Wake up America

Video- Ted Nugent To Piers Morgan On Gun Control: 'Anybody That Wants To Disarm Me, Can Drop Dead'

2012-02-13T11:23:00.004-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Second Amendment: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Piers Morgan conducted and interview with Second Amendment activist Ted Nugent and accused him of disrespecting Barack Obama as they had a spirited discussion about gun control.

Nugent tells Morgan straight out that anybody that wants to disarm him can drop dead.

Three minute video below

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Media Matters, Liberal Media, JournoList Members and White House Collusion?

2012-02-13T09:11:00.010-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Anyone remember JournoList? The list-serv founded by Ezra Klein which included liberal bloggers, liberal media writers and certain Obama officials, where leaked emails from the group showed coordinated attacks and message collusion favoring Barack Obama? The group was dismantled after The Daily Caller produced email after email showing the collusion between the group's messaging then the media's copying of said messaging.

Old news? Not so much. The name of the group might have changed but the players are still the same. Keep the names below in mind as you read the quoted excerpts of the DC piece.

Ben Smith- Former member of JournoList.
Greg Sargent- Former member of JournoList.
Sam Stein- Former member of JournoList.
Nico Pitney- Former member of Journolist.

More identified members of JournoList found HERE.

The Daily Caller has a multi-paged detailed article by Tucker Carlson, Vince Coglianese, Alex Pappas and Will Rahn, showing the same type of media coordination with liberal bloggers and liberal mainsteam media along with White House representatives, and Media Matters.

From Page #3

“The entire progressive blogosphere picked up our stuff,” says a Media Matters source, “from Daily Kos to Salon. Greg Sargent [of the Washington Post] will write anything you give him. He was the go-to guy to leak stuff.”

“If you can’t get it anywhere else, Greg Sargent’s always game,” agreed another source with firsthand knowledge.

Reached by phone, Sargent declined to comment.

“The HuffPo guys were good, Sam Stein and Nico [Pitney],” remembered one former staffer. “The people at Huffington Post were always eager to cooperate, which is no surprise given David’s long history with Arianna [Huffington].”

“Jim Rainey at the LA Times took a lot of our stuff,” the staffer continued. “So did Joe Garofoli at the San Francisco Chronicle. We’ve pushed stories to Eugene Robinson and E.J. Dionne [at the Washington Post]. Brian Stelter at the New York Times was helpful.”

“Ben Smith [formerly of Politico, now at BuzzFeed.com] will take stories and write what you want him to write,” explained the former employee, whose account was confirmed by other sources. Staffers at Media Matters “knew they could dump stuff to Ben Smith, they knew they could dump it at Plum Line [Greg Sargent’s Washington Post blog], so that’s where they sent it.”

If Media Matters cannot get a reporter to follow the progressive script, they bully them:

Reporters who weren’t cooperative might feel the sting of a Media Matters campaign against them. “If you hit a reporter, say a beat reporter at a regional newspaper,” a Media Matters source said, “all of a sudden they’d get a thousand hostile emails. Sometimes they’d melt down. It had a real effect on reporters who weren’t used to that kind of scrutiny.”

Then The Daily Caller shows the White House collusion, pages #3 and #4:

A group with the ability to shape news coverage is of incalculable value to the politicians it supports, so it’s no surprise that Media Matters has been in regular contact with political operatives in the Obama administration. According to visitor logs, on June 16, 2010, Brock and then-Media Matters president Eric Burns traveled to the White House for a meeting with Valerie Jarrett, arguably the president’s closest adviser. Recently departed Obama communications director Anita Dunn returned to the White House for the meeting as well.

It’s not clear what the four spoke about — no one in the meeting returned repeated calls for comment — but the apparent coordination continued. “Anita Dunn became a regular presence at the office,” says someone who worked there. Then-president of Media Matters, Eric Burns, “lunched with her, met with her and chatted with her frequently on any number of matters.”

Media Matters also began a weekly strategy call with the White House, which continues, joined by the liberal Center for American Progress think tank. Jen Psaki, Obama’s deputy communications director, was a frequent participant before she left for the private sector in October 2011.

Every Tuesday evening, meanwhile, a representative from Media Matters attends the Common Purpose Project meeting at the Capitol Hilton on 16th Street in Washington, where dozens of progressive organizations formulate strategy, often with a representative from the Obama White House.

In the past several years, Media Matters has focused much of its considerable energy on the Fox News Channel. The network, declares one internal memo, “is the de facto leader of the GOP and it is long past time that it was treated as such by the media, elected officials, and the public.” At the end of September 2009, Burns made the case publicly in an interview on MSNBC.

Fox, he said, “is a political organization, and their aim is to destroy a progressive policy agenda.”

Less than a month later, in language that could have been copied directly from a Media Matters press release, White House communications director Anita Dunn leveled almost precisely the same charge, dismissing Fox as “more a wing of the Republican Party.”

The source had no direct knowledge of the message collusion between the official White House statements and the Media Matters meetings, but that make the coordination of messaging quite the coincidence wouldn't it?

Read the entire six page piece, it is quite enlightening.

Is it any wonder that 60 percent of the American public sees media bias and 47 percent say it is a liberal bias with only 13 percent saying they see a conservative bias? (Source- Gallup)

At least the American people are not being fooled into believing the liberal media, Media Matters and White coordinated messaging.

Kudos once again to The Daily Caller for ripping the roof off of hell and exposing the liberal so-called journolists playing inside.

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Romney Edges Paul Out In Maine- Can Paul Sill Win?

2012-02-12T13:30:00.004-07:00

By Susan Duclos

[Update] Because Washington County, Maine still has not cast their votes, Ron Paul is not conceding Maine to Romney, even though officials have declared Romney the winner. Nate Silver crunches the numbers and while not probable, there is a scenario where despite the official ruling Paul could take the win.

What such an outcome would require is for Mr. Paul’s campaign to make a concerted effort to turn out any supporters it has in the area. There are 6,907 registered Republicans in Washington County, and another 8,247 unaffiliated registered voters, who are eligible to participate by changing their registration to Republican at the caucus site. Unregistered voters, for that matter, are also free to participate provided that they register at the caucus site.

Imagine, for instance, that voters turned out in the county at a rate comparable the Iowa caucuses, where Mr. Paul had a strong turnout operation. In Iowa, 122,255 Republicans participated in the caucuses as compared to a total of 644,220 voters who were registered as Republican prior to caucus night.

Were turnout in Washington County to occur at the Iowa rate, it would produce about 1,300 participants at the caucuses, enough to swing the outcome if Mr. Paul received about 15 percent more of their votes than Mr. Romney.

A more likely scenario, perhaps, is that Mr. Paul would work to turn out his supporters while the other campaigns would not. Mr. Romney’s campaign, in particular, might seem to give credence to the notion that the straw poll was an unresolved issue if it made extra effort to turn out voters there.

If Mr. Paul were somehow to secure the 194-vote margin, that would create a messy scenario for the Maine G.O.P. It would either need to backtrack on its previous statements that the straw poll results are final, or might risk appearing as though it was disenfranchising voters.

This would be an embarrassment for Maine GOP officials but after Iowa's turnaround where Romney was declared the winner then the official certified tallies showed that Rick Santorum won, it is not out of the realm of possibility.

Original post below

A quickie..... the Maine caucuses while were conducted over multiple days ended up with Mitt Romney beating out Ron Paul by a 39 to 36 percent margin with Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich getting 18 percent and 6 percent respectively. Santorum and Gingrich both did not put much effort into the Maine caucuses, so their 3rd and 4th placements were expected.

NYT:

Although the vote had no substantive meaning in terms of delegates, losing it could have created a political headache for Mr. Romney, the former governor of nearby Massachusetts, and extended a negative storyline that had been building since last week when he lost Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri to Mr. Santorum.
Those losses suddenly increased the symbolic importance of Maine’s all-but-ignored caucuses, and an additional loss on Saturday in his own backyard would have magnified concerns that he cannot seal the deal with voters.

Next up, February 28th, 2012 with Arizona and Michigan primaries and a debate on February 22, 2012, sponsored by CNN and the Republican Party of Arizona to be held at 8pm ET held at the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona

(Full Republican primary/caucus schedule found HERE)

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Whitney Houston Dies At 48: RIP Video Tributes, Music Videos Of Greatest Hits

2012-02-12T09:31:00.009-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Pop diva Whitney Houston, 48 years old, died yesterday. Her body was found and at the Beverly Hilton in LA, where it remained after medics performed CPR unsuccessfully, while her death was investigated. There were no signs of foul play.

Cause of death is unknown. Death will be determined by the L.A. Co. Coroner's Office.

The night before she died Whitney Houston performed in Los Angeles with Kelly Price, singing Jesus Loves Me, video below.

Browsing through YouTube, I found some tributes put together by obvious Whitney Houston fans, videos below. After the tributes are some of Whitney Houston's original Top 10 Hits' music videos.

Whitney Houston (RIP TRIBUTE) 1963-2012 (Greatest Love Of All)

Whitney Houston - Tribute - Rest In Peace - 9th August 1963 - 11th February 2012 (I Will Always Love You)

A TRIBUTE TO WHITNEY HOUSTON (R.I.P 1963-2012) (Mixture of Whitney's music videos and live performances, multiple portions of different songs)

Those were the tributes but Whitney Houston has other fabulous hits.

Whitney Houston - How Will I Know Music Video (1985)

Whitney Houston - Saving All My Love For You (1985)

Whitney Houston - All The Man That I Need Music Video (1990)

Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody Music Video (1987)

Whitney Houston - Where Do Broken Hearts Go (1988)

Whitney Houston - Didn't We Almost Have It All (1987)

Whitney Houston - I Have Nothing (The Bodyguard)

RIP Whitney Houston.

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Full Speech- Sarah Palin at CPAC 2012

2012-02-11T18:07:00.005-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Via NYMag who describes the scene and atmosphere of the CPAC 2012 as Sarah Palin prepared to give the keynote speech:

From the looks of the shrieking, camera-wielding mob that slowly crawled its way across the Marriott lobby this afternoon, we thought for a moment that Ronald Reagan himself had been reincarnated by CPAC scientists as this year's grand finale. But it was only Sarah Palin, still attracting the same vortex of attention — here, at least, among her people — as she ever did at the peak of her powers. This was before tonight's keynote speech, for which hundreds of people lined up hours in advance. So many people, in fact, that three overflow rooms were set up to accommodate them all. When Palin was introduced onstage at around 4:40 p.m., she was greeted by a loud, sustained standing ovation, a standing ovation that would be reprised many times.

Video of Palin's speech below, from The Right Scoop.

More from The Hill, headlined with "Palin shines brightest at CPAC conference."

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PPP: 'Santorum surges into the lead'

2012-02-11T11:10:00.005-07:00

By Susan Duclos

After winning three for three in last Tuesday's primary and caucuses, Rick Santorum has surged into the lead position in national polling, according to Public Policy Polling (PPP).

Riding a wave of momentum from his trio of victories on Tuesday Rick Santorum has opened up a wide lead in PPP's newest national poll. He's at 38% to 23% for Mitt Romney, 17% for Newt Gingrich, and 13% for Ron Paul.

Whether this surge is lasting or simply a bounce that will level out remains to be seen, but the Tuesday wins should guarantee that Santorum has the campaign donations to be competitive up until at least Super Tuesday which is on March 6, 2012.

Sean Trende over at Real Clear Politics, who has been adamant that the GOP race would not conclude with a brokered convention is saying that now he sees a "viable path to a brokered convention is beginning to emerge," as he breaks down the demographic and geographic splits among candidates and details how it is possible that no one candidate will obtain the 1,144 delegates needed to to take the Republican nomination, before the 2012 GOP Convention August 27-30th, 2012, in Tampa, Florida.

For conservative voters unhappy with a possible Mitt Romney nomination, this is good news. Newt Gingrich has consistently said Romney cannot reach the delegates needed before convention and with Santorum's wins, the Anti-Romney crowds, and Gingrich's lead in Georgia and focusing on the Southern states, he may be right.

Romney cannot connect with conservatives, especially when they laugh at his calling himself "severely conservative."

Romney's previous record has shown he is more a tax and spend liberal hiding in Republican clothing.

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Harry Reid's Response To Americans Worried About Obama's Attack On Religion: 'Calm Down'

2012-02-11T09:03:00.008-07:00

By Susan Duclos

The controversy over Obamacare's HHS mandate into week two is still a political hot potato for Barack Obama, as has been explained in multiple posts, detailing the insistence of the Obama administration to interfere with religious freedoms by attempting to force religious groups institutions such and hospitals, to provide access to abortion drugs, contraceptives and sterilization procedures via insurance companies, for free, and has created a firestorm across the country.

The outcry against Obama's blatant disregard for religious freedom has caused an outcry from multiple religious groups and Republican and some Democratic lawmakers alike, with state AG'S from no less than three states threatening to sue the Obama administration and lawsuits filed by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty on behalf of Belmont Abbey College, a Catholic liberal arts college founded by Benedictine monks, and Colorado Christian University, an evangelical college located outside of Denver and on behalf of Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the Catholic television network.

Obama's attempt to "compromise" on Religious groups' freedom to practice their religion according to their beliefs was deemed unacceptable by the very same religious groups standing up and speaking out against the mandate in the first place.

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) issued a statement yesterday and the day before he offered up an amendment, RESPECTING RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE WITH REGARD TO SPECIFIC ITEMS OR SERVICES--, which Senate Majority leader Harry Reid objected to calling the debate "senseless" and telling Americans who are upset over Obama's trampling the First Amendment rights of freedom of religion, to "calm down."

Additional thought here- While listening to the YouTube of Harry Reid telling people to calm down until the mandate official becomes rule of law, I am reminded of Nancy Pelosi telling people Obamacare had to be passed so people could see what was in the bill. It passed and now we see this is the type of thing "in the Obamacare bill". Harry Reid doesn't want Americans to object until it is too late to do anything about it.

Embeddable Blunt amendment below:

S. 1813 Amendment

Related:

Catholic League: Obama Legacy- 'The President That Brought The Culture War To Boil'

Religious Freedom Lawsuits Against Obama's s Abortion Drug And Contraception Mandate

Catholic Churches And Bishop of Marquette Punch Back At Obama's War On Religion

Catholic League Prepared To Fight Back Against Obama's War On Religion

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Videos- Gingrich, Santorum And Romney's CPAC 2012 Speeches

2012-02-10T17:58:00.004-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Three of the four GOP presidential candidates, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney, gave speeches at the Conservative Political Action Committee event for 2012. Ron Paul was not in attendance.

Below are videos of all three speeches.

Newt Gingrich- CPAC

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Rick Santorum- CPAC

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Mitt Romney CPAC

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Catholic League: Obama Legacy- 'The President That Brought The Culture War To Boil'

2012-02-10T14:03:00.008-07:00

By Susan Duclos

[Update] The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have issued a statement on Obama's so-called "accommodation": Bishops Renew Call to Legislative Action on Religious Liberty

[Update] "Unacceptable — former Vatican Ambassador, Prof. Robert George, others respond."

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, filed under latest news releases, headlines with "Obama's Ploy Adds Insult To Injury," with a public statement on Obama's so called "compromise" on his attack on religious freedom by claiming he is "accommodating" religious groups' freedom to their religious beliefs and practices.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on President Obama’s revised healthcare plan as it affects Catholic institutions:

President Obama’s latest ploy just adds insult to injury. If the insurance plan of a Catholic institution must cover services it deems immoral, then such a healthcare plan is offensive, plain and simple.

The Catholic League, for example, uses Christian Brothers as its insurance carrier. So if a future employee of ours were to demand free abortion-inducing drugs, and she is allowed to request free drugs from Christian Brothers, then the rest of us would, in effect, be subsidizing her abortion. This is outrageous and will not stand judicial scrutiny.

When it comes to the First Amendment, there is no such thing as a half loaf. We want now, and in the future, the same rights we have enjoyed since the beginning of the republic.

The Obama ploy is also cynical: its effect is to peel off liberal Catholic opposition to Obamacare. In other words, the old divide and conquer strategy is in play. But it won’t work as nicely as they think: there are too many practicing Catholics who will only be impelled to revolt.

Obama has decided to turn up the heat. He’ll soon see how hot things get when Catholics team with Protestants, Jews, Mormons and others to recapture their First Amendment rights. Indeed, President Obama will now be remembered as the president who brought the culture war to a boil.

