made his 19th “pivot to the economy” by recycling his old speeches and bromides into a long stroll down memory lane. Fortunately, he was able to wrap things up before the state government of Illinois went bankrupt. That would have been awkward. All of Obama’s dusty old rhetorical relics were on display. Praise for the World War II generation? Check ... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: How to Use Obamacare to Scam Taxpayers, By Amy Payne
July 30, 2013 - Looking for a little extra cash? If you’re interested in defrauding taxpayers, it might be as easy as writing down a number on a form. The number is your income. The form is the Obamacare application. If you do not have “affordable” employer-sponsored health insurance and your income is between about $31,800 and $94,200 for a family of four (that is, between 138 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level), you qualify for an insurance subsidy through Obamacare... read more

Is Your Ticket Punched? Sent by a CNO reader
Editor’s note: We have been unable to confirm that Billy Graham ever said this (nor has it been noted as untrue). That said, enjoy. New Suit - Billy Graham is now 92 years-old with Parkinson's disease. In January, leaders in Charlotte, North Carolina, invited their favorite son, Billy Graham, to a luncheon in his honor. Billy initially hesitated to accept the invitation because he struggles with Parkinson's disease. But the Charlotte leaders said, 'We don't expect... read more

Washington Post…Don’t count out John Boehner, By Jonathan Bernstein
July 26–Here’s what you need to know about the budget and debt limit showdown that may or may not shut down (or even default) the government this fall. For all the talk about how John Boehner is losing control over his caucus, he has been here before. And so far — again and again — he’s managed to avoid a replay of the 1995-1996 shutdown fiasco. Remember, Boehner was there in the 1990s when Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole went through their fight with Bill Clinton. He saw Gingrich’s defeat, and its... read more

Redstate…Shut Down ObamaCare, Not Government, By Sen. Marco Rubio
July 29th, 2013–I didn’t come to Washington to shut down the federal government; I came to help bring it back to its proper role. This role should create an environment where America is the easiest and best place in the world to create better paying jobs by starting a business or growing an existing one. One way to do that is by ending failed programs like ObamaCare that hurt our people, waste their money and scare businesses away from opening... read more

The College Fix… College Republicans deemed security threat, refused entrance to Obama's speech
By Christopher White - July 25, 2013 - WARRENSBURG – Six College Republicans were dubbed a security threat and refused admittance to President Barack Obama’s speech at the University of Central Missouri on Wednesday. Despite the fact that the students had tickets to the event, security personnel turned them away from to the recreation center where Obama gave a speech on economic policy, telling the group it wasn’t about their politics but the president’s safety, State Treasurer of the... read more

Redstate… The Ephialtes Establishment in the Republican Party, By Erick Erickson
July 26th, 2013 - I can see how the GOP loses in November of 2014. The establishment and base have moved so far apart the base is about ready to go third party or sit at home. If the GOP does not make a stand against Obamacare, they will not see the energy they need to effectively compete in 2014. Let me explain what is happening and what will happen. Karl Rove’s Crossroads group commissioned a poll by North Star Opinion Research. The poll... read more

Investors.com… SNAP Shot: Two Food Stamp Recipients Per Job Created
07/26/2013 - Welfare: SNAP, the U.S. food stamp program, has become a conduit for redistributing wealth and fundamentally transforming America, as welfare recipients now send food overseas and the White House markets to illegals. While the administration laments the distraction of "phony" scandals like Benghazi and Fast and Furious that leave real Americans dead, it trots out phony statistics about how well the economy is doing. "And what is absolutely true is that we have... read more

Human Events… Unsung Black People, By Ann Coulter
7/24/2013 - It must be hard for young black males to always be viewed as criminals by people who notice crime statistics. We’ve jawboned that sad story for 40 years. Last week, President Obama ran it around the block again in another speech about himself in reaction to the George Zimmerman verdict. Let’s give that beloved chestnut a rest for a day and consider another way blacks have it harder than whites. Only black people are expected to... read more

Hannity.com… Phony scandals, By Sean Hannity
July 25, 2013 - Barack Obama and Jay Carney are desperately trying to change the narrative. Over the last few days, we've seen this phrase repeated over and over again: “Phony scandals.” I suppose the administration believes that if they say it enough, the media will pick up on it and repeat it, and eventually low-information voters will believe it to be true. Though, this assumes that the media is even covering these ongoing to scandals to begin with. As the Media Research Center has pointed out... read more

Townhall… Vouchers: My Personal Case; A Must Read!!
Larry Elder - Jul 25, 2013 - "I think you should check out the APEX program," my high school counselor Mrs. Workman suggested. APEX stood for Area Program Enrichment Exchange, and involved several L.A. area high schools, including Fairfax High. Intended for "advanced" students, the program allowed them to take courses not offered at their home school. In my case, I had exhausted all of the Spanish courses at Crenshaw High, the predominately... read more

U.S. News…Where Obama Fails, GOP Governors Find Solutions, By Peter Roff
July 23, 2013–Almost half the jobs created during the Obama recovery have been created in Texas. Which perhaps means it should be called the Obama-Perry recovery. Or the Perry-Obama recovery – it's not clear who should get top billing, though outgoing Texas Gov. Rick Perry certainly has pushed a better pro-growth agenda than the president. In fact, while the "blue states" are running up debt and flirting with bankruptcy, the "red states" continue to take the lead in cutting taxes, streamlining ... read more

Redstate…Will Senate Republicans Surrender the Fight? By Erick Erickson
July 24th, 2013–Yesterday, when asked directly about Republicans shutting down the government over Obamacare, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell sounded less than committed to the endeavor. This is not a hypothetical question. Senator Mike Lee has issued a letter saying he will not pass a continuing resolution that funds Obamacare. He has been joined by fifteen Republican Senators. Unfortunately, I can confirm from multiple. ... read more

AFRICOM commander: We knew almost immediately Benghazi was a terrorist attack
By Ed Morrissey - July 23, 2013 - A public statement this weekend about the night of the Benghazi attack from former AFRICOM commander General Carter Ham is making the rounds, thanks to some belated attention from Fox News, but it’s more curious than revelatory. Now retired, General Ham spoke at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado and addressed his recollections of the consulate sacking and the American response. In Washington for meetings at the time, Ham told the audience that... read more

Best of Cain… Ethanol mandates driving spike in gas prices, By Herman Cain
Consequences. Have you noticed that gas prices are soaring again? The media and the left will follow their usual formula of blaming greedy big oil or their other typical talking points, but David Lutz, head of ETF trading at Stifel, Nicolaus says it’s yet another case of a government mandate resulting in unanticipated consequences. "As a result of the 2005 Clean Air Act, refiners need to blend a certain amount of ethanol into gasoline every year, and... read more

Detroit: The Legacy of the New Democrat Party, by Michael Schaus
Jul 22, 2013 - Detroit has filed for Bankruptcy. Among the opposition’s arguments against an organized restructuring of the city’s debt, are constitutional worries, pension concerns, and President Barack Obama’s reputation. (Or, “street cred” if you prefer.) A Michigan judge, in a stunning display of impartiality and balance, said the bankruptcy should be withdrawn in part because it failed to honor “the (United States) president, who took (Detroit’s auto companies) out of bankruptcy.” I’ll give you a moment... read more

Human Events… Farmers blast EPA for attempting to release their personal information
By John Hayward - 7/22/2013 - Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau, wrote a fiery editorial for the AFB’s August publication in which he castigates the Environmental Protection Agency for attempting to release private information it had collected about farmers – a scandal which attracted the attention of Congress last month. The Environmental Protection Agency recently was planning to publicly release personal information about... read more

Redstate…Sprechen Sie “Green Energy”? ¡No Más! Throw another shrimp on the parabolic solar reflector, mate. By Steve Maley
July 18th, 2013–As President Obama doubles down on his green energy initiative, maybe it’s time to look around the world and see how the foray into the future of rainbows and unicorn farts is working out for our more progressive and forward-thinking allies. We’ll visit Spain, Germany and Australia and see how their campaigns to replace fossil fuels and nuclear energy in favor ... read more

Redstate…Republicans Surrender, By Erick Erickson
July 17th, 2013–Senate Republicans, led by Mitch McConnell, have given up the filibuster for executive nominations. Under a deal struck, the Democrats will not deploy the nuclear option, but the Republicans will let the President fill a number of positions the GOP has been blocking. Among the positions will be the ever important National Labor Relations Board, which has pursued a disastrous anti-free market agenda. As Senator Ted Cruz noted ... read more

Redstate… House Conservatives Beware the New Whipping Strategy
Preemptively whipping general principles to get past conservatives and pass Democrat bills - By Daniel Horowitz - July 17th, 2013 - Over the past few years, the number of conservatives in the House has grown exponentially. Well, at least to the extent that you can’t count them on your fingers. Unfortunately, House conservatives are about to become a victim of their own successes if they fail to change course. In a sane world, Republicans would have more leverage than the Democrats over the... read more

PJ Media… ‘No Labels’ Organization Attracts a ‘Gang of 81′ Members in the Spirit of Bipartisanship to Eliminate Government Waste, By Myra Adams
Yesterday in a park across from the Capitol, I witnessed an event that signaled real hope and change in Washington and it had nothing to do with President Obama’s famous/infamous 2008 campaign slogan. Standing on a stage in the scorching sun, the heat index was 100 degrees of bipartisanship, as members of the House and Senate... read more

Net Right Daily… The heat is on coal electric plants from EPA, By Robert Romano
As the summer heat wave rolls on, electric utilities in localities across the country are asking customers to curb usage to avert brownouts. With a growing population in the 21st Century, increased demand for electricity is a certainty, particularly in the summer months. That means more power plants will be needed here in the future. Instead, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations are threatening to shut down about 285 coal-fired power plants, says a recent analysis from an industry... read more

The Heritage Foundation… Obamacare, Simplified
07/19/2013 - With open enrollment in Obamacare’s exchanges set to start in fewer than three months, the law’s supporters are attempting to change the subject from Obamacare’s many delays and glitches. Instead, they're mounting a campaign to sell the unpopular measure to the public. President Obama yesterday gave a speech on Obamacare, trying to justify the fact that premiums continue to rise, violating his 2008 campaign promise to lower them by $2,500 per family per year. The Kaiser... read more

Breitbart…Daily Beast: “There’s No Such thing as Black-on-Black Crime’, by Ben Shapiro
16 Jul 2013 On Monday, in response to my piece on 17-year-old Darryl Green of Chicago, who was found shot to death after refusing to join a gang at school, Jamelle Bouie of The Daily Beast claimed that “black-on-black crime” is a myth. “There’s no such thing as ‘black-on-black’ crime. Yes, from 1976 to 2005, 94 percent of black victims were killed by black offenders, but that racial exclusivity was also true for white victims of violent crime—86 percent were killed by white offenders. Indeed, for the large ... read more

Redstate…There Are No Indispensable Men, By Erick Erickson
July 16th, 2013 There are no indispensable men, but go to Washington and everyone treats everyone else as indispensable. Mitch McConnell and John Boehner have been in the United States Congress since 1985. In that time the national debt has grown from $1,823,103,000,000.00 to $16,066,241,407,385.89. In that time the GOP went from being the part of small government to the party of slightly smaller than the Democrats. No Child Left ... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: Even Unions Are Turning on Obamacare
Amy Payne and Chris Jacobs - July 16, 2013 - It’s not every day that union bosses sound like policy experts at The Heritage Foundation. But the beginning of the Obamacare letter from the heads of three major unions—the Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers, and UNITE-HERE—to Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is eerily similar to our experts’ writings. The unions, of course, were heavy supporters of Obamacare, but even they can’t... read more

Redstate… An Ecumenical Hope Post Zimmerman Trial, By Erick Erickson
July 15th, 2013 - The death of Trayvon Martin and the Zimmerman trial show there are deep wounds and grievances in this country and too many people who profit from fanning the flames. Too many in the white community see violence in the black community and think, “That’s their problem. Blacks killing blacks, we’ll let them figure it out.” But it is not their problem. It is all of our problem. No one wants to be a victim of crime. Besides, much of the crime is not... read more

Townhall Finance…Question of the Week: Will Obamacare Collapse? By Daniel J. Mitchell
Jul 15, 2013–We have a very interesting question from a reader in Nebraska. Is Obamacare such a cluster-you-know-what that the law will self-destruct? Well, I’ve already explained why I’m optimistic about the possibility of turning Obamacare lemons into free-market lemonade. Simply stated, the law took a healthcare system that already was a mess because of government intervention and subsidies and it doubled down on that misguided approach! And since it’s highly unlikely that more government is ... read more

Redstate…Mr. President, Can We Please Move On? By Erick Erickson
July 15th, 2013–I have said and will say again — the death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy. A jury of six in Florida has determined it was not criminal, but George Zimmerman will forever be the man who killed a 17 year old. No one can be happy about what happened other than, for Zimmerman and his family, that a jury believed him. Now the NAACP and others are calling for Attorney General Eric Holder to file charges against George Zimmerman. Never ... read more

HotAir.com… Coal plants already announcing shutdowns ahead of Obama admin’s regulations
By Erika Johnsen - July 11, 2013 - That’s really the goal, of course, of the Obama administrations incoming regulations. The hardcore eco-radicals will openly admit that, yes, a “war on coal” is precisely what’s needed to accomplish their goals, and that they do want to forcibly remove the coal industry from America’s (and someday, the world’s) energy scheme; but the Obama administration will deny the “war on coal” charge all day long, insisting that, why no, what we really want is just to... read more

Not guilty beyond reasonable doubt… By Patrick J. Buchanan
7/12/2013 - Editor’s note: Zimmerman pronounced Not Guilty on July 13, 2013 - That the prosecution in the Zimmerman trial asked the judge to allow a verdict of “third-degree murder” — i.e., child abuse, since Trayvon Martin was 17 — testifies to the prosecution’s failure and panic. For George Zimmerman’s defense has proven, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he shot Trayvon Martin not out of malice, rage or hate — but in a desperate act... read more

Redstate… A Guide to Wednesday’s Immigration Conference Meeting, By Daniel Horowitz
July 9th, 2013 - On Wednesday, House Republicans will finally confront leadership on the issue of immigration. In reality, the issue is not too complicated. There is an enormous bifurcation between the public and the political class over the issue of amnesty. Following passage of the amnesty bill in the Senate, the political class in both parties thinks this is the most pressing issue for the House to consider before the August recess. Senate GOP leadership is working overtime to beg House members to... read more

Columbus Dispatch… The imperial president; Obama’s unilateral delay undermines the rule of law
July 10, 2013 - With his delay of the employer-mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act last week, President Barack Obama once again thumbed his nose at the American system of checks and balances by doing an end-run around Congress and unilaterally decreeing a major change to a law. In announcing the change via a Treasury Department blog post as Washington prepared for the July 4 holiday, Obama made another move toward “creating an imperial presidency,” in the words of one noted... read more

Redstate… Senator Ted Cruz Gets It. Will Others? By Erick Erickson
July 11th, 2013 - Senator Ted Cruz has come out forcefully today against half measures on Obamacare. Instead he wants the GOP to unite behind completely defunding the law. As the Senator noted: Delaying only one aspect of this tangled mess leaves Americans holding the tab for an irreparably broken law they do not support. Moreover, it leaves in motion many of the most egregious parts of the law, ensuring they will take root in just a few short months... read more

Political Outcast…Gun Deaths: Is this Chicago or Cairo? by Common Constitutionalist
July 9, 2013 – Despite being seemingly bumped from the front pages, gun control is alive and well. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband showed up in New Hampshire last week to promote their anti-gun agenda. It appears as if Mayor Bloomberg is fronting the money for this nationwide tour. Big shocker. Since the Newtown shooting, it seems there haven’t been any mass murders. "Gun violence" in America seems to have temporarily subsided. We haven't heard of any shootings in months. Could that really be or... read more

Human Events…Zimmerman trial is this year’s Duke LaCrosse case, By Ann Coulter
7/10/2013 – This week, instead of attacking a Hispanic senator, Marco Rubio, I will defend a Hispanic citizen, George Zimmerman, on trial for the murder of Trayvon Martin. (Zimmerman would make a better senator.) It’s becoming painfully obvious why no charges were brought against Zimmerman in this case — until Al Sharpton got involved. All the eyewitness accounts, testimony, ballistics and forensics keep backing up Zimmerman. We should... read more

Obama Commits to Signing UN Arms Trade Treaty While Congress at Summer Recess
by Dave Jolly - July 10, 2013 - The number one goal of the United Nations is to become the political entity that rules all nations or in other words, the one world government. To accomplish that goal, they have to continue to exert their authority and power over individual countries and they have been quite successful at doing this in recent years. One of the key pieces of international law that needs to be in place before the UN can take over the world is to control all weapons, including... read more

Redstate… Reality Check, By Erick Erickson
July 11th, 2013 - Two nights ago I posted my thoughts on being on radio. I followed it up on radio yesterday afternoon. In both, I made this observation: No one likes people who talk politics all the time. I’ve spent an entire segment once on the fine art of browning onions in butter. And you know what? It’s been a widely requested segment of my show for repeat airings. People care about more than... read more

