#GOPDEBATE: 27 Questions For The First GOP Presidential Debate

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  On Thursday, 10 of the 17 Republican presidential contenders will take the stage in Cleveland for the first GOP debate, hosted by Fox News. What follows are 27 questions for the debate: Seven general question for all the candidates and two specific queries for each of 10 participants.
  General Questions For Everyone
  • Name a figure outside of politics who you would consider nominating to your Cabinet. What would you nominate them for and why?
  • President Barack Obama is often criticized for playing too much golf. What is appropriate amount of leisure time for an American president?
  • Who is the smartest liberal writer you read?
  • Libertarian tech billionaire Peter Thiel says he always asks potential hires, “What is one thing you believe to be true that most do not?” How would you respond?
  • What policy does another country get right that we would be well served to adopt in our country?
  • Do you believe President Obama is a bad person, or just politically misguided?
  • What three books most influenced your political worldview?
  Questions For Donald Trump
  
  
  Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/05/27-questions-for-the-first-gop-presidential-debate/#ixzz3hxiot9gEYou’ve explained that you donated campaign funds to liberal Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi in order to get them to do business-related favors for you. As you put it recently, “when you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do.” What, specifically, did Clinton and Pelosi do for you in exchange for your donations?

• Your plan for defeating ISIS consists mainly of “bomb[ing] the hell” out of the oil fields the terror group controls. Considering you have no military experience, what military experts or former military officers did you consult on your plan? What did they say?

Questions For Jeb Bush

• Some conservatives criticize you for being MIA during the major political battles of the Obama years. Why were you so silent? Why didn’t you, for instance, forcefully speak out against Obamacare at the time it was being debated?

• Some Republican foreign policy thinkers have criticized you for your association with former Secretary of State James Baker. What is the best piece of foreign policy advice he has given you? Is there any advice he has given you that you profoundly disagree with?

Questions For Scott Walker

• Governor, you have been all over the board on immigration. At one point you favored a pathway to citizenship for America’s illegal immigrant population, then this year you came out against it, then we hear you may have told donors that you still support it, which your campaign then denied. Let’s try to get some clarity: Could you ever imagine supporting a pathway to citizenship for any portion of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants currently residing in this country? If not a pathway to citizenship, what about any type of pathway to legalization that would allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country, albeit without the possibility of obtaining citizenship?

• How do you distinguish yourself on foreign policy from some of your rivals, particularly Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio?

Questions For Marco Rubio

• One criticism of you is that while you are an impressive orator, you really haven’t accomplished all that much besides getting elected to various political offices at a young age. What are your top three professional accomplishments?

• Do you regret supporting the intervention in Libya? If you think America’s intervention in Libya was merely a failure of implementation, what exactly would you have done differently to ensure that Libya became a flourishing liberal democracy instead of a failed state and a terrorist safe haven?

Questions For Rand Paul

• People are still uncertain whether you are all that different from your father on foreign policy. Since World War II, do you believe American actions abroad, on balance, have ultimately been a force for good or a force for ill?

• In 2013, you told Breitbart News that if you were president, “any attack on Israel will be treated as an attack on the United States.” I imagine that struck some of your more libertarian supporters as a strange position for you to take, to put it nicely. So explain to them why an attack on Israel should be considered an attack on the United States.

Questions For Ted Cruz

• On July 25, 2013, you — not a staff member, you — appeared on Sean Hannity’s radio show and said that those who didn’t support your Defund Obamacare strategy were part of the Republican “surrender caucus.” Do you really consider someone like former Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn an enabler of Obamacare because he opposed your strategy, which he and many others viewed as quixotic, on efficacy grounds?

• If reports are to be believed, you are not very well liked by most of your Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle. While you might say this is a good thing — i.e. you are standing up to the Washington establishment — how could you possibly get anything accomplished as president if you are unable to work effectively with Congress?

Via: The Daily Caller

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IndieGoGo Hosts Fundraiser for Accused Memphis Cop Killer and Family

Supporters of Tremain Wilbourn, the Memphis ex-con accused of shooting Officer Sean Bolton when he interrupted a drug deal on Saturday night, have started an IndieGoGo campaign to funnel money to him and his family.

