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New York Times Calls For Menendez To Relinquish Committee Chairmanship

Photo Credit: Glyn Lowe PhotoworksThe New York Times editorial board called on Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) Saturday to step aside as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee until questions about his relationship with a friend and donor under FBI investigation are resolved. The editorial is the latest blow in the broadening flap over Menendez’s relationship with Salmon Melgen, a Florida eye surgeon accused of overbilling the government millions for medical treatments.

“It is unclear whether the Senate Ethics Committee has initiated a formal inquiry into Mr. Menendez’s conduct, but a prompt and thorough review is surely called for,” the editorial read. “In the meantime, Mr. Menendez needs to relinquish his leadership role, at least temporarily.”

Menendez, who assumed the chairmanship after Secretary of State John Kerry was confirmed late last month, first came under fire over a pair of flights on Melgen’s private jet he accepted in 2010 for vacations to the Dominican Republic. The New Jersey senator sent Melgen a personal check for $58,500 in January, acknowledging he had not properly reported the flights as gifts.

Since then, reports have questioned Menendez’s efforts to help Melgen revive a port security contract for a firm that he partially owned and phone calls the senator placed to federal health officials over the accusations of overbilling Medicare.

Earlier this month, federal agents raided Melgen’s Florida home and office, although the government has not indicated the focus of their investigation.

Read more from this story HERE.

The ‘Electability’ Myth

Photo Credit: TownhallMuch has been said and written regarding Karl Rove and the Republican Party establishment’s latest plan to go harder after conservatives than they ever would Democrats. And I’ve had much to say about it myself.

But I’ve yet to see anyone question the premise of the phony argument Rove is hiding behind to justify his crusade to purge the GOP of anybody that won’t grovel at the feet of the ruling class (which is what Rove’s pro-establishment Jihad is really all about). See, in Rove’s world if you actually have principles and want to defeat Democrats and not just negotiate the terms of liberty’s surrender, you’re a “nutcase.”

Rove claims he’s out to find “electable” candidates. Well, who isn’t? Of course, all of us want to win elections. The candidate you’re supporting doesn’t get to act on any of the principles he’s running on if he doesn’t win. Nothing in politics is more crushing than losing on election night when you’ve spent your time, talent, and treasure on behalf of a candidate who’s a champion of your principles. So for Rove and the establishment to claim they’re the only ones concerned about “electability” is patronizing at best and disingenuous at worst.

Besides, how do we define “electability?” Furthermore, how come we allow the very people who oppose our ideas and principles to define who is and who isn’t “electable?” Should the General Manager of the Boston Red Sox consult with the New York Yankees front office on personnel decisions? Maybe Auburn’s new football coach should call Alabama’s Nick Saban and get his take on whom to recruit?

“Electability” is a ruling class fallacy, both on the right and the left. It’s essentially the political equivalent to Jim Crow laws, aimed at stifling the potential for upward mobility of those in the grassroots who would challenge the ruling class’ status quo. Despite all their public hand-wringing and pandering, they don’t really reach out to minorities for all the same reasons they don’t really reach out to their own base. They are adherents to the “Golden Rule,” which is he who has the gold gets to make all the rules. They may speak of a “big tent” but really they crave the small tent where they remain in charge of their own little fiefdom, crumbling infrastructure and all. Ironically, it’s been we in the base they hate that has diversified the GOP. Where did Ted Cruz, Allen West, and Tim Scott (just to name a few) come from?

Read more from this story HERE.

Senate Dem Ron Wyden Threatens John Brennan’s CIA Nomination Over White House Drone Policy (+video)

Photo Credit: APAmid growing furor, among both Republicans and Democrats, over revelations about the Obama administration’s use of drones for targeted killings, a prominent Senate Democrat on Wednesday made a thinly veiled threat to filibuster John Brennan’s CIA director nomination.

During a retreat for Senate Democrats in Annapolis, Md. Wednesday, Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, threatened to “pull out all the stops” in his effort to get access to the administration’s legal analysis for targeted killings of U.S. citizens suspected of being terrorists.

