Hugh Hewitt invites you!

Don't miss the gala Lincoln Day Celebration & Benefit Auction with Hugh Hewitt presented by the Linn and Benton County Republicans on Friday, February 12th! We've passed the Friday, February 5th deadline for reservations but may be able to get a few more in. Call Jo Rae Perkins immediately at (541) 928-6077. Credit cards will be accepted. Questions? Call Stella Guenther at (541) 929-5382 or Deborah Barrett at (541) 818-0171.

This will be an evening worth remembering!

Event website: Lincoln Day Celebration

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Obama's Undeniable Intelligence Should Be a Dangerous Vulnerability

TOWNHALL.COM, 2/10/2010 by Michael Medved - "In warfare and in political warfare, underestimating your opponent amounts to a terrible, often fatal mistake. That's why conservatives who deny or ignore the president's obvious intelligence imperil their own cause and prevent the emergence of an effective anti-Obama strategy. For Barack Obama, his brain power makes him dangerous but also creates a special vulnerability that his critics should exploit." Read more at Townhall.com...

Interesting, especially the last four paragraphs. --bc Read More......

Principles vs. Positions

CFIF/FREEDOM LINE. 2/5/2010 Posted by Ashton Ellis via National Review Online - The next time you hear a politician wax about the virtues of tax credits and special deals to lure in businesses, think about this home state businessman’s frustration with the practice in Michigan.

“Our legislators are busy voting on tax credits to a myriad of targeted industries, hoping that one of these ‘new-economy’ firms will save our state from collapse,” protests Bill Jackson of the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce. “Isn’t it time government puts an end to picking winners and losers and gives every Michigan job provider a ‘tax credit’?”

Indeed. The logic is undeniable. If lower taxes are good for one business, why aren’t they good for all? They are, but that isn’t the point. For progressives like Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and her colleagues in the Democratic Party, legislating through the tax code is business as usual; especially if it allows them to prop up companies and industries that align with progressive dogma of a “green” economy. In reality, the kinds of tax incentives aren’t breaks; they’re exercises in fiscal discrimination. Once again, when it comes to finance and the economy, progressives have positions, free marketers have principles. It really is that simple. Read More......

Interns wanted for Dorchester XLVI

Know anyone who would make a good Dorchester intern? Send them to: www.dorchester.org/intern/index.htm. Fifteen internships are available to students, enrolled in high school, college, or graduate schools, between the ages of 15 and 25. The interns will receive a complimentary conference registration, but will be responsible for their own travel and accommodations. Read More......

Rep. Hanna: Oregon Leads Nation in New Jobless Claims

House Republican Leader Bruce Hanna reacts to news that Oregon led the nation last week in new jobless claims

Posted by orhouserepublicans on 2/4/2010
Also see video House Republicans Open February Session Focused on Jobs, "Remonstrances" presented by Rep. Hanna and Rep. Thatcher on 2/1/2010 Read More......

Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) to Serve as House GOP Leadership Chairman

OREGON REPUBLICAN PARTY, 2/4/2010 (via email) - Tiernan says Walden Leadership Appointment well deserved and will be good for Oregon! Portland, Ore. – ORP Chairman Bob Tiernan said today, "The appointment of Congressman Greg Walden (R-OR) to serve as House GOP Leadership Chairman is a testament to Congressman Walden’s dedication and hard work on behalf of the people of Oregon and the Republican Party. I want to congratulate Congressman Walden on this well deserved appointment and commend Leader Boehner on his selection. I look forward to continue working with Congressman Walden in this new role to promote the Republican agenda to reduce wasteful government spending and promote economic prosperity."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 2/4,/2010, CONTACT: Michael Steel - Boehner Taps Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) to Serve as House GOP Leadership Chairman: Oregon Congressman Joins Republican Leadership Team, Assumes Post Previously Held by Former GOP Reps. Walker, Paxon, Portman. Read More......

House Votes to Hike Debt Limit

FOXNews.com, 1/4/2010 by Chad Pergram - Debt, Debt & More Debt: "The House of Representatives Thursday voted to raise the debt limit by $1.9 trillion. That vote raises the debt ceiling to $14.3 trillion, a new high for the amount of debt the U.S. has ever carried." Read more at Fox News...

• The Senate approved the debt limit increase in mid-January on a 60-40 party-line vote.
  
• The House vote was a close one, 217-212. All Republicans and more than 30 Democrats voted against raising the debt ceiling.

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Video: Dems turned deaf ear to Bush Admin. & McCain warnings leading to financial meltdown

(Via email): This video clearly shows that George Bush warned Congress starting in 2001 that this economic crisis was coming if something was not done to control Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But Congress refused to listen on the assurances of Congressman, Barney Frank and other leading Democrats.

Remember this when you hear "It was Bush's fault," from our current POTUS and Democrats. Read More......

