1) Suspect in attack on congresswoman acted alone
TUCSON, Ariz. – Federal prosecutors brought charges Sunday against the gunman accused of attempting to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killing six people at a political event in Arizona.
Investigators said they carried out a search warrant at Jared Loughner's home and seized an envelope from a safe with messages such as "I planned ahead," "My assassination" and the name "Giffords" next to what appears to be the man's signature. He allegedly purchased the Glock pistol used in the attack in November at Sportsman's Warehouse in Tucson.
…Meanwhile, authorities released 911 calls in which a person witnessing the mass shooting outside a grocery store in Tucson describes a frantic scene and says, "I do believe Gabby Giffords was hit."
Loughner fired at Giffords' district director and shot indiscriminately at staffers and others standing in line to talk to the congresswoman, said Mark Kimble, a communications staffer for Giffords.
"He was not more than three or four feet from the congresswoman and the district director," Kimble said, describing the scene as "just complete chaos, people screaming, crying."
Loughner is accused of killing six people, including an aide to Giffords and a 9-year-old girl who was born on Sept. 11, 2001. Fourteen others were wounded. Authorities don't know Loughner's motive, but said he targeted Giffords at a public gathering around 10 a.m. Saturday.
Doctors treating the lawmaker provided an optimistic update about her chances for survival, saying they are "very, very encouraged" by her ability to respond to simple commands along with their success in controlling her bleeding.
…The assassination attempt left Americans questioning whether divisive politics had pushed the suspect over the edge.
Giffords faced frequent backlash from the right over her support of the health care reform last year, and had her office vandalized the day the House approved the landmark measure.
It left “Americans” questioning whether divisive politics pushed the suspect over the edge”? Which Americans? The left-leaning media? Here’s a newsflash: the man was a leftist, not a Tea Partier, as this author is not-so-subtly trying to imply.
…The sheriff said the rampage ended only after two people tackled the gunman. A third person intervened and tried to pull a clip away from Loughner as he attempted to reload, the sheriff said.
See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110109/ap_on_re_us/us_congresswoman_shot
1a) Arizona Massacre Exposes: Tea Party Is Afforded Less Benefit Of The Doubt Than Radical Islam!
What does the Ft. Hood massacre, and Saturday’s Arizona massacre have in common? Almost nothing.
With Ft. Hood, an open islamist gunned down dozens in an attack he all but said he was going to launch, and the best the Left could do was blame America’s love of guns while preaching that we cannot rush to judgment. To this day apologists on the left still will not bring themselves to conclude that Major Hasan was a Jihad terrorist animated by radical Islam.
On the other hand, the blood hasn’t even been mopped up yet in Tucson, and disgusting opportunists on the Left have already declared the Arizona massacre an official act of the Tea Party (headlines below):
“DISGRACEFUL: Krugman Blames GOP For ‘Attempted Assassination’ Today (Before We Found Out He’s a Leftwinger)”
“Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik Blames AZ ‘Prejudice & Bigotry’ for Shooting” (Video)
Yes, that’s right. The very same people who cannot figure out what animated Major Hasan al Jihad, have swiftly concluded that the lunatic who murdered 6 people Saturday was motivated by the Tea Party.
Funny how that works. The Tea Party is afforded less benefit of the doubt than radical Islam!
1b) Did Barack Obama cause the shootings yesterday in Tucson?
The media and democrats want us to focus on the nation’s “caustic political climate” after the tragedy yesterday. Maybe they should start with President Obama.
He may be the worst offender.
** Obama: “They Bring a Knife…We Bring a Gun”
** Obama to His Followers: “Get in Their Faces!”
** Obama on ACORN Mobs: “I don’t want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry! I’m angry!”
** Obama to His Mercenary Army: “Hit Back Twice As Hard”
** Obama on the private sector: “We talk to these folks… so I know whose ass to kick.“
** Obama to voters: Republican victory would mean “hand to hand combat”
** Obama to lib supporters: “It’s time to Fight for it.”
** Obama to Latino supporters: “Punish your enemies.”
** Obama to democrats: “I’m itching for a fight.”
If the media really wants to improve the “caustic political climate” they may want to start at the White House.
