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Turning Off the Next Generation of Politicians

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Photo Credit: itupicturesDuring the 2012 presidential election, we conducted a national survey of more than 4,200 high school and college students. We asked about their attitudes toward politics and current events, their career aspirations and their political ambition. The results are stark. Only 11 percent of our survey respondents reported that, someday, when they were older, they might consider running for political office.

In fact, they’d rather do almost anything else.

In one set of questions, we presented these high school and college students with four career options — business owner, teacher, salesperson or mayor of a city or town — and asked which they would most like to be, assuming that each position paid the same amount of money. Nine out of 10 respondents chose a career other than mayor as their first choice. Nearly 40 percent reported that mayor would be their least-desired job.

We also asked which of the following higher-echelon jobs they found most appealing: business executive, lawyer, school principal or member of Congress. Serving as a member of Congress came in dead last, with just 13 percent of young people choosing it. It placed first on the least-desirable list.

The fact that young Americans do not want to run for office cannot be divorced from their perceptions of the political system, which could not be much worse. Eighty-five percent of our survey respondents did not think that elected officials want to help people; 79 percent did not consider politicians smart or hard-working; nearly 60 percent believed that politicians are dishonest; and fewer than 30 percent said they thought that candidates and elected leaders stand up for their convictions.

Read more from this story HERE.

Political Activism Causes Obama’s Spiritual Adviser to Lose 10 Percent of His Congregation

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Photo Credit: APPresident Barack Obama’s spiritual adviser, Joel Hunter, may be losing his footing in conservative evangelical circles where he was once supported. His continued connection to the commander in chief, despite major social and political rifts, may be a driving reason for the loss of support that Hunter, 65, is experiencing.

Most recently, it was reported that the preacher has paid the price for his move away from conservative politics: His house of worship, Northland Church in Longwood, Fla., has lost an estimated 10 percent of its congregants.

Looking back at Hunter’s history, it may be understandable why his more moderate stances and his work with Obama would create some angst among more conservative church members.

…Christianity Today reported about his overt and official severance from the GOP. The reason, Hunter claimed, was an uneasiness he felt about identifying with any particular political Party, which often leads to partisanship and fosters division. After four decades as a Republican, he decidedly left the party; interestingly, this unfolded after he began advising Obama.

Since his decision to become one of the primary religious voices for the Obama White House, Hunter has been listed as one of Orlando Magazine’s “50 Most Powerful” citizens for three consecutive years (2009 to 2011). His escalating public influence has landed him appearances on shows like CBS’ “The Early Show,” PBS’ “Religion & Ethics” and CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.” And parishioners have taken notice…His shift from right to center-right has led some to believe that Hunter is too willing to compromise his beliefs and succumb to a spirit of tolerance and passivism.

Read more from this story HERE.

Where’s the Shame? Scandals May No Longer End Political Careers

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Photo Credit: Alejandra VillaSex. Drugs. Cheating on a spouse. Those words used to add up to shame. Put them in the same sentence as a politician’s name, and they ended careers.

Not anymore. The latest batch of unlikely back-from-the-swamp hopefuls are Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer. Weiner resigned his New York City congressional seat two years ago after revelations that he’d tweeted a sexually suggestive picture of himself to a woman who was following him on Twitter. Spitzer left the state’s governorship in 2008 after reports surfaced that federal investigators had tagged him as “Client 9,” soliciting high-end prostitutes.

Each now has a decent shot at a big prize, Weiner New York’s Democratic mayoral nomination, Spitzer the city’s comptroller job. Spitzer led his closest rival by 9 percentage points in a Wall Street Journal-NBC 4-Marist poll released Thursday.

They join the growing roster of comebacks, or at least serious attempts, by scandal-tarred politicians:

Mark Sanford was elected to a South Carolina congressional seat in May, after admitting an affair in 2009 that resulted in the then-governor paying a large ethics fine and led state lawmakers to consider impeaching him.

Read about more scandals at this story HERE.

The Cost of Losing: A Thousand Years of Darkness

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Photo Credit: Moyan_Brenn

Imagine trying to fight a war against an enemy led by ruthless tyrants, while granting that enemy authority to train your own military. After all, you reason, sending your soldiers to the enemy’s training centers frees up your time and resources for other priorities. Moreover, the tyrants have graciously promised to train your men in good faith, so denying them this privilege might seem ungrateful.

