The Front Page Cover
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened"
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Featuring:
Likeability and the Lens
MATTHEW HENNESSEY
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"Know who you are standing with"
"Show me your friends and I'll show you your future"
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Trump: Millions Who Pay No Taxes Will Keep Paying No Taxes 
Donald Trump offered his tax plan Monday, and it has quite the populist appeal. His plan says, "If you are single and earn less than $25,000, or married and jointly earn less than $50,000, you will not owe any income tax. That removes nearly 75 million households — over 50% — from the income tax rolls. They get a new one page form to send the IRS saying, 'I win,' those who would otherwise owe income taxes will save an average of nearly $1,000 each." On top of that, he'd lower the top rate from 39.6% to 25%, and reduce corporate taxes from the current highest-in-the-world rate of 35% to 15%. On the other hand, he wants to eliminate deductions that help people like hedge fund managers pay a lower rate than many Americans. We suppose their tax forms will say, "I lose." Indeed, "eliminating most deductions and loopholes available to the very rich" is how he proposes to keep the plan "revenue neutral." Fat chance of that. His proposed four brackets of 0%, 10%, 20% and 25% will "simplify the tax code," he said. "It'll grow the American economy at a level that it hasn't seen for decades." It's worth noting, as Trump does, that there are already millions of Americans who pay no income tax, though they do have to fill out complex tax forms to reach that conclusion. Thus, they have no "skin in the game," and everyone should bear some of the burden, even if it's just 1%. But Trump would expand the numbers paying nothing — smart politics. On the other hand, these same workers pay a disproportionate share of the payroll tax, which supposedly funds the biggest drivers of our debt: Major entitlements.
-The Patriot Post
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Putin Keeps Taking nObama's Lunch Money In dueling speeches at Monday's UN General Assembly meeting, Barack nObama and Russian President Vladimir Putin sounded off in the latest round of tense relations between the U.S. and Russia. Unfortunately, because of nObama’s thoughtless foreign policy America looks weak and clueless on the world stage.
So you can see why pro-choice activists are feeling optimistic. They have seemingly survived the video scandals, their Republican detractors are tied in knots, and Democrats are solidly on board.
nObama continued to rail against Moscow for its actions in Ukraine. “We cannot stand by when the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a nation is flagrantly violated," he declared. "If that happens without consequence in Ukraine, it could happen to any nation gathered here today.” Of course, "stand by" is precisely what nObama has done with regard to Ukraine and Crimea.
"Stand by" has also been nObama’s "plan" with regard to Syria. And Putin has used the opportunity to bolster Russia’s presence in the Middle East. In a one-two punch this month, the Kremlin provided military support to bolster longtime Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad, and then — just in time for the UN confab — announced an intelligence sharing agreement with Syria, Iraq and Iran to combat the Islamic State.
The Wall Street Journal explains the significance of that move for Iraq: "It’s hard to fault Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi for the decision. He’s watched for a year while the U.S. coalition has made little progress against Islamic State. His decision risks putting Baghdad further under Tehran’s sway, and pushing more Iraqi Sunnis into Islamic State’s arms. But desperate leaders will act in desperate ways."
One Iraqi militia leader put it this way: “We believe that Russia and Iran are serious about defeating ISIS while the U.S. doesn’t want to defeat ISIS. We wish that the Iraqi government wouldn’t trust or depend heavily on the U.S. because we’ve had a bad experience with the U.S. in this regard.”
-The Patriot Post
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HILLY STEPS ON SLIPPERY SLOPE WITH LATE-TERM ABORTION
Why have Democrats long resisted any limitations on elective abortions? After all it’s not like supporting anything called ‘partial-birth abortion’ is a political winner.
The answer is the same as why Republicans resist new gun control laws of any kind, even those that have popular support. Any restriction on abortion that is tied to the humanness of an unborn child is the ultimate in slippery-slopes for the pro-choice crowd.
As Cecile Richards, the head of Planned Parenthood, arrives on Capitol Hill to testify about a series of shocking videos that depict the business of harvesting and selling the body parts of aborted babies, she and the 60-year-old pro-choice movement are at a crossroads.
In some ways things have never been better. A WSJ/NBC News poll 61 percent of respondents opposed ending the half-billion-dollar subsidy Planned Parenthood gets from federal taxpayers, which Republicans are trying to do. And for the first time since 2008, the pro-choice position had a clear lead on the pro-life point of view in Gallup’s polling.
