David Brooks: How to Fix Politics

In the middle of this depressing presidential campaign I sometimes wonder, How could we make our politics better? --It’s possible to imagine an elite solution. The next president could get together with the leaders of both parties in Congress and say: “We’re going to change the way we do business in Washington. We’re going to deliberate and negotiate. We’ll disagree and wrangle, but we will not treat this as good-versus-evil blood sport.” That kind of leadership might trickle down. --But it’s increasingly clear that the roots of political dysfunction lie deep in society. If there’s truly going to be improvement, there has to be improvement in the social context politics is embedded in. Read more at New York Times Read More......

Wisconsin’s Shame: ‘He Could Have Been Shot. Over Politics’

It was still dark outside when “Jonah” (not his real name) heard the pounding on his front door. As luck would have it, he was awake — or mostly awake. He’d gotten up at 4:00 a.m. on October 3, 2013, to see his parents off to the airport. They were leaving on a quick trip to raise money for the children’s charity his father runs. Jonah was 16 at the time, old enough to stay home alone for a short time, but not old enough to deal with what awaited him on the other side of the door. --The pounding continued, and Jonah peered out the window to discover its source. To his horror, he saw uniformed officers, their guns drawn. “Police,” they yelled. “We have a warrant.” An officer shined a flashlight on a document Jonah couldn’t read. Unsure what to do, but unwilling to defy the authorities, he let them in.

Read more at National Review
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

WSJ: Sarah Palin Searches for the Great Outdoors

The former VP candidate on politics and social media, running for office again, and her new TV show, 'Amazing America.'

Excerpt: Ms. Palin also resents government surveillance, as she makes clear in referring to Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked documents about the agency's collection of data, including the phone call records of millions of Americans. "Snowden isn't the problem!" she says. "The American government spying on its own people is the problem!" She finishes her thought by saying, "The smaller the government, the bigger the people, and this show talks about big, bold, beautiful America."

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Charles Koch: I'm Fighting to Restore a Free Society

Op-Ed by Charles G. Koch - Instead of welcoming free debate, collectivists engage in character assassination.
I have devoted most of my life to understanding the principles that enable people to improve their lives. It is those principles—the principles of a free society—that have shaped my life, my family, our company and America itself. Unfortunately, the fundamental concepts of dignity, respect, equality before the law and personal freedom are under attack by the nation's own government. That's why, if we want to restore a free society and create greater well-being and opportunity for all Americans, we have no choice but to fight for those principles. I have been doing so for more than 50 years, primarily through educational efforts. It was only in the past decade that I realized the need to also engage in the political process.

Read more at the Wall Street Journal Read More......

For Earth. For Humanity. For Freedom.

For decades the Green Movement has claimed that Earth is threatened by the activity and even the existence of mankind. Green policies dictate that the noble response is relinquishing our liberties to "save" the planet from peril. Award-winning filmmaker JD King sets off on a cinematic journey to challenge these Green philosophies, and overturn the tables on issues like carbon emissions, climate change, over-population, natural resources, and unmasks the UN's Agenda 21 plan. BLUE casts a bold new vision: that through greater freedom we can realize a fuller potential for our fellow man and this beautiful blue planet we call home. BLUE BEATS GREEN.

Watch the official BLUE trailer at BlueBeatsGreen.com.

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It turns out the 'Evil' Koch Bros are only the 59th biggest donors in American politics. Can you guess who is number one?

WASHINGTON EXAMINER - Charles and David Koch are the two most evil people in American politics, right? We know that because Jane Mayer proved it with her landmark "Covert Operations" tour de liberal force in 2010. ✧ Well, it turns out that Mayer's aim was off just a little, by like 58 slots on the all-time biggest donors in American politics list, as compiled by OpenSecrets.org. ✧ OpenSecrets.org tallied the top donors in federal elections between 1989 and 2014. Koch Industries -- privately owned by the Evil Koch Bros -- is on the list, to be sure, but doesn't appear until the 59th slot, with $18 million in donations, 90 percent of which went to Republicans.
So who occupies the 58 spots ahead of the Evil Koch Bros? Six of the top 10 are … wait for it … Read More......