Wilbourn turned himself in after a two-day manhunt. “I want you to know that one, I’m not a cold-blooded killer and two, I am not a coward,” he reportedly told Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong. The campaign repeats his claims and says that cops are waging “terrorism” on black communities, and so they have to support ex-cons who kill.

The description of the campaign reads in full:

This year, police have killed 558 people. 68% of those people were black. Most of them were unarmed. Police brutality and terrorism on the black community remains largely unchecked and less than 1% of those police officers who murder black people without cause are charged with murder or manslaughter.

Tremaine Wilbourn turned himself in to police on Monday, August 3rd for fatally shooting a police officer during a traffic stop and he wanted to make clear two things: one- he is not a cold-blooded killer, and two- he is not a coward. While the murderers of Freddie Gray, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, 12 year old Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland and countless others are free to enjoy their families and lives, these men are no longer among the living.

These barbaric, unjustified murders of black men, women, and children are supported under the rule of law. We have to step up and support our people like the murderers of these men, women, and children have been supported. Please donate anything you can to support Tremaine’s children and his family during this difficult time for them.

So far, the campaign has raised $116 with 12 funders out of its stated $61,000 goal.

“We have to support our people,” the campaign’s founder, “PK EI” wrote as a comment. “If Darren Wilson can raise enough to put his children through college twice, we should be able to put together this change for Tremaine’s family.”

“We Should Always Support Our Own People, Especially When The Situation Is Grime And Questionable, Or When We Are Completely Within Our Rights. Because We Are All We have To Support Us,” reads another from user “thinkanotherway.”

The campaign declares that Wilbourn did in fact, shoot Bolton to death. If nothing else, its adherence to IndieGoGo’s community guidelines is questionable: “Indiegogo is not a place for hatred, abuse, discrimination, disrespect, profanity, meanness, harassment, or spam,” the community guidelines read. “Do no [u]se the Services to promote violence, degradation, subjugation, discrimination or hatred against individuals or groups based on race, ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity.”

IndieGoGo did kill an April campaign helping a cop accused of murder: South Carolina police officer Michael Slager, charged for shooting fleeing suspect Walter Scott to death. 

“Our Trust & Safety team regularly conducts verifications and checks and this campaign did not meet their standards,” the company said at the time.

Email Katie at kmchugh@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter: @k_mcq.

Via: Breitbart

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[VIDEO] Hillary Clinton Put on Southern Accent for South Carolina Democratic Chairman

Hillary Clinton recently sat down for a "Chair Chat" with the chairman of the South Carolina Democratic party, Jaime Harrison. During the interview, as in many of her speeches to people who live in the South, she put on a Southern accent that is absent from her speeches to Northerners.

We made a mashup of some of the most painfully pandering moments, and ranked the intensity of her accent with cowboy boots (1 = lowest, 5 = strongest).

Via: Weekly Standard

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Gov't watchdogs urge Congress to reverse Obama administration IG crackdown

WASHINGTON –  Nearly six-dozen watchdog agencies are asking Congress to step in after the Obama administration clamped down on access to government records they say are vital for their investigations into waste, fraud and abuse. 

The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency sent an Aug. 3 letter to congressional leaders ahead of a hearing scheduled for Wednesday where they will ask lawmakers to pass legislation reversing a controversial decision made July 20 by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. The OLC is now requiring investigators to get permission to review sensitive documents from the very agencies they are monitoring.

This decision, the letter said, "represents a serious threat to the independent authority" of all inspectors general. 

IGs are assigned to audit and conduct internal reviews of federal agencies, and recently have been responsible for investigating the IRS targeting scandal, TSA security gaps, personal email use at the State Department and other issues. 

The council represents about 70 IG offices across the government, including for the Federal Communications Commission, the National Security Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. While the July 20 ruling applies to the DOJ, some are worried it will prompt other departments to set similar restrictions.

DOJ spokeswoman Emily Pierce countered the claims, saying the ruling still allows investigators to get sensitive information.

Via: Fox News

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We Are No Longer A Democracy

Recently, in an interview with Thom Hartmann, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said regarding 2010 Citizens United decision and the 2014 McCutcheon decision, “It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it’s just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or being elected president.”  Huffington Post goes on to explain that the decisions were rendered by “five Republican judges on the U.S. Supreme Court.”