[Nerd alert: A pro-choice majority or plurality was the norm for decades until pro-lifers moved into the lead, or parity. This may be a little misleading, however, since “pro-life” and “pro-choice” are fungible terms. More significant is what restrictions, if any, do voters want to see on elective abortions? There things are pretty stable, which is the plurality position remains that abortion should be “legal in only a few circumstances.” This mirrors the political position shorthanded as “pro-life, with exceptions.”]
Despite the national furor over the videos from the Center for Medical Progress Republican efforts to cut off the funding seem not only doomed to fail, but Richards & Co. promise to make the GOP pay a steep political price next year for a “relentless assault” on reproductive healthcare.
Why have Democrats long resisted any limitations on elective abortions? After all it’s not like supporting anything called ‘partial-birth abortion’ is a political winner.
The answer is the same as why Republicans resist new gun control laws of any kind, even those that have popular support. Any restriction on abortion that is tied to the humanness of an unborn child is the ultimate in slippery-slopes for the pro-choice crowd.
As Cecile Richards, the head of Planned Parenthood, arrives on Capitol Hill to testify about a series of shocking videos that depict the business of harvesting and selling the body parts of aborted babies, she and the 60-year-old pro-choice movement are at a crossroads.
In some ways things have never been better. A WSJ/NBC News poll 61 percent of respondents opposed ending the half-billion-dollar subsidy Planned Parenthood gets from federal taxpayers, which Republicans are trying to do. And for the first time since 2008, the pro-choice position had a clear lead on the pro-life point of view in Gallup’s polling.
[Nerd alert: A pro-choice majority or plurality was the norm for decades until pro-lifers moved into the lead, or parity. This may be a little misleading, however, since “pro-life” and “pro-choice” are fungible terms. More significant is what restrictions, if any, do voters want to see on elective abortions? There things are pretty stable, which is the plurality position remains that abortion should be “legal in only a few circumstances.” This mirrors the political position shorthanded as “pro-life, with exceptions.”]
Despite the national furor over the videos from the Center for Medical Progress Republican efforts to cut off the funding seem not only doomed to fail, but Richards & Co. promise to make the GOP pay a steep political price next year for a “relentless assault” on reproductive healthcare.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, got booed by his colleagues Monday night for a stunt aimed at naming and shaming his fellow Republicans who refused to back his plan to defund Planned Parenthood. Cruz, and some others, want to make the defunding a condition of an emergency provision to keep the government fully operational for 10 weeks beyond Thursday’s fiscal cliff.
The boo birds were squawking because they don’t want to be on the record supporting a stop gap spending plan that Cruz and his allies will say “funds Planned Parenthood,” or in favor of a measure that Planned Parenthood would say “defunds Planned Parenthood.”So you can see why pro-choice activists are feeling optimistic. They have seemingly survived the video scandals, their Republican detractors are tied in knots, and Democrats are solidly on board.
-Fox News 
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PRICE LOOKS RIGHT FOR MAJORITY LEADER
National Journal: “Majority Whip Steve Scalise became the House’s third-ranking Republican by touting Southern pride and conservative bona fides. But just more than one year into his tenure, both attributes come with major downsides in his attempt to become the next House Majority Leader. His shaky first year on the job, mixed reviews from the conservative base he pledged to represent, and persistent news reports that he may have spoken at a white supremacist rally when he was a state legislator in 2002 could hamper the Louisianan’s continued rapid rise, according to several Republican members and aides. … That leaves an opening for [Rep.Tom Price], who Monday was endorsed by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling – both good friends and influential conservatives. It is still very early in the race, but Price, by virtue of his committee leadership and close loss to [Cathy McMorris Rodgers] for the conference chairmanship in 2014, is already perceived as a stronger candidate than Rep. Marlin Stutzman… -Fox News
National Journal: “Majority Whip Steve Scalise became the House’s third-ranking Republican by touting Southern pride and conservative bona fides. But just more than one year into his tenure, both attributes come with major downsides in his attempt to become the next House Majority Leader. His shaky first year on the job, mixed reviews from the conservative base he pledged to represent, and persistent news reports that he may have spoken at a white supremacist rally when he was a state legislator in 2002 could hamper the Louisianan’s continued rapid rise, according to several Republican members and aides. … That leaves an opening for [Rep.Tom Price], who Monday was endorsed by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling – both good friends and influential conservatives. It is still very early in the race, but Price, by virtue of his committee leadership and close loss to [Cathy McMorris Rodgers] for the conference chairmanship in 2014, is already perceived as a stronger candidate than Rep. Marlin Stutzman… -Fox News
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Kevin McCarthy’s Comments on Benghazi are Wrong and Damaging
{Roger Aronoff} ~ House Majority Leader, and odds on favorite to become the next Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), has made such a foolish and incorrect statement about the House Select Committee on Benghazi... that the fallout could keep him from ascending to that position, and do great damage to the investigation. It occurred on Hannity on the Fox News Channel on Tuesday night. “How am I going to be different (than current Speaker backstabber John Boehner)? said McCarthy. “What you’re going to see is a conservative Speaker that takes a conservative Congress that puts a strategy to fight and win. And let me give you one example. Everybody thought Hilly Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee. A Select Committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened had we not fought to make that happen.” Needless to say, the liberal media and the Democrats have had a field day. This, they say, provides absolute confirmation that the whole Benghazi investigation has been a partisan effort, a “witch hunt,” as Senate Minority Leader dinky Harry Reid (D-NV) called it, to keep Mrs. Clinton from becoming president. http://www.aim.org/aim-column/kevin-mccarthys-comments-on-benghazi-are-wrong-and-damaging/?utm_source=AIM+-+Daily+Email&utm_campaign=email100215&utm_medium=email.
