Rick Perry to speak in Iowa on Sunday

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Texas Governor Rick Perry will speak at a Republican fundraiser in Iowa Sunday for the Black Hawk County Republicans, his campaign confirmed to the CBS News on Tuesday.

Perry appears poised to soon announce his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, and his decision to travel to the crucial first-in-the-nation voting state signals that he plans to compete aggressively there. Perry also plans to make stops in South Carolina and New Hampshire on Saturday, and is expected to make his plans to seek the nomination clear in his remarks in South Carolina.

“It’s an important area of the state for Republicans,” Mark Miner, a spokesman for Perry, told the Des Moines Register of Perry’s decision to travel to Waterloo, Iowa. “There’s nothing new to announce, but stay tuned.”

Perry’s campaign said the event will take place in Waterloo’s Electric Park Ballroom, and Perry will be joined by Sen. Chuck Grassley, Rep. Walt Rogers, R-Iowa, Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Matt Strawn and Secretary of State Matt Schultz.

Notably, the trip will come just a day after Saturday’s closely-watched Iowa straw poll in Ames. Perry, who is not on the straw poll ballot, will undoubtedly divert attention from the outcome of the poll, which traditionally has a significant impact on the Republican presidential race.

Read More at CBS News By Lucy Madison, CBS News

Did Newsweek choose Michele Bachmann cover photo to make her ‘look crazy’?

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Another Newsweek cover controversy is brewing–and once again, it involves women.

A month after editor-in-chief Tina Brown Photoshopped the late Princess Diana walking alongside Kate Middleton onto the cover of Newsweek, sparking outrage among fans, Brown is drawing the ire of the tea party for selecting a photo of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.)
for Newsweek’s cover that makes the 2012 Republican hopeful look, well, crazy.

The photo of Bachmann, shot in Washington on Aug. 1 by photographer Chris Buck, accompanies a cover story by Lois Romano entitled “The Queen of Rage.” (Newsweek tweeted the cover image late Sunday with the #QueenOfRage hashtag.)

Reached via e-mail, Alice Stewart, Bachmann’s press secretary, declined to comment. “We are focused on meeting with the people of Iowa in advance of the Straw Poll,” she wrote in an email to The Cutline. And Bachmann brushed off a question about the cover from a voter in Iowa.

Conservative media pundits, though, were more than happy to respond.

Read More at Yahoo! By Dylan Stableford, Newsweek

The Great Deconstruction of big government and public union

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The economic downturn of 2008 – 2009 has been labeled “The Great Recession” for good reason. Eight million Americans lost their jobs compared to six million in the last four recessions combined dating back to 1980. The jobless recovery may trigger a double dip recession in 2011. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimates that homeowners’ equity has fallen by over 50 percent, or about six trillion dollars, during this period. Some 22 percent of all mortgages are now under water. And, economists predict that between eight and 13 million homes will have been foreclosed before the crisis ends.

The eight million jobs lost during the Great Recession were primarily in the private sector. While the private sector was ravaged, the public sector was protected and bolstered by the $800 billion Stimulus Bill (3) in 2008 that sent more than $200 billion to the states to keep public sector employees employed. The Stimulus money that California received allowed California to avoid the job cuts demanded by a state budget more that $20 billion out of whack.

Ironically, it will be the actions of the Tea Party, a movement that had no significant affect on California’s 2010 election, that will impact California’s future. While the Tea Party swept more than 60 Democrats out of the Congress in 2010 and replaced them with freshman conservative Republicans, there was no such sweep in California. Democrat Governor Brown easily won his election as did Barbara Boxer and literally every Democrat running for state-wide office.

The vote in the House of Representatives, led by the freshman Republicans, will reduce Federal spending by $2.1 trillion over ten years. The framework would immediately cap domestic and defense spending. These changes will find their way to California and signal the end to Sacramento’s budgetary fiction that the Federal government will bail out the wasteful spending of state politicians. California will be forced to solve its budgetary shortfalls the same way as their federal counterparts – with less money than before.

The period following The Great Recession will be known as “The Great Deconstruction” and will usher in draconian cuts in public sector jobs and a reduction in size of California’ s government. Deconstruction is defined as the wholesale elimination of entire programs, their permanent funding and the jobs involved.

Read More at CA Political Review Robert J. Christiano, California Political Review

Something Smells Fishy With Lisa Murkowski

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Something Smells Fishy With Sen. Murkowski, Sen. Snowe and Rep. Frank

By Tom Lamb (Red County):  Just as mysterious as the orange goo that washed up on the shores of northwest  Alaska, a mystery that surrounds an ex-aide to our Senator Lisa Murkowski by the name of Arne Fuglvog is unfolding.

Last week, The Anchorage Daily News headlined a fishy story with: Murkowski learned of plea deal 3 months after it was made.

