Sunday, January 29, 2012

Ryan Is Correct Once Again....Obama is all talk...No Action!




Congressional GOP slam Obama sloganeering, accuse president of slow march to Election Day

Published January 29, 2012 | FoxNews.com


President Obama's claims of wanting to give people a fair shot, make everyone do their fair share and have everyone play by the same set of rules may be the making of a great slogan, but his policies will lead to "debt, doubt and decline," a top Republican said Sunday.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said that Obama uses the rhetoric of the right to make a case about fairness and equality, but produces policies that lead to "crony capitalism" and result in giving the government more power.

"The outcome of these policies is to consolidate power in Washington where you have crony capitalism, which his rhetoric tries to decry," Ryan told "Fox News Sunday."

The president's top campaign adviser countered that Republicans refuse to ask those more able to pay for critical programs to contribute more to the general good.

"We have to have a balanced way forward when the Republican Party is willing to step forward, the Republicans in Congress and say let's do this together in a balanced way. Let's protect the key investments we need to grow and yet cut and ask a little more from people who can afford it and willing to do it," said Obama senior adviser David Axelrod.

Several Republicans fanned out Sunday ahead of the congressional work week to denounce the president's policies, enunciated during the State of the Union, but unlikely to win passage. The stalemate, however, does set the table for a nasty debate unfolding amid Obama's reelection effort.

"The president (wants to) double down on the same failed policies that have not worked. As a matter of fact, they have made the economy worse, higher taxes, more spending, more regulation," said House Speaker John Boehner.

Ryan said Obama doesn't lead, has no plan to tackle the nation's weighty debt and isn't even planning to include his own tax reform proposals in the budget he will submit to Congress next month.

"What we have learned with the president time and again is he is going to put some kind of poll-tested line in the State of the Union address and have no follow-up whatsoever," Ryan said. "We have learned already that the president who's had three years to try and propose real solutions to fix our fiscal crisis is ducking it. He hasn't put a plan on the table yet. He formed commissions and super committees, so he sort of outsourced the leadership only to decry their results."

But Axelrod said while Republicans may think the president isn't offering any big-idea solutions, he has proposed transforming the education system, reviving American manufacturing and getting control of "our energy future."

"The truth is the Republicans are not offering ideas to deal with our economic challenges. They want to go back to the same ideas that were in place in the last decade," Axelrod said.

Saying the president has already authorized $2 trillion in deficit cuts, Axelrod said revenues must be a part of the equation, which Republicans refuse to consider. He added that millionaires may be playing by the rules when they file their taxes and up with an effective percentage rate that is lower than the middle class, but he said the rules are not right.

"If we're going to solve this deficit, then everybody is going to have to give a little, and that includes people at the top," Axelrod said.

With so much disagreement over who should pay, how much they should pay and what the revenues should be spent on, one of the few items that lawmakers will likely pass and get to the president's desk this year is a payroll tax cut.

But that one line item alone is cause for disagreement.

"There's broad agreement on doing the payroll tax holiday through the end of the year. Republicans, Democrats agree on that," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. "The problem is the paying for it."

McConnell said to cover the payroll tax cut, the government must spend less. But he said the administration refuses, instead pursuing programs that aren't working and then blaming someone else when they fail.

Democrats want to "pretend like the president just showed up yesterday, just got sworn in and started fresh. In fact, he's been in office three years. He got everything he wanted from a completely compliant congress for two of those three years," he said.

"This election will unquestionably be a referendum on his performance. And he owned the government the first two years ... there's no mistaking, we are living in the Obama economy," McConnell said.

With few other items on the table this year, Boehner said the U.S. Senate already has 27 bills aimed at reviving the economy sent over by the House. Many of those ideas the president's jobs council has endorsed, he said.

Ryan added that a bipartisan consensus is emerging in the House to fix big problems like Medicare, one of the major drivers of the debt and about 20 percent of the federal government's spending. He said Democrats also agree on tax reforms that "get the loopholes out, lower the rates."

"The problem is the president and his party leaders are out on the left standing in the sidelines looking in. So, what we clearly need is a new White House and a new Senate and then we can realize this emerging bipartisan consensus on how to fix these problems," he said.

One idea that the president has put on hold -- the Keystone XL pipeline -- will be the next item the House delivers, Boehner said.

"If it's not enacted before we take up the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, it will be part of it," Boehner said.

Axelrod appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press," Boehner was on ABC's "This Week" and McConnell spoke on CNN's "State of the Union."

Friday, January 27, 2012

Go Jan Brewer!!!!

Brewer releases copy of letter she handed to Obama

by Yvonne Wingett Sanchez - Jan. 26, 2012 10:43 PM The Republic | azcentral.com


In a sudden about-face, Gov. Jan Brewer on Thursday evening made public a copy of the letter she handed President Barack Obama during their high-profile encounter a day earlier that dominated national news, the blogosphere and water-cooler conversation.

Brewer had presented the letter to Obama during an official airport welcome that turned into a brief confrontation, during which she pointed a finger at the president.

At one point Thursday, the feisty interaction at the start of the president's visit to the Valley sent "Jan Brewer" to No. 8 on Twitter's trending topics in the U.S. Online sales of Brewer's book "Scorpions for Breakfast" exploded. And the "finger wag" led to a petition by state Democrats asking Brewer to apologize to the president.

Brewer continued to defend her actions Thursday, saying she meant no disrespect to the president and explaining that she often gestures when she speaks. She called allegations that their confrontation was a publicity stunt "absolutely ridiculous."

In a Thursday night interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer, Obama shrugged off the tarmac encounter.

"What I have discovered is that -- I think it's always good publicity for a Republican if they're in an argument with me."

He added: "But this was really not a big deal."

Some of the discussion Thursday in the media and on the Internet about the encounter centered on what was in the letter the governor delivered to Obama on the tarmac of Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, particularly after her office said it would not be releasing the letter.

When The Arizona Republic requested a copy, Brewer's spokesman, Matthew Benson, said no copies existed and the letter was "personal, handwritten" correspondence not subject to open-records laws.

On Thursday, Benson released the letter, saying: "Unbeknownst to me" a copy was made. "I sincerely regret the miscommunication."

The one-page letter was written in cursive script on Executive Office stationery. The letter touches on job creation, the state's budget, and Brewer mentions visiting the border.

The letter says in part:

"You've arrived in a state at the forefront of America's recovery -- and her future," she wrote. "We both love this great country, but we fundamentally disagree on how to best make America grow and prosper once again. I'd love an opportunity to share with you how we've been able to turn Arizona around with hard choices that turned out to be the right ones. And, of course, my offer to visit the border -- and buy lunch -- still stands."

The governor signed the letter "With respect, Jan."

After Brewer delivered the letter to Obama, the two spoke intensely for a few minutes and she pointed her finger at him. During the encounter, they were talking over each other before Obama appeared to walk away from the governor while they were still talking.

Brewer later said that the conversation left her "breathless" and that Obama had brought up her book.

Brewer's book, "Scorpions for Breakfast: My Fight Against Special Interests, Liberal Media, and Cynical Politicos to Secure America's Border," deals with the state's tough immigration law, Senate Bill 1070, the events that precipitated it and the fallout from its passage.

She repeatedly skewers the president in the book, painting a different picture of her June 2010 Oval Office meeting with Obama than she did in media interviews after the event, when she told media it "was a successful meeting, and I'm encouraged by that."

In the book, however, the governor criticizes Obama for publicly mocking the state and SB 1070. She said Obama was condescending towards her during their 2010 meeting and lectured her about his efforts for comprehensive immigration reform.

"It wasn't long before I realized I was hearing the president's stump speech," the book said. "Only I was supposed to listen without talking. He was patronizing."

And after Wednesday's encounter, she called Obama disrespectful because he walked away from her in mid-sentence.

"Well, I would never have walked away from anybody having a conversation," she said. "And, of course, that is what it is. It is disrespectful for me."

Video and photos of the encounter overshadowed the presidential visit and once again catapulted Brewer into the national spotlight.

She's been there before for different reasons.

In 2010, when she signed immigration law SB 1070 into law, she did it on a national stage. Months earlier, she was thrust in the national spotlight after she paused for 13 seconds during a televised campaign debate. Critics ridiculed her for mangling the English language, saying "We have did what was right for Arizona."

Despite her most recent headlines, Jay Carney, a White House press secretary, on Thursday told reporters on Air Force One that the airport confrontation was "overblown."

"It's not a very big deal, at all," Carney said. "Some of this is political theater, to some degree, I guess."

Brewer's initial handling of the letter, and her contention that it was personal, raised legal questions about the way the Governor's Office was complying with the state's public-records law. Experts considered the letter to be a public record that should be released.

"There's nothing remotely personal about this," said Dan Barr, a First Amendment attorney who also advises the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona Inc. "She presented it to the president of the United States in the most public way possible. The whole reason to hand him this letter in public is for political theater, and then to be asked what was in the letter."

A public record generally is defined as any record created or maintained by a public official or government entity, no matter whether it is handwritten, typed or recorded.

Benson said late Thursday that he does not know who made a copy of the letter, and he would not say who informed him of the copy.

Here in America...In Got We STILL Trust!

A GREAT song by Diamond Rio...radio considers it too politically incorrect to play..what a shame...maybe Newt is right when he talks about the war against the Christian Religion going on here in America....both Obama and the courts would day anything they could to silence the Christian faith...

