From the Huelskamp Congressional Campaign:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Brian Weber 620-253-0255

David Bossie and Citizens United Political Victory Fund Endorse Tim Huelskamp for Congress
Fowler, KS–Conservative Leader David Bossie and Citizens United Political Victory Fund have announced their endorsement of Tim Huelskamp for Congress (KS-01).

“Serious times call for serious leaders — and Tim Huelskamp is the kind of mature leader our nation desperately needs in Congress right now. I’m especially impressed with his work in the state senate on behalf of increased government transparency,” said Bossie.

Citizens United Political Victory Fund is one of most active conservative PACs in America and is dedicated to supporting conservative candidates across the country during the 2010 election cycle.

Prior to leading Citizens United Political Victory Fund, Bossie served as Chief Investigator for the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, and is the author of two books, Intelligence Failure: How Clinton’s National Security Policy Set the Stage for 9/11, WND Books, May 2004, and The Many Faces of John Kerry, WND Books, July 2004. In 2008, Bossie was a major fundraiser for Senator Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign.

“We are honored to receive the endorsements of David Bossie and Citizens United Political Victory Fund. One thing I’ve learned from watching over the years is that it’s a heck of a lot better to have David Bossie on your side than it is to have him against you,” said Huelskamp.

In addition to Bossie and Citizens United Political Victory Fund, Huelskamp has also been endorsed by Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Kansans for Life, Concerned Women for America PAC, Rev. Lou Sheldon, Ken Blackwell, Pro-Life Leader Jill Stanek, and conservative leaders Colin Hanna and Phil Burress.

While Huelskamp has received tremendous support from national conservative leaders, he is also enjoying tremendous support from Kansans. In addition to the Kansans for Life endorsement, 94% of Huelskamp’s 1st quarter donations came from Kansas and 62% from the 1st district.

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Paid for by Kansans for Huelskamp

The Star:

Johnson County government has established an Internet Web site to track an estimated $27.2 million the county will receive in federal stimulus money.

The Web address is http://recovery.jocogov.org. The site will be updated weekly.County officials called it a “one-stop” location for residents to see how the county spends those new federal dollars.

AFP:

Australia ordered an investigation into a nursing home where elderly and bed-ridden residents were gnawed by a swarming plague of mice.

An 89-year-old war veteran was found bleeding from bites to his ears, neck, head and hands after being attacked by the mice as he lay in bed at the facility in the northeastern state of Queensland.

The old man was so distressed that doctors had to sedate him with morphine, said Ray Hopper, the local member of parliament.

WSJ:

That’s not to say the GOP doesn’t need to work this through, and soon. But to do it productively, as one wise Republican put it to me, the GOP needs to be “clear about the difference between philosophy and message.” The party is currently in trouble because the party lost its principles. Overspending, earmarks, corruption and policy drift undermined Republican claims to be the party of reform.

With a popular president now branding the GOP as the “party of no,” there will be a strong Republican temptation to cut deals on health-care or energy, hoping to get credit for bipartisanship, or for making policies less bad. But the GOP will never win running as a less enthusiastic version of big-government Democrats. Washington votes are the only way for congressional Republicans to actually demonstrate a philosophy to voters, and it is here the party must reclaim its mantle of the party of limited government and entrepreneurship.

Jack Cashill on April 16:

Time To Take Harder Look at Kathleen Sebelius

by Jack Cashill
Published in WorldNetDaily.com - April 16, 2009

Calling it an “inadvertent omission”-a phrase that rings about as true in confirmation circles as “wardrobe malfunction”– Democratic Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius (at left) fessed up on Tuesday.

The Kansas governor conceded that through her PAC and her campaign, she has cashed not the reported $12,450 in checks from the nation’s most notorious late term abortionist, Dr. George Tiller, but some $40,000. (more…)

Kansas Liberty:

The chair of the Texas Biological and Agro-Defense Consortium said he plans to sue the Department of Homeland Security for its decision to select Kansas as the home for the National Bio and Agro-Defense facility.

