Romney Addresses 67th Annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner

Watch the video at the following link. Romney was funny but had enough edge to make the President uncomfortable. Excellent job.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/10/18/romney_addresses_67th_annua...

Here a few quotes:

Romney: “I was hoping that President Obama would bring Joe Biden along, because he’ll laugh at anything.”

Romney says headlines will say “polls show Obama leading from behind.”

Romney says the press will report on this event: “Obama embraced by Catholics; Romney has dinner with rich people”.

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Lara Logan: Gov’t 'Major Lie Being Propagated'…Al Qaeda Coming Back

Eleven years later, “they” still hate us, now more than ever, Lara Logan told the Chicago crowd. The Taliban and al-Qaida have not been vanquished, she added. They’re coming back.

“I chose this subject because, one, I can’t stand, that there is a major lie being propagated …” Logan declared in her native South African accent.

The lie is that America’s military might has tamed the Taliban.

“There is this narrative coming out of Washington for the last two years,” Logan said. It is driven in part by “Taliban apologists,” who claim “they are just the poor moderate, gentler, kinder Taliban,” she added sarcastically. “It’s such nonsense!”

Follow the link for video and reactions:

http://nation.foxnews.com/lara-logan/2012/10/08/lara-logan-lifts-veil-barack-...

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Jack Welch: I Was Right About That Strange Jobs Report

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444897304578046260406091012.htm...

My next tweet, on Oct. 5, the one that got the attention of the Obama campaign and its supporters, read: “Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can’t debate so change numbers.”

As I said that same evening in an interview on CNN, if I could write that tweet again, I would have added a few question marks at the end, as with my earlier tweet, to make it clear I was raising a question.

But I’m not sorry for the heated debate that ensued. I’m not the first person to question government numbers, and hopefully I won’t be the last. Take, for example, one of my chief critics in this go-round, Austan Goolsbee, former chairman of the Obama administration’s Council of Economic Advisers. Back in 2003, Mr. Goolsbee himself, commenting on a Bush-era unemployment figure, wrote in a New York Times op-ed: “the government has cooked the books.”

Read the whole thing.

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Latest O’Keefe Video Shows Obama Campaign Voter Fraud

http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2012/10/10/latest-okeefe-video-shows-obama...

James O’Keefe has done it again – this time capturing video of a paid Obama Organizing for America director in Houston, Texas, assisting a double-voting scheme directed toward Florida. In the video, an undercover Obama “volunteer” tells Organizing for America’s Stephanie Caballero that she wanted to vote twice to help reelect President Obama.

The undercover “volunteer” tells Caballero, “I’m going to vote by ballot and then I have mine here too.”

After the volunteer tells Caballero her plan, Caballero volunteers to help the double voter get the forms to request an absentee ballot in Florida. “I’ll print that out and you just have to mail it back,” Caballero says.

Follow the link for video. It’s posted on YouTube here:

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A Well-Lined Nest

Big Bird is a One-Percenter.

http://freebeacon.com/a-well-lined-nest/

And PBS receives only about 12 percent of its budget from the federal government, totaling a $445 million grant over two years.

“Eliminating the $445 million set aside in the federal budget for PBS would be a blow, no question. But it wouldn’t be the end,” writes the Christian Science Monitor.

In any case, it appears Big Bird’s nest is lushly lined.

“Carroll Spinney, who has played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch since the show’s inception, earned more than $314,000 in compensation in 2011,” reports MSN.

The money from the federal government is not even enough to fund top executives’ salaries for Sesame Workshop.

Former Sesame Workshop CEO Gary Knell earned $988,456 in the fiscal year that ended in June 2011, and the current CEO, H. Melvin Ming, made $584,572 during the same period, records show.

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Timeline of events surrounding violence at U.S. embassy in Libya

Brent Baer’s special report on the attack in Libya

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1867119840001/

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Elizabeth Warren’s law license problem

http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/09/elizabeth-warrens-law-license-problem/

Whatever the political implications of the exchange, Warren’s representation of Travelers raises another big potential problem for Warren.

Warren represented not just Travelers, but numerous other companies starting in the late 1990s working out of and using her Harvard Law School office in Cambridge, which she listed as her office of record on briefs filed with various courts. Warren, however, never has been licensed to practice law in Massachusetts.

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Obama’s Great Islamist Delusion has come home to roost

http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/09/obamas-great-islamist-delusion-has-come-...

We cast aside Hosni Mubarak on a moment’s notice without taking steps to give non-Islamist parties a timetable to organize an effective transition; we overthrew Muammar Gaddafi, teaching tyrants the lesson that giving up nuclear ambitions is a deadly mistake, and then promptly departed leaving chaos; and we have isolated Israel among a sea of Islamist radicals as it seeks to stop the Iranian’s march towards nuclear weapon capability.

