Showing posts with label Morning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Morning. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

MORNING READ

FROM THE BLOGS:

Sen. Max Baucus votes against gun control - then retires
Mother Jones' Tim Murphy says 'good riddance' to Montana Democrat.

Did the boxing career of the Boston bombing suspect influence the massacre?
Examiners should look for signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease found in boxers since the 1920s, during Tamerlin Tsarnaev's autopsy, says Travis Waldron of Think Progress.

Dissecting the Gang of Eight's enforcement sham
Michelle Malkin says last week's immigration reform bill is full of 'phony promises, false triggers, and open-borders illusions.'

Republican senator's position on amnesty has changed since 2010
Eliana Johnson of The Corner says Marco Rubio, Gang of Eight, has 'softened' his views on amnesty since he campaigned for office.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES

Max Baucus to retire from Senate
Sen. Max Baucus' (D-Mont.) retirement complicates Democrats' hopes of holding the Senate in 2014, report The Hill's Cameron Joseph and Ian Swanson.

Hackers send fake tweet about White House explosions
The Associated Press suspended its Twitter account Tuesday afternoon after hackers sent out a message claiming that two explosions had occurred at the White House and injured President Obama, report The Hill's Jennifer Martinez and Justin Sink.

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Sunday, August 4, 2013

MORNING READ

FROM THE BLOGS:

Experiencing the media's pro-am future in Boston
At the Harvard Business Review, Justin Fox recounts his experience during the Boston Marathon bombing.

Barack Obama — natural British conservative

Margaret Thatcher's death sparks a stark reminder of how wide the divide is between British conservatives and American conservatives, writes Brian John Spencer at The League of Ordinary Gentlemen.

Fed still owes Congress a blueprint on its emergency lending

Dealbook's Peter Eavis notes the Fed still hasn't released a proposal for protecting taxpayers when it issues emergency loans.

Sparks fly at immigration hearing

The Corner's Eliana Johnson highlights a heated exchange between Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on immigration reform.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Lawmakers vow bombing investigations
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other lawmakers will examine how closely the FBI looked into Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of two suspects believed to be behind the Boston Marathon bombings, The Hill's Jordy Yager reports.

Democrats gain early fundraising edge

Congressional Democrats appear to have the early fundraising advantage ahead of the 2014 midterm elections, according to The Hill's Cameron Joseph.

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Monday, June 10, 2013

The Morning Pride: March 19, 2013

Welcome to The Morning Pride, ThinkProgress LGBT’s daily round-up of the latest in LGBT policy, politics, and some culture too! Here’s what we’re reading this morning, but please let us know what stories you’re following as well. Follow us all day on Twitter at @TPEquality.

Katie Herzig

- The Vermont House of Representatives has approved a bill that would require out-of-state companies to offer equal healthcare benefits to same-sex couples.

- The video posted online promoting the National Organization for Marriage’s march next week has been pulled from YouTube because the artist whose music NOM used, Katie Herzig, supports marriage equality and filed a copyright claim.

- The ACLU has warned a school to stop discriminating against its LGBT students, including censoring announcements for its Gay-Straight Alliance and imposing an anti-trans dress policy for prom.

- Folk singer Michelle Shocked told a San Francisco concert crowd that “God hates fags” and now she’s losing gigs.

- Richard O’Brien, who wrote the the Rocky Horror Show way back in the day, has been taking estrogen for about 10 years and identifies as “30 percent woman.”

- Female UFC fighters are concerned about having to go up against Fallon Fox because she’s transgender, fearing she might have unfair advantages from her male development earlier in life.

- Who doesn’t love a sweet flash mob wedding proposal? This one’s from Brazil:


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Friday, April 26, 2013

The Morning Pride: February 22, 2013

Welcome to The Morning Pride, ThinkProgress LGBT’s daily round-up of the latest in LGBT policy, politics, and some culture too! Here’s what we’re reading this morning, but please let us know what stories you’re following as well. Follow us all day on Twitter at @TPEquality.

- A New Mexico House committee voted to kill a bill that would have allowed a state referendum on marriage equality.

- The National Organization for Marriage is unsurprisingly partnering with the Catholic Bishops and Family Research Council to promote their anti-equality march when the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8. Of course, equality activists are countering that march.

- Did Harvey Milk have an unofficial “marriage license” contract with Joe Scott Smith to be “lovers from this day on”?

- A woman claims she was fired from the Mars Chocolate candy company for being a lesbian and taking time off for her pregnancy.

- A new study confirms that gay men and straight women really do seem to relate more to each other.

- The freshly re-elected president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, used his acceptance speech on Sunday to apologize to the LGBT community for some offensive comments he made earlier this year.

- An Australian judge has ruled that the country’s ban on same-sex marriage is not sex discrimination.

- The couples challenging Proposition 8 have filed their final brief to the Supreme Court. The brief is a masterpiece of argument; here is a compelling excerpt:

Proponents accuse Plaintiffs (repeatedly) of “re-defining marriage.” But it is Proponents who have imagined (not from any of this Court’s decisions) a cramped definition of marriage as a utilitarian incentive devised by and put into service by the State—society’s way of channeling heterosexual potential parents into “responsible procreation.” In their 65-page brief about marriage in California, Proponents do not even mention the word “love.” They seem to have no understanding of the privacy, liberty, and associational values that underlie this Court’s recognition of marriage as a fundamental, personal right. Ignoring over a century of this Court’s declarations regarding the emotional bonding, societal commitment, and cultural status expressed by the institution of marriage, Proponents actually go so far as to argue that, without the potential for procreation, marriage might not “even . . . exist at all” and “there would be no need of any institution concerned with sex.” Indeed, Proponents’state-centric construct of marriage means that the State could constitutionally deny any infertile couple the right to marry, and could prohibit marriage altogether if it chose to pursue a society less committed to “responsible” procreation.


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Monday, April 22, 2013

MORNING READ

FROM THE BLOGS:

Dems to campaign on guns and minimum wage in 2014
DCCC chair Steve Israel revealed in an interview with Plum Line's Greg Sargent that House candidates will campaign aggressively on gun control and minimum wage in 2014.??

