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marco-rubio-cpac-2015

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, talked immigration at CPAC 2015 with Sean Hannity in National Harbor, Maryland.

MIAMI, Fla. — Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, told donors and supporters on a conference call Monday that he is running for president in 2016 with an emphasis on the future, not the past. Rubio, 43, a Cuban-American, characterized Hillary Clinton as the embodiment of the past, and told backers that he feels his story makes him “uniquely qualified” to pitch the Republican Party as one that will defend the American Dream.

The conference call with supporters Monday took place before a flashy political rally set for Monday night at the Miami Freedom Tower in Miami, Florida, a location long-known to symbolize Cuban refuge from communism.

Underscoring his campaign’s message, Rubio said the American dream is slipping away from too many of the nation’s families, and young Americans now face fewer opportunities to succeed than previous generations. It was an inclusive message targeting all voters.

“I feel uniquely qualified to not just make that argument, but to outline the policies that we need to have in order to achieve it,” he said.

Rubio’s critics and rivals will argue he’s not yet ready for the White House, as we’ve heard from Charles Krauthammer. However, despite his experience as the speaker of the Florida House, Rubio has crafted and identified specific policy proposals, both on foreign and domestic issues, which he will articulate with his extraordinary communication skills in the hope it will boost his stature.

On Tuesday, his first day as an official candidate, he is scheduled to return to Washington to join a Senate hearing on a proposed deal with Iran on its nuclear ambitions. Sen. Rubio has been a staunch, outspoken critic of both the Iran nuclear deal and the decision to normalize relations with Cuba.

Rubio’s presidential announcement comes a day after Clinton announced her bid for the Democratic nomination. She is currently traveling to Iowa in a minivan dubbed “Scooby” with the goal to convince voters she is on their level, which marks the first trip for Hillary as a candidate.

It is unclear whether Rubio’s entrance into the race with be overshadowed by Hillary’s trip, or if it takes some steam out of it.

“I do think Rubio may benefit from announcing today,” said Democratic strategist Joe Trippi. “In the conversations across all the networks we are throwing them both in together. And I think that helps him.”

Rubio agrees, and believes it was an opportunity to cast the presidential contest as a decision between a younger, fresh face from a new generation of leadership and the same old-same old corruption and failure.

“The Republican Party, for the first time in a long time, has a chance in this election to be the party of the future,” Rubio told his donors. “Just yesterday, we heard from a leader from yesterday who wants to take us back to yesterday, but I feel that this country has always been about tomorrow.”

Rubio faces serious challenges to winning the nomination in what will be a deep Republican bench, perhaps the deepest in decades. In fact, one of them will likely be from his mentor, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Rubio will become the third major Republican candidate to declare he is running for president, following the first announcement from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and the second from Sen. Rand Paul. In the end, the field that could grow to 20 or more candidates.

A first-generation immigrant whose parents fled Cuba, both Sens. Rubio and Cruz could make history as the nation’s first Hispanic president. Rubio will frames his story to voters as the embodiment of the American Dream and promise of opportunity. He is the son of a maid and bartender who worked his way through law school and now sits in Congress.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told donors and

delonte-martistee-ryan-austin-calhoun-spring-break-rape

Photo shows two college students, Delonte Martistee, left, and Ryan Austin Calhoun, right, who were charged in a sexual attack on a Florida beach in March. (Photo: Bay County Sheriff’s Office)

Two college students were arrested and charged Friday in the spring break gang rape case that has sparked outrage in two states and is growing nationwide. Now, PPD has confirmed that police are searching for two more suspects in connection with the attack.

The Bay County Sheriff’s Office Delonte Martistee, 22, and Ryan Austin Calhoun, 23, were arrested and charged with sexual battery by multiple perpetrators after sexually attacking a woman on a Florida beach in broad daylight filled with spring breaker, who did nothing to stop the attack.

The two men were students at Troy University in Alabama, but have only been placed on temporary suspension.

“As soon as it became formal that they were going to be arrested, we immediately placed them on temporary suspension,” Troy University senior vice chancellor Walter Givhan said.

