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

10's of thousands of demonstrators descended on Washington D.C. this week, but these demonstrations were ignored by more of the news media. Try to find any information about this in your newspaper. This is because these are pro-life people, who do not believe that babies ought to be aborted. Now, if they did anything like the Occupy movement did; that would be news.

Occupy Oakland demonstrators go on the rampage and 100 are arrested.

Turns out the Warren Buffet, because of his railroads, will benefit from the shutting down of the keystone pipeline.

George Soros would benefit greatly if President Obama pushes trucks powered by natural gas.

Ener1, a green company which received $118 million in taxpayer money, filed for bankruptcy this week. This is another company personally touted by President Obama.

Amonix, a solar power company based in California with a huge plant in North Last Vegas, just laid off 200 of its 300 employees. They had received a $5.9 million investment tax credit through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act in 2010, and another $12 million in private capital helped finance this plant.

Evergreen Energy Inc., a developer of alternative fuel products, filed for bankruptcy protection, saying it was impossible to maintain operations with a lack of financing. It had received $5.3 million in stimulus cash.

Many thought that President Obama did not really have a firm grasp of all that was in Obamacare, so that all of his misstatements were because of his being misled. However, The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza reports that Obama specifically approved of the budget gimmicks which were used to make it seem as if Obamacare would save money over the long run.

Looks like “An economy built to last” will be the Obama slogan for 2012, as he used this 5 or 6 times during his state of the union speech.

The Obama Administration apparently does not believe enough people are receiving food stamps and is offering $75,000 grants to groups who devise "effective strategies" to "increase program participation" among those who have yet to sign up.

Obama's NLRB considers forcing businesses to turn over employee phone numbers, email addresses to union bosses.

Average compensation for federal workers now matches Microsoft employees.

The decline in new home sales made 2011 the worst year on record dating back nearly half a century.

Renae Hathway, a former secretary in Ron Paul's company and a supporter of the Texas congressman, said the his controversial newsletters were proofed by him personally.

A former CIA officer, John Kiriakou, was charged Monday with disclosing the identity of a covert CIA officer and with telling journalists the name an agency officer involved with the interrogation of alleged Al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah. Information left out of WaPo and AP: that Kriakou is a former John Kerry staffer.

There were 2 Florida Republican candidate debates, if memory serves, this past week. In the one that was the most important, the last debate before the Florida primary, Mitt Romney crush Newt Gingrich and was able to deal with his own richness without much of a problem. Newt was unable to score points against Wolf Blitzer or against Mitt Romney. Rick Santorum had a good night and Ron Paul had the best lines of the night.

Former presidential hopeful Herman Cain is now backing Newt Gingrich's candidacy.

It has come to light that the Michigan Education Association [MEA] has had a manual that urges its members to use students as propaganda in contract negotiations and also lays out how to organize strikes. Some quotations found in this manual are very close if not exact quotes of what 60's radical Saul Alinsky taught.

CAIR has demands that New York's police commissioner, Ray Kelly, step down because of his appearance in the film "The Third Jihad."

A Salafi sheikh in Egypt has reportedly issued a fatwa that buying [or driving] a Chevrolet vehicle is haram because the American brand's logo looks like the Christian cross.

Dutch satirist Johan Vlemmix has decided not to perform his latest hit Do the Burqa onstage following death threats.

35 Christians have been jailed in Saudi Arabia for worshiping in their own homes

The Islamist group Boko Haram, which has killed almost 1,000 people in Nigeria, will continue its campaign of violence until the country is ruled by sharia law, according to a senior member of this organization. Many of their “soldiers” were trained in Saudi Arabia.

In Egypt, a mob of over 3000 Muslims attacked Christian in Alexandria. Coptic homes and shops were looted and then burned. The violence erupted over a rumor that a Coptic man had an allegedly intimate photo of a Muslim woman on his mobile phone. The Coptic man surrendered to the police this morning for his protection.

President Barack Obama plans to accelerate the pace of American aid to Egypt, as the most populous Arab nation reaches a critical stage in its uncertain transition away from autocratic rule.

There are tens of thousands of rival protesters in Tahrir Square—Islamists and Secularists. Right now, it is throwing stuff and a few fistfights.

In an effort to prove conclusively that it is not just Muslim countries that are nutty, North Korea has warned that any of its citizens caught trying to defect to China or using mobile phones during the 100-day mourning period for Kim Jong-il will be branded as "war criminals" and punished accordingly.

Say What?

Liberals:

President Obama: “This isn't about me. We weren't sent here to wage perpetual political campaigns against each other. We were sent here to serve the American people. And they deserve better than gridlock and games”

President Barack Obama on the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade: "And as we remember this historic anniversary, we must also continue our efforts to ensure that our daughters have the same rights, freedoms, and opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams."

Obama on his meeting with Jan Brewer: "Last time we met, she wasn't fully satisfied.” Okay, perhaps that quote was taken is slightly out of context.

President Obama: "We're going to have a robust debate about whose vision is more promising [for] moving this country forward." Tax the rich versus free enterprise.

After being asked how much he wanted to have a second term, Obama answered: "Badly. Because I think the country needs it. Whoever wins the Republican primary is going to be a standard bearer for a vision of the country that I don't think reflects who we are. I'm going to fight as hard as I can with every fiber of my being to make sure that we continue on a path that I think will restore the American dream."

On his dozens of speeches given in battleground states, Obama stated: "Some people may interpret that as campaigning. I consider that to be important to my leadership in governing this country."

Obama, on being called the food stamp president by New Gingrich: "First of all, I don't put people on food stamps. People become eligible for food stamps. Second of all, the initial expansion of food-stamp eligibility happened under my Republican predecessor, not under me. No. 3, when you have a disastrous economic crash that results in 8 million people losing their jobs, more people are going to need more support from government." Yep, it’s Bush’s fault again.

Joe Biden: "It's hard to respond to Newt with those kind of ridiculous statements. Do they actually think that President Barack Obama wants to put everybody on food stamps? I don't know what they mean by it quite frankly. There must be some base they're trying to appeal to. I just don't know."

Our president, who has been careful not to say anything this time around about greedy doctors who cut off people’s feet in order to pad their salaries, explained success in the economy: "We do not begrudge wealth in this country. I want everybody here to do well. We aspire to financial success, but we also understand that we're not successful just by ourselves. We're successful because somebody started the University of Michigan. We're successful because somebody made an investment in all the federal research labs that created the internet. We're successful because we have an outstanding military that costs money. We're successful because somebody built roads and bridges. And laid broadband lines and these things didn't just happen on their own. And if we all understand that we've got to pay for this stuff.” I want your money.

President Obama: "I hear folks running around calling this class warfare, this is not class warfare—let me tell you something: asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary, that’s just common sense."

President Obama to an auditorium of students: "You're the ones who need help. A quarter of all millionaire [earners] pay lower taxes than millions of middle-class households. [audience boos] Is that fair? . does it make sense to you? . do we want to invest in things like. student loans and grants?" Obama leaves out two pertinent facts: he could have raised these taxes when he had a supermajority in the Senate (although it is likely that members of his own party would not go along with it). And, the more the investment class is taxed, the fewer business investments there are, which means, the fewer jobs that will await these young people when they graduate.

Obama advisor David Plouffe: "Well, listen, we're happy to have this [be] a referendum on what we've done."

Vice President Joe Biden, in search of a coherent thought: “"We know what they're going to say, the opposition. They're going to say - I found Mitch Daniels, who I don't know, but seems like a reasonable guy - Daniels talked about trickle down government. I started thinking about that and how they keep talking about us, how we're big government, trickle down government and they're free enterprise. I started thinking. Remember Nancy? I don't know whether it was you or us or who came up with the idea. We said, you know we're paying banks 60 billion dollars next for the 10 years to process loans to send kids to college. All our friends thought that's just free enterprise. It was taxpayer's money. We came along and said why not use taxpayers' money more directly. Was it, George? George Miller, if you are here, you did a hell of a deal. Let's go give it directly. What was that? That's trickle down government, man. I am serious!” I think that what he is saying is, “Trickle down government in the right hands is good;” and that it is a good thing to give a lot of money to banks and direct them as to how to use it. I think.

Joe Biden, who had a lot to say this week, explains the difference between Republicans and Democrats: "The difference between us and them is we are strongly supportive of the private sector, they're supportive of the privileged sector."

Joe Biden to Nancy Pelosi: "There's not a single, solitary thing on our agenda that would have gotten done without your leadership. Those decisions you made, the risk you took, the losses we incurred, really did save this country."

Fund-raising email from Nancy Pelosi: “It's hard to believe how far the Tea Party has taken us away from making the kind of progress our country so greatly deserves. Republicans have launched an all-out assault on women, the middle class and our seniors in the name of protecting billionaires and Big Oil.”

Obama ad: "There's more work to do, but you might be surprised to hear the progress we've made. Twenty-two straight months of job growth; 3.1 million jobs added. Help us spread the word."

White House press secretary Jay Carney: "This president's absolute faith and commitment to the free enterprise system is profound."

Jay Carney: “[The President’s program] is by any clear-eyed definition a very common-sense, centrist agenda."

Chicago Democratic Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky about why the Keystone Pipeline is not that important: "Twenty thousand jobs is really not that many jobs and investing in green technologies will produce that and more.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) opened the Senate after a month off "Influenced by these Tea Party voices, Republicans forced us to waste months on routine legislation that nearly shut down our government and held hostage the full faith and credit of the United States."

Nancy Pelosi of Newt Gingrich: “He's not going to be president of the United States. This is - that's not going to happen. Let me just make my prediction and stand by it. It isn't going to happen.”

Al Sharpton, of Obama singing a couple lines of an Al Green song: "Since that performance, sales for Al Green's songs shot up 490%. That's the best sales week for that song since they began tracking downloads nine years ago. The President sings, boosts classic songs and helps the economy. Hey Republicans, you sure you are ready to face him in the election?"

James Hansen, the director of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies who first warned the world about the dangers of climate change in the 1980s: "Our children and grandchildren will judge those who have misled the public, allowing fossil fuel emissions to continue almost unfettered, as guilty of crimes against humanity and nature. But the eventual conviction of these people in the court of public opinion will do little to ease the burdens that will have been created for today's young people and future generations."

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), with Elmo in tow: "As we all know, this is Elmo. This guy taught us our 1,2,3s, but he also taught us tolerance and understanding. For the past several years, he's been doing the same thing for children in the Palestinian territories. Because of the Sesame Street in Palestine, Palestinian kids grow up with the same positive role models we did. But recently Sesame Street has been off the air. Now Palestinian kids are left watching Farfour. . . . He's a mouse who is the main character of a Hamas TV show. Instead of tolerance and understanding, Farfour promotes violence and anti-Semitism."

Former vice president Al Gore: "This [cancelling the Keystone pipeline project] is an important win not only for the thousands of activists who risked arrest - and for the hundreds who went to jail - but for all of us who want to try and roll back the effects of the climate crisis, not magnify them."

Joe Biden on the housing crisis: "I'm going to make a raw political statement here. A guy like Romney is a good guy, he's a decent honorable man, and I admire his family, but what he doesn't understand is that we look at the foreclosure rate in the country like somebody going to bed tonight. They stare at the ceiling wondering if they're going to be in that house a month from now, and what can we do to help? They [Republicans] look at it from a purely economic standpoint. The best thing to get the housing market back up is to let the foreclosures occur, let the bottom fall out, start to clean up. It's sort of Darwinian, survival of the fittest out there, and they are right. It would be the quickest way to do it, but what they don't understand is there are tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people, who, through no fault of their own, are in that spot. I think in those circumstances, the government has a responsibility to give these people a leg up."

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, says what will happen if the Supreme Court strikes down the individual mandate: "I think we keep going. We find ways to encourage people to become enrolled and become insured. And the mandate's the fastest way to do it, and it just says, basically, everybody's got some responsibility. But there are other ways to encourage people to come in."

Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, who is worth $14.5 million and lives in a $5 million house: "I realize there are some wealthy individuals - I'm not one of them, but some wealthy individuals who have a lot of stock portfolios."

Senator Chuck Schumer: "The Republican speaker last night, Mitch Daniels, talked about Americans must talk about the state of the union as grave. So, we think we are in great shape. We are in good shape."

Former Cuban president Fidel Castro: "The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalized and expansive empire is - and I mean this seriously - the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been."

Bill Maher: “So here's what happened: Jan Brewer, Governor of Arizona, went to see Obama in the White House about the border and stuff a couple of years ago. And after the meeting she said it went really well, he was a great guy, very cordial. Then she wrote a book about it and said 'asshole.' So Obama gets off the plane in Arizona and she rushes off him, unannounced, with the letter saying 'I want you to talk to me again, invite me to the Oval Office and .' Obama said, you know, 'What happened? I read your book.' This is what everybody is talking about. Look at that (Image of Brewer's finger in Obama's face). Right to the President of the United States. Now, Jan Brewer says she regrets the confrontation, but these are the kind of problems that arise when we permit negroes to read.”

Bill Maher: `Who the f**k is Saul Alinsky?'

Rep. Emanueal Cleaver, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus : "The point was that if we had anybody else in the White House [other than Obama], with this level of unemployment, that you know, you would see a lot more African Americans, African American organizations and retro organizations speaking out against it. But because he is revered, you know, he gets I guess the benefit of, you know, understanding that the situation was terrible when he came in. So, we're not doing that."

Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings: “[President Obama had] some 508 promises that he made to the American people and he has acted on all of them except three." He was citing liberal Politifact which lists 56 promises which Obama explicitly broke.

Rep. Donna Christensen on push for picture voter ID’s: "It is clear to me that whether racially based or not, this is a direct attempt, not only to undermine the election process, but a specific attempt to derail what surely would be and ought to be the re-election of Barack Obama."

The new U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul: "We're just going to support what we like to call `universal values' - not American values, not Western values, universal values."

