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Mark Whittington Published January 25, 2010 by:Mark Whittington Politico is quoting an astonishing account by retiring Arkansas Congressman Marion Berry about a meeting he had recently with President Barack Obama. The subject of whether the 2010 midterms were going to be a repeat of 1994 came up. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette account, quoted in the Politico, said about President Obama's view on 2010 vs. 1994, "The president himself, when that was brought up in one group, said, 'Well, the big difference here and in '94 was you've got me.'"

Bans on fake pot do little to deter business COLUMBIA, Mo. — Authorities in 13 states thought they were acting to curb a public health threat when they outlawed a form of synthetic marijuana known as K2, a concoction of dried herbs sprayed with chemicals. But before the laws took effect, many stores that did a brisk business in fake pot had already gotten around the bans by making slight changes to K2's chemical formula, creating knockoffs with names such as "K3," "Heaven Scent" and "Syn." "It's kind of pointless," said University of Missouri sophomore Brittany May after purchasing a...

Can someone define what a "Pennsylvania scooper woodchuck" is?A South Florida meter maid gave a couple of parking violators more than their two quarters worth over the weekend, and now he is out of a job. On Friday, Barry Shore went on a tirade that would make a certain former Jet Blue flight attendant blush after a woman forgot to pay to park at a meter in Delray Beach. The woman's husband, Bill Evans, eventually confronted 68-year-old Shore and that's when he got a real ear full from the volunteer parking enforcement official. "Take that and shove it up your...

The movement has now reached critical mass and cannot be stopped. The GOP, the Republican Party, the party of Lincoln, has now had it's leadership in states red and blue rejected. The leaders are really no longer leaders, they are LINO's. The rank and file members have rejected the blue-blood established crowd, the anointed crowd, and are listening to new leadership. Different leadership, the tea party leadership. I believe it will be viewed eventually as the next logical step of the Reagan revolution. The conservative undercurrent has finally fully asserted itself - conservative republicans, conservative independents, and conservative "Reagan" democrats...

Republican John Kasich continues to hold a modest lead over incumbent Democrat Ted Strickland in the Ohio gubernatorial race.

A senior Papal adviser has pulled out of the Pope's UK visit after saying arriving at Heathrow airport was like landing in a "Third World" country. Cardinal Walter Kasper reportedly told a German magazine the UK was marked by "a new and aggressive atheism". The Vatican said the 77-year-old cardinal had not intended "any kind of slight", and was referring to the UK's multicultural society. It added that he had simply pulled out of the Pope's visit due to illness. The German-born cardinal was quoted as saying to the country's Focus magazine that "when you land at Heathrow you think...

According to a new survey by Pew Research, only 25% of Americans offer a name when asked who they think of as the current leader of the Republican Party, 60% say they don't know who the leader is and 18% say they believe that 'nobody' leads the party. That's good news for while a political party should have various organizational positions within it, it should be led by the wishes and will of the people not any individual. This is the case with the current GOP.

Big, gentle Griz suddenly growled and darted away. Advertising Moments later, the 2-year-old Alaskan malamute reappeared on the run from behind a few farm buildings — chasing a mountain lion. “The cat was full leaped out. He was on a dead run with his tail out behind him. He looked huge,” said Jane Schledewitz. “We were head-to-head. There was nothing between us but air.” The cougar and Griz the dog zipped past Schledewitz and vanished around the corner of the farmhouse. She estimated the distance between herself and the cougar as twice the length of her living room... ...The mountain...

By Paul Driessen Saturday, September 11, 2010 We will eradicate malaria by 2010, stricken families were promised a few years ago. Well, 2010 is nearly gone and, instead of eradication, we have more malaria than before … and a new target date: 2015. Unless malaria control policies change, that date too will come and go. Billions will still be at risk of getting malaria. Hundreds of millions will continue getting the disease. Millions will die or become permanently brain-damaged. And poverty and misery will continue ravaging Third World communities.

