Panetta: Sequestration Would Make U.S. ‘Second-Rate Power’

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Photo Credit: U.S. Army AfricaSecretary of Defense Leon Panetta used a hearing on the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack on Benghazi to plead with Congress for a budget agreement that would prevent sequestration cuts to the Department of Defense.

During his testimony before the Senate Armed Forces Committee on Thursday, Panetta said his greatest concern as defense secretary is the fiscal uncertainty hanging over Washington.

“I cannot imagine that people would stand by and deliberately hurt this country, in terms of our national defense, by letting this happen,” he said.

Ultimately, sequestration cuts would erode the military’s capabilities and threaten its world standing, Panetta asserted.

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Oregon Man Claims IRS Agent Coerced Sex By Threatening Tax Penalty (+video)

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Photo Credit: KVALEUGENE, Ore. — A Fall Creek resident filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Government and an IRS agent that he alledges pressured him into sex by threatening a tax penalty.

The law firm representing Vincent Burroughs filed the suit with the U.S. District Court in Eugene on Jan. 25 “as a result to coersive conduct by Defendant (Dora) Abrahamson,” an Internal Revenue Service agent from Cottage Grove.

Burroughs claims that in August of 2011 Abrahamson called him and said he would be audited by the IRS. He claims that at the time he didn’t know her.

Burroughs says that he had not met Abrahamson before those calls, nor had he heard that he was being audited by the IRS.

“She was sending me texts that she wanted to come out, give me massages because she needed to help me relax,” Burroughs said in a phone interview with KVAL News.

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Catholic Bishops Oppose Revisions To Contraception Mandate

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Photo Credit: DougtoneThe U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said Thursday that it remains opposed to the Obama administration’s contraception mandate, arguing Catholic institutions will have “second-class status” under the policy despite recent tweaks to its rules.

The USCCB said the policy will require Catholic institutions to have a hand in healthcare coverage they find immoral.

“Because the stakes are so high, we will not cease from our effort to assure that healthcare for all does not mean freedom for few,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the USCCB, said in a statement.

The group was initially noncommittal last week after the Obama administration released new regulations on the contraception mandate and its “accommodations” for religious-affiliated institutions, such as Catholic hospitals and universities.

But on Thursday, the bishops said last week’s rules ensure that employees of a religious institution would automatically receive contraception coverage through their insurance companies.

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The GOP, Fox Political Purge (+video)

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Photo Credit: Mike LichtRepublicans and Fox News are moving to purge the controversial political creatures they created.
Both were damaged badly in 2012 by loud, partisan voices that stoked the base — but that scared the hell out of many voters.

Now, the GOP, with its dismal image, and Fox News, with its depressed ratings in January, are scrambling to dim those voices. To wit:

Fox ousted contributors Sarah Palin and Dick Morris, two of the most obnoxiously partisan figures on the network’s air.
Karl Rove, himself sidelined by Fox after the election, has helped start a new super PAC, the Conservative Victory Fund, designed to keep controversial conservatives like Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) from winning Senate primaries.

Senate GOP leaders created what amounts to a buddy system with their caucus’s most popular tea party members, Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas, to get their help in taming anti-establishment conservatives.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has been running around the country warning anyone who will listen that Republicans must quit being the “stupid party” that nominates nutty candidates.

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Donald Trump: ‘Karl Rove Is A Total Loser’

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Photo Credit: APDonald Trump has tweeted his way into the war between the Tea Party and Karl Rove, taking aim at the former adviser to President George W. Bush.

Trump bashed the veteran Republican consultant in a series of messages Thursday, calling him a “total loser” and encouraging people not to donate to Rove-controlled groups.

“Why are people giving money to Karl Rove when he just wasted $400M without any victories?” Trump wrote. “Use your head. Karl Rove is a total loser. Money given to him might as well be thrown down the drain. Karl Rove’s strategy and commercials were the worst I have ever seen.”

Trump’s messages came amid escalating tensions between Rove, who created a group to back establishment candidates in Republican primaries, and Tea Party groups who backed losing candidates like Christine O’Donnell in Delaware and Todd Akin in Missouri. Rove’s group, the Conservative Victory Fund, has drawn fire from Tea Party backers like FreedomWorks and the Senate Conservatives Fund.

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House Passes Bill Requiring Obama Submit Plan To Balance Budget

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On Wednesday, the House passed legislation that demands President Barack Obama produce a balanced budget or submit a supplemental budget plan by April 1, 2013 that outlines how and in what fiscal year he aims to achieve a balanced budget.

The Require a PLAN Act passed the House in a 253-167 vote, with 26 Democrats supporting the legisation.

Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), the fiscal conservative who introduced the Require a PLAN Act, said, “there is no way our nation can secure a future of growth and opportunity if the spending habits in Washington are allowed to continue to produce massive deficits while chasing every higher spending with ever higher taxes.”

“By passing the Require a PLAN Act, the House of Representatives is taking the next step in making sure Washington puts in place a plan to balance the budget so that we can begin to pay off the debt,” Price said. “All we are asking of President Obama today is that he tell the American people when and how he would balance the budget.”

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Lew’s Blues:
 GOP probing Jack Lew’s failure to respond to Medicare insolvency warnings

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Photo Credit: APThe Office of Management and Budget has declined to cooperate with a Republican inquiry into whether treasury secretary nominee Jack Lew was complicit in violating federal Medicare law.

Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee are probing Lew’s involvement in the administration’s alleged failure to respond to annual warnings about Medicare’s pending insolvency.

The administration is required by law to submit legislation to address the Medicare funding crisis within 15 days after a funding warning is issued by the Medicare Trustees.

According to Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee, the Obama administration has not responded to the last four years of funding warnings, including during 2010 and 2011 when Lew was director of the Office of Management and Budget.

The senators are requesting a detailed legislative proposal addressing the current Medicare funding warnings as well as all documents received or written by Lew regarding these warnings.

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Rubio To Give Bilingual Response To Obama’s SOTU

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In an attempt to broaden the Republican Party’s appeal to minorities, particularly Hispanics, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio will deliver the Republican response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday in both English and Spanish.

In announcing Rubio’s selection, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said Rubio’s “family’s story is a testament to the promise and greatness of America,” and “he’ll deliver a GOP address that speaks from the heart to the hopes and dreams of the middle class; to our party’s commitment to life and liberty; and to the unlimited potential of America when government is limited and effective.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Rubio was a “natural choice.”

“Marco’s own experience as the child of immigrants has always informed his belief in limited government and free enterprise, which is why he has helped lead the fight against out-of-control spending and job-destroying tax hikes that continue to hold our economy back and stifle opportunity for millions,” McConnell said.

Rubio said he would discuss in his response how “limited government and free enterprise have helped make my family’s dreams come true in America” and lay out the “Republican case of how our ideas can help people close the gap between their dreams and the opportunities to realize them.”

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Flashback: Obama Interior Nominee Sally Jewell Interview On ‘Green Business’

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Photo Credit: APRecreational Equipment Inc., the outdoor retailer and the country’s largest consumer cooperative, plans to open its first distribution center on the East Coast–in Bedford, Pa.–at the end of November. REI President and Chief Executive Sally Jewell recently spoke with Forbes.com about the company’s environmental policy, her early career working for Big Oil and why environmentally friendly REI is staying out of the debate in Congress over climate change. (In 2005, Forbes profiled Jewell–see “Uphill Battle.” )

Forbes.com: REI has a multi-pronged environmental strategy–you buy clean power, build green buildings and use green packaging, just to name a few examples. Environmentally speaking, what is the company most focused on right now?

Sally Jewell: We like to say that the best electron is the one you don’t use. One of the key things that we are working on very extensively is reducing energy consumption. We have in our plans, our 2008 budget, to convert between 15 and 20 stores to solar. That won’t take 100% of the energy needs of those stores, but it will be 15% to 30% depending on the market.

Many businesses are investing in carbon-offset projects in developing countries, but REI buys renewable energy credits, sometimes called “green tags,” to promote the use of clean energy here in the U.S. Why?

We consider the use of carbon offsets, or green tags, to be kind of the last resort, where we don’t have an opportunity to directly influence the emissions of carbon. [ The company’s adventure-travel division, REI Adventures, uses green tags to offset carbon emissions.] We offset about 30% of our greenhouse gas footprint by actually buying [renewable] power. That’s better and more direct than buying green tags.

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The Civil War Has Begun

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Photo Credit: BreitbartWhen a person amasses too much power, they often believe they are indestructible.

What Karl Rove and company did last week in the New York Times, claiming that their new “Conservative Victory Project” would cure the ills of a disappointing campaign cycle, is laughable. The so-called “Conservative Victory Project” is nothing more than an attempt by establishment Republicans to cull the conservative movement. Why does Rove think he has a monopoly on wanting to win?

At least Karl Rove and company are finally out front with their disdain for the conservative movement, and I am thankful for it. The battle lines are finally drawn, and conservatives should look at the New York Times article as our Lexington and Concord. This battle will be a long, hard slog against the establishment.

Just this week, a Rove henchman attacked conservative leader Brent Bozell. But we will prevail, because we actually believe in core principles and a cause greater than our egos and money.

Karl Rove and his cabal would sell out on any issue if it means more power in the short-term, for they don’t stand for anything. Let’s just look at Rove’s record of accomplishments for Big Government causes.

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