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer: "No president with whom I've served over those last 30 years has spent as much time working with Republicans and Democrats in the room, exchanging ideas, evidencing a willingness to compromise as President Obama has.”

Super PAC Obama ad in Florida: "Mitt Romney has no shame. He shows one face to the Hispanic community and another completely different one to everyone else."

Shaun Casey, the religious affairs adviser to presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008: "I, frankly, am glad American civil religion is dying."

It’s all about racism:

Melissa ___ commentator on MSNBC about jan Brewer wagging her finger in Obama’s face: "The fact is when I see that still, I cannot help but be reminded of that photograph that was captured in 1957 in Little Rock Arkansas of a young woman Hazel screaming at a young Elizabeth Eckford trying to get into Little Rock High School.”

Rev. Jesse Jackson: “Gov. Janice K. Brewer, the finger person. Gov. Janice K. Brewer, who gave President Obama the finger, governor of Arizona.”

Former congressman Alan Grayson: “I think there's a sort of race between [Newt's] egomania and his racism. And I think he's running the most overtly racist campaign that I've seen in this country since George Wallace. You're talking about presidential campaigns. So I think that, what he tries to do is to do these dog-whistle things to people he thinks he can connect with to make up for his shortcomings frankly as a human being.”

Ron Reagan Jr.: “Barack Obama has some stuff cutting against him here....there’s the incandescent hatred for him on the right. There are people over there who’d vote for Himmler over Obama.”

The Compliant Obama Press Corps:

CNN's Soledad O'Brien: "President Obama has never said that he was influenced by Alinsky." Note the careful phrasing.

Salon's Joan Walsh: "Newt is the face of the politics of resentment and racism and angry white male rage."

MSNBC’s Martin Bashir: “[Newt Gingrich] barely conceals a nasty, virulent racism and points it at both the president and also at those who are picking up food stamps who need them.”

Martin Bashir (on another day): “Newt has decided to use code words, which barely conceal a tone of racial decisiveness and contempt for the poor. The editorial goes on. Mr. Gingrich has reinvented the political landscape of his youth. A sun belt where politicians communicate in the venerable code words of Barry Goldwater and George Wallace. The code words, of course, originally had much to do with race. But this race-based anger charged politics mutated in Mr. Gingrich into a more generalized moral authoritarianism. Mr. Gingrich wants to be obeyed. Indeed he does. When Gingrich refers to Mr. Obama as the greatest food stamps President in modern history, it doesn't matter that it's not true. It allows him to use those code words that he so loves.”

Liberals from the past:

Candidate Obama: "I can make a firm pledge: under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."

Rep. Nancy Pelosi: “[high gas prices were the result of] the Bush Administration's failure to enact a comprehensive energy strategy."

Liberal civility:

California Rep. Henry Waxman, of Republicans who want to attach a presidential approval for the Keystone XL Pipeline to another increase in the payroll tax cut: "They want to use legislation as a way to act like terrorists. They hold things as hostage. We almost couldn't fund the government because Republicans wanted to hold that idea hostage, we almost couldn't pay our debts because the Republicans wanted to hold that legislation hostage to their extreme agenda, and I wouldn't be surprised if they scuttled this conference by trying to hold us hostage."

Stephanie Miller, liberal radio host: “It’s like she was almost posing for that picture on the tarmac—her with her finger up in the president’s face, it’s like, you know—Lyndon Johnson would have broken that off and shoved it up...”

chaplinlives tweet: “Next time Jan Brewer sticks her finger in President's face, the Secret Service should break it & drop her.”

DCCC fund rasing email: “Have you heard the garbage Republicans have been spewing about President Obama's State of the Union speech?”

Former Representative Alan Grayson: "Newt is the most hateful person in American politics today, and he's well on his way to becoming the most hated. His disapproval ratings are now at 60% nation wide which is very close to his name recognition. The more people know him, the more are going to hate him. He is the new Nixon and none of this moneys going to make any difference in that regard, particularly with the Cuban community because only four years ago, Newt Gingrich said Spanish is the language of the ghetto."

Crazy Muslims:

A spokesman for al-Qaida's Islamic State of Iraq who identified himself as Abu Mohammed al-Adnani: "America has been defeated in Iraq. They pulled out because its economic and human losses were unbearable. America's bankruptcy and collapse is imminent. This is the real reason behind the withdrawal."

Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar: "In my mind Islam is the most misunderstood and misrepresented religion in the world. For example, Islam is the one religion that reinforces respect for women but we, the entire world must take responsibility because we have let Islam to be misrepresented." 18,360 Islamic attacks by Muslims since 9/11. Just this past week, 32 people were killed in Iraq when a suicide car bomber plows into a Shiite funeral procession.

CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper concerning statements that Rick Santorum has mad: "The Quran, Islam's revealed text, is the best refutation of Mr. Santorum's inaccurate and offensive remarks, which are unbecoming of anyone who hopes to hold our nation's highest office. Christians, Jews and Muslims all worship the same God and share religious traditions that promote justice and equality.”

Senior Hamas official Mahmud Zaar "We are fighting for our dignity and rights. Jihad is our path, our life, our pride and we will not renounce it no matter the sacrifices."

Allah Bachaya after turning himself in for killing his sister with an ax in the name of honour: "I have killed her because she brought disgrace to the family's name. She had become a nuisance. I feel no remorse over my actions. I am backed by the family. They were in favour of my decision to kill her."

Liberals making sense:

President Obama: "I laid out a blueprint for an economy that's built to last, that has a firm foundation. Where we're making stuff and selling stuff and moving it around and UPS drivers are dropping things off everywhere. That's the economy we want.”

President Obama: "This country needs an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy - a strategy that's cleaner, cheaper and full of new jobs." Just not oil from Canada.

Evan Thomas, Politico: “Yeah, I agree with all of it. It was a disheartening speech. It was a pathetic speech, really. I mean, here he's got, the President of the United States needs a mandate for rebuilding the infrastructure, for getting control of the deficit, for tax reform. So what does he talk about? Raising taxes on millionaires, which I guess you have to do, but it is a tiny problem compared to all the others. And so he is running on sort of cheap pandering. And I'm sure the speech was well written, and it was sort of vaguely moving at the end when he talked about the military, but it was overall a pathetic speech.”

Rep. Jim Himes tweet when Representative Keith Ellison took to the floor of Congress with Elmo: "Haven't seen that before."

ABC newsman Jake Tapper to George Stephanopoulos: “What's interesting, George, is the conundrum in which President Obama finds himself. He really can't run on so many of his major legislative accomplishments - regardless of the merits of health care reform, financial reform, the stimulus - they're not popular.”

Crosstalk:

Wolf Blitzer: “Congressman Paul. You said the U.S. should talk to everyone. Imagine you're in the Oval Office, you speak to Raul Castro on the phone. What would you say to him?”

Ron Paul: “Well ... I'd ask him what he called about, you know?”

_______________________________________

Chris Matthews: In other words, there is no manmade influence on climate change? Is that your belief, Ron Christie? I didn't know that. Are you out there with the full-mooners on this one?

Ron Christie, Republican strategist: Let me enlighten you on this one, Chris. I think global climate change is the biggest fraud that's been perpetrated in this country. The scientific evidence isn't there. This is something that Al Gore and his cronies have made millions of dollars of perpetuating a myth. That's what I think.

Matthews: How are you standing on evolution these days?

Christie: I'm feeling pretty good in evolution.

Matthews: Do you believe in it?

Christie: God it our creator and I think that we all fall from the good Lord.

Matthews: So you don't believe in evolution?

Christie: I believe that God is our Creator and we all from the good Lord.

Matthews: What is with the troglodyte? The Luddites? What is the party that used to believe in things?

Christie: Troglodytes? It's true. One of the things you're missing here is faith. You're missing faith in this country.

Matthews: Excuse me, I don't want to just plum the depths the position the party is taking that is so far right these days. Let's go back to life on this planet here.

Audio here.

_______________________________________

CNSNews.com: "Do you think he [Obama] will be able to make the case this year that Americans are better off now than they were before he became president?"

Democrat Senator Bob Casey: "I think the main focus the president brought to this speech was a focus on jobs and making sure that we do things like extending the payroll tax cut for the rest of the year, making sure unemployment insurance is in place for the rest of the year. If we take those steps and do it in a bipartisan way, making sure that Democrats and Republicans are working together, I think we're going to have not only a better year, but more importantly a better economy and more job creation. That's the key. And bringing people together, I think that's part of the focus." I guess he did not hear the question?

Conservatives:

Representative Allen West: "This is a battlefield that we must stand upon. And we need to let President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and my dear friend, chairman of the Democrat National Committee, we need to let them know that Florida ain't on the table. Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere else," he continued. "You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America."

Senator Marco Rubio on the President’s SOTU: "What you didn't hear last night from the President - he didn't talk about the successes of this administration enough. Because there [aren't] any. The fact of the matter is - you know, usually at this point in a Presidential career, you're talking about some of your accomplishments and how your ideas and plans have worked. He touched on it briefly but he really didn't delve into it, because after three years, he has very little he can point to and, in fact, all these factors we're talking about are worse than they were three years ago."

Marco Rubio of Obama: “The guy that’s there now doesn’t know what he is doing.” [quoted from memory]

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum: "I signed a letter, along with 24 other senators, that said, we either do something now, stop the filibuster of this bill. Harry Reid, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, all of whom were in the Senate at the time. They were filibustering this bill to allow reform of Fannie and Freddie. And we said, if this doesn't happen, if we don't constrain these two behemoths from continuing to underwrite this subprime mortgage problem, then we're going to have a collapse."

Speaker of the House John Boehner of finding common ground with President Obama: "We have a good relationship; We just come from two different planets. We speak a different language. It was like negotiating with someone who has never negotiated with anyone before."

Newt Gingrich: "But the objective fact is [Obama] believes in a very radical vision of America's future that is fundamentally different from probably 80 percent of this country. And nobody in the elite media has ever wanted to dig into it, ever wanted-why would he veto the Keystone pipeline? Why would he kill jobs in America? Why would he have a National Labor Relations Board attack Boeing? Because it fits the model of Alinsky radicalism."

Newt Gingrich: "It's unfortunate that liberal leaders, whatever their ethnic background, can't have an honest open debate about policies that fail. The fact is far more whites than blacks are on food stamps, and liberals shouldn't get away with hiding the consequence of their bad policies by yelling racism."

Sarah Palin: "Look at Newt Gingrich, what's going on with him via the establishment's attacks. They're trying to crucify this man and rewrite history and rewrite what it is that he has stood for all these years."

Ron Paul, when asked if Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich should return money made from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: "That subject really doesn't interest me a whole lot."

Rick Santorum of Romney and Gingrich: “...both of them bought into the global warming hoax. cap-and-trade, top-down control of our energy and manufacturing policy”

Rick Santorum: “...going up against Barack Obama, who you are going to claim, well, top-down government-run medicine on the federal level doesn't work and we should repeal it. And he's going to say, ‘wait a minute, Governor. You just said that top-down government-run medicine in Massachusetts works well.’ Folks, we can't give this issue away in this election. It is about fundamental freedom.“

Rep. Allen West: "Under President Obama's leadership, there's been a 41 percent increase in food stamp recipients in the United States of America. If there are people such as Rep. Clyburn that don't want to face up to the truth then that's on them and I think it's absolutely reprehensible that they feel that the only thing they can fall back on is try to create some type of racial division which we know that the Democrats are already trying to create some type of class warfare division as well."

FoxNews commentator Greg Gutfeld: "For years we've been told that high self-esteem leads to high achievement and that giving everyone a trophy creates smarter, happier kids with lots of stupid trophies. Well, according to the Washington Post, growing research has found that giving children so much praise, and so many trophies, makes them shy away from real challenges because they are afraid of failure. Psychologist Carol Dweck said, ‘We used to think we could hand children self-esteem on a platter. That has backfired.’ "

Greg Gutfeld: “[The Obama administration] favored defecation over job creation.” [quoted from memory; this is a reference to the 99% marches where one demonstrator defecated on a police car].

Greg Gutfeld: “Green energy is the unicorn of the Democrats.”

Donald Trump: “The real Obama is a much different person than most people think.” [quoted from memory]

Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas on why he is not going to a White House reception celebrating their Stanley Cup championship: "I exercised my right as a Free Citizen. . This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country...I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People. This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government. Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL."

American Elephant: “Obama didn't "inherit" SQUAT except from himself and the Democrat controlled congress.”

Rush Limbaugh: "It would be interesting to see if the medical marijuana gang in this country would support an oral spray of marijuana that doesn't give you a high, does not increase your appetite, but effectively deals with a medical problem."

Rush Limbaugh: "Obama wants people paying the fine. He wants 'em not having insurance because while they're doing that, Obamacare is going to push private sector health insurance out of business. And by the time it's all said and done, five years or more, the only place you're gonna be able to go to get health insurance is the government and one of their numerous exchanges."

Rush Limbaugh: "You could run the government for 18 days on the combined income of the 8,274 people who make incomes over $10 million a year, which means the answer to our problem is not raising their taxes, folks."

Rush Limbaugh: "If the government has the power to regulate your business, you get in bed with them to limit the damage and maybe on the upside get regulations in your favor.”

Rush Limbaugh: "If this speech last night had a theme, it's 'Government is the center of the universe! Government is everything. Your life should be government. When you get up in the morning, the first thing you do is consider, think about, and look to your government.'"

Rush Limbaugh: "If you ever become filthy rich or moderately rich, then publicly go liberal! That's how you can keep everybody away from your money and that's the only thing they're doing."

Rush Limbaugh: "So Obama spends a whole speech talking about, 'No more bailouts. We're not gonna do that! No handouts, no cop-outs,' and then he gives as his greatest example of American prosperity a company he bailed out! Who wrote this? This speech was an embarrassment."

Rush Limbaugh: "Newt comes off as smart, and I can't TELL YOU how much that matters to people on our side. They're sick and tired of people being nominated who can't put two sentences together or sound like Cowboy Billy Bob at the time they're doing it. They're just fed up with it."

