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Prior to the “Republican Revolution” of 1994, Rep. Newt Gingrich of Georgia had earned an A rating with Gun Owners of America. But that all changed in 1995, after Republicans were swept to power and Gingrich became Speaker of the House. The Republicans gained the majority, thanks in large part to gun owners outraged by the Clinton gun ban. And upon taking the reins of the House, Speaker Gingrich said famously that, “As long as I am Speaker of this House, no gun control legislation is going to move in committee or on the floor of this House and there...

Step 1: The first rule of the establishment is: Do not admit you are part of the establishment! Step 2: Disarm them with praise Step 3: Moderate whoever they pick as the 2012 nominee. Step 4: Teach them about compromise. Step 5: Never forget reality

Benedict XVI recently visited again his native Germany, but this time with a different agenda. Five years later, the Vatican adopted a pro-Islam course and has capitulated to fundamentalists. In a recent book written by German journalist Peter Sewald, Pope Ratzinger expressed “regrets” about the Regensburg lecture. The Vatican’s Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, buried the Pope's lesson about Islam as “an archaeological relic.” “The default positions vis-à-vis militant Islam are now unhappily reminiscent of Vatican diplomacy’s default positions vis-à-vis communism during the last 25 years of the Cold War,” writes George Weigel, a leading US writer about the Vatican....

NEW YORK -The Obama administration insisted Monday there was still time to avert a divisive showdown over Palestinian statehood, ignoring President Mahmoud Abbas' defiant pledge to take his government's case to the United Nations and reaching out to Western allies in the hopes of a last-ditch compromise. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. was engaged in "extremely intensive" diplomacy with Israel, the Palestinians and the other governments gathered in New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting. A statement from the U.S. and other key Mideast peace negotiators on a possible path forward appeared to be...

Rick Perry's dangerous Muslim compromise Posted: August 14, 2011 9:00 pm Eastern By Joel Richardson © 2011 There's no doubt that Texas Gov. Rick Perry has made a massive national splash in recent weeks by calling for a large prayer and fasting rally in the Texas' Reliant Stadium. The gathering garnered widespread support, as it should have, from a broad spectrum of evangelical Christians throughout America. Even nominal Christians will admit that the United States now more than ever, deeply needs the church to pray. But while many Christians fully supported the call to pray and fast for our nation,...

Reflections on a debate question Most reporters ask the same questions again and again, variations on a theme… “what did you do,” “what do you want to do,” and maybe even “what do you think of what somebody else did?” But, once in a while, an election cycle produces a defining theme, so one single average-sounding question can teach us a fundamental truth, or two, or three. Such a moment occurred when Bret Baier of Fox News asked the Republican candidates for the 2012 presidential nomination whether they found tax hikes so distasteful that they would walk away from a...

I don’t usually watch a lot of network news, but a couple of Sundays ago, I had been out all day and wanted to see what was happening on the debt ceiling front, which was at its media-consuming peak that day. I tuned in to “NBC Nightly News” and was rewarded with this gem of an exchange between ace reporter Andrea Mitchell and the lovely Brian Williams: Andrea (fighting back tears): “Our entire government seems to be dysfunctional.” Brian: “Some members have come to town and they don't care if they get re-elected. That is a whole new dynamic. They...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two senators and former presidential candidates say Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating speaks to the need for more bipartisan compromise — but they also say the blame lay with the other party.

The most distressing outcome of the deficit hysteria gripping Washington may be what Barack Obama has revealed about himself. It was disconcerting to watch the president slip-slide so easily into voicing the fallacious economic arguments of the right. It was shocking when he betrayed core principles of the Democratic Party, portraying himself as high-minded and brave because he defied his loyal constituents. Supporters may hope this rightward shift was only a matter of political tactics, but I think Obama has at last revealed his sincere convictions. If he wins a second term, he will be free to strike a truly...

Today Sen. Rand Paul issued an open letter on the subject of the debt ceiling compromise facing the Senate. Below is that letter.  To paraphrase Senator Jim DeMint: When you're speeding toward the edge of a cliff, you don't set the cruise control. You stop the car. The current deal to raise the debt ceiling doesn't stop us from going over the fiscal cliff. At best, it slows us from going over it at 80 mph to going over it at 60 mph. This plan never balances. The President called for a "balanced approach." But the American people are calling for...

