Obama Honored Fallen SEALs By Sending Their Parents a Form Letter Signed By Electric Pen

On August 6, 2011, 30 US service members were killed when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter they were being transported in crashed in Wardak province, Afghanistan. It was the deadliest single loss for U.S. forces in the decade-long war in Afghanistan. 17 members of the elite Navy SEALs were killed in the crash.

Yesterday, Karen and Billy Vaughn, parents of Aaron Carson Vaughn, spoke at the Defending the Defenders forum sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots outside the RNC Convention in Tampa. Karen brought a copy of the form letter they were sent following their son’s death.

That’s not all. Karen Vaughn reached out to the parents of the other SEALs killed in that crash. Their letters were all the same: Form letters – signed by an electric pen. See the insulting copies HERE!

Ryan: Under Obama, everything is free except us

The following is a transcript of vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan's speech at the Republican National Convention on Aug. 29, 2012. 
<><><><><><><><>
Hello, everybody.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you
very much.
   Hey, Wisconsin.  Thank you.  Thank you.
   Thanks so much.  Thank you.
   Mr. Chairman, delegates, and fellows citizens, I am honored
by the support of this convention for vice president of the
United States.
   (APPLAUSE)
   I accept the duty to help lead our nation out of a jobs
crisis and back to prosperity.  And I know we can do this.
   (APPLAUSE)
   I accept the calling of my generation to give our children
the America that was given to us with opportunity for the young
and security for the old.  And I know that we are ready.  Our
nominee is sure ready.
   His whole life prepared him for this moment.  To meet
serious challenges in a serious way.  Without excuses.  After
four years of getting the runaround, America needs a turnaround
and the man for the job as Governor Mitt Romney.
   (APPLAUSE)
   I'm the newcomer to this campaign.  So let me share a first
impression.  I have never seen opponents so silent about their
record, and so desperate to keep their power.  They have run out
of ideas. Their moment came and went.  Fear and division is all
they've got left.  With all of their attack ads the president is
just throwing away money.
And he is pretty experienced at that.
   (APPLAUSE)
   You see, some people can't be dragged down by the usual
cheap tactics.  Because their character, ability, and plain
decency are so obvious.  These and deployment, that is Mitt
Romney.
   (APPLAUSE)
   For my part, your nomination is an unexpected turn.  It
certainly came as news to my family.
   (LAUGHTER)
   And I'd like you to meet them.  My best friend and wife
Janna, my daughter Liza and our boys Charlie and Sam.
   (APPLAUSE)
   The kids are happy to see their grandma who lives in
Florida. There she is, my mom, Betty.
   (APPLAUSE)
   My dad, a small town lawyer, was also named Paul.  Until we
lost him when I was 16, he was a gentle presence in my life.
I'd like to think he'd be proud of me and my sister and
brothers.
   (APPLAUSE)
   You know what?
   (APPLAUSE)
   I'm sure proud of him and where I come from, Janesville,
Wisconsin.
   (APPLAUSE)
   I live on the same block where I grew up.  We belong to the
same parish where I was baptized.  Janesville is that kind of
place.  The people of Wisconsin have been good to me.  I've
tried to live up to their trust.  And now, I ask those
hardworking men and women and millions like them across America
to join our cause and get this country working again.
   (APPLAUSE)
   When Governor Romney asked me to join the ticket, I said
let's get this done.  And that is exactly what we are going to
do.
   (APPLAUSE)
   President Barack Obama, came to office during an economic
crisis, as he has reminded us a time or two.  Those are very
tough days.  And any fair measure of his record has to take that
into account.  My own state voted for President Obama.  When he
talked about change, many people liked the sound of it.
Especially in Janesville where we were about to lose a major
factory.  A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at
that G.M. plant.  Right there at that plant, candidate Obama
said, ``I believe that if our government is there to support you,
this plant will be here for another 100 years.''
   That's what he said in 2008.  Well, as it turned out, that
plant didn't last another year.  It is locked up and empty to
this day.  And that's how it is in so many towns where the
recovery that was promised is no where in sight.  Right now, 23
million men and women are struggling to find work.  23 million
people unemployed or underemployed.  Nearly one in six Americans
is in poverty.   Millions of young Americans have graduated from
college during the Obama presidency, ready to use their gifts
and get moving in life.
   Half of them can't find the work they studied for, or any
work at all.  So here's the question, without a change in
leadership, why would the next four years be any different from
the last four years?
   (APPLAUSE)
   The first troubling sign came with the stimulus.  President
Obama's first and best shot at fixing the economy.  At a time
when he got everything he wanted under one party rule. It cost
$831 billion. The largest one-time expenditure ever by our
federal government.
It went to companies like Solyndra, with their
gold-plated connections, subsidized jobs and make believe
markets.
   The stimulus was a case of political patronage, corporate
welfare anachronism at their worst.
   (APPLAUSE)
   You -- you the American people of this country were cut out
of the deal.  What did taxpayers get out of the Obama stimulus?
More debt.  That money wasn't just spent and wasted, it was
borrowed, spent and wasted.
   (APPLAUSE)
   Maybe the greatest waste of all, was time.  Here we were
faced with a massive job crisis so deep that if everyone out of
work stood in single file, that unemployment line would stretch
the length of the entire American continent.
   You would think that any president, whatever his party,
would make job creation and nothing else his first order of
economic business, but this president didn't do that.  Instead,
we got a long, divisive, all or nothing attempt to put the
federal government in charge of health care.
   (CROWD BOOS)
   Obama Care comes to more than 2,000 pages of rules,
mandates, taxes, fees and fines that have no place in a free
country.
   (APPLAUSE)
   That's right.  That's right.
   You know what?  The president has declared that the debate
over government controlled health care is over.  That will come
as news to the millions of American who will elect Mitt Romney
so we can repeal Obama Care.
   (APPLAUSE)
   And the biggest, coldest power play of all in Obama Care
came at the expense of the elderly.  You see, even with all the
hidden taxes to pay for the health care takeover, even with the
