In a video obtained exclusively by The Daily Caller, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama tells an audience of black ministers, including the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, that the U.S. government shortchanged Hurricane Katrina victims because of racism. The DC Reports: 

“The people down in New Orleans they don’t care about as much!” Obama shouts in the video, which was shot in June of 2007 at Hampton University in Virginia. By contrast, survivors of Sept. 11 and Hurricane Andrew received generous amounts of aid, Obama explains. The reason? Unlike residents of majority-black New Orleans, the federal government considers those victims “part of the American family.”

The racially charged and at times angry speech undermines Obama’s carefully-crafted image as a leader eager to build bridges between ethnic groups. For nearly 40 minutes, using an accent he almost never adopts in public, Obama describes a racist, zero-sum society, in which the white majority profits by exploiting black America. The mostly black audience shouts in agreement. The effect is closer to an Al Sharpton rally than a conventional campaign event.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich appeared on Greta Van Susteren's Fox News show to give his reaction to the video noting it reveals "fundamental dishonesty and demagoguery." Video follows...

James Madison argued in Federalist 51 that our Constitution provides a “double security” to “the rights of the people.” One half of that security is the separation of powers among the three branches of government. 

The other half is federalism, the separation of powers between the federal government and the states. Madison argued that both of these checks on the concentration of power were essential to securing our rights.

In the last three and a half years we've all been witness to Obama’s big-government liberalism which has cost taxpayers dearly.

Recent news about the Obama Administration’s divestitures from AIG and GM—in some cases at a loss of billions of dollars—stands as a reminder of the privilege and cronyism that permeates our economy.

As favoritism grows with the size of the government, economic freedom continues to be eroded by policies like bailouts, loan guarantees, and tax exemptions. Privilege has replaced the good public economic policies of freedom. The influence of a select few is eroding our economic values and introducing perverse incentives and inefficiencies that hurt our competitiveness.

This is what Matthew Mitchell of the Mercatus Center argued in a recent lecture at The Heritage Foundation. 

Drawing from prior research, Mitchell argues that cronyism—manifested in regulations, subsidies, bailouts, tax credits, monopolies, loan guarantees, non-competitive bidding, and protectionism—is becoming all too common in our public policy discourse.

More from the Heritage Foundation HERE.

Democratic drop in Ohio voter registrations mirrors a nationwide trend. In fact, Democratic voter registration in 8 swing states outnumbers Republican decline by a 10-to-1 ratio.

 FOX News reported:

“Don’t boo, vote,” President Obama often says in his stump speech whenever crowds boo a Romney plan. The off-hand call to vote may be by design. 

It comes amid a precipitous decline in Democratic voter registration in key swing states — nowhere more apparent than in Ohio. Voter registration in the Buckeye State is down by 490,000 people from four years ago. Of that reduction, 44 percent is in Cleveland and surrounding Cuyahoga County, where Democrats outnumber Republicans more than two to one. 

 “I think what we’re seeing is a lot of spin and hype on the part of the Obama campaign to try to make it appear that they’re going to cruise to victory in Ohio,” Cuyahoga County Republican Chairman Rob Frost said. 

“It’s not just Cuyahoga County. Nearly 350,000 of those voters are the decrease in the rolls in the three largest counties, Cuyahoga, Hamilton and Franklin.” 

Frost points out that those three counties all contain urban centers, where the largest Democrat vote traditionally has been. 

Ohio is not alone. An August study by the left-leaning think tank Third Way showed that the Democratic voter registration decline in eight key swing states outnumbered the Republican decline by a 10-to-one ratio. In Florida, Democratic registration is down 4.9 percent, in Iowa down 9.5 percent. And in New Hampshire, it’s down down 19.7 percent.

Former Democratic Alabama Rep. Artur Davis, who introduced President Barack Obama in 2008 at the Democratic Convention in Denver, appeared before the Republicans in Tampa on Monday and fired up the crowd with a powerful speech.

The Democrat-turned-Republican said that he regretted his vote and spoke directly to the nation's independents and Democrats who do not support Obama anymore. "May it be said of this time in our history, 2008 to 2012: mistake corrected," said Davis.

From our "Polls of Hope and Change" files comes the latest from The Hill...

According to a new poll for The Hill, two-thirds of likely voters say the weak economy is Washington's fault, and more blame President Obama than anybody else.

It found that 66% believe paltry job growth and slow economic recovery is the result of bad policy.  Thirty-four percent say that Obama is the most to blame, followed by 23 percent who say that Congress  is the culprit.  Twenty percent point the finger at Wall Street.

