GOP Road Map: Immigration Reform and Fewer Debates

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Photo Credit: Chris Usher

Republican leaders spent three months studying their 2012 election defeat and on Monday announced they were beat on nearly every aspect of politicking, from money to message to manpower, and said one immediate change should be to embrace immigration reform — a lightning-rod issue that nearly tore the party apart under the George W. Bush administration.

Unveiling a 98-page election post-mortem, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus promised a kinder, gentler GOP that will not write off any voters. That begins, the party said, with Hispanic voters and immigration reform.

“By 2050, we’ll be a majority-minority country, and in both 2008 and 2012, President Obama won a combined 80 percent of the votes of all minority groups,” Mr. Priebus said Monday. “The RNC cannot and will not write off any demographic, community, or region of this country.”

The plan calls for the GOP to become a party that voters believe cares about them, beginning with a $10 million image makeover to attract minorities. The plan also includes nuts-and-bolts suggestions, such as shortening the presidential primary process and trying to take control of the debates, which are currently run by television networks.

Mr. Priebus‘ review shies away from blaming any specific people for the 2012 election, which saw GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney lose a race many in his party thought winnable.

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Russia’s Gazprom Offers Cyprus Restructuring Deal to Avoid EU Bailout in Exchange for Gas Fields

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Photo Credit: Greek Reporter

Representatives of the Russian company submitted the proposal to the office of Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades on Sunday evening, Sigma TV reported.

The proposal states that Gazprom will fund the restructuring of the country’s crippled financial institutions in exchange for substantial control over the country’s gas resources while Cyprus won’t need to take the harsh bailout package offered by the EU.

EU offered a 10 billion euros rescue package to Cyprus with the condition of raising 5.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion) by taking a piece of every bank account in Cyprus. The originally proposed levies on deposits are 9.9 percent for acounts exceeding 100,000 euros and 6.7 percent on anything below that.

Cypriot President Nicos Anstasiades is not willing to discuss the Russian’s offer according to Newsit who cited an anonymous source close to the President.

“The president is not going to discuss this plan because he wants a solution that will come from the EU,” said the anonymous source.

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Schlafly: GOP Establishment Gave Us Losers Like Dole, McCain And Romney (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Conservative legend Phyllis Schlafly told the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday that the Republican establishment had given America a series of losers as presidential candidates over the last two decades–and the last time they picked a winner, George W. Bush, he was a bigger spender than the Democrats.

“Why is it that the establishment has given us this bunch of losers?” Schlafly said. “The establishment has given us a whole series of losers: Bob Dole and John McCain and Mitt Romney.

“And even when they picked a winner–George W. Bush–they picked somebody who spent more than the Democrats,” she said.

“He added new programs that cost the taxpayers money, and he tried to give us open borders, first through the North American Union and through the amnesty that he lined up with Ted Kennedy,” Schlafly said.

Schlafly, who founded Eagle Forum and has been a leader of the Conservative Movement for more than four decades, said the establishment tries to enforce “certain criteria” on their candidates.

Watch video here (our apologies, but this video player is incompatible with some Internet browsers):

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More Than 200 Christians’ Houses Set On Fire Over Ridiculous Blasphemy Accusation In Pakistan

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Photo Credit: ACLJ

The plight of Christians in Muslim nations continues to deteriorate as evidenced by a minor alteration that ended horrific violence, destruction, and persecution of a Christian community in Pakistan. Center for Law and Justice (CLJ) in Pakistan, an affiliate of the ECLJ, found out during its fact-finding visit that Sawan Masih, a Christian living in Joseph Colony, Pakistan, had an argument with his Muslim friend Shahid Imran – two friends of more than fifteen years who often argued about various topics. That night, Masih allegedly insulted the Prophet of Islam.

The next morning, on March 7, Shahid met his friend Muhammad Shafiq who had connections with iron market unionists. Shafiq took Shahid to union leaders who assured him of their support. The Aman Group (Peace Group) and Ittehad Group (Unity Group) told Shahid that he could take revenge on this insult if he followed their directions. The factory owners of Badami Bagh had recently offered to purchase the homes of the Christian residents, and to these businessmen, this incident seemed like a great opportunity to obtain the land for free. The next day, March 8, Shahid visited Masih’s billiard shop with Shafiq and three other union workers. Shafiq was armed with a long knife and was shouting that he would decapitate the blasphemer’s head. Masih was not present and did not know that people were calling for his life. An eyewitness told the CLJ that he “had sensed that Shahid was going to do something seriously bad to the entire Christian community.”

At 3:00 p.m., Shahid lodged complaint number 112/13 against Masih under Section 295-C of Pakistan Penal Code, which makes an insult of the Prophet of Islam a capital offense. One hour later, local mosques announced that Masih had blasphemed the Prophet of Islam. Masih did not come to the colony that evening after he had learned from his friends that a case had been registered against him. Taking advantage of the situation, both of the unions announced a strike in the steel factories to gain a political advantage in their upcoming union elections. Due to the strike, all the factory workers were available to attack Joseph Colony the next day, March 9.

