2012 Libertarian Party Presidential Candidates

Roger Gary

'Gary vs Johnson'

http://www.rvgary2012.com

RJ Harris 2012

'Wake Up America' it's time to Fight for Liberty!

http://www.RJHarris2012.com

Lee Wrights

'Stop All War'

http://www.Wrights2012.com

WASHINGTON --  The newly muscular House Republicans voted Wednesday to overturn President Obama's health care overhaul -- a move that is largely symbolic because the Democratic-controlled Senate is poised to ignore it while Obama is certain to veto it should it somehow pass through Congress.

The House passed the bill 245-189 with three Democrats -- Reps. Mike Ross, Dan Boren and Mike McIntyre --joining the Republican effort.

Even though Democrats are certain to block the bill in the Senate, Republicans are determined to chisel away at the law through attempts to deny funding for parts of the legislation as they go into effect in the coming years.

"The Congress can do better in terms of replacing Obamacare with common-sense reforms that will bring down the cost of health insurance and expand access for more Americans," House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor took aim at Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has said he won't even take up the repeal measure in his chamber.

"I've got a problem with the assumption here that somehow the Senate can be a place for a legislation to go into a cul-de-sac or a dead end," he said. "The American people deserve a full hearing. They deserve to see this legislation go to the Senate for a full vote."

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It was only a matter of time before the parent of small children awakened by a school’s snow day robocall finally cracked, and parents across the nation are wishing they could line up to buy a beer for 31-year-old Aaron Titus of Fort Washington, Maryland.

Titus, a lawyer, has five kids in the house, one of whom is a newborn. As parents of very little kids know, sleep is a tightly guarded commodity, and grudges against people who wake a sleeping child are long and fiercely held. (I have an aunt who still complains about the time a friend of mine woke my cousin, and my cousin is currently a junior in college.) Titus was a bit pissed off when the phone in his house rang at 4:33 am during the recent snowstorm, informing families that schools were affected by a two hour delay. Undoubtedly, a fair few families were then stuck with cranky, awake children hours away from getting on the school bus.

Titus didn’t just bitch about it on the internet or write it down in his Hello Kitty notepad, however. He actually managed to contract with one of the odious companies who arranges for mass recorded telephone calls, and then got up on the Googles and found as many school board members as he could. Just after 4 am the following day, the following robocall went out to the people for which Titus was able to collect phone numbers:

“This is a Prince George’s County School District parent, calling to thank you for the robocall yesterday at 4:30 in the morning. I decided to return the favor. While I know the school district wanted to ensure I drop my child off two hours late on a snow day, I already knew that before I went to bed. I hope this call demonstrates why a 4:30 a.m. call does more to annoy than to inform.”

It ended: “Quit robocalling parents at 4:30 in the morning or at least allow us to opt out of these intrusive calls.”

For their part, affected board members have had a pretty good sense of humor about the incident and one even told local press he admired Titus’ “creativity.” Now that everyone for the most part has access to the internet, is it time for schools to get over their attachment to parents’ landlines?

I would be honored by your support and I request your presence.
Please join me in my pursuit of Judge in JP Court.

Event Details

Venue:

Cadillac Bar & Restaurant 212 S. Flores,78204 (Across the Courthouse)

Pre-Sale Tickets:

$20/Individual or $30/Couple

Purchase Tickets At:

http://www.ElectMelissa.com or Call 210.519.8883

Tickets Include:

Donation to Campaign, Buffet Style Dinner, Two Drink
Tickets*, and Live Music with Comedy Show

Happy Hour Prices:

All Night

Proud to feature local artists and performers.

5:30 Musician
7:00 Melissa
7:30 Award-Winning Comedian *Jade Esteban Estrada*
8:00/Inside *Lariza* Latin Singer and TTMA Nominee
8:00/Outside *Lydell Jones feat. JeNa* R&B Artist

By Lara Farrar, for CNN
Beijing, China (CNN) -- In China, white people can be rented.

For a day, a weekend, a week, up to even a month or two, Chinese companies are willing to pay high prices for fair-faced foreigners to join them as fake employees or business partners.

Some call it "White Guy Window Dressing." To others, it's known as the "White Guy in a Tie" events, "The Token White Guy Gig," or, simply, a "Face Job."

And it is, essentially, all about the age-old Chinese concept of face. To have a few foreigners hanging around means a company has prestige, money and the increasingly crucial connections -- real or not -- to businesses abroad.

"Face, we say in China, is more important than life itself," said Zhang Haihua, author of "Think Like Chinese." "Because Western countries are so developed, people think they are more well off, so people think that if a company can hire foreigners, it must have a lot of money and have very important connections overseas. So when they really want to impress someone, they may roll out a foreigner."

