Saturday, November 3, 2012

http://www.seemytravels.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/IMG_0831.jpg


















A great picture just for the heck of it -- eerie Edinburgh! 

Our wonderful daughter-in-law Louise hails from Glasgow, Scotland. 

She and our youngest son Britt are now living in Banbury, England.


Britt is an English professor, on a mission to teach the English how to speak their own native tongue.

Verne Strickland

God is sovereign. And whether you are for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, set your sights on God, not November 6th, and be happy.

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / November 3, 2012

Erick Erickson 

Editor of REDSTATE| 

I write the rest of this now because if Romney loses, it will be viewed as “Erickson is trying to talk them off the ledge” and if Romney wins it will be viewed as “Erickson is rubbing salt in wounds.” Neither is true, which is why this must come before the election and not after.

I get the enormity of what is at stake in the election. I get it. I really do. I get the passion. I get the excitement. But, and maybe I’m just too worn out, I don’t get the anger, worry, and dread on either side. I have friends upset with me for not getting it and for not sharing it. “Don’t you know what is at stake?” they demand. Don’t you know what is not at stake?

People on the left are convinced if Mitt Romney wins blacks will be put in chains out in cotton fields and uteruses will be locked up.

People on the right are convinced if Barack Obama wins the stars and stripes will come down, the red banner of communism will go up, and this American experiment will be promptly concluded.

My world view is pretty simple. I think this world is destined to go to hell in a hand basket by design. I think things are supposed to go to pot. So if Barack Obama wins, I won’t be upset.

 If Mitt Romney wins, I won’t be running through the streets cheering. I think, either way, it is all part of the design. The world is going down hill. Barack Obama re-elected just gets us down the slippery slope faster in my view. For others, it is Mitt Romney who does.

God is sovereign and He is in charge and He will return. That is my hope and my ever present expectation.

We often get so wrapped up in the view of things at ground level, we forget to look at the world from 50,000 feet. In the historic, grand scheme of things, this too will end.

Don’t confuse me with a fatalist and don’t confuse me with someone who does not really care about the future of our nation. I think we are the last best hope of mankind on this planet. But my destiny is not tied to this planet.

While I am here, however, I have convictions that are greater than either candidate and either party and I fight more for a cause than a candidate. I expect, regardless of who is in the White House, I’ll find myself at odds with them, though more so with Obama than Romney.

When I wake up on Wednesday morning, I’m still going to have my wife. I’m still going to have my kids. I’m still going to have my family. And I’m still going to have my God. So will you.

Some of you, on both sides, are convinced that the end of the world is nigh. It is. But not quite yet and no one really knows when.

What I do know for sure is that I’m headed home to eternity and this world is temporary. So while I like politics and have my side and want it to win, I’m not going to be partying in the street if my side does win and I’m not going to think the end of the world is upon us if my side loses.

You should not either.

Too many of my friends have gotten so focused on the outcome and are so convinced the country as they know it is over if the other side wins that they are joyless to be around right now. They are full of dread and worry and fear. They’ve lost their sense of humor. They cannot laugh at themselves, their side, or much of anything. They are mad at others, myself included, for not being as worked up as they are. The frenzy has become a purity test, not the conviction.
God is sovereign. And whether you are for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, set your sights on God, not November 6th, and be happy. In four years, we really will do this all over again whether right now you think so or not. There is no permanence except in Heaven.
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
— Hebrews 11:13-16 (ESV)

Now go vote! The future of the nation is at stake!!!!

Friday, November 2, 2012

The Bottom Line in NC/7: Mike McIntyre Is No Conservative Democrat.


 Verne Strickland Blogmaster / November 2, 2012


 
Breitbart.com 2 Nov 2012
 

Mike McIntyre is the 8-term, incumbent Democrat Congressman from North Carolina's 7th Congressional District. He sells himself to the folks back home as a true "Blue Dog Democrat," a conservative who doesn't fall for the far left's nonsense. But a look at his voting record does not substantiate this conclusion, as he's voted the left's party line far more than he lets on.

A look at his voting record between 2007 and 2010, for instance, shows that McIntyre sided with ultra left-wing Nancy Pelosi 90 percent of the time. That isn't such an independent record, is it?

One of McIntyre's favorite anti-lefty votes is his vote against Obamacare. Again and again McIntyre points to this vote to prove his independent streak. Of course, the truth is then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi did not need the votes of the few Blue Dogs that opted out of a yea vote to protect their status back home. It was even reported at the time that Speaker Pelosi gave these Blue Dogs dispensation to make their anti-Obamacare vote.

Is a vote that was "allowed" by the boss a real vote of conscience? We don't know McIntyre's heart, of course, but getting permission to cast such a vote ahead of time casts suspicion on that vote.

McIntyre is also wildly out of step with his own voters. During his 16 years in Congress McIntyre voted to pass the failed stimulus bill, voted to make Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House not once but on four different occasions, and has voted with Barack Obama as much as 82% of the time.
However, his District is not nearly so left-wing. The National Republican Congressional Committee reports that a recent poll shows that Obama has a 60 percent disapproval rating in McIntyre's district. Fifty-six percent say that they want Obama's job killing policies stopped.