White House declares First Lady reduced child obesity rates
Vince Coglianese of The Daily Caller reports on a claim that a drop in childhood obesity is related to tougher food regulations.??

Joe Biden: Forget political risk
CNN.com's Ashley Killough reports on Vice President Biden's trip to Danbury, Conn., on Thursday.??

Why the GOP will embrace gay marriage
Eric Sasson of The New Republic says it's because there are votes to be won

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Obama reaches out to Boehner, McConnell
As sequester looms??, President Obama phones Republican leaders in Congress to discuss the impasse surrounding $85 billion in automatic spending cuts set to hit the government on March 1, The Hill's Justin Sink reports.

15 GOP senators tell Obama to withdraw Hagel nomination
Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) and 14 other Republican senators urged President Obama to withdraw former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) as his pick for Defense secretary on Thursday, The Hill's Jeremy Herb reports.??

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Saturday, February 16, 2013

The Morning Pride: January 23, 2012

Welcome to The Morning Pride, ThinkProgress LGBT’s daily round-up of the latest in LGBT policy, politics, and some culture too! Here’s what we’re reading this morning, but please let us know what stories you’re following as well. Follow us all day on Twitter at @TPEquality.

- “From Stonewall to Homeless,” a look at the challenge of the growing LGBT aging population.

- Montana might finally repeal its outdated law criminalizing sodomy.

- A nondiscrimination bill is advancing in the Virginia legislature.

- Did the state of Georgia violate a resident’s free speech by denying him vanity license plates that advocate for gay rights?

- A Christian-run Nashville music venue fired an employee who wore a band shirt that also expressed support for same-sex marriage.

- Ireland’s Equality Tribunal has ruled in favor of a gay employee who complained that he was discriminated against because of his sexual orientation.

- Nepal has introduced gender-neutral citizen documents for people who do not wish to be identified as male or female.

- U.S. Women’s Soccer star Megan Rapinoe has partnered with GLSEN to speak out against homophobic language:


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Saturday, January 26, 2013

The Morning Pride: January 15, 2013

Welcome to The Morning Pride, ThinkProgress LGBT’s daily round-up of the latest in LGBT policy, politics, and some culture too! Here’s what we’re reading this morning, but please let us know what stories you’re following as well. Follow us all day on Twitter at @TPEquality.

- Legislation to recognize same-sex couples in Wyoming is looking promising, with bipartisan support for a two-bill plan to pass either civil unions or marriage equality.

- A proposal to repeal Virginia’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage did not get very far in committee.

- Take a peek at an upcoming documentary about ex-gay therapy offered in JONAH, the Jewish ex-gay group currently being sued for fraud.

- Listen to Terry Gross’ Fresh Air interview with Bishop Gene Robinson, including his reaction to Rev. Louie Giglio’s withdrawal from the Inauguration ceremony.

- A San Francisco man is suing Alliant International University for discriminating against him after learning he was transgender.

- San Francisco lawmakers are considering naming the city’s airport after Harvey Milk.

- Former NFL cornerback Wade Davis, who is openly gay, explains that transformation in professional sports for gay athletes is likely to happen slowly.

- Actor Victor Garber (Argo, Alias, Titanic) confirmed he is gay and though he doesn’t really talk about it, “everybody knows.”


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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

The Morning Pride: January 2, 2013

Welcome to The Morning Pride, ThinkProgress LGBT’s daily round-up of the latest in LGBT policy, politics, and some culture too! Here’s what we’re reading this morning, but please let us know what stories you’re following as well. Follow us all day on Twitter at @TPEquality.

- The Huffington Post highlights 25 anti-LGBT villains of 2012.

- Equality Matters highlights the National Organization for Marriage’s ten biggest fails of 2012.

- Outgoing Rep. Charles Bass (R-NH) became the third Republican to support repealing the Defense of Marriage Act before leaving office.

- A Change.org petition is calling on the National Geographic Channel to condemn the Boy Scouts of America’s anti-gay policies before airing its new show, Are You Tougher Than a Boy Scout?

- The state of Kansas is punishing a lesbian couple’s family by suing their sperm donor for child support.

- A Baptist Church in Iowa City has decided to begin recognizing same-sex marriages.

- A pizza food truck refused to serve a customer that was accosting a gay couple, and its other patrons stood up for the couple as well.

- Two polls show a majority of Brits support marriage equality.

- Mexico has apparently lifted its ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood.

- In Argentina, 5,839 same-sex couples have gotten married since 2010, and 1,720 transgender people have obtained new IDs since they were able in 2012.

- Torii Hunter of the Detroit Tigers says that “as a Christian,” he would find it “difficult and uncomfortable” to accept openly gay baseball players.

- In what may be a first, ESPN showed an openly gay male pro athlete, bowling champion Scott Norton, kissing his husband on the air:


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Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Morning Briefing for May 17, 2012

RS MB CleanMasthead

RedState Morning Briefing
May 17, 2012Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

Late last evening came word that House Republicans intend to keep parts of Obamacare. Even if the United States Supreme Court throws the whole law out, House Republicans intend to resurrect portions of Obamacare. House Republicans publicly say the story is wrong. I’ve talked to several House Republicans who tell me the story is actually on the money and the Republicans now denying it are really playing at semantics.

These House Republicans tell me these denials about the accuracy of the story are equivalent to the House GOP semantically arguing it was living up to its Pledge to Nowhere requirement for $100 billion in cuts that actually amounted to something like $34 billion. Conservatives in the House of Representatives tell me explicitly to go with Politico on this and be very wary of the House GOP Leadership when it comes to repeal.

It is a sad time for the Republican Party. The base must treat its leaders as if they are Soviets — trust but verify their statements. And lately, it is harder and harder to verify their statements. The work of the Tea Party must continue or within a decade I honestly do not believe the GOP will be one political party.

In both Indiana and Nebraska, the Tea Party has continued to make gains. People have flat out rejected the establishment favorites for U.S. Senate – Dick Lugar and Jon Bruning, respectively – in favor of candidates who offer a challenge to the status quo.

Will Texans prove what they’re made of and do the same?

I love Texas. But let’s face it – the Texas congressional delegation is mediocre at best and leaves much to be desired.

