Today's Republican Party has been Taken Over by the Hard Right, Libertarians, John Birchers, and Tea Party

First came Abraham Lincoln who freed the slaves, then Teddy Roosevelt in the early part of the 20th century who some now call the first 'Progressive' who believed in saving the environment, and then Dwight Eisenhower (Ike) who decided all children had a right to the same education and integrated schools in American starting in Arkansas.  Today those 'Progressives' could not be elected as Republicans.

The article from Politicususa, Conservatives are Terrified by America's Rising Surge of Liberalism,  by Sarah Jones made me chuckle.  The very thought that a liberal or progressive would have a worthwhile agenda doesn't compute in their brains.  They have swallowed the koolaid that only 'conservatives' know all the answers and that Obama and the Democrats are ALWAYS wrong.

Know all about the pushing of the Conservative agenda or thought I did because I was a conservative before the Koch Bros Tea Party took over the GOP and the Party went hard right.  Never was a social conservative even years ago it put me in the moderate column.  Huge supporter of National Security and have discovered so are a lot of Progressives starting with President Obama.

There is no better friend to our veterans, military, and their families then the Obama's.  The First Lady, Michelle Obama, has made so many visits to our military installations that the MSM ignores.  The families love her because she talks one on one and really cares - nothing phony about her.  Her outreach into the military community has earned her accolades from people I know who never thought she would do such a tremendous job working with the families.  When you hear spouses who testified before Congress talk, they you about how they were welcomed to the White House by The First Lady before going to Congress.  She put them at ease.

Our environment has a true friend in the White House today with the push toward renewable energy.  Have had some ask if he is the second Teddy Roosevelt who is now deemed the first Progressive by the hard right -- trust me that is not a compliment.  Now conservative are afraid the American people are buying into saving the environment and wants to call  us all liberals.  That is one badge I would proudly wear as a conservationist.  I would rather err on the side of the environment then have my head buried in the sand.

Bartlett who was never one of my favorites has it all wrong because President Obama is a strong leader who actually doesn't care who gets the credit as long as it passes and it works.  He will listen to ideas from a lot of different people which IMHO makes the best leader possible.  He looks for issues that benefit all Americans just not a political party which makes some liberals angry as we see from time to time with Chris Matthews, MSNBC, and his meltdowns when Obama doesn't do what he thinks he should.

Bartlett has made me realize that I stopped being a conservative a long time before I would admit it to myself.   Now I find myself supporting a progressive agenda after living in a city that believes in renewable energy, recycling, and fix infrastruture which are all three missing in the conservative movement of the day.  Norman welcomes people from around the world to our town and want them to feel welcome while at The University of Oklahoma.  When we first moved here, we lived across the street from a Petroleum professor from Venzuela.  Around the corner was a professor from South Africa.  We have over 100 foreign students every year on campus so we are a multi-national city.  

Mayor Cindy Rosenthal who was just elected to her third term as Mayor is overseeing the growth of Norman in a responsible manner.  Bartlett wouldn't do well with our Mayor and the fact we are a 'tree city' supporting renewable energy, smart grid with smart meters, wind power, and CNG to run our fleet of city vehicles along with a huge upgrade to our infrastructure thanks to the stimulus dollars and bonds passed by city residents.   Guess you could call us a progressive city in Bartlett's world.  Environmental friendly  for Norman residents is very high on the list of the Mayor, City Manager, and City Council.  Some conservatives call us 'liberal' in Norman but if this is what being 'liberal' is all about, count me in!

Strong liberalism is on the rise, Bruce Bartlett announces rather sadly in the Fiscal Times, as you would expect for a supply-side economics expert who was a policy adviser to Reagan. Liberalism is on the rise, it’s going to take over just like conservatism did, because people like liberal ideas like a minimum wage and taxing the rich, he tells us. 

But before Bartlett gets to the super sad part about how conservatives have no ideas and liberalism might just get somewhere if only they had a strong leader, Bartlett has to drag liberalism-in-action through the mud, chock full of the usual FDR resentment (“free stuff” isn’t written anywhere, but you can hear the whispers). He opines, “One can argue about how liberal Obama is, but it is obvious that he has not been a transformational president. It is clear that the energy remains on the Republican side with almost all policy issues debated within a conservative framework.”

This is how Republicans comfort themselves, but it’s actually not accurate. The framework of a policy argument is not set by the President; it’s a cultural matter, as all policy debate really is. Yes, Democrats and liberals need to do a better job of reframing issues if they want to win hearts and minds. The media is stuck in the stone age when Republican frames were all the rage. 

But also, Obama has been very liberal via an incremental approach to long term paradigm shifting. Only someone who hasn’t actually read what was in the stimulus thinks Obama isn’t liberal, and isn’t enacting a very liberal agenda. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone. Republicans would really freak out if they knew.

Michael Grunwald’s “The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era” breaks it down:

As ambitious and far-reaching as FDR’s New Deal, the Recovery Act is a down payment on the nation’s economic and environmental future, the purest distillation of change in the Obama era. 

The stimulus has launched a transition to a clean-energy economy, doubled our renewable power, and financed unprecedented investments in energy efficiency, a smarter grid, electric cars, advanced biofuels, and green manufacturing. It is computerizing America’s pen-and-paper medical system. Its Race to the Top is the boldest education reform in U.S. history. It has put in place the biggest middle-class tax cuts in a generation, the largest research investments ever, and the most extensive infrastructure investments since Eisenhower’s interstate highway system. It includes the largest expansion of antipoverty programs since the Great Society, lifting millions of Americans above the poverty line, reducing homelessness, and modernizing unemployment insurance. Like the first New Deal, Obama’s stimulus has created legacies that last: the world’s largest wind and solar projects, a new battery industry, a fledgling high-speed rail network, and the world’s highest-speed Internet network.

But it’s a comfort to Republicans to pretend that Obama hasn’t fundamentally changed America, that he’s been inept. 

Ironically, Obama has been a better fiscal leader than any Republican of late. He’s shown restraint, responsibility, integrity, and character. He paid for his healthcare reform program – a program based on a liberal idea but implemented using competition as its foundation. Is Obama moderate? No, but he’s wise and has a solid temperament. He is not an extremist, a fact which does not preclude being a strong liberal unless you only see liberals as they were stereotyped in the 1960s. Obama picks up on good ideas and he doesn’t care where they come from. This causes many to view him inaccurately based on that one idea.

We are running monthly surpluses today thanks to President Obama and Democrats in Congress who had the foresight to see what needed to be done to help the Country move forward.  Think how far we would be if the obstructionist Republican conservatives in Congress had come on board to work with President Obama instead of fighting him every step of the way with obstruction.

When you have a party that meets the night of the inauguration in 2009 to plot strategy to block anything Obama attempted to do to help the Country, you have a party devoid of ideas and ethics.  Today's Republican Party is shallow with little empathy for those less fortunate.  Instead of reaching out to help, they want to throw the poor and less fortunate overboard by cutting foodstamps, healthcare, and minimum wage for starters.

Conservatives have allowed themselves to be run by the Libertarian/John Birch Koch Bros and other wealthy donors for years.  These people don't have the best interest of Americans at heart but their bottom line as they want to accumulate even more money.  Being one of the richest people in the world is not good enough as they want to run the Country with their agenda where the wealthy gets richer thanks to no regulations or minimum wage while the middle class and poor get poorer.

Very happy with my choice to become a Progressive supporting public education, programs that help those less fortunately, our veterans and military, women's rights, civil rights for all, the environment, immigration reform, affordable health care, and the list goes on as we move forward not backward like conservatives want to do today.

First came Abraham Lincoln who freed the slaves, then Teddy Roosevelt in the early part of the 20th century who some now call the first 'Progressive' who believed in saving the environment, and then Dwight Eisenhower (Ike) who decided all children had a right to the same education and integrated schools in American starting in Arkansas.  The Republican Party has a rich heritage that has gone the way of the dinosaur thanks to the hard right shift brought to the GOP by the Libertarian, John Birch Koch Bros who have taken over the Republican Party.  Leadership of the GOP failed to see what would happen when giving social conservatives and Koch Bros Tea Party a seat at the table as they were more concerned about raking in the dollars for the GOP any way they could.

