Sunday, October 14, 2012

WHILE OBAMA CRAMS, ROMNEY CAMPAIGNS

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and running mate Paul Ryan are campaigning through Ohio and other critical swing states while President Barack Obama crams for the second presidential debate on Tuesday. Yesterday, Romney addressed a crowd of 11,000 supporters in Lebanon, Ohio, just one of the many large crowds he has been drawing across the state in recent days.

Meanwhile, Obama, who was criticized for not preparing enough for the first presidential debate on Oct. 3, is parked at a golf resort in Virginia to practice.

Romney is practicing, too, for the second debate, which will be held at Hofstra University near New York City on Tuesday, though he is squeezing debate preparation into his daily campaign schedule.

Romney has the added benefit of having devoted more time to debate practice already over the past several weeks. He has also spend more time in the kind of town hall setting that will be used in Tuesday's debate. And he has less to prove, having won what both sides agree was a clear victory in the first debate. while Obama has ground to make up.

Obama has not made any apparent adjustments to his debate team, and is still using 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry as a stand-in for Romney, despite earlier criticism by the Obama campaign of Kerry's performance as a sparring partner. Obama has also indicated that he would be less "polite" than he had been at the first debate. Democrats believe that Romney won by dominating the discussion, though Obama spoke for longer than Romney and moderator Jim Lehrer interrupted Romney more often. Vice President Joe Biden cheered Democrats with an aggressive performance in his Oct. 11 debate with Rep. Paul Ryan, and Obama may follow his lead.

However, the extra time that Obama is devoting to debate practice during a critical late stage of the campaign may cost him crucial opportunities to interact with voters, even as Romney builds a lead in swing states. Early voting has already started in Ohio, for instance, and Romney's appearances there this weekend have lent an additional sense of momentum to his campaign.

Continue Reading...

Former Senator Arlen Specter Dies At 82

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Former U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, the outspoken Pennsylvania centrist whose switch from Republican to Democrat ended a 30-year career in which he played a pivotal role in several Supreme Court nominations, died Sunday. He was 82.

Specter, who announced in late August that he was battling cancer, died at his home in Philadelphia from complications of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, said his son Shanin. Over the years, Arlen Specter had fought two previous bouts with Hodgkin's disease, overcome a brain tumor and survived cardiac arrest following bypass surgery.

Specter rose to prominence in the 1960s as an aggressive Philadelphia prosecutor and as an assistant counsel to the Warren Commission, developing the single-bullet theory that posited just one bullet struck both President Kennedy and Texas Gov. John Connally -- an assumption critical to the argument that presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. The theory remains controversial and was the focus of Oliver Stone's 1991 movie "JFK."

In 1987, Specter helped thwart the Supreme Court nomination of former federal appeals Judge Robert H. Bork -- earning him conservative enemies who still bitterly refer to such rejections as being "borked."

But four years later, Specter was criticized by liberals for his tough questioning of Anita Hill at Clarence Thomas' Supreme Court nomination hearings and for accusing her of committing "flat-out perjury." The nationally televised interrogation incensed women's groups and nearly cost him his seat in 1992.

Specter, who had battled cancer, was Pennsylvania's longest-serving senator when Democrats picked then-U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak over him in the 2010 primary, despite Specter's endorsements by President Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders. Sestak lost Specter's seat to conservative Republican Rep. Pat Toomey by 2 percentage points.

A political moderate, Specter was swept into the Senate in the Reagan landslide of 1980.

He took credit for helping to defeat President Clinton's national health care plan -- the complexities of which he highlighted in a gigantic chart that hung on his office wall for years afterward -- and helped lead the investigation into Gulf War syndrome. Following the Iran-Contra scandal, he pushed legislation that created the inspectors general of the CIA.

Continue Reading...

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/arlen-specter-dies/2012/10/14/former-senator-arlen-specter-dies-82#ixzz29IlKapbR

As protesters dressed as Nazis riot in an Athens ruled by Brussels stooges, giving the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU is beyond satire

The Nobel Peace Prize is the sacred elephant of the liberal establishment. It is sometimes awarded to good people who have done great things, but equally often to unworthy recipients as a gesture of pious hope.

