PRAVDA: 'American decent into Marxism happening with breathtaking speed'...

American capitalism gone with a whimper

(Pravda) - It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

Nader Accuses McAuliffe of Suppressing Votes

(Washington Post) - Consumer activist Ralph Nader accused Terry McAuliffe Thursday of orchestrating an effort to remove him from the presidential ballot in 2004 when McAuliffe was chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Nader said that McAuliffe offered him an unspecified amount of money to campaign in 31 states if Nader would agree to pull his campaign in 19 battleground states.

"When you get a call like that, first of all it's inappropriate,'' Nader said in an interview. "The other thing is if you don't immediately say no, it's like taffy, you get stuck with it."

The latest charge against McAuliffe, who is in a hotly-contested three-way Democratic primary for governor, calls into question -- again -- whether his political career is a liability for him as a candidate.

Dangerous intersection being improved

(The Stokes News) - The Department of Transportation has begun work on a project at Clyde Amos Road on Highway 89 in Danbury. This site has become infamous as a dangerous cut-through route for North Stokes students trying to avoid school buses on their way to school. Sixteen-year-old Sonia Luster was killed there in September 2008. Her mother erected a sign at the construction site, thanking DOT for making this intersection safer.

King’s South Main Street Project a reality at last

(By Leslie Bray Evans, The Stokes News) - It was in the late 1980s that the City of King first did a feasibility study for what became known as the South Main Street Project. This expansion would involve realignment of the Highway 52 bridge and the widening of South Main Street from the bridge up to Kirby Road, thus relieving traffic congestion. Making concrete plans was the next step in the late 1990s. Year after year, the State of North Carolina put a hold on the project, with the most recent postponement coming in January 2009.

Now, over a decade later, the project has at last progressed beyond the planning stages and begun moving into reality.

Getting the long-awaited project off the ground is due to stimulus money that the U.S. government is pumping into the country in hopes of jumpstarting the sluggish economy. Senator Kaye Hagan visited King in mid-February to announce that $21 million had been earmarked for this shovel-ready project.

Allred, 'tired of living in a glass house,' says he's going to retire

RALEIGH (Winston-Salem Journal) - A member of the N.C. House accused by colleagues of inappropriately embracing a teenage female page said yesterday that he will leave the General Assembly after the current session ends.

Rep. Cary Allred, R-Alamance, said he will step down from the House seat he has held since 1995, the Burlington Times-News reported.

"I expect to retire by Sept. 1," Allred told the newspaper. He didn't return phone calls from The Associated Press to his home and his office, but he said last week that he was considering whether to complete his two-year term.

"I'm tired of living in a glass house," he said May 21. "But I have done nothing illegal or unethical."

Basnight: Illness won't affect job

Senate leader plans to stay in legislature

RALEIGH (Winston-Salem Journal) - N.C. Senate leader Marc Basnight said he has no plans to leave the legislature despite learning that he has a rare degenerative nerve disease that affects his coordination but not his cognitive abilities.

Doctors said that Basnight, in a record ninth two-year term as Senate president pro tem, is suffering from a disorder that slowly destroys nerve cells that control balance, walking and speaking.

It will be 10 to 20 years before the disorder disables him, one of his doctors told the Raleigh News & Observer. In the meantime, Basnight, 62, D-Dare County, can still perform his work as chamber leader.

Basnight's doctors don't know what caused the illness, which has no name.

Carp may help clear state's weed-choked lakes, including Belews

RALEIGH (Winston-Salem Journal) - State officials are hoping thousands of carp they will put in lakes will help fight weeds that are invading the shallow portions of the impoundments.

The state Division of Water Resources said it plans to put nearly 4,000 grass carp into lakes to fight hydrilla. The fish eat the weed that uses up oxygen other fish need and clog water intakes and boat propellers.

Carp will be put in several lakes Friday. The division said Belews Lake, Lake Howell in Cabarrus County and lakes Norman, Mountain Island and Wylie in Mecklenburg County will receive a total of 3,950 carp. The largest numbers will go into the largest lakes, Norman and Wylie.

Hydrilla was brought to the United States in the 1950s as an aquarium plant.

NC State blocks part of Mary Easley's job

RALEIGH (Winston-Salem Journal) - An academic center that was to be run by former first lady Mary Easley has been put on hold by North Carolina State University because of budget problems.

The move has the effect of blocking Easley from doing a large part of her controversial job, the News & Observer of Raleigh reported Friday.

Easley, who has worked at N.C. State more than three years, last summer was given the new position and an 88 percent pay raise to $170,000 a year. That job and how she got it has come under scrutiny of university officials and a federal grand jury.

Charges Against 'New Black Panthers' Dropped by Obama Justice Dept.

Three men were accused of trying to threaten voters and block poll and campaign workers by the threat of force -- one even brandishing what prosecutors call a deadly weapon.

(Fox News) - Charges brought against three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense under the Bush administration have been dropped by the Obama Justice Department, FOX News has learned.

The charges stemmed from an incident at a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day 2008 when three members of the party were accused of trying to threaten voters and block poll and campaign workers by the threat of force -- one even brandishing what prosecutors call a deadly weapon.

The three black panthers, Minister King Samir Shabazz, Malik Zulu Shabazz and Jerry Jackson were charged in a civil complaint in the final days of the Bush administration with violating the voter rights act by using coercion, threats and intimidation. Shabazz allegedly held a nightstick or baton that prosecutors said he pointed at people and menacingly tapped it. Prosecutors also say he "supports racially motivated violence against non-blacks and Jews."


Related Material...

• (Hot Air) - Who pressured Justice to drop case against voter intimidation in Philly?

Heart-ache: Bill Clinton still mad at Ted Kennedy for endorsing Obama

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Bill Clinton's campaign-year resentment of President Obama is a thing of the past, according to a lengthy profile of the former president in Sunday's New York Times Magazine — but he hasn't quite come to terms with the Kennedy family's decision to back Obama over Hillary Clinton during the primary season.

Clinton reportedly has yet to make his peace with Sen. Ted Kennedy and the Massachusetts senator's niece, Caroline, over their high-profile endorsements of Barack Obama during the primaries.

The Times, also citing unnamed sources, says Clinton harbors hard feelings toward New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who held several posts in the Clinton administration but who chose to endorse Obama instead of Hillary Clinton.

