Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Chicago Public Schools considers tax increase
Herman Cain loses key Iowa tea party backer
Tea party Democrats do exist
Global race on to match U.S. drone capabilities
The Dismal Recovery

Chicago Public Schools considers tax increase

Posted: 05 Jul 2011 08:33 PM PDT

By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Chicago Tribune

Chicago Public Schools officials are looking to collect $100 million more in property taxes and seek further cuts at central office and in middle management positions as they try to bridge a gaping deficit.

The district will have its Board of Education consider whether to approve the maximum property tax increase allowed under state law, which would mean higher tax bills for residents, although estimated average increases still are undetermined.

“The big question about property taxes, that’s a decision that needs to be made by the board,” said Chief Administrative Officer Tim Cawley.

Herman Cain loses key Iowa tea party backer

Posted: 05 Jul 2011 08:17 PM PDT

By JUANA SUMMERS, Politico

Herman Cain on Tuesday announced replacements for some of the people who left his campaign in a wave of staff departures last week, but not before the turmoil cost the tea party favorite a key Iowa tea party supporter.

Charlie Gruschow, founder of the Des Moines tea party and an emphatic Cain supporter, submitted his resignation to the campaign on Sunday, he confirmed to POLITICO.

"I'm going to pursuse some other interests," Gruschow said. "My heart just isn't in it at this time."

Gruschow's departure follows the resignations of Iowa organizational director Tina Goff and New Hampshire director Matt Murphy, along with regional director Jim Zeiler and Iowa straw poll director Kevin Hall, who have already left the campaign in some disarray.

Gruschow was a direct line for Cain into the grassroots tea party base in the first-caucus state. He was the candidate's first Iowa organizer, doing everything from picking the candidate up from the airport to planning meet-and-greet events. But even before resigning, Gruschow was conspicuously missing from campaign activity in recent weeks.

Tea party Democrats do exist

Posted: 05 Jul 2011 08:05 PM PDT

By Aaron Blake, The Washington Post

Is there such a thing as a tea party Democrat? The answer, it seems, is yes. Polls show the group exists, but determining its actual impact is difficult. What role the group could play in the 2012 elections is even murkier, except as a rallying cry for Republicans who claim the movement is a bigger tent than it appears.

Recently, Republican leaders have gone out of their way to make the argument that the tea party is more than just a group of (somewhat) disaffected Republicans who are angry about government spending they perceive to be out of control and the large size of the federal government.

Republicans contend that the tea party movement, which surged in the 2010 midterm elections, includes not just Republicans but also independents and Democrats.

In announcing her 2010 presidential bid this month, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) described the tea party this way: "It's made up of disaffected Democrats. It's made up of independents. It's made up of people who have never been political a day in their life."

In March, former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said there are "many Democrats, conservative Democrats, in the tea party movement."

Global race on to match U.S. drone capabilities

Posted: 05 Jul 2011 07:56 PM PDT

By William Wan and Peter Finn, The Washington Post

At the most recent Zhuhai air show, the premier event for China's aviation industry, crowds swarmed around a model of an armed, jet-propelled drone and marveled at the accompanying display of its purported martial prowess.

In a video and map, the thin, sleek drone locates what appears to be a U.S. aircraft carrier group near an island with a striking resemblance to Taiwan and sends targeting information back to shore, triggering a devastating barrage of cruise missiles toward the formation of ships.

Little is known about the actual abilities of the WJ-600 drone or the more than two dozen other Chinese models that were on display at Zhuhai in November. But the speed at which they have been developed highlights how U.S. military successes with drones have changed strategic thinking worldwide and spurred a global rush for unmanned aircraft.

More than 50 countries have purchased surveillance drones, and many have started in-country development programs for armed versions because no nation is exporting weaponized drones beyond a handful of sales between the United States and its closest allies.

"This is the direction all aviation is going," said Kenneth Anderson, a professor of law at American University who studies the legal questions surrounding the use of drones in warfare. "Everybody will wind up using this technology because it's going to become the standard for many, many applications of what are now manned aircraft."

Military planners worldwide see drones as relatively cheap weapons and highly effective reconnaissance tools. Hand-launched ones used by ground troops can cost in the tens of thousands of dollars. Near the top of the line, the Predator B, or MQ9-Reaper, manufactured by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, costs about $10.5 million. By comparison, a single F-22 fighter jet costs about $150 million.

Defense spending on drones has become the most dynamic sector of the world's aerospace industry, according to a report by the Teal Group in Fairfax. The group's 2011 market study estimated that in the coming decade global spending on drones will double, reaching $94 billion.

The Dismal Recovery

Posted: 05 Jul 2011 12:28 PM PDT

By JON HILSENRATH And CONOR DOUGHERTY, The Wall Street Journal

Two years ago, officials said, the worst recession since the Great Depression ended. The stumbling recovery has also proven to be the worst since the economic disaster of the 1930s.

Across a wide range of measures—employment growth, unemployment levels, bank lending, economic output, income growth, home prices and household expectations for financial well-being—the economy’s improvement since the recession’s end in June 2009 has been the worst, or one of the worst, since the government started tracking these trends after World War II.