Shift to the hard right is destroying the Republican Party of Lincoln, Teddy, and Ike.  More and more Republicans are shifting their allegiance away from the Republican Party to the Progressives like President Obama who have the ideas on how to make things better.  They are tired of the 'stuck on stupid' mode of the 50's GOP.

Republicans the Loser on Sequestration

The very idea that Republicans are refusing to even hear of raising revenue by closing tax loopholes on the wealthy says all you need to know about this Republican Party - bought and paid for by wealthy donors!

Update, 2:35 pm, 2/21/2013:

Republicans whine the President never reaches out which is not true but in this instance when he reaches out to McConnell and Boehner, they bite off his hand with remarks.  Those two among others on the GOP side are classless human beings with zero integrity.  Sorry I cannot say what I would really like to say.  Here is the story from the Hill:

President Obama on Thursday phoned Republican leaders in Congress to discuss the impasse surrounding $85 billion in automatic spending cuts set to hit the government on March 1. 
Obama made phone calls to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) eight days before the cuts are implemented and one day after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned they would lead to the furloughing of 600,000 civilian defense workers.  

White House press secretary Jay Carney declined to give details of the call, while Republicans picked at Obama for not calling Democrats, a criticism that suggested they saw the calls as a political stunt. 

"He placed calls earlier today to Senator McConnell and Speaker Boehner, had good conversations, but I have no further readout of those calls for you," Carney told reporters at his daily press briefing. 

The calls appear aimed at demonstrating Obama is engaged in trying to avert the sequester — which the president has described as a "meat cleaver" approach to budget cutting — and to answer GOP criticisms he hasn't reached out to them on major policy disputes. 

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) suggested Obama should instead focus his efforts on Senate Democrats, noting that while the House had passed a pair of sequester replacement bills, the upper chamber had not.  

"If he wants to avert the sequester, shouldn’t the President be focused on the House of Congress that HASN’T acted, and where his own political party holds the majority?," said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel in an email.  

The House Speaker has insisted repeatedly that the House will not act again to turn off the automatic cuts until a plan passes through the Senate. But the odds of a deal in the Senate seem slim, with McConnell saying that he is "not interested in an 11th-hour negotiation."  

Read More at The Hill

There is no better reason to vote out Republicans in the House then their abdication of anything to do with sequestration to the Senate.  Bunch of worthless Republican Congressman who are getting paid $174,000 a year and leadership even more to be obstructionists and not do their job.  How anyone can support this group of Republicans except wealthy donors is beyond me!
 
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Speaker Boehner getting mad at Obama while on his vacation was a joke.  If he cared about the American people instead of big donors. the House would be in DC working on a solution not on vacation.  It is a vacation which they want the voters to think is a recess.  How many of you have seen or heard of your member of Congress having Town Halls during their vacation?  We do know McCain held a Town Hall on Immigration that got out of hand. Then McCain got mad at a reporter so everything is back to normal. Most of the ones that did hold a Town Hall it was for one day.  That's a vacation in my book.

Senator Rubio (R-FL) went to Jordan and Israel on his boondoggle. Rubio wrote on his website that he was coming to the Middle East on an official trip in his role as a member of the Senate Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committees. With sequestration looming, Rubio spends our tax dollars to go to Jordan and Israel in a very transparent move to run in 2016.  Maybe the #1 cut should be travel of members of Congress overseas unless it is absolutely necessary and is approved by a bi-partisan group in order to spend taxpayer money on a boondoggle.

Then there is the little matter of Boehner blaming Obama for sequestration when slides were uncovered with Boehner telling his GOP Caucus that they got 98% of what they wanted out of Obama.  Yet they say Obama doesn't bargain in good faith. Always keep in mind that many Republicans/conservatives accuse others of what they are doing.  Seems to be a trait among the hard right that now runs the Republican Party so members of Congress are marching to their drums.

John Avlon of The Daily Beast Uncovered the July 2011 Power Point:

The PowerPoint That Proves It’s Not Obama’s Sequester After All
by John Avlon Feb 20, 2013 4:45 AM EST 

Republicans have taken to calling the deep cuts that could reverse our hard-won economic recovery ‘Obama’s Sequester.’ But a July 2011 PowerPoint obtained by John Avlon shows the opposite may be true. 

With deep sequestration cuts just days away, Congress is on vacation. But they’ve still got plenty of time to play the blame game. 

The latest semantic spin is to call the looming $1.2 trillion in cuts, which could throw the whole economy back into recession, “Obama’s Sequester.” House Speaker John Boehner indulged this approach half a dozen times in a floor speech before he went on break, establishing its place in the talking-points firmament. 

There are a couple problems with this tactic, as my colleague Michael Tomasky pointed out Tuesday. Congress passed sequestration before the president signed it, and the whole self-defeating exercise was carried out in response to Tea Party Republicans’ insistence that we play chicken with the debt ceiling, which ultimately cost America its AAA credit rating.
But here’s the thing. I happened to come across an old email that throws cold water on House Republicans’ attempts to call this “Obama’s Sequester.” 

It’s a PowerPoint presentation that Boehner’s office developed with the Republican Policy Committee and sent out to the Capitol Hill GOP on July 31, 2011. Intended to explain the outline of the proposed debt deal, the presentation is titled: “Two Step Approach to Hold President Obama Accountable.” 

It’s essentially an internal sales document from the old dealmaker Boehner to his unruly and often unreasonable Tea Party cohort. But it’s clear as day in the presentation that “sequestration” was considered a cudgel to guarantee a reduction in federal spending—the conservatives’ necessary condition for not having America default on its obligations.
The presentation lays out the deal in clear terms, describing the spending backstop as “automatic across-the-board cuts (‘sequestration’). Same mechanism used in 1997 Balanced Budget Agreement.”

 Read More at The Daily Beast 

Boehner deserves a liar, liar pants on fire designation for his comments this week.  When he put Rep Cathy McMorris Rogers out to speak using his talking point papers, all she did was grin.  This is serious business and the woman he showcases only knows how to grin as she talks.

Guess which woman is Rogers?

One thing that makes me glad after Boehner speaks, is to realize we are not as dumb as he thinks we are with his condescending remarks and his unfounded attacks on the President.  We recognize him as someone who has trouble with the truth.  If Boehner and GOP in Congress would quit attacking the President and take up his offer of working together, they might accomplish something.  Chances of that happening are slim to none since in 2011 when they come up with this dumb idea of sequestration that Democrats in the House all voted against, Boehner said he got 98% of what the GOP wanted out of Obama.  How is that deal working out for the GOP now as they are on the hook with taking a one-week vacation and their obstructionists agenda to stall the economy.

Will we be seeing immediate results from the sequestration or will they be phased in over time?  Retirees of the federal government and social security along with medicare recipients will keep receiving their checks and benefits.  Our military will not lose any pay as they shift money to make sure they get their pay and benefits.

In the federal government, the furloughs will be one day a week until September 30th in order to keep the Government working so I imagine a certain amount of people will be off each day.  Looks like Government workers even though losing money will fair better then their counter parts outside the Government who will be on furlough until further notice if this lasts past 1 April.  Private sector will be required to notify their employees of an upcoming furlough in advance so from most accounts 1 April is when the sequestration goes into full affect.

The Reuters article posted on Huffington Post gives one of the best synopsis I have seen on Sequestration:

Senior administration officials said Republicans would be blamed for cuts that did come into force. 

If allowed to run their course, the austerity measures could cost 750,000 jobs and keep weak economic growth stunted for the rest of 2013, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office warns.

These spending cuts, decided in 2011 amid a fever in Congress for deficit reduction, were meant to be so painful that they would goad Republicans and Democrats into reaching an alternative agreement on where to cut back. The cuts "will visit hardship on a whole lot of people," President Barack Obama warned on Tuesday. 

