Vice President Biden: Cruz, Paul Control the GOP

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Photo Credit: Matt Rourke

By Dave Boyer. At a fundraiser late Friday night in San Francisco, Mr. Biden said there is no one in the Republican Party in Congress with whom the administration can negotiate anymore.

“There’s no one with whom to deal with and there’s no one in charge anymore,” Mr. Biden said, at one point pounding the podium with his fist.

Referring to Mr. Paul and Mr. Cruz, both first-term senators, the vice president said he’s never before seen lawmakers with their conservative views.

“They are the ones that control the Republican party right now, literally,” Mr. Biden said. “I’ve never seen a time in all the years I was in the Senate that two freshmen have so much impact on the entirety of the Republican party.”

He did call them “bright young guys.” Read more from this story HERE.

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Biden slaps GOP for letting Cruz, Paul ‘control’ the party

By Paul Bedard. Just six months after he cut a fiscal cliff deal with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Vice President Joe Biden declared Friday night that the GOP has no adult leadership and he said it is being pushed around by two “bright new guys,” Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

“This is not your father’s Republican Party, it’s fundamentally different,” he said at a San Francisco Democratic Party fundraiser. “There’s no one with whom to deal with and there’s no one in charge anymore.”

In December and January, Biden worked closely with senior GOP leaders like McConnell to work out a budget deal that halted the nation’s fall over the so-called fiscal cliff.

But in his 10 minute address at the home of Dawn Ross and Doug Hickey, the CEO of BinWise, a beverage distribution company in San Francisco, Biden forgot all that to slam the emergence of Tea Party-backed Cruz and Paul, part of the group GOP Sen. John McCain dubbed “wing nuts.” Read more from this story HERE.

Governor Jan Brewer Defies Arizona Conservatives, Rams Through Obama’s Medicaid Expansion

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Photo Credit: State Rep. Jeff Dial

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer won a battle with state lawmakers this week, defying most other conservatives in her party to get a key component of President Obama’s Medicaid expansion through the Legislature.

The Arizona Senate voted Thursday to approve the measure 18 to 11. That followed approval earlier this week by the state House of Representatives.

The issue had inflamed passions and divided the Legislature for weeks. Things came to a head Tuesday when Brewer called lawmakers into the Capitol in Phoenix for a surprise special session.

Brewer — a vocal opponent of President Obama’s healthcare reform law — came out in support of Medicaid expansion for her state in January and ended up leading a contingent of moderate Democrats and Republicans who won over the objections of some conservative Republicans.

“By joining me in extending health coverage to hundreds of thousands of Arizonans, legislators of my own party have come under sharp criticism in some quarters. Some have had threats made not just against their political future, but also their personal livelihood,” Brewer said in a prepared statement.

Read more from this story HERE.

Another Bush Tries to Snooker the Nation on Amnesty, Argues the Economy Needs Illegals’ “Fertility” (+video)

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Photo Credit: World Affairs Council of Philadelphia

Jeb Bush may have been speaking to conservative Christians, but he wasn’t preaching to the choir.

His pitch to grow the economy by providing amnesty for illegal immigrants was met with silence in a packed room at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” Conference.

The Republican former governor of Florida may not have helped his case by stating, “Immigrants are more fertile and they love families,” which appeared to confuse the audience.

Bush presented a four-point economic plan that justified amnesty by arguing America needs more taxpayers to pay for the retirement benefits of the aging baby boomer generation.

Immigrants bring a younger population and “create far more businesses than native-born Americans over the last 20 years,” claimed the brother of former President George W. Bush.

Read more from this story HERE.

Bachmann: Conservatives Must “Melt the Phone Lines” or We Will Lose the Country to Amnesty

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Photo Credit: John Shinkle/POLITICO

Rep. Michele Bachmann urged the viewers of Glenn Beck’s show to “melt the phone lines” on immigration because currently, conservatives are “losing badly.”

The Minnesota Republican appeared on Beck’s show on TheBlaze TV on Thursday with Reps. Steve King (R-Iowa) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) to talk about how Republicans “don’t even know” they’re in a fight over the bill yet.

“We’re losing badly. Why? Because members of Congress don’t even know this fight’s going on, so we need your viewers to melt the phone lines,” Bachmann said.

King decried “selected information” being passed around, saying conservatives need to stand up.

“It’s the only way we can mobilize our conference to get informed, for one thing, because they’re getting selected information that’s designed to promote the bill,” King said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Promised Consequences to Military Sex Assault, Now Won’t Get Any Because of His “Unlawful Command Influence”

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Photo Credit: OLIVIER DOULIERY

Two defendants in military sexual assault cases cannot be punitively discharged, if found guilty, because of “unlawful command influence” derived from comments made by President Barack Obama, a judge ruled in a Hawaii military court this week.

Navy Judge Cmdr. Marcus Fulton ruled during pretrial hearings in two sexual assault cases — U.S. vs. Johnson and U.S. vs. Fuentes — that comments made by Obama as commander in chief would unduly influence any potential sentencing, according to a court documents obtained by Stars and Stripes.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Fulton approved the pretrial defense motions, which used as evidence comments that Obama made about sexual assault at a May 7 news conference.

“The bottom line is: I have no tolerance for this,” Obama said, according to an NBC News story submitted as evidence by defense attorneys in the sexual assault cases.

‘I expect consequences,” Obama added. “So I don’t just want more speeches or awareness programs or training, but ultimately folks look the other way. If we find out somebody’s engaging in this, they’ve got to be held accountable — prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged. Period.”

Read more from this story HERE.

FBI Hasn’t Contacted a Single Tea Party Group in IRS Probe, Groups Say

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Photo Credit: Alex Wong/Getty

There is no evidence that the FBI has contacted a single tea party group in its criminal investigation of the Internal Revenue Service, according to the groups the IRS abused.

