Revealed: Administration Drew Up Top-Secret Rulebook for Drone Warfare to Hand Over to Romney in Case Obama Lost Election

/2 Comments/in , /by

Although drone strikes may not have come up much during the presidential election campaign, the controversial tactic may one day be remembered as one of Barack Obama’s signature policies during his time in office.

But while it is now routine for the U.S. to use unmanned planes to assassinate suspected terrorists, there are still no official guidelines governing the use of the deadly weapons.

So before the election, administration officials spent weeks trying to hammer out a rulebook on drones which they could hand over to Mitt Romney in the event that he had defeated Obama, it has been revealed.

Those guidelines were so confidential, however, that they were not allowed to be sent by email, and had to be transported by hand to the officials working on them.

Most details of the drone programme are a closely guarded secret, and its existence have never been publicly confirmed by authorities.

But two officials from the Obama administration have briefed the New York Times on the steps that have been taken to draw up rules for the use of drones and ensure that their deployment is always legally justified.

Read more from this story HERE.

Major League Baseball Front-loading Contracts to Avoid Obama Tax Hikes?

/0 Comments/in , , /by

photo credit: shashibellamkonda

Team executives and agents wandered into the Agave Sunset lounge at the resort where the general managers’ meetings were held in Indian Wells, Calif. Four of the six flat-screen televisions were showing election coverage, with the other two turned to sports.

President Barack Obama’s victory over Mitt Romney was of as much interest to baseball’s money men as the game scores, given the millions of dollars routinely guaranteed in player contracts these days.

As free agents negotiate deals this offseason, tax policy is an area that comes up along with the usual issues. Some players are wrangling for as much money as they can get before the end of the year to avoid a take hike in 2013.

“Front-loading would make sense if at all possible as tax rates will definitely go up on January 1st on all high-income taxpayers,” agent Greg Genske said in an email. “The only question is HOW MUCH will the rates increase????”

This much is known for now: Starting Jan. 1, there is an additional 0.9 percent Medicare tax on wages above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly under the federal Affordable Care Act, a rise to 2.35 percent.

Read more from this story HERE.

With Second Term Assured, Obama Aides Eye Jobs as Lobbyists

/2 Comments/in , /by

With President Obama’s reelection a done deal, headhunters are expecting worn-out administration aides to look for new jobs in the influence industry.

Several Obama aides started making post-election plans well before November, holding discussions with executive search firms in Washington as early as this past spring. Their stock has risen since Obama’s victory, but they face a tough job market on K Street, where belt-tightening has become the norm.

Several headhunters for law and lobby firms said one thing that won’t work against the job seekers is Obama’s executive order on ethics, which bans former officials from lobbying the administration while he is in office.

“That hasn’t come up once,” Eric Vautour of Russell Reynolds Associates said of the ethics order. “They can still direct those activities. If you’re asking someone to go run a whole department, they can go ask someone to make a call. It’s not that big a deal. Clients recognize that as well.”

While some lobbyists said the lobbying ban could diminish administration officials’ value on K Street, others said it has not been a major factor in assessing recruits from the administration.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Establishment Warned Of Coming Backlash If They Meddle in 2014 Primaries

/9 Comments/in , /by

photo credit: donkey hotey

A growing push for more establishment involvement in Republican primaries may put the party in a bind as the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) grapples with helping the best possible candidates get elected in primaries in 2014.

It’s a catch-22 for the party: Stay out, and risk untested candidates like Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) or Richard Mourdock of Indiana prevailing in the primaries and losing winnable races; or engage early and risk the kind of grassroots backlash that divided the party in many of the 2010 Senate races.

There is a consensus among a number of state Republican Party officials and grassroots groups that backlash is all but assured if the GOP establishment gets involved to the same extent as 2010.

“There’s always going to be fundamental dislike of the national party coming in to a local or a state race and saying, ‘This is who we want to pick,’” said Keli Carender, national grassroots coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots.

Tea Party backlash to establishment engagement in a number of Senate primaries during the 2010 cycle is part of what cost the party some easy wins that cycle, critics say.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rasmussen: Respecting Voters Matters More Than Policy

/3 Comments/in , /by

photo credit: myglesias

The Republican Party has won a majority of the popular vote just once in the last six elections. That dismal track record followed a party revival in the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan led the GOP to three straight popular vote majorities.

To understand what went wrong, it’s important to remember Reagan was an insurgent candidate who defeated the Republican establishment of his era. When Reagan left office, however, the old establishment reasserted control. They consistently nominated candidates for president who opposed Reagan in 1980 and consistently lost elections.

The difference is that Ronald Reagan believed in the American people and was skeptical of government. Today’s Republican establishment believes in government and is skeptical of the American people. That’s why most Republican voters today believe the party is out of touch with the base.

Consider Mitt Romney’s infamous comments about the 47 percent who are allegedly dependent upon government. After the election, Romney even said that President Obama won by giving “gifts” to these dependent Americans. The Republican establishment grumbles about makers versus takers.

