The cartoons mostly come from:

www.townhall.com/funnies.

If you receive this and you hate it and you don’t want to ever read it no matter what...that is fine; email me back and you will be deleted from my list (which is almost at the maximum anyway).

Previous issues are listed and can be accessed here:

http://kukis.org/page20.html (their contents are described and each issue is linked to) or here:

http://kukis.org/blog/ (this is the online directory they are in)

I attempt to post a new issue each Sunday by 5 or 6 pm central standard time (I sometimes fail at this attempt).

I try to include factual material only, along with my opinions (it should be clear which is which). I make an attempt to include as much of this week’s news as I possibly can. The first set of columns are intentionally designed for a quick read.

I do not accept any advertising nor do I charge for this publication. I write this principally to blow off steam in a nation where its people seemed have collectively lost their minds.

And if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, always remember: We do not struggle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12).

This Week’s Events

Scientists are claiming that the first ozone hole above the North Pole has been aggravated by extraordinarily cold winter temperatures. Cold? Haven’t we been suffering from global warming? Hasn’t the ice been melting at the poles?

President has decided to set the Keystone XL pipeline aside because there are too many environmental concerns that have not been addressed yet. In a phone call, Prime Minster Stephen Harper told the president that he would look to diversity his energy exports, which includes exporting oil to China.

2 smoke bombs were lobbed onto the White House lawn, presumably by the Occupy demonstrators outside. Almost universal condemnation from even the most liberal media sources has been the result. Whoops, no; I am wrong about that. If it has been TEA party demonstrators..

Taxpayers are footing the bill for the 17 porta-potties provided for the Occupy D.C. Although the Occupy movement has money in the bank account, it is unclear whether they are paying the permit fees that TEA party groups have been charged. In previous cases, they did not.

Not too big of a shock; some Occupy Congress types are smoking dope during the protest. That’s the real tea party.

The two-month payroll deduction will be paid for by fees that FNMA and FHLMC will charge at closing.

After filing for bankruptcy last year, Fremont solar company Solyndra still owes American taxpayers half a billion dollars. Recently, they

have spent all their time destroying and trashing millions of dollars worth of parts. Also, they owe millions of dollars to the companies that they purchased these parts from, but those people aren’t getting their money or merchandise back.

Another Green group, Willard & Kelsey Solar Group LLC l, which has been taking millions from the taxpayers, has begun to lay people off.

The Obama administration still has more money to go out to its various green causes.

After the Obama administration forced the state to fund Planned Parenthood, the New Hampshire legislature is taking steps to revoke taxpayer funding for the abortion business.

The Obama Administration has given Catholic healthcare and hospital institutions 1 year to figure out how they will put sterilization, abortifacients and contraception into their health plans.

Although the White House has found anti-Semitic comments on the Center for American Progress troubling, it is highly unlike that this represents a serious rift.

A top official at the Department of Justice has decided to assert his Fifth amendment right not to testify after being subpoenaed by House investigators in the probe into Fast and Furious.

It appears as though one Utah school district has decided that having a cougar mascot would be insensitive to women. I did not understand until I read the article.

SOPA and PIPA, the two internet regulation bills died in Congress this week.

The Supreme Court sides with church’s ability to fire an employee on religious grounds.   This was an unanimous vote.

Heavily unionized Hostess is going bankrupt.

Texas governor, Rick Perry, drops out of the presidential race and endorses Newt Gingrich. Jon Huntsman also dropped out and bequeathed his supporters to Mitt Romney.

Newt Gingrich wins the South Carolina primary by a wide margin. Most attribute this to his debate performances this week.

Although it appears as though Rick Santorum may have won the Iowa caucus, there are apparently some missing votes.

As of right now, the Democratic Party has decided to have President Obama's acceptance speech to the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. Apparently, some fundraisers and many supporters are upset by this choice.

Turns out the Gitmo prisoners have access to Al Qaeda magazines.

The Hamas government in Gaza has banned residents of the coastal enclave from participating in the national reality singing show "New Star."

Tehran police have closed down dozens of toy shops in Iran for selling Barbie dolls, which is part of a decades-long crackdown on signs of Western culture in Iran.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two main Palestinian Islamist movements, are holding talks about merging their two factions.

Islamist parties won nearly three-quarters of the seats in parliament in Egypt's first elections since the ouster of authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak. Although news experts told us that the Muslim Brotherhood only makes up 10% of the Egyptian population, they now hold 47% of the seats in Egyptian’s parliament.

Coordinated bomb attacks in Nigeria’s second-largest city combined with gun battles have killed at least 121 people in Kano, with bodies littering the streets.

More than 30 Muslim clerics have issued a death fatwa against Pakistan leader Musharraf offering, of course, a cash reward.

Looks like France may pull out of Afghanistan.

Top U.S. defense officials are urging Israeli counterparts to show restraint with Iran, as part of an effort to lower the temperature in the ongoing crisis over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Say What?

Liberals:

President Barack Obama on meeting Mickey Mouse: "It’s always nice to meet a world leader with bigger ears than me."

Jay Carney: "The President...spends a relatively small amount of time campaigning."

President Obama, in a letter to supporters: "I'm writing because our FLOTUS, Michelle, turns 48 on Tuesday, and I know I'm not her only fan out there...join me in wishing her a happy birthday. This fall, Michelle and I will have been married 20 years. The next 10 months will be harder than any we've experienced together, and I couldn't do it without her. I know she'd love to hear from you today." Send us your money.

Possible Obama 2012 election slogan: “Change is.” It’s not official yet.

President Obama on being thought cold and aloof: "My suspicion is that this whole critique has to do with the fact that I don't go to a lot of Washington parties and, as a consequence, the Washington press corps maybe just doesn't feel like I'm in the mix enough with them, and they figure, well, if I'm not spending time with them, I must be cold and aloof."

Obama campaign ad: “Secretive oil billionaires attacking President Obama.”

The Hill on the House Democrats "windfall tax" bill: “According to the bill, a windfall tax of 50 percent would be applied when the sale of oil or gas leads to a profit of between 100 percent and 102 percent of a reasonable profit. The windfall tax would jump to 75 percent when the profit is between 102 and 105 percent of a reasonable profit, and above that, the windfall tax would be 100 percent. The term `reasonable profit' means the amount determined by the Reasonable Profits Board to be a reasonable profit on the sale.”

President Obama: "I've been hearing a lot of these Republicans talking about, oh, that's class warfare, and he just wants to redistribute, and doesn't believe in work, and he's trying to create an entitlement society, and this and that and the other. Let me be absolutely clear, I should pay more taxes, and folks in my income bracket should pay more taxes, and certainly folks who are making billions of dollars should pay more taxes, not because I want to take their money and just give it to somebody else."

White House Press secretary Jay Carney "The economic policies that contributed to the great recession were supported by and are being proposed by I believe all the [Republican candidates]."

Jay Carney on the Keystone pipeline that President Obama rejected over environmental concerns: “Even prior to the signing of that legislation (extending payroll tax cut), the State Department, which again reviews this process, made clear that setting an arbitrary deadline through this purely political effort would put the State Department in a corner. [It] would severely

hamper their ability to review an alternate route and a new pipeline route in the proper way, a way that has long been established by precedent and that would take into consideration all the criteria that are so important in decisions like this. Economic impact, national security impact, environmental impact, the effect on the water that our children breathe - rather, the water our children drink and the air that they breathe.”

Jay Carney on Obama being the food stamp president: "Well, you know as well as I do that that's crazy. The fact of the matter is this, country is emerging from the worst recovery since the great depression. When this president took the oath of office in January 2009 this economy was in free fall . . . [resulting in] a dramatic increase in the number of people who needed assistance."

Vice President Joe Biden: "The Giants are on their way to the Super Bowl."

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: "This is a Congress that has done such a disservice to our country. Bless their hearts. They do what they believe, these Republicans. They do what they believe. And they do not believe in a government that has any role in clean air, clean water, food safety, public safety, public health, public education, Medicare, Medicaid."

Nancy Pelosi: "The very idea that the country had to undergo the juvenile behavior of the Republicans this summer, when they were willing to jeopardize the full faith and credit of the United States of America to such an extent that our credit rating was downgraded, to such an extent that our reputation for seriousness was questioned." Huge debt and deficits apparently had nothing to do with it.

Nancy Pelosi: "As opposed to the tea party which was a wholly owned subsidary of the Republican party, we [Democrats] don't really have much of a connection with the Occupy."

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz: "Barack Obama, as a community organizer, as someone who's been in there fighting to make sure that people who do live on the real streets of America have a fair opportunity to be successful in this country, he's the one who gets it."

Rosie O’Donnell [of anti-gay statements made by Republican presidential candidates]: “We’re a backward nation in many ways, and that’s one of the ways that’s most evident.” These anti-gay statements are apparently the support of one-man/one-woman marriages (President Obama’s official position) and the restoration of don’t ask, don’t tell in the military.

Rev. Jesse Jackson: "[Gingrich has] disdain for the poor [and he shows] total lack of understanding" about the country's youth who are desperately looking for jobs....Janitorial work is very serious work and risky work. Mopping the floors, using the washing machines and working close to boilers and whatnot is very challenging work,"

Rev. Jesse Jackson: “if Dr. King was alive he would have welcomed the Occupy Movement...He would embrace it. His last campaign was the poor peoples campaigns to go to Washington, occupy the mall and setup resurrection city."

Occupy leader Larry Holmes: "This is just a sign that this movement is growing, that it has no end. It had a beginning but it has no end and it's going to get more powerful. Tea Party, watch out - that's a thing of the past, those racists and bigots. Occupy Wall Street is the future."

Senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett from a church pulpit: "Teachers, and firefighters, and policemen, whose jobs are now in jeopardy because Congress, well let me be specific, because the Republicans in Congress. . ."

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. “The federal government should directly hire workers...we could take $600 billion to jumpstart the economy by hiring 15 million workers at an average salary of $40,000.”

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) Tweet: "Why shouldn't 16-year-old vote? They can drive. Some have jobs. Let's empower our youth."

Washington D.C. Rev. Graylan S. Hagler on the Occupy movement: "This is the continuation of the [civil rights] movement. It was the economic movement that King was killed for."

Occupy Congress attendee, in between tokes off a joint: “Man, there’s no job security, there’s no living wages, there’s no, there’s no future, man.”

Michael Moore: "It's not envy, it's war, it is a class war, it's a war that's been perpetrated by the rich on to everyone else. The class war is one they started. The mistake they made to deal with the racial part of this, is, um, their boots have been on the necks of people of color since we began. This is a nation founded on genocide and built on the backs of slaves, alright, so we started with a racial problem."

Liberals—it’s all about race:

MSNBC’s Martin Ashir: "But yet we find candidates like Newt Gingrich who simply want to throw fuel and matches and fire to develop sort of an explosiveness in this country that is unnecessary. To suggest President Obama is the food stamp president has underlying suggestions..."

Texas Rep. Shirley Jackson Lee on Newt calling Obama the Food Stamp president: “Let me say that the code words, as far as I'm concerned words that generate and signify race.”

Rev. Joseph Lowery: "People who are so bitterly opposed to the Obama administration are not only concerned about issues that they claim to be concerned about, but they are against Obama. There is some racism involved in this. I have never seen the kind of vicious assault on a president. They'd sacrifice anything to defeat Obama and a part of that's racial, and I don't care whether they like it or not, I think it is true."

Rep. James Clyburn: "People who are poor are not suffering from any kind of a (poor) work ethic. I grew up pretty poor. But I got up at 4 o clock in the morning to deliver milk from a milk truck before going to school at 8:30. I don't need Newt Gingrich what it is to have a work ethic. What he is talking about stratifying people. He is saying that the poor children in their schools ought to be the janitors in their schools. So that other people in the schools who are not so poor can see them as their servers. That is what we get from what he is saying. And to talk about what his daughter may have done. His daughter was never a janitor in the school she attended. That to me is a double standard. I understand what he is saying and most African Americans understand what he is saying. And we are not going to stand for it."

Cliburn on the increase of poverty and food stamp use since Obama has become president: "This man inherited an economy that was going into the ditch. You know that, everybody knows that. And what he had to do was stabilize a very sick economy before he could initiative any kind of recovery."

Salamishah Tillet, Professor University of Pennsylvania on (what else?) MSNBC: “So I think Newt Gingrich is clever in using this strategy in this strategy of racebaiting in getting more GOP voters on his campaign.”

Raphael G. Warnock at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where King preached from 1960 until his death in 1968: “[Gingrich's comments about Obama being a food stamp president are] sickening and insulting."

Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) of Newt Gingrich's food stamp comments: "It is not a dog whistle or code anymore but plain as day. I think the American people get this, and we don't want to take a 50-year step back in history. That's what these Republican candidates are doing. I think frankly that they're doing it because they want to take us off the fact that there is great income inequality in this country and they'd rather divide poor white people and poor black people and middle income black people and middle income white people instead of focusing on the fact that we need to create jobs in this country and opportunities because far too many people are on food stamps because of the bad policies and the dangerous policies of the Republican Party."

The Rev. Jesse Jackson on requiring a photo ID to vote: "What they found in South Carolina and across the South, they want to remove Section 5, which is like removing the troops from the South after the Civil War, which makes it more difficult for students and seniors and immigrants to vote. And so, why tamper with what's working?"

