Wasserman Schultz Goes on the Attack Against Karen Harrington

By Javier Manjarres

Although it’s unlikely that Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz would have publicly acknowledged that she was doing so, Wasserman Schultz has in fact been paying very close attention to Republican Karen Harrington, her general election opponent in November.

Now, the battle for the 23rd congressional district is effectively on.

Just moments ago, Wasserman Schultz released out a  fundraising letter to her donor base that referred to Harrington as a “Tea Party extremist” and lumped her in with in Republican vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan and presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Harrington has been a thorn in Wasserman Schultz’ side this entire election cycle, as she has repeatedly called on the Congresswoman to release her income tax returns.  Immediately after her primary victory on Tuesday, Harrington challenged Wasserman Schultz to five debates.

Wasserman Schultz also cited her concern that “there are more than 200,000 new people in our district. That’s 200,000 potential supporters who don’t know who I am, or what I stand for.”

This fairly early “warning letter” to her base is very revealing as to Wasserman Schultz’ concerns about her re-election chances.

The majority of the two million dollars that Wasserman Schultz has raised comes from either PAC’s or lobbyists, whereas the $700,000 that Harrington has raised-minus about $15K from PAC’s- has come from individual donors.

Wasserman Schultz may very well be worried about her prospects for victory, as the newly drawn congressional district she is seeking re-election in contains a larger number of registered Republicans and Independents (combined) than Democrats.

You can visit Karen Harrington’s website here- www.karenforcongress.com

Here is Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz’s fundraising letter-


 

Obama’s Intimidation Tactics

By Floyd and Mary Beth Brown / The Western Center for Journalism
 

Barack Obama lives in an alternate reality. An example is his declaration to Entertainment Tonight this week, when he said without smirk or hesitation: “And I don’t think you or anybody who’s been watching the campaign would say that in any way we have tried to divide the country. We’ve always tried to bring the country together.”

Let’s put his words to a reality check.

In October 2010, Obama met with Eddie Sotelo of the Spanish radio giant, Univision.  He spoke on a number of issues of importance to Hispanics and then added: “We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us.

This is, to any doubters, a direct quote. Google it!  It’s not taken out of context; it’s not a slash-and-paste job; it’s not a hoax or urban legend…sadly.  When Obama made these remarks, he was speaking directly to Hispanic voters about the course they should take together with him in the upcoming election.

Belligerent words and intimidation tactics started almost the day he took office.

Early in his first term, Obama put out a call to the youth of America and told them he needed their help.  He needed them to be strong and loyal and “turn in” anybody who wasn’t shouting “yes we can” to a “fundamentally changed America.”  The president’s team went all in on the initiative.  A website was launched.  Social media leaders were mobilized. Young and old people were “authorized” to listen in on conversations with family members, friends at coffeehouses, and strangers on the subway. And if anything “suspect” was overheard, these newly deputized enforcement officers were to send an email to flag@whitehouse.gov and rest easy again knowing the White House would take appropriate action.

In 1930s Germany, this role was carried out by youth known as brown-shirts, and it didn’t end well. In 1920s Chicago, it was how the mob kept an iron-fisted control over the neighborhoods.  Most everyone knows this.  And if Obama’s true believers had any sense of the historical parallels, they surely would have been appalled and declined the offer.

But they weren’t, and didn’t. How many emails made their way to the White House from unquestioning loyalists?  We suspect the number was substantial, but the bigger question was: How could this happen?

How could Obama do something that was, on its face, so nefarious?

Didn’t he know—instinctively know for certain—that every American would be deeply alarmed by a citizen-spying operation and view it as evil?  This operation was so divisive, alarms were sounded by both conservative and liberals pundits.

Obama started taking heat inside the Washington beltway—and he reconsidered.  Maybe his change of heart was triggered by a letter from Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who wrote to Obama saying: “I urge you to cease this program immediately…. I can only imagine the level of justifiable outrage had your predecessor asked Americans to forward emails critical of his policies to the White House.”

Whatever the reason, Obama soon shuttered the “snitch squad.”  White House spokesman Robert Gibbs was left to do his best “three monkeys” pantomime in the press briefing room, hoping the press corps would laugh off the whole matter.  For the most part, they did.

Indeed, this little preview of the Obama M.O. went out with a whimper and is mostly forgotten today.  But more than one level-headed commentator was prompted to question the character of the man so recently elected.  Peter Wehner of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, had this to say:

The Obama White House is showing a fondness for intimidation tactics that might work well in the wards of Chicago but those don’t have a place in the most important and revered political institution in America. To see these impulses manifest themselves so early in Obama’s presidency, and given all that he has said to the contrary, is rather startling. The danger is that as the pressures mount and the battles accrue and the political heat intensifies, these impulses will grow stronger, the constraints on them will grow weaker, and the voices of caution and reason will continue to be ignored. If that should come to pass — if what we are seeing now is only a preview of coming attractions — then the Obama administration, and this nation, will pay a very high price.