WSJ: Why Chicago Loves Portland

WALL STREET JOURNAL/OPINION, 2/2/2010 (Hat tip: Linda Bartcher) - Mayor Daley has his eye on jobs from high-tax Oregon: The bright idea comes from Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who is looking to lure employers from Oregon after that state's voters approved a huge tax increase last week. The tax hike in Oregon "will help our economic development immediately. You'd better believe it," Hizzoner told the Chicago Sun Times late last week. "We'll be out in Oregon enticing corporations to relocate to Chicago." Read more at WSJ...
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WSJ: The Public-Union Ascendancy

WALL STREET JOURNAL/OPINION, 2/3/2010 - "Government union members now outnumber private for the first time. This milestone explains a lot about modern American politics, in particular the paradox that union clout with Democrats has increased even as fewer workers belong to unions overall." [Snip] "... government is the main playing field of modern unionism, which explains why the AFL-CIO and SEIU have become advocates for higher taxes and government expansion in cities, states and Washington. Unions once saw their main task as negotiating a bigger share of an individual firm's profits. Now the movement's main goal is securing a larger share of the overall private economy's wealth, which means pitting government employees against middle-class taxpayers." Read more at WSJ...

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Surrendering Internet to Foreign Powers

NEWSMAX, 1/31/2010 by Bradley A. Blakeman - Without the ingenuity of America’s brightest minds and the investment of U.S. taxpayer dollars, there would be no Internet, as we now know it today. ∴ Now, the Obama administration has moved quietly to cede control of the Web from the United States to foreign powers. Read more at Newsmax... Read More......

Debt Madness

The day after President Obama promised in his State of the Union Address to reign in federal deficits, Senate Democrats voted to raise the federal debt ceiling by an astounding $1.9 trillion. Read More......

Obama's Organizing for America (OFA) in high schools

ATLAS SHRUGS, 1/30/2010 by Pamela Geller ATLAS EXCLUSIVE: Obama Organizing in High School (Hat tip: Linda Weimer) - An Atlas reader, Chuck, has a student in the eleventh grade in an Ohio High School. Her government class passed out this propaganda recruiting paper so students could sign up as interns for Obama's Organizing for America (OFA is the former mybarackobama.com site.) ∴ Obama is using our public school system to recruit for his Alinsky-inspired private army. Organizing for America is (and I quote) recruiting in our high schools to "build on the movement that elected President Obama by empowering students across the country to help us bring about our agenda" Read more at Atlas... and check out the reading list for the internship program. Read More......

What The GOP Cannot Have Is A Failure To Communicate

HUGH HEWITT.COM/BLOG, 2/1/2010 by Hugh Hewitt - My Washington Examiner column from this morning summarizes my remarks to the House GOP retreat from Saturday morning. ∴ I complimented the Congressmen, and especially Mike Pence, for effectively engaging with the president. The display of the detailed GOP proposals was the image that won the exchange, but between now and November, the GOP will need many more such days. The message discipline from top to bottom has to increase dramatically, and the leading GOP lights have to be as on point as John Boehner was on today's Meet The Press. ("And the American people are saying 'No! Stop!'") Read more at www.hughhewitt.com... Read More......

SEIU behind anti-tea party website

AMERICAN THINKER, 1/30/2010 by Rick Moran (Hat tip: Linda Weimer) - We received numerous complaints yesterday from AT readers who were concerned about a Google Ad that bashed the tea party movement. It turns out, that the website the ad was linked to was created with funds contributed at least partly by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Read more at American Thinker... Read More......

Armey tells House GOPs: Win back the tea-partiers to win in Nov.

THE HILL, 01/30/10 by Molly K. Hooper - Dick Armey left his former House GOP colleagues on Saturday with a sobering thought: They lost the tea-party activists in 2006, now go win 'em back. ∴ The former House GOP leader told the lawmakers gathered on the third day of the issues retreat that if they worked hard, it would be possible to win back the “small-government, grass-roots conservatives.” Read more at The Hill...

Related
Washington Examiner: Hugh Hewitt: Will the Tea Party Patriots help reverse the vote? Read More......

GOP lawmakers to try to block federal funds for 9/11 prosecutions

NEWS FROM THE HILL, 01/30/2010 by Jordy Yager - Amid fears that the White House may move the terrorist trials connected with September 11, 2001, to the Washington, D.C., region, GOP lawmakers are planning to introduce legislation that would bar the use [of] federal funds for their prosecution in any U.S. civilian court. Read more at The Hill... Read More......

Tax the rich, make them pay their 'fair share'

Average annual incomes (US):

Private sector, $40,331
Public sector, $71,206

CITY JOURNAL, Winter 2005, The Real Engine of Blue America by Steven Malanga - There are no Blue states—only Blue cities, where tax eaters rule. Read More......