No Rest for the Working Class, By Brett Bogus
Jul 10, 2013 - One of the interesting things I find about any given week is the news media's obsession with unemployment figures that come out on Thursdays. If the number is lower, then we hear proclamations about a recovery and how well everything is progressing. If the number is higher or the same, we hear about how it could be worse or about how there was some mitigating circumstance and to wait for the better number the next week. While first time unemployment claims are important... read more

Townhall Finance… Chevy Volt Heads for Fiery Crash, By John Ransom
Jul 08, 2013 - The good news for GM these days is that no one has been consumed in a fiery death due to engine compartment fires since the Chevy Volt was discovered to spontaneous combust after accidents shortly after production began. The bad news for the company is that while Chevy Volt sales in June set a record, prior to June their sales for 2013 sucked despite general auto sales setting post-crash records. “With signs that sales of its Chevrolet... read more

Minutemen News…The Parental Rights Amendment: Transfers Authority Over Your Children to Federal Government
8 July 2013–If politicians introduced a bill mandating the slaughter of all human babies under the age of two years; but called it, “The Little Babies Protection Act,” establishment conservatives and unthinking people all over the Country would be clamoring for its passage. We have become a shallow and easily deceived people. If it sounds good on the surface, we are all for... read more

Heritage Foundation…Protecting Educational Freedom This Independence Day: Cracks in the Common Core, By Lindsey Burke
July 4, 2013–Just in time for Independence Day, the foundations of the Common Core initiative are showing some cracks. Common Core is an effort to establish national standards and tests to define what every child in public school will learn. It has been heavily incentivized by the Obama Administration and is an unprecedented federal... read more

A dying senior citizen tells it like it is... Worth the minutes to read
Editor’s note: I typically pay little attention to forwarded emails like this, but it came from a trusted source and it was specific to CNO and one other individual, so I checked it out. No factfinder site commented and it has appeared on several blogs, so here it goes… This is well written! It will be well worth the two minutes it requires to read this. It is quite impressive. You can be Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative, Independent or Libertarian and I bet this will hit a nerve. Our country is in real trouble... read more

Politichicks… Tea Party Terrorists, by Carolyn Elkins
July 6, 2013 - Rasmussen recently conducted a new telephone survey , which included 1,000 likely voters. The survey asked questions ranging from nuclear weapons, to who is considered the nation’s top terrorist threat. Twenty-six percent of those who approve of Obama’s performance believe that the Tea Party is the biggest terror threat to the US. This is compared to the likely voters of whom thirteen percent believe the same. Among those who approve of Obama’s job performance, just twenty... read more

Townhall… Palin’s Provocative Proposal: A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Conservatives Leaving the GOP
By Steve Deace - Jul 06, 2013 - Ronald Reagan once famously said “I didn’t leave the Democrat Party, the Democrat Party left me.” These days, millions of conservatives around the country feel the same about a Republican Party seemingly hell-bent on abandoning every principle other than crony capitalism. Recently on Fox News, conservative rock star Sarah Palin channeled that frustration when she said: I love the name of that party – ‘ Freedom Party.’ And if the GOP continues to back away from the... read more

Redstate… But Won’t People Die? By Erick Erickson
July 3rd, 2013 - They told us we had to do it. We had to rush through Obamacare; passing it to find out what was in it, as Nancy Pelosi told us. We had to do it and it could not wait because lives were depending on it. We needed to save lives and we needed to provide women access to birth control. Suddenly, yesterday, the Obama Administration announced it would deny women access to contraception paid for by their employer after campaigning throughout 2012 on just how important paying for abortions... read more

Artvoice… The USA vs. Leslie James Pickering, by Geoff Kelly
Last August, Leslie James Pickering received unsettling news from an old acquaintance he’d known in Portland, Oregon, where both had lived in the 1990s. Pickering’s friend, now living in the Southwest, had received a phone call from two men who identified themselves as agents in the FBI’s Buffalo field office. The agents asked Pickering’s friend about his character—what she thought of him as a person. Was he capable of influencing or even manipulating people? They asked her about Pickering’s... read more

Townhall Finance… The Obamacare Jobless Rate Soars from 13.8 to 14.3 percent, By John Ransom
Jul 06, 2013 - The market got more bad news that’s good news- but not good in the sense that it actually helps you, me or anyone else- when the new jobs reports came out on Friday. This "good news is bad news is good news" thing is getting tiresome. It's part of what our friend Mike Shedlock calls the Obamacare Effect. First the barely good news. The report showed that despite the dire warnings from federal bureaucrats, politicians and K Street lobbyists... read more

Breitbart.com…Republicans leaving party are tired of “Two Evils” argument, By Joel Pollak
July 2–A new study by the Frontier Lab, a conservative market research group, found that Republican voters who leave the party do so because they are are tired of being told to vote Republican as the "lesser of two evils." The study, "Switching Behavior: Modeling disaffiliation from the Republican brand," is published on the group's website and applies scientific methods of qualitative research to the GOP's most urgent problem. Unlike the official Republican National Committee (RNC) "autopsy," which ... read more

Townhall…Red, White and You, By Jackie Gingrich Cushman
Jul 04, 2013–This week we celebrate the Fourth of July, the day that our founders declared their independence from Great Britain. This declaration action came after a long history of imposition by King George III. While it might seem as though this is ancient history, there are applicable lessons to remember today. "We hold these truths to be self-evident," the document begins, "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain ... read more

Heritage Foundation… Do Traditional Marriage Supporters Deserve to Be Treated with Dignity?, By Jim DeMint
July 2, 2013 - Some people can’t seem to understand why anyone would support marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Indeed, Justice Anthony Kennedy argued last week that the only reason Congress had for passing the Defense of Marriage Act was to “disparage,” “injure,” “degrade,” “demean,” and “humiliate” others. Justice Kennedy says we’re denying dignity to people in same-sex relationships. But it is his ruling that denies dignity to those who don’t think a same-sex relationship ... read more

Townhall Finance… This Will Leave a Mark: More Bi-Partisan "Reform", By John Ransom
Jul 03, 2013 - The economy today, in this Fourth of July week for 2013, waits in breathless anticipation of our newest declaration of dependence. Sometime this week, jobs data, housing data and some other data export manufactured by the federal government will result in someone, somewhere- perhaps even in the stock market- doing something. And when that happens regulators, media mavens, talking heads, politicians, special interests, and Mayor ... read more

Heritage Foundation…5 Immigration Questions for Members of Congress, by James Carafano and Jessica Zuckerman
July 1, 2013 It’s July 4 week, which means Members of Congress are at home in their districts. As you head to your nearest town hall meeting, take these questions for your Representative. Below, we also provide the real answers you should be listening for. 1. Since the Senate-passed bill doesn’t require the flow of illegal immigrants to stop, how can you say this approach ... read more

How Many Do You Know??? From a CNO Reader
Ok, here's a little fun trip back in time. Let's see how much you remember, and how many you can recall. Play fair, don't cheat! Oh, you'll need a piece of paper and a pencil to record your answers. Let me know how you scored. 1. In the ’50s, if you had a flat rear tire, you often had to remove the… ? a. Necker knob b. Curb feeler c. Fender skirt 2. What color flash bulbs did Dad use for color film? a. Blue b. Pink c. Plaid 3. What was the “parking brake”... read more

Cleveland Plain Dealer… Derail the amnesty express, By Kevin OBrien
This all looks so distressingly, depressingly familiar. People working on Capitol Hill have spent months building a massive bill that would greatly expand federal power and reach while raining gifts on favored constituencies. At the last moment, the introduction of an equally massive amended version has thrown the process into darkness and the potential effects of the legislation into confusion. Once again, we won't really know what is in a piece of legislation that will affect the lives of every American -- and... read more

Townhall… Another White House Play Date with Muslim Jihad, By Michelle Malkin
Jun 28, 2013 - Forget Paula Deen. There are far more dangerous bigots and poisonous haters spoiling the American landscape. They cook up violent rhetoric and murderous plots against our troops, our citizens and our allies 24/7. And they have direct access to the White House. Earlier this week, the indefatigable Investigative Project on Terrorism blew the whistle on the Obama administration's latest flirtation with Muslim jihad. Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah... read more

Ohio’s War on Local Governments, By Dusty Rhodes, Hamilton County Auditor
The Kasich administration has declared war on Ohio’s local governments. The drastic reductions in the Local Government Fund have forced cities, villages and townships across the state to seek additional levies just to provide minimal services. If the levies don’t pass the money runs out and the services stop. Or local taxes have to increase to maintain them. Cuts of this magnitude in state funding were neither necessary nor equitable. State revenues are up and State spending continues to rise... read more

The Heritage Foundation… Farm Bill: The House of Second Chances, by Amy Payne
June 28, 2013 - The farm bill died in the House—but could it live again? House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is reportedly pushing to split up the old farm bill and take food stamps out of it. The Heritage Foundation has argued that it didn’t make sense to combine the bloated food stamp program with farm-related programs in the first place. It is supposed to be the “farm” bill, after all. And with food stamp costs doubling under President Obama, it’s a program that deserves a careful look on its own... read more

Townhall Finance… Progressive Vikings Tax, Rob and Pillage, By John Ransom
Jun 29, 2013 - While many waited for Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke to take the weight of the world markets on his Ivy League shoulders by declaring QE-4EVR-LOL!, the real economists at the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco came up with a more detailed explanation for the poor, dragging, sluggish U.S. economy. What they found will astonish you. And yes, this is a true story. “[D]espite all the attention federal spending cuts and... read more

Conservative Byte…Capitol Hill Police Block Tea Party Activists from Immigration Rally
June 19, 2013 If you’ve never seen the tyrants of the capitol police in person you really should. They are relentless and pull out all the stops. Check it out: Capitol Hill police are trying to block activists attending Wednesday’s “Audit the IRS” rally from also attending a nearly day-long press conference on immigration, hosted by Reps. Steve King and Louie Gohmert. The IRS rally is on the west side of the Capitol, while the immigration event is on the east side. Organizers for the IRS event were told... read more

The Heritage Foundation...Farm Bill Uprising: No More Business as Usual, By Rob Bluey
Members of Congress are listening to you. Yesterday the U.S. House rejected a nearly trillion-dollar food stamp and farm bill — an important victory for taxpayers and a stinging rebuke for the Washington establishment. Sixty-two Republicans bucked their own party to vote against the bloated bill. Coupled with a large bloc of Democrats who wanted more spending on food stamps, the bipartisan opposition was enough to sink the measure. It’s unclear if or when House leaders will bring the bill back... read more

Redstate… The Stories They Told, By Erick Erickson
June 25, 2013 - Republicans (and red state Democrats) used to tell voters amazing things about their opposition to amnesty. Then they got elected and supported legislation that actually weakens border security and puts people on a path not just to legalization, but to citizenship, before ever securing our borders. 1. Rubio: “I would vote against anything that grants amnesty because I think it destroys your ability to enforce the existing law and I think ... read more

The Never-Ending Story of Government Cost Overruns, By Daniel J. Mitchell
Jun 22, 2013 - Why is it that virtually everything the government does cost more than we’re initially told? In 2009, for instance, I warned that Obamacare would be much more costly than advertised, so I certainly wasn’t surprised several years later when the numbers began to climb. Heck, I narrated an entire video warning that this would happen. There are probably an infinite number of reasons why government programs wind up being needlessly expensive, but I think most of them fall into these four... read more

Townhall Finance… Regulating Political Speech – In the Name of the First Amendment
By Michael Schaus - Jun 25, 2013 - One of the greatest threats of a growing government is the opportunity for abuse, corruption and general disregard for individual liberty. And while the IRS is reeling from their own experiment in Big-Brother-meets-Jimmy-Hoffa style of governance, the New York State Attorney General is anxious to follow suit. State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has already made a career of targeting political opponents... read more

The Foundry…Kline and Rokita Unveil Rewrite of No Child Left Behind
House Education and the Workforce Committee chairman John Kline (R–MN) and Representative Todd Rokita (R–IN) have introduced the Student Success Act (SSA)—a proposal to rewrite No Child Left Behind (NCLB). While restoring excellence in education will require more than a fix to the bureaucratic NCLB, Kline’s proposal makes some improvements to existing statute. But as we wrote last week, conservatives in Congress should work to allow states to completely opt-out of NCLB while eliminating ... read more

Townhall…Random Thoughts, By Thomas Sowell
Jun 25, 2013–Random thoughts on the passing scene: Edmund Burke said, "There is no safety for honest men, but by believing all possible evil of evil men." Evil men do not always snarl. Some smile charmingly. Those are the most dangerous. If you don't think the mainstream media slants the news, keep track of how often they tell you that the Arctic ice pack is shrinking and how seldom they tell you that the Antarctic ice pack is expanding. The latter ... read more

The Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: Washington Is Cuckoo for Food Stamps, by Amy Payne
June 20, 2013 - The House is debating its farm bill this week—and now Democrats are saying it doesn’t spend enough on food stamps. The “farm” bill, which isn’t how we picture farms at all, is actually 80 percent food stamps. Don’t forget that the food stamp program has doubled under the Obama Administration. In an odd turn, House Republicans like John Boehner (R-OH) have thrown support behind this bill, which would lock in the Obama era’s historically high levels of food stamp spending... read more

Townhall… Obama Abroad, By Rich Galen
Jun 22, 2013 - Most Presidents of the United States love going on an international trip. You get to fly on Air Force One. You get to travel around in The Beast that was flown over for your benefit. You get to stay in the biggest suite in a Western-style hotel. There are about 300 staffers from the White House and various Executive Branch agencies who have traveled ahead of you or with you to make sure your every whim is appropriately dealt with. And... read more

The Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: 3 Things You Should Know About the Supreme Court and Voter ID
By Amy Payne - June 18, 2013 - Yesterday, the Supreme Court handed down one of its first major decisions of this term, striking down Arizona’s measure requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration. Media reports are already off base in interpreting this decision, says Heritage legal expert Hans von Spakovsky. Here are three things to know about the decision. 1. This is not a voter ID decision - This decision has to do with voter registration, not the act of voting. Von Spakovsky explains... read more

Politichicks… Hillary Clinton: From “Stand By Your Man” to “Stand By Your Lies”
by Jin Ah Jin - June 18, 2013 - Once upon a time, I admired Hillary Clinton. I respected the fact that during the trials of Monica Lewinsky and all the other “mistresses” that came out of the woodworks, Hillary chose to stand by her man and tried to make things work out for the sake of her family. I thought she was an advocate for women and that she would not ignore the toils and troubles of the regular wife, mother, single mom, working or stay at home... read more

Townhall Finance… The 50 Rip-Off Charities: Give at Your Own Risk, By Morgan Brittany
Jun 17, 2013 - The specific kinds of charities that pay for-profit corporations to raise the majority of their donations regularly give their solicitors over two-thirds of the take. Good charities should spend no more than 35 cents to raise a dollar. So the reality is that the “50 worst charities raised more than $1.3 billion over the past decade and paid nearly $1 billion of that to the companies that raise their donations”. Out of $1.3 billion dollars the charities received less than 4%. Had that money gone to the... read more

Heritage Foundation…Morning Bell: Congress Is Trying to Fool You on Immigration, By Amy Payne
June 19, 2013–Congress is trying to fool you. Here’s how they do business. A piece of legislation is going to cost trillions of dollars, but Members of Congress don’t want the public to see that. Instead, they have the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) look at the bill for just the first 10 years—and they move any costly items off into the future on purpose. They did it with Obamacare—saved the budget bombshells for later. Now they’re trying to do it with immigration. Yesterday, the CBO released its score ... read more

Townhall…The Amnesty Mob vs. America, By Michelle Malkin
Jun 19, 2013–You can try to put "conservative" lipstick on the lawless amnesty mob. In the end, however, it's still a lawless mob. The big government/big business alliance to protect illegal immigration got a lot of mileage using foolish Republicans Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan as front men. But the true colors of the open-borders grievance-mongers always show through. After America said no to a pork-filled security-undermining amnesty bill in 2007, the... read more

Townhall… Progressives Blame Capitalism Instead of Obama For Patriot Coal Bankruptcy, by Tom Borelli
Jun 18, 2013 - The American coal industry is in free-fall and companies are being forced to do whatever it takes to keep from closing their doors. It’s a difficult situation for all involved, and the progressive media is eager to levy the blame on the free market. Even when the facts suggest big government picking winners and losers is at fault, a good crisis never goes to waste for progressives, and thus those details are unabashedly ignored. Case in point is a recent article published by the always fair and... read more

Well Worth the Read!!… Tank: A Great Dog Story , Sent by a CNO Reader
They told me the big black Lab's name was Reggie, as I looked at him lying in his pen. The shelter was clean, no-kill, and the people really friendly. I'd only been in the area for six months, but everywhere I went in the small college town, people were welcoming and open. Everyone waves when you pass them on the street. But something was still missing as I attempted to settle in to my new life here, and I thought a dog couldn't... read more

Redstate… CBO’s Unicorn Cost Study on Amnesty, By Daniel Horowitz
June 18th, 2013 Repealing Obamacare will increase the deficit by $109 billion over 10 years. That was a headline from a CBO report in May when Republicans voted on full repeal of Obamacare. Somehow, when it comes to ascertaining the costs of wrongheaded policy, CBO wants us to engage in willing suspension of disbelief. The most costly entitlement will actually reduce the deficit, they claim. In Washington, up is down and down is up. We are now seeing the same thing with the amnesty/immigration... read more