McIntyre supported billions in bailouts, voted to spend $800 billion in stimulus funds that ended up creating jobs in China instead of North Carolina, yet has said that North Carolina is now "better off" now than it was when Obama was elected in 2008. McIntyre said this even though at press time North Carolina was suffering an unemployment rate of 9.6 percent. Incidentally, that is higher than the national average of 7.8 percent unemployment.

So, while he campaigns back home like a conservative Democrat when in Washington he acts more like a normal, liberal Democrat often voting in lock-step with his very liberal Party leadership.

You can see some of the NRCC's ads against McIntyre HERE.

Facing long-time incumbent McIntyre is Republican David Rouzer. Mr. Rouzer's bio is impressive. He's a successful businessman, has extensive experience in legislative strategy and public policy development, and is a former staffer to Senators Jesse Helms and Elizabeth Dole.

Rouzer is no newcomer to elected office, either. He is currently serving his second term in the North Carolina Senate, representing Johnston County and Wayne Counties. He has a proven track record of garnering votes.

Before becoming a state legislator Rouzer was a senior level appointee of the President at USDA Rural Development. In that capacity, Rouzer helped manage the administration of a program level budget of more than $1.2 billion along with a loan portfolio of $5 billion in investments in rural America – including numerous investments in Johnston and Wayne Counties. He also worked with the White House, Congress, and various agencies on a variety of initiatives that involved rural development programs so he is intimately familiar with the needs of his rural districts.
One of McIntyre's pointed attacks against Rouzer really misses its mark by a wide margin. McIntyre claims that Rouzer is wrong for having done work with Japan Tobacco. This proves, McIntyre claims, that Rouzer is not interested in North Carolina's economy.

But, Rouzer properly notes that Japan Tobacco is the biggest customer for America's tobacco!
This seat should be ripe for a GOP pick-up.

N.J. turns away non-union relief crews while region wallows in muck, darkness and despair



Verne Strickland Blogmaster / November 2, 2012
 
THIS IS ABOUT AS CLEAR A PICTURE AS I'VE EVER SEEN OF WHAT ROGUE UNIONS ARE REALLY ABOUT. LET'S DIG UP JIMMY HOFFA AND PUT HIM BACK IN CHARGE. PEOPLE SUFFER, STRUGGLE AND DIE IN ONE OF THE WORST CATASTROPHES EVER TO STRIKE THE NORTHEAST, AND UNION MONOPOLIES TURN THEIR BACKS ON EMERGENCY HELP OFFERED BY RIGHT-TO-WORK STATES. TO HELL WITH THE UNIONS. OBAMA TOO.


1 Nov 2012  Breitbart.com

How desperate is hurricane-ravaged New Jersey? Not desperate enough to suspend a union monopoly that keeps the state in the bottom ten states for economic competitiveness (and #48 for business friendliness). 

Relief crews from Alabama who were specifically called to New Jersey found themselves diverted to Long Island, NY after they arrived because they use non-union labor. Alabama is a right-to-work state. 

WAFF-TV of Hunstville, AL reports:

Crews from Huntsville, as well as Decatur Utilities and Joe Wheeler out of Trinity headed up there this week, but Derrick Moore, one of the Decatur workers, said they were told by crews in New Jersey that they can't do any work there since they're not union employees....
Understandably, Moore said they're frustrated being told "thanks, but no thanks."

With so much at stake--and lives still in danger--it would seem logical to tell special interests to step aside.
On Wednesday, while visiting cleanup efforts in New Jersey in the company of Gov. Chris Christie,

President Barack Obama vowed: "We are not going to tolerate red tape, we are not going to tolerate bureaucracy." Unless, of course, that red tape is enforced by Obama's union cronies. Then stranded residents have to wait.


Here are photos of the devastation of the town the crews were to have assisted--Seaside Heights, NJ:
And another:

Thursday, November 1, 2012

YOUNG REPUBLICANS (NCFYPR, NCFCR) TO MEET NOV. 3-4.

Due to this past weekend's weather, this deployment has been moved to November 3-4. This will be an in-state Young Professional Republican and College Republican deployment. Invite your friends to come to the Port City and help us Get Out the Vote for Romney/Ryan/McCrory/Rouzer/Goolsby! Sign up today! http://bit.ly/ncdeploy
Due to this past weekend's weather, this deployment has been moved to November 3-4. This will be an in-state Young Professional Republican and College Republican deployment. Invite your friends to come to the Port City and help us Get Out the Vote for Romney/Ryan/McCrory/Rouzer/Goolsby! Sign up today! http://bit.ly/ncdeploy

David Rouzer will do what Mike McIntyre has not!


LETTER TO EDITOR / STARNEWS / OCTOBER 15, 2012 Francis Jones / Wilmington NC

We have had a representative in the 7th District for the last 15 years but we have not been represented. 

Mike McIntyre has played the blue dog Democrat for years as a way of seeming conservative to the Republicans and still being liberal to the Democrats. He is a master of playing both sides and North Carolina can't survive his lack of representation anymore. 