And they are only the first installment in a decade's worth of required cuts totaling $1.2 trillion.
While some furlough notices will be issued to government workers, there will be few outward signs on March 1 that the cuts have been launched.

Under the law, retirees are shielded and so their Social Security checks will arrive on schedule at the beginning of March and every month thereafter. Similarly, the elderly and the disabled will not see their federally backed Medicare healthcare curtailed at all over the seven months.
Every U.S. soldier will get paid and the Defense Department will be allowed to shift funds to ensure that combat operations and "critical military readiness capabilities" are not degraded, according to the Obama administration. 

LAYOFF NOTICES 

And so on March 1 and in the days immediately after, while no dramatic shakeup is anticipated, there will be some early tremors.

* Government agencies are likely to issue 30-day warnings of impending furloughs of government workers. They could be told that starting on April 1 they will have to stay home for a maximum of 22 days between March 1 and Sept. 30.
* New government contracts could slow in anticipation of no deal being reached to replace the sequestration. This would hit defense contractors and road and bridge builders alike.
* Members of Congress, who are not exempt from the spending cuts, will be advised to begin preparing their staffs for either salary cuts or layoffs if they have to shave funds from their approximately $4 billion in annual appropriations.
* Medical research labs at universities that rely heavily on federal funds will begin deciding which projects to abandon or curtail, if they haven't already.
* Every federal agency will have to finalize their plans on how to execute the across-the-board spending cuts. 

At this stage, most planned furloughs are being held to 22 days per federal employee. Anything longer is considered a formal layoff and requires more complex legal hurdles, some involving seniority, to be met. 

In some cases, furlough notices won't go out until terms are negotiated with employee unions after March 1. Not all union-government contracts cover such actions, said Carl Goldman, executive director of AFSCME Council 26, which represents 8,500 federal workers from building engineers to librarians. 

"The biggest thing we can do is to negotiate over the scheduling of furloughs, how much choice employees will have in selecting days furloughed," Goldman said.

Over the seven-month period, a 22-day furlough would roughly equal about one day per week, reducing workers' income by about one-fifth.

LAID-BACK CONGRESS (aka Do Nothing Congress)

Congress, showing little sense of urgency, is now on a week-long "Presidents Day" recess. 

When members of the Senate and House of Representatives return next week, they will begin feeling each other out for a remedy by March 27, when another budget deadline hits: the need to replenish federal funds for all government agencies. 

That is a separate fight in Congress but it might become mixed in with the sequestration battle as fiscal issues come to a head. 

Last week, Senate Democrats unveiled their plan to replace the sequestration with a combination of agriculture subsidy cuts and higher taxes on the richest Americans.
Senate Republicans, warning that they will reject any new tax increases, have not yet settled on a plan. But several are circulating, including replacing the sequestration with different spending cuts, giving federal agencies more flexibility in how they would carry out the existing $85 billion in cuts, or reducing the federal workforce by 10 percent through attrition. 

Before going forward with any plan, Republicans might have to quell an uprising within their party that has some conservatives hoping that the meat-ax approach stays, thus ensuring some serious deficit reduction this year.

Read More at Huffington Post

The American people who are honest with themselves now know the Republicans in Congress are to blame.  Boehner and GOP members of Congress are putting wealthy tax loopholes which they refuse to close for their big donors over the American people and national security.  Boehner even admitted that national security would be harmed with sequestration but why let that stand in the way? Boehner went on to call Obama "gutless" on sequestration.  Now that takes nerve, but it shows how low this Republican Party and its members of Congress have sunk.  When you think Republicans cannot get any lower in gutter, they manage to do just that.

The American people are taking note including a lot of Republicans who don't want to see this group back in Congress after December 2014.  We want a Congress that actually works for We The People not just the wealthy donors.  The Republicans were not kidding when they met the night of the President's first inauguration to plot out how to obstruct President Obama as they are still doing the same obstruction.  When the news of that meeting surfaced last April, that was the beginning of the end for me supporting Republicans in 2012 and joined Republicans for Obama.  Now I will never support Republicans again as long as they remain hard right and the Party of "NO!"  IMHO it is too late for a common sense, rational Republican Party.

Please contact your Republican Representative and/or members of the Senate to tell them to quit obstructing and work with the President on Sequestration.  Information you need for calling:

Senate Contact InformationHouse Contact Information

United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 will also connect you to your Representative or Senator

If you are represented by Democrats, use the same contact information above to call and ask them to stand firm against Republicans wanting to protect wealthy donor loopholes and put the cuts on the backs of the middle class and poor.  Also thank them for doing a good job and tell them you will be supporting them in 2014.  Remember that House Members are up for election every two years and Senators every six years.

Speaker Pelosi Is Right: Dems Deserve All the Credit for the Job-Killing, Budget-Busting Agenda That Has Americans Asking “Where are the Jobs?”

The first time we heard Pelosi was whining because the liberal Democrat House and Senate were not getting credit for what they have accomplished since Obama took office, we figured it was a joke. We were wrong -- she meant it. Is Pelosi really that out of touch with Americans that she could even think such a thing? Looks like she is. That is one of the biggest problems with having the Speaker come from such a liberal area of the Country. They don't have a clue about how the rest of us think. San Francisco is one of the most liberal cities in America by far and yet the Democrats elected Pelosi as Speaker? What were they thinking?

Pelosi as Speaker has been a total disaster not to mention has caused the taxpayers a fortune with her party plane from the Air Force. We agree with Republican Leader Boehner that the Dems do deserve all the credit for these bills they have rammed through Congress without reading. Obama says "jump" and Pelosi asks "how high?"

Speaker Pelosi Is Right: Dems Deserve All the Credit for the Job-Killing, Budget-Busting Agenda That Has Americans Asking “Where are the Jobs?”

While Dem Leaders Continue to Press Their Failed Economic Policies, GOP Offers Better Solutions in A Pledge To America

Washington (Oct 26)

In a recent interview with Politics Daily, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) bemoaned the lack of credit Democrats have received for what they have done while in control of Congress. According to Speaker Pelosi, “we haven’t really gotten the credit for what we have done, but we will take it to the voters and have a Democratic majority to follow through on it…” With members of Speaker Pelosi’s own party working feverishly to distance themselves from the Democratic Leaders’ job-killing agenda, the reality is the American people are giving them the credit they richly deserve for orchestrating the massive, costly power grab that has been going on in Washington. The President and Democrats in Congress have indeed been busy, passing one job-killing bill after another and adding trillions to the nation’s debt despite overwhelming opposition from the American people. Here are just a few of the Democrats’ most significant, if dubious, “accomplishments”:

Defying the Will of the American People by Ramming Through ObamaCare. In March, Democrats passed the job-killing government takeover of health care amid promises that it would lower costs and improve access for millions of Americans....

Enacting a Trillion-Dollar ‘Stimulus’ That Has Failed to Live Up to its Own Job-Creation Promises. At the time the President signed the trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ into law, he claimed it would “create or save 3.5 million jobs over the next two years.”...

Adjourning Congress Without Voting to Stop All the Tax Hikes on Families and Small Businesses. Before Congress adjourned for the fall, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) called for immediate enactment of the Pledge to America, including specific proposals to cut spending and stop all the looming tax hikes that are making it impossible for small businesses to create jobs....

Enacting a Massive Financial Regulation Bill That Doesn’t Address the Core of the Financial Crisis. In July, President Obama signed into law a massive financial regulation bill that failed to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-backed mortgage companies at the heart of the financial crisis....

Institutionalizing Taxpayer-Funded Bailouts. In testimony given before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke confirmed that “a too-big-to-fail company undergoing the government’s new resolution process could still receive money from the Treasury,” making it clear that government bailouts are here to stay under the Democrats’ 2,300 page financial regulation bill....

Passing a Job-Killing National Energy Tax. Last year, House Democrats rammed a job-killing, 1,500 page national energy tax bill through the House that will raise electricity prices, increase gasoline prices, and ship American jobs overseas to countries like China and India....