Townhall… The Loss of Trust, By Thomas Sowell
Jun 18, 2013 - Amid all the heated cross-currents of debate about the National Security Agency's massive surveillance program, there is a growing distrust of the Obama administration that makes weighing the costs and benefits of the NSA program itself hard to assess. The belated recognition of this administration's contempt for the truth, for the American people and for the Constitution of the United States, has been long overdue. But what if the NSA program... read more

Canada Free Press…DHS insider: It’s about to get very ugly, By Doug Hagmann
Monday, June 10, 2013–Originally Published June 7, 2013 - Washington, D.C.—Something quite unexpected happened just hours ago, in the dark of night, during a two-day layover in Washington, DC. My son and I are scheduled to take part in a seminar outside of Raleigh, North Carolina this weekend, so we combined our travels to include a side-trip to DC for a business meeting we had previously arranged. It was during this layover that something seemingly ripped from the pages of a spy novel took... read more

Simple Truths…How Your Life Matters
In a perfect world we hear something once, record it in our brains, and never need to hear it again. Well, I don't know where you live, but my world is far from perfect. I have doubts, fears, and disappointments in my life and occasionally need a "shot of inspiration." That's what this beautiful 3-minute movie is all about! The words with the beautiful photographs will bring simple, but life-changing ideas to life. So relax, turn up your speakers... read more

Political Outcast… Fed Up Citizens Taking Action Across America, by Bradlee Dean
June 14, 2013 - Someone once said, the Declaration of Independence “doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.” There is no doubt America is being assaulted by an administration that is tyrannical, attempting to rule through personal policy initiatives – not law – only because the American people have become rebels against their own foundational principles and have eaten the fruit of their own ways. But all is not lost. Let’s take a look at what took place just last... read more

God… Guts… and Glory… From a CNO Reader
These may very well be the most important words I have ever written. They are inspired by a very close friend of mine. One who is always there for me. God… Guts… and Glory… Sounds great. Even a bit patriotic… doesn’t it? Millions and millions of people live in an everyday world of God, Guts and Glory. The ones I want to talk about are the ones who humbly do so. Men and women who make a difference. People who wake up each... read more

NetRightDaily… Virginia Republicans fail to protect tax-hiking incumbents, By Willie Deutsch
On Feb. 23, 2013 Gov. Bob McDonnell cheered while the Virginia House of Delegates approved a massive tax hike which the state senate had just approved. As Americans for Limited Government noted at the time, it was a “quadruple insult to the tea party: 1) a tremendous tax increase to fund a 2) huge spending increase bought for with the 3) implementation of Obamacare in Virginia in a manner that 4) unconstitutionally outsources Medicaid expansion to a supercommittee.” This was legislation that... read more

Townhall… Dumb and Dumber Tax Hikes, by Mike Shedlock
Jun 16, 2013 - One of the dumbest things a country can do in a recession is raise taxes. Yet, after pronouncing the end of austerity, Italy's "grand coalition" government, led by Enrico Letta, is going to hike the VAT. Why? It seems they need to hike the VAT to pay for a decrease in property taxes. Recall that Silvio Berlusconi was only willing to take part in Letta's grand coalition on condition property tax hikes were rolled back. Letta agreed to do that, but... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: The Government vs. YOU, By Josh Shepherd
June 14, 2013 - Every day, more Americans get trapped by big government. In addition to groups targeted by the IRS, upstanding citizens going about their normal lives are suddenly targeted by law enforcement authorities and charged as criminals. Just a few examples: A young girl was fined $535… for rescuing a wounded woodpecker. A businessman was jailed for years… for shipping lobsters in plastic bags rather than cardboard boxes. A Maryland father and building engineer faced... read more

Townhall… Barack Obama's "Social Innovation" Slush Fund, By Michelle Malkin
Jun 14, 2013 - We all know now what the vengeful Obama IRS has been doing to conservative nonprofits the past four years: strangling them in the crib. But do you know how much pampering and largesse far-left welfare-state charities have received while limited-government groups suffered? You don't know the half of it. Before President Obama took office, I warned that Democrats planned to steer untold amounts of taxpayer dollars to his shady... read more

Cleveland Plain Dealer…Revelations about NSA demand a close look by Congress: editorial, By The Plain Dealer Editorial Board
June 12, 2013–Revelations that the National Security Agency has for seven years quietly monitored U.S. telephone and Internet traffic with the permission of a secret federal court should be of concern to every American. For more than 200 years -- with few governmental incursions except in times of war -- every American's freedom from unreasonable searches has been ... read more

Heritage Foundation…Morning Bell: Ask John Boehner WHY, By Amy Payne
June 13, 2013–Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) said yesterday that he will support the bloated farm bill. But as Heritage has been highlighting, this bill does not do what most people think it does. The nearly trillion-dollar bill actually doles out money to some surprising sources and frankly, it’s not very farm-related. As the House prepares to debate the bill next week, here are a few questions for Boehner and other Members of Congress ... read more

Townhall Finance… Only a Modest Illegal Search by Government, by Bill Tatro
Jun 12, 2013 Now that I’ve been made fully aware — thanks to The Guardian and The Washington Post — that the National Security Agency (NSA) knows all the details of my historical cell phone usage, I can rest assured that it’s no big deal. Why? That’s because the president told me so. Let’s not forget, this is the very same president who determined how much money that I should have in my retirement accounts since he knows my exact comfort level. And this is also the same president who ... read more

Redstate… Over Criminalization and the NSA, By Erick Erickson
June 11th, 2013 - One of the sites I routinely read, Kottke.org, linked to a new book out I have not read. It is called Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent. This is an issue I care deeply about from my days as an indigent criminal defense attorney to my present study and review of prosecutorial overreach in the United States. The issue of over criminalization fits well with the issue of government overreach these days. There is a maxim... read more

The White House… Join the conversation
Hi, all -- A couple weeks ago, I was in a meeting with a group of community leaders and President Obama here at the White House. Before the discussion kicked off, one of the women in attendance handed me a letter. It was written by her dad, a 90 year old college professor from Cleveland. He was born in China in 1923, and he came to the United States with $24 in his pocket. Two years later, he'd earned a masters in electrical engineering. Five years after that, he had completed his PhD. In 55 years of... read more

Townhall Finance… As Obama Gets More Unstable, the Economy Stabilizes, Just as Planned
By John Ransom - Jun 11, 2013 - Following slight budget cuts and a stalemate on taxes, Standard and Poors has upgraded the outlook for United States debt from negative to stable. Thank goodness for gridlock. “The U.S. has a less than one-in-three likelihood of a downgrade in the ‘near term’ with the revision,” reports Bloomberg. “The New York-based company said it sees ‘tentative improvements,’ such as the deal politicians reached to resolve what... read more

San Jose Mercury News… President is California Dreamin' about Obamacare, By Kevin McCarthy and Fred Upton
Special to the Mercury News - 06/07/2013 - California Dreamin', an iconic anthem from the '60s, has stood the test of time. But Friday, with the president scheduled to visit San Jose, it's also a fitting refrain for the White House's perception of Obamacare. California has become the latest battleground over its effects. The sad truth about Obamacare's broken promises has been revealed, coupled with revelations of the rate shock that is on the horizon for millions of Americans... read more

Townhall… Modest Snooping? Debra J. Saunders
Jun 09, 2013 - SAN JOSE, Calif. -- "Nobody's listening to your phone calls," President Obama proclaimed at a Friday event that was supposed to be about California's implementation of the Affordable Care Act. But that morning, the New York Times had reported that surveillance programs begun under President George W. Bush had been clearly "embraced and even expanded under the Obama administration." The Guardian had reported that the... read more

Akron Beacon Journal…Fraud detector
June 6, 2013–Medicare, the health program for seniors, is a vast enterprise. Total spending in 2012 is estimated at $551 billion, accounting for roughly 16 percent of the federal budget. The program currently covers about 50 million beneficiaries and pays more than 4 million claims a day to some 1 million care providers and suppliers. Enrollment and spending are projected to grow rapidly as baby boomers become eligible. With a system of such expense and complexity, it is not surprising that much ... read more

Townhall…Working Moms and Unemployed Dads, By Suzanne Fields
Jun 07, 2013–Between the baby boomers on one hand and Generations X, Y and Z on the other, cultural and economic changes have transformed the landscape of our culture. It's difficult to wrap a description around what sociologists call a "cohort." "I'm not a real person yet," says a 27-year-old college graduate in the movie "Frances Ha," the latest and hippest of the contemporary coming-of-age scenarios. She has no credit card and explains that ... read more

Redstate… The Real Danger of Liberal Bias; It's That the Powerful Keep Winning and the Weak Keep Losing
By Thomas Crown - June 5th, 2013 - I’m going to tell you what media bias is really all about. It’s about a dying, 10 year-old girl and a sexagenarian, politically connected trial lawyer. It’s about official malfeasance treated as human error when a Democrat is President. It’s about power and systemic corruption that is unremarkable to people offended that George W. Bush didn’t call his advisers liars to their face. It is about Fred Baron and Sarah Murnaghan. Fred Baron was a plaintiff’s asbestos lawyer, a prolific... read more

Townhall Finance… Repetitive Stupidity, By Mike Shedlock
Jun 07, 2013 - No one wins a trade war. Ever. Not countries, not companies, and certainly not consumers. Yet, here we go again. People's Daily says China has more cards to play in EU trade dispute. China still has plenty more cards to play in an increasingly ugly trade dispute with the European Union, the official People's Daily newspaper said on Thursday, accusing Europe of not realizing that its global power was waning. The EU will impose duties... read more

Heritage Foundation… Harry Reid’s Ploy to Plow Through the Farm Bill, By Rachael Slobodien
June 6, 2013 - The U.S. Senate is expected to vote this morning on a measure that will effectively end debate on the misnamed “farm” bill, cutting off opportunities to fix the deeply flawed legislation. At a cost of a nearly $1 trillion — 80 percent of which goes to the food-stamp program — American taxpayers deserve a robust debate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) won’t let that happen. This isn’t the first time Reid has pulled this stunt. His iron-fisted approach to running the Senate is one reason... read more

Townhall… Tips for Right-Wingers on the IRS Scandal, By Ann Coulter
Jun 05, 2013 - Instead of showing endless loops of IRS employees wasting taxpayer dollars line-dancing -- Breaking news: Government employees waste millions of your dollars every single day! -- I think it would be more useful for the public to hear a few crucial facts about the exploding scandal at the Internal Revenue Service. At Tuesday's congressional hearings on the IRS, witnesses provided shocking details about the agency's abuse of... read more

Akron Beacon Journal…Paying for education
June 4, 2013–Richard Ross, Ohio’s superintendent of schools, once described school-funding debates in Ohio as the education version of Groundhog Day: Every two years, there is a big to-do about how we pay for public education and then we go to sleep without solving anything, he wrote. A former superintendent of a suburban district, Ross understands better than most lawmakers the uncertainties local school officials confront, badgered, on the one hand, to be frugal and innovative, yet stuck with a... read more

Townhall…The Most Transparent Administration Ever, LOL, By Michelle Malkin
Jun 05, 2013–Sun, sun, sun, here it comes. Welcome to the Summer of Belated Epiphanies. Media lapdogs are finally, finally arriving at the conclusion that maybe this isn't the most transparent administration in world history, after all. On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported on the Obama administration's use of secret email accounts, stonewalling on Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and attempted shakedown of reporters seeking ... read more

Cleveland Plain Dealer… Assessing the politics of JobsOhio: Analysis
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Democratic furor over JobsOhio can be summed up in two words: wishful thinking. The party's only announced candidate for governor, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, is running on an anti-corruption image. That strategy works best if it addresses a weakness in his opponent. And as Nixonian as he and his allies make Gov. John Kasich out to be, there has been nothing criminally scandalous in the Republican incumbent's first term... read more

Simple Truths… To a Child, Love is Spelled T-I-M-E; What a Child Really Needs From You
In the faint light of the attic, an old man, tall and stooped, bent his great frame and made his way to a stack of boxes that sat near one of the little half-windows. Brushing aside a wisp of cobwebs, he tilted the top box toward the light and began to carefully lift out one old photograph album after another. Eyes once bright but now dim searched longingly for the source that had drawn him here. It began with the fond recollection of the love of his life, long gone... read more

Townhall… Teacher Punished for Telling Students About Constitutional Rights, By Todd Starnes
May 30, 2013 - An Illinois high school teacher was punished by a local school district after he warned students about their Constitutional rights before answering a school-mandated survey about emotional and at-risk behavior. John Dryden, a social studies teacher at Batavia High School, was issued a formal reprimand and docked a day’s pay. The punishment was doled out during a closed-door school board meeting. The controversy started when the school district directed students to complete a... read more

Redstate… The Judgment of Future Generations, By Mike Adams
May 31, 2013 - Everyone must be judged from time to time. It's a fact of life. Nonetheless, I'm getting tired of judgmental statements directed toward me for my unwavering defense of marriage. I'm talking about real marriage between one man and one woman, which is the only kind of marriage that really exists. People often try to call something a marriage when it isn't. Calling a union between two men or between two women a marriage... read more

Townhall Finance…IRS, State and DOJ: The Three Stooges, By Mark Baisley
Jun 02, 2013–The recent testimonies before Congress have been reminding me of something for weeks and I just figured out what that is. I call it 90-degree humor; the kind of joke that starts out in one direction, then takes a sudden left turn, leaving you fallen-over laughing. For instance: “If you were to line up every fish from every body of water in a straight line, head-to-tail, head-to-tail, you would never get that smell off your hands.” I greatly appreciate the use of audio, visual, and broadcast technologies that ... read more

Redstate…The Truth May Hurt, But Is Not Mean, By Erick Erickson
May 30th, 2013–I feel the need to add to this post as it is obvious a lot of people take up this topic with some heavily preconceived notions and biases. I am shocked to learn I think women cannot be breadwinners. That is what the left says, but it is not so. Even now I am getting beaten up for suggesting women should stay home with their kids. While I think it is preferable, I also know it is often impossible. I know from first hand experience. Prior to having... read more

Cleveland Plain Dealer… Overheated climate rhetoric hurts the economy, By Lamar Smith
May 30, 2013 - Climate change is an issue that needs to be discussed thoughtfully and objectively. Unfortunately, claims that distort the facts hinder the legitimate evaluation of policy options. The rhetoric has driven some policymakers toward costly regulations and policies that will harm hardworking American families and do little to decrease global carbon emissions. The Obama administration's decision to delay, and possibly deny, the Keystone XL pipeline is a prime example... read more

Townhall Finance… The IRS Scandal: Just Another Day at the Office, By Michael Schaus
May 31, 2013 - We should be crystal clear on the IRS scandal: while the targeting of conservative groups is grotesquely reminiscent of a banana republic technocracy, the larger problem is the inherent authoritarian nature of America’s Internal Revenue Service. There are certainly specific chapters of this growing scandal that promise to highlight the thuggish nature of our current Administration, and even more chapters that promise to... read more

Townhall Finance… Teaching How to Sell Women into Slavery, by John Ransom
May 30, 2013 - Every time our culture passes gas sideways, liberals love to trot out the theory of “income inequality” as the culprit behind it. From the modern theory of “bullying,” to global warming, to breast cancer, to riots in Sweden, France, or the disappearance of the arctic ice shelf, income inequality looms large in liberal cosmology. At a time when more people in the history of world have become upwardly-mobile, solid members of the middle-class, liberals believe that they must stop the natural process... read more

Redstate… Go Big or Go Home, By Erick Erickson
May 29th, 2013 - In 1960, Barry Goldwater published The Conscience of a Conservative. In it, he noted: Conservatism is not an economic theory, though it has economic implications. The shoe is precisely on the other foot: it is Socialism that subordinates all other considerations to man’s material well-being. It is Conservatism that puts material things in their proper place — that has a structured view of the human being and of human society, in which economics... read more

Political Outcast… “Common Core”: The ObamaCare of Education
May 29, 2013 - It sends shivers down the spines of freedom loving individuals. It is the Obamacare of education with its national standards and testing and its one-size-fits-all government model. While the implementation of the Common Core curriculum is new, the passion for and the idea of national education has been burning in the hearts of progressives for more than a century. Many people blame George W. Bush for Common Core. After all Common Core is just the natural extension of Bush’s... read more

Townhall Finance…Corporate Tax Avoidance: Where’s the Harm? by Chris Edwards
May 27, 2013 Politicians are having fun slapping around big corporations for supposedly not paying enough taxes. In this country, Apple is the current target, while in Europe it’s Google, Amazon, and Starbucks, according to the Washington Post today. But there is an elephant in the room that the many reporters and politicians blustering over the issue have been too ideologically blind to see: There is no obvious harm being done by today’s corporate tax avoidance. The first thing to note is that when... read more

Townhall…Obama Uses 1917 Espionage Act to Go After Reporters, by Michael Barone
May 27, 2013 There is one problem with the entirely justified if self-interested media squawking about the Justice Department snooping into the phone records of multiple Associated Press reporters and Fox News's James Rosen. The problem is that what the AP reporters and Rosen did arguably violates the letter of the law. The search warrant in the Rosen case cites Section 793(d) of Title 18 of the U.S. Code. Section 793(d) says that a person lawfully... read more