Climate Chief Knew of False Glacier Claims Before Copenhagen

FOXNews.com (via London Times), 1/29/2010 - Rajendra Pachauri was told that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment that the glaciers would disappear by 2035 was wrong, but he waited two months to correct it. Read more at Fox...

Sheesh! This, Climategate and the less than honest Rainforest claim! What's next? --bc Read More......

IBD: Beyond Our Means

INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY/OPINION, posted 07:05 PM ET - Health Care: The California Senate voted last Thursday to create a government-run single-payer medical care program. Do the 22 lawmakers who voted for this bill realize that the state will run out of cash before April? ∴ The state is facing a $20 billion deficit. It's bleeding money. To close the gap, Sacramento will probably cook up some brew of tax hikes, pay cuts for state workers and program cuts. ∴ Despite the deep troubles, the Senate wants to add a program that is expected to cost $200 billion a year, which, in fact, is likely far short of what the plan will actually cost. Read more at IBD...

Good grief! --bc Read More......

WSJ: Obama, Republicans Spar at House GOP Event

WALL STREET JOURNAL, 1/29/2010 BY GREG HITT - BALTIMORE—President Barack Obama sparred Friday with House Republicans in an unusual 90-minute dialogue that exemplified the political gridlock prevailing in the nation's capital. ∴ At the House Republicans' annual issues retreat, Mr. Obama, at times combative and confident, challenged Republicans to find ways to work with his administration and Democrats in Congress and set aside the rhetoric that defined much of the political debate of the past year. ∴ President Obama sparred with House Republicans over job growth, the deficit and health care Friday. But was the unusual dialog a case of talking to each other or past each other? Read more at WSJ... Read More......

Byron York: Has Obama become bored with being president?

WASHINGTON EXAMINER.COM, 1/29/2010 by Byron York, Chief Political Correspondent - This is about the time Barack Obama becomes bored with his job. ∴ He's in his second year as president, and he's discovered that even with all the powers of office, he can't do everything he wants to do, like remake America. Doing stuff is hard. In the past, prosaic work has held little appeal for Obama, and it's prompted him to think about moving on. ∴ Begin with his first serious job, as a community organizer in Chicago. Obama got a little done, but quickly became frustrated with small achievements. "He didn't see organizing making any significant changes in things," Jerry Kellman, the organizer who hired him, told me in 2008. ∴ What Obama wanted was political power, and that is what sent him to Harvard Law School. "He was constantly thinking about his path to significance and power," another organizer, Mike Kruglik, told me. "He said, 'I need to go there [Harvard] to find out more about power. How do powerful people think? What kind of networks do they have? How do they connect to each other?'" Read more at the Washington Examiner... Read More......

Audio: Rush's fatherly advice to Obama

TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I penned a message to Obama that I would like to deliver now. Because Mr. Obama, I think it's time we had a heart-to-heart talk. Let me be the father that you never had or never really knew, because I think you need some guidance. It's time to man up. It's time to grow up. That speech last night was an embarrassment. You couldn't focus, you lashed out in all directions, you refused to accept responsibility for your own actions, and you were angry.

And he was, folks! He was mad. Being president is a big job. It's a big responsibility. You wanted the position, Barack. You campaigned for it. You told the public to trust you with it, and they elected you -- and you're now president of the greatest country mankind has ever known, and yet you act like this was all coming to you, like you deserve it, that you're better than the people you are supposed to serve and that you have no tolerance for debate or dissent. That's not the way it works as president, Barack. We have a Constitution, we have checks and balances, we have separation of powers, we have states -- and most of all, we have the people. You don't get to impose your programs and policies on the nation and the people without our consent.

This is a representative republic, not a banana republic, and let me remind you: Karl Marx and Saul Alinsky are not our Founding Fathers. This is a nation built on individuality, built on liberty, free markets, and faith. Yet you, Barack, demand fidelity to a different belief system: A system that crushes individual initiative and free will. The president does not berate Supreme Court justices who are guests of the Congress and who have no ability to respond to your attacks. You've made such a mess of things, Barack, and it's time to stop deluding yourself. It's time to stop blaming others. You are delusional. You are delirious. It's time for you to assume the responsibilities of a president rather than pretending to be one.

You've driven the nation's debt over the edge. It is your responsibility to fix it now. Otherwise, our young people will have no future. You were wrong to grant terrorists constitutional rights. Even the libs in New York don't want the trial there now! You, Mr. President, are endangering the security of this nation. Now fix it! Reverse course, and [s]end the terrorists -- all of them -- back to Guantanamo Bay, where they belong. You are wrong to nationalize one industry after another from automobiles to banks. You are destroying competition and jobs. You need to stop what you were doing before millions of more families go broke from your misguided policies. It's not too late to stop this. I know you're not going to stop it because last night you said you don't quit, and I know what you mean.