The world applauded when it was presented to Martin Luther King in 1964, to Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991, to Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk two years later.

Sensible people sighed when the prize went to Henry Kissinger and Viet Cong leader Le Duc Tho in 1973, who stitched up a charade of a Vietnam peace deal as a figleaf for surrendering the country to the Communists; to Egypt’s leader Anwar Sadat and his Israeli counterpart Menachem Begin in 1978 for their Middle East deal which brought no lasting peace; and to Barack Obama in 2009 for his commitment to ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which are still mired in bloodshed.

Controversial: Norwegian Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland announces the European Union as the recipient of the 2012 Nobel Peace prize

Controversial: Norwegian Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland announces the European Union as the recipient of the 2012 Nobel Peace prize

In all these cases — and many more besides — the Nobel Committee was obviously seeking to say to the winners and to the world: ‘We welcome what you are attempting to do, and hope that giving you the Prize will make you try even harder for the cause of peace.’

These are the sort of decent, woolly-minded sentiments that country vicars unleash on their flocks every Sunday. But the consequence is that too many Nobel Laureates are honoured for aspirations rather than achievements, for proclaiming objectives which go unfulfilled, or for displaying an illusory semblance of virtue.

However, this year, the 93rd in which the award has been made, the committee has surpassed all previous follies and travesties. The peace prize has been given to the European Union. The award, it is said, recognises six decades of commitment to the advancement of peace, reconciliation and human rights.

The Nobel Peace Prize is the sacred elephant of the liberal establishment. It is sometimes awarded to good people who have done great things, but equally often to unworthy recipients as a gesture of pious hope.

The world applauded when it was presented to Martin Luther King in 1964, to Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991, to Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk two years later.

Sensible people sighed when the prize went to Henry Kissinger and Viet Cong leader Le Duc Tho in 1973, who stitched up a charade of a Vietnam peace deal as a figleaf for surrendering the country to the Communists; to Egypt’s leader Anwar Sadat and his Israeli counterpart Menachem Begin in 1978 for their Middle East deal which brought no lasting peace; and to Barack Obama in 2009 for his commitment to ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which are still mired in bloodshed.

Controversial: Norwegian Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland announces the European Union as the recipient of the 2012 Nobel Peace prize

Controversial: Norwegian Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland announces the European Union as the recipient of the 2012 Nobel Peace prize

In all these cases — and many more besides — the Nobel Committee was obviously seeking to say to the winners and to the world: ‘We welcome what you are attempting to do, and hope that giving you the Prize will make you try even harder for the cause of peace.’

These are the sort of decent, woolly-minded sentiments that country vicars unleash on their flocks every Sunday. But the consequence is that too many Nobel Laureates are honoured for aspirations rather than achievements, for proclaiming objectives which go unfulfilled, or for displaying an illusory semblance of virtue.

However, this year, the 93rd in which the award has been made, the committee has surpassed all previous follies and travesties. The peace prize has been given to the European Union. The award, it is said, recognises six decades of commitment to the advancement of peace, reconciliation and human rights.

Via: Mail Online

Continue Reading...

Race tightens for swing states

Mitt Romney’s overwhelming debate victory has tightened the presidential race in the dozen or so battleground states that will determine the winner of the election.

To reach the Oval Office, Romney must win back a number of the states won by President Bush in 2004 but President Obama in 2008 —or win back states like Pennsylvania that have been won by Democratic presidential candidates the past several cycles.

Here’s a look at where the swing-state battles stand ahead of Obama and Romney’s second debate showdown on Tuesday night.

Florida (29)

Romney enjoys a two-percentage-point advantage in the Real Clear Politics (RCP) average of polls after crushing Obama in their initial debate. He had previously trailed the president by 1.6 percentage points.

But it’s possible Romney’s numbers are being boosted by one poll. The Tampa Bay Times released a survey Thursday that showed him up by 7 percentage points, a finding the looks like an outlier compared to other polls.

The Tampa poll showed Obama’s 11-point lead among independents swing to a 13 point advantage for Romney. In addition, Hispanic voters in the poll favored Romney 46 to 44 percent over Obama, despite the president’s more than 50-percentage point lead among the group nationally.

