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House Ethics Report Leaked by Accident

Posted by Defend America on Friday, October 30, 2009 5:03:38 PM

Dozens in Congress under ethics inquiry

AN ACCIDENTAL DISCLOSURE
Document was found on file-sharing network


Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 30, 2009

House ethics investigators have been scrutinizing the activities of more than 30 lawmakers and several aides in inquiries about issues including defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling, according to a confidential House ethics committee report prepared in July.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/29/AR2009102904597.html


7 on defense panel scrutinized

Separate probes focus on ties to lobbying firm founded by Hill aide

By Carol D. Leonnig Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 30, 2009

Nearly half the members of a powerful House subcommittee in control of Pentagon spending are under scrutiny by ethics investigators in Congress, who have trained their lens on the relationships between seven panel members and an influential lobbying firm founded by a former Capitol Hill aide.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/29/AR2009102904699.html

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If Biden is Going, Dems Must be Very Worried

Posted by Defend America on Friday, October 30, 2009 5:01:03 PM

Biden campaigning for Owens in NY 23

The White House is sending Vice President Joe Biden to upstate New York to campaign for Democrat Bill Owens in a last-minute push to help Democrats pick up the longtime Republican House seat.

The Biden rally will be taking place next Monday morning in Watertown.
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Lieberman to Campaign for Republican Candidates in 2010 Congressional Election

Posted by Defend America on Friday, October 30, 2009 4:18:57 PM

Lieberman Marching Further Right in 2010

Subway Series: Former Dem Veep Candidate Plans to Campaign for GOP


By JONATHAN KARL
Oct. 30, 2009

Sounding more like an independent than a Democrat, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., tells ABC News he will campaign for some Republican candidates during the 2010 midterm elections and may not seek the Democratic Senate nomination when he runs for re-election in 2012.

"I probably will support some Republican candidates for Congress or Senate in the election in 2010. I'm going to call them as I see them," Lieberman said in an ABC News "Subway Series" interview aboard the U.S. Capitol Subway System.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/independent-sen-joe-lieberman-hell-back-republicans-2010/story?id=8952240
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October 30th in American History

Posted by Defend America on Friday, October 30, 2009 3:28:02 PM

1938 - Orson Welles' "The War of the Worlds" aired on CBS radio. The belief that the realistic radio dramatization was a live news event about a Martian invasion caused panic among listeners.


October 30, 1941

FDR approves Lend-Lease aid to the USSR

On this day in 1941, President Roosevelt, determined to keep the United States out of the war while helping those allies already mired in it, approves $1 billion in Lend-Lease loans to the Soviet Union. The terms: no interest and repayment did not have to start until five years after the war was over.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6633

1953 - General George C. Marshall was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

October 30, 1953

Eisenhower approves NSC 162/2

On October 30, 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approves National Security Council Paper No. 162/2 (NSC 162/2). The top secret document made clear that America's nuclear arsenal must be maintained and expanded to meet the communist threat. It also made clear the connection between military spending and a sound American economy.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=2469


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New Poll Numbers from New Jersey

Posted by Defend America on Friday, October 30, 2009 12:21:25 PM
Election 2009: New Jersey Governor
New Jersey Governor’s Race Still Shows Christie with Slight Edge

Republican Chris Christie continues to hold a three-point advantage over incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine in New Jersey's down-to-the-wire race for governor.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state, conducted Thursday night, shows Christie with 46% of the vote and Corzine with 43%. Those numbers are unchanged from earlier in the week and little changed from polling conducted the week before.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections2/election_2009/new_jersey/election_2009_new_jersey_governor
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Poll Reflects Words Really Matter

Posted by Defend America on Friday, October 30, 2009 12:15:54 PM

The Public Option in the NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll

Last week I argued that question wording might be influencing polling outcomes on the public option - generally skewing the results closer to the Democratic side of the ledger because of contested buzzwords like "choice," "competition," and "option."

I noted at the time that the best way to test this theory was via an apples-to-apples scenario in which we can hold the pollster, the methodology, and the time of the poll constant. That's why I thought the Rasmussen results were significant: Rasmussen changed the wording of questions on the public option and found markedly different results.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/horseraceblog/2009/10/the_public_option_in_the_nbc_n.html

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'Where Rohde Leads'

Posted by Defend America on Friday, October 30, 2009 12:13:17 PM
Where Rohde Leads
The story of a reporter kidnapped by the Taliban and what it reveals.

