BREAKING: Anonymous Hits Chamber of Commerce!

LINK

This document release contains content from the American Legislative
Exchange Council, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Mackinac Center.
The Chamber of Commerce came to our attention via the HBGary email
dump. Their connections to ALEC and the Mackinac Center are not entirely
clear, but the information we provide should help clarify things.

Both files are encrypted using the http://truecrypt.com system. We
don't feel a great need to protect this content since we're distributing
it, but we do feel a need to help you improve your tradecraft.

The larger file, ALEC-Chamber-Mackinac.tc, is the content itself. The
password for this is "Barrett Brown".

The smaller file, Press-Release-2.tc, contains clarifications that may
or may not be needed, depending on how wise those who download this
data prove to be. If the need becomes apparent we will provide the
password to Barrett Brown, with the expectation that he will release it
via http://anonnews.org and other channels.

We are Anonymous.
`
We are Legion.

We do not forgive.

We do not forget.

Romney wants to 'hang' Obama with misery index

Wow....just....WOW.

Expected Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney tread on dangerous ground tonight as he talked about "hanging" a misery index around the neck of Barack Obama, the nation's first black president.

Romney almost immediately caught himself, with the English major declaring "metaphorically speaking," but the mix of nervous laughter with applause indicated at least some in the audience realized its potency.

Romney said: "You remember during the Ronald Reagan/Jimmy Carter debates? That Ronald Reagan came up with this great thing about the 'misery index,' and that he hung that around Jimmy Carter's neck, and that had a lot to do with Jimmy Carter losing. Well, we're going to have to hang the 'Obama Misery Index' around his neck. And, I'll tell you, the fact that you've got people in this country, really squeezed, with gasoline getting so expensive, with commodities getting so expensive, families are having a hard time making ends meet. So, we're going to have to talk about that, and housing foreclosures and bankruptcies and higher taxation. We're going to hang him — so to speak, metaphorically — with — you have to be careful."

Bernie Sanders Demands Action From Obama On Wall Street Oil 'Gambling'

Give 'em hell Bernie!!!!!!

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) demanded on Thursday that regulators impose limits on oil speculation to help lower the price of gas in a letter sent to President Obama.

“There is mounting evidence that the skyrocketing price of gas and oil has nothing to do with the fundamentals of supply and demand, and has everything to do with Wall Street firms that are artificially jacking up the price of oil in the energy futures markets,” Sanders wrote. “In other words, the same Wall Street speculators that caused the worst financial crisis since the 1930s through their greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior are ripping off the American people again by gambling that the price of oil and gas will continue to go up.”

Last year’s financial reform bill required the Commodities Futures Trading Commission to crack down on commodities speculation by imposing “position limits” -- a cap on the size of the bets that Wall Street traders can place. The agency was required to apply the new rules by January 22, but the CFTC has delayed the rules in order to collect data.

“What is particularly offensive is that this could and should have been prevented under current law,” Sanders wrote.

While at least part of the recent spike in oil prices is likely the result of unrest in the Middle East, the heavy volume of Wall Street speculation may be exaggerating the rise, if not driving it outright. The number of speculative bets on food and energy today is even higher than in 2008, when oil reached its highest price ever, sparking food riots across the globe. CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton has been pushing to implement position limits soon, citing heated speculation and a March 21 research note from Goldman Sachs analyst David Greely that claimed Wall Street gambling in the futures markets is in fact driving up oil prices.

Union busting, Massachusetts style

Massachusetts Dems playing to lose

When the Wall Street Journal is able to publish an op-ed titled Union busting, Massachusetts style," you know Democrats are blowing it. The state House, where Democrats have a strong majority, has passed a bill that would curb collective bargaining over health benefits for municipal employees. The Democratic governor says he won't sign a "Wisconsin-type bill," but the difference might be more a matter of degree than kind.

Republican governors have suffered big losses in public opinion polls this year, in large because of their attempts to bust the unions. Why on earth would Democrats want a part of that, Rachel asked last night.

