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Ben Carson sarcastically thanked the mainstream media and several negative stories for a fundraising surge that brought in $3.5 million for the former neurosurgeon this week. Moreover, many of those donations are small from a huge spectrum of donors who can give over and over again, unlike many of the "bundlers" who tap millionaires and billionaires for other other candidates. That is already making Carson's mailing list the stuff of legend among political professionals and rival campaigns.

Long before Jim Messina became a trusted aide to President Barack Obama and one of the most powerful men in Washington, he was just a simple boy from Boise. Now, after working in politics for just over a decade, he lives in a lavish D.C. estate. How this happened is a classic Washington Cinderella story. Raised in Idaho by a single mother, Messina moved to Washington in 1995, in his mid-20s, to take a job as a legislative aide for Max Baucus, the conservative Democratic senator from Montana (now ambassador to China). Baucus supported George W. Bush-era personal and corporate...

GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump disputed claims from a female lawyer who said he called her "disgusting" when she asked to take a break to breast-pump during a 2011 deposition. Elizabeth Beck told CNN's "New Day" on Wednesday that Trump had "an absolute meltdown" when she requested a break to pump breast milk for her 3-month-old child. Special: Hackers Release Top Secret Money Making Software to Public "He got up, his face got red, he shook his finger at me and he screamed, 'You're disgusting, you're disgusting,' and he ran out of there," Beck said. Trump denied the claim to...

Jefferson, a member of the gentry of Old Virginia, was always regarded as one of the best and brightest of his generation, a gentleman of the finest intellect, taste, and manners. Although Jefferson loved and was loyal to the Union, he was a Virginian first and an American second; Virginia, Jefferson avowed, was his “country.” This order of allegiance – State over Union, or “Society” over “the State” – was firmly rooted in the Old South. Accordingly, in the emerging conflict between the North and the South, Jefferson sided with his own country. “It is true that we are completely...

President Barack Obama took a stab at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview with Reuters on Monday, on the eve of Netanyahu’s controversial speech to a special joint session of Congress on Tuesday morning. Obama said that Netanyahu “made all sorts of claims” about the interim nuclear deal with Iran that turned out to be untrue. Yet Obama mischaracterized Netanyahu’s remarks, and misrepresented Iranian compliance with the terms of the interim deal. Obama’s full comment on Monday was: “Netanyahu made all sorts of claims. This was going to be a terrible deal. This was going to result in

JEFFERSON CITY, MO (KTVI) – Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich died Thursday as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 54. Clayton Police Chief Kevin Murphy said officers were called to the auditor’s home in the 7100 block of Wydown Boulevard just before 9:50 a.m. for a reported gunshot victim.They found Schweich on the floor of his residence with a single bullet wound. Chief Murphy would not disclose where the gunshot wound occurred. Schweich was rushed to Barnes Jewish Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

I have taken ten of the most believed or written about misconceptions about Catholics or the Church and debunked them (with evidence wherever possible).

A funny thing happened on the way to Facebook. A month ago I posted on my Facebook page Save the West a photo by the US Anti-Fur Society of a white fox about to be anally electrocuted for his fur. The fox had overgrown nails for lack of walking on solid grounds, having lived his life on wire cages. Animals farm-raised for fur are killed by gassing, neck-breaking, injection with poisons and anal electrocution so as not to damage their pelts. Wild fur-bearing animals are killed by clubbing and trapping, suffering agonising deaths. An otherwise sensible visitor of Save the...

Sen. Rand Paul was supposed to be a more politically savvy version of his father, former Texas congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul. The senior Paul energized a subset of the Republican Party, but the younger Paul was supposed to be a more mainstream advocate for limited government and a non-interventionist foreign policy. The Kentucky senator has even been touted as one of the leading candidates for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Yet time and again, he has shown why he shouldn't be taken seriously. The latest controversy surrounding Paul, which has been detailed in a series of stories at...

Bangkok, Thailand - Over two months after the bloody finale of Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war, a lingering row over civilian casualties continues to roil a fractured society. Sri Lankan authorities have insisted that their final military push against Tamil Tiger rebels didn't target hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped behind enemy lines. But aid workers, church officials, and government doctors reported that heavy shelling had caused mass casualties. A preliminary United Nations report estimated that 7,000 had died between January and May. On Wednesday, however, a group of doctors who had provided dramatic firsthand accounts of civilian suffering in...

It is impossible to know if Mitt Romney would turn out to be a good, bad or a mediocre president, but one certain downside of a Romney victory is that it would reward the most venal forces in American politics. It only starts with the kind of campaign Romney has run. He and his "super PAC" allies used a mountain of dollars to produce unending waves of attack ads that swamped the messages of his Republican primary rivals, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. In the general election, Romney cranked it up a notch. President Obama’s own money machine paid for...