new law and new taxes on nearly a million small businesses, the
planners in Washington still didn't have enough money; they
needed more.  They needed hundreds of billions more.  So they
just took it all away from Medicare, $716 billion funneled out
of Medicare by President Obama.
   (CROWD BOOS)
   An obligation we have to our parents and grandparents is
being sacrificed, all to pay for a new entitlement we didn't
even ask for.
   (APPLAUSE)
   The greatest threat to Medicare is Obama Care and we're
going to stop it.
   (APPLAUSE)
   In Congress, when they take out the heavy books and the
wall charts about Medicare, my thoughts go back to a house on
Garfield Street in Janesville.  My wonderful grandma, Janet, had
Alzheimer's and she moved in with mom and me.  Though she felt
lost at times, we did all the little things that made her feel
loved.  We had help from Medicare and it was there, just like
it's there for my mom today. Medicare is a promise and we will
honor it.  A Romney-Ryan Administration with protect and
strengthen Medicare for my mom's generation, for my generation
and for my kids and yours.
   (APPLAUSE)
   So our opponents can consider themselves on notice.  In
this election, on this issue , the usual posturing on the Left
isn't going to work.  Mitt Romney and I know the difference
between protecting a program and raiding it.  Ladies and
gentlemen, our nation needs this debate, we want this debate, we
will win in this debate.
   (APPLAUSE)
   Obamacare, as much as anything else, explains why a
presidency that began with such anticipation now comes to such a
disappointing close.  It began with a financial crisis.  It ends
with a job crisis. It began with a housing crisis they alone
didn't cause.  It ends with a housing crisis they didn't
correct.
   (APPLAUSE)
   It began with a perfect AAA credit rating for the United
States. It ends with the downgraded America .  It all started
off with stirring speeches, Greek columns, the thrill of
something new.  Now all that's left is a presidency adrift,
surviving on slogans that already seem tired., grasping at the
moment that has already passed, like a ship trying to sail on
yesterday's wind.
   (APPLAUSE)
   You know, President Obama was asked not long ago to reflect
on any mistakes he might have made.  He said, ``Well, I haven't
communicated enough.''
   (LAUGHTER)
   He said his job is to, quote, ``tell a story to the American
people''. As if that is the whole problem here?  He needs to talk
more and we need to be better listeners?
   (LAUGHTER)
   Ladies and gentlemen, these past four years, we have
suffered no shortage of words in the White House.
   (APPLAUSE)
   What is missing is leadership in the White House.
   (APPLAUSE)
   And the story that Barack Obama does tell, forever shifting
blame to the last administration, is getting old.  The man
assumed office almost four years ago.  Isn't it about time he
assumed responsibility?
   (APPLAUSE)
   In this generation, a defining responsibility of government
is to steer our nation clear of a debt crisis while there is
still time. Back in 2008, candidate Obama called a $10 trillion
national debt unpatriotic.  Serious talk from what looked like a
serious reformer. By his own decisions, President Obama has
added more debt than any other president before him.
   And more than all the troubled governments of Europe
combined. One president, one term, $5 trillion in new debt.
   He created a new bipartisan debt commission. They came back
with an urgent report.  He thanks them, sent them on their way,
and then did exactly nothing.
   AUDIENCE:  Boo.
   RYAN:  Republicans stepped up with good-faith reforms and
solutions equal to the problems.  How did the president respond?
By doing nothing -- nothing except to dodge and demagogue the
issue.
   So here we are, $16 trillion in debt and still he does
nothing. In Europe, massive debts have put entire governments at
risk of collapse, and still he does nothing. And all we have
heard from this president and his team are attacks on anyone who
dares to point out the obvious.
   They have no answer to this simple reality: We need to stop
spending money we don't have.
   (APPLAUSE)
   Very simple.  Not that hard.
   My Dad used to say to me: ``Son.  You have a choice:  You
can be part of the problem, or you can be part of the solution.''
The present administration has made its choices.  And Mitt
Romney and I have made ours:  Before the math and the momentum
overwhelm us all, we are going to solve this nation's economic
problems.
   (APPLAUSE)
   And I'm going to level with you: We don't have that much
time. But if we are serious, and smart, and we lead, we can do
this.
   After four years of government trying to divide up the
wealth, we will get America creating wealth again.
   (APPLAUSE)
   With tax fairness and regulatory reform, we'll put
government back on the side of the men and women who create
jobs, and the men and women who need jobs.
   My Mom started a small business, and I've seen what it
takes. Mom was 50 when my Dad died.  She got on a bus every
weekday for years, and rode 40 miles each morning to Madison.
She earned a new degree and learned new skills to start her
small business.  It wasn't just a new livelihood.  It was a new
life.  And it transformed my Mom from a widow in grief to a
small businesswoman whose happiness wasn't just in the past.
Her work gave her hope.  It made our family proud.
   And to this day, my Mom is my role model.
   (APPLAUSE)
   Behind every small business, there's a story worth knowing.
All the corner shops in our towns and cities, the restaurants,
cleaners, gyms, hair salons, hardware stores, these didn't come
out of nowhere. A lot of heart goes into each one.
   And if small business people say they made it on their own,
all they are saying is that nobody else worked seven days a week
in their place.  Nobody showed up in their place to open the
door at five in the morning.  Nobody did their thinking, and
worrying, and sweating for them.
   After all that work, and in a bad economy, it sure doesn't
help to hear from their president that government gets the
credit.  What they deserve to hear is the truth: Yes, you did
build that.
   (APPLAUSE)
   We have a plan for a stronger middle class, with the goal
of generating 12 million new jobs over the next four years.
   (APPLAUSE)
   In a clean break -- in a clean break from the Obama years,
and frankly from the years before this president, we will keep
federal spending at 20 percent of GDP, or less.  Because that is
enough.
   (APPLAUSE)
   The choice -- the choice is whether to put hard limits on
economic growth, or hard limits on the size of government, and
we choose to limit government.
   (APPLAUSE)
   I learned a good deal about economics, and about America,
from the author of the Reagan tax reforms, the great Jack Kemp.
   (APPLAUSE)
   What gave Jack that incredible enthusiasm was his belief in