“We have not been contacted by any federal investigative agency and, to date, none of our clients have been contacted or interviewed by the FBI,” Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice told The Daily Caller on Thursday. The ACLJ has filed suit against the IRS on behalf of 25 conservative groups, with additional groups being added in the next couple weeks, according to a spokesman…

Tea Party Patriots — a group with thousands of local chapters — “has not been contacted by the FBI” either, according to Jameson Cunningham, the group’s spokesman.

The revelation suggests that the FBI is in no hurry to get to the bottom of the scandal, despite the Obama administration’s promise to investigate the IRS’s multi-year abuse of conservative groups…

Attorney General Eric Holder promised in mid-May that the FBI would get to the bottom of the IRS’s behavior by opening a criminal investigation.

Read more from this story HERE.

Support for Carbon Tax Growing in US Senate

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Montana Democrat Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, announced that interest in a carbon tax is “creeping up” and that “everything is on the table.”

“There are more members of the Senate now who openly talk about that than I have experienced. It is creeping up a little bit. Is that going to rise to the level of where it is a very strong, serious provision? I don’t know. But I am not going to pre-judge it,” Baucus said at a Christian Science Monitor event…

Next month, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will take up carbon tax legislation introduced by California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders. Their bill would put a gradually rising tax on carbon dioxide emissions to help fund green energy projects.

Democrats have been selling the carbon tax to conservatives as a way to address global warming and reduce the deficit. According to the CBO, the Boxer-Sanders bill would raise $1.2 trillion over the next decade and 60 percent of that revenue would be used to offset higher energy bills…

[Critics see it differently:] “It’s not just energy prices that would skyrocket from a carbon tax. The cost of nearly everything built in America would go up,” said Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter. “Let’s not lose sight of how big of a dud cap and trade was in 2009, or as it came to be known, cap and tax. This is really no different.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Philanderer Bill Clinton Declared “Father of the Year”; Lance Armstrong Hopes His Reputation Can Be Resurrected, Too

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Photo Credit: AP

Bill Clinton Was President of the United States, Now He is Father of the Year

By IBTimes Staff Reporter. Bill Clinton, the former President of the United States, has a new title. The 66-year-old American politician has been recognised as Father of the Year, by the National Father’s Day Council at a fundraiser in New York City. Proceeds from the event will go to an international non-governmental organisation, called Save The Children.

The country’s former Commander-in-Chief, while receiving the award, revealed he received a short congratulatory message from his wife, the former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

“I [received] a text message from Hillary saying, ‘Congratulations. I think you deserve this’. In our family, that’s a very big deal,” he explained.

The award was presented to Clinton by his daughter, Chelsea. The 33-year-old said her father had set the bar very high for her husband, Marc Mezvinsky. Read more from this story HERE.

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Lance Armstrong: People will forgive me like they did Bill Clinton

By Jessica Chasmar. Disgraced Lance Armstrong said in an interview that the public will soon forget about him being the biggest dope cheat in cycling’s history, just like they did former president Bill Clinton for his affair with an intern.

Mr. Armstrong Told Texas Monthly that Clinton was a hero of his and that he wanted to become “president of the world.”
“Ultimately, people forgive and forget and remember the good stuff you did,” he said. “Is it hard to do? Yeah. But Clinton did it — he loves to work, he loves people, he loves to hustle. He’s a hero of mine. He’s a tough guy, he’s smart, surrounded himself with good people. And ten years later, he’s president of the world. It can be done.” Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Family’s June Africa Trip Could Cost a Colossal $100 Million

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Photo Credit: senorglory

When President Obama makes his first extended trip to sub-
Saharan Africa this month, the federal agencies charged with keeping him safe won’t be taking any chances.

Hundreds of U.S. Secret Service agents will be dispatched to secure facilities in Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania. A Navy aircraft carrier or amphibious ship, with a fully staffed medical trauma center, will be stationed offshore in case of an emergency.

Military cargo planes will airlift in 56 support vehicles, including 14 limousines and three trucks loaded with sheets of bullet­proof glass to cover the windows of the hotels where the first family will stay. Fighter jets will fly in shifts, giving 24-hour coverage over the president’s airspace, so they can intervene quickly if an errant plane gets too close.

The elaborate security provisions — which will cost the government tens of millions of dollars — are outlined in a confidential internal planning document obtained by The Washington Post. While the preparations appear to be in line with similar travels in the past, the document offers an unusual glimpse into the colossal efforts to protect the U.S. commander in chief on trips abroad.

Any journey by the president, such as one scheduled next week for Northern Ireland and Germany, is an immense and costly logistical challenge. But the trip to Africa is complicated by a confluence of factors that could make it one of the most expensive of Obama’s tenure, according to people familiar with the planning.

Read more from this story HERE.

True Size of the Deficit? Try $106 Trillion

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Photo Credit: National Review

…Obama officials came into the initial meetings on the Hill [regarding the long term budget deficit] reiterating the president’s position that $4 trillion in deficit reduction would basically solve the problem for now.

But according to GOP deficit projections … the true size of the problem is staggering, and surprised even many of the seasoned budget negotiators involved.

$4 trillion? Try $106 trillion, the medium estimate. That’s $106,954,000,000,000. Even the lowest, extremely conservative estimate comes in at $72 trillion; the highest is over $120 trillion.

The amounts are so large that some controversial reforms appear inconsequential in comparison. Take Obama’s “chained CPI” proposal: it would save an estimated $89 billion over ten years, or 1.3 percent of the total deficit over those same ten years…

The Senate GOP’s projections are based on CBO’s cost projections and generally conservative.

Read more from this story HERE.