GOP to Tea Party Miller - defeated O'Donnell - defeated Angle - defeated Religion of Peace? What has Dan Lungren done to earn your vote? 3rd Congressional District gas price watch: Remember the Contract with America?  Neither does Dan... $4.17 gallon "Hey Dan, thanks for bailing out my friends on Wall Street!" Norquist sides with Khalid Mohammed and against New Yorkers!!!! Three "so called" conservative leaders support transfer of Gitmo detainees to Illinois! See the whole "Be Nice To Terrorists Club" document: Click Here and Click Here See what they are defending here:   Religion of Peace?

Payroll tax cut splinters GOP Tax loving Republicans see tax cut as bad policy By JAKE SHERMAN and MANU RAJU, Politico Republicans, once again, face a defining choice less than a month before the payroll tax holiday expires. Should they extend the tax break for workers and blunt President Barack Obama’s campaign plan to tag them as a band of out-of-touch, intransigent do-nothings? Or should they stiffen their collective spine and end a tax cut that many of them consider fundamentally bad policy? It’s a dilemma that’s splitting the party and threatening to give leadership another bout of migraines. But the split in strategy could have repercussions beyond the likelihood of another Capitol Hill drama in the heat of campaign season. It has senior Republicans on the Hill more pessimistic about the prospect of an agreement — especially as a House-Senate conference committee struggles to bridge the partisan divide. The intraparty strife isn’t new. In December, the majority of Senate Republicans voted against a leadership-approved plan by Nevada Sen. Dean Heller that would have extended the payroll holiday for a year and paid for it with cuts to the federal workforce. The Republican way...all Americans benefit from the government Just call him Tax-Hike Mike By GERRY SHIELDS, New York Post Pay up, America. Mayor Bloomberg took his call for the expiration of the Bush tax cuts to the national stage yesterday, saying all Americans — not just the wealthy — should pay to get the federal government out of its fiscal hole. “We are all in this together,” Bloomberg said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We should all pony up and help close the deficit.” He also called on elected officials to end rhetoric that he said is creating “class warfare.” Hizzoner disagreed with President Obama, who has called for higher taxes only on the very wealthy. “If you only raise taxes on the rich, you don’t get that much money,” Bloomberg, a billionaire himself, insisted. “The only way you get $4 trillion — which is half the deficit that we need to close — is if you make sure the Bush tax cuts go away for everybody.” He explained that the rich do pay their share — “but the bottom line is there aren’t many of them.” He added that all Americans benefit from the government. At the White House: In Afghan War, Officer Becomes a Whistle-Blower “We do expect — and the men who do the living, fighting and dying deserve — to have our leaders tell us the truth about what’s going on” By SCOTT SHANE, New York Times On his second yearlong deployment to Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis traveled 9,000 miles, patrolled with American troops in eight provinces and returned in October of last year with a fervent conviction that the war was going disastrously and that senior military leaders had not leveled with the American public. Since enlisting in the Army in 1985, he said, he had repeatedly seen top commanders falsely dress up a dismal situation. But this time, he would not let it rest. And then, late last month, Colonel Davis, 48, began an unusual one-man campaign of military truth-telling. He wrote two reports, one unclassified and the other classified, summarizing his observations on the candor gap with respect to Afghanistan. He briefed four members of Congress and a dozen staff members, spoke with a reporter for The New York Times, sent his reports to the Defense Department’s inspector general — and only then informed his chain of command that he had done so. “How many more men must die in support of a mission that is not succeeding?“ Colonel Davis asks in an article summarizing his views titled “Truth, Lies and Afghanistan: How Military Leaders Have Let Us Down.” It was published online Sunday in The Armed Forces Journal, the nation’s oldest independent periodical on military affairs. “No one expects our leaders to always have a successful plan,” he says in the article. “But we do expect — and the men who do the living, fighting and dying deserve — to have our leaders tell us the truth about what’s going on.” On Capitol Hill: The budget rematch The bell for Round Two of the fight between President Obama and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is about to ring By Erik Wasson and Molly K. Hooper, The Hill The bell for Round Two of the fight between President Obama and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is about to ring. Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, was bloodied in the first round after his proposal to revamp Medicare became a campaign poster for Democrats. Obama, who skirted major proposals to reform Medicare and Social Security in his own budget last year, invited Ryan to a speech and then ripped him from the stage, saying the proposal would “end Medicare as we know it.” Ryan’s plan soon became a campaign theme that Democrats credited with handing them a special election victory in upstate New York. One year later, Ryan is showing he can adjust after taking a punch, which would be a good thing, as the president is going to present his fiscal 2013 budget next Monday. The Wisconsin Republican has partnered with Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.) on a new proposal that could inoculate Republicans from last year’s political hits. Instead of replacing Medicare with a program offering seniors subsidies to buy private health insurance, his new proposal preserves traditional Medicare as a choice. Ryan isn’t saying whether the proposal will definitely be a part of his new budget, but in an interview with The Hill he suggested it, saying it might be the best way after the election to foster a bipartisan compromise to revamp Medicare. Campaign and election news: Move over robo-calls, states sell email addresses for campaigns to reach voters By Kathleen Foster, Fox News If your email inbox starts overflowing with messages from political campaigns this election season, it could be because your state sold you out. A Fox News study has found 19 states plus the District of Columbia, now ask for an email address on voter registration cards. In nine of those states, email addresses from the cards are then sold to political parties, organizing groups, lawmakers and campaigns who can use them to send unsolicited emails. If it were a Viagra ad, it be considered a crime in some states. But a political message, that's all perfectly legal. RINO not doing so well... Poll: Obama over 50% vs. Mitt Romney By MJ LEE, Politico President Barack Obama holds a clear lead over Mitt Romney in a hypothetical general election match-up, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Among all Americans, Obama leads Romney 52 to 43 percent, whereas among registered voters, the presidents has a narrower edge over Romney, 51 to 45 percent. This is the first time that Obama has more than 50 percent of the votes in a match-up against Romney among all Americans since July, when the president led the GOP candidate, 51 to 44 percent. But the president has progress to make in instilling economic confidence in Americans – asked which candidate can be trusted to do a better job in handling the economy, 48 percent of the general population picked Romney over 45 percent that picked Obama. The Republican frontrunner also fared better job creation, narrowly beating Obama 47 to 45 percent, as well as the handling of the federal budget and deficit, 51 to 41 percent. It is the first time that the president has topped 50 percent in a match-up against Romney among registered voters. In Colorado, 'anybody but Obama' may not be good enough Though disappointment in Obama was widespread, so are negative opinions of Romney and Gingrich By Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times As the rancorous contest for the Republican presidential nomination spreads across the nation's heartland, the leading candidates have begun to turn off swing voters, a setback in the party's quest to unseat President Obama. Independents, the dominant political force in Colorado and other swing states, have been warming to Obama in recent weeks while souring on the Republican Party's top potential challengers, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, polls show. Here in Broomfield, a bellwether Denver suburb, conversations with independents last week laid bare a shift in campaign dynamics that does not bode well for the Republicans vying to unseat the Democratic president. Though disappointment in Obama was widespread, so were negative opinions of Romney and Gingrich as their nasty scuffle drew more attention in advance of Tuesday's caucuses. "He seems kind of weaselly," Renee Combs, 29, said of Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts. Combs, an independent who sells beverages wholesale to restaurants in Broomfield's flagship mall, Flatiron Crossing, was unsure whether she would vote for Obama again. But she described Romney as "one of those people who puts on a big front," echoing an argument of his GOP rivals. Mike Butler, 52, a Broomfield independent who dislikes Obama, ruled out Gingrich as an alternative last month when the former House speaker proposed colonizing the moon. "We need that like a hole in the head," said Butler, a machinery salesman on disability. Obama still faces a difficult path to a second term, particularly if the nation fails to sustain its modest job gains since unemployment peaked at 10% in 2009. But as the Republican contest has unfolded in recent months, Obama's popularity has been climbing from the low point of his presidency. Polls show voters almost evenly split now between those who approve of Obama's job performance and those who disapprove. Obama also holds a narrow edge over Romney in head-to-head matchups and a wider lead over Gingrich.

