Jeb Bush Must Answer Whether He Stands with Boehner

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Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

By Matthew Boyle. “We’ve had nonstop Jeb Bush talk the last two weeks,” Levin said in an email to Breitbart News late Tuesday evening. “Is there a reason why he’s silent now about the GOP leadership debacle in the House? They are his supporters after all.”

Reached earlier in the day by phone, Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell said, when asked for her boss’s thoughts on the scandal, that she hadn’t spoken with Bush about it yet. But she promised to track him down sometime on Tuesday and get a statement to Breitbart News about it later in the day—a statement that still hasn’t materialized.

Levin’s right that Bush’s silence about this GOP leadership scandal is intriguing since Bush was the talk of the political world in the days leading up to this scandal. Right after he announced he was actively exploring a run for the presidency in 2016, he topped a CNN-ORC poll of potential GOP candidates.

The poll found Bush far and away leading the pack of potential GOP candidates in a primary, with 23 percent of support. The next best potential candidate was New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie with 13 percent, followed by Dr. Ben Carson with 7 percent and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee tied with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) with 6 percent. (Read more on whether Jeb Bush stands with Boehner HERE)

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Why Jeb Bush Can’t Bypass Conservatives

By W. James Antle. Before Jeb Bush announced he was “actively exploring” a presidential bid came news he was just as actively seeking a way to avoid appealing to conservatives. (The Bushies prefer the word “pandering.”)

The would-be King Bush III consulted one of the country’s foremost experts on excelling in the Republican Party without being too conservative: Arizona Sen. John McCain.

“I just said to him, ‘I think if you look back, despite the far right’s complaints, it is the centrist that wins the nomination,’” McCain told Bush, according to The New York Times. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

What is America's Survival Plan?

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nazi-islam-saluteWe’re facing the greatest national security threat we have ever known and there is no coherent plan to battle the enemy. This nation is so far behind the eight ball, the president and his minions won’t even name the enemy, no less fight it.

Name = Islam

Even worse, those in positions of power and influence misrepresent what the enemy stands for. Like a pre-recorded announcement that just won’t stop, we are endlessly subjected to the false refrain: Islam is a religion of peace. By Muslim lights, we live in the Dar al Harb, the territory of war, simply because we refuse to accept Islam. We didn’t declare war, Mohammed did.

And when it comes to the threat of Islamic supremacism, it’s not only the left that’s putting us at risk. The right is hardly better, as both parties serve up a boatload of ignorance, complicity, and cowardice on a daily basis. Our elected officials draft legislation, set foreign policy, speak at podiums, sit on panels, write press releases, pen op-eds, and yack away on talk shows about the wonders of Islam. If anyone challenges what they’re peddling, the peddlers get rather hot under the collar. As for the truth-tellers, they are mocked, marginalized, and vilified.

And what a truth it is, as we confront a totalitarian ideology bent on world domination ruled by one religion — an ideology that is infecting every aspect of our culture and which has the potential to destroy all of civilization. . .

How can that be? The most brutal and ruthless enemy is advancing toward us and has infiltrated every arm of our government, and there is hardly a word said, no less a plan offered, as to how to beat them back. Quite the opposite. We are welcoming them with open arms. Giving them the keys to the kingdom. (Read more about America’s survival plan HERE)

Black Progression and Retrogression

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williams_walterThere is no question, though it’s not acknowledged enough, that black Americans have made greater gains, over some of the highest hurdles and in a very short span of time, than any other racial group in mankind’s history. What’s the evidence? If black Americans were thought of as a nation with their own gross domestic product, they’d rank among the 20 wealthiest nations. It was a black American, Gen. Colin Powell, who headed the mightiest military in mankind’s history. A few black Americans are among the world’s wealthiest. Many black Americans are among the world’s most famous personalities.

The significance of all this is that in 1865, neither an ex-slave nor an ex-slave owner would have believed that such progress would be possible in less than a century and a half. As such, it speaks to the intestinal fortitude of a people. Just as importantly, it speaks to the greatness of a nation within which such progress was possible. That progress would have been impossible anywhere except in the United States of America. The challenge that lies before us is how those gains can be extended to a large percentage of black people for whom they appear elusive.

A good start to meeting that challenge is to recognize that much of the pathology seen in many black communities is entirely new in black history. Let’s look at some of that history. In the late 1800s, depending on the city, 70 to 80 percent of black households were two-parent. In 1925 New York City, 85 percent of black households were two-parent. As late as 1950, only 18 percent of black households were single-parent. From 1890 to 1940, a slightly higher percentage of black adults had married than white adults. In 1940, black illegitimacy was about 14 percent.

Today it’s an entirely different story. Black illegitimacy is 75 percent. Close to 50 percent of marriage-age blacks never marry. Close to 70 percent of black households are female-headed. If one thinks family structure doesn’t matter, consider that the poverty rate among black female-headed families is about 47 percent, but among married families it has been in the single digits for more than two decades.

Read more from this article HERE.

