Fresh Off Successful Debate Performance, Herman Cain Returns to One of His Favorite Places

The day after an impressive performance in a Republican Presidential debate, Herman Cain left little doubt about his future intentions. He told the assembled local bloggers and print journalists at a briefing in Las Vegas, “Hold the date of May 21^st - write that down, Chuck – in Atlanta, Atlanta’s Centennial Park. Hold the date. Now do you think I’m going to be holding the date and having a rally at Centennial Park on May 21^st to tell you that I am not running? You make the call. Last night exceeded our expectations.”

(Chuck refers to Chuck Muth, President of Citizen Outreach, who organized the briefing and at whose First Friday event later that evening Cain was the featured speaker.)

Before instructing them to “hold the date” Cain had indicated the importance of the debate in his decision-making process. “Needless to say, the debate last night was a pivotal moment, pivotal moment, in the Herman Cain journey to make a decision to run for President,” he said.

NV Dems Want Your Money

Nevada's legislative Democrats, after dawdling for more than 2 months while producing dog-and-pony shows and insulting Governor Sandoval and the supporters of his budget, finally released their plan yesterday. The proposal would raise taxes by $1.5 billion, the largest tax increase in state history.

If there were any doubt about the big government tendencies of Democrats' leaders in the Nevada Legislature, let that doubt be removed now. They substitute one job-killing tax for another, replacing the disastrous Modified Business Tax with what they call a Margin Tax, which is really a Modified Gross Receipts Tax.

Economics 101: Seven Reasons Why Tax Increases Are the Wrong Approach

From the Center for Freedom & Prosperity Foundation

Executive Summary: This Economics 101 video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity gives seven reasons why the political elite are wrong to push for more taxes. If allowed to succeed, the hopelessly misguided pushing to raise taxes would only worsen our fiscal mess while harming the economy.

Sun: Politics Is Only Bad When Practiced By Our Opponents

Funny, but I don't remember the Sun criticizing any of the witch hunts Democrats engaged in during the time they were in the majority (Toyota, anyone?). In fact, they cheered them on. But they jump all over the Republicans for daring to investigate the Obama Administration's decision to withdraw the Yucca Mountain application.

NV Dems want to continue housing bubble era spending

Source: The Nevada Democrats themselves. I added in the pink trend line to show you the housing bubble spending Nevada's Democrats want to maintain. Nevada Democrats want $1.5 billion above and beyond the FY 2012 and FY 2013 figures.

Nevada Democrats unveiled their budgetary wish list today. They want $7.8 billion in spending - about 18 percent more than we're spending now. Of course, they realize they can't get that so they'll settle for $7 billion, far more than we're spending now,

$7 billion happens to be about as much as we spent during the economic boom in the mid 2000s - also known as the housing bubble.

In other words, Nevada Democrats want to keep the government spending bubble going. That is just irresponsible and unrealistic.

Nevada Democrats to compromise on budget by increasing spending and taxes

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford and Assembly Speaker John Oceguera - the leaders of the Nevada Democrats - have long claimed the need to compromise and work together on the budget issue. They describe this compromise as the need for both spending cuts and tax increases - but what they mean is something else entirely. I've stated all along that what they really mean by "compromise" is really "tax increases and spending increases." The spending cuts are almost always imaginary.

Just like the 2009 session the Democrats are pulling the same stunt - claiming the need to cut the budget without actually cutting the budget. Between 2007-09 and 2009-11 we went from a $6.9 billion budget to about a $6.9 billion budget (to much wailing and gnashing of teeth by state Democrats and public officials). We didn't actually cut the budget until the 2010 special session.

But instead of holding steady as they did in 2009, Democrats are actually shooting for the more spending, they want $7 billion (estimated, their official figure comes out today, but I've predicted $6.8B to $7B). This is about $600 million more than we're currently spending.

The Democrats budget proposal is more ridiculous than that....

The War Is Not Over

Amidst the celebration and reflection on the death of Osama bin Laden and the appreciation for the sacrifice and contribution of our military, we must remember that this was never about one man. This has always been about destroying a murderous movement bent on world domination and subjugation of women and anyone who does not agree with them.

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead (Updated)

According to Drudge headline, the US has his body.

UPDATE: Link to story via Drudge.

Osama bin Laden, hunted as the mastermind behind the worst-ever terrorist attack on U.S. soil, has been killed, sources told ABC News.

His death brings to an end a tumultuous life that saw bin Laden go from being the carefree son of a Saudi billionaire, to terrorist leader and the most wanted man in the world.

UPDATE 2: According to reports they verified his identity using DNA. I'm curious where they got the sample to check with the body.

UPDATE 3: Fox News report here.

Sources said bin Laden was killed by a U.S. bomb a week ago. The U.S. had been waiting for the results of a DNA test to confirm his identity.

UPDATE 4: Apparently he was killed outside Islamabad, Pakistan.

UPDATE 5: Re my UPDATE 2, Report that family DNA was used, see Update 7. (via Instapundit)

UPDATE 6: Hearing it was a drone attack, reminds me of this. "Drones Reach Out Kill Someone". That's right, they do! And that's a good thing, too. (It was a ground operation, not a drone. See update below. But I still enjoy making fun of the Code Pink morons.)

UPDATE 7: Geraldo slips "Obama is dead." Catches himself. Big Ooops!

UPDATE 8: Okay, it's been almost an hour since the President was supposed to come on TV and we're still waiting.

UPDATE 9: Drudge reports "American CIA shot him in head."

UPDATE 10: Speech by Obama and statement from GWB.

UPDATE 11: According to WSJ, bin Laden was killed in joint raid in Abbottabad, about 40 miles from Islamabad in NW Pakistan. A military academy is located in the city. Two American helicopters participated and one Pakistani heli was shot down by militants.

UPDATE 12: Walid Phares on Fox wonders how Arab leaders will tell their people about this.

UPDATE 13: From Don Surber,

He’s dead. Good. No trial.

[...]

Other than who put the bullet in Osama bin Laden, what details do I care about? ABC News ran a regular obituary on him.

Why?

Who cares?

He’s dead.

Enjoy hell.

Sometimes killing bad people is a good thing. Osama bin Laden was very bad. That's what we had to explain to the 7-year old tonight.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More operational details from Daniel Foster of NRO.

UPDATE WITHIN UPDATE: From Foster,

Bin Laden was killed along with two al Qaeda couriers and one of Bin Laden’s adult sons. A woman who was used as a human shield by one of the couriers was also reportedly killed. Several other women were wounded and are reportedly receiving treatment.

Using women for human shields. Just goes to show what we're fighting against.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Unverified photo of bin Laden's corpse. Graphic. via Twitter. (Update within update: Probably fake.)

AND ANOTHER UPDATE: bin Laden's compound mapped on Google maps.

YES, MORE UPDATES: According to this story (and Catherine Herridge on Fox News) intelligence obtained from detainees was used to locate bin Laden. Good thing we didn't have to give them the right to remain silent. Compound was built in 2005. No phones, no Internet, high walls.

LAST ONE, MAYBE: CNN reports that Pakistan's ISI was on the scene. Didn't indicate which side they were fighting on. Okay, that was probably a low blow but the ISI has been playing both sides in this war for a long time. And, as others have noted, considering the size, location and details of the compound bin Laden was living in, it's virtually impossible people within the ISI didn't know what it was and who was living in it. It was built nearly 6 years ago.

LAST ONE, I PROMISE: The guy who unwittingly live-tweeted the raid on bin Laden.