And we have.

Obama's Medicare Fear Mongering Will Drown in the Facts 

By: David Limbaugh  / Townhall.com

Analysts may be correct that the presidential election won't primarily turn on entitlements reform, but by choosing Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney can, contrary to conventional wisdom, make it a winning issue and lay the foundation for a reform mandate when he wins.

Besides, the economy and entitlements are wholly integrated issues: We cannot ultimately fix the economy long term without entitlement reform, and we can't balance the budget or retire the debt without a growing economy.

Democrats appear jubilant about the Ryan pick, believing his close association with entitlement reform provides an opening for them to scare seniors into thinking they'll lose Medicare and Social Security benefits.

But what they haven't factored in, or are pretending to deny, is that Ryan's presence on the ticket ensures that Romney and Ryan will tackle the entitlements issue head on and that Democrats will not have the luxury of merely fear mongering. They'll have to deal with the substance of these issues, and this is a battle they cannot win, because the facts are their foe. Let's examine these facts briefly.

No one can reasonably deny that Medicare is headed for insolvency, and that Medicare's insolvency, if not rectified, will lead to the federal government's insolvency. President Obama has admitted that Medicare is on an unsustainable course and that no amount of tax increases can fix it. The Congressional Budget Office tells us that Medicare spending has increased fivefold in the past 42 years, dramatically more than all other categories of federal spending.

Short of severe price controls ordered and enforced by Obamacare's Independent Payment Advisory Board, which common sense and the history of such controls demonstrate will not work to reduce costs absent rationing and radical reductions in access to care, Obama has no plan to restructure entitlements. Only a restructuring of the program can work.

The Ryan-Wyden plan (Sen. Ron Wyden is a Democrat), which Romney has essentially embraced, is a type of hybrid system that includes market reforms while guaranteeing comprehensive coverage for Medicare beneficiaries. That is, the law would provide guaranteed coverage, but the costs for such coverage would not be unilaterally determined by the government and thus open-ended, out of control and manageable only by rationing boards (resulting in reduced access to care), but by a competitive process.

Under the current system (and under Obamacare), the government sets the price (the reimbursement), and the absence of competition guarantees spiraling costs and/or rationing. Under Ryan-Wyden, a bidding process among insurance providers, including a federal insurance provider, would determine the government's premium-support payment to Medicare beneficiaries and would ensure that their out-of-pocket costs won't exceed those under the current system unless they choose a more expensive option. This bidding process -- competitive by definition -- would contain or reduce costs.

Recent studies have shown that such competition works. The Medicare Advantage program, which was far less ambitious than Ryan-Wyden, produced a 9 percent cost reduction. The savings under Ryan-Wyden should be substantially greater.

Team Obama has no plan of its own and no credible rebuttal for the Ryan-Wyden model, so they have begun a vigorous disinformation campaign to distort the Romney-endorsed plan.

They say his plan would end Medicare as we know it. To the contrary, it is the only plan on the table that has a chance of saving Medicare from insolvency. Those now 55 and older would receive Medicare benefits as they currently exist. As for all others, they would receive the same type of comprehensive coverage (though the costs of that coverage would be reduced through market forces), and the older, sicker and poorer would receive preferential treatment.
 

In fact, it is Obama, not the GOP, who has assaulted Medicare, robbing it of $716 billion to shore up Obamacare. Obama can't deny that he's pilfered this money from Medicare, but speciously argues that it is a cut to health care providers, not Medicare beneficiaries. But cuts to health care providers always result in a reduction to access. Indeed, Obama's own Medicare actuaries have warned that these cuts could result in providers discontinuing their participation in Medicare.

Obama also fraudulently claims that Ryan's original plan didn't put Obamacare's stolen $716 billion back into the Medicare fund, either. But Ryan's plan never took that money out in the first place because it involved a full repeal of Obamacare. Romney, for his part, clearly doesn't contemplate robbing the Medicare fund.

Obama doesn't believe in market reforms and so has no ideas other than to impose top-down cost controls, which cannot work. His re-election guarantees the insolvency of Medicare -- and ultimately of the entire federal government.