Obama has come under attack for his culture war with his war on religion from Hispanics, religious groups backing Catholics and their right to religious freedom and practicing their religion in a manner consistent with their beliefs, such as the National Association of Evangelicals, the the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the Agudath Israel of America, the the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod , the the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Southern Baptist Convention, along with conservative lawmakers and even some Senate Democrats.

First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Here is a question: Since when is a constitutional right, the First Amendment, something that any lawmaker, including the president, have the right to offer an "accommodation" or "compromise" on.

It is a right, not a privilege.

Related:

Religious Freedom Lawsuits Against Obama's s Abortion Drug And Contraception Mandate

Catholic Churches And Bishop of Marquette Punch Back At Obama's War On Religion

Catholic League Prepared To Fight Back Against Obama's War On Religion

Religious Freedom Lawsuits Against Obama's s Abortion Drug And Contraception Mandate

2012-02-09T13:26:00.008-07:00

By Susan Duclos

[Update 2/10/12] Obama attempts a bait and switch game, the con fails with religious groups, pro-life groups and others, who see through his game and he alienates Hispanics. BONUS: Nebraska, Texas and South Carolina Attorney Generals announce they will sue the Obama administration over this violation of religious freedom rights if he does not back off.

Original post below:

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has filed lawsuits against Obama's s abortion drug and contraception mandate, first on behalf of Belmont Abbey College, a Catholic liberal arts college founded by Benedictine monks, and Colorado Christian University, an evangelical college located outside of Denver. Another has been added, via The Foundry, "this morning, the Becket Fund sued the Obama Administration again, this time on behalf of Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the Catholic television network that was started nearly 30 years ago by a cloistered nun named Mother Angelica in her monastery garage."

According to its press release, the network objects to paying for—and refuses to pay for—“contraceptive services and for drugs that destroy human life”:

“The federal government cannot force people to violate their religion like this,” said Mark Rienzi, Senior Counsel at the Becket Fund and a constitutional law professor at the Catholic University of America. “Mother Angelica founded EWTN to spread the teachings of the Catholic Church—not to betray them.”

EWTN claims it is “the largest religious media network in the world” and transmits programming “24 hours a day to more than 148 million homes in 144 countries and territories.” If EWTN wasn’t already covering the Obama Administration’s “unprecedented” assault on religious freedom before, it seems likely that viewers will be provided ample coverage in the days to come.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty's announcements and press releases can be found HERE and HERE.

It is not only Catholics and conservatives coming out publicly against Barack Obama on this issue, other religious groups have joined with Catholics speaking out against Obama violating religious freedom and Democratic lawmakers are also distancing themselves and openly rebelling.

Tim Kaine, who said of the policy, "They made a bad decision in not allowing a broad enough religious employer exemption."

[SNIP]

Virginia Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly, who won re-election in 2010 by less than 1,000 votes, has said, "I just don't think this is a fight that should have been picked and I think it needs to be fixed."
West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who is facing re-election this year, labeled the policies "un-American" and a "direct affront to the religious freedoms protected under the First Amendment."
Democrats Sen. Robert Casey and Rep. John Larson have also urged the White House last week to revisit the policy to allow broader exceptions for religious institutions.
Former Democratic nominee for vice-president and now independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, who caucuses with Senate Democrats, yesterday Tweeted, "I am opposed to the Administration's new requirement that religious org.'s must offer employees contraception benefits," later adding, "Government should not compel religious organization's to provide services contrary to their beliefs."
Illinois Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski labeled the policy "a violation of conscience rights," adding, "this is the first time I've been really shocked that something is being forced, that people are forced to do something they don't believe in."

Added to the growing list is former Democratic lawmaker, Kathy Dahlkemper, claiming she "would have never voted for the final version of the bill if I expected the Obama Administration to force Catholic hospitals and Catholic Colleges and Universities to pay for contraception."

The ongoing furor and PR nightmare for Barack Obama over his war on religious freedom has been covered by Wake up America in two separate pieces linked below:

Catholic Churches And Bishop of Marquette Punch Back At Obama's War On Religion

Catholic League Prepared To Fight Back Against Obama's War On Religion

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Video- American Majority Sponsors NASCAR Racing Car For Conservative Votes

2012-02-09T13:18:00.003-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Via American Majority:

American Majority Racing is a national program of American Majority, the nation’s leading conservative grassroots training organization. The program is designed to target millions of NASCAR fans from all political backgrounds in an unprecedented effort to engage them in the electoral process. Having teamed up with NASCAR driver Jason Bowles and car #81 MacDonald Motorsports for the 2012 NASCAR Nationwide Series racing season, the American Majority Racing program is designed to educate Americans about how smaller government and less spending will “Keep America Free.” Through www.PledgetoVote.com, American Majority Racing encourages all Americans to register and vote in the 2012 elections.

Video below, H/T Fox Nation.

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Mitt Romney Throws Stones From A Glass House

2012-02-09T10:34:00.014-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Rick Santorum stunned Mitt Romney by winning three-of-three contests on February 7, 2012, one in Missouri considered a "beauty contest", one in Minnesota and then the surprise of the night, Santorum beat Romney in Colorado where all polling and expectations were given to Romney for the win.

By the next morning, headlines across the country trumpeted the Santorum wins, with some showing Mitt Romney turned his money machine and his sights toward Santorum, giving the wink wink, nod nod, to his supporters that it was time to target Rick Santorum as he targeted Newt Gingrich in Florida where Romney and pro-Romney superPAC's outspent Gingrich in ads by 5-to-1 with 99 percent of those ads being negative.

Example of yesterday's headlines "CNN with "TRENDING: Romney will take tougher approach to Santorum, adviser says," and WSJ with "Front-Runner Is Targeting Santorum."

"He Who Lives in a Glass House Shouldn't Throw Stones at Others"--- English Proverb

Via CNN's Political Ticker:

"In this race, I'm the only guy that hasn't spent time in Washington," he told reporters on an airport tarmac in Atlanta. "And Senator Santorum and Speaker Gingrich, they are the very Republicans who acted like Democrats. And when Republicans act like Democrats, they lose."

The proof, he said, was evident in both men's records........

Republicans acting like Democrats and looking at past records.

Yes, he went there. Really!!!

There is a reason for the whole anti-Romney movement, where every state Romney wins, the Republican turnout in that state has shown massive decreases in turnout from the 2008 GOP primaries. A reason why a Romney nomination kills conservative enthusiasm.

That reason is Romney's past record and Romney's previous Democratic positions, acting like a Democrat.

So we go to the "proof" of looking at Romney's "past record" when Romney's record showed he, himself, continually "acted like Democrats." (All Romney's terminology and phrasing)

The partial list below includes, Romney care individual mandate; Gun Control laws; Abortion; Tax Increases under Romney in Mass., and Spending Increases under Romney in Mass.

RomneyCare/Obamacare

Obamacare aka Patient Care Act Affordable Protection Act is the single most controversial piece of legislation passed by a Democratically controlled House of Representatives (when Dems still controlled it), a Democratically controlled Senate, and signed by a Democrat President, Barack Obama.

Jonathan Gruber, an MIT economist who advised the Romney administration on health care and who attended five meetings at the Obama White House in 2009, including the meeting with the president, states "They really wanted to know how we can take that same approach we used in Massachusetts and turn that into a national model." (Source- MSNBC titled "White House used Mitt Romney health-care law as blueprint for federal law)

In 2011 the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments on the constitutionality of parts of the Obamacare bill, specifically the individual mandate which would force the purchase of health insurance or be fined a penalty for not doing so.

67 percent of the public holds an unfavorable view of the individual mandate and 54 percent believe the Supreme Court should find it unconstitutional. (Source- Kaiser Health Tracking Poll)

Back to Mr. Gruber, who advised both Romney on Romneycare and Obama on Obamacare, in an exclusive interview with Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin, made three things abundantly clear;

1) Romney championed the individual mandate, overriding concerns about personal freedom;

2) the plan today is pretty much the same as what Romney signed into law;

3) without it in all likelihood we wouldn’t have ObamaCare today.

It is “sad,” says MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, that presidential candidate Mitt Romney is running away from his Massachusetts health care plan, a plan that Gruber says “gave birth to one of the greatest pieces of social legislation in our history,” namely President Obama’s 2010 health-care reform legislation. Aside from Romney, Gruber is the man most responsible for the Massachusetts plan. And given how important the debate is over the ‘Cares — RomneyCare and ObamaCare, as they’re often dubbed — I decided to go to the man who perhaps knows more than anyone about the development of both.

Romney continues to maintain his Democratic support for Romneycare.

Abortion

Romney in 2002- "I will preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose and have devoted and dedicated to honor my word in that regard. I will not change any provision of Mass Pro-choice laws."(video)

In 2007, as Romney ran as a GOP presidential candidate but failed to obtain the nomination in the end, losing to John McCain, in the GOP Iowa Straw Poll debate , Aug 5, 2007, called his Democratic position on abortion, his "greatest mistake" (Source- Issues2000.org)

Romney's record also included, via Boston Globe review of 1994 campaign issues , Mar 21, 2002, that Mitt Romney; Favored basic Roe v. Wade abortion rights, though would not endorse a specific version of the Freedom of Choice Act, which would codify those court-established rights as federal law; Said he would leave the matter of Medicaid funding for abortion to individual states and Endorsed legalization of RU-486, the abortion-inducing drug. (Source- Issues2000.org)

Abortion is yet another issue where Romney's position was a Democratic position until he decided to run as a Republican candidate.

Gun Laws

Romney in 2002- "We do have tough guns laws in Mass. I support them. I won’t chip away them. I believe they help protect us and provide for our safety."(video)

The Democratic position, expressed by Barack Obama: "Just because you have an individual right to bear arms does not mean that the state or local government can’t constrain the exercise of that right…”(video)

In 1994, Romney Backed Brady Bill. “He said he will take stands that put him at odds with some traditional ultra-conservative groups, and cited his support for the assault rifle ban and the Brady gun control law. ‘That’s not going to make me the hero of the NRA,’ he said. ‘I don’t line up with a lot of special interest groups.’”

(Source- Andrew Miga, “Mitt Rejects Right-Wing Aid,” Boston Herald, 9/23/94)

A Democratic position until 2008, yes, when he was running as a "Republican" GOP candidate for presidency, Mitt claimed he had a "Lifelong" devotion to hunting," which he clarified in 2010 as having meant hunting "small varmints." (Source- Issues2000.org)

Spending

Democrats are known for their as Tax and spend policies and while Romney talks a good Republican talking point about needing to spend less, using his own criteria of "proof" by examining his own "record," it shows that under his leadership as Governor in Massachusetts, state spending increased by more than 24 percent in three years. ($5 billion)

Click image to enlarge

Taxes

In the second GOP debate in 2007, Romney claimed he did not raise taxes, which was immediately fact checked and Fact Check.org found that Romney failed to note that he increased government fees by hundreds of millions of dollars and shifted some of the state tax burden to the local level.

Click image to enlarge

TOTAL of all higher fees and taxes proposed by Gov. Mitt Romney and which became law was approximately $740.5 million annually.

Looks like a Democratic tax and spend record to me, you decide.

Andrew Kaczynski over at Buzzfeed has put together the top 50 Hits From John McCain's Giant Mitt Romney Opposition File from 2008. Take a look.

The bottom line here, using Mitt Romney's own assertions and standards, Romney is a "Republican who acted like a Democrat" as is "evident" in his own record and to throw his own words right back at him "And when Republicans act like Democrats, they lose."-- Mitt Romney, 2012

Romney can retool his message til the cows come home, but he cannot retool his record.

I repeat for the record- "He Who Lives in a Glass House Shouldn't Throw Stones at Others"

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Most Hollywood Celebrities May Be Liberal, But Movie-Goers Are Conservative

2012-02-08T13:16:00.002-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Just a quick teaser then a link to the whole article from Hollywood Reporter:

Patriotism and traditional values, like those displayed in "Thor," "The Artist," "Soul Surfer" and "Hugo," are what moviegoers want, says a group that will honor such films at an awards gala Friday.

Wanna make money in Hollywood? Release patriotic movies that promote conservative values and do not denigrate Christianity.

For two decades, that has been the message that Movieguide has been pushing, and on Friday when it celebrates its 20-year-anniversary with an awards show airing on The Hallmark Channel, the organization will present a 76-page report designed to back up its assertions.

Read the rest at Hollywood Reporter.

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Your Tax Dollars At Work: Obama Appoints Advocate For Illegal Immigrants

2012-02-08T12:57:00.003-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Officially, the Obama administration has appointed a tax payer paid "public advocate" who is charged with listening to immigrants' concerns about its law enforcement policies but according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement the advocate will "serve as a point of contact for individuals, including those in immigration proceedings, NGOs and other community and advocacy groups, who have concerns, questions, recommendations or other issues they would like to raise."

Emphasis mine and it is that particular job description that Representative Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, expressing outrage.

"It's outrageous that the Obama administration has appointed a taxpayer-funded activist for illegal and criminal immigrants who are detained or ordered deported. The administration all too often acts more like a lobbying firm for illegal immigrants than as an advocate for the American people," Mr. Smith, Texas Republican, said.
Mr. Smith said that when Congress created the Homeland Security Department, it specifically created an advocate's position for those in the legal immigration process, but it declined to create one for illegal immigrants, who the courts have regularly ruled are not entitled to the same protections as citizens and legal residents.

Voter's tax dollars at work.

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Welfare Spending Under Obama- The Dramatic Rise Of Government Dependency

2012-02-08T12:04:00.012-07:00

By Susan Duclos

The Heritage Foundation published a study with incredibly informative graphs and charts along with detailed historical data which shows massive increases in Government dependency over the decades with the highest surges produced by Barack Obama and his policies.

The 2012 Index of Dependence on Government is the tenth year that The Heritage Foundation has warned about Americans’ growing dependence on government programs. The measurements used in the analysis, graphs and charts begin in 1962.

While dependency on the government has steadily risen throughout the decades, the rate of growth under Barack Obama's three years in office is described as dramatic and staggering.

In 2010 alone, the Index of Dependence on Government grew by 8.1 percent. The Index variables that grew the most were:

Housing: 13 percent
Health Care and Welfare: 13.1 percent
Retirement: 3.1 percent.

The chart below is labeled Welfare and Low-Income Health Care Assistance Surges and Heritage's analysis will be shown below it.

Click image to enlarge

Comprehensive welfare reform is far from achieved. Today’s welfare system is a convoluted machinery of 70 programs, six federal departments, and a voluminous collection of state agencies and programs. Overall, the welfare system amounts to almost $900 billion in spending per year. A typical welfare recipient family could receive assistance from six or seven programs (e.g., TANF, Medicaid, food stamps, public housing, Head Start, and the Social Services Block Grant) administered by four different departments.
Since President Lyndon Johnson declared the War on Poverty in 1964, the federal government has spent approximately $16 trillion on means-tested welfare aid. Today, means-tested assistance is the fastest-growing part of government, with the nation spending more on welfare than on national defense. In the past two decades, growth in means-tested welfare spending has outpaced that of Social Security, Medicare, education, and defense. Under the Obama Administration, welfare spending has increased dramatically. For example, between FY 2008 (the last fiscal year under the Bush Administration) and FY 2011, the average per capita benefit for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly the Food Stamp Program, nearly doubled from $39.3 billion to $75.3 billion (in constant 2011 dollars). Food-stamp outlay for FY 2011 is estimated at $78.5 billion. Over the next 10 years, welfare spending is projected to cost taxpayers $10.3 trillion. The Obama Administration has worked rapidly to expand the welfare state further. Such growth is clearly unsustainable.

The 1996 Welfare Reform Act was the first phase of meaningful welfare reform; the next phase should focus on the following: First, since means-tested welfare spending goes to more than 70 federal programs, Congress should require the President’s annual budget to detail current and future aggregate federal means-tested spending. The budget should also provide estimates of state contributions to federal welfare programs. Second, continuing reform should rein in the explosive growth in spending. Once the current recession ends, that is, when unemployment reaches 6.5 percent, aggregate welfare funding should be capped at pre-recession (FY 2007) levels plus inflation. Third, building on the successful 1996 model, further reform should continue to promote personal responsibility by encouraging work. For example, SNAP, one of the largest means-tested programs, should be restructured to require recipients to work, or prepare to work, in order to be eligible for food stamps.
In March 2011, Representative Jim Jordan (R–OH), chairman of the Republican Study Committee, introduced the Welfare Reform Act of 2011. The legislation seeks to reverse the undoing of TANF reform under the Obama Administration; require able-bodied adult members of food-stamp-recipient families to work or actively seek employment; reward states for reducing food-stamp caseloads below 2006 levels and for reducing poverty and government dependence; require the President to include total means-tested welfare spending in his annual budget; and require Congress to define and establish an aggregate cap for means-tested welfare spending in its budget.