What are your chances of winning that war? You might win a skirmish here and there, if a few of your soldiers remain independent enough to question the lessons in surrender they were taught by the enemy. But your long-term prospects are, of course, dismal, since after their rare provisional successes, your soldiers will only use their newly-gained territory to set up a tent for conciliatory peace talks with the other side, in accordance with the rules of engagement they have learned in training.

Civilization — all of it — is currently under the domination of progressive collectivism in ethics, authoritarianism in politics, irrationalism in epistemology, and nihilism in metaphysics. The architects of this calamity have paved the road to the devil’s dominion over several generations. Their recent boldness, moving in for the kill on the last, crumbling bastion of principled resistance, America, shows that they believe ultimate victory is at hand, which, in human terms, means we face a thousand years of darkness.

We who reject the progressives’ knee-jerk historicism, however, need not accept the inevitability of this result. Doom does not follow necessarily from any mechanism beyond human control. It does, however, follow necessarily from inaction and resignation. That is to say, civilization is doomed unless she begins to mount a deliberate and determined defense.

The first step to mounting an effective defense is to understand how progressivism has won so much territory, geographical and spiritual, over this multi-generational war. I mean, specifically, how they have done it in practice, for concrete results derive from concrete actions. The nations of the semi-free world have, over the course of generations, voted themselves into servitude, voted away their property rights, acquiesced in the breakdown of the family, and willingly given over their souls en masse to the rule of all the wanton and stupid desires and fears that men for millennia knew they had to control in order to remain men; they have forsaken the human heritage for the false promises of tyrants.

Read more from this story HERE.

Benghazi Witnesses: Obama Admin. Let Americans Die for Politics

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Photo Credit: AFP/Getty ImagesBy Oren Dorell. Testimony from three State Department “whistleblowers” scheduled to appear at a hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday will show that politics played a role from the start in the government’s handling of the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, a Republican lawmaker says.

The hearing will explore why the State Department never activated its Foreign Emergency Support Team, a unit made up of security and intelligence professionals who specialize in responding to crises, said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.

Chaffetz believes the reason is that activating the team, whose members have connections to the CIA and the military, would have labeled the attack “a terrorist activity,” which then-secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s State Department did not want to do.

“They didn’t want the political label of a terrorist attack,” said Chaffetz, who heads the national security subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is holding Wednesday’s hearing.

“Early on in this fight these people made a critical bad decision in that they did not activate these people simply because they were afraid it would be labeled as terrorism. It was pure politics.” Read more from this story HERE.

Benghazi Whistle-Blower Witnesses are “Terrified” of State Department

By Cheryl K. Chumley. Rep. Jason Chaffetz said the witnesses who are due to testify on Benghazi, Libya, on Wednesday have been intimidated by the Obama administration to such degree that they’re terrified.

“There are people who want to testify that have been suppressed,” he said, during a Fox News appearance on Sunday. “They’re scared to death of what the State Department is doing with them.” Read more from this story HERE.

Kelsey Grammer as "Boss" Comes Back on Blu-Ray to Portray Politics in Chicago

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Photo Credit: IrishCentral

When the brilliant television series Boss didn’t get renewed for a third season, superstar Kelsey Grammer didn’t hold back when he voiced his opinion that politics was behind the decision.

“Boss” featured Grammer as the all powerful, amoral/corrupt Tom Kane,Mayor of Chicago, who knew how to keep the city running by political patronage, outright corruption and making offers you better not refuse.

Grammer, an unapologetic republican, has publicly stated his conservative political leaning has made him a target in Hollywood and might have something to do with the shows cancellation. He also thought his politics had something to do with his Emmy snub last year, after he earned a Golden Globe for the role.

But the Starz Network, who brought the show to the screen, said that declining audience numbers were behind the decision to cancel the show after only two seasons.

Grammers acting was superb and showcased his talent that transformed him from the likable character he played in “Cheers” and “Frazier,” into a ruthless politician in “Boss.” He deserved the Golden Globe for his acting ability and fans also thought he deserved the Emmy as well.

As Mayor, he secretly suffers from a debilitating brain disease which must be kept from his enemies as well as his allies…they remind you of what it would be like to hold a rabid wolf by the ears. Finding the right drug treatment keeps him publicly on an even keel, but just below the surface he is plagued by demons which the disease manifests.