Speaking to reporters outside the retreat, Mr. Wyden, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, made several references to Mr. Brennan’s nomination and his central role in crafting the counterterrorism policy in the Obama White House, as well as his concern about the secrecy governing the administration’s drone policy.

“I want it understood that because this is such a central [issue], you have an individual with enormous influence who is really the architect of the counter terror policy in the Obama administration, that I am going to pull out all the stops to get the actual legal analysis because without it, in effect, the administration is practicing secret law,” he told the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call.

Mr. Wyden stopped short of saying he would filibuster the nomination, saying only he planned to bring it up during Mr. Brennan’s confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate intelligence panel, the first round in what is expected to be an intense series of grillings by lawmakers.

Read more from this story HERE.

Harvard, Yale Deny Connection To Controversial Democratic Donor Under Scrutiny

Photo Credit: APA controversial donor with ties to prominent Democrats who is under investigation by the FBI may not have the qualifications he claims.

The resume of Dr. Salomon Melgen, a Florida-based ophthalmologist and controversial Democratic donor, boasts medical education and experience at Harvard University, Yale University, and the University of Missouri.

But none of those schools says it can find any record of Melgen, who claims to be a Harvard alumnus, the former chief resident of the University of Missouri’s ophthalmology department, and a former Yale intern.

Melgen is at the center of a Senate panel probing potential ethics violations by Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), who may have used his official position to benefit Melgen, a major campaign contributor.

Menendez is also under scrutiny for failing to disclose his use of Melgen’s private jet to take trips to the Dominican Republic in 2010. Menendez denied wrongdoing but in January of this year wrote Melgen a personal check for $58,500 to cover the cost of the flights.

Read more from this story HERE.

New Study Confirms ‘Beyond Question’ That Democrats – Not GOP – Destroyed Economy

A new study from the widely respected National Bureau of Economic Research released this week has confirmed beyond question that the left’s race-baiting attacks on the housing market (the Community Reinvestment Act–enacted under Carter, made shockingly more aggressive under Clinton) is directly responsible for imploding the housing market and destroying the economy.

Again, let’s review:

-President Bush went to Congress repeatedly for years warning them that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were going to destroy the economy (17 times in 2008 alone). Democrats continuously ignored him, shut down his proposals along party lines and continued raiding the institutions for campaign contributions on their way down.

-John McCain also co-sponsored urgently critical reforms that would have prevented the housing market collapse, but Democrats shut that down as well, along party lines, and even openly ridiculed anyone who suggested reforms were necessary…to protect their taxpayer-funded campaign contributions as the economy raced uncontrollably toward the cliff.

-No one was making bad loans to unqualified people until Democrats came along and threatened to drag banks into court and have them fined and branded as racists if they didn’t go along with the left’s Affirmative Action lending policies…all while federally insuring their losses. Even the New York Times warned in the late 1990s that Democrats continuing to force banks into lowering their standards would lead to this exact catastrophe.

Read more from this story HERE.

Let “Progressives” Own the Fiscal Cliff

photo credit: gage skidmore

The Federal Reserve plans to keep short-term interest rate near zero until unemployment drops below 6.5 percent and inflation reaches 2.5 percent. This means given the current equations used to calculate those numbers, Fed interest rates will remain at current lows until mid-2015 or beyond.

The Fed will also continue spending $85 billion a month on bond purchases to keep long-term borrowing costs low and to stimulate the U.S. economy. They will also spend $45 billion a month on long-term Treasury purchases and continue buying $40 billion a month in mortgage bonds.

Why are such moves deemed necessary by the Federal Reserve?

Why does the U.S. debt ceiling need to be raised every few years?

Why is America stressed about a “fiscal cliff?”

Because the United States of America spends entirely too much money.

