Will the GOP Establishment that Failed to Block Michigan Congressman in ‘12 Try Again in ‘14?

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Photo Credit: Tea Party 911

The local Republican establishment in the 11th Michigan Congressional District didn’t want Kerry Bentivolio to be their candidate for Congress, so they did all they could to confound his campaign. In the end, their efforts failed. On November 6, 2012, he was elected to Congress.

Congressman Thaddeus McCotter resigned his 11th District seat

Bentivolio’s circuitous path to Congress began on June 2, 2012, the day Republican incumbent Congressman McCotter decided not to run for re-election. His political demise began when, on May 25, 2012, he conceded that many of the signatures on his petition to be listed on the August primary ballot were invalid.

On July 6, 2012, McCotter resigned from the seat he’d held since January 2003, leaving the 11th District without representation in Congress. Consequently, the race was on to pick a Republican candidate for the general election just four months away.

One Republican, Kerry Bentivolio, was already officially in the race. He had planned to run against McCotter in the GOP primary election, and had submitted a valid petition to be on the ballot.

Bentivolio was a relative political unknown in 2012

In 2012, Bentivolio’s political background consisted of an unsuccessful run for the Michigan Senate in 2010.

The 11th Congressional District encompasses communities in western Wayne and Oakland Counties northwest of Detroit, where Bentivolio was born in 1951. With the exception of two years, the district’s House seat had been held by Republicans since 1939.

An on-line bio of Bentivolio reads:

“He received an associate degree in liberal arts at Oakland Community College, attended Michigan State University and received a bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s College. He received a master’s degree in education from Marygrove College.

He enlisted in the U.S. Army after high school, and served as a rifleman in Vietnam until his honorable discharge. He remained active in the military, serving more than 20 years in the Michigan Army National Guard. He was assigned to the military police and in an administrative role with an artillery unit.

Bentivolio raises reindeer on a small farm in Milford. The reindeer are trained to pull Santa’s sleigh during local parades and special holiday events. He also has a small flock of chickens, a 25-hive honeybee apiary and a 115-vine vineyard.

He has taught English, history, social studies and computer-aided design in public and private schools.

Bentivolio and his wife, Karen, have two adult children.”

Additional information about Bentivolio’s military service is noted here:
“Congressman-elect Kerry Bentivolio enlisted in the United States Army in November 1968, served as an infantry rifleman in Vietnam in 1970 and 1971, during which time he was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge. Mr. Bentivolio briefly left the service before joining the Michigan Army National Guard, where he trained on the Multiple Launch Rocket System, and deployed to Kuwait with a military police unit during Operation Desert Storm. He deployed to Iraq in 2007 as well, serving as a senior human resources sergeant with an artillery unit and performing combat convoy missions… After suffering a neck injury, Mr. Bentivolio retired as a Sergeant First Class in 2008.”

GOP leaders hand-picked a candidate to run against Bentivolio

An array of opponents aligned against Bentivolio as the August 7, 2012 primary election neared. It included several prominent elected Republicans, national liberal-leaning news outlets, local newspapers – most prominently the Detroit Free Press – and local GOP Party leaders. Their shared objective was to portray Bentivolio as unqualified to serve in Congress. Ridicule ranked high among their methods.

Republican Party leaders recruited a former Michigan State Senator, Nancy Cassis, to run as a right-in candidate in the GOP primary. Cassis retained some Republican name-recognition, and could largely self-fund her campaign. According to a confidential source, in a setting reminiscent of the old “political establishment power brokers meeting in a smoke-filled room,” Party leaders considered at least three other potential candidates (a former GOP Congressional candidate in another district who lost to a Democrat opponent; a prominent foreclosure attorney; and a Michigan State representative) before choosing Cassis because, in part, of her immediate access to substantial financial resources.

There was nothing surreptitious about the GOP establishment’s effort to confound Bentivolio’s campaign. Roll Call reported on June 7, 2012 that:

“Top Michigan Republicans decided to support former state Sen. Nancy Cassis (R) as their consensus write-in candidate for the 11th district GOP ballot.

A cadre of top local GOP leaders met again this morning to discuss potential candidates and settled on Cassis out of a handful of write-in hopefuls who expressed interest…

There’s one Republican on the primary ballot, reindeer rancher Kerry Bentivolio, but GOP leaders opted to try to support a write-in candidate instead.

This afternoon, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, one of the most influential Republicans in the district, declared Cassis the consensus candidate to reporters.

The group voted 11-0 to support Cassis, according to one of the other potential write-in candidates, former House aide Paul Welday.”