In some ways the recovery is much like the 1991 and 2001 post-recession periods: All three are marked by gradual output growth rather than sharp snap-backs typical of earlier recoveries. But this recovery may remain lackluster for years, many economists say, because of heavy household debt, a financial system still damaged by the mortgage crisis, fragile confidence and a government with few good options for supporting growth.

There are bright spots. Exports, particularly of manufactured and agricultural goods, are improving, in part because of booming developing-country economies and the weaker dollar. They are expected to pick up in the second half of the year as the temporary shock fades from Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. In a hint of this, the Institute of Supply Management on Friday reported an uptick in manufacturing for June. Higher corporate profits, stock prices and business investment also are supporting the expansion.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Historical fact: Independence Day is a celebration of freedom from government tyranny
Anti-tax diehard looms large in spending showdown
Fresh meat versus processed meat: Here’s why it matters
Rupert Murdoch’s Failing Attempts to Control the Internet Reformation
Vietnam War Veteran Wins Fight to Fly American Flag on Front Lawn
Bachmann says God ‘will heal our land’
Illinois Governor Signs Bill Banning Release of Firearm Owners Names
Rand Paul Plans Filibuster Over Debt Ceiling
DeMint, in new book, outlines tea party’s rise

Historical fact: Independence Day is a celebration of freedom from government tyranny

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 05:55 AM PDT

By Mike Adams, NaturalNews.com

Happy July 4th, my fellow Americans. It's the cweekend! Independence from what, you might ask? As even the somewhat revisionist history taught in public schools readily admits, July 4th is a celebration of independence from government tyranny under British rule.

And what kind of government tyranny, specifically? Well, the kind that involves warrantless searches of peoples' homes, where government agents could just waltz right into your private home for no reason and conduct a search without even getting a court-issued warrant. That was a form of government terrorism waged against the people, and when the USA declared its independence from British rule, it adopted a new rule at home that specifically forbade such tyrannical government actions.

That rule is called The Fourth Amendment. It protects citizens from illegal searches and seizures undertaken by a tyrannical lawless government.

Yet, sadly, in just the last decade, the U.S. government has now thrown out the Fourth Amendment and is back to operatingexactly like the British tyrants we defeated to earn our independencein the first place! Now in the United States, TSA agents at the airport conduct illegal searches of travelers on a routine basis, with no search warrants issued, no just cause and no legal justification whatsoever. The TSA has become to modern-day America what the British tyrants were to the colonials in the 18th century.

Anti-tax diehard looms large in spending showdown

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 05:47 AM PDT

By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Without a bipartisan agreement this summer to reduce the federal deficit and raise the debt limit, the economy could suffer a horrendous blow, leaders of both parties say. If that happens, some will point fingers at a bearded, slightly disheveled man who’s barely known outside political circles in Washington.

For two decades, Grover Norquist has been the driving force in pushing the Republican Party toward an ever-more rigid position of opposing any tax increase, of any kind, at any time. He has been so successful that some GOP officials fear they’ve let Norquist squeeze them into a corner where they’ll be unable to declare victory even if they win the great majority of their budget demands in negotiations with congressional Democrats and President Barack Obama.

Democrats, meanwhile, use Norquist to paint the GOP as an unreasonable party that kowtows to billionaires at the expense of middle-class Americans.

Obama is insisting that even if a deficit-reduction accord relies overwhelmingly on spending cuts, it also must have some revenue increases. Democrats say they should start with eliminating some not-so-popular tax breaks that Norquist and his allies stoutly defend.

Fresh meat versus processed meat: Here’s why it matters

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 05:40 AM PDT

By Mike Adams, NaturalNews.com

Every July 4th, Americans gobble down enormous quantities of meat. Some of it actually from animals. The rest comes from factories that assemble bits and pieces of meat scraps, using chemical additives to make the final substance resemble something edible. That’s where hot dogs come from… and sausage, pepperoni and deli meats.

If you’re eating hot dogs this Fourth of July, you’re engaged in acts of nutritional tyranny against your own body. So if you eat meat, eat fresh meat, not processed meat. Here’s why:

Read meat versus processed packaged meat

Countless scientific studies have concluded that eating red meat is bad for you. But in those studies, researchers routinely fail to differentiate between processed junk meat versus free-range, grass-fed organic beef which isn’t processed with chemicals. And in doing so, they cast a dark shadow of doubt over all red meat when the reality is that there is a huge difference in the health impacts of fresh meat versus processed factory-made meat.

Just like the primary health risk of smoking cigarettes is from the chemical additives, not merely the tobacco ; the primary health risk from eating red meat is from the chemical additives, not from the meat itself.

Rupert Murdoch’s Failing Attempts to Control the Internet Reformation

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 05:35 AM PDT

By Anthony Wile, The Daily Bell

Rupert Murdoch lost nearly his entire investment in MySpace the other day when he sold the failing social network to musician and actor Justin Timberlake and an ad agency he backs for some US$30 million. This was a good deal less than the US$500 million-plus Murdoch paid for it.