White House urged to address 'racist' charge

(Politico) - Some Democrats and political analysts are urging the White House to shift course and concede that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor made an error when she suggested in 2001 that Hispanic women would make better judges than white men.

“She misspoke,” said Lanny Davis, a White House lawyer and spokesman for President Bill Clinton. “Every day that goes by that they don’t say she misspoke and she used the wrong words ... they just feed it and give it life and give Rush [Limbaugh] and [Sean] Hannity more airtime unnecessarily.”

Said Democratic strategist Chris Lehane: “In this day and age, six or seven or eight weeks is a long time to go without addressing an issue that can potentially take on a life of its own and evolve and grow.”

Bill O’Reilly: Hypocrite

(Patterico) - [Last night] Bill O’Reilly addressed his recent smear of HotAir.com, claiming that Hot Air has the responsibility to police its comments. Pronouncing that “it’s not enough to say, ‘I didn’t do it,’” O’Reilly sanctimoniously told his viewers that he polices comments on his own web site:



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• (Hot Air) - Patterico’s new O’Reilly Factor fun

• (Hot Air) - Does Bill O’Reilly read Fox Nation?

When Democrats derailed a GOP Latino nominee

(By Byron York, Washington Examiner) - Unless something entirely unforeseen happens, confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor will be a lovefest for the Democrats who run the Senate Judiciary Committee. There will be much talk about Sotomayor's historic opportunity to become the first Hispanic on the Court, about her inspiring background, and about the sterling qualifications she would bring to the job. Sotomayor will have the majority party strongly on her side, and odds are things will end happily for her.

For some Republicans, however, it will be hard to avoid thinking back a few years, to a confirmation hearing that didn't end happily at all. In 2001, President George W. Bush nominated former Justice Department lawyer Miguel Estrada to a seat on the federal courts of appeals. In that instance, as today, the nominee was a Hispanic with a compelling story and impressive qualifications. And some of the very people who are today praising Sotomayor spent their time devising extraordinary measures to kill Estrada's chances.

Born in Honduras, Estrada came to the United States at 17, not knowing a word of English. He learned the language almost instantly, and within a few years was graduating with honors from Columbia University and heading off to Harvard Law School. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, was a prosecutor in New York, and worked at the Justice Department in Washington before entering private practice.

CNN: Cheney/Limbaugh 2012?

From Rush Limbaugh: Don't you guys know Rush is always on the ballot?

Obama: You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet!

From Rush Limbaugh: He falsely claims the economy is back from the brink.

Rush Limbaugh's Morning Update: Remember Miguel

From Rush Limbaugh: Here's a good question, folks: Should a political party try to defeat a historic judicial nominee? Is it worth the risk of alienating Hispanic voters? The answer is very simple, and the answer is: Yes!

Democrats did it. They did it to the historic nomination of Miguel Estrada, who graduated from Columbia College and Harvard Law School magna cum laude. He was an editor for Harvard Law Review, and clerked for moderate Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Estrada was a US Attorney under Bush 41, and he served under Bill Clinton as an assistant to the Solicitor General. In private practice, Estrada represented some of America's best known corporations. He received a unanimous "well qualified" rating from the American Bar Association. His life is an American dream: the son of immigrants who rose to the top through hard work and playing by the rules.

When Bush 43 nominated him to become the first Hispanic to sit on the DC Court of Appeals, the radical left wing Democrat establishment erupted in fury. For two years, Democrats on the judiciary committee refused to give him a hearing. Democrat front groups paid for a massive smear campaign built on lies. Chuck Schumer led the argument that despite his qualifications, Estrada should be denied because his ideology was wrong. Memos were circulated, implying Estrada's nomination should fail because he was Latino, Hispanic -- and conservative.

What happened to Miguel Estrada has been called a "political hate crime," and it was. But when Democrats hate and destroy -- as they do every day -- there is no political price to pay.

Read the Background Material on the Morning Update...
• NYTimes: Stymied by Democrats in Senate, Bush Court Pick Finally Gives Up
• Legal Affairs: Ideology Matters

I Feel Your Pain. Not Theirs. Yours.

(By Ann Coulter, TownHall.com) - God save us from liberal "empathy." After President Barack Obama announced his empathetic Supreme Court nominee this week, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, we found out that some people are more deserving of empathy than others.

For example, Judge Sotomayor apparently "empathized" more with New Haven, Conn., government officials than with white and Hispanic firefighters who were denied promotions by the city on the basis of their race.

Let's hope she's as empathetic to New Haven residents who die in fires fought by inferior firefighters as a result of her decision.

Need Another Tea Party? National Sales Tax 'on the Table'

Once Considered Unthinkable, U.S. Sales Tax Gets Fresh Look

Levy Viewed as Way to Reduce Deficits, Fund Health Reform

(By Lori Montgomery, Washington Post) - With budget deficits soaring and President Obama pushing a trillion-dollar-plus expansion of health coverage, some Washington policymakers are taking a fresh look at a money-making idea long considered politically taboo: a national sales tax.

Common around the world, including in Europe, such a tax -- called a value-added tax, or VAT -- has not been seriously considered in the United States. But advocates say few other options can generate the kind of money the nation will need to avert fiscal calamity.

At a White House conference earlier this year on the government's budget problems, a roomful of tax experts pleaded with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to consider a VAT. A recent flurry of books and papers on the subject is attracting genuine, if furtive, interest in Congress. And last month, after wrestling with the White House over the massive deficits projected under Obama's policies, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee declared that a VAT should be part of the debate.

Related Material...

• (The Weekly Standard) - Are You Ready for a VAT?

Should Obama Release Birth Certificate? Or Is This Old News?

Barack Obama makes Franklin Delano Roosevelt comparison

(Politico) - After being introduced at the DNC fundraiser at the Beverly Hills Hilton by famed producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, President Barack Obama compared himself to FDR.

"I would put these first four months up against any prior administration since FDR," Obama said. "We didn't ask for the challenges that we face, but we don't shrink from them either."

Katzenberg had a theatrical way of describing the president in his introduction.

"If you look in the dictionary under 'grace under fire,' it will say Barack Obama," he said.

Furor grows over partisan car dealer closings

(By Mark Tapscott, Washington Examiner) - Evidence appears to be mounting that the Obama administration has systematically targeted for closing Chrysler dealers who contributed to Republicans. What started earlier this week as mainly a rumbling on the Right side of the Blogosphere has gathered some steam today with revelations that among the dealers being shut down are a GOP congressman and closing of competitors to a dealership chain partly owned by former Clinton White House chief of staff Mack McLarty.

