Chuck Norris robocalls for Newt Gingrich
By CAITLIN MCDEVITT | Chuck Norris has recorded a robocall for Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, encouraging voters in Alabama and Mississippi to back the former House speaker. "As my wife Jean and I watched the GOP debate, …
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Ron Paul Is Iowa’s Sixth Poll Leader; Mitt Romney Reaches for Tea
Article by AnthonyWilliams
Mitt Romney — in a move to grow his grass-roots base and peel off votes from a fading Newt Gingrich — found new support in a national tea party straw poll Sunday. But Gingrich and Michele Bachmann remain the movement’s favorites.
In other Ron Paul News, the candidate for the Republican nomination for the 2012 election continues to gain popularity in Iowa, with a new Public Policy Polling survey showing the Texas congressman taking the lead there with 23 percent.
Paul’s first-place showing makes him the sixth candidate to lead the field in Iowa. At various times, Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Gingrich and Romney have topped polls in the Hawkeye State.
The loser of the week appeared to be Gingrich, who fell behind Romney in the latest PPP Iowa survey. Romney garnered 20 percent, while Gingrich had 14 percent. Bachmann, Perry and Rick Santorum were tied at 10 percent, and Huntsman trailed with 4 percent.
Romney, who remains stuck in the mid-20s nationally, reached out to the right on Sunday night, appearing on a “Tele-Forum” hosted by Tea Party Patriots, a group that claims to be the largest tea organization in the country.
The former Massachusetts governor has avoided most tea party events, instead focusing on picking up 2012 election endorsements from the GOP establishment. But with Gingrich in trouble, Romney’s camp saw the Tea Party Patriots’ event as an opportunity to branch out.
TPP leader Jenny Beth Martin said “more than 22,000 people” listened in to the two-hour teleconference that included question-and-answer sessions with Romney, Bachmann, Gingrich and Santorum.
A straw poll afterward showed Gingrich garnering 31 percent of the vote and Bachmann receiving 28 percent.
Romney placed third with 20 percent, but that’s more support than he generally gets from voters who identify themselves as tea party members.
By contrast, Perry, once considered a tea party favorite, received only 2 percent in the poll.
The TPP straw vote and the PPP Iowa poll illustrate deep splits the Republican field.
While Paul jumped into the lead of the PPP’s Iowa survey, the libertarian-leaning congressman received just 3 percent of the Tea Party Patriots’ straw poll Sunday night.
Even worse, 64 percent said they were “not at all enthusiastic” about Paul as the party’s 2012 election nominee. That percentage was only exceeded by Huntsman’s 65 percent.
Bachmann, meantime, nosed out Gingrich in the “enthusiasm” category, with 35 percent of straw poll voters saying they were “very enthusiastic” about Bachmann. Gingrich stood at 34 percent.
Bachmann stepped up her attacks on the former House speaker Sunday, saying he “needs to come clean on his involvement with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”
“He said [Sunday] on Face the Nation that he needed to better explain what he did to earn the $ 1.6 million he took from Freddie Mac, and then was still not forthcoming on the influence peddling he did to keep Freddie afloat at a time when I was trying to send Freddie Mac, the epicenter of the financial meltdown, into receivership,” Bachmann said.
The congresswoman also hammered Gingrich’s shifting positions on immigration.
“While he wants us to believe that he would only send those home who broke the law less than 25 years ago, he has recently said that he would extend amnesty to all illegal workers currently in the United States,” Bachmann said.
The original article by Kenric Ward was published in Sunshine State News on Dec. 19, 2011. Sunshine State News focuses on the relationship between politics and business in Florida, speaking to an audience of lawmakers, lobbyists, business and opinion leaders, and all Floridians who expect their leaders to make common-sense decisions. SSN fills a void as the only Florida news outfit that believes free-market, less-government solutions will address the problems challenging our state.
For more Ron Paul News or coverage of the 2012 election, visit Sunshine State News. Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
Tea Party Leaders Endorse Gingrich: High Risk, Low Reward
In throwing their support to Newt Gingrich for the 2012 election, a group of Florida tea party leaders risk throwing away their clout and credibility, observers of the movement say.
“The Florida Tea Party Coalition With Newt” endorsed the former House speaker on Thursday, saying they would “help defeat Massachusetts Moderate Mitt Romney and then President Barack Obama.”