Townhall… Dangers of Big Government, By Rich Tucker
May 26, 2013 - Let us now praise David Axelrod. “Part of being president is there’s so much beneath you that you can’t know because the government is so vast,” the president’s former right-hand-man explained on MSNBC recently. He was attempting to defend Barack Obama, who says he didn’t know that the IRS was targeting conservative groups, or that the Justice Department had obtained the phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors. And don’t even get started on what the ... read more

Redstate… The penumbra of power, By John Hayward
May 29th, 2013 - A few weeks ago, Apple executives were called on the Congressional carpet for… well, it’s not really clear, actually. Congress was very angry at them for failing to haul international profits back to the United States so they could be taxed at confiscatory anti-growth American rates. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) countered by pointing out that everyone tries to legally minimize their tax liability. Accountants who failed to take such opportunities... read more

Townhall… Terrorism is Never Justified, By Jeff Jacoby
May 24, 2013 - Broadcasting from Boston the day after the Marathon bombing, a correspondent for the French-Canadian TV channel LCN explained why Americans shouldn't be surprised when such atrocities occurred. It's the price they have to pay for being a superpower, Richard Latendresse told his viewers. It may be "un peu tragique," he conceded. But hey, that's what happens when a nation takes so much pride in its military power – and has inflicted similar suffering on others... read more

Redstate… I Have No Problem With the Boy Scouts’ Decision, By Erick Erickson
May 24th, 2013 - The Boy Scouts of America have decided to keep the ban on gay scout leaders, but allow gay young men to participate in scouting. The vote was not even close. More than 60% voted to end the ban. I have no problem with this. While I would have voted against it, if a majority of scouts want that, that is fine with me. Their institution is allowed to evolve as they see fit. My father was in the Order of the Arrow. He spent a number of years... read more

Redstate… Securing Our Borders With Open Borders, By Daniel Horowitz
May 23rd, 2013 - Every sane person in the country aka most people outside of the DC beltway, is asking the million dollar question of the immigration debate: why don’t we just implement the enforcement measures that actually work before risking another wave of illegal immigration by granting amnesty now? The issue would largely dissipate if they would merely begin enforcing the laws on the books. But when you listen carefully to the fatuous arguments propagated inside the beltway, you will discover the... read more

WND.com… Questions about scandals 'rrelevant,' 'offensive', By Joseph Farah
On “Fox News Sunday,” White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer was asked by Chris Wallace where in the White House President Obama was during the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans. Wallace: “Question, what did the president do the rest of that night to pursue Benghazi?” Pfeiffer: “Look, the president was kept up to date on this as it was happening the entire night, from the moment it started until the very end... read more

Redstate… It’s the ‘Wacko Birds’ vs. the Wackos Again, By Daniel Horowitz
May 22nd, 2013 - If I were granted one wish about the state of today’s politics it would be for the Democrats to be saddled with their own version of John McCain. Once again, McCain is working to score points for Democrats and undermine Cruz/Paul and Lee – the “Wacko Birds” – in their attempt to prevent a free debt ceiling increase. Back in January, Republicans and conservatives got together at Williamsburg and agreed to “suspend” the debt ceiling law until May 18 in return for the Senate passing a budget... read more

Townhall… Obama and the Law, by Mona Charen
May 24, 2013 - If you Google "George W. Bush shredding the constitution," you will get many millions of hits. The New York Times railed, "Ever since 9/11, we have watched Republican lawmakers help Mr. Bush shred the Constitution in the name of fighting terrorism. President Bush attempted to listen in on the international calls of suspected terrorists, he used waterboarding on exactly three terrorists, and he put detainees in Guantanamo... read more

Redstate…Finally, A Bi-Partisan Solution on Term Limits, By Jim Bridenstine
May 16th, 2013–Many in our country and in the districts we represent feel that Congress is out of touch and that members are more focused on re-election than on providing real solutions to our nation’s biggest challenges. We hear from constituents all the time that there is a lack of urgency and focus when it comes to solving our country’s toughest issues like tackling the deficit and putting policies in place that will lead to economic growth. The two of us, freshman members from different parties with... read more

Townhall…Thanks and Devotion This Memorial Day, by Jackie Gingrich Cushman
May 23, 2013–If you were to suddenly appear this weekend at the numerous barbecues or pool parties, without any knowledge of our nation's history, it might be hard to understand the real meaning of Memorial Day. Is it a day to sell cars, clothes and mattresses? Is it a day off of work, a time to join with family and friends, and grill out? For our family, Memorial Day weekend marks the start of summer. School is out, and we transition from the school... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: Immigration Reform Should Strengthen, Not Cost, America
05/20/2013 - Lawful immigration can bring important economic and cultural benefits both to the United States and to the immigrants. Americans rightly live and celebrate the values of America, including limited government, personal liberty, and free enterprise, and beckon others to join us. We are united by belief in our founding documents and our creed that all men are created equal. As Ronald Reagan said, “The immigrants who have so enriched America include people from every race, creed, and ethnic... read more

Townhall Finance… Baby on the Way: Are You Ready for Your New Financial Reality?
By Carrie Schwab Pomerantz - May 23, 2013 - Dear Carrie, We're expecting our first child soon, and there's so much to think about! Everyone tells us to start saving for college right away, but that's so far in the future. What about now? What should we focus on first? --A Reader; Dear Reader, You're definitely right that there's a lot to think about when you're expecting a baby. (I know from experience!) Cribs and car seats are only the beginning. And while... read more

Ohio Governor John Kasich…Kasich's Medicaid expansion would help Ohio's veterans: Thomas Moe and Victor Wilson, By Plain Dealer guest columnist
May 19, 2013–It's not often that we see people on both ends of the political spectrum come together for a common purpose, but that's exactly what happened in April when thousands of people rallied on the Statehouse lawn in support of expanding health care to more than 275,000 low-income Ohioans, most of whom have jobs and are working taxpayers. Side by side in the... read more

Townhall…Paranoid or Prescient? By Victor Davis Hanson
May 23, 2013 Government is now so huge, powerful and callous that citizens risk becoming proverbial serfs without the freedoms guaranteed by the Founders. Is that perennial fear an exaggeration? Survey the current news. We have just learned that the Internal Revenue Service before the 2012 election predicated its tax-exempt policies on politics. It inordinately denied tax exemption to groups considered either conservative or possibly antagonistic to... read more

Breitbart… IRS Scandal: IRS Commissioner defends ‘lie by omission’ to Congress , by Joel B. Pollak
Acting Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman, who led the agency when it targeted Tea Party and conservative groups, testified before the Senate Finance Committee today, under oath, about when he knew about the conduct of officials in the tax exempt organizations division. He was joined by his successor, Steven Miller, and Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russel George. Senators pressed the IRS officials about his failure to respond to earlier concerns ... read more

Townhall… Wimps Versus Barbarians, by Thomas Sowell
May 21, 2013 - An all too familiar scene was enacted on the campus of Swarthmore College during a meeting on May 4th to discuss demands by student activists for the college to divest itself of its investments in companies that dealt in fossil fuels. As a speaker was beginning a presentation to show how many millions of dollars such a disinvestment would cost the college, student activists invaded the meeting, seized the microphone and shouted down... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: A Bumper Crop of Food Stamps, by Amy Payne
May 21, 2013 - Where do food stamps come from? They come from taxpayers—certainly not from family farms. Yet the “farm” bill, a recurring subsidy-fest in Congress, is actually 80 percent food stamps and other government nutrition programs. The food stamps sweeten the farm deal for lawmakers, who admit that the combination works for their political purposes. As Heritage experts Daren Bakst and Diane Katz explain: The food stamp portion creates a reason for urban representatives... read more

Townhall Finance… No Better for Obama Next Week, Either, by Marita Noon
It’s been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week at the White House—and it isn’t looking like next week will be any better. You probably know about Obama’s trifecta of troubles: the Benghazi story about the attack that killed four Americans and the aftermath that falsely blamed a YouTube video that “continues to smolder on the far-right side of the dial,” the IRS targeting conservative groups for extra scrutiny while giving liberals a pass, and, the... read more

Akron Beacon Journal… Priorities IRS
May 16, 2013 - Steven Miller took the fall. On Wednesday, President Obama received the resignation of the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service in the wake of word about the agency acting egregiously in targeting tea party and other conservative groups for heightened scrutiny. Today, Miller will feel the heat as he appears before the House Ways and Means Committee. No doubt lawmakers will explore why Miller in early 2012, serving as deputy IRS commissioner, told Republican senators... read more

Heritage Foundation… Governor Pence Pauses Indiana Common Core Standards, By Lindsey Burke
May 17, 2013 - Indiana has just given every state that agreed to adopt Common Core national education standards and tests a lesson in prudent governance. On Saturday, Governor Mike Pence (R) signed the Common Core “Pause” bill into law, halting implementation of Common Core until state agencies, teachers, and taxpayers better understand the implications of Common Core adoption. Indiana law now requires that the Common Core standards be... read more

Republican National Committee… RNC Chairman Calls for Obama To Take Responsibility for the IRS Scandal
Posted May 15, 2013 - WASHINGTON – In response to the president’s IRS announcement, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus released the following statement, calling out the president’s failure to address Americans’ real questions and take responsibility for the actions of his administration: “Simply allowing the acting-head of the IRS to resign is not enough. This is clearly a scapegoat that distracts from answering the core questions from information that has been known within the administration for over a year: Who... read more

Townhall… Obama's Emptiest Benghazi Talking Point, by Michelle Malkin
May 17, 2013 - On Sept. 12, 2012, President Barack Obama vowed to "bring to justice" the perpetrators of the deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya. On Oct. 26, 2012, Obama said his "biggest priority" was bringing the "folks" in Libya responsible for murdering four Americans to "justice." Tick, tock, tick, tock. While White House press secretary Jay Carney sneers at the GOP's "obsession" with what went wrong at the besieged Libyan consulate, Obama... read more

Townhall Finance…Scandals, Fisticuffs and the Voices of Tyranny, by Charles Payne
Man ... there are so many scandals and donnybrooks it's hard to keep track of them. Heck, there has been so much shocking news and fisticuffs I've already forgotten about the Garcia-Woods tango over the weekend. This fresh batch of scandals that's popped up like springtime perennials could have enormous conclusions. > IRS > AP > Benghazi > Army Sex Misconduct How these are handled will tell us even more about the administration and give insight into how dangerous the power grab of the past ... read more

Redstate…The Obama Scandals Aren’t About Bad Government, but Big Government, By Senator Mike Lee
May 16, 2013–When scandal rocks any administration, its partisan opponents smell blood in the water and move in to inflict as much political damage on the president as possible. Consultants assure us it’ll “gin up the base.” It makes headlines. And it’s always easy to kick someone when he’s down. But for conservatives, especially... read more

Heritage Foundation…We’ve Seen the Effect of “Amnesty” Before, By Ed Meese
May 17, 2013–Experts can’t always predict exactly how public policy will affect the nation, despite our best efforts. But when it comes to immigration policy, we have tried many of the types of reforms advocated by today’s Gang of Eight—so we should consider the effects these reforms had in the past. In the mid-’80s, many Members of Congress advocated amnesty for long-settled illegal immigrants. President Reagan considered it reasonable to adjust the status of what was then a relatively... read more

From a CNO Reader…Your four friends
Once upon a time there was a girl who had four friends. She loved the fourth friend the most and adorned him with rich robes and treated him to the finest of delicacies. She gave him nothing but the best. She also loved the third friend very much and was always showing him off to neighboring kingdoms. However, she feared that one day he would leave her for another. She also loved her second friend. He was her confidant and was always kind... read more

From a CNO Reader… 'I Hope You Dance...'
This was written by an 83-year-old woman to her friend. *The last line says it all. * Dear Bertha, I'm reading more and dusting less. I'm sitting in the yard and admiring the view without fussing about the weeds in the garden. I'm spending more time with my family and friends and less time working. Whenever possible, life should be a pattern of experiences to savor, not to endure. I'm trying to recognize these moments now and cherish them. I'm not "saving"... read more

Heritage Foundation… Serving Justice to Gosnell
05/14/2013 - Justice has been served for a few infants and one mother whose lives were taken within the filthy walls of 3801 Lancaster Avenue. Late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell was convicted yesterday of first-degree murder in the deaths of three infants who were born alive after botched abortions performed in his run-down West Philadelphia clinic. He was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Karnamaya Mongar, a 41-year-old woman who died from an overdose of... read more

PolitiChicks… To Sheila Jackson-Lee, With Love; by Sam Janney
May 13, 2013 - Dear Ms. Jackson-Lee, It has come to our attention, the conservative bloggers of the world that you would prefer if we “shut up.” We had no idea that we were in any way offending your delicate, tender sensibilities and from the bottom of our hearts, we are sorry. We are sorry you are so obviously intimidated by our conservative voice that you feel the need to tell us to “shut up.” Honestly, being strong supporters of the first amendment... read more

Youngstown Vindicator… Let Exterran serve as model for accelerated Valley growth
Wed, May 15, 2013 - The official opening of Exterran Energy Solutions’ $13 million 65,000-square-foot advanced manufacturing plant on Youngstown’s West Side last week injects premium fuel into the Mahoning Valley’s retooled economic engine. It also illustrates the potential for additional and accelerated investment in our region. We join Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Exterran President and CEO Brad Childers in welcoming Exterran to the Valley’s expanding manufacturing... read more

Breitbart… Backfire: ABC, CNN, NBC call for White House to release Benghazi emails
By John Nolte - 15 May 2013 - UPDATE: NBC's senior White House correspondent joined the chorus Wednesday. On his MSNBC show, "The Daily Rundown," Chuck Todd looked into the camera and said, "Attention White House: Release all the emails." The headline has been updated to add NBC. Assuming they are the ones who leaked to CNN an email written by Ben Rhoades (a Deputy... read more

Akron Beacon Journal… No joke
May 13, 2013 - On Monday, President Obama began to respond appropriately to revelations that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative groups to establish whether they were complying with their tax-exempt status. The president called the IRS actions “outrageous.” He promised to hold agency officials accountable. His words followed the apology on Friday from Lois Lerner, the head of the agency division that oversees tax-exempt organizations. Now the White House must follow through... read more

Townhall Finance... Obamaspeak Takes Failure to New Highs, by Bob Beauprez
A new language was introduced in Washington when President Obama began his first term in office. For a time, it flummoxed his observers, including many Republicans, who were caught off-balance by the combination of the President’s soaring rhetoric and his Chicago-style politics. The language is newspeak. Introduced by George Orwell, it is characterized by using familiar words and phrases in unfamiliar ways. In the President’s parlance... read more

Columbus Dispatch… Ohio takes a big step forward
In the latest sign that word is getting out about Ohio’s business-friendly makeover, the Buckeye State is the biggest gainer in Chief Executive magazine’s 2013 ranking of Best States for Business. Ohio advanced an impressive 13 spots from last year, by far the biggest gain of any state, on the list based on responses from more than 700 CEOs around the country. Ohio landed at No. 22 after CEOs ranked states on factors including taxation and regulation, work-force quality and quality of life... read more

Heritage Foundation… Louisiana Court Rules Against School Choice, But Educational Opportunity Moves Forward
By Brittany Corona - May 11, 2013 - After a series of school choice victories across the nation, the Louisiana Supreme Court issued a disappointing ruling this Tuesday when it upheld a lower court’s ruling invalidating the state’s school voucher program. With a 6-1 vote, the higher court declared the funding mechanism for Governor Bobby... read more

Townhall Finance… Which Presidents Are Right about Government? by Daniel J. Mitchell
When I was becaming interested in public policy, I thought Jimmy Carter was the epitome of a bad President. But as I began to learn economics, I realized that Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson also were terrible and belong in the Hall of Fame of bad Presidents. And the more I studied economics and public policy, I learned that Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt were two peas in a failed big-government pod and deserve membership in that Hall of Fame. Or I guess we should call it a Hall of Shame... read more

Townhall Finance… Maybe It’s the Lawsuits that Stop Banks from Making Loans, by John Ransom
When New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced this week that he’s going after top banks Bank of America and Wells Fargo for violations of the national mortgage settlement agreement, he had a point. Unfortunately that point resides mostly at the top of his head. Schneiderman, like many New York Attorneys General is playing politics for the bleachers even though he’s hurting their case. “The settlement included 304 ‘servicing standards... read more

Redstate…Benghazi hearings in the Mirror Universe, By John Hayward
May 9th, 2013 It’s amazing to watch the media bury yesterday’s explosive testimony on Benghazi. Just imagine for a moment that today is the day after a veteran career diplomat – the top man on the ground in Libya after the murder of the ambassador – testified that a Republican administration told him not to cooperate with Democrat congressional investigators, shook him up with a menacing phone call from the top political “fixer” for a Secretary of State...read more

Townhall…School Bans Religious Graduation Songs, By Todd Starnes
May 09, 2013 A Georgia school district will no longer allow prayers or songs with religious references at graduation ceremonies after a Wisconsin group threatened to file a lawsuit and suggested that forcing non-Christian students to listen to religious music was a form of bullying. “If the valedictorians want to thank their parents, grandparents and god, that’s freedom of speech,” Houston County Superintendent Robin Hines told the Macon Telegraph. “We can’t stop that. As long as it’s not lewd, they can say...read more

