Conservative Happenings

Saturday, October 20, 2012

POLL: ROMNEY'S OHIO FAVORABLES UP 30 SINCE FEBRUARY

Public Policy Polling announced Saturday afternoon that presidential candidate Mitt Romney has seen a 30-point upward swing in his favorability ratings in the state of Ohio since February.

The numbers were juxtaposed in a succinct Twitter update:

The 21-point increase in those who favor the former Massachusetts Governor suggests more than half of the 16% undecided from the February figure, once exposed to him directly through the Republican National Convention and presidential debates, have adopted a positive view of the GOP challenger.

Even if all those who are currently undecided come from the 9% who used to have an unfavorable view of Romney, that would mean all 16% of former undecideds have swung to a positive view of the candidate along with 5% of those formerly unfavorable.

The complete poll shows Romney with a 47% favorable rating among independents, 41% unfavorable, and 12% unsure. Among that same group, the February numbers had Romney at 30% favorable and 53% unfavorable -- a 29-point net positive shift.

Via: Breitbart

Bill Clinton: “Impatient” Americans Haven’t Recognized How Awesome A Job Obama Has Done Yet…

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Former President Bill Clinton said Friday that President Barack Obama is facing a tough re-election race because "impatient" Americans haven't fully recognized an economy on the mend.

Campaigning for Obama in Green Bay, Wis., Clinton urged voters to stay the course as more signs of a recovery sink in. Clinton said voters should judge Obama on the past three years, in which private sector job growth has made up for lost ground.

"This shouldn't be a race," Clinton said. "The only reason it is, is because Americans are impatient on things not made before yesterday and they don't understand why the economy is not totally hunky-dory again."

The former president said Obama's difficulty in his race with Republican challenger Mitt Romney is that "people don't feel it yet" even as the unemployment rate ticks down and the manufacturing sector perks up. Clinton said Obama deserves credit for stabilizing a situation that saw the country hemorrhage jobs well into his first year.

"Gov. Romney acts like from the minute the president took his hand off the Bible he was responsible for every lost job," Clinton said.

Everywhere he goes, Romney argues that the tepid recovery is grounds for a change. The shape of the economy consistently tops lists of voter concerns.

A local police official said 2,200 turned out to hear Clinton at a college fieldhouse. Clinton won Wisconsin in both of his presidential campaigns.

Republicans think they can flip the state, which hasn't gone to them since 1984. Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan is on Romney's ticket and has campaigned heavily in the state in the past few months.

Via: Fox News

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Top 10 Wasteful Government Programs

The Motley Fool, a financial publication with a sense of humor, recently compiled a list of the top 10 wasteful government-funded programs.

The first on the list was originally reported by The Daily Caller’s Paul Conner.

1. There’s an app for that

So many wasteful programs, I hardly know where to begin! How about with $100,000 in prizes offered by the Department of Energy to develop an energy app that would help users track their energy usage in their home. It’s a novel idea as our energy resources are finite and the DOE has pushed both consumers and businesses to utilize the available green energy subsidies available to them. However, there’s just one slight problem with the DOE contest: Apps that do this already exist — at least five of them to be exact. Perhaps someone should invest in an app that tracks apps for the DOE?

2. Alms for the rich

Just because you made $66 billion in net revenue doesn’t mean you won’t take a handout when one is offered… right PepsiCo. (NYSE: PEP ) ? According to Coburn’s report, Pepsi and Theo Muller Group are teaming up to open a yogurt manufacturing facility at the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park in New York. Unable to use the supplied municipal water in the yogurt-making process, or the $4.2 billion in cash on its balance sheet, Pepsi gladly accepted slightly more than $1.3 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Commerce to build a new aquifer-direct water supply system, a new road leading to the plant, and to improve the parks’ wastewater capacity.

Via: Daily Caller

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Report: 2,000 Dead People Received Food Stamps

(CNSNews.com) – New York and Massachusetts are administering food stamps to 2,000 dead people, according to Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) catalog of government waste.

The 2012 Waste Book, released earlier this week, documents $4.5 billion in waste in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps.

Among his findings, Coburn said that, “The USDA Inspector General found roughly 2,000 dead people are still receiving food stamps in New York and Massachusetts combined.”

“Additionally, its investigation revealed 7,236 people in these states are receiving duplicate benefits, while 286 are on state lists that should exclude them from receiving food stamps,” the report said, amounting to $1.4 million in unnecessary payments each month, or $147.03 for each recipient, dead or alive.

But the waste in SNAP does not end there, as Coburn found that individuals who smoke marijuana can receive added benefits.

