Obama Refuses to Submit New Regulations Plan Required By Law

-By Warner Todd Huston

Early every spring an administration is required by law to submit its regulatory plans for the year. Obama, however, has refused to submit this report perhaps afraid of how badly it might impact his prospects for re-election.

The spring 2012 Regulatory Agenda is supposed to be submitted so that both Congress and the nation can get a handle on the regulatory changes the president intends to make. It is a requirement imposed by the Regulatory Flexibility Act as well as Clinton era Executive Order 12,866 — an order that President Obama reaffirmed last year.

This report is supposed to be submitted to Congress between October and April. Obama still hasn’t satisfied this lawful requirement.

Ohio GOP Senator Rob Portman has sent a letter to the White House scolding it for this dereliction of its reporting duties.
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Obama Refuses to Submit New Regulations Plan Required By Law”


Chicago Teacher Protester Holds Sign Hinting that Mayor Emanuel is Gay?

-By Warner Todd Huston

In day two, the Chicago teachers strike is already starting to get vicious. In one of the many protests at least one protester was photographed holding a sign intimating that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is gay.

On the streets of Chicago, the Illinois Policy Institute found a protester carrying a sign that says, “Rahm Emanuel Likes Nickelback.”

You may not be aware of all the connotations of this sign. Firstly “Nickelback” is a Canadian rock band known for its somewhat sex-drenched lyrics. But the band is also a sort of slang for being gay among many kids these days. As the taunt goes, if you are a Nickelback fan, you’re gay.
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Chicago Teacher Protester Holds Sign Hinting that Mayor Emanuel is Gay?”


American Action Network Releases State & District-Level Medicare Cuts in Obamacare

From the American Action Network

www.TheyCutYourMedicare.com has the State & District-by-District Breakdowns of How Much Members Who Voted for or to Keep Obamacare Cut from their Area’s Medicare

WASHINGTON – As part of its ongoing effort to make the case for prompt repeal of Obamacare, the American Action Network (AAN) released today the cuts to Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) and Medicare Advantage (MA) in the states and congressional districts of Senators and Members of Congress that voted for or to preserve Obamacare. The district and state specific cuts can be found at www.TheyCutYourMedicare.com and the member-specific sites linked below.

The data used to determine this state and congressional district data comes from the census, the Congressional Budget Office, and a new University of Minnesota study that provided a county-by-county analysis of the Medicare fee-for-service and Medicare Advantage cuts included in Obamacare.

Obamacare cut Medicare by $716 billion to fund a new entitlement, and is leading to higher taxes on consumers and providers, rising healthcare costs for families, and will lead to diminished quality of care for seniors. The need to repeal this disastrous law is more evident daily.
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American Action Network Releases State & District-Level Medicare Cuts in Obamacare”


Media Blackout: GAO Says Obama’s Welfare Waivers Illegal

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Sept. 4, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) made a startling assertion saying that Obama circumvented the law when he summarily waived the work requirements in the welfare law. Perhaps not as shocking, to date, few news outlets seem interested in the story.

In its Sept. 4 letter, the GAO found that Health and Human Services (HHS) should have formally submitted a letter of its intent to make the changes to Congress and the Comptroller General before any waivers can be legally issued.

The letter also said that the GAO had not determined if HHS had the legal right to even make such waivers available. The GAO is basically saying that the Obama administration is breaking the law with its waivers.
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Media Blackout: GAO Says Obama’s Welfare Waivers Illegal”


The Machine: The Truth Behind Teachers Unions

Here is a great video showing why teachers unions — and public employee unions in general — should be illegal.

The Machine: The Truth Behind Teachers Unions

For the first time in 25 years, the Chicago Teachers’ Union is planning to strike on Monday.

That’s because the machine that runs the K-12 education system isn’t designed to produce better schools. It’s designed to produce more money for unions and more donations for politicians. We’re spending more money on education but not getting better results for our children and now america’s public education system is failing.

Our kids deserve better.