Townhall… House GOP Owes the Benghazi Dead, Wounded, and Their Familes the Respect and Urgency They Did Not Get From Hillary or the President, By Hugh Hewitt
May 09, 2013 - Set aside the disgraceful actions of the broadcast MSM today in not covering the riveting testimony of Greg Hicks Wednesday, and set aside even the shocking conduct of the Administration on the night of 9/11/12 and during the days, weeks and months following. The MSM is almost exclusively left-wing and almost completely committed to the defense of... read more

The Heritage Foundation…Defending Freedom in North Korea's Shadow
To lead the nation always under threat from North Korea, backbone is required. As the president of South Korea has demonstrated over her past two days in Washington, she is a vital figure at this time in history. Park Geun-hye has been referred to as the "Iron Lady of Korea." It is a fitting moniker since it honors not only her, but also Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Two principled leaders, reaching out to others but willing to risk criticism to achieve a bold vision for their country. As Lady Thatcher observed ... read more

Redstate…Idols of Awesome and Shibboleths of Community, By Erick Erickson
Every once in a while I stumble over something that opens my eyes wide to a lot of the silliness of secularism that pervades evangelicalism and, in turn, warps the whole of generations. Anthony Bradley points out that there is a crazy movement going on right now within young evangelical circles to shun the suburbs and engage in a “new legalism” of radical faith. The best I can figure is that somehow suburbs are just bad. (Read Keith Miller on this point)...read more

Ohio Matters… Common Sense Initiative Brings Common Sense to Business Regulations
By Ohio Chamber of Commerce - On April 17, Mark Hamlin from Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor’s Common Sense Initiative (CSI) Office visited with the Ohio Chamber’s Small Business Council to update members on CSI and its efforts to streamline and reform Ohio’s business regulations. Gov. Kasich created CSI in 2011 through Executive Order 2011-01K and immediately appointed Taylor to lead the office. CSI was then codified into law by Senate Bill 2. The Ohio Chamber actively supported both of these efforts and ... read more

Townhall… Bouncing Ball Politics, By Thomas Sowell
If you are driving along and suddenly see a big red rubber ball come bouncing out into the street, you might want to put your foot on the brake pedal, because a small child may well come running out into the street after it. We all understand that an inexperienced young child who has his mind fixed on one thing may ignore other things that are too dangerous to be ignored. Unfortunately, too much of what is said and done in politics is based on the same tunnel... read more

The Weekly Standard… The ‘Transparency’ Agenda
It’s a murky business. Last September, Ronald Robins Jr., a senior vice president at Abercrombie & Fitch, received a letter urging the company “to join with over a hundred major companies and make political spending disclosure and accountability a corporate practice.” The Ohio-based clothing retailer isn’t particularly political. It doesn’t have a political action committee, nor is it a member of the more politically involved trade groups like the Chamber of Commerce. Any politics they have lean slightly left... read more

Heritage Foundation… Indiana Reconsiders Common Core, By Brittany Corona
May 2, 2013 - This past weekend, Indiana legislators approved a proposal to halt the implementation of Common Core until after preliminary hearings and an in-depth analysis are conducted. The bill now rests on Governor Mike Pence’s (R) desk awaiting his signature. In February, the Indiana state senate voted 38–11 in favor of anti–Common Core legislation. And Indianans and local business owners have petitioned Pence to halt the Common Core implementation... read more

Heritage Foundation… New Heritage Study on the Cost of Amnesty, By Amy Payne
May 6, 2013 - The immigration debate is about to get a lot more concrete. Lawmakers need to be honest about the cost of their proposed immigration plans—and a new study due out today from The Heritage Foundation calculates the cost to taxpayers of granting amnesty to unlawful immigrants. Yesterday on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Heritage President Jim DeMint said: The study you’ll see from Heritage this week presents the staggering costs of another amnesty in our... read more

The CNO Inbox… "Ole Blue"
In my day this one from a CNO reader would be rated “R.” Today I imagine it’s probably bland enough to be rated PG. Either way, I think you’ll enjoy it. Btw… with apologies to animal lovers (I’m one of them): “no animal was harmed in the creation of this blog.” A young cowboy from Montana goes off to college. Halfway through the semester, having foolishly squandered all his money... he calls home. "Dad," he says, "You won't believe what modern... read more

Pentagon defends unconstitutional policy against sharing faith, By Ken Klukowski
3 May 2013 - Pentagon personnel responded to Breitbart News’ report about court-martialing service members who share their faith in the military, which the Pentagon confirmed on May 1, and the Air Force on May 2 separately confirmed a second time. Now the Pentagon claims the opposite. But these new statements instead only compound the problem, as the Pentagon’s new definitions for terms squarely contradict what the dictionary says those terms mean. All this has taken place as the first flag officer... read more

Townhall… Being Presidential, By Oliver North
May 02, 2013 - Washington, DC – On April 30, 1789, at the Federal Hall in New York City, George Washington took the Oath of Office as the first President of the United States. He and the members of both houses of Congress then assembled in the unfinished Senate Chamber where Washington took less than 20 minutes to deliver the first inaugural address. Precisely two hundred and twenty five years later – at the same time of day – the 44th President... read more

Townhall Finance…A Tale of Two Recoveries, by Fritz Pfister
In a recent Frank and Earnest cartoon; as Frank leaves a bank he says ‘they aren’t paying interest on savings anymore’, and Earnest replies ‘the point of no returns’? There’s an element of truth in all good humor. Sad for seniors that there’s a massive amount of truth in that cartoon. They are the generation who did their job, saved diligently, retired, and now are forced to settle for little to no return on their savings or risk it in the Wall Street casino. C’est la vie. Seniors don’t realize the game is rigged by... read more

The CNO “Inbox”…The Global Warming “Epidemic”, Notes by Bob Robinson
As I have often noted, I get a lot of stuff sent to me via email (as I’m sure you do). Some of it I keep, some of it I dump… even if I find it interesting or worth a grin or two. I’m not sure I’ve seen this one before (sent by a CNO reader), but I’ve often seen news reports and opinion pieces saying basically the same thing… however, keep in mind that the specifics below have NOT been verified. They are presented to you in CNO blog format for your... read more

Townhall… Reaching Toward Heaven, By Jackie Gingrich Cushman
May 02, 2013 - Humans have long reached toward heaven. I don't know whether this desire represents an attempt to get away from the ground, an attempt to associate with God or an attempt to peer over the balcony and look at all the little people below. But the desire to go higher and higher has long shaped the skylines of our cities. The Empire State Building opened this week in 1931 as the tallest building in the world at 1,250 feet. It retained this designation until the World Trade Center was completed almost... read more

Redstate… Rush Limbaugh and the Need for Spine, By Erick Erickson
May 2nd, 2013 - The Politico is reporting (read: let’s wait for a second source to confirm it) that the RNC, well, “[t]he Republican National Committee has chosen a Karl Rove-linked voter data project called Liberty Works to help it compete with Democrats in the digital arena. Liberty Works will team up with Data Trust, whose chairman of the board is former RNC Chairman Mike Duncan, committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski confirmed to Politico... read more

Townhall Finance…The Curse of Government Help, by Charles Payne
The indisposition of the aborigines to manual labor is well known; but as they can obtain work of various kinds in the country they should not only be induced to take it, but they should be discouraged from remaining in comparative idleness at mission stations, where they will certainly abide as long as they are provided with food and clothing, without some corresponding demand being made upon their labor. It's so interesting to me that the economic debate in this country can exist without a debate on the... read more

Redstate…Food stamps for illegal aliens, By John Hayward
April 30th, 2013–There has been much controversy over the government’s efforts to advertise welfare programs, particularly the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), otherwise known as the “food stamp” program. Only they’re not “stamps” any more. The dependent masses of Food Stamp Nation get a little credit card, called an EBT Card, which they can use in the checkout lines, just like people who pay for their own food. In theory, this... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: President Says Obamacare Is Going Great, By Amy Payne
May 1, 2013 - Obamacare is “working fine,” President Obama said yesterday in his press conference. It’s made health insurance “stronger, better, more secure than it was before.” There are just a few slight details left to be implemented, but we shouldn’t worry about those, according to the President. Right. There’s nothing to worry about, which is why Members of Congress are trying to exempt themselves and their staffs from Obamacare. In reality, health insurance premiums are rising, and ... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: Remember the Economy? It’s Still Bad, By Derrick Morgan
April 30, 2013 - According to a poll earlier this year, voters have a higher opinion of cockroaches than Congressmen. President Obama’s personal popularity remains solid, but his job approval rating is going down. Why are our elected officials unpopular? It might just be because they are not listening. In poll after poll, the American people continue to tell Washington that their top priority is the economy. A recent Fox News poll asked participants what is the most important issue facing the nation. The... read more

Townhall Finance… Russian Terrorist Connections to Boston Bombers, by Bob Beauprez
Two weeks after the Boston Marathon bombing we are still learning new information - and generating new questions. The following article by Valery Dzutsev published yesterday in the Jamestown Foundation's Eurasia Daily Monitor. Dzutsev names two Russian terrorists (both killed by Russian authorities) directly linked to Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older brother in the Boston bombing. He also documents "contradictions" about Tsarnaev's visits to Russia given by... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: Immigration Bill Doesn’t Secure the Border, by James Carafano
April 29, 2013 - Must Washington fix our broken southern border? You bet. Will the comprehensive immigration reform bill help? You bet it won’t.The number one flaw of the bill is it starts by giving amnesty to the unlawfully present population in the United States. As soon as the bill passes, those in the country contrary to U.S. immigration law are granted status to stay. Amnesty immediately creates an incentive for illegal border crossings and overstays. Thus, the bill’s strategy would drive up the cost of... read more

Townhall… Will Boston Probe Falter Like Benghazi? By Debra J. Saunders
Apr 28, 2013 - Hours after the Boston Marathon bombings but before authorities identified suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, President Barack Obama purposefully addressed the nation. "We will find out who did this. We'll find out why they did this," the president pledged. "Any responsible individuals, any responsible groups, will feel the full weight of justice. Days later, there's reason to wonder how zealously the administration will work to... read more

Faith, love, and children, By John Hayward
April 26th, 2013 - President Obama became the first sitting president to address Planned Parenthood on Friday. Not surprisingly, he didn’t have anything to say about Kermit Gosnell, or the wave of medical emergencies at abortion clinics, or the sex-selection abortions Live Action discovered at Planned Parenthood. Obama didn’t even use the word “abortion” in his speech. Abortion is so wonderful that even the most strident abortion radical ever elected to the White House can’t bring himself to say the... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: Why My Family Came to America, Jessica Zuckerman
April 26, 2013 - More than any other nation in history, the United States has made itself a new home for immigrants in search of a better life. It embraces those who come to this country honestly—often with nothing more than their work ethic—in search of the promises and opportunities of the American Dream. As a second-generation American, I think of this promise often. Each and every day, when I see my grandfather’s Ellis Island records hanging... read more

Townhall Finance…Changing the Conversation, by Peter Schiff
Don Draper, Mad Men's master advertiser likes to say "when you don't like what they are saying, change the conversation." When it comes to the current economic weakness, which was confirmed again today by the release of lower than expected GDP data, Washington would love do just that. Fortunately for them, they consistently outdo the master minds of Madison Avenue when it comes to misdirection. If the government doesn't like what people are saying, they don't bother just to change the... read more

Redstate… Marriage as Purposeful Institution, By Ryan T. Anderson
April 23rd, 2013 - When a baby is born, a mother always is nearby. The question is whether a father will be involved in the life of that child and, if so, for how long. Marriage increases the odds that a man will be committed to both the children that he helps create and to the woman with whom he does so. The recent oral arguments at the Supreme Court highlighted this and other key questions about redefining marriage as we’ve always understood it in America. That is, marriage is the union of a man and woman as... read more

C-Fact.org…Environmentalism’s seven deadliest, most destructive power grabs
April 22, 2013–GANG GREEN’S SEVEN DEADLIEST, MOST DESTRUCTIVE POWER GRABS: #7 – The “Endangered Species Act” Sold as legislation that would protect vulnerable species, the Endangered Species Act and other wildlife preservation laws are instead routinely abused by environmentalists as weapons against employers. A favorite tactic is to use junk science and strong-arm tactics to get species that are not threatened or endangered listed as “threatened” or “endangered” to shut down... read more

Redstate…Gun Control: Treating The Symptoms, By Breeanne Howe
As the nation struggles to understand the attack at the Boston Marathon, the debate over background checks for gun buyers has received more attention from gun control advocates as a result. The left argues that stricter gun control laws might prevent tragedies such as the Boston bombings and the Newtown shooting. The right points out that criminals, including the Boston bombers, do not adhere to the law and creating new gun control... read more

Breitbart News…The Gun Control Poll that might finally shut the media up
For weeks, the media pretended that poll after poll proving the American people were moving against stricter gun control simply didn't exist. This included a Gallup poll that showed 96% of the American people did not consider gun control any kind of national priority. But media propaganda isn't about reality; it is about the manufacturing of a reality. So the media-collective glommed on to flawed polls that showed upwards of 90% support for the tightening of background checks. Clutching these 90% polls in a ... read more

Townhall Finance…A Tax Increase For Every Home, by John Ransom
Despite President Barack Obama’s promises that he would never, ever, ever, raise taxes on people making less than $250,000 year, a new analysis from the Tax Policy Center -- citing a new tobacco tax that will hit some low-income families harder than the rest -- indicates he's breaking that oath. Upon closer examination of the budget, it's revealed Obama raises taxes on middle and low-income families again, and again, and again. “President Barack... read more

Investors.com… Obama Budget Shows Middle-Class Tax Pledge Was Fraud
04/23/2013 - Taxes: A new study shows President Obama's budget would significantly boost taxes on the middle class. Funny, we seem to recall him promising voters that only the rich would pay for his grandiose spending plans. According to the analysis from the nonpartisan but liberal-leaning Tax Policy Center, Obama's budget would hit wealthy families hardest, with the top 20% of income earners shouldering almost 90% of the tax hike. But families at every income level would end up paying more if... read more

Redstate… Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled, By Erick Erickson
I remember it so clearly — a memory you can only remember so clearly when it is from sadness. You can’t let it go. I was sitting in the mud by the rear passenger side tire of my old Acura cradling my one year old in the steady, driving rain. I was sobbing doing my best not to fall apart in front of my little girl. But the tears ran. My throat hurt as I tried to suppress the guttural cries I wanted to cry there in the mud. RedState, which got up and running in 2004... read more

Toledo Blade… DeWine does double duty
A sweepstakes parlor, or Internet café, gives away chances to win prizes with the use of Internet access. Ohio has more than 800 such mini-casinos. They also are popular in the South, where their owners have been able to amass enough money to buy political influence. In Florida, an influence-peddling scandal involving the cafés has led to calls for their abolition. Defenders say Internet cafés are benign businesses that create jobs. Critics call them pernicious, claiming they exploit old and poor people... read more

Facts No Fantasy… Earth Day and Environmental Insanity, By Alan Caruba
Anyone who has been paying any attention to the environmental movement has got to have concluded it is insane. • While the United States stands poised on defaulting on its ever-growing debt—the highest in the nation’s history; • While wars and insurrections are waged in the Middle East, across northern Africa, and in the Ivory Coast; • While Japan struggles to deal with a major earthquake and nuclear plant meltdown; • While Islam wages... read more

Townhall Finance… It's Not a Miracle - It's America, by Charles Payne
The Mughal's nature is such that they demand miracles, but if a miracle were to be performed by some upright follower of our religion, they would say that it had been brought about by magic and sorcery. They would strike him down with spears or would stone him to death. Antonio Monserrate The stock market continues to endure its toughest week of the year with intermittent flashes of resolve, even as the economic backdrop is proving too difficult sledding. When a rally is as hated as this one has been... read more

Fascinating Images… So who is Chalkman? Notes by Bob Robinson
As always, when I get an “Email Blast” that I feel CNO readers would be interested in, I do a little Internet research to see what pops up. Sometimes I get “urban legends” – ie, not so. Sometimes I find that it’s legitimate. I provide a little background information. This is the first time I found (supposedly) two Chalk Men. For future reference, there is another set of chalk art that I’ll be posting in the future… a third chalk man? For these images, I... read more

Redstate...Gang Plan: Perennial De Facto Amnesty, By Daniel Horowitz
April 17th, 2013–One of the most common bromides regurgitated by Republicans in defense of ‘amnesty first, enforcement later’ proposals is that we already have de facto amnesty with Obama not enforcing the laws. This was always a dubious argument even before the release of the gang bill. We should not use Obama’s malevolence as a baseline from which to craft public policy. Instead of rewarding Obama for his insidious abuse of power by granting him the desired outcome, we should hammer him... read more

Investors.com… EPA's Dirty Secret About The Environment, By John Merline
The Environmental Protection Agency late last month proposed strict new "clean fuel" standards on gasoline. The EPA said the so-called Tier 3 rule would cut emissions of smog-forming pollutants, as well as toxic emissions like benzene. What the EPA didn't say was that levels of these pollutants have been falling steadily for years, and would continue to fall even without the new rule, which the oil industry says will cost tens of billions of dollars. Indeed, a fact that won't get much attention on Earth... read more

