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  • Santorum moping in Iowa

    Santorum Winning the Nomination, then Crashing and Burning, Exactly What the GOP Deserves

    I had a feeling that the soul of the Republican Party, having come back to life after admitting that its last president was an embarrassment to lesser embarrassments, was en route to flaming death when former Gov. Jon Huntsman (R-UT) found himself unable to rise above the mid-single digits in national polling. That was proven beyond reasonable doubt when he dropped out and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) didn’t. If this week’s pollsare to be believed, this is the stage at which someone should be performing an exorcism. Santorum is ahead of former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) in the latter’s home state of Michigan, of which his (far superior) father was governor, and has achieved two-thirds favorability more »

  • None shall pass?

    Should Police be Able to Force Suspects to Decrypt a Computer, or Should They be able To Plead the Fifth?

    Here’s an interesting one for ya… Wired Magazine has a great story in their ‘Threat Level’ blog, that focuses on online privacy and crime issues, about  a woman under investigation in Colorado for bank fraud. During the investigation, they took a laptop, but it was encrypted so they haven’t been able to get in to see what is stored. Just a side note for those a bit less tech inclined… unlike in the movies where a computer genius can crack military grade encryption in mere minutes or hours, anyone wanting to hide information from prying eyes can quite easily do so with off the shefl technology you can download from the internet. At a certain more »

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    Why Obama Doesn’t Deserve Reelection, and How a Centrist Could Take Away Moderates

    Serves me right… the day I vent my frustrations about what has seemed to me a floundering Americans Elect organization, the very sort of candidacy that could turn things around for Americans Elect is netting some buzz. Thomas Friedman brought up a potential heavy hitter, who’s name popped up in Politico later in the day, with rumors that said candidate very recently got briefed by Americans Elect. In a post about some new buzz around one of my dream candidates (former Comptroller General of the United States David Walker) considering a run with Americans Elect, one of the comments was your standard tripe from a democrat implying that Obama has done a good job. I’ll more »

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    Santorum Leading Republican Charge to Narrow Separation of Church and State

    This is a guest post from Carol Benham It must seem almost quaint, now, that 50 years ago, then-presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, Jr. delivered a major speech seeking to allay voter concerns that his Catholic faith would somehow dictate or influence his actions as President of the United States. Kennedy, who became the nation’s first president of Catholic faith when he was inaugurated in Jan. 1961, addressed a group of Protestant ministers two months before the November election and spoke these words: “So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again not what kind of church I believe in — for that should be important only to me — but what kind more »

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    The Real Story Behind the Bipartisan Opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline Finally Getting Out

    As is oh so typical, the debate that people have heard on the Keystone Pipeline is far from accurate. The way the two major parties are pushing it, and the media has picked up on, it’s jobs vs environmentalists. This is part of the story, but there is a much bigger story that has been ignored. Elements of the Tea Party movement are starting to pick up on this, and I couldn’t be happier. For them, it’s an abuse of eminent domain issue, and they’re teaming up with landowners in the areas that would be near the proposed pipeline, in an effort to fight back against it’s passage from a second front. The landowners are more »

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Santorum moping in Iowa

Santorum Winning the Nomination, then Crashing and Burning, Exactly What the GOP Deserves

I had a feeling that the soul of the Republican Party, having come back to life after admitting that its last president was an embarrassment to lesser embarrassments, was en route to flaming death when former Gov. Jon Huntsman (R-UT) found himself unable to rise above the mid-single digits in national polling. That was proven beyond reasonable doubt when he dropped out and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) didn’t. If this week’s pollsare to be believed, this is the stage at which someone should be performing an exorcism. Santorum is ahead of former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) in the latter’s home state of Michigan, of which his (far superior) father was governor, and has achieved two-thirds favorability more »

None shall pass?

Should Police be Able to Force Suspects to Decrypt a Computer, or Should They be able To Plead the Fifth?