“It is clear to me and many others in the tea party movement that Newt is the Reagan conservative that America needs,” said Peter Lee, founder and director of the East Side Tea Party of Orlando.
Lee was joined by statewide tea leader Patricia Sullivan, who said, “I stand with Newt because I know he will stand up to the establishment and insist on fiscal reforms.”
In all, more than 30 Florida-based tea activists signed on to the coalition. The geographically diverse representatives ranged from the Panhandle to Broward County.
Separately, the TEA Party of Florida, the only political tea party registered with the state Division of Elections, endorsed Gingrich.
Chairman John Long said Gingrich “articulated direct and serious steps designed to reduce spending, cut our deficits, pay down our national debt, and return liberty to our citizens in doing so.”
But the 2012 presidential election endorsements may be too little and too late for the former House speaker, whose poll numbers in Florida have slumped amid two lackluster debate performances on Monday and Thursday.
Meanwhile, Gingrich continues to mystify and anger conservatives as he panders on illegal immigration and rationalizes his $ 1.6 million contract with Freddie Mac while adopting populist poses that resemble left-wing class warfare.
Still, some tea party leaders, fearing the growing inevitability of Romney as the GOP 2012 presidential election nominee, felt they had to take a stand before Tuesday’s Florida primary. Romney is perceived as the “establishment candidate” and widely distrusted by tea party groups, who have received little or no attention from the former Massachusetts governor.
Billie Tucker, leader of the First Coast Tea Party in Jacksonville, is not endorsing any candidates, but acknowledges Gingrich has strong appeal in the movement.
Gingrich won 43 percent of the 322 votes cast in a First Coast straw poll on Jan. 17. Ron Paul received 26 percent, Romney garnered 19 percent and Rick Santorum netted 10 percent.
Gingrich’s ties to the tea party movement are deep and long-lasting.
In March 2009, when tea parties were just beginning to be organized, the Georgian pledged to use his prodigious mailing list at American Solutions to publicize the inaugural Tax Day event.
He posted a link on every website he owned, sent emails to everyone in his database and produced a video while publicly announcing his support of the tea party movement — long before radio talkers like Glenn Beck jumped on the bandwagon.
Sullivan, who chairs a statewide tea group called the Tea Party Network, is repaying the favor by mobilizing her Lake County-based “Patriot Army” on Gingrich’s behalf.
“Once I decided to support Newt, I got to work and took a group of Patriot Army members to South Carolina where we walked precincts for three days, then waved signs at the polls,” Sullivan said.
Then she returned to Florida, where she set up a Gingrich rally at Mount Dora.
“Time for talk is over, we need to be about action. That is why I actively support the candidate I believe will stand up to the establishment and rein in spending,” she said.
Explaining the mechanics of the coalition endorsement, Sullivan said, “The leaders and members will share their views with their tea party and actively work to get out the vote for Newt.”
“I don’t believe another candidate has a coalition of tea party leaders willing to get out and work for their candidate, but I could be wrong.”
Sullivan, who previously supported Herman Cain, said the Tea Party Network is not involved in the endorsement.
Some say the tea endorsement is a risky move, coming after other tea party favorites — Cain, Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry — each exited the race amid controversy or anemic polls.
“If Gingrich loses, the tea party is over,” predicted one veteran tea party activist from South Florida. “If he loses, what does that show you about the clout of the tea party?”
The activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, cast his early ballot for Ron Paul this week. “He stands for what we stood for in 2009.”
A former executive with the Florida TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party doubts that the coalition backing will help Gingrich much.
“Far more influential was the endorsement of the reconstituted TEA Party of Florida. That tea party has a much-desired email list of over 100,000 opt-in participants. And, unlike the self-pronounced ‘tea party coalition,’ it has a track record of actually receiving votes for candidates,” said Doug Guetzloe, an Orlando-based political consultant who has returned to the Republican Party.
“The ‘coalition tea party’ backing is one of the last acts of an inflated collection of egos,” Guetzloe said. “Their endorsement will make no difference.”
Some tea activists steered clear of endorsing out of concern that they might run afoul of election laws or tax codes. Others simply disagree with Gingrich politically.
