Our Fearless Misleader

Our Fearless Misleader After more than two weeks of obfuscation and misdirection from the Obama administration, the American public is coming to understand what the U.S. intelligence community learned in the 48 hours immediately following the September 11 attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Among the important new details: HOW DO THEY KEEP A STRAIGHT FACE? SUSAN RICE AND JAY CARNEY. CBS NEWS, CHRIS USHER/CAROLYN KASTER * Top Pentagon officials declared the assault a terrorist attack on “Day One.” Doing so enabled them to expedite any response to the attack (Yahoo! News). * U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials understood right away that the attacks were planned for the eleventh anniversary of 9/11 (THE WEEKLY STANDARD). * Within 24 hours of the attack, “U.S. intelligence agencies had strong indications al Qaeda-affiliated operatives were behind the attack and had even pinpointed the location of one of those attackers” (Daily Beast). * In telephone intercepts of phone calls involving members of Ansar al Sharia, an al Qaeda-linked group in Libya, members “bragged about their successful attack against the American consulate and the U.S. ambassador” (Daily Beast). * U.S. counterterrorism officials had repeatedly warned about the growth of al Qaeda affiliate groups in Libya and noted in particular their relationship to al Qaeda’s central leadership in Pakistan (THE WEEKLY STANDARD). The nature of intelligence collection after an operation like the one in Benghazi means that the narrative of the attack—in both classified and open sources—will change. As intelligence professionals gain access to more data, the picture they can paint becomes fuller and more detailed. And the early narrative of an attack can evolve.

Founding Father Quote

"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have. . . . The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

What Must be done after the election!

At a closed-door meeting last week attended by leaders of the conservative movement, discussions centered around development of a “no excuses” list of big-ticket legislative issues to be addressed in the 113th Congress.

Win or lose, the consensus among both conservatives in Congress and leaders of the movement off Capitol Hill is that a list of high-priority issues needs to be adopted before Congress reconvenes in January that will dictate to Republican Leadership, party moderates—and especially the lobbying community—that excuses for avoiding those items will not be tolerated.

Just what would be included and how the concept would be structured is under discussion and won’t be finalized until after the election. But hard-liners in Congress and an impressive array of leaders within the conservative movement are convinced that without such a list the 113th Congress could slip away, much like the 112th, with little good accomplished.

Many promises have been made by Republicans during the campaign – both by Mitt Romney and congressional candidates – but conservatives are concerned that the “we can’t do that” attitude, so prevalent over the past two years, is being heard from both the House and Senate Leadership, from Republican centrists and the so-called establishment, and by lobbyists and inside Washington hands, and could result in those promises going the way of the wind, as they so often do. Conservatives have no illusions about the persuasive abilities of the GOP Congressional Leadership – specifically House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – who all will throw bones to the right wing of the Party while maintaining the inexcusable status quo.

Repeal Obamacare? Of course, they are all for it, but only with meaningless votes designed to make the issue go away without dealing with the guts of the matter. Cut off funding to implement Dodd-Frank? A repeal vote, perhaps, but a vote of consequence? If it means shutting down other programs, or even the government, well, we wouldn’t want to go there. Hands might get dirty.

But the GOP Leadership has more than campaign bones to offer incoming and inexperience Republican lawmakers. David McIntosh, a former member of the House from Indiana, told me Leadership has many arrows in its quiver – arrows that can be very effective. “Committee assignments, money and social pressure are their biggest assets,” he said. “Membership on a decent committee, even a chairmanship or ranking position instead of an undesirable assignment doesn’t come without something in return, be it promises for future votes or alliances.” Campaign money is another favor, and a big one, which can extract all sorts of promises, said McIntosh, “with the result that the Leadership will have cards in its hands that cannot be matched by anybody.”

And those junkets we read about – the trips to the Paris Airshow, to inspect military bases in Taiwan or a summer trip to Alaska? They are doled out by the Leadership, and not just because the new member of Congress is a good travelling companion. Is it any coincidence, for example, that last year’s much-ballyhooed, and thoroughly Dionysian, GOP junket to Israel involved no less than six Republican freshman—and Majority Leader Cantor? All of these favors result in votes that the Leadership wants or needs, and are put in the bank to be used when needed.

Backers of the No Excuses concept believe that the list must be developed win or lose in November and, obviously, will look very different depending on election results. Even if Obama wins and Republicans are in the minority in either house (and experts believe now it is hard to conceive how the GOP will not keep the House) they can still tie things up, cut off funding, refuse to allow confirmations to go through and stop much legislative activity if they are willing to go to the mat. And a No Excuses list would be exactly that – a reason to go the mat.

According to Reagan loyalist and former Attorney General Ed Meese, “Just the concept of ‘no excuses,’ win or lose in November would demonstrate the Republicans mean business and won’t be swayed by special interests, that they are here to accomplish something now, and that they are laying the foundation for 2014 and 2016.”

The list would be broad in scope but will certainly contain specifics as well. High on the list, undoubtedly, would be gutting Obamacare and Dodd-Frank, both of which could be repealed with fairly simple and straightforward bills simply disabling what was passed in 2010 – exactly the kind of legislation the leadership would like to avoid, as even the thought of such bills would throw the bureaucracy into turmoil and cause apoplexy in the lobbying community, resulting in much unpleasantness for the leadership.

As certain provisions of each are already either in place or in preparation, reams on reams of regulations have been proposed or promulgated, offices staffed out and bureaucrats hired. Just in the case of Dodd-Frank, for example, it is estimated that the rulemaking process so far has taken over 100,000 pages to explain and prepare; repeal of the more than 100 rules promulgated so far could take years, and tens of thousands of hours of time on the part of agency personnel.

Fence-straddling members of Congress will argue that here are some parts of Obamacare and Dodd-Frank which may have a certain amount of support or merit, making it easier to leave those in place. But conservatives are concerned that unless both are repealed in their entirety and the door to maintaining some provisions is cracked, an army of lobbyists will converge on Congress and less and less will ever be terminated, and the many promises made over the past couple of years will be thwarted. Pat Toomey, one of the most reliable conservatives in the Senate, told me:

We promised the American people that we would overturn Obamacare, put our country on a sustainable fiscal path, and implement pro-growth tax reform. We owe it to them to remain diligent and committed to our promises. President Obama may believe that he cannot change Washington, but it is up to Republicans to do what the president refuses to do.

Other items likely to make a No Excuses list include block-granting Medicaid to the states, at least in some form, to reduce the role played by Washington, and enacting some sort of premium support for Medicare – both of which have been large topics in the campaign, and which would need to be enacted, in some form, when Obamacare is repealed.

Balancing the budget and controlling and capping spending are also “no excuse” issues, and, perhaps rolling spending back to 2008 levels. Cut, Cap and Balance legislation, which included a Constitutional Amendment for balancing the budget, passed the House a year ago and is still high on the list, and would go a long way to getting the budget under control.