Joy-Ann Reid, MSNBC contributor about Mitt Romney giving a Black woman $50 cash for her electric bill: "As an African American woman it galls me. I don't even like to watch it. I felt like it plays into every sort of patronizing stereotype of black people. Oh, here is this little lady let me give her 50 bucks. I mean this is a guy who offered a bet of ten thousand dollars on stage to another candidate but you know, hey let me lay off 50 bucks to this woman. I think it plays into that conservative meme, that you don't need actual programs that the government puts in place to help people in need, we'll just give them charity, I'll just give him 50 bucks."

Bill Maher: "But watching these last couple of debate, all of them, but especially recently, the Tea people, who really kind of wag the dog there in the Republican Party, they finally see somebody they like. I mean, Newt Gingrich, I'm sorry, but he does mirror who they are: mean, snarling, borderline racist."

The Compliant Obama Press Corps:

DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz: "I think that it’s over the line to suggest there is a partisan tilt to a question from a network interviewer."

Lee Siegel of the NY Times: “The simple, impolitely stated fact is that Mitt Romney is the whitest white man to run for president in recent memory.”

Newsweek Magazine cover headline "Why Are Obama's Critics So Dumb?"

Former CNN correspondent Bob Franken on MSNBC: "These seem to be appeals to the extreme white wing of the Republican Party. That is to say that there continues to be among many conservatives a real resentment against blacks....I think this is very intentional, it is pandering, there's sort of a wink-wink that this base should be reminded that Barack Obama, President of the United States, is one of them, an African-American. Yes, I think this is very intentional. I think it is part of a hateful campaign that is being very methodically run in the hope it's going to appeal to voters who would love to see us return to the good old days of Jim Crow."

Ann Curry to Gingrich on NBC's Today: `In South Carolina, where a Confederate flag still waves on the front lawn of the state capitol, largely because of the efforts of the state GOP, it remains good primary politics to stir up racial animosity and then link it to President Obama.' Are you intentionally playing the race card to win votes?"

Nina Totenberg, NPR: “You know, Newt knows how to play this game. And as Charles said, he is in his own backyard, right next to Georgia, and he is incredibly glib. It doesn't matter that, you know, that there were more people on food stamps under George W. Bush. It doesn't matter that his suggestion is that minorities are the ones who get food stamps, that far more white people get food stamps. It doesn't matter that working people get food stamps in order to feed their families. Facts don't matter to him and it makes for great, it makes for great talk.” She’s wrong, of course; but why let the facts get in the way of opinion radio?

Politico's top columnist Roger Simon: “[the audience of Monday night's GOP debate had a] kind of blood lust in the air."

Appearing on Tuesday's "Hardball," Simon sneered at "that audience, with that kind of blood lust in the air, an audience that was way over the line, way over the top."

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews: "That use of the name `Juan,' the way he [Gingrich] did it. You can't argue these things. You either see them or you don't. It's just the way he did that. I sensed a little applause when he said `Let me help you' when he answered the Juan question. It's in the eye of the beholder. And, by the way, calling someone a racist is the worst way to get them to stop being racist because everyone gets defensive. . So it's stupid to say it but, honestly, if you notice it, you sort of ought to blow the whistle. Because there is a dog whistle going on here."

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews: “I wonder how the lemmings in the Republican electorate, they're not all lemmings, but the ones who are will say, ‘Wait a minute. I'm supposed to vote for the guy whose turn it is, who has won the first two, but wait a minute, he didn't win the first two? How am I supposed to vote for him? Do I still vote for the guy who won the first one and the third? And if I don't vote for him in the third one' - as you point out, Mark - `he will have lost two or three.' They get very confused in terms of this automatic, robotic kind of voting here of voting for the guy simply because he got voted for.”

MSNBC's Alex Wagner: "Booing a black journalist on an issue affecting not just black Americans, but white Americans, poor people on MLK day is a really telling moment, I think in this Republican race.” This was when Juan Williams was booed for continuing his liberal line of questioning about Obama being a food stamp president.

Former president Bill Clinton: "I also think that the diffusion of the media has complicated things. For example, I was just watching - I don't know if you heard what I said in the other room - I was just watching MSNBC, and they had a woman that used to work for me and a couple of other people on there, and they were talking about the Republican primary. And I was laughing. I said, `Boy, it really has become our version of Fox.'" He apparently has forgotten that his wife claimed to get fairer coverage on FoxNews than on any other news station.

New York Times public editor (or ombudsman) Arthur Brisbane: “I will agree in the broad sense that, taken together, it is clear that this community of opinion-based writers -- as distinct from news reporters producing material for the main news sections -- clearly share a worldview that is liberal and antithetical to the Koch brothers' political perspective. That they find ways to lace their writing with these views is perhaps unfortunate. I would be happier if The Times had a more diverse mix of such writers, leading to perspectives that are not universally of one political persuasion. But we are talking here about The Times, and as you note others have deemed it a liberal newspaper. I have not yet written a piece pronouncing on this issue broadly (a couple of my predecessors did so, and perhaps I will do so before I am done). With that caveat, I have no problem stating here that in the domain where opinion writers ply their trade for The Times, the liberal view is overwhelmingly dominant. The Times is within its rights to contract for such material, as the opinion sphere is distinct from the news sphere, and there can be little doubt that the Times ownership and editorial page ascribe to a liberal perspective.” This was in response to Melissa Cohlmia, spokesman for Koch Industries, who noted that there had been 50 negative stories on the Koch brothers written by 41 different newsmen and editorial writers and no positive stories on them in the NY Times.

Liberals from the past:

Nancy Pelosi on the Occupy movement, October 2011: "I support the message to the establishment, whether it's Wall Street or the political establishment and the rest, that change has to happen. We cannot continue in a way this is not relevant to their lives."

Pelosi, Oct 2011 on OWS: "God bless them for their spontaneity. It's young, it's spontaneous, it's focused and it's going to be effective."

Pelosi, 2011: "The level of civic engagement [from OWS, not from the TEA party] we've seen from ordinary Americans in recent months has strengthened our democracy. Americans must come together to demand the change they want to see in their lives. Women have always been agents of change, or what I like to call 'magnificent disrupters.' They are unsatisfied with the status quo, and always demanding progress - on behalf of their children, their families and their communities."

Pelosi, Oct 2011: “It's very hard to explain to Wall Street protesters that you need 60 votes in the Senate.”

Pelosi, Dec 2011: "Our statement is we are reigniting, Democrats are reigniting the American dream, building ladders of success, removing obstacles to opportunity to all who work hard and play by the rules. We have work to do. We think that important to that is enhanced by what's happening in the Occupy [movement], which is the 99 and one. They really emblazoned that in the minds of the American people. That's what we dedicated our lives to, but they gave it that clarity. People say they didn't have a message. They may not have a message, but they have a statement. And the statement is the status quo is unacceptable - 99 and one."

Pelosi statement inter-cut with actual OWS footage.

Anthony Difiglio, 2009 statement to the police, who is being tried for voter fraud: “This is an ongoing scheme and it occurs on both sides of the aisle...What appears as a huge conspiracy to non-political persons is really a normal political tactic.”

Deborah Howell, Post ombudsman from 2005 through 2008, in 2008: "some of the conservatives' complaints about a liberal tilt [at The Post] are valid."

Liberal civility:

Newsweek’s Andrew Sullivan: What he said, I just won’t print. But here’s the link, with a vulgarity warning.

Crazy Muslims:

Legislative Director Corey Sayolor in a statement representing the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR): “[Gingrich is] one of the nation's worst promoters of anti-Muslim bigotry...Newt Gingrich's vision of America segregates our citizens by faith. His outdated political ideas look backward to a time when Catholics and Jews were vilified and their faiths called a threat...The time for bias in American politics has passed and Newt Gingrich looks like a relic of an ugly era." Just in case you needed a reason to vote for Gingrich.

Tariq al Dhahab, the al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula commander who just took control of a town in central Yemen, urges Muslims "to unite and be patient...the Islamic Caliphate is coming." Seems like just 6 months ago, Glenn Beck was being called a crazy man for suggesting an Islamic caliphate was in the workings.

Liberals making sense:

Valerie Jarrett: "It's very important that we shrink government, it's very important that we streamline it, it's very important that we make it friendly to both business and consumers who want to use government." However, what she is selling is a reduction of pro-business groups in government; and this will save about $3 billion over a period of 10 years. Our deficit spending on 1 day is more than $3 billion.

Arianna Huffington: “I'd love [Michelle] to be more [like] Eleanor Roosevelt right now, because the country needs an Eleanor Roosevelt who's going to go around and at the same time that she's doing fundraisers in Beverly Hills and Bel Air, she should go to South Central [Los Angeles], I mean, if I were Michelle Obama right now, I would not go anywhere for a fundraiser without going and seeing the places where there is pain, where there is struggle, where there is homelessness, where there is unemployment.”

ABC's Jake Tapper: "If you look at 2008, Barack Obama had everything going for him. His opponent did not run a great campaign, picked a running mate that alienated some key voters, you had an economic crisis as opposed to a national security crisis. Everything going for him. You had the media, perhaps, tilting on the scales a little bit."

Maureen Dowd: “The portrait of the first couple in Jodi Kantor's new book, The Obamas, bristles with aggrievement and the rational president's disdain for the irrational nature of politics, the press and Republicans. Despite what his rivals say, the president and the first lady do believe in American exceptionalism - their own, and they feel overassaulted and underappreciated. We disappointed them...They still believed, as their friend Valerie Jarrett once said, that Obama was ‘just too talented to do what ordinary people do.’"

Moderates/Affiliation Unknown:

CBS This Morning reporter Sharyl Attkisson: "We identified 11 green energy companies beside Solyndra that, together, got billions of tax dollars then declared bankruptcy or are suffering other serious financial issues."

National Center for Science Education director Eugenie Scott: "climate change education is where evolution was 20 years ago."

Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan: "In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences." Catholic institutions are being required to include things in their healthcare plans that they do not approve of.

From Westlaw: “Carbon taxes also would not guarantee a specific amount of GHG reductions; as they would merely raise the price of burning fossil fuels”

Crosstalk:

George Stephanopoulos: “What do you expect to hear? What do you want to hear?”

Katrina Vanden Heuvel, of the Nation: “I expect to hear -- and I want to hear -- themes that he sounded in his speech at the end of last year in Kansas, where he spoke about how this is a make-or-break moment for the middle class in this country, and began to lay out a blueprint for how we build a different economy and a vision for this country that is one that is forward-looking, that is tackling not just the fundamental income inequality -- that, again, movements have brought to the fore -- but lays out a vision for a different economy, one that is not about crony capitalism, but is about a democratic capitalism that lifts all boats. And I think Matt is right that we're looking at a debate and a campaign and an election that could be about two fundamentally different visions of this country. We have a Republican Party that wants to take this country back, literally peddling recycled policies that brought us to the financial crisis we're still living through, millions living in economic trouble and pain...”

Stephanopoulos: “George Will?”

Vanden Heuvel: “The president needs to speak to that and lay out a vision.”

George Will: “When Barack Obama comes out against crony capitalism, his slogan will be, what, "No More Solyndras"? I want to hear that.”

_______________________________________

MSNBC’s Lawrence O'donnell: “There's a tremendous amount of cynicism in Gingrich's use of food stamps because of what he actually know that his Republican debate audiences do not know. His Republican audiences do not know that most people on food stamps are white. His Republican audiences don't know that most people use it temporarily, and, most importantly, his Republican audiences don't know what Newt does know which is there would be no food stamps in America were it not for Republican Senator Bob Dole who held the key to making the food stamp program happen.”

Noel Sheppard of Newsbusters: “if O'Donnell knows that most people on food stamps are white, why do he and his liberal colleagues think calling the current White House resident The Food Stamp President is racist?”

_______________________________________

Newt Gingrich: “I believe this campaign comes down to do economics, including jobs, economic growth, balancing the budget, the value of money. It comes down to national security--what threatens us, what we have to do about it. But the centerpiece of this campaign, I believe, is American exceptionalism versus the radicalism of Saul Alinsky. “

David Stockman: “The word [exceptionalism] is neo-con speak, code for an aggressive foreign policy. It's for more Bush, with even more aggressive intent. It's about beating the war drums in Iran. It's about keeping the military establishment--which is vastly greater than we need--fully in place. That's what exceptionalism is about. It's not about our economic problems or jobs or the fact that Main Street is falling behind or that we've done nothing about Wall Street or that we have a Fed out of control or all the other issues that we could mention. That is code for an aggressive foreign policy that I think is the most dangerous thing we could do at the moment. “

_______________________________________

MSNBC host Alex Wagner: “In opening up Romney's record at Bain, are you at all concerned at the fact that President Obama has just named as his acting director of the OMB a former Bain, grand poobah at Bain. Does that concern you at all as we sort of dissect what Bain did, that someone in the administration was in fact employed there?”

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz: "Mitt Romney is running for president of the United States and hanging his record at Bain as the reason that voters should elect him. So his record, his role as the CEO at Bain Capital -- in which, even his partner acknowledged that he never looked at their role as job creation but rather as creating wealth for their investors . . . [is what he should] be held accountable for."

MSNBC host Alex Wagner has no follow up question, even though Wasserman-Schultz dodged the question.

_______________________________________

AL SHARPTON: Let me show you, one of the most contemptible statements to people that are struggling around these working-class issues was made by Willard Mitt Romney. Let me show you what he said the night he won the Iowa caucuses. He kind of dismissed the drive to close the income gap and to deal with economic inequality like people were just jealous or envious of the rich. Watch this, congressman.

