Abrams, Lord writes, was surely hoping no one would bother to “get into the weeds” and uncover the full record of what Gingrich said in 1986.

Newsmax.com:

Jeffrey Lord, a political insider in the Reagan White House, railed against Newt Gingrich critic Elliott Abrams today for “grossly misrepresenting” Gingrich’s speeches on the floor of the House of Representatives in the 1980s as anti-Reagan when Gingrich was in fact lauding Reagan for his fight against Communist insurgents in Central America.

“It does no one — least of all Elliott Abrams or Governor Romney — any good to try and say that Newt Gingrich, as loyal a friend and ally to Ronald Reagan as could be found in the day — was somehow some crazed anti-Reaganite who got the Cold War wrong. Not only is this not true, its laughably untrue,” writes Lord in today’s American Spectator.

Read more….

Delivering the State of the Union, Jan. 24, 2012: What Obama offered the nation Tuesday night was a pudding without a theme: a jumble of disconnected initiatives, a gaggle of intrusive new agencies, and a whole new generation of loopholes to further corrupt a tax code that screams out for reform.

Charles Krauthammer at NRO:

Of course, this being Obama, there was a reach for grandeur. Hope and change are long gone. It’s now equality and fairness.

That certainly is a large idea. Lenin and Mao went pretty far with it. As did Clement Attlee and his social-democratic counterparts in post-war Europe. Where does Obama take it? Back to the decade-old Democratic obsession with the Bush tax cuts, the crusade for a tax hike of all of 4.6 points for 2 percent of households — ten years of which wouldn’t cover the cost of Obama’s 2009 stimulus alone.

Which is why Obama introduced a shiny new twist — the Buffett Rule, a minimum 30 percent rate for millionaires. Sounds novel. But it’s a tired replay of the alternative minimum tax, originally created in 1969 to bring to heel all of 155 underpaying fat cats. Following the fate of other such do-goodism, the AMT then metastasized into a $40 billion monster that today entraps millions of middle-class taxpayers.

There isn’t even a pretense that the Buffett Rule will do anything for economic growth or job creation (other than provide lucrative work for the sharp tax lawyers who will be gaming the new system for the very same rich). Which should not surprise. Back in 2008, Obama was asked if he would still support raising the capital-gains-tax rate (the intended effect of the Buffett Rule) if this would decrease government revenues.

Obama said yes. In the name of fairness.

Read more….

The federal government is spending more on a per-household basis than ever before. Since 1965, spending per household has grown by nearly 162 percent, from $11,431 in 1965 to $29,401 in 2010.

Well….What Rasmussen actually said was that 55% of those in his survey of 1,000 likely voters said that they want the wealthy to handover 30% of their income to the federal government for federal income taxes.

The survey said not a word about the 7.65% the wealthy already pay for SS and Medicare; it said nothing about gasoline and excise taxes already collected from wealthy Americans; it said nothing about the 49% of all Americans that pay ZERO in federal income taxes; it said nothing about many of those that pay nothing in federal taxes actually get checks (up to $5,751) from the IRS called “Earned Income Credits”; it said nothing about the state and local income taxes on top of sales taxes paid by the wealthy; it said nothing about the property taxes paid by the wealthy.

Also, the survey didn’t mention the cost of securing U.S. borders and ports to keep the wealthy from escaping because sure as hell there would be an exodus of biblical proportions as the wealthy move offshore to protect earnings. Even a**hole Warren Buffett couldn’t stand that kind of pressure.

Rasmussen Reports:

Most voters agree with President Obama’s proposal in his State of the Union speech Tuesday night that wealthy Americans pay at least 30% of their income in federal taxes. But 30% seems to be about as far as they want to go.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 55% of Likely U.S. Voters favor the president’s tax proposal for the wealthy. Thirty-two percent (32%) oppose a requirement that the wealthy pay at least 30% in federal taxes. Thirteen percent (13%) are undecided.

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Liberty Legal Foundation Van Irion: “Obama has decided that he is above the Courts, the law, and the Constitution.”

U.S. presidents, vice-presidents senators and representatives are elected under state law. Only states can decide who is eligible to appear on its ballots. However states cannot ignore state law and deny ballot access to unpopular candidates. That’s true whether it’s a candidate for county sheriff or a candidate for president.

There’s a lawsuit underway in Georgia that challenges Barack Hussein Obama’s eligibility to appear on that state’s 2012 ballot. Specifically, the suit revolves around the question of his legal birthplace. Complainants demand that he prove he’s eligible by producing documents to establish his place of birth according to the U.S. Constitution, U.S. law and state law.

