When Ron Paul wins second place over Newt Gingrich in 4 of the 5 GOP contests tonight, it is time for Gingrich to reassess his campaign.

When Ron Paul wins over the Speaker by 3% points in most of those contests, and over 17% in one of those contests, it is time for Speaker Gingrich to close shop.

When Speaker Newt Gingrich loses Delaware to Mitt Romney after putting in the most campaign appearances, it is time to acknowledge Tampa is no longer an option for winning.

But am I wrong?  Is hope in a white, red or blue knight in Tampa still a straw to gasp onto?  Will a dark knight rise out of the foggy mess that is Romney’s lack of 1144?  If over 75% of the required delegates now allocated to Mitt Romney is no barometer of the future, then what say ye defenders of ABR?

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/24/politics/april-24-primaries/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

I know many at Redstate have been wondering why I support King Newt.  Well wait no longer, I will tell you why:

• Master Historian, Speaker Extraordinaire, The Last Great Conservative Hope will banish the weeping and wailing of timid supporters called Republicans.
• He crafts supernal words that cut through the media’s disrespect and insolence.
• He whispers simple truths that make RINOs cower in fear.
• He has beaten his baggage into shiny kevlar armor and mounts his charismatic steed with the grace of a prince.
• He welds the finest bow and each arrow is made from the purest hand crafted Big Idea.
• His swordplay is impeccable and he has beaten Inigo Montoya and humiliated the Dread Pirate Roberts.
• His war chest is lined with the finest platinum cards

Mark my words.  It will be a cold day in Tampa when the gathering will happen and turmoil will abound from the lack of hard delegates for the ultimate conservative traitor.

Out of the mist shall a hero arise and then walk to the center of that great hall.  He shall grasp the immovable sword stuck in the stone.  Pulling it free he shall claim his rightful heir and our great champion.  The downtrodden masses shall erupt in deafening cheers as the conservative traitor is forgotten and our great new King shall be crowned victor!  Only then can the wicked oppressor be defeated.

Stay hopeful my friends, August is still yet to come!

Sincerely,

I enjoy finding out what the opposition is saying in regards to what I care about.  It helps me evaluate the competition.  I found it especially interesting tonight that CNN decided to take the night off.  Sure enough MSNBC had several articles about the GOP debate, but CNN had ZERO, nada, nothing, big fat Martha’s Vineyard zippo.

Searching for “debate” on their front page yielded nothing.  Searching for “GOP” on their front page yielded 3 articles that were old and had nothing to do with the important news of the evening.  I know the debate was Fox New’s baby, but even MSNBC showed interest and reporting efforts towards an important debate.  I just had to say that despite CNN’s liberal bent, the pure apathy towards the GOP debate was pitiful.  Even MSNBC which beats CNN hands down in liberal bias was on the ball tonight.  What the heck happened CNN?

In 2003 in the aftermath of the tech bubble bursting, I was laid off from HP.  That was a stressful time, but since the market was recovering, I figured I would be able to find a job.  I looked for a programming job with any company.  Yet since many of those jobs were headed to India, I figured a defense contracting job may provide some security.  I found a small company that provided vehicle tracking for the military.  I interviewed and was soon hired.  I enjoyed being part of a workforce that provided a system that helped to save lives.

In 2011, we find ourselves with a burst real estate bubble due to over-extended mortgage lending forced by congress.  Consumer debt had reached all time highs and in response to new financial overhauls, banks made personal lending almost as difficult as lending for small businesses.  It became a perfect storm of value corrections and money constrictions in the private sector while the government gushed tax dollars into trying to save institutions run by inept and/or unscrupulous individuals.

In some ways, the economy is like farming.  The environment must be created that promotes crop growth and sustained production.  Technologies can be employed that help.  Yet when problems arise, the quick fix can lead to some gains, but often greater problems occur in the future.  If ignorant fixes are allowed to continue, the crop can be lost and vast damage can be done to an otherwise fruitful land.  Obama is a first time farmer who has damaged and continues to damage our farmland. 

It has taken years for most the owners of the farm to see that the short-term fixes are causing havoc and not harmony for the crop.  It’s time to fire and replace this inept farmer. 