Rush Limbaugh: "Don't forget who we're running against. We are not running against The Messiah. Not running against God, just somebody who thinks he is."

Rush Limbaugh: "I'm not supporting anybody. I am supporting conservatism. I'm supporting the truth about Barack Obama coming out."

Rush Limbaugh: "People ask me, 'What do you mean, who is this Republican establishment?' Two things. They don't like conservatives and they're not really all that concerned about spending. They want to be in charge of it. That's who they are."

Republican Infighting:

Rick Santorum: “He [Romney] has the nerve to feign outrage over Obamacare, even while he touts Romneycare - a carbon copy of Obamacare - as a virtuous success, supported by 90% of Massachusetts residents. Santorum did his homework, and called him out on the hypocrisy. Romney was never able to answer why the same market intervention and distortions - mandates, subsidies, and Medicaid - which form the bedrock of Obamacare , supposedly worked so well in Massachusetts. The reason he couldn't answer the question is because Romneycare was a complete failure. It is the canary in the coal mine for Obamacare.”

New Jersey governor Chris Christie: "Newt Gingrich has embarrassed the party over time. Whether he'll do it again in the future I don't know, but Gov. Romney never has. I mean he was run out of the speakership by his own party, he was fined $300,000 for ethics violations. This is a guy that has had a very difficult political career at times, and has been an embarrassment to the party." Except that this is not really true.

Columnist Peggy Noonan: ‘[Gingrich is an] angry little attack muffin."

Mitt Romney on Newt Gingrich: "I think as you look at the speaker's record over time, it's been highly erratic. You know, he voted in favor of establishing the Department of Education, and yet he gets in a debate and says we should get rid of the Department of Education and send all the education issues back to the states. He's opposed vehemently to the Massachusetts health care system, and yet just a couple years ago wrote about what a superb system it was. He's gone from pillar to post almost like a pinball machine, from item to item in a way which is highly erratic. It does not suggest a stable, thoughtful course, which is normally associated with leadership."

Former Senator and GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole: “I have not been critical of Newt Gingrich, but it is now time to take a stand before it is too late. 'If Gingrich is the nominee it will have an adverse impact on Republican candidates running for county, state and federal offices...Gingrich had a new idea every minute and most of them were off the wall. He loved picking a fight with Bill Clinton because he knew this would get the attention of the press. This and a myriad of other specifics helped to topple Gingrich in 1998.”

Gingrich spokesman Joe DeSantis: “These establishment Republicans sure do stick together.”

Watch This!

Don’t miss this one! How Government Buys Votes Every liberal and every big government conservative you know needs to watch this.

Bits and pieces of Obama’s 2010, 2011 and 2012 State of the Union speech. No surprisingly, we see the same themes repeated, again and again and again.

Conservatives George Will and Laura Ingraham debate on This Week (video and text).

Can the Government Make Entrepreneurs Do Useless Things For No Reason? Yep. Verlin Stoll is the 27-year-old owner of the Crescent Tide funeral home in Saint Paul, Minn. Verlin has built a successful business because he offers low-cost funerals while providing high-quality service. He wants to expand his business, hire new employees and continue to offer the lowest prices in the Twin Cities, but Minnesota refuses to let Verlin build a second funeral home unless he builds a $30,000 embalming room that he will never use.

Indiana governor Mitch Daniel’s response to the President’s SOTUS

Heritage video, 1,000 Days Without A Budget

Obama touts Solyndra in his 2010 SOTU.

Biden touts Ener1, which went bankrupt this week (he calls it Enron 1).

Obama leaves event promoting his clean energy plan in a motorcade of 22 fossil-fueled vehicles.

Obama we can’t wait ad.

A Little Comedy Relief

Jodi Miller: “At this year’s Democrat convention, President Obama will accept his nomination in even a bigger stadium than the one used in November back in ‘08. The difference? In ‘08 he used Greek-like columns and now we have Greek-like debt.”

Jodi Miller: “China is being asked to bail out the European union. Full disclosure, China is also the parent company of the U.S.A.”

Short Takes

1) I will admit that, at first, I assumed that the White House wanted Mitt Romney as their opponent. However, I think Obama’s approach will be typical of what he has done in the past—a scorched earth approach to remove all his opponents in any means possible. He’s had candidates removed from the ballot before (which is attempted and done by both sides, but with great success by Obama). Opening up sealed divorced records is also something which has occurred to opponents of his in the past.

2) About once a week, I like Romney; most of the other days, I like Gingrich. However, I have been so disappointed in their campaigns. I dislike Romney 4 years ago when he ran attack ads against his rivals, most of which were drastically distorted. Although Romney did not lead off with such ads this year, once the elections drew near, he ran vicious and mostly incorrect attack ads against Newt Gingrich. Certainly, I would prefer Romney over Obama; but I absolutely hate his dishonesty and the dishonesty of those who support him. However, this is almost matched by Gingrich’s attack ads. He tried running a campaign without them and that did not work; so he recently began attacking Romney in every way possible. He was rich; attack; he had foreign bank accounts (probably a good idea for anyone with money) and he is attacked. Newt’s attacks were again and again from the left, they were slightly distorted (not as much as Romney’s) and they were anti-capitalist. How can I support that? Count me as extremely disappointed in the two front-runners. Give me Herman Cain and his supposed gf’s any day.

3) Most rich people make their money from their investments, which is capital gains. Capital gains is taxed at 15%, and this is what all the hoo hah is about Romney’s taxes. Like all people who have any sort of investments, he takes money that he has already paid taxes on and invests that money in various investment vehicles, e.g., stocks, bonds and mutual funds. If he makes money, then this is taxed at 15%. If you have any sort of investment or retirement, the same thing is true of you. This is what make America function well; rich people putting money into stocks, which means business have more money to work with. Reduce this tax and we get more capital investment; increase this tax and we get less. The amount of money that this would bring in via taxes would be more than negated by dried up business investments.

4) I am very tired of hearing Mitt Romney’s justification for a state-run healthcare system, that some people did not buy healthcare and went to the hospitals for free emergency care. You do not design an entire system around the few people who abuse the system. You instead deal with those people directly and those abuses directly. States have a lot of power; and they tax too much. Given that, it seems like states could reasonably pursue hospital debts with a certain amount of vigor. Laws could be written which would allow the state more power when pursuing such debts. However, rewriting the whole system of healthcare based upon that specific problem is the wrong approach.

5) I have seen Romney attack Gingrich over and over on the point that, Gingrich rejected the Ryan plan as right-wing social engineering. Gingrich’s point, which could have been made more clearly, is, on an issue of this importance, the Republican party needs to involve the general public in the decision making process. Otherwise, the end result of any conservative plan will by no more accepted than Obamacare.

By the Numbers

If you simply took 100% of the income of the 8,274 people who make incomes over $10 million a year, then you could run the government for 18 days. Taxing the rich is not the answer.

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A record 49% of Americans live in a household where someone receives at least one type of government benefit, according to the Census Bureau. Furthermore, 63% of all federal spending this year will consist of checks written to individuals for which the government receives currently no services, the White House budget office estimates.

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There have been an estimated 54,559,615 abortions since the Supreme Court handed down its 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision allowing virtually unlimited abortions.

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Mitt Romney's 2010 tax return:

$2.98 million in charitable donations from an adjusted gross income of $21.6 million. 14%

Barack Obama’s 2006 tax return:

$60,307 in charitable donations out of an adjusted gross income of $983,826. 6.1%

Joe Biden's 2006 tax return:

The couple gave $380 dollars to charity out of his $248,459 adjusted gross income. 0.15%

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15% is Mitt Romney’s effective tax rate in 2010

13% was John Kerry’s effective tax rate when he was running for president. Funny, that was not an issue back then.

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Speaking Salaries, it has been determined the Warren Buffet’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, who

has been touted as paying much higher taxes than her employer, is probably making in excess of $200,000/year (and possibly as high as $500,000). She recently purchased a second home in Arizona with a swimming pool and PGA professional putting green.

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The real GDP for 2011: 1.7%

The break-even GDP (to keep up with population growth): around 2.5%

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CNN Projects Gas Prices Rising to $4.25 to $5 a Gallon

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$132.9 billion is still owed by companies haven't repaid from the financial bailout, and some of that will never be recovered.

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The Agriculture Department (USDA) will be loaning an Oregon biorefinery $232.5 million for a project expected to create 65 jobs and support 38 others. That’s about $2 million/job.

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Bush lent the auto companies $17.4 billion, Obama lent them about $85 billion. About $26 billion will never be recouped.

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36 Obama aides owe $833,000 in back taxes.

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Gov. Jan Brewer's book has jumped from 276,665th to 56th place in book sales.

Polling by the Numbers

Rasmussen:

56% of likely voters strongly or somewhat favor the keystone pipeline

27% oppose it.

42% of likely U.S. voters say they are fiscal conservatives when it comes to issues such as taxes, government spending and business regulation.

42% describe themselves as fiscal moderates. 11% are fiscal liberals.

Gallup daily tracking poll.

Gingrich 31%

Romney 27%

Ron Paul 12%

Rick Santorum 12%

83% dissatisfied with the economy;

13% are satisfied with the economy.

80% of Democrats approve of Obama's job performance, compared to 12% percent of Republicans, giving us a polarized gap of 68%, which is the 4^th highest on record, going back to the Eisenhower administration. President George W. Bush's 4^th, 5^th and 6^th years in office showed higher degrees of polarization.

Marist Poll:

Mitt Romney 42%

Newt Gingrich27%

Rick Santorum 16%

Ron Paul 11%

Undecided 4%

The gender gap:

Women prefer Romney over Gingrich 47-26%

Men prefer Romney 38-29%

It was more pronounced a week ago. I had to suggest this, but could this be based, in part, on personal attractiveness?

11% believe abortion should never be permitted under any circumstance

9% believe that abortion should be allowed only to save the life of the mother

31%, believe that abortion should be allowed only in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.

28% believe that abortion should be allowed only during the first three months of a pregnancy

8% say that abortion should be allowed only during the first six months of a pregnancy

13% say abortion should be available to a woman any time she wants one during her entire pregnancy

Overall, that is 51% of Americans who believe that abortion should only be allowed in cases or rape, incest, health of the mother; or not at all.

President Obama believes that abortion should be available to any woman at any time, which matches him up with 13% of Americans.

Kaiser Family Foundation poll

54% of those surveyed said the Supreme Court should rule against the mandate

17% said the court should uphold it

29% either didn't know or didn't answer.

A Little Bias

You do remember all of the hoo hah about CIA staffer Valerie Plame being exposed by high-ranking Bush officials, and how this had been done out of anger over her husband’s liberal beliefs. Nearly everyone knows her name. There was a former John Kerry staffer who was arrested for reveal CIA operatives (Plame was not an operative at this time); and most of the news stories ignore the Kerry connection.

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The pro-life march in Washington D.C. was all but ignored this week. Nothing on CBS, NBC, ABC or the NY Times. It just did not happen, insofar as they are concerned. This is one way that the Obama media works; if they do not like a movement, then they do not report on it, unless this movement does something nutty. If they, say, carried around signs saying, “Abort Obama” then there would be 24-7 news coverage on that. But, a disciplined, well-behaved and well-attended march—that just isn’t news. However, CBS did mention this march on its website and even featured pictures—but not a single picture of any pro-life marchers (until they were called on it). There was an exception to this lack of coverage, however.

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A report carried at CBS News in St. Louis from Jim Anderson of the Illinois Radio Network (IRN), which appears to be a private entity, tells readers that a research study published by the Institute of Government and Public Affairs (IGPA) at the University of Illinois has identified "a combination of tough policies (which) could bring the state into fiscal balance by the end of the decade." Illinois has raised taxes, unemployment is at 10%, and yet, things look pretty good for them. Just give them another 8 years.

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New York Times fails to mention Gingrich was cleared of ethics charges. Big story on the ethics charges that News faces, but missing one tiny detail.

Questions for Obama

Are there any economic problems that have occurred in the past 3 years which are not Bush’s fault?

Political Chess

It is highly unlikely that President Barack Obama or any large group of Democrats would vote to increase the current 15% capital gains tax. They could have done this quickly and early on in the first 2 years, where the Democrats had unbeatable majorities. However, they know that this would further reduce investment in various ventures, companies and corporations, which would result in a reduction of jobs. However, it is a good way to attempt to inflame people who false believe that they are paying a higher tax (on average, most people, with deductions, actually pay a lower tax).

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Newt Gingrich, because he has been attacked with millions of dollars in advertising by Mitt Romney, went on the offensive and attacked Mitt Romney in kind, with ads that were half-true and with ads that were attacks against News from the left. This was the worst possible strategy for Newt. Conservatives and many independents want a clear, full-throated argument made for conservative ideals (which includes free enterprise); and many of Newt’s attacks on Romney were attacks upon the free enterprise system. This was dishonest and counter-productive. I realize that Romney has waged a dishonorable and dishonest campaign against Gingrich. Gingrich could have and should have continued to explain his vision for the future of America, and attacked Romney in the areas where he is most vulnerable—partially socialized healthcare.

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Herman Cain has just come out and supported Newt Gingrich for president. These are friends. One big difference between Cain’s endorsement and all of the others: many of those who have endorsed Romney expect him to win, and also expect payback for their support. Given Newt’s tenuous position in this race, Cain certainly cannot expect that Newt will win.

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Very quietly, pollster Doug Schoen is putting an independent party on the ticket in every state for 2012. Even with a lousy record, President Obama could win this upcoming election if there is a 3^rd party candidate (it worked for Clinton).

Missing Headlines

Obama Pushes Programs that Flopped Before (this was an actual AP headline that was pulled)

Huge Peaceful Demonstration in Washington D.C.