Sen. Rubio on the Obama & Co. 'Culture of Intimidation'

Rubio On IRS Scandal: Obama's Culture Of Political Intimidation Leads to this Scandalous Behavior

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WSJ: The IRS Scandal Started at the Top

Hat tip: John H. Detweiler (via email) Subject: The Real IRS Story - If you didn't see the Wall Street Journal this morning, this will tell you what's REALLY going on (as if you didn't know it). Pass it on.

By Strassel -The bureaucrats at the Internal Revenue Service did exactly what the president said was the right and honorable thing to do. - Was the White House involved in the IRS's targeting of conservatives? No investigation needed to answer that one. Of course it was. ✧ President Obama and Co. are in full deniability mode, noting that the IRS is an "independent" agency and that they knew nothing about its abuse. The media and Congress are sleuthing for some hint that Mr. Obama picked up the phone and sicced the tax dogs on his enemies. ✧ But that's not how things work in post-Watergate Washington. Mr. Obama didn't need to pick up the phone. All he needed to do was exactly what he did do, in full view, for three years: Publicly suggest that conservative political groups were engaged in nefarious deeds; publicly call out by name political opponents whom he'd like to see harassed; and publicly have his party pressure the IRS to take action. Read more at the Wall Street Journal... Read More......

Henninger: Obama's Ruinous Course

Daniel Henninger: Where in his career did Barack Obama ever learn the art of the political deal? Nowhere. ✧ Barack Obama says his election victory is a mandate to pursue the policy course he's insisting on in negotiations with Republicans on the fiscal cliff. He wants a tax increase of $1.6 trillion, $50 billion of new and immediate stimulus spending and the end of congressional approval to raise the ceiling on U.S. debt—the debt that a ratings agency downgraded in 2011. Read more at the Wall Street Journal...

Note: Since the House is still in Republican control, Obama did NOT get a mandate. Spread this news whenever you hear the mandate claim! --bc Read More......

D'Souza: Sandwiches, Wagons & Politics

On October 8, 2012, the OSU Socratic Club sponsored a debate between Dinesh D'Souza and Michael Shermer. The topic was "Is Christianity Good for American Politics?" This 7 minute video is from the Q&A session following the debate. D'Souza presents fantastic (and humorous) analogies with a Christian viewpoint to explain his opposition to Obamacare and Obama's "fair share" ethos. (Hat tip: Patricia Anderson)

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0-414 vote: House clobbers budget proposal based on Obama's 2013 plan

The House on Wednesday night unanimously rejected an alternative budget proposal based on President Obama's 2013 budget plan, dispatching it in a 0-414 rout.  ✧ The vote came just hours after the White House cast the pending vote as a political "gimmick," an apparent attempt to downplay what many expected to be an ugly-looking vote for the White House. Read more at The Hill... Read More......

Newsletter: Big Government runs Amok!

March 10, 2012 Newsletter - Benton County Republicans

IN THIS ISSUE: 

1. Whistleblower within Dept. of Interior Fired for Questioning Biased Science (Klamath Basin Dam Removal)
2. Two Robinsons run against DeFazio!
3. Obama's Press Conference Leaves Many Questions Unanswered
4. Final Gavel Falls - 2012 Legislative Session Adjourned
5. Benton County hosts opportunity to meet COO

 
Whistleblower within Dept. of Interior Fired for Questioning Biased Science (Klamath Basin Dam Removal)

TODAY, 11a.m.-noon (Pacific time). Listen live on KYKN (1430-AM) or, if you’re outside of the Salem (Oregon) listening area, go to www.kykn.com and hit the listen live button. Guest: Dr. Paul Houser 

This week: If you’re a regular listener to the I Spy Radio show, or the I Spy Minute, you know we’ve been following the situation down in Klamath. The Secretary of the Interior back in 2009 pledged that the effort to remove the dams, quote, “Will not fail.” Even worse, an eyewitness heard the Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation called the Klamath effort “precedent setting.” Meaning that if they can ram through the Klamath decision, the dams on the Snake and Columbia could also be on the chopping block.