2) White House Warns Failure to Raise Debt Ceiling Would Mean Economic 'Crisis'
The top White House economic adviser warned lawmakers Sunday that the United States faces a catastrophe if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling, as spend-averse Republicans indicated they'd be willing to support the increase so long as certain conditions are met.
The debt ceiling debate is one of the first major legislative clashes on tap as lawmakers return to Washington this coming week for the start of the 112th Congress. The $13.9 trillion national debt is creeping closer to its $14.3 trillion ceiling, and a vote to increase that limit is expected in the spring.
Though lawmakers will no doubt use the vote to extract promises over future spending cuts, White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Austan Goolsbee urged Congress not to "toy with" the issue.
"This is not a game," Goolsbee said on ABC's "This Week." "If we hit the debt ceiling, that's essentially defaulting on our obligations, which is totally unprecedented in American history.
"The impact on the economy would be catastrophic. I mean, that would be a worse financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 2008," Goolsbee said. "I don't see why anybody's talking about playing chicken with the debt ceiling."
2a) Gibbs: Senator Obama Only Voted Against Raising Debt Ceiling in 2006 Because He Knew It Would Pass Anyway
On Sunday, President Obama’s top economic adviser, Council of Economic Advisers chair Austan Goolsbee, cautioned members of Congress not to “play chicken” by voting against raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling – despite the fact that as a senator in 2006, President Obama voted that way.
“I don't see why anybody's talking about playing chicken with the debt ceiling,” Goolsbee told me on ABC News’ THIS WEEK. “If we get to the point where you've damaged the full faith and credit of the United States, that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity.”
Goolsbee said a failure to raise the debt ceiling would cause “a worse financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 2008…This is not a game. The debt ceiling is not something to toy with.”
Four years ago, however, then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., voted the exact way President Obama is now cautioning senators not to do.
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure,” he said on March 16, 2006. “Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership . Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt limit.”
The debt limit was raised by a vote of 52-48.
2b) To raise or not raise (the debt ceiling) – UPDATE (Glenn Beck)
…First, he used the analogy of flying a plane:
“And quite honestly, I’m for not raising the debt ceiling. I’m exactly where I was on TARP and on the first day of TARP I said, listen, this airplane is going to slam into the side of a mountain and it’s over and nobody’s ready because nobody has told you what it means. That’s why I was for TARP for the first two days, because I thought that they were actually going to explain to the American people, okay, guys, we’ve got to bring this plane down into the trees. Well, if you didn’t do TARP, I really, truly believe this, the engines would have stopped. Retrospect and two days into it I was against TARP because I realized they’re going to lie to you even more. They’re going tell you it’s got to fix it. It’s going to turn the plane around and try to land it in the trees instead of landing it in the side of a mountain where we all die…If we don’t raise the debt ceiling, we can’t pay our bills and the rest of the world says America is on fire.”
Because not raising the debt ceiling would be disastrous, as Pat said, Glenn has been warning people to prepare. Raising the debt ceiling only gives people time to prepare and for the country and individual American citizens to start making the necessary sacrifices to save the country and the economy. This is why charity and preparation are so important:
“This is why I’ve been saying you’ve got to be better at charity, you’ve got to prepare and have food not just for your family but for your neighbors, because if you turn the debt ceiling and say no more raising of the debt ceiling, the government won’t take care of people. You must. You must. We must reach out to each other. Otherwise, there will be riots in the streets.”
See: http://www.glennbeck.com/2011/01/05/to-raise-or-not-raise-the-debt-ceiling/
2c) Will Arthur Laffer Predictions of 2011 Economic Collapse Become Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?
Financial Crisis Already Hitting Home for Many
People are extremely nervous about the financial situation in the nation. So, when economist Arthur Laffer, listed as one of Wall Street's Biggest Bears by Forbes, writes a piece for the Wall Street Journal focusing on economic collapse in 2011, people take heed. The buzz is building about Laffer's predictions of a double-dip recession - and worse - in 2011. His words were stark and to the point: the economy will collapse in 2011.
Are Nation's Financial Worries Fueled by Laffer's Financial Take?
It may not take much to fuel the fires of people's financial fears in today's economy, and Laffer's words could do just that.
Oh yeah. It’s Arthur Laffer’s fault. Blame the people who are warning about the writing on the wall for actually CAUSING it! Well, that’s a strategy.
See: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5476418/will_arthur_laffer_predictions_of_2011.html
3) Tea Party Congress Returns to Constitution
…To help Members better fulfill their oath, the House will not only read the Constitution aloud on Thursday but also adopt a rule requiring that every bill cite what specific provisions of the Constitution empower Congress to enact it. Hopefully these measures will force some Members to re-familiarize themselves with our nation’s governing document, because as the last two years demonstrated, the last Congress sorely needed the lesson:
In September 2009, then-Majority Whip James Clyburn (D–SC) told Fox News: “There’s nothing in the Constitution that says that the federal government has anything to do with most of the stuff we do.”
In October 2009, a reporter asked then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–CA): “Madam Speaker, where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate?” Speaker Pelosi shook her head dismissing the question: “Are you serious? Are you serious?”
In April 2010, then-Representative Phil Hare (D–IL) responded to constituents asking about Obamacare: “I don’t worry about the Constitution on this to be honest.”
In August 2010, Representative Pete Stark (D–CA) told constituents asking if the Constitution limits Congress in any way: “The federal government can, yes, do most anything in this country.”
There are many reasons the American people soundly rejected the 111th Congress at the polls last November, but the flippant attitude that many in the last Congress took toward fulfilling their oath to defend the Constitution is perhaps the most troubling.
See: http://blog.heritage.org/2011/01/05/morning-bell-tea-party-congress-returns-to-constitution/
3a) Ezra Klein: the Constitution is Impossible to Understand Because its Over 100 Years Old
I actually think the dumbest part of this segment is where the host calls Ezra “the Nazis had some good ideas” Klein a wonk. I mean… good lord.
Make sure you watch that again to get what hes arguing here. Hes not saying that he can’t understand it because its over 100 years old. Hes saying that nobody can understand it because its over 100 years old.
But lets cut Ezra some slack. I mean just look at the first amendment. It’s confusing as hell:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
“Congress shall make no law”. What in the world could that mean?
3b) Is the Constitution Senile?
The congressional Republicans' decision to read the Constitution aloud on the floor of Congress has forced some Constitution-contemptuous liberals further out of the closet, which is an instructive development to behold.
Blogger Ezra Klein of The Washington Post told MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell that the constitutional reading is "a gimmick," and "the issue of the Constitution is not that people don't read the text and think they're following; the issue with the Constitution is that the text is confusing because it was written more than 100 years ago and what people believe it says differs from person to person and differs depending on what they want to get done."
Columnist E.J. Dionne, also with The Washington Post, expressed similar irreverence for our founding document. Dionne lamented that the tea party movement has treated the Constitution "as the equivalent of sacred scripture. Yet as Gordon Wood, the widely admired historian of the Revolutionary era has noted, we 'can recognize the extraordinary character of the Founding Fathers while also knowing that those 18th-century political leaders were not outside history. ... They were as enmeshed in historical circumstances as we are, they had no special divine insight into politics, and their thinking was certainly not free of passion, ignorance, and foolishness.'"
Dionne's (and Wood's) assessment is quite a far cry from that of former British Prime Minister William Gladstone, who observed, "The American Constitution is, so far as I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man."
Though no one should argue that we should turn our respect for the Constitution into idolatry, there is every reason to believe that our Constitution is indeed unique, both in the brilliant structure of limited government it established and in its practical effect of creating the freest, strongest and most prosperous nation in history.
See: http://www.davidlimbaugh.com/mt/archives/2011/01/new_column_is_t.html
3c) Really Important Warning From Joy Behar!
On radio this morning, Glenn played the audio of Joy Behar saying, “Do you think this Constitution loving is getting out of hand? I mean, is it a nod to the Tea Party? What is this about exactly?”
It is getting out of hand, isn’t it? The guys sounded off on all the horrible things that could happen if people keep loving the Constitution:
1) “Pretty soon you’ll have a Constitutional republic” – Pat
2) “We will have a nation of laws and not of men.” – Glenn
3) “Complete and total freedom by end of the year.” – Pat
4) “Rule of law might be enforced.” – Pat
5) “You might be able to actually create something” – Glenn
6) You could even be ” irresponsible, fail, and then pay your failure,” rather than have other people bail you out!
The horror! The horror! Save us Hollywood, you’re our only hope!
See: http://www.glennbeck.com/2011/01/05/really-important-warning-from-joy-behar/
4) Morning Bell: The Fight for the Filibuster
When does a day last three weeks? When Senate Democrats want to rewrite the rules of the Senate to make it easier for the Majority Leader to end debate and block the amendment process.
This Wednesday, the United States Senate is set to meet for its first “legislative day” of the new Congress, and a group of progressive Senators are expected to introduce changes to the Senate rules designed to limit the use of the filibuster. But the left has not settled on a single rule change plan. To buy time to get his troops in line, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–NV), rather than simply adjourning until January 24, is expected to recess the chamber, meaning the Senate will technically still be in the same “legislative day” when they reconvene on January 24. Maybe if Reid spent less time manipulating the rules to his narrow partisan advantage, the minority would not need to resort to the filibuster in the first place.
…The filibuster is unquestionably constitutional.
…Contrary to what the Progressives believe, the slow progress of legislation through the Senate is a feature, not a bug, of the Framers’ design.
…The left and their media allies love to bemoan the fact that the minority in the 111th Congress set a record for filibustering legislation. Left unreported by the media is that Reid manipulated the rules of the Senate to shatter a little record of his own. A tactic commonly referred to as “filling the amendment tree” allows a Majority Leader to offer up a series of non-substantive amendments that take up all the time allotted for debate. This prevents the minority from offering any amendments to a bill. Reid justified this tactic to The Huffington Post in July: “This isn’t a new method that I dreamed up. Anytime there is an election there is not a leader who is dumb enough to put a bill on the floor that is subject to amendments.”
So how many times has Reid used this “filling the tree” tactic that is specifically designed to shut out substantive amendments from the minority? According to the Congressional Research Service, Reid employed the procedure a record 44 times, more than the past six Majority Leaders combined.
…If the Senate narrows or eliminates the filibuster, Reid will have even less incentive to allow debate and amendments. The Senate will cease to be a deliberative body, and the majority party will have unfettered power to pass legislation and confirm nominees with little or no debate. This is not what the Founders intended (emphasis mine).
See: http://blog.heritage.org/2011/01/04/morning-bell-the-fight-for-the-filibuster/
4a) Democrats Pursuing a New "Nuclear Option" on Filibuster
…The finger pointing may come to a head later today when some Democrats are expected to introduce a resolution to amend the Senate rules with only 51 votes – far short of the customary two-thirds majority requirement. Republicans strongly oppose the idea. “The Senate needs to change its behavior, not to change its rules,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) in a speech at the Heritage Foundation on Tuesday. He labeled Democrats’ rule change gambit “election nullification,” and quoted an Investor’s Business Daily editorial slamming the proposal: “The Senate Majority Leader has a plan to deal with Republican electoral success. When you lose the game, you simply change the rules. When you only have 53 votes, you lower the bar to 51.”
5) House takes symbolic step to repeal health law
WASHINGTON – House Republicans cleared a hurdle Friday in their first attempt to scrap President Barack Obama's landmark health care overhaul, yet it was little more than a symbolic swipe at the law.
The real action is in states, where Republicans are using federal courts and governors' offices to lead the assault against Obama's signature domestic achievement, a law aimed at covering nearly all Americans.
In a post-election bow to tea partiers by the new GOP House majority, Republican lawmakers are undertaking an effort to repeal the health care law in full knowledge that the Democratic Senate will stop them from doing so.
Republicans prevailed Friday in a 236-181 procedural vote, largely along party lines, that sets the stage for the House to vote next week on the repeal.
Shortly before the House vote, Republican governors representing 30 states opened up a new line of attack, potentially more successful.
In a letter to Obama and congressional leaders, the governors complained that provisions of the health care law are restricting their ability to control Medicaid spending, raising the threat of devastating cuts to other critical programs, from education to law enforcement in a weak economy. It's ammunition for critics trying to dismantle the overhaul piece by piece.
Moreover, a federal judge in Florida is expected to rule shortly in a lawsuit brought by 20 states that challenges the law's central requirement that most Americans carry health insurance. A judge in Virginia ruled it unconstitutional last month, while in courts in two other cases have upheld it. It's expected that the Supreme Court will ultimately have to resolve the issue.
See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110108/ap_on_re_us/us_health_care_repeal
5a) Boehner fires back at Dem senators with vow to push forward with repeal
Incoming House Speaker John Boehner's (oh, yes! Good riddance, Nancy Pelosi! Ding dong, the witch is dead, the wicked witch is dead! - comment mine) office (R-Ohio) pointedly vowed on Tuesday to push ahead with legislation repealing healthcare reform.
Boehner's office responded to a letter sent by the Senate's top five Democrats, vowing to block a House bill repealing healthcare reform, with a terse, 65-word note.
Boehner's office wrote:
Senators Reid, Durbin, Schumer, Murray and Stabenow:
Thank you for reminding us – and the American people – of the backroom deal that you struck behind closed doors with ‘Big Pharma,’ resulting in bigger profits for the drug companies, and higher prescription drug costs for 33 million seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D, at a cost to the taxpayers of $42.6 billion.
The House is going to pass legislation to repeal that now. You’re welcome.
- Speaker-Designate John Boehner’s Press Office
The note comes in response to a letter released on Monday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) office, in which the Democrats promise to block a bill repealing benefits within the healthcare law.
5b) Morning Bell: Repeal Doesn’t Increase the Deficit
When now-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D–CA) was sworn in as Speaker on January 4, 2007, the national debt stood at $8.67 trillion. By the time Pelosi surrendered the gavel to Speaker John Boehner (R–OH) yesterday, the national debt stood at $14.01 trillion. At $5.34 trillion, that means Speaker Pelosi added more than $1 trillion in debt per year during her tenure as Speaker. And yet she has the audacity to tell reporters Tuesday: “Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go.”
Only someone so out of touch with reality that they could claim that “deficit reduction” has been their “highest priority” while simultaneously adding more than $1 trillion a year to the debt could possibly claim that repealing Obamacare would add to the debt. But that is exactly what Pelosi wants us to believe. Also on Tuesday she claimed that repealing Obamacare would do “very serious violence to the national debt and deficit.” Nothing could be further from the truth.
See: http://blog.heritage.org/2011/01/06/morning-bell-repeal-doesnt-increase-the-deficit/
5c) Obamacare Ends Construction of Doctor-Owned Hospitals
Under the headline, "Construction Stops at Physician Hospitals," Politico reports today that "Physician Hospitals of America says that construction had to stop at 45 hospitals nationwide or they would not be able to bill Medicare for treatments." Stopping construction at doctor-owned hospitals might not seem like the best way to boost the economy or to promote greater access and choice in health care, but that exactly what Obamacare is doing.
Kenneth Artz of the Heartland Institute explains, "Section 6001 of the health care law effectively bans new physician-owned hospitals (POHs) from starting up, and it keeps existing ones from expanding." Politico adds, "Friday [New Year's Eve] marked the last day physician-owned hospitals could get Medicare certification covering their new or expanded hospitals, one of the latest provisions of the reform law to go into effect."
See: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obamacare-ends-construction-doctor-owned-hospitals_525950.html
6) Republicans introduce bill to eliminate presidential 'czars'
A group of House Republicans introduced a bill on Wednesday to rein in the various "czars" in the Obama administration.
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and 28 other House Republicans introduced legislation to do away with the informal, paid advisers President Obama has employed over the past two years.
The legislation, which was introduced in the last Congress but was not allowed to advance under Democratic control, would do away with the 39 czars Obama has employed during his administration.
The bill defines a czar as "a head of any task force, council, policy office within the Executive Office of the President, or similar office established by or at the direction of the President" who is appointed to a position that would otherwise require Senate confirmation.
7) Gibbs, Obama spokesman and adviser, quitting job
WASHINGTON – Robert Gibbs, the feisty press secretary whose job as President Barack Obama's chief spokesman and confidant has given him an outsized presence at the White House, announced Wednesday he was quitting for the less demanding, more lucrative role of giving paid speeches and advising the president from the outside world.
In a rapidly unfolding makeover, Obama was also closing in on a decision whether to tap William Daley (And the job did go to him later in the week. He is the brother of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. - comment mine), a former commerce secretary, for the vital gatekeeping job of White House chief of staff. Obama and Daley met at the White House on Wednesday, and a presidential decision on that position was expected within days.