Now, Texas has the chance to get it right – by sending Ted Cruz to the U.S. Senate. But will they? Maybe. But we have a lot to do and the Republican Primary in Texas is only 2 weeks from today.

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Phil Bailey sat next to South Carolina State Senator Jake Knotts when Knotts called Governor Nikki Haley, then a candidate for Governor, a “raghead.”

Phil Bailey did nothing.

Phil Bailey is the Executive Director of the South Carolina Senate Democratic Caucus. It seems he is now intent on one upping Jake Knotts.

Bailey, who had no problem with Knotts’ “raghead” comment when even the First Vice Chairman of the State GOP, Patrick Haddon, was calling for Knotts’s resignation, seems determined to one up Knotts with racism.

Bailey has been on twitter referring to Nikki Haley, a Methodist of Indian descent, as the “Sikh Jesus.” Governor Haley’s parents are sikh, but she and her husband attend a Methodist Church.

Not content to do it just once, Phil Bailey did it a second time, complete with a picture of a dog.

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Texas is ground zero in the national higher education reform movement. While the Washington crowd tends to fixate on President Obama’s piddling slap fight with Congressional Republicans over government-secured student loan rates, the real action on fixing higher ed is happening in Austin, Texas. The battle between Rick Perry and the higher ed reformers on one hand versus UT-Austin President Bill Powers and the Ivory Tower status quo on the other hand has been marked by years of grueling and often dull trench warfare that was punctuated last week by a flurry of bombs, beginning with a tuition freeze, followed by rumors of the UT President’s termination, and culminating in a textbook social media public relations campaign that deserves serious examination. And the consequences of this fight? Well, what happens in Texas won’t stay in Texas.

This is the story of “I Stand with Bill Powers,” a remarkably well-executed example of online astro-turfing.

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There have been many studies out on the “tea party congress” and just how tea party it actually is. One study last year noted that 70% of candidates who went to Congress under the tea party banner were voting just like the Republican Leaders they ran against.

Probably one of the best places to get a sense of this is the Club for Growth. Why? The Club ignores social votes and focuses only on fiscal votes — spending issues more than anything else. The tea party candidates went to Congress not just to repeal Obamacare, but were really motivated by out of control government spending, bailouts, etc.

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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Morning Briefing for May 15, 2012

RS MB CleanMasthead

RedState Morning Briefing
May 15, 2012Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

If there is a day to finger for Barack Obama losing the Presidency in 2012, it will be Sunday, May 6, 2012.

On that day, Joe Biden* went on national television and proclaimed himself in favor of gay marriage. It started a media spiral for the President. Two days after Biden spoke, North Carolina voters voted by overwhelming margins to leave marriage alone. The next day, Barack Obama went on national television to devolve back to the position he held prior to running for President.

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In a long election season, it’s never wise to get too high or too low over any one poll. Presidential elections are won at the state level, but statewide polling is fairly sporadic at this stage of the race, so we’re stuck reading national polls a lot. But the latest poll is bad news for President Obama.

We all know the major issues by now to look for with individual polls: some polls are adults, and are totally useless, because only registered voters can vote. Polls of likely voters, in turn, are vastly more accurate and less Democratic-biased than polls of registered voters, many of whom also don’t show up to vote. Most polls are also reported after weighting to achieve some guesstimate of the partisan breakdown of the general electorate among Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Even polls that don’t feature egregious hackery are an inexact science, because they rest on the pollster’s current assumptions about the D/R/I split and the ‘screen’ they use to decide who is a likely voter. If the shape of the electorate is not as projected, the poll will be wrong.

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Another day, another socialist takes to the New York Times to denounce capitalism. With his criticism — he is a professional critic, which is a job no socialist society would really see value in except as an agenda of propaganda, but he thrives in the capitalist society he condemns — he premises it on some sort of morality. He mocks Christians for embracing capitalism with no understanding of Christianity or even a real understanding of capitalism.

But his critique is filled with the usual, and totally unoriginal leftist pablum about the evils of profit motive, etc. while ignoring arms length transactions, how the free market, unlike any other economic system, has elevated so many out of poverty, etc.

Along the way, we keep hearing something from these leftists, whether it be Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren, Nancy Pelosi, or the Hollywood crowd is that the rich need to “give back” and “pay their fair share.”

They’re just as happy to quote a secular philosopher as they are the Bible. Elizabeth Warren famously said that the factory owner wants us to ignore the people who built the roads or ran the phone lines, etc. She, however, wants to ignore the factory owner’s idea, success, and hiring record — providing jobs to people to build his product.

But all of that misses the larger point.

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Obama has decided that he’d like to tussle with Romney in the economic playground this week, releasing an ad that has echoes of Gingrich’s SuperPAC spots but with even less factual basis. It’s cleverly named “Steel.”

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Kris Barrett, the politically active spouse of Tom Barrett, current mayor of Milwaukee and the Democratic nominee running against Gov. Scott Walker, has been caught using her taxpayer funded e-mail account to lobby and campaign for Democratic candidates and causes. Mrs. Barrett is a public school teacher and last year she was employed by Milwaukee Public Schools, Wisconsin’s largest school district. The district has two policies that prohibit employees from using any government resources, including e-mail addresses, for political purposes.

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Saturday, May 12, 2012

Morning Briefing for May 11, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing
May 11, 2012Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

So yesterday morning the Washington Post runs a story detailing what kind of a jerk Mitt Romney was in high school. This is a surprise, right? A high school kid being a jerk. This has never ever happened before. Why, you might well ask, would the Washington Post devote valuable time and space to writing about this event? And why, you might well follow up, is this worth posting about when everyone should be talking about the environment?

The answer is easy. It builds a meme and it translates Obama’s endorsement of gay marriage from a liability into a perceived strength.

[Editorial Note: The Washington Post, overnight, changed the story without noting any changes to the story]

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The serious problem of bullying in junior high and high school has received some overdue attention lately. Lee Hirsch’s documentary Bully is in theaters and highly recommended.

But don’t think that bullying in academic settings is exclusively a phenomenon of adolescence. Adults also bully adults. That’s what is happening now at Emory University in Atlanta.