The basic issue raised here is this: How do we account for the fact millions of dollars were contributed to GOP candidates by Chrysler who are being closed by the government, but only one has been found so far that is being closed that contributed to the Obama campaign in 2008?

Florida Rep. Vern Buchanan learned from a House colleague that his Venice, Florida, dealership is on the hit list. Buchanan also has a Nissan franchise paired with the Chrysler facility in Venice.

Cheney’s defense of enhanced interrogation blasted by … Fidel Castro

HAVANA (AP) — Fidel Castro criticized former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney for defending American interrogation methods against terror suspects, saying in comments published Wednesday that torture should never be used to extract information.

The former Cuban president accused the United States of engaging in terrorism against Cuba after the 1959 revolution he led, citing U.S.-backed plans to overthrow his government in its early years, including the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

Castro's comments, which appeared in an essay posted on a government Web site Wednesday evening, were aimed at Cheney's speech last week in which he defended the counterterrorism policies of the administration of former President George W. Bush.

NRSC video: “Caesar”

Tony Eury Jr. out as Earnhardt's crew chief

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Dale Earnhardt Jr. will have a new crew chief starting with this weekend's race at Dover because of a slump that has dragged deep into the season.

Tony Eury Jr. was removed as crew chief of Earnhardt's No. 88 team Thursday. The two are cousins and have worked together during Earnhardt's entire career.

They left Dale Earnhardt Inc. last season to drive for Hendrick Motorsports. But despite driving for NASCAR's top team they have one win in 48 races with Hendrick and are 19th in points. They hit rock bottom with Monday's 40th-place finish at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Local Pastor Refuses to Sign Any Marriage Certificate

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Fox 8 News) - A local pastor is protesting North Carolina's marriage law -- which only recognizes marriages between a man and a woman -- by refusing to fill out marriage certificates.

Reverend Susan Parker said she has no problem performing a religious ceremony for people who want to marry, but she won't participate in any government function related to marriage.

"I would like for the government to get out of the marriage business entirely," she said.

Related Material...

• (Hot Air) - Kmiec: Time to get government out of the marriage business

GREEN QUEEN: 'EVERY ASPECT OF OUR LIVES MUST BE SUBJECTED TO INVENTORY'

Pelosi appeals for China's help on climate change

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged Beijing on Thursday to cooperate on climate change, calling a safe environment a basic human right.

Speaking at Beijing's elite Tsinghua University, Pelosi continued the theme of her five-day China trip — that combating global warming represented a new challenge that both governments must tackle jointly.

"We are all in this together," Pelosi told an audience of about 200 students and faculty who applauded enthusiastically throughout the 45-minute session. "The impact of climate change is a tremendous risk to the security and well-being of our countries."

Sotomayor Ruled That States Do Not Have to Obey Second Amendment

(CNSNews.com) – Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor ruled in January 2009 that states do not have to obey the Second Amendment’s commandment that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

In Maloney v. Cuomo, Sotomayor signed an opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that said the Second Amendment does not protect individuals from having their right to keep and bear arms restricted by state governments.

The opinion said that the Second Amendment only restricted the federal government from infringing on an individual's right to keep and bear arms...

Uncertainty of state revenues affects Stokes County budget

Manager implements tough cuts to avoid raising property taxes

DANBURY (By Lisa O'Donnell, Winston-Salem Journal) - Expected cuts in state revenues made preparing Stokes County's 2009-10 budget a difficult task for County Manager Bryan Steen.

Among the cost-saving measures in the proposed budget is a mandatory 12-day furlough for all of the county's full-time and permanent part-time employees. It would save the county about $393,000, according to Julia Edwards, the finance director for Stokes County.

About 350 employees would be affected.

GOP Acts Like Oppressed Minority

From Rush Limbaugh: Today's GOP cowers. It is compliant. It doesn't fight.

RINOs Want to Wave the White Flag on Sotomayor and Embrace Obama

From Rush Limbaugh: If we can't oppose this judge, the GOP is extinct.

Rush Limbaugh's Morning Update: In Defense

From Rush Limbaugh: I have a simple question for you today: What do you believe is worth defending?

Since January, we have been told that our way of life is going to change -- like it or not. Government officials will impose harsh taxes on businesses, and unelected, unaccountable Ivy League-educated bureaucrats will determine the proper compensation for high achievers. Americans, already restrained from exploring and developing the wealth of our own natural resources, will endure horrific new taxes on the energy that fuels our society.

America's financial sector -- as well as our health care, automobile, and insurance industries -- will be ruled and manipulated by the same elected officials who caused a worldwide, multi-trillion-dollar recession. Justice in America will no longer be adjudicated by Constitutional law, but by appointees who possess "empathy" for the perceived oppressed -- street justice, in other words.

Elected Democrat radicals see America as an inherently unjust nation. With lightning efficiency, they're tearing it down, folks. But many of us are proud of the progress Americans have made since our founding, and of our place in history as an enormous power for good in a dangerous, uncertain world.

The most outspoken -- the people who oppose the madness that has engulfed Washington -- are being told to "tone it down," to "moderate" our views, and play nice... as our freedoms are being taken, and our way of life stolen, bit by bit, every day. But I, for one, just to assure you, will not "tone it down" -- because, to me, America is worth defending. How 'bout you?

Read the Background Material on the Morning Update...
• Mark McKinnon: The GOP's Suicide Mission

Biden Pokes Fun at Obama After Teleprompter Falls Over

“What am I going to tell the president? Tell him his teleprompter is broken? What will he do then?”

Krauthammer: Sotomayor’s Nomination Centers on Democratic Party’s ‘Identity Politics’

"She says that she has physiological cultural experiential tools as a Latina woman to be a superior judge to a white male, which is reflective perfectly of the democratic party's identity politics in which free citizens are herded into groups arranged in a hierarchy of wisdom, authority and entitlement."

Dash Won't Play at New Stadium This Year

(Fox 8 News) - The Winston-Salem Dash will not play games in a new downtown stadium this year, the team announced Wednesday.

The remaining 2009 schedule will be played at Wake Forest Baseball Park, formerly Ernie Shore Field.

