Shareholders making their way to Bank of America Corp.'s annual meeting Wednesday in uptown Charlotte may find themselves weaving through scores of protesters angry over everything from coal-project financing to executive pay. The shareholders have concerns of their own: Bank of America's stock price has fallen nearly 40 percent since last year's annual meeting in Charlotte. And despite a modest rebound so far in 2012, the lender's performance still lags its big-bank peers. While protesters and shareholders have vastly different concerns, they do have one major issue in common: the bad mortgages that continue to weigh down the bank. Subprime mortgages contributed to hundreds of thousands of people losing their homes. They also have cost the bank billions in legal settlements and loan losses. Protesters want to see a halt to foreclosures. Shareholders, weary of write-downs and legal costs, are eager for the bank to put the mortgage issues behind it and focus on growth.

In his first year in office, President Obama increased the federal government’s share of GDP from twenty to twenty five percent! If we add in state and local spending, government approached a forty percent share of the economy. His Obama Care and proposals for more stimulus spending and massive infrastructure investments were designed to keep the federal government at a quarter or more of the economy as a new normal.

The 2012 election will be a battle by the Republicans to roll back federal spending to its historical rate of twenty percent or below. An Obama victory would enshrine the quarter-of-the-economy federal share as a new baseline. The United States would then be on its way to European welfare state spending levels and would have to find ways of raising revenues to European taxation levels.

It is this scary scenario that gave birth to the Tea Party. The mainstream press has repeatedly tried to write the Tea Party’s obituary as out-of-touch, ineffective, and having lost its steam. That the Tea Party has already saved taxpayers between $300 and $500 billion shows its striking impact on the American fiscal scene. This insight should invigorate its members for the 2012 election.

 Why on G-D's green earth do we as a nation continue to pour money ( subsidies) into oil companies that are profitable into the billions of dollars? Shouldn't we at least MEANS TEST the oil companies that we subsidize?

  Where is the pay off for the American tax payer?  The 1920's are over, maybe it's time we took another look at what we subsidies in this country.  Back in the beginning when Texas Tea and the Automobile were just getting started, it made sense to help out those wildcats, that were risking all to find the resource ...

But come on..  With oil now being used as an economic weapon against  the United States, and the fact that we import almost 80% of the oil we use and export the oilwe find  from our own wells to Japan, China, and Europe.

It is passed time to Means test the oil companies that we subsidies.

President Obama promised several times while running for the office that he'd raise energy prices, even using the term "skyrocket." 

He put a man in charge of the energy department who wants gas prices in the US to equal European gas prices (about $7 to $9 a gallon depending where you are at the time of his statement),  and President Obama has implemented policies that are causing all this to happen. 

All his rhetoric about oil companies and taxes is a distraction from the facts.

It is a fact oil companies make a lot of money, sure they are making massive profits, and sure they could do without the federal assistance they get in tax breaks.  I'm fine with ending the tax write offs for them.  Oil companies even get subsidies, because they are some of the world's leading alternative energy researchers or (blend government mandated ethanol) - if someone finds a substitute for oil, they want to own it.  But when it comes down to why oil prices are high, tax breaks and oil companies are not the reason.

And since the US Constitution does not permit the federal government to ever send any subsidies to any businesses, then they should be stopped no matter where they go, from milk to toys, even "clean energy." Just remember, tax breaks are not a subsidy, and they aren't only for oil companies.

 

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/opinion-zone/2011/05/about-those-oil-company-subsidies/144608

 Time to change the laws....  A Flat TAX, A Constitutional convention, throw out everybody in office and start over...

But what we have is not working.

Appearing on CNN’s Starting Point, Florida Republican Congressman Allen West compared the tea party movement to the The Blob, the “giant amoeba-like alien that terrorizes small communities” in the 1950s science-fiction classic. “When you look at the tea party, it’s much like Steve McQueen’s movie, ‘The Blob’!” West exclaimed. “They’re kind of different from each state to each state. There really is no centralized organization or structure to it, so each organization in its respective state or even North Florida down to South Florida can differ.”

The Tea Party Express announced Thursday it would again provide its own response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, this year with former presidential candidate Herman Cain as the headliner.

STEVE KROFT: Do you think that you might have the unemployment rate down to 8 percent by the time the election rolls around?

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I think it's possible. But…I'm not in the job of prognosticating on the economy. I'm in the job of putting in place the tools that allow the economy to thrive and Americans to succeed. Sometimes when I'm talking to my team, I- describe us…as…I'm the captain and they're the crew on a ship, going through really bad storms. And no matter how well we're steering the ship, if the boat's rocking back and forth and people are getting sick and…they're being buffeted by the winds and the rain and…at a certain point-- if you're asking, "Are you enjoying the ride right now?" Folks are going to say, "No." And are they going to say, "Do you think the captain's good—doing a good job?" People are going say, "You know what? A good captain would have had us in some smooth waters and sunny skies, at this point." And I don't control the weather. What I can control are the policies we're putting in place to make a difference in people's lives.

According to Gallup's recent presidential job-approval rating, President Obama's 43 percent average last month ranks as one of the lowest for an elected president in November of his third year in office. Only one president had lower approval ratings than Obama 11 months before facing re-election -- and that president, Jimmy Carter, was soundly defeated.

In November 1979, Carter had a job-approval rating of 40 percent. His rating surged late that month because of a rally in support after the onset of the Iranian Hostage Crisis, and he averaged above 50 percent in December. But by March 1980, he was back in the 40-percent range. Several months later, his Republican opponent -- Ronald Reagan -- tallied 489 electoral votes to Carter's 49 and beat the incumbent president 50%-41% in the popular vote.