Follow the link for video from Obama’s famous Cairo speech (June 2009).

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Jennifer Rubin: New attack on Americans; Obama foreign policy in disarray

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/new-attack-on-americans-o...

Jamie Fly of the Foreign Policy Initiative spoke for many foreign policy critics, who for years have been fretting about Obama’s unwillingness to pursue a coherent strategy in the region. He told Right Turn: “We are beginning to see the real world effects of ‘leading from behind.’ The President has been more focused on burnishing his supposed national security credentials than helping to ensure that the revolutions of the Arab Spring lead to more long-term stability and increased opportunities for the people of the region.” He also recalled the unseemly victory lap after Libyan rebels emerged victorious in the civil war. “Libya may eventually be seen as a ‘mission accomplished’ moment in which the President of the United States was more interested in declaring victory than in helping the Libyans win the peace. Now, we and they are left to pick up the pieces.”

Most immediate is the seemingly bizarre insistence on going forward with aid to the Islamist government in Egypt that failed to protect our embassy. The Wall Street Journal reports: “The Obama administration is in the final stages of organizing a $1 billion package to ease the rising debt burden of Mr. Morsi’s government. The U.S. also gives Egypt $1.3 billion a year in military aid.”

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Libya rescue squad ran into fierce, accurate ambush

http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E8KCMYB20120912?pageNumber=1&am...

Miscommunication which understated the number of American survivors awaiting rescue – there were 37, nearly four times as many as the Libyan commander expected – also meant survivors and rescuers found themselves short of transport to escape this second battle, delaying an eventual dawn break for the airport.

Captain Fathi al-Obeidi, whose special operations unit was ordered by Libya’s authorities to meet an eight-man force at Benghazi airport, said that after his men and the U.S. squad had found the American survivors who had evacuated the blazing consulate, the ostensibly secret location in an isolated villa came under an intense and highly accurate mortar barrage.

“I really believe that this attack was planned,” he said, adding to suggestions by other Libyan officials that at least some of the hostility towards the Americans was the work of experienced combatants. “The accuracy with which the mortars hit us was too good for any regular revolutionaries.”

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Hayes: Wait, Who's Political?

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-romney-libya-cairo-whos-political_6...

So as the media pound Mitt Romney for allegedly violating the inviolable space around 9/11 and difficulties overseas, remember this about Barack Obama. He sought campaign volunteers and his top adviser launched a harsh attack on Romney early on 9/11. His top surrogate, Bill Clinton, let loose a tough attack on Romney and entitlements that evening. Obama rejected a meeting with a key ally potentially on the verge of war at least in part because he might need to be campaigning at the end of the month. And after a pause of his campaign activities that lasted approximately 14 ½ hours, the president resumed his normal campaign schedule with a trip to Las Vegas, where gave a speech that echoed his address to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte last week.

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Romney: Obama administration response to embassy attacks 'disgraceful'

Byron York writes:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/2507676#.UFB9YkJAes1
> The United States responded not by condemning the Egyptian attackers but by condemning anyone who might have "hurt the religious feelings of Muslims." An apologetic statement released by the U.S. embassy expressed offense at those who might have upset Muslim sensibilities but did not express any outrage, or even disapproval, of those who would storm a U.S. embassy and destroy the American flag.

> Late Tuesday, after eschewing hard-edged political statements in observance of the 9/11 anniversary, Romney released a statement on the violence. "I'm outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi," Romney said. "It's disgraceful that the Obama administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks."

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Krauthammer: Statement to embassy mob should be 'go to hell'

watch the video:

http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/11/krauthammer-rips-us-embassy-in-egypt-says-a...

Earlier in the day, after the American embassy had been attacked, the embassy issued a statement condemning what is believed to be the cause of the unrest — a video disparaging the Prophet Muhammad that was produced in the United States.

Krauthammer: “I would issue a statement saying to the mob, ‘Go to hell.’ The way America works, the way a democracy works, is that everybody has a right to express themselves. We don’t police our speech and you ought to apologize to the United States for storming an embassy and the violation of the ultimate sacred principle of democracy, which is protecting embassies and missions abroad. For the U.S. to what, essentially, issue a veiled apology, I think is disgraceful.”

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Krauthammer on Michelle Obama's Speech

http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/05/krauthammer-on-michelle-obamas-brilliant-sp...

Krauthammer went on to say that despite of his high marks for the performance, the substance was not believable.

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Thomas Sowell: Obama's Dreams

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/09/04/obamas_dreams_115291.html

Barack Obama is one of those people who are often wrong but never in doubt. When he burst upon the national political scene as a presidential candidate in 2008, even some conservatives were impressed by his confidence.