The attack was recorded on cellphone video, which was taken sometime between March 10 and March 12 in Panama City behind Spinnaker Beach Club located at 8795 Thomas Drive. Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen said at a press conference that officials learned of the attack when police in Troy, Alabama discovered the video while investigating an unrelated shooting. They alerted authorities in Florida shortly after, who have reviewed multiple videos capturing the attack.

delonte-martistee-ryan-austin-calhoun-spring-break-rape-mug

Mug shots of Delonte Martistee, left, and Ryan Austin Calhoun, right. (Photo: Bay County Sheriff’s Office)

“This is not the first video we’ve recovered, it’s not the second video, it’s not the third video,” McKeithen said. “There’s a number of videos we’ve recovered with things similar to this and I can only imagine how many we haven’t recovered.”

McKeithen described the rapists in the first video as “wild animals preying on a carcass laying in the woods” perpetrating the “most disgusting, sickening thing” he had ever seen. Several men can be seen surrounding an incapacitated woman on a beach chair.

“This is happening in broad daylight with hundreds of people seeing and hearing what is happening, and they are more concerned about spilling their beer than somebody being raped,” he said. The sheriff said he expected investigators will make additional arrests.

The victim told officers that she thought she had been drugged at the time and did not remember the incident well enough to report it.

“She knows something happened, but she doesn’t know what happened,” McKeithen said Friday.

Martistee and Calhoun were being taken Friday to Panama City for a court hearing, and it was unclear Saturday whether they had defense attorneys.

The sheriff did not release any more information about the two other men wanted in connection with the gang rape. However, Calhoun is now out on bond while Martistee remains in custody. PPD could not immediately reach them for comment. They are due back in court next month.

Two college students were arrested and charged

deadly-disney-lamborghini-crash

This aerial image taken from a video provided by WFTV shows the scene after a deadly crash at the Exotic Driving Experience at Walt Disney World on Sunday in Orlando, Fla. (WFTV via The Associated Press)

A deadly crash involving a Lamborghini Disney World’s Exotic Driving Experience attraction killed a 36-year-old passenger and injured the driver on Sunday.

The Lamborghini crashed into a guardrail when the driver lost control at the attraction that allows racing fans be drivers or passengers in luxurious car model, including the Lamborghini, Porsches or Ferraris.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the driver, who was hospitalized with minor injuries, was a track employee or a customer. The passenger was a 36-year-old man from Davenport, but neither of their names were not immediately released. 

A Disney spokeswoman didn’t immediately return a phone call.

At the track, customers pay anywhere from $200 to almost $400 to drive five or six laps around a track with a professional driving instructor in the passenger seat simultaneously offering advice, according to the Exotic Driving Experience’s website.

The track is operated by Petty Holdings, which is branded with the name of race car legend Richard Petty, and has other Exotic Driving Experience attractions at speedways in Atlanta, Daytona Beach, Charlotte, New Jersey, Kansas, New Hampshire and Texas.

“On behalf of everyone in the organization, it is with a very heavy heart that we extend our deepest sympathies to those involved in today’s tragic accident in Orlando,” Petty Holdings said in a statement.

The Exotic Driving Experience, along with its sibling track, the Richard Petty Driving Experience, was slated to close this summer at Disney World for unrelated reasons.

A deadly crash involving a Lamborghini Disney

hillary-clinton-organization-for-economic-cooperation

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) at their headquarters in Paris during its 50th anniversary summit on May 25, 2011. (Photo: REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen )

When writing about the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an international bureaucracy based in Paris, my life would be simpler if I created some sort of automatic fill-in-the-blanks system.

Something like this.

The OECD, subsidized by $____ million from American taxpayers, has just produced a new _________ that advocates more power for governments over the _________ sector of the economy.

But this may not be sufficiently descriptive.

So maybe I should create a multiple choice exercise. Sort of like when students take tests and get asked to circle the most appropriate answer.