Bill Wyckoff at Kansas Liberty:

An American icon is dead; I wonder who is next on Washington’s “we know what is best for you” chopping block. We’ll find out, but it may take a while.

After all, it took almost three months for Obama to pick out a dog. He said it was more difficult than picking a commerce secretary.

I’ll let you decide if the dog decision should rank higher than (1) what’s going on in our economy (2) the people that build cabinets (3) those auto workers at Pontiac.

My kids picked out five dogs in less than 30 minutes. The country - and Pontiac - might be in better shape if they picked out commerce secretaries, too.

CNN:

(CNN) - Republican Analyst Bill Bennett told CNN Sunday that with the death of former GOP vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp, “we lost part of our heart today.”

In 1993, the two men co-founded conservative think tank Empower America.

“Well, we lost part of our heart today, John, one of our great voices, one of our lions,” he told CNN’s John King on State of the Union. “You know, there’s a lot of talk, these days, about who will be the next Ronald Reagan. A few of us were thinking, this morning, who will be the next Jack Kemp?”

CW on Twitter tips:

April 30, 2009 (CIO) Twitter’s growing popularity has yielded one unusual result: It has exposed the frailty of writing skills in the business world. You can fudge bad writing in a 20-slide presentation, but not in a 140-character tweet. From abbreviation-laden tweets with no discernible value, to tweets that fail to compel followers to click through on a link, examples abound. The process of constructing a good Twitter message takes careful thought, time and analysis.

More Twitter Tips on CIO.com Twitter Etiquette: Five Dos and Don’ts Twitter Tips: How to Safely Blend the Personal and the Professional How and Why to Launch a Business Presence on Twitter

Clearly, the 140-character limit adds a degree of difficulty for people who already struggle with writing for less restrictive, more long-form friendly mediums, such as e-mail or blogs.

KMBC:

The rain canceled all of the races this weekend at the Kansas Speedway, which hurts the local economy, KMBC’s Marcus Moore reported.But it isn’t just the big speedway that hurts, dirt tracks also suffer from the rainout.The Lakeside Speedway is one of several dirt circle tracks in the metro area. Owner Marc Olson said rainy weekends affect his bottom line, because his track only hosts about 30 to 40 races each season.

KMBC:

On Thursday, Mary Jo Everhart, director of the Platte County Health Department, said officials had notified 40 to 50 people who had been in contact with the Platte County woman. Health officials have said there was no known connection between the Platte County woman and the 19-year-old man. Nebraska health officials said the man was hospitalized in the Omaha area with a probable swine flu case after traveling to that state for treatment of another health condition. State health department spokesman Kit Wagar said that more than a couple dozen samples were tested Friday and all came back negative. Gov. Jay Nixon has said Missouri’s local health agencies and state officials are following the state plan for dealing with a flu outbreak. The health department said it has distributed medical supplies and anti-viral medications to every county in the state.

From Brandon Kenig of the Johnson County Young Republicans:

Our next meeting is May 6th at 7 pm at Old Chicago (119th and Metcalf). Join us at 6:30 for social before the meeting.

Our guest speaker will be 710 KCMO’s morning show host Chris Stigall. Stigall hosts the popular “KCMO Morning Show with Chris Stigall” from 5 am - 9 am on weekdays. Stigall was raised right here in Kansas City’s Northland and attended Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, where he graduated with degrees in Broadcasting and Journalism. Stigall went on to intern for “The Late Show with David Letterman” in New York City and worked as a district representative and press assistant for U.S. Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO). Stigall is also a frequent guest and commentator on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight, as well as a variety of syndicated radio programs.

Politico:

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney says Republicans may be hoarse by the time the debate over a U.S. Supreme Court  justice is over.