Obama campaign adviser David Plouffe dismissed the poll, telling the Tampa Bay Times that “it’s impossible for us to be at 44 in Florida,” and arguing that the campaign believes it will outperform its 2008 support among Hispanics. Plouffe said Obama’s campaign expects to take win at least 60 percent of the Hispanic vote.

Florida is must win territory for Romney given the uphill climb he faces in other swing states.

Continue Reading...

RUPERT MURDOCH PREDICTS ‘NIGHTMARE FOR ISRAEL IF OBAMA WINS,‘ ACCUSES WHITE HOUSE OF ’STILL LYING ABOUT BENGHAZI’

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch went on a bit of a Twitter tear Saturday morning, predicting a “nightmare for Israel if Obama wins” re-election and accusing the White House of “still lying about Benghazi.”

The media mogul — whose company owns Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and others — said Vice President Joe Biden “threw [the] CIA under the bus“ and ”now [White House] throws State [Department]!” He also came down on Mitt Romney, saying the Republican presidential nominee needs to ignore personal attacks at the next debate and focus on his jobs plan:

Rupert Murdoch Predicts Nightmare for Israel if Obama Wins, Accuses White House of Still Lying About Benghazi

Image source: Twitter

Rupert Murdoch Predicts Nightmare for Israel if Obama Wins, Accuses White House of Still Lying About Benghazi

Image source: Twitter

Rupert Murdoch Predicts Nightmare for Israel if Obama Wins, Accuses White House of Still Lying About Benghazi

Image source: Twitter

Murdoch has been fairly free with his Twitter advice for Romney in the past: Last month he said he needed to “stop fearing [the] far right” and take more of a big tent approach to win the election. During the summer, he wondered, “when is Romney going to look like a challenger?” He subsequently defended himself from an apparent barrage of negative tweets from Romney supporters, saying, “of course I want him to win, save us from socialism, etc.”

As Mediaite noted, when a Murdoch-type figure in the media espouses such clear-cut political beliefs so publicly, “the question arises as to whether these opinions will eventually trickle down through their outlets.”

Continue Reading...

New $100 bills stolen en route to Fed facility

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Unknown thieves stole a "large amount" of newly-designed $100 bills bound for a Federal Reserve facility in New Jersey on Thursday, the FBI said.

Frank Burton, Jr., spokesman for the FBI's Philadelphia division, said the theft occurred at some point between when the shipment of bills landed at the Philadelphia airport on a commercial flight from Dallas at 10:20 Thursday morning, and when the shipment reached its New Jersey destination around 2:00 p.m., when the courier service transporting the bills reported some missing.

Continue Reading...

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Ryan Slams Obama's Stance on China

Obama soft on 'cheating' China, which is hurting U.S. manufacturing

Republican vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan told Ohio voters Saturday that China’s unfair trade and currency practices are hurting the U.S. manufacturing sector and vowed that if elected he and Mitt Romney would “hold cheaters accountable.”

Ryan, R-Wis., made his pitch one day after the Obama administration announced it would delay a decision due Monday on whether to declare that China is manipulating its currency to gain trade advantages.

“The administration had its eighth chance to label China a currency manipulator,” Ryan said during a rally at Youngstown State University. “And they’ve indicated they are going to push this deadline off until after the election. That’s eight opportunities to say: ‘You know what, play fair with us, trade with us fairly.’ ”

The report examines the foreign exchange practices for major U.S. trading partners and has previously cited China for failing to allow its currency to appreciate more rapidly.

The Treasury Department now says the decision will come after finance ministers and central bank presidents meet Nov. 4 -5 in Mexico City.

The agency said the delay would allow the administration to "assess progress" following the discussions of officials in the Group of 20 nations, which includes China.

Romney has already attacked the administration for not targeting China for unfair trade practices and is expected to renew the attack during an economic speech next week.

Ryan on Saturday also told potential voters in Ohio – a hub of U.S. manufacturing and rich in mineral resources – that China is hurting the middle class and a vital part of the U.S. economic by stealing secrets to make then sell less expensive goods in the global market.

“We need a strong manufacturing base in American if we want a strong middle class in America,” Ryan said.

Via: Fox News

Continue Reading...