You're gonna keep plugging for the same agenda, which is going to destroy this country even more -- which makes me think, Barack, that's your objective. You know, Barack, unlike most presidents you're dealing with a Congress that has super majorities in both houses, fellow Democrats. It amazes me that with all the talk about your ability to persuade and communicate, that you can't even hold your own party members together anymore. Is that Bush's fault, too? Is it is fault of the banks and the insurance companies and the lobbyists that you can't keep your own Democrat Party unified -- or is it a problem with your leadership, Barack, or lack of leadership? It's the latter, Mr. President. I'll tell you, you are not a leader. You are an agitator and an organizer, and a process guy, but you are not a leader. It is you who are doing something wrong.

The people in Virginia don't like it. The people in New Jersey don't like it. The people in Massachusetts don't like it. The people in Massachusetts and all over the country have the ability to inform themselves outside of your sycophant press corps, and they are doing so. Members of your own governing majority don't like what you are doing. I mean, this calls for some self-reflection and some circumspection. Has it occurred to you, Mr. President, even once that you're not as cool as you think you are? Has it occurred to you that you are screwing up? And if it has, are you happy about that? Has it occurred to you that you have a great deal to learn and that you need to take your own measure, or are you Mr. Perfect? Are you God-sent?

Are you The One that you've been waiting for? See, I have a little concern there may be a psychological issue at play here. I don't say this to demean you, Barack. I say it because I'm concerned. I mean, Tom Daschle was always "concerned" and I like the word. I'm concerned. You seem to have a whole lot of enemies, at least in your own mind. A partial list would include Fox News, insurance companies, banks, oil companies, the "special interests," the Supreme Court, Republicans, talk show hosts, executives, anyone or any business that earns over $250,000 a year, mortgage companies, credit card companies -- and the list goes on and on and on. You have the longest enemies list of anybody I've ever known.

These people are not your enemies, though, Barack. They are Americans. They are part of this country. They are part of what makes the nation work. You are not. You have nothing to do, and have had nothing to do, with this nation's greatness. You can't lay claim to greatness on any scale, not even rhetorical. But you have no direct relationship to the greatness of this country. You are damaging the possibility of further greatness. Nevertheless, like a bully, you continue to threaten all of these people. The Supreme Court, Big Oil, Big Pharmaceutical, Big Retail, talk show hosts, Fox News, the list goes on. You threaten anybody who does not agree with you. You try to intimidate them. You smear them. Your sycophantic media goes right along and carries your water. But this is not what presidents do.

You're supposed to lead not by threatening people but by encouraging them, by embracing them, by thanking them, by inspiring them. Most of all you don't seem to appreciate the magnificence of this nation! I know you don't. The way you've been educated about this country it's painfully obvious. You think this country is guilty, period. Guilty and unjust. You seem to think this country needs to be torn down so you can rebuild it. But you were elected to be president, not some kind of dictator. You must operate within the confines of the Constitution. You are not bigger than the law, and you are not bigger than the people. You were elected to serve the people, not dictate to them. Anyway, I'm sure this little lecture will not do you much good, particularly given the spectacle of your speech last night. You really are full of yourself. But I truly hope that this little talk does do you some good down the way, because something is going to have to change in you or we are doomed for at least the next three years. END TRANSCRIPT Read More......

U.N.'s Global Warming Report Under Fresh Attack for Rainforest Claims

FOXNews.com, 1/28/2010 by Gene J. Koprowski - [EXCERPT] The [4th] IPCC report states that "up to 40 percent of the Amazonian forests could react drastically to even a slight reduction in precipitation" -- highlighting the threat climate change poses to the Earth. The report goes on to say that "it is more probable that forests will be replaced by ecosystems ... such as tropical savannas." ∴ But it has now been revealed that the claim was based on a WWF [World Wildlife Federation] study titled "Global Review of Forest Fires," a paper barely related to the Amazon rainforest that was written "to secure essential policy reform at national and international level to provide a legislative and economic base for controlling harmful anthropogenic forest fires." Read more at FOX... Read More......

The President's comments about the Supreme Court decision

(Via email) 1/27/2010 by J. Sinclair - Last week the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional 2 U.S.C. Section 441a, which prohibited all corporate political spending. ∴ The Court did not touch 2 U.S.C. Section 441e - note the "e" - which prohibits foreign corporations from making contributions or donations of money or anything else of value to any federal, state, or local election or any political party, or any campaign ad. That part of the Code is still valid. ∴ But in the State of the Union address tonight, the president ridiculed the Supreme Court's decision, saying it "open[ed] the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections. Well I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities." ∴ That is NOT what the Supreme Court did, and the president surely knew better. When this *&!# happens, we must call it for what it is, or the people will continue to be deceived (as they were in yesterday's vote in Oregon). ∴ Here, then, is my response: if he didn't know, he's incompetent. If he did know, he's a liar. Read More......