David Rouzer as a State Senator has cut government spending and has cut government regulation that under McIntyre has crippled business in the 7th District. 

Rouzer won't bring us checks from Washington with his name on it. Instead he will work so we can keep more of our own money and reinvest it in our industries and community. 

McIntyre will not fight to cut taxes because this is where he has power with the entitlements and what it comes down to is that Mcintyre wants to stay a Congressman at any price even if it means selling out his own District. 

Rouzer has no problem taking power away from wasteful government agencies and this has not been done under the McIntyre watch. 

Things are not getting better in the 7th and McIntyre has been here for a very long time so if he is not part of the solution he is the problem. He is the problem. 

He hasn't created jobs but has gotten us deeper in debt by supporting the policies of the Obama Administration. 

Rouzer will take on these tough problems and not run from them as McIntyre always has. If McIntyre was going to make things better he would have done it by now. He must go!



Beckel: If Gallup's numbers are right, "It is over"

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / November 1, 2012

















FOX News' Bob Beckel says if Gallup's daily tracking poll of likely voters is correct then the election is over and Mitt Romney has won.

 
"But if those numbers are correct, it is over. It is over. So I mean, you're not going to bring Romney back under 50% from 52%, not a challenging candidate," Beckel said on FNC's "The Five" Thursday evening.


BOB BECKEL: It's over. I don't have anything else to say, it's over. It's over.

DANA PERINO: Do you think it's real?

BECKEL: Do I think it's real?

ANDREA TANTAROS: You have to admit Bob, there is panic. I talked to a senior Democrat in the greenroom just a couple hours ago and I said, 'Shoot straight with me, how much panic is there?' And he said, 'A lot.'

BECKEL: I would assume, If I were looking at those numbers and I was managing a presidential campaign, I would be upset on that you're panicked. But if those numbers are correct, it is over. It is over. So I mean, you're not going to bring Romney back under 50% from 52%, not a challenging candidate. So if that's correct, I don't necessarily buy that it is correct.

TANTAROS: Now you don't buy the polls.

BECKEL: No, no, no, no, no. Look, I have a great deal of admiration for Gallup. But you got to remember, it is outside the margin of error. He's outside the margin of error, but still it's plus or minus 4%. So it may be 48, I don't know the answer to that.


Posted By Ian Schwartz


Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Justice Dept. silent as Holder charges critics with racism. Say what?

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / October 31, 2012

Matthew Boyle
Investigative Reporter
DAILY CALLER

 
Holder seems to be dressing down token white person.
 
Attorney General Eric Holder accused his growing chorus of critics of racist motivations in a Sunday interview published in the New York Times. When reached by The Daily Caller Monday morning, the Department of Justice provided no evidence to support the attorney general’s claims.

Holder said some unspecified faction — what he refers to as the “more extreme segment” — is driven to criticize both him and President Barack Obama due to the color of their skin. Holder did not appear to elaborate on who he considered to make up the “more extreme segment.”

“This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified with him,” Holder said, according to the Times. “Both due to the nature of our relationship and, you know, the fact that we’re both African-American.”

The White House hasn’t returned requests for comment on whether President Barack Obama agrees with his top law enforcement officer’s allegations of racial motivations.

Holder’s accusations come as resignation calls mount from a growing list of 60 congressmen, two senators, every major Republican presidential candidate and two sitting governors, spurred on by the congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious.

Additionally, seventy-five congressmen have signed onto a House resolution for a vote of “no confidence” in Holder as attorney general. Between the two lists, there are 86 total in the House who no longer trust Holder to head the Department of Justice.

It’s not the first time the race card has come into play in efforts to protect Holder from criticism.

Most recently, during a December 8 House Judiciary Committee hearing into Fast and Furious where Holder was testifying, Georgia Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson argued that Fast and Furious wasn’t that big of a scandal because “white supremacists,” among others he described, were able to purchase weapons at “gun shows.” Johnson, who was concerned Guam may “tip over and capsize” if more military personnel are sent there, later told TheDC that he thinks the tea party movement and the National Rifle Association “manufactured” Fast and Furious as a scandal to try to attack the president.

The White House hasn’t denounced Johnson’s rhetoric, nor has Holder. The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), however, wouldn’t side with him — even unofficially — last week. (RELATED: Rifts in Congressional Black Caucus over Fast and Furious, Holder)

Fast and Furious was a program of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, overseen by Holder’s DOJ. It sent thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels via straw purchasers — people who legally purchased guns in the United States with the known intention of illegally trafficking them somewhere else.

At least 300 people in Mexico were killed with Fast and Furious weapons, as was Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. The identities of the Mexican victims are unknown.

Holder has said he was unaware of the operation, despite having been sent several personal memos from his top deputies and assistants. The memos contained intimate details of how Operation Fast and Furious worked.
“This investigation [Fast and Furious, which is named earlier in the memo] — initiated in September 2009 in conjunction with the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Phoenix Police Department — involves a Phoenix-based firearms trafficking ring headed by Manuel Celis-Acosta.”

