Thanks, Will Obama Care leave our seniors hopeless?

Bringing the cost of energy down & using ALL our resources will return our economy back to it’s normal Pre- Obamacrat greatness.Along with smaller govt with more local control …I’ve had all the big govt Marxism I can hack…

Osama Bin Laden Dead, Obama Announces

Osama Bin Laden is dead, President Obama announced Sunday night, in a televised address to the nation. His death was the result of a U.S. operation launched today in Abbottabad, Pakistan, against a compound where bin Laden was believed to be hiding, according to U.S. intelligence. After a firefight, a small team of American forces killed bin Laden and took possession of his body, the president said.

“Tonight I can report to the American people and the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden,” Obama said during brief remarks at the White House.

“Justice has been done,” he said, in comments that marked a formal end of the manhunt for the most visible and emotionally-charged symbol of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The president said U.S. intelligence operatives received a tip in August on bin Laden’s whereabouts, which ultimately led to Sunday’s attack. Obama said he determined last week that the U.S. had enough reliable information to take action; by Sunday morning, he had authorized “a small team of Americans” to conduct an operation targeting bin Laden.

“After a fire fight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body,” the president said. “No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties.”

Obama said the 9/11 attacks that bin Laden and his lieutenants orchestrated nearly 10 years ago remain “the worst attack on the American people in our history” and said the images of the crumbling Twin Towers “are seared into our national memory.”

The president emphasized that Americans “did not choose this fight” against al Qaeda, but rather, “it came to our shores.” He praised U.S. military and intelligence professionals for working “tirelessly to achieve this outcome.” To the families of 9/11 victims, he noted that the U.S. has “never forgotten your loss.”

“Tonight, let us think back to the sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11,” Obama said. “I know that it has, at times, frayed. Yet today’s achievement is a testament to the greatness of our country and the determination of the American people.”

Fred Karger Declares Himself The ’Anti-Romney Election Candidate’

Right now, the 2012 GOP field is only starting to congeal. Perhaps with former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney edging closer to a formal announcement, the long wait for the frontrunners to make up their minds and get in the game will soon come to an end. In the meanwhile, we’re basically dealing with real estate mogul Donald Trump’s ”Cry For Help” media tour, and all of its concomitant embarrassments.

Karger is the longest of shots, owing to his obscurity and his politics. A long-time political consultant and openly gay election candidate, Karger has been working to advance the cause of LGBT rights in the Republican Party. Thus far, he’s striven to come across as the nice guy wronged by the party establishment, who haven’t yet allowed him to play in the 2012 campaign season’s reindeer games. But today, he added some edge, announcing himself as ”the anti-Romney election candidate,” who ”plans to run a campaign specifically designed to throw a wrench into Romney’s run.”

Paul Ryan Budget Proposal Approved By House Panel

The Republican-led House Budget Committee approved a $3.5 trillion budget for 2012 on Wednesday that was hailed by its GOP authors as an end to a federal spending binge but savaged by Democrats as an assault on retirees and the poor.

The party-line 22-16 vote underscored the sharp partisan divide over the blueprint, crafted by the committee’s chairman, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., at a time of record federal red ink. The measure lays the groundwork for a decade of cuts in spending, taxes and deficits, tempered by a shift in medical costs from the government to future retirees and a reshaping of the two chief federal health programs for the elderly and poor, Medicare and Medicaid.

The budget’s approval, which followed a daylong debate by the committee, sends the plan to the full House, where GOP leaders hope for a vote in the coming days.

Though the blueprint covers the entire reach of government, committee members focused much of their attention on health and other social programs, from which Republicans were proposing to wring hundreds of billions of dollars in savings over the next 10 years. Ryan said that with sky-high deficits, the government needs to limit its mission to programs that are truly needed.

The budget is a nonbinding road map whose taxing and spending changes are supposed to be enacted in later, separate legislation. But Ryan’s plan has no chance of being approved by the Democratic-run Senate, making it more of a statement of priorities that election candidates are likely to embrace or attack during the 2012 campaigns.

The budget would repeal President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, which became law last year.

Although Ryan’s plan reduces spending by some $5 trillion over the next decade, that still wouldn’t bring the federal budget into balance. Next year’s near $1 trillion shortfall would still be nearly $400 billion in 2021.