the possibilities of free people, in the power of free
enterprise and strong communities to overcome poverty and
despair.   We need that same optimism right now.
   And in our dealings with other nations, a Romney-Ryan
administration will speak with confidence and clarity.  Whenever
men and women rise up for their own freedom, they will know that
the American president is on their side.
   (APPLAUSE)
   Instead -- instead of managing American decline, leaving
allies to doubt us and adversaries to test us, we will act in
the conviction that the United States is still the greatest
force for peace and liberty that this world has ever known.
   (APPLAUSE)
   President Obama is the kind of politician who puts promises
on the record, and then calls that the record.
   (LAUGHTER)
   But we are four years into this presidency. The issue is
not the economy that Barack Obama inherited, not the economy as
he envisions, but this economy that we are living.
   College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in
their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and
wondering when they can move out and get going with life.
   (APPLAUSE)
   Everyone -- everyone who feels stuck in the Obama economy
is right to focus on the here and now.  And I hope you
understand this too, if you're feeling left out or passed by:
You have not failed, your leaders have failed you.
   (APPLAUSE)
   None of us -- none of us have to settle for the best this
administration offers, a dull, adventureless journey from one
entitlement to the next, a government-planned life, a country
where everything is free but us.
   (APPLAUSE)
   Listen to the way we're already spoken to -- listen to the
way we are spoken to already, as if everyone is stuck in some
class or station in life, victims of circumstances beyond our
control, with government there to help us cope with our fate.
It's the exact opposite of everything I learned
growing up in Wisconsin, or at college in Ohio.
   (APPLAUSE)
   Now when I was waiting tables, washing dishes, or mowing
lawns for money, I never thought of myself as stuck in some
station in life. I was on my own path, my own journey, an
American journey, where I could think for myself, decide for
myself, define happen as for myself.  That is what we do in this
country.  That is the American dream.
   (APPLAUSE)
   That's freedom and I will take it any day over the
supervision and sanctimony of the central planners.
   (APPLAUSE)
   The failures of one administration are not a mandate for a
new administration.  A challenger must stand on his own merits.
He must be ready and worthy to serve in the office of president.
   We are a full generation apart, Governor Romney and I.  And
in some ways, we are different.  There are the songs in his
Ipod, which I have heard on the campaign bus...
   (LAUGHTER)
   ... and I have heard it on many hotel elevators.
   (LAUGHTER)
   He actually urged me to play some of these songs at
campaign rallies.  I said, ``look, I hope it is not a deal
breaker Mitt, but my playlist starts with AC/DC and it ends with
Zeppelin.
   (APPLAUSE)
   A generation apart -- a generation apart, but that does not
matter.  It makes us different but not in any of the things that
matter.  Mitt Romney and I both grew up in the Heartlands, and
we know what places like Wisconsin and Michigan look like when
times are good.
   (APPLAUSE)
   We know what these communities look like when times are
good, when people are working, when families are doing more than
just getting by, and we know it can be that way again.  We have
had very different careers, mainly in public service, his mostly
in the private sector.  He helped start businesses and turn
around failing ones, and by the way being successful in
business, that's a good thing.
   (APPLAUSE)
   Mitt -- Mitt has not only succeeded, but he has succeeded
where others could not.  He turned around the Olympics at a time
when a great institution was collapsing under the weight of bad
management, overspending and corruption.  Sounds kind of
familiar, doesn't it?
   (APPLAUSE)
   He was the Republican governor of a state where almost nine
in 10 legislators are Democrats and yet he balanced the budget
without raising taxes.  Unemployment went down.  Household
incomes went up, and Massachusetts under Governor Mitt Romney
saw its credit rating upgraded.
   (APPLAUSE)
   Mitt and I also go to different churches, but in any
church, the best kind of preaching is done by example, and I've
been watching that example.
   (APPLAUSE)
   The man who will accept your nomination is prayerful and
faithful and honorable.  Not only a defender of marriage, he
offers an example of marriage at its best.  Not only a fine
businessman, he is a fine man, worthy of leading this optimistic
and good-hearted country.  Our faiths come together in the same
moral creed.  We believe that in every life, there is goodness,
for every person there is hope.  Each one of us was made for a
reason, bearing the image and likeness of the lord of life.
   (APPLAUSE)
   RYAN:  We have responsibilities, one to another.  We do not
each face the world alone.  And the greatest of all
responsibilities, is that of the strong to protect the weak.
The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who
cannot defend or care for themselves.
   (APPLAUSE)
   Each of these great moral ideas is essential to democratic
government, to the rule of law, to life in a humane and decent
society.  They are the moral creed of our country, as powerful
in our time, as on the day of America's founding.  They are
self-evident and unchanging, and sometimes, even presidents need
reminding, that our rights come from nature and God, and not
from government.
   (APPLAUSE)
   The founding generation secured those rights for us, and in
every generation since, the best among us have defended our
freedoms.  They are protecting us right now.  We honor them and
all our veterans, and we thank them.
   (APPLAUSE)
   The right that makes all the difference now, is the right
to choose our own leaders.  And you are entitled to the clearest
possible choice, because the time for choosing is drawing near.
   So here is our pledge.
   We will not duck the tough issues, we will lead.
   We will not spend the next four years blaming others, we
will take responsibility.
   We will not try to replace our founding principles, we will
reapply our founding principles.
   (APPLAUSE)
   The work ahead will be hard.  These times demand the best
of all of us -- all of us, but we can do this -- we can do this
.  Together, we can do this.
   We can get this country working again.  We can get this
economy growing again.  We can make the safety net safe again.
   We can do this.
   Whatever your political party, let's come together for the
sake of our country.  Join Mitt Romney and me.  Let's give this
effort everything we have.  Let's see this through all the way.
Let's get this done.
   Thank you, and God bless.