The Romney-Ryan plan preserves benefits for current and future seniors and would drive costs down through competition, thereby shoring up Medicare's solvency and averting the principal driver of national insolvency. This is a debate Obama can't win on the merits, so expect increasing demagoguery, fear and stridency. But the truth will prevail.

The Bucks Never Stop with President What's-His-Name 

By: John Ransom  / Townhall Daily

There’s a millstone hanging around the neck of the US economy.

And his name is Barack Obama.

Blame Bush if you want, but post-9/11, Bush’s policies got the country moving in the right direction after a hard right hook.

Blame Bush if you must, but the “blame Bush” mantra doesn’t change some critical facts:

You see, George Bush isn’t running for president of the United States. Barack Obama is; and voters seem to be aware of this fact, to the dismay, no doubt, of the White House.

“A New York Times/CBS News poll released Thursday,” wrote the Washington Times in April of this year, “didn’t ask voters about blame for the economy, but whether they thought an Obama re-election would improve their financial situations. Thirty-eight percent said it would have no effect; 33 percent said it would make their situations worse. Only 26 percent said a second Obama term would improve their economic situations.

---

You know why they say this? Because while the buck is supposed to stop on the president’s desk, the buck- and the bucks- never seems to stop with Obama.

Every time Obama blames Bush, he just reinforces how irrelevant President Scholarship has become.

President Invest-in-Clean-Energy has pretty much had it his own way since his coronation. He spent the money he asked for. If he wanted more, he had two years to ask for it, and Congress would have given it to him.

And despite brave talk from President High-Speed-Rail, he was better at writing books than he has been at being president. Or at least he hired better people to write books for him. 

Ah, yes, this is just another thing Sarah Palin was right about that the mainstream media couldn’t sniff out for themselves. I guess going to all those colleges worked out better for Palin than having say, one journalism degree from one school and working at one job- journalism- your whole life.

Betcha five bucks that one year under a Palin presidency- or a Bachmann, a Perry, a Romney, or a [shudder, shudder, shudder] (Hillary) Clinton presidency- that the unemployment arrow would be pointing the right way. 

Only an ideologue, tied to academic leftist-dogma, could be proud of such a disastrous record as President-Eat-My-Peas-and-Like-it. And apparently he’s pursued all these goals on purpose.

And here’s the most damning thing about President Class-Warrior: The only people making money so far are the stock traders. Every time I turn around, the stock market is threatening to make new two year highs, companies are reporting record earnings and even evil banks are reporting profits. Things are going swimmingly on Wall Street thanks to zero interest rates and the certainty that the Federal Reserve will provide enough liquidity to make the seas rise along with commodity prices.

Oh, and did I tell you President Fundraiser broke a presidential fundraising record?

The man who claimed he’d raise a billion bucks for his reelection bid won’t make that lofty figure, but he’ll own the record for the number of fundraisers given by a president.

“In the first 12 days of June,” reports ABCNews, “Obama has attended 21 fundraising events.  All told, he has now attended 163 re-election fundraisers for his campaign and the Democratic Party – almost double the number George W. Bush attended in his entire first term (86) and more than any other president in history.”

And why doesn’t it surprise me that President Balanced-Budget raised $300 million and spent a record $204 million so far this cycle?

Spending money recklessly is the only thing President War on Women knows how to do. Imagine what Obama would do with himself if the bucks ever stopped.  

The people who are left out in the cold are the vast middle-class, and it includes people who make more than $250,000 a year. People like that, under the right president, can create jobs for the rest of us better than President Tax-the-Rich can with the entire power of the federal government at his disposal.

Whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican or a swing voter- I’m talking about voters here- President I-Killed-Osama-bin-Laden-Personally, either created this economy on purpose or created it by accident.
It’s time to pick one.

And let the buck stop where it may.

Wasserman Schultz “Believes In Obama’s Failed, Un-American Policies” 

By Javier Manjarres

 
Fresh off her primary victory on Tuesday, Republican congressional nominee Karen Harrington stepped up her criticism of her general election opponent Debbie Wasserman Schultz by framing the election as a very clear choice for voters.

During a conference call that she participated in with conservative bloggers, Harrington again called on Wasserman Schultz to release her returns and challenged her to five town-hall style debates.

Florida’s 23rd congressional district leans Democrat, but even as many political consultants think this race is a long shot for Harrington, others are also saying that an upset is possible.  Given Obama’s unpopularity, a poor economy, and an incumbent congresswoman who’s preoccupied with traveling across the country to shill for a failed agenda, it may result in a perfect political storm of Independents and crossover votes from Democrats to get Harrington over the finish line. 

Floridians, as well as ‘all’ Americans have a very clear choice this November.

