Sarah Palin To Address CPAC In March

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Photo Credit: BreitbartThe American Conservative Union (ACU), which runs the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), announced on Monday that Sarah Palin will speak at the 40th annual gathering of conservatives in March.

“We are pleased to again welcome Governor Sarah Palin to CPAC in March,” ACU Chairman Al Cardenas said in a statement. “Governor Palin electrified the crowd in 2012 and we are thrilled to welcome her back this year.”

CPAC 2013 will be held Thursday, March 14 through Saturday, March 16, 2013 at its new location in National Harbor, MD at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center.

The non-Washington, D.C. location of this year’s conference is fitting for Palin, who blistered the permanent political class and crony capitalism during her 2012 address last year in the nation’s capital in her first appearance at the conference.

Last year, she was mobbed in the hallways before her speech. Palin stayed for nearly an hour after speaking, engaging conservatives and supporters who were there to listen to her. Reporters and observers at CPAC noted in 2012 they had not seen anyone who resonated with the conservative base more than Palin.

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‘Orwellian’: Proposed Gun Law in Washington State Calls on Police to Inspect the Homes of ‘Assault Weapon’ Owners

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With each proposed anti-gun bill put forth by Democrats across the U.S., the demands appear to be getting more and more restrictive on gun owners. While the Obama administration pushes for a ban on so-called “assault weapons” and universal background checks, Democrats in both California and Missouri have proposed legislation that would result in possible confiscation of semi-automatic rifles.

Now, Democratic lawmakers in Olympia, Wash. last week introduced legislation that would allow county sheriffs to inspect the homes of semi-automatic rifle owners once a year. Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat describes the move as “Orwellian.”

The proposed bill, Senate Bill 5737, would ban the sale of semi-automatic weapons that use detachable magazines and magazines that contain more than 10 rounds. It would also subject law-abiding gun owners to random searches by a county sheriff.

“In order to continue to possess an assault weapon that was legally possessed on the effective date of this section, the person possessing shall … safely and securely store the assault weapon. The sheriff of the county may, no more than once per year, conduct an inspection to ensure compliance with this subsection,” the bill states.

“They always say, we’ll never go house to house to take your guns away. But then you see this, and you have to wonder,” Seattle trial lawyer Lance Palmer told the Seattle Times.

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Democrats Push U.S. Satisfaction Up To 27%

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Photo Credit: GallupSlightly more than a quarter of Americans, 27%, are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States today, while 72% are dissatisfied. Satisfaction this month is similar to the 25% Gallup found in January but up from 23% in December.

The latest results are from Gallup’s annual World Affairs survey conducted Feb. 7-10 and the first measure since President Barack Obama took his second-term oath of office. The average level of satisfaction thus far in 2013 matches the 26% found for all of 2012, although it varied last year between 18% in January and 33% immediately before the November election.

The current level of satisfaction is significantly better than the 18% reading found at the start of Obama’s first term in February 2009. Since then, satisfaction has never exceeded 37%, and in mid-2011, it briefly dipped to 11%. This contrasts with a long-term range of 71% for the high found in February 1999 and 7% for the low recorded in October 2008.

U.S. satisfaction has not been above 30% on a sustained basis since the first half of 2007. For satisfaction to break that pattern will partly depend on national economic conditions — and therefore Americans’ confidence in the economy — significantly improving. The economy remains Americans’ most pressing concern when it comes to national matters. Increasing satisfaction could also depend on narrowing the large partisan gap in ratings that has characterized public satisfaction levels for much of the past decade.

Currently, 47% of Democrats are satisfied with the direction of the country, up from 39% in January and the second highest recorded since early 2010. The high came during a brief period before the November 2012 election when Democrats’ satisfaction surged.

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College: Fire Professor Who Forced Students To Vote For Obama

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerA tenured professor who forced her students to sign pledges that they would vote for President Barack Obama last November should be fired, the college’s president recommended.

Sharon Sweet, an associate professor of mathematics at Brevard Community College in Florida, is guilty of electioneering, harassment, and incompetence, according to a three-month investigation into her classroom behavior leading up to the November election.

The Board of Trustees will hold a hearing on the matter, and then vote on whether to adopt President James Richey’s recommendation that Sweet be fired.

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Revealed: Russia’s Double Dealing On Arms To Assad Regime

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Photo Credit: The Independent Russia has been accused by Western diplomats of reneging on a pledge to stop supplying arms to the Syrian regime. The assurances made over a month ago were presented by British officials as a sign that the Kremlin was distancing itself from President Bashar al-Assad and his ruling coterie.

The flow of arms has, however, continued unhindered with the Russians stressing that there was no United Nations prohibition on supplies and it was simply fulfilling its contractual obligations. As well as air- and naval-defence systems, the Kremlin may now be preparing to send Yak-130 jets which can be fitted with missiles to carry out ground attacks, according to American and European officials.

The Syrian regime has extensively used warplanes to carry out raids on heavily populated areas, leading to dozens of civilian casualties. Russia’s state arms agency holds a $550m contract to supply 36 of the Yaks, which are trainers but can also be used on combat missions. Last year, a Russian-operated ship carrying helicopter gunships and air-defence missiles was forced to turn back to Russia, after its British insurers withdrew coverage. The aircraft were subsequently sent through a different shipping company.

While the Assad regime continues to receive weapons, from Iran as well as Russia, a British attempt to provide military aid to the Syrian rebels failed at a European Union meeting in Brussels today.

There was agreement, instead, on an amendment which would allow more “non-lethal” assistance to the opposition. But the outcome of the meeting in Brussels made it very clear that David Cameron’s Government had been isolated in its efforts to strengthen militarily the moderate revolutionary factions, who have been increasingly sidelined by jihadist groups receiving arms and money from backers in the Gulf states.