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Just finished clearing off Fox News Sunday off the DVR.  Three days ago, Herman Cain was on with Chris Wallace and he did a great job.  That is until he revealed his weakness, and I was taken aback.  First off, I like Herman Cain.  He is currently my number two for the GOP nod, anyone who has tangoed with me in the comments sections over the last five years probably knows who is my number one, and I do not want to digress.  Today, I want to talk about Herman Cain’s Kryptonite that he revealed a few days ago on Fox News Sunday.

Herman Cain was weak on understanding the Palestinian and Israeli issues.  He was not wrong in general and what he did say was good, but he let slip that he did not understand some very important points and frankly I was shocked.  I knew more about this issue than he did and that shouldn’t be the case for someone running for President.  If Mr. Cain does not brush up quick on these issues, then he is in jeopardy of getting the reputation Sarah Palin had in 2008 with foreign policy issues.

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1. If you were to run for and be elected Governor of Massachusetts would your first act be a repeal of Romneycare?
   • No.  Massachusetts’s healthcare reform was created to solve a free rider problem which was mandated by the Hippocratic oath and state law that all non-insured individuals get free health care from hospitals.  Most states have this problem.  He acknowledges that mandates have become a political liability, but it was their way of experimenting in Massachusetts in trying to end 500,000 people free riding on tax dollars
2.  Which parts of Romneycare do you still like?
   • The state decided what it wanted, not the federal government. He claims that no taxes were raised and that less than 1% of the state’s budget goes to that plan. If he had his way, 0% of the state’s budget would go to the plan.  Over 400,000 people are now newly insured due to Romneycare and less than 100,000 now pay the opt out fee ($140?).
3. For which states do you think Romneycare would be a good model? What is different about those states?
   • Romneycare is only for Massachusetts
4. When did you change your mind and begin opposing federal individual mandates, considering that you like mandates and believe they work?
   • If a state wants a mandate, then that is for the state to use in its own experiment. If voters can direct the politicians to experiment as they want. [Romney said in 2008 that he liked mandates, but he said in 2008 that Massachusetts's healthcare was not for the nation.  Romney acknowledged that mandates are not what people want now and their states are free to use what they think is best]
5. Why did you change your mind on a federal mandate?
   • Not answered.
6. Why did you sign a bill that covers abortions?
   • Not answered
7. Why did you sign a bill that would explode government costs without doing a single thing to offset them?
   • Romneycare is currently less than 1% of Massachusetts budget. The U.S. government was already sending Massachusetts money and they leveraged that along with insurance from all participants.  He would change several things about Massachusetts’s healthcare and he voted them, but was overridden by state’s congress.
8. Why did you completely eliminate competition in the health care marketplace by limiting the number of insurance plans?
   • Not answered.  Romney’s Reform would focus on expanding individual insurance plans across state lines and from job to job.  This would create competition across the U.S.
9. Why did you think that government was best positioned to negotiate rates with insurance companies instead of letting the market work?
   • Not answered for Massachusetts. This is not part of Romney’s Reform for 2012.  Individual consumers can take moneys their employers would put into an HR insurance plan and purchase any insurance plan offered across state lines or within their state. 
10. What would you say to small business owners who now have 6 more pages of rules and regulations on their tax forms thanks to Romneycare?
    • Not answered. Romney’s Reform would turn insurance over to the individual and those insurance plans would be portable from job to job. Romney wants to take insurance choice out of the HR departments in companies and allow the employee to pick from any national plan from any state. The employee can then keep that insurance as long as they want from job to job. Company funds to any HR endorsed insurance plan can be used by the choice of the employee.
11. Do you still think that Romneycare is a model for the nation?
    • No.
12. When did you change your mind about any of the above questions? Was it about the same time that it became politically convenient for you to do so?
    • Romney acknowledged that his political strength in 2008 has become a liability.  He said it would be easy for him to distance himself from Romneycare, but chooses to stick with the overall plan of state driven solutions by local politicians.

Other notes:

Romney’s Reform plan focuses on lowering costs by increasing national competition for insurance policies. He wants to change policies from restricted to company only offerings to individual chosen policies from any in the nation which are all portable from job to job.  He wants to reform medical liabilities and cap medical malpractice payouts.  He wants to remove taxes from innovators in equipment and pharmaceuticals, unlike Obamacare.

Romney wants to restore to the states the care for their poor by block granting all federal funds to the states with no federal interference.  He wants to take away the open checkbook that is Medicade by using these block grants. He wants to make sure no pre-existing conditions can be denied for those who have had insurance.  He wants to promote health savings accounts and customer preventative incentives through co-insurance.  His plan is to incentivize consumers by having them participate in the cost and quality of their care.  He wants to promote a Consumer Reports-like listing for insurance policies across the nation.