You can be a brilliant, innovative pediatric neurosurgeon at a sky-scraping top medical school, in addition to being a generous philanthropist with an inspirational up-from-dire-poverty personal story, plus a Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, and a best-selling writer whose memoir was turned into a TV movie starring Cuba Gooding Jr.

But in the hands of academic bullies, if you once shared your critical thoughts on evolutionary science and its moral implications — well, everything else about you suddenly dwindles to very little.

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Let me present to you the amazing amount of scrutiny that apparently needs to go into a Barack Obama campaign ad, just to understand what it actually means.

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I wanted to bring to your attention a short report released by The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions (full disclosure: I am the president) focused on state spending burdens and their connection, or lack thereof, to economic growth.

Adam Schwiebert, The Diehl Family Fellow at the Buckeye Institute, put together a short policy brief that uses a measurement know as “state spending burden” – comparing combined state and local government spending as a percentage of private sector Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – to look at the connection between spending and growth. The resulting chart, shown below, highlights that Ohio has a higher level of spending than growth states like Texas, South Dakota and Colorado.

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In the past week, I’ve been called a bigot, a hater, had people wish I died, and had people wish Christians had died, been rounded up and killed, or experienced their own personal holocaust.

All this came from proponents of gay marriage. The media won’t cover most of this. The media sees most stories as victims versus victimizers and those who support gay marriage are the victims. They get the positive media coverage.

In reality, though, throughout this week I’ve seen a number of Christians engaged in as much hate filled rhetoric as gay marriage proponents, including the pastor in North Carolina who encouraged parents to beat up their gay acting sons.

As a Christian, I cannot support gay marriage, nor can I accept practicing homosexuality as anything but a sin. At the same time, there are a lot of Christians out there who seem convinced they aren’t sinners. In fact, we are all sinners and as I have matured in my faith, I have a harder and harder time understanding how so many Christians can be so tolerant of so much sin, but treat homosexuality as some sin set apart from all other sins making it a worse sin than, for example, adultery.

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Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Morning Briefing for May 8, 2012

RS MB CleanMasthead

RedState Morning Briefing
May 8, 2012Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

Indiana Republicans go to the polls tomorrow to decide whether to re-nominate 80-year-old 36-year Senate veteran Richard Lugar or to pick instead State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, running as the conservative alternative. In the usual course of events, my advice for activists and pundits alike in these races is to not forget that every race is unique, based on the individual candidates, the state or district, and the issue environment of the day. Not every state is Utah or Rhode Island; not every conservative is Marco Rubio or Christine O’Donnell; not every moderate is Chris Christie or Jim Jeffords. Often (but not always), the better candidate wins, whether or not that candidate is the most conservative, the most Establishment-backed, or considered the most ‘electable’ by pundits and political pros.

That being said, the conditions of 2012 – specifically, the now-certain nomination of Mitt Romney as the Republican candidate for president – call for conservatives to take a harder line than ever in supporting Operation Counterweight (William Jacobson’s term), in particular to seek in Senate races what David Freddoso has called “an un-bossable Senate.” Party insiders expect conservatives, Tea Party-style outsiders and single-issue social conservatives to show up to vote anyway for a party whose leader is a man many of us distrust on nearly every issue. Politics, they remind us, is compromise. And that’s precisely my point: it is exactly because one side of the party got Romney that the other can less afford to swallow Romney-like figures in the Senate. That doesn’t mean backing the most conservative candidate in every single race without considering any other factor – but it does mean giving more than usual preference to the more conservative and/or less establishment option in Senate races. It’s not about demanding absolute party purity – it’s about recognizing that Romney has sopped up most of our tolerance for impurity already. If you want a Senate that will hold Romney’s feet to the fire, you have to start by replacing men like Dick Lugar and, in Utah, 78-year old Orrin Hatch.

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You have to love the era of YouTube. Nothing gets past us these days because it’s all on tape! Although somehow people are still questioning what someone said even when it is on tape.

Either way, it makes for great moments in campaign years. Take for instance this little diddy that took place on the Romney trail.

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Today voters in North Carolina will go to the polls to consider Amendment 1, a constitutional amendment to ensure liberal judges and gay rights activists are prohibited from changing the definition of marriage under North Carolina law. Polls suggest the measure will pass. But then polls suggested the Personhood Amendment in Mississippi would also pass and it did not.

The Republican Primary is largely over in North Carolina, except in some contested seats. Republicans may not want to turn out. I do hope they turn out to vote for Scott Keadle, however, in his race. And I hope they turn out and join Latino voters and black voters as they did in California to support traditional marriage.

In 31 states that have considered constitutional amendments to uphold traditional marriage, all 31 have passed those amendments. Republicans should go to the polls in North Carolina to make sure North Carolina becomes the 32nd state to uphold traditional marriage.

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The Wisconsin Democratic Party had scheduled a unity rally the day after tomorrow.

Tomorrow, Democrat voters will go to the polls to pick a candidate to put up against Scott Walker in the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall. Well, it seems the preferred candidate isn’t going to win and the Democrats have said to heck with unity.

The Unity Rally is cancelled. It won’t happen. There will be no unity from the party leadership on down. It’s every man and union goon for themselves as they try to unseat Scott Walker.

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Rep. William Cassidy (R-LA) common-sense approach to increasing the role of natural gas as a vehicle fuel, without the grandiose involvement of the Federal government. Unlike the Pickens Plan, this plan does not rely on massive government subsidies or direct payments for vehicle conversion. Instead, it would change the definition of “independent producer” in the tax code, to get around their current prohibition from making retail sales exceeding $5 million per year.

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Monday, April 30, 2012

Morning Briefing for April 30, 2012

RS MB CleanMasthead

RedState Morning Briefing
April 30, 2012Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

We’re about a week out from the Indiana Primary. Richard Mourdock now leads Barack Obama’s favorite Republican, Dick Lugar. But it is close. Surprisingly for so many conservative activists who backed Eric Cantor for his leadership position, the House Republican Leader has decided to engage in this and other races for the more moderate and liberal candidates.