According to liberal left commentators, experts, political minds, and the Huffington Post, the two rulings “enable unlimited secret money (including foreign money) now to pour into U.S. political and judicial campaigns.”

The Huff Post article then goes on to explain that in politics, there are only two choices.  Either, we are an aristocracy (oligarchy) where the richest citizen’s desires are reflected in governmental actions, or we are a democracy where the leaders represent the public at large.

Upon hearing such a thing being perpetrated by the liberal left Democrats, the political minds that reside right-of-center react, attacking what Carter, or Huff Post, had to say, without fully understanding that the premise is wrong in the first place.  While fighting on the liberal left’s terms, the “right-wingers” make fools of themselves trying defend plutocratic activities and damning what the Democrats consider to be the “will of the people.”

Via Canada Free Press

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[VIDEO] Fox News announces candidate line-up for prime-time debate

Fox News has announced the line-up for the prime-time Republican presidential debate this Thursday, and here's who qualified: 

Real estate magnate Donald Trump; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio; Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. 

The roster of 10 candidates was determined based on an average of the five most recent national polls. Trump as expected made the cut, securing the top slot. Right behind him were Bush and Walker, who each have posted strong numbers in recent surveys. 

The drama, rather, was at the edge of the top 10. Christie and Kasich, who were hovering by that edge in recent polling, were able to qualify. 

Kasich, who leads the state where the debate is being held, said in a statement, "As governor, I am glad to welcome my fellow debate participants to our great state and I look forward to discussing the issues facing our country with them on Thursday." 

But former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and several others will not be on the prime-time, 9 p.m. ET stage. The seven who did not make the top 10 will be invited to a separate 5 p.m. ET debate. Aside from Perry and Santorum, this includes Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal; former HP head Carly Fiorina; South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham; former New York Gov. George Pataki; and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore. 

Via Fox News

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[VIDEO] NEW VIDEO SHOWS PLANNED PARENTHOOD DISCUSSING SELLING INTACT ABORTED BABIES

A video just released by the Center for Medical Progress taken undercover in Texas shows a Planned Parenthood research director discussing the sale of whole intact aborted babies to a company that resells them to medical researchers.

David Daleiden, head of Center for Medical Progress, claims this is clear evidence of criminal wrongdoing on the part of Planned Parenthood.

Via: Breitbart

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[VIDEO] Matthews: Trump Looks Like More of a Leader Than Obama Did at the Start

Chris Matthews said tonight that Donald Trump comes across as a “leader” more so than President Obama did when he got his start in the presidential race.

He talked about how he’s been growing “Team Trump” or a “Trump party” with his popularity and support among people like Sarah Palin.

And then Matthews even called Trump a “leader.” He said you can tell leaders by whether they have lots of people following them and said, “That was a problem with Obama for a long time. Nobody back there, just him.”

Via: Mediaite

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[VIDEO] Obama Addresses (GOP) Critics of Clean Power Plan: 'If You Care About Low-Income Minority Communities...'

(CNSNews.com) - "No challenge poses a greater threat to our future and future generations than a changing climate," President Obama said Monday in a speech announcing his plan to achieve a 32-percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by the year 2030.

He spent about a third of his speech refuting critics and "cynics who say it cannot be done."

And he managed to sneak in a plug for Obamacare while he was at it:

"Today, an African American child is more than twice as likely to be hospitalized from asthma. A Latino child is 40 percent more likely to die from asthma. So if you care about low-income minority communities, start protecting the air that they breathe, and stop trying to rob them of health care.

"And you could also expand Medicaid in your states, by the way," the president said, prompting laughter.

The Democrats' Affordable Care Act required the states to expand their Medicaid programs to cover people at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level. But two years later, in 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court said the decision to expand Medicaid programs must be left to the individual states; the federal government could not compel such expansion. To date, 20 states still have not expanded their Medicaid programs.

Although President Obama did not name the critics of his Clean Power Plan on Monday, he clearly was addressing Republicans.

"We've hear the same stale arguments before," he said. "Every time America has made progress, it's been despite these kinds of claims. Whenever America sets clear rules and smarter standards for our air, our water, our children's health, we get the same scary stories about killing jobs and businesses and freedom."