“The place where I think we draw the line is is this an individual who will follow the Constitution and the law, or is this an individual who believes in making the law…if it’s the latter, I think we should stand up and scream long and hard,” Romney said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Politico:

President Barack Obama said Sunday in a statement released by the White House:

“Jack Kemp’s commitment to public service and his passion for politics influenced not only the direction of his party, but his country. From his tenure as a Buffalo congressman to his ascent in national politics, Jack Kemp was a man who could fiercely advocate his own beliefs and principles while also remembering the lessons he learned years earlier on the football field: that bitter divisiveness between race and class and station only stood in the way of the ‘common aim of a team to win.’ Michelle and I extend our prayers and deepest condolences to the entire Kemp family.”

Redstate:

I guess that Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) really is happier in his new party:

Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Democrat, said part of the reason he left the Republican Party last week was disillusionment with its healthcare priorities, and suggested that had the Republicans taken a more moderate track, Jack Kemp may have won his battle with cancer.

…because he’s certainly picked up from them the trick of using safely dead people to push a partisan talking point. Jack Kemp isn’t even buried yet; and he had nothing to do with the current political situation, you disgusting piece of partisan slime.  I don’t expect truly civilized behavior from you anymore, but I did foolishly think that you could be trusted to show more delicacy than a hyena at the passing of a former friend.

Yes, ‘former’ friend.  I have liberal friends; if one of them should die before me, I won’t be using his or her death to push the GOP’s agenda.  That’s because I’m a decent human being, and you’re not.

In short: thanks for leaving my party.  Don’t ever come back.

USA Today:

Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson, a Republican who has insisted he would not challenge Sen. Jim Bunning unless the Republican decided not to seek a third term, announced Thursday that he had formed an exploratory committee for the 2010 election, the Associated Press and other news outlets report.

The AP writes that “the move could signal that Bunning, widely seen as the most vulnerable Republican incumbent in next year’s elections, is considering retirement.”

We’ve reached out to Bunning’s office to get his take on the news. No word yet.

Politico, which is following the story here, quoted Bunning as saying, “I won’t talk to you” when he was approached outside the Senate chamber Thursday afternoon for comment.

AP:

NEW YORK - CBS is launching an unprecedented campaign to publicize its prime-time successes weeks in advance of the year’s most important ad sales season, trying not to be dragged down by the economy and struggling rivals.

It includes a front-page ad Monday in The New York Times, a USA Today section front ad and commercials throughout CBS television, radio and the Internet.

The network is two weeks away from unveiling its fall schedule; NBC does so on Monday. Release of the broadcast schedules usually prompts a multi-billion dollar frenzy to lock up commercial space for next season, called the upfront.

SurveyUSA poll.

Redstate:

It’s a shame the Republicans can’t win in the Northeast, isn’t it? If you look to New England, Republicans only hold the governorships in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Vermont, two Senate seats in Maine, and one in New Hampshire. Looking ahead to 2010, Republicans seem as likely to add to that toehold as they are to lose ground - especially if Senator Dodd is the Democratic nominee in Connecticut. If you widen the net slightly, Republicans are poised to field strong candidates in Senate and gubernatorial races in New York and Pennsylvania, and to pick off the governorship in New Jersey this year.

And now former liberal Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee is announcing an independent bid for the governorship of Rhode Island:

Former senator Lincoln Chafee is officially throwing his hat into the ring for the 2010 gubernatorial election. His web site, chafeeforgovernor.com, says he is running as an independent candidate, and Tuesday night, he told a national television audience on the “Rachel Maddow Show” he will make a run for the office.

Reuters:

LONDON (Reuters) - For years police have filmed protesters at demonstrations to identify potential troublemakers and collect evidence for prosecutions.

Now, with advances in digital technology and mobile phones with cameras and videos, ordinary members of the public are turning the tables on the authorities.

The issue was brought into focus this week with the suspension of two London police officers after footage emerged of apparent excessive force being used during protests against this month’s G20 summit in the British capital.