By Clifford D. May

Almost a year ago, New York Times correspondent David Rohde was abducted by the Taliban. I was in Afghanistan at the time and, like many Westerners in the country, I heard about it but agreed not to write about it. Publicity, it was thought, could increase the danger Rohde faced. Even so, over the months that followed, many people figured he would not be seen again — except, perhaps, on a videotape with hooded jihadis ecstatically applying a butcher knife to his infidel throat, as they had to Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

But Rohde survived seven months and ten days in captivity — briefly, in Afghanistan, then in the Taliban-controlled areas of Pakistan — before managing to escape. His account of this period, published in The Times last week, is riveting. It is revealing, too — though sometimes in ways Rohde does not articulate and may not even intend.

http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=OWU0MGQzMTU2ZjZiMWZiOGNkODg1ZGNjMTMwNjAzOTg=
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'Three Envelopes'

Posted by Defend America on Friday, October 30, 2009 12:09:52 PM
The Three Envelopes
by Charles Krauthammer

WASHINGTON -- Old Soviet joke:

Moscow, 1953. Stalin calls in Khrushchev.

"Niki, I'm dying. Don't have much to leave you. Just three envelopes. Open them, one at a time, when you get into big trouble."

A few years later, first crisis. Khrushchev opens envelope 1: "Blame everything on me. Uncle Joe."

A few years later, a really big crisis. Opens envelope 2: "Blame everything on me. Again. Good luck, Uncle Joe."

Third crisis. Opens envelope 3: "Prepare three envelopes."

In the Barack Obama version, there are 50 or so such blame-Bush free passes before the gig is up. By my calculation, Obama has already burned through a good 49. Is there anything he hasn't blamed George W. Bush for? The economy, global warming, the credit crisis, Middle East stalemate, the deficit, anti-Americanism abroad -- everything but swine flu.

http://townhall.com/columnists/CharlesKrauthammer/2009/10/30/the_three_envelopes#at


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'No Bundler Left Behind'

Posted by Defend America on Friday, October 30, 2009 11:04:53 AM
The Obama White House: Bundlers' Paradise
by Michelle Malkin

Like Capt. Renault in "Casablanca," I am shocked, shocked to discover that access peddling is going on in the Obama White House. Perks for deep-pocketed donors? Presidential meetings for sale? The stale Chicago odor of pay-for-play wafting from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Knock me over with a feather.

Despite the president's claimed distaste for the campaign finance practice known as "bundling" (rounding up aggregate contributions from friends, business associates and employees), the House of Obama has been a campaign finance bundlers' paradise from Day One. A new report by Matthew Mosk of The Washington Times just confirms the gob-smackingly obvious: It's business as usual in the era of Hope and Change. O's wealthiest Democratic donors have received lavish receptions, golf outings, bowling dates and movie nights with Obama.

And internal Democratic National Committee documents acquired by the Times reveal that "high-dollar fundraisers have been promised access to senior White House officials in exchange for pledges to donate $30,400 personally or to bundle $300,000 in contributions ahead of the 2010 midterm elections." Yup, they're just haggling over the price.

http://townhall.com/columnists/MichelleMalkin/2009/10/30/the_obama_white_house_bundlers_paradise#at
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Don't Trust the NBER and Their Declaration of Recessions

Posted by Defend America on Friday, October 30, 2009 10:38:31 AM

The Recoveryless Recovery

By Randall Hoven

The recession is over, supposedly. The preliminary estimate of the 3rd quarter's Gross Domestic Product was announced Thursday, and it showed the economy growing at an annual rate of 3.5% from July through September, after four consecutive quarters of decline. 

As the Associated Press reported, waiting for the official call from the National Bureau of Economic Research -- specifically, its Business Cycle Dating Committee -- is all but a formality. That's funny; GDP growth was not used as the measure for timing the beginning of this recession. So why would it be used to time its end?

GDP last peaked in the 2nd quarter of 2008. Yet the NBER said the recession started in December 2007, six months earlier. In fact, the NBER declared the recession before we'd even had two consecutive quarters of negative growth, the standard rule-of-thumb for calling a recession. 

Could it be political?  The NBER's Business Cycle Dating Committee is the "official" caller of recessions.  It looks for peaks and troughs in economic indicators.  It explains its method as follows.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/10/the_recoveryless_recovery.html#at

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Obama Can't Go to Berlin

Posted by Defend America on Friday, October 30, 2009 10:19:27 AM

O's embarrassment

Berlin rhetoric vs. DC reality

By MICHAEL BARONE

Last Updated: 9:41 AM, October 26, 2009

Posted: 1:18 AM, October 26, 2009

PRESIDENT Obama, who found time to go on a 24-hour jaunt to Copenha gen on Oct. 2 to seek the 2016 Olympic Games for Chicago, apparently can't find the time for a 24-hour trip to Berlin on Nov. 9 for a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Well, we all have our priorities, and the president can't be everywhere at once, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will surely represent America ably in Berlin.