Gingrich’s infamous couch talk with Nancy Pelosi about “global warming” and his dismissal of Rep. Paul Ryan’s entitlement reforms as “right-wing social engineering” fly in the face of conservative orthodoxy.
Illustrating the fractious character of the tea movement, Steve Vernon, vice president of Tea Party Manatee, signed on to the Gingrich coalition, even though Rick Santorum won a straw poll conducted by his group before the South Carolina primary.
Vernon said he and others in his Gulf Coast tea party consider Santorum a “bigger government guy” who repeatedly voted for earmarks as a two-term Pennsylvania senator.
“Some say he can’t win,” Vernon added.
“We could have a totally different outcome this week. It’s still up in the air,” Vernon said, emphasizing that the Gingrich tea coalition is made up of individuals, and not binding on groups.
Several large tea organizations remain unaligned. In addition to Tucker’s First Coast Tea Party, sizable tea and patriot organizations in Naples, Englewood and Venice are absent from the coalition. The combined membership of these groups is estimated at 15,000.
Still, Tucker does not dispute or begrudge the coalition’s action.
“They have chosen to stand up for their guy and that is their decision,” she said.
Danita Kilcullen is less sanguine about the process. The chairwoman of Tea Party Fort Lauderdale said she is “appalled” at the endorsements for Gingrich.
“The tea party, of all people, should be aware of his globalist, progressive agenda. He would be my absolute last pick.”
Beyond that, Kilcullen said endorsements can create unnecessary “splits and hard feelings” within tea parties.
“Our group overwhelmingly supports Santorum, but it’s not right to endorse,” she said.
Tea Party Express, a national organization, is holding off on a presidential endorsement, but that could change before Tuesday.
“The movement is coalescing around Gingrich,” Amy Kremer, president of Tea Party Express, told Sunshine State News. She said former Rep. J.C. Watts would be standing in for Gingrich at the group’s rally in Jacksonville on Saturday.
Kevin Wagner, a political science professor at Florida Atlantic University, said Gingrich is a good fit on at least one level.
“Mitt Romney has never been popular with tea party groups, so it is fairly predictable that they would move toward the most viable non-Romney,” Wagner noted.
“With that said, Newt Gingrich has a confrontational style that taps into the anger that many tea party members have. He is a natural candidate on an emotional level, if not a policy one, for the tea party supporters.”
The original article by Kenric Ward was published in Sunshine State News on Jan. 28, 2012. Sunshine State News focuses on the relationship between politics and business in Florida, speaking to an audience of lawmakers, lobbyists, business and opinion leaders, and all Floridians who expect their leaders to make common-sense decisions. SSN fills a void as the only Florida news outfit that believes free-market, less-government solutions will address the problems challenging our state.
For more Florida news or coverage of the 2012 election, visit Sunshine State News.
Newt Professional For Network Inventory
In the past, Network Inventory has been a contentious issue for IT professionals and meant visiting each computer or buying large, expensive PC Audit tools. NEWT Professional make jobs like PC Audits, Computer Audits, PC Inventory, Software Asset Management and general Network Management a few clicks away. NEWT Professional by Komodo Labs was developed over 5 years ago and since then it’s been through several improvements, including 50 times faster scanning by scanning 100 PCs in under 5 minutes, all while keeping bandwidth very low. While most agentless methods have security issues related to misconfiguration of WMI or remote registry, NEWT Pro by-passes these, requiring fewer settings to be correct.
When choosing a Network Management software product, it’s important to be aware of the two major methods such products use to collect data. Some products use an agent, others are agentless. Often when using an agent, it is installed on each system the software is meant to scan, and then must be manually updated. On the other side, agentless methods often encounter security errors with remote PCs that require the user to visit those machines to correct the problem. Using advanced Network Inventory techniques, NEWT Professional avoids the security setbacks that can halt agentless Software Inventory in its tracks. NEWT Pro also prevents the need to manually install software on each scanned machine, often required with agent methods. This has reduced auditing time to minutes as opposed to hours or days with competing Network Inventory Solutions. Whether you need Software Asset Management or Network Inventory, NEWT Professional fills the need.