Tea Party Is a Movement Now, Not Just a Mood

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tea_party_gunsIs the tea party a movement or just a mood?

That was the question posed by Weekly Standard columnist and Fox News contributor Steven Hayes as he kicked off a panel at the Heritage Foundation celebrating the 5th anniversary of the tea party.

Hayes and his co-panelists, Heritage Action for America CEO Michael Needham and University of Virginia professor of politics James Ceaser, all agreed that the tea party is in fact a movement. Moods, as Hayes noted, don’t last for five years.

Recent polls regarding national tea party support show the panel’s assessment is correct. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll in November found one-fifth of American adults consider themselves supporters of the tea party. As panel moderator David Azerrad of the Heritage Foundation noted, that’s quite an improvement from the original tea party, which numbered between 30 and 130 members.

But the panelists didn’t just rely on poll numbers to support their conclusion. They also highlighted some of the tea party’s major accomplishments since its inception in 2009.

Read more from this article HERE.

How the Nuclear Option Changed the Judiciary

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Harry Reid Rejects CutsFor Sen. Harry Reid, going “nuclear” set the groundwork for his last great act of the 113th Congress.

A little more than a year after Senate Democrats deployed the “nuclear option” to effectively change the Senate rules on nominations with a simple majority, Democrats up and down Pennsylvania Avenue generally seem happy with the changes, even as the Senate shifts to Republican control for 2015.

White House Counsel Neil Eggleston on Wednesday highlighted the 134 judges confirmed in the 113th Congress alone, saying that was 44 percent of the total confirmed during President Barack Obama’s tenure. That number included 132 federal district and circuit judges, according to Senate Democrats.

Those sorts of numbers should give Reid, a Nevada Democrat, reason to be pleased as his smaller caucus takes minority status, thank to the slew of lifetime confirmations to the federal bench that will outlast Obama’s presidency — by decades.

“Throughout the 113th Congress, Senate Democrats have focused on confirming well-qualified judicial nominees to relieve the judge shortage plaguing our nation’s justice system,” Reid said in a statement touting the statistics. “Despite unprecedented obstruction, today’s statistics show that Senate Democrats were able to overcome political gridlock and confirm the highest number of district and circuit court judges in a single Congress in over thirty years.”

Read more from this article HERE.

LISTEN to Mark Levin tell GOP Leaders: ‘I’m One Inch Away From Leaving You’

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Credit - TPNN

Credit – TPNN

Constitutional scholar, radio talk show host, and best-selling author, Mark Levin, had a powerful message for the Republican leadership who just voted to “rubber stamp,” in complete violation of campaign promises, Obama’s unconstitutional amnesty, funding of Obamacare, and increasing overall spending.

“I am one inch away from leaving you, and I’ll bet I speak for hundreds of thousands of people,” an absolutely livid Levin said about the passing of the “CRomnibus,” a 1,600 page, $1.1 trillion spending measure that even funds the EPA more than what Obama requested. “One inch,” he reiterated.

The sharp-tongued Levin blasted establishment RINOs for spending millions of dollars in ads, lying to American voters that they would defund both Obamacare and Obama’s illegal amnesty, only to turn around and do precisely the opposite with their vote over the weekend.

Read more from this story HERE.

Do Black Lives Really Matter to Liberals?

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black-lives-matter-620x330If black lives matter, and we all know they do, we need to work to end the unnecessary and early deaths of black people. It’s not enough to look at one minor source of black mortality – shootings by law enforcement officers – and ignore the reasons for the vast majority of black deaths.

While hard numbers are not readily available, the best estimates available put the total number of people killed by the police across the country in any given year at significantly less than 1,000. For example, the best estimate for 2011 shows that the police killed 607 individuals.

According to the CDC, roughly 290,000 blacks die each year. If we include blacks killed by abortion, the total becomes ~590,000.

If we use the CDC number, that means that if every single person killed by police in the U.S. were black, 0.2% of blacks would die from police action; if we include unborn blacks who are killed, the value is 0.1%.

Clearly, if black lives truly matter, fixating on how less than 0.2% of blacks die is not the best way to help blacks.

Read more from this story HERE.

Washington Post Votes No Confidence in Obama Bailout of Castro Regime

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Credit - Javier Galeano/Reuters

Credit – Javier Galeano/Reuters

Elite opinion on Obama’s attempt to bury the Cold War hatchet with Cuba is shaping up just as you might expect it would.

The New York Times editorial board gushed over the decision, calling it “a bold move that ends one of the most misguided chapters in American foreign policy.”

