Revolving Door: Speaker Boehner’s Right-Hand Man Heads To K Street

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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore Barry Jackson, a long-time senior adviser to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), is heading to K Street.

Jackson has agreed to join Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck as a strategic adviser, delivering a coup to one of the top-earning lobby firms in Washington.

The blockbuster hire brings a premier Republican name in Washington politics to the firm. In Jackson, Brownstein Hyatt will have one of the Speaker’s longest-serving and most trusted aides, giving the firm access and insight into the House GOP majority that few can match.

Jackson managed Boehner’s first House campaign in 1990 and served as the Ohio Republican’s chief of staff for 10 years. He also worked in the White House as a senior aide to former President George W. Bush during his two terms.

Jackson returned to the House in January 2010 as Boehner’s chief of staff after the lawmaker’s top aide, Paula Nowakowski, passed away. He held that position until June last year.

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Hysteria: White House Warns of Sequester Cuts For Non-Existent Agency

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Photo Credit: Examiner The administration has been warning of dire consequences if a deal is not passed to stop the cuts required by the sequestration deal. On Monday, Reason’s Mike Riggs said that the administration warned of cuts to an agency that has not existed since June 2012.

In Sept. 2012, the Office of Management and Budget sent a detailed 394-page report to Congress detailing how much would be cut from each federal agency in compliance with the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012.

The first line item listed on page 133 of the report says that under sequestration the National Drug Intelligence Center would lose $2 million of its $20 million budget.

There’s only one problem. According to the Department of Justice, the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) closed on June 15, 2012 — three months before the report was issued.

“On June 15, 2012, the National Drug Intelligence Center will close. This web site will no longer be maintained,” a notice says at the archived site.

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American Student Punished For Refusing To Recite Mexican Pledge Of Allegiance?

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Photo Credit: Dario Lopez-Mills A Texas high school student has filed a federal lawsuit against her school after her Spanish teacher allegedly gave her a failing grade for refusing to recite the Mexican pledge of allegiance.

The lawsuit says the McAllen Independent School District violated 15-year-old girl Brenda Brinsdon’s constitutional rights, saying that the “Supreme Court forbids teachers from compelling schoolchildren to pledge their allegiance to a country.”

The complaint also states that the student was not allowed to recite the American Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish in front of the class as an alternative assignment. The teacher, Reyna Santos, gave her a different assignment on the Independence of Mexico to which she received 13 out of 100 points.

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Palin: Washington Buying Bullets For Us

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Photo Credit: WNDImagine the worst-case scenario if the sequester goes through. The market nosedives. The economy implodes. Empty shelves. Riots. The feds hit the streets in force to restore order in a “national emergency.”

Sounds like something in a Third World country or Greece. It could never happen here, right? Think again, says Sarah Palin.

The former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee believes the federal government is “stockpiling bullets in case of civil unrest.” Palin says the feds are afraid of what might happen if the sequester goes into effect.

She writes on her Facebook page: “If we are going to wet our proverbial pants over 0.3% in annual spending cuts when we’re running up trillion dollar annual deficits, then we’re done. Put a fork in us. We’re finished. We’re going to default eventually and that’s why the feds are stockpiling bullets in case of civil unrest.”

The sequester will trigger $85 billion in immediate cuts to federal funding and $1.2 over 10 years unless lawmakers reach a deal by Friday.

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Scalia: The Voting Rights Act Is A ‘Racial Entitlement’

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Photo Credit: GettyConservative Supreme Court justices expressed skepticism about the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 during oral arguments today, signaling that a key provision of the landmark civil rights legislation might be struck down.

Justice Antonin Scalia sparked controversy when he referred to Section 5 of the law as “the perpetuation of a racial entitlement,” sparking immediate backlash from the left.

Section 5 requires states with a “history of racial discrimination” to have any changes to their voting laws approved by the Justice Department’s civil rights division or Washington, D.C.’s federal court.

Scalia explained that he was not convinced the law was legitimate simply because Congress had voted to reauthorize it five times, most recently in 2006 by a 99-0 Senate vote and similarly overwhelming House vote. He said that the “normal political process” couldn’t be applied to this situation and questioned Congress’ political motives for reauthorization.

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White House Denies Involvement In ICE’s Decision To Release Detainees (+video)

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Photo Credit: DonkeyHoteyThe White House and the Department of Homeland Security were unaware of Immigration Customs and Enforcement’s decision to release detainees until the agency announced it, administration officials said Wednesday.

“This was a decision made by career officials at ICE without any input from the White House, as a result of fiscal uncertainty over the continuing resolution, as well as possible sequestration,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday.

Personnel at Department of Homeland Security headquarters in Washington were also unaware of the decision until the announcement was made, a department official told POLITICO.

ICE announced Tuesday that it has released several hundred undocumented immigrants in recent weeks as funding cuts loom. The detainees will instead be monitored in less expensive ways, the agency said.

