RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/373121/print

The House of Representatives came one step closer Tuesday to holding former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress.

As Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) prepares to call a committee vote on the matter, the body released a report intended to build the case that Lerner has obstructed the work of Congress by providing false and misleading information to the committee and refusing to testify before it.

If the Oversight Committee votes to hold Lerner in contempt, House speaker John Boehner could move the matter to the full Congress. His previous comments suggest he would do so. “At some point, she has to testify or she should be held in contempt,” Boehner told reporters Wednesday.

The 141-page report makes the case that Lerner’s testimony is critical to the Oversight Committee’s investigation and that she has obstructed the panel’s work by providing it with inaccurate information. Without Lerner’s testimony, the report says, “The committee will never be able to fully understand the IRS’s actions. Lerner has unique, firsthand knowledge of how and why” the IRS decided to scrutinize conservative applicants for tax exemption.

Lerner has twice invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions from lawmakers. The committee voted in June that she waived that right by making a voluntary opening statement at a May hearing. Lerner retired from the IRS in September.

The report charges that Lerner, the former director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations division, misled Congress on four occasions. In a February 2012 briefing with the Oversight Committee, the report notes, she denied that the criteria for evaluating applications for tax exemption had changed. In fact, according to an inspector general’s report released last May, Lerner ordered that the criteria be broadened in June 2011. According to a colleague, she was concerned that current criteria, which included terms such as “tea party” and “patriot,” were “too pejorative.”

http://swtotd.blogspot.com/   The best antidote for economic doldrums is more rapid growth. President Obama was handed a unique opportunity, in terms of an explosion in the production of oil and gas that was just getting underway when he was inaugurated in January 2009. Unfortunately, he let ideology dictate his response. Nevertheless, in spite of Mr. […]

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/373129/print

Sorry to disagree…This is minor jousting with no real winner and no real foreign policy. Neither Cruz (Whom I prefer) nor (g)Rand (standing) Ron can claim to be Reagan’s heir. Have they even mentioned North Korea, or resurgent Islam and Jihad, or gone beyond the requisite blather of “we cannot allow Iran to build nukes” ???? Reagan was the ideological heir to Barry Goldwater who revived a conservative agenda. Cruz comes closer but Rand is soooo far behind with his libertarianism…..rsk
2016: The Battle to Be Reagan’s Heir
Paul and Cruz each try to win the base by channeling the Gipper. By Jonah Goldberg

It’s on! Ostensible allies for the last couple of years, senators Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Rand Paul (R., Ky.) have commenced the battle for the unofficial title of conservative front-runner. That’s no surprise, but what is remarkable is their choice of weapons: foreign policy. For the last several years, there has been a lot of overblown hype about how the GOP, particularly the party base, is becoming isolationist. So it’s interesting that Cruz would seek to get to Paul’s right on the issue.

The first round began in earnest less than 24 hours after Paul — to no one’s surprise — won the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll by a country mile. (Ron and Rand Paul have always overperformed in such contests, and Rand has his father’s machine working for him.)

Stay tuned to the election series at Family Security Matters….. (http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/)

In Florida the deadline for filing is not until May and the primary is not until August…..but a special election was held yesterday for the seat of Rep. C.W. “Bill Young (Republican) who died in October 2013. David Jolly will be the Incumbent in the election in November 2014. Read what the issues are that propelled his victory versus Alex Sink a popular Democrat. This is from the election series on FSM that has already posted Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, Texas (primary completed) and will feature Arkansas tomorrow and California next week…..rsk

DISTRICT 13-

C.W. “Bill” Young (R ) Died in office in October 2103

A special election for Florida’s 13th congressional district will be held on March 11, 2014 to elect a member of the United States House of Representatives, following the death of incumbent Republican Congressman Bill Young on October 18, 2013.

DAVID JOLLY (R) Won a special primary held on January 14, 2014 and won against Alex Sink (D) in a the special election on March 11, 2014 to fill Rep. Young’s seat until December 2014

http://davidjolly.com/

http://davidjolly.com/issues

HOT BUTTON ISSUES

HEALTHCARE

Main campaign promise to repeal Obamacare

Obamacare has hurt Pinellas families and businesses, driving up premium prices for many, leading to cancelled policies for many, and burdening small businesses with additional costs that ultimately deter future hiring and reduce jobs in our community. It should be repealed now, and then Congress and the Administration should begin to consider private sector solutions that address very specific problems in the health insurance industry. A government take-over of approximately 1/6 of our nation’s economy is the wrong answer, and ultimately one that will reduce the quality of care for everyone. Government has never shown an ability to improve service and reduce costs; only the private sector can achieve that.