The bureaucrats at the Paris-based OECD, working in cooperation with union bosses/class-warfare advocates/other tax-free international bureaucrats/politicians, have released a new report/study/paper urging more power/control/authority for governments in order to increase regulation/taxes/spending/redistribution/intervention.

You may think I’m trying to be funny, but this is totally serious.

How else would you describe a bureaucracy that consorts and cooperates with leftist groups like Occupy Wall Street and the AFL-CIO and routinely published propaganda in favor of Obama’s agenda on issues such as global warming, government-run healthcare, so-called stimulus, and class-warfare taxation.

And never forget that American taxpayers finance the biggest chunk of this bureaucracy’s budget.

Adding insult to injury, the bureaucrats at the OECD get tax-free salaries, which makes their relentless support for higher taxes on the rest of us even more obnoxious.

Now we have some new examples of the OECD’s statist mischief.

Here’s some of what the Center for Freedom and Prosperity recently uncovered.

At its sixth annual conference, the George Soros-founded Institute for New Economic Thinking will feature prominent left-wing economists Thomas Piketty, Joseph Stiglitz, and self-described Marxist and Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis. By itself that wouldn’t be remarkable, but the meeting will come with the implicit endorsement of the U.S. taxpayer thanks to the sponsorship of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which gets over 20 percent of its funding from the United States.

So why is the OECD subsidizing a left-wing gabfest and giving publicity to way-out-of-the-mainstream characters like Piketty?

Part of the answer, one suspects, is that the bureaucracy has a bloated budget.

But the bigger reason is presumably that the bureaucrats want to push a statist ideological agenda.

…tax collectors have hijacked the OECD… Over the last decade and a half, they have threatened and cajoled low-tax jurisdictions into counter-productive reforms that make their economies less attractive to those suffering under the excessive taxes required to fund European welfare states. …They have essentially turned the OECD into a global tax cartel, or an OPEC for politicians.

None of this is a surprise because it’s part of a bigger pattern.

The OECD gets its money from governments. Most of those governments are European welfare states. The bureaucrats at the OECD get very generous tax-free salaries.

So of course they’re going to pump out whatever propaganda is needed to please their political (and pay) masters.

Here are some other recent examples, both of which were disseminated by the OECD’s Washington Center, which mostly exists to make sure that Congress and the White House maintain the gravy train of handouts to Paris.

Our first example of economic malpractice is this nonsense about a so-called gender wage gap. Note that the OECD is forced to admit the numbers are “unadjusted.”

That’s because lots of research shows that the wage gap disappears once you adjust for factors such as hours worked, types of professions, and work history.

OECD-gender-wage-gap

By the way, just in case you think I’m only citing pro-market sources, it’s very much worth noting that even one of President Obama’s economic advisers confessed that the left’s gender-gap numbers are bogus.

Now let’s look at another chart.

I’ve previously explained that what matters most for the poor is economic growth.

Yet statists prefer to focus on the rich-v-poor gap because they want to mislead folks into thinking the economy is a fixed pie (as depicted here) and the income of the rich is at the expense of the poor.

And that’s the purpose of this OECD chart.

OECD-income-gap

This very much reminds me of the OECD’s laughably dishonest research on poverty, which purports to show that there is more poverty in the United States than there is in economically distressed nations such as Greece, Turkey, Hungary, and Portugal.

As you can see from this video, statism is now the OECD’s chief product.

Which is why Republicans in Congress, if they actually on the side of taxpayers, should defund this destructive bureaucracy.

The bureaucrats at the Paris-based OECD have

Hillary-Clinton-Watermark-Silicon-AP

Hillary Rodham Clinton jokes during her keynote address at the Watermark Silicon Valley Conference for Women in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 24, 2015.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has officially announced via social media that she is running for president in 2016, a move long anticipated.

“I’m getting ready to do something, too,” Clinton says in a video entitled Getting Started, which features a number of Americans telling their personal story. “I’m running for president.”