One such memo that Holder was provided reads: “Celis-Acosta and straw purchasers are responsible for the purchase of 1,500 firearms that were then supplied to Mexican drug-trafficking cartels. They also have direct ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, which is suspected of providing $1 million for the purchase of firearms in the greater Phoenix area.”

In his Times interview, Holder again attacked the media who are covering the scandal. “Mr. Holder contended that many of his other critics — not only elected Republicans but also a broader universe of conservative commentators and bloggers — were instead playing ‘Washington gotcha’ games, portraying them as frequently ‘conflating things, conveniently leaving some stuff out, construing things to make it seem not quite what it was’ to paint him and other department figures in the worst possible light,” Times reporter Charlie Savage wrote in the front page Sunday Times story.

Holder also attacked the media for covering the Fast and Furious scandal. Holder swiped at TheDC in late November, alleging that The Daily Caller is “behind” the calls for his resignation because it has been reporting on the subject.

“You guys need to — you need to stop this,” Holder told TheDC at a White House event. “It’s not an organic thing that’s just happening. You guys are behind it.”

All whites are going to hell, says civil rights icon

Follow Matthew on Twitter

U.S. will issue jobs report on schedule -- November 2 -- says spokesman

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / October 31, 2012

The U.S. Department of Labor will issue its monthly employment report for October, the last to be published before the presidential election, as scheduled on Nov. 2, a spokesman said today. The report “will be released as scheduled on Friday,” the spokesman, Gary Steinberg, said from Washington. 

  U.S. Labor Dept. to Issue Jobs Report Nov. 2


The U.S. Department of Labor stands in Washington, D.C. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
The statement clears up uncertainty surrounding the publication of the report after Hurricane Sandy closed government offices for two days this week. Yesterday, another spokesman, Carl Fillichio, said the employees at the Bureau of Labor Statistics are “working hard to ensure the timely release of employment data.”

The jobs report may help sway voters trying to decide between giving President Barack Obama another four years in office or to change course with Republican challenger Mitt Romney. The Obama administration has pointed to 24 straight months of job growth as evidence the economy is improving, while the Romney campaign has said progress is too slow.

Payrolls probably rose by 125,000 workers in October, and the jobless rate increased to 7.9 percent from a three-year low of 7.8 percent reached in September, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Jack Welch, the former chief executive officer of General Electric Co., suggested the Obama administration had manipulated the jobs data for political advantage after the September unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to the lowest level since the president took office in January 2009. Alan Krueger, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, called Welch’s comments “irresponsible.”

Prior to September, joblessness had exceeded 8 percent for 43 straight months, the longest such stretch since at least 1948.

Ronald Reagan is the only president to have been re-elected since World War II with unemployment above 6 percent. On Election Day 1984, the rate was at 7.2 percent, having dropped almost three percentage points in the previous 18 months.

To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Wellisz in Washington at cwellisz@bloomberg.net; Peter Coy in New York at pcoy3@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chris Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Poverty scandal -- NC 10th poorest state, Robeson poorest NC county. Mike works for you!

By VERNE STRICKLAND
Oct. 30, 2012 / First posted 9/15/11

The national poverty rate last year was 15.1%. That is up from 11.3% in 2000 and is the highest it has been since 1993. Over 46 million people lived below the poverty line in 2010. The cut-off for that line is households of four people who made under $22,314.

The other troubling news was that median income per household nationwide was an inflation-adjusted $49,445. This is about the same as in 1989 and down 2.3% from 2009. Economists fear that Americans are not consumers. It is easy to tell why when their real income has been frozen in place for more than two decades.

The problems of poverty and low income are as much local as national. The poverty rate is 21% in Mississippi. The state also has the lowest median income at $36,850. Mississippi is among the states with the worst education systems, highest obesity levels, highest unemployment, and lowest rates of health insurance coverage.

The state is an economic black hole, and it shows in the way people suffer there. And, as is true with black holes, it is nearly impossible for the residents of Mississippi to escape their difficult financial situations. There is a dearth of federal programs that target specific states and cities based on local economic need.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed census data from all 50 states on median income, poverty rates, unemployment, and lack of health insurance. We then identified the ten states that have the lowest median income. We also looked at why low-income households are concentrated in these states and what, in some cases, has been done to reverse the difficult situations.

