James Lankford's win in the Oklahoma 5th District primary over Kevin Calvey has some in Washington asking, 'Who?' AP
Youth camp director James Lankford’s first-place finish in Tuesday’s Oklahoma 5th District primary has Washington Republicans, many of whom backed former state Rep. Kevin Calvey, scratching their heads.
A slate of prominent conservative groups—including the Club for Growth, Concerned Women for America, the American Conservative Union, and the Gun Owners of America—endorsed and provided financial backing for Calvey in his bid for the Oklahoma City-area open seat, only to wake up Wednesday to find that the former state legislator finished behind Lankford, a little-known political newcomer waging his first campaign for office.
“I think the question is, ‘Who is James Lankford?’” remarked one Washington-based GOP operative who is supporting Calvey. “I didn’t know Lankford’s name until four weeks ago.”
Lankford, who ran the Christian Falls Creek summer camp and carried the backing of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.), heads toward an Aug. 24 runoff with Calvey after finishing first with 34 percent in the five-way primary. Calvey, who served in the state House from 1998 to 2006, followed in second with 33 percent.
GOP strategists reviewing the primary results suggested a host of explanations for Lankford’s success. Though he spent a relatively modest $284,000 – about half of what the better-funded Calvey invested – he ran an aggressive, grassroots-oriented effort that mobilized the local Christian community.
Well, this is quite a striking contrast to the Arizona ruling today protecting illegal aliens and the feds from “burdensome” ID checks. The government is creating a national registry/fingerprint database for mortgage brokers in the U.S.
Mortgage loan originators will have to be fingerprinted and sign up to a central registry to do business in future, according to final rules issued on Wednesday by the Federal Reserve and other regulators.
The rules are part of the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008, also called the S.A.F.E. Act.
They were issued by the Fed, Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, Office of Thrift Supervision, Farm Credit Administration and National Credit Union Administration.
Mortgage brokers came under tough scrutiny in the wake of the 2007-09 financial crisis, with some lawmakers and regulators sharply critical of underwriting standards and practices that were seen as so loose they helped foster a housing price bubble.
The S.A.F.E. Act specifies that mortgage brokers who are employees of agency-regulated institutions must register with the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry,
“As part of this registration process, residential mortgage loan originators must furnish to the registry information and fingerprints for background checks,” a joint release from regulators said.
“Undocumented” mortgage brokers would presumably get sanctuary status…
10/26/04: U.S. Army Sgt. George Scheufele prepares to mail in his completed absentee ballot after voting in the American Presidential and Congressional election while at Camp Eagle in the battle-torn Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq.
Jana Winter
FoxNews.com
7/28/2010
The Department of Justice is ignoring a new law aimed at protecting the right of American soldiers to vote, according to two former DOJ attorneys who say states are being encouraged to use waivers to bypass the new federal Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act.
The MOVE Act, enacted last October, ensures that servicemen and women serving overseas have ample time to get in their absentee ballots. The result of the DOJ’s alleged inaction in enforcing the act, say Eric Eversole and J. Christian Adams — both former litigation attorneys for the DOJ’s Voting Section — could be that thousands of soldiers’ ballots will arrive too late to be counted.
“It is an absolute shame that the section appears to be spending more time finding ways to avoid the MOVE Act, rather than finding ways to ensure that military voters will have their votes counted,” said Eversole, director of the Military Voter Protection Project, a new organization devoted to ensuring military voting rights. “The Voting Section seems to have forgotten that it has an obligation to enforce federal law, not to find and raise arguments for states to avoid these laws.” …
…The MOVE act requires states to send absentee ballots to overseas military troops 45 days before an election, but a state can apply for a waiver if it can prove a specific “undue hardship” in enforcing it…
…Adams and Eversole separately pointed out that the DOJ’s website lacks any mention of the MOVE Act. In fact, the section on military voting includes the outdated and nonbinding 30-day recommendation for sending out ballots. There is no mention of the the current 45-day mandate.
But the DOJ’s online voting section includes a detailed section devoted to helping felons learn how get their voting rights back…
Just when you think these two couldn’t possibly stoop any lower, they prove their flexibility exceeds human imagination.
