Santorum Makes Bigger Splash Than Romney Wanted

Mitt Romney low balled expectations going into the three states yesterday. That being said, I don't think that he expected to lose all three contests and finish third place in Minnesota.

The Measure of Right and Wrong By Rivalry

While it's true that the Clint Eastwood Chrysler commercial debuted during the Superbowl casts a positive light on Obama's decision, the criticism of prominent Republicans reflects a pathological unwillingness to acknowledge the rightness of any decision that Obama makes, a pathological unwillingness that puts them at odds with themselves and people who simply believe, for one reason or another, that the decision to rescue Detroit was the right idea.

The Decline into Irrelevance of the Evangelical Right

The rise of Ronald Reagan and conservatism in the 1980's owed a great deal to the Evangelical right, personified by Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority movement. It proved strong enough to drive a partisan impeachment of a successful president, Bill Clinton. In 2001, the most conservative president of the modern era, George Bush, assumed office, thanks in part to those same evangelicals.

The beginning of the Bush presidency's decline in popularity coincided with the Terry Schiavo fiasco, and the same decline seems to have destroyed the viability of the Evangelical right. When it came to the Evangelicals, if there was one thing the vast majority of the electorate was certain of, it was this: most Americans did not want Evangelicals using the power of government to intervene in the personal moments, moments of life and death. And where are we today?

January Jobs Report Decent, December and November Also Revised Upward

Employment rose by 243,000 in January, and the unemployment rate decreased to 8.3 percent. There were 257,000 jobs added in the private sector. This is the fifth straight month of decent growth in the private sector for an average of 202,000 per month.

Hope Has Been More Than a Word

How droll, Mr. Romney. How utterly clever. Except for one problem: if your policies are anything like the previous Republican President's, and they're shaping up to be little different, then hope will ironically be all YOU offer, even as Obama has gone out and done actual things to get people jobs, to get people off unemployment.

The B Word

Sometimes, something is so obvious, so taken for granted as part of the landscape, that we don't even notice we're overlooking it. Like Poe's purloined letter, a glaring fact dominates the political landscape of this upcoming election, yet no one has even mentioned it.
The B word.
By B, I mean the Boogey Man, the most recent Republican president, George Bush.
Whoa! Did a dark shadow just swoop in front of the moon? It seems to happen everytime I mention George Bush. Anyway, this shadow continues to cast its darkness upon the political landscape, but we've lived so long in its gloom, we no longer bring it up. Republicans will not mention him. Absolutely, positively not. No one seeks his endorsement. No one expects to see him on the campaign trail. This B word causes an aggrieved reaction, as if the B word was some kind of uncalled-for low blow; an actual physical appearance by the Boogey Man would result in a conservative spontaneous human combustion. And that radical avoidance tells us something very very important:

Both Democrats and Republicans continue to hold Bush responsible for the current state of the country.

And that tells us something else very important:

Me to Allen West: I'm Staying Put, Mister.

Really. Some people think they can have this country all to themselves. They wrap themselves in the flag and think, my, aren't we so good and virtuous that we can tell the rest of those barbarians what to do. Well my country's democracy, it's republic is built on taking a pin to that particular egotistical balloon of an idea. You don't like having to deal with us? Sorry, there's nothing you can do about it, and I can't be happier!

A Vision of the Future in the Dream of the 90's

What if Gore had won? What if Bush had never been President? A comedy show called "Portlandia" skewers Portland, Oregon as just such an alternate universe, the dream of the 90's. People earnestly pursue self-actualization while maintaining a sense of irony, resulting in an odd mix of both kindness and weirdness. The humor targets Portlanders for their PC correctness, penchant for bicycles, shopping local, and green attitudes run amok, and as you can guess, Portland is a target rich environment for comedians. Yet there is a more serious side to Portlandia. Does this magnet for youth offer a new vision for the country? Other cities and regions have taken their turns in the cultural spotlight in the past; does this dream of the 90's, this lampooned vision, actually offer a better way? A sneak peek into our future?
But first, a link to the short Portlandia video:

The Benefits of Space Exploration

It may be the best possible investment the United States could make: a colony on the moon.

Newt Gingrich proposed founding a colony within eight years, and received scorn from both liberals and Romney. Does Newt deserve it? What are some of the results of space exploration to date?

What About The Animals?

Anyone want to take a break from talking about the GOP Primary to talk about animal rights?

Solid South Carolina Win Gives Florida Bounce For Gingrich

Call him the new Comeback Kid. There's a sort of irony to that. Gingrich's surge and victory in South Carolina has now translated to a surge in Florida. Mitt Romney must be scared to death at this point.