But confident ignorance is one of the most dangerous qualities in a leader of a nation. If he has the rhetorical skills to inspire the same confidence in himself by others, then you have the ingredients for national disaster.

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Goldberg sums up the GOP Convention

Jonah Goldberg writes in the latest G-file newsletter:

But the two most effective and representative lines of the whole convention came from Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan (as it should be).

From Romney: “President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family.”

While this isn’t necessarily red meat, it’s got a nice pinkish hue bordering on red at the center. It also shows why red meat can be effective. Liberals hate this line because they think making fun of global warming is sacrilegious and “anti-science.” So they’re attacking him for it. But the average voter doesn’t hear anti-scientific blasphemy, they hear, “Obama talks a big game about things that either don’t matter or he can’t do. Meanwhile this guy says he’s going to focus on the economy and getting my kid a job that gets him out of the basement.”

Which brings me to what I think was easily the best line of the night, from Paul Ryan.

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.

That is brilliant and one of the few lines of the whole convention that elicited serious pangs of writerly envy. It works so well because it is poignant, funny, and feels very, very true. It captures the faded coolness and fizzled hype of the original Obama frenzy. That’s a great message from a young (younger than me!) politician aimed at young people. But it also works very well for older people. People who are no longer all that young understand the pain and anxiety of wasted time and unfulfilled potential. The image makes you feel for the young adults effectively trapped at the bottom of an economic escalator that seems to be moving down as they try to climb up.

Go to NationalReview.com to sign up for the newsletter.

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Goldberg sums up the GOP Convention

Jonah Goldberg writes in the latest G-file newsletter:

But the two most effective and representative lines of the whole convention came from Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan (as it should be).

From Romney: “President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family.”

While this isn’t necessarily red meat, it’s got a nice pinkish hue bordering on red at the center. It also shows why red meat can be effective. Liberals hate this line because they think making fun of global warming is sacrilegious and “anti-science.” So they’re attacking him for it. But the average voter doesn’t hear anti-scientific blasphemy, they hear, “Obama talks a big game about things that either don’t matter or he can’t do. Meanwhile this guy says he’s going to focus on the economy and getting my kid a job that gets him out of the basement.”

Which brings me to what I think was easily the best line of the night, from Paul Ryan.

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.

That is brilliant and one of the few lines of the whole convention that elicited serious pangs of writerly envy. It works so well because it is poignant, funny, and feels very, very true. It captures the faded coolness and fizzled hype of the original Obama frenzy. That’s a great message from a young (younger than me!) politician aimed at young people. But it also works very well for older people. People who are no longer all that young understand the pain and anxiety of wasted time and unfulfilled potential. The image makes you feel for the young adults effectively trapped at the bottom of an economic escalator that seems to be moving down as they try to climb up.

Go to NationalReview.com to sign up for the newsletter.

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Jennifer Rubin: Ryan freaks out Obamaland

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/ryan-freaks-out-obamaland...

The Democrats are losing it, literally. The Obama camp and its surrogates are losing the fight to control the narrative about Mitt Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) They are losing the effort to distract voters through the presence at the GOP convention of Obama campaign staffers such as Robert Gibbs and Ben LaBolt, who spend their time wandering about and whining to the media here in Tampa about the “negativity” of the other side. They are losing the ability to con the media into focusing on likability, as if perceptions of Romney and Ryan wouldn’t improve after this event.

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Richard Epstein: Paul Ryan’s Intellectual Muse

http://www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/126521

In 1944, when Roosevelt unveiled his “Second Bill of Rights,” Friedrich von Hayek, an Austrian economist, political theorist, and future Nobel Prize winner, wrote The Road To Serfdom. That book rightly became a sensation both in England and in the United States, especially after the publication of its condensed version in The Reader’s Digest in April 1945. Hayek’s basic message was the exact opposite of Roosevelt’s. He was deeply suspicious of government intervention into markets, thinking that it could lead to economic stagnation on the one hand and to political tyranny on the other.

The Reader’s Digest version of The Road to Serfdom:

http://www.barefootsworld.net/serfdom.html

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Niall Ferguson on Why Barack Obama Needs to Go

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/08/19/niall-ferguson-on-why-barack...

Why does Paul Ryan scare the president so much? Because Obama has broken his promises, and it’s clear that the GOP ticket’s path to prosperity is our only hope.

Read the whole thing.

He also has a response to his critics:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/21/niall-ferguson-defends-newsw...

Runner up is James Fallows of The Atlantic for his hilariously pompous post “As a Harvard Alum, I Apologize.” Well, as an Oxford alum, I laugh.

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