These are the poorest states in America, according to 24/7 Wall St.:


10. North Carolina in Top Ten -- in poverty! Are we proud or what?
Median income: $43,275
Poverty rate: 16.1% (tied for 9th highest)
Without health insurance: 16.7% (13th highest)
Unemployment: 10.1% (9th highest)

North Carolina has one of the lowest median incomes in the country. It does not perform much better on other metrics related to poverty. There have been a number of programs implemented to help combat poverty in the state recently. One example is the No Kid Hungry program which aims to end childhood hunger in North Carolina by 2015. According to information from the program, "more than 1 in 4 children in North Carolina do not get sufficient food."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/15/americas-poorest-states-_n_964058.html?icid=maing-grid7|maing6|dl1|sec1_lnk3|96106 

Answer:
The five poorest counties in North Carolina are (by poverty rate):
  1. Robeson (23.8%)
  2. Tyrrell (23.5%)
  3. Halifax (23.2%)
  4. Warren (21.8%)
  5. Edgecombe (21.5%)
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_5_poorest_counties_in_North_Carolina

BROKE? HUNGRY? JOBLESS? WONDERING WHERE TO TURN? GO HERE FIRST:
 
 www.MikeWorksforMe.com

And as your Seventh District NC Congressman, he has been working for you since 1997, give or take a few evictions, foreclosures, crop failures, and trips to the local soup kitchen. Do you hope the day will come soon when he's not working for you anymore?

        Mike McIntyre

              From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mike McIntyre
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from North Carolina's 7th district
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 3, 1997





Chris Stevens' Last Words . . . heartbreaking inside story

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / October 30, 2012





Obama administration emails leaked to news organizations about last month’s terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, paint a shocking picture of the administration’s incompetence and callousness.
During the military-style assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11, the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, four American officials died, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens. On the day of the attack, a few hours before he was raped and murdered by adherents of the so-called religion of peace, Stevens wrote in an email that a local Libyan commander in Benghazi “expressed growing frustration with police and security forces (who were too weak to keep the country secure) …”
It was a sad, prescient understatement.
For two weeks after the attack the Obama administration said over and over and over again that the incident in Benghazi was inspired by a low-quality anti-Islam video on YouTube. Eventually the administration acknowledged it was a terrorist attack.
But those who have been following the disturbing developments in Libya with an open mind know the Obama administration has been lying about what happened there from the start.
The most charitable conclusion one can draw is that during the attack the Obama White House froze under pressure, unable or unwilling to act, as the president geared up for a fundraising event in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada.
The less charitable, but more likely conclusion, is that the White House made a conscious, calculated decision to let American officials perish overseas, fully expecting the incurious pro-Obama media to ignore what really happened.
We now know that U.S. officials monitored an audio feed of the Benghazi attack in real time, as CBS News reported. During the attack, U.S. forces were in place in nearby Sicily, an hour or so away, but the order to fly to Benghazi in an attempt to rescue the besieged staff at the consulate never came.
That order was never issued by President Obama, probably because he knew it would reveal his policy of appeasement towards Islamic totalitarians to be in shambles as the Middle East and North Africa fell into the hands of America’s enemies.
Former CIA officer Clare M. Lopez, now a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy, said Stevens knew al-Qaeda was targeting him but he lacked adequate security.
The Benghazi saga is a massive scandal, Lopez told Glenn Beck. “It’s huge, first of all, because we’ve got four dead Americans,” she said. “That’s the worst part of it all and nobody went to their assistance.”
Intelligence chief James Clapper, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and David Petraeus all know what really happened in Benghazi, Lopez opined.
“This has to be brought out. This has to be made known to the public. That this is going on and that our administration was not only working with the bad guys, was working with al-Qaeda linked militias and jihadis to overthrow [President Bashar Hafez] Assad in Syria, but that they let our mission go down. They let our ambassador and others die. In real time, watching it happen, and they didn’t do anything about it,” Lopez said.
The Benghazi post-mortem cover-up appears to have been orchestrated by Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, investigative journalist Ed Klein told Andrew Wilkow on TheBlaze TV on Wednesday.
“In addition to Valerie Jarrett, the CIA got cables, the Department of Defense got cables, the NSA got cables during the attack on Benghazi, in addition to the emails that have since been made public. We know that there are cables that we haven’t seen yet confirming the State Department cable that this was an al-Qaeda linked attack.”
Klein said Clinton has documentary evidence that she previously asked for more security in Benghazi but that she won’t release it because it would torpedo Obama’s reelection bid and infuriate Democrats she might want to call upon should she run for president herself in 2016.
The late ambassador was painfully aware that Benghazi had been on the verge of exploding for some time. In a diplomatic cable in June, Stevens noted that “Islamic extremism” was on the rise and that “the Al-Qaeda flag” was flying over buildings outside Benghazi.
As the Washington Times reports, Stevens also wrote that attacks in Libya “targeting international organizations and foreign interests” were on the rise. An attack in June on the Benghazi mission blew a hole in a security wall, he indicated.
“Libyan security officials purport to have launched investigations,” Stevens wrote. One of those officials “shared his private opinion that the attacks were the work of extremists who are opposed to Western influence in Libya.”
“A number of local contacts agreed, noting that Islamic extremism appears to be on the rise in eastern Libya and that the Al-Qaeda flag has been spotted several times flying over government buildings and training facilities” approximately 100 miles east of Benghazi, the ambassador wrote.
In a cable dated Aug. 8, Stevens expressed concern that the “absence of significant deterrence” had “contributed to a security vacuum.”
As ABC News reported, a State Department email dated May 3, 2012, showed the department turned down a request from officials in Libya to retain a DC-3 airplane to help with security. Stevens was copied on the email.
A spokesman for the House Oversight Committee said the “State Department’s naive determination to follow rigid bureaucratic policies, instead of making common sense decisions that took the serious threat of terrorism conveyed by those on the ground into account, appears to have been a significant factor in the Benghazi Consulate’s lack of preparedness.”
As previously reported, leaked State Department emails dated Sept. 11, 2012, that were published this week show officials knew soon after the attack that Ansar al-Sharia, a Libyan terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda, had claimed responsibility for the assault on the consulate.
The emails found their way to as many as 400 U.S. national security, military, and diplomatic officials during the attack. The electronic missives were time-stamped in Eastern time and often bore the subheading SBU, which stands for “Sensitive But Unclassified.”
The initial email from 4:05 p.m. contains the subject header: “U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi Under Attack (SBU).”
“The Regional Security Officer reports the diplomatic mission is under attack,” read the email. “Embassy Tripoli reports approximately 20 armed people fired shots; explosions have been heard as well. Ambassador Stevens, who is currently in Benghazi, and four COM personnel are in the compound safe haven. The 17th of February militia is providing security support … The operations Center will provide updates as available.”
A second email stamped 4:54 p.m. contains “Update 1: U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi (SBU)” as a subject line. “Embassy Tripoli reports the firing at the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi has stopped and the compound has been cleared. A response team is on site attempting to locate COM personnel.”
A third email stamped 6:07 p.m. features a subject line reading “Update 2: Ansar al-Sharia Claims Responsibility for Benghazi Attack (SBU).”
“Embassy Tripoli reports the group claimed responsibility on Facebook and Twitter and has called for an attack on Embassy Tripoli,” it indicates.
Strangely, or perhaps not so strangely in the Age of Obama, America’s mainstream media has shown little interest in the atrocities in Libya as it focuses on silly distractions like what Mitt Romney really, secretly, truly, in his little capitalist heart made of coal, may have meant when he used the incomplete phrase “binders full of women” in the heat of an intense presidential debate.
Not much media attention has focused on the fact that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s handpicked chairman of the Department of State’s investigation of the Benghazi atrocities is an apologist for Islamic terrorism who has a cozy relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
As Frontpage Magazine was first to report this week, the chairman, former Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, participated in a panel discussion Tuesday night in Washington, D.C. on “what role the faith community can play in fighting Islamophobia,” a make-believe mental illness. The term is used the same way American leftists use the word “racist” to shut down debate.
Many of those few journalists who are following the Benghazi story are in full-on damage control mode in order to help their hero, President Obama, win reelection.
For example, confirmation bias-afflicted Mother Jones reporter Adam Serwer, long a reliably useful idiot in the service of Obama, argued yesterday that a single Middle East analyst’s newly discovered skepticism about one of the State Department emails sent during the attack invalidated all criticism of the administration’s handling of the Benghazi saga.
Because no record could be found on social media websites of al-Qaeda linked terrorist group Ansar al-Sharia claiming responsibility for the massacre, the group couldn’t possibly be tied to the attack, Serwer wrote in a piece containing the in-your-face headline, “GOP’s Benghazi Smoking Gun Goes Up in Smoke.”
Nothing to see here. Move along.
Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: Click here.  