Cindy Simpson and Alan P. Halbert at American Thinker:

Below is a summary list of the physical evidence introduced [by plaintiffs] in yesterday’s hearing in GA.

P2. Affidavit of Senior Deportation Officer with the Department of Homeland Security John Sampson, showing that Obama is using Connecticut SSN 042-68-4425

p3. Affidavit of Adobe Illustrator expert Felicito Papa, showing Obama’s alleged true and correct copy of his birth certificate to be a computer generated forgery

P4. Affidavit of witness Linda Jordan, attesting to the fact, that SSN 042-68-4425, used by Obama, does not pass E-Verify

p6. Selective service certificate showing Obama using SSN 042-68-4425 and official printout from Social Security Number Verification Services, showing that 042-68-4425 was never issued to Barack Obama, attached e-mail from Colonel Gregory Hollister

p7. Affidavit of Adobe Illustrator expert Felicito Papa, showing that Obama is using CT SSN 042-68-4425 on his 2009 tax returns

p9. Hawaiian birth certificate 61-00637 of Susan Nordyke, born a few hours after Obama in Kapiolani Hospital, looks completely different from alleged copy of birth certificate of Obama

p10. Passport records of Stanley Ann Dunham Obama, mother of Barack Obama, showing Obama listed in her passport under the name Barack Obama Soebarkah, attached affidavit by Chris Strunk, recipient of Obama’s passport records under FOIA

p11. Barack Obama’s Indonesian school registration card #203, date accepted January 1, 1968, released by the Associated Press in Indonesia, showing him using last name Soetoro and listing citizenship -Indonesia….

Amicus Brief. Mr. Leo Donofrio, Esq.

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The alpine mountain ride of a lifetime! A single-pipe coaster at full speed, without brakes.

Sommerrodelbahn – Mieders, Austria:

This new image of the Earth is a composite shot by NASA’s newest Earth-observing satellite, called Suomi NPP. Mexico is in the center of the frame, with Baja California to the left and Florida to the right. (NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring)

NASA via ABC News:

A star nursery, the aurora as seen from the International Space Station in orbit, a storm on Saturn as big as Earth, a spectacular solar flare, and images of the cosmos from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Read more and see slide show….

Update
Fox News: “SpaceShots: The best new photos of our universe”

In 1957 The Diamonds topped the chart with ‘Little Darlin’

In 2004 they were still belting it out!

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New Mexico and Washington are the only states that allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. Utah gives illegal immigrants a special driving permit that cannot be used as identification.

AP:

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — An Associated Press investigation has found that addresses of dozens of the same businesses and homes across New Mexico were used over and over again by people to get driver’s licenses in a pattern that suggests potential fraud by immigrants trying to game the system.

In one instance, 48 foreign nationals claimed to live at a smoke shop in Albuquerque to get a license. In another case, more than a dozen claimed to live at an automotive repair shop over a one-year period. The scenario has been repeated at other addresses since New Mexico changed its law in 2003 to allow illegal immigrants to get the same driver’s license as a U.S. citizen – one of just two states allowing that.

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The decline of America.

The REAL State of the Union — The Washington Times:

But with the president delivering his State of the Union speech to Congress Tuesday night, let’s pause here to take as hard look at the real state of America, by the numbers, using only cold, hard facts.

The unemployment rate when Mr. Obama was elected was 6.8 percent; today it is 8.5 percent — at least that’s the official number. In reality, the Financial Times writes, “if the same number of people were seeking work today as in 2007, the jobless rate would be 11 percent.”

In addition, there are now fewer payroll jobs in America than there were in 2000 — 12 years ago — and now, 40 percent of those jobs are considered “low paying,” up 10 percent from when President Reagan took office. The number of self-employed has dropped 2 million to 14.5 million in just six years.

Regular gasoline per gallon cost $1.68 in January 2009. Today, it’s $3.39 — that’s a 102 percent increase in just three years. (By the way, if you’re keeping score at home, gas was $1.40 a gallon when George W. Bush took office in 2001, $1.68 when he left office — a 20 percent increase.)

Electricity bills have also skyrocketed, with households now paying a record $1,420 annually on average, up some $300.

Some 48 percent of all Americans — 146.4 million — are considered by the Census Bureau either as “low-income” or living in poverty, up 4 million from when Mr. Obama took office; 57 percent of all children in America now live in such homes.