MITT ROMNEY: President Obama wants to put free enterprise on trial. And in the last few days we've seen some desperate Republicans join forces with him. This is such a mistake for our party and for our nation. The country already has a leader who divides us with the bitter politics of envy.

SHARPTON: Bitter politics of envy, like there's no legitimate concern for what you and I have just talked about, the overwhelming increase in the richest's income while the stagnation of working-class and poor people. But the problem is we're just envious. How do people talk about they believe in the American Dream, less known [sic] King's dream, when they have a public policy of taking away from those that already have the least and act as though if they say something about it, they're engaged in the politics of envy?

JAMES CLYBURN: Well, you know, that's a little bit like saying to Rosa Parks, that you are just jealous, envious, of that man who's got a seat on this bus because you want a seat on the bus.

Conservatives:

Ron Paul: “We want to have a $1 trillion cut in spending in one year.”

Author and talk show host Mark Levin: "We're smart enough to elect our own leaders but we're not smart enough to pick our own light bulbs."

Email to Washington Post’s Patrick Pexton: "See, you liberal media nincompoops, this is all your fault, you treated Obama like a saint when he was running in 2007 and 2008 and you didn't vet him, investigate him, report on him skeptically. You were so fawning (and adoring of his blackness), you missed that he was a (pick your adjective), radical, socialist, Muslim, inexperienced, dangerous, corrupt, weak Chicago politician with no track record of accomplishment, whose only talent is giving speeches."

Newt Gingrich: “President Obama has been historically the most effective food stamp president in American history...I would like to be the best paycheck president in American history and I want to go into every neighborhood of every ethnic background in every part of the country and say to people very simply, if you want your children to have a life of dependency and food stamps, you have a candidate as Barack Obama.”

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) on President Obama: "He is playing class warfare, and I have been really hurt for America as I've seen our president basically take a page out of the playbook of Darth Vader's leader, the evil Emperor, when he was saying, `Yes, feel the hatred,'" Ghomert said in a phone interview published on the conservative site. This president says, `Look around, see things you want, You ought to be jealous of what they have. Help us push legislation that takes their money away and gives it to you.'"

Congressman Allen West: “Mr. President, your very in office demonstrates Dr. King's dream has indeed come true. But how devastated would Dr. King be to know the Americans who are still fomenting racism at the highest levels are the very people for whom he fought for and died?"

Speaker of the House John Boehner: "President Obama expedited approval of the Solyndra loan project, but won't approve a project that's been under review for over three years. President Obama is destroying tens of thousands of American jobs and shipping American energy security to the Chinese."

Former VP candidate, Sarah Palin: “But I do think that Newt is the one who won the debate...if I had to vote in Souther Carolina, in order to keep this thing going, I’d vote for Newt.”

Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich, after being asked if he could ever support a Muslim American for president: “[it would] entirely depend if they give up sharia. I am totally opposed to sharia law. ..[the] rising Islamization of Turkey has been accompanied by a 1,400 percent increase in women being killed. When you look at the application of Shariah in places like Iran, when you look at churches being burned in Nigeria and Egypt, and that the decline of Christians in Iraq from a million, 200 thousand when the Americans arrived to about 500,000 today...[therefore] I think it depends entirely on the personIf they are a modern person integrated into the modern world and prepared to recognize all religions that's one thing; If they are the Saudis who demand that we respect them while they refuse to allow either a Jew or Christian to worship in Saudi Arabia, that's something different...I think we need a president who stands up, tells the truth, and rejects any kind of effort to impose on us a sense of guilt because we believe in our religion and we are prepared to tell the truth and I am totally opposed to a State Department meeting a week ago with the organization of Islamic countries who are seeking to censor any comment about Islam because I think it is a fundamental violation of our right of free speech as Americans.But within that framework a truly modern person who happened to worship would not be a threat. A person who belonged any kind of belief in sharia, any kind of effort to impose that on the rest of us, would be a mortal threat."

Herman Cain to Neil Cavuto: "No one talks about the youth vote and the college vote. With all due respect, they believe the mainstream media is boring."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on U.S. sanctions against Iran: "As long as there will not be effective sanctions on Iran's central bank and oil industry, there won't be any effect on its nuclear program."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (as reported by Steve Linde): “You know, Steve, we have two main enemies; It's The New York Times and Haaretz. They set the agenda for an anti-Israel campaign all over the world. Journalists read them every morning and base their news stories . . . on what they read in The New York Times and Haaretz."

Rush Limbaugh: “They are not offering to raise your taxes. They are not offering to deny you cheap energy at affordable prices and in plentiful supply. Gingrich, Romney, Santorum are not taking over automobile companies and making 'em buy pieces of crap that nobody wants.”

Rush Limbaugh: "No matter what kind of shame you think they suffer in a contest like that -- no matter how much money they lose, no matter how many of them get fired, no matter how many magazines or TV stations or newspapers get shut down -- they are not gonna change. They are hard-core, leftist radicals right out of the White House. That's where they get their marching orders. That's why I call them the State-Controlled Media."

Rush Limbaugh: "What nobody mentions here is that Obama's all-in on green energy. That's where the crony capitalism is, that's where his donors are being repaid."

Rush Limbaugh: "I have always respected the intelligence of those of you in this audience. You make up your own minds. You are your own thinkers. This program validates what you believe. I know that we've had a lot of liberals, former liberals that we persuaded here, but you're not mind-numbed robots."

Rush Limbaugh: "For Obama, winning the White House was a path to wealth. For the Republican nominees all except Santorum, now, it will be a pay cut."

Rush Limbaugh: "The Keystone pipeline, potentially a hundred thousand jobs down the road, from a man who claims to be laser-focused on jobs. If there was ever an illustration that the man does not tell the truth, and that his objectives are not the furtherance of this nation's real interests, this is it."

Rush Limbaugh: "Now, who would you rather have as president? Do you want somebody who earned their money and spent their money legally, invested their money legally, paid their taxes legally. Or, do you want a guy who buys a house at below market price with the help of a guy who later came to be a convicted felon, Tony Rezko?"

Rush Limbaugh: "What breaks our hearts is to look at conditions in black America and see how they haven't improved under the tutelage of Democrats for 50 years. And it breaks our hearts because there are people who have better ideas for making those people's lives better, and they aren't Democrats."

Rush Limbaugh: "The cultural divide is as much a matter of principle to the left as anything else. They're not gonna give up their principle on this. They believe people are inferior. They believe people are incompetent."

Rush Limbaugh: "We're sick and tired of being called racists and bigots and sexists, when all we want is the best for everybody. We are sick and tired of this categorization, when in fact it is the people leveling the charge who are the racists; who look at these people and see no possibility; who see no potential; who see them only as voters; who want to dumb them down; who want to keep them poor; who want to keep them dependent."

Rush Limbaugh: "Average, ordinary Americans do not do anything but get harmed by a central planning, big government that thinks it's got all the answers rooted in its phony, fake compassion."

Rush Limbaugh: "Government doesn't improve anybody's life, other than if you own Solyndra or if you're a big donor to a Democrat and they pay you back with government money, but that's it."

Rush Limbaugh: "The government does not make people prosperous. The government makes people dependent, and seeks to make people satisfied on a subsistence rather than an existence."

Conservative media:

Ed Henry, FoxNews, to Press Secretary Jay Carney: “I don't know how many years, maybe you do, George Romney released of his college transcripts but Republicans like to complain that the President has not released his college transcripts, what is the stated reason for that?”

Mary Anastasia-O’Grady: “What is the purpose of taxes? Is it to make us all equal?”

Paul Gigot of Mitt Romney: “Why can’t he close the deal?”

Dorothy Rabinowicz on Rick Santorum: “He’s a snarling alley fighter and people feel it.”

Greg Gutfeld on Obama: “He’s got everyone in the media working for him—that’s what makes him dangerous.”

Sean Hannity: “The guy that ran in 2008 on hope and opportunity and yes we can, that guy is long gone. This is a whole different candidate, a whole different person.”

Watch This!

Fantastic interview of Mark Levin by Sean Hannity, on Levin’s new book, Ameritopia. Video and text. Part II and part III. Watch Part III, if you don’t want to see the whole thing.

Excellent interview with Newt.

Even though you know that Newt was waiting and expecting to be asked about his ex-wife, he still excoriated the media, which we conservatives love ot hear.

Reason TV a 2.5 minute show on how the Supreme Court might overturn rent control in New York City.

“After 50 years of all your lies, where was the media then?” A rockin’ number by Madison Rising.

Canadian Ezra Levant, who hosts the show, The Source, takes a comprehensive look at Obama's decision concerning the Keystone Pipeline. It is about 12 minutes and excellent.

CBS5's report on Solandra destroying millions of dollars in green products.

Pathetic Occupy Congress, crying out “This is what a police state looks like;” singing a song, and then saying “Shame, shame, shame.” It is actually kind of sad.

Obama ad about secretive oil billionaires attacking him.

Voter fraud on trial in New York.

Stephen Colbert interviewed by George Stephanopoulos, and it was not funny.

A Little Comedy Relief

Jodi Miller: “A political ad supporting Vladimir Putin compared one of his opponents to Adolf Hitler. Who knew they have MoveOn.org in Russia?”

Short Takes

1) One of the best and most ignored points from the FoxNews debate: Ron Paul said that unemployment insurance ought to be privatized. Finally! If you are the kind of person who will always work, this will means you will not be paying for someone else’s 2 year’s of unemployment.

2) If Republican candidates do not give enough attention to African Americans, that they are criticized; but if they say anything that relates to conservative ideals (hard word and self-sufficiency), then that is seen as a slam against African-Americans. They throw a fit when Gingrich suggests that young poor children do janitorial work in order to develop a work ethic, as if janitorial work is beneath them. They throw a fit when Mitt Romney gives a woman $50. Get used to it, any actual contact with Blacks, with the poor, with those on welfare, or the lack of contact with those same groups, will be portrayed as racist, insensitive and blundering.

3) On a blog that I occasionally frequent, one liberal said that the increased use of food stamps is because of the lousy economy left behind by President George Bush, and yet, elsewhere, indicated that President Obama is turning the economy around. It does not make any logical sense to state the President Obama is turning the economy around and yet, simultaneously, handing out more food stamps. If food stamps represent someone having a tougher go of it, then increased food stamp usage means that more people are having a tough go of it. The other logical alternative is, the economy is getting slightly better, but the White House wants to have more people dependent upon the government, nevertheless.

4) One of the biggest mistakes we have made is allowed government to partner with private charities, hospitals and businesses. No money from government should ever flow from government into any charity or business. Because, when the money flows, soon thereafter will be restrictions and regulations which are anathema to these same organizations.

5) Governor Perry suddenly dropped out of the race because Stephen Colbert was polling higher than he was.

6) Conservatives are beat down because some of them do not live up to the moral ideals that they espouse. However, I have yet to see a rich liberal who claims he wants to be taxed more, and yet has never paid a dime more in taxes; or has even had past problems with the IRS. Warren Buffet is still behind in paying his taxes, and yet he thinks he ought to paid more.

7) Right now, the Internet is virtually unregulated. Almost everything in our life is highly regulated, from our taxes to our schools to prescription drugs to medical care and insurance. How do you like the price of the internet, what is available on the internet, and the idea that politicians can do very little about it? Consider not only, do you think whether the internet should be better regulated, but also take into consideration, regulation does not mean it will be well-regulated in the way that you think it should be.

By the Numbers

When President Obama took office, 32 million people were on food stamps. Now 46 million are on food stamps.

The Keystone XL pipeline will be 1700 miles of pipeline. There is about 25,000 miles of pipeline already in the sand hills, which is the area that of concern to the Obama administration. It would be impossible to estimate just how much natural gas pipeline is laid throughout the United States, as there is so much that brings natural gas into your house.

There has been an 80% drop in news coverage of the economy from July 2011 to January 2012

68 of Obama's top 350 bundlers in the upcoming 2012 election have already snagged high-status jobs in the administration.

Although the Occupy Wall Street movement raised more than $700,000 last fall, their present balance is about $170,000 and very few donations are coming in.

International Planned Parenthood Federation has, as its goals in Africa, an "82 percent increase in abortion services: 212,021 services by 2013, and 273,656 by 2015."

Polling by the Numbers

Washington Post:

Do you approve or disapprove of the way Obama is handling [ITEM]? Do you approve/disapprove strongly or somewhat?

Rasmussen:

70% of American adults think a free market economy is best.

15% believe a government-managed economy is best

14% are undecided.

Weasel Zippers (not a scientific poll):

Newt Gingrich                                                                                                                   73%

Rick Santorum                                                                                                                  11%

Mitt Romney                                                                                                                     11%

Ron Paul                                                                                                                              5%

A Little Bias

Although the press has not gone after Palin or Cain lately, imagine of Romney or Gingrich said, “The [S.F.] giants are on their way to the Superbowl.” The Obama Media Complex would be filled with commentators calling them stupid.

_______________________________________

There appears to be one mainstream reporter, CBS This Morning reporter Sharyl Attkisson, who is pursuing both Fast and Furious and the Green Energy Scandals. Apparently no other mainstream reporter seems to think these things ought to be investigated.

_______________________________________

Two political operatives are discovered to have gone bad this week; one from the GOP (who is associated with Scott Walker) and one who is a Democrat (and a staffer with Obama’s campaign).