Excerpt: Read More at GOP Leader.gov

Would venture to guess that the majority of Americans know someone who has become unemployed since Obama took office in January 2009. There are a lot of companies who have scaled back their workforce and now don't intend to hire because of the uncertainty about what faces them with the much higher costs of Obamacare. If Obamacare is allowed to stand unchanged, the unemployment rates will rise even more and current employees will have to pay more for health insurance.

Obamacare needs repealed because it is a bad bill that wasn't read before it was rammed through the Congress, but we expect Obama to block any repeal efforts veto. What Congress can do is not fund Obamacare at all to bring it to a halt while repealing sections one at a time.

Obama/Reid/Pelosi have managed to put this Country on its back with their spending more and more dollars that we don't have in less than two years. What do they do? Print more money like it does 'grow on trees' which puts the US more in debt to where today it is over a $13.6T deficit and growing every minute. Jobs are getting harder to find which in turns hurts the sale of big ticket items like cars and homes. Professional people who have become unemployed are having to take lesser paying jobs if they can find them which still will pay more than unemployment, but in many cases has made their mortgage or car payments unaffordable.

We think it is time for a CHANGE and throw out on November 2nd the progressive Democrats and their idea of what the Country should look like which is a 180 from the vast majority of Americans who are center right.   We are all for the idea of locking up the Halls of Congress until Republicans take over on 3 January 2011.  Won't happen but it would sure be better than the lameduck sessions which Obama/Pelosi Democrats have planned.  Since Obama calls Congressional Republicans the Party of "NO," Republicans need to live up to that name in the lameduck session.

Where are the JOBS?

John Boehner E-BULLETIN: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26

With the Pledge to America, Republicans are Offering a Better Way to Create Jobs, End Economic Uncertainty

Eighteen months. That's how long Ohio middle-class families and small businesses have suffered from double-digit unemployment according to the most recent jobs report released last week.

Sadly, this report looks like too many we've seen since President Obama signed the $787 billion "stimulus" into law. Thousands more Ohioans lost their jobs. Unemployment remains painfully high.

With the Pledge to America, Republicans are offering a new and better way to address the people’s priorities, starting with a plan to create jobs and end economic uncertainty. This governing blueprint, which was built by listening to the people, starts with stopping all the looming tax hikes and ending Washington’s out-of-control spending spree. Make no mistake, our economy will ultimately recover, but it will do so because of the hard work and entrepreneurship of the American people, not more of the same wasteful Washington spending and job-killing tax hikes and mandates.

One video more than any other video describes Pelosi and her liberal agenda:

Republican Leader Boehner: On CNBC: 'It's Time For Us to Work Together to Cut Spending and Reduce Uncertainty'

Who is the Biggest Threat to Obama in 2012? Strategist says Jeb Bush!

Last night in emails, several groups were saying that the media pushed frontrunners for the Republicans in 2012 are not going to get the nomination as people are tired of those who ran in 2008. They have overexposed themselves and frankly this Romney/Palin cat fight is getting irritating from both camps.

The 2010 election is so important to Republicans the last thing we need is egos involved in trying to position themselves to run in 2012. Every last penny of both Romney and Palin PACs should be going to help fund our candidates for the 2010 election. Not one person should donate to either of their PACs until after the 2010 election. Donate directly to today's candidates running for 2010 and forget 2012.

That said, we thought we would have a little fun this morning with this article. Former Governor Jeb Bush along with former Senator George Allen have been two of our favorites for a long time. That team we think would be unbeatable.

Jeb has always been very popular in Florida and every place he goes. He is not Ivy League educated but got his degree from the University of Texas. This Sooner has forgiven him for that over the years. In reality, his education is Middle America all the way, he has a ton of Common Sense plus he is one of the most intelligent politicians we have in the GOP.

All you have to do is remember how he handled all those hurricanes that hit Florida one after the other to know that he can handle crises unlike the current occupant of the White House.

Jeb, as Governor, was a much different than his brother when it came to governing. Something people have to remember when they look at Jeb that he is his own person and not even close to being the compassionate conservative of his brother.

With the Terry Shiavo tragedy, Jeb lived his pro-life beliefs. Jeb and his family have faced some of the problems that many Americans have faced with one of their children and became stronger as a family.

Jeb is a rock solid conservative who believes in smaller government, less taxes, strong defense, and strict constructionists judges. His belief that lower taxes are the way to America's prosperty is the foundation of the Republican Party.

Thought this article was extremely interesting. Will Jeb run? We have no idea, but if he does, we will be 100% behind him.

Strategist: Jeb Bush Biggest Threat to Obama in 2012

Leading Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg remains confident about President Barack Obama’s chances for re-election in 2012, but admits there is one potential Republican candidate who scares him: former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Sinking poll numbers and policy setbacks “have done little to dissuade” the rosy predictions of Rosenberg, who has said Obama’s election gave Democrats a chance for a 30-to-40-year era of dominance, Sam Stein notes on the Huffington Post website, adding, “There’s only one thing that makes Rosenberg nervous: another Bush.”

At a recent lunch at the headquarters of the New Democrat Network, a non-profit group founded by Rosenberg, the former Bill Clinton adviser said, "Jeb is married to a Latina, is fluent in Spanish, speaks on Univision as a commentator — his Spanish is that good.

"And if you look at the electoral map in 2012, you have to assume that Obama is going to have a very hard time in holding North Carolina and Virginia. The industrial Midwest, where the auto decline has been huge, has weakened Obama's numbers . . . a great deal. So Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin become a bit more wobbly.

“So if you're Barack Obama, the firewall is the Latin belt from Florida to southwestern California. And there is only one Republican who can break through that firewall. And it is Jeb."

Following the George W. Bush presidency, the vast majority of voters yearn for someone other than a Bush, said Democratic strategist Donna Brazille. But she acknowledged: “Jeb has the talent, the experience, and the ability to rebuild the GOP’s tent.”

And longtime Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg told Stein: "I believe Jeb Bush could run. He is more of a genuine conservative than [Mitt] Romney. Bush is a big hangover, but not impossible."

Bush was elected governor in 1998 and served two terms during a period of great economic growth in Florida, keeping taxes low and holding down spending. He won high praise for handling natural disasters — six major hurricanes struck Florida’s coastlines during his tenure — and he also spearheaded reforms that have led to improvements in the state’s education system.

Today, Bush is in private business and works with several charities and foundations. But he has not kept out of the public eye, becoming a vocal critic of the Obama administration. He told Newsmax in an exclusive interview that the administration is charting a “dangerous course” as it pushes for a dramatic expansion of government that “imperils our future.”

Longtime Republican consultant John Feehery told Stein: “I think that Bushism is still alive. There is, however, an anti-Bushism in the party associated with the Rand Paul crowd. They don't like neocons and government. And Sarah Palin could be seen as part of that group.

“What people like about Jeb Bush is that he is smart and conservative and well-liked by the base . . . If there is going to be a Bush revival, Jeb is going to be the leader of that revival.”

Newsmax

Cong Mike Pence Introduction Video -- Right on the Mark!

This Cong Pence video to welcome you to his campaign website is one of the best we have ever seen. When we get down about Obama and the Dems, this intro gets replayed as we realize that we have people like Mike Pence fighting for all of us. When the numbers of Democrats swamped the Republicans in 2008, the Republicans could have laid down and done little as it was going to be hard to stop the Dem agenda. Not this group of Republicans as they chose to stand and fight for all of us day after day against all odds.

Since Obama was sworn in, the House has only cast nine votes with the Democrats on major issues -- one on Obamacare and 8 on Cap and Trade. That is remarkable how the Republican House Conference has stuck together and is a tribute to the kind of conservatives we have sent to Congress and the leadership of the Republicans in the House led by Congressmen John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Mike Pence.

Watch this video of Cong Pence and ask yourself if it doesn't bring a smile to your face knowing that Mike Pence is fighting for Conservative Republican values --

Step into the Ring from Harbinger International on Vimeo.

Note: Please hit play twice to get it to play.

