Bachmann Stares Down Heckler in Iowa

AP File

By Kasie Hunt, Politico

Michele Bachmann said again Monday that the American intervention in Libya was a mistake - but this time she had to talk over a heckler who shouted vulgarities at her.

Jenny Watkins, 22, shouted at Bachmann from the back of a large room at the University of Iowa here, while a male companion held a sign that read "Desensitized Homosexual" - a reference to an earlier part of Bachmann's speech, when she said she worried that children in elementary school would be desensitized to homosexuality. The two might have been escorted out with little fanfare, but Bachmann stopped to address them - "If you'd like to ask a question later, I'd be more than happy to have you do that," she said before continuing to talk about Libya.

"I think it was a mistake for the president to get us involved in a third war in Libya," Bachmann said. "There's no viable American national interest in Libya." We don't know what our American military goal is in Libya."

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/rep-michele-bachmann/2011/04/11/bachmann-stares-down-heckler-iowa?cmpid=NL_FiredUpFoxNation_20110412#ixzz1JP1R1cg5

Palin: Trump Right on Obama Birth Probe

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says real estate mogul Donald Trump, who is considering a 2012 presidential run, is right in sending investigators to Hawaii to pursue the issue of where President Barack Obama was born, because many Americans want proof he was indeed born in this country.

“I appreciate that 'The Donald' wants to spend his resources in getting to the bottom of something that so interests him and many Americans — you know, more power to him,” Palin said Saturday on Fox News’ “Justice with Judge Jeanine.” “He’s not just throwing stones from the sidelines, he’s digging in there, he’s paying for researchers to find out why President Obama would have spent $2 million to not show his birth certificate.”

Palin said although she believes the president was born in Hawaii, it is “perplexing” why Obama has spent so much money to avoid the issue, and there might be “something there the president doesn’t want people to see” on his birth certificate.

She expressed hope Trump’s investigation will put to rest the issue of why the president is so intent on not providing the requested documentation.
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Read more on Newsmax.com: Palin: Trump Right on Obama Birth Probe
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Pelosi Exposed

On a conference call with bloggers, Nancy Pelosi urged Dems to fashion their response to Paul Ryan’s Medicare proposals on the Democratic Party’s successful defeat of Social Security privatization, and made a critical point: Dems succeeded in 2005 because they did not take the GOP’s bait by offering their own plan to “fix”Social Security.

Pelosi — who is widely viewed as the person most responsible for ensuring that Dems drew a hard line against Bush’s privatization proposals — said that so doing would have persuaded people that there must have been something wrong with Social Security that needed fixing. She suggested that Dems should keep that message in mind as they prepare to do battle over Ryan’s Medicare proposals.

“We got criticized for it, but it was the most important thing,” Pelosi said. “We couldn’t have our own proposal on Social Security because it would confuse the public.”

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/nancy-pelosi/2011/04/07/pelosi-exposed-fraud-conference-call-bloggers?cmpid=NL_FiredUpFoxNation_20110408#ixzz1J8s6Bknf

The First Amendment, Korans, and personal responsibility

Until now, I haven’t had much of an opportunity to weigh in on Lindsey Graham’s gee-I’d-like-to-ban-Koran-burning-but-I-probably-can’t pas de deux from this weekend.  Allahpundit has done a good job of analyzing the issue, and I thought that the point was self-evident enough that few would seriously argue for government intervention aimed at obscure preachers to silence political protest.  Conversations I have had in the meantime with others convinced me that apparently the need to defend free speech isn’t self-evident, and when a high-ranking politician stokes those passions, it requires more effort.

My column at The Week addresses Graham’s construct, which he posits as both a need to save lives and to somehow honor David Petraeus, but in order to buy either argument, one would have to believe in remote mind control and throw out the concepts of free will and personal responsibility.  That would undermine the argument for freedom entirely:http://hotair.com/archives/2011/04/06/the-first-amendment-korans-and-personal-responsibility/

Federal Workers Union Sues White House Over Possible Government Shutdown

With time running out for congressional leaders to reach a budget deal, the country's biggest federal workers union is taking the Obama administration to court for what it called a failure to explain how federal programs and services would be affected if there's a government shutdown.

The American Federation of Government Employees announced Tuesday that it filed a lawsuit in federal court last week seeking details on the shutdown plans of federal agencies.

The union's national president, John Gage, said he filed the lawsuit after the White House Office of Management and Budget failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request sent early last month.

Unreal World

Company: Qwest Communication International (NYSE: Q - News)
Perk recipient: Edward Mueller

Executives are often given the right to use the company jet for pleasure travel, but their spouses, children and friends are usually only allowed to use the plane when they're accompanying the employee. But Edward Mueller demanded an exception to that rule when he became CEO of Denver-based Qwest in 2007.

His employment agreement gave his wife and daughter the right to use the company jet to commute to and from California, where his daughter was still in high school. The phone company expensed $281,182 that year for Mueller family joy rides on the jet and ended up buying his California home for a $1.8 million premium to its resale price, too

Obama to Launch Re-election With Video

President Barack Obama will formally announce his re-election campaign with an online video that aides will post on his new campaign website, Democratic insiders tell National Journal.
The exact date and time of the announcement will be kept under wraps until Obama’s team alerts supporters with text messages and email. By that time, Obama will have opened his campaign account with the Federal Election Commission.
But Democratic donors are being told that the announcement will coincide with a Democratic National Committee fundraiser set for April 14 in Chicago, which Obama will attend.
The campaign could use the video to begin soliciting donations, according to National Journal.
President George W. Bush didn’t announce his re-election campaign until May of 2003. But Democrats close to the president are concerned that independent opposition groups will soon begin airing their television ads.
One of those groups, American Crossroads — with former Bush staffer Karl Rove as an adviser — is seeking to raise at least $130 million for the election cycle, on top of money allocated by the Chamber of Commerce and other Republican-leaning groups.