Today’s polls bring more bad news to Team Obama… 
Americans still want Obamacare repealed.   FOX News reported:

The Supreme Court decision upholding the 2010 health care law has left more American voters feeling “worried” than “reassured” about their personal health care situation. Meanwhile, majorities still want at least part of the health care law repealed. 


The latest Fox News poll, released Thursday, shows 58 percent of voters think the Affordable Care Act needs to be changed and Congress should keep at it. Forty percent disagree: It’s done and lawmakers should “move on.” 


Not surprisingly, most Republicans (84 percent) think lawmakers should keep working on the law. A 53-percent majority of independents agree — as do 35 percent of Democrats. 


Overall, a 57-percent majority of voters would like Congress to repeal at least part of the health care law: 29 percent want complete repeal and another 28 percent favor repealing parts of it. A huge majority of Americans (83%) believe there should be some kind of work requirements for welfare recipients. 


Also— 61 percent of American voters agree with the vote to hold AG Eric Holder in contempt over Fast & Furious.

It's deja vu all over again in California.  Once again the state is facing a massive budget deficit, this time to the tune of $16 billion. 

The Democratic governor said the size of the deficit makes it virtually impossible to balance the budget with spending cuts alone, so his budget balances the cuts with the revenue he anticipates if voters approve his proposal to hike the statewide sales tax by a quarter cent and boost income taxes on those who make more than $250,000 a year. Both tax increases would be "temporary". 
Never mind the fact that California is the Prime Example of Why Tax Hikes Fail. 


Brown's budget proposes $8.3 billion in cuts, $5.9 billion from the tax increases and $2.5 billion in a variety of other solutions. If voters reject his tax initiative, Brown is proposing an automatic cut of $5.5 billion to K-12 schools and $250 million each to the California State University and University of California systems. 

Enter the the following video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity offers seven reasons why higher taxes are a bad idea.  While the video focusses on the Federal Government, the principles and arguments against increased taxes are the same for California lawmakers who are once again considering raising taxes:

It’s becoming increasingly difficult not to notice the media's outrageous hypocrisy when it comes to their "vetting" of GOP Candidate Mitt Romney and his past. 

The day after President Obama "evolved" on the issue of gay marriage, the WaPo rolled out a Romney-bullied-a-gay-guy story.  Keep in mind this event supposedly took place in 1965 during Romney's High School years.

Last week Bernie Goldberg appeared on America Live with Megyn Kelly and reaches beyond the Romney hit piece to discuss the deep seeded hyporcisy the story displays: 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words....

The lengths to which some of the mainstream media goes to cover for President Obama never ceases to amaze...

In a ruling released on December 29, 2011, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of a state law (ABx1 26) passed last summer that abolished redevelopment agencies.

The court's decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by redevelopment agencies and cities against both the law eliminating redevelopment and the companion measure that would have required revenue sharing. The ruling, written by Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, said the Legislature had the power to create redevelopment agencies and the power to end them.

While touted as an effective tool allowing communities to address issues of physical deterioration and revitalize downtrodden business climates, California's redevelopment agencies were far too often been marked by corruption, failure, big government intimidation and fraud.  

What was intended as a temporary fix to a temporary problem seventy years ago, California's Redevelopment Agencies unfortunately became the picture of crony capitalism and corruption.  Moreover they were notoriously known as the nation's worst abusers of eminent domain.

The Institute for Justice has just released a new video on redevelopment in California that should be viewed and shared by all those who value private property rights:

California Democrats are gathering their forces to beat back an attempt by a conservative Republican lawmaker to turn California's Legislature into a part-time body. Voters approved creating a full-time Legislature in 1966 and with few exceptions it has been Democrat-dominated ever since.

So you had plans to visit Los Angeles for some quality family time.  You were looking forward to a little beach time playing frisbee or tossing around the football with the kids.


I'm not sure what's worse.  The fact that they are prohibiting frisbee and football, or the fact that it took them 37 pages to do it. Moreover this ordinance is simply emblematic of this maddening nanny statism that afflicts local and state governments, particularly in California.

Understand this people... they will not be happy until they control EVERY ASPECT of your lives. From what you can do on the beach, to the number of pets in your home, to the type of toilet paper you use.

In reality the story shouldn't come as any great surprise.   Just as James Madison, the Father of the US Constitution, said in Federalist 10:

"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm. Nor, in many cases, can such an adjustment be made at all without taking into view indirect and remote considerations, which will rarely prevail over the immediate interest which one party may find in disregarding the rights of another or the good of the whole.

"...Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions."


Unfortunately California is not only on the Nanny-State bandwagon, they are driving it full steam ahead.