Marco Rubio: Why Tackling The Debt Can’t Wait Until Next Year”

Obviously the House Democrats are convinced it can wait until next year when they deemed the budget passed with no hearings. It is obvious the Democrats in both Houses of Congress and in the White House don't want the American people to know how large the deficit will become with their FY2011 budget which tells us it is going to be much bigger than we can imagine.

Democrats have no desire to cut spending even though tax revenue is down due to layoffs.

Marco Rubio is correct that the debt cannot wait until next year but Democrats don't seem to care about doing anything about cutting the deficit until after the election.

Why Tackling The Debt Can’t Wait Until Next Year”
By Marco Rubio
Sunshine State News
July 7, 2010

“Next year when I start presenting some very difficult choices to the country, I hope some of these folks who are hollering about deficits step up. Because I’m calling their bluff.” – President Obama, June 27, 2010

For a devoted Chicago White Sox fan, President Obama has sure sounded like more of a Cubs fan lately when talking about America’s debt crisis – it’s all about “next year.” In doing so, he has encapsulated the fundamental problem with Washington and our political system today – it’s always about “next year.” Or “after the election.” Or “when the time is right.”

This is precisely how once manageable problems grow into full-blown crises – because Washington has too many politicians who won’t tackle the hard issues today. Instead, they postpone them so that others have to deal with them at a future date. Those other people, in turn, repeat the vicious cycle, which has brought us to this critical juncture in American history with regards to our debt.

Today, the Congressional Budget Office says the “federal budget is on an unsustainable path.” European countries are scolding and mocking us about our out-of-control spending. It may be a laughing matter for those who resent America’s strength or, worse, for our enemies who wish for a full-blown American debt crisis as much as they do about another September 11th. But a $13 trillion debt is no laughing matter – not for me and not for my childrens’ generation.

Obama Administration Challenges Arizona Immigration Law

Obama ordered the Attorney General to file suit against Arizona for protecting their own borders when the Federal Government won't do the job. The Arizona Law mirrors federal law so what is the problem with Obama? What did he promise the Mexican President who pays more attention to than our Governors.

Obvious to us like Obama favors illegals over American citizens with the challenge to this bill. Americans are supposed to sit down and do what he says in granting amnesty to those who break our laws. It is not going to work this time as the vast majority of the American people support the Arizona Immigration Law.

It cost all of our states hundreds of thousands of dollars and into the millions in some states to fund people who are here illegally but we are supposed to not want action taken? No amnesty -- no path to citizenship for anyone here in the United States illegally. Why should Americans be responsible for anyone who broke the law to come into this Country for whatever reason? If we snuck into Mexico, we would be arrested for being in the Country which is fine with us. Yet their President wants to join in a lawsuit against Arizona for enforcing the law. Double standard. Every state needs to pass a law like AZ and what will Obama do then?

Los Angeles Times July 6, 2010 11:32 a.m.

White House challenges Arizona immigration law

The federal government filed a lawsuit today to block SB 1070, an effort by Arizona to curb illegal immigration in the state. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer says the law is necessary because the federal government has failed to secure the U.S. border with Mexico.

The legislation would require Arizona law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of people they stop, detain or arrest whom they suspect are in the country illegally.

President Obama had said immigration is a federal, not state, responsibility and expressed concern that SB 1070 could lead to racial discrimination. The law is scheduled to take effect July 29, unless its implementation is blocked by a judge.

More soon at http://www.latimes.com/

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer says new border signs are an outrage

If you only choose to get behind only one Republican Governor's candidate, please make it Jan Brewer, Governor of Arizona, who is standing up against the Obama Administration, LaRaza, and the Mexican President to defend their Immigration Bill that enforces what the Federal Government should be doing but won't.

These signs by the Obama Administration are a slap in the face to Arizona residents and the American people. If these signs are his idea of Border Security 80 miles from the border and 30 miles from the State Capitol to warn how dangerous the area is, then once again Obama has failed to deliver on a promise to provide Border Security.


Eighty miles from the Border, the Obama Administration has basically given the land to the illegals as these signs warn Americans how dangerous it is to travel in this area. These signs only 30 miles from the State Capitol show how poorly Napolitano performed as Governor as she allowed the illegals to continue to cross the border and evolve into the situation we have today. Guess she figures every illegal is a potential Democrat voter. Now as Secretary of Homeland Security she still does nothing to protect the Arizona border. Terrorists could easily cross the Arizona border into the United States but the Obama Administration doesn't seem to care.

Read Governor Brewer's letter to Obama asking for answers after her visit with him in the Oval Office on Border Security two weeks ago. When do you think he will get back to her? Probably not in the near future because he has too many golf dates planned.

This Republican Governor is standing up for the citizens of Arizona and America. She needs elected to a full term in office so she can continue to take on the Washington DC bureacracy of the Obama Administration and Democrat Congress. We need to send her some new members of Congress in January to join others like Senators McCain and Kyl and Congressman Flake who understand Border Security and will help Governor Brewer with this dangerous border situation.

Your vote on NOvember 2nd, 2010, is necessary to send Pelosi and Reid packing from leadership. We need to return some sanity to the halls of Congress where our Border Security will become a major issue and not shoved aside like is happening today with the Obama Democrats.

Watch Governor Brewer's YouTube video below and be reminded just how useless Obama and his Administration are when it comes to Border Security.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer says new border signs are an outrage

Posted: 06/25/2010
Last Updated: 10 hours and 7 minutes ago

By: ABC15.com staff, wire reports
PHOENIX - Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is calling a new border security initiative an outrage.

In a campaign video posted on YouTube Friday, Brewer stood in front of what she called newly posted signs by President Obama's administration about the Arizona desert being an active drug and human smuggling area.

"Washington says our border is as safe as it has ever been," Brewer said. "Does this look safe to you? What is our country coming to…we need to stand up and demand action. Washington is broken, Mr. President. Do your job. Secure our borders."

In a separate letter released the day before, Brewer told Obama she'd like specifics on National Guard deployments and other steps to be taken in Arizona before a planned Monday visit to Phoenix by Obama administration officials to discuss plans. The governor told reporters Friday she expects five officials from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security at the meeting.

The meeting is an outgrowth of Brewer's June 3 visit to the White House where she and Obama discussed border security and immigration.

Brewer is currently running for re-election as Arizona's governor.

Watch the full YouTube video below:



Source: http://www.abc15.com

Kyl: Obama Won't Secure Border Until Lawmakers Move on Immigration Package

Senator Kyl met privately with President Obama on Border Security and now the White House wants us to believe Senator Kyl is the one who is lying about what Obama said at the meeting?

That is not a hard one to figure out. Obama has been against Border Security from Day One ignoring the requests of the Arizona Governor and Senators Kyl and McCain as he was pushing the Immigration bill that grants amnesty. We believe that Obama would prefer Open Borders because when he finally agreed to send in the National Guard to Arizona to help they are desk people not boots on the ground. It suits the Obama and Democrat agenda of getting more Democrat voters if more illegals cross the border, give them amnesty, and a path to citizenship to become a Democrat voter. Doesn't take rocket science to figure out what Obama is up to with his plan for illegals.

The Democrat Party has no intention of securing our border so the fact that Obama told Kyl that he won't secure the border until Congress moves on immigration is no surprise to us. We believe the Democrats looks at illegals as a perpetual source of new Democrat voters not people who are in this Country illegally.

Kyl: Obama Won't Secure Border Until Lawmakers Move on Immigration Package

Published June 21, 2010
FOXNews.com

President Obama is refusing to secure the border until Congress reaches a breakthrough on comprehensive immigration reform, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl said at a recent town hall meeting.

The No. 2 Senate Republican, in a clip posted on YouTube (below) showing the senator speaking to a local Tea Party crowd on Friday, said the president told him during a one-on-one meeting in the Oval Office that he was concerned he wouldn't win GOP support on immigration legislation if he took care of border security first.



"The problem is, he said, if we secure the border, then you all won't have any reason to support comprehensive immigration reform," Kyl said, as the crowd in the room gasped loudly. "In other words, they're holding it hostage."