Since December 2008, a month before Mr. Obama took office, food-stamp use has increased 46 percent. Total spending has more than doubled in just four years to a record high of $75 billion. In 2011, more than 46 million people — about one in seven Americans — got food stamps. That’s 14 million more than when Mr. Obama took office.

Median household income has dropped nearly 7 percent in the last six years, taking inflation into account. What’s more, nearly 20 percent of males age 25 to 34 now live with their parents.

Low- and middle-income Americans 65 and older now hold more than $10,000 in credit card debt, up 26 percent since 2005. The average age of the American car is 10 years; in 1990, it was 6.5 years old (by the way, in 1985, Americans bought 11 million cars; in 2009, less than half that, 5.4 million).

On the macro side, America’s annual budget has jumped to $3.8 trillion — and yet the United States brings in only about $2.1 trillion in revenue. The U.S. trade deficit for 2011 was $558 billion. America’s total public debt stands at $15.23 trillion; in January 2009, the debt was $10.62 trillion. Mr. Obama is on pace to borrow $6.2 trillion in just one term — more debt than was amassed by all presidents from Washington through Bill Clinton combined. The debt is rising by $4.2 billion every day — $175 million per hour, nearly $3 million per minute.

So, America, that is the State of Your Union. But remember, Mr. Obama had not one thing to do with it. So don’t blame him when you go to the polls. Blame everyone else, especially yourself.

Read more….

Brent Bozell: “Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was cleared of charges of tax violation by the IRS back in 1999 — but the three major networks still have yet to report on it.”

Brent Bozell at News Busters, December 07, 2011: Newt Was Found Innocent Nearly 13 Years Ago – Networks Have Yet To Report It

I didn’t like it when Newt attacked Romney on Bain Capital and I said so. In protest I took down Newt’s pics and links from my sidebar even though a reasonable person could argue that he had a point. But what Newt did was hardly worth notice to what Romney is doing with flat-out lies about Newt’s tenure as Speaker.

What really happened to Newt when he was Speaker is that House RINOs and libertarians joined House AND Senate Democrats to bring Newt down. The objective of Democrats is obvious. The RINOs and GOP libertarians, led by Dick Armey (R-TX) and Bob Barr (R-GA), didn’t like a hard-hitting (some say pertinacious) leader. It might be helpful to note that Armey and Barr later left the House at the same time and both joined the ACLU.

Anyway, a consortium of RINOs, libertarians and Democrats amassed a list of 84 ethic violations against Newt and, assisted by a frenzied media, the Borking began. The charges were all centered round a project Newt had started before he became Speaker: a television history course, “Renewing American Civilization.”

In simple language, it was a civics course.

Also in simple language: Donks, RINOs and libertarians hate U.S. civic lessons, i.e., factual U.S. history. That teaches young people to admire, appreciate and respect their social heritage.

Needless to say the daily onslaught of false accusations that he had violated tax laws rendered the Speaker (and the House) ineffectual. Months passed before Newt managed a compromise with Democrats: drop 83 of the charges and Newt would pay $300,000 to reimburse the House cost of the investigation but he would not admit to any illegal or unethical activity. The turncoat “Republicans” were forced to go along.

Three and a half years later Bill Clinton’s IRS issued a 74 page report that completely exonerated Gingrich on all 84 charges.

An excerpt from the IRS report:

“The course taught principles from American civilization that could be used by each American in everyday life, whether the person is a welfare recipient, the head of a large corporation or a politician…The course was not biased toward particular politicians, or a particular party. The facts show the class was much more than a political platform.”

On February 9, 1999 Brent Bozell (MRC) wrote a piece called, “Newt Is Vindicated, But Nobody Knows It.”

Bozell excerpts from a CNN report by Brooks Jackson on Newt’s vindication.

Here’s the MRC video of the CNN report:

[NOTE: In the video the CNN reporter refers to the $300,000 as a "fine." That is incorrect and the agreement Gingrich signed explicitly states it was not a "fine." Gingrich agreed to pay $300,000 to offset some of the cost of the ethics investigation because, at the time, he said he could've been more cooperative when the investigation was first initiated.]

Gingrich unleashes lawyers to fight false ads.

More at Legal Insurrection

1999 Washington Post: “IRS Clears Foundation That Aided Gingrich Course”

House Committee on Ethics: “In the Matter of Representative Newt Gingrich”

Big Government: IRS Ruled in His Favor