The interesting part of the story was this:

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Thursday that she had no idea for three months that her fisheries adviser had signed a plea deal with federal prosecutors in which he’d admitted to illegal fishing and agreed to nearly a year in federal prison. But Murkowski said she still kept him on the job for a month after he told her of his crime in June.

(…)

Murkowski said Fuglvog did tell her on June 29 he was going to enter in a plea agreement on Aug. 1.

A fishy plea deal and guilty until proven innocent

Knowing Fuglvog was guilty, our Senator Lisa Murkowski kept Mr. Fuglvog on her staff:

“He stayed on my staff until the 31st of July. The fact of the matter is we have a legal system here in this country — an individual is innocent until proven guilty. I applied that to Arne,” she said.

In Senator Murkowski’s legal world, even though on June 29th, Fuglvog admitted to Murkowski he was guilty and the plea deal (misdemeanor and 10 months), Murkowski said he was in effect, innocent when she knew he was guilty.

Moreover, Murkowski believed so much in the legal system, according to a past story written by Dan Riehl, Murkowski flunked the bar exam four times and may have cheated to pass it.

Sleeping With the Fishy

And given Murkowski’s past on trying to pass the bar exam four times and her questionable integrity, the saying politics makes for strange bed- fellows fits Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Barney Frank.

According to another Anchorage Daily News story, the Left’s Shannyn Moore evidently was trying to scuttle Fugvlog’s nomination as head to the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS):

Fuglvog was widely reported in fishing industry journals as one of two finalists for the position and had letters of support from both Murkowski and Alaska Sen. Mark Begich. But Fuglvog pulled his name from consideration in July 2009, saying that the selection process was going on for too long.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Steward said Wednesday that Fuglvog has been under investigation for “some time,” but wouldn’t be more specific about just when the investigation started.

Shannyn Moore, an Anchorage talk show host and political activist, said Wednesday that people who had been crew on Fuglvog’s fishing vessel contacted her around December 2008.

Moore said the people, who she declined to name, told her they had already been called in to testify as part of an investigation of Fuglvog. They were upset to see Fuglvog was under consideration to head the fisheries service, Moore said.

Moore said she was given a copy of a partial “fish log book” detailing Fuglvog’s actual catches, as opposed to what he reported catching. She said she contacted the office of Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, because Frank was supporting the other finalist to lead the national fisheries service. Frank’s pick didn’t get the job either.

Frank spokesman Harry Gural confirmed Wednesday that Moore had contacted a staffer in his office. Gural said Frank’s office had already been aware of things Moore was talking about and did not have any evidence of wrongdoing.

In an Alaska Dispatch story (see PDF file),Rep. Barney Frank came up with a fishy story of his own.

The official statement in the Alaska Dispatch story is Frank knew nothing about Moore’s contact.

So the bottom line is: Shannyn Moore contacted a Barney Frank staffer and Frank stated he didn’t  know anything about it.

Do you buy it?

In an e-mail I received, the source of the e-mail stated that they received the following response to a question they asked a reporter at the Gloucestertimes.com.

From: XXXXXXXXX <[email protected]>

To: [email protected]

Sent: Wed, October 20, 2010 11:39:00 PM

Subject: why did arne foglvog withdraw from the race to be head of noaa

What reasons have your heard offered for why Arne took his name off the table?  [re to be head of NOAA or NMFS]

On Oct 22, 2010, at 7:40 AM,

Hi XXXXXX,

Because of his illegal fishing, and the fact that his crew were going to turn him in to NMFS

Now if a reporter at the Gloucester Times knew Murkowski’s aide had fished illegally and had taken his name off the table because of that, Rep. Barney Frank had to know Murkowski ‘s aide had done some fishy things.

And even though the reporter from the Gloucester Times knew this, during the general election between Murkowski and Miller, no stories were written about it in Alaska or in the National media?

Moreover, what about  Senator Olympia Snowe?

According to Shannyn Moore, she also alerted Snowe to the allegations about Fuglvog fishing illegally.

And when it comes to allegations, you should have a Smoking Gun to prove the allegation.

The Smoking Fish

In this mystery story, instead of there being a Smoking Gun, you have a Smoking Fish.

It’s a real stinker because a crime had been committed but it was covered up (hint- it has to do with newspapers) in fish-wrapping paper.

Through a FOIA request, it is found that a complaint was filed on May 4th 2005 against Fuglvog and in the 42 page document , Fuglvog was charged with catching too many fish and then fined.

And according to the source that provided me with the redacted FOIA documents, there were other crimes, but for some reason, the documents related to the crimes were destroyed by NOAA.

Were the documents related to new evidence or past incidents where Fuglvog was fined? Keep in mind it is alleged that from 2001 to 2006 he had committed some type of legal infraction.