The White House denied the claim on Monday. Spokesman Bill Burton and Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer both said Kyl "knows" Obama did not make that comment to him in their meeting.

"The president didn't say that and Senator Kyl knows it," Pfeiffer said in a written statement. "There are more resources dedicated toward border security today than ever before, but, as the president has made clear, truly securing the border will require a comprehensive solution to our broken immigration system."
Burton repeated the claim at the press briefing Monday afternoon.

But Kyl's office stood by the senator's account. Kyl spokesman Ryan Patmintra said, "There were two people in that meeting, and Dan Pfieffer was not one of them." He said Pfeiffer's call for comprehensive immigration legislation "only confirms" Kyl's story.

And later, Kyl himself affirmed to Fox News the accuracy of his version: “I portrayed our conversation totally accurately ... The president cannot say that what I said was incorrect.”

Click Here to read more at Fox News

Iowa Congressman Makes No Apologies for His Comments About Obama Favoring Minorities

It has become readily apparent that Obama favors minorities over whites to the stage you could call his comments and actions discrimination against whites. We noticed it during the campaign as he dissed his mother's white side of the family including his grandparents.

Once in office, it became perfectly clear with his pandering to blacks, muslims, and other minorities that whites were to take a back seat. Attorney General Holder's Department of Justice dropping the voter intimidation caught on tape against the New Black Panthers was evidence that change was going to be pandering to minorities.

Thanks to Congressman King (R-IA) for standing up and telling it like it is as so many of our elected officials want to play 'nice' and those days are over as Obama attempts to move this Nation on a path toward socialism bankrupting the United States as he moves along.

We still haven't recovered from reading about the federal judge in New York who wants Hispanics in a town to get six votes to apportion as they desire so Hispanics can be represented on the Town Council. What happened to one man, one vote. Judge rejected making six districts -- Why? Guess that doesn't apply where minorities are concerned -- ACORN has been making sure of that over the years with their voter fraud for Democrats.

When does it stop? When does Martin Luther King's wish that a man be judged on who he is as a person not the color of his skin become a fact? It obviously didn't happen with Obama being elected as the racial divide is farther apart than it has been in years thanks to his policies and comments. If you make a comment against an Obama policy, you are called racist. What does policy have to do with his race?

Iowa Congressman Makes No Apologies for His Comments About Obama Favoring Minorities
Fox ^ 6/16/10 Christina Corbin

Iowa Rep. Steve King said he is performing a public service by accusing President Obama of favoring blacks over whites.

"I'm standing up against something that is or could become racism," King told FoxNews.com on Wednesday.

The Iowa Republican said he didn't misspeak when he told a nationally syndicated radio show on Monday that President Obama favors blacks over whites. King told the G. Gordon Liddy show that Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder repeatedly demonstrate an unjust preference toward minorities.

King told FoxNews.com that his comments alluded to a July 2009 incident in which a white police officer in Cambridge, Mass., arrested a black professor for disorderly conduct.
Before knowing all the facts, Obama said Sgt. James Crowley acted "stupidly" when he apprehended Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. outside his home. Obama later said he did not intend to malign the police offer -- and invited the two men to a "beer summit" at the White House -- but King claims his initial remarks showed a "built-in defense mechanism" that favors minorities.

Excerpt: Read more at foxnews.com

Did You Know? You Cut Project Works - Cast Your Vote!

Great News from the Republican Conference. Cong Eric Cantor (R-VA), Minority Whip has delivered the good news in an email today. Looks like this new project started by House Republicans has Obama and the House Democrats scrambling. Now will they also vote for these cuts? Time will tell but we are not going to hold our breath.

Email from Minority Whip Eric Cantor, 6/18/10:

You are making history.

Since we started the YouCut project, House Republicans have taken the policies that you have selected and offered over $100 billion in spending cuts on the House floor for up-or-down votes by your Representatives.

Just yesterday, we voted on the proposal championed by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) to sell excess federal government property, which would generate over $15 billion in savings. Click here to see where your Representative stood on this important vote.

With every YouCut vote you cast, you are helping to challenge Washington's culture of spending. Together, we are changing the debate from ways the government can spend more of your money into a debate over different ways to reduce spending. Let me share with you two examples of how you are changing Washington.

After this week's YouCut proposal was unveiled to save $15 billion by selling excess federal property, President Obama announced his own version that would save $3 billion. (It isn't $15 billion, but at least it is a step in the right direction!)

The Majority recently called all of their committee chairmen together and told them they had to start finding ways to save money. A Capitol Hill newspaper cited YouCut as prompting the request!

This is only the beginning. There is much more to do. America must reject the road of unsustainable debt; the stakes have never been higher.

Click here to cast your vote on which item should be brought up for a vote next week.

Regards,

Eric Cantor
House Republican Whip

NRSC "Never Again": Obama and the BP Oil Spill

NOTE: This video with the facts about Obama and the Oil Spill is one of the best if not the best videos from the NRSC. Congratulations for a great job in putting this video together.

New TV Ad: “Complete The Danged Fence”

In a new TV ad, Senator John McCain and Sheriff Paul Babeu discuss the McCain / Kyl 10 Point Border Security Plan.



This message from Senator McCain and Sheriff Babeau is right on target -- Obama and his Administration need to get their act together and complete the Border Fence but we are not holding our breath. We don't expect it to happen until Republicans take over control of Congress in 2010. Then they will probably have to override a veto by Obama but we can get it done if we keep pushing. Every last American needs to get behind this push for Border Security.

Bulding the remainder of fence to secure our southern border seems to have no priority from this Administration to get it finished. The border fence at El Paso shows it will work as they are keeping the drug wars in Juarez and not allowing them to cross into El Paso which has become one of the safest large cities in America.

Since a border fence has been shown to work, build it now -- the entire length of the southern border needs the fence like yesterday. Stop the influx of illegals into this Country NOW. Senator McCain is correct about Border Security.

This is another issue where we are hearing next to nothing from Napolitano except there is no money -- instead of wasting money propping up the Euro, we should be building the fence and there would be money left over from the $1 trillion they spent on the euro that failed..

In the meantime before the fence is completed, the National Guard needs activated and assigned to the southern border. The request has been made by Senators McCain, Kyl, and others but all we hear are crickets chirping out of Obama and Napolitano all the while more illegals are entering the United States.

Mexico's illegals laws tougher than Arizona's -- "Why would Mr. Caderon have any objections?" Cong King

The Mexican President Felipe Calderon denounced Arizona's new Immigration Law as "racial discrimination" but what does he call what Mexico does to illegals which is much tougher than Arizona? We found this quote from Cong King (R-IA) which is a question that should be asked of the Mexican President by this Administration but we are not holding our breath.

"Why would Mr. Calderon have any objections to an Arizona law that is less draconian than his own, one he has pledged to enforce?" Mr. King said.

How many news outlets are going to cover the fact that the Mexican laws against illegals are tougher than Arizona? These two paragraphs from the article say all we need to know about Mexico's double standard:

Under the Mexican law, illegal immigration is a felony, punishable by up to two years in prison. Immigrants who are deported and attempt to re-enter can be imprisoned for 10 years. Visa violators can be sentenced to six-year terms. Mexicans who help illegal immigrants are considered criminals.

The law also says Mexico can deport foreigners who are deemed detrimental to "economic or national interests," violate Mexican law, are not "physically or mentally healthy" or lack the "necessary funds for their sustenance" and for their dependents.

As for the Mexican President Calderon's comments, the whole world can now see what a hypocrite he is. He is a perfect match for Obama with his rhetoric!

Mexico's illegals laws tougher than Arizona's
Calderon condemns 'racial discrimination'
May 3, 2010
By Jerry Seper

Mexican President Felipe Calderon denounced as "racial discrimination" an Arizona law giving state and local police the authority to arrest suspected illegal immigrants and vowed to use all means at his disposal to defend Mexican nationals against a law he called a "violation of human rights."