NEWT audits common hardware and software configuration data such as CPU type, computer and monitor serial numbers, memory, operating system, product keys, software inventory, attached storage, printers, etc., but also provides more detailed information not seen in other products. It also gives more detailed information, including CPU temperature, hard drive type (IDE vs SATA/SATA-II) and even the brand and serial number of each stick of RAM. These are impossible to detect by other means. Even the video monitor’s display type shown accurately as LCD or CRT, a feature unavailable in most competing products. This can be invaluable for video monitor upgrades from CRT to LCD, for example.
A free 25 node edition is a Free Download on the Komodo Labs website, almost identical to the purchased version. This means smaller MSPs (Managed Service Providers) and other organizations with 25 computers or less can use NEWT Professional free of charge – without expiration. Komodo Labs believes smaller organizations deserve to have a free product for Network Scanning.
Visit http://www.komodolabs.com for more information.
Neyda Tayner is a technical and promotional writer, specializing in IT software promotion. http://www.komodolabs.com/
Pacific Grove, CA : Mitt Romney Announces Plan To Raise Medicare Eligibility Age : View From A Private Duty Caregiver
Article by Richard Kuehn
Pacific Grove, CA : Mitt Romney Announces Plan To Raise Medicare Eligibility Age : View From A Private Duty Caregiver Serving Carmel, Carmel Valley, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Gilroy, Gonzalez, Greenfield, Hollister, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, San Juan Bautista, Seaside And Soledad California
Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney announced yesterday that he wants to increase the eligibility age for Medicare by one month each year, and take part of the government health care system private. When Medicare was introduced in 1965, the average life expectancy was 70, and it is now 80. President Obama had previously supported raising the Medicare eligibility age, but with 10,000 baby boomers hitting 65 every day, the idea was deemed too unpopular. Romney said, if elected, seniors would have a choice between a fee-for-service government health pan and a new option whereby they could purchase private insurance with the costs partially subsidized by the government. The plan would not go into effect until 2022. “A few common-sense reforms are going to ensure that we can make good on our promises to our seniors and we can also save Social Security and Medicare for the future generations,” said Romney in a speech at the Detroit Economic Club. It will be interesting to see the reaction from the huge population of baby boomers. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204778604577243700978051764.htmlAbout Richard Kuehn & Family inHome Caregiving of Monterey:After more than a decade of caregiving, both in a professional environment and for a 97 year old family member I was dissatisfied with service from local caregiving agencies. I became convinced of the need for a service which provides very personal assistance to elderly and founded Family inHome Caregiving serving the Monterey Peninsula. Please visit my blog where I talk about important senior issues at:http://www.familyinhomecaregiving.com/Blog
About Richard Kuehn & Family inHome Caregiving of Monterey:After more than a decade of caregiving, both in a professional environment and for a 97 year old family member I was dissatisfied with service from local caregiving agencies. I became convinced of the need for a service which provides very personal assistance to the elderly and founded Family inHome Caregiving serving the Monterey Peninsula. Please visit my blog where I talk about important senior issues at:http://www.familyinhomecaregiving.com/Blog
About Richard Kuehn & Family inHome Caregiving of Monterey:After more than a decade of caregiving, both in a professional environment and for a 97 year old family member I was dissatisfied with service from local caregiving agencies. I became convinced of the need for a service which provides very personal assistance to the elderly and founded Family inHome Caregiving serving the Monterey Peninsula. Please visit my blog where I talk about important senior issues at:http://www.familyinhomecaregiving.com/Blog
About Richard Kuehn & Family inHome Caregiving of Monterey:After more than a decade of caregiving, both in a professional environment and for a 97 year old family member I was dissatisfied with service from local caregiving agencies. I became convinced of the need for a service which provides very personal assistance to the elderly and founded Family inHome Caregiving serving the Monterey Peninsula. Please visit my blog where I talk about important senior issues at:http://www.familyinhomecaregiving.com/Blog
I Guess I Will Be The One To Say It. Newt, You Are A Liar!
Article by J.J. Jackson
Just like when I hear fingernails on a chalkboard, I cringe every time Newt Gingrich opens his mouth to spout off about how he helped balance the budget during the 1990s. It is even more annoying when he claims to have done so not just once, but four times. Do I get annoyed because Newt had nothing to do with the balanced budgets of the 1990′s? Nope. It is because there never was a ‘balanced budget’ at all going back to the Republican Revolution of 1994.
