Despite the organization of massive union protests in Wisconsin in opposition to the "budget repair bill" proposed by Governor Scott Walker, the Wisconsin Assembly remained undeterred and passed the measure early this morning. The bill would raise the amount most state and local government workers pay for their healthcare premiums from about six percent of total costs to 12 percent, and it would raise their contributions for their pension benefits from less than one percent to almost six percent. It would also eliminate union collective bargaining for government employees for healthcare and pension benefits while allowing collective bargaining for salary increases not exceeding the increase in the Consumer Price Index.

Perhaps the mainstream media was a bit too busy searching for violence within the Tea Party movement to notice that a Massachusetts Democrat said Tuesday it was time for the Wisconsin protesters to “get a little bloody.”

The closing day of the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday did not disappoint as speaker after speaker wowed audiences, thought-inspiring symposiums encouraged political action, and the winner of the 2011 CPAC presidential straw poll was announced.

Attendees of the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) engaged in a voluntary presidential straw poll that often serves to indicate the ebb and flow of the conservative movement. Last year’s results revealed a surprising change in trend as Texas Congressman Ron Paul won the vote, defeating (among others) former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who was CPAC’s reigning victor for three consecutive years. If you were an attendee or guest at this year’s conference, and thus were able to observe firsthand the enthusiastic support for Ron Paul among the attendees, it would come as no surprise to learn that Congressman Ron Paul once again won the CPAC straw vote.

This year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) has dealt with a number of controversies, ranging from the disputed presence of the homosexual Republican organization GoProud to the American Conservative Union’s naming of Donald Rumsfeld as this year’s Defender of the Constitution recipient. However, none of those controversies have been quite as prominent as the speech delivered by renowned author David Horowitz, in which he implicates a number of ACU board members for potential ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul delivered his impassioned CPAC address today to an energetic crowd of Republicans, Constitutionalists, and Libertarians. Paul’s speech stayed true to his Libertarian, non-interventionist, pro-Constitution beliefs, drawing applause from paleo-conservatives and ire from some neoconservatives.

Much to the chagrin of constitutionalists across the country, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was presented the “Defender of the Constitution” award at the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Tensions were high during this evening’s ceremony, which took place at the Marriot Ballroom in the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, as audience members openly booed and jeered the recipient and loudly declared that the award should have gone to Texas Congressman Ron Paul.

The Associated Press reports that a government investigator has discovered that 89,000 stimulus payments of $250 went to people who were either dead or in prison. The 89,000 payments were among nearly 52 million sent to Social Security recipients and federal retirees as part of the mammoth economic recovery (stimulus) package enacted in 2009. In making the $250 payments, the government simply failed to confirm that the recipients were not incarcerated and not deceased.

With the nation still deeply in debt and Americans struggling to make ends meet,  residents in an Ohio valley are proving to the nation that perseverance and optimism are key ingredients to overcoming economic woes.

Even as the dollar is crashing and inflation in the United States is rampant, Federal Reserve officials have announced plans to flow dollars into banks in the European Union. The European Central Bank, which is to receive the largest amount, will in turn will extend the money to other major banks in EU member states, which are finding it increasingly difficult to raise funds from investors deeply concerned by the massive regional government's unstable economic climate.