The "Great Debt Compromise of 2011"! This "compromise" is in fact "unconditional surrender" to Obama and the big spenders in both parties! We now get more spending, more debt, more recession... and phony "promised cuts"... thanx (establishment) GOP! Tea Party? It was like your high school team playing the Green Bay Packers, you had no chance (this time)! Learn from this Tea Party folks, you must gain experience in the "skill positions" improve your poor blocking and tackling that allowed you to be out maneuvered this time by Speaker Boehner and his fellow DC insiders (Republicans and Democrats...yea I know,...

SPIEGEL: The world is looking at Washington and sees gridlock and chaos. How much have the negotiations over the United States' debt ceiling hurt America's standing in the world? Meckler: Saying that these debates have hurt our image is absurd. What you currently see in Washington is one of the most responsible debates ever about the size and scope of government. The world should look at what is going on in the United States as a model for what should happen in all countries. SPIEGEL: We look at it and see a Congress held hostage by a small group of...

Washington’s brouhaha over the federal debt crisis seems far away. Yet it is so close to your pocketbook and your children’s future well-being, you can smell its fetid breath. But it smells better Monday than it did Sunday. Let’s cut through the rhetoric. Good ol’ Uncle Sam is in hock up to his eyeballs, owing $14.3 trillion. Washington’s political armies have been locked in mortal combat, with a deadline looming over whether to increase the nation’s debt-limit ceiling. Both sides in Congress SAY they want to cut the federal deficit. The President said he is willing to reduce the deficit...

President Obama announces agreement Sunday night with GOP and Democratic leaders on a debt-reduction plan compromise that could end a perilous stalemate and avoid a potential default on America's loans

It's obvious from the concessions made by President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats that they cannot make a reasonable case for their various positions on raising the debt ceiling. Mr. Obama keeps scolding his political opposition, demonizing Americans who already pay the lion's share of federal taxes and threatening our most vulnerable citizens with starvation and homelessness; but he and his Congressional accomplices can not explain why higher taxes, more borrowing and more government spending would improve the economic health of the country. The Republicans case for significant spending cuts, keeping tax rates at their current levels and promoting a...

Washington, D.C. – Nevada Senator Harry Reid made the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the only viable debt ceiling compromise to avert a default. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:Republicans leaders in the House of Representatives wasted this week pursuing a right-wing proposal they knew from the start could not pass the Senate.From the very beginning the Speaker’s Band-Aid approach was fatally flawed – it would have put us back in this incredible position, fighting the clock to prevent financial collapse, in just a few weeks.It was a concession to Tea Party extremists, yet it...

President Barack Obama alienated 37,00 twitter followers last night with scores of tweets urging followers to contact their local Congressman over the debt deal. With his approval rating sitting at an all-time low of 40 per cent amidst the debt crisis, tens of thousands of Americans unfollwed the President to avoid the deulge. The president’s staff sent a total of 118 tweets asking his followers to write their Republican lawmakers to demand a compromise on debt legislation. The first tweet read: 'The time for putting party first is over. If you want to see a bipartisan #compromise, let Congress know....

WASHINGTON -- Americans are fed up, and they're letting Congress have it. Furious over the bipartisan foot-dragging on the nation's debt crisis, the US public yesterday unleashed a massive barrage of phone calls, e-mails and even a nasty Twitter campaign, #F- -kYouWashington, to vent their fury over DC's dithering. The deluge was unleashed after President Obama called on Americans Monday night to phone their representatives and urge them to compromise on a deal that would raise the federal debt level and stave off the first US default in history. The Capitol switchboard yesterday sent out an alert, warning of the...

Why? Compromise, that’s why. Have you ever noticed how the media worships the words “bipartisan” and “support” when used consecutively in a sentence? That is because Democrats have mastered the art of compromise. Election cycles feature politicians (from both parties) proclaiming loud and clear that they have records proving they can work with “both sides” to move America forward. Common, everyday, hard-working American citizens are often quoted by the media saying, “We just want both sides to work together.” What a load of crap. Here is how compromise works on Capital Hill – Republicans start off wanting no increases in...

