Muslim Mafia: CAIR’s Ties to Terrorism
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, has long been accused of having ties to terrorists. Now the group may be facing its most serious charges yet.
Four Republican lawmakers, led by Rep. Sue Myrick of North Carolina, are calling for a federal investigation into CAIR. At a press conference on Capitol Hill, they cited explosive new documents contained in a new book about CAIR called “Muslim Mafia.” View video.
Rules change as Congress’ veterans depart
WASHINGTON — Congress is breaking down under the pressures of a number of modern, rapidly changing political dynamics.
Among them: the rise of hyper-partisanship magnified by today’s Internet, talk radio and cable TV ideologues; the drawing of legislative district lines to maximize partisan purity and to avoid making lawmakers have to appeal to voters of all stripes; and the passing from the scene of legislative veterans who came of age politically in the pre-technology age and who were schooled in the art of compromise.
This week’s news that veteran Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., wouldn’t seek re-election added their names to a growing roster of old-timers who once made the Capitol tick. Read More.
Myrick talks terrorism in a series on YouTube
U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick says the American people aren’t being told the truth about terrorism.
In the wake of a failed attack on a plane bound for Detroit in December, Myrick warns on two new videos that citizens haven’t been told that some people are willing to blow themselves up to hurt Americans, that jihadists exist who want to destroy western democracies, that extremists are being radicalized through the Internet.
Myrick, a Charlotte Republican, has launched an ongoing YouTube video series. In the first video, called “Beyond Terrorism: The Whole Story,” she warns that extremists may live in our midst, perhaps even in our government. View video.
GOP: Response to Reid remark shows double standard
WASHINGTON — Republicans on Sunday accused Democrats of a double standard by accepting Sen. Harry Reid’s apology for racial remarks about Barack Obama instead of demanding Reid’s ouster as majority leader.
In a private conversation reported in a new book, Reid described Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign as a “light-skinned” African-American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”
Reid, D-Nev., apologized to Obama on Saturday, and the president issued a statement accepting the apology and saying the matter was closed. Read more.
Soles decides not to seek another term
TABOR CITY – For the past 42 years state Senator R.C. Soles (D-Pender, Columbus, Brunswick) has had a seat in Raleigh in the General Assembly but all that will change this year as the state’s longest serving member has decided not to seek another term.
Sen. Soles’ announcement came last week in a press release where he stated, “After careful consideration I have decided not to seek re-election to the Senate.”
For the past several months Sen. Soles, 72, has been under the investigation by the SBI in regards to the shooting of a former client at his home outside Tabor City in August, and allegations a few weeks earlier that he tried to molest a teenager 12 years earlier. Read more.
Stimulus money sent to phantom ZIP codes in North Carolina
RALEIGH — The federal government sent 2.5 million stimulus dollars to North Carolina ZIP codes that don’t exist.
The information came from the government’s own Web site — Recovery.gov. The site was set up to track the distribution of the $787 billion made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
It lists 479 North Carolina ZIP codes as the destination of $4.2 billion in grants, contracts, and loans. Four of those ZIP codes — 24858, 28389, 23854, and 27600 — are nowhere to be found on U.S. Postal Service maps. In the four ZIP codes, the Web site reports, the $2.5 million created 0.5 jobs all told. Read more.
N.C. Rep. Sandra Spaulding Hughes won’t seek re-election
N.C. Rep. Sandra Spaulding Hughes won’t seek re-election in House District 18 this year, she said in a news release.
Hughes, a retired teacher and consultant, cited “personal and family reasons” for deciding not to try to go back to Raleigh for another term. She said public service is an important part of her life and that she appreciates the support and trust of residents in the district, which includes parts of New Hanover and Pender counties. Read more.
N.J. to vote on bill to let illegal immigrants pay in-state tuition
(CNN) — Both houses of the New Jersey legislature plan to vote Monday on a controversial bill backed by Democrats that would qualify illegal immigrants for in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.
Supporters hope to pass the measure before Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine leaves office. Gov.-elect Christopher J. Christie, a Republican who takes office January 19, has said he opposes the bill.
On Thursday, a Senate vote on the legislation was postponed.
After hours of heated debate January 4, the bill passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee, 7-4, and the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, 8-6. Both votes were along party lines.
To qualify under the bill, New Jersey high school graduates who are illegal immigrants must be enrolled at a public university or college and file an affidavit with the institution stating that they have applied for legal immigration status or will do so when eligible. Read more.
Obama Team Has Too Many Vacancies, Report Says
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has filled key government jobs about as fast as the Bush administration, but too many top positions — about 40 percent — remain vacant nearly one year after Obama took office, says a report being released Wednesday.
While the study by the Partnership for Public Service praised Obama for a well-organized transition last year, it also knocked the president’s team and Congress for filling top posts too slowly. Among them: the Transportation Security Administration and the Customs and Border Protection agency — two agencies tasked with keeping terrorists off planes, a key area of failure in the attempted Christmas Day airliner attack. Read more.
Small Business Owners End 2009 Downbeat
The sentiment of U.S. small business owners stalled in December, hurt by weak sales and worries about government policies, according to a survey released on Tuesday.
The National Federation of Independent Business said its small business optimism index fell for the second straight month, dropping 0.3 point to 88.0 in December.
“Continued weak sales and threatening domestic policies from Washington have left small business owners with little to be optimistic about in the coming year,” said the federation’s chief economist, William Dunkelberg, in a statement. Read more.
The Man Who’ll Kill “Obamacare?