Take a Listen...it's worth it...then pass it on...

Obama's Got to Go in November 2012!

Not Sure who wrote this, but I couldn't agree more with the message...everyone needs to get involved to make certain we get this dangerous President Obama out of office...


Barack Obama has gone from the “one we've been waiting for" to the one we can’t wait to kick out. No one ever thought one man could bring the nation to its knees, but here he is living in the White House. And on our knees we have been praying for the day that he leaves.

The audacity of a president hell-bent on destroying our great nation has truly been a stunning spectacle to observe. No lie is too ridiculous to tell about anyone who opposes him. With a compliant media behind him, the smears this Demagogue-in-Chief promises to unleash on his opponent this fall could divide the county so badly that it becomes ungovernable.

The societal tensions Obama promised to ease have worsened by his politics of envy. The racial healing he promised has been made worse. Despite overwhelming opposition, he forced a health plan on the people that few want. He has trampled on the Constitution, and infringed on powers granted to Congress. He has bailed out auto companies, investment bankers and insurance companies. He has given Constitutional rights to terrorists.

Obama’s greatest transgression, however, has been the explosion of government spending to the point where we are enslaved to a mountain of debt that can never be repaid. He has given us $1.6-trillion deficits, and will have added more than $6 trillion to the debt by the end of his term. He has risen the percentage of GDP consumed by government to 25 percent. And all his spending has stimulated nothing.

If you believe what the government reports, total unemployment is currently 15.2 percent as measured by U-6. During Obama’s tenure, true unemployment has been running greater than 20 percent and is near Depression Era levels. In sum, Obama’s presidency has hastened a financial disaster upon the nation.

Obama calls his policies “transformation.” In an earlier age, they would have been considered something akin to treason. Our enemies could not have planted someone to have caused more damage. And now, with financial collapse on the horizon, our very way of life is threatened.

Altogether, Barack Obama will probably go down in history as the worst president of all time. Until now, historians have long given that dubious distinction to James Buchanan, who left office to Abraham Lincoln as the nation was falling apart and headed toward civil war. It is no exaggeration to say the 2012 election is every bit as important as was the 1860 election. James Buchanan at least had good intentions. The same cannot be said for Barack Obama. His intent is not to build up, but only to tear the nation down, and then to cover his tracks. There is no other way to explain his actions.

Millions of Americans, however, have finally had enough. A counterrevolution is rising to a level rarely seen in our history. There hasn’t been this intensity of grassroots activity since the abolitionist movement of the 1850s. People are making themselves visible in the community. They are organizing rallies and call-in campaigns. They are studying the Constitution, and will not be silenced by charges of racism or any other falsehood uttered by the Left.

And when the new president is sworn in, collective relief will be felt across the land. But the long and hard road to recovery will have only begun. Whether America avoids financial collapse will be uncertain for years to come.

For a government that borrows 36 cents of every dollar it spends, the math is simple. We will need real cuts to the federal budget near 36 percent to survive. Factor in modest economic growth and perhaps the cuts could be 30 percent. But failure to make real cuts on this scale risks runaway inflation and disaster. Any way you look at it, people’s pain will be deep, and it will be real.

With Obama gone and the threat of reprisals removed, people will begin to talk, and eventually the truth about Obama’s mysterious past will come out. What was hidden, scrubbed, and not vetted in 2008 -- including his grades, his college records, his passport, his personal associations, and yes, even his birth -- will all be exposed. It is all just a matter of time. The duplicity and deceit to be uncovered will shock even his most ardent supporters.

Who knows? A pariah status could very well attach itself to Obama on a level reserved for few individuals in American history. Obama could be regarded as the Benedict Arnold of our time. The masses may come to shun him, and rightly so. If there is poetic justice in this world, this will be his legacy.

November is not just another election; it is a seminal moment in American history. If Obama is reelected, expect ObamaCare to stay, the debt to crush us, our defenses to be laid bare, Iran to get the bomb, and at least two liberals to be named to the Supreme Court. If Obama is reelected, America as we know it will be gone forever. Collapse will be certain.

For true hope and true change, perhaps we should try returning to a limited Constitutional government. We all need to be involved. Whether or not we can turn around the disaster Barack Obama has foisted upon us hinges first on removing him from office. Now is the time to go about the work of doing just that. This is the year, folks. Buckle up. It’s going to be a rough ride.

The State of the Union was a FLOP!

January 26, 2012 8:00 P.M.

State of the Union Flop
Obama prefers easy demagoguery to big ideas.


By Charles Krauthammer

Once upon a time, small ball was not Barack Obama’s game. Tuesday, it was the essence of his State of the Union address. The visionary of 2008 — purveyor of hope and change, healer of the earth, tamer of the rising seas — offered an hour of little things: tax-code tweaks to encourage this or that kind of behavior (manufacturing being the flavor of the day), little watchdog agencies to round up Wall Street miscreants and Chinese DVD pirates, even a presidential demand “that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn 18.” Under penalty of what? Jail? The self-proclaimed transformer of America is now playing truant officer?

It sounded like the Clinton years with their presidentially proclaimed initiatives on midnight basketball and school uniforms. These are the marks of a shrunken presidency, thoroughly flummoxed by high unemployment, economic stagnation, crushing debt — and a glaring absence of ideas.


Advertisement Of course, this being Obama, there was a reach for grandeur. Hope and change are long gone. It’s now equality and fairness.

That certainly is a large idea. Lenin and Mao went pretty far with it. As did Clement Attlee and his social-democratic counterparts in post-war Europe. Where does Obama take it? Back to the decade-old Democratic obsession with the Bush tax cuts, the crusade for a tax hike of all of 4.6 points for 2 percent of households — ten years of which wouldn’t cover the cost of Obama’s 2009 stimulus alone.

Which is why Obama introduced a shiny new twist — the Buffett Rule, a minimum 30 percent rate for millionaires. Sounds novel. But it’s a tired replay of the alternative minimum tax, originally created in 1969 to bring to heel all of 155 underpaying fat cats. Following the fate of other such do-goodism, the AMT then metastasized into a $40 billion monster that today entraps millions of middle-class taxpayers.

There isn’t even a pretense that the Buffett Rule will do anything for economic growth or job creation (other than provide lucrative work for the sharp tax lawyers who will be gaming the new system for the very same rich). Which should not surprise. Back in 2008, Obama was asked if he would still support raising the capital-gains-tax rate (the intended effect of the Buffett Rule) if this would decrease government revenues.

Obama said yes. In the name of fairness.

This is redistribution for its own sake — the cost be damned. It took Indiana governor Mitch Daniels about 30 seconds of his State of the Union rebuttal to demolish that idea. To get the rich to contribute more, explained Daniels, you don’t raise tax rates. This ultimately retards economic growth for all. You (a) eliminate loopholes from which the rich benefit disproportionately (tax reform) and (b) means-test entitlements so that the benefits go to those most in need.

Tax reform and entitlement reform are the really big ideas. The first produces social equity plus economic efficiency; the second produces social equity plus debt reduction. And yet these are precisely what Obama has for three years steadfastly refused to address. He prefers the easy demagoguery of “tax the rich.”

After all, what’s he got? Can’t run on his record. Barely even mentioned Obamacare or the stimulus, his major legislative achievements, on Tuesday night. Too unpopular. His platform is fairness, wrapped around a plethora of little things, one mini-industrial policy after another — the conceit nicely encapsulated by his proclamation that “I will not cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China or to Germany.” As if he can command these industries into existence. As if Washington funding a thousand Solyndras will make solar economically viable.

Soviet central planners mandated quotas for steel production, regardless of demand. Obama’s industrial policy is a bit more subtle. Tax breaks for manufacturing — but double tax breaks for high-tech manufacturing, which for some reason is considered more virtuous, despite the fact that high tech is less likely to create blue-collar jobs. Its main job creation will be for legions of lawyers and linguists testifying before some new adjudicating bureaucracy that the Acme Umbrella Factory meets their exquisitely drawn criteria for “high tech.”

What Obama offered the nation Tuesday night was a pudding without a theme: a jumble of disconnected initiatives, a gaggle of intrusive new agencies, and a whole new generation of loopholes to further corrupt a tax code that screams out for reform.

If the Republicans can’t beat that in November, they should try another line of work.

— Charles Krauthammer is a nationally syndicated columnist. © 2012 the Washington Post Writers Group

More Wasted Taxpayer Money by a President that Just Doesn't Get It!

Parent of Obama-backed battery maker goes bankrupt

Published January 27, 2012 | Associated Press

The parent company of an electric car battery maker that received a $118 million grant from the Obama administration filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday.

New York-based Ener1 said it has been affected by competition from China and other countries.

Ener1 subsidiary EnerDel received a $118 million stimulus grant from the Energy Department in 2009, and Vice President Joe Biden visited the company's new battery plant in Indiana last year.

Ener1 is the third company to seek bankruptcy protection after receiving assistance from the Energy Department under the economic stimulus law. California solar panel maker Solyndra Inc. and Beacon Power, a Massachusetts energy-storage firm, declared bankruptcy last year. Solyndra received a $528 million federal loan, while Beacon Power got a $43 million loan guarantee.

Solyndra, of Fremont, Calif., was the first renewable-energy company to receive a loan guarantee under the 2009 stimulus law, and the Obama administration frequently touted it as a model for its clean energy program.

