Rising Number of States Seeing One-Party Rule

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photo credit: photologue_npDivided government still rules in the nation’s capital after last week’s Tuesday’s vote, but unity is increasingly the name of the game in cities such as Annapolis, Topeka, Concord and Little Rock.

In a little-noticed footnote to last week’s election, state legislature elections this year have produced the highest number of states with one-party rule in 60 years. Democrats or Republicans now have sole control of the governorship and both legislative chambers in 37 state capitals around the country.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), which tracks party representation in the country’s 50 state governments, Democrats now control all three bases of power – the governorship and both houses of the state legislature – in 14 states and Republicans in 23, with only 12 states sharing power. (Nebraska’s unicameral legislature is considered nonpartisan.)

Regional power bases are also emerging, with Democrats increasingly dominating state governments across New England.

Conversely, after last week’s vote, the GOP for the first time since 1872 now controls the Arkansas House and Senate. Just 20 years ago, Republicans didn’t have a majority in a single legislative house in the states of the old Confederacy – now they control all 11.

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Sen. Mike Lee Says Republican Party Continues to Benefit from Tea Party

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photo credit: Michael.JolleyLee’s comments came after House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) deemphasized the influence of the Tea Party in the House.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) argued that the GOP continues to benefit from the Tea Party.

Lee’s comments, made during an interview Friday with Laura Ingraham on Fox News’s “The O’Reilly Factor” came after House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) deemphasized the influence of the Tea Party in the House. In a recent interview with ABC News, Boehner said that “We don’t have a Tea Party Caucus to speak of in the House.” He added that “all of us who were elected in 2010 were supported by the Tea Party.”

“I’m not sure what his intent was. And he’s not here to speak for himself. But what I can say is that this party has benefited because of the grassroots conservative political movement that started in 2009. Some have called it the Tea Party,” Lee said. “That brought us a Republican victory in 2010 in the House it brought us some victories in the Senate. And it has continued to benefit the party in the 2012 election cycle.”

“I really don’t know what John Boehner meant about this Tea Party Caucus,” Lee added. “It may have been that all he meant was that the Tea Party cause is itself the Republican cause. If that’s all he meant, then I agree with him wholeheartedly.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Mark Levin: ‘Republican Leaders Are Really Stupid People,’ ‘Bunch Of Self-Defeating Morons’ (+video)

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photo credit: markn3telReflecting on the aftermath of the presidential election, radio host Mark Levin said that “Republican leaders are really stupid people” and that if the party doesn’t change “I’m getting out.”

Levin was criticizing leaders in the Republican Party for seemingly caving to liberal demands before discussions on keys issues such as immigration have even taken place.

“You know, I’ve always known this but I’m coming to the conclusion yet again, that Republican leaders are really stupid people. And I’m coming to the conclusion that there are an awful lot of stupid people posing as commentators on cable TV.”

Levin took jabs at Speaker John Boehner for statements he made regarding Obamacare, taxes and immigration reform.

“I listen to John Boehner and I have to say, the man is very stupid. I’m sorry, it’s true. What do you want me to do, pretend otherwise? He’s not a conservative. He blurts out platitudes but he doesn’t give a damn. He’s ready to deal…Obama hasn’t said a damn thing publicly and already Boehner’s negotiating with himself – throwing out one principle after another.” Read more from this story HERE.

Who Authorized FBI Surveillance of Gen. Petraeus?

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Even by the standards of the friday afternoon news dump tradition, yesterday’s news that Gen. David Petraeus had resigned from the CIA was a stunner. The most heralded military officer of his generation fell from grace after it was revealed he’d had an affair with his biographer. The affair was discovered earlier this year soon after the FBI began monitoring his email. This raises a very serious question. Who authorized the FBI to monitor the e-mail of the Director of the CIA?

The Director of the CIA is one of the central individuals responsible for America’s national security and intelligence. His communications would, by their very nature, be one of the nation’s closest guarded secrets. According to FBI sources, the Bureau began surveillance of his email communication in the Spring of this year, after an email Petraeus sent to his biographer, Paula Broadwell, was misinterpreted to reference possible corruption.

First question: How did that initial email come to light? Second question: Who authorized the Bureau to pore over all his email communication? We are talking, after all, about the Director of the CIA. That cannot have been a decision made by a junior staffer at DOJ. I doubt that even the Director of the FBI could authorize the surveillance of a critical member of America’s national security team.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Liberal Commentator Says ‘Fox News Has To Be Demonized and Cut Off’

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Daily Beast blogger Andrew Sullivan, who seemed to take the ups and downs of President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign very personally, said in his Friday night appearance on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” that the Republican Party should rebuke conservative talker Rush Limbaugh and “demonize and cut off” the Fox News Channel.

“The first conservative who will be the future of that party will be the one that says Rush Limbaugh does not speak for the Republican Party,” Sullivan said.

“He is a poison on the discourse, and until they start — you see, the media industrial complex on the right is so lucrative they don’t want to lose it. And it is now controlling a political party. That has to be severed. Fox News has to be demonized and cut off.”

Read more from this article HERE.

Is This Why CIA Chief Really Resigned? (+video)

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photo credit: b.r.q.JERUSALEM – The speculation surrounding the sudden resignation of CIA Chief General David Petraeus is focusing in large part on his role in an alleged cover-up of the attacks against the U.S. mission in Benghazi this past September.