On Wednesday, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors passed a portion of those funds through to the Sheriff's Office, giving the agency $2.2 million to offset some of the costs associated with undocumented inmates.

The federal funds also included more than $9 million for the Department of Corrections.

The money is allocated annually based on the number of days each undocumented immigrant is housed in a jail or prison. The reimbursement rate is about $30 per inmate per day.

Daily incarceration costs can vary based on factors such as where the inmates are housed. It costs about $56 each day to keep a convict in an Arizona state prison.

County jails and the state have received nearly $100 million through the program since 2006, but federal lawmakers eye the money each year when it comes time to balance the budget.

There is a catch. Illegal immigrants wouldn't get U.S. citizenship in the bargain. They could still become citizens, but they'd have to do it by returning to their home countries, then re-entering the United States legally and going through proper channels to become naturalized. They'd get the steak, but no sauce.

Members of Congress still will have access to a special Capitol doctor and retirement packages that ensure healthy bank balances no matter how the stock market performs.

Beyond Social Security — the all-American retirement program — each member of Congress gets roughly the same benefits package as all other federal employees.

Congress’ health care program offers 10 options available to all federal workers.

And its 401(k) voluntary retirement plan is the same for other federal employees.

But for a voluntary annual $503 fee, members of Congress have access to the Office of the Attending Physician — an onsite doctor’s office primarily for lawmakers. It also treats emergencies involving other federal workers or visitors.

PART 2 of the Obama Promises. These are the words of candidate OBAMA, what he said to get elected in 2008. I do this as a comparison of what he promised and what he accomplished.

Remember a President OBAMA gained office through these promises by gaining the confidence of Independent and Republican voters.   Obama promised change that we could believe in and actually asked the American People to judge him by his 3rd year in office...  That is something we need to do and to do now.

My Question did he keep these promises. This Video above say's no.. What do you think? Has the Candidate lived up to the rhetoric that he is so widley known for. The promises and are we to hear more of the same?

    You have to ask yourself,  if you owned a company and hired a MANAGER that had mad promises like these...... Would you sign another 4 year contract.... If you could go back like we can today and separate the Promises that were made to get him into office and what he said he would do....has he done it?

 The above video are promises, concerning Lobbyists in Obama's administration, reform,, tarp, earmarks  and Government spending , Where are we headed? what is the goal here? Why are we still talking about the same thing we were talking about in 2008-09.

 It is 3 A.M and the Phone has been ringing off the hook......  When is someone going to pick the receiver up and at least LISTEN?

Thank you, Barack Obama for destroying our ties with our ALLY in the middle east.

Your behavior as President makes it difficult not to ask for a recall..... But we are so close now to an election and getting your replacement, why bother.

"The US leader was rebuffed when he demanded private guarantees that a strike would not go ahead without White House notification, suggesting that Israel no longer plans to ''seek Washington's permission'', sources said."

If nothing else it's a fitting insult illustrating how Obama is perceived by the rest of the world - as a weak one term president.

>>  Posted by Blazing Cat Fur at 8:24 AM 

As we watch the real doer's in the administration run as fast as they can from this President to distance themselves from the train wreck that we have seen for the past 3 years.  
Top Obama Middle East adviser Dennis Ross stepping down

Dennis Ross, one of the president's top advisers dealing with Middle East policy, announced Thursday he's stepping down from his post, leaving prospects for the administration's efforts to restart the peace process even more uncertain.

He cited a promise he made to his wife to serve in the Obama administration for only two years.

Ross, who has held key diplomatic positions during the administrations of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton as well as Barack Obama, issued a statement saying, "It has been an honor to work in the Obama administration and to serve this president, particularly during a period of unprecedented change in the broader Middle East."

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-11-10/politics/politics_obama-middle-east-adviser_1_press-secretary-jay-carney-obama-administration-peace-process?_s=PM:POLITICS

 

Does this President really have a clue?

Take a deep breath and get ready to rumble..... I think we can all agree that the true blame lie's at the feet of  those who Lobby the Washington elected.

   Lobbyists have run Washington and controlled WALL street, Banks, and America for some time.

Yes, America gets to vote the representative in, and then K Street takes over to get them re-elected.

 Take for example the election going on right now... for the Republican primary.

 Who is getting the most money from lobbyists..

Lobbyists playing key role in 2012 fundraising

More than 100 registered lobbyists have contributed to Romney, giving nearly $200,000 in direct donations, according to a Washington Post analysis of donor and lobbying records. A team of lobbyist fundraisers has also bundled together nearly $1 million in contributions for Romney’s campaign, disclosure records show.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who entered the race in August, took in at least $72,000 in contributions from 42 lobbyists through September, plus $77,000 bundled by a bank executive. Dozens of Washington lobbyists have also given money to trailing candidates Jon Huntsman Jr., Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, the analysis shows.

The early pace of donations underscores the pivotal importance that K Street donors are likely to play in driving up spending during the 2012 elections, which are widely expected to be the most expensive in U.S. history. Republicans are hoping that strong support from lobbyists and corporate political action committees will help them compete with President Obama’s formidable fundraising operation.

As he did in 2008, Obama has made a point of refusing to accept donations from lobbyists or corporate PACs, and his campaign has repeatedly portrayed Republicans as beholden to Wall Street and other well-funded interests. But Obama faced his own criticism this week after hiring a former corporate lobbyist as a senior campaign adviser.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/lobbyists-playing-key-role-in-2012-fundraising/2011/10/24/gIQAUg0GMM_story.html

 And Obama and the Democrats are not saints either.... 