IBD has put the 18 staggering charts together on one page HERE, without analysis, and the detailed analysis of each and every chart and graph can be found at Heritage HERE.

In August of 2011, when reports surfaced showing that Food Stamp (part of welfare) use rose to a record 45.8 million, Newt Gingrich started calling Barack Obama "the most effective food stamp President in history," and with the Dependency Index rising 23 percent under Barack Obama, it looks like Gingrich was and is correct.

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Video- RNC Ad: 'The Obama 2012 Fashion Show'

2012-02-08T10:34:00.004-07:00

By Susan Duclos

The RNC has released an ad against Barack Obama and the ritzy fashion show his campaign hosted.

Video below:

Detail via The Hill:

Then, parroting a MasterCard advertising campaign of years past, the ad features a list of some of the more expensive items in the Obama campaign's Web store — including a $40 nail polish and makeup bag set, a $95 scarf designed by Thakoon Panichgul and a $75 designer tote bag.

"Watching the Obama campaign host a ritzy NYC fashion show while 12 million Americans remain out of work? Priceless," onscreen text concludes.

The New York Obama fund-raising event called "Runway to Win," has brought about questions pertaining to campaign finance rules, "about whether corporate money, property and employees were improperly used in the design and production of these items without reimbursement," according to Sean Spicer, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

The Obama campaign maintains they have complied with campaign finance rules.

More on Campaign Finance Laws can be found at the Federal Election Commission website.

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Santorum Rolled Over Romney In Missouri, Minnesota And Colorado

2012-02-08T09:13:00.009-07:00

By Susan Duclos

American voters watched three contests last night, a "show" primary in Missouri (the MO. caucuses are on March 17, 2012), caucuses in Minnesota and caucuses in Colorado.

Rick Santorum won in all three contests.

The surprise of the night was the Colorado Caucus results where Santorum won with a 5 percent margin despite expectations across the board of a Romney win, with Intrade even giving Romney a 97 percent chance of winning.

In Missouri, only Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul were on the ballots, Newt Gingrich is on the March 17, 2012 caucus ballot didn't participate in the show primary. Santorum took 55 percent of the vote, Romney took 25 percent and Paul 12 percent.

Note-The Missouri primary is non-binding and has no impact on delegate allocation. Delegate selection begins at county caucuses on March 17. 52 delegates tied to caucus process.

In Minnesota, CNN reports on 95 percent of the vote reported and Santorum took 45 percent, Ron Paul took second place with 27 percent of the vote, Romney third place with 17 percent and Gingrich with 11 percent.

In Colorado, CNN shows 99 percent reporting and has Santorum the winner with 40 percent of the vote, Romney in second place with 35 percent, Gingrich in third place with 13 percent and Paul in fourth with 12 percent.

Note- As per previous statements in the media about focusing on Super Tuesday contests (March 6, 2012, where 10 contests occur in one day) and the Gingrich campaign's schedule, Gingrich spent his day in Ohio campaigning.

As headlines and discussions across the Internet about last night, there is no doubt that Rick Santorum was a big winner coming into this morning.

The biggest losers last night were Romney and every media outlet, every Republican establishment member and anyone else that continued to perpetrate the "Romney is inevitable" meme.

There were other winners last night as well. The anti-Romney voters. Voters that do not want to see Romney get the 1,144 delegates needed to obtain the GOP nomination for President. Voters that would rather this battle be fought right to convention rather than see Romney as the nominee.

AndyZ over at Right Pundits brings me to the next two headlines I noticed over at Memeorandum.

Andy writes:

So why did Rick Santorum win all three elections? A combination of elements contributed to the results. First, Santorum was the least tainted after a nasty dogfight between Romney and Gingrich in Florida. Mitt may have won in Florida, but he won ugly, carpet bombing Gingrich with some 13,000 negative TV ads compared to only 200 aired by Newt. Romney′s favorables have been declining nationwide since then.

He ends his excellent analysis with "Look out, Rick, because you will be carpet bombed by the Romney machine next!"

Good call Andy, because the headlines I referred to are, CNN with "TRENDING: Romney will take tougher approach to Santorum, adviser says," and WSJ with "Front-Runner Is Targeting Santorum."

The pro-Romney SuperPAC, Restore Our Future, has just been given their marching orders: Carpet bomb Santorum.!!!

Next up will be the CNN and the Republican Party of Arizona sponsored GOP primary debate on February 22, 2012, on CNN at 8pm ET held at the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona.

Then on February 28, 2012, Michigan and Arizona will be holding primaries.

(Full Republican primary/caucus schedule found HERE)

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Live Blogging/Discussion- Colorado and Minnesota 2012 Caucuses, Exit Polls And Results On 2/7/12

2012-02-07T11:45:00.003-07:00

By Susan Duclos

(This post will be bumped to the top all day on 2/7/12)

[Update] CNN reports the projected winner in Missouri is Santorum. 2nd Place for Romney, Paul in 3rd.

[Update] CNN reports the projected winner in Minnesota is Santorum. Paul in 2nd, Romney 3rd and Gingrich 4th place.

[Update] CNN reports the projected winner in Colorado is Rick Santorum.

Will report final totals tomorrow.

Once again Wake up America will be joining Right Pundits as we live blog the Colorado and Minnesota 2012 Caucuses on February 7, 2012, with live discussions on exit polls and results, beginning at 7pm EST.

The Missouri primary, Tuesday, February 7, 2012 will also be covered but that is mostly a "show" primary and on March 17, 2012, Missouri holds their caucuses.

[Update] In fact, the RNC sends out a reminder:

Colorado is a non-binding precinct caucus. Their 36 delegates will be chosen at district conventions held between March 31 – April 13, 2012, and at the state convention on April 14, 2012.

Minnesota is a non-binding precinct caucus. Their 40 delegates will be chosen at district conventions held between April 14 – 21, 2012, and at a state convention on May 5, 2012. Delegates are not bound unless the state convention passes a resolution to bind the delegates.

Missouri will hold a primary tomorrow that is not recognized as being a part of any delegate allocation or selection process.

A precinct caucus will be held on 3/17/2012 to begin the process of choosing their 52 delegates which will be chosen at district conventions on April 21, 2012, and a state convention on June 2, 2012. Candidates for delegate must state a presidential preference at the time of nomination and will be bound to support that candidate for one ballot at the national convention.

(Full Republican primary/caucus schedule found HERE)

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=66479a48b6" &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;2012 Colorado, Minnesota Caucuses and Missouri Primary Results Live&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Updates will be added throughout the day below the chat feature until it goes live with the discussion, then results will be added on top in the final updates once they are published.

[Update] According to Public Policy Polling, Santorum is headed for a big day in two of the the three contests held today.

Rick Santorum could be headed for a big day in today's contests in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri. Missouri looks like a probable win for Santorum. He's at 45% there to 32% for Mitt Romney and 19% for Paul. Minnesota provides an opportunity for a win as well. Currently he has a small advantage with 33% to 24% for Romney, 22% for Newt Gingrich, and 20% for Ron Paul. And Santorum should get a second place finish in Colorado, where Romney appears to be the likely winner. The standings there are Romney at 37%, Santorum at 27%, Gingrich at 21%, and Paul at 13%.

Santorum's personal popularity is the main reason for his sudden reemergence as a relevant player in the GOP race. In all 3 of these states his favorability is over 70%- 74/17 in Minnesota, 72/17 in Missouri, and 71/19 in Colorado. He's far better liked than his main opponents- Romney's favorability is 47-60% in those states and Gingrich's is 47-48%. While Romney and Gingrich have hammered each other in recents weeks Santorum's been largely left alone and he's benefiting from that now.

If Santorum takes two of these states as polling indicates he might, this would go a long way toward negating the "Romney is inevitable" meme from the media and Republican establishment as well as showing other states before Super Tuesday that Romney cannot fully connect with voters, and cannot close the deal across the country.

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Personal Responsibility: They Voted For Obamacare, But Now They're Sorry?

2012-02-07T11:41:00.004-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Now that there is a very public outcry happening across the country, from multiple religious factions over parts of Obamacare that has been dubbed "Obama's war on religion", Democratic Congress members are trying to distance themselves from the very fact that Democrats who controlled The House at the time, the Senate and the White House, passed Obamacare.

They passed Obamacare against the wishes of the majority of Americans in every poll done at the time, against the opposition of all Republican Congress members, and now they are sorry?

They "trusted Obama", they didn't know, and they would have never voted for the health care bill had they known that the Department of Health and Human Services would require all private insurers, including Catholic charities and hospitals, to provide free coverage of contraception, sterilization procedures, and "week-after" pills that can induce early abortions.

Are you freaking kidding me?

Former Democratic congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper said in a press release sent out by Democrats for Life in November:

"I would have never voted for the final version of the bill if I expected the Obama Administration to force Catholic hospitals and Catholic Colleges and Universities to pay for contraception. We worked hard to prevent abortion funding in health care and to include clear conscience protections for those with moral objections to abortion and contraceptive devices that cause abortion. I trust that the President will honor the commitment he made to those of us who supported final passage."

Dahlkemper, who was voted out on her proverbial butt in November of 2010, isn't the only one that voted for the bill and are now regretting it.

As former Democratic congressman Bart Stupak said when the Senate passed Obamacare in December of 2009, "A review of the Senate language indicates a dramatic shift in federal policy that would allow the federal government to subsidize insurance policies with abortion coverage. Further, the segregation of funds to pay for abortion is another departure from current policy prohibiting federal subsidy of abortion coverage."
Stupak, Dahlkemper, and a handful of other Democrats who held back on voting for final passage of Obamacare eventually voted for the exact same language in the Senate bill because the president signed an executive order saying the law wouldn't fund abortions.

But the executive order signed by President Obama did nothing to prevent the subsidized health care exchanges from covering elective abortions.

Some Democratic members of Congress try to excuse the inexcusable by claiming that Nancy Pelosi, who was Speaker of the House at the time, would have "punished" them if they didn't vote for it, others claim they didn't even read every page of the bill before voting for it because they "hire experts" for that type of thing.

Bottom line is they voted for it. Period.

Man up, accept responsibility for your votes and stop trying to justify, excuse or explain.

This battle has just begun because now even liberals and liberal media outlets are speaking out, with some sites such as PolitiSite declaring "If there were any doubt as to whether this administration is waging a war on religion, it should have disappeared by now."

Other headlines include "Obama violated Army Chaplin’s First Amendment Rights."

Obama may have been the one to declare a national war on religion, but he is already losing the public relations war as other religious groups join Catholics in their public outcry, more and more media outlets are stepping up to the plate and speaking out and day by day millions of voters are seeing how Obama is attempting to strip the First Amendment rights away from them.

Furthermore, since I am on a rant, let me point out the hypocrisy of Mitt Romney claiming that Obama's war on religion is a "violation of conscience," when Romneycare did exactly the same thing long before Obamcare was passed into law.

C.J. Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, told the Boston Globe that Romney’s criticism of President Obama is hypocritical because as governor he did not lift the state-level requirement of contraception coverage.

“The initial injury to Catholic religious freedom came not from the Obama administration, but from the Romney administration,” Doyle said.

PS- Conservative and Republican leaning Independents better start understanding, quickly, that voting for Mitt Romney against the other GOP candidates is the same as voting for Obama himself.

Embeddable PDF: Obama By The Numbers

2012-02-07T10:37:00.003-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Below is an embed that can be shared by going to the bottom and clicking share to grab the embed code or share via Twitter, Facebook or Scribd.

Obama by the Numbers 0212

Pass it around.

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Catholic League Prepared To Fight Back Against Obama's War On Religion

2012-02-07T09:34:00.006-07:00

By Susan Duclos

"The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees' health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception. Almost all health insurers will be forced to include those "services" in the health policies they write. And almost all individuals will be forced to buy that coverage as a part of their policies."--- Portion of a letter written by Bishop of Marquette, that was read in Catholic Churches across the country

The Obama administration has worked to try to limit the public relations nightmare they created when they decided to interfere in religious freedoms and practices, but the Catholic League is prepared to fight back just as relentlessly against Obama.

Catholic leaders are furious and determined to harness the voting power of the nation’s 70 million Catholic voters to stop a provision of President Barack Obama’s new heath car reform bill that will force Catholic schools, hospitals and charities to buy birth control pills, abortion-producing drugs and sterilization coverage for their employees.

“Never before, unprecedented in American history, for the federal government to line up against the Roman Catholic Church,” said Catholic League head Bill Donohue.

Already Archbishop Timothy Dolan has spoken out against the law and priests around the country have mobilized, reading letters from the pulpit. Donohue said Catholic officials will stop at nothing to put a stop to it.

“This is going to be fought out with lawsuits, with court decisions, and, dare I say it, maybe even in the streets,” Donohue said.

While the Obama administration and it's puppets, aka far left progressive liberals, attempt to spin this with excuses, justifications and a "choice" issue, they neglect to mention that Catholics are not the only religious faction that are rising up and speaking out against Obama's war on religion.

The Catholic Church is not alone in its opposition to Obamacare’s onslaught against religious freedom. David Addington, The Heritage Foundation’s vice president of Domestic and Economic Policy, details the growing ranks of the faithful who say the Obama Administration has crossed a very dangerous line. The National Association of Evangelicals commented that “The HHS rules trample on our most cherished freedoms and set a dangerous precedent” and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America stated, “In declining to expand the religious exemption within the healthcare reform law, the Obama Administration has disappointingly failed to respect the needs of religious organizations such as hospitals, social welfare organizations and more.” The Agudath Israel of America stated its opposition, as did the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America.

It has just gone from 70 million Catholic voters to well over a 100 million religious voters of all faiths.

Awakening a sleeping giant indeed.

Which Obama advisers really thought it was a good idea to declare war on religion and to do it in an election year?

When even the liberal media declares the Obama administration has not only crossed a line, but has "galloped over it," then it is time to admit they bit off more than they can chew.

Few Americans of any political stripe would disagree with the simple proposition that the government should steer away from meddling in church affairs. Certainly, it should never try to force a religiously affiliated institution to violate a central tenet of its faith.

GAME ON.

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Video- Rick Santorum Was Against The Tea Party Before He Was For It

2012-02-06T14:13:00.004-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Uploaded 1/13/12 to YouTube, a reminder to people that hear GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum saying nice things about the Tea Party movement, Santorum was originally opposed to the movement and said he would "vocally and publicly oppose" the movement.

Video below:

Below is a picture of the original Tea Party candidate, from 1994, AP caption reads "In this April 15, 1994 file photo, House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich of Georgia and 7th District (Ga.) congressional candidate Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, throw mock tea crates into the Chattahoochee River in Roswell, Ga."

HauntingsTelevision added a remix of the video above on YouTube, with music.

Showing it below because that version also adds more recent statements where Santorum claims to have felt a "bond" with the Tea Party audience and calls himself a "Tea Party person".

H/T Damage Report.

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Brent Bozell Takes Network News Chiefs To Task For Not Covering Obama's War On Religion

2012-02-06T13:52:00.004-07:00

By Susan Duclos

The following letter by MRC President Brent Bozell, was sent out to the presidents of the news divisions of ABC, CBS and NBC, and to the President of CNN, taking the to task for their slow coverage on Barack Obama's direct attack on religion freedom in what is being hailed as Obama's War On Religion.

The broadcast and cable television networks need to report the current, unprecedented assault against freedom of religion in this country, as well as the millions of Americans who would be left out in the cold by the Obama administration if it does not rescind HHS’s recently issued insurance mandate requiring contraceptive coverage. As our statistics and analysis below outline, they are not, and it’s a glaring double standard.

First, allow us to offer perspective on whom this new mandate affects. There are more than 65 million Catholics in the United States. Collectively, they operate more than 7,000 Catholic schools to educate children of all faiths and backgrounds. They also manage hundreds of health care facilities. In fact, one in six patients in the United States is cared for in a Catholic hospital.