Switzerland hit back Tuesday at a US presidential election campaign video that portrays the country as a tax haven. In the video, a character named Miss Swiss Bank Account describes the Republican candidate Mitt Romney as a "boss millionaire with accounts everywhere", the ATS news agency reported. The film gives "the impression that having a bank account in Switzerland is dubious in itself and its only aim is to hide money from the tax authorities," Switzerland's Federal Department for Foreign Affairs (DFAE) said. Switzerland's Washington embassy reportedly expressed its unhappiness at the clip to the Obama team, ATS said.

Recently announced Vice Presidential pick Paul Ryan is being called a radical by the left for his fiscal policies. But no one would expect that anyone would imply that the Roman Catholic family man would be a Black Panther. Yet, the New York Times ran the headline "Paul Ryan, Black Panther?" on the day after the announcement was made. This was in a series called “Historically Corrected.” (So when will the New York Times allow me to blog in a series titled “Why You Should Read George Orwell and Other Novelists”?) This of course was false advertising, for anyone reading...

I was cleaning out the Ryan family refrigerator and freezer. I looked into the back of the freezer and there was this round thing covered with newspaper. Slowly I pulled back the newspaper and … it was a frozen head! With a scary expression on its face! As far as I knew I was alone in the kitchen but I turned around and Paul Ryan was standing there, sharpening a butcher knife, looking at me like he was possessed! (Cue the music from The Shining)

Harry Reid paints his toenails red and wears a girdle. No, seriously, a former Nevada Democrat who shall remain nameless told me so. And if the erstwhile Senator wants to prove otherwise, he will have to take off his socks and shoes, along with his pants, and show the public it’s not true. Oh, and did I tell you that Mr. Reid has “I like Ike” tattooed on his behind? I’m not kidding. A former country club colleague of Reid’s who is not comfortable revealing his identity whispered that to me while I was riding the subway. Therefore, it must...

Two can play at that game, remarked Professor Alan Dershowitz, responding to the smear tactics of liberal leftists aimed at wealthy Republican donors.According to numerous polls, Obama's critical Jewish margin is on a downward slide, even losing major ground since the 2008 election among Jewish voters in Florida, a key battleground state. This phenomenon is evidently repeating itself in other swing states, creating not only a problem of potential loss of critical electoral votes, but more significantly at this stage of the game, affecting the level of fundraising needed to finance Obama's re-election bid. The Democratic Party and its head,...

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley says she’s being smeared once again by another blogger posting “lies” and spreading “trash” about her online. “Sorry fellas,” Haley wrote on her Facebook page Thursday. “I’m not going anywhere no matter how many lies you put on a blog.” Haley’s comments are in response to a report by The Palmetto Public Record, a South Carolina political blog, that she could be indicted in a federal investigation soon. She has denounced the post as totally false. The blog said she could be indicted in federal court over the finances of the Sikh Religious Society of...

Two well-placed legal experts have independently told Palmetto Public Record they expect the U.S. Department of Justice to issue an indictment against South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on charges of tax fraud as early as this week. A highly ranked federal official has also privately confirmed rumblings of an investigation and possible indictment of the governor, though the official was not aware of the specific timeframe. Yesterday, Palmetto Public Record exclusively reported that the Internal Revenue Service has been investigating since March of 2011 the Sikh worship center run by Gov. Haley’s father. At least five lawsuits have been filed...

The Department of Justice may indict South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley on charges of tax fraud, according to the Palmetto Public Record, a South Carolina political blog. PPR reported that a “highly ranked” federal government official “privately confirmed rumblings of an investigation” and the “possible indictment of the governor.” The report said the official, however, could not provide a specific time frame. However, two “well-placed legal experts” said the DOJ indictment could come as early as next week, according to the report. The alleged tax fraud reportedly occurred during Haley’s time managing finances for the Sikh worship center in...

Is it no wonder Erick said Romney would tear the party apart, this article came in a Newsmax.com email. Fight after fight, Romeny smears while running from his record while newt takes the heat and keeps going and going and going. Like the Energizer Bunny!!! Limbaugh, Mike Reagan Blast Romney for Smears on Gingrich Ronald Reagan’s eldest son Mike Reagan has issued a statement lambasting Mitt Romney and his supporters for claims that Romney’s Republican presidential rival Newt Gingrich was a strong critic of President Reagan. Mike Reagan says such claims are false. Even Rush Limbaugh, shocked by the Romney...