He also would limit next year’s spending for most domestic programs to $360 billion – nearly 25 percent less than Obama has proposed for everything from agriculture research to building facilities for veterans. That underlines the drastic differences between the two parties’ visions of government.

Social Conservatives Say Their Issues Are Inextricably Linked With The Economy In 2012

Social conservatives under pressure to allow the presidential campaign to focus on the economy are pushing back, arguing that the two cannot be disconnected.

As Rep. Michele Bachmann put it in a speech here Saturday: “Social conservatism is fiscal conservatism.”

The Minnesota congresswoman’s line, though an over-simplification, was echoed by numerous social conservatives in conversations with The Huffington Post over the weekend. Their argument is that many of the outcomes that have produced the nation’s economic crisis are, at their core, driven by moral deficiencies: greed, dishonesty, selfishness, cowardice, and the like.

“Go back to Jefferson and Washington. They said, ‘If you want this country to be great, you better first be good,’” said Bob Vander Plaats, the man who has led the charge in Iowa against same-sex marriage. “And so that’s where we’re at saying, ‘You know what, if you think all it is is over here on the economic side while you want all this other stuff to erode, you’re dealing with a house of cards.’”

Rep. Steve King, the Iowa Republican who organized a day-long meeting on Saturday that attracted presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich, Haley Barbour, Herman Cain and Bachmann, said that “the economic component of this is important, but when it goes wrong it is because it is the byproduct of a society that’s getting off track.”

“We need to work on the economic issues, yes we do. But if we let our society deconstruct, to the point where it’s Godless and faithless and valueless, and it’s every man and woman for himself, collecting the spoils from someone else’s labor, we’re just simply pitted against each other. We’re not a unified people anymore,” King said. “It destroys us as a nation. I want to see a nation that is solidly bound together from a social construct.”

Bachmann said children need two-parent homes, but did not say anything about whether marriage should be between a man and a woman, and expressed empathy for single parents, noting that her parents divorced when she was a child.

Of course all the speakers on Saturday support traditional marriage and oppose abortion. But socially conservative voters and organizers want to hear them say it.

”Once we understand where an elecrtion candidate is at on their core values, and we believe that they are convicted with their core values on life, on marriage, on separation of powers and the Constitution, on limited government and on free enterprise … then we want to hear what their vision is,” Vander Plaats said.

Iowans in the audience at the King event did not seem concerned about the rift between the wings of the GOP.

“It will work itself out one way or another,” said Bill Griffel, 67, a retired ad salesman and stock broker who said he liked former United Nations ambassador John Bolton and Barbour the most of any in the presidential field.

Bob Haus, a political operative who ran former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson’s Iowa campaign in 2008, said that because social values groups “have been in the trenches for 25, 30 years, they’re very professional and established.”

“It stands to reason they would be first out of the chute with election candidate forums and big events,” Haus said.

He said that as the year rolls on, and a broader swath of Iowans become engaged in the campaign, election candidates like Romney, Pawlenty and Barbour will move the discussion back to being primarily focused on how to get the economy back on track and help bring down unemployment.

Target Sues Gay Marriage Activists For Campaigning Outside Store

A judge said Friday he would issue a ruling next week in a lawsuit filed by Target Corp. against a pro-gay marriage group to make it stop canvassing outside the retailer’s San Diego County stores.

The suit alleges the activists are driving away customers by cornering them and talking about gay marriage.

Rights advocates say the legal battle between Target and Canvass For A Cause could further strain the retailer’s relations with the gay and lesbian community.

Target previously made a $150,000 donation to a business group backing a Minnesota Republican election candidate opposed to gay marriage.

Minnesota-based Target insisted it remained committed to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and its lawsuit has nothing to do with the political agenda of the organization.

During a court hearing Friday in San Diego, Target attorney David McDowell told Judge Jeffrey Barton that the solicitors are on private property, and Target has the right to enforce its policy against solicitors.

Herman Cain Criticizes Obama Over Failure To Mention God In Speeches

Herman Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza who has been making buzz as a potential Republican presidential election candidate, said on Friday that President Obama was deliberately omitting mention of God during his public speeches.

In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Cain described his concern.