For decades, teachers’ unions have been among our nation’s largest political donors. As Reason Foundation’s Lisa Snell has noted, the National Education Association (NEA) alone spent $40 million on the 2010 election cycle (source: http://reason.org/news/printer/big-education-and-big-labor-electio). As the country’s largest teachers union, the NEA is only one cog in the infernal machine that robs parents of their tax dollars and students of their futures.

Students, teachers, parents, and hardworking Americans are all victims of this political machine–a system that takes money out of taxpayers’ wallets and gives it to union bosses, who put it in the pockets of politicians.

“The Machine” is 4:30 minutes.
Video produced by the Moving Picture Institute in partnership with ReasonTV.


Chicago’s Teachers Strike, Just Another Corrupt Union Powergrab

-By Warner Todd Huston

We’ve all heard the news of the strike forced on Chicago’s public schools by Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, I’m sure. Barely open for a week, the greedy teachers are now walking off the job but the main reasons for this strike presented by the CTU really don’t stand up to close scrutiny, for sure.

The CTU wants a 30% pay raise and they want class sizes to be made smaller.

For his part, Mayor Emanuel is saying that teachers union reps are fighting his desire to allow local school administrators do the hiring of any new teachers (because they know better what they need) but the union is insisting that they do the hiring.

The union also rejected a 16% pay raise offered by the city – itself an absurdly high number that shouldn’t have been offered in the first place.

In fact, these teachers don’t deserve ANY raise, much less a 30% or even a 16% raise. Only just over half the kids in Chicago now graduate with a high school diploma and, worse, at $76,000 annually, Chicago’s teacher already make more on average than most other teachers in the nation.

By contrast, Chicagoans only earn $47,000 a year on average, so these teachers are already making almost double what the rest of Chicago is making!
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Chicago’s Teachers Strike, Just Another Corrupt Union Powergrab”


NBC’s Absurdly Rosy Jobs Reporting

-By Warner Todd Huston

Friday morning’s Today show on NBC did its best to paint the most rosy scenario possible on Obama’s latest dismal jobs report. Attempting to inoculate Obama from this economic downturn, host Matt Lauer said that analysts he had “been reading” claimed that the economy will add up to 12 million new jobs, “no matter who is president in the next four years.”

This has already been the worst economic recovery since The Great Depression, but on Friday Lauer and CNBC analyst Jim Cramer put the best face on it they could with Cramer chipping in that there is “pent-up demand” that is sure to break soon. This disastrous economic and jobs climate is “not such a bad moment,” Cramer claimed.

In fact, Lauer tried to massage the news into a “party atmosphere.”
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NBC’s Absurdly Rosy Jobs Reporting”


BOYFRIEND: Obama Seemed Perfect But Women Are Feeling Cheated

(WASHINGTON D.C.) – BetterDirection.org, a project of the Independent Women’s Voice, today released a 30-second web video, “Boyfriend,” ahead of President Obama’s convention speech.

Women, who four years ago overwhelmingly supported candidate Obama based on his promise of a robust economic recovery and a new tone in Washington, are feeling a bit cheated.

For the first time this year President Obama is going through a rough patch with women, leaving him upside down on favorability rankings, with a majority (50%) of women voters, single and married alike, viewing him unfavorable while only 46% find him favorably.
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BOYFRIEND: Obama Seemed Perfect But Women Are Feeling Cheated”


Just as Bad: Proof of Ill. GOP Consorting With Union Thugs

-By Warner Todd Huston

Trevor Loudon attended last week’s GOP convention and discovered the sad evidence that the Illinois Republican Party is just as bad as Democrats in its desire to consort with extremist, left-wing Marxists and union thugs — not to mention fill their pockets with that dirty money.

At the GOP convention, Loudon found a crumpled invitation to one of the many soirees that political delegates attend while at conventions, this one specifically for the Illinois Delegation.

But this invite wasn’t just for a normal, GOP-styled party. No, THIS invite was for one sponsored by enemies to the taxpayer, enemies to the U.S. Constitution, enemies to democracy, enemies even to the very Republican Party to which these delegates belong. This party was sponsored by Illinois’ public employee unions, the very groups destroying this nation in general and Illinois most particularly.

As Loudon notes, “How can the Illinois State GOP justify taking money from Marxist controlled labor unions?”

