he poll was conducted from October 23rd through the 26th and reached 400 Iowa Republicans. Despite recent accusations that his 9-9-9 tax plan would raise taxes on most Americans and questions about his pro-life beliefs, Cain's 23 percent represents a 13 point gain over the Register's fist poll in June.

The two frontrunners, Cain and Romney, have largely skipped Iowa so far this year. Cain has been to the state only once since he placed fifth in the August 13th Iowa straw poll. Romney has been two Iowa only three times this year. It appears absence does make the heart grow fonder ... at least when it comes to this cycle's Republican field

Pryor was one of two Democrats who broke with Obama this month on legislation aimed at helping state and local governments avoid layoffs of teachers and firefighters. The legislation was part of a piece-by-piece approach Obama has taken with his broader $447 million jobs plan. The procedural vote scuttled a bill that would have provided states with $35 billion to retain or rehire teachers and other public workers.

"Philosophically, I don't think that the federal government should be paying for teacher salaries and for policemen and firefighters, unless it's specifically part of a program," Pryor said. "If we're trying to boost the number of teachers in sciences or something like that, we can talk about that. But just to pay for teachers and try to keep them on the payroll, that's not really a federal responsibility."

"There's one myth out there that I want to clarify. I am in it to win it, not to get a TV show," Cain told a crowd of about 200 people at the Bryant Conference Center.

The former pizza company executive's unorthodox campaign, which eschews some of the traditional strategies of modern presidential campaigns, has frequently had to defend itself against critics and naysayers who accuse Cain of harboring ulterior motives.

The attacks on Cain have increased as he climbed to the top tier of GOP contenders in several recent polls.

Cain has been campaigning in Southern states without early primaries, while other serious contenders have focused (as they traditionally have) on key early-voting states, like Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. Although he did not have any book-selling events on his swing through Alabama, Cain frequently included them in his campaign schedule this month, leading his critics to suspect he was interested in boosting sales for his autobiography, "This Is Herman Cain! My Journey to the White House."

I read with chagrin and some irony Chris Britt’s cartoon last Thursday about the electrified border fence. It must be a luxury for folks in Illinois to look down your big, long politically correct noses at the illegal immigration issue and think, “Oh my, how can people be so callous, racist and cruel, etc. about stopping the flood of illegals into this country?”

Try living in Texas and Arizona and dealing with a constant onslaught against the use of English, rampant property crime, murder, mayhem in public places, drugs and drug gangs, and a growing population of people who do not believe in the rule of law and who view the police as the enemy.

Perhaps Herman Cain is joking, but I am not! Indeed, electrification may not be enough; in the end, it will take mine fields.

Cain has been lauded as a "great communicator" whose straightforward leadership style sets him apart from the establishment managerial candidates whose names are being floated around in the Boston media.

It's also a little known fact that Larry Lucchino directed Cain's unsuccessful run for U.S. Senate in 2004. And both John Henry and Tom Werner point to Cain's success in the business world as proof he can lead the Red Sox in the dugout.

Red Sox GM Ben Cherington believes Cain understands how to successfully implement his ideas in a multifactorial and dysfunctional clubhouse. In the past 40 years, Cain has worked his way up several big corporations: Coca-Cola (he knows cold beverages), Pillsbury (he knows pudgy doughboys like Beckett), and most recently as the CEO and President of Godfather's Pizza (knows fast food cravings).

"Herman understands better than any other candidate, based on many years of success in the business world, that players and fans in general respond better to positive messaging than negative messaging," Cherington told Fox News, right before Cain's official managerial announcement and 999 plan presentation.

During a two-week period last fall, lobbyists representing a Korean trade association met with Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) or his aides five times, interspersing those meetings with $5,500 in contributions to his campaign.

A similar scenario played out in the office of Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) this spring when lobbyists representing foreign entities paid a fundraising consultant on behalf of the Senator, contributed $2,000 to his campaign and contacted him about a potential trip to the United Arab Emirates within a four-day span.

The data, culled from a Project on Government Oversight analysis of contacts and contributions made to members of the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, show that Clyburn and Baucus are no different than the other lawmakers on the new panel. In the past year — before the super committee was formed — lobbyists representing foreign interests repeatedly contacted each of the 12 Members who now make up the panel and contributed a collective $30,000 to their campaigns.

The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction is doing some of the most important and influential work in Congress at the moment, from the public’s point of view. It’s looking to cut at least $1.2 trillion more in spending over the next decade, but there is also talk of trying to reach a grand bargain that could include tax increases and other reforms and even bigger cuts or changes in programs like Social Security.

Giving lobbyists access does more than give them juicy stuff to talk about at parties; it allows them to try to head off ideas that might be damaging to a client, or to advise a client that now would be a good time to make a generous campaign contribution.

The bill will likely include cuts to direct commodity payments, conservation and nutrition plans. Lobbyists for agribusiness like the National Corn Growers Association and the American Soybean Association are pushing for Congress to cease direct payments in favor of improved crop insurance, which the Associated Press reports is pitting farmers in the south, who grow crops like cotton that benefit from direct payments, against those in other parts of the country.

One lobbyist described the relationship between lobbyists and congressional aides as “free-flowing and open,” Gannett reports.

