CPAC Kicks Off With Marco Rubio

Thousands of conservative activists converged Thursday on Washington for CPAC. But aside from a packed hotel ballroom and a few memorable applause lines, the throngs were noticeably subdued as the yearly conservative confab kicked off.

That may change Friday, when Republican hopefuls Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are scheduled to speak. But for a crowd of self-identified conservative activists that numbered about 10,000, there was no palpable sense of excitement and few outward signs of support for most of the presidential contenders.

“It’s been tough. A lot of people are still undecided, and they keep saying they need more information. There’s not a lot of excitement here yet,” said Joseph Lipp, who was handing out stickers for Santorum.

In a primary season that has thumbed its nose at many of the typically predictive events on the campaign calendar — Michele Bachmann won the Ames Straw Poll but finished sixth in Iowa — campaigns may have made a conscious decision not to invest heavily in CPAC. Continue Reading…

Stephen Colbert’s FEC report Big money!

No kidding: Comedian Stephen Colbert’s satirical super PAC raised some serious cash.

Between July 1 and Dec. 31, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow collected more than $825,400, ending the year with nearly $674,000 cash on hand, according to disclosures filed over night with the Federal Election Commission.

California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and actor Bradley Whitford of “West Wing” fame are among the super PAC’s contributors.

Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow also received ostensibly corporate contributions, including $314 from Bestdamntutoring.com in Texas and $400 from an outfit called the Sticky Fingers Band of Brunswick, Maine. Continue Reading…

Trisomy 18 Rick Santorum’s Daughter Bella Has Genetic Disorder

Trisomy 18 Rick Santorum’s Daughter Bella Has Genetic Disorder: This weekend, Rick Santorum left the campaign trail to be with his 3-year-old daughter, Isabella, who was hospitalized with pneumonia. Fortunately, Bella made what Santorum called “a miraculous turnaround,” and the former Pennsylvania senator resumed his campaign for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination on Monday. However, Bella’s condition remains a constant point of worry for the Santorum family.

Bella has Trisomy 18, a genetic disorder that gives her an extra copy of the 18th chromosome. According to the Trisomy 18 Foundation, the extra chromosome can cause life-threatening abnormalities in the heart, brain, stomach and other internal organs.

There is a very high mortality rate for infants born with the disorder — about 50 percent of babies carried to term are stillborn, and less than 10 percent will reach their first birthday. Females are about five times more likely than males to be live-born. A small number of individuals (mostly women) with Trisomy 18 have reached their 20s and 30s. Continue Reading…

Senators John Kerry & Scott Brown Push As DirecTV Deal Threatens Super Bowl Access

Senators John Kerry & Scott Brown Push As DirecTV Deal Threatens Super Bowl Access: Bothu.s.senators from Massachusetts and a satellite TV provider that some die-hard Pats fans Boston Super Bowl in their homes can be prevented from watching a fight between NBC affiliate’s owner are chiming in.

DirecTV and Sunbeam television Corp., owner of the Boston-based NBC affiliate WHDH TV, retransmission fees since their contract expired on January 13 and satellite TV providers are caught in the middle of 200,000 customers are is sometimes network blackouts while a cable or satellite TV provider with a TV network fails to reach an agreementThe special stand for another Super Bowl showdown with the New England Patriots receiving extra attention to the waist.

Republican Sen. Scott Brown, DirecTV and Sunbeam television Corp., in a letter to the heads of customers as they work for WHDH clock a new agreement to go out of the details asked for both sides.

“I have a business your supporters in Boston leverage in the negotiations have become a private business transactions I’m not seeking to interfere in, but I suppose my ingredient TV programming they used to have come to expect and should be used for” Brown wrote a letter. “this abusive clients to pay hundreds of dollars a year and Super BowlThe year’s biggest television event does not get to see your component programming I no longer have disrupted to urge. ” Continue Reading…

Obama Pledges Economic Equality In SOTU Speech

Obama Pledges Economic Equality In SOTU Speech: US President Barack Obama has used his last State of the Union speech before the November election to paint himself as the champion of the middle class, by demanding higher taxes for millionaires and tight reins on Wall Street.

Taking advantage of the huge national platform of his annual speech to Congress, Mr Obama defiantly defended his record after three years in office and laid blame for many of the country’s woes at the feet of banks and an out-of-touch Congress.

He proposed sweeping changes in the tax code and new remedies for the US housing crisis as he made the case for reducing income inequality in America.

While the biggest proposals in Mr Obama’s election-year speech are considered unlikely to gain traction in a divided Congress, the White House believes the president can tap into voters’ resentment over the financial industry’s abuses and Washington’s dysfunction. Continue Reading…

Republican Rebuttal To State Of The Union

Republican Rebuttal To State Of The Union: Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels delivered a pointed and pugnacious response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, in a speech likely to amplify the drumbeat of voices urging Daniels to wage a late presidential bid.

The term-limited Daniels, who ruled out a White House run last year, slammed Obama for promoting “pro-poverty” extremism and leading a “constant effort to divide us.”

A former budget director under George W. Bush, Daniels was chosen by Republican leaders as a respected and serious voice who could credibly position the party as the champion of business.

“As Republicans, our first concern is for those waiting tonight to begin or resume the climb up life’s ladder,” Daniels said. “We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of haves and have-nots; we must always be a nation of haves and soon-to-haves.”

Daniels also assailed the president for halting the Keystone XL pipeline project that would transport oil from Canada to Texas, equating the move to a “pro-poverty policy” — a line reminiscent of Newt Gingrich’s accusations on the campaign trail that Obama is the “food stamp president”. Continue Reading…