Obama crams for debate, Romney claims momentum

AFP - President Barack Obama headed to a Virginia hotel for debate camp Saturday on a mission to transform his re-election pitch after his tame first clash with Mitt Romney hammered his poll ratings.

Obama planned four days of cramming at the resort at the historic colonial city of Williamsburg, ahead of Tuesday's crucial second debate against his Republican opponent with the November 6 election on a knife edge.

The president has seen Romney take the lead in national polls and eat deep into his prior advantage in battleground state surveys since the Republican's clear victory in Denver 10 days ago, imperiling his hopes of a second term.

Obama's aides have declined to say how the president will change his approach in the second debate, which takes place at Hofstra University, New York, but there have been signs of an evolving strategy.

Since the Denver showdown, Obama has unveiled a snappier stump speech, and criticized Romney for an "extreme makeover" of conservative positions and over a secretly filmed tape of him decrying half of Americans to rich donors.

Mystified Democrats sharply criticized Obama for not taking a similar tack during a lethargic and unfocused performance in the first debate.

Vice President Joe Biden prosecuted a more forensic attack on Romney when he met the Republican's vice presidential nominee, Paul Ryan, in their debate on Thursday, a showing that cheered Democrats dismayed by Obama's performance.

But Romney's team senses growing momentum across the board, including what may turn out to be the crucial swing state of Ohio, which Democrats see as a firewall for Obama, and which has been decisive in numerous US elections.

"There's a growing crescendo of enthusiasm," Romney said in a raucous event in Ohio on Friday evening.

"People recognize this is not an ordinary campaign. This is a critical time for the country.

Continue Reading...

Connecticut Dem Jokes About Corruption (VIDEO)

Bridgeport's Democratic mayor Bill Finch, a supporter of Connecticut congressman Chris Murphy's bid for the U.S. Senate against Republican Linda McMahon, jokes about corruption:

Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch is at it again. The Democrat who presided over a 2010 vote casting and counting scandal in the tight race for governor was caught on video Friday guaranteeing Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Christopher Murphy a big result in the state’s largest city–even if it takes days to count.

Bridgeport provided a crucial and dubious margin of victory to Democratic and Working Families Governor Dannel P. Malloy in 2010 amidst unprecedented chaos at the city’s polling places. The 2010 Bridgeport assault on democracy included photocopied ballots, altered hours at polling places, a mysterious bag of votes and Finch’s abuse of the city’s emergency notification system to increase turnout on Election Day.

Murphy, locked in a dead heat with Republican Linda McMahon, needs the grimy Bridgeport Guarantee. He got it from Finch on Friday while visiting small businesses in the poverty-wracked city. A laughing Finch boasts even if it takes a couples of days to get the results,”You can be guaranteed you’re going to get the vote.” Two years after the 2010 fiasco, it remains no laughing matter to the rest of Connecticut.

Murphy and Finch served together in Connecticut’s state Senate for four years.

Via: Weekly Standard

Continue Reading...

Obama Campaign Shakedown Email: We’ve Reviewed Your Records, Where’s Our Money?…

Obama Campaign Shakedown Email: We’ve Reviewed Your Records, Where’s Our Money?…

The title of the email makes it even creepier: “Drew: Here’s your personal record of support”

I put myself on both campaign mailing lists and I’ve never get anything like this from Romney, never mind the fact that Team Obama has been known to send out 10+ emails in a single day.

Via: Weasel Zippers

AS ELECTION DAY NEARS, ROMNEY CROWDS ARE SURGING

SIDNEY, Ohio (AP) -- The crowds tell the story. As Election Day nears, Mitt Romney is drawing large and excited throngs.

Look to dusty Iowa cornfields, rain-soaked Virginia parks, the muddy fields of the Shelby County Fairgrounds, where a crowd of 9,500 - almost half of this western Ohio town - gathered among the barns and stables on a frigid October evening this week to glimpse the Republican presidential contender.

"Where else would we want to be?" said one of the shivering faithful, Judy Cartwright, a 71-year-old nurse from Sidney. "I want to see the next president of the United States."