Americans for Prosperity issue urgent plea of support for Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby!

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Verne Strickland Blogmaster / October 30, 2012

Americans for Prosperity today launched an effort to encourage citizens to contact Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby and tell him to continue standing up for the rights of the taxpayers, as he did in his recent case upholding taxpayers’ rights to sue their government. 

AFP-NC is investing an unprecedented $250,000 on a citizen education and grassroots effort that will include one million pieces of direct mail. You can click here to view the mailer.
This is the largest judicial issue advocacy effort ever by Americans for Prosperity in any one of the organization’s 34 state chapters and affiliates.

The mailer is being delivered to one million households this week to educate citizens on Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby’s role in upholding the rights of everyday taxpayers to sue the government over the unconstitutional misuse or misappropriation of tax dollars.  The mailer also encourages citizens to contact Justice Newby and urge him to continue upholding taxpayer rights.

The caseGoldston v. Statebefore the state's highest court presented complicated facts, but it is a simple issue—can taxpayers have their day in court to challenge the misuse of the public's money? The case was a challenge to raids of the Highway Trust Fund by Governor Easley and the Democrat-controlled legislature.

“The majority opinion said it best when it said,‘Our cases demonstrate that a taxpayer has standing to bring an action against appropriate government officials for the alleged misuse or misappropriation of public funds.’” said Woodhouse.  “The decision means the government can’t abuse taxpayers and then say that taxpayers have no right to challenge the matter in court.”

In 2002, Governor Easley raided $80 million from the Highway Trust Fund and the legislature took another $125 million.  The plaintiffs were a Democrat and a Republican--one a former state senator, the other a former secretary of transportation.

When the governor and legislature raided the Highway Trust Fund to pay for general fund expenses, those taxpayers took a stand.  Although lower courts shot down their right to bring the case, Justice Newby and fellow members of the majority of the Supreme Court held that they, like every other taxpayer, have a right to challenge the constitutionality of government's misuse of tax dollars.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Civitas study highlights serious NC voting flaws

Verne Strickland  / October 30, 2012

Study produced a pile of undeliverable letters.