Why did Murdoch make such a bad investment? Because he hoped to use the network as a vehicle from which he could disseminate news. He wanted to make MySpace into a mechanism to deliver current-events content. When it didn't work out – and he must have known that fairly soon – he obviously lost interest. And as his interest waned, so did MySpace.

This speaks to Murdoch's desperation – and mainstream media's generally. In a digital world, he is willing to burn US$500 million simply to confirm that a social network is not a news delivery system. I could have told him that for a much lower fee.

This also shows us the importance of news to the powers-that-be. The Anglosphere elites – for whom Murdoch evidently and obviously works – are determined (thus far without much success) to find a way to protect their failing information franchise.

Nothing in the past 300 years or so, while the elites have advanced their one-world-order, has been so devastating to their plans as the Internet and the rise of the alternative media driven Internet Reformation. It has poisoned the chalice and befouled the well; it has unbalanced the clarity of the concoction and clouded it with truth. A bitter brew … for them!

Vietnam War Veteran Wins Fight to Fly American Flag on Front Lawn

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 05:31 AM PDT

By FOXNews.com

A retired U.S. Army chaplain has won his fight to fly the American flag on a flagpole on his front lawn, ABC News reports.

Fred Quigley, 77, of Macedonia, Ohio, a minister who served active duty during the Vietnam War, had been told by the homeowners' association that his flagpole violates the property rules.

The HOA rules state that a flag can only be displayed if affixed to the home, but that would mean Quigley would have to remove the flagpole and put up a smaller flag.

Now that fight is over. The association has decided to let Quigley run Old Glory up his flagpole. The decision came in the form of a letter hand-delivered to Quigley last week, according to the station.

The vet’s troubles began last year, when he moved into the retirement community and erected a standard 15-foot tall flagpole from which to fly a standard U.S. flag, 3 feet by 5 feet. The pole put him at odds with association rules and with association manager Joseph Migliorini.

Bachmann says God ‘will heal our land’

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 05:26 AM PDT

by JENNIFER JACOBS AND ALYSSA HOOGENDOORN, The Des Moines Register

God will come and heal the land and bring “a new day to the country,” presidential candidate Michele Bachmann told an audience at an evangelical Christian church in Waukee on Sunday.

Bachmann shared several personal stories, including about her own spiritual awakening and how a miscarriage became part of the reason she wanted to care for children who had known brokenness.

Later on Sunday in Le Mars, protesters greeted the Minnesota congresswoman, who was on the second day of a new bus tour in a full-size coach emblazoned with her name.

Sean Lang, 21, and Justin Wentz, 22, both of Le Mars, held signs that read “Real Catholics wouldn’t vote for a woman” and “Amend the Constitution to outlaw Michele Bachmann.”

Onlookers shouted at them, “You guys need to get a job. A real job.” When Bachmann walked back to her bus, a man held a Bachmann campaign sign in front of one of the protesters’ posters.

Illinois Governor Signs Bill Banning Release of Firearm Owners Names

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 05:20 AM PDT

By Associated Press, FOXNews.com

CHICAGO — Gov. Pat Quinn on Saturday signed into law a measure barring the public from knowing who holds a firearm owner identification card in Illinois.

The bill, passed overwhelmingly by Illinois lawmakers in May, was a victory for gun owners who say they have a right to privacy over open-government advocates who say such records should not be secret.

Quinn, who has said he agreed that the information should remain confidential, offered no immediate public comment Saturday, quietly announcing the bill signing by email to news outlets.

In a 42-1 vote, the Senate passed a measure overturning a ruling by Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office that said the names are public under the state's open records law. Madigan's office issued the decree earlier this year after the Illinois State Police refused to release to The Associated Press the names of 1.3 million people who are registered to own firearms.

The AP's request set off howls of protests from gun owners and the state police, who said they feared criminals would use the information to steal guns or target those who weren't armed.

Madigan's office said the State Police had given no proof to back up claims that releasing the names would endanger gun owners. She said the opinion applied only to permit holders' names and the expiration dates on their permits, while addresses and phone numbers would remain private. The AP did not ask for cardholders' addresses and sought the records to, among other things, review governmental action.

By prohibiting the names' release, Illinois follows the lead of Florida and Tennessee, which shut off access to information about people with permits to carry concealed firearms after newspapers revealed significant lapses.

Rand Paul Plans Filibuster Over Debt Ceiling

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 04:50 AM PDT

From CSPAN.org

On Newsmakers, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said he will hold up the Senate's business next week to force a debate on the debt limit. The Senate canceled its Fourth of July break to ensure discussions on raising the debt ceiling continues, but most of the discussions are happening behind the scenes.

Senator Paul said on Newsmakers that he "will filibuster until we talk about the debt ceiling." He said the full Senate, instead of a small group of Senators, needs to engage in debate. He also said he and a group of conservative members would support raising the debt ceiling on one condition: "We will vote in favor of raising the debt ceiling if we can, but it will be contingent on passing a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. "

Senator Paul has been a leading proponent of adding an amendment to the Constitution mandating a balanced budget, like many states. But some Senator Paul's proposals go beyond a balanced budget requirement and include spending caps and significant spending cuts.