Romney's debate performance against President Barack Obama last week - and his energetic appearances following it up - have fueled a rise in enthusiasm on the campaign trail. Whether or not it will translate into votes, polls do suggest that Republicans are fired up. It's a welcome development for the Republican businessman, who is hardly a natural politician and has long struggled to match Obama's ability to inspire excitement.

In Virginia, for example, Republican leaning counties appear to be getting the fastest start on absentee voting ahead of Election Day. State Board of Elections data analyzed by the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonprofit and nonpartisan tracker of money in state politics, shows that of the 25 localities where absentee voting is busiest, 21 voted Republican in the 2008 presidential race. And of the 25 localities where absentee balloting is the slowest so far, 16 supported Obama.

Romney seems to be feeding off the energy pumping through his now-sprawling crowds, even as aides downplay the newfound momentum among the GOP base

.

"I'm overwhelmed by the number of people here," he exulted while scanning the sea of supporters packed beyond the fairgrounds fences here. "There are even people out there - that's another county over there."

Continue Reading...

State Dept. Confirms: Marines Were Guarding U.S. Embassy On 9/11--In Barbados

(CNSNews.com) -- When terrorists attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11 of this year and killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, there were no U.S. Marines deployed in Libya to defend U.S. diplomats, diplomatic facilities and classified information and equipment.

However, says the State Department, a Marine Security Detachment was deployed on that day to carry out those duties at the U.S. Embassy in Bridgetown, Barbados.

“U.S. Marine Security Guards serve at the U.S. Embassy in Bridgetown, and at other diplomatic missions around the world, to protect and safeguard American diplomacy,” Rebecca Ross, the U.S. Embassy to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Counselor for Public Affairs, said in a statement to CNSNews.com.

“On September 11, 2012, our U.S. Marine Security Detachment carried out its regular duties which include providing internal security, preventing the compromise of classified information and equipment, and providing protection for U.S. citizens and property located within official U.S. facilities,” Ross said.

On August 16, less than a month before the terrorists struck the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, the U.S. Marine Security Guard Force in Barbados led a physical fitness test for young athletes.

Continue Reading...

BIDEN AND OBAMA AREN’T PART OF THE WHITE HOUSE, WHICH IS NOT PART OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION

Not Part of Administration

Courtesy of The Hill, a stunning admission from the White House:

The White House on Friday said Vice President Biden was speaking for himself and President Obama when he said the administration was unaware of additional requests for security in Libya.

“He was speaking directly for himself and for the president,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said at his daily briefing.

The explanation came after Biden made waves during his debate with GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan by indicating the administration was unaware of requests by State Department officials for additional security in Libya.

Oh, so the Obama White House isn’t part of the Obama Administration? And “The White House” is an organization distinct from B. Hussein Obama and J. Biden? They’re just a couple of guys the “White House” occasionally meets for drinks after work? You learn the most amazing things listening to Jay Carney.

The staggering incompetence of the Obama Administration has rocked even some of their media supporters. The best thing they can do at this point is try to downplay the significance of what Obama, Biden, and their spokespeople are saying. They report the news as quickly as possible, in the softest whisper they can manage, and hope readers don’t absorb the import of what they’re saying.

Some reporters are doing nice work on the Benghazi debacle, but Big Media, as a whole, is not building a “narrative” that ties it all together, they way they most certainly would for a Republican administration. If Vice President Sarah Palin had tried to excuse patently false statements made during a debate, concerning a debacle that claimed the lives of four Americans, by claiming that she and President John McCain really weren’t part of the McCain Administration, you’d be seeing 24/7 “America in Crisis” news coverage of it all weekend.

Leaving the Administration’s deceits unconnected by a narrative thread allows ridiculous falsehoods to be taken as serious responses. Obama’s people keep insisting that they’ve been calmly and rationally “investigating” the Benghazi attack, and releasing the best information they have at each given moment. That’s nonsense – they haven’t “released” anything since the “spontaneous video protest” fantasy. All the valid information Americans have about the Benghazi attack has come from investigative reporting and Congressional oversight. The Administration hasn’t given us the truth; we’ve taken it from them.

Via: Human Events

Continue Reading...

Administration can't get its story straight on taxes

President Obama says he will raise taxes on "the rich" at year's end - even though his vice president contradicted him during the debate.