How indeed?

Well, the answer is obvious. The Illinois GOP is but a junior partner to the Democrat Party in the task to destroy the Land of Lincoln. They are out to fill their pockets with taxpayer’s dollars passed through the dirty hands of Illinois’ greedy public employee unions.

Illinois Republicans are equally as guilty as the Democrats.

It is truly disgusting.
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Just as Bad: Proof of Ill. GOP Consorting With Union Thugs”


VIDEO: Obama DID Claim He’d Save Janesville GM Plant

-By Warner Todd Huston

Phil Kerpen discovered the film of Obama claiming that he’d save the day and prevent the GM Plant in Janesville, Wis. from closing.

The liberals and their lapdog “fact-checkers” attacked GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan for claiming that Obama promised to save the Janesville GM plant. Ryan was deemed a “liar” for his claim.

Turns out, Ryan was right…

I believe that if our government is there to support you, and give the assistance you need to retool and make this transition, that this plant will be here for another 100 years. So, that’s our priority… I want it to thrive right here in the United States of America, I want it to thrive right here in Janesville, Wisconsin. And that’s the future I will fight for as president of the United States of America.

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VIDEO: Obama DID Claim He’d Save Janesville GM Plant”


National ID Card? First Stop Giving Inducements to Law Breaking

-By Warner Todd Huston

Syndicated columnist Jonah Goldberg recently wrote a piece headlined, Arizona, immigration and the welfare state, in which he ruminated on the state’s never-ending desire to track its citizens, sometimes resulting in the implementation of a national ID card. Goldberg is, of course, against a national ID and laments that our government “bequeaths so many benefits” to citizens and non-citizens alike which might require such an effort.

Naturally the proper solution, the best way to prevent a national ID card, is to be rid of the “liberal welfare state,” the Tyranny of Clichés author notes.

After a summation of the history of intrusive, overbearing statism, Goldberg says that most conservatives aren’t necessarily against “large-scale immigration,” but the Arizona law reveals a serious flaw in our country nonetheless. He concludes with the following:
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National ID Card? First Stop Giving Inducements to Law Breaking”


Obama Stimulus Bucks Paid for Advertising on MSNBC

-By Warner Todd Huston

Jim McElhatton of the Washington Times has revealed that in 2009 Obama’s Dept. of Labor used Obama stimulus bucks to fund advertising on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann shows.

We all thought the stimulus was a failure but I guess Obama really did stimulate someone’s economy.

The advertisements were created to flog Obama’s so-called “green training” job programs and were handled by the PR firm McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations LLC at a cost of $495,000 to the taxpayers.

Two video ads ran for two months, 14 times a week in 2009 during Countdown With Keith Olbermann and The Rachel Maddow Show.

In a joint email statement to The Times from two Labor Department spokesmen, David Roberts and Michael Volpe, officials said the money was used for outreach efforts to raise awareness among potential employers about the Job Corps’ green training in career areas, including automotive, advanced manufacturing and solar-panel installation.

Records seem to show that the number of jobs created with the program was zero. Nadda. The big goose egg.
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Obama Stimulus Bucks Paid for Advertising on MSNBC”


Obama’s Iowa State Fair Visit Costs Small Businessman $25,000

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s always nice to have a visit by a sitting president, I suppose, but these days security concerns are so overwhelming that it is often very uncomfortable for those residents and businessmen that live nearby and with Obama’s visit to the Iowa state Fair one small businessman ended up losing $25,000 in income as a result.

Small businessman Mike Cunningham runs the Bud Beer tent at the state fair but saw the Secret Service shut him down for several hours at a peak sales time when the President came to town.

The Bud Beer tent is known as the center of the evening festivities at the state fair but as Obama visited the fair, the beer tent was shut down to accommodate the needs of the Secret Service sent there to protect the President. Mr. Cunningham is a third generation owner of the tent which has been a fair staple for 65 years.
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Obama’s Iowa State Fair Visit Costs Small Businessman $25,000″


DNC Chair Wasserman Schultz Demolished by… CNN’s Wolf Blitzer?