Senator Paul said he is not opposed to all tax increases. He pointed to the Senate vote on removing ethanol subsidies, but said broader reform with lower overall tax brackets are necessary. "We're more than willing to look at the tax code," he said.

DeMint, in new book, outlines tea party’s rise

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 04:40 AM PDT

COLUMBIA, S.C. — As the Republican campaign to replace President Obama heats up in early-voting states like South Carolina, Sen. Jim DeMint is releasing a book discussing the roots of the tea party crusade and his hopes for the movement in 2012.

"I believe that the 2012 elections may be our last chance to stop this insanity of spending and borrowing and debt," Mr. DeMint told the Associated Press recently. "I'm trying to recruit more Americans with this book."

In "The Great American Awakening," out Monday from B&H Publishing Group, Mr. DeMint describes the rise of America's tea party movement — which he helped foster — and the contentious Republican conference meeting that he said made him realize he was ready to battle his own party in the wake of Democratic victories in the 2008 elections.

But Mr. DeMint said he placed as much blame on wasteful Republicans in the U.S. Senate, and he became determined to speak out against them. Mr. DeMint said he felt empowered by support from fed-up Americans as he spoke at tea party rallies in 2009.

"I decided my work could no longer be with other senators," Mr. DeMint wrote. "I would have to work with the American people to elect a new class of senators, who would help me to stop the spending, debt, and the expansion of the federal government."

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Federal deficit impasse hinges on parties’ tax ideology
Free speech is just that – “free”
Md. scrambles to revise camp sunscreen rules
Hackers Claim Third Attack on Arizona Police
Texan Wins Controversial ‘White Man’ Scholarship
RI Going Red: Tea Party Took Over State House This Year

Federal deficit impasse hinges on parties’ tax ideology

Posted: 02 Jul 2011 09:33 AM PDT

By: Bruce Alpert, NOLA.com

It’s no surprise Democrats and Republicans in Congress are having a hard time reaching a deal to extend the national debt limit when they can’t even agree on the definition of tax increases.

Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, argues “closing loopholes that allow some people not to pay their fare share of taxes is not what I look at as a tax increase.”

But Louisiana’s seven Republican congressional members are holding to a pledge they signed from the conservative Americans for Tax Reform that defines tax increases much more broadly.

The pledge commits the signers “to oppose increases in the marginal income tax rate for individuals and business and oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.”

That would mean savings from eliminating tax breaks could not go for deficit reduction.

President Barack Obama wants to eliminate some tax breaks for oil and gas companies, hedge fund managers, and those who purchase or lease corporate aircraft, producing one dollar in extra tax revenue for every two dollars in budget cuts as part of deal to extend the debt limit. Without an extension by Aug. 2, Obama’s Treasury Department and many private economists predict a sudden rise in interest rates that could trigger an international economic crisis.

Free speech is just that – “free”

Posted: 02 Jul 2011 09:28 AM PDT

By Gene Policinski, TheHill.com

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 27 that states cannot forbid the sale or rental of video games to children, it punctuated two terms remarkable for the court's support for free expression – in cases remarkable for speech that many, if not most, of us really, really dislike.

In Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, the court's 7-2 decision voided a never-enforced California law that banned the sale or rental to children age 17 and younger of video games involving violence, gore and assault.

The increasing interactive reality and violent nature of the games prompted the law, which state officials supported by citing a bevy of studies showing possible links to real-world violence. But in his majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia dismissed the studies as inconclusive, writing that the legitimate government role in protecting children "does not include a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed."

In earlier cases, the justices upheld free-speech arguments when they:

-Struck down campaign finance laws that prevented corporations from direct spending in support of a candidate, leaving intact, for now, a ban on direct contributions, in Citizens United v. FEC;

-Held that a federal law aimed at banning so-called "crush videos" involving animal cruelty, was too broadly written, and could be applied to legal activities such as videos showing bow hunting, in United States v. Stevens;

-Supported the right of Americans to express their opinions even in the most repugnant fashion, in a case involving a Topeka, Kan., based group organized as Westboro Baptist Church that protests outside military funerals, in Snyder v. Phelps.

Md. scrambles to revise camp sunscreen rules

Posted: 02 Jul 2011 09:24 AM PDT

By Marc Fisher, WashingtonPost.com

Maryland health officials were making revisions late Friday night to a new policy that would have severely restricted who could apply sunscreen to children attending summer camps.

The new policy, which was issued last month, ordered summer camp operators to steer away from assisting kids with applying sunscreen and to get parents' permission before letting any child use sunscreen at camp.

A report on that policy was posted Friday afternoon on washingtonpost.com. Late Friday, health officials said they recognized that the policy had caused confusion, and said revisions were underway.

The revised policy will make it clear "that, in fact, parents do" need to give permission for kids to have sunblock, said Clifford C. Mitchell, assistant health director for environmental health and food protection.

But he said, "It will be silent on the thing that has raised questions. It will not deal with issues of contact in any way."

The guidelines, issued June 10, had been described as among the toughest in the nation.