George Soros and Warren Buffet Profit by Obama Decisions

More Government-Funded Green Companies Die

President Obama Wants to Hand Out More Food Stamps

Obama Approved of the Obamacare Budget Gimmicks

Christian Killing Rampage Continues in Middle East

Come, let us reason together....

15 Questions The Mainstream Media Would Ask Barack Obama If He Were A Republican

by John Hawkins

During the practically endless series of Republican debates, we have heard almost every question imaginable asked to Republican candidates - if by every question imaginable, you mean horribly slanted, often irrelevant questions designed to make them look bad and help Obama. We've heard questions about contraceptives, religion, Newt's angry ex-wife, Gardasil, etc., etc., etc. So, what would happen if the mainstream media treated Barack Obama the exact same way that they treat Republicans? The questions might sound a little something like this.

1) Numerous Mexican citizens and an American citizen have been killed with weapons knowingly provided to criminals by our own government during Operation Fast and Furious. If Eric Holder was aware that was going on, do you think he should step down as Attorney General? Were you aware that was going on and if so, shouldn't you resign? Was Operation Fast & Furious a scheme to institute gun control legislation?

2) In 2010 you said Solyndra, which gave your campaign a lot of money, was "leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future." Today, Solyndra is bankrupt and the taxpayers lost $500 million on loans that your administration was well aware might never be paid off when you made them. What do you say to people who say this is evidence of corruption in your administration?

3) Unions invested a lot of time and money in helping to get you elected. In return, they gained majority control of Chrysler, the taxpayers lost 14 billion dollars on General Motors, and General Motors received a special 45 billion dollar tax break. What do you say to people who view this as corruption on a scale never before seen in American history?

4) Through dubious means, you and your allies in Congress managed to push through an incredibly unpopular health care bill that helped lead to the worst election night for the Democratic Party in 50 years. Since the bill has passed, many of your claims about the bill have proven to be untrue. For example, we now know the bill won't lower costs and despite your assurances to the contrary, big companies like McDonald's say they may drop health care because of the health care reform. Since the American people have rejected your health care reform and it doesn't do what you said it would, shouldn't you work with the Republicans to repeal it?

5) When you took office, gas was $1.79 per gallon. Since then, you've demonized the oil industry, dramatically slowed offshore drilling, blocked ANWR, and killed the Keystone Pipeline. Now, gas is $3.34 per gallon. How much higher do you anticipate driving gas prices?

6) Occupy Wall Street has been protesting against Wall Street and the richest 1 percent in America. You are in the top 1 percent of income earners in America and you have collected more cash from Wall Street than any other President in history. So, aren't you exactly the sort of politician that Occupy Wall Street wants to get rid of?

7) How do you decide which foreign leaders to submissively bow towards and why do you think that's appropriate for an American President?

8) If they could, don't you think the Nobel Committee would take back the Nobel Peace Prize that you were awarded?

9) You made bipartisanship one of the central themes of your campaign in 2008. Yet, you've worked to push bills through Congress with almost no Republican support, spent much less time negotiating with Congress than George Bush, and you've said things like, "But, I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don't mind cleaning up after them, but don't do a lot of talking." Why did you decide to break your campaign promise to pursue bipartisanship?

10) America lost its AAA credit rating for the first time under your watch. What do you think you should have done differently to have prevented that historic failure?

11) You cut more than 500 billion dollars out of Medicare to fund your wildly unpopular health care reform bill. Given that Medicare is running in the red already, don't you think it's irresponsible to cut money out of one entitlement program, that millions of seniors depend on -- to put it into a risky new entitlement program?

12) Back in July, you said, "Nobody's looking to raise taxes right now. We're talking about potentially 2013 and the out years." Since you plan to raise taxes if you're elected and you've had kind words for a value added tax, shouldn't every American expect a tax increase if you're reelected?

13) Why should the American people reelect you when your 10 year budget saddles America with more debt than all previous Presidents combined?

14) Your stimulus bill cost more in real dollars than the moon landing and the interstate highway system combined. What do we have to show for all of that money spent?

15) Members of your administration promised that the trillion dollar stimulus would keep unemployment under 8 percent. Instead, we've had 35+ months of 8% and above unemployment. Doesn't that mean we wasted a trillion dollars on nothing? Not all of the money from the Stimulus has been spent yet; why don’t you press Congress to cancel all future Stimulus spending, since it has done our economy little good so far?

From:

http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2012/01/24/15_questions_the_mainstream_media_would_ask_barack_obama_if_he_were_a_republican/page/full/

And let me add:

16) No other recovery from a recession has been as slow as this one. Job creation and economic expansion is not even keeping pace with the jobs needed for those just entering the job market. Do you think you ought to try a different approach? There are 20 jobs bills written by the House; do you think perhaps you ought to consider passing just one of them and seeing what happens?

17) Now 15% of Americans use food stamps, which represents a dramatic rise in food stamp use during your 3 years in office. Does this mean that your economic recovery isn’t?

18) Given that a record 49% of Americans live in a household where someone receives at least one type of government benefit, according to the Census Bureau; and that 63% of all federal spending this year will consist of checks written to individuals for which the government receives currently no services, could this be a good place for the government to start controlling its budget? Should the government be writing so many checks?

19) Who benefits most when half the households in this country get a government benefit and half the households pay no federal taxes—Democrats or Republicans?

I hope that you note that none of these are unfair questions; they are reasonable and deal with the President’s actual record.

Obama SOTU: We've Heard this Song Before

by Rep. Tom McClintock

After President Clinton took a drubbing from voters in the 1994 Congressional election, he realized his policies weren't working. He promptly declared, "The era of big government is over," and he then went about making good on that declaration:

• He reduced spending by a miraculous 3 1/2 percent of GDP.

• He attacked entitlement spending and abolished the ballooning open-ended welfare system.

• He signed what amounted to the biggest capital gains tax cut in American history.

• He delivered the only four budget surpluses in four decades.

• And he produced a period of prolonged economic expansion.

President Obama faced a similar cross-road as he delivered his fourth State of the Union Address to Congress. If he had followed the example of his successful Democratic predecessor, he could have redeemed his presidency, revived the economy and rallied the country.

Instead, he succumbed to the basic ingredient of hubris: that the more we invest in our mistakes, the less willing we are to correct them.

Instead, his fourth State of the Union Address was indistinguishable from the three before it - the same big government bromides that have utterly failed to revive the economy while squandering trillions of dollars of the nation's wealth.

For two full years, lopsided Democratic majorities in Congress responded to eerily similar addresses by giving him everything he asked for, including the biggest single spending bill in history that he promised would keep the unemployment rate under eight percent.

His fourth State of the Union speech came on the 35th consecutive month of unemployment rates over eight percent - unemployment rates that would be still higher except that millions of Americans have simply given up looking for work and therefore are no longer counted among the unemployed. Indeed, fewer Americans are working today than on Inauguration day, 2009.

In pursuing these policies, he has piled up as much debt in three years as the nation acquired from the first day of the George Washington administration to the last day of the George H. W. Bush administration and destroyed America's Triple-A credit rating.

True, Mr. Obama inherited a terrible mess caused by his predecessor. George W. Bush went on his own spending and borrowing binge to "stimulate" the economy. He approved the biggest expansion of entitlement spending since the Great Society. He intervened in the housing market by guaranteeing that struggling taxpayers would bail out banks from their bad decisions. He ran up crippling budget deficits (that now seem quaint by today's standards).

Yet instead of reversing these disastrous policies, Barack Obama has spent the last three years doubling down on them, and he showed no interest in changing course in the final year of his term.

Ronald Reagan inherited an economy plagued by double-digit unemployment, double-digit inflation, mile-long lines around gas stations and interest rates at 21 ½ percent. He told the country, "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem - government IS the problem."

Reagan reduced the tax and regulatory burdens that were crushing the economy and produced a period of prolonged economic expansion and prosperity. Former Senator Phil Gramm recently estimated that if the economy under Obama tracked as it had under Reagan, 15.7 million more Americans would be working today and per capita income would be over $4,000 higher than it is today.

Nor was Reagan a pioneer. Warren Harding, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy, pursued similar policies and produced similar results.

If Barack Obama had presented a comparable vision, he would have had the enthusiastic support of the Republican majority in the House and a year from now could claim the mantle of leadership in putting the nation back on the road to prosperity. Instead, what he prescribed is guaranteed to produce gridlock, finger-pointing and sniping, as his combative tone clearly signaled is his intention.

That's a tragic waste of an entire crucial year when we could be implementing policies to relieve our economy of the burdens that are crushing it - just as a Democratic President working with a Republican Congress did during the Clinton years.

Whittier's words haunt the country in the aftermath of this lost opportunity: "Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: `it might have been.'"

From:

http://biggovernment.com/tmcclintock/2012/01/27/obama-sotu-weve-heard-this-song-before/

I recall driving around Sacramento, and I heard McClintock speak for about 2 or 3 minutes on the radio, explaining what he would do California if elected governor. I recall thinking, “This guy makes way too much sense; this is so simple, I understand what he is talking about. He’ll never get elected governor.” Arnold was elected instead.

Cannibals in GOP Establishment Employ Tactics of the Left

by Sarah Palin via Facebook

We have witnessed something very disturbing this week. The Republican establishment which fought Ronald Reagan in the 1970s and which continues to fight the grassroots Tea Party movement today has adopted the tactics of the left in using the media and the politics of personal destruction to attack an opponent.

We will look back on this week and realize that something changed. I have given numerous interviews wherein I espoused the benefits of thorough vetting during aggressive contested primary elections, but this week's tactics aren't what I meant. Those who claim allegiance to Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment should stop and think about where we are today. Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater, the fathers of the modern conservative movement, would be ashamed of us in this primary. Let me make clear that I have no problem with the routine rough and tumble of a heated campaign. As I said at the first Tea Party convention two years ago, I am in favor of contested primaries and healthy, pointed debate. They help focus candidates and the electorate. I have fought in tough and heated contested primaries myself. But what we have seen in Florida this week is beyond the pale. It was unprecedented in GOP primaries. I've seen it before - heck, I lived it before - but not in a GOP primary race.

I am sadly too familiar with these tactics because they were used against the GOP ticket in 2008. The left seeks to single someone out and destroy his or her record and reputation and family using the media as a channel to dump handpicked and half-baked campaign opposition research on the public. The difference in 2008 was that I was largely unknown to the American public, so they had no way of differentiating between the lies and the truth. All of it came at them at once as "facts" about me. But Newt Gingrich is known to us - both the good and the bad.

We know that Newt fought in the trenches during the Reagan Revolution. As Rush Limbaugh pointed out, Newt was among a handful of Republican Congressman who would regularly take to the House floor to defend Reagan at a time when conservatives didn't have Fox News or talk radio or conservative blogs to give any balance to the liberal mainstream media. Newt actually came at Reagan's administration "from the right" to remind Americans that freer markets and tougher national defense would win our future. But this week a few handpicked and selectively edited comments which Newt made during his 40-year career were used to claim that Newt was somehow anti-Reagan and isn't conservative enough to go against the accepted moderate in the primary race. (I know, it makes no sense, and the GOP establishment hopes you won't stop and think about this nonsense. Mark Levin and others have shown the ridiculousness of this.) To add insult to injury, this "anti-Reagan" claim was made by a candidate who admitted to not even supporting or voting for Reagan. He actually was against the Reagan movement, donated to liberal candidates, and said he didn't want to go back to the Reagan days. You can't change history. We know that Newt Gingrich brought the Reagan Revolution into the 1990s. We know it because none other than Nancy Reagan herself announced this when she presented Newt with an award, telling us, "The dramatic movement of 1995 is an outgrowth of a much earlier crusade that goes back half a century. Barry Goldwater handed the torch to Ronnie, and in turn Ronnie turned that torch over to Newt and the Republican members of Congress to keep that dream alive." As Rush and others pointed out, if Nancy Reagan had ever thought that Newt was in any way an opponent of her beloved husband, she would never have even appeared on a stage with him, let alone presented him with an award and said such kind things about him. Nor would Reagan's son, Michael Reagan, have chosen to endorse Newt in this primary race. There are no two greater keepers of the Reagan legacy than Nancy and Michael Reagan. What we saw with this ridiculous opposition dump on Newt was nothing short of Stalin-esque rewriting of history. It was Alinsky tactics at their worst.

But this whole thing isn't really about Newt Gingrich vs. Mitt Romney. It is about the GOP establishment vs. the Tea Party grassroots and independent Americans who are sick of the politics of personal destruction used now by both parties' operatives with a complicit media egging it on. In fact, the establishment has been just as dismissive of Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. Newt is an imperfect vessel for Tea Party support, but in South Carolina the Tea Party chose to get behind him instead of the old guard's choice. In response, the GOP establishment voices denounced South Carolinian voters with the same vitriol we usually see from the left when they spew hatred at everyday Americans "bitterly clinging" to their faith and their Second Amendment rights. The Tea Party was once again told to sit down and shut up and listen to the "wisdom" of their betters. We were reminded of the litany of Tea Party endorsed candidates in 2010 who didn't win. Well, here's a little newsflash to the establishment: without the Tea Party there would have been no historic 2010 victory at all.

I spoke up before the South Carolina primary to urge voters there to keep this primary going because I have great concern about the GOP establishment trying to anoint a candidate without the blessing of the grassroots and all the needed energy and resources we as commonsense constitutional conservatives could bring to the general election in order to defeat President Obama. Now, I respect Governor Romney and his success. But there are serious concerns about his record and whether as a politician he consistently applied conservative principles and how this impacts the agenda moving forward. The questions need answers now. That is why this primary should not be rushed to an end. We need to vet this. Pundits in the Beltway are gleefully proclaiming that this primary race is over after Florida, despite 46 states still not having chimed in. Well, perhaps it's possible that it will come to a speedy end in just four days; but with these questions left unanswered, it will not have come to a satisfactory conclusion. Without this necessary vetting process, the unanswered question of Governor Romney's conservative bona fides and the unanswered and false attacks on Newt Gingrich will hang in the air to demoralize many in the electorate. The Tea Party grassroots will certainly feel disenfranchised and disenchanted with the perceived orchestrated outcome from self-proclaimed movers and shakers trying to sew this all up. And, trust me, during the general election, Governor Romney's statements and record in the private sector will be relentlessly parsed over by the opposition in excruciating detail to frighten off swing voters. This is why we need a fair primary that is not prematurely cut short by the GOP establishment using Alinsky tactics to kneecap Governor Romney's chief rival.