Whodathunk Eric Cantor would become like Mitch McConnell, but he is. And not only that, Eric Cantor has decided to engage in the Indiana Senate race — a Senate race, not a House race. So the cool thing is if you open your checkbook and help Richard Mourdock, you aren’t just dealing a blow to Mitch McConnell, but to Eric Cantor and Barack Obama too. All three of them want Dick Lugar to stick around Washington.

Do what you can to make sure Indiana sends Dick Lugar home. Oh wait . . . Dick doesn’t live in Indiana anymore. That’s why his Board of Elections says he can’t vote in Indiana. Still, get him out of the Senate.

But that’s not all.

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As President of the United States, Barack Obama wants us to know he killed Osama Bin Laden. The SEALs? Pfffffftttt . . . nope. Barack Obama did it. If you don’t believe him, wait till the campaign commercials tell you. Don’t believe them? Well, just in time for the election, Hollywood will provide us with an in-kind contribution of a propaganda film.

True, the President did give the order and he should be commended, as should the SEALs. And it is fair game for him to want to campaign on killing Osama Bin Laden in the same way George H. W. Bush campaigned as a war hero in 1992.

In 1992, Bill Clinton would commend George H. W. Bush on the campaign trail and lament that he just wished President Bush was as successful getting Americans back to work as he had been getting Iraq out of Kuwait.

This morning, my dad called and pointed out that Barack Obama may just be the most successful killer to ever take up residence in the White House — more successful even than the 19th Century vampire slayer who first led the Republican Party into the White House. In fact, consider the serial killing spree Barack Obama has been on.

On Twitter: use has tag #ThingsObamaKilled to play along at home.

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Earlier this week, a two-year old YouTube video surfaced that floated some raw sewage in the Obama Administration’s energy punchbowl. In it, EPA Region 6 Administrator Al Almendariz, speaking to a group of Texas citizens, chuckles while comparing his agency’s environmental enforcement strategy vis-à-vis oil and gas operators to conquering Roman legionnaires’ strategy of random crucifixion. How quaint.

So the Washington politicians did what politicians have done since Roman times: go into damage-control mode and attempt to distance themselves from the offending act. From the Washington Post . . .

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This has been a tough week for conservatives in Washington. Republicans in both houses are caving on the postal bailout, highway bill, appropriations, Ex-Im Bank, Violence Against Women Act, and the student loan bailout. It’s not going to get easier when they come back from recess in May. This is why we need game-changers like Scott Keadle in Congress. Keadle is running in NC-8, the seat currently held by born-again blue dog Larry Kissell.

As I search out conservative candidates throughout the country on behalf of the Madison Project PAC, I’m struck by how few candidates truly grasp the problems at hand within the Republican conference. Sure – they all talk about repealing Obamacare, a balanced budget, and out-of- control spending. But it is some of the aforementioned issues that separate the real supporters of free-markets from those who merely offer a pale-pastel contrast from the Democrats.

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Sunday, April 29, 2012

Morning Briefing for April 27, 2012

RS MB CleanMasthead

RedState Morning Briefing

for April 27, 2012

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get the 

Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

Yes, yes, we have a new look today.  It’s because I want your undivided attention and figured shaking things up would give it to me after you finished mumbling, “There he goes again.”  

We’ll return to normalcy conservatives, I promise.  Why shake things up today?  To highlight our sister publication.

As I mentioned last week, this month marks an exciting new chapter for our sister publication, Human Events. The nation’s first conservative weekly and Ronald Reagan’s favorite newspaper has a dynamic new look and additional firepower to provide more news and analysis than ever before.

Human Events has expanded its team of reporters and will now feature deeper coverage of the issues most important to you, ranging from the economy to energy and healthcare to national security.

We’re proud to be part of the Human Events family. Be on the lookout this weekend for more exciting details in an email, including powerful video coverage of the new Human Events being commemorated on the floor of the House of Representatives.

And now, the Morning Briefing.

1.  Death of the Moderate . . . Democrat

It is worth noting that on Tuesday several moderate Democrats went down in flames in Pennsylvania, continuing a trend that has escalated since 2008. Liberals do not want moderate Democrats in their caucus.

What is most interesting about it from a conservative perspective, however, is how there has not been a ton of coverage about the death of the blue dogs — more dogs dead in Barack Obama and the left’s war on dogs. Had moderate Republicans been defeated, we would have major stories on pretty much every news network and on the front page of every paper in America.

Routinely we hear that Republicans cannot win in New England, despite Republican successes in New England in 2010. Routinely we hear about the GOP driving moderates out of the party. Big tent cliches surround the stories. Rarely does the ongoing purging of the Democratic Party make such news.  Read the rest of the story . . .

2.  Yet Another Reason Why Today’s Unions Suck: Dues Devour Wage Increases

On the eve of Obama’s NLRB unleashing its new rules giving unions the ability to hold ambush elections—that is, the evisceration of employers’ ability to question or challenge unions in their quest to cherry-pick voting units—more data was just released by the Bureau of National Affairs that calls into question why anyone in their right mind would pay dues to a union today.

In addition to the $369 billion in underfunded union (private-sector) pension plans, the abundant evidence that unions kill companies and destroy jobs, today’s unions are doing such a miserable job at the one thing they’re supposed to do—negotiate contracts—that union members should demand refunds from their union bosses.

According to the April 9th issue of the Bureau of National Affairs Daily Labor Report (subscription required), unions negotiated contracts in 2011 that, in 41% of the contracts, employees received no increase in the contract’s first year.  Read the rest of the story . . . 

3.  The Way Things Are Going, They’re Gonna Crucify Me.

Apologies to John Lennon. Concept by Al Armendariz, Administrator of EPA Region VI. Repair Man Jack posted the video with analysis here.

No apology is necessary, Mr. Armendariz. In a perverse way, your comments reveal the tactics of your agency, and more importantly, the philosophy which motivates Mr. Obama’s entire Administration.

It also speaks of the arrogance of a government that thinks its citizens are its subjects, and whose middle managers find amusement in crushing people’s lives and livelihoods.

One more thing about the Roman analogy — mmm, as I recall, that strategy didn’t work out too well for the Romans. Does Mr. Obama play the fiddle?  Read the rest of the story . . .