The club had previously announced it would play games at Wake Forest through mid-June before switching to the new stadium downtown. Now, team officials say the Dash will begin the 2010 season in the new ballpark.

Wednesday Funnies :-)

Jay Leno:

President Obama has found a way to quickly close Guantanamo Bay. He's going to turn it into a Pontiac dealership.

Before she left for China, reporters repeatedly questioned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about her claim the CIA lied to her. But Pelosi remained tight-lipped. She also remained tight-foreheaded and tight-eyelided.

In fact, before she left, Pelosi told the press she's not going to have any further comments on this whole controversy about the CIA. She says no more talking. She's not going to say another word. Why can't we get this deal for Joe Biden?

Pelosi said that the CIA misleads us all the time. You know, unlike Congress.

The big story is the Supreme Court. President Obama has found his nominee. She is Federal Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor. A Latino woman. You know what that means -- Ruth Bader Ginsburg will no longer be the hot chick on the court.

Mary Easley Will Go

RALEIGH (By John Hood, Carolina Outdoor Journal) - It defies understanding why Mary Easley thinks, in the face of all this, that she can retain her job. I suspect she knows she's not staying.

What right do Colin Powell and Tom Ridge have to lecture the Republican party?

(By Toby Harnden, U.K. Telegraph) - Amid much ballyhoo, Colin Powell, former Secretary of State in the Bush administration, went on "Meet the Press" last October and endorsed Barack Obama for President.

His move was no real surprise and had been anticipated for at least a year but the timing and manner of it seemed designed to wreak the maximum political damage to his old friend John McCain.

So why does Powell now seem to think he has the right or credibility to lecture Republicans on how their party should be run? Just as he did not just go quietly into the polling booth and vote for Obama, Powell is not working discreetly behind the behind the scenes at party gatherings to press his case.

Related Material...

• (RushLimbaugh.com) - Where Do General Powell and Governor Ridge Stand on Issues?

Hmmm: Chrysler dealers shut down in Obama bankruptcy are mostly Republican?

(Hot Air) - I’m skeptical that this is as bad as it looks — it’d be politically suicidal, for no benefit greater than petty revenge — but consider it your must-read of the day. Don’t stop before the updates either or you’ll miss profitable dealers scratching their heads trying to figure out what mysterious sin they could have committed to warrant termination.

To quickly review the situation, I took all dealer owners whose names appeared more than once in the list. And, of those who contributed to political campaigns, every single one had donated almost exclusively to GOP candidates. While this isn’t an exhaustive review, it does have some ominous implications if it can be verified.

However, I also found additional research online at Scribd (author unknown), which also appears to point to a highly partisan decision-making process.

Obama Changes His Mind About Las Vegas

President says "it's good to be back in Vegas" three months after he made a different remark about the city which angered local government officials.

LAS VEGAS (Fox News) - President Obama seems to have changed his mind about Las Vegas.

"It is good to be back in Vegas," he told democratic supporters Tuesday night at a fundraiser for Nevada Senator Harry Reid. "Everyone should have a piece of the Las Vegas dream and the American dream," he continued.

His comments come three months after he made a different remark about the city which angered local government officials even hours before Obama was due to land in their home state.

U.S. Likely Taking Majority Ownership of GM

Automaker expected to announce that only a small fraction of the holders of its $27 billion in bonds agreed to swap that unsecured debt for a 10 percent equity share of a recapitalized GM.

NEW YORK (Fox News) - In the end, General Motors' massive cash needs likely trumped any chance of the automaker avoiding a bankruptcy court-supervised reorganization.

General Motors Corp. is expected to announce early Wednesday that only a small fraction of the holders of its $27 billion in bonds agreed to swap that unsecured debt for a 10 percent equity share of a recapitalized GM.

Reaching such an agreement was one of the requirements of the Obama administration, which already has committed $19.4 billion in aid and said it would only provide more funds if bondholders and unionized workers made concessions that substantially reduced GM's costs.

Eat lead (and my shorts)

Farewell to Butt Hole Road

Butt of jokes ... the old road sign

A pain in the Butt for locals

(U.K. Sun) - FED-UP residents have clubbed together to change the name of their street - Butt Hole Road.

They could not take any more pranksters baring their backsides for cheeky photographs.

Delivery firms refused to believe it existed and signs were prised off and stolen.

Hey, Claire McCaskill: Meet Clarence Thomas

(By Michelle Malkin) - On Fox News Channel this morning, Sen. Claire McCaskill dutifully read her “compelling personal story” talking points and hyped Sonia Sotomayor’s compelling personal background while whitewashing her legal record.

Incredibly, McCaskill was not aware that Sotomayor had said “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

When FNC anchor Jane Skinner asked her about Sotomayor’s words, McCaskill tried to claim that someone else had made the statement.

Is Sen. McCaskill that clueless or that deceitful?

The Democrat senator went out to claim that the Supreme Court has no members who have grown up in poverty and overcome extreme hardships.

“That’s something new,” McCaskill argued.

I suggest she read Justice Clarence Thomas’s memoir before she opens her mouth again.

Once again, Democrats send the identity politics-marinated message that the experiences and “compelling personal stories” of minorities don’t count if those minorities stray from the liberal plantation.

Celebrate diversity — as long as you pledge allegiance to the Left for life.

Related Material...

• (Hot Air) - McCaskill fumbles the “incredible life story” meme

• (Real Clear Politics Video) - Sen. McCaskill: Sotomayor Has "Richly, Uniquely" Experience

Colin Powell and the Failure of Moderate Republicanism

(By Jeffrey Lord, The American Spectator) - Colin Powell doesn't get it.

Neither do moderate Republicans, which is why there are an increasingly fewer number of them left.

Let's start with Powell's recent statement on Face the Nation that his late friend Jack Kemp "was as conservative as anybody" and believed in "reaching out." So far, so good. Correct on both counts. Kemp was a proud conservative and did indeed believe in reaching out. He not only believed these things, he lived them. A generation of passionately inspired conservatives are part of the Kemp -- and Ronald Reagan -- legacy.

Then Powell added this: Jack Kemp believed in "sharing the wealth of the country not only with the rich, but with those who are least advantaged in our society."

Stop right there, General. Respectfully, this is as false as it can be. It's like describing the 90 degree heat on the Fourth of July as a February blizzard with temperatures of 50 below freezing. Jack Kemp believed no such thing.

