Mississippi Bureau of Investigation officials are looking into the death of state Rep. Jessica Upshaw, who was found at a residence in Simpson County on Sunday.
The 53-year-old Republican lawmaker from Diamondhead in Hancock County died of a gunshot wound to the head, Simpson County Sheriff told WLBT-TV.
“It appeared to be self-inflicted,” he said.
Lewis told The Clarion-Ledger that Upshaw was found at the home of former state Rep. Clint Rotenberry in Mendenhall. Rotenberry was first elected to the House in 1992. He lost a Republican primary runoff to Andy Gipson in House District 77, covering parts of Rankin, Simpson and Smith counties, in 2007..
Simpson County Coroner Terry Tutor would not release any details on Upshaw’s death.
“She’s passed; that’s all I know at this point,” he said. “I’ve given it to MBI. They’re doing their investigation on it.”
During last year’s GOP presidential race, Bachmann racked up the highest ratio of Four-Pinocchio comments, so just about everything she says needs to be checked and double-checked before it is reported.
In this case, Bachmann appears to be citing the self-published book “Presidential Perks Gone Royal,” by Republican lobbyist Robert Keith Gray, though one wonders whether she actually read the book — which is only 131 pages — or just read a summary that appeared in the Daily Caller, since many of her points are highlighted in the Daily Caller article.
The Fact Checker read the book so that you don’t have to. It provides no specific sourcing for any of its claims, though in the back it provides a list of articles and books that presumably the author consulted. He claims that the book is not intended as an attack on President Obama, but only on the imperial trappings of the presidency, though the subtitle of the book is: “Your taxes are being used for Obama’s re-election.”
Bachmann, however, framed it as an attack on Obama, and we will examine her claims in that context. How does Obama compare with other presidents?
Bachmann’s headline figure is that Obama’s presidency costs $1.4 billion a year. Gray never quite explains how he developed that figure, though another self-published book, “The 1.4 Billion Dollar Man: Costs of the Obama White House,” by self-help writer John F. Groom, attempts to provide a breakdown. But what is quickly apparent is that this number covers every possible expense, including many having to do with the security that is necessary to protect the president. The figures also include the cost of the White House policy-making staffs. Are those really all “perks and excess?”
Groom’s figures include a number of somewhat fishy guesstimates (“unreimbursed campaign expenses”), but as it happens, a much more credible scholar — former White House aide Bradley H. Patterson Jr. — attempted to figure out the tab for the White House for a book, “To Serve the President,” published in 2010 by the Brookings Institution.
Patterson estimated that the cost of running the White House for fiscal year 2008 — when George W. Bush was president — was nearly $1.6 billion. About half — more than $800 million — related to the Secret Service budget. An additional $271 million was spent on the president’s helicopter squadron.
If Bush is a $1.6 billion man, does that make Obama a relative bargain at $1.4 billion?
There’s been a lot of attention focused on Robin Kelly, who won the Democratic nomination this week in the Illinois special election to replace Jesse Jackson Jr. in Congress. But what about the GOP nominee?
Ex-convict Paul McKinley is claiming victory over Eric Wallace, a multimedia company owner. TheChicago Tribune reports
McKinley’s rap sheet includes burglaries, armed robbery and aggravated battery. McKinley has a 23-vote lead over Wallace, who told the newspaper that it would be “an embarrassment” if McKinley were the Republican nominee to face Kelly on April 9.
They’re claiming that Rand Paul will give the Teaparty response to the President’s State of the Union address. His two cents will be added after Florida’s Marco Rubio gives the Republican’s answer to the President.
But who do they think they’re fooling? We all know that the Teaparty is just another tentacle of the octopus that is the Republican party. Let’s hope that this time around, Rand Paul keeps his eye on the right camera and not do what Michele Bachmann did last time around.
“We are giving a voice to the tea party movement when the mainstream media and the Republican establishment wants to write us off as dead,” said Amy Kremer, chairman of the Tea Party Express. This is the third year in a row that Kremer’s organization has sponsored the tea party response.
The dueling GOP speeches come at a time when a very public rift is developing between the Republican establishment and conservative activists over the direction of the party. Some grassroots activists are specifically angry at Karl Rove and other Republicans for stating that they will choose sides in upcoming Republican primaries and only financially help candidates who have a chance of winning in the general election.
The Republican National Committee unveils its Growth and Opportunity Project, an initiative established to support the growth and influence of the Republican Party and its future campaigns.
The website www.GrowthOpportunityProject.com will serve as a forum for grassroots supporters to share ideas and recommendations about the way “forward” (their word, not mine) for the GOP.
If you think you may have some good suggestions for the Republican Party’s future endeavors, why not take their survey today!
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – House Republicans appeared to be coming to grips with a stark realization as they returned to Washington from a three-day retreat here — they have a majority in name only.
The party begins the 113th Congress with reduced numbers and confronting a popular president and an increased Democratic majority in the Senate.
Preparing for a cascade of fiscal battles and a presidential push on guns and immigration, the House GOP is adopting a minority posture, hoping to achieve modest goals incrementally while serving as a check on Obama’s ambitious second-term agenda.
Republicans “have to recognize the realities of the divided government that we have,” said Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the party’s budget chief and 2012 vice presidential nominee.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his aides have taken to referring to the “Democrat majority in Washington” in statements in recent weeks.
The stance is a significant shift from the party’s mantra in the immediate aftermath of the November election, when Boehner and other leaders claimed one half of a dual mandate from voters who had reelected both Obama and the House Republican majority.