The Obama administration said on Friday it has not changed its stance on letting tax rates rise at year-end for high-income Americans, despite comments from Vice President Joe Biden in Thursday night's debate that seemed to suggest a shift.

"Our position on the Bush tax cuts has not changed," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Friday, referring to the expiration in 2013 of tax cuts enacted a decade ago under Republican President George W. Bush.

President Barack Obama, a Democrat, favors letting the Bush-era rates expire for families making $250,000 or more. For these taxpayers, income above that level would be taxed at 36 percent and then, if their income reaches another threshold, at 39.6 percent under the Obama plan. That income is now taxed at 33 percent and 35 percent under the Bush-era rates.

Biden said in the debate that tax cuts could sunset for taxpayers making $1 million or more a year.

Describing the administration's tax plan, Biden said: "The middle class will pay less and people making a million dollars or more will begin to contribute slightly more."

"Just let taxes expire like they are supposed to on those millionaires," Biden said later in the debate.

"We can't afford $800 billion going to people who (are) making a minimum of $1 million," he said.

Via: American Thinker

Continue Reading...

Newt: It’s ‘Clear’ That Obama Team Had Biden Lie About Benghazi

Former Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich took to Twitter on Saturday morning to weigh in on the week’s vice presidential debate, bluntly attacking the Obama administration for what he sees as a deliberate and intentional lie about the fatal attack in Benghazi, Libya that resulted in the deaths of ambassador Chris Stevens, among other Americans and Libyans.

Here’s what he had to say:

You’ll recall that VP Joe Biden denied that he and the President had had knowledge of repeated requests to the State Department for increased security in Libya.

Gingrich later added that, in the next two presidential debates, the number one goal should be “getting to truth.”

Continue Reading...

ORGS FILING SUIT AGAINST HHS MANDATE DEBUNK BIDEN'S DEBATE DEFENSE

In a statement released on Friday, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty announced that some of the leading Catholic institutions in the United States are filing a brief in support of the Becket Fund’s appeal to the D.C. Circuit on behalf of Wheaton College and Belmont Abbey College as they challenge the HHS mandate.

The Becket Fund represents many of the religious institutions and Catholic organizations currently suing the Obama administration over the mandate that requires all employers, including religious institutions, to provide free contraception, sterilization, and abortifacients to all their employees through their health insurance plans. In its press release, the Fund indicates that The Catholic University of America, the Catholic Archbishop of Washington, D.C., and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. have all urged the courts, in their brief, to address the violation of religious liberty as presented in the HHS mandate.

According to the Becket Fund, the brief filed by these Catholic institutions “comes less than one day after the Vice President of the United States stated” during his debate with Congressman Paul Ryan:

[L]et me make it absolutely clear. No religious institution—Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital—none has to either refer for contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact. That is a fact.

“But the facts are exactly the reverse,” asserted Kyle Duncan, General Counsel of the Becket Fund. “Under the mandate, nearly every Catholic hospital, charity, university, and diocese in the United States—along with millions of institutions of other faiths—must refer for, must pay for, and must act as a vehicle for contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs. If they do not, they face millions in fines. That is a fact.”

In addition to the Catholic institutions, thirteen states, The Cato Institute, the American Civil Rights Union, The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Center for Law and Justice, and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, among others, have also filed on Friday on behalf of Wheaton and Belmont Abbey colleges.

Currently, there are now over 35 separate lawsuits that challenge the HHS mandate.

Continue Reading...

AP Fact-Checker Bulldozes Through Biden Falsehoods

WASHINGTON (AP) — Anyone who paid attention to a hearing in Congress this week knew that the administration had been implored to beef up security at the U.S. Consulate in Libya before the deadly terrorist attack there. But in the vice presidential debate Thursday night, Joe Biden seemed unaware.

"We weren't told they wanted more security there," the vice president asserted flatly. During a night in which Biden and Republican rival Paul Ryan both drifted from the facts on a range of domestic and foreign issues, that was a standout.

A look at some of their claims:

BIDEN: "Well, we weren't told they wanted more security there. We did not know they wanted more security again. And by the way, at the time we were told exactly — we said exactly what the intelligence community told us that they knew. That was the assessment. And as the intelligence community changed their view, we made it clear they changed their view."

