(CNSNews.com) – House Speaker John Boehner will not be attending a weekend retreat hosted by The Republican Mainstreet Partnership PAC — whose goal is to elect moderate GOP candidates and protect Republican incumbents from Tea Party challengers — because of a scheduling conflict, a GOP aide told CNSNews.com.
But Boehner’s top two lieutenants, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), are listed as speakers on the agenda for the April 11-13th event, which will be held at the Ritz-Carlton on Amelia Island, Fla. (more…)

CALIFORNIA – State Sen. Leland Yee withdrew from the California secretary of state race Thursday, one day after his arrest on public corruption charges, his attorney said.

“This was a very personal decision on the part of the senator,” said Paul DeMeester, his attorney, at a news conference outside the federal courthouse in San Francisco. “This is what he wanted to do.”  (link)

SAN FRANCISCO – If you thought the charges against Leland Yee would be bad, you had no idea. As in, he offered to set up an arms deal with Islamic rebels for $2 million in cash. As in, he has ties to a gangster named Shrimp Boy. As in, he makes corrupt state senator Clay Davis from The Wire look like George Washington.
You can read the whole affidavit here, but it’s really, really long, so we’ve gone ahead and pulled out the highlights. The allegations (and for now they are only that—allegations) are cinematic, staggering, and remarkable in their scope. Here they are, in descending order of sheeeeeeeeeeeit: (more…)

Sometimes it helps to pause and reflect, then evaluate for yourself:

IRAN – In 2009, from the now infamous Cairo Speech, an uprising of the student led “Green Movement” striving for a voice amid the heavy hand of hard-line Islamist governance began.   President Obama chose to reach out to Iran’s leadership and ignored the calls for assistance from the young reformers.   The Green Party was killed.  The Mullahs reigned supreme.  Through inaction Obama sided with the Islamists.

TUNISIA – (Where the West claimed the “Arab Spring” began)  Tunis caught the global political elites off guard.  It should not have come as a surprise.  We were outlining the growing immigration powder keg for years.   Tunis exploded as a consequence of Ben Ali and Quadaffi taking billions from the EU to shut the immigration gates.
Simultaneously, in the WEST, the more willing to engage ‘New Media’ began to report the speeches from UK, France and Germany that Multi-culturalism had failed.   However, few connected the dots to Tunis and how the shutting of the North African gates created a bottleneck within Tunisia and Libya.   It was simply a matter of time before economic anxiety exploded within the cultural petri-dish.  It did, in a big way.
(more…)

So they hold registration drives at the Mexican Consulate….
TEXAS – The Obama administration has been helping to facilitate a series of events nationwide at Mexican Consulate offices to enroll people in Obamacare – and a key activist says the efforts are “our responsibility” regardless of citizenship.

“Whether they’re Mexican nationals or whether they’re United States citizens or whether they’re in transition– and if they’re there it is our responsibility within all of America to educate on the Affordable Care Act,” Enroll America Field Organizer Jose Medrano told Breitbart News on Wednesday.
Health Care insurance navigator groups hosted an Obamacare enrollment fair on Tuesday in the Mexican Consulate’s Brownsville office, The Rio Grande Guardian reported last Friday, where Mexican nationals among others were counseled about enrolling in the ACA.
 
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WASHINGTON DC – Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Barack Obama of dramatically weakening the United States’ position in the world, drawing a straight line between Obama’s ever-yielding foreign policy and the increasing troubles around the world.
“Right now, there’s a vacuum,” she told a crowd of more than two thousand attending the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual dinner last night in Washington, D.C. “There’s a vacuum because we’ve decided to lower our voice. We’ve decided to step back. We’ve decided that if we step back and lower our voice, others will lead, other things will fill that vacuum.” Citing Bashar al Assad’s slaughter in Syria, Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, al Qaeda’s triumphant return to Fallujah, Iraq, and China’s nationalist fervor, she concluded: “When America steps back and there is a vacuum, trouble will fill that vacuum.”
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(Via News One)  In the March 31 issue of the New Yorker, Kobe Bryant discussed life, race and the inevitable conclusion of his illustrious basketball career with Ben McGrath.
Perhaps most shocking is Bryant’s assertion that wide-spread support for Trayvon Martin was premature and he refused to show support for the slain teen simply because he’s African American.
According to Colorlines, when McGrath asked Bryant’s opinion on the Miami Heat’s show of solidarity with Martin in the now iconic “Hoodie” photo, the 35-year-old L.A. Laker said that such a move showed lack of “progress”:
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Flashback 2012:

Once again @NRA uses lies & distortion to try stopping commonsense #GunControl bill http://t.co/xOIPQzl2 Time to stop mass reloading in #CA.

— Leland Yee (@LelandYee) August 3, 2012

CALIFORNIA – A California state senator has been arrested for promising shoulder-fired automatic weapons and missiles from a Muslim separatist group to an undercover FBI agent in exchange for campaign donations, according to court documents unsealed Wednesday.
In San Francisco, FBI agents have charged California State Sen. Leland Yee with conspiracy to deal firearms and wire fraud. The allegations were outlined in an FBI affidavit against Yee and 25 others.
The allegations against Yee include a number of favors he requested in exchange for campaign donations, as well as performing “official acts” in exchange for donations to get himself out of a $70,000 debt incurred during a failed San Francisco mayoral bid, according to court documents.
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New York Daily News – Playing the role of First Lady has squelched Michelle Obama’s spirit, and she’s turned the East Wing into the “worst wing,” a former White House aide claims.
The First Lady’s office has become a “confining, frustrating, even miserable place to work,” according to Reid Cherlin, a former West Wing assistant press secretary, who provided a rare account of the inner workings of the East Wing department in an essay for The New Republic.
Cherlin, who worked for the Obamas from 2007 to 2011 but has since become a writer, dished about the First Lady’s high expectations and staffers’ sense that everything has to be just right.
“The First Lady having the wrong pencil skirt on Monday is just as big of a f–k-up as someone speaking on the record when they didn’t mean to or a policy initiative that completely failed,” Cherlin wrote, quoting an unnamed former colleague.
(more…)

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †