Harry Reid Short on Votes for ‘Nuclear Option’ to Change Filibuster Rule

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photo credit: fightingforourhealthDemocrats don’t have the 51 votes they need in the Senate to change filibuster rules that could make it harder for the GOP minority to wield power in the upper chamber.

Lawmakers leading the charge acknowledge they remain short, but express optimism they’ll hit their goal.

“I haven’t counted 51 just yet, but we’re working,” said Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), a leading proponent of the so-called constitutional or “nuclear” option, in which Senate rules could be changed by a majority vote.

“We’re building the momentum right now,” Udall said. “It’s hard to say at this point, but I think it’s looking very good. The last two years have really helped coalesce people’s minds around the idea that we need to change the way we do business.”

The problem for Udall and other supporters of filibuster reform is that many veteran Democratic senators remember when the filibuster was a useful tool in their years in the minority.

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Probe Widens: Petraeus Scandal Leads to Investigation of Commander in Afghanistan

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KABUL—U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Tuesday asked the Senate to put on hold the confirmation of the top commander in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. John Allen, as the new NATO supreme allied commander for Europe following the discovery of allegedly inappropriate communications between the general and a Tampa social planner.

The planner, Jill Kelley, is at the center of a scandal involving Gen. Allen’s predecessor as the top coalition commander in Kabul, Gen. David Petreaus, who resigned as CIA director last week after acknowledging an extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation began probing the matter earlier this year, after Ms. Kelley complained about harassing emails that, according to officials, were eventually traced to Ms. Broadwell. Both women are married, as are Gens. Petreaus and Allen. As part of this inquiry, the FBI also uncovered some 30,000 pages of emails between Ms. Kelley and Gen. Allen, a senior defense official told reporters traveling with Mr. Panetta.

Mr. Panetta said in a statement that the Pentagon received the information concerning Gen. Allen from the FBI on Sunday, and has opened its own investigation. Adultery is a crime under the military code of justice. Gen. Allen’s spokesman declined to comment on the matter and referred all queries to the Pentagon.

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FBI Reportedly Searches Home of Petraeus Mistress

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FBI agents raided the Dilworth, North Carolina home of Paula Broadwell, the woman accused of having an affair with former CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus Monday night. Petraeus resigned last Friday, citing his infidelity.

Local stations WSOC, WCNC, and WBTV reported the FBI confirmed its agents were inside Broadwell’s home, but nearly a dozen agents on scene “would not confirm what they were looking for” as they were “carrying boxes and taking photographs inside the home.” Several reporters relayed what they saw at the home through Twitter as it happened.

Broadwell was Petraeus’s biographer and may have started her affair with him while embedded with the general in Afghanistan. Broadwell allegedly sent threatening emails from a dummy account to a Florida woman, Jill Kelley, which Kelley reported to the FBI. An FBI investigation discovered Broadwell was having an affair with Petraeus after the menacing emails were traced to accounts associated with her. Broadwell had supposedly suspected Kelley was romantically involved with Petraeus and was apparently jealous of her.

Broadwell may have had access to classified information. She revealed last month during a speech at the University of Denver that terrorists may have attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi to take back prisoners detained at a secret CIA prison. The CIA has denied Broadwell’s allegations.

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Karl Rove “Temper Tantrum” Mocked by Bart Simpson on Fox (+video)

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Karl Rove’s temper tantrum on Election Night was immediately mocked by one of the Fox News anchors on set that night, and predictably a number of Democratic pundits took pleasure by reveling in the political operative’s pain.

Now Bart Simpson can be added to the list of Rove’s critics, as the cartoon character made a slight during The Simpson’s opening credits. The perpetually-teenage character is seen writing ‘I will not concede the election till Karl Rove gives me permission.’

The sentence follows the ongoing gag where Bart is shown writing a different sentence on the chalkboard each time, as the act of repeatedly writing a line on the board is considered a penalty in typical after school detention.

On Election Night, Rove made himself the subject of mockery after arguing live on Fox News that the network was wrong and that Romney had won Ohio even though they were ready to call it for Obama.

Adding to the insult, The Simpsons airs on Fox which is the same network that pays Rove as a contributor to their news division. Read more from this story HERE.

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Abortion

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photo credit: anyalogicIt’s time we conservative women speak out and speak candidly; no matter how uncomfortable it may make our constituents. I’m not pure and I’m not perfect. Possibly, women need to admit exactly how radical we have become and how easily influenced we are in our youth. From the latest fashion fads such as hair extensions to butt enhanced jeans, to push up bras and trying to appear like a photo shopped cover of a magazine, we must admit we are more easily influenced by marketing campaigns than we’d like to acknowledge.

All this pressure while obtaining advanced degrees in college at record numbers. Did a nine dollar birth control pill truly play a part in this election? It would appear the Obama campaign claimed the war against women as truth.

After seeing the numbers for Obama from women this past election, it’s time we conservative women send a message from the skeletons in our closets and explain why we stand where we do. Possibly, we can enlighten the generation of women coming up after us. It doesn’t matter whether or not they are conservative. Women are women. In both parties alike, we confront the same problems. Maybe, they can learn from our mistakes.

