40% of Americans self-identify as Independents, highest in US history

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The percentage of Americans identifying as political independents increased in 2011, as is common in a non-election year, although the 40% who did so is the highest Gallup has measured, by one percentage point. More Americans continue to identify as Democrats than as Republicans, 31% to 27%.

These results are based on more than 20,000 interviews conducted in 20 separate Gallup polls in 2011. Gallup has computed annual averages of party identification since 1988, when it began regularly conducting interviews by telephone. The prior high percentage of independents was 39% in 1995 and 2007.

Gallup records from 1951-1988 — based on face-to-face interviewing — indicate that the percentage of independents was generally in the low 30% range during those years, suggesting that the proportion of independents in 2011 was the largest in at least 60 years.

In recent decades, Gallup has observed a pattern of increased independent identification in the year prior to a presidential election, and a decline in the presidential election year. The only exception to that was in 1992, when independent identification increased from 1991, perhaps the result of President Bush’s high approval ratings in 1991 and Ross Perot’s independent presidential candidacy in 1992.

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Read more at Gallup.com HERE.

Todd Palin endorses Gingrich: Is Sarah next?

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Todd Palin isn’t particularly vocal about his politics, so his endorsement of Newt Gingrich today has already prompted speculation that his wife may follow:

Todd Palin notes that he hasn’t spoken with the Gingrich campaign at all, and his wife still hasn’t decided whom to support. The Daily Caller’s Matt Lewis thus seizes on the one glimmer of importance in all this: “Obvious question: Will Sarah Palin follow Todd?” he asks. Sarah Palin, after all, does maintain something of a constituency these days so her endorsement (which might finally, finally end the “will she run rumors”) might give Gingrich’s sad campaign some oomph.

Could Sarah Palin be putting out a trial balloon for her own Gingrich endorsement? It wouldn’t be the first time the Palins tested the waters like this. In 2010, Todd endorsed Alaska senate candidate Joe Miller a full 10 days before his wife did.

Palin really only has three choices for an endorsement at this point, at least if she’s interested in backing someone who has any shot at the nomination. And she’s likely going to choose either Gingrich or Rick Santorum, considering her recent swipes at Mitt Romney. During the weekend, she hinted that Romney is getting a free pass from the media because reporters think he’d be the weakest candidate against President Obama:

Palin said the mainstream media would take a hands-off approach to Romney “in order to bolster Romney’s chances” to “finally face Obama.”

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Read more at Commentary Magazine.com HERE.

President Obama’s Myopic View of the Muslim Brotherhood

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Attaining political power includes winning elections and forming a state run according to Islamic law, the liberation of countries of Islam from a foreign yoke, uniting them into one Islamic entity, and spreading Islamic values around the globe on the ruins of the liberal West.

President Barack Obama’s view of the Muslim Brotherhood is based on his — and his advisors’ — apparent rationale that the Islamist group is reformed and much more like the American and European models of pluralistic societies.

However, experts on Islam and terrorism claim that the Muslim Brotherhood’s — and the radical Salafists — dominance of the Egyptian government, by virtue of its recent parliamentary election victories, will eventually lead to the imposition of Sharia law on Islamic Arabs and jihad against infidels.

“Nothing the Obama administration is trying to do through its aggressive overtures, including recent high-level meetings with Muslim Brotherhood officials, will change that fact. Jihad is embedded in its history, as evidenced by the violent Islamic jihadist organizations such as Hamas that it spawned. And let’s not forget that it was the Muslim Brotherhood that gave Osama bin Laden’s former deputy and current leader of al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, his start,” said attorney and World Net Daily investigative journalist Joseph Klein.

Klein states that Jihad remains in the Muslim Brotherhood’s DNA. Its motto includes the words: “Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” The Brotherhood’s new offices are emblazoned with its emblem of crossed swords.

Read More at The Cypress Times By Jim Kouri, The Cypress Times

Pro-life college student quits job with Girl Scouts over ‘end abortion’ t-shirt

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TUCSON, Arizona, January 9, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An Arizona college student who stopped in at her workplace wearing a pro-life t-shirt quit her job rather than obey a supervisor who ordered her to turn the “Pray to End Abortion” shirt inside out.

