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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is raising money for his re-election campaign from a small group of wealthy donors who each paid $35,800 to meet with him at a hotel near the White House. Friday's fundraiser at the upscale Jefferson Hotel was closed to media coverage. Obama's campaign said about 20 people attended.

If private equity and hedge fund managers were optimistic that the election of one of their own would preserve their prized carried-interest tax break, Monday’s debate must have given them pause. Given the chance to defend his low tax rate by talking up the importance of low taxes on investment for job creation and competitiveness, Mitt Romney balked. Instead, he made an implicit case for why investment taxes shouldn’t be any lower than they are — as Newt Gingrich wants — and defended his own conduct rather than seeking to justify the tax policy.

An unknown number of the over 1,000 terrorists who are to be freed in exchange for Gilad Shalit will be allowed to return to Jerusalem. A group of concerned residents has responded by announcing the creation of an informal “terrorist warning system.” The system is simple: activists will keep tabs on freed terrorists, and will alert the public if they attempt to enter public areas or use public transportation. In addition, the terrorists’ pictures and personal information will be made available.... “The public does not know them, and they could wander freely. People do not realize that these are terrorists...

Outlays for U.S. construction projects rose 1.4% in August on public and private spending gains...Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected overall construction spending to decline 0.3%

Politics: A week ago, as the secretary of labor greeted grim job data by hailing the economy's "turnaround," the Dow fell 100 points in seconds — a vivid sign America is wising up to this administration's incompetence. Only minutes after her department reported that payrolls had shed another 131,000 positions in July, there was Secretary Hilda Solis speaking brazenly of the "strong and immediate action" the White House had taken to save or create "more than 2.5 million American jobs." But as the market action showed, investors could see she didn't know what she was talking about. But then, Solis...

Recently, at a gun show in Dayton, Ohio several people were arrested for violating the law by buying a gun when they knew it was illegal for them to do so. As usual, the media tried to hang the arrests on gun show promoters and stirred up discussion about the mythical gun show loophole. From the article: "The gun show loophole is a deadly serious problem — and this undercover operation exposes just how pervasive and serious it is," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said following the 2009 investigation funded by the city. A fact that anti-gun zealots will never...

Average annual pay for Michigan public-sector workers has grown substantially over the last decade in relation to private-sector pay. In 2001, public and private wages were comparable, with the average public-sector worker taking home about $1,400 per year less than his private-sector counterpart. However, in 2005, average public-sector pay overtook the private sector, and the gap in pay has since expanded to over $5,000 per year in favor of government workers. Over this time, wages for workers at all levels of government — local, state and federal — have grown more quickly than private-sector wages. This difference in pay does...

Home Front Defense Minister Matan Vilnai (Independence) addressed in a letter on Wednesday MK Yaakov “Ketzaleh” Katz’s (National Union) demand to determine the legal status of 13 Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, with an emphasis on finally providing zoning plans for these commuinities. In the letter, Vilnai addressed the situation in the community of Ofra, saying, “A significant part of the community of Ofra is built on private Palestinian land” and adding that as a result “the community does not have an approved jurisdiction.” Vilnai further explained that despite the opinions that were presented to him on the issue,...

With peas, acrobatics, sports and writing being the main topics at today's press conference, you may have missed a key moment when President Obama announced the stimulus was a success. And this wasn't just his opinion; there is evidence too! "Without relitigating the past, I’m absolutely convinced, and the vast majority of economists are convinced, that the steps we took in the Recovery Act saved millions of people their jobs or created a whole bunch of jobs," President Obama said at his presser on Monday morning.

RUSH: Minnesota state government is closed. The Minnesota state government shut down at midnight last night, the victim "of an ongoing dispute over taxes and spending between Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative majorities. Talks fell apart well before the deadline, leaving state parks closed on the brink of the Fourth of July weekend." Oh, the tears. You see how this works? Evil Republicans, state parks are closed, the little kiddies don't get to have their snow cones and the sleigh rides, oh, no, no Fourth of July, evil Republicans. The AP says that the shutdown in Minnesota puts...

Obama dives into debt talksBy Stephen Collinson | AFP – Mon, Jun 27, 2011 The White House accused Republicans of siding with billionaires and private jet owners, as President Barack Obama waded into political talks designed to avert a "calamitous" US debt default. Obama met the top Democrat in the Senate and his minority Republican counterpart, seeking to unpick a deadlock over his call on lawmakers to lift the $14.29 trillion debt ceiling by an August 2 deadline. As political tensions rose, the White House warned of "calamitous" consequences to the global economy if the talks do not seal an...