It also represents a resetting of expectations for Republican lawmakers and voters alike.
I was here
I lived, I loved
I was here
I did, I’ve done, everything that I wanted
And it was more than I thought it would be
I will leave my mark so everyone will know
I was here
There’s growing angst among Republicans that the party’s House majority could be at risk in 2014 if the deep GOP divisions that emerged during the recent “fiscal cliff” negotiations persist in looming negotiations over a slew of budgetary issues.
Even as Republican officials maintain the GOP majority is safe, several lawmakers and longtime activists warn of far-reaching political ramifications if voters perceive Republicans as botching consequential talks on the debt ceiling, sequestration and a possible government shutdown.
“Majorities are elected to do things, and if they become dysfunctional, the American people will change what the majority is,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a House deputy majority whip and a former National Republican Congressional Committee chairman, told The Hill.
McConnell apparently has a 55 percent disapproval rating in his home state of Kentucky, while just 37 percent of his constituency approves of him. PP Polling says this gives him the worst numbers of any U.S. senator. Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) previously held this title.
Among Republicans, McConnell’s numbers are better, with 59 percent approving of his performance and 28 percent disapproving.
His name is Trent Lott. He was the Senate Minority Whip for the Republicans and in 2007 when Democrats took control of the Senate, Trent explained how a small minority of Republicans were being successful in controlling the majority – by being obstructionists.
Lott explained the strategy: “The strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail… So far it’s working for us.”
That was then, and Lott is no longer in the Senate. But his “obstructionist strategy” continued through Obama’s first term and with over 370 filibusters, Republicans have shown the country that they have no intention in working with the President or Democrats in accomplishing anything. They have shown no will to compromise. Their goal is to try and make President Obama’s presidency a failure.
The Washington Post listed some of the bills that died because of the Republican Block Party. These bills include:
The DREAM Act
The DISCLOSE Act
Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)
The Public option
Paycheck Fairness Act
Permanent middle-class Bush tax cut extension
Rescinding of the upper-income Bush tax cuts
Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act
Emergency Senior Citizens Relief Act
Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act
American Jobs Act
The Buffett rule
Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act of 2011
Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act
With the new Senate starting in January, many are looking towards Senate Leader Harry Reid to make changes to the Filibuster process, thereby, taking away some of the Republican’s power in blocking bills. Making these changes are not going to be easy. The filibuster’s original goal was to bring a sense of balance to the Senate when it’s used accordingly. So expect Republicans to put up the fight of their lives trying to keep that status quo.
Harry Reid however, is promising change. He explains:
“We’re going to change the rules. We cannot continue in this way. I hope we can get something that the Republicans will work with us on.”
“But it won’t be a handshake, we tried that last time. It didn’t work.”
If Reid is serious about making changes to the Filibuster, this could be the next big fight in Washington after the Fiscal Cliff. January is approaching, and all eyes would be on Harry Reid.
President Obama launched a double-pronged appeal in his latest bid to court business leaders, asking a group of CEOs on Wednesday to back him on allowing a tax hike on wealthier Americans and also pushing back against Republican attempts to use the debt ceiling in budget negotiations.
He told members of the Business Roundtable that the only way to reach the amount of revenue needed for a balanced package to address the country’s deficits and avert the so-called fiscal cliff was to extend Bush-era tax cuts for middle-class Americans while letting them expire for the top 2 percent of income-earners.
“By doing that alone, we raise almost a trillion dollars,” he said. “…The holdup right now is that Speaker Boehner took a position, I think, the day after the campaign that said, ‘We’re willing to bring in revenue but we’re not going to increase rates.'”
Obama said the GOP proposal to close tax loopholes and cap or eliminate deductions only goes so far — adding up to $300 or $400 billion — without hitting deductions that could harm the less fortunate, such as the one for charitable giving.
“We’re not insisting on [higher] rates just out of spite …but rather because we need to raise a certain amount of revenue,” he said.
The president also told the group that he would not allow Republicans in Congress to try and barter a debt-ceiling increase in exchange for more spending cuts, noting that the horse-trading alone over an increase last year sent the economy reeling.
“We can’t afford to go there again,” he said. “…The only thing the debt ceiling is good as a weapon for is destroying your credit rating… I will not play that game.”
While her father John McCain continues his fruitless partisan attacks on the Obama administration, Meghan McCain is quietly making news calling for drastic changes in the Republican party especially around social issues. And if the party remains the same boring old party stuck in the ice age, the daughter of the 2008 Republican presidential candidate is threatening to pack all her stuff and leave the party!
“… I’ve been calling for the Republican Party to come to terms with reality and modernize. Last Tuesday, Mitt Romney lost—and he lost big. As Republicans, we lost again. I felt sad, exhausted, beaten down, and heartbroken. It was the first time that I considered that the Republican Party, which I love so much, might die.”
“Times are changing. The face of America is changing and we as Republicans stand at a crossroads. Are we going to accept the changing face of America and change with it? Or are we going to continue to become more isolated and irrelevant? It’s possible to maintain the core values of this party and evolve when it comes to social issues. Quite frankly, I don’t see any other path to success.”
“I’ve spent most of my adult life fighting for change from inside the Republican Party… And if we don’t move forward, adapt, and become relevant again, the Republican Party isn’t going to survive. It will just continue to alienate more moderate voters like myself. If I don’t see some changes in the next four years, I’m going to consider registering as an Independent in 2016.”
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By agreeing to this, we can analyze browsing behavior and unique IDs on this site. Declining or revoking consent may affect certain features.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