From “God Don’t Make Junk”… The Golf Balls of Life, By Bob Robinson
In 2005 I wrote as part of the introduction to my book, “God Don’t Make Junk, from Ramblings of an Old Man,” an adaptation to something that was floating around the Internet. It was about golf balls and pebbles and sand and stuff. The message was powerful; the delivery… well… so, so. I love stealing great ideas that are presented in a boring manner and trying to liven them up a bit. Which is exactly what I did. I published my version in my... read more

Redstate...When Will Republicans Understand Free Market Healthcare? By Daniel Horowitz
April 18th, 2013–Healthcare is one of the most complex policy issues. The lack of free market healthcare, engendered by endless government interventions (and secondary interventions to fix the original interventions), has made policy solutions even more cumbersome. But the overarching principle of any reform must begin with the understanding that federal intervention in the healthcare industry has inexorably driven up the cost of healthcare and health insurance. As such, no healthcare policy panacea... read more

Townhall Finance...Obama’s Growth-Busting Budget, by Larry Kudlow
No matter how you slice the Obama budget pie, the inescapable fact is that the president wants to get rid of the roughly $1 trillion budget-cutting sequester and substitute in a $1 trillion-plus tax hike. In other words, more spending, more taxing. Growth-busting. The GOP should just say no. And let me provide some counsel to my Republican friends in Washington, in particular in the House. Balanced budgets don’t create growth. This mantra is wrong. It’s... read more

Townhall… New Data on Border Crossings Could Change Immigration Debate, by Byron York
Apr 16, 2013 - There's a confrontation coming between the Obama administration and Republicans in Congress over the most basic question of immigration reform: How secure is the U.S. border with Mexico? Not only does the administration not know -- and perhaps doesn't want to know -- but there are signs the border is less secure than some of the most skeptical Republicans thought. Last year the Border Patrol began experimenting with a new drone-based surveillance system that had been developed for ... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: Standing with Boston, By James Carafano
April 16, 2013 - America is at its best when it faces adversity with courage, confidence, and determination. That recipe of “what makes us who we are” holds for hurricanes, disasters, and tragedies like the one that occurred during yesterday’s Boston Marathon. A security professional knows what to do first: Take care of the injured, protect the responders and bystanders who are racing to the scene to help (who can often be the target of... read more

Townhall… America's Founders vs. the IRS, by Chuck Norris
Apr 16, 2013 - Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that agents for the Internal Revenue Service are bypassing warrants and sifting through the email and other electronic communications of American citizens.
Those documents disclosed that "agents were told they didn't need a warrant to root through emails, texts or Facebook pages of people (the IRS) is investigating," according to Fox News. Despite the fact that IRS email surveillance is a clear affront... read more

Heritage Foundation… Obama Budget Ends Funding for D.C. School Choice Program
By Lindsey Burke - April 12, 2013 - Yesterday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan testified before the House Appropriations Committee about Obama’s fiscal year (FY) 2014 budget request for the Department of Education. Congressman Andy Harris (R–MD) took the opportunity to question Duncan about a glaring omission from the budget: funding for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP)... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Small business owners criticize Obamacare roll out, by Betsi Fores
More business owners are upset about the Affordable Care Act, now that the Department of Health and Human Services has announced that the small-business health care marketplace exchange will be delayed until 2015 because of “operational challenges.” Employees of small businesses will still have access to insurance, but due to the delay they will be limited to one choice during the first year, rather than all the options promised under the full-fledged small-business exchange... read more

Geezer Planet Goodies, From a CNO Reader, Notes by Bob Robinson
It’s fascinating what comes through your email these days. Most of it is discarded, often without bothering to look. Some of it deserves a second glance. And an unusually high number recently were too good not to share with our readers. Seniors especially will delight in these photos from a CNO reader. Well… I think they will. I’m a senior and I got a big chuckle out of them. Well… most of them. Especially humorous to me was the older gentleman... read more

Cleveland Plain Dealer… The dangers of test-score worship, By Sharon Broussard
April 12, 2013 - A major academic cheating scandal involving the Atlanta Public Schools just might jolt states out of their lackadaisical oversight of school officials trying to game standardized tests as the results become more and more important in determining educators' prestige and pay. That is the takeaway from last week's stories about one of the nation's former rock-star school superintendents being forced to show up like a common criminal to get her bail reduced to $200,000 from... read more

Mail Magazine 24...When the Government Goes Bankrupt, by Andrew P. Napolitano
What happens when the government goes bankrupt? This question is one that sounds like a hypothetical exercise in a law school classroom from just a few years ago, where it might have been met with some derision. But today, it is a realistic and terrifying inquiry that many who have financial relationships with governments in America will need to make, and it will be answered with the gnashing of teeth. Earlier this week, a federal judge accepted the bankruptcy petition of Stockton, Calif., a city of about... read more

Townhall...Object Lesson: "Temporary" Amnesty Never Dies, By Michelle Malkin
Apr 12, 2013–Does America lack "compassion" and "humanity" for uninvited foreigners? Quite the contrary. While open-borders activists rail against "injustice" and demand new "pathways to citizenship," official U.S. policy rewards countless line-jumpers with permanent residency and taxpayer-subsidized benefits. Case in point: the massive "Temporary Protected Status" (TPS) program run by the Department of Homeland Security. In theory... read more

Redstate… Taxes, Guns, and Chuck Schumer as GOP Leader, By Daniel Horowitz
April 10th, 2013 - Until recently, taxes and guns were the two issues that served as the glue to bind together Republicans of all stripes. They were the two issues that even feckless elected-Republicans could be counted on to hold the line and stand with conservatives. But over the past few years, Obama and the Democrats have gotten Republicans to break their impervious opposition to tax increases by supporting “increased revenue” and closing “loopholes.” Now they are doing the same... read more

A testament to faith… Groom, Texas, Edited by Bob Robinson
I’d never heard of Groom, Texas. When I got the usual “blast” email with some fantastic photos of statues depicting the various events in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, my first thought was, “if true, maybe this is a Sunday offering.” True. A Google search turned up dozens if not hundreds of links about this amazing offering near a small town of a little under 600 people about 50 miles from Amarillo. It is located on Interstate 40 (what used... read more

Heritage Foundation...Morning Bell: 5 Things to Know About the Obama Budget, By Amy Payne
April 11, 2013 – President Obama finally released his budget yesterday—more than two months late. Heritage experts immediately went to work analyzing the mounds of new spending on education, manufacturing, “clean energy,” infrastructure, and small business.
But the President didn’t stop at more of the same failed stimulus and Solyndra-type policies. He also piled on the tax increases —including on seniors, the poor, and the middle class.Five key things to know about President Obama’s budget: 1. It ... read more

PolitiChicks...Bye, Bye Sheriffs: Colorado Redefines the Police State, By Elizabeth Hermesch
April 9, 2013–According to the book They Fired the First Shot, “Sheriffs across our nation are standing up against tyranny and are winning their battles without violence, without protests, without lawsuits. How? Because constitutional power is clear as to who holds the final authority in local areas. Not the President of the United States, not Congress, not the Supreme Court, but the local Sheriff holds the authority and he is fast becoming the hero of the ... read more

Columbus Dispatch… Obama’s non-recovery, Now in his second term, president can’t dodge responsibility
Wednesday April 10, 2013 - Last week’s worse-than-expected U.S. jobs report gave even supporters of Barack Obama pause. Could it finally be that those who gave him a pass on the economy throughout his entire first term, arguing that he had inherited an unprecedented challenge, are beginning to see that it’s time to start holding this second-term president responsible for an economy that keeps shedding workers and hope? Four years and four months into the Obama administration, he clearly ... read more

Townhall… Government Plays Favorites, By John Stossel
Apr 10, 2013 - People say government must "help the little guy, promote equality, level the playing field." People often go into government to do that. But even when people mean well, it's natural for them to help out their cronies. David Stockman, who ran the Office of Management and Budget under Ronald Reagan, was criticized for saying the government's budget numbers didn't add up. But he was right. Now, in his book "The Great Deformation,"... read more

National Review… Why There’s a Backlash against Common Core, By Lindsey M. Burke
Decisions about standards should be made at the state and local level. April 8, 2013 - The federal government has spent billions to move Common Core forward, and it has put billions more on the line. Unfortunately, parents, teachers, tea-party activists, and governors have every reason to believe Common Core represents major, unprecedented federal intervention into education. In a speech to the National Governor’s Association in 2010, President Obama stated... read more

Heritage Foundation… School Choice Blooming this Spring, By Rachel Sheffield
April 2, 2013 - School choice is making headlines in multiple states this spring. Several have approved or are considering proposals to expand educational opportunity for families. Texas is going bold by introducing multiple school choice proposals. Heritage’s Lindsey Burke explains that these include: an elimination of the cap on charter schools (only 215 are currently allowed to operate), creation of special needs scholarships to allow... read more

Townhall… Jobs Numbers Demystified, By Andrew Puzder
Apr 05, 2013 - Editor's note: This piece was co-authored by Michael Talent. Trying to figure out what the “official” unemployment rate means can be very frustrating. Much of what we hear is complex and counter intuitive. The numbers seem inconsistent with what people are experiencing and many people are simply losing interest. We hear about growth in the non-institutional population, a decline in the labor participation rate, people who are unemployed and want a job not being counted as unemployed... read more

Townhall… What Has Happened to Liberal Education? By Linda Chavez
Apr 05, 2013 - Liberal education once stood for something grand and good: the study of the arts, humanities and sciences with the aim of improving the mind through the acquisition of knowledge and the pursuit of truth. But some of America's most elite colleges and universities have all but abandoned this goal. Instead, many selective schools favor the faddish, the politically correct and the dogmatic, all the while proclaiming their devotion to promoting "critical... read more

Another Subprime Idea from Obama, by Diane Katz
The Obama Administration is reportedly pushing banks to increase mortgage lending to people with relatively weak credit in hopes of boosting home sales. But the very same policy under Presidents Clinton and Bush contributed mightily to the housing bubble that ultimately devastated millions of families in mortgage default. Credit is indeed tight—a predicament that’s exacerbated by the President’s tax and regulatory policies. Reforms to those policies are needed to prompt housing-sector growth... read more

Townhall… Small Cities in Small Counties, by Rich Galen
Apr 05, 2013 - From Marietta, Ohio 45750 - The Washington County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner - I love county-level political events. Unlike major Washington, DC-based events or national political conventions, the people who come to Lincoln Day (on the GOP side) or Jefferson-Jackson Day (for the Dems) dinners, or county picnics during the summer, or participate in parades are the people who are truly the backbone of American politics... read more

Energy Tomorrow...Tale of Three Shale States, By Mark Green
Apr. 4, 2013 - Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York. Three states blessed with vast shale resources, three stories: Pennsylvania The shale natural gas revolution has revolutionized the state’s economy. A recent IHS report: The adoption of hydraulic fracturing in Pennsylvania was the main driver of double digit job growth in Pennsylvania in 2010 and 2011, providing a bulwark against deep recession at a time when many other sectors of the state economy were struggling. In terms of jobs: The economic ... read more

Mail Magazine 24...What Immigration Reform Must Do, By Amy Payne
Immigration is a difficult issue—there’s no getting around that. How do we encourage and improve lawful immigration, while deterring unlawful immigration? David Addington, head of Heritage’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, takes on this question just as the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” nears a deal on a new bill. He writes: The U.S. should reform its immigration system through a careful, step-by-step process that welcomes lawful... read more

Fox News… ObamaCare in Trouble? Exchange provision delayed, as lawmakers push to repeal another, By Jim Angle
April 03, 2013 - Parts of ObamaCare are starting to fray, even before full implementation. The Obama administration now says a special system of exchanges designed to make it easier for small businesses to provide insurance will be delayed an entire year -- to 2015. "Lots of small businesses struggle with providing insurance for their workers so this was supposed to facilitate it and make it easier for small business to do this," said Jim Capretta of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. "It was a huge portion... read more

Kids & Their Pets… Kids… You gotta love it! From a CNO Reader
If you have been around kids for any length of time, you have come to understand that there is very little they do that will or can surprise you. Their imagination, ingenuity and ability to move you in various ways seems limitless. Consequently, their creativity when it comes to playing with their best friends… the family pet… should also come as no surprise. The photos you see will be a special treat not only for folks who love kids, but for those... read more

Mail Magazine 24...Study: Waste Could Fund up to 45,000 Years of White House Tours, by Celia Bigelow
A study from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) shows the federal government's needless spending and costly regulations waste over $42 billion dollars–enough to fund up to 45,000 years of White House tours. After the White House announced that its public tours would be one of the first government functions to be shut down due to the budget sequester's slowdown of spending increases, conservatives have highlighted government spending on inconsequential projects... read more

The Heritage Foundation...Jim DeMint: My First Day as Heritage's President
Today is my first full day as president of The Heritage Foundation, and the first thing I want to do is thank my predecessor Ed Feulner for the institution he has built over the past 36 years. The second thing I will do is tell you that we will not change the boundless optimism and pride in our country you’ve come to expect from Heritage—or our commitment to make sure America remains a beacon of freedom to the world. Heritage has always believed the values that... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Obama Ignores 85,933 Ideas to Save Money, by T. Elliot Gaiser
President Obama asked federal workers to suggest ways for the federal government to save money, and American citizens responded – with 86,000 suggestions. But his administration picked only 67 of those ideas, most of which are either minute or simply take credit for savings that have already been implemented, according to Washington Post reporter David A. Fahrenthold. The Obama administration created the online comment box in 2009. Sixteen ideas have been given a presidential SAVE award ... read more

The Children’s Bible… Judas Asparagus, From a CNO Reader
This is amazing and should bring tears of laughter to your eyes. I wonder how often we take for granted that children understand what we are teaching? A child was asked to write a book report on the entire Bible. Here is what was written: The Children's Bible in A Nutshell In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God, darkness, and some gas. The Bible Says,'The Lord thy God is one,' but I think He must be a lot older... read more

Heritage Foundation… The Arms Trade Treaty, Week Two: As the U.N. Talks, the Senate Acts
by Ted R. Bromund, Ph.D. - March 26, 2013 - At the United Nations, review continues of the latest draft of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) that was unveiled on Friday. The temperature of the conference is notably lower now, and there is a renewed sense that Thursday is likely to bring agreement on a treaty. True, the Arabs and others continue to issue demands, and the U.S. is still locked in a struggle with a group of over 100 nations that want a perfect treaty, but this week’s speeches seem less strident... read more

Townhall Finance… DC Misses Another Layup, by John Ransom
First the bad news: In a basketball shoot around witnessed by reporters Obama missed 20 of 22 shots including a layup. On the brighter side, North Korea is restarting its shuttered nuclear facility in order to process weapons grade nuclear material to target the US; the Cyprus contagion has not abated, but seems to be spreading; factory orders fell in the US and Europe; and unemployment remains little changed-- except for all those people who stopped looking... read more

Wall Street Journal… Laffer and Moore: The Red-State Path to Prosperity
Blue states with high taxes are struggling to compete for businesses and workers. - By Arthur B. Laffer & Stephen Moore - You can tell a lot about prosperity in America by observing the places people are moving to and where they are packing up and moving from. New Census Bureau data on metropolitan areas indicate that the South and the Sunbelt regions continue to grow, while the Northeast and Midwest continue to shrink. Among the 10 fastest-growing metro areas last year were Raleigh, Austin, Las Vegas... read more

Townhall Finance… IRS knowingly sends Billions in Fraudulent Refunds to Illegal Immigrants
by Bob Beauprez - A WTHR-TV Indianapolis investigative report exposes a fraudulent scheme wherein the IRS is sending $4.2 billion per year to illegal immigrants as an "additional child tax credit" for children who don't even live in the U.S. Further, the IRS and Congress have been ignoring the scheme for years. The Inspector General's office has repeatedly identified the problem in audit after audit. The IG, Russell George says, "The magnitude of... read more

International Liberty… Another Victory for Good Fiscal Policy, by Dan Mitchell
March 29, 2013 - Because I’ve been sharing good news recently – which definitely is not my normal style, I joked the other day I must be on coke, in love, or rolling in money. For example: The fiscal cliff was a smaller loss than I expected. The sequester was a real victory. We have good evidence that the Tea Party has made a positive difference. The Democratic-controlled Senate rejected a permanent expansion of funds for the IMF. The burden of government fiscal policy has been reduced since the 2010... read more

Townhall… Politics Ain't Beanbag, by Rich Galen
Mar 29, 2013 - Among the many very nice comments I got for Wednesday's MULLINGS (Our Talking Points Society) was a reader who asked (in essence) "If Fox News Channel is so far ahead of MSNBC and CNN why did the GOP lose the Presidential election last Fall?" The answer is: The number of people who watch cable news is a tiny percentage of the voting population. According to TVNewser.com the total number of people who tuned into any of the... read more

Mail Magazine 24...Detroit's financial debacle holds lessons, by Star Parker
We are now hearing the usual voices of protest in Detroit in the wake of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder appointing an outside expert to take over financial management of the near-bankrupt city. Detroit is the largest city in American history to be seized in this fashion and turned over to an outside manager. The city's reported deficit is $327 million and long-term liabilities are in the range of $14 billion. But no matter to the unions, politicians and bureaucrats... read more

