The Texas Republican Party is hoping to host a nationally televised Republican debate ahead of the state's May 29 primary. All of the candidates, except Mitt Romney, have agreed to attend.
Original Page: http://austin.ynn.com/content/capital_tonight/283905/gingrich--paul-and-santorum-say-yes-to-texas-debate
A trio of Republican governors, including presidential race dropout Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, toured a Nebraska processing plant that produces "pink slime," later munching hamburgers and decrying media coverage. "Lets call this product what it is, and let 'pink slime' become a term of the past," said Perry, the nation's longest serving governor.
Original Page: http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2012/03/30/gov-perry-finds-new-cause-pink-slime/
In a rather salty commentary piece, Austin American-Statesman writer Ken Herman lambastes the American public for not taking the hint: still-Governor Rick Perry isn't trying to be the president anymore. Ironically, the man who slipped countless political gaffes into a brief campaign has pulled in more votes since he left the campaign trail than when he was actively pursuing the presidency, which lends weight to the idea that his presence in the race only hurt him.
The reason for Herman's reaction is the 39,435 votes that have been cast in Perry's name as bid for presidential nominee by Americans after the Texas governor suspended his campaign following disastrous showings in the first two primaries. There have been 17 since. This also comes after he's publicly resigned from the campaign and endorsed (begrudgingly) Newt Gingrich for presidential nominee. According to Herman's diatribe, there are still folks pressing the flesh, campaigning on the ground for Perry.
The fact that Rick Perry's name is still appearing on ballots isn't extraordinary: Michele Bachmann and Jon Huntsman are still appearing on voting ballots (Huntsman has approximately 68,000 votes) and will do so in the upcoming Texas primary in May. The vast tentacles of a presidential nominee race are difficult to wrangle in, accounting for all the extra names on the ballot slip, but there seems to be a gap in time from when a candidate reneges on their ambitions to become president and when their name is no longer presented on the ballot as a viable option.
But forget the fact that thousands of Americans are wasting their vote on a candidate who no longer wants the presidency in one of the closest nomination elections in recent memory. Look on the bright side. If Perry did somehow pull off a nomination after pulling out of the race, he's already got a great campaign slogan: "Oops!"
[...]
Mitt Romney said today that Russia - not Iran or North Korea - is the United States' "number one geopolitical foe," adding that Russia "always stands up for the world's worst actors."
Original Page: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Intelwar/~3/w-1WCiJGpmc/mitt-romney-says-russia-no-1-geopolitical-foe-214249733--abc-news.html
The GOP has a longstanding history of maintaining the divisions between classes and race to promote policies that keep the populace divided and controlled.Last night, the Human Rights Campaign published National Organization for Marriage memos that, as Zack Ford put it, "explicitly confirm many of the insidious tactics LGBT bloggers have been documenting for years."
We now know, for example, that NOM set out to "[d]rive a wedge between gays and blacks" by couching the fight of marriage in the language of the civil rights movement, as well as "interrupt this process" of Hispanic assimilation "by making support for marriage a key badge of Latino identity."
This is why gay rights and marriage equality are a civil rights issue, and will eventually be recognized if that effort is taken which gave blacks and women the right to vote.It will interesting to see if, and how, Mitt Romney responds to these revelations. Last August, Romney — along with Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum — signed NOM's pledge [pdf] to deny gays and lesbians equal rights under the law, as did Newt Gingrich in December.
I guess there are a few specific positions and policies that I agree with the Left on, but still don't see much overall difference between the two sides in general policy.In return, NOM's president, Brian Brown, deemed the candidate a "marriage champion." (Romney apparently failed to win the favor of former chairman, Maggie Gallagher.)
In having NOM has an ally, Romney stands to gain considerable financial support. As Buzzfeed noted:
In a "$20 million strategy for victory" keyed to the 2010 midterm elections, the group says its agenda "requires defeating the pro-gay Obama agenda."
How can one promote a pro-marriage position without recognizing that marriage is an individual choice and right which should never have any State involvement or regulation (or recognition)?"A pro-marriage president must be elected in 2012," the document says, although Obama has offered tepid opposition to same-sex marriage.