Since then, the company's implosion and revelations that the administration hurried a review of the loan in time for a 2009 groundbreaking has become an embarrassment for President Barack Obama and a rallying cry for GOP critics of the administration's green energy program.

The chairman of a House subcommittee that is investigating Solyndra said the latest bankruptcy showed that the administration's clean energy program has failed.

"Unfortunately, you can now add Ener1 to the growing list of failed companies that went belly up after hundreds of millions of dollars in administration backing," said Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla.

"One bankruptcy may be a fluke, two could be coincidence, but three is a trend," Stearns said. "Our investigation continues, and we are working to ensure taxpayers are never again stuck paying hundreds of millions of dollars because of the administration's risky bets."

An Energy Department spokeswoman said EnerDel had received $55 million so far under a program in which EnerDel matches federal investment dollar-for-dollar. Ener1 said in a statement that the restructuring would not affect EnerDel's operations. The company makes lithium-ion batteries for electric cars such as the Chevrolet Volt.

"While it's unfortunate that Ener1, the parent company, has entered a restructuring process," a recent infusion of $80 million in private investment "demonstrates that the technology has merit," said Jen Stutsman, a spokeswoman for the Energy Department.

"The restructuring is not expected to impact EnerDel's operations and they do not expect to reduce employment at the site" near Indianapolis, Stutsman said.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Newt Should Be Mad....He's the ONLY one that can Really Change Washington!

Newt Gingrich gets mad

By GINGER GIBSON | 1/26/12 5:03 PM EST

MOUNT DORA, Fla. — Newt Gingrich is hopping mad. And he’s not going to take it.

Under siege from Mitt Romney and conservative elites who seem to be conspiring against his candidacy, Gingrich abandoned his stump speech on Thursday in favor of an angry tirade against his most daunting Republican rival and the Washington establishment. He isn’t the candidate who vowed to stay positive in Iowa, or the nose-to-the-grindstone guy he was in South Carolina.

s he took the stage before a tea-party crowd here, Gingrich seethed at Romney for the avalanche of negative ads blanketing the Florida airwaves and bashed the Beltway denizens for coalescing to obstruct his rise.

“There’s the Washington establishment sitting around in a frenzy, having coffee, lunch and cocktail hour talking about, ‘How do we stop Gingrich?’ ” he said, referring to a spate of prominent Republicans who painted him Thursday in as a philandering egomaniac comparable to Bill Clinton and not as close to Ronald Reagan as he would like to think.

The former House speaker told the tea-party crowd that they shouldn’t be confused by the attacks coming from the right as it’s still part of the scared establishment.

“Remember the Republican establishment is just as much as an establishment as the Democratic establishment, and they are just as determined to stop us,” he said.

The former speaker may have gotten worked up in Iowa, after his chances to win there were dashed when Romney and his super PAC trashed his record. His weapon of revenge was painting Romney as a corporate raider and tying him to Bain Capital, a tactic that won him plaudits among Democrats but terrified Republicans and forced him to tone down his rhetoric. The anger also distracted Gingrich from delivering a coherent message and threw him off his game.

On Thursday, Gingrich went off on Romney for his negative ads, some of which are being aired by his own campaign and some by his super PAC. The ads depict Gingrich as misrepresenting his consulting work for mortgage broker Freddie Mac, which Romney says was really lobbying. They show him sitting on a couch with Rep. Nancy Pelosi and cite her statements about whether she knows about a bombshell in his former ethics case.

“This is the desperate last stand of the old order throwing the kitchen sink, hoping something sticks because if only they can drown us in enough mud, raised with money from companies and people who foreclosed on Floridians,” Gingrich said as he pounded on the podium. “Let’s be really clear, you’re watching ads paid for with the money taken from the people of Florida by companies like Goldman Sachs, recycled back into ads to try to stop you from having a choice in this election.”

Gingrich is referring to the fact, he says, that Romney owns stock in Goldman Sachs, which he claims is partially responsible for the mortgage crisis in Florida.

From there, Gingrich launched into a diatribe: Mitt Romney, backed by big banks that take people’s homes, thinks the voters of Florida are stupid.

“And [Romney] says, `You know, I don’t want to go back to the Reagan-Bush years. I was an independent then,’ ” Gingrich said, referring to Romney’s remarks during his 1994 Senate campaign. “He won’t tell you that now because he is counting on us not having YouTube. That’s how much he thinks we’re stupid, and we’re not stupid. The message we should give Mitt Romney is you know, ‘We aren’t that stupid and you aren’t that clever.’”

Gingrich’s tone has changed markedly even from the past week, when the ex-lawmaker was smiling and responding to questions about the new onslaught from the Romney camp.

Listen “I love them, don’t you love these guys?” Gingrich said sarcastically with a smile on Wednesday when asked about Romney surrogates attacking him.

There were no smiles by Thursday.

“There is something so grotesquely hypocritical about the Romney campaign that I think it’s just going to melt down over the next 6 or 8 weeks as the American people learn more about him,” he told reporters after the tea party rally.

In Iowa, Gingrich largely took it on the chin when Romney unleashed his wave of attack ads that ultimately sank the former speaker’s chances there. He did little in return. Gingrich’s answer to in Iowa was to hold tele-town hall calls, where he took questions from callers but had little ability to measure their response or drive his message home.

He spent days stumping in Iowa with no clear message. His anger at Romney bubbled over the night of the caucuses, when he placed fourth, and gave a bitter post-result speech to an empty ballroom. It spilled over into a withering attack on Romney’s time at Bain Capital in New Hampshire, but Gingrich backed down — mostly — from that offensive in South Carolina in favor of retail politicking.

The first three days in Florida, Gingrich’s stump speech remained largely the same while Romney stepped up his attacks.

But the Romney camp has been egging him on, sending surrogates, mostly U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, to every Gingrich campaign stop. Mack stands in the back next to reporters, offering his own criticism and response to the speech in real-time.

The presence of Romney supporters at his events hasn’t gone unnoticed by Gingrich or his campaign.

At a rally in Jacksonville, Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond tried to bait a tea-party supporter with a camera to ask Mack why he had “sold out to the establishment.”

“I’d be delighted for Romney to personally come to one of my events,” Gingrich told reporters when asked about the presence of surrogates. “If you notice, he does all of his work – everything which is negative, he does by hiring people. He’s used the idea of hiring people, almost as much as he’s used to the idea of firing people.”

Biden is an IDIOT!

This sounds racial to me...

Newt's starting to get Attacked by the Republican Establishment...Time to Support Newt!

Romney doesn't have any more integrity than Obama on these issues...it's just the established Republican organization coming after Newt...that just makes me want to support Newt more....!

Mike Reagan, Rush Limbaugh Blast Romney

Thursday, 26 Jan 2012 03:02 PM By Jim Meyers

Ronald Reagan’s eldest son Mike Reagan has issued a statement lambasting Mitt Romney and his supporters for claims that Romney’s Republican presidential rival Newt Gingrich was a strong critic of President Reagan.

Reagan says such claims are false.

Even Rush Limbaugh, shocked by the Romney claims, chimed on his Thursday radio broadcast to say "This is obviously a coordinated attack to take Newt out here in Florida."

Rush slammed the Romney-backed smear campaign against Newt.

“That kind of stuff is why people hate Romney so much," Limbaugh said.

Limbaugh added that Newt has always been a conservative from his early days in national talk radio in the 1980s.

“He was perhaps the premier defender of Ronald Reagan,” Limbaugh said.

On Thursday, Mike Reagan, a respected conservative commentator, responded to the Gingrich critics with this statement to Newsmax:

“I am deeply disturbed that supporters of Mitt Romney are claiming that Newt Gingrich is not a true Reaganite and are even claiming that Newt was a strong critic of my father.

“Recently I endorsed Newt Gingrich for president because I believe that Newt is the only Republican candidate who has both consistently backed the conservative policies that my father championed and the only Republican that will continue to implement his vision.

“It surprises me that Mitt Romney and his supporters would raise this issue — when Mitt by his own admission voted for Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale who opposed my father, and later supported liberal Democrat Paul Tsongas for president.

“As governor of Massachusetts, Romney’s achievement was the most socialistic healthcare plan in the nation up until that time.

“Say what you want about Newt Gingrich but when he was Speaker of the House he surrounded himself with Reagan conservatives and implemented a Ronald Reagan program of low taxes and restrained federal spending.

“Newt’s conservative program created a huge economic boom and balanced the budget for the first time in more than a generation.”

Mike Reagan concluded: “I would take Newt Gingrich’s record any day over Mitt Romney’s.”

And Nancy Reagan, Reagan’s wife, has stressed Gingrich’s close relationship with her late husband.

In a 1995 speech at a dinner honoring Ronald Reagan, Nancy said: “The dramatic movement of 1995 is an outgrowth of a much earlier crusade that goes back half a century. Barry Goldwater handed the torch to Ronnie, and in turn Ronnie turned that torch over to Newt and the Republican members of Congress to keep that dream alive.”

Obama's Puppetmaster....

Buffet....just another liberal hypocrite...



And today it's reported that Buffet's "poor secretary" makes between $200,000 and $500,000.

Mr. Barack "Fair Share" Obama ...it's time to take a look in the mirror!