But like so much else, the idea has its detractors and its nervous Nellies. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), ever the moderate, called the effort “foolish.” Why? McCain explained, “That is not fair to the American people to hold out and say ‘we won’t agree to raise the debt limit until we pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.’ It’s unfair. It’s bizarre.” McCain continued, “the reality is that the debt limit will be raised one way or another, and the only issue now is with how much fiscal reform and what political fallout.”

Banning federal funding of abortion, an issue dear to the hearts of social conservatives, would likely be on the list, as could enforcement of the Defense of Marriage Act.

Finally, it is likely that some sort of tax reform will go onto the list, such as lowering rates, broadening the base, closing special-interest loopholes or some combination of each. Maintaining the many deductions, loopholes, and exemptions in the tax code is probably the highest priority of the K Street lobbying community and something many members of Congress approach with terror. Why? Because the K Street crowd — on behalf of the multinational corporations it represents — rake in millions upon millions of dollars by lobbying for, securing, and subsequently exploiting to no end, special tax code loop holes.

And every one of those lobbying firm has a PAC – which are among the largest donors to Congressional campaign committees. Milton Friedman used to call the tax code every politician’s re-election campaign funding mechanism. Special interests would do whatever necessary, he explained, to keep a member in Congress who would maintain some obscure deduction, loophole, or whatever. Without a “no excuses” pledge, in other words, the temptation to deviate from real tax reform will be so overwhelming that nothing, or very little, will be accomplished.

Without something along the lines of a No Excuses list, conservatives in and outside of Washington know that 2013 could look depressingly like 2011.

“No Excuses”

We expect the Romney Administration to work with a Republican Congress to achieve the following policy objectives in the 113th Congress.

Repeal ObamaCare & Dodd-Frank
Roll back job-killing regulations

Pass a permanent earmark ban

Balance the budget

Cut spending to 2008(?) levels

Block-grant Medicaid

Enact Medicare premium support

Reform the tax code by lowering rates, broadening the base, and closing special-interest loopholes

Ensure no government monies fund abortion

Replace defense sequester with cuts in non-defense spending

Source: Big Government Blog

Obamacare tax hikes: Will Sebelius mention them?

Obamacare tax hikes: Will Sebelius mention them?
Manchester Union Leader

Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama’s secretary of Health and Human Services, is in New Hampshire today and tomorrow to campaign for the President. We think it’s a good bet that Sebelius will enter and leave New Hampshire without mentioning any of the tax increases imposed by Obamacare, the onerous law she is tasked with administering.

The taxes, fees and effective tax increases are numerous and onerous. First, the mandate. Beginning in 2014, the IRS will tax every adult who does not have health insurance. The penalty starts at $95 or 1 percent of income for singles, whichever is higher. Two years later, it jumps to $695 for an individual and $1,360 for a couple, or 2.5 percent of income.

Some taxes fall on individuals earning $200,000 or more and families earning $250,000 or more. For these Americans, next year the act imposes a 3.8 percent Medicare tax on investment gains.

Currently, if you have high medical expenses, you can deduct them from your taxes when they exceed 7.5 percent of your income. Obamacare raises that to 10 percent for everyone but seniors. If you have a tax-free Flexible Spending Account (FSA) for health care purchases, you can contribute as many pre-tax dollars as you want. Starting next year, contributions are capped at $2,500.

In 2018, health insurance plans with premiums of at least $10,200 for a single or $27,500 for a family will be hit with a 40 percent excise tax.

Then, of course, there is the 10 percent tanning bed tax, in effect since 2010, and the 2.3 percent medical device tax that kicks in next year.

These are but some of the costs imposed by this new law. In case Sebelius forgets to mention them, now you know they exist.

No more apologies!

SFC Speer's Killer Leaves Gitmo

SFC Speer's Killer Leaves Gitmo

Omar Khadr has been sent from Guantanamo to Canada, after returning from the jihad in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Khadr is slated to stay in custody for the time being. It is difficult to think of a more mythologized figure in the post-9/11 war on terror. For the worldwide left, Khadr has become a symbol of all that is supposedly wrong with America’s fight against the al Qaeda terror network. He is now, in many minds, a victim. For one Canadian magazine, Omar Khadr is even a Christ-like figure.

Hillary:Loosen Regulation Because Too Many People Still Can't Find Jobs In Tunisia, Egypt, Libya | CNSNews.com

Hillary: ‘Loosen Regulation’ Because ‘Too Many People Still Can’t Find Jobs’-In Tunisia, Egypt, Libya | CNSNews.com CNSNews.com) - Speaking to a group of foreign ministers from Arab nations at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York on Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed support for loosening regulations, particularly on small businesses, because “too many people still can’t find jobs”--in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

Who Is Stupid?

The Clinton-Rice Credibility Gap | CNSNews.com

The Clinton-Rice Credibility Gap | CNSNews.com Two weeks after Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were murdered in Benghazi, Libya, the Obama administration has conceded it was an act of terrorism. The attack on the U.S. Consulate, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton now admits, was part of a broader effort by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, working "with other violent extremists to undermine the democratic transitions under way in North Africa, as we tragically saw in Benghazi." Yet 10 days ago, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice was trotted out on every Sunday talk show to blame the massacre on a mob inflamed by the Internet video "Innocence of Muslims," which insulted the Prophet Muhammad. As Human Events' John Hayward relates, Rice told Fox News: "This was not a preplanned, premeditated attack. ... What happened initially was a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired in Cairo as a consequence of the video. ... People gathered outside the embassy, and then it grew very violent. Those with extremist ties joined the fray and came with heavy weapons — which, unfortunately, are quite common in post-revolutionary Libya — and that then spun out of control."

Supremely Overdue

Supremely Overdue Abigail Fisher, a white applicant to the University of Texas, contends that the university, in giving preference to minority applicants while rejecting her, discriminated against her unlawfully because of her color. The Supreme Court will hear the case this fall; it is likely that Fisher will prevail. The Texas 10 percent law and the special circumstances of that university present complications, of course, but the makeup of the Supreme Court today differs importantly from that of the Court that decided Grutter v. Bollinger in 2003, which authorized universities to use race in admissions in some circumstances. But how will Fisher prevail? Put another way, how much of Grutter will remain standing when this decision comes down? Might Grutter be flatly overturned? Many fervently hope for that, and I am among them. Grutter v. Bollinger is one of those decisions that were wrong on the day they were decided; it is the Plessy case of the 21st century. Fisher v. University of Texas is a fine vehicle with which the Court may put Grutter into the dustbin of history, where in any case it is very likely to go before long. In support of Fisher, 17 and one half amicus briefs have been put before the Supreme Court. Every one of them is powerfully argued and penetrating in its way. Without pretending to do full justice to each of those briefs, I here offer as fair and balanced a review of them as I am able, given the unavoidable use of categories and summaries.