Hackers Claim Third Attack on Arizona Police

Posted: 02 Jul 2011 09:19 AM PDT

From: FOXNews.com

PHOENIX – A computer hacking group Friday posted a new batch of personal details about Arizona law enforcement officers, marking a third attack on the state’s police and an escalation of a spree of cyber break-ins.

#AntiSec, an online movement comprised of parts of the Anonymous vigilante group and the Lulz Security hacking collective, posted emails and user information as part of the attack on Arizona authorities. The attack has now stretched for two weeks.

The group also claimed to have defaced eight websites associated with Arizona police groups. The websites were not responding early Friday, suggesting they had been taken offline.

As in earlier attacks, AntiSec said the new intrusions were prompted by Arizona’s controversial SB1070 immigration law. The hackers were believed to have used peer-to-peer software on one police computer to grab user names and passwords used for further access.

“Let this third and crushing blow against Arizona police send a strong message to the ruling class around the world,” the hackers said in a statement. “You will no longer be able to operate your campaign of terror against immigrants and working people in secrecy.”

A spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety said authorities were aware of the new attack and that an investigation was ongoing.

The attack came amid a broader spate of digital break-ins targeting governments and corporations. Japanese technology-and-media giant Sony, the US Senate, telecommunications giant AT&T and other government and private entities have been breached.

Texan Wins Controversial ‘White Man’ Scholarship

Posted: 02 Jul 2011 09:14 AM PDT

From: FOXNews.com

A controversial non-profit organization announced it has awarded the second of five academic scholarships to a Texas man. Among the criteria: the recipient must be white and male. The group sponsoring it says it’s the only scholarship of its kind in the United States, My Fox Dallas-Fort Worth reports.

The award was presented by a group called the Former Majority Association for Equality. Its president, Colby Bohannon, says he has been called a racist and compared to the KKK.

“We’re not racists. We have no agenda for bigotry,” said Bohannon. “We’re not trying to take away anything from any other group. We’re just trying to help poor, Caucasian males afford college.”

Recipient Brendan Baird is studying to become a physician’s assistant, and the awarded $500 check will help him to pay for schooling.

To win, he had to demonstrate a high GPA, community service, sports ability and financial need. But what really sealed the deal is the fact that he is a white man.

“If anyone wants to say it’s an issue of color, it’s the color of green,” said Baird. “And we all need it.”

The group’s vice-president, Marcus Carter, is black. There are also two women and an Hispanic man on its board.

RI Going Red: Tea Party Took Over State House This Year

Posted: 02 Jul 2011 07:32 AM PDT

By Dan McGowan, GoLocalProv News

Only eight months after Rhode Island bucked the national trend and shut Republicans out of every major office, the state Tea Party was the last political group expected to make any inroads on Smith Hill, where Democrats have maintained a stranglehold on leadership for much of the past century.

But as the clocked ticked on the final hours of the General Assembly session, there they were, celebrating what many believe to be a breakthrough victory by helping to get binding arbitration tabled for the time being. Getting it done took a truly organized effort previously reserved only for those on the other side of aisle and state conservatives are saying it sent a message to the entire state:

Rhode Island may eat and sleep blue, but it's starting to drink the Tea.

Opening Eyes

To call it a changing of the guard is, of course, extremely premature. But in a year where the most solidly Democratic General Assembly in the country voted to support a controversial voter id bill, slashed longevity payments for state workers and opted for cuts to social services to close what was once a $331 million budget deficit, state Tea Party leader Lisa Blais says something is clearly changing in Rhode Island.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Ron Paul campaign raises $4.5 million in second quarter
Ohio Shows the Way on Death Tax Repeal
SoCal Looks to Secede from California
Treasury confirms deadline for raising debt limit
The Changing Face of the GOP
Has Bachmann replaced Palin in the Tea Party’s heart?

Ron Paul campaign raises $4.5 million in second quarter

Posted: 02 Jul 2011 07:25 AM PDT

By Jason McLure, Reuters

Long-shot Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul raised more than $4.5 million in the second quarter, giving the Texas congressman breathing room to continue his bid for his party’s 2012 nomination, Paul campaign officials said on Friday.

Paul, a favorite of Tea Party fiscal conservatives, was well behind the prodigious $15 million to $20 million raised by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in the same period. But aides said Paul pulled in far more than he had for the same period during his failed 2008 presidential campaign.

Not all candidates in the Republican field have announced figures for their latest round of fundraising but Paul’s take topped that of former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who said he raised $4.2 million.

Unlike early front-runner Romney, who has tapped into a Rolodex rich with Wall Street and financial industry contacts, donations to Paul’s campaign typically come in small amounts.

Paul, an anti-war libertarian, is focusing his campaign efforts on New Hampshire and Iowa to broaden his following beyond his core of energetic supporters. Paul finished fifth in the 2008 New Hampshire primary with 8 percent of the vote.

Paul, who is making his third presidential try, made a swing through northern New Hampshire on Friday, hitting diners and gas stations in a series of small towns to spread his message.