Feds admit Supremes should review nObamacare – again!
{BOB UNRUH} ~ The federal government has conceded that the U.S. Supreme Court needs to review the nObamacare law adopted exclusively by majority Democrats... but nObama administration officials still argue that judges must have the authority to decide whether or not a group’s or individual’s exercise of religion is burdened by the law. The case was brought by the Denver-based Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of nuns that runs retirement centers around the globe. The nuns object to nObamacare’s requirement that employers cover abortion-causing drugs in health insurance plans, which violates their Roman Catholic beliefs. The Catholic group also objected to the government’s offer to allow conscientious objectors to use a third party to provide the drugs to employees, arguing the organization would still be part of the process of providing the drugs..
Israeli Intel Reports Takedown of First Known ISIS Attack on Israel
{Sara Dogan} ~ Israeli intelligence has succeeded in foiling the first-known ISIS plot to attack the Jewish homeland, FoxNews.com reported on Thursday... According to the internal Israeli intelligence agency, Shin Bet, an ISIS cell training within the Israeli forests close to Galilee was preparing to launch an attack on Israeli police and military installations, in addition to attacking liquor stores. The planned attack was disrupted several weeks ago, but has only now been made public. Seven individuals—all Israeli Arabs—were charged in connection with the ISIS plot. The attack is notable because it is believed to be the first planned offensive of the Islamic State inside of Israel, although Israeli intelligence was previously aware of a number of individuals who had traveled to Syria to join ISIS’s military offensive there and others who have made trips to the region or to neighboring Turkey and then returned to Israel. It now appears that contact between the men charged in the ISIS terror plan and friends already in Syria was instrumental in initiating the planned attack. http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/israeli-intelligence-reports-takedown-first-known-isis-attack-israel.
Oh Snap: nObama Smacks Hilly's Syria Strategy
{Caleb Howe} ~ Among the many clippable moments from President nObama's press conference on Friday was a nice jab at Hilly Clinton's recent "no-fly zone" theory on Syria policy... nObama had earlier referred to various ideas on what to do about Russia and Syria as "half-baked ideas" and "mumbo jumbo," including some plans endorsed by Hilly Clinton. CBS's Major Garrett asked the President if the half-baked mumbo jumbo category included Hilly because of that. His response was hilariously insulting, as can be seen in the below clip.
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This New Lawsuit Against nObamacare Has Legs
{Hans von Spakovsky} ~ For those who thought that the lawsuits challenging the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (nObamacare) were at an end, think again... On September 9, Judge Rosemary Collyer of the federal district court for the District of Columbia refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the entire U.S. House of Representatives against the nObama administration over its funding of certain aspects of nObamacare. This is a historic lawsuit and a historic decision. In the past, individual members of Congress have filed a number of (unsuccessful) lawsuits against sitting administrations. But this is one of the few occasions when such a suit has been pursued by the entire House of Representatives as an institution. http://dailysignal.com/2015/09/25/lawsuit-obamacare-legs/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=saturday&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRouuqjNZKXonjHpfsX56%2BQpWqS%2BlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4ATcRmNK%2BTFAwTG5toziV8R7jHKM1t0sEQWBH
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Government-Media Lies: Three Treasonous Presidential Cover-ups?
{Lawrence Sellin} ~ Although spanning nearly a century, these three apparent cover-ups have one main element in common, that despite massive evidence to the contrary, the government and media are still lying to us about them, one in real-time... The power to make authoritative pronouncements, the power to manipulate the news by the release of false or misleading information, the power to interfere with an honest inquiry, or the power to ridicule and casually sacrifice patriotic citizens, are all tactics the government and media have brought to bear to suppress the truth or prevent justice from ever entering a courtroom..