Romney wants to debate Obama on how his plan is not only different, but how it is what Americans want from their insurance and healthcare providers.

Global Warming, CO2 and Energy Policy

A new study by Jasper Kok was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  Professor Kok is a climatology researcher with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).  You can read the article about his study at the dailytech.com.  In summary, the computer models used for calculating Global Warming are wrong.  CO2 likely plays a much smaller role in any climate change verses the activity of dust in the atmosphere.  Any recent warming has probably been due to the increased solar activity and interaction with air-borne dust.  Newly determined models help calculate how varying sizes of dust are created by the wind.  These new dust calculation models help to devalue CO2′s role verses that of dust and sunlight.  It states, ”…they are an important reminder that climate models are only as good as their inputs, and in many cases those inputs are based on information that’s lacking.”

Responsible Energy

Carbon credits and other silly tax schemes are the boon of Liberal climate policy.  In contrast, Conservatives want and support responsible drilling and additional energy options.  We know there are risks in drilling and nuclear energy and often the key is sensible oversight and technology.  None of us would have wanted to own beach front property on the gulf in 2010.  Yet, the agencies responsible for oil platform oversight are equally to blame for what happened.  Either the government does what we pay it to do, or we should take away the money from them and fire the folks in charge.

Energy Technology’s Delay

Why are we still so dependent upon oil?  The answer is that oil has impressive energy density.  If you drove a car that gets 30 miles to the gallon down the highway at 60 mph for an hour, the amount of equivalent electricity using today’s high efficiency solar cells would require full sunlight on a 90 foot by 60 foot solar grid.  That grid weighs well over 6 tons, has 320 panels and costs $195,000.  (Calculations are available upon request).  That’s why Chevy’s Volt and Nissan’s Leaf will still use good ol’ electricity from coal burning power plants.  Solar cell technology has many, many generations of improvement to go.  Wind power is a little better, but not much.  Nuclear is better, but my flux capacitor doesn’t take U235.  Hydrogen is not even an energy producer; it has less than a net zero energy production benefit and is just another battery replacement with its own issues.

The Left would tax us into oblivion to pay for research and development (R&D) for alternative energy.  Hillary Clinton wanted to tax oil companies to pay for an “Apollo-like” program to research it.  The irony of the Dems is that they don’t trust the Free Market to provide the solution.  As if the market doesn’t respond quick enough!  Huh?!?  If anything it’s the government’s response that’s never quick enough, take the oil spill for example.  Has any consequence happened to any government agency employee for the failure of inspections at the failed rig?

Some Funding for Research, but Trust the Market

As oil prices move up, market motivation and company R&Ds will increase to fill the demand for energy.  I know this will happen as long as the government stays out of the way.  If they must meddle, then do so by removing red tape and lowering taxes on R&D projects.  If national security is the motivation to reduce the available oil revenue to groups that do not share our values, then by all means, but don’t raise taxes to do it.  Fund those alternative energy efforts using the dead corpses of wasteful, unnecessary government programs and pet projects.  Any alternative energy solution is only worth it if its ongoing existance is supported naturally by the free market.

10 days ago, one solution to the oil clean up was floated on Redstate (pun intented).  I quote from my own post:

Take several existing booms in the field and surround the areas with the largest oil flows coming to the surface.  Park a BP Suezmax or larger Oil Tanker off to the side of the boom and run a hose with a skimming float on one end and the other end into one of the Tanker’s oil holds….  Start pumping oil and sea water from the boomed area into the tank.  Use another hose to pump sea water from the bottom of the tank back into the boomed area.  Some estimate between 3,600 and 5,000 barrels of oil are flowing into the Gulf each day.  With several pumps, they can pump 20,000 barrels of skimmed oil and sea water into the oil tanker…

On the Today show, John Hofmeister, ex-President of Shell Oil, describes an un-published idea used on a middle eastern oil spill.  Watch from 1:45.

The Department of Defense has them.  The CIA has them.  Yet, Homeland Security, FEMA and other emergency government departments seems to lack them.  What are they?  Good contingency plans.  We obviously don’t have enough think tanks coming up with quality plans for emergencies that happen far too often in our imperfect world.