4.  Sign Letter for Open Appropriations Process in the House

Every elected Republican came to Washington promising to slash spending and balance the budget.  Yet, when it comes time for the most direct way to enact those spending cuts; namely, the annual appropriations bills, most of them are missing in action.

In an ideal world, Republicans should hold the upper hand in negotiations over spending bills. They enjoy complete control over the House, while Harry Reid only has a tenuous hold on the Senate at just 53 seats.  Unfortunately, as we chronicled extensively here at Red State, House and Senate GOP leaders agreed to jettison the Ryan budget halfway through the process in favor of Harry Reid’s minibus and omnibus bills, which vitiated every worthy goal of that budget.  Read the rest of the story . . .


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Saturday, April 28, 2012

Morning Briefing for April 26, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing
April 26, 2012Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

Yesterday on Laura Ingraham’s radio show, she asked Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell about a recent Roll Call article that framed me as one of the loud leaders of conservatives opposed to Mitch McConnell. The Senator from Kentucky responded that he had never heard of me and I did not have an audience.

That sounds a bit like the child, when asked if he ate the cookie, replying that he had not and besides it did not taste good. If he’d never heard of me, how can he comment on my audience? If he states plainly I have no audience, how can he claim to not have heard of me? His remarks also came less than a day after I came out publicly against bronies, the adult male fans of My Little Pony. I hope that’s just a coincidence.

Mitch McConnell’s remark is just another example of him being vastly overrated as both a strategist and tactician. He claims to have advanced the conservative cause, but told Laura he has to be mindful that to govern Republicans must reach out to all Americans. Perhaps that is why in 2010, with the rise of the tea party, Mitch McConnell backed Arlen Specter against Pat Toomey, Charlie Crist against Marco Rubio (McConnell staffers went to Florida to help Crist), Robert Bennett against Mike Lee, and Trey Grayson against Rand Paul.

I grew up thinking Mitch McConnell was a right wing warrior. It turns out he’s just a typical Washingtonian appropriator who has presided over a massive expansion of the welfare state doing not much more than issuing bold platitudes as he cuts deals to expand government spending and along the way made some major tactical and strategic blunders that groups like ACORN were able to thrive.

Let’s review the record.

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An untold story today following Tuesday’s Pennsylvania primaries is what a bad, bad night it was for Planned Parenthood.

In Pennsylvania’s 134th House district, they spent an eye-popping $100,000 on a TV ad campaign trying to sink the candidacy of Republican Ryan Mackenzie by linking him to ultrasound legislation that was before the legislature.

As Politico noted, this was seen as a trial-balloon of sorts.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Never mind the fact that Obama got yoghurt splashed on him last night – that’s just an ongoing hazard of being a politician running for re-election in this country. The real story here is this: the President went to Colorado to, essentially, lie to a bunch of kids about how they can get themselves out of this mess that they’re in. And it is a mess. 50% of college graduates are unemployed/underemployed; couple that with student loan debt levels that should really be frightening more people and we end up with a situation where millions of kids are getting out of college and staring DOOM right in the face. And while they are adults – and thus, responsible for their own fates – guess what? The people that connived to put them in this mess are adults, too. We expect twenty-somethings in this culture to make poor life choices, sometimes; what we don’t expect is for the generations above them to so ruthlessly take advantage of that.

Anyway: Obama’s answer in Colorado, last night? …Entrepreneurship. That’s what he was telling the kids. Start that restaurant! Develop that smartphone app! Make your own destiny! Get slammed with a tax hike on small businesses in the form of tighter restrictions on payroll tax exemptions!

…Yeah. One of these things is not like the others.

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Thursday, April 12, 2012

Morning Briefing for April 9, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing
April 9, 2012Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

After Friday’s jobs numbers came out (the economy added 120,000 jobs) Labor Secretary Hilda Solis promptly proclaimed: “That’s a noteworthy achievement.”

In fact, for the man who campaigned on the message of “hope” in 2008, the 120,000 jobs added is much fewer (about half) than expected and the edging down of the unemployment to 8.2% is not from job creation but from hopelessness.

There are now 88 million American who are “Not In Labor Force.”

Please click here for the rest of the post.

And anybody who tells you that you can get money out of politics is either deluded, lying, or possibly both. Exhibit A: the upcoming Democratic convention in Charlotte, NC. The Democrats piously declared that of course no dirty, dirty corporate/lobbyist money would be allowed to be spent on putting the convention together. And everybody cheered… only, it’s now 2012 and there’s potentially a looming shortfall in fundraising. And lo! – here are some lobbyist and corporate donors.

Sure, they can’t contribute… under the old rules. But rules are flexible things, are they not? A corporation can’t contribute directly. But it’s all right for their executives to write large personal checks, or contribute the equivalent in goods and/or services, or launder it through a corporate charity. As for lobbyists… well. The DNC likes to see its friends happy – friends being defined as ‘people who bundle together a lot of personal contributions and/or corporate in-kind donations’ – and if VIP access and nice hotel rooms make friends happy, then that warm, happy feeling would be its own reward, yes?

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Blaming natural phenomena on fracking is this year’s fad, reminiscent of the mood ring, the pet rock or Anthropogenic Global Warming.

Item 1. Vice-President of the United States Joe Biden may not know what hydrofracking is, but he does know that it sounds plenty scary.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Our sister company Regnery Publishing (we’re both owned by Eagle Publishing, Inc.) sent me a new book to read. I am really bad these days about not reading all the books I get in — sometimes up to a dozen a week from various publishers and authors. But this one caught my eye.

Katie Pavlich, Townhall’s News Editor, has a book out entitled Fast And Furious: Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Cover-Up.

I think the media has spent more time doctoring 911 calls in the Trayvon Martin matter than focusing on what has happened along the border with Mexico. There has been some coverage and it probably would not have come to light except for CBS News’s initial reporting, but the scandal — and it is a scandal — has mostly flown under the radar.

In fact, the whole war on our Southern border, the kidnappings and killings spilling over into our country, etc. really have not made major, sustained national news.

Please click here for the rest of the post.