Obama Campaign Bundlers Have Ties to Lobbying Industry

At least 15 Obama “bundlers,” or volunteer fundraisers who gather contributions from their deep-pocket friends, are actively involved in the federal policymaking process, working in law firms or corporate offices that focus on lobbying, the Times found.

None of the donors are formally registered as federal lobbyists, the threshold the Obama campaign uses to regularly refuse contributions.  But the individuals’ activities, the Times contends, fit the definition.  

Pfizer executive Sally Susman, for example, chairs the company’s political action committee and leads its “public affairs activities, including relations with governments,” according the Pfizer website. She has bundled more than $500,000 in donations for Obama so far.

Comcast executive David Cohen, who oversees the media giant’s government affairs and public affairs, also bundled more than $500,000 and has hobnobbed with Obama on Martha’s Vineyard.

And Michael Kempner, whose PR firm MWW Group touts to its clients its “important relationships with both the Democratic and Republican leadership,” has also bundled half a million dollars for Obama.  His firm includes seven registered lobbyists, according to the Times.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/10/obama-campaign-bundlers-have-ties-to-lobbying-industry/

So both parties are in on the ruse... and the American people again get the shaft.

K street has people lined  up with the Committee of 12 as well. So don't expect that DOG and Pony show to come up with any actual cuts in the deficit... It would be un orthodox in the current system of government that we have if an actual elected  representative of the people would go against the  hand that feeds them at re-election time.

The industry known as lobbying needs to be brought to its knee's and shown the door.

  The one thing I believe all sides agree on is that Lobbyists, corporate lobbyists need to be stopped from advancing their cause over the peoples rights as citizens.

If any business in America needs to go out of business it is the K Street lobbyist.....

SO how do we do it?  How do we take this cash cow... out of Government that is supposed to be for the PEOPLE.

C.O.H. Please.

We have a Monster on the loose....

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

Fending off a report in The New York Times that detailed the ties that some major Obama campaign fundraisers have to lobbyists, Axelrod said "the only reason" The Times could even write that story is "because the president is disclosing everyone who raises money for him," something "none of the Republican candidates are willing to do."

Axelrod declined to speak specifically about the story -- which said that at least 15 Obama campaign bundlers are involved in lobbying for corporations or for consulting firms though not registered as federal lobbyists -- and instead focused on the big picture of what the president's tried to do.

"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.

That [90 percent] was a phony figure from the very start. Even the Wikileaks cables from our own State Department prove they are coming from Central America; they are not coming from the U.S. Every police officer will tell you that they’re coming from Russia, they’re coming from China, most of them are coming from Central America and a lot of them are coming from defections from the Mexican Army.

The NRA president charged that President Barack Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wanted to make it appear that guns were coming from the United States, “so they could stick more gun [control] legislation on honest American gun owners of the United States.” LaPierre claimed it was only due to the killing last December of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry by armed Mexicans in Arizona that the government-sanctioned gunrunning operation ever came to light.

His support base in Louisiana is very polarized by race," Faucheux said. "He is not likely to go below" the 35 percent to 40 percent range in Louisiana.

Male GOP voters prefer Perry 57 to 35 percentage points over Obama while Republican women favor him 47 to 38 over the president. Male Republicans favor Romney 56 to 36 percentage points while GOP women favor him 49 to 39 points.

Businessman Herman Cain saw Mitt Romney's 23 percent support rating in the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll and raised him 4 points to take the lead in the latest survey of Republican White House hopefuls.

The former CEO of Godfather's pizza garnered 27 percent support in the telephone poll released Wednesday night, more than five times the 5 percent support he had in August. Romney's 23 percent remained the same.

The primary spirit of the letter is clear – the United States government will assure religious freedom, giving “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”

George Washington wrote those words in a 1790 letter to the the congregation of a synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island. He was hoping to reassure the congregation that the budding government of the United States would allow free expression to all religions. Since then, Jews in America have flourished.

The letter is addressed “To the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island,” but it is kept from public view, which hurts and angers those who think private ownership defies the letter’s original sentiment.

he White House trade agenda suffered a new setback last week when the Senate rejected a bill to strengthen the president’s ability to conduct trade diplomacy with other countries.

Sounds like another sorry example of Washington’s partisan paralysis, doesn’t it?

Now consider this bizarre fact: Republicans offered the proposal and Democrats defeated it. Shouldn’t it have been the other way around?

So here’s a fresh reason to wonder whether President Obama is serious about creating jobs and encouraging economic growth by boosting exports.

We know he won’t strike any new trade deals soon, following last week’s embarrassing vote on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA). It would have given the Obama administration the ability to negotiate trade agreements and submit them to Congress for up-or-down votes.

While many of the Patch panelists said Ron Paul wasn't his normal outspoken self, supporters chimed in saying the Texas Congressman still stood out, despite being provided limited opportunities by Fox News moderators.

"Romney won, but Santorum did well," said Bedford's Steve Poschmann, a new addition to Patch's debate panel. "Perry didn't help himself. Bachmann did not do great. Huntsman did fine, but not great. Paul has done better in other debates."

University of New Hampshire political science professor Dante Scala agreed.

"Another good night for Santorum, becoming Perry's chief antagonist on right," said Scala. "Ron Paul seemed a little subdued tonight. Never seemed to have a signature moment."

"I disagree," said one Paul supporter. "Ron Paul won this debate. The only reason he seems 'subdued' is because the moderators gave him the 2nd least amount of time."