Still, it seemed an odd decision to me -- until I went back and got the speech that candidate Obama delivered on July 24, 2008, to a crowd of 200,000 in the Tiergarten in Berlin. As I reread the text, it struck me that there would be an embarrassing contrast between what Obama said in Berlin 15 months ago and many policies he has been pursuing as president.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/embarrassment_ysgnpIlJWYMuwW5PZzdjBI

Tags: obama  
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'Liberalism's War on Dissent'

Posted by Defend America on Friday, October 30, 2009 10:17:53 AM
Obama's War on Fox Is Liberalism's War on Dissent
by David Limbaugh

Can you imagine the outrage that would have ensued had former President George W. Bush declared off-limits those media outlets he thought (correctly) treated him unfairly?

Heck, the left declared him a dictator simply because he led a war on Iraq that Congress approved. He never tried to shut down his critics. He rarely even objected to their abuse.

But liberal politicians have been spoiled with mainstream media favoritism for so long that they believe anything other than sycophancy is mistreatment. Their selective outrage is as hollow as it is risible.

In fact, Fox News seems much more conservative than it is because no other television network over the past half-century has been anything but decidedly liberal. When the media norm is liberal, liberals equate liberalism with objectivity and deviations from it as bias, just as liberals preach tolerance toward all ideas -- except conservative ones. Their self-delusion is surreal.

http://townhall.com/columnists/DavidLimbaugh/2009/10/27/obamas_war_on_fox_is_liberalisms_war_on_dissent#at
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Messages for 'Elite Republicans'

Posted by Defend America on Friday, October 30, 2009 10:15:50 AM
5 Messages for 'Elite' Republicans
by John Hawkins

Stop sabotaging our candidates: It is absolutely infuriating that Republican Party organizations talk incessantly about conservative principles, rely on conservatives for the overwhelming majority of their funding, and then turn around and sabotage conservative candidates like Doug Hoffman and Marco Rubio. Who the hell do you think you are?

We're not telling the Republican Party to endorse conservative candidates over moderate candidates or demanding that middle-of-the-road candidates be tossed from the party. What we are saying is, "Don't take our money, use it against us, and then take a haughty 'we know best' attitude." If you do, we're going to take you to the woodshed and show you why it's a bad idea.

"There will be no elite in a bankrupt America." -- Jonathan Hunter: If fiscal conservatism doesn't work any more, then America doesn't work any more because we can't live like this long term. If even the Republicans look at government as just another way to distribute as much borrowed money as they can get by with to their supporters, then this country is going to look like Argentina after the crash in twenty years. This is do or die for the future of this country and Republicans, including Republican members of Congress from blue states, need to understand that.

http://townhall.com/columnists/JohnHawkins/2009/10/27/5_messages_for_elite_republicans?page=2#at


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Sex Discrimination Has Nothing to Do with the Conscience Clause

Posted by Defend America on Friday, October 30, 2009 10:14:16 AM
Got Monks? Get the Monks!
by Ken Blackwell

President Obama’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) seems determined to go after a small Catholic college in North Carolina. Readers of First Things, the thoughtful journal founded by Rev. Richard Neuhaus, are familiar with the funny ads regularly run by Belmont Abbey. “Got Monks?” reads the white-on-black ad that encourages serious young Catholics to consider a college where the Benedictine monks seek God and where the students seek truth.

But Obama’s EEOC obviously reads that ad as an invitation to “get the monks.” The EEOC’s district office in Charlotte, N.C., is demanding that Belmont Abbey cease and desist violating Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. If you thought that act was about ending racial and sex discrimination, you would be right. If you thought that unelected bureaucrats could not use that law as a sledgehammer to threaten religious schools, you would be naïve.

What the EEOC is complaining of is Belmont Abbey’s practice of not providing abortion-inducing contraceptives to their employees in their health insurance plan.

But Belmont Abbey is a Catholic institution, one that prides itself on its adherence to Catholic teaching. The college maintains that it cannot be guilty of discriminating against female employees since it does not provide any form of contraceptives to its all-male body of monks, or to its lay male employees. How can this be sex discrimination?

http://townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell/2009/10/29/got_monks__get_the_monks!#at


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'Death Panels' are Not Dead

Posted by Defend America on Thursday, October 29, 2009 10:49:18 PM

'Death Panels' Survive

End-of-life planning, likened by some in GOP to 'pulling plug on granny,' makes it into House Dems' health bill
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