They will have the opportunity to vote for a small business owner, who believes in less government, lower taxes, and the idea that America is exceptional, or someone who believes in President Obama’s failed un-American policies that have crippled the American way of life by overburdening Americans with higher taxes, uncontrolled gov’t spending, and the idea that the United States is better off being a welfare state.- Karen Harrington

Team Obama Offers Romney a Deal: Release 5 Years of Tax Returns and We’ll (Kind of) Drop It

by Becket Adams / The Blaze

Barack Obama’s re-election campaign kept up pressure against Republican rival Mitt Romney on Friday, challenging the former Massachusetts governor to release at least five years of tax returns.

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina made the tax-disclosure challenge to Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades in a letter Friday morning. Messina said he was taking the step because Romney “apparently fears the more he offers, the more our campaign will demand that he provide.”

Here’s the full text of the Obama letter to Romney [via CBS’ Mark Knoller]:

Dear Matt:
I am writing to ask again that the Governor release multiple years of tax returns, but also to make an offer that should address his concerns about the additional disclosures. Governor Romney apparently fears that the more he offers, the more our campaign will demand that he provide. So I am prepared to provide assurances on just that point: if the Governor will release five years of returns, I commit in turn that we will not criticize him for not releasing more — neither in ads nor in other public communications or commentary for the rest of the campaign.

This request for the release of five years, covering the complete returns for 2007-2012, is surely not unreasonable. Other Presidential candidates have released more, including the Governor’s father who provided 12 years of returns. In the Governor’s case, a five year release would appropriately span all the years that he has been a candidate for President. It would also help answer outstanding questions raised by the one return he has released to date, such as the range in the effective rates paid, the foreign accounts maintained, the foreign investments made, and the types of tax shelters used.

To provide these five years, the Governor would have to release only three more sets of returns in addition to the 2010 return he has released and the 2011 return he has pledged to provide. And, I repeat, the Governor and his campaign can expect in return that we will refrain from questioning whether he has released enough or pressing for more.

I look forward to your reply.
Jim Messina
Obama for America Campaign Manager

In other words, release more tax returns and we’ll stop criticizing you for not releasing more (and more) tax returns. Notice there‘s no commitment not to criticize what’s in the tax returns.

The Romney camp fired back quickly. Here’s the full text of their response [again, via Knoller]:

Hey Jim,

Thanks for the note.

It is clear that President Obama wants nothing more than to talk about Governor Romney’s tax returns instead of the issues that matter to voters, like putting Americans back to work, fixing the economy and reining in spending.

If Governor Romney’s tax returns are the core message of your campaign, there will be ample time for President Obama to discuss them over the next 81 days.

In the meantime, Governor Romney will continue to lay out his plans for a stronger middle class, to save Medicare, to put work back into welfare, and help the 23 million Americans struggling to find work in the Obama economy.

See you in Denver.

Thanks,
Matt Rhoades
Romney for President
Campaign Manager

Romney, as some of you may already know, made headlines yesterday when he told reporters he’s never paid less than 13 percent of his income in taxes during the past decade. The presumed Republican presidential candidate said he has also given generously to charity and that, including those contributions, he’s given up more than 20 percent of his income annually.

Aides later said Romney meant to say 13.9 percent, the amount he already disclosed for his 2010 federal return.

Dear Patriot, Here's what's going on in Florida: Allen West has been forced by redistricting to run in a brand new congressional district. He has drawn a very, very tough and well-funded opponent. Crazed leftist activists are mobilizing across America to help defeat Congressman Allen West. Millions in contributions from left-wing super donors are pouring into his district. Nancy Pelosi is even personally campaigning against this conservative superstar. And the most recent public poll says Allen West is in big trouble. Please make an urgent donation of $15, $20, $25, $50, $100, $250 or whatever you can afford to help Conservative StrikeForce PAC's emergency campaign to reelect Allen West. Allen West is now an underdog for reelection. That's why Conservative StrikeForce is mobilizing for this man. And we need your help. NOW! We need to raise $17,257 in the next three days to begin our grassroots campaign to save Allen West. While most conservatives have been focused on retaking the Senate and electing Mitt Romney, Nancy Pelosi has been hard at work behind the scenes organizing and funding a massive campaign to defeat Congressman West. She DESPISES Allen West and will do anything she can to defeat him. She has recruited George Soros, the leftist billionaire, to fund an unprecedented wave of attack ads. She has urged every left-wing group in the nation to help defeat this conservative hero. And she is personally attacking Allen West in one of the most vicious campaigns I have ever seen. Frankly, it isn't surprising that Allen West's liberal opponent, Patrick Murphy, has the momentum and has drawn even with West in the polls. The conservative tea-party grassroots must now wake up and get involved. And the Conservative StrikeForce PAC is getting involved in a BIG way!  Our emergency effort will provide Congressman West with the additional campaign firepower he will need if he is to win a second term in Congress. We are working overtime right now to assemble a top-notch voter contact and get-out-the vote program for his district. Our goal is to identify and turn out conservative voters and counter the massive left-wing operation that's been unleashed on Congressman West.  This is a major, emergency grassroots effort. And I desperately need your help to get it off the ground. I absolutely must raise $17,257 in the next seventy-two hours. You see, the liberal independent PACs have a head start on us in this race. We need to work overtime to catch up.  That's why I must raise this $17,257 in the next three days. We need to do a full voter analysis of Allen West's district. We need to draw up initial media plans for any ads we might need to run. We need to assemble phone lists and neighborhood walk plans. And we need to get started on all these tasks right now. We can't wait even a single week to launch this campaign.  This truly is an emergency. Allen West needs our help and he needs it NOW. Please help us save Allan West. Make the most generous contribution you possibly can. Thank you in advance for your help. For America, Dennis Whitfield Chairman, Conservative StrikeForce PAC Not authorized by any candidate or candidates committee. Contributions are not deductable as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.

