Extremism in the Defense of RINOism Is No Virtue

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Politics is a funny thing. Sometimes, the seemingly counterintuitive can become the reality, what you would not expect – based upon common sense – nevertheless is what happens. Much of this has to do with the fact that in a political system such as ours, it is easy for factional interests to become entrenched, pursuing politics for the sake of remaining in power rather than for the good of those they claim to represent. In such cases, you will find the entrenched power acting in ways that, to the uninitiated, often seem obtuse and nonsensical.

Such seems to be the case with the Republican Party. Conservatives have observed time and time again that the Party which supposedly represents their interests in our system nevertheless seems to take them for granted. Worse than this, often the entrenched interests within the Party hierarchy – commonly referred to collectively as the Establishment or the “GOP-E” – seem to be actively hostile to conservatives within the Party, often going to great lengths to stifle and block them at every turn.

There are few places where this becomes more apparent than in the way the GOP-E deals with conservative candidates who defeat moderate, Establishment candidates in primary races, or who misstep and provide an opening to the GOP-E for attack. Indeed, the Republican Party seems to be the only Party in living memory that actively seeks to destroy the electoral chances of its own candidates just to enforce the entrenched Establishment’s vision for the Party. In doing so, they don’t just hurt conservatives within their Party, but they actual help the Democrats retain seats and have greater opportunity to damage the nation as a whole.

The Democrats certainly don’t do this. Instead, that Party is more than happy to run seemingly right-leaning candidates in conservative districts in an effort to bolster their own chances for taking and retaining power. In 2008, a goodly portion of the Democratic wave was made up of quasi-conservative office-seekers attacking Republicans from their right flank, taking conservative congressional districts all across the South, the Midwest, and the Mountain West – traditionally areas of Republican strength. The GOP-E, for its part, has no problem reminding conservatives that in left-leaning districts, the Republicans who run need to be more towards the center – and in this they have a valid argument, up to a point. Yet, the GOP-E seems to also want centrist or liberal candidates for the Republican Party even in districts and states that conservatives can easily win. Hence, the seemingly nonsensical push for thoroughly unnecessary “moderate” Republicans, which only ends up undermining conservative enthusiasm, loyalty to the Party, and ultimately donation and turnout on Election Day. The GOP-E goes to great lengths to undercut conservative candidates across the country, placing its own narrow Establishment interests ahead of those of the nation and the Party as a whole.

Take, for instance, the curious case of Todd Akin, running for the Senate in Missouri. Read more from this story HERE.

$4 Gas: Get Used to It

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President Obama may have a lot more to worry about than bombing the debate this week. Traders are starting to get particularly bullish over gasoline prices – and that is bad news for the average driver, who may also be looking to vent his spleen at the voting booth.

Reports of gas shortages along the high-demand west and east coasts may be fleeting – although deeply concerning – but they highlight a problem that’s expected to persist in the U.S.: our refineries are getting old. Given that a new refinery has not been built since 1976, commodities desks on Wall Street are bracing for more refinery outages and fires just as the nation needs to gear up for the busy winter heating season.

What does that mean? Probably more weeks where we’ll see U.S. crude oil inventories hovering above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year, yet gasoline inventories tunneling into the lower half of their average range, as the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday.

Translated in dollars and cents, retail gas prices likely won’t be moving off the $4 needle anytime soon. In fact, some gasoline buyers think this may even usher in a run to $5 a gallon (especially out west where gas stations are shutting down because they cannot buy gas at price levels low enough to turn a profit).

The firmness in gasoline also is giving oil prices a boost, the knock-on effects of which cannot be understated.

Big U.S. Fleet Nears Disputed Islands, But What For?

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It’s probably just a coincidence; no need to worry yet. But the U.S. has quietly assembled a powerful air, land and sea armada not far from where Japan and China are squaring off over disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Two Navy aircraft carrier battle groups and a Marine Corps air-ground task force have begun operating in the Western Pacific, within easy reach of the Senkaku Islands. That’s where Japanese and Chinese patrol boats are engaged in an increasingly tense standoff.

Chinese vessels have repeatedly entered territorial waters around the small islands in recent weeks and Coast Guard vessels from Japan and Taiwan fired water cannons at each other last week. The islands are controlled and administered by Japan, but claimed by both China and Taiwan.

No warships have been directly involved in the confrontations, so far. But China has vowed to continue sending patrol vessels into territorial waters and Japan has assembled scores of Coast Guard vessels to “defend” the islands.

The U.S. hasn’t taken sides in the ownership dispute, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for “cooler heads” to prevail. Nonetheless, U.S. officials have stated clearly that the Senkakus fall under the U.S.-Japan security treaty, which would require the U.S. to come to Japan’s aid in case of attack.

Read more from this story HERE.

CBO: Fourth Straight Annual Deficit of Over $1 Trillion

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A new estimate puts the deficit for the just-completed 2012 budget year at $1.1 trillion, the fourth straight year of trillion dollar deficits on President Barack Obama’s watch.