For the Democrat:

•KCCI TV Channel 8 (Des Moines) does not bother to note the perp's Democrat ties at all.

•The Dubuque Telegraph Herald and the Des Moines Register both published an AP report that simply calls Edwards a "Des Moines man accused of ID theft." Also no mention of his Democrat Party ties.

•Finally, Eastern Iowa News blog reports Edwards Democrat ties only at the very end of its story.

•The story of the criminal action by this former Obama staffer is not easy to find. Few Old Media outlets bothered to cover it.

For the Republican:

•The New York Times slammed Walker with guilt by association in its headline and first paragraph.

•Reuters did the same thing as the NYT.

•The Associated Press follows suit by mentioning Walker in the headline and the first paragraph.

•Green Bay's NBC affiliate also features Walker in the headline, etc.

•                                                                                                                 In a companion story, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel also prominently features the perp's party affiliation.

•                                                                                                                 Politico pulls the same stunt as the others.

Big Journalism story on this with all the appropriate links.

_______________________________________

The non-biased Politico, which turned out 90 stories on Herman Cain’s alleged affairs and near veering into sexual improprieties, has not yet seen fit to investigate Operation Fast and Furious, Solyndra, the number of unemployed who stopped looking for work, the doubling of gas prices. But, they are still covering the real news, like Obama’s singing, which was a front page headline.

A montage of the media going nuts over Romney's tax rate.

JONATHAN KING: Mitt Romney finally tells us how much he pays in taxes! Just wait until you hear his definition of "not very much money."

ERIN BURNETT: (dramatic music) Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a multimillionaire, pays a lower tax rate than you.

SHEP SMITH: Mitt Romney may pay a lower tax rate than you do.

DANA MILBANK: Mitt Romney, $374,000 isn't a lot of money.

MARTIN BASHIR: How much is "not that much" to Mitt Romney? More than $374,000!

SGT. SCHULTZ: He admits his effective tax rate is close to 15%!

LARRY O'DONNELL: The speaking fees that he calls, quote, "not very much" are what the rest of the world calls "wicked huge."

REICH: It is legal, but what is legal is also a scandal. Mitt Romney has a lot of explaining to do.

From Rush’s page.

Liberal/Obama-Speak

Dog-whistle racism = if you listen really, really carefully, to the implication or to the way a word is pronounced, you can then tie it somehow to racism. Rather than argue the point being made, a liberal will point to what is being said, and suggest, “If you take this phrase in this sense, you can see how this is a racist comment.” As long as something is a racist comment, it does not have to be dignified with an answer.

Questions for Obama

Do you have any idea how many miles of oil and gas pipe are already laid in the United States? Do you have any idea how much is laid in the area of concern?

Missing Headlines

Global Cooling over the North Pole?

Who in FNMA or FHLMC will be Arrested?

Are Green Companies Just a Slush Fund?

When Will Eric Holder Investigate Fast & Furious?

The Arab Spring is Becoming a Islamic Nightmare

Come, let us reason together....

An Ignored 'Disparity'

By Thomas Sowell

With all the talk about "disparities" in innumerable contexts, there is one very important disparity that gets remarkably little attention - disparities in the ability to create wealth. People who are preoccupied, or even obsessed, with disparities in income are seldom interested much, or at all, in the disparities in the ability to create wealth, which are often the reasons for the disparities in income.

In a market economy, people pay us for benefiting them in some way - whether we are sweeping their floors, selling them diamonds or anything in between. Disparities in our ability to create benefits for which others will pay us are huge, and the skills required can develop early - or sometimes not at all.

A recent national competition among high school students who create their own technological advances turned up an especially high share of such students winning recognition in the San Francisco Bay Area. A closer look showed that the great majority of these Bay Area students had Asian names.

Asian Americans are a substantial presence in this region but they are by no means a majority, much less such an overwhelming majority as they are among those winning high tech awards.

This pattern of disproportionate representation of particular groups among those with special skills and achievements is not confined to Asian Americans or even to the United States.

It is a phenomenon among particular racial, ethnic or other groups in countries around the world - the Ibos in Nigeria, the Parsees in India, the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Germans in Brazil, Chinese in Malaysia, Lebanese in West Africa, Tamils in Sri Lanka. The list goes on and on.

Gross inequalities in skills and achievements have been the rule, not the exception, on every inhabited continent and for centuries on end. Yet our laws and government policies act as if any significant statistical difference between racial or ethnic groups in employment or income can only be a result of their being treated differently by others.

Nor is this simply an opinion. Businesses have been sued by the government when the representation of different groups among their employees differs substantially from their proportions in the population at large. But, no matter how the human race is broken down into its components - whether by race, sex, geographic region or whatever - glaring disparities in achievements have been the rule, not the exception.

Anyone who watches professional basketball games knows that the star players are by no means a representative sample of the population at large. The book "Human Accomplishment" by Charles Murray is a huge compendium of the top achievements around the world in the arts and sciences, as well as in sports and other fields.

Nowhere have these achievements been random or representative of the demographic proportions of the population of a country or of the world. Nor have they been the same from one century to the next. China was once far more advanced technologically than any country in Europe, but then it fell behind and more recently is gaining ground.

Most professional golfers who participate in PGA tournaments have never won a single tournament, but Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods have each won dozens of tournaments.

Yet these and numerous other disparities in achievement are resolutely ignored by those whose shrill voices denounce disparities in rewards, as if these disparities are somehow suspicious at best and sinister at worst.

Higher achieving groups - whether classes, races or whatever - are often blamed for the failure of other groups to achieve. Politicians and intellectuals, especially, tend to conceive of social questions in terms that allow them to take on the role of being on the side of the angels against the forces of evil.

This can be a huge disservice to those individuals and groups who are lagging behind, for it leads them to focus on a sense of grievance and victimhood, rather than on how they can lift themselves up instead of trying to pull other people down.

Again, this is a worldwide phenomenon - a sad commentary on the down side of the brotherhood of man.

From:

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell011712.php3

An Ignored 'Disparity': Part III

By Thomas Sowell

Anyone who has ever been in a Third World country, or even in a slum neighborhood at home, is likely to wonder why there can be such dire poverty among some people, while others are prospering.

Both politicians and intellectuals have tended to have simple answers to that question, even if these simple answers have been different in different eras.

A hundred years ago, the prevailing answer was that some people are innately and genetically inferior. Not only was this answer thundered from political platforms in redneck dialect by politicians in the Jim Crow South, the same message was delivered in cultured and lofty tones from academic podiums in the most prestigious colleges and universities across the country.

Nor was this unique to the United States. In Britain, a study of high-achieving families by Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, concluded that the reason for their achievements was genetic superiority. From there it was a short step to seeing various races as genetically superior and inferior.

More ominously, Galton saw those who were inferior as a drag on society who should be eliminated. As often happens when a big idea seizes the imagination of the intelligentsia, their strongest argument is that there is no argument - that "science" has already proved what they believe.

As Sir Francis Galton put it: "there exists a sentiment, for the most part quite unreasonable, against the gradual extinction of an inferior race."

The idea that those with different views had only "sentiment" on their side, while he had science, was common among intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic.

Eugenics - a term Galton coined - became a crusading creed, and eugenics societies were set up by such stellar intellectuals as John Maynard Keynes, H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw in England. In the United States there were 376 college courses devoted to eugenics in American colleges and universities in 1928.

By the end of the 20th century, the pendulum had swung to the opposite end of the spectrum. Now differences in achievements among classes, races or the sexes were seen as being a result of discriminatory treatment. And, again, as with the intelligentsia of the Progressive era, those with different views were dismissed with a word - often "racist" now, as compared to "sentimental" in the earlier period. But in neither era were views different from the crusading creed of the day seriously engaged.

In our supposedly more enlightened time, it became dangerous even to express differing views on the subject on leading college and university campuses.

A very fundamental question was seldom asked, in either the earlier or the later period: Was there ever any realistic reason to expect the same achievements among races, classes or other subdivisions of the human species?

Could we really have expected Eskimos to have the same ability to grow pineapples as the people of Hawaii had? Could the Bedouins of the Sahara really know as much about fishing as the Polynesians of the Pacific? Could the people of the Himalayas have the same seafaring skills as people living in ports around the Mediterranean?

On a more general level, could people living in isolated mountain valleys realistically be expected to develop their own intellectual potential as fully as people living in cities that were international crossroads of commerce, cultures and ideas from around the world?

When the Spaniards discovered the Canary Islands in the 15th century, they found people of a Caucasian race living at a stone age level. Isolation and backwardness have gone together in many parts of the world, regardless of the race of the people involved.

Historical happenstances - the fact that the Romans invaded Western Europe but not Eastern Europe, for example - left a legacy of written languages in Western Europe that people in Eastern Europe did not have until centuries later.

But the innumerable factors affecting human achievements are not only complex and hard to untangle, they offer neither politicians nor intellectuals the opportunity to simply be on the side of the angels against the forces of evil. Factors which present no opportunity to star in a moral melodrama have often been ignored in favor of factors that do.

Romney Unveils Own Income-Tax Rate: 15%

Candidate's Bill, Typical of Top Investors, Stokes Debate

By John D. Mckinnon and Sara Murray

Mitt Romney revealed Tuesday for the first time that his own effective income-tax rate has been in the neighborhood of 15% in recent years, reigniting a debate within the GOP presidential field over tax policy and putting a focus on the front-runner's wealth.

Government figures show that Mr. Romney's tax bill is roughly in line with the rate paid by many higher-income households-most of whom receive investment income and dividends that are taxed at a top rate of 15%. "My income comes overwhelmingly from some investments made in the past," Mr. Romney told reporters during a campaign stop in Florence, S.C.

Mr. Romney's disclosure underscores how taxpayers often benefit from various provisions that keep their effective income-tax rates well below official rates that top out at 35%. It also points to what is likely to be a central theme of the 2012 presidential race: What is an appropriate tax level for various income groups?

The White House and top Democrats rolled out a litany of supporters Tuesday to argue that Mr. Romney wasn't paying enough. Republicans and some Democrats argue that lower tax rates on investment income help strengthen the economy.

President Barack Obama and his wife paid 25.3% of their 2010 income of $1.8 million in income taxes after taking deductions of about $245,000 for charitable contributions, and $78,000 for local taxes, among others.

Roughly half of households-mostly lower-income-pay no income tax, although many still pay payroll taxes. The average income-tax rate for the middle slice of households-those making between $34,300 and $50,000-was 3.3% for 2007, according to Congressional Budget Office data based in part on actual returns. That estimate includes the effects of various breaks, such as the per-child credit and the mortgage-interest deduction. Average income-tax rates rose to 14.4% for the top fifth, and to 19% for the top 1%, before dropping slightly for the very highest earners, who tend to have a larger percentage of their income from investments.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich seized on Mr. Romney's disclosure to step up his pressure for him to release his personal tax returns. Mr. Romney and his aides suggested he might do so around the April filing deadline. Mr. Romney's father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, is thought to have been the first modern presidential candidate to have released his tax returns, which he did during the campaign for the 1968 GOP nomination.

Tuesday's discussions also were marked by the kinds of apples-to-oranges comparisons that often emerge in tax-policy debates. For example, Mr. Gingrich, who has a 15% flat-tax proposal that would get rid of many deductions, argued that Mr. Romney's revelation showed 15% should be the rate for everyone.

"We ought to rename our flat tax," Mr. Gingrich said in Columbia, S.C. "We have a 15% flat tax. So this would be the Mitt Romney Flat Tax [and] all Americans could then pay the rate Romney paid. I think that's terrific."

The exchanges revived a GOP debate over tax policy that had slowed in recent weeks after the withdrawal from the campaign of former pizza executive Herman Cain, who had pitched a 999 plan-a 9% tax on consumer purchases, a 9% business tax and a 9% flat-rate income tax.

In a Fox News/Wall Street Journal debate on Monday, Mr. Romney said more broadly that he favored dropping the top tax bracket to 25%. That was a shift from his previous comments that he favored extending the Bush-era tax levels while moving toward a flatter, lower-rate system. The 35% top rate for 2011 now applies to that portion of net income above $379,151.

Mr. Gingrich's plan would eliminate the standard deduction and most itemized deductions and credits but would retain deductions for mortgage interest and charitable contributions as well as the child and earned income tax credits, according to the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank.

Both Mr. Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum have tried to turn Mr. Romney's personal fortune-he made millions as a founder of private-equity firm Bain Capital-into a vulnerability.

Related Video

Just as bankers were bracing for another year as public enemies No.1, Mitt Romney's past as head of the buyout group Bain Capital came to the rescue. Francesco Guerrera has details on The News Hub. Photo: AP

Ryan Williams, a Romney spokesman, accused Mr. Gingrich of "reading from the same liberal talking points" as the president, charging that neither he nor Mr. Obama "understand the private sector or how the real economy works."

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on his business experience, releasing his income tax records and illegal immigration at the Fox News Channel and Wall Street Journal GOP Debate in South Carolina. Courtesy Fox News Channel.

Mr. Romney on the campaign trail said Mr. Gingrich's plan would lead to irresponsible tax breaks for the wealthy. Because the former Speaker's plan would eliminate investment taxes altogether, Mr. Romney said that would mean the very rich would essentially go untaxed. "Warren Buffett, Bill Gates would probably pay no taxes at all," Mr. Romney said. "I just don't think that's the right course."