Ron and Vince are friends, with Vince not merely interested in Dr. Paul's philosophy but he also graciously invited Dr. and Mrs. Paul to the premier of his film 'Couples Retreat,'" said Ron Paul 2012 National Campaign Chairman Jesse Benton, referring to the October 6, 2009 film premier in California.

Mr. Vaughn, for his part, endorsed Dr. Paul's 2009 book End the Fed with the following enthusiastic quote: "Everyone must read this book--Congressmen and college students, Democrats and Republicans--all Americans."

Paul will be joining Obama on the trip to Northern Kentucky, where the president will likely continue his assault on Republicans in Congress over the American Jobs Act, an aide to Paul said.

Obama and Paul will be visiting a bridge that connects Cincinnati with Northern Kentucky that has been described as "functionally obsolete." Obama will continue to highlight what he says is the need for infrastructure spending contained in his jobs plan.

A few weeks ago, the Post ombudsman questioned why the paper’s reporting on Paul had been so “sparse.” To this, there are two answers. Last time, in 2008, Paul was ignored because his ideas sounded crazy. This time, he’s being ignored because his ideas have become commonplace. What’s changed is not Paul but the party: Nearly a quarter-century after he quit the GOP to run for president as a Libertarian (he told me years ago that it was an “academic exercise”), he has brought the Republicans to him.

That may or may not be a good thing, but Paul has proven that issues can triumph. His campaigns have been absent of personality – his or anybody else’s. When I asked him at breakfast about photos showing Texas Gov. Rick Perry getting in his face at a debate, Paul downplayed the conflict: “It’s a friendly tap, punching the guy in the chest,” he explained.

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) had hoped to avoid another budget battle in the wake of the summer's debt ceiling fight and a near-shutdown of the government in April that caused voters to sour on Republicans and Democrats in Congress.

The rebuke gives new currency to Senate Democrats' efforts to fund disaster aid without cuts elsewhere. Congress has just days to resolve the impasse as lawmakers are expected to recess Friday for the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana next week.

"They're threatening to shut down the government to get what they want," Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the majority leader, said of the GOP-led House.

In January 2009, the unemployment rate was 6.9 per cent and Obama’s approval ratings were over 60 per cent. The question that framed his presidency was whether he would lead the country out of crisis the way Franklin Delano Roosevelt led the country out of the Great Depression, or whether he would become the next Jimmy Carter—a weak, one-term president done in by economic malaise and failures abroad.

This week the Congressional Budget Office revised down its projections of U.S. economic growth. It expects an anemic rate of 1.5 per cent in 2011 and 2.5 per cent in 2012. The U.S. unemployment rate will remain close to nine per cent through the end of 2012, the CBO predicted—a number that could spell political defeat for Obama in the next presidential election.

One Nevada Democratic Party insider offered this tip for candidates running for public office in 2012: "Don't get your picture taken with President Obama," he said.

Why not make at least one of these televised debates about the Constitution itself. Let the candidates really get it on over how they understand the document that whoever wins the presidency will swear to preserve, protect and defend. How would the Constitution guide them should they become president of America?

Take the question of treason. This word is being thrown around in the debates like confetti. Gov. Rick Perry has suggested that using the Federal Reserve for political purposes would be "almost treasonous," and Gov. Jon Huntsman has asserted that Mr. Perry's suggestion that we can't control the southern border was a "treasonous comment."

The raid and visits come amid increasing evidence the Justice Department and Inspector General are exploring whether Solyndra mislead the government in securing its $535 million loan in 2009 -- and landing a vital refinancing of that loan earlier this year. Beginning in March, ABC News, in partnership with iWatch News/the Center for Public Integrity, was first to report on simmering questions about the role political influence may have played Solyndra's selection as the Obama administration's first loan guarantee recipient. One of the lead private investors in Solyndra was an Oklahoma billionaire who served as an Obama "bundler," raising money during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Members of Congress leading a House investigation of the DOE loan have focused specifically on visits Solyndra CEO Harrison made to Washington in July, when he said the company was on sound footing and expanding.

The tea party is forcefully shaping the race for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination as candidates parrot the movement's language and promote its agenda while jostling to win its favor.

That's much to the delight of Democrats who are working to paint the tea party and the eventual Republican nominee as extreme.

"The tea party isn't a diversion from mainstream Republican thought. It is within mainstream Republican thought," Mitt Romney told a New Hampshire newspaper recently, defending the activists he's done little to woo, until now.

The former Massachusetts governor is starting to court them more aggressively as polls suggest he's being hurt by weak support within the movement, whose members generally favor rivals such as Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Romney highlighted an outsider image at a Tea Party Express rally Sunday night in Concord. Romney may have run for office multiple times, but he has only won one election.

"I haven't spent my whole life in politics," he said. "As a matter of fact, of the people running for office, I don't know that there are many that have less years in politics than me."

Romney's shift is the latest evidence of the big imprint the tea party is leaving on the race.

Such overtures come with risks, given that more Americans are cooling to the tea party's unyielding tactics and bare-bones vision of the federal government.

After Washington's debt showdown this summer, an Associated Press-GfK poll found that 46 percent of adults had an unfavorable view of the tea party, compared with 36 percent just after last November's election.

It could give President Barack Obama and his Democrats an opening should the Republican nominee be closely aligned with the tea party.

Yet even as the public begins to sour on the movement, Romney and other GOP candidates are shrugging off past tea party disagreements to avoid upsetting activists.

That includes Perry, who faced a tea party challenger in his most recent election for governor and who has irked some tea partyers so much that they are openly trying to undercut his candidacy. Instead of fighting back, Perry often praises the tea party.

