Obama Admin: “Proud” that stimulus produced jobs at $738k each (+video)

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo credit: merfam

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood told The Daily Caller that he is “very proud” of the Economic Recovery Act of 2009 that put 65,000 people to work with $48 billion in federal funds for the Department of Transportation, amounting to $738,461 per job.

The Recovery Act of 2009, which in total cost taxpayers $825 billion, has been criticized because it did not prevent the unemployment rate from rising above 8 percent, contrary to what the Obama administration predicted.

“Yeah, we spent $48 billion and we put 65,000 people to work in 15,000 projects in two years with no problems,” LaHood told The Daily Caller in a video interview in Alexandria, Va., on Friday. “I’m very proud of that. I know that the governors can spend this money because over two years we gave them $48 billion, they created 65,000 jobs in 15,000 projects. This is doable. We’re going to get the money out and get people to work.”

TheDC also asked LaHood about the Obama administration’s decision to send an additional $473 million in unspent earmarks to states.

“You know what? These are old earmarks. There are earmarks that were set aside by members of Congress going back several years,” LaHood said. “We’re in the no earmark era. There are no more earmarks. This money needs to be spent because we need to get people to work.”

Glenn Beck interview with FRC shooting eyewitness General Boykin-Page 3

/1 Comment/in /by

GLENN BECK: Well, General, you are one of my favorite people because you never mince words and you’ve taken a strong stand to your own peril for a very long time. You’re a personal hero. Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin. Our best to the Family Research Council and everybody. How is everybody doing there?

GENERAL BOYKIN: They are doing well. Leo is an extraordinary hero and he’s doing quite well. I was with him when he came out of surgery; and the people at FRC are tough warriors, Glenn. We are not going away. We’re not going to change our position. We’re going to stand firm because we do believe that we are speaking for the majority of Americans who still maintain very traditional values.

GLENN BECK: Thank you very much, General. I –

GENERAL BOYKIN: Thank you, Glenn. God bless you.

Ex-Pres. of 3rd largest US local union: goal is to “overthrow capitalism, build communism” (+video)

/2 Comments/in , /by

Former Amalgamated Transit Union local 689 president Mike Golash, now an “Occupy” movement organizer, was caught on tape Sunday revealing his political goals: overthrowing capitalism in the United States and instituting a communist government.

“Progressive labor is a revolutionary communist organization,” Golash said during an Occupy DC “People’s Assembly” on August 19.

“Its objective,” he added, “is to make revolution in the United States, overthrow the capitalist system and build communism.”

Golash said he and his comrades are “trying to learn something from the historical revolutions of the past: the Russian revolution, the Chinese revolution, the revolutions in Cuba and Eastern Europe.”

“What can we learn from them so we can build a more successful movement to transform capitalist society?”

Here’s the video:

Read more from this story HERE.

Glenn Beck interview with FRC shooting eyewitness General Boykin-Page 2

/0 Comments/in /by

GLENN BECK: Well, I think the way to make sure everybody understands your point is to be a mass murderer. The media is reacting to this in their stereotypical way. General, what is the way — how do we change this? They’re ignoring the Black Panthers who have come out and said, Throw bombs into nurseries, kill crackers, as they would say, and everybody is ignoring it. The press even makes us into conspiracy freaks for bringing is up. We bring up the left is the one that always has caused 90% of the shootings and the political statement, kind of bombings, et cetera, et cetera, the terror throughout American history it’s generally from either crazy people or the left and how do we get this message out? Who do we do, General?