It is not only Newt who loves to tell this Big Lie of a balanced budget. Former President Clinton likes to bloviate about the phantom ‘balanced budget’ as well since it supposedly happened under his tenure. Many other politicians who were in Washington at the time also try desperately to hitch their horses to this myth as they try to bolster their bona fides as being fiscally conservative.
I know that it is taken as a matter of faith that there was a balanced budget under Newt and the Republican Congresses that existed during Bill Clinton’s presidency. But the facts, as they say, are stubborn things. Back in 2005, the last time the myth of not only a balanced budget but actually a phantom budget surplus gained life, I wrote “The Surplus Fallacy”[1]. Boy, did I get a lot hate mail on that article. Liberals accused me of making up the numbers because they were desperate to defend Bill Clinton’s legacy, have him remembered for something other than using an intern as a humidor and being Newt Gingrich’s whipping boy. So-called conservatives accused me of being a closet liberal trying to discredit the greatest achievement of the Republican Party in recent times. No one ever actually provided any evidence to dispute the numbers however. How could they? The numbers are what the numbers are. And now with Newt and his annoyingly shrill PAC bringing renewed attention to the myth of the budget being supposedly balanced at one time in recent memory, I think it is time to revisit the facts. I will not let them be slaughtered for political expedience upon some partisan altar.
Those who claim that at some point after 1994 the United States was actually running a budget surplus use a lot of not so cute tricks to accomplish this. Sometimes what they do is look at only portions of the whole budget. Sometimes they ignore non-discretionary spending. Other times they ignore interest on the debt completely. They spin themselves sick trying to justify how they can exclude all too real expenditures from the budget in order to make it appear to have been balanced on paper. But ask yourself this, in the real world where you and I live, can you really get away with not counting all debits and expenses when determining how much money you have left over? Can you ignore $ 30,000 on your credit card and just pretend it does not exist? Of course you cannot.
Another sly trick these people use is that they look at some select data points within an actual fiscal year. They see that on February 2, 2001 the debt owed by the United States was $ 5.692 trillion and that back on February 2, 2000 it was $ 5.702 trillion. Thus they wondrously proclaim that they had “balanced the budget”. Not only that, but they also claim to have “run a surplus”. Even sites like PolitiFact.com [2] lie and claim that the there were not only balanced budgets but mythical “surpluses”, although not as many as Newt claims. God only knows where they are getting their numbers from.
The BIG problem with that methodology though is that the fiscal year of the United States runs from October 1st of one year through September 30th of the next. When you look at the entire fiscal year you see that the debt owed by the federal government actually increased despite these not very covert accounting gimmicks. When I point this out, the first response is shock. Where did these numbers come from? Well, they come right from the Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Public Debt [3]. Yep, these are not my numbers. These are the government’s own numbers.
Here are the deficits by year which the United States racked up from 1994 through 2006[4]. To calculate these numbers you just simply subtract the later year’s debt from the previous year’s debt.
From 10/1/1993 through 9/30/1994: $ 286,410,336,579.85From 10/1/1994 through 9/30/1995: $ 281,232,990,696.07From 10/1/1995 through 9/30/1996: $ 250,828,038,426.34From 10/1/1996 through 9/30/1997: $ 188,335,072,261.61From 10/1/1997 through 9/30/1998: $ 113,046,997,500.28From 10/1/1998 through 9/30/1999: $ 130,077,892,735.81From 10/1/1999 through 9/30/2000: $ 17,907,308,253.43From 10/1/2000 through 9/30/2001: $ 133,285,202,313.20From 10/1/2001 through 9/30/2002: $ 420,772,553,397.10From 10/1/2002 through 9/30/2003: $ 554,995,097,146.46From 10/1/2003 through 9/30/2004: $ 595,821,633,586.70From 10/1/2004 through 9/30/2005: $ 553,656,965,393.18From 10/1/2005 through 9/30/2006: $ 574,264,237,491.73
Now, who wants to show me where in there, anywhere, is a “balanced budget” or a “budget surplus”? How is red ink a balanced anything or a surplus something else? I know the myth of the balanced budget plays well. I know Newt and Clinton love to tell it. But it is still a myth. And when you tell this lie you are a liar plain and simple. You might as well be trying to court the Big Foot vote with something this transparently untrue.