This is an extremely important story. It’s big government run amok. This week we’re talking with a whistleblower, who alleges he was fired when he questioned how the science behind removing the dams—which is very uncertain—was being spun to the public. Tune in to hear his story and some of the chilling details of what’s going on behind the veil of secrecy of big government.

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Two Robinsons run against DeFazio! 

EUGENE, Ore. - Voters caught a glimpse of Matthew Robinson in TV ads 2 years ago when his father Art ran as the Republican nominee for Congress against Rep. Peter DeFazio, a 13-term Democrat from Springfield.

Now voters in Oregon's 4th District will see more of Robinson - both Art and Matthew.

In the run up to the May primary, Art Robinson intends to again seek the GOP nomination for Congress.

Matthew Robinson wants to run, too - as a Democrat. He changed his voter registration from Republican to Democrat last August and filed to run against DeFazio in the May primary.

The 24-year-old nuclear engineering graduate student at Oregon State University's birthday is in June, so he'll be old enough to meet the Constitutional age requirement.

"I decided that DeFazio needed some competition in the primary, so I decided to run against him," Robinson told KVAL News.

“We’re out to replace him,” he said, “and this is a fine chance to replace him in the primary.”  Read more at KVAL News.

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Press Conference Leaves Many Questions Unanswered

Heritage Foundation - This week, President Barack Obama ended his months-long press conference drought and faced the White House press corps. Unfortunately for the American people, questions on some of the biggest issues facing the country remain unanswered.  WHY DIDN’T the PRESS and the PRESIDENT DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING TOPICS?

THE ECONOMY wasn’t discussed, although 8%  (13 million) Americans are unemployed and only 63.7% of adult Americans are active in the labor force, the lowest since 1983.  We’re in the slowest economic recovery in the post-war-era.

OBAMA WANTS $$$TWO TRILLION IN NEW TAXES.  How will massive tax hikes on job creators spur job growth?

NO BUDGET??  It’s been over 1,000 days since the Senate passed a budget.  No plan to reform unsustainable entitlement programs.  The subject wasn’t raised in the Press conference by the Press or by the President.

THE KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE.  The President didn’t deny that rising gas and oil prices support his long term agenda.  He didn’t address Keystone, regulatory hurdles to drilling and refining in the US, or his Energy Secretary’s policies to see gasoline cost at least $5 a gallon.

IRAN and U.S. RELATIONSHIP  with ISRAEL.  The Press didn’t push the President on a number of vital issues regarding his policies with these two nations.

OBAMACARE’S ASSAULT on RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.  All we got was political rhetoric.  The question that brought this debate to the fore was ignored:  Where in the Constitution does the President find the authority to issue a mandate that violates the conscience of religious organizations and people?

OBAMA REFUSES to DENOUCE INSULTS against REPUBLICAN WOMEN.  Rae Lynne Chornenky, President of the National Federation of Republican Women (NFRW), issued the following statement following President Obama's Tuesday news conference in which he ignored questions regarding insults made against Republican women.

“The hypocrisy displayed by President Barack Obama and liberal Democrats when Republican women are the targets of vicious attacks is shameful,” Chornenky said. “Yesterday, President Obama dodged questions from USA Today and the Daily Caller, flatly refusing to denounce or even criticize his liberal supporters for making vile remarks about Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and other prominent Republican women. What hypocrisy! And, what about the mainstream media? Where are the media when liberals utter demeaning, derogatory remarks about Republican women? Nowhere to be found. This liberal hypocrisy and media double standard must end.”