Thanks to Fox News!

SEAL book raises questions about bin Laden's death

A firsthand account of the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden contradicts previous accounts by administration officials, raising questions as to whether the terror mastermind presented a clear threat when SEALs first fired upon him.

Bin Laden apparently was shot in the head when he looked out of his bedroom door into the top-floor hallway of his compound as SEALs rushed up a narrow stairwell in his direction, according to former Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette, writing under the pseudonym Mark Owen in “No Easy Day.” The book is to be published next week by Penguin Group (USA)’s Dutton imprint.

Mr. Bissonnette says he was directly behind a point man going up the stairs in the pitch-black hallway. Near the top, he said, he heard two shots, but the book doesn’t make it clear who fired them. He wrote that the point man had seen a man peeking out of a door on the right side of the hallway.

The author writes that the man ducked back into his bedroom and the SEALs followed, only to find the man crumpled on the floor in a pool of blood with a hole visible on the right side of his head and two women wailing over his body. Once they wiped the blood off his face, they were certain it was bin Laden. More!

57 States collectively, over $4 trillion in debt

America’s 50 states are collectively over $4 trillion in debt according to a new study by an independent, non-partisan think tank.State Budget Solutions‘ third annual State Debt Report shows that aggregate state debt fell from $4.24 trillion last year to $4.19 trillion this year. State Budget Solutions’ debt calculations include a state’s regular debt, the fiscal year 2013 budget gap, outstanding unemployment trust fund loans, unfunded other post employment benefit liabilities, and the state’s unfunded pension liabilities.

California, again, led all states in total debt weighing in at $617 billion in unfunded liabilities. On a per capita basis, each Californian faces $16,386 in state debt compared to just $11,117 owed by each Texan. The top five states in total debt burden where California, New York ($300 billion), Texas ($286 billion), New Jersey ($282 billion), and New Jersey ($271 billion). The same five states led the ranking last year.

Unfunded public pension liabilities are the main drivers of state fiscal woes, accounting for $2.8 trillion of the shortfall. Other post employment benefits, including health care, account for another $627 billion in debt. California faces $398 billion in unfunded pension liabilities and alone. Source!

Ed: Oh, 50 States; sorry...

Ellen Barkin Hopes Hurricane Kills 'Every Pro-Life, Xenophobic, Gay-Bashing SOB' At The RNC

In the aftermath of the Family Research Council shooting, prominent voices on the Left have not tapped down their violent rhetoric against their opponents. Two Baby Boomer celebrities have taken to Twitter to hope pro-life, pro-family individuals and U.S. Congressman Todd Akin suffer a drowning or a same-sex rape.
On Sunday, Ellen Barkin expressed her hope that Tropical Storm Isaac would smash up the Republican National Convention in Tampa and drown all its delegates.

She retweeted the message of one of her followers that read: “C’mon #Isaac! Wash every pro-life, anti-education, anti-woman, xenophobic, gay-bashing, racist SOB right into the ocean! #RNC Source!

Ed: Question! Why do Conservatives support the anti-American Hollywood pond scum? When Ellen Barking rolls a good line on TV, are you able to see past her black heart and enjoy the 'entertainment'? Well, you're a better patriot than I.

GOP set to OK pro-gun platform

Delegates to the Republican National Convention on Tuesday will approve the most pro-gun platform ever, staking out support for national concealed carry reciprocity and opposing domestic restrictions on ammunition and United Nations interference in gun sales.

"It's probably the most supportive and detailed on Second Amendment issues ever," said a gun-rights advocate who attended the GOP platform committee meetings last week.

Besides giving the National Rifle Association and other Second Amendment groups victories on their issues, the platform is also a slap at several Obama initiatives, including the Fast & Furious scandal, his administration's consideration of a ban on high-capacity bullet magazines and talk of reviving the assault weapons ban and negotiations in the United Nations over a treaty to regulate small arms sales. Source!

Hiawatha Warren's Massachusetts Senate Campaign Staffer Assults Cameraman

Massachusetts Republicans have released a video that they claim shows an aide for Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren physically assaulting an employee of the Massachusetts GOP. Caution: Liberal language and physical threats...

The rapid-fire volley of accusations was a reminder, as the Republican National Convention slowly gets underway, that several Senate races that could hold the key to a majority for either party next year promise to be just as fierce as the presidential race.

Massachusetts GOP Executive Director Nate Little kicked off the back-and-forth by claiming that a Warren aide "physically assaulted and threatened" a party employee who was videotaping Warren Sunday on Martha's Vineyard.

"In addition to knocking the camera from the employee's hand, the individual also threw a punch," he said. "This type of behavior is completely unacceptable and has no place in our public discourse. Despite witnessing this assault first-hand, Professor Warren took no action and allowed it to continue. As Professor Warren falls further behind in the polls, we expect that she will become more negative toward Scott Brown. However, that should not be an excuse for her staff to lash out in violence. Professor Warren needs to address this situation and ensure that it doesn't happen again." Fox News Story!

17 Afghans beheaded for dancing

Insurgents beheaded 17 civilians in a Taliban-controlled area of southern Afghanistan, apparently because they attended a dance party that flouted the extreme brand of Islam embraced by the militants, officials said Monday.

The killings, in a district where U.S. Marines have battled the Taliban for years, were a reminder of how much power the insurgent group still wields in the south — particularly as international forces draw down and hand areas over to Afghan forces.

The victims were part of a large group that had gathered late Sunday in Helmand province's Musa Qala district for a celebration involving music and dancing, said district government chief Neyamatullah Khan. He said the Taliban slaughtered them to show their disapproval of the event. More!