[1] http://www.libertyreborn.com/2005/05/22/the-surplus-fallacy/[2] http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/dec/28/winning-our-future/ad-credits-newt-gingrich-balancing-budget/[3] http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/[4] http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt.htm
J.J. Jackson is the Pittsburgh Conservative Examiner for Examiner.com and owner of American Conservative Daily. He is also the lead designer for Right Things Conservative Political T-shirts and his weekly articles can be red at Liberty Reborn.
How Mitt Romney Won Florida
Article by Jeremy Frankel
Florida is the state that makes or breaks a candidate. Since 1972, the winner of the Florida primary has become the party’s nominee. In 2012, this winner was Mitt Romney. Romney won Tuesday’s race in a landslide, receiving 47 percent, with Newt Gingrich coming in second place with 32 percent. Rick Santorum and Ron Paul each received 13 and 7 percent, respectively. The results are a major setback for Gingrich, especially after winning in South Carolina last week, ironically a state that also shares the reputation of choosing the nominee. He skyrocketed in early Florida polls, as well. What reversed Newt’s momentum? I believe one too many negative ads shot him in both feet. Last week, a Gingrich ad called Romney the “the most anti-immigrant” candidate in the race. While Romney expectedly defended himself against the harsh attack, Marco Rubio, Florida’s senator and a Tea Party favorite, defended Romney, calling the ad “inaccurate and inflammatory.” Newt’s attack on Romney astounded many. Not only was it harsh, but also incredibly vague. When questioned about the ad last Thursday by CNN debate moderator Wolf Blitzer, Gingrich responded that Romney desires to round up and deport illegal families. While the ad may not seem like a big deal on its own, this incident is part of a larger issue. Before the primaries began, while still a marginal candidate, Gingrich ran on the notion that his was a “positive campaign” and the main objective was to defeat Barack Obama. However, the optimism disappeared as soon as he saw Romney as a threat, and Newt started berating him with characteristically left-wing attacks, from Romney’s record at Bain Capital to his apparent desire to mercilessly deport illegals. Newt’s latest rant was clearly to pander to Florida’s large Latino population, and a harbinger to the fact that he will say whatever it takes to win. He believed that the Hispanic vote would be awarded to the candidate who is lax and “compassionate” on illegal immigration. By painting Romney as the opposite, Gingrich hoped to find favor in the Latino community. Rubio proves that Hispanics at large do not feel this way. The senator takes pride in the fact that his parents legally emigrated from Cuba and worked hard for their earnings, and that their son, who came from a poor, working-class Latino family, is now one of the most popular Republican politicians. His story personifies the American dream, not to mention the conservative message of individual liberty and prosperity at its best. The Hispanic community doesn’t stand for politicians who believe that tolerance of illegal immigration will win its vote. It confirmed that on Florida by choosing Romney over Gingrich, 54 to 28 percent.The American public is growing tired of politicians doing whatever it takes to win, no matter the outcome of their actions. The country wants a president that cares more about the country than his own achievement. It needs leadership, pride, and integrity.
Jeremy Frankel is a writer for Quantum Networks and The Talk Radio News Service.
Ayes for Newt!
Article by Gene Lalor
If “maximum covert operations” and other strategies failed there would be no other choice. First, however, the United States should consider “taking out their scientists” and “breaking up their systems, all of it covertly, all of it deniable.”
The speaker of those words was addressing the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran which could threaten not only the State of Israel with obliteration but the entire Mideast with instability, and the United States with chaos.
The speaker was obviously not President Barack Hussein Obama who has demonstrated a distinct affinity for all things Islamic and who has waffled for months on the monumental issue of dealing with a nuclear, Muslim Iran.
The speaker was Newton “Newt” Gingrich, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, inspiration for the 1994 “Contract with America, and current candidate for the Republican nomination for the presidency of the United States. He was responding to a question posed at Saturday night’s presidential debate in Spartansberg, South Carolina.
Newt doesn’t mince words, publicly articulating what all presidents practice but few admit to, that covert actions are sometimes necessary when the security of the country is involved, even when those actions require the pre-emptive elimination of threatening emplacements, and people, all done with plausible deniability.