Gingrich Leads Going Into South Carolina But There's Room For a Romney Upset

The latest RCP polling averages in South Carolina show Gingrich with 32.8%, Romney with 30.2%, Paul with 13.2% and Santorum with 11.4%. That totals to 87.6% leaving 12.4% of voters potentially up for grabs. With Gingrich leading by as much as 9% in the latest polls, I figure that gap is going to play a key roll in today's vote.

Gingrich Makes South Carolina a Fight

Last week I pointed out Romney had not bounced after New Hampshire. The other candidates got bounces but he had not. Finally when the bounce wore off for others and as Huntsman dropped out, Romney started to creep up again in the polls. Meanwhile Gingrich has surged in a huge way.

Republicans Can't Admit Truth About Economy

By now most would agree one of the biggest factors relating to President Obama's reelection will be the state of the economy come November. Perhaps that's why so many on the right continue to insist the economy is worse now than when Obama took office. If they admit things are better they lose one of their arguments. But are things better?

Romney Not Getting South Carolina Bounce...Yet

Three polls have come out since Romney won New Hamshire. So far there's no bounce to be seen. Gingrich, Huntsman and Paul have all grown their support this week. Romney has actually lost almost 5 percentage points so far.

Congratulations, America: You're officially unncessary

The nation's biggest political-action committees have raised $66 million so far this year -- all of it for Republican presidential candidates. That's roughly nine-and-a-half times more than any one of those candidates has raised in public campaign financing.

The people behind Super PACs know how to influence elections (or "buy politicians" as it's more accurately known), and how to legally avoid scrutiny.

At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, James Madison said, "The people are the fountain of all power." Hop in the DeLorean and time-jump to today, and the power of the people has been utterly perverted. The job of supposedly leaders is to produce what the money-ballers and power-brokers who bought their office want. And we have the ludicrous "Citizens United" Supreme Court decision - wherein it was ruled that corporations have the exact same rights as individual U.S. citizens and cannot be limited on how much money they can give to a political candidate, *AND* they don't have to disclose having done so.

A whopping $66 million was raised in the first half of this year by independent groups known as "super-PACs" (political-action committees), according to Federal Elections Commission filings. The justification for these money-funneling organizations is that PACs weren't effective enough in buying politicians and super-versions of them were necessary. It's the same exact mentality that decided that Congress wasn't effective enough to pass laws, so we needed the "Super-Congress" to get things done. And we've all how non-partisan, streamlined and effective that's been.

Santorum: No woman can ever have an abortion ... except my wife

Rick Santorum is one dangerously denial-ridden hypocrite. He's best known for his inability to associate his professed compassion for life at the level of the zygote, with the physical realities of human sexuality. He said same-sex relationships lead *DIRECTLY* to bestiality. He said that abortion should be outlawed, INCLUDING when the pregnancy is the result of rape and/or incest. He is opposed to abortion under absolutely any circumstance. Well ... almost.

In October, 1996, Rick Santorum's wife Karen had a second-trimester abortion. But the Santorums don't like to describe it that way. Instead, they call it "a necessary interruptive surgical procedure to save the mother's life that resulted in the death of the fetus." How that is anything other than the literal clinical definition of "abortion" is something that can only be found in the dementia of faux-Christian hypocrisy.

Newsflash: Calling it anything other than the word "abortion" doesn't change the fact that it was, in fact, an abortion.

Gingrich: The man who won't be President

Newt Gingrich has a lot going for him in his quest for the presidency -- a famous name, plenty of inside-Washington friends, lobbyists and allies giving him untold millions in now-unlimited-by-Citizens-United money, nearly four decades of being a Washington D.C. politician for which he claims makes him and "outsider," a lifelong history of adultery, deceit, financial opportunism, criminal convictions, ethics violations and unmitigated hypocrisy, and just the right amount of sub-dermal racism that appeals to his party's longing-for-the-days-of-Dixie, all-white-all-the-time, faux-evangelical base.

It's almost enough to make you forget his central handicap; the fact that he is Newt Gingrich.

While you were asleep...

We might as well face it guys we are no longer the United States of America. The land of the free. We brought it upon ourselves, worked hard to make it the law and work hard to bring authoritarian rule on ourselves. So I suggest we call it what it is, "The Authoritarian States of America", has a nice ring to it right?

Congress wants to decide what YOU can do and see on the Internet

Protect the Internet: Help stop Internet censorship legislation!

Join the virtual strike to protest two proposed laws in the United States, called SOPA and the PROTECT IP Act. On January 24th, the U.S. Senate will vote on the PROTECT IP Act to censor the Internet, despite opposition from the *VAST MAJORITY* of Americans who have made their disapproval crystal clear.

The Internet blacklist legislation--known as PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House--invites Internet security risks, threatens online speech, and hampers innovation on the Web. Urge your members of Congress to reject this Internet blacklist campaign in both its forms!

Here is the complete text of the SOPA proposal, and here is the complete text of the PIPA proposal.

