Benjamin Hodge writes at Race42012:

• Yes, independent voters are moving toward the Republican party, but this reality has more to do with an “anti-Democratic party” mood than a “pro-Republican” mood.
• My personal opinion: the majority of DC Republicans either oppose or refuse to embrace a conservative message (conservative = the role of government).  The GOP has become a pro-life, pro-drilling Democratic party.
• Independent voters are seeking a conservative-libertarian message and a conservative political party.  Appropriately, they do not view the Republican party as the carrier of a conservative message.

• Consider me neutral-undecided on whether we need Newt Gingrich right now.  But, we somebody (better, several people) to fill the role that he played in the 1990s.  We need a Newt Gingrich.

This week, we published the results of a question-and-answer opportunity for Congressmen Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt.

Our next question for the two campaigns is on the topic of earmarks.

At Club for Growth, Andrew Roth published a post on July 14 titled, “Earmarks and the Constitution.”

Taxpayer hero Tom Coburn is now using that pesky little thing called THE CONSTITUTION in his fight against pork. From CQ.com ($):

The battle over earmarks moved to a higher plane last week when Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn tried to get his fellow senators to agree that $200,000 designated for a local history museum in Omaha was an affront to the Founding Fathers.

In what may have been the first-ever motion of its kind, Coburn raised a point of order against this project in the fiscal 2010 Legislative Branch appropriations bill, asserting that it violated the Constitution. Coburn’s reasoning: Article I, Section 8 spells out the specific authority of Congress to spend money, and nowhere does it mention local museums. In addition, the 10th Amendment gives the states all powers not granted to Congress, thereby blocking Congress from spending money for just any purpose it decides is appropriate.

That amendment failed 70-23. In other words, 70 senators, including GOP leader Mitch McConnell, believe that earmarks are constitutional. (more…)

Fox:

President Obama’s “science czar,” Paul Holdren, once floated the idea of forced abortions, “compulsory sterilization,” and the creation of a “Planetary Regime” that would oversee human population levels and control all natural resources as a means of protecting the planet — controversial ideas his critics say should have been brought up in his Senate confirmation hearings.

Holdren, who has degrees from MIT and Stanford and headed a science policy program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government for the past 13 years, won the unanimous approval of the Senate as the president’s chief science adviser.

Star:

Union and district officials say that more than 100 and possibly close to 200 teachers received the news in recent days that they’re probably losing their jobs – just weeks before the start of the new school year.

Usually school districts begin drafting budgets and assigning teachers in the spring, but Kansas City delayed its process while it worked on a plan to close several schools, a decision that wasn’t made until June.

“It should have been done in January,” teachers union president Andrea Flinders said of the school-closing process. Then job cuts could have been announced earlier “and people would’ve had a chance to look for another job.”