Are the feds trying to cover their tracks on past crimes that were committed, documented and expunged?

I don’t think the answer to the above question will be known.

So, what should you take from all of this?

There was knowledge and a record in 2005 of Fuglvog being fined for fishing illegally and in 2009, Fuglvog wanted to be boss of an agency that fined him.

This 2005 document is not some type of new evidence found through years of investigative work, the guy had a past that was documented, the only question on the 2005 incident is: where was a press release from NOAA?

Unless you were on some Big Wig fishery board perhaps or rubbed fins with some Big Fish, I would think when one is fined, a press release could be issued with the purpose to brag about the incident. And I’d say Fuglvog was known to rub fins with some pretty Big Fish out there like Frank Murkowski and some past federal senators.

Moreover, because there was a record of Fuglvog’s 2005 fine, there is no doubt Lisa Murkowski and Barney Frank knew about Fuglvog’s past.  And I don’t think there are many Alaskans who think the big wigs in Congress and the fishing political action committees didn’t know about Fuglvog’s crimes.

The FOIA request indicates that prosecutors may have sat on the case until after the election, and reporters were alerted, but they sat on their hands.

So the corruption we thought was purged from Alaska politics a few years ago is still alive and well.

We already know (according to the Democrats) Murkowski will lie, the question from this story is: how many fish skeletons are in Lisa Murkowski’s past that caused her to vote with the senate democrats and Senator Olympia Snowe?

Read article at Red County HERE.

Big Government’s spawn: unemployment (and it’s worse than you think)

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The U.S. labor force is shrinking, as more Americans are giving up hope

By Chris Isidore (CNNMoney):  Last month, only 58.1% of Americans age 16 and over were employed, a significant drop from before the recession and the lowest since 1983.

That’s especially worrisome to economists, who say a steady increase in those dropping out of the work force and not being counted in the unemployment rate is disguising just how bad the labor market really is.

“People are dropping out of labor force for all types of reasons,” said Robert Brusca of FAO Economics. “And it’s not a good trend. A good part of the wealth of a nation has to do with the proportion of population that works.”

Some economists say that the employment-population ratio, or “e-pop,” is a more accurate snapshot of the labor market than the unemployment rate, which fell to 9.1% last month from 10.1% in October 2009.

“When we have a time when the labor force is not growing normally, e-pop provides the cleanest assessment of what is going on in the labor market,” said Heidi Shierholz, a labor economist with the Employment Policy Institute, a liberal think tank. “What you see is from ’07 to ’09 — it fell off a cliff, and it hasn’t recovered since then.”

Read more at CNNMoney HERE.

Cokie Roberts- Our Big Problem is the US Constitution

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Cokie Roberts one of the leading voices of the left wing establishment in America masquerading as a journalist lets the truth slip in this important video. Our big problem is the “US Constitution” in her analysis.

Iran says U.S. ‘will be taught the mother of all lessons’

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Iran is planning to retaliate against the United States for the sabotage against its nuclear program, according to an editorial in the Kayhan newspaper, the mouthpiece of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The U.S. has all of its infrastructure connected to the Internet, the editorial says, and as a result, “it is constantly worried about an unknown player, who they will never be able to identify … sitting in some corner of the world who would launch an attack on a sector of (the Americans’) foundations. They will be taught the mother of all lessons.”

Specifically, Iran is looking into launching a cyber attack against U.S. electrical grid systems.

Iranian officials are furious over the July 23 assassination of nuclear scientist Dariush Rezai-Nejad, who was working on electric detonators for the Iranian nuclear program, which can be used on missiles or nuclear bombs. He was the third Iranian nuclear scientist assassinated since 2009.

The frustration over acts of sabotage started with the computer virus Stuxnet in which 1,000 of Iran’s centrifuges at the Natanzs nuclear facility were destroyed and had to be replaced. The virus also attacked the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which has resulted in repeated delays in it joining the country’s power grid.

Read More at WND By Reza Kahlili, WorldNetDaily

U.S. Credit Downgrade: Another Obama First!

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Three years ago, many well-meaning Americans suspended concerns about Barack Obama’s experience, judgment, and associations in order to vote for an “historic” president. To paraphrase H.L. Mencken, they got one — good and hard. Friday night, for the first time in history, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+. The United States earned the top rating the moment such rankings began in 1917 — which means we maintained our AAA rating through the Great Depression, stagflation, malaise, and the 1982 recession. Thirty months of Barack Obama, and it is gone for the first time in history. Change we can believe in!