On August 1, 2012, the Detroit Free Press framed the race this way:

“Winning a write-in campaign for a nomination to Congress is daunting, but former state Sen. Nancy Cassis appears to be heading in the right direction.

Cassis, of Novi, is leading her rival Kerry Bentivolio of Milford 52% to 36% in Tuesday’s Republican primary for the 11th Congressional district, even though Bentivolio’s name is the only one on the ballot, a poll conducted for the Free Press, WXYX-TV (Channel 7) and three outstate stations shows.

Cassis was tapped by Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and other local Republican leaders in June as the best candidate.”

Will the GOP establishment that failed to block Cong. Kerry Bentivolio in ’12 try again in ’14? Part 2

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Since 2007, Lee Cary has written hundreds of articles and blogs for several conservative websites, including the American Thinker and Breitbart’s Big Journalism & Big Government (as Archy Cary), been quoted on national television (Sean Hannity) and on nationally syndicated radio (Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin). His articles are cited in Jerome Corsi’s The Obama Nation and in Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny. Cary now writes for the Texas-based site teaparty911.com.

Southern Baptists Leaving Scouts “en masse,” Huge Membership Problem Looms for BSA

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Photo Credit: AP

The Boy Scouts of America’s decision to allow openly-gay young men to participate in the organization is already spawning some major membership problems.

While those in support of the new-found policy are frustrated that gay leaders are still not permitted to take part, others who oppose the amendment believe that the group is abandoning its Christian heritage. Among the denominations that may cut off support for the Scouts is the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

Church leaders, according to CNN, are planning to urge the religious order’s 45,000 congregations and 16 million members to officially cut ties with the Boy Scouts. Considering that 4,000 units are currently sponsored by the SBC, this would be a monumental loss for the organization — one that would impact 100,000 young men who participate through this denomination…

“There’s a 100% chance that there will be a resolution about disaffiliation at the convention and a 100% chance that 99% of people will vote for it,” Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptists’ Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, told CNN.

Read more from this story HERE.

Dirty Leftists Attack Rep. Issa’s 40-Year Old Past Because of Him Connecting IRS to Obama

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Photo Credit: Newsmax

Issa’s allegations about what the White House knew about the IRS targeting conservatives rattled Democrats into sending out a barrage of counter-claims.

Former senior Obama aide David Plouffe ripped Issa in a Twitter message, referring to allegations from as far back as 1972, when Issa was still a teenager.

“Strong words from Mr Grand Theft Auto and suspected arsonist/insurance swindler. And loose ethically today,” Plouffe tweeted.

Plouffe’s “grand theft” crack referred to charges of larceny that Issa faced in 1972 after he allegedly stole a Maserati sports car. Issa claims the incident was a case of mistaken identity and the charges were later dropped.

The “arsonist/insurance swindler” insult referred to a 1982 fire at a Cleveland warehouse belonging to Issa’s companies Quantum Enterprises and Steal Shopper. The fire was ruled suspicious and Issa collected an insurance payout, but he was not charged with any crime.

Read more from this story HERE.

Will Electronic Tattoos Replace Internet Passwords And All Other Forms Of Identification?

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Photo Credit: MC10

By Michael. Would you wear an electronic tattoo if you couldn’t log on to the Internet without one? That may sound crazy to many of you, but the technology for such a system already exists. RFID tattoos have existed for quite some time, and they are already being used on animals. But now an entirely new generation of electronic tattoos are being developed that can monitor your vital signs, interact with your mobile phone and even communicate directly with your mind. These new electronic tattoos are thinner than a human hair, and they are going to fundamentally transform the way that we think about human identification.

Right now, the Internet is being absolutely plagued by hackers and identity theft has become a multi-billion dollar enterprise. It is becoming increasingly difficult to determine if someone is actually who they say that they are. And as even more of our commerce gets conducted through the Internet, identity security is going to be absolutely critical. Without a doubt, there will continue to be a push for more secure forms of identification than we have today. But there is also a very dark side to this kind of technology.

What if someday a tyrannical government decides to make a permanent electronic tattoo for identification purposes mandatory for all citizens? What if you are not able to buy, sell, get a job, have a bank account or log on to the Internet without “proper identification”? What if the price for receiving your tattoo is to swear absolute allegiance to that tyrannical government? The truth is that technology is always a double-edged sword. It always brings with it the promise of progress, but it also always has a dark side that could potentially be abused. Read more from this story HERE.