Leo McKinstry and Pope Benedict XVI London, England, Sep 15, 2010 / 08:19 am (CNA).- Belfast-born author and journalist Leo McKinstry has said an anti-Catholic mood before the papal visit to the U.K. is comparable to the sectarianism of Northern Ireland. He blamed the antagonism upon the “politically correct spirit of our age” which emphasizes moral relativism and self-gratification. McKinstry, a conservative who has written several books, announced his own impending conversion to Catholicism in The Daily Mail on Tuesday. He told how he had a sudden insight into religion in a Venetian chapel when he realized that the...

An ad for a candidate for Congress who is running against Nancy Pelosi skewers both political parties and campaign finance laws.

BUFFALO — Fresh from having romped to a lopsided victory in the Republican primary for governor, Carl P. Paladino vowed Wednesday to attack Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo “like General Patton,” saying he would exploit Mr. Cuomo’s “immaturity” and his “ego.” “We’re going to charge, charge, charge,” Mr. Paladino said in a wide-ranging 40-minute interview with The New York Times on Wednesday morning. “General Patton, when they told him to get up there to the bulge and bring his Third Army and help those soldiers up there — it didn’t matter who was in his way. He charged, charged, charged.”...

GOP leaders -- Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, John Boehner, Karl Rove and others -- as well as establishment Republicans have no idea how livid Americans are with them. Republican leaders are in a panic because they have lost control of the Republican Party. Grassroots constitutional conservatives are inside the Citadel, and are poised to take over. All across the country -- in the Northeast, the South, the West -- Americans feel betrayed by Republican politicians. Last night’s election results show that the grassroots anger is directed at more than just the Obama-Reid-Pelosi Democrats. Christine O’Donnell’s inspiring upset in Delaware, Ovide...

The perfect Feminist is Sarah Palin. She is beautiful, thin, even athletic, successful, happily married, a good mother and a grandmother. She’s got it all – everything those Suffragettes were fighting for back in 1920. Not only can she vote, she got voted for! And, she was a great Governor. She’s got everything those sixties Gloria Steinem’s wanted. But, the Gloria’s won’t admit it because Sarah thinks “right.” Liberals want tolerance, but only for themselves. I love the way the Palins navigate Sarah’s fame. I watched Todd and Sarah at the Searchlight and Boston events this year. They looked like...

Today the news is filled with headlines such as yahoo’s Tea party victory endangers GOP’s goal of retaking the Senate, The Washington Examiner’s article One Nation Under Revolt, and the Politico’s Gibbs: O’Donnell isn’t mainstream. I find it hard to believe the media, the Republican Party, and the Democrats don’t under what is happening in America right now, it is really quite simple. President Obama ran as a centrist candidate who was going to be the great uniter and usher in an era of hope and change to America despite warnings from conservatives that he was a radical leftist. Within...

MONTEGUT — Precious Ridenour loves animals. Throughout her house and backyard, she has dogs, cats, birds, snakes and goats. For Ridenour, that’s what makes the charges against her hard to take. Ridenour, 43, shot a dog she claims ran into her yard on Victor LeBouef Street and threatened her animals and, more importantly, her 7-year-old daughter, AprilMoon. “I can get another goat, she can get another dog. You can’t get another one of her,” she said, pointing to her daughter. According to Ridenour and witnesses, a dog ran into Ridenour’s back yard that Saturday and began to attack one of...

"Well, bless his heart. We love our friends there in the machine that the expert politicos -- those who say the GOP nominee is unelectable or that they're not gonna even try. Well, I say 'buck up,'" Sarah Palin said on FOX News Channel. VIDEO AT LINK

(Reuters) - Republican candidate Marco Rubio has opened a clear lead in a Florida Senate race, becoming the latest "Tea Party" favorite to benefit from voter anger at Washington, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found on Wednesday. Six weeks ahead of Nov. 2 congressional elections, Rubio leads state Governor Charlie Crist, an independent, by 40 percent to 26 percent among likely voters, the poll found. Democrat Kendrick Meek trails at 21 percent.

My Ricochet time is limited this week as I attend to my Trustee duties on behalf of Michigan’s Hillsdale College. I’m proud to be the Vice-Chairman of the Board, and we’re celebrating the opening of the Kirby Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington this week. If you think most colleges and universities offer courses on the Constitution, think again. Even a long-time shop teacher can use the fingers on one hand to count those that do. There’s a delicious irony to this college’s presence in the Capital, because Hillsdale is nearly unique in its refusal to accept any...