CNSNews.com — It seems like a sweet sentiment — an e-mail message from a loving wife expressing a charming and fun way to wish her husband a happy 49th birthday by having thousands of people sign an electronic birthday card.
But in Washington, D.C., nothing is that simple. The wife, in this case, is first lady Michelle Obama, and the message is being sent out by the Democratic Party to people on its list nationwide.
And underneath the sentiment, the message is political: The birthday card is also a Democratic Party fundraiser.
“Every year, our family tries to come up with a fun way to wish Barack a happy birthday,” the message from Michelle Obama says. “And this August 4th, when he turns 49, I have something new in mind.”
Her message, which went out Tuesday, is being sent out by Democrats.org, the online presence of the Democratic National Committee.
The first lady, meanwhile, acknowledged that her husband has been “busy.”…
Here Medina tugs on the heartstrings and plays on the emotions as he urges the gathered, mainly young “progressives” to unite behind the illegal illegal immigrant community. Medina is very careful to blur the line between illegal immigrants and Latino Americans.
His message is that by exploiting the Latino vote, “progressives” can carry several key states in November. To do that, the left must portray any resistance to illegal immigration as an attack on all Latinos.
Medina has more influence than most marxist activists.
In 2008 he served the the Obama campaign as a member of Barack Obama’s National Latino Advisory Council. As a vice president of the D.S.A. dominated SEIU, Medina can put tens of thousands of activists on the streets to promote his socialist agenda…
…That is “caring” socialism for you. Illegals immigrants are not individuals with hopes and dreams. Their plight, their personal tragedies, are irrelevant. They not the result of irresponsible politicians unwilling to police U.S. borders.
They are simply numbers to be exploited, in the socialist pursuit of power.
The complete article, with two additional videos, is at KeyWiki Blog
The Massachusetts Legislature has approved a new law intended to bypass the Electoral College system and ensure that the winner of the presidential election is determined by the national popular vote.
“What we are submitting is the idea that the president should be selected by the majority of people in the United States of America,” Senator James B. Eldridge, an Acton Democrat, said before the Senate voted to enact the bill.
Under the new bill, he said, “Every vote will be of the same weight across the country.”
But Senate minority leader Richard Tisei said the state was meddling with a system that was “tried and true” since the founding of the country.
“We’ve had a lot of bad ideas come through this chamber over the years, but this is going to be one of the worst ideas that has surfaced and actually garnered some support,” said Tisei, who is also the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor.
The bill, which passed on a 28-to-9 vote, now heads to Democratic Governor Deval Patrick’s desk. The governor has said in the past that he supports the bill, said his spokeswoman Kim Haberlin.
Under the law, which was enacted by the House last week, all 12 of the state’s electoral votes would be awarded to the candidate who receives the most votes nationally…
…Opponents say the current system works. They are concerned about a possible scenario where Candidate X wins nationally, but Candidate Y has won in Massachusetts. In that case, all of the state’s 12 electoral votes would go to Candidate X, the candidate who was not supported by Massachusetts voters…
Common American Journal disagrees with Senator Eldridge’s assertion,”Every vote will be of the same weight across the country.” The Electoral College guarantees that less populated states, generally the “Red States”, will have an equal say in national elections. At the moment, these states are not under-represented against the more heavily populated cities of the “Blue States.” But under Sen. Eldridge’s proposal, the larger cities of the Blue States would determine every outcome in national elections while the less populated states would have less impact than they have now. This would be one more means of ensuring the Progressive political agenda prevails indefinitely in the United States.
Any notion that I’ve manipulated, or otherwise edited clips of Charles Sherrod to malign him has always been ridiculous. I haven’t done such a thing in six-years and wouldn’t begin, now. The evidence of that has always been readily available for an interested party above a junior high school-level of Internet savvy given the info I provided in my post.
Rev. Charles Sherrod Delivers Keynote Address at Race and Law Conference
In response to Rush Limbaugh, no, at no time does he denounce racism in the speech, nor does he say a word about any concept of racial harmony, as near as I can recall after listening to it in full twice. And the context of the curious clip below* is also complete.