Here’s an interesting one for ya… Wired Magazine has a great story in their ‘Threat Level’ blog, that focuses on online privacy and crime issues, about  a woman under investigation in Colorado for bank fraud. During the investigation, they took a laptop, but it was encrypted so they haven’t been able to get in to see what is stored. Just a side note for those a bit less tech inclined… unlike in the movies where a computer genius can crack military grade encryption in mere minutes or hours, anyone wanting to hide information from prying eyes can quite easily do so with off the shefl technology you can download from the internet. At a certain more »

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Will the Latest Promises from Obama on Foreclosures be as Empty as Previous Failures?

by Cora Currier The Obama administration recently unveiled a string of proposals to help struggling homeowners and get the housing market back on its feet — part of the administration’s “We Can’t Wait” election year to-do list. Of course, the White House has made big promises before about helping homeowners, only to see them disappoint time and again. Here are the latest proposals, whether they are anything new and whether they stand a chance of going anywhere. Refinancing President Obama wants to allow homeowners whose mortgages are backed by private-sector companies to refinance at lower rates through the Federal Housing Administration. (The FHA insures many mortgages, and it is not the same as the FHFA, the regulatory agency in charge of more »

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Interesting, Mostly Fairly Moderate, Data Gleaned from Issue Stances of Americans Elect Members

We’re all amply aware of the hard-right political positions, as well as those of the extreme left. But what do the people in the middle believe, the ones who eschew both extremes in favor of solutions to the country’s problems that are practical rather than dogmatic? That question, of course, breaks down into multiple questions for every issue, and answers to many of those questions can be found on the Americans Elect website. Americans Elect, in case you are unfamiliar, is a non-partisan organization seeking to “break the gridlock in Washington, open up the political process and give every single voter—Democrat, Republican or independent—the power to nominate a presidential ticket in 2012.” The Americans Elect candidates will more »

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Obama’s Budget Proposal Pushes Deficits as Far as the Eye Can See

President Obama released his 2013 budget proposal and to no ones surprise the deficits continue as far as one can see.  Although the President does propose some tax increase, these increases are insufficient to offset the continued parade of government expenditures.  What we end up with is a $3.8 trillion budget accompanied by a $900 billion deficit. Using Wall Street Journal figures (which were based upon OMB data), we can see on the left side of the following chart government figures and on the right, “what if” figures: This chart says that if we were to set a spending target at 20% of GDP and a tax revenue target of 20%, we could balance the more »

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Is it Right for Obama’s Budget to Give Hundreds of Millions to Egyptian Military Controlled Government as it Continues to Violently Repress it’s People?

If Americans are going to give money to anyone outside their borders (hell, inside their borders), it’s reasonable that they’d want to know that it’s being spent wisely and that they won’t regret not opposing it sooner. At a time of deficits amounting in the trillions, that desire becomes more important than ever. But what happens when you factor in some of the first successful attempts at democratic reform in historically autocratic aid-receiving nations? This. President Obama’s proposed budget contains $800 million in aid to Arab Spring nations, specifically designated for long-term economic and political reform measures. This would only apply to those countries that are in the middle of a transition, including Tunisia, Yemen and even Egypt. more »

david-walker-fromFB

Why Obama Doesn’t Deserve Reelection, and How a Centrist Could Take Away Moderates

Serves me right… the day I vent my frustrations about what has seemed to me a floundering Americans Elect organization, the very sort of candidacy that could turn things around for Americans Elect is netting some buzz. Thomas Friedman brought up a potential heavy hitter, who’s name popped up in Politico later in the day, with rumors that said candidate very recently got briefed by Americans Elect. In a post about some new buzz around one of my dream candidates (former Comptroller General of the United States David Walker) considering a run with Americans Elect, one of the comments was your standard tripe from a democrat implying that Obama has done a good job. I’ll more »

santorum-Gage-Skidmore2-wikimedia

Santorum Leading Republican Charge to Narrow Separation of Church and State

This is a guest post from Carol Benham It must seem almost quaint, now, that 50 years ago, then-presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, Jr. delivered a major speech seeking to allay voter concerns that his Catholic faith would somehow dictate or influence his actions as President of the United States. Kennedy, who became the nation’s first president of Catholic faith when he was inaugurated in Jan. 1961, addressed a group of Protestant ministers two months before the November election and spoke these words: “So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again not what kind of church I believe in — for that should be important only to me — but what kind more »