The bill, if taken up by the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction will be forced into an up-down vote, with no amendments to the legislation being possible. That’s drawing alarm from groups critical of farm subsidies, Gannett reports.

“Given the amount of money involved, and given the implications of the farm bill for our food and the quality of our environment, there’s a lot of folks in Congress that ought to have a voice in where this ends up other than the agriculture committees,” said Craig Cox, senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told the Associated Press Monday that the administration wanted the farm bill to increase disaster aid, following a difficult season for farmers.

But some special interests are essentially forgoing the website, opting instead to use back-door channels to lawmakers to exert influence. The American Petroleum Institute, for instance, has declined to submit a formal recommendation but is using its personal contacts with super committee members to lobby against closing tax loopholes for oil companies, the Times reports.

Nearly 200 companies and special interests have reported that they are lobbying the super committee, Politico reports, after reviewing recent federal lobbying filings. The health care industry has reportedly sent the most lobbyists to pressure the 12 lawmakers.

Members of Congress, particularly Republicans, are looking for ways to scale back federal health spending. If the super committee fails to agree to a plan for $1.2 trillion in savings, that would "trigger" across-the-board spending cuts, including payment reductions for Medicare providers.

"It's not like they are looking at ways to improve anything. They are just looking at ways to chop," Rick Pollack, a lobbyist for the American Hospital Association, told Politico.

The Defense industry has the most to lose if the super committee fails to meet its mandate and the "trigger" is pulled. The trigger includes $600 billion in defense cuts, and the defense and aerospace industry launched an aggressive lobbying blitz last month to stop that from happening.

As a result, suburban municipalities — once concerned with policing, putting out fires and repairing roads — are confronting a new set of issues, namely how to help poor residents without the array of social programs that cities have, and how to get those residents to services without public transportation. Many suburbs are facing these challenges with the tightest budgets in years.

“The whole political class is just getting the memo that Ozzie and Harriet don’t live here anymore,” said Edward Hill, dean of the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University.

Oct. 14 was the deadline for members of the Congress to submit recommendations to the so-called super committee on how to identify $1.2 trillion in 10-year savings. The ideas flowing in from both the House and Senate appear to be rather wide-ranging -- from raising revenue by licensing Internet gambling, to saving money by releasing prisoners early if they learn to read or requiring the secretary of the Treasury Department to fly commercial.

But most seemed predictably disappointing. As the Wall Street Journal put it: “The recommendations . . . amounted to little more than a road map to the political obstacles the super committee members face as they labor behind closed doors to reach an agreement on reducing budget deficits . . .”

Publicly, Republican leaders have vehemently opposed including any revenue raisers in a deal to reach the committee's goal of reducing the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years, while Democratic leaders have refused to agree to entitlement cuts unless taxes are also on the table. Tuesday's Democratic proposal represented the position of several committee members but not all Democrats on the panel.

When discussions grew in intensity, Co-Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) tried to rein in his colleagues and soften the debate. Shortly after the presentation and pushback from GOP lawmakers, staffers were asked to leave the room. The incident occurred in the first of two closed-door meetings Tuesday.

The New York Post reported that the “funky Merrill Lynch derivatives” were transferred at the request of those on the other side of the derivative trade after the bank’s debt was recently downgraded.

One top banking executive who raises money for Obama, discussing fundraising efforts on the condition of anonymity, said reports of disaffection with the president “are exaggerated and overblown.” He said a strong contingent of financiers in New York, Chicago and California remains supportive of Obama and his economic policies, even as some have turned on him.

But, this donor added, “... It probably helps from a political perspective if he’s not seen as a Wall Street guy.”

According to the report, Bank of America made the decision at the request of counterparties--client institutions with exposure to the bank. That would be worrisome, since reports of counterparty nervousness in 2008 regularly caused massive selloffs in shares of Morgan Stanley(MS), Goldman Sachs(GS), and, more troublingly, at Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers prior to the demise of those institutions.

The unusual criticism of the Democratic president's administration from members of his own party comes amid signs that the foreclosure crisis is worsening and as lawmakers look ahead to a difficult election next year.

Cardoza, whose Central Valley district has been especially hard hit by foreclosures, was among the harshest critics, saying the problem has been exacerbated by an administration that has "not gotten it right over and over and over." He complained that administration officials have displayed a "total lack of urgency" in addressing the crisis.

The Democrats complained that months after they requested a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden, they haven’t received a response.

According to Addicting Info, two women involved with the Occupy Santa Cruz movement in California walked into a Bank of America branch earlier this week and attempted to close their bank accounts. In response, the bank manager threatened to lock the doors and call the police on them. Her reasoning? You can't be a customer and a protester at the same time, the manager said.

Central Coast News contacted Bank of America about the incident and received a response from the company:

The companies, who pay $30,000 to $50,000 a month for such lobbyists, stand to lose billions of taxpayer dollars whether or not the committee reaches an agreement on spending cuts. Should the committee fail to make a deal, automatic spending cuts (actually, reductions in future spending increases) of $1.2 trillion over 10 years will take effect. Corporations are thus eager to ensure that their interests are protected, either by keeping the committee from cutting their payments as part of a grand bargain or, as Politico observes, by “working overtime to … scuttle a deal because the automatic cuts would be better for them.”