Mr. Romney also criticized Rick Santorum's tax plan for eliminating taxes on manufacturing, saying it amounted to picking winners.

The 15% rate for investment income, adopted in 2003 under President George W. Bush, has helped to push down effective tax rates for wealthy Americans such as the Romneys in recent years. The top 400 U.S. earners-whose average adjusted gross income was about $271 million-saw their average tax rate fall from 26.4% in 1992 to 18.1% in 2008, the latest year available, according to Internal Revenue Service statistics.

For the past 10 years Mr. Romney's income has overwhelmingly come from past investments, he said. "I got a little bit of income from my book, but I gave that all away. And then I get speakers fees from time to time, but not very much," Mr. Romney said. Candidate disclosure forms show Mr. Romney earned $374,327 in speaker fees from February 2010 to February 2011.

Mr. Obama-echoing a proposal by Mr. Buffett, a billionaire investor-has called for requiring that people with net income above $1 million pay a higher rate than middle-class earners.

Congressional Democrats are also pushing to stop private-equity investors, a group that once counted Mr. Romney, from receiving much of their compensation in a form that is subject to the 15% investment-tax rate. Known as carried interest, it typically amounts to a share of a multiyear investment. Critics say it is a form of wage income and ought to be taxed at regular rates; supporters say the current tax treatment is fair because of the risk involved.

The Democratic National Committee, in coordination with the Obama campaign, held a conference call Tuesday to amplify its message. "What doesn't he want the American people to see?" New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said on the call, adding that it isn't clear to voters that Mr. Romney is "paying his fair share."

From:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203735304577167282950708736.html

Get Ready for a 70% Marginal Tax Rate

Some argue the U.S. economy can bear higher pre-Reagan tax rates. But those rates applied to a much smaller fraction of taxpayers than what we're headed for without spending cuts.

By Michael J. Boskin

President Obama has been using the debt-ceiling debate and bipartisan calls for deficit reduction to demand higher taxes. With unemployment stuck at 9.2% and a vigorous economic "recovery" appearing more and more elusive, his timing couldn't be worse.

Two problems arise when marginal tax rates are raised. First, as college students learn in Econ 101, higher marginal rates cause real economic harm. The combined marginal rate from all taxes is a vital metric, since it heavily influences incentives in the economy-workers and employers, savers and investors base decisions on after-tax returns. Thus tax rates need to be kept as low as possible, on the broadest possible base, consistent with financing necessary government spending.

Second, as tax rates rise, the tax base shrinks and ultimately, as Art Laffer has long argued, tax rates can become so prohibitive that raising them further reduces revenue-not to mention damaging the economy. That is where U.S. tax rates are headed if we do not control spending soon.

The current top federal rate of 35% is scheduled to rise to 39.6% in 2013 (plus one-to-two points from the phase-out of itemized deductions for singles making above $200,000 and couples earning above $250,000). The payroll tax is 12.4% for Social Security (capped at $106,000), and 2.9% for Medicare (no income cap). While the payroll tax is theoretically split between employers and employees, the employers' share is ultimately shifted to workers in the form of lower wages.

But there are also state income taxes that need to be kept in mind. They contribute to the burden. The top state personal rate in California, for example, is now about 10.5%. Thus the marginal tax rate paid on wages combining all these taxes is 44.1%. (This is a net figure because state income taxes paid are deducted from federal income.)

So, for a family in high-cost California taxed at the top federal rate, the expiration of the Bush tax cuts in 2013, the 0.9% increase in payroll taxes to fund ObamaCare, and the president's proposal to eventually uncap Social Security payroll taxes would lift its combined marginal tax rate to a stunning 58.4%.

But wait, things get worse. As Milton Friedman taught decades ago, the true burden on taxpayers today is government spending; government borrowing requires future interest payments out of future taxes. To cover the Congressional Budget Office projection of Mr. Obama's $841 billion deficit in 2016 requires a 31.7% increase in all income tax rates (and that's assuming the Social Security income cap is removed). This raises the top rate to 52.2% and brings the total combined marginal tax rate to 68.8%. Government, in short, would take over two-thirds of any incremental earnings.

Many Democrats demand no changes to Social Security and Medicare spending. But these programs are projected to run ever-growing deficits totaling tens of trillions of dollars in coming decades, primarily from rising real benefits per beneficiary. To cover these projected deficits would require continually higher income and payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare on all taxpayers that would drive the combined marginal tax rate on labor income to more than 70% by 2035 and 80% by 2050. And that's before accounting for the Laffer effect, likely future interest costs, state deficits and the rising ratio of voters receiving government payments to those paying income taxes.

It would be a huge mistake to imagine that the cumulative, cascading burden of many tax rates on the same income will leave the middle class untouched. Take a teacher in California earning $60,000. A current federal rate of 25%, a 9.5% California rate, and 15.3% payroll tax yield a combined income tax rate of 45%. The income tax increases to cover the CBO's projected federal deficit in 2016 raises that to 52%. Covering future Social Security and Medicare deficits brings the combined marginal tax rate on that middle-income taxpayer to an astounding 71%. That teacher working a summer job would keep just 29% of her wages. At the margin, virtually everyone would be working primarily for the government, reduced to a minority partner in their own labor.

Nobody-rich, middle-income or poor-can afford to have the economy so burdened. Higher tax rates are the major reason why European per-capita income, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, is about 30% lower than in the United States-a permanent difference many times the temporary decline in the recent recession and anemic recovery.

Some argue the U.S. economy can easily bear higher pre-Reagan tax rates. They point to the 1930s-1950s, when top marginal rates were between 79% and 94%, or the Carter-era 1970s, when the top rate was about 70%. But those rates applied to a much smaller fraction of taxpayers and kicked in at much higher income levels relative to today.

There were also greater opportunities for sheltering income from the income tax. The lower marginal tax rates in the 1980s led to the best quarter-century of economic performance in American history. Large increases in tax rates are a recipe for economic stagnation, socioeconomic ossification, and the loss of American global competitiveness and leadership.

There is only one solution to this growth-destroying, confiscatory tax-rate future: Control spending growth, especially of entitlements. Meaningful tax reform-not with higher rates as Mr. Obama proposes, but with lower rates on a broader base of economic activity and people-can be an especially effective complement to spending control. But without increased spending discipline, even the best tax reforms are doomed to be undone.

From:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304911104576443893352153776.html

Change is...

From Weasel Zippers

Change is . . . a S&P AA credit rating.

Change is . . . 8.9% unemployment rate.

Change is . . . 13 million Americans out of work.

Change is.. gas at $4 bucks a gallon.

Change is.. High food prices.

Change is what Obama did to my political affiliation

Change is..an Islamic Caliphate coming to your country soon.

Change is...destroying relations with allies

Change is...giving technical secrets to enemies

Change is...providing weapons and aid to the enemy (Mexican drug cartels)

Change is...avoiding jobs and security for America (Keystone pipeline.)

Change is...Expensive.

Change is...a mindless slogan used to manipulate mindless lemmings.

Change is ....a $16 trillion debt.

Change is...new life breathed into unions, private and especially public employee

Change is...NBP with sticks threatening people outside polling places is A-OK

Change is...making Jimmah Carter look good as a President.

Change is...spending 5 trillion and not even having a t-shirt to show for it.

Change is...making a wookie the FLOTUS.

Change is..converting billions in tax dollars into millions in campaign donations and getting away with it. Call it Solyndra-sizing. Of course it's only a crime if a republican does it.

Change is expanding the food stamps program to infinity and beyond.

Change is a first lady that eats as if every day were Mardi Gras.

Change is disappearing from my piggy bank because I need it to survive now.

Change, is turning the strongest, freest, most productive nation on the planet into a third-world bannana republic.

Change, is turning God fearing, self-sufficient, inventive, enterprising people into a soulless, welfare dependent, mindless, slothful beasts.

Change is stubbornly funding bankrupt green companies that have no chance of fiscal solvency

Change continues to tumble the housing market

Change is being able to name all 57 states.

Change Is . . . . A Utopian Paradise Where Almost Everyone Is Equally Screwed

Change is...all I have left

From:

http://weaselzippers.us/2012/01/20/its-official-obamas-new-meaningless-campaign-slogan-for-2012-is-drumroll-please-change-is/

and a post script:

War is Peace

Freedom is Slavery

Ignorance is Strength

Change is Salvation

First President to...

From NoDragonspeak

First President to refuse to show a valid birth certificate.

First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.

First President to have a social security number from a state he has never lived in.

First President to preside over a cut to the credit rating of the United States .

First President to violate the War Powers Act.

First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. .

First President to defy a Federal Judges court order to cease implementing the Health Care Reform Law.

First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party.

First President to spend a trillion dollars on shovel-ready jobs and later admit there was no such thing as shovel-ready jobs.

First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters.

First President to by-pass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat.

First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S. , including those with criminal convictions.

First President to demand a company hand-over $20 billion to one of his political appointees.

First President to terminate America' s ability to put a man in space.

First President to encourage racial discrimination and intimidation at polling places.

First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.

First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.

First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly speak-out on the reasons for their rate increases.

First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state they are allowed to locate a factory.

First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN)

First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been properly issued years ago.

First President to fire an inspector general of Ameri-corps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case.

First President to appoint 45 Czars to replace elected officials in his office.

First President to golf 73 separate times in his first two and a half years in office.

First President to hide his medical, educational and travel records.

First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.

First President to coddle American enemies while alienating America's allies.

First President to publicly bow to Americas enemies while refusing to salute the U.S. Flag.

First President to go on multiple global apology tours.

First President to go on 17 lavish vacations, including date nights and Wednesday evening White House parties for his friends, paid for by the taxpayer.

First President to refuse to wear the U.S. Flag lapel pin.

First President to have 22 personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.

First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000.00 a year at taxpayer expense.

First President to repeat the Holy Qur'an tells us, and openly admit the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the most beautiful sound on earth.

The Washington Post ombudsman suggesting that we Scrutinize President Obama's record? What a concept!

I ran an editorial a few weeks back, suggesting why there are no criminal prosecutions of those in the mortgage industry who caused our economy to tank. You will never guess who may have close ties to a number of mortgage banks...Attorney General Eric Holder’s law firm. Don’t expect any criminal prosecutions for the next year.

Speaking of our federal government not doing any meaningful prosecutions; who is being criminally charged by the United States Attorney General in Operation Fast & Furious? No one. But, Arizona is investigating this.

Illinois Downgrade Provides More Evidence that Higher Taxes Make Fiscal Problems Worse, not Better.

There has been an increase in anti-Semitism in the Middle East in the wake of the Arab Spring

Interactive WSJ comparison between the Republican candidates and all the issues.

Science teachers in California (and, I assume, elsewhere) are getting pushback when it comes to teaching man-made global warming. Even though this is a moderately-biased article, it is nice to hear.

Bill O’Reilly and South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Dick Harpootlian discuss the Republican primary debate being held on MLK Day.

A list of those who support the Occupy Movement.

The NY Times on who supports the Occupy movement.

Election-Year Politics: Obama Rejects Keystone, Floats Phony "Budget Cuts"

RUSH: Hell's a-poppin' out there. Hell is a-poppin', folks. All kinds of things are happening right now as the program begins.

Fox News is reporting that the Obama administration is going to say "no" to the Keystone pipeline. The State Department is gonna say "no." They're gonna allow the Canadians to reapply with a new route that will not upset the precious habitat of Nebraska. Now, the prime minister of Canada said yesterday, I'm paraphrasing, "You Americans are absolutely nuts. If you want to treat your whole country like an off-limits National Park you go right ahead, but you can't make us treat our country that way. And if we have to we'll run a pipeline to the ChiComs. We're gonna move this oil."

So here we have election-year politics. Barack Obama has signaled to his base that there's gonna be some budget cuts coming that they won't like. 'Cause he's gonna submit a budget and it's gonna contain ostensibly cuts in it that his base won't like. Of course there won't be any cuts in an Obama budget that is presented.

RUSH: Don't worry. I have all of this under control. 'Cause if I don't, nobody else does, or will. And I've always told you when it would be time to panic, and it's not time to panic yet. Nowhere near it. While all this stuff's going on in the Republican side, ABC/Washington Post has a poll, the American people's confidence on the economy is still falling. I don't care how often Obama tries to blame that on Bush, it isn't gonna fly. There is nothing Obama can run on in the last three years that he can say, "Give me another four years to do more of this." There's nothing he can cite. There's not one thing that has happened in these past three years that Obama can run on.

They're gonna turn down the Keystone pipeline, that's the news. Fox has it out there. The State Department's gonna officially reject it because the route that the pipeline takes goes through the lovely pristine wilds of Nebraska. It would upset everything if it broke, which doesn't happen to pipelines, blah, blah, blah. Now, let me tell you something about this. This is very, very simple, and there have been worldwide surveys on this. This is not my opinion. This is economic fact. One of the primary ingredients, mechanisms, if you will, in lifting people economically is access to affordable, plentiful, cheap energy. In fact, there's a good ol' boy from Georgia who said recently -- I've got it in the stack here -- there's something everybody's missing here about what happened to the Chinese communists, and one of the reasons that they're never gonna be able now to hold onto communism is just two words: air-conditioning.