The Times applauded Obama for doing everything within his power to normalize relations with Cuba within the constraints of a 1996 law imposing sanctions on the Cuban regime. Odd that The Times’ argument against the Cuban sanctions is that they are so “outmoded,” and yet they must concede that they were ratified by the American Congress as recently as the eve of President Bill Clinton’s second term…

With these powerful political actors heading into their familiar corners, The Washington Post editorial board’s vote of no confidence in Obama’s move came as a shock…

The Post’s editorial is not merely a registration of their disapproval in Obama’s decision, but an indictment. The paper suggests that any progress toward Democracy in Cuba has been arrested by the president’s shortsighted move.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Obama Gives the Castro Regime in Cuba an Undeserved Bailout

By Washington Post Editorial Board

IN RECENT months, the outlook for the Castro regime in Cuba was growing steadily darker. The modest reforms it adopted in recent years to improve abysmal economic conditions had stalled, due to the regime’s refusal to allow Cubans greater freedoms. Worse, the accelerating economic collapse of Venezuela meant that the huge subsidies that have kept the Castros afloat for the past decade were in peril. A growing number of Cubans were demanding basic human rights, such as freedom of speech and assembly.

On Wednesday, the Castros suddenly obtained a comprehensive bailout — from the Obama administration. President Obama granted the regime everything on its wish list that was within his power to grant; a full lifting of the trade embargo requires congressional action. Full diplomatic relations will be established, Cuba’s place on the list of terrorism sponsors reviewed and restrictions lifted on U.S. investment and most travel to Cuba. That liberalization will provide Havana with a fresh source of desperately needed hard currency and eliminate U.S. leverage for political reforms.

As part of the bargain, Havana released Alan Gross, a U.S. Agency for International Development contractor who was unjustly imprisoned five years ago for trying to help Cuban Jews. Also freed was an unidentified U.S. intelligence agent in Cuba — as were three Cuban spies who had been convicted of operations in Florida that led to Cuba’s 1996 shootdown of a plane carrying anti-Castro activists. While Mr. Obama sought to portray Mr. Gross’s release as unrelated to the spy swap, there can be no question that Cuba’s hard-line intelligence apparatus obtained exactly what it sought when it made Mr. Gross a de facto hostage.

Read more from this story HERE.

Five Observations About Jeb Bush Running for President

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

In an utterly unsurprising development this week, Jeb Bush announced that he’s “actively exploring” a 2016 Presidential run.

Allow me to offer some perspective for the GOP Elites and others suffering from the fevered delusions that Jeb Bush might someday serve as President, in this universe or any other.

1. This is one situation where an open primary benefits conservatives: I contend that Democrats will turn out in droves — like there was an announcement for free government cheese at the mall — to vote against the Bush name. Heck, you and I have heard it for years: debate any policy position with a progressive and, no matter the facts, logic, history, and reason you muster — the inevitable result is what some call Bush Tourette’s Syndrome (i.e., “But- but- but- Bush!). This sad disease is sure to manifest itself in the primaries and amplify Democrat turnout like nothing we’ve seen since the dead walked the streets of Chicago in 1960 to cast ballots for John F. Kennedy.

2. Jeb Bush’s support for Amnesty is wildly unpopular among a huge majority of Americans: 88% of Republicans, 66% of independents and even 50% of Democrats believe that the border should be locked down before any Amnesty efforts are undertaken.

3. Bush’s support for a nationalized education curriculum (also known as “Common Core”) is generally despised. Only 34% of U.S. adults with children of elementary or secondary school support the federal takeover of educational standards.

4. Should Bush secure the nomination (which, if it occurs, we can thank John Boehner’s newly uncorked personal campaign contribution limits in the CRomnibus), I believe we’ll see the first viable third-party candidate since 1992. Reince Priebus, Karl Rove and the rest of the GOP Oligarchs should know that the Republican Party will be torn asunder by a Bush nomination. Guaranteed. A third party will result and the GOP will go the way of the Whigs — deservedly so.

5. BONUS: Jeb’s formula for victory:

Jeb Bush has no chance of winning the presidency — zero, none — and anyone who tells him otherwise is lying or a paid political operative. Or, more likely, both.
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Posted in-full courtesy of Doug Ross, blogger and cartoonist at Doug Ross @ Journal. Please visit his website for more updates, and check out his novella “Hard-Boiled” at Amazon.com

Time to Lift the Antiquated Ban on Crude Exports

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Photo: Charlie Neuman/U-T San Diego

Photo: Charlie Neuman/U-T San Diego

Gasoline prices continue to drop across the country with the national average falling to $2.50 per gallon.

Are low prices good or bad for the prospects for lifting the ban to export crude oil? The reality is it shouldn’t matter because energy free trade will benefit the United States in both the near term and the long run. That’s why Congress should lift the ban regardless.

One of the primary concerns among skeptics of lifting the crude export ban is the effect that increased oil exports might have on domestic gas prices.

Several studies have projected that lifting the ban would actually decrease gas prices both in the United States and globally. Because oil is a globally traded commodity and refiners are equipped to handle different qualities of crude oil, an open market for shipping crude would better match global refining capabilities. Despite the fact that all signs point to lower fuel prices in the U.S., the skepticism remains.

The federal ban on exporting crude oil has been in place since the 1970s to fight potential fuel shortages caused by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) oil embargo. Rep. Joe Barton, R–Texas, recently introduced a bill to lift the still-in-place ban on crude oil exports.

Read more from this story HERE.