The result was a slight improvement from the 2011 deficit of $1.3 trillion.

The bleak figures from the Congressional Budget Office, while expected, add fodder for the heated presidential campaign, in which Obama’s handling of the economy and the budget is a main topic. Friday’s release came as the government announced that the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent last month, matching the rate when Obama took office.

The administration will release the official deficit numbers around mid-October, but they should line up closely with the CBO estimate, which showed that the government borrowed 31 cents for every dollar it spent.

The CBO estimate predicts a modest 3 percent increase over 2011 in both income tax and payroll tax receipts, reflecting the sluggish economic recovery. Corporate income tax receipts are way up — almost 34 percent — but most of that is a result of tax rules governing write-offs of business equipment.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Obama Says It Again – Wants to “Export More Jobs”

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In an apparent game of catch-up with gaffe-prone Biden, Obama says that to fix the economy, we must “export more jobs.”

Keep in mind, this is the second time in two weeks that Obama has done this. The first time was at Kent State where Obama tried to recover by saying that he was “channeling Mitt Romney.“

Of course, Obama’s tendency to slip up and say that he wants to export U.S. jobs has a connection with reality. As we noted a few days ago, he forced the export of US jobs with respect to Gibson guitars.

Here’s the video of yesterday’s gaffe:

Undoubtedly, Al Gore is probably blaming this one on Denver’s altitude, too.

Video: Biden Admits That Obama Wants to Jack Taxes by $1 Trillion

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While campaigning in Iowa yesterday, Biden admitted that he and Obama want to raise taxes by a trillion dollars.

He claims that the increase will come from expiring Bush tax cuts.

This is the first time we can find that the Obama team has honestly called the expiration of the Bush tax cuts a tax increase. Obviously, Biden went off script again.

Of course, to suggest that this trillion dollar tax hike is only borne by the wealthy is blatantly dishonest. A recent study shows that the middle class will be directly impacted, too.

Video: Legislator Refuses to Say Pledge of Allegiance, Claims it’s a Prayer

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Watch this shocking video of a Pennsylvania state legislator who, when asked by her committee chair, refused to lead her fellow legislators and staffers in the Pledge of Allegiance.

After a video of the committee session, the legislator is interviewed about why she refused the Pledge of Allegiance.

She asserts that the whole thing was a set-up because the committee chair previously knew her position on the Pledge of Allegiance, that she wouldn’t say it because she regards it as “a prayer”:

abc27 WHTM

We decided to post the following video after several subscribers brought it to our attention. The video is of Red Skelton’s recitation and explanation of the Pledge of Allegiance. At the close, Red Skelton suggests that it would be a pity if someone tried to ban the Pledge by calling it a prayer because of the words “under God”:

Anti-Obama NAACP Leader: Obama Campaign Director Threatened Me Personally; Police Notified

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The President of the South Suburban Branch of the NAACP alleges a director of the re-election campaign of Barack Obama has threatened and intimidated him because he doesn’t support the president.

David Lowery says he believes he was threatened during a phone conversation with Louis Raymond, the Illinois political director for Obama for America.

Lowery says he doesn’t personally support the president because he’s not addressing issues important to the black community. He said he was explaining that to Raymond when the Obama campaign official told him, “You know what? I know everything about you.”

Lowery says Raymond added, “We’ve been watching you, and since you don’t support Obama, we’ll deal with you,” before hanging up.

Lowery filed a report with the Oak Forest police report, he says, “in case something happens.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Videos: Sununu bashes Obama as Incompetent, Lazy & Dumb

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Romney Campaign Chair John Sununu bashed Obama as a disengaged, detached, lazy, and incompetent President:

On another interview on Fox, Sununu responded to a question as to whether Obama might be better prepared next time.

Former Governor Sununu responded, “When you’re not that bright you can’t get better prepared”:

Ex-Egyptian MP: By 2013, “Israel will be annihilated”

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An Egyptian political science professor told an Iranian TV station that, with Allah’s help, “Israel will be annihilated” by 2013.

In an interview with Iran’s state-run Arabic news channel Al-Alam last week, Professor Gamal Zahran, head of the political science department at Egypt’s Port Said University and a former Independent MP, said: “Jerusalem is at the heart of the Palestinian cause, and the Palestinian cause is the cause of all Arabs and Muslims. The elimination of the Zionist entity is beyond debate, and the only question has to do with the circumstances.”

Zahran added that “the Arab revolutions, which broke out in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen – as well as in Bahrain and elsewhere – generate the people’s hope that one day, Jerusalem and Palestine will return to them.”

The interviewer interjected: “Why keep it only as a hope? Why not act on it?

Zahran responded that “the revolutions have not reached the throne of power. It is difficult to transform this hope into reality until these revolutions come to the forefront.”

Read more from this story HERE.