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Tips from the CPAC Conference: How to Win / Buy Friends and Influence People and Politics

by Kim Barker The big Republican names were all at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., last week: Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Sarah Palin. The three-day conference, known as CPAC and hosted by the American Conservative Union, drew about 11,000 participants and 1,300 journalists, who crammed into the Marriott’s ballroom for the big speeches. While most attention focused on Republican presidential hopefuls and other party luminaries, we opted to take a spin around panels and events devoted to fundraising. They were a window into how money might be raised this election cycle, through new-fangled super PACs and their even more opaque nonprofit sidekicks, as well as more »

farm-nebraska-Ammodramus-wikimedia

The Real Story Behind the Bipartisan Opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline Finally Getting Out

As is oh so typical, the debate that people have heard on the Keystone Pipeline is far from accurate. The way the two major parties are pushing it, and the media has picked up on, it’s jobs vs environmentalists. This is part of the story, but there is a much bigger story that has been ignored. Elements of the Tea Party movement are starting to pick up on this, and I couldn’t be happier. For them, it’s an abuse of eminent domain issue, and they’re teaming up with landowners in the areas that would be near the proposed pipeline, in an effort to fight back against it’s passage from a second front. The landowners are more »

obama frown

Did Obama Have a Realistic Alternative to Flip Flopping on Super PACs?

The Citizen’s United ruling by the Supreme Court two years ago, equating donations of money with free speech, changed the political landscape for campaign fundraising, fostering the emergence of Super PACs as the main conduit for wealthy contributors. President Obama’s recent change of heart regarding the pursuit of funds for Democratic Super PACs to compete with Republican entities has provided another issue that allows him to be skewered by his opponents. The latter, of course, who are collecting sums at a breathtaking pace from their stable of affluent donors, do not acknowledge their hypocrisy in criticizing Obama for doing the very same thing. However, Obama did previously take a strong stand in opposition to the Super more »

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Churches Should Have to Play by the Same Rules as Any Other Employer

The next few days and weeks will tell us how much wisdom the Catholic Conference of Bishops has.  Last week they were offered a way out of a shameful moral and ethical dilemma and chose not to take it.  The message is loud and clear.  A male dominated, man-made rule driven church knows better than 21 first century science and the principle of equal individual rights. Last Friday President Obama announced a “compromise” where organizations (like Universities, Charities, and Hospitals) affiliated with the Catholic Church would not have to directly provide birth control as part of their employee health care plans.  The previous requirement for the church to provide such coverage was what the Bishops more »

americans-elect

Like Them or Not, the Americans Elect Experiment Isn’t Going Well

In another sign that the great experiment that is Americans Elect may be headed to failure, we still have no candidates that are on track to collect enough votes to even make it onto the ballot of their convention, and the only candidate in the top tier of current vote getters that might actually run (Buddy Roemer) has just been surpassed by a comedian who isn’t running. Libertarian-esque conservative republican Ron Paul is still in the lead, followed by Romney supporter Jon Huntsman, left winger Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama… who I think we can safely say isn’t going to run against himself. Mike Bloomberg comes next, and as much as I’d love to see more »

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What are the Values that You Think Define What the United States of America is About?

This is part 3 of my series on Charles Murray’s new book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960 – 2010. If you would like to read the short version of his argument, see “The New American Divide” in the Wall Street Journal. “If just one American virtue may be said to be defining, _______ is probably it.” How would you fill in that blank? I would have said “liberty” or “the love of liberty.” Charles Murray does not. Instead, he says “industriousness” is the defining American virtue. Murray offers four virtues as foundational for the American project: industriousness, honesty, marriage, and religion. He considers frugality and philanthropy as virtues that eighteenth century Americans might also have argued for.  And he allows more »

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“Leaner and Meaner Military” Budget a Lie So Far

Great post on over at the New America Foundation, looking at whether the talking point that the military is moving towards a “leaner and meaner” force is illustrated in their budget or not. After going through a list of areas where the military budget isn’t proposed to see cuts, or the proposal is fairly insignificant, Fred Kaplan had this to say: By contrast, look at some of the weapons that have actually been used in the conflicts of recent years (and not just in Iraq and Afghanistan). For instance, there’s the Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), aka the GPS-guided “smart bombs” dropped by high-flying planes with pinpoint precision. These things cost almost nothing (in comparison more »