Left and Right are both wrong.Whether directly or indirectly, Romney is sure to be the beneficiary of these efforts. Will he continue to ally himself with an organization that views African-Americans and Hispanics as pawns?
Original Page: http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/03/27/452545/will-romney-denounce-allys-goal-to-drive-a-wedge-between-gays-and-blacks/
Is the fix in in Illinois? Outrage builds as videos and screen grabs circulate online showing results for the Illinois Republican primary hours before voters went to the polls.Sure, it was a test, just a little accident. Nothing to see, move along, move along...
Results for the primary election briefly appeared on the ABC 7 Chicago website Monday, March 19, the day before the primary was to take place.
According to screen captures and videos circulating around the internet, the results show Rick Santorum narrowly defeating Mitt Romney, with Newt Gingrich placing third, and Ron Paul a distant fourth.
ABC 7 Chicago denies any election fraud or conspiracy. The network claims the curious screen captures were only a test. Responding to numerous queries, ABC 7 Chicago tweeted the following on Tuesday afternoon:
It was a test. The website results that appeared before polls opened were test results. Actual results will appear after the polls close.
While ABC may be being honest, their mistake is nevertheless inexcusable. The appearance of impropriety is often just as bad as actual impropriety. Posting the primary “test results” to their website was negligent and irresponsible.
[...]
"How the hell does SGTreport have election results for a Republican primary in Illinois which has yet to take place? We have long argued that the fix is in but this... um... leaves us speechless.
Posted tonight -- MONDAY, March 19th -- on the web site of Chicago ABC News Affiliate WLS-TV are the following election results, clearly labeled as "Illinois Races, Federal Offices". If we have this wrong, please let us know why this information exists in ANY form. Or, if we are indeed living in a banana republic, copy that. You now have our blessing to move out of the country.
The content in my videos and on the SGTbull07 channel are provided for informational purposes only. Use the information found in my videos as a starting point for conducting your own research and conduct your own due diligence (DD) BEFORE making any significant investing decisions. SGTbull07 assumes all information to be truthful and reliable; however, I cannot and do not warrant or guarantee the accuracy of this information.
Say it ain't so! I don't expect that state media will give in to fair and balanced coverage of anything before it collapses and independent media will take over and thrive without heavy corporate influence.Following Mitt Romney's victory in Illinois, the media buzz on Ron Paul has focused on speculation about him dropping out of the race. According to many sources, his delegate strategy has failed and his fundraising is drying up.
However, Ron Paul seemed as upbeat as ever last night during his appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He noted that the delegate counts for many states are still unknown and that a brokered convention becomes more likely every day.
Several media outlets report that Paul has only secured one tenth of the delegates that Romney has secured. This presumably rests upon the assumption that the percentage of delegates each will eventually secure will mirror his percentage of the popular vote.
However, Paul's campaign maintains that they expect to control a majority of the delegates in Iowa, Maine, and possibly several other states
Why the disconnect? Is this evidence of the media treating Paul's campaign unfairly?
Abandoning the caucus process (along with the electoral college) would give true democratic representation through a popular vote.Probably not. It is much more likely that most do not fully understand the caucus process. Rachel Maddow admits that she doesn't and suggested that even the Republican Party doesn't know the delegate count for any candidate at this point. She's right.
[...]
Of course our elected representatives know what the private mercenaries are doing in the name of America overseas. They employ these "firms" as a way to bypass the accountability required of our own military, what little they seem to still have...US government officials requested that an American private security firm contact Syrian opposition figures in Turkey to see "how they can help in regime change," the CEO of one of these firms told Stratfor in a company email obtained by WikiLeaks and Al-Akhbar.
James F. Smith, former director of Blackwater, is currently the Chief Executive of SCG International, a private security firm with experience in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. In what appears to be his first email to Stratfor, Smith stated that his "background is CIA" and his company is comprised of "former DOD [Department of Defense], CIA and former law enforcement personnel."