And Two More U.S. Troops Killed by Afghans in Uniform

A rogue Afghan soldier shot dead two U.S. troops in east Afghanistan on Monday, the NATO-led coalition said, the latest in a series of insider killings that have strained trust between the allies ahead of a 2014 pullout by foreign combat troops.

The deaths in Laghman province brought to 12 the number of foreign soldiers killed this month, prompting NATO to increase security against insider attacks, including requiring soldiers to carry loaded weapons at all times on base. Source!

Ed: Why do we try to civilize animals?

Obama has millions of fake Twitter followers

President Obama's Twitter account has 18.8 million followers -- but more than half of them really don't exist, according to reports.

A new Web tool has determined that 70% of Obama's crowd includes "fake followers," The New York Times reports in a story about how Twitter followers can be purchased.

"The practice has become so widespread that StatusPeople, a social media management company in London, released a Web tool last month called the Fake Follower Check that it says can ascertain how many fake followers you and your friends have," the Times reports.

"Fake accounts tend to follow a lot of people but have few followers," said Rob Waller, a founder of StatusPeople. "We then combine that with a few other metrics to confirm the account is fake." Source

More than 2,200 hospitals face penalties under ObamaCare rules

A provision of ObamaCare is set to punish roughly two-thirds of U.S. hospitals evaluated by Medicare starting this fall over high readmission rates, according to an analysis by Kaiser Health News.

Starting in October, Medicare will reduce reimbursements to hospitals with high 30-day readmission rates -- which refers to patients who return within a month -- by as much as 1 percent. The maximum penalty increases to 2 percent the following year and 3 percent in 2014. 

Doctors are concerned the penalty is unfair, since sometimes they have to accept patients more than once in a brief period of time but could be penalized for doing so -- even for accepting seniors who are sick.  Source!

A Republican is a Democrat that's been robbed

Recently, while I was working in the flower beds in the front yard, my neighbors stopped to chat as they returned home from walking their dog. During our friendly conversation, I asked their little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President some day.

Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, "If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?" She replied... "I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people." Her parents beamed with pride! "Wow...what a worthy goal!"

I said. "But you don't have to wait until you're President to do that!" I told her. "What do you mean?" she replied. So I told her, "You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and trim my hedge, and I'll pay you $50. Then you can go over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out and give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house."

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, "Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?" I said, "Welcome to the Republican Party."

Her parents aren't speaking to me anymore.

TSA Rifles Through Bags, Conducts Pat Downs At Paul Ryan Event

For some time we have been warning that the TSA is systematically moving beyond the nation’s airports and conducting operations on the streets of America.

The latest example of this kind of activity occurred at an event organized by Mitt Romney’s GOP running mate Paul Ryan this past weekend in The Villages, Florida.

The Shark Tank blog reports that TSA officers showed up alongside Secret Service and the local Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, and proceeded to do what they do like no one else does.

“A big WTF is in order here.” the blog notes, adding “We heard that the TSA was going to expand its ummm, ‘reach,’ but to assist in political campaigns is quite the jump in broadening their ‘transportation security horizons.’”

“I counted no less than (6) TSA agents alongside the usual uniformed Secret Service detail-not to be confused with the ‘Men In Black’ looking agents.” blogger Javier Manjarres notes. Source!

NYPD Probing Hate Crime After Bacon Found At Staten Island Ramadan Site

Police are investigating an unusual bias crime on Staten Island.

Muslims who gathered for prayer to celebrate the end of Ramadan in a city park found bacon scattered on the ground, CBS 2’s John Slattery reported Monday.

With Ramadan ending this past weekend, Muslims celebrated the end of fasting with prayer. On Staten Island an outdoor service was held Sunday on a New Dorp football field, attracting some 1,500 Muslims.

But before most of the faithful arrived for Morning Prayer, it was discovered that someone had scattered a quantity of raw bacon on the field.

“This has been determined to be a bias event on the part of our Hate Crimes Task Force,” NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters. Source!

Why he happily killed his wife

It's worse than double-standards; it's down right stupid. Liberals defend Sharia law in the United States, but get their tighty-whities in a knot when Conservatives vote to defund Planned Parenthood.
Those who carry our Founding Father's DNA must vote in November.

US taxpayers bail out California homeowners

Contrary to what voters were led to believe, California took the unprecedented step this month to give banks and struggling homeowners up to $100,000 in taxpayer funds to reduce underwater mortgages.

Originally, banks and lenders were supposed to pay 50 percent of the cost of reducing the principal for those whose homes are worth less than their mortgage. But when the banks refused, California took the controversial step of paying the entire amount, up to $100,000.

"We thought, you know, 50-50 was much more attractive and we'd have much more traction with lenders, and it just didn't turn out to work as well as we would have liked," said Diane Richardson, legislative director of the California Housing Finance Agency.

The program, known as the Hardest Hit Housing Market fund, is part of a $7.6 billion federal effort to help underwater homeowners in 18 states. California received $2 billion. But when banks and lenders who service loans refused to write down even a small portion of the negative equity loans, California decided to use the taxpayer money to pay 100 percent of the mortgage reduction. Source!

Mobile phone companies can predict future movements of users by building a profile of their lifestyle

Your future location is calculated using data from your phone; University of Birmingham team made location predictions of users with an error margin of just 60ft

From telling us when our train is coming, helping us when we're lost and letting us watch our favourite TV shows, there seems no limit to how involved our smartphone is with our day-to-day life.

Now the gadget promises something so advanced it verges on the supernatural: it will know exactly what we're doing tomorrow.

Scientists have found a way of predicting an individual's future movements by analysing information their mobile phone.

A team of computer scientists at the University of Birmingham successfully predicted future locations with an error margin of just 60ft, which has fuelled fears of privacy invasions.