Also as expected, her opening theme underscored the campaign’s strategy to focus on domestic issue, specifically income inequality. On Saturday, the group We Are Hillary for America circulated a “guiding principles” memo that provided insight into to the focus of the Clinton campaign. “Give every family, every small business and every American a path to lasting prosperity by electing Hillary Clinton the next president of the United States,” the memo in part stated.

And in the video — viewable below — Mrs. Clinton was right on message.

 

“Americans have fought back from tough economic times, but the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top. Everyday Americans need a champion,” Clinton added. “I want to be that champion.”

The “–H” at the end of the tweet is the first of its kind since Hillary opened her Twitter account just last year. Why? Because she will no longer be running the handling the account herself.

The campaign has openly acknowledged that she will change strategy and direction from her failed 2008 White House bid. This time around she will make an effort to convince voters she is not taking them for granted.

But, according to recent polls, Clinton may find the general election voter pool far cooler than previously expected juxtaposed to a year ago. In the wake of the private email server controversy, voters in the battleground states of Iowa, Colorado, and Virginia now say the former first lady, senator, and secretary is no longer honest and trustworthy. Libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kty., who announced his bid last week, leads Clinton in Iowa and Colorado.

“It isn’t just one or two Republicans who are stepping up; it’s virtually the entire GOP field that is running better against her,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. “That’s why it is difficult to see Secretary Clinton’s slippage as anything other than a further toll on her image from the furor over her e-mail. In all three of these states, more, and in Colorado many more, registered voters say she is not honest and trustworthy.”

Watch Hillary Announcement Video:

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has

2016 New Hampshire Republican Primary

23 Delegates: Allocated Proportionally (February 9, 2016)

(Please Note: Total delegates include 20 soft pledged and 3 soft unpledged delegates)

[election_2016_polls]


Polling Data

[wpdatatable id=6]


Above is table listing the latest 2016 New Hampshire Republican Primary polls and aggregate PPD polling average for the first in the nation primary. There are 20 delegates up for grabs in the New Hampshire Republican primary set to take place on Tuesday February 9, 2016, which are to be allocated proportionately.

Of the 23 delegates from New Hampshire pledged to the Republican National Convention, 20 are bound to presidential contenders based on the results of the voting in today’s New Hampshire Primary. While the national party does not have “superdelegates,” the 3 party leader delegates, the National Committeeman, the National Committeewoman, and the chairman of the New Hampshire’s Republican Party, will attend the convention as unpledged delegates by virtue of their position.

[ssbp]

2016 New Hampshire Republican Primary 23 Delegates: Allocated Proportionally (February

obama-castro-meeting

Apr. 11, 2015: US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro shake hands during their meeting at the Summit of the Americas in Panama City, Panama. (Photo: AP)

Amid a historic meeting with President Obama Saturday, Cuban President Raul Castro blamed U.S. presidents for the communist nation’s troubles in a nearly hour-long speech at the Summit of the Americas, Castro ran down a litany of Cuban grievances against the U.S. dating back more than a century.

The Cuban dictator later apologized for the charged comments, including stating the “U.S. owes a historic debt to Cuba,” but only named President Obama in the apology.

“I have told President Obama that I get very emotional talking about the revolution,” Castro said through a translator, noting that Obama wasn’t even born when the U.S. began sanctioning the island nation. “I apologize to him because President Obama had no responsibility for this.”

President Obama held a historic hour-long formal meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro Saturday at the Panama Convention Center, the first between U.S. and Cuban leaders in over half a century. The two pledged to “turn the page” and develop a new relationship between the two countries.

“What we have both concluded is that we can disagree with a spirit of respect and civility,” Obama said. “And over time, it is possible for us to turn the page and develop a new relationship between our two countries.”

While Obama said “the United States will not be imprisoned by the past,” and that “we’re looking to the future,” he didn’t forcefully pushback on the comments afterward.

Obama thanked Castro “for the spirit of openness and courtesy that he has shown during our interactions” and vowed to help “make sure that the people of Cuba are able to prosper and live in freedom and security.”

But, despite the perception of agreement the administration attempted to portray, Castro said the two had simply “agreed to disagree.”