Heritage Foundation...Morning Bell: Revealing What States Are Hiding, By Amy Payne
March 26, 2013 - How much are we spending on education? Actually, far more than we know—because as it turns out, states are hiding some of the teachers’ benefits. In a new paper, Heritage expert Jason Richwine reveals that “Proper accounting would reveal tens of billions of dollars in extra teacher pension costs, equivalent to somewhere around $1,000 in unreported spending per student.”
That’s right—the real cost of education is far higher than we’ve been told, but it’s not because of extra classroom... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Joe Biden on Gun Control: ‘Let Me Say This as Clearly as I Can, This Is Just the Beginning’
by Jason Howerton - Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday the expected upcoming Senate votes on gun control are only the beginning of the White House’s fight strengthen gun laws. During a conference call organized by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Biden assured supporters that the push gun control would not end with the current proposed bill, saying, “Let me say this... read more

Mail Magazine 24...Paul, Cruz, Lee to Block Gun Control Legislation, by Mike Flynn
Sens. Paul, Cruz and Lee have signaled that they will block the Senate from moving to any consideration of gun control legislation. On Monday, the three Senators sent a letter to Majority Leader Reid which read in part, “We will oppose the motion to proceed to any legislation that will serve as a vehicle for any additional gun restrictions.” It is further confirmation that the three are providing the only opposition to Obama's big-government agenda. Majority Leader Reid has orchestrated the gun legislation to... read more

The Independent Institute… The Anatomy of Climate Science Hype, by S. Fred Singer
A NY Times science story (by Justin Gillis, March 1) illustrates some interesting points about science journalism–especially in the contentious and politically charged issue of climate change. A scientific journal, in this case the renowned Science magazine, wants to gain publicity for its journal among the non-scientific readers of the NY Times. So it sends out a press release about a scientific paper it plans to publish. Of course, it has been “peer-reviewed” to the satisfaction of the Science editor, but it... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: The Marriage Debate Through a Child’s Eyes
by Jennifer Marshall - March 25, 2013 - Earlier this month, 11-year-old Grace Evans appeared before a panel of Minnesota lawmakers considering a redefinition of marriage in that state. She testified to the significance of her mother and father and the different contributions each makes to her life. Then she ended with a simple question: “Which parent do I not need, my mom, or my dad?” It’s a question proponents of same-sex .... read more

The New American… Under ObamaCare, It’s Quit Smoking or Pay the Price — Literally, by Michael Tennant
Smokers who thought they were getting a sweet deal from ObamaCare may want to think twice before lighting up again. According to the Associated Press, one of the many well-concealed provisions of the bill that then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Congress had to pass “so that you can find out what’s in it” could make health insurance cost up to 50 percent more for Americans with cigarette habits — especially longstanding ones. The law, known as the Patient Protection and... read more

Youngstown News… DeWine takes evidence in Steubenville case to next level
Wed, March 20, 2013 - The state attorney general’s office would not normally become involved in prosecuting a rape case in juvenile court. But the case involving the assault of a 16-year-old West Virginia girl by two Steubenville football players stopped being a normal case within hours of the crime. An image of an apparently unconscious girl being carried hand-and-foot by the boys accused of raping her became an electronic trading card. A sickening video... read more

Townhall Finance… Endangered: The Constitution, by Mark Baisley
This article is the first in a series on the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution. My purpose in posting this exposé is to do my part in calling Americans back to their spawning grounds of liberty. Based on recent trends, I fear that if we don’t frequent our founding principles then Ronald Reagan’s warning could be realized, that “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction." The primary motivation for constructing a Bill of Rights was citizen apprehension over the formation of a... read more

Redstate… The Most Important Week in Human History, By Erick Erickson
March 25th, 2013 - There are many candidates for most important day and most important week in human history. This week we remember what is arguably the very top of the top of the list. As secularism increases in the western world, more and more are dismissive of the reality of Jesus Christ. Consequently, they may choose to dismiss the importance of this week. That’s narrow minded Christophobic thinking from some seriously self-centered individuals... read more

Redstate… The Marketplace Fairness Act is More Unfair Than Status Quo, By Daniel Horowitz
March 18th, 2013 - The advent of the internet has simplified life for millions of consumers in this country. But for state governments, many of which are hungry for more tax revenue to purvey their rapacious welfare states, e-commerce has complicated their ability to collect all sales taxes owed to the state – at least without directly taxing the consumer, something the statists are too scared to do. Most states have been collecting sales taxes for over 50 years – long before the internet was invented. The tax was... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Rand Paul Unveils Amnesty/Non-Amnesty Plan, by Daniel Greenfield
According to all the headlines, Rand Paul’s speech was supposed to unveil a “path to citizenship”. The actual speech is vague on that, emphasizing work visas, but also using phrasing like “12 million more people assimilating into society” that suggests something more permanent is on the table. (UPDATE: Yes, there is a path to citizenship/Amnesty but it takes longer.) Click link below. Paul’s people are claiming that he doesn’t actually mean a path to... read more

Investors.com...DHS Won't Answer Congress On Billion Bullet Purchase
Bullet Buys: Fifteen members of Congress have written a letter to the Department of Homeland Security demanding to know why the federal agency is buying so many rounds of ammunition. We'd like to know too. Freshman California Republican Doug LaMalfa and 14 of his House colleagues, who signed on to his March 5 letter, are asking the Department of Homeland Security to explain why it is buying 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition of various calibers. They aren't happy with explanations provided so far in the... read more

Columbus Dispatch… Tax reform under attack; Special interests unite to preserve their unjustified exemptions
Friday March 22, 2013 - The parade of interest groups predicting dire consequences from Gov. John Kasich’s proposed sales-tax changes is to be expected, but that doesn’t make the critics right. The proposed reforms, part of the budget bill Kasich has submitted, are sound tax policy: moving toward taxing consumption rather than income, thereby encouraging savings and investment. Because a separate tax proposal in the budget would lower state income taxes, the combined effect would... read more

Townhall...A Health Care Solution, By Mona Charen
Mar 22, 2013 - In my last column, I argued that for all the undeniable woes of the Republican Party, the unfurling of Obamacare represents a huge vulnerability for Democrats. The Democratic health reform bill is economically nonsensical and politically unpopular. A recent Rasmussen poll found that 54 percent believe the law will damage the U.S. health care system. Even among Democrats, support for the law is ebbing. In February, a Kaiser... read more

Investors.com...Progressive Democrat Control Came Via Welfare State Voters, By John F. Gaski
03/20/2013 - One other pillar of the liberal Democrats' systematic takeover genuinely was a conscious conspiracy — no conspiracy theory — and has even received belated recognition recently. If you are old enough, you can remember Democrats such as Ted Kennedy, in their rare candid moments, rhapsodizing that someday, when they could get 50% of the U.S. population plus one receiving a government check of some kind, they would never again lose a national election! The notorious but true... read more

Washington Post...Steubenville, the media and ‘rape, essentially’, Posted by Melinda Henneberger
March 18, 2013 - Without social media — and irrefutable video evidence helpfully provided by the proud young perps themselves — it’s fair to wonder whether the two Steubenville high school football players found guilty Sunday of raping an unconscious 16-year-old would ever have even been charged. Twitter and YouTube were weapons turned against the victim when a 12-minute party video of her — showing her passed out and naked, being violated and urinated on — was widely shared and, judging from the... read more

Common Dreams...No More Steubenvilles: How To Raise Boys to be Kind Men, by Kim Simon
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 by YES! Magazine - What can we do to help young men respect women, recognize consent, and have healthy sexual relationships? Teach them kindness to others—and the courage to go against the crowd. When Max was just a few months old, I sat cross-legged on the floor with him in a circle of other mothers. The facilitator for our “Mommy and Me” playgroup would throw a question out to the group, and we would each volley back... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Conservative leader says GOP must broaden appeal, by Ken Thomas
As the GOP struggles to broaden its appeal, the head of the American Conservative Union declared Thursday that the Republican Party is not a home for everyone, as prominent voices in Republican politics gather with thousands of conservatives and tea party activists outside Washington. The Conservative Political Action Conference offers Republican leaders — past and potential presidential contenders among them — a high-profile stage to court their party’s most passionate voters. The... read more

Townhall… Gifted Hands, By Thomas Sowell
Mar 19, 2013 - A remarkable book titled Gifted Hands tells the personal story of Benjamin Carson, a black kid from the Detroit ghetto who went on to become a renowned neurosurgeon. At one time young Ben Carson had the lowest grades in his middle school class, and was the butt of teasing by his white classmates. Worse yet, he himself believed that he was just not smart enough to do the work. Fortunately for him, his mother, whose own education went no... read more

Mail Magazine 24… House vs. Senate Budget: What a Balanced Budget Looks Like, by Romina Boccia
This week, the budget committees of both chambers of Congress released their budgets ahead of President Obama’s budget—marking the first time in 92 years that Congress kicked off the budget process instead of the President. The House budget, under the helm of Chairman Paul Ryan (R–WI), delivers a balanced budget in 10 years by slowing the annual growth in federal spending from a projected 5 percent to 3.4 percent. The budget focuses on reducing spending by addressing the... read more

Townhall… Smoke Gets in Your Rights, By Debra J. Saunders
Mar 17, 2013 - California Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, has introduced a bill to make it illegal for people to smoke in their own homes -- if they live in an apartment or a condo or a multifamily home. When last I wrote about Levine, he was pushing a statewide law to require grocers to charge for bags. Now he's after cigarettes -- but only the legal kind. With his new AB 746, Levine is following a trail blazed by New York Mayor Michael... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: What We Still Don’t Know About Benghazi, by Amy Payne
March 14, 2013 - Yesterday, President Obama nominated a new ambassador to Libya to succeed Christopher Stevens, who was killed in the terrorist attack in Benghazi last September 11. Six months after that attack—and two federal investigations later—we still have an alarmingly small amount of information about it. The Obama Administration made quite a mess in the media with its conflicting accounts of the attack, originally blaming a controversial YouTube video for sparking protests abroad... read more

Better Roads… Getting the Job Done Right, By Kirk Landers, Editor Emeritus
Some people just know how to sell. In mid-December, Ohio governor John R. Kasich and the leaders of Ohio’s Department of Transportation and Turnpike Authority announced that the state would raise $3 billion for roads without leasing the Ohio Turnpike to a private vendor and without laying off Turnpike employees. Hailed as the Ohio Jobs and Transportation Plan, the new initiative called for raising $1.5 billion through bonds issued by the... read more

Investors.com...An Order From Obama Puts Another Boot On The Economy
Anti-Industry: The president reportedly will tell federal agencies they can't approve major projects until their impact on global warming has been weighed. Why halt commerce in an economy in dire need of more? According to Bloomberg media, "President Barack Obama is preparing to tell all federal agencies for the first time that they should consider the impact on global warming before approving major projects, from pipelines to highways." Bloomberg says Obama plans to "expand the scope of a... read more

Redstate… Obamacare Will Not Crumble Without a Government Shutdown; Republicans Must Move Beyond Rhetorical Maginot Lines, By Erick Erickson
March 14th, 2013 - There are many naive fools who think Obamacare will crumble under its own weight.History shows us that government entitlements never crumble under their own weight. Rather, countries crumble under the weight of those entitlements.“[Republicans] speak against Obamacare building rhetorical Maginot lines that they... read more

Washington Times… An open letter to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, By Norb Ryan Jr.
The truth about military personnel costs - Monday, March 11, 2013 - Dear Secretary Hagel, As a former soldier and senator, you are well-prepared for what you might encounter as you begin your new job. It won’t be easy, and the hardest part will be separating fact from fiction to make the best decisions. Here is some advice. The most important thing you can do is challenge the “experts” who use misleading rhetoric and statistics to sway you toward their conclusions... read more

Online MBA… The Business of Guns; Guns a huge economic industry in the country, By Amy Clark
It may not surprise you to hear that the U.S. is the number one country in the world when it comes to gun ownership. But regardless of your politics, between the manufacture and sale of firearms, guns are one of the biggest economic industries in the country. In fact, the gun industry makes about $32 billion a year and employs approximately 98,000 people. This is five times as many employees as Google, and $10 billion more in revenue than Ford... read more

Akron Beacon Journal... Why Kasich is right on Medicaid, by Laura Ofobike
Thursday, March 14, 2013 - John Kasich may or may not prevail in what is becoming internecine warfare in the Ohio Republican camp regarding health insurance. The governor decided, after much studying and thinking, that it would be in the state’s best interest to extend Medicaid so that Ohioans who are not insured can benefit from federal funding offered through the Affordable Care Act. To make that happen, Kasich will need the Ohio General Assembly, which is dominated in both chambers by his... read more

Townhall... Abusing Due Process, by Mike Adams
Mar 11, 2013 - Totalitarianism is brewing in the heartland. An Indiana inmate is now serving two years for voicing his online opinions against a judge who took away his child-custody rights during a divorce case. I know the custody case pretty well having written about it in 2009. But I'm convinced that the free speech case that is brewing in its aftermath heaps an even greater injustice upon an existing one. And I'm convinced it is showing the darker side of... read more

Columbus Dispatch… Support the fracking tax
Severance-tax plan would help all without harming competitiveness - Wednesday March 13, 2013 - For all the work Ohio leaders are doing to attract economic development to the state, one of the biggest opportunities for job creation already is here, underfoot. Members of the legislature should work with Gov. John Kasich to implement a reasonable and fair tax on oil and natural-gas extraction to help ensure that development of the state’s natural resources benefits all Ohioans rather than simply... read more

Townhall… Frack to the Future, by John Stossel
Celebrities are now upset about fracking, the injection of chemicals into the ground to crack rocks to release oil and gas. With everyone saying they want alternatives to foreign oil, I'd think celebrities would love fracking. I'd be wrong. Lady Gaga, Yoko Ono and their group, Artists Against Fracking, don't feel the love. Yoko sang, "Don't frack me!" on TV. Stopping fracking is the latest cause of the silly people. They succeeded in getting scientifically ignorant... read more

Pew Research Center… Twitter Reaction to Events Often at Odds with Overall Public Opinion
The reaction on Twitter to major political events and policy decisions often differs a great deal from public opinion as measured by surveys. This is the conclusion of a year-long Pew Research Center study that compared the results of national polls to the tone of tweets in response to eight major news events, including the outcome of the presidential election, the first presidential debate and major speeches by Barack Obama. At times the Twitter conversation is more liberal than survey responses... read more

Townhall… Deaf Dialogue on Drones, by Steve Chapman
Mar 10, 2013 - A famous book on negotiation is called "Getting to Yes." Sometimes, though, the better achievement is arriving at "no." That's what Eric Holder and Rand Paul did the other day. It came in a letter from the attorney general to the Republican senator from Kentucky, which said: "It has come to my attention that you have now asked an additional question: 'Does the President have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not... read more

Verities & Balderdash...Words of Wisdom, From a CNO Reader
I remember receiving this years ago… checked out a couple of them, but not all. In my opinion, it really makes no difference who gets the credit for saying it. They are “Real Truths”… real “Words of Wisdom.” You might want to take note of the comment by the CNO Reader when he sent it. He said… “This is more information than a person’s mind can absorb in one reading…” REAL TRUTHS 1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Prof forces students to lobby government to ban soda
by Robby Soave - If students want to pass John Banzhaf’s law class, they’ll have to fight for increased government regulation in the food and beverages industry. Banzhaf, a law professor at George Washington University, will require his students to lobby state and local governments to ban sugary beverages, according to a press release. The release was put out by Banzhaf himself, who summarized the objective as “Undergrads Required to Lobby for Obama Policy.” “Some 200 undergrads... 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...read more

Mail Magazine 24… Republican Congressman From Virginia Joins Democrats In Calling for Gun Control
By Eric Odom - The nation is quickly beginning to find out what Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell is all about. McDonnell campaigned on promises to hold strong on taxes, only to turn around and provoke the largest tax hike in Virginia history. Now McDonnell is seeking an internet tax as well, adding salt to a deep wound across his home state. The betrayal doesn’t stop at the Governor’s office, though. In fact, Virginia Beach area Congressman Scott Rigell is in on the game as well. Here’s a... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: Busting 5 Myths About the Minimum Wage
By Amy Payne - March 5, 2013 - When someone says “minimum wage,” what comes to mind? Do you think of teenagers flipping burgers? Or a single parent trying to feed several kids? While President Obama and other proponents of a higher minimum wage want you to visualize that single parent, the truth is that a burger-flipping teenager or college student with a part-time job paints a much more accurate picture of the minimum wage in America. In his State of the Union address, President... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Oil and Gas Production Decline on Federal Lands . . . Again
“I’m proud of the fact that under my administration, oil production is higher than it has been in a decade or more. President Obama, February 20, 2013 - When President Obama claims responsibility for the increase in oil and natural gas production in the United States, it is important to know that he is referencing the energy miracle that is occurring on private and state lands, where his Administration has little or no say over what happens. In fact, the United States is the largest natural gas producer... read more

Redstate… Today, House Conservatives Will Prove They Are the Problem, By Erick Erickson
March 6th, 2013 - Yesterday, the White House announced it would stop White House tours in response to sequestration. Congressman Louie Gohmert of Texas responded by offering an amendment to the pending continuing resolution that would prohibit federal dollars spent to cover the costs of President Obama’s golf games. Speaker John Boehner and the Republican Leaders ruled that Congressman Gohmert’s amendment was not relevant to the continuing... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Chicago public schools will start sex education in kindergarten, by Eric Owens
The dismally low graduation rate for students who attend Chicago Public Schools is barely over 60 percent – substantially lower than the national rate of roughly 75 percent. Nevertheless, citizens of the Second City will surely take heart, because the Chicago Board of Education just passed a new policy that requires sex education to begin in kindergarten. The new policy, which was passed on Wednesday, according to ABC News, is part of a broader makeover of the school district’s sexual health program... read more