GENERAL BOYKIN: Well, Glenn, it’s even worse than that. It’s worse. I mean, not only are they ignoring this and don’t want to deal with it but CNN the morning after in an interview with Brian Brown from the National Organization For Marriage actually tried to justify the hate group label that was placed on the Family Research Council by this anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-sematic Marxist organization called the Southern Poverty Law Center which is a — just an evil group of people and so they actually tried to justify this hate crimes — I mean this hate group label that they gave. What do we do? Well, CNN’s ratings are already in the tank, as well as most of the mainstream media and what we do is continue to do what you are doing with both your radio program, as well as your broadcast, and other organizations like yours, we keep putting the truth out and it is starting to resonate and I think that’s the reason that the popularity of your program is growing is Americans are actually starting to look for truth. You know, Glenn, it’s important to remember that in a recent survey 80% of Americans surveyed supported Dan Cathy and his stance on traditional marriage but the mainstream media is never going to report that and the Southern Poverty Law Center is right in the middle of this culture war and I think what you’re doing and what others like you are doing, particularly with talk radio and with nontraditional means of communication is so critical to keeping the truth out for the American public today.

GLENN BECK: Okay. You made quite a statement about the Southern Poverty Law Center. Most people don’t even know who they are because — they’re quoted all the time by all of the news networks. They’re taking a look at all of the hate groups and monitoring all hate crimes. They have put the Black Panthers in the category of a right wing extremist group on the same list as FRC and the same list as David Barton. Can you — who is the Southern Poverty Law Center? Who are they?

GENERAL BOYKIN: Well, first of all, I’ve already given you my label for them and they are — in fact, they are very similar to the ACLU. They’re a group of lawyers, as well as Marxists who have, in fact, raised an awful lot of money which we understand is being kept offshore and they go after every liberal cause in America. They are — they — in fact, they just had a big meeting this week with the Muslim political action committee and that is a very anti-sematic organization and these people are dangerous, they are evil, and my question is, Glenn, who are they to have any authority to declare anybody a hate group? And, remember, they also called Hitler right wing, as well. I don’t mean SPLC but, you know, people today on the left refer to Hitler as right wing and compare conservatives to Hitler. Well, Hitler was anything but right wing. Remember, he was the nationalist socialist party.

GLENN BECK: Are you more optimistic, less optimistic, or about the same as you were a year ago for the health of the nation?

GENERAL BOYKIN: I am so concerned, Glenn. I must tell you, I’m angry. I’m really angry. I’m angry because people like you and the FRC and others are standing up and speaking for what I believe is the majority of Americans, while Americans, you know, sit at home and cheer you on but they’re doing very little to actually get involved in this culture war and I’m optimistic that people are starting to wake up and as tragic as this event was, Glenn, I think that it is just another way that people are being shaken and people are being brought to an awareness that we are losing our country and the average American that stands on traditional values, the average Christian that believes in a biblical world view have got to get involved and they’ve got to put their time, their effort, their money, and their speech behind what is happening here. So, thank you for what you’re doing.

Read more at the final Page 3 HERE.

Obama falsely denies that his campaign called Romney a felon

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo credit: Cain & Todd Benson

During a surprise press briefing on Monday in which President Barack Obama took questions from White House reporters for the first time in months, he claimed that “nobody accused Romney of being a felon.”

Obama’s statement was in response to a question about his re-election campaign’s attacks on Mitt Romney‘s time at Bain Capital. It appears to directly contradict something his deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said back in July, when she suggested that Romney may have committed a felony.

“Either Mitt Romney, through his own words and his own signature, was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the SEC, which is a felony,” Cutter said on a conference call with reporters back then. “Or he was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the American people to avoid responsibility for some of the consequences of his investments.”

The rub came because of Securities and Exchange Commission documents that the Boston Globe claims show Romney worked at Bain until 2002 — despite him having said publicly he left in 1999.

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul called that Boston Globe characterization inaccurate because as “Bain Capital has said, as Gov. Romney has said, and as has been confirmed by independent fact checkers multiple times, Gov. Romney left Bain Capital in February of 1999 to run the Olympics and had no input on investments or management of companies after that point.”

Fmr KS AG Phill Kline: Planned Parenthood broke law, wrong to dismiss charges-page 3

/1 Comment/in /by

The District Attorney also did not follow up on evidence that demonstrated that Planned Parenthood was illegally referring patients to Dr. Tiller to perform abortions Planned Parenthood knew to be illegal. Planned Parenthood records demonstrated that some of their patients, according to Planned Parenthood, were carrying a healthy viable late-term fetus. Planned Parenthood also reported the mothers were physically and mentally healthy.