Or rent one.

Last year, Jonathan Zatkin, an American actor who lives in Beijing, posed as the vice president of an Italian jewelry company that had, allegedly, been in a partnership with a Chinese jewelry chain for a decade.

When is being foreign a career advantage?

Zatkin was paid 2,000 yuan (about $300) to fly, along with a couple of Russian models, to a small city in the central province of Henan where he delivered a speech for the grand opening ceremony of a jewelry store there.

"I was up on stage with the mayor of the town, and I made a speech about how wonderful it was to work with the company for 10 years and how we were so proud of all of the work they had done for us in China," Zatkin said. "They put up a big bandstand and the whole town was there and some other local muckety-mucks."

Full story »

Admitted Racist and KKK Member. West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd has died at the age of 92. Byrd, who was the longest serving member of Congress, was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1952. He was appointed to the Senate six years later. (June 28)

Is permanent containment a possibility? The New York Times reports that government officials and BP are discussing long-term containment plans in the unlikely-but-possible case that the relief well, currently slated for completion in early August, fails. Once the relief well is drilled, BP will pump heavy mud through it into the leaking well; however, the process could be hindered if the original well bore was damaged. Meanwhile, the short-term oil-relief effort is also facing setbacks: Tropical Storm Alex will steer clear of the oil-leak site, but will still delay plans to deliver a third containment vessel by about a week. That vessel, when delivered, will raise BP’s collection capacity from 28,000 barrels of oil a day to 53,000. Between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels of oil are spilling into the Gulf each day.

Elena Kagan made a commitment to judicial restraint and a "modest" role on the Supreme Court, as Senate confirmation hearings opened Monday. But Republicans attacked the Obama nominee for embodying the opposite qualities. In an opening statement, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) called into question Kagan's practical judicial experience: "While academia certainly has value," he said, referring to Kagan's experience as dean of Harvard Law School, "there is no substitute for being in the harness of the law, handling real cases over a period of years." He also painted her as (surprise!) a too-liberal judge who has "associated herself with well-known activist judges." Dems used their time to criticize what they insisted was a right-leaning Supreme Court, beholden to corporate interests, lambasting Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. for being more conservative than he said he was during his 2005 hearings. Dems also praised Kagan for her "moderation and pragmatism."

Gen. Stanley McChrystal's military career will soon officially be over: On Monday, the general told the Army that he’ll be hanging up his hat. The announcement comes a few days after President Obama relieved him of the leadership of the Afghanistan war effort over disrespectful remarks that appeared in a Rolling Stone article. Army spokesman Col. Tom Collins has said that while McChrystal has informed the Army of his intent to leave, he hasn't yet filed the official paperwork. It may be a few months before he officially leaves the service. Just last year, McChrystal was promoted to the prestigious rank of four-star general, a title he may not be able to keep, as Army rules stipulate a four-star general must serve with that rank for three years in order to retain it.

More trouble in Mexico: In the highest-profile assassination of a Mexican leader in 14 years, Rodolfo Torre Cantu, a leading candidate for governor in the state of Tamaulipas, was gunned down in his campaign van on Monday. The shooting came just days before the election, and according to the Christian Science Monitor, it's a rare instance of drug cartels setting their sights on electoral officials. President Felipe Calderon said in a televised address, "Today has proven that organized crime is a permanent threat and that we should close ranks to confront it and prevent it from repeating acts such as the cowardly assassination that shocked the country today." Just one month earlier, a mayoral candidate was murdered in the same state. Experts on the region speculate that the murder may have been a warning to all candidates that they will be forced to comply with the demands of drug traffickers or they'll be killed.

It's a battle of the social-networking giants: On the heels of Facebook announcing its new Open Graph search feature—which has been called a "Google killer"—the technorati are speculating that Google may launch its own social-networking service. Digg founder Kevin Rose took to Twitter to publicize the rumor, writing, "Ok, umm, huge rumor: Google to launch facebook competitor very soon "Google Me", very credible source." Some tech journos surmise that Google might integrate its extant social-networking features, Google Buzz and Orkut, a move that would push its user base to 200 million people, half that of Facebook's. Others speculate that the search engine may expand upon Google Profiles.

Well, this surely won’t help accusations that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is guilty of racial profiling. On Friday, the controversial lawmaker said she believes “that the majority of the illegal trespassers that are coming into the state of Arizona are under the direction and control of organized drug cartels and they are bringing drugs in.” She confessed that “a lot” of illegal immigrants enter the country to look for honest work, but said that most are “mules.” The comments sparked widespread outrage. Mexican Senator Jesus Ramon Valdes called her comments racist and irresponsible, saying, "Traditionally, migrants have always been needy, humble people who in good faith go looking for a way to better the lives of their families." T.J. Bonner, president of the border agent union concurred: “The majority of people continue to come across in search of work, not to smuggle drugs," he said. "Most of the drug smuggling is done by people who intend to do that. That's their livelihood.”