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Final Gavel Falls-2012 Legislative Session Adjourned

This week the final gavel fell ending Oregon’s five-week, 2012 legislative session. For a complete list of what was accomplished during the 2012 Legislative Session. (Click here www.dennisrichardson.org/2012_keyvotes.pdf).

The key goals for this short, even-year session:

1)        Rebalance the State Budget,
2 and 3) Pass transformative legislation for education and health care, and 
Clear the path for Oregon’s economic recovery and jobs for Oregon workers.

Bipartisan cooperation and compromise enabled legislative success in meeting the first three of Oregon’s key goals.

Unfortunately, Democrats would not cooperate when the legislature turned its attention to bills introduced by Republican legislators that had the key goal of creating a clear path for Oregon’s economic recovery and creating jobs for Oregon’s unemployed and underemployed workers. 

For the whole story, click on www.DennisRichardson.org/lu030712.htm

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Benton County hosts opportunity to meet COO

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Benton County Board of Commissioners will be hosting a Community Forum to discuss current happenings in Benton County as well as introduce Chief Operating Officer Dennis Aloia.

The event is scheduled from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 14, at the Corvallis Depot Passenger Room, 700 Washington Ave., in Corvallis and will feature presentations by Benton County Board of Commissioners Chair Jay Dixon and Aloia. Dixon will discuss where Benton County has been in the last year and where it is going, followed by an introductory presentation by Aloia.

Following the presentations the Benton County Board of Commissioners and other county leaders will be on hand to discuss issues pertaining to Benton County Government and county services. The event is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be provided.

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This e-mail is sent to you by Benton County Republicans and Benton County Republican Women, P.O. Box 808, Corvallis OR 97339. Our office is located in the Millrace Center at 1760 S.W. Third Street, Corvallis.  Our telephone number is 541-754-9155. Please visit our website at: www.bentongop.org. If you would like to subscribe to our e-mails, please contact us with your request. Thank you. Read More......

Boehner Urges Obama to Reschedule Jobs Speech

Boehner asks Obama to move date of speech to Congress after Republicans accuse president of 'political ploy' in picking same night as GOP presidential debate [Sept.. 7] — White House calls it a coincidence. Read more at Fox News...

UPDATE: Obama Agrees to Delay Jobs Speech Read More......

About Tax Cuts and Two Distinctly Different Philosophies

HUB PAGES - Both Parties Have Enacted Tax Cuts in Last Half Century: Here are links to two older articles dealing with two economic philosophies that help sort out How Tax Cuts Work and Democrat vs. Republican Tax Cuts.

Interesting! Read More......

IBD Editorial: Want More Jobs? The Ideas Are Out There

INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY (IBD), 6/6/2011 - "Employment: The latest talking points from the Democrats on the slumping economy and jobs recession go like this: Gee, we've tried everything, but nothing works — and Republicans haven't put forward any ideas at all. ∴ This was on full display Monday when former White House aide David Axelrod, carrying water for the administration, said Republicans should stop "yammering" about President Obama's pathetic jobs record and come up with their own plan.

"Yammering"? The GOP has two good, workable plans already put forward — Rep. Paul Ryan's plan to restore fiscal balance to our nation, and another by House Speaker John Boehner to revive jobs growth. ∴ Clearly, Democrats in the White House and Congress haven't tried everything, contrary to their assertions. They've focused on old Keynesian tricks like more spending, higher debt and higher taxes on entrepreneurs. Things that have never worked and never will.

To help Axelrod and other economically benighted left-wing pundits, we've made a list of things to do right now — virtually overnight — to get jobs growing again. Read more at IBD...

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Gallup Poll: Americans Divided on Taxing the Rich to Redistribute Wealth

GALLUP, 6/2/2011 by Lydia Saad - Americans Divided on Taxing the Rich to Redistribute Wealth. Public is split over enacting heavy taxes on the rich to redistribute wealth.

PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans break into two roughly evenly matched camps on the question of whether the government should enact heavy taxes on the rich to redistribute wealth in the U.S. Forty-seven percent believe the government should redistribute wealth in this way, while 49% disagree, similar to views Gallup found four years ago. Read more at Gallup...

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Heartland Institute: Audit of IPCC Procedures ‘a Vindication’ but ‘Too Modest'

The Amsterdam-based InterAcademy Council (IAC), a scientific body asked to audit UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) procedures, has determined the IPCC has improperly crossed the line of policy advocacy, is not transparent enough, is prone to conflicts of interest, and has made numerous alarmist assertions that are not supported by the scientific record. IAC recommends structural reforms to fix IPCC’s flaws before IPCC’s next report, due in 2014.

The Heartland Institute for years has led criticism of the IPCC’s determination to put politics over scientific rigor to promote the dubious theory of man-made global warming. Heartland has hosted four international climate conferences, established the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), and produced and distributed millions of copies of reports, videos and books – including the 800-page Climate Change Reconsidered, the only comprehensive critique of the latest IPCC report, published in 2009.

For more information contact Tammy Nash or Jim Lakely at 312/377-4000. --Heartland Institute Read More......

American Spectator: America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution

Important Article!
SPECTATOR.ORG, 7/16/2010 (July-August 2010 Issue of The American Spectator) by Angelo M. Codevilla (Hat tip: Gayna Flake) - As over-leveraged investment houses began to fail in September 2008, the leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties, of major corporations, and opinion leaders stretching from the National Review magazine (and the Wall Street Journal) on the right to the Nation magazine on the left, agreed that spending some $700 billion to buy the investors' "toxic assets" was the only alternative to the U.S. economy's "systemic collapse." In this, President George W. Bush and his would-be Republican successor John McCain agreed with the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. Many, if not most, people around them also agreed upon the eventual commitment of some 10 trillion nonexistent dollars in ways unprecedented in America. They explained neither the difference between the assets' nominal and real values, nor precisely why letting the market find the latter would collapse America. The public objected immediately, by margins of three or four to one. Read more at American Spectator...

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Angelo M. Codevilla, a professor of international relations at Boston University, a fellow of the Claremont Institute, and a senior editor of The American Spectator, was a Foreign Service officer and served on the staff of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee between 1977 and 1985. He was the principal author of the 1980 presidential transition report on intelligence. He is the author of The Character of Nations: How Politics Makes and Breaks Prosperity, Family, and Civility.

Related articles:
Works & Days Pity the Postmodern Cultural Elite by Victor Davis Hanson Read More......

GOP shows historic lead in Gallup Generic Poll

REAL CLEAR POLITICS/BLOG, 6/1/2010 posted by Sean Trende - "Gallup's generic polling shows the number of voters saying that they would vote for Republicans rising three points from last week, while the number saying they will vote for Democrats dropped four points. The 49%-43% lead for the Republicans is the largest that the pollster has ever recorded for the party. Moreover, Democratic enthusiasm for voting this fall fell a point, while enthusiasm among Republicans stayed about fifteen points higher. This indicates an even wider lead for Republicans once Gallup imposes a likely voter screen this fall. ∴ There's any number of reasons for this: the public's perception of Obama's response to the oil spill, the shaky stock market performance last week, continued concern about the economy and spending. The bottom line is that, despite what is perceived as an underperformance for the Republicans in PA-12 a couple of weeks ago, there are still plenty of Democrats in trouble for this November." Read More......

York: How Clinton exploited Oklahoma City for political gain

WASHINGTON EXAMINER, 4/19/2010 by Byron York - With the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing Monday, former President Bill Clinton is playing a starring role in the liberal effort to draw what the New York Times calls "parallels between the antigovernment tone that preceded that devastating attack and the political tumult of today." The short version of the narrative is: Today's Tea Partiers are tomorrow's right-wing bombers. Read more at the Washington Examiner... Read More......