"They say that Democrats are really good at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory," she said. "They say that the only extreme gun laws Democrats always support is the right to shoot themselves in their own foot. They say the Democrats have never seen a political opportunity they either didn't reject or turned inside out so they could figure out if you'd make them lose instead of win."

What Obama care has done for me

LINK

My son was diagnosed with autism at 18 months of age. Obamacare prevented him from having his treatment denied, or worse, being dropped alltogether from my coverage on the grounds of having a pre-existing condition. (He's fine now, incidentally. We caught it early, and after a year's worth of dietary therapy and expensive 1-on-1 treatment, he no longer meets any criteria for an autism diagnosis. He's for all intents and purposes, a completely normal toddler again. If you saw him, you'd never know.)

This legislation gave my son his life back, and helped my family kick the living shit out of a condition that destroys everything from children, to finances, to marriages. It even protected my neighbors property values -- We were prepared at one point to sell our home and move somewhere cheaper in order to afford his treatment. We would have had to sell our home at a huge loss, go into debt, and bring down our neighbor's property values as a result. Even marriages. The data shows that the failure rate of marriages involving the diagnosis of autism in a child is about 80%... That, and costs involved in treatment can easily exceed $1M over a lifetime. Money that YOU and everyone else reading this would have to shoulder if we couldn't cover it ourselves. )

So. Care to guess how i'm voting in '12?

Pretty telling quote from Rush Limbaugh

Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for finding this quote from Rush Limbaugh:

It's far more desperate than the president's policies are taking us in the wrong direction. His policies are illegitimate when contrasted with the United States of America as founded.

Let's see...if President Obama were around at the founding of this country, he would be a slave. Is Rush really implying that?

Rand Paul: 'I want to see...Trump's Republican registration'

I'm loving this:

“I’ve come to New Hampshire today because I’m very concerned,” Paul said. “I want to see the original long-form certificate, with embossed seal, of Donald Trump’s Republican registration.”

“Seriously don’t you think we need to see that?” he said, adding that Trump had donated to Democrats such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Paul, a Kentucky Republican and favorite of the Tea Party movement, is in New Hampshire as part of a book tour. He had flirted in recent months with jumping into the presidential race, but told reporters after his speech that he would likely opt out because his father – Representative Ron Paul, of Texas – had formed an exploratory committee.

“I’m afraid that I could be kicked out of my apartment,” he said. “He’s my landlord in Washington. Can you imagine the family strife if we ran against each other?”

Obama's 'Certificate Of Live Birth' Released By The White House

Hopefully this will shut up the birthers.

The White House just released President Obama's "long-form birth certificate," NPR's Scott Horsley reports.

CBS News' Mark Knoller has posted a photo of the document (presumably a copy of the original) on his twitpic page.

Scott tells us an image of the document will be posted at WhiteHouse.gov shortly.

Meanwhile, the White House just announced that Obama will be making a statement at 9:45 a.m. ET, and Reuters says he will "reaffirm that he was born in the United States."

Raise your hand

I'm one of the 1 in 5 American women who has been helped by Planned Parenthood. Are you? http://raiseyourhand.org/

Teahadist screed

Rules for Republicans

1. The era of liberalism is over.
Today there are no liberals in power; there are only radical leftists. They are the enemy, not the opposition. Their ideology is not simply wrong; it is evil.

2. It is impossible to be too cynical about the intentions, motives, and truthfulness of radical leftists.
They will always exceed our most horrifying expectations.

3. Radical leftists are continually seeking to destroy America's historic foundations, particularly our Constitution.
Their goal is to rebuild upon the rubble according to their own evil vision and to gratify their insatiable lust for tyrannical power.

4. Radical leftists are continually seeking to infiltrate and undermine American institutions.
They are especially attracted to institutions where there are unearned wealth, sinecures, and ambiguous standards of accomplishment.