-By Warner Todd Huston

The most unkind cut of all is when your paper thin understanding of the facts is shredded by someone you think is on your side. This is what happened to Democrat National Committee Chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz when she kept trying to tell CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that Ryan’s Medicare reform plan took Medicare away from everyone even though, as Blitzer repeatedly pointed out, the truth is that Ryan’s reforms only altered the entitlement for those 55 and younger.

It was painful to watch Schultz being eviscerated by her own CNN mouthpiece.

Of course Blitzer was correct. When Paul Ryan introduced his budget reform plan, the Roadmap For America’s Future, he did suggest that reforms for Medicare would kick in for those 55 and under. But thefact is, and it is a fact that Blitzer kept trying to pound into Wasserman Schultz’ head, that Every American over 55 would not see any changes at all in the entitlements that they always thought they’d get.
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DNC Chair Wasserman Schultz Demolished by… CNN’s Wolf Blitzer?”


Assoc. Press: Stop Whining About Soc. Sec., America. It Isn’t as Expensive as Europe’s!

-By Warner Todd Huston

Social Security is as close to insolvency as you can get and not be completely belly up. Government watchdogs warn that Social Security will see a $7 trillion shortfall by 2086. But the Associated Press says, don’t worry about all that, America. Why, the Social Security system isn’t as bad as Europe’s public pension mess, so everything’s just fine. Move along. Nothing to see here.

In the article, AP sets about comparing Europe’s public pension systems to Social Security. In so doing AP is apparently trying to quell fears that Social Security is in crisis. Why, Europe’s is in worse shape, so Social Security is “downright frugal,” The AP says.

Not only is the AP apparently trying to make Americans forget all about the mess that our entitlements are in, but the venerable wire service goes on to note that Europe’s benefits are far more generous than our miserly Social Security.

AP points out that those lucky Europeans can retire earlier than Americans and also informs readers that this Nirvana was created by high taxes. See, Europe is better.
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Assoc. Press: Stop Whining About Soc. Sec., America. It Isn’t as Expensive as Europe’s!”


Lefty Attack: Paul Ryan is a Follower of Ayn Rand

-By Warner Todd Huston

It was only minutes after news broke that Paul Ryan was Romney’s likely pick for Vice President that leftwingers on Twitter began to needle Ryan as a follower of that mean ol’ Ayn Rand, the famed objectivist philosopher of the middle of last century most famous for writing Atlas Shrugged and for being a proponent of what the left says is a less than compassionate philosophy on humanity.

There is a mistaken belief on the left that Paul Ryan was somehow programmed by Ayn Rand and that his entire budget plan, his Roadmap For America’s Future, is somehow one great Randian, or worse Darwinian, exercise in the survival of the strongest. The left also chides him for later turning his back on Rand and pretending his ideas really aren’t driven by what they consider to be Ayn Rand’s mean-spirited philosophy.

Neither claim is true.
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Lefty Attack: Paul Ryan is a Follower of Ayn Rand”


Paul Ryan Has Already Been an Effective Obama Critic

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the things that a vice presidential candidate has to be able to do and do well is be an attack dog for the ticket. The best VP candidates have both the credibility and the capability to severely criticize the other team. Even before being picked as his running mate by Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan had proven that he is that man.

Ryan has been the President’s sore spot since the budget and Obamacare debates began early in Obama’s stint in the White House and making him a veep pick for the Republicans is sure to cause no end of heartburn to a president that clearly doesn’t grasp the economic destruction that his own policies have wrought.

Months ago Rep. Ryan had already gotten under Obama’s skin. If you’ll recall in April of 2011 President Obama went out of his way to invite the Republican to a special speech on the budget and then, quite ungraciously slammed him in the speech — without having the decency to either address him or look him in the eye.

Imagine the ignorance of this and how it lowered the office of the President. To have arranged a speech, invited an political opponent, and then dissed him in public like that is the sort of low action of a petty man, not the high actions of a President. And for a President to attack a mere House member at that!