Congress wants to give corporations unlimited free speech rights and for you to have NONE!

Lunchpails and Republicans

Their thinking for themselves. I know it is hard to believe but in Indiana republicans are thinking for themselves. Well at least some of them. It seems the 2010 elections served a purpose after all, showing the excesses of conservative control of government for what it is. And it seems the corporatist/fascist/uber conservatives should start to worry. Good I say it is long overdue.

The numbers don't lie, Ms. Bachmann

Michele Bachmann missed 2,375 (53.02%) of 4,479 Congressio­nal roll call votes since Jan 4, 2007. She missed 58.7% of votes in Q3 2011 (145 out of 247) and missed NINETY ONE POINT THREE PERCENT of votes in Q4-2011 (190 out of 208). And yet, somehow, she still draws every penny of Congressio­nal salary and perks, plus the profits from her book signing tour (which just *happens* to coincide with her presidenti­al campaign).

Ron Paul, thank you for your service.

Would you consider a spelling error is responsible for the battle between the church and the state?

In god we trust should be; in gold we trust, yes? Don't you agree, Ron Paul?

The State Department's Private Army: High-dollar, low expectations

How do you justify paying a contractor SIX TIMES what you pay a Soldier, Marine, Airman or Seaman? Funny how nobody in Washington today - Republican or Democrat - seems to accept the Rumsfeldian "You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want" mentality that we were shoved into Iraq with in the first place.

And exactly how many more decades will the "Iraqi security forces" need to "train and prepare to provide their own security?" They've been "making progress" since 2003 and STILL can't field so much as a standard battalion of capable soldiers. Does the Iraqi equivalent of the Pentagon have a "retards and incompetents only" policy in its recruiting stations? Or do they save that distinction for the diplomats?

The state department­'s new "private army" DOES NOT DESERVE ONE DIME MORE IN PAY OR BENEFITS THAN THEY'RE ACTIVE DUTY, RESERVE AND/OR NATIONAL GUARD MILITARY COUNTERPAR­TS GET.

There's really nothing else that needs to be said about it.

https://garystlawrence.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/the-state-departments-private-army-high-dollar-low-expectations/

I want to make you happy!

I want to make you lie.

Keeping Church and State separate

I do agree that we as a country have went to far in the wall of separation, Kevin but that is a discussion for another time. Actually Kevin let me rephrase that. I do agree that we as a Country have went beyond the intentions of the founding fathers in building the wall of separation between church and state .

Possible Liberty Comeback

It's been decades since some good news from the Supreme Court concerning individual liberty has come our way, up to and including the despicable Kelo v. New London decision in 2005. But since them, as if to say they were sorry, this court has actually been looking out for us more and more. Between DC v. Heller and Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, two huge landmark cases that reaffirmed individual rights to the 1st and 2nd amendments, many liberty minded people were cautiously optimistic since they were limited to two specific amendments and both were 5-4 decisions. But now a unanimous decision in a small strange case, Bond v. United States, opens up a whole new world to the individual citizens of the United States, one that had been wrongly closed to us.

Missing the Point

Over a month ago groups of people got together to protest Wall Street. The OWS protestors understand that something is wrong. Unfortunately, in their anger they took their message to the wrong people. And as the government started cracking down on their protests, they still seemed to miss the point of where their grievances should be directed, still looking to the very people who were using force against them to solve the problems that they created. But even worse, the protesters fail to comprehend that they are no different than the people they are angry at.

Hey, Occupy Wall Street - - Over Here - - - - Over Hear!

The Occupy Wall Street movement has been impressive in numbers if short on focus. Generally, sharp focus on one or two issues is thought to encourage supporters and get them to turn out in large numbers. How this group was able to have such a good showing with such divergent viewpoints on as many divergent issues is astonishing.

On The Hunt For Jobs

Seems everyone is putting jobs on the front burner these days. A little strange that people should be that concerned at this point in time. I think most of us are of age to recall Perot's campaign mantra; 'the sucking sound of jobs going overseas'. Only a few, 19% seemed concerned back then.

An American Trinity

We Americans have a great system, but it is one that needs some work. The old models developed in response to the aftermath Great Depression & World War II are getting really old. Conservatives are fighting against the idea of bloated state that developed in the unique circumstances in the generation after WWII. Liberals are fighting against this reaction and in many ways are still looking back to 1929.How about something different?

Groundhog Day

Good news on jobs, two years too late. Usually a job loss bottoms out and then climbs out.You see this almost happened for Obama. But then his policies stalled the recovery.

Progressive Wisconsin

My Wisconsin relatives, all working class, are divided in their opinions about Governor Scott Walker, as is the state. We can disagree about the ideology, but there are some facts. The $3 billion deficit is now a $300 million surplus - without new taxes. Walker passed a statewide school voucher program, eased business regulation, and enacted tort reform. Last year only 10% of Wisconsin business thought the state was heading in the right direction; the number is now 94%. After losing 150,000 jobs they year before, Wisconsin added 10,000 jobs in 2011.