“In three states,” Coburn writes, “some individuals received more food stamp benefits simply because they smoke marijuana.”

Under the section “More money for the marijuana munchies,” the Oklahoma Senator detailed how some states previously offered a deduction for pot smokers.

Marijuana cigarettes and marijuana pipe. (AP)

“Marijuana has been linked to an increased appetite, known as getting the ‘munchies,’ so perhaps it is no surprise the states of Maine, New Mexico, and Oregon gave extra food stamp benefits to users of the illegal drug,” the report states.

It continues: “These states allowed some marijuana users to deduct the cost of the drug from their income when determining the amount of the benefits provided for which they are eligible. In Oregon, the deduction ‘[i]ncluded … fees for obtaining a state-issued medical marijuana card, expenses incurred while cultivating marijuana and the costs of purchasing it from a third-party grower.’”

Via: CNS News

Wrong For Virginia Briefing Book

OBAMANOMICS: WRONG FOR VIRGINIA

Unemployed: Virginia Has 255,343 Unemployed Seeking Work. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Accessed 10/18/12)

Failed Stimulus Jobs: Since The Stimulus Passed, Virginia Has Lost 25,300 Construction Jobs And 20,700 Manufacturing Jobs. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Accessed 10/18/12)

Median Household Income: Under Obama, Median Household Income In Virginia Has Declined From $63,974 To $61,882. (U.S. Census Bureau, Accessed 10/18/12)

National Debt: Since Obama Took Office, Each Virginians Share Of The National Debt Has Increased By $18,029 To A Total Of $52,448. (US Department Of The Treasury,TreasuryDirect.gov, Accessed 10/18/12)

College Tuition: The Average Student Graduating From A Four-Year College Institution In Virginia Has $24,717 Of Debt. (Project On Student Debt, Accessed 10/18/12)

Tax Hikes: Obama’s Plan To Raise Taxes Would Cost Virginia 19,900 Jobs. (Drs. Robert Carroll and Gerald Prante, “Long-Run Macroeconomic Impact Of Increasing Tax Rates On High-Income Taxpayers In 2013,” Ernst & Young LLP, 7/12)

Obama’s Plan To Raise Taxes Would Cost Virginia $5.8 Billion In Lost Economic Output. (Drs. Robert Carroll and Gerald Prante, “Long-Run Macroeconomic Impact Of Increasing Tax Rates On High-Income Taxpayers In 2013,” Ernst & Young LLP, 7/12)

Gas Prices: Since The Week Obama Took Office, The Average Price Per Gallon Of Gas In Virginia Has Increased From $1.703 To $3.566. (“Current State Averages,” Fuel Gauge Report, 1/16/09; “Current State Averages,” Fuel Gauge Report, 9/22/12)

Food Stamps: Since Obama Took Office, The Number Of People In Virginia Receiving Food Stamps Has Increased By 48 Percent. (“Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program: Number Of Persons Participating ,” Food Research And Action Center, Accessed 8/10/12; “Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program: Number Of Persons Participating,” USDA Food And Nutrition Service, Accessed 10/18/12)

Poverty: Under Obama, 137,883 More People In Virginia Have Fallen Into Poverty.(“Poverty: 2007 And 2008,” U.S. Census Bureau, 10/11; “Poverty: 2010 And 2011,” U.S. Census Bureau, 9/12)

Via: GOP.com

Liberal Lawlessness Exposed In Opposition to Voter ID Laws

Here is a law professor, admittedly from a Los Angeles, California Loyola Law School, where conservative Republicans are an extinct species of homo sapiens, and the usurper occupying our White House is deemed the savior of the modern world; or what will be left of it when the savior has completed destroying it.

This law professor, named Rick Hasen, offers proof that Democrats are the villains behind the drive to create a clear field of lawlessness for fraudulent voting procedures with little to no identification requirements to prove that an individual has a legal right to cast a voting ballot.

To imagine that a professor of law employed in a school of law is a champion of no law at the ballot box seems to be an unorthodox paradox. A person of law advocating the suppression of law that would assure an honest and legitimate election process? What has this liberal Democratic world savior got in his Kool Aid for the masses?

This Rick Hasen states in an online blog dated August 24, 2012 that this “successful Republican effort to create an illusion of a voter fraud epidemic used to justify a host of laws, especially tough new state voter identification requirements, with the aim to suppress Democratic turnout and to excite the Republican base about “stolen”

Via: Canada Free Press

OBAMA'S 'WAR ON WOMEN' AT THE HARVARD LAW REVIEW

When Barack Obama was president of the Harvard Law Review, he faced a heated battle with the law school's Women’s Law Association (WLA) because women comprised only 25% of the editors selected for the Review during his tenure.