5. Our people must always be seeking to restore America's tested, historic, foundational principles and to guard and protect our Constitution and our cherished institutions.

6. Civility must never trump truthfulness.
Civility is a highly commendable virtue; truthfulness is vastly more commendable.

7. Ideology must never trump truthfulness.
We Republicans need to constantly examine our own ideological principles to make sure they are, first and foremost, true. Then we must proclaim them boldly and straightforwardly.

8. Never try to out-compassion a bleeding-heart radical leftist.
Conservatism is the most compassionate -- and most truthful -- political philosophy there is. Radical leftism, by contrast, is based on false promises intended not to better the lives of anyone, but to recruit gullible, ignorant people as "useful idiots."

9. Challenge radical leftists to live up to their own publicly proclaimed ethical principles.
They never do. They just fake it. (Cf. Alinsky Rule #4: "Make the enemy live up to their [sic] own book of rules.")

10. Refuse to use the favorite language of the radical left.
Their language is always intended to spread lies and propaganda and to create confusion, fear, and retreat, not to convey truthful information.

11. The language our people use should boldly convey real information accurately, precisely, and above all, truthfully.

12. Ridicule is man's most potent weapon.
This is Alinsky Rule #5, word for word, but we Republicans have a special advantage in applying it to radical leftists because ridicule or satire, to be really effective, must be rooted in truth. That's why leftist ridicule flops; it's usually based on lies.

13. Attempting to reason with intractable, hardcore radical leftists will always end in futility.
Such people are incorrigibly anti-rational, so it is impossible to establish an authentic interlocutory interface with them. The only realistic way to engage them is to crush them politically, using any and all truthful and lawful tactics.

Shepard Smith: "Fox News Can Confirm That The President Of The United States Is A Citizen Of the United States, Period"

Boehner opens door to cutting U.S. oil tax breaks

Another broken clock that's right twice a day...

Congress should consider cutting multibillion-dollar subsidies to oil companies amid rising concern over skyrocketing gas prices, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said on Monday.

"It's certainly something we should be looking at," Boehner said in an ABC News interview. "We're in a time when the federal government's short on revenues. They ought to be paying their fair share."

"Everybody wants to go after the oil companies and frankly, they've got some part of this to blame," he said.

But Boehner said he also wanted to "see all the facts" first.

Jan Brewer: Birther Issue Leading Country 'Down A Path Of Destruction'

Even a broken clock is right twice a day:

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer says the so-called "birther" issue is a potentially destructive issue for the country.

Brewer was interviewed on CNN on Monday about her decision a week ago to veto an Arizona bill that would have required President Barack Obama and other presidential candidates to prove their natural-born citizenship.

Brewer reiterated her veto explanation that the bill was poorly drafted. She also said she believes there's no question that it was directed at Obama though it's clear he was born in Hawaii.

She told CNN interviewer John King that the birther issue is leading the nation "down a path of destruction."

Birthers have got to be some of the dumbest people on the planet.

Paul Ryan's 2012 Budget Proposal Gets Backlash at Town Halls

Good!!!! Keep up the heat on them!

Republican Lawmakers Face Angry, Confused Constituents on Medicare, Budget Cuts

Americans are particularly concerned, and somewhat confused, about the proposal to overhaul Medicare, a central feature of the Wisconsin congressman's proposal.

Under the plan, starting in 2022, senior citizens would be able to shop for coverage on insurance exchanges set up by their state, but instead of the federal government paying for every service as it currently does, each Medicare beneficiary would be allotted a certain amount of money based on their income.

The age of Medicare eligibility would increase by two months every year until it reaches 67 in 2033.

"What you're doing with this Ryan budget is you're taking Medicare and you're changing it from a guaranteed health care system to one that's a voucher system where you throw seniors ... on the mercy of for-profit insurance companies," railed one attendee at a town hall held by Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Penn.

In New Hampshire, Rep. Charlie Bass heard similar complaints.

"This is just salt in the wound," a constituent told the freshman Republican.