Tenth Amendment Movement Aims to Give Power Back to the States

Fed up with Washington's involvement in everything from land use to gun control to education spending, states across the country are fighting back against what they say is the federal government's growing intrusion on their rights.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
-- U.S. Constitution, Tenth Amendment

(Fox News) - Fed up with Washington's involvement in everything from land use to gun control to education spending, states across the country are fighting back against what they say is the federal government's growing intrusion on their rights.

At least 35 states have introduced legislation this year asserting their power under the Tenth Amendment to regulate all matters not specifically delegated to the federal government by the Constitution.

NAACP wants NASCAR to ban Confederate flag

(ThatsRacin.com) - Officials of a South Florida branch of the NAACP say the organization could stage protests during NASCAR races in an effort to have the Confederate flag banned from events.

The Miami-Dade branch's leaders said they would first ask for help from NASCAR officials in banning the flag, but are prepared to begin contacting sponsors. Also under consideration are a boycott and a march during the season-ending race weekend at Homestead-Miami Motor Speedway, according to the South Florida Times.

The Times article, quoting NAACP officials, said correspondence was being prepared to Brian France, NASCAR's chairman and CEO. France has spoken out against the Confederate flag in recent years and tried to distance the organization from a “good ol' boy’’ stereotype.

Poll: The more Dick Cheney talks, the more Americans seem to like him

(Los Angeles Times) - The more former Vice President Dick Cheney criticizes the Obama administration for drastically changing the national security policies of the Bush administration, the more popular Cheney seems to become among some Americans.

Surprising to some. Even annoying. Or worse.

But a little-noticed new CNN/Opinion Research poll released the other day shows Cheney's favorable ratings have jumped by more than a quarter since last winter.

Related Material...

• (Hot Air) - Look who’s rehabilitating!

Georgia lawmaker wants to end ‘birthright citizenship’

(Atlanta Journal-Constitution) - U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, a Republican candidate for governor of Georgia, has proposed changing the long-standing federal policy that automatically grants citizenship to any baby born on U.S. soil, a move opposed by immigrant rights advocates.

Supporters of Deal’s proposal say “birthright citizenship” encourages illegal immigration and makes enforcement of immigration laws more difficult. Opponents say the proposed law wouldn’t solve the illegal immigration problem and goes against this country’s traditions of welcoming immigrants.

Automatic citizenship is enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” That provision, ratified in 1868, was drafted with freed slaves in mind.

Latest Job Numbers Should Kill Tax Talk on Jones Street

JLF budget analyst says double-digit unemployment signals continued problems

RALEIGH (Carolina Journal Online) - North Carolina's continuing unemployment problems should send a clear signal to lawmakers preparing the N.C. House budget: scuttle any plans for higher taxes. The John Locke Foundation's top budget analyst offered that recommendation after reviewing the numbers.

The N.C. Employment Security Commission's latest report lists the state's unemployment rate at 10.8 percent for April, unchanged from March rate. The rate has leveled off after climbing every month for more than a year.

"The latest numbers indicate that North Carolina continues to struggle with one of the nation's worst unemployment rates," said Joseph Coletti, JLF Fiscal Policy Analyst. "State government needs to take steps to help boost the prospects for job creation and entrepreneurial investment, not special breaks for select companies and higher taxes for everyone else. Unfortunately, Gov. Beverly Perdue and the N.C. Senate have prescribed more than $1 billion in new taxes over the next two years."

Colin Powell: Yes, I'm still a Republican

Related Material...

• (Hot Air) - Powell to Rush and Cheney: Yes, I’m still a Republican

• (CNSNews.com) - Colin Powell: GOP Needs to Stop Listening to ‘Diktats’ from ‘Right-Wing of the Party’

AP source: Obama picks Sotomayor for Supreme Court

WASHINGTON (AP) - Officials tell The Associated Press that President Barack Obama intends to nominate federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor (SUHN'-ya soh-toh-my-YOR') as the first Hispanic to serve on the Supreme Court.

Sotomayor, 54, would succeed retiring Justice David Souter if confirmed by the Senate. The officials spoke to AP on condition of anonymity because Obama has not yet announced his decision.

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2010 Budget Resolution Raises Taxes and Hurts Economic Recovery

By Curtis S. Dubay
Heritage Foundation

Congress recently passed the fiscal year (FY) 2010 budget resolution, which sets broad guidelines for specific policies that it will formulate in the coming months. The resolution includes several provisions that will significantly raise taxes and hurt economic recovery.

Remembering the Gipper...

"I have no illusions about what little I can add now to the silent testimony of those who gave their lives willingly for their country. Words are even more feeble on this Memorial Day, for the sight before us is that of a strong and good nation that stands in silence and remembers those who were loved and who, in return, loved their countrymen enough to die for them. Yet, we must try to honor them -- not for their sakes alone, but for our own. And if words cannot repay the debt we owe these men, surely with our actions we must strive to keep faith with them and with the vision that led them to battle and to final sacrifice. Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough: The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper."

Ronald Reagan

Liz Cheney Conducts a Clinic on How to Destroy Liberal Arguments

From Rush Limbaugh: Liz Cheney is a warrior, and an example for others.

Remembering the Gipper...

"Once each May, amid the quiet hills and rolling lanes and breeze-brushed trees of Arlington National Cemetery, far above the majestic Potomac and the monuments and memorials of our Nation's Capital just beyond, the graves of America's military dead are decorated with the beautiful flag that in life these brave souls followed and loved. This scene is repeated across our land and around the world, wherever our defenders rest. Let us hold it our sacred duty and our inestimable privilege on this day to decorate these graves ourselves -- with a fervent prayer and a pledge of true allegiance to the cause of liberty, peace, and country for which America's own have ever served and sacrificed. ... Our pledge and our prayer this day are those of free men and free women who know that all we hold dear must constantly be built up, fostered, revered and guarded vigilantly from those in every age who seek its destruction. We know, as have our Nation's defenders down through the years, that there can never be peace without its essential elements of liberty, justice and independence. Those true and only building blocks of peace were the lone and lasting cause and hope and prayer that lighted the way of those whom we honor and remember this Memorial Day. To keep faith with our hallowed dead, let us be sure, and very sure, today and every day of our lives, that we keep their cause, their hope, their prayer, forever our country's own."

