If you want to really appreciate the chaotic nature of the pre-caucus environment in Iowa right now, contemplate the two stories below (both via Hot Air Headlines): People reading the New York Times are being told, effectively, that the ground game race is effectively between the technocratic Mitt Romney and the plucky Rick Santorum (with his 1,000 precinct leaders!), with the weird Ron Paul only | Read More »
[FURTHER UPDATE] Drudge is not reporting that Perry/Gringrich are on the ballot; but Bachmann, Gingrich, Huntsman, and Santorum have joined Perry’s lawsuit. The Attorney General of Virginia “plans to file emergency legislation to address the inability of most Republican presidential candidates to get their names on the ballot;” as everyone reading this already knows, the recent Virginia primary ratification process ended up with only Mitt | Read More »
Yeah, I know: “Occupy WHO?” Still, there are people out there who take the dirty hippie wannabees seriously, so every so often there needs to be a refresher post. In this case, the aforementioned dirty hippie wannabees managed to illegally* burn an American flag and got arrested for it. With the Occupiers screaming epithets about fascists all the while. Mind you, the geniuses were apparently | Read More »
Rep. Davis is, of course, the former Democratic candidate for AL-GOV who lost his primary when it turned out that Alabama Democrats actually weren’t ready to vote for an African-American for a statewide race. He’s since then been reassessing his options, but seems to be under a misapprehension: Davis also suggested running as a Republican might be a viable option, but said that the Alabama | Read More »
Details here and here: the short version is that the Senate back in June kicked off opposition to continued ethanol subsidies via a bipartisan amendment: it didn’t pass, but Congress has just let both the ethanol subsidy and a restrictive foreign tariff (on Brazilian sugar-cane ethanol) lapse. Given that the Iowa caucuses will be finished by the time Congress reconvenes – and given that the | Read More »
This just keeps getting better and better for the Virginia GOP, doesn’t it? Via Ballot Access News, first we get the Attorney General for Virginia pointing out that the requirements for ballot access are far too restrictive: I would throw out for consideration that we should lower our requirements to 100 legitimate signatures per congressional district. Let’s face it, absent a serious write-in challenge from | Read More »
Richard Winger over at Ballot Access News has an EXTREMELY interesting post (link via here) on the mess that the Virginia Republican party has found itself in over… access to the ballot in Virginia. For those coming in late, background here and here: the very short version is that the VA GOP only certified Mitt Romney and Ron Paul for its primary ballot. Rick Perry | Read More »
For those coming in late, let me summarize*: both Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry have been excluded from the Virginia Republican primary by the Virginia GOP. This has placed the VA GOP in an awkward situation, given that: they have excluded the current national and Virginian front-runner from their own ballot; have currently no write-in option on the ballot; do have an open primary that | Read More »
Or possibly “mess,” depending: Rick Perry’s definitely not certified, but is going to contest the results. Newt Gingrich may be certified; there’s this report (via @allahpundit), but I’ve seen no confirmation elsewhere and the VA GOP site is currently melting down. [UPDATE: that report has now been walked back.] Presumably Ron Paul will be next, as he has not actually gotten 15K signatures. [UPDATE: turns | Read More »
In all of its glory. Yes, that man is wearing a dome shelter. He wasn’t the only one. Essentially, the Occupy Scranton people had dwindled down to a pair of shelters and a few people, and their permits had run out; when the cops came to finally break things down the Occupiers responded (after the obligatory claim that camping = free speech) by poking holes | Read More »
[UPDATE: I've had folks note that the original map is not quite the same as the final, approved map. There's been some tweaking of districts; not enough to particularly change any of the practical results found below, but enough to be noteworthy. Fair enough.] I was over at Larry Sabato’s site today* and I came across this report that an attempt to referendum the Ohio | Read More »
…for declining to release his tax returns: A spokesman for President Obama‘s re-election campaign blasted Mr. Romney and questioned whether he had something to hide in his finances. “Why does Governor Romney feel like he can play by a different set of rules?” said Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the Obama campaign. “What is it that he doesn’t want the American people to see?…” I | Read More »
Short version of the background: Operation Fast & Furious was a botched Department of Justice operation where the federal government catastrophically mucked up a program ostensibly designed to curtain illegal gun running to Mexico by… sustaining, encouraging, and enabling gun running to Mexico. Several hundred people have died as a result – including at least one American law enforcement official – and now questions are | Read More »
Before we talk about this race, some quick background on this district: as you probably know, California did some pretty severe internal redistricting after the 2010 Census. What you probably didn‘t know – but probably suspected anyway – is that the Democrats who run the state managed to pervert was supposed to be a nonpartisan process by the blatant use of astroturf, front groups, and | Read More »
At least, that’s the impression that one gets from the fairly unambiguous picture found below: Obama’s procrastination kills us: We miss Bush’s audacity. The world is better with America’s Republicans Occuped Kafranbel 16 12 2011 Kafranbel is a town in northern Syria which has been one of the centers of peaceful protests for most of 2011; and the photo looks legitimate.
Earlier today, The Hill reported that the American Family Association (AFA) endorsed Newt Gingrich (screenshot here). This report has since been corrected: what has happened that Newt Gingrich has received an endorsement from Rev. Don Wildmon. For those unfamiliar with the AFA, Rev. Wildmon is of course its founder of the AFA, but he’s not actually the chairman. He retired last year for health reasons | Read More »
This Robert Samuelson piece on the inherent problem with Keynesian economic theory – which, in my opinion, can be summed up neatly as “First, assume that your planned economy will be managed forever by an immortal, unelected, and incorruptible Keynesian economist” – is pretty good, but it has one passage in it that makes my teeth ache. Here it is, in all of its questionable | Read More »
…at least, according to the BBC. Here’s hoping that his replacement (Kim Jong Un, at least for this week) is not quite as clinically insane. BBC video after the fold*. Open thread. (Via Hot Air Headlines) Moe Lane (crosspost) *Not really.
Instapundit has reminded me of this story about retired General Ricardo Sanchez’s dropping out of the Democratic TX-SEN primary. The very short version: Sanchez was the handpicked recruit of the DSCC, much to the cynical amusement of hardcore partisan Republicans who looked forward to savaging rabidly anti-war DSCC chair Patty Murray for recruiting and running the guy who ran the infamous Abu Ghraib prison. And | Read More »
(Via @davidhauptmann) Background: the House of Representatives, understandably upset that the Obama administration would rather please foreign conflict oil despots and radical progressives than provide manufacturing and construction jobs to good Americans – to say nothing of cheaper energy – has passed a bill that would expedite the construction of the Keystone ethical oil pipeline. More specifically, the House passed a bill that would extend | Read More »
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