As I said in my speech in Iowa last September, the challenge of this election is not simply to replace President Obama. The real challenge is who and what we will replace him with. It's not enough to just change up the uniform. If we don't change the team and the game plan, we won't save our country. We truly need sudden and relentless reform in Washington to defend our republic, though it's becoming clearer that the old guard wants anything but that. That is why we should all be concerned by the tactics employed by the establishment this week. We will not save our country by becoming like the left. And I question whether the GOP establishment would ever employ the same harsh tactics they used on Newt against Obama. I didn't see it in 2008. Many of these same characters sat on their thumbs in `08 and let Obama escape unvetted. Oddly, they're now using every available microscope and endoscope - along with rewriting history - in attempts to character assassinate anyone challenging their chosen one in their own party's primary. So, one must ask, who are they really running against?

From:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150516734848435

US Is in Even Worse Shape Financially Than Greece. And Why Is That In The Age Of Obama???

From Start Thinking Right

Thanks for "fundamentally transforming" our economy, Barry Hussein!

We're constantly being told that Obama has done a great deal to make our economy stronger. Because who wouldn't rather have 9.1% unemployment than that 7.6% that Obama started out with.

The thing that most killed the US economy in 2008 was the sheer weight of godawful subprime mortgages that Democrats imposed on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and all the other mortgage lenders in order to create more "fairness" and allow everyone (especially racial minorities) to have "the right" to own a home whether they could actually afford to do so or not. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were "Government Sponsored Enterprises," all the investors knew. So even as Fannie and Freddie began bundling together thousands of riskier and ever riskier mortgages into giant mortgage backed securities to advance Democrat-enacted policies, large investment houses continued to gobble them up. After all, this was an arm of the United States Government - and the United States Government ALWAYS pays its debts.

Like all scams, it worked for a while. But as soon as there was a correction in the dramatically overvalued housing market, the whole boondoggle began to implode. And since Fannie and Freddie had bundled all kinds of bad mortgages in with the good ones, there was absolutely no way for anyone to know how much risk was contained in any of these giant investment vehicles all these giant private banking houses found themselves holding.

And suddenly the perception that Government Sponsored Enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were "safe investments" turned into a "misperception." And the fecal matter began to hit the rotary oscillator bigtime.

Fannie and Freddie were the first to collapse. The big private players who had played ball with them shortly followed.

President George Bush tried SEVENTEEN TIMES to reform Fannie and Freddie when there was actually a chance to do something. Go back to what the New York Times stated in 2003:

Republicans were demonized for "deregulation" by the dishonest Democrat Party machine. But they TRIED to regulate what needed to be regulated. Democrats stopped them.

Many Republicans like John McCain literally begged Democrats to do something before it was too late. But Democrats threatened to filibuster any bill that in any way prevented Fannie and Freddie from continuing the reckless economy-killing policies. Conservative economists such as Peter Wallison had been predicting the Fannie and Freddie boondoggles would cause an economic collapse since at least 1999. Wallison had warned back then:

But rigid opposition from Democrats - especially Democrats like Senator Barack Obama - who took more campaign money from Fannie and Freddie and dirty crony capitalism outfits like corrupt Lehman Bros. than ANYONE in his short Senate stint - prevented any "hope and change" of necessary reform from saving the US economy.

The timeline is clear: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were giant behemoths that began to stagger under their own corrupt weight, as even the New York Times pointed out:

And it was FANNIE and FREDDIE that collapsed FIRST before ANY of the private investment banks, which collapsed as a result of having purchased the very mortgaged backed securities that the Government Sponsored Enterprises SOLD THEM. It wasn't until Fannie and Freddie collapsed that investors began to look with horror at all the junk that these GSE boondoggles had been pimping.

The man who predicted the collapse in 1999 wrote a follow-up article titled, "Blame Fannie Mae and Congress For the Credit Mess." It really should have read, "Blame DEMOCRATS." Because they were crawling all over these GSEs that they had themselves created like the cockroaches they are. But Wallison is nonpartisan.

That same New York Times article that said President Bush was trying to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ended with this demonstration of Democrats standing against necessary reform:

Why was Barney Frank deceitfully claiming that Fannie and Freddie weren't facing "any kind of financial crisis"? BECAUSE REPUBLICANS WERE RIGHTLY WARNING THAT THEY WERE.

Only about a month before the whole Fannie and Freddie boondoggles Democrats had fiercely protected collapsed - taking the entire US economy with it - Democrat Barney Frank was on the record saying THIS:

So we blew up nearly COMPLETELY BECAUSE OF DEMOCRAT POLICIES. But Democrats along with an ideological mainstream media that is the worse since Joseph Goebbels was the Nazi Minister of Propaganda were ready. They ran on a platform that it happened while Bush was president, and that therefore Bush was entirely responsible for the thing he tried over and over again to fix while Democrats used their power to block those efforts.

Let me just say "Franklin Raines." Raines as Fannie CEO presided over Enron-style accounting policies and got $90 million in his account because of those corrupt policies. But Raines was the first BLACK CEO of Fannie Mae. And even though he was a Democrat and a Clinton guy, President Bush lacked the courage to push the "first black Fannie Mae CEO" out. Which of course is the same reason that the "first black Fannie Mae CEO" didn't do hard time in prison where he belonged. "Political correctness" is a demonic device by which liberals protect themselves - usually from going to prison where they ought to go. He got a sweetheart deal basically so Republicans wouldn't be accused of being racists by Democrats who of course call them racists no matter what they do. My main point is simply that it was Democrats, Democrats, DEMOCRATS who did this to us.

Fannie Mae was well politically-connected Democrats went to make millions as they bounced back and forth between "public" employment where they developed contacts and "private" crony capitalism to get rich.

Here's the conclusion of New York Times financial markets writer Gretchen Morgenson about DEMOCRAT Jim Johnson:

And of course DEMOCRAT Jim Johnson who got rich plundering Americans was an OBAMA Democrat.

Morgenson - again a New York Times writer and not someone from Fox News - said of Fannie Mae on Larry Kudlow's CNBC program on Monday, June 13: "Whatever Fannie Mae did, everybody else followed." And of course they all followed right into an economic Armageddon created by Democrats for Democrats.

But who got blamed? Republicans, of course. George Bush and Republicans were to Obama and the Democrats what Emmanual Goldstein was to Big Brother in 1984. George Bush and Republicans were what the Jews were to Adolf Hitler. Fascists always need a bogeyman. And so the people who were truly to blame turned the people who tried futilely to stop them into the scapegoats. All with the mainstream media's complicity.

The analogy would be holding the police officer who tried but failed to catch the rapist for the rape of the woman rather than holding the actual rapist who raped her responsible. But it was easier to say "This is the result of President Bush's failed Republican policies" than it was to actually explain the facts to an enraged Attention Deficit Disorder-ridden ignorant pop culture - particularly when virtually no one in the biased mainstream media had any intention whatsoever of telling the truth.

Barack Obama - the ACORN community organizer who pushed these very America-killing policies - ran a demagoguing campaign promising to fix everything.

But has he?

How about a great big giant "NOT"???

What has Zero Obama done to fix that housing market that he helped collapse? How about NOTHING??? After nearly three years of Obama, housing isn't the worst since 2008; it's gotten WAY WORSE than 2008 and is the worse since the Great Depression!!! Obama started out with a terrible plan. And we have terrible results to show for his terrible plan. And yet this disgraceful fool actually keeps claiming he's made things better!!!

From:

http://startthinkingright.wordpress.com/2011/06/14/us-is-in-even-worse-shape-financially-than-greece-and-why-is-that-in-the-age-of-obama/

There is more to this article, and there are comments as well.

CNN Turns Blind Eye To Obama-Alinsky Ties

Journalism: As the president launches his re-election bid by striking a more centrist tone, the partisan press is helping him whitewash his radical past. Teamwork or not, it'll be hard to bleach.

Exhibit A is CNN's Soledad O'Brien. Earlier this week, she hosted a segment that tried to de-link Obama from Chicago socialist Saul Alinsky. The late Alinsky is the father of community organizing and the author of the far-left bible "Rules for Radicals."

O'Brien opened her piece by scolding GOP front-runner Newt Gingrich for warning Obama "will represent Saul Alinsky (and) European socialism" in a second term. "President Obama has never said that he was influenced by Alinsky," O'Brien insisted.

Of course he hasn't. He's not stupid enough to publicly link himself to a socialist. But the record is clear that he was in fact influenced by Alinsky, if only CNN's "journalists" would do their homework. Allow us to do it for them:

• Obama first learned Alinsky's rules in the 1980s, when Alinskyite radicals with the Chicago-based Alinsky group Gamaliel Foundation recruited, hired, trained and paid him as a community organizer in South Side Chicago. (Gamaliel's website expressly states it grew out of the Alinsky movement.)

• In 1988, Obama even wrote a chapter for the book "After Alinsky: Community Organizing in Illinois," in which he lamented organizers' "lack of power" in implementing change.

• Gamaliel board member John McKnight, a hard-core student of Alinsky, penned a letter for Obama to help him get into Harvard Law School.

• Obama took a break from his Harvard studies to travel to Los Angeles for eight days of intense training at Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation, a station of the cross for acolytes.

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• In turn, he trained other community organizers in Alinsky agitation tactics.

• Obama also taught Alinsky's "Power Analysis" methods at the University of Chicago.

• During the presidential campaign, Obama hired one of his Gamaliel mentors, Mike Kruglik, to train young campaign workers in Alinsky tactics at "Camp Obama," a school set up at Obama headquarters in Chicago. The tactics helped Obama capture the youth vote like no other president before him.

• Power would no longer be an issue, as Obama infiltrated the highest echelon of the political establishment - the White House - fulfilling Alinsky's vision of a new "vanguard" of coat-and-tie radicals who "work inside the system" to change the system.

• After the election, his other Gamaliel mentor, Jerry Kellman (who hired him and whose identity Obama disguised in his memoir), helped the Obama administration establish Organizing for America, which mobilizes young supporters to agitate for Obama's legislative agenda using "Rules for Radicals."

• Obama's favorite rule is No. 13: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it." You see that in his attacks on "fat cat bankers," "greedy health insurers" and "millionaires and billionaires." He also readily applies Alinsky's fifth rule of "ridiculing" the opposition.

"Obama learned his lesson well," said David Alinsky, son of the late socialist. "I am proud to see that my father's model for organizing is being applied successfully beyond local community organizing."

Bizarrely, O'Brien was more than willing to connect Alinsky with the Tea Party, without citing a shred of real evidence to back up the silly claim. The CNN anchor closed her segment by saying she would pin Gingrich down on his supposedly misleading claims. "We will be sure to ask the former speaker the next time we get a chance to talk to him about that," she said.

Wouldn't it make more sense to just ask Obama? You know, "Mr. President, have you ever read Alinsky's 'Rules for Radicals'"? Or "Have your ever trained at organizations founded by Alinsky?"

Is she really this clueless? Or is she covering for Obama? Either way, it does not reflect well on a journalist of her stature and influence.

It's plain CNN plans to gloss over the president's radical past in this campaign, just like it did in 2008.

From:

http://news.investors.com/Article.aspx?id=599154&p=1&ibdbot=1

Obama SOTU

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:

Last month, I went to Andrews Air Force Base and welcomed home some of our last troops to serve in Iraq. Together, we offered a final, proud salute to the colors under which more than a million of our fellow citizens fought - and several thousand gave their lives.

We gather tonight knowing that this generation of heroes has made the United States safer and more respected around the world. For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq. For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country. Most of al Qaeda's top lieutenants have been defeated. The Taliban's momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home.

These achievements are a testament to the courage, selflessness, and teamwork of America's Armed Forces. At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations. They're not consumed with personal ambition. They don't obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together.

Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example. Think about the America within our reach: A country that leads the world in educating its people. An America that attracts a new generation of high-tech manufacturing and high-paying jobs. A future where we're in control of our own energy, and our security and prosperity aren't so tied to unstable parts of the world. An economy built to last, where hard work pays off, and responsibility is rewarded.

We can do this. I know we can, because we've done it before. At the end of World War II, when another generation of heroes returned home from combat, they built the strongest economy and middle class the world has ever known. My grandfather, a veteran of Patton's Army, got the chance to go to college on the GI Bill. My grandmother, who worked on a bomber assembly line, was part of a workforce that turned out the best products on Earth.

The two of them shared the optimism of a Nation that had triumphed over a depression and fascism. They understood they were part of something larger; that they were contributing to a story of success that every American had a chance to share - the basic American promise that if you worked hard, you could do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids to college, and put a little away for retirement.

The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive. No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important. We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules. What's at stake are not Democratic values or Republican values, but American values. We have to reclaim them.

Let's remember how we got here. Long before the recession, jobs and manufacturing began leaving our shores. Technology made businesses more efficient, but also made some jobs obsolete. Folks at the top saw their incomes rise like never before, but most hardworking Americans struggled with costs that were growing, paychecks that weren't, and personal debt that kept piling up.

In 2008, the house of cards collapsed. We learned that mortgages had been sold to people who couldn't afford or understand them. Banks had made huge bets and bonuses with other people's money. Regulators had looked the other way, or didn't have the authority to stop the bad behavior.

It was wrong. It was irresponsible. And it plunged our economy into a crisis that put millions out of work, saddled us with more debt, and left innocent, hard-working Americans holding the bag. In the six months before I took office, we lost nearly four million jobs. And we lost another four million before our policies were in full effect.