The "Tea Party" solution to our deficit problem: CUT the CRAP and BALANCE

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday he has prepared his members to compromise on the debt ceiling and that a majority of House Republicans could support a potential deal with Democrats. In a news conference at the Capitol, Boehner pressed anew for the GOP’s “Cut, Cap and Balance” plan but also pushed back against conservatives in his caucus who are unwilling to move beyond it.

As debt-limit negotiations consume Capitol Hill, Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) urges Republicans to be cautious. “The president is a magician,” he says in an interview with National Review Online. “He has been using sleight of hand. This is not time for Republicans to find compromise, we have to figure out how to stop him.” If not, and Republicans deal, DeMint warns that such a move would be “suicidal.” “Any grand deal would not get through the House,” DeMint says. “The president knows what he’s doing — he’s trying to get the Republicans to renege on their pledge not to...

Myself and other conservatives reTweeted this and voiced disdain for the reported compromise. We were in disbelief that the GOP would cave with zero concessions on something so integral to private sector sustainability. We were wrong — Reuters made it up. Kyl’s actual remarks, just posted at Breitbart.tv:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Republican floated a tax compromise on Wednesday that could revive hopes for a budget deal as President Barack Obama warned the United States could spiral back into recession if an agreement is not reached soon. Rep Eric Cantor, the No. 2 official in the Republican-led House of Representatives, said that his party could agree to close some tax breaks in a trillion-dollar budget deal as long as they were offset with tax cuts elsewhere. "Any discussion about loopholes must be accompanied by offsetting tax cuts," Cantor said at a news conference one day before he...

An Oregon town's City Council voted down a proposal to say the Pledge of Allegiance before every council meeting, but later passed a compromise that seemed to make no one happy. The approved measure allows the pledge to be recited at just four Eugene City Council meetings a year, those closest to the Fourth of July, Veterans Day, Memorial Day and Flag Day. It was supposed to be simple, but Councilman Mike Clark soon found out when you’re dealing with God and country, nothing in Eugene is easy.

Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney make me think of Dorothy Jones. "Aunt" Dorothy, my mom's closest friend, was a warm, smart, comedienne-quick funny woman from a large family. Unlike my mom's other friends, Dorothy was single and remained so until she died. I once asked her, in the rude way only children can, why she never married. "You know," she said while pointing, one by one, at four imaginary men lined up in front her, "if you took the best qualities from all my sisters' husbands and rolled them up into one man -- you'd still come up short." This...

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – The White House on Thursday accused its Republican foes of risking a global recession by saying they will not agree to raise the US debt ceiling unless paired with deep spending cuts. Spokesman Jay Carney said President Barack Obama hoped to reach a compromise reining in galloping US deficits and national debt "in the same timeframe" as a congressional vote lifting the limit on Washington's ability to borrow. But "you cannot hold one hostage to the other," he told reporters aboard President Barack Obama's official Air Force One airplane. If talks collapse, "you can't say 'well,...

Compromise. Cobbling together a bi-partisan vote of middle of the road Republicans and Democrats, Speaker John Boehner was able to pass the controversial 2011 budget compromise. But clearly, one quarter of one half of one third of government is upset. Fifty-nine Republicans voted against the measure, a sign that many conservatives are still disappointed that their leadership was not able to negotiate steeper spending cuts. That’s also more than the 54 Republicans who voted against a three-week spending resolution in March over complaints that more dramatic spending reductions were not made. In a slap to President Obama’s political face, 108...

Congressional negotiators struck a last-minute deal to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year, congressional leaders and the White House said late Friday, averting a threatened shutdown. The House and Senate are expected to approve a seven-day stopgap measure to keep the government running until the final details of the agreement can be worked out. Talks continued deep into the evening until, finally, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) met with his caucus to outline the details of the proposed compromise, one in which Republicans succeeded in securing nearly $38 billion in cuts from current spending levels....

Morris: "I want a cut of $61 billion. I want the Republicans in Congress to keep the campaign commitment to the American people of a $100 billion cut. And I'm shocked at your interview with Congresswoman Bachmann. She was saying, 'Oh, there's going to be a deal, they'll come together, there'll be a compromise'. Well a compromise that is less than $61 is BREAKING THE PROMISE TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. And, above all....