At that time, the Review’s president (with the help of two other editors) oversaw the selection of the new editors of the journal. All Harvard Law students were eligible to apply to the Review at the end of their first year by entering its writing competition, which involved editing an article and/or writing a case comment. New editors were chosen through one of three ways: through their writing competition scores; via a combination of 70% grades and 30% writing scores; or through a supplemental method that included affirmative action.

Obama sparked a heated controversy when 27 men, but only 9 women, were selected for the Review. He blamed the result on an insufficient number of women choosing to compete for editorial slots. The arithmetic flaw with Obama’s defense was that women were 40% of the Harvard Law class, 37% of the competitors, and yet only 25% of the editors Obama selected. Under the prior president of the Review (Peter Yu), women were also 37% of the writing competitors but were 41% of selectees. Under Obama’s successor (David Ellen), 37% of the new editors were women. Therefore, among these three successive male editors of the Review (two of whom were minorities), only Obama had a dramatic underrepresentation of women editors.

Via: Breitbart

OBAMA’S PANDERING TO WOMEN FALLS SHORT

President Barack Obama is straining to woo women voters to support him for reelection in spite of his sketchy record when it comes to issues affecting females.

Obama was asked during this week’s debate how he would “rectify the inequalities in the workplace, specifically regarding females making only 72 percent of what their male counterparts earn?”

The president claimed to have “fixed” that problem with the first bill he signed into law – the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

”It’s named after this amazing woman who had been doing the same job as a man for years, found out that she was getting paid less, and the Supreme Court said that she couldn’t bring suit because she should have found about it earlier, whereas she had no way of finding out about it. So we fixed that,” Obama said.

How does the new law guarantee equal pay, as its title suggests? By amending the Civil Rights Act to reconfigure the statue of limitations for filing a discrimination lawsuit.

And although Obama preaches equal pay for women, he doesn’t do so when it comes to his own staff.

Men working in the Obama White House last year made an average of $71,000 a year, 18 percent more than women who averaged $60,000 a year. Of the 21 staffers earning the top income of $172,200 annually, only seven were women. At the bottom of the rung, 51 staffers earned the lowest salary of $42,000 – 30 were women.

Via: Human Events

Friday, October 19, 2012

Wasserman Schultz On Why Obama Seems To Be Ignoring North Carolina: ‘This Is A Big Country’

During an interview with a local North Carolina news station, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultzwas asked why President Barack Obama has not traveled to the Tar Heel State in several weeks. “This is a big country,” was Wasserman Schultz’s reply.

Wasserman Schultz traveled to North Carolina to rally college students to support President Obama this week. When asked why the president himself has not traveled to the Tar Heel State in several weeks, Wasserman Schulz reminded reporters that first lady Michelle Obama and Vice PresidentJoe Biden have made recent appearances in North Carolina.

“This is a big country,” Wasserman Schultz said.

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign made news over the week when they announced they werepulling resources out of North Carolina and repositioning them elsewhere in more heavily contested battlegrounds. The move signals that the Romney campaign is comfortable that this state would vote for the Republican presidential candidate in November.

Watch the clip below via Fox 8 North Carolina:

Via: Mediaite

RNC Has $83 Million Cash On Hand, DNC Takes Out Loan

Heading into the final weeks of the 2012 campaign, the Republican National Committee announced that it raised $48.4 million in the month of September and has $82.6 million in the bank. The Democratic National Committee, meanwhile, took $10.5 million in loans and raised less than half the RNC’s total last month — $20.3 million.

As of September 30, the DNC reported having $4.6 million cash on hand and $20.5 million in debt. $5.5 million of its debt is due to consulting services like pollsters, direct mail providers and events consulting firms.

The RNC’s large September haul came amid a disappointing month for Mitt Romney in the public polls, suggesting that the party’s October fundraising totals will outpace those in September.

President Barack Obama and the Democratic committees had a stronger fundraising month in September, raising $181 million to Romney’s and the GOP committees’ $170 million. However, the Democratic party spent heavily in the summer and early fall.

“While we continue to put money into our ground game and fully fund our absentee ballot, early vote and Election Day GOTV efforts in all our battleground states, our historic cash on hand figure also allows us to continue funding our independent expenditure committee, run highly effective hybrid ads and assist in electing Republicans across the country at all levels,” RNC chairman Reince Priebustold POLITICO.