The police negotiated with the Christian leaders and assured them that if Sawan Masih were handed over to police, the Christians would not be harmed. After the police told the Christians that the matter would be resolved only if Masih were handed to them, they handed Masih over to the police around 2:00 a.m. on March 9.

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Rush Limbaugh: Gay Marriage and Freedom

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Photo Credit: Rush Limbaugh

[Transcript from Limbaugh’s show yesterday] I’ll tell you, there’s something else I’d like to spend some time on today and develop further if it works out. I’m making no commitments. Hillary Clinton has come out today for gay marriage. I warned you about this months ago.

This issue has now catapulted to the top seemingly of everybody’s list. It’s stunning the way this has happened. In the millennial generation, 25 and under, it’s all that matters. Gay marriage. Young conservatives 30 and under, 35 and other, Manhattan bar scene conservative: Gay marriage, all that matters. People are willing to leave the party if the party doesn’t change its mind, and you know how it’s happening? Not just on the basis that love is a wonderful thing and who are we to say somebody could or could not love somebody.

It’s also coming under the umbrella of freedom. This is something that concerns me, because I think “freedom” is being misapplied or maybe incorrectly defined. Freedom does not mean hedonism. Freedom does not mean the sybaritic pursuits, “Just do what you want.”

RUSH: One of the things here that the left does, that the Democrat Party does, is they pretend to be the party of freedom and liberation. You talk about marketing? What a masterful marketing trick they have pulled off here, with the notion that they are the party of freedom and liberation when, in fact, it’s just the opposite. You see, the left’s big lie is that government frees people and that only government can liberate people, when really it’s just the opposite.

That’s why the left is constantly looking for new groups that they can cast as victims. I mean, we acknowledge that the left seeks to victimize everybody. But many people think that it’s so that they can provide benefits and grow the welfare state — and that’s, in part, true. But there’s another hideous reason for trying to put so many people into different groups of victims, and it is that those groups need protection. From whom? Mean-spirited, extremist, radical, right-wingers!

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Video: Pro-Life Grandmother Brutally Assaulted at Planned Parenthood Clinic While Filming Botched Abortion Victim

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Wilmington, DE — A 63-year old Catholic grandmother of 12 was violently attacked last week outside the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Wilmington, Delaware, as she filmed the fourth abortion injury there in less than five weeks.

Earlier in the day Rae Stabosz had been praying outside the Planned Parenthood clinic when a woman and her mother came to the clinic. Rae learned that the woman was suffering complications to an abortion she received on March 8. Rae persuaded them to go to St. Francis hospital where it was discovered that aborted baby body parts, including a leg and foot, had been left behind by the abortionist. The woman required additional surgery and was referred to legal counsel.

Rae left Planned Parenthood to attend mass, and when she returned to the Planned Parenthood, she was shocked to see that yet another medical emergency was in progress. As she was filming the incident with her cell phone, a young woman came out of the Planned Parenthood clinic and violently attacked Rae, knocking her down and taking away her phone.

The attacker took Rae’s phone inside the clinic and gave it to a Planned Parenthood worker. Rae immediately ran into the clinic, retrieved her phone, then returned to the street where she continued to film the gurney with the injured patient, covered head to toe in blankets and sheets, being loaded into the ambulance.

The police soon arrived and Rae made a police report, but the attacker has fled the scene. At this writing, she remained at large.

See the video of the assault here:

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Liberal Media Lie Again, This Time About CPAC

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The liberal media covered the 40th Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) pretty much like they cover everything else — deceitfully, with a partisan bias that is transparent to every honest and intelligent person who actually pays attention. On any subject of potential political significance, there is a yawning chasm between (a) actual events and (b) the deliberately dishonest portrayal of those events by the hired liars whose biggest fraud is their ludicrous pretense to objectivity. If the New York Times could find a way to put a liberal spin on sports, they certainly would: “Louisville Gets Top NCAA Seed; Women, Minorities Hardest Hit.”

Take, for example, the young comedian Steven Crowder. While serving as emcee on the Potomac Ballroom stage Saturday at CPAC, Crowder made a joke about actress (and, it is rumored, future Kentucky Senate candidate) Ashley Judd: “This just in, Ashley Judd just tweeted that purchasing Apple products is akin to rape — from her iPhone.” Which is pretty doggone funny if you know that,as Alex Pappas of the Daily Caller reported, Judd has claimed that the purchasers of the iPhone and other Apple products are “financing mass rape” by using minerals mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Judd has a penchant for throwing around “rape”in her far-left political rants. She has compared coal-mining in Kentucky to rape and, also, to genocide in Rwanda. Judd’s long history of such outrageous comments has Republicans laughing mirthfully at the prospect of the actress challenging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky next year. But according to liberal journalists — whose cheerleading for Democrats is now so unapologetically blatant that it is taken for granted — the real outrage is that any Republican would criticize Judd’s lunatic utterances.