Two weeks ago, the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. released a widely reported survey that said almost a third of private-sector employers reported they will drop their employee health insurance coverage when Obamacare's government-managed insurance exchanges come online in 2014. The survey results exploded two major claims repeatedly made by Obama during and since the conclusion of the health care debate: "If you like your health plan, you can keep it" and "It will not add one penny to the deficit." Obama and his allies reacted with fury to the McKinsey results. Obama's deputy chief of staff for policy, Nancy-Ann...

Two unrelated news stories on the same day show the contrast between government decisions and private decisions. Under the headline, “Foreclosed Homes Sell at Big Discounts,” USA Today reported that banks were selling the homes that they foreclosed on at discounts of 38 percent in Tennessee to 41 percent in Illinois and Ohio. Banks in general try to get rid of the homes that they acquire by foreclosure by selling them quickly for whatever they can get. Why? Because banks are forced by economic realities to realize that they are not real-estate companies. No matter how much expertise bank officials...

RUSH: We have the unemployment news that we are now at 9.1% unemployment. We have next to no growth. We have massive unemployment. We're in the midst of a housing disaster, oppressive regulations. All of this and the regime is demanding massive tax increases. We face a threat of reduction in the nation's credit rating. We have systemic, historic deficits and still today you can read certain stories or go to certain networks and hear them talk about the recovery! There is no recovery. If this isn't a depression, then what is? And the sad thing is, what's even worse,...

Alabama Passes Mandatory E-Verify & Immigration Enforcement Bill Friday, June 3, 2011, 1:25 PM EDT An Alabama House and Senate conference committee agreed on a new bill, which both chambers have already passed, that requires the use of E-Verify by all businesses in the state and includes several immigration enforcement provisions. Should Gov. Robert Bentley sign the bill into law, it would become one of the largest state crackdowns on illegal immigration in the country. The bill requires all businesses, public and private, to begin using E-Verify effective April 1, 2012. Businesses that do not comply face suspension of its...

Public vs. Private Sector Inequities~ By: Larry Walker, Jr. ~Did you know that most state and local government employees are exempt from Social Security taxes? Millions of Americans who are covered by state or local retirement plans do not pay into the Social Security system. If Social Security is such a great plan, then why are 17,738,156 [1] state and local government workers exempt? Why does the federal government continue to legally bind the rest of us to a sinking ship? This isn’t 1933 anymore. The time for change is now. Social Security is the biggest fraud in American history.There...

Obama’s Private Remarks Caught on Planned Parenthood, Obamacare A White House reporter last night caught pro-abortion President Barack Obama talking privately to donors using a microphone that transmitted the audio to the main correspondent press room. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/04/15/obamas-private-remarks-caught-on-planned-parenthood-obamacare/

Concealed handgun license holders would become anonymous under a bill approved by the Oregon House on Thursday. House Bill 2787 prohibits public bodies from releasing information that identifies who is licensed to carry a concealed handgun. The proposal cleared the House by a wide margin, 42 to 18. Oregon's public records law allows for public inspection of handgun license applications, which ask for character references, previous crimes and drug use. The application authorizes the sheriff's office to run a background check. Currently, applicants can claim personal safety reasons to keep information private. Privacy advocates say gun ownership is no one...

If these outfits can afford to pay lavish salaries to their heads, they don't need taxpayer help. When presidents of government-funded broadcasting are making more than the president of the United States, it's time to get the government out of public broadcasting. While executives at the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) are raking in massive salaries, the organizations are participating in an aggressive lobbying effort to prevent Congress from saving hundreds of millions of dollars each year by cutting their subsidies. The so-called commercial free public airwaves have been filled with pleas for taxpayer cash. The...

This video explains why public sector (government) workers are different from private sector (non-government) workers and private sector (non-government worker) unions. It also provides the shocking literacy rates in Wisconsin public schools despite the massive increase in education spending (that massive increase equates to increased wages and benefits for the government workers). And don’t miss the stats on how many children of government workers attend private school instead of the public government schools. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpCe79biR_8 In addition to the information in the above video, here are few more things to think about/to be clarified since most of the media outlets are...