Imagine that. A warmonger in congress hiring mercenaries to help overthrow a foreign nation that poses no threat to our own."We provide services for those same groups in the form of training, security and information collection," he explained to Stratfor. (doc-id 5441475)
In a 13 December 2011 email to Stratfor's VP for counter-terrorism Fred Burton, which Burton shared with Stratfor's briefers, Smith claimed that "[he] and Walid Phares were getting air cover from Congresswoman [Sue] Myrick to engage Syrian opposition in Turkey (non-MB and non-Qatari) on a fact finding mission for Congress."
Walid Phares, named by the source as part of the "fact finding team," is a Lebanese-American citizen and currently co-chairs Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Middle East advisory group.
In a profile of Walid Phares published in Salon, As'ad AbuKhalil details Phares' history with right-wing militias during the Lebanese civil war.
Sue Myrick, who allegedly was providing "air cover" for the "fact finding team", is a Republican Congresswoman from North Carolina who has a track record of extremist pro-zionist and anti-Islamic views.
With this direct connection to Romney, don't expect him to be an alternative to Obama in terms of foreign policy. The names change, but the game stays the same.These include leading the charge against Dubai Ports World's attempt to buy major American ports in 2006 – labeling the Islamic Society of North America as a group of "radical jihadists" – and demanding that former President Jimmy Carter's citizenship be revoked for daring to meet with Hamas leaders in 2008.
Currently, Myrick is a member of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, a congressional committee charged with overseeing the American intelligence community, and is also involved with the Department of Defense and the US military.
In his email, the "true mission" for the "fact finding" team, Smith told Burton, was how "they can help in regime change."
[...]
Presidential contender Newt Gingrich has slammed President Barack Obama as a "food-stamp president," but the Rev. Jesse Jackson says that it is an honor, not an insult.When Gingrich labeled Obama "the best food-stamp president in American history," he clearly meant that as a negative. But Jackson, speaking at his regular Saturday service at the Rainbow PUSH headquarters in Chicago, had a different take."It's an honor to be a food-stamp president. Food stamps feed the hungry. Food stamps feed the children. Food stamps help the farmer," the civil rights leader declared. "Food stamps help the truck driver. Food stamps help the warehouse. Food stamps help the store. Food stamps hire people (really?) and feed people. Food stamps save people from starvation and malnutrition.""Whenever you attack feeding the hungry, you undermine the moral authority of our faith," Jackson said.
Thanks to Adult Swim re-airing King of the Hill five nights a week I recently caught an old episode that has expanded my list of approved politicians to now feature two: Ron Paul and Hank Hill. The episode is "Flush with Power" from season four.
It makes sense that the only politician in American history whose integrity would rival Dr. Paul's is a fictional cartoon character.
In this episode, the Texas town of Arlen is experiencing a severe drought, and the local government has instituted water-rationing policies. Each household is permitted to use only a certain low amount of water each week until rain returns, and an army of bureaucrats has been unleashed to patrol the neighborhoods of Arlen, randomly checking meters and cracking down on those who defy the policy.
Rationing is a very typical measure imposed by central planners ignorant of economics. Much like the saying that a person who has a hammer sees everything as a nail, city managers see every societal problem as something that can only be solved by the exercise of their power. As if they are wizards holding magical wands, they believe each and every trouble in their jurisdiction can be fixed by regulations and policies.
This rationing policy is very bad news for Hank Hill. Hank has a lush lawn he proudly maintains, but this requires a lot of water. In order to stay within the restrictions of the rationing policy and still leave his family with enough water for their needs, Hank has to let his yard suffer.
If, instead of rationing, the Arlen city government allowed the price of water to freely fluctuate according to supply and demand, people like Hank would be much better off. The price of water would rise, which would result in people who don't value water as much reducing their consumption. This would leave more water left over for those who value the water more and are willing to pay the higher price. With rationing and price ceilings, yes, the price is lower, but the supply is extinguished much faster.
An even better solution would be for the city mangers of Arlen to completely demunicipalize water distribution and let the market handle it. Entrepreneurs would compete with each other over who can offer the highest-quality water services for the lowest price, and the victor would be awarded with the highest profits. This profit motive would make new innovations in water distribution much more likely. One entrepreneur might buy the rights to a water source in another well-hydrated territory and pipe it into Arlen. Another might invent a new, cheap way to desalinize the ocean water surrounding Texas.