To read more, visit:

Ohio Shows the Way on Death Tax Repeal

Posted: 01 Jul 2011 04:36 PM PDT

By BILL BATCHELDER, JACK BOYLE AND DICK PATTEN, The Wall Street Journal

Ohio Gov. John Kasich made good on a major campaign promise Thursday, killing the state’s estate tax in the process of enacting the 2012-13 budget. He also managed to kill off an $8 billion deficit without raising taxes—a model for fiscally squeezed states nationwide.

The end of the death tax, which goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2013, will help stop the hemorrhaging of small businesses and jobs from the Buckeye State. Ohioans had suffered long enough with the levy on inheritances, with a 6% tax on personal and business assets above the $338,333 exemption, up to $500,000, and a 7% tax on assets above $500,000. The death tax was a major reason that business, jobs and capital have fled the state.

Ohio’s nearly 200,000 small businesses employ some 2.3 million people—about half the civilian labor force—and support annual payrolls exceeding $77 billion. But businesses and jobs have been leaving Ohio for years, many to the 28 states without a death tax.

The stampede for the exits comes as no surprise: Dying in Ohio was expensive. When federal (35% on all assets exceeding $5 million) and state taxes are combined, an Ohio family with a successful business could lose up to 40% of everything they had worked for.

While some opponents of repeal defend the death tax on the grounds that the state, like the federal government, needs the revenue, the truth is it yielded little revenue—around 2% of the average local jurisdiction’s revenues in Ohio, less than two-tenths of 1% for Columbus, and around 1% for Washington.

To read more, visit:

SoCal Looks to Secede from California

Posted: 01 Jul 2011 04:30 PM PDT

RIVERSIDE (CBS) — Is the state of California about to go "South"?

Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone apparently thinks so, after proposing that the county lead a campaign for as many as 13 Southern California counties to secede from the state.

Stone said in a statement late Thursday that Riverside, Imperial, San Diego, Orange, San Bernardino, Kings, Kern, Fresno, Tulare, Inyo, Madera, Mariposa and Mono counties should form the new state of South California.

The creation of the new state would allow officials to focus on securing borders, balancing budgets, improving schools and creating a vibrant economy, he said.

"Our taxes are too high, our schools don't educate our children well enough, unions and other special interests have more clout in the Legislature than the general public," Stone said in his statement.

Treasury confirms deadline for raising debt limit

Posted: 01 Jul 2011 04:25 PM PDT

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, The Sacremento Bee

WASHINGTON — Congress has one month to raise the nation’s borrowing limit or the government will default on its debt, the Treasury Department said Friday.

Treasury officials confirmed the Aug. 2 deadline in a monthly update that assesses the nation’s borrowing situation. The United States reached the $14.3 trillion limit in May. Higher revenue and accounting maneuvers have allowed the government to keep paying its bills in the interim.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urged Congress to raise the limit and “avoid the catastrophic economic and market consequences of a default crisis.”

President Barack Obama and Congressional Republicans are engaged in tough negotiations over resolving the issue. Republicans are demanding deep spending cuts as a condition of increasing the limit. But Republicans will not support tax increases, which Democrats say must be part of any deal.

The Changing Face of the GOP

Posted: 01 Jul 2011 04:17 PM PDT

BY REID WILSON, National Journal

It's not every day that a group of conservative activists storms an institution of the Republican establishment and demands that the national party kick out a longstanding member who has not been implicated in any sort of personal scandal. But when FreedomWorks activists on Monday jammed the Ronald Reagan Republican Center, home of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, they highlighted one of the major unanswered questions in American politics today: Who owns the GOP?

The activists were protesting NRSC support for Sen. Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican who faces a difficult reelection bid next year. Hatch's big threat comes not from any Democrat; rather, it will come from a Republican challenger (probably Rep. Jason Chaffetz) at the state party's convention. FreedomWorks activists want the NRSC to end its financial support for Hatch—despite the fact that the committee's main mission is to protect Republican incumbents.

At the protest, Roll Call photographer Tom Williams captured an activist holding up a sign that read: "OUR choice, NOT yours." The caption identifies the activist as Marla Hamby of South Carolina.

That a South Carolina activist, protesting in association with a Washington-based conservative group, would see no hypocrisy in asserting ownership of a primary in Utah is emblematic of the growing pains inside the Republican Party. This is a dramatically different GOP that presents itself to the American public today compared to the one that lost control of Congress just five years ago.

Has Bachmann replaced Palin in the Tea Party’s heart?

Posted: 01 Jul 2011 11:09 AM PDT

By Shannon Travis, CNN.com

With U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota making a splash in the Republican presidential campaign while Sarah Palin sits on the sidelines, is Bachmann edging Palin out of the Tea Party’s heart?

While the former Alaska governor, vice presidential candidate and Fox News commentator is still much loved as a smart, media savvy conservative who breathes fire against President Obama and Democrats, it appears that Tea Party excitement for a Palin presidential run has passed.

One activist told CNN that Palin is “overexposed;” another said that unfair political attacks have left her “damaged;” while another said Palin’s “high negatives” might be too high to overcome.

On the other hand, activists laud Bachmann as far more “exciting,” with “Tea Party street cred,” and — perhaps most interestingly — a fresh face ready to learn from those attacks that Palin suffered.
“I don’t think there is a Tea Party favorite,” said Mark Meckler, co-founder of Tea Party Patriots, the nation’s largest Tea Party group.