See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110105/ap_on_re_us/us_white_house_shakeup
8) Obama and Air Force One: It's good to have a 747
President Obama will spend Monday night flying across the Pacific and United States after his latest vacation, 11 days in Hawaii. It will be his first trip of 2011 aboard Air Force One.
Last year Obama flew in Air Force One 172 times, almost every other day.
White House officials have been telling reporters in recent days that the Democrat doesn't intend to hang around the White House quite so much in 2011.
They explain he wants to get out more around the country because, as everyone knows, that midterm election shellacking on Nov. 2 had nothing to do with his healthcare bill, over-spending or other policies, and everything to do with Obama's not adequately explaining himself to his countrymen and women.
And with only 673 days remaining in the neverending presidential campaign, the incumbent's travel pace will not likely slacken.
At an Air Force-estimated cost of $181,757 per flight hour (not to mention the additional travel costs of Marine One, Secret Service, logistics and local police overtime), that's a lot of frequent flier dollars going into the president's carbon footprint.
See: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/01/obama-air-force-one-2010-by-the-numbers.html
9) EPA moving unilaterally to limit greenhouse gases
WASHINGTON (AP) — Stymied in Congress, the Obama administration is moving unilaterally to clamp down on greenhouse emissions, announcing plans for new power plants and oil refinery emission standards over the next year.
In an announcement posted on the agency's website late Thursday, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson said the aim was to better cope with pollution contributing to climate change.
"We are following through on our commitment to proceed in a measured and careful way to reduce GHG pollution that threatens the health and welfare of Americans," Jackson said in a statement. She said emissions from power plants and oil refineries constitute about 40 percent of the greenhouse gas pollution in this country.
President Barack Obama had said two days after the midterm elections that he was disappointed Congress hadn't acted on legislation achieving the same end, signaling that other options were under consideration.
Jackson's announcement came on the same day that the administration showed a go-it-alone approach on federal wilderness protection — another major environmental issue. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said his agency was repealing the Bush era's policy limiting wilderness protection, which was adopted under former Interior Secretary Gale Norton.
Translation: Not only is the EPA circumventing the legislative process by regulating CO2, it is seizing land at an alarming rate.
10) President Michele Bachmann?
Could Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) be considering a title change? According to ABC News, the Tea Party favorite is considering a run for “Mrs. President.”
ABC News reports:
ABC News has learned that Bachmann, R-Minn., also is seriously weighing whether to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2012.
A source close to the three-term congresswoman said Bachmann will travel to Iowa this month for multiple meetings to seek advice from political forces there and party elders close to the caucus process before coming to a final decision regarding a potential presidential run. Bachmann, a native of Waterloo, Iowa, also is set to deliver a keynote speech at an Iowans for Tax Relief PAC fundraiser Jan. 21 in Des Moines, Iowa.
According to ABC, this will be Bachmann’s third trip to Iowa in the last eight months — trips that could pay dividends when the early Iowa caucuses roll around.
And Bachmann‘s staff isn’t going out of its way to shoot down the rumors.
See: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/president-michelle-bachmann/
11) Republican Military Consultant’s Body Found in Garbage Truck
WILMINGTON, Del. – Police trying to piece together the last days of a slain national defense consultant said Tuesday he was seen alive in downtown Wilmington less than 24 hours before he was found dead in a load of trash at a landfill.
Sanitation workers spotted the body of 66-year-old John Wheeler III falling from a refuse truck as it dumped its load Friday at the Cherry Island landfill near Wilmington.
A tipster told police Wheeler was seen alive at 3:30 p.m. the previous day near a downtown intersection dominated by the E.I. DuPont & Co. headquarters building and the Hotel du Pont. Police did not say what he was doing there.
The intersection is about six blocks from the office of an attorney who was representing Wheeler and his wife in a property dispute, and about a mile from the Amtrak station Wheeler was known to use for trips to Washington, D.C.
Wheeler, who had a home about 7 miles from Wilmington in New Castle, served three Republican presidents (emphasis mine) and helped to get Vietnam Veterans Memorial built in Washington.
More recently, he was a part-time consultant hired to help promote discussions on cyber defense for The Mitre Corp., a nonprofit based in Bedford, Mass., and McLean, Va., that operates federally funded research and development centers.
See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110104/ap_on_re_us/us_federal_official_landfill
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