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Motorola Pushes Plans for Electronic Ink and Digital Pills to Authentic our Daily Activies

By Victoria Woollaston. Motorola has announced it is looking at alternatives to traditional passwords in a bid to make logging into online sites, or accessing mobile phones, more secure.

Among the ideas discussed at the D11 conference in California on Wednesday were electronic tattoos and authentication pills that people swallow.

The tattoos, developed by Massachusetts-based engineering firm MC10, contain flexible electronic circuits that are attached to the wearer’s skin using a rubber stamp.

MC10 originally designed the tattoos, called Biostamps, to help medical teams measure the health of their patients either remotely, or without the need for large expensive machinery.

Motorola claims that the circuits, which also contain antennae and built-in sensors, could be adapted to work with mobile phones and tablets. Read more from this story HERE.

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Pentagon’s Mad Scientists Want a Tattoo That Tracks Troops’ Vitals

By Nick Stockton. In its ongoing quest to measure every aspect of U.S. troops’ physiology, Pentagon researchers are looking to develop a durable, unobtrusive device that can track the body’s physical response to stress. Military scientists believe that using the device — preferably a tattoo — to track heart-rate, temperature or bio-electric response during various training situations will help them crack the code of combat fatigue.

The Navy recently requested research proposals to develop the next generation of bio-statistic devices. The solicitation, which opened last month, hopes new technologies can transcend the current paradigm of patient monitoring of needles, gels and electrodes. And advanced materials make it possible to integrate everything from the sensors to the transmitter into thumb-sized membranes that can stick to skin — like temporary tattoos.

The Navy is hoping that whichever company wins the research contract will be able to use a relatively new technology known as epidermal electronic systems (EES) to make sensors that are both unobtrusive and durable enough for modern combat training. Using state-of-the-art, highly flexible materials, researchers can coil sensors, electronics, and transmitters into serpentine shapes that form a stretchable net. “This innovative design contains all of the necessary components in an ultrathin layer about the thickness of a human hair,” writes Zhenqiang Ma, an electrical engineer at the University of Wisconsin, in a review of the technology.

They are nearly as flexible as hair, too, and adhere to the skin using strong molecular forces. According to research by EES’ inventors at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, they can be pinched, poked, pulled, and stretched without damaging the device. In one experiment, researchers left a sensor tattoo attached to their subjects’ necks for over 24 hours before it wore off. Read more from this story HERE.

Anti-Gun Senate President Faces Likely Recall For Pushing Colorado Governor’s Gun Control Bills

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Photo Credit: Ed Andrieski

A recall campaign submitted stacks of petitions Monday to oust Colorado Senate President John Morse in what could become a national referendum on gun rights.

Organizers said they turned in more than 16,000 signatures, well in excess of the 7,178 valid signatures needed to force the recall and even more than the 13,866 votes received by Mr. Morse in the 2010 election.

“It just goes to show how interested people are in making sure Morse is recalled,” said recall organizer Rob Harris.

Mr. Morse, a Democrat from Colorado Springs, became a recall target for his role in pushing three gun-control measures signed by the governor in March.

Read more from this story HERE.

“Conservative” Supreme Court Allows DNA Collection From Anyone Targeted by Police; Scalia Writes Scathing Dissenting Opinion, Joined by Left

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The police may take DNA samples from people arrested in connection with serious crimes, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a 5-to-4 decision.

The federal government and 28 states authorize the practice, and law enforcement officials say it is a valuable tool for investigating unsolved crimes. But the court said the testing was justified by a different reason: to identify the suspect in custody.

“When officers make an arrest supported by probable cause to hold for a serious offense and they bring the suspect to the station to be detained in custody,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority, “taking and analyzing a cheek swab of the arrestee’s DNA is, like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.”

Justice Antonin Scalia summarized his dissent from the bench, a rare move signaling deep disagreement. He accused the majority of an unsuccessful sleight of hand, one that “taxes the credulity of the credulous.” The point of DNA testing as it is actually practiced, he said, is to solve cold cases, not to identify the suspect in custody.

But the Fourth Amendment forbids searches without reasonable suspicion to gather evidence about an unrelated crime, he said, a point the majority did not dispute. “Make no mistake about it: because of today’s decision, your DNA can be taken and entered into a national database if you are ever arrested, rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason,” Justice Scalia said from the bench.

Read more from this story HERE.