In his book "Fed Up!" Perry wrote, "We are seeing an energetic and important push by the American people — led in part by the tea party movement — to give the boot to the old-guard Washington establishment who no longer represent us."

There's a reason for the coziness. Voters who will choose the GOP nominee identify closely with the movement.

A recent AP-GfK survey showed that 56 percent of Republicans and GOP-leaning people identified themselves as tea party supporters. Also, Republicans who back the tea party place a higher priority than other Republicans on the budget deficit and taxes, issues at the center of the nomination contest.

Last year, the tea party injected the GOP with a huge dose of enthusiasm, helping it reclaim the House and end one-party rule in Washington. These days, they are firing up the campaign trail in early-voting Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

It's little wonder, then, why many of the White House aspirants are popping up at rallies by the Tea Party Express, a Sacramento, Calif.-based political committee that's in the midst of a 30-city bus tour. That tour ends Sept. 12 in Tampa, Fla., where the group will team with CNN to sponsor a nationally televised GOP debate. Every Republican candidate faring strongly in the polls is set to participate.

Some grass-roots activists will cringe. They consider the Tea Party Express uncomfortably close to the GOP establishment. Nonetheless, "it's a moment of political arrival" for the tea party, says Bruce Cain, a University of California, Berkeley political scientist.

Five months before the first voting in the nomination fight, a Gallup survey of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents last week found Perry pulling strong support from voters who identify themselves as tea party supporters, with 35 percent, followed by Romney and Bachmann at 14 percent.

That may help explain why Romney decided to speak Sunday at a Tea Party Express rally in New Hampshire and appear Monday at a forum in South Carolina hosted by GOP Sen. Jim DeMint, who oversees a political committee that has supported tea party candidates.

DeMint said the tea party is "one of the best things that's happened to our country and to politics, because there's a broad cross-section of Americans involved in citizen activism today. And some are called Tea Party; some are not."

Rather than anointing any candidate, DeMint said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" that he's looking to see which one "really catches the attention and inspires the average American, who has gotten involved with politics and the political process."

Perry, Bachmann and others in the 2012 planned to appear at DeMint's event.

Some tea party groups plan to protest Romney's appearances. They are irked that as governor, he signed a bill that enacted a health program mandating insurance coverage. It served as a precursor to Obama's federal measure that the tea party despises.

"Mitt Romney is a poser," said Andrew Hemingway, chairman of the New Hampshire Liberty Caucus, which helped coordinate an anti-Romney rally in Concord. "He's a fraud trying to stand on a tea party stage."

Romney has stepped up his courtship in recent weeks. At a veterans' hall in Berlin, N.H., a voter asked how Romney would handle the "right-wing fringe" that, the questioner said, had taken over the GOP.

Romney's answer: "I'll take a bit of exception with that. ... You're not going to see me distance myself from those who believe in small government, because I believe in it too."

Other candidates are also rushing to defend the tea party.

Rick Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, recently ridiculed a Democratic congresswoman who said the tea party should "go straight to hell." Americans on the political left "absolutely despise the founding principles of this country," he said.

When Democrats accused the tea party of holding the GOP hostage during the debt debate, Bachmann sent out a fundraising letter that said, "Only in the bizarro world of Washington is fiscal responsibility sometimes defined as terrorism."

The tea party is felt in other ways.

At an Iowa debate in August, every candidate on stage signaled opposition to a debt-reduction deal if it included as much as $1 in tax increases for every $10 in spending cuts. Tea party groups oppose tax increases.

The early exit of former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty from the race can be attributed in part to his failure to earn credibility with the tea party movement. Bachmann's entire candidacy could, perhaps, be attributed to encouragement she received from tea party backers; she's courted them since the party's founding.

Each time a candidate is linked to the movement, the Democratic National Committee gleefully works to brand the candidate, and the Republican Party in general, as outside the mainstream.

Tea party activists are emboldened after helping get 30 like-minded House members elected last fall. Their victories changed the direction of Congress so much that demands from tea party-aligned lawmakers nearly halted government during this summer's debt debate.

Aside from the presidential race, tea party leaders have no less than 100 congressional primaries in their sights as they look to expand their influence on Capitol Hill.

Whatever happens, the party is leaving a stamp on the presidential race, and Democrats hope it will last.

___

Blood reported from Los Angeles.

I went searching for cartoons that actually make me laugh but have the truth included.  I hope you all enjoy them and laugh at what we as a nation have become....

Massachusetts is second only to California in the amount of time cases are before the court. The average time for all cases now pending in the Boston immigration court is 617 days, according to TRAC. For cases where the court has issued a decision, the average case took 497 days. The data covers cases pending or decided up to May 4, 2011.

People and priorities

"If what they're doing is concentrating on the more serious offenders, that's a good thing," Dukes County Sheriff Michael McCormack said. He said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) takes custody of many foreign-born individuals booked into the Dukes County Jail for minor offenses.

"They're taking anyone with a pre-existing detainee order," Sheriff McCormack said. "If it's a minor offense and there is a detainer, they will take them and oftentimes they'll just release them, and they come back."

Among all respondents, only 37% approve of the job the President is doing and 57% disapprove of the job he is doing. Again looking at key voter subgroups, 53% of women, 56% of independents, 72% of Hispanics and 59% of seniors disapprove of the job Barack Obama is doing. The most alarming number for the President and his election team is that 26% of Democrats disapprove of the job he is doing. Among voters aged 18 to 29, 48% approve of the job he is doing and 52% disapprove of thejob he is doing.

It is not our country, or our mess... let the people in lybia do what they want with Gaddafi.