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Fail of the Week: NPR Report on Romneycare Fails to Rise Above Cheerleading

So I surf by NPR. They do such good work sometimes. I see they have a report on how “Romneycare” (the several years old MA healthcare law) has performed. As a MA resident, I know that it has done a very good job of expanding access to healthcare. I also know that at inception, it immediately cost MA taxpayers substantially more than proponents’ forecasts. And since then, it has threatened to be a budgetbuster. So I’m hoping for an update on whether MA can afford this. Last I checked, it wasn’t looking so hot. Health Care In Massachusetts: ‘Abject Failure’ Or Work In Progress? The article spends substantial time with anecdotes recounting the benefits the more »

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Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac Blocking Millions of Homeowners from Getting Help from Bank Mortgage Settlement

by Cora Currier The Obama administration is billing today’s $25 billion agreement between most states and five banks that engaged in flawed or deceptive practices as a big win for struggling homeowners. Most of the money in the settlement isn’t a penalty, or a fine levied on the banks. Instead, the biggest slice of the settlement will be money banks put toward principal reduction – reducing the amount owed by struggling orunderwater borrowers. (Banks will also put smaller amounts toward refinancing and other ways of helping people get back in control of spiraling debt.) Getting a break on their mortgages could help the millions of homeowners who owe more on their home than it is worth. But many of them won’t qualify more »

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Far Right Has Forgotten What Conservative Means, Moderates Fit the Definition Better

Editorial Note: This is a guest post by Eric Hanson. It makes a great point, that I think gets to some of the reason why a sizable minority of those who self identify as conservative in polling are actually more centrist if you talk to them about where they stand on the ideological spectrum – and is a continuation of a long running conversation on this site (CLICK HERE for the latest example) about the terms centrist, moderate, conservative, liberal and other such labeling. -SK The most basic and simple definition of the word ‘conservative’ is ‘moderate; cautious’. The social agendas that most liberal thinkers would like to employ fall outside this category. They tend more »

Confused yet?

Super PACs Getting all the Attention, While other Political Nonprofits Flying Under the Media’s Radar

Note: This is a pretty long post, but it clears up some definitions of the confusing world of Super PACs and other forms of political groups. I’m aware of the difference, but have been using the term Super PAC to mean groups that can get away with not disclosing donors because that is how the term has been used in the media. That being said, it’s not technically true. Read on to get the low down. -SK by Kim Barker , Al Shaw and Ariel Wittenberg – ProPublica When super PACs announced their 2011 fundraising numbers earlier this week, it provided an early glimpse into how the new way of financing political campaigns may work more »

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Three Kinds of Common Ground and How Liberals and Conservatives Can Better Understand Each Other

This is a guest post by Mark Goodkin Since the founding of our nation, both liberals and conservatives have sought to find common ground in an attempt to better understand one another, resolve difficulties and reach effective compromises. Some attempts have achieved relative success, while others have not. What is this common ground, anyways? Why is it so important to identify? And when it has been identified, is it enough to mend the great divide that exists between the two sides? At present, with both sides so divided, it would seem that very little common ground exists. However, there is more common ground than we might think. All we have to do is find the more »

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No Labels Great ‘No Budget – No Pay’ Effort Gaining Some Steam

The Center is already showing some signs of mobilization in Congress.  No Labels recently proposed a 12-point plan to reform Congress, and one of those points is the “No Budget – No Pay”.  Congress has failed to pass a budget on time since the mid-90s, and this is clearly symptomatic of the hyper-partisanship we see in Congress these days.  Moderates on both sides of the aisle have drafted a bill based on this point, and it is quickly gaining steam in Congress. If passed, members of Congress will have their pay withheld if they do not propose a budget on time.  Conservatives these days are strong advocates of the idea that pay should be based on performance, but it more »

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One of the Funniest Bits of Satire Ever – Fake Adele Cover of ‘Someone Like You’ Tears into Newt Gingrich

I was literally laughing at the top of my lunges about halfway through… was not expecting it to be funny, but it’s actually pretty damn clever:    

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