Those are the facts. But so are these. In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than three million jobs. Last year, they created the most jobs since 2005. American manufacturers are hiring again, creating jobs for the first time since the late 1990s. Together, we've agreed to cut the deficit by more than $2 trillion. And we've put in place new rules to hold Wall Street accountable, so a crisis like that never happens again.

The state of our Union is getting stronger. And we've come too far to turn back now. As long as I'm President, I will work with anyone in this chamber to build on this momentum. But I intend to fight obstruction with action, and I will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place.

No, we will not go back to an economy weakened by outsourcing, bad debt, and phony financial profits. Tonight, I want to speak about how we move forward, and lay out a blueprint for an economy that's built to last - an economy built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers, and a renewal of American values.

This blueprint begins with American manufacturing.

On the day I took office, our auto industry was on the verge of collapse. Some even said we should let it die. With a million jobs at stake, I refused to let that happen. In exchange for help, we demanded responsibility. We got workers and automakers to settle their differences. We got the industry to retool and restructure. Today, General Motors is back on top as the world's number one automaker. Chrysler has grown faster in the U.S. than any major car company. Ford is investing billions in U.S. plants and factories. And together, the entire industry added nearly 160,000 jobs.

We bet on American workers. We bet on American ingenuity. And tonight, the American auto industry is back.

What's happening in Detroit can happen in other industries. It can happen in Cleveland and Pittsburgh and Raleigh. We can't bring back every job that's left our shores. But right now, it's getting more expensive to do business in places like China. Meanwhile, America is more productive. A few weeks ago, the CEO of Master Lock told me that it now makes business sense for him to bring jobs back home. Today, for the first time in fifteen years, Master Lock's unionized plant in Milwaukee is running at full capacity.

So we have a huge opportunity, at this moment, to bring manufacturing back. But we have to seize it. Tonight, my message to business leaders is simple: Ask yourselves what you can do to bring jobs back to your country, and your country will do everything we can to help you succeed.

We should start with our tax code. Right now, companies get tax breaks for moving jobs and profits overseas. Meanwhile, companies that choose to stay in America get hit with one of the highest tax rates in the world. It makes no sense, and everyone knows it.

So let's change it. First, if you're a business that wants to outsource jobs, you shouldn't get a tax deduction for doing it. That money should be used to cover moving expenses for companies like Master Lock that decide to bring jobs home.

Second, no American company should be able to avoid paying its fair share of taxes by moving jobs and profits overseas. From now on, every multinational company should have to pay a basic minimum tax. And every penny should go towards lowering taxes for companies that choose to stay here and hire here.

Third, if you're an American manufacturer, you should get a bigger tax cut. If you're a high-tech manufacturer, we should double the tax deduction you get for making products here. And if you want to relocate in a community that was hit hard when a factory left town, you should get help financing a new plant, equipment, or training for new workers.

My message is simple. It's time to stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas, and start rewarding companies that create jobs right here in America. Send me these tax reforms, and I'll sign them right away.

We're also making it easier for American businesses to sell products all over the world. Two years ago, I set a goal of doubling U.S. exports over five years. With the bipartisan trade agreements I signed into law, we are on track to meet that goal - ahead of schedule. Soon, there will be millions of new customers for American goods in Panama, Colombia, and South Korea. Soon, there will be new cars on the streets of Seoul imported from Detroit, and Toledo, and Chicago.

I will go anywhere in the world to open new markets for American products. And I will not stand by when our competitors don't play by the rules. We've brought trade cases against China at nearly twice the rate as the last administration - and it's made a difference. Over a thousand Americans are working today because we stopped a surge in Chinese tires. But we need to do more. It's not right when another country lets our movies, music, and software be pirated. It's not fair when foreign manufacturers have a leg up on ours only because they're heavily subsidized.

Tonight, I'm announcing the creation of a Trade Enforcement Unit that will be charged with investigating unfair trade practices in countries like China. There will be more inspections to prevent counterfeit or unsafe goods from crossing our borders. And this Congress should make sure that no foreign company has an advantage over American manufacturing when it comes to accessing finance or new markets like Russia. Our workers are the most productive on Earth, and if the playing field is level, I promise you - America will always win.

I also hear from many business leaders who want to hire in the United States but can't find workers with the right skills. Growing industries in science and technology have twice as many openings as we have workers who can do the job. Think about that - openings at a time when millions of Americans are looking for work.

That's inexcusable. And we know how to fix it.

Jackie Bray is a single mom from North Carolina who was laid off from her job as a mechanic. Then Siemens opened a gas turbine factory in Charlotte, and formed a partnership with Central Piedmont Community College. The company helped the college design courses in laser and robotics training. It paid Jackie's tuition, then hired her to help operate their plant.

I want every American looking for work to have the same opportunity as Jackie did. Join me in a national commitment to train two million Americans with skills that will lead directly to a job. My Administration has already lined up more companies that want to help. Model partnerships between businesses like Siemens and community colleges in places like Charlotte, Orlando, and Louisville are up and running. Now you need to give more community colleges the resources they need to become community career centers - places that teach people skills that local businesses are looking for right now, from data management to high-tech manufacturing.

And I want to cut through the maze of confusing training programs, so that from now on, people like Jackie have one program, one website, and one place to go for all the information and help they need. It's time to turn our unemployment system into a reemployment system that puts people to work.

These reforms will help people get jobs that are open today. But to prepare for the jobs of tomorrow, our commitment to skills and education has to start earlier.

For less than one percent of what our Nation spends on education each year, we've convinced nearly every State in the country to raise their standards for teaching and learning - the first time that's happened in a generation.

But challenges remain. And we know how to solve them.

At a time when other countries are doubling down on education, tight budgets have forced States to lay off thousands of teachers. We know a good teacher can increase the lifetime income of a classroom by over $250,000. A great teacher can offer an escape from poverty to the child who dreams beyond his circumstance. Every person in this chamber can point to a teacher who changed the trajectory of their lives. Most teachers work tirelessly, with modest pay, sometimes digging into their own pocket for school supplies - just to make a difference.

Teachers matter. So instead of bashing them, or defending the status quo, let's offer schools a deal. Give them the resources to keep good teachers on the job, and reward the best ones. In return, grant schools flexibility: To teach with creativity and passion; to stop teaching to the test; and to replace teachers who just aren't helping kids learn.

We also know that when students aren't allowed to walk away from their education, more of them walk the stage to get their diploma. So tonight, I call on every State to require that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn eighteen.

When kids do graduate, the most daunting challenge can be the cost of college. At a time when Americans owe more in tuition debt than credit card debt, this Congress needs to stop the interest rates on student loans from doubling in July. Extend the tuition tax credit we started that saves middle-class families thousands of dollars. And give more young people the chance to earn their way through college by doubling the number of work-study jobs in the next five years.

Of course, it's not enough for us to increase student aid. We can't just keep subsidizing skyrocketing tuition; we'll run out of money. States also need to do their part, by making higher education a higher priority in their budgets. And colleges and universities have to do their part by working to keep costs down. Recently, I spoke with a group of college presidents who've done just that. Some schools re-design courses to help students finish more quickly. Some use better technology. The point is, it's possible. So let me put colleges and universities on notice: If you can't stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down. Higher education can't be a luxury - it's an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford.

Let's also remember that hundreds of thousands of talented, hardworking students in this country face another challenge: The fact that they aren't yet American citizens. Many were brought here as small children, are American through and through, yet they live every day with the threat of deportation. Others came more recently, to study business and science and engineering, but as soon as they get their degree, we send them home to invent new products and create new jobs somewhere else.

That doesn't make sense.

I believe as strongly as ever that we should take on illegal immigration. That's why my Administration has put more boots on the border than ever before. That's why there are fewer illegal crossings than when I took office.

The opponents of action are out of excuses. We should be working on comprehensive immigration reform right now. But if election-year politics keeps Congress from acting on a comprehensive plan, let's at least agree to stop expelling responsible young people who want to staff our labs, start new businesses, and defend this country. Send me a law that gives them the chance to earn their citizenship. I will sign it right away.

You see, an economy built to last is one where we encourage the talent and ingenuity of every person in this country. That means women should earn equal pay for equal work. It means we should support everyone who's willing to work; and every risk-taker and entrepreneur who aspires to become the next Steve Jobs.

After all, innovation is what America has always been about. Most new jobs are created in start-ups and small businesses. So let's pass an agenda that helps them succeed. Tear down regulations that prevent aspiring entrepreneurs from getting the financing to grow. Expand tax relief to small businesses that are raising wages and creating good jobs. Both parties agree on these ideas. So put them in a bill, and get it on my desk this year.

Innovation also demands basic research. Today, the discoveries taking place in our federally-financed labs and universities could lead to new treatments that kill cancer cells but leave healthy ones untouched. New lightweight vests for cops and soldiers that can stop any bullet. Don't gut these investments in our budget. Don't let other countries win the race for the future. Support the same kind of research and innovation that led to the computer chip and the Internet; to new American jobs and new American industries.

Nowhere is the promise of innovation greater than in American-made energy. Over the last three years, we've opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration, and tonight, I'm directing my Administration to open more than 75 percent of our potential offshore oil and gas resources. Right now, American oil production is the highest that it's been in eight years. That's right - eight years. Not only that - last year, we relied less on foreign oil than in any of the past sixteen years.

But with only 2 percent of the world's oil reserves, oil isn't enough. This country needs an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy - a strategy that's cleaner, cheaper, and full of new jobs.

We have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly one hundred years, and my Administration will take every possible action to safely develop this energy. Experts believe this will support more than 600,000 jobs by the end of the decade. And I'm requiring all companies that drill for gas on public lands to disclose the chemicals they use. America will develop this resource without putting the health and safety of our citizens at risk.

The development of natural gas will create jobs and power trucks and factories that are cleaner and cheaper, proving that we don't have to choose between our environment and our economy. And by the way, it was public research dollars, over the course of thirty years, that helped develop the technologies to extract all this natural gas out of shale rock - reminding us that Government support is critical in helping businesses get new energy ideas off the ground.

What's true for natural gas is true for clean energy. In three years, our partnership with the private sector has already positioned America to be the world's leading manufacturer of high-tech batteries. Because of federal investments, renewable energy use has nearly doubled. And thousands of Americans have jobs because of it.

When Bryan Ritterby was laid off from his job making furniture, he said he worried that at 55, no one would give him a second chance. But he found work at Energetx, a wind turbine manufacturer in Michigan. Before the recession, the factory only made luxury yachts. Today, it's hiring workers like Bryan, who said, "I'm proud to be working in the industry of the future."

Our experience with shale gas shows us that the payoffs on these public investments don't always come right away. Some technologies don't pan out; some companies fail. But I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy. I will not walk away from workers like Bryan. I will not cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China or Germany because we refuse to make the same commitment here. We have subsidized oil companies for a century. That's long enough. It's time to end the taxpayer giveaways to an industry that's rarely been more profitable, and double-down on a clean energy industry that's never been more promising. Pass clean energy tax credits and create these jobs.

We can also spur energy innovation with new incentives. The differences in this chamber may be too deep right now to pass a comprehensive plan to fight climate change. But there's no reason why Congress shouldn't at least set a clean energy standard that creates a market for innovation. So far, you haven't acted. Well tonight, I will. I'm directing my Administration to allow the development of clean energy on enough public land to power three million homes. And I'm proud to announce that the Department of Defense, the world's largest consumer of energy, will make one of the largest commitments to clean energy in history - with the Navy purchasing enough capacity to power a quarter of a million homes a year.

Of course, the easiest way to save money is to waste less energy. So here's another proposal: Help manufacturers eliminate energy waste in their factories and give businesses incentives to upgrade their buildings. Their energy bills will be $100 billion lower over the next decade, and America will have less pollution, more manufacturing, and more jobs for construction workers who need them. Send me a bill that creates these jobs.

Building this new energy future should be just one part of a broader agenda to repair America's infrastructure. So much of America needs to be rebuilt. We've got crumbling roads and bridges. A power grid that wastes too much energy. An incomplete high-speed broadband network that prevents a small business owner in rural America from selling her products all over the world.

During the Great Depression, America built the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge. After World War II, we connected our States with a system of highways. Democratic and Republican administrations invested in great projects that benefited everybody, from the workers who built them to the businesses that still use them today.

In the next few weeks, I will sign an Executive Order clearing away the red tape that slows down too many construction projects. But you need to fund these projects. Take the money we're no longer spending at war, use half of it to pay down our debt, and use the rest to do some nation-building right here at home.

There's never been a better time to build, especially since the construction industry was one of the hardest-hit when the housing bubble burst. Of course, construction workers weren't the only ones hurt. So were millions of innocent Americans who've seen their home values decline. And while Government can't fix the problem on its own, responsible homeowners shouldn't have to sit and wait for the housing market to hit bottom to get some relief.

That's why I'm sending this Congress a plan that gives every responsible homeowner the chance to save about $3,000 a year on their mortgage, by refinancing at historically low interest rates. No more red tape. No more runaround from the banks. A small fee on the largest financial institutions will ensure that it won't add to the deficit, and will give banks that were rescued by taxpayers a chance to repay a deficit of trust.

Let's never forget: Millions of Americans who work hard and play by the rules every day deserve a Government and a financial system that do the same. It's time to apply the same rules from top to bottom: No bailouts, no handouts, and no copouts. An America built to last insists on responsibility from everybody.

We've all paid the price for lenders who sold mortgages to people who couldn't afford them, and buyers who knew they couldn't afford them. That's why we need smart regulations to prevent irresponsible behavior. Rules to prevent financial fraud, or toxic dumping, or faulty medical devices, don't destroy the free market. They make the free market work better.