To those who remember history, it is self-evident that politicians, elected or not, who subscribe to the “progressive” (read Marxist) philosophy have little to no interest in compromising with their political opposition. History informs that “progressives” in America are more inclined to attempt eliminating their Conservative political opposition than reaching any compromise. How else can it be explained why “progressives” continue to cling to their uncompromising position?

The so-called fiscal cliff negotiations going on in Washington DC is a clear example of their motives and tactics.

The “progressives” are intentionally holding to a position untenable to Conservatives in hopes of creating divides within the GOP and causing them to lose credibility by caving on their principle of not raising taxes.

The best case scenario for “progressives” is for the GOP to stick to their principles and refuse to raise taxes. Then “progressives” and their co-conspirators within the “mainstream media”, aka the “progressive” Party Pravda, can place the blame for the economic results of sequestration on Conservative Republicans while, solely for their own political aims, temporarily championing members of the GOP who appeared willing to “compromise.”

Trying to negotiate a “grand bargain” simply means Republicans are aiding and abetting “progressive” Democrats in their quest to commit the biggest swindle in American history.

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has a better idea that is good strategy for countering “progressive” actions:

“I think if we go halfway, or we split the difference with him, then both parties have their hands on it. When we go into recession, it’ll be confusing.

I have yet another thought on how we can fix this. Why don’t we let the Democrats pass whatever they want? If they are the party of higher taxes, all the Republicans vote present and let the Democrats raise taxes as high as they want to raise them, let Democrats in the Senate raise taxes, let the president sign it and then make them own the tax increase. And when the economy stalls, when the economy sputters, when people lose their jobs, they know which party to blame, the party of high taxes. Let’s don’t be the party of just almost as high taxes.

In the House, they have to because the Democrats don’t have the majority. In the Senate, I’m happy not to filibuster it, and I will announce tonight . . . that I will work with Harry Reid to let him pass his big old tax hike with a simple majority if that’s what Harry Reid wants, because then they will become the party of high taxes and they can own it.”

Conservatives can keep bashing Speaker of the House John Boehner and House leadership, perhaps Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell. But that does absolutely nothing to advance the Conservative position. Republicans made their bed a year and a half ago by agreeing to sequestration.

Give “progressive” Democrats what they want and let them own it. When average everyday Americans who happen to be Democrats or Independents start feeling the economic pain, let “progressives” explain a failure that is covered with their fingerprints and nobody else’s.

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Michael Fell is a former MCA recording artist from the seminal punk rock era who toured America from coast to coast. Today, he’s a leading voice in the L.A. Tea Party movement, active since the February 2009 inception. Mr. Fell currently chairs the Westwood Tea Party, is a founding member of the L.A. Metro Tea Party Coalition, serves as the Vice Chairman of the Westside Republicans Club in L.A. CA, and is an elected Republican delegate to the L.A. 47th AD Central Committee. He’s been Campaign Manager for a primary winning Congressional candidate, as well as Santa Monica and L.A. City Council candidates. Mr. Fell is a contributing writer for https://conservativedailynews.com/, https://rightwingnews.com/, https://www.hollywoodrepublican.net/, https://beforeitsnews.com, https://www.redcounty.com/, https://www.uspatriotpac.com and, https://westsiderepublicans.com/. His opinions on today’s news events and political climate can be found on his blog: https://mjfellright.wordpress.com/

Majority of Democrats Like Socialism

Photo credit: DonkeyHotey

On the strength of a capitalist economic system, America created a material standard of living for the world to envy while providing its citizens with high levels of personal freedom. But today capitalism, and attendant freedom, are being systematically dismantled in America (and being depth-charged in Europe), while understanding and appreciation of these things are receding. Gallup provides proof of this, and confirms conservatives’ fears and suspicions.

Loyal elves in the media wing of the Democratic Party establishment — aka the mainstream media — hyperventilate when Barack Obama is identified as a socialist, or the Democratic Party is accused of promoting socialist policies. “Vile and unfair accusations,” they wail, before retiring to their fainting couches.