NUGENT: Mitt Romney was right about the 47 percent - Washington Times

NUGENT: Mitt Romney was right about the 47 percent - Washington Times Mitt Romney hit the bull’s-eye with his comments regarding the 47 percent of Americans who do not have any skin in the game as it pertains to paying federal income tax. Facts are facts. Mr. Romney is not backing down. Good. The truth is the truth and it’s long past time someone said it. As I’ve written before, for at least the past 50 years the Democratic Party has intentionally engineered a class of political “victims” who have been bamboozled into being dependent on the federal government for their subsistence, including food, housing and now health care. They get this without paying any federal income taxes, and that’s wrong. Something for nothing is always a scam. This is how you buy votes, plain and simple. Read more: NUGENT: Mitt Romney was right about the 47 percent - Washington Times http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/27/mitt-romney-was-right-about-the-47-percent/#ixzz27m2RiX9H

The New America!

"A study by Michael Tanner, Stephen Moore, and David Hartman of the Cato Institute has revealed that in 40 states, it pays more for one to be on welfare than to accept a job at $8.00 per hour; in 17 states, welfare pays more than work at $10.00 per hour; and in six states plus the District of Columbia, welfare totals more than working for $12.00 hourly. The study also showed that in 29 states, welfare benefits are worth more than the average secretary's pay; in nine states, such benefits are equal to more than the average starting salary for a teacher; and in six states, welfare pays more than an entry-level position for a computer programmer. When the entire package is computed, welfare amounts to the (pretax) equivalent of a $30,500 wage in Massachusetts, $32,200 in Alaska, and $36,400 in Hawaii." -- William P. Hoar

SMITH: Obama puts illegals ahead of Americans - Washington Times

SMITH: Obama puts illegals ahead of Americans - Washington Times Obama administration officials at the Department of Homeland Security claim they are on track to deport a record number of illegal immigrants this year. But on closer examination, the administration’s numbers simply don’t add up. Internal Homeland Security documents obtained by the House Judiciary Committee reveal that President Obama's administration has inflated the figures to achieve its so-called historic deportation numbers. These documents show that administration officials have fabricated their statistics by adding more than 140,000 removals to their deportation figures for the past two years. Since 2011, the Obama administration has included in its year-end deportation statistics more than 100,000 removals from a Border Patrol program that returns illegal immigrants to Mexico right after they cross the border. It’s dishonest to count illegal immigrants apprehended by the Border Patrol along the border as removals. These are actually returns, where the illegal immigrant is simply turned around and escorted across the border to another location. The illegal immigrant is not subject to any statutory civil or criminal penalties or bars for returning to the United States. This means a single illegal immigrant can show up at the border, be removed numerous times in a single year and be counted each time as a removal. Read more: SMITH: Obama puts illegals ahead of Americans - Washington Times http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/26/obama-puts-illegals-ahead-of-americans/#ixzz27iVD4xCk Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Netanyahu: Medieval Forces of Radical Islam ... Want to Extinguish Freedom' | CNSNews.com

Netanyahu:Medieval Forces of Radical Islam ... Want to Extinguish Freedom' | CNSNews.com (CNSNews.com) – Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday during his speech before the United Nations General Assembly in New York City that Israel wants to see Judaism, Christianity and Islam coexist in peace, but “the medieval forces of radical Islam” oppose that and "want to extinguish freedom."

Soros To The Rescue!

Leftist George Soros is committing $1 million to Priorities USA Action, the super PAC raising money to help President Barack Obama win reelection, according to a Democrat with knowledge of the situation.

Americans Incomes Have Fallen $3,040 During the Obama ˜Recovery"

Americans’ Incomes Have Fallen $3,040 During the Obama ‘Recovery’ Americans must be wondering how much more of this “recovery” they can afford.  New figures from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, compiled by Sentier Research, show that the typical American household’s real (inflation-adjusted) income has actually dropped 5.7 percent during the Obama “recovery.”  Using constant 2012 dollars (to adjust for inflation), the median annual income of American households was $53,718 as of June 2009, the last month of the recession.  Now, after 38 months of this “recovery,” it has fallen to $50,678 — a drop of $3,040 per household.  Yet it gets worse.  Amazingly, incomes have dropped even more during the “recovery” than they did during the recession.  In fact, they’ve dropped more than twice as much as they did during the recession.  From the start to the end of the recession, the real median income of American households fell $1,413, or 2.6 percent.  From the end of the recession to the present day, it has dropped $3,040, or 5.7 percent.  This begs the question:  What kind of “recovery” compares unfavorably with the recession from which it’s ostensibly recovering?

TYRRELL: More reasons for Obama to go - Washington Times

TYRRELL: More reasons for Obama to go - Washington Times Falsehoods and failures mount at home and abroad!

Catholic Ethicists: Immoral For Catholic Business Owners to Obey Obamacare | CNSNews.com

Catholic Ethicists: Immoral For Catholic Business Owners to Obey Obamacare | CNSNews.com (CNSNews.com) - The National Catholic Bioethics Center has published an analysis saying that it will be immoral for a Catholic who owns a private business to purchase health insurance for his or her workers under Obamacare and its implementing regulations--which mandate that insurance plans bought by businesses and individuals must cover sterilizations and all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives, including those that can cause abortions. “Dropping all coverage appears to be the most morally sound approach,” the Catholic ethicists concluded. They further said that Catholics have an affirmative duty to oppose the Obamacare mandate.

We The People!

Check out this video on YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/

Transcript – We The People by Nos Populus

Dear President Obama,

“We The People” have stated resolutely we reject your vision for our country. You claim you have not heard us.

“We The People” have assembled across America resisting your efforts to subvert our constitution and undermine our liberty. You claim you have not seen us.

Since you have not acknowledged our message, let us here present it once more for if as President Wilson said, “a leader’s ear must ring with the voices of the people,” the time has come.

Our greatest treasure is freedom – the absence of restraints on our ability to think and to act. The corollary of freedom is individual responsibility. We believe in the power of the individual.

A few years ago President Bush said, “History moves toward freedom because the desire for freedom is written in every human heart.” Let us add that we will preserve it only as long as devotion to freedom is expressed in the heart of our actions.

When President Lincoln dedicated Gettysburg National Cemetery he declared, “It is for us the living to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus so nobly advanced.”

That unfinished cause for which our soldiers willingly go to battle and for which so many have given their lives is a free United States of America. It has been nearly one hundred fifty years and the work President Lincoln spoke of is not finished. In fact, that work will never be finished.

Freedom is the capacity of self-determination. It is not an entity but a condition and conditions change. Freedom can expand, yet so can it contract.

You promised change when you took office, Mr. President, but subjugation is not change we wanted or will accept.