Renise Rodriguez, a 21-year-old religious studies major at the University of Arizona, worked as a Girl Experience Associate for the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona in Tucson. When she went to her office on Jan. 3 during her off-duty hours to prepare materials for a meeting, she was told twice by a supervisor that if she planned to stay in the office, or attend a troop meeting, she would have to turn her shirt inside out.

“I started to get emotional because of the way I was treated so I left without preparing for the meeting and told my co-worker that she would have to get the stuff together,” Miss Rodriguez said. “As I was driving out, I called a friend crying and told her the story. I was so shocked at the way I was treated. After contemplating it for the rest of that day, I decided to write my letter of resignation.”

Her letter did not specify her reason for resigning, but she plans to discuss it with another supervisor when she does her formal exit interview.

“It is the courage and conviction of young people like Renise that gives us hope that we are closer than ever to winning this battle and bringing an end to child killing in America,” said Bryan Kemper, Director of Youth Outreach for Priests for Life. “Young heroes like Renise prove this generation is a pro-life generation.”

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Read More at lifesitenews.com

Media mob chases Ron Paul from campaign stop in New Hampshire

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MANCHESTER, N.H. — A campaign stop at a New Hampshire eatery mutated into a circus on Monday when the media scrum chasing Ron Paul apparently became too much for the 76-year-old Texas congressman to handle.

Paul had been planning to make the rounds through Moe Joe’s restaurant before settling down to eat breakfast with his wife, Carol — who said he enjoys apple pancakes — at a table in the corner.

But the plans quickly changed. Barely able to move through the restaurant as hundreds of journalists and videographers surrounded him on all sides, Paul ignored the questions being lobbed at him and slowly inched through the restaurant, offering a few autographs to supporters along the way.

“Guys, you’ve got to take it easy,” shouted one Paul staffer, imploring the media to give the congressman some space.

No such luck.

Read More at The Hill By Josh Lederman, The Hill

Perry: “I would send troops back into Iraq”

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Rick Perry said he would send U.S. troops back to Iraq at a Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire on Saturday.

“The idea that we allow the Iranians to come back into Iraq and take over that country, with all of the treasures, both in blood and money, that we have spent in Iraq- because this president wants to kowtow to his liberal leftist base, and move out those men and women. He could have renegotiated that time frame. I think it is a huge error for us,” Perry said at the debate, sponsored by ABC News/Yahoo!/WMUR-TV.

This is the not the first time that the Texas governor has been critical of President Obama’s foreign policy in Iraq, but it is the first that he has suggested sending troops back after their withdrawal last month.

At a campaign stop in Iowa in December, Perry said on Iraq, “Giving your enemy is a timeline of which you’re going to withdraw is really bad tactics.”

Perry was bolder at the ABC News/Yahoo GOP presidential debate Saturday, citing Iran as a potential problem in Iraq.

Read More at CBS News By Christine Delargy, CBS News

While Governor, Romney retroactively imposed millions in taxes on Granite State residents

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Soon after becoming Massachusetts governor, Willard Mitt Romney retroactively imposed new taxes on non-residents, including Granite State citizens who work, conduct business, and/or invest in the Bay State. Romney’s higher taxes reached into New Hampshire and helped vacuum at least $95 million in marginal income back across the border.

According to Massachusetts Department of Revenue figures, the total amount that New Hampshire taxpayers surrendered to Massachusetts grew from $213.6 million in 2002 to $248.9 million in 2006, a 16.5 percent increase. (Data for 2006 are preliminary.)

Had 2002′s tax baseline remained flat, New Hampshire taxpayers would have kept $95 million in cumulative payments to Massachusetts since 2003. Higher revenues often are a supply-side effect of tax cuts. This is not so when taxes increase.

Massachusetts tax revenues from New Hampshire residents increased even as the number of New Hampshire residents who paid Massachusetts taxes fell 2.3 percent — from 89,304 in 2002 to 87,320 in 2006. The checks shrank in number, but swelled in value. The average tax payment from New Hampshire expanded $458 — from $2,392 in 2002 to $2,850 in 2006 — up 19.2 percent.

“That’s even more remarkable when you consider that the number of New Hampshire taxpayers who pay (as opposed to simply file) didn’t change in what appears to be any statistically significant way during this period, yet the average tax payment went up substantially,” says Cato Institute scholar Stephen Slivinski.

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Read more at Race42012.com HERE.

Paul Slams Santorum In New Ad

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