Another, more pitiful solution the city managers of Arlen offer is the promotion of inefficient low-flow toilets being issued for "free" (at the expense of the taxpayers being forced to pay for them). This too is a typical response of the central planners: reduce your quality of life by using lower-quality products, citizens, and shut up. Rather than owning up to the problem being the result of foolish government management, the bureaucrats place the blame on the citizens for using the "wrong" toilets. We not only see this with the American government's present policy on toilets, but also with light bulbs and cars.
In the market you never hear entrepreneurs blaming their customers for problems. The customer is always right, and entrepreneurs slavishly have to find ways to continue pleasing the customer. If an entrepreneur held a press conference and told his customers that they need to quit complaining and learn to accept lower-quality products, he would go bankrupt overnight; but with government it is always about making the tax-slave citizens sacrifice and suffer, and about using violent force against those who refuse.
Hank, desperate to have water for maintaining his lawn, breaks down and gets a low-flow toilet.
Thanks to Adult Swim re-airing King of the Hill five nights a week I recently caught an old episode that has expanded my list of approved politicians to now feature two: Ron Paul and Hank Hill. The episode is "Flush with Power" from season four.
It makes sense that the only politician in American history whose integrity would rival Dr. Paul's is a fictional cartoon character.
In this episode, the Texas town of Arlen is experiencing a severe drought, and the local government has instituted water-rationing policies. Each household is permitted to use only a certain low amount of water each week until rain returns, and an army of bureaucrats has been unleashed to patrol the neighborhoods of Arlen, randomly checking meters and cracking down on those who defy the policy.
Rationing is a very typical measure imposed by central planners ignorant of economics. Much like the saying that a person who has a hammer sees everything as a nail, city managers see every societal problem as something that can only be solved by the exercise of their power. As if they are wizards holding magical wands, they believe each and every trouble in their jurisdiction can be fixed by regulations and policies.
This rationing policy is very bad news for Hank Hill. Hank has a lush lawn he proudly maintains, but this requires a lot of water. In order to stay within the restrictions of the rationing policy and still leave his family with enough water for their needs, Hank has to let his yard suffer.
If, instead of rationing, the Arlen city government allowed the price of water to freely fluctuate according to supply and demand, people like Hank would be much better off. The price of water would rise, which would result in people who don't value water as much reducing their consumption. This would leave more water left over for those who value the water more and are willing to pay the higher price. With rationing and price ceilings, yes, the price is lower, but the supply is extinguished much faster.
An even better solution would be for the city mangers of Arlen to completely demunicipalize water distribution and let the market handle it. Entrepreneurs would compete with each other over who can offer the highest-quality water services for the lowest price, and the victor would be awarded with the highest profits. This profit motive would make new innovations in water distribution much more likely. One entrepreneur might buy the rights to a water source in another well-hydrated territory and pipe it into Arlen. Another might invent a new, cheap way to desalinize the ocean water surrounding Texas.
Another, more pitiful solution the city managers of Arlen offer is the promotion of inefficient low-flow toilets being issued for "free" (at the expense of the taxpayers being forced to pay for them). This too is a typical response of the central planners: reduce your quality of life by using lower-quality products, citizens, and shut up. Rather than owning up to the problem being the result of foolish government management, the bureaucrats place the blame on the citizens for using the "wrong" toilets. We not only see this with the American government's present policy on toilets, but also with light bulbs and cars.
In the market you never hear entrepreneurs blaming their customers for problems. The customer is always right, and entrepreneurs slavishly have to find ways to continue pleasing the customer. If an entrepreneur held a press conference and told his customers that they need to quit complaining and learn to accept lower-quality products, he would go bankrupt overnight; but with government it is always about making the tax-slave citizens sacrifice and suffer, and about using violent force against those who refuse.
Hank, desperate to have water for maintaining his lawn, breaks down and gets a low-flow toilet.
The toilets are immediately revealed to be inferior products — requiring many more flushes to dispose of waste than normal toilets. This is a typical result of the government's remedies: not only are they usually unsuccessful, but they also exacerbate the problems they were allegedly intended to solve.