It's time to allow those that want a different government in a foreign country to do it......on their own.

ut if NATO capitals (Paris? London?) might think about putting boots on the ground, Washington is loudly saying it wants no part. Leon Panetta, the secretary of defense, promised reporters on Monday that the U.S. was “not at all” considering any ground troops. A host of administration officials lined up to echo that sentiment, emphasizing the need for Libyans to oust Gadhafi themselves. (Even as NATO warplanes screamed overhead.)

 

Still, the large-scale absence of U.S. ground forces hasn’t been much of a problem for NATO during the war. France and Britain deployed special operations forces to turn the Libyan rebels into disciplined soldiers. NATO maintains an official fiction that it’s not “tactically” aiding the rebels, as Col. Roland Lavoie, another alliance spokesman, said Tuesday — all the while assuring Gadhafi loyalists that NATO retains “precision munitions [that] allow us to take targets… we have the capability to do so, and believe me, we will do so.” It’s possible that NATO members could send peacekeepers even without a NATO mandate.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/u-s-pledges-no-ground-troops-in-libya-but/

We cannot continue to police the world... The people in all nations know what we have as a nation works...Until we put our noses into their business and then get involved in foreign wars as we have over the past 11 years.

There are other methods of support we can give to those we believe to be right and just.

We could have infiltrated Saddam's inner circle and watched him die, instead of sending thousands of troops and billions of unneeded dollars down a rat hole. 

 Same in my book for Syria, Let the people who were oppressed decide the fate of the oppressor.....

Support those that want to rise up, send weapons, money and training as the soviets have done for years.

But no more massive U.S. ground exercises in foreign countries.. because we think we need to be there.

David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Obama, used the exact same phrase in dubbing the credit rating drop the “tea party downgrade,” as Democrats tried to position themselves as reasonable, pragmatic leaders and conservative Republicans as irresponsible ideologues who caused the downgrade by refusing to accept any new taxes.

That’s exactly the kind of blame game that led Standard & Poor’s, one of three key credit-ratings agencies, to strip the U.S. federal government of its AAA status Friday night and reducing it to AA+ for the first time in the nation’s history.

"Now they have this other governor, I can't remember his name," Paul joked. "He realizes that talking about the Fed is good, too. But I'll tell you what, he makes me sound like a moderate. I have never once said Bernanke has committed treason. But I have suggested very strongly that the Federal Reserve system and all the members have been counterfeiters for a long time."
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Paul also bemoaned the lack of press attention to his second-place finish at the Ames straw poll, and praised Jon Stewart for taking up the issue on "The Daily Show."

he bad news: Mr. Obama is below 50 percent in most of the battleground states that will determine next year’s election. And this result is from aggregated Gallup tracking data that were taken from January through June of this year, so it does not factor in the high-wire debt-ceiling act, the uptick in unemployment, and the plummeting markets.

Chances are, if each state was polled now, the numbers would be lower. His current Gallup three-day rolling average is 43 percent job approval.

Meet Washington's new odd couple: Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, fiery chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, and Tea Party hero and political newcomer Rep. Allen West.

Their long-simmering feud turned them into the poster children for inside-the-Beltway partisanship almost overnight this week after West fired off an angry, widely circulated email to Wasserman Schultz for criticizing his stance on Medicare during a spending debate.

West called her "vile, unprofessional and despicable" and told her to "shut the heck up."

Rather than shy away from the controversy, the lawmakers who represent neighboring South Florida districts are using it to energize their political bases.

"She's a rising star in the Democratic Party and he's a rising star in the Republican Party," said Joyce Kaufman, a South Florida radio talk show host who was originally tapped to be West's chief of staff, though she later resigned. "If you're gonna have a fight at least have it with somebody else who's getting attention."

Wasserman Schultz is the equivalent of the popular cheerleader in Washington, a breast cancer survivor with friends on both sides of the aisle. It wasn't long after the squabble before five Democratic congresswomen called for West to apologize.

West, a former Army officer and freshman GOP lawmaker, has made a name for himself with inflammatory remarks and combative rhetoric. During the campaign, he talked of taking his opponent, Democratic incumbent Ron Klein, out "behind the woodshed" and giving him a "whooping." His recently tweeted "Anyone with an Obama 2012 bumper sticker, I recognize them as a threat to the gene pool." He actually lives in Wasserman Schultz's heavily Democratic district, just across the line from his own, which is legal.

West seems less the Washington insider. He was initially snubbed by the Congressional Black Caucus, although the overwhelmingly liberal group later said he could request a membership. He has an ardent following of both churchgoers and biker clubs. The latter followed him during the campaign, offering protection.

In Iraq while still in the Army, he fired a gun near a detainee's head, threatening to kill him and allow soldiers to beat him in hopes of scaring the prisoner into revealing details of a purported plot against West and his men. The man was later found to be innocent. West admitted wrongdoing in a military court, was fined and relieved of his command. But supporters view his actions as those of a true patriot.

His speeches quickly became YouTube favorites and he toppled Klein by 9 percentage points in an evenly divided district that voted for John Kerry in 2004 and President Barack Obama in 2008. He faces a tough 2012 re-election race.

Now both are using the email flap to garner support. West spokeswoman Angela Sachitano said Wednesday night he had not apologized to the congresswoman, noting, "we are waiting on her apology."

West labeled Wasserman Schultz a liberal attack dog and asked for donations in a fundraising email heralding the fight. She appeared on television outlets pushing the Democratic agenda, saying she was just debating policy and got a "tirade out of the clear blue sky."

"It's probably good for their re-election base. The partisans on both sides want their representatives to stick to their principals and not compromise and want them to be more aggressive and more assertive," said Aubrey Jewett, a University of Central Florida political science professor.

