While GOP presidential hopefuls surround President Obama in election polls, the Democratic Party is scrambling to revamp its fundraising efforts. Through July, the three national Republican party groups � the Republican National Committee (RNC), the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) � have raised a combined $105 million this year, a whopping 19 percent less than the combined $129 million pocketed by the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).

The "Ron Paul Revolution" is political kryptonite for the liberal mainstream media, despite Rep. Paul�s noteworthy gains in public opinion polls and polished performances during the GOP presidential debates. In the early parts of the 2012 presidential race, the freedom-touting constitutionalist has fallen victim to an American media that picks its political winners and losers. But for how long?

Congressional Democrats have brushed off President Obama's personal decree to swear off special-interest campaigning for his reelection bid. According to an Associated Press analysis on campaign fundraising, Democrats aspiring to regain control of the House in 2012 have pocketed more than $15 million from political action committees this year, including donations from labor unions, sugar producers, and defense contractors. Over $1 million alone went to campaign committees of House Minority Leaders Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif., left), Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), and DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.).

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack (left) claims food stamps and other forms of government welfare are camouflaged stimulus programs that stir job growth by pumping money into the economy. After questioned about the cancerous issue of unemployment and the growing number of impoverished Americans forced to live on food stamps, Vilsack responded that the reason so many Americans are on food stamps � 46 million, or one in seven people � is because the Obama administration has helped states get "the word out" about the program.

At the White House Rural Economic Forum in Peosta, Iowa, on Tuesday, President Obama unveiled new economic initiatives to help stir job growth and capital investment in rural America. "These are tough times for a lot of Americans — including those who live in our rural communities," the President said in a press release. "That’s why my administration has put a special focus on helping rural families find jobs, grow their businesses and regain a sense of economic security."

The White House announced Tuesday that Ron Bloom, Assistant to the President for Manufacturing Policy and leading engineer of the auto bailout, will be leaving the Obama administration this month. White House officials say Bloom will be replaced, but in the interim, Gene Sperling, the Director of the National Economic Council, will expand his day-to-day focus to manufacturing.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), among other prominent Democrats, blamed the Tea Party for S&P’s downgrade of the U.S. government's long-held AAA credit rating. In the aftermath of this historic U.S. fiscal shift, which arrived despite the $2.5 trillion deficit reduction plan passed last week, the congressional blame game is an inevitable outcome, and Sunday shaped the springboard for Congress to indulge the media in partisan pandering.

The Governor’s Eugenics Compensation Task Force advocates that North Carolina provide reparations to surviving victims of the state’s past sterilization program. The program, which spanned from 1929 to 1974 — most popular during the 1930s — subjected 7,600 residents to forced sterilization, of whom analysts estimate 1,500 to 2,000 are still alive today.

Another political sex scandal has surfaced, as U.S. Rep. David Wu (D-Ore., left), has been exposed for indulging in elicit relations with an unidentified 18-year-old woman, only a few weeks after Rep. Anthony Weiner was caught sending lewd photos to young women on Twitter � and only a week before the U.S. default deadline.

Over the years, the Federal Trade Commission�s promotion of "consumer protection" has escalated, and a dominant role the agency currently holds involves regulating corporate marketing strategies. The FTC�s latest victim in the arena of consumer protection is food marketing, more specifically, food marketing to children.

Legislated in 1914 by President Woodrow Wilson, the Federal Trade Commission Act was a "trust-busting" prescription of the Progressive Era, but it further evolved into a broad, regulatory regime that now envelopes the private marketplace.