His wife Meredith, brilliantly played by Connie Nielsen, (Starred in Gladiator) is just as addicted to the reins of power as her husband. She can be as cold and ruthless as Grammer in order to maintain that power. But the marriage is more a political partnership than a real marriage and there is little, if any love between them.

Their daughter Hannah, is a 20 something drug addict, a product of the loveless marriage of convenience. Hannah Ware, plays the role perfectly as she rebels against the facade her family has created. She delves into the world of drugs and has a love affair with a low level drug dealer affiliated with Chicago gang violence.

The cast of characters in the show are gritty and realistic and portray a corrupt world of politics that probably is uncomfortably close to the truth, for many of Americas big cities.

Boss season 2 is available on Blu-Ray and DVD starting April 9 from Lionsgate Home Entertainment

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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

Carson At CPAC: How To Destroy America In 4 Steps (+video)

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Photo Credit: Human Events

Dr. Benjamin Carson was a famed neurosurgeon long before he exploded onto the national political stage with a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast last month. Now he’s hinting that his medical career might just be followed by a career in politics. He scattered a few teasing hints of such plans through his address to the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference, and also looked back at the negative reactions to his National Prayer Breakfast appearance with a mixture of humor and horror.

He noted that some of his critics have asked why a medical doctor would have any business weighing in on economic policy. ”It’s not brain surgery,” he responded with a chuckle, and indeed much of his economic advice is a mixture of common sense (which Carson frequently praises) and the same brand of dispassionate analysis that informs surgical decisions. For example, he observed there’s an awful lot of money floating around beyond America’s borders, and our government could bring it home by “treating businesses as friends, not as enemies” and recognizing they are private enterprises lawfully seeking profit, not welfare agencies. He repeated his comments about truly fair taxation from the National Prayer Breakfast, advocating a low and flat tax system that punishes no one and exempts no one.

What horrifies Carson is the assertion that he had no right to voice his opinions at that February prayer breakfast because he has black skin, and stood in the august presence of King Barack I. He explained that a brain surgeon is well-qualified to give testimony about how people are all the same inside, no matter the color of the skin stretched over their skulls.

As for the propriety of a doctor offering moral and political advice, Carson said this fell under the finest traditions of self-government. ”This is a country that’s for, of, and by the people – not for, of, and by the government. And if we turn it over to them, we cannot complain about what they’re doing… because this is the natural course of men, and we have to hold their feet to the fire.”

Watch video here:

Read more from this story HERE.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Steps Deeper Into The Political Fray And Uncharted Territory

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photo credit: david holt londonIran’s supreme leader is supposed to be many things in the eyes of his followers: Spiritual mentor, protector of the Islamic Revolution, a moral compass above the regular fray. Political referee is not among them.

Yet that is the unfamiliar role Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has adopted as the political mudslinging gets heavier ahead of elections in June to pick a successor for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“Bad, wrong, inappropriate,” scolded Khamenei on Saturday in his most stinging rebuke of Ahmadinejad for his mounting attacks on rivals — including an ambush earlier this month in parliament when he played a barely audible videotape that purported to show corruption inside the family of the chamber’s speaker.

Khamenei then went on to chide the parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, for publicly humiliating Ahmadinejad in response to the tape. “When there is a common enemy and conspiracies are hatched from all sides, is there any way other than strengthening brotherhood and resisting the enemy?” Khamenei said in reference to widening Western sanctions and pressures over Iran’s nuclear program.

Hardball politics are nothing new in Iran, whose elected parliament and government can make even Washington’s bickering seem genteel. It also is unlikely to threaten the real power in Iran: The ruling clerics and their guardians led by the Revolutionary Guard.

Read more from this story HERE.

America Needs the Tea Party More Than America Needs the GOP

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Tea Party principles are America’s principles. To an intolerable degree, “Moderate Republicans” do not believe in or follow Tea Party principles. Quite often they appear to be completely devoid of principles. They game the political system to gain power and prestige for themselves and themselves alone. They will turn on Americans faster than you can say Specter.

Conservative Tea Party Americans like Allen West, Marco Rubio, Jim DeMint, Pat Toomy, Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, Michele Bachmann, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee have the guts to stand against the institutionalized “progressive” left. They have the willingness, backbone and fortitude to preserve individual liberties, restore the U.S. Constitution, and a return to constitutionally limited government, a balanced budget, equal opportunity and equal protection under the law for all Americans.