Look what nObama’s threatening to do now to our military!
{Allen B. West} ~ Man, it’s college football season, and y’all know I normally like to write about the top games being played. But there’s just so much not going right in America that I’m compelled to continue manning my position, sounding the clarion call for the restoration of our republic and liberty... The House passed the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act Thursday, setting up a veto showdown with the nObama administration. The 270-156 vote comes after the House and Senate Armed Services committees reached agreement on a final conference report earlier this week. The Senate is expected to take it up next week, and if passed, it will head to the president. President nObama has issued a veto threat against the bill, which senior administration officials warn he will follow through on. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Wednesday he has already recommended that the president veto it. The White House and Democrats oppose the bill because it would authorize spending levels in accordance with a Republican plan to boost defense spending, but leave federal spending caps in place on nondefense spending. Unconscionable, despicable and unacceptable.
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This Weird Fact About the Clinton Family Fortune Will Blow Your Mind
{Andrew Stiles} ~ Hilly Clinton and her husband Bill Clinton are very rich, raking in some $25 million in 2014... They own multiple mansions. They vacation in style. They make 4-5 times the median annual income for giving one speech to a room full of Wall Street executives and/or brutal dictators. Since they left the White House “dead broke” in 2001, they’ve pocketed more than $200 million. But at least some of that massive haul is unaccounted for in their annual financial disclosure, raising some interesting questions, such as, “Where is it?” $50 million seems like a lot to pay off Clinton aides like Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, who may soon be thrown under Hilly’s email bus. Could money convince loose lips Joe Biden not to run? Maybe they gave some of it to their daughter Chelsea? She’s already rich, but her husband is really bad at managing hedge funds..
Iran Buys $21 Billion in Aircraft, Satellites from Russia
{Adam Kredo} ~ Iran has purchased $21 billion worth of Russian satellite technology and aircraft, according to Iranian officials... An Iranian delegation reportedly visited Russia’s MAKS-2015 air show and signed an agreement to purchase the equipment, according to Sputnik, which quoted Iranian officials. “There is a large share of contracts for the purchase of this type of aircraft,” Manouchehr Mantegh, an Iranian technology and aviation official, reportedly disclosed, according to Sputnik. This includes “satellite-related equipment” and the Sukhoi Superjet, a twin-engine passenger plane, according to the report. The official did not reveal the total number of jets to be purchased. And nObama wants to veto a bill for our military. Do you get something is terribly wrong here?.
Clinton Aide Shared Classified Information With Foundation
{Alana Goodman} ~ A member of Hilly Clinton’s staff at the Department of State emailed classified information about the government in Congo to a staffer at the Clinton Foundation in 2012... according to a copy of thecorrespondence obtained by theWashington Free Beacon. Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff at the State Department, sent the email to the Clinton Foundation’s foreign policy director, Amitabh Desai, on July 12, 2012. The message, which was originally obtained by the group Citizens United through a public recordsrequest, is partially redacted because it includes “foreign government information” that has been classified as “Confidential” by the State Department..
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Likeability and the Lens
MATTHEW HENNESSEY
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In a new book, Unlikeable: The Problem with Hilly, journalist and longtime Clinton family antagonist Edward Klein claims that Bill Clinton once pushed his wife to engage filmmaker Steven Spielberg to help make her more appealing. If true, Spielberg was an odd choice for acting coach. His films are known primarily for their sweeping cinematic qualities and sharp storytelling, not necessarily for the top-shelf performances he coaxes out of his actors. In an excerpt from his book in the New York Post, Klein reports that Hilly reluctantly agreed to the sessions. “I get $250,000 to give a speech . . . and these Hollywood jackasses are going to tell me how to do it!” she reportedly said.
In a new book, Unlikeable: The Problem with Hilly, journalist and longtime Clinton family antagonist Edward Klein claims that Bill Clinton once pushed his wife to engage filmmaker Steven Spielberg to help make her more appealing. If true, Spielberg was an odd choice for acting coach. His films are known primarily for their sweeping cinematic qualities and sharp storytelling, not necessarily for the top-shelf performances he coaxes out of his actors. In an excerpt from his book in the New York Post, Klein reports that Hilly reluctantly agreed to the sessions. “I get $250,000 to give a speech . . . and these Hollywood jackasses are going to tell me how to do it!” she reportedly said.