The retrogression is neither surprising nor is it the only “historic” first The One has perpetrated against the United States. Obama cajoled Congress for weeks that it had to pass a debt ceiling compromise by August 2 to avoid just this occasion. But as Rep. Tom McClintock, R-CA, pointed out, “The purported cuts, even if realized, are far below the $4 trillion deficit reduction that credit rating agencies have warned is necessary to preserve the Triple-A credit rating of the United States government.” S&P used precisely this language in its statement about downgrading the United States, saying the resultant cuts fall “short of the amount that we believe is necessary to stabilize the general government debt burden by the middle of the decade.” It faults political gridlock and the lack of “containment” of entitlements. The same administration experts who insisted GOP sellouts on the debt compromise would stave off Friday’s downgrade also insisted passing a stimulus plan would hold unemployment below eight percent.

Even less surprising is the fact that the Obama administration actually believed its rhetoric could stop the inevitable. When Standard & Poor’s began hinting at its actions, anonymous officials began a whisper campaign that the agency’s math was off. Jake Tapper reported Friday evening, “Because of the pushback, the Obama administration is preparing for the downgrade but is not 100% positive it’s going to happen, officials said. And if the downgrade does happen, officials are not sure when it will happen.” S&P downgraded the U.S. hours later. Choosing talk over action has consequences, at home and abroad.

The consequences of his actions are unknown and foreboding. The new credit rating may cause inflated interest rates to trickle down to states and localities, or make all borrowing rates rise.

Economic growth would shrink the importance of the national debt — but such growth is not expected as long as Obama is president. Economists expert growth in debt, and its attendant economic disintegration, in the years to come. Under most estimates, debt would amount to 88 percent of GDP in ten years. S&P warns under its pessimistic scenario, debt will reach 101 percent of GDP in 2021. (AFP news service reported on Wednesday, that U.S. borrowing topped 100 percent of GDP.) Carmen Reinhart of the Peterson Institute for International Economics testified before the House Budget Committee in March that growth begins to slow noticeably once debt crosses the 90 percent threshold. The European Central Bank suggested negative impacts begin at the 70-to-80 percent level. Even the adoption of the debt compromise spooked the stock market, causing a decline for nine out of the past ten sessions, a streak not seen since 1978 when Jimmy Carter was president.

Read More at Floyd Reports By Ben Johnson, The White House Watch

Revise U.S. military strategy now!

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Thirty-one U.S. special operations forces (Navy Seal 6 members reportedly) killed in a helicopter crash Saturday morning in Afghanistan south of Kabul may have been victims of a Taliban shoulder-held missile.

Iran is controlling the future of Iraq more and more each day. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, the Iranian general “secretly running” Iraq and commander of the al-Quds Force, has so much Iraqi influence that Baghdadis believe he is controlling the country. The commander of the Iranian al-Quds force controls more of what goes on inside Iraq than the United States does. There appear to be no achievable victories for the United States in either country.

To date, government security policy elitists in the United States government have demonstrated almost complete ignorance toward revised, adaptive and forward strategic planning. While virtually every military officer and many policy “wonks” have been taught strategic planning at some level, it is obvious many have thrown most of the lessons out the door upon graduating. This is demonstrated more than ever by our senior generals, admirals and Defense, State Department and intelligence political appointees. One only need observe the international scene and turmoil in Afghanistan and the Middle East.

The time is now to change strategy and reposition our forces for present and future operations. This mythical counterinsurgency, or COIN, strategy must cease immediately. These so-called decision makers have bankrupted the United States and are decimating our armed forces by continuing critical budget cuts, wearing out our military equipment and wearing down our force structure with extended operations in the Middle East. It’s just what our enemies like to see.

We must reposition our forces now and change our global strategy. I implore the generals and admirals to take charge and do what is right for America.

Read More at WND  By Paul E. Vallely, WorldNetDaily

Obama’s chief strategist stupidly blames Tea Party for downgrade

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By Gabriella Schwarz (CNN):  President Barack Obama’s chief re-election strategist on Sunday blamed Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the United States’ credit rating on tea party conservatives who made raising the federal debt ceiling a political issue.

“This is essentially a tea party downgrade,” David Axelrod told the CBS program “Face the Nation.” “The tea party brought us to the brink of a default.”

Axelrod, who left the White House earlier this year to focus on Obama’s 2012 campaign, said the country was pushed to the financial brink by some conservative Republicans.

“It was the wrong thing to do to push the country to that point. And it’s something that that should never have happened,” Axelrod said. “That clearly is on the backs of those who were willing to see the country default, those very strident voices in the tea party.”

However, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham pushed back, saying that proposals from members of the tea party movement could have prevented the S&P downgrade.

“If we’d listened to the tea party, we’d have $4 trillion reductions in debt over time and not been downgraded,” the South Carolina senator said on the CBS program. “The tea party hasn’t destroyed Washington; Washington was destroyed before the tea party got there.”

Read more at CNN HERE.