Today’s Democratic Party is not your father’s Democratic Party. They keep insisting that Tea Party Republicans and their affiliates are “extreme”. Since when are protecting individual liberties, following the U.S. Constitution, having constitutionally limited government and a balanced budget extreme?

The Tea Party’s positions are extreme only when seen as standing in the way of establishing an all-powerful, centrally planned big government controlled by a self-appointed oligarchy of self-imagined “intellectual elites” i.e. a Communist state.

The institutionalized “progressive” left in 2012 America is acting exactly like every other Communist power grab in history. They lie, cheat and steal to win elections. Then they will lie, cheat, steal and kill to consolidate and strengthen their grip on unrestrained power.

The institutionalized “progressive” left complains about how “extreme” Tea Party Republicans refuse to compromise. The Tea Party knows that Communists have no interest in compromising with anyone. The institutionalized “progressive” left’s negotiating position has been, is, and will continue to be: “What’s Yours is Negotiable, What’s Mine is Not.” Those who hold this negotiating position, when they do finally obtain an iron grip on unrestrained power, do not compromise with their political opposition. They eliminate them…permanently.

America is at an historic crossroads. The 2012 election will determine what life in America will be like for the next and following generations.

In the words of Ronald W. Reagan, 40th President of the United States of America:

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

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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/

This Is Not “Let’s Make A Deal” and David Axelrod is Not Monty Hall

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The White House re-election campaign wants to make a deal. In exchange for GOP presidential challenger Mitt Romney releasing five years of tax returns, they will stop criticizing him for not releasing more. While hiding behind the skirt of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the White House campaign alleges there may be as many as ten years when Romney evaded paying income taxes.

Romney says that over the past decade he has paid at least 13 percent in federal income taxes. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, a non-partisan group, middle income families average paying 12.8 percent in federal income tax.

Critics complain that Romney pays too few taxes. At his income level, Romney pays plenty of taxes. Romney made every penny he has. Hence every dime he uses to make investments has already been taxed at wage income rates. Romney pays a lower tax rate than wage earners because a majority of his income comes from investments, which are taxed at a lower rate than wages. Investment income is taxed at a lower rate because, unlike wages, investments are at risk.

If Romney was guilty of income tax evasion, the IRS would already be after him and his campaign for the White House would long be over. The IRS falls within the Department of Treasury. At the behest of the White House, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and the IRS would be all over Romney like a ravenous pack of hyenas.

Romney has released his 2010 tax records and vowed to release his 2011 returns. That matches the number of returns released in 2008 by Senator John McCain when he was the GOP candidate. The number of tax returns released by McCain was never an issue.
This is not Let’s Make A Deal, and David Axelrod is not Monty Hall. For Mitt Romney, only a booby prize or worse waits behind curtain number three.

This bait and switch by the White House and their “progressive” co-conspirators is more than simply a distraction from the issues.
Throughout a shadowy, veiled, mystery shrouded political career where his own past has been intentionally concealed, obtaining confidential information about political opponents and distorting that information to smear them has been the signature move of this candidate.

Remember, the current Oval Office occupier is the same clandestine, shadowy figure caught in an open-mic moment with then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev saying that after his re-election he would have “more flexibility.”

Flexibility for … ?

Three members of a Russian punk band were found guilty and sentenced to two years in jail for protesting against Russian president Vladamir Putin. The band members were arrested on March 3rd and charged with “hooliganism”. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30 have been in jail ever since.

What kind of flexibility is this secretive, anti-business, hostile to constitutionally protected individual Liberty White House promising to a Russian president who imprisons people for free speech?

Is this flexibility related to non-military federal agencies purchasing millions of rounds of hollow point bullets?

Could this flexibility include plans to tighten the iron grip of power by imposing Martial Law and suspending elections to ensure he can finish the “fundamental transformation” of America through the imposition of a form of government completely foreign to every principle espoused by its Founding Fathers?

By agreeing to release any additional tax returns, Mitt Romney would be making a crucial mistake. Let the White House re-election campaign go into grand mal seizure. Let them scream like banshees and howl at the moon. Let them cry like babies. Let them wet themselves. Let them posture, threaten, intimidate and bully. You can bet your underwater sub-prime mortgage they will do anything, be it lie, cheat and steal to win this election.

To borrow a phrase from another popular television game show:  No deal.

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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/