It is patently obvious that President Obama is unnerved by Paul Ryan. And it’s no wonder. You might also recall how Ryan wholly eviscerated Obama’s poor attempt at a budget back in Fed. of 2010.
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Paul Ryan Has Already Been an Effective Obama Critic”


CNN’s Crowley: Romney/Ryan is a ‘Ticket Death Wish’

-By Warner Todd Huston

The leftwing, Old Media has chosen its mode of attack on Paul Ryan: he wants to kill your grandmother. To further that, on CNNs Saturday morning election coverage, Candy Crowley announced that people are “afraid” that presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s pick of Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan is a “ticket death wish.”

Crowley seems to think that the addition of Paul Ryan to the ticket will force a debate on entitlement and budget reform that the GOP is “afraid of” and naturally her interpretation of that debate is predicated on the claim that Republicans want to destroy Social Security and other safety net programs. Ergo, Republicans want to kill people.

We’ve already had this debate. All they have to do at Obama Reelect is open up the files because this debate has already happened. They just bring it back, it goes, it is, you know, what they talk about. But I think the other thing that’s worth pointing out is not every Republican has signed on to this kind of, I mean, they will publicly. But there is some trepidation that this might be, looks a little bit like some sort of ticket death wish. That, oh, my gosh, do we really want to talk about these thing? Is this where we want to go when the economy is so bad? We could have stayed on that.

The corpulent Crowley is merely pushing the White House lie that anyone that opposes Obama wants to kill people. She is part and parcel to the lowest campaign in modern history as bad or worse than Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaign ads that claimed his Republican opponent wanted to destroy the world with nuclear war.
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CNN’s Crowley: Romney/Ryan is a ‘Ticket Death Wish’”


Actor Will Smith Loves Taxes, But NOT French Taxes

-By Warner Todd Huston

Back in May Actor Will Smith recently appeared on a TV show in France when the subject of taxes was brought up. Smith piously proclaimed how he loves taxes because he wants to help his country. But then he was told how much new French President Francois Hollande wants to levy on France and, well, suddenly taxes weren’t so great as far as Smith was concerned.

You see, President Hollande has proposed that anyone that makes over a million Euros should pay a tax rate of 75%. This made Will Smith practically choke.

Will Smith: I have no issue with paying taxes and whatever needs to be done for my country to grow. I believe very firmly that my ability to sit here—I’m a black man who didn’t go to college, yet I get to travel around the world and sell my movies, and I believe very firmly that America is the only place on Earth that I could exist. So I will pay anything that I need to pay to keep my country growing. . . .

Interviewer: Do you know how much in France you would have to pay on earnings above one million euros [under new French President Francois Hollande’s proposal]? Not 30%. 75%.

Smith: I… not 30, 75?! Yeah, that’s different, that’s different. Yeah, 75. Well, you know, God bless America.

Smith’s reaction is priceless, really. He was all about paying his fair share until the socialist French decided that his fair share should be 75%!

Hilarious.
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Actor Will Smith Loves Taxes, But NOT French Taxes”


For His Trajectory, Obama is Right, ‘He Didn’t Build That’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Much has been made of President Obama’s “you didn’t build that” comment made early in June at a campaign stop in Roanoke, Virginia. Comments range from the disingenuous claim that he only meant that successful folks didn’t themselves go out and build roads and bridges to the thought that his comment revels his desires to credit the nanny state with all things good in the world. But one thing seems evident. From his perspective he’s right. Wealth and fame are easy and really don’t require much work.

An extended look at Obama’s trajectory to wealth and fame explains his attitude quite well. Upon examination, the phrase “you didn’t build that” seems quite apropos. After all, his entire life has been one handout from others after another and it doesn’t seem that he had to put much work into anything he’s ever done to become part of the one percent. All he had to do was walk around “being” Obama and it all was just handed to him by the great affirmative action administrator in the sky.

At first one might think that his earliest days would have produced a man of hard luck. His addled, useless, philandering father left him when he was young. And unfortunately for young Barry, his mother was a starry-eyed agitator without much interest in child rearing. She was one enamored of everything outside her experience, unhappy with life “here” — wherever that was at the time — and always thinking every other culture was better than the American hell she was born into. In other words, his mother was a typical liberal.
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For His Trajectory, Obama is Right, ‘He Didn’t Build That’”


What’s Going Wrong at the Pacific Research Institute?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Early in July extreme left-wing Mother Jones magazine published a piece claiming that Sally Pipes, the head of the Pacific Research Institute, was not doing a very effective job of leading the San Francisco-based conservative, free-market think tank. Unfortunately, whether the magazine is left-wing or not and whether these questions make me comfortable or not (they don’t), there seems to be some truth in the story.