[...]
Internet pornography could conceivably become a thing of the past if Rick Santorum is elected president.
The unapologetic social conservative, currently in second place behind Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination, has promised to crack down on the distribution of pornography if elected.
Santorum says in a statement posted to his website, "The Obama Administration has turned a blind eye to those who wish to preserve our culture from the scourge of pornography and has refused to enforce obscenity laws."
Since its introduction during World War II as a measure of wartime production capacity, the Gross National Product (now routinely measured as Gross Domestic Product—GDP) has become the nation's foremost indicator of economic progress. It is now widely used by policymakers, economists, international agencies and the media as the primary scorecard of a nation's economic health and well-being.
Yet the GDP was never intended for this role. It is merely a gross tally of products and services bought and sold, with no distinctions between transactions that add to well-being, and those that diminish it. Instead of separating costs from benefits, and productive activities from destructive ones, the GDP assumes that every monetary transaction adds to well-being, by definition. It is as if a business tried to assess its financial condition by simply adding up all "business activity," thereby lumping together income and expenses, assets and liabilities.
On top of this, the GDP ignores everything that happens outside the realm of monetized exchange, regardless of its importance to well-being. The crucial economic functions performed in the household and volunteer sectors go entirely ignored. The contributions of the natural habitat in providing the resources that sustain us go unreckoned as well. As a result, the GDP not only masks the breakdown of the social structure and natural habitat; worse, it actually portrays such breakdown as economic gain.
[...]
Making an election-year pitch to American workers, and businesses as well, Obama announced Washington has brought a new trade case against Beijing. The goal is to pressure China, a rising Asian economic power, to end its restrictions on exports of key materials used to manufacture hybrid car batteries, flat screen televisions and other high tech-goods.
"If China would simply let the market work on its own, we'd have no objection," Obama said during remarks at the White House. "But their policies currently are preventing that from happening. And they go against the very rules that China agreed to follow."
The U.S., working in conjunction with the European Union and Japan, asked the World Trade Organization Tuesday to facilitate talks with China over its curtailment of exports of what's known as rare earth minerals. Obama cast the fresh action against China as part of a broader push to level the playing field for U.S. companies. Read More
This is why Ron Paul gets more military donations than any other candidate. Make sure to check out the comments.
Original Page: http://www.realistnews.net/Thread-the-military-industrial-complex-has-got-us-by-the-throat-jack-cafferty
Obama: Window for diplomatic resolution to Iranian nuclear conflict is 'shrinking'
Original Page: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=1380d4641bf71b6ee3dc09166d78e783
Another interesting data point from the poll Bryan highlighted earlier, as caught by NRO's Jim Geraghty:
Just 20% of Americans feel their family's financial situation is better today than it was four yearsago. 37% say it is worse, and 43% say it is about the same.
Family's Financial Situation Vs. Four Years Ago
- Better today 20%
- Worse today 37%
- About the same 43%
It should also be noted that this poll, as would be expected from CBS and the New York Times, oversampled Democrats. As of 1 March, Rasmussen (full article behind paywall, sorry) found 36% identified as Republicans, only 32.4% identified as Democrats; yet in this poll, CBS/NYT polled 304 Democrats and only 263 Republicans, which has the majority on the wrong side (they also report 442 independents, which could be a way for Democrat-leaning respondents to hide).
Not buying into polls that sample such a small portion of a population is a good thing. The smaller the sample, the less representative and accurate the data, basic statistics (which is an opinionated and manipulative field anyway, regardless of your political slant).So, even with Democrats oversampled, more people say they're worse off today than better, and over twice as many say there's been no change rather than improvement in their financial situation. Of course, Harry Reid is spinning so fast that you could hook him up to a generator and power Las Vegas:
"I think this poll is so meaningless. It is trying to give the American people an idea of what 300 million people feel by testing several hundred people. I think the poll is flawed in so many different ways including a way that questions were asked. I don't believe in polls generally and specifically not in this one."