All of these institutions and countless other Catholic-run charities will be forced to close their doors – or forfeit their most fundamental and deeply held religious beliefs if the Obama administration’s new mandate is not rescinded. The mandate forces these religious institutions to provide insurance covering sterilizations, abortion-causing drugs and artificial contraceptives, all of which fly in the face of Catholic teaching.

Yet to date, the broadcast networks have nearly ignored it. In contrast, in reaction to a decision that would affect vastly fewer potential patients, the networks pounced on the Susan G. Komen Foundation's decision (now overturned) to cease a measly $480,000 in a grant to Planned Parenthood, the country's largest abortion provider.

Since the mandate was finalized on January 20, 2012:

• ABC and NBC waited 16 days to cover the anti-Catholic ruling, finally citing the new rule on “This Week” and “Meet the Press” on February 5.

• CBS waited 10 days to mention it on “This Morning” and provided no subsequent coverage.

• CNN briefly mentioned the rule when it was announced on January 20th, then didn’t bother to mention it again for 10 days.

That stands in sharp contrast to the decision of the private Komen Foundation, when these same networks almost instantly piled on with publicity that helped fill Planned Parenthood's coffers and added to the pressure that forced Komen to reverse.

In fact, as of February 5th, ABC, CBS and NBC covered the Komen controversy six times more than the anti-Catholic HHS law.

New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan has said this new law “is as much an attack on access to health care as on religious freedom” and bishops across the country have issued the strongest letters in memory condemning this assault on religious liberty. Indeed, non-Catholic institutions across the country have joined the Catholic Church in condemning the administration, so you have no lack of experts and interviewees to discuss this outrage on-air.

The double standard is clear for all to see. You are ignoring the attack on the freedom of religion by the Obama administration, but coming to the aid of Planned Parenthood because you agree with them.

Your network must cover the administration’s insurance mandate accurately and comprehensively for what it is – an unprecedented assault against religion and a devastating blow to the millions of American school children, sick, elderly and poor of all religious faiths that are served by these Catholic institutions. If you refuse, and limit your networks to reporting about the Komen Foundation’s decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood, then you cannot be seen as anything but an anti-Catholic, pro-abortion advocate.

Report both sides.

Sincerely,

L. Brent Bozell III

Founder and President
The Media Research Center

cc: Most Reverend Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., D.D.; Most Reverend Timothy Dolan, President, Catholic Conference of Bishops; Mr. Bryan Wright, President Southern Baptist Convention; Bishop Larry Goodpaster, The United Methodist Church; Dr. Julius Scruggs, President, National Baptist Convention, USA; Mr. Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Dr. George Wood Chief Executive Officer Assemblies of God; Dr. Jeff Farmer, Chairperson, Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America; Dr. Richard Land, President, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; Carl A. Anderson, Supreme Knight – Knights of Columbus

Online contact page for ABC News found HERE.
Online contact page for NBC News found HERE.
Online contact page for CBS News found HERE.
Online contact page for CNN found HERE.

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Video- Rick Santorum: Romney 'Absolutely Incapable' Of Making The Case Against Obamacare

2012-02-06T12:53:00.006-07:00

By Susan Duclos

"I really don't find any legitimate reason why he would oppose it, because the plan he put together in Massachusetts is in fact Obamacare on the state level."-- Rick Santorum on Romney being "absolute incapable of making the case against Obamacare successfully."

Video below

Via CNN's Political Ticker:

"It's a very weak argument to go and make to the American public," he said, adding that Romney is "uniquely unqualified and I would argue disqualified" from making the case against the nation's healthcare plan.

"[With] Romneycare and Obamacare the government controls everything," Santorum said with force. "Every aspect of the healthcare transaction is controlled by Massachusetts and by Washington. You show me the differentiation there on the most key issue in America today-your Economic freedom."

Video: Madison Rising's Reagan Tribute- In The Days That Reagan Ruled

2012-02-06T12:33:00.004-07:00

By Susan Duclos

In The Days That Reagan Ruled - Madison Rising

Video below:

Thanks to Zack for the email.

Republican Turnout In Nevada Caucuses Down 25 Percent

2012-02-06T09:00:00.010-07:00

By Susan Duclos

In the final tally for the Nevada caucuses, Mitt Romney took Nevada with less of a margin than he did in 2008, this time with 50 percent, where in 2008 he took 51.1 percent of the vote and went on to lose the nomination to John McCain in the end.

Newt Gingrich came in second with over 21.1 percent in Saturday's Nevada caucuses. Ron Paul coming in third with 18.7 percent percent, topping his 2008 total by five percentage points. Rick Santorum came in last with 9.9 percent.

As is becoming a worrisome pattern, Republican turnout was way down, this time by over 25 percent compared to the turnout in 2008.

Via CNN's Political Ticker:

Nearly 33,000 Republican voters participated in this year's caucuses, 11,000 less than in 2008.

Nevada Republican Caucus Turnout 2008- 44,324
Nevada Republican Caucus Turnout 2012- 32,963

This is not isolated to Nevada, as FiveThirtyEight found, even in states where overall turnout was higher for the 2012 caucus/primaries, Self-identified Republican turnout was down except in South Carolina which Newt Gingrich won with the state's Republicans showing a 20 percent rise over the totals of 2008 turnout.

Mitt Romney won in Florida and Republican participation was down by 16 percent, but as the two graphs below will show, in the 34 out of 67 counties in Florida that Gingrich won, participation was up and the 33 counties where Romney won participation was down.

Areas Romney won vs areas Gingrich won

The breakdown

Via LA Times, the creator of the chart, Michael McDonald of George Mason University, one of the country’s leading experts on voter turnout, explains the chart above.

The dots represent Florida’s counties. Dots in the upper right-hand part of the graph show places where Newt Gingrich did particularly well and turnout was up. The large number of dots in the lower left-hand of the graph show counties where Gingrich did badly and turnout was down. The overall message: “It was primarily the counties Gingrich did well in” – mostly conservative, rural areas in northern Florida – that saw an increase in turnout, McDonald said. By contrast, the large urban and suburban counties where Romney won heavily had big turnout declines.

The pattern indicates that Romney fails to excite voters and the enthusiasm that gave Republicans the edge in the 2010 midterms for historic wins has evaporated the harder the media, Romney and the Republican establishment pushes the "Romney is inevitable" meme onto voters.

Whether it is the contrast between Romney's former liberal policies and actions vs his conservative campaign rhetoric, or his inability to connect with voters, his gaffes or just that damn perpetual smirk and air of entitlement he projects, or perhaps all of that together, isn't the issue, they are just possible reasons behind the issue.

The issue is that if he cannot excite the conservative Republican base, and with his unfavorability numbers with Independents rising 20 percent, his chances of beating Obama in 2012 are dwindling by the day.

5 states down, 45 to go with another three caucuses and two primaries set for February (with the Missouri primary which awards no delegates until they hold their caucuses in March) and Mitt Romney is positioned to do well in those February contests.

In March there are 20 primaries/caucuses set for March, including the 10, which are on March 6, 2012, known as Super Tuesday.

In April there are 9 primaries/caucuses scheduled.

(Full Republican primary/caucus schedule found HERE)

Bottom Line:

One of two things must happen by the end of April... either Mitt Romney has to find a way to connect with voters and excite the Republican base or American caucus-goes and primary voters need to vote for a candidate that can to be the GOP nominee.

Disclaimer- I am a former Perry supporter who now supports Newt Gingrich.

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The Romney Smirk- Air Of Entitlement Will Hand Barack Obama Another 4 Years

2012-02-05T12:06:00.013-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Mitt Romney after losing the South Carolina Primary

I finally figured out what it is about Romney that that bugs me the most other than his liberal past actions which do not match his rhetoric when he is campaigning as a supposed conservative... it is his air of entitlement, like he somehow believes he is entitled to win the GOP nomination. Never before in all my years watching GOP politicians, have I witnessed someone who thinks "he is all that and a bag of chips," as Romney appears to think he is.

It is unattractive, it is his condescending attitude and his ability to make me think of Obama in disguise that makes me cringe every time I see his speeches or his picture.

That smirk needs to be wiped off his face with a couple devastating losses which I am hoping the Southern states, like South Carolina did, give him in spades. A couple races in March where he takes last place.

Romney does not even have 100 delegates out of the 1,144 delegates needed to win the GOP nomination, yet he believes his own press and has himself convinced he is "inevitable."

Romney had that same smirk in 2008, yet John McCain took the nomination.

Every win he has had, every primary and caucus, Republican turnout has been down. Perhaps it is not just his contrasting record from his campaign rhetoric, perhaps other GOP voters simply do not like the man himself either.

The man himself turns voters off. If he cannot draw voters out where participation is up in a state he wins as Gingrich did in the 34 out of 67 counties of Florida that he won, or in South Carolina where the turnout was up and gave Gingrich the win, then how on earth is he going to create an air of enthusiasm for a general election if he obtains the GOP nomination?

As was explained in a previous post, there are GOP voters out there asking 4 more years of Obama, or potentially 8 more years of Obama-like Romney?

There are 45 states to go and already we are seeing a loss of enthusiasm in the general conservative electorate that is unheard of when an opposing party's President is as unpopular as Barack Obama is.

Perhaps he should ask himself why he isn't capable of creating excitement in what he now calls his "base". [Conservatives]

It is that attitude, that air of entitlement, that cockiness where he thinks he is better than everyone else, that DAMN SMIRK of his, along with his past liberal policies that is going to hand Barack Obama another four years.

This has been your public service rant of the day, back to regularly scheduled programming....

Enjoy the Super Bowl everyone!!!!

Video- Newt Gingrich's News Conference From Las Vegas 2/4/2012

2012-02-05T09:19:00.005-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Newt Gingrich bucked tradition and conducted a press avail last night instead of an after-caucus party, where he gave a small speech, then answered the media's questions for a short time. Speculation arose when the presser was announced about whether Gingrich would suspend his campaign but early reports confirmed he was staying in the race.

Video of presser below:

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Gingrich Not Suspending Campaign- Future Campaign Stops Confirmed

2012-02-04T19:29:00.005-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Despite speculation from a few outlets as to whether Newt Gingrich would be suspending his presidential campaign because he chose to schedule a press avail for 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm PT, in the Bellini Ballroom # 2001-2102 at Venetian/Palazzo Congress Center, instead of the usual after caucus party, Gingrich's schedule for February 6th through the 10th has been confirmed, via email, and includes stops in Colorado, Minnesota and Ohio.

Previous statements by Gingrich made it obvious that he had no intention of dropping out of the GOP presidential race, but in politics, speculation runs rampant when anything is done that is not considered the norm.

On Fox News, Gingrich hinted at a potential path toward winning the nomination, saying he hoped to be "even with or slightly ahead" of Romney in total delegates by April 3.

"We're working our way toward Super Tuesday," Gingrich said to Van Susteren. "And we think we'll do very, very well on Super Tuesday, and then in Alabama and Mississippi the following week. And then we think we will clean up in Texas on the 3rd of April.'

The Gingrich campaign also spent part of caucus day, today, meeting with approximately 60 donors, including Sheldon Adelson, who has been in the news recently when he donated $5 million to the pro-Gingrich SuperPAC, Winning Our Future, followed by another $5 million donation by his wife Miriam.

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Russia And China Veto UN Resolution On Syria

2012-02-04T14:52:00.006-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Anyone remember the statement below?

"We came in friendship, hope, and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace"--- Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared after her visit to Syria and her meeting with its dictator Bashir Assad, 2007

Many were outraged that Pelosi, as Speaker of the House at the time, would go to Syria against the wishes of the White House and talk with leaders of a country that sponsors terrorists.

2012- Now we have reports of over 200- 400 people being massacred by Assad and Barack Obama finally issuing a statement condemning what he calls an "unspeakable assault." Furthermore Obama demands Assad "step aside and allow a democratic transition to proceed immediately." Obama's statement continues "Yesterday the Syrian government murdered hundreds of Syrian citizens, including women and children, in Homs through shelling and other indiscriminate violence, and Syrian forces continue to prevent hundreds of injured civilians from seeking medical help."

Anyone think Assad is going to even give a thought to Obama's wishes? Both Russia and China vetoed a very watered down resolution that the 13 other members of the Security Council voted for.

Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a Western and Arab-sponsored U.N. resolution condemning Syria’s violent repression of anti-government demonstrators, throwing their prestige and power behind President Bashar al-Assad as he intensifies a military operation aimed at crushing the 10-month-old uprising.

The Russian and Chinese stance came as a blow to U.S. and European efforts to rally behind an Arab League plan that would require Assad to step down, making way for a democratically elected unity government with a leader commanding support from both the government and the opposition.

Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations expressed the United State's disgust for the Russia and China vetoes.

The council has “been held hostage by a couple of members,” she said, adding that “these members stand behind empty arguments and individual interests while seeking to strip” any resolution of meaningful terms.

“A couple of members of this council remain steadfast in their willingness to sell out the Syrian people and shield a craven tyrant,” Rice said. She said Saturday’s action was even “more shameful” given Russia’s role in selling arms to Assad’s government.

France and Germany's representatives also expressed their dissatisfaction with the end result of the Security Council's vote.

I wonder if Pelosi still thinks the road to peace goes through Damascus and Assad?

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Nevada Caucus 2012- Result and Entrance Polling Data

2012-02-04T11:59:00.014-07:00

By Susan Duclos

This post will be updated, on top, when the results are tallied.

[Update] NYT has the delegate counts as 81 for Mitt Romney, 27 for Newt Gingrich, 15 for Rick Santorum and 6 for Ron Paul. (1,144 delegates needed to win the GOP nomination)

Side Note- The AP gives the delegate count with endorsements from Republican National Committee members who will automatically attend the convention and can support any candidate they choose, showing those totals as 97 for Romney, 30 got Gingrich, 16 for Santorum and 7 for Paul.

[Update] Romney, Gingrich, Paul then Santorum respectively. Will update on allocation of delegates soon.

[Update] As expected from the massive lead in the polls, Romney took first place, Santorum projected in 4th place and Gingrich and Paul's numbers are too close to call with 10 percent of the precincts reporting. More tomorrow on the actual numbers.

[Update] Entrance poll data will be at Fox News when it becomes available, found HERE.
CNN has a results page HERE for when the vote tallies are posted.

More entrance poll results from CBS News, showing 44 percent of Nevada Republican caucus-goers named electability as the candidate quality that matters most, 20 percent said strong moral character matters the most, while 17 percent said being a true conservative. Sixteen percent say having the right experience matters the most.

More:

Only 22 percent of Nevada voters decided on their candidate in the last few days, the entrance polling shows. Twenty percent decided in January while 57 percent decided earlier than that.

[Update] Video below shows entrance polling data:

The Nevada Caucus website provides the relevant information:

How does the Nevada Caucus work?
As most caucuses work, you do not do a direct vote for a candidate like primaries. The caucus has 3 levels: The precinct, the county convention and finally the state convention. Overall Nevada has 33 Democratic delegates and 34 Republican delegates.

Nevada Precinct Caucuses
This is where any registered voter can participate. The precinct voting is a very informal proceeding. It starts with the voters gathered into preference groups for each candidate. A simple head count is taken for each precinct. It takes a minimum of 15 percent in each precinct for a candidate to be viable. If a candidate's preference group is not viable, they can choose to caucus with another group (pick another candidate), or be uncommitted. There is time for each viable candidate's group to try to talk the unviable candidates voters into choosing their candidate. This is way many times a candidate will seem to have not received any votes, though the actually may have originally. Each precinct then elects a representative (delegate) to move on to the county convention.

Nevada County Convention
Delegates to the county convention were then selected amongst the candidate groups. A similar process occurred at the county convention. Although they file statements of support for their chosen candidate, all delegates are technically unbound until the state convention, otherwise the may change their vote. In some cases the candidate originally chosen may have dropped out of the race.

Nevada State Convention
There is no formal system of allocating delegates to presidential candidates at the state convention for the Republicans while the Democrats delegates to the state convention are chosen by vote at the county convention.

KGO 810 News provides more information on caucus times and other information:

Like Florida, Nevada’s contest is only open to registered Republicans. The registration deadline ended Jan. 21, two weeks before Saturday’s caucus date. The state lists 468,174 registered Republicans, about 35 percent of the total registered voting population. In 2008, 44,315 votes were cast in the Republican presidential caucus.

[SNIP]

Caucus times will vary across the state, but most will take place between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. PT. There is one evening caucus scheduled at 7 p.m. in Clark County for those voters who cannot caucus during the day because of religious reasons.