Via: Mediaite

Mitt proved himself at the Alfred E. Smith dinner

Now, this Mitt Romney is a guy I would love to have in my living room for the next 8 years. He has amazing poise, timing and grace...without a teleprompter. A pleasant, warm and engaging voice, which amply shows real feeling; you know there is a human soul in him.

Romney is aptly serious about serious things, but without taking himself so seriously that he pretends to be a god. Perhaps this man, as president, could even restore to our public life a nearly forgotten virtue: genuine humility. One senses that President Mitt Romney would serve Americans, rather than expecting Americans to serve him. What a refreshing change that would be!

And, from the female perspective, this guy, Mitt Romney, is very easy on the eyes, with charm and a rather mischievous glint in his eye that belies the picture of him as the out-of-touch plutocrat with ice water in his veins, a portrait guilefully painted by Obama and his media shills.

Via: American Thinker

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Iacocca: America needs a turnaround, which is why I'm voting Romney

I've seen a lot of situations that needed a turnaround in my time, and I know one when I see one. Trust me, America needs a turnaround.

America is in deep trouble. After four years, economic growth is still anemic, our annual deficits were not cut in half as promised, and our staggering $16 trillion federal debt hangs over us and our kids like the plague. Our people are hurting, they can't find jobs, they have lost a major part of their net worth, the number of Americans living in poverty is at unacceptable levels, and we just aren't doing the things that would get our country back on the right track.

Like any turnaround it must begin by honestly facing our problems; hope and speeches won't get our people back to work. It will require experienced leadership that can create and lead policy change that will enable a more robust and competitive America. We need leadership that understands that government, just like American families, can't continue to spend beyond its means. We must find leadership that won't pander to the people, but rather will speak honestly to them about our situation, explaining in simple terms what we have to do to get back on the right track. And we need leadership that can bring us together in a sense of shared responsibility so that we can move forward as a team. All of us. As Americans.

America needs new leadership

Mitt Romney has successfully led both public and private sector turnarounds. He is a bright and successful man; he is a good man, a caring man, a man of integrity, family and faith. Importantly, he recognizes we are in a tough situation. With dozens of years of real world experience in the public and private sectors, he knows what he's talking about. His policies will enable a stronger America, one in which all Americans can share. He was groomed and trained for this moment.

Via: The Detroit News

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It does not get any better than this!!!

FOX NEWS DOMINATION CONTINUES

CABLE NEWS RACE
THURSDAY OCTOBER 18, 2012

FOXNEWS O'REILLY 3,865,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 3,729,000
CMDY DAILY SHOW 2,806,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 2,753,000
FOXNEWS BAIER 2,567,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 2,355,000
FOXNEWS FIVE 2,242,000
CMDY COLBERT 1,912,000
MSNBC MADDOW 1,839,000
MSNBC O'DONNELL 1,557,000
MSNBC HARDBALL 1,119,000
MSNBC SHARPTON 1,092,000
CNN PIERS 894,000
CNN COOPER 662,000

GOP sees food fight as kids trash USDA fruit, vegetable guidelines

House Republicans say new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines aimed at forcing students to eat fruits and vegetables are a failure because students across the country are simply tossing the healthy fare into the trash.

"[T]here remains great concern with the amount of food waste generated at school cafeterias, much of it brought on by requiring students to take fruits and vegetables rather than simply offer them," Reps. John Kline (R-Minn.), Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) and Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) told USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack in a letter sent Thursday.

"This is a waste of federal, state and local funds and is contrary to the law's goal of feeding as many low-income and hungry children as possible," they said. "Once again, we are aware USDA has attempted to address this situation by allowing greater choice in reimbursable meals, but students should not have to take additional food if they have no intention of eating it."

Republicans have been criticizing USDA school lunch guidelines for the last few months, in particular USDA rules that set maximum-calorie guidelines for all meals subsidized by taxpayers. Last month, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) introduced the No Hungry Kids Act, which would repeal these calorie restrictions.

Via: The Hill

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Poll: Obama Is Even Less Popular Than Before 2010 Midterms…

The latest polling from Rasmussen Reports shows that President Obama’s net approval rating is lower today than it was two years ago. Today, Obama’s net approval rating among likely voters is minus-3 percentage points (48 percent approval to 51 percent disapproval), while his net approval rating among those who feel “strongly” (either way) is minus-14 points (29 percent approval to 43 percent disapproval). On October 19, 2010, Obama’s net approval rating was minus-1 point (49 percent approval to 50 percent disapproval), while his net approval rating among those who felt “strongly” was minus-10 points (30 approval to 40 percent disapproval).