Coming soon: Individual mandate to buy Chevy Volts By the Washington Examiner President Obama spent more than $85 billion bailing out General Motors and Chrysler three years ago. Now he claims credit for saving the industry, noting GM's recent return to the top sales spot among automakers worldwide, Ford's record profits (albeit achieved without federal funds), and the recent revival of Chrysler, (though Italy's Fiat owns it). Regardless whether you supported or opposed the government bailouts, the reality is the Big Three's assembly lines are humming again. Too bad Obama's Environmental Protection Agency is preparing yet another killer hike in the Corporate Average Fuel Economy, only this time instead of merely inflicting massive costs on the industry and consumers, the coming regulation could very well demolish the Big Three for good. When What's "Good" For General Motors Is Not Good For America -- or Built To Last By Richard Grant, Forbes An economy that is “built to last” will never be built by government. This might come as a surprise to President Barack Obama, but what is frightening is that it might come as surprise to a plurality of the American electorate. There is nothing like a sweet-sounding, and all but meaningless, phrase to persuade voters to stick it to themselves once again. The great advantage of using government to subsidize or operate businesses is that we can ignore some or all of the costs. That is why so many people believe that their “green energy” projects are profitable and create numerous jobs. They ignore the burden of the subsidies and mandates that is shifted onto other people. It is also why many people believe that the nationalization of health care services saves resources in those countries so blessed by it. They ignore the burdens shifted to those who face doctor shortages, waiting lists, reduced innovation, and anticompetitive denials of a “certificate of need” for new hospitals.

Sacramento Update          Washington D.C. Update

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