The magazine focused on the excessive amount of money that Pipes has requisitioned from the think tank to pay for Public Relations agencies to assist her in writing the many books, papers, articles and the like that carries Pipes’ name. Calling her “supernaturally prolific,” Mother Jones reported that Pipes employs Keybridge Communications to do the writing.

In fact, according to Mother Jones, Pipes has spent “nearly $1 million — $400,000 alone in 2010” on the services of Keybridge. This is a substantial amount of money considering that the institute has an annual budget of only $4 million. To have spent such a huge chunk on “research assistance” is quite a lot, indeed.

Pipes has a very high profile in conservative circles. She is a sought after speaker with a specialty in healthcare. She’s worked with such big name groups as the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation, and her work appears in newspapers, magazines, and websites everywhere — such as Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and National Review. Pipes is also listed as the author of at least a half dozen books.
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What’s Going Wrong at the Pacific Research Institute?”


The Daily: Another News Outlet Shedding Jobs

-By Warner Todd Huston

The news industry takes another hit this week as the Ruppert Murdoch-owned digital newspaper, The Daily, announces that 29 percent of its workforce, 50 employees, will be laid off.

News Corp launched the iPad-only publication (via iTunes) to great fanfare in February of 2011. Originally an Apple offering only, The Daily can now be downloaded via a Facebook and an Android ap and is also a package feature on Verizon Wireless devices.

It was reported that the operation of The Daily was going to cost $500,000 a week and Murdoch one said that he needed to gain 500,000 new readers a week to break even.
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The Daily: Another News Outlet Shedding Jobs”


Gov. Scott Walker Wows Crowd at AFP Summit

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Friday night Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin spoke before Americans For Prosperity’s event Defending the American Dream Summit and the crowd was loving it, I have to say.

Walker entered the room to a standing ovation and got an even bigger standing O when he finished and his comments of how the most progressive state in the union rolled over into conservative, fiscal sanity is quite a story.
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Gov. Scott Walker Wows Crowd at AFP Summit”


The Next Obama Pivot: Talking About Issues?

-By Warner Todd Huston

At a recent fundraiser in New York City, President Obama told his high-dollar donors that he wanted to enter a new phase of his campaign getting away from the negative campaigning that has thoroughly defined his reelection effort thus far. Is this a sign that all tis negative campaigning isn’t working?

At his July 30 funder in the Big Apple, Obama assured his audience that he was about to pivot to a more positive campaign.

“There is going to be, though, as the summer winds down and we get into the fall, the need for voters in these swing states to know not just what they’re voting against but also what they’re voting for,” he said. “And so we’ll be spending a lot of time talking about the specific agenda that I intend to pursue in the second term, which I think will make sure that this economy is going full guns.”

Leaving aside his use of “guns” (you know, the “violent imagery” that the Old Media is always braying about), it is interesting to note that this issues-based campaign is exactly the sort of campaign Obama claimed he would initiate back in 2007 when he was running for his first term.
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The Next Obama Pivot: Talking About Issues?”


Bloodbath: DC’s CQ Roll Call Shedding Even More Employees

-By Warner Todd Huston

In another sign that print media is in serious trouble, widely praised, DC-based newspaper Roll Call has been suffering a series of layoffs over the last month and this week the company, CQ Roll Call, was hit with even more drastic cuts.

Roll Call is the quintessential insider newspaper featuring award-winning reporting on the goings on in our nation’s capitol. Roll Call has been a fixture on the Hill since 1955.

On Tuesday, Fishbowl DC reported that it had received an email crying, “Fire sale at CQ Roll Call,” and reporting that layoffs were to be announced for the business side of the company.
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Bloodbath: DC’s CQ Roll Call Shedding Even More Employees”