Chris Christie’s Lautenberg Dilemma Is 2013-as-2016 All Over Again

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By Elspeth Reeve. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie can name a successor for Frank Lautenberg, who died at the age of 89 on Monday, becoming the 299th Senator to pass away in office. But it’s yet another moment when what’s good for Christie in 2013 might not be good for him in 2016. Christie, after all, is a Republican running a state that voted for President Obama by almost 18 points. “Replacing a Democrat with a Democrat and then saying the voters should decide what happens next in November would no doubt be very well-received by Democrats and moderates,” The Washington Post’s Sean Sullivan writes. But that would mean Republicans who are already annoyed with Christie and his Obama-hugging antics would disown him.

To understand the difficult position Christie’s in, look at these two tweets: “What lucky Democrat will Democrat Chris Christie appoint to Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s seat?” conservative thriller author Brad Thor asks. Salon’s Joan Walsh adds: “Hey Dem donors giving to Chris Christie: will you rethink if he picks a Republican to replace Lautenberg?” Read more from this story HERE.

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Major Democratic donors flock to Christie

By Salvador Rizzo. Gov. Chris Christie is cashing in donations from top Democratic fundraisers and other traditionally liberal donors across the country, even nabbing the support of a handful of rainmakers aligned with President Obama and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a Star-Ledger review of state and federal records shows.

The checks are flying into the Republican governor’s war chest from all sorts of unlikely places — the hedge fund run by liberal billionaire George Soros, for example, and the politically progressive halls of the University of California, Berkeley.

The nascent support from Democratic donors is an early sign of Christie’s fundraising prowess in a potential run for the White House in 2016, experts and Democratic donors said, and dovetails with recent polls showing him gaining popularity nationally among Democrats and independents. Read more from this story HERE.

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Christie faces tricky task in filling N.J. seat

By Dave Boyer. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s options for appointing a replacement for the late Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg include Tom Kean Jr., minority leader of the state senate and son of the former governor.

The Republican bench in New Jersey, a blue state, isn’t particularly deep and Mr. Kean would have the advantage of name recognition if he wanted to run for a full term. He won the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2006 but was defeated in the general election by Democrat Bob Menendez.

But there’s also a potential problem — there’s friction between Mr. Christie and Mr. Kean.

The governor “does not like Kean Jr.,” said a New Jersey political operative familiar with the governor’s thinking.

Among the governor’s other options are Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, and Joe Kyrillos, a Christie ally whom the GOP nominated for the Senate in 2012. Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Admin. Says it’s Signing Gun Control Treaty Despite Congressional Opposition (+video)

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Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that the Obama administration would sign a controversial U.N. treaty on arms regulation, despite bipartisan resistance in Congress from members concerned it could lead to new gun control measures in the U.S.

Kerry, releasing a written statement as the U.N. treaty opened for signature Monday, said the U.S. “welcomes” the next phase for the treaty, which the U.N. General Assembly approved on April 2.

“We look forward to signing it as soon as the process of conforming the official translations is completed satisfactorily,” he said. Kerry called the treaty “an important contribution to efforts to stem the illicit trade in conventional weapons, which fuels conflict, empowers violent extremists, and contributes to violations of human rights.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Ingraham Blasts ‘Classless’ Karl Rove for Stomping on ‘Political Grave of Michele Bachmann’

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Rove took a shot Sunday at outgoing-Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann, saying that as the chairman of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus, Bachmann “did nothing.”

Ingraham called out Rove and suggested he direct his fire at her instead of Bachmann.

“I’m getting a little tired of these Bush people,” Ingraham said. “We didn’t need Karl Rove taking a swipe at Michele Bachmann. That was classless. We’ll get into that as well — classless. You know, pick on me Karl, OK? She’s on her way out. For someone to say she’s never done anything for conservatism, she has never done anything, she doesn’t do anything — she’s bowing out. I mean, do you have to stomp on the political grave of Michele Bachmann? Does that really make Karl Rove feel better about himself?”

Read more from this story HERE.

Social Security Faces $9.6 Trillion in Unfunded Liabilities: $83,894 Per Household

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The Social Security program faces $9.6 trillion in unfunded liabilities over the next 75 years, which is up $1 trillion from last year’s projection of $8.6 trillion, according to the latest report from Social Security’s board of trustees.

The unfunded liability is the amount that has been promised in benefits to people now alive that will not be funded by the tax revenue the system is expected to take in to pay for those benefits. (The Social Security trustees calculate the unfunded liability for a period of 75 years into the future, from 2012 to 2087).

The report, The 2013 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds, provides the latest data through the end of 2012.

Social Security is officially called the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program, and consists of retired workers, their families, and survivors of deceased workers who get monthly benefits under the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance program and disabled workers and their families who get monthly benefits under the Disability Insurance program.

Read more from this story HERE.