(Weekly Standard) Ask a typical 50-year-old Republican running for office when and why he became a Republican, and you’ll likely hear a nostalgic story related to Ronald Reagan. Ask GOP Senate candidate Scott Brown, and he replies, “I’d really have to check that far back. I really don’t have the time, nor do I care” to do “all this self-analysis. “He says he’s “fiscally more in tune with the Republicans,”but hastens to add that “recently Republicans have kind of lost their way” on such matters.
Welcome to Massachusetts, where Democrats outnumber Republicans three to one and where state senator Brown, who’s making a bid for Ted Kennedy’s seat in the January 19 special election, would rather point out similarities between himself and JFK and sometimes even Barack Obama. Republicans and Tea Party activists are nonetheless flooding the phone banks and knocking on doors for Brown. “The pro-life movement is really excited,” says John Rowe of Massachusetts Citizens for Life. Yet Brown declares on his website that abortion is a decision that should be made by a “woman in consultation with her doctor, “i.e., he’s (moderately) pro-choice. Read more.
Time For A Change? Obama’s Mistakes Say So
I’ve been focusing on how President Obama’s radical ideology and programs are destroying America, as we know it. (“Wake Up Before Obama Destroys America” and “Obama and His Aides Dismantling U.S.” (Dec. 13 and Dec. 19, 2009, respectively) in The Bulletin). Recent developments, however, have suggested that America is not only in danger from Mr. Obama’s ideology and programs, but also from the sheer incompetence that Mr. Obama and his appointees have brought to the White House and that the Democratic Congress has brought to recent legislative misadventures. After the Christmas day terrorist attack, Mr. Obama and his Homeland Security Secretary demonstrated gross incompetence beyond belief and beyond imagination. This means America faces a deadly cocktail of gross incompetence combined with radical ideology, running contrary to American values and America. Read more.
Onine advertisers: Boucher putting Internet
infrastructure at risk
The online advertising industry’s top lobbyist blasted Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) for “misunderstanding” how interactive media work, saying his proposed bill to protect consumers’ online privacy is horribly misguided. Interactive Advertising Bureau president and CEO Randall Rothenbergsaid in an op-ed that such a bill will stunt the growth of the online media market and put 3.1 million jobs at risk. “Advertising is the engine of the consumer economy, and fundamentally the only way American shoppers can compare prices, discover products, and learn about new stores and sales in their neighborhood – and the sole way businesses can get this information to them,” Rothenberg wrote. “Yet the Congressman wants to legislate its elimination.” Read more.
Senator’s Company Receives a Slice of $25 Million Pie
Basnight Construction was awarded subcontracted work on part of the new $25 million Jennette’s Pier project currently under construction in Nags Head. The amount of money the construction company is being paid and the scope of work being performed are currently undisclosed.
President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight (D-Dare) was the leading advocate to push the multimillion dollar project through the General Assembly in 2009. Due to his efforts, House Bill 628, “Aquarium Satellite Areas Funding” was able to fly through the Legislature and receive unanimous approval from lawmakers. Later attempts to strip funding for the pier were blocked through procedural motions by House and Senate leadership. Read more.
Critics Question $705,000 For Art
View video.
Perdue Silent on Unfunded Medicaid Mandate
RALEIGH — In July, Gov. Bev Perdue said she would oppose a federal health care bill that placed additional financial burdens on the states. “We are all hungry for a solution,” she said, “but the absolute dealbreaker for me as governor is a federal plan that shifts costs to the states.” Six months later, Congress is finalizing a bill that would do just that by expanding Medicaid — the government health program for the poor. The federal government and the states share the costs of Medicaid, so any new obligation eventually would be borne, at least in part, by state taxpayers. And so far, Perdue has neither opposed the legislation nor stated any strong objections to the financial toll the bills being negotiated in Washington would take on North Carolina residents. Read more.
Democrats’ Rocky Mountain high takes a tumble in Colorado
Barack Obama claimed the party’s presidential nomination at a football stadium here, in a state where Democrats had won the governorship, both houses of the state Legislature, and were about to pick up both U.S. Senate seats.
Now President Obama and his party’s approval ratings in the West are lower than elsewhere in the country. Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. abruptly announced last week that he would not seek reelection. The state’s junior senator is, like Ritter, trailing badly in the polls. Analysts think Democrats could even lose their majorities in the Legislature.
“To lose this state at this moment, almost across the board, is a pretty profound statement that that party is in deep trouble,” said Floyd Ciruli, a Denver-based independent pollster. Read more.
Brown Takes Lead Over Coakley in Massachusetts Race, Poll Shows
Republican candidate Scott Brown has taken the lead over Democrat Martha Coakley in the race for the Massachusetts Senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy, the latest poll shows.
The Suffolk University/7News poll showed Brown leading Coakley by 4 percentage points. Brown had 50 percent, Coakley had 46 percent and independent candidate Joseph Kennedy, who is not related to the late senator, had 3 percent.
The race is still within the 4.4-point margin of error, but David Paleologos, the university’s political research center director, said in a statement that the survey shows Brown has “surged dramatically.” Read more.
NC state Sen Charlie Albertson won run this year, adding to list of Democratic departures
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Another long-serving Democrat in the North Carolina Senate isn’t seeking re-election this year.
Budget-writer Sen. Charlie Albertson said Friday he won’t seek another term so he can spend more time with his family.
The 78-year-old Duplin County Democrat said he’s tired after being in the Legislature for 22 years and wants to see if there’s something else out there that interests him. Read more.
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