Obama then told a story about arriving in Los Angeles for college as an 18-year-old, in late August.

"I was moving from Hawaii. And I got to the campus, and I decided I had a lot of pent-up energy, and I wanted to take a run, and after about five minutes, suddenly, I had this weird feeling like I couldn't breathe. And the reason was, back in 1979, Los Angeles still was so full of smog that there were days where people who were vulnerable just could not go outside, and they were fairly frequent."

He got personal again at the end of his speech:

"I don't want my grandkids not to be able to swim in Hawaii or not to be able to climb a mountain and see glacier because we didn't do something about it. I don't want millions of people's lives disrupted and this world more dangerous because we didn't do something about it. That'd be shameful of us.

"This is our moment to get this right and leave something better for our kids. Let's make most of that opportunity."

At Monday's White House briefing, spokesman Josh Earnest said the Clean Power Plan will prompt states and individual utilities to "ramp up their investments in efficiency, ramp up their investments in renewable energy, which is cheaper to produce than energy that's produced by coal, and making those kinds of investments will lead to savings in the utility bills of customers down the line, and that is what we're focused on, both in terms of saving consumers money but also a whole set of benefits that are associated with shifting to renewable energy or the use of less energy."

President Obama refuted critics who "claim that this plan will cost you money, even though this plan, the analysis shows, will ultimately save the average American nearly $85 a year on their energy bills."

Via: CNS News

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[VIDEO] Hillary Clinton Fans Support Her Plan Of Repealing The Bill Of Rights

Via: Weasel Zippers

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U.S. Pays Black Comedian to Deliver Anti-White Racist Tirade at Fed Agency

The U.S. government paid a controversial civil rights activist/comedian to deliver an anti-white racist tirade at a major federal agency during Black History month and Judicial Watch has obtained the disturbing transcript of the offensive political rant.

It took place at the United States Census Bureau earlier this year and the paid speaker was Dick Gregory, a self-professed humanitarian and drum major for justice who claims that his social satire changed the way white Americans perceive African American comedians. But Gregory’s angry outburst at the Census Bureau was not funny to some employees and the agency was forced to explain that it will thoroughly review its procedures for selecting future speakers to “ensure their views are appropriate for the federal workplace.”

Based on Gregory’s well-known reputation as a fiery race-baiter, it’s unlikely that the government officials who booked him didn’t know about his discriminating, shock-based performances. The Census Bureau paid Gregory $1,400 to “share a wealth of history as a Civil Rights Activist,” according to the records obtained by JW under the federal public records law known as the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Instead, American taxpayers funded a disgusting stand-up routine filled with the “N word” and replete with conspiracy theories about whites and the U.S. government targeting prominent blacks—including Martin Luther King and Malcom X—for assassination or career destruction (golfer Tiger Woods and beleaguered comedian Bill Cosby).

Gregory also said whites stole black inventions, such as ice hockey and the cotton gin, and accused the U.S. government of conspiring to kill Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio. The movie King Kong is really a depiction of former heavyweight champion Jack Johnson dating white women, 

Gregory claimed at the Census Bureau performance, and whites treat President Obama “like dirt” and “like he’s a Redneck Cracker that can’t read or write.” Gregory delivered most of his routine in Ebonics (also known as African American Vernacular English) and advised his black audience not to obey “white racist cops,” which he also referred to as “filth.”

The rioters who destroyed Ferguson after a cop fatally shot a black man with an extensive criminal record who had just committed a robbery, didn’t steal enough merchandise from the businesses they looted, Gregory told his government audience. “I was complaining about Ferguson because the N_ _ _ _ _ _ wasn’t getting enough,” Gregory said, according to the transcript obtained by JW. “Did you see the brother go in there and walk out with a half-pint, I said ‘Get some tips.’ And, y’all be trying to trick them White folks and say rebellion. No rebellion is put together, predicated, on some White person shooting a Black person and that tips it off. Those was riots, riots.”

Gregory also told his audience of public servants that if he were president of the United States no white people would be in his cabinet. “Had I been elected to be the President, listen good White folks, none of y’all would be in my cabinet,” he says. “Now don’t worry about Black folks who be saying ‘oh, he didn’t mean it.’ So, I’ll say it ten times, non of y’all be in my cabinet, none of y’all be in my cabinet, none of y’all be in my cabinet.”