USAA employees know what it means to serve, but we like to have fun too. Take a look at these employees rapping about our mission at our employee meeting. Special thanks to Quincy Lydell Jones, a USAA employee, for his great songwriting skills.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday said the US economy was "still going through an incredibly difficult period," as he warned the impact of the crisis would be "lasting."

"Millions of Americans are still looking for work and are suffering from the damage of a deep recession. The impact of this crisis will be lasting," he said in prepared testimony to Congress.

While heralding progress in unwinding government stimulus spending, Geithner stressed the United States was still not out of the woods.

"Government policies continue to play an important role in repairing the damage to our financial system, preserving stability and broadening the scope of the financial recovery for all Americans."

Full story »

IT HAS BEGUN. On the same day 15 Federales were gunned down in Mexico by drug cartel gunman, the cartel has threatened American police in Nogales, AZ with gunman and sniper attack if they again interfered in drug smuggling activity while off duty. This follows an incident in early June when off-duty Nogales officers conducted a drug bust while off duty. Nogales police said they would not turn a blind eye to illegal activity when not on duty, but the threats are a new and menacing signal that Mexican-style murder and reprisals against law enforcement may be coming to America sooner.

By Stephen Dinan

A federal judge in New Orleans halted President Obama's deepwater drilling moratorium on Tuesday, saying the government never justified the ban and appeared to mislead the public in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Judge Martin L.C. Feldman issued an injunction, saying that the moratorium will hurt drilling-rig operators and suppliers and that the government has not proved an outright ban is needed, rather than a more limited moratorium.

He also said the Interior Department also misstated the opinion of the experts it consulted. Those experts from the National Academy of Engineering have said they don't support the blanket ban.

"Much to the government's discomfort and this Court's uneasiness, the summary also states that 'the recommendations contained in this report have been peer-reviewed by seven experts identified by the National Academy of Engineering.' As the plaintiffs, and the experts themselves, pointedly observe, this statement was misleading," Judge Feldman said in his 22-page ruling.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the administration will appeal the decision, and said Mr. Obama believes the government must figure out what went wrong with the Deepwater Horizon rig before deepwater drilling goes forward. Still, the ruling is another setback as Mr. Obama seeks to show he's in control of the 2-month-old spill.

Full story »

* Scan predicted 75 percent of behavior

Media

* People were right about themselves just half the time

* Technique might enhance advertising, education efforts

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON, June 22 (Reuters) - Brain scans may be able to predict what you will do better than you can yourself, and might offer a powerful tool for advertisers or health officials seeking to motivate consumers, researchers said on Tuesday.

They found a way to interpret "real time" brain images to show whether people who viewed messages about using sunscreen would actually use sunscreen during the following week.

The scans were more accurate than the volunteers were, Emily Falk and colleagues at the University of California Los Angeles reported in the Journal of Neuroscience.

"We are trying to figure out whether there is hidden wisdom that the brain contains," Falk said in a telephone interview.

"Many people 'decide' to do things, but then don't do them," Matthew Lieberman, a professor of psychology who led the study, added in a statement.

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The Labor Department will likely announce Wednesday that the Family and Medical Leave Act is being tweaked, giving gay federal employees the right to leave work to care for a child, just as straights can. It’s the latest in a long string of incremental changes President Obama has quietly made since taking office that have expanded federal benefits to gays and lesbians. This White House has given gay employees long-term health insurance for their partners, day care, and child subsidies. The Federal Housing Authority can’t consider a loan applicant’s sexuality anymore. And the Census Bureau will count the number of Americans who say they’re part of a same-sex couple. In his Father’s Day address Sunday, the president even mentioned that modern families took many forms—including having two fathers. Though some gay-rights activists are frustrated Obama has been slow to overturn Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, they generally agree the little changes show the White House still cares about them.

Too little, too late: Kenneth R. Feinberg, Obama's appointee for the compensation fund for the Gulf oil disaster victims, has lambasted BP for being too slow in their payouts. “Do not underestimate the anger and frustration of people in the Gulf, the uncertainty of not knowing what they’ll receive and when they’ll receive it,” he said on CNBC on Monday, promising to speed up claim payouts. On CNN, Feinberg continued his critiques, saying that the $20 billion compensation fund would not be enough to cover all the damage claims: “The president made it clear he wants full compensation... The $20 billion might not be enough, maybe it will. Whatever it takes, these individuals and businesses must get paid.” BP's pockets better be deep, indeed: On Monday, feds stuck the energy giant with a $51.4 million bill, its third bill in nine weeks.

Despite the moniker “No Drama Obama,” President Obama’s economic team brings to the administration an atmosphere that rivals a wrestling match, according to an inside profile of National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers. Summers dishes to Reuters on his management style, saying the economic advisers at the White House are quite a rowdy bunch. Peter Orszag, Obama’s budget director—who announced he will be leaving the White House in July—is just one of many strong personalities, and Summers said he welcomes challenges to his opinions and doesn’t shy away from confrontation. Jared Bernstein, the chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, said President Obama likes the intense debates among his economic team and "he kind of insists on it. The thing Obama doesn't like is if he feels like he's not being given the full picture and all sides of an argument."

Nikki Haley will live to fight another day. After winning the GOP runoff election, she'll face Democratic nominee Vincent Sheheen in November for the title of South Carolina governor. Haley, the tea party favorite endorsed by Sarah Palin, made history as the first Indian-American woman to run for the position. She beat out U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett for the GOP nomination, despite allegations of an extramarital affair with a blogger. In other South Carolina news, Tim Scott, a black GOP lawmaker, beat out Paul Thurmond, Strom Thurmond’s grandson, for a Congressional seat. In North Carolina, Democrat Elaine Marshall won the senatorial runoff against Cal Cunningham, former state senator. She'll go up against Sen. Richard Burr come midterm election time.

Is this the end for General Stanley McChrystal? Time magazine's Joe Klein told CNN that, according an anonymous source, McChrystal has submitted his resignation—though TPM clarifies that submitting a resignation is simply a formality and it's up to the White House to accept. Klein also clarified that it was simply an "offer to resign." White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs refused to say on Tuesday whether McChrystal will be fired for his Rolling Stone interview, saying that “all options are on the table.” He said the White House summoned McChrystal so it could “see what in the world he was thinking,” and that “the magnitude and graveness of this mistake are profound.” Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday that McChrystal had made a “significant mistake” in mocking the Obama administration in the interview. After meeting with his cabinet, Obama made his first statements on the flap, saying that he wanted a face-to-face with McChrystal before making any decisions, though he did say that the general exercised "poor judgment."

June 8 Examiner Todd Kinsey

Last week in speech at the K. Neal International Trucks Plant in Maryland, President Obama trumpeted the May Unemployment Numbers. "The economy added 431,000 jobs. Now this is the fifth month in a row we've seen jobs grow. - This report is a sign that our economy is getting stronger by the day" the president said.

Well let's dig a little deeper into this 431,000 jobs. Only 41,000 of these jobs were in the private sector and 390,000 of these jobs are temporary census workers bringing the total to 550,000 census workers (an estimated 1.4 million temporary workers will be hired in total). To put that in perspective, that is once census worker for every 560 people in America.

I find it hard to believe that it takes that many people to conduct the census. How does that compare to other sectors that actually contribute to the economy?

* Census = 550,000 Workers
* Airline workers = 456,000 Workers
* Electronics & Appliance Store = 480,000 Workers
* Oil & Gas = 165,000 Workers
* Rail = 216,000 Workers
* Utility = 557,000 Workers
* Source - Bureau of Labor & Statistics & iMarketNews.com

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Current Texas 2010 November Election Candidates List Bexar County

Order: Republican (R), Democrat (D), Libertarian (L), Independent (I) Candidates

20th District US Representative

Clayton Trotter (R)
Charlie Gonzalez (D)
Michael Idrogo (L)

21th District US Representative

Lamar Smith (R)
Lainey Melnick (D)
James Arthur Strohm (L)

23th District US Representative

Quico Canseco (R)
Ciro Rodriguez (D)
Martin Nitschke (L)

28th District US Representative

Bryan Underwood (R)
Henry Cuellar (D)
Stephen Kaat (L)

Texas Governor:

Rick Perry (R)
Bill White (D)
Kathie Glass (L)
Thomas Ritter Helm (I)

SEE Everyone By Clicking Read More

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Start with Tony Hayward: President Obama tells Today's Matt Lauer in an interview set to air Tuesday morning that he wants to know “whose ass to kick” over the BP oil spill. Responding to criticism that he is relying too heavily on experts, Obama said, "I don't sit around talking to experts because this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick." He also rebuts his critics who say he was too slow to act: "I was down there a month ago, before most of these talking heads were even paying attention to the Gulf.” A new poll, meanwhile, shows that, one month out, more people disapprove of the federal government’s handling of the oil spill than they did at the same time after Hurricane Katrina, 69 to 62 percent.