RYAN: "There were requests for more security."

THE FACTS: Ryan is right, judging by testimony from Obama administration officials at the hearing a day earlier.

Charlene R. Lamb, a deputy assistant secretary for diplomatic security, told lawmakers she refused requests for more security in Benghazi, saying the department wanted to train Libyans to protect the consulate. "Yes, sir, I said personally I would not support it," she said.

Eric Nordstrom, who was the top security official in Libya earlier this year, testified he was criticized for seeking more security. He said conversations he had with people in Washington led him to believe that it was "abundantly clear we were not going to get resources until the aftermath of an incident. How thin does the ice have to get before someone falls through?"

He said his exasperation reached a point where he told a colleague that "for me the Taliban is on the inside of the building."

Via: Associated Press

Continue Reading...

Unreal: Florida Passes Plan For Racially-Based Academic Goals, Asian Students Expected To Be Top Performers, Blacks Last…

Palm Beach, Fla. (CBS TAMPA) – The Florida State Board of Education passed a plan that sets goals for students in math and reading based upon their race.

On Tuesday, the board passed a revised strategic plan that says that by 2018, it wants 90 percent of Asian students, 88 percent of white students, 81 percent of Hispanics and 74 percent of black students to be reading at or above grade level. For math, the goals are 92 percent of Asian kids to be proficient, whites at 86 percent, Hispanics at 80 percent and blacks at 74 percent. It also measures by other groupings, such as poverty and disabilities, reported the Palm Beach Post.

The plan has infuriated many community activists in Palm Beach County and across the state.

“To expect less from one demographic and more from another is just a little off-base,” Juan Lopez, magnet coordinator at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Riviera Beach, told the Palm Beach Post.

JFK Middle has a black student population of about 88 percent.

“Our kids, although they come from different socioeconomic backgrounds, they still have the ability to learn

,” Lopez said. “To dumb down the expectations for one group, that seems a little unfair.”

Others in the community agreed with Lopez’s assessment. But the Florida Department of Education said the goals recognize that not every group is starting from the same point and are meant to be ambitious but realistic.

As an example, the percentage of white students scoring at or above grade level (as measured by whether they scored a 3 or higher on the reading FCAT) was 69 percent in 2011-2012, according to the state. For black students, it was 38 percent, and for Hispanics, it was 53 percent.

In addition, State Board of Education Chairwoman Kathleen Shanahan said that setting goals for different subgroups was needed to comply with terms of a waiver that Florida and 32 other states have from some provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. These waivers were used to make the states independent from some federal regulations.

Continue Reading...

Oil and gas production just keep falling under President Obama

President Obama certainly knows how to talk a good game when it comes to energy policy; to the low-information layman, “all of the above” sounds like a superficially excellent plan. Work on green energy development, but keep the traditional fuel production comin’ — it’s the best of both worlds, right? Except that that’s not what the Obama administration has done at all. While the feds have poured billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars into picking economic winners and losers in the clean-energy field, Obama’s EPA/Energy/Interior team have waged a regulatory war on the coal industry and only allowed for relatively scant permitting for drilling projects.

Obama & Co. are big fans of taking credit for the increase in oil production that’s taking place on the domestic scene right now, but the credit is actually due to permits issued under President Bush (one of the few things he’s unwilling to credit to the “previous administration,” heh) and increased production on private and state lands. As Daniel Kishdetailed in USNews yesterday, the Energy Information Administration recently released itsAnnual Energy Review 2011, and it demonstrates just how much Obama’s policy isn’t so much “all of the above” as “nothing from below”:

In reality, data shows that oil and gas production is actually falling on federal lands. Offshore oil production was the lowest since 2008, and natural gas production on federal lands was the lowest since 2003. Coal production on federal lands has fallen as well. Coal production was the lowest since 2006. Energy Information Administration also reports that 2011 had the highest average price for gasoline in U.S. history, and 2009-2011 has seen the highest average real electricity prices since the early 1990s.

(Read Full Article)

Via: CA Political Review

Continue Reading...

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)