Once the Mainland Chinese discovered what they had in Hong Kong, they wanted it for themselves. And now the Chinese are expanding their electronic grid, so is India, they are bringing affordable and relatively cheap, market price, energy to their people. Electricity and the availability of electricity is one of the most crucial elements of freedom, economic advancement. The denial of this pipeline is the denial of access to more domestic energy that would lessen our dependence on foreign sources. It would make our overall supply greater, thereby lowering prices. It is a win-win that this administration is rejecting.

And they are rejecting it on environmental grounds. That's the public position on this.

Now, I'm here to tell you what the plan is. The plan is to reject this during the campaign. Obama is in trouble. He needs to secure his base. He needs to hold onto the wackos in the Democrat Party base, and he needs to keep their campaign contributions flowing. I'm frankly surprised that they've announced their decision this soon on this. I thought they'd try to keep this going as long as they could, extend it to get campaign donations coming from both sides of it, the oil business side and the environmentalist wacko side. They've obviously made a political calculation that it's more important to secure the base right now because they're in trouble. I don't care what's going on on the Republican side. They claim that the Republican campaign, the nominee, the campaign's gonna be about the Republican nominee. It's going to be about Obama.

This election is going to be about Barack Obama. He is the steward of a declining economy that an ABC News/Washington Post poll tells us that more and more people are feeling more and more negative about. Nobody wants to live in a nation in decline. Nobody wants to live in a nation in decline on purpose. Well, I don't want to say nobody, but we're not to the point where the majority of Americans want to live in a plundered, failed, downturned economy forever. That's not what most people want. Obama right now cannot afford for this pipeline to be approved because it would provide glaring evidence of all the errors he's made the previous three years. He simply can't do it. This pipeline, approving it, bringing more energy into this country, would be a great benefit to this country.

The moment this deal were to be announced it would have immediate effects on people's confidence. In the business sector, people who plan ahead, it would be demonstrable. Can't afford for that to happen because it would shine the light on all the failures of this regime in the three previous years, plus it would totally blow up his base. Can't have that. So what's going to happen? This will be resubmitted, if Obama wins, in 2013, and it will be miraculously approved. But right now it is purely and simply a campaign issue. Well, jobs was, too. But as far as the jobs are concerned, Obama is hoping just the appearance of interest in creating jobs will be enough to convince people he's doing something about it. But jobs, at minimum 20,000. Over the long haul hundreds of thousands of jobs would be created as a result of the Keystone pipeline. None of it matters. None of the reality matters. That's where we are.

I think donations from the environmentalist wackos must be down. I'm guessing here, but I'm just assuming that the money coming in from the wacko side is not what they thought. I think they're lagging behind. I think that's what this indicates. 'Cause right now everything Obama's doing is oriented toward money. And it always is, about everything. But now it's specifically campaign money and reelection money, and so forth. The calculation is that if you don't have your base you don't have a chance. If your base loses energy, if your base is demoralized, if your base is mad at you and the proverbial threats to stay home pop up, then you have no prayer. No matter the fraud, no matter the cheating, no matter how much walking around street money you've got, if you lose your base... frankly, the Republican Party runs this risk every four years. They purposely irritate the base.

I think Obama is probably losing his. On the Keystone pipeline, the unions are on both sides of it, too. Unions are on both sides. Some union people don't want the pipeline, others do, because it's jobs. And so the union donations on the anti-pipeline side are not automatic. They're not gonna go to Republicans, but they don't have to give. There's a lot of single-issue constituencies on the Democrat -- part of their coalition, a lot of single-issue constituencies, and they're just like our side. If they're not satisfied, they'll get all humpty-hump and sit around and not participate, and threaten not to participate. Wall Street Journal: Seven charged in insider trading probe including some of Wall Street's biggest money managers. That's a guaranteed campaign show trial. Wall Street on trial. We can all see how this is going to shake down. (interruption) It's not illegal. They can do insider trading, yeah, there's no proscription against them.

You heard about the Occupy DC throwing a couple of smoke bombs over the White House fence yesterday. Remember when the Tea Party used to do that all the time? No. No. I don't, either. I don't know why these protesters even bother to go to the White House. Don't they realize it's already occupied? They don't need to occupy the White House. They have it. I still love what the prime minister of Canada said. (paraphrasing) "Hey, look, you know, you guys, you want to treat your country like a giant national park, it's off-limits to everybody, you go right ahead. But we don't look at our country that way and we're gonna pipe this oil somewhere, and if we have to send it to the ChiComs, we will do it."

This is from TheHill.com: "Top White House officials are warning liberal and labor leaders to brace themselves for President Obama's budget proposal. Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council, sought in meetings last week to lift the left's gloom about Washington's crackdown on spending by promising that the president this year will focus on job creation rather than deficit cutting." How many times now have we been promised a laser-like focus on job creation by this president? What is this, the ninth or tenth time now? "Obama staffers sought to present their budget plan as a glass half full. According to sources familiar with the briefings, they promised that the president will focus on jobs and the economy, instead of deficit-cutting, which dominated last year's debate on Capitol Hill." Now, the translation of that is that Obama is going to push for spending, stimulus, instead of cutting spending.

So what is there for labor unions and the rest of the left not to like? What is this? You won't like the budget? I think what's really going on here is that the regime is warning the left that they're going to have to offer a budget that sounds like there are cuts, but they don't want them to have to worry since there really won't be any cuts. Do any of us really think Obama or any Democrat's gonna present a budget with cuts? I mean real cuts? It isn't gonna happen. But now that Obama's laid it out, "Hey, get ready, we're gonna have to really cut this budget." And the media will carry that along, but there won't be any cuts. We are coming up on the 1,000th day without a budget. The 1,000th day that the Democrat Party has not offered or presented a budget.

But this article from The Hill repeats several times that Obama is gonna focus on jobs and the economy instead of deficit cutting, never mind the deal he made back in August to get the debt ceiling raised. So what he's really doing here, just to translate this for you again, Obama is telling his base he's gonna push for more spending, more stimulus, instead of cutting spending. He's telling the labor unions and the rest of his foot soldiers he's still gonna find ways to funnel them money, despite the supposed spending cuts. When he tells them he's gonna focus on jobs, the translation: "I'm sending you money." That's what it means. "Don't worry about the cuts in here, don't worry about whatever appear to be cuts. I'm focusing on jobs." And every time Obama focuses on jobs, that means stimulus. Jobs equals federal spending, according to Obama. And that's the message he's sending to his troops here.

The Hill: Obama Administration Warns the Left: You Will Not Like Our Budget

Wall Street Journal: Federal Officials Charge Seven in Insider Probe

Interview with Wisconsin Governor Walker

RUSH: We have the governor of Wisconsin on the phone with us, Scott Walker, who is subject to a recall attempt in the state of Wisconsin because of the bang-up good job he has done in trying to reform some of the practices involving collective bargaining and state employees in the state of Wisconsin. Governor, welcome, and thank you for giving us some time with you today.

WALKER: Hey, Rush, my pleasure, great to be with you and your listeners.

RUSH: Now, let me set this up by letting people in the audience know some facts. You took office in January 2011, and at the time, as governor, you faced a budget deficit of $3.6 billion.

WALKER: Correct.

RUSH: You made some decisions. That "deficit" is now a projected $300 million surplus without raising taxes, without furloughs or layoffs for state employees. You have also asked state employees to pay 12.6% of their health care premiums. Private sector workers pay double that. You've asked state employees to contribute 5.8% of their salary toward their pensions. They previously paid zero. You've got an excellent track record in turning the state around. Why do they want to get rid of you?

WALKER: Well, I think that's a logical question. I think the bottom line is the big government unions in Washington, more than anything, want their money, and they don't want their workers' money. It's not just about collective bargaining or pensions or anything else like that. It's about the fact they also give the nearly 300,000 public servants, the people who legitimately work hard every day for both our state and our local government in Wisconsin, I gave them the right to choose, which means they don't have to be a part of a union anymore, and their union dues can't be forcibly taken out of their paycheck. That's what this is really about. That's why they're gonna break the bank, take us on this summer in these recall elections and everything is kind of air cover for that. Our reforms are working.

RUSH: Signatures are due today; is that right?

WALKER: That's right.

RUSH: How does this recall process work?

WALKER: Yeah, it is bizarre. They need to get at least a number equivalent to a quarter of all the votes cast for governor in 2010. So that's just over 540,000. They'll probably turn in close to 700,000 today. But, remember, that's equivalent, meaning in our state you don't actually have to be a voter to sign it, all you have to be is eligible to vote, which means 18, not a felon, and lived in the state for at least 28 days. So you can imagine all the shenanigans there.

RUSH: Yeah.

WALKER: But, from what they say, they're probably gonna turn in 720,000 today. That's a lot of signatures, but they've been planning this since late last spring. They've got tons of money from the big government unions in Washington, around the country. And, you know, in comparison, they went out, solicited some 700,000 signatures, but that's through months and months of preparation, two months of effort after six months of preparation and they still have fewer signatures in terms of people out there than there were votes cast in the last gubernatorial election even for the losing candidate, the mayor of Milwaukee. So my hope is, if we can affirm the majority of people in the state and get their trust just like we did in 2010, we'll be able to do it again in 2012.

RUSH: I'm talking to Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin, subject to recall petition. So the AP is reporting that, as you say, they will turn in enough signatures. I can't remember where, Governor, it might have been Wisconsin, just the past couple of weeks, or it could have been before the Christmas break, but I read some state doing something similar. And, again, it might have been Wisconsin. Petitions had to be submitted and they were signed by Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck --

WALKER: That was Wisconsin.

RUSH: -- and judged to be legal.

WALKER: We will go through and we will review and challenge all of these. We've got literally thousands of grassroots volunteers willing to help us out in that, but we had a guy on the ABC affiliate in Milwaukee that went on TV and claimed he signed it 80 times. In fact, his quote was something like, "Well, George Bush cheated, so we're gonna cheat, too," was essentially what he told the reporter. Under Wisconsin law, only one of those signatures should count, but, up until we went up to court, the campaign was the one that had to challenge that. Now the agency that runs elections in the state will have to review those. But, you know, I said three or four months ago at least when they first talked about the date of the recall, I said, if you think about it, if they get 9,000 or 10,000 union activists and whether they are people in the state or people they had to pay to come in from somewhere else -- one way or another -- they were gonna get enough signatures.

Even with some of these other ridiculous cases, they'll probably still get enough because we saw it in Ohio, and we saw them putting the bodies in that they needed to do it. The key quest... (unintelligible) In Ohio's case, they never saw the effect of the reforms. In Wisconsin's case, we've seen it. In September, kids like my kids went back to public school, and our schools in nearly every part of the state were the same or better. And then a few weeks ago in December, people got their property tax bills and, for the first time in years, the school tax levies actually went down across the state on average. People have seen no matter how many attack ads from the big government union bosses, the bottom line is the reforms are working.

RUSH: And so they're living the reforms that you've made, they're actually demonstrable.

WALKER: Yeah, we have a great choice here. We don't even know who the candidate is against us yet other than we know the real opponent will be this money coming in from out of state from these government unions, but in the end it's a real choice. You can go back to the days of double-digit tax increases, billion-dollar budget deficits, and record job loss, because, in the three years before I took office, Wisconsin lost 150,000 private sector jobs. Or we can move forward and ultimately be in a position where we can move the state forward. We've had a net increase of jobs this year. We balanced the budget without tax increases. We did it the old-fashioned way. We made structural changes that think more about the next generation than just about the next election. And we were able to protect core services by making these reforms. That's where I think the majority of people in our state want to go, and I hope given the chance again this summer with the help of a lot of grassroots supporters and people across the country at ScottWalker.org can help us out as well.

RUSH: Well, that's why they want to recall. You're effective. You're doing what you said you were gonna do, and what you said you were gonna do is working, and that's the last thing the left can tolerate. They just can't tolerate this kind of success. It disproves every belief of theirs. I just went back and checked, the story was from December 14th. The signatures of Mickey Mouse and Adolf Hitler will be counted on recall petitions targeting you as long as they're properly dated and include a Wisconsin address. Nobody's been laid off for this despite all the screaming. How in the world can that stand?

WALKER: Well, we went through -- unlike other states, you know, what are the ways you balance a budget? Some states raise taxes. We didn't. In fact, we lowered them. Some states laid off, including some Democrat controlled states, laid off thousands of public employees.

RUSH: Look at Illinois, look at how many people are leaving Illinois.

WALKER: Yeah. And it's exactly right. I mean look at the mess they've got down there. They have massive tax increases. They claim they were gonna do that. In fact, they boldly said last year they were doing that instead of what we were doing in Wisconsin. They've got a huge fiscal mess. They just surpassed California as the worst bond rating in the country. They've got a 10% unemployment and they've got continued problems in that state. We took on our problems head on, we took them on. We thought more about our kids and our grandkids' future than we did our own political futures. And, in the end, I believe I still have faith in the American voter and the voter in Wisconsin, I believe, if given the truth, the majority of people in our state will say, "You know what, we want leaders who do what they say they're gonna do. We want leaders who think about the future, not just about being worried about what group may run ads against them."

And, in the end, I think we're gonna prevail. It's gonna take a ton of support. In the last two months we raised more money than any candidate for governor has and 79% of those donations came from people who gave us $50 or less. So I always tell folks go to ScottWalker.org because we're gonna have a tremendous grassroots army of supporters out there who are gonna help us take on this big government union money.

RUSH: When does this actually happen? The signatures get turned in today, then they get counted. How long does that take, and when is the actual recall election?