“We are disposed to talk about everything — with patience,” Castro said in Spanish. “Some things we will agree with, and others we won’t.”

Not since 1958, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower met with Fulgenico Batista, have a U.S. and Cuban leader held a significant meeting. The following year, former Cuban dictator President Fidel Castro met with President Richard Nixon, who was serving as Eisenhower’s vice president at the time.

The Summit of the Americas this year included Cuba for the first time, and a good deal of discussion surrounded U.S. sanctions onVenezuelan officials. But the president focused on the normalization of Cuban relations, including the new changes taking effect Friday that will allow more trade and travel between the two countries.

“The Cold War has been over for a long time,” Obama said at the summit. “And I’m not interested in having battles frankly that started before I was born.”

Castro later rallied to Obama’s defense, absolving the president of fault for the U.S. blockade in a stunning reversal of more than 50 years of animosity between the United States and Cuba.

“In my opinion, President Obama is an honest man,” Castro said — a remarkable vote of confidence from the Cuban leader, who praised Obama’s life and his “humble background.”

Still, Obama stopped short of confirming the administration was set to remove Cuba from the list of state-sponsors of terrorism, claiming he has yet to study a recently competed State Department review on the issue.

For Castro, removal from the terror list is a top priority, as it would greatly increase his ability to conduct financial transactions. Castro said Cuba should never have been on the list in the first place.

“Yes, we have conducted solidarity with other peoples that could be considered terrorism — when we were cornered, when we were strongly harassed,” he said. “We had no other choice but to give up or to fight back.”

Recent reports suggest, however, that the move to drop Cuba from the list is “imminent” and already a foregone conclusion.

Cuban dictator President Raul Castro blamed U.S.

The FOX News Sunday panel, including Brit Hume, Kirsten Powers, George Will and Charles Lane, discussed the rollout of Hillary Clinton and Sen. Rand Paul.

The panel also tackled the tragic story of a S.C. cop shooting a man in the back when he fled after a routine traffic stop.

President Obama Saturday met with Cuban dictator President Raul Castro at the Summit of the Americas Saturday, marking the first meeting between leaders of the two nations since President Dwight D. Eisenhower met with Fulgenico Batista since 1958. However, the following year, former Cuban dictator President Fidel Castro met with President Richard Nixon, who was serving as Eisenhower’s vice president at the time.

(Video H/T RightSightings.com)

The FOX News Sunday panel, including Brit

This week on the McLaughlin Group, Pat Buchanan, Eleanor Clift, Mortimer Zuckerman and Tom Rogan discuss U.S.-Cuban relations and what it means for Democrats in Florida.

President Obama held a historic formal meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro Saturday, the first meeting between U.S. and Cuban leaders in over half a century. The two pledged to “turn the page” and develop a new relationship between the two countries.

This week on the McLaughlin Group, Pat

“Buckle up America, the Clintons are back!” was actress and comedian Kate McKinnon’s closing message in a SNL spoof of Hillary Clinton’s presidential announcement video.

The former Secretary of State and First Lady is expected to announce her candidacy for the 2016 presidency Sunday via social media. The anticipated announcement was spoofed by Saturday Night Live (SNL) during its cold open.

“Oh gosh I don’t know if I have it in me. I’m scared,” says McKinnon in portrayal of Clinton. “I’m kidding, let’s do this.”

The SNL spoof mocked the reputation of the Clintons for having adoring sycophants.

“You put the ‘hil’ in hilarious,” the aide says.

McKinnon goes through a series of vocal warm-up exercises, saying “first female president, first female president, me, me, me, me, me me.” Clinton then goes on to delete the bad takes off her phone.

“I know a thing or two about that right?” she joked in a clear reference to her deleted email scandal.

Enter Bill Clinton, who is played by show veteran Darrell Hammond.

“Hillary, isn’t it crazy that phones can take videos now? If they could have done that in the 90s, (laughs) I’d be in jail,” he quipped.

“Buckle up America, the Clintons are back!”

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