From Katrina to the Gulf Coast oil spill, you’d think we’d have smarter people running the show or at least advising those running the show.  The Coast Guard or our police have to take up the slack for the lack of brain power and quality contingency plans that should be the focus of our leaders.

Take the oil spill.  BP is taking responsibility for the oil spill, but why hasn’t the government stopped the ongoing leak?  Many say it will take weeks or months to stop the hemorrhaging.  We can all see the satellite images of the oil continuing to flow from the drill site out into the Gulf.  That is unacceptable.

It may not take a rocket scientist to take inventory and come up with a contingency plan.  Take several existing booms in the field and surround the areas with the largest oil flows coming to the surface.  Park a BP Suezmax or larger Oil Tanker off to the side of the boom and run a hose with a skimming float on one end and the other end into one of the Tanker’s oil holds.  Run another hose from the bottom of the oil hold back into the boomed area.

Start pumping oil and sea water from the boomed area into the tank.  Use another hose to pump sea water from the bottom of the tank back into the boomed area.  Some estimate between 3,600 and 5,000 barrels of oil are flowing into the Gulf each day.  With several pumps, they can pump 20,000 barrels of skimmed oil and sea water into the oil tanker while pumping 10,000 barrels of sea water back into the boomed area and it still would not fill the tanker in a month of pumping.  This would take a few days to setup and should have been happening after they sunk the oil rig.

Engineering plans are always easier on paper than in the field, but as mentioned, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this stuff out.  Yet if the emergency service leaders including the President pulled their heads out, they’d know that we have some of the best rocket scientists around and maybe they should hire some of them to make some quality contingency plans.

Cindy McCain joins the chorus of those praising the moral decay of our society.  Time and time again, the voters in our country choose to support the traditions of a strong society and that of marriage.  A racous and loud minority continue to cry foul of the will of most voters.  Marriage is not just a name, it’s a foundation for our future and our children’s future.  Too bad that’s lost on some and now in this case, from those in our very midst.

John disagrees with his wife.  I just wish she used her platform for more constructive purposes.  Shame.

My daughter has Autism.  She has been a wonderful blessing to my family and teaches us many things while we work with her on her challenges.  Now Congress wants to tax me right where it hurts, in caring for my disabled child.  I rely on a Flexible Spending Account to cover medical expenses not covered by my Insurance.  The amount I am able to set aside tax free for her care is over $4,000 a year.  The Senate bill will cap that amount so I have to pay more taxes and have less money for taking care of my disabled child.

Recently, the CDC confirmed that Autism in America is increasing.  It used to be estimated at 1 in 150 children would be diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).  Now is has been found to be 1 in 96.  Roughly 1% of every child born in the USA must deal with this disability. 

From the CDC’s website (http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/index.html):

Given the importance of the issue and these new findings, we would like to confirm that updated preliminary data from CDC shows that overall prevalence findings are similar to those reported by HRSA indicating that approximately 1% of children are affected with an ASD. 

Surprised they reported this, I quote from MSNBC’s website (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32462685/ns/health-health_care):

The Senate Finance Committee bill does not ban FSAs. It does limit contributions by an employee to a FSA to $2,500 a year. This would raise an estimated $14.6 billion in new tax revenue over 10 years, due to workers having higher taxable incomes than they would have had by using FSAs. Critics of this change in the law argue that since the $2,500 cap is not indexed to the inflation rate, it will effectively make FSAs dwindle in value every year. The main House insurance reform bill does not have a similar provision limiting FSAs.

Forget the critics quoted by MSNBC, not only would my FSA be less every year, but I would have to pay new taxes on money I currently use for medical treatments for my daughter.

Congress, Do Not Tax My Autistic Child!

Sincerely,

Nathan W.

It’s been a while since I posted, but I thought I’d jump in with the fear, uncertainty and doubt folks and see what you all thought about pushing a different agenda in North and Central America.  I lived in Central America during a mission for my church.  I lived with the people and got to see day to day life.  Back home and in Colorado for over a decade many of those memories are fading, but the Swine Flu circus reminded me of something that should be on our foreign policy task list towards Mexico and its southern neighbors.

Anytime anyone got sick in Honduras they went to the neighborhood store and purchased a bunch of small white pills.  I’ve heard since from friends that Mexico and its neighbor’s citizens all do the same thing.  They recommended these for almost every ailment along with pain relievers.   I am amazed with how our doctors here run campaigns against overusing these pills, we have never pushed such advice to our neighboring governments.  Cheap, easy to access antibiotics are not a dime a dozen, with the currency exchange it’s more like a hundred for a few pennies.