Yeah, right, Harry. We all know that if this poll had fallen out the other way, you'd be trumpeting it in front of every camera and microphone you could find. But even with oversampling Democrats, it turned out wrong for you, so you're left with just desperate spin, and worse than that, it's obviously desperate spin.
I'll conclude with some free advice for Santorum and Romney: Whoever the GOP nominee is, he should dust off Reagan's old campaign ad question, and ask Americans, "are you better off now than you were four years ago?"
Original Page: http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/03/13/are-you-better-off-than-you-were-four-years-ago-80-say-no/
F. More purchases! and what should we buy? Doubtless, useful articles — things likely to procure for us substantial gratification — such as provisions, stuffs, houses, books, pictures. You should begin, then, by proving that all these things create themselves; you must suppose the Mint melting ingots of gold which have fallen from the moon; or that the printing presses be put in action at the Treasury Department; for you cannot reasonably think that if the quantity of corn, cloth, ships, hats, and shoes remains the same, the share of each of us can be greater, because we each go to market with a greater amount of real or fictitious money. Remember the players. In the social order the useful things are what the workers place under the candlestick, and the dollars which circulate from hand to hand are the counters. If you multiply the dollars without multiplying the useful things, the only result will be that more dollars will be required for each exchange, just as the players required more counters for each deposit. You have the proof of this in what passes for gold, silver, and copper. Why does the same exchange require more copper than silver, more silver than gold? Is it not because these metals are distributed in the world in different proportions? What reason have you to suppose that if gold were suddenly to become as abundant as silver, it would not require as much of one as of the other to buy a house?
[...]
In Tennessee, they tried a different underhanded tactic and succeeded… Hours before the election, Santorum met with several state delegates declared on the ballot for Gingrich, one even the Co-Chair of the Gingrich campaign, convincing them to switch to Santorum delegates even though the state ballots declared them all for Gingrich. Sadly, watching the [...]
Original Page: http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2012/03/09/gop-defeating-itself-again/
Left and Right are both Wrong.
While I generally disagree with Romney in policy, his words are often at least slightly correct (the same goes with most major players in the political theater). The government has no place "owning" land, preventing its use by the public. Collectivism has its serious flaws, but statism is no substitute for patriotism."Unless there's a valid, legitimate and compelling public purpose, I don't know why the government owns so much of this land."
The problem with this argument is that it promotes the sort of social thinking that runs rampant in states that push socialism on their citizen subjects. Also, one can hold environmental issues in high regard while also being in support of liberty. Romney is just as unfit for the office of the President of the United Sates as Obama, the man with whom he shares so much in common, yet purports to be the best replacement.One need not be a tree-hugger to see why this man should not be put in charge of the United States. He says it all in one sentence. He does not accept the idea that serve to ordinary people is a legitimate and compelling purpose.
"Is there any long-held, much-cherished American principle that Republicans/Democrats and their media outlets will not renounce? "— Tim Egan
http://liberalsarecool.com/post/19011890087/unless-theres-a-valid-legitimate-and-compelling
As Ron Paul says, liberty has been lost in this nation for the better part of the twentieth century.
Wake up, America.
Three years ago almost to the day, Fast Company magazine profiled Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes as the man who made Barack Obama the 44th President of the United States. Today, Hughes has announced his purchase of the venerable liberal magazine The New Republic and his intention to take over as publisher and editor-in-chief:
Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, who left the social network to work on the online arm of Barack Obama's 2008 White House campaign, has bought a majority stake in The New Republic magazine.
Hughes, 28, who was Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg's roommate at Harvard University, announced the move in an online letter to readers of the publication, a nearly century-old bastion of liberal political thought. …
"When few people are investing in media institutions with such bold aims as 'enlightenment to the problems of the nation,' I believe we must," he said.
Hughes, who is assuming the titles of publisher and editor-in-chief, said the Web "has introduced a competitive, and some might argue hostile, landscape for long, in-depth, resource-intensive journalism.
Congratulations to Hughes, who has had an incredible run of success, quite obviously. The infusion of capital into TNR can't be a bad thing for a print publication these days, of course. If he chooses to invest in TNR, well, it's his money, and God bless. It's not as though TNR was an unbiased source of news and analysis, nor did they pretend to be. They have always been interested in promoting the liberal viewpoint, perhaps not as far Left as The Nation, but both publications have produced serious and interesting journalism regardless.