Under Kansas law an abortion of a healthy viable fetus is illegal unless the birth of the child would cause the mother “severe and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.” Despite the fact that Planned Parenthood concluded the mother was healthy and the fetus was viable, Planned Parenthood, nevertheless, referred the patients to Dr. Tiller who performed illegal abortions on these patients. This evidence was not pursued by the District Attorney.

The investigation included employee and patient informants who, to my knowledge, were never contacted by the District Attorney’s office.

This evidence was reviewed by independent District Judges who found probable cause to believe Planned Parenthood committed crimes. In fact, in every single instance the evidence was reviewed, probable cause was found. Yet now, none of these charges will ever reach open court.

The law allows a prosecutor the discretion to abandon prosecutions against powerful defendants – even when judges have found probable cause for the case to move to trial. This fact, however, does not make this decision correct but only demonstrates the District Attorney acted out of political fear rather than a sound understanding of the law, the facts or the case.

Fmr KS AG Phill Kline: Planned Parenthood broke law, wrong to dismiss charges-page 2

/0 Comments/in /by

Dr. Goodwin determined the gram weight of the aborted fetus by analyzing the pathology report. The gram weight indicated the fetus was much later in gestation than Planned Parenthood claimed and it was Dr. Goodwin’s conclusion that every single abortion performed in the 29 records obtained was on a viable fetus and, therefore, was illegal.

This allegation was also supported by other witnesses and a review of the files from Dr. Tiller’s clinic in Wichita. Doctors who performed abortions for Planned Parenthood would also perform abortions at Dr. Tiller’s clinics. Eyewitnesses and records revealed that when those doctors were at Dr. Tiller’s clinic they engaged in the same conduct – misrepresenting the gestational age of the fetus in order to justify illegal late-term abortions.

It is not surprising the District Attorney does not understand the charges as, to my knowledge, his office did not contact any of these witnesses, obtain any of the records relating to Dr. Tiller’s clinic, never acted to preserve the testimony of Dr. Goodwin nor tried to contact anyone involved in the initial investigation.

The news release also claims that it was necessary to dismiss some of the older charges because the statute of limitations prohibited the filing of those charges. This statement ignores the claim that Planned Parenthood misrepresented the gestational age of the fetus thus tolling the statute of limitations.

In November of last year the District Attorney announced that he was dismissing the 23 felony charges against Planned Parenthood because documents key to that prosecution were destroyed by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment in 2005, at a time the agency was managed by former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius.

Mr. Howe also announced that Sebelius appointee, former Attorney General Stephen Six, destroyed other key evidence in May of 2009 at a time Mr. Six knew the records were part of a criminal prosecution against Planned Parenthood. This obstruction by the Sebelius Administration and her appointees was harmful to the case but not fatal. The necessary records to proceed were in the possession of Shawnee County District Court Judge Richard Anderson who recently reported that Mr. Howe’s office never made any written request for the records. The District Attorney’s office also had a set of copies.

Read conclusion at Page 3 HERE.

Romney backs Ron Paul’s “Audit the Fed” & Bush’s “read my lips” pledge

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: davelawrence8 Creative Commons

Borrowing a key element of the anti-government libertarianism that fueled rival Ron Paul’s presidential campaign, Mitt Romney said Monday that he thinks the Federal Reserve should face an audit:  “Very plain and simple, the answer is yes. The Federal Reserve should be accountable. We should see what they’re doing,” Mr. Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said at a town hall in New Hampshire.

Mr. Romney also pushed back against President Obama’s claims that the former Massachusetts governor would raise taxes on the middle class if elected.

“Let me tell you the heart of my tax proposal: I will not raise taxes on the American people, I will not raise taxes on middle-income Americans,” Mr. Romney told supporters at St. Anselm College, where he and running mate Rep. Paul Ryan made a grand entrance to the theme song from the movie “Rudy.”

The visit marked the first joint appearance for Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan in New Hampshire — a state that could prove pivotal come Election Day.