There is no question that some regulations are outdated, unnecessary, or too costly. In fact, I've approved fewer regulations in the first three years of my presidency than my Republican predecessor did in his. I've ordered every federal agency to eliminate rules that don't make sense. We've already announced over 500 reforms, and just a fraction of them will save business and citizens more than $10 billion over the next five years. We got rid of one rule from 40 years ago that could have forced some dairy farmers to spend $10,000 a year proving that they could contain a spill - because milk was somehow classified as an oil. With a rule like that, I guess it was worth crying over spilled milk.

I'm confident a farmer can contain a milk spill without a federal agency looking over his shoulder. But I will not back down from making sure an oil company can contain the kind of oil spill we saw in the Gulf two years ago. I will not back down from protecting our kids from mercury pollution, or making sure that our food is safe and our water is clean. I will not go back to the days when health insurance companies had unchecked power to cancel your policy, deny you coverage, or charge women differently from men.

And I will not go back to the days when Wall Street was allowed to play by its own set of rules. The new rules we passed restore what should be any financial system's core purpose: Getting funding to entrepreneurs with the best ideas, and getting loans to responsible families who want to buy a home, start a business, or send a kid to college.

So if you're a big bank or financial institution, you are no longer allowed to make risky bets with your customers' deposits. You're required to write out a "living will" that details exactly how you'll pay the bills if you fail - because the rest of us aren't bailing you out ever again. And if you're a mortgage lender or a payday lender or a credit card company, the days of signing people up for products they can't afford with confusing forms and deceptive practices are over. Today, American consumers finally have a watchdog in Richard Cordray with one job: To look out for them.

We will also establish a Financial Crimes Unit of highly trained investigators to crack down on large-scale fraud and protect people's investments. Some financial firms violate major anti-fraud laws because there's no real penalty for being a repeat offender. That's bad for consumers, and it's bad for the vast majority of bankers and financial service professionals who do the right thing. So pass legislation that makes the penalties for fraud count.

And tonight, I am asking my Attorney General to create a special unit of federal prosecutors and leading state attorneys general to expand our investigations into the abusive lending and packaging of risky mortgages that led to the housing crisis. This new unit will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners, and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans.

A return to the American values of fair play and shared responsibility will help us protect our people and our economy. But it should also guide us as we look to pay down our debt and invest in our future.

Right now, our most immediate priority is stopping a tax hike on 160 million working Americans while the recovery is still fragile. People cannot afford losing $40 out of each paycheck this year. There are plenty of ways to get this done. So let's agree right here, right now: No side issues. No drama. Pass the payroll tax cut without delay.

When it comes to the deficit, we've already agreed to more than $2 trillion in cuts and savings. But we need to do more, and that means making choices. Right now, we're poised to spend nearly $1 trillion more on what was supposed to be a temporary tax break for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. Right now, because of loopholes and shelters in the tax code, a quarter of all millionaires pay lower tax rates than millions of middle-class households. Right now, Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.

Do we want to keep these tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans? Or do we want to keep our investments in everything else - like education and medical research; a strong military and care for our veterans? Because if we're serious about paying down our debt, we can't do both.

The American people know what the right choice is. So do I. As I told the Speaker this summer, I'm prepared to make more reforms that rein in the long term costs of Medicare and Medicaid, and strengthen Social Security, so long as those programs remain a guarantee of security for seniors.

But in return, we need to change our tax code so that people like me, and an awful lot of Members of Congress, pay our fair share of taxes. Tax reform should follow the Buffett rule: If you make more than $1 million a year, you should not pay less than 30 percent in taxes. And my Republican friend Tom Coburn is right: Washington should stop subsidizing millionaires. In fact, if you're earning a million dollars a year, you shouldn't get special tax subsidies or deductions. On the other hand, if you make under $250,000 a year, like 98 percent of American families, your taxes shouldn't go up. You're the ones struggling with rising costs and stagnant wages. You're the ones who need relief.

Now, you can call this class warfare all you want. But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense.

We don't begrudge financial success in this country. We admire it. When Americans talk about folks like me paying my fair share of taxes, it's not because they envy the rich. It's because they understand that when I get tax breaks I don't need and the country can't afford, it either adds to the deficit, or somebody else has to make up the difference - like a senior on a fixed income; or a student trying to get through school; or a family trying to make ends meet. That's not right. Americans know it's not right. They know that this generation's success is only possible because past generations felt a responsibility to each other, and to their country's future, and they know our way of life will only endure if we feel that same sense of shared responsibility. That's how we'll reduce our deficit. That's an America built to last.

I recognize that people watching tonight have differing views about taxes and debt; energy and health care. But no matter what party they belong to, I bet most Americans are thinking the same thing right now: Nothing will get done this year, or next year, or maybe even the year after that, because Washington is broken.

Can you blame them for feeling a little cynical?

The greatest blow to confidence in our economy last year didn't come from events beyond our control. It came from a debate in Washington over whether the United States would pay its bills or not. Who benefited from that fiasco?

I've talked tonight about the deficit of trust between Main Street and Wall Street. But the divide between this city and the rest of the country is at least as bad - and it seems to get worse every year.

Some of this has to do with the corrosive influence of money in politics. So together, let's take some steps to fix that. Send me a bill that bans insider trading by Members of Congress, and I will sign it tomorrow. Let's limit any elected official from owning stocks in industries they impact. Let's make sure people who bundle campaign contributions for Congress can't lobby Congress, and vice versa - an idea that has bipartisan support, at least outside of Washington.

Some of what's broken has to do with the way Congress does its business these days. A simple majority is no longer enough to get anything - even routine business - passed through the Senate. Neither party has been blameless in these tactics. Now both parties should put an end to it. For starters, I ask the Senate to pass a rule that all judicial and public service nominations receive a simple up or down vote within 90 days.

The executive branch also needs to change. Too often, it's inefficient, outdated and remote. That's why I've asked this Congress to grant me the authority to consolidate the federal bureaucracy so that our Government is leaner, quicker, and more responsive to the needs of the American people.

Finally, none of these reforms can happen unless we also lower the temperature in this town. We need to end the notion that the two parties must be locked in a perpetual campaign of mutual destruction; that politics is about clinging to rigid ideologies instead of building consensus around common sense ideas.

I'm a Democrat. But I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: That Government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more. That's why my education reform offers more competition, and more control for schools and States. That's why we're getting rid of regulations that don't work. That's why our health care law relies on a reformed private market, not a Government program.

On the other hand, even my Republican friends who complain the most about Government spending have supported federally-financed roads, and clean energy projects, and federal offices for the folks back home.

The point is, we should all want a smarter, more effective Government. And while we may not be able to bridge our biggest philosophical differences this year, we can make real progress. With or without this Congress, I will keep taking actions that help the economy grow. But I can do a whole lot more with your help. Because when we act together, there is nothing the United States of America can't achieve.

That is the lesson we've learned from our actions abroad over the last few years.

Ending the Iraq war has allowed us to strike decisive blows against our enemies. From Pakistan to Yemen, the al Qaeda operatives who remain are scrambling, knowing that they can't escape the reach of the United States of America.

From this position of strength, we've begun to wind down the war in Afghanistan. Ten thousand of our troops have come home. Twenty-three thousand more will leave by the end of this summer. This transition to Afghan lead will continue, and we will build an enduring partnership with Afghanistan, so that it is never again a source of attacks against America.

As the tide of war recedes, a wave of change has washed across the Middle East and North Africa, from Tunis to Cairo; from Sana'a to Tripoli. A year ago, Qadhafi was one of the world's longest-serving dictators - a murderer with American blood on his hands. Today, he is gone. And in Syria, I have no doubt that the Assad regime will soon discover that the forces of change can't be reversed, and that human dignity can't be denied.

How this incredible transformation will end remains uncertain. But we have a huge stake in the outcome. And while it is ultimately up to the people of the region to decide their fate, we will advocate for those values that have served our own country so well. We will stand against violence and intimidation. We will stand for the rights and dignity of all human beings - men and women; Christians, Muslims, and Jews. We will support policies that lead to strong and stable democracies and open markets, because tyranny is no match for liberty.

And we will safeguard America's own security against those who threaten our citizens, our friends, and our interests. Look at Iran. Through the power of our diplomacy, a world that was once divided about how to deal with Iran's nuclear program now stands as one. The regime is more isolated than ever before; its leaders are faced with crippling sanctions, and as long as they shirk their responsibilities, this pressure will not relent. Let there be no doubt: America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal. But a peaceful resolution of this issue is still possible, and far better, and if Iran changes course and meets its obligations, it can rejoin the community of nations.

The renewal of American leadership can be felt across the globe. Our oldest alliances in Europe and Asia are stronger than ever. Our ties to the Americas are deeper. Our iron-clad commitment to Israel's security has meant the closest military cooperation between our two countries in history. We've made it clear that America is a Pacific power, and a new beginning in Burma has lit a new hope. From the coalitions we've built to secure nuclear materials, to the missions we've led against hunger and disease; from the blows we've dealt to our enemies; to the enduring power of our moral example, America is back.

Anyone who tells you otherwise, anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn't know what they're talking about. That's not the message we get from leaders around the world, all of whom are eager to work with us. That's not how people feel from Tokyo to Berlin; from Cape Town to Rio; where opinions of America are higher than they've been in years. Yes, the world is changing; no, we can't control every event. But America remains the one indispensable nation in world affairs - and as long as I'm President, I intend to keep it that way.

That's why, working with our military leaders, I have proposed a new defense strategy that ensures we maintain the finest military in the world, while saving nearly half a trillion dollars in our budget. To stay one step ahead of our adversaries, I have already sent this Congress legislation that will secure our country from the growing danger of cyber-threats.

Above all, our freedom endures because of the men and women in uniform who defend it. As they come home, we must serve them as well as they served us. That includes giving them the care and benefits they have earned - which is why we've increased annual VA spending every year I've been President. And it means enlisting our veterans in the work of rebuilding our Nation.

With the bipartisan support of this Congress, we are providing new tax credits to companies that hire vets. Michelle and Jill Biden have worked with American businesses to secure a pledge of 135,000 jobs for veterans and their families. And tonight, I'm proposing a Veterans Job Corps that will help our communities hire veterans as cops and firefighters, so that America is as strong as those who defend her.

Which brings me back to where I began. Those of us who've been sent here to serve can learn from the service of our troops. When you put on that uniform, it doesn't matter if you're black or white; Asian or Latino; conservative or liberal; rich or poor; gay or straight. When you're marching into battle, you look out for the person next to you, or the mission fails. When you're in the thick of the fight, you rise or fall as one unit, serving one Nation, leaving no one behind.

One of my proudest possessions is the flag that the SEAL Team took with them on the mission to get bin Laden. On it are each of their names. Some may be Democrats. Some may be Republicans. But that doesn't matter. Just like it didn't matter that day in the Situation Room, when I sat next to Bob Gates - a man who was George Bush's defense secretary; and Hillary Clinton, a woman who ran against me for president.

All that mattered that day was the mission. No one thought about politics. No one thought about themselves. One of the young men involved in the raid later told me that he didn't deserve credit for the mission. It only succeeded, he said, because every single member of that unit did their job - the pilot who landed the helicopter that spun out of control; the translator who kept others from entering the compound; the troops who separated the women and children from the fight; the SEALs who charged up the stairs. More than that, the mission only succeeded because every member of that unit trusted each other - because you can't charge up those stairs, into darkness and danger, unless you know that there's someone behind you, watching your back.

So it is with America. Each time I look at that flag, I'm reminded that our destiny is stitched together like those fifty stars and those thirteen stripes. No one built this country on their own. This Nation is great because we built it together. This Nation is great because we worked as a team. This Nation is great because we get each other's backs. And if we hold fast to that truth, in this moment of trial, there is no challenge too great; no mission too hard. As long as we're joined in common purpose, as long as we maintain our common resolve, our journey moves forward, our future is hopeful, and the state of our Union will always be strong.

Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.

Entitlement nation: now 50% of Americans receive government benefits

Reuters Sheds All Professional Integrity in Marco Rubio Hit Piece

Bill Maher continues to lie: Romney 'Only Paid 11% In Taxes,' Clinton Tax Hike 'Turned Around' The Economy. He also claims that debt under President Obama has only increased $1.5 trillion.

Just as absurd is Newsweek's Eleanor Clift on PBS's McLaughlin Group Friday

Santorum Missed His Chance to Land Knockout Punch on Romney (many thought that Santorum did well against Romney; this is someone making the opposite case).

Liberal Two-Fer: NPR Ties Catholic Inquisition to Bush Interrogations at Guantanamo

Meet the Marriage Killer. It's More Common Than Adultery and Potentially As Toxic, So Why Is It So Hard to Stop Nagging?

Weasel Zipper post CNN debate poll; Santorum and Gingrich are neck and neck. These would be mostly TEA party and conservative Republicans.

The Newt I know by Joe Scarborough.

The State of the Hoax: Obamaism Collapses Worldwide

RUSH: Great editorial in the Wall Street Journal -- and I'll tell you another reason I loved Santorum last night. He actually referred to global warming as a hoax. You hear that? He called it a hoax. He did, and it is. The Wall Street Journal has an editorial today that's very important, very important. Here's a pull-quote: "Why is there so much passion about global warming, and why has the issue become so vexing that the American Physical Society, from which Dr. Giaever resigned a few months ago, refused the seemingly reasonable request by many of its members to remove the word 'incontrovertible' from its description of a scientific issue? There are several reasons, but a good place to start is the old question 'cui bono?'

"Or the modern update, 'Follow the money.' ... There is no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to 'decarbonize' the world's economy." Wall Street Journal. There it is. The evidence continues to mount. They even have the guts to say that CO2 is not a pollutant. Carbon dioxide, what we exhale. Finally some common sense is entering this in the mainstream media. Here's another pull-quote: "Alarmism over climate is of great benefit to many, providing government funding for academic research and a reason for government bureaucracies to grow. Alarmism also offers an excuse for governments to raise taxes..." I mean, I could have written this! The Wall Street Journal is simply rewording what I said. Here's the way you are destroying the planet. Not on purpose, no, no!