Redstate:

To have Orrin Hatch or Chuck Grassley at the helm would be an unmitigated disaster. Each are cut from the same cloth - that of the old guard Republicans in the Senate who have given us the train wreck that the Party has become. They would hire terrible staffers who would neither be the smartest lawyers nor actually conservative - and, potentially, maintain a significant number of Specter’s former staff.

Jeff Sessions, on the other hand, would field a talented team who could educate America on just who America is getting in the next Supreme Court justice . Barring something very odd and unexpected, the nominee will get confirmed. Therefore, our number one goal should be to make sure America knows who this person is and what he stands for - and you need the right people in place to make that happen.

The UK Telegraph:

The Tories are also studying previous transitions. While the example of 1979 remains central to their thinking, not least Margaret Thatcher’s stricture of the need “to win on more than just a doctor’s mandate”, it is 1970 and the experience of Edward Heath that is proving even more useful. Lord Howell of Guildford, the former Cabinet minister who served in Heath’s private office, has been explaining how he and his “black book special unit” worked not just on policy, but on style and devising a new budget structure for Whitehall aimed at cutting the size of the public sector.

On Sunday, at the Tory conference in Cheltenham, Mr Cameron gave an idea of the sweeping transformation he will be asking of the public sector. He has seen the mistakes made by Barack Obama in his first 100 days, despite millions spent on a formal Office of the Transition. But he will note the irony of relying on a charity and Whitehall goodwill to prepare for the monumental task facing him.

CQ Politics:

The federal budget blueprint for the next fiscal year was adopted Wednesday without the votes of 17 House Democrats.

Most of the dissenting Democrats are junior members from conservative-leaning districts that did not back Obama in the 2008 presidential election.

In opposing the $3.56 trillion spending plan, they put some political daylight between themselves and the national Democratic Party ahead of the 2010 midterm election.

Their votes also underscored the fact that the Democrats’ big gains in the 2006 and 2008 elections have given the party such a hefty House majority - currently 256 to 178, with a soon-to-be-filled vacancy in a safely Democratic California district - that they can afford to lose roughly three dozen Democrats on legislative votes and still prevail without any Republican help.

Of the 17 Democrats who broke ranks on Wednesday’s budget vote, all but four represent districts that favored Arizona Sen. John McCain , the Republican nominee, in the 2008 presidential election.

At NRO:

I agree with every word of NRO’s editorial today. I strongly supported Pat Toomey’s primary challenge against Arlen Specter in 2004, even writing a cover story for NR promoting it. I have agreed with the Club for Growth in supporting conservative candidates for seats that Republicans are likely to win-even when, as in the case of Specter in 2004, that meant opposing a Republican incumbent.

KC Star:

He dumped Crandall over the objections of her board colleagues and nominated someone sure to please his conservative pals: the vice chair of the Johnson County Republican Party, Cathy Nugent.

Not saying Nugent is a bad pick.

But Crandall didn’t deserve to be kicked aside. She was a hard worker in line to become board chairman.

“She’s been a stellar member of the board,” said outgoing chairman Charley Vogt. “She did a wonderful job of researching the issues.”

With budget cuts looming that could close library branches and cut hours, her experience would have been an asset, Vogt said.

So why isn’t Crandall’s name up for a vote at Thursday’s county commission meeting?

Lindstrom gave me the plausible but lame excuse that he wanted to give someone else a chance to serve.\

“I do what I believe is in the best interests of the community,” he said.

Which community, you be the judge.

Newsmax:

The telecast to mark President Barack Obama’s 100th day in office pulled in the smallest number of prime-time viewers since his inauguration, according to Nielsen Ratings reported by THR.com.

Audience fascination with Obama’s news conferences is apparently in a downward spiral, with 28.8 million viewers tuning in Wednesday night’s much touted news conference.

That figure represents a 29 percent drop from the president’s previous news conference on March 24, and a 42 percent fall from his first, on Feb. 9, according to the Nielson report.

The numbers from the president’s last three prime-time news events tell the story, with 49.5 million viewers on Feb. 9, 40.4 million viewers on March 24, and 28.8 million viewers on April 29.