Oct. 29, 2012
CONTACT: Susan Myrick (919) 834-2099
Susan.Myrick@NCCivitas.org

RALEIGH – A new Civitas Institute study suggests North Carolina’s Same Day Voter Registration process is seriously flawed, and even affects those who register to vote just before the deadline.

People who register to vote and vote during Same Day Registration (SDR) bypass the necessary address verification process — which all other voters must undergo — when registering to vote. That’s because there is not enough time to complete the verification process before the certification of the election. So there are SDR voters who have had their registrations “denied” — but only after their votes were counted and certified.

The problem also affects people who register at the tail end of the registration period. The State Board of Election (SBOE), however, has done little or nothing about this situation. The Civitas Institute conducted an examination of last-minute and SDR registrations for the May 2012 first primary.

We chose five counties — Buncombe, Durham, New Hanover, Pasquotank and Wake — to include in our own mailing. Our plan was to send out a survey to voters and see how many letters would be returned as undeliverable. We would mail to two sets of voters: First, those who registered to vote at the end of the regular registration time, between March 1 and April 13, 2012 (the deadline to register to vote) and, second, those voters who registered to vote during SDR.

The first surveys were mailed on April 20 and 21 to voters who registered to vote between March 1 and April 13, 2012 (the deadline to register to vote). A total of 17,531 surveys were mailed; 531 were returned to us as undeliverable — a 3.06 percent rate.

To put that in perspective, in the 90 days leading up to the 2008 General Election voter registration deadline more than 200,000 people registered to vote. So in a General Election a return rate of 3.06 percent would number approximately 6,000 verification mailings returned as undeliverable.



In the 2008 General Election more than 103,000 people registered to vote using the SDR system. A return rate of 7.3 percent would mean nearly 8,000 voter cards returned as undeliverable.

We believe that these results, extrapolated statewide, suggest that thousands of people were improperly registered in 2008 and in every subsequent election since 2008 – enough to swing elections. In 2008, President Obama won North Carolina by only 14,173 votes.

“This is just one more flaw in an elections system that has numerous other problems,” said Civitias Elections Analyst Susan Myrick. “Our study of late registration is another indication that the General Assembly needs to reform election laws to make sure that voting is fair and above all suspicion.”

A fuller account of the Civitas Institute study is available here.

More information on the Civitas Institute is available at www.nccivitas.org, or contact Communications Director Jim Tynen at (919) 834-2099.


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Civitas Institute | 100 South Harrington Street | Raleigh, NC 27603
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Hurricane Sandy: Could it change the outcome of the presidential race?

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / October 29, 2012

OBAMA ADVISER DAVID AXELROD LAMENTS THAT OBAMA WILL SUFFER MORE THAN ROMNEY DUE TO STORM. LET'S HOPE SO.


Political scientists believe natural disasters can hurt an incumbent's reelection chances as voters often blame whoever is in office for adversity. (©PRNewsFoto/Fathead) 


Political scientists believe natural disasters can hurt an incumbent's reelection chances as voters often blame whoever is in office for adversity. (©PRNewsFoto/Fathead)
By Brad Knickerbocker


 Updated: Oct 29, 2012 11:33 AM 

Hurricane Sandy has scrambled the last week of the presidential race, upsetting campaign schedules, putting both President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney off-message, and raising doubts about Election Day and how early voting is going.

It's not out of the question that the hurricane – a massive and unusual storm event forecast to rip into the Atlantic coast from the Del-Mar-Va peninsula to New England before barreling west across New York State and Pennsylvania en route to the all-important swing state of Ohio – could directly affect the outcome, changing or at least postponing the results.

Maryland already has canceled early voting Monday, per Gov. Martin O'Malley's order Sunday. Faced with power outages that could last several days, the Virginia state elections board is planning for extended early voting hours.

Both candidates have had to adjust their last-minute campaign travel plans.

Obama canceled campaign stops Monday in Virginia and Tuesday in Colorado to monitor the storm but planned to go forward with other events Monday in Florida and Ohio, with former president Bill Clinton at his side, AP reports. Romney cut three stops in Virginia on Sunday, opting instead to campaign with running mate Paul Ryan in Ohio before heading Monday to Wisconsin, where the former Massachusetts governor has chipped away at Obama's lead.

TV ads can have more impact than cheerleading events with the faithful; they'll continue as long as there's electrical power. Both sides are flush with cash in this billion-dollar campaign.

But an "October surprise" like this – particularly in a very close race where the challenger has been gaining on the incumbent – has the potential to do more damage to Obama than to Romney.

All the GOP candidate has to do is avoid the appearance that he's taking political advantage of a potential tragedy – something he failed to do during the early hours of the terrorist attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

But if things go wrong with the federal response to Sandy, Obama will be blamed. And the Obama camp in particular is counting on early voters and get-out-the-vote efforts come Election Day.