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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Morning Briefing for April 10, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing
April 10, 2012Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

Mike Wallace is dead.

Growing up, I’d spend the summer away from Dubai at my grandparents’ home in Louisiana. Sunday nights were back to back Murder She Wrote and 60 Minutes.

Many conservatives would accuse Mike Wallace and 60 Minutes of a liberal view point and shading stories to match their world view. Growing up, 60 Minutes was, to me, journalism done right. They asked questions and got answers and highlighted problems and, though sometimes falling short of the goal, tried not to put themselves in the story.

I’d like to think that if Mike Wallace were able in his latter days, he’d be kicking the asses of most of the journalists who have dared weigh in on the Trayvon Martin killing for destroying the integrity of a tragic story in the name of agenda journalism.

Just about every single network and journalist who has touched on the Trayvon Martin matter should be deeply and terribly ashamed of themselves. I am disgusted by just how badly the media has botched the handling of a very real tragedy.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

As today’s government-union bosses push higher taxes, establish dues schemes to fund their bloated salaries and union-bought politicians, the evidence has become pretty clear: Government unions have become political, parasitic entities injuring taxpayers and the communities they control (see Central Falls and Providence, RI; Detroit, MI; and the once-great State of California for examples).

In the private sector, however, where taxpayers’ pockets are not in endless supply, the parasitic model of today’s unions, far too often, allows unions drain companies and ends up killing their hosts.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

You have to wonder whether the Online Left finds equivocators like Rep. Jason Altmire (D, PA-04) as insulting as we do (not that progressives have the courage to call their own hypocrites out, of course). Let me set the background: in 2010 Altmire did his level best to look like a mighty pro-life champion, largely because he was running for re-election in a R+6 district (which he ended up winning with only 51% of the vote). Back then it was all about how Altmire absolutely hated taxpayer funding of abortion, and how he’d never support such a thing, and the rest of the spiel that then-Speaker Pelosi graciously allowed him to repeat in order to keep his seat.

But that was 2010. Since then the seats have been redrawn, and now Altmire is facing Murtha crony/replacement Mark Critz in a race for the redrawn PA-12 district that has been called ‘spirited‘ (read: ‘vicious’). So, now that the pandering has to be to Democratic primary voters, how is Altmire pandering?

Please click here for the rest of the post.


View the original article here

Morning Briefing for April 9, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing
April 9, 2012Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

After Friday’s jobs numbers came out (the economy added 120,000 jobs) Labor Secretary Hilda Solis promptly proclaimed: “That’s a noteworthy achievement.”

In fact, for the man who campaigned on the message of “hope” in 2008, the 120,000 jobs added is much fewer (about half) than expected and the edging down of the unemployment to 8.2% is not from job creation but from hopelessness.

There are now 88 million American who are “Not In Labor Force.”

Please click here for the rest of the post.

And anybody who tells you that you can get money out of politics is either deluded, lying, or possibly both. Exhibit A: the upcoming Democratic convention in Charlotte, NC. The Democrats piously declared that of course no dirty, dirty corporate/lobbyist money would be allowed to be spent on putting the convention together. And everybody cheered… only, it’s now 2012 and there’s potentially a looming shortfall in fundraising. And lo! – here are some lobbyist and corporate donors.

Sure, they can’t contribute… under the old rules. But rules are flexible things, are they not? A corporation can’t contribute directly. But it’s all right for their executives to write large personal checks, or contribute the equivalent in goods and/or services, or launder it through a corporate charity. As for lobbyists… well. The DNC likes to see its friends happy – friends being defined as ‘people who bundle together a lot of personal contributions and/or corporate in-kind donations’ – and if VIP access and nice hotel rooms make friends happy, then that warm, happy feeling would be its own reward, yes?

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Blaming natural phenomena on fracking is this year’s fad, reminiscent of the mood ring, the pet rock or Anthropogenic Global Warming.

Item 1. Vice-President of the United States Joe Biden may not know what hydrofracking is, but he does know that it sounds plenty scary.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Our sister company Regnery Publishing (we’re both owned by Eagle Publishing, Inc.) sent me a new book to read. I am really bad these days about not reading all the books I get in — sometimes up to a dozen a week from various publishers and authors. But this one caught my eye.

Katie Pavlich, Townhall’s News Editor, has a book out entitled Fast And Furious: Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Cover-Up.

I think the media has spent more time doctoring 911 calls in the Trayvon Martin matter than focusing on what has happened along the border with Mexico. There has been some coverage and it probably would not have come to light except for CBS News’s initial reporting, but the scandal — and it is a scandal — has mostly flown under the radar.

In fact, the whole war on our Southern border, the kidnappings and killings spilling over into our country, etc. really have not made major, sustained national news.

Please click here for the rest of the post.


View the original article here

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Morning Briefing for April 5, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing
April 5, 2012Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

At last, the long winter of our discontent is over. America’s pastime has returned to its home fields. Last night, the World Champion Cardinals took on the revamped Miami Marlins in the United States opener. Today, the other 28 teams return to work. Although the game has changed to a huge extent since the days when fielders (including catchers) played barehanded and pitchers threw underhanded from 50 feet, and although the game has become almost as international in character as soccer, as fans file into stands today and tomorrow bedecked in their favorite team’s gear, baseball remains an affirmation of the rebirth of spring and of our uniquely American sense of community and competition. And for fans of all 30 teams (except the Astros), it is a day of eternal hope.


Please click here for the rest of the post.


In a story about the White House in damage control mode over the President’s rather stupid remarks on the Supreme Court, Reuters reports the following:



“What he did was make an unremarkable observation about 80 years of Supreme Court history,” Carney told reporters during a White House briefing dominated by the topic.


and



The president, who taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago, qualified the remark a day later by stressing he meant action by the Court on a matter of commerce, a legal distinction that cut little ice with his critics.


and


“

Since the 1930s the Supreme Court has without exception deferred to Congress when it comes to Congress’s authority to pass legislation to regulate matters of national economic importance such as health care, 80 years,” Carney said.

What Reuters did not bother to report is that, in fact, the Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional a piece of legislation that passed with a bipartisan majority via the commerce clause just 17 years ago.