“I think that (Bachmann) has Tea Party street cred in that she’s been going to tea parties and speaking to tea parties since the beginning of the movement. She has seemed to have principles and taken actions that are consistent with Tea Party values. She has been one of the few folks in the House to consistently stand against the leadership when they don’t comply with Tea Party values.”

Friday, July 1, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Twitter Is Under Federal Investigation
WAR NO. 6: U.S. uses drone aircraft in Somalia to attack militants
Death Panel Rejects Breast Cancer Patients’ Avastin Pleas
Ron Paul Slams Absurd Libya War Powers Debate
Democrat Senator: Illegal Alien Could Be Our Future President
Harvard: July 4th Parades Are Right-Wing
Glenn Beck will keynote midwest tea party convention
Special Software Sheds Light on Who Really Wrote the Bible
Internet sales tax: Online retailers to start collecting sales taxes in California
Durbin: Illegal Alien Could Be Our Future President

Twitter Is Under Federal Investigation

Posted: 01 Jul 2011 06:18 AM PDT

By Nicholas Carlson and Dan Frommer, BusinessInsider.com

The Federal Trade Commission is actively investigating Twitter and the way it deals with the companies building applications and services for its platform, we’ve learned.

In Spring 2010, Twitter started making noises that it planned to provide users “official” versions of services that, until then, had typically been provided by third-parties – ads, photo-sharing, URL shortening and mobile apps.

Over the following year, Twitter followed-up on its promise. It acquired third-party Twitter clients such as Tweetie and TweetDeck, blessing them as “official” Twitter apps.

Meanwhile, serial entrepreneur Bill Gross – best known for inventing search advertising – launched a company called TweetUp. The initial plan was some kind of Twitter ad network. Later, Gross started buying Twitter apps.

Eventually, his company got funding from Accel with the idea that the money would be used to buy TweetDeck. It sort of looked like Gross might be planning to launch a Twitter competitor – or at least string his Twitter clients into their own monetized network.

WAR NO. 6: U.S. uses drone aircraft in Somalia to attack militants

Posted: 01 Jul 2011 06:11 AM PDT

By Greg Jaffe and Karen DeYoung, The Washington Post

A U.S. drone aircraft fired on two leaders of a militant Somali organization tied to al-Qaeda, apparently wounding them, a senior U.S. military official familiar with the operation said Wednesday.

The strike last week against senior members of al-Shabab comes amid growing concern within the U.S. government that some leaders of the Islamist group are collaborating more closely with al-Qaeda to strike targets beyond Somalia, the military official said.

The airstrike makes Somalia at least the sixth country where the United States is using drone aircraft to conduct lethal attacks, joining Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq and Yemen. And it comes as the CIA is expected to begin flying armed drones over Yemen in its hunt for al-Qaeda operatives.

Al-Shabab has battled Somalia's tenuous government for several years. In recent months, U.S. officials have picked up intelligence that senior members of the group have expanded their ambitions beyond attacks in Somalia.

"They have become somewhat emboldened of late, and, as a result, we have become more focused on inhibiting their activities," the official said."They were planning operations outside of Somalia."

Death Panel Rejects Breast Cancer Patients’ Avastin Pleas

Posted: 01 Jul 2011 05:44 AM PDT

By Neil W. McCabe, Human Events

In a sign of things to come, members of the Food and Drug Administration's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted Wednesday to reject an appeal of its December 2010 recommendation that the FDA withdraw its sanction of Avastin for treatment of breast cancer.

The day before, in what now seems futile, advocates for the drug rallied at the FDA headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., with signs, chants and a folk singer.

Blocked by a team of Homeland Security police officers in combat uniforms, the nearly 100 pink-shirted protesters massed in front of the entrance to the agency’s campus demanding it continue to approve Avastin for metastasized breast cancer.

Standing face-to-face with the on-site commander of the police contingent, which included deputies, keeping the protesters from marching toward the looming edifice 100 yards away, Terrence Kalley, the leader of the protest, said into his bullhorn, "We will continue to obey the law."

Because Kalley, whose wife, Arlene, is battling metastasized breast cancer, was a scheduled witness to speak to the FDA's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee hearing on Avastin, he was allowed to proceed to the building, after he put down his bullhorn and sign.

Kalley said his mission is to convince the panel to recommend that the FDA continue to sanction the drug bevacizumab, the technical name of c, for the treatment of breast cancer.

To read more, visit: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=44557

Ron Paul Slams Absurd Libya War Powers Debate

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 09:41 AM PDT

Democrat Senator: Illegal Alien Could Be Our Future President

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 09:37 AM PDT

Harvard: July 4th Parades Are Right-Wing

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 09:30 AM PDT

By PAUL BEDARD, US News & World Reports

Democratic political candidates can skip this weekend’s July 4th parades. A new Harvard University study finds that July 4th parades energize only Republicans, turn kids into Republicans, and help to boost the GOP turnout of adults on Election Day.