The narrative of the state of the economy takes on a particular importance in Nevada. The state has the highest unemployment rate in the country—12.6 percent as of December. Nevada also has the highest foreclosure rate in the country. One in every 177 homes in Nevada received a foreclosure filing in December 2011, according to the foreclosure database RealtyTrac.

Mitt Romney is the odds on favorite to win in Nevada according to polling, the real question is who will come in 2nd, 3rd and 4th places as the delegates are proportional.

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4 More Years Of Obama, Or Potentially 8 More With Obama-Like Romney?

2012-02-04T09:03:00.004-07:00

By Susan Duclos

The other day I pointed out how the Republican establishment and Mitt Romney have destroyed the enthusiasm of conservative voters.

Today we see evidence of that all around. People tweeting they will never vote for Romney if he becomes the GOP nominee. People stating via email they would rather sit out the election because if Romney becomes the GOP nominee they feel they would be opening the door to a potential eight more years of Obama-like policies if Romney won the 2012 election.

Via The Hill:

Those who continue to believe that Romney can be stopped are focused — as is the campaign of Newt Gingrich — on the possibility of a long delegate fight. They have largely given up hope of anyone winning a knockout victory over Romney, hoping instead that some other candidate can prevent the former Massachusetts governor from wrapping the race up before the Republican National Convention, which is set for Tampa, Fla., in late August.

In New Hampshire, which Romney won, turnout of actual Republicans was down 16 percent from the 2008 numbers. In South Carolina, which Gingrich won, there was a "big jump" in turnout. In Florida, which Romney won, the 33 counties he beat Gingrich with had less turnout than the turnout in the 34 counties that Gingrich won.

From the Bottom Line of the earlier post mentioned above, I said:

Romney does not excite conservatives. While many will coalesce behind him if he wins enough delegates to become the Republican nominee, there is another segment that think he is no better than Obama and will not bother voting at all, handing Obama a win for reelection.

In 2008, many conservatives pointed to Barack Obama's voting record, his prior history. He spoke a good game in speeches but what he said did not match what he did beforehand.

Now it is 2012 and we have Mitt Romney and if we apply the same standard we preached in 2008 about Obama we see that Romney talks a good game also, he spews conservative rhetoric, but it does not match what he has said and done previously.

Romney on gun control in 2002- “We do have tough guns laws in Mass. I support them. I won’t chip away them. I believe they help protect us and provide for our safety.”(video)

Romney on abortion in 2002- “I will preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose and have devoted and dedicated to honor my word in that regard. I will not change any provision of Mass Pro-choice laws.”(video)

Everyone already knows where Romney stands on healthcare, it was his Romneycare that was used as a basis for Obamacare.

Romney is practically the same as Barack Obama in action if not in campaign rhetoric.

That is part of Romney's past record. Now he wants to become the GOP nominee so of course he says what party voters want to hear but his rhetoric does not match his past actions or statements.

Here is the good news: With the Nevada caucuses being held today, there will be 5 of 50 primary/caucuses held. That leaves 45.

(Full GOP primary/caucus schedule HERE)

Out of 1144 delegates needed to win the GOP nomination, Romney only has 73. Gingrich 23. Santorum 13. RonPaul 3.(Source- New York Times)

Ron Paul and Rick Santorum have both maintained their goal is to collect delegates. Every delegate award to a candidate that is not Mitt Romney, is a delegate that does not get added to Romney's total.

Before the Florida primary, Gingrich said "When you take all the non-Romney votes, it’s very likely that at the convention there will be a non-Romney majority and maybe a very substantial one. My job is to convert that into a Gingrich majority."

February has Nevada (caucus), which is today. Maine (caucus) which is today through the 11th. February 7th is Colorado and Minnesota (both caucuses) and Missouri which is a primary but no delegates awarded until March 17th, where they hold caucuses to determine delegate allocation. February 28th is Arizona and Michigan (both primaries).

March is the do or die month though, with 20 primary/caucuses being held, many of which on Super Tuesday which is March 6th.

By the end of March, GOP supporters should know one way or another whether to let their "oh God, not Romney" despair take hold of them or whether they can rest easy that Romney won't be able to gather enough delegates to declare him the GOP nominee, forcing a contest at convention.

Via email we see there will be a Gingrich press conference tonight in Nevada, which is causing speculation as to whether he will stay in the race until convention as he has previously stated he would.

Las Vegas, NV - Newt 2012 released its public schedule for Saturday, February 4th in Nevada.

Saturday, February 4th

Newt 2012 Nevada Caucus Press Conference
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm PT
Venetian/Palazzo Congress Center
Bellini Ballroom # 2001-2102
(Behind the Blue Man Group Theatre)
3325 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Anti-Romney Republicans are hoping he continues on.

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Embedded: Georgia Judgment- Obama IS Eligible For Presidential Ballot

2012-02-03T15:27:00.007-07:00

By Susan Duclos

persons born within the borders of the United States are "natural born citizens" for Article II, Section 1 purposes, regardless of the citizenship of their parents. Just as a person "born within the British dominions [was] a natural-born British subject" at the time of the framing of the U.S. Constitution, so too were those "born in the allegiance of the United States[] natural-born citizens."---Part of Michael M. Malihi's ruling on Obama eligibility for Georgia presidential ballot. Dated- February 3, 2012

I see a lot of tweets and blog posts going around linking to an embed and claiming that Judge Michael M. Malihi has ruled against Barack Obama in an eligibility ruling but the actual ruling, signed by the judge concludes on page 10 of 10 shown in the embed below, "President Barack Obama is eligible as a candidate for the presidential primary election under O.C.G.A. § 21-2-5(b). SO ORDERED,
February 3rd, 2012.
Signed by Judge Micahel M. Malihi.

Embed below:

Farrar-Welden-Swensson-Powell v Obama - Judge Malihi Final Decision - Georgia Ballot Challenge - 2/3/2012

No insult intended to those that were hoping for a different outcome, but linking to a embed that is written and submitted by an attorney and is not signed by a judge, therefore not an official ruling, is not helpful to your cause in any way, shape or form.

Dr. Orly Taitz, Esquire, one of the attorney's that brought the case to the Georgia courts, has also issued a statement acknowledging Judge Malihi's ruling.

More at AJC.

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Embedded: GOP Senators' Letter Of Intent To Challenge Obama's Recess Appts In Court

2012-02-03T13:36:00.006-07:00

By Susan Duclos

The Hill reports that 39 GOP Senators have announced their intention to file a joint amicus brief in a court challenge Barack Obama's recent "recess" appointments while the Senate was still in pro-forma session.

Embed below of letter and signers.

Senate Gop Letter

Video Flashback: Trump rips Romney as "a fund guy" who got "rid of jobs"

2012-02-03T13:03:00.003-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Donald Trump endorsed Mitt Romney yesterday but Trump was not always a fan of Romney as the video below shows:

Description:

"Well, Mitt Romney is a basically small-business guy, if you really think about it," Trump said in an interview aired on CNN's "State of the Union." "He was a hedge fund. He was a fund guy. He walked away with some money from a very good company that he didn't create. He worked there. He didn't create it."

Trump went on to say this about Romney's business experience: "He'd buy companies, he'd close companies, he'd get rid of jobs, OK?

I built a big company."

Video via ModerateMitt on YouTube, below:

Although Romney thanked Trump gracefully, the ABC News The Note shows why he might not appreciate this endorsement in the long run.

Why would Romney want Trump’s nod when it could be more likely to turn voters off than turn them on to Romney? A Fox News poll last month found that Americans were nearly three times as likely to say they’d be less apt rather than more apt to vote for a candidate Trump endorsed, 27 percent to 10 percent. Two-thirds said it would make no difference.

Ouch.

Report: Simon Cowell Offers Beyonce $100 Million For X-Factor

2012-02-03T12:23:00.003-07:00

By Susan Duclos

A small break from politics with reports that Simon Cowell is offering Beyonce an annual salary of $100 million to become a full-time judge on X-Factor.

According to USMagazine this would be the highest Television salary ever.

Back in October a video was uploaded to YouTube where Cowell described Beyonce as "ambitious, talented, competitive." Cowell added "She defines this new breed of (unintelligible) of super popstar, and they're all girls at the moment. It's like a new super species who literally want to rule the world. When she came out with that song, there is no irony, she wants to rule the world. (laughter)"

In that same interview LA Reid described her as "The most talented performer alive."

Video below:

News came out on January 31, 2012 that Cowell had ousted both Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger from the second season of X-Factor although from the same report Cowell indicated that he expected to collaborate with Ms. Abdul on a new project.

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Gallup Poll Shows America Moving To The Right

2012-02-03T12:11:00.002-07:00

By Susan Duclos

As Barack Obama has moved America's policies to the left, the country's response has been to move to the right.

Via Gallup:

Democrats have lost their solid political party affiliation advantage in 18 states since 2008, while Republicans have gained a solid advantage in 6 states. A total of 17 states were either solidly Republican or leaning Republican in their residents' party affiliation in 2011, up from 10 in 2010 and 5 in 2008. Meanwhile, 19 states including the District of Columbia showed a solid or leaning Democratic orientation, down from 23 in 2010 and 36 in 2008. The remaining 15 states were relatively balanced politically, with neither party having a clear advantage.

Click image to enlarge

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Video- Gingrich Ad: 'I'm George Soros And I Approve This Candidate ' [Obamney]

2012-02-03T10:22:00.004-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Video below, transcript below that.

TRANSCRIPT with links to original sources.

Narrator: In an interview with The Washington Post on November 11, 2003, Soros said that removing President George W. Bush from office was the "central focus of my life" and "a matter of life and death". He said he would sacrifice his entire fortune to defeat President Bush, "if someone guaranteed it.”

This ultra-liberal financial supporter of groups like moveon.org donated almost $24 million dollars to defeat Georgia Bush.

So what does Mr. Soros think of Mitt Romney for President?:

George Soros: “If it’s between Romney and Obama, there isn’t all that much difference…” (video)

Narrator: Is he correct?

MONTAGE:

“Wall Street Executives turn back on Obama, start donating to Romney.”(The Hill)

NEIL CAVUTO: “Dozens of Wall Street executives who once banked Obama are now banking Mitt Romney.” (video)

ON TIM GEITHNER

OBAMA: “Tim Geithner is as sharp and as skilled a public servant as we have...”(video)

ROMNEY: “He is a person of accomplishment and skill. I think is a very bright individual...”(video)

ON ABORTION

OBAMA STATEMENT: As we mark the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we must remember that this Supreme Court decision not only protects a woman’s health and reproductive freedom, but also affirms a broader principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters. I remain committed to protecting a woman’s right to choose and this fundamental constitutional right. (WhiteHouse.gov)

ROMNEY: “I will preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose and have devoted and dedicated to honor my word in that regard. I will not change any provision of Mass Pro-choice laws.”(video)

ON GUNS

OBAMA: “Just because you have an individual right to bear arms does not mean that the state or local government can’t constrain the exercise of that right…”(video)

ROMNEY: “We do have tough guns laws in Mass. I support them. I won’t chip away them. I believe they help protect us and provide for our safety.”(video)

ON HEALTHCARE

OBAMA: “You’ve got a Governor who’s running for president right now who instituted the exact same thing in Massachusetts.”

ROMNEY: If you don’t want to buy insurance, you have to help pay for the costs…no more free riders…

OBAMA: “You can’t be a free rider on everybody else…”

OBAMA: “In fact I agree with Mitt Romney who recently said he is proud of what he accomplished on healthcare… he’s right." (video)

George Soros: “If it’s between Romney and Obama, there isn’t all that much difference…” (video)

Narrator: We can’t afford two George Soros approved candidates this fall.

We need a candidate who will fight for hardworking taxpayers.

We need a candidate who left wing billionaires like George Soros fear, because they will fundamentally change Washington.

We need Newt Gingrich.

Transcript provided by the Gingrich campaign via email.

Unemployment Drops To 8.3% As 1.2 Million People Leave Workforce

2012-02-03T09:42:00.008-07:00

By Susan Duclos

[Update] According to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U6, real time unemployment which is the total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, is still over 15 percent.

A drop in unemployment to 8.3 percent should be good news except when the reason for it is that 1.2 million people simply dropped out of the workforce and are therefore not counted into the totals.

Click image to enlarge

As James Glassman, senior economist at JP Morgan Chase & Co. in New York, said in an interview on “Bloomberg Surveillance” with Tom Keene, back in December 2011, "You’d like to see the unemployment rate coming down when people are coming into the job market, not disappearing."

[Update] Gallup explained back in December why "Growing Unemployment Optimism May Be Premature':

In contrast, Gallup's data suggest little improvement in the jobs situation. December unemployment is up slightly on an unadjusted basis. In fact, the government is likely to report essentially no change in the unemployment rate when it issues its report on December unemployment in the first week of 2012. Of course, this assumes that the labor force doesn't continue to shrink at so rapid a pace that it drives down the unemployment rate, as it did last month.

Gallup's most recent weekly job creation numbers also suggest little improvement in the jobs situation. As a result, it may be wise to exercise caution in interpreting the drop in the government's most recent jobless claims numbers.

Further, one reason unemployment is often seen as a lagging indicator has to do with the way people enter and leave the workforce. Even if the recent seeming improvement in the job market is more real than Gallup's data imply, signs of a better job market are likely to bring new job seekers into the workforce.....

The United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, Economic News Release, Employment Situation Summary is HERE.

Once again, as is usual in our unemployment pieces we list areas still at or above the official national average for unemployment are:

Arizona- 8.7%
California- 11.1%
D.C.- 10.4%
Florida- 9.9%
Georgia- 9.7%
Idaho- 8.4%
Illinois- 9.8%
Indiana- 9.0%
Kentucky- 9.1%
Michigan- 9.3%
Mississippi- 10.4%
Nevada- 12.6%
New Jersey- 9.0%
North Carolina- 9.9%
Oregon- 8.9%
Rhode Island- 10.8%
South Carolina- 9.5%
Tennessee- 8.7%
Washington- 8.5%

Data obtained from Bureau of Labor Statistics on the Local Area Unemployment Statistics page. (Right side)

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Komen Donations Up 100% As The Angry Left Attack Over Planned Parenthood Grant Cuts

2012-02-03T08:36:00.010-07:00

By Susan Duclos

[Update] Some liberals are claiming victory over Komen's revised wording of their plans after being attacked by liberals for two solid days, but other liberals see the revised wording for what it is, not a reversal. The new "announcement does not mean that Planned Parenthood is guaranteed future grants," proclaims Greg Sargent.

As some were quick to point out, the statement put out by Komen doesn’t really clarify whether Planned Parenthood will actually continue to get money from the group. The original rationale for barring Planned Parenthood was that it was under investigation (a witch-hunt probe undertaken by GOP Rep Cliff Stearns). Komen said today that the group would “amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political.”

Does that mean Planned Parenthood will get Komen grants in the future?

I asked Komen board member John Raffaelli to respond to those who are now saying that the announcement doesn’t necessarily constitute a reversal until Planned Parenthood actually sees more funding. He insisted it would be unfair to expect the group to commit to future grants.

“It would be highly unfair to ask us to commit to any organization that doesn’t go through a grant process that shows that the money we raise is used to carry out our mission,” Raffaelli told me. “We’re a humaniatrian organization. We have a mission. Tell me you can help carry out our mission and we will sit down at the table.”

[End Update]

Yesterday I wrote about the bruhaha from the angry liberal left against Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, the nation’s largest breast cancer advocacy organization, who as the New York Times reported cut off "most of its financial support to the nation’s largest abortion provider," Planned Parenthood.

Today we see that donations from the group have risen 100 percent in the last two days since liberals went on the rampage against the Komen Foundation.

According to Washington Post's WonkBlog, CEO Nancy Brinker explained why most of Planned Parenthood's funding was cut.

Brinker says it has to do with the fact that they do not provide mammograms to women, but only provide mammogram referrals. “It was nothing they were doing wrong,” she explained. “We have decided not to fund, whereever possible, pass-through grants. We were giving them money, they were sending women out for mammograms. What we would like to have are clinics where we can directly fund mammograms.”

Life News provides more detail:

She added, later in the day on Twitter:, saying the money “will be invested in programs to serve low-income, uninsured and underinsured women.”

“Our Board approved new grants standards to improve direct services to women,” she said. “New grants standards strive for grants that provide direct services and outcomes. We have to put metrics, outcomes and measures to our grants so we can translate the science we’ve funded over 30 yrs. We will continue to provide services to vulnerable populations with care, treatment and screening.”