Ronald Reagan

Government Motors

The 2010 Obamobile

Renovating Private Parking Garages for U.S. House Will Cost Taxpayers $156,322 Per Congressman

Washington (CNSNews.com) – As it is considering legislation that would cap carbon emssions and significanly increase energy prices of U.S. consumers in the name of controlling global warming, the U.S. House of Representatives is also considering spending $68 million to renovate two parking garages that are used exclusively by members of Congress and their staff.

Given that there are only 435 members of the House, the renovation of these exclusive garages would cost $156,322 per congressmen.

The garages are just south of the House office buildings that form part of the complex surrounding the U.S. Capitol. They are also adjacent to a station of the Washington Metro subway system that members of Congress and their staff could use to get to work if they did not want to drive a car and emit carbon into the atmosphere.

White House Shuts Out Tardy Kindergarteners to Make Way for Pittsburgh Steelers

"There were a lot of crying kids."

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Pelosi on CIA Firestorm: ‘I Stand By My Comment’

"I have made the statement that I'm going to make on this. I don't have anything more to say about it. I stand by my comment."

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Obama in Bush Clothing

(By Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post) - If hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue, then the flip-flops on previously denounced anti-terror measures are the homage that Barack Obama pays to George Bush. Within 125 days, Obama has adopted with only minor modifications huge swaths of the entire, allegedly lawless Bush program.

The latest flip-flop is the restoration of military tribunals. During the 2008 campaign, Obama denounced them repeatedly, calling them an "enormous failure." Obama suspended them upon his swearing-in. Now they're back.

Of course, Obama will never admit in word what he's doing in deed. As in his rhetorically brilliant national-security speech yesterday claiming to have undone Bush's moral travesties, the military commissions flip-flop is accompanied by the usual Obama three-step: (a) excoriate the Bush policy, (b) ostentatiously unveil cosmetic changes, (c) adopt the Bush policy.

How Joe Biden Wrecked the Judicial Confirmation Process

The vice president can't complain if Republicans object to Obama's Supreme Court nominee.

(By COLLIN LEVY, The Wall Street Journal) - Vice President Joe Biden is widely praised for the expertise he brings in helping Barack Obama choose a replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. Having served for three decades on the Senate Judiciary Committee, he is considered an asset both for his relationships with committee members and his familiarity with the nuts and bolts of judicial nominations. So let's have a look at how the confirmation process actually fared under Mr. Biden's leadership.

As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Biden was present for the nomination and confirmation of every currently sitting Supreme Court justice except for John Paul Stevens. In 1986, the year before Mr. Biden took over as committee chairman, Antonin Scalia was approved by the Senate in a vote of 98-0. Then came Robert Bork and a presidential election.

Before Judge Bork's nomination, Mr. Biden had said he would support him. And why not? He was widely considered a dazzling legal mind and had even received (during his confirmation to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals) a rating of "exceptionally well-qualified" from the liberal-leaning American Bar Association. "Say the administration sends up Bork," Mr. Biden told the Philadelphia Inquirer in November 1986, "and, after our investigations, he looks a lot like Scalia. I'd have to vote for him, and if the [special-interest] groups tear me apart, that's the medicine I'll have to take."

But by the time of the actual nomination, Democrats were promising to play "hardball" with President Ronald Reagan's nominees and Mr. Biden was running for president. Mr. Biden's Democratic colleagues lined up against the nominee. They were led by Sen. Edward Kennedy, who demonized him with a monologue on "Robert Bork's America," which he promised would be "a land in which women would be forced into back alley abortions." Liberal groups joined the chorus for Mr. Biden to recant his earlier support, which he did, helping to defeat Mr. Bork's nomination.

Dash management cuts jobs as attendance falls

(By Richard Craver, Winston-Salem Journal) - A dramatic drop-off in attendance at the Winston-Salem Dash's baseball games this season led the organization to reduce its off-field work force this week.

Kevin Terry, the general manager of the Dash, confirmed yesterday that there have been job cuts, but he declined to say how many positions were eliminated.

Sources told the Winston-Salem Journal that as many as 10 employees were affected. If all 10 employees were full-time staff, it would represent a 38 percent cutback of the 26 staff members listed on the team's Web site.

State Rep. Allred says he's leaving Republican Party

RALEIGH (MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE EXCHANGE) - State Rep. Cary Allred, facing calls from fellow Republicans to resign his seat, declared Thursday that he plans to reregister as unaffiliated after a report critical of his behavior on April 27.

In that report, other GOP lawmakers harshly assessed the Alamance County Republican's actions.

Some said he smelled of alcohol, and most said they thought he behaved inappropriately during debate and toward a young volunteer that evening, the News & Record of Greensboro reported.

"I think I've been stabbed in the back by my Republican colleagues," Allred said Thursday.

When asked if he was sure he would switch his party affiliation to unaffiliated, Allred said, "I'm pretty damned sure."

OBAMA TV: White House officials produce own media report on event; Reporters Shut Out...

Do You Want Your OTV?

(By Jake Tapper, ABC News) - On April 27, President Obama welcomed the University of Connecticut Lady Huskies, who had just won the NCAA women's basketball championship.

After the event, President Obama went to the White House basketball court to shoot hoop with the Lady Huskies. The White House press corps was not allowed to attend.

Reads the print pool report from that day: "After shaking hands with the team's parents and members of Congress who showed up, the president walked the team over to his basketball court and shot hoops. The pool was held back from the stroll down the drive and around the corner, and couldn't see the court. Poolers could hear periodic cheering coming from the other side of the bushes."

Bush: It's 'Liberating' to Be Out of Office

Former president, in one of his few public appearances since leaving office in January, told graduating high school students that leaving office lifted a heavy burden.

ARTESIA, N.M. (Fox News) - It was a humbling moment for the former commander in chief: President George W. Bush was walking former first dog Barney in his new Dallas neighborhood when it stopped in a neighbor's yard for relief.

"And there I was, former president of the United States of America, with a plastic bag on my hand," he told a group of graduating high school students in New Mexico on Thursday. "Life is returning back to normal."

Bush, in one of his few public appearances since leaving office in January, told the students that leaving office lifted a heavy burden.

Later Terror Link Cited for 1 in 7 Freed Detainees

WASHINGTON (By ELISABETH BUMILLER, The New York Times) — An unreleased Pentagon report concludes that about one in seven of the 534 prisoners already transferred abroad from the detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are engaged in terrorism or militant activity, according to administration officials.