"Obviously we want unfettered access to the polls because we believe that the more people that come out, the better we'll do," top Obama adviser David Axelrod said on CNN Sunday. "And so, to the extent that it makes it harder, that's a source of concern."

"I hope that it all clears out and by the next weekend, we'll be free of it," Axelrod added
Political scientists believe natural disasters can hurt an incumbent's reelection chances as voters often blame whoever is in office for adversity, Reuters reports.

"Larry Bartels of Vanderbilt University and Christopher Achen of Princeton University examined rainfall data back to 1896 and found that extreme droughts or floods cost the incumbent party office holders an average of 1.5 percentage points of the vote total," Reuters reported Sunday. "Severe drought and excessive rainfall probably cost then Vice President Al Gore victories in seven states in the 2000 election, enough to hand the contest to Republican George W. Bush, they found."

Five years later, President Bush's approval ratings plummeted after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, and voters could similarly blame Obama if the government fumbles its response to this storm. A fraction of a percentage point here are there, as Bartels and Achen reported, could swing a state's popular vote enough to change the results in the all-important Electoral College.

As all eyes were on Sandy, new poll data confirmed the closeness of the race.

"The race for the White House continues to be too close to call in Ohio, according to a new Enquirer/Ohio News Organization Poll that shows President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney each with 49 percent support from likely voters," the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Sunday. "That's a slip for the president, who took 51 percent of likely voters in the newspaper group's September poll."

Said Eric Rademacher, co-director of the University of Cincinnati's Institute for Policy Research, which conducted the poll: "Absent any more twists and turns, a remarkable presidential campaign may end with the campaign that executes the best ‘ground game' narrowly delivering Ohio for the next president of the United States."


Copyright 2012, The Christian Science Monitor

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Retired Lt. Col.: 'My sources say Obama was in the room watching Benghazi attack happen.'

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / October 29, 2012 

   

Did Obama watch attack?

Posted on October 28, 2012 by


Retired Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer said Saturday he has sources saying President Barack Obama was in the room at the White House watching the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya unfold.

Two unarmed U.S. drones were dispatched to the consulate and recorded the final hours of the attack, which killed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

“This was in the middle of the business day in Washington, so everybody at the White House, CIA, Pentagon, everybody was watching this go down,” Shaffer said on Fox News’ “Justice with Judge Jeanine.” “According to my sources, yes, [Obama] was one of those in the White House Situation Room in real-time watching this.”

Shaffer served as a senior operations officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan in 2003 and wrote a book critical of the policies there. The U.S. government purchased the entire print run for $47,000 in an attempt at censorship just before its 2010 publication, claiming it contained classified material.

Shaffer said the question now is what precisely Obama did or didn’t do in the moments he saw the attack unfolding. The CIA reportedly made three urgent requests for military backup that were each denied.
“He, only he, could issue a directive to Secretary of Defense Panetta to do something. That’s the only place it could be done,” Shaffer said.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said last week the military did not intervene because they did not have enough information about what was happening on the ground.

Col. David Hunt, a Fox News military analyst, said the military could have had jets in the air within 20 minutes and forces on the ground within two hours.

“The issue is always political with the White House, but the secretary of defense gives the order, which have to be approved by the White House, they wouldn’t pull the trigger, and it’s disgraceful,” Hunt said.

 “We’ve got guys dead.”

Bad Girl Sandy the Storm steals headlines from 2012 campaigns, and from Obama's bungling of Benghazi disaster.



High winds blow sea foam into the air as a pedestrian crosses Jeanette's Pier in Nags Head, N.C., on Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012, as wind and rain from Hurricane Sandy move into the area. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
This great photo was taken today at Nags Head NC as Bad Girl Sandy the Storm crept along Atlantic Seacoast and bore down on Northeastern population centers. Get snuggy, everyone! Verne Strickland 

Republican PAC expands into 4 districts (including NC/7) with $4.1 million

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / October 28, 2012

Congressional Elections: Campaigning at Home and in Washington

By Alexandra Jaffe - THE HILL  10/19/12 08:45 AM ET

Vulnerable Democrats are getting a battering from one of the main Republican political action committees working to protect the party's hold on the House, as it launches a new offense in five districts nationwide.

The Congressional Leadership Fund is targeting Rep. Lois Capps in California, Rep. Mike McIntyre in North Carolina, Rep. Kathy Hochul in New York, Rep. Betty Sutton in Ohio, and Pete Gallego in Texas.

The ads target Democrats on everything from their record on taxes to their support for the stimulus. Against McIntyre, the ad asserts that he's "voted the Pelosi line up to 90 percent of the time," and the ad running against Kathy Hochul charges that she "profited from companies outsourcing jobs and doing business with China." The Congressional Leadership Fund is launching both a Spanish and English version of the ad running against Gallego, which targets his position on energy policies and calls him extreme.

The new ads amount to an expenditure of more than $4.1 million, and they come as a part of a new, nearly $13.5 million offensive launched by the group targeting Democrats in the final weeks of the campaign.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/262955-republican-pac-expands-into-4-districts-with-41-million