William Teach asks over at Pirate's Cove, "What kind of world are we living in where the Susan G. Komen Foundation has to do damage control for pulling funding from an organization that is under federal investigation for potentially using taxpayer money for abortions, financial abuses, and ignoring state and local reporting requirements, often regarding minors? "

Indeed.

Out of the 19 Planned Parenthood affiliates Komen previously funded, they will still continue funding three in Northern Colorado, Southern California and Waco, Tex., because “they are the only provider” of breast health services in the areas they serve.

Liberal's latest hissy fit is over donations made to Komen by Discount Gun Sales which, in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, donate a portion of their sales to the Seattle Branch of the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

More on what Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure is about:

Since its inception in 1982, Komen has invested nearly $2 billion for breast cancer research, education, advocacy, health services and social support programs in the U.S., and through partnerships in more than 50 countries. Today, Komen has more than 100,000 volunteers working in a network of 124 affiliates worldwide. As of March 2011, Komen is listed on Charity Navigator with the site's highest rating of four stars. According to the Harris Interactive 2010 EquiTrend annual brand equity poll, Komen is one of the most trusted nonprofit organizations in America.

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Romney And Republican 'Establishment' Responsible For Destroying GOP Enthusiasm Gap

2012-02-02T12:16:00.009-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Back in December USA TODAY/Gallup Swing States Poll showed a 61 to 47 percent enthusiasm gaps favoring Republicans over Democrats.

By the New Hampshire primary, after the Republican establishment attempted to push for the "Romney is inevitable meme," actual Republican turnout for the primaries had dropped 16 percent from the 2008 figures.

When you eliminate independents and Democrats from the 2008 equation, actual registered Republicans made up 61 percent of the roughly 239,000 votes cast in the GOP primary, putting the turnout among Republicans at around 145,790. But last night, actual Republicans only comprised 49 percent of the electorate, according to exits. Even if we round up the final 2012 turnout number to 250,000, which would be slightly higher than current projections, that would only leave actual Republican turnout at 122,500, which would represent a 16 percent drop.

Then Newt Gingrich ran right over Mitt Romney in the South Carolina primary, winning with a 12 percent lead and the Republican establishment started pushing harder and harder against Newt Gingrich and for Mitt Romney.

Pew Research on January 30, 2012, released a report that shows in less than a month, from early January to the end of January, GOP voters rating the field fair or poor rose by 8 percentage points to 52 percent from 44 percent.

Those giving a positive excellent or good ratings to the GOP field dropped from 51 percent to 46 percent.

Then came Florida where Mitt Romney beat Newt Gingrich by 14 percent, but crunching the numbers showed a 14 percent drop from the 2008 figures despite an increase of 25,000 registered Republicans in Florida from four years ago, according to Reuters.

Furthermore:

"They are voting with their feet and simply not showing up," said Christopher Mann, a political science professor at the University of Miami.

Romney won 46 percent of the vote to closest rival Newt Gingrich's 32 percent in Tuesday's primary election.

But Florida Republicans were hardly swept off their feet by the former Massachusetts governor. In exit polls, four in 10 said they were not enthusiastic about their choice of candidates, according to exit polls.

Then we see that all the negative ads seem to be turning voters off as well.

As Southwest Florida heads to the polls, Many say they're frustrated with the barrage of attack ads.

They are direct and at times even back handed.

Romney spent $15 million on radio and TV spots in Florida. Gingrich over $3 million. Voters claim it's distracting them from what's important, hearing the candidates pitch for creating jobs and rejuvenating the economy.

So, lets take a look at where, when and who started with the negative ads.

Iowa, first caucus state, via New York Times:

A pro-Romney “super PAC” that has spent $2.85 million laying waste to Mr. Gingrich in Iowa plans close to $1 million worth of critical ads in Florida and South Carolina — the state Mr. Gingrich identifies as his “firewall,” where he still has a lead.

The concern surfaced in a recent conference call of South Carolina campaign leaders. “It’s something we’re concerned about,” said James Epley, the chairman for Beaufort County. “It’s made us more focused because we’ll have a real fight on our hands.”

The anti-Gingrich attack in Iowa is inescapable: 45 percent of political ads on television during December have been attacks on Mr. Gingrich, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group.

Many are the work of Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting Mr. Romney, whose latest ad, “Whoops,” shows Mr. Gingrich admitting he erred in past positions he took on health care and global warming. Earlier attacks by the group hammered him for a consulting deal with Freddie Mac and accused him of “too much baggage.”

Jason Geary, the Gingrich campaign chairman in Woodbury County, said, “I’m on the phone trying to gain support” daily for Mr. Gingrich. He said people were telling him they wanted the candidate to fight fire with fire. “They wish for it,” he added.

The closest Mr. Gingrich has come to responding in kind on the airwaves has been an ad in which he referred to opponents in the mildest of terms, without naming anyone. “Others seem to be more focused on attacks rather than moving the country forward,” he said.

A super PAC that supports Mr. Gingrich, Winning Our Future, has an ad that takes a shot at Mr. Romney as the choice of the “liberal Republican establishment,” but it does not name him and mostly praises Mr. Gingrich as “a principled conservative.”

The group, run by former Gingrich aides, seems constrained by his vow to tell supporters not to contribute to any group that runs attack ads on his behalf.

That same article opines on how senior aides and grass-roots Gingrich supporters insisted that Gingrich had to fight fire with fire.

By the time the candidates hit South Carolina when Gingrich had started to punch back, Gingrich was still outspent by Romney and pro-Romney SuperPACS by 2 to 1, the majority of which were negative ads, but, Romney was trying to rewrite history by stating "I needed to make sure that instead of being outgunned in terms of attacks, that I responded aggressively — and hopefully that will have served me well here", then he added "You know, in South Carolina we were vastly outspent with negative ads attacking me and we stood back and spoke about President Obama and suffered the consequence of that."

But the truth is that Romney outspent Gingrich about 2-1 in South Carolina, and over 4-1 in here the Sunshine State. Romney has also deployed an army of surrogates to bombard Gingrich with negative soundbites and statements. And Gingrich unilaterally withheld from running negative ads in Iowa, and saw his poll numbers collapse in the state amid millions of dollars in attacks from a pro-Romney Super PAC.

One paragraph from LA Times shows a contrast that pro-Romney forces cannot spin.

Last month, Republican strategists pointed to small increases in turnout for the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary and the big jump in South Carolina as evidence that their voters were getting fired up about the campaign to come. Now, the big drop in Florida turnout has caused some to suggest that Romney has failed to excite voters.

Emphasis mine

(Note- The increase in Iowa was due to the participation of Independents and Democrats in the GOP caucus)

What was the difference between South Carolina and Florida? That is right, Gingrich won South Carolina and Romney won Florida.

Romney's over abundance of negativity and the Republican establishments interference because they want to choose who will be the Republican nominee instead of allowing voters to decide for themselves, has destroyed whatever enthusiasm Republicans had for the 2012 elections.

"I spent much of my academic career telling reporters, 'Relax, this is not the most negative campaign ever," said Ken Goldstein, president of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, in an interview with CNN. "Well, this IS the most negative campaign ever." (Source)

The Bottom Line

Republican turnout was down in the states which Romney won and Republican turnout was up in the state Gingrich won.

Romney does not excite conservatives. While many will coalesce behind him if he wins enough delegates to become the Republican nominee, there is another segment that think he is no better than Obama and will not bother voting at all, handing Obama a win for reelection.

*Golf Clap* to the Republican establishment and Mitt Romney for turning what should have been an easy win into a possible defeat.

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Komen Won't Bow To Political Pressure Over Elimination Of Grants To Planned Parenthood

2012-02-02T11:09:00.004-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Background via NYT:

When the nation’s largest breast cancer advocacy organization considered in October cutting off most of its financial support to the nation’s largest abortion provider, the breast cancer group was hoping for a quiet end to an increasingly controversial partnership.

Instead, the organization, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, is now engulfed in a controversy that threatens to undermine one of the most successful advocacy campaigns. The foundation’s decision to eliminate most of its grants to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening caused a cascade of criticism from prominent women’s groups, politicians and public health advocates and a similarly strong outpouring of support from conservative women and religious groups that oppose abortion.

Now, leaders of both the Komen foundation and Planned Parenthood are accusing each other of bad faith and actions that undermine women. And two organizations dedicated to detecting and curing breast cancer have found themselves on opposite sides of the nation’s divisive debate over abortion.

Then Nancy Brinker, the charity’s founder and chief executive officer posted a video on YouTube, explaining the decision. (Video and description below)

Susan G. Komen has spent 30 years providing real help to low-income, uninsured and underinsured women, and recent changes to Komen's granting policies only reinforce our commitment. Recent reports about those policies aren't getting it right. See the real story from SGK Founder and CEO Nancy G. Brinker in this "Straight Talk" video.

More from The Politico:

“We will never bow down to political pressure,” Brinker said. “The scurrilous accusations being hurled at this organization are profoundly hurtful to so many of us who put our heart, soul and lives into this organization. But more importantly, they are a dangerous distraction from the work that still remains to be done in ridding the world of breast cancer.”

JWF did a little bit of browsing through Planned Parenthood's website:

A quick visit to their website shows quick links to topics such as Abortion, Birth Control, Morning After Pill and Sexually Transmitted Diseases. The only mention in regards to breast cancer is their front page screed about Komen pulling their funding. So I decided to do a deep dive. Surely there is something there since they are screaming so loudly about how many mammograms they do. Under the general health tab I found this.

General health care services vary by location. They may include

anemia testing
cholesterol screening
diabetes screening
physical exams, including for employment and sports
flu vaccines
help with quitting smoking
high blood pressure screening
tetanus vaccines
thyroid screening

Finally, under the Women’s Health tab, I found a reference to breast cancer along with this information.

Planned Parenthood doctors and nurses teach patients about breast care, connect patients to resources to help them get vital biopsies, ultrasounds, and mammograms, and follow up to make sure patients are cared for with the attention they need and deserve.

Reading that I would come to the conclusion that Planned Parenthood doesn’t actually do the screenings but rather refer you to someone who will. In other words, breast cancer screenings were never high on their list of things to do.

This knee jerk reaction on the part of liberals over Planned Parenthood after a while becomes like the little boy who cried wolf.

Worth noting, then simply moving right along.....

[Update] Those darn mischievous pro-abortion activists hacked into the Komen for the Cure website to change headline the slogan "Help us run over poor women on our way to the bank."

Isn't hacking a crime? Why yes, it is.

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Donald Trump Tweets About 'Major Announcement' : UPDATE- Endorses Romney

2012-02-02T08:24:00.010-07:00

By Susan Duclos

[Update] Trump just endorsed Romney. (Headline changed to reflect the final outcome)

[Update] ABC News The Note:

Why would Romney want Trump’s nod when it could be more likely to turn voters off than turn them on to Romney? A Fox News poll last month found that Americans were nearly three times as likely to say they’d be less apt rather than more apt to vote for a candidate Trump endorsed, 27 percent to 10 percent. Two-thirds said it would make no difference.

Last night then against this morning Donald Trump, via his Twitter pages, said he would be arriving in Nevada at 11:30pm and had a major announcement regarding the presidential race and all media were welcome.

I will be making a major announcement tomorrow (Thursday, February 2) at 12:30 pm at Trump International Hotel & Tower, Las Vegas, Nevada. I will be arriving this evening at approximately 11:30 pm. The announcement will pertain to the Presidential race. All media welcome.

He reiterated that this morning.

According to KLAS-TV8 News Now, The Politico and The Hill, sources are saying that Trump's major announcement will be his endorsement for a GOP candidate and that candidate will be Newt Gingrich.

CNN on the other hand comes out with a breaking news announcement claiming that Trump is endorsing Romney according to their sources.

Donald Trump will endorse Mitt Romney for president, sources with knowledge of the endorsement tell CNN.

The Hill piece provides a little more background on Trump and Gingrich, from their meeting back in December as well as Gingrich publicly defending Gingrich over criticisms from other GOP candidates.

"This is a country that elected a peanut farmer to the presidency. This is a country that elected an actor who made two movies with a chimpanzee to the presidency," Gingrich said. "Donald Trump is a great showman; he's also a great businessman. I think one of the differences between my party and the other party is we actually go to people who know how to create jobs. We need to be open to new ways of doing things."

Nevada's GOP caucuses will be held on Saturday, February 14, 2012. Polling in Nevada shows Mitt Romney with a 20 point lead just two days before caucus goers cast their votes.

Stay tuned, will update with which candidate Trump endorses after he makes his announcement at 12:30pm this afternoon.

Newt Gingrich And Florida Residents Challenging Florida's Winner-Take-All Rule

2012-02-01T17:55:00.005-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Keep in mind when reading the post below that Gingrich won 34 out of 67 counties in Florida with Romney winning 33 counties.

Newt Gingrich to challenge the winner-take-all rule Florida adopted this year on the grounds that it is against the RNC's own rules which state that no state can be a winner-take-all state prior to April 1, 2012.

Fox News has learned exclusively that on Thursday, a Florida Gingrich campaign official will begin the process of trying to have the RNC rules enforced so that the Sunshine State delegates are distributed based on the percentage of the vote each candidate got.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus warned Florida Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry of the violation in a December letter quoting the rule, "...'winner-take-all' states cannot hold a primary or caucus before April 1, 2012."

RNC Memo HERE

Gingrich won 34 out of 67 counties in Florida and Mitt Romney won 33 counties. A proportional allocation of delegates which all states conducting primaries before April are supposed to use, would give Romney less delegates to add to his totals.

AllahPundit over at Hot Air, crunches the numbers:

Newt’s goal here, of course, is to signal to his supporters that he’s in the race for the long haul by scrapping for every available delegate. If Florida used the simplest possible proportional rules instead of “winner take all,” Romney would win 23 delegates from his 46 percent last night and Newt would win 16 — reducing a 50-delegate margin to just seven in one fell swoop. Problem is, the RNC’s already punished Florida once for moving its primary up by taking half its delegates away; if they forced them to go proportional on top of that, it would be an additional sanction. So, to compromise, they could in theory restore all of Florida’s delegates and then award those proportionally. That would mean, obviously, 46 for Mitt and 32 for Newt for a margin of 14. Team Mitt will battle to preserve the current “winner take all” scenario, but as we get closer to the convention, Florida pols will inevitably start demanding that all of the state’s delegates be seated notwithstanding its violation of RNC rules. (The same thing happened in the 2008 Democratic primary between Obama and Hillary, you may remember. Eventually the full Florida delegation was reinstated when the results of the primary became immaterial to Obama’s overall victory.) It’d be hard for the RNC under any circumstances to ignore claims that it’s disenfranchising swing-state Floridians by penalizing the state, but the convention this year is in … Tampa. Good luck telling half the Florida delegation to go home when they already are home. Which means if Mitt and Newt end up battling to the bitter end, the proportional scenario may be the compromise solution.

This is not the first discussion on this issue as Tampa Bay Tribune explained on January 26, 2012, and by ABC News on the 28th.

That's not guaranteed, however. All it takes is a registered Florida Republican to file a protest with the RNC, and the party's contest committee would have to consider the issue when it meets in August just before the convention.
"August is going to be a very tense month for those of us on the committee on contests. We could be the group that everybody loves or everybody hates," said Fredi Simpson, an RNC member from Washington state who sits on that committee and also helped write the rules.
Like other RNC members, Simpson thinks the rules clearly bar Florida from being winner-take-all. At an RNC meeting in August, members of the Presidential Nominating and Selection Committee passed a resolution calling for the RNC to enforce its rules for proportional delegates on states like Florida that set primaries earlier than April.
"Florida ought to be proportional, and it is up to the RNC legal office to figure out how they do that. That was absolutely the intention when we wrote that rule," said Pete Ricketts, an RNC member from Nebraska who served on the RNC committee appointed in 2008 to draw up delegate selection rules for 2012.

From the Gingrich memo:

Any registered Republican voter within the State of Florida is authorized to challenge the RNC's application (or lack of application) of Revised Rile 15(b)(2)with the RNC's Contest Committee and ultimately on the floor of the Republican Convention. Such a challenge would call upon the RNC to apply this rule as to the allocation of delegates for each and every state that conducts its binding primary or caucus prior to April 1, 2012. It is my understanding that such challenges have already been filed with the RNC with respect to the State of Florida.