The Hill is reporting that Rep. Jim Hines (D-CT) said today, "If we avoid a government shutdown on Saturday it will be because John Boehner, at last, has figured out a way to gain control of his caucus -- which probably means cutting loose the radical members... quote-unquote Tea Partiers." So there you have it. Democrats aren't the slightest bit interested in representing the people, and are now demanding Republicans too cast us aside so that business as usual can resume on Capitol Hill...

Should Congress Compromise or Shut Down? Two sides should find some middle ground on federal spending and avoid a shutdown. GOP should hold out for deeper cuts, even if it means a shutdown. Dems should fight harder to protect essential programs, even if it means a shutdown. Other (leave a comment).

Sometimes in politics and legislation, whether you win is less important than how you win. That's the dilemma facing House Speaker John Boehner as he tries to round up the votes to pass a fast-approaching spending compromise and avert a partial government shutdown by week's end. Boehner, R-Ohio, wants the overwhelming majority of those votes to come from his fellow Republicans, even if dozens of easily attainable Democratic votes could help carry the budget bill to victory. The goal complicates Boehner's task, and possibly could push the bill farther to the right. It motivates him to battle for the votes...

It is enough to make a grown man weep to see how tepid the House Republicans are under Speaker John Boehner. It isn't just that their pathetic excuse for federal budget cuts betrays the 2010 electoral mandate of the American people, which it does. It is that their tepid response to the massively destructive federal budget signals to the American people that the Republican Party still cannot be trusted with the reins of government. We live in a time of crisis, and the people are seeking substantive solutions to life-threatening problems. That means they want the politicians to stop their...

Wisconsinites overwhelmingly want GOP Gov. Scott Walker to compromise, a new poll says. The poll, commissioned by a conservative-leaning think tank, also found that state residents think Democratic President Barack Obama is doing a better overall job than Walker. Further, Wisconsinites narrowly disapprove of Senate Democrats' decision to leave the state to block a Senate vote on Walker's budget repair bill, which contains language to strip away most public employee union bargaining rights. The poll of 603 Wisconsinites was commissioned by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute and conducted between Feb. 27 and March 1, the day of Walker’s budget address,...

Capitol Chaos: Dems Demand CompromiseBy Heather Shannon Story Updated: Feb 23, 2011 ILLINOIS - At an Illinois hotel, Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller of Monona spoke to reporters just minutes after Governor Scott Walker finished his fireside chat. Senator Miller told reporters that the Democratic senators who are currently hiding out in Illinois will return to Madison and vote when Governor Walker will agree to a "compromise." **SNIP** "The issue before us is about rights," Miller said. "That's what we are here for today is protect the rights of workers. Wisconsin has one of the longest traditions of workers rights...

"It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words."-- Inner Party Member Syme, From George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This may shock a few regular readers of this column, but I whole heartedly agree with Syme. Some words aren't fit to be used anymore and they should be destroyed. Don't worry, True Believer. I'm not going to go all politicalcorrectthink on you. You and I will still be able to use the words I am about to destroy whenever we like. Only a very, very small group of people shouldn't use these words that I am about to toss in the...

Back in June, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who many think would be an attractive 2012 presidential candidate, was quoted by Andrew Ferguson in the Weekly Standard as saying the next president "would have to call a truce on the so-called social issues." That quickly attracted some harsh criticism from opponents of abortion and same-sex marriage. But Daniels has declined to back down, telling the Indianapolis Star the other day that such issues are secondary to the economy and foreign policy. I think both Daniels and his critics have missed the point. The fact is that there is an ongoing truce...

It’s no news that the Bush era tax cuts were set to expire on December 31st, 2010. Now, there are some very odd dynamics occurring that I feel needs to be addressed. 1. All of a sudden, Obama is all of a sudden willing to “compromise” with Republicans after two solid years of telling them “I won,” locking them out of the meetings altogether in crafting the so-called “health care” bill, telling them that they should “sit in the back seat,” and calling them “the enemy.” 2. Obama is now, all of a sudden promoting a policy he has publicly...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama saluted a new spirit of political compromise Friday as he signed into law a huge tax bill extending cuts for all Americans -- including benefits for the rich that he and congressional liberals had denounced -- along with billions of dollars in help for the middle class and jobless workers. "It's a good deal for the American people; this is progress and that's what they sent us here to achieve," Obama said as a rare bipartisan assembly of lawmakers looked on. The package retains Bush-era tax rates for all taxpayers, from the working poor...