Rush: “Again, we don’t know the context. He could have disavowed racism at some point in the speech prior to these comments. He could have disavowed racism at some point in the speech after these comments. All we have is what we played.”
I’m not an unfair person. I suppose the notion of laying down one’s life to save black children when you know who and where the would-be offenders work and live could be broadly interpreted. But he didn’t say, dedicate one’s life, or career, or anything else – he said, someone must lay down their life to save them. And not long before that in the full speech, he also talks about bullets flying in his past and not fearing death. So, who knows?
Perhaps Joan Walsh, who seems to be cowering, unable to defend her hero’s words, could reach out to him and see what he may have actually meant to say. Otherwise, Joan, a hero whose words you can’t defend doesn’t seem like much of a hero to me at all.
Finally, as this clip makes clear – he is a collectivist, in fact, a Marxist, so far as I can tell. And given that his wife has been offered this job in USDA when she thinks just like him, I am left wondering why - given the Sherrod’s political and economic views?
Shirley Sherrod’s USDA Job Offer: Deputy Director of the Office of Advocacy and Outreach
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*Dan Riehl’s original video of Mr. Sherrod is at the end of our post here. At GatewayPundit Jim Hoft has some comments about this video.
The “Journolist” is a listserv comprised of several hundred top liberal journalists from influential American and British media outlets, as well as like-minded professors, union reps and activists. Leftist media hack and WaPo journalist Ezra Kleinfounded Journolist with far left crank Joe Klein from TIME magazine in February of 2007. Klein admitted that Journolist was an “insulated space where the lure of a smart, ongoing conversation would encourage journalists, policy experts and assorted other observers to share their insights with one another.” But, you had to be a leftist to join this group. It was an exclusive club. And, it grew to include 400 of the most prominent leftist American journalists who shared ideas and helped spin the far left narrative in the state-run media. This is where far left cranks colluded to spit out the DNC’s talking points and to defend President Barack Obama’s radical past and socialist agenda. Ezra Klein reportedly shut down Journolist on June 28, 2010 after leaks were reported. Andrew Breitbart announced recently that he would reward $100,000 to anyone who could provide the full “JournoList” archive, source fully protected.
Now we find out that one of Barack Obama’s top advisers was a member and participated on Journolist.
Jared Bernstein was an Obama economic adviser and member of Journolist.
A major reason the financial reform bill passed was that Democrats and a handful of moderate Republicans felt the need to do something, anything to show that Washington could stand up to Wall Street. But as I’ve argued before, few legislators really understood the industry they set out to change, or what problem they were really trying to solve. The result was a bill that, according to one former FDIC chairman, contains “nothing” that “would have prevented the previous crisis”—the crisis that legislators were ostensibly responding to with the law.
In other words, in authoring the bill, legislators knew they wanted to do something—but never really figured out exactly what they wanted to do. But now it’s the law. And that means it’s up to regulators to figure out what it all really means.
In the near term, long nights will continue as lawyers attempt to answer a barrage of questions by issuing client advisories, hosting Webinars and taking phone calls. But more significant, industry leaders say, will be the shift of power that occurs as regulators flesh out the guts of the legislation during a multi-year rulemaking process.
“The center of the financial world has moved from Wall Street to 15th & Pennsylvania—the Treasury Department. That’s not going to be lost on clients,” said Richard M. Alexander, managing partner at Arnold & Porter…
By Karen Mracek and Thomas Beaumont Des Moines Register
via USA Today
7/24/2010
Goldman Sachs sent $4.3 billion in federal tax money to 32 entities, including many overseas banks, hedge funds and pensions, according to information made public Friday night.
Goldman Sachs disclosed the list of companies to the Senate Finance Committee after a threat of subpoena from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Ia.
Asked the significance of the list, Grassley said, “I hope it’s as simple as taxpayers deserve to know what happened to their money.”
He added, “We thought originally we were bailing out AIG. Then later on … we learned that the money flowed through AIG to a few big banks, and now we know that the money went from these few big banks to dozens of financial institutions all around the world.”
Grassley said he was reserving judgment on the appropriateness of U.S. taxpayer money ending up overseas until he learns more about the 32 entities.