Roe vs. Wade changed us all, myself included, despite the fact that I became a young woman twenty some odd years after the court ruling. My body! My choice! From what I heard, men marched along side women to assure they could abort their own baby. While my opinion of the men who marched has now changed, back when I was an eighteen-year old girl, those men ruled. How enlightening! Today, I don’t feel the same. Men marched with woman against the very essence of womanhood and women embraced them.

Like many others, I did have an abortion. In fact, my so-called procedure occurred on my eighteenth birthday. I never recovered and thankfully so. As my young sons make cards and gifts for me on my birthday, I have not forgotten what I have done and I pray I never will. When I am alone, I realize I made a God-like decision to end the life of someone else. While it’s legally and socially acceptable, it went against my very essence as a woman. I was certainly was not aware of that while making my youthful decision.

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State Forcibly Takes Disabled Child From Mother, Child Dies Next Day

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For 14 years, Marie Freye, who is severely disabled, was lovingly cared for by her mother at home living a happy life, despite her disabilities.

On April 26, 2011, the state ordered the 14-year-old, who suffers from cerebral palsy and seizures, be taken into care. She died screaming 24 hours later at a $506-per-day nursing home. Records show that on the evening Marie arrived, nurses did not give her life-sustaining medications, fed her only applesauce and neglected to tell a doctor she wasn’t breathing, it emerged today.

Florida social workers ordered that Marie be taken into the Florida Club Care Center against her mother’s wishes, insisting that it was the safest place for her because of her disabilities, according to the Miami Herald.

Marie’s mother Doris pleaded with the ambulance men not to take her daughter away, which was done despite a judge’s order that she remain under the care of her family. ‘When they took Marie out of my hands, it destroyed our family forever,’ Doris said.

But records show that on the evening Marie arrived nurses did not give her life-sustaining medications and allegedly fed her only applesauce, according to the Miami Herald. She arrived screaming on a stretcher at 5:30 pm, records show. At 9 pm she was given apple sauce and ‘comfort measures’. At 11 pm and 2 am it was recorded that she was screaming again. At 5:40 am, Marie’s breathing was described as labored. Five minutes later she was ‘unresponsive’. At 6:54 am, the 14-year-old died of a heart attack at the Jackson North Medical Center.

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Where’s the Beef? No Media Outrage Over Mitt Romney Getting Shut Out in 59 Philadelphia Precincts

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photo credit: kiskeacityIt’s one thing for a Democratic presidential candidate to dominate a Democratic city like Philadelphia, but check out this head-spinning figure: In 59 voting divisions in the city, Mitt Romney received not one vote. Zero. Zilch.

These are the kind of numbers that send Republicans into paroxysms of voter-fraud angst, but such results may not be so startling after all.

“We have always had these dense urban corridors that are extremely Democratic,” said Jonathan Rodden, a political science professor at Stanford University. “It’s kind of an urban fact, and you are looking at the extreme end of it in Philadelphia.”

Most big cities are politically homogeneous, with 75 percent to 80 percent of voters identifying as Democrats.

[But] was there not one contrarian voter in those 59 divisions, where unofficial vote tallies have President Obama outscoring Romney by a combined 19,605 to 0?

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Video: Economist – Dow Should Be Down 50% on Obama’s Reelection; Buy Machine Guns

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Contrarian Investor Marc Faber, also known as “Doctor Doom,” was born and educated in Switzerland, where he raced for the Swiss National Ski Team. At age 24, he earned a Phd at the University of Zurich in Economics where he graducated magna cum laude.

Faber says he’s very surprised as he believes the market on Obama’s reelection “should be down 50%.” He contends that Obama is “a disaster for business, a disaster for the U.S.”

He adds that Romney “wouldn’t be much better.” However, he believes that the GOP has a better grip on what the nation needs to get back on track.

His advice for investors is typically “Doctor Doom” contrarian: buy a machine gun if you can.

Likely House Judiciary Panel Chairman Strong Opponent of DREAM Act

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The Republican lawmaker who is expected to take over the House Judiciary Committee has been a strong critic of immigration reform plans such as the DREAM Act.

That could pose problems for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who this week called for “comprehensive immigration reform.”

Hard-line immigration reform lawmaker Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) is expected to take the gavel of term-limited Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas). The panel has primary jurisdiction on immigration matters.

Goodlatte opposes efforts to create guest-worker programs, or grant amnesty to illegal aliens. He spoke out against the DREAM Act when the House voted on the measure in December of 2010, calling it “unfair” and “ripe for fraud.”

Goodlatte said that “the DREAM Act could mean mass amnesty for 2.1 million illegal immigrants…same thing occurred after the 1986 amnesty bill, the Immigration and Control Act, was enacted. Everyone said that was going to end illegal immigration. It opened the doors to more. This is going to do exactly the same thing.”

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White House Website Deluged With Secession Petitions From 19 States

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photo credit: beverly and packHow would Old Glory look with 31 stars instead of 50? As far-fetched as it may sound, the White House might soon be forced by its own rules to examine the question.

On Nov.7, the day after President Barack Obama was re-elected, the White House’s website received a petition asking the administration to allow Louisiana to secede.

If 25,000 people sign the petition by Dec. 7, it will “require a response” from the Obama administration, according to published rules of the White House’s online “We the People” program.

The Louisiana petition has collected more than 12,000 signatures in four days. A separate effort from Texas has 14,000 supporters.

Similar petitions from 17 other states began arriving Nov. 9, bringing the total to 19.

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