Time for Mr. Fair share Obama to clean up the mess in his house before he talks about fairness outside....and what about the fairness of 46+% of Americans paying NO FEDERAL INCOME TAX????? What a hypocrite...

36 Obama aides owe $833,000 in back taxes

Posted 08:18 AM ET Pete Souza / White House

How embarrassing this must be for President Obama, whose major speech theme so far this campaign season has been that every single American, no matter how rich, should pay their "fair share" of taxes.

Because how unfair -- indeed, un-American -- it is for an office worker like, say, Warren Buffet's secretary to dutifully pay her taxes, while some well-to-do people with better educations and higher incomes end up paying a much smaller tax rate.

Or, worse, skipping their taxes altogether.

A new report just out from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama's executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes. These people working for Mr. Fair Share apparently haven't paid any share, let alone their fair share.

Previous reports have shown how well-paid Obama's White House staff is, with 457 aides pulling down more than $37 million last year. That's up seven workers and nearly $4 million from the Bush administration's last year.

Nearly one-third of Obama's aides make more than $100,000 with 21 being paid the top White House salary of $172,200, each.

The IRS' 2010 delinquent tax revelations come as part of a required annual agency report on federal employees' tax compliance. Turns out, an awful lot of folks being paid by taxpayers are not paying their own income taxes.

The report finds that thousands of federal employees owe the country more than $3.4 billion in back taxes. That's up 3% in the past year.

That scale of delinquency could annoy voters, hard-pressed by their own costs, fears and stubbornly high unemployment despite Joe Biden's many promises.

The tax offenders include employees of the U.S. Senate who help write the laws imposed on everyone else. They owe $2.1 million. Workers in the House of Representatives owe $8.5 million, Department of Education employees owe $4.3 million and over at Homeland Security, 4,697 workers owe about $37 million. Active duty military members owe more than $100 million.

The Treasury Department, where Obama nominee Tim Geithner had to pay up $42,000 in his own back taxes before being confirmed as secretary, has 1,181 other employees with delinquent taxes totaling $9.3 million.

As usual, the Postal Service, with more than 600,000 workers, has the most offenders (25,640), who also owe the most -- almost $270 million. Veterans Affairs has 11,659 workers owing the IRS $151 million while the Energy Department that was so quick to dish out more than $500 million to the Solyndra folks has 322 employees owing $5 million.

The country's chief law enforcement agency, the Department of Justice, has 2,069 employees who are nearly $17 million behind in taxes. Like Operation Fast and Furious, Attorney General Eric Holder has apparently missed them too.

As with ordinary people, the IRS attempts to negotiate back-tax payment plans with all delinquents, whose names cannot be released. But according to current federal law, the only federal employees who can be fired for not paying taxes are IRS workers.

Chalk up One for Jan Brewer...

Take a Markup on Jan Brewer of Arizona...At least she has the guts to stand up to this arrogant ideolog...And after what he's done to Arizona he deserves everything he gets...wouldn't it be great if we had a national media that would stand up to Obama????




Day after call for political truces, Obama visibly snubs Arizona GOP governor

By Neil Munro - The Daily Caller | Updated: 12:05 AM 01/26/2012

A day after he called for an end to perpetual political confrontation, President Barack Obama and his deputies publicly snubbed Arizona’s Republican governor when she welcomed him at the Phoenix airport.

Gov. Jan Brewer met him at first stop of his five-state campaign swing with a hand-written letter asking him to visit the state’s southern border, which is a hotbed of illegal immigration and drug trafficking.

But Obama suddenly turned cold, claiming that her Nov. 2011 book mischaracterized their previous White House meeting in June 2010. He then quickly walked away.

Shortly after, Obama’s press aides released a statement claiming Obama said she “inaccurately described the meeting.” The three-sentence statement ended curtly, saying that “the President looks forward to continuing taking steps to help Arizona’s economy grow.”

Brewer has repeatedly asked for the federal government’s help to secure Arizona’s border with Mexico, where drug wars have claimed more than 40,000 lives in recent years. Smugglers cross the Arizona border to bring their drugs — and their gang fights — into the state and onto the roads further north.

But Obama “doesn’t get it,” Brewer told a radio interviewer Wednesday at Arizona’s KFYI news station.

“He wants to talk about comprehensive immigration reform,” she said, but “we need to talk about the problems that Arizona is facing, and in that context, the problems going on in Mexico… [but] he just doesn’t get it.”

Comprehensive immigration reform is a common Washington, D.C. euphemism for giving amnesty to illegal aliens.

Obama visited Arizona as part of his re-election campaign. His campaign officials say he may be able to win the state in 2012 because of the state’s growing Hispanic population.

The president’s decision to snub Brewer may help him spur Hispanic support, partly because Brewer championed the state’s immigration reform law. In 2010, polls showed the law was supported by more than 70 percent of Arizonans, but only by a quarter of Hispanics.

Since then, the law has been loudly slammed by Obama’s lawyers at the Department of Justice and their allied Hispanic ethnic lobbies, immigration law groups, and various progressive groups.

Obama’s curt treatment of Brewer came the day after he used his State of the Union speech to call for a reduction in partisan rancor.

Better government can’t “happen unless we also lower the temperature in this town.” he declared. “We need to end the notion that the two parties must be locked in a perpetual campaign of mutual destruction; that politics is about clinging to rigid ideologies instead of building consensus around common-sense ideas.”

Brewer’s book is titled “Scorpions for Breakfast: My Fight Against Special Interests, Liberal Media, and Cynical Politicos to Secure America’s Border.”

In the book, she described Obama as patronizing during their 2010 meeting when she asked for his help in curbing illegal immigration. His reaction, she wrote, “was though President Obama thought he could lecture me, and I would learn at his knee.”

At the airport, Obama said he “didn’t feel that I had treated him cordially. I said I was sorry he felt that way but I didn’t get my sentence finished” before he walked away, Brewer said.

“He was a little thin-skinned,” Brewer said during an later interview on a local radio station, News/Talk 92.3 KTAR. “I was a bit taken aback by his stance and his attitude” on the tarmac, she said, adding that Obama walked away from her “[as] I was trying to make a point that I thought that my book was right and correct.”

The episode marks yet another occasion when TV cameras catch Obama’s reaction to perceived disrespect. That side of the carefully controlled candidate is usually hidden, but does show on the rare occasions when reporters ask him awkward questions.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer points at President Barack Obama after he arrived at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Mesa, Ariz. Brewer greeted Obama and what she got was a book critique. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)Ultimately, the tension between Obama and Brewer may be based on their differences over Hispanic voters.

Brewer said she met with Obama at the airport to hand him an invitation to meet about Arizona’s border problems, and about its recovery, which she dubs the “Arizona comeback.”

“[I] reiterated an invitation that I’ve extended to him before with regards to coming to Arizona and going to the border with me. … We’ve had a remarkable comeback here and I want to share that with him,” Brewer said during the radio interview.

Arizona’s unemployment rate has declined from 10.3 percent in Oct. 2009, to 8.7 percent in December 2011.

That decline has occurred while the state began a partial enforcement of the 2010 immigration reform, amid furious opposition from Obama’s allies.

In July 2010, Obama’s lawyers sued to block the law and won a partial victory in a federal court. In December, the Supreme Court said it would consider the validity of the popular reform.

Obama’s re-election chances, and his odds of wining Arizona’s electoral votes, are heavily dependent on the Hispanic voters who comprise roughly one-third of the state’s electorate.

In November, Obama had only a 41 percent approval rating in the state, according to a poll conducted by the Democratic-affiliated firm Public Policy Polling.

Obama’s allies have tried to spur Hispanic support for Obama by portraying the enforcement of the popular law against illegal-immigration as racist, and he has repeatedly supported the lawsuit against Brewer’s state.


OBAMA HAS HEATED ARGUMENT WITH AZ GOV

Wed Jan 25 2012 18:33:56 ET

POOL REPORT

President Obama arrived in Phoenix at 3:15 pm local time, finding the chilly weather of Iowa giving way to sunny skies and temperatures in the high 60s.

He stepped off Air Force One at 3:28 pm and was greeted by Gov. Jan Brewer. She handed him a handwritten letter in an envelope and they spoke intensely for a few minutes. At one point, she pointed her finger at him.

Afterwards, your pooler spoke with the governor.

"He was a little disturbed about my book, Scorpions for Breakfast. I said to him that I have all the respect in the world for the office of the president. The book is what the book is. I asked him if he read the book. He said he read the excerpt. So."

Asked what aspect of the book disturbed him, Brewer said: "That he didn't feel that I had treated him cordially. I said I was sorry he felt that way but I didn't get my sentence finished. Anyway, we're glad he's here. I'll regroup."

On the letter, she said it was personal letter asking him to sit down with her to discuss the "Arizona comeback."

She said she "reiterated an invitation that I've extended to him before with regards to coming to arizona and going to the border with me." She said she would take him to lunch.

"We've had a remarkable comeback here and I want to share that with him."

She said the president brought up the book.

"I thought we probably would've talked about the things that were important to him and important to me, helping one another. Our country is upside down. Arizona was upside down. But we have turned it around. I know again that he loves this country and I love this country."

It was clear from the moment they greeted one another that this would not be a run-of-the-mill encounter between the president and a local official. At one point, she was pointing her finger at him and at another, they were talking at the same time, seemingly over each other.