Mexican President Felipe Calderon denounced as "racial discrimination" an Arizona law giving state and local police the authority to arrest suspected illegal immigrants and vowed to use all means at his disposal to defend Mexican nationals against a law he called a "violation of human rights."

But the legislation, signed April 23 by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, is similar to Reglamento de la Ley General de Poblacion — the General Law on Population enacted in Mexico in April 2000, which mandates that federal, local and municipal police cooperate with federal immigration authorities in that country in the arrests of illegal immigrants.

(snip)

"This sounds like the kind of law that a rational nation would have to protect itself against illegal immigrants — that would stop and punish the very people who are violating the law," said Rep. Steve King of Iowa, ranking Republican on the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, citizenship, refugees, border security and international law.

"Why would Mr. Calderon have any objections to an Arizona law that is less draconian than his own, one he has pledged to enforce?" Mr. King said.

Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on terrorism and homeland security, described Mr. Calderon's comments as "hypocritical to say the least."

"I would have expected more from Mr. Calderon," said Mr. Kyl, who serves as the Senate minority whip. "We are spending millions of dollars to help Mexico fight the drug cartels that pose a threat to his government, and he doesn't seem to recognize our concerns. He ought to be apologizing to us instead of condemning us."

Mr. Kyl, along with fellow Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, has introduced a 10-point comprehensive border security plan to combat illegal immigration, drug and human smuggling, and violent crime along the southwestern border. It includes the deployment of National Guard troops, an increase in U.S. Border Patrol agents and 700 miles of fencing, along with other equipment and funding upgrades.

Excerpt: Read More at Washington Times

Senator McCain and Kyl 10-Point Plan for Border Security

We keep reading articles that reference the McCain/Kyl 10-Point Plan for Border Security but had not seen the details until we decided to find it today.

This was announced on April 20, 2010, and has received very little comment around the net. Why? Is it because some conservataive blogs don't want to admit that Senators McCain and Kyl have a plan as the blogs push their own agenda against Sen McCain and for his opponent in the primary. We don't understand how any blog could be pushing Sen McCain's opponent, Hayworth, when he was in the back pocket of Abramoff and lost his Congressional seat because of lack of ethics not to mention he is a bully. That seems to be ignored on some blogs and websites.

SENATORS McCAIN AND KYL ANNOUNCE BORDER SECURITY PLAN
10-Point Plan To Better Secure The U.S.-Mexico Border In ArizonaApril 20, 2010

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) were joined today by Arizona Sheriffs Larry Dever, Cochise County and Paul Babeu, Pinal County in introducing a 10-point comprehensive border security plan to combat illegal immigration, drug and alien smuggling, and violent activity along the southwest border.

Senators McCain and Kyl’s Ten Point Border Security Action Plan:

1) Immediately deploy 3,000 National Guard Troops along the Arizona/Mexico border, along with appropriate surveillance platforms, which shall remain in place until the Governor of Arizona certifies, after consulting with state, local and tribal law enforcement, that the Federal Government has achieved operational control of the border. Permanently add 3,000 Custom and Border Protection Agents to the Arizona/Mexico border by 2015.

2) Fully fund and support Operation Streamline in Arizona’s two Border Patrol Sectors to, at a minimum, ensure that repeat illegal border crossers go to jail for 15 to 60 days. Where Operation Streamline has been implemented, the number of illegal crossings has decreased significantly. Require the Obama Administration to complete a required report detailing the justice and enforcement resources needed to fully fund this program. Fully reimburse localities for any related detention costs.

3) Provide $100M, an increase of $40M, for Operation Stonegarden, a program that provides grants and reimbursement to Arizona’s border law enforcement for additional personnel, overtime, travel and other related costs related to illegal immigration and drug smuggling along the border.

4) Offer Hardship Duty Pay to Border Patrol Agents assigned to rural, high-trafficked areas, such as the CBP Willcox and Douglas Stations in the Tucson Sector.

5) Complete the 700 miles of fencing along the border with Mexico and construct double- and triple- layer fencing at appropriate locations along the Arizona-Mexico border.

6) Substantially increase the 25 mobile surveillance systems and three Predator B Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in place today along the Arizona/Mexico border and ensure the border patrol has the resources necessary to operate the UAVs 24 hours a day seven days a week. Send additional fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to the Arizona-Mexico Border.

7) Increase funding for vital radio communications and interoperability between CBP and state, local, and tribal law enforcement to assist in apprehensions along the border.

8) Provide funding for additional Border Patrol stations in the Tucson Sector and explore the possibility of an additional Border Patrol sector for Arizona. Create six additional permanent Border Patrol Forward Operating Bases, and provide funding to upgrade the existing bases to include modular buildings, electricity and potable water. Complete construction of the planned permanent checkpoint in Arizona. Deploy additional temporary roving checkpoints and increase horse patrols throughout the Tucson Sector.

9) Require the Federal government to fully reimburse state and local governments for the costs of incarcerating criminal aliens. Start by at least funding the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) at its authorized level of $950 million.

10) Place one full-time Federal Magistrate in Cochise County and provide full funding for and authorization of the Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative to reimburse state, county, tribal, and municipal governments for costs associated with the prosecution and pre-trial detention of federally-initiated criminal cases declined by local offices of the United States Attorneys.

We believe it is time the Democrats in Congress and Obama and members of his Administration take their heads out of the sand and pay attention to Border Security to stop the influx of illegals. This 10-Point Plan for Border Security is a great place to start to give states along the border the necessary resources they need to fight the illegals. It is a Federal issue that Obama and the Federal Government are abdicating their responsibility so the states are having to pass individual immigration laws to protect the citizens of their states.

Weekly Republican Address, 5/1/10: Rep Hoekstra, (R-MI)

Would like to know what Cong Hoekstra thought of Obama's speech after he turned the speech at the University of Michigan into a political speech to attack Republicans and anyone else he considers his enemies. Obama took aim at partisan rants -- guess as members of the opposition we are not to say anything against Obama and his policies.

He has never gotten it through his head that the rants are against his agenda, policies, and secrecy about his associates, his college days, and his background growing up. Most secretive President ever and he has the nerve to attack anyone who disagrees with him at a Commencement Speech?

The vast majority of Republicans haven't come close to what the Democrats called President Bush and never will. The big difference is that President Bush was never moving our Country toward socialism like Obama. The Obama agenda is out of touch with American values and even the Obama voters are waking up to the fact that Hope and Change of Obama is not what they expected.

Florida Senate Race -- Marco Rubio versus Charlie Crist

There are two Republican candidates in the Florida primary -- Former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio and Governor Charlie Crist. What seemed like an insurmountable mountain when Rubio announced he was running against the Florida Governor, began to look like a smaller mountain as he campaigned around the state.

Rubio set out to visit every county in the state and was available to speak to any group. His support began to increase as he visited the various county party organizations and attended events around Florida. People were able to hear him speak and liked what they liked what they were hearing. They knew Marco as the young Speaker of the Florida House but now they got to talk with him in person and learn about Marco Rubio who was running for the United States Senate.

Rubio has been running the same type of grassroots effort that Senator Tom Coburn, MD, ran in Oklahoma in 2004 which sent him to the Senate. Right alongside Rubio is Club for Growth who was there for Dr. Coburn. When you have the grassroots behind you as a candidate, you may not have the dollars but you have the people who are going to go door to door, make the phone calls, and assist you in ways that paid staff may not. You cannot buy loyalty of your supporters.

With the grassroots supporters, eventually will come the dollars which had already started when two of Florida's favorite people, Jeb Jr., and George P. Bush teamed up to do a fundraiser for Rubio. It is common knowledge throughout FL that former Governor Jeb Bush and current Governor Crist are not the best of friends. Jeb's sons throwing this fundraising sent a further message to donors looking for a candidate -- take a long hard look at Rubio. By this time Rubio was leading Crist in the polls. Jeb has not 'officially' endorsed but there is no mistaking the fact that he is supporting Rubio in his run for Senate.