Townhall Finance… America's Fiscal Stupidity Mirrors Detroit, by John Ransom
It’s fitting that on the day Washington, DC is cutting the budget by an agreement that they really didn’t mean, that the city of Detroit will finally get what it has needed for a long time: declaration of fiscal disaster. Michigan’s Rick Snyder has appointed an emergency city manager to do for Detroit what Obama, Biden, the UAW, GM, Chrysler, the city’s council and mayor have not been able to even do with a $80 billion bailout of the automotive industry... read more

Stand Up for America; If They Come for Your Guns… Dean Garrison
January 15, 2013 - In case you have not seen it, a blogger named Dean Garrison wrote a terrific article on what responsibilities we have as patriotic Americans who actually support and defend the Constitution upon which we are founded. His article has gone viral and we hope it goes further. In addition to the article, we want to add some understanding to further bolster his well written and clear thinking piece. The addition concerns wording in the second amendment that most people today do not fully.... read more

Mail Magazine 24…Three steps: How the Dems plan to make Texas a battleground state by 2016
By Christopher Bedford - On Tuesday morning, the Democrats launched an independent group called Battleground Texas, which is capable of making the Lone Star state a battleground by 2016 and a lean-Democrat state by 2024, effectively breaking the back of the national GOP and blocking a Republican path to the White House. Yes — that Texas: The state that has not elected a single statewide.... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Is Leftist School Indoctrination Unstoppable? by Bruce Thornton
Rush Limbaugh weighed in recently on the Republicans’ on-going debate about what went wrong in November. Elaborating on his earlier comment that he was “ashamed of America,” Limbaugh said, “The Left has beaten us. They have created far more low-information, unaware, uneducated people than we’ve been able to keep up with . . . I’ve always had a Civics 101 view of the country: People get what they want, they vote what they want, and they get the way they vote.” He added... read more

The Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: Obama’s Sequester Smokescreen, By Jim DeMint
March 1, 2013 at 5:30 am- Suppose you desperately needed to lose weight but had a Big Mac with fries and a Coke staring you in the face. You could take your need to diet seriously and say, “No thanks, I’ll have a salad.” Or you could decide to reduce the Big Mac meal by 2 percent—pushing aside a couple French fries and gobbling up the rest. If you took Option B, how do you think that “diet” would work out for you? Well, that, my friends, is the tale of the sequester that hit us this morning... read more

Verities & Balderdash… How do you Decide Who to Marry? (Written by kids), From a Reader
HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY? You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming. -- Alan, age 10. No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with. -- Kristen, age 10 WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED... read more

Investors.com… VA Unconstitutionally Tries To Disarm Veterans
Guns: Veterans who bore arms to defend their country are receiving letters that they may be declared mentally incompetent and have their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms stripped from them. Welcome home. The contempt by the Obama administration for our Constitution and our rights has reached a new low with news the Veterans Administration has begun sending letters to veterans telling them they will be declared mentally incompetent and stripped of the Second Amendment... read more

PEW Charitable Trusts… Supreme Court to Weigh States’ Rights vs. Voting Rights, By Jake Grovum
When the Supreme Court hears arguments Wednesday (February 27) in a direct challenge to a central part of the Voting Rights Act, it will once again wade into a decades-old dispute over voting rights that has its roots in the country’s long history of racism. But in asking whether a key part of the federal law is constitutional, the court also will reopen a debate that long predates the measure’s enactment in 1965. It’s an argument that was at the heart of the U.S. Civil War, and one that has seen resurgence... read more

Cleveland Plain Dealer… Kasich's school funding proposal puts Ohio on the right path, By Thomas W. Johnson
February 24, 2013 - Ohio has once again started the journey to develop a new way of funding our local school districts -- a journey our state has started several times but never quite finished. This time, I believe Gov. John Kasich is bringing this journey toward the end and that his new school funding and reform plan holds great promise for providing every student's school with the resources they need to succeed. As a former state budget director for seven years and state representative from... read more

The You Know What Rolls Down the Hill, By Mona Lease
From Washington, DC - 2/26/2012 - U.S. Representative John Boehner says - "Over the past 10 years, more than $100 million in EPA grants went to foreign countries. Our IRS spends 4 million dollars a years to operate it's own full service television studio." Our President Obama, now wants an additional $400 million in tax hikes. The national debt is said to be $52,000 per person. Obama is, at this time, traveling through the USA, trying to get the populace to... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Integrity Matters In Democracy, by Allen B. West
The topic for this week’s installment of the Next Generation weekly update is a simple word – integritas. Yes, that Latin word means exactly what you think it means – integrity – and I pulled down this explanation of integrity from Wikipedia: Integrity is a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations and outcomes. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions. Integrity can be regarded as the opposite of hypocrisy, in that... read more

Federal News Radio… Mike Causey's Federal Report, By Mike Causey
Tuesday - 2/26/2013 - Here's an e-mail I got last Thursday from a friend. She's from the metro Washington area but currently is working on a humanitarian project in one of the poorest spots on the planet. She asked: "So, how is the sequester going? Guess D.C. is in turmoil. For me, no problem. All I am doing is working for kids who don't have shoes. Or food!" Gulp! Meantime, back in the US of A we still have (at least) the rest of the week to... read more

Townhall… The Big Con, by Bill O'Reilly
Feb 23, 2013 - Please listen up. We are all being conned by the Obama administration. This year, the American taxpayer will fork over about $571 billion to pay for educating children in the nation's public schools. All told, the country spends close to $16,000 per student every year on primary through college education. That's the highest per-student spending rate in the world. However, according to President Obama, it's not enough. He wants more tax dollars, especially for "early education." He said so... read more

Townhall… Higher Education, R.I.P., by Paul Greenberg
Feb 23, 2013 - What ever happened to the medium once known as Little Magazines? This country once had a select group of literary and political journals that represented the vanguard of American thought and art. Some were both literary and political. High Culture, it was called when there was still such a thing. For example, the old and much-missed Partisan Review. Its first issue as an independent journal in 1937 included Delmore Schwartz's short story, "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities," a... read more

Heritage Foundation… Why a Car Commercial Can Make You Cry, By Amy Payne
February 21, 2013 - Is there a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces in your life? If so, tears likely came to your eyes when you saw Jeep’s Super Bowl commercial. Oprah Winfrey’s voice-over was a moving tribute to those who fight for us: “In your home, in our hearts—you’ve been missed. You’ve been needed. You’ve been cried for, prayed for.” For those of us who have had loved ones in harm’s way in Iraq, Afghanistan, or other overseas bases in the past few years, the ad acknowledged that desire... read more

Verities & Balderdash… Your House, From a CNO Reader
I couldn’t resist. Not too often do I get a big grin after a long day that started at 3:30 or 4 a.m., but this one managed it. If you’ve ever owned a house, wanted to buy one or sell one, or just went window shopping, it might be advisable to note the different perspectives of the Traditional American Dream. According to the reader who sent it, there is more truth here than fiction. Ideal for a Verities & Balderdash... read more

Politico… Obama, the puppet master, By Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen
2/18/13 - President Barack Obama is a master at limiting, shaping and manipulating media coverage of himself and his White House. Not for the reason that conservatives suspect: namely, that a liberal press willingly and eagerly allows itself to get manipulated. Instead, the mastery mostly flows from a White House that has taken old tricks for shaping coverage (staged leaks, friendly interviews) and put them on steroids using new ones (social media, content creation, precision targeting). And it’s... read more

Townhall… GOP Has Trouble Settling on Candidates Who Can Win, by Michael Barone
Feb 21, 2013 - One of the interesting things about recent elections is that Republicans have tended to do better the farther you go down the ballot. They've lost the presidency twice in a row, and in four of the last six contests. They've failed to win a majority in the U.S. Senate, something they accomplished in five election cycles between 1994 and 2006. But they have won control of the House of Representatives in the last two elections, and in eight... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Hopeless: Job Corps Slams Door on 30,000 Young Adults, by Tony Lee
President Barack Obama campaigned last week to promote his plans for job training and job creation that he claimed would expand the country's middle class, fully aware that the Job Corps program had suspended enrollment in January due to gross bureaucratic mismanagement of the country's largest job-training program for low-income youths, particularly African Americans. The freeze started in January and is expected to last until June 30. That did not stop Obama from making lofty promises in his ... read more

Mail Magazine 24… The Problem With Liberalism Is That Eventually You Run Out Of Other People's Money!, by Frank Hill
People under the age of 40 in America probably know very little about Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of England. You should. She said a lot of things like the title of this posting that made sense, especially when it came to government debt, over-spending and high taxes. All of which those of you under the age of 40 are ... read more

WND Exclusive… Texas Preps for Going it Alone, by Bob Unruh
Proposal considers collapse of U.S. and how Lone Star state would survive - Texas was its own nation before joining the United States, and many jokes have been made about some Texans still not recognizing that “other government” with which it now is affiliated. But lawmakers there are drawing attention by considering a law that would have Texas review how it would respond should the U.S. government no longer be there to send federal tax revenue back to the state... read more

Townhall… Excuse Me, Your Illogic Is Showing: Orwell’s Vision Emerges In California, by Austin Hill
Feb 17, 2013 - In the 1940’s and 50’s, famed Author George Orwell surmised that both the English language and civilized society were in decline. After a press conference held last week by Emeryville, California Police Chief Ken James, it’s easy to see a decline in both language and critical thinking skills in our country. And as Orwell thought, indeed civilized society may very well be in jeopardy. It happened on February 14th. Taking to the microphones and cameras in his suburban San Francisco... read more

Townhall… God Bless You, Sen. Feinstein, by Debra J. Saunders
Feb 17, 2013 - Sen. Dianne Feinstein began her war on allergy and cold sufferers in 2005. In an effort to prevent small-time dealers from buying allergy and cold drugs and cooking them into methamphetamine, she pushed through legislation requiring consumers to show identification before purchasing products with pseudoephedrine -- otherwise known as the good allergy drugs, known only to those who know enough to ask for them... read more

Akron Beacon Journal… Question of adequacy
February 14, 2013 - For more than 20 years two concepts have dominated the school-funding debate in Ohio: adequacy and equity. Equity points to a distribution issue, the task of evening wide disparities among districts in the money directed to education. Adequacy concerns whether the funding is sufficient to ensure any student, anywhere in Ohio, has access to a competitive standard of education. Perhaps the ultimate test for policymakers is to achieve a balance of equity and adequacy that meets... read more

Townhall… Why Do Societies Give Up? by Victor Davis Hanson
Feb 14, 2013 - Why do once-successful societies ossify and decline? Hundreds of reasons have been adduced for the fall of Rome and the end of the Old Regime in 18th-century France. Reasons run from inflation and excessive spending to resource depletion and enemy invasion, as historians attempt to understand the sudden collapse of the Mycenaeans, the Aztecs and, apparently, the modern Greeks. In literature from Catullus to Edward Gibbon, wealth and... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Does the Republican Party have a future? by Star Parker
The United States, from Day One, was a project about principles and ideals. The superpower that emerged and grew from the handful of colonists that began settling here was not the product of where those colonists happened to land, but of the ideals and principles in their heads and hearts, applied in how they lived their lives. The Republican Party was founded in 1854 to address one great blot on the nation's founding legacy: the existence of slavery in a nation founded under the ideal of... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Obama's Favorite Things! by Ben Shapiro
On Tuesday night, President Obama gave what will go down as one of the most partisan State of the Union Addresses in American history. In consonance with his favorite tactic – citing widespread but nonexistent consensus in order to press for his radical left agenda – Obama led off by linking himself to John F. Kennedy: Fifty-one years ago, John F. Kennedy declared to this Chamber that “the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress…It is my task,” he said, “to report the... read more

Mail Magazine 24… Top Ten Things Republicans Have Failed to Learn from Democrats
by Joel B. Pollak - House Majority Leader Eric Cantor presented a new vision for Republican strategy in the second Obama term today. The Virginia Republican, speaking to the American Enterprise Institute, emphasized that Republicans needed to learn to work with President Barack Obama, and should emphasize policies that improve Americans' lives, while compromising on contentious issues such as citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants. Yet before conveying an eagerness to work with... read more

Townhall… Recycling Old and Failed Ideas, by Cal Thomas
Feb 14, 2013 - President Obama's approach to so-called "climate change" appears to include recycling old ideas. In his State of the Union address, the president recycled the idea of spending more on education, though we are still getting unsatisfactory results. A fact he inadvertently acknowledged by saying we're not keeping up with other countries in science and math. He maintained there are tens of thousands of jobs available but companies can't fill... read more

Heritage Foundation… Morning Bell: Get the Federal Government Out of the Natural Gas Business
By Amy Payne - February 11, 2013 - In North Dakota, people have jobs. That state led the nation in job creation last year, and its unemployment rate is only 3.2 percent (compared to the national rate of 7.9 percent). Why? One word: energy. As Nicolas Loris, Heritage’s Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow, writes in a forthcoming paper: Technological advancements in directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing have led to an abundance of natural gas production in the United States that is fundamentally... read more

Investors.com… The Jihad On Free Speech
Islamofascism: Islamists have launched a hostile takeover of American language through an increasingly aggressive and organized censorship campaign that threatens free speech. Over the past few weeks, there have been an alarming number of cases of Muslim pressure groups trying to force Americans to conform to a pro-Islamic speech code. They've insisted on censoring any speech or expression that offends them, including TV ads, Christian symbols, speeches and even parts of speech. In some... read more

Heritage Foundation… Court Strikes Down EPA Biofuel Mandate
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cannot impose a mandate for a non-existent product and then punish companies for failing to use said non-existent product, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled. That non-existent product? Cellulosic biofuels, a type of ethanol made from non-food sources such as wood chips, switchgrass, and non-edible feedstock. The court ruled that the EPA can set renewable fuel production standards as a means to stimulate economic... read more

Our Political Class… Airline Reservations ~ How Dumb Can They Get?????
And we wonder why nothing gets done in DC - From a CNO Reader - This is priceless funny stuff; but alas, is only a small indication of how much trouble our country is in. God Bless America! A DC airport ticket agent offers some examples of 'why' our country is in trouble: 1. I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window. (On an airplane!) 2. I got a call from a... read more

Investors.com… Krugman: Death Panels and Middle-Class Tax Hikes Ahead
Big Government: We almost never agree with President Obama's favorite economist Paul Krugman, but he recently spoke the truth about where Obama's policies are taking the country. It should scare anyone with a pulse. Krugman, after speaking at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, D.C., was asked about the debt crisis. After arguing it's no big deal in the near term, Krugman admitted that "Eventually we do have a problem. The population is getting older, health care costs are rising... read more

Wall Street Journal… Obama's Thunderdome Strategy, By Daniel Henninger
The president's goal is to make Republican ideas intolerable. Few are the men and women in American public life who haven't heard Mr. Dooley's famous aphorism: "Politics ain't beanbag." John Boehner, currently serving out his community service as speaker of the House, appears to have been meditating on Mr. Dooley's cautionary wisdom. At the Ripon Society last week he said the Obama administration was trying "to annihilate the Republican... read more

Redstate… A Sign Of The Things To Come? Hospital Chain Gives Obama’s NLRB & SEIU The Finger
By LaborUnionReport - February 4th, 2013 - In a move that may become more prevalent among employers–as in epidemic–a California hospital chain is refusing to comply with rulings issued by Barack Obama’s constitutionally-questionable National Labor Relations Board. Since early 2010, Prime Healthcare Services has been the target of a vicious SEIU ‘extortion campaign.’ The SEIU, according to a 2011 press release, began its campaign against Prime Healthcare Services in order to... read more

Heritage Foundation… Taking America from Welfare State to Opportunity Society, By Matthew Spalding, Ph.D.
February 6, 2013 - “I must go to college!” insists eight-year-old Pierre William. Such planning may seem unusual in a second grader. But Pierre is lucky. He’s attending a private school in the District of Columbia using funds from the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. That’s opened his eyes to the possibilities that only a college education can provide. His mother Patricia William says the program has taught her how to be a better parent and to be involved in her children’s education. She insists she’ll... read more

Investors.com… Dear Congress, Please Privatize The Post Office
02/06/2013 - Gov't Monopoly: So the Postal Service's genius plan for saving itself in the face of massive consumer flight is to raise prices and provide worse service. Unfortunately, Congress has left it with no other choice. At the start of the year, the USPS hiked postal rates across the board, and this week it followed up by announcing plans to stop Saturday home delivery. Obviously, something has to be done. Last year, the USPS posted a record $15.9 billion loss, and Postmaster General Patrick... read more

Investors.com… Newtown Shows America The Way To Fight Gun Violence
02/04/2013 - Crime: Education officials in Newtown, Conn., site of the December school massacre that stunned the nation, have requested more armed police officers in schools — exactly the common-sense remedy IBD called for. Last month, in an editorial warning that the Obama administration's gun-control measures won't reduce gun violence, we noted that "sensible proposals for armed security and increased police presence at our schools are off President Obama's agenda." The policymakers ... read more

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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