But if a survey released last week by Gallup is any indication, it’s hard to see what all the indignation is about. A majority of people — 53 percent — who describe themselves as Democrats or leaning Democrat, admit to Gallup’s pulse takers that they have a positive image of socialism. Only two percent more — 55 — say they are positive about capitalism. A robust 75 percent of Democrats say they have a positive image of the federal government.

These numbers should not surprise anyone who has talked to a Democrat over the last couple of decades. A majority of the political party currently in the ascendancy in America holds a positive view of an economic system that has been tried countless times in countless places, has never delivered prosperity, but has always diminished personal and economic freedom.

Read more from this story HERE.

Senate Democrats Want to Take Guns Away From Returning War Vets

photo credit: jsmjr

A major defense-spending bill hit an unexpected bump on its journey through the U.S. Senate over an amendment on veterans’ gun rights, which devolved into a heated floor debate and foreshadows a potential battle over Democrats’ vows to tweak the filibuster rules in the clubby, traditionally collegial body.

Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, wants veterans who have been deemed “mentally incompetent” to have their cases adjudicated by a judge — rather than the Department of Veterans Affairs, as happens currently — and argued that veterans who simply cannot support themselves financially are needlessly given the label and, as such, cannot buy or possess firearms.

“We’re not asking for anything big,” Mr. Coburn said Thursday evening on the Senate floor. “We’re just saying that if you’re going to take away the Second Amendment rights … they ought to have it adjudicated, rather than mandated by someone who’s unqualified to state that they should lose their rights.”

The late-night tussle served to pick at the scab of the ongoing debate over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s bid to reform the chamber’s filibuster rules to place limits on the minority party’s ability to hold up debate on legislation, however.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, objected to Mr. Coburn’s proposal once he found out it was part of a package of amendments to the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act the body was to vote on.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Chris Christie Gets Another High-Profile Endorsement, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews

(DC)Going from being the darling of conservative commentator Ann Coulter to winning the affection of HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher is quite a feat. But for Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, praise from Democrats is becoming a regular thing.

On Wednesday’s broadcast of “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, “Hardball” host Chris Matthews, author of “Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero,” had some kind words for the popular Christie.

“Well, the man has style,” Matthews said. “And I think most people in New Jersey would say, as Peggy Noonan said in her column right before the election, he will be popular in New Jersey. He won’t be so popular in Republican Party circles because he did seem to help the president there a bit. Although Nate Silver and others don’t think it was the reason he won or anything.”

“But I do think he has style. And I know in Philadelphia where I keep in touch, and South Jersey, they love him. Regular people in my family and they’re very regular people —they like him because that ‘at-ey-tude’ — as we say in Philly, we pronounce it that way — ‘at-ey-tude.’”

Read more from this story HERE.

Michael Moore: ‘Drive the rich right off their fiscal cliff’

Liberal film director Michael Moore has big plans for President Barack Obama’s second term, he just needs Obama to hear him out.

In an open letter to the president, Moore congratulates Obama on the recent victory and lays out his vision for the president’s second term — a left-wing wish list, shunning compromise and taking it to the rich.

“This was truly another historic election and I would like to take a few minutes of your time to respectfully ask that your second term not resemble your first term,” Moore writes, noting that he does not want to see Wall Street “darlings” running the economy and wants Obama to “fight” to resolve the issues still on the table.

“Your fellow citizens have spoken and we have rejected the crazed ideology of this Republican Party and we insist that you forcefully proceed in bringing about profound change that will improve the lives of the 99 percent,” Moore writes. “We’re done hoping. We want real change. And if we can’t get it in the second term of a great and good man like you, then really — what’s the use? Why are we even bothering? Yes, we’re that discouraged and disenchanted.”

According to Moore, so far he likes what he has seen — “At your first post-election press conference last Wednesday you were on fire….MORE OF THAT!! PLEASE!!” — but he does not want to see compromise, and instead wants swift moves to the left, including driving the “RICH RIGHT OFF THEIR FISCAL CLIFF.”

Read more from this story HERE.