It is important to note that RNC Rules supersede any state party rules or state statutes with respect to Republican Party delegate allocation. The rules as to the allocation and recording of delegates at the convention are completely and solely within the authority of the RNC.

The battle for Florida may be over but the battle for the Florida delegates may have just begun.

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Video- Mitt Romney: 'I'm Not Concerned About The Very Poor'

2012-02-01T10:12:00.005-07:00

By Susan Duclos

In context Romney says on CNN, "I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. “If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich, they’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of the America, the 90 percent, 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling.”

Video below:

Safety nets, entitlements, welfare, food stamps, medicaid... that is Obama's answer, it should never be a GOP presidential candidate's answer.

More:

Host Soledad O’Brien pointed out that the very poor are probably struggling too.

“The challenge right now — we will hear from the Democrat party the plight of the poor,” Romney responded, after repeating that he would fix any holes in the safety net. “And there’s no question it’s not good being poor and we have a safety net to help those that are very poor . . . My focus is on middle income Americans ... we have a very ample safety net and we can talk about whether it needs to be strengthened or whether there are holes in it. but we have food stamps, we have Medicaid, we have housing vouchers, we have programs to help the poor.”

The goal should be getting everyone to the point where they don't need a "safety net", where they are working, earning enough to support their families.

If the GOP establishment gets their way, conservatives will have yet another Food Stamp presidential candidate by the name of Mitt Romney.

Jobs for everyone, especially the very poor should be the focus.

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Videos- Florida Primary 2012, Victory and Concession Speeches

2012-02-01T09:27:00.002-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Newt Gingrich concession speech:

Ron Paul Concession speech:

Rick Santorum concession speech:

Mitt Romney victory speech:

(Note- Email subscribers, click link to page to see video, some emails will not show the video.)

Romney Takes Florida: Breakdown, Gingrich Wins 34 Counties, Romney 33 Counties

2012-02-01T08:46:00.003-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Last night Mitt Romney won the Florida primary by 14 percent, 46/ 32 with Rick Santorum taking 13 percent and Ron Paul 7. The breakdown shows that Gingrich took all but three counties in the panhandle and Romney took all but five counties throughout the rest of the state. From CBS News' county by county page, we see Gingrich took 34 counties and Romney 33 counties.

The Panhandle counties are smaller, less people, tighter communities, which is how Romney can win less counties but still take the state.

According to Tampa Bay Times, if the final delegate totals are close enough and the 50 delegates that Romney won in Florida become all that makes or breaks this GOP race, because Florida changed it's proportional allocation rules to make it a winner-take-all state, "All it takes is a registered Florida Republican to file a protest with the RNC, and the party's contest committee would have to consider the issue when it meets in August just before the convention."

Screen Shot from NYT

4 down, 46 to go..... Next stop is Nevada with their caucuses being held Saturday, February 4, 2012.

Full GOP primary/caucus schedule HERE.

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Live Blogging/Discussion: Exit Polls And Results For GOP Florida Primary 1/31/12

2012-01-31T10:40:00.004-07:00

By Susan Duclos

(Starting the morning of 1/31/12, this post will be bumped to the top for the full day)Updates throughout the day will be added to the bottom of the post.

[Update- RACE CALLED] Romney, Gingrich, Santorum and Paul, respectively. More on the exact totals tomorrow.

Once again we will be joining with Right Pundits, with live blogging and discussion as we watch entrance and exit polls and keep track of the results of the Tuesday, January 31, 2012 GOP Florida primaries. The polls in Florida open at 7am ET and close at 7pm EST.

Join us!

2012 Florida Primary Results and Exit Polls

Eligibility: Only registered Republicans may participate in the Florida primary. Florida has 99 delegates but the Republican party has previous announced only half will count, as was the case in South Carolina, due to the states moving up their primary schedule and holding them before February 2012.

[Update- 1/31/12] Heading into the morning of the Florida primary, between submitted absentee ballots and early voting, over 600,000 votes have already been cast and Mitt Romney holds the lead over Newt Gingrich by 51% to 33%, according to CNN.

[Update- 1/31/12] While polling, except outliers, has Romney ahead of Gingrich, the Florida Tea Party Patriots conducted a straw poll which put Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum way ahead of Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.

Question: If the election were held today, who would you vote for?

Newt Gingrich 35%

Rick Santorum 31%

Mitt Romney 18%

Ron Paul 11%

Undecided/None of the Above 5%

(Results are rounded to nearest percentage point.)

When asked about enthusiasm, both Gingrich and Santorum received 35% saying they would be extremely enthusiastic about a Gingrich or Santorum nomination. Romney came in at 21% and Paul at 11%. (H/T DC)

[Update- 1/31/12] Via ABC News, Jonathan Karl asked Newt Gingrich how much longer he thought the battle for the Republican nomination would go on and Gingrich said six to eight more months "unless Romney drops out earlier."

More:

When I asked what he says to those who say the race will effectively be over if he loses big in Florida, Gingrich said, “You mean those who said I was dead in June? Those who said I was dead in December? They are about as accurate as they were the last two times they were wrong.”

[Update- 1/13/12] Analysis from Campaign Media Analysis Group shows that the Florida primary has seen "the most negative campaign ever," with 92% of the ads airing in Florida over the past week listed as negative.

Newt Gingrich's campaign ran 1,012 spots, 95% were negative. Mitt Romney's campaign ran 3,276 ads and 99% were negative.

[Update- 1/31/12] CBS News reports on early exit poll data show 2/3 said the debates mattered and 37 percent said Mitt Romney said Mitt Romney ran the most unfair campaign with 34 percent pointing to Newt Gingrich.

27 percent said they decided on which candidate to vote for in the last few days and 42 percent said they decided before that.

Half the early voters backed Romeny. The economy was cited by 62 percent as the most important issue. Federal budget deficit was cited by 24 percent.

57 percent were happy with the candidates on the ballot and 39 percent were not.

NEXT state the candidates will be heading to will be February 4, 2012, the Nevada caucuses.

Full GOP primary/caucus schedule HERE.

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Catholic Churches And Bishop of Marquette Punch Back At Obama's War On Religion

2012-01-31T10:38:00.006-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Just another reason why Barack Obama must be defeated in 2012.

Below is an example of a letter that Catholics across the country were read in Church, written by the Bishop of Marquette, via Business Insider:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I write to you concerning an alarming and serious matter that negatively impacts the Church in the United States directly, and that strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all citizens of any faith. The federal government, which claims to be "of, by, and for the people," has just been dealt a heavy blow to almost a quarter of those people -- the Catholic population -- and to the millions more who are served by the Catholic faithful.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees' health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception. Almost all health insurers will be forced to include those "services" in the health policies they write. And almost all individuals will be forced to buy that coverage as a part of their policies.
In so ruling, the Obama Administration has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our Nation's first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty. And as a result, unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled to either violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so). The Obama Administration's sole concession was to give our institutions one year to comply.
We cannot--we will not--comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second class citizens. We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom. Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build America's cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to have their posterity stripped of their God given rights. In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties. I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less.
And therefore, I would ask of you two things. First, as a community of faith we must commit ourselves to prayer and fasting that wisdom and justice may prevail, and religious liberty may be restored. Without God, we can do nothing; with God, nothing is impossible. Second, I would also recommend visiting www.usccb.org/conscience, to learn more about this severe assault on religious liberty, and how to contact Congress in support of legislation that would reverse the Obama Administration's decision.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
+Alexander K. Sample
Most Reverend Alexander K. Sample
Bishop of Marquette

Professor Bainbridge gets right to the heart of the issue:

The Catholic Church believes--as an article of faith--that both the Church as an institution and its members as individuals have a religious duty to tend to everyone, not just fellow Catholics. Indeed, the whole point of the Parable of the Good Samaritan is that there is a moral obligation to help those in need without regard to who they are. In response to this teaching, Catholics have run social services like hospitals since the earliest days of the Church's history:

Another characteristic of Christian charity was the obligation and practice of hospitality (Romans 12:13; Hebrews 13:2; 1 Peter 4:9; 3 John). The bishop in particular must be "given to hospitality" (1 Timothy 3:2). The Christian, therefore, in going from place to place, was welcomed in the houses of the brethren; but like hospitality was extended to the pagan visitoras well. Clement of Rome praises the Corinthians for their hospitality (Ep. ad. Cor., c. i) and Dionysius of Corinth for the same reason gives credit to the Romans (Eusebius, Church History IV.23). The bishop's house above all others was open to the traveller who not only found food and shelter there but was provided in case of need with the means to continue his journey. In some cases the bishop was also a physician so that medical attention was provided for those of his guests who needed it (Harnack, "Medicinisches aus d. ältestenKirchengesch." in "Texte u. Untersuchungen" VIII, Leipzig, 1892). The sick were also cared for in the valetudinaria of the wealthier Christians who in the spirit of charity extended hospitality to those who could not be accommodated in the bishop's house. There was thus from the earliest times a well organized system of providing for the various forms of suffering; but it was necessarily limited and dependent on private endeavour so long as the Christians were under the ban of a hostile State. Until persecution ceased, an institution of a public character such as our modern hospital was out of the question. it is certain that after the conversion of Constantine, the Christians profited by their larger liberty to provide for the sick by means of hospitals. But various motives and causes have been assigned to explain the development from private care of the sick to the institutional work of the hospital (Uhlhorn, I, 317 sq.). It was not, at any rate, due to a slackening of charity as has been asserted (Moreau-Christophe, "Du problème de la misère", II, 236; III, 527), but rather to the rapid increase in the number of Christians and to the spread of poverty under new economic conditions. To meet these demands, a different kind of organization was required, and this, in conformity with the prevalent tendency to give all work for the common weal an institutional character, led to the organization and founding of hospitals.

To force Catholics to differentiate between "a hospital or a school or an adoption agency" and "a church" is thus to deny us the right to practice our religion as we see fit.

Liberals complain they want religion out of politics but politicians like Barack Obama and his administration continue this war on religion and it is time the Church fought back.

LifeNews reports that at least three Catholic bishops have refused to comply with the Obama administration's mandate and 86 bishops who have spoken out against the Obama/HHS mandate publicly.

More on that:

.......According to Thomas Peters of CatholicVote.org here are some of the bishops have are opposed to the mandate and have urged their parishoners to contact Congress and the Obama administration to oppose it.
1. Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles, CA (Emeritus)
2. Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan of New York City, NY
3. Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, TX
4. Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis, MO
5. Bishop Thomas Omsted of Phoenix, AZ
6. Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit, MI
7. Archbishop John Nienstedt of Saint Paul & Minneapolis, MN
8. Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay, WI
9. Bishop Paul Etienne of Cheyenne, WY
10. Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, CT

Also, an expected lawsuit against the mandate could find itself moving all the way up to the Supreme Court which, as the Los Angeles Times notes, “recently affirmed — in a 9-0 ruling — that the 1st Amendment gives special leeway to religious employers.”

This is a direct, full frontal assault on religion and I repeat... Barack Obama must be defeated in November 2012.

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Nevada Caucus Alert For Newt Supporters

2012-01-31T10:03:00.003-07:00

By Susan Duclos

While Florida primary voters are going to the polls today and will over 600,000 early votes and absentee votes already submitted, the Gingrich campaign is keeping in mind that the Nevada caucuses are this coming Saturday, February 4, 2012 and have sent out a Caucus Action Alert.

(Join us for live blogging/discussion on exit polls and results from the Florida primary with all day updates, HERE.)

They are offering a link for anyone interested in attending the caucus in support of Newt Gingrich at http://www.newt.org/nevada-caucus and additional information:

•Arrive half an hour before the Caucus begins.

•Bring Photo ID with you to register.

•If in Clark County, you may pre-register here: https://2012nvgopcaucus.com and take your pre-registration form with you to the Caucus. (You will still need photo ID at the Caucus site)

•Mingle and talk with people beforehand and talk about your support for Newt and ask them to vote for him.

•Identify the Caucus Site Manager and introduce yourself as a designated speaker on Newt Gingrich’s behalf.

•Use the speech provided at the caucus

•Anyone who would like to is allowed to monitor the vote count. Please do so to make sure that all votes are correctly counted and reported.

More HERE.

Full GOP primary/caucus schedule HERE.

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Gingrich Takes The Tea Party Patriots Florida Straw Poll

2012-01-31T09:22:00.003-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Following a tele-conference call with 6,000 nearly Tea Party activists participating, 600 of them also participated in the Florida Tea Party Patriots straw poll.

Question: If the election were held today, who would you vote for?

Newt Gingrich 35%

Rick Santorum 31%

Mitt Romney 18%

Ron Paul 11%

Undecided/None of the Above 5%

(Results are rounded to nearest percentage point.)

When asked about enthusiasm, both Gingrich and Santorum received 35% saying they would be extremely enthusiastic about a Gingrich or Santorum nomination. Romney came in at 21% and Paul at 11%. (H/T DC)

Note- This and other Florida primary day news is also being added to the live blogging/discussion of the Florida primary exit polls and results, as updates.

With Romney having outspent Gingrich and the other candidates by over 5 to 1 in Florida, mostly on negative television ads, and over 600,000 early votes and absentee votes submitted where Romney holds a large lead, this straw poll is simply another factor added in to the Florida primary day news.

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Video- Winning Our Future | Blood Money - Mitt Romney's 1990's Medicare Scandal

2012-01-30T16:01:00.004-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Pro-Gingrich SuperPAC, Winning Our Future, has launched MittsBloodMoney.com, showing the 7:42 minute mini-documentary called Blood Money.

Under "The Document's heading, the site explains:

Debating in Tampa, Florida in late-January, while falsely characterizing Newt Gingrich’s income from his government consulting work, Mitt Romney denied that Bain did “any work with the government like Medicaid and Medicare”. Now we learn that Bain, under Romney’s “supervision”, purchased and ran the Damon Corporation, who pled guilty to Federal conspiracy charges as a result of tens of millions of dollars in systemic Medicare fraud committed under Romney’s and Bain’s control. Damon was fined over $119-million which was, at the time, the largest criminal healthcare fine in Massachusetts history and Mr. Romney’s participation was characterized in 1996 by Corporate Crime Reporter thusly: “As manager and board member of Damon Corp, Mitt Romney sits at the center of one of the top 15 corporate crimes of the 1990’s.” Watch the substantiated mini-documentary, BLOOD MONEY: MITT ROMNEY’S MEDICARE SCANDAL, to learn the truth about Mitt Romney.

Video below:

PolitiFact takes the statement of the BloodMoney video above "While Romney was a director of the Damon Corporation, the company was defrauding Medicare of millions," and rates it "mostly true".

The ad claims that, "While Romney was a director of the Damon Corporation, the company was defrauding Medicare of millions." That's true, but Romney was never implicated personally with the fraudulent activity at the company, and it was one of many companies with which Bain was involved. It’s also difficult to assess whether Romney knew about the fraud or should have known, and what he did to stop it. So the statement is correct but leaves out context. We rate this statement Mostly True.

Wapo Fact Checker takes a look at the mini film and concludes:

The Damon case is certainly a valid subject for scrutiny of Romney’s business record. He was on the company’s board at the time criminal fraud was taking place, and his statements about his knowledge of the federal investigation have been inconsistent. But the film goes too far in suggesting that Romney was responsible for running the company — or that he sold it to avoid a federal probe.

Fact Check gives it two Pinocchios after that conclusion.

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The Billionaires Behind The Pro-Gingrich/Pro-Romney SuperPACS

2012-01-30T11:53:00.004-07:00

By Susan Duclos

This post highlights two billionaires, one the largest donor to the pro-Romney, "Restore Our Future" SuperPAC and the other the largest donor to the pro-Gingrich "Winning Our Future" SuperPAC.

As of August 2011 the largest individual contributor Restore Our Future, the pro-Romney SuperPAC, was New York resident, 55 year old John Paulson who according to his Forbes profile is a self made billionaire who made his fortune from hedge funds.

Via Paulson's Forbes profile:

Call it the Paulson paradox. While his flagship fund has tanked 30% so far this year, as bets on Bank of America, Citigroup and China's Sino Forest went south, his personal fortune is up 25%, year over year. Reason? The gold-denominated versions of his firm's funds, where he is said to have most of his personal stash, have gained steadily. Last year his take-home pay was $4.9 billion, a record for the hedge fund industry. He is donating $15 million to a new maternity hospital in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where his father was born. Paulson became a billionaire in 2007 shorting subprime securities and earning a $3.5 billion payout. He got his start at Odyssey Partners, a private equity and hedge fund and later became managing director of M&A at Bear Stearns. He founded Paulson & Co in 1994.