He appeared to walk away from her while they were still talking, and she confirmed that by saying she didn't finish her sentence.

When Brewer spoke with your pooler, the AP and an NBC producer for several minutes afterwards, she appeared a bit flustered and taken aback by the conversation. Asked if she was, that's when Brewer said, "I'll regroup."

Developing...

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Obama - Not a State of the Union, but a State of Omission

Heritage Foundations take on Obama terrible SOTU. They are right on target!

Obama's State of Omission

Speaking last night from the U.S. Capitol, President Barack Obama described the state of the Union as he sees it -- strong and getting stronger, with future growth fueled by his pursuit of progressive policies and an expansion of government, all architected to bring about his brand of "fairness." The President essentially redelivered his 2011 State of the Union address -- complete with the same empty rhetoric, class warfare cloaked in "fairness," and proposals for massive tax and spending increases.

The speech was notable for the items he did not mention, including many of the failed spending programs and policies he undertook over the past three years, the foreign policy and defense challenges he has exacerbated, and the economic actions he failed to take that would have created jobs and spurred economic growth.

Governor Mitch Daniels (R-IN), who delivered the response to the State of the Union address, shined a light on those titanic omissions -- the state of America's economic and fiscal crises, the President's promise to fix them, and his failure to do anything but make matters worse, all amid a trillion dollars in stimulus spending and a rapidly expanding bureaucracy:

The percentage of Americans with a job is at the lowest in decades. One in five men of prime working age, and nearly half of all persons under 30, did not go to work today.

In three short years, an unprecedented explosion of spending, with borrowed money, has added trillions to an already unaffordable national debt. And yet, the President has put us on a course to make it radically worse in the years ahead. The federal government now spends one of every four dollars in the entire economy; it borrows one of every three dollars it spends.

Apart from the truth about the depths of America's unemployment crisis and the scope of government spending, the President barely mentioned his signature legislative item, Obamacare, which is facing a Supreme Court constitutional challenge; Social Security and the country's entitlement crisis; his decision to say "no" to the Keystone XL pipeline and the jobs it would bring with it; the Solyndra scandal and the failures of his green energy initiatives; the illegality of his appointments to the Consumer Financial Protection Board and the National Labor Relations Board; the Senate's failure to pass a budget for 1,000 days under the leadership of his own party; the high costs that his additional regulations bring with them; his party's opposition to free trade agreements; the fraudulent elections in Russia; the ongoing collapse of the Euro; warnings about his decision to slash defense spending; the remaining challenges in Afghanistan; and the violence that has erupted in Iraq after the departure of U.S. troops.

It's not surprising, of course, that the President would want to hide from his failures, but it's troubling to see that he plans to continue on the progressive course he has set for the country. In the President's words, "We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules."

This "fairness" argument, which the President cloaked in the most moderate of terms, lays the foundation for a wholesale deconstruction of America as we know it. Instead of a country where individuals are free to rise and fall on their own merits, the President seeks a system where an all-powerful federal government guarantees equal outcomes, regardless of one's merit. The Heritage Foundation's Matthew Spalding explains:

In [Obama's] view, "fairness" flows not from opportunity and freedom of the individual, but from more government power, federal education programs, economic regulations, and infrastructure spending. And, of course, raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for these "investments" would only be fair.

Such policy prescriptions lead to a governing class that insists on enforcing political and economic 'fairness' rather than letting us govern ourselves, choose our own vocations and earn our own success. The idea that the government can and should step in to guarantee economic fairness is contrary to the founding principles that make America so great-and that enable its citizens to achieve success. It is contrary to the very meaning of the American Dream.

The United States faces significant challenges: a $15 trillion debt, 13.1 million unemployed Americans, exploding entitlement and health care costs, a broken education system, a military in disrepair, the continued threat of terrorism, a nuclear Iran, and the ongoing war in Afghanistan, among others. There is hope, but it does not emanate from a bigger, more powerful federal government that squelches entrepreneurship, ignores our fiscal crisis, and disregards the need for a strong national defense. The President says the state of the Union is getting stronger, but he is doing very little to ensure that happens.

That's the Newt We Need As a Presidential Candidate!

Newt to Pelosi - 'Put up or shut up...bring it on'

By Kerry Picket

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich responded to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, who said on Wednesday night on CNN's John King that Mr. Gingrich would never become President of the United States.

"There is something I know. The Republicans, if they choose to nominate him that's their prerogative," said Congresswoman Pelosi. "I don't even think that's going to happen."

Mr. Gingrich appeared on The Washington Times affiliated radio program "America's Morning News" and forcefully responded to Rep. Pelosi.

"There's almost a level of hysteria about the prospect of somebody who really wants to change Washington," said Mr. Gingrich to host John McCaslin.

"I have a simple challenge for Speaker Pelosi...you know, put up or shut up. I mean, I have no idea what she's talking about. I don't think she has any idea what she's talking about, but bring it on," he said.

"My life has been looked at by lots of people and I've been around a long time. And I just think that when you are a left-wing Democrat, the prospect of a Gingrich presidency is really sort of like a nightmare," Mr. Gingrich added.

This Makes Sense to Me...Obama IS the Food Stamp President!

Not Only the Same Failed Message, But the SAME WORDS....

Obama is Just a JOKE!




Haven't We Heard this Before?

11:46 PM, Jan 24, 2012

The Republican National Committee has compiled this video comparing lines President Obama used tonight in his State of the Union Address with lines he used in previous addresses before Congress:


Obama 2010: "It's time for colleges and universities to get serious about cutting their own costs.

Obama 2012: "Colleges and universities have to do their part by working to keep costs down."

***

Obama 2010: "And we should continue the work by fixing our broken immigration system."

Obama 2011: "I strongly believe that we should take on, once and for all, the issue of illegal immigration."

Obama 2012: "I believe as strongly as ever that we should take on illegal immigration."

***

Obama 2010: "We face a deficit of trust."

Obama 2012: "I've talked tonight about the deficit of trust . . ."

***

Obama 2010: "We can't wage a perpetual campaign."

Obama 2012: "We need to end the notion that the two parties must be locked in a perpetual campaign."

***

The good news is that after a couple years these sorts of speeches begin to write themselves.

Who would EVER believe ANYTHING that Pelosi would say anyway!

Posted on January 24, 2012

Pelosi On A Gingrich Presidency: "That Will Never Happen"

John King, CNN: "You make your case there passionately for President Obama. But also understand that this is a tough reelection climate for any president, Democrat or Republican in this economy. Because of your history with Speaker Gingrich, what goes through your mind when you think of the possibility, which is more real today than it was a week or a month ago, that he would be the Republican nominee and that you could come back here next January or next February with a President Gingrich?"

Rep. Nancy Pelosi: "Let me just say this. That will never happen."

King: "Why?"

Pelosi: "He's not going to be President of the United States. That's not going to happen. Let me just make my prediction and stand by it, it isn't going to happen."

King: "Why are you so sure?"

Pelosi: "There is something I know. The Republicans, if they choose to nominate him that's their prerogative. I don't even think that's going to happen."

Obama - Out of Answers - Doesn't even See the Problem...

Obama's not only out of answers, but he really doesn't even begin to understand the problem...What a pathetic excuse for an American President!!! This was a pathetic SOTU address....He's got to go in November of 2012...we can't afford him any longer...

Obama offers wish list for recovery, few answers for tackling debt

Published January 25, 2012 | FoxNews.com

President Obama won high marks for backing off the partisan snipes and focusing on policy during his State of the Union address, but his proposals, heavy on government intervention and tax hikes on the wealthy, will likely do little to lower the temperature in Washington or gain traction in an election year.

In an ambitious speech that focused on manufacturing, clean energy investment and educational training as economic opportunities, the president said he wants to return America to prosperity by eliminating inequalities that he claims favor the rich at the expense of the rest. He prioritized extending a payroll tax cut and suggested raising the rates on wealthy Americans to pay for it.


January 24, 2012: President Barack Obama delivers the State of the Union address as Vice President Joe Biden, left, and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio listen in the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

"Right now, we're poised to spend nearly $1 trillion more on what was supposed to be a temporary tax break for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans," the president said. "Do we want to keep these tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans? Or do we want to keep our investments in everything else -- like education and medical research; a strong military and care for our veterans? Because if we're serious about paying down our debt, we can't do both."

But with an entitlement system that eats away more than 40 percent of the government's annual spending and a $15.2 trillion debt that is expected to rise this week after a Senate vote to lift the debt ceiling once more, some fiscal watchdogs are wondering whether the president is serious about economic recovery.

"The president missed an opportunity to throw down the gauntlet to Congress on the debt and demand a large, bipartisan debt reduction plan this year," said Maya MacGuineas, head of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. "We've punted on this issue for far too long, and the longer we wait the more difficult it will be to control rising debt and the closer we get to a potential crisis."

"Where's the guts? Where's the hard stuff? Where's the beef?" Alan Simpson, co-chairman of the president's commission on debt and deficits, asked on Fox Business Network.

In his remarks, Obama said he wanted to use half the savings from ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for debt reduction -- and take the other half and use it for funding big-idea construction projects like the Hoover Dam.

Only once in his speech did the president pay lip service to entitlement reform.

"I'm prepared to make more reforms that rein in the long term costs of Medicare and Medicaid, and strengthen Social Security, so long as those programs remain a guarantee of security for seniors," he said. "But in return, we need to change our tax code so that people like me, and an awful lot of members of Congress, pay our fair share of taxes."