IMMIGRATION

We need to secure our borders. To discuss comprehensive immigration reform while we continue to have a porous border where more people can continue to enter our country illegally ultimately ignores the very basic principle that people in our country illegally should not be given special treatment over those who have been patiently waiting in their country of origin to enter our country legally.

ALEX SINK (D)

http://www.alexforcongress.com/

HOT BUTTON ISSUES

HEALTHCARE

Improving the Affordable Care Act: Keep the Good, Fix the Bad

The rollout of the website and problems that have arisen with the implementation are unacceptable: The Obama Administration needs to be held accountable to get the website running, and making any necessary changes to fix any problems with the law. If these changes cannot be made in a timely way, then components of the law should be delayed until these issues are addressed.

But we cannot go back to a time when individuals with pre-existing conditions were denied care, seniors were forced to pay more for medicine, or insurance companies could do whatever they wanted – including kicking families off their plans because they got sick.

What is not helpful in Congress’ conversation about America’s healthcare was the government shutdown, or the gridlock in Washington that is holding Republicans and Democrats back from working together to get results and solutions – and it’s exactly this culture of dysfunction that I’m running to change.

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/03/11/wasserman-schultz-says-dem-loss-in-special-election-shows-gop-weakness/

Republican David Jolly won the special election to fill the House seat left vacant by the death of his former boss, Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.).

With nearly all of the votes counted Tuesday night, Jolly had 48.5 percent of the vote to Alex Sink’s 46.7 percent. Libertarian Lucas Overby had 4.8 percent.

Sink lost the 2010 governor’s race to Rick Scott. The Democratic Party sunk extensive ad funding into the congressional battle, and DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) tried to paint the loss as a positive.

“Republican special interest groups poured in millions to hold onto a Republican congressional district that they’ve comfortably held for nearly 60 years. Tonight, Republicans fell short of their normal margin in this district because the agenda they are offering voters has a singular focus – that a majority of voters oppose – repealing the Affordable Care Act that would return us to the same old broken health care system,” Wasserman Schultz said in a DNC rapid response statement.

“While tonight Democrats didn’t win, we are proud of Alex and the race she ran based on a vision of opportunity for all and an agenda that would grow the middle class and protect Florida’s families,” she said.

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http://www.americanthinker.com/assets/3rd_party/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/03/obamacare_meets_kafka.html

In Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law,” so ably recorded by Orson Wells here, a reader learns of the tribulations of a man who seeks access to the law. But over the span of his lifetime, he is never permitted admittance as a single doorkeeper will not allow it. Thus, the doorkeeper laughs and says

If you are so drawn to [the entrance to the gate] just try to go in despite my veto. But take note: I am powerful. And I am only the least of the doorkeepers. From hall to hall there is one doorkeeper after another, each more powerful than the last…

And yet the man cannot fathom that one would not have access to the law for:

…he thinks, [the law] should surely be accessible at all times and to everyone.

But seeing the power of the doorkeepers, he “decides that it is better to wait until he gets permission to enter.” And there “he sits for days and years.”

Yet the man is intrepid and “makes many attempts to be admitted and wearies the doorkeeper by his importunity.” To add insult to injury, the doorkeeper even remains cordial “asking him questions about his home and many other things, but the questions are put indifferently, as great lords put them.” For ultimately, the man is never allowed access.

The man “curses his bad luck” and fixes all his attention on the first doorkeeper who “seems to him the sole obstacle preventing access to the Law.”

And in one final stab of hope, the man questions the doorkeeper and asks:

http://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2014/03/obama-first-post-american-president/

Those who thought it more important to have a black president than a competent one were entirely untroubled by the prospect that a cliche-sprouting “community organiser” might be found wanting in a crisis. Vladimir Putin suffered no such delusions

obama empty suitDuring the 2012 presidential debates, Obama scorned Mitt Romney for having identified Russia as one of America’s geo-political adversaries: “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.” Obama used to be a funny man, or at least the guy who wrote his one-liners was funny. But the joke is over and America needs a new Ronald Reagan more urgently than ever.

Reagan’s resolve in the 1980s to station Cruise and Pershing II missiles in the Federal Republic of Germany put paid to Brezhnev’s SS-20 prospective game-changer. A few years later Mikhail Gorbachev was signing off on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty), all but conceding defeat in the Cold War. That’s how fast things can move when you have the absolutely right – or totally wrong – person pulling the levers of power.

There is the temptation to argue that if only Obama possessed a bit more spine then, just maybe, Putin would be more circumspect about Crimea (plus everywhere else), let alone risk a Second Cold War with the USA. And yet that is not the real problem. Carter was a weak and vacillating leader but he did perform something of a foreign policy U-turn in 1979 after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. There has been nothing weak or vacillating about the current President’s faith in the progressive-utopian internationalism. A foreign policy U-turn on the part of Obama will require him dumping a lifetime of post-modern, post-colonial, post-reality academic baggage.

Leftist sophisticates never understood Russia. Standard academic orthodoxy – which informs everything about the 44th President – blames poor old Harry Truman for starting the Cold War. The warmonger Eisenhower torpedoed Nikita Khrushchev’s proposals for peaceful co-existence, or so goes the leftist fantasy. Moreover, JFK grew wise to the military-industrial complex but the shadowy figures running America assassinated him Dallas before he could bring down the curtain on the Cold War. And Reagan, so say the progressives, did not destroy the Soviet Union but nearly destroyed the planet with his right-wing ravings about evil empires.

http://quadrant.org.au/opinion/peter-smith/2014/02/statistics-dummies-warmists/

These breathless reports about the planet never being hotter, take them with a truckload of salt. How can anyone place the slightest credence in claims being advanced by people who fail to grasp, or refuse to grasp, the simple truth about trend lines and temperature

“Read all about it! Read all about it! It’s the hottest year on record — except for another five hotter years!” A new twist can be put on the aphorism attributed to Benjamin Disraeli. It is now clear that there are lies, damn lies, and the interpretation of climate statistics.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported that last year (2013) tied with 2007 for the sixth-hottest year on record – i.e. since 1850. “This is confirmation of the trend of global warming of the planet,” according to WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud. In case you missed the import, Mr Jarraud added that thirteen of the fourteen warmest years on record have occurred in the 21st Century.

The latest version of the Hadley Centre’s global surface temperature series HadCRUT 4 shows a trend rise of about 0.8 degrees Celsius between 1850 and 2013. This upward trend steepened between around 1910 and 1940 and, following a period of becoming negative between 1940 and 1975, steepened somewhat more acutely between around 1975 and 2000 before leveling.

It seems clear, based on both the surface and satellite records, that since around 2000/’01 — that is, for the last 12 or 13 years — temperatures have plateaued. I don’t really buy the 17-year cessation being bandied about. I think there is too much noise created by the sharp rise in temperature in 1998 to draw firm conclusions until just after the beginning of this century. But form your own conclusions. Data can be sourced from the excellent and universally well-regarded web site woodfortrees.org.

Marks Could Be Hurdle for Democrats in November Amid Broad Dissatisfaction

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304250204579433533118580224?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories&mg=reno64-wsj

President Barack Obama is struggling to overcome widespread pessimism about the economy and deep frustration with Washington, notching the lowest job-approval ratings of his presidency in a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

The results suggest Mr. Obama could weigh on fellow Democrats in midterm elections this fall, particularly in the conservative states that will play a large role in deciding whether his party retains its Senate majority.
View Graphics

Mr. Obama’s job approval ticked down to 41% in March from 43% in January, marking a new low. Some 54% disapproved of the job he is doing, matching a previous high from December, when the botched rollout of his signature health law played prominently in the news. The latest survey also showed the lowest-ever approval in Journal/NBC polling for Mr. Obama’s handling of foreign policy.

The findings come amid dissatisfaction with all elected leaders in Washington and low regard for the Republican Party. Roughly a quarter of those polled view the GOP positively, with 45% harboring negative views, weaker numbers than for the Democratic Party.
Still, the GOP leads slightly when the public is asked which party should control Congress.