The extreme use of antibiotics in Mexico and Central American countries has no doubt in my mind created a great breeding place for all sorts of new and improved strains of germs.  Could you imagine what may have happened if the Swine flu was more virulent or had a deadlier mortality rate?  We need our government to start pushing our southern neighbors to regulate and educate their masses about overuse of antibiotics.  It doesn’t just affect them anymore.  Even if immigration is handled and solved, the Petri dish off our border needs to be addressed.

What do you think?

With the heavy North and Mid-Western flood of blue, I’m dis-spirited and deflated. I’m not surprised, but disheartened at the results. The most liberal senator ran a campaign based on the conservative tradition of a tax cut as he ran to the middle and brainwashed the masses. I’m just astounded that his wife had a better resume for running the country than he did, and her resume is not one to be proud of in that regard.

Don’t look now, but Rome is burning and the masses want Nero. With the spread of blue power in the Congress, I can only expect a Carter-like experience until 2012. With the votes of the dumb, something wicked this way comes.

Goodnight and good luck.

As a consistent reader and sometimes diarist at RedState since June of 2006, I had to role my eyes at Erick’s anti-Romneybot post here. It was amazing how quickly the RomneyRage spread among the commenters. I’m waiting for Dan’s five part series on how Romney was against Palin before he became conveniently Pro-Palin.

Erick is right in that there are a few former Romney supporters now McCain employees who have criticized Sarah Palin. Although he goes out of his way to say that Romney is not pushing this criticism, the purpose of his post seems hell bent on punishing Romney anyway. New Flash: Romney is not running in 2012, and if he does you can punish him then. For now, please don’t tick off the 4.5 million of us GOP voters that have an affinity for the man. Some of us are Redstaters too.

I’m disappointed that Erick felt the need to add fuel to the fire of inner GOP contention right now. Only three miserable boneheads have been tied to disparaging remarks and the only big media which played the tripe is MSNBC of Obama. Erick has yet to provide more evidence of a vast right wing conspiracy. Yet, his post fostered contention from the easily irritable who dislike Romney and enjoy twisting him in the wind of their words.

Romney supporters are ready today to vote for McCain & Palin. We do not hold the opinions of these three boneheaded bots. Yet we prefer to be included in the GOP and Redstate family instead of being ostracized from it. Face it folks, we need each other.

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I sat down this last weekend to watch my TIVO’d edition of the Beltway Boys. What to my surprise was Huckabee doing on my TV again?! No, this wasn’t a rerun of the GOP primaries, it was Huckabee’s new FoxNews TV show. Thinking it wasn’t a permanent mistake, I started watching the show. I soon fell into familiar feelings of why I’m not a Huckabee fan. Huckabee put together a less than captivating show. His guests were semi-interesting, and I did think it was creative to have give and take from the audience. Yet, Huckabee started wearing on my nerves again. To make matters worse, within no time Huck had moved over to the band and picked up his bass guitar and started playing a Christian rock song. I like well done Christian rock, but I was wondering why Huck’s band was getting all this air time playing some unremarkable tune with a group of unattractive band mates.

After speeding through some uncomfortable footage, I found myself missing my Beltway Boys. I looked on Fox’s website and realized that the Beltway Boys show was no where to be found on the up and coming schedule. Sometimes it stinks when a show you like doesn’t keep up it’s ratings, I’m not sure if Huckabee’s show will be a success, but Fox has definitely lost one weekend viewer in me. I guess there is still Chris Wallace’s show.

Please Fox, bring back my Beltway Boys. If you can’t, I guess I’ll have more TIVO space for some other network

Nathan W.

I enjoy the new 3.0 RS site. It’s had a while to mature and get tweaked in speed and stability. Yet, I tried looking for a Search feature. I was confused when I found none. Did I miss a conversation already posted about the lacking Search feature?

I looked through the Archive sections and no Search…, hmm, how can I find a topic I’m interested in that isn’t a current “Hot Topic”? I may be whining, but to the admins at RedState, please add a Search feature. A silly, but quick idea would be to create a script that takes a Search string and throws it over the wall to Google with the “site:redstate.com” tag which isolates the search to the RS site. Sure, I can do this manually, but what fun is that and besides, my fingers are tired at the end of the work day.

Nathan W.