Obama sets out this week to Iowa and Arizona to promote manufacturing; to Nevada and Colorado to discuss energy; and to Michigan to talk college affordability, education and job training.

But the details may be difficult to sell. The president called on lawmakers to change tax law to reward those that return to the U.S. from overseas but punish companies that move offshore. He also called for a minimum tax on multinational firms.

He announced a financial fraud enforcement task force to be led by state attorneys general and federal entities to investigate misconduct contributing to the financial crisis.

"We will not go back to an economy weakened by outsourcing, bad debt and phony financial profits," he said.

Obama committed to opening some of the potential offshore oil and gas resources but called for an all-in strategy that placed heavy emphasis on "clean" energy like wind and high-tech batteries.

"What he did defend was the Solyndras of the world, and he intends to have more Solyndras coming," Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., said of the failed solar energy company that received more than $500 million in federal funding.

Calling the speech a "fan dance," Bachmann, in her first television interview since dropping out of the Republican presidential race, told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren that the president's proposal to have the military buy clean energy to distribute to homeowners is "essentially socialism."

"He was very proud of the fact that the federal government will be the producer of green energy and also the consumer of green energy," she said.

On education, the president pushed measures for college affordability, including taking federal aid from colleges that don't keep tuition down, and he urged Congress to make permanent a tuition tax credit worth $10,000 over four years.

The language hit the right notes for his supporters.

"We were also encouraged to hear the president talk so much about clean energy as Colorado is leading the nation when it comes to renewable energy research and development," said Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper.

"The pillars of President Obama's agenda are consistent with the American values of fairness, opportunity and responsibility. ... America's prosperity only goes as far as the success of our workers, the education of our children, the growth of our small businesses and the economic security of our middle class," said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.

"We can't make it in America if we don't have anything that is made in America," said Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla.

But Republicans said the president is neglecting the heart of the U.S. economy.

"In three short years, an unprecedented explosion of spending, with borrowed money, has added trillions to an already unaffordable national debt," said Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels in the GOP response to the address. "And yet, the president has put us on a course to make it radically worse in the years ahead. The federal government now spends one of every four dollars in the entire economy; it borrows one of every three dollars it spends. No nation, no entity, large or small, public or private, can thrive, or survive intact, with debts as huge as ours."

"We're now three years into his presidency and there's no plan to save Social Security, there still no plan to save Medicare and there's still no serious plan to reduce the national debt and none of these things have been addressed," said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

Bipartisan Policy Center President Jason Grumet said getting the economy on track is the nation's greatest challenge, and the president did offer a short list where Congress can cooperate. But Grumet said the task is to find a path to get the country out of debt.

"We continue to believe that a payroll tax holiday is an efficient way to spur short-term economic growth and job creation. Still, a bipartisan and long-term approach for fiscal restraint and deficit reduction is needed, and any comprehensive debt reduction package must include entitlement and broad-based tax reforms," he said.

Obama - Same Old/Same Old...and as always more lies...

What a JOKE of a SOTU address last night...more of the same old same old rhetoric that has gotten us into this mess. Every American certainly can see through this rhetoric now...and as always there's issues of Obama not telling us the truth AGAIN!


FACT CHECK: Obama's 2012 State of the Union

Published January 24, 2012 | Associated Press

It was a wish list, not a to-do list.

President Obama's array of plans in his State of the Union speech was light on a key piece of context -- namely, that his hands are so tied until after the election that it is doubtful many if any of them can be done in the remainder of his term. There can be little more than wishful thinking behind his call to end oil industry subsidies -- something he could not get through a Democratic Congress, much less today's divided Congress, much less in this election year.

A look at Obama's rhetoric Tuesday night and how it fits with the facts and political realities of the day:

OBAMA: "We have subsidized oil companies for a century. That's long enough. It's time to end the taxpayer giveaways to an industry that's rarely been more profitable, and double-down on a clean energy industry that's never been more promising."

THE FACTS: This is at least Obama's third run at stripping subsidies from the oil industry. Back when fellow Democrats formed the House and Senate majorities, he sought $36.5 billion in tax increases on oil and gas companies over the next decade, but Congress largely ignored the request. He called again to end such tax breaks in last year's State of the Union speech. And he's now doing it again, despite facing a wall of opposition from Republicans who want to spur domestic oil and gas production and oppose tax increases generally.

------

OBAMA: "Our health care law relies on a reformed private market, not a government program."

THE FACTS: That's only half true. About half of the more than 30 million uninsured Americans expected to gain coverage through the health care law will be enrolled in a government program. Medicaid, the federal-state program for low-income people, will be expanded starting in 2014 to cover childless adults living near the poverty line.

The other half will be enrolled in private health plans through new state-based insurance markets. But many of them will be receiving federal subsidies to make their premiums more affordable. And that's a government program, too.

Starting in 2014 most Americans will be required to carry health coverage, either through an employer, by buying their own plan, or through a government program.

------

OBAMA: "Tonight, I want to speak about how we move forward, and lay out a blueprint for an economy that's built to last - an economy built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers, and a renewal of American values."

THE FACTS: Economists do see manufacturing growth as a necessary component of any U.S. recovery. U.S. manufacturing output climbed 0.9 percent in December, the biggest gain since December 2010. Yet Obama's apparent vision of a nation once again propelled by manufacturing -- a vision shared by many Republicans -- may already have slipped into the past.

Over generations, the economy has become ever more driven by services; not since 1975 has the U.S. had a surplus in merchandise trade, which covers trade in goods, including manufactured and farm goods. About 90 percent of American workers are employed in the service sector, a profound shift in the nature of the workforce over many decades.

The overall trade deficit through the first 11 months of 2011 ran at an annual rate of nearly $600 billion, up almost 12 percent from the year before.

------

OBAMA: "The Taliban's momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home."

THE FACTS: Obama is more sanguine about progress in Afghanistan than his own intelligence apparatus. The latest National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan warns that the Taliban will grow stronger, using fledgling talks with the U.S. to gain credibility and stall until U.S. troops leave, while continuing to fight for more territory. The classified assessment, described to The Associated Press by officials who have seen it, says the Afghan government hasn't been able to establish credibility with its people, and predicts the Taliban and warlords will largely control the countryside.

------

OBAMA: "On the day I took office, our auto industry was on the verge of collapse. Some even said we should let it die. With a million jobs at stake, I refused to let that happen. In exchange for help, we demanded responsibility. We got workers and automakers to settle their differences. We got the industry to retool and restructure. Today, General Motors is back on top as the world's number one automaker. Chrysler has grown faster in the U.S. than any major car company. Ford is investing billions in U.S. plants and factories. And together, the entire industry added nearly 160,000 jobs."

THE FACTS: He left out some key details. The bailout of General Motors and Chrysler began under Republican President George W. Bush. Obama picked up the ball, earmarked more money, and finished the job. But Ford, which Obama mentions as well, never asked for a federal bailout and never got one. It's managed to get along on its own. Also, as part of its restructuring, Chrysler is not really a U.S. automaker anymore. Italian automaker Fiat now owns a 30 percent share, and it will eventually go to 51 percent under terms of the U.S. bailout and its bankruptcy restructuring.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Blacks would March on the White House in Protest IF Obama Wasn't Black!

CBC chairman: African Americans would ‘march on the White House’ if Obama wasn’t black

Published: 1:09 PM 01/24/2012 | Updated: 1:39 PM 01/24/2012 By Nicholas Ballasy

Rep. Emanueal Cleaver — the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus – told The Daily Caller that African Americans won’t “march on the White House” over the high unemployment rate in the black community because President Barack Obama is black.

Following his appearance at Republican Rep. Allen West’s Black Conservative Forum, Cleaver elaborated on his past comments about Obama’s image in the African American community, saying, “The point I was making is that black people hold the president in such high esteem, that they would not dare march on the White House even though unemployment is at 15 percent and higher and if there was a white president we would do that because we’ve had white presidents since George Washington.”

Cleaver continued, “The point was that if we had anybody else in the White House, with this level of unemployment, that you know, you would see a lot more African Americans, African American organizations and retro organizations speaking out against it. But because he is revered, you know, he gets I guess the benefit of, you know, understanding that the situation was terrible when he came in. So, we’re not doing that.”

The Missouri Democrat told TheDC that he personally resisted a proposed Annual Legislative Conference (ALC) “prayer” demonstration at the White House.

“I was resistant to a group of individuals who wanted to lock arms, surround the White House, with several thousand people during the ALC this past October and pray. I resisted it because I thought if we did that it would be interpreted as some kind of assault on the president, which I was not willing to launch,” he said.

1,000 Days Without a Budget....Irresponsible Democrats!

No Explanation Necessary

Romney...Simply desparate...and not very truthful...

Romney certainly appears Desparate Last Night...and below are some of the clarifications that show that Romney was off base...



Romney and His Attacks Discredited in NBC Debate

Desperate to save his floundering campaign, Mitt Romney leveled four false charges during tonight's NBC Debate. For answers to these dishonest attacks, go to www.newt.org/answers.

Lobbying – Newt has never engaged in lobbying, period. Newt made a decision after resigning that he would never be a lobbyist so that nobody would ever question the genuine nature of his advice and perspectives.