You have expanded government, violated our Constitution, confounded laws, seized private industry, destroyed jobs, perverted our economy, curtailed free speech, corrupted our currency, weakened our national security, and endangered our sovereignty.

By compromising our nation’s cultural, legal and economic institutions, you are ensuring that our children will never achieve the same quality of life as we enjoy today. Through generational theft you are robbing the unborn of opportunity.

This is not acceptable. Not in America. We did not become a strong nation through hope but rather through self-reliance.

No one better understands the relationship between individual achievement, dignity and strength than our armed forces. Through every war our soldiers have held this nation’s destiny in their hands. They have not failed us. They cherish freedom enough that they are willing to die for it.

Our duty to them and to ourselves is to treasure freedom enough to live up to it.

We accept the challenge, Mr. President. That is why we are assembling across the land to deliver our message to you as often and in every way we can. Dismiss us at your political peril.

Our great nation is a Republic. We will not accept tyranny under any guise. Your policy to redistribute the fruits of our labor is Statism and will not be tolerated.

By our honor, Mr. President, we vow forever to resist coercive government in America. Patriots will not stand silent as you attempt to dismantle the greatest nation on earth. “We The People” will defend our liberty. We will protect our beloved country and America’s exceptionalism will prevail.

God Bless the United States of America!

Sincerely,

We The People

Popularity: 1% [?]

Obama Akbar! Not yet!

U.S. Has No Clue What to Do in Mideast

U.S. Has No Clue What to Do in Mideast:
The repercussions from 9/11/12—the day the roof fell in on the Obama administration’s Middle East policy—continue to rumble across the diplomatic and political landscapes. Before that day, much of ...

Michelle Malkin » Who Is White House visitor Hisham Altalib?

Michelle Malkin » Who Is White House visitor Hisham Altalib?

On Friday, March 30, 2012, Hisham Y. Altalib visited the White House. According to visitor logs, Altalib was received by Joshua DuBois, the director of President Obama’s Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Four days later, White House officials welcomed a foreign delegation of the radical Sharia-enforcing Muslim Brotherhood from Egypt.

The White House meeting with overseas Muslim Brotherhood leaderswas reported in April by a few mainstream journalists and questioned loudly by conservative media. But the White House confab in March with U.S.-based Altalib — which appears to be a prep session with the global Muslim Brotherhood’s American advance team — has received no attention until now.

So, who is Hisham Yahya Altalib? What is his agenda?

And why exactly did the Obama administration conduct domestic “faith-based” outreach with this Muslim Brotherhood figure in Virginia, who just happens to be 1) tied to bloody jihad and 2) a major contributor to the left-wing Center for Constitutional Rights, the group of jihadi-sympathizing lawyers who helped spring suspected Benghazi terror plotter Abu Sufian bin Qumu from Gitmo?

Altalib is an Iraqi-born Muslim identified by the FBI as a Muslim Brotherhood operative before he moved to America in the 1970s to earn an advanced electrical engineering degree from Purdue University in Indiana. By his own account, Altalib “soon became active in Islamic work in North America, which continues to this day.”

He was the “first full-time director of the Leadership Training Department of the Muslim Students Association of the United States and Canada (MSA)” — a longtime Muslim Brotherhood front group whose explicit goal is to “conquer” America through Islamic propagandizing.

Altalib is also a founding member of the SAAR Foundation and the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). Last year, his online biography proudly notes, he was “awarded the ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) Community Service Award.” The Saudi-subsidized ISNA is regarded as the primary U.S. umbrella group for Muslim Brotherhood fronts and was named specifically by the global MB godfathers as a key player in their “Grand Jihad” strategy of infiltration from within.

SAAR was founded in Herndon, Va., in 1983 as part of a radical Islamic charity front for Saudi financiers called the SAFA Group. The feds raided SAAR’s offices in 2002 as part of Operation Green Quest. Investigators confiscated 500 boxes and seven trucks’ worth of documents illuminating the network’s terror ties to the Al Taqwa Bank (a Swiss-based Muslim bank suspected of funding the 9/11 plot) and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Altalib worked for one of Al Taqwa Bank’s main owners, Youssef Nada. Altalib’s more prominent Muslim Brotherhood partner, Jamal Barzinji(one of the champions of the Ground Zero mosque), also worked for Nada. FBI and Customs officials believe SAAR/SAFA laundered moneyfor a plethora of violent Muslim terrorist groups, from Hamas and Hezbollah to al-Qaida and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The MRC@25: The Worst Media Bias of 2012 | NewsBusters.org

The MRC@25: The Worst Media Bias of 2012 | NewsBusters.org

NewsBusters has been showcasing the most egregious bias the Media Research Center has uncovered over the years — four quotes for each of the 25 years of the MRC, 100 quotes total — all leading up to our big 25th Anniversary Gala tomorrow evening. (Click here for posts recounting the worst of 1988 through 2011.)

Today, the worst bias of 2012 (so far): Newsweek sees Barack Obama as “grotesquely underappreciated,” afflicted by critics who are simply “dumb;” Chief Justice John Roberts becomes a media hero by voting to save ObamaCare; and an ex-CNN correspondent charges Republicans are trying to take the country back “to the good old days of Jim Crow.” 

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George Will, Alec Baldwin talk media and politics | The Daily Caller

George Will, Alec Baldwin talk media and politics | The Daily Caller

One of the more lamented aspects of the American political culture is how divided the media has become with the proliferation of cable news, the Internet and talk radio. But if that current environment is viewed with some historical perspective, according to Washington Post columnist George Will, it doesn’t seem so bad.

In an appearance on WNYC’s “Here’s the Thing” podcast with Alec Baldwin (yes, that Alec Baldwin), Will explained why rough-and-tumble politics has always been with us, and the media is not wholly to blame for today’s coarse political discourse.

“[L]ook, 30 years ago – CNN was founded in ’81, I think,” Will said. “Thirty years ago, at the dinner hour in this country, 80 percent of all television sets in use were turned to [Walter] Cronkite, [John] Chancellor, and Peter Jennings. Today we have this cornucopia of news sources. People define journalism on their own terms, get it on their own time.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/26/when-george-will-met-alec-baldwin-takes-on-the-media-and-hillary-clintons-zero-political-future/#ixzz27b8RfrxK

Obama: Anti-Islam Rhetoric Must Be Rejected

Obama: Anti-Islam Rhetoric Must Be Rejected

Today, President Barack Obama stated that negativity about Islam was a message that had to be rejected “by all who respect our common humanity.” Even as our ambassador in Libya is murdered by Islamists; even as Islamists in Egypt threaten Israel’s southern border and persecute Coptic Christians; even as Islamists in Iran threaten nuclear annihilation for the State of Israel; even as Islamists around the globe burn restaurants, attack police, and storm embassies, President Obama thinks that our “common humanity” requires us to reject anti-Islam material.