The conclusion could strengthen the arguments of critics who have warned against the transfer or release of any more detainees as part of President Obama’s plan to shut down the prison by January. Past Pentagon reports on Guantánamo recidivism have been met with skepticism from civil liberties groups and criticized for their lack of detail.

The Pentagon promised in January that the latest report would be released soon, but Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said this week that the findings were still “under review.”

California's Dependency Culture

WASHINGTON (By George Will, TownHall.com) - California, the sunny incubator of America's future, has relished its role as a leading indicator of political trends. Tuesday it became what it thinks it should be, the center of attention, but not in the way it wants to be.

Its voters, at last sensible, rejected, by an average of 65 percent, five of six propositions. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the "post-partisan" Republican, and the partisan Democrats who control the Legislature, promoted the propositions as efficient for and essential to eliminating the state's budget deficit, which will now be $21 billion. So California may become the next target for the Obama administration, whose dependency agenda involves seizing every opportunity to break things -- banks, insurance and automobile companies, etc. -- to the saddle of its supervision.

The Orange County Register -- if but one newspaper survives today's leveling winds, may it be this one -- made the case for rejecting all six propositions: 1A would have created an illusory spending cap that could be "easily circumvented by raising taxes" -- and the ballot language did not mention that 1A would have meant a $16 billion two-year extension of some of February's huge tax increases. Proposition 1B promised the public school lobby $9 billion, effectively bribing them to support 1A, which the California Teachers Association did. Proposition 1C combined "two of the worst practices responsible for" the state's dysfunction, "rosy revenue projections and borrowing": It would have authorized borrowing from (hypothetical) increases in state lottery revenues. Proposition 1D, "one more hide-the-pea fiscal deception," would have transferred to the general fund -- and much of it on to public employees -- revenues raised for children's programs. Proposition 1E would have done the same for revenues raised for mental health services.

Rush Limbaugh's Morning Update: Red Flag

From Rush Limbaugh: My friends, sometimes in life we are provided warnings -- big red flags indicating certain danger up ahead.

Utility regulators in North Dakota have been paying attention as congressional Democrats in Washington push for implementation of a cap and tax energy bill. To combat the fraudulent threat of man-made global warming, carbon dioxide emissions from businesses will be capped, and heavily taxed.

Kevin Cramer, North Dakota's Public Service Commissioner, says that instituting cap and trade would drive up "the cost of everything we produce, that we manufacture, that we grow" -- not only in his state, but around the country. Depending on how heavily Democrats tax carbon emissions, he says the cost of electric bills in his state could rise anywhere from 40 to 100 percent.

So why are Democrats so keen to implement this huge tax increase? Cramer says the plan would result in the federal government reaping "windfall" revenues. "The problem with cap and trade is, it's really not... an environmental policy. It's an appropriations policy. It's a way to raise money for government," ND Republican Tony Clark says. He adds that some states -- like his -- will be more adversely affected than others.

Other voices are warning that cap and trade implementation will cause many businesses to flee the country, taking more jobs with them. But that's not a concern for President Obama -- or the environmentalist wackos who are salivating at the chance to implement this madness. Consider this update to be your big red flag.

Read the Background Material on the Morning Update...
• AP: ND regulators oppose 'cap and trade' carbon rules

Student Who Auctioned Virginity Online May Have to Pay Half Her Earnings in Taxes

(U.K. Sun) - The teenage student who sold her virginity for $13,827 could have to hand over half of her earnings to the taxman.

German inland revenue investigators are studying reports that Alina Percea, 18, was paid in cash for a weekend of sex with a middle-aged Italian businessman after auctioning her virginity online.

Prostitution is legal in Germany — where Alina studies — but hookers are taxed at 50 percent of their earnings.

The Romanian-born computer studies student is allowed to work in Germany for 90 days as long as she arrived on a student visa, even as a prostitute.

But because Alina earned so much in such a short time she may also be liable for a hefty VAT bill.

A German inland revenue spokesman said: "If we have hard figures then we can make an accurate assessment."

Next statist intervention by Democrats: The Paid Vacation Act

Alan Grayson to introduce Paid Vacation Act

(Politico) - Rep. Alan Grayson was standing in the middle of Disney World when it hit him: What Americans really need is a week of paid vacation.

So on Thursday, the Florida Democrat will introduce the Paid Vacation Act — legislation that would be the first to make paid vacation time a requirement under federal law.

The bill would require companies with more than 100 employees to offer a week of paid vacation for both full-time and part-time employees after they’ve put in a year on the job. Three years after the effective date of the law, those same companies would be required to provide two weeks of paid vacation, and companies with 50 or more employees would have to provide one week.

Cheney: Obama Reserves Right to Authorize Same Interrogation Methods He Condemns

"Yet having reserved for himself the authority to order enhanced interrogation after an emergency, you would think President Obama would be less disdainful of what his predecessor authorized after 9-11."

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Mary Easley will not leave NCSU job

(Winston-Salem Journal) - An attorney for former first lady Mary Easley says that Easley will not leave her job at North Carolina State University, despite growing scrutiny over her appointment.

Marvin Schiller, Easley's attorney, said at a news conference this morning that Easley "plans to continue to make outstanding contributions."

Easley was at Schiller's side when he made the announcement.

The university provost and chairman of the board of trustees resigned after questions arose about her appointment to a job that pays $170,000 a year for five years. Easley runs a speakers series and a public-safety center.

Federal prosecutors have requested details of Easley's employment history.

Meanwhile, a federal probe is ongoing into possible perks received by former Gov. Mike Easley before and during his consecutive four-year terms.

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Obama Flubs Defense Chief’s Name During Security Speech

(AP) - President Barack Obama sees his secretary of defense just about every day, but he still flubbed Robert Gates' name on Thursday. Gates was in the crowd for Obama's national security speech. Pointing him out, the president said "William Gates" was on hand. Perhaps Obama was thinking of Bill Gates, the Microsoft billionaire.

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Obama Would Centralize All Aspects of Health Care

(By Robert E. Moffit, Human Events) - Health care spending is $2.4 trillion and today accounts for one out of six dollars in the American economy. What separates health care from every other sector of the American economy is that there is little or no consumer control over the flow of health care dollars. In fact, consumers control only about 16 cents out of every dollar that is spent on health care. Employers, managed-care executives and government officials control the vast bulk of health care spending. So when you hear that health care is different from other goods and services in the economy, that’s an unpleasant fact, rooted in stupid and outdated government policies.