As America slips into a second-rate economic status while China and India are gaining world ascendency, as our international influence wanes and pipsqueak nations such as Iran dare to bully us, as we wallow in a Carteresque malaise and our president embraces the anarchic Occupy Wall Street movement, we need a leader like Newt Gingrich.
Admittedly, Newt wasn’t my first choice for various reasons, anymore than he was the first choice of most Republican conservatives but compromise is the life blood of successful politics. Michelle Bachmann has made more gaffes than Obama, Herman Cain is mired in more sex scandals than Penn State, Rick Perry isn’t ready for political prime time, Rick Santorum never had a chance, and Marco Rubio isn’t running,
Mitt Romney was never in the conservative running which leaves us with the man who carries a ton of personal baggage-and tons more knowledge, expertise, and experience than any other GOP hopeful: Newt Gingrich.
Gingrich has outshone all the others in the debates and stands the best chance to stand up to and outshine our current president when they face off next fall.
Rick Perry has said that America needs a good president, not a good debater. In fact, we need both, starting with a competent, skilled, knowledgeable debater to impress the American people with his competency, skill, and knowledge and reveal the many liabilities of our Community Organizer in Chief.
More importantly, we need a Commander in Chief who will not cater to special interests, who will re-assert America’s distinctive place in history and the world, who will re-build our economy on the capitalist principles which made us great, who will re-establish this nation as a “shining city upon a hill.”
The GOP nomination process is far from over and Newt Gingrich is no Ronald Reagan. Still, despite any shortcomings, he may be the last, best hope we have and for any Republicans, for any conservatives, for any Americans to reject him on the bases of irrelevant baggage would be tantamount to slicing off our national nose because Obama’s nose is more attractive.
In any event, we can survive without noses. It’s questionable whether we can survive four more years of Barack Hussein Obama.
The Latest is a Bad Plan of Mitt Romney
Article by Karen
The latest is a bad plan of Mitt Romney, partial privatization of VHA or Veteran’s Health Administration. There is no uniformity in American health care. The payment and delivery structure is like that of Canada while other features are Swiss and British; some are akin to the dreams of the conservatives - an unregulated market.
The result is that there is sufficient proof about what works and what does not. It is inevitable that politicians like the Republicans would like to scrap the former and promote that which doesn’t work. The latest is a bad plan of Mitt Romney that he announced on Veteran’s Day - partial privatization of VHA or Veteran’s Health Administration.
Perhaps Romney and many others in his boat are not aware that the VHA policy has been a mega success that offers significant lessons for reforming health in the future.
There are many who still think that the health care of the veterans is founded on the terrible conditions that were prevailed twenty years previously. But during the time of Clinton as president the VHA was revamped. It was followed by an amazing combination of increasing quality and effective cost control.
Innumerable surveys have noted that the VHA provides much better care than what the majority of other Americans get even though the agency has kept cost rises well below those of Medicare and private health insurers. Moreover the VHA is showing the way to innovations that are cost effective by the use of digital medical records.
What is the secret of this success? The system is well knit - it provides the necessary health care while paying for the same. Thus it is immune from unhealthy incentives that happen when doctors as well as the hospitals pocket profits from costly tests and other procedures; often the latter do not make sense.
Since the VHA beneficiaries are in the system for long term, the agency has a strong motive to focus on prevention - something that the private insurers fail to do because their customers flit around. Despite this Romney thinks that the giving of vouchers to veterans for spending on private insurance firms would perform better somehow.
The Republicans have a penchant for vouchers. Earlier in 2011 Rep. Paul Ryan introduced a programme to convert into voucher system, Medicare. Romney too thinks that competition in the private sector would reduce costs. But facts indicate otherwise not only in America but across the world.
Karen Anne, has been working on ForeclosureListings.com studying the foreclosures market, helping buyers on the finer points of Elgin Foreclosures for Sale. Try to visit ForeclosureListings.com and find all related information about Foreclosure Listings.
Romney wins in Northern Marianas caucus
Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich got 3 percent each on the main island of Saipan. Romney was considered the favorite. His son Matt and wife Laurie visited Saipan, and he was endorsed by Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, chairman of the island's Republican Party.
Read more on Boston.com