While mobile phone networks can already track where a handset is in 'real time', the scientists have developed an algorithm - or formula - to forecast our future movements. More!

The "Fight Bigotry" SuperPAC as explained at "On Target News"

FightBigotry.com is the SuperPAC that is releasing the most hard-hitting attack ad against President Obama on television this year. (see below)

"Fight Bigotry" states that they are the only SuperPAC that will clearly connect the dots to explain the one political vulnerability of President Obama that no one else has the stomach to bring up, and the one issue where President Obama has thus far received a free pass: his disturbing, yet crystal-clear pattern of tacitly defending black racism against his white constituency before and since being elected president. ​

​The Obama administration and their surrogates (not the Republicans) have injected race into the presidential campaign. Obama Attorney General Eric Holder recently told the New York Times -- with no disagreement from President Obama – that white folks who oppose Obama’s policies are motivated by race. This statement is in and of itself racist; implying that whites are too stupid to have honest disagreements with the President’s policies without being racist.

More from On Target News.com!

Hank Williams, Jr: "We've got a muslim president who hates farming and hates the military and hates the U.S.A. and . . .

Nearly a year after country music singer Hank Williams Jr. courted controversy by comparing President Barack Obama to Hitler, he’s unleashed more fiery criticism, this time calling the president an anti-American Muslim.

Williams’ comment came near the end of a concert Friday night at the Iowa State Fair Grandstand, the Des Moines Register reported.

“We’ve got a Muslim president who hates farming, hates the military, hates the U.S. and we hate him!” Williams said, according to the newspaper.

The comments reportedly went over well with the crowd, which responded with “loud and enthusiastic” cheers.

Williams appeared on “Fox & Friends” in October 2011 and said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Obama playing golf together was “like Hitler playing golf with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu.” More!

How Did Harry Reid Get Rich?

Try this thought experiment. Imagine that someone grows up in poverty, works his way through law school by holding the night shift as a Capitol Hill policeman, and spends all but two years of his career as a public servant. Now imagine that this person’s current salary — and he’s at the top of his game — is $193,400. You probably wouldn’t expect him to have millions in stocks, bonds, and real estate.

But, surprise, he does, if he’s our Senate majority leader, whose net worth is between 3 and 10 million dollars, according to OpenSecrets.org. When Harry Reid entered the Nevada legislature in 1982, his net worth was listed as between $1 million and $1.5 million “or more,” according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. So, since inquiring minds inquire, let’s try to figure out how Reid’s career in public service ended up being so lucrative. He hasn’t released his tax returns, which makes this an imperfect science, but looking at a few of his investments helps to show how he amassed his wealth.

In 2004, the senator made $700,000 off a land deal that was, to say the least, unorthodox. It started in 1998 when he bought a parcel of land with attorney Jay Brown, a close friend whose name has surfaced multiple times in organized-crime investigations and whom one retired FBI agent described as “always a person of interest.” Three years after the purchase, Reid transferred his portion of the property to Patrick Lane LLC, a holding company Brown controlled. But Reid kept putting the property on his financial disclosures, and when the company sold it in 2004, he profited from the deal — a deal on land that he didn’t technically own and that had nearly tripled in value in six years.

When his 2010 challenger Sharron Angle asked him in a debate how he had become so wealthy, he said, “I did a very good job investing.” Did he ever. On December 20, 2005, he invested $50,000 to $100,000 in the Dow Jones U.S. Energy Sector Fund (IYE), which closed that day at $29.15. The companies whose shares it held included ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, and ConocoPhillips. When he made a partial sale of his shares on August 19, 2008, during congressional recess, IYE closed at $41.82. Just a month later, on September 17, Reid was working to bring to the floor a bill that the Joint Committee on Taxation said would cost oil companies — including those in the fund — billions of dollars in taxes and regulatory fees. The bill passed a few days later, and by October 10, IYE’s shares had fallen by 42 percent, to $24.41, for a host of reasons. Savvy investing indeed.

Here’s another example: The Los Angeles Times reported in November 2006 that when Reid became Senate majority leader he committed to making earmark reform a priority, saying he’d work to keep congressmen from using federal dollars for pet projects in their districts. It was a good idea but an odd one for the senator to espouse. He had managed to get $18 million set aside to build a bridge across the Colorado River between Laughlin, Nev., and Bullhead City, Ariz., a project that wasn’t a priority for either state’s transportation agency. His ownership of 160 acres of land nearby that stood to appreciate considerably from the project had nothing to do with the decision, according to one of his aides. The property’s value has varied since then. On his financial-disclosure forms from 2006, it was valued at $250,000 to $500,000. Open Secrets now lists it as his most valuable asset, worth $1 million to $5 million as of 2010.

How Reid acquired that land is interesting, too. He put $10,000 into a pension fund his friend Clair Haycock controlled, to take over the 160-acre parcel at a price far below its assessed value. Six months later, Reid introduced legislation that would help Haycock’s industry, a move many observers said appeared to be a quid pro quo, though Reid and Haycock denied that the legislation was the result of a property deal.

We don’t know how much more money Reid has or how he made all of it. For that, we’d have to see his tax returns. The National Review!

East Davenport deli co-owner caters for Obama visit, but his t-shirt tells another story

Ross Murty likes business, but he's not a big Obama fan. The co-owner of the Village Corner Deli in East Davenport agreed to cater Obama’s visit Wednesday — but not before donning a t-shirt blaring the message: “Government didn’t build my business. I did.”It was a reference to a remark Obama made several weeks ago that his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, has seized upon to portray Obama as anti-business. Obama, referring to the help government provides to businesses by building roads and providing education and other services, said, “If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that."

“No one from the government was there when we were sweating it, when we were building this business,” Murty said. Before him was a bank of chafing dishes filled with smoked beef brisket, pulled pork, vegetable parmesan bake and cheesy hash brown casserole provided to the White House press corps covering the president’s three-day swing across Iowa this week. Left-wing source!