Ten networks carried the telecast.

But even with the diminished 28.8 viewers, President Obama managed to outdraw TV’s biggest show, “American Idol,” which attracted a mere 21.8 million sets of eyes and ears, according to Eonline.

Thesmokinggun.com:

APRIL 28–Meet Stacey Anvarinia. The North Dakota woman, 26, is facing a child neglect charge for allegedly breast-feeding while drunk, according to court records. Anvarinia, a Grand Forks resident, yesterday pleaded not guilty to the criminal count, which stemmed from a police visit to her home in February. While responding to a domestic disturbance call, Grand Forks Police Department officers watched as an “extremely intoxicated” Anvarinia “began breast feeding her infant in front of us,” according to an incident report.

The AP:

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Clear Channel Communications Inc., the largest owner of U.S. radio stations, said Tuesday it is cutting 590 jobs, including some on-air personalities, in its second round of mass layoffs this year amid pressure from the recession and evaporating advertising budgets.

Clear Channel’s parent company, CC Media Holdings Inc., also said it will suspend its 401(k) match for all employees for the rest of the year, starting Friday. However, if the company hits 90 percent of its budget goals at the end of the year, the matches will be retroactively restored, a company spokeswoman said.

The latest cuts represent 2.7 percent of company’s total work force of 22,100. They affect operational jobs like engineering, accounting and customer service, all in the radio division. The company also has an outdoor advertising division, which sells items like billboard space and wasn’t affected by the job cuts.

WSJ:

What happens in a president’s first 100 days rarely characterizes the arc of the 1,361 that follow. Jimmy Carter had a very good first 100 days. Bill Clinton did not.

Still, a president would rather start well than poorly — and Mr. Obama has a job approval of 63%. That leaves him tied with Mr. Carter, one point ahead of George W. Bush, and behind only Ronald Reagan’s 67%. Four of the past six presidents had approval ratings that ranged between 62% and 67%, a statistically insignificant spread.

Mr. Obama is popular because he is a historic figure, has an attractive personality, has passed key legislation, and receives adoring press coverage.

However, there are cautionary signs. Mr. Obama’s policies are less popular than his personality, the pace of polarization with Republicans has proceeded faster than ever in history, and independents are thinking more like Republicans on the issues and less like Democrats.

The first 100 days can reveal a pattern of behavior that comes to characterize a presidency. In this respect, there are two emerging habits of Team Obama worth watching.

Is this what welcomes Sebelius?

Poll:

Forty-five percent (45%) of U.S. voters now have an unfavorable opinion of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano following her department’s release of a controversial report on right-wing extremist groups last week. Twenty-three percent (23%) say their view of her is Very Unfavorable.

Thirty percent (30%) have a favorable view of the former Arizona governor, with eight percent (8%) Very Favorable, in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

However, one-out-of-four voters (25%) do not know enough about Napolitano to have an opinion about her one way or the other.

At the time President Obama nominated her for the Homeland Security post in early December, 43% had no opinion of her. Since that time, her favorable ratings have remained constant, but her negatives have increased. That’s fairly typical for politicians as they get better known.

Fifty-nine percent of Arizona voters said the president made the right decision when he chose Napolitano to head the Department of Homeland Security. In late September of last year, 48% of Arizona voters rated Napolitano’s job performance as good or excellent.

RCP:

The most remarkable, or certainly the least remarked on, aspect of Barack Obama’s first 100 days has been the infectious arrogance of his presidency.

There’s no denying that this is liberalism’s greatest opportunity for wish fulfillment since at least 1964. But to listen to Democrats, the only check on their ambition is the limits of their imaginations.

“The world has changed,” Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York proclaimed on MSNBC. “The old Reagan philosophy that served them well politically from 1980 to about 2004 and 2006 is over. But the hard right, which still believes … [in] traditional values kind of arguments and strong foreign policy, all that is over.”