Via: Judicial Watch

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Planned Parenthood’s pathetic ‘3 percent’ lie

The nation’s premier provider of abortions doesn’t want to be known for providing abortions.

Planned Parenthood, embroiled in a scandal over secret videos capturing its cavalier dismemberment of unborn babies and sale of their body parts, insists that abortion is only 3 percent of what it does.

Practically every defender of the organization, fighting to preserve its federal funding, reverts to the 3 percent figure.

How could you possibly, they ask, defund a group that devotes itself overwhelmingly to uncontroversial procedures and services for women?

The 3 percent figure is an artifice and a dodge, but even taking it on its own terms, it’s not much of a defense. Only Planned Parenthood would think saying that they only kill babies 3 percent of the time is something to brag about.

How much credit would we give someone for saying he only drives drunk 3 percent of the time, or only cheats on business trips 3 percent of the time, or only hits his wife during 3 percent of domestic disputes?

The 3 percent factoid is crafted to obscure the reality of Planned Parenthood’s business.

The group performs about 330,000 abortions a year, or roughly 30 percent of all the abortions in the country. By its own accounting in its 2013-2014 annual report, it provides about as many abortions as Pap tests (380,000). The group does more breast exams and provides more breast-care services (490,000), but not by that much.

The 3 percent figure is derived by counting abortion as just another service like much less consequential services.

So abortion is considered a service no different than a pregnancy test (1.1 million), even though a box with two pregnancy tests can be procured from the local drugstore for less than $10.

By Planned Parenthood’s math, a woman who gets an abortion but also a pregnancy test, an STD test and some contraceptives has received four services, and only 25 percent of them are abortion. This is a little like performing an abortion and giving a woman an aspirin, and saying only half of what you do is abortion.

Such cracked reasoning could be used to obscure the purpose of any organization.

The sponsors of the New York City Marathon could count each small cup of water they hand out (some 2 million cups, compared with 45,000 runners) and say they are mainly in the hydration business.

Or Major League Baseball teams could say that they sell about 20 million hot dogs and play 2,430 games in a season, so baseball is only .012 percent of what they do.

Supporters of Planned Parenthood want to use its health services as leverage to preserve its abortions, as if you can’t get one without the other.

Of course, this is nonsense.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides free or low-cost breast and cervical cancer screenings — without aborting babies. State health departments provide free cancer screenings — without aborting babies. Community health centers provide a range of medical services — without aborting babies.

These organizations are genuinely committed to women’s health, with no ideological commitment to abortion.

Planned Parenthood’s twisted conception of “reproductive health” doesn’t extend to the baby that has been reproduced. All you need to know about its priorities is that it only provides 19,000 “prenatal services,” which means that it performs roughly 17 times more abortions.

Via: New York Post

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Members of the Military Have a Right to Effective Self-Defense

Since 2008, at least 34 service-members and civilians have died in multiple-casualty shootings at military facilities. Dozens more have been injured. Fort Hood, Little Rock, the Washington Navy Yard, Fort Hood again, and Chattanooga — the names are sadly familiar, with at least three attackers apparently sharing jihadist motivations.

 Reading the accounts of these attacks, they tend to share the same, terrible storylines. In each case there’s a deadly lag between the time of the attack and the first police response; in each case trained (but unarmed) warriors either desperately try to scramble to safety or throw themselves at attackers in suicidal, hopeless charges. In only one instance — at Chattanooga — is there evidence that a service-member fired shots in self-defense, and in that case he may have actually defied Department of Defense directives to attempt to save his own life and the lives of others.

It has never made much sense to mandate that America’s military bases and recruiting centers become, in essence, gun-free zones, where our most well-trained men and women live largely under the protection of civilian police. In 1992, when President George H. W. Bush’s administration implemented the policy, American soldiers were under threat from Islamic terrorists as they are now. Today, the nonsensical nature of the policy is just even more obvious, when we know that ISIS, al-Qaeda, and so-called “lone wolf” jihadists are actively seeking to kill American soldiers here at home. 