Here’s what he said:

Moreover, there will always be those that reject human progress – dictators who cling to power, corrupt interests that depend upon the status quo; and extremists who fan the flames of hate and division …. At times, the conflicts arise along the fault lines of faith, race or tribe; and often they arise from the difficulties of reconciling tradition and faith with the diversity and interdependence of the modern world. In every country, there are those who find different religious beliefs threatening; in every culture, those who love freedom for themselves must ask how much they are willing to tolerate freedom for others. That is what we saw play out the last two weeks, as a crude and disgusting video sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world. I have made it clear that the United States government had nothing to do with this video, and I believe its message must be rejected by all who respect our common humanity.

55 percent of small business owners would not start company today, blame Obama | WashingtonExaminer.com

55 percent of small business owners would not start company today, blame Obama | WashingtonExaminer.com

Fifty-five percent of small business owners and manufacturers would not have started their businesses in today’s economy, according to a new poll that also reports 69 percent say President Obama’s regulatory policies have hurt their businesses.

“There is far too much uncertainty, too many burdensome regulations and too few policymakers willing to put aside their egos and fulfill their responsibilities to the American people,” said Jay Thomas, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, which commissioned the poll along with the National Federation of Independent Businesses. “To fix this problem, we need immediate action on pro-growth tax and regulatory policies that put manufacturers in the United States in a position to compete and succeed in an ever-more competitive global economy.”

Obama Value Meal

LAMBRO: Obama's Orwellian economy - Washington Times

LAMBRO: Obama's Orwellian economy - Washington Times How is it possible that Barack Obama leads Mitt Romney on who can better handle the economy when it has been in decline all year? Economists on both sides say this is one of the weakest recoveries since the Great Depression. New York Times economic columnist Paul Krugman, one of President Obama’s early supporters, said, “This is still a terrible economy.” The overall economy barely grew by 1.7 percent in the second quarter, down from 2.0 percent in the first three months of 2012. Business economists have lowered their forecasts to 1.5 percent or lower for the year. The Federal Reserve Board says it will keep its interest rates near zero for the foreseeable future because they expect the economy to remain in a weakened condition for several years to come. Read more: LAMBRO: Obama's Orwellian economy - Washington Times http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/25/obamas-orwellian-economy-were-moving-backward-not-/#ixzz27aJkmh6q Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Gingrich: Obama A Lot Like the Substitute Referees...Not A Real President' | CNSNews.com

Gingrich: Obama ‘A Lot Like the Substitute Referees...Not A Real President' | CNSNews.com (CNSNews.com) - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich compared President Barack Obama to the NFL substitute referees – tells Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren, “He’s not a real president.”

Obama:Retreater in Chief

Retreater in Chief Things are getting ugly in Afghanistan. Taliban insurgents somehow managed to penetrate the coalition’s main base in Helmand Province, Camp Bastion, and blow up six Marine Corps Harrier jump jets and damage two others, making this the greatest single-day loss of American warplanes since the Vietnam war. (The Harrier squadron commander, Lt. Col. Christopher Raible, was killed in the attack.) Another Taliban suicide bomber struck in Kabul, killing a dozen people, including contract workers for the U.S. embassy. Oh, and there have been more “green on blue” killings, bringing to 51 (and counting) the number of coalition troops killed this year by Afghan security personnel. These attacks have led the U.S. Special Forces to suspend training of new recruits for the Afghan Local Police, a critical force designed to supplement the regular police and army, and more recently the NATO command to suspend at least temporarily joint operations with the Afghans below the battalion level. The most common and important security operations are carried out in small units—squads, platoons, and companies, not battalions or brigades. If the ban persists, it will cripple the effort of U.S. forces to improve the combat performance of their Afghan counterparts.

Founding Father Quote

"[In the case of] dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states, who are parties thereto, have the right, and are duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil."


-- James Madison

He said what?

What's Out & What's In With Dems!

America's Last Crusade | CNSNews.com

America's Last Crusade | CNSNews.com For Americans of the Greatest Generation that fought World War II and of the Silent Generation that came of age in the 1950s, the great moral and ideological cause was the Cold War. It gave purpose and clarity to our politics and foreign policy, and our lives. From the fall of Berlin in 1945 to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, that Cold War was waged by two generations, and with its end Americans faced a fundamental question: If the historic struggle between communism and freedom is over, if the Soviet Empire and Soviet Union no longer exist, if the Russians wish to befriend us and the Maoists have taken the capitalist road, what is our new mission in the world? What do we do now? The debate was suspended when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. George H.W. Bush assembled a mighty coalition and won a war that required but 100 hours of ground combat.

We had found our mission.

Israel Walks Out, While U.S. Stays to Listen to Iran's Ahmadinejad

Israel Walks Out, While U.S. Stays to Listen to Iran's Ahmadinejad While Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at the United Nations, "Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor walked out of the General Assembly hall," according to the Associated Press. The American delegation, however, remained in the hall to listen to Ahmadinejad. "The U.S. delegation did not walk out of Monday's meeting, as it has in the past when Iran attacked Israel directly," reports the AP.

DECKER: Romney: No more Mr. Nice Guy - Washington Times

DECKER: Romney: No more Mr. Nice Guy - Washington Times It’s put-up or shut-up time for the Romney campaign. With a little more than 40 days before Election Day, most nationwide polls show a neck-and-neck race. The problem is the president isn’t elected by one large national constituency but by the electors representing their states, and Barack Obama is leading his Republican opponent in some must-win swing states such as Ohio, Florida and Virginia. This has elephants frantic about how to shake up the campaign to make Americans like Mitt more. This is a misspent effort; Gov. Romney doesn’t need to be liked to win. According to Morris Fiorina, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a political science professor at Stanford University, likable personal qualities aren’t necessarily significant to getting elected president. For example, as he explained at a Hoover media colloquium at Stanford on Monday, “In 1996, people knew Bill Clinton was a sleazeball but they thought he was doing a good job as president.” Likewise in 1972, “Richard Nixon was never considered Mr. Personality,” but his track record, positions on the issues and reputation for competence led voters to reelect Tricky Dick with 49 states, over 60 percent of the electorate and the widest margin of the popular vote in history. The point of this visit with the ghost of elections past is to warn against getting bogged down worrying about what people think of a candidate as a human being. Campaign advisors need to focus on developing the impression in voters’ minds that their guy will be a competent national leader based on his experience, record and positions on the issues people care about. A reputation is burnished once in office, and that image can be constructed based on success that thoroughly transforms what Americans previously thought of the man as a candidate. Read more: DECKER: Romney: No more Mr. Nice Guy - Washington Times http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/25/decker-romney-no-more-mr-nice-guy/#ixzz27UZPUlya Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Tone-deaf president

Tone-deaf president President Barack Obama’s critics are having fun with his lawyerly equivocation during an interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday, when he said that as president he bears responsibility “for everything. . . to some degree.” But the bigger gaffe came in the first part of that response, when the president said his “biggest disappointment” has been the failure to change “the tone” in Washington. “If you ask me what’s my biggest disappointment, it’s that we haven’t changed the tone in Washington as much as I would have liked,” he told CBS.