You've been duped by Big Oil and Big Gas and Big Everybody, and you're driving these cars around, driving these SUVs; you think you're keeping your family safe. But you're destroying the climate, and you are killing the polar bear environment, and you're killing the polar bears. You're killing all these animals. Species are dying! Now, what do we do about it? Well, you're guilty. Not intentionally, though. We'll let you off the hook. You simply have to go along with raising taxes. You have to agree to a tax increase. You have to agree to stop driving all these things and using the light bulbs that you wanna use and you gotta live your life the way we say. Pay higher taxes, go out and drive a bunch of junk cars and so forth, and you can save the planet.

And, of course, the dunces of our culture say, "Ooh, wow," 'cause everybody wants to matter, everybody wants their life to have meaning. So the Wizards of Smart tell 'em, "You can save the planet," and people (wallowing away in their otherwise miserable lives) are given meaning. "Wow, I can save the planet? Oh, man, that's great," and then they become evangels for the whole cause. They start wearing ribbons, they drive little podunk cars, and then they get in your face and tell how you ought to live like them because you're destroying the planet. And their lives have meaning, and the whole thing perpetuates itself. "Alarmism also offers an excuse for governments to raise taxes, taxpayer-funded subsidies for businesses that understand how to work the political system, and a lure for big donations to charitable foundations promising to save the planet," and it also allows smart CEOs to come up with green aspects of their business. Like McDonald's.

"Look at this, our new Styrofoam container has less Styrofoam. We're saving the planet. Come in and buy our Big Mac." And then they get credit for caring about the climate. I just see a marketing opportunity because you've been duped. Anything that saves the planet, people want their lives to matter. They want their lives to have meaning. They've unwittingly been destroying the planet, and so, and so, all I have to do is buy a Big Mac in this 50% less Styrofoam container and I'm mattering. So they go buy Big Macs, think they're helping out, and the CEOs say, "Oh man, what a scam we got going here. Our clientele thinks that they're saving the planet. All we gotta do is tell them that by buying our stuff they're saving polar bears."

That's how you get one of those, was it a Nissan commercial? Some polar bear wanders a neighborhood in suburbia. Yeah, the Leaf, wandering a suburban neighborhood looking for somebody driving a car that will not kill his iceberg. He finds the driver. He finds the car in the driveway. The polar bear goes up and hugs the driver. And Nissan thinks, man, are we smart. It's been one of the biggest scams out there, folks, and it continues. But nevertheless the Journal is on the case. I can't believe I'm reading it there. I mean even though they're conservatives on the editorial page, I've never seen it this pointed.

For example, "Speaking for many scientists and engineers who have looked carefully and independently at the science of climate, we have a message to any candidate for public office: There is no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to 'decarbonize' the world's economy. Even if one accepts the inflated climate forecasts of the IPCC, aggressive greenhouse-gas control policies are not justified economically." Not only that, we can't do it.

"Spain Suspends Subsidies for New Renewable Energy Power Plants." You know, green technology, that's been one of the constant themes of the regime, all of his state of the hoax speeches, the class warfare rallies. From the 2010 state of the hoax we can put Americans to work today building the infrastructure of tomorrow, from the first real roads to the Interstate Highway System, our nation has always been built to compete. There's no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains, the new factories that manufacture clean energy products.

Do you know why Obama gives speeches written on the eighth grade level, by the way? It's the only demographic naive enough to believe what he's saying, people with an eighth grade level of understanding. It's like he said in Vegas yesterday, (imitating Obama) "Yeah, we want to build stuff, we want to make stuff, and we want to move it. That's my economic theme for America, build stuff, and make stuff, and move it. And sell stuff, too, yeah, we want to sell it." So what do we have here? Spain has had its Sputnik moment. They were the Soviets, and they lost.

"Spain's government suspended subsidies for new renewable energy plants as part of the administration's efforts to curb the budget deficit. The government today passed a decree that will halt subsidies for new wind, solar, co-generation or waste incineration plants, as it bids to rein in electric system debts that reached 24 billion euros ($31 billion)," by the end of last year. So Spain, green energy, green jobs, they lost all kinds of stuff, economy went in the tank, and now going further, suspending subsidies for renewable energy plants. Obamaism is collapsing everywhere around the world it's being tried.

RUSH: That Wall Street Journal editorial is signed by 16 scientists who put their names to this. That's gutsy. There's also an article about Germany cutting its solar subsidies as well. Obamaism everywhere around the world is going down the tubes, except here, where we're still getting it cranked up.

Wall Street Journal: No Need to Panic About Global Warming

Financial Times: Spain Stops New Energy Subsidies in Austerity Drive

Bloomberg: German Solar Subsidies at Stake as Ministers Clash Over Cuts

Voters See Gingrich Fighting for an Ideal and Romney Fighting to Get Elected

RUSH: Fairly or unfairly, here's what I think is going on. I think in Florida here, throughout the Republican presidential primary, at least when discussing Gingrich and Romney, I really think people see Gingrich fighting for an ideal, and they see Romney fighting to get elected. I think if I had to synthesize what the campaign breaks down to, it's that. Newt stands for an idea, whether it's colonizing the moon or having an open marriage or not having an open marriage or doing depositions when you don't do depositions or whatever. At least they see him fighting for an ideal. They see Romney fighting to get elected. You know that's right.

Obama's Pitiful Speech Full of Lies

RUSH: So I had a long, long, long day yesterday, and I'm arriving back at about, what was it, 9:30. I'm landing at 9:30, I'd been watching the State of the Union show, that campaign speech for a half hour, and, folks, every e-mail I'm getting, "Well, that's it, Rush. We can't win. This is over. We can't top this. It's finished. My God, it's over. We don't have a prayer. This is so good, he's giving away the store. Americans are such idiots, gonna fall for it." I had to shut down my e-mail because I'm listening to the most vacuous, empty, filled-with-lies speech. It was boring. It was actually boring.

I watched some of the post-debate analysis, and I was actually surprised to hear some of the Fox people say that. I thought the Fox people were gonna be praising this speech to the hilt, as Obama's back, 'cause that's all I had gotten from my friends. I was pulling what little hair I have left out last night, "Jesus, for crying out loud, why are people such pessimists?" 'Cause this is not what that speech was. This was not a, "It's over, we can't beat this guy," kinda speech. This speech was recycled. In fact, the GOP, the RNC, somebody's put together a short video to show he uses exact phrases from State of the Union show to State of the Union show to State of the Union show.

RUSH: Folks, I have to tell you, I was telling Snerdley today that speech, yeah, it was a campaign speech, and yeah, it was this and that, it was a repeat and so forth. It was chock-full of lies. It was fantasyland. No, it didn't soar. It was boring. It was an hour-and-a-half long. There was nothing to set it apart, nothing about it that's going to be memorable in a positive way. General Motors, the number one car company in the world again? It just isn't true. None of the economic news is true. He did two things. He lied. He tried to paint the economy as back. We are back, except where we're not back, and that's Bush's fault. But we are back.

He also used the usual trick of speaking about events in America as though he's running for office for the first time. He's running against things that are happening that are his policies that he is pretending he's had nothing to do with. He knows full well he's not gonna be called on that by the media. There was one offhand less-than-casual reference to Obamacare, which you would think in a State of the Union with a socialist doing the remarks, making the remarks, that he would be singing the praises of that piece of legislation and talking about what a game-changer it is and how it's the best thing that happened to the country. Not a word of substance about it.

In fact, there are a lot of facts that were omitted in the State of the Union speech. He didn't talk about the 13.1 million unemployed Americans. He didn't talk about the 5.6 million unemployed Americans who have been on unemployment longer than 27 weeks. He didn't talk about 8.1 million involuntary part-time workers. He didn't talk about the falling civilian labor force participation rate was 64%. The number of jobs, the universe of jobs shrinking, didn't bring that up. Didn't talk about the national debt, $15.2 trillion, five trillion of which is his! Do you realize one-third of our entire national debt as a nation over 200 years, one-third of it is his, his alone. Of course he didn't bring it up. He didn't talk about the Keystone pipeline.

This speech was so filled with contradictions. He talked about teamwork is what made America great? Teamwork? Do you know, ladies and gentlemen, how wrong that is? Do you know what our founding documents are about? The rights and freedom of the individual versus government. There's nothing about teamwork. There's nothing about compromise, getting along and working together. The whole point of this government, the whole point of this country, the whole point of this founding was to champion the power and the rights and the civil rights and the freedoms and the liberty of the individual over government. I'm gonna tell you, if anybody on our side running for office anywhere -- Senate, House, president -- is on their game, this is an immediate, I mean they have just, Obama unwittingly has tossed a softball with the bases loaded.

This is worth two grand slams, this whole concept of teamwork, when this country was premised on the power, the rights of the individual, on the uniqueness of all of us, that we are different, that we all bring different things. Then there was this, whatever we do, we gotta have fairness. There must be fairness. That's a code word for class warfare. Fairness is in the liberal dictionary, and it gives them the opportunity, the right, the power to redistribute wealth. That's what fairness is.

And another example of hypocrisy. Obama starts off his State of the Union address by thanking the military while at the same time he is slashing the Pentagon budget by about a trillion dollars and firing 80,000 soldiers. Opens up by praising an element of government that he is slashing to shreds. He closed it, too. You know, I'll tell you what's also obvious here. This speech, it was a lie from front to back, and it was an attempt -- it was Obama's attempt -- to align himself with America's greatness. And, folks, it didn't work.

Now, for those of us who know Obama. It mighta worked for some of you who don't. For those of us who know Obama, it was pitiful. We know he didn't mean it. He's talking about American greatness all night? He doesn't believe that. He doesn't believe what he said. What we learned last night is how much trouble he's in. We learned what he thinks he has to say in order to win reelection. We had it confirmed: He cannot run on his record. He cannot run on the current condition for most Americans in this country. He can't run on life as it is in America.

He has to join the platitudes of this country. He has to make it appear as though he is one of us and has the same love for the traditions and institutions that made this country great, but it came off as phony. It came off as empty. And then there was this. "On the day I took office, our auto industry was on the verge of collapse. Some even said (sic) we should let it die. With a million jobs at stake, I refused to let that happen. In exchange for help we demanded responsibility. We got workers and automakers to settle their differences. We got the industry to retool and restructure. Today General Motors is back on top as the world's number one automaker"?

When did I miss that? Yeah, okay, in China! That's who's buying the cars. Okay, cool. "Chrysler has grown faster in the US..." By the way, I'm not gonna believe any set of such numbers this regime puts out this year. I'm not gonna believe the unemployment number; I don't believe this General Motors number. What an absolute crock. Anyway, after talking about all the wonderful, great, miraculous things he did with General Motors, then what did he say? "It's time to apply the same rules from top to bottom: No bailouts, no handouts, and no cop-outs. An America built to lasts, insists on responsibility from everybody." Now, maybe I'm a bitter clinger, but the car companies appear to have received a bailout to me. The UAW got a bailout to me, and the UAW was handed General Motors and Chrysler, if you ask me. Now, I don't know what that is if it's not a bailout. So he spends a whole speech talking about, "No more bailouts. We're not gonna do that! No handouts, no cop-outs," and then he gives as his greatest example of American prosperity a company he bailed out! Who wrote this? This speech was an embarrassment.

RUSH: Folks, seriously now -- and then Warren Buffett's secretary? That's a whole 'nother subject that I gotta get to here. (interruption) No, I don't know... (interruption) Warren... (interruption) No, Warren Buffet's sec... Now I've stepped in it now. Well, I've almost stepped in it. Look, folks, I really want to beg your indulgence here today. I can't tell you how fast my brain's working. I can't physically mouth, articulate everything I'm thinking and I can't tell you how frustrated because I'm thinking some of the greatest stuff right now. I'm thinking some of the funniest stuff. It will eventually come outta here. You just gotta hang in with me. I mean, literally...

This is one of those classic overload days, and I have become expert at overload at weeding out the unimportant, editing out the stuff that really doesn't matter. But today it's a veritable smorgasbord. It's a buffet. It's a gold mine out there. So just hang in there with me. AP did a fact-check story. The original headline on this story: "Obama Pushes Plans That Flopped Before." State-Controlled Media! AP! That was the headline: "Obama Pushes Plans That Flopped Before." I don't know how long it lasted, but it's gone now. About the number of people that watched, this is a good way to put it in perspective. The Sunday night football game on Fox was the highest rated NFC Championship Game in 17 years.

That game had nearly double the audience of last night's State of the Union, which aired on ALL networks. The championship game, NFC Championship Game aired on one network on Fox Sunday at 6:30, and it had twice the audience -- actually it wasn't a State of the Union; it was actually a Class Warfare Rally last night in the House chamber on every network. To put this in perspective. So the magic, The Messiah, the hope and change, all that, it's gone. The magic, all that stuff, it's gone. Last night was deadbeat city. It really was.

Weekly Standard: Haven't We Heard this Before?

AP: Obama Pushes Plans that Flopped Before

The Free Market Works

Coordinated Avalanche Against Newt Doesn't Match My Memory of Reagan Years

Warren Buffett Runs a Sweatshop!

Will Republicans Go After Obama the Way They're Going After Each Other?

Mitt Adviser Claims: GOP Won't Repeal Obamacare

Liberals and the "Fairness" Schtick

The GOP Establishment in Abject Panic: They Don't Understand Their Own Base

The DC Elites Tell You in Their Own Words What I've Been Telling You Since November 10th

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.

News and opinion:

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

The Patriot Update

http://patriotupdate.com/

Energy News:

http://fuelfix.com/

The Hot Air Pundit Blog (a collection of news videos):

http://www.hapblog.com/

Conservative blog; but well-researched and carefully backed up:

http://startthinkingright.wordpress.com/

Oversight and Government Reform Committee, website on Operation Fast & Furious:

http://issues.oversight.house.gov/fastandfurious/

People are claiming that this is real, objective political journalism:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/

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/