Thankfully, years overdue, the Department of Defense is taking steps to increase security and may at long last allow at least some of our warriors to defend themselves. Last Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter issued a two-page memorandum in response to the “ongoing threat” from the deadly euphemism of the month, “Homegrown Violent Extremists.” In the memo, he noted that existing Pentagon policy includes the “option of additional armed personnel” for “security, law enforcement, and counterintelligence duties.” In other words, there is already some leeway to implement basic security measures (which raises a separate question as to why “additional armed personnel” hadn’t already been deployed). But he went further, directing “all Components to consider any additional protection measures including changes to policies and procedures that protect our force against the evolving threat.” He gave a short timeline, indicating that he wants to review proposals by August 21, in less than three weeks.

Via: National Review

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[VIDEO] Seattle’s $15 Minimum Wage Law Just Came Back To Bite Them In A Totally Unexpected Way

Early indicators suggest that the $15 minimum wage is a "lose, lose" proposition for employers and employees.

As the push continues in various locations around the country to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour, the real world consequences of such a move have begun to surface.

Seattle became the first city in the nation to implement the $15 per hour minimum wage this past spring. Fox News reports that one unintended effect is that workers who are earning the higher wage are asking for fewer hours, so they can remain eligible for low income government benefits like childcare and tax credits.

Full Life Care, a home nursing nonprofit, told KIRO-TV in Seattle that several workers want to work less.

Local radio talk show host Jason Rantz on KIRO-FM noted the irony: “If [employees] cut down their hours to stay on those subsidies because the $15 per hour minimum wage didn’t actually help get them out of poverty, all you’ve done is put a burden on the business and given false hope to a lot of people.”

“Despite a booming economy throughout western Washington, the state’s welfare caseload has dropped very little since the higher wage phase began in Seattle in April. In March 130,851 people were enrolled in the Basic Food program. In April, the caseload dropped to 130,376,” according to Fox News.

Via: Western Journalism

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[VIDEO] CAMPAIGN 2016: Fox News Announces Candidate Lineup for Prime Time Debate

Fox News has announced the line-up for the prime-time Republican presidential debate this Thursday, and here's who qualified: 

Real estate magnate Donald Trump; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio; Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. 

The roster of 10 candidates was determined based on an average of the five most recent national polls. Trump as expected made the cut, securing the top slot. Right behind him were Bush and Walker, who each have posted strong numbers in recent surveys. 

The drama, rather, was at the edge of the top 10. Christie and Kasich, who were hovering by that edge in recent polling, were able to qualify. 

Kasich, who leads the state where the debate is being held, said in a statement, "As governor, I am glad to welcome my fellow debate participants to our great state and I look forward to discussing the issues facing our country with them on Thursday." 

But former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and several others will not be on the prime-time, 9 p.m. ET stage. The seven who did not make the top 10 will be invited to a separate 5 p.m. ET debate. Aside from Perry and Santorum, this includes Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal; former HP head Carly Fiorina; South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham; former New York Gov. George Pataki; and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore. 

Via: Fox News

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This Housing Bubble Will End Badly, Too

We’ve inflated another bubble; count on the crash. People complain about high prices when they’re buying, not when they’re selling, and that’s why housing bubbles are always politically popular: The sort of people who own homes are the sort of people who vote and volunteer on political campaigns and make donations. And the fact that tax revenue tends to increase as housing prices rise doesn’t go unnoticed by the nation’s mayors and governors. Renters tend to have more sensible views — you’ll never hear a renter say, “Hey, my rent is doubling this year — that’s awesome! The economy must be doing great!” But nobody listens to them. 

And that’s why we’ve inflated a second housing bubble.

In some ways, the current housing bubble is even more bonkers than the last one — which, if you’ll recall, sorta-kinda almost destroyed the world’s financial system. 

As of this writing, the median U.S. home price is just 3 percent shy of its 2007 peak. (Existing-home prices already are at a record high.) But that does not even begin to capture the story. In San Francisco, the median price of a single-family home has doubled since 2012. The median San Francisco home is now nearly $1.4 million, or 50 percent higher than it was at the peak of the last bubble. The median household income in San Francisco is about $77,000. Put another way: The median home price in San Francisco is now 18 times the median household income. 

Does that sound like a stable position to you? 

Via: National Review

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