Trying to Understand the Great Depression and the Recent Recession

I spent a couple hours reading articles in the "Wilson Quarterly" looking back at the Great Depression and comparing it to our current condition. Economists still disagree about what caused the Depression and how it ended, but most of us have a kind of simple mental model, based mostly on ... nothing. The one I learned might be called a "hangover model". We lived too fast and too furiously in the 1920s and woke up with the headache like after a night of partying. This model is definitely not true. But read for yourselves some of the others.

We are alone in the vast universe

I was watching reruns of a "Cosmos" marathon. These were made by Karl Sagan around thirty years ago and described science of the time for the layman. They are a little dated today (even hard science changes) but that is not what I found remarkable. The remarkable thing is the implicit belief that there exists intelligent life elsewhere in the universe and that at some point we will be in contact with them. I used to believe that too, but it is not science. It is as much a assertion of religious belief as we find in any of the holy books. It is completely w/o scientific foundation.

Obama Rejects Keystone Pipeline, American Workers

President Obama did it. He rejected the Keystone Pipeline. Whether you thought that It was a good idea for the pipeline would create jobs and provide economic stimulus or you thought getting energy from Canadian oil sands was not worth the cost, you now know where Obama stands.

Illegal Logging

This is what I wrote for my forestry magazine. It has some political points that might be of interest here. - Illegal loggers steal from us in many ways. Sometimes they are literally stealing our trees, but it goes way beyond that. Illegal logging is rarely done according to good procedures that protect the environment and preserve the forest for future generations. The public views the scenes of destruction left by illegal loggers and jumps to conclusion that this is how logging is done. That means that illegal loggers also steal the reputations of honest loggers and landowners who are good stewards of their land and often have been for many generations.

Romney Ethical & Honest; Attackers Liars

The generally liberal Washington Post gave the accusations against Romney its "four Pinocchio" rating, which means that practically none of them are true. WP says, "The 29-minute video "King of Bain" is such an over-the-top assault on former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney that it is hard to know where to begin." But let's summarize.

Index of Economic Freedom 2012

We have almost dropped out of the top ten in economic freedom. We have been getting worse while others are getting better. Among others, we now fall behind Canada, Australia, New Zealand & Switzerland. These are places that we thought of as having more intrusive governments than ours. America used to be among the freest. Things change.

Romney Adding Value and Creating Success

Chrissy and I owned a house in New Hampshire a few years back. We bought it for around $230,000 and sold it less than a year later for $270,000. We were lucky, but also smart and hard working. We chose a good house that needed lots of work. We fixed the place up, replacing tile, fixing the furnace and generally making the place worth more. This is a way to add value and make money. This is almost exactly what Mitt Romney did at Bain Capital.

Making the Grade

One of the hallmarks of modern liberal/progressives is their bias in favor of equality of results. That is why they worry so much about "gaps" in performance and insist on using awkward modifiers like "underprivileged," "disadvantaged" or "underserved" when describing anybody not doing as well as others. This quest for equality is reflected in grades. To a statistically significant degree, Democratic professors give out fewer high and low marks. In other words, they equalize results.

Banned at the White House

It is about time. A famous athlete is banned from the White House because of his nasty behavior in the past. We shouldn't feel too sorry for Delonte West. He is somewhat cognitively challenged, so the sentence is ambiguous, but I am going to assume that when Delonte say, "It's going to be ashamed the President isn't going to get a chance to meet me. I'm the president of my house.'' that he thinks it is more President Obama's loss than his own.

How Violence has Declined & Why you Didn't Notice

Stephen Pinker is my favorite living philosopher of society. Some would correct me and say that he is a scientists and not a philosopher, but the two can overlap extensively. With all due respect to the ancient philosophers that I read and loved, many of the questions that perturbed them are now just "simple" matters of science. For example, philosophers argued back and forth for years as to whether humans were "blank slates" influenced only by their environments or whether they were determined by physical or genetic factors. Recent advances in science have made this argument mute.

The Democrats' Secret Weapon

by Phillip Whitten

Republicans have an historic opportunity in 2012 not only to wrest the presidency from the Democrats but also to capture the Senate while maintaining control of the House. Indeed, this may be necessary to undo the damage inflicted on our nation by the incompetent Obama administration.

Return to Reason with my Man Mitt

I am purposely jumping the gun and I may be eating dirt soon, but I am assuming that Romney will win in Iowa. This is something of a miracle. He has not spent much time campaigning there and all the liberal pundits have been telling us that Romney is too moderate to be nominated, that the "right" wouldn't accept his religion and that Republicans would never accept "impure" conservative brand (i.e. flip-flop on abortion, support for health care etc.)