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If Klein’s information is correct, and if the quote is accurate, the Clintons are more confused about how to improve Hilly’s public image than anyone knew. For one thing, they’ve made the fundamental mistake of confusing the demands of performing before a live audience with the art of performing for the camera. Giving paid speeches is more like doing the work of a stage actor. Working on camera is a different discipline. No novice performer would ever confuse the two. That Bill and Hilly, this late in their political careers, would fail to recognize the difference is surprising.
If Klein’s information is correct, and if the quote is accurate, the Clintons are more confused about how to improve Hilly’s public image than anyone knew. For one thing, they’ve made the fundamental mistake of confusing the demands of performing before a live audience with the art of performing for the camera. Giving paid speeches is more like doing the work of a stage actor. Working on camera is a different discipline. No novice performer would ever confuse the two. That Bill and Hilly, this late in their political careers, would fail to recognize the difference is surprising.
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All politics is performance, but presidential politics is performance art. The successful candidate adjusts each appearance—whether on stage or on camera—in order to come across as knowledgeable, sincere, reasonable, diplomatic, and, above all, presidential. An actor used to working on stage alters his performance when he appears before a camera. Auditoriums are big; they need big voices and oversize personalities to fill them. Like stage actors, politicians working a live audience need to play to the last row. When a politician speaks from a podium, hosts a town hall meeting, or presses the flesh, the goal is to have each member of the audience leave thinking the performance was delivered directly to him.
All politics is performance, but presidential politics is performance art. The successful candidate adjusts each appearance—whether on stage or on camera—in order to come across as knowledgeable, sincere, reasonable, diplomatic, and, above all, presidential. An actor used to working on stage alters his performance when he appears before a camera. Auditoriums are big; they need big voices and oversize personalities to fill them. Like stage actors, politicians working a live audience need to play to the last row. When a politician speaks from a podium, hosts a town hall meeting, or presses the flesh, the goal is to have each member of the audience leave thinking the performance was delivered directly to him.
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Television screens, by contrast, are smaller, and demand a different type of performance. You don’t have to work so hard to get someone watching you on television to think that you’re talking directly to him. Close-ups reward subtlety, honesty, and true emotion. A camera is like an X-Ray machine. “The camera looks into your mind, and the audience sees what the camera sees,” writes the actor Michael Caine in his book, Acting in Film. You can’t lie to a camera; it will expose you. Ronald Reagan understood this better than anyone.
Television screens, by contrast, are smaller, and demand a different type of performance. You don’t have to work so hard to get someone watching you on television to think that you’re talking directly to him. Close-ups reward subtlety, honesty, and true emotion. A camera is like an X-Ray machine. “The camera looks into your mind, and the audience sees what the camera sees,” writes the actor Michael Caine in his book, Acting in Film. You can’t lie to a camera; it will expose you. Ronald Reagan understood this better than anyone.
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The good news for Hilly is that coming across as genuine on camera is a skill that can be taught. Of course, it helps if you have talent. It’s even better if you take the job seriously, which, according to Klein, she did not. “I decided I had enough with the camera and the recordings and the coaches,” Hilly allegedly said. “I got so angry I knocked the f- -king camera off its tripod. That was the end of my Stanislavski period.” (It’s perhaps worth pointing out that Constantin Stanislavski, the Russian actor and director credited with pioneering an approach to acting eventually known as “the Method,” worked in live theater, not in film.)
The good news for Hilly is that coming across as genuine on camera is a skill that can be taught. Of course, it helps if you have talent. It’s even better if you take the job seriously, which, according to Klein, she did not. “I decided I had enough with the camera and the recordings and the coaches,” Hilly allegedly said. “I got so angry I knocked the f- -king camera off its tripod. That was the end of my Stanislavski period.” (It’s perhaps worth pointing out that Constantin Stanislavski, the Russian actor and director credited with pioneering an approach to acting eventually known as “the Method,” worked in live theater, not in film.)
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With new details about the personal e-mail server she used while secretary of state dribbling out every week, Hilly may have even bigger problems to deal with than likeability. In any event, likeability is not something one easily cultivates. In his 1997 biography of Reagan, Dinesh D’Souza summarized the 40th president’s take on the relationship between honesty and likeability: “Only an actor who truly believes his lines can produce a convincing performance before the lens.” Therein could be Hilly’s biggest hurdle of all.
With new details about the personal e-mail server she used while secretary of state dribbling out every week, Hilly may have even bigger problems to deal with than likeability. In any event, likeability is not something one easily cultivates. In his 1997 biography of Reagan, Dinesh D’Souza summarized the 40th president’s take on the relationship between honesty and likeability: “Only an actor who truly believes his lines can produce a convincing performance before the lens.” Therein could be Hilly’s biggest hurdle of all.
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