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1. 10 Ways Obama Could Reduce Gasoline Prices Now
2. Obama Campaign Declares the GOP ‘Obsessed,’ then Goes on to Rant Obsessively about the Koch Bros
3. FROM SEN. RICK SANTORUM: For Religious Minorities in the Middle East – With Friends Like Obama, Who Needs Enemies?!
4. NJ Teachers’ Union Thugs Protest At Student’s Home To Send Father A Message
5. Time to end caucuses for President
1. 10 Ways Obama Could Reduce Gasoline Prices Now
Tulsa World headline:Obama: No magic bullet to lower gas pricesSpeaking of bumper stickers, remember “Yes We Can”, Mr. President? No one understands the concept better than the oil and gas industry. The main thing holding domestic energy companies back from making a stronger commitment to future domestic supplies is uncertainty. Capital hates uncertainty, avoids it like the plague. Your rhetoric may appease your doctrinaire base, but it makes domestic energy producers hold back, fearful that you will punish their success, or that you will change the rules on them in the middle of the game.Erasing uncertainty is the #1 thing you can do as a national leader if you truly desire to lower gasoline prices. Not only could it change the psychology of energy investing, there is still time for companies to change their 2012 investment plans.Below the fold is my humble 10-point plan: Things President Obama could (but won’t) do to reduce domestic gasoline prices by November 2012.Please click here for the rest of the post.
2. Obama Campaign Declares the GOP ‘Obsessed,’ then Goes on to Rant Obsessively about the Koch Bros
In an epic self-awareness fail, the Obama campaign sent an email this afternoon from campaign manager Jim Messina which bore the subject line “They’re Obsessed,” and which mentioned the left’s current bogeymen, the Koch Brothers, in the first line and in five of the email’s eight total sentences.Please click here for the rest of the post.
3. FROM SEN. RICK SANTORUM: For Religious Minorities in the Middle East – With Friends Like Obama, Who Needs Enemies?!
President Obama has an amazing ability to make Jimmy Carter’s foreign policies look good.Opposition to imperfect allies and support of radical Islamists has resulted in the almost-extinction of religious freedom for religious minorities – from the Copts in Egypt to the defenseless women and children who were slaughtered in Homs, Syria – in the Middle East.Another example is the devolving situation in Iraq. President Obama was so committed to fulfilling an arbitrary campaign promise to get our troops out of Iraq that he ignored the advice of his senior military officials about the consequences of establishing a firm withdrawal date and about how long it might take before Iraq was ready to manage the situation on their own. As a result, Al-Qa’ida is resurgent, Iran’s influence is greater than ever, religious tensions between Sunni and Shi’a are increasing, the existential threat facing Iraq’s indigenous minority communities has never been greater, and our ability to affect the situation there is weaker now. Recent coordinated car bomb attacks are just the latest in a string of such events since the start of the new year, and they portend many more violent assaults to come.Please click here for the rest of the post.
4. NJ Teachers’ Union Thugs Protest At Student’s Home To Send Father A Message
In Delsea, New Jersey, the teachers’ union (a sub-chapter of the NEA) has been fighting over the amount of their pay increases (not decreases) since 2010.On Valentine’s Day, according to NJ.com, the union teachers decided to make their grievance personal by protesting in front of the Delsea school board president’s home.Unfortunately, the school board president was not home—but his children were, including his daughter whose teachers were among those protesting outside her home.Please click here for the rest of the post.
5. Time to end caucuses for President
The discussion of Republican Party rules reform is beginning in the aftermath of the catastrophe of the new rules that were created by the RNC leadership in 2010. Many people attribute the lengthening process to just the new rules, but I would argue that there are several other factors. Some of the obvious ones are the weakness of the candidate field and new campaign finance structures. It is hard to imagine how Newt Gingrich would have been able to compete in South Carolina or Rick Santorum pretty much anywhere without SuperPAC support. Their campaigns would have run out of money in previous years, and their shows would have been up. Blaming the “proportional” rules misses the point somewhat, as none of the states that have gone yet other than Florida previously operated under proportional rules.The real disaster of this cycle has been the presidential preference caucus. In Iowa, Nevada, and Maine, we have had disastrous voting procedures, with results unknown or in flux for days. In Iowa, this led to the resignation of the state party chair Matt Strawn. In Nevada, the state party’s failed efforts to run a caucus have been widely panned, although the state party chair had already announced that she was stepping down, so there hasn’t been the same kind of accountability. In Maine, I am hearing that state party Chairman Charlie Webster, who I quite like personally, is coming under tremendous pressure from county party chairs, elected officials and the party executive committee to step down.Please click here for the rest of the post.
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