Coburn Calls Out Senate Colleagues For Being Lazy, Biggest Waste in Government

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The Senate’s top waste-watcher says the federal government is bloated with extra spending — including in the halls of Congress itself, where he says senators and staffers are collecting salaries while failing to do very much work.

Twenty senators haven’t had a single amendment considered on the chamber floor this year, and some of the most powerful committees have all but taken the year off, said Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican.

The damning critique of his colleagues is part of Mr. Coburn’s “Wastebook 2012,” the latest installment in what has become an annual list of 100 curious federal spending decisions that Congress and federal agencies make each year. The book will be released Tuesday.

Making the 2012 list are a $1.5 million grant to the University of Utah to study building a better computer gaming joystick, $100,000 to send a three-member American comedy troupe on a tour of India, and part of a $325,000 grant used to build a robotic squirrel, all to test whether it could scare a real snake.

The National Institutes of Health spent $939,771 on a study to discover that a male fruit fly, given the choice between a young female and an older female fly, chose the younger.

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Fact Checking Romney’s Claim that Production of Oil on Public Lands is Down (+video)

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One of the most intense exchanges of the night arose over the question of permitting and oil production on public lands.

In the segment below, Romney claimed that hydrocarbon production on government land is down. He stated that oil production is down 14% and gas production is down 9%.

Although Obama vigorously denied this, the Washington Post states that “Romney’s telling the truth when he says, ‘Production of oil on public land is down 14 percent and production of gas on public land is down 9 percent.’ That’s because energy production on federal lands is down compared to 2010, according to the Energy Information Administration.” However, the Post adds that production is “still higher than where production stood under President George W. Bush.”

The National Journal has a different take because it evaluated three years of production (2008 to 2011) rather than comparing just the last two years. By reviewing production over the longer range, it found both candidates were right and wrong: “Oil production on public lands is up 12 percent from 2008 to 2011, according to a March report by the Energy Information Administration…Natural-gas production on public lands is down 16.5 percent between 2008 and 2011, according to the same EIA report…Coal production on public lands is down 7.8 percent from 2008 to 2011.”

Video: CNN’s Candy Crowley’s Outrageous Tagteam Hit on Romney Over Libya

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CNN correspondent and second presidential debate moderator Candy Crowley disgraced herself tonight, repeatedly intervening to save a floundering President Obama and showing why many Americans were rightfully suspicious of her ability to moderate a presidential debate fairly.

Her most outrageous act tonight was her incorrect seconding of Obama’s statement that he declared the Libya terrorist attacks to be “terror.” While Obama did indeed use the word, this is not what he meant by it. Instead, he was simply referring to “acts of terror.” There was no mention of Al Qaeda or any of its affiliates with respect to the actual attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi.

Crowley bungled the facts in attempting to save Obama from his administration’s dreadful bungling of the Libya situation. She owes the American people an apology for inserting herself into the debate in such an inappropriate and embarrassing fashion.

Obama deliberately quoted himself out of context and Crowley not only allowed him to do so, she validated his intentionally narrow reading of the facts even before he pleaded for her to come to his rescue.

Here is the full Obama statement in reference to “terror” in Libya. As you can see, this was purely a generic discussion of violence:

“No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America. We will not waver in our commitment to see that justice is done for this terrible act. And make no mistake, justice will be done.”

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Fact Checking Romney’s Permits Claim: Under Obama Permits Declined Over a Third (+video)

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During the Presidential Debate this evening, Romney asserted that permitting for oil and gas on federal lands decreased by 50% under Obama.

Although Obama denied this, the Los Angeles Times states that there was a significant drop from 2008 forward:

Mitt Romney said “the president cut in half the number of licenses and permits for drilling on federal lands and in federal waters.”

According to the Bureau of Land Management, in fiscal year 2011, 2,188 leases were issued for energy development on federal lands. Four years earlier, in fiscal year 2007, 3499 leases were issued. So, not quite a 50% drop, but a drop nonetheless.

Here’s a clip from the debate where Romney went after Obama on the permits issue:

CNN Reaches a New Low With Vile Video: 2012 “Obama Boy” Replaces 2008 “Obama Girl”

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You have to see it to believe it. In this video, a “Obama boy” sings of his love for Obama, similar to the 2008 “Obama girl” video that went viral.

But this video is much, much worse. Inserted midway throughout the video is a woman who looks suspiciously like Michele Bachmann. And there are several scenes that seem intended to suggest fellatio.

CNN’s broadcast of this trashy video really is a new low for the network. John King’s involvement in it makes it all the worse.

If you care to watch it, here’s the video:

Secret Service director suspected of lying to Congress about prostitution scandal

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An investigation for the agency that oversees the U.S. Secret Service suggests Director Mark Sullivan lied during his congressional testimony in the Colombia prostitution scandal that ensnared 13 of his agents, multiple law enforcement officials and congressional sources tell FoxNews.com.

Investigators with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) have completed their investigative report, which will be referred to the Department of Justice along with a memorandum of activity that lists potential criminal actions. The report indicates Sullivan may have obstructed Congress by lying about the criminal associations of prostitutes involved in the scandal. The report also alleges Sullivan may have manipulated a report requested by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the sources said.

DHS OIG uncovered the evidence — including specific incidents of alleged perjury, making false statements and impeding Congress — during their ongoing probe into the scandal surrounding agents’ misconduct prior to President Obama’s trip to Cartagena, Colombia last April, sources told FoxNews.com. Sources said Sullivan may have violated statute 18 USC § 1505 — obstruction of proceedings before departments, agencies, and committees — and investigators are now handing the case over to federal prosecutors in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section.