Relationship with Freddie Mac

Recent reporting from Bloomberg News on the Gingrich Group’s consulting services for Freddie Mac confirms that Gingrich and his firm were not paid to lobby and that Gingrich never acted as an advocate to stop any legislation or regulation affecting Freddie Mac.
After leaving public office, Newt Gingrich founded a number of very successful small businesses. One of these small businesses, a consulting firm called The Gingrich Group, offered strategic advice on a wide variety of topics to a very wide range of clients. One of these clients was Freddie Mac. At no time did Gingrich lobby for Freddie Mac, or for any client, and neither did anyone in Gingrich’s firm. This prohibition against lobbying was made clear to all Gingrich Group clients. Nor did Gingrich ever advocate against pending legislation affecting Freddie Mac, as some articles have incorrectly alleged. In fact, recent reporting from Bloomberg News on the Gingrich Group’s consulting services for Freddie Mac confirms that Gingrich and his firm were not paid to lobby and that Gingrich never acted as an advocate to stop any legislation or regulation affecting Freddie Mac.

Furthermore, as the New York Times documents, Newt urged House Republicans to vote against the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Newt is in favor of efforts to increase home ownership in America but as a conservative believes they must be within a context of learning how to budget and save in a responsible way, the opposite of the lending practices that led to the financial crisis. You can watch a video from March 2008 of Newt warning about the danger of politicized decision making in the housing crisis here.

As part of Newt’s Jobs and Prosperity Plan, Newt advocates breaking up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and moving their smaller successors off of government guarantees and into the free market.Ethics Investigation


In 1999, after a 3 ½ year investigation, the Internal Revenue Service (under President Bill Clinton) concluded that Gingrich did not violate any tax laws, leading renowned CNN Investigative Reporter Brooks Jackson to remark on air “it turns out [Gingrich] was right and those who accused him of tax fraud were wrong.”
Eighty four politically motivated ethics charges were filed against Newt when he was Speaker of the House regarding the use of tax exempt funds for a college course he taught titled “Renewing American Civilization.” Eighty-three of the eighty-four charges were found to be without merit and dropped. The remaining charge had to do with contradictory documents prepared by Newt’s lawyer supplied during the course of the investigation. Newt took responsibility for the error and agreed to reimburse the committee the cost of the investigation into that discrepancy. In 1999, after a 3 ½ year investigation, the Internal Revenue Service (under President Bill Clinton, nonetheless) concluded that Gingrich did not violate any tax laws, leading renowned CNN Investigative Reporter Brooks Jackson to remark on air “it turns out [Gingrich] was right and those who accused him of tax fraud were wrong.”

Cap and Trade

Newt does not believe there is a settled scientific conclusion about whether industrial development has dramatically contributed to a warming of the atmosphere.
Newt absolutely opposes “cap and trade” as well as any system of taxing carbon emissions. He testified before Congress against it in 2009 and led a grassroots effort while the Chairman of American Solutions to block its passage in the House and Senate.

Newt believes that cap and trade would kill hundreds of thousands of American jobs, cause electricity and fuel prices to skyrocket, and make America poorer. In contrast, Gingrich believes the best way to protect the environment is through markets, incentives, and entrepreneurs, who quite often are deploying innovative new technologies.

As for the question of whether industrial development has dramatically contributed to a warming of the atmosphere, Newt has noted there is no settled scientific conclusion. Many scientists believe it is the case. Others do not. But this unsettled scientific question has nothing to do with the best approach to protecting our environment, which is always markets, incentives, and entrepreneurs creating better and more efficient products and services.

Paul Ryan (and the House GOP’s) Medicare Plan

Like Ryan and the House GOP, Newt supports a premium support model for Medicare. However, he wants seniors to have the choice to opt into the new system or to stay in traditional Medicare.
Newt agrees wholeheartedly with Rep. Ryan that we must give our seniors more choices than the current one-size-fits-all Medicare model. Both concur that creating the opportunity for seniors to buy private insurance is the key to both improving care and lowering costs.

The one key difference is that under Newt’s plan, as outlined in his 21st Century Contract with America, seniors will also have the choice to stay in the current Medicare system or choose a private insurance plan with support from the government to pay the premiums. The other difference is that Newt believes that seniors should have this option starting next year, not in ten years.

Q: So why did Newt use the term “right wing social engineering” on Meet the Press when discussing these proposed changes to Medicare?

Gingrich is opposed to any political party imposing dramatic change against the consent of the governed. Afterwards, Newt quickly admitted that his choice of words was too extreme, and he apologized to Congressman Ryan shortly thereafter.
In response to the host’s hypothetical question of whether Republicans should change Medicare even if there is public opposition, Gingrich’s response was no you should not. One of Newt’s basic governing philosophies is that government should offer a better alternative to existing entitlement programs that seniors can freely choose. Gingrich is opposed to any political party imposing dramatic change against the consent of the governed. Afterwards, Newt quickly admitted that his choice of words was too extreme, and he apologized to Congressman Ryan shortly thereafter. Newt regards Paul Ryan as one of the biggest innovators in Washington, D.C. and he deeply admires the seriousness and boldness of his historic Path to Prosperity budget.

I agree with Newt...The Audience Needs to Be Involved...

I agree with Newt....I will bet the media will not let silence the Democrats in the room tonight when Obama gives his State of the Union rhetoric....



Gingrich Threatens to Skip Debates if Audiences Can’t ParticipateBy

JEREMY W. PETERS

Newt Gingrich insists his fans will not be silenced.

Mr. Gingrich, a former House speaker, on Tuesday morning threatened not participate in any future debates with audiences that have been instructed to be silent. That was the case on Monday, when Brian Williams of NBC News asked the audience of about 500 people who assembled for a debate in Tampa to hold their applause until the commercial breaks.

In an interview with the morning show “Fox and Friends,” Mr. Gingrich said NBC’s rules amounted to stifling free speech. In what has become a standard line of attack for his anti-establishment campaign, Mr. Gingrich blamed the media for trying to silence a dissenting point of view.

“I wish in retrospect I’d protested when Brian Williams took them out of it because I think it’s wrong,” Mr. Gingrich said. “And I think he took them out of it because the media is terrified that the audience is going to side with the candidates against the media, which is what they’ve done in every debate.”

Mr. Gingrich soared to victory in the South Carolina last week after back-to-back debates in which he took on the moderators with as much zeal as he took on his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination. The audiences, which were far larger and encouraged to participate, cheered him on as he pushed back. First he lashed out at Juan Williams of Fox News for suggesting that Mr. Gingrich’s comments about blacks and welfare were offensive. Then he snapped at John King of CNN for opening the debate with a question about accusations that he had asked an ex-wife for an “open marriage.”

Mr. Gingrich’s performance in the debate in Tampa on Monday night was far more muted. Critics noted that he seemed to be off his game. The National Journal, which co-hosted the NBC debate, compared Gingrich to “a stand-up comedian whose routine suffers without echoes of laughter egging him on.”

Mr. Gingrich clearly noticed something was off, too. “We’re going to serve notice on future debates,” he told Fox. “We’re just not going to allow that to happen. That’s wrong. The media doesn’t control free speech. People ought to be allowed to applaud if they want to.”



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Obama will Lie to the American People Again Tonight!

Remember this Cartoon tonight when Obama tells America all he's done to promote domestic energy and create American jobs...It's all empty rhetoric and lies....He's got to GO!.....

An Administration that blames everyone BUT themselves...and They are THE Problem!

An Entire Obama Administration that blames everyone/everything, but themselves for the dire position America is in....Barack it's time to look in the mirror!....

RNC strikes back....Take a Look!

Great Ad that just begins to show what a huge failure this President and his Admininstration have been....




By Neil Munro January 24, 2012

RNC spoils Obama’s big day with swing-state attack ad

The Republican National Committee (RNC) released a new TV ad in several swing states on Tuesday morning that uses Barack Obama’s own words against him and aims to knock some of the presidential glitter off of tonight’s campaign-themed State of the Union speech.

“The president will use his address to campaign and continue to make the same failed promises we’ve seen for the past three years,” said a statement from Kirsten Kukowski, an RNC spokeswoman. But his speech also “presents us with an opportunity to speak directly to voters in those key battleground states about what the state of our union really is,” she said.

The ad is being broadcast in the D.C. media marketplace, in two swing states — Virginia and North Carolina — and in Michigan, where Obama is slated to give an education policy speech Jan. 26.

“We’re going into Michigan to show voters how vulnerable this president is in what many would consider his own backyard,” said Kukowski.

The dark-toned and dramatically scored 30-second ad begins by highlighting Obama’s Feb. 2009 statement — “If I don’t have this done in four years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition” — and immediately contrasts it with his economic record.

Former President Bill Clinton is shown saying that “things are not going in the right direction: They’re going in the wrong direction.” Obama gets the final cut, declaring on video that “I don’t think they’re better off than they were four years ago.”

The ad’s reliance on Democrats’ comments about Obama is likely to be a feature of the RNC’s 2012 media campaign, partly because the public finds inter-party accusations untrustworthy.

“Barack Obama has a lot of a explaining to do in tonight’s State of the Union Address,” said a statement from RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.

“The day after he delivers his State of the Union Address, Barack Obama will be jetting off to five states he wants to win to be reelected … [but] the American people need a president who will focus on the single most important issue in the country: fixing our economy,” said his statement.