Poster for VP Debate in Danville, KY

Islamic Leaders Seek Confrontation and Chaos, Not Compromise | CNSNews.com

Islamic Leaders Seek Confrontation and Chaos, Not Compromise | CNSNews.com In my opinion the current and coordinated anti-American events taking place in the Middle East are much more ominous than President Obama and the nation's media would have us believe. While a movie that supposedly disrespects Mohammed may be used by the Muslim leaders to inflame the obedient masses of Islam, I submit to you that it has little to do with the real reason for all the violence and puts the Obama administration in the unenviable position of having to choose sides between the radical Muslims and American citizens. There is no middle ground here. What the Islamists are demanding is that the U.S. passes a law forbidding the criticism of Islam, which would completely violate the First Amendment of the Constitution guaranteeing free speech, so Obama is going to have to refuse, unless he can get a change in the Constitution eliminating the most fundamental freedom in America ratified. Something that is likely to happen when the Rocky Mountains crawl across the continent into the Pacific Ocean.

Radical Islam inflicts acts of war on U.S. - Washington Times

Radical Islam inflicts acts of war on U.S. - Washington Times

The roots of the current turmoil in Muslim countries stretching from East Asia to North Africa go much deeper than the violent reaction to an amateurish 13-minute YouTube video. These are simply the latest manifestations of a 33-year record of failure to address Islamic fundamentalism’s multiple acts of war against the United States. President Obama’s approach to Muslim countries in the Middle East has only compounded the problem because appeasement is viewed as a sign of weakness. When you are no longer feared, you do not have street respect, which is key in the Middle East. The result is that you invite the Islamists to take control. This is what we are witnessing as the outcome of the “Arab Spring.”

Read more: Radical Islam inflicts acts of war on U.S. - Washington Times http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/24/radical-islam-inflicts-acts-of-war-on-us/#ixzz27R2Dpy1j
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Could Republicans Lose the House?

Could Republicans Lose the House?

God help us if that happens!

The New American Dream

Review & Outlook: Ryan at the AARP - WSJ.com

Review & Outlook: Ryan at the AARP - WSJ.com

The real story is that he didn't trim his ideas and still won applause!

The headlines this weekend were all about the boos Paul Ryan elicited on Friday when he addressed the AARP, the self-styled seniors' lobby. The herd of independent media minds missed the real story, which is that the Republican Vice Presidential nominee went into the heart of the entitlement culture, told some hard truths, and even won applause for doing so.

Mr. Ryan deserves credit merely for showing up at an organization that portrays itself as nonpartisan but whose leadership is dominated by long-time liberals who consistently pursue the Democratic Party's entitlement agenda. On Friday, our Kimberley Strassel reported on the long email trail showing how AARP officials served as an arm of the White House in promoting ObamaCare.

AARP CEO Barry Rand used his opening remarks to defend President Obama's health-care bill, including its accounting trick of taking $716 billion from Medicare to make anew entitlement appear to save money. He then turned the event over to President Obama, who via satellite attacked Mitt Romney and Mr. Ryan for wanting to deny medical care to seniors.

Obama's Unfulfilled Promise of Change | RealClearPolitics

Obama's Unfulfilled Promise of Change | RealClearPolitics

"The most important lesson I've learned is that you can't change Washington from the inside," Barack Obama said in an interview Thursday on the Spanish-language Univision network. "You can only change it from the outside."

A better way to put it is that Barack Obama has proved he can't change Washington from the inside.

Full audio of 1998 Obama 'redistribution' speech reveals liberal positions on gun control, health care, welfare reform | The Daily Caller

Full audio of 1998 Obama 'redistribution' speech reveals liberal positions on gun control, health care, welfare reform | The Daily Caller

The Daily Caller has obtained a complete audio recording of the October 19, 1998 Loyola College forum on community organizing and policymaking during which a future President Barack Obama said he favored the government redistribution of wealth. The audio demonstrates the context of that remark and reveals other far-left positions that Obama held as a state senator.

Those positions encompass issues as wide-ranging as gun control, universal health care and welfare reform. Obama also said he viewed welfare recipients and “the working poor” as “a majority coalition” that could be mobilized to help advance progressive policies and elect their champions.

Last week the liberal Mother Jones magazine published video footage, shot during a campaign event, showing Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney opining that 47 percent of Americans are captive Democratic voters because they receive government benefits without paying income taxes. (RELATED: Romney controversy points to power of viral video)

Loyola College refused repeated requests from TheDC for a copy of the full one-hour and 42-minute videotape from 1998. But a source in Chicago who gained permission to view it recorded the sound secretly, confirming the accuracy of — and expanding on — initial accounts that featured only a brief audio excerpt.

“I actually believe in [wealth] redistribution,” Obama said in that 96-second excerpt, published September 18 on YouTube. “At least at a certain level, to make sure that everybody’s got a shot.”

The following day, NBC News said it had obtained what it called “the entirety of the relevant remarks,” and complained that Republicans had taken the original lines out of context.

NBC published only 35 seconds of video, however, more than half of which overlapped with the YouTube audio from a day earlier. The news agency claimed the full context demonstrated that Obama only “seems” to support “redistributing wealth.” (RELATED: 1998 audiotape surfaces: Obama urged “trick” to aid wealth redistribution)

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/24/full-audio-of-1998-redistribution-speech-obama-saw-welfare-recipients-as-majority-coalition/#ixzz27P0hB89L

Quote of the Day!

"The body politic, like the human body, begins to die from its birth, and bears in itself the causes of its destruction."

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Jefferson on Taxation

Amid Furor, Gallup Shows Race Closing to Tie

Amid Furor, Gallup Shows Race Closing to Tie:


Is 47 Mitt Romney's lucky number? The Republican nominee has drawn level with President Barack Obama in the latest national Gallup poll, fuelling charges from conservatives that the media has unfai...

Romney tax release appears to undercut Democratic charges - Washington Times

Romney tax release appears to undercut Democratic charges - Washington TimesSeeking to put to rest lingering questions about his tax history, GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Friday released his 2011 tax return as well as a 20-year “summary” of what he has paid to the IRS – a financial history, as told by tax preparers, that appears to punch a hole in Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid’s claim that the Republican presidential nominee avoided paying federal income taxes for more than a decade.