Please click here for the rest of the post.


What a miserable question to have to ask about Nebraska Attorney General and Republican Senate Candidate Jon Bruning — in effect is he, at best, a creepy pervert and at worst a monster. But before you pick up pitch forks and torches against me for asking the question, you need to understand that this is Jon Bruning’s own tortured logic in the Nebraska Senate Republican Primary.


Jon Bruning, the Attorney General of Nebraska all but accused his primary opponent, Don Stenberg, of being a pedophile. Bruning did so in a Senate primary debate when the debate kept coming back to Jon Bruning still defending Barack Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder.


I wish I were making it up, but I am not. Even the Democrats in Nebraska had to jump in and point out that based on Jon Bruning’s “evidence” about Don Stenberg, Jon Bruning is guilty of the same.


I warned each and every one of you that Jon Bruning had a reputation for being a hot head who would meltdown under the pressure of a campaign. As appalling as it is, he has done so. If he’s resorting to suggesting his primary opponent is a pedophile to distract from inconvenient facts about his support of Eric Holder, to what new depths will the man sink in a general election? To what extent will he embarrass the GOP?


Please click here for the rest of the post.


In the wake of President Obama’s moronic and widely-lampooned comments on judicial review yesterday, President Obama offered the following lame (and incorrect) walkback .


Please click here for the rest of the post.


It’s a valid question, I think, given the way that Lawrence O’Donnell viciously and insultingly went after Mormonism last night on that network. Goodness knows that I have my problems with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. And I have no intention of converting to the LDS faith any time soon, or indeed at all. But to say “Mormonism was created by a guy in upstate New York in 1830 when he got caught having sex with the maid and explained to his wife that God told him to do it” in the pursuit of crude partisan purposes is an insult that splatters far beyond its designated target (in this case, Mitt Romney).


I understand that Harry Reid was a boxer, when younger. If the Senator takes this punch without hitting back, then those days are long gone for him, indeed.


Please click here for the rest of the post.


What’s worse than Congress picking winners and losers and distorting the free-market with bailouts, stimulus, and tendentious interventions on behalf of specific industries? Unelected members of the Federal Reserve doing the same through monetary policy.


It is amazing to watch how many Republicans will speak with such conviction against Keynesian fiscal stimulus policies, yet they will fervently promote monetary stimulus policies by the unaccountable Federal Reserve. Their support for near-zero interest rates, quantitative easing, bailouts, and intervention in the housing sector has muddled our message against Obama’s anti-free-market policies. Moreover, in this time of record commodity prices, pro-(monetary) stimulus Republicans preclude us from showing how government intervention on behalf of special interests distorts the markets, depletes savings, and devalues the currency – a winning political argument if there ever was one.


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America is addicted to chocolate. Foreign chocolate.


A majority of us consume chocolate each day. Although the U.S. produces only 6% of the world’s cocoa, we consume more than 20%.


The threat is obvious. It’s time for government to step in and promote alternatives.


Any day, President Obama will be barnstorming the country to tell us, “If we really want chocolate security and chocolate independence, we’ve got to start looking at how we use less cocoa and use sources that we can renew and that we can control, so we are not subject to the whims of what’s happening in other countries.”


Today, we are at the mercy of Africa, which produces over 75% of the world’s cocoa. That’s an unstable source, which means our chocolate dependency undermines national security.


Each of us probably began with that first innocent M&M but now it’s an unsustainable $13-billion a year habit. The average American eats 11 pounds of chocolate per year. We gain weight from chocolate. Pimples get blamed on chocolate.


Fortunately, alternatives exist. With proper federal loans and subsidies these can relieve our cravings and wean us from our addiction to chocolate.


Please click here for the rest of the post.


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Sunday, April 8, 2012

Morning Briefing for April 4, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing
For April 4, 2012Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

Barack Obama spoke to the American press yesterday to demagogue Republicans, Paul Ryan’s budget, cite Ronald Reagan as proof that raising taxes is okay, and damn with faint praise American exceptionalism.


The President called Paul Ryan’s budget a “trojan horse.” Given the President’s predilection for forcing all Americans, through regulatory fiat, to adhere to his view of contraception, I suspect that had Paul Ryan preemptively called his budget a ‘trojan condom,” the President of the United States would be campaigning trying to make us all adhere to it.


One thing that really stuck out at me in his speech yesterday was his statement that his very life and career were made possible because of American exceptionalism. He’s right. It’s also what makes his public policy choices so maddening.


Please click here for the rest of the post.


The storm that erupted yesterday when Barack Obama woke up and discovered the Supreme Court of the United States was not only not elected but it could overturn “duly passed” laws, even those passed in the dead of the night by the barest of purchased majorities, has been more than adequately covered on these pages and others by actual lawyers and those who think they are.


I’m pretty sure Obama knows what Marbury v. Madison is, even though yesterday he gave a darned good impression of being a total goober in regards to our Constitution. The simplest explanation is that he knows how the vote went on Friday and is working to change that vote, failing that he is setting the predicate for running against the Supreme Court in November.


Please click here for the rest of the post.


Last year while governors across the Midwest worked to reform broken public union laws, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) slandered them in a speech that could have easily been written by one of the millionaire “leaders” at SEIU, NEA, or AFSCME.


During one of his stemwinders about the wondrous things unions do, Sherrod dropped a reductio ad Hitlerum on Governor Kasich (OH), Governor Walker (WI), and Governor Christie (NJ).


Please click here for the rest of the post.


The Republican-controlled House is currently operating under a moratorium on earmarking. But if several GOP earmarxists have their say, this will change in the near future.


Throughout the past decade, most of the arguments against earmarks have been focused on wasteful spending, corruption, cronyism, and self-ingratiating monuments. Robert Byrd’s monuments and the Bridge to Nowhere became symbols for such bad behavior. To that end, even some conservative advocates of earmarks have lodged a counterargument. They contend that earmarks are only “pocket change,” and that by declining to earmark specific funding bills, we are ceding more power to the Obama administration. In order to preclude any extravagant earmarks and cronyism, they are proposing reforms and limitations to the process that will supposedly put an end to things like the Bridge to Nowhere.


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