Obama - Same Old Stuff....That will ONLY get us the Same Old Failed Results...

Tonight more rhetoric from Obama...more of the same old topics and policies that have gotten us into this dire situration...Obama is simply Pathetic!

State of Dysfunction

Tonight, Americans who tune in to the State of the Union will watch the work of a rhetorical master with a flair for illusion. President Barack Obama will take to the floor of the Capitol in hopes of laying the groundwork for a political debate on his terms--one where he stands on emotional appeals, populism, and class warfare, not the shaky ground of his crumbling record. And looking right back at him will be the U.S. Senate, which has for the past 1,000 days failed to pass a budget--a total shirking of their fundamental duty to be diligent stewards of the taxpayers' dollars.

The President will thus rely on the power of his words. With flourish, he will tell the story of America through a progressive's eyes--one where "fairness" takes on a new meaning, where America's core values are brushed aside, and where the truth about a failed presidency is forgotten in the shadows of his country's collective memory. The President will speak from the high ground of his vaulted office. The question is whether the elevation conferred by his office will allow him to escape the soaring deficits, depths of unemployment, or miles of job-killing regulation that his Administration has wrought.

Before considering the President's record, first consider his message--that economic populism is the core of America's principles, that the federal government should be the guarantor of equal outcomes and that "fairness" of achievement should be decided by legions of bureaucrats in Washington. It is a theme that the President unveiled in a speech last month in Osawatomie, Kansas, and it's one he plans to return to tonight. This vision is at the root of the President's progressive ideal. It is not, however, the ideology on which our country was founded. The Heritage Foundation's Matthew Spalding, vice president of American Studies and director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics, explains:

America is exceptional because it is dedicated to the principle of universal human liberty: that all are fundamentally equal by nature and equally endowed with unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This principle and the constitutional framework of law that enlivens it are the foundation of the American Dream...

What is truly revolutionary about the United States is that the ladder of opportunity became available to everyone. As a result, poverty has been vastly diminished. Even more important, it is no longer a permanent condition from which there is no real possibility of escape.

The "ladder of opportunity" exists so that people may apply their God-given talents and abilities in order to better themselves and pursue the American dream. That is the liberty that makes the United States unique. The President, though, does not stand for that dream. Instead, as he has made clear, he believes that it is through government engineering that society can advance--through more government power, federal education programs, economic regulations, and infrastructure spending, all funded by "fair" taxes on "wealthy" Americans.

This sort of progressivism has its roots in 100 years of history and 100 years of failure. But the country need not look back into the annals of time to see the proof. They only need to see the President's record of the past three years--facts that will undoubtedly receive short shrift in tonight's speech.

Obama enacted a purely progressive agenda with his expansion of the state under Obamacare, his trillion-dollar stimulus bill, the government takeover of the auto industry, the proliferation of regulations under the Dodd-Frank regulatory reform bill, the crony capitalism of the Solyndra scandal, and the illegal appointments to the unrestrained Consumer Financial Protection Agency and the National Labor Relations Board. The result: Some 13.1 million Americans remain unemployed, job creation has been abysmal for much of the past three years, and the President's promise to turn around the U.S. economy has gone unfulfilled.

Meanwhile, the Senate has largely acceded to the President's agenda while leaving undone the budgeting process for the past 1,000 days. Instead of respecting the people's money and putting it to its appropriate use, the Senate has chosen to pass short-term "business as usual" continuing resolutions, one after another, all while government spending continues to skyrocket, deficits are exploding, the country's credit rating is in jeopardy, Social Security and Medicare are in crisis states, and future generations are left holding the bag.

The President's "populist" message is designed to appeal to the American people--and this is after all what all American politicians try to do. It is fair, however to ponder how the people have fared under the President's policies. It is hard to miss the mass of unemployed Americans, the plodding economy, the businesses that are afraid to grow and expand, and the jobs that are being left on the table. It is understandable that the President will not want to bring up these "achievements."

Saturday, January 21, 2012

This is just more of the SAME OLD RHETORIC...

This is just more of the same old rhetoric....he's had three years to get the economy back on track...how do you like it so far..this will be the THIRD State of the Union address where he will say jobs are a top priority ( but he just stopped the Keystone XL Pipeline )....and no real progress to speak of....more talk about energy, but just yesterday he and his administration approved a $25 Million grant to a green energy company that will create 38 jobs????...After he wasted $500 Million of your taxpayer money on Solydra..... more of this fairness crap...the only thing Obama has really done about fairness is put more folks in the unemployment line and on food stamps...Is that the America you want....is that the fairness you look forward to???

This President is an incompetent FAILURE and there's really nothing he can say on Tuesday night that would make me even begin to believe he could make things better... IT's Time for a REAL CHANGE....Get Rid of Obama in November ...only 292 days til the election...



Obama describes State of the Union address as economic blueprint

Published January 21, 2012| Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Vilified by the Republicans who want his job, President Obama says he will stand before the nation Tuesday night determined to frame the election-year debate on his terms, promising that his State of the Union address will offer an economic blueprint that will "work for everyone, not just a wealthy few."

In a video released Saturday to millions of campaign supporters, Obama said he will concentrate on four areas designed to restore economic security for the long term: manufacturing, energy, education, job training and a "return to American values."

The prime-time speech will be not just about the year ahead, but will try to make Obama's case for a second term.

"We can go in two directions," the president said. "One is toward less opportunity and less fairness. Or we can fight for where I think we need to go: building an economy that works for everyone, not just a wealthy few."

That line of argument about income equality is emerging as a defining theme of the presidential race as Republicans are in their own fierce battle to pick a nominee to challenge Obama in the fall. By notifying the millions of supporters on his email list, Obama gave advance notice to his Democratic base and trying to generate an even larger audience for Tuesday's address.

The president's preview did not mention national security or foreign policy, and he is not expected to announce new initiatives on those front in a speech focusing on the economy.

Happy MLK Day

Friday, January 20, 2012

Obama Trampling Congress...

Obama's total disrespect for the rule of law....He is dangerous and has to be sent home in November...

Fast and Furious Gets Worse and Worse...It's just more Corruption in the Obama Administration and DOJ

DOJ official plans to plead Fifth Amendment, refuses to testify on Fast and Furious

By Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller Published: 11:42 AM 01/20/2012 | Updated: 1:10 PM 01/20/2012

Department of Justice official Patrick Cunningham has reportedly planned to plead the Fifth Amendment to avoid incriminating himself in response to a subpoena House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa served him that will compel him to appear before Congress about Operation Fast and Furious.

Cunningham has been the chief of the criminal division of the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s office in Phoenix for the past two years. In subpoenaing Cunningham, Issa said he has information indicating Cunningham helped approve gun walking as an acceptable tactic under the Obama administration’s DOJ.

Cunningham, according to Issa, has repeatedly refused to testify before Congress about Fast and Furious. Now that he’s been subpoenaed and announced that he’ll plead the Fifth Amendment, this signals the first time an official in President Barack Obama’s and Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Justice has refused to testify over Operation Fast and Furious on the basis that he or she may admit to committing a crime.

Issa said that Cunningham’s plan to plead the Fifth Amendment to avoid incriminating himself over his role in Operation Fast and Furious is a sign that there’s serious politically-motivated foul play going on within the Justice Department.

“The assertion of the Fifth Amendment by a senior Justice official is a significant indictment of the Department’s integrity in Operation Fast and Furious,” Issa said. “The former head of the ATF has previously told the committee that the Justice Department is managing its response to Operation Fast and Furious in a manner designed to protect its political appointees. This is the first time anyone has asserted their Fifth Amendment right in this investigation and heightens concerns that the Justice Department’s motivation for refusing to hand over subpoenaed materials is a desire to shield responsible officials from criminal charges and other embarrassment.”

Issa adds that this latest development suggests that President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder may be complicit in covering up Fast and Furious information and documents, preventing Congress from getting to the truth.

“Coming a year after revelations about reckless conduct in Operation Fast and Furious were first brought to light, the assertion of the Fifth Amendment also raises questions about whether President Obama and Attorney General Holder have made a serious and adequate response to allegations raised by whistleblowers,” Issa said. “Did Attorney General Holder really not know a senior Justice Department official fears criminal prosecution or is this just another example of him hiding important facts? The committee will continue to demand answers.”

Ads by GoogleSixty-two congressmen, two senators, two sitting governors and every major Republican presidential candidate have demanded Holder’s ouster over the scandal. And 89 congressmen have signed a House resolution of “no confidence” in Holder as the nation’s top law enforcement officer. Between the two lists, which don’t perfectly overlap, 100 members of the House have “no confidence” in Holder, believe he should resign, or both.

The latest members to sign the “no confidence” resolution, according to the office of the bill’s sponsor Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, are Reps. Chris Smith of New Jersey, Michael Burgess of Texas and John Kline of Minnesota, the chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee.

Fast and Furious was a program of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, overseen by Holder’s DOJ. It sent thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels via straw purchasers — people who legally purchased guns in the United States with the known intention of illegally trafficking them somewhere else.

At least 300 people in Mexico were killed with Fast and Furious weapons, as was Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. The identities of the Mexican victims are unknown. Allegations have surfaced that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata was also killed with Fast and Furious weapons.

Cunningham is resigning on Jan. 27 to take a job in the private sector. It’s unclear if his resignation has anything to do with Fast and Furious.