The event gave Mr. Romney a chance to fire back at Mr. Obama, who two days earlier in nearby Windham told voters that Mr. Romney’s tax plan would mean that the wealthy get a tax cut and middle-class families will pay more.

Read more from this story HERE.

Study: Red States give far more to charity than Blue States

/0 Comments/in , /by

Am I my brother’s keeper? Conservatives and churchgoers are far more likely to say “yes,” research shows. A major survey by the Chronicle of Philanthropy confirms that residents of states that lean Republican and are most religious donate more of their money to charity, while more secular regions — and areas that tend to vote Democrat — give less.

But researchers caution that churchgoers are no more generous than secular Americans when donations to religious groups are excluded.

The study, which examined Internal Revenue Service information from 2008, the most recent year for which statistics were available, ranked Utahans as the most charitable people in the U.S. Residents of the heavily Mormon state gave 10.6 percent of their discretionary income to philanthropic causes in 2008. Mississippi ranked second, with 7.2 percent going to charity. Three other states in the Bible Belt — Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina — round out the top five.

Each of the top nine states in the Chronicle report voted for John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. The seven least-generous states went for Barack Obama.

New Hampshire residents gave the least, with 2.5 percent of discretionary income going to charity. It was followed by Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts, whose residents donated 2.8 percent. Residents of Rhode Island, the fifth most frugal state, gave 3.1 percent, according to the study.

Read more from this story HERE.

Campaign 2012: The Return of the Death Panels

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo credit: eleanor ryan

Health care was supposed to be President Obama’s issue in 2012. The 2009 Obamacare law was hailed as his signature legislative achievement, but it’s never been popular. Its most onerous provisions were timed to kick in after the election specifically to avoid damaging the re-election effort. For months, the Obama campaign tried to negate the issue. It spent a great deal of energy seeking to inoculate itself from Mitt Romney’s attacks by claiming the Massachusetts health care law passed when Mr. Romney was governor was “just like Obamacare.”

Some of Mr. Obama’s supporters claimed to be thrilled by Mr. Romney’s selection of Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate. The spin was that Mr. Ryan’s budget plan provided the necessary contrast to Obamacare to enable Democrats to move to the offensive. Pro-Obama commentators resurrected the allegation that the Ryan plan would “end Medicare as we know it,” a charge the nonpartisan fact checkers at Politifact dubbed the “lie of the year” in December 2011. Meanwhile, Republicans highlighted the $716 billion that Obamacare cuts from Medicare, a fact affirmed by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. This cut was the talking point that stuck.

The Obama campaign has had to contend with a serious pre-existing condition, namely a lack of support from seniors. According to the latest Gallup data, Mr. Romney enjoys an 11-point advantage among voters age 65 and older. Among the same group, Mr. Obama’s approval rating is 37 percent, the lowest of any age demographic. Medicare is a critical election issue in general. A recent poll by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation found that 73 percent of respondents described Medicare as “very important” or “extremely important” in determining their votes. Mr. Obama now must explain to this skeptical cohort why he chose to cut a very popular program to pay for his very unpopular law.

Death panels also are back. At an appearance in Florida over the weekend, Mr. Ryan criticized the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) established under Obamacare to “contain” Medicare costs. The law “puts a board of 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats in charge of Medicare who are required to cut Medicare in ways that will lead to denied care for current seniors,” he said. “We will make sure that this board of bureaucrats will not mess with my mom’s health care or your mom’s health care.”

Obamacare defenders scoff at the idea that the IPAB’s decisions would have fatal consequences for seniors, but the panel has been given an extraordinary and perhaps unconstitutional degree of power. Its proposals automatically become law unless Congress counters it with another plan. Overriding the IPAB requires a three-fifths supermajority in the Senate. The Obamacare law dictates that Congress may not even propose doing away with the IPAB until 2017 and may not actually get rid of it until 2020. This dubious provision undercuts the argument that the IPAB is a harmless advocate for government efficiency.

Read more from this story HERE.