50% Now View Paul Ryan Favorably; 43% Say He Was Right Choice

Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan’s favorables are up after the first blush of national media exposure following Mitt Romney’s selection of him as his vice presidential running mate. But as is generally the case with running mates, Ryan gives only a slight boost to Romney.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 50% of Likely U.S. Voters now have a favorable opinion of Ryan, while 32% view him unfavorably. This includes 29% with a Very Favorable view of Romney’s vice presidential pick and 13% with a Very Unfavorable one.  Only 13% are now unfamiliar with Ryan, and five percent (5%) are not sure about him. (To see survey question wording click here.)

Reprinted from The Rasmussen Report!

GOP sues to force Obama compliance on Fast and Furious

House Republicans on Monday asked the federal courts to intervene and force the Obama administration to turn over documents from the botched Fast and Furious gun-walking operation, escalating what had been a simmering constitutional crisis.

House Speaker John A. Boehner said President Obama and his team were ignoring a congressional subpoena — something the courts have long recognized as valid — and said lawmakers were left with no choice but to ask the third branch to referee.

“By stonewalling Congress and ignoring a contempt order, the Justice Department has left the House no choice but to take legal action so we can get to the bottom of the Fast and Furious operation that cost border agent Brian Terry his life,” Mr. Boehner said.

Terry was killed in December 2010 in a gun fight with bandits who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. Two of the weapons recovered at the scene were part of Fast and Furious, an Obama administration operation that was supposed to try to track guns being sold to Mexican cartels, but which lost track of the weapons, allowing thousands to stream across the border.

The operation was halted in the wake of Terry’s death, but left Mexican authorities enraged and members of Congress demanding to know more.

In a bipartisan vote in June the House held Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over documents the House had subpoenaed as part of its official investigation. Source

Nearly bankrupt California meter-maids earn almost $100,000 yearly

When contemplating the many reasons cities in California and elsewhere are venturing closer to bankruptcy, look no further than the relatively lucrative and often-unjustifiable salaries bestowed on municipal employees – and the lofty pension benefits attached to the high pay.

One of the latest examples comes from the California coastal city of Hermosa Beach, where some community service staffers who collect money from parking meters and manage their operations – positions once widely known as “meter maids” – are making nearly $100,000 a year in total compensation, according to city documents. Poor Richard's blog - Story/Video!

Labor unions are allowed to stalk private citizens in Illinois

Labor unions are one of the Left’s pushier constituencies. Look no further than the protests they staged outside Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s house back in February of last year for evidence.

Now, imagine for a moment that a private individual followed you home and started screaming at your house, or accosting you when you left. Presumably you would go to the police and claim the person was a stalker. And under normal circumstances, you would be right…unless that person is in a labor union and you have the misfortune to live in Pennsylvania, California, Nevada or Illinois. In that situation, there’s nothing the cops can do. Video!

Over 100 Million Now Receiving Federal Welfare

And each one of them will vote for more!

"The federal government administers nearly 80 different overlapping federal means-tested welfare programs," the Senate Budget Committee notes. However, the committee states, the figures used in the chart do not include those who are only benefiting from Social Security and/or Medicare. 

Food stamps and Medicaid make up a large--and growing--chunk of the more than 100 million recipients. "Among the major means tested welfare programs, since 2000 Medicaid has increased from 34 million people to 54 million in 2011 and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) from 17 million to 45 million in 2011," says the Senate Budget Committee. "Spending on food stamps alone is projected to reach $800 billion over the next decade."

The data come "from the U.S. Census’s Survey of Income and Program Participation shows that nearly 110,000 million individuals received a welfare benefit in 2011. (These figures do not include other means-tested benefits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit or the health insurance premium subsidies included in the President’s health care law. CBO estimates that the premium subsidies, scheduled to begin in 2014, will cover at least 25 million individuals by the end of the decade.)"

This is not just Americans, however. "These figures include not only citizens, but non-citizens as well," according to the committee. Source!

Obamacare to Push Pizza Prices Higher

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has been blamed for a lot of things—higher taxes, potential insurance rate hikes, and now, higher pizza prices. According to Papa John’s Founder, Chairman and CEO John H. Schnatter, health-care reform will cost the company an additional 11 cents to 14 cents per pizza.

“We're not supportive of Obamacare like most businesses in our industry,” Schnatter said in a call to analysts. “But our business model and unit economics are about as ideal as you can get for a food company to absorb Obamacare.”

Schnatter added that on a corporate basis, the reform  would increase Papa John’s price per pizza by 15 to 20 cents.

“Let's say fuel goes up-- which it does from time to time-- and we have to raise delivery charges,” said Schnatter.”We don't like raising delivery charges, but the price of fuel is out of our control as is Obamacare. So if Obamacare is in fact not repealed, we will find tactics to shallow out any Obamacare costs. And of course strategies to pass that cost onto consumers in order to protect our shareholder's best interest.” Source!

Nancy Pelosi: Is she drunk? Dementia?

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has never been a woman known for her gentle phrasing regarding the views of her political opponents. She certainly wasn’t today when, while speaking on the subject of conservative Orthodoxy, she let this straw man fallacy fly:

This video shows Nancy Pelosi railing against conservative ideology, which she characterized as, “We shouldn’t have a government role, so reduce the police, the fire [presumably, she means fire-fighters], the teachers.” Pelosi says she says to conservatives who espouse these views, “Do you have children who breathe the air? Do you have grandchildren who drink water?” So, in Nancy Pelosi’s world, firefighters, police, and teachers ensure the safety of our air and water. Proof she's slurring lately!

Ed: As Piglosi might say, "We have to elect Mr. Romney to find out what he'll do!"

Apple co-founder Wozniak sees trouble in the cloud

Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with the late Steve Jobs, predicted "horrible problems" in the coming years as cloud-based computing takes hold.