However, one has to wonder whether that will continue to be the case. For instance, as liberal as Marty Peretz is, he has always been a hawk on Israel. Will that continue under Hughes, now that he's replacing Peretz as editor-in-chief? And while being a majority owner in a magazine is all the practical prerequisite one needs to run the publication, exactly how is Hughes qualified otherwise to run a magazine — and what kind of editorial direction can we expect from someone whose resumé includes building a social network and acting as the online-flack-in-chief for Barack Obama? I suspect that any inclination that existed at TNR to criticize Obama administration policies will evaporate, although Hughes may still pleasantly surprise us with an independent point of view.
At one time, TNR described itself as "the in-flight magazine of Air Force One." Let's hope it doesn't take the Davis Guggenheim route towards being the mouthpiece of Air Force One.
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/03/09/obama-campaign-strategist-buys-the-new-republic/
No less than six relatives of Presidential candidate Mitt Romney have joined the campaign trail in the race for the GOP nomination, but they're not supporting the former Massachusetts governor, they're campaigning for Texas Congressman Ron Paul.
Three of Romney's relatives will even speak at Idaho caucus sites, declaring their support for Paul in a story that is sure to create a buzz around Paul's campaign as he looks to pick up his first caucus win on Super Tuesday.
The Paul campaign issued a press release Monday introducing five Romney relatives, then issued another release shortly afterwards noting a sixth.
Travis Romney, Troy Romney and Chad Romney, all cousins of Mitt Romney, will speak before Ron Paul crowds in Idaho today. Ty Romney and Jared Romney, whose grandfathers are cousins of former Michigan Governor George Romney, the father of Mitt Romney, have also declared their support for Paul.
Hello pot, this is kettle...Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts unleashed some harsh words Tuesday against his state's former governor turned two-time GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
The 2004 Democratic presidential nominee blasted Romney's op-ed in the Washington Post Tuesday in which the candidate sharply criticized President Barack Obama's policies toward Iran and labeled him the most "feckless" president since President Jimmy Carter.
"While Obama frets in the White House, the Iranians are making rapid progress toward obtaining the most destructive weapons in the history of the world," Romney wrote in the op-ed.
The anti war candidate became the biggest warmonger the United States has crowned in decades. Big surprise...Speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday, Kerry lambasted the article, saying it was "as inaccurate as it was aggressive."
He particularly took issue with Romney's characterization of Obama as an incompetent leader and pointed to the killing of Osama bin Laden last year as the president's crowning achievement.
"George W. Bush may have said 'wanted dead or alive' but it was President Obama who delivered it," Kerry said. "I don't know if Governor Romney has checked the definition of the word feckless lately, but that raid ain't it."
What a false flag effort this is turning into. I only wonder what manufactured scenario will become the spark that drives us into Iran as with so many undeserving nations. The American empire is on the verge of collapse and the warfare state is all that keeps us afloat.The senator also argued Romney and other Republican presidential candidates were using the simmering Iran-Israel tension as a ploy to appeal to conservative voters on the campaign trail.
"I don't think that we should allow Iran to become another party's applause line on the presidential stump," Kerry said.
While Romney did not specifically spell out the kind of military action he would take in Iran, the candidate said he would complement diplomacy "with a military option that will persuade the ayatollahs to abandon their nuclear ambitions."
He also threatened to "act alone if we must" on "ever-tightening sanctions."
But Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, described Romney's rhetoric as irresponsible.
"Talk of war only helps Iran at this moment and others by increasing the price of Iranian crude oil that pays for its nuclear program," he said. "To create false differences with the president just to score political points does nothing to move Iran off a dangerous nuclear course."
I forced to rely on our ability to produce rather than invade and consume, America would surely collapse as did the Russian and British before us. At least we have history to reference along the path to self-destruction...Romney's op-ed came the same day he and two other Republican candidates-Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich-spoke at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C., and two days after Obama made his remarks to the powerful lobby group.