”I have been able to get the pulse of the American people of not only what’s in their head but what’s in their heart. What’s in their heart is they love this country. They love the values upon which this country was founded and they don’t like it when the President omits ’endowed by their creator’ from reciting the Declaration of Independence,” Cain said.

Cain continued: ”I believe it was intentional because he’s done it three times, two of which I know about and a friend of mine actually knows of a third time. Now with all of his Teleprompters how could you not put that in there? No. I believe it was intentional.”

The potential Obama challenger then went on to outline what he saw as another instance of the president ignoring the nation’s alleged Judeo-Christian roots.

Women to GOP: We’re Fighting Back

Most consumer protection laws protect against bait and switch practices. Bait and switch occurs when a store or retailer advertises one product to steer you into the store and then switches you to another product. Republicans, during the midterm election, advertised that the American people need and want jobs. House Speaker John Boehner, (R-OH) in an August, 2010 speech, said ”…the American people have had enough — of Washington politicians talking about wanting to create jobs as a ploy to get themselves re-elected while doing everything possible to prevent jobs from being created.”

Over and over throughout the campaign, Rep. Boehner asked ”where are the jobs.” Implicit in his campaign remarks was that Republicans would deliver on their jobs promise, if elected. Then we heard after taking the oath of office, Speaker Boehner, delivered his now famous remark of, if jobs are lost in the process, then ”so be it.” His remarks sound more like a classic case of bait and switch to me. Now, Republicans have switched to another theme. And the switch is cuts to programs for women.

Well, progressive women are mad and are not taking it lying down. Emily’s List, a national organization aimed at electing pro-choice Democratic women, has joined forces with MoveOn.org to campaign against the Republicans’ budget attack against women. Emily’s List president Stephanie Schriock says the Republicans ”passed a budget so backwards, so punishing, and so unacceptable to women and families that we’re fighting back.” Emily’s List, a major fundraising force, took in almost $39 million last cycle in support of Democratic Women election candidates who support abortion rights, Planned Parenthood and women’s health related programs. Emily’s List launched a new initiative called ”Stop the War on Women” on March 16, 2011 and includes a web site, petition drive, grass roots campaign and other means to bring attention front and center to the Republican bait and switch. Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Action Fund says the Republican Congress is the most dangerous legislative assault on women’s health.

Michele Bachmann: ’First Thing’ I Would Do In Presidential Debate Is ’Offer Birth Certificate’

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) recently signaled the first thing she would do in the premiere presidential debate of the next election cycle should she make a run for the White House.

Speaking to conservative radio host Jeff Katz in an interview last week, she said, ”I think the first thing I would do in the first debate is offer my birth certificate so we can get that off the table.”

Last month, the Tea Party favorite was asked about her stance on the birther issue during an appearance on ABC’s ”Good Morning America.” Here’s an excerpt of the exchange:

Stephanopoulos: You know, a sizable number of GOP primary voters still are questioning President Obama’s faith and citizenship. Can you just state very clearly that President Obama is a Christian and he is a citizen of the United States?

Bachmann: Well that isn’t for me to state, that is for the president to state. And I think that the president makes–

Stephanopoulos: Do you believe it?

Bachmann: When the president makes his statements I think they need to stand for their own.

After being pressed to more clearly define her position, Bachmann said that those who question whether the president was born in the U.S. should ”take [him] at his word.”

Buddy Roemer Clarifies Position On Gay Marriage, Reaffirms Support For DOMA

Buddy Roemer, a former Louisiana governor and likely Republican presidential election candidate, clarified on Thursday night that while he champions state’s rights, even on marriage, he remains committed to and supportive of the Defense of Marriage Act.

In an email to The Huffington Post, Roemer took umbrage with the write-up of an earlier interview he had done with the website.

“The issue of gay marriage is one on which I am clear,” Roemer wrote. “As I said in the interview, I am a traditionalist on this issue as is my Methodist Church. A marriage is between a man and a woman. Gays will not be slandered by me or my church, but gay marriage is not an option.”

“The Defense of Marriage Act, with which I agree, prohibits the Federal Government from recognizing any marriage not between a man and a woman,” he went on. “Each state has the right to set these boundaries within its state, and I would stand with the traditionalists in my state and prohibit gay marriage.”

Roemer added that if he were to be elected president, he would instruct his Justice Department to enforce DOMA — something that the Obama administration has decided not to do, citing concerns over constitutionality.