In her remarks on the House floor, Wasserman Schultz said: "The gentleman from Florida, who represents thousands of Medicare beneficiaries, as do I, is supportive of this plan that would increase costs for Medicare beneficiaries. Unbelievable from a member from south Florida."

To some, West's response seemed harsh, but Klein says it's typical.

"He sort of goes off the handle. It's not shocking to me because I saw it during the campaign. He gives speeches that were designed to be inflammatory. There were a lot of things during the campaign that were over the top, big words, big rhetoric which I think is part of what drives his national Fox popularity. The people that want to hear that love it," Klein said.

Insiders say the rift began in 2010 when Wasserman Schultz rallied outside West's campaign headquarters to protest a biker magazine that ran opinion columns written by West. "Wheels on the Road" also contains photos of scantily clad women and sexually explicit columns.

"He thinks it's OK to objectify and denigrate women. He thinks it's OK to take away our reproductive freedom. He thinks it's OK to associate with people who refer to women as oral relief stations," Wasserman Schultz said during the rally.

Kaufman said West took note and he's "tired of being poked in the chest" by her. After his email, a handful of blogs labeled him a misogynist, too.

West, who has been married for 22 years and has two daughters, told conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin on Wednesday that such remarks about him perpetuates the petty lies he hates about politics.

"I'm a threat because I'm the guy that got off their 21st century plantation and they cannot afford to have a strong voice such as mine out there reverberating and resonating across this country," he said. "And even more so, they're not used to anyone that says, `I'm going to fight back against you.'"

The United States economy has been brought to it's knees..... By the same Banks and Wall street people who have brought us the boom- bust cycle of government for the past 50 years.

  With the collapse of the United States economy will come the collapse of a number of programs that have been sucking at at the teat of the United States like the World Bank.... who gets most of it's funding from... You guessed it The United States.

And of course... NATO... who couldn't hit the broad side of a barn in day light with a 12 gauge shotgun if we pointed it for them.

 And let's not forget the United Nations.. That great organization that wishes to tell each country how to treat there citizens, what taxes they should be collecting and how much they can control the moving masses from one nation to another, whether it violates the laws of the country or not.

 Have you ever seen the movie Omega Man?  Watch it... and then Soylent Green.... You will get the picture.

If the United Nations  say's it, it must be true.... Because these are the greatest minds and representatives that the world has ever seen....

 It may also mean the end of Wall street and the corrupt banking system here in the U.S.

But it won't effect the Ultra rich.. in Europe and Asia..

They have been out of the dollar since 2008-2009.... smart money knows when to jump.... And they have been selling Gold and Silver and quietly buying other things... They are safe... For a while..

 When the real Poo-Poo hits the fan.... we, the little people will be wondering why and how, as we always do until some other genius comes up with a new way to fleece the little guy, create an economy, develop a dream to control  your soul.

( It's the end of the world as we know it....and i feel fine!)

If the U.S Defaults......... The worst that will happen...

55 Million social security recipients will miss a check.

19 Million  Federal employees will not be paid..... Including Military, your Congress, Your congressman's driver. The White House staff will be put on LOA.. 

The Air conditioning may have to be set to 80 degrees in all the public buildings. Museums and Parks will close...... Unemployment will go from 9.2 % to 31% across the U.S. 

 China will still receive their interest check........and

    Somebody in Government  may have to actually do something!

Two Republican senators launched a pre-emptive strike today against any attempt President Obama may make to ignore the nation's debt limit and continue paying off America's loans.

Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas introduced a resolution making clear that Mr. Obama does not have the authority to pull off a "debt limit dodge," as they called it -- an issue that may arise if Congress doesn't agree to raise the debt limit within a matter of weeks.

During his TV show, Napolitano argued that Paul “would be the most dramatic break from President Obama.” Referring to Paul, Napolitano said that “all but one argue that the government can restrict your choice of a marriage partner. All but one want to keep the military busy in the Middle East.” Napolitano continued to point out the differences between Paul and the rest of the candidates by saying that “the difference among the six [debate attendees minus Paul] are the degrees to which they use the government to interfere with your free choices.”

CNN finished first between 8 and 10 p.m. with 3.162 million viewers, up almost 400 percent from its prime-time average the previous four Mondays — excluding Memorial Day — and more than enough to lift the network well above the usual cable news leader, Fox News, which had 1.959 million viewers for those two hours.

Million dollar online fundraisers are now a common feature of Ron Paul's presidential ambitions. This is the second million dollar day that Ron Paul has had in the last two months, and during his 2008 bid, he raised over four million in one day and another six million in a single day just a month later. What makes Ron Paul's most recent "money bomb" especially interesting is that his campaign styled it as a battle between Ron Paul's limited government conservatism and frontrunner Mitt Romney's record of growing the entitlement state. The official name for the fundraiser was "The Revolution vs. RomneyCare: Round One."

Texas Rep. Ron Paul has another endorsement from a key Iowa legislator.

Iowa state Rep. Kim Pearson says she will back Mr. Paul’s presidential campaign. It is the second Iowa legislative endorsement for Mr. Paul; Iowa state Rep. Glen Masssie endorsed Mr. Paul in late May.