[Editor’s note: Notice how precisely Carney’s prepared statement is tailored to the question asked by this reporter, if I didn’t know better I might think the whole thing was staged. Surely the White House Press Corps wouldn’t go to such lengths to bail the President out of a sticky situation?]

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Obama’s One Percent Problem: Wall Street Scores While Main Street Suffers, Dow Within 100 Points of All-Time High

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Photo Credit: YoTuTStocks soared for a second day to finish near session highs Wednesday, with the Dow within less than 100 points of an all-time closing high, boosted by upbeat earnings and economic reports and as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke reaffirmed his support of the central bank’s stimulus policy.

“It would not be shocking to see a final push through, but I want to point out that seasonality is not necessarily on our side, which keeps us from going pedal to the medal,” said Josh Brown, financial advisor at Fusion Analytics. “We had a very similar market environment in early 2011 and last year. So it would not shock me to see a sprint close to the highs of the year, have our typical pullback, and when people realize that sequestration is not the end of the world, we could resume. That would be a better moment to load on new longs.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 175.24 points, or 1.26 percent, to close at 14,075.37, propelled by JPMorgan and Caterpillar. The Dow is now less than 100 points from hitting its all-time closing high of 14,164.53.

The S&P 500 jumped 19.05 points, or 1.27 percent, to finish at 1,515.99. And the Nasdaq advanced 32.61 points, or 1.04 percent, to end at 3,162.26.

The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, tumbled below 15. All 10 key S&P sectors finished firmly in positive territory, led by materials and industrials.

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Why Marriage Matters For America And Conservatism

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Photo Credit: Ken Weingart Some former officials in the Republican Party are urging the Supreme Court to redefine marriage for the nation. But support for marriage as the union of a man and a woman is essential to American—and conservative—principles. Indeed, nothing could be less conservative than urging an activist court to redefine an essential institution of civil society.

As my co-authors and I argue in our new book, What Is Marriage?, and in the amicus brief we filed with the Supreme Court, marriage exists to bring a man and a woman together as husband and wife to be father and mother to any children their union produces. It is based on the anthropological truth that men and women are different and complementary, on the biological fact that reproduction depends on a man and a woman, and on the social reality that children need a mother and a father. Marriage has public purposes that transcend its private purposes.

Marriage predates government. It is the fundamental building block of all human civilization. All Americans, especially conservatives, should respect this crucial institution of civil society. This is why 41 states, with good reason, affirm that marriage is between a man and a woman.

Government recognizes marriage because it is an institution that benefits society in a way that no other relationship does. Marriage is society’s least restrictive means to ensure the well-being of children. State recognition of marriage protects children by encouraging men and women to commit to each other and take responsibility for their children. While respecting everyone’s liberty, government rightly recognizes, protects, and promotes marriage as the ideal institution for childbearing and childrearing.

Redefining marriage would further distance marriage from the needs of children. It would deny as a matter of policy the ideal that a child needs a mom and a dad. We know that children tend to do best when raised by a mother and a father. The confusion resulting from further delinking childbearing from marriage would force the state to intervene more often in family life and cause welfare programs to grow even more.

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J.C. Watts: GOP ‘In Denial’ About Its Image Problems With Minorities

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Photo Credit: DonkeyHoteyFormer Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) says the Republican Party is “in denial” about its image problems with minority voters — and he argues the “burden of proof” is on the GOP to show it is sincere about repairing relationships with communities tilting toward Democrats.

“We are in denial — because the fact is that many people associate the Republican Party as the party of the rich,” Watts told The Hill on Wednesday.

Watts, who left Congress in 2003, recently launched INSIGHT America, a nonprofit group designed to boost diversity within the GOP. It’s one of several GOP efforts at minority outreach launched in the wake of the 2012 election, in which President Obama won large majorities of the black, Hispanic and Asian American vote.

“Right now, there is not a strong relationship between minority communities and the Republican Party,” said Watts, who was in Washington on Wednesday to give a speech to the Heritage Foundation.

“The burden of proof is on us and it starts with relationships … We lost eight out of 10 demographics in the last election, so we have to be getting back to basics,” he added.

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US Imam Calls On Muslims In US To Wage Jihad

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Photo Credit: YouTubeThe controversial imam of a prominent mosque in Arlington, Va., has urged immigrant Muslims in the United States to wage war for Islam.

“The enemies of Allah are lining up. The question for us is, are we lining [up] or are we afraid because they may call us terrorists?” Shaker Elsayed told a crowd of Ethiopian Muslims during a lecture at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va.

“Let me give you the good news: they are already calling us terrorists anyway. Whether you sitting at home, watching TV, drinking coffee, sleeping or playing with your kids, you are a terrorist because you are a Muslim.”

“Well, give them a run for their money. Make it worth it. Make this title worth it, and be a good Muslim,” said the Cairo-born Muslim.

“Muslim men when it is a price to pay, they are first in line. … They are the first in the community-service line. They are the first in jihad line,” he declared to applause.

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