Government spending accounts for half of all health care spending, and the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress aim to make that large government share much bigger. This would be done through the expansion of government health programs, Medicaid and SCHIP, already underway through the stimulus and other legislation, as well as the health care reform program that Obama and congressional Democrats will unveil on Capitol Hill later this month. That will be the first time that Americans will get a chance to see the crucial details of health reform, and be able to get an understanding of how the various financing and delivery reforms will affect them.

Meanwhile, the giants of the health care industry -- the trade associations representing doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical and medical technology companies, as well as organized labor -- are jockeying for position in the coming national health care debate. Joining with President Obama, the chiefs of the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the Advanced Medical Technology Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans, as well as the Service Employees International Union, say that they will cooperate with the President in reducing health care spending by 1.5% annually, amounting to a $2 trillion reduction in health care spending over ten years. Sounds impressive.

Obama 'Distracted' by Biden's 'Indiscipline,' Book Asserts

The president is so "distracted by his vice president's indiscipline" that he has been forced to rebuke privately Vice President Biden, according to a new book by Richard Wolffe.

(Fox News) - President Obama is so "distracted by his vice president's indiscipline" that he has been forced to rebuke privately Vice President Joe Biden, according to a new book by Newsweek journalist Richard Wolffe, who interviewed Obama a dozen times.

"He can't keep his mouth shut," Wolffe quotes a "senior Obama aide" as saying of the gaffe-prone Biden in "Renegade: The Making of a President," set for release June 2.

As evidence, Wolffe reports that during the presidential transition period, Biden insulted Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama's closest friends and confidantes. Jarrett had been considered Obama's top choice to fill his vacated Senate seat in Illinois, but took herself out of the running just hours after Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich allegedly told a wiretapped conference call he would not heed any Obama recommendation without a payoff.

"Soon after Jarrett pulled out of consideration for the Senate seat, the senior transition team met to discuss cabinet picks," Wolffe writes. "Biden tried to compliment Jarrett after one contribution. 'You should be in the Senate,' he quipped. After the meeting, as everyone returned to their offices, Obama stopped Biden to warn him not to say anything like that again. 'It's not funny,' he told him."

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Democratic Senator Wants to Cap Carbon Emmissions to Stop Global Warming, But Drives Cadillac to Work

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) supports government efforts to cap U.S. carbon emissions in the cause of controlling global warming.

“I think it’s part of a larger clean-up,” Stabenow told CNSNews.com. “We need a strategy for low carbon, yes.”

But Stabenow admits she doesn’t take public transportation to work, she drives to Capitol Hill.

“I drive a Cadillac STS, it’s a small car,” she added.

The STS averages 16 miles per gallon in the city, 26 miles per gallon highway, according to General Motors and FuelEfficiency.gov--a joint Web site of the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Stabenow, who represents Michigan, the home of the American automobile industry, said she thinks that people who support a limit on carbon emissions should drive American fuel-efficient cars.

“I want people to support American fuel-efficient vehicles,” she told CNSNews.com.

Royal no more: Easley luxe life meets a federal grand jury.

(The Fayetteville Observer) - We, and a lot of North Carolina taxpayers, apparently weren’t alone in our curiosity about the jet-setting lifestyle of the Royal Easleys, the state’s former first couple.

Turns out a federal grand jury is curious, too. And it’s trying to satisfy its curiosity with a flurry of subpoenas and testimony.

The first good look at Mike and Mary Easley’s penchant for posh came to light last year, when former State Auditor Les Merritt looked into a lavish expedition the first couple took to Italy, ostensibly to promote trade, which involved luxury limos, deluxe hotels and restaurants. Solo excursions by Mrs. Easley to France and Russia also included eyebrow-raising perks, including a $332 caviar cocktail in Russia, a $27,000 bill for a chauffeur-driven limo in France and even a $227 linen jacket for one of Mrs. Easley’s aides, purchased in a French boutique and expensed as a “meal for four.”

Burr's face on GOP health plan

The proposal, similar to McCain's, may be a political lift, but some say it's the same-old.

WASHINGTON (The News & Observer) - U.S. Sen. Richard Burr plunged Wednesday into one of the thorniest political issues of the year, taking a lead in introducing a Republican alternative to President Barack Obama's plans to overhaul the nation's health-care system.

The GOP proposal and Obama's ideas both aim to cover more workers, but they have different approaches.

The Republican plan would tax health- care benefits that workers receive. But it would then give tax credits to families to buy their own health insurance on the free market.

Allred's behavior revolted colleagues

RALEIGH (The News & Observer) - Rep. Cary Allred smelled of alcohol during a House session three weeks ago when he gave what one fellow Republican described as a "gruesome bear hug" to a teenage page working in the House chamber, several state lawmakers said in a report released Wednesday.

Many of the lawmakers said that Allred's extended hug was inappropriate, with one calling it the closest thing she had seen to sexual battery. Another House member said it was the most unsettling thing he had seen in his 11 years in the legislature. Several lawmakers said the 17-year-old girl seemed uncomfortable or embarrassed.

In the report, Rep. Thom Tillis, the House Republican whip, said he did not see the hug but smelled a strong odor of alcohol on Allred, who had been told by a fellow lawmaker to settle down. According to Tillis, Allred responded: "I am 62 years old, and I'm worth $2 million. People ought to show me respect."

Hagan says prosecutor should stay, finish probe

RALEIGH (Winston-Salem Journal) - U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan said yesterday that she has recommended that the White House not replace the U.S. attorney leading an investigation into former Gov. Mike Easley, saying that the prosecutor should stay to complete his work.

Hagan, D-N.C., said she didn't want to politicize the process by rushing to replace the Republican appointee in the midst of federal investigations involving two Democrats -- Easley and two-time presidential candidate John Edwards.

"I don't feel that it's going to be in North Carolina's best interest, currently, to replace someone who is investigating these two very high-profile people," Hagan said. "If an investigation is going on, he ought to have the opportunity to complete that investigation."

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No Mas! El Rushbo Resigns as Titular Head of Republican Party

From Rush Limbaugh: The baton is passed. General Powell runs the show.