Op-ed:

I’m in Facebook jail again and you won’t believe why

By: Diane Sori

Guess what...this blogger is in Facebook jail yet again with 5 more days to go until I’m paroled.  And why this time...because in one of my personal photo albums called, ‘This Is Islam’ I had a photograph of children who were brutally slaughtered by jihadists for no other reason than for being Christians.  The children were clothed and some covered with a blue tarp but at the very bottom right hand corner, half cut out of the picture, was a child who appears not to have clothes on and was not covered by the tarp. But only half a body showed in the picture.

This photo has been in my album for months but now all of a sudden it's objectionable enough for obviously a muslim or muslim sympathizer to set their ire in motion so much so that they felt compelled to report me, resulting in my 7 day banning. 

It didn't bother them that innocent children were slaughtered...shows you the mindset of these barbarians and their supporters doesn't it.  And it shows you the warped ideologies a faction of people on Facebook have.

Now the photo in question has been all over the news...in newspapers, on TV, and on the internet with NO problem at all, yet my small copy of it, buried in a personal photo album, has the ‘powers that be’ so upset that they banned me.  Guess we know whose side Facebook is on.

Children were brutally slaughtered by the enemy simply for being Christian children...this is something the world needs to see, know about, and NOT forget.  We are at war with a brutal, barbaric enemy and this is who Facebook is protected by banning me from posting or commenting.  And what’s worse is that I did NOT post the photo on anyone’s site but in one of my personal photo albums on my personal page.

And like I said, this photo has been in the album for months.  This really gives new meaning to not only the premise of censorship but also crosses over into what I believe is a First Amendment violation as I put NO comment with the photograph at all.  Remember, the only speech banned by the First Amendment is speech which incites violence or the overthrow of our government, and I posted NO words at all with the photograph or with any photographs in that album.

I wonder if the person who originally posted the photograph, the person who I copied it from was banned also or was that distinction strictly reserved for me because of what I do to spread the truth about Obama and islam.

So what was the fuss about...I strongly believe it was because I had put something vehemently anti-muslim in my album, and because we have a president who not only is a muslim but one whose administration sides with his muslim brethren against this country every chance they get.  And let’s NOT forget Barack Hussein Obama himself, a man who travels the world apologizing for our country; a man who bows down to our enemies...something NO American president has ever done.

Hey Obama...FYI...American presidents bow down to NO one!!!

The powers that be at Facebook are in the pocket of Obama (and of course George Soros), and will continue to ban us on ‘the other side’ for minor infractions, for NO infractions, or for made up infractions at their whim and will, just because we obviously are against Obama and his muslim brethren.

And mark my words that the nearer we get to November the worse it will get.  Obama and crew, including the hierarchy at Facebook, know who we are and they will do everything in their power to stop our conservative message from getting out.  Our love of this country scares them; our love of our Constitution scares them; our belief in the one true living God scares them; and our willingness to challenge them every step of the way scares them the most for our numbers are growing every day as more and more people are wising up to just what might happen to this country and our freedoms if Barack Hussein Obama gets to serve another term as president.

So while Facebook might silence this blogger temporarily again, I will be back in 5 days to continue spreading the truth about Barack Hussein Obama, his administration, and the enemy known as islam.  I love this country too much not to.

As always, November 6^th can’t come fast enough.