Perhaps overlooked is the CIA’s role in purportedly using the Benghazi mission to coordinate U.S. aid to Syrian opposition groups and information those same insurgents include jihadists openly acting under the al-Qaida umbrella.

One week before he was slated to testify before Congress on the Benghazi debacle, Petraeus on Friday night announced his resignation, citing an extramarital affair, and it was reported he will no longer testify.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the House Homeland Security Committee chairman, charged in an interview with CNN that Petraeus is “at the center of this, and there are answers that only he has.” King was referring to the Benghazi attacks.

Asked if he will still call for Petraeus testify despite his resignation, Rep. King replied, “Absolutely, to me, he’s an absolutely necessary witness.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Here’s the Center for Western Journalism’s perspective on why Petraeus resigned:

Pew Research: Romney Received Greater Percentage of Evangelical Vote than Mormon Vote

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photo credit: tim pearce, los gatosStatistics from a report released this week by the Pew Research Center indicate that Romney’s “Evangelical problem” never materialized. In fact, the numbers bear out that if the Republican nominee had a problem with religious conservatives, it was with voters who shared his Mormon faith. Though that really wasn’t the case either.

The Pew Report reflects that Romney received 79% of the Evangelical vote and 78% of the Mormon vote.

The report also revealed that Romney bested John McCain’s showing among Evangelicals coming in six points better than the 2008 nominee. Also of note, fewer Mormons voted for Romney than did for George W. Bush eight years ago.

Far from the message projected by establishment political pundits and mainstream media commentators, the facts bear out that Evangelicals and people of Mormon faith vote their values, not their denomination. It’s time to call the politicos and pundits out for religious profiling. Convicting folks in the court of public opinion based upon their religious affiliation is a form of bigotry. It needs to stop.

Thousands of Banks May Disappear; 50% of U.S. Banks Need To Be Recapitalized

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photo credit: leader nancy pelosiFORTUNE — Do we need to worry about Too Small to Survive?

Now that President Obama has been re-elected, analysts, consultants and dealmakers have turned from whether Dodd-Frank will be repealed to what it means for banks now that it’s likely here to stay. The overwhelming conclusion: Thousands of small banks will soon disappear.

Emmett Daly, a Sandler O’Neill dealmaker who specializes in small banks, predicted at an industry conference put on by Mergermarket on Thursday that the number of banks in the U.S. would shrink to a few hundred. There are currently more than 7,000. Bill Egan, head of financial institutions investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, agreed, but said the weeding out process was likely to take more than a decade.

Indeed, the deal this week to buy bank adviser KBW by larger rival Stifel Financial appeared to be motivated by the belief that more banks would have to make deals. Says Rochdale Securities bank analyst Dick Bove, “It’s fairly clear that 50% of the banks in the U.S. need to be recapitalized.”

Kamal Mustafa, who heads up bank consulting firm Invictus and is a former Wall Street M&A banker, says it’s not just Dodd-Frank. Low interest rates and the Fed’s annual stress tests are making it tough for small banks to survive as well. His firm looked at bank profits and capital rules and came to this conclusion: Nearly 2,000 banks need to sell. “There are a large number of banks that are limping toward oblivion,” says Mustafa. “Capital requirements have gone up too fast, and rates have gone too low. There’s no way out.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: “If We Stay Together They Cannot Defeat Us”

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Have conservatives failed because we have not been compassionate enough, we’ve been too hard core? On abortion and the traditional family, too uncompromising? On the fiscal side, too stingy? This is a growing theme among the RINO establishment.

Absolutely not! We didn’t fail because weren’t compassionate or soft enough. We failed because we offered no real choice to the US electorate.

So how do you motivate the base with a candidate who fails to fight and offer sufficient contrast to the electorate? Obviously, when there’s not enough difference, they stay home just as I predicted earlier this year during an interview with John King. Turn out is not just a function of GOTV, it’s a natural response to an inspiring, principled leader. And a leader who has solutions sufficiently different from the status quo.

So what kind of differences? How about getting back to the constitutional role of states:

This is not an easy fight; it will take extraordinary sacrifice and servant leadership. But if you love your country and wish a secure future for your children, you can’t give up.

And keep faith – there are millions of Americans whose first allegiance is to the Constitution. If we stay together, they cannot defeat us.

6,125 Proposed Regulations and Notifications Posted in Last 90 Days–Average 68 per Day

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photo credit: infomofo[On] Friday morning the Obama administration posted 165 new regulations and notifications on its reguations.gov website.

In the past 90 days, it has posted 6,125 regulations and notices – an average of 68 a day.

The website allows visitors to find and comment on proposed regulations and related documents published by the U.S. federal government. “Help improve Federal regulations by submitting your comments,” the website says.

The thousands of entries run the gamut from meeting notifications to fee schedules to actual rules and proposed rule changes.

In recent days, for example, the EPA posted a proposed rule involving volatile organic compound emissions from architectural coatings: “We are approving a local rule that regulates these emission sources under the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act),” the proposed rule states. “We are taking comments on this proposal and plan to follow with a final action.”

Read more from this story HERE.