The mere mention of cutting government back to a Constitutional, and thus affordable size, gives rise to immediate cries of doom, gloom, and destruction. Without the benign munificence of whatever sacred department or program targeted for removal it is intimated that: old people will be dropping like flies in the streets; no one will have a home; all our children will starve; the country will be overcome with unbearable pollution; everyone will die from poisoned food and bad medicine; and so on till the cows come home. Used to fuel the peoples' fears and maintain the status-quo, reporters seldom question whether any of these programs or departments are efficient or even worthy of expending scarce tax dollars on. Take for example the Environmental Protection Agency. This hallowed body purports to protect us from polluting corporations through tough regulations without which, supposedly, America would be wallowing in untold amounts of toxic pollution and all life would perish. In reality, its very policies often encourage corporations to continue polluting. If it costs less to pay a fine for polluting than it does to make renovations needed to meet regulation standards, then corporations will pay the fines and continue polluting. The government collects the fine money, no reform occurs, and the pollution continues on for years. What marvelous protection! If the EPA really wanted to protect the environment by enforcing tough regulations, there would be no optional fine payments or the fines would exceed renovation costs. And why do we need an agency for this anyway? Constitutionally, that's what the court system is for...

Internet-fueled "money bombs" have become a tradition for Paul, a Texas congressman making his third run for the White House. In 2007, he raised a staggering $6 million in a single day to aid his unsuccessful 2008 bid for the GOP nomination.

This time around, Paul has targeted Romney for the health care law he approved as governor of Massachusetts. At of 2:30 p.m. today, Paul's website reported bringing in $1.1 million in the fundraising effort dubbed "The Revolution vs. RomneyCare: Round One." (Supporters often refer to Paul's efforts to win the presidency as the Ron Paul Revolution, and Paul's 2008 book explaining his libertarian views is called The Revolution: A Manifesto.)

 By now the idiots in the media should know that Palin isn't interested in securing a Presidential spot for the Republican  Ballot, with Arizona as her new found home and Jon Kyl's retirement from the Senate, Palin is eying the Senate seat.

 The polling done in the months prior to her move asking potential voters how Palin would fair against the likes of Terry Goddard, or Janet (Dammit) Napolitano, as well as a few other well known Arizonan's was her first step in attempting top legitimize her Presidential aspirations.

 Let's all try to remember that her track record in Public office is a train wreck waiting to happen.

 Looking at the facts... She didn't finish the term of Governor

Sarah Louise Palin (pronounced /ˈpeɪlɨn/ ( listen); née Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician and commentator. She was the youngest person and the first woman elected Governor of Alaska, an office she held from December 2006 until resigning in July 2009. In the 2008 presidential election, she was the Republican Party nominee for Vice President, becoming the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and the first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.

Palin lived in Juneau during the legislative session and lived in Wasilla and worked out of offices in Anchorage the rest of the year. Since the office in Anchorage is 565 miles from Juneau, while she worked there, state officials said she was permitted to claim a $58 per diem travel allowance, which she took (a total of $16,951), and to reimbursement for hotels, which she did not, choosing instead to drive about 50 miles to her home in Wasilla.^[98] She also chose not to use the former governor's private chef.^[99] Republicans and Democrats have criticized Palin for taking the per diem and $43,490 in travel expenses for the times her family accompanied her on state business.[

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

I am not a fan of Sarah Palin's... Never have understood what the McCain camp saw in this person from Alaska?

She states that she has support from the Tea-Party... However I have not met one member in Arizona that has put out a welcome mat for Mrs. Palin.  She is attempting to pull a John McCain, who moved to Arizona in order to get into politics.

With that said.... I wish her good luck, because the true Arizonans can see through her.

She is not what we want in a Senator, or a Presidential Candidate.

Maybe we will get lucky and she will move back to Alaska.

C.O.H. please.

During the discussion between Paul and Wallace, Wallace pushed even further by bringing up a 1937 Supreme Court case (Helvering v. Davis) in which the court decided that Social Security was allowed under Article 1 Section 8. The fallacy of this argument is the assumption that the Supreme Court was correct in their interpretation. Based on the orginal intent of the founders, it does not appear that they were correct at all. Paul rightfully points out by analogy, that slavery was legal up to a point where it was realized by enough people that slavery is wrong, which as we all know led to the favorable abolition of slavery.

My hope is that enough people will read this, digest it, and come to the same conclusion that we've been doing it wrong for years.

Why does Fox News seem so unnerved by Congressman Paul's inclusion in what is supposed to be a process in which voters choose the representative that best embodies their beliefs? In 2008, they inexplicably excluded Paul from one debate and pretty much belittled him in another. Why are they so eager to give a platform to people like Bachmann and Palin, when Paul is clearly the Tea Party candidate with the best chance of of winning the presidential election? Fox is not alone. No one has had the courage to present Ron Paul as anything other than a fringe candidate, despite the data proving otherwise.

"The revolution is spreading and the momentum is building," a beaming Paul told the cheering crowd, as he preached the message he brought to New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary and to other primary and caucus states in 2008, a message of spirited opposition to a federal government that "goes so far as to pretend that it can take care of us from the cradle to the grave and police the world."

Mr. Paul has raised more than $1 million in a one-day fund-raising push aligned with Thursday night’s debate in Greenville, S.C., according to his website. The fundraiser is the latest in a series of campaigns launched by Mr. Paul in recent months, an event that has quickly grabbed national attention as the Texas Republican continues to consider entering the 2012 presidential campaign.

More people sought unemployment benefits last week, the second rise in three weeks, a sign the job market's recovery is slow and uneven. The Labor Department says applications for unemployment benefits jumped 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 429,000 for the week ending April 23. That's the highest total since late January. The four-week average of applications, a less volatile measure, rose to 408,500, its third straight rise and the first time it has topped 400,000 in two months. Applications near 375,000 are consistent with sustained job creation. Applications peaked during the recession at 659,000.