“Fourth of July celebrations in the United States shape the nation’s political landscape by forming beliefs and increasing participation, primarily in favor of the Republican Party,” said the report from Harvard.

“The political right has been more successful in appropriating American patriotism and its symbols during the 20th century. Survey evidence also confirms that Republicans consider themselves more patriotic than Democrats. According to this interpretation, there is a political congruence between the patriotism promoted on Fourth of July and the values associated with the Republican party. Fourth of July celebrations in Republican dominated counties may thus be more politically biased events that socialize children into Republicans,” write Harvard Kennedy School Assistant Professor David Yanagizawa-Drott and Bocconi University Assistant Professor Andreas Madestam.

Their findings also suggest that Democrats gain nothing from July 4th parades, likely a shocking result for all the Democratic politicians who march in them.

Glenn Beck will keynote midwest tea party convention

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 09:21 AM PDT

By Ashok Selvam, Daily Herald

Glenn Beck may go off Fox airwaves on Thursday, but in October he'll join fellow conservative pundits for the second-straight year in the Northwest suburbs.

The inaugural Midwest Tea Party Convention comes to Schaumburg for two days, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center. Organizers are billing the event as TeaCon 2011.

Andrew Breitbart and Steve Crowder will join Beck. Conservative talk radio station WIND 560-AM is organizing the event.

Beck and Breitbart appeared last year at the RightNation 2010 event held at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates. The United Republican Fund hosts that event, and organizers are prepping for the 2011 edition just a month after the tea party convention.

The lineup for RightNation 2011, to held Nov. 3-5, again at the Sears Centre, could be released on Thursday. That event markets itself as catering to all GOP members and Libertarians, not just the tea party.

Beck's last day as host of his Fox News Channel television show is Thursday. TeaCon organizers stressed their event will give Beck's fans a chance to see and hear him, despite his show being off the air. His Oct. 1 speech should focus on the 2012 presidential election, TeaCon organizers said.

Special Software Sheds Light on Who Really Wrote the Bible

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 09:12 AM PDT

By Associated Press, FOXNews.com

Software developed by an Israeli team is giving intriguing new hints about what researchers believe to be the multiple hands that wrote the Bible.

The new software analyzes style and word choices to distinguish parts of a single text written by different authors, and when applied to the Bible its algorithm teased out distinct writerly voices in the holy book.

The program, part of a sub-field of artificial intelligence studies known as authorship attribution, has a range of potential applications — from helping law enforcement to developing new computer programs for writers. But the Bible provided a tempting test case for the algorithm’s creators.

For millions of Jews and Christians, it’s a tenet of their faith that God is the author of the core text of the Hebrew Bible — the Torah, also known as the Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses. But since the advent of modern biblical scholarship, academic researchers have believed the text was written by a number of different authors whose work could be identified by seemingly different ideological agendas and linguistic styles and the different names they used for God.

Today, scholars generally split the text into two main strands. One is believed to have been written by a figure or group known as the “priestly” author, because of apparent connections to the temple priests in Jerusalem. The rest is “non-priestly.” Scholars have meticulously gone over the text to ascertain which parts belong to which strand.

When the new software was run on the Pentateuch, it found the same division, separating the “priestly” and “non-priestly.” It matched up with the traditional academic division at a rate of 90 percent — effectively recreating years of work by multiple scholars in minutes, said Moshe Koppel of Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, the computer science professor who headed the research team.

Internet sales tax: Online retailers to start collecting sales taxes in California

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 09:07 AM PDT

By Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times

Shopping at Amazon.com Inc. and other major Internet stores is poised to get more expensive.

Beginning Friday, a new state law will require large out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases that their California customers make on the Internet — a prospect eased only slightly by a 1-percentage-point drop in the tax that also takes effect at the same time.

Getting the taxes, which consumers typically don’t pay to the state if online merchants don’t charge them, is “a common-sense idea,” said Gov. Jerry Brown, who signed the legislation into law Wednesday.

The new tax collection requirement — part of budget-related legislation — is expected to raise an estimated $317 million a year in new state and local government revenue.

But those taxes may come with a price. Amazon and online retailer Overstock.com Inc. told thousands of California Internet marketing affiliates that they will stop paying commissions for referrals of so-called click-through customers.

That’s because the new requirement applies only to online sellers based out of state that have some connection to California, such as workers, warehouses or offices here.

Both Amazon in Seattle and Overstock in Salt Lake City have told affiliates that they would have to move to another state if they wanted to continue earning commissions for referring customers.

“We oppose this bill because it is unconstitutional and counterproductive,” Amazon wrote its California business partners Wednesday. Amazon has not indicated what further actions it might take to challenge the California law.

Durbin: Illegal Alien Could Be Our Future President

Posted: 30 Jun 2011 08:43 AM PDT

From RealClearPolitics

After using illegal immigrants as props to push the DREAM Act, Sen. Durbin (D-IL) made the following statement at a Senate committee hearing:

“When I look around this room, I see America’s future. Our doctors, our teachers, our nurses, our engineers, our scientists, our soldiers, our Congressman, our Senators and maybe our President.”

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Monday, July 4, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Friday, July 1, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

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