So, over the past two years, Obama’s net approval rating has dropped 2 points (from minus-1 to minus-3), while his net approval rating among those who feel “strongly” has dropped 4 points (from minus-10 to minus-14).

In 2010, of course, Obama and his party’s low approval ratings, stemming mostly their having passed Obamacare against the clear will of the American people, led to the Republicans’ biggest electoral gains in the House of Representatives since before the release of Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart’s 1939 classic, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. In that exceptional film, Jefferson Smith (Stewart’s character) reminds us, “Liberty is too precious a thing to be buried in books.”

Via: Weekly Standard

Romney Outpolling Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and Obama At Same Point In Their Victorious Election Bids…

According to the latest Gallup survey, Mitt Romney is polling 52% of likely voters. At this point in the race he is ahead of:

Where Jimmy Carter was in 1976 (47%)

Where Ronald Reagan was in 1980 (39% -- Carter was six points up)

Where George H.W. Bush was in 1988 (50%)

Where Bill Clinton was in 1992 (40%)

Where George W. Bush was in 2000 (48%)

Where Barack Obama was in 2008 (49%)

Via: Washington Times

Ahead Of Election, Obama Stops Releasing “Stimulus” Bill Reports As Required By Law…

The $831,000,000,000 economic “stimulus” that President Obama spearheaded and signed into law requires his administration to release quarterly reports on its effects. But “the most transparent administration in the history of our country” is now four reports behind schedule and has so far not released any reports whatsoever in 2012. Its most recent quarterly report is for the quarter than ended on June 30, 2011.

Barack Obama speaks about national security 2009-05-21

One wonders how the administration would treat a private citizen who acted like such a scofflaw in response to one of Obama’s principal legislative initiatives. It certainly appears that this administration, which is so very fond of regulating Americans’ lives — witness the 13,000 pages of Obamacare regulations it has already penned — doesn’t hold itself accountable to the same set of rules that it’s so eager to compel the American people to obey.

Section 1513 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the “stimulus”) explicitly states, “In consultation with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the Secretary of the Treasury, the Chairperson of the Council of Economic Advisers shall submit quarterly reports to the Committees on Appropriations of the Senate and House of Representatives that detail the impact of programs funded through covered funds on employment, estimated economic growth, and other key economic indicators.” (The head of the Council of Economic Advisors, currently Alan Krueger, is appointed by the president, confirmed by the Senate, and works within the Executive Office of the President. He is the president’s chief economic adviser.)

Indeed, the old reports that the administration released begin, “As part of the unprecedented accountability and transparency provisions included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) was charged with providing to Congress quarterly reports on the effects of the Recovery Act on overall economic activity, and on employment in particular.”

Section 1513 of the ARRA further specifies, “The first report…shall be submitted not later than 45 days after the end of the first full quarter following the date of enactment of this Act….The last report required to be submitted…shall apply to the quarter in which the [Recovery Accountability and Transparency] Board terminates under section 1530.” Section 1530 declares, “The Board shall terminate on September 30, 2013.”

Via: Weekly Standard

POLL: CALIFORNIA WARMING TO WISCONSIN-STYLE REFORMS

California voters, tired of the state’s tax increases, are increasingly leaning toward Wisconsin-like reforms that encourage austerity. California's Proposition 30 and Proposition 32, two propositions that raise taxes, are too close to call, according to a new Reason-Rupe statewide poll.

Adjusted for inflation, California’s government spending rose 42 percent per capita from 2000 to 2010, but only 14 percent of likely voters believe that the rise in spending improved the quality of life in the state. 52 percent say the state spending so much actuallydecreased the quality of life. Now, 56 percent of Californians favor cutting state government spending to what was spent per capita in 2000.

Even though the poll sampled 44 percent Democrats and only 26 percent Republicans and 24 percent independents, a whopping 62 percent of those polled support reducing the number of state government employees.

59 percent said government regulations often do more harm than good. 65 percent believe the state’s laws and regulations make it more likely that businesses will pick up and move to other states. 77 percent say they want government workers to pay more for their own health care and retirement benefits.

California is teetering on the edge of the financial cliff. The question is: will the growing awareness of the virtues of austerity be too little, too late? And if the public wises up, will they throw out the Democratic legislature that’s been responsible?

Via: Breitbart

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Public Policy Polling announced Saturday afternoon that presidential candidate Mitt Romney has seen a 30-point upward swing in his favorability ratings in the state of Ohio since February.

When Barack Obama was president of the Harvard Law Review, he faced a heated battle with the law school's Women’s Law Association (WLA) because women comprised only 25% of the editors selected for the Review during his tenure.

Friday, October 19, 2012

America needs new leadership

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