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Heart Transplant Recipient Falls In Love With Donor’s Sister

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Photo Credit: Fox News Her brother’s heart ultimately guided her to the man that would fulfill her own heart.

After helping to find the right match for her deceased brother’s donated heart, one woman fell in love with her brother’s transplant recipient – and wedding bells may soon be in the air for the happy couple, West Seattle Herald reported.

When 22-year-old Kellen Roberts, from Seattle, Wash., died in 2005, his family decided to donate his organs to help others in need. His mother Nancy and his younger sister Erin began working with LifeCenter Northwest in Bellevue, Wash., to find the right match for Kellen’s heart.

Meanwhile, across the country in Minneapolis, Minn., 17-year-old Connor Rabinowitz had been diagnosed with a genetic disorder that caused his organs to become enlarged and weakened.

Without a heart transplant, Connor would not survive, the doctors said. A top-rated baseball catcher, Connor’s athletic career was officially over, and he began the 96-day waiting process for a brand-new heart. Finally, he was told there was a match: Kellen’s heart.

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Obama’s Anti-Stimulus: His Energy Policies Take Money Out Of Economy

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Photo Credit: Win McNamee“I have to tell you that there are some Democrats, for example, who represent states or districts that are heavily reliant on old power plants and are more heavily manufacturing based,” President Obama said during a Google online chat session with the public on Friday. “And the truth is that if you produce power using old power plants, you’re going to be emitting more carbon, but, to upgrade those plants means energy is going to be a little more expensive, at least on the front end.”

Naturally, Obama understated the costs involved in upgrading power plants and switching to new sources of energy. But his remark is true in its essentials: In exchange for very modest reductions in carbon emissions, his policies require consumers to pay higher upfront prices for electricity.

Now compare Obama’s statement to the theory behind his stimulus package — both the $800 billion package he championed and signed in 2009 and the additional stimulus he has since asked Congress to enact. The assumption underlying his proposed and enacted deficit spending, expansion of entitlements (such as food stamps) and demand-side tax breaks as stimulus is that Americans have a temporary cash-flow problem. The idea is that because people don’t have enough money in their pockets, commerce is suffering, causing hiring to lag. So by providing a small pay increase to workers and extra business for contractors, the Recovery Administration was supposedly alleviating this temporary cash crunch so as to ease the economy back onto the road to recovery.

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Who Killed The Middle Class?

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Photo Credit: DonkeyHotey “It is our generation’s task, then, to reignite the true engine of America’s economic growth – a rising, thriving middle class.” So said Barack Obama in his State of the Union address.

And for one of his ideas to reignite that engine, Republicans applauded. “And tonight, I am announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union – because trade that is free and fair across the Atlantic supports millions of good-paying American jobs.”

One wonders if any of those in the hall who rose robotically at the phrase “free and fair” were aware of the trade results just in from 2012. What were the 2012 figures for the European Union?

U.S. exports to Europe fell, imports from Europe rose, and our trade deficit with the EU shot up 16 percent to $116 billion. We ran a trade deficit with Italy of $20 billion, with Ireland of $25 billion, with Germany of $60 billion. The Europeans are eating our lunch.

What about South Korea, the country with whom we signed a free-trade deal in 2012? U.S. exports to Korea fell last year, and due to a surge in imports our trade deficit in goods with South Korea soared 25 percent to $16.6 billion.

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China Takes Control of Strategic Pakistani Port

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Photo Credit: Shakil Adil ISLAMABAD (AP) — China took over operational control of a strategic deep-water Pakistani seaport Monday that could serve as a vital economic hub for Beijing and perhaps a key military outpost.

Control of Gwadar port on Pakistan’s southwestern coast was transferred to a state-owned Chinese company, China Overseas Ports Holding Company Ltd., in a signing ceremony in Islamabad that was broadcast on TV.

Gwadar will soon be a “hub of trade and commerce in the region,” Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said at the ceremony. “It holds the key to bring together the countries of Central Asia” and will further improve Pakistan-China relations, he said.

China paid much of the $250 million originally needed to construct the port, which was previously run by Port of Singapore Authority. It has been a commercial failure since it opened in 2007 because Pakistan never completed the road network to link Gwadar to the rest of the country.

The port on the Arabian Sea occupies a strategic location between South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. It lies near the Strait of Hormuz, gateway for about 20 percent of the world’s oil.

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Iowa Gov. Branstad To Rove: ‘Stay Out’

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Photo Credit: Breitbart Republican Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad told Karl Rove to keep his new super PAC, which some conservatives believe was created to wage war on them, out of Iowa’s Republican primaries.

“I basically told Karl Rove that what he was doing is counter-productive and he needs to stay out of it,” Branstad told the Associated Press last Friday. “If some outside group that has no connection to Iowa attacks somebody from Iowa, that is not smart.”

After Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat, announced he would be retiring from the Senate in January, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) indicated he may be interested in pursuing the Senate seat, which has been held by a Democrat for 30 years, in 2014.

Rove’s group promptly decided to smear King a week later, indicating he would be a Republican against whom the group would try to obliterate with negative ads in a potential Iowa GOP Senate primary.

After Rove leaked the details of his super PAC to the New York Times, American Crossroads President Steven Law blistered King in the same publication, telling the Times the group was “concerned about Steve King’s Todd Akin problem” and that “all of the things he’s said are going to be hung around his neck.” These comments enraged King because they falsely implied King endorsed Akin’s views and comments about “legitimate rape,” which cost Akin Missouri’s Senate race in 2012.

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