Forbes lists three key connections to Paulson, George Soros, James Simons and Steve Cohen. Listed under companies is JP Morgan Chase & Co. , Citi and AIG Group.

In July of 2011, The Politico reported that Paulson became "famous for enriching himself by betting on the collapse of the housing industry." According to Wall Street Journal, Paulson personally made between $3 and $4 billion, “the largest one-year payday in Wall Street history.”
More on the Paulson, Soros connection in the WSJ link above.

The largest individual contributors to Winning Our Future, the pro-Gingrich SuperPAC, was Las Vegas, NV. resident, 78 year old Sheldon Adelson who according to his Forbes profile is a self made billionaire who made his fortune from casinos. His wife Miriam also donated $5 million to the Winning Our Future SuperPAC.

Via Adelson's Forbes profile:

Casino king Sheldon Adelson continues to enjoy a hot hand. His fortune is up $7 billion since last year, as his strong position in the casino-crazy Asian markets has pushed stock of Las Vegas Sands up roughly 50% to a recent $48. (Shares once traded as low as $1.50 in 2009.) Nearly 90% of its operating profit comes from Asia; the thriving Marina Bay Sands casino opened in Singapore last year. Through his majority-owned subsidiary Sands China, Adelson has 3 resorts in Macau. His goal is to push company shares back over $100, near their 2007 peak. Not that he'll spend the money on himself: "The richer I get, the more money goes to cancer research." The cabdriver's son created the computer industry's marquee event, Comdex, in the mid-1980s. He sold it to Japan's Softbank for $862 million 1995 and later built the $1.5 billion Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the 1.2-million-square-foot Sands Convention Center in 1997 in Las Vegas. He opened the $1.9 billion Palazzo resort in 2008.

Forbes lists three key connections to Paulson, Kunio Busujima & Family, Phillip Ruffin and James Packer. Listed under companies is Las Vegas Sands , MGM Mirage and Wynn Resorts.

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Video- Newt 2012 Releases New Website: TalesofMitt.com

2012-01-30T11:06:00.005-07:00

By Susan Duclos

The Newt Gingrich campaign has launched a new website named the "Tales of Mitt", tracking Romney's falsehoods. The site covers the "Recent tales of Mitt," highlighting what they call five occasions during the CNN debate on January 26 where "Mitt Romney spun five mighty yarns to hide his record as a Massachusetts Moderate."

Those five are listed as "Voting Democrat", "Blind Trust", "Haven't Seen The Ad (Which I Approved)", "Half of Uninsured Got Insurance On Own", and "Romneycare Only Affects Uninsured".

The top video listed on the site at the moment is titled "Which Mitt is it? " (Shown below)

Via email announcement of the launch of Tales of Mitt"

As a public service to voters unable to follow and understand Mitt Romney’s changing positions and stories on just about every issue and element of his past, Newt 2012 launched a new website www.TalesofMitt.com.

The website will update as the primary campaign continues to document all of Mitt Romney’s flip flops and new stories trying to explain his liberal record.

“Trying to keep the site updated as rapidly as Governor Romney changes his positions and obscures about his past will be a daunting undertaking,” said Gingrich Spokesperson RC Hammond. “But we pledge to keep up with the deluge of material the Governor is sure to provide.”

TalesofMitt.com features text and video documenting Mitt Romney’s flip flops, prevarications and attempts to hide his history as a liberal Massachusetts Republican. The three videos up now include the previously released “What Kind of Man” and two new releases, “Which Mitt Is It?” and “Mitt’s Blind Trust Bluff.”

“On issues ranging from the facts about Romneycare to voting for Democrats, we can find Mitt Romney talking out of both sides of his mouth, with the only constant being his own political interest at a given moment in time,” said Hammond.

“Of course, the issue really isn’t the correct understanding of blind trusts, despite Romney’s convenient interpretations. It’s whether voters can trust Mitt Romney. And as we’ve seen in 1994, 2002, 2008, and 2012, Mitt Romney will say anything and change any position just to get elected,” Hammond continued.

With the Romney campaign and pro-Romney groups outspending the Gingrich campaign and pro-Gingrich groups by 4-to-1, the Gingrich campaign is utilizing social media, and counting on grassroots support to take him all the way to the GOP convention.

Others discussing the Tales of Mitt website are NRO, PJMedia and Newsmax.

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Gingrich Campaign Internal Memo: 'this race is just getting started'

2012-01-30T10:39:00.005-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Matt K. Lewis at The Daily Caller provides a little context, via a Gingrich campaign internal memo, to Gingrich's prediction of a "straight-out contest for the next 4 or 5 months."

The memo reiterates that the GOP race is "just getting started."

Additionally, the memo stresses that the proportional nature of the upcoming contests “essentially guarantees that no candidate will secure the nomination anytime soon and the map quickly becomes more favorable for Gingrich.”

More than 20 percent of the available delegates (467) will be awarded on Super Tuesday, and the memo notes that, one of the Super Tuesday states is Georgia, with 76 delegates at stake. To put that in perspective, “even if Romney wins Florida on Tuesday, he will only have 83 total delegates; Newt’s home state could effectively cancel out his entire delegate count to date.”

The memo also describes Tennessee (58) and Oklahoma (43) as “favorable” Super Tuesday states, and notes that just one week after Super Tuesday (March 13), 90 delegates will be in play in Alabama and Mississippi. And if the point that a Florida loss is survivable wasn’t already hammered home, the memo notes, “these 90 [delegates] alone are more than the 83 Romney will have in hand on Wednesday morning if he wins Florida.”

While the campaign memo downplays the importance of Florida, it hasn't stopped Gingrich from a last minute push and narrowing the Romney lead to single digits from double digits just a day before primary day. Neither has the fact that Romney and pro-Romney forces have outspent the Gingrich campaign and pro-Gingrich forces by over quadruple the amount.

Through Friday, the Romney campaign and the super PAC Restore Our Future had spent a combined $15,340,000, the source said. Gingrich’s campaign and the super PAC Winning Our Future spent a comparatively paltry $3,390,000.

Side Note- Spoke to my father who lives in Miami, Florida, this morning and he tells me the campaigns ads in Florida are inundating the airwaves.

Quote "Florida votes tomorrow, maybe then they will all go away!"

Poor Dad, he hates politics.

The Florida GOP Primary Pendulum Starts Swinging Back Towards Gingrich

2012-01-30T09:13:00.005-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Polling in Florida over the last two weeks has been like a pendulum swinging back and forth between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney and today, one of the first pollsters to originally see Romney surging to take the lead, Insider Advantage, is now seeing Gingrich surging yet again.

Lets go back a couple weeks and work our way forward.

Florida Polls:

January 17, 2012: Sunshine State News/VSS had Mitt Romney up in Florida by 26 percentage points. Public Policy Polling had Romney up by 15 percentage points.

January 18, 2012, CNN/Time had Romney up in Florida by 24 points.

After Gingrich's South Carolina win, where just days before Romney was up in the polls by a double digit lead, Gingrich came back from behind and beat Romney by 12 percentage points.

January 23, 2012: Both Insider Advantage and Rasmussen showed Newt Gingrich in the lead in Florida by 8 and 9 percentage points, respectively.

January 24, 2012: Public Policy Polling had Gingrich up by 5 points.

January 26, 2012: Insider Advantage along with Rasmussen and Monmouth/Survey USA, all were the first to list Romney ahead in the polls again by 8, 8 and 7 points respectively.

January 29, 2012: Romney's lead expanded to double digits, with Survey USA, NBC News/Marist, Miami Herald/Mason-Dixon and Rasmussen, showing Romney up by double digits ranging from 11 points to 16 points ahead of Gingrich.

We reach January 30, 2012, the day before the Florida primaries and Insider Advantage shows a late swing of that pendulum heading back in Gingrich's direction with Romney ahead only by 5 now.

Romney 36 percent
Gingrich 31 percent
Santorum 12 percent
Paul 12 percent
Other/Undecided 9 percent

Matt Towery, chief pollster of InsiderAdvantage told Newsmax, "The race will be tighter than expected."

Towery noted that his poll showed a surge for Romney on Wednesday, with him leading Gingrich by 8 points. The InsiderAdvantage poll was among the first to show Romney's resurgence after his dismal showing in the S. Carolina primary.

The InsiderAdvantage poll was also the first to show Gingrich's rise in S. Carolina and accurately forecast his win there.

"The trend is favoring Gingrich," Towery said, noting that while Romney's lead was still outside the margin of error of 3.8 percent, "It's not by much."

Towery said Gingrich is doing "substantially better" with men than Romney, 38 to 28, but the former House Speaker still faces a "gender gap," as women are still favoring Romney.

"Men are moving in droves to Gingrich and away from Romney," Towery said.

As for Florida's important Latino vote, InsiderAdvantage has Gingrich beating Romney by a large margin, leading 42 percent to 29 percent.

Is this surge for Gingrich to little, too late?

South Carolina taught us that a candidate can be ahead by double digits the week of the primary as Romney was and still end up losing by double digits as Romney lost to Gingrich.

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Newt Reiterates, He Is In It 'All The Way To The Convention': As It Should Be

2012-01-29T13:05:00.010-07:00

By Susan Duclos

In a previous post I published a video of Sarah Palin explaining how only 3 out of 50 states have weighed in on the GOP candidates via primaries and caucuses and how the process strengthens the eventual nominee, no matter who that candidates ends up being.

As of right now, Rick Santorum has won one state's caucuses (Iowa), Mitt Romney has won one primary state (New Hampshire) and Newt Gingrich has won one primary state (South Carolina).

Florida's primary is on Tuesday, January 30, 2012.

For those reading the mainstream media and think Florida is it.... remember that there is a Total Delegates 2286 and 1144 Delegates are needed for a GOP candidate to win the Republican nomination for President. (Numbers from NYT and CBS News)

Right now the count is:

Gingrich- 23
Romney- 19
Rick Santorum- 13
Ron Paul- 3
Jon Huntsman- 2 (Huntsman is no longer in the running)

Florida would have had 99 delegates but they are being penalized and half the delegates were taken away for conducting their primary before February 2012 which means 50 delegates will be awarded. (Correction made to number of delegates)

Note- South Carolina was also penalized and only half the delegates were awarded.

Taking all that into account, Palin is right in saying the process is just at it's beginning stages.

Which is why it makes perfect sense for Newt Gingrich, via Washington wire, predicting a "straight-out contest for next 4 or 5 months," stating that it is his intent to stay in the Republican presidential primary “all the way to the convention.

“This is a campaign about the future of America and the future of the Republican party. Do you want an insider who’s part of the city which has been accepting huge amounts of taxpayer money to prop up giant institutions or do you want somebody who’s prepared to challenge our system head on and insist on very dramatic change in Washington? I think that’s worth a serious debate and I think that debate will go all the way to the convention.”

He continued: “We have no evidence yet that Romney anywhere is coming close to getting the majority and I think when you take all of the non-Romney votes, it’s very likely that the convention will be a non-Romney majority and maybe a very substantial one. My job is to convert that into a pro-Gingrich majority.”

The full 2012 primary/caucus schedule can be found HERE.

(Correction made to this post)

Michael Reagan Will Be Appearing At January 30, 2012 Events With Newt Gingrich: Gingrich, Romney Event Details

2012-01-29T12:02:00.005-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Michael Reagan will joining Newt Gingrich for a number of events to be held in Florida, in Jacksonville, Pensacola, Tampa, Fort Meyers and Orlando on Monday, January 30, 2012, just one day before Florida's primary day.

Event details below:

Jacksonville Grassroots Rally
7:30 am EST-9:30am EST
Location: Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront
225 East Coastline Drive
Jacksonville, FL 32202
*Press Bus Stop

Pensacola Grassroots Rally
10:00am ET/9:00 am CT-12:00 pm ET/11:00 am CT
Location: Pensacola Aviation Center
4145 Jerry L Maygarden Road
Pensacola, FL 32504

Tampa Grassroots Rally
1:00pm EST-3:00pm EST
Location: Tampa Jet Center
4751 Jim Walter Boulevard
Tampa, FL 33607
*Media Avail
*Press Bus Stop

Ft. Meyers Grassroots Rally
3:00pm EST-5:00pm EST
Location: Page Field
4700 Terminal Drive
Fort Meyers, FL 33907

Orlando Crossing the Finish Line Rally
6:00pm EST -8:00pm EST
Location: Renaissance Airport Hotel
5445 Forbes Place
Orlando, FL 32812
*Press Bus Stop

*Overnight in Orlando, FL

Michael Reagan has endorsed Gingrich for the GOP nominee for President in 2012.

"I am endorsing Newt Gingrich for President and here's why:

Newt understands that we must reject and fundamentally change the course that Barack Obama has set for America.

Newt is our only chance in 2012 to contrast a Reagan conservative with Obama's European' styled socialism.

Newt exemplifies the conservative principles my father championed.

Strong national defense, lower taxes and smaller government.

In the 90’s Newt's leadership brought us the Contract with America which changed Washington.

I’m confident Newt can do it again.

We cannot afford a candidate backed by the same Washington insiders who repeatedly tried to undermine my father and the Reagan revolution.

It's time to choose.

Do we go forward with bold ideas or continue with failed policies?

So I ask my fellow Republicans and conservatives to join me in supporting Newt Gingrich for president."

Two days until primary day and the battle continues to heat up in Florida.

No doubt Florida will be relieved to see the media, the candidates, the campaigns and the pollsters move to Nevada, which is the next state in the primary/caucus schedule.

For Mitt Romney supporters, event details below: (via Romney's website)

When: January 30, 2012 - 8:00am - 9:30am
Host: Team Florida
Where: Ring Power Lift Trucks 8040 Philips Highway, Jacksonville, FL 32217

When: January 30, 2012 - 2:30pm - 3:30pm
Host: Team Florida
Where: Pioneer Park 420 Main Street, Dunedin, FL 34698

(Post updated with Romney's January 30, 2012 event details)

Video- Sarah Palin On The Politics Of Personal Destruction

2012-01-29T11:00:00.003-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Video below is from January 28, 2012, where she discusses what she has seen happening in Florida, who drew first blood with negative attack ads and the politics of personal destruction.

Palin also points out that only three states have gone through the primary or caucus process, leaving 47 states left to weigh in.

The whole video above is well worth watching.

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300 Occupiers Arrested In Oakland California

2012-01-29T10:50:00.004-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Occupiers are tired of being ignored has beens so decided to get rowdy, burning flags, destroying equipment, vandalizing and generally breaking as many laws as they could to get arrested and drum up some attention.

Via Wapo:

Dozens of police maintained a late-night guard around City Hall following daylong protests that resulted in 300 arrests. Occupy Oakland demonstrators broke into the historic building and burned a U.S. flag, as officers earlier fired tear gas to disperse people throwing rocks and tearing down fencing at a convention center.

[...SNIP...]

Quan said that at one point, many protesters forced their way into City Hall, where they burned flags, broke an electrical box and damaged several art structures, including a recycled art exhibit created by children.

She blamed the destruction on a small “very radical, violent” splinter group within Occupy Oakland.

“This is not a situation where we had a 1,000 peaceful people and a few violent people. If you look at what’s happening today in terms of destructing property, throwing at and charging the police, it’s almost like they are begging for attention and hoping that the police will make an error.”

Since Barack Obama incited the original Occupy movement and Democratic politicians embraced, encouraged and supported them and San Fran Nan Pelosi herself "blessed" them... I say give them all the attention they want to remind voters of the divisive class open warfare Barack Obama has pushed for in this country.

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Rick Santorum Cancels Campaign Events As Daughter Is Admitted To Hospital

2012-01-29T10:07:00.004-07:00

By Susan Duclos

Republican Presidential hopeful, Rick Santorum, has cancelled his Sunday events to be at his three year old daughter, Bella Santorum's bedside after she was admitted to the hospital yesterday.

Via Philly.com:

Santorum campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley said Saturday night that the former Pennsylvania senator and his wife, Karen, were with Bella at CHOP. Gidley said Santorum planned to return to campaigning as soon as possible in Florida, where the Republican primary is Tuesday.

Bella Santorum has Trisomy 18, a genetic condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 18th chromosome. Bella was not expected to survive until her first birthday and concerns over her health have canceled previous Santorum campaign events.

Keep baby Bella and the whole Santorum family in your thoughts and prayers.

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