WALKER: The verification process will probably take at least a month if not longer. We believe, based upon that timeline, probably having a June -- maybe even early July -- election. So this will drag on awhile. We're ready to do it now. You know, unfortunately for my taxpayers in Wisconsin, this baseless recall effort is gonna cost the taxpayers $9 million on top of the fact that we're probably gonna see $60 to $70 million worth of ads and attacks and everything else out there, which I think most people are just sick of. But, in the end, that's the way the law is. It is what it is. Assuming they have enough valid signatures, we'll have the election by midsummer. But I think it's one of those that's important not only in Wisconsin, I think it's important across America, not only for 2012 but more so long term. And that's why I think the big government unions are so invested in this. They know that when we prevail, this will send a powerful message in every statehouse and in the halls of Congress that, once and for all, people can stand up and do the right thing, the courageous thing, and there will be people there standing with them.

RUSH: Well, you're proving that the contentions the unions make, the economic contentions they make are not true. You're proving that with policy and the results. Your neighboring state, Illinois, had to raise taxes 66%, still didn't help them.

WALKER: Right.

RUSH: You have success on your side. It's just a matter of -- it's the age-old bugaboo -- whether or not people, voters of Wisconsin who are living the success, they can see it, you mentioned their property tax assessment, they can see it, whether they're gonna be overcome by emotion and part of the campaigns and so forth. And you are gonna have, I think it's bellwether, you're gonna have national union support arrayed against you.

WALKER: Yeah, there's no doubt about it. I'm a firm believer in the truth. We saw on a smaller basis, but we saw a similar outpouring of national attention from the big government unions last summer when six of my state senators faced recall elections and in the end we prevailed and upheld a majority for the state senate. I believe it was because of the truth. In fact, one of those key elections involved a district in nearby Milwaukee and on the eve of the recall election the comptroller of that city had to come out and admit that the reforms we put in place will ultimately save that city $25 million and net anywhere from $11 million to $17 million of savings each year. That's after the mayor, months earlier, said our reforms were gonna devastate the city. The facts ultimately came out and I think that helped win in that seat and I think the facts, if given a chance to get out, will ultimately allow us to yet again earn the trust of a majority of people in our state.

RUSH: Governor, best of luck. We, of course, as always will be tracking this and stay in touch.

WALKER: Thanks, Rush. Good to be with you.

RUSH: Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin.

Barack Obama is the Problem

Clyburn: Newt Wants White Kids to See Black Kids as Servants

A montage of the media going nuts over Romney's tax rate.

Scott Walker: A Man on the Bleeding Edge

Rush: I Don't Have to Write Another Book Because Mark Levin Wrote "Ameritopia"

Memories of a Shoeshine Boy—Rush’s first job

Since there are some links you may want to go back to from time-to-time, I am going to begin a list of them here. This will be a list to which I will add links each week.

Waffles at Noon (conservative news (but it has an irritating advert with it):

http://wafflesatnoon.com/

Socially liberal; economically and politically conservative:

http://markhumphrys.com/

Journalism.org; how journalism is covering stories and what the big trends are.

http://www.journalism.org/

Many Economic issues, as well as conservative critiques of various Republicans:

http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/

Nonpartisan business news:

http://www.businessinsider.com/

Keeping track of Obama’s promises (although this appears to lean left, it is probably more fair than anything from the Obama Media Complex:

http://obamawatch.wikidot.com/

A similar site on Obama keeping his promises, and also biased. For instance, on government spending, this is shown to be a promise which has been 12% kept, whatever that means.

http://promises.nationaljournal.com/

Great news source; the Gateway Pundit:

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/

Thoughts from a Conservative Mom:

http://www.thoughtsfromaconservativemom.com/

Doug Ross blog; mostly a collection of articles, news links, photos and cartoons; some actual blogging.

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/

Political News Now; the Snow Report

http://www.politicalnewsnow.com/

The Long War Journal

http://www.longwarjournal.org/

Christine Rouselle’s website:

http://thecollegeconservative.com/christine-rousselle/

Ending Spending:

http://endingspending.com/

The Congressmen spending huge amounts of money and those who attempt to curb this spending:

http://endingspending.com/sheriffsandbandits/

Very good free enterprise blog and news source; The American:

http://www.american.com/

Crossroads GPS site (the YouTube site is the best organized):

http://www.youtube.com/CrossroadsGPSChannel

http://www.crossroadsgps.org/

http://www.nomoreblankchecks.com/

Excellent set of short videos:

www.youtube.com/user/LearnLiberty

Split nation (news and opinions from both sides):

http://www.splitnation.org/

Very interesting economic news and views:

http://www.zerohedge.com/

The Bluegrass pundit (a collection of stories of the day): pumpkin

http://www.bluegrasspundit.com/

The Global Warming Policy Foundation:

http://www.thegwpf.org/index.php

Current list of Obama’s executive orders:

http://1461days.blogspot.com/2009/01/current-list-of-president-obamas.html

The Times Watch, which gives example after example of the latest bias on mainstream news sources:

http://www.mrc.org/timeswatch/default.aspx

A syndicate of talent:

http://www.creators.com/

Conservative Daily News:

http://conservativedailynews.com/

Merging Corruption:

http://emergingcorruption.com/

Liberal blogger:

http://doninmass.com/

Pro/Con on important issues:

http://www.procon.org/

Stolen History. This is a Black historian who seeks to teach the actual history of the Black man in America:

http://stolenhistory.org/

Which interest groups support which party?

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/index.php

Open Secrets:

http://www.opensecrets.org/index.php

Honest news on the Occupy movement:

http://www.owsexposed.com/

Are you a woman who wants a nice bag which is the right size to carry a weapon?

http://designerconcealedcarry.com/

Political Cartoons:

http://drawfortruth.com/

News opinion site I am still thinking about:

http://www.maggiesnotebook.com/

Examples of liberal results:

http://urbangrounds.com/

The Global Warming Policy Foundation:

http://thegwpf.org/index.php

The Occupy unofficial site:

http://www.occupytogether.org/

The Freedom Post, a conservative blog who often likes facts and figures.

http://www.myfreedompost.com/

Conservative blogging from the great unwashed

http://www.policymic.com/main/index

The Right Scoop, where there are a number of videos, mostly of recent speeches of presidential candidates.

http://www.therightscoop.com/

James O’Keefe’s website (independent journalist):

http://www.theprojectveritas.org/

Rebel Pundit; citizen journalism from the belly of the beast:

http://rebelpundit.com/

Free Republic:

http://www.freerepublic.com/home.htm

Anti-Wall Street groups include:

Stop the Machine under October 2011, which apparently had permits for months for October. This is very organized; these are not people who just showed up suddenly. Their issues: protect the planet, healthcare for all, end wars, tax the rich and end corporate welfare.

http://october2011.org/

Freedom’s Lighthouse:

http://freedomslighthouse.net/

The Swine Line (Citizens Against Government Waste):

http://swineline.org/

Right Change:

http://www.rightchange.com/

Misfit Politics on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/misfitpolitics

Translating Jihad:

http://www.translatingjihad.com/

The Five Myths archive of the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/five-myths/2010/07/06/ABCCtvO_linkset.html

The Obama Diary (this is a very pro-Obama diary with lots of videos):

http://theobamadiary.com/

I Hate the Media:

http://www.ihatethemedia.com/

In case someone tells a fib about Obama, we need to turn that person in. Luckily, the President has provided for us such a website:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/signup/o2012-attackwatch-report-an-attack or after they have your email address, then use:

http://AttackWatch.com

The Obama Diary. This appears to be a pretty serious site, dedicated to telling you what the president is doing right:

http://theobamadiary.com/

Tomorrow’s Economy Today (lots of graphs).

http://www.economy-tomorrow.com/

We the people; online petitions from the people to the White House:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/WeThePeople

Conservative blogging and news:

http://senseofevents.blogspot.com/

Political news site; looks comprehensive and possibly non-partisan:

http://electzu.com/

Workforce Fairness Institute (it sounds like a liberal group, but it looks like a conservative group):

http://www.workforcefairness.com/

Wrote Left Turn and measures media bias as well as individuals. There is a 40 question test to measure your political quotient and the quotient of various media outlets are given.

http://www.timgroseclose.com/

Conservative Refocus (conservative opinion and a little news):

http://www.conservativerefocus.com/index.php

News and right-leaning commentary

http://www.frumforum.com/

Big Hairy News (right-leaning tongue-in-cheek and some actual news, sort of):

http://peacemoonbeam.typepad.com/bighairynews/

National Taxpayers Union:

http://www.ntu.org/

Millionaires who think they should pay more taxes:

http://patrioticmillionaires.org/

Sunshine State News (almost the only news service which ran a story on Mack’s Penny Plan). They are not a conservative news source, by the way.

http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/

Bankrupting America:

http://www.bankruptingamerica.org/

Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis (a number of fairly easy to understand article on economic matters):

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/

Start Thinking Right, a mostly conservative blog, but he does not support every single conservative in each and every case:

https://startthinkingright.wordpress.com/

The cut, cap and balance amendment:

http://www.cutcapandbalanceact.com/

Club for Growth:

http://clubforgrowth.org/

Social Network of the Revolution (they seem to be a conservative organization):

http://rtr.org/

Watts Up With That (a lot of recent scientific news is posted here—there were 9 stories for July 5^th alone):

http://wattsupwiththat.com/

Corruption Chronicles (wtching things judicial):

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog

If you are a small business and you want to air out your problems with how government has hampered your business, here’s the place to go (enjoy the video):

http://jobs.majorityleader.gov/

Excellent economic news:

http://www.zerohedge.com/

Uncover age, sometimes a sensational right wing blog site:

http://www.uncoverage.net/

The Bare Knuckled Pundit, a right-wing blog site with in-depth articles.

http://www.bareknuckledpundit.com/

Front Page Mag; in-depth right-leaning stories:

http://frontpagemag.com/

Framing the Dialogue (mostly individually produced blog postings and interesting articles):

http://www.framingthedialogue.com/

Obamacare 411 (stories about what to expect from Obamacare):

http://obamacare411.wordpress.com/

The U.S. misery index, determined month-by-month:

http://www.miseryindex.us/customindexbymonth.asp

TEA Party . Org (conservative news and views):

http://www.teaparty.org/

Seems to be a middle-of-the-road news organization; iwatch news:

http://www.iwatchnews.org/

Front Page magazine, which is conservative with Jewish emphasis:

http://frontpagemag.com/

The fake Obama Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002453027874&sk=info (the name "Harrison J. Bounel" - a suspected Obama alias, based on official records)

Our Dirty Spending Secrets:

http://www.dirtyspendingsecrets.com/

The Right Perspective (blog):

http://rightperspective.wordpress.com/

Conservative byte (conservative blog; news):

http://conservativebyte.com/

The Government is not God, a political action committee:

http://www.gingpac.org/

Obama’s autopen twitter account:

http://twitter.com/#!/ObamasAutopen

The Minority Report (conservative blogging and news):

http://www.theminorityreportblog.com/

Shadow Government Statistic; excellent economics site (some information is free, but this is a subscription site):

http://www.shadowstats.com/

A George Soros funded site to go after specific Fox anchors through their advertisers (is there any parallel to this on the right?):

http://dropfox.com/

Cato Institute’s Downsizing Government

http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/

Cool blog with a lot of excellent articles:

http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/

Slimeball comics:

http://slimeball-comics.blogspot.com/

Anti-Fox, anti-conservative “news and opinion” site:

http://www.newscorpse.com/

Lots of current vids:

http://www.therightscoop.com/

Men with Foil Hats (occasionally borders on conspiratorial without being completely nuts; mostly a repository of news stories from elsewhere):

http://www.menwithfoilhats.com/

iwatch news is a repository of interesting news items; there might be a slight left slant? It is hard to tell.

http://www.iwatchnews.org/

Calculated Risk Blog:

http://cr4re.com/charts/charts.html

Calculated Risk Charts and Graphs:

http://cr4re.com/charts/charts.html

This website, asks the eternal question...

http://www.isglennbeckright.com/

Renew America:

http://www.renewamerica.com/

The Party of 1776:

http://www.partyof1776.net/

Climate Realists:

http://climaterealists.com/index.php

In case I did not list it before, Iowa Hawk (insightful economic blogging):

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/

American Legislative Exchange Council (Limited government, free markets and federalism):

http://www.alec.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home

Right Wing News Watch

http://www.rightwingnewswatch.com/

It is mostly libs who post here, but this way, you get their weird perspective on things political:

http://www.politico.com/arena/

The Right Scoop:

http://www.therightscoop.com/

Pro-Life Unity:

http://www.prolifeunity.com/

Christian Healthcare Ministries (an alternative to health insurance)

http://chministries.org/

Daniel Mitchell’s blog:

http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/

Capitalism Magazine

http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/

The truth wins (mostly commentary on economics).

http://thetruthwins.com/

Conservative 21 (blog)

http://www.conservative21.com/index.cfm

Translating Jihad. What is broadcast in the Arabic is one thing; and how it is said in English is something entirely different:

http://translating-jihad.blogspot.com/

The Center for Responsive Politics:

http://www.opensecrets.org/

What if George Bush did that?

http://whatifgeorgebushdidthat.wordpress.com/

The Lonely Conservative (news and conservative opinion):

http://lonelyconservative.com/

The right weather underground (blog, with some emphasis upon the phony green agenda).