Price Waterhouse, LLP, the tax preparer for Mr. Romney and wife Ann, said that the the former Massachusetts governor paid an effective tax rate of 14.1 percent last year and the average of annual “effective federal personal income tax rates” was just over 20 percent between 1990 and 2009. The lowest annual “effective federal personal income tax rate” for the couple was 13.66 percent, the auditors said.Read more: Romney tax release appears to undercut Democratic charges - Washington Times http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/21/romney-tax-returns-undercut-reid-claims/#ixzz27Dc2VFpN Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

All the World Wonders

All the World Wonders

What happened initially was that it was a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired in Cairo as a consequence of the video. People gathered outside the embassy and then it grew very violent. And those with extremist ties joined the fray and came with heavy weapons, which unfortunately are quite common in post-revolutionary Libya, and that then spun out of control.

There was no spontaneous “fray” in Benghazi that “spun out of control.” The only thing spinning out of control last week was the Obama administration, frantically portraying the terrible events in the Middle East as anything but what they were.

By late in the week the Obama narrative had been exposed as just that, a narrative, and the White House grudgingly had to abandon it.They were sorry to do so. They were fond of their spin.

The mainstream media reported the Obama administration’s shift as if it had gotten a few things wrong in the heat of a crisis, and then new information came to light. But that isn’t the case.

The administration wanted to misrepresent what had happened. The administration wanted to sell the story that a wacky anti-Islam video made in America caused the violence in Cairo and Benghazi and dozens of other cities.

That story line absolved the Obama administration of any responsibility for what had happened. It also went a long way toward absolving bad actors in the Muslim world of blame.

There have been indications over the last four years that, in its heart of hearts, the Obama administration blames America first for many of the ills of the world. On this occasion, the administration stopped hinting and came clean. It explicitly, even eagerly, blamed America.

Retreater in Chief

Retreater in Chief

Things are getting ugly in Afghanistan. Taliban insurgents somehow managed to penetrate the coalition’s main base in Helmand Province, Camp Bastion, and blow up six Marine Corps Harrier jump jets and damage two others, making this the greatest single-day loss of American warplanes since the Vietnam war. (The Harrier squadron commander, Lt. Col. Christopher Raible, was killed in the attack.)

Another Taliban suicide bomber struck in Kabul, killing a dozen people, including contract workers for the U.S. embassy. Oh, and there have been more “green on blue” killings, bringing to 51 (and counting) the number of coalition troops killed this year by Afghan security personnel.

These attacks have led the U.S. Special Forces to suspend training of new recruits for the Afghan Local Police, a critical force designed to supplement the regular police and army, and more recently the NATO command to suspend at least temporarily joint operations with the Afghans below the battalion level.

The most common and important security operations are carried out in small units—squads, platoons, and companies, not battalions or brigades. If the ban persists, it will cripple the effort of U.S. forces to improve the combat performance of their Afghan counterparts.

New Version of Chinese Proverb

Original Chinese Proverb:

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.

2012 Democrat White House Revision:

Give a man a welfare check, a free cell phone with unlimited free minutes, cash for his clunker,

food stamps, section 8 housing, free contraceptives, Medicaid, ninety-nine weeks of unemployment,

free meds, and he will vote Democratic the rest of his life; even after he's deceased.

Bend Over! This Is Going To Hurt!

100 Days Until Taxmageddon: Largest Tax Increase in History

100 Days Until Taxmageddon
Friday, September 21, 2012 11:23 AM | Ryan Ellis

Sunday will mark the start of the 100-day countdown to “Taxmageddon” – the date the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2013:

First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief

In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for small business owners, families, and investors (later re-upped by President Obama and Democrat Congress in 2010). The following tax hikes will occur on January 1, 2013:

Personal income tax rates will rise on January 1, 2013. The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which the majority of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

-The 10% bracket rises to a new and expanded 15%

-The 25% bracket rises to 28%

-The 28% bracket rises to 31%

-The 33% bracket rises to 36%

-The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%

Higher taxes on marriage and family coming on January 1, 2013. The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of taxable income. The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level.

Middle Class Death Tax returns on January 1, 2013. The death tax is currently 35% with an exemption of $5 million ($10 million for married couples). For those dying on or after January 1 2013, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.

Higher tax rates on savers and investors on January 1, 2013. The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 23.8 percent in 2013. The top dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 43.4 percent in 2013. This is because of scheduled rate hikes plus Obamacare’s investment surtax.

Second Wave: Obamacare Tax Hikes

There are twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Some have already gone into effect (the tanning tax, the medicine cabinet tax, the HSA withdrawal tax, W-2 health insurance reporting, and the “economic substance doctrine”). Several more will go into effect on January 1, 2013. They include:

The Obamacare Medical Device Tax begins to be assessed on January 1, 2013. Medical device manufacturers employ 409,000 people in 12,000 plants across the country. This law imposes a new 2.3% excise tax on gross sales – even if the company does not earn a profit in a given year. Exempts items retailing for <$100.

The Obamacare Medicare Payroll Tax Hike takes effect on January 1, 2013. The Medicare payroll tax is currently 2.9 percent on all wages and self-employment profits. Starting in 2013, wages and profits exceeding $200,000 ($250,000 in the case of married couples) will face a 3.8 percent rate.

The Obamacare “Special Needs Kids Tax” comes online on January 1, 2013. Imposes a cap on FSAs of $2500 (now unlimited). Indexed to inflation after 2013. There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education. This Obamacare cap harms these families.

The Obamacare “Haircut” for Medical Itemized Deductions goes into force on January 1, 2013. Currently, those facing high medical expenses are allowed a deduction for medical expenses to the extent that those expenses exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI). The new provision imposes a threshold of 10 percent of AGI. Waived for 65+ taxpayers in 2013-2016 only.

Third Wave: The Alternative Minimum Tax and Employer Tax Hikes

When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2013, they’ll be in for a nasty surprise—the AMT won’t be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired. These tax increases will be in force for BOTH 2012 and 2013. The major items include:

The AMT will ensnare over 31 million families, up from 4 million last year. According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress’ failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families—rising from 4 million last year to 31 million. These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.

Full business expensing will disappear. In 2011, businesses can expense half of their purchases of equipment. Starting on 2013 tax returns, all of it will have to be “depreciated” (slowly deducted over many years).

Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses. There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the “research and experimentation tax credit,” but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.

Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced. The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available. Tax credits for education will be limited. Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses. Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut. Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed. The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families.

Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed. Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA. This contribution also counts toward an annual “required minimum distribution.” This ability will no longer be there.

Name 1 Thing That's Improved Under Obama

Name 1 Thing That's Improved Under Obama:
How can any cogent American citizen possibly even consider voting for Barack Obama now?

That's what lots of conservatives and moderates are asking each other, again and again. It's completely baffling, to those who grew up with any sort of sense of what America means and what the American character traditionally has been, that anybody can look at the man's record and want more of the same.