In his first press conference of the year, Obama echoed Kerry's sentiments and targeted the Republican candidates for using Iran as a campaign topic.
"When I see the casualness with which some of these folks talk about war, I'm reminded of the costs involved in war. I'm reminded of the decision that I have to make, in terms of sending our young men and women into battle and the impacts that has on their lives, the impact it has on our national security, the impact it has on our economy," Obama said. "This is not a game, and there's nothing casual about it."
Original Page: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/06/kerry-takes-aim-at-romney-over-iran/
It's nice to see the president looking into alternative careers.Producer and studio mogul Harvey Weinstein recently sent a letter to President Obama rejecting his film proposal. "The President sent me a book the other day and said, 'Why don't you make this into a movie?' … I can't tell you [what it was]. It was a spy novel," Weinstein recently toldThe Times — according to Digital Spy. "I sent him an email back saying he was the most overqualified book scout I've ever had," Weinstein quipped.
While he may be perfect for the role of political puppet, this change of direction may prove he still has a soul.Last week the President attended campaign fundraisers in Beverly Hills, hosted by Harvey Weinstein and media exec Peter Chernin. He previously hung out with Weinstein at a private dinner and screening (the movie Bobby) in 2006, so it's easy to see why the prez felt comfy playing cinema scout.
We just hope that the book wasn't furthering the generic-thriller-novel-at-the-airport-gift-shop adaptation cause that Hollywood is so in love with.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum dipped deep into the reservoir of American history analogies during his final day of campaigning in Ohio. The Pennsylvania Republican, addressing a crowd of several hundred at a rally in an American Legion hall outside Columbus, made connections between government mandates, the American Revolution, and the 2012 election.
All of that was fair play, certainly when compared to some of the liberties politicians take when using historical symbolism. But then Santorum went a bit further, mocking the British soldiers for their "spiffy uniforms."
This election is about big things. It is about whether the flame that our founders lit in writing that document in 1776 in the face of impossible odds. Impossible odds.
We use that term impossible as if it doesn't really mean impossible, just hard. Well that day it was impossible. Yet, they did something remarkable. A group of rag-tag people who believed in themselves, who were willing to fight and sacrifice and put everything on the line against the most powerful army in the world, the red coats, with their spiffy uniforms, and the elite, the noble class that governed them against a rag-tag group of soldiers from different parts of the country, some not even speaking the same language as the other having to communicate through translators within the ranks of the American army. This was America.
We were a collection of very different people ... They came together for one purpose: to break away from a tyrannical government who wanted to mandate and govern their lives.
The presidential contender pens an op-ed in The Columbus Dispatch, and it's full of half-truths and terrible ideas.
Original Page: http://www.treehugger.com/environmental-policy/mitt-romney-i-would-approve-keystone-xl-day-one.html
Ron Paul won the Detroit GOP vote, with 5,525 ballots cast
Rick Santorum 4,047 votes.
Romney just 1,338 votes here (Detroit).
Original Page: http://www.ldsfreedomforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=17236&p=264200#p264200
Andrew Breitbart took the podium at CPAC Friday afternoon, introduced to the stage with Rage Against The Machine's Guerrilla Radio, and revealed to the audience he had "videos" of Barack Obama from his college days. "I have videos, this election we're going to vet him," Breitbart disclosed to raucous applause. "We are going to vet him from his college days to show you why racial division and class warfare are central to what hope and change was sold in 2008."
"The videos are going to come out, the narrative is going to come out, that Barack Obama met a bunch of silver ponytails in the 1980s, like Bill (Ayers) and Bernadine (Dohrn), who said one day we would have the presidency, and the rest of us slept as they plotted, and they plotted, and they plotted and they oversaw hundreds of millions of dollars in the Annenberg Challenge and they had real money, from real capitalists. Then they became communists. We got to work on that. That is a parenthesis. Barack Obama is a radical, we should not be afraid to say that! Okay? And Barack Obama was launched from Bill and Bernadine's salon. I've been there."
Original Page: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/242341-US-Andrew-Breitbart-s-Fiery-CPAC-Speech-I-Have-College-Days-Obama-Videos