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/sebastianjer/

An article on the federal reserve:

http://www.apfn.org/apfn/fed_reserve.htm

The Economic Collapse Blog:

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

Albert Mohler’s blog, which is Christian and conservative:

http://www.albertmohler.com/

Readers begin a discussion, and other join in:

http://ricochet.com/

The Other Half of History (the history which is ignored in the modern classroom):

http://historyhalf.com/columns/

American History:

http://wallbuilders.com/

Citizen Tom (news and conservative commentary):

http://citizentom.com/

Pronk Palisades (recent news and editorial videos and links):

http://raymondpronk.wordpress.com/

The Right brothers (sort of newsy and commentary):

http://therightbrothers.posterous.com/

Freedom Fighter’s Journal (news and opinion articles):

http://ronbosoldier.blogspot.com/

Liberty’s Army (mostly economic and middle eastern revolutionary news right now):

http://www.libertysarmy.com/

News and opinion articles:

http://iusbvision.wordpress.com/

STORM’s official Revolutionary document:

http://www.leftspot.com/blog/files/docs/STORMSummation.pdf

Climate Depot’s 321-page 'Consensus Buster' Report:

http://www.climatedepot.com/a/9035/SPECIAL-REPORT-More-Than-1000-International-Scientists-Dissent-Over-ManMade-Global-Warming-Claims--Challenge-UN-IPCC--Gore

The Iowahawk, which is a blog, at times, heavy with stats, and at other times, it is hard to tell:

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/

Liberal collector of links and liberal news:

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/

Good conservative news blog:

http://a12iggymom.wordpress.com/

The radio patriot; a news repository and right-wing blog:

http://radiopatriot.wordpress.com/

Glenn Beck’s news page; almost everything is a video:

http://www.theblaze.com/

Conservative Girls are Hot:

http://girlontheright.com/

The Food Liberation Army (I am still unsure whether this is a put-on or not):

http://www.freeronald.org/en/fla/

Good news site—Buck’s Right:

http://www.bucksright.com/

In case you want to refer others to this; statistical comparison between gays and straights:

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IS04C02

Palestinian Media Watch:

http://palwatch.org/

Right Bias:

http://rightbias.com/

Red, White and Blue news:

http://redwhitebluenews.com/

The Right Scoop (lots of videos):

http://www.therightscoop.com/

Excellent news source:

http://home.myway.com/

Union refund? Really?

http://www.unionrefund.org/

The Right Reasons (news and opinion):

http://www.therightreasons.net/index.php

Meadia Research Center where the bias of mainstream news is exposed again and again.

http://www.mrc.org

Pundit and Pundette:

http://www.punditandpundette.com/

News directly from people in Egypt (called Broadcasting from Tahrir Square):

http://eltahrir.org/

Stand with Us:

http://www.standwithus.com/

A George Soros funded site:

http://thinkprogress.org/

Progressive media matters action network:

http://politicalcorrection.org/

The Jawa Report (there is some moderate emphasis upon Islam):

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/

Kids Aren’t Cars:

http://www.kidsarentcars.com/blog/

Stuff you probably did not know about greenhouse gases (this is a good link for friends):

http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html

The Top 100 Effects of Global Warming (I am fairly certain that this is serious; but it is really hard to tell). It is saying goodbye to French Wines, glaciers, guacamole, mixed nuts, French fries, baseball and Christmas trees and saying hello to cannibalistic polar bears, jellyfish attacks, giant squid attacks, more stray kittens, suffocating lemmings, burning cow poop and acidic oceans.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/09/climate_100.html

Comprehensive List of Tax Hikes in Obamacare (this includes individual health insurance costing as much as $695/month by 2016—which is not the only cost):

http://www.atr.org/comprehensive-list-tax-hikes-obamacare-a5758#

Tammy Bruce

http://tammybruce.com/

[California’s] Public Speakers blog:

http://pubsecrets.wordpress.com/

Flashpoint—California’s most significant political news:

http://www.flashreport.org/

The Publius Forum (more of a newscast than a blog; located in Chicago, I believe):

http://www.publiusforum.com/

Political Chips:

http://www.politicalchips.org/

Brits at their best:

http://www.britsattheirbest.com/

Political Affairs, which used to be called the Communist (in case you are interested in what the Democratic Par, I mean, the communist party is up to.

http://politicalaffairs.net/

Headlines, short news stories:

http://www.thehotjoints.com/

Christmas is evil (Muslim website):

http://xmasisevil.com/index2.php

Conservative blogger:

http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/

Verum Serum

http://www.verumserum.com/

The Tax Professor Blog

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/

Moonbattery:

http://www.moonbattery.com/

Arbitrary Vote:

http://arbitraryvote.com/home

The Party of Know:

http://thepartyofknow.com/

Slap Blog

http://slapblog.com/

The latest news from Prison Planet:

http://prisonplanet.tv/

http://prisonplanet.tv/latest-news.html

Right Wing News:

http://rightwingnews.com/

The Frugal Café:

http://www.frugal-cafe.com/public_html/frugal-blog/frugal-cafe-blogzone/

The Left Coast Rebel:

http://www.leftcoastrebel.com/

The Freedomist:

http://freedomist.com/

Greg Gutfeld’s website:

http://freedomist.com/

This is one of my favorite lists; this is a list of things which global warming causes (right now, it causes over 800 things—most of these are linked):

http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm

The U.K.’s number watch:

http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/number%20watch.htm

100 things we can say goodbye to (or, hello to) because of Global Warming (all of these are linked). They are very serious about these things, by the way:

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/09/climate_100.html

If you are busy, and just want to read about the Top Ten things:

http://planetsave.com/2009/06/07/global-warming-effects-and-causes-a-top-10-list/

Observations of a blue state conservative:

http://lonelyconservative.com/

Thomas “Soul man” Sewell’s column archive:

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell1.asp

Walter E. Williams column archive:

http://townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/

Israpundit:

http://www.israpundit.com/

The Prairie Pundit:

http://prairiepundit.blogspot.com/

Conservative Art:

http://secularstupidest.com/

Conservative Club of Houston:

http://www.cclub.org/welcome

Conservative blog, but with an eye to the culture and pop culture (there is a lot of stuff here):

http://hallofrecord.blogspot.com/

Conservative and pop culture blog (last I looked, there were some Beatles’ performances here):

http://thinkinboutstuff.com/thinkinboutstuff/nfblog/

Raging Elephants:

http://www.ragingelephants.org/

Gulag bound:

http://gulagbound.com/

Hyscience:

http://www.hyscience.com/

Politi Fi

http://politifi.com/

TEA Party Patriots:

http://teapartypatriots.org/

South Montgomery County Liberty Group:

http://sites.google.com/site/smclibertygroup/

Hole in the Hull:

http://www.holeinthehull.com/

National Council for Policy Analysis (ideas changing the world):

http://www.ncpa.org/

Ordering their pamphlets:

http://www.policypatriots.org/

Cartoon (Senator Meddler):

http://www.senatormedler.com/

Bear Witness:

http://bearwitness.info/default.aspx

http://bearwitness.info/BEARWITNESSMAIN.aspx (there are a million vids on this second page)

Right Change (facts presented in an entertaining manner):

http://www.rightchange.com/

Bias alert from the Media Research Center:

http://www.mrc.org/biasalert/archive.aspx

Excellent conservative blogger:

http://mikesamerica.blogspot.com/

Send this link to the young people you know (try the debt quiz; I only got 6 out of 10 right):

http://ourtab.org/

Center for Responsive Politics:

http://www.opensecrets.org/

The Chamber Post (pro-business blog):

http://www.chamberpost.com/

Labor Pains (a pro-business, anti-union blog):

http://laborpains.org/

These people are after our children and after church goers as well:

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Their opposition:

http://resistingthegreendragon.com/

The Doug Ross Journal (lots of pictures and cartoons):

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/

Photos on this and the next page all came from Doug Ross’s website.

The WSJ Guide to Financial Reform

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703315404575250382363319878.html

The WSJ Guide to Obamacare:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574441193211542788.html

The WSJ Guide to Climate Change

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704007804574574101605007432.html

Video-heavy news source:

http://www.mediaite.com/

Political News:

http://www.politicsdaily.com/

Planet Gore; blogs about the environment:

http://www.nationalreview.com/planet-gore

The Patriot Post:

http://patriotpost.us/

PA Pundits, whose motto is, “the relentless pursuit of common sense” (I used many of the quotations which they gathered)

http://papundits.wordpress.com/

Index of (business) freedom, world rankings:

http://www.heritage.org/index/pdf/2010/Index2010_ExecutiveHighlights.pdf

U.S. State economic freedom:

http://www.pacificresearch.org/docLib/20080909_Economic_Freedom_Index_2008.pdf

The All-American Blogger:

http://www.allamericanblogger.com/

The Right Scoop (with lots of vids):

http://www.therightscoop.com/

In case you have not seen it yet, Obsession:

http://www.therightscoop.com/saturday-cinema-obsession-radical-islams-war-against-the-west

Inside Islam; what a billion Muslims think:

http://vimeo.com/14121737

World Net Daily (News):

http://www.wnd.com/

Excellent blog with lots of cool vids:

http://benhoweblog.wordpress.com/

Black and Right:

http://www.black-and-right.com/

The Right Network:

http://rightnetwork.com/

Video on the Right Network:

http://rightnetwork.com/videos/860061517

The newly designed Democrat website:

http://www.democrats.org/

Composition of Congress 1855–2010:

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774721.htm

Anti-American and pro-socialist, pro-Arabic:

http://www.zeropartypolitics.com/

The anti-Jihad resistence (which appears to be a set of links to similar websites):

http://www.antijihadresistance.com/

Not sure if this is original with Doug Ross, but this small picture explains liberal thinking; no problem with the first act—he is expressing his opinion, it is patriotic. But the second? Well, that just isn’t right!

Seems to be fair and balanced with an international news approach:

http://ibnlive.in.com/

http://www.rawstory.com/

Black and Right dot com:

http://www.black-and-right.com/ (the future liberal of the day is quite humorous)

Mostly a liberal blogger, who says vicious things about most conservatives; and yet, says something sensible, e.g. posting many of the things which the healthcare bill does to us.

http://www.osborneink.com/

Conservative news site (many of the stories include videos):

http://www.theblaze.com/

http://nakedemperornews.com/

http://pajamasmedia.com/

Muslim hope:

http://www.muslimhope.com/index.html

Anti-Obama sites:

http://howobamagotelected.com/

http://www.impeachobamacampaign.com/

http://www.exposeobama.com/

International news, mostly about Israel and the Middle East:

http://www.haaretz.com/

http://www.jpost.com/

News headlines sites (with links):

http://drudgereport.com/

http://www.thedeadpelican.com/

Business blog and news:

http://www.bizzyblog.com/

And I have begun to sort out these links:

News and Opinions

Conservative News/Opinion Sites

The Daily Caller

http://dailycaller.com/

Sweetness and Light

http://sweetness-light.com/

Flopping Aces:

http://www.floppingaces.net/

News busters:

http://newsbusters.org/

Right wing news:

http://rightwingnews.com/

CNS News:

http://www.cnsnews.com/

Pajamas Media:

http://pajamasmedia.com/

Right Wing News:

http://rightwingnews.com/

Scared Monkeys (somewhat of a conservative newsy site):

http://scaredmonkeys.com/

Conservative News Source:

http://www.newsrealblog.com/

David’ Horowitz’s NewsReal:

http://www.newsrealblog.com/

Pamela Geller’s conservative website:

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/

The news sites and the alternative news media:

http://drudgereport.com/

http://www.hallindsey.com/

http://reason.com/

Andrew Breithbart’s websites:

http://biggovernment.breitbart.com/

Conservative Websites:

http://www.theodoresworld.net/

http://conservalinked.com/

http://www.moonbattery.com/

http://www.rockiesghostriders.com/

www.coalitionoftheswilling.net

http://shortforordinary.com/

A conservative worldview:

http://www.divineviewpoint.com/sane/

http://www.theamericanright.com/forums/index.php

http://politipage.com/

Liberal News Sites

Democrat/Liberal news site:

http://intoxination.net/

News

CNS News:

http://www.cnsnews.com/home

News Organization (I mention them because I have seen 2 honest stories on their website, which shocked and surprised me):

http://www.ocregister.com/

Business News/Economy News

Investors Business Daily:

http://www.investors.com/

IBD editorials:

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/IBDEditorials.aspx

Great business and political news:

www.wsj.com

www.businessinsider.com

Quick News

Even though this group leans left, if you need to know what happened each day, and you are a busy person, here is where you can find the day’s news given in 100 seconds:

http://www.youtube.com/user/tpmtv

Republican

Back to the basics for the Republican party:

http://www.republicanbasics.com/

Republican Stop Obamacare site:

http://www.nrcc.org/codered/main.php

North Suburban Republican Forum:

http://www.northsuburbanrepublicanforum.org/

Politics

You Decide Politics (it appears conservative to me):

http://www.youdecidepolitics.com/

The Left

From the left:

http://www.loonwatch.com/

Far left websites:

www.dailykos.com

Weatherman Underground 1969 “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

http://www.archive.org/details/YouDontNeedAWeathermanToKnowWhichWayTheWindBlows_925 (PDF, Kindle and other formats)

http://www.antiauthoritarian.net/sds_wuo/weather/weatherman_document.txt (Simple online text)

Insane, leftist blogs: