RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.city-journal.org/2013/23_2_republican-governors.html
Steven Malanga
Rise of the Republican Governors
A new liberal era? Not according to these reformers.

Shortly after Barack Obama won reelection in November, New Jersey governor Chris Christie pointed out that Republicans’ cloudy political prospects had a bright silver lining. “One of the reasons you have 30 Republican governors in America, and why we’re the only organization to add Republican strength,” Christie said, “is because people see us getting things done.” Christie’s stance countered most of the elite postelection commentary, which gleefully pronounced the Republican Party’s political irrelevance. But the governor was right. Since Obama first took office in 2008, Republicans have picked up a net nine governorships, bringing their total to 30 states, which hold nearly 184 million Americans. In 24 of those states, containing 157 million Americans, Republicans also control the legislatures. Democrats boast similar power in just 12 states, with a population of 100 million. Even Republicans’ unimpressive national showing last November didn’t reverse their state-level momentum.

Evening Event With Jamie Glazov
David Horowitz Freedom Center
Wednesday, May 15, 2013 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (PDT)
Los Angeles, CA
For more info: http://jamieglazov.eventbrite.com/#

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=4237 Tonight is the eve of Jerusalem Day, which marks the reunification of the Jewish capital in 1967, during the Six-Day War. Contrary to widespread belief, based on a concerted propaganda campaign, this was not the event that created what has come to be called the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On the contrary, it was precisely the […]

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/05/hillary-clinton-culpable-for-benghazi-from-beginning-to-end.php When it first became clear that the CIA’s Benghazi talking points had been altered, many of us viewed the White House as the prime suspect. After all, it served President Obama’s political purposes to claim, at the height of a political campaign in which he was taking credit for the fall of al Qaeda, […]

http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2013/05/06/does-obama-care-more-about-benghazi-families-or-himself/ The Benghazi scandal is easy to understand, and that’s what makes it so dangerous for the White House. Simply, the Obama administration’s narrative — that al-Qaeda was on the run, that Hosni Mubarak had to go, and that the Arab Spring was a good thing — was proven false when four brave Americans were […]

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/05/women_who_wear_skimpy_clothing_cause_earthquakes_iranian_cleric.html
Women who wear skimpy clothing cause earthquakes: Iranian cleric

Rick Moran

This might be true. Nothing like watching a burqa-clad woman with the garment raised above the ankle to get my heart palpitating. Now imagine that increased heartbeat magnified by many thousands.

Presto! The earth moves.

Women who wear revealing clothing and behave immorally are responsible for earthquakes, this is what a senior Iranian cleric has to say.
The cleric’s unusual explanation for quakes follows the prediction made by the country’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that a quake is certain to rock Tehran and many of its 12 million inhabitants should relocate to save their lives.
Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi told the country’s media that women who do not dress in dignified manner “lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society”.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/05/why_cant_cbs_be_honest_about_jihad_against_christians.html After the Boston marathon bombings, it is especially revolting to learn that the chair of CBS News, Jeff Fager, was invited by his Episcopalian rector in Connecticut to present a program of deliberate misinformation about jihadi attacks on Christians in Bethlehem.    The Christians of Bethlehem have a terrible problem of persecution at the […]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324326504578466782757594240.html?mod=hp_opinion Act now against Assad or risk chemical weapons falling into terrorist hands. THIS OPINION IS MOOT NOW THAT IT HAS BEEN DISCLOSED THAT THE ‘RESISTANCE” TERRORISTS ALREADY HAVE CHEMICAL WEAPONS…..RSK ‘There are no good options in Syria.” From this truism, endlessly repeated by people who think they’re clever, comes this non sequitur: The U.S. […]

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/ (The following is an adaptation of a talk that I recently gave.) Every act of violence has two sides. The side of those who carry it and the side of those who let it happen. When a burglar breaks into a home and kills two people, we don’t just discuss what made him do […]

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/347500/governor-pence’s-indiana-tax-win

He persuades reluctant lawmakers to cut taxes — does he have out-of-state ambitions?

As Indiana governor, Mike Pence has been flying under the radar. While other Republican governors, such as Bobby Jindal and Scott Walker, have taken advantage of their platform to speak out nationally, Pence has stuck close to his state and focused on the concerns of Hoosiers. Pence — who attracted buzz as a potential 2012 contender when he was still a congressman in 2011 — has instead been working diligently to rack up accomplishments during his first term as governor.

Pence’s top accomplishment this session was cutting Indiana taxes. Initially, he had proposed slashing the income-tax rate, currently at 3.4 percent, by 10 percent. Well aware of the burden put on citizens by the federal tax hike on January 1 and by the looming costs of Obamacare, Pence was determined to do what he could to ease the pain for Hoosiers. “He felt pretty strongly that what he could do as governor was to reduce the price of living and working in our state,” explains Ryan Streeter, a top Pence adviser.
Legislators balked at a cut this large. “While we appreciated the governor’s proposal to cut our income tax, our income tax is rated the best and lowest in the nation among the 41 states that have an income tax,” says Indiana House speaker Brian Bosma, a Republican, referring to the Tax Foundation’s ratings. Bosma was concerned less about the income tax than Indiana’s death tax, which was rated number 43 (or the seventh highest) in the country by the Tax Foundation.

Bosma speculates that Pence’s original proposal differed from the legislators’ goals because Pence lacked familiarity with the state legislature and its policy goals. “In Governor Pence’s defense,” Bosma remarks, “he and his team have not had the decades of experience with our state tax system and the well-thought-out reduction-and-cut plan that we had implemented” in recent years.

Ultimately, Indiana lawmakers axed the death tax completely and cut the income tax by 5 percent (rather than the 10 percent Pence wanted), reducing the rate to 3.3 percent in 2015, then to 3.23 percent in 2017. “What we ended up doing was putting together a collective tax package that results in the largest tax cut in our state’s history, about $1.1 billion dollars” over the next four years, Bosma notes.