"I really worry about everything going to the cloud," he said. "I think it's going to be horrendous. I think there are going to be a lot of horrible problems in the next five years."

He added: "With the cloud, you don't own anything. You already signed it away" through the legalistic terms of service with a cloud provider that computer users must agree to.

"I want to feel that I own things," Wozniak said. "A lot of people feel, 'Oh, everything is really on my computer,' but I say the more we transfer everything onto the web, onto the cloud, the less we're going to have control over it." More!

Republican National Committee sends Democrap National Committee a ‘you didn’t bake this’ cake to celebrate Obama’s birthday

And they sent it back (much like Obama returning Churchills' bust to London). Rude, huh?“This is typical of Mitt Romney’s approach to the middle class,” DNC spokeswoman Melanie Roussell told The Hill. “He wants to ‘Let them eat cake!’ while robbing them blind. We sent the cake back to the RNC, along with a copy of the Tax Center’s report on Mitt Romney’s tax plan.”

Meanwhile, Michelle Obama is sending out emails along with a link in order to “sign Barack’s birthday card.” There are four templates of cards from which you can choose to sign: MasterCard, Visa, American Express or Discover.

Hopefully, next year Obama can celebrate his birthday in the comfort of his Chicago mansion. Maybe he can invite over his buddy Rahm and they can serve Chick fil A.

Most of this post has been lifted from Michelle Malkin's web site without permission. We have just joined Ms. Malkin's newsletter and urge you to do the same.

Michelle Malkin Newsletter sign up link!

Is Your Neighbor a Democrat? Obama Has an App for That

Curious how many Democrats live on your block? Just download the Obama campaign's new mobile app.

The app, released last week, includes a Google map for canvassers that recognizes your current location and marks nearby Democratic households with small blue flags.

For each targeted address, the app displays the first name, age and gender of the voter or voters who live there: "Lori C., 58 F, Democrat."

All this is public information, which campaigns have long given to volunteers. But you no longer have to schedule a visit to a field office and wait for a staffer to hand you a clipboard and a printed-out list of addresses.

With the Obama app, getting a glimpse of your neighbor's political affiliation can take seconds.

While The New York Times dubbed the app "the science-fiction dream of political operatives," some of the voters who appear in the app are less enthusiastic about it.

"I do think it's something useful for them, but it's also creepy," said Lori Carena, 58, a long-time Brooklyn resident, when she was shown the app. "My neighbors across the street can know that I'm a Democrat. I'm not sure I like that." Source!

Court Upholds Domestic Drone Use in Arrest of American Citizen

A North Dakota court has preliminarily upheld the first-ever use of an unmanned drone to assist in the arrest of an American citizen.

A judge denied a request to dismiss charges Wednesday against Rodney Brossart, a man arrested last year after a 16-hour standoff with police at his Lakota, N.D., ranch. Brossart's lawyer argued that law enforcement's "warrantless use of [an] unmanned military-like surveillance aircraft" and "outrageous governmental conduct" warranted dismissal of the case. Proof!

IRS Pays Out Billions in Fraudulent Refunds

The IRS is paying out billions of dollars in fraudulent tax refunds to identity thieves; a problem that the tax service’s inspector general told CNBC is a “growing problem” involving numbers that are increasing “exponentially.”

In a new report to be issued Thursday, the inspector general for the IRS says that tax thieves are stealing the identities of taxpayers and then filing bogus returns on their behalf and collecting fraudulent refunds as a result.

The inspector general estimates that the IRS could issue as much as $21 billion in fraudulent tax refunds over the next five years.

The scam is so rampant that thieves are apparently sending in false returns in bulk without even bothering to change the mailing address on the returns. The inspector general said it found one residential address in Lansing, Michigan that was the source of an astonishing 2,137 tax returns, and to which the IRS directed more than $3.3 million in potentially fraudulent refunds. Video!

Ed: So what are all these new 16,000 IRS agents doing?

"Don't ask, don't tell!" Christians not welcome in Chicago

Christians are not safe in America's 3rd largest city. Mayor Rahm Emanuel's intolerance for Christian run Chick-Fil-A restaurant is a warning to all of us, "Stay in the ethereal closet, except for birth control refills."

The Chicago Republican Party announced last week it would file a complaint with the Illinois Department of Human Rights and Attorney General Lisa Madigan over the discriminatory action by Alderman Proco Moreno against the food chain Chick-fil-A. 

The party is now expanding their complaint to cover Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel as well. According to a press release, the Chicago Republican Party says that "the complaint states that the Alderman and the Mayor have broken civil rights laws pertaining to religious freedom and the First Amendment in denying Chick fil A a permit to operate its business in the City of Chicago."

Following Chick fil A's CEO Dan Cathy's support of traditional marriage, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco liberal politicians spoke out against the food chain and threatened to block Chick fil A from opening any business or further businesses in their cities.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said that Chick fil A's values were not "Chicago values." Source!

Ed: Careful Rahmbo, gang members LOVE chicken.

Mr. Romney exonerated, London is NOT ready

Do you remember last week when London's Mayor Boris Johnson's tighty-whites became all entangled because Mitt Romney suggested there may be occassional glitches as the Summer Olympics unfold? Mayor Johnson announced to the crowd, "Mitt the Twit says we're not ready!"

Payback is a bitch; watch the Mayor high-wire into an Olympic venue today:

Dangling in midair, legs flailing and blue helmet precariously perched, Johnson reportedly yelled: “Get me a rope…Get me a ladder!” while still trying to wave his miniature flags. More PHOTOS!

Obama below 50% approval in 36 states

A majority of residents in 13 states and the District of Columbia approved of the job Barack Obama did as president during the first six months of 2012. His highest ratings by state were in Hawaii (63%) and Rhode Island (58%), in addition to the 83% approval from District of Columbia residents. In 36 states, his approval rating averaged below 50%, with residents of Utah, Wyoming, and Alaska least approving.
Gallup State by State stats!