The political junkie crowd says that those of us who oppose Obama's tax plan compromise on principle simply doesn't get politics. They say politics is the art of compromise and that being strategic is more important than being principled.Can one of them explain to me how this is a good deal politically then? First it let Obama off the mat. He himself said that his presidency is finished if he didn't get this deal.This compromise gives Obama momentum and improves his re-election chances. And if you think his caucus is fractured now just think about how it would have been...

"Republicans fail to understand that the Democratic Party is no longer a party ruled by this same spirit (of compromise). It is now a left-wing party driven by dreams of victory. Examples abound: The use of the courts to circumvent popular will about same-sex marriage; the premeditated disregard of the will of the people in passing Obamacare; the use of the FCC to regulate the Internet after the courts and Congress, the people's representatives, said no. This is a new, polarizing Democratic Party, one determined to achieve victory, even undemocratically. They do politics the way the Romans made war. Against...

1 The "cost" of the bill is $857 billion...over 10 years = $85 billion/year 2 $85 billion/year is 2% of spending (proposed to be $3830 billion this year) 3 $721 billion out of $857 billion, or 84% of the bill, are keeping the tax cuts. Is this really "spending" to keep our own $? 4 Extending the estate tax "costs" $68 billion over 10 years, or $6.8 billion/year. That is 0.1% of spending this year. 5 Extending unemployment insurance costs $56 billion over 10 years, or $5.6 billion/year. 6 The payroll tax holiday costs $111 billion over 10 years, or...

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/12/obama-vows-to-fight-republicans----next-year/1

LEXINGTON, Ky. – If your attention is diverted for the briefest of moments as you walk along North Mill Street’s red-brick sidewalk, you easily could miss the former law office of Henry Clay. Barely 20 feet wide and closed to the public, the office is notable only for a historical marker hidden to its left, pointing out the modest headquarters of a young frontier lawyer who went on to become a revered statesmen known as “The Great Compromiser.” Clay earned that title in the 1820s when he temporarily pacified the U.S. government’s conflict with South Carolina, which was on the...

White House aides are anxious to portray the deal Obama cut with the Republicans over the extension of the Bush tax cuts as a shrewd move to the center. It was nothing of the sort. It was surrender pure and simple. It was as much of a “compromise” as that reached between Grant and Lee at Appomattox and between Emperor Hirohito and General MacArthur on the deck of the Missouri in Tokyo Bay in 1945! When Bill Clinton triangulated, he never abandoned his personal view or his policy preferences. He had always endorsed welfare reform and embraced both the work...

There's a lot of noise today about promoting political squishiness to a virtue and endorsing the notion that compromise for its own sake is noble. I uncompromisingly dissent. First, let's understand that compromise for pragmatic purposes or out of political necessity is wholly different from compromise for its own sake. It is the latter I reject, recognizing that the former is, by definition, sometimes the best of the bad options. Those types of decisions have to be made on a case-by-case basis with a thorough evaluation of the available options and the short- and long-term implications of settling for the...

On a conference call with “Organizing for America” supporters tonight, President Obama explained his compromise with Republicans over tax cuts, saying that the “harm” the economy would suffer was “too great” to be able to afford a fight. If the middle class tax cuts put in place last decade would have expired, “that would have cost our economy nearly a million jobs,” Obama said. “All of this would have been damaging to those individual families," he said. "It would have been profoundly damaging to the economy, as well, at a time when, frankly, the economy is growing but we still...

When President Bush and a Republican Congress cut income taxes for everyone who paid them, most Democrats were opposed. Once the legislation passed, though, they quickly realized that as a matter of politics they had to support the bulk of the tax cuts. They could not be seen to oppose the reduction in tax rates for middle-income workers, or the expansion of the child tax credit. They remained hostile, however, to the tax cuts on dividends, capital gains, and high incomes. They ran two presidential campaigns on a platform of extending the “good” tax cuts while letting the “bad” ones...