• McClatchy Watch
• Nice Deb
• NetRightNation
• The Kansas Citian

Rasmussen:

Fifty-four percent (54%) of Americans say it is at least somewhat likely that Chrysler will once again be a profitable company. However, a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that only 14% believe that the struggling automaker is Very Likely to become profitable.

Sixty-six percent (66%) say it is better for the economy to let Chrysler go into bankruptcy than for the federal government to provide more subsidies to keep the company in business. An earlier survey found that 60% believe the bailout loans already given to Chrysler and General Motors were a bad idea.

Thirty-four percent (34%) now think it is not even somewhat likely that Chrysler will ever again be in the black financially.

In February, 57% said it was at least somewhat likely that Chrysler or General Motors would go out of business in the next few years.

Rasmussen:

Forty-five percent (45%) of Georgia voters say the state’s next governor will be a Republican, while 38% predict a Democrat will capture that seat, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the Peachtree State.

With the election more than 18 months away, however, the question for now is whom will the two parties choose as their nominees to replace current Governor Sonny Perdue. The GOP incumbent is term-limited from seeking reelection.

While members of both parties are predictably confident that the next governor will be one of their own, 50% of voters not affiliated with either party think a Republican will win. Just 15% of unaffiliateds think a Democrat will triumph.

State Insurance and Fire Commissioner John Oxendine has by far the highest favorables among the possible candidates from both parties. Oxendine, a Republican, is viewed favorably by 59% of Georgia voters and unfavorably by 19%.

HT Drudge

AFP:

A cult leader jailed for sex attacks on children escaped in a helicopter from a prison on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion on Monday, the regional administration said.

Juliano Verbard, who was serving a 15-year term for rapes and sex assaults on children, and two of his jailed followers were hauled on board a chopper hijacked by three accomplices, said senior official Jean-Francois Moniotte.

“All our search procedures have been put into action to find them,” said Moniotte, who is chief of staff to Reunion’s prefect, the central government’s representative and police chief on the island.

Politico:

In January 1995, then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich cut the virtual ribbon on the first-ever online congressional clearinghouse - a moment hailed as a breakthrough in government transparency.

But 14 years later, a voter still can’t use it to pull up an individual lawmaker’s voting history.

The House and Senate websites list roll call votes by bill number in chronological order, with no way to search or filter votes by member.

Click a “congressional voting” link on THOMAS, the congressional website Gingrich unveiled in 1995, and you’ll get a page acknowledging that “users of the THOMAS system often ask where they can get voting records for their members of Congress” - followed by nearly 800 words about how hard it is to compile an individual member’s records and why the results might not be very meaningful, anyway.

Transparency advocates aren’t amused.

RCP blog:

Public Policy Polling released data that indicate that Democratic Governor Bill Ritter of Colorado trails former Representative Scott McInnis by seven points (48-41) and leads State Senate Minority Leader Josh Perry by only two (42-40).  Worse still for Ritter, his approval rating is upside down at 41-49.

Public Policy Polling has released a series of polls showing bad results in Colorado for President Obama, Senator Bennett, and now Governor Ritter.  If these numbers are correct, this marks an astonishing turnabout for Democrats in a state that had been the keystone of their proposed re-alignment.  For some perspective, consider that Ritter won election two years ago against a top-tier Republican (Representative Bob Beauprez) by a stunning seventeen points.

Apparently the source of the Democrats’ weakness is lower approval ratings among Hispanics.  This is consistent with Jay Cost’s and my finding that Colorado Hispanics actually did not move much toward Democrats in the last cycle, unlike Hispanics in other Western states.  This is an intriguing finding, and I’m not quite certain what to make of it.

Reuters:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dog-crazy Americans will soon be able to buy a pet-friendly car with a cushioned dog bed in the trunk, fitted with a built-in water bowl and fan and a ramp to help less agile dogs climb in.

With the help of a rescue dog named Sammy, Japanese car maker Honda Motor Co unveiled the pet friendly version of its Element utility vehicle at the New York Auto Show.