Almost the entirety of the Muslim world is now rioting against an American president who promised that his olive branches to Muslims would secure peace. Like Jimmy Carter, Obama has only shown a weakness that has emboldened the Islamist haters. Meanwhile, our closest ally in the region, Israel, a stable representative democracy led by an American-educated, America-loving prime minister, has repeatedly been insulted, abandoned, and undermined. In short, the United States is in worse position with all sides in the Middle East/northern Africa. We are embarrassed, feckless, wounded... and in four tragic cases, dead.

Did White House Lie About Libya Attacks?

Did White House Lie About Libya Attacks?:
Larry Kudlow is hearing from his beltway sources that the President may have put politics ahead of national security in the wake of the Libya attacks that killed four Americans, including U.S. Amba...

Media Covering For Obama's Failures

Media Covering For Obama's Failures:

Each new day seems to bring further evidence of the unremitting failure of President Barack Obama’s economic and foreign policies. Yet the presidential contest remains even, due in large part to Re...

CRUZ: Election 2012: Greatness or decline? - Washington Times

CRUZ: Election 2012: Greatness or decline? - Washington Times Every four years, we hear the same line: No election in history has ever mattered more than this one. This election, however, truly will determine whether our nation’s path veers toward greatness or continued decline. Part of the reason many Americans are so cynical is that they’ve heard it all before, and nothing seems to change. That’s because America’s problems are not Democratic or Republican problems. Politicians from both parties have failed to lead and have put us in the mess we’re in. America is at a crisis point. Alarmingly, our nation’s debt has surpassed its gross domestic product. We’re on the same road Greece is on, but there is a big difference. There are nations that can bail out Greece. The truth is, there isn’t anyone who can bail out America. That’s why all across this country, we’re seeing a great awakening rising up to take our country back. Whether you call it the Tea Party, conservatism or just plain common sense, Americans are standing up for liberty, the Constitution and limited government. Read more: CRUZ: Election 2012: Greatness or decline? - Washington Times http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/20/election-2012-greatness-or-decline/#ixzz277Nn5N5C Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Concise Description of Obamacare

......"We're going to be gifted with a healthcare plan that we're forced to purchase and fined if we don't, which purportedly covers at least 10 million more people without adding a single doctor but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it, passed it by a Congress that didn't read it but EXEMPTED themselves from it, and signed by a president who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, for which we will be taxed for 4 years before any benefits take effect, by a gov't which has already bankrupted Social Security and Medicare, all to be overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese, and, finally, financed by a country that's broke. So, what the _____ can possibly go wrong??!!"

Republican senators decry ‘useless, worthless' Clinton briefing on Libya attack | The Cable

Republican senators decry ‘useless, worthless' Clinton briefing on Libya attack | The Cable Several high-level GOP senators emerged from Thursday afternoon's classified briefing with top administration officials incensed that Obama team had offered them no new information and answered none of their questions about the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that resulted in the death of four Americans.   "That was the most useless, worthless briefing that I have attended in a long time. Believe me, there is more written in every major and minor publication in America about what happened." said Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Bob Corker (R-TN), emerging from the all-senators briefing that included Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Deputy Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Adm. Sandy Winnefeld. "It was like a one-hour filibuster with absolutely not one single bit of new information being brought forth... very disappointing."

Obama refuses to admit that he broke his promise to Hispanic voters | Mobile Washington Examiner

Obama refuses to admit that he broke his promise to Hispanic voters | Mobile Washington Examiner

Video: Obama Does Not Know the Size of the Debt

Video: Obama Does Not Know the Size of the Debt

It’s a couple days old, but nevertheless worth watching: Here’s the clip of President Obama’s interview with David Letterman (which Steve Hayes discusses in greater detail here), during which Obama shows that he apparently has no idea how big our national debt is — apparently even to the nearest trillion (see around the 2:00 mark):

What is a Billion?

The next time you hear a politician use the
Word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about
whether you want the 'politicians' spending
YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend,
But one advertising agency did a good job of
Putting that figure into some perspective in
One of its releases.

A.
A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

B.
A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

C.
A billion hours ago our ancestors were
living in the Stone Age.

D.
A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

E.
A billion dollars ago was only
8 hours and 20 minutes,
at the rate our government
is spending it.

Reporters at an Obama press conference

Tapper: Who Decided There'd Be No Marines to Protect Libya Posts? Carney: Ask State Dept. | CNSNews.com

Tapper: Who Decided There'd Be No Marines to Protect Libya Posts? Carney: Ask State Dept. | CNSNews.com CNSNews.com) – White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters at the White House press briefing on Wednesday that they should ask the State Department if they wanted to find out who decided not to station Marines at U.S. diplomatic posts in Libya, where the U.S. ambassador and three others were killed at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

PAUL: Demanding justice from Libya, Egypt and Pakistan - Washington Times

PAUL: Demanding justice from Libya, Egypt and Pakistan - Washington Times American taxpayer dollars should not go to Libya until the murderers are delivered to justice. Nor should they go to Egypt until the Egyptians prove that they are willing and able to protect our embassy. Finally, not one more penny of American taxpayer dollars should go to Pakistan until the doctor who helped us get bin Laden is freed. We should not reward bad behavior, yet that is what we’ve done with foreign aid for so many years. The total U.S. foreign aid given to Pakistan, Libya and Egypt equals roughly $4 billion per year. But enough is enough. So I have announced that I will block any and all legislation until Mr. Reid allows for a debate and vote on these foreign aid bills. As this is expected to be the final week of legislative session for both the House and Senate before an extended recess, the elected officials must take immediate action to pass a much-needed bill demanding cooperation and accountability from the countries involved in the recent violence directed at our embassies, consulates and allies. Read more: PAUL: Demanding justice from Libya, Egypt and Pakistan - Washington Times http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/19/no-mideast-cooperation-no-foreign-aid/#ixzz2719WbjAL Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

A Democratic Dictionary

A Democratic Dictionary There is an old saw that if you torture statistics enough, they will tell you whatever you want to hear.  Words are like this, too. In the interest of clarity during the current campaign season, here is a brief lexicon of how Democratic officials use words: cost curve, bending down of.  n. phrase.  a way on paper to reduce federal spending without actually having to reduce federal spending draconian.  adj.   any proposed reduction, however minor, in the long-term growth of federal spending entitlement.  n.  a government formula to provide benefits to people who are not otherwise entitled to them extreme. adj.  1. any political position supported by conservatives fair share.  n. phrase.   indefinite number;  any number greater than the current top tax rate gridlock. n.  Congressional inactivity caused by Republican obstructionism.  See special interest investment. n.   any federal spending,  especially any federal spending where an actual economic return cannot possibly be measured leadership,  American.  n. phrase.  a process in which American leaders reach out to Russia and China, in order to give them a UN Security Council veto over American foreign policy loophole.  n.  a provision of law, either deliberate or inadvertent, in which an economic activity has somehow escaped taxation

'The Obama You Don't Know'

'The Obama You Don't Know'