While Senator Cornyn, NRSC Chairman, endorsed Crist early at the request of FL GOP Chairman Greer (who resigned under pressure), and Cornyn has just reaffirmed that endorsement, Senators DeMint (R-SC) and Inhofe (R-OK) endorsed Rubio. If you ask us, those two endorsements from DeMint and Inhofe carry much more weight. NRSC has seen the last dime of any of our money with this reaffirmed endorsement of Crist as the NRSC doesn't seem to get it even after Marco Rubio's speech at CPAC:

People from outside of Florida keep asking what happened, why was Crist going down in the polls and why did NRSC endorse Crist? We have been asking that question of NRSC from Day One since this is a contested primary with no incumbent. Why didn't Cornyn and the NRSC stay neutral in the primary. We can answer reasons for Crist to start gong down in the polls but we have no clue why the NRSC endorsed.

Everything started going south for Gov Crist when Sen Mel Martinez decided to retire early from the Senate and Crist had to choose a replacement. He had some very good candidates to choose from including former Representative Mike Bilarakis. Governor Crist called all the County Chairs to get their opinions and then did the opposite of what they recommended by choosing George LeMieux in Sep 09 who was the central figure in the negotiation of the Indian Gambling compact between Florida and the Seminole Indian Tribe which granted the Indians card-games not allowed by state law. From the Palm Beach Post:

Well, it's being reported that George LeMieux, Fort Lauderdale lawyer and GOP operator, is Crist's pick for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Mel Martinez. This was actually pretty predictable. Crist, of course, is running for the seat in 2010, and LeMieux is Crist's boy. He definitely won't take the seat like Gollum and try to run off with it. With Shaw and some of the others, there was always that chance. With LeMieux, he'll just keep it warm with his loyal fanny.

But it reveals Crist's character. How can you put any man or woman in a U.S. Senate seat who has never been elected to anything? LeMieux is a political operative, not a statesman.

This set off a firestorm among the County Chairs, but then what happened next sent Republicans and Independents to Marco Rubio's camp who were on the fence. You could say a picture is worth a thousand words and in this instance you would be correct. As the Miami Herald so aptly put it: "Republican Senate Nomination May Come Down to a Hug"


The Miami Herald had this to say about the picture of Gov Crist hugging President Obama last October 25th:

Only time will tell but one thing is certain. Rubio is not the only republican who believes Crist is a closet liberal. The hug only seemed to cement that sentiment.

"I was horrified," Rubio said, adding that Crist canceled lunch at the governor's mansion with former Gov. Jeb Bush and other former governors to be with Obama.

"This was more than just a courtesy greeting, this was an embrace and a support of $800 billion of deficit spending."

Crist says he has no regrets about appearing with Obama.

"I was happy and delighted to do so. I'm a civil guy. The president of the United States is the president of the United States," Crist said. "Especially when it's the first visit to Florida and I'm invited to be there. I have that kind of respect in my soul."

The embrace of the Obama and his stimulus continued the poll numbers going south for Governor Crist after his appointment of LeMieux but what happened next with Marco Rubio's poll numbers rising and Crist falling, is almost too funny for words as the credit card dirty trick has backfired.

Rumor has it the FL GOP credit card record release for Rubio came from the Crist camp and was shopped to the media by Democrats. We need to note here that Crist was never was given a FL GOP credit card because he expects his aides to pick up the bills for him as he doesn't pay for his own meals or items. Maybe they should release the credit card records of his aides as we have heard rumors that Rubio spent less in several years then Crist aides have done in a year. We expect the dirty tricks to continue out of the Crist Camp although he is already starting to lose staffers from his Governor's campaign.

After the story broke about credit cards provided by FL GOP for use by FL Republicans in office, the article from the Miami Herald looked into the personal use of the American Express card by Marco Rubio. As the facts began to emerge, you realized that this was backfiring on the Crist camp:

Rubio said Wednesday that he paid for all personal expenses billed to an American Express card given to him by the party to use from 2005 to 2008 when he left public office. The rest of the charges, he said, were legitimate party expenses.

With the articles from around the State showing that Rubio had paid for his own personal expenses and explained the rest of the charges as legitimate party expenses, this became a non-issue.

On the heels of the release of American Express records Gov Crist gave an interview on Feb 27, 2010, with the Palm Coast Editorial Board which shocked not only Floridians but people across America. It appears that Gov Crist is still playing up to Obama when he was interviewed by saying "the Democrats shouldn't scrap their healthcare plans" but it gets better in the interview as he can think of nothing good about them.

Not one good idea?

“There may be. There may be. You know, I’m pretty focused on Florida right now. I mean, after the session I’ll be more focused on the issues in Washington. But I’ve got to do my first job first.”

Crist wants to focus on Florida which is fine except the Democrat healthcare bills contain portions about Medicaid and Medicare which will have an adverse impact on senior citizens of Florida along with the Medicaid program for families with little income and no healthcare who depend on the state.

Bottom line on the credit card/healthcare issues is that one candidate (Rubio) paid for all of his personal expenses on the GOP credit card and is against Obamacare and the other candidate (Crist) didn't use a FL GOP credit card because as Governor, he expects his aides to pick up the tab, but he supports Obamacare but doesn't know why.

We believe that Marco Rubio has shown why he deserves the Republican nomination for Senator and to become the next United States Senator from Florida. Three words describe Marco Rubio -- honesty, integrity, and conservative.

The article below from Bryon York of the Washington Examiner gives more reasons to support Rubio over Crist.

Marco Rubio and the Republicans who love himBy:
Byron York Chief Political Correspondent
March 9, 2010

(AP)
Palm Beach, Fla.

Marco Rubio laughs at the idea, heard from some pundits recently, that he's the "Republican Obama." "I'm not sure people even want to be the Democrat Obama these days," he says. For Rubio, the unlikely front-runner in the Florida Republican Senate primary race, the label is a measure of the unhappiness many people feel with their political choices at any given moment. "There's always this constant desire for new people to enter the process," he explains. Now, he's the new guy.

Challenging the head of your own party is not necessarily the path to political glory, but that's what Rubio has done in the race against Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. Last May, when Rubio, the former speaker of the state House, announced his candidacy, the first three polls done in the race showed him trailing Crist by 35, 37, and 31 points, respectively.

Now, the most recent poll, done by Rasmussen Reports in mid-February, shows Rubio up by 18 points. In a conversation before a speech to the conservative Club for Growth here in Palm Beach, Rubio downplays his lead. He didn't get upset when the polls showed him behind, he says, so he's "not going to get too excited about them with six months to go and we're up by a few points." But Rubio knows the numbers reflect something happening with the voters.

People are scared by the Obama agenda. "I do not believe the president fully supports the free-enterprise system that I support," Rubio says. Florida Republicans, Rubio believes, know in their hearts that Crist "is not going to go to Washington and stand up to this agenda and be part of offering an alternative -- he's just not going to do it." Crist's recent praise for the stimulus and tendency to accommodate Obamacare suggest Rubio is right.

Rubio watched closely as Republican Scott Brown pulled off a political miracle in Massachusetts. First, Rubio learned how incredibly intense a high-profile race can become down the stretch -- he better be ready for that. But more importantly, he saw how critical it is to "focus like a laser on a couple of key issues."

"In that campaign, [Brown] was often tempted to get involved in side issues, he was invited to join [Democrat Martha Coakley] in the weeds and talk about things that didn't matter," Rubio says. "But the fact that he focused on the important issues, the things that mattered to real people in the real world, is ultimately what got him over the top, and it's what we're going to strive to do in our election as well."
For Rubio, that means the economic issues -- "national debt, job creation, how our tax code and government spending are discouraging job creation, and entitlement reform. Those are the central issues of the moment."

(snip)

Rubio, born in Miami to Cuban exiles in 1971, is about as fresh a face as you get in a Senate race. He gives a tremendous speech about his love for American free enterprise and opportunity. Politically savvy Republicans across the country are falling in love with him, but they're also realizing they don't really know a lot about him. That's what campaigns are for. By the time Election Day comes around, they're hoping Marco Rubio will turn out to be every bit as good as he seems.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: Washington Examiner