Reagan had a different view. He asked, “How can we love our country and not love our countrymen?” When he passed a major tax reform bill, he was proud that it removed millions of low-income Americans from the income tax rolls. Reagan looked at low-income Americans and saw people who wanted an opportunity to work hard and get ahead. He saw a nation that was happy to extend a helping hand to all who were willing to work.

Read more from this story HERE.

Surprise! Audit Uncovers Rampant Fraud in Fed Program

/3 Comments/in , /by

photo credit: yomanimus

A federal audit of one part of the Medicaid system has uncovered hundreds of millions of dollars in suspected fraud, including payments to caregivers to provide home-care services to the disabled even when they are hospitalized or in nursing homes.

“It would seem inconceivable – even for today’s bloated government – if it wasn’t laid out in a report … by the offending agency’s inspector general,” noted Judicial Watch, which reported on the systemic failure.

Judicial Watch said the issue centers on personal care services provided by the federal and state-funded health insurance Medicaid, which have been provided to the disabled since the Supreme Court ruled in the 1990s that such care is a civil right.

“The idea is to allow the sick, disabled and those with chronic or temporary conditions [to] stay home and, in turn, avoid sticking Uncle Sam with a hefty hospitalization bill,” Judicial Watch said.

“Instead, Medicaid’s personal care services program is rife with corruption that was first exposed more than five years ago and continues to be documented annually by the agency’s watchdog. The budget has ballooned to more than $12 billion a year, just to send what amounts to a nanny to provide supportive ‘nonmedical services’ like meal preparation, housework, help with bathing and getting dressed, transportation and even money management.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Food Stamp Recipients Outnumber Populations of 24 States Combined

/3 Comments/in , /by

An analysis by Breitbart News has found that the number of individuals on food stamps now exceeds the combined populations of 24 states and the District of Columbia.

In November, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that a record 47,102,780 individuals receive food stamps.

According to US. Census Bureau data, that figure exceeds the combined populations of: Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Since January 2009, the number of individuals on food stamps has skyrocketed from 31.9 million to the current record high 47.1 million. By comparison, in 1969 just 2.8 million Americans received food stamps.

Read more from this story HERE.

Club for Growth to GOP Establishment: Define ‘Electable’

/5 Comments/in , , /by

photo credit: donkey hotey

In response to signals that the GOP establishment is prepared to play a more aggressive role in 2014 Senate primaries, Club for Growth President Chris Chocola fires a shot across the bow in an op-ed published Wednesday.

“In the wake of some missed opportunities to pick up seats in the U.S. Senate over the past few cycles, one tactical change floated by the GOP establishment is that the party apparatus and its affiliated Super PACs should play a more influential role in primaries to make sure that more “electable” candidates are nominated.

It is hard to imagine a bigger mistake…

Everyone wants to avoid the next Todd Akin or Christine O’Donnell, neither of whom received any support from the Club for Growth PAC. But the Republican establishment has a horrendous track record of accurately identifying which candidates are truly unelectable and which are not. Too often, party insiders mistakenly substitute the word ‘unelectable’ for the word ‘conservative.'”

Chocola, a former GOP congressman from Indiana, points to a litany of top, establishment-favored candidates who lost in 2012 and also to a rogue’s gallery of so-called ‘electable’ GOP House and Senate candidates who backfired in spectacular fashion in recent years: Dede Scozzafava, Arlen Specter, and Charlie Crist.

Read more from this story HERE.

Study: U.S. Faces 52K Doctor Shortage by 2025; Obamacare, Immigration* Contributing Factors

/0 Comments/in , /by

photo credit: jillk61

. . . Research published in the Annals of Family Medicine estimated that most of the doctor shortage will be caused by the rising U.S. population.

Aging adults and the expansion of healthcare coverage under the Affordable Care Act will contribute to a lesser extent, the study found.

Researchers predicted that the U.S. population will increase 15.2 percent by 2025, necessitating about 33,000 more physicians.

Aging adults will create the need for an additional 10,000 physicians in that period, while the Affordable Care Act will require about 8,000 more.

Read more from this story HERE.

*Immigration is inferred. The birth rate for the United State was 1.89 children per woman in 2011, which is well below the replacement rate of 2.1.

Al Gore Says Approving Keystone Pipeline Would Be ‘Morally Wrong’

/14 Comments/in , /by

photo credit: campuspartybrasil

Former Vice President Al Gore says a window is opening to work on climate change legislation in Congress . . .

But words are one thing — action is another. Gore said the Obama administration decision on the Keystone XL project is the first test to see whether the two match up.

“I am strongly opposed to that tar-sands pipeline. I think it’s crazy. Again, you have the realpolitik/business logic, but I just think it is morally wrong for us to open a brand new source of even dirtier carbon-based energy when we are desperately trying to bend down the curves,” he said.

Many lawmakers on the left and the right expect President Obama to greenlight the pipeline’s northern leg. That portion requires administration approval because it crosses national boundaries.

The pipeline would bring Canadian oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries, and its supporters are promoting it as a jobs and energy security issue. Environmentalists have pushed back against the pipeline because it runs through environmentally sensitive regions and would increase delivery of one of the dirtiest forms of fuel.

Read more from this story HERE.