DHS OIG has been in talks with Justice Department prosecutors in the Public Integrity Section for months, and met with them late last week about the potential charges against Sullivan, sources said. The OIG, however, declined to discuss details of its investigation.

“The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General is conducting an ongoing investigation, requested by Congress, of the United States Secret Service regarding its actions during a presidential visit to Cartagena, Colombia, earlier this year,” Charles Edwards, acting inspector general, said in a written statement. “The department and the Secret Service have cooperated with the OIG’s investigation thus far. However, as a matter of policy, the OIG does not discuss its ongoing investigations.”

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Black Leaders, Including Martin Luther King Jr.’s Niece, Launch $1 Million Campaign Against Obama’s Pro-Gay Marriage Stance

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With three weeks to go before the General elections on Nov. 6, a group of black leaders are stepping up their mission to convince at least 25 percent of African Americans who voted for President Barack Obama in 2008 to vote on their biblical principles on issues such as homosexuality.

“Our goal is not to campaign against President Obama or any individual candidate. We seek rather to call people to vote above their emotions, party affiliations, and even their personal opinions, and to vote God’s values,” said Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Executive Committee member of nonprofit group “God Said”.

“Each day brings us closer to realizing this goal. Many people are rethinking their options as far as the voting process is concerned. Online polls confirm that people are concerned about the ‘marriage factor’ and that it will impact their decisions at the poll,” King added in an email to The Christian Post, although she could not estimate how many people are reconsidering their vote.

The Texas-based organization has announced that it will spend $1 million on TV and radio ads in Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Florida urging African-Americans to vote on God’s values, noting that “God said marriage is between one man and one woman”. Voters are being urged to consider “God’s values and not their party’s.”

Obama and GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney present two different opinions on the same-sex marriage debate. The president announced in May that he supports gay marriage, noting that his opinion had “evolved” on the issue, while Romney has stated that he is for preserving the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman.

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Bus Driver Tells Pro-Life Student He Should Have Been Aborted

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A 12-year-old Wisconsin boy is haunted by the cruel taunt of his bus driver, who told him that his mother should have opted for abortion instead of bringing him into the world…

Debbie Ann Hartlaub said the 81-year-old bus driver had been harassing her son for weeks. She went straight to the bus company with her story and got the woman fired.

Joey [Hartlaub] told Fox that the incident occurred after he and his classmates were chanting ‘Romney! Romney!’ in the back of the bus.

‘She kind of yelled at us, and told me to come up front,’ Joey said.

Then, Joey explained himself, citing President Barack Obama’s pro-abortion politics as the reason for his support of Mitt Romney.

‘Well, maybe your mother should have chosen an abortion for you!’ the bus driver allegedly told the seventh grader.

Read more from this story HERE.

Revealed: JFK’s Secret Cuban Missile Speech Announcing Start of “World War III”

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“My fellow Americans, with a heavy heart, and in necessary fulfillment of my oath of office, I have ordered – and the United States Air Force has now carried out – military operations with conventional weapons only, to remove a major nuclear weapons build-up from the soil of Cuba.”

These are the words President Kennedy almost delivered in October 1962 announcing what could have been World War III. This draft speech is among several thousand drafts, letters, and handwritten notes from Robert F. Kennedy’s personal files that have just last week been opened at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.

Robert Kennedy’s writings make vivid how close we came to the brink of war. Had President Kennedy been forced to choose a response in the first 48 hours after an American spy plane discovered the Soviets sneaking nuclear-tipped missiles into Cuba, RFK had no doubt that his brother would have chosen an air strike against the missile sites, followed by an invasion. As he wrote in his notes while discussing this option, “if we go in, we go in hard.”

Had the United States launched an airstrike and invaded Cuba, the Soviet commander on the scene would almost certainly have responded with about 100 tactical nuclear weapons under his control – tactical nuclear weapons JFK did not even know were on the island. The US would have felt compelled to respond in kind triggering an escalation to nuclear Armageddon. As RFK later recalled, the Executive Committee of the National Security Council advising JFK during the crisis was full of “bright, able dedicated people, all of whom had the greatest affection for the US, [but] if six of them had been President…the world might have been blown up”.

Instead of the air strike, JFK initially chose to impose a naval blockade on further arms shipments to Cuba. Yet as the Soviets rushed to complete construction of missiles already in Cuba so that they could be fired against American cities, US planning for the air strike was refined.

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Make or Break Debate: Obama’s Support Among Women Now Collapsing

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Obama’s biggest task tonight in the second presidential debate will be to woo back ‘waitress moms’ so crucial to his re-election, after a poll showed Mitt Romney has stole their votes in the first showdown and they are now neck and neck among women voters.

According to a Gallup/USA Today poll of 12 swing states, Romney leads Obama by 12 points among men. But it is his surge among women voters to within one point of Obama that has given him a four-point overall lead that sets him on course to win the White House on November 6th.

The poll, released on the eve of the second presidential debate in Hampstead, New York, marks an apparent end to months of double-digit Obama leads over Romney among women and has plunged Democrats into panic mode.

Unlike the first debate, the second meeting will be in a ‘town hall’ format in which undecided ordinary voters – probably about a dozen – will pose questions. At least half of them are likely to be women. In addition, the debate will be moderated by a woman – CNN’s Candy Crowley.

Democrats traditionally enjoy a marked advantage among women. Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election was said to have been based on winning over middle class, aspirational so-called ‘soccer moms’. But Obama’s popularity among females has plummeted after Romney’s commanding debate performance in Denver nearly two weeks ago.

Read more from this story HERE.