This is apparently why the Huffington Post decided to lie about Crowder’s joke. “Steven Crowder, a Fox News contributor who hosted part of Saturday’s activities at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference, made a questionable remark about actress and possible Kentucky Senate candidate Ashley Judd,”a post at the site described it, omitting both the factual context and the first part of the joke, quoting only Crowder’s follow-on comment: “What is this obsession with Ashley Judd and rape? It’s pretty unnerving.”

By tagging Crowder as a “Fox News contributor,” the writer of the HuffPo item signaled to liberal readers that the young comic is a hate-object. Evidently, the unnamed writer – the cowardlyHuffPo liar didn’t put a byline on this cheap smear-job –didn’t trust his readers to have enough sense to decide whether or not Crowder’s joke was “questionable.” And, of course, there was the clever ju-jitsu reversal: The story is not about whether Ashley Judd’s rhetoric was too over-the-top for a Senate candidate —Judd’s own remarks aren’t even quoted — but rather whether a comedian’s joke about Judd is “questionable.”

Speaking of questions: Is there any joke that anyone could make about any Democrat that the Huffington Post would not deem“questionable”? Of course not. The entire mission of Arianna Huffington’s organization, which she sold for more than $300 million to AOL a few years ago, is to help Democrats and harm Republicans. …

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RNC To Spend $10 Million To Reach Minorities

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Photo Credit: Chris Usher

Reeling from back-to-back presidential losses and struggling to cope with the country’s changing racial and ethnic makeup, the Republican National Committee plans to spend $10 million this year to send hundreds of party workers into Hispanic, black and Asian communities to promote its brand among voters who overwhelmingly supported Democrats in 2012.

Committee chairman Reince Priebus on Sunday also proposed shortening the presidential nominating calendar in 2016 and limiting the number of primary-season debates to avoid the self-inflicted damage from inside-party squabbling on the eventual nominee. Priebus’ top-to-bottom changes include picking the moderators for the debates and then crowning the nominee as early as June so he or she could begin a general election campaign as quickly as possible.

“Mitt Romney was a sitting duck for two months over the summer,” Priebus said of the 2012 GOP nominee.

To help his party ahead of the 2016 contest already in its earliest stages, Priebus said he would be hiring new staffers to build the GOP among voters in the states.

“It will include hundreds of people — paid — across the country, from coast-to-coast, in Hispanic, African American, Asian communities, talking about our party, talking about our brand, talking about what we believe in, going to community events, going to swearing-in ceremonies, being a part of the community on an ongoing basis, paid for by the Republican National Committee, to make the case for our party and our candidates,” Priebus said.

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Video: Karl Rove Slams Sarah Palin In Wake Of Her CPAC Attack

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” American Crossroads boss Karl Rove took a shot at former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who on Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference attacked Rove for his reportedly planned involvement in upcoming Republican primaries.

“The last thing we need is Washington, D.C. vetting our candidates,” Palin told attendees at CPAC, while suggesting that Rove has a financial motivation. “The architects can head on back to the great Lone Star state and put their names on some ballot.”

But in his “Fox News Sunday” appearance, Rove said he wanted to set a few things straight.

“Well, first of all I live in Texas and not Washington,” Rove said. “Second of all, look, Sarah Palin should be agreeing with this. She didn’t support Todd Akin, and when he said the reprehensible things he said, she wisely came out and said he ought to get out of the race — the ‘legitimate rape’ candidate in Missouri. If she can play in primaries, other people can play in primaries.”

Watch video here:

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Sen. Sessions Presses USDA For More Info On Mexican Food Stamp Use, Participation Rates

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

After an effort to defund the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food stamp outreach partnership with the Mexican government went down in committee Thursday, Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions continued to press the agency for more information about non-citizen participation in the food stamp program.

In a Friday letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack obtained by The Daily Caller, Sessions — who has been exchanging letters with Vilsack about USDA’s partnership with Mexico since last summer — requested additional information about the people the USDA has been enrolling in nutrition assistance programs and the agency’s program goals.

Last month, in a letter recently obtained by TheDC, Vilsack revealed that the share of overall Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamp, benefits going to legal non-citizens has accounted for between 3.5–4.0 percent of the total caseload since 2004.

The agriculture secretary further addressed the fact that those non-citizens who enroll in SNAP are not considered to be government-reliant under the current policies governing immigrant inadmissibility under the public charge statue. He additionally noted that the agency has provided guidance to this effect — pointing to a February 2010 letter from USDA Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Kevin Concannon to all state commissioners.

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