Florida Lt. Gov. Quits; Tied to Firm under Investigation

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Florida's lieutenant governor has resigned because of her ties to an Internet cafe company that is now under federal investigation.

Jennifer Carroll's resignation was announced Wednesday, one day after she gave her resignation letter to Gov. Rick Scott. His chief of staff, Adam Hollingsworth, says her resignation was spurred by an investigation into the Allied Veterans of the World, which was once represented by Carroll.

Officials from that nonprofit Internet cafe company were recently arrested on racketeering charges. The owner was arrested Tuesday in connection to allegations that he made $290 million after supplying illegal gambling software in Florida and claiming the games' proceeds would benefit a veterans group.

Authorities also interviewed Carroll.

Carroll's ties to the company were questioned when she was in the Legislature when she proposed a bill that would benefit Internet cafes.

A 'Dream Ticket' straight form hell

Hillary-Michelle dream ticket in works?

'Time for the glass ceiling of the last old boys club to be firmly shattered'

by Joe Kovacs / WND

Will Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama be a dream ticket for the Democratic Party in 2016?

Now that the 2012 election cycle is history, political junkies are already looking ahead to 2016, and reports indicate a buzz growing for a potential Democratic “dream” ticket featuring Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama.

“All due respect for President Obama and Vice President Biden, but that would truly be a dream team for America,” said former Clinton spokeswoman Karen Finney, according to the Washington Examiner.

“Both women are proven effective leaders who’ve raise children, so dealing with Congress would be a snap!”

Democratic strategist Chris Lehane told the paper, “More than anything else, this reflects the growing awareness that it is time for the glass ceiling of the last old boys club to be firmly shattered.”

There are already bumper stickers in the marketplace with messages such as “2016-Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama,” and “Hillary-Michelle 2016 First First Lady Ticket For President,” and Cafe Press reports a 60% hike in sales of the Hillary-Michelle sticker from December to March, with the largest jump in March.

Some have suggested putting Mrs. Obama at the top of the ticket and having Mrs. Clinton run for VP, especially after Michelle announced the Best Picture Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards.

Among them is NBC late-night TV host Jimmy Fallon, who last month told Michelle Obama on his show, “I’ve said it here first. Dream team: Michelle and Hillary, ’16. What do you think?”

“You know, I have my eye actually on another job,” Mrs. Obama responded. “You know I hear that when Jay Leno retires, that ‘The Tonight Show’ position is gonna be open and I’m thinking about putting my hat in the ring.”

As WND reported in 2009, an online poll by CNN had viewers overwhelmingly saying Michelle Obama should never run for president.

The question specifically asked: “Should Michelle Obama run for president in 2020?”

With 200,000 votes tallied in the unscientific poll, 83 percent of respondents answered no, with a ratio of over 165,000 against the idea to only 35,000 in favor.

William J. O’Reilly, an iReporter for CNN, drew a parallel in his video editorial between the Obamas and the “Camelot” years of John and Jackie Kennedy, but points out that Michelle is no Jackie.

“While Michelle Obama is received as not only a fashion icon and also presidential arm candy – as was Jackie Kennedy – there is a difference,” said O’Reilly. “Michelle Obama, with her bearing, with her intelligence, with her degrees from Princeton and from Harvard Law School – added to that, Hillary Clinton’s precedent in seeking and gaining political office – mark my words, Michelle Obama will run for president.”

According to the Washington Examiner, pollster John Zogby questioned if a Hillary-Michelle ticket would sell.

“Hillary and Michelle are both very popular and accomplished, but this smacks of too much celebrity and is a tad too dynastic for American voters,” he said. “An interesting reality show, yes. A ticket, no.”

Op-ed: 
The Republican budget plan...sound but will Democrats accept it

By: Diane Sori

And so it continues...yesterday, Republicans presented their new version of Paul Ryan's original 'Path to Prosperity'...a revised tax-and-spend fiscal blueprint that Ryan said would eliminate the deficit within a decade by cutting $4.6 trillion in federal expenses, would achieve balance between what the government spends and what it collects in revenues by 2023 without raising taxes, and would help eliminate what is holding up a major deficit-reduction deal...that is if the Democrats would stop with their partisan 'anything the Republicans propose is bad' bickering. 

Saying this plan "ends cronyism, eliminates waste, fraud, and abuse and returns the federal government to its proper sphere of activity," House Budget Committee Chair Ryan believes this plan will pass the Republican-controlled House even though the plan is non-binding and does NOT have the force of law.

Basically this is a matching spending with income plan that scales back government spending to 3.5% per year as opposed to Obama's spending of 5+% per year.  And don't scoff at the 1.5 % difference for in real money that translates into billions of dollars, and with the budget deficits now surpassing $1 trillion annually that is a major savings on a national debt that now stands at nearly $16.7 trillion.

And you have to love this plan as it includes both the repeal of the dreaded ObamaCare...or as it it really should be called...ObamaTax...thus saving $1.8 trillion in expenses, saves $931 billion from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ending, and saves $249 billion from the discretionary spending category that funds the military and programs ranging from education to national parks, while leaving savings in place from the automatic spending cuts that began on January 1^st of this year.

This Republican plan also calls for major cuts in welfare programs for the poor including cutting $756 billion from Medicaid and cutting food stamps to those who are NOT truly in need of them along with a transfer of power to the states to determine how said Medicaid and other funds should be spent on said programs, and cutting the increases in the Pell college-tuition grants that were due to go into effect, because as Ryan said, “Are we helping people?  Are we getting people out of poverty?”  And the answer to that is a resounding NO as these programs are just keeping people tied to the government for their existence instead of teaching them how to help themselves.

The plan also imposes cuts to so-called 'discretionary spending' beyond this year’s...dare I say the s-word...sequestration. It sets aside $1.14 trillion for such spending for the 2014 fiscal year, which amounts to rolling back that portion of the budget to below 2008 levels and even less when inflation is taken into account.

And here's a biggie...the Republican Plan calls for an increase (gasp) in defense spending over current law, along with an across the board 25% corporate tax rate, and a requirement that the president and Congress both offer proposals for the long-term solvency of Social Security.

Also, and apparently unheard of to Democrats (insert sarcasm here), this plan includes the concept of 'balancing the budget.'  “We believe that we owe the American people a balanced budget,” said Paul Ryan. And how right he is as this president seems to think that 'We the People' are his personal bottomless money bag.  And while some economists do NOT believe a balanced budget is all that important, Ryan and other Republicans feel a balanced budget is a “common-sense goal” while “an unbalanced budget is a sign of overreach.”

“When a government does too much, it doesn’t do anything well” Ryan said, and I couldn't agree more, for as anyone who understands basic economics 101 knows you simply cannot spend money that you just don’t have.  This translates into not allowing the government to spend more than it collects in revenue, which this Republican plan sets at 19.1% of the gross domestic product.

Sadly, we all know this plan stands no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate (Prince Harry even said the Republican proposal "relies on accounting that's creative at best and fraudulent at worst") or of being passed or even taken seriously by Obama, but it does bring to the forefront that the budget must be balanced, as that is what 'We the People' want.

Thankfully, a law passed earlier this year says that lawmakers must approve a budget by the April deadline or their salaries would be held in escrow until a budget was passed or the